It will never replace New Jersey as the most favored of the 50 states I have visited, but there’s an awful lot to be said for Pennsylvania pride and promotion of its people, whom they clearly believe are their greatest asset.
But it’s so easy to become infatuated by the main facts of this Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who, like Massachusetts, Virginia and Kentucky prefers to be known by that title rather than state.
With land coverage of more than 45, 000 square miles, it is the 33rd largest of all the states and home to more than 13 million people, the fifth most populous state in the Union. Its slogan of Virtue, Liberty and Independence dates to its helping to for the nation as one of the original colonies. It was the site of the turning point of the Civil War, at the battle of Gettysburg when the South was repelled from gaining further access to the North and more than 51,000 soldiers from both the North and South were killed.
The Capitol lies on the Susquehanna River,at 444 miles long the longest river on the East Coast, rising in New York and emptying into the Chesapeake Bay, still the longest non-commercially navigable waterway in the country.
With all of this, however, The state has only produced one President, James Buchanan, and judging from all the history housed in many buildings in the capital city of Harrisburg, he is not one of their most famous personages. Buchanan, who served just before the Civil War has a main claim of being the only President who remained a bachelor his entire life. His home, Wheatland, in Lancaster, only a few miles from Harrisburg, treats the former President with considerably more reverence and knowledge than Harrisburg.
The state is comprised of 67 counties all named after culture terms, geologic features, famous residents natives, or inventors. There’s an Adams County named for the second President, a Clinton County, named for DeWitt Clinton, a former Governor of New York, and a Fayette County, named for the Marquis of the Revolution. Of course Benjamin Franklin is honored in Franklin County, end even Thomas Jefferson is honored by a county in his name. So are both Washington and James Monroe But none for Buchanan, a native son.
There are counties named after rivers… Beaver, Allegheny, Clarion, Delaware, Juniata, Lackawanna Lehigh, Schuylkill Tioga, and Susquehanna, and even one named after Lake Erie. There are counties named for cities in England, Wyoming and York among them, and more named after French royalty like Dauphin. There’s even one named Indiana, honoring the territory of Indiana.
Nevertheless, there are 67 county names in Pennsylvania, and their names recognize culture, Presidents, geological features England, even the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. And Pennsylvanians are proud of every one of them together with the people and places they honor.
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