Thompson's Rifle Battalion, Carlisle, Cumberland County

I'm a bit shook, as the kids today like to say. Tomorrow evening I'll be giving my first on-camera interview since Laury's Island was published back in 2020. Alton Northrup, of WHTM ABC 27 in Harrisburg, was introduced to my blog by Kaylee Lindenmuth of the Shenandoah Sentinel and he wants to ask me some questions about it. Unlike last week's disappointment with the publisher scam, this one's legitimate and actually going to happen. I still haven't decided what I'm going to wear. (Thank you, Kaylee!)

Meanwhile, a post! This week's topic ended up being a bit more complex than I expected. It's actually spread across four different markers in four different counties, although this is the primary one and the others are sort of supplemental material, if that makes sense. I don't have the other three, but I'll give them posts when I do and connect them with this one. The other markers are about some of the companies which served in this battalion of lore, so I'm sure they've got some interesting stories of their own. As I've said in a few other posts, Pennsylvania is a treasure trove of American firsts, and this is no exception: we provided the Revolutionary War with the very first battalion authorized by Congress itself. (And really, is anyone surprised by that?) To put it another way, the Army of the United States was born here.

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.

Gnadenhütten, Lehighton, Carbon County

As promised, after last week's unusual post, it's back to business as usual. I had hoped to finish my Carbon County book last October, but life has a tendency to get in the way. Between work, health, weather, and the holidays, I haven't gotten it done. But it's almost done. I have two chapters and an afterword left to finish, plus some tweaks I want to make to the finished chapters, and I'm hoping to get it wrapped up in the next few weeks.

So when I was trying to decide what to write about this week, I took a poll on the blog's Facebook account asking if people would rather have a new quest or another sneak peek at the book. It was a close call (things were in a dead heat even when I woke up this morning), but the tie finally broke with one last vote to do a sneak peek. 

The original post about Gnadenhütten remains one of the most popular I've ever done, and I'm extremely proud of how I've fleshed it out in the book. I won't share the entire chapter, but here's a look at some of the detailing, including an image I've never before shared on this blog.

Tulpehocken Evangelical and Reformed Church, Richland, Lebanon County

How would you like to be able to pay your rent in flowers? 

'Red rose rent' is specified as being a type of "quit-rent," which is not a commonly used term nowadays. It has its roots in feudal Europe, in which a tenant either worked the land or provided military services for his liege lord (either the king or a lesser noble) in lieu of paying rent or taxes on the property he occupied. In essence, the quit-rent took the place of feudal services. The practice continued all the way into colonial America, where the quit-rent was more or less a kind of land tax. In the case of 'red rose rent,' though, it's a merely symbolic gesture, usually because the person creating the rental agreement was being generous for one reason or another. For the princely sum of one red rose every year, the renter continues to have the full use of a specified building or tract of land.

I don't think there are too many modern examples of 'red rose rent' being used anymore, the economy being what it is. But here in Pennsylvania, there are a number of historic locations which still pay homage to the tradition, and one of these is a church in Lebanon County.

Silver Spring Presbyterian Church, Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County

The temperatures are above freezing. I even heard a rumor that we could exceed 40 degrees tomorrow, which after last week feels like a prospective heat wave.

This is one of those blog posts that I have sincerely looked forward to writing ever since I collected the marker. But I knew it was going to be one that required a lot of attention and care, because of the sheer amount of information that was available just at the site alone, and I've been saving it for a week when I could devote myself to it properly. 

It seems that this is the week. So join me for a trip back in time almost three hundred years, to meet some of the Cumberland Valley's earliest European transplants and to visit what must be one of the loveliest and most historic churches in the commonwealth. My apologies to my mobile readers, because this one will be a little heavy on the images. As always, you can click on any image to see a bigger version of it.

Abington Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Abington Township, Montgomery County

Recently I had a message from my good friend Brian. He saw my lament a short time ago, about running out of markers, and kindly sent me some pictures he took of one that he spotted in his neck of the woods. Thanks, Brian!

(Brian is one of the reasons I really need to get back into podcasting, as he's a particular fan of the show. But there turned out to be a lot of things happening in 2024 that were not on my bingo card, and every time I think I'm going to be able to make new episodes, something gets in the way.)

So to kick off October, we're heading down to beautiful Montgomery County to have a look at a cemetery. My longtime readers know I'm rather fond of cemeteries, and this is a lovely old one from the pre-Revolutionary days.

James Lick, Fredericksburg, Lebanon County

About this time next week I expect to be in my usual pre-convention frenzy. All the things in the world to do, no time in the world to do them. It happens every year.

But for today, I'm bringing you a blog post that turned out to be much more complex and intriguing than I initially expected. It's my first post from Lebanon County in well over a year, and it's a bit longer than usual because there was just so much to tell you. I can honestly say that it's the first time I've ever started a blog post by saying that almost everything you're about to read was the result of a young man's quest to be able to marry the woman he loved.

Old Log Church, Schellsburg, Bedford County

Happy Halloween! Well, almost. 

This time tomorrow I'll be heading north with the BFF Andrea, to collect as many of the remaining markers as I can in Columbia and Montour Counties. We'll be stopping in Bloomsburg at the Columbia-Montour Visitors Center, to say hello to my contact Shane (the one who very carefully reproduces my posts about their counties in their quarterly newsletter).

Meanwhile, my most recent contribution to the Mainly Museums collective went live early this morning. Kevin and I visited the famous Horseshoe Curve when we were in Altoona last year, and I enjoyed having the chance to tell readers all about it. You can find my piece here.

We're closing out October here on the blog with another county debut. On our way to Latrobe last week, my sister Liza very patiently pulled over whenever possible to allow me to collect other markers, and I came home with a total of nine, including this - my first for Bedford County. We couldn't stop to view this wonderful old church building up close, but I admired it from a distance and I've been looking forward to telling you all about it.

John A. Sutter, Lititz, Lancaster County

First, thank you to everyone who shared last week's post about the Marshalls Creek explosion and the search for surviving relatives and friends of the victims. If you haven't seen it, please do check it out and pass it on to anyone you think might be able to help with that.

For this week's quest, we're heading out to Lancaster County thanks to some help from my pal Jon, the Hometown Historian. We both were researching this gentleman last year, and we had amusingly opposite experiences. I was in Lititz on a bitterly windy day in February and was able to get photos of the marker, while he was there later in the year and was able to get photos of the gravesite. But I hadn't found the grave, and he hadn't found the marker, so naturally we teamed up and traded pictures. You can find the video he made in my sources section at the bottom of the post. Thanks, Jon!

New Goshenhoppen Reformed Church, East Greenville, Montgomery County

We're kicking off the fifth month of the year, and thus far I've managed to do a marker from a different county every week. This is the last week I'll be able to say that, but it's still kind of exciting!

Speaking of exciting, if you haven't already heard, the big news I promised last week has been unveiled on social media and in the monthly newsletter. This month marks the blog's fifth birthday! To celebrate the "fiveaversary," as I've dubbed it, I've launched a virtual scavenger hunt. You don't have to go anywhere or hunt down any physical objects; you just have to go through the blog and find the answers to questions about the people featured on markers or in the stories behind them. There's some silliness and some shameless self-promotion and some great prizes too! Head over to this page to read all the guidelines and find out how to get started. Good luck!

Meanwhile, for today's quest, my bff Andrea and I took a drive down to Montgomery County last week to grab a couple of markers, since I hadn't done anything there in quite a while. We found this beautiful church tucked out of the way in East Greenville, and if I'd been alone I probably would have spent an hour or two looking through their old churchyard at the 18th century headstones. 

Daniel Brodhead and Dansbury Mission, Monroe County

Well, it's Wednesday, and you know what that means - besides the fact that my vacation is over, that is. (It was a very hot trip. But we had a great time; we visited ancient Mayan ruins, and I even held a sloth!)

This week I'm doing a double quest in the mountains of Monroe County. The two markers are in separate communities, so initially I thought they would each get their own post; but they are so connected that it made more sense to put them together.

I won't lie - this one was tricky to research. Google kept turning up results for the wrong person, or the wrong location, because of similar names. I think all my information is now correct, though, thanks in no small part to the resources of the Monroe County Historical Association. 

St. James Episcopal Church, Lancaster, Lancaster County

I'm going to start today's post with my super exciting news of the day, which is that the lovely folks at the Columbia-Montour Visitors Center have graciously given me space in the autumn issue of their quarterly magazine. And when I say they gave me space, I mean they gave me three full-color pages. This magazine is chock-full of interesting things to read and discover about those two beautiful counties, and I'm very honored to be included in what they do! You can find it on the web here, and consider subscribing to receive it in your email.

The remnant of Hurricane Ian has been dumping more than a little rain on my area for the last four days, and I've been hurting an awful lot. (My longtime readers know that I'm one of those "my body is a barometer" people. Worst superpower ever.) So this post is going up later than planned because I just haven't had the energy to put it together at the usual time; but I'm looking outside at some sunshine for the first time since Friday, which is very encouraging. Meanwhile, let's take a virtual trip to a place that's always sunny in my mind, if not in fact - beautiful Lancaster.

John Walter, Annville, Lebanon County

Before I get into today's subject, I just want to give a shout-out to my fellow local author, Scott Morro. I've mentioned Scott before as having written The Washington Pursuit, an enthralling young adult mystery set in Moravian Bethlehem. He announced on Twitter yesterday that the sequel, The Albrecht Society, will be released later this year and he's anticipating a launch event on August 20th. I very much enjoyed Pursuit and am looking forward to being there. Congratulations, Scott!

Fun fact: Scott's new book actually has a relationship to today's blog post. Well, sort of.

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.

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.

Indiantown and Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, Annville, Lebanon County

This rightly should have been posted two weeks ago, but it turned out to be more complicated than I expected; I also haven't been feeling my best, thanks to all the shifts in Pennsylvania's weather.

Before we get started, I wanted to let my readers know that the PHMC has begun sharing this year's marker dedication ceremonies on its calendar. The first one will be in Chester County next month, when a marker will celebrate musician Jim Croce. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to make it there myself, but we'll see!

My initial intention with this post was to do it simply about the "Indiantown" marker. The thing is, there's not a whole lot to say about that one. So I ended up having to bundle it in with Fort Indiantown Gap, about which there's plenty more information, and the result is that you get this massive twofer - or if you want to be picky, a fourfer, since Fort Indiantown Gap has three markers to its name.

The Unknown Soldier, Bethlehem, Northampton County

It's been a while since MarkerQuest went to Bethlehem, and I find myself missing it a little bit, so I thought that we'd welcome September (and celebrate my birthday) by heading back there. This is sort of a sequel to a previous post, which is always fun for me.

Last December, I talked about visiting the replica of the first house in Bethlehem, and how it was the place where the city received its name. In that post, I mentioned that the replica house includes a plaque related to soldiers buried on a nearby hillside, and how that's related to Bethlehem's very own Unknown Soldier, which is what I thought I would cover today.

Abraham Blumer, Allentown, Lehigh County

I'm learning a lot about Pennsylvania history while doing this project, as you might expect. However, the lesson that I'm learning most often is that, as much as I know about the history of Pennsylvania, and Lehigh County in particular, I don't know as much as I think I do. I'm constantly being surprised.

I celebrated my birthday earlier this month, and my husband Kevin and I spent part of the day at the Lehigh Valley Zoo, of which we are members. (Hi, zoo friends!) It was a great day, with beautiful weather, and I got to feed Murphy the giraffe. As we were leaving, I checked the list of historical markers and realized that there was one more or less on our way home, so we headed for the Jordan United Church of Christ just off of route 309. I was puzzled, to be honest, because I've driven past that church many times over the years and I have never noticed a blue and gold historical marker.

Well, that's because there isn't one.

Ben Austrian, Kempton, Berks County

I'm pretty familiar with the tiny community of Kempton. I used to volunteer monthly at Hawk Mountain, which dominates the landscape. Every fourth Sunday I'd drive through Kempton, an extremely pretty place at the foot of the Kittatinny Ridge mountains, and judge how close I was to being late for my shift by the visual landmarks along the way. One thing that always caught my eye was the distant hill dotted with white headstones; I always thought to myself that I should drive over sometime and actually have a look at Historic New Bethel Church (as the sign calls it), but I never got around to actually doing so.

Then this blog happened, and there turned out to be a marker there, so I finally made the drive.

Derry Church and Churchyard, Hershey, Dauphin County

Four times a year (barring unexpected circumstances), I make the trek to Dauphin County, where the White Rose Irregulars of York gather in a private room at Leeds Restaurant and Lounge. We're what's called a scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars, and get together quarterly to share our mutual love of all things related to Sherlock Holmes. A few of them promised to read this, so in case they did - hi everybody! Also, when dining at Leeds, I  can't say enough good things about the fish and chips, which are the best I've had anywhere, or about Anne, our designated server.

This past weekend was our summer gathering, and I brought my best friend Andrea with me for her first foray into Sherlockiana. Since we were sort of in the neighborhood, I proposed that on the way home, we stop in the wonderful community of Hershey to see if we couldn't collect a few markers for this blog. We picked up a few pieces of chocolate and then went to Derry Presbyterian Church, which has the distinction of being home to two markers. As such, this piece is a little longer than usual, and has more photos too.

Edited 5/8/2024: This blog post is now available as a podcast episode! Learn even more facts about God's Acre by listening today on Spotify or your preferred podcast provider.