James Buchanan's Birthday, Lancaster, Lancaster County

It's been quite some time since I did a 'special edition' post on this blog, but instead of covering a marker this week, I'd like to tell you all about something you could call marker-adjacent. This past Saturday, April 23rd, was the 231st birthday of James Buchanan - the only President of the United States who was born, died, and is buried in Pennsylvania. Traditionally, there is a ceremony at presidential tombs each year on their birthdays, at which wreaths of red, white, and blue flowers are presented in memory of their years in office. For the last few years, because of the pandemic, these ceremonies have been suspended. This year, Lancaster was able to hold theirs again, and my husband Kevin and I decided to make the trip down there and see what this entailed.

Moravian Community, Bethlehem, Northampton County

Before we dive into this week's quest, I'd just like to draw your attention to something new. As of a few days ago, the blog now has its own dedicated Twitter account! I'm using it to follow assorted historical organizations and news outlets and to help spread the word about events and discoveries in the commonwealth. Of course, I'm also using it to promote the blog itself. So if you've got a Twitter, please give MarkerQuest a follow.

For this week, we're going to mosey back to beautiful downtown Bethlehem and take a look at the Moravian community.

Fisher House, Oley Township, Berks County

I'm deeply pleased with all the attention my last two posts have received. Thaddeus Stevens is such a fascinating person and subject, and I'm so thankful to everyone who took the time to read what I had to say about him.

This week's quest is a much simpler one, at least on the surface. You can blame my weary eyes for it; to quote from a certain ridiculous commercial, "I have special eyes," and they've had to be tested a fair bit this week. So I decided to make the quest a bit easier on them than usual. We collected this marker on the way home from Zenkaikon last month - husband Kevin deliberately took a scenic route home just so I could grab some to keep me busy for a while. 

Thaddeus Stevens, Lancaster, Lancaster County

And here we are for part two of the 230th birthday celebration for Mr. Thaddeus Stevens! I very much would like to thank everyone who has shared the previous post, especially the Thaddeus Stevens Society. This past weekend, they celebrated his birthday by putting up a new statue of the gentleman outside of the Adams County courthouse, and I'll look forward to seeing that the next time I go to Gettysburg. I'm also grateful to my fellow Zenkaikon attendees who expressed interest in this, and who have been so kind as to click the links I'm giving them.

This post will be a little more image-heavy than the first one was, because I have more pictures from Thaddeus's later life. I made them smaller than usual for the post, but you can click on any of the pictures if you want to see the larger versions.