Vol.116 No. 49 THE BACK MOUNTAIN'S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1889 December 4 - December 10, 2005 50¢ SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF THE DALLAS AND LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS Richard Urban Jr., 14, models some of his favorite Civil War memor- abilia, a uniform and sword. HY FOR THE POST/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK Harveys Lake youth brings history to life BY GENELLE HOBAN Post Correspondent HARVEYS LAKE - Piles and piles of books envelop the bed- room of a 14-year-old Richard Urban Jr. But he isn’t into the latest Harry Potter craze like most in his age bracket. In fact, his inter- est dates back to the 1860s. He will share his knowledge on this period in history with the Wyoming Valley Civil War Round Table at 7 p.m. on Thurs- day, Dec. 8 in the lower level of the Dallas American Legion on Route 415 in Dallas. “I just want to teach other ople what I know,” said Ur- han, whose program is titled “Gordon’s Flank Attack at the Wilderness.” “The aspect I'm doing is not well-known and I want to make it more well known.” The Lake-Lehman High School freshman first developed a love for history at the age of 7 after watching a program about the Civil War on the History Channel. “We went to Washington, D.C. and on the way home stop- ped at Gettysburg,” Urban said. “I started watching more stuff and got so interested in it. All I get for Christmas are Civil War books and movies.” His favorite Civil War movie is “Gettysburg” which is based on his favorite book “Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara. Urban even owns a first edition of the text. “I found out that the first edi- tion of ‘Killer Angels’ is worth like $4,500 after I did some re- arch,” he said. Urban stores his collection of more than 600 Civil War books on bookshelves and in boxes. He said he found most of the books in his collection during library book sales or on eBay. He has been collecting first editions since the age of 8. “You look for first editions be- cause they are worth the most money,” he said. “You can buy them for 50 cents and they are worth hundreds of dollars. First editions are all I buy.” He even started selling his books through his very own cat- alog “Richard’s Books of Har- veys Lake” about a month ago that he is running out of his par- ents’ house. “I have too much stuff,” he said. “I am running out of room.” Urban has also written a book titled “A Lull in the Storm, an ac- count of the war in Virginia from Jan. 1, 1864 to May 4, 1864.” It hasn’t been published. “It was really hard because not much information is pub- lished on it,” he said. “I was only able to write 85 pages. I tried to get it published but most of the publishers said it was too short.” Despite the delay in the pub- lishing of his first text, Urban is already working on his second piece” The Army of the James” which is about the Battle of Wil- derness. “At Appomattox, where Lee surrendered in 1865, he was cut off by the Army of the James not the Army of the Potomac like most assume,” Urban said. Some of Urban’s other histor- ical interests include the Revolu- tion and the War of 1812. He has approximately a dozen books See CIVIL WAR, Page 6 Civil War buff Richard Urban Jr. looks at a Civil War book he's writing. How To Reach Us News: 675-5211 thepost@leader.net 15 N. Main St. Wilkes-Barre PA 1871 Subscriptions and Delivery: 829-5000 ie Inside The Post 10 Pages, 1 Section Calendar 10 Church 2&9 CIVIC NEWS .occiveccecsceursseniorsicin 5 Only Yesterday .....cccecerusiene 4 SCHOO! briefs ccc 6 SPOILS iii 7-8 Diverse group learns meditation at Mercy Center Zen 1s a serene trip By IAN CAMPBELL For The Post ALLAS TOWNSHIP - Four- teen people — from students to retirees — gathered earlier this week at the Mercy Cen- ter, listening to a Roman Ca- tholic nun explain the benefits of Zen med- itation in finding a calm port in a hectic and harried life. And they learned that, like all great jour- neys, you don’t know you've arrived until you look around and find you're holding what you were looking for. Or words to that effect. Sister Barbara Craig and fellow Zen x meditator Gail Shemo have been holding introductory sessions to Zen meditation training once a month for almost a decade. The nun has been a practitioner for 15 years, having been introduced to the con- cept by several other nuns and priests. She- mo was one of the first “We are to join her group and . they have been introduc- thinkers ns. ard ramiiig medi and doers, tation groups, ever : since. and this The great benefit to calls upon Zen meditation is that it holds no religious as- us to stop pect, but can establish that fora the mental clarity that moment.” all religions seek, Craig explained. Sister Barbara Zen is a way of seeing Craig the world more clearly Zen meditation 51,4 one’s place in it, she teacher 451d the group. The va- riety of methods used to achieve that clarity means almost everyone can find some- thing beneficial in it. The group who had come to the intro- duction at College Misericordia’s Mercy Center all seemed to have similar reasons for looking into Zen meditation tech- niques. By far the most prevalent of their concerns revolved around handling daily stress. That’s not uncommon, Craig said. “Our problem is that we are thinkers and doers, and this calls upon us to stop that for a moment,” she said. Some of the students found that a hard concept to grasp, especially one who asked what the target was, and then was sur- prised to learn that there was no target, in real terms. “It becomes a matter of the discipline of the meditation,” Shemo told him. “You're focusing on your inner self, and seeing how you fit into the world around you.” Craig and Shemo outlined the postures meditators adopt, the preparations for the meditation, and the small routines that are selected, such as creating quiet focal points and meditation locations in a home. Both women noted they meditate in the morning, an easier time of the day to find Introductory sessions for the Zen med- itation program will resume in February. Registration information may be obtained by calling Sr. Barbara Craig at 675-1872 or Andrea Payne at 639-5894. 10-30 minutes of practice. They both em- phasized the need for people to make a dai- ly effort. “With Zen, you have to work at it,” Craig said. It could take months of work to reach a 15-minute meditative state, she told the group. The more practice they did, the more skilled they could become, she said. FOR THE POST/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK Sister Barbara Craig, foreground, and Gail Shemo lead a group through 10 min- utes of meditation during an introductory session to Zen meditation. A group of College Miser- icordia stu- dents med- itates during the introducto- ry class to Zen meditation. Many of those present at last week's ses- sion might not join group meditations, she said, but they could take what they had learned at the introduction and make a start on their own paths. If they did want to join a group medita- tion, her Flowing River Sangha met from 7:15-8:45 p.m. Thursdays at the Geisinger South Medical Arts Building (the former Mercy Hospital) and from 4:45-5:45 p.m. Tuesdays at the Mercy Center in Dallas Township. The meditation sessions are free flow- ing, Craig said, with no requirement for staying the whole period or attending ev- See MEDITATION, Page 6 Dallas H.5. graduate receives prestigious scholarship By M.B. GILLIGAN Post Correspondent Dallas High School graduate Adam Nolan Morgan recently re- ceived a Marshall Scholarship for graduate work at Cambridge Uni- versity in the United Kingdom. And the news didn’t come as a shock to one of his former teach- ers. “I'm not surprised. Adam was such a good student and he al- ways understood the math be- hind the science,” said John Fre- dericks, a chemistry teacher at Dallas. “I could see that he had something like this in his future.” The Marshall Scholarships were established by an Act of Par- liament in 1953 to strengthen the relationship between Great Bri- tain and America. The Marshall program built upon the success of the well-known Rhodes Schol- arships, which are privately fund- ed and limited to attendance at one British university. Marshall Scholarship recip- ients can attend any university in Great Britain for two years with the possibility of renewal for a a FOR THE POST/M.B. GILLIGAN Marshall Scholarship recipient Adam Nolan Morgan, left, gets a hug from his mother, Kathy Nolan. Morgan is a Dallas graduate. third. Approximately 40 Ameri- can university graduates receive the scholarships, which cover university fees, cost of living ex- penses, an annual book grant, a thesis grant, and transportation to and from the United States. “I chose Cambridge because it is a great institution for astrono- my, both in general, and in the specific area of the cosmic micro- wave background radiation,” said Morgan, who will graduate with a dual major in astronomy /astro- physics and physics and a minor in mathematics. Morgan has worked with the Penn State team assigned to NA- SA's Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Ex- plorer Mission since January 2003. He was the only undergrad- uate student involved in the pro- ject that is an international col- laboration to launch a multi wavelength observatory into or- bit to study gamma ray bursts. Morgan has been a volunteer with Penn State’s science ou- treach programs, where he has served as secretary, demonstra- tion-development chairman and vice president of the Penn State Science Lions. The undergradu- ate/graduate volunteer outreach organization travels to K-12 schools to perform science dem- onstrations. He has also been a volunteer for AstroFest, an inter- active astronomy showcase held every summer during the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. Morgan's long-term goal is to become a professor of astrophys- ics at a major research university. He hopes his career will allow him to continue to investigate contemporary issues in cosmolo- gy and to be involved with satel- lite missions to study the early universe. Adam is the son of Kathy Nolan of Exton and Glen Morgan of Gaithersburg, Md.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers