A few years ago I did a York Sunday News column on UFOs, finding quite a few newspaper articles on local sightings of what were first called “flying saucers.” I gleaned most of information from newspapers.com, which I access at the York County History Center Library and Archives. Since that
Do you ever wish you knew what your ancestors were like? After all, they were living, breathing souls just like you and me. Most of you probably know or knew your parents and all or many of your grandparents. Some even remember a great-grandparent or so. Just multiply those family
York County folk artist Lewis Miller illustrated his 1810 visit the Geiger farm in Windsor Township in 1810.
There are still a fair number of people around who attended the rural one-room (sometimes two-room) schools that dotted York County until the mid-twentieth century. Ask your parents or grandparents and you might get some interesting tales. (Including how they had to walk five miles through the snow, uphill both
The first reported sighting of a flying saucer was in the state of Washington in late June 1947. In less than two weeks reports were pouring in, including from our area. I looked at a sampling of local newspapers on microfilm and at newspapers.com, both accessible at the York County
Our area has a high concentration of descendants of so called “Hessians.” This general term was applied to those soldiers from German-speaking regions whose rulers hired out their regiments to fight on the side of the British during the Revolutionary War. (Germany did not become a confederated nation until 1871,
Some time ago I wrote a York Sunday News column on Dr. William Bigler’s 1890 trip to Florida to visit his son. In those days of railroads snaking all over the county, it might have been easier to travel from here to many other parts of the United States than
My previous post shared a July 21, 1905 article from the York Daily about Dr. Reed of Lancaster coming to look for the camp where his grandfather guarded Revolutionary War prisoners. We know the site today as Camp Security. Dr. Reed’s visit must have been important in the news of
I never tire looking at the drawings of York folk artist Lewis Miller (1796-1882). His illustrations depicting town and rural life during the first half of the 19th century are so detailed. He wrote captions, most just a few sentences, but some quite lengthy, adding more insight into the daily
What else was going on in York County in June 1863? Animosity was not limited to the battlefield. Here is another item from the June 2 Democratic paper, the York Gazette: Illegal Arrests in York County S. G. Hildenbrand, a son of Capt. J. N. Hildenbrand, and a resident of