Results tagged “Shrewsbury” from York Town Square

A meteor shower amazed - and frightened - York countians in 1833. But it left behind nothing like the meteorite found in 1907 in the Shrewsbury area. Here, the Perseid Meteor Shower shower visit the skies in a photograph published in the York Daily Record/Sunday News in 2004. Background posts: Iron-mine-turned-into-party-spot turned into York County park and Site filled with wealth of York County geological info and Quarrying in Delta-Peachbottom.

Dillsburg is experiencing more than its share of earthquakes recently.

According to one count, about 325 tremors were reported in the Dillsburg area between Oct. 3 and early February.

But such natural phenomenons are not new in York County.

A natural event - the Leonid meteor shower - scared thousands in 1833... .

For years, a hame was displayed on a sign in Leon Saubel's front yard in the Shrewsbury Township (Pa.) village of Hametown. The display has been taken down. Background posts: Codorus collector exhibits collection of conveyances - wheels and sleighs and 'I didn't know a peach tree from an apple tree, but we learned quickly.' and Trees commemorate World War I I vets.

In putting up the recent post on a Hametown one-room school and its upcoming reunion, it occurred to me that viewers might not know how the school's host village received its name.

Hametown between Shrewsbury and Loganville on the Susquehanna Trail was a major center for the making of hames.

Hames, along with collars and traces, form the pulling part of a horse's harness. (Other parts of a harness - a bridle, for example - relate to guiding the horse.)

J. Emory Seitz, whose great grandfather founded the village's hame-making factory circa 1850 defined a hame in a 1970 letter: ...

This old photo captures the presence of hooded Klansmen in Shrewsbury, a regular sight in small towns across York County, Pa., in the first half of the 20th century. Background posts: Meeting of riot victims brought hope for racial accord and York's 221 E. Princess St. home to telling ironies and York Charrette or charade?.

For years, I've checked in on a small stained-glass window at a northwestern York County church.

Lettering in a lower pane indicates that the Ku Klux Klan sponsored it in the KKK's local heyday in the first third of the 20th century.

Late last year, I stopped by, and it appeared that the lettering had been obliterated... .

This photograph shows the Codorus Creek near Richland Avenue before Depression-era flood-control efforts changed its appearance. (Courtesy of York County Heritage Trust.) Background posts: Destructive flood of 1933 struck York County 75 years ago, It couldn't happen in York County? Women were trampled in Depression-era labor unrest and Bad economy turned York Safe and Lock toward lucrative defense work .

In a previous post Great Depression not only pinched in York County, it punched, I take a poke at the notion that the county somehow escaped the very tough times of the 1930s.

That assertion has come down over the years because no bank in York failed during the Depression.

No banks apparently failed in the city.

But using Charles Bloomfield's Millersville University master's research, I point out that 17 of York County's 46 banks either failed or reorganized.

This discussion caused Warren Miller of Hanover to inquire about which banks did, indeed, fail... .

In this York Daily Record/Sunday News file photo, a York Water Company official has just inspected a water main break along the Susquehanna Trail near Loganville. This stretch of the trail is still a favorite of those taking Sunday afternoon drives. (See additional York Daily Record/Sunday News photos below). Background posts: Whatever happened to York County's Hungerford?, War memorials stand proudly in towns throughout York County and Trees commemorate World War I I vets.

Mention of the Susquehanna Trail often brings to mind images of South George Street extended between York and the Maryland line.

They think of it as a Sunday afternoon ride to Brown's, with maybe a side trip to Nixon Park to the west or even the Hex murder house to the east or other such excursions.

But the Susquehanna Trail stretches north of York, too.

To Harrisburg. And to Niagara Falls.

And south of the Maryland Line, too.

To Baltimore. And to Washington, D.C.

Or at least at one time, it sprawled from Niagara Falls to D.C.

The York Daily Record published a fascinating story in 1997 (11/13) explaining all of this:

Carroll Swam of New Park is helping disassemble an old log house in the southern York County borough of Shrewsbury, one historic piece at a time. Background posts: York County's landscape, buildings, landmarks can serve as a classroom, How to accurately restore a historic home and Facts don't support wide house door to admit coffins.

A landmark Shrewsbury log house is slowly coming down.

That is the third option involving such a historic log home, disassembler Carroll Swam says. Carefully dismantle it and recycle the parts.

The first and preferred option, the York countian says, is to restore a home. The second is to move it.

This particular 200-plus-year-old structure could not be saved... .

Motorists on Interstate 83 can see treeless land near Lake Redman. The York Water Co., owner of this water supply lake, has cut down the trees because of their age and mile-a-minute weed damage. An expert gardener once wrote in the York Daily Record that the weed earns its name "Devil's Tail Tear Heart" or "Asiatic Tear Thumb" because the plant's reddish stem is armed with downward pointing hooks or barbs. Background posts: Rainmaker's visit indicated much awry in York, Where did Camp Betty Washington Road get its name?, Memorial honoring alcohol-related accident victims should be visited

That mile-a-minute vine, with supposed York County origins, that is becoming viewed as the kudzu of the east?

Well, its origins are actually are muddy. But it's damage is clear, as evidenced by the damage it's causing to tree and other plant life at Lake Redman.

Teresa Boeckel of the York Daily Record/Sunday News (6/29/08) explored the weed and its supposed origin at a nursery in southern York County: