A couple of months ago I wrote a column on the basket makers of Bullfrog Alley. Many of them seem to be the same families that were known as York’s Gypsies. Just about all these people came to York from southwestern Germany around 1840 to 1860. They settled around East
York’s Bullfrog Alley (part of East King Street) had a distinct personality over the years. It was famed as the home of “gypsies” who went out traveling each summer and for basket making, some of which seem to be in same families. It was also the home of a gang
The present-day Spring Garden Band traces its existence back before the Civil War. The group of musicians served as the 87th Regiment band during the war. I found this September 1, 1892 York Daily clipping in the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives files. It lists the members and their instruments
Here is another example that the “good old days” weren’t always that good. There were “wicked and evil disposed persons” in our past history too. (Our forebears did love their adjectives.) The handbill below, from the York County Heritage Trust archives, concerns break-ins and vandalism at Spring Garden Township school
In a recent post, I shared some 20th century history and photos of Springwood Park in York Township. The park closed in 1954, after operating about 80 years. Springwood was developed as a destination for picnicking and dancing by the Peach Bottom Railway. The narrow gauge railroad opened from York
Stephen Morgan Etnier (1903-1984) was expected to go into the family business, the hugely successful turbine manufacturing company started by his grandfather, Moravian minister and inventor Stephen Morgan Smith. Young Stephen had other ideas–he saw art, not business in his future. Etnier grew up in York. His parents, Susan Smith
The July 12, 1944 front page of the Gazette and Daily shows two smiling women looking over the gate to the back yard at their farm near Indian Rock dam. Their adventure of the day before started when two men came up to that gate asking for food and water.
Pass issued to Samuel Small by General Early’s aide-de-camp. Did one of P.A. & S. Small’s grist mills burn during the Civil War? Yes. Was it burned by the General Jubal Early’s Confederate soldiers? No. Fellow blogger Scott Mingus has already posted information on the Small mills during the June
Subscribers for a cemetery fence in Spring Garden Township Blake Stough recently shared the above image of a document he had purchased on eBay some time ago. It lists subscribers for a fence to be built around “the old burial ground on the premises of Vincent Keesey, Esq.” in Spring
Part of Freystown, 1876 Maps are fascinating. They document the charges in communities over the years. You can see how residential, social, and industrial patterns evolve as an area grows, or in some cases, retracts. I recently looked at the when and where of North, South, East, and West streets