White Deer, Pennsylvania

White Deer, Pennsylvania

White Deer Dam, Where Watsontown Gets Its Water
The Widow Catherine Smith


White Deer is located in Union County, and can be found on the 1854 Union County Map.  The town is situated directly across the river from Watsontown [Northumberland county], across the White Deer/Watsontown Bridge.  As such, it parts of White Deer can  be found on Sanborn Fire Maps for Watsontown.   It's residents are part of the Milton [Northumberland County] School district.  

Main Street, White Deer Pa

Aerial Photo Of White Deer From the 1950s

At the intersection of Old 15 & White Deer Turnpike:

Southwest Corner - Kocher Home (Where Fort Menninger Stood) 

Southeast Corner (to the right  of the road) - Perrins Mobile Gas Station & Post Office (later Weavers Pizza)

Northeast Corner (right of the road) - Henry High homestead (two story brick home) 

 Northwest Corner - Sunoco Gas Station 

Behind Perrins (old Weavers building) The White Deer Hotel

On what is now Leiser Road, The Yoder-Leinbach-Wagner store (now demolished)

Further north on old 15, east side: Caldwell-Danowsky-Wagner House (Where Catherine Smiths home once stood)

The  structures on the left side of the old route 15 were demolished in the mid 1960s when Route 15 was built

Hotels, Stores & Taverns
Photo above is Leinbach's Store & The White Deer Post Office
"Henry High purchased the mills from the Caldwell estate.  He soon added a stone hotel, a row of brick dwellings, and a post office." -UCP 

The White Deer Hotel

The White Deer Train Station

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/06/white-deer-pennsylvania.html

The White Deer Fire Company

Mills & Other Industries

Widow Catherine Smith    Caldwell Mill
  Forest Iron Works      The White Deer Woolen Mill

"Sawmills dotted the landscape, especially close to creeks like White Deer where logs floated through a series of splash dams to get to the sawmills at the Susquehanna Rivers edge for easy transport down river.  Allenwood lumber company operated mills near the mouth of White Deer Hole Creek and had the capacity to cut 40,000 feet per day from trees as large as 3 feet in diameter." -  UCRT

The Factory Covered Bridge
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-factory-covered-bridge-in-white-deer.html


Schools
The Factory School    Yocum School

"White Deer Twp residents immediately accepted Pennsylvania's Public School La of 1834 with a favoring vote of 52-26, contrasting with Union Township residents who voted negatively 0-205.  The Miltonian proclaimed 'The little township of White Deer has contracted with mechanic [John Fisher] for the building of five schoolhouses - all to be built of brick on good stone foundations and to be 25x30 at a fixed cost of $1,490 or $490 a school.'  " -  UCRT

Churches

The United Evangelical Church (Walters Church) was built in 1896, after a split at Mill Church in White Deer.  In 1967 the church purchased a former Army chapel and moved to it's present location on the pike, naming it Faith Chapel.  The old church was purchased by Millard & Kathryn Koch, and demolished.

The White Deer Turnpike
Post Card Photo, between 1908 & 1912

The Pike ran 20 miles due west to Carroll in Clinton County.  Along the pike was an Iron Furnace, Sawmill, Oil & Flouring Mills, A Woolen Factory, & the One Room Factory School.

The White Deer Flour Mill

Maps

1856    1887 Sanborn Fire Map For Watsontown
Topographic Map

1856 Union County Map

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More Photos:

White Deer Train Station on the left, Bill Wagner Farm on the right.

(This is before 15 was built, before there was a Watsontown Bridge, etc)

Dorothy Hagey in front of the Hagey barn that served as a livery for the hotel.  The Iron Bridge over white deer creek is on the left.

White Deer Civil Air Patrol 1970

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Read More
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 The History of White Deer Township: From Colonial Days to the Present Hardcover 
– January 1, 1976 by Arna Dershem 




Notes:
Record & Star February 13, 1891 The White Deer flouring mills will be sold at public sale on Monday, March 2.

"A major Indian path went northwesterly from the mouth of White Deer Creek through the White Deer Mountains to the area now known as Spring Garden.  The parth continued across White Deer Valley to a gap near present day Elimsport, then into the Nippenose Valley and beyond.  White Deer Valley is bounded by the imposing White Deer and Nittany Appalachian mountains" - .  UCRT

White Deer Historical Society
https://www.facebook.com/pg/whitedeerhistoricalsociety/

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A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania
By George P. Donehoo ·

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January 1911

Mr Edward Rank of White Deer

One of Union County's Oldest & Most Highly Esteemed Citizens

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Find More Local History & Stories Here
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/p/history.html