Lincoln Biography, West Chester, Chester County

Well, it happened again. ABC 27 in Harrisburg called on me to assist with another historical piece for the country's 250th anniversary. This time, my pal Kaylee Lindenmuth (the only reason ABC 27 has even heard of me, really) was doing a piece about Pennsylvania's first governor, Thomas Mifflin, and why so many things in the commonwealth are named after him. They actually put me on television this time, which I hadn't quite expected. So if you found your way here via that broadcast or article, hi! And if you haven't seen it, here it is.

And just today I also got featured in a more local newspaper. Patty and I cover a couple of the same meetings for our respective local papers, so we sit together and chitchat. I told her about the Harrisburg gigs and she asked if it would be okay to do a piece on me for her paper; I said sure, and today it happened. Interesting month so far, and I'm very honored to have had this little blog of mine featured so much!

Meanwhile, in preparation for a possible small influx of new readers, I should probably get to this week's quest, yes? We're wandering down to Chester County today, specifically to the historic borough of West Chester, where yet another local paper once did something rather remarkable that impacted the Presidential election of 1860.

Andrew G. Curtin, Bellefonte, Centre County

It's been an unexpectedly busy week! As I mentioned last time, I was recently interviewed by Alton Northup of the Harrisburg affiliate of ABC News. He was doing a piece about places that claim that "George Washington slept here" and my pal Kaylee Lindenmuth recommended that he contact me. We had a wonderful conversation and his article is now live, so definitely check it out here.

I also came across a surprising discovery on YouTube. I found a video about Thaddeus Stevens, whom I've often mentioned as being one of my favorite historical figures. Much to my surprise, about a year ago a video was produced about him using this blog as one of the sources! I'm very happy to have contributed, however unknowingly, to helping Thad's legacy spread in this way. You can watch the video here. I guess I'm going to have to create a page for listing places where I find MQ in other media.

Meanwhile, this week we're going to venture back to lovely Bellefonte, in Centre County, and talk about one of the individuals who grew up to be the governor of our fair commonwealth. 

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.

Celestia, Laporte, Sullivan County

A week later than it should be, but we have a blog post! The weather recently in my corner of the commonwealth has had a negative impact on my health, particularly the coastal storm that threatened to dump a few inches of rain on us. (It didn't, but I still felt it coming.) So there was no way I was going to get a post up last Wednesday, and between one thing and another I just never got to it during the rest of the week either. But I'm better this week, so it's back to business as usual.

I'm sure that my contact Melly at the Sullivan County Historical Society has been waiting for a new post from her neighborhood. She was a wonderful tour guide when Kevin and I visited a few months ago for his birthday, and I think it's time I shared more of what we learned on that trip. Pennsylvania has its share of ghost towns and abandoned settlements, and Sullivan County in particular has a few, one of which has a PHMC marker. It has a pretty unique history. I don't currently have photos to share, as we weren't able to visit during our trip, but I hope to make a return journey to Sullivan County and see it then.

Logan House, Altoona, Blair County

I'm waiting on confirmation about my work schedule, but if all goes as planned, I'll be in East Stroudsburg next Monday to attend a marker dedication. So there's a strong likelihood that next week's post will be about that. I still haven't been able to get up to Schuylkill County as I'd hoped, although there's a good chance I'll be able to do that very soon.

Meanwhile, let's take a trip out west to Blair County and the historical downtown section of Altoona. Today's marker is one that I was actually not able to find - when husband Kevin and I were there last year for his birthday, we did search for this one, but had no luck with it. However, my pal Kaylee of the Shenandoah Sentinel was recently out that way and got pictures of it, which she very kindly shared with me, so she's joining the list of guest photographers today with her contribution to this post.

Like so many buildings commemorated on PHMC markers, the hotel called Logan House is long gone, but it has left its mark on history in a very singular fashion.

The Union League of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

The next few weeks are going to be very busy for me - not only do I have Zenkaikon coming up next week, but in April I'll be on a family trip out of the country. (No marker hunting? What do normal people do on vacation?) Throw in the job, the writing gigs, the book I'm trying to finish... well, there's a reason I'm actually working on this blog post the night before it goes live instead of on Wednesday morning.

I'm not complaining, though. I do like to keep busy. Now if it would just stop snowing...

For today we're going back to that very un-snowy day last August, when my mother treated the BFF and me to a day in Philadelphia and helped me catch some markers there. This was one of the markers I spotted while we were riding on the upper level of a double-decker bus tour; for that reason, my current photo of the marker is not the clearest, and I promise to replace it with a better one at the first opportunity.

Anna Morris Holstein, King of Prussia, Montgomery County

It's a new first for the blog, the first quest in Montgomery County!

I went down to the King of Prussia Mall recently to have lunch with Christine, one of my friends from the old college days. Roughly half a million years ago, we were baby freshmen at Kutztown University, and we hadn't seen each other in quite a while so we had plenty of catching up to do. Christine's a food blogger (she's on my Quest Links page) and also an editor at MontCo Today, so she knows plenty about what goes on in Montgomery County. As a result, she was the one who had first alerted me to a marker dedication happening last fall. Specifically, she's the author of this article about it. Unfortunately, we both had something come up to prevent us from going to the ceremony.

Since we were eating so close to its location, though, I was able to head over there after our fabulous lunch at Maggiano's Little Italy. Christine had to get back to work, but we're talking about going together to get another MontCo marker sometime this summer, so she can see how I do this. (My work is probably less glamorous than anyone thinks. The number one rule: don't get hit by a car. I did that already, a long time ago, and I definitely do not recommend it.)

Much to my surprise, this marker hadn't yet been added to the Historical Marker Database, which my regular readers know I link in every post. I've created a page for it there, but as of this writing it hasn't gone live yet, so I'll have to come back and add the link once it does. Edited 5/20/2022: The page is now live and the link is in the sources section at the end of the post.

U.S. Sanitary Commission Great Central Fair, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

A friendly hello to the members of the Retro York group on Facebook! They very kindly welcomed me and took great interest in last week's post about York House. 

This week's quest brings us back to Philadelphia, for the second marker that I collected on my last visit. I'll admit this one had me scratching my head a little bit, because I'd never heard of either the organization in question nor the event they operated. But then again, I'm here to learn and then share what I learn.

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.