If  you ever doubted the power of one vote, consider the 1898 election for mayor of Lancaster.
Democrat Simon Shissler defeated Republican Samuel M. Myers by a single vote.
But early discrepancies in the vote totals led to our own “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline in the New Era, 50 years before that famous 1948 error by the Chicago Tribune.
Below is the Feb. 16, […]

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As the nation inaugurates Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States, let’s take a look back at some scenes from previous inaugurations.
The Associated Press moved a number of historic photos on the wire in the past week, so I thought I’d post some of them here. Enjoy.
Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1997, and […]

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Last week, I wrote about the retirement of the Ferdinand Magellan, the rail car used by Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower.
I thought the item was timely, due to President-elect Barack Obama’s rail trip Saturday from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., for his inauguration.
But I couldn’t find much information last week on the rail car that Obama […]

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The Magellan was government surplus in 1959 
President-elect Barack Obama campaigned by train in Lancaster last year, and he’ll travel from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., by train next week for his inauguration. But chances are he won’t be doing a lot of train travel as president, at least not like chief executives did in the old days.
The short story below, published […]

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On June 2, 1941, Life magazine published a feature article about Sunday school at First Presbyterian Church in Lancaster.
Accompanying the article were eight photographs by famed photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Now, those photos and 19 others that Eisenstaedt took on that assignment are available for review and purchase, thanks to a project to digitize a huge number […]

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In this week’s Eras Past column, I included an item about Frank McClain, a state representative from Lancaster City who was facing opposition in December 1908 in his bid for a second term as Speaker of the House (he lost the election a month later).
McClain was a political giant in his day, serving as Speaker of […]

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Here’s an interesting little article that was published in the New Era on Dec. 12, 1958.
It’s an Associated Press piece reporting on predictions by America’s top industrial and business leaders on what life would be like in 1987.
Among the most accurate of the predictions is that everyone would have pocket telephones, although it took a little longer than […]

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Last week, I posted an item on Hiram Revels, the nation’s first black member of Congress, who was sent to Washington by the Mississippi Legislature in 1870 to represent that state in the U.S. Senate.
This week, I’m featuring another historic first involving a black political leader, and there’s a Lancaster County connection. 
In 1939, Crystal Bird Fauset of […]

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Interested in presidential dogs and cats? Here’s an Associated Press story recapping some of the history of pets in the White House.
As you’re probably aware, the Obamas will be getting a puppy, to make good on the president-elect’s promise to his daughters. The story below discusses some of the previous furry companions of the nation’s first families.
Obamas’ pet to […]

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On the day when our nation marks the historic election of its first black president, I thought it would be timely to call some attention to this recent Associated Press story about Hiram Revels, who was the country’s first black senator.
It was way back in 1870 when the Mississippi Legislature voted to send Revels to Washington to represent the […]

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