York: March 2008 Archives

Weaver Factory on Broad Street

Renowned composer and orchestra leader Victor Herbert was in the prime of his career when he came to York in May of 1908.

“ARREST MAN AFTER TEN MILE CHASE--FIND HATCHET AND SEARCHLIGHT.” So screamed front page headlines in the April 20, 1908 York Gazette.

What was the crime?

One of the subjects that I have been know to rant about is the “Good Old Days.” I say that in most cases, comparatively speaking, they weren’t that great.

Not that I want to spread gloom and doom. I’m an optimist and I believe that most people are good and decent. That doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t some really bad eggs out there.

Crime, however, certainly isn’t a new phenomenon in York County. Spend some time reading old newspapers and you will see what I mean. The York Gazette article of March 17, 1908 below illustrates my point. It reads:

My recent York Sunday News column outlined York’s enthusiastic proposal to become the permanent capital of the United States.

Motions, debates, and votes for one location or another flew in 1789 during the first Congress under the United States Constitution. (The new Congress, which convened March 4, 1789, replaced the Continental Congress, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation.)

Thomas Hartley was one of the four Congressmen from Pennsylvania seated that first day, and he took a vigorous role in the discussions that followed on choosing the capital site.

Even though Hartley lived in York, he first made a push for Wright’s Ferry (Columbia).
Why?

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.

Click here for more information on the York-printed Pennsylvania Gazette.

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.

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?