York Civil War Roundtable

April 15, 2026 – Peter Miele – The Mifflin Farm: A Place of Courage, Conflict, and Conscience

This program will be in person and available on Zoom. Registration coming soon.

On a knoll overlooking the Susquehanna River in Wrightsville, Quakers Jonathan and Susanna Wright Mifflin built their home at the dawn of the 19th century. Quickly, this home took center stage in the regional conflict over slavery. Courageous freedom seekers, escaping the brutality of bondage, found refuge within the walls of the Mifflin Home for more than thirty years. In the summer of 1863, the Civil War came to Wrightsville as thousands of Confederates attempted to cross the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge into Lancaster County but were stopped by courageous local militiamen on the Mifflin Farm. One hundred and fifty-five years later, conflict returned to the farm when the property was threatened by demolition. The community rallied and saved this treasure, soon to be the Susquehanna Discovery Center & Heritage Park, a world-class visitor destination celebrating the nationally important stories of York and Lancaster Counties.

Peter Miele is Senior Project Leader at Susquehanna National Heritage Area, directing the development of the Susquehanna Discovery Center & Heritage Park in Wrightsville, PA, and an adjunct faculty member at York College of Pennsylvania. Previously, Miele worked at Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center in Gettysburg for more than eleven years, including four years as President & Executive Director. He earned his BA in History and Secondary Education from Ramapo College of New Jersey, and an MA in Applied History from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. His scholarship has appeared in Pennsylvania History and Gettysburg Magazine. Currently a student in the Ph.D. program in American Studies at Penn State, Harrisburg, he is working on a dissertation that examines Gettysburg’s Eternal Light Peace Memorial in history, memory, and myth.