MONTGOMERY COUNTY AUTOMOBILE TRIP FROM CHESTNUT HILL TO CAMP HILL AND FORT WASHINGTON
(Return by Norristown to Philadelphia)
At Chestnut Hill, on Bethlehem Pike, we enter Whitemarsh Valley (Umbilicamince), named from mists of Wissahickon Creek; near by is Erdenheim, Carson College, on one hundred acres of ground, richly endowed by Robert N. Carson, for orphan girls, that they may have the same benefits which Girard College has accorded to orphan boys; the architect, Albert Kelsey, has planned his design to be an allegorical vision of woman’s life, combining beauty, utility, and sympathy; he eliminates the usual large central buildings, the administration and classrooms being in the nature of a college settlement which make up in beauty what they lack in size, and may be expanded as occasion demands. Passing the Wheel Pump and Black Horse, famous early hotels. Colonial houses; Presbyterian and Lutheran churches with their burial grounds; to junction with Skippack Road.
St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church, contains Communion service given by Queen Anne, first log chapel built by Edward Farmer, 1690; stone church built, 1710, on first site; during the Revolutionary War, church was occupied by various military forces, used as fort by British with guns in windows; the gravestones, long, flat pieces of slate on four columns, used as cooking stoves, with fires lighted underneath, upright stones were marks for target practice, bullet holes may still be seen in them. American forces camped here November 22, 1777; being warned by Lydia Darragh of a British attack, when the enemy made their appearance, General Wayne opened fire from Fort Washington, the British retreating with a loss of one hundred men. Whitemarsh church is repeatedly mentioned in Washington’s diary as a center of operations; present church, near first site, consecrated, 1881. Gothic, native stone, interesting interior, with high pointed roof and narrow lancet memorial windows, all made abroad but one, “Angel of the Resurrection,” by Tiffany; high on west wall is a rose window; three small lights in the George and Anna Catherine Sheaff window are said to have been painted by Albrecht Durer; reredos, “Christ Breaking the Bread,” painted in Italy; altar, Indiana limestone with carved angels kneeling; the rood screen with loft, English quartered oak, is exquisitely carved. Encircling a window is mural decoration by Marianna Sloan. In the burial ground is an Iona Cross, marking last resting place of Henry Howard Houston, for whose memorial Houston Hall was given to the University of Pennsylvania.
View from north door of church shows, east, Camp Hill; in valley below, Washington’s headquarters, stone house two and a half stories, one-half mile east from Camp Hill station, Pennsylvania Railroad, left wing of army, posted rear of house; here Washington decided to establish fortified encampment at Valley Forge; December 12, whole army ordered to march to Valley Forge, via Swedes Ford, Norristown, where they crossed the Schuylkill on a bridge of wagons, with rails laid over them; “Swedes Ford,” hotel built, 1723, still standing, at Bridgeport.
North of St. Thomas Church we locate Fort Washington by its flagstaff, in center of earthwork thrown up by General Anthony Wayne’s men. West, from Church, Militia Hill, where some of the stones, used as anchors for tents, are still in position; at foot of hill is Wissahickon Creek, over which leads the high railroad bridge belonging to the Trenton cut-off of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Passing Fortside Inn, north, on Bethlehem Pike, is stone marker, inscription “About 700 feet south of this stone is an American Redoubt and site of Howe’s threatened attack, December 6, 1777; from here Washington’s army marched to Valley Forge. Erected, 1891, by the Pennsylvania Society, Sons of the Revolution.”
Farther on Bethlehem Pike, over Sandy Run, is the village of Fort Washington, now home of the Darby School of Painting, a summer art school conducted by Hugh H. Breckenridge, member of the faculty of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, there science of color is taught in its fullest significance. On Engertown Road is old Friends meeting house. Farther, on Limekiln Pike, is Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women, post office, Ambler, founded in 1910, thorough training, through all seasons, eliminates waste of costly inexperience, and fits a woman for a life that is healthful, attractive, and remunerative. Near Sumneytown and Butler Pike is “Three Tuns Inn.” Gwynedd, meeting house, built, 1700, Welsh Quakers worshiped here.
Down Butler Pike to Ambler, residence of Dr. R. V. Mattison, built, 1890, Scotch baronial style, wrought iron gates designed in Munich; opposite is Trinity Memorial Church, Romanesque, noted for its beautiful windows, designed by F. S. Lamb, original, and adapted from paintings by world famous artists, of scenes in Christ’s life, made by J. and R. Lamb; interior paneled in oak, similar to House of Parliament, London; font, Italian marble, good design. Through Morris Road, over bridge crossed by Washington’s army, between Morris and Skippack roads, one mile west of Ambler, is stone residence, built by Abraham Dawes in 1736, was Washington’s headquarters, October 21, 1777.
Out Skippack Road, on road from Center Square to Heebnerville, Washington’s headquarters, October 16; residence of Peter Wentz, still standing, two story, stone, built, 1758. Out Township line to Kulpsville, on Sumneytown Road, Baptist or Mennonite meeting house, here are buried General Francis Nash of North Carolina, and other officers who died of wounds received in the Battle of Germantown. Northwest, one mile, Harleysville, residence of Henry Funk, Bishop of Mennonite Church, who with the Dunkards of Ephrata, made translation, in 1748, from the German, of Tielman Jan van Braght’s great historical book of the Mennonites, termed the noblest specimen of American colonial bibliography; Henry Funk’s mill, still standing, known as Musselman’s Mill, contains a parchment deed, date, 1733, with great seal of the province and signature of Thomas Penn.
Return to Skippack Road, to Pennypacker’s Mills, Schwenksville, residence of the late Governor Samuel Pennypacker, two story, stone house, Washington’s headquarters before and after Battle of Germantown; army marched down Skippack Road, 7.00 P.M., October 3, to attack the enemy; here October 7, Washington received a committee of Friends, appointed by the Yearly Meeting, against war; Schwenksville was settled by Schwenkfelders from Silesia in 1734; Casper Schwenkfeld preached, in 1523, doctrines accepted by George Fox in 1648, were forerunners of Quakers. Perkiomen Seminary, at Pennsburg, originated in a school founded by Schwenkfelders, 1764. Down Perkiomen Creek road, over finest old stone bridge in state, five arches, built, 1799, architect, George Lewis, carries Ridge Road over Perkiomen Creek at Collegeville, Ursinus College; Co-ed Lutheran, portraits by Albert Rosenthal. And old Providence meeting house.
One mile west, at Trappe, Augustus Church, oldest Lutheran church in United States; built, 1743; unaltered; used as hospital for American soldiers during Revolutionary war; Henry Melchior Muhlenberg was sent from Halle, Germany, in 1742, to organize this church in Pennsylvania; first regularly ordained preacher, reports he sent to Halle supply much early, original information. His sons, born here, were General Peter Muhlenberg, pastor of church in Shenandoah Valley, who called on his congregation to enlist in the Revolutionary War, and Frederich Augustus, speaker, First National Congress, 1789. Evansburg, St. James Protestant Episcopal Church and schoolhouse, built about 1700, contains Bible, prayer book, and old walnut Communion table, sent over by the English Society in 1723, to its foreign mission. Revolutionary soldiers are buried in the church yard. Here is an eight arch stone bridge, date 1792.
Norristown, county seat, settled, 1784, population 32,319. Courthouse built, 1791, native white marble; on grounds is Rittenhouse monument, granite shaft, dedicated 1876, marks the meridian. Jail, built, 1851, red sandstone, castellated Norman, architect for courthouse and jail, N. LeBrun. Historical Society of Montgomery County has local historical collections. St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Church, Gothic, dedicated, 1815, Revolutionary soldiers are buried in its grounds. Montgomery Trust Company, Greek, Ionic, Westerly granite and Indiana limestone, facing public square, on site of first hotel in Norristown. In Montgomery Cemetery are buried Charles Heber Clark (Max Adler), and General Winfield Scott Hancock.
Plymouth Meeting, old Friends meeting house, built, 1715, stone, used as hospital during Revolutionary War, Thomas Hovenden, artist, buried in grounds; residence of Mrs. Thomas Hovenden (Helen Corson), was a noted underground railway station for refugee slaves. Stone bridge over Plymouth Creek, date, 1796; stone bridge carrying Germantown and Reading Railroad over Plymouth Creek, date, 1802. Barren Hill, Lafayette and detachment of army attacked here by British, May 18, 1778. Roxborough, Philadelphia, St. Timothy’s Protestant Episcopal Church has frieze, procession of angels. Through Ridge Avenue to Wissahickon Drive, Fairmount Park, to Philadelphia.
XVI
DAUPHIN COUNTY
SEAT of state capital; formed March 4, 1785; named for title of the Dauphin of France, then Louis XVI, in recognition of aid rendered to the colonies in Revolutionary War. Chief industries iron and steel; in the north, anthracite coal. High mountain ranges, with valleys of rich rolling farm lands, intersected with many streams, show much scenic beauty.
Harrisburg, county seat; laid out in 1785; population 75,917. The state capitol’s best approach is from Third and South Streets, the massive pile looms up in exquisite proportion, one is impressed with the inherent dignity of the façade, controlled by a well-proportioned dome; dedicated in 1906; architect, Joseph W. Huston; Roman and Italian Renaissance, with influence of Greek Corinthian; dome suggests St. Peter’s in Rome; bronze doors, designed by J. W. Huston, were modeled by Otto Jansen; superb groups of statuary on either side of the main entrance typify, “The Joy, and Burden of Life,” sculptor, George Gray Barnard; within the rotunda is the splendid collection of battle flags, 378, owned by the state; one of the most interesting of the kind.
Mural decorations, the Rotunda; Economic “Triumphs of the State,” artist, Sir Edwin A. Abbey; from large lunettes show the “Spirits of Commerce, Oil (Light), Coal, Steel”; four pendentives contain single
Dauphin County
allegorical figures, Religion, Art, Literature, Science; governor’s reception room; frieze, artist, Violet Oakley, “Foundations of the State of Liberty Spiritual.” Lunettes, artists, John W. Alexander and W. B. Van Ingen, “Growth and Expansion of the State of Liberty Spiritual,” by the establishment of various religious bodies that came to the new colony. House of Representatives; wainscoting of marble from the French Pyrenees; above the large windows are stained glass by W. B. Van Ingen; paintings by Abbey, “The Apotheosis of Pennsylvania,” with figures that stand as portraits, “Penn’s Treaty with the Indians,” and “The Reading of the Declaration of Independence,” planned by Abbey and finished in his studio after his death; the dome contains his exquisitely painted decoration, symbolical of the “Passage of the Hours”; only one of Abbey’s paintings for the senate room was finished, his “Valley Forge,” it has been placed with his others in the House of Representatives; Miss Oakley’s paintings were unveiled there in February, 1917; she will also decorate the Supreme Court Room.
The Moravian tiled pavement was designed and manufactured by Dr. Henry C. Mercer; these artists were all born in Pennsylvania; the consecutive line of historical and idealistic thought in the decorations was a conception of the architect. In Capitol Park, sixteen acres, notable for shrubbery and flowers, is a bronze equestrian statue, General and Governor John Frederick Hartranft; sculptor, Frederick W. Ruckstuhl; also Mexican monument, white marble, erected by the state in 1868, in memory of citizens lost in war with Mexico, 1846-48. An elementary course of art is taught in nearly every public school in Pennsylvania, prepared by the Department of Public Instruction at Harrisburg, the basis of all art instruction in normal schools; nearly every summer school in the state offers a course in freehand drawing, and special courses for both grade teachers and supervisors.
Harrisburg is famous for her park system, the 972 acres extend along the river front, and to the center of the city for over a mile. Harris Park, four acres, from Paxton Street to Mulberry Street; contains monument to John Harris, first settler, and John Harris, Jr., founder of the city; facing the park, below Mulberry Street, is the Harris residence, stone, built in 1766; little changed from the original form; Lincoln Park, two and one-fourth acres, from Mulberry Street to Market Street, contains memorial, “In memory of J. Conrad Weiser, 1696-1764, Provincial Interpreter, and his friend Shikellimy, 1683-1748, an Oneida Chief.” Erected about 1911. Facing this park is the building of the Historical Society of Dauphin County, with interesting museum. Promenade Park, three and one-half acres, Market to State Streets; and the D. W. Gross Park, two acres, Water to Herr Streets, with bronze memorial statue, a charging soldier, in memory of Sylvester P. Sullivan. Reservoir Park, eighty-eight acres, contains the city reservoir, giving a lake setting, with elaborate planting of flowers and shrubs; best scenic view is from this elevation. Wildwood Park, 666 acres, has a large lake for boating. The Boulevard or Parkway, 146 acres, is along streams, through ravines, and meadows; landscape architect, Warren H. Manning.
THE JOY AND BURDEN OF LIFE
Harrisburg State Capitol
George Gray Barnard, Sculptor Photographed by Boyd P. Rothrock, Curator
St. Patrick’s Procathedral; architect, George I. Lovatt; Renaissance; main altar, marble, is reproduction of Bernini’s altar in St. Peter’s, Rome. In Grace Protestant Episcopal Church is a painting by E. Irving Couse, “Adoration by the Shepherds.” Soldiers’ Monument, State and Second Streets, “To the Soldiers of Dauphin County, in 1861-65; erected by their fellow citizens in 1869.” Bronze tablet in west wall of the Camp Curtin School House, corner of Sixth and Woodbine Streets; commemorating site of old Camp Curtin, 1861-65; placed in 1911, by Keystone Chapter, United States Daughters of 1812. Memorial Market Street entrance to the City of Harrisburg; eastern approach to new bridge, formerly the old “Camel Back,” includes two columns from the old burned state capitol, and commemorative bronze tablets, designed by A. Sterling Calder; architect, Albert Kelsey; presented by the Henry McCormick Estate under auspices of the Harrisburg Civic Club; erected and dedicated in 1906.
Hershey, the chocolate town, a model village, out of which daily roll fifteen cars loaded with candies and chocolate; in 1915 Dunkards came from all over the United States to the annual conference of the “Church of the Brethren,” held in convention hall which seats six thousand, built for them by M. S. Hershey, largest meeting in the history of their church.
The Susquehanna River, one mile wide here, is spanned by three other bridges; Mulberry Street viaduct is said to be largest reinforced concrete bridge in the world, designed and erected by James H. Fuertes; stone arch bridge of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Rockville, said to be the largest four-track stone bridge in the world. Historic buildings; residence of William Maclay, first United States Senator from Pennsylvania, built in 1791; original building intact, with large wing added; on upper river front above South Street, used later by the Harrisburg Academy. Old Derry Church, Derry Township, a Presbyterian settlement since 1724, first log church built in 1732; present stone building on first site, built, 1883; has burial ground of much historic interest; Old Hanover Church, Presbyterian, eleven miles from Harrisburg, first log church built on Bow Creek in 1735; present building closed; the ancient burial ground is chief point of interest. Old Paxtang Church, Presbyterian, three miles east of Harrisburg, first log church said to have been built in 1716, with burial ground; present stone building built, 1740. Bronze gate and tablet at Paxtang Cemetery is memorial to soldiers of the French and Indian War and the Revolution; dedicated in 1906 by Harrisburg Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Fort Hunter, five miles from Harrisburg on Fort Hunter and Fishing Creek Road, was laid out about 1760, on a high bluff facing the Susquehanna River, colonial house, built in 1814 by Colonel Archibald McAllister, is on foundations of an English blockhouse known as Hunter’s Fort.
XVII
LUZERNE COUNTY
FORMED September 25, 1786; named in honor of Anne Cæsar, Chevalier de la Luzerne, minister from France to the United States 1779-83. Ranks third in number of inhabitants of Pennsylvania counties. Along either bank of the Susquehanna, a broad and shallow river, lie rich, fertile, alluvial bottom lands, mostly well cultivated; bounding them are ranges of hills and mountains 1200-1600 feet above sea level; other mountains in the northwest of the county attain an altitude of 2200 feet. In the northeast lies the historic Wyoming Valley, Indian name, Maughwauwama, or large plains, a long, oval basin from Campbell’s Ledge to Nanticoke Falls, some sixteen miles in length, with an average breadth of three miles.
Luzerne County lies within the limits of the Connecticut Charter, granted in 1662, and within the limits of the Pennsylvania Charter granted in 1681; this double ownership caused much contention in later years, finally the Susquehanna Company of Connecticut was victorious; settlers now came rapidly, and by 1778 were distributed in several villages, with schools, churches, and all the characteristics of New England orderliness and thrift, enthusiasm and devoted patriotism. The British leader, Colonel John Butler, saw that this settlement was exposed in position, and that they had sent the
Luzerne County
best part of their militia to serve in Washington’s army, so with a company of his own rangers, a regiment of Johnson’s Greens, and a band of Indians, in all about 1200 men, he took the warpath from Niagara; they journeyed down the Susquehanna in bark canoes, landed above the settlement, and began their work of murder and plunder, harrowing incidents are made known by Campbell in his “Gertrude of Wyoming.” The women and children were placed in the fort. At the junction of Fort and River Streets, in the borough of Forty Fort; a conglomerate boulder with bronze tablet, marks the site of “Forty Fort,” erected by the Connecticut settlers in 1772. From this fort, on July 3, 1778, the Wyoming Militia, numbering about 300, mostly old men and boys, marched forth to oppose the invading British troops and Indians, fight the Battle of Wyoming, and meet with complete defeat and atrocious massacre, in which the British officers were unable to set any bounds in the butchery of their savage allies; next day the fort was taken; the Indians burned all the houses; the inhabitants fled to the woods, and the valley was abandoned; a hundred women and children perished of fatigue and starvation. On Wyoming Avenue in the borough of Wyoming is the “Wyoming Monument,” marking the burial place of many of the patriots who were slain in the battle and massacre; dedicated July, 1846.
On Susquehanna Avenue near Seventh Street is “Queen Esther’s Rock,” a half-breed queen of the Senecas, on which she tomahawked fourteen prisoners; marked by a tablet, placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution, bearing this inscription, “Upon this rock the Indian queen Esther slaughtered the brave patriots taken in the battle of July 3, 1778.” On the bank of the river, near the Pittston Ferry bridge, in the borough of West Pittston, is a small monument marking site of Jenkins’ Fort, destroyed by the British and Indians July, 1778. The Battle of Wyoming, with the subsequent massacre, was one of the important events of the Revolutionary War, as it led to the sending of the Sullivan Expedition in 1779 into the country of the Six Nations, whereby the power of their confederacy was forever broken. White Haven Township was the place of Sullivan’s army encampment, in 1779.
The oldest church in the county is in Forty Fort, not far from the site of the old fort, interior of the building remains as it was when erected in 1808; in the burial ground are many old graves, with headstones bearing quaint inscriptions. Other historic places marked by tablet or monument are, site of a bridge built by the engineers of General John Sullivan’s army in the spring of 1779, on the banks of Ten Mile Run, northwest of Bear Creek Village, marked by boulder with tablet. Place where two commissioned officers, and three others of General Sullivan’s army were ambushed and slain by Indians, April, 1779; marked by boulder with tablet. In the Public Square, Wilkes-Barre, is a monument marking site of Fort Wilkes-Barre, erected in 1776-77 by the inhabitants of the town; destroyed by the British and Indians July, 1778. On the river common, at the foot of Northampton Street, a boulder, with tablet, marks the site of Fort Wyoming, erected, 1771, demolished in 1774 or 1775. And at the foot of South Street a boulder, with tablet, is erected near the site of Fort Durkee, built in 1769 by first settlers from Connecticut, named for their leader, Major John Durkee, who founded and named Wilkes-Barre in honor of John Wilkes and Colonel Barre; this fort fell into decay prior to 1776, it was located near site of a village occupied from 1758-63 by a band of Delaware Indians under “King” Tedyuscung.
Wilkes-Barre, county seat, was settled, 1772, population, 73,833. Places of modern interest, containing historical collections, portraits, and paintings, open free to the public, are the Courthouse, modified adaptation of classic, the façade, with Ionic porch, is very dignified, surmounted by a Gustavino dome; architects, Osterling, McCormick & French; said to be one of the handsomest and most elaborately decorated courthouses in this country; contains mural paintings by E. H. Blashfield, Kenyon Cox, Will H. Low, William T. Smedley, C. D. Hinton, and others. Irem Temple, Moorish design, with tall slender minarets at each corner. Osterhout Free Library, Gothic. Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. The Second National Bank, with interesting Ionic porch at entrance, steel frame, faced with brick and concrete, architects, McCormick & French. First Presbyterian Church and St. Stephen’s Protestant Episcopal Church contain handsome memorial tablets and stained glass windows; a fine bronze relief, by J. Massey Rhind, is in St. Stephen’s. In the Coal Exchange Building is the Atherton Atelier, T. H. Atherton, Jr., Superintendent, Architecture, in coöperation with Society of Beaux Arts. Particular care has been given to improving the public parks located in different parts of the city. Public square in center, and the river commons, stretching along the bank of the Susquehanna for a considerable distance, are attractive and noteworthy. Opposite the city, across the river, is Riverside Park, chiefly a natural grove of old trees.
The principal educational institution is Wyoming Seminary, co-ed, at Kingston, founded in 1844, conducted under auspices of the Wyoming Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, ranks high as a college preparatory school and has an academic art course. There are many places of scenic beauty; notably the Conyngham dairy and stock farms at Hillside, just outside Wyoming Valley, on the road from Kingston to Harvey’s Lake, which is 1226 feet above sea level; one of the largest stock farms in the state, covering 651 acres. Sugarloaf Valley, not far from Hazleton. The Hazleton Country Club. Glen Summit Springs and the neighboring country, Bear Creek Village, and Wyoming Valley, viewed either from Campbell’s Ledge, Mount Lookout, or Prospect Rock.
The principal roads are maintained in good order, and there are no toll roads in the county. For many years the chief industry has been the mining of anthracite coal, discovered here in 1762; for a considerable period it stood first among the counties in annual output; first development of this coal for shipping to market from the Wyoming region was in 1776, when two Durham boats purchased cargoes from a mine operated by R. Greer, near Wyoming. There are many large manufactories. Within a ten mile circle, having Wilkes-Barre public square as its center, there were, according to the United States census of 1910, thirty-three smaller municipalities, cities, boroughs, and hamlets, having a total population, including Wilkes-Barre, of 266,951. The other principal towns of this county are Hazleton, population 32,277; Nanticoke, 22,614; Plymouth, 16,500; Pittston, 18,497; West Pittston, 6968; Kingston, 8952. Peter Frederick Rothermel, prominent historical painter, was born in Nescopeck, this county, in 1817.
Huntingdon County
XVIII
HUNTINGDON COUNTY
FORMED September 20, 1787; named by Provost William Smith, of the University of Pennsylvania, in honor of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, a benefactress of the University; lies within the central mountainous region, being drained by the Juniata. Many fine farms are on the rich soil of the river flats. Juniata iron early became famous, and numerous iron works were erected; the old Bedford Furnace was near Orbisonia. Abundance, variety, and value of the ores; rich and convenient deposits of limestone; contiguity of the Broad Top, Allegheny and Cumberland coal fields, combine to indicate the importance of this country. Other industries are coal-mining, lumber, agriculture, and manufactories. Large water-power dams of the Pennsylvania Central, and Raystown Water Power Companies generate electric light and power.
Huntingdon, county seat; population 7051, largest town on the Juniata. The first white visitors to this region were traders, in traffic with Indians, exchanging goods for furs and skins. On incursions, made before the middle of the eighteenth century, they found a tribe, a branch of the Six Nations, located on the now southeast portion of this borough, their wigwams circling around a pillar of stone, 14 feet high and 6 inches square, covered with hieroglyphics supposed to be a record of their history and achievements. This tribe, besides hunting and fishing, had cleared land and cultivated corn. This stone was regarded with great veneration by the natives; here they had assembled for centuries to hold their grand councils; its conspicuous position and appearance led the white visitors to name the locality, “Standing Stone,” it stood above Second Street, on or near 208 Allegheny Street. Conrad Weiser, in 1748, and John Harris, in 1754, in accounts of their journeys to the Ohio River, both describe this stone.
The Proprietaries of this province, ever mindful of the rights of the Indians, would not grant lands, nor permit settlements to be made until the Indian title had been purchased; at a treaty held in Albany, in 1754, the Six Nations, consisting of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras, executed a deed to the Proprietaries for a large portion of the province, including the whole valley of the Juniata; soon after, the resident tribe migrated, and, it is supposed, carried the stone with them. The seal of the borough has, as its central figure, a Standing Stone. A second stone was erected by the settlers; and in 1896 a third, at Penn and Third Streets; as a memorial of the ancient standing stone of the Indians. Fort Standing Stone was built here at an early date; site about intersection of Penn and Second Streets, it was stockaded and provided with barracks, blockhouses, and magazines constructed of heavy hewn timber, and was the place of many important incidents during troublesome times following the defeat of General Braddock in 1755, and until peace was made with Great Britain in 1783.
Provost William Smith, D.D., obtained the land in 1766 from George Croghan, and numerous other tracts in the vicinity, and in 1767 caused the town of Huntingdon to be laid out, now on the William Penn Highway; the proprietor donating plots of ground for a public school, cemetery, and to each of six prominent religious denominations. About 1797 a post office was established here, and John Cadwallader was appointed postmaster; a weekly mail was carried between Harrisburg and Huntingdon. The most important public buildings, architecturally, are Juniata College, nine buildings, erected 1878-1916; the older buildings are colonial; Library, Gothic, red brick with terra-cotta trimmings, built, 1907; contains memorial windows; the Church of the Brethren on the college campus, Gothic; McGee sandstone; erected, 1910; members of this sect settled in this county in 1775; and the J. C. Blair Memorial Hospital, Spanish mission style, light buff brick and Indiana limestone trimmings, on a commanding position overlooking the town. E. L. Tilton, New York, architect, also of the College Library and Church of the Brethren.
Among the places of historic interest in the county are Fort Shirley, built, 1755, on bluff near site of Indian town of Aughwick, now Shirleysburg. McAlevey’s Fort, at the head of Standing Stone Creek Valley, named for Captain William McAlevey, afterwards general in the Revolutionary War. Warm Springs, five miles northeast of Huntingdon, known, in 1775, as a resort for invalids. Pulpit Rocks on the Warriors Ridge, on the old pike between Huntingdon and Alexandria. And Jack’s Narrows, where the Juniata River cuts through Jack’s Mountain, west of Mount Union. The Pennsylvania Canal extended through this county from Shaver’s Aqueduct, below Mount Union, to line of Blair County, above Water Street; here in Indian times canoes came to receive supplies of lead. Two miles east is Alexandria, laid out, 1793; in 1800 the turnpike was completed to Alexandria, and stage service to Harrisburg began; fare charged travelers was six cents a mile; this town was the shipping point of grain for the rich Hart’s Log and Shaver’s Creek valleys.
XIX
ALLEGHENY COUNTY
FORMED September 24, 1788; named from Delaware Indian word signifying “Fair Water.” Surface undulating, many elevations being precipitous. Is the center of one of the richest bituminous coal and natural gas districts in the world. Oil fields lie mainly in basins of Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. Staple manufactures are iron, steel and glass. The history of Allegheny County presents a greater variety of startling incidents than almost any other portion of the state. Mound builders were primeval inhabitants, site of ancient fortifications are on Chartier’s Creek, eight miles from Pittsburgh, county seat, second city in size in the state, on site of Shannopin’s Town, chief of about twenty families of Delawares; he attended councils with the Governor; his name is signed on several state archives. By it ran the main Indian path from east to west.
Washington first came to “The Forks,” in 1753, on way to Fort Le Boeuf. The French possessed it as Fort Duquesne 1754-58, when it was conquered by General Forbes; General Stanwix erected a stockade and named it Fort Pitt, for the British premier. In 1764, Colonel Bouquet built a redoubt on site of the Fort; old brick blockhouse is still standing, Penn Avenue near Second Street. First town of Pittsburgh built near the Fort in 1760, inhabitants enjoyed
Allegheny County
comparative quiet until 1763, when Pontiac’s War broke out and they were completely surrounded by savages, later rescued by Colonel Bouquet. In 1811 first steamboat ever run on western waters was launched at Pittsburgh, the “New Orleans.” In 1839 first iron steamboat made in the United States, the “Valley Forge,” was built here.
The sister city, Allegheny, north side, was incorporated with Pittsburgh in 1907, combined population 588,343. An art commission was organized, 1911, for an improvement in public works of art in Pittsburgh, and to educate public sentiment for civic beautification; in 1915, E. H. Bennett, City Planning Architect of Chicago, was engaged to make a thorough economic and æsthetic analysis of “The Point,” at junction of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers.
Close to the business center is Schenley Park, 440 acres, acquired by gift to the city in 1889, contains the Carnegie Institute; Carnegie Institute of Technology; Phipps Conservatory and Hall of Botany, given by Mr. Phipps in memory of his mother, with one of the most beautiful bronze statues in the world, “Mother and Child,” French sculptor; Hawkins Memorial, a bronze portrait figure, backed by wall of polished granite, base and floor marble, sculptor, Richard H. Couper, erected, 1904, in honor of Colonel Hawkins, Tenth Pennsylvania Regiment, in Spanish-American War; Panther Hollow, in which is an arch bridge, Beaver County sandstone, with panthers, sculptor, G. Moretti; and two other stone arch bridges built in 1892, architect, A. L. Schultz.
Near the Forbes Avenue entrance is the great central building of the Carnegie Institute, established by Andrew Carnegie with large annual fund, in perpetuity, for purchase of objects of art and scientific collections; built 1892-95, Italian Renaissance, sandstone, architects, Alden & Harlow, enlarged in 1904-07, contains Library, Music Hall, Department of Fine Arts, and the Natural History Museum, in which are large collections of ancient pottery, Chinese glass, and porcelains representing various eras; jades and crystals; valuable collections of coins and medals; illuminated manuscripts and early printed books, cut and uncut gems; one of the largest collections of carved ivory in the United States; and art metal work. The Library operates more than one hundred and seventy agencies for free distribution of literature, within “Greater Pittsburgh.”
On top of the building are four bronze groups, representing Science, Art, Literature, and Music. Bronze statues, Michelangelo and Galileo, are at entrance to Art Gallery. Entrance to Music Hall is through exquisitely designed bronze doors, wrought in relief, with bronze statues, Bach and Shakespeare, at either side. These bronzes were designed and modeled in the studio of J. Massey Rhind, and cast in Naples. Foyer to the Music Hall is considered the most beautiful portion of the Institute; here are twenty-four huge columns of Tinos marble, with gilded Corinthian capitals; and one of the finest organs in the world, on which the greatest organists obtainable give concerts of highly classical music, which are free, every Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. The great Archer, Queen Victoria’s Jubilee organist, held this position for many
GALLERY OF THE SCULPTURE HALL, CARNEGIE INSTITUTE, PITTSBURGH
years. The Hall of Sculpture, designed on lines of the Parthenon, is two stories high, around the first story is a Greek Doric colonnade; above this is a row of Ionic columns, all of the most flawless, milk-white, Pantelicon marble, dug out of the quarries from which the marble of the Parthenon itself was obtained; collections of sculpture represent, chronologically, its history from early Egyptian to the Renaissance of the sixteenth century.
Among the artists represented in the permanent collection of paintings are Dagnan Bouveret, “Disciples at Emmaus”; Winslow Homer, “Wreck”; Whistler, “Sarasate”; E. A. Abbey, “The Penance of Eleanor”; George Innes, “The Clouded Sun”; also Anton Mauve, Bastien Le Page, Raffaelli, Gari Melchers, Jules Simon, and Childe Hassam. Annual exhibitions of international modern art are held in May and June, and many others by different art societies during the year. In the Entrance Hall are mural decorations by the late John W. Alexander, a native of Pittsburgh, typifying “The Apotheosis of Pittsburgh”; they surround the staircase and galleries to the third floor. Art societies holding annual exhibitions at the Carnegie Institute are, Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, organized, 1910; Art Society of Pittsburgh, organized, 1873, supported the Pittsburgh Orchestra for fifteen years, and gives excellent free exhibitions and lectures; Duquesne Ceramic Club, organized, 1891; Pittsburgh Architectural Club, Chapter Architectural League of America, organized, 1897. Pittsburgh Etching Club, organized, 1909, held exhibition of Whistler’s etchings in 1914.
In the park, west of this building, is the Christopher Magee memorial fountain, made in 1907, granite, sculptor, Augustus Saint Gaudens. In front is Industry Statue, marble, after model in the Louvre, Paris. The Technical School, brick, built, 1905, architect, Henry Hornbostel, includes, in the art course, day and evening classes in applied design, and department of architecture. The Pittsburgh Athletic Association, architects, Janssen & Abbott, has interior decorations by Alfred Herter, and collection of paintings. Drinking fountain, Fifth Avenue, front of Montefiore Hall, placed in 1912, granite, with carved profile of an Indian; inscription, “Catahecassa, Black Hoof, war chief of the Shawnees,” was present at Braddock’s defeat in 1754, a friend and ally of the United States.
In Schenley Farms, directly opposite the entrance to Schenley Park, is the University of Pittsburgh, on a natural amphitheater. The buildings stand out very effectively against the sky line; founded in 1887, architect, Henry Hornbostel; landscape architect, Cass Gilbert; has departments of fine and industrial arts. Memorial Hall to Soldiers and Sailors of the Civil and Spanish Wars contains historic flags, statues, trophies and historical portraits.
Other parks are Allegheny, north side, ninety acres, with monuments in honor of Washington, equestrian, made 1891, sculptor, Frederick Mayer; Baron von Humboldt, made 1869; Thomas A. Armstrong; and the Hampton Monument, made 1871, granite shaft, surmounted by bronze figure of a gunner, commemorates the bravery of Hampton’s Battery in the Civil War. Within east entrance of Allegheny Cemetery is the Arsenal Explosion Monument in honor of those who lost their lives September 17, 1862. Monument to General Alexander Hays, who was killed in the battle of the Wilderness, in 1864, by soldiers of his command. Gothic receiving vault. The Bindley mausoleum, replica of Napoleon’s tomb in Paris, pure example of the Renaissance, has window by William and Annie Lee Willet. The Porter Angel and Cross, imported from Italy, fine example of marble carving. The Byers mausoleum, imitation of Temple of Minerva at Athens, white granite. Near by is the United States Arsenal, in ornamental grounds. Riverside Park, on Perrysville Avenue, 217 acres purchased by popular subscription in 1894, has beautiful drives and footpaths; contains the observatory, connected with Allegheny University, in which the telescope was made by Mr. and Mrs. Tillinghast, in their home workshop opposite.
Highland Park, 300 acres, northeast limit of city, acquired, 1872, has main water reservoirs and the Zoological Gardens; main gateway is 56 feet high with Doric columns, surmounted by bronze groups representing “Welcome,” and bronze figures at base; Stanton Avenue entrance has two granite pedestals surmounted by equestrian statues, sculptor, G. Moretti, made 1897; in the park is Robert Burns statue, sculptor, J. Massey Rhind; and heroic bronze group, portrait statue, sculptor, G. Moretti, of Stephen C. Foster, 1826-64, standing pen in hand, beside a negro who is seated and playing a banjo; Foster wrote “Old Uncle Ned” and “Old Folks at Home”; was native of Pittsburgh; his grave is in Allegheny Cemetery. The view from Highland Park is very beautiful. Highland and Schenley Parks are connected by Highland Avenue and the Boulevard, making a continuous drive which forms the Carnegie promenade. The Soldiers’ Monument is on Monument Hill, erected in 1871, to four thousand men of Allegheny County killed in the Civil War. Wayside Fountain, Fifth Avenue near Woodland Road.
Churches with notable architecture and windows: Rodef Shalom Synagogue, Fifth Avenue and Morewood Street, architect, Henry Hornbostel, is said to have the finest tile dome in this country; windows, antique glass, from original drawings, made by William and Annie Lee Willet. St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, Fifth Avenue, corner of Craig Street, stone, fourteenth century Gothic, built, 1907, architects, Egan & Prindeville; has beautiful altar of carved Carrara marble; pews and pulpit made of bog oak from Ireland; bronze stations, by Seibel, said to be largest and most artistic in the world; the great west window transepts, clerestories, ornamental and heraldic glass made by Willet, in the later delicate French Gothic spirit; also there is here much modern German and English glass. First Baptist, Bellefield Avenue and Bayard Street, pure Gothic, fourteenth century, stone, built, 1902, architects, Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson.
Third Presbyterian, Fifth Avenue and South Negley Street, one of the most beautiful Gothic churches in the United States for spontaneity of design, warmth, and golden tints of stone; architect, Theophilus P. Chandler; windows by Willet are “The
THE CROWNING OF LABOR
Fragment from the Apotheosis of Pittsburgh, Mural in the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
Painted by John W. Alexander
Ten Virgins,” made, 1904, “The Holy City,” 1905, of great beauty and color; and fine ornamental windows in clear glass with heraldic ornaments, in medieval hand-wrought lead; transept windows by Tiffany, American opalescent glass; east aisle window by Kenyon Cox; west aisle by McCausland, Toronto; this is an excellent church in which to study the different schools of glass.
Calvary Protestant Episcopal, Shady Avenue and Walnut Street, Bedford limestone, thirteenth century Gothic, copy of Netley Abbey, architect, Ralph Adams Cram; the windows by William and Annie Lee Willet are among the most notable contributions to stained-glass art in this country, recalling those of the great Chartres Cathedral, with amount of painting reduced to a minimum, and lead treated as respectfully as the glass; also a Tiffany window, and some excellent English glass. Epiphany Roman Catholic, Washington and Franklin Streets, Romanesque, with Byzantine details, contains some beautiful art work, including “The Twelve Apostles,” by Taber Sears. First Presbyterian, Sixth Avenue and Wood Street, site deeded by John Penn in 1787; stone, French Gothic, erected in 1905, architect, T. P. Chandler, Philadelphia, has fine echo organ and chimes; windows by Tiffany, Lamb, and Clayton & Bell, London; medallion window and ornamental work by Willet. In Lutheran Church, Sixth Avenue, sanctuary window by Clayton & Bell, purely flat decoration, also window by Frederick Wilson. Mount Alvernia Chapel, Order of St. Francis, contains mural decorations by William Willet.
Methodist, Beech Avenue, North Side, stained glass window by Tiffany. Near by is the Carnegie Free Library, Federal and Ohio Streets, Romanesque; Fox Island granite with red granite trimmings; built, 1890; architect, H. H. Richardson; contains Library, Art Gallery, and Music Hall; in front is monument to Colonel James Anderson, red granite with bronze portrait bust, 1785-1861, sculptor, Daniel Chester French. Allegheny Post Office, French Renaissance, built, 1898, noted for gold dome; near by is colossal statue of “Labor.”
Allegheny County Courthouse, Fifth Avenue and Grant Street, Romanesque, Worcester granite and marble, tower 425 feet high, built, 1888, the masterpiece of the great architect, H. H. Richardson; its interiors are equally imposing, the proportions of the corridors and especially the fan lancet, and convex-shaped ceiling, with its thousands of interlacing arches, twenty-one of which can be seen at one glance from the base of one of the stairways, excites the admiration of all beholders; it is without any other decoration but the beauty of its lines and shadows. Gaol is connected by facsimile of Bridge of Sighs. Frick building, built in 1902, Fifth Avenue and Grant Street, architects, D. H. Burnham & Co., a granite office structure twenty stories high, of the Greek Doric order; erected to express grace and beauty; batters from stylobate to cornice, three feet narrower at top than base; basement and entrance halls lined with Carrara marble; panels of Pavonazzo marble in ceiling; offices decorated with frescoes of the old Italian school; restaurant, medieval German; the Club story, Louis XIV style, is in stucco,
THE BLOCK HOUSE, PITTSBURGH
marble, bronze, and frescoes; two large bronze lions by Phimister Proctor are in entrance hall.
Bank of Pittsburgh, Fourth Avenue near Wood Street, classic, Alden & Harlow, architects, has mural decorations, allegorical of Pittsburgh, by Edwin H. Blashfield and the late Francis D. Millet. Iron City Bank, Westinghouse Building, mural decorations by William Willet. Farmer’s Deposit Bank, sculptured frieze by J. Massey Rhind. Chamber of Commerce contains portraits of many prominent citizens. Friendship School, Friendship and Graham Streets, historical paintings of Penn, Washington, and Lincoln, by William Willet. View of the city seen from Mount Washington, with rivers and encircling hills, is more or less enveloped in smoke, excepting Sunday. Seventy-five per cent of the smoke nuisance in Pittsburgh has been abated.
Braddock, population 20,879, on Monongahela River, twelve miles below Pittsburgh, famous, first as battle ground, General Braddock’s defeat by French and Indians, 1754, when General Washington won his spurs, now is home of the Carnegie Steel Company. St. Mary’s Protestant Episcopal Church, windows and mural decorations by William and Annie Lee Willet, Philadelphia. At mouth of the Youghiogheny River, so named by early explorers from hearing Indians calling to each other across its width, something that sounded like it, and meaning “Come again.” McKeesport, home of the National Tube Company, producing more wrought iron pipes than any other plant in the world; St. Peter’s Church, altar window by William and Annie Lee Willet.
Down the Ohio River, about six miles from Pittsburgh, begins Seven Mile Island, a garden spot, one time home of the famous Queen Alliquippa. Six miles farther is Sewickley (Sweetwater), population 4955, named by Indians on account of its maple trees, on Lincoln Highway, a beautiful residence section with country estates which rival those about Philadelphia and New York. St. James’ Church, window by William Willet. Wilkinsburg, population 24,403, within fifteen minutes of Carnegie Institute, has Wilkensburg Bank, classic, marble, built, 1909, architects, Moubly & Ussinger; and Rowland Theatre, built, 1912, Corinthian, architect, Hodgkinson.
XX
MIFFLIN COUNTY
FORMED September 19, 1789; named for General Thomas Mifflin, then President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, 1788-90, and first Governor under the Constitution of 1790. Scenery throughout is very beautiful; the twelve mile stretch of State highway through the famous long Lewistown Narrows, gives glimpses of the Juniata, the peerless little river of more song and romance than any other in America, made famous by Mrs. Sullivan’s song, “The Beautiful Blue Juniata,” telling the love story of Alfarata, the roving Indian girl; the space between the mountains is barely wide enough to contain the highway, canal, river, and railroad. Mountains slope one thousand feet and are popular hunting grounds for bear and wild turkeys; quite a number of caves are found in the limestone formations of this county, though not easily accessible; Alexander’s, in Kishacoquillas Valley, abounds in stalactites and stalagmites, preserving in midsummer ice formed in winter; Naginey’s Cave, near Milroy, is most spacious; Hanawalt’s Cave, near McVeytown, is of vast dimensions and contains calcareous concretions; crude saltpetre has been obtained here; McVeytown is birthplace of Joseph Trimble Rothrock, M.D.
Celebrated springs are Mifflin, near Painterville Station, has medicinal waters; and Logan’s, six miles from Lewistown, near Reedsville, on left of the old
Mifflin County
stage road between Lewistown and Bellefonte, Center County; here the Mingo Chief, Logan, friend of white man, Shikellimy’s son, had his cabin, prior to 1771, when he left this region; he made the famous speech sent to Lord Dunmore in 1774, considered, among American classics, as a rare specimen of Indian oratory: “I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan’s cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if he ever came cold and naked, and he clothed him not; during the course of the last long bloody war Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed at me as they passed, and said: ‘Logan is the friend of white men.’ I had even thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man, Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my women and children; there runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature; this called on me for revenge; I have sought it; I have killed many; I have glutted my vengeance; for my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace, but do not think that mine is the joy of fear; Logan never felt fear. Logan will not turn on his heel to save his life; who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one!” (Colonel Michael Cresap was not responsible for the murder of Logan’s family; some white men, led by a liquor dealer, murdered them.)
First settlers, Scotch-Irish, in 1754, were not molested by Indians until 1756. Fort Granville was built, one mile northwest of Lewistown, on the old turnpike, site to be marked by the Pennsylvania State Historical Society; it was destroyed when the canal was constructed. In 1829 the Pennsylvania Canal was opened and first packet boat run from Lewistown to Mifflintown. Chief industries are agriculture, and iron and steel works. Iron ore of the best quality abounds; two furnaces, belonging to the Glamorgan Iron Company, were destroyed in July, 1874, by a tornado that left scarcely a property without damage; the bridge over the Juniata was also destroyed, rebuilt, and again destroyed by ice freshets in December, 1874, and February, 1875. In Limestone Ridge, extending from Kishacoquillas Creek, is found hard, white sandstone, almost pure silicon, used in glass manufacture.
Lewistown, population 9849, made county seat, 1790, was at first Kishacoquillas’ Village, a chief of the Shawnees, with a population in 1731, of twenty families, located at the mouth of the stream. Courthouse, facing the square, brick, colonial with Ionic portico, and cupola, built, 1843, enlarged in the rear. Granite monument, dedicated, 1906, in honor of Mifflin County soldiers and sailors, is in the square. One block away on South Main Street is the Kishacoquillas Creek bridge, stone and concrete, built, 1902, a reconstruction of the old two-arch stone bridge built in 1807, the first was wood, in 1794; on the left is an old stone building, erected about 1794, a historic landmark that has served for many uses, once the “Seven Stars Inn,” 1828-29; also a Masonic hall, 1830-39, it has two cellars, one beneath the other. At a point along the creek, just above the old building, is where Commodore David Conner, as a boy, made little boats and pitted
OLD STONE ARCH ON JACK’S CREEK
Built over one hundred years ago
them against each other in mimic warfare, thus foreshadowing his brilliant naval career in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. Just above, on the high bank, fronting on Water and Brown Streets, is Lewistown’s oldest burial grounds. Here are the graves of the Buchanan family, first settlers and owners of the land on which Lewistown is built. One mile east of Lewistown, on the oldest wagon and stage road running parallel with the present state highway, is an old stone arch bridge, over one hundred years old, a favorite subject for artists; it is near the bridge crossing Jacks Creek, on the state highway through Lewistown Narrows. Mount Union, on southern boundary, lies at entrance to Jacks Narrows, made by the river forcing its way through Jacks Mountain.
Delaware County
XXI
DELAWARE COUNTY
Formed from Chester County, September 26, 1789; named for Delaware River. Automobile Trip to Chester, return by Media and Swarthmore
From Thirty-second and Market Streets, Philadelphia, out Woodland Avenue (Darby Road), laid out in 1687, the old King’s Road, pass University of Pennsylvania buildings, to Woodlands Cemetery, between Thirty-ninth to Forty-second Streets, seventy-five acres, acquired in 1840, contains colonial homestead, residence of William Hamilton, English Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania, under grant from William Penn, built, 1747-50, stone and brick; has portico, with pediment supported by six columns; considered by architects best specimen of colonial architecture in Philadelphia; many rare trees are there, sent by Mr. Hamilton in his trips abroad; to him Philadelphia owes the gingko tree of Japan and many varieties of magnolia.
Bartram’s Garden, 28 acres, open free to the public, one quarter mile south on Fifty-fourth Street, first botanical garden of international importance in United States; ground purchased by John Bartram, in 1728; from here he traveled long distances to Florida, the Adirondacks, everywhere collecting rare plants that he brought home in his saddlebags; he wrote down the results of his explorations, and sent to Europe botanical specimens of great interest, also painted sheets of illustrations, sending one set to the South Kensington Museum, London, which are still there in perfect condition; Linnæus proclaimed him the greatest natural botanist in the world, and sent him books and apparatus; his quaint old stone house is still standing, built by himself in 1731; his son, William Bartram, botanist and ornithologist, published the most complete list of American birds, previous to Alexander Wilson, whom he greatly assisted. Wilson lived at the corner of Fifty-first Street and Woodland Avenue, in a log house with an immense stone chimney. Near Bartram’s Garden, on the Schuylkill River bank, at the western end of Gray’s Ferry Bridge, is site of Gray’s Garden, pleasure resort, time of Washington, reached from Philadelphia by a floating bridge, replaced by wooden telescope drawbridge built in 1808, by the P., W. & B. R. R.; stone monument, still standing, covered with most interesting and historically valuable inscriptions, marks opening of the first railroad to the South.
Sixty-fifth Street and Woodland Avenue, St. James’ Protestant Episcopal Church, Kingsessing, built by the Swedes, 1762, building practically unchanged, has interesting burial ground. Sixty-ninth Street and Paschall Avenue is an old yellow mansion, built about 1723, home of the Paschalls, General Howe’s headquarters after the Battle of Brandywine. Seventieth Street and Woodland Avenue, quaint old building, the Bannaker School, built in 1789, said to be oldest public-school building in Philadelphia, now used in connection with the school garden. Seventy-third Street, Blue Bell Tavern, opposite, was terminus of the great trading path of the Minquas Indians leading from the Susquehanna; Island Road leads to “Cannon Ball” farmhouse, below Penrose Ferry, struck during bombardment of Fort Mifflin in 1777.
Crossing Cobb’s Creek, the southern boundary of the city, and county of Philadelphia, we enter Delaware County, the oldest settled section of Pennsylvania. Darby, an ancient town, birthplace of John Bartram, contains many old houses, and a Friends’ meeting house, dating from the eighteenth century, with picturesque burying ground, where many colonial notables lie in unmarked graves; Sharon Hill, residential suburb, Convent of Holy Child Jesus, occupies buildings erected for John Jackson’s Quaker School, famous in the middle of the last century; new decorated Gothic chapel of stone. Beyond Norwood is the old White Horse Hotel, now abandoned, built, 1720.
One and one-half miles to left, at Essington, on Tinicum Island, first permanent European settlement in Pennsylvania made by Swedes under Governor John Printz, 1643; fort built, named “New Gottenburg”; and government established. Ridley Park, residential suburb; fine view to left, of Tinicum and the Delaware River, old quarantine station known as the Lazaretto; the Corinthian and Philadelphia Yacht Clubs are on the river front. Leiperville, McIlvain house, stone, opposite Colonial Hotel; Washington spent the night here after the Battle of Brandywine, and troops were encamped on slopes to the right. Hendrixson house, very ancient, built by Swedish settlers. Pass Baldwin Locomotive Works and great munition factories into Chester, population 58,030, settled by Swedes about 1644, the oldest town in Pennsylvania, known as Upland until 1682, when Penn, landing here on October 28, named it Chester after the home of his companion, Pearson, in England. Penn convened here, in November, 1682, the first Assembly of the Province, at which was passed the “Great Law”; the Upland court was held here from 1668 to 1682; the courts of Chester County from 1682 until their removal to West Chester in 1786, and the courts of Delaware County from 1789 to 1851; Chester has grown from an ancient country town to a bustling industrial city, but many antiquities are preserved; principal among these are the old City Hall, stone, with pent roof projection and quaint clock tower, erected in 1724; the oldest public building in Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest in America; used as Chester County courthouse for sixty-two years, Delaware County courthouse for sixty-one years, and as hall of Chester borough and city since 1851; now being restored by the Pennsylvania Historical Commission and Honorable William C. Sproul, under contract that the city will maintain it for public uses forever.
Opposite on Market Street is the Washington House, erected and licensed as the “Pennsylvania Arms” in 1747, still maintained as a tavern; in this house, at midnight on September 11, 1777, Washington wrote his report to Congress of the Battle of Brandywine. Hope’s Anchor Tavern, Fourth and Market Streets, built by David Cowpland prior to 1746. Group of old houses at Second and Edgmont Streets, Logan house, 1700, where Lafayette’s wounds were dressed after the
ALFRED O. DESHING MEMORIAL ART GALLERY, CHESTER
Frazer and Robert, Architects
Battle of Brandywine, and Lloyd house, built in 1703 by David Lloyd, chief justice of Pennsylvania; here also stood the first courthouse, or “House of Defense,” and first Quaker meeting.
Across Chester Creek, at the foot of Penn Street, is a memorial stone, erected on the two hundredth anniversary, to mark the spot where William Penn first landed in Pennsylvania; and near by, Lord Baltimore and William Markham, in 1681, took observations to determine the fortieth parallel of latitude, and location of boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland; also site of Essex House, home of Robert Wade, wherein was held, in 1675, the first Friends meeting in Pennsylvania. Blue Anchor Tavern and Steamboat Hotel, near Second and Market Streets, bear marks of bombardment by the British frigate Augusta in 1777. Friends meeting house, erected, 1736, modernized in 1882; Friends Burying Ground formed, 1692, contains graves of Chief Justice David Lloyd, who died in 1731, and Grace Lloyd, his wife, who died in 1760, Justice Caleb Cowpland, Judge Henry Hale Graham, and, in unmarked tombs, many of the founders and pioneers of the commonwealth.
St. Paul’s graveyard, Third and Market Streets; tomb of John Morton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who cast the deciding vote in the Pennsylvania delegation; also of D. Paul Jackson, Burgess of Chester, who was the first man to receive a degree from the University of Pennsylvania; and a quaint old memorial cut in sandstone with oddly carved figures and devices, dedicated to James Sandelands, who died, 1693, taken from the old church, erected in 1703. Chester Rural Cemetery, burial place of General Edward F. Beale, pioneer of California; has many interesting memorials.
Alfred O. Deshong Memorial Park of twenty-eight acres, in the heart of the city, with white marble art gallery, late Italian Renaissance, finished in 1916, designed by Brazer & Robb, New York, for Mr. Deshong’s collection of about 200 paintings, bronzes, ivories, etc.; rare Japanese bronze lanterns and figures are in the grounds, and two remarkable bronze dogs with paws on cloisonné balls, at entrance; fine bronze doors and grills; also his old mansion, all given to the city of Chester with a large endowment, for public use forever. St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church, Broad and Madison Streets, founded in 1702, third building of this congregation, erected, 1900; twelfth century English Gothic, granite and limestone, architects, Nattress & Son; altar by Nattress, white marble; mosaic reredos, “The Supper at Emmaus,” after Rembrandt; chancel window by Tiffany, “Conversion of St. Paul,” after Doré; memorial to Rev. Henry Brown, rector for thirty years; clerestory windows, four Evangelists, by Nicola d’Ascenzo; chalice and salver given by Sir Jeffry Jeffrys in 1705, chalice and salver given by Queen Anne, in 1707, all of beautifully hammered silver, still in use; fine chime of ten bells; large folio Bible given at founding of the church by the Society in London, for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to which St. Paul’s owed much in its early years.
St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church, Edgmont Avenue above Seventh Street, granite, Gothic, fine altar and paintings. First Baptist Church, Seventh and Fulton Streets, stone, Gothic, founded, 1850, third edifice endowed by the Gartside and Crozer families. First Presbyterian Church, Fourth and Welsh Streets, brick, stuccoed, erected in 1852, fine memorial windows. Third Presbyterian Church, Broad and Potter Streets, stone, fine windows and carvings in wood. Madison Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Seventh and Madison Streets, organized in 1818 by John Kelly in his home; afterward services were held in the Courthouse for many years, where Bishop Asbury preached; present church erected, 1874, green serpentine. High school, stone, with commanding tower, West Ninth Street, modeled after Post Office Building at Washington.
Pennsylvania Military College, Fourteenth Street, handsome buildings with complete military and academic equipment; incorporated as a military university in 1862, by Colonel Theodore Hyatt; contributed many officers to the nation’s service; present buildings erected in 1882, after a fire which destroyed the original structures. Chester Park and Crozer Park contain about 150 acres in valleys of Ridley and Chester creeks. Chester is a port of entry and contains large shipyards, steel, engineering, and textile industries.
Upland, founded by John P. Crozer in 1845 when he established cotton mills there on the site of the old Chester Mills, on Chester Creek, immediately adjoining the town of Chester; Chester Mills were built by Caleb Pusey in 1683, at the first water power above tide on Chester Creek; the mill, framed in England and brought over in the Welcome, was owned by Pusey, William Penn, and Samuel Carpenter; house, erected by Pusey in 1682, is probably the oldest structure in Pennsylvania. Crozer Theological Seminary, endowed by John P. Crozer, and sons, occupies buildings overlooking Chester, erected by John P. Crozer in 1858 for a normal school, used in Civil War as hospital, and occupied for a time by the Pennsylvania Military Academy; Pearl Hall, the seminary library, was built by William Bucknell, in memory of his wife; green serpentine in form of a cross; contains many rare books and the only known copies of many Baptist theological works; Crozer Hospital and Home for Incurables, fine stone buildings, were endowed by J. Lewis Crozer, who also left a large endowment for a free library in Chester. An old house on Upland Dairy Farm, now much distorted by modernization, built by Thomas Brazey in 1696, was for many years the home of the West family, collateral descendants of Benjamin West.
On Providence Road, first highway to be laid out in Pennsylvania, leading from Chester to the back townships, is Lapidea Manor, residence of Governor William C. Sproul, colonial house, erected by Thomas Leiper, for his son James, enlarged in 1909 by Mr. Sproul, architect, W. L. Price; contains notable library with collection of Pennsylvania and local books and antiquities, paintings, and curios; interior wood carvings by Maene; on the fine grounds is a clock-tower, containing a bell cast in Bristol in 1741, for St. Paul’s Church, Chester, and for 125 years was the only church bell in the town; across the grounds is to be seen the grade of the first railroad in America, built by Thomas Leiper in 1809, to carry stone from his quarries at Avondale to tidewater on Ridley Creek, where it was loaded in barges to be taken to the Delaware breakwater.
Moylan, south of Media, art colony, residence of Charles H. Stephens and Mrs. Charles H. Stephens (Alice Barber), contains valuable North American Indian collection, the old stone building, remodeled for art studios and dwellings, is among the most interesting in the county. Southwest of Media is the Williamson free school of mechanical trades; generously endowed; built in 1888; includes twenty-four buildings on 230 acres; pupils between sixteen and eighteen years of age are received; they live as families, twenty-four in a cottage with a matron; preference to those born in Pennsylvania; benefits of school are entirely free, including boarding, instruction, and clothing during the entire course of three years.
Media, county seat from 1851, population 4109; charter, with famous provision against sale of intoxicants, still intact, was granted, 1850: Courthouse with ample square, formed nucleus of the town; present building, modified colonial, Avondale marble, architects, Brazer & Robb. Old Providence Friends Meeting House, built, 1699; original Taylor log cabin is on State Street, and the old Rowland mansion. Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, stone, Gothic, has altar painting, “Murillo’s Holy Family,” copied by P. McIlhenny. Presbyterian Church, modified classic. Leiper Presbyterian Church, Gothic, Avondale marble, midway between Leiperville and Swarthmore, built in 1800, Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, and Elisha Kent Kane, while guests of Judge George G. Leiper, worshiped here, slates on the roof were brought from Scotland; near is colonial residence of Perry Lukens on Fairview Road, hardware and other materials were brought from England, has original latch string lock. Avondale, old colonial residence of Thomas Leiper, near Crum Creek, built on plan of his Scotch home.
Wallingford, residence of late Dr. Horace Howard Furness, America’s greatest Shakespearean scholar. He left a working library of several thousand Shakespeare books, including “The Variorum” edited with his son. Swarthmore, college, founded, 1864, by members of the Hicksite Society of Friends, is located on a hill with a fine view of the Delaware River, campus over 200 acres, includes large tract of woodland and rocky valley of Crum Creek; buildings, mostly stone, French Renaissance, include the Sproul Astronomical Observatory, built in 1911, gift of William C. Sproul, contains one of the best telescopes in America; Library, English collegiate Gothic, built, 1907, local stone, with terra-cotta and Indiana limestone trimmings, architect, Edward L. Tilton, New York; the reading room is open through two stories, height twenty feet with gallery on three sides; Gothic beamed ceiling and leaded ceiling lights, interior finished with dark oak. In fireproof tower room is the Anson Lapham Friends’ Historical Library, one of the largest collections of Quakeriana in America, contains original manuscripts of John Woolman’s Journal.
Near the Library stands a house with gambrel roof, built in 1724, marked, with tablet, by Delaware County Historical Society, “Birthplace of Benjamin West, born in 1738, first great American painter, founder and second President of the Royal Academy, London”; exterior unchanged, now residence of college professors; the college owns, and is still collecting original paintings and drawings by West. Meeting house built, 1881, follows the traditions of early colonial style. Parrish Hall, the main building, erected 1864-69, rebuilt after the fire in 1881, contains a portrait of George Fox by Sir Peter Lely, and other interesting portraits of early Friends and later benefactors of the college. Wharton Hall, men’s dormitories, built in form of Oxford quadrangle, architects, Buntley & Sprigley. Stone gateway, north entrance, designed by Frederick B. Pyle.
Lycoming County
XXII
LYCOMING COUNTY
FORMED April 13, 1795; named for creek called by Delaware Indians Legani-hanna (Sandy Stream) or Lycaumic; mountainous with rolling hills; North Mountain, highest land, 2550 feet above sea level. Formerly a lumber region, now chief industries are agriculture and manufacturing. Williamsport, county seat, founded, 1796, population 36,198, has a system of well kept roads; the Grampian and Vallamont drives wind over the hills north of the city, giving a view, over the West Branch Valley, that is remarkable for extent and beauty. Courthouse built in 1860, city hall, and post office are mid-Victorian. Masonic buildings include the Masonic Temple, Scottish Rites Building, Acacia Club, and Howard Club. Franklin School, Mulberry Street, North of East Fourth Street, has mural decorations of local scenery, “A Sweep of the Susquehanna Near Jersey Shore,” artist, J. Wesley Little.
Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, East Fourth and Mulberry Streets, has windows from England, also by Tiffany and Lamb. “The James V. Brown Public Library,” East Fourth Street, French Renaissance, Pennsylvania white marble, built in 1907, architect, Edgar V. Seeler, Philadelphia; contains a small permanent collection of paintings and an original portrait of Washington, by Rembrandt Peale, painted in 1795; art exhibitions are held here. Central Presbyterian Church, opposite Park Hotel, has windows by J. & R. Lamb. Covenant Presbyterian, West Fourth and Center Streets, has large windows by Tiffany and Lamb. Trinity Protestant Episcopal, West Fourth Street and Trinity Place, modern parish house, used as a community center. Opposite is Way’s Garden, two and one-half acres, with fine old elm trees. Annunciation, Roman Catholic Church, West Fourth and Walnut Streets, Tiffany window, “The Ascension.” St. John’s Protestant Episcopal, architects, Duhring, Okie & Ziegler, windows by Nicola d’Ascenzo.
Brandon Park, beautiful with fine shrubbery, trees, and winding paths, has a band shell, playgrounds, swimming pool. Monument erected by Daughters of the American Revolution, Fourth and Cemetery Streets, on site of massacre of white settlers by Indians. Site of French Margaret’s Village, niece of Madame Montour, noted on Scull’s map, in 1759, is now within limits of the seventh ward; she was a notable character and enforced prohibition in her town; four miles east of Williamsport, on west side, mouth of Loyalsock Creek, near Montoursville, is site of Ostonwakin or Otsuagy, home of Madame Montour, famous French halfbreed, who lived there from 1727, and was still there in 1742, when Count Zinzendorf came to the village. The great Indian Trail from Muncy led up the Susquehanna River, on line of the present highway, through Ostonwakin, to East Third Street, Williamsport, then north of Third and Penn Streets to Park Street, there turned to West Fourth Street and to Lycoming Creek, French Margaret’s town.
Muncy, population 2054, on site of Fort Wallis, in
LYCOMING CREEK NEAR WILLIAMSPORT
1778, commanded by Colonel Thomas Hartley. St. James’ Protestant Episcopal Church, built, 1859, English Gothic, architect, Richard Upjohn, New York, who first used principles of Gothic architecture in America; has Tiffany memorial window to Rev. Edwin Lightener. In Muncy Cemetery is monument to John Brady, famous Indian fighter, granite shaft of excellent proportions; his grave is in the old Hall’s burial ground at Hall’s Station. Site of Fort Brady; south side of Muncy, residence of Captain John Brady, fortified by stockade, was place of refuge, continuing so after his death; burned with Fort Muncy in 1779, when Muncy Valley was overrun. Another on the frontier was Fort Minigar, built, 1774, at White Deer Mills, north bank of White Deer Creek, probably stockade, included both fort and mills, burned, 1779. Picture Rocks village, founded, 1848, here Indian picture writings formerly decorated walls of rocks, rising from Big Muncy Creek. Studio of the late J. Wesley Little. Fort Antes, opposite Jersey Shore, marked by Daughters of the American Revolution.
Somerset County
XXIII
SOMERSET COUNTY
FORMED April 17, 1795; named for Somerset, England. Chief industries are agriculture and mining. A mountain country of remarkable beauty, largely forests, although glades, or natural meadows, about the headwaters of streams are numerous and extensive enough to have the name, “The Glades,” applied to the whole county; standing on the summit of either mountain range that bounds it, east and west, one gets a view of unsurpassed beauty; at distance of twenty miles the other stands out in bold outline, with intervening country of hill, valley, forest, glade, and numerous watercourses, which find their way to the Ohio, Susquehanna, and Potomac rivers; immortalized in James Whitcomb Riley’s “’Mongst the Hills of Somerset.”
Nearly all this country, between the crests of the Allegheny Mountains and Laurel Hills, is one vast coal field, extending over the entire length, from Maryland to Cambria County, every vein of coal from the great Pittsburgh seam down being represented. Traditions of Indian villages are in the famous Turkey Foot, Casselman River forms middle toe at town of Confluence; also in Elk Lick township, Indian arrowheads and stone implements are found. In 1749, Christopher Gist, agent of the Ohio Company, was the first white man known to have crossed Somerset County; his route, along Nemacolin’s trail, a Delaware Indian chief, led him through Addison Township and to the, later known, Great Crossing; again passing through in 1750, he kept a diary.
George Washington in 1753, crossed through Addison Township, with four frontiersmen, one as Indian interpreter, one French interpreter; every spot of earth that Washington trod in the line of duty is sacred soil for all true Americans; he passed through Somerset eleven times; on Braddock’s ill-fated expedition in 1755, he lay for ten days at Great Crossing, on a bed of sickness, exempt by order of General Braddock. First road cut in 1754 was under Washington’s direction, afterwards substantially the Braddock Road, following Nemacolin’s trail, the chief who guided him; it began at Cumberland, Maryland, then a fort, and reached the Youghiogheny River, south of present village of Somerfield, at the Great Crossing; marked, only historic marker in the county.
The National Turnpike, commenced in 1811, has the same general course, occasionally using the same roadbed, crosses the Youghiogheny at Somerfield over a great stone bridge, still in good repair, completed July 4, 1818, and turned over to the United States on that day. President James Monroe and members of his Cabinet attended the opening of the bridge; this road became a great highway, over which passed a vast commerce, both east and west, wayside inns were nearly every mile, now none exist; the “Endsley,” stone house, in Somerfield, built, 1818, long a noted tavern, is now a private residence.
Next great road in the county was the Forbes, or Bouquet Road, cut by Colonel Bouquet in 1758, it
STEPPING STONES, KIMBERLY RIVER
traversed the county from east to west, and like the Braddock Road, was purely military, constructed under protection of a strong army; over it passed the army of General Forbes on way to conquer Fort Duquesne; George Washington was with this expedition in command of the first Virginia regiment. The road started at Bedford and followed an Indian trail, it was improved between 1785-95 and became known as “The Great Road”; afterwards about 1806 as the Stoyestown and Bedford Turnpike; later taken by the State Highway Department, it is now a great speedway, “The Lincoln Highway,” entering the county at Buckstown, crossing Stoney Creek at Kantner, one mile west is Stoyestown over one hundred years old; six miles farther west is Jennerstown, laid out in 1822 by General James Wells, who, in 1771, was wounded by Indians.
On Laurel Hills, three miles west of Ursina, is the Jersey Baptist Church, with ancient burial ground, has written record since 1775, first log church built, 1788, twice rebuilt; fine mountain scenery all along the route, and several places of historic interest, here, and in other parts of the county, sites of forts which date back to French and Indian wars and the Revolution, unmarked; few are now living who can point out the locality of these historic places with any degree of certainty. The Glades Road, laid out in 1772 from four miles west of Bedford to the Youghiogheny, via Stoney Creek, was made turnpike in 1816; along this road in 1810, on a farm nine miles east of Somerset, was born Judge Jeremiah Sullivan Black, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania; United States Attorney General; and Secretary of State. First railroad through Somerset county was the Pittsburgh division of the picturesque Baltimore & Ohio, opened in 1871, with its famous tunnels. At Mason & Dixon’s line Negro Mount is about 2825 feet above sea.
Somerset, county seat, population 3121; laid out in 1795, elevation above sea level 2180 feet, has had three consuming fires, and has been rebuilt with greater beauty. Courthouse built, 1906, French Renaissance, Indiana limestone, architect, J. H. Fuller, Uniontown; Soldiers’ Monument in grounds, pedestal with names of more than 400 Somerset County men who died in war for the Union, 1861-65; Somerset Trust Company, Indiana limestone, built, 1916, architects, Mowbray & Company, New York, Renaissance, beautiful proportions. Churches, built by E. H. Walker, Somerset; all with memorial windows, mostly made by Pittsburgh firms; are, Grace United Evangelical, brick, 1914; the Christian Church and parsonage, Doric, brick, 1910; St. Paul’s Reformed, Gothic, brick, remodeled, 1915; also Trinity Lutheran, Corinthian, built, 1877, brick, architect, M. Simon, Harrisburg. Throughout the county are many churches; in some places where there is not even the semblance of a village there are churches that would be a credit to any town.
XXIV
GREENE COUNTY
FORMED February 9, 1796; named for General Nathanael Greene. Surface, fertile valleys, hills, and rolling uplands, making a region of natural beauty, well watered from the tributaries of the Monongahela River and Wheeling Creek. There are still a number of covered wooden bridges throughout the county, from fifty to a hundred years old, a very old double bridge crosses Ten Mile Creek, one mile east of Waynesburg; formerly an old forge and furnace were on this creek. Many Indian village sites that were occupied long before the advent of the whites are here; their age is indicated by large old trees growing on their mounds; three distinct forms of ancient burial are found here, showing that three waves of population swept over this land before the coming of the Europeans; the two principal Indian mounds now in the county, are at Crows Mills. Two great Indian trails crossed the southern part of the state, the Warrior Branch passing through this county to the Ohio River. A chain of forts crossed Greene Co., ending at Fort Zane, now Wheeling; three are especially well known—Fort Ryserson and Block House at western end of county; Fort Jackson west of Waynesburg; and Fort Garard on Whitely Creek; seven miles west of Greensboro, the birthplace of Robert J. Burdette, and his eminent sister Mary G. Burdette.
Greene County
The earliest glass works were established by Albert Gallatin, on the Monongahela in 1785; they were the forerunner of the vast business at Pittsburgh and vicinity. First settlers were Scotch-Irish. Chief industries, agriculture and the mining of bituminous coal; the Pittsburgh vein of rich depth and highest coking value, and three other veins, almost as rich, namely, the Waynesburg, Freeport, and Mapletown. Oil and gas production is very valuable, there are a number of gas-pumping stations within the county. The Philadelphia Gas Company has one at Brave, said to be the largest in the world; near Brave is Jollytown, with a monument to Jesse Taylor, first Greene County soldier to fall in the Civil War.
County seat, Waynesburg, population 3332; laid out in 1796; named for General Anthony Wayne, who with his troops proved most successful in ridding this section of the Indians. A chain of parks with formal gardening goes through the center of the town, divided by streets; in the center of one is the Soldiers’ Monument; erected in 1899; Waynesburg College, empowered by the Legislature to confer honorary degrees, faces College Park; portrait of Dr. A. B. Miller, a former president, is in Alumni Hall. Courthouse, colonial, with cupola, surmounted by wooden statue of General Greene; was erected in 1852; brick, painted gray, has six lofty Corinthian columns supporting the front porch. Jail on same ground.
First Methodist Church, Romanesque, Cleveland stone, has memorial windows. The public schools are liberally provided with the Elson photogravures, reproductions of great masterpieces, mostly in sepia. Five miles southeast of Waynesburg is Gordon Ridge; Nettle Hill sixteen miles southwest, both notable places of particularly beautiful scenery. Carmichaels, originally New Lisbon, one of the oldest towns, beautifully located, has Greene Academy, incorporated, 1810; Senator Albert Cummins was born near here.
XXV
WAYNE COUNTY
FORMED March 21, 1798; named for General Anthony Wayne. A picturesque, mountainous section, possessing more lakes than any other county in the state, some over 2000 feet above sea, ranging in area from 3 to 358 acres, many of them well stocked with bass, perch, pickerel, and other fish, while the whole county abounds in trout streams. From north to south is a wonderful expanse of scenery; Farview, altitude, 1500 feet, on the Moosic Mountain, near Waymart, includes, in its panorama, the distant Catskills; from the southern roads, extended views are also enjoyed. A beautiful drive follows the Wallenpaupack Creek (slow water) passing the Falls at Hawley, meeting place of the Paupack Indians; good roads continue to Milford and the Water Gap, or to Gouldsboro, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. On the road from Honesdale to Carbondale the path of the old Delaware & Hudson Gravity Railroad may still be traced.
Early industries were hunting, lumbering, and tanning; now the modern creamery is an important factor, also stock raising and agriculture. One hundred years ago a small colony of Germans settled a half mile west of Bethany and started a glass factory, utilizing native sand and clay; from 1847 to 1861 window glass was manufactured at Tracyville; in 1865, Christian Dorflinger built large factories for manufacturing and cutting glass, at White Mills, five miles south of
Wayne County
Honesdale; glass-cutting factories are now numerous in the county, and gold decorating of glass has been introduced among Wayne’s industries.
Honesdale, made the county seat in 1841; population 2756; altitude, 1000 feet; named for Philip Hone, president of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which started here for tidewater at Rondout on the Hudson, built 1826-28, abandoned, 1898; Honesdale owes its growth and prosperity to the canal; it was one of the anthracite stepping stones to a waiting market. Three locomotives were purchased by the canal company to draw coal from the mines in Carbondale and vicinity to the canal at Honesdale; the first one, the Stourbridge Lion, was brought by canal boat to Honesdale in 1829 and a trial trip was made; the wooden rails, then used for the railroad, were not firm enough for the strain of the engine, and it was never run again; however, Wayne County takes precedence in having had the first locomotive ever run in America make its trial and only trip at Honesdale; it is now at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington. The New York & Erie Railroad follows the course of the old canal through the town.
Courthouse built, 1880; brick with stone trimmings; contains portrait of General Anthony Wayne, copied from original in Wayne family, Philadelphia, by Miss Jennie Brownscombe, native of Wayne County; two large Parrott guns in front are relics of the Civil War. It faces Central Park, where stands a Soldiers’ Monument, dedicated in 1869 by Governor John W. Geary; pedestal with bronze plates inscribed with names of nearly 350 Wayne County men lost in Civil War; also fountain in center of park, memorial of the National Centennial, both placed by the women of Honesdale who are said to be the first in the state to organize a Village Improvement Society; they, aided by the town council, have done much for the beautifying of the town; the parks have received special attention; besides Central Park are North Park, and on either side of the Main Street bridge lie Torrey Park, West, and Riverside Park, East, overshadowed by Irving Cliff, 300 feet high, named in honor of Washington Irving, who, while in Honesdale in 1841 with Philip Hone, climbed to the summit of the ledge overlooking the town.
Grace Protestant Episcopal Church, Gothic, stone, contains white marble font, good design, gift of Philip Hone, in 1848. Baptist Church, wood, classic, with Ionic columns supporting the porch, built 1843-45. Glen Dyberry Cemetery contains grave of Attorney General Samuel E. Dimmick, died, 1875, marked by granite shaft; his residence, brick, is south of courthouse. North of Honesdale is stone arched bridge over Carley Brook, made in 1909; builder, Samuel Brown from England.
Bethany, first county seat in 1800, was staked out in the primeval forest. Courthouse, built, 1800, is now used as a store; new courthouse and brick offices were built 1820-23, the office building still standing; courthouse was abandoned in 1842, after it was remodeled it became the University of Northern Pennsylvania, with the public square as campus, and was burned in 1857. Between the old cemetery and the street stands the first Presbyterian
RIVERSIDE PARK, IRVING CLIFF, HONESDALE
church erected in the county, in 1822. Several old dwellings have beautiful colonial doorways. An old tavern, built by Henry Drinker, in 1802, still stands. Pleasant Mount, altitude, 1600 feet, sixteen miles north of Honesdale, residence of General Samuel Meredith, officer in the Revolutionary War, and United States Treasurer under Washington, commission dated September 11, 1789; he lived near, on manor lands, from 1803-17, said to have been visited by Thomas Jefferson; the house was burned; granite monument in his honor was erected by the state, unveiled, 1904, represents a Continental general, from a design by Miss Clara Keen; architect, Martin Caufield, both of Honesdale.
The Delaware River forms the eastern boundary; a woodland road follows the river. At Milanville, is the old Skinner house, oldest, still in use in Wayne County, loopholes near the roof were made for defense against Indians; many Indian relics were found around here. Wayne County’s only battlefield, unmarked, is in Sterling township, called “Little Meadows,” near it passed an old Indian trail, from Delaware River to Wyoming Valley; on July 4, 1778, the day after the Wyoming Massacre, Indians attacked a few white people, with loss on both sides. On the Eastern and Belmont Highway is a nine-sided, stone schoolhouse of early construction. Three others are found in the county.
Adams County
XXVI
ADAMS COUNTY
FORMED January 22, 1800. Named for John Adams, then President of the United States; notable for the Battle of Gettysburg; chief industry, agriculture. County seat, Gettysburg, founded in 1786, population 4439. First court held in residence of General James Gettys; present courthouse contains portraits of Justices Marshall and Gibson. Federal Building, the post office, marble, Corinthian, architect, J. Knox Taylor, Washington, D. C., contains interesting battle-field museum, maps, and miniature reproductions. The United States Battle Field Commission has offices here. The Wills Building, at the corner of Center Square and Lincoln Highway, is where President Lincoln stayed November, 1863, before his famous address. Presbyterian Church, nearly 176 years old, where President Lincoln worshipped November 19, 1863; the pew he occupied has a bronze plate; church used as hospital during the battle.
Lutheran Theological Seminary, west of town, on Seminary Ridge, contains large copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” painted by the late James B. Sward, Philadelphia; also used as hospital by Union soldiers; it is said that General Lee took observations from its tower; near, in Reynolds Grove, General John F. Reynolds was killed, place marked by bronze equestrian statue, sculptor, H. K. Bush-Brown. In the Dobbin House, stone, on Steinwehr Avenue, built, 1776, was conducted first classical school in Pennsylvania, west of the Susquehanna. Southeast corner of Washington and High Streets was the first home of Pennsylvania College, established in 1832; now northwest of the town on a beautiful campus; main building, “Old Dorm,” is fine colonial architecture. Jennie Wade War Museum near cemetery, shows bullet marks, home of only citizen killed during the battle, has collection of relics and curios. Artists of note born here are Charles Morris Young and Lytton Buehler.
The Battle Field covered 16,000 acres, not including cavalry field four miles east; Union Army was commanded by General George G. Meade, 80,000 to 90,000 men; Confederate Army, commanded by General Robert E. Lee, about 80,000 to 85,000 men; desperate charges were made in hand-to-hand conflicts. The cyclorama, “Battle of Gettysburg,” painted by Paul Philippoteaux, is on exhibition. The Gettysburg Battle Field Memorial Association was incorporated by the Legislature of Pennsylvania to hold and preserve the battle ground, with natural and artificial defenses, as at time of battle, and to mark definitely lines of battle of all troops. It is now a national park and cemetery, in charge of a commission, appointed by the Secretary of War, including over 7000 acres with fifty miles of macadam roads amid most beautiful scenery.
Here we have the greatest number of memorials in Pennsylvania, erected by the various states. Among the 404 monuments and 894 markers are, The National Monument, white granite, four figures at base, representing War, History, Peace, Plenty; shaft supports
OLD PITTSBURGH AND PHILADELPHIA PIKE
This pike, in Adams County, was used by both armies during the Civil War
Statue of Liberty; all figures are of Italian marble, carved in Italy, sculptor, Randolph Rogers; bronze equestrian statue, General George Gordon Meade, near center of line of battle, sculptor H. K. Bush-Brown; bronze equestrian statue, General John Sedgwick, north of Little Round Top, sculptor H. K. Bush-Brown; bronze equestrian statue, General Winfield Scott Hancock, east Cemetery Hill, sculptor, F. Ellwell; bronze equestrian statue, General Henry W. Slocum, on Steven’s Knoll, near Culp’s Hill, sculptor, E. C. Potter; bronze statue, General John F. Reynolds, at entrance to National Cemetery, sculptor, J. Q. A. Ward; bronze statue, General Alexander Stewart Webb, sculptor, J. Massey Rhind, placed at the Bloody Angle where Pickett’s charge was halted and beaten back; General Webb was the officer in command at this spot; bronze statue, General Warren, on Little Round Top, sculptor, Gerhart.
Pennsylvania State Monument, double arch, 110 feet high, 80 feet square at base, crowned with dome surmounted by a bronze Victory, eight bronze statues at base of Ionic columns, Lincoln, sculptor, J. Otto Schweizer; Curtin, sculptor, W. Clarke Nobel; Meade, sculptor, Lee O. Lawrie; Hancock, sculptor, Cryrus P. Dallin; Pleasanton, sculptor, J. Otto Schweizer; Reynolds, sculptor, Lee O. Lawrie; D. McM. Gregg, sculptor, J. Otto Schweizer; Birney, sculptor, Lee O. Lawrie; bronze tablets around base contain names of every soldier of Pennsylvania in Battle at Gettysburg, 34,530. New York State Monument, tall granite shaft, supporting bronze statue of liberty, with four bronze battle reliefs in pedestal; bronze trophy, state shield and corps badges at base of shaft, sculptor, Casper Buberl. Vermont State Monument, fluted shaft surmounted by statue of General George J. Stannard. Irish Brigade Monument, Celtic cross, with Irish hound at base, sculptor, Rudolph O’Donovan.
In the National Cemetery are buried 3589 Union soldiers; it was dedicated November, 1863, when President Lincoln delivered his immortal address, ending, “This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Fiftieth anniversary of the battle, fought July 1-2-3, 1863, was celebrated here in 1913 by reunion of veterans.
The Russell Tavern, now a residence on old Shippensburg Road, three miles north of Gettysburg, is where Washington stopped in 1794, after quelling the Whiskey Rebellion. In Cashtown, the Civic League has formed a recreation park, using the old tavern for a Library; west of this town is the old Pittsburgh and Philadelphia Pike, used by both armies during Civil War. Conewago Mission at Edgegrove was established in 1741 by two Jesuit missionaries; present church, colonial, stone, was built in 1787; enlarged, 1851; paintings over the altar and in the transepts were made by Francis Stecker; Roman Catholic missions were established within a radius of twenty miles from this mother house.
XXVII
CENTER COUNTY
FORMED February 13, 1800; named for its position in center of state; notable for the State College. Chief industry, agriculture; formerly mining and manufacture of iron; limestone is extensively quarried; coal is mined about Philipsburg and Snow Shoe. The state owns 21,000 acres of forest reserve, through which several of the state highways pass; “Fireline” cuts made by the state foresters may be seen.
For a wonderful mountain ride, take the State Road from Tyrone, Blair County, to Bellefonte, following Bald Eagle Valley, and passing several small towns named for women, where remains of iron furnaces may be seen; near Snow Shoe Intersection, a state highway leads up the mountain, with unsurpassed views, to Snow Shoe; follow this road to Philipsburg, then to Bald Eagle Valley. Another beautiful ride is on the state road from Mifflinburg, Union County, across the mountain, through Millheim and Spring Mills to the Old Fort. From Spring Mills a short trip may be made to Penn’s Cave; this is “Penn’s Grandest Cavern”; the trip through the cave is 1400 feet in length, made in motor boats carrying torches or acetylene lights, the water is a transparent greenish color, greatest depth 35 or 40 feet.
A road from Lewistown, Mifflin County, to Lock Haven via Bellefonte, crosses the Seven Mountains
Center County
with wonderful views; at Potter’s Mills is an old furnace and mill. Near the “Old Fort Tavern” is marker, on site of stockade built in 1768 against Indians, placed by Bellefonte Chapter of Daughters American Revolution. Leaving Penn Valley, the road crosses Nittany Mountain, Bald Eagle Mountains may be seen beyond, with crest of Alleghenies in the background.
From Pleasant Gap a detour may be made to State College; population 2405; Pennsylvania State College was founded by the United States Government; in 1862 Congress passed the Land Grant Act, offering to each state and territory in the Union a gift of public lands, the proceeds from the sales to provide for the maintenance of a college to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes, in the several pursuits and professions of life. The offer was accepted by the Legislature of this state in 1863, and the institution, then known as the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, designated to receive the Land Grant. There are thirty-four buildings on a campus of 1500 acres; “Old Main,” built in 1857 as the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, native limestone, is fine specimen of early architecture; the chemistry and liberal arts buildings are Classic style; mining and agricultural groups, Italian Renaissance.
The college maintains departments of study in industrial and fine arts, architecture, art history, and engineering; architectural exhibitions show many specimens of students’ work, some of them prize winners in the Beaux Arts contests; the ornamental gateway, a gift of the class of 1916, was designed by the students. College Museum contains, among the portraits, those of the seven Presidents of the college, and Governor Beaver, also other paintings, marbles and metal work. Art is being emphasized in the summer school. Auditorium presented by Charles Schwab, Esq., has in the lobby, heroic statue, “The Hewer,” by George Gray Barnard. Opposite on the campus is the Carnegie Library; architects, Seymour Davis and Paul A. Davis.
Near State College is a picturesque village, Boalsburg, laid out with a small formal center square, from which streets radiate toward the distant mountains. Colonel Theodore Boal, architect, who raised and equipped a machine gun company for the World War, has created a museum for his warfare collections, curious old armor, dating back to the Crusaders, and a large amount of World War relics, German airplanes, helmets, gas masks, etc.; there is also a Napoleon Room; and he has erected a chapel, old Spanish model, which houses rare wall hangings, vestments, church furnishings, and manuscripts in Spanish, dating from the time of Columbus; they were inherited by Mrs. Boal, a direct descendant from Columbus. Colonel Boal also keeps up, on his property, a reservation or captain’s camp, for the Twenty-eighth Division, the Iron Division.
Bellefonte, county seat, population 3996, was founded, 1795, by James Harris and Colonel James Dunlop, who gave the ground for the courthouse and academy; and certain lots, to be sold, to provide for the erection of said buildings. Name said to have been suggested by Talleyrand, who visited James Harris at his home “Marlbrook,” now the Bellefonte Poor House;
COURT HOUSE AND GOVERNOR CURTIN MEMORIAL, BELLEFONTE
being asked by Mrs. Harris to suggest a name for the town he said, “Bellefonte, for this beautiful spring”; the spring is computed to flow 14,600 gallons per minute, and scarcely varies, entire supply being conveyed to the borough. It is a conservative and aristocratic old town, with residences of Governors Curtin, Beaver, and Hastings, whose homes may still be seen; and fine old colonial doorways; the library of Judge Ellis L. Orvis is noted for its rare first editions, one of the best in Pennsylvania.
Courthouse is in the Public Square, built, 1805, Greco-colonial, with Ionic columns, architect, probably Ezra Ale, has been twice enlarged without changing the front; entrance to the east addition harmonizes with the main west front; architects, Newman & Harris, Philadelphia, for enlargement in 1911. Contains portraits of past judges of the county. In the diamond, in front of courthouse, is state memorial to Pennsylvania’s War Governor and United States Ambassador to Russia, Andrew G. Curtin; bronze, heroic, portrait statue on granite pedestal, sculptor, W. Clark Noble; on either side are bronze panels giving names of Center County’s soldiers in wars of the Republic. The Bellefonte Academy, founded in 1805, burned 1905, was rebuilt, classic, architect, Robert Cole of Bellefonte.
Beaver County
XXVIII
BEAVER COUNTY
FORMED March 12, 1800; named for one of our most industrious little animals; was in the track of earliest of French and English explorers of the Mississippi Valley, to which the Ohio River Valley forms an integral part. It was the scene of heroic labors of Moravian and Jesuit missionaries, who built their stations on the borders of the Beaver River. The Indian villages were the homes of some of the most noted warriors of the aboriginal tribes, and sites of important treaty conferences between them and the colonial governments of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Chief industries are coal and steel. Yards of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Conway, said to be the largest in the world; the famous glass factories of Rochester and Monaca, are at junction of the Ohio and Beaver rivers. Four bridges are here, including that of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, a massive structure of fine engineering skill, 90 feet above the river.
Beaver, county seat (Indian, Shingoes Town), population 4135, was laid out in 1791, on a high level plateau overlooking the Ohio River, by the Surveyor General of the state. Five streets, 100 feet wide, following direction of river, were planned, with five of same width crossing at right angles, and each square divided again by streets 25 feet in width; eight squares were reserved for use of the town, one at each corner, north, east, south and west, and four in the center, which, with a wide strip fronting the river, constitute the parks; all beautifully laid out, they have large trees, and are planted with ornamental shrubbery. The present added territory, east and west, makes the town twice the original size. Courthouse, brick with stone trimmings, is on one of the center squares; the jail, a quaint old stone building, faces on opposite square; in center stands the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. At foot of Market Street is a tall flagstaff marking site of Fort McIntosh, built, 1778, by General McIntosh, on earlier site of a French town built in 1754.
Beaver Falls, population 12,802, oldest and largest manufacturing town, consequent on the great water power of Beaver River and Falls, has Geneva College and a fine Carnegie Library. The residence section is on a bluff 200 feet high, with fine view. New Brighton, population 9361, connected with Beaver Falls by bridges, has the Merrick Art Galleries, acquired by gift to the city, with collection of paintings of merit and value, and liberal endowment for purpose of adding to the collection, library, museum, and to employ teachers in the future. Armory is headquarters of the famous Tenth Regiment. Near the town is a ravine, through which flows Brady’s Run, scene of many thrilling events in life of the famous Indian fighter, Captain Samuel Brady. Morado has a beautiful park on the Beaver River. At Rock Point, on the Connoquenessing Creek, is wild and tumultuous scenery.
Legionville, General Anthony Wayne wintered his soldiers here in 1792; the trenches and position of some of the redoubts are still discernible; marked by flagstaff, erected by the Fort McIntosh Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Farther east is quaint old town of Economy, home of the Harmony Society, disciples of Doctor Rapp; thrifty, industrious people of the past, almost effaced by the town of Ambridge, of the American Bridge Company, who purchased a large tract of their land.
Near Smith’s Ferry, on the north bank of the Ohio, is large group of interesting Indian picture carvings, cut into the surface of the Piedmont sandstone, exposed in the river at a three foot stage of water; they are scattered over the surface of the rock ledge, for a space about forty feet in width, and 700 feet in length, and represent a great variety of the forms of men and animals, birds, fish, and reptiles, including the beaver, bear, wolf, turtle, snake, and eagle, human footprints and the tracks of various beasts; as well as inanimate objects, scalphoop, bows, and arrows; there is also a picture of a bison chasing a dog; another large collection of similar pictures, on the Susquehanna River at Safe Harbor, Lancaster County, contains the same forms of the wolf and the turtle, from which well-known tribes of the Delaware Indians were named, which would seem to connect them with that tribe; casts and photographs of these carvings may be seen at the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh.
Crawford County
XXIX
CRAWFORD COUNTY
FORMED March 20, 1800; named for Colonel William Crawford. First well in the world drilled for petroleum, was completed here in 1859; valley of Oil Creek, south of Titusville, once most productive of oil in United States. Land peculiarly suited to grazing, stock raising, and general farming. French Creek was followed by Washington, 1753, from Franklin, Venango County, to Fort Le Breuf, Erie County. He returned, descending it in canoe; on French Creek, north of Meadville, are Saegerstown and Cambridge Springs, with famous health-giving waters. Conneaut Lake, three and one-half miles by one mile, is largest lake in Pennsylvania, covering about 1200 acres.
Meadville, county seat, population 14,568, settled in 1788 by David Mead; his house still stands on Randolph Street, with modern outer walls; at roots of a maple tree, planted by him, is granite marker, inscription, “This house, erected May, 1797, by General David Mead, founder of Meadville; Ensign in the War of American Revolution; Major-General, 14th and 15th Division, Pennsylvania Militia; rendered signal service in the war of 1812, and an associate Judge at the time of his death. Placed by the Colonel Crawford Chapter, D. A. R., 1902.” In Diamond Park, center of city, five acres, set in huge granite boulder found there, is bronze tablet, inscription, “In commemoration of Colonel William Crawford, born in Virginia 1732, burned at the stake by Delaware Indians near Sandusky, Ohio, June 11, 1782. Revolutionary soldier, friend and companion of Washington, brave and distinguished frontiersman of Western Pennsylvania; this county is named in his honor. Erected by Colonel Crawford Chapter, D. A. R., 1912”; also Pioneer’s Monument, erected May 12, 1888, to mark one hundredth anniversary of Meadville; and the Soldiers’ Monument, erected, 1890. Parrott guns, relics of the Civil War, are at the base; inscription, “Crawford County’s tribute to her loyal sons, 1861-1865.”
Courthouse faces the park, Renaissance, architect, E. T. Roberts, built in 1870. On a house west of the park is a tablet, inscription, “Site of first Court House and Gaol, north of Pittsburgh, 1804-25; placed by Colonel Crawford Chapter, D. A. R., 1909”; also facing the park are the post office, built by the government, 1910, Georgian architecture, red brick and white marble; and the Unitarian Church, built in 1835, red brick, classic, Doric architecture. On the terrace, at Locust Street, is a small stone tablet, marking an old Indian trail, along which Washington passed to Fort Le Boeuf; The “Terrace,” an attractive residence street, is the sloping ground following the old canal.
Meadville Free Library contains a complete file of the “Crawford Weekly Messenger,” published by Thomas Atkinson at Meadville, first newspaper northwest of the Allegheny Mountains; annual exhibitions of paintings by American artists are held here; an excellent permanent collection is being accumulated by the art association, among the artists represented are Charles C. Curran, Charles Bittinger, and Charlotte B. Coman.
Allegheny College founded in 1815, co-ed, is well equipped as to instructors, apparatus, and buildings, campus twenty acres, nearly one million dollars endowment; Bentley Hall, the oldest building, erected in 1820, is of fine colonial architecture; Library, classic architecture, contains autograph letters from Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Wesley, Commissions to Timothy Alden, first President, descended from Longfellow’s John Alden; portraits of all the Presidents of the college, President Clark by Inman, also Hon. James Winthrop, and of Rev. William Bentley of Salem, Massachusetts, who bequeathed here his library, one of the rarest in the country.
The Pennsylvania College of Music, chartered, 1887, is complete in its faculty and curriculum, for study in every department of music and allied arts. Meadville Theological School, chartered 1846, contains a fine library; in the chapel is a portrait, by John Neagle, Philadelphia, painted in 1848, of Harm Jan Huidekoper, founder of the school; he was the first representative of the Holland Land Company in Meadville in 1802. Lafayette Hotel is on site of “The Gibson Tavern,” where Lafayette dined in 1825. A house on Water Street, corner of Steers Alley, is site of blockhouse built, 1794; and North Ward School is on site of the State Arsenal, 1816-58; all three marked with tablets by Colonel Crawford Chapter, Daughters American Revolution.
Titusville, chartered as a city in 1866; population 8432; named for Jonathan Titus, first settler in 1796. Here in 1859, Colonel Edwin L. Drake, by drilling, gave to the world rock oil; first oil well half mile southeast of center of town, is marked by a boulder monument, with large tablet, showing replica of photograph of oil derrick and surrounding trees, taken when oil was discovered; inscription, “This native boulder marks the spot where, through the foresight, energy and perseverance of Edwin L. Drake, the first well was drilled for oil, August 27, 1859; oil was found at a depth of sixty-nine feet; this great discovery inaugurated the Petroleum Industry. Erected by the Canadohta Chapter, D. A. R., Aug. 27, 1914”; Drake Monument, entrance to Woodlawn Cemetery, emblematic figure of a driller, bronze, heroic size, curving architectural background, granite; sculptor, Charles Niehaus; tomb of Drake faces the monument; Drake Museum, west of Titusville, brick, architect, Edwin Bell, contains collections of interest relating to early history of the oil industry.
Benson Memorial Library, Franklin Street, near Main Street, colonial, brick and Indiana sandstone, built, 1902, architects, Jackson & Rosencrans, New York. St. James Protestant Episcopal Church, built, 1863, Gothic, native stone, has fine Tiffany window. Presbyterian Church, built, 1887, Romanesque, Medina sandstone, is on site of log church built in 1815; stained glass window by the Montague Pastle-London Co. of New York. Presbyterian Chapel, 1907, Romanesque, stained glass window by Lamb, New York. The Commercial Bank has a portrait of John L. McKinney, former president, by John C. Johanson.
DRAKE MONUMENT WITH STATUE OF THE DRILLER, TITUSVILLE
Charles H. Niehaus, Sculptor
XXX
ERIE COUNTY
FORMED March 12, 1800; named for Lake Erie, the name Erie from a tribe of Indians, Eries, conquered by the Iroquois Confederacy in 1653, their identity and language is lost; curious mounds and circular embankments, still found in several places, show traces of a race superior to the Indians; human bones in large quantities have been unearthed on line of the Pennsylvania and Erie Railroad, indicating huge physical development, one was nine feet in height. The triangle north of Pennsylvania and west of New York was purchased, by authority of Governor Mifflin, in 1791, from the United States, to obtain a lake port for the state; conveyance being signed by President Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State; afterwards the Indian title was purchased from the Six Nations, through the diplomacy of Cornplanter (Gyantwachia), the Seneca chief, for which the state gave him a reservation in Warren County; later the Indians resolved to prevent the settlement of Presque Isle by Americans, but General Wayne gained a decisive and final victory against them in the battle of “Fallen Timbers” on Maumee Road in 1794.
The Shore belt, for ten miles in width, is noted for grape and fruit raising; back of this is a productive agricultural section. Iron and steel industries predominate. Principal roads are along the south shore of Lake Erie, called the East and West Lake Roads,
Erie County
[Map of Erie County showing: City of ERIE; Towns of EDINBORO, WATERFORD, and LE BOEUF; Railroad lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Central, and New York Chicago & St. Louis; LAKE ERIE; PRESQUE ISLE; and WALNUT, ELK, CONNEAUT, and FRENCH Creeks]
that form a fifty-mile section of the international touring route across the continent. The old French Road from Erie southeast to Waterford, 18 miles, was originally part of the stage route between Pittsburgh and Erie, and also the old portage route from Lake Erie, for military and commercial purposes, to the head waters of the Allegheny River navigation, at Fort Le Boeuf, Waterford, on Lake Le Boeuf.
In 1753, Major George Washington, twenty-one years old, first caught the attention of mankind; he came with a message from Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, to notify the French to discontinue fortifying Presque Isle and Le Boeuf, claiming them to be British territory. Captain Riparti came from Presque Isle for the conference. Washington was accompanied by Christopher Gist (White) and an Indian interpreter. They were in Fort Le Boeuf from December 11-16, and treated courteously by the French officers, who stated they would communicate with their superior officer, Marquis Du Quesne, but at present must refuse to comply.
Erie, county seat, population 93,372, on site of Presque Isle Fort, built by the Marquis Du Quesne in 1753; one of the chain of thirteen French forts extending from Quebec to Fort Du Quesne; is 35 feet above the lake, 573 feet above sea level. Surveyed by Andrew Ellicott, in 1795, first Surveyor General of the United States, three public parks of five acres each were in the original plan, along Sixth street, one mile apart. Perry Square, Sixth and State Streets, on original plan, is focus of public life, it contains memorial monuments to Captain Charles V. Gridley, bronze statue, erected in 1913, commander of the flagship of Admiral Dewey’s Squadron, in Manila Bay; Eben Brewer, bronze statue, first American postmaster in Cuba; General Anthony Wayne, large granite boulder surmounted by two cannon, erected, 1902; and bronze statue to Civil War soldiers, erected, 1872.
Courthouse, facing Perry Square, classic, Corinthian columns, native stone, erected in 1852, the bell is a trophy of war, from the British battleship Queen Charlotte, in 1813; court room contains complete representation of portraits of Erie County judges. Public Library, South Perry Square, Italian Renaissance, granite, built in 1897, architects, Alden & Harlow, Pittsburgh, contains portraits of Commodore Perry, General Anthony Wayne, Captain Charles V. Gridley, President Lincoln; in the Art Gallery is a small permanent collection of works by American artists, among those represented are Childe Hassam, R. M. Shurtleff, F. S. Church, George R. Barse, Arthur Parton, H. Bolton Jones, Charles A. Hulbert, and Henry Mosler; annual art exhibitions are held here by the Erie Art Club.
The Library also has a museum, with relics of the French and Indian, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and later wars. Erie has a conservatory of music, with an organized symphony orchestra, and glee club. The old Custom House, State Street, north of Perry Square, built in 1837, classic, brick with white marble steps and Doric columns, was first used as a United States bank, now in possession of the Grand Army of the Republic. Erie has fifty-five churches, eighteen missions, and
WASHINGTON STATUE
Site of Fort De Boeuf, Waterford
Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Kilpatrick, Sculptors
other religious societies, also two cathedrals. St. Paul’s, Protestant Episcopal, West Sixth Street, Gothic, stone, built, 1866, architect, St. John of Detroit, rose window by Tiffany, who also made some of the memorial windows; St. Peter’s Roman Catholic, Tenth and Sassafras Streets, Gothic; Medina New York red sandstone, trimmed with white sandstone from Amherst, Ohio, and Mercer County, Pennsylvania, built in 1893, architect, C. C. Keely, New York; contains statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, Carrara marble, made in Italy; stations and stained glass windows from Munich, Germany; other windows made in this country. Memorial windows are also in the First Presbyterian Church; St. Mary’s and St. John Kanty (Polish).
The State Soldiers and Sailors’ Home and Marine Hospital, built, 1867-68, brick and stone, is located on the lake front; on the grounds is a replica of the original blockhouse fort, where General Anthony Wayne died in 1796, after his conquest of the Northwest in 1795; he was buried here, until his body was removed in 1809 to St. David’s burial ground, Radnor. The blockhouse, showing plan of construction, was built in 1880, as memorial to General Wayne, it contains relics, and part of coffin lid with his inscription; these grounds were the reservation, on old City Plan of 1795, set apart for fortifications, in the most commanding position, for protection to entrance of harbor. Most of the military history of Erie is interwoven with the location between Parade and Wayne Streets, north of Fifth Street; here was the first white settlement, Presque Isle Village, and French fort in 1753. On bluff near Parade Street, blockhouses were erected, 1753-96-1813. Parade Street formed part of the old French road to Fort Le Boeuf, French garrison, 1753-59; English 1760-63, and in 1785 American 1795-1806, also 1812-13. Here in 1763 took place the hard fought two days’ battle of Presque Isle, with Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas, who, with a vast force, simultaneously attacked all thirteen forts, and captured nine of them, including Presque Isle and Le Boeuf, and again this was the objective point of the Indians in 1794, when they were finally conquered by General Wayne.
Here Thomas Rees, first justice of peace, entertained in his tent at the mouth of Mill Creek, a French exile, the Duke de Chartres, subsequently Louis Philippe, king of France. At the foot of Peach and of Cascade Streets, granite blocks, with brass markers, note approximate positions where Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s ships were built, on which he won the victory of the “Battle of Lake Erie,” in 1813. The powder used to fight that battle was made at Du Pont’s, Wilmington, Delaware, and brought through Pennsylvania in Conestoga wagons. The second flagship of his fleet, the Niagara, is in Erie Harbor, having been raised from the sand of Misery Bay, where it lay for nearly a century; it was rebuilt by the state at a cost of $75,000 for the Perry Centennial in 1913; the first flagship, Lawrence, was raised and rebuilt for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, in 1876; also in Erie harbor is the United States warship Michigan, now named Wolverine and used as a naval militia training ship; built in 1844, it was the first iron warship, and brought to Erie in sections from Pittsburgh; the original engine is still intact and seaworthy; now oldest ironclad vessel in the world.
At foot of French Street, Commodore Perry’s fleet landed with the captured British squadron. This place was camping ground of the Pennsylvania militia; in War of 1812-13, the British fleet was drawn up in front of the harbor, to destroy Perry’s vessels while under construction; Captain Daniel Dobbins of Erie, commander of the Ohio, was the guiding spirit in building the fleet; 2500 soldiers encamped here, with cannon mounted, and such military preparedness as to forebode disaster to an enemy attempting entrance to the harbor. General Lafayette visited Erie in 1825, and a banquet was given him.
The Presque Isle peninsula, surrounding Erie harbor, has a state park, of more than 1500 acres, which is free to all; it gives Erie a large and thoroughly protected harbor; 100 acres were reserved for United States fortifications and dockyards; a life-saving station here, established in 1876, is place of interest. Presque Isle Bay is the finest natural harbor on the Great Lakes, four and one-half miles long, one and one-half miles wide. Lakeside Park, an irregular and sloping strip of land along the water front, from Mill Creek on east, to City line west, sixty-five acres, was laid out in 1888 by John L. Cully, landscape engineer; other open spaces are the Waterworks Park; the Reservoir; Erie, Trinty and Lakeside Cemeteries. Present city planner is John Nolan, of Massachusetts. Erie has also twenty smaller parks, of these the largest are Glenwood, between Sassafras and Cherry Streets, purchased by Erie Public Park Association in 1903, 114 acres, a natural forest with large stream of clear water and swimming pool; the Fish Hatchery, Twenty-third and Sassafras Streets, one of the most important in the state; Waldamere, four miles west on Lake Erie, and the State Normal School Grounds at Edinboro, sixteen miles south of Erie.
XXXI
VENANGO COUNTY
FORMED March 12, 1800, territory then recently acquired by treaties from the Indians, named from In-nan-ga-eh (a rude figure cut in a tree), Seneca language. A well-watered country, the Allegheny River meandering through rugged hills, about 400 feet high, presents places of rare scenic grandeur; into it flow several streams of considerable volume, among them Oil Creek, French Creek, and Big Sandy. For a number of years after the discovery of petroleum, in 1859, it continued to be the principal oil-producing field; now chief industries are manufacturing, refining of petroleum, lumbering, and agriculture.
Franklin, county seat, population 9970, named for Benjamin Franklin, was laid out by William Irvine and Andrew Ellicott, state commissioners, in 1795, on a plateau where a few Seneca Indians were living in comparative security, with a lookout on the highest point of the highest hill, giving views up and down the two beautiful rivers. Being a conservative town, the original city plan has been closely followed, descendants of the early white settlers are living on their own lands from original surveys. Courthouse, Renaissance, brick, in center of a fine wide park, contains portrait of John Morrison, first town crier; near by is Soldiers’ Monument, marble shaft surmounted by an eagle; on the pedestal are carved names of Venango County soldiers killed in the Civil War; opposite is the Franklin News office, Renaissance, good modern construction.
Venango County
St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Church has fine Tiffany windows; the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Roman Catholic churches all have good architecture and stained glass windows. Fine Armory Building. Original lock and dam are preserved intact, in an early canal extended to Franklin, from the “Feeder” Canal several miles below Meadville, on French Creek, its course is plainly seen at many places along the creek; five old bridges that were swept away by fire and ice have been replaced by modern structures; one is called the “Washington,” concrete, handsome design.
Three early frontier forts were here, sites marked by monuments and tablets, Fort Machault, French, Elk Street near Sixth Street, 1753-59; Washington came here on way to Fort Le Boeuf, 1753; this fort had a share in the maneuvers that precipitated “the great seven years war” and dissipated the dreams of an extended French empire; the expedition which brought on actual hostilities was organized and received its impetus at Fort Machault. French troops passed through, and often a thousand Indians lingered here. Fort Venango, Elk Street at Eighth Street, English, 1760-63, captured and burned by the Indians during Pontiac’s war; and Fort Franklin, on Franklin Avenue west of Thirteenth Street, built by United States 1787-96, later abandoned; also the Old Garrison, on bank of French Creek near junction with Allegheny River, erected by the United States after Fort Franklin. This city has never failed in a military crisis; during the war of 1848, George C. McClellan led the “forlorn hope” which captured the fortified buildings at Chepultepec, making the taking of the palace possible.
Six miles down the river is “Indian God Rock,” on which are still seen Indian picture writings; near this rock, Celeron, a Frenchman, under orders from the governor of Canada, is said to have buried one of the engraved leaden plates, placed at various points from Lake Erie to the Mississippi River, as marks of renewal of French possession. Opposite is a bald mountain, from which are fine views of river scenery; among the hills are numerous caves and ravines, a lovely ravine is Glen Fern south of Franklin; Monarch Park, halfway to Oil City, is a well-equipped pleasure ground. Oil City, on Oil Creek, population 21,274, so named because it was the center of the oil industry after discovery of petroleum in 1859. In early days, “Seneca Oil” was obtained from the Indians, who gathered it by spreading their blankets in Oil Creek, the surface of which was covered with oil.
Hasson Park, with forty acres of natural wooded area, has rustic, stone, arch gateway at Bissell Avenue entrance. In Christ Protestant Episcopal Church are memorial windows by Lamb, New York. United States Post Office at the corner of Seneca and Clifford Streets, built by the Government in 1906, Romanesque, gray brick and stone. Carnegie Library, built, 1904, modified Romanesque, gray brick and stone; architect, Charles D. Bollon, Philadelphia. Five bridges over the Allegheny River include the original suspension bridge and “The Petroleum,” said to be finest in strength and dimension north of Pittsburgh; in 1892 a large petroleum tank caught fire and burning oil spread over the water in the creek, it also set fire to the buildings, and many lives were lost. From Franklin and Oil City, public highways, now under state control, lead along streams and over uplands of great beauty.
IRON FURNACE—OIL CITY AND VICINITY
When the iron and steel industry started, iron furnaces such as the above were built near deposits of bog ore, and the product shipped by the river to Pittsburgh long before railroads arrived or cities appeared
XXXII
WARREN COUNTY
FORMED March 12, 1800; named for General Joseph Warren, who fell at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775; land is varied, with mountains, plains, and narrow valleys; the Allegheny River flows through, with tributaries large enough for floating rafts or propelling machinery. The beautiful Kinzua Hills, east, are nearly 2200 feet above tidewater, over them is the famous Kinzua Viaduct, said to be the highest in the world. Early industries were lumber and oil, now they are chiefly agriculture and manufacturing.
Warren, made county seat in 1819, was first laid out by General William Irving and Andrew Elliott, state commissioners in 1795; population 14,272; in 1800, first sawmill in the county was started which is said to have made the first raft of lumber ever floated down the Allegheny; it also sawed lumber in 1805 for Jackson’s Tavern, in which George W. Fenton, afterwards governor of New York, in 1806, taught school, until the schoolhouse of round logs with openings covered by oiled paper for windows, was ready. Courthouse, built, 1825, was first brick building in the county. A suspension bridge crosses the Allegheny here, built about 1871; near entrance to bridge is the Soldiers’ Monument, granite, erected in 1909, on which are inscribed the battles of Warren County men in Civil War. Bronze monument to General Warren and his soldiers is in the west park, dedicated, 1910, placed by the
Warren County
Joseph Warren Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Memorial Library, classic, Doric; architect, Wetmore, New York, is on site of residence of Francis Henry, Esq.
Tidioute, population 1065, in midst of most picturesque surroundings, hills 500 to 700 feet high, covered thickly with forests, where the Allegheny River makes a beautiful curve, crossed here by a suspension bridge built between 1860-70, was famous as an oil-producing community, and the center of a large and excited population, now a quiet residence of wealth and refinement. Also on banks of the Allegheny is the Cornplanter Reservation, given to the great Seneca chief and his heirs for ever, as a reward for military service and influence during the War of 1812; in 1866, the State Legislature authorized the erection of a monument here, inscription, “Gyantwahia, The Cornplanter, Died at Cornplanter Town, Feb. 18, 1836, aged about 100 years.”
Butler County
XXXIII
BUTLER COUNTY
FORMED March 12, 1800; named in honor of General Richard Butler, born in York County; natural scenery is varied, with hills, knolls, and ridges, intervening valleys and broad, fertile fields, while many streams dash over rocky bottoms in all directions and flash their clear waters in the sunlight. The county is rich in old traditions. In 1753, Washington passed through over the Indian trail extending from site of Pittsburgh to Franklin, Venango County; Lafayette stopped here overnight, and many stories of hairbreadth escapes from Indians are related, among them that of Massy Harbison and her baby, who after seeing two of her children killed and scalped, almost starved for days, but finally escaped; the descendants of that baby still reside in the county. Robert Morris owned about 100,000 acres of land in this region. Chief industries, notably its large output of oil and gas, also manufactories; the Standard Steel Car Works, one of the largest plants in the United States, and the Standard Plate Glass Works.
Butler, county seat, population 23,778; laid out in 1803; rectangular, sheltered on all sides by hills; on the top of a small knoll is the public square, with fountain, walks, grass plots, and flower beds; it contains the Soldiers’ Monument, dedicated in 1894 to “Our Silent Defenders”; facing the park is the Courthouse, Gothic French style, with a high tower, stone, built in 1885; architect, James P. Bailey, Pittsburgh; remodeled in 1908 by J. C. Fulton, of Uniontown; interior has mural paintings, representing historic scenes in Butler County; the Woman’s Club furnished a rest room for women here in the basement. Two interurban street railway lines from Pittsburgh have their terminus near this point. Within two squares is the Post Office, built, 1914, Grecian; light brick with granite Ionic columns; architect, Oscar Wenderoth. Opposite is St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, English-Gothic, with stone tower 180 feet high; constructed of beautifully colored local sandstone in the rough, trimmed with the same stone dressed smooth; roof, variegated shingle tile; architect, John T. Comes, Pittsburgh; interior has mural decorations by the Christian Art Guild; the altars are known as “Tryptich,” said to be the only ones of their kind in America; the sanctuary is considered among the richest and most complete in this country; stained glass windows from George Boos, Munich, Bavaria. St. Peter’s German Catholic Church has stained glass windows from Munich, made by Meyer & Company, who also made windows for St. Peter’s Protestant Episcopal Church.
The county has numerous fine, concrete bridges; Butler Viaduct is the largest, 1060 feet between the approaches connecting East Wayne Street with Center Avenue across a deep ravine, built in 1915 by the Fort Pitt Bridge Works. Two miles northeast of town is a pleasure park of natural beauty in a wooded valley, well equipped with dining rooms, ball grounds, lake for boating, etc. Five miles from Butler on the heights above Herman Station is St. Mary’s Monastery, Gothic, built by the Capuchin Fathers, of which St. Fiedelis College forms a part. Saxonburg was laid out in 1832 by John Roebling, here he lived and manufactured the first wire cable, which he used in constructing suspension bridges that made him famous, notably the Brooklyn Bridge across East River, New York. At Evans City, on a grassy knoll in the cemetery, is the Soldiers’ Monument; Quincy granite shaft, surmounted by an eagle standing on a globe, the names of forty-five soldiers are inscribed on it; dedicated, 1894.
On the same road is Harmony, an old historic settlement, founded by George Rapp of Germany; who organized a society known as Harmonites, they purchased 5000 acres of best farm land along the Connoquenessing Creek, amid beautiful scenery, and formed a communistic colony; all money and goods went into a common fund; all worked together in harmony and concord; the quaint old cemetery is surrounded by a wall four feet thick; at the entrance is a gate consisting of one large stone which turns on a pivot; more than one hundred of the sect are buried here; high up on the bank, above the creek, is a curious stone formation called “Rapp’s Seat,” here, tradition relates, “Father Rapp” used to sit and oversee the work carried on by the community; the tourist is well repaid for the climb by the beautiful view from that high point. Another historic place is known as the “Old Stone House” on Mercer Turnpike, ten miles north of Butler, used as a tavern in the eighteenth century; here in 1843, an Indian named “Mohawk” killed Mrs. Wigton and her four children.
A State Normal School with fine large buildings and wide, shady campus is at Slippery Rock. About 1792, numerous depredations by Indians were quieted for some time by General Brodhead’s expedition to the head waters of the Allegheny River with Captain Samuel Brady’s help, a notable Indian fighter; his leap of 23 feet over the waters at Slippery Rock, 20 feet deep, with Indians back and front, gained the praise of the Indian chief, who said, “Blady make good jump.” At West Sunbury an agricultural school has lately been established.
VINEYARD HILL
Harmony Rapp’s seat is back of the tree. The path leads to it.
XXXIV
MERCER COUNTY
FORMED March 12, 1800; named for General Hugh Mercer of the Revolutionary War, who was killed in the Battle of Princeton; rolling land, well watered with springs and creeks; coal underlying one-fourth of land in the county; chief industries are iron, steel, and agriculture; early settlers were Scotch-Irish. In 1812, Mercer County people were frequently called upon to aid in defense of Erie; the whole county would be aroused in a day by runners; in a few hours most of the men, whether militia or volunteers, would be on the march; one call came on Sunday, while service was being held in the courthouse; the sermon was suspended, news announced, benediction given, and immediate preparation for march commenced; at another time, news of threatened invasion came in the middle of grain harvest; the response was immediate, only one old man was left in the town.
Mercer, county seat, population 1932; was once an Indian village of seventy lodges; no settlement was made here until after Wayne’s victory over the Indians in 1795; it was laid out in 1803, on two hundred acres of land given by John Hoge of Washington County. The courthouse, built, 1909, colonial; brick, stone, and concrete; is in center of the public square of three acres; interior finished in white marble; mural painting in dome by Edward Everett Simmons, represents Power, Innocence, Guilt, and Justice; in the courtrooms
Mercer County
MURAL PAINTING IN THE DOME OF MERCER COUNTY COURT HOUSE
Painted by Edward Everett Simmons
on second floor are symbolic mural paintings, “Criminal Law,” by Vincent Aderente, and “Civil Law,” by Arthur Foringer, made in 1911; panels 11 by 12 feet; in the judges’ chambers is a portrait of Honorable Henry Baldwin, former member of the Mercer County bar, and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1830-44. On courthouse grounds is the monument, granite and bronze, to soldiers of Mercer County in the war of 1861-65.
The Humes Hotel, at the northeast corner of the Public Square, built, 1817, then known as “The Hackney House,” oldest hostelry in the county, had as guests Marquis de Lafayette in 1824; his room, No. 12, is open to guests; President Taylor and Buchanan, and General John B. Gordon of Georgia also visited here. The celebrated Harthegig healing springs, named after an Indian chief, is near Mercer; Indians claimed it healed them of many diseases. Hope Mills was the birthplace and the early home of George Junkin, D.D., who was father-in-law of General Stonewall Jackson; his father was a captain in the War of 1812. Grove City is a picturesque college town, being the home of Grove City College, founded by Dr. Isaac C. Kettler. Buhl farm, near Sharon, is a recreation park for citizens of Shenango Valley and has club house, swimming pool, golf, tennis, and baseball grounds.
Armstrong County
XXXV
ARMSTRONG COUNTY
FORMED March 12, 1800, and named for General John Armstrong, who commanded the expedition against the Indians at Kittanning in 1756, and destroyed their town; a hilly and well-watered region with fine farming lands on bottoms and hills. Bituminous coal and limestone are found in all parts of the county; cannel coal of excellent quality, oil, gas, and iron ore; the plate-glass industry at Ford City is said to be the largest in the world. Historic places are, site of Fort Jacob; Battle of Blanket Hill; and point where Washington and Gist crossed the river, not marked.
Kittanning, county seat, settled in 1804; population 7153; on site of an Indian village of same name; later it was one of the French and Indian forts, extending via Venango and Fort Le Boeuf to Erie. An Indian trail left Horse Shoe Bend at Kittanning Point, Blair County, and came through Cambria County to Cherry Tree, Canoe Point, Indiana County, crossing from there to Kittanning. The courthouse, jail, and sheriff’s house are built together, of fine cut stone from Catfish Quarry, Clarion County, cupola, 108 feet from the ground, foundations, 7 feet wide, sunk in solid rock 24 feet below the surface; architect, James McCullough, Jr., Kittanning, built, 1870-73.
At Mahoning, in 1780, was a fierce encounter with the Indians by General Brodhead, commander of Fort Pitt, and Captain Samuel Brady, and another encounter at Brady’s Bend. Captain Brady fought in the Revolution, at siege of Boston, in the massacre at Paoli, and in 1779 was ordered to Fort Pitt. Ford City, population 5605, has statue of Colonel J. B. Ford, father of plate-glass industry. Several fine churches are here.
XXXVI
INDIANA COUNTY
FORMED March 30, 1803. Named for Indians; early settlers, mostly Scotch-Irish, who not only had the Indians to contend with, but also venomous reptiles and beasts of prey, with which the country abounded; near the cabin door one would hear the quick snap of the viselike jaws of the wolf, one could see the panther crouching in a tree, or the catamount glaring from a thicket. Chief industries, agriculture and coal mining; entire county is underlaid with bituminous coal of finest quality; glass and brick-making are important; electricity and natural gas solve the heating and lighting problems.
Indiana, county seat, laid out in 1805; population 7043; courthouse, in center of town, brick and gray stone, Renaissance, built, 1871, jail in same style joins it, built, 1888. Town hall, brick with Cleveland limestone trimmings, Renaissance, built, 1913, architect, H. King Conklin, Newark, New Jersey. Savings and Trust Company, white brick, Renaissance. Presbyterian Church, semi-Gothic, Hummelstone, has fine windows, one by Dodge, New York, formerly with Tiffany. United Presbyterian Church, Moorish, brick, built, 1851. State Normal School, northeast of town on high ground beautifully kept, buildings all of stone or brick, modern school construction, contains good reproductions of famous paintings and replicas of celebrated sculpture, distributed throughout the
Indiana County
THE DEVIL’S ELBOW, EAST OF INDIANA
One of the most picturesque spots in the county
Illustration loaned by “The Indiana Progress,” Indiana
buildings as a decorative and educational element; portrait of Jane E. Leonard, principal since opening in 1875, artist, H. S. Stevenson, Pittsburgh, was given by the alumni; and interesting class windows in Leonard Hall, given by three separate graduate classes, makers, Rudy Brothers, Pittsburgh; near the borough is Devil’s Elbow, one of nature’s beauty spots.
Armstrong Spring, an old Indian camping ground, on Indian Trail, “Kittanning Path,” which passed north of the Rice Hill, west to this spring, in private property, and through normal school grounds to Kittanning, Armstrong County; over this trail Lieut. Colonel John Armstrong was sent with seven companies against Indians, at the battle of Blanket Hill, Kittanning, in 1756. Two miles west on Kittanning Pike is site of Clark’s blockhouse, first building in the county, the spring and part of old stone fort are still there, not marked.
Cherry Tree, on Susquehanna River prominent point on old purchase line, in treaty of William Penn with the Indians at Fort Stanwix, 1768, also called “Canoe Point”; from here, the Indians carried their canoes to the Allegheny River at Kittanning, sixty miles away; a direct line between these two points formed part of the boundary of lands acquired from the Six Nations. Where original Cherry Tree stood is the meeting point of Indiana, Cambria, and Clearfield counties, monument erected by county commissioners; designed by E. F. Carr & Company, Quincy, Massachusetts, unveiled 1894; Governor Beaver made the address; inscription, “This monument is erected to mark Canoe Place, the corner of the Proprietaries Purchase from the Indians by Treaty at Fort Stanwix, New York, November 5, 1768.” In the southeast is a tunnel, part of old portage railroad through spur of Alleghenies, where the Conemaugh makes a bend of two and one-half miles. Near are Aurora Falls, for sixty feet over rock and through a picturesque gorge to the Conemaugh River (Kiskiminetas) which forms southern boundary, tributary streams fall twenty to thirty feet to the mile.
Near Armagh is the old Buena Vista Furnace, one of three operated in southeast section in the early forties, relic of the early iron industry when ore was taken from the hills, melted into pig metal, and transported to the markets over the old Pennsylvania Canal. Blairsville, on proposed William Penn highway, settled, 1819, population 4391, named for John Blair of Blair’s Gap. First United Presbyterian Church, Tudor Gothic. Luzerne is said to have largest electrically equipped coal (bituminous) operations in the world, and develops power to other operations within a radius of twenty-five miles. Saltzburg, settled in 1817 by Andrew Boggs, is near site of an Indian village, beautiful Kiski Falls are here; several wells producing salt of excellent quality were put down from 1813 and later. Elder’s Ridge, academy, stone, built in 1816, was the first state vocational school in Pennsylvania. The underground railway was in active operation in Indiana County during the latter days of slavery.
XXXVII
CAMBRIA COUNTY
FORMED March 26, 1804; named by early Welsh settlers for the Cambria Hills in Wales; has been called the Switzerland of America. Here are many places of historic and scenic interest. The old Kittanning Trail crossed the country in the north through Ashville, where there is an Indian burial ground. Near Carrollton is Hart’s Sleeping Place; he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence; the British made special exertion to take him a prisoner, so he wandered through the woods, sleeping in caves, being constantly hunted by the enemy. South is Loretto, a quaint old mountain town with one street, and an almost entirely Roman Catholic community, founded by Prince Demetrius Gallitzin, who brought a colony of settlers into the Allegheny Mountains about 1796, and labored as a missionary in this district for forty years; he died in 1840; the church he built here has been rebuilt in a costly manner by Charles Schwab in honor of his birthplace. St. Francis College has the tomb and monument of Prince Gallitzin in grounds. Southeast is Gallitzin at western end of a tunnel two-thirds of a mile long on the Pennsylvania Railroad, 2160 feet above sea; a bronze statue of the prince is here. Prince Gallitzin Spring, with a monument near by, is along the State Highway near Summit, on top of the Alleghenies.
Beyond is Cresson, a noted and beautiful summer
Cambria County
MONUMENT TO THE UNKNOWN DEAD OF THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD
resort; here is Mount Aloysius Academy and the State Tuberculosis Sanatorium No. 2. Ebensburg, county seat, laid out in 1805; population 2179, is also a summer resort; through the woods and around the lakes of this region the rhododendrons grow as tall as trees and are gorgeous in their bloom. Descending along the upper waters of the Conemaugh, numerous vestiges are seen of the old Portage Railroad, a series of inclined planes, connecting the State Canal at Hollidaysburg east and Johnstown on the west. Dickens wrote of the scenery along the canal, “Sometimes the way wound through some lonely gorge like a mountain pass in Scotland.” Many dams, which are really lakes, have been built by manufacturers, the largest is three and one-half miles long, surrounded by wooded hills with here and there a waterfall.
Johnstown, population 67,327, at confluence of the Conemaugh River and Stony Creek, was founded in 1800 by a Swiss Mennonite, Joseph Schantz (Johns). A glance at the deep, narrow valleys, with their high inclosing walls, goes far to explain the possibility of so tremendous a catastrophe as that which overwhelmed Johnstown on May 31, 1889. Conemaugh Lake, two and one-half miles long, one and one-half miles wide, was reserved as a fishing ground by a club of Pittsburgh engineers, its waters were restrained by a dam 1000 feet long, built by the state as a reservoir to store water for the state canal during the dry seasons; a continuance of violent rains filled the lake to overflowing; the break occurred at three o’clock in the afternoon, a gap of 300 feet being formed at once. The water that burst through swept down the valley in a mass one-half mile wide, forty feet high, carrying everything in its way, completely destroying Johnstown and other towns and villages in its track, going 18 miles in seven minutes, the distance between Johnstown and the lake. The mass of houses, trees, machinery, railway iron and human bodies was checked by the railway bridge below Johnstown, which soon caught fire, probably burning to death hundreds of persons imprisoned in the wreckage. About 2205 lives were lost; in the Grandview Cemetery a large space is dedicated to the “Unidentified Dead,” with a Westerly granite monument, having heroic size statues of Faith, Hope, and Charity; sculptor, F. Barnicoat, Quincy, Massachusetts; there are 778 individual markers for the bodies, largely unidentified, laid out geometrically, so that from whatever angle the plot is seen, they are in curved rows.
Johnstown was an important shipping station on the canal connecting Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. An interesting feature now remaining is the canal tunnel at bend of the Conemaugh, four miles east of Johnstown; second such tunnel built in America; constructed by the state about 1828 or 1830; the first is in Lebanon County, made in 1827. The Carnegie Library received by bequest from James M. Swank, historian and iron and steel statistician, his books and historical relics. Franklin Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Gothic, gray sandstone; the sills under the windows of the auditorium are dressed stones from the abandoned Pennsylvania Canal Locks, near site of the present Pennsylvania Railroad station; architect, George Fritz. First Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Walnut and Lincoln Streets, dedicated, 1913; modified English
THE GAP BELOW JOHNSTOWN
Gothic, Cleveland gray sandstone and green tile, architects, Badgley & Nicholas, Cleveland.
The Cambria Steel Company began in 1840, when George S. King and David Stewart discovered a vein of iron ore about fifteen inches thick, on the Laurel Run, west of Johnstown; they built the first blast furnace in Cambria County in 1842, calling it the Cambria Furnace; in 1843 Dr. Peter Shoenberger bought out David Stewart’s interest; he was the great ironmaster of his time, conducting a chain of furnaces, forges and rolling mills, stretching almost 500 miles, from the old Marietta furnace in Lancaster to the Wheeling, West Virginia, iron works. The Cambria Iron Works were completed in 1853, and sold to a syndicate of Philadelphians who selected Matthew Newkirk as president; in 1854 they rolled the first iron rails; the first steel rails in America were rolled here in 1867 from blooms imported from England. Iron is the county’s chief industry.
Clearfield County
XXXVIII
CLEARFIELD COUNTY
FORMED March 26, 1804; named by the first settlers from a cleared field in the forest made by the Indians, site of “Chingleclamouche’s old Town,” said to have been the most considerable Indian village on the upper West Branch of the Susquehanna, now Clearfield Borough. The whole county is a continuous prospect of intensely picturesque scenery; surface mountainous, with ranges broken into innumerable, irregular spurs, indented by streams; from many hilltops views of the greater part of the county may be seen; the “Knobs,” its loftiest summit, is constantly in view, and the intermediate country, a panorama of natural beauty, ever changing in atmospheric effects; all the creeks, tributaries of the West Branch of the Susquehanna, have scenery which beggars description, a veritable feast for the painter, poet, and romancer; Moshannon and Clearfield Creeks had their beaver dams.
Up Anderson’s Creek, on the old Milesburg and Le Boeuf road, opened prior to 1802, a detachment of regulars marched against the British at Lake Erie in the War of 1812. Important Indian trails traversed this county, crossing the head waters of Clearfield Creek, Chest Creek, near “Hart’s Sleeping Place,” and the West Branch at Canoe Place. Another ran from Bald Eagle Creek where Marsh Creek empties, in Blair County, going west crossed Moshannon and Clearfield Creeks to Chingleclamouche; this was also called the Trader’s Path; none of the present roads are made upon the Indian trails. A mortar-shaped stone has been located about five miles east of Clearfield, on the State Highway, and has been marked by local Daughters of the American Revolution as site of an Indian mill for grinding corn.
Early settlers were mostly from older Eastern counties; these were followed by Germans, Irish, Scotch-Irish, and French. Chief industry, the mining of bituminous coal. In 1828 Peter Karthaus arrived in Harrisburg with six arks, laden with bituminous coal from his mines in this county, it was exhibited in front of the Capitol; not until about 1870 did the industry begin to assume any great magnitude; today the yearly output aggregates millions of tons, and the lower measures are not yet developed. Peter Karthaus also started the iron industry, near Karthaus, but it was short-lived; here, it is said, the first successful attempt was made in Pennsylvania to smelt iron by means of bituminous coal. Other important industries are vitrified brick, drain tile, and tanning.
Clearfield, county seat; population 8529; on land owned by Abraham Witmer, laid out, 1805, in regular squares like Philadelphia; streets running east and west are named, those north and south numbered. Two small parks were reserved along the West Branch. Principal buildings are scattered. Courthouse, brick, Romanesque, built in 1860, architects, Cleveland & Bachus, contains portraits of former judges, among them Honorable John Holden Orvis; it is located in center of the original plan of the borough. Near are most of the churches, of which the Trinity Methodist Episcopal, Romanesque, and St. Francis’ Roman Catholic, Gothic, may be mentioned for architecture. The high school is well lighted and of best school construction; each of the principal towns of this county has its high school. Prominent men of Clearfield were, Honorable William Bigler, State Governor, and Honorable William A. Wallace, United States Senator; they are buried in Hillcrest Cemetery; a monument to Governor Bigler was erected by the state.
Tioga County
XXXIX
TIOGA COUNTY
FORMED March 26, 1804; name, corruption of the Iroquois word “Tiagoa” (gateway); noted for its high altitude and wonderful views; part of Allegheny plateau, where it breaks into parallel flat-topped mountains, supporting, in shallow basins, several isolated bituminous coal fields. Heritage of timber is being dissipated; the State Tree Nursery at Asaph is trying to replace the great waste. Chief industry, agriculture, land for dairy purposes is among the finest in the state, several extensive milk condenseries. Indian trails crossed the county from Big Tree on the Genesee, among the Senecas, to the frontier at Northumberland. First great road was built by Charles Williamson of New York in 1792, agent for Sir William Poulteney, who had received a large grant of land in New York State, adjoining Pennsylvania, in the “Genesee Country,” home of the Seneca Indians; the road, commencing at Loyalsock, passed through what is now Williamsport, up Lycoming Creek to Trout Run, over Laurel Hill to “Block House,” now Liberty; here Williamson built a blockhouse of logs 20 by 40 feet, as place of refuge; to Peter’s Camp, now Blossburg, where coal was discovered in 1792; ending near Bath, New York, it opened up to settlers 15,000,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania north of Williamsport; this road is still used from Williamsport to Tioga County.
County seat, Wellsboro, population 3452, named for William Hill Wells, United States Senator 1799-1814, laid out March 21, 1806, in a primeval wilderness. Courthouse, center of group of county buildings facing the public green, colonial with cupola, built in 1835, native sandstone and conglomerate, which was hauled on ox sleds for several miles over poor roads; high on the southwest wall is carved the outline of an eagle, insignia of one of the stonecutters from the neighboring Welsh settlement. Opposite, across the green, is the brick office of the Bingham Estate, built in 1855, and still occupied by the agent, patent of 1,000,000 acres, land mostly in northern tier, included site of Binghamton, New York. William Bingham, lived 1751-1804, was a Philadelphia merchant, member of Continental Congress, and of the United States Senate. Facing the courthouse is a Soldiers’ Monument to Civil War heroes, dedicated, 1886; also on the green is a monument to the late John Magee, who developed the coal fields and railroads of the county, a colossal portrait bust on polished granite pedestal; sculptor, Samuel Conkey, New York.
Best modern buildings are, The Presbyterian Church, Gothic, Ohio sandstone, erected in 1894, architects, Culver & Hudson, Williamsport, contains, among memorial windows, one to George Dwight Smith, killed in the battle of Smith Mountain; also Tiffany tablet to Mrs. A. C. Shaw, white marble, framed in mosaic of favrile glass. St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church, fronting the green, is a choice example of Norman Romanesque, the last ecclesiastical work of the late Halsey Wood, New York, built in 1897,
ANTIQUE CAPITAL, CHESTER PLACE, WELLSBORO
Used as a sun dial
From Stanford White collection
native sandstone, windows furnished by Tiffany, are quiet and pleasing in tone, of unusual harmony with the masonry; pulpit and altar are also from the Tiffany studios; the church contains many fine memorials. St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church was remodeled from the old academy, locally an important and historic institution; standing on a hill the church raises aloft a gilded cross, impressive and beautiful above the surrounding foliage.
The broad main street is paved with brick, around a central strip of green grass, and shaded with fine old elms and maples. The Wellsboro Cemetery, purchased in 1855, was laid out by B. F. Hathaway, landscape gardener, of Flushing, Long Island; stone arch gateway, Romanesque, of local conglomerate, is memorial to Honorable Henry Warren Williams, Justice of Supreme Court, buried here; architect, J. H. Considine, Elmira; on summit of the knoll is the grave of George W. Sears, poet of outdoor life and wood lore, monument has bas-relief bronze portrait, set in granite; Honorable John J. Mitchell, Judge of Pennsylvania Supreme Court and United States Senator, is also buried here. Woodland Park, twenty-six acres, is owned by Leonard Harrison, Esq., who generously maintains it for public use; has surface of hill and dell, stretches of natural forest, and fine views from its higher outlooks.
Several citizens have grounds formally laid out, and planted under professional advice; of these, designed by Bryant Fleming, of Townsend & Fleming, Buffalo, is Chester Place, left to the borough by bequest, for a public library; the garden has an Italian roofed pergola ending with a marble bust and seats, on top of the terrace which divides the upper and lower gardens; a sundial, fastened to an old Spanish Renaissance capital, which came from the collection of garden marbles made by the late Stanford White, is on a rectangular plot of green, and forms the center of one garden room, surrounded by a brick walk, in turn framed by a broad border of shrubbery; into the brick pavement are set little marble panels, carved with designs of roses, birds, etc., other insets contain quotations appropriate to gardens; set into the wall outside at right and left of entrance, are tiles with trees in bas-relief, inside, correspondingly placed, are reliefs showing old Italian garden decorations, Socrates and Hercules.
Just outside of Wellsboro is an old covered wooden bridge, in Pine Creek Gorge, through which the Tyadaghton (River of Pines) runs, mountains rise perpendicularly on either side for 1000 feet; the gorge is sixteen miles long, filled with trout stream tributaries, where also bear, deer, and other game abound.
In Mansfield is a state normal school, on beautifully terraced hill, five buildings, brick with marble or brownstone and terra-cotta trimmings, built 1889-1909, later buildings, modified classic; contains many fine carbon prints of famous paintings and buildings, also plaster replicas of noted pieces of sculpture. Carnegie Free Library, classic architecture, built, 1912, light-pressed brick; architects for school and library, Pierce & Bickford, Elmira, New York.
XL
McKEAN COUNTY
FORMED March 26, 1804; named for Thomas McKean, second Governor of Pennsylvania; mean altitude 1700 feet. Mount Jewett is one of the high points in the state; half a mile from Mount Jewett is the great Kinzua Viaduct on the Erie Railroad, said to be the highest bridge in the state across a ravine. The electric line to Olean, New York, eighteen miles, through Red Rock, reveals great scenic grandeur. Chief industry, producing and refining petroleum.
Smethport, county seat; was incorporated in 1807; population, 1568. In the courthouse grounds is a granite monument to the Civil War soldiers of this county; it was shown in the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. St. Luke’s Protestant Episcopal Church, a gift from Hon. Henry Hamlin; consecrated 1892; is pure fourteenth century English Gothic; architect, Halsey Wood. Altar and reredos of Caen stone, surmounted by a very beautiful, delicately carved canopy; memorial font, Caen stone; all memorials were designed by the architect; organ from Johnson & Sons, Westfield, Massachusetts. In the public school grounds is a tablet marking the route of General Brodhead’s expedition. On the highway, near Lafayette, is a tablet marking place where General Brodhead passed across the county from Allegheny River, when he came from Pittsburgh against the Indians; placed by Smethport Daughters of the American Revolution.
Bradford, chief city; population, 15,525; is said to contain the only plant in America for the manufacture
McKean County
KINZUA BRIDGE
The highest bridge in the world
of oxalic acid, it produces 10,000 pounds daily. The City Hall, Post Office, and Carnegie Library are fine buildings. The McKean County Historical Society has rooms in the Carnegie Library; among their collections are valuable historical papers and autographs, photographs, and samples of products relating to the oil industry, portraits of distinguished Pennsylvanians, and busts of General Kane and of Abraham Lincoln; the latter, by Theophilus Mills, is said to be one of the only two living masks ever made of Lincoln; it was made six weeks before the assassination, and after many years it was purchased from the son of the sculptor by Mr. R. B. Stone, and placed in the Bradford Library. The Museum and Art Gallery, owned by Lewis Emery, Jr., Esq., is at times open to the public. On the public square is a boulder, in honor of Governor McKean, from a tract of land in Annin Township, deeded to Thomas McKean by John Bull, a patriot of the Revolution. A tablet commemorating the Spanish War soldiers was erected by Spanish War veterans.
Kane, a beautiful mountain resort, has Evergreen Park, a native forest, given to the town by the Erie Railroad, through their agent, General Thomas L. Kane; a path through the forest is named for General Grant, who frequently enjoyed trout fishing here with General Kane. Facing this park is the high school; classic style, architects, Davis & Davis, Philadelphia; contains good collection of photographic reproductions of famous paintings and architecture. The Presbyterian Church is memorial to General Kane, commander of the Bucktail Regiment, erected by his family. At Lewis Run the great Indian hunter, Jim Jacobs, lived.
Potter County
XLI
POTTER COUNTY
FORMED March 26, 1804; named for General James Potter, an officer of the Revolution, is an almost trackless wilderness covered with dense growth of pine and hemlock, the haunt of bear, deer, wolf, panther, fox, and other wild game. Mean elevation is about 1900 feet above sea. At head waters of the West Branch, Genesee and Allegheny rivers, in the north, the ground is rolling, with beautiful farms; the southern part is broken by deep valleys and lofty mountains, with most picturesque scenery, especially in the Kettle Creek and Sinnemahoning valleys. Probably the first white man to cross the county was David Zeisberger, who passed down the Allegheny River to mouth of the Tionesta, Forest County, in 1767; his journal, now on file in the Moravian Library at Bethlehem, tells of the wild beauty of the county. Farming and stock raising are gaining, but the main industry is still lumbering, with second growth of hardwoods, maple, beech, and birch, which will in time be a great nucleus of wealth.
Earliest important road is the Jersey Shore Turnpike, running from Jersey Shore at the mouth of Pine Creek, Lycoming County, through most wonderful scenery to Coudersport and on to Buffalo; an effort is being made to have this historic highway improved, as it is the most direct way from the West Branch Valley to Buffalo. On this road is the site of Oleona. Ole Bull, the famous violinist, attempted the settlement of a colony of Norwegians; in 1852, he purchased 11,144 acres on Kettle Creek, in the then almost unbroken forests; and laid out four villages, New Norway, New Bergen, Oleona, and Walhalla; this proved a sad failure, and the land is now included in the State Forest Reserve. Ole Bull’s Castle, with a great stone wall, still partly standing, was built about a mile below Oleona, on the crest of a bluff. Travel is generally good in summer, during the winter the heavy snowdrifts are often too deep for passage, temperature often falling to 40° below zero.
Coudersport, county seat, settled in 1807; population 2836; courthouse, substantial, colonial building in the square, on the main street; in the grounds is the Soldiers’ Monument, a granite shaft, pedestal has names of Potter County men who fell in war for the Union. The famous Bucktail Regiment was recruited largely from Potter County, noted marksmen, many had been famous hunters, and because of their wonderful skill with the rifle were made sharpshooters in the Civil War. Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, incorporated, 1833, present stone building, Gothic, built in 1885, on ground given by Miss Katharine Dent. The beautiful little church, “All Saints,” at Brookland, near the old Dent Homestead, memorial to Henry Hatch Dent, by his children, maintained by endowment, is native stone, with stained glass windows, marble memorial altar, and other artistic furnishings, open by appointments of the Bishop, it stands, as old “St. Martins-in-the-Field,” a solitary witness for Christianity and the Church.
First Presbyterian, oldest church organization in
ON THE SINNEMAHONING CREEK
Coudersport, established 1832, first building made in 1849, on ground given by John Keating, Esq., present building, Fourth and Main Streets, dedicated in 1903, Italian Renaissance; other denominations have good church buildings. The Pennsylvania Historical Commission has made an appropriation for the placing of a monument to David Ziesberger at Coudersport; they will also place tablets at site of Ole Bull’s Castle and near the Austin disaster; the Austin flood, in 1911, when the town was almost blotted out, and many lives were lost and property destroyed, was perhaps the worst calamity which has ever visited the county. Three miles east of Coudersport is “The Sweden Valley Ice Mine,” in a shaft about six feet square and twelve feet deep; during the hot summer weather ice is formed here in large quantities; the Smithsonian Institution has published a number of articles concerning these ice caves.
Jefferson County
XLII
JEFFERSON COUNTY
FORMED March 26, 1804; named for Thomas Jefferson; steep and rugged hills line the watercourses of every stream, alternating with fine valley land, traversed by good roads through most picturesque scenery; the views are a continual delight. In early days large tracts of this land were held by rich proprietors who would neither improve nor sell at a fair price. The pioneer hewed his canoes out of pine trees, large enough to receive a barrel of flour crosswise; a homemade rope of flax was attached to the front to pull them over the ripples. The county is wonderfully rich in coal and an abundance of natural gas, and has developed more along commercial than it has along artistic lines. Chief industries: stock raising, coal, iron, glass, and silk.
County seat, Brookville, laid out in 1830; population 3272. Hunts Point, now Carrier’s addition of Brookville, was once an Indian village. Main Street runs east and west. Pickering Street crosses at right angles. Courthouse, at the corner of Main and Pickering Streets; Renaissance, brick; contains portraits. The Brookville Park Association is making great civic improvements; a park of ten acres is in the center of the town and a fine new park building or auditorium is being erected; the organization being truly altruistic, to the intent that no dividends shall be paid to the subscribers, but all profits applied to municipal improvements. There are several churches, among them may be mentioned the Presbyterian and Methodist for architecture; both Romanesque; stone. The Presbyterian has good stained glass windows. The Daughters of the American Revolution have placed a small monument to Joseph Barnett in the old cemetery. Fort Barnett was one mile east of Brookville, on the old turnpike (Mead’s Trail); his cabin in 1799 is said to have been the only one within seventy-five miles.
Punxsutawney, population 10,311, was an Indian village; during the eighteenth century, Moravian missionaries labored here among the Delaware tribes of the Algonquin Indians; Brother Ettewein kept a faithful record of his travels and work, describing his journey along Mahoning Creek, then named by the Indians “Mohulbucteetam,” or place where canoes are abandoned. Rev. David Barkley and his son-in-law, Dr. John W. Jenks, from Newtown, Bucks County, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in 1816, later made an associate judge, owned the land and laid out the town in 1820 in squares, including one for the public, which in this century has been made into a beautiful park by Frederick Olmstead, landscape gardener, of Brookline, Massachusetts; on each corner are old cannon from the Civil War. A fine brick post office with Ionic portico is here, built by the United States Government, and many beautiful churches. Christ Episcopal Church is built with stone taken from the creek bed and laid without any cutting; the soft brown color was caused by the mineral in the water, and is permanent.
XLIII
SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY
FORMED February 21, 1810; named for situation, at head waters of the Susquehanna River, which completely drains the county, every stream flowing into it as it flows around a spur of the Alleghenies with the highest outline of two mountains; original Indian names, Onaquaga and Miantinomah. The scenery is beautifully diversified; there are numerous lakes, the largest, Crystal Lake, is over a mile long; from Elk Mountain, with its three peaks, sixteen lakes are visible, and the Water Gap is plainly seen on a clear day; from Ararat, 2040 feet above the sea level, is also an extended view. A panorama of great beauty is seen from the heights of Gibson Township; the slopes furnish unsurpassed grazing and abound in orchards and gardens; named for Chief Justice Gibson, the town was first settled in 1792 by Joseph Potter.
The most beautiful auto ride through the county is from Montrose to Susquehanna, incorporated in 1853, called the City of Stairs; Erie Railroad shops are here, the buildings, covering eight acres, include a Library and Lecture Hall. Martin’s Creek Viaduct, 1600 feet long with eleven spans, on the Lackawanna Railroad, is said to be, next to the Tunkhannock Viaduct on same road, the largest concrete bridge in the world; this road is known as the shortest route between New York and Buffalo; owing to its high elevation through this county, the views are of extraordinary
Susquehanna County
beauty. Earliest white settlement was at Great Bend; General James Clinton, with 1600 men, encamped here in 1799, en route to join General Sullivan at Chemung against the Indians. Chief industry, agriculture and butter making.
Montrose, population 1661; made county seat in 1811, first settled by Stephen Wilson of Vermont in 1799, is a notable health resort because of its altitude; it was developed through the liberality of Dr. R. H. Rose and Isaac Post, the latter was first postmaster in 1808. Dr. Rose purchased 100,000 acres in 1807, partly in Silver Lake Township, and developed the resources of the county. Public buildings face the square, in which is the monument to Civil War soldiers. Courthouse, a fine structure, colonial architecture, built in 1842, contains a portrait of Honorable Galusha A. Grow, who was sent to Congress from this county. The conference building seats 3000; here The Bible Institute is held each summer. At Springville was farm of Zophar Blakeslee, whose daughter, Sarah, was married to Honorable Asa Packer. Brooklyn was early residence of George Catlin, who became noted as a painter of Indians. Jackson started as a beaver meadow. When Thomson was first settled, in 1820, an unbroken forest of beech wood stretched eastward for fifty miles.
Bradford County
XLIV
BRADFORD COUNTY
FORMED February 21, 1810, as Ontario; on March 24, 1812, named in honor of William Bradford, an attorney general in the cabinet of Washington; surface hilly or rolling. Chief industries are dairying and breeding of fine cattle and thoroughbred horses. Said to be first place on record visited by a white man in Pennsylvania; in 1615 Stephen Bruhle, explorer and interpreter for Samuel Champlain, with twelve Huron Indians, came to Carouantian, a palisaded village of the Carouantiannais, on Spanish Hill, just above present towns of Sayre and Athens; he found here 800 warriors, 500 of whom went with him to aid Champlain against the Onondaga stronghold in New York. Bruhle returned to Carouantian, remained during the winter of 1615-16, and explored the Susquehanna River to the sea, making report to Champlain.
First road was the great Indian warpath along the Susquehanna, used by General Sullivan and his Continental Army in expedition against the Indians in 1779; the state road, from Wilkes-Barre, up the river, through Wyoming and Bradford counties, is substantially on this old trail; historic places along the road are well marked, a monument thirteen feet high, native stone, from Campbell’s Ledge above Pittston; erected by the Moravian Historical Society in 1871 near Wyalusing, marks location of the Moravian mission, inscription, “To mark site of Friedenshutten (Machwilusing), a settlement of Moravian Indians between 1765-1772”; this mission was removed to Beaver County in 1772. Farther west, near the Presbyterian church, is a large boulder with bronze tablet, inscription, “Near this site from August 5-8, 1779, camped the army of Maj. Gen’l Sullivan, on their expedition against the Six Nations, erected by Machwilusing Chapter, D. A. R. 1914”; this road after leaving Wyalusing, leads over the hill a distance from the river, to which it returns again at Rummerfield, near where Mrs. Roswell Franklin was killed by Indians; her family was rescued.
Farther up the river is the county’s oldest historic landmark on west bank of the Susquehanna, “Standing Stone,” 25 feet high, 21 feet at base, tapers from 4 to 3 feet in thickness, rising out of the water; a landmark even in early Indian history; plainly visible from the road; General Sullivan’s army of 3500 men camped on the plain opposite; three miles east of Towanda is Wysox village and creek, in front of an old brick church is where Major Henry van Campen, with two other captives, succeeded in releasing themselves, under guard by twice their number of Indians, killing all except one. Near is a large boulder of Barclay sandstone, with bronze tablet; inscription: “This stone commemorates the passing through Wesauking, Aug. 9 and Oct. 4, 1779, of Maj. Gen’l John Sullivan and his troops against the Six Nations. Erected, 1908, by the George Clymer Chapter, D. A. R., Towanda, Pennsylvania”; on the level plain between this creek and the river General Sullivan’s army camped.
From Wysox the road diverges west from the old trail, continues over a modern steel bridge, built in 1915, replacing an old covered wooden one made in 1834, to Towanda. Eight miles northwest is Ulster; passing on the way: near mouth of Sugar Creek is site of an important palisaded Indian village called “Ogehage,” later “Oscalui,” still later, in 1779, “Newtychanning,” marked; at junction of this great warpath along the Susquehanna, with one leading from this point to head waters of Towanda Creek near Canton; thence to head waters of Lycoming Creek, down that stream to West Branch of the Susquehanna near Williamsport. At Ulster (old Sheshequin) was a Moravian mission, removed at time of migration to Beaver in 1772; a steel bridge crosses the river here. Next is Milan village, near which was Indian Queen Esther’s Town, destroyed by Colonel Hartley in 1778.
Proceeding on General Sullivan’s road, one crosses the Chemung (Tioga) River on a modern steel bridge and enters Athens, formerly Tioga Point; here was Fort Sullivan, base of supplies for the army; destroyed by themselves in October, 1779, on their departure for Wyoming; marked by boulder with bronze tablet, inscription: “In Sullivan’s expedition, the march that destroyed savagery and opened the Keystone and Empire States to civilization, four brigades, furnished by the States of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and New Hampshire, with Proctor’s Artillery, and Farr’s Riflemen took part; at Tioga Point, long the southern door of the Indian Confederacy, 5000 troops encamped; here stood Fort Sullivan, with four blockhouses, from August 11 to October 3, 1779; tablet erected by Tioga Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.” Below the plate is embedded a ball from one of General Sullivan’s guns; the road separates here, one following the Susquehanna to Owego, the other following the Chemung to Elmira (Newtown), New York; near the latter road is the “Battlefield of Newtown,” where General Sullivan fought the Tories and Indians in 1779.
A soldiers’ monument is on the campus in front of the old Athens Academy, designed by McKim, Mead & White, New York; ground foundation twenty-five feet square, inclosed in granite curbing with polished globes at each corner; pedestal, eleven feet high, rising from the center, polished granite, on unpolished granite coping, surmounted by a bronze group, “The Protection of the Flag,” a barefoot drummer boy with a flag over his shoulder and a tall, fearless soldier, holding a musket which points to the ground, sculptor, George T. Brewster; inscription, in bronze letters, fitted to the face of the granite: “Pro patria et gloria. Erected to the memory of our soldiers who fought in defense of the flag”; presented by Joseph Whipple and Charlotte Snell Stickler. Spaulding Library and Museum, classic Renaissance with Ionic porch, open to the public, contains paintings, portraits, and relics. In 1688 a Spanish fort was near the present borough of Athens; population 4384.
Towanda, county seat, laid out in 1812; population 4269; courthouse native sandstone, classic Renaissance, built in 1897; in front is the soldiers’ monument, at base are bronze tablets inscribed with names of battles of Bradford County men in war for the Union;
DEFENSE OF THE FLAG
McKim, Mead & White Pedestal George T. Brewster, Sculptor
Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg; and the battle scene at Antietam; dedicated in 1901. Towanda Free Library, French Renaissance, brick, built, 1897, was given and endowed by Francis R. Welles of Paris, France; architects, Barney & Chapman, New York; contains a special set of art books, “L’Art.”
In Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, native sandstone, is memorial window to William Ulysses Mercur, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, 1882-87; makers, Cox Sons & Buckley, London. The Methodist Episcopal Church, also, has memorial windows. Historical Society of Bradford County, fireproof building open to the public; contains Indian and Civil War relics, curios, and portraits of pioneer men and women, a reproduction of a pioneer log house, and specimens of all native woods in the county. In Riverside Cemetery is the grave of David Wilmot, who made the famous proviso, engraved on his monument, against slavery. There are many borough and township high schools in Bradford County.
Schuylkill County
XLV
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY
FORMED March 1, 1811, named for the Schuylkill River; was purchased from the Six Nations in 1749. George Godfried Orwig, first settler, in 1747, lived at Sculp Hill; he was followed by other Germans. Orwigsburg, first county seat, in 1811, was founded in 1796, by Peter Orwig, son of George; old courthouse still standing, is used as a factory; extensive views from here of mountains and agricultural valleys. In chain of frontier forts, were Franklin, built, 1756, by order of Benjamin Franklin; Fort Henry, south of Pinegrove; and Fort Lebanon, later known as Fort William, the most important, its site near Auburn, is marked by boulder with bronze tablet, inscription, “On this site stood Fort Lebanon, built, 1775, by Colonel Jacob Morgan, for protection of early settlers against Indians, erected in 1913 by Mahantongo Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, Pottsville, Pa.” Indian warriors came down from the mountains and made savage forays on the peaceful farms, in which many people were massacred, and mills and houses were burned; the old oak tree is standing near, from which sentinels took observations; in this fort the first religious services in the county were held.
One mile from Fort Lebanon is the old Red Church, built in 1755, destroyed by Indians, 1756, rebuilt, 1776, celebrated its sesquicentennial in 1905. This county revels in picturesque scenery; excellent roads curve through valleys of surpassing richness and fertility, or wander along a ridge with glorious views on either side; in the north, the sky line of a mountain range is often broken by a weird coal breaker; in every direction there is beauty and interest. Laurel may be seen by the acre, and much rhododendron. Great cliffs of various colored conglomerate rock are found throughout the county.
This is the southern limit of the Anthracite Coal fields in east central Pennsylvania, the only ones of importance in the United States; divided into three well-known trade regions, Wyoming; Lehigh; and Schuylkill; comprising an area of 480 square miles, in the counties of Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Northumberland, Luzerne, Susquehanna, and Schuylkill. Discovered in Schuylkill County by Nicho Allen in 1790; while camping out overnight, he built a fire among some rocks, under shelter of the trees; during the night, being awakened by unusual heat he saw the rocks a mass of glowing fire, he having ignited the outcrop of a bed of coal. The birth of this great productive industry may be dated from 1820, when 365 tons were sent to Philadelphia from the head waters of the Lehigh River. 80,000,000 tons per annum are now produced; location of coal was shown in William Scull’s map of Pennsylvania published in 1770; three places marked.
In 1795 it was used successfully for smithing by a blacksmith named Whitestone, but not generally for this purpose until 1806. In 1812, Colonel George Shoemaker produced coal from a shaft on land he owned, now known as the Centreville Tract; loaded nine wagons and drove to Philadelphia, where he was accused of being an impostor, attempting to sell stone for coal; he sold two loads for cost of transportation, and gave the rest away to those who promised to try to use it; he induced Messrs. Mellon & Bishop to try it in their rolling mill in Delaware County, where it was found to be a complete success; iron was heated in much less time than usual, and the workmen said, “It passed through the rolls like lead.”
From 1830, rapid improvements were made in methods of mining and transporting coal. First breaker in this county was erected by Gideon Bast on Wolf Creek, near Minersville. The St. Clair shaft was sunk in 1845, by Alfred Lawton, to Primrose vein, 122 feet; in 1851, E. W. McGinness continued the depth of shaft to the Mammoth vein, 438 feet. At Wadesville a shaft was sunk 619½ feet. A shaft located by General Henry Pleasants is deepest coal shaft in the United States, 1584 feet. The collieries of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal Company are the most extensive. Property in Schuylkill and Columbia counties 18,333 acres, one third coal, devised by Stephen Girard to the City of Philadelphia in trust, comprises some of the most valuable tracts in the anthracite region; Girard was largely instrumental in building the Schuylkill Canal to Philadelphia, connecting with this was a railroad and a series of gravity planes between Girardville and Mount Carbon, head of the canal; the Girard Railroad, opened in 1834, was one of the greatest engineering feats of the time, attracting international comment; much of the masonry is still to be seen.
In 1690, William Penn called attention to the feasibility of passage by water between the Susquehanna River and Tulpehocken Creek, a branch of the Schuylkill; in 1762 David Rittenhouse and Dr. William Smith surveyed a route for a canal, to connect waters of the Susquehanna and Schuylkill, via Swatara and Tulpehocken Creeks; and actually traced a line between the Delaware and Ohio Rivers at Fort Pitt, thence to Erie. The Union Canal connecting the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Rivers was completed in 1826 by the Schuylkill Navigation Company; they did great work in their day; years of greatest prosperity were from 1835-41.
In 1800, Reese & Thomas located an iron furnace on the site of Pottsville. In 1807 Greenwood furnace and forge were erected by John Pott. In 1839, Pioneer furnace at Pottsville, under Burd Patterson, was blown in with anthracite coal, by Benjamin Perry, and ran for about three months, among the first to use successfully anthracite coal in the blast furnace in United States. Pottsville, county seat, 1395 feet above sea; population 21,876, laid out in 1816, has not one level street; flights of steps are frequently used to get to various heights; fine views from every point. A commission for city planning has lately been appointed.
Courthouse erected in 1892, architect, Mr. Taylor, stands on a hill in a terraced square, has portraits of judges; in the old courthouse, to the rear, now torn down, the Mollie Maguires were tried and convicted in 1876. Soldiers’ Monument erected in 1891 is in Garfield Square, on a pedestal are names of battles fought by Schuylkill County men in Civil War; the Washington Artillery and National Light Infantry of Pottsville, 246 men, were part of the 530 Pennsylvanians
HENRY CLAY IRON MONUMENT, POTTSVILLE
who first arrived at our national Capital for its defense in 1861; Schuylkill County sent 13,000 volunteers; there are also soldiers’ monuments at Port Carbon, St. Clair, and Mahanoy City. A statue of John Pott is in the playground of Center Street public school, formerly a cemetery.
Pennsylvania, the coal-producing state of the Union, has every reason to be grateful to Henry Clay for advocating a protective tariff on her principal product; Pottsville’s enthusiasm culminated in the Henry Clay Monument, completed in 1855, soon after his death, west of South Center Street, an iron Doric column, surmounted by an iron statue of Henry Clay, after the painting by P. F. Rothermel, “Senate of 1850”; first colossal iron casting of its kind made in the United States; from sidewalk to top of statue, 205 feet. Pottsville Cemetery contains grave of Joseph Elison, member of Greely Arctic expedition, who died at Port Haven, Greenland, in 1884, soon after being rescued by the late Rear Admiral Schley; a diary, kept until his hands were frozen stiff, will soon be published by the Pottsville Historical Society. Parks in Schuylkill County are, “Lakeside,” above Mahony City; “Marlin,” near Pottsville; “Manilla,” east of Tamaqua; “Woodland,” between Ashland and Girardville; “Washington,” between Ashland and Locust Dale; they are combinations of formal gardening with natural beauty; “Tumbling Run Dam,” near Pottsville, is beautiful in its setting. Shenandoah, population 24,726, contains a mixed mining population; twenty-six languages and dialects are spoken here.
Lehigh County
XLVI
LEHIGH COUNTY
FORMED March 6, 1812; named for Lehigh River, from an Indian name, Lechauwekink (where there are forks); Indian trails forked in various directions below Bethlehem. The Blue Mountains are north and the Lehigh Hills south, containing large deposits of slate and cement. Chief industries, agriculture and manufacturing.
Allentown, county seat, at junction of Jordan and Little Lehigh Creeks; population 73,502; was settled in 1751 by Chief Justice William Allen, a friend of the Penns; is entered from the south by, it is said, the largest concrete bridge in the world, erected by a trolley company, 2650 feet long and 120 feet high; built in 1913. The city has an abundant supply of pure water, pumped direct from the spring to the residences; daily flow, 12,000,000 gallons. Courthouse, colonial, with cupola, Fifth and Hamilton Streets. First Presbyterian Church, North Fifth Street, near Hamilton, Renaissance. Jail, North Fourth Street, near Linden, feudal architecture, with tower 100 feet high, brown sandstone. Architect G. A. Aschbach.
Allen Park, Fourth and Walnut Streets, contains “Trout Hall,” stone, built, 1770, by James Allen, son of the founder, which will be occupied by the Lehigh County Historical Society; West Park and River Park are also in Allentown; west of the city is Dorney’s Park, along Cedar Creek. In Center Square is the Soldiers’ Monument to the men of Lehigh County in the Civil War; on the pedestal are bronze bas-reliefs depicting scenes of war and reconciliation, and medallion busts of Generals Meade, McClellan, Hancock, and Hartranft. United States post office, at the corner of Sixth and Turner Streets, classic, built in 1906; brick and Indiana limestone; architect, George B. Page, Philadelphia. Several fine churches of brick or stone show Italian and Gothic architecture. The Zion Reformed, Gothic, stone, built, 1840, Hamilton Street between Sixth and Seventh, is notable for having sheltered the Liberty Bell and the Christ Church bells, during British occupation of Philadelphia, in 1777; marked by tablet, placed by the Liberty Bell Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. The Rhoads House, 107-109 North Seventh Street, built, 1762, by a Revolutionary patriot, is the oldest building in the city.
Muhlenberg College with preparatory school, is beautifully located at Twenty-sixth and Chew Streets, on campus of seventy-two acres; the buildings, brick and stone, were built from 1903 to 1915; administration building, English Renaissance, architects, Ruhl & Lange; contains portraits, including one of Dr. Muhlenberg, by Gilbert Stuart; the late Peter A. Gross, in 1914, provided by will for the founding of an art school in Muhlenberg College, and an art museum in Allentown. Allentown College for Women, Walnut Street between Thirtieth and Thirty-first Streets, classic; and the new high school, North Seventeenth Street, classic Ionic, are fine buildings. At Seventeenth and Chew Streets are the State Hospital,
ZION REFORMED CHURCH, ALLENTOWN
Guardian of the Liberty Bell and Christ Church Bells during the Revolution
Georgian; brick and Indiana limestone; and the Nurses’ Home, memorial to Judge Edward Harvey; said to be the best equipped for the purpose in the United States, architects, Ruhl & Lange.
Road from Rittersville to Bethlehem passes Central Park, overlooking Lehigh River, and the historic Geissinger farm, where Solomon Jennings settled in 1736; he was a participant in the Indian Walk of 1737. Bethlehem (see Northampton County). State road from Allentown to Slatington passes through Wernersville, near where Lynford Lardner built, in 1740, a hunting lodge, “Grouse Hall,” and where the Jordan Reformed Church was founded in 1752, present stone building erected, 1808. Through Guthsville, Guth homestead still standing, built, 1745, through Siegersville, on left is Colonel H. C. Trexler’s game preserve of 2000 acres, containing buffalo, elk, deer, and trout hatchery. To Schnecksville, former home of Professor Rudy, founder of the Rudy School, Paris, in 1865, an International Association of Professors; he was a Fellow of the French Academy. Here is Land Spring Park.
The next village, Neffs, has an ancient graveyard, burial place of many Revolutionary patriots. Then to Slatington, heart of the slate region. A chain bridge built over the Lehigh River in 1826 leads to Lehigh Gap. Another state road from Allentown goes through Catasauqua; here, in 1914, was celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of the successful uniting of the state’s two chief resources, the use of Anthracite Coal in the Iron Furnaces, by David Thomas from Wales. Coke has since replaced anthracite, but the furnaces and the general method are much as Thomas left them; these were the mother furnaces of the Bethlehem Steel Works, Cambria Iron Works, Thomas Iron Works at Hockendauqua, and the stupendous development of the iron trade in this country. A private art collection owned by D. G. Dery, Esq., comprises an important collection of paintings, statuary, bronzes, ivories, Chinese porcelains, and jades. Continue on state road through Mickley’s to Egypt. Union Church, Lutheran and Reformed, founded, 1734, in log church; present brick building erected, 1785. Near by is Deshler’s Fort, built, 1760, and the Troxell-Steckel House, stone, built, 1756. A mile north is tablet, placed by Lehigh County Historical Society, marking place where occurred the last Indian massacre in this county, of three families in 1763.
XLVII
LEBANON COUNTY
FORMED February 16, 1813; Scriptural name, from the cedar trees covering the range of mountains on northern boundary, “Cedars of Lebanon”; settled by Germans in the east, by the Scotch-Irish in the west. Leading industries, agriculture, iron, tobacco. Three solid hills of rich, magnetic iron ore have been worked for over 170 years, and still seem inexhaustible; they require no mining, simply to be quarried; down to the present these mines have produced more iron ore than any other single iron ore property in the United States. In 1737, Peter Grubb became sole owner of these ore hills; he built Hopewell forge on Hammer Creek, and the large blast furnace was named for Cornwall, his ancestral home in England. The property was inherited by his two sons, who were colonels in the Revolutionary War; cannon balls and stoves were cast here for the Continental Army. In 1798, Robert Coleman purchased five-sixths of these ore banks; they were near the old road between Harris Ferry and Philadelphia, known as the Berks and Dauphin Road. Later his grandsons, Robert and G. Dawson Coleman, built furnaces on the Union Canal, then the great means of transportation; by that time charcoal furnaces were going out.
The construction and operation of the Union Canal through this county, connecting the Schuylkill River at Reading with the Susquehanna at Middletown, was a
Lebanon County
THE OLDEST CANAL TUNNEL IN THE UNITED STATES
North Lebanon
momentous event, with its tunnel 767 feet long, first in the United States. Extract: “Lebanon, June 15, 1827. Last Monday evening, June 11th, the citizens of this town and vicinity had the privilege of seeing the first boat, the Alpha from Tulpehocken, come up the Union Canal and remain at North Lebanon for the night; the next morning it continued its journey westward and passed through the tunnel; this was the first boat to pass through a tract of ground upon which corn and potatoes were being grown.”
County seat, Lebanon, population 24,643, on the William Penn Highway; settled in 1750. Streets run north and south, east and west. Courthouse, at the corner of Eighth and Cumberland Streets, colonial, brick. United States post office, classic, with Doric columns. A historic inn, the St. Eitz, built in 1752, was occupied by George Washington. Hill Church, colonial, brick; in the yard is a monument to Rev. John Casper Stoever, first Lutheran minister in Lebanon County, in 1733. St. Luke’s Protestant Episcopal Church, Gothic, stone, built without a nail, has three memorial windows, “The Nativity,” by Lamb; others made in England; also fine collection of altar cloths, chasubles, and credence cloth made abroad, in filet, of fifteenth century design. Soldiers and sailors’ monument in Monument Park; tall, fluted column with Ionic capital. Lebanon Historical Society has collections of local interest. Annville is seat of Lebanon Valley College, founded by the United Brethren in 1865; a school of high grade under supervision of that church.
Mt. Gretna, a camp ground of 1000 or more acres, 1000 feet above sea level, was purchased by the state for mobilization of the state’s National Guard. It will accommodate 20,000 men, and has been used for this purpose since 1885. The War Department considers Mt. Gretna an ideal military camp, sanitary and well drained. Schaefferstown, one of the earliest and most historic places in this county, laid out in 1744, had the first waterworks system in the United States, in 1753. Franklin House built in 1750; in the cellar there is a remarkable series of carved arches; it served as a place of refuge from Indians. Fountain Hill Park is here. Myerstown is the seat of Albright College. Fredericksburg has the Lick Monument, erected, in 1881, by James Lick, in memory of his grandfather’s services at Valley Forge, and of John Lick, founder of Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, California.
XLVIII
UNION COUNTY
FORMED March 22, 1813, named for the Union; chiefly agricultural, is divided by spurs of the Alleghenies, known as White Deer, Nittany, Buffalo, Paddy’s, and Jack’s mountains, into three valleys; the center, Buffalo Valley, is one of the garden spots in Pennsylvania, formerly home of many Amish and Dunkards, good farmers and citizens.
Lewisburg, county seat, laid out in 1785; population 3204; named for Ludwig (Lewis) Doerr, who purchased the land from Richard Peters of Philadelphia. A rare specimen of conveyancing is deed, lot 51, in plan of Lewisburg, tracing title from the Creator, down through Adam and Eve, to one Flavel Roan, recorded at Sunbury, in deed book F, 1793. Finely located at mouth of Buffalo Creek, West Branch of the Susquehanna, on the great Indian path from Sunbury to Muncy, now main highway from Harrisburg to Williamsport, and on line of turnpikes leading from Erie through Waterford, Meadville, and Franklin to Susquehanna River. Seat of Bucknell University, incorporated in 1846, co-ed, with courses in arts, science, philosophy, and engineering; the Library and Museum have the Jeremiah Gernerd collection of Indian relics, open to the public; from the top of the astronomical observatory is a fine view. In Lewisburg Cemetery is the grave of Colonel John Kelly, distinguished in Indian warfare and the Revolution; he died in 1832; his
Union County
monument, with military emblems, was erected in 1835, sculptor, W. Hubbard; also the grave of Mary, widow of Captain John Brady, the great Indian fighter, who was massacred by Indians and buried near where he fell, in Lycoming County.
One mile west of Lewisburg, from the top of Smoketown Hill, is a fine view of Buffalo Valley across the Susquehanna to Muncy Hills and North Mountain. Historic places, site of Shikellimy’s old town, a wooded crest opposite Milton, four miles north of Lewisburg; he was chief of the Oneidas, and father of Logan the Mingo chief, place now called Oak Heights. Driesbach, five miles west of Lewisburg, German Reformed and Lutheran Church, first log building built, 1788, on site of present brick church; in burial ground is the grave and monument to Samuel Maclay, born, 1741, brother of William Maclay; inscription, “Samuel Maclay, United States Senator 1803-09, Surveyor, Farmer, Soldier, Legislator, Statesman. Erected by State of Pennsylvania, 1908.” Buffalo X Roads, Presbyterian Church, first built, 1775, present brick building about 1846.
Mifflinburg, the neatest town you ever saw, with uniform curbing and walks, population 1744, in heart of Buffalo Valley (named for Governor Mifflin); ten miles west of Lewisburg, laid out 1792, by Elias Youngman. New Berlin, laid out, 1792, by George Long, delightfully situated on north bank of Penn’s Creek; first county seat; at one time home of Union Seminary, Central Pennsylvania College.
Columbia County
XLIX
COLUMBIA COUNTY
FORMED March 22, 1813, name explains itself: is in Appalachian Mountain belt; surface quite broken, with wonderfully beautiful drives. The Catawissa Railroad, noted for its remarkable trestle bridges, first one at Mainville, runs through this county, crossing the Susquehanna River at Rupert. Arable land, mostly red shale and limestone, with deposits of iron ore at Bloomsburg, and the anthracite coal basin at Centralia. Chief industries, manufacturing; the carpet mill here is said to be the second largest in the United States. Earliest historical bands of Indians, in this county, were the Shawnees and Delawares, vassals to the Six Nations; Wyoming Path, their route of travel for hunting or war, left Muncy on the West Branch, ran up Glade Run, through a gap to Fishing Creek and on to Luzerne County, through Nescopec Gap, and up North Branch to Wyoming.
Bloomsburg, population 7819, laid out in 1802 by Ludwig Eyre, on a bluff on Fishing Creek, became county seat in 1846. In 1772, the Shawnee Indians had a village between the mouth of the creek and the town. James McClure located his farm near the same point in 1781; a fort was erected there, built by Major Moses VanCampen, now marked, from which he led scouting parties. In 1779, VanCampen, as quartermaster, accompanied General Sullivan’s expedition against Indian towns on the Genessee. There is much discussion here about city planning. The town lies due north and south, named streets; east and west numbered; Second Street being the main street, and also forms part of state highway leading from Harrisburg to Wilkes-Barre. Courthouse on Main Street, Renaissance; contains, it is said, “a very beautiful piece of tapestry.” Jail, stone, feudal architecture. Soldiers and Sailors’ Monument at the intersection of Main and Market Streets, erected in 1908.
The Methodist Church, Gothic, stone, has a Tiffany window, “Christ Blessing Little Children”; other churches that may be mentioned for architecture are St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal and First Presbyterian, both Gothic; St. Matthew’s, Evangelical Lutheran, Trinity Reformed, and St. Columba’s Roman Catholic, colonial. In 1869, this was made the educational center of northeast Pennsylvania, with the State Normal School, corner-stone laid by Governor Geary in 1868. Normal auditorium, colonial; and other extensive buildings. Catawissa, originally a Quaker settlement; scenery fine and picturesque; was laid out in 1787 by William Hughes from Berks County; has an old Friends’ meeting house. John Hanch was one of the first to build an iron furnace here on the Catawissa in 1816; earlier the Piscatawese or Gangawese (Kenhawas) had wigwams here. Fort Jenkins, near mouth of Briar Creek, on the Susquehanna, was attacked and burned by Indians, 1779-80; a house is now on the site of the fort. Berwick was settled by Evan Owen in 1783. Here in 1826 the steamboat Susquehanna blew up while ascending the Nescopec Falls. Also ground was broken here for the North Branch Canal.
L
PIKE COUNTY
FORMED March 26, 1814, named for General Zebulon Pike, killed in Canada, 1813. When the chronicler takes up his pen to write of the glories of Pike County in works of art, architecture, and monuments to the departed “Great,” in peace or war, he is somewhat appalled at the dearth of them; the landmarks are what God made, softened and beautified by time.
Milford, county seat, population 768, was laid out by John Biddis, 1793, in squares, after pattern of Philadelphia; it rests high above the Delaware River, overlooking a valley of myriad hues that have made the town notable for its quaint, umbrageous beauty and repose. Pioneer settlers were substantial people whose descendants still reside here. It is a popular resort for trout fishing in the spring, vacationists in the summer, and for deer and bird hunting in the fall. Courthouse, brick, French design, built in 1873, in center of town, facing the public square; two mortars from the Civil War are in the front lawn; opposite is the jail, built in 1815 as courthouse and jail, made of native boulders carefully selected for shades and tints; some are opalescent and show brilliantly in certain lights; a wooden trout, five foot long, pointing the way of the wind, is as old as the building.
Forestry building, probably handsomest village structure of its kind in the United States, erected in 1900 by the late James Wallace Pinchot, Normandy
Pike County
design; native stone; architects, Hunt & Hunt; in niches are busts of Washington and Franklin; mortised in alternately are bas-reliefs of F. A. Michaux, 1746-1802, author of “Flora Boreali Americana”; General Lafayette in 1777; and Bernard Palissy, 1506-89, potter, and writer on botany and forestry; sculptor, J. F. Weir. The Homestead Library, formerly home of Cyrille Pinchot, pure colonial, is in center of town; to the rear is Normandie Cottage, an architectural gem, replica of a peasant’s home cottage.
Gray Towers, the Pinchot estate, native stone, reproduction of a baronial castle in the Scottish Highlands, crowns the hill about 1000 feet above Milford; the old Scotch garden, with high stone wall, is of rare beauty; Yale School of Forestry is on the Pinchot estate, within echo of the Sawkill Falls. Monument to Tom Quick, the avenger of the Delaware, is on his birthplace; he killed ninety-nine Indians to avenge the death of his father, who was the first settler in Milford, in 1733. The principal denominations are represented in the churches. Old inns are, the Crissman House, built, 1810; the Sawkill House, 1823, southern colonial; the Dimmick House, 1828, Horace Greeley stopped here in 1840 and later; one of his fondest hopes was the coöperative, community of interest settlement, known as the “Sylvania Society,” which he, with others, organized in 1842 at Greeley; founded on the “Sacredness of toil,” but the young men, sons of affluent parents, who had been sent there by New Yorkers who bought stock, did not know how to work, nor did they wish to learn, and so they deserted.
The Bluff House on the banks of the Delaware, built, 1876, commands a fine view; lawn of Milford Inn is planted with rare shrubs and trees from all parts of the world; the Hermitage has three unique bronze sundials, sculptor, Louis F. Ragot; the one depicting Father Time with upraised reaper, is beautiful. The Hermit’s Glen, so a legend goes, is where an old French hermit of profound knowledge and benevolence found the water of life after a world-wide search; these waters now flow into the lake through two bronze masques; two cement giants hold up the dam that feeds the lake. Wells Glen lies along the Sawkill Brook; rhododendrons, wood flowers, and giant hemlocks make it beautiful. Childs Park, back of Dingman’s Ferry, given in perpetuity for use of the public by Mrs. G. W. Childs, is a rugged mountain stretch, woodland and meadow; cataracts and deep pools are in the trout stream that comes through it.
Bushkill, another haunt for nature lovers, and Shohola, all remarkable for beautiful falls, glens, caves. In writing of the Delaware Valley, Edmund Clarence Stedman says: “But here there is no swooning of the languid air, and no seeming always afternoon; it is a morning land with every cliff facing the rising sun; the mist and languor are in the grain fields far below; the hills themselves are of the richest, darkest green; the skies are blue and fiery; the air crisp, oxygenated, American; it is no place for lotus eating, but for drinking water of the fountain of youth, till one feels the zest and thrill of a new life that is not unrestful, yet as far as may be from the lethargy of mere repose.” Among the artists who have painted here are, William M. Chase, J. Alden Weir, Swayne Gifford, Carroll Beckwith, Henry Satterlee, Charles C. Curran, W. A. Rogers, and Benjamin Constant, France.
SAWKILL FALLS, MILFORD
LI
PERRY COUNTY
FORMED March 12, 1820; named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry; lying between the Tuscarora and the Blue Mountains, it abounds in beautiful scenery, low hills, rich valleys, and abundant streams. Chief industry, agriculture.
New Bloomfield, county seat, settled in 1820; streets run due east and west, north and south. Courthouse faces the center square; colonial with cupola, brick; built in 1868; fireproof annex, built, 1892. Soldiers’ Monument in the square, memorial to soldiers and sailors of Perry County. Among the good church buildings may be noted the Methodist; architect, M. A. Kast, Harrisburg. Shermansdale was in 1720 an Indian village. At Marysville a long stone arch bridge on the Pennsylvania Railroad line crosses over the Susquehanna River from Rockville, Dauphin County. The Marysville Civic Club has done much for the improvement of the town, and has beautified the town square and schoolyard.
Beyond Duncannon, where an immense traffic in coal and iron is carried on, one goes through the valley of the beautiful Juniata; the scenery along this river, as one crosses ridge after ridge of the Alleghenies is most picturesque, and the region traversed is full of historical reminiscences of the struggles of the early Scotch-Irish colonists with the Indians, and of the enterprise of David Brainard and other missionaries. At Millerstown one threads the Tuscarora Gap, where the railway, river, road, and canal squeeze their way through a narrow defile; this lay in the land of the Tuscarora Indians.
Perry County
JUNIATA COUNTY
LII
FORMED March 2, 1831; name, from the Juniata River, was given by the original people who lived in this region, and who were obliterated by the Iroquois; root of word means “a stone.” “Standing Stone” may be regarded as translation of “Onojutta-Haga” or the Juniata people. A mountainous country with many fertile valleys, situated between the Tuscarora and Blue Ridge Mountains, famous for its scenery, with the blue Juniata making a wide sweep. The old Pennsylvania canal followed its banks throughout its whole course. First settlers were mostly Scotch-Irish.
The old homestead of Francis Innis, one and a half stories, stone, east of McCoysville, is still in possession of descendants, now used as a spring house; his two children, captured by the Indians, were recovered among those delivered to Colonel Bouquet in 1764. Another old landmark, eight miles away, is the D. B. Esh house, on east Waterford Road, built by Mr. Graham in 1802; has an open stairway carved by hand. First road laid out in 1768, was from Sherman’s Valley to Kishecoquelas Valley. The historic road between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, through the famous Jack’s Narrows, over which stage coaches traveled, is now part of the William Penn Highway. Sites of Forts Bingham and Patterson will soon be marked by the General Thomas Mifflin Chapter,
Juniata County
Daughters of the American Revolution. Chief industries, agriculture and manufactories.
Mifflintown, county seat, population 1083, joined with its twin borough, Mifflin, on Pennsylvania Railroad main line, by bridge over the Juniata, was laid out in 1791 by John Harris, and named in honor of the governor of the state, General Mifflin. Courthouse in center of town on Main Street, built, 1874, brick, Georgian, with Ionic porch and cupola; in the yard is a monument, surmounted by a spread eagle, to Civil War soldiers from Juniata County, erected in 1870. The churches are of good architecture, and the graded high school is said to be the best between Harrisburg and Huntingdon.
Monroe County
LIII
MONROE COUNTY
FORMED April 1, 1836; named in honor of President James Monroe. The Pocono Mountains and long, fertile valleys cover the surface. Chief industries, farming, lumber, and manufacturing. In the southeast, where the Delaware River turns suddenly at Mount Kittatinny, towering 1600 feet above it, is the Delaware Water Gap, with views of great distance from the highest point; near are the Wind Gap and Smith’s Gap; William Penn’s famous Walking Land Purchase ended near here. The Milford Road, laid out about 1800, from Easton, leaves Delaware River at Water Gap village, thence four miles to Stroudsburg, then to Bushkill and beyond.
Stroudsburg, county seat; population 5278; first settled by Jacob Stroud, laid out at right angles, with a liberal plan of broad avenues, and houses set back thirty feet from the sidewalk, resembles a New England village. Courthouse, built, 1890, of rough stone, with high chimneys and belfry, contains portraits of judges; with jail and county house forms group facing the public square. Churches are of all principal denominations. The National Bank and other buildings are chiefly by Lacy & Son, architects. A fine stone and iron bridge, built by the state, over Broadhead Creek, connects the two boroughs of Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg; it replaced a wooden one, over one hundred years old, carried away by the freshet in 1862. In 1755, Indians crossed over the old bridge, burned Dansbury Mission and other buildings, leaving Stroudsburg without a house or resident. Ephraim Collver, who had a grist mill there, escaped with his family to the Moravians at Bethlehem.
About 1756, a line of forts were erected to protect the frontier settlements; sites are unmarked; Fort Norris at Greensweigo, Eldred Township, on road toward the Minisinks, eighty feet square, was completely stockaded. Fort Hyndshaw, at the mouth of Bushkill Creek, was built for the Revolutionary War. Fort Hamilton was built in 1757, some one hundred feet beyond the Lutheran Church in western part of the town. Fort Penn, center of town, was residence of Jacob Stroud, who died in 1806; here in 1778, he cared for thirty or more persons, fugitives from the Wyoming massacre, who crossed the Pocono plateau with great toil and distress, later proceeding to their former homes in Connecticut. At Locust Ridge in Wyoming Valley, a battle was fought called the Pennamite War, between Connecticut claimants and Pennsylvanians. General Sullivan and his troops, in 1779, laid out a road through this county, from Wind Gap to Stoddartsville, Wilkes-Barre, and on, continuing an expedition from Easton to Genessee Valley, against the Indians; it may still be traced almost the entire way. General Daniel Brodhead and most of his male relatives from Monroe County, were in the Revolutionary War.
Monroe County was a portion of the lands of the Minisinks; there were several Indian villages; the Delaware chief, Tedyuscung, born on the Pocono Mountains, resided here. It is said that the first white settlement in Pennsylvania was at Shawnee, by the Low Dutch or Hollanders, in “Meenesink,” many years before William Penn’s charter. When Nicholas Scull surveyed the land for the province, Samuel Depui was here; he purchased land in 1727 from the Minsi Indians, now site of Shawnee, an attractive village, five miles east of Stroudsburg; and the same property later from William Allen, 1733, for whom the oldest survey in the county was made.
Clarion County
LIV
CLARION COUNTY
FORMED March 11, 1839; named from Clarion River. The scenery is beautiful and diversified; at the highest point, over 1600 feet above sea level, a flagstaff has been erected; from here, on a clear day, may be seen the bridge at East Brady and four villages in the far distance. Hills and valleys are dotted here and there with oil and gas wells. There are beautiful views along the Clarion and Allegheny rivers and Redbank Creek; the scenery at East Brady is notable on account of the precipitous hills and winding streams. First white settler was Captain Samuel Brady of Revolutionary fame; his parents having been killed by Indians, he swore vengeance against them. He conducted an expedition in 1779 under General Brodhead, who had started with a large force from Fort Pitt. The Indians had become troublesome along the Allegheny River; Brady, in advance with scouts, discovered them on a flat rock at a place which is now East Brady; he took possession of a narrow pass, and when the Indians arrived, he opened fire, with the main army in the rear; escape was impossible, and nearly all were killed or taken prisoners.
In early days this region was called “The Iron City,” on account of its many furnaces; forty were in operation at one time, they are now cinders and banks of earth. The oil production in this county has been wonderful; 5000 oil wells were drilled in Clarion after 1870, and there is still much wealth in it; other industries are gas, coal, and agriculture. Two long tunnels are at Madison Furnace on the railroad between Clarion and Franklin; it is said there are but two longer ones in the world. The first bridge was built across Clarion River in 1834. The present one, which is of fine construction, is the third.
Clarion, population, 2,793, made county seat in 1840; is finely located on a hill 1500 feet above sea level, on the Bellefonte and Meadville Turnpike. Public buildings face the park; Courthouse, third reconstruction, completed in 1882, Georgian; architect, Mr. Betts; contains portraits of judges. Jail, Norman architecture, stone with brick front, was built in 1874. Connected with the State Normal School is a stone chapel containing busts of Abraham Lincoln and Henry W. Longfellow; also Navaree Hall, Spanish architecture, stone, brick, and concrete; architects, Allison & Allison, Pittsburgh.
Among the six churches are the Methodist and Presbyterian, stone, Roman architecture. The Woman’s Club has accomplished much for civic improvement, changing the cemetery from an unsightly spot to a place of beauty, planting the park with shrubbery and flower beds, and starting a free public library; in the park is a monument to Civil War soldiers. At Foxburg is a fine free, memorial library; colonial; native sandstone; architect, Arthur H. Brockie, Philadelphia. In the “Memorial Church of Our Father,” native sandstone; architect, James Sims, Philadelphia; is a painting by Edwin Howland Blashfield, “The Angel of the Resurrection.”
LV
CLINTON COUNTY
FORMED June 21, 1839; named for DeWitt Clinton. Has superb scenic beauty; lofty mountains, rolling hills, and highly productive valleys border the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. About one-fourth is State Forest Reserve of mountainous wilderness, where large and small game, trout, and other fish abound. Chief industries are in vast deposit of commercial clay, from which is made fire, building and paving brick, tile sewer pipe, and concrete blocks; and a large chemical plant, very important in war chemicals; agriculture, including tobacco growing; several creameries and a large milk condensery.
Lock Haven, with advance road signs, county seat; population 8559. Through the efforts of the city government, Board of Trade, and Women’s Civic Club, John Nolen, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was engaged to prepare a formal “City Plan” for the future growth and development of the city. This plan includes no radical changes or extravagant improvements, but conforms to the requirements of a small community. Embraces simple, but definite plans for the esthetic improvement of the fronts of the Susquehanna and Bald Eagle Rivers, between which Lock Haven is situated. The proper location and grouping of future public buildings, with a civic center at Monument Place, the intersection of the two main thoroughfares.
Clinton County
THE SUSQUEHANNA TRAIL
River front of Lock Haven
The installation of modern street lighting systems with underground wires. And the gradual improvements in store fronts and business places.
It calls for the establishment of drives, playgrounds, and parks; the acquiring of a woodland reservation, adjoining Highland Cemetery, at the edge of the town, for a public park; and purchase of an outlying mountain top for future recreation. Much of the plan has been carried out. A unique and beautiful parkway has been made by utilizing the abandoned basin of the old canal, which cut through the heart of Lock Haven; it had become a dump heap, but under the Nolen plan was filled, and has blossomed into one of the show places of the city, with flower beds, lawn, trees, and special landscape garden effect at each end. The river front has been made into a park, at entrance to the bridge, over the Susquehanna, a modern structure built by the state, which replaced a picturesque, covered bridge built, 1855, about 800 feet long; it includes the old toll house, pronounced by Mr. Nolen a valuable asset for the city. A smaller, quaint, old covered wood bridge, same period, about four miles from Lock Haven, spans Bald Eagle stream, on Bald Eagle Valley Road; near is the Clinton “Country Club” house, artistically built of cobblestones, architect, Lester Kintzing, New York.
The Courthouse, red brick and brownstone, surmounted by two dome-shaped towers, built in 1869, on site of an earlier one built, 1842, is on Water Street facing the river. On the river front is a stone marker, inscription, “Located in the stockade of Fort Reed, built, 1775, for defense against the Indians.” On the river road, leading to Williamsport, near McElhattan, is site of Fort Horn, stone marker, both placed by the Hugh White Chapter, D. A. R., to mark the last two, of the trail of stockade fortifications, built along the river in defense of the pioneer settlers. Where Lock Haven stands was original site of several Indian villages; burial places; and marked one of their great thoroughfares from the north to the coast. Granite monument to 1938 soldiers of Clinton County in the Civil War is in center of city.
St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church, stone, Gothic, with spire, built, 1852, on Main Street, has memorial windows by Tiffany and Lamb, New York, and chancel window from England. The Immaculate Conception, Roman Catholic Church, built, 1905, and rectory, 1915, Gothic, with two towers, Hummelstone brownstone, architect, J. A. Dempwolf, York, Pa., corner of Water and Third Streets, is on site of an earlier church, built in 1857, dedicated by Rev. John C. Gilligan, pioneer missionary. Central State Normal School, on ground given by Philip Price of Philadelphia, founded, 1871, includes twelve buildings, on thirty-two acres of land, commanding extended view; the main building was erected in 1890, architect, A. S. Wagner, Williamsport; art course includes the theory and practice of teaching art; industrial art and lectures on art history; reproductions of paintings, and European architecture, also replicas of sculpture, are placed about the buildings.
Ross Memorial Free Library, on Main Street, opened, 1910, further endowed by the late Wilson Kistler, sends traveling libraries to rural schools; contains painting by E. H. Shearer, “Ole Bull’s Castle in Potter Co.”; a noteworthy collection of North American Indian relics, 10,000 pieces, owned by Dr. T. B. Stewart, has been offered as a loan to this library, the collection is especially rich in local relics of domestic life and implements of war. “The Fallon House,” built in 1855, still in excellent condition, is said to have been built with funds of Queen Isabella II, of Spain, who invested largely of her private fortune in Pennsylvania, for a retreat in case of revolution. In Highland Cemetery is an exact reproduction of the St. Martin’s Cross, 16 feet 8 inches high, on the Island of Iona, off the coast of Scotland, erected in 1914, in memory of Samuel Richard Peale.
Wyoming County
LVI
WYOMING COUNTY
FORMED April 4, 1842; named from the Wyoming tribe of Indians who occupied the land when the white settlers came; name signifies extensive flats.
Lies in the northern opening of the wonderful Wyoming Valley, celebrated for its fertility and beauty; surface diversified by numerous spurs of the Appalachian system, which tower into lofty peaks; Mount Solecca, 1000 feet above the river; Mount Chodano, nearly opposite, about the same height; Mount Metchasaung, still higher, at La Grange. Several lakes are well stocked with fish; the largest, Lake Cary, three miles long, one mile wide, is surrounded by lofty pines and hemlocks. Glen Moneypenny, six miles below Tunkhannock, is a wildly picturesque location; many such are to be found among the mountains of this country.
This beautiful setting was the scene of Indian plottings that culminated in the Wyoming Massacre in 1778 (see Luzerne County). The following year General Sullivan’s army passed through this region, on march to subdue the Six Nations, and encamped on the shore of the Susquehanna River at Tunkhannock, where the tannery now stands. Forty years ago passenger pigeons were so plentiful that when they flew across a town in dense flocks, they obscured the sun; one colony occupied a strip of woodland in Wyoming County, seven miles long by three miles wide; Alexander Wilson wrote of counting ninety nests in a single tree. Chief industries, agriculture and manufacturing.
Tunkhannock, county seat; population 1736, first called Putnam, after General Israel Putnam of Revolutionary War; settled, 1790; was incorporated 1841. Lies due north and south, east and west. Courthouse on Courthouse Square has two marble tablets in the corridor, with names of Revolutionary War soldiers buried within the limits of Wyoming County, placed by Tunkhannock Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. The Soldiers’ Monument is on the same grounds. Among the churches of different denominations, the Methodist may be mentioned for Gothic architecture. At Factoryville is the Keystone Academy. Crossing Tunkhannock Creek, near Nicholson, is the Tunkhannock Viaduct, said to be the largest concrete bridge in the world, 2375 feet long, 240 feet high, above water level; height from bedrock 300 feet; carries the double tracks of the main line of the Lackawanna Railroad from mountain to mountain across the valley.
LVII
CARBON COUNTY
FORMED March 13, 1843; named for its coal deposits; coal was first discovered by Philip Ginter in 1791, on top of Sharp Mountain, now town of Summit Hill, nine miles southwest of Mauch Chunk. In 1818 the Lehigh Navigation Company and the Lehigh Coal Company were formed; under skilful management the almost insuperable obstacles in the way of transportation were overcome; boats 18 feet wide by 25 feet long, two or more hinged together, were floated by artificial freshets on the Lehigh; owing to the great fall in the river and consequent rapidity of its motion, dams were constructed near Mauch Chunk, with sluice gates, invented by Josiah White, a manager of the Navigation Company; they were the first on record used permanently; Lehigh coal is the hardest known anthracite in the world. Other mineral productions are iron, slate, and mineral paint. Wire rope was first invented in Mauch Chunk.
The first settlers were Moravian missionaries who, in 1746, purchased 200 acres on the north side of Mahoning Creek above its mouth, for converted Mohican Indians; each Indian family possessed their own lot of ground and Gnadenhütten became a town; the church stood in the valley, with the Indian houses forming a crescent on one side, on the other side was the missionary’s house and burial ground. The road to Wyoming lay through the settlement, being the
Carbon County
famous Warrior’s Path over Nescopec Mountain. In August all partook of their own first fruits in a love feast. Christian Ranch and Martin Mack were the first missionaries residing here; several parts of Scripture had been translated into the Mohican language; the Holy Communion was administered every month, the Indians calling that “The Great Day.” In 1749 Bishop (Baron) John de Watterville went to Gnadenhütten and laid the foundation of a large church; Indian congregation 500 persons. After Braddock’s defeat in 1755 the whole frontier was open to the savage foe; suddenly in 1757, the mission house on the Mahoning was attacked and burnt by French and Indians, and many inhabitants were murdered; a broad marble slab, placed there in 1788, near Lehighton, marks the grave of those massacred.
In 1756 Benjamin Franklin was authorized by the Provincial Government to erect forts on the Lehigh; one opposite Gnadenhütten was named Fort Allen, for William Allen, the Chief Justice. At Weissport, in the rear of the “Fort Allen House” may be seen the well dug under Franklin’s supervision; it was within the inclosure of the fort and supplied the soldiers with water. Weissport was settled by Colonel Jacob Weiss, Quartermaster General in the Revolutionary Army, on site of Fort Allen. Municipal parks are at Lehighton and Weissport, given by Jacob Weiss. Also at Lehighton is All Saints’ Chapel, early English Gothic.
In 1780 Andrew Montour, leader of an Indian party, captured the Gilbert family, twelve persons, and took them over Mauch Chunk and Broad Mountains into the Nescopec path, across Quakake Creek to Mahoning Mountain and over wild and rugged country to Canada; eventually they were all redeemed at Montreal, in 1782, and returned to Byberry. A view of great scenic beauty is from Prospect Rock, over the Nescopec Valley; Cloud Point, frequently covered by vapor, may be seen; near is Glen Thomas with a picturesque Amber Cascade, named for David Thomas, pioneer in the iron trade. Glen Onoko, two miles above Mauch Chunk, with its wild beauty, total ascent over 900 feet, forms the channel for the clear stream which flows over innumerable cascades to the Lehigh; the most noticeable are “Chameleon Falls,” fifty feet high, and “Onoko Falls,” ninety feet high, with overhanging rocks, covered with moss and ferns.
Mauch Chunk, county seat, population 3666; Indian name means Bear Mountain; first settled in 1815; has one principal street, following the tortuous course of Mauch Chunk Creek as it winds through a narrow gorge between three high, steep, and rocky mountains, averaging 850 feet above the town. The important buildings are directly on this street. Courthouse, Norman, brownstone, quarried at Rockport, Carbon County; built in 1894. Jail, where some of the Molly Maguires were executed. The Dimmick Memorial Library, built in 1890, brick. Churches here and in East Mauch Chunk are unusually handsome. St. Mark’s Protestant Episcopal, Gothic, stone, has memorial windows by J. & R. Lamb; the reredos is very beautiful. First Presbyterian, colonial, brick, has a memorial window by John LaFarge, and one by Tiffany. The Immaculate Conception, Roman
ST. MARK’S P. E. CHURCH, MAUCH CHUNK
This church is built on solid rock
Catholic, also has fine stained-glass windows. St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal is the oldest church in the town.
The Woman’s Clubs are seeking to improve conditions, sanitary and scenic; to widen the life of the town and in every way make it more in unison with its natural surroundings. In the limited space of the narrow valley, land is too precious to be used except for buildings, but the hills are so magnificent that they look to them for the necessary beauty; Flagstaff Park has natural effect. The first railroad in Carbon County and one of the oldest in the United States, is the famous Switchback, a gravity road, extending from Mauch Chunk to Summit Hill, opened in 1832, for bringing coal from the mines to the canal; used now only for pleasure; a double track is laid to the summit of Mount Pisgah, 2322 feet distant from the foot, at an angle of twenty degrees, with elevation about 900 feet above the river. Scene from the top is superb, with a succession of mountain ridges rising, range after range, with distant view of Lehigh Water Gap, and farther to Schooley’s Mountain in New Jersey. The principal attraction at Summit Hill is the burning mine, discovered to be on fire in 1859. General Craig of Revolutionary fame resided here.
Elk County
LVIII
ELK COUNTY
FORMED April 18, 1843; possesses everywhere great scenic beauty; a large herd of elk, last-known herd of the Black Forest, still existed, for which the county was named; the last elk was killed in 1857. The Black Forest formerly covered a vast area of northwest Pennsylvania, the deep green of the hemlock giving a mystery of blackness; here many varieties of large and small animals abounded. Climate and geological formation differ from surrounding counties in ratio of altitude; the growing season is usually two or three weeks later on account of late frosts; agriculture is now chief industry. Bituminous coal was discovered by “Blind Mike” on Priest’s Land at St. Mary’s in 1853, and is continuously worked. Natural gas, oil, high-grade clays, and shale are other mineral resources. Jimanandy Park, 3600 acres of almost virgin forest, stocked with deer; through which a trout run flows, is the property of heirs of Senator James K. P. Hall, and Honorable Andrew Kaul; permission to inspect the park may be obtained at office of J. R. P. Hall at St. Mary’s.
Ridgway, county seat, laid out in 1843 and named for Jacob Ridgway, Philadelphia, who was United States Consul at Antwerp; population 6037. Courthouse, center of town, built in 1872, brick, with clock tower, surmounted by a large statue of Justice; stands in a well-kept park with jail in the rear. Main Street, very wide, paved with brick, has many fine residences. Forest Lawn Cemetery contains the Hall and Hyde family mausoleums and a large community mausoleum built in 1912. St. Mary’s, ten miles from Ridgway, along the state road through beautiful scenery, is largest town in the county, population 6967; known as the Summit City, on a high plateau, altitude 1660 to 1950 feet. Has wide streets paved with brick, and is surrounded by a fertile farming country. The Charles A. Luke Memorial Park, four acres, acquired by gift in 1873 for the public, was laid out by George C. Miller, landscape gardener of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1914, through St. Mary’s Village Association.
St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, oldest and largest in the county, built in the fifties by the German Catholic colonists, from plans made by the late Ignatius Garner, native undressed sandstone, recently dressed with cement, spoiling its rusticity. In St. Mary’s Cemetery are buried Baron Van Essel and many war veterans. Large German Benedictine College and Convent conducted by the Sisters of St. Benedict, established, 1862, is one of the three schools in America which teach the Della Sade system of voice culture, introduced by the venerable Sister Marie who learned the system of the great Italian master. In the Convent is said to be an original Van Dyke painting. Sacred Heart Church, native sandstone, Gothic. The Shiloh Presbyterian Church is an ecclesiastical building of native sandstone. At St. Mary’s and Kersey Road is a small chapel, wood, old German design, built in 1870 by the late George Decker, in fulfillment of a vow; prayer service is held here at stated times.
Going east from Kersey, road leads through “The Barrens,” a sandy rocky stretch of land denuded of vegetation by forest fires, on the old Bellefonte Pike. Scenery is wonderful toward Mount Zion, where there is a typical country church and burial ground. At Mount Zion corner, the road takes three courses; left leads to Byrnedale with its fifty coke ovens, coal tipples, and washer plant. Wilcox, in northern part of county, lying in the famous gas belt of Elk County, has large glass factory. A few miles back is Tambine; near here President Grant, guest of General Thomas Kane, spent a day fishing for trout. From Wilcox, along the Big Level Road, is Rasselas; here Captain (later General) Kane pinned a buck’s tail on the hat of Hiram Woodruff, first member recruited for the Bucktail Regiment. On the old Milesburg and Clermont Pike, William C. Walsh carried the first mail through this section in 1828.
Blair County
LIX
BLAIR COUNTY
FORMED February 26, 1846; named for Honorable John Blair, native of this county, and public-spirited citizen; in 1820, he laid out, and was President of the Huntingdon, Cambria and Indiana Turnpike, first in this section. Blair County lies in the beautiful Juniata Valley, settled by Scotch-Irish, English, and Germans; much of the soil is very fertile. Chief industries, agriculture, coal mining, and manufacturing. It is the center of a network of roads, mostly built as turnpikes from 1830-50; now state roads.
Tyrone, altitude 692 feet above sea level, population 9084; outlet for important bituminous coal products; lies in a basin formed by the base line of old Tussey, a famous mountain, and the bold ridge known as Bald Eagle. The home of Captain John Logan, eldest son of Shikellamy, was at mouth of Bald Eagle Creek; second son, James Logan, the Mingo chief, named for Secretary Logan of Germantown, went west to the Ohio; his son (Tod-kahdohs) married a daughter of Chief Cornplanter. About three miles east from Tyrone is the Sinking Valley, named from the Sinking Creek, an underground watercourse; near is Birmingham, with a pleasure ground, where there are one hundred springs and a large cave; a school for girls is here.
Altoona, population 60,331; altitude 1171 feet above sea level; founded by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1850, consists almost entirely of their shops and workmen’s houses. St. Luke’s Protestant Episcopal Church, native stone, first built in 1858; second building in 1881, using the same stone; Gothic, F. C. Withers, New York, architect; has an English window, also one by Tiffany, “The Resurrection,” exhibited in Paris in 1900; memorial to Almet E. Read, Esq.; brick rectory and school, gift of General John Watts De Peyster, as memorial to his daughter, first school for advanced education in Altoona.
In the Logan House, built, 1854, by the Pennsylvania Railroad, was held the conference of the loyal war governors in 1862, namely, A. G. Curtin, Pennsylvania; John A. Andrew, Massachusetts; Richard Yates, Illinois; Israel Washburn, Jr., Maine; Edward Solomon, Wisconsin; Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa; O. P. Morton (by D. G. Ross, his representative), Indiana; William Sprague, Rhode Island; F. H. Pierpont, Virginia; David Tod, Ohio; N. S. Berry, New Hampshire; Austin Blair, Michigan; to devise ways and means for coöperating with President Lincoln in suppressing the Rebellion. King Edward VII, as Prince of Wales, stopped here. On the William Penn Highway, formerly an old portage road, is site of an early historic hotel, “Fountain Inn,” mentioned by Dickens in “American Notes”; here William Henry Harrison stopped overnight on his way to Washington in 1841, to be inaugurated President of the United States; Henry Clay and Jenny Lind also stopped here.
Near junction of Sugar Run with Burgoon’s Run, three miles south of Altoona, in 1781, Indians killed a number of militiamen from Fetter’s Fort, built in 1775, by firing on them from ambush. A monument dedicated in 1909, marks the place where the wife of Matthew Dean and three of their children were killed by Indians in 1788, while he and the other children were working in the fields. In Blair County are also sites of Fort Roberdeau, built, 1778, and Fort Lowry, 1779, unmarked. Magnificent views from Nopsononock, at summit of the Alleghenies, Prospect Hill, and Kittanning Point, where the Pennsylvania Railroad is carried around the famous Horseshoe Curve. A little farther, the Pennsylvania Railroad passes through a tunnel two-thirds of a mile long, 2160 feet above sea level.
Lakemont Park is a noted place of scenic beauty near Hollidaysburg, population 4071, county seat, laid out in 1820; named for James Adam Holliday, who lived here prior to the Revolution. Courthouse, Romanesque; built 1876-77; remodeled and enlarged in 1906; on grounds are jail, feudal style, architect, John Haviland, and a Soldiers’ Monument. Highland Hall, stone, colonial doorway, with beautiful grounds, is now Miss Cowles’ school for girls. Entrance to old Presbyterian Cemetery is a Norman gate, designed by Price J. McLanahan, Philadelphia, hewn timbers, held in place by bolts of wood, supporting a red tiled roof. Main street is part of the old turnpike between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, shaded by beautiful old trees; here in days of the canal, in 1834, boats met the Portage Railroad at foot of the Alleghenies; freight and passengers were carried over the mountain by inclined planes and stationary engines; by this means travel from eastern Pennsylvania was continued through the Ohio River to the Mississippi. Charles Dickens took the trip over the mountain in 1842; the Allegheny Portage Railroad in boldness of design and difficulty of execution compared well with the passes of the Simplon and Mont Cenis. “Ant Hill” woods, almost within town limits, were said to be the only hills of the kind in this country; they were written up in the Century magazine by Dr. McCook; a hill was taken to the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; they are now level with the ground, through vibration of the trolley. Less than a mile from town are “Chimney Rocks,” famous council chamber of the Indians; with view of unsurpassed beauty of the Juniata Valley, old Portage Road, and Allegheny Mountains. On western slope, much of the Portage Road is used for the highway; the Monumental Arch is still standing.
LX
SULLIVAN COUNTY
FORMED March 15, 1847, named for General John Sullivan; is noted for picturesque scenery, mountains, valleys, lakes, streams and waterfalls, forests, and distant views. Either the scenic Williamsport and North Branch Railroad or the state highway, that parallel each other and enter the county near Muncy Valley, lead to beautiful Eaglesmere, 1900 feet above sea; on Lewis Lake, one and a half miles long, one-half mile wide; depth never definitely determined, fed by subterranean waters. About the shore, tree bound, with luxuriant growth of rhododendron and laurel, and rock faced to deep water, there are lovely nooks, and a bathing beach of white sand at the northern end. Passing from Eaglesmere through “Celestia,” where the lands were deeded in 1864, by Peter E. Armstrong and wife, to “Almighty God”—the deed may be seen at the county courthouse—one comes to Laporte, population 175; highest and smallest county seat in Pennsylvania, 2000 feet above sea level, with its natural beauties, including “Lake Mokoma,” is also an attractive summer resort. It was laid out in 1850, by Michael Meylert, who owned the land and built the first courthouse; present building, facing the park, is Romanesque; brick; beautiful Lombardy poplar trees are in the yard. Within the last twelve years advanced civilization has penetrated into Sullivan County in good state highways, rural mail
Sullivan County
routes, telephones, and several borough and township high schools. The streets of LaPorte are wide and well kept, and the park is in care of the Ladies’ Village Improvement Society.
At the top of the mountain, on the road toward Sonestown, is “Fiester’s View,” where the deep valley of Muncy Creek, walled on the east by the towering North Mountain, 3000 feet above tide, near Nordmont, is beautiful beyond description. At the junction of the Big and Little Loyalsock Creeks is the pretty little town of Forksville. Dr. Priestly purchased a large tract of land about here, laid out roads, and made many improvements. Four miles distant, on the state highway toward Hillsgrove, on Kings Creek, is Lincoln Falls, a waterfall about 30 feet in height at the head of a gorge with perpendicular walls of rock, varying from 50 to 80 feet in height. A few deer, quite a number of bear, foxes, rabbits, and squirrels are in this county; a state game preserve is in the southeast near Jamison City. There are some good trout streams, and the lakes are well stocked with fish. The most valuable industry is coal from the Bernice coal fields in the east. The production of hemlock tanned sole leather is important. Farm products and dairying are general.
Forest County
LXI
FOREST COUNTY
FORMED April 11, 1848; named for its great variety of timber; hemlock and pine, east; dense forests of deciduous trees west along the Allegheny River. Game large and small abounds; streams are full of brook trout. Atmosphere is fragrant with health-giving ozone, strengthening the weak and restoring those affected with lung trouble. Chief industry is lumbering; in western part agriculture, and the growing of fine apples.
David Zeisberger, first white man in Forest County, came in 1767, Moravian missionary to the Monseys, a wild and warlike tribe; he stayed two years in their three villages, Goshgoshunk (Holeman’s Flats), Sa-quelin-get, Place of Council (Tionesta) and La-hun-ichannock, Meeting of the Waters (East Hickory), and migrated with them to Fort Pitt. After Monseys, came the Senecas under Cornplanter, in 1770. First settler Cyrus Blood, surveyor, who cleared land for Marienville, first county seat, and improved it. “The Big Level,” name of old state road, 1728 feet above sea, follows northeast from Marienville to Mount Jewett, McKean County, roadbed compact and solid, 100 feet wide, was first made in Cyrus Blood’s time. On this road is Beaver Meadows, formerly a dam built by beavers, which backed water over an area one and one-quarter miles long by one-eighth mile wide; dam four and one-half feet high.
Along the Guitonville road toward Marienville, on a high plateau with two miles of straight, natural, firm roadbed, is Job’s Pinnacle, from which is a fine distant view of Tionesta Valley; a mile farther, Pisgah, also a pinnacle, is on Salmon Creek Hill; the whole hill is composed of magnetic iron ore, on a sandstone foundation, above shale and slate stratification; in surveying, the magnetic attraction is so great the needle is paralyzed; it is a mass of rocks; another magnetic iron ore hill is Bald Bluff, where lightning strikes freely. Stony Point, back of Salmon Creek Hill, near Newtown Mills, is the highest land; scenery about here is so beautiful at the mouth of Salmon Creek, that Erion Williams, the early surveyor, called it Eden revived. Beautiful scenery is along the State road parallel with the Sheffield & Tionesta Railroad, crossing a large iron bridge over Tionesta Creek at Nebraska, two miles farther, over another iron bridge, and three miles to Ross Run. This land produces oil and gas in good quantities.
At Kellettville, on the Tionesta, pieces of ancient pottery have been exhumed, showing that this was the home of a race older than the Indians, who had not made pottery in this section; three miles above Kellettville is a long sloping rock in the bed of Tionesta Creek, “Panther Rock,” where Ebenezer Kingsley, a pioneer hunter, shot many cougars; state paid twenty dollars bounty for a panther, twelve dollars for a wolf. Picturesque falls are on Blue Jay Creek; near its mouth is Rocky City, on Tionesta Creek, a vast aggregation of rocks like tall towers, with grand scenery, nearly opposite is a prehistoric square hole forty feet deep, no record of its formation.
Tionesta, population 642, county seat, incorporated, 1852. Principal buildings, Courthouse on high ground in public square of two acres, brick, built 1870, architect, Keene Vaughn, contains proof copy of “Zeisberger preaching to the Indians in Forest County in 1677,” engraved by John Sartain, with a volume of Zeisberger’s Life and Notes, a gift from the Pennsylvania Historical Society, Philadelphia; and a receipt signed by David Zeisberger, framed in wood of the wild cherry tree under which, legend says, he originally preached; also portraits of prominent men of Forest County. Jail, brick and stone, in courthouse ground, built by Van Dorn Prison Company, Cleveland, Ohio, in 1895. The Forest County National Bank, native stone, Romanesque, built, 1899, architect, C.M. Robinson, Altoona. Presbyterian Church, brick, 1910, on site of old wooden church, built, 1851; and Methodist Church, brownstone, built, 1909; both contain memorial windows.
Lawrence County
LXII
LAWRENCE COUNTY
FORMED March 20, 1849; named for Perry’s flagship, in the Battle of Lake Erie, which was named in honor of Captain James Lawrence, United States Navy. Lawrence was mortally wounded in the War of 1812, on the frigate Chesapeake, against the British ship Shannon; as he was carried below he said: “Don’t give up the ship.” Chiefly settled by Scotch-Irish. The old canal to Lake Erie, built in 1833, went through center of the county, and did much to develop the resources—bituminous coal, iron ore, and limestone. Chief industries, manufactories and agriculture. Many beautiful drives are all through the county in every direction.
The Moravian missionaries, David Zeisberger and Gottlob Senseman, were the first white men who dwelt here, long before the county was formed; they migrated with the Indians from Bradford County, through Forest County, and were the greatest missionary power to them. They were visited by Glikkikin, a renowned warrior of great eloquence, who with his escort, purposely tried to refute the doctrines of Christianity; they were received by Anthony, a native convert, who treated them courteously and made such an impressive speech on Christian doctrine that he astonished the visitors; Zeisberger, coming in then, confirmed his words, and Glikkikin, instead of delivering his speech, replied: “I have nothing to say. I believe your words.”
On return to his town, he advised the savages to go hear the Gospel; he made them another visit, informed them that he had determined to embrace Christianity, and invited them, in the name of his chief, Packauke, to settle on land on Beaver River, near his town Kaskaskünk, now New Castle; this land was to be for the exclusive use of the mission. The offer was accepted, and on April 17, 1770, they left Oil Creek in fifteen canoes; in three days they reached Fort Pitt, proceeded down the Ohio to Beaver River, and ascended that river to the locality given, now Moravia, passing an Indian village, near present Newport, of women, all single and pledged never to marry.
When encamped, they sent an embassy, Zeisberger, and Abraham, a native, to Packauke, who were received by the chief at his own house; he gave them welcome and pledged protection; they built houses, cleared land, planted, and prepared for winter. The Indians began to visit them, the Monseys from Goshgoshünk were the first to cast their lot with the Christian Indians; Glikkikin soon came and became a Christian force. Finally the Monseys adopted Zeisberger into their tribe; the ceremony took place at Kaskaskünk; they invested him with all the rights and privileges of a Monsey; this proved a complete triumph and was the source of much good influence among Indians. White settlers began to come after Wayne’s Treaty of Greenville, in 1795.
New Castle, county seat, incorporated as a city in 1869, population 44,938, was laid out, at the junction of the Shenango, Neshannock, and Mahoning Rivers, where they form the Beaver River, in 1798, by John C. Stewart from New Castle, Delaware. It has natural gas, fine churches, schools, public buildings, bridges, and many beautiful residences, including that of Ex-Lieutenant Governor William M. Brown, on the North Hill. Courthouse, colonial, built in 1852, in spacious grounds, on a hill in east part of the city. The first Methodist Episcopal Church has a memorial window to Ira D. Sankey, the singing evangelist, who was born and lived here; subject, “Ninety and Nine”; maker, Sellars, New York; also Hofmann’s “Christ” in stained glass. High school, brick, of best school construction, well lighted; has reproductions on the walls of fine works of art. The Oak Park Cemetery has some beautiful memorials.
This is one of the manufacturing communities of western Pennsylvania, which form the greatest industrial district in the world; within a radius of sixty miles of New Castle, the annual tonnage is over 200,000,000, while the combined annual tonnage in and out of Liverpool, London, Hamburg, Suez Canal, and New York is 116,000,000. The American Sheet and Tin Plate Mill is said to be the largest in the world; they constructed a miniature playground for the only exhibit sent from New Castle to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915; it showed the kind of humanitarian work done by the company, and was representative of this city, where the playground has done a vast amount of good among the foreign population employed in the immense furnaces; engineering works; and the great cement plants making 5000 barrels of Portland cement daily. The United States Steel Corporation, Carnegie Steel Company, maintains children’s playgrounds, with a moving picture theatre, average attendance 1800 children daily; The “Rosena” blast furnace yard is kept like a park in grass, flower beds, and neatness.
Cascade Park has great natural beauty. A part of the beautiful Slippery Rock is in the southeast of this county. At Mount Jackson is Battery B Monument in honor of the Round Head Regiment. New Wilmington, population 8861, has Westminster College, under United Presbyterian administration; near here was the McKinley blast furnace, owned and operated by President McKinley’s father. His son worked here as a boy.
LXIII
FULTON COUNTY
FORMED April 19, 1850, named for Robert Fulton. The Tuscarora Mountains rise like a huge barrier on the eastern boundary, with numerous other ridges and peaks. Streams that flow into the Potomac River are largely fed by splendid limestone springs. From the Susquehanna to the Ohio River the scenery cannot be surpassed for picturesque beauty; far sweeping valleys, rugged mountains, grand forests, form a constantly changing panorama. It is both beautiful and historic. The Chambersburg and Pittsburgh Turnpike, built in 1814-15, now the Lincoln Highway, was first an old Indian trail from Harrisburg, through Fort Louden, Clinton County, and westward to Bedford, crossing the center of the county.
In the days following Braddock’s defeat in 1755, this region became the arena in which the red warrior of the forests and the white frontiersman fought to the death. Not a valley, creek, nor mountain range, site of modern city or town, but what was the scene of thrilling events, some of which influence the world for all time. Early settlers were Scotch-Irish, on the Aughwick, and in the great cove. Chief industries, iron ore, bituminous coal, and agriculture. Dickey’s Mountain, in the southeast, is rich in hematite and fossil ores.
McConnellsburg, county seat; population 689; land granted to William and Daniel McConnell by
Fulton County
warrant in 1762, is in the heart of the great cove; it was laid out in 1786, and in 1830 was one of the most important stopping places on the old turnpike. Here, from 1827-47 were the Hanover Iron Works, two furnaces, and two forges, that used hematite ore, mined from Lowry’s Knob, one mile distant. It is said that no territory of equal extent in this state is so rich in iron ore as is Fulton County. Fort Littleton in the north was one of a chain of government forts from the east to Fort Pitt. Burnt Cabins, on the old state road, was named because of the burning of the cabins of early settlers near here by the provincial authorities. It is said that Fulton County contributed more men to the Civil War, in proportion, than any other county in Pennsylvania.
Montour County
LXIV
MONTOUR COUNTY
FORMED May 3, 1850; named for Catharine Montour; surface hilly; traversed by several barren ridges. Muncy Hills lie along the northwest border, while down the river for miles stretches the Montour Ridge, furnishing quantities of best iron ore; there is also finest limestone; and much fertile land, drained by the Chillisquaque and Mahoning creeks. Chief industries are iron and steel production, and manufactories. Here, it is said, the first “T” rail was made, in 1844, and the first cannon in the United States, made of anthracite iron, was cast at the foundry in 1842.
Danville, county seat; population 6952; was settled in 1790; beautifully located, it nestles between Bald Top and Blue Hill. Mahoning Creek, named after a tribe of Indians who peopled this part of the country, flows through the town, which is built on part of the tract of land surveyed on warrant of John Penn to John Lukens, Surveyor General of the United States, dated, January 31, 1769. A bridge built by the state in 1904 is one-quarter mile long and connects Montour with Northumberland County; at its entrance is River Front Park, laid out in 1912, with concrete walks, flower beds, and fountain. Market Street Park, center of town, has an electrically lighted fountain. Memorial Park, a beautiful knoll, was formerly the burial ground of the Presbyterian Church; in 1908 it was laid out as a park with flower beds, and is kept up by the council and public-spirited citizens; the Soldiers’ Monument is here, with two cannon of the Civil War near.
Courthouse, Georgian, built in 1871. Jail built, 1892, architect, J. H. Brugler, has modern equipment, and for months at a time is empty. Among the fifteen churches, the most notable in architecture is Christ Memorial, Protestant Episcopal, fourteenth century, English Gothic; massive architecture, native limestone of varied tints, with Ohio stone for the traceried windows. The Thomas Beaver Free Library. Young Men’s Christian Association with gymnasium and swimming pool; George F. Geisinger Memorial Hospital; and State Hospital for the Insane, constructed by S. S. Schultz, M.D., corner-stone laid by Governor Geary in 1869, are all important buildings, among the best equipped and most modern in the state. Washingtonville is site of Fort Bossley, on the Chillisquaque Creek.
LXV
SNYDER COUNTY
FORMED March 2, 1855, named for Hon. Simon Snyder, Governor of Pennsylvania, 1808-17; three terms; noted as the first governor to urge legislation for free public schools; he was the great war governor of 1812; served in the Assembly from 1789-1808, and was speaker of the House from 1802-08; he lived at Selinsgrove. From end of Northumberland Bridge, built by Theodore Burr in 1814, on West Branch of the Susquehanna; the road leading south to Selinsgrove passes Blue Hill, noted for beautiful scenery. On top was formerly Hotel Shikellimy, burned in 1895; on one of the rocks overhanging is a natural profile named for Shikellimy, who sauntered about here. Farther on is a single arch stone bridge; for half a mile, beginning at this bridge, is a state road built by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Governor Pennypacker handled the first shovel of dirt in 1904; it was laid out first by James F. Linn in 1829, has since been extended.
Selinsgrove, first settlers, in 1755, were all killed by Indians, laid out by and named for Anthony Selin in 1827, population 1937; Governor Snyder mansion, built by himself in 1816, is near center of town, colonial, massive stone walls, with arched door ten feet high and large side porch, in well kept grounds. Due west from Selinsgrove, towards Middleburg, is Susquehanna University, formerly Missionary Institute;
Snyder County
collegiate and theological courses, six large and several small buildings; main building, Selinsgrove Hall, was built in 1859, Gustavus Adolphus Hall in 1895, contains collection of forty-two pictures of Gustavus Adolphus, also brass memorial tablet to the men appointed in 1856, by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Maryland, to organize the Missionary Institute; the buildings contain portraits of Governor Simon Snyder, members of the faculty, and other Lutheran clergymen; on the campus is a granite Celtic cross, marking grave of the founder, Benjamin Kurtz, D.D., LL.D.; in the old Lutheran Cemetery is grave of Governor Snyder, Quincy granite monument, surmounted with his bust, life size, erected by the state in 1885.
Two miles west is Salem; Row’s Church, log, built, 1780, modernized in 1897. In Kreamer is the old brick hotel used for special sessions of court before 1855, for cases in immediate neighborhood; a short distance in the field stands the old block house, erected before 1781, where white settlers gathered in defense against Indians. One mile farther west, in 1781, Indians killed five members of the Stock family. Ten miles west from Selinsgrove is Middleburg, county seat; 498 feet above sea level; population 984; laid out in 1800. In Glendale Cemetery is grave of Hon. George Kreamer, nephew of Governor Snyder, and member of the Legislature, 1812-13; member of Congress, 1823-27; also grave of Captain Frederick Evans, member of State Legislature, 1810-11, a defender of Fort McHenry, Baltimore, where, in 1814, the “Star-Spangled Banner” was written by Francis Scott Key.
On the banks of Stump’s Run is shaft monument to soldiers and sailors of this country who fought in the different wars; erected in 1904, by county commissioners; Soldiers’ Memorial Building, open to the public, is near the Lutheran Church; it was dedicated 1908; interior lined with marble, names of all soldiers and sailors of Snyder County are preserved within its walls, John F. Stetler, architect. Wooden bridge across Middle Creek, in good repair, is said to have been built in 1808 by John Aurand. Two miles west of town are the Hassinger Lutheran Churches, General Council east, present building erected in 1871, third on original site, first building in 1785; a split occurred, and the General Synod members built, in 1782, a quarter mile west; present church, in 1915.
Almost due south is Paxtonville, 510 feet above sea level; has wooden bridge over Middle Creek, built in 1851, John Bilger, builder; and ruins of Beaver blast furnace, once busiest industry in Middle Creek Valley, erected by Hon. Ner Middleswarth, the Kern Brothers and John C. Wilson, 1848-56; it was operated until 1866, power secured from a 200-foot head of water, running over two overshot wheels, one over the other. Westward is farm of Ner Feese on which gold and silver were discovered. Beavertown; population 525; 651 feet; originally Swifttown, named for John Swift, who had the land patented in 1760; was residence of Hon. Ner Middleswarth from 1792; he was reëlected thirteen times member of Legislature, twice speaker of the House—in 1828 and 1836; member of Congress, 1853-55; his last public service was that of associate judge. Beaver Springs, elevation 591 feet, laid out in 1806, early chief industry, ore mines. Scenic beauty from Shade Mountain, a long ridge, summit near Beaver Springs, 1672 feet above sea level. McClure, six miles west, is where folding houses are manufactured; the largest ever made was produced here, and shipped to South America.
Cameron County
LXVI
CAMERON COUNTY
FORMED March 29, 1860; named in honor of Hon. Simon Cameron, state senator at that time. Situated among the spurs of the Alleghenies, altitude varies from 794 feet to 2100 feet above sea level. The Sinnemahoning Creek and its tributaries drain three quarters of the county into the Susquehanna; along these waters, roads were cut and towns built for the extensive early lumbering and tanning operations; primeval forests of hemlock, oak, cherry, elm, and some of the finest white pine in the state. Beds of coal and fire clay still await development. Salt spring and a mineral spring of rare medicinal value are near Sizerville. The county is now largely given up to the manufacture of high explosives, nitro-gelatine, smokeless powder, gun cotton, picric acid; in 1915 there was a merger of four powder companies who created a plant of vast proportions, over one hundred buildings, extending from the edge of Emporium, for over a mile, along the banks of Driftwood Creek.
Emporium, county seat; population 3036; incorporated 1861; altitude 1031 feet above sea level; first settled in 1811, as Shippen, name changed through deference to an old tradition; in 1785, an agent of the Holland Land Company, owning large territories in Pennsylvania and New York, removed the bark from a tree where the town now stands, and carved the word, “Emporium.” A typical mountain town, the streets follow the winding way of Driftwood Stream, or climb the mountain side where magnificent views of scenic grandeur await the beholder. Best architecture, the Episcopal Church, brown stone, English chapel design, Cram & Ferguson, of Boston, architects, built in 1901; other denominations have modern brick buildings. The large brick courthouse, built, 1890, is in a park on the hillside, overlooking the town; in the grounds is monument to soldiers of the Civil War.
Cameron, in 1889, one hundred coke ovens, “beehive” design, were built here to coke the coal in the near-by hills, for the blast furnace at Emporium; now abandoned, and today mountain wild flowers blossom along the row of silent hearths. Sterling Run; in this quaint village belongs the honor of the first church in the county, Presbyterian, “The Pine Street Church,” erected in 1826, so-called in consequence of the old Pine Street Church, Philadelphia, contributing funds to pay the workmen and buy the windows; the lumber and much of the construction being donated by the pioneers; built of hewn pine logs, chinked with plaster of moss and mud, and fastened with hand-wrought nails, this little chapel endures, while those who shaped it sleep in the little churchyard at its threshold.
Driftwood, near the “Crescent,” a half moon shaped mountain forming sides of the valley for nearly three points of the compass; claims the first settlement by white man within the county, in 1804; in the center of the village, facing the Sinnemahoning Creek, is the “Bucktail” Monument, in memory of Cameron’s sons who fought for the Union, erected by the state in 1908, inscription, “From this town, on April 27, 1861, the Cameron, Elk and McKean County Rifles, under leadership of Thomas L. Kane, afterwards Commanding Officer of the Regiment, later a Major-General, embarked on four rafts for Harrisburg, where they were mustered into the service of the State, and formed the nucleus, about which the Bucktail Regiment of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps was organized; which during its time of service, was almost continuously attached to the army of the Potomac.”
Sinnemahoning (Stony-lick), site of an Indian village called “The Lodge,” the battle ground of Peter Grove, famous Indian fighter, a picturesquely beautiful spot. Here were born the beautiful Clafflin sisters, Lady Cook (Tennesee Clafflin), and Mrs. Martin Woodhull (Victoria Clafflin), now a wealthy philanthropist in England; their father, Buckman Clafflin, a pioneer, opened the first store in the county in 1829.
Lackawanna County
LXVII
LACKAWANNA COUNTY
FORMED August 13, 1878; named for the great Lackawanna coal basin; an Indian word, signifying “The Forks of a Stream.” Chief industry, anthracite coal mining, confined to the long-depressed trough forming the Lackawanna Valley and to the mountains bordering it on both sides, with Bald Mountain, in Lackawanna Range, 2250 feet high, and Big Stoney among the Moosic Mountains, 2230 feet. Originally settled by Connecticut people who disputed the right of Pennsylvania to jurisdiction; life and growth have been the result of the coal-mining industry, which brought into it large numbers of Welsh, Irish, German, English, and Scotch, whose descendants dominate the region; latterly have come Polish, Slavs, Italians, and Lithuanians, a heterogeneous but rapidly assimilating mining population.
The mining of anthracite coal began at Carbondale in the early twenties; the old No. 1 plane is marked with monument and tablets; coal was taken over the Moosic Mountains to Honesdale, Wayne County, by steep inclined planes, up which the loaded cars were drawn by ropes or cables, and the empty cars let down; thence by canal to Roundout, on the Hudson; on the levels, between planes, cars were drawn by horses; later a descending grade was given to the tracks over which the cars ran by gravity; a similar gravity railroad near Scranton, carried coal to the Delaware & Hudson Canal at Hawley, below Honesdale, both now abandoned for steam roads.
The country northwest has well-cultivated farm lands; that, southeast, blends with the Pocono Highlands, is wild and picturesque; an almost unbroken wilderness for thirty miles, excepting along the line of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad; on both sides of this road are good highways; the main road, the whole length of the valley, is exceptionally fine. The road from Gouldsboro Station was built by Jay Gould, 1855, when he was interested with Mr. Pratt in a tannery at Gouldsboro (now Thornhurst).
At Carbondale, crossing Moosic Mountains, is road to Honesdale, following the line of the old Delaware & Hudson gravity road; at Dundaff, about five miles north of Carbondale, this road runs along the edge of Crystal Lake, near are the Twin Knobs of Elk Hill, about 2500 feet high. A point of geologic interest is the Archbald Pot Hole, said to be largest of the kind in this country; a cylindrical hole twenty feet deep, by thirty feet wide, eroded in the ice age through the overlying rocks down to the coal measures.
Scranton, county seat, population 137,783; laid out on site of an Indian village, Muncy Tribe; began as an iron town; iron in large quantities was found in the hills three miles south of the city, and a suitable quality of limestone was also supposed to exist there; but the coal business superseded; the old ore mine, and abandoned road to furnaces at Scranton, are of historic and picturesque interest.
The courthouse, on Washington Avenue near center of town, stands in a square of ground, Romanesque, West Mountain stone, built 1881-84, architect, S. G. Perry. St. Luke’s Protestant Episcopal Church. Wyoming Avenue near Linden Street, Gothic, West Mountain stone, built 1866-71, architect, R. M. Upjohn, New York; contains Tiffany mosaic panel, back of font, “Baptism of Christ,” also Tiffany window in chancel, “The Ascension.” St. Peter’s Cathedral, at corner of Wyoming Avenue and Linden, Italian Renaissance, brick, built, 1866, architect, Joel Amsden; remodeled 1883 by Durand, Philadelphia. Administration Building of the International Correspondence Schools, Wyoming Avenue between Vine and Mulberry Streets, Gothic, West Mountain stone, built in 1898; architect, W. Scott Collins; window by Kenyon Cox, made in 1898, “Science Instructing Industry.”
The Scranton Public Library (Albright Memorial) is placed as an accent of beauty, corner of Washington Avenue and Vine Street, French chateau style, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, after Cluny Museum, Paris; gray Indiana limestone and brown Madina stone laid in coursed ashlar, built in 1893; architects, Green & Wicks, Buffalo, New York; contains portraits of Joseph J. Albright, painted in 1902, artist, Bayard Henry Tyler; and of John J. Albright, artist, Chartrain, France; stained glass windows are illustrative of celebrated book bindings in the past; a marble mosaic floor is in the entrance hall.
Second Presbyterian Church, Jefferson Avenue between Vine and Mulberry Streets, Romanesque; West, Mountain stone, built 1885; has Tiffany windows, “Charity” and “Hope.” Madison Avenue Synagogue, near Vine Street; Byzantine, West Mountain stone, built 1902, architect, George W. Kramer, New York. First Presbyterian Church, corner of Madison Avenue and Olive Street, perpendicular Gothic, Indiana limestone; built 1903, architect, Holden, New York; windows by John La Farge, “The Woman at the Well”; and by Tiffany, “The Ascension”; Tiffany mosaic, “Pentecost.” Immanuel Baptist Church, corner of Jefferson Avenue and Mulberry Street, Gothic, Hummelstown redstone, built 1909, architect, Edward Langley, Scranton. Elm Park Church, corner of Linden and Jefferson Streets, Romanesque, West Mountain stone, built 1892, architect, George W. Kramer.
Lackawanna Railroad Station, Lackawanna and Jefferson Avenues, Renaissance, Indiana limestone, granite base, built 1909, architects, Kenneth Murchison, New York, and Edward Langley; has interior finishings of Grueby tiles; and mosaic mural panels of views along the Lackawanna Railroad. The Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science and Art, in Nay Aug Park, south end of Milberry Street, given by the late Dr. I. F. Everhart, and sustained by generous endowment; Renaissance, terra-cotta, built 1908, architects, Blackwood & Nelson; contains also the Hollister collection of Indian curios. Much natural beauty centers about the water supply system of the Scranton Gas and Water Company, which has over ten miles of fine driveways, including the road to top of Mount Anonymous, overlooking the lake; and Long Swamp Drive and roads up about Scrub Oak Mountain.
BOOKS USED AS REFERENCE, AND CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES
| American Art Annual | F. N. Levy. |
| Annals | J. F. Watson |
| Automobile | Blue Book |
| Colonial Doorways | A. H. Wharton |
| Early Pietists | J. Sachse |
| Fairmount Park | C. S. Keyser |
| Forges and Furnaces | Colonial Dames |
| Guide Book to Historic Germantown | C. F. Jenkins |
| Hikes for Boy Scouts of America Charles | D. Hart |
| Historic Excursions | J. Campbell |
| History of Pennsylvania | Egle |
| Indian Trails | G. P. Donehoo |
| List of Sites | William J. Campbell |
| Music | F. I. Brock |
| Our Philadelphia | J. and E. R. Pennell |
| Pennsylvania Primer | Barr Ferree |
| Philadelphia | Sharf & Westcott |
| Philadelphia Firsts | W. I. Rutter, Jr. |
| Philadelphia Streets | J. Jackson |
| Population | U. S. Census for 1920 |
| Story of Philadelphia | L. J. Rhoads |
| The Keystone | Pennypacker |
| United States | Baedeker |
| Washington’s Itinerary | William S. Baker |
| Many County Histories and Historic Reports. |