Lancaster and Surrounding Area

‘Lancaster was named after Lancashire, England, and its symbol is the red rose, from the house of Lancashire. In the period from the 1760's through the early 1800's, this was the largest inland town in America, and it was larger than most inland English cities as well.

Lancaster was our nation's capital for one day when the Continental Congress met here in September 1777. The colonial government had withdrawn from the capital in Philadelphia to escape the approaching British troops, and stopped here for a day before moving on to York, Pennsylvania.’
http://www.800padutch.com/lancastercity.shtml

Both the towns and surrounding area are attractive. Because the area was established before the American Revolution there are some interesting British connections - King and Queen Streets rather than Lincoln and Washington Roads. Much of the older architecture is Georgian and a delightful practice of putting (electric) candles in the windows of homes (a practice dating back to an 18th century Quaker story entitled ‘A Candle in the Window’) is charming.

Our focus in the area was to bring Brownsberger information to the Mennonite Information Centre, meet members of the Brownsberger family, and publicize the trip. We attended the Sound and Light show, Behold the Lamb, at the Millenium Theatre in Strasburg where over 2,500 people were in attendance. There is similar attendance at two or three performances a day. The incredible energy and amazing 300 foot wrap-around stage made for a very impressive presentation of the Easter story. The journey into Amish country brought the delightful images of horse and buggy, fields being fertilized by a farmer with six mules. Ron keeps me entertained with tales of the Mennonites doing service in modern vehicles for their Amish neighbours. And it takes an insider to understand the nuances of different colours of cars and forms of dress.

On Friday night we dropped by a downtown jazz club for about an hour. We were seated right by the piano. Wow! There was a piano player who had tremendous energy. He beat the time with his foot on the floor and it shook!. There was also a flugelhorn player who occasionally played a gourd accompanied by a base player. Good sounds.

We attended a service at Lancaster County Bible Church and observed some of the 61 candidates for baptism this weekend give their witness. We met Earl and Harriet Brownsberger there. Unfortunately Earl had a stroke two years ago and cannot talk but Harriet did a great job of telling us about family. Their family descends from Jacob Braunsberger who emigrated in 1850 with either three sons or grandsons. We saw a family crest and heard tales of a family castle near Konigsberg in Germany. (I can see another trip on the horizon!) Harriet arranged a family reunion for family in the area in 2006 and about 50 attended. She and Earl attended reunions in Missouri where about 200 Brownsbergers were in attendance. Ron didn’t know about this branch at all but now has more addresses to pursue. On Sunday we attended Hernley Mennonite Church outside of Mannheim and had a message from another Brownsberger family who have spent the winter in Florida.

We are now ready to start the walk in earnest. The walkie talkies work. The weather was terrible late today - hail and a possible tornado close by, but promises to be sunny and cool tomorrow. More from the Brownsberger farm tomorrow…

From the top pictures are:

Penn Square, Lancaster

The Mennonite Infromation Centre

A clock at the Centre like the one taken to Upper Canada in 1826 and like the one Ron made for our front hall

Amish farmer harrowing his field

Amish buggy