Universal York

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Revolutionary War Archives

A friend told me about a recent article by Lower Windsor Township resident Gene Schenck in the Columbia/Hellam/Wrightsville Merchandiser. It detailed how four local men, Jim Anspach of Columbia, Gene Smeltzer of Lower Windsor Township, Bill Dehoff of Windsor and Bruce Herbst of East Prospect have been working for some

We sometimes seem to have a love/hate relationship with old buildings.  We act like we would love to save them for their historical ties or architectural significance.  On the other hand we often seem to hate committing funds to preserve them.  This isn’t a new problem. There have always been

The 2018 York County History Center’s Journal of York County Heritage is now available. The main articles are on World War I Glen Rock heroes; Karl Ort, an early York County aviator and a York family’s ordeal with the 2018 flu epidemic.

The historic stone home in Hellam Township which we know as the Mifflin House was occupied from about 1800 until 1856 by the Mifflins: Revolutionary War patriot Jonathan Mifflin, his wife Susanna Wright Mifflin and their son Samuel Mifflin. All three of the Mifflins are said to have participated quite

Eliza E. Ridgely was a beautiful young woman born into a prosperous Baltimore family. The Marquis de Lafayette was said to be charmed by her during his 1824 visit to Baltimore, and she played her harp for him when he was a dinner guest of her parents. Eliza’s letters at

Preservation Pennsylvania, in cooperation with Kreutz Creek Valley Preservation Society; Historic Wrightsville, Inc. and others, has announced a public rally for the threatened historic Mifflin House in Hellam Township, outside Wrightsville. The rally will be held Wednesday March 21, 6 to 8 p.m. at the John Wright Restaurant, 234 North Front Street,

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

The campaign to save the historic Mifflin House, the extremely significant site in Hellam Township at the edge of Wrightsville, is moving on, but help is needed from the public. To bring you up to date, in August 2017 Hellam Township denied a demolition permit requested by the developer of

In the 1970s the York County Bicentennial Commission painstakingly researched the dimensions of the first York County courthouse, which stood in the center of York’s square from 1754 to 1841. This was the building that housed the Continental Congress from September 1777 to June 1778, when the British occupied the former capital,