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Adams County History 2007

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

Restoring The Proclamation: Abraham Lincoln, Confiscation, And Emancipation In The Civil War Era, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

Like the business cycle, the reputations of great actors in history seem to go through alternating periods of boom and bust. Harry Truman was scorned in his day as an incompetent bumbler. A half-century later, he is regarded as a gutsy and principled president. Andrew Jackson was hailed as the champion of the common man and the enemy of power-mad bankers. Since the 1970s, he has become the champion only of the White man, a rancid hater of Indians, and a leering political monstrosity. John Quincy Adams was, for more than a century after his death, dismissed as a dyspeptic …

The Eisenhowers At Twilight: A Visit To The Eisenhower Farm, 1967, Michael J. Birkner

Adams County History

Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower relished life in Gettysburg. As he often remarked to friends, in retirement Ike sought to secure a piece of property that he could leave in better shape than he found it. The purchase in November 1950 of the 189-acre Redding Farm on the Millertown Road, only a short distance from Confederate A venue, was the outcome. Of course the Eisenhowers could have purchased a sizable farm in any number of locations. A Gettysburg address was predicated on their warm memories of a six-month sojourn in the borough in 1918 and recognition that Gettysburg was a convenient …

No Small Influence... On The Intellect, The Morals, And The Temporal Prosperity Of Our Town: Gettysburg College And Its Community, Charles H. Glatfelter

Adams County History

The following is the text of the address which Director Emeritus Dr. Charles H. Glatfelter delivered during the monthly meeting of the society on April 3, 2007. Held in the College Union on the campus, this meeting was the contribution oft he historical society to the 175th anniversary of the founding of Gettysburg College. [excerpt]

Pope John Paul Ii, The Assassination Attempt, And The Soviet Union, Daniel C. Scotto

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

“The attempt to murder the pope remains one of the century’s great mysteries,” wrote Carl Bernstein and Marco Politti in their 1996 biography of Pope John Paul II. Indeed, the mystery has remained unsolved since the pope was shot and wounded on May 13, 1981. A recent investigation concluded that the Soviet government was the perpetrator, but the situation should be examined in a broader historical context. What actually happened on May 13, 1981? Was it the sole decision and action of Mehmet Ali Agca, who was expressing his opposition to “Western imperialist policies,” as he had written in a …

The Columned Building: A Gettysburg Legacy, Brett Jackson

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

A new Eisenhower Institute for Leadership and Public Policy is currently being installed at 157 North Washington Street, the house which was home to a young Dwight Eisenhower and his family during the summer of 1918. Eisenhower became a longtime friend of Gettysburg College, and as President Katherine Haley Will states, “We claim Ike as our own.” However, a summer rental by a future national hero does not fully capture the historical value of this residence to our campus. In fact, it was owned for over forty years by Alpha Tau Omega and its story traces the birth of the …

Eddie Plank Historical Marker, Garrett S. Gaydosh

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

Eddie Plank (1875-1926)

Baseball great. One of the most dominant pitchers of the twentieth century. "Gettysburg Eddie" compiled a record of 326-194 in a 17-year career (1901-17), mostly with the Philadelphia Athletics. He won 20 games or more eight times and helped the A's win six pennants and three world championships. Plank was born [near this spot], attended Gettysburg Academy, and retired and died in Gettysburg. Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, 1946.

Course Information:

• Course Title: HIST 300: Historical Method
• Academic Term: Spring 2006
• Course Instructor: Dr. Michael J. Birkner '72

Hidden in Plain Sight is a collection …

Adams County History 2006

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

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 …

George Arnold (1799-1879) And A Town Immortalized, Charles H. Glatfelter

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

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 …

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 …

"Creating Dissonance For The Visitor": The Heart Of The Liberty Bell Controversy, Jill Ogline Titus

Civil War Institute Faculty Publications

This paper examines the controversy surrounding the location and proposed interpretive plan for Independence National Historical Park's new pavilion for the Liberty Bell. Written from the perspective of a graduate student and former Independence NHP employee, it attempts to help historians and Park Service employees to better understand each other's positions, and to penetrate to the heart of the issue at stake - the park's own sense of self-understanding and mission. It then moves on to show the relevance of this specific controversy to questions of broader significance, such as the fundamental character of American history, the post-September 11th responsibility …

Veterans Residing In Adams County, Pennsylvania, 1840-1930, Kevin L. Greenholt

Adams County History

The federal decennial census provides a wide-ranging set of data for analysis. The census forms for each ten-year cycle from 1790 until 1930 have been released to the public for access. The tabulations of 1840, 1910, and 1930 contain data relating to the military service of those interviewed by the census enumerator. Compiled here is a list of veterans, listed by Adams County township, who served in the American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, or other military actions from 1840 through 1930.

Adams County History 2004

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

A "Typical Country Doctor": Robert B. Elderdice, Mcknightstown, Kevin L. Greenholt

Adams County History

The drive home from the Cashtown area home of the Kuhn family was cold and dark, but the twenty-one-year-old medical student was exhilarated. It was after four o'clock on a Monday morning, December 16, 1867. He had just assisted Mrs. Abner (Rebecca) Kuhn deliver her third child, a 14-pound son, the first of over one thousand such deliveries during his medical career. Arriving back at his lodging in the McKnightstown area, he would make the first entry in his obstetrical journal. This neat, detailed journal would eventually hold the record of 1026 cases, most involving families in the Franklin township …

Statistical Analysis Of Dr. Elderdice's Ledger, Sheryl Hollis Snyder

Adams County History

It is doubtful that obstetricians today could take the time to keep meticulous records of each obstetric case of their career, but Dr. Robert B. Elderdice did just that. Inside the front cover of his ledger he wrote "attended my 1st case at age of 21." His ten - column register listed case number, age, name (birth mother), number of labor, date, sex, PPn, fee, remarks, and pay in the doctor's consistently-legible handwriting. (For an illustration of Dr. Elderdice's handwriting, see the vaccination certificate in Appendix 1.) [excerpt]

How Abe Lincoln Lost The Black Vote: Lincoln And Emancipation In The African American Mind, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

No other American president has wielded the power of words with greater skill than Abraham Lincoln. "No one can read Mr. Lincoln's state papers without perceiving in them a most remarkable facility of 'putting things' so as to command the attention and assent of the people," wrote Henry J. Raymond, editor of the New York Times in 1864, and Raymond had an editor's unerring eye for this sort of thing. Massachusetts congressman George Boutwell, reminiscing for Allen Thorndike Rice twenty years after Lincoln's death, thought that "Lincoln's fame" would "be carried along the ages" by his writings, and especially 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 …