May 2007 Archives

York newspaper publisher J.W. Gitt earned a widespread reputation for his endorsement of Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace in the 1948 presidential election. Artist Walt Partymiller put Gitt's liberal political views into Page 1 cartoons. For an additional look at Partymiller's work, see cartoons.

"J.W. Gitt suggested that his writers adopt a straight-forward news writing style. The King James Bible and Abraham Lincoln’s speeches contained such writing."

That's how I began my blurb for the dust jacket of Mary Hamilton's soon-to-be-published biography of J.W. Gitt, liberal, long-time owner of The Gazette and Daily in York. (I've helped edit the hardcover book, and I'm with the successor to Gitt's newspaper, so publisher York County Heritage Trust asked me to weigh in.)

I continued: ...

Monica Goodling, a graduate of Northeastern High School, is at the center of an international story. Background posts: Monica and 'The Bachelor' , Clinton, Obama at Messiah College: Still stopping short of stepping on county soil, About Monica Goodling: 'She'll come through this.'.

Well, we've established in the York Town Square posts on the long trumpeter at the Preakness, the woman who won "The Bachelor" and the mayor of Braddock, Pa., that all roads lead to York County.

Now, today, Monica Goodling, a former York Haven-area resident, is in the public spotlight for her testimony under immunity in the firing of federal attorneys.

Goodling might have lived for years in York County, but she left a light footprint here.

"Doctors say Lincoln had severe smallpox when he delivered Gettysburg Address," the headline on the AP story read.

That seemed like old news.

I checked and it was.

Gettysburg physician Bradley R. Hoch explored Lincoln's illness in his "The Lincoln Trail in Pennsylvania", published in 2001. And he involved York County's Hanover Junction in his explanation.

As Lincoln was returning to Washington, D.C., via Hanover Junction, he waited for a connecting train. Hoch wrote:

Dover's Bill School, shown here with his long trumpet, played "Call to the Gate" at the Preakness in May 2007. For a full story on the trumpet player, see below. Background posts: Artist Jeff Koons came back to York for a show and York County has produced star NFL players.

Remember that recent post about how York County people seem to regularly make the national news or are tied to big-time events?

Well, we have some more such links ...

Don Robinson of Delta's Old Line Museum is seen near one of four remaining cottages built by Welsh quarrymen. (For additional photographs, see below.)

The YDR's Melissa Burke and Paul Kuehnel recently wrote about and photographed the rebirth of the nearly dead southeastern York County village of Coulsontown.

Fourteen years ago, the YDR's Marianne Clay painted the town, near Delta, before this "renaissance." So, here goes the story of another of York County's unsung landmarks (search for "unsung" on this blog and you'll discover the others):

Louisa and Anna Berger, shown in this York County Heritage Trust photograph, were members of a widely known family musical troupe in the 1800s.

June Lloyd's Sunday column "The musical young Bergers" told the story of a then-prominent, but now-little-known musical group with roots in York County - the Bergers.

That 19th-century group later featured an pioneering woman saxophone player after the Civil War. And one of the Bergers played the coronet.

June wrote:

A typical Seven Valleys-area ice cream plant, complete with factory store.

Every time I read Armand Glatfelter's history of Seven Valleys, I peruse the section covering the burgeoning ice cream industry in that area in the 1800s.

Why Seven Valleys?

That area had dairy cattle.

It had streams that could be dammed to harvest ice in the winter for making ice cream the next summer.

And it had the Northern Central Railroad (See the Great Watermelon Train Wreck). The Northern Central Railroad that ran to an eagerly awaiting market in Baltimore.

And it had enough people to rake leaves.

Large amounts of leaves and sawdust were needed to insulate the ice taken from the frozen waterways against the summer heat. So, laborers took the woods in the fall to rake piles and piles of leaves.

A previous York Town Square post detailed several monumental historical York County events occurring in late June.

Congress' departure from York County in 1778 was one. The Confederate Army's invasion in 1863 was another.

Now, we've discovered two more... .

John Fetterman is mayor of the Pennsylvania steel town of Braddock.

He's also a Harvard-trained lawyer.

He's also a York County native.

York countians are everywhere. We have our national celebs and athletes and politicians.

Neighborhood kids play in the Salem Square park as the renovated statue of a Civil War soldier looms in the background. For a photograph of the headless statue after it was damaged by high winds, see below.

The restoration of Salem Square's statue in York intrigues for at least three reasons.

First, the statue offers a two-fer. It shows a Civil War soldier but celebrates the York Rifles unit's involvement in both the American Revolution and the War Between the States.

That unit was an early responder in both wars. Its members marched to Boston to join George Washington's forces in the seige of that city in 1775. And the unit guarded the Northern Central Railroad within hours of the Confederate firing on Fort Sumter... .

Searchers look for the body of 16-year-old Nicole Barlow among rocks exposed by the lowering of the Susquehanna River. Her body was later found under the Norman Wood Bridge.

Efforts to recover the body of a teen who drowned after going over Holtwood Dam on the Susquehanna River puts public focus on that structure and its impoundment.

Nicole Barlow's body was found today under the Norman Wood Bridge after water levels downstream from the dam were lowered.

I explained an easy way to remember Holtwood's location in a previous post, in case you missed it.

Edwin and Delma Rivera

The York Daily Record/Sunday News is running a four-day series on Latinos in York/Adams and surrounding counties.

It is focusing on the second generation of Latinos to live here, a fast-growing segment of the American population.

When did the first generation start coming of age in York County? The following excerpt from "Never to be Forgotten" and a subsequent story on the death of pioneer Dr. Edwin Rivera provide some insight.

Historic York's Barb Raid has put forth some more details in response to a reader's question about why some old German houses have two doors.

She pointed to her agency's National Register of Historic Places nomination of McCalls Ferry Farm in Lower Chanceford Township.

"The c. 1799 farmhouse on this property is one of the very earliest in York County to reflect this design," she wrote.

Her explanation follows:

Carol Ann Wald is researching a line of her Althoff ancestors, believing they came to Hanover from Maryland between 1830 and 1840.

"Samuel and Joseph Althoff established thriving coach-building shops. Joseph Althoff and his family lived and built coaches on Baltimore Street from at least 1840 to around 1900," she wrote.

She's specifically looking for information on coach building in Hanover in this period. She has information from John Gibson's York County history (See Borough of Hanover, Manufactures).

One point I'll make:

Workers from Keystruct Construction labor on the new museum and visitor center at Gettysburg National Military Park. Red metal siding is up on the cyclorama portion of the building, designed to make the center resemble a barn. The longtime Gettysburg Cyclorama painting will be moved to the new center.

A depiction of Pickett's Charge, painted by the same artist who produced the Gettysburg Cyclorama work, has been purchased in North Carolina.

A story in the York Daily Record explains the 376-foot-long painting:

In the York Revolution's first game, starting pitcher Wayne Franklin fires to home plate.

The York Revs opening their first season on May 4, and that created a bunch of firsts.

According to the York Daily Record:

For the first time in nearly 38 years, a team representing York played regular season professional baseball on Friday night.

The York Revolution took the field at The Ballpark at Harbor Yard against the Bridgeport (Conn.) Bluefish in an Atlantic League season opener.

It was York's first pro game since September 1969, when the York Pirates folded after winning the Eastern League title.

Unfortunately, a 12-run sixth inning by the Bluefish - the Atlantic league's all-time winningest franchise - was too much for the Revs to overcome, and York lost, 15-8.

But for now, the result isn't too important, even if York's bullpen blew an 8-3 lead.

To help fans get their fill of Revolution trivia, here are Friday night's firsts in franchise history:

The Four Chaplains, part of the Murals of York program operated by the York County Heritage Trust, is one of 18 large panels on the side of buildings in York. For additional details on this panel, see Murals of York .

The legacy of the Four Chaplains lives on.

First, Newsweek used the heroic sacrifice by the four World War II chaplains as part of its lead-in to a story on the military chaplaincy. The magazine ran a postage stamp depicting York Rabbi Alexander D. Goode and his three colleagues who gave up their lifevests and seats on life boats to their fellow men in uniform and went down with the S.S. Dorchester in 1943.

An article headlined 'Chaplains: The Calm in the Chaos' stated: ...

Loganville's Alan Nelson raises a question that I've often wondered about, too.

Why do some German farmhouses often have two doors?

He's heard a variety of theories: religious reasons, an entrance for extended family and better ventilation.

Lila Fourhman-Shaull, York County Heritage Trust archivist, found a slightly different explanation... .

Mary C. Fisher, seen in the living room of her East Market Street home, arrived at field hospitals in Gettysburg soon after the battle ended in early July 1863. What she saw there shocked even this veteran military nurse.

One more thing about Mary C. Fisher, the seasoned Civil War nurse who helped so many wounded after the Battle of Gettysburg.

She made one of my favorite quotes from history, in describing the concern of York's citizens about the Confederate occupation in late June 1863.

"We knew not how soon might come a signal to unleash the dogs of war in our midst," Fisher wrote, "and give your homes a prey to the invader." ...

Mary C. Fisher cared for the wounded after the Battle of Gettysburg and at the U.S. Army General Hospital in York. She later wrote about her heroic duties in the Philadelphia Times. Here is a clip of her work from the York County Heritage Trust files.

York County's historian Jim Rudisill reminded me of a Mary C. Fisher story that I did not include in a York Sunday News column on the noted 19th-century nurse.

After Mary's death in 1913, her family kept stories alive about the great days that Mary and her husband/county Judge Robert witnessed the rebel occupation of York in late-June 1863.

Daughter, Mary, a youngster at the time, recalled how a rebel officer picked her up as he rode through York and said: ...

WGAL's Kim Lemon and York Daily Record/Sunday News columnist Mike Argento will meet the York County public at 7 p.m., May 9, at the White Rose Room, York Expo Center.

Once a year, folks from the York Daily Record and WGAL 8 hold a town meeting to garner public feedback about how they're doing.

It's an age when even media competitors share resources... .

York County has several connections with Babe Ruth, now pushed to No. 3 on the list of all-time home run hitters.

One of the most direct links involved a native son who played with Ruth's New York Yankees in 1923. He's former Penn State and New York Football Giants' player Henry "Hinkey" Haines. Also, see Did the Babe visit York? and York turned its eyes to DiMaggio.

Here's how "Never to be Forgotten" describes Hinkey: