Charles Sheeler, Doylestown, Bucks County

I thought the showers were supposed to be in April. Around here, it's May which has been rainy this year - and more than rainy at that. Yesterday we had a tornado confirmed about twelve miles from my house, with hail falling in other places. My longtime readers know that I'm a walking barometer, so this hasn't been exactly fun for me.

I'm doing my best to keep up with the blog, though, and I did finally get files transferred from my less cooperative laptop to the one that my husband has essentially given me. (It's his, but he prefers his desktop computer and his iPad, so he gave me unrestricted access to this one. I like to use a laptop for writing purposes, because then I can work in bed and adjust my position as needed for pain.) So with any luck, sharing Pennsylvania history with all of you will be a bit easier now, and we have some possible trips coming up that will let me collect more markers.

For today, we'll take this year's first trip down to Bucks County, and learn about an artist who used to live in Doylestown. In fact, today is the 60th anniversary of his passing. (P.S. Don't forget, you have until May 18th to send me pictures of your favorite historical markers! See my previous post for details.)

Troxell-Steckel House, Whitehall, Lehigh County

I had hoped to be starting this post with the announcement that I've got a new podcast episode ready to roll. As it happens, however, I'm still waiting on YouTube's account verification and a couple other details. (I'm trying to clean up the audio quality.) So instead we're just getting straight into the blogging.

This will be a slightly odd blog post, at least by my own standards. I have two markers for the location, because the wording is just a little different on each, but I won't be sharing pictures of the actual farmhouse. That's not to say that I don't have pictures - I do. Quite a few, in fact, and I would love to share them. But it's a peculiar quirk of the Lehigh County Historical Society that you can't publish photographs of either the Troxell-Steckel House in Whitehall or Trout Hall in Allentown without their explicit written permission, and I just never got around to requesting the permission. Maybe they wouldn't mind, but then again, maybe they would, and I don't feel like dealing with any possible legal fallout. I'd rather play by the rules. Eventually I'll remember to write and ask for permission at a time when I'm actually able to do it, and I'll come back and add my photos to the post.

Joseph Priestley and Joseph Priestley House, Northumberland, Northumberland County

As I mentioned last month, my bff Andrea and I took a day trip through some of the more northeastern counties to collect a few markers, and this post is a result of that. After this there's just one more quest remaining for 2023 before I do my annual wrap-up for the year. My longtime readers may recall that, because I work in retail, I take the month of December off from blogging in order to have more time for little things like sleep.

This is only my second jaunt to Northumberland County with the blog; I hadn't managed to get there since I wrote about "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin some time ago. He had one thing in common with the subject of today's post - they both had insanely long lists of achievements, just in very different fields. In the case of today's subject, it was in a lot of different fields.

The Haines Shoe House, Hellam Township, York County

I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I did finally remember to get the August newsletter up and out! Subscribers, be sure to check your email. If you're not a subscriber, get on that you can click here and read it.

Last week I shared with you my adventures with bff Andrea as we attended the marker dedication for the Haines Shoe House in York County. As promised, now I'm going to tell you about the house itself.

Montgomery House, Danville, Montour County

Continuing this month's trend of county firsts, let's take our first shot at Montour County! This little county has only a handful of markers at present, and I was able to grab roughly half of them while we were on our way to Altoona last month. It's a lovely green landscape with many attractive historic buildings, and Kevin and I definitely want to go back and spend more time there. Sadly, because we were there on a weekday, the building in today's post was not open for tours; but I'm sure it's as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside.

"York House," York, York County

May the Fourth be with you! This post went up quite a bit later than I intended due to... well, it's hard to put this any other way, but due to a kitten emergency. We had a situation with abandoned two-week-old kittens at my mother's house. I'm happy to report that things have been resolved and the babies are in a good, safe home where they're being well fed and loved.

As the subscribers to the blog's monthly newsletter are aware, I'm running a giveaway over at the new Twitter account. Become a follower of the MarkerQuest Twitter by May 31st and you'll automatically be entered. One lucky winner will receive a $10 Amazon gift certificate, because that way nobody needs to give me their mailing address (which seems to have been a problem with the last giveaway). The winner will be announced in the post and newsletter on June 1st, since that's conveniently a Wednesday.

Meanwhile, let's head back to downtown York and have a look at one of their many exquisite historic houses.

White Cottage, New Brighton, Beaver County

We're at the start of a three-day heat wave here in eastern Pennsylvania, and I keep asking my Alexa how I can opt out of it but she doesn't have any helpful information. I hope everyone is keeping cool and safe.

For this week's quest, we're going to head back to Beaver County, where John Robinson has once again shared his beautiful photos of a marker and its subject. I'm going to be completely honest and say that until he sent me the pictures, I had honestly never heard of today's subject - either by her real name or by her pen name. However, I am also an author and most people have never heard of me either, so she and I have that in common. (Her marker calls her an "authoress" and also a "poetess," which I find oddly delightful.)

Colonial Mansion, Lancaster, Lancaster County

Last time, I said that I thought I'd be able to make an announcement in my next blog post. Those of you who follow the blog's Facebook page may have already seen it, but I've published my first history book! I'm altogether pleased with the results and I look forward to hearing what my readers think of it. You can read all about it on this page. 

In an effort to keep myself organized (my friends can tell you how very good at that I am not), I made a list of the subjects I was going to cover for the remainder of the year. I kind of chuckled when I checked the list and realized that I would be heading back to Lancaster County for this week's entry, because I was thinking about it recently. The Allentown Farmer's Market has an Amish bakery, where I got some pies last week for Thanksgiving, and their sign proudly mentions that their goods come from Lancaster County. 

Anyway, I collected the pictures for this post when my best friend Andrea and I were in the city earlier this year, so with December being as dismal as it is currently, it's good to go back to that sunny day in June. (All social distancing cautions were observed, I assure you.) We had smoothies and saw a lot of dogs.