Saturday, November 16, 2024

Hollingshead Covered Bridge, Catawissa

Hollingshead Covered Bridge, Catawissa PA

 It's named for Henry Hollingshead, who  owned a nearby mill.


It is located on Old Reading Road, off Mountain Road, east of Catawissa Borough.
N40 57.113 W76 26.864



It was built  by Peter Ent  in 1851, for a cost of $1,180.00.

The bridge is of Burr Arch Construction and is 128 feet long.



Hollingshead Covered Bridge spans Catawissa Creek.


In January of 1959, ice floe on Catawissa creek "piled up floor-high at the Hollingshead covered bridge about half a mile up stream from route 42 crossing the Catawissa-Numidia highway."






In 2016, wind put a hole in the roof.

1987

1997

In 1999, the bridge was renovated

Hand painted ornaments were sold in 2000

In 2022, a hit and run driver in a box truck hit and destroyed 11 of the cross beams inside the bridge. "The driver then fled south on Old Reading Road, but not before backing up at least twice and leaving behind mangled pieces of heavy wood used as interior frame beams."

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An Index Of Covered Bridges

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Stories From The Cemetery - Mifflinburg Pa

Stories From The Cemetery - Mifflinburg, Pa

 Old Mifflinburg Cemetery, also known as Fairview Cemetery & Woodlawn Cemetery, is located on the west side of Rt. 304. The cemetery was established no later than 1817 but was likely utilized for about 20 years prior to that.  Several mausoleums in this section are built into the hill, like small caves.

View from the hill in the cemetery, November 2024.
The old Elias Church is the yellow building to the right.

There are a great number of Revolutionary War soldiers buried in this section.  Many of the stone are no longer readable.
 
Standing behind the front row of mausoleums

View from the mausoleums on the hill

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The Mausoleums

 

 

 



 

Dr. Jacob Henry Hassenplug
1827-1899

DR. HASSENPLUG DEAD A Native of Union County and Highly Successful Physician Dr. J. H. Hassenplug, one of Philadelphia's oldest and most honored physicians, died yesterday afternoon at his residence, 611 North h Sixteenth street, of pneumonia, after an illness of only one week.

Dr. Hassenplug was born in Miffinburg, Union county, Pa., November 25, 1827, and received his early education there, supplementing it with medical studies in this city and elsewhere. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College in 1850, when he began practicing his profession in his native town. Dr. Hassenplug served in the Civil War for three years as surgeon in the 109th Pennsylvania Volunteers, and for the last thirty-Ave years was a resident of Philadelphia.

Three sons, all physicians, and three daughters survive him. For many years he was identified with the Masonic fraternity and was a member of Potter Lodge, No. 441. He was also one of the oldest members of Trinity M. E. Church. Interment will be in the family vault, Mifflinburg, Pa.


 




 "Death of James  Cardwell at Chester. A Chester dispatch of the 16th inst. says: James E. Cardwell died to-day, aged 52 years, from heart trouble.

For many years he conducted one of the largest furniture stores in this city, and yesterday closed negotiations for the sale of the building for $20,000 to Philadelphia parties, who will open a department store, having decided to retire from business and go South for his health. Mr. Cardwell was a son-in-law of Mr. Wm. B.and Mary Agnes Barber, late of Miffinburg, dec'd, having been joined in marriage with their daughter, Henrietta C., Dec. 26, 1889. After marriage they located in Chester, where he conducted a furniture store very successfully. a He was a fine gentlemany friends there and in this place and vicinity. Appropriate services were held at his late home on Wednesday, being largely attended, and on Thursday the remains arrived in this place, accompanied by his bereaved wife and a number of other relatives and friends, the body being taken to the home of Miss Sarah F. Barber, where, in the afternoon of said day services were held, conducted by Rev. M. H. Calkins, D. D.

The body was placed temporarily in the vault of Mr. H. Strunk in Fairview cemetery.

[James died in 1906.  The year on the mausoleum is 1906 - so it's likely the body was placed "temporarily" while this mausoleum was built?]


One of the mausoleums was broken into on April 26th 1990.
A skull was stolen.  It was later recovered, and placed back in the mausoleum by Terry Willow.

"he was asked to return a skull stolen by a couple of kids from a Mifflinburg mausoleum.  No one else wanted to do it, not even the cemetery's caretakers.  When he did, he caught a glimpse of the skeleton before he placed the skull in it's rightful position.  He didn't bother taking the skull out of the bag it was kept in."  - The Daily Item

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More Gutelius Graves

Frederick & Lydia Gutelius

 
Frederick Gutelius
17 Mar 1797
14 Feb 1866

  Although marked as a Revolutionary War grave, Frederick, born in 1797, served in the war of 1812, not the Revolution.

Frederick Gutelius Jr., son of Frederick Gutelius who owned the house, [today the Gutelius House Museum]  at the corner of  5th & Green streets, became known for his hand woven fabrics and coverlets as well as the dyes he grew.

The son of Frederick Adam Gutelius & Anna Catherine Bistel

 

Lydia Crotzer
wife of Frederick Gutelius
Born May 10 1804
Died Jan 5 1894
Aged 89 yrs 7 mo & 25 Days

 Lydia Crotzer Gutelius, was, at the time of her death in 1894, the oldest native citizen of Mifflinburg.  "Her life compassed the entire history of Mifflinburg, from its founding to its present."

The Lewisburg Chronicle published her genealogy along with her obituary.  

The daughter of Jacob & Elizabeth Crotzer, she was born in Mifflinburg on May 10 1804.  She had four brothesr and one sister - John, Jacob, Thomas, William, and Catherine.

Lydia married Frederick Gutelius, the son of Frederick And Catheriner Gutelius,on June 6 1822.  They had 12 children, all of whom are listed, along with their spouses and children, in the article.  

One son, Joseph S. Gutelius, was killed in the battle of Gettysburg on July 1 1863.



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Abraham Huddleston
Confederate Soldier

 


Died in Sledding Accident at Bucknell
Son of Elmer Schoch, publisher of the Lewisburg Chronicle




 

Samuel S. Barber
1819-1880

Emeline [Forster] Barber
Wife of Samuel
8 Sep 1820 - 14 Jan 1898


 

Samuel broke his knee cap, and within a week he had died.  Note the line "The injury will cripple Mr. B. for life in all probability because he is pretty well advanced in years".  He was 61.


 

Benjamin W. Thompson
4 June 1814 - 14 Jan 1887

Isabella [Maize] Thompson
1 Nov 1819 - 17 Jun 1890


 

In the census records, Benjamin W. Thompson of Chestnut Street in Mifflinburg was listed as an undertaker and marble cutter.  



 

William Piper Montelius
23 Jan 1842
16 June 1865 [aged 23]
Graduated from Lafayette College in Easton, PA 1864; Valedictorian; candidate for the ministry; died at Mifflinburg

Although there is a Civil War Marker at this stone, I found no record of William, nor his father, serving in the war. [That doesn't mean they didn't, merely that I didn't find a record of it]

Also on the stone are his parents:


Charles Montelius
15 Dec 1811
18 Jan 1882



Rebecca Howard [Piper] Montelius
1816-1866








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Obituary for Charles Montelius
Shopkeeper, Milliner, Mifflinburg Pa



 


 

 



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Rev. War Soldiers
[NOT a complete list.  Not even close to complete!]
Many of these stones were applied for in 1939, by then president of the Union County Historical Society, C.M. Steese.  The stones were shipped by railroad to the Mifflinburg P.R.R. station.

 

Information from the U.S. Headstone application form states:

Daniel Campbell
Unit 1st. Penna. Regt
Company Capt. James Parr
Enlistment Date 20 Aug 1776
Discharge Date 1780
Death Date 22 Apr 1793
Cemetery Mifflinburg PA


 A quick search did not turn up any information on a Daniel Campbell in Mifflinburg.   One genealogist lists Daniel as the son of  Capt. Laughlin Campbell of North Carolina.

 There is also another find a grave entry for a Daniel Campbell who died in 1834.  It's interesting that he is also listed as the Daniel Campbell that served in under Capt.  James Parr.  

Daniel was a Revolutionary War patriot who served as a Private in the 1st Regiment of the Continental line of PA under Capt. James Parr and Capt. James Wilson.Source: PA Archives, 5th Series, Vol. 2, pp. 648-649



 

Name John Reasner
Unit Frontier Rangers Northumberland Co.
Company Geo, Overmeyer's Co
Enlistment Date 1780
Discharge Date 1781
Death Date 1801
Cemetery Mifflinburg


 


John Reasner  owned  one hundred acres of land in West Buffalo, Twp.  On 8 Mar 1786 he transferred that land to his son, John Reasner II.

 

Conrad Auble 1758 - 1845
'Served as a dragoon in Count Pulaski's legion'

Hessian Soldier 

 "Conrad Auble or Aubel was born in 1758 in Hessel Castel, Germany. Conrad Aubel and his brother were among the Hessian German Soldiers, who's services were sold to King George III of England, by the Prince of Hess, and were sent to America to fight for the English Army in the Revolutionary War. During the battle of Trent, N. J., Conrad was captured by the Americans, after that he swore allegiance to America and fought against England. Conrad served with Count Pulaskie's Legion as a Dragoon on the American side. He was wounded sometime during his service in the Revolutionary War. He served as a bodyguard for Washington. It was learned he was receiving a U. S. Government pension of $45 a month when he died.

Legend has it that his brother Frank was two years older than Conrad and after the war settled in Hirkimer, New York and that a third brother went to Canada in the area of Nova Scotia. There is no accurate record of either one.

Conrad began his school teaching career in 1785 in Pennsylvania Twp Northumberland, Union Co., now Snyder Co., Pa. He taught in a German school for a number of years. In his History of Mifflinburg Richard V. B. Lincoln states that Conrad Auble taught school in 1809 and 1814 and for some years afterward. He belonged to the Elias Youngman German Lutheran Church.

With his wife Barbara he located in Buffalo Valley, Union Co., at an early date. Barbara Seebold Auble was blind for some years before her death, at the time of their death, the Aubles lived in Mifflinburg, they are both buried in old part of Mifflinburg Cemetery. Conrad  passed away in 1845 and is buried Mifflinburg Cemetery, Mifflinburg, Union County, Pennsylvania."

 

John Kleckner
Died
Sept 21, 1839
AGED: 89Y 1M & 9D

Anna Barbara [Koch] Kleckner
Aged 89 years, 1 month, 24 days.
 Wife of John Kleckner



PA Militia


Name John Kleckner
Birth Date 12 Aug 1750
Age 89
Death Date 21 Sep 1839
Military Branch Army
Veteran of Which War Revolutionary War
Registration County Union
Cemetery Name Old Mifflinburg So 5th Street Mifflinburg
Cemetery Location Pennsylvania 



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READ MORE
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Mifflinburg Cemetery, as it is commonly known, is actually a combination of two cemeteries.  Old Mifflinburg Cemetery, also known as Fairview Cemetery & Woodlawn Cemetery, is located on the west side of Rt. 304. The cemetery was established no later than 1817 but was likely utilized for about 20 years prior to that. The grounds on both sides are well maintained although many of the stones in the oldest part of the combined cemetery, behind the old Elias Church, are very difficult, if not impossible, to read.

The Mifflinburg Cemetery Association, with the interment records archived at the Mifflinburg Bank and Trust Company, maintains the cemetery. The cemetery is still active. To get to the cemetery, turn south on Route 304 (South 4th Street) from Route 45 in Mifflinburg.


Sunday, November 3, 2024

Hopp Carriage Works, Mifflinburg Pa

 
Hopp Carriage Company, Corner of 4th & Walnut Streets, Mifflinburg

This photo of Hopp Carriage Company was taken about 1910.  Owner Alfred A. Hopp, with bowtie, stands in the doorway.

The son of a shopkeeper, Alfred Hopp moved to Mifflinburg and opened his own shop on Market Street. He married Olivia Sarah Gutelius and in 1897 joined Robert Gutelius and Harry Blair in starting the Mifflinburg Buggy Company. 

"The Big Three" 
Harry Blair, Alfred Hopp and Robert Gutelius

Hopp left his partners, starting his own company in 1903. Using money from James Ritter. the town's most well known buggy salesman,  Hopp built the Hopp Carriage Company at the corner of 4th and Walnut streets.   

Hopps is the darker building shown on the right.

His former partners sued him for "blocking their air and sun", and Hopp had to move his new factory 18 inches west. 

Hopp's Carriage Company was the 2nd largest buggy manufacturer in Mifflinburg. It produced close to 2000 vehicles a year and sold buggies nationally.

"A Grandiose lithograph of the Hopp Carriage Company was used for advertising, the smoking stack suggesting great activity.  But the auto on the street portended the ruination of their buggy making"

1914

Wood Shop of the Hopp Carriage Company about 1916, with Clarence [Shorty] Musser on right.

The Railroad station, with Hopp Carriage Works shown in the background

Alfred Allen Hopp was born September 8th 1855, the son of Henry & Anna Mary [Rowe] Hopp of Montour County.  He died March 14th 1922. 

 His son Howard ran the business for a year or two after Alfreds death, but it closed soon thereafter.


After the fire - 1927

On June 21, "the most disastrous fire in Mifflinburg for years" destroyed the large building "formerly used by the Hopp Carriage Company."  All but a brick section at one end was "in ashes".  Several other buildings were destroyed.

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READ MORE
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Alfred on the right





1927 fire


Howard Hopp died in 1944.

Alfred's parents anniversary celebration, 1904