This is the third in a series of articles describing the life and history of Elizabethtown.  The articles are authored by Pat (Patsy) and Lloyd Reed of the Elizabethtown Historical Society.  Most of these articles were originally written years ago for the Elizabethtown Chronicle.  Several of Patsy and Lloyd’s articles appeared in the Elizabethtown Journal in 2009 and 2010.  To view these articles click on the Reed’s name in the contributors box on the lower ride side of the page. Even before the first steam-powered train arrived in Elizabethtown in 1836, another revolution in mass transportation was being experimented with[Read more...]

This is the second in a series of articles describing the life and history of Elizabethtown.  The articles are authored by Pat (Patsy) and Lloyd Reed of the Elizabethtown Historical Society.  Most of these articles were originally written years ago for the Elizabethtown Chronicle.  Several of Patsy and Lloyd’s articles appeared in the Elizabethtown Journal in 2009 and 2010.  To view these articles click on the Reed’s name in the contributors box on the lower ride side of the page.       In 1903, a blizzard-like snowstorm prevented Clarence Seibert from reporting to his coveted new job as a U.S. Railway[Read more...]

This is the first in a series of articles describing the life and history of Elizabethtown.  The articles are authored by Pat (Patsy) and Lloyd Reed of the Elizabethtown Historical Society.  Most of these articles were originally written years ago for the Elizabethtown Chronicle.  Several of Patsy and Lloyd’s articles appeared in the Elizabethtown Journal in 2009 and 2010.  To view these articles click on the Reed’s name in the contributors box on the lower ride side of the page. In 1937, it cost 15 cents to bowl one game at the Central Bowling Alley located behind the Central House[Read more...]

The King of England, George I, did not speak English. The German Elector of Hanover had become the English king through a series of unlikely circumstances and cared little about England and less about the American colonies.

When the first settlers moved into the Donegal area of Penn’s Woods, they were not bothered by English government officials. English oversight of the colony was perfunctory mainly involving paper work. William Penn, the proprietor,

Before Jamestown was settled, the Susquehannock Indians followed the North Branch of the Susquehanna River down river to the vicinity of what is now Washington Boro. The area was already occupied by

In 1964 the Kiwanis Club in Elizabethtown voted to restore the deteriorating old building in Peach Alley. The building had most recently been used as a garage but originally had been a state-supported elementary schoolhouse. It had just one room. The public service project undertaken by the Kiwanis Club took seven years to complete. Jacob N. Olweiler had purchased the school house in 1920 to house Troop I of the Boy Scouts of America. He bequeathed it to his daughter, Anna Olweiler Needham in his will. Anna had a soft spot in her heart for the old building as her[Read more...]

Most Elizabethtown factories were able to stay in business after the stock market crash in 1929 even though some people remembered their dads not always working five days a week. In other communities in Central Pennsylvania there was no work at all after factories closed. Dorothy Jacobs who lives in a cozy house on Sunset Drive remembered the hard times that brought her family to Elizabethtown. Her dad, Paul Philps, lost his job at the York Chain Works. To earn money for his family living in East Berlin, he got temporary work with the WPA, Works Progress Administration. When a[Read more...]

Mutt looked like a policeman even out of uniform. His ramrod straight posture and steady stride as he walked down Market Street informed people that Elizabethtown was being protected.

Clyde (Mutt) Coble was the town’s only police officer from 1930 until he retired as Police Chief in 1950 and he was succeeded by Joe Mumma. Everyone knew him by his nickname; most people didn’t even know his real first name. He was called Mutt as a kid and it stuck for a lifetime.

You have probably seen old pictures of bicycles with huge front wheels and small back wheels. The riders in the faded pictures were seated five feet off the ground on a seat mounted just behind the center point of the front wheel. The “wheels,” as these early bicycles were known, were the first self-powered machines used for overland transportation.

You never see these wheels being ridden, except by trained professionals, because they were outlawed in 1890. It was easy for the rider to get his weight too far forward causing him to fly over the handlebars if he hit a bump in the road.

Elizabethtown became a borough in 1827, the same year that the state legislature appropriated money for a railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia. The state legislature had also authorized a canal be built along the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers from Hollidaysburg to Columbia.

The businessmen of Elizabethtown, Middletown and Mt. Joy feared traffic on the main road from Lancaster to Harrisburg, which ran through their towns, would diminish when people started using the canals and railroad. They decided to build their own railroad parallel to the highway to increase their ability to complete commercially. They financed the new railroad through stock subscriptions.