While doing some research on Phineas Davis and his York locomotive for an upcoming column, I realized I had never posted my column from some time ago on John Elgar and his Codorus steamboat. Elgar was a member of York’s Quaker community, as was Davis, and his iron steam boat
Eliza E. Ridgely was a beautiful young woman born into a prosperous Baltimore family. The Marquis de Lafayette was said to be charmed by her during his 1824 visit to Baltimore, and she played her harp for him when he was a dinner guest of her parents. Eliza’s letters at
In my recent column on Margaretta Furnace in Lower Windsor Township, I mentioned that the York County History Center has some examples of scrip issued by the company in the 1840s, and that it could only be used at the company store. I am sharing images of these notes as well
A few weeks ago I posted the tale of Spoonie Gohn’s supposed encounters with Slaymaker’s ghost at Margaretta Furnace. I had initially shared that story with the attendees at the York Daily Record annual Unraveling York County History night in early December. Margaretta Furnace with the grand mansion house and
It was good to see many of you at the York Daily Record’s Unraveling York County History event last week. For those of you who didn’t make it, the theme this year was “Weird York.” The YDR bloggers each did two stories. My first tale was “The Ghost of Margaretta
Walking through the mezzanine gallery at York County Heritage Trust the other day, I stopped to take a new look at the cast iron lions guarding the stairs up to the second floor. I remembered some photos in the YCHT Library/Archives taken of them while they still watched over their
Philip A. Small examining Christian Roth’s wheat Whenever I start researching some York County history, it seems like someone from the Small family turns up. Pennsylvania German immigrant Lorentz Small settled in Windsor Township in 1743, but soon the family became involved in carpentry, building, mills, iron furnaces, retail and
When we are living through worrisome economic periods we tend to ignore that throughout the history of our country we have had many similar slumps and that we have always recovered to new prosperity. There have been different complicated causes for economic recession and depression over the years. One of
Variety Iron Works from 1868-69 city directory at York County Heritage Trust I am glad to see that some of the remaining buildings of the Smyser-Royer Variety Iron Works complex are part of York City’s Northwest Triangle redevelopment project. One of my York Sunday News columns outlined the metamorphosis of