Blog

My Name is Burr, Sir

Many of the covered bridges in Lancaster County utilize an architectural style called the “Burr Truss” or “Burr Arch-Truss”. It’s easy to see the arch, but what is the “Burr”? Does it refer to the rough edges of the woodwork? Or maybe it’s the sound that your...

Peter Bezaillon

This is the third installment on the topic of the early fur traders that operated in Lancaster County. The first article introduced Jacques LeTort, who with his wife, Anne, and son, James traded on the Schuylkill and later on the Susquehanna. The second article told the story...

Martin Chartier

  This is the second installment on my series about the fur traders that had some connection to the area of Pennsylvania that would later become Lancaster County. These traders were the frontiersman that explored the territory and interacted with the native Americans that inhabited the area...

Jacques LeTort

   During the seventeenth century continuing into the eighteenth, the fur trade was big business among the Swedish, Dutch, French, and English traders. Many people wanted to get in on the action. There was intense competition between the governors of New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, each wanting...