Recently in New York Category

Automobile manufacturing was booming in York a hundred years ago. One of the most successful was the Pullman automobile, made by the York Motor Car Company. Manufacturers entered the cars in all kinds of races and competition to capture the attention of the public, and the results were duly reported in the sports pages.

One such competition was a hill climb in New York. The account in the April 11, 1908 York Gazette reads:

It seems like every year we hear of York County connections to the premier Westminster Kennel Club dog show. Just this year a toy poodle from Dillsburg named Vikki won the best of breed to make it to the finals.

Did you know that York County dogs and their owners have been bringing home prizes from the show since its infancy? The following report is from the February 14, 1908 York Gazette:

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that, judging by the ads from real estate agents in other areas trying to entice York County buyers, this area must have been quite prosperous in the late 1860s. Merchants and other entrepreneurs wanted a chunk of our cash too.

Click here to read real estate offerings to York County "capitalists."

For example, though York had its own jewelry stores, James E. Caldwell & Co., Jewelers, Importers, and Manufacturers of Philadelphia took out a sizable ad in the Gazette offering “watches, diamonds, jewelry, solid silver wares, plated goods, mantel clocks, bronzes, decorated china vases and ornaments, musical boxes, and carved wood ornaments to shoppers from York County.

Most surprising to me was Union Pacific Railroad’s nearly full column advertisement offering bonds to York Countians to invest in the western railway, then under construction.