- The great Shamokin path: And other Indian trails which radiated from the forks of the Susquehanna
- Sunbury Pennsylvania Two Hundred Years, 1772-1972.
- The beginnings of the Reformed Church in Northumberland and nearby counties
- Snyder County Pioneers
Valley Girl Views
Sights To See, Events To Attend, & History To Know, in the Central Susquehanna Valley
Friday, April 19, 2024
1932 Historical Map of Northumberland County, by Charles Fisher Snyder
The War Relic Trains
In April and May of 1919, there were 24 War Relic Trains touring the continental United States.
These popular rolling museums brought the material culture of military training camps and French battlefields to Americans where they lived: as a war loan official observed, “carrying the war into the homes and the hearts of the people as it never had been brought them before.”
Odd Fellows Day, Danville, 1909
Stories From The Muncy Dam
"The stretch of water from Port Penn to Muncy dam was a very important place during the old rafting days on the river. Scores of immense timber rafts tied up there, each waiting its turn to run the chute in the dam.
There was a famous hotel of unsavory reputation located just above the dam which was a welcome resort for the red-shirted lumbermen while waiting their chance to "shoot the chute." Gambling, drinking, prize fighting and other amusements of a like character were common occurrences. At this point there was also located at one time one of the most dangerous gangs of counterfeiters in the country. They made their spurious coin in a cabin back of the hotel and unloaded it on the rivermen. The gang eluded the officers of the law for a long time, but was finally run down, convicted and sent to prison.
This place was also the scene of a serious riot during the construction of the canal which resulted in the killing of several men.
Muncy dam has always been a favorite place for fishing and there is, perhaps even now, no place on the river where one can find better sport. While the canal was still in existence it was a famous place for eels. Baskets were placed at the head of the canal where the water flowed into it and as many as eighteen hundred eels have been known to have been taken in a single night." History of Lycoming County, by Thomas W. Lloyd
HAVE NARROW ESCAPE FROM DROWNING AT MUNCY DAM
He thought his brother was drowned, and phoned the sad news to his relatives, but Boyd was not dead, he had been plunged into the swift current and carried rapidly down stream, many hundred yards below and when he reached the bank he could see nothing of his brother and he thuoght him drowned. He rushed to a farm house broken hearted but there found his sorrowing brother and their tears were soon turned to those of thankfulness and they phoned the glad news home. The canoe was found at Montgomery and was in the hands of the other boys who had stopped at Montgomery for their dinner and were on their way down to the river for their canoes, when they learned that there had been a fatal drowning at Muncy dam. They hurried to the river and there found the canoe, which had been captured by men in the stream while floating upside down. The club boys started back to the dam but before they reached there found the Fisher brothers coming down.
The Fishers did not finish the trip, returning home, but the other boys went on to Milton returning that night." - Miltonian, 1912
"The first murder trial in Lycoming County in which there was a conviction was that of John Price for the murder of an Irish man named Miller, near Muncy Dam, about February 1830. The murderer was convicted and imprisoned for a short time. (However, Meginness, in his Book of Murders, says he was found not guilty.)
The second murder, likewise connected with Muncy Dam, occurred October 14, 1835, when John Earls killed his wife, Catherine, by administration of arsenic in a cup of chocolate. He was the first person hanged in Lycoming County. His faithful (common law) wife lay on her bed of confinement. She died in great agony, and as Earls had been in the habit of abusing his wife, coupled with the fact that a short time before her death, Earls had bought a quantity of white arsenic at the apothecary shop of Bruner and Dawson in Muncy, he was at once suspected. Muncy Dam at that period was a hotbed of lawlessness; counterfeiting and horse-stealing being two of the outstanding accomplishments of this group of rivermen and fishermen." From Lycoming Law
The space between the stone and abutments is 973 feet; the wier of the dam is 863 feet, the shute is thirty-eight feet wide, the height of the comb of the dam nine feet, and the comb of the shute five feet above low water mark of the river.
The dam is twelve feet high from the bottom of the river. The towing path around the base of Muncy Hills extends from the dam to the head of slackwater navigation., near Port Penn, a distance of four miles, and cost the State $15,369.06.
The dam, is still intact, but the shute frequently gets out of order, and for years it has been a terror to raftsmen, who have to pass through it with their crafts. The canal has been abandoned above the dam." - From the History of Lycoming County by Meginness, 1892
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Two Days On A Raft At Sea in A Hurricane - William Ruhl of Mifflinburg
On Sept 13 1944, during WWII, William Reuben Ruhl of Mifflinburg was aboard the The CGC Jackson when it and sister ship CGC Bedloe ran smack into a category 4 hurricane during a recovery mission of an American Liberty Ship hit by a torpedo.
Monday, April 15, 2024
Guava, Columbia County, Pennsylvania
In preparation for that meeting, here's what I found:
Friday, April 5, 2024
The 1975 Flood Along The Susquehanna River
After five days of rain in September 1975, towns along the West Branch of the Susquehanna were once again flooded. The Daily Item reported that it was the 3rd worst flood in Pennsylvania History, and the second major flood in three years, with 6 deaths, 6,000 homeless, and $100 million in damages.
At both Sunbury & Williamsport, the water failed to breach the dikes, limited the damages in those towns.
Bloomsburg, Milton, and Muncy were hit the hardest.
On September 26th, before the river crested, route 405 between Milton and Watsontown was under water. "Residents and businesses on North Front Street began the battle with flood waters early on Friday as the rising waters poured into the upper end of town.
The waters crept south on North Front and Lincoln streets, hitting homes that only seven months before had been struck by February flooding. Some of the homes were still in the process of rehabilitation from the disastrous 1972 flood"
By 9pm on September 26th, most of the business section of Milton had been evacuated.
RPS Auto parts was not as fortunate. They reported a $35,000 loss, with every bit of merchandise destroyed.
Milton Flood Records