Pennsylvania Dutch Country is an area of Southeastern and South Central Pennsylvania that by the American Revolution had a high percentage of Pennsylvania Dutch inhabitants. Religiously, there was a large portion of Lutherans. There were German Reformed, Amish, Schwarzenau Brethren and other German Christian sects; the term was used in the middle of the 20th century as a description of a region with a distinctive Pennsylvania Dutch culture, but in recent decades the composition of the population is changing and the phrase is used more now in a tourism context than any other. Greater Pennsylvania refers to this region as well as Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking areas of Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia. Geographically the area referred to as Amish/Dutch country centers on the cities of Allentown, Lancaster and York. Pennsylvania Dutch Country encompasses the counties of Lancaster, Adams, Dauphin, Lebanon, Northampton, Lehigh, Snyder, Juniata, Huntingdon and Centre. Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants would spread from this area outwards outside the Pennsylvania borders between the mountains along river valleys into neighboring Maryland, West Virginia, New Jersey and North Carolina.
The larger region has been referred to as Greater Pennsylvania. The historic Pennsylvania Dutch diaspora in Ontario, Canada has been referred to as Little Pennsylvania; the area lies in the Piedmont region of the Appalachian mountains. The landscape is marked by rolling, wooded hills, deep stream valleys, fertile soils; the Susquehanna River provides its drainage. Contrary to popular belief, the word "Dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" not a mistranslation, but rather a corruption of the Pennsylvania German endonym Deitsch, which means "Pennsylvania Dutch / German" or "German"; the terms Deitsch, Dutch and Deutsch are all cognates of the Proto-Germanic word *þiudiskaz meaning "popular" or "of the people". The continued use of "Pennsylvania Dutch" was strengthend by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th century as a way of distinguising themselves from waves of German immigrants to the United States, with the Pennsylvania Dutch referring to themselves as Deitsche and to Germans as Deitschlenner whom they saw as a related but distinct group.
The German-speaking settlers came from a variety of countries and religious backgrounds, but most became assimilated to Anglo-American language and culture beginning in the second half of the 19th century with English-language evangelism efforts and the outlawing of German-language schooling. The assimilation process continued soon after the turn of the 20th century with World War I, consolidated schools, the advent of mandatory public education until the age of 16, with added pressures from increased mobility, the influence of English-language media and urbanization. Many German-Americans hid their ethnicity with the spread of anti-German sentiment and propaganda; the economy of the region was entirely rural and agricultural, based on the immigrants' dream of bettering their lot through the ownership of their own farms. The small tradesmen indispensable to a rural economy, such as blacksmiths, wheelwrights and storekeepers, constituted the bulk of the non-farm economy. In the 19th century, a small educated class, comprising the Lutheran and Reformed ministers, began to emerge.
The Pennsylvania seminaries educated them in High German so that they could preach to their flocks in a scholarly way. The advent of the industrial revolution brought technologies based on coal, iron and railroads, but the Dutch, unversed in English, lacking connections to the English-speaking establishment, were unable to engage in entrepreneurship on a large scale; the large-scale enterprises which came to characterize the industrialized eastern half of the region, such as the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Bethlehem Iron Company were founded by English speaking residents from the Philadelphia and New York areas. The English-speakers dominated the managerial and engineering positions of these companies, the Dutch supplied the blue collar and supervisory workforce; as technology advanced during the late 19th century, higher technology companies such as Mack Truck and New Jersey Zinc moved to the region as well. As the local industries expanded, immigrants from Middle Europe were recruited for the low-skilled positions, the more established Dutch retained the skilled blue collar and supervisory positions.
The Dutch influence on the shop floor was so great that some Slavic immigrants became bilingual in their native language and in Pennsylvania Dutch while they had not yet mastered English. In the 20th century, universal public education in English and easy access to higher education erased many of the elements that made the Pennsylvania Dutch Country a distinctive region of the United States; the information age and globalization reduced the dependence of the region on industrial jobs. The Eastern part of the region is now dominated by information-intensive white collar employment; the western counties of the region experienced industrialization as well, with Hershey Foods being the most notable example, but it was less inten
John Herbert Elliot was a British novelist and television producer. Between 1954 and 1960 he scripted a succession of one-off television plays including War in the Air and A Man from the Sun; the latter a pioneering work aimed at a West Indian audience. In 1961 he joined with astronomer Fred Hoyle to write another ground-breaking TV, the science fiction serial A for Andromeda, which set the tone for all, to follow in its stead; the success of A For Andromeda prompted a sequel, The Andromeda Breakthrough, in 1962. Following Andromeda, Elliot wrote more one-off plays, but his talents were underused by the BBC, he resigned from the corporation in 1963 but, as a parting gift, offered an option on his concept for the drama series Mogul for which he wrote much of the seven series. His other works include programmes such as Fall of Eagles and Survival as well as novels including Duel, Blood Upon the Snow, A For Andromeda and The Andromeda Breakthrough. A for Andromeda, 1962, Souvenir Press, ISBN 978-0-285-63588-3 Andromeda Breaktrough, 1964, Souvenir Press.
"War in the Air: Churchill, the Air Ministry and the BBC response to Victory at Sea", Contemporary British History John Elliot on IMDb Obituary: John Elliot in The Independent
The Townsend Home is a historic house located about 3 miles from Stockton, Illinois, in Jo Daviess County. It is a fine example of an Upright and Wing style house with Greek Revival detailing and was completed in 1856; the house was listed on the U. S. National Register of Historic Places in 2005; the Townsend Home was built from 1851–56 on an 800-acre farm north of the village of Stockton, Illinois along Canyon Park Road, a road that serviced the small, now defunct, community of Millville. The home was built by George Townsend, a New Yorker who came to the Illinois in 1826 with his father and younger brother, Absalom. George Townsend began construction on his home after returning from two years in the California during the Gold Rush; the house is constructed from limestone quarried on the Townsend farm. The designer of the house is unknown, as it is unknown if George Townsend had access to either architectural pattern books or a "master carpenter", it is possible that Townsend himself designed the house.
The home follows the tradition of finer Upright and Wing houses of the day, in the manner of those in New England and the Great Lakes region, where the style flourished. The Townsend Home, like many Upright and Wing houses, features characteristics of Greek Revival architecture; the house is Wing with Greek Revival details. The style came to the area as settlers moved west from New England; the house pre-dates the 1880s village of Stockton, 3 miles away, the home has a long association with one of the area's earliest families. The Townsend Home has remained in the Townsend family for at least six generations; the Townsend Home was added to the U. S. National Register of Historic Places on May 17, 2005. Property Information Report: Townsend Home, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency