History Mystery quiz: Did Abraham Lincoln detrain at York County’s Hanover Junction?
President Abraham Lincoln arrived in York County, Pa.’s, Hanover Junction 151 years ago today, on his way to an overnight stay in Gettysburg where he would deliver what became known as the Gettysburg Address. There is, of course, a controversy about whether that’s the president in this famous photograph. What is sometimes overlooked is why Lincoln could have been in available outdoors for a photo, in the first place. A short answer – one that is also controverted – is that he was changing rail lines. Hanover Junction was the eastern terminus of the Hanover Branch Railroad, the main rail connector with Gettysburg to the west. The Northern Central Railway, which transported the president from Baltimore, ran north and south. So Hanover Junction received its name honestly as the junction of the Northern Central and Hanover Branch lines. The Junction also was an important place in the transportation of the wounded from the Gettysburg Battlefield in July 1863, and people at the station saw Lincoln’s funeral train pass through in the spring of 1865. For events connected to this anniversary, check out Scott Mingus’ Cannonball blog. Also of interest: This working list details presidential visits to York and Adams counties.
More history quizzes below … .
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No History Mystery, but a question about how you see York, Pa.
*Edited, 11/18/14
