Upon seeing the tiny watch George Sellers wrote “it was a beautiful piece of workmanship considering the tools Davis had at his command.” Sellers saw this watch in 1828 when papermaker George King, of York, brought it along on a trip to Philadelphia; showing it off during a paper-mould buying
Drawings and a photo of a gathering at the Schaszberger-Dempwolf Farm were recently donated to the Springettsbury Township Historic Preservation Committee. Seated at the left part of that photo is Edward F. Schaszberger and at his shoulder is his grandson, 10-year-old, John Armour Dempwolf. Immediately behind Edward is his daughter
My presentation Codorus Navigation Works premiered earlier this week at the monthly meeting of the Manchester Township Historical Society. I’ll draw upon that talk, plus further research, as I continue the series of posts exploring the history of the Codorus Navigation Works. Completed in November of 1833, this canal allowed
Nearly a century ago milk chocolate was produced in York at a location now replaced by centerfield of PeoplesBank Park; the home of the Atlantic League’s 2017 championship baseball team, the York Revolution. Large cans of milk, bags of cocca beans and sacks of sugar were carted a short distance
Last month I presented my talk “Tips in Applying Family Research Skills to Public History” to a group of family history writers in Wilmington, Delaware. Their projector quit near the beginning of my talk and while the projector owner went back home to get a replacement bulb, I asked the
Howard J. Carew was one of the 13-founding-members of the Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA). Howard took an active role in that national organization; serving as its leader in 1961. He also served on the Technical Committee for many years. The MBMA metal building systems design manual helped lead to
During 1963, when I turned 14-years-old, while at an end-of-winter weekend at my Grandfather Smith’s bungalow near Accomac, I went on a walk exploring areas around Wild Cat Falls and up along Wild Cat Run that were normally off-limits. Old-timers from several other bungalows joined us; it was a walk
Bob Smyser had a passing interest in family history when he was given a box of papers, recently discovered by his dad; it contained family history research, started by his dad’s grandmother. I met Bob at my family history talk near Pittsburgh last month. He shared a Civil War era
The several Lincoln Highway slides I include within my History of the Susquehanna Trail presentation always produce related questions; such as this one from Fred Hoover: “Where was the Lincoln Highway Garage that sold radios? My father always claimed it was in West York. Dad went with my grandfather when
The December 6th evening to unravel York County history is Retro York’s 2017 third-edition of the annual York Daily Record event. The theme this year is Weird York. I will be one of five local historians participating. The event is at a new location this year; DreamWrights Center for Community