Part 26

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.

[Illustration: 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

[Illustration: 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

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: 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

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: FOREST COUNTY]

LXI

FOREST COUNTY