A 1917 newspaper account captured some reminiscences of David Sloat, who at 90 was one of the last three Civil War veterans in Wrightsville.

After the war Sloat had moved to Ohio and lived there for fifty years, but he retired back to Wrightsville. There he shared his vivid memories, as a boy of 16, of the Confederate invasion of York County. The account states:

Posted in 1860s 1910s Civil War Lower Windsor Twp. Ohio Susquehanna River Universal York War Wrightsville York County soldiers

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)

Order to register prisoners paroled to Yorkers

I gave a brief overview in my recent York Sunday News column of Camp Security, the 1781-1783 Revolutionary War prisoner of war camp just east of York. The whole column is at the end of this post.

Camp Security is the last remaining prisoner of war camp in the United States that has not been swallowed up by development. The site is considered to be at the highest priority risk by the National Trust of Historic Preservation and the National Park Service. Only a few of the approximately 40 acres of the camp have been subject to full archaeological exploration.

Estimates of the number of British Prisoners interned at Camp Security vary. Records are rather sketchy in comparison with statistics we keep today, and the existing records can be interpreted differently. Some sources say many died or deserted before and after they arrived in York. Other sources say deaths and desertions have been exaggerated. As more catalogs of document collections and documents themselves become accessible online, more statistics may surface.

Posted in 1780s Camp Security Hellam Twp. Revolutionary War Springettsbury Twp. Universal York York prisoners soldiers

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)

Henrietta Stroman was born in York, Pennsylvania on August 26, 1830, the daughter of Henry Stroman. At the age of 24 she married Daniel F. Stair and moved across York County to Hanover. He was probably the Daniel F. Stair that served in Company A of the Sixteenth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers during the Civil War and was a cigar manufacturer after the war.

News of the firing on Fort Sumter, igniting the Civil War, on April 12, 1861 had quickly reached southern Pennsylvania. Henrietta Stair shared her lucid memories of that tense April, and ensuing panic among the citizen of Hanover, in a York Gazette article in 1908.

See below for my recent York Sunday News article based on Mrs. Stair's recollections:

Posted in 1860s Civil War Hanover Universal York York County soldiers

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (1)

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

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)

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

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)

The incident described below is possibly depicted in the background of this Lewis Miller drawing of "Old Mr. Rudyseal" offering his assistance to General Kilpatrick near Hanover.

One hundred twenty-five years ago, in 1882, the Gazette reported, under Hanover news, that a few weeks before a sword was plowed up on Karl Forney's farm, which adjoined the town.

Posted in 1860s 1880s Civil War Hanover Universal York York County soldiers

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)

York Mayor Ephraim Hugentugler had his hands full in the fall of 1917. He hauled many locals into his police court for furnishing liquor to soldiers stationed at the temporary training camp at Gettysburg. The soldiers also got themselves arrested for drunkenness or being disorderly, a charge that sometimes meant consorting with the local young women.

Excuses flew liberally: The Gazette reported that one soldier got off with just a $10 fine by explaining that "he never drank before and that the booze went to his head and he did not know what he was doing."

A 24-year-old soldier "caught spooning" with a 13-year-old girl in Penn Park said he didn't know she was under 18 because "he did not ask her age." The mayor didn't quite believe a group of women, aged 15 to 24, rounded up at Penn Common when many of them said they couldn't get away from the soldiers. "Huggy" told the girls they should be home after nine and "declared that if they are not permitted to take their soldier friends home to entertain them, they certainly will not be allowed to do so on the streets and public parks."

The Mayor and Police Chief Kottcamp were both upset when the U.S. District Judge Witmer, who had jurisdiction over the liquor furnishing cases, let seven of what Hugentugler called the "worst characters in York" off with a warning. Hugentugler decided to take matters into his own hands. See my Sunday News column below:

Posted in 1910s Army Universal York World War I York City courts crime history liquor mayors men police soldiers women

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)

The Tribute Tree Committee appealed to the patriotism and generosity of York County citizens in this December 1919 York Gazette ad. A neighbor recently asked if I knew anything about the rows of sycamore trees still standing in places on the Susquehanna Trail south of York. She had heard that they were some kind of War Memorial.

Research led me to an extensive file at the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives. The file contained only a few articles on the Susquehanna Trail sycamores, which were indeed planted as a World War I memorial by the War Mothers organization. The rest of the file was a treasure-trove of information on the York County component of a similar World War I memorial project to line the Lincoln Highway from coast to coast with trees.

The file includes original records, donated around fifty years ago by the Woman's Club of York, of the Road of Remembrance from Abbottstown to Wrightsville. Records of contributions collected by the very organized group of women are included, as are file cards for each serviceman memorialized. For example:
NAME: William John Feldman
RESIDENCE: 404 W. Market St., York
DEPT OF SERVICE: Artillery
RANK: Private
WHERE DIED: Contrexeville, France.
A number in pencil (S-141) probably refers to the original location of the tree planted in memory of Feldman.

Click here for a previous post on the Woman's Club, sponsors of the memorial tree project.

Why isn't the Lincoln Highway across the county today an avenue lined with these trees? One reason is probably that instead of the visually distinctive sycamores planted along the Susquehanna Trail, four varieties of trees (oak, sugar maple, elm, and tulip poplar) were planted. These common trees would have blended in more quickly, with their purpose forgotten as memories faded.

The other reason for the Lincoln Highway trees disappearing is quite evident--progress.

The story of the ambitious project itself is absorbing. The full column telling that story follows:

Posted in 1910s 1920s Universal York War World War I York York County clubs highways history memorials monuments organizations people roads soldiers trees women

Bookmark Permalink using

Comments (0)