York County, Pennsylvania people were having bell trouble, according to the November 20, 1877 issue of the York Gazette. Dillsburg's St. Paul's Lutheran Church had a cracked bell, and Mary Mayer of York broke her arm trying to ring a door bell.
Finish reading 'Bells Go Awry in Dillsburg and York' »
Wall Street, 1903
A colleague recently asked me where Wall Street used to be in York. It doesn't appear on present-day maps. A search through old maps with a magnifying glass located a tiny little Wall Street in the 1903 Atlas of York published by Frederick B. Roe.
Finish reading 'York, PA Had Its Own Wall Street' »An ad in a 1823 York Recorder reminds us again why the good-old-days weren't so great. Cabinetmaker George Dowdel guaranteed that his improved bedstead was better than any heretofore made.
Finish reading 'York Cabinet Maker Invents Bedbug-Proof Bedstead' »
Lewis Miller drawing of York jail on George Street
York County has had four prisons in its nearly 260 year history. The present one certainly seems to be the most secure. But reading the newspaper accounts of past jail breaks, you have to wonder if anybody was watching.
At least in the 1857 Christmas night jail break the prisoners had to hack through a wall of the almost-new second jail on Chestnut Street. Click here to read about that escape.
In 1829, when the jail was on the northeast corner of George and King Streets, it was apparently much easier. The May 26, 1829 York Recorder tells the story:
I recently recounted the story of the rumors that swept Hanover, PA of a Confederate invasion on April 22, 1861, when the Civil War was barely a week old.
Click here to read about the Hanover incident told by eyewitness Henrietta Stroman Stair.
Captain W. H. Jenifer, then of the U.S. Army played a prominent part in the confusion. In an article written in 1927, George R. Prowell says that Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtain sent a telegram to Hanover ordering Jenifer's arrest. He too thought Jenifer was deserting and would relay information to the secessionists.
Finish reading 'Panic of Hanover--What Happened to Captain Jenifer?' »The Prince family, that is. A few days ago I wrote and that I thought there were two contemporary David Princes in York. I based that assumption on that two different women married David Prince, and that one David Prince moved to Baltimore and another taught at the York County Academy for around forty-five years.
Click here to read the previous Prince post.
A further search at the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives of transcribed original records shows that they were indeed the same person, and he did all the things listed above.
Finish reading 'More on the Princes of York' »
Part of Freystown, 1876
Maps are fascinating. They document the charges in communities over the years. You can see how residential, social, and industrial patterns evolve as an area grows, or in some cases, retracts.
I recently looked at the when and where of North, South, East, and West streets in York, Pennsylvania. Click here to read that post.
Another look at 1836, 1850, 1876, and 1903 maps of York show changes in street names as well as disappearances of whole villages as they were absorbed into the city. The southeast side of town illustrates that well:
Finish reading 'Mapping York, PA's Past' »Among the marriages announced in an April 1837 York newspaper was that of David B. Prince and Elizabeth Sandoe, on April 6th.
The editors remarked that "accompanying this notice was a liberal slice of the most delicious pound cake for the printer. It was the sweetest communication that we have received for many months, and we inserted it with as much pleasure, as we now do the sincere hope that they, who thus remembered the printer, may long enjoy undisturbed and unalloyed connubial felicity."
East Street, 1903
Like many cities, York, Pennsylvania has a street named for each direction of the compass. I must admit, though, I had to look at a current atlas to find East Street, even though I go by it almost daily.
I assumed that these four streets made their appearance at the same time, marking the boundaries of the town as it grew. Wrong--as you can see from the information below gleaned from 1850, 1876, and 1903 maps of York.
Finish reading 'North, South, East, West--Where Are These York Streets?' »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.
Click here to read about a Confederate sword left in Hanover in 1863.
See below for my recent York Sunday News article based on Mrs. Stair's recollections:
Finish reading 'York Woman Tells of Panic in Hanover' »
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