The Soundex name indexing system is still widely in use, and is credited as a precursor of the search engines of the 21st century, which makes Robert C. Russell, a Montour County, Pennsylvania native, a pioneer who provided one of the many “bricks” in the foundation of the field of digital technology.
Read More
"Battalion Day" Or "Militia Day" was once an annual event, required by law. Just after the Revolution, a law had been passed requiring all men subject to military duty to assemble once a year in their respective districts, to be enrolled, and to undergo a sort of perfunctory drill. Some men carried broomsticks, pitchforks, and shelalies. This annual drill, called Battalion Day, soon turned into a holiday, with all citizens turning out for the local gathering in towns throughout the Susquehanna Valley.
If trees could talk, imagine the stories a two-hundred and fifty-six-year-old white oak tree in Union County could tell. It was blazed or marked by William Maclay, first a lawyer, and then a surveyor who was employed by the Penn Family. It was marked in 1769 as part of a 320-acre tract for the proprietary governors.
