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
Advertisements in old newspapers give us a glimpse into the lives of our ancestors. Here is a sampling from the December 21, 1824 York Recorder, on microfilm at the York County History Center: FRESH CRANBERRIES The Subscriber begs leave to inform his friends and the public generally, that he has
Downtown York could look much different, and not in a good way, if 1950s and 1960s demolition plans had been carried through. In a previous post I wrote about the proposal to do away with the southeast quadrant buildings, including the
In my first post on the cigar store figure Punch I shared his first known photo, dated from around 1870, and a current photo of him at York County Heritage Trust. My second post showed more of Punch’s stops around York’s Centre/Continental Square in the 1880s and 1890s. The photos
A couple of weeks ago I posted my recent York Sunday News column on the cigar store figure of Punch, which was positioned at various heights in various places on the northwest quadrant of York’s Centre/Continental Square for perhaps 60 years or more. The earliest known photo of Punch in
I have always been intrigued by the large and colorful Punch cigar store figure in the York County Heritage Trust collections. As I relate in my recent York Sunday News column, it is especially interesting that he “moved” around Centre/Continental Square in York over the years. In this and the
The full page ad from Joe the Motorist Friend (see below) is almost exclusively for Lionel trains, a specialty of the Joe’s stores. The address at the bottom of this ad and the toy ad in my last post, both from the December 13, 1956 Gazette and Daily, cite the
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
Old newspaper ads are such a wonderful resource to give us an idea how our ancestors lived. Did you ever think about feathers and how important they were for filling mattresses and pillows? Where did they get them? Your own fowl might not provide enough, so you needed to turn