We know York County had a lot of different mills. Click here to read about the many mills of York County.

Sawmills sawed trees into boards, and grist mills ground grain. What purpose did a fulling mill serve?

In a recent post about York County runaways in the 18th century, I mentioned that it was pretty easy to describe what the person who ran away was wearing. They probably only had one or two sets of clothing. Click here to read about the runaway blacksmith apprentice.

Even well-to-do people didn’t have that many clothes. You have toured historic houses--how many closets do they have? A few pegs on the bedroom wall would do nicely. Why?

Posted in 1820s Universal York Windsor Township agriculture clothing manufacturing mills textiles wool

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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.

Posted in 1770s Chester Co., PA Pennsylvania Germans Universal York Virginia clothing genealogy migration military uniforms soldiers

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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.

Posted in 1770s Army Chanceford Twp. Revolutionary War Susquehanna River Universal York York County clothing deserters ferries soldiers

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Runaway ads were fairly common in eighteenth and nineteenth century newspapers. Sometimes the runaways were slaves, but not so often above the Mason-Dixon line, where there were fewer slaves.

In Pennsylvania it was frequently a servant or an apprentice who had run away. The descriptions of the missing persons were quite detailed, down to their clothes. I guess that wasn’t too difficult when you consider they probably only had one or two sets of clothing. Sometimes they seem to have taken some of their employers clothing when they absconded. That would make it easier to describe their departure outfit.

The description below, from the September 9, 1828 York Gazette, certainly makes you wonder why Mr. Ward wanted his apprentice back. Not that he’s offering much for him.

Posted in 1820s Newberry Twp. Universal York York County apprentices blacksmiths clothing runaways

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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.

Posted in 1770s Universal York York advertising clothing retail stores shopping textiles

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That’s what the York County Shopping Center (now York Marketplace) on East Market Street was offering in celebration of its Second Anniversary fifty years ago.

Does anyone know who won the brand new 1958 rear-engine Renault Dauphine automobile? It was a 4-door, 4-passenger sedan and you could enter the giveaway every time you visited the shopping center that October. It was a reasonably priced car (around $1,650) and reportedly got over 39 mpg. But, who cared in those cheap-gas days?

You can get a good idea of the cost of living in 1957 by comparing the following specials offered by other York County Shopping Center merchants:

Posted in 1950s Universal York York County advertising automobiles clothing confectionary contests food groceries history home prices retail stores shoes shopping

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50 years ago, you could buy a three, five, seven, or nine-piece chrome or wrought-iron dinette set at York Supply Company, 43-45 West Market Street, starting at $39 to $50 for the set.

While you were there, you might as well equip your laundry with a Speed Queen wringer washer. It came with a laundry cabinet, double laundry tubs, 100 ft. of clothes line, clothes pins, and 20 boxes of Tide, all for $100. Thus equipped, the happy housewife could turn out seven full loads per hour.

King’s Factory Showroom, just down the street at 113 West Market, had men’s zipper-fly dungarees, size 28 to 42 on sale for two for $3. They were probably fun to put through that wringer on the washer.

Across the street

Posted in 1950s Universal York York advertising children clothing commerce food history home men prices retail stores shopping transportation women

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