About this blog
I've been editor of the York (Pa.) Daily Record/Sunday News for 8 years and managing editor of the newspaper for 15 years before that. So, York Town Square explores the rapidly changing world of journalism. And I studied York/Adams' history in graduate school, have written six books about these fascinating southcentral Pennsylvania counties and serve on the York County (Pa.) Heritage Trust board. So, this blog deals with regional history. Often, journalism and history meet here. They're part of a continuum anyway. My hope is that this site intrigues readers on both accounts in giving a daily dose of journalism/history. Or history/journalism. Contact me at jem@ydr.com or become friends on Facebook or follower on Twitter, @JamesMcClure.
Monthly Archives: May 2010
Mount Wolf’s Centennial Summer calls for 3-month party in that northeastern York County town
Lester Hagelgans was among the Mount Wolf, Pa., VFW post members who participated in Memorial Day activities in 2008. Such ongoing participation in community life maintain a strong sense of community in Mount Wolf. Also of interest: Susquehanna Lions fight … Continue reading
About Delta, Pa., VFW post’s name: ‘The story of John S. Murphy is representative of the cost’
Mari Morgan, left, who grew up in Wales, listens to Don Robinson talk about the interior of a Welsh quarrymen’s cottage in Coulsontown, Peach Bottom Township in this York Daily Record/Sunday News files photo from 2007. The cottages, built around … Continue reading
Christmas in June? Yes, that’s part of 150th events in southern York County’s Glen Rock.
For months, the Glen Rock Sesquicentennial Committee has been raising funds for the borough’s 150th anniversary celebration by issuing souvenir wooden nickels commemorating important aspects of the town’s history. The nickels have featured the Glen Rock Carol Singers; William Heathcote, … Continue reading
Motorists move through Kreutz Creek settlement, one of York County’s earliest, missing its history
York County’s Dianne Bowders submitted this photo of the Kreutz Creek area in eastern York County. She noted that this Hellam Township site near the Kreutz Creek Presbyterian Church is one of the first settlements of European pioneers west of … Continue reading
Talking machines in York County, Pa., contrast old and new
If machines could talk? York County, Pa., folks imitated, or tried to imitate the New York Wire factory steam whistle in this video. A sister to that famed whistle gave a short blast marking the noon hour at the “If … Continue reading
How did York County’s Taxville get its name, and who would want to go to a place so named?
A York County, Pa., scene West Manchester’s Taxville Road separates agricultural land from homes and businesses in this 1998 photo from the York Daily Record/Sunday News. The crossroads hamlet of Taxville rests at the intersection of Baker and Taxville Roads. … Continue reading
‘The Snakehead’ offers one-stop reading about human smuggling, the people of the Golden Venture
‘The Snakehead,’ (cover here from publisher Random House’s site) tells about the people of the Golden Venture, part of the story of human smsmuggling that touched York County in the 1990s and is still remembered by some here. Patrick Radden … Continue reading
Linked in with neat York County, Pa., history stuff: Hoke one-room schools – May 23, 2010
Southwestern York County one-room school This is the old Hoke one-room school in the Menges Mills area. Built in 1907, it is a private residence, the dominant use today of former one-room schools dotting the York County countryside. At least … Continue reading
York County murder largely forgotten, but not by victim’s daughter who witnessed it
York County, Pa., slaying, manhunt This graphic tells the terrible story of Theodore Gotwalt’s murder of his girlfriend Marian Flaharty in her York, Pa., apartment in April 1971. See the York Daily Record/Sunday News video below story about the deceased … Continue reading
