February 2006 Archives

Paul Kuehnel, one of our photographers, passed on the Web address of some interesting historical video footage http://video.google.com/nara.html.

The National Archives has teamed up with Google to stream the video... .

Two black senior statesmen in York -- Voni B. Grimes and Ray Crenshaw -- received accolades Sunday at an Eastern Star tribute.

Grimes was involved in the founding of Access-York, the York County Parks System, the Cyber Center and, in one of his most remarkable achievements, served as governor in this region's largely white Lions district.

Crenshaw was the first black mayoral candidate, has served on the York City Council and the city school board, headed the NAACP and has been a leader at Crispus Attucks for more than 30 years.

Yet speakers at the tribute lamented that few young people at the Voni B. Grimes gym or Crispus Attucks Center would know about the accomplishments of these two community leaders... .

A Pennsylvania college student, working on an independent study project, recently wrote seeking information on the Ku Klux Klan. Her primary interest was the hate group's activities in the Hanover area.

The Klan's attraction to York County goes way back, and hate groups became particularly evident in the past 15 years in response to unfortunate racial incidents .

The Hanover area suffered through a Klan march after a racial disturbance in its Center Square in 1991. A couple of years ago, the racists swept into York on several occasions in the aftermath of homicide trials for the white men who killed a black woman in 1969.

These were not York County's finest hours. But one county Klan story should bring satisfaction to many.

In the 1980s, Albert P. Lentz, leader of York County's White United Party, was prone to saying Hitler was a great man and other such nonsense.

Well, when Lentz died of a heart attack in 1992, his body wasn't discovered until two weeks later.

Popular guy.

The following is a summary from "Never to be Forgotten" about Klan activity in the county through the decades:

Lions, Kiwanis, Jaycees and other civic clubs are fighting to find younger members, lest they implode because their aging membership can no longer keep the organizations going.

That’s not news, but how these clubs are doing is an intriguing barometer about how our communities are functioning.

I’d say we’re fraying a bit, though York County still has a sense of community.

I’ve had the fortune of watching county civic clubs up close, delivering hundreds of county history speeches on the banquet circuit.

Every club is different, and many have memorable qualities.

The Susquehanna Lions Club, for example, has an impressive streak going... .

George Glatfelter II

Glatfelter, the York County-based specialty paper manufacturer whose recent acquisition of NewPage Corp. doubles its size, has remained in the family for five generations.

That's for sure.

But many assessing the company get lost in the family's initials and numerals.

I wrote a brief history in my book "Never to be Forgotten," which I know is accurate. I know because I ran the material past those in the know at Glatfelter.

So, click below for the skinny, but here's the short story for now: George Glatfelter II, chairman and chief executive officer, is the great-great-grandson of the founder:

Maya Angelou, Hank Aaron, Luther Vandross and Rosa Parks were among the many deserving greats profiled at a black history fair Tuesday at Crispus Attucks Community Center.

Perhaps exhibits on these famous achievers were expected.

And I was familiar with lesser-known luminaries — Air Force Gen. Daniel “Chappie" James, the first black four-star general; Dorie Miller, ship's cook third class, who manned a gun during Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack; and Ben Carson, the surgeon who made history with the succcessful separation of siamese twins.

But I had never heard of aerospace engineer Lonnie Johnson of Los Angeles... .

York's Ellsworth Zouaves, featured in an earlier post, were part of a gala celebration early in the war.

The Zouaves, a flashy military unit, provided a demonstration of close-order drills, as part of Fourth of July festivities in 1862, the first Independence Day celebrated during the war.

"Young and old, male and female, were all apparently baptized anew with the fire of patriotism ... ," The York Republican reported.

The fireworks that evening concluded with the ignition of a large arch, displaying the word "Union," with two large stars on either side.

Later that month, another celebration turned into tragedy... .

One of the monuments vandalized at the Gettysburg battlefield commemorated Pennsylvania’s Zouave infantrymen.

Many folks connect with the Zouaves because of their colorful uniforms — baggy pants and unusual hats.

Early in the war, a Zouave unit emerged from York County. James A. Stahle headed the Ellsworth Zouaves.

Zouave units copied the dress of soldiers fighting in French colonial armies, complete with gaudy uniforms, turbans or fezzes — conical, tassled hats. The York unit wore a colorful Zouave uniform of blue pantaloons and jackets with red and white hats adorend with a blue band.

Zouave units earned reputations for their skills in performing military drills, and Stahle’s men worked hard on their precision exercises.

The Ellsworth unit later formed part of the 87th Pennsylvania, a regiment made up primarily of York and Adams soldiers who fought through war’s end. For more on York County's Civil War history see http://w2.ydr.com/news/eastofgettysburg/

Park service officials estimate that the 500-pound Zouave statue in Gettysburg will cost $8,000 to repair and remount.

A story on the unfortunate damage from the York Daily Record/York Sunday News follows:

“You can spend your whole life in and around York, and never notice Eberts Lane."

That’s how former York Daily Record writer Marianne Clay began her 1994 article on this overlooked York County road.

It’s also one of the York area’s best short cuts.

After Marianne wrote her story on the narrow, winding lane, I took a spin to try it out.

It was a wonderful all-too-brief excursion.

And it gets you from the city to the Galleria area in a matter of minutes.

Indeed, one hesitates to mention it here lest it becomes congested. It’s a little like suggesting that Coombs Tavern on York’s Pennsylvania Avenue has the area's best-tasting, best-priced prime rib — which it does — and then find out that reservation slots are scarce — which they already are.

Eberts Lane, not far from Windsor Park, my previous post, is another of York County’s overlooked treasures.

Marianne’s story below describes the lane so well that we’ll let her take it from here:

Windsor Park, sandwiched between Loucks Mill Road, North Sherman Street and Route 30, is an intriguing part of Spring Garden Township.

It’s easy to drive by the streets leading into the development without even knowing it’s there.

Windsor, Windsor Township, Lower Windsor Township. Windsor Park is at least fourth on the list of best-known Windsors in York County... .

Iron Mike might be one of the smallest of York County’s overlooked landmarks.

Mike’s a little statue — made of iron cast in York – standing guard over the monument of a mounted Union cavalryman in Hanover’s Center Square.

A Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce publication tells about the diminutive dog:

John Hartman’s skyscraper, home of Futer Bros. Jewelers for years, has caused revealing conversations in York since its completion in 1850.

As outlined in the last post, Hartman built a six-story building about three years after former former slave William C. Goodridge completed his five-story Centre Square structure.

John Vincent Jezierski, who wrote the authoritative “Enterprising Images, The Goodridge Brothers, African American Photographers, 1847-1922," indicates that Goodridge purchased property from Hartman in 1845.

So, the two businessmen did business with each other. But perhaps the relationship soured... .

The news that Futer Bros. Jewelers is closing its downtown York store casts a spotlight on one of York’s most historic buildings.

Futer Bros., at the southeast corner of Continental Square, has been located in what has been known as the Hartman Building since the 1930s.

John Hartman built his six-story building on the southeast corner of Continental Square in 1850.

Three years earlier, former slave William C. Goodridge had built his five-story emporium — York’s first “skyscraper" — at the northwest corner of the square.

An often-told story suggests that a competitive Hartman intentionally built his structure a story higher to trump Goodridge ... .

A wire service story on Benjamin Franklin in the York Sunday News included a point of view that justifiably drew the ire of a student of York County history... .

Luther B. Sowers took exception with the story from Jan. 22 indicating that Franklin signed four seminal American documents — The Declaration of Independence (1776), the Treaty of Alliance with France (1778), the Treaty of Paris establishing peace with Britain (1783) and The Constitution (1787)... .

I recently turned a York Town Square post on York’s World War II USO into a column in the York Sunday News.

It drew several responses:

Martha Frankenberry could recall the USO but thought it was across from the South George Street post office.

That would have been the Alcazar ballroom, now Cobblestones.

Large meeting places were in demand during the war, and it’s possible the ballroom was used for large USO dances.

USO activities focused around the old York County Academy on North Beaver Street and the Pennsylvania Dutch Canteen, located in the school’s tiny gym... .

The death of longtime York County Republican Party boss John W. Thompson brings to mind an early test of his leadership.

J.W. Gitt, publisher of The Gazette and Daily in York, declared he would not run advertisements for Republican president candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964.

The newspaper would not run patent medicine, cigarette or alcohol advertising because those products were bad for one’s health.

According to Gitt, Barry Goldwater was bad for America’s health.

The paper was simply being consistent in denying the hawkish Republican ad space...

Still on the topic, raised in an earlier post, on the value of reading.

I've run across two insightful pieces about reading. One study suggests that for every book a typical collegian has read, he or she has viewed 100 films.

No wonder Johnny can’t write.

Then comes college professor Susan Wise Bauer, who cautions in a Mars Hill Audio Journal tape, a kind of audio magazine, against trying to read too many books too fast... .

Jim McCarthy of York remembers inconveniences caused by the old iron bridge that crossed the Susquehanna River between Wrightsville and Columbia.

This was the bridge completed in 1897 and scrapped starting in 1963. It was the fourth bridge crossing the river and the last one sitting on the row of now-abandoned piers still standing in the river.

The bridge was used for railroad and vehicle traffic, but was not wide enough to accommodate both at the same time. When a train crossed, McCarthy recalled, vehicles had to wait, causing sizable tieups.

The trains also kicked up ties and left debris so workers had to police the right of way before the bridge was ready for vehicles... .

In preparing for a March address to our Teen Takeover staff on writing careers, I put in few minutes on the connection between our reading and writing lives.

Reading good writing helps improve our own writing.

I'm going to share the books in my current reading stack with the teen staff -- about 20 high schoolers who write for the York Daily Record/Sunday News.

Today, that stack includes: