When Andrew Carnegie Helped Churches Buy Pipe Organs - Locally & Across the Nation

 

The pipe organ in the Lutheran Church, Watsontown Pa, is one of the more than 7,000 "Caregie Fund" pipe organs.  Carnegie provided matching funds for churches across the nation, including more than 3,000 in his adopted state of Pennsylvania, to install pipe organs.

The Stained Glass Window Dedications At The Watsontown Lutheran Church

 While in the Watsontown Lutheran Church this week, I took note of the various dedications on the stained glass windows.  The names include: Staley, Rambach, Gosh, Hartranft, Cronrath, Deitrick, Miller, Weidenhamer, & Heilman.

Many of those men served in the Civil War. One was drafted, but paid for another to serve in his place.   Miller built the building that would become the borough building in Watsontown.  

Gosh owned all the land east of the railroad tracks in Dewart, laying out Gosh's addition. 
Sarah Heilman became Mrs Walter VanFleet  - of the VanFleet Rose fame.  Dietrick never lived in Watsontown. He was killed in an accident with a wood saw in 1878.  His widow then remarried, and moved to Watsontown.  

The Rambachs were not Lutheran - but they attended the building when it was shared by both the Reformed and Lutheran Congregations.  When the new Trinity Reformed Church was built (today the UCC church), Mrs Rambach donated the bell tower and had it inscribed there, likely making them the only family to have lasting memorials with their names in two different churches in town.

Below is a look at each of the windows, a closer look at the dedications, and brief histories of each family.

When Steve Buscemi's Grandfather Sent A Suicide Note From The Milton Island

Actor Steve Buscemi stands on the Milton Island, the spot where researchers speculate his grandfather may have stood to toss a bottle containing a suicide note, into the river.

In 2011, Buscemi stopped at Lisa's Milltown Deli, along with an NBC Crew. According to an interview Lisa Showers, owner of the deli, gave to the local paper, "“They had lunch here and they interviewed (Buscemi) for the series,” she said. “It was very exciting. He was very nice. He was very polite.”

Among genealogists, it is known as one of the worst episodes of Who Do You Think You Are ever to be filmed, due largely to haphazard research, wild guesses and assumptions. The episode aired Friday March 25th, 2011.

Friends Meeting House - Catawissa Pa

 

The more than 200 year old Catawissa Meeting House stands at South and 3rd Streets in Catawissa.  It is a building that if it could speak, could fill volumes with its stories.  

Revolutionary War Soldier Hugh Hughes, who crossed the Delaware with Washington at Trenton, is buried in the cemetery there.

During the Great Runaway, Moses Roberts [who some historians credit for the Meeting House being built here] began to leave, got caught in a rain storm and decided it wasn't that dangerous after all, they could return.  Later, his home would be burnt down and he would spend more than a year in jail, charged with conspiring with the Indians, based on his decision to stay rather than flee.  Roberts had officially come to the area as a juror in a land dispute involving Samuel Wallis, who built Muncy Farms and was many decades later exposed as a traitor who worked with Benedict Arnold during the revolution. 

Miss Mary Emma Walker, at the Friends Meeting House, Catawissa

 And for more than 30 years, one woman was the only member of the congregation, having come to Catawissa by herself  to restore the building and grounds in 1890.  She faithfully attended each week, frequently alone, although occasionally others would come to visit her there.

Where The Iron Was Made

How A Cold Blast Furnace Worked

"First the furnace was filled with charcoal and lit from the top.  Over several days, the fire burned down to the openings, and the furnace was refilled with charcoal. Then the fire was allowed to burn back up to the top, and a blast of cold air from the bellows brought the temperature up to the ore-smelting temperature of 2300-2500.
 As the charcoal settled, the furnace was continuously filled with layers of charcoal, ore, and limestone. As the iron or and limestone melted, the limestone served as a flux, cleaning impurities from the ore and forming slag, which floated to the surface of the molten.
During blast, the furnaces operated day and night in 12-hour shifts for three or four months, stopping only for maintenance and repairs. The iron and slag were usually tapped twice daily. The molten iron flowed into a casting bed made of sand A main trench (the sow) in the sand allowed the iron to flow into numerous smaller side trenches (the pigs), hence the name “pig iron.”

In one 24-hour period of operation, the Furnace could consume an average of 750 bushels of charcoal, 12 tons of iron ore, and many tons of limestone to produce five tons of iron. To produce the 750 bushels of charcoal needed for 24 hours of blast required 19 cords of wood, which means that about an acre of forest was cleared for each day of furnace operation.  " (This was the best description I could find, and it came from a geocache listing!)
Once the iron was made into bars, it was shipped off to a foundry, where it was melted down and cast into various forms.
Iron Furnaces In The Central Susquehanna Valley(A Partial List)

Iron Furnaces In Union County Pa

Glen Iron, Union County

• Berlin, later Glen Iron, Furnace 

Lock Haven

• Farrandsville Iron Furnace

Milton, Northumberland County

• Iron Ore Discoveries In Milton, 1845 [foundries]

Northumberland, Northumberland County

• The 1908 Puddling Mill Explosion, Northumberland Pa

White Deer, Union County

• Forest Iron Works

Williamsport, Lycoming County

• 1854 - Justus Dittmar built the first Iron Furnace in Williamsport.

Winfield, Union County

• Union Furnace, Winfield Pa

A Little Further Away

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The Ruins At Scotia Barrens

Karthus Iron Furnace

Scranton Iron Furnaces

Hopewell Furnace (National Park)

Wednesday Words

 
Wednesday Words - The History Of The Susquehanna Valley As Written By Those Who Lived It. (And also through the words of early historians)

Above photo is an early view from Northumberland Pa, looking towards Sunbury

Each Wednesday on the Valley Girl Views Facebook Page, I post "Wednesday Words" , a combination of first hand accounts of historical events in the valley, and  papers and speeches written by early historians in the Central Susquehanna Valley. 

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MEMOIRS
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Charles Bell The Escaped Slave Who Worked At Bucknell for 40 Years	Mrs Bucknell Sailed On The Titanic & Lived To Tell About it	Memories Of Ogontz Lodge
The Journal Of Marie LeRoy Held Captive By Indians 1755-1759	The Memoir Of Hugh Lindsay The Comedian with whom PT Barnum got his start	The Diary Of  Eber Culver

Sketch Of The Life Of Gen. John Burrows, Written by Himself.	J.A. Lumbards Account of Co. G 147th In The Civil War	Memories From The Life Of Sammy Ray,  Williamsport Pa
The Life & Civil  War Memories Of Edward Straub

This book can be difficult to find, but it is one of the most incredible memoirs of life in early Milton PA that you will ever find.  Each chapter is one year, 1925-1941,  starting with a brief overview of what is going on in the world, in the state, and then stories from his front porch in Milton, Pa.  It's an incredible read.

https://amzn.to/3y3d7u9

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REMINISCENCES

Shorter memoirs, typically about a single topic or event

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History, Stories & Anecdotes from J. P. Kohler's Early Years In Milton 1855-1870	The Early Days Of Bucknell by E.C. Wolf, 1914	E. Slifer's Account of his time on the Collins Expedition
By-Gone Days Early Recollections of Sunbury, 1899	Reminisces of Early Life In Columbia County  by James R. Cleaver	Memories of Apple Butter Making at Blooming Grove, 1880s & 1890s

The Pennsylvania Canal By Hazel Whitenight	Memories Of Ole Bull By Sanderson	Gibson Antes Personal Reminiscences of the Lumbering Era
Michael Cummings tells about Babe Ruth's visit to his grandfathers home, in Williamsport	Calvin Shipe's Memories Of Early  Sunbury Written in 1937	Jamison City As I Remember It 1900-1917 by Catherine Chapman

 

In this post about my sources, and why I can't give you permission to use copies of 100 year old postcard photos, I include a story from historian Jerry Gernerd, about his friend John Meginness. It's one of my favorite stories.

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2021/11/a-note-about-copyright-sources.html

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TRAVEL LOGS

Early descriptions of travels across central Pa

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Pilgrimage To Ole Bull Castle 1920	Story of A June's Day Travel Over The Rattling Rail, 1888	A Delightful Trip, 1897
	Williamsport As Viewed By A Stroller 1914

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LETTERS
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Letters From The Lions Local News for the soldiers from Watsontown, 1951	Letter home from Lt Ritter, of Muncy Pa	Letter Home From Camp Rapidan.  J.A. Lumbard in the Civil War
Milton Surgeon Writes Home of scenes in the Mexican War	Ira Milton Lewis writes of his stay at the Danville State Asylum

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HISTORICAL ADDRESSES

& printed Pamphlets
====================

Some Historical Facts  About Northern Columbia County By Edwin Barton, 1956	Watsontown Historically By Maj. Fred Knight	"Historical Address" given at the dedication of the Lenape Wigwam Memorial at McElhattan
The Early Settlers In The Pine Creek Region, by Walter Gilmore Esq	Snapshots Of The Muncy Valley By Gernerd	Fort Horn  By Capt Buckalew

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The Historical Addresses From

 The 1850 Lycoming Centennial

Charles M. Clement Esq Sunbury Pa

Charles Tubbs Tioga County

Cyrus Larue Munson Williamsport

Lycoming A Sonnet by  Katharine Purvis

Centennial Ode By Charles K. Geddes

Closing Address By Hon. Emerson Collins

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"Gossip By The Way"

Curiously fun articles, satire, and other Misc
====================

A Glimpse At  Williamsport "The State Of Herdic" 1879	Etta Krabel Queen Of The Senecas [When fact is stranger than fiction]	A Watsontown Editor Dreams Of The Future - 1932
A Folksburg Thanksgiving From The Miltonian, 1926

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Where To Find The Valley's History In Books
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/02/where-to-find-valleys-history-in-books.html