Just as today, during the Revolutionary War the Army needed a lot more than men who could shoot a rifle. An Army can't function without support--personnel that gathers the supplies, feeds the soldiers, and keeps the equipment running.
The following recruiting ad comes from the Pennsylvania Gazette, printed in York, PA during Continental Congress's stay here:
Finish reading 'Artificers Recruited at York' »
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Lotteries have always been alluring--wager a little for the chance to win a lot. Continental Congress attempted to raise funds to finance the Revolutionary War through a lottery, with a one of the drawings held in York in May 1778. From colonial times lotteries were conducted to raise money for public works, for churches and for colleges.
Two advertisements in a December 1826 York Recorder show that even out-of-state lotteries competed for Yorkers’ cash:
Finish reading 'York a Good Market for Lotteries' »We tend to think of our ancestors and their contemporaries as very strait-laced. Sometimes nothing can be farther from the truth. That’s what is so fascinating about using original documents as historical sources. Those letters, diaries, and newspapers they left behind sometime fairly sizzle with crime, intrigue, and scandal.
For example, take a look at the following advertisements from the April 1777 Pennsylvania Gazette.
Finish reading 'Pennsylvania Man Leaves Wife and Children, Runs Off with Another Woman' »It was April 1777. The Revolutionary War was not going well. Desertion was rampant. General Washington had said as much in a letter he wrote to his brother John on February 24.
Click here to read that letter at the Library of Congress web site.
Deserters were described in detail in the newspapers, along with a call for apprehension and an offered reward. Descriptions of the fugitive soldiers were often detailed, as shown in the following advertisement from the Pennsylvania Gazette for William Murphy of Chanceford Township.
I am presently working with the issues of the Pennsylvania Gazette printed in York in 1777-1778. In 1934 Henry Young, who at the time was most of the staff of the Historical Society of York County, gathered photostatic copies of most of issues from libraries around the county. He even received a copy of one issue from the British Museum.
The news printed in the papers is invaluable in putting the Revolutionary War into context, but the local ads give us a glimpse of life in York during the time Congress met here.
The first thing that came to mind after reading the ad for dry goods below was: “What are they talking about?” I’ve found some of the definitions, with the help of Google and Dictionary.com. I’ve added those annotations following the transcription of the ad. See if you can figure them out first.
Finish reading 'Shop in York Town for Your Bandanoes, Ozenbrigs, and Bohea Tea' »
