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
My previous post showed that York County wasn’t immune to the silk culture mania running rampant in the 1830s. A few more examples of local residents getting caught up in the craze are below. From the July 12, 1831 York Gazette: “A specimen of silk produced this season under management
(Illustrations from A Treatise on the Mulberry Tree and Silkworm and on the Manufacture and Production of Silk, 1839. Courtesy of York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives) Silk has been prized for as long as 5,000 years, since the fibers spun by silkworms were discovered in China and spun into luxurious
Here are some more local news items, this time from Shrewsbury in December 1889. This time I didn’t even have to go to the newspaper microfilms at York County Heritage Trust myself. Friend, relative and Dallastown native, Apyrl Zarfos Anderson, who now lives in France, has been in York County
My last two posts were on Seifert the blue dyer, one on the blue dyeing craft and the other on his unruly children. My excursion into 19th century dyeing methods was sparked by the ad above, from the June 23, 1829 York Recorder. Charles A. Morris’s ad reads: DYE STUFF.
Martin Hoke Coverlet York weaver Martin Hoke was so upset that a thief made off with four of his “coverlids” in 1843 that he offered quite a substantial reward for their return. They wouldn’t be too hard to identify as they had both Hoke’s name and the name of the
One of the colorful patterns from Abraham Serff’s pattern book, now in the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives. Weavers were essential members of the community in 18th and 19th century America. In Pennsylvania before the Industrial Revolution you would raise sheep for wool and cultivate flax for linen fibers. After
We know York County had a lot of different mills. Click here to read about the many mills of York County. Sawmills sawed trees into boards, and grist mills ground grain. What purpose did a fulling mill serve? In a recent post about York County runaways in the 18th century,
I am presently working with the issues of the Pennsylvania Gazette printed in York in 1777-1778. In 1934 Henry Young, who at the time was most of the staff of the Historical Society of York County, gathered photostatic copies of most of issues from libraries around the county. He even