York: January 2009 Archives

The March 18, 1908 York Gazette shows that Yorkers could eat with the best of them, traveling from one menu to another by trolley.

Progressive dinners were evidently in vogue at that time. The article relates that 12 couples thought they were going to be feted at homes of friends. Only the host knew differently as the special trolley car he booked picked up the guests, starting at York's Centre Square at 6 p.m. and continuing out West Market street.

York Imperial Cherries

I keep coming across references to fruit with York County origins, which I don't mind. I like fruit and this is a good place to grow fruit as well as enjoy eating it. The climate and soil are right for fruit trees to thrive. It's no wonder that local growers experimented with new cultivars with some success.

In a recent post I related an account of Confederate soldiers enjoying Napoleon cherries in 1863 at York Township's Springwood Farm, where Jonathan Jessop had developed the York Imperial apple some years before.

Click below for those previous fruit posts.
Confederate cherries.
Jessop's apple.

Did you know a York Imperial cherry was also patented by a York County nursery?

The Musical Berger Family: Anna, Fred, Louisa and Henry

York County has a rich musical background, both in spawning home-grown musicians and as a regular stop for traveling musical performers for the last hundred years or two.

I just received an email from Robyn Card, who is working on her dissertation on professional women classical trumpet players from the late nineteenth century on up to 1993. Ms. Card contacted me because of a York Sunday News article I did on the musical Berger family from York. She plans to include Anna Theresa Berger, a member of the Berger family group and later an acclaimed solo coronet player. (See below for the whole Sunday News article.)

Ms. Card would like to hear about any other professional women trumpet players you might know about from the late nineteenth through the late twentieth century. She in interested in their opportunities, their music, their performances and the groups in which they performed. She can be contacted at joscard@gmail.com .