In 1872, the Northern Central Railway established a picnic area near Howard Tunnel. During summer seasons, scheduled and special steam trains transported organizations to and from these Tunnel Grounds; which were improved year-after-year into a first-class one-day destination for groups with a minimum of 20, however up to as many as 600.
Jim Hansen of Helena, Montana, inquired about a product I was not immediately aware of in the A. B. Farquhar Company history. However, research reveals conveyors have a notable place in the Farquhar story and were some of the final products manufactured at the massive Farquhar complex of factory buildings in downtown York.
Don May recalled a State proposed plan to construct a real East-West Bypass of York; i.e. four-lanes, limited access, with NO traffic lights. Don often heard details about the plan from his father, because the North Sherman Street interchange, on the proposed bypass, would have taken the house; which his father built.
Mike Spyker recognized a buckwheat field growing along Blackbridge Road between the York Mill of Ardent Mills and the York County Solid Waste Incinerator. Like sorghum planted in this field last year, buckwheat is an unusual crop in the Eastern United States. Nevertheless, buckwheat flour and buckwheat honey were staples of my grandparents.
Who remembers the Liberty Limited Dinner Train, which operated in southern York County from 1996 until 2001 on the old Northern Central Railway tracks; better yet, who traveled on the original Liberty Limited, the deluxe express train of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which included the same section of rails, in its run between Washington D.C. and Chicago from 1925 until 1957.
The Violet Hill Alums Group shared geographic recollections of Violet Hill Elementary School that describe the Violet Hill neighborhood of Spring Garden Township as it was from the late 1930’s and onward. Thanks to Thomas Stambaugh and Kathryn Bentz Schwartz for allowing me to illustrate the group’s memories.
Nick Lentz noted that when his grandparents dated they often went to the Imperial Theatre in Wrightsville. Those dates always included shared dreams of buying a car as they walked by an enticing car lot at the theatre entrance. That car lot turned out to be shrewdly located by the common owner of the Theatre and the Lincoln Highway Garage; which was an agency for Ford, Dodge and Buick automobiles.
Bill Eaton has an interest in the present location and the wording on a Memorial Plaque originally affixed to the scoreboard installed by York-Hoover employees at Memorial Stadium in York. Within collections of the York County History Center, a 1948 article, with photos, was discovered in “The York-Hoover Herald,” a monthly publication by and for the employees of York-Hoover Corporation, which answered many of his questions.
Aden Buser was the supplier of cigar boxes and cases to fourteen cigar makers located in and around Tilden, i.e. Longstown; an unincorporated village which has always straddled three York County townships and presently is the crossroads of four public school districts. Research into one of Aden’s advertising items revealed neat details about Tilden.
The precise location of an early Knab /Knaub /Hake family cemetery was sought due to construction work commencing in the area around a former stone quarry near Emigsville. The cemetery is one of three sites, in that vicinity, listed on Manchester Township Historical Society’s Historic Site Register.