The Bicentennial Wagon Trains of 1776

The Bicentennial Wagon Train in Jersey Shore Pa

Eastward Ho!  The Bicentennial Wagon Train, 1976.

"So Your Children Can Tell Their Children"

In 1976, more than 60 covered wagons, from 49 states, following 6 separate routes, arrived in Valley Forge, Pa.

Between 1840 and 1880, there had been a great western migration, by covered wagon along routes like the Oregon Trail.  

"Briefly, the Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage to Pennsylvania is a replay of history, in reverse."
The first wagons started on their way from the west coast in June 1975, traveling for over a year to reach their destination.

Today the wagon is on display at the State Museum in Harrisburg

The Bicentennial Commission of Pennsylvania, which organized the event, described it as “a replay of history – in reverse. A train of covered wagons – one from each state – is crossing the country from West to East, adhering as closely as possible to original pioneer trails and wagon routes.” They provided an authentic Conestoga wagon or Prairie Schooner for each state, as well as a Pennsylvania Conestoga and a chuck wagon to accompany each of the five main caravans. People were also encouraged to join the trek in their own wagons.

All of the wagons converged at Valley Forge on July 3, 1976, for an encampment and Bicentennial festivities the following day.

Leaving Williamsport - Grit Newspaper

The wagons paraded to the state park encampment there on July 4 to celebrate the Bicentennial, which included a visit from President Ford to sign legislation establishing Valley Forge as a National Historical Park. After the celebration the state wagons remained on display at the park through October 1976.

Volunteers from the North America Trail Ride Conference and local riding groups served as mounted escorts for the wagon trains.  "Pony Express" riders branched out from the State Wagons to reach communities not on the main trails.

The outriders were to bring back scrolls from the Bicentennial Community, signed by the citizens, reaffirming their belief "in the principles which this nation was founded."

Donald Yocum & Steve Treon from Sunbury joined the wagon train in Hughesville

State wagons traveled their own states, then joined the National Wagon train to journey to Valley Forge.

"The daily rhythm was simple and relentless. Wake up. Hitch the horses. Roll 20 miles. Make camp. Put on a show. Do it again tomorrow. The draft horses pulled three days and rested every fourth day, rotated with fresh hitches so no team was overworked. The saddle horses — ridden by outriders, local volunteers, and anyone who showed up with a mount — had it harder. They carried weight. But most only rode part of the route, peeling off after a day or two while the core crew kept moving east.

The core crew was young. Five separate companies of Penn State University students — actors, singers, musicians — traveled with the five wagon train segments for the entire journey. They lived together in pairs of Winnebagos, one for the men, one for the women. They performed a patriotic musical written specifically for the pilgrimage every single night at every single stop. Over 2,000 performances in 15 months.

Each of the five wagon trains was accompanied by a show troupe which performed a musical revue for the local community at that night’s campground. 

The show was written and produced at Penn State by Bruce Trinkley, Roger Cornish and Dan Tucker. The performers in the video are: Larry Biren, Janie Gioffre, Deneille Lilley, Earl Reinhalter [Electric Earl], Kathleen Renish and Donald Lee Shell.

Think about that. These were college kids in their early twenties, sleeping in Winnebagos, performing the same 45-minute show in a different small town every night for a year. They did it in rain. They did it in South Carolina heat and Wyoming cold. The wagons were designed to fold open into portable stages, and the performers climbed up and performed in period costumes — buckskins and calico — under whatever sky showed up that evening.

The audiences loved it. Towns didn’t just watch the wagon train pass through. They came out and met it. Local saddle clubs rode alongside in period costumes. Women held quilting bees. Somebody always made soup in an iron pot. School bands played. 4-H clubs showed up. Square dance groups performed after the Penn State show. At one stop in South Carolina, volunteers demonstrated lye soap making and displayed antique quilts while an exhibition of arrowheads and artifacts filled a nearby hall. "- Bicentennial Memory Project

"At every encampment, a small stage appeared — maybe 10 by 12 feet, draped in stars and stripes. Behind a table sat a woman in a colonial dress. On the table were the Rededication Scrolls. Each scroll had spaces for 24 signatures. You sat in a chair, picked up a pen, and signed your name beneath a pledge reaffirming your belief in the principles of the Declaration of Independence. One boy in Wisconsin used a fountain pen and India ink because his mother said it would be more authentic."

At Valley Forge

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THE ROUTES
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The Central Great Lakes Route - #2 - included stops in 

Jersey Shore, Montoursville, Hughesville, and Ricketts Glen.  A show was performed at Muncy, before the wagons headed on to Hughesville to camp for the night.

"Making a water stop in the morning at the Woodward Township Fire hall.  a lunch break will be taken bout 11am at the city firemen's training field on West Third Street... is scheduled to arrive at the Montoursville Bridge around 5pm, and head to Nicely field for an encampment.  A show will be staged there at 7pm.  The train leaves Friday at 8am, going to Muncy for a noontime show. It will then move along Route 405 to Hughesville, arriving at 1:30 pm.  It will parade through the center of town and will arrive at the Lycoming County Fairgrounds at 2:30pm for encampment.  A show will be held there at 7:30pm"

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MADE IN PA

The Vo-Tech School Wagon
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Made by the Centre County Vo-Tech School

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"A Financial Debacle"

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This once in a life time event was a "financial debacle".  Mrs. Thelma Gray, who conceived and supervised the project, had told the state that 15 corporations were ready to donate $6.8 million dollars.  At the projects end, only two corporate donations had been made - $1 million from Gulf Oil, and $15,000 from Holiday Inns.  

Marketing and Souvenir Sales were then expected to help offset the cost, with a projected revenue of 3.3 million.  That estimate was revised down to $1.5 Million.  At the projects end, Designed Marketing had a loss of $1,583, and had remitted nothing to the state.  (the firm blamed the commonwealth and Thelma Gray, for frustrating every plan they developed.)  

The project, which was expected to pay for itself or even make a few dollars profit, ended up costing the state 2.3 Million Dollars.

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BLANMED FOR HORSE VIRUS
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The Penn State wagon train show had a 30th anniversary reunion in 2006. Original cast members returned to Penn State to rehearse and perform the show again, then took it on the road to Fort Roberdeau, a Revolutionary War-era fort near Altoona. At sunset, the field looked like Valley Forge.

The wagons traveled by river, too. On sections where the trail crossed major waterways, the wagons were loaded onto barges and floated — down the Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers. In Wheeling, West Virginia, a barge carrying the wagon train docked overnight at the wharf. The local paper covered it like a UFO sighting.

Bill Howard, who led the Western States’ segment into Valley Forge, was one of only a few Americans certified to handle a six-horse Conestoga team. His own team of dappled gray Percheron draft horses pulled a Conestoga that had been displayed around the tri-state area before the pilgrimage began.

Corporate sponsors included Gulf Oil, Holiday Inns, and the Aero-Mayflower Transit Company. The official wagons were crafted in Arkansas. Insurance and small salaries of $100/month for wagonmasters were part of the budget. But most participants were volunteers who paid their own way.

"A few quit their jobs, pulled their kids from school, and rode the whole way. Marilyn “Micki” Robison of Naches, Washington, served as National Trails Coordinator, crisscrossing the country to keep all seven trains on schedule. She hired and fired staff, solved problems, and rode alongside whenever she could. By the end, she was the only person who had seen every train."

Rempe Self Winding Clocks, Danville Pa

 

A Rempe Clock at the Caldwell Consistory

" It is believed that very few of his clocks were made and even less has survived. The cases for the clocks were made by Muncy Mfg. Co and the West Branch Novelty Co. being 15 to 20 miles west of Danville, Pa. on the east and west bank of the west branch of the Susquehanna River. The instructions and the movement have the patent dates but do not have the patent numbers.

The power for these clocks came from two dry cell No. #6 batteries like the Columbia Dry Cell No. 6 which would activate the two levers and two springs that ran the clock movement.

The Rempe clocks were advertised in the Jeweler's Circular-Weekly and on the front of their catalog as "The Clock That Goes without Winding" and should run for two plus years on a new set of # 6 batteries."

The company  was in business from 1903-1905.

Henry Rempe was born in 1867, the son of German born parents Frank & Margaret [Deil] Rampe.  He married Sylvia Aldred in 1895.

He opened his first jewelry store in Danville in 1893, at 326 Mill St.  He later moved to 290 Mill Street.

His first clock was a simple 3 wheel mechanism (as opposed to 15 wheels) and making it cheaper to manufacture.  The clock could be sold for $4-$5 and was displayed in his shop window.

In May of 1903 Rempe sold his jewelry store  to J.W. Lore, and devoted himself to a new invention, a clock that did not need winding.

The Rempe Manufacturing Co was chartered, with D.C. Angle as president, M.G. Young as secretary, and Rempe as general manager.  A building was leased on Railroad street, for the manufacturing.  Charles Hitchler, an expert watchmaker from NY, was hired, along with 9 additional men.

The first self-winding clock was assembled in 1903.  The case was from Hoover Brothers of South Danville.   The dial and door combinations were purchased from Ingrahams in Connecticut.   In the early days, the factory produced 15 clocks a day, in two styles, Mantle and Office.

F.Q. Hartman replaced the clocks in his knitting mills with Rempe Clocks.  A large office style clock was purchased by the county commissioners for the Courthouse.  

In 1904, modern machinery was purchased to help manufacture the clocks.  According to Montour American, clocks were shipped to every state from Maine to California.

On July 14th 1905, the company was sold at Sheriff's sale.  It was reorganized as the Automatic Clock Company, with A.C. Amesbury as president.  Rempe moved to Lock Haven in 1905, opening a dry goods store there.

In November of 1906, Star Speedometer company took over half of the Railroad street building.  

More about the Star Speedometer Plant- which took over the Rempe building
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2022/01/star-speedometer-plant-milton-pa.html

The last mention of the clocks in local papers appears to be in 1908.

 Rempe held patents #407,243 also 499,176 also 734,366 and 737,019 and per his 1904 catalog he built eight models of shelf clocks and seven models of wall regulator clocks. 

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The Clinton County Times, Fri., March 7, 1919, p. 1.

Death of Henry Rempe.

Progressive Merchant Died at His Home on West Main Street of Pneumonia.

It is with deep regret we are called upon to chronicle the death of Henry Rempe, one of this city’s best known and most prominent business men, which occurred at his home on West Main street, at 6:30 o’clock Tuesday morning of pneumonia, after a short illness.

On February 9, Mr. Rempe went to New York on business and while in that city contracted a severe cold, returning home on February 21, when pneumonia developed. He had been a sufferer from rheumatism for several years and while in New York took treatments, but they failed to give him relief. Every thing possible was done for him and he appeared to be recovering, until Sunday when meningitis developed. He lapsed into unconsciousness shortly afterwards and remained in that conditions until the end.

Mr. Rempe was born in Scranton 52 years ago. In 1905 he came to this city with his family and opened the well known Rempe dry goods store on East Main street, which he conducted with great success. He was a member of the Great Island Presbyterian church the Danville Lodge of Masons, and the Clinton County Country club. During his residence in this city he took an active part in all movements for the betterment of the community. He was possessed of a kindly disposition, which won for him a host of friends, who are deeply grieved over his untimely death.

Deceased is survived by his wife, one son, Robert H. and one daughter Edna May, both at home. Two brothers, Edward of Wisconsin; William of Baltimore, and one sister, Mrs. William Barnes of Baltimore, also survive.

Funeral services were conducted at his late home Thursday afternoon at 3 o’clock by Rev. Elliott D. Parkhill. Interment was made in Highland cemetery.

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Cleaver W. Wagner, part of the Danville business community for over 50 years. 
Came to Danville in 1903, from Washingtonville.  Began working at Rempe Clock Factory, which was eventually purchased by J.W. Lore.  
More about Wagner - 
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1J4g8q3nJm/

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1904 Rempe Catalog

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