The "Head Honcho For The Day" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just realized that I missed one of the most historical days in the history of the city in which I live.  Yesterday was the 238th anniversary of Lancaster, PA being the Capital of the United States - if only for a day.  It was in the late summer of 1777 when the British advanced on Philadelphia.  With General Washington being defeated at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, the Continental Congress evacuated Philadelphia.  The delegates fled westward and eventually regrouped in Lancaster, the next largest town to the west.  

The Lancaster, PA Courthouse by Charles X. Carlson.

On September 19, 1777 they fled Philadelphia and headed by a round-about route to Lancaster which included stops in Trenton, Easton, Bethlehem and Reading arriving on the 27th.  They took the Liberty Bell with them, but a wagon break-down forced them to leave it along the way, and it was hidden in an Allentown church until the British threat to Philadelphia was ended.  People such as John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee and Charles Carroll assembled with the Congress to conduct business.  After their meeting on that historic Saturday they decided to move once again across the broad Susquehanna River to York, Pennsylvania which became the next capital of our nation until July or 1778.  Other capitals of our nation have been (1) Philadelphia, PA, (2) Baltimore, MD, (3) York, PA, (4) Princeton, NJ, (5) Annapolis, MD, (6) Trenton, NJ, (7) New York City, NY , (8) Washington, D.C.  Kinda disappointed that my hometown was only capital for a day, buy hey,  how many cities in the country can claim they were capital of the United States of America, even for just a day!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.