Borough council supports preservation of Stewartstown Railroad

(YDR) The Stewartstown borough council is adding its support to the Stewartstown Railroad.
The council submitted a letter to the federal Surface Transportation Board asking it to rule against an application seeking abandonment of the 126-year-old line.
The estate of George Hart, former president of the railroad company, wants to abandon the line so it could foreclose on the property and sell off the assets in order to collect a more than $350,000 debt the railroad owed Hart.
Council president Marsha England said the railroad is a significant part of the borough's history. Continued

The Long Island Express

On September 21, 1938, a Category 3 hurricane nicknamed “the Long Island Express” hit New England. Some 600 people died, and property damage was extensive. One witness described the scene in his Massachusetts community:

By Chrismus! Wasn't that hurricane a lulu? I was settin here readin when I noticed it was gettin so damn dark. I couldn't see… I looked out the winder and saw our big tree going over as easy as you please — not all at once, but little by little. I watched it down and said that I bet the one in front wouldn't go for that was stronger. Then I saw one of our garage doors spinning by the winder and right across the street on to Doctor Brown's lawn. Somehow it got going on its edge like one of them straw hats we used to wear, and it was certainly making time. - Library of Congress

'Goodnight Irene' LEADBELLY (1943)

" Goodnight Irene " (1943)

Cal Rodgers

(Wikipedia) Calbraith Perry Rodgers (January 12, 1879 – April 3, 1912) was a pioneer American aviator who made the first transcontinental airplane flight across the U.S. from September 17 to November 5, 1911, a journey punctuated by dozens of stops, both intentional and accidental. The feat made him a national celebrity, but he was killed in a crash a few months later while exhibition flying in California. Rodgers was born on January 12, 1879 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and later lived in Havre de Grace, Maryland. Continued

Hurricane Agnes

Hurricane Agnes was the first tropical storm and first hurricane of the 1972 Atlantic hurricane season. A rare June hurricane, it made landfall on the Florida Panhandle before moving northeastward and ravaging the Mid-Atlantic region as a tropical storm. The worst damage occurred along a swath from central Virginia through central Pennsylvania to the southern Finger Lakes region of New York, as illustrated by the rainfall map below [above].
Agnes brought heavy rainfall along its path, killing 129 and causing $1.7 billion in damage, with railroad damage so extensive it contributed to the creation of Conrail. At the time, it was the most damaging hurricane ever recorded, surpassing Hurricane Betsy, and it would not be surpassed until Hurricane Frederic in 1979. Agnes was also the only Category 1 hurricane to have its name retired at the time. Continued

1933 Chesapeake Potomac hurricane

(Wikipedia) - The 1933 Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane was the 8th storm and third hurricane of the very active 1933 Atlantic hurricane season. The August storm formed in the central Atlantic, where it moved west-northwest. Aided by the warm ocean waters, the hurricane briefly reached Category 3 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale before making landfall along the Virginia/North Carolina coast as a Category 1 storm.
The hurricane caused severe damage along the East Coast of the United States. The state hardest hit by the storm was Virginia, where the center of circulation passed directly over Norfolk.... In Washington, D.C., the storm produced a storm surge of 11.3 feet (3.4 m), rainfall of 6.18 inches (152 mm) and winds of 50 mph (80 km/h). In Maryland, the hurricane caused $17 million dollars (1933 USD, $230 million 2005 USD) in damage to crops and buildings. The storm also destroyed a railroad bridge heading into Ocean City and created the Ocean City Inlet between the town and Assateague Island. The storm killed 13 people and 1,000+ animals.
On the coast, the storm damaged or destroyed several wharves and fishing piers. In Delaware, the storm caused $150,000 dollars (1933 USD, $2.03 million 2005 USD) in damage but no deaths. Continued

Pinkertons

(LoC) "Group at Cumberland [Maryland], May, 1862. Forms part of the Records of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency."
Allen Pinkerton and his men may have been good at slipping between enemy lines, but they were terrible at estimating the size of enemy forces, oftener than not inflating Confederate troop strength to impossible numbers. General McClellan was a big fan, Abe Lincoln was a big skeptic. After the war, the agency became infamous for its anti-union mischief. - not to mention the firebombing of Jesse James' mother's house.
"In 1917, Frank Little, head of the General Executive Board of the IWW, was lynched in Butte, Montana. Author [and Marylander] Dashiell Hammett, who worked for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency at the time, was offered $5,000 to murder Little. Hammett refused, but Little was subsequently lynched by masked vigilantes, widely thought to be Pinkerton agents. The Pinkerton Agency's role in union strike-breaking eventually disillusioned Hammett and he resigned, but used his knowledge of the agency's history and exploits as material for his novels." - Wikipedia

Durham County, Maryland

(Wikipedia) Between 1669-72, Delaware was an incorporated county under the Province of Maryland. When the Duke of York made use of his charter on behalf of courtier William Penn, through conveyances made by the governor of New York, there was a brief conflict of interest between the Catholic, Tory and whose son was likewise a sometime Jacobite sympathizer Lord Baltimore with their friend the aforesaid Duke, but this was a hard fought court battle subsequently relegated to a proprietary dispute between the Calvert and Penn families, since both were held in favor by both the King and Prince James.
The Mason-Dixon line is said to have legally resolved vague outlines in the overlap between Maryland and Pennsylvania, which pretty much awarded Delaware to Pennsylvania, although Delaware would eventually prove too independent for legislation north of New Castle (as well as that from the southerly Chesapeake Bay), leading to the separation from Pennsylvania and unique pioneer status as America's first state, tied to neither province's destiny. Continued

Photo: Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (Cecil Calvert) by Florence MacKubin (1861-1918)

Let's Go to the Fair!

(LoC) August 22 falls in the midst of the state and county fair season. State and county fairs are an American pastime in the late summer and early fall—a remnant of a cross-cultural tradition rooted in ancient times.
The earliest fairs, such as the great Aztec fair that Spanish conquistadors found on the present-day site of Mexico City, were created to solve problems of distribution. Located along major trade or pilgrimage routes, fairs and festivals provided opportunities for people to demonstrate their skills and crafts, exchange ideas, and barter for goods.
Today, fairs provide opportunities for travel, entertainment, commerce, and socializing, and also play an important role in the social and economic lives of rural Americans. For urban folk, they provide a means of learning about and appreciating rural and agricultural lifestyles. Continued

York time, 200 years old

Identity of Arlington Cemetery remains might rest on Army search for girl in photo

(Washington Post) The girl in the photo is young and lithe, a figure skater in a short blue dress, striking a pose on the ice. She keeps her head high as she arches her back, and her right arm reaches up, like a ballet dancer’s in a Degas painting.
But who is she?
If Army special agents can determine her identity, they believe they’ll be able to solve a mystery that has hung over Arlington National Cemetery ever since a mass grave was discovered there almost a year ago. Continued

Traveling Civil War museum opens at Penn Park

York, PA (YDR) A giant traveling museum dedicated to the Civil War is open this weekend at Penn Park -- a place with a heritage as divided as the country was during the 1860s.
On the one side of history is Penn Common -- home to a hospital during the Civil War, a mustering site for soldiers and once the flowering garden spot of the city. Continued

Also: Civil War experience exhibit continues today (Saturday), Sunday in York

And: Period newspaper shows glimpse of life in York's Civil War hospital

The Burning of Washington

(LoC) On August 19, 1814, during the War of 1812, British troops under the command of Major General Robert Ross and Rear Admiral George Cockburn landed at Benedict, Maryland, on the shores of the Patuxent River.
The British fleet, under the command of Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, had chased U.S. Commodore Joshua Barney's flotilla into the Patuxent River, but the true goal was the capture of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C. — only a few days march away.
At the same time, Vice Admiral Cochrane ordered Captain James Gordon to sail other British warships up the Potomac River towards Washington which was defended only by Fort Warburton (later renamed Fort Washington) on the east bank of the river, twelve miles south of the nation's capital. News of this British onslaught caused panic in Washington and many of its residents fled. Continued

Descendants of Cockey family say house is old, but not historic

(Towson Times) A Cockeysville family is fighting to keep its 160-year-old house off the county's Historic Landmark List after a local community association nominated the property over the family's objections.
Last fall, the Baltimore County Landmark Preservation Committee placed Melrose Farm, at 29 Ashland Road, on its Preliminary Landmarks List on the grounds that the property is connected to the Cockey family, for whom the area is named, and also played a role in the area's Civil War history.
But Lawrence Schmidt, attorney for homeowner and Cockey descendant Christopher Cromwell, disagrees with the inclusion, and at an Aug. 1 County Council meeting said the property doesn't meet the five criteria for county historic landmarks. Continued

'Summer kitchen' ruins found at Dill's Tavern

(YDR) After eight weeks of excavations and countless days spent cleaning artifacts surrounding the historic Dill's Tavern in Dillsburg [PA], ruins of a summer kitchen dating to the 1790s have been exposed.
Steve Warfel, a project leader for the archaeological dig and retired archaeologist from the State Museum of Pennsylvania, said the ruins were discovered last fall by a group of elementary school children.
Since then, a team of professionals and volunteers have continued exploring the site. Continued