Overlooking the town of Ashland in Schuylkill County is the one-of-a-kind statue of Whistler's mother, based on the 1871 oil painting by James McNeil Whistler. The story of why it was erected there more than 85 years ago highlights the importance of mothers and returning home. Carved into Whistler’s Mother's pedestal, a line from poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge: "A Mother is the Holiest Thing Alive."
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In 1805, settlers in what became Bradford County, conducted a systematic slaughter of wildlife that had been foraging on the few sheep, swine, and cattle the pioneers possessed. Although hundreds of animals annually fell victim to the traps, snares, and guns of the pioneers, their depredations still remained a serious obstacle to the welfare of the settlers.
Harry L. Kramer and his father, F.L. Kramer, ran a mercantile business in Danville for a number of years. His family moved west and settled in Indiana. In 1890, the 29-year-old entrepreneur attracted investors and started up a health resort built around a mineral spring. He made a fortune in a chocolate-coated laxative packaged under the name Cascaret’s. The key ingredient to the cleanout remedy was buckthorn bark from a tree known as the cascara. This businessman was also a great promoter, who provided a Danville baseball team with uniforms and equipment, with Cascaret's prominently advertised on the jerseys.
As I research stories for my Susquehanna Footprints website, I often find short anecdotal stories that include topics that include strange, as well as comical topics. Here are a few that could make you scratch your head, smile, or both. Between 1831 and 1844, on the basis of his study of Bible, William Miller, a rural New York farmer and Baptist lay preacher, predicted and preached the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. Stories appeared in newspapers and books.
In July of 1860, thirty-one Danville residents, most well-known, respectable citizens, “pulled a fast one”, strung them along, and “pulled the wool over the eyes” of their fellow townsmen. Half a century after the Japanese Embassy Hoax, one of the few remaining participants still surviving described the incident, coinciding with the arrival of real Japanese Embassy officials in the United States.
During the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening (1784–1830), Reverend Asa Dunham was among the many circuit-riding preachers sent out by denominations to minister to early settlers in the Susquehanna Valley. Dunham’s meetings resulted in founding the Hidlay Presbyterian Church in Columbia County.
Uriah J. Jones received his formal education behind a printing press. Born in Union County, he married a Columbia County girl during his travels as a strolling Aator. Jones is regarded as the first newspaperman in the United States to create a distinctively local department in his paper, placing all local stories together and classifying them under the caption of " Local News."
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, in 2023, Pennsylvania farms produced 205,000 gallons of maple syrup worth more than $7.5 million. Native Americans first tapped into the maple tree, and when the first Europeans came to Pennsylvania and the Susquehanna Valley, they introduced them to making maple syrup.
Imagine packing up your family and all your belongings once a year, usually around April 1st. ‘Flitting Day’ as it was called, was once a common occurrence in Pennsylvania and other areas of the country. Local newspapers included stories of both family and business moves in late March and early April.
Born in Axemann, Centre County, Pennsylvania, Christopher Heverly, known as “Jack” or “Kit” when he was young, gained nationwide fame and the title of “King of Minstrel.” “Colonel” Jack Haverly was one of a new wave of theater troupe owners and managers who had not entered the profession as a performer himself. He borrowed the techniques of famous showmen like P. T. Barnum to promote his theater companies.
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