Results matching “Journalism goes back to the future” from York Town Square

Scott Blanchard, Sunday editor at the York Daily Record/Sunday News, e-mailed me this week that someone was "tweeting" from a Civil War conference in Gettysburg.

(S)ome interesting stuff on there," he wrote.

Indeed.

I checked out the link he sent and found that Blue Ridge Country magazine editor Cara Ellen Modisett was posting on Twitter impressions from the "Panel discussion at the Journey Through Hallowed Ground's Annual Conference."

You can see her 'tweets' at http://twitter.com/BRCeditor (you might have to go to second or third page). She even provided a twitpic on the panelists at http://twitpic.com/ajqsm.

It's an example of how technology is helping disseminate neat stuff on the history front... .

This is the cover art for blogger Scott Mingus' forthcoming "Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Gordon Expedition." Here, artist Bradley Schmehl captures the burning of the Wrightsville Bridge in late June 1863. Mingus is one of many productive members of the York County historical community. Background posts: Solomon Meyer 'forsook the publishing business and betook himself elsewhere', Best of yorktownsquare.com, 2007 and Resources for York/Adams history junkies increasingly posted on Web.

'Local history scene is a busy one' said the headline on my recent York Sunday News column providing a sample of good work going on in York County's historical community.

The column went beyond all the books and publications that people are putting out... .

Taken from microfilm, this is the first edition of The Pennsylvania Gazette published in York Town - York County's first newspaper. The weekly newspaper published from December 1777 to June 1778 before packing up and moving back east when the British evacuated Philadelphia. After the press left York Town, nine years passed before another newspaper was printed in the county. Bartgis and Roberts began publishing The Pennsylvania Chronicle and York Weekly Advertising in 1787. Solomon Meyer began publishing Die York Gazette in 1796, the first German-language newspaper in York and the first time two newspapers were published at the same time. The Pennsylvania Gazette was circulated to information-hungry readers throughout the 13 states. Background posts: Newspaper's founding date h ard to pin down and Journalism goes back to the future.

A request from a local student for information on the York Daily Record/Sunday News and its predecessors reminds me of favorite quotes attached to newspaper patriarch Solomon Meyer.

Meyer, started Die York Gazette in 1796, a German-language newspaper that the Daily Record lists as its earliest ancester.

Meyer had a weakness that undermined many great men - a love for power and politics. His anti-Federalist views gained him a military patronage post... .

This was the first graphic or photograph to appear with a York Town Square post, accompanying York Market House No. 5 - Carlisle Avenue Market, revisited in April 2006. Incidentally, that the present-day Dreamwrights building was built as a farmers market still surprises folks. Background posts: There were 5, count 'em, 5 York markets and Don't know much about (York market) history?.

The year 2007 saw visitors to this blog increase exponentially over the previous two years we've been posting.

We hope you are enjoying each day's history lesson. The numbers, increased commenting and e-mails suggest you are.

A list of best, first and most popular posts at this blog follows:

A fun part about blogging is reader reaction generated by the posts. A series of posts on this blog about White Oak Park, The Shady Dell and other hangouts attracted numerous comments on the blog and helped sponsors of a compilation album of bands playing at The Oaks to collect information on the now-defunct park. This photo shows the folks at the Dell at a York Fair. Background post: First post, Yorktownsquare.com., Sept. 18, 2005, Journalism goes back to the future.

My recent York Sunday News column York's rich history - in print and online traced the writing of history books in York County's history.

Near the end, it veered a new way of telling local history stories - via blogging. It introduced four Yorkbloggers on history topics - Scott Mingus, Scott Butcher, June Lloyd and myself.

Why blog on local history? ...

An old York County newspaper story tells about brewer Hannes' bout with an aged hermit.

It seems that Hannes produced a beer that stopped headaches, created a good appetite and abolished constipation.

After drinking two quarts, a surveyor was able to run a line without chain, merely seating himself and adjusting his "carriers."

Now the old hermit, Hannes' neighbor, had seven pairs of old leather breeches, some of which had not been washed for "10, 12 or 15 years."

The hermit, thinking Hannes' brewing vat was there for laundering purposes, took advantage of this fortuitous situation.

But he didn't want to be too uncouth. He put just one pair in the first brew, another pair the next time until all seven were cleansed.

"But heavens above!" The Gazette reported. "(T)he story came out, and Hannes lost the title of Doctor, and his famous small-beer acquired the name of breeches-water."

To which, the newspaper’s publisher Solomon Meyer concluded in a note: "Even if our correspondent has made this story up, we can still derive from it this unmistakable lesson, that from all the salves of quacks that hover up and down this country, more harmful stuff is often given to the ignorant as 'medicine.' " ...