More Info on Binkley's Mill Covered Bridge

Self-described covered bridge buff Thomas Kipphorn found an old blog post of mine with stereoviews (below) by William Gill showing Binkley's Mill and Bridge on the New Holland Pike where it crosses over the Conestoga. He kindly sent me some of his research on the site, offering it for publication on this blog.

"Binkley's Mill and Bridge" (vws)

"Conestoga at Binkley's" (vws)

"Binkley's Bridge" (vws)

PA/38-36-80x Christian / Milo / David Binkley's Mill / Printer's Paper Mill Bridge- Was Big Conestoga #17, and then state owned. The site is now abandoned. It was a two span Double Burr Truss 306' long, with a clear span of 295'8", a 16' roadway, a 12'6" clearance and at 25', this was the highest built above water in the county except for Susquehanna River intercounty structures. The covered bridge had replaced an earlier multi-arch stone bridge that had been washed away. It was built in 1869 by Elias McMellen at a cost of $1,650.00.

It was located between East Lampeter and Manheim Townships, oriented east-northeast to west-southwest on what is now called Pennwick Road on the East Lampeter Township (east) side and Papermill Road on the other (T555 both sides), but formerly an old section of what is now Route 23, SR0023 or the New Holland Pike. On Saturday, November 25, 1882, the adjoining mill caught fire. Flames spread to the bridge and both were destroyed.

The Columbia Iron Bridge Company built a new two span wrought iron Pratt through truss bridge on the old abutments and center pier and that lasted until an overweight truck dropped one of the spans, killing the driver, on Thursday, September 29, 1929. After this, the road was relocated about 550' downstream (south), mainly to eliminate two right angle bends set in opposite directions of each other on the Pennwick Road end, which put the new road on the downstream side of the former Lancaster to New Holland trolley bridge (empty abutments now gone), in 1930, to a new two span steel pony truss bridge. This bridge was replaced in 1989 -1990 by the present four span concrete bridge at the same site. The two right angle bends of Pennwick Road, which can be seen in a Penn Pilot aerial photo dated to April 29, 1940, still exist behind a barricade, but there is no trace of the old abutments or center pier of the covered bridge.

A local resident says the stonework from the abutments and pier were used to build cofferdams to lay the foundations for the 1930 steel bridge. However, the foundation of the center pier can still be seen in low water. Coordinates are taken off the pier foundation: 40° 4.4723'N, 76° 15.5693'W.

Newly Discovered Stereoview of West King Street

Stereoview of West King Street. Likely by B. Frank Saylor in 1866 or 1867.
Sold on Ebay in 2018.

A few months ago an intriguing photograph of a Lancaster street scene sold on Ebay. The photo shows West King Street from a vantage point above street level. In the foreground appears a sign for the Sorrel Horse Hotel with a date of "1857" and "C. Shenk" appearing on the sign. The image shows the intersection of Prince Street and King Street, and looks west along W. King Street going out of town. Snow appears on the rooftops and on the side of the streets.

My hypothesis is that this photo was taken by B. Frank Saylor in early 1866 or 1867. Here's Saylor's background according to the 1903 Biographical Annals:

Benjamin Franklin Saylor was born Feb. 24, 1838, and was educated in the public schools of Montgomery county, and left Trappe for Philadelphia when he was twelve years old. In 1858 he became a student of photography at Ninth and Spring Garden streets. In 1865 he came to Lancaster to take charge of the late Charles Eberman's gallery, which he later purchased. This gallery was on the north side of West King street, and in 1882 he bought the building where his residence and gallery are now found on the south side of the same street. It is one of the fine buildings of the block, and contains two stores besides the gallery and the residence.

I believe Eberman's photographic gallery was located approximately where the stereoview was taken. His carte de visite backmarks list his address at "No. 26 W. King St.," although that address currently corresponds to the Pressroom Restaurant/Steinman Hardware store. Could the numbering system for street addresses have changed sometime around the 1870s? If so, that would explain why the entry above mentions the photo studio as on the north side of the West King Street (whereas the modern No. 26 is on the south side of the street). Later photographs by Frank Saylor have an address listed of 45 West King St., and the 1886 Sanborn maps show a photo studio still at that location.

First block of West King Street showing Sorrel Horse Hotel and photo studio at No. 43/45 (1886 Sanborn Map)

Besides the circumstantial evidence of the location, I also believe that Frank Saylor made stereoviews with this style of mounting in 1866. There is a pair of CDVs of the interior of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church during a June 1866 celebration event with a Charles Eberman backmark (although he had died in April 1866), and there is a stereoview of Holy Trinity of that same event which I presume to have been made by Frank Saylor. Saylor's biography notes that he was involved with Lutheran churches -- particularly their choirs -- in the city, and he even married the daughter of Pastor Emanuel Greenwald (a poignant and tragic story, as she was known to be terminally ill when they married).

Anyway, enjoy this look at a Civil War era street scene from Lancaster! The depth of the 3D is great if you have a chance to look at the anaglyph below or can view the original stereoview with a VR headset, and the animated gif below can give a partial sense of the 3D.

Hopefully future posts can look into the magnificent series of William L. Gill stereoviews showing other street scenes from Lancaster.

Animated GIF created from stereoview of West King Street, c. 1866-7 by Frank Saylor

Anaglyph created from stereoview of West King Street, c. 1866-7 by Frank Saylor

Verso of stereoview

Horse and Buggy CDV from Gap, Pa

CDV of Horse and Buggy by W. H. Heiss taken in Gap, Pennsylvania (vws)

CDV Backmark

For the second time in a week, an interesting transportation-related photograph from Lancaster County appeared on Ebay.  First, there was a carte-de-visite of a locomotive built at the Norris Locomotive Works in Lancaster City in 1867, which I wrote about in a post earlier in the week.  Then, an image of a horse and buggy carrying two men in front of a barn appeared.  Fortunately, I was able to purchase both, and I look forward to doing more research about them and using them to tell the story of life in Lancaster County during the 1860s.

The horse and buggy image was taken by an itinerant photograph named W. H. Heiss, who took pictures at of his "Mammoth Photograph Wagon"  in the Lancaster County towns of Strasburg and Gap during the mid-1860s.  Because the photograph does not have a tax stamp, it was almost certainly taken before summer 1864 or after summer 1866.  A couple of his images pop up on Ebay every year.  Several that I have seen are of children with the same hoop rolling toy props as seen in the image below.

The image is also remarkable simple because it was taken outside.  I don't know if I can think of an earlier CDV taken in Lancaster outside of a photography studio, although there were some earlier daguerreotypes of Lancaster and photographer William L. Gill started making stereoviews of outdoor scenes sometime around 1866.

CDV of Two Children
by W. H. Heiss, Strasburg, 1865
(David Claudon Collection)

Unlike the "Bee" locomotive photo, it's difficult to guess what message the photograph is trying to convey.  Is the focus on the horse or the buggy, or both?  Where is the farm?  Are these Quaker farmers making a show of their prosperity?  Where type of buggy is it, and where was it made?  And, of course, who are the men in the photo?

Two New Gill Stereoviews (Animated as GIFs)

While visiting Lancaster over Christmas, I found a present with my name on it sitting beneath my wonderful in-laws' Christmas tree containing two rather interesting photographs.  The photos were part of William L. Gill's "Stereoscopic Home Views," a set of 133 three dimensional photos of Lancaster City and County sold commercially around 1866-1867.  See previous posts (Lancaster City photos, Lancaster County photos) for another ten of these photos from my collection, as well as some of the 10-20 that I've seen on Ebay and another 10-20 in the Denis Collection at NY Public Library.

The first of these images has great clarity and contrast, and depicts an unidentified farm lane with three men in the foreground and a handsome farmstead on a ridge in the background.  It is labeled "Road Scene" and is #39 in the series.

"Road Scene" by William L. Gill (vws)

As stereoviews, the photographs are much more impressive when viewed through a stereoviewer (which I have done).  However, you can get some of the effect by viewing the image as an animated GIF with alternating left-right images.  Here is "Road Scene" as an animated GIF:

The second image is of the ruins of the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, famously destroyed on June 28, 1863, to stop the Confederate advance.  It's not quite as clear as the "Road Scene" image, but is interesting nevertheless for its content.  It is #10 in Gill's series and labeled "Columbia Bridge Piers."

"Columbia Bridge Piers" by William L. Gill (vws)

And that same image as an animated GIF...

These images stand out as part of a rather remarkable collection that visually documents Lancaster's urban and rural landscapes in the 1860s.  It seems to be only a matter of time until someone in Lancaster does a then-and-now exhibit with these fascinating 3D photos, but as far as I know the Gill photographs are largely missing from historical collections in Lancaster.  

A Quaker CDV Album with Underground RR Connections

A couple weeks ago, I was excited to read an interesting article by Nancy Plumley in the Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society highlighting letters exchanged between siblings of the Rakestraw family in Bart Township, Lancaster County.  The letters give insights into daily life on a farm in 1865, as well as the social network of Quakers in Southern Lancaster County that included some of the most ardent abolitionists and participants in the Underground Railroad.

From Bart Township Map, Bridgens' Atlas, 1864, showing location of farm of William L. Rakestraw

The family of interest is that of William L. Rakestraw (1813-1869) and Sarah S. (Sugar) Rakestraw (1814-1906).  Their farm stands just south of where Mt. Pleasant Rd. crosses over the Enola Low Grade Line in Bart Township (two farms away from Middle Octorara Presbyterian Church, where Capt. Samuel Boone was buried after his death at the Battle of Perryville).  William's activities with the Underground Railroad earned him a couple mentions in Robert C. Smedley's 1883 History of the Underground Railroad in Chester and the Neighboring Counties of Pennsylvania, and Sarah's family was involved as well.  They had four children, including John Sugar Rakestraw, the recipient of the letters in Plumley's article.

I also found the article interesting as many of the names mentioned in article are those in a cartes-de-visite album listed on Ebay that I acquired back in 2007.  Based on the labeling of "aunts" and "uncles" and conversations with Nancy Plumley, the album likely belonged to William and Sarah's youngest daughter, Abbie (1854-1929).  It contains 20 photos--15 identified--mostly of John S. Rakestraw's aunts and uncles and presumably family friends.  Tax stamps on the back of many of the photos allow us to date most of the photos to the mid-1860s. 



Here are some highlights of the individuals depicted, with information from Nancy Plumley, Ancestry.com, and Smedley's book:

Joshua Gilbert.  Gilbert (1801-1876) was a pump maker with a farm east of Quarryville.  In the 1830s, hee employed fugitive slave William Wallace, before William Wallace went to work for Gilbert's neighbor and brother-in-law, Henry Bushong.  At Bushong's farm, Wallace lived in a tenement house with his family.  That house was the site of later confrontations with slave catchers and a subsequent jailing that got the Fulton Opera House its underground railroad designation.   

Thomas and Susan (Barnaby) Rakestraw.  Thomas Rakestraw (1811-1886) and Susan Barnaby (1806-1874) married in 1835 at the Bart Friends Meeting in Lancaster County and moved to Ohio soon afterwards.  Their second child, William L. Rakestraw, graduated from or was a law student at Mt. Union College, and served as a captain in the 19th Ohio Infantry.  He died in camp of diphtheria in 1861  One wonders about the conversations within Quaker families about the war, and how they balanced their abolitionism and pacifism.  Even in the 79th Pennsylvania, we have several examples of soldiers from Quaker families enlisting.   See, for example, a previous post on another network of Quaker families in Drumore Township near Liberty Square with two soldiers in Company E, 79th PA. 

The Death and Funeral of Capt. John Dysart

Tombstone of Capt. John H. Dysart, Woodward Hill Cemetery (vws, ~2006)

Anyone who makes the very worthwhile visit to Woodward Hill Cemetery--one of two big cemeteries in Lancaster City--will find it hard to miss the rather stunning grave stone of Capt. John H. Dysart, which ranks among my favorites in a cemetery full of beautiful stones.  Dysart was the first officer of the 79th Pennsylvania to die during the war, succumbing to illness in a Louisville hospital on February 8, 1862.  Rumors of a serious illness of typhoid fever had been printed in Lancaster's newspapers in the weeks preceding, and news of his reached Lancaster on February 10.  The Daily Evening Express eulogized, "To the honor of his memory it should be written, that, as a man, he was as kind-hearted, humane, and generous, as he was patriotic, loyal, and efficient as an officer."  More privately, Lewis H. Jones connected Capt. Dysart's illness to his exertions trying to help Private Joseph Maxwell--Jones' brother-in-law in Dysart's company--in Maxwell's last days.

Advertisement for Thomas J. Dysart
(LEH, 3/7/1860)

Dysart had been thoroughly involved with the Lancaster Fencibles before the war, and would have gone of with the company that became Company B, 1st Pennsylvania Reserves (the "Union Guards"), had it not been for business responsibilities.  I haven't fully mapped out the relationships, but I think John Dysart's uncle and cousins ran a major jewelry establishment (which then included watchmaking) in Lancaster with a store on Centre Square.  His brother, Thomas J. Dysart, was an artist who would enhance and tint photographs.  John Dysart's profession is unclear, although there was a John Dysart listed (age 25) in the 1860 census for Salisbury Township, which was where much of Company C was recruited.  His mother applied for a pension after Dysart's death, alleging that Dysart's father had left her many years before and that her son was her only means of support (accessible at Fold3.com).  Obviously, more research is needed...

Dysart's remains reached Lancaster on February 11, and a funeral was held on February 13.  The Daily Evening Express gave the following account on the next day: (alternate link)

A Glimpse of the Nearly Invisible

1) Emma Smith 2) Maggie J. Wiley 3) Mary Johnson
CDV by B. Frank Saylor, late 1860s
Ebay item #200656604669 ($137.50)

Of the thousands of photographs taken by Lancaster photographers before 1870 that I have viewed prior to this week, I can only recall one that had an African American as its subject.  In terms of primary sources, especially photography, Lancaster's African-American community is largely invisible. 

Lancaster County Views: Stereoviews by William L. Gill

Following up on my post a couple days ago about William Gill's stereoviews of Lancaster City, today I present some of his photographs of the rest of the "Garden Spot."  The Conestoga Creek, in particular, captured the artist's eye, as well as bridges and tunnels of the Pennsylvania Railroad.  I'll begin with three views of Binkley's Bridge, built in 1777 or 1778 by Christian Binkley over the Conestoga near the current bridge of the New Holland Pike (Rt. 23).  It was destroyed by a flood in 1867 and rebuilt in 1868.  The stereoviews were made around that time so it's unclear whether they depict the old or new bridge.

"Binkley's Mill and Bridge" (vws)

"Conestoga at Binkley's" (vws)

"Binkley's Bridge" (vws)

Also, here's another site with which many Lancasterians will be familiar: Lititz Springs.

Finally, an album containing stereoviews from my collection, the Robert Dennis Collection, and (public domain) images from other sources.

Facebook (literally) of the 1860s

Cross-posted at Adventures of a Costumer

As I mentioned in my post about the Gill stereoviews, paper photographs in the form of cartes de visite (CDVs = visiting cards) had just come onto the scene as the war began, and several photographers set up shop on the top floor of buildings near Centre Square (now known as Penn Square).  When assembled into albums, they are interesting to study as not just as a set photographs that reveal personal information about historical persons--especially from the standpoint of fashion--but taken together as an artifact that preserves a snapshot of a social network.  You can see it somewhat in the album below, but it will become a little more apparent in a future post of an album of a wealthy Quaker farm family from southern Lancaster County.    

From the Lutheran and Missionary (Philadelphia, PA) of June 26, 1862: (alternate link)



Families and friends widely traded these newly affordable photographs.  Here is one album with mostly young and unidentified Lancasterians that I purchased for my girlfriend, now wife, several years ago.  The photographer's backmarks have been copied to the bottom of each image, and a revenue stamp implies the photograph was taken between 1864 and 1866.  Note the differences in quality among Lancaster's photographers and how they used props and backdrops differently.

Carte de visite album (vws)

Also, if you ever get the chance to look at a CDV collection, spending only twenty or thirty minutes can train you to easily identify whether a photograph is early war, late war, or postwar, as the commercial aspects of photography rapidly evolved during the war.  For example, the photographer's advertisements on the back of photographs went from very plain in 1861 to very fancy by the late 1860s.

Lancaster City Stereoviews by William Gill

Company of Ladies Watching Stereoscopic Photographs
By Jacob Spoel (Rijksmuseum) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

One of the most interesting ways that technology, commerce, and culture intersected during the Civil War Era was the rapidly changing world of photography.  Although Lancasterians in the 1850s could have made more expensive and less reproducible daguerrotypes and ambrotypes, photography exploded with the advent of paper photographs in the form of cartes de visite (a topic for another time) starting in Lancaster around 1860.  Besides portrait photography, outdoor three-dimensional photography in a format known as a stereoview also took off.  Stunning images of Civil War battlefields made their way to exhibition halls and parlors through stereoviews.

In early 1860s Lancaster, three or four portrait studios operated around Centre Square with several other smaller operations in some of the county's towns.  The most technologically experimental of these was run by a man named William L. Gill.  (There even exists a double-exposure image of Gill shaking his own hand, indicating a sense of humor to accompany his technological abilities.)

Backside of Gill carte de visite (vws)

In the mid-1860s, Gill took several dozen stereoscopic photographs of Lancaster City and County, some of the first landscape photographs ever taken of Lancaster County.  Looking at the advertisement on the backside of one of the stereoviews shown below, we can infer the photos were taken in 1866 or 1867 as the Fulton Mill explosion occurred on July 14, 1867.  He then sold these photographs to the public as series, including "Lancaster County Views" and "Conestoga Views," at the price of $3 per dozen stereoviews.

Backside of Gill stereoview card (vws)

View up S. Duke St. showing Courthouse and Trinity Lutheran Church by William Gill (vws)

Presbyterian Church (further research needed to determine exact location) (vws)

The album below contains some of Gill's stereoviews taken of Lancaster City.  Except for the images above and a couple others I gleaned from Ebay (as they're in the public domain), the images come from the Robert N. Dennis Collection of the New York Public Library available through Wikimedia Commons.  In the future, I'll post more images of Lancaster County and Gill's Conestoga River series.

I'm not quite sure about the locations of a couple of the images and just used what was listed as the location, which may or may not be correct.  Feel free to comment if you know the correct information.

I should also mention that viewing the photographs in person through a stereoviewer provides a much richer viewing experience than what you will see here, which presents an opportunity for any institution in Lancaster interested in such an exhibition.