1902 Anthracite Coal Strike, Lackawanna and Schuylkill Counties

I hope that whatever holiday (if any) that my readers observed in the past couple of weeks, it was enjoyable and peaceful for you. Someone needs to keep the chocolate bunnies away from me, personally. This was supposed to have gone up last week, but I was dealing with a stomach bug (unrelated to the chocolate, as far as I can tell) and just didn't have the spoons.

This week's quest took a lot of reading, because it was a big deal and covered in two markers at a pretty fair distance from each other. Frequent contributor Kaylee Lindenmuth, of the Shenandoah Sentinel, was the one to send me both of the marker photos used here - she sent the first one last year, when I asked my readers to tell me about your favorite historical markers, and happened to come across the second fairly recently.

New Hanover Lutheran Church, Gilbertsville, Montgomery County

Today is April Fool's Day, but this is not a prank: the hit count on this blog in the month of February was over 28,000, which was an all-time high. But in March? You crazy history fiends smashed that number! March ended with a monthly hit count of 39,726, and I was stunned speechless. That's a rare event, as many people could tell you. So whoever has been coming here and reading what I have to say, thank you so very much. It means a lot.

There are a lot of history-related events happening around here in the coming weeks, now that the onion snow has fallen and winter is finally leaving us. In particular, on April 11th and 12th, the community of Trappe will be dedicating the Speaker's House, which was the home of Frederick Muhlenberg and his family. He has a connection to today's blog post. The community has spent the last 25 years (no, that's not a typo) restoring the house to its colonial glory and preparing it to be a jewel of the historic community. The event is free to the public and you can find details here.

Also, one month from today - May 1st - will be the grand opening of the Stevens & Smith Center for History and Democracy in Lancaster. I'm hoping I can be there! The festivities will begin at 9 in the morning, though, so the odds are not in my favor. If you're interested in being there too, get the details here.

Meanwhile, it's time to get back into the regular flow of blogging and kick off this month with a return to scenic Montgomery County. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going.