Bob Greer left a comment on my recent blog post about the engravings on a large rock at the edge of the Susquehanna River just upstream from Marietta. He identified the arch with the 2 ½ as a symbol of the Loyal Orange Institution/ Orange Order. He included a link
Why would a large rock at the edge of the Susquehanna River have numbers and letters carved on it? (I am not talking about the petroglyphs of birds and animals left by the Native Americans, such as those on Big Indian Rock and Little Indian Rock just below Safe Harbor
In my recent York Sunday News article on the history of the Weaver Organ and Piano Company, I invited people to share any memories connected with Weaver. A couple of responses were from individuals who fondly remembered playing in recitals at the Weaver studios in the factory complex. Dorothy
Hanover Lutheran pastor Frederick Valentine Melsheimer has been called the father of American entomology (insects). He was also a “Hessian,” who came to America with troops fighting on the British side during the Revolutionary War. If you have Melsheimers in your ancestry, there is a good chance that you descend
In 1826 Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833) created the first real photograph known to exist today. The view from a window at Gras, France is also known as the “First Photograph,” and it is in the photography collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
As I mentioned in my recent York Sunday News column on Theodore Burr’s 1815 bridge at McCall’s Ferry, the lower part of York County did not have a lasting river bridge until the Norman Wood bridge was erected in 1968. The Harrisburg Evening News article below, dated December 8, 1933,
In 1801 famed engineer and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe was commissioned by Pennsylvania to survey the Lower Susquehanna, with an eye to navigation and canals. A few years later, in 1807, Latrobe also reported on the Susquehanna to the U.S. Congress: “Four miles below Burkhalter’s ferry, the river arrives at
It is exciting when one piece of research ties back into a nother. I was reminded of this when looking at old and new almanacs and the listed moon signs, especially the lore of their influence on planting vegetables. I recently wrote about these almanacs, printed in York and throughout
Here is another clue from the National Archives records into life at Camp Security. John Stewart as 77 years old when he applied for a Revolutionary War pension in Clermont County, Ohio in 1832. He states that he was born in Lancaster County, Pa. and moved to Maryland about a
Who were the men of the Pennsylvania Militia that served as guards at Camp Security? They could be your ancestors. About 1,140 of these York County citizens, the individuals that served from July 1781 through May 1782, are listed in Volume 2, Sixth Series of the published Pennsylvania Archives. Blake