The Pennsylvania Chautauqua, Mount Gretna, Lebanon County

Important update from my post about Smithfield Church - the fire on Blue Mountain is out! Our entire community is deeply grateful to all of the fire companies who helped to bring the disaster to an impressive end - no one was injured and there was no property damage, apart from several hundred acres of trees. Hopefully it recovers quickly. Meanwhile, additional thanks to everyone who contributed in some way to the relief effort, as our home company was truly overwhelmed by the generosity. Even the visiting representatives from FEMA were astonished by the community response.

I'm still doing my best here to try to get the blogs caught up, but it's a slow process. I keep an awful lot of balls in the air at one time, and then sometimes life randomly tosses in a chainsaw or two. I appreciate the patience and the words of support I've received from many of you!

Kevin and I were at a meeting of my beloved White Rose Irregulars this past Saturday, where I talked for a little while about the family tree of Sherlock Holmes. Public speaking might be the greatest fear of a lot of people, but it honestly doesn't bother me very much at all; I quite enjoy it, even though I'm not overly fond of the sound of my own voice. After the meeting, we detoured off of the road home to collect today's marker - I found the subject so interesting, both visually and historically, that I had to make it the focus of this week's post because I couldn't wait to share it with all of you.

Andrew Ellicott, Lancaster, Lancaster County

Well, it might be another dreary January day in Pennsylvania, but at least it's the last one? Literally, of course, since tomorrow is the start of February. Rumor has it the temperatures might be going up a little bit soon - here's hoping. I'll be sending out the first monthly newsletter of 2024 tomorrow too, so if you don't already subscribe, now's the perfect time.

I'm slightly panicked because I now have just under two months until I return to my beloved Zenkaikon and give presentations about the history of Lancaster. This always happens to me; I jump at a chance to do something, then I get scared that I'm in over my head, and then somehow it all works out. Usually, anyway. So to get back into practice of telling Lancaster stories, we're going to spend today's quest learning about a gentleman who had a house there and contributed greatly to science and exploration back during the early days of our country.

Daniel Alexander Payne, Gettysburg, Adams County

Don't forget that this coming Saturday, September 24th, is Free Admission Day at all participating Pennsylvania Trails of History sites! I'm hoping to head up to Eckley's Miners Village, because every other time I've planned to go there I've had to cancel. Check out this page for a list of participating sites, and indulge yourself in some free history near you.

Meanwhile, my new friend the Hometown Historian has produced the start of a new playlist, in which he features YouTube channels and other sites which provide him with information and inspiration. I am extremely touched to be featured in this first video, which can be found here; I'm "last but not least" in quite a bit of illustrious company, so definitely check out some of the other recommendations he makes too!

As for today, we'll take a look at a gentleman who spent an important chunk of his life in Gettysburg, but isn't famous for being connected to the battlefield.

Thaddeus Stevens, Lancaster, Lancaster County

And here we are for part two of the 230th birthday celebration for Mr. Thaddeus Stevens! I very much would like to thank everyone who has shared the previous post, especially the Thaddeus Stevens Society. This past weekend, they celebrated his birthday by putting up a new statue of the gentleman outside of the Adams County courthouse, and I'll look forward to seeing that the next time I go to Gettysburg. I'm also grateful to my fellow Zenkaikon attendees who expressed interest in this, and who have been so kind as to click the links I'm giving them.

This post will be a little more image-heavy than the first one was, because I have more pictures from Thaddeus's later life. I made them smaller than usual for the post, but you can click on any of the pictures if you want to see the larger versions.

Thaddeus Stevens, Gettysburg, Adams County

As my Facebook followers are aware, I went radio silent for much of the past week due to being on a desperately-needed vacation. For the first time since 2019, my beloved Zenkaikon once again took place at the Lancaster County Convention Center and I was there for the whole thing, participating in discussions about my favorite media and admiring the colorful costumes and hugging people I had not seen in far too long. It is my happy place and I missed it more than I can say. (To use a modern colloquialism: If you know, you know.)

It was originally my intention to do this as a double marker post. However, there is simply too much to say about this particular subject; I can't confine myself to just one. So since there are two markers, in two counties, and a lot to say... you get two posts. The timing of this is deliberate, because the gentleman in question is observing his 230th birthday this coming week, and the two posts will be examining his life and legacy in both Gettysburg and Lancaster. 

Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Northampton County

A special shout-out hello to Karen Galle, the director of the PHMC’s historical marker program, who recently emailed to say how much she's enjoying MarkerQuest! She suggested that I start including the county in the name of each blog post as well as the community, which makes sense to me, so thank you for the idea.

Words might be my bread and butter, but in today's post, I rely more heavily on photographs than I normally do. That's because it's sort of hard for me to adequately describe the treasures of the Moravian Archives.

First School Slate Factory, Slatington, Lehigh County

For this first post written in my new residence, I'm going back to the county of my birth, to the hometown of my grandmother and her sisters. Slatington gets its name from the local deposits of slate, which have been used over the years to make many things. In particular, it's been used to make school chalkboards, which is what today's post discusses.