YorksPast

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Stephen H. Smith retired as a Manager of Design Engineering at York International Corporation and is an award-winning family history author. He shares his interest in local history on York Daily Records’ York Blog, where his YorksPast blog began in July 2012, and continues to this day with nearly 1,400 posts. He also has shared his knowledge of family and local history via presentations since 2003. His present list of 74 talk topics has been presented multiple times.

TALK TOPICS

This post is continually updated with talk topics available. Each topic presentation is given a talk number and also provided is the year of the initial presentation and the talk length. Some groups have selected one of the short 15-minute talks and asked me to pair it with another appropriate 15-minute talk to create a unique 30-minute presentation.

[Talk Number] Talk Topic (Year of initial presentation) L=minutes long

[1] First 60 Years of York Corporation; from 1874 to 1934 (2013) L=75
[2] York Air Conditioning & Refrigeration; from 1935 to 2005 (2014) L=75
[3] Countdown of the Top 50 York County Factories in 1899 (2015) L=70
[4] Featuring Eight of the Top 50 York County Factories in 1899 (2015) L=60
[5] 19th Century Railway Car Builders of York (2012) L=60
[6] Rail Events in the 1800s, Rail Trail Area (2014) L=50
[7] Never Built? The Town of Pleasant Garden and other Curiosities (2014) L=60
[8] The Making of an award winning Family History Book (2003) L=60
[9] Tips on Making a Family History Book (2018) L=30
[10] Private Burial Grounds, Discovering Their Stories (2012) L=50
[11] York & Leading Industries of the Gilded Age (2015) L=30
[12] Examining a Unique African American G.A.R. Post in York (2016) L=50
[13] History of The Susquehanna Trail (2016) L=60
[14] Overview of York Corporation (2016) L=15
[15] European Perspective on the 9/11 Attacks (2017) L=40
[16] Clockmaker began York’s Railroad Heritage (2018) L=30
[17] Tips in Applying Family Research Skills to Public History (2017) L=40
[18] The Men who Designed and Built York’s First Ice Machines (2019) L=15
[19] Codorus Navigation Works between York & Susquehanna River (2018) L=70
[20] History of Yorkco’s 25-Year Club (2018) L=15
[21] Stories York County veterans in World War I (2019) L=60
[22] Earliest Aviation in York County (2018) L=40
[23] Wild Cat Glen in the Hellam Hills (2019) L=75
[24] Personal connection to Burning of Bridge at Wrightsville (2014) L=20
[25] Is York’s Fair America’s First? (2015) L=15
[26] Hero: Adam F. Geesey & Villains: Mega-Stores (2016) L=15
[27] Wild Cat Glen & Reservoirs in the Hellam Hills (2017) L=15
[28] Jake Devers and the Jeep in York County History Illustrated (2018) L=15
[29] History of Barshinger Creek Watershed (2016) L=15
[30] Why and How York Manufacturing Co. built the Grantley Plant (2019) L=15
[31] Stories of One-Room Schools (2020) L=50
[32] Life in Colonial York (2020) L=40
[33] The best of times and the worst of times for the York Plan (2019) L=15
[34] Ice Making Machines to YORK Air Conditioning (2021) L=15
[35] YORK Corporation during 1940s features the York Plan (2022) L=15
[36] Yorkshire History Walk (2017) L=80
[37] Aviation in Springettsbury (2021) L=70
[38] Codorus Navigation Works, Springettsbury Edition (2021) L=75
[39] Tales at the Sycamore Witness Tree along Whiteford Road (2022) L=25
[40] The Barshingers of Barshinger Mill (2021) L=55
[41] History of York High School (2019) L=20
[42] One-Room Schools in Manchester Township (2020) L=60
[43] Early Schooling in Springettsbury (2022) L=80
[44] Early Businesses in Springettsbury (2022) L=80
[45] Innovations of the S. Morgan Smith Company (2021) L=55
[46] Rails through Springettsbury (2022) L=80
[47] One-Room Schools in Shrewsbury & New Freedom Area (2020) L=55
[48] Origins of Mechanical Cooling (2023) L=80
[49] York Corporation becomes York Division of Borg-Warner (2023) L=15
[50] History of Entertainment and Recreation in Springettsbury (2023) L=80
[51] The 1940s and 1950s in Springettsbury (2023) L=80
[52] Mahlon Haines and his foe York County Agricultural Society (2023) L=15
[53] York’s historic Isaiah Lukens court house Tower Clock (2023) L=20
[54] Story of WWI veteran George Wood w/Bill Armstrong (2023) L=20
[55] Exploring five early Wrightsville Businesses (2023) L=60
[56] One-Room Schools in Northeastern School District (2019) L=25
[57] Mahlon Haines legacy in Springettsbury (2024) L=80
[58] Mahlon Haines properties throughout York County (2024) L=70
[59] The York Plan Evolution (2021) L=30
[60] York’s General Electric plant during WWII and the Bazooka (2024) L=20
[61] A Trip Down Memory Lane (2024) L=80
[62] The sixteen Motels & Inns of Springettsbury (2025) L=60
[63] Stories of York County Clockmakers (2025) L=20
[64] York connections to the Manhattan Project (2025) L=25
[65] Ma & Pa Narrow Gauge Heritage (2025) L=50
[66] America’s first Iron-hulled Steamboat was built in York (2025) L=60
[67] Barns of Springettsbury (2025) L=65
[68] Backstory in the founding of York Manufacturing Co. (2024) L=15
[69] 1960s at York Division of Borg-Warner Corporation (2025) L=15
[70] Now and Then stories of York’s Edison Electric plant (2024) L=15
[71] Emanuel Herman and James Rankin in the Revolutionary Era (2025) L=15
[72] Tales of Early York County Airports (2026) L=45
[73] Early Hanover Factories (2019) L=60
[74] Neighborhoods of southwest Springettsbury (2026) L=70

If your organization would like to schedule one of these talks, contact me by Email at stephen.smith4@comcast.net