November 2006 Archives

Prostitution in York, in the headlines this week, has made big type of front pages for years. http://www.ydr.com/search/ci_4733139

No time was prostitution in York a bigger problem than during World War II.

Veneral disease outbreaks near military bases and defense plants presented problems on an international scale before and during the war. York County was well supplied with both bases and plants, men away from home and ample women ready to ply the world's oldest profession.

Officials saw a crisis brewing with serious downstream effects: Veneral disease was causing absences in defense plants and military camps, thus hindering the war effort.

In York County, prostitution was taking a different, younger, twist... .

G.A. Mellander and Carl E. Hatch provided this compilation showing Lincoln's loss in York County 1864 presidential voting.


Jeremiah S. Black, former U.S. attorney general and secretary of state, stood before members of the Keystone Club in Philadelphia in 1864.

The respected York resident was on the Democratic stump in the heated election of 1864. Their candidate, George McClellan, was flailing in his bid against Abraham Lincoln's reelection. Much was at stake; indeed, the outcome of the Civil War. According to Jennifer L. Weber's enlightening new book, "Copperheads," the Dems were generally calling for the country to be reunited.

A Lincoln victory would keep the country prosecuting the war.

"As political pamphlets flooded the North, those from the Democrats resorted again to virulently racist argument," Weber wrote.

That was Black's tact in Philadelphia:...

York, Pa.'s artisan Othmar Carli shows off latest restoration project, a 5,000 pound steel safe. Background posts: The bomb: 'And yet it stopped the war', Noted photo archive captures York County treasures, Women's Club of York (another Carli project): 'No one knew it really looked like this' and Othmar Carli: 'Restoration is much better than selling shoes to make a living'.

Was it worth $10,000 to restore a York Safe & Lock-made box to vintage condition?

York County invested that much in its Recorder of Deeds safe. Well-known historical restorationist and York resident Othmar Carli and two others did the work.

The short answer is yes... .

The rebel advance pushed residents west of
the Susquehanna River to Columbia and points east.

York County's Scott Mingus has been working on a got-to-have-for-my-library account of John B. Gordon's campaign to the Susquehanna River in the days preceding the Battle of Gettysburg.

Meanwhile, his booklet detailing human interest stories surrounding the Gettysburg campaign is out and available at
http://www.amazon.com/Human-Interest-Stories-Gettysburg-Campaign/dp/0977712524/sr=1-1/qid=1164508088/ref=sr_1_1/102-1469953-4136120?i and http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780977712526&itm=1

They no doubt will serve as an entertaining and informative warmup to this indefatigable researcher's Gordon book.

And on the topic of stories about the Gordon campaign, I ran across an account in "Pennsylvania Civil War Heritage" that I had not seen before. It was submitted to the magazine by Wrightsville's Dana K. Shirey, whose neighbor had found it in an attic.

Signed "Your Aunt Rachel Bahn," the excerpted letter follows:...

Barnstormer Karl Ort and sales manager Ray Paris used the novelty of aviation to sell their company's cigars.

In the early days of flying, the York-based pair, tooling around in their DeHavilland plane, tossed cigars attached to parachutes to would-be customers on the ground.

This story with an enlarged photograph of Ort and Paris with their Manchester Cigar Co. DH6 is part of a transportation exhibit at the York County Heritage Trust's Agricultural and Industrial Museum. For additional details on the early years of York County aviation, see http://www.yorktownsquare.com/2006/11/post-1.html.

The exhibit tells the rest of the story... .

An Agricultural and Industrial Museum exhibit features a model of York's first airport.

“Air Pirates Attempt to Steal York Plane," the newspaper headline read.

Today, we would call it hijacking, but in the 1930s, it was just a matter of a thief understanding the high value of the airplanes frequenting York’s first airport.

That headline is part of an exhibit of the York Airport, 1930-1937, on display at the York County Heritage Trust’s Agricultural and Industrial Museum. http://www.yorkheritage.org/

The case exhibit, put on display this year, features: ...

In a recent speech marking the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, author and historian Gabor Boritt suggested that only a handful of newspapers recognized the greatness of Abraham Lincoln's speech.

Well, The York Gazette, the leading publication in York County, certainly was not in that hand... .

While interest in organ music has waned, Sam Keeney, seen here at a recent concert, has been steadfast in promoting the instrument.

Organs and their magnificent musical sounds have been losing popularity in recent years, although 250 people came out for a recent holiday concert in York County.

And those who know how to play them well are growing scarce, too.

York County has a long association with the instrument.

David Tannenberg’s famous pipe organ, constructed for York’s Christ Lutheran Church in 1804, is the best-known in the county. It also has the distinction as the instrument of choice at the organ-maker’s own funeral... .

George Hay Kain III

If Yorkshire as in pudding is pronounced york-shur, why isn’t Yorkshire as in Springettsbury Township pronounced similarly instead of the local “Yorkshyer."

And Hayshire should be pronounced “Hayshur."

The man who made these points should know. The family of George Hay Kain III lent its name to Hayshire.

Kain, of the prominent Emigsville-area family, addressed a packed audience attending a Emigsville Heritage Project meeting at the Manchester Township village’s Otterbein United Methodist Church. www.emigsville.org

To hear his talk and that of co-presenter Jim Rudisill, go to http://w2.ydr.com/mmedia.

Kain also told stories about the rebel visit to Emigsville in late June 1863. Here’s another one from my York County Civil War book “East of Gettysburg" ... .

Construction workers recently uncovered this stone arch. York's 1890s-vintage train station is seen in the background.

The stone arched vault uncovered in construction of York’s baseball stadium has drawn lots of interest. http://www.ydr.com/search/ci_4683299

Research is under way on the 3-foot-high arch. Conjecture about uses for the vault or tunnel have ranged from ice storage to a tunnel to deliver coal. (Click on Yahoo group at http://www.trainweb.org/rrofyork.)

One email conjectured that the arch was part of the old railroad station, the predecessor to the 1890s station that has housed Blattner photo business for years... .

Interesting points flew like sharpshooter bullets during an afternoon of activities surrounding the 143rd anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, Sunday, Nov. 19.

Consider:

1. The Battle of Gettysburg was the greatest man-made disaster in American history.

2. Immediately after the battle, 31 surgeons faced a caseload of wounded soldiers numbering 21,000.

3. Abraham Lincoln wrote half of the Gettysburg Address before leaving Washington, D.C., and half at the Wills House, where he stayed in Gettysburg. He likely didn't write it on the train to Gettysburg. (His train passed through southern York County and, after a train change at Hanover Junction, through western York.) He probably wrote a second draft -- the copy he used for his address -- the morning of the speech at the Wills House.

4. Lincoln had a mild case of smallpox during his Gettysburg stay and probably spread it around via scores of handshakes.

5. Only a handful of newspapers immediately recognized the greatness of the speech, and that was still the case two years later as he was eulogized.

6. Edward Everett did his normal captivating job in delivering his two-plus hour speech. In those days, long, eloquent speeches drew large crowds.

7. The aged Everett's bladder problems prompted the pitching of a tent near where he delivered his long speech. It provided him privacy to take care of his needs... .

This is one of the pages from the York Daily Record/Sunday News calendar. See below for artist Stephen Etnier's view of the Susquehanna River at Wrightsville and how to get York County artist Rob Evans book showing art of the river.

York Daily Record/Sunday News photographer Chris Glass gives a topsy turvey view of the Susquehanna River north of Harrisburg in this page taken from the newspaper’s calendar that just became available for purchase for $7.95. http://secure.inyork.com/store/

The calendar features varied scenes of York County and environs by YDR/YSN photographers Glass, Bil Bowden, Jason Plotkin, Kristen Murphy and Paul Kuehnel. (Update in 2008: OK, the calendar is dated, but the photos are a collector's dream.)

Which reminds me of a favorite Bowden story. Just like Glass, Bil was working on an assignment in an open cockpit plane. In the middle of a loop, Bill raised up to the extent his seatbelt would allow to photograph the pilot. In so doing, his pager popped loose and tumbled into a Wellsville field.

I’ve always imagined a farmer harrowing the field and slamming on his tractor’s breaks upon hearing: “Bil Bowden, call the office. Bil, call the office."

In another opportunity to see the Susquehanna from different vantage points, an 80-page soft-cover book, priced at $25, is available showing the Susquehanna as seen by a Wrightsville-area artist Rob Evans and variety of artists throughout history....

Andrew Deems of Lancaster, Ohio, is seeking information on a marriage certificate from 1883.

His edited e-mail queries: “Framed behind glass, very well preserved. The couple were from here in Fairfield Co., Ohio, and married in the same. The certificate was produced in York by the aforementioned. I would just like to find some information regarding Crider and Bros. Publishers."

In researching this question, these are the first five things I would do:

More than humans and petswent to Europe and the Pacific in World War II.

Backup communications was for the birds.

According to "In the Thick of the Fight," the U.S. Army Signal Corps put out a call for homing pigeons, early in the war:

The corps asked the six or more York County pigeon clubs to inventory how many of the county's 6,000 homing birds would be available for military service.

The military considered pigeons an important part of war communication, when other means of sending messages had broken down. The corps also cautioned the clubs about foreign agents intercepting the birds... .

York countian Gary E. Heiland pointed out a curious artifact uncovered during excavation of York’s baseball stadium.
See his letter below:

Arthur Glatfelter lays his hand on the statue of his dog Pal, who served
in the 3rd Marine War Dog Platoon during World War II. The statue
was unveiled during a special Veterans Day presentation.

Philanthropist Art Glatfelter’s goodbyes and hellos with his dog Pal during World War II was touching. http://www.ydr.com/search/ci_4646146 The summary point is that Art went to war and so did Pal.

That relationship will be memorialized for the ages with a Lorann Jacobs’ http://www.yorkblog.com/archives/2006/10/post_69.html statue to sit along the rail trail in York’s downtown.

How pets fare during war is an often overlooked topic.

The following from my World War II book “In the Thick of the Fight" gives a summary:...

Some post-Veterans Day fast facts:

More than 6,000 York County residents served in the American military in World War I.

One hundred and ninety-five residents did not come home.

They served in the Armed Forces or worked in military support roles and died from battle casualties, the Spanish influenza epidemic and other illnesses.

Pvt. William A. Myers, who entered the service at 16, was perhaps the youngest of those who did not return to the farm from Paree. The teenager, killed in front-line fighting, received a posthumous Distinguished Service Cross for valor under fire.

“He was just a boy in years, but he played a man’s part," a historian wrote.

German farm boys were not the only ones to lose their lives... .

Look mom, only one hand. Legendary bodybuilder John Grimek lifts a York Barbell. Grimek scored a ninth-place finish in heavyweight competition in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Everytime you go into John D. Fair's "Muscletown USA" (Penn State Press), you come out with fascinating stuff about York county weightlifting history.

It's one of those books that keeps providing tidbits, even after you've read it. The book focuses around the life and times of weightlifting and bodybuilding guru Bob Hoffman and his legacy company, York Barbell.

For example:

Robert E. McClure III

"Flags of our Fathers" was a compelling movie, as memorable as "Saving Private Ryan."

Two related things stood out in this film based on the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945: First, the film accurately captured the youth of the fighting men. And it gave a glimpse of the pain, fear and danger faced by these young men.

As the son of a soldier seriously wounded on Okinawa, it gave a glimpse of what an 18-year-old fighting on a remote Pacific island faced. And the terror of being wounded. And uncertainties while facing evacuation.

I wrote my father's story in the foreword to my World War II book "In the Thick of the Fight." I repeat it here, as a Veterans Day salute to him and all who have fought in America's wars... .

William Wagner captures York's Centre Square market in 1830.

The York Daily Record’s story on legal graffiti writers offers insight into the world of unconventional artists.

The Writer’s Block program at Crossroads Youth Center in Red Lion gives graffiti artists the opportunity to come off the streets and into the mainstream art world. (See Paul Kuehnel’s video of Writer’s Block at http://w2.ydr.com/mmedia/flv/851/.)

Many artists might not think much of these street writers’ work.

But one wonders what their 19-century contemporaries thought of noted artist William Wagner’s and Lewis Miller’s work. Their drawings were not exactly pleasing to the eye either... .

The Borden's Ice Cream Sign formerly hung outside the Shady Dell.
Now, does anyone have a photo of White Oaks Park?

York countian Derek Shaw, who is interested in all kinds of neat things, is looking for an exterior photo of the main building at White Oak Park in North York.

"It was a big hangout for teens and a venue for many of the local bands and groups of the 1950s and '60s," he said. "I believe the main building was on or near the storage facilities that are now at the top of the hill, above the Masonic Lodge."

Anyone with White Oaks photos or knows the location of such, should contact: bdshaw@lunginfo.org or comment here.

White Oaks was the North York counterpart to the south side's Shady Dell, the Spring Garden Township youth hangout that closed in 1991: ...

York Water Company's then-uncovered reservoirs overlook York in this turn-of-the-century photo. The fountain also is no longer there.

If unsung York Valley Inn is tucked away in the middle of a cemetery, York Water Company's reservoirs are hidden in plain view atop a hill.

Many folks have never been back to the twin reservoirs off Grantley Road, the impoundments that give Reservoir Hill its name... .

If Tom Wolf gains the state treasurer's appointment to replace newly elected U.S. Senator Bob Casey, he will join a line of other York countians who held lofty state and federal government positions.

I listed some of these notables in a previous post but now will add to that list. http://www.yorkblog.com/archives/2005/09/follow-the-lead.html

Jeremiah Sullivan Black served as U.S. President James Buchanan's attorney general and secretary of state. http://www.answers.com/topic/jeremiah-s-black He could not gain appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court because of a hostile Senate on the eve of the Civil War... .

It's probably the most unsung of the unsung historic buildings in York County.

The York Valley Inn, longtime York-area landmark, stands today.

But it's forgotten, tucked into Susquehanna Memorial Gardens cemetery in York Township.

But its overlooked status might change.

Back to that in a moment... .

North Carolinian John Mason is looking for information on an ancestor who might have witnessed the Confederate raid on Hanover Junction in June 1863.

Mason’s great grandfather, John S. Henry, began his career as an apprentice telegrapher at the Hanover Junction station in 1863.

John Trone was the best-known York County telegrapher who fled the Confederate raid or at least the one who left behind the most words about his adventures when the gray-clad troops invaded York County before the Battle of Gettysburg... .

In my York Sunday News column for Nov. 5, I’m telling the story of Voni B. Grimes, as he sets out write his memoirs.

As part of that column, I put together a list of tips for those undertaking large writing projects.

Whether you’re writing your autobiography, family history or some other multi-thousand word treatise, these suggestions might be helpful:

This bungalow was reportedly a leftover building from Camp Security.

J.W. Richley’s memoirs, “Obstacles No Barrier," offers a full tank of information about the advent of the automobile in York County.

But the early-20th-century auto dealer included a wonderful nugget of information in his 1951 autobiography about Camp Security, a Revolutionary War POW compound http://www.yorkblog.com/archives/2006/08/post_50.html ... .

On the York County history trail ...

In a visit near the Springettsbury Township site earlier this year, the green field with a rise to its rear just sparkled.

But the site features another point of interest. I stood near the Schultz house, a multi-story structure that is one of the oldest in York County and certain to be part of any park if preservationists prevail versus the developer.

Its history ran through my mind: ...