Pennsylvania’s War Governor

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania’s War Governor On September 14, 1862, Pennsylvania’s Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin invited the governors of the northern and border states to a meeting to be held at Altoona, Blair County, in ten days. The purpose of the meeting that became known as the Loyal War Governors’ Conference — or, simply, the Altoona Conference – was to “take measures for a more active support of the government’s prosecution of...
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Cumberland Willis Posey Sr., Entrepreneur

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Cumberland Willis Posey Sr., Entrepreneur Cumberland Willis Posey Sr. (1858-1925) never let his circumstances define him; instead, he turned them into opportunities – not just for himself but also for his community. Born on August 30, 1858, to former slaves Elizabeth Willis Posey and Alexander Posey, he grew up in Port Tobacco, Maryland. His mother died when he was seven years old, and his father, a minister, moved the family to...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Building Harrisburg: The Architects and Builders, 1719–1941 by Ken Frew published by the Historical Society of Dauphin County and the Historic Harrisburg Association, 2009; 396 pages, cloth, $75.00 Ken Frew spent thirty years researching and writing Building Harrisburg: The Architects and Builders, 1719–1941, and the investment of time and effort, as well as considerable talent, has resulted in...
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Star of the West, Tent No. Six

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Star of the West, Tent No. Six A national organization of African American women, the Grand United Order of Tents, J. R. Giddings and Jolliffe Union, was founded in 1847 and named for Congressman Joshua Reed Giddings (1795–1864), of Ohio, and his law partner, prominent abolitionist John Jolliffe (1804–1868). Today, the organization aids education and medical research and provides housing for the elderly, but an early goal was...
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Louise Tanner Brown, Businesswoman

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Louise Tanner Brown, Businesswoman Like many women born in the late nineteenth century, Louise Tanner Brown (circa 1883–1954) was educated and trained for cottage industry work, a variety of home-based businesses that included sewing, laundry, cleaning, beauty care, and hairdressing. Cottage industries were especially important in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,...
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Marking Pennsylvania’s African American History

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Marking Pennsylvania’s African American History Charged with collecting, preserving, and interpreting more than three centuries of the Keystone State’s history and culture — as well as millions of years of its prehistory — the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) has launched a number of widely acclaimed, innovative, and popular public history programs over the years. One of its most popular is the state historical marker...
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Remembering Place: Black National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Remembering Place: Black National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania The National Historic Landmarks (NHL) program was established by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and refined by amendments to it in 1980. The federal law requires the U.S. Department of the Interior to certify the historic authenticity of NHLs based on strident criteria, including association with events, people, and great ideas; distinguishing characteristics in architectural or...
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Our First Friends, the Early Quakers

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Our First Friends, the Early Quakers Armed with a charter granted by England’s King Charles II, William Penn (1644-1718) and one hundred travel-weary Quakers arrived in the New World aboard the Welcome on October 27, 1682, with the intention of establishing the founder’s “holy experiment,” a colony that would be free of the religious persecution they suffered abroad. Once safely docked in the Delaware Bay at...
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Rev. A. W. Tozer

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Rev. A. W. Tozer Theologian, lecturer, and writer Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897–1963), a preacher known as a twentieth-century prophet to millions of followers by more than forty books, including Christian classics The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy, was born in La Jose, later renamed Newburg, a farming hamlet in western Clearfield County, twenty-two miles southeast of the county seat of Clearfield....
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Lorenzo L. Langstroth

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lorenzo L. Langstroth Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth (1810-1895) was a minister and school principal who took up beekeeping as an antidote to debilitating periods of depression. As a young child, he had keenly observed the habits of insects, an interest that ultimately earned him the unchallenged title of Father of American Beekeeping. Born in Philadelphia on December 25, 1810, the young Langstroth was reputedly scolded...
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