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.