Columbia County is Diversity

From the time of the earliest settlements during the Revolu­tionary War era to the present day, Columbia County has been three sepa­rate neighborhoods-the southern re­gion (Catawissa and Centralia); the northern area (Benton and Millville) and the north bank of the Susquehanna River (Bloomsburg and Berwick). They are distinguishable by varied physical environments, ethnic origins and social...
read more

McKean County: Where the Gold is Green

The great gold and silver rushes of the late nineteenth century to places such as the Black Hills, Colorado, Arizona, California and Alaska have long been hailed in story and song for their excite­ment, riches and heartbreak. But, the rush for “green gold” to McKean County during the same century was equally or more exciting. First, there were the forests – immense forests of...
read more

Northampton County: From Frontier Farms to Urban Industries – and Beyond

Sweeping across southcentral Pennsyl­vania lies the Great Valley and nestled in its northeastern corner is mod­ern Northampton County. Bordered on the east by the Delaware River, on the south by South Mountain and the piedmont, and on the west by the valley of the Lehigh River, the three hundred and seventy-two square mile re­gion is one of gently rolling hills and wooded valleys, with...
read more

Perry County: A Sportsman’s Paradise

Despite its proximity to Pennsylvania’s bustling and heavily urbanized capital city, Perry County remains a sportsman’s placid paradise with its thickly forested moun­tains and lushly verdant val­leys. Much like its neighboring counties – Franklin, Cumber­land, Juniata and Dauphin­ – Perry County claims a topogra­phy that is neither unique nor unusual: its mountains give...
read more

A Welsh Community that United in Song

With the development and expansion of the northern anthracite fields in the 1840’s, many ethnic groups flooded the region. Transporting their various customs to the Wyoming Valley, these groups formulated the social structure of the area from their traditions. One of the most significant of these traditions was music. George Korson, in his Minstrels of the Mine Patch, dis­cussed the ethnic...
read more

Letters to the Editor

Filled the Bill I appreciated the article entitled “Against All Odds: Chevalier Jackson, Physician and Painter” in the summer 1992 edition. Following a double mastoid ear operation at the age of seven, I moved with my family to Philadelphia in 1924, and my mother and I commuted at least weekly for ear treatments from Dr. Arthur J. Wagers, a friend and colleague of Dr. Jackson. It was...
read more

Bookshelf

The Lincoln Highway by Brian A. Butko Stackpole Books, 1996 (321 pages, paper, $16.95) Established in 1913, the Lincoln Highway became the first automobile roadway to cross the United States. It stretched east from New York’s Tunes Square to San Francisco at a time when rural roads were little more than rutty wagon paths. The Lincoln Highway Association was organized “to procure the...
read more

Bookshelf

Connie Mack’s ’29 Triumph: The Rise and Fall of the Philadelphia Athletics Dynasty by William C. Kashatus McFarland & Company, Inc., 1999 (216 pages, cloth, $28.50) To baseball historians, Connie Mack (1862-1956) is a star among managers. His professionalism, penetrating knowledge of the game, and ability to handle his players helped him claim nine pennants, win five World...
read more

British Images of War at Brandywine and the Tredyffrin Encampment

Two hundred and twenty-five years ago, on fateful September 11, 1777, one of the largest and most important engagements of the American Revolution took place in southeastern Pennsylvania. It was the Battle of Brandywine, a crushing defeat for the American side. Although British and Hessian engineers delineated several maps of the battle immediately afterwards, until recently no contemporary...
read more

Baseball’s One-Armed Wonder: An Interview with the Late Great, Pete Gray

On Sunday, May 20, 1945, thirty-six thousand spectators packed Yankee Stadium, in the Bronx, for a doubleheader that pitted the New York Yankees against the defending American league champions, the St. Louis Browns. The Yankees, who had finished in third place in the previous season, six games behind the Browns, had something to prove that afternoon. Even though the World War II had stripped...
read more