Our area has a high concentration of descendants of so called “Hessians.” This general term was applied to those soldiers from German-speaking regions whose rulers hired out their regiments to fight on the side of the British during the Revolutionary War. (Germany did not become a confederated nation until 1871,
Here is what was happening in York County in 1907, according to the York Daily of June 13. News from Dallastown: “The mail from York due here at 7:30 o’clock on account of a freight wreck at Waterville did not reach here until 2 o’clock this morning. [Another item on
The York County History Center has a treasure trove of newspapers going back over two centuries. Most have been microfilmed, making these outstanding historical sources easily accessible. I often use them as sources for blog posts and my York Sunday News columns. (Some, but not nearly all of the
My previous two posts concerned a day trip I took a couple of weeks ago to southern Maryland, visiting the homes of two of the convicted Lincoln conspirators, Mary Surratt and Dr. Samuel Mudd. Both sites are well interpreted. I was especially interested in Dr. Mudd’s house, since carpenter Edman
In my last post I shared my recent visit to the Surratt House Museum in Clinton, Maryland. Less than half an hour away is the Dr. Samuel Mudd House Museum. After picking up arms and ammunition at the Surratt House, the next significant stop on John Wilkes Booth’s escape route
I recently took a field trip that I had been thinking about for some time. For several years I have been researching and writing about Edman “Ned” Spangler, the native Yorker who was a carpenter and stagehand at Ford’s Theater, working there shifting scenery on April 14, 1865, the night
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
Continuing the series of posts extracted from the recently updated history of Camp Security, which can be accessed at www.campsecurity.org, this post quotes extensively from the memoirs of Sergeant Roger Lamb of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (23rd Regiment of Foot). The British prisoner-of-war left one of the few eyewitness accounts
Jeff Rohrbaugh of Shrewsbury shared this recently acquired bottle on Facebook. The drug business noted on the bottle is attributed to Dr. James Gerry, Jr. (1839-1903). I’m always happy to have an opportunity to learn more about the people and events of the past from all over our area, so
As you know, the southeastern/southcentral Pennsylvania area was settled early, and then, as families grew, some members spread out through the rest of the country from here. The western parts of Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina beckoned, as the settlers travelled down the valleys in quest of land. Some went