Recently in 1860s Category

You might not to be too surprised to find Civil War artifacts in York County around Hanover, where Union General Kilpatrick met up with Confederate General Stuart, or near Wrightsville, where Union troops dug in to defend the bridge crossing the Susquehanna River against Confederate General Gordon. But--a cannonball in northern York County?

The article accompanying the photo above, from microfilm at the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives of the July 2, 1948 York Dispatch, reads:

The Rewalt house now and in the late 19th century.

The first time John B. Gordon came to York, in late June 1863, he had an occupying army with him. He returned unarmed in 1894 and received a much warmer welcome.

By then Gordon was a U. S. Senator from Georgia, serving a reunited nation. The occasion was a stop on his popular lecture tour on The Last Days of the Confedercy. Newspaper accounts relate that the enthusiastic audience at the York Opera House had paid from 25 to 75 cents to hear Gordon's reminiscences.

In the presentation, Gordon addressed his earlier visit to York County, including his encounter with Mary Jane Magee Rewalt of Wrightsville: "He paid a warm tribute to the spirit of the 'heroine of the Susquehanna' whose house he had saved from burning at Wrightsville, and who courteously entertained him and his staff but who did not hesitate (to prevent her act from being misunderstood) to assert in the midst of the confederate officers her devotion to the Union cause, telling them of a husband...in the Union army."

Gordon also fondly remembered Mrs. Rewalt in his Reminiscences of the Civil War, published in 1903: "There was one point especially at which my soldiers combated the fire's progress with immense energy, and with great difficulty saved an attractive home from burning. It chanced to be the home of one of the most superb women it was my fortune to meet during the four years of war."

To read more about the General and the Wrightsville lady see my column below, previously published in the York Sunday News.

Lewis Miller drawing of the Confederate invasion of York, June 1863.

Cassandra Small's vivid letters to cousin Lissie Latimer, describing the Confederate invasion of York during the end of June 1863, are often quoted. Cassandra was the daughter of Philip A. Small, a leading businessman or York at the time, and his wife, Sarah Bartow Latimer.

In one letter Cassandra relates: "George Latimer was with General Gordon's Division; happily we didn't see him, as we should not have spoken to him. Some of his Copperhead friends shook hands with him, and he begged them not to tell us, but they couldn't keep it to themselves. We all respect him a great deal more than we do them."

Cassandra's first cousin, James William Latimer of York, wrote to his brother Bartow Latimer that, during the occupation, "Most ladies had sense to stay home. Men went about freely. I spoke to one of the Rebs once. Others talked and questioned them, but I did not feel like it. Heard nothing of Geo. Latimer or Tom."

Who were George and Tom?

Racing was featured at the York Fair for many years. It was so popular in 1867 that the races rained out the last day of the fair were held some days later in front of a sizable crowd. See below for a detailed account of the excitement from the October 15, 1867 York Gazette. Note that the horses were both owned and driven by York area people.

Brig. General Herman Haupt

I enjoyed the talk on the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Civil War given recently by Ivan E. Frantz, Jr. at the York Civil War Round Table. I was especially impressed by Brig. General Herman Haupt and his fantastic engineering of railroad bridges and the speedy repairs his men made to the bridges destroyed by the Confederate invaders of York County.

Wondering, as always, if he had any other York County area connections, I did a little searching. Turns out, he certainly did.

One of the colorful patterns from Abraham Serff's pattern book, now in the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives.

Weavers were essential members of the community in 18th and 19th century America. In Pennsylvania before the Industrial Revolution you would raise sheep for wool and cultivate flax for linen fibers. After processing and spinning the raw materials into thread or yarn, you would take them to the local weaver. Well over 500 York County weavers from 1800 to 1860 have been identified, and as I point out below in my recent York Sunday News article, there were probably many more.

The colorful legacy of the weaver lives on in the brightly patterned coverlets produced in quantity from the 1830s through the 1860s. The more intricate patterns were produced with a special Jacquard attachment, which the weaver would purchase to add on to his loom. At least one York County craftsman manufactured the attachments, as advertised in the newspaper add immediately below. It was first published February 11, 1834 and ran for quite some time.

I hate to iron clothes and I do as little of it as possible. On the other hand, I don't like to wear wrinkled clothing, so sometimes I do break out the steam iron. I remember when people actually ironed sheets. One older neighbor fascinated me because she ironed everything, like socks. I think she even ironed towels and washcloths.

The ad below, from the June 21, 1863 People's Advocate, brought this all to mind. As far as I'm concerned, this is another example of the good old days being vastly overrated.

When we are living through worrisome economic periods we tend to ignore that throughout the history of our country we have had many similar slumps and that we have always recovered to new prosperity.

There have been different complicated causes for economic recession and depression over the years. One of the contributing factors to the Great Depression is said to be the 1930 Hawley-Smoot Tariff which was meant to help keep U.S. industries competitive. The higher tax on imports instead led to less foreign trade, which at this time was with European countries, and less of a market for U.S. goods.

Tariffs had been called for, and enacted as an attempt to help local industry, long before the 1930s. The December 31, 1867 York Gazette carried the following item from the Columbia Herald:

The Musical Berger Family: Anna, Fred, Louisa and Henry

York County has a rich musical background, both in spawning home-grown musicians and as a regular stop for traveling musical performers for the last hundred years or two.

I just received an email from Robyn Card, who is working on her dissertation on professional women classical trumpet players from the late nineteenth century on up to 1993. Ms. Card contacted me because of a York Sunday News article I did on the musical Berger family from York. She plans to include Anna Theresa Berger, a member of the Berger family group and later an acclaimed solo coronet player. (See below for the whole Sunday News article.)

Ms. Card would like to hear about any other professional women trumpet players you might know about from the late nineteenth through the late twentieth century. She in interested in their opportunities, their music, their performances and the groups in which they performed. She can be contacted at joscard@gmail.com .

In my recent post on Jonathan Jessop and his York Imperial apple I mentioned that his son Edward raised a large family at Springwood farm. In 1930, one of those children, Little Rock, Arkansas businessman Alfred Jessop, wrote back to York to his brother Jonathan. He recounted his memory of Confederate soldiers visiting the farm in 1863.

Click here for previous Jessop post.

The letter reads in part: