Remember the York Daily Record’s ‘Remember’ series? It’s become quite an archive of York County, Pa., oral history. Memories of Woodstock are on there. Same with York County cigarmaking. Now come memories of John F. Kennedy and that day 50 years ago (on Nov. 23) when he was slain. That day will be forever burned into our memory.
An Abraham Lincoln re-enactor does not speak, but listens in the Nov. 19 observance of the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. Events linked to the 150th continue this week in Gettysburg, Pa.
The fourth Journal of York County Heritage, the York County, Pa., Heritage Trust’s scholarly publication, came out in September with another slate of articles that push county scholarship ahead. All four pieces address the Civil War in York County.
Pennsylvania Governor Bill Scranton autographed this program for the dedication of York Junior College’s new campus in 1965. At that point, YJC stood at Duke Street and College Avenue, and this dedication paved the way for York College of Pennsylvania, as it’s now called, to move to open at its current site on Country Club Road.
This diorama of the Battle of Wrightsville, part of a museum in that York County, Pa., river town, shows Blue and Gray troop positions on Sunday, June 28, 1863. An audio presentation describing the diorama tells of the unknown black man killed in the Confederate assault on the Susquehanna River bridgehead. No monument stands to honor this Union defender. Interestingly, a grave marker for an unknown Rebel soldier was recently dedicated up river from Wrightsville. Interest is growing in a marker to recognize the Union defender.
Many York countians have heard the New York Wire factory steam whistle on Christmas Eve. But to see it? Well, that’s rare. You could see the steam, but not the fixture itself. So here we see the whistle as it is being dismounted from the roof of New York Wire. It’s new home will be Metso, a couple of blocks away. Which leads the York, Pa., Daily Record/Sunday News to wonder in an editorial – New factory whistle concerts needed – whether summer concerts might be in the plans, possibly linked in with the Fourth of July fireworks at nearby Sovereign Bank (Santander) Stadium.
Linked in below: Codorus St. Reunion/Roger Williams’ visit/Front pages Many people are unfamiliar with this
Glen Rock, Pa., residents experienced a retro weekend recently, with the return of the music of one of its most famous citizens and the return of a train to its well-worn tracks. Pennsylvanian Dr. Lee Zelley, grandson of famed ‘Parade Music Prince’ Roland F. Seitz conducts the Brodbecks Band in Seitz’s best known work ‘Grandioso.’
Union military and civilian officials in Pennsylvania rightly viewed the Susquehanna River as a formidable barrier to the Confederate advance to the east. Still, they supplemented the mile-wide river with earthworks along its course. Here, an artist who witnessed the excavation shows workers digging trenches near Wrightsville in eastern York County to provide defenders leverage against an anticipated Confederate offensive to capture the bridge spanning the Susquehanna River between York and Lancaster counties.
Nineteenth-century artist Lewis Miller captures the façade of York, Pa.’s, Washington Hall, built in 1849. The building, sometimes referred to as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows or IOOF hall, housed overflow prisoners after the Battle of Gettysburg. Chief Surgeon Henry Palmer had threatened to resign, rather than treat Rebel wounded, according to letter writer Cassandra Small. The hospital and its satellites were military posts, so Washington Hall can be viewed as a prisoner of war camp site.