Recently in Jacobus Category

One of the most awesome, and chilling, buildings I have ever visited is the former Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. It was opened in 1829 and closed in 1971.
After over 20 years in limbo it opened as a museum with guided tours in the mid-1990s. As funds are available, more and more of its vast expanse is being maintained and restored.

Click here for Eastern State Penitentiary web site with extensive history and tour information.

During much of the prison's history, each inmate was kept in solitary confinement, not as an extraordinary punishment, but with the idea that the time alone would give the prisoner time to reflect on their crime and become pentitent.

Being in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, York County criminals who were convicted of any major crimes were sent to Eastern. The records of the Penitentiary are part of the collection of the Pennsylvania State Archives. A friend shared some information from those records, which led to my York Sunday News column, repeated below, on the tragedy of a young York County woman led astray.

One hundred and ten years ago, most folks, especially in rural areas didn't have telephones. That wonderous invention was only 21 years old in 1897. As far as other media, Heinrich Hertz has only discovered radio waves ten years before and television was way in the future.

The way to keep up with news of your neighbors was to read the newspaper. Each small community had a stringer, and no event was too small to report, especially since those free-lance reporters were reportedly paid according to the length of their column. This practice continued well into the mid-twentieth century. I remember, when I was a child, reading in the Gazette & Daily that my parents, grandparents, and I were entertained by my aunt and uncle for Christmas dinner. (My aunt happened to be the stringer for the New Bridgeville area.)

In early December, 1897 the special correnspondent of the Gazette "Jacobus Notes" column reported that: