"By following the story of my great-grandmother Isabella Ford's life, and adding to it with information from available sources, I have been able to get a better understanding of the circumstances of Lancaster's free blacks. Her story provides a sense of life in mid-nineteenth century Lancaster County and shows how free black families held their own, despite an environment that was often unfriendly and that restricted their opportunities by both law and custom."
The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, v. 136, no. 1, January 2012.Lancaster History Library - Periodical Article905.748 HSP v. 136, no. 1
Jonah Davenport, an early eighteenth century Lancaster Indian trader, his son William Davenport, a Carlisle saddler, and grandson, Samuel Davenport, Trader General of the Tribes of Texas
"On the American frontier, there were men who always pushed the edge. These were often the Indian traders, solitary men who purchased great lots of manufactured goods, loaded them on trains of pack horses or mules and set out into the wilderness to trade with the Indians in exchange for skins and furs. Such a man was the Indian trader Jonah Davenport."
"On April 17, 1865, eighteen year old John Rakestraw left the family farm in Bart Township, Lancaster County, to attend Unionville Academy, a small Quaker boarding school in Chester County. During the time he was away his two older sisters wrote to him regularly. Ten of those letters have survived and they provide a candid and often painfully honest glimpse of life on a Lancaster County farm in the 1860's. Diaries and ledgers kept by John's father, William I. Rakestraw , provide additional insight into that that time and place." [excerpt from the text]
