Some of us can remember when the big furniture factories in Red Lion were in full production. Local workers crafted fine furniture shipped around the country and perhaps beyond. A couple of weeks ago, while I was writing my recent York Sunday News column, I saw a news item that
The bilingual notice above (transcribed below) illustrates two points. One is that, because the great majority of 18th century York County residents were from the Germanic lands of Europe, official notices were printed in German as well as English, as shown by this broadside. It was printed by Edie and
This is the second of two posts detailing the first several owners of the original lots that encircle York’s square. The lots can be located on the map above of the center of York, bordered by Philadelphia, Duke, King and Beaver streets. As I explained in a recent post, those
The enlarged section of the center of York above is bounded by Philadelphia, Duke, King and Beaver streets. It shows the square with the courthouse in the middle. I have flipped it form the original so that it is oriented to the north. As explained in my last post, in
In conjunction with the 275th anniversary of the laying out of York, I am working on a slide show for a November 12th program at the York County History Center. It is part of the regular Second Saturday series of programs at 10:30; they are held at the YCHC’s museum
It has been while since I sampled local news of the past. You can find out so much about a community and the families that lived there by reading the old newspapers. Each small area had their own stringer who reported the very local news in detail. Here are few
Newspapers of the past give a good look at the lives of our forebears. The advertisements can sometimes reveal more than news items. The ad below, from the York Gazette, for Richard Porter’s tavern, store, house with barn and other outbuildings, livestock, farm equipment, furniture and land, including an island
It’s soon income tax time again. There was no federal income tax 200 years ago, but that doesn’t mean that you didn’t have to pay taxes to support the United States government. Not having strong taxing ability was one of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. It was unbelievably
Development was booming in 1924. Yorkers were starting to move out to the suburbs, and some county residents were moving there too, to be closer to town, where jobs were plentiful with the big manufacturers. I expect both types of new home-seekers were represented at the big promotions put on
The real estate notice below, from the November 7, 1816 York Gazette, is a great example of the wealth of information available in newspapers from the past. Such descriptions are often detailed, giving us an idea of how our forebears lived and worked. You can see by the headline that