2021 Retrospective, 2022 Plans

As my longtime readers know, I wrap up the blogging year in December by looking back at the events and accomplishments of the previous year and talking about what I hope to do in the year ahead. I'm doing it a little earlier than usual for 2021, in part because my work schedule is very heavy; I'm in retail and I'm technically management, so I've been working more hours than usual due to the holidays. To be perfectly honest, I'm having trouble sometimes remembering what day it is! I also have a lot of pain at this time of year, due to my chronic health issues and the cold temperatures basically hating each other, and every opportunity to rest is needed. So rather than potentially mess up my update schedule, I've decided that I'll take the month of December off from blogging, and start fresh in 2022.

2022. That doesn't even sound like a real year, does it?

My final historical project for the year was to create a calendar of some of my favorite images that I've taken in the course of writing the blog. Some of them you might recognize, but others either haven't been shared yet or weren't part of the post about the subject. If you'd like to add some of Pennsylvania's beauty to your office or living space, the details are here.

What are some facts about MarkerQuest™?

Earlier this year I made the transition from blogging every other week to blogging every Wednesday. It wasn't a decision I made lightly, but there are so many markers that if I'm to have a prayer of getting through anywhere close to half of them, I needed to step up my game. The blog now has more than 100 posts, which means we've hit more than 100 markers (since some posts have multiple markers in them). It's a start!

I did get to travel a bit more in 2021 with the restrictions being reduced, so I introduced lots of new counties to the blog - Monroe, Luzerne, Northumberland, York, and Adams Counties all got their first posts. I was also able to add Erie and Beaver Counties, thanks to guest contributions; John Robinson, a retired member of the PHMC, and my own very distant cousin Ron Bauerle both sent me pictures of markers from the far side of the state. I don't know when I'd have been able to add those without their help and I'm very grateful. I also want to thank Mike Korb, who cordially invited me to Wilkes-Barre for the 150th anniversary of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and Larry, from the For the Historian bookstore in Gettysburg. And as always, I continue to appreciate the support of the Historical Marker Database and the PHMC itself. I hope my kind friend Karen Galle is enjoying retirement.

In keeping with tradition, let's see what the most popular posts of this past year have been. Quakertown's Fries Rebellion of 1799 (Bucks County) spent more than two years as my most-read post of all time, but it has finally been edged out by the Moravian Cemetery in Bethlehem (Northampton County). But of the posts actually published in 2021, the ten biggest hits were:

    10) George Taylor, Lehigh and Northampton Counties
      9) Oley Moravians, Oley, Berks County
      8) York Liberty Bell, York, York County
      7) Colonel Jacob Stroud, Stroudsburg, Monroe County
      6) Mahanoy Plane, Frackville, Schuylkill County
      5) Casimir A. Sienkiewicz, Doylestown, Bucks County
      4) Ashland Boys' Association, Ashland, Schuylkill County
      3) Northkill Amish, Bernville, Berks County
      2) Little Lithuania, USA, Shenandoah, Schuylkill County
      1) Christ Little Tulpehocken Church, Bernville, Berks County

I know my friends in the Berks History Buffs are to be credited with the popularity of the Berks County posts! I also more recently became part of the Bucks County History Group, who have welcomed my posts very warmly, and I appreciate all of you in both groups. In total, the blog has received more than 42,000 hits, which is close to twice as many as I reported in last year's summation post.

The blog's Facebook page has 212 followers as of this writing, almost double the number at this time last year, including several historical groups. I'm a little overwhelmed.

What's coming up for MarkerQuest™?

I honestly don't know! These last two years have been so unpredictable that I'm almost afraid to guess. I do know that (at least as of right now) my beloved Zenkaikon is scheduled to return to in-person status in March of next year, so I'll be enjoying a few days in beautiful historic Lancaster. I would dearly love to be able to return to Adams County, because two days in Gettysburg were not nearly enough. I also have some hopes of day trips, but we'll see what the better weather holds.

I was able to promote the blog through the publication of Laury's Island: The Lehigh Valley's Forgotten Park, which came out a little over a year ago; the COVID situation meant that promotion had to be a bit on the quiet side, but the Barnes & Noble at the Lehigh Valley Mall very graciously hosted me in October for a book signing. My book is on the shelf in the local history section, and it feels as good as I always thought it would. I've encountered a number of people on Facebook who - much to my delight - recognized my name and shared how much they and their families enjoyed the book, which means a lot to me. (I was especially gratified to be able to help one of Judge Laury's descendants work out her own exact connection to him, and she shared with me a photo of her father, who is the judge's spitting image.) And yes, there is another book in the works.

I will be appearing at the Moravian Bookshop in Bethlehem this coming Saturday, December 4th, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. I'll be signing copies of Pip the Mouse and His Magical Christmas, a children's book I coauthored a few years ago. The Moravian Bookshop is the oldest continually-operating bookstore in the United States, and one of the oldest in the world, and it's always a treat to be there. Unfortunately I'll need to leave for work as soon as the event is over, so I can't stay and talk to people; but if you're in downtown Bethlehem I'd love to say hello.

Whatever you celebrate, I hope it's peaceful, warm, and full of joy. I look forward to resuming my weekly posts in January, and wish everyone a Happy New Year.

To all of my readers, my supporters, and the friends which MarkerQuest™ has gained over the last three years - thank you for joining me on this adventure. It wouldn't be nearly as much fun without you and I hope you'll continue to be a part of the MarkerQuest™ crew in the coming year.

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Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.

Casimir A. Sienkiewicz, Doylestown, Bucks County

I intended to go to Lehigh County in this week's post, but while setting up my research I made a mildly embarrassing discovery. The marker I planned to cover is actually one of a pair, and I haven't 'caught' the second one yet. This will require another dual-county post to talk about them both, which is great - I love hitting two at once - but since I don't have that second one yet, it'll have to wait. It may have to wait until the new year; we shall see.

So instead, we'll take a trip back to scenic Doylestown, in Bucks County, and learn about a local Renaissance man. He had his fingers in a lot of pies - finance, military, transportation, and art.

Ingram-Richardson Manufacturing Co., Beaver Falls, Beaver County

As of this writing, there's a distinct possibility that we could see our first snowfall in the next several days. Other parts of the state have already seen snow. (Ever notice that snow is a four-letter word? I kind of want to censor it.) I'm not a Game of Thrones fan, but even I know that winter is coming, and I'm trying to prepare - in between retail shifts, of course.

This week's quest was supposed to have been Lehigh County, but I realized as I was preparing it that I was missing a necessary component. So I'm jumping ahead to the next one on my schedule.

John Nelson, Lawrence Park, Erie County

This week is Veterans' Day, so I just want to briefly express my appreciation for all the members of our Armed Forces, past and present! Thank you for your service and courage.

This week's quest is brought to us thanks to another contribution from my distant cousin, Ron Bauerle, who kindly sent me the marker we're examining. Thanks once again, Ron! We're going to take a look at a union struggle in the McCarthy era and the way it impacted one man in particular.

Wilkes-Barre Fort, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County

I can't believe it's already November! Only a handful more blog posts before I do my annual retrospective post and look ahead to 2022. Hopefully I have enough material to get me through the winter months, especially if the snow is heavy and I can't go looking for more, although it would be nice if I can manage one more marker collecting quest before the days get too cold.

This blog is sort of a cross between a hobby and a job. It's both and it's neither all at once. I take it very seriously, because much of my personal identity is bound up in being a writer; but at the same time, I can't take it too seriously or I'll never have any fun with it, and life has enough things in it that aren't fun without volunteering for more. 

(On that note, thank you for the kind remarks I received following last week's post, with regards to the passing of my dear friend Jessica. I am very appreciative of all my readers who reached out to offer their condolences; it meant a lot.)

Today's post is one of those with which I've had a bit of fun. The subject itself isn't particularly amusing or anything, but the wording of the marker kind of is. See, almost without fail, the wording of the historical markers is sensible and easy to understand; this is a good thing, because otherwise most people would ignore them more than they already do. But today's marker is a little different - I kept reading the text and just sort of blinking at it. Why would Pennsylvania have had a fort which protected the courthouse of a county in Connecticut? On what map does that make any kind of sense?

Well, as it turns out, there was once a series of minor wars between Pennsylvania and Connecticut. If this is the first you're hearing of such a thing, don't feel bad, because I never heard about it either.

Gen. James M. Gavin, Mount Carmel, Northumberland County

I hate to open a blog post on a down note, but here we are. This bit has nothing to do with Pennsylvania history, although it's tangentially related to my writing. Shortly after last week's blog post went live, I received the devastating news that my dear friend Jessica had died unexpectedly. We had been friends for more than twenty years; she was one of my most supportive readers of nearly anything I wrote, and also one of my most honest and trustworthy critics. I valued her opinion deeply. She was much too young and it was a terrible shock. It feels strange to be writing something that, for the first time ever, I know she won't read.

But I know she's still making music where she is now, and I also know she'd want me to keep making words. So this is for you, Jess, with thanks for all the love and encouragement.

This week the blog makes its first visit to Northumberland County. I managed to snag this on the way home from a recent trip to Knoebels Amusement Park with husband Kevin, who deliberately veered off course in order to venture into the borough of Mount Carmel so we could all learn about "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin.

Fort Hamilton, Stroudsburg, Monroe County

First, hello to anyone who is finding their way here for the first time after my book signing this past Saturday! Thank you very much to everyone who turned out to see me. I had a really good time and they're hoping I'll come back again - maybe with a new book. We'll see what shakes out in the coming months.

I'm trying to get a little ahead of myself (instead of constantly feeling like I'm running behind) because the winter holidays are approaching, and since I'm in retail, you can imagine that my free time tends to be at a bit of a premium. So I'm doing my best to create a little bit of wiggle room in terms of having blog posts ready to fire up on a Wednesday. For this week's quest, we're heading back up to lovely Monroe County to have a look at a colonial fort which isn't there anymore.

Golden Plough Tavern and Gen. Horatio Gates, York, York County

In a couple of days I'll be having my book signing at the local Barnes & Noble! I have no words for how I'm feeling, but it's kind of a combination of excitement, bewilderment, and nausea. There are a lot of things I still need to do before Saturday, so I'm trying to focus on those in order to keep any nervousness at bay. Like this post.

So in the name of personal distraction, let's head down to beautiful York for this week's quest. This one's a double post, due to the fact that the buildings associated with the markers are connected and it was sort of impossible to separate them. Both markers are situated on West Market Street, directly in front of the two buildings.

Ashland Boys' Association, Ashland, Schuylkill County

Today I'm a bit distracted by the fact that it's my grandfather's birthday. He would have been 91 today, and I miss him a lot. He would, I think, really have loved what I'm doing with this blog; he was fascinated by history (that's probably where I get it) and I'm sure that he would have been bugging me to go on marker-hunting road trips with him. But he's the one who taught me to drive, so in a sense he always goes with me.

Of course, I'm not always the driver. On a recent road trip, my husband Kevin was driving; we missed a turn and were in the process of correcting the course when he asked, "Hey, are we near any of your markers?" We were in a Schuylkill County community called Ashland, and I remembered there was one. Much to my surprise, I turned my head to glance up a side street and there it was. So this week's post is a little bit of serendipity.

Wills House, Gettysburg, Adams County

As some of my readers may remember, September is my birthday month. I was the unlucky kid who would start school every year during the week of her birthday. As an adult this hasn't been a problem, though, and I usually take some kind of a day trip to mark the occasion. This year was a minor milestone, so my husband Kevin and I fulfilled a standing wish of mine to visit Gettysburg. After all, what kind of a Pennsylvania historian doesn't make at least one pilgrimage to the site of one of the biggest battles of the Civil War? 

I will admit that, growing up, I never quite grasped the full significance of Gettysburg. I know we covered it in school, but my memories of the lessons have mostly faded; but I stuffed my brain with all kinds of interesting discoveries during this trip and I truly enjoyed myself. Much like Brother Genitivi in the Dragon Age games, I don't know how to take a vacation without learning as much as I can about wherever I am. 

A quick shout-out to Larry at the For The Historian bookshop on York Street! Larry was kind enough to express interest in my blog as I was buying research materials and even accepted a small pile of my business cards to give to his regulars. If you're in Gettysburg, definitely drop in on the store.

Of course, the big thing that everyone in this country remembers about Gettysburg is a little two-minute speech known as the Gettysburg Address. It has its own marker, which I photographed and will be covering on another occasion, but today I'm going to tell you about a related location. Abraham Lincoln slept here.

Henry Chapman Mercer, Doylestown, Bucks County

Back in June, on a much finer day than what my area is experiencing currently, my best friend Andrea and I took a ride down to visit Doylestown, in Bucks County. I can't tell you why I'd never been there, although I'd driven through it a number of times - usually on the way to Peddler's Village. Anyway, as it turns out, Doylestown is adorable and very... I think the word I want to use is quaint. We had a really delicious meal at La Dolce Vita da Franco, where we sat outside in a little walled dining area; highly recommend, would eat there again. But our primary objective was to acquaint ourselves with a length of Doylestown colloquially known as the Mercer Mile.

The Mercer Mile gets its name from a man who designed three very distinct buildings. I think I would have liked this guy, because we seem to have a lot in common. This includes, but is by no means limited to, a love of dogs (my "little brother" is sitting beside me as I write, because I'm dogsitting for my parents) and a love of castles (I don't have one of those, but he did).

Oley Moravians, Oley, Berks County

Before we get into this week's quest, I want to give an update on a situation I had mentioned to my readers six months ago. Back in March, when we visited the Christ Little Tulpehocken Church, I shared the news of a Berks County family cemetery which was under threat from a warehouse developer. I'm pleased to tell you that as of last week, the Historic Kemp Burial Ground has been saved! The developer will still build their warehouse, but the cemetery is not to be moved. Not only that, but the agreement states that the developer will make some improvements to the burial ground, such as replacing the worn-out gate and providing an American flag. This is a tremendous victory and very exciting! Our local news has the details here. Congratulations to everyone involved!

(Edited to add: I am not one of the people involved. I do not have any further information than what has been shared publicly. If you want to know more, please check out the Facebook group; you can find a link at the website.)

One more quick shout-out before we get started; I collected this marker last month, while on the way home from a Sherlockian gathering in Reading. I've mentioned in other posts that I belong to the White Rose Irregulars, which meets (in non-pandemic times) four times a year to discuss the Great Detective, and our coordinator is Denny Dobry, who has a magnificent recreation of Sherlock's apartment in his basement. My stepdad Ravi and I were out to attend his wonderful open house in August; I hadn't seen it in several years, and Ravi had never seen it at all, so this was a great experience for us both. (If you're curious, check out this blog post from a couple years ago, made in preparation of another open house.)

Now, as to today's subject matter, it was a tiny bit confusing to me at first, but it's a good example of why the PHMC's current project to update certain markers is so important. This one is, unfortunately, just a little bit behind the times.

Wheatland, Lancaster, Lancaster County

It's been quite a hectic opening to September here. Between heavy rainfalls and my regular job being very busy, I was really worried that I wasn't going to be able to take my planned birthday trip to Gettysburg this past weekend. I'm happy to report, however, that the trip did indeed happen - my husband Kevin and I had a great time, we learned a lot, and I collected a bunch of markers in Adams County. Gettysburg is something I feel every American should see at least once; I don't have words for the experience, though I'll try to find some for a post later this month. 

Meanwhile, this is the blog post I had planned for the last week of August, but schedule conflicts just kept cropping up - as they did this past week too. It's taken me a lot of effort to finally get this thing posted! It's a bit more image-heavy than most of my posts, because there was just so much to see. These are pictures from Kevin's birthday trip back in July, when we visited Lancaster and took a tour of President James Buchanan's beloved home at Wheatland.

The Lehigh Canal, Easton, Northampton County

I found myself unable to update last week because of schedule conflicts, as you may have seen on Facebook. I intended to simply delay the post a day or two, but things just kept getting in the way, so I ultimately decided to delay last week's post until next week. Right now I'm sitting in the house listening to tropical whatever-it-is Ida drop a bunch of rain on my area. The worst weather is expected this afternoon, so it's currently a toss-up as to whether or not I'm going to be able to get to work. But at least I'm doing this work, and once this is live I'll be sending out the monthly email too. If you don't already receive that, please consider signing up with the form on this page! I only bother you once a month and it's free.

Since I'm already waterlogged anyway, let's take a ride over to Northampton County and visit the Lehigh Canal. 

Allentown, Lehigh County

I am once again trying to unsubscribe from weather. This time it's Tropical Depression Fred, which is crawling over Pennsylvania and threatening to dump rain on us. Hopefully it passes without much incident.

While I'm attempting to move as little as possible, let's take a virtual visit to my husband's hometown. The third-largest city in the commonwealth has, unsurprisingly, multiple markers to its name, all of them with the same information, and we'll take a look at what was originally just a little rural village. However, I must apologize - I only have a picture of the marker in this post at the moment, because I'm having difficulty uploading images to Blogger. I'll come back and edit in the future to add some more pictures.

White Cottage, New Brighton, Beaver County

We're at the start of a three-day heat wave here in eastern Pennsylvania, and I keep asking my Alexa how I can opt out of it but she doesn't have any helpful information. I hope everyone is keeping cool and safe.

For this week's quest, we're going to head back to Beaver County, where John Robinson has once again shared his beautiful photos of a marker and its subject. I'm going to be completely honest and say that until he sent me the pictures, I had honestly never heard of today's subject - either by her real name or by her pen name. However, I am also an author and most people have never heard of me either, so she and I have that in common. (Her marker calls her an "authoress" and also a "poetess," which I find oddly delightful.)

Min L. Matheson, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County

Excited to announce that I've been added to another online collective of history bloggers! In addition to the lovely HerStory Club, you can now find MarkerQuest at the History Creatives Hub. There's a wide variety of historical subjects being offered by the members of this group, so be sure to take a good look around and see what catches your eye. If you're interested in starting a historical blog of your own, the site owner has some very useful information and suggestions to help you get started.

Moving on to today's quest, we're going to have a look at a significant figure in the fight for workers' rights in the early 20th century. This one took me a while to write, because there was a lot of information for me to absorb and distill about this dedicated woman.

Monroe County

As my Facebook followers may have seen, last week my husband and I celebrated his birthday by traveling down to Lancaster, one of our favorite cities, and touring President Buchanan's beautiful home at Wheatland. Kevin drove, and because he's an indulgent sort, he kept pulling over every time he spotted a marker, so I was able to catch a couple that I still needed. I also got plenty of pictures for the post I'm going to be doing next month about Wheatland itself.

Moving on to today's quest, I decided to revisit my trip to Stroudsburg from this past spring and learn more about Monroe County itself.

Paul Allman Siple, Erie, Erie County

As I'm writing this, Pennsylvania is obscured by a heavy haze which makes breathing a touch difficult. The western Canadian wildfires have sent their smoke all the way across the continent, much like the California fires did last year. I'm sending my best wishes to everyone affected and I hope that they get things under control quickly.

My longtime readers know that I pay close attention to the weather. I don't have much choice, because I'm one of those 'walking barometer' people; changes in the barometric pressure have an impact on me, sometimes a pretty severe impact. (In fact, I just heard a roll of thunder which explains a few things.) Today, courtesy of my distant cousin Ron Bauerle, we'll be taking a look at the life and work of someone else who paid close attention to the weather for very different reasons. 

Old Chapel, Bethlehem, Northampton County

As of this writing, Moravian Bethlehem is still on the U.S. Tentative List to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. If you're not familiar with the term, these are locations around the world which have been recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). They have been determined to be unique landmarks with distinctive geographic and historical identities, which have cultural significance "of outstanding value to humanity." Right now, Pennsylvania only has two UNESCO World Heritage Sites to its name - Independence Hall in Philadelphia and Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece outside of Pittsburgh - so if the Moravian Community is selected for the honor, it will become our third. It's a process that takes years; they've been working toward this since 2002. You can keep tabs on the whole thing here - it's very exciting! I have every intention of being there for whatever celebration they decide to have for the occasion.

Well, with all the explorations I've been doing of other counties, I realized that I haven't done a Moravian Bethlehem blog post all year. So I'd say we're way overdue. This one is a little more picture-heavy than some of my posts, because I just couldn't bring myself to stop at three like I usually do.

Barnett's Fort, Lower Paxton Township, Dauphin County

Welcome to July! I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend.

We're going to head back to Dauphin County today, thanks to some photos that were sent to me by John Robinson, a retired employee of the PHMC. Most of what John emails me comes from Beaver County, but this time he also sent a picture which actually connects to a previous post in this blog. My longtime readers may remember when I wrote about the Blue Mountain Forts two years ago, and the post concluded with the observation that I hadn't learned as much about them as I would have liked. It also mentioned the names of five confirmed forts which were part of this chain; there's apparently a sixth but I couldn't find a source which identified it for sure (although it may have been Fort Lebanon). All of those forts have historical markers of their own, and today we'll be taking a look at one of them.

Philip Livingston, York, York County

June is winding down with a heat wave, although they're saying today should be the last day of it in this area. I certainly hope so. 

I'm doing my best to ignore both the heat and the threat of thunderstorms. Instead, I'm casting my thoughts back a few months to a much more temperate day, when my best friend Andrea and I went exploring in York County. Today's quest features the first York marker I actually caught; I turned the car down a random street in hopes of reaching the city's Colonial Quarter, and she caught sight of the marker. She's very good at spotting them from the passenger seat, which is extremely helpful since I have to, you know, pay attention to the road.

The odd thing about today's subject is that he isn't from Pennsylvania at all. But he has a marker here, for tragic reasons.

Durham Furnace, Durham Township, Bucks County

As you might have seen on the Facebook page for the blog, there was no post last week; I came down with a sinus infection that made me very sleepy and unable to focus. Sorry for the delay! We're back to business as usual now.

Before I get started on the subject of last-week's-post-turned-this-week, I do want to give a shout to the Herstory Club, which you might recall accepted me into its ranks last fall. This month's blog theme is medieval history, and I had the chance to make my first contribution! I introduced the Herstorians to one of my favorite historical figures, Princess Gwenllian of Wales; they seemed to really enjoy it and I hope you enjoy it too. Thanks for the opportunity, team!

Back in March, my husband Kevin and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. Most things were still kind of locked down, though, so we decided to just go for a nice drive and enjoy the scenery. The roads brought us down to Bucks County, to where George Taylor had once been the ironmaster, and we got out of the car and snooped around with our phone cameras for a bit. (We must look like weird tourists.)

Northkill Amish, Bernville, Berks County

Things have been a little quiet here lately, except for some unsettled weather patterns doing what they do to me. Nothing new there. I'm getting ready for my upcoming week's vacation, half of which will be spent running around in search of new history tidbits; the other half will be spent doing, well, as little as possible to be honest. 

I see by my list of planned blog posts that it's time for a visit to Berks County (hello to my pals in the Berks History Buffs) so off we go. We're heading back to the lovely community of Bernville, but this time we're just a mile from the neighboring community of Shartlesville; it's so close that I scratched my head a little bit about where exactly the marker is located. If you are, or I should say were, at all familiar with the now-closed and much-lamented attraction Roadside America, the marker is located very close to the exit from their parking lot. In fact, the property which held Roadside America was once part of the farm which was the site of this post's major event.

Harriet A. Baker, Allentown, Lehigh County

I've done quite a bit of traveling lately in this blog, so it's nice to return to my home county for a bit of a breather. This is one of the markers I collected on my last birthday, and the subject is an interesting one. I could wish that slavery wasn't part of our country's history, but it's one of those chapters that we have to acknowledge. The woman at the heart of today's quest was never a slave herself, but the reality of slavery impacted her for most of her life and shaped who she was and who she became.

Bailey's Printshop, Lancaster, Lancaster County

I had to delay this week's quest by a day because we had such strong and lengthy thunderstorms yesterday. As my longtime readers know, I'm one of those 'walking barometer' type people and severe weather conditions make me ill. But in one respect this was a good thing: because the post is going up a day late, I get to tell you about something that was posted this morning. Martha Capwell Fox of the National Canal Museum did an article about Laury's Island, using my book as her reference, and gave me a cool shout-out for my work! (I don't know where she found the picture she uses in the article, which I'd never seen, but it's a great image.) Thanks, Martha, you started my day off right!

For this week's quest, after a couple of weeks of visiting new places, we're heading back to some lovely familiar territory in Lancaster. If you're like most people, the mention of a "colonial printer" undoubtedly brings up a mental image of Ben Franklin, churning out copies of Poor Richard's Almanac and issues of the Pennsylvania Gazette. And you're not wrong. But in Lancaster, there was another man whose printing press contributed to the birth of our nation. 

American Institute of Mining Engineers, Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County

As I mentioned recently in my post about Colonel Jacob Stroud, I was invited to attend a historical event in Wilkes-Barre. It so happens that the organization celebrating their 150th anniversary also has one of these markers, so this is the perfect time to do my first post from Luzerne County. 

Fort Franklin, Andreas, Schuylkill County

The Schuylkill County Historical Society is following this blog on Facebook! I was so excited to learn this that I was determined to get to a marker in that county this month, and here we are.

Here's a fun fact which I didn't know until I started researching today's quest. Pennsylvania has actually, at different points in the 18th century, had two different places named Fort Franklin. One was in Venango County, which I've never visited, so I expect to be tackling that subject in a future post. The other, which is today's subject, was the first of its name and stood in Schuylkill County overlooking a scenic valley.

Colonel Jacob Stroud, Stroudsburg, Monroe County

I'm delighted to report, as my Facebook followers have seen, that I've been invited to a historical event up in Luzerne County later this month! A gentleman named Michael Korb very kindly reached out to let me know that they're going to be installing a plaque in Wilkes-Barre to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. It's not one of my markers (they already have one of those, so you can guess what I'll be doing while I'm there), but he thought it would be of interest to me and my readers. If the name of the organization sounds vaguely familiar, that may be because I've mentioned it before in this blog - David Thomas, the Welsh ironmaster considered the father of my hometown, was its first president. The ceremony is to take place at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 16th, in the Public Square of Wilkes-Barre, and you can read the details here. So if you're in the vicinity, grab your face mask and come enjoy a socially distanced historic event. (And look for me.)

As for this week's quest, it's my first post from Monroe County! I'm hitting all kinds of new places lately, between the restrictions easing up and the contributions from guest photographers, and I'm very pleased about it. Today's quest is from a few weeks ago, when my best friend Andrea and I took a little road trip to Stroudsburg. For some reason, despite being only about thirty miles away, Stroudsburg has always seemed like it's incredibly far off; I guess it's because it's considered a gateway to the Poconos. (Then again, as I think I've mentioned in another post or two, my sense of distance is inexplicably skewed.) What I found was a charming, quiet community with a rich history of which they are justifiably very proud.

Stroudsburg dates its origins back to colonial times, and has a Moravian connection which I'll be discussing in more detail in a future post. They actually have two different markers for the man who gave his name to the community, so we're going to hit them both.

Whitefield House, Nazareth, Northampton County

It's an unexpectedly balmy day in April, which is sort of amusing. The temperatures lately have been quite up and down, but today they're up for the warmest day all year thus far. 

So, weird confession. Despite it being an entire twelve miles from where I currently live, until very recently I never visited downtown Nazareth. I've been in or through its outskirts, but never in the community proper. A few weeks ago, finding myself with an unexpected afternoon completely free, I made a spontaneous decision to correct this oversight and collect the markers that Nazareth has to offer. There was still snow on the ground, which looks funny to me now as I write this post.

Funny thing about Nazareth - although Bethlehem is the place around here that's always touted as being a big part of Moravian history (and rightfully so), Nazareth also has Moravian origins. Not only that, but Nazareth's Moravian origins are what led to Bethlehem's.

Captain C. V. Gridley, Erie, Erie County

Before I get into today's quest, I just wanted to extend my thanks to St. John's Episcopal Church of York. That's the place where the York Liberty Bell is housed, and they shared the link to my post in their latest e-newsletter. I really appreciate that and I hope the congregation enjoyed reading the article!

As some of my longtime readers might recall, I'm an occasional volunteer with FindAGrave.com. In recent weeks, through our mutual work on that site, I unexpectedly made contact with my distant cousin Ron Bauerle. Ron, according to his researches, is my mother's eighth cousin through her father's line; like us, he's descended from Philip Kratzer, one of the earliest settlers of Emmaus. Much to my surprise and delight, he checked out this blog and offered to send me pictures of markers from his home county, which I gladly accepted since who the heck knows when I'll be able to go there myself. So thanks to his contributions, today we're going to learn about a sailor in the Spanish-American War, and the origin of a certain well-known military catchphrase of the time.

The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Dauphin County

For reasons that probably don't need to be explained, I haven't been able to travel to today's subject and take pictures. But last fall, my parents were in the city of Harrisburg, as I mentioned in my post about the Underground Railroad, and they got a few pictures of markers for me while they were in the vicinity. Today my stepdad joins the ranks of the blog's guest photographers, and hopefully, he and I will both get to make a proper visit to the subject in the relatively near future. Whenever I'm finally able to go, I'll come back and edit this post to add more pictures - I promise I'll let you know when that happens.

"Pennsylvania," says one of my sources for today's post, "is a history-minded state." That, of course, is why I'm here and why you're here with me.

York Liberty Bell, York, York County

Welcome to April, and the grass has turned green in my yard! In my last email, I made an allusion to an announcement coming this month, and indeed I'm making one. I'm looking at the project I have created for myself with this blog, and realizing that even though I double up some of the markers when appropriate, there are a lot more of them than I had ever imagined (over 2,000 and counting), and I've barely made a dent in the last three years.

Wow, it's been three years? Already? Huh.

Anyway, the big news is that... I'm increasing the frequency of posts. Instead of every other Wednesday, I'm going to see how it goes with posting every Wednesday, so I can fit more markers into each calendar year. It's an experiment - if I feel too overwhelmed I'll drop it back to the every other week plan - but I have hopes that it will succeed. I've already sketched out my schedule of planned posts leading into the first week of June, because I have that much material handy, so we'll see what comes of it.

For today, I'm sharing the first fruits of my labor from last month's road trip. My best friend Andrea and I, as I wrote a few weeks ago, spent her birthday visiting York County and collected several markers in its county seat. It had been a long time since I crossed the Susquehanna River - I forgot how wide it is! Today's quest is a trek back to colonial times to learn about a liberty bell which, until that day, I never knew existed.

Fort McIntosh, Beaver, Beaver County

I almost don't dare to believe it, but we managed to get through pretty much the entire month of March without any snow (or at least, any snow accumulation). We even had some actual springlike weather! April is just around the bend, and with the days getting longer, I think the worst of winter really is behind us at last.

Time to add another name to the list of guest photographers, and it's someone I hadn't anticipated when the blog began! John Robinson is retired from the PHMC itself, and has been kind enough to send me my first (of many, I hope) marker from Beaver County. This particular landmark actually has several markers for it, as I discovered when I went to the Historic Marker Database to look for it, but only one was erected by the PHMC so that's the one in today's post. Let's pay a long-distance visit to a garrison of the American Revolution - a very important one, in fact.

Christ Little Tulpehocken Church, Bernville, Berks County

I'm very excited because as soon as this post goes live and I take care of a few other details related to it, like updating the Facebook page, I'll be heading out on a long-expected road trip. It's my best friend Andrea's birthday, and to celebrate, she and I are making a trek to York County to visit our friends who operate Moon Family Studios - we haven't seen them in nearly two years because of the pandemic. Naturally, the plan is for me to collect some markers while we're in the vicinity, because all of my travel now has an ulterior motive.

Before we get into the actual quest, which takes us back to Berks County for the first time since last summer, I want to direct your attention elsewhere in the same county. I'm a member of the Berks History Buffs group on Facebook, and I was asked to share this with my readers in hopes of giving the matter a wider audience. The historic Kemp Family Burial Grounds is being threatened by a developer, who wants to put a warehouse on the land where some of Berks County's earliest settlers are buried. Their plan is to disinter the remains and transfer them to another cemetery, but the people buried there have descendants in the area still and these descendants are not happy about this. The Berks History Center has put out a call for help with the struggle to come to a mutually satisfying agreement with the developer; you can read the details here. You can learn about the burial grounds and the people interred there by visiting the official website, where you will also find links to the petition and a donation page, as well as photographs of the grounds.

Meanwhile, in a different part of Berks County, I was able to capture a couple of markers on a recent run, and this is one of them. Here's what I can tell you about a lovely church on a rolling hillside, which as of this writing is still covered in snow.

Little Lithuania USA, Shenandoah, Schuylkill County

It was my hope, for this week's post, that I'd get the chance to drive into Berks County and pick up a couple of markers there. Unfortunately, once again, my plans were upset by the arrival of more snow. I'm starting to run out of my backlog of saved markers, so hopefully the worst of winter is behind us now.

Instead, we'll take another nip back to Schuylkill County. Did you know that Pennsylvania is home to the oldest Lithuanian community in the world outside of Lithuania itself?

First Presbyterian Church, Lancaster, Lancaster County

February is running rampant in Pennsylvania right now. The groundhog has promised six more weeks of this nonsense. I'm unfortunately very affected by weather changes, especially cold and damp ones, so this has been less than entertaining for me.

Very wistfully, I'm thinking back to last June, when my best friend Andrea and I took a day trip to Lancaster and I collected several markers for this blog. Lockdown had just been lifted, social distancing was in full force, and we were enjoying the beautiful sunny weather in one of our favorite cities. So for today's post, I'm going to remember the warmth and take you all on a visit to one of Lancaster's oldest churches.

George Taylor, Lehigh and Northampton Counties

Today, we're taking a look at the most famous resident of my Lehigh County hometown of Catasauqua. He had two different houses, and thus has two different markers, but I've never actually managed to see the one in Northampton County. Despite living in the same county, I don't get to Easton very often. Luckily, my biggest fan was in Easton some weeks ago and took some pictures for me, so I get to add another name to my list of guest photographers.

Mahanoy Plane, Frackville, Schuylkill County

Happy New Year, friends and readers! I hope that this year, there will be more opportunity for me to get out and about to photograph subjects for this blog. I meanwhile have had some people inquire about being guest photographers - if that's something you'd find interesting, thank you! Please send a message to me at markerquestblog@gmail.com and let me know what you have in mind.

Now, let's head for the coal country.