Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor New World Plaudits! I was captivated by the detailed article entitled “New Sweden and the New World – History Lessons from the Morton Homestead” by Sharon Hernes Silverman in the Winter 1999 edition. It treated one of my primary subjects of interest, John Morton (1725-1777). I have an observation about this founding father. Morton is among several signers of the Declaration of...
read more

Rediscovering the People’s Art: New Deal Murals in Pennsylvania’s Post Offices

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Rediscovering the People’s Art: New Deal Murals in Pennsylvania’s Post Offices On a February morning in 1937, artist George Warren Rickey (1907-2002) and a group of four men met at the post office in Selinsgrove, Snyder County. Armed with cloth-covered rolling pins, the men attached Rickey’s mural entitled Susquehanna Trail to one of the lobby’s end walls. After six hours, they transformed the entire blank white wall, from marble wainscoting to ceiling, into a...
read more

Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost The Middle Creek Hydroelectric Dam, located three miles south of Selinsgrove, in eastern Snyder County, a significant example of a timber crib dam and small electric generating station, was typical of early rural electrification efforts in the United States. It was also a major component of a plan to modernize and promote an economically depressed area. George W. Wagenseller, a resident of...
read more

When the Susquehanna River Was Pennsylvania’s Flour Highway

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on When the Susquehanna River Was Pennsylvania’s Flour Highway The flour trade industry in the Susquehanna River watershed is one of the lesser known stories in Pennsylvania’s history, but it is among its most significant sagas. Millers were among the first tradesmen to arrive in the New World to sustain the settlers. The Keystone State’s rich farmlands produced abundant flour for local and regional markets with a consistent surplus for export to foreign...
read more

United Brethren Church, Mechanicsburg

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on United Brethren Church, Mechanicsburg “X Indicates my home,” wrote C. K. on a postcard, post- marked August 18, 1909, depicting the United Brethren Church in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, to a Miss Hazel Sterner of Selinsgrove, Snyder County. “This is the church I attend. This is located along the trolley line to Harrisburg and near the center of town. I have lived here 20 years and am used to it. Mabel sends her regards.”...
read more

This Is a Beautiful, Bountiful Earth: Joseph Trimble Rothrock and the Preservation of Penn’s Woods

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on This Is a Beautiful, Bountiful Earth: Joseph Trimble Rothrock and the Preservation of Penn’s Woods The lush, verdant woodlands characteristic of Pennsylvania’s landscape are almost entirely second-growth forests, in existence roughly for less than a century. Had it not been for the groundbreaking work of many conservationists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Keystone State’s present terrain would be dramatically different. One of the most important of those...
read more

Letters

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters Better And Better Your very fine magazine just keeps getting better and better. I wasn’t sure how you would handle this year’s theme [“William Penn’s Legacy: Religious and Spiritual Diversity”], as I had my doubts how you could tackle such a huge topic, but you did it beautifully. The articles are balanced, timely, and relevant. Joe Martin Erie, Pa.   Our First...
read more

Past, Present, and Future at PHMC

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Past, Present, and Future at PHMC I should have written at the launch of this regular department for Pennsylvania Heritage, which debuted in the Summer 2011 edition, that there would be some experimenting with how to best capture the feel of Trailheads, a blog I write weekly. In the previous issue of the magazine, I took an in-depth look at Drake Well Museum’s renovation project, which had been covered in small bites on the...
read more