Dallastown 1900 to 1950
Take yourself back to the 1900's but stay in Dallastown. What do you see? Lots of telephones and cars driving everywhere? Not quite, actually there were very few telephones, and a lot more trolleys and buggies rather than cars. While coming up with this information three very kind gentlemen were interviewed, the following is the information that was gained.
"Most people took the trolley... and even before that lots of people used horse and buggies," Mr. Joe Rojahn one of my interviewees replied. Later on, Mr. Rojahn had mentioned that "...Not many cars were used because everywhere you went it was always so crowded, although there were still few cars used in Dallastown."
Earlier Mr. Rojahn had mentioned that the streets were quite busy with people. "Today children like to hang out with there friends at the mall," Mr. Bill Hess exclaimed. "Well, when we were younger downtown was a place where you would meet up and hang out with your friends."
On the day William Jennings Bryan, a democrat who ran unsuccussfully for president three times, came to Dallastown the whole town became anxious. "Most of the town became very excited," replied Mr. Hess. Mr. Hess also mentioned "...When the day came that William Jennings Bryan came to Dallastown to give his speech you could actually feel the electricity in the air."
The next topic is the town's merchants. "Most of the stores we have today are the same as the ones we used to have," Mr. Rojahn replied. He also mentioned that there were a few banks in Dallastown at that time. While Mr. Rojahn was on the subject of stores Mr. Hess exclaimed that "...Back earlier there were at least two or three well kept stores, and today they are not as nicely kept even though the stores in the earlier 1900's were a bit smaller."
Another thing that was quite surprising was when both Mr. Rojahn and Mr. Hess stated that the most important industry at that time was a cigar factory. "Everyone bought cigars...," replied Mr. Hess. Many of the other businesses are still here, maybe a few new companies, but most are the same.
Although the population in Dallastown has increased over the years, there were still many people living there between the years of 1900 and 1950. The different personalities and characters of these people made Dallastown an interesting place to live. If you could time travel back to this time period, you would be able to see the many differences and similarities that exist between then and now. For example the changes of a house, or a the different ways of transportation, maybe see the different ways of communication, or you could even find the different typs of people who lived there. This could help you come to a better understand of how people lived back in the "old days."
