The Journal of the Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley  (Forthcoming, 2026)

" 'A Man with An Interesting Career': The Life of George J. Harris & His Suspected Connections to the Underground Railroad in Lancaster County" 

The Magazine of Pennsylvania History & Biography (January 2025)

" 'They Are Not Qualified to Judge Me!' : The Mezey Affair & Anti-Vietnam War Activism in Rural Pennsylvania" 

Relatively little historical research on the Vietnam era has focused on rural areas of the US or the feelings, actions, or political activism of the residents of these rural areas against one of the most controversial conflicts in American history. This article chronicles the beginning of antiwar activism in the early 1960s in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and among the students/faculty of Franklin & Marshall College. This early activism would catalyze with an episode known as the "Mezey Affair", in which F&M English professor Robert Mezey was accused of encouraging his undergraduate students to "burn their draft cards" in protest of the war. The incident provoked anger on both the F&M campus and within the Lancaster community and provides an interesting case study of antiwar activism in a rural Pennsylvania college community.   

Magazine Americana via The Journal of American Pop Culture (February 2025)

"From Billmeyer to Motown: The Life & Musical Career of Robert W. White" 

During the height of the early Motown era, Robert W. White was one-third of the famed guitar trio that made up Motown's iconic studio band, the Funk Brothers. Armed with his Gibson L5, White recorded with some of Motown's most recognizable artists such as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and the Supremes. His greatest musical contribution was the iconic guitar riff that opens the Temptations' 1964 single "My Girl".  Despite his musical resume, little is known about White's early years, growing up in the quarry town of Billmeyer in Conoy Township, Lancaster County. This article outlines White's youth, his early musical career and mentors, his service in the Korean War, and how his path took him through familiar musical territory for many early African-American artists of the period to the doorstep of Berry Gordy's 2648 West Grand Boulevard recording studio. 

The Journal of Plain Anabaptist Studies (December 2024)

"The Brutal Thirteen: Brethren Nonconformity, Acculturation, and Race in Elizabethtown College’s Lone Season of Collegiate Football" 

In the fall of 1928, a ragtag group of former high school players and college athletes organized the first and only season of intercollegiate football at Elizabethtown College. The team went 0-5, losing every game they played that season. 

However, beneath the defeats, was a group of men who helped to propel forward the mantra of their College and their Brethren faith - breaking racial barriers in Lancaster County sports, giving example to future athletes with physical disabilities, and helping to bring about a larger movement of intercollegiate sports that continues to influence the Elizabethtown College campus today. They did not know it then but they were more than a one-and-done sports team.  

The Magazine of Pennsylvania History & Biography (January 2024)

"The Culture Wars Come to Pennsylvania: The Elizabethtown “Pro-Family” Resolution 1996-1997"

Throughout the mid to late 1990s, the Elizabethtown Area School Board in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, garnered statewide & national attention with the passage of a “pro-family” resolution, which some community members welcomed while others protested. This article explores the influence of grassroots political activity on, and its linkages with, national political events such as the 1994 Republican Revolution and the rise of modern conservative philosophies, while also drawing parallels between the subject of this article & current political debates across the nation as well as in the current political situation of the Elizabethtown Area School Board today.

NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture (July 2023)

"The Kline Chocolate Company Team & It's Major League Run of 1919"

In the spring of 1919, a semipro baseball team founded by the Kline Chocolate Company of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania went on a nine-game run against some of the most iconic teams in Major League Baseball and won games against some of the most famous ballplayers of the era, many of whom would later be enshrined in the MLB Baseball Hall of Fame. This article details the team, the factors that helped to make it a success during the 1919 season, and the stretch of games that turned the Klein Chocolate Company team into a regional and nationally noticed sports franchise.  

AUTHORS NOTE: This article is also included with information about the Klein Co. team at the Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. It also has been cited in other research on the team as well.

The Magazine of Pennsylvania History & Biography (October 2022)

"Frank C. Musser & the Fight to End Machine Party Politics in Post-Progressive Era Lancaster"

In this article, the politics of Lancaster, Pennsylvania between 1921 and 1930 serves as a case study for larger state / national political developments. Between the failure of the 1912 “Bull Moose” Party campaign for the White House and the rise of the New Deal coalition of the 1930s under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, advocates for urban and social welfare progressivism built a political bridge in the Keystone State that fought for municipal reforms and railed against the corruption of local politics by "party machines". In this era, Frank C. Musser, as mayor of Lancaster, was one of the leaders of this political movement. His political career is studied in this article.

Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies (November 2021)

"The Fight to Ban The Birth of a Nation in 1916 Lancaster, Pennsylvania"

In 1916, the African American community of Lancaster, Pennsylvania mounted a resistance to the planned showing of D.W. Griffith’s film "The Birth of a Nation" at the historic Fulton Opera House. From a historical perspective, Lancaster serves as a case study, mirroring the wider national turmoil over race brought on by the film’s release and the changing attitudes of how Americans viewed the context of the American Civil War and Reconstruction at the turn of the 20th Century. This article highlights the battle to stop the showing of the now-classic yet controversial film and how it was received when it returned to Lancaster in the 1950s on the eve of America's modern Civil Rights Movement.

The Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society (June 2020)

"Roadblocks, Influenza, and "Jellyfish" Policy: Dr. Benjamin F. Royer's Quarantine Order in Lancaster Pennsylvania (1918)"

This article takes a look at the battle over the public quarantine order in Lancaster, Pennsylvania during the 1918 Influenza / “Spanish Flu” pandemic between Acting Pennsylvania Commissioner of Health Dr. Benjamin F. Royer and Lancaster city leaders. Due to this event, historians can cite a direct decline in the power and influence of the Pennsylvania Department of Health within the wider state government and a restriction in its role and powers to act during times of public health crisis. This issue was especially highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic & the resistance to masking & other social distancing orders that followed.

"Using Friendly Academic Competition as a Way to Boost Student Engagement" (Fractious Learning - May, 2017)

Often when educators, parents, or administrators think of a "competitive" student, they're probably more likely to envision someone in a physical education class than a student of history. The image, sadly of a toned and seasoned athlete, versus the bookish history major, just doesn't come to mind. In this article, we explore some of the professional sites that are out there on the market that educators can use to bring friendly academic competition to their classrooms.

"The Preamble Challenge" Honorable Mention in Constituting America’s Teacher Lesson Plan Contest (2021)

Honorable Mention from the Constituting America's "We The Future" Contest in the category of Teacher Lesson Planning. Constituting America is a non-partisan, non-profit focused on promoting Constitutional & civic education throughout the country. Their “We the Future” competition celebrated students, citizens, and teachers striving to provide civic virtue and education to their communities and fellow Americans.

Write the Ship: A Journal of Student Writing at Shippensburg University (April 2004)

"The Line-Item Veto: Realization or Relic - An Historical Conversation."

This article, written as part of an undergraduate introductory writing class during my first year of college at Shippensburg University, is a discussion of the history and political thought behind the controversial Presidential line-item veto and the ongoing debate over whether or not such a measure is appropriate at the Federal level of our government under Constitutional principles and understanding. The Line-Item Veto Act of 1996 gave President Bill Clinton the power long sought by other presidents but was struck down in Clinton v. City of New York, leaving open a discussion of Presidential power that has persisted since the 1990s.