Georg Sheets' work opened doors for future York County history writers

Editor’s note: Parts of this column are adapted from a story I wrote in connection with tours of the Goodridge Freedom Center led by Georg R. Sheets in June 2017.

When Georg R. Sheets was writing his comprehensive York County history in the early 1980s, he knew that some in the community did not want him to talk about three topics.

The three?

The Confederate invasion of York after leaders surrendered the town in 1863, the Hex Murder of 1928 and the story of former slave-turned-businessman William C. Goodridge in the early to mid-1800s. To Sheets' credit, all three frowned-upon stories made it into his important 1981 book, "To the Setting of the Sun: The Story of York."

The first two stories, clearly, were among the most difficult moments in York County’s long history. He did not tell me why the Goodridge story was challenged 40 years ago, but even in Goodridge’s day, some in York did not embrace the success of this black entrepreneur.

Goodridge’s role as a station master in the Underground Railroad and his business achievements are a source of community pride today.

Indeed, interest in York County's big role in the Underground Railroad and contributions by Goodridge have increased in the 40 years since the Sheets book came out.

It's top of mind among those with history interests - and of growing interest among those who aren't history aficionados.

Sheets died on Feb. 24 at the age of 72.

He must be credited with playing a major role in the renewed interest in York County in this loose network in which enslaved people gained their freedom. And his many and varied achievements in the regional history arena are in the top tier among writers and editors in the past 40 years.

He met a Goodridge descendent

In 1981, Sheets achieved something that might never be repeated: He engaged in conversations with a member of the Goodridge family: great-granddaughter Catherine Grey Hurley.

"I went to her house twice in Washington, D.C., and she delivered on her promise to make me 'the best crabcakes in the world!'" he wrote in a booklet that supplemented his June 2017 Goodridge Freedom Center tours.

"... At the time she wanted most of all to have the State recognize her great-grandfather with a marker in front of the house. She did not live to see it but was represented by a son who was a lawyer in D.C. and his wife." In his booklet for Freedom Center visitors, Sheets wrote that "To the Setting of the Sun" is believed to be the first work to introduce modern audiences to William C. Goodridge.

Yet his book made another contribution.

"To the Setting of the Sun" was the first comprehensive history of the county since George Prowell's work in 1907.

Certainly, other deep and thoughtful history work had been done between 1907 and 1981. But Sheets’ history watered a desert in telling a general history, a narrative, about York County, starting with Native Americans and running up to its time of publication.

“The history of York is a richly colored mosaic stretching over three centuries,” Sheets wrote at the beginning of “To the Setting of the Sun.” “It takes its tone and rhythm from great and quiet moments, and its texture and breadth from inhabitants and visitors as varied as human nature itself.”

Addressing a modern audience

To put it another way, his work – and subsequent publications – helped open up county history to a modern audience.

Further, here's the type of thing Sheets' work combated and explains why it was needed: "Greater York in Action," a York Chamber of Commerce coffee table book from 1968 - that unfortunately is mistaken as real history - featured a section on luminaries from York County's past.

It was titled "Men and Events," and did not include William C. Goodridge among the nine men profiled. (As the title suggests, no women made the list).

In my own history work, I never experienced pressure to omit pieces of our past. Sheets' work helped make it a new day.

Georg Sheets assisted in opening doors so future writers could freely tell stories about the life and times of a host of people from York County's rich past.

Jim McClure is the retired editor of the York Daily Record and has authored or co-authored seven books on York County history. Reach him at jimmcclure21@outlook.com.