Winters Heritage House Museum

e m b e r N e w s l e t t e r
M
Published by the Elizabethtown Preservation Associates, Inc. June 2014

In this Newsletter Also inside—

 Summer Camp for little kids!
 Summer Camp for older kids!
 Image Collection Drive— Help us get
our Past Together!
 WWII Blimp sails off to Media, PA!
 Fun Findings in the Seibert Library
 Dear Elizabeth — Our Historic Advice Column
 The Committees of Winters Heritage House
 ….and more!

(717) 367-4672
Permit No. 1
Elizabethtown, PA 17022
Elizabethtown, PA
47 East High St.,
Non-profit Org.
P.O. Box 14
US Postage Paid
Return Service Requested Winters Heritage House Museum
Dear Elizabeth
Our Historic Advice Column
The spirit of our town founder, Elizabeth
Hughes (residing here from 1750 to 1760),
offers her advice to our generation.
If you have any advice needs from or a
history question for Elizabeth, please send
them to Dear Elizabeth, c/o Winters
Heritage House Museum’s email;
winters-hh@embarqmail.com
Dear Elizabeth,
I know styles have changed quite a bit
over the years, and wearing less
clothing is more acceptable now.
However, it seems you Colonials were
so very over-dressed. While I think it’s
awesome that you were so style
conscious, weren’t you hot and
uncomfortable in all those skirts and
coats and hats?
Bella Phation
Dear Bella,
Out here in the (now Elizabethtown)
wilderness, Barnabus and I are very
rarely treated with a chance to view any does seem to fly in the face of common
of the latest clothing trends. Indeed, if sense. ‘Tis no wonder you have drifted
our native friends come past for a visit, to the more native-like clothing
we are simply pleased if they are
decently covered. It is truly wonderous
what one gets used to, and Barnabus
discussing a pile of furs with a nearly
naked Conoy hardly gives me reason to
blush anymore.
I cannot speak for the folks living in
large cities such as Lancaster who are
more often found to follow the fashions women often died when their skirts
from Paris. But, out here, we dress very caught on fire while cooking at the
simply. It is common to own just two
outfits. One of wool, of course, for
winter wear, and one of linen, which
doubles as your winter undergarments
and as your summer articles.
If you find us overly-attired, I suspect
you are not imagining the daily events
one is exposed to. Shorts and flip flops
would never do if you chance upon a
bear or rattlesnake, or find you must re-
shoe your horse, or needs hike 4 miles
to your neighbor through briars and
rhododendrons, all of which occur with
regularity.
Linen is a most excellent fabric for a hot
day, and once dampened can feel lovely
and cool. I ponder your generation’s
desire for synthetic fabrics. Wrapping
yourself up in suffocating plastics just
selections.
Yours truly,
Elizabeth
Dear Elizabeth,
I have heard it said that, in your day,
hearth. This was supposedly the
second leading cause of death amongst from cooking.
women. (The first being death during
childbirth.) Women were practically
burning up right and left, and no one
thought anything about it! This sounds
awful, and I was wondering if you’ve
ever had any close calls of this nature.
Bonnie Blazes
Dear Bonnie,
How curious! Let me rush to assure
you, that this is not the problem you
have been lead to believe it to have
been. Certainly somewhere, I suppose,
some lazy child bride may have fallen
asleep in the ashes and found herself a-
flame, but truly anyone with a nose and
a care for her skirts would not come to
such an end! Your worries may be laid
to rest. I remind you that our clothing is
made of natural materials; linen and
wool, most often. These fabrics tend to
smolder rather than burn outright. Try it
with a scrap of something, and you will
see how difficult it is to catch one up in
a flame. Now picture a dutiful wife
working over her fire. She smells a bit of
smoldering wool, and simply steps on
the edge of her skirt to extinguish the
char. Certainly she is dismayed at the
prospect of having to mend her skirts,
but she does emerge from her cooking
alive and well.
It is your modern fabrics, once again,
that are the culprits of this
misconception. Synthetics and treated
fabrics surely will erupt into flame if
exposed to fire. Your generation has
seen this and then assumes all fabrics
behave so. My advice would be for
your era to change to more sensibly
made attire. However, as common
sense seems amazingly undeveloped in
your time period, I suppose it would be
best if I advise you, instead, to refrain

Lost Kobel, Nissley and Ober Graves
from 1789 and 1823 are Found
By Dale Good
Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (What God does is done
well). So reads the last line on Michael Kobel’s gravestone,
discovered this spring along side an old Nissley-Whisler
farm boundary line.
The Seibert Library, alerted to the discovery pulled out its
cemetery records. An undated account read “Kobel Stone
(Paul Moyer Farm, off 743 just W. of Elizabethtown). There
were five or six stones in this plot originally, all the others
have disappeared.” Etched in German script on the stone:
Starb den 19 Feb'r 1823 (Died on 19 Feb. 1823).
Subsequent recovery efforts have revealed 7-8 additional
stones. All apparently dating from the 1700’s and early
1800’s. The family names include Kobel, Nissley and Ober.
Sadly, the older stones’ writing has been badly eroded,
making the researching more challenging. Michael’s grave
may have been the last added to the cemetery. Almost lost
to time, the cemetery does not appear in early 1864, 1875
and 1899 detailed atlases of Elizabethtown and West
Donegal Township.
Research by the Seibert Library reveals the site was more or
less sitting on the boundary line between lands patented by
Benjamin Whisler in 1766, to the east, and lands patented
by Hans (John) Nissley in 1754, to the west. In 1783,
Benjamin Whisler acquired from Hans (John) Nissley and his
wife Mary 112+ acres of their land to the immediate west of
the cemetery 1.
It appears the cemetery site was then surrounded by
Whisler Family lands when Michael Kobel was buried in
1823 2. Two of the remaining stones, very worn but with
Translation of Head Stone
Zum Unden-en von (In memory of)
Michael Kobel
Starb den 19 Feb'r 1823 (Died on 19 Feb. 1823)
Sein alter war 59 Jahr, 5 monet und 2 tage
(He was aged 59 years, 5 months and 2 days)
The line later revealed (“Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan” What God does
is done well) was underground until recently, when the stone and grave
began to undergo the relocation process.
partially discernable etchings read: H. N., 1789 and M.N.
We believe the location of the site and the date are strong
evidence that these stones belong to Hans (John) Nissley
and his wife Mary. This Hans, who died in 1789, built and
lived in the small stone house, next to the Masonic Village
at 561 Bainbridge St 3 & 4.
The graves are currently located on private property, in an
area where they are exposed to inadvertent damage.
Proceedings are underway to relocate the graves to an area
that can be more suitably cared for.
In our next newsletter we will reveal more about the
biographies of the Elizabethtown pioneers buried there:
 Michael Kobel (1763-1823), who purchased three of
Barnabas Hughes’ original town lots where the Moose
Lodge is located today. He was a tavern keeper and
early postmaster.
 Hans Nissley, (d. 1789) who was a Mennonite Minister
and early miller.
Some of their stories are recorded in Richard K.
MacMaster's book "Elizabethtown, The First Three
Generations".
1
Lancaster Co. Land Patents AA-8-91 and A-17-383, Lancaster County
Deed X-241.
2
Lancaster Co. Deeds: G-3-180, B-7-206 and UU-298. Further research is
needed to verify this.
3
Elizabethtown-The First Three Centuries, Richard MacMaster, Masthof
Press, Page 50.
4
Lancaster
County Will: Y-2
-487.
Image Drive 2014
History is Still Happening
— Help us preserve it! Many people don’t
realize how poorly our modern-era photographs are
aging, especially those taken after 1960. Please
consider; if we want images from the 1900s to survive
another 10-100 years, now is the time to start an effort
to preserve them.
The Seibert Library of Winters Heritage House Museum
is putting together a drive to gather meaningful photos
of Elizabethtown up through the 1980s.
We are interested in increasing our files on the
Elizabethtown area’s people, buildings, and
events. Image source will be noted in our
archives.
The first photo drive will go on during July of
2014.
How to Participate
 Make an appointment with the museum to
bring your photos in for review.
 We will work with you to select and scan your
best photos. The originals will be given back to
you.
 In exchange for being able to add a scan of your
photo to our archives, we will also provide you with
a digital copy.
Please note that computers are not the best place to
store photos, either. However, it is our hope to build an
image database that can be responsibly cared for,
protected and transferred as technology advances.
Blimp goes on Display at the PA Veterans Make an Appointment for Image Preservation
Museum in Media, Pennsylvania. Call: Winters Heritage House Museum 717 367-4672
Several years ago, our multi-talented We are open Wed., Thurs., Fri., 9:30am to 3:00pm, or leave
volunteer, Harvey Eshelman, donated a very
a message other hours.
detailed model that he had made of a US
Navy WWII blimp to the Winters Heritage Or email: Winters-HH@embarqmail.com
House Museum. Harvey served in the Navy
Appointments will be made, to the best of our ability, to
Airship (blimp) Corps during WWII.
accommodate your schedule. Photo source will be noted in
To this day, very few people realize how
our archives.
valuable our ASW (anti-submarine warfare)
airship fleet was to securing both coasts of My appointment is:
the US from submarine attacks. Many US
merchant ships (over 400!) were attacked and
sunk by the German U-boats during the war
along our own coastline. Harvey explains that
the German subs were so close to our
beaches, that for evening entertainment the
German soldiers would sit on the decks of their surfaced sub (the subs
Types of photos we are looking for;
had to surface nightly to recharge their batteries) and watch the
activity on the Coney Island boardwalk.  Photos of Elizabethtown that include meaningful

Blimps were quiet and could sail slowly at a low altitude, making them buildings, citizens, or events. (such as of the fair or
excellent tools for locating enemy submarines. During the war, only parades, etc.) from early through 1980.
one Navy Airship, K-ship—K-74, was shot down on July 8, 1943. All
 Be prepared to tell us as much as you can about the
but one crewmember were rescued. Harvey’s model is of this very
airship to commemorate that service. photo. Written information is helpful.
Harvey spent a good deal of his Navy time on the blimp landing crew,  Bring a flash drive so that we can save a digital copy of
a very dangerous job. As a blimp came in to land, teams of men your photo for you. Original photos will be returned to
would race out on either side to secure the long ropes that dangled
you.
from the nose and sides of the blimp. His tales of men being tangled
in these trailing lines are especially harrowing. Often, blimp landings  If you have photos already in a digital format, please
required several approaches before the correct altitude could be consider sharing them with us, as well.
obtained for the landing crew to secure the trailing lines. It was not
uncommon during an aborted landing for one of the snaking lines to
tangle around an unfortunate landing crew member and either give him a nasty burn (called a skinning) or to wrap around his leg in such a
way that he became airborn as the blimp lifted off. Apparently, every blimp landing field had a pond at the end of the runway for the
hopeful purpose of allowing someone tangled in the trailing lines a place to drop.

Harvey’s model blimp has been on display at the Winters Heritage House Museum. However, we felt that an even more appropriate home
for this beautifully made model would be at the new
Pennsylvania Veterans Museum in Media,
Pennsylvania. The curators there are in agreement
with us and have taken the blimp to display in their
halls. We have sent along several of Harvey’s
recorded Navy Airship Corps stories, as well!

Please visit http://www.paveteransmuseum.org to

Harvey Eshelman’s handmade model of the Navy Airship– K -74 learn more about the PA Veterans Museum.
The Committees of the Winters Heritage House
One of the most enjoyable ways to help out at the Winters Heritage House is to become involved with of one of its many
supporting committees. Some committees are based on an historic skill, such as the Quilting, Textile, and Herb Garden
Committees. These committees give the museum a pool of talent to use for educational programming, and often create a
financial benefit, as well. Others, such as the Property, Library and Oral History Committees provide key components of the
museum’s mission; Protecting the properties and history of Elizabethtown, and keeping them available to the community.
Over the next few newsletters, we will explore the Committees of Winters Heritage House Museum.

The Quilting Committee Property Committee

This committee is one of our busiest groups. They generally Every great institution has its secret society. Winters
meet in the evenings on the second and third Mondays of Heritage House has the Property Committee. Perhaps as
each month. This group has many lively, fun members who opposite to the Quilting Committee as one can get, the
range in skill from beginner to accomplished quilters. They Property Committee has only a few members who probably
support the museum through an annual May Quilt Exhibit, do not even know who they are. At times the group has
by making items to be sold in the museum store and during been down to just a few, but it works best when the
the November Holiday Craft Show. Over the years, they numbers swell. Meetings are held impromptu, in basements
have completed and sold many quilts with the proceeds and attics, or both. There is often pointing and head
going to the Winters Heritage House Museum. Currently scratching
they have a quilt for purchase that was created by Dottie involved, and
Leban. Dottie was a talented artist and a long time member logs are
of the quilting committee. When she passed away several commonly
years ago, the committee purchased and finished her latest discussed. No
quilt. The quilt hangs for sale in the museum store. one has
counted the
members, and
we’ll probably
never know
what their
population is.
So, who are
these mystery
people? What
do they do?
Secret Property Committee member, Jerry
This Lorsen, helps paint the museum exterior.
committee
gets together
to decide how best to manage the grounds and buildings,
helps troubleshoot issues within the buildings, and slaps on
some fresh paint when needed. Rather than accruing
financial support, they seem to have a spending problem,
though spending wisely is at their heart. The museum may
not let on that you are considered a Property Committee
member, but if you’ve been seen here holding a paint
scraper or a rake, or discussing the movement of a paper
pineapple (our AC indicator), chances are you’re in!
Fun Findings
in the Seibert
Library
Aberdeen Mills
— A Local Gem
This interesting history of Aberdeen Mills was written by Mabel
Eshelman 78 years ago. If you have never visited Aberdeen Mills, we
encourage you to take a short drive out to view this lovely historic
Elizabethtown treasure. Simply head out of town on North Market St.,
and just after the last light, bear right on Mill Road. Follow Mill Road
to Aberdeen Mills. (Don’t be tempted by the Aberdeen Rd. turn!) You
can also access the mill from the Conewago Recreational Trail (2.5 km
along), using the North Market street entrance. Calling ahead may
secure you a formal tour!!
History of Aberdeen Mills
In 1774 Ulrich Sherr built a mill along the Conewago Creek about
three miles from Elizabethtown. It was built of stone. Thirty-six years
ago [1896] the mill burned but the original stones still remain and are
standing in the present structure. A small stone bearing these letters
and dates is found on the one side of the mill near the roof – U. S.
B. S. 1774. The initials stand for the Sheers, Ulrich and his wife
Barbara.
The one dwelling house now standing and made of stone was
built before 1774, according to the present occupants. The date is so
much worn off of the marker stone that it is not legible. Long ago it
was one and one-half stories high but has since been enlarged, as can
easily be seen in the arrangement of the stones at the side of the
house. The other stone dwelling house was probably built since 1774.
It is quite evident where a former door in this second house has since
been closed with stones. This door was wide enough for the barrels
of whiskey to be rolled in and out. Near these two dwelling houses in
a shed in which there is a well now, but which was used as a distillery
in the days that this was not prohibited by law.
Several hundred feet from the houses are the remains of a small
cemetery in which are three tombstones, the writing [?] on which can
be deciphered. One is of the man who built the mill—Ulrich Sherr,
born September 29, 1722 and died April 13, 1777; the second, now
broken in two or three pieces, is that of his wife,--Barbara Sherr, born
in 1723 and died in 1806; and the third is that of Heinrich Sherr,
probably a brother [sic], born in 1786 and died in 1802.
The mill passed from the Sherr family to the Redseckers and then
in 1890 to Jacob Ressler. The present owner is A. L. Gantz and it is
almost eighteen years now that he has owned it. It was usually called
after the name of the owner, but since the railroad has a station,
Aberdeen, not very far away, it has been called “Aberdeen Mills.”
There is no machinery to make the power in the mill other than
the millrace being forced over a wheel fifteen and a half feet in
diameter and three feet in width. In the mill is an old French stone
burr for grinding which is used at the present time for making
cornmeal and whole wheat flour.
One cannot visit Aberdeen without being impressed with the
beauties of nature along the stream, -- the water, the trees, and rocks.
In some rocks holes resembling hollow buckets have been hollowed
out by means of the action of the water and small stones. Because of
Keep an Eye on Elizabethtown’s Second Fridays!!
August 8, 2014 Winters Heritage House Museum
will participate in the MSIB Art Walk, from 5-9 on
Friday August 8 and 11-5 on Saturday, August 9.
Several members from the museum’s artist co-op
will join other local artists for an evening of art-touring
entertainment. (free)
September 12, 2014 the museum will also be a stop on the MSIB-
organized Wine Walk. Each of the six locations featured on the walk
will provide part of a dinner and a paired wine from one of three
local vineyards. (tickets required)
For further information on these events, please email
MarketStreetIB@gmail.com
 Don’t Forget Your Benefits!
Your museum membership benefits allow you a free tour for
yourself, and possibly several guests (depending on your
membership level.) What a fun outing for you and a friend or two!
Also, check to see if you are eligible for a summer camp discount, or
sponsor a camper if you aren’t using your discount. Library research
is always free for members!

Summer History Day Camp June 25, 26, & 27

Museum Happenings
Great Scot — We’re Famous!
Winters Heritage House Museum will be featured on an Irish
television show put together by Waddell Media of the United
Kingdom. The show, Paul and Nick’s Big Food Trip, features two
chefs who travel from village to village within the UK, preparing
local foods. This month they want to follow the trail of Ulster-
Scots emigrants to the United States, and visit some Colonial
American Scotch-Irish sites. Winters Heritage House museum is
on the agenda, as is Donegal Presbyterian Church in Mount Joy.
The chefs will visit some local food producers and will then
prepare a dinner for several Ulster-Scots descendants.
The portion of the show featuring the museum will focus on the
1760 Scotch Irish log rooms, the 1847 open hearth kitchen,
Wayne Fettro’s Donegal to Donegal mural (pictured below), and
the raised bed garden. Filming occurred on Monday, June 9. The
show’s air date will be January of 2015. You can visit the Waddell
Media website at http://www.waddellmedia.com
If you’re interested in watching the show once it’s completed,
please email the museum (winters-hh@embarqmail.com) and
we will send you the link and password information.
Children ages 7-16 are invited to enroll in the Winters Heritage House
Museum’s Summer History Day Camp program.
The younger crew of kids, ages 7-12, can enjoy up to two days of
activities, on June 25 & 26. This camp, titled Town Tradesmen, will
explore the Elizabethtown community for modern and historic trades.
Each morning, children will be apprenticed at several participating
merchants, and learn more about their community as they do so.
Games and fun will follow in the afternoons.
Older children, ages 12-16 can spend one day involved in a single
intensive historic skill. This year, the Tradesman Camp will focus on
traditional wool processing. Campers will spend the morning learning
how to select, clean and prepare a fleece for spinning. The afternoon,
they will spend weaving on looms.
To register for either camp, please contact the museum . 717 367-4672
Adult Chair Caning Workshop
A workshop that will teach adult students all the intricacies of chair
caning is being put together now, and will run November 1, 2 and 3
from 9am to 5pm, each day. Students will develop a thorough
understanding of this craft by the completion of the course.
Walter Turpening, of Kingsport,
Tennessee, will travel to the area to
instruct the class. Walter uses 100%
cotton cord to cane, which allows for a
great deal of color and pattern to be
incorporated into the design.

The 3-day class cost is $450, with the

first $200 due at sign-up. To register
Museum and Seibert Library Hours for the class, please contact the
Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, 9am to 3pm, museum, 717 367-4672, or Donna
and by appointment. Please call ahead if you plan to do research in Bucher, 717 824-0846.
our library, so we can be sure a librarian is on hand.
Phone: 717 367-4672 email: Winters-HH@embarqmail.com To register for classes or events, please contact the museum
Website: www.elizabethtownhistory.org by calling (717) 367-4672. www.elizabethtownhistory.org