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

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (1)

York Countians have always been readers. At any give time in the nineteen century several newspapers flourished simultaneously in York and Hanover. Just about every small town in the county also had their own weekly paper.

Bookstores, such as Jas. B. Small's Book and Stationery Store in the Hartman Building on Centre Square, were popular and prominently located. They advertised all kinds of reading material, including the latest magazines.

Posted in 1860s Universal York York York County advertising fashion inventions magazines newspapers retail stores

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)

I recently wrote about a Confederate sword that a farmer plowed up near Hanover in 1882, nearly 20 years after it had fallen in a skirmish there.

Click here to read about sword on Forney farm.

There were probably a lot of swords around York County in the years after the Civil War, brought home as souvenirs of that dreadful conflict.

Drinking and weapons of any kind shouldn’t go together, as we can see in the following article from the October 30, 1877 Gazette. (The anonymous reporter had a rather droll sense of humor--a 19th century Mike Argento?)

Posted in 1870s Civil War Universal York York City crime drunkenness liquor police retail stores weapons

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)

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.

Posted in 1860s New York Philadelphia Universal York York advertising bonds merchants railroads retail stores transportation

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)

Smart marketing isn’t a recent innovation. Merchants were just as eager to get the customer’s attention 160 years ago as today. The top news story of that day was the Mexican War (1846-1848).

Local African American businessman William Goodridge used the interest in the war as the “hook” in the ad he ran in the Gazette during the winter of 1847-1848 to entice customers to check out his wares:

Posted in 1840s African Americans Mexican War Universal York York advertising children confectionary groceries retail stores toys

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)

We didn’t know how bad smoking was for our health 90 years ago, when cigar factories were springing up everywhere. In York County, we knew cigars were very good for our economy. For well over 150 years, processing tobacco into cigars kept many York Countians gainfully employed.

Lewis Miller illustrated a group of youths, himself among them, making cigars in 1811 at the shop of “William Spangler, Tobacconist.” They were Henry Sheffer, John Lehman, Jacob Weiser, Lewis Miller, Daniel Masse, Daniel Wolf, Emanuel Sheffer, John Jones, and Henry Wagner. Miller would have been around 15 at the time. Some of the boys look quite a bit younger.

According to the Red Lion Area Historical Society webpage, in the month of October 1929, 15 million cigars were shipped out of the Red Lion train station on the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad. This wouldn’t have included the millions more made each month in factories large and small in York and just about every community in the county.

My grandfather, Edwin Shelley, converted a three-story house into a cigar factory in Lucky, Chanceford Township. Grandpa wasn’t alone as shown in the following Gazette article from the fall of 1917:

Posted in 1910s Chanceford Twp. East Prospect Glen Rock Lewis Miller Red Lion Universal York Wrightsville Yoe York York County cigars history industry manufacturing railroads retail stores tobacco

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)

A few days ago I wrote about York County's continuing love affair with the oyster. Many people will tell you that with good oysters you need good beer.

Breweries abounded over the years in York, as evidenced by the following 1857 advertisement from the Gazette. One hundred fifty years ago, brothers D. W. Barnitz and A. M. Barnitz were turning good York County barley and rye into equally good York County beer.

Click here to read more about the Barnitz family of brewers.

The Lewis Miller drawing above shows a previous generation of the Barnitz family at their brew house with a crowd of Yorkers, carrying empty pitchers, advancing on them. Miller captioned it "The Old Brew house in the year 1801. The[y] made Good Beer."

The ad reads:

Posted in 1850s Universal York York City advertising brewers drinks farming grain history manufacturing oysters retail stores

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (1)

We know York Countians have had a long love affair with the oyster. Start digging near the site of any old tavern, such as the Golden Plough, and you are likely to turn up remnants of long-ago oyster shells. Crushed oyster shells might be far under the streets you travel daily, since they were used as an early paving material.

With its proximity and trade orientation to Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay, oysters have always been popular here, especially in the months with an “R” in them. Why are oysters still mostly consumed in those months, September through April? There seems to be several reasons: Oysters reproduce during the summer months, keeping up a good supply of oysters; in the old days refrigeration wasn’t available, leading to spoilage in hot weather; and the quality is said to not be as good in the summer.

We just wish the prices were the same as those in the following Gazette ad for Bozman’s Oyster House on South George Street 110 years ago, in the fall of 1897:

Posted in 1890s Universal York York York County advertising commerce cooking food groceries history oysters prices retail stores shopping

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (1)

One hundred years ago stylish shoes were just as important as they are today. A large illustrated ad for the B.A. Shorb Shoe Co., 24 West Market Street, appeared in the York Gazette in the fall of 1907.

Good leather shoes were a substantial investment. No cheap plastic--oops, “man-made material” was available. Featured footwear for both ladies and men ran up to $5 per pair. The average wage of household bread winner in 1907 probably wasn’t more than

Posted in 1900s Universal York York City advertising business children history industry manufacturing men prices retail stores shoes shopping women

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)

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

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)