Cultural History Commons^™

March Into Oblivion, Larry C. Bolin

Adams County History

The Whiskey Rebellion often is assigned, even by historians, to an obscurity which belies its significance. Its importance was major not only to the people most affected by its cause and those most intimately involved in the playing out of the events, but also to the young federal government, which had to demonstrate its authority yet not trample its own citizens. The situation held a very real potential for tearing apart the fragile nation. President George Washington felt strongly enough about it to involve himself personally in the beginnings of the military action. In the last few years of the …

Book Review: Thaddeus Stevens In Gettysburg: The Making Of An Abolitionist, Peter C. Vermilyea

Adams County History

Over a million and a half tourists visit Gettysburg every year, finding the quintessence of American history in the borough and surrounding battlefields. Had the great battle been fought elsewhere, it is likely that Gettysburg's legacy in American history would instead be the town where Thaddeus Stevens spent the formative years of his legal practice and political career. As the subtitle to Dr. Bradley R. Roch's new book, Thaddeus Stevens in Gettysburg: The Making of an Abolitionist, makes abundantly clear, it is also the town where the man often put forward as the most radical of Radical Republicans formulated his …

To Waken Fond Memory: Moments In The History Of Gettysburg College, Anna Jane Moyer

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Between 1975 and 1989 Anna Jane Moyer produced a series of essays for the Gettysburg College alumni magazine capturing “moments” on campus and in the town of Gettysburg since 1832. Treating people, places, and notable events over the course of the College’s first 150 years, Moyer’s sketches reached an appreciative audience at the time. But with the Gettysburg College 175th anniversary approaching, it seemed appropriate to make her writing more readily available to alumni, friends of the College, students, and scholars.

The sketches now republished in To Waken Fond Memory remind readers that the culture of a liberal arts college …

Queequeg's Tomahawk: A Cultural Biography, 1750-1900, Timothy J. Shannon

History Faculty Publications

Since the colonial era, the tomahawk has served as a symbol of Indian savagery in American arts and literature. The pipe tomahawk, however, tells a different story. From its backcountry origins as a trade good to its customization as a diplomatic device, this object facilitated European-Indian exchange, giving tangible form to spoken metaphors for war, peace, and alliance. The production, distribution, and use of the pipe tomahawk also illustrated contrasting Indian and European notions of value and utility in material objects, exposing the limits of such goods in promoting cross-cultural mediation and understanding.

Is There A Southern Doctor In The House?, Peter S. Carmichael

Civil War Institute Faculty Publications

Doctoring the South does not go down easily, but a patient reader will benefit immeasurably from this brilliantly conceived and thoroughly researched book. Stephen Stowe has penetrated the scientific and cultural world of southern physicians during the mid-nineteenth century, showing how white doctors made meaning of their lives as they struggled to gain mastery of the sickly bodies of others. The confrontation between patient and physician, between sickness and health, reveals what Stowe calls the country orthodoxy style of southern practitioners. Country orthodoxy inextricably tied a doctor’s understanding of what it meant to be a professional to his local community. …

Jack Hopkins' Civil War, Peter C. Vermilyea

Adams County History

In the 1862 Pennsylvania College album there is a photograph of John Hopkins, who that year was entering his fifteenth year of service as the college's janitor. In one student's book, the portrait of Hopkins jokingly refers to him as the school's "vice president." This appellation speaks volumes about the life of the African-American custodian, for while it was clearly made in jest as a token of the students' genuine affection for Hopkins, it symbolizes the gulf between the white students and the black janitor. It goes without saying that the students found the picture humorous because they understood that …

Mt. Pleasant Church, Conewago Township, Larry C. Bolin

Adams County History

About two miles south of McSherrystown and a similar distance southwest of Hanover, in Conewago Township, lies the small village of Mt. Pleasant. The community developed at and near the intersection of State Route 194, commonly called the Hanover-Littlestown Pike, and Legislative Route 01005, known in days past as the road from McSherrystown to Gitt's Mill and its segment south of the intersection called in recent times Narrow Drive. In the eastern quadrant of the intersection, a church was built in 1878; nearby and adjacent to the crossroads sat a public school, which had been built sometime before 1858. The …

Adams County History 2005

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

A Visit To The Battlefield, Michael J. Birkner, Richard E. Winslow

Adams County History

This piece was transcribed and edited by Michael J. Birkner and Richard E. Winslow.

With fighting concluded at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, the enormous task of burying the dead, treating the wounded, and rehabilitating the town began in earnest. Although Gettysburg looked and smelled worse than it ever had or ever would again, thousands of people arrived on the battlefield in the days and weeks following General Robert E. Lee's retreat. Some came to minister to the sick and reclaim the bodies of neighbors and loved ones; others scavenged souvenirs of the battle. Of the many visits to the …

Lincoln On The Abolition Of Slavery, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

That man who thinks Lincoln calmly sat down and gathered his robes about him, waiting for the people to call him, has a very erroneous knowledge of Lincoln," wrote Abraham Lincoln's long-time law partner, William Henry Herndon. "He was always calculating, and always planning ahead. His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest." And in no other pursuit was Lincoln more ambitious than in politics. As a lawyer and Whig political organizer in Illinois, "Politics were his life and his ambition and his motive power." [excerpt]

The Slave Birth Register Of Adams County

Adams County History

This record is from a book, deposited in the Prothonotary's office, which shows the dates of birth and registration of 109 children born to slave mothers between 1799 and 1820. Several pages at the beginning of the book are missing, including the page on which are recorded the names of slaveholders whose surnames begin with A. That register might not be the original record, however. [excerpt]

Slaveholders And Slaves Of Adams County, Larry C. Bolin

Adams County History

A close study of the African-American community of Adams county waits to be written. By whatever standards adhered to, however, an in-depth investigation of the subject would be a daunting task at best, and in some areas an all but impossible one. Sadly, the early years, if seen at all, are often barely visible through the mists of repression and slavery. And yet, unfortunate and illogical as it might seem, slave owners very frequently offer the only glimpses of the downtrodden now obtainable....

This study consists of four lists, centered on the names of the county's slaveholders and designed to …

The Slaveholders Of Adams County

Adams County History

This catalog of slaveholder names includes all known slaveholders in Adams County both before and after its split from York County in 1800. Included with each name are the place or places of residence and the year or years of documented slave ownership. In order to achieve some conformity, in certain instances the spelling of surnames is arbitrary, based on experience with what the names actually were or have become.

Distribution Of Slaveholders In Adams County

Adams County History

This roster repeats the names of "The Slaveholders of Adams County," from this journal, separating them, however, by their places of residence. The aim is to give an idea of where in the county slavery was most prevalent and at the same time a glimpse at the national origins of settlers in different areas.

There is a considerable duplication of names, which reflects the movement of families within the county or the establishment of new townships and the incorporation of Gettysburg as a borough. An accounting is given for each distinct place an individual lived, whether by actual move or …

Adams County History 2003

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

The Slaves Of Adams County

Adams County History

This compilation of named slaves surely does not represent anything near the total number who toiled in the county; without a doubt many are now irretrievable. Of those who can be isolated, a large number may be identified to some extent by age or sex or name of owner, or by a combination of those definers. This list, however, comprises only those slaves whose names are recorded. [excerpt]

Pennsylvania Legislation Relating To Slavery

Adams County History

The following acts have been taken, complete or in part, from the published volumes of The Statutes At Large of Pennsylvania and Laws of Pennsylvania. These extracts are not all-inclusive, but do cover the years 1725/6-1847, from the province's first general statement of the legal standing of blacks, full-blooded and mixed, and the treatment to be afforded them, up to the state's rewritten and strengthened prohibition of the kidnapping of free blacks and the seizing of fugitive slaves. Included are not only acts showing the status and the protection of slaves, whether residents or sojourners, but also those requiring resident …

Understanding Emancipation: Lincoln's Proclamation And The Overthrow Of Slavery, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

The most common trope that governs understanding of Abraham Lincoln and emancipation is that of progress. The variations on that trope are legion, and they include notions of Lincoln's journey toward emancipation, his growth in understanding the justice of emancipation, and his path to the Emancipation Proclamation. "Lincoln was," as Horace Greeley put it, "a growing man"; growing from a stance of moral indifference and ignorance at the time of his election in 1860 toward deep conviction about African American freedom by the time of the Emancipation Proclamation less than two years later. That was a generous sentiment, since it …

The Lincoln Enigma: The Changing Faces Of An American Icon, Gabor Boritt

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Nearly a century and a half after his death, Abraham Lincoln remains an intrinsic part of the American consciousness, yet his intentions as president and his personal character continue to stir debate.

Now, in The Lincoln Enigma, Gabor Boritt invites renowned Lincoln scholars, and rising new voices, to take a look at much-debated aspects of Lincoln's life, including his possible gay relationships, his plan to send blacks back to Africa, and his high-handed treatment of the Constitution. Boritt explores Lincoln's proposals that looked to a lily-white America. Jean Baker marvels at Lincoln's loves and marriage. David Herbert Donald highlights …

The Presidency Of Charles E. Glassick, 1977-1989: An Appraisal, Michael J. Birkner

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

On August 1, 1977 Charles Glassick assumed his duties as president of Gettysburg College. With the 25th anniversary of that event approaching, it seemed appropriate to take stock of Glassick's accomplishments. This was an eventful presidency for Gettysburg, as the college began to identify itself less as a worthy, but modest, Lutheran institution of higher learning than as a national liberal arts college. The process of embracing a new identity was not always smooth, but under Glassick's leadership the college prospered. Gettysburg in 1989 remained committed as always to the liberal arts mission it had long espoused, but it did …

Adams County History 2002

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

Adams County Grave-Stonecutters, 1770-1918, Nancy Delong

Adams County History

Stonecutting in Adams county followed all the general developmental trends and stages exhibited by the craft in other parts of Pennsylvania. Adams county, nonetheless, evolved its unique approach to gravestone art, for rural early American stonecutters were by and large highly unique artistic individuals.

The earliest prominent stonecutters maintained high artistic standards as well as exhibiting a high degree of creativity. These were craftsmen of the Scots-Irish Bigham family of Marsh Creek and the Pennsylvania-German Meals family, centered at Bender's Cemetery, Butler township. A third outstanding Adams county stonecutter was the predecessor of Barnet Hildebrand of East Berlin. This artist …

Adams County History 2000

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

The Gettysburg Battlefield, One Century Ago, Benjamin Y. Dixon

Adams County History

In the fall of 1899, Colonel John Nicholson reported on the recent changes being made to the Gettysburg National Military park. The park held a dedication ceremony that July for a new equestrian statue to General John Reynolds erected northwest of town. It was a shiny goldenbrown, polished-bronze statue sculpted by Henry Kirke Bush-Brown (his second equestrian statue at Gettysburg in three years). The horse and rider, balancing on two legs stood on a large pedestal near the new avenue in his name. Reynolds Avenue and adjoining Wadsworth, Doubleday, and Robinson Avenues were new to the battlefield as well. These …

Come-Outers And Community Men: Abraham Lincoln And The Idea Of Community In Nineteenth-Century America, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

The most eloquent and moving words Abraham Lincoln ever uttered about any community were those "few and simple words" he spoke on the rear platform of the railroad car that lay waiting on the morning of February 11, 1861, to take him to Washington, to the presidency, and ultimately to his death. As his "own breast heaved with emotion" so that "he could scarcely command his feelings sufficiently to commence" (in the description of James C. Conkling), Lincoln declared that "No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting." To leave Springfield was to …

Adams County History 1999

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

On The Trail Of Sidney O'Brien: An Inquiry Into Her Family And Status - Was She A Slave Or Servant Of The Gettys Family In Gettysburg? Was Her Daughter, Getty Ann, A Descendant Of James Gettys?, Elwood W. Christ

Adams County History

Like many Decembers in the greater Adams county area, the beginning of the winter usually is a collage of intermittent warm spells spliced amongst Arctic days with cold Canadian northwest winds. Amid the hoopla, as Gettysburgians prepared for the 1873 Christmas holidays during the week between the 17th and 24th of December, a person had, as Alfred Lord Tennyson so eloquently described, "Crossed the Bar." But in the local newspapers there had been no notice of declining health. No death notice appeared. Possibly the cost of five cents a line "for all over four lines- cash to accompany the notice" …

Some Early Adams County Communities, Their Churches, And Church Lands, Charles H. Glatfelter

Adams County History

The earliest European settlers in today's Adams county were basically a religious people. While probably most of them should not be described as particularly pious, they did have the fear of the Lord in their hearts and wanted to have access to the services of some religious organization, either the one to which they were accustomed in Europe or one with which they had affiliated in America. If they belonged to groups such as the Quakers, Mennonites, or Brethren, it was easy for them to develop internally the leadership necessary to function successfully as a religious community. If they were …

Adams County History 1997

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

Lavinia Dock: Adams County Suffragette, Mary Lou Schwartz

Adams County History

In the aftermath of the anniversary celebrations held to commemorate women's right to vote, it is fitting to remember an Adams county resident who figured prominently in the most militant phase of the suffrage campaign-Lavinia Lloyd Dock.

Lavinia Dock was born February 26, 1858, the second child of Gilliard and Lavinia Lloyd Bombaugh Dock. Gilliard, who had attended Gettysburg College, was a well-to-do engineer and machinist. Both parents were liberal in their views. Lavinia said that "Father had some whimsical masculine prejudices, but Mother was broad on all subjects and very tolerant and charitable towards persons." Although the family, eventually …