The Night The Stars Fell - November 13, 1833

The 1833 Meteor Shower as Depicted by Adolf  Vollmy

In the Miltonian's Historical events, listed on November 13 1833:
 "Marvelous shooting stars, many feared the world was coming to an end."

The Legend Of Jack Of The Lantern

The Legend Of Jack Of The Lantern

According to Irish legend, there was once a mean and stingy miser by the name of Jack, who, drinking too much one night at his favorite pub, started to leave his body.  The devil came to claim him, but Jack was in no hurry to join the devil in hell, so he tricked the devil into giving him money to buy more drinks.

When the devil claimed to have no money, Jack convinced him to turn into a coin.  Once he had done so, Jack placed the coin in his pocket beside a silver cross, trapping him. He then struck a deal with the devil - he would let him escape, if the devil promised to leave him alone for one year.

A year passed, and the devil once again came for Jack.  As they began their journey to hell, they passed an apple tree with large juicy fruit.  Jack convinced the devil to climb the tree to pick the biggest apple, and as he did so, Jack quickly carved a cross into the trees bark, trapping the devil in the tree.  He then bargained with the devil again, making him promise to leave him alone for ten years, and to never claim his soul.

A year later, Jack died. Refused at the gates of heaven, he made his way to the gates of hell, where the devil refused him also, keeping his promise to never claim Jack's soul.  The devil tossed jack a burning coal from the fires of hell, which Jack placed in a turnip as a lantern.  "Jack Of The Lantern"  continued to roam the earth, looking for his final resting place.

  Irish families would carve their own potatoes and turnips, placing them in the windows to scare the spirits, including Jack,  away.

During the potato famine of the 1840s, Irish immigrants flooded into America.  They found work here in central Pennsylvania, building canals, and working the mines, bringing their Jack Of The Lantern legend with them.  Here they found that the native gourd, the pumpkin was much easier to hollow out than a potato or turnip, and made a much better vessel for their lanterns.

Jack O' Lantern Trivia:

•  The term Jack-O-Lantern first appeared in print in 1750.  It referred to a night watchman carrying a lantern.
• "Jack" is the common British and Irish slang for a man.
• Before metalsmithing and glass-making became accomplished arts, hollowed out vegetable shells, most commonly potatoes and turnips, were frequently used as lanterns
• Pumpkins are indigenous to the Western Hemisphere, believing to have originated in North America.  Seeds from related plants in Mexico date back more than 7,000 years to 5,500 BC
• Pumpkins were completely unknown in Europe before the time of Columbus.
• Indians called pumpkins "isquotersquash".  The gourd was a staple in their diet.
• Colonists, once introduced to the pumpkin, sliced off the tops, hollowed them out, and filled them with milk, spices, and honey, baking them in hot ashes.  This is the origin of pumpkin pie.
• Today pumpkins are grown throughout the world, on every continent except Antarctica.  (Pumpkins are even grown in Alaska)

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From the Carlisle Valley Sentinel, 1880

"Our Mischief With Jack O Lanterns"

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The Spooky Side Of The Susquehanna Valley - Witches, Skeletons, Ghosts & Grave Robbers

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-spooky-side-of-susquehanna-valley.html

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When Pennsylvania Had Witch Trials - The Witch Of Ridley Creek

Eight years before the Salem Witch Trials, two women in Pennsylvania were tried for witchcraft. 

 In 1683, the cows near Ridley Creek, an area south of Philadelphia, were acting funny.  They weren't giving much milk, and livestock was dying at a faster than normal rate. 

 The Dutch and English Settlers, who had arrived to this area known as "New Sweden", were already disappointed to find  that the early Swedish settlers had claimed all of the best farmland.  And now their livestock was not doing as well as they thought it should. 

 Their frustration, and lack of communication with the Swedish settlers who spoke little English, led to rumors and accusations.  Before long, the communities traditional Finish Healer, a Swedish woman by the name of Margaret Matteson, was blamed for the troubles.  She was accused of "bewitching the animals", and was sent to trial for being a witch.  Mattson's neighbor, Gerto Hendrickson, was charged with the same crime.

William Penn was a man of wisdom, and he conducted the trial in such a way to avoid all of the hysteria that would later plague Salem.  The case was tried quickly, and the women were found guilty of  the crime of having the reputation of being witches, but not with the crime of performing witchcraft.  An important distinction.  The women's husbands were each charged a 50 pound peace bond, to be returned in 6 months as long as the women behaved and there were no further charges.

When Free Pretzels Were Banned In Pennsylvania Bars - 1917, No More Free Lunch

"The Trap"

Pretzels and beer feature prominently in this image that portrays the negative views held by many people regarding patrons attracted to the saloon “free lunch"

In 2020, as part of the "Covid Mitigation",  the Pennsylvania Governor forbid the sale of alcohol unless accompanied by food.  And then later, further clarified that  alcohol could only be served with a full meal, chips and pretzels do not count.  Controversial, but unfortunately, there is precedent. 

 In 1909, the debate over whether or not pretzels counted as a meal was headline news, as the "free lunch" was prohibited in bars.  Eventually it was ruled that although lunches could not be served for free, pretzels could be, as they were not a meal, but more of a cracker.  (they are sometimes referred to as a "German Biscuit") 

 Later that was reversed, and even free pretzels were not permitted.. and still later, free pretzels could be served, just not advertised.  

It all began with the controversies over the "Free Lunch", in the 1870s.

The phrase "Free Lunch"  was popular between the 1870s - 1920s.  Bars, known at the time as Saloons, offered a "free" lunch, with the purchase of at least one drink. These free lunches were typically worth far more than the price of a single drink, but the  saloon-keeper relied on the expectation that most customers would buy more than one drink, and that the practice would build patronage for other times of day

This practice is still popular in casinos, and at time shares today.

Local Advertisements For Free Lunch

A Savoy Hotel  Advertisement

Williamsport, 1906

The Danville Morning News was full of advertisements for local free lunches.  The advertisements in various papers makes it clear that "Free Lunch" was not typically a noon time meal, but rather an evening meal.    Much of the objection to "free lunches" was that they took men away from their families.

A few examples:

• "Ox tail soup for free lunch tonight at H.R. Manett's Hotel, opposite DL& W Station" January 1905
• "Roast Turkey for Free Lunch tonight at the WHITE HORSE HOTEL Charles Byers, Prop" December 1906
• "Sauer Kraut, Mashed Potatoes and Pork for Free lunch Tonight at the WASHINGTON HOUSE, John Kratinack Prop" January 1907

In Sunbury:

•  1894- "Free lunch at Hotel Cake Saturday Night.  Stewed Oysters"
• 1899 - "Free lunch at Fairmont Hotel, Saturday from 8'oclock on.  Also Mock Turtle Soup"

In Williamsport:

• 1904 - "Hicks Free Lunch To-day.  Free lunch will be served this morning at Hicks Hotel Buffet"
• 1911 - 1911 "A free lunch will be served at the Cleveland hotel, corner of Grove and Tucker streets this evening"

The Origin Of The Free Lunch

As Published in The Lewisburg Chronicle

September 1905

 No Liquor Without A Meal, New York State, 1896

In 1896, the New York State legislature passed the Raines law which was intended to regulate liquor traffic. Among its many provisions, one forbade the sale of liquor unless accompanied by food.

The Free Lunch Ban - 1917

Locally, Bloomsburg was the first town to seek a ban on Free Lunches, in 1903.  The state wide ban did not occur until 1917.

The Lewisburg Journal

May 1903

August 3 1917

1909 The Pretzel Debate - Do They Count As Lunch?

"As Pittsburgh and other cities waged war against the free lunch, the pretzel bounced in and out of respectability. In Pittsburgh, the License Court banned pretzels on multiple occasions along with the rest of the free lunch, but each time granted them a reprieve to join cheese and crackers at the bar

. “Pretzels are Permitted,” proclaimed a Pittsburgh Press article in May 1909, acknowledging that License Court officials had decided after a challenge from local attorneys that pretzels were “practically the same thing” as crackers." 

- Pretzels & Prohbition

1917

In 1909, The Lewisburg Chronicle published an article outlining features of the new Liquor Reform bill being considered.  They included:
 - partial elimination of the growler
- No Free Lunch, except "a screened bowl of cheese and crackers"
- No liquor to be sold to females over the bars, nor in private rooms
- Men known to be habitual drinkers of any kind were to be refused service.

"Well, now you know, all this might have been written by the W.C.T.U. and certain it is a vindication of the hard work they have been doing for the betterment of large cities"

All saloons were also to be closed - absolutely closed - from Saturday night until the opening time the next Monday morning.

1919 -  The Volstead Act (Prohibition)

In December 1917, the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. It is named for Minnesota Rep. Andrew Volstead, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who had championed the bill and prohibition.

On January 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment was ratified by the states. Prohibition went into effect the next year, on January 17, 1920.

In December of 1933, the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America. . 

1934 Can Offer Free Pretzels, But Cannot Advertise Them
In March of 1934, The Shamokin News Dispatch published an article explaining that the code merely prohibited the advertising of free pretzels.  Bars could offer free pretzels they just could not advertise them as free.

So how did this all finally end?  I do not know.  I would guess with the end of prohibition, but it's possible some of these laws are still on the books.  

After all, we are still paying the Johnstown Flood Tax on every liquor purchase we make.

(And even more unbelievably, it's a tax, on a Tax)

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https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/blog/western-pennsylvania-history/pretzels-and-prohibition

1875 article in the New York Times, Describing the Free Lunches

in the "Crescent City" (New Orleans)

"In every one of the drinking saloons which fill the city a meal of some sort is served free every day. The custom appears to have prevailed long before the war .... I am informed that there are thousands of men in this city who live entirely on the meals obtained in this way." As described by this reporter,

A free lunch-counter is a great leveler of classes, and when a man takes up a position before one of them he must give up all hope of appearing either dignified or consequential. In New-Orleans all classes of the people can be seen partaking of these free meals and pushing and scrambling to be helped a second time. [At one saloon] six men were engaged in preparing drinks for the crowd that stood in front of the counter. I noticed that the price charged for every kind of liquor was fifteen cents, punches and cobblers costing no more than a glass of ale.

The repast included "immense dishes of butter," "large baskets of bread," "a monster silver boiler filled with a most excellent oyster soup," "a round of beef that must have weighed at least forty pounds," "vessels filled with potatoes, stewed mutton, stewed tomatoes, and macaroni à la Français." The proprietor said that the patrons included "at least a dozen old fellows who come here every day, take one fifteen cent drink, eat a dinner which would have cost them $1 in a restaurant, and then complain that the beef is tough or the potatoes watery."[1] ($0.15 in 1875 is equivalent to $3.49 in 2019; $1 in 1875 is equivalent to $23.28 in 2019)

This article (Below) from the New York Times in 

February 1875

Describes a company that made free lunches for local saloons

A very early food service - 

Rudyard Kipling in 1891 wrote about coming  upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter: " It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts."

Reading Times

Wannamakers Department Store - And The Invention Of The Price Tag

A sketch of the interior of  Wanamakers Department Store

March 1878, Philadelphia Times

The Wanamaker store  was set up as a giant wheel with 196-foot aisles radiating from a 90-foot circular counter. It featured the first department store restaurant, the first pneumatic tube delivery system for orders and money, and on December 26 1878,  Wanamaker brought electric lighting to his store in Philadelphia.  It the first ever department store to do so. The following year  the Wanamaker store got a telephone, too. It was also Wanamaker who began the idea of setting set prices, rather than having customers haggle.  He believed  that if we are all equal in the eyes of God, we should all pay one price. 

John Wanamaker was 28 when he opened his first retail store in 1861. Sixteen years later, inspired by London’s Royal Exchange and Paris’ Les Halles, Wanamaker opened his first department store He envisioned a grand shopping hall which would sell his already established menswear and would expand to sell woman’s clothing and dry goods.

Wanamaker’s stores catered to an upper-middle class, advertising a focus on quality. Materials were guaranteed to be high quality, but customers who were not satisfied could bring back their purchase for a refund – an unheard-of concept at the time.

."Not only did Wanamaker envision a new kind of shopping destination, he pioneered a new shopping experience as well. The first to use and enforce the phrase, “The customer is always right,” Wanamaker ran his store under the message of the golden rule....

One of the most important things Wanamaker left to modern stores was the price tag. Before he popularized the use of set prices, stores relied on haggling. Wanamaker believed that if everyone was equal before God, then everyone should be equal before price. It seems obvious today, but it wasn’t until Wanamaker invented the price tag that it became the norm." - Atlas Obscura

"Wanamaker’s did so well that it decided to build a twelve-floor building on the same property. On November 14, 1910, Wanamaker finished the final section of his new department store. The construction had been done in three parts in order to keep the Grand Depot open. President Taft attended its dedication in 1911. It is the only department store where a president was at the opening."

An Organ & An Eagle, From The 1904 Worlds Fair

For those who attended the 1904 World's Fair in St Louis, popular souvenirs included pins, pocket knives, & engraved ruby red glassware. Wanamaker wanted a bit more.  He purchased August Gaul’s 2,500 pound unique  “Durana” bronze Eagle, and in 1909, the pipe organ that had bankrupted the builders who made it. 

Designed by renowned organ architect, George Ashdown Audsley, and built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company. the Wanamaker Organ originally incorporated more than 10,000 pipes. The huge cost of construction ($105,000) actually bankrupted the builder.

A firm believer in music’s capacity to benefit civic life,  Wanamaker purchased the organ in 1909 and had it shipped to Philadelphia in thirteen rail cars.  There he had it installed over a two-year period in the palatial seven-story atrium of his Philadelphia emporium. After it was installed, Wanamaker created an on-site factory to expand the organ and hired 40 full-time employees to add 8,000 more pipes between 1911 and 1917, and an addiitonal 10,000 pipes between 1924 and 1930.

Created to represent Germany at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, August Gaul’s 2,500 pound unique  “Durana” bronze Eagle was hand-assembled, with each feather created and attached separately.  It took skilled workmen five months to complete the monumental piece.

At the end of the fair, the sculpture was acquired by John Wanamaker for display in his store and has stood at that location  ever since.  It's not uncommon for friends to  "meet at the eagle" .

Today, the Wanamaker building is a historical landmark.  You can still meet at the eagle, and listen to the the worlds second largest organ, in what is today Macy's Department store.  And while you are shop, and much of the original architecture, murals, and marble can still be seen, as you shop at Macy's.  And thanks to Wanamaker, you can purchase your items at a set price, there's no need to haggle

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More Sights To See
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2019/04/sights-to-see.html

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The 1972 Flood - Photos & Stories From Lewisburg Pa

An Aerial view of Lewisburg & Montandon

In Lewisburg, the river flooded later, but it was the creeks were the serious flooding began.

"The flood of 1972 was unlike any before in Lewisburg. Buffalo Creek (north of town), Bull Run (through the middle of town) and the Susquehanna River, all exceeded flood stage." 

Of the 7 people died, locally, in the 1972 flood, 4 of those deaths were in Lewisburg.

Busser Supply, Western Auto, and the A&P were all torn down after the flood. 

If you look to the left in the photo above, you can see the orange fencing that had surrounded the site of the former Bull Run Inn & Bowling Alley. (Also known as Campus Lanes). The Bull Run Inn caught on fire of January of 1972, and the debris had just been cleaned up shortly before this flood. After the flood, Russ Gardner was able to purchase the lots where Western Auto and the A&P stood, and he rebuilt the new Bull Run Inn at that location.

The A&P on the left, and Donehoes Furniture on the right

The Bull Run Inn that burnt down in January was to the left, across from Donhoes

Looking from the west, with the A&P on the right

"The water looked like the Niagara River just before it goes over the falls. I wouldn’t have put my big toe in it. "- Betty Lou McClure, describing Bull Run.

On Thursday a woman had locked herself in her home on 6th street and refused to leave. She told them "I made it through the flood of 36 and I'll make it through this one"

On Friday afternoon, fireman rescued that woman, and her son, from the roof of their home.

The morning of the flood a local radio station was playing Simon and Garfunkle -'Bridge over Troubled Waters' - I never did hear if it was on purpose or not! 

South Front Street

South Water Street

St Anthony Street

High Level Water Marks on a building along Bull Run, before the 72 flood

Along Bull Run, after the water receded

There as little warning about the flooding at Bull Run.

"We didn't have any warning from the police or fire department" said Rick Libby. "We went out on a neighbors boat, and that was before they started rescuing people by police boat"

Libbys home on 6th street was under three feet of water in his living room by early Thursday morning. Sixth street runs parallel to Bull Run Creek, and it took the brunt of Thursdays flooding, turning the street into a wildly flowing river.

One of the buildings along Bull Run being demolished after the flood.

Today this is Hufnagle Park

Melvin Swartzlander & Craig Jarret, on their way to rescue Joseph Murphy, who was clinging to a tree, with his small dog, after the rescue boat he was in with Hufnagle capsized.

Market Street at 5th Street

After the initian flooding, the borough then began to prepare for the River to flood.

Residents on Mill, Water, Front & Brown Streets began moving furniture to second floors.

North 5th Street

In Lewisburg, "Tiny Bull Run Becomes A Monster"

Heavy flooding in union county rendered most of the roads impassible.

Residents along Bull run were evacuated early Thursday morning, by boat.

Several refused to leave their homes.

Sixth street became a torrent as the stream overflowed its banks.

Travel from Lewisburg to Sunbury was possible, although there was water over the road in Winfield

At the intersection of 15 & 45 (Market Street)

"Water also was across 15 at north seventh street, traffic was being detoured through town."

Aerial View of the water across 15

"Get out if you don't want to float out!"

That's what the hotel clerk told 58 year old John Yosko, a former taxi driver & veteran tractor trailer driver from Long Island, in his unexpected 4:30 am wake up call. was in town to visit his nephew, who was serving five years in the federal penitentiary. Yosko went to the Colonial Crest Motel, where he stayed for several days regaling the other stranded travelers with stories. One of his jokes involved the hot water at the Crest burning off his fingerprints.. which were indeed missing. Read more about Yosko's visit to Lewisbug in Odd & Incredible Stories From The 72 Flood" in our area. : 

"Citizens here remain calm as the island that is downtown Lewisburg decreases in size from the flood waters from the Susquehanna River, Buffalo Creek and Bull Run.

A strip of land from 5th to 2nd streets, extending one to two blocks to the south was the only place available to police and fire crews, as the entire downtown area was flooded.

The boroughs fire house became inoperative early Friday evening. The fire trucks were removed until the station dried out.

The Signma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house, on St George St

The 16th st area near Moore Business forms was covered with gas and oil and was being evacuated. The fire department, as well as locals with boats, were helping to remove people living in that area.

The crest at Lewisburg was reached early Friday morning.

The National Guard had arrived on Thursday, with their all terrain troop carrier, to help with rescue operations in Lewisburg.

Huge oil tanks, broken loose from the Oil Co. floated through McClure’s meadow, as well as bales of peat moss from Agway. 

Along River Road

Along River Road

A group of boy scouts from Wisconsin, who were touring the east coast, and camping near Lewisburg, were rescued by the National Guard after being stranded for two days.

Betty Lou McClure recalls that the mud was thick and slimy and oily – many oil tanks had tipped over in basements, and Lewisburg had no water for 2 days so people began to wash out mud using cellar water or river water.

Mennonites and Amish flocked to Lewisburg to help with clean up efforts.  A group of Mennonites stayed for more than a week to "help get Lewisburg back into a livable condition"

Of the Seven Flood Related Deaths In Our Area, 

Four Were In Lewisburg

It was on this day that Gordon Hufnagle drowned on Bull Run in Lewisburg. Hufnagle was the safety director for Lewisburg, and he was in the process of rescuing Mr & Mrs Joseph Murphy of S. Sixth street, when their boat capsized near St Catherine St. Police Chief Donald Heiter saw Mrs Murphy in the water, and and Hufnagle hanging on to the boat, when a current caught the boat and whipped it into the railroad underpass. Mr Murphy was found hanging to a tree limb in the area of south 6th street. He was taken to the hospital, where he was treated and released, but later died at the home of his son. (That's how Hufnagle Park got it's name)

In addition, Mrs William E. Minium of St Anthony st was trapped in her basement when the cellar walls collapsed. She was still missing at press time. A diver was attempting to reach her. 

See more about the creation of Hufnagle park here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2019/06/hufnagle-park.html

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An Overview & Time Line Of The 1972 Flood

Photos & Stories By Town:

Danville   Lewisburg   Milton    Montandon     Montgomery

Muncy     Sunbury     Watsontown/White Deer/Dewart     Williamsport

Officer Down - When A Flood Created A Park

When Sunbury Got A Flood Wall

Odd & Incredible Tales From The 72 Flood
Officer Down - When A Flood Created A Park In Lewisburg

More Susquehanna Valley River Floods 

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Across the River Bridge, Mays was completely under water