Harry Houdini (Ehrich Weiss) and his wife Bess (Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner) were young circus performers in 1898. They came to York County with the Welsh Brothers circus in September of that year. The show set up at Poplar and Edgar Streets with two performances each day for several days. The
Each of our York County communities, no matter what size, seems to have its own uniquely rich history. My own families settled, some well over two hundred years ago, in the southeastern part of the county. I still have so much to learn, especially about the rest of the county.
Over the years I heard of the “Hermit of the Hellam Hills,” and came across a couple late 19th century newspaper articles that mentioned Joel Strong, the hermit. When I started digging in the files at the York County History Center and perusing newspapers.com (available to use at the YCHC
York attorney Thomas Hambly argued Prigg v. Pennsylvania before the United States Supreme Court.
On October 19, 1781, British General Charles Cornwallis’s army surrendered his army at Yorktown, Virginia. That American victory effectively ended the Revolutionary War, although it was not official until nearly two years later, when the Treaty of Paris was ratified in September 1783. Camp Security, York County’s prisoner of war
York County folk artist Lewis Miller illustrated his 1810 visit the Geiger farm in Windsor Township in 1810.
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.
Pennsylvania German food is captured in Lewis Miller’s drawing and text on early 20th century York tavern life.
York County’s Phineas Davis, an inventor, contributed much to commerce and transportation in the 40 short years of his life.
