November 2007 Archives

For decades, Walt Partymiller drew editorial cartoons for The Gazette and Daily, forerunner of the York Daily Record. This is one of his cartoons showing Linus Pauling that is part of a new Web site celebrating the scientist and the International Peace Movement. Background posts: McCarthy probe could not corral J.W. Gitt and Publishing legend Gitt vocal about nuclear power.

Nobel Prize laureate Linus Pauling was a friend and regular correspondent with J.W. Gitt, longtime owner of The Gazette and Daily.

Pauling and Gitt were both peace activists, and Gitt made sure Pauling and his views made their way onto the pages of his daily newspaper in York.

Pauling was profiled in a least three sympathetic Gazette and Daily editorial cartoons... .

Glatfelter makes a multitude of paper products including metallic labels for beer bottles and colored pencils, books and playing cards. Harry Potter books are printed on Glatfelter paper. Background posts: Glatfelter, Morgan Smith head industrial legacy list and Glatfelter, Farquhar, Shipley: Insights from local greats.

Four sons of Spring Grove paper mill owner P.H. Glatfelter II went off to fight in World War II.

William L., a York Corporation employee, did not come back, a plane crash victim. Along with York rabbi Alexander D. Goode, of Four Chaplains fame, W.L. was the most prominent York countian to die in the war.

Three sons came back, P.H. III, Ted and George... .

Scott Mingus takes another look at interesting, often behind-the scenes stories of the buildup and aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg. The books are available at Gettysburg bookstores, the York Emporium and Amazon.com. Amazon.com. Background post: E-mail queries about Confederate invasion .

As Confederate Gen. Jeb Stuart was riding away from Hanover after a day-long battle, he detained a "fat dutchman." The Hanoverian seemed to be counted the rebel horsemen.

We'll let Scott Mingus tell the rest of the story, taken from his new book, "Human Interest Stories of the Gettysburg Campaign, Volume 2:"

The class of 1915 poses outside Cedar Valley School in Fawn Township. Notice that this school, as many southern York County schools, integrated well before the Supreme Court mandated such in 1954. A sizable black population lived in southern York County, sitting on the Mason-Dixon Line. (This comes from the Neal DeVoe collection.) Background post: One-room memories flow from readers' fingertips.

The Stewartstown Area Historical Society's "Yesteryears in Southern York County" is full of 200 or more photos submitted by readers.

And it boasts some unusual human glimpses of that section of the county not always seen in postcard-filled picture books that tend to focus on officials or institutions.

We published a few more photos showing women at play and work below as examples:

YMCA of York members throw beach balls into the old Farquhar Park Pool for the last time in September 2007. Demolition of the old pool is now complete. A sketch of its replacement, the Graham Aquatic Center, is below. Background post: Good grief, how long has that pool been there?

The Boys Club Pool, more recently called the Farquhar Park Pool, is no more - giving way to a new indoor/outdoor pool complex.

But a former Yorker, now living in the Downingtown area and with family members still here, is looking for a picture of the pool of old.

Here's Jill Ruth's request:

Chris Thorn, center, a Dover native and guitar player for Blind Melon, is another national celebrity from Dover. The band reunited to make an album and is now back on tour. Background post: Dominick Argento at top of York County A&E hall of fame.

Of course, Chris Thorn of Blind Melon is another national celebrity from Dover.

In previous posts listing Dover-area such national newsmakers as John "Clarkie" Souza, Cate Reinart (mother of Nick and Drew Lachey), long trumpeter Bill School, Jeff Koons, Part II, Gov. George Leader, weightlifting guru Bob Hoffman, I overlooked Dover Area High School graduate Thorn.

That's a lot of national quality action from one rural area. (Am I missing anyone else?)

Thorn's leading the rebirth of Blind Melon, as recent York Daily Record coverage suggests:

The Samuel Runkle house is shown in this photo from the new publication "Yesteryears in Southern York County." The caption notes that this photograph shows six people. Can you find them? Background posts: Southeastern York County made for Sunday drive and Yesteryears, Part II.

A new book, "Yesteryears in Southern York County," is well worth its $20 cost.

The pictorial book contains more than 200 photos of life from the past in Fawn Grove, Gatchelville, New Park, Stewartstown, Rinely, Cross Roads and Winterstown.

The photos have a lot to say about yesteryears in those parts ... .

Nineteenth-century evangelist Amanda Berry Smith is profiled in a recent book "More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Pennsylvania Women." (For details, see below.) Before the Civil War, her family purchased its freedom, and she resided in York County. Background post: Autobiographies contain valuable golden nuggets.

The historical monument for noted evangelist Amanda Berry Smith is out of the way for most York County travelers.

It's on the by-passed Susquehanna Trail in Shrewsbury. It's not far from the Mason-Dixon Line, the same boundary that spelled freedom for Smith as youngster... .

This map from 'East of Gettysburg' shows the location of various units in Jubal Early's division as his Confederates invaded York in the days before the Battle of Gettysburg. One of his commanders, Isaac E. Avery, directed a brigade that lodged in York for nearly two days. Avery was later mortally wounded in fighting at Gettysburg, and his burial site has reportedly been identified. Background post: Civil War in York County, by the numbers.

The Associated Press has reported that the burial site of Col. Isaac E. Avery probably has been identified in Hagerstown.

The Civil War colonel, temporary head of North Carolina brigade, was mortally wounded in fighting on Cemetery Hill in Gettysburg.

Before Gettysburg, Avery was in York... .

This photograph is part of Dr. Harold Neibert's collection and was taken during his work with Lipizzaner horses during World War II. Neibert helped to rescue the horses in the 1940s. He owns Yorkshire Animal Hospital in Springettsbury Township. Background posts: German POWs: 'They worked cheaper than we did' and York County veterinarian's link to World War II Lipizzan horse rescue captures interest .

Harold Neibert is a vet from York and a vet from York.

He's a veteran of World War II, where he exercised his training as a veterinarian to help bring 40 Lipizzan horses from the former Czechoslovakia to American control.

Some of the Lipizzaner Stallions that perform worldwide today - and in York County recently - may have come from those herded by Neibert, according to the following York Daily Record story:

The Rev. Rene Kinard gives his final prayer after an outdoor baptism ceremony in the stream at the Dover Area Community Park during a Civil War re-enactment church service in 2005. The Dover area loves its history and has made some, too. Background post: York, Cumberland counties longtime companions.

In previous posts, we've seen that Dover borough in York County is more than the hometime of internationally acclaimed artist Jeffrey Koons.

And it's more than home to the celebrated Dover intelligent design trial, brought to public view again recently via "Nova."

I'll get to another noteworthy part of Dover in a minute... .

The Drawbaugh family is another accomplished Dover-area family .

Well, its most prominent member, Daniel Drawbaugh, actually lived in Cumberland County's Eberly's Mills, which isn't exactly Dover.

But give me a little geographical license and look in the phone book at all the Drawbaughs in the Dover area, and you'll see why "The Edison of the Cumberland Valley," can be claimed by Dover and the entire northwest sector of York County.

Inventor Daniel was engaged in legal fisticuffs with Alexander Graham Bell over rights to the telephone, as this story in "Never to be Forgotten" attests:

This October photo shows Dover native Jeff Koons' 'Hanging Heart' on display in New York. Sotheby's recently sold the piece for $23.6 million. Background post: Cameron Mitchell, Craig Sheffer, Dixie Chick born here, Add another celebrity link to Dover, Pa., Artist Jeff Koons came back to York for a show and York County native Jeff Koons' work raises question: But is it art?.

The Dover area certainly has produced more than the landmark Dover intelligent design case.

NFL'er John Kuhn graduated from Dover High.

Dover High grad Scott Strausbaugh won an Olympic Gold Medal in whitewater canoe racing in 1992.

Dover-area's Ray Krone was the 100th death row inmate freed from by DNA testing.

But artist Jeff Koons is Dover's most internationally famous product of this largely rural area.

His sculpture recently brought in $23.6 million at Sotheby's.

Jennifer Vogelsong's York Daily Record/Sunday News story on Koons' accomplishment follows:

Old millstones are now used as a sidewalk to the mill keeper's house on the Biesecker Mill property in Jackson Township. Bob Sholly, auctioneer, is pictured. The mill will soon be remodeled into a condo project. Background post: Pioneering sisters operated York County grist mill.

York County's early mills served a lot of uses.

"A history of West Manchester Township, York County" names a few:

They were tied to agriculture, grinding grain into flour or meal.

They were among the county's earliest businesses.

They served as meeting places.

Towns often formed around or near them.

A recent post here, 3-D image might show Lincoln at Gettysburg, tells about the finding of a coveted stereoscope showing Abe Lincoln just before he delivered his famous address.

And a previous post, York County will long remember Abe's visit here, shows a photo with a similar discussion on whether that's Lincoln at Hanover Junction, where he changed trains to head west to deliver his speech.

Read and see what you think.

For those who want more on York countian John Richter's recent finding, here is a York Daily Record background story, published on Nov. 18, 2007:

Whistle Master Don Ryan practices on the steam whistle in 2006, as Austin Mohn of Manchester Township lends a hand. Background posts: 20 questions and answers to prove your York smarts and Musical factory whistle drowns out N.Y. Wire's WWII feats.

The New York Wire Company's annual steam whistle concert will be a blast again this year.

That is the York-area's iconic concert in which an old factory whistle, with a sliding valve, blasts holiday music. The concerts are even available on CDs. (For additional posts on the whistle, see N.Y. Wire Cloth/Whistle. For a sample of its sounds, find link at: Whistle ... by the numbers).

In a press release, Mark Platts, head of event supporter Lancaster-York Heritage Region, provided a heads up:

Hanover's John Richter has made the news after finding what could be an image of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg in the Library of Congress' digital archives. The man with the top hat is presumed to be Lincoln.

"It certainly looked liked him to me," a headline on Jeff Frantz's York Sunday News story said.

That was the reaction of many after many saw the steroscopes of what is believed to be Abraham Lincoln in Gettysburg.

The full story follows:

The ornate ceiling at the York Water Co. rises above cashier Susan Arnold. The water company formed in 1816, in part, because of Codorus Creek pollution. A section of an early log pipe used by the water company can be viewed at the Agricultural and Industrial Museum in York. Background post: York's Reservoir Hill drips with things to see.

Last post explored the popularity of public transportation even in York County's rural areas - something that has been lost in this day of the automobile.

Well, another point about our past - water pollution - has been with us since our earliest days. And unfortunately has not been lost, even in rural areas.

In 2005, East Hopewell's Muddy Creek Forks celebrated an original engine that ran on the Ma & Pa Railroad many years ago during its Railroad Heritage Day celebration Sept. 24. Locomotives like No. 82 pulled rabbit trains for hunters loaded for game. For details on the locomotive or the railroad line, see www.maandparailroad.com. Background post: Railroading: 'It's something that gets in your blood.'

Fellow history blogger June Lloyd is doing a wonderful job over at Universal York spinning yarns about York's past.

And these yarns have meaning.

In one post, titled Hermits and rabbits she tells about the twice-a-year visit to York by a hermit - Joel Strong - to restore his stash of tobacco.

This kiosk was used as a trolley dispatcher's office in Continental Square in this 1939 photo, near the end of the trolleys' run, which started in 1887. The kiosk, needing extensive repairs, has been in a city shop until funds become available for its restoration. Background post: Trolleys helped make Avenues sought-after locale.

And another thing about York's trolleys.

It's about the kiosk, the trolley dispatcher's office, sometimes called the conductor's station, that adorned the square's northeast corner for years.

In his "Time of the Trolley" paper, Dan Meckley provides some facts:

These 160 steps from the lower level of Highland Park to the upper part were called “Fat Man’s Misery.” The park operated in the vicinity of Dogtown, on the north side of the Codorus Creek, south of Old Salem Road, between Highland Avenue and Hoke Street. Highland is described in “The Gazetter” as a “former recreational park in south eastern West Manchester Township . . . .” A large theater, dance hall, skating rink, merry-go-round, circular swing, penny arcade and numerous refreshment stands operated at the park. Highland Park, along with fellow recreational sites Cold Springs, near Manchester, and Brookside, near Dover, provided riders for trolleys during off-peak times — evenings and weekends. Background post: Speeding trolleys drew criticism.

They were called electric parks because of their illumination by generous numbers of electric lights.

What they did was provide service for trolley companies during times when ridership was low. Many trolley users were going to and from work, often in York's many factories. What to do to promote use of weekends and evenings?

Thus began Brookside, Highland and Cold Springs parks in York County.

The former Highland Park site, a destination point for trolley riders from across York County, is now a quarry. Here, a trolley waits at the park’s entrance. Background post: A village center that up and moved.

Did you know part of the impetus for the electrification of America's trolleys rested with the tendency of horses to become diseased from strain in getting the heavy cars started?

And a single horse deposited 10 to 20 pounds of manure on the street each day.The streets were generally muddy in inclement weather anyway - which fueled ridership - but their condition was not helped by animal excrement.

And trolleys drew their names from the trolley wheel that rolled along the line once the systems were electrified... .

York County's Jeff Bridgman is a former Americana dealer who has become an expert in antique American flags. Background post: To see the American flag in a historic York County moment, see: York County's own Civil War - Part I .

From obscure Franklin Township comes a well-known expert on antique American flags.

Operating out of his northwest York County workshop, Jeff Bridgman is considered the top dealer in antique flags in America.

So what does he think about Betsy Ross's place in history?

Don Lehman rings the bicentennial bell and announces events for the York community's Nine Months in York Town celebration in front of the Colonial Courthouse in 2002. Background post: Who were these congressional visitors to York Town, anyway?

This year marks the 230th anniversary of the adoption of the Articles of Confederation.

Every year, the community gathers at the York County Court House replica - the Colonial Court House - on West Market Street to observe the anniversary of the approval of America's first framework of government.

This year, the York County Heritage Trust-sponsored event is set for 2-4 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 18 and it will be marked by:

This 6-foot-high Ten Commandments monument has stood in Hanover's Wirt Park since the 1950s. In 2003, the marker was challenged in court. The matter was resolved when a non-profit group purchased a 15-foot plot. It is one of several First Amendment cases in York County in the past 50 years. Background post: A refresher on Dover ID case and For years, York countians part of major court cases and Witman murder among York County's most notorious crimes.

Albert Snyder's federal lawsuit against the Westboro Baptist Church covered such issues as privacy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the right to assemble. That all stemmed from the religious group's picketing the funeral of Albert Snyder's son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, the Marine who was killed in Iraq in March 2006.

It was one of many high-profile court cases in York County or involving county residents in the past 50 years that explored First Amendment issues, particularly the freedom of religion clause... .

Col. Paul W. Tibbets, with the B-29 Superfortress bomber the Enola Gay, the plane he piloted in dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on during World War II. Tibbets, who had named the plane after his mother, died recently in Columbus, Ohio. Background post: Publishing legend Gitt vocal about nuclear power.

York countians helped with parts of the Manhattan Project. And at least one York countian saw the destruction wreaked by the second bomb, the one that hit Nagasaki.

Lt. Paul Hyde, a York Corporation employee, was navigating a Coast Guard-manned landing craft that was greeted with a tench as his craft moored in Nagasaki's harbor....

This photograph from Florence La Rose Ames' "That Sovereign Knowledge," shows the Women' Ward at York Hospital around the turn of the 20th century. Parts of the hospital, then located on West College Avenue, serves as an apartment complex today. The hospital moved to its South George Street campus in 1930. Background posts: Yank mortally wounded on ninth day of service and Doctor wrote about oxygen use to aid 'average country practitioners' and Cemetery bears rich Civil War tales.

The U.S. Army General Hospital, the large Civil War hospital located on Penn Park, is a master's thesis waiting to happen.

To my knowledge, no scholarly work has been written on the complex, which operated from 1862 to past war's end. The hospital even had its own newspaper, available on microfilm, so it would be possible to pull together strands into a helpful monograph.

One intriguing piece of that research would be to connect the dots, if possible, between the military hospital and York Hospital, started in 1880.

Some links aren't hard to find: ...

The historical marker explaining York's Penn Park is one of at least nine roadside monuments are missing from York County. Background post: Columnist adds to sense of community .

The Camp Security marker isn't the only one missing along York County's roads.

A York Daily Record states that at least nine are missing from York County. About 200 of the 2,200 markers across Pennsylvania are missing. The number is hard to pin down.

It could be people want these state-owned signs for their rec rooms. Or sell them as scrap.

J. Ross McGinnis portrays Harvey A. Gross in the York County Bar Association's presentation "A Spell to Remember," based on the Hex Trial Background post: 'Powwowing was done for good'.

Jim Hubley, York Daily Record columnist, recently mused about the famous Hex Murder of Nelson Rehmeyer and the subsequent trial of his three assailants.

Hubley called for a repeat of the York County Bar Association's "A Spell to Remember," a 1999 re-enactment of the murder trial. The Daily Record will pick up his call in an upcoming editorial.

Almost in passing, Hubley revealed an interesting moment from that time: ...

WSBA's Ruth O'Brien (right) joins Carly Simon on a couch in the radio station's lobby after singing with Simon in singer's visit to the WSBA/WARM station 2000. Background post: Memories of the Oaks pile up.

Today, old-timers remember the original, now-demolished
WSBA building as the place that 101 Ranch Boys and other stars performed lived the early days of radio.

When WSBA/WARM's station has run its course probably scores of years from now, Carly Simon's visit there in 2000 will likely come to mind... .

My book "In the thick of the fight" described this scene: "Soon after Pearl Harbor, York (Pa.) Corporation President Stewart Lauer stood on a truck bed to tell workers the world was embroiled in a war of ships and machines. And a modern war machine can't keep going without refrigeration. That speech and others in York Corporation's shop marks Yorkco's commitment to stick to the knitting -- cooling and refrigeration equipment for the Allies. Although the company did produce ordnance, the refrigeration it produced -- for example, to preserve food on big ships crossing great oceans -- aided the war effort." And one other project made a difference in the war: Yorkco was involved in the Manhattan Project. Background post: "Little Johnny" called for Allies in World War II and Her words helped win the war'.

The death of Enola Gay pilot Paul Tibbets prompts York County connections to the atomic bomb:

- Jack Yeaple was aboard the U.S.S. Indianapolis when it went down after a Japanese torpedo attack. The Indianapolis had just dropped off atomic bomb parts and was on to another mission. Yeaple was perhaps the last York countian to die in World War II... .

The missing historical marker that marked the spot of Camp Security is missing. The sign stated: 'Stockade built in 1781 by Col. Jas. Wood on land of Daniel Brubaker. British Troops of Burgoyne's army imprisoned here guarded by York County militia. The camp was about a mile to the south.' Background post: Camp Security memories tucked inside memoirs.

The presence of the missing Camp Security marker is a story in itself.

The marker is one of more than 15 American Revolution-related markers dotting greater York.

The prevalance of these markers underscores the area's rightful love affair with its Revolutionary War past. In contrast, the number of markers pointing to Civil War sites is one or two.

It could be three, but a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Web site says that a marker pointing to Gen. Jubal Early's march through the Weigelstown area is also missing.

Thus, these signs can be viewed as artifacts that, taken as a whole, point to the way the community sees itself. That surrender to the invading Confederates in those pre-Gettysburg days of 1863 is long remembered - or maybe intentionally forgotten.

But what is not as easily explained is the dearth of World War II markers... .

"It was Teen Takeover staff versus the middle-aged blogger they secretly call Jimmy Mac.

"Somehow, I - that is, Jimmy Mac - was volunteered into a contest over whether I could "out blog" our entire Teen Takeover staff."

That's how my York Sunday News column Skinny-dipping for readers started describing a blogging contest vs. the entire 25-member - yes, 25- member - teen staff in October.

Could history/journalism ever win out against the unfettered wit from uncluttered young minds?

Members of the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society look on as J. Ross McGinnis gives a tour of the Nelson Rehmeyer house, where the famous Hex murder occurred in 1828. The group is standing over the spot where Rehmeyer was killed. McGinnis is referencing a copy of a photograph of the kitchen depicted after the murder. Background post: Hex book: How powwow doctors plied their craft.