Editor’s Letter

For years Pennsylvania has been recognized as a seedbed for first-class professional athletes, not the least of whom are the baseball players who have hailed from the state. The names have become legendary — Honus Wagner and Christy Mathewson, Stan Musial and Roy Campanella, Reggie Jackson and Mike Piazza. Among this cream of Pennsylvania’s substantial baseball crop is Dick Allen, who began his Major League Baseball career with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1964 and became one of the greatest sluggers of his time. In previous editions of Pennsylvania Heritage, historian William C. Kashatus has conducted interviews with such baseball luminaries as Pete Gray (Spring 2003) and Mike Schmidt (Fall 1995). Here, in “Wampum Walloper,” Kashatus talks with Dick Allen shortly before his untimely death in 2020 about his early influences, his minor league years, his first stint with the Phillies, his encounters with racism in the 1960s, his later career and return to the Phillies, and the accolades — both received or still impending.

A transportation revolution swept America in the 19th century when, almost overnight, the railroad became the dominant means of moving individuals and freight from one place to another. No other state was more significant to the industry’s rise than Pennsylvania. In 1829 the first full-size steam locomotive ran in Honesdale; in 1832 Baldwin Locomotive Works, soon to be the world’s largest commercial manufacturer of steam locomotives, opened in Philadelphia; in 1846 the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) was chartered and by 1882 was the largest corporation in the world. Understandably, many Pennsylvania towns attributed their economic growth and cultural development to the presence of the railroad in their localities. In “The Battle of Lancaster Station,” transportation historian Dan Cupper traces the long struggle — from the 1890s to the 1920s — of the citizens of Lancaster to persuade PRR to replace an 1860 train station at the same place within the city rather than locate it at a less congested area outside municipal boundaries, deftly illustrating how important rail travel and services had become to a community’s identity by the turn of the century.

Pennsylvania is replete with beautiful natural areas that became popular summertime destinations where small cottage communities and camps were built for vacationing families in the years following the Civil War. Two major movements arose in America at that time that became associated with these woodland sanctuaries: the camp meeting, typically a Protestant religious retreat in which participants camped at a particular site for several days, either in tents or cottages, and attended services and prayer meetings, sometimes in a tabernacle on the grounds; and the Chautauqua, an educational and cultural event, held either in a cottage community or in a makeshift part of a town where tents were set up, in which campers attended programs with lecturers and entertainers. In “Summering at the Cottage,” public historian and museum administrator Peter S. Seibert focuses on the Pennsylvania story of these gatherings, taking us across the state to several camp meetings, such as Mount Lebanon and Herndon; Chautauquas, like those at Waynesburg and Westfield; both types of camps at Mount Gretna; and the related spiritualist Camp Silver Belle in Ephrata.

In PHMC news, the Pennsylvania State Archives — now marking its 120th anniversary — is currently moving to its new home, a recently constructed, state-of-the-art building at 1681 North Sixth Street in Harrisburg. Be sure to read our interview with State Archivist David Carmicheal in PHMC Highlights to learn all about the new facility and the many services it offers.

Kyle R. Weaver
Editor