20 questions & answers to prove your York, Pa., smarts

We're bringing back this quiz – penned 10 years ago – for your enjoyment with family members this holiday season ... .

Since its beginning, Pennsylvania has accomplished awesome results in the civilized arts – more so than other areas of the United States of comparable size.

So says Philip Klein in his "History of Pennsylvania."

"Every region generates some creative people," he and co-author Ari Hogenboom wrote, "but Pennsylvania produced them by the hundreds."

Why? Credit it to a diverse population, William Penn's quest for liberty and a varied, resource-rich geographic landscape.

Benjamin Franklin is Klein's Exhibit A of a Pennsylvania who showed original thought coupled with practical experiment.

All this could help explain why York countians have long made their mark on the state and national landscape.

Their names linked to achievements pop up everywhere, making preparation of this year's holiday quiz easy to compile. This quiz is designed to provoke conversation and challenge and inform families gathering for holidays. 

1. What prominent York woman published her Civil War experiences in The Philadelphia Times in 1883? She told sad stories of tending to wounded soldiers in York's military hospital and at the Gettysburg battlefield. Many of the dozen books published since 2000 about the Civil War in York County tell about her deeds.

2. York Suburban High School graduate Gregory Lippiatt was the latest of four York countians to win a Rhodes Scholarship. Who was York County's first Rhodes scholar? This native of Shrewsbury became a renowned humanitarian. He spent 15 years in various executive positions with UNICEF. Even after his retirement at the age of 83, he consulted with the Population Council, the World Bank and other high-profile groups.

3. During the French and Indian War in 1758, Indians captured this 16-year-old in western York County. The Indians killed her siblings and parents, but this girl went on to live with her adopted people, outliving two American Indian husbands. She became known as the White Woman of the Genesee. This is the best-known incident of hostility between York County's white settlers and Native Americans. (See photo below).

4. A small marker outside Glen Rock's Library observes this native son, high up on the list of American composers of parade music and marches. The monument states: "By his genius of composing intricate, beautiful and stirring marches, he has earned the title of parade music prince."

5. This York resident temporarily served as executive director of the state Democratic Committee when the Obama-Clinton campaigns visited the state in 2008. He later resumed his former duties as communications director of the state committee after Obama's successful state campaign.

6. In the 1820s, this Quaker orchardist/clockmaker grafted a stem from a seedling onto another tree on his Springwood Farm in York Township. This was the start of his work in propagating the renowned and much-enjoyed York Imperial Apple.

7. This Central York High School graduate and engraver for the U.S. Mint created the design for the Lincoln dollar released this year.

8. This Red Lion Area Senior High School graduate and former NFL wide receiver recently earned this appraisal from the York Daily Record/Sunday News: "He was arguably the most talented three-sport athlete ever to come out of York and Adams counties."

9. This York industrialist's estate, Lauxmont, was the center of a multi-year controversy that was finally settled in 2008. His company, York Safe & Lock, helped pave the way for the York Plan, which positioned York to receive defense work in World War II.

10. This York Suburban graduate and former comptroller of the currency in the Clinton Administration was another York County Rhodes Scholar. His brother and fellow York Suburban grad is a noted playwright.

11. A book, "In Her Steps," hit the market telling the life and times of this Special Olympian and inspirational speaker whose name appears on a building in York.

12. This early 20th-century West Manchester Township resident wrote more than 20 books of light fiction, and actors such as Marion Davies, Lionel Barrymore and May Robson performed her work. In addition to her novels, she wrote and illustrated numerous poems, and several children's books, including stories, plays and games with an international appeal.

13. Former York County resident Mary Allienne Hamilton's book on this longtime York County newspaperman won the "Best Book in Media History" in American Journalism Historians Association judging in 2008.

14. This former Lancaster County state representative rose to the position of House Appropriations Committee chair and loaned his name to a bridge connecting his home county with York County.

15. This Dillsburg attorney served in the Pennsylvania Legislature in the 1960s, the first female to be elected to that body from York County. Bev Mackereth became the second woman to serve.

16. The New York Times headline on this former York resident and research mathematician called him "Inventor of the First Digital Computer in '40." He and an associate made a closet-size calculator that solved problems faster than 100 operators with mechanical desk calculators.

17. This York resident and her family were targets of racial discrimination after moving into a Levittown, Pa., home in 1957. She later moved to York County where she served as a school administrator and a congressional aide. She wrote an account of her Levittown experiences in the book "Sticks 'n Stones."

18. In the 1880s, this young York County doctor widely published a procedure for using oxygen to treat pneumonia. The house where his treatment cured a young patient stands today in Loganville.

19. This York native and performer for the doo-wop group The Quintones drew national attention in the late 1950s. This group's hit "Down the Aisle of Love" reached No. 18 on Billboard's hit list and sold almost a million copies.

20. Children's newsletter "My Weekly Reader" was the brainchild of this director of elementary schools in York in the 1920s. This educator was concerned that students did not know what was happening in the world - "not a flicker."

Answers: 1. Mary Sophia Cadwell Fisher. 2. Spurgeon Keeny. 3. Mary Jemison. 4. Roland F. Seitz. 5. Abe Amoros. 6. Jonathan Jessop. 7. Don Everhart. 8. Scott Fitzkee. 9. S. Forry Laucks. 10. Eugene Ludwig, brother of playwright Ken Ludwig. 11. Loretta Claiborne. 12. Katharine Haviland-Taylor. 13. J.W. Gitt. 14. Norman Wood. 15. Jane Alexander. 16. George Stibitz. 17. Daisy Myers. 18. George Holtzapple. 19. Georgjean Fells, known in her performing days as Jeannie Crist. 20. Eleanor Johnson.