2008-07-11 10:51:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
A slug of improperly treated human sewage closed parts of Forida's Gulf Coast to swimming last month. An algal bloom caused by a flood of nutrients crippled the Olympic sailing course in Qingdao, China, this week. Evidence of E. coli bacteria in the Susquehanna River forced indefinite ......
2008-07-08 14:49:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
You may have read an article last week about an archaeological dig at the Christiana "Riot House." An undisclosed detail of that dig is especially interesting. Jim Delle, Kutztown professor of archaeology, and a group of his students located the house's foundation and thousands of artifacts dur......
2008-07-01 12:01:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Six years ago, archaeologists dug up an old cistern in the first block of South Queen Street. The cistern is adjacent to Thaddeus Stevens's home and law office. The archaeologists and others suggested that Stevens modified the empty cistern and used it to hide fugitive slaves before the Civ......
2008-06-27 14:37:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Behind every great man, according to the old chestnut, stands a great woman. Jacob Grosh's second wife didn't stand behind him. She stood, or sat, in front of him to teach him English. And that opened his way to becoming a community leader. Jacob Grosh, Lancastrian Juanita Gri......
2008-06-20 10:04:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
One of the saddest stories about Lancastrians who left home in search of riches belongs to the Grosh brothers of Marietta. They may have found a fortune, but they died before they could collect. Ethan and Hosea Grosh were the sons of Aaron Grosh, a Universalist preacher, and his wife, Hannah......
2008-05-30 14:55:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Dear Dr. Scribblerdopp:
I have a question about Pennsylvania Dutch pronunciation. I've always heard "dopplich," for clumsy or awkward, but the Pennsylvania Dutch dictionary that I have says "doppich." Which is it?
...
2008-05-23 09:42:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Tuesday's Scribbler column poked some fun at the tourists who butter the county's economic bread. Let's continue pulling on that thread. In still another glossy guidebook explaining the Amish of Lancaster County to visitors, Elizabethtown College scholar Donald Kraybill says t......
2008-05-16 14:43:00
JACK BRUBAKER, Staff
A couple of years ago, Wendy Eshleman was working at the Lancaster Public Library's book warehouse, called the Book ReSort, when she received an unusual telephone call. "It was the most interesting call we ever got," recalls Eshleman, publicity chairman for the annual sale of donated books in s......
2008-04-25 15:01:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
One million Stoltzfuses. Imagine that! The organizers of an annual benefit auction for the Nicholas Stoltzfus house in Wyomissing, Berks County, estimate there are nearly one million descendants of the first Stoltzfus to settle in America. Nicholas and his family emigrated to Ameri......
2008-04-15 10:21:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Ballot Box Stolen
Ballots All Burned
Dark Work Done
In Manor Township
Well! The Democratic candidates for president this spring are slinging mud by the fistful. Election......
2008-04-08 10:46:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
As the decades have passed since Charlton Heston acted at Mount Gretna during the summer of 1948, stories about his short stay in the picturesque Lebanon County village have become legend. Two memories have surfaced just since the actor, who later played the film roles of Ben-Hur and Michelange......
2008-04-01 15:00:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Today is Knittin' Day in Ronks, where old and young, but mostly old, take out needle and thread and knit swim trunks in preparation for the pool season. As we observe this fittin' day for knittin' trunks in Ronks, the Scribbler reminds all readers that long before April 1 was known ......
2008-03-25 13:53:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Only 23 Amish families left Lancaster County last year. This moderate migration followed a more extreme exodus in 2006. Three dozen families packed up their belongings and waved good-bye in 2006 — a record number and quite a departure from fewer than two dozen families who usually le......
2008-03-21 14:33:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Hillary Clinton mispronounced "Lancaster" twice during her talk Tuesday night at Millersville University. Otherwise, her delivery was nearly flawless. Overpracticed, perhaps, but nevertheless persuasive. The senator played her voice like an instrument, ranging from moderately loud to ......
2008-03-14 14:25:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
If you want to know how the epileptic Julius Caesar fell in Rome's public square, read "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare. If you want to know how the vainglorious General Custer fell at the Little Bighorn, read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown. I......
2008-03-07 13:52:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Behold, contrasting views of the early town of Lancaster:
The spirit of cleanliness has not yet in the least troubled the major part of the inhabitants, for, in general, they are very great sluts and slovens.
— fr......
2008-02-29 10:22:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Forty-five years ago Dr. Charles Winter did something exceptional. The Lancaster New Era reported it. But the reporter neglected to name the doctor. This column rectifies that oversight. Winter, a retired orthopedic surgeon, has been handing out copies of a June 27, 1963, New Era......
2008-02-26 12:44:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Joel Hartman, professor emeritus of rural sociology at the University of Missouri, says "rivel" is wrong. "Any self-respecting Dutchman knows that 'rivvel' has two 'v's'," notes Hartman, a Lancastrian who graduated from McCaskey in 1947, Franklin & Ma......
2008-02-15 14:48:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Among other accomplishments, Bob Wilcox has: • Preserved more than 1,000 cigar bands. • Catalogued more than 2,500 jokes. • Eaten in more than 4,000 restaurants. But until recently the Willow Street resident and retired Armstrong advertising exec didn't know th......
2008-02-12 11:43:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
If Betty Botter bought a batch of bitter butter to bake her rivels browner, would Betty Botter's browner rivels also have been bitter? Probably. When it comes to brown rivels, bitter or not, the only sure thing is that they are made brown by toasting an ingredient. Whether that in......
2008-02-05 10:29:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Dear Dr. Scribblerivel:
Having grown up in the rivel capital of the world, perhaps you can help. As you are aware, in Lancaster County rivels frequently appear in chicken corn soup, ham and bean soup and sometimes even vegetable soup — not to mention &qu......
2008-02-01 10:36:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Let's rub some numbers together. • From the Susquehanna River to the Gap in the hills, Lancaster County contains 602,000 acres of land. • The county's population is expected to top 600,000 by 2030, rising from about 500,000 now. That means that in 22 years, give or t......
2008-01-29 10:27:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Some things you have to experience personally. War is one. At least, John Piersol McCaskey's brother thought so. The Lancaster high school principal who would give his name to a new city high school and become the city's mayor visited Gettysburg shortly after the battle in the summer ......
2008-01-25 12:50:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
The manuscript of the first detective story ever written led a precarious life in Lancaster for several decades at the end of the 19th century, J.M. Johnston, a Lancaster business man, repeatedly rescued Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" from disaster. Poe'......
2008-01-22 14:19:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Some things you hear about the Amish are pure baloney. What Tom Smith, a Drumore Township farmer, tells you about the Amish in "Liberty Square Observed and Noted'' is the real thing. As promised, here is a second column about Smith's book of reminiscences. The first col......
2008-01-18 08:53:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
The Scribbler spends a fair amount of time reading and writing about Lancaster County's last native American Indians, the Conestogas. Twice, the very thoughtful Littler Scribbler has given the Scribbler plastic bags of plastic Indians to inspire his work. The first bag, provided severa......
2008-01-15 10:07:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Barry Kornhauser was re-reading John Durang's autobiography when his eyes "popped out." Durang, the first professional actor born in America — in Lancaster, actually — called one of his acting troupes "The Durang Company of Barnstormers." Kornhauser, the......
2008-01-11 10:00:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Thomas Welsh, one of six generals to hail from Columbia, endured a rough childhood. He went to work in a nail factory at age 8. He managed to attend only four or five years of school while working as an itinerant carpenter throughout his teenage years. But this relatively unlearned young m......
2008-01-08 14:03:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Now that the seasonal shopping binge is over, you may be feeling squeezed for cash. There's a reason for that. The typical worker in Lancaster County earns 17 percent less than the average Pennsylvanian and 20 percent less than the average American, the U.S. Department of L......
2008-01-04 14:45:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
The current issue of Indie Slate, a magazine for independent film and TV production and distribution, describes the shooting of Derrick Warfel's first feature-length film. The native Lancastrian couldn't get anyone else to make the movie, so he made it himself. The result, a spirit......
2007-12-28 13:55:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Barb Schober's students have a question. They want to know who allowed the Paxton Boys to kill this area's last native inhabitants and escape punishment. The 7th grade students at Warwick Middle School asked their question after Schober provided them with historical background....
2007-12-21 14:12:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
The Scribbler requested Christmas tree stories. You delivered four terrific ones. • Cathy Love, of Willow Street, recalls that her mother wanted a white tree &tstr; then in vogue &tstr; one Christmas in the 1940s. So her dad simply sprayed a recently-cut tree with white paint.......
2007-12-18 14:20:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Tom Kelley spent a long weekend half a century ago bowling 429 consecutive games. From Dec. 13 through Dec. 16, 1957, 29-year-old Kelley bowled nonstop, with blisters on his fingers and bandages on his toes, and set an unofficial world record. Why did he do it? "It was a chall......
2007-12-14 11:15:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Is Franklin & Marshall College's bill for tuition, room, board and fees higher than Harvard University's? Is the sky F&M blue? If you are a freshman attending Harvard this year, you are paying $45,620 for everything. If you are attending F&M as a freshman, the c......
2007-12-11 11:13:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
What do Lancaster Mormons think of Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate who made a speech last week seeking to allay concerns about his Mormon faith? "I think the members of the church are intensely interested," says David Kenley, one of three bishops of the local ......
2007-12-07 14:17:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Some people dream of chucking their day jobs and doing what they really want to do. Others quit dreaming and just do it. When he was 48 years old, J. Richard Steffy stopped laboring as an electrical contractor in his hometown, Denver, and began pursuing his lifelong passion full-time....
2007-12-04 14:25:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
This Scribbler has been writing about Lancaster's Christmas traditions for nearly three decades. Each year he invites readers to submit personal stories related to the holiday. Topics have included everything from Christmas stockings and gifts to Belsnickel and Evel Knievel. (Just joshing ......
2007-11-30 09:04:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
What would you do if, at age 55, you discovered that you had been misspelling your name all your life? If you think you could simply correct the error and have a goofy story to share with your friends, you have another think coming. Ask Dave Stauffer about that. Dave was born a Stouff......
2007-11-27 10:55:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
When the Myers family moved into the Dogwood Hollow section of Levittown, Bucks County, in 1957, the mailman communicated the event. "It's happened. (Blacks) have moved into Levittown!" he shouted as he walked up and down the streets. Daisy Myers, the matriarch of that first ......
2007-11-23 09:15:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Thaddeus Stevens waged the Civil War with a single-minded determination to end slavery and make the South pay for its enslavement of blacks forever. At the same time, Lancaster County's congressional representative defended Mennonites who refused to fight the conflict he pursued with such fi......
2007-11-06 10:29:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Harry W. Rutt, author of a new family reminiscence called "Back Porch Memories," grew up as a Black Bumper Mennonite. His family's church, more properly known as the Weaverland Conference Mennonite Church, permits its members to own cars, but only if they are painted black. That i......
2007-11-02 13:44:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Evelyn Ay Sempier, the Ephrata native who became Miss America in 1954, won her first beauty contest at home. She was crowned queen of the Ephrata Fair in 1950. Her crown was fashioned to look like tobacco leaves. That unusual crown soon will take its place among hundreds of exhibits i......
2007-10-30 14:01:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Philadelphia Electric's Web site for Muddy Run Park welcomes you to enjoy: "700 acres of beautiful woodland and rolling fields surrounding a scenic 100-acre lake nestled within the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch farmlands in southern Lancaster County." A chapter in Tom Smith'......
2007-10-26 10:30:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Late in the summer of 1918, as World War I was running out of gas, the federal government asked all patriotic Americans to observe "gasless Sunday" and only drive cars if absolutely necessary. Most Lancaster County motorists followed the request, the Lancaster Daily Examiner reported ......
2007-10-19 14:29:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Here are a couple of interesting stories related to Lancaster County's two most prominent 19th century residents, the polar political opposites President James Buchanan and U.S. Rep. Thaddeus Stevens. The first concerns Buchanan's 23-acre estate, Wheatland, in Lancaster's West End. Buchana......
2007-10-12 09:48:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
In the late 1920s, Lancaster Mayor Frank Musser proposed a city transportation innovation that went far beyond the ordinary. Musser wanted to purchase the Pennsylvania Railroad right of way through the city and turn it into a subway. The Pennsy used to run right through downtown Lancaster,......
2007-10-09 13:12:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Back in mid-September, the Scribbler discussed the first black student to attend the institution that would become Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology. There's more to that story. Edward Sebastian was born in Marietta in 1900 and graduated from Stevens with high honors in 1920....
2007-10-08 08:51:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Michael Werner has actively cultivated the Pennsylvania German dialect for 15 years. Dr. Werner does not live in Pennsylvania. He lives in Germany. Why is a magazine publishing executive from Mainz, in the German Palatinate, interested in the way Pennsylvanians speak t......
2007-10-02 12:19:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Following the shootings at the Amish school in Nickel Mines a year ago today, Robert C. Denlinger told the Scribbler he was thinking about writing a book. He had several ideas, but one seemed unique. Denlinger associated the killing of five young Amish girls with the five people who fell t......
2007-09-28 13:35:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
A PennDOT crew repaved West High Street in Carlisle this week, effectively burying a Dickinson College plan to create a traffic island down its center. The college had proposed the island to help calm traffic along the busy thoroughfare and make student crossings safer. Dickinson's dis......
2007-09-25 12:28:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
The Amish response of forgiveness following the schoolhouse shootings at Nickel Mines stunned the world. The authors of a new book about Amish forgiveness were stunned themselves to learn that, though they had anticipated the response, they did not fully understand its roots. The Amish imm......
2007-09-21 14:11:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
In Washington, D.C., in the winter of 1852, a teenager died of pneumonia. He was dressed in a white cotton suit, his face covered by an oval glass plate, and buried in an air-tight, cast-iron coffin. Since his amazingly well preserved body resurfaced two years ago, researchers at the Smithsonia......
2007-09-18 09:50:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Dear Dr. Scribblerbell:
Where is the bell that sounds the Big Ben tune, followed by the number of gongs to the hour? No one seems to know. David R. Morrison Landisville
Dear David:
The Westminster Chimes, as recorded f......
2007-09-14 11:25:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Have you ever heard of a housetrained cow? Not a cat. A cow. Naseema Shafi's parents grew up in a city in northern Pakistan. Naseema grew up in America. She's one of the Little Scribbler's best friends in Washington, D.C. In Pakistan, Naseema's father's family......
2007-09-11 10:19:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Thaddeus Stevens, the great 19th century statesman who represented Lancaster County in the U.S. House, set aside $50,000 in his will to create a school for homeless and indigent orphans. At this school, he dictated, "no preference shall be shown on account of race or color.... They shal......
2007-09-07 13:53:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
The troubles started when the Little Scribbler moved from Lancaster to Washington, D.C., seven years ago this week. Terrorists have assaulted the town only once, but the Little Scribbler has endured continual attacks on the proper pronunciation of the names of her native county and the religiou......
2007-09-04 11:05:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Along Valley Road, the scenic highway that connects Quarryville and Green Tree in Bart Township, stand two old Presbyterian churches. The Middle Octorara Presbyterian Church stands south of the road. The congregation dates to 1727 and the oldest part of the church to 1800. It still hosts Sun......
2007-08-31 10:12:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Carl Jung said, "Nothing has a stronger influence on children than the unlived life of the parents." But maybe the psychiatrist didn't get it quite right. Let's see. In the early '70s, before the Scribbler and Mrs. Scribbler got hitched, we independently traveled to the West Coast....
2007-08-24 13:32:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Something essential to Armstrong World Industries' sprawling floor plant in northwest Lancaster City died long before the plant itself. Remember how that part of the city used to smell? It smelled like linoleum. It smelled like Armstrong. And to at least one Armstrong empl......
2007-08-17 14:17:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Celebrating bicentennial of Fulton's steamboat success Two hundred years ago this month, Lancaster-born entrepreneur Robert Fulton drove a steamboat up the Hudson River and transformed transportation in the United States. This weekend, Clermont State Historic Site will mark that histor......
2007-08-10 12:57:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Mrs. Scribbler long ago decided that everything that happens in the world has a Lancaster County connection. Here's a prime example: On Tuesday night, Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run, breaking the major league record for career home runs, with a little help from his friends at th......
2007-08-07 13:08:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Major Gen. Samuel Peter Heintzelman, one of the more obscure Civil War corps commanders, lost contact with his rapidly retreating soldiers during the Battle of Second Bull Run. And that is how he lost his role as a field commander. "Age, confusion in the Union command, but most of......
2007-08-03 13:17:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
A new publication by Stackpole Books, "100 Things to Know: The Battle of Gettysburg," answers a question millions of Americans with bad hearing have asked. How did Pennsylvanians far removed from the Gettysburg battlefield hear the massive cannonade that preceded Pickett's Charge on July 3, ......
2007-07-31 13:41:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
He was a respected architect and accomplished watercolorist. But the British-born Francis Howse Cruess has not received his just due, notes Paul Montigny, who owns most of Cruess's watercolors and pen and ink sketches. Neither has Cruess's daughter, Helen Rutter Cruess, also an ......
2007-07-27 13:24:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
The Scribbler dropped by the Lancaster Public Library on Duke Street to check out a free movie and a book covering Oregon's early history. On a whim, he also checked the rack of free handouts near the door and discovered several interesting items to share with readers on this 102nd birthday......
2007-07-24 14:13:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
A century ago, public watering troughs were commonplace. Horses drank from them. Early steam-operated automobiles drew water from them. Even early gasoline-powered cars used their liquid to cool overheated engines. But the day of the public watering trough is long past, and when Mount J......
2007-07-20 13:55:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Dear Dr. Scribblerschmutz:
Wikipedia, the online dictionary, calls schmutz, or schmootz, a Yiddish word meaning "dirty,'' but I disagree. Schmutz is anything spread thick, or the process of doing so (schmutz some cup cheese on the bread for me now). If ......
2007-07-17 14:49:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Lancaster's 19th century congressional representative Thaddeus Stevens remains renowned for his acerbic tongue 140 years after he died. The man knew how to fire a phrase. Stevens was serving in the Pennsylvania House during the so-called Buckshot War of 1838. He led the Whigs opposing D......
2007-07-13 13:23:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
The Scribbler has been accused from time to time of overly disparaging the record of the 15th president of the United States, Lancaster's own James Buchanan. As if anything the Scribbler could say would match the vilification most historians periodically heap on the man. Most of this cr......
2007-07-10 14:55:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Benjamin Groff Herr's first view of Lancaster City in the early 1820s astounded him. The teenager was particularly fascinated by the old courthouse on Penn Square. Later in life he wrote in his journal: "The marble steps and pedestals, the solid, high, and continuous walls, th......
2007-07-06 12:58:00
Jack Brubaker, The Scribbler
With the development of television, and the technical advance which made it possible to receive and transmit simultaneously on the same instrument, private life came to an end.
— George Orwell, "1984"
Confirm your suspicions! Want to k......
2007-06-29 11:46:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
The Patriot Daughters of Lancaster, arriving at Gettysburg soon after the battle ended to nurse and feed a legion of wounded soldiers, encountered what one described as "a field of blood." The nurses' 61-page account of their experience — "Hospital Scenes after the Battle of Gettysb......
2007-06-22 13:41:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Just when you thought every battle of the American Civil War has its own book club... And four years before the renewed publishing outburst that is sure to accompany the war's sesquicentennial... Stackpole Books and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission have printed a genui......
2007-06-15 12:28:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Whether English should be designated the nation's "official" language has been debated since the early days of America. In 1816, that debate provoked a riot. A Lancastrian presided over the trial that ensued. In the winter of 1816, German Lutherans and a group of fellow congregants wh......
2007-06-08 14:03:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Bold effort to rescue cat in tree results in feline tragedy If you ever wonder why many fire companies no longer respond to calls to remove cats from trees, here's your answer. A Georgetown resident spotted a strange cat in a tree and called the Bart Fire Company, according to Yonie Esh, G......
2007-06-05 12:45:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Each June, when honeysuckle blooms and fireflies flourish, the Scribbler hears the great outdoors calling. School's out, the great outdoors calls. It's time to come to camp. On Saturday morning, the Scribbler heeded the call and spent a couple of pleasant hours in the woods at the ......
2007-06-01 12:46:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Five young oak trees along North Duke and East Orange streets by the Lancaster County Library and St. James Episcopal Church have no life left in them. A ginkgo has croaked outside Central Market. Two linden trees expired in the first block of East King Street, across from the old county c......
2007-05-30 09:05:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Joe Mackall, director of the creative writing program at Ohio's Ashland University, has written a thoughtful and sometimes humorous book about the Amish. His primary subject: Swartzentruber Amish, the most conservative of all groups, who happen to be concentrated in Ohio. Mackall's neighb......
2007-05-25 12:51:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
They also serve who farm for those who fight. On this Memorial Day weekend, let us recognize conscientious objectors who helped on the home front while others waged World War II. Gideon Fisher was a well-known Ronks farmer, author of a locally popular book, "Farm Life and Its Changes,......
2007-05-22 12:41:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
This column turns 88 years old Thursday. You may throw your own celebration, complete with cupcakes and frozen yogurt. Just don't throw the food. Robert E. Miller, who had just returned to Lancaster from the Great War, wrote the first column called "The Scribbler" on May 24, 1919. That col......
2007-05-18 14:00:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
When the Scribbler heard Tuesday that Jerry Falwell had died, he thought immediately of R. J. Barber Jr. Those preachers were two peas in a pod. The difference was that Barber remained in the pod, while Falwell broke out in spectacular fashion. In the autumn of 1970, the Scribbler moved to......
2007-05-15 12:39:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
The Scribbler, Mrs. Scribbler and some kayak buddies recently paddled down scenic Pequea Creek to the concrete pad that held the Martic Forge Hotel before it burned three years ago. We docked our boats and continued walking along the creek on the Conestoga Trail. Near what is generally kno......
2007-05-11 12:49:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
The old story about the Pennsylvania Dutch taking better care of their animals than their children probably originated because German farmers often built barns before houses. That way they could shelter both children and animals while building their homes. It might not have worked so well ......
2007-05-08 12:31:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Katie Stoltzfus is an eighth-generation descendant of Nicholas Stoltzfus, the first member of the Stoltzfus family to emigrate to America. She is a quilter and operator of Country Lane Quilts on South Groffdale Road. She is the author of a new recipe book that includes songs and poems abou......
2007-05-04 12:28:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
This week's agreement to preserve the facade of the county's old almshouse at Conestoga View actually is the second easement donated by the property's private owner. Complete HealthCare Resources earlier granted an easement to allow the Conestoga Greenway to cross its property along......
2007-05-01 13:31:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Although Lancaster has no whale or walrus, it does have a spectacularly appropriate city seal. A likeness is displayed prominently on city buildings, vehicles and documents That seal turns 100 today. The Scribbler wants to help it make a big splash on its birthday. The city's Commo......
2007-04-27 13:49:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
Dear Dr. Scribblerjustice:
My wife was on jury duty recently at the Lancaster County Courthouse and noticed a carved wooden head in the corner of Courtroom A. No one seemed to know what it is. One story is that it was found in Buchanan Park. It was rotting, so it was c......
2007-04-20 14:05:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
As Earth Day 2007 approaches, an early participant in Lancaster County's recycling program remembers how LEAF began. LEAF — the Lancaster Environmental Action Federation — was launched on Earth Day 1973 by Dr. John H. Moss, recalls Bruce Holran, former F&M public relations d......
2007-04-10 13:26:00
JACK BRUBAKER, The Scribbler
This just in from the U.S. Department of Agricultural Subgroups. USDA Secretary Mike Johanns will discuss the department's 2007 farm bill proposal Wednesday morning on the Dale Herr farm in Kirkwood. A media advisory notes that the proposal would make conservation programs "more effi......
2007-04-03 12:54:00
Jack Brubaker, The Scribbler
John A. Sutter, older biographies will tell you, was one of America's great pioneers. He helped obtain Mexican California for the United States. The gold rush began on his land, which was then stolen from him. But newer biographies will tell you that Sutter enslaved and murdered Indians, abused......
2007-03-30 13:59:00
Jack Brubaker, The Scribbler
When the Jonathan Kings traveled from Shipshewana, Ind., to attend a wedding in Lancaster County a few weeks ago, a relative gave them a booklet of newspaper stories. The booklet — "Lost Angels: The Untold Stories of the Amish School Shootings" — reprinted the in-depth series on the......
2007-03-27 13:24:00
Jack Brubaker, The Scribbler
Only one Lancaster City police officer has been shot to death in the line of duty. Lt. Elwood Gainor was murdered because he did the right thing. Early on the morning of March 29, 1927 — 80 years ago this week — Gainor's still-warm body was found along a road in Delaware County....
2007-03-23 13:51:00
Jack Brubaker, The Scribbler
The Amish are great genealogists. They not only know who their second cousins twice removed are or were, but they know who their great-great-grandfather's second cousins twice removed were. Credit natural curiosity for providing some of this knowledge. Credit Amish and Amish Mennonite Genea......
2007-03-09 15:42:00
JACK BRUBAKER
Before dancers take to a slick floor, they dip the points of their shoes into a rosin box. Rosin, the hardened sap from trees, helps them get a grip. But here's news of a different kind of rosin box. Lancastrian Herbert Long's neighbor recently got married. Long asked him where he planned ......
2007-03-02 14:12:00
JACK BRUBAKER
Before Sharron Nelson, who was the last person appointed to complete an unexpired term of an elected county commissioner? That's an easy one: G. Terry Madonna, now director of Franklin & Marshall College's Center for Politics and Public Affairs, served as commissioner from March 1971 to ......
2007-02-23 14:34:00
JACK BRUBAKER
The Scribbler grew up on a farm full of Pekin ducks along muddy Mill Creek. In the summertime, with more than 100,000 ducks quacking in outside pens, every passing Long Island tourist could see, hear and smell precisely what a fowl farm was all about. Dairy, corn and tobacco farms surround......
2007-02-20 14:02:00
JACK BRUBAKER
At Lancaster County's apex on Texter Mountain, where Lancaster, Berks and Lebanon counties join, lies Hans Jakob's Orchard. This high point also is known as Hansyaricks Baamgaard. That's a Pennsylvania German designation that some promoters of the dialect believe should be posted on......
2007-02-16 14:14:00
JACK BRUBAKER
Two weather-related observations:
We are poisoning our water supply because we don't want to go slow in snow.Pennsylvania applies about 750,000 tons of rock salt to roads during a typical year. Counties and municipalities apply tons more. Lancaster City alone a......
2007-02-13 12:45:00
JACK BRUBAKER
Lydia Hamilton Smith will have to wait a week for her roses. Smith, who served as the housekeeper and confidante of Thaddeus Stevens, Lancaster's Civil War-era U.S. representative, was born and died on Valentine's Day (1813-1884). When a group of Lancastrians gathered at her gra......
2007-02-09 14:10:00
JACK BRUBAKER
One of the most successful industrial technology programs in American high schools needs help. Or, to put this plea another way, a native Lancastrian who runs one of the most successful industrial technology programs needs help. For two decades, Kirk Marshall has been teaching and helpi......
2007-02-06 13:43:00
JACK BRUBAKER
After the Paxton Boys murdered the last of the Conestoga Indians in December 1763, local observers felt compelled to discuss the character of the deceased. Some described the last of the Conestogas, a group of 20 impoverished men, women and children, as a "miserable remnant" of the gr......
2007-01-30 12:51:00
JACK BRUBAKER
Russia and the Old Confederacy could take lessons from Lancaster County farmers! So proclaimed "Pennsylvania Beautiful," Wallace Nutting's ode to the old in the Keystone State. From time to time, this column examines how writers in various ages viewed Lancaster County and ......
2007-01-26 13:40:00
JACK BRUBAKER
Today’s topic is: unusual sandwich makings. The most unusual sandwich the Scribbler ever ate was at a Primanti Brothers Restaurant in Pittsburgh. The Scribbler was a vegetarian at the time, so no meat sullied that sandwich. Instead, the bread was stacked with cheese, cole sla......
2007-01-23 15:16:00
JACK BRUBAKER
Dear Dr. Scribblertribe: Can you tell me what the name Pequea means? What language does it come from? Joan King Puzzled in Pequea
Dear Puzzled: Pequea is an old Scots-Irish variation on Peck’s Way, an early 18th century foot path that skirted the Susquehanna River......
2007-01-05 15:13:48
Jack Brubaker
So here’s an effort to turn bunions into bunionade. Actually, there’s only one bunion. More specifically, there’s a painful excess of bone on the outside of the big toe of the Scribbler’s right foot. Most bunions develop because tight shoes restrict the big toe, prompting additional bone growt......
2007-01-02 14:09:58
Jack Brubaker
For years I have wondered about the name “Nickel Mines.’’ When was Nickel Mines there? When did it stop? Is Nickel Mines still there? The only other nickel mine I have ever seen was in Canada, where a nickel about 10 feet tall was placed in front of the mine. Don Ober Manheim
Dear......
2006-12-19 15:17:25
Jack Brubaker
The prominent 18th century Leacock Township farmer did not sign the document. He was just there. He watched George Washington, Ben Franklin and George Ross sign. Nathaniel Ellmaker’s portrait, hanging in the commissioners’ meeting room, is just there, too, watching Dick Shellenberger, Pete Shaub ......
2006-12-05 12:50:54
Jack Brubaker
The Scribbler has two pictorial remembrances of the war to share. One is a composite photograph created by Robert L. Horst, of Lancaster. It shows Horst’s cousin, Pfc John Horst, and his grave marker in the American Military Cemetery in St. Larent, France. Horst died in France, in combat, on J......
2006-11-21 13:50:35
Jack Brubaker
The question recurs following last Tuesday’s inconclusive Dr. Scribblerstorm column. Let’s begin with indisputable facts. Herschel Walker was, indeed, a famous football running back who said, “If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.’’ That’s all we need to know a......
2006-11-14 13:54:10
Jack Brubaker
She was referring to weather changes when a cold or warm front comes in, how the sky gets dark and the clouds are thick and the wind blows fiercely. Did you ever hear of this? Dona Mylin Willow Street
Dear Dona: Eric Horst, the Millersville University meteorologist, is close to......
2006-11-07 14:09:28
Jack Brubaker
It would make a fascinating article, if the editors would allow it to be published. Austin J. Rich East Hempfield Township
Dear Austin: The last time the Lancaster New Era editorially endorsed a political candidate outside the Republican Party was: A. Last week. B. Last year......
2006-11-03 14:31:45
Jack Brubaker
Home deliverymen wore promotional pins encouraging customers to “Beep for Breakfast.’’ Ugh. The Scribbler is not unhappy he never tasted this blended drink, but he would be very unhappy indeed if he could not enjoy Turkey Hill frozen yogurt for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So now you know ......
2006-10-31 14:29:36
Jack Brubaker
But four chandeliers in the House Chamber, the largest room in the building, weigh 4 1/2 tons — each one heavier than a Hummer. Standing at chandelier height in the balcony overlooking the House gallery, the Scribbler wondered how many of Pennsylvania’s 203 representatives would go down for the c......
2006-10-27 14:06:46
Jack Brubaker
“The display of culture became culture,’’ said William Donner, a Kutztown University anthropology professor. “It became meaningful itself.’’ Donner explained that three men were largely responsible for that achievement: William Troxell, Thomas Brendle and Clarence Rahn. Donner discussed their ......
2006-10-13 13:57:19
Jack Brubaker
Jean Weglarz, a member of the Woodward Hill Cemetery board, wants the community to help decide how to handle the old elm that is rapidly expiring from Dutch elm disease in the cemetery on South Queen Street. The board has decided to end the elm’s misery this winter. What to do with the wood? “......
2006-10-06 12:52:38
Jack Brubaker
Most famous was Rebecca Gratz, the Philadelphia beauty reputed to be the inspiration for Sir Walter Scott’s character Rowena in “Ivanhoe.’’ But here’s something you may not know. Another one of Simon’s granddaughters, Richea Gratz, has been called the first Jewish woman in the United States to......
2006-10-03 13:47:36
Jack Brubaker
In the background, a radio announcer reported balls and strikes. The Scribbler assumed Philadelphia was playing Washington and said something about maybe the Phillies getting to the playoffs this year. “Phillies?’’ the guy said with scorn. “Phillies?’’ he repeated, pouring it on. “I’m rooting for......
2006-09-19 13:50:13
Jack Brubaker
Simon Bronner, a Penn State-Harrisburg professor of American studies and folklore, writes about the German and Pennsylvania German preoccupation with manure and how it colors their culture and humor. The essay appears in “Preserving Heritage: A Festschrift for C. Richard Beam,’’ a book newly-rele......
2006-09-15 14:03:25
Jack Brubaker
He was driving up the Beartown hill east of Blue Ball when his horse decided he had suffered enough and quit walking. Glick began talking to the animal, but nothing he said changed the balker’s mind. He hollered at the horse, but he wouldn’t budge. A woman living by the road watched this inter......
2006-09-12 14:41:28
Jack Brubaker
Please check your chewing gum and raisins at the door, And we’ll tell you Bible stories that you’ve never heard before.
That’s the chorus of “The Sunday School Song,’’ a unique tune the Scribbler never sang while attending Sunday School at Bird-in-Hand United Methodist Church....
2006-09-05 14:45:52
Jack Brubaker
The incident sparked a “War on Terror’’ that continues. On Sept. 11, 1851, four slaves who had escaped a Maryland plantation joined with scores of sympathetic Lancastrians to kill the slaveowner who had traveled to Christiana to reclaim them. Originally called the “Christiana Riot,’’ this even......
2006-08-29 14:41:50
Jack Brubaker
“They call the thunderbird the rain bringer,’’ he said. “Maybe we shouldn’t highlight her today.’’ The Lancaster Canoe Club chose Sunday, the first rainy day in weeks, to paddle out to Big and Little Indian rocks in the Susquehanna River just below Safe Harbor Dam. Nevin, an amateur archaeolog......
2006-08-25 13:28:50
Jack Brubaker
And the restored carousel will find a home regardless of what the city decides to do with the east side of Lancaster Square. “We’re looking for a location to put the building up and funds to actually build the building,’’ says Mike Sweeney, one of the founders of the Rocky Springs Carousel Associ......
2006-08-23 09:12:25
Jack Brubaker
Then did you know that the criminal Black Hand Society killed the first two Pennsylvania State Police officers to die in the line of duty 100 years ago next month in Jefferson County? OK, let’s say you knew that, too. But did you know that Lancaster is the eighth most populous city in Pennsylv......
2006-08-11 12:58:18
By Jack Brubaker
How can this be? I thought our Central Market was the oldest in the United States. Jan Smith Lancaster
Dear Jan: Actually, the New Era article reported that the Columbia Market, built in 1869, is the oldest standing market house in the county. Lancaster’s standing Central Marke......
2006-08-04 13:47:54
By Jack Brubaker
An early remodeling, completed by 1815, added more sophisticated British-American elements. “I like to think of myself as complex,’’ Hoover says, “but yet I was drawn to a simple house with touches of elegance.’’ Hoover’s home is the primary specimen of nine Lancaster houses featured and pictu......
2006-08-01 13:13:08
Jack Brubaker
By hot-air balloon. On his first try, he failed spectacularly, crashing his balloon in New York and destroying all the mail. The second time he failed in more mundane fashion, floating the wrong direction in Indiana and causing the mail to be delivered extremely late. A brief article in the......
2006-07-28 14:31:18
Jack Brubaker
On June 12, 1905, two workers were unloading 1,764 pounds of butter from a railroad car near the Mount Joy train station when a Pennsylvania Railroad express traveling west collided with the car. Vera Albert recounts what happened in her new historical booklet,“Trains & Trolleys in Mount Joy.’’...
2006-07-14 14:15:14
Jack Brubaker
The publisher was Ralph Ginzburg, and he named one of those magazines Eros and filled it with words and images that would not amuse most grandparents. Intercourse, of course, is right down the road from Bird-in-Hand, so this was extremely vital local news. If you think there was a more arresti......
2006-06-30 14:18:17
Jack Brubaker
The Scribbler asked that question as he stood outside a 1962 rancher whose Manor Township owner is asking nearly $200,000. What, the Scribbler wondered, makes this little house worth a fifth of a million dollars? Most items featured on a one-page list of domestic assets are as standard as you’......
2006-06-16 13:06:48
Jack Brubaker
A major exhibition, “Along the Susquehanna: How the River Shapes Our Region,’’ will open this summer at the Lancaster County Historical Society, North Museum and other sites in Lancaster and York counties. More on that in a future column. Meanwhile, smaller historical societies are doing their......
2006-06-09 13:12:46
Jack Brubaker
Someone sprayed “urban sprall’’ in orange on the Brighton Village Community Center on Brighton Avenue. And someone sprayed “urbansprawl’’ in red on the side of Millfield Construction on Erbs Quarry Road. Comments New Era police reporter John Hoober, “They are not candidates for the Spelling Be......
2006-06-02 12:55:13
Jack Brubaker
None of the poses shows “The Bather’’ in the water. She’s standing or sitting on the diving board and the beach. Though she was fully clothed in bathing cap and a swimsuit that ran from neck to knee, her father felt scandalized that Nel would pose in less than formal clothing for commercial postc......
2006-05-19 12:59:24
Jack Brubaker
Not the summer vacation you plan to take this year, but previous summer vacations. In an effort to amuse readers — and fill this column — the Scribbler is sponsoring a “Worst Vacation Ever’’ contest. Tell the Scribbler what went wrong when you vacationed on the Outer Banks during a hurricane o......
2006-05-16 14:07:58
Jack Brubaker
“Contact Arlene Specter and ask her to vote for this bill’’ is precisely what the caller said. The Lancastrian interrupted the script. “If this is a Senate bill,’’ she asked, “shouldn’t we be calling our Senator Arlen Specter and asking him to vote for it?’’ Dead silence on the other end of......
2006-05-12 12:53:29
Jack Brubaker
One of those guys may have broken the Scribbler’s car window in early January and stolen his briefcase filled with vital reportorial stuff. Please, judge, treat the guilty party with as much respect as he treated my automobile. The Scribbler is thinking about the briefcase incident for two rea......
2006-05-09 13:07:13
Jack Brubaker
The low rate also reflects a priority of people who live here: many believe labor closely follows Godliness and cleanliness on the scale of estimable qualities. So a book titled “Lancaster at Work’’ should be popular among hard-working Lancastrians. That’s what the Lancaster County Historical ......
2006-05-05 13:21:26
Jack Brubaker
The Scribbler purchased his first automobile in the autumn of 1966 — four decades ago, before Dick Nixon was president! — and paid 29.9 cents for his first gallon of.... Oh, wait a minute, the gas tank on that car exploded the next day, so the Scribbler never put any gas into it. The Scribbler......
2006-05-05 13:19:42
Jack Brubaker
After a century and a quarter, one might expect any complex Pennsylvania German word to have several variants. Case in point: happe-deckel. That is, a clay pot or crock used to hold apple butter or puddin’ or the like. Phebe Earle Gibbons, a keen observer of the Pennsylvania Germans, spelled t......
2006-05-05 13:15:39
Jack Brubaker
Fifteen ducklings waddled after her. “I said to Barb, ‘Those little babies are going to fall through,’’’ Davis says. “And by darn if they didn’t begin to pop through the grating.’’ Eleven of the ducklings disappeared. Mama duck waddled away with four. But she didn’t waddle far. Noticing ......
2006-04-21 14:31:47
Jack Brubaker
He also was an illiterate slaveholder. You won’t find those secondary characteristics listed on a marker to be raised to Simon’s memory next month at Orange and Queen streets, near the house where he lived. You will read that Simon (1712-1804) “played a significant role in the development of c......
2006-04-07 13:41:39
Jack Brubaker
“The Southern Journey of a Civil War Marine: The Illustrated Note-Book of Henry O. Gusley’’ proves otherwise. Here is a clear, engaging account of the conflict along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast that will capture the interest of any reader — even those who shun the bloody war record in ge......
2006-03-24 13:53:03
Jack Brubaker
Jean Booth Brubaker, a 78-year-old nationally recognized athlete who lives in Quarryville, first participated in organized sports in the early 1940s at the old Fairmount Elementary School in Drumore Township. There were only 15 students in the school, including eight boys — one short of a softbal......
2006-03-17 13:10:34
Jack Brubaker
These Susquehanna River islands, today known as the Conejohela Flats, were called “Islands of Promise’’ in the ad, and no doubt some Spy readers thought of the fertile alluvial islands precisely that way. The Scribbler never would have known about this ad for offshore farmland that “produces good......
2006-03-14 14:14:43
Jack Brubaker
Back in the ‘80s, I knew of two places that had it. One was Smokin’ Jakes on the Columbia Avenue and the other was a produce stand on Strasburg Pike. Chocolate was always my favorite kind, and just thinking about it brings back good memories. Jim Kauffman Christiana
Dear Jim: The ......
2006-03-10 14:01:30
Jack Brubaker
Susan Messimer, curator at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, recalls the Orange Car being parked there as late as the 1970s. She believes the tradition may date to the early 20th century. Messimer would like to obtain a photo and know more about the Orange Car for an exhibit April 22 at the mu......
2006-03-07 14:41:29
Jack Brubaker
On the morning of April 2, 1945, 2nd Lt. Delbert H. Marks of Cleveland, Ohio, flew a Navy F4U Corsair low over the trees and then into the trees on what is locally known as Round Top on Mine Ridge. “We were out in the woods when the plane came down,’’ recalls Vic Trout Sr., who lives at 354 S. Be......
2006-03-03 14:32:07
Jack Brubaker
Thirty years later, another traveler commended the place as “the most important’’ of North America’s interior cities. What changed? Lancaster’s Daily Express, a predecessor of the New Era, reprinted the travel accounts in the Oct. 1, 1873, edition. A rambling story introducing the grand openin......
2006-02-28 14:24:55
Jack Brubaker
That is, none of the owners has been Amish. Until now. Elmer Fisher, an Old Order Amish man from Smoketown, purchased the Route 340 attraction at auction early this month, according to the seller, Lisa Smucker. That makes for an interesting situation. An enterprise established to give touri......
2006-02-17 13:41:01
Jack Brubaker
I have heard that Lancaster is the most Republican county in America. I also have heard that the term “Grand Old Party (GOP) was coined by a Lancastrian. Am I just hearing things, or are these true facts? Sadie Adie Ronks
Dear Ms. Adie: Lancaster may well be the most Republican......
2006-01-20 13:23:49
Jack Brubaker
But what the Scribbler has not reported is that long before it supported a college and a park, that area sported a racetrack. In 1829, the Gentlemen’s Jockey Club laid out the Hamilton Course in a mile-long oval in the rectangle formed by College, Race and Buchanan avenues and Harrisburg Pike....
2006-01-17 12:42:19
Jack Brubaker
Fasig was, as Cory Van Brookhoven calls him in the title of a new historical booklet, “The Giant Who Walked Among Them.’’ At maximum size, Fasig stood 7 feet tall and weighed over 325 pounds. He could and did wrestle any two men. He carried 100-pound feed bags for miles at a time. During a sto......
2006-01-06 13:50:43
Jack Brubaker
Then I saw the jagged edges remaining in the window on the passenger’s side and realized the sparkly things were hundreds of shards of shattered glass. And then I saw that my briefcase was gone. And then I panicked. I panicked because the missing briefcase was filled with hundreds of pages ......
2005-12-09 12:51:17
Jack Brubaker
As a college student, home for the holidays and dreading finals to come in January, the Scribbler jumped around in puddles and dreamed of exam-free summertime. When at last he walked, drenched, into the house, he alarmed his parents, which was part of the attraction of cavorting in the rain in th......
2005-11-29 14:03:49
Jack Brubaker
Let’s create a School of Law in Lancaster! It’s not a new idea. More than a century and a half ago, a Lancaster college proposed to create just such a department for instruction in Law and Medical Jurisprudence. Judge Judy presiding. Just kidding about Judge Judy, but the rest is true en......
2005-11-25 15:44:43
Jack Brubaker
He certainly was left behind as a young man eager but unable to manufacture candy. So says Tom Winpenny in “A Father Who Distracts and a Family That Underfinances,’’ an article in the current issue of the Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society. Winpenny teaches history at Elizabeth......
2005-11-15 12:51:49
Jack Brubaker
Halfway through the book, Horwitz wrote something that hit the Scribbler right between the eyes. Horwitz said his interest in the war began in the mid-1960s, when he was 6 years old, at the end of the centennial, when he was surrounded by war books and war games and toy cannons and other neat war......
2005-11-11 13:42:22
Jack Brubaker
Scientists at Seoul National University treated chickens infected with avian flu with Kimchi Sauerkraut and the birds recovered and flew off into a Korean sunset. The helpful agent apparently is lactic acid, which is concentrated in fermented cabbage. Frank’s Sauerkraut, one of the leading bra......
2005-11-08 13:12:39
Jack Brubaker
The owner of The Book Haven, for decades the book lovers’ friend in Lancaster and now Rohrerstown, is selling his entire collection of John Steinbeck first editions. If the books bring top price at Conestoga Auction Co. in Manheim on Saturday, Baker may be able to buy his boat. If not, the sal......
2005-11-04 14:28:37
Jack Brubaker
“Oh, my gosh,’’ said the clerk. “We get so many people from Lancaster County. There must be more people here from Lancaster than anywhere else.’’ That may have been true in the Algiers section of the hurricane-devastated city, where Jens, a Millersville-area resident, worked for three weeks. Five......
2005-10-21 13:54:53
Jack Brubaker
Marti Armstrong, policy chairman for the Preservation Trust of Lancaster County, believes these signs should be identified and preserved. Last summer she suggested the Trust do something about that. “I just know there are signs out there that nobody has seen,’’ she says. “I want to find out where......
2005-10-14 13:21:08
Jack Brubaker
His reason is not an obvious one. “So they come, bumper to bumper./ The young for what they suspect./ The old for what they know,’’ Sarracino writes in “The Battlefield Museum Guide Speaks.’’ The Elizabethtown College English professor’s point is that visitors to the battlefield know that war ......
2005-09-30 13:25:34
Jack Brubaker
Everybody screamed for more ice cream. One day in 1976, Mary Hurst and her husband, the late Earl Hurst, operators of the dairy, gave Marrie and two other families with ice-cream-loving kids certificates for a free hay ride and ice cream whenever they wanted it. Unfortunately, the busy familie......
2005-09-23 14:01:08
Jack Brubaker
Unfortunately, the basic facts left out a lot about the amiable Charlie Kessler, including his habit of snorting loudly at things he found funny or appalling, and the full-body shrugs that seemed to accompany nearly every word he said. Over nearly a quarter of a century, Charlie wrote hundreds of......
2005-09-16 13:05:42
Jack Brubaker
Glenn F. Williams’ “Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s Campaign Against the Iroquois’’ has been published by Westholme Publishing ($26). Hand’s “Light Corps’’ of infantry led the way as Gen. John Sullivan’s expedition moved up the Susquehanna River and attacked the Iroquois Confederacy in N......
2005-09-09 15:43:00
Jack Brubaker
“Not one in 50 of our citizens, we venture to say, has ever stood on the highest elevation of the city, or even know where it is,’’ the reporter suggested. “The College Heights are always spoken of as the highest within the city bounds, but a far larger view of the city is obtained from Union Str......
2005-09-02 12:44:41
Jack Brubaker
Or, to be more precise, this part of this column is about column parts. The column parts belonged to the old Northern Savings & Trust Co. building, which became Lancaster County Farmers National Bank, an architecturally magnificent building that once stood in the second block of North Queen Stree......
2005-08-30 14:26:56
Jack Brubaker
For nearly two and a half centuries, scores of historians have written about this incident and its significant repercussions. American Indians, however, while acutely engaged and enraged by the story of the massacre, rarely have addressed it in print. Now Jessie Marafioti, a part-Indian reside......
2005-08-16 15:01:04
Jack Brubaker
A motel of cabooses outside Strasburg, or American Indian petroglyphs carved into rocks in the Susquehanna River at Safe Harbor? The 15-foot-tall Amish figure that used to stand outside Zinn’s Modern Diner in Denver, or Lancaster County’s Amish society in general? These are the Lancaster Count......
2005-08-10 11:12:22
Jack Brubaker
At least 16 Buffalo Soldiers, black cavalry men who fought in the Indian campaigns of the late 19th century, are buried in Stevens Greenland Memorial Cemetery, 1136 S. Duke St. The storied soldiers received their nickname from Cheyenne warriors who fought and respected them. They and subsequen......
2005-07-22 13:16:00
Jack Brubaker
This the Scribbler discovered after mentioning Union Gen. Joseph Farmer Knipe, of Mount Joy, several weeks ago. The connection between Knipe and Jackson appears in a historical booklet called “Tell General Lane to Come In’’ by Jean Ellis of Mount Joy. Here’s the background: As the sun set o......
2005-07-15 13:17:30
Jack Brubaker
Here are a couple of stories that did not appear in New Era obituaries: · Charles Steinman Foltz Jr. died May 14. His obituary told much about his distinguished career, which he concluded in 1976 as senior editor of U.S. News and World Report. Foltz was born in Lancaster in 1910 and rai......
2005-07-08 13:14:03
Jack Brubaker
Gen. Edward Braddock and some 1,200 British soldiers and civilian wagoners marched that day into a withering fire from French forces and their Indian allies at the Battle of the Monongahela. Nearly 1,000 of Braddock’s people died on the battlefield near Pittsburgh. At least one Conestoga wagon dr......
