In a recent York Sunday News column I used Lewis Miller’s carpenter work on the 19th century York County Jail, which stood on the northeast corner of George and King streets, to illustrate that you can tie together several sources to paint a more complete picture of the past. When I
Doing historical research? Can’t find much on a particular person or family? Don’t despair—just keep looking and widen your search to include many resources. Sometimes you find what you are seeking where and when you least expect it. See below for my recent York Sunday News column using York’s 19th
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
Edman “Ned” Spangler wrote letters to friends and relatives describing his experiences while a prisoner from 1865 to 1869 at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. Spangler was sent there after being found guilty of helping John Wilkes Booth escape from Ford’s Theater, a charge he vehemently denied the rest
Native Yorker Edman (Ned) Spangler was among the eight defendants tried for conspiracy in the assassination of President Lincoln. He was the only one of the eight found not guilty of conspiracy. The 1865 military commission presiding at the trial did find Spangler guilty of aiding and abetting Booth’s escape
For nearly a year my research at the National Archives has been focused on copying Camp Security related Revolutionary War pension applications from the microfilm at the National Archives. (They also hold the originals, but neither the Archives nor I want to handle the fragile documents.) I have scanned about
You may have seen the recent article and also the editorial in the York Daily Record concerning the final push by the Friends of Camp Security to raise the funds to repay the Conservation Fund for the 2012 purchase of 47 acres at the heart of site. (Click here for
Fellow blogger Jim McClure just finished a four-part series on whatever happened to the “Hex” murder defendants. Two of those told about paintings by John Curry, one of those convicted in 1929 for the murder of Nelson Rehmeyer. Coincidentally, while researching 1934 newspaper microfilm on another subject for an upcoming