Bruce E. Mowday is an author who lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He specializes in books about local history, business, sports, and true crime. He is active with the Chester County History Center. [1]
Bruce E. Mowday is an author who lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He specializes in books about local history, business, sports, and true crime. He is active with the Chester County History Center. [1]
Mowday began working as a sportswriter for the Coatesville Record while still in high school. He continued his journalism career at the Daily Local News in West Chester, Pennsylvania, working as a courthouse reporter and rising to become managing editor. He also worked at the St. Louis Sun. While at the Daily Local, he covered the trials that form the basis of his book Jailing the Johnston Gang; the book was later cited by the Johnston brothers in an unsuccessful appeal for a new trial. [2]
Mowday left journalism in 1997 to start the Mowday Group, a media relations and consulting company. His clients include local political groups and candidates, businesses, nonprofits, and artists. He also is a speaker on historical topics and actively markets his books.
Mowday co-founded the Brandywine Valley Writers Group [3] in 2004 with writers Therese Boyd and Carla Westerman. He has been a guest speaker on the subject of writing and publishing, for both that group and the Main Line Writers Group [4] in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
Mowday has appeared on C-SPAN, Discovery ID, ReelZ, Pennsylvania Cable Network, and local Philadelphia television stations in connection with his books.
Mowday lives in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. He has two adult daughters and three grandsons.
Mowday has published several books:
He has also compiled six books of historical postcards and photographs, published by Arcadia Publishing:
Chester County, colloquially referred to as Chesco, is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the Delaware Valley region, located in the southeastern part of the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 545,823(As of 2022), increasing by 7.1% from 498,886 in 2010. The county seat is the Borough of West Chester. The most populous of its 73 municipalities is Tredyffrin Township. The most populous boroughs are West Chester and Phoenixville. Coatesville is the only municipality in the County organized under the City form of government, a technical rather than demographic distinction. Chester County was one of the three original Pennsylvania counties created by William Penn in 1682. It was named for Chester, England.
Caln Township is a township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 14,428 at the 2020 census. The township was founded by settlers from Calne, Wiltshire in England in 1714; the relationship between Calne and Wiltshire continues in the present since the two are sister cities. Caln is a township of the First Class, and the governing body is a Board of Commissioners. The township also owns Ingleside Golf Club and over 200 acres (0.81 km2) of green space and parks.
Coatesville is a city in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 13,350 at the 2020 census. Coatesville is approximately 39 miles west of Philadelphia. It developed along the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike beginning in the late 18th century. It spans U.S. Route 30, the "Main Line" highway that runs west of Philadelphia.
Downingtown is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States, 33 miles (53 km) west of Philadelphia. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 7,898. Downingtown was settled by European colonists in the early 18th century and has a number of historic buildings and structures.
Brandywine Creek is a tributary of the Christina River in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware in the United States. The Lower Brandywine is 20.4 miles (32.8 km) long and is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River with several tributary streams. The East Branch and West Branch of the creek originate within 2 miles (3 km) of each other on the slopes of Welsh Mountain in Honey Brook Township, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of their confluence.
Pennsylvania Route 82 is a 32-mile-long (51 km) north–south state highway located in Chester County in southeast Pennsylvania, USA. The southern terminus is at the Delaware state line southeast of Kennett Square, where the road continues south into that state as Delaware Route 82. The northern terminus is at PA 23 in Elverson. PA 82 heads through rural areas of Chester County along with the communities of Kennett Square, Unionville, and Coatesville. The route intersects many important roads including U.S. Route 1 near Kennett Square, PA 162 and PA 842 in Unionville, US 30 in Coatesville, and US 322 in Brandywine Manor. PA 82 is a two-lane undivided road most of its length.
WCOJ is a non-commercial educational AM radio station licensed to serve Coatesville, Pennsylvania. The station airs a Catholic Radio format.
Bishop Shanahan High School is located in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. It's part of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's Catholic school system. Named after Right Rev. John W. Shanahan, the third bishop of Harrisburg, the school is the only archdiocesan high school in Chester County. Construction of the current building began in 1996. It opened in 1998, and the first class graduated from it in 1999. The school had previously been located in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Bruce Alfred Johnston Sr. was the leader of one of the most notorious gangs in the history of Pennsylvania, U.S. The gang started in the 1960s and was rounded up in 1978 after his son, Bruce Jr., testified against him. The 1986 film At Close Range is based loosely on Johnston's gang.
The Great Valley is a west-to-east valley through the center of Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is also sometimes referred to as Chester Valley, and both names are in use throughout the region. The valley stretches from the Schuylkill River in Montgomery County in the east, southwesterly through Chester and Lancaster counties. The valley is most distinct in central Chester County, although traces of it can be followed almost the entire distance between the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers.
U.S. Route 30 Business is a 19-mile (31 km) business route of US 30 in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The route follows the former alignment of US 30 between Sadsbury Township and East Whiteland Township, passing through Coatesville, Downingtown, and Exton. US 30 follows a freeway bypass between these two points. The present alignment of US 30 Bus. was originally part of a turnpike called the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike that was completed in 1794. The state took over the turnpike at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1913, present-day US 30 Bus. was incorporated into the Lincoln Highway, an auto trail that ran from San Francisco east to New York City. The Lincoln Highway through Pennsylvania became Pennsylvania Route 1 (PA 1) in 1924. US 30 was designated concurrent with PA 1 west of Philadelphia in 1926, with the PA 1 designation removed two years later. US 30 was widened into a multilane road through Chester County in the 1930s. In the 1960s, US 30 was moved to a freeway bypass around Coatesville and Downingtown, with US 30 Bus. designated onto the former alignment of US 30. In 1995, US 30 Bus. was extended east when US 30 was extended to bypass Exton.
The Coatesville High Bridge is a stone masonry arch railroad viaduct that crosses the valley of the West Branch Brandywine Creek at Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Built by the Pennsylvania Railroad between 1902 and 1904, it has ten arches and spans a total length of 934 feet (285 m), with wing walls extending it to 1,287 feet (392 m). 78 feet (24 m) high, the bridge was built to accommodate four standard gauge railroad tracks, with a total length of 52 feet (16 m).
The Coatesville, Pennsylvania arsons refer to a spree of deliberately set fires in 2008 and 2009 in the area of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, a small Philadelphia suburb. There were 26 fires set in Coatesville in the year 2008 and, since January 1, 2009, there have been 18 reported cases of arson in the city and five more in the surrounding area. The fires have caused more than $3 million in damage, left scores of people homeless and resulted in the death of one 83-year-old woman. As of March 2009, six people have been arrested in connection with some of the fires.
The Coatesville Area School District (CASD) covers the City of Coatesville, the Boroughs of Modena and South Coatesville, and Caln Township, East Fallowfield Township, Sadsbury Township, Valley Township, West Brandywine Township and West Caln Township in Chester County, Pennsylvania. According to census data recorded between 2010 and 2019, Coatesville Area School District served a resident population of approximately 64,700. The district operates Coatesville Area Senior High School (10th-12th), Coatesville Area Intermediate High School (8th-9th), North Brandywine Middle School (7th), Scott 6th Grade Center, Caln Elementary School (K-5th), East Fallowfield Elementary School (K-5th), King's Highway Elementary School (K-5th), Rainbow Elementary School (K-5th), and Reeceville Elementary School (K-5th).
The Ches-Mont League is a high school sports league primarily located in Chester County, Pennsylvania in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Currently, the league consists of thirteen high schools, divided into two divisions. Twelve of the schools are from Chester County, with one from Delaware County.
The Paoli/Thorndale Line, commonly known as the Main Line, is a SEPTA Regional Rail service running from Center City Philadelphia through Montgomery County and Delaware County to Thorndale in Chester County. It operates along the far eastern leg of Amtrak's Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line, which in turn was once the Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad and is now part of the Keystone Corridor, a federally-designated high-speed rail corridor.
Marc Kramer is an American serial entrepreneur, business book author and journalist. He founded the country's first formally organized investor angel network, the Pennsylvania Private Investors Group, now called the Private Investors Forum, and the country's first cyber bank insurance product for small businesses, Commercial Deposit Insurance. Marc is also founder of Dads & Daughters, a group that made sure that entrepreneurial fathers and their daughters got together every Saturday for uninterrupted time.
The Wilmington and Northern Railroad is a railway company that once owned a line from Reading, Pennsylvania to Wilmington, Delaware. The original main line from Wilmington to Birdsboro, Pennsylvania was built between 1869 and 1871 by its predecessor, the Wilmington and Reading Railroad. An extension from Birdsboro to High's Junction was completed in 1874. There the Wilmington and Reading connected with the Berks County Railroad and ran over its tracks to Reading. The Berks County Railroad was foreclosed on at the end of 1874 and reorganized as the Reading and Lehigh Railroad, under the control of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road. The Wilmington and Reading also experienced financial difficulties and was itself foreclosed on in 1876. It was reorganized in 1877 as the Wilmington and Northern. After the reorganization, the railroad was closely affiliated with the Reading, but retained its own organization and officers until 1898. In that year, the Reading bought a majority of the company's stock and incorporated it into its own system. The main line from Birdsboro to Wilmington became the Wilmington and Northern Branch, while the extension above Birdsboro was incorporated into the Reading Belt Line. The Wilmington and Northern continued to exist as a paper railroad within the Reading system. The portion of the Wilmington and Northern north of Modena, Pennsylvania was sold to Conrail at its formation in 1976. The line south of Modena was retained by the Wilmington and Northern, which leased and then sold it piecemeal to other railroads between 1981 and 2005. As of 2021, the Wilmington and Northern still survived as a subsidiary of Reading International, Inc.
The Krapf Group is a bus operator serving the Mid-Atlantic states in the United States. The business is multifaceted to include school buses, public transportation, and charter bus services. Krapf School Bus operates school bus service in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York. Krapf Transportation operates public transportation and charter bus services. Krapf Transit currently operates public transportation routes in the Delaware Valley region for SEPTA, TMACC, and Philadelphia PHLASH.
The Wilmington and Northern Branch is a partially-abandoned railway line in the states of Delaware and Pennsylvania. It was constructed between 1869 and 1870 by the Wilmington and Reading Railroad, a predecessor of the Wilmington and Northern Railroad. At its fullest extent it connected Reading, Pennsylvania, with Wilmington, Delaware. The Philadelphia and Reading Railway leased the line in 1900. With the Reading Company's bankruptcy and the creation of Conrail in 1976 the line's ownership fragmented, and the section between Coatesville, Pennsylvania, and Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, has been abandoned.