I'm on a quest to photograph and research all of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's historical markers. This is my quest journal so you can join me on my adventures every Wednesday! Blog owned and written by Laura Klotz. Marker images used with permission of the PHMC. Header image created by Rachel Peeples.
This week is Veterans' Day, so I just want to briefly express my appreciation for all the members of our Armed Forces, past and present! Thank you for your service and courage.
This week's quest is brought to us thanks to another contribution from my distant cousin, Ron Bauerle, who kindly sent me the marker we're examining. Thanks once again, Ron! We're going to take a look at a union struggle in the McCarthy era and the way it impacted one man in particular.
As I'm writing this, Pennsylvania is obscured by a heavy haze which makes breathing a touch difficult. The western Canadian wildfires have sent their smoke all the way across the continent, much like the California fires did last year. I'm sending my best wishes to everyone affected and I hope that they get things under control quickly.
My longtime readers know that I pay close attention to the weather. I don't have much choice, because I'm one of those 'walking barometer' people; changes in the barometric pressure have an impact on me, sometimes a pretty severe impact. (In fact, I just heard a roll of thunder which explains a few things.) Today, courtesy of my distant cousin Ron Bauerle, we'll be taking a look at the life and work of someone else who paid close attention to the weather for very different reasons.
Before I get into today's quest, I just wanted to extend my thanks to St. John's Episcopal Church of York. That's the place where the York Liberty Bell is housed, and they shared the link to my post in their latest e-newsletter. I really appreciate that and I hope the congregation enjoyed reading the article!
As some of my longtime readers might recall, I'm an occasional volunteer with FindAGrave.com. In recent weeks, through our mutual work on that site, I unexpectedly made contact with my distant cousin Ron Bauerle. Ron, according to his researches, is my mother's eighth cousin through her father's line; like us, he's descended from Philip Kratzer, one of the earliest settlers of Emmaus. Much to my surprise and delight, he checked out this blog and offered to send me pictures of markers from his home county, which I gladly accepted since who the heck knows when I'll be able to go there myself. So thanks to his contributions, today we're going to learn about a sailor in the Spanish-American War, and the origin of a certain well-known military catchphrase of the time.
