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Butler County's great daily newspaper

The history behind our great nation is a tapestry of stories about people who lived through landmark events, challenging times and amazing innovations.
America250: A Journey Through Time is a special publication designed to remember, celebrate and honor those pieces of our past as we prepare to mark the nation’s 250th birthday on July 4, 2026.
Each issue will include articles of national, state and county significance, profiles of people throughout the centuries and more.

The first 17 months will focus on slices of history and how events impacted the people who lived through those times. An added feature will show where readers can continue their own journeys through history at museums and historical attraction.
Starting in June 2024, America250: A Journey Through Time will examine the decades leading us back to the events that formed our nation. Data from the Census, which started in 1790, will assist in painting this portrait of America.

National Spotlight
One generation after the Declaration of Independence launched the democratic American experiment, the young nation appeared to be thriving in 1840. The United States popu...
December 09, 2025 America 250
As America pushed westward, old divisions over slavery deepened — setting the stage for Civil War. America was halfway through its first full century as a free nation in ...
November 11, 2025 America 250
America may seem more divided today than ever, but the 1860s remind us the nation has endured much worse. It’s no exaggeration to say the American Civil War (1861-1865) w...
October 14, 2025 America 250
As 1870 dawned, America was still reeling from the trauma of the Civil War. More than 600,000 lives had been lost, cities and farms across the South lay in ruins, and tho...
September 09, 2025 America 250
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Keystone Highlights
Nearly every great city has been impacted by a great fire. Rome had the 64 A.D. fire that the Emperor Nero would try to blame on early Christians. London had the 1666 con...
December 09, 2025 America 250
It’s impossible to know who the first person to discover oil on the banks of Oil Creek in Venango County was, because by the time settlers arrived, Native Americans had b...
November 11, 2025 America 250
1862 explosion, largely overshadowed by the Battle of Antietam, killed 78
October 14, 2025 America 250
With its rich deposits of coal and iron ore and access to river transportation, Western Pennsylvania became the birthplace of the American steel industry. It also became ...
September 09, 2025 America 250
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County Times
Frontier medicine in the early settlement of Butler County was as rough-hewn as the log cabins of the early pioneers. The first settlers of the county spent hard, laborio...
December 09, 2025 America 250
Clearfield Township’s name is a reminder that the first European colonists in the area were far from the first people to live here. In 1798, when the area that would even...
December 09, 2025 America 250
Butler County’s past lives on in more than historical markers and names on tombstones. Many institutions created over a century ago still exist in the county, if in alter...
November 11, 2025 America 250
Betsey Stivert Grossman must have been nervous when she agreed to accompany her husband, Benedict, upon his decision in 1797 to move their family from York County to the ...
November 11, 2025 America 250
Worth Township was a relatively recent addition to the map of Butler County. It was created in 1855 and formed mostly from land taken from Muddy Creek Township and a smal...
October 14, 2025 America 250
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Profiles of People
One doesn’t think of Edgar Allan Poe as a Pennsylvanian, but the Boston, Massachusetts native did live in Philadelphia from 1838-1844. It was a time in which some observ...
December 09, 2025 America 250
Stephen Collins Foster was born on the Fourth of July 1826 — the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence — in what’s now the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pit...
November 11, 2025 America 250
Army Sgt. John Preston Donaldson of Butler, a Commissary Sergeant during the Civil War, was at the Village of Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, when Confederate Ge...
October 14, 2025 America 250
The philanthropic impact of Andrew Carnegie continues to this very day. To cite just one example, the Carnegie Free Library of Braddock, the first of its kind, was recen...
September 09, 2025 America 250
Seventy-years after her death, Philadelphia’s “Saint Kate” still marvels. Born Catherine Marie Drexel (it’s uncertain when the spelling of her first name changed) on Nov....
August 12, 2025 America 250
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Experience History
Spam Museum Address: 101 3rd Ave. NE, Austin, Minn. Phone: 507-434-6401 Website: www.spam.com Open: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday Of Note: ...
August 12, 2025 America 250
Hershey’s Chocolate World Address: 101 Chocolate World Way, Hershey, PA 17033 Phone: 717-534-4900 Website: www.chocolateworld.com Open: Monday-Thursd...
July 08, 2025 America 250
No. 9 Coal Mine and Museum Address: 9 Dock St., Lansford, Pa. Phone: 570-645-7074 Open: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday Of Note: Visitors ...
June 10, 2025 America 250
Gathered here are suggestions where history can be experienced. Information included was gathered from the museums’ websites. The Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum ...
May 13, 2025 America 250
Radio and Television Museum Address: 2608 Mitchelville Road, Bowie, Md. Phone:301-390-1020 Open: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunda...
April 08, 2025 America 250
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Where To Go
Gathered here are suggestions where history can be experienced. Information included was gathered from the museums’ websites. Heinz History Center Address: 1212 Small...
July 11, 2023 America 250
Gathered here are places where history can be experienced. Information included was gathered from the museums’ websites. Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Address...
May 09, 2023 America 250
Gathered here are suggestions where history can be experienced. Information included was gathered from the musuems’ websites Heinz History Center Address: 1212 Small...
April 11, 2023 America 250
Gathered here are suggestions where history can be experienced. Information included was gathered from the museums’ websites. Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum ...
March 14, 2023 America 250
Cruiser Olympia Address: Independence Seaport Museum, 211 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd., Philadelphia Phone: 215-413-8655 Open: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except...
February 14, 2023 America 250
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