Welcome to ACCOUNTS’ first issue of 2012.  You will find the six articles in this issue of striking variety and intrinsic interest.  Lois Huffines and Jack Fisher collaborate to solve the mystery of an old photograph and an enigmatic doll.   They teach us how far first hunches can be off the mark, and ways in which a mystery can be solved.  Jessica Owens takes us into the private life of Eli Slifer during the Civil War through the letters he wrote home to his wife, Catharine.  Catharine faced the unanticipated task of setting up the Slifer household and farm at newly built Delta Place (now Slifer House Museum), completed just as the war began.  Timothy Ryan traces the path of dozens of Union County residents, including his own ancestors, who followed the moving frontier west to Illinois and Wisconsin in the 1830s and 1840s after land in Union County became too costly and the opportunities of a frontier ended here. 

Glenda Sheaffer recounts the history of the Bennages, Mussers and their descendants, small farmers and laborers for the most part, whose lives illustrate the struggles and aspirations of working people, the very people on whom the growth of the County depended.  It’s an absorbing window into people who are rarely visible in historical record.  John Peeler traces the growth of conservative political voting in Union County, a pattern with roots well before the Civil War.  And Stanley Zellers introduces us to Simon Cameron, of one of Lewisburg’s most prominent families, an adroit practitioner of rough-and-tumble 19^th Century politics and a central figure in Pennsylvania and national politics from the 1840s through the 1870s.  From first page to last, this issue has much to offer.

That encourages me to make another point.  I invite you to write a piece for a forthcoming issue of ACCOUNTS.  All that’s required is a story to tell, illuminating some corner of Union County history.   I can work with you to move it from an idea to an essay, and together we can add what you know to the historical record of Union County and its people.  Got a relative or neighbor who also has a story?  Pass along the name and I’ll extend an invitation.  There is still space in the next issue; do let me hear from you.