Daniel J. Flood, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this week's quest, I do want to share something of historical interest with my readers. My acquaintance Mary, who manages the Facebook account Photos of the Lehigh Valley, is as passionate about preserving local history as many of us here. She has established a petition to try to save the farm which once belonged to Rev. Abraham Blumer. If that name sounds familiar, it may be because I wrote about him a few years ago; he was one of the courageous farmers who smuggled the Liberty Bell out of Philadelphia and into Allentown for safekeeping. His farm along Lehigh County's Jordan Creek has been neglected and is in danger of being demolished, but we're hoping it can be preserved and restored for use as an educational site. If you'd like to help us with this goal, please check out Mary's petition by clicking here and adding your name.

On with the blog post, then. This week I'm heading up to scenic Luzerne County, which I've not visited in quite some time, to learn about a man whose claims to fame include controversy, folk heroism, and one extraordinary mustache.

Millersville University, Millersville, Lancaster County

I ended up skipping last week's post mainly on account of the weather. My longtime readers may remember that as someone with multiple chronic medical conditions, I tend to be at the mercy of the weather, and the subzero temperatures which have plagued Pennsylvania in recent weeks have really done a number on me. Fortunately, this week things are much more normal for the time of the year, so I can be more myself again.

Speaking of being myself, Zenkaikon is looming next month as it always does. I'll be making three history-themed presentations, and I'm really looking forward to sharing all of them. I think the one about samurai warriors visiting the White House during James Buchanan's presidency will be the most interesting (one of the warriors had a crush on Buchanan's niece!) but hopefully they will all be good, and if they're made available on YouTube I'll be sure to provide links for anyone interested.

In the spirit of the annual trip to Lancaster, we're heading for that county in this week's quest, thanks to some guest photography from one of my fellow congoers. I think this might actually be my first Lancaster County post set outside of the city of the same name. If you've ever heard of a "normal school" and wondered what it was, we're going to answer that question.

Gnadenhütten, Lehighton, Carbon County

As promised, after last week's unusual post, it's back to business as usual. I had hoped to finish my Carbon County book last October, but life has a tendency to get in the way. Between work, health, weather, and the holidays, I haven't gotten it done. But it's almost done. I have two chapters and an afterword left to finish, plus some tweaks I want to make to the finished chapters, and I'm hoping to get it wrapped up in the next few weeks.

So when I was trying to decide what to write about this week, I took a poll on the blog's Facebook account asking if people would rather have a new quest or another sneak peek at the book. It was a close call (things were in a dead heat even when I woke up this morning), but the tie finally broke with one last vote to do a sneak peek. 

The original post about Gnadenhütten remains one of the most popular I've ever done, and I'm extremely proud of how I've fleshed it out in the book. I won't share the entire chapter, but here's a look at some of the detailing, including an image I've never before shared on this blog.

I'd Like to Go Back to Living in Precedented Times, Please

No quest this week. I have something else I feel called to say. I need to get it out there and then next week we can go back to the markers. Please note that the opinions stated in this post (and every post, unless otherwise noted) are entirely my own and I do not claim to represent the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, nor anyone else, when I express them. Thank you.

Abraham Lincoln, Harrisburg, Dauphin County

I probably don't need to tell very many of you this, but it is cold here. We had several inches of snow dumped on us this past weekend, followed by two days of single-digit temperatures, and they're predicting an extremely bad snowstorm for this coming weekend too. I'm already expecting to call out of work on Sunday, since as of right now the snow is projected to start sometime Saturday night and not stop until sometime on Monday. Currently my plans for the event involve soup, cats, computer games, and maybe a little crafting - basically not a whole lot of movement.

For now, though, let's visit a different winter. This blog post is going to be on the relatively short side, because I'm not finding a great many sources about it, but it's nevertheless very interesting and worth examining. While he was on his way to be inaugurated as President in 1861, the great Abraham Lincoln had a stop in our capital city and gave two speeches - one short, one longer.

Portland Cement, Lehigh and Northampton Counties

My thoughts today are with two friends who are in the hospital; one of them I won't name out of respect for their family's privacy, but the other (who is quite open about it on his social media) is the Hometown Historian. Jon's always been a good friend to this blog, so please keep a good thought for him as he undergoes a difficult but necessary procedure.

I'm having trouble getting this week's blog post started through no particular fault of my own. No, it's the children who are to blame - my two younger cats, Kashi and Sashi, are living up to the nickname my friend Rachel gave them. She calls them "the chaos babies" and they keep trying to sit on my laptop keyboard. This is making it difficult to write, because I keep having to fix the 'additions' they're making to the post. But the history must go on, I suppose.

For this second quest of 2026, I'm staying relatively close to home and looking at the background of one of the Lehigh Valley's resident industries. I already touched on it quite some time ago, when the blog was still pretty new and I still lived within walking distance of the First Cement marker. The blog and I have since moved elsewhere, but then again, so has the cement industry.

Wyoming County

Happy New Year!

It's only been a week since we bade farewell to 2025, but the weather has made it feel like much longer. Today isn't so bad, nor was yesterday; the previous several days, however, with their painfully low temperatures and biting winds, were another story. I was not built for winter and have not been feeling my best.

Still, I'm here and I'm looking forward to a new year of blogging. It's going to be a busy one, with the books and other important things happening. The country is turning 250 years old! Naturally, Pennsylvania is a big part of that, so I'll be doing my best to participate where I can.

But for today, a blog post. Last summer, as my readers from back then may recall, my emotional support silly man and I took a road trip up north for his birthday, and one of our stops was the seat of Wyoming County. We admired their beautiful courthouse and collected a few markers and here's some of what I learned as a result.