Recently in 1810s Category

York Fair week brings back memories of the midway when I was a child. Even though I never spent the money to go see them, I remember the hawkers and big tacky painted banners inviting fairgoers to step in and see the skinniest man, fattest lady, or whatever else they could exhibit to make a buck.

The following ad from the April 11, 1816 York Gazette illustrates how traveling showmen separated Yorkers from their money long before my memories of the 1950s:

In the past I have written about some of the outrageous claims for cures made by York County manufacturers of tonics and by animal doctors.

Click here to read about Caldwell's cure-all tonic.

And click here to read about Heffner's medicine for your cattle, horses, and swine.

Doctors practicing on humans weren't any less immoderate in their claims, as shown by the ad below from the April 18, 1816 York Gazette. At least Dr. Delasell had long office hours.

Lewis Miller drawing of the first York water pipes. (See below for Miller's detailed caption.)

Downtown York traffic was recently disrupted by a broken water pipe. Like anything else, pipes do eventually suffer from wear, whether they are made of iron, ceramic, plastic, or log. Log?

York was quite progressive, instituting a public water system in 1816.

The first piping system, which lasted for many years, was constructed out of logs. In March 1816, the York Gazette ran the following ad: