Lancaster County: Diversity of People, Ideas and Economy

Posted by John Loose on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lancaster County: Diversity of People, Ideas and Economy When Lancaster County was established on May 10, 1729, it became the proto­type for the sixty-three counties to follow. The original three counties­Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester – were created as copies of typical English shires. The frontier conditions of Ches­ter County’s backwoods, from which Lancaster was formed, presented knot­ty problems to the civilized English­men....
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A Philadelphia Family at the “Centre of the Universe”

Posted by Kathleen Greulich on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Philadelphia Family at the “Centre of the Universe” For forty years after the Civil War, a Victorian home on South 21st Street in Philadelphia was con­sidered “The Centre of the Universe” by its promin­ent residents and their visitors. American writers and actors were drawn to this cultural center by the talented parents of Richard Harding Davis, the flamboyant archetype war correspondent who thrilled readers at the turn of the...
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The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1893

Posted by Fred Long on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1893 Six-year-old Harry Snyder had slept fit­fully and awoke at dawn to the first silts of sunlight piercing his bed­room window. He heard the softly muffled rumble of a train descending the nearby mountain. The sound grew alarmingly louder with an ur­gency that sent a chill through the young boy’s body. He leaped out of bed and rushed to the window to see the train gliding around the curve in...
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Fulton County: Where Country is Still Country

Posted by Anne Lodge on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Fulton County: Where Country is Still Country When the first settlers wandered into the Great Cove – a deep basin formed by the southern ranges of the Kit­tochtinny and Tuscarora mountains – they discovered strikingly beautiful valleys, incised with sparkling streams, whose only intrusions were Indian trails and remote pack­ers’ paths. During the two centuries since its settlement, the picturesque mountain ridges and...
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A Brief Brilliance: Pennsylvania’s Early Automakers

Posted by Louis Schafer on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Brief Brilliance: Pennsylvania’s Early Automakers Many Pennsylva­nians, born near the turn of the century, grew up during the infancy of the auto­mobile. Their earliest memo­ries, quite often, were from the seemingly far-removed horse­-and-carriage era, a world of dusty roadways, wooden hitching posts, watering troughs and musty stables. It is literally impossible for a young American, born into today’s fast-moving world, to appreciate...
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Pennsylvania’s First Television Station: “Loving What We Were Doing”

Posted by Linda Kowall-Woal on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania’s First Television Station: “Loving What We Were Doing” No champagne corks popped at Philadel­phia’s old Philco plant on October 17, 1941, to celebrate. The achievement failed to rate even a few lines in local newspapers as reports of the increasingly grim drama unfolding in Eu­rope took chilling precedence. Like so many of the seemingly minor events that herald major changes in our way of living, America’s first commercial network...
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Crawford County: Welcoming the 21st Century

Posted by Anne Stewart on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Crawford County: Welcoming the 21st Century We passed over some good land since we eft Venango, and through several extensive and very rich meadows, one of which, I believe, was nearly four miles in length, and consid­erably wide in some places. Twenty-one year old George Washington, who would in time become a major landholder and land specula­tor, described Crawford County in 1753 as he carried a dispatch demanding the com­mander of the...
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A Salute to the Bicentennial of the Keystone State

Posted by Philip Klein on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Salute to the Bicentennial of the Keystone State The current Bicentennial celebration commemorates not the birth of the United States, but the proclama­tion of thirteen British-American colonies that were “free and independent states” as of July 4, 17.76. When they formed a loose compact in 1761, their articles of confederation declared that “each state retains its sover­eignty, freedom and independence.” The...
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Historical Sketch of Greene County

Posted by Louis Waddell on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Historical Sketch of Greene County Greene County lies in the southwestern corner of the state. Its many hills, the distinguishing feature of the countryside, grow more pronounced as one travels from the eastern to the western areas. The old Washington Waynes­burg Railroad, traveling through the hills, was famous for its 178 sharp turns, each of which jolted the passengers. There were some who took the trip just for the roller...
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Ernest: Life in a Mining Town

Posted by Eileen Cooper on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Ernest: Life in a Mining Town In 1904, the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company began deep mining in Ernest, Pennsylvania. In 1965, the industry there came to an end. Between these two dates, people lived out their lives in this small community northwest of Indiana, where for over sixty years every facet of existence revolved around the digging of coal from the hillsides surrounding the town. But what was life like in a...
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