The Matthew Brown Marker, On The Allenwood Prison Grounds

The Brown Monument - Matthew & Eleanor Brown

If you turn right onto State Gameland road, off 44 near Elimsport, a short drive over the creek will bring you to a game lands parking area.  From that parking area, as you walk through the gate, there was once a road named Matthew Brown Road.  If you continue to walk .2 of a mile up the game land road, off in a field to the east is a monument, flanked by a grave stone on each side, surrounded by stone pillars and linked chain.

It's a monument to Matthew Brown, and his wife Eleanor.  Matthew was one of the first overseers of the poor in White Deer Township.  He was on the committee for safety in Northumberland County, and a member of the Provincial Council that met in Great Britain to dissolved our political connection with Great Britain.  In July 1776, he was a member of the State Convention that formed the Pennsylvania State Constitution of 1776.  In the fall of 1776 he entered into service as a solider in the Revolutionary War.  He contracted Camp Fever, forcing him to return home, where he died in March of 1777.

Grave stones for Matthew and Eleanor stood alone in the field, until 1907 when Matthews granddaughter sponsored, through the D.A.R., the more substantial marker at that location.

Whether this is, today,  the grounds of the federal prison, or part of the State Game Lands 252, I am not completely certain - it's right along the border at the very least.   It can be accessed from the game lands road, with no need to cross any fence - however, along other nearby sections of the same road, there is a fence marking the prison property.  

Alvira Pennsylvania, Before The Bunkers

Today Alvira is a ghost town, littered with TNT bunkers that replaced the farm houses and stores during the war.  But once, Alvira was a town like any other, in our Central Susquehanna Valley.  Here's a look at some of the photos and stories from before the government confiscated the land and bulldozed the buildings.