"John Piersol McCaskey (1837-1935) was a beloved Lancaster, PA, public school teacher and principal, editor of The Pennsylvania School Journal, mayor of Lancaster, publisher, journalist, and compiler of some of America's first songbooks and textbooks. This biography provides a glimpse into the beginnings of Pennsylvania's public schools, with McCaskey as a pupil, and then the system's evolution, with McCaskey influencing its curriculum and goals. Lancaster's history is interwoven in the text, particularly the Civil War years and McCaskey's mayoral years. A man of integrity who expected the same from his students, McCaskey held family and his Christian faith above all else." [from the publisher]
"May God have mercy on the deeply affected congregation" : the divisive 1825 language dispute at Lancaster's Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity
From Europe to America -- Establishing the West Conestoga -- The four settlements: Mannheim Township, Upper Leacock, Warwick ; Earl, Leacock ; Cains/Compass ; Pequea/Mill Creek -- Names of interest in the West Conestoga from 1770-1800 -- Progressive trends of the West Conestoga -- True to the Old Order -- Families of the West Conestoga amd Mill Creek/Pequea from 1737-1810. Garber, Schantz, Johns, Erb, Rickenbach, Nafzigor, Kurtz, Rupp, Seiler, Linder, Shellenberger, Farny, Forney, Von Gundy, Showalter, Schmucker, Alleman, Stoltzfus, Borntrager, Schenk, Sommers, Yoder, Sharp, Kenegy, Benedum, Reinhart, Fisher, King, Beiler, Zook, Lapp.
Summary
An account of the families ... who comprised the first Amish community in Lancaster County for about the earliest 70 years, or until 1810.
Hale Columbia. Columbia, Pa., medical record, 1893-1905: A true and complete study of infectious disease & medicine in a small Pennsylvania town at the turn of the century
Contains extensive footnotes and citations. Indexed.
Summary
"From 1893 until 1905 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania required local municipalities to record vital statistics such as births, deaths, and cases of infectious disease. The record for the community of Columbia, Lancaster County, Pa., survives in the county archives and is a valuable record of one community's struggle to contain diseases that are seldom encountered today: smallpox, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, diphtheria, and tuberculosis. Within these pages, one can learn about the diseases and the treatments available in that time period and meet the physicians and community leaders who were in the front lines of the sturggle." [book jacket]
Chapters: The Institutions/ The Diseases/ The Cures/ Medical Education in the 1800s/ The Physicians of Columbia/ The Ledger/ Annotations
A railroad for the "Southern End" : Pictures, timetables, rare documents and all the news of the Little, Old & Slow, Pennsylvania's first narrow gauge railroad
A long time ago, a narrow gauge railroad was built through southern Lancaster and Chester Counties, in Pennsylvania, bringing an alternative to horses, buggies and ox carts, on muddy deeply rutted roads. "Ole Peachy," as many of the locals called it, served no major industries. Instead, it made do with poultry, eggs, butter, cattle, cream and passengers, becoming a vital link for the farmers of, and visitors to, the "Southern End ." This is the story of how , despite great odds against it, this short line managed to survive for 47 years. [from the book cover]
Prologue: the Kutztown Folk Festival -- Reading and the Oley Valley -- Fingers of guilt -- Middling stiff -- When law and humanity had but faint connection -- Twelve honest men -- A distraction from grim tidings -- As innocent as a child -- The last melancholy resource -- Ten o'clock to two o'clock and fifty minutes -- Slinking off anonymously -- A last hope -- Seduced by the devil -- Confession -- I poor wretch -- A final jolt -- Peace be to her -- The printers of Exeter Township -- The sad, sad song of Susanna Cox -- Advice from the dead to the living -- Her exit--infamy -- Epilogue: back to the festival.
Summary
The unfortunate Susanna Cox gained notoriety for killing her illegitimate infant son. The fatal episode led to her hanging in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1809, the last public execution of a woman in the commonwealth. But was Susanna really the culprit? The legend of her fate, repeated in Pennsylvania German broadsides by the generations that followed, suggests she herself was a victim. Now, in this first full-length investigation into the tragedy, new evidence reveals some startling facts about how indifference, an undeveloped court system, and the inexact science of nineteenth-century forensics combined to determine Susanna's tragic fate. A full look at how Susanna's "sad song" became romanticized through broadside ballads follows, complete with illustrations.
