by Laura Klotz, MarkerQuest Blog edited to fit magazine by CMVB Staff
Finding the Stories Behind the Signs
Part III
One woman’s quest to photograph and research all of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's historical markers recently brought her back to Columbia & Montour Counties. NOTE: Part I & II of Laura’s explorations were documented in previous magazine editions, which you can read by clicking here.
ally used when he was alive. Christopher Latham Sholes, for whatever reason, genuinely preferred his middle name and was more apt to identify himself using that. There is no re- cord of him ever calling himself Christopher. I normally like to write about my subjects using their first names, because it makes them feel more like real people; but in light of his personal preferences, I’ll compromise here and call him C. L., which was one of the names he himself used.
I’ve lived in eastern Pennsylvania for over forty years, which is the closest I’m going to get to telling you how old I am. My maternal grandfather’s family has lived in Lehigh and Northampton Counties since before the American Revolu- tion, and the various branches of my family tree are tied to the commonwealth’s history in a lot of different ways. I’ve been fascinated with these blue and gold markers since I was a kid, but when you’re driving past them, you don’t often really have the chance to read what they say. I always thought that was unfortunate since they seemed interesting, and as an adult, I’ve occasionally wondered if most people pay attention to them at all. I decided that this project would be a fun way to make sure that at least a few more people get to know about them and the information they contain. So, with the blessing of the Pennsylvania Historical and Mu- seum Commission (the people who have been putting the signs up for over a hundred years), I launched this blog. Be- cause I’m a very well-rounded sort of nerd, I decided to treat it like one of the collection quests in my video games, and this is my quest log. Today’s quest is a double whammy in Montour County. Quite literally, the work I’m doing as I write this post would not be possible without the subject of today’s post, and he’s so important that he has two markers. Christopher Sholes; Montour County It’s perhaps a little ironic that the markers I visited for this article identify the subject by a name he himself never actu-
Our story begins with C. L.’s birth in Mooresburg on February 14, 1819. He was the second of three children of Orrin and
The Danville marker stands at the intersection of Northumberland Street (US 11) and Montour Street.
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