The Jameson Raid (1758) as a Focus for Historical Inquiry

Each year the Adams County Historical Society receives inquiries either in person or by mail from persons asking for information about a young woman who with the rest of her family was seized and carried off from their home in what is now Adams county during the French and Indian War. She was the only member of that family who was not slaughtered as the raiding party and its captives moved into the western part of Pennsylvania. The subsequent life of this woman among the Indians was deemed of sufficient historical importance that she was chosen to be among some 13,000 well-known Americans who were included in the prestigious Dictionary of American Biography, a reference work of twenty volumes published between 1928 and 1937, and still being updated today. The volume containing her sketch, the tenth, was published in 1933. [excerpt

Some Early Adams County Communities, Their Churches, and Church Lands

The earliest European settlers in today\u27s 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 Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Lutherans, or Reformed, at least they hoped to be able to rely upon a learned and properly ordained clergy to preach, administer the sacraments, and perform other duties which they had come to expect of their religious leaders. Once in Pennsylvania, laymen of all but the most recently formed religious bodies encountered something new to their experience. There simply were no long-existing church buildings, schools, or religious authorities. In a province which imposed very few restrictions on one\u27s religious freedom, there were also no laws either permitting or requiring the provincial government to expend money for church and school buildings or to secure and support ministers. This meant that if the early settlers in Adams county wanted to have churches and schools, they would need to rely on private efforts to secure them. Since there continued to be a severe shortage of learned and properly ordained clergymen in Pennsylvania long after the close of the colonial period, much of the responsibility for establishing religious institutions rested upon laymen, for whom this was a new and often difficult task. [excerpt

No Small Influence... on the Intellect, the Morals, and the Temporal Prosperity of Our Town: Gettysburg College and Its Community

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

Adams County Votes for President, 1804-2008

Adult male Europeans who were living in what is now Adams County, Pennsylvania, when York County was formed in 1749 could not vote to choose either their king or their governor. Thanks to the royal grant of 1682, their governor in 1749 took the form of two Penn proprietors, named Thomas and Richard. Thanks to the political principles of the first proprietor, William Penn, adult male Adams countians could participate in electing some of the officers responsible for the orderly operation of government in the province. They could vote for two representatives in the provincial legislative assembly, three York County commissioners, six county assessors, a sheriff, and a coroner. In the cases of the two latter officers, the voters nominated two candidates, of whom the governor commissioned the one of his choice. Potential voters had to meet certain qualifications in the form of ownership of real estate or personal property. Strictly speaking, they had to be British citizens, but probably on some occasions Germans who had not been naturalized were permitted to cast ballots. Giving the vote to adult females was something far in the future. [excerpt

George M. Leader, 1918-2013

George M. Leader (1918-2013), a native of York, Pennsylvania, rose from the anonymous status of chicken farmer\u27s son and Gettysburg College undergraduate to become, first a State Senator, and then the 36th governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A steadfast liberal in a traditionally conservative state, Leader spent his brief time in the governor\u27s office (1955-1959) fighting uphill battles and blazing courageous trails. He overhauled the state\u27s corrupt patronage system; streamlined and humanized its mental health apparatus; and, when a black family moved into the white enclave of Levittown, took a brave stand in favor of integration. After politics, Leader became a pioneer in the area of assisted living, with a chain of Lutheran nursing homes in central Pennsylvania. He multiplied his philanthropies, endowing a nursing center, funding education and reintegration programs for prisoners, and providing supplies and expertise to impoverished Ghana. By the time of his death, George M. Leader had lived as vigorous, productive, and - to use a word he might have appreciated - useful a life as any Pennsylvanian of his time. On three occasions in 2006 and 2007, Gettysburg College history professors Michael J. Birkner and Charles H. Glatfelter engaged the former governor in interviews about his life and times. Leader talked expansively and candidly about his wins and losses, his prides and regrets; the excitement and bitterness of politics, the satisfactions of philanthropy, and the sustenance of family. These interviews, ranging over nearly a century of political and state history, tell the story of one of Pennsylvania\u27s most remarkable sons.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1077/thumbnail.jp

Will the Real James Duncan Please Stand Up?

From 1956 through 1967 viewers enjoyed one of the most popular early television shows, To Tell the Truth. Host Bud Collyer would call on three contestants, standing side by side, to explain briefly who they were. Giving different stories, all claimed to be one and the same person. When they finished making their presentations, the host would turn to a panel of four, asking them to identify the only contestant who was in fact telling the truth about himself or herself. Then Collyer would ask that person to please stand up. There were two contemporaries, both named James Duncan, who figure prominently in the life of Adams and Cumberland counties, Pennsylvania, in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Recent attempts to explain who they were and what they did have resulted in just enough confusion that neither man would likely have qualified for appearing as a contestant on To Tell The Truth. The time has come to set the record straight, at least to the extent that the available credible evidence makes it possible for us to ask the real Adams County James and the real Cumberland County James to please stand up. [excerpt

A Salutary Influence: Gettysburg College, 1832-1985

Written by Professor and Alumnus Dr. Charles H. Glatfelter \u2746, A Salutary Influence was published in 1987 in commemoration of Gettysburg College’s 150th anniversary. The two-volume set includes a detailed index at the end of the second volume.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1058/thumbnail.jp

Iota of Pennsylvania Phi Beta Kappa Gettysburg College: 1923-2023

In observance of one hundred years as a Phi Beta Kappa chapter sheltered at Gettysburg College, the Iota of Pennsylvania chapter has published a concise historical overview of the chapter’s history. Updating previous publications authored by Dr. Charles H. Glatfelter, longtime Iota chapter member and professor of history, for the fiftieth and seventy-fifth anniversaries, Dr. Michael Birkner, chapter historian and professor of history, has written an introductory essay that provides a new understanding of Gettysburg College’s nearly two-decade long effort to secure a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Since its formal installation in 1923, the Iota chapter has inducted 3,337 members into its ranks. This updated history include an appendix with chapter officers from 1923-2023, as well as a full list of chapter members through October 2023 based upon membership records held at the Phi Beta Kappa Society.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/collegehistory/1005/thumbnail.jp

Yonder Beautiful and Stately College Edifice : A History of Pennsylvania Hall (Old Dorm), Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

On January 21, 1834 Thaddeus Stevens, a freshman member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from Adams County, rose in that body to speak in favor of a bill appropriating a sum of money to the new college at Gettysburg in whose fortunes he had become deeply interested. After answering the arguments of his colleague from Adams County, who had just spoken against the bill, Stevens undertook to explain in a few words the predicament in which the fledgling college found itself: It has been chartered two years ; and organized about eighteen months. It has now ninety-eight students, without a house to put them in ; a library or an apparatus. Thanks to the efforts of Thaddeus Stevens, and many others, the bill was passed, and the house that was needed was soon built. It is still standing and in use today. Its story over more than 130 years is the central theme of the account which follows. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1057/thumbnail.jp