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Dallastown to Red Lion, 1876 and 1928

A recent post related the troubles motorists had traveling from Dallastown to Red Lion in the fall of 1928 because of road construction and deep mud on the detour. I was asked exactly where those roads were.

Click here to read that post.

The state road that was being reconstructed was probably the short stretch of Route 74 that runs between Red Lion and Dallastown today. I don't think the path of that road changed much over the years, so it still pretty much follows the red line on the map.

As for the detour and the alternate route mentioned in the newspaper--I tried to reconstruct them using the 1876 Pomeroy, Whitman and Co. Atlas of York County, a present-day ADC atlas and the advice of a friend who knows the area.

You think road construction causes problems for motorists now? The following news article, from the October 19, 1928 York Gazette, might make you appreciate modern techniques.

We often hear about new schemes the unscrupulous come up with to part the unwary from their cash. The York Daily newspaper reported an elaborate one of 100 years ago.

The January 31, 1908 article reads: “CHIEF WHITE ARRESTS FAKE BIOGRAPHY MAN.
R. N. Crawley, of Philadelphia, who came to York several months ago, representing that he was about to publish a book of biographies of prominent professional and business men, was arrested yesterday afternoon by Chief of Detectives Charles S. White on charges of false pretence.”

One hundred and ten years ago an article on the front page of the Gazette starts out: “A gang of burglars raided the post offices at Dallastown and Red Lion sometime Monday night and succeeded in making a fairly good haul.”

The first robbery was in Red Lion. The article states: “About 12 o’clock that night [Monday] a number of residents in the vicinity of the post office were awakened by the noise of an explosion. A family named Spangler residing in the office building, on hearing the explosion made an investigation of every room but the post office, and finding everything all right, retired to bed. At Hildebrand’s hotel on the opposite side of the street the explosion awakened occupants of the house.”

It goes on to say that: