York really is the center of the universe, especially when you consider its place in historical events. Local historian June Lloyd looks at how things have converged on our hometown, past and present.A previous post noted that a native Yorker, Richard M. Watt, was an expert witness in court concerning why the "unsinkable" Titanic sank. Click here to read that post.
No one was more surprised that April day than the vice-president of the White Star Line, Philip A. S. Franklin, whose parents were both natives of York.
Lewis Miller drawing of himself and friends admiring 1868 Wrightsville bridge.
Bridges make our lives so much more convenient.
We have recently been hearing about the high cost of maintaining bridges. They are, of course, much more expensive to build from scratch.
Where would we be if we didn't have the four bridges (Norman Wood in the south, two at Wrightsville in the middle, and Route 76 in the extreme north) that cross the Susquehanna River from York County?
Wrightsville has always occupied an important location in the transportation network. The Monocacy Trail, orginally a Native American path, became one of the first roads for the European settlers to York County and beyond. That road crossed the Susquehanna River at Wrightsville, first by ferry and then over bridges covered and modern.
The Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal, opened in 1840, followed the west bank of the river from the Chesapeake Bay to Wrightsville. Then the mules, working from towpaths on the covered bridge, pulled the canal boats across the river to Columbia to continue on their journey up the east bank.
Railroads soon replaced canals as movers of people and freight, again crossing the bridge at Wrightsville. The excerpt below from the November 20, 1877 Gazette shows the hazards passengers could face and the volume of products shipped out from Wrightsville.
You rode a horse or took the stage. Mention stagecoach and the first picture that comes to my mind is the old west with Indians or robbers chasing the stage--too many John Wayne movies in my childhood. We easterners travelled by stage too, except rough, muddy roads were the worst hazards encountered in these parts.
Click here to read about trains out of, and into, York County. And here to read about the first railroad to reach York.
When Thomas McGrath opened his Globe Inn in 1821, his ad in the York Recorder featured not only the accommodations, but also a new Stage Office. He offers:
Dr. William Bigler stars in one of my favorite examples of how easy it was to get just about anywhere from here with the public transportation of over a century ago. At 2:30 p.m. February 5, 1890, Dr. Bigler simply stepped on the train near his home in Springvale (Windsor Township). A few days later he arrived at his son’s residence in Orlando, Florida. Simple, huh?
(See below for my previous Sunday News column on the multi-talented Bigler family.)
The “RAILROAD TIME TABLE” below from the November 20, 1877 Gazette shows how often trains left and arrived at York on the several railroads that connected here. That doesn’t even begin to address the multitude of stops made at every little hamlet along the way.
York Railways #234 at Martin's Substation on the Hanover Line in 1927
Sometimes history repeats itself in some really nifty ways. In February 1908 local newspapers were announcing that the York Railways Company’s new Hanover Interurban line was open through Spring Grove.
Richard M. Watt, second from left, and the U.S.S. Maine
This week’s Sunday News carried a story about a new book titled What Really Sank the Titanic. The authors came to a different conclusion that that offered by Rear Admiral Richard M. Watt, expert witness and York native, who testified in the 1915 White Star Line liability trial.
Watt, former Chief Constructor in the U.S. Navy faulted the owners, the White Star Line, for not allowing the builders to install longitudinal bulkheads and water-tight doors on the Titanic.
That's what a headline proclaimed in the March 17, 1908 Gazette. It seems that 24-year-old Phares Frey, a cigar maker from York had gone to Boston to raise money for his revolutionary project. How did he plan to raise those funds?
The above images from the 1985 York Daily Record story were supplied to the newspaper by Gary L. Klinedinst.
A few older folks might still remember the spectacular train wreck at Centerville, just outside of Glen Rock that Friday afternoon of April 2, 1920. A February 1985 York Daily Record article captured Rev. Millard R. Kroh’s vivid memory of the day.
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.
