Results tagged “cigarmaking” from York Town Square

Red Lion's new year is traditionally ushered in with the raising of a huge cigar, reminding folks of the area's past might as a cigar manufacturer. The fiberglass cigar, held by a lion character, weighs 100 pounds and is 8 feet, 3 inches long. The borough's cigarmaking history is certain to be a topic of discussion in a tour of its streets on Tuesday, June 30. (See photos below of Red Lion's cigarmaking culture of the past.) Background posts: It couldn't happen in York County? Women were trampled in Depression-era labor unrest and York County cigars: 'They contained a vast amount of nicotine' and Red Lion's Ebert Furniture: From bedroom suites to gunstocks.

A guided walking tour through Red Lion, sponsored by the Kaltreider-Benfer Library, is set for 6:30 p.m. June 30... .

This video, part of the York Daily Record/Sunday News, "Remember" oral history series captures the cigarmaking industry - a major employer in small towns throughout York County. Background posts in 'Remember' series: In the shadow of disaster: York County and its newspaper tested 30 years ago and Great Depression work: 'It was the largest thesis in the history of the history department' and Readers tell about those blizzards of 1993, 1996.

People don't think of the rival boroughs of Red Lion and Dallastown working together.

But 84-year-old Flo Neff unwittingly informed viewers of the York Daily Record/Sunday News "Remember" series about an early 20th-century form of regionalization.

It involved the ubiquitious cigarmaking business, the most recent topic in the series.

Here is her transcribed audio clip: ... .

Starview United Brethren church -- now a United Methodist Church -- as it looked in 1914. A cigar factory, ubiquitious around turn-of-the 20th century York County, is seen at left. The church is now a United Methodist congregation. Background posts: York Daily Record columnist Jim Hubley's last piece: 'Good luck weeding out tobacco' and Mother Goose teaches York County history lessons and York County cigars: 'They contained a vast amount of nicotine'.

Ten-year-old YorkCounts has again added to community discussion in teeing up 38 quality-of-life measurements.

Important, that is, because if issues facing York County aren't tracked, it's difficult to assess progress.

Indeed, several indicators in the March 20 report show that the quality of life is improving in the county.

But, of course, while some categories work, others need work.

A vast amount of work.

To tackle many community issues, the YorkCounts coalition and other local leaders are facing decades of decisions that affect the quality of life today for better or worse.

So, I've provided brief historical background on six indicators, which we'll explain in this and future York Town Square posts, to show how the past and the present may link up.

First, tobacco usage in York County:

With fewer jobs and companies pinching, labor unrest erupted around York County during the Great Depression. When a dispute struck a town, everyone was affected including spinoffs to the cigar-making industries, the Consumers Cigar Box Co. (seen here in this York County Heritate Trust photo). Background posts: York County cigars: 'They contained a vast amount of nicotine', Windsor: Home of 'stately old houses that may appear to be miniature castles' and Red Lion's Ebert Furniture: From bedroom suites to gunstocks.

The recent Black Friday trampling of a young employee at a New York Wal-Mart store by rushing shoppers makes one wonder how that could ever happen.

Well, it happened it York County in 1934 under different circumstances.

And it wasn't deadly.

But it hurt, and it was women who were trampled... .

President Lyndon B. Johnson visit to Dallastown in 1966 was a high point in Dallastown's history. Here, Lady Bird Johnson greets some of those who turned out for the Dallastown centennial. A museum honoring the borough's past is set to open Monday. Details: 244-8217. Background posts: LBJ: In small towns, girls are fonder; dinner pails fuller, Bomb group seeks Cameron Mitchell's WWII info and Speeding trolley cars drew criticism.

Dallastown is known for Lyndon B. Johnson's visit in 1966. It was boyhood home of famed actor Cameron Mitchell.

That's where noted sculptor Lorann Jacobs has her studio.

And it was a stop along road from York to Peach Bottom, accommodated rumbling trolley cars and received a spur of the Ma & Pa Railroad.

And it was founded, in part, on the strong hands of basket weavers. But more on that in a second... .

Proprietor Charles H. Seiker, right hand in his pocket, stands in the doorway of Young and Busser's Cigar Store, Continental Square, circa 1920. That's store mascot Punch on the ledge. This photo, with accompanying column on the popularity of the cigar store, appears in Jim Hubley's "Off the Record." The funeral for the longtime York (Pa.) Daily Record/ Sunday News columnist will be Sunday at Aldersgate United Methodist Church in York Township. Visitation will be from 2 to 3:30 p.m. with the service afterward. Background posts: YDR columnist James A. Hubley: 'What I prefer is a simple, Jim', Kaltreider Library draws name from noted Red Lion cigarmaker and 'I still have my memories ... of the bustling downtown York business district'

Columnist Jim Hubley understood York County.

He knew, for example, that tobacco, cigarmaking and smoking are part of its culture. And he wrote about it.

He wrote in a 1989 column about Continental Square's Young and Busser's Cigar Store as a coming together place for York's men in the 1920s... .

Kaltreider-Benfer Memorial Library is known for a lot of quality public services, including its used book sales. The next Book Nook is set for 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 17, at the Red Lion Country Club, formerly Copper Beech. But where does the Kaltreider come from in its name? This is part of a continuing blog series about the sources of names on the sides of York County's buildings.Grange Hall represented past way of York County life, Red Lion's Ebert Furniture: From bedroom suites to gunstocks and Red Lion's towering Fairmont Park off the beaten track.

Historian George Prowell considered cigarmaker D. Frank Kaltreider as the epitomy of a self-made man, starting at the bottom and achieving "sound" financial condition by the age of 29... .

On one festive occasion, the grandchildren of Roundtown's Helena and Lester Crone surprised their family by donning aprons and serving as dishwashers. Background posts: Emigsville's Web site tells tales of community's past and Two union churches vestiges of bygone era.

In probing Manchester's Township's past in the recent post Pottery put the other Foustown - the one in Manchester Township - on the map, Roundtown's name popped up. That's the village between Foustown and Emigsville, kind of.

Roundtown?

Harry Flinchbaugh of Red Lion's Flinchbaugh Cigars was a hands-on owner. His factory, along with scores of other cigarmakers, helped Red Lion and other York County communities prosper in the first part of the 20th century. Red Lion may have claim to the top cigarmaking community. "Red Lion: The First 100 Years" notes that the peak number of factories in the borough between 1880 and 1930 was 150. (York County Heritage Trust photo.) Background posts: Cigarmaking Red Lion on top of York County and Red Lion's Ebert Furniture: From bedroom suites to gunstocks.

York County has long put forth products that attract so-called sin taxes.

We have brewed beer in York, distilled whiskey in Foustown and rolled tobacco in Red Lion and scores of other locations throughout the county... .

Photographer Paul Kuehnel shows how Shane Speal turns old cigar boxes, part of Red Lion's cigarmaking heritage, into guitars.

Two interesting stats popped out in my reading about Red Lion this week. (When you speak to a Red Lion audience as I will do Thursday night, you better know your history because Red Lioners know their history.)

Red Lion earns honors with the highest elevation of any borough in York County. It's 911 feet above sea level, beating neighboring Dallastown by 11 feet.

Stone Head, 3.5 miles southwest of Dillsburg, is the highest point in the county at 1,384 feet. The lowest is 109 feet above sea level at the Susquehanna River, at the Mason-Dixon Line, a long way from Dillsburg.

The elevation at the steps of the former York County Courthouse is 392.975.

OK, enough numbers.

A second point is that Red Lion was considered the capital of cigarmaking in York County at the turn of the 19th century. This was a robust countywide industry that produced 573 million cigars in 1920, 20 percent of all American-made cigars.