Results tagged “Barack Obama” from York Town Square

Candidate Barack Obama took a tour of the Voith Siemens Hydro Power Plant in York in September 2008. In visiting York County, Obama stepped on soil familiar to his family. Background posts: Exhibit features artifacts detailing presidential visits to York County and In 2008, 8 top candidates or their families campaigned in York County and When York County rolled up its red carpet to people of color.

President William McKinley and Richard Nixon have family links to York County. That information has been out there for years.

But "Trust Talk," newsletter of the York County Heritage Trust, broke new ground in exploring local links to the family of Barack Obama - and former president Lyndon Johnson.

According to the newsletter, Both Obama and Johnson descend from Philip Ament, a York County native... .

Noted 19th-century York, Pa., artist Lewis Miller captures George Washington in this drawing that is part of the York County Heritage Trust's collection. The trust is displaying presidential artifacts in connection with the inauguration of President Barack Obama at its 250 E. Market St., York, museum. Background posts: Additional posts on presidential visits and Where was Thomas Jefferson when Congress met in York? and President of Congress Henry Laurens kept Congress together in Valley Forge winter.

A complete list of prospective, actual or former presidents who visited York and Adams counties is hard to pin down.

For example, post-Civil War presidents often visited the battlefield in Gettysburg, and most got there by rail before the days of air travel. They sometimes would travel unannounced on the Northern Central Railroad, later the Pennsylvania Railroad, to Hanover Junction and then head along the line from there to Gettysburg.

Hanover's Mother Smith -- Mrs. M.O. Smith -- joined presidents Abraham Lincoln, Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge and Franklin D. Roosevelt on the rostrum during presidential speeches in Gettysburg.

"I would not compare the men or their remarks," she told a newspaper after other media had pestered her for such. "I feel it my patriotic duty to refrain from comparing any one president with another."

Indeed, the Northern Central Railroad probably carried many chief executives through York County in the dead of night, unknown to local residents.

Here is a sampling of visits to York and Adams counties from those who occupied the White House (search on this blog for additional information):

Sarah Palin was the last candidate to set foot on a York County stage in the election 2008 season. Here, she speaks to a crowd on Oct. 31 at the York Expo Center. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge is seen at right. (See photo of Barack Obama's visit to York below.) Background posts: Hillary Clinton apparently closer to middle than Obama in minds of York County Dems, York-area woodcarver made life-size JFK statue. But where is it now? and Bobby Kennedy spoke to Foremen's Club in York about labor racketeering.

The canon is sealed on candidate visits to York for Election 2008.

Chelsea Clinton was the first dignitary to stump way back in April when her mother was still a candidate.

Veep candidate Sarah Palin was the last, appearing Friday, Oct. 31. Joe Biden was the only candidate among the four presidential and vice presidential entries not to show.

Here's the complete list of visits by candidates or their families:

The two presidential candidates meet at Messiah College, only a few hundred feet from York County. At least two bridges connect York and Cumberland counties on the Messiah campus, a relocated covered bridge (the last of its kind in York County) and a pedestrian bridge, successor to a swinging bridge. Background posts: Picturesque steel bridges going way of covered predecessors and When the bridge over the Codorus moved.

When Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spoke at Messiah College Sunday night, I wondered if they would unwittingly bring their campaigns to York County.

All it would have taken was for either candidate to walk across the covered bridge connecting the Cumberland County part of the campus to the York County part... .