Main Street in Nordmont, PA
Taken in the Early 1950s
Photo Contributed by Scott W. Tilden
Source: A Kodak Postcard Auctioned on eBay in March 2016
Main Street in Nordmont, PA
Taken in the Early 1950s
Photo Contributed by Scott W. Tilden
Source: A Kodak Postcard Auctioned on eBay in March 2016
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Published by Grit Publishing Company, Williamsport, PA |
Hillsgrove Ranger Station
An Overview and History of the Forest Lands Near
Hillsgrove
Onsite Historical Panel
Note: The story of the forest, lumber industry and Civilian Conservation Corps
camps are all addressed below in this local
history.
Prepared by Aaron D. Young, Forester, Loyalsock State Forest, 2014
Click on above link to see the panel.
Nature Lavishly Endowed Sullivan County for Recreation
SULLIVAN COUNTY--heart of the Endless Mountains--scene of some of Nature's finest splendors and grandeurs--the sportsmen's paradise. Nestled in Northern Pennsylvania is this matchless region, primeval to large extent, yet close to populous centers. Good roads built in the last few years have opened Sullivan County to the tourist and the vacationer--to the man and the woman who appreciate the beauties of Nature unspoiled by the clumsy hand of man. These roads are now being extended to the remote sections of the county, opening up spectacles the like of which are not to be found anywhere else in Eastern America. Nature was lavish in her endowment of Sullivan County with majestic mountains, sparkling lakes, rippling streams, picturesque waterfalls, entrancing glens, vast forests, and rolling meadows. Man in his march of progress has left much of this beauty unmarred, unsullied. Sullivan County today offers to the people of Pennsylvania and the entire East the best of Nature's matchless beauties.
Words are altogether impotent to paint the beauties of the Endless Mountain region; photographs fall far short of portraying the grandeur. Only in the visions themselves can one grasp the real picture. The entire county lies at an altitude varying from fifteen hundred to twenty-five hundred feet. Perched atop these mountains is Eagles Mere Lake, at the borough of the same name, and Lake Mokoma, at Laporte, the county seat. Both of these lakes are crystal pure mountain water. Lake Ganoga, Elk Lake, Hunters Lake and other smaller lakes dot the county. The headwaters of the Big Loyalsock and the Little Loyalsock, uniting at Forksville, of Muncy Creek, of Mehoopany and Towanda Creeks are found in the mountains of Sullivan County. Among the smaller streams are Bear Creek, Shanerburg Creek, Mackeys Run, Trout Run, Double Run, Bully Run, Ogdonia Creek, Pole Ridge Run, Kettle Creek, Rusty Run and Schraeders Creek. Nearly all of these streams have their falls, some of considerable height, as they wind their way down through the mountains to add their waters to those of larger rivers. Aside from their scenic beauty they abound in brook and brown trout that have an irresistible appeal to the sportsman.
SULLIVAN COUNTY COURT HOUSE AT LAPORTEThe thousands of acres of woodland are the natural home of the deer and the bear, the pheasant and the partridge, the rabbit and all other small game. The Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters owns about forty thousand acres of forest land, and the State Game Commission has an additional thirty-five thousand acres, nearly one-fourth the entire area of the county. Hunting and fishing are permitted on these state-owned lands, under certain restrictions, and land may be leased for the erection of permanent cabins. Development of the remaining area of the county by individuals and private clubs rather than by the state is being urged by the residents of the county. Tracts of any size up to several thousand acres on which there are lakes, trout streams and almost unlimited game are available. For the vacationer who wants only a cabin site along a stream, thousands of these can be found in all parts of the county. The man who wants a cottage at the lake where there is lots of activity during the summer months can't help but be pleased at either Lake Mokoma or Eagles Mere.
Camp Tents at Lake Mokoma
Postcard Photo 1910
Contributed by Scott W. Tilden
Source: An Old RPPC Postcard Auctioned on eBay in June 2012If it's recreation, outdoors, health, fishing, hunting, real back-to-nature life that one wants, all these can be found in Sullivan County. Eagles Mere, widely famous for its many fine hotels and pretentious cottages, has attracted summer visitors from Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, New York and other cities for more than half a century. Lake Mokoma, more recently brought to the attention of vacationers from a distance, is being built up rapidly, many fine cottages having been erected around the shore in the last few years. The Loyalsock and other creeks boast some beautiful cottages although most of the summer visitors along these streams erect small cabins where they live and enjoy the simple life, fishing, swimming, eating and sleeping to their heart's content the summer through, with a minimum of household worries. Thus Sullivan County provides the full gamut of summer recreation--from the modern hotel with every service and convenience to the simple cabin where all is carefree.
Whether it be on the mountaintop, at the lakes, or along the streams, the beauties of nature are at every hand. Half a mile in most any direction and the scene may be entirely changed, so varying and plentiful are the charms of Sullivan County. Because of the altitude of more than two thousand feet at Lake Mokoma and Eagles Mere, the location is especially beneficial in cases of asthma and hay fever. In nearly every instance it has been found that if persons subject to these summer diseases will go to the mountains of Sullivan County before they become affected they will escape the attack entirely or have it in only very light form.
What a rare combination Sullivan County thus affords. Unsurpassed natural scenery, of almost every variety; fishing and hunting that cannot be equaled anywhere else in this region; swimming, boating, canoeing, golf--everything in recreation. The summer months with the luxuries of a modern hotel or the "rough it" of a creekside cabin--all these and more await the vacationer in Sullivan County.
For the year-round, permanent resident in Sullivan County there are advantages comparable to those offered the summer visitor. The beauties that Nature placed there are his to enjoy, though because they are right at hand all the time, often they are not fully appreciated. The healthful climate gives life a zest that makes living worth while. Agriculture and dairying are developed to a highly efficient plane. The county is underlaid with valuable mineral deposits, of which coal is the only one developed to any degree. The coal mined in Sullivan County is a free-burning anthracite of high heat value and lasting quality. General belief in sections surrounding Sullivan County is that the coal mined there is soft coal, but such is not the fact. Surveys made by geologists show valuable deposits of clay in various parts of the county, and conditions are regarded as favorable for the finding of gas and oil in the anticline that crosses the county diagonally from southwest to northeast.
The Chamber of Commerce, with headquarters at Dushore, was organized in 1928 for the express purpose of bringing to the people of a widely surrounding region the splendid natural advantages as well as the opportunities for business and industry that await in the Endless Mountain section. Not only have business and professional men affiliated themselves with this new organization, but agriculturists and dairymen, appreciating that the beauties and charms of Sullivan have too long gone unknown, are joined in this concerted movement whose aim it is to attract not summer guests alone but also permanent residents who will engage in business, start industries, take up farming or dairying, or engage in any other occupation that will result in increased population, increased consumption of all products and commodities, and increased prosperity for the county in general.
Since the decline of the lumber and tanning industries, the population has gradually decreased. Many of the younger people have gone elsewhere to seek employment that might have been provided them at home. Industrial opportunities only await stimulation. But it is in recreation and sports that the greatest future for the county lies, in the best opinion of those who know Sullivan County. No finer country is to be found anywhere, the scenery is unsurpassed, the climate is remarkably healthful in the high altitude, the lakes and streams provide the best of recreation, the sportsman is right in his heaven whether it's big or small game, birds or fish that he seeks.
Whether it's an estate of several hundred or thousand acres, with private trout streams and hunting lands; a home around a lake where the restrictions insure congenial acquaintances, or the more rustic life of a cabin along a rippling creek, Sullivan County can provide it, with natural beauties lavishly spread as are to be found nowhere else. Sullivan County greets the recreation and sports lover with a warm welcome.
SCENES ALONG THE LOYALSOCK
Internal Captions:
Loyalsock Creek Near Hillsgrove (upper left)
Lincoln Falls and Gorge (upper right)
Dutchman's Falls Near Ringdale (lower left)
Whirl's End and Bridge* (lower right)
*Note: The author calls this feature "Whirl's End" instead of its currently used name: "World's End".
The former name was used from 1932 to 1943 when the latter became the formal name of the waterway and associated state park.
World's End State Park
Postcard Dated 1951
Contributed by Carol Brotzman
Auctioned on eBay December 2002Pioneers Carved Sullivan County From Vast Forest
SULLIVAN COUNTY was set up March 15, 1847, the area being taken entirely from Lycoming County. As early as 1820 a petition had been sent to the Legislature to organize Lewis County containing all of present Sullivan and three townships in Eastern Lycoming, with the county seat to be at Mount Lewis, now Eagles Mere. George Lewis, Edward J. Eldred, William King and William Molyneaux were the moving factors at that time. Further agitation was begun in 1845 by Dr. Josiah Jackson, Secku Meylert, William Colley, Daniel Fairchild, David H. Goodwin and Isaiah Bartley, their proposed territory to include a part of Bradford County.
Another petition was presented in 1847, on which the legislature acted favorably, and the county seat was located at Laporte, on a plateau in the center of a, dense forest. Secku Meylert, who owned thirty thousand acres of land at Laporte, offered to give the land for the court house and a public square, and clear the same and erect suitable buildings to hold court in. He died before the county was organized, but his son, Michael Meylert, carried out the father's plan.
The first election in the county took place the second Tuesday in October, 1847, and 463 votes were cast, the Democrats winning over the Whigs by a majority of 180. The first court of quarter sessions and common pleas was convened in the Evangelical Church at Cherry Hill, June 5, 1848, Judge J. B. Anthony, of Williamsport, presiding. It adjourned because Laporte had been named the county seat, and Cherry Hill was nine miles distant. Court was convened in Laporte, December 25, 1848, in a hotel erected by Michael Meylert. Protests against the location of the county seat at Laporte resulted in the Legislature appointing two commissions to review the matter. The first commission returned the county seat to Cherry Hill, after also considering Forksville, but the second review board decided in favor of Laporte. Michael Meylert erected a brick court house which was occupied in 1852.
Only six families lived in Laporte at the time; the three roads into the county seat were barely passable; miles of dense forests stretched beyond the small clearing, and it was twenty-eight miles to the nearest railroad.
David Wilmot was the first president judge in the Thirteenth Judicial District, comprising Bradford, Sullivan and Susquehanna Counties; John A. Speaker and William Colley were the first associate judges in Sullivan. Michael Meylert was member of assembly for Sullivan, Susquehanna and Wyoming Counties. The present court house at Laporte was erected in 1894.
The area comprising Sullivan County, lying between the North and West Branches of the Susquehanna, was long known as the "highlands." Settlement was later than along the river. Indians gathered in strongholds in the mountains and from the dense forest fastnesses often swooped down upon the earlier inhabitants. Daniel Ogden, who settled at Hillsgrove in 1786, made a clearing and built a house and a small grist mill, was probably the first white resident. He remained only a few years.
Under the laws of Pennsylvania land could be purchased from 1792 until 1814 at six and three-quarters cents an acre, to which was added the costof warrant and survey. Although the law allowed only four hundred acres to be sold to any individual, buyers evaded it by buying under different warrant names, and a few capitalists obtained vast tracts into thousands of acres.
One of the most noted attempts to settle on the wild lands of Sullivan County was made by the French, but it did not prove successful. During the French Revolution a large group of Royalists who had escaped to America took steps to purchase 200,000 acres of land in what is now Sullivan, Bradford, Wyoming and Lycoming Counties, 100,000 acres of which was along the Loyalsock. The Royalists were later invited to return to their native France, and the Sullivan County project was abandoned.
Much of the land of what is now Sullivan County was acquired by Samuel Wallis, who had settled at Muncy, and by Joseph Priestley, of Sunbury, famed discoverer of oxygen and friend of Franklin and Jefferson. Joseph Priestley, Jr., after his father's death, bought many of the Wallis warrants. He sent William Molyneaux, Powell Bird and John Warren to make a clearing near the Forks of the Loyalsock in 1794, and they brought their families the next year, locating at Millview, the first permanent settlement in the county. Mary Powell was the first woman who baked bread in Sullivan County, and Rebecca Bird Molyneaux, grandmother of County Commissioner Herbert L. Molyneaux, was the first white person born within the county.
Three of Eagles Mere's Fine Summer Hotels:
The Lakeside (left)
Crestmont Inn (bottom)
Forest Inn (right)
Editor's Note: We are grateful to Fred Holmes for correcting our original identifications of these hotels. Fred sent us this information in April 2006Samuel Rogers, Sr., and his sons, Samuel, William and Jonathan, erected a large woolen mill on the creek near Forksville, which they operated until it was totally destroyed in the great flood of 1816. They had been woolen weavers in England, and operated the first power looms used in Pennsylvania, making kersey cloth which was worn by the American army in the War of 1812. An iron kettle used for dyeing the yarn may now be seen in the yard at the home of Fred M. Rogers, in Forksville.
MILLVIEW
SITE OF FIRST PERMANENT SETTLEMENT IN SULLIVAN COUNTYCharles Walstoncraft acquired many of the Samuel Wallis warrants in 1794 and later that year sold 10,217 acres on the top of the mountain, including a large lake, to George Lewis, a wealthy Englishman residing in New York, who conducted the American branch of a London importing firm and was also engaged in buying real estate for English capitalists. Eagles Mere borough and lake are part of the Lewis tract. Mr. Lewis visited the lake in 1803 and returned the next year to establish a glass works, which became a thriving business. He erected a stone factory and several stone and frame houses, and during the War of 1812 the glass plant prospered, even though the product had to be hauled to Philadelphia over the most primitive of roads and trails. Mount Lewis, as it was then called, was the first village in Sullivan County, having a population of two hundred and fifty inhabitants in 1816. Theophilus Little, Sr., acquired a thousand acres about a mile from the lake, in 1799.
Western Sullivan County was settled largely by the English, while Germans and Irish predominated in the eastern part. All were hardy pioneers, strongly religious, and preaching services were conducted in the homes, from an early date. Methodist missionaries visited the region at intervals as early as 1798, and a Friends' meeting house was erected at Eldredsville in 1805. In the eastern end of the county Lutheran and Roman Catholic organizations were formed. Later, the German Reformed, United Evangelical and other denominational organizations were effected, and church buildings erected.
The first building erected in the county for school purposes was at the Forks, on half an acre of land conveyed by Mrs. Sarah Huckell in 1816. A bee for clearing the land took place July 4, and school opened December 1, 1816, with John Warburton the first teacher. A Sunday School was established in Elkland in 1819, the organization continuing for twenty-three years. School began at 8 or 9 in the morning and continued until 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Reading, writing and the fundamentals of account were taught, with a two-hour intermission when there might be preaching.
For a century lumbering was the chief industry of Sullivan County, with tanning a close second. The white pine timber was cut first, sawed into lumber and floated in huge rafts down the Loyalsock to market. Later the hemlock and hardwood was cut, the bark being used in the tanneries of the county and the timber shipped to far distant points. The first steam whistle sounded in the county was on the sawmill of Michael Meylert at Laporte in 1852. Prior to that time all the mills had been run by water power. The tannery at Laporte was built in 1859, at Muncy Valley in 1867, Thornedale in 1868 and Hillsgrove about 1875. They are all abandoned and the buildings in ruins now.
Beaver Damn Near Ricketts
Internal captions:
Mansion on Ricketts' Estate
Drive Through Snow Laden Pines
Summer Home of Judge McLean
State Forest Inspector Cox
Lake Ganoga on Ricketts' EstateThe first highway built in Sullivan County was the Genesee Road, in 1800, from Muncy to Wolf Run, Huntersville, Highland Lake, down Ogdonia Creek to the Loyalsock, up that stream to Elk Creek, Lincoln Falls, over the ridge to Kings Creek, thence eastward over Burnetts Ridge and down Shrader Branch and Towanda Creek connecting with other roads to the Tioga River and thence into New York State. Early road builders tried to follow the shortest route, without regard for steep grades. The Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike, "by the best and nearest route" from Berwick to the state line nearest Newtown (Elmira) was built from Berwick by way of the Long Pond to the Loyalsock a mile below Ringdale in 1809 and extended to the county line in 1810. Other roads were built as the population grew and settlements sprung up.
The State Line and Sullivan Railroad was completed from Monroeton to Bernice in 1871, after four years of work. Arrangements had been made to use the Barclay tracks from Monroeton to Towanda, and the railroad provided an outlet for the coal from the Bernice mines, then being opened up. In 1886 the Lehigh Valley, which had leased the railroad, extended the line from Bernice to Lopez and later to Harveys Lake. The Williamsport and North Branch Railroad, chartered as the Muncy Creek Railroad, was built from Halls to three miles beyond Hughesville in 1866-67, and by 1885 had reached six miles into Sullivan County, with the eastern terminus at Sonestown. In 1888 the road was completed to Nordmont, and extended to Satterfield in 1893, connecting there with the Lehigh Valley. This provided railroad facilities for Laporte, the objective of Michael Meylert when he had organized the first company twenty-seven years before. The Eagles Mere Railroad, narrow gauge, was built from Sonestown to Eagles Mere in 1892, and later extended around the lake.
When Sullivan County was organized in 1847 it consisted of Shrewsbury, Elkland, Cherry, Davidson, Forks, Fox and Plunketts Creek (now Hillsgrove) Townships. Plunketts Creek Township, part of one of the same name in Lycoming County, continued to be so called until 1856, when the Court changed the name to Hillsgrove. Colley Township was organized in 1849 and Laporte Township in 1850. Of the four boroughs in Sullivan County, Laporte was incorporated in 1853, Dushore in 1859, Forksville in 1880 and Eagles Mere in 1899. Sullivan County has an area of 458 square miles, being the fiftieth in the state in area. Its population in 1930 was 7,499, sixty-fourth in the state. Laporte, with a population of 163, is the smallest county seat town in Pennsylvania. Its court house stands the highest above sea level of any in the Commonwealth. There were 3,816 registered voters in the county in 1930.
Coal mining is the principal industry of Sullivan County today, with agriculture and dairying a close second. The coal mined in the county is a high grade anthracite, free burning,high in heat units, and of lasting quality. Because it is dull in appearance, it is not regarded as highly in Pennsylvania as the shiny coal, but is preferred in the markets of Northern New York, New England and Canada.
Along the Loyalsock and some of the other streams there are farms that have been brought to a high state of cultivation, producing excellent crops in record quantity. The eastern end of the county is a shale soil, also fine for farming. Most of the farmers have large dairies of purebred cows, ready market for the milk being found at the plant of Harrington and Company in Dushore. County Commissioner Frank V. Roye this year established a record of 1,605 bushels of Russet seed potatoes on a three-acre field, through the scientific use of sprays, and also cut four tons of hay to an acre, grown through the generous application of nitrate of soda. His purebred Holstein herd has had a yearly average of 11,200 pounds of milk and 361 pounds of butter fat. Throughout the county farming and dairying are conducted along modern, scientific lines, with generally satisfactory results.
Sullivan County together with Wyoming form the Forty-fourth Judicial District, of which the Hon. Charles E. Terry, of Tunkhannock, is president judge. Floye A. Davis, of Sonestown, and Albert L. Dyer, of Lopez, are the associate judges. Mrs. Davis gives an added distinction to Sullivan County in that she is the only woman in Pennsylvania to have been elected and sworn in as associate judge. Other county officials are: Edward Meehan, sheriff; J. H. Thayer, prothonotary, register and recorder, and clerk of the several courts; Francis W. Meylert, treasurer; Frank V. Roye, Herbert L. Molyneaux and Francis T. McMahon, county commissioners and poor directors; Albert F. Heess, district attorney; Thomas J. Cavanaugh and Charles S. Kilmer, jury commissioners; Martin B. Obert, J. Rovilo Mulnix and Joseph C. Lusch, auditors. Mr. Meylert is also county solicitor. Regular terms of court in Sullivan County are convened in April, June, September and November. Sullivan County is a part of the Fifteenth Congressional District, represented in Congress by Louis T. McFadden, of Canton, Bradford County. Charles W. Sones, of Williamsport, is the state senator from the Twenty-fourth District, comprising Sullivan, Lycoming, Columbia and Montour Counties.
MAURICE J. HARRINGTONOutstanding among the figures in the present-day development of Sullivan County is Maurice J. Harrington, of Dushore. Mr. Harrington is president of Harrington and Company, milk plant operators and ice cream manufacturers, with which he has been associated since 1907, after completing a creamery course at Pennsylvania State College. When the company was incorporated in 1919 he became president. He has taken an active part in the encouragement and development of the agricultural and dairy interests of the county, which has resulted in better crops and increased milk production. Mr. Harrington also is president of the Sullivan Silk Company, at Dushore, and greatly interested in every project for the general betterment of Sullivan County.
TICKLISH ROCKSullivan County boasts many scenic beauties and not a few of Nature's curiosities. Ticklish Rock, atop Pocono Knob in the western part of the county close to the Lycoming line, is regarded as one of the greatest freaks of Nature in this entire region. The rock is a large sandstone formation shaped somewhat like a goose egg, and is estimated to weigh fifty or sixty tons. It stands on the very edge of a precipice, supported by a slim, natural column about ten feet high. By pushing against the rock with one's hands it can be made to tremble perceptibly--but that's a "ticklish" job when standing underneath. The view from the rock is a superb panorama, and the sight is one well worth the effort to climb to the lofty pinnacle.
FRANCIS W. MEYLERTNo man in all Sullivan County is more widely known and more highly regarded than Francis W. Meylert, of Laporte, the present county treasurer. He is a grandson of Secku Meylert, important factor in the setting up of Sullivan County and the selection of Laporte as county seat, and a son of William Meylert, who helped to build the new county and preserved much valuable information on its early history. In his young manhood Mr. Meylert taught school for several terms; later he studied law, was admitted to the bar and practiced in Laporte. He served four terms as deputy county treasurer, and last year was elected treasurer. He is also the county solicitor.
Check Drawn on First National Bank of Dushore
Written by M. A. Rogers in 1899
Item Posted for Sale on eBay in 2007
Photo Contributed Courtesy of Carol Brotzman
FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF DUSHORE
Assets of $1,350,116.71 and total deposits of $1,05l,433.31 attest to the financial stability of the First National Bank of Dushore, builded over a period of forty years with service and courtesy the guiding factors. The bank is capitalized at $50,000 with a surplus of $100,000. The last statement showed undivided profits of $66,251.35.
Twenty Dollar Bank Note
Issued by First National Bank of Dushore in 1929
Item Posted for Sale on eBay in May 2003
Photo Contributed Courtesy of Carol Brotzman
A special feature of the bank's equipment is its Safe Deposit Department, which contains two large sections of modern steel safe deposit boxes.
Officers of the bank are Fisher Welles*, president; John D. Reeser, vice president; B. F. Crossley, cashier; R. I. Rush, assistant cashier. Directors are H. M. Kellogg, Lopez; A. F. Heess, Laporte; John D. Reeser, Dushore; Clayton Welles*, Dushore; Fisher Welles, Wyalusing; Samuel Cole, Dushore; B. F. Crossley, Dushore; James P. McGee, Lopez.
Besides Cashier Crossley, the personnel of the bank includes
Raymond I. Rush, W. Floyd Kast, Clayton Welles and William Gilmore.
Mr. Crossley has been with the bank thirty-eight years. Mr. Gilmore
was formerly cashier of the First National Bank of Mildred, which was
combined with the First National of Dushore, last May.
*Editor's Note: The Welles family played a significant
role in the economic history and development of banking, lumber,
coal, railroads and other businesses in Sullivan and Bradford
Counties in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The origins of the family ancestry are related
in Bradsby's History of
Bradford County (1891):
Letter to Charles Fisher Welles
Athens, PA 1845
This folded letter sheet inside a stampless letter carried a circular date stamp for ATHENS Pa of JUL 30, 1845 and a matching 5 cent rate in a circle. Addressed to C.F. Welles, Wyalusing, the one page letter was written by Charles to 'Dear Father'. The content refers to a bank note from the Bank of Owego [NY], and expresses a desire by the author, Charles Welles, to have "one of the boys, say Geo Henry or M H" take the note to Fitch & Ely tomorrow and get them to sign it and pay what money they can. The letter also mentions "....an addition to the name of Wilks in the form of a fine fat healthy boy at our house yesterday. Mother & boy both doing very well ..."
Item Posted for Sale on eBay in February 2008
Photo Contributed Courtesy of Carol Brotzman
Our protagonist, Charles Fisher Welles, son of Charles Fisher and Eleanor
Jones (Hollenbach) Welles, moved to Wyalusing from Towanda
and founded the Welles Mill Company, one of the oldest
established businesses there. You can learn more about the
Hollenbachs and their complex relationship with the Welles
family at George Hollenbach
of Pennsylvania. His grandson, Fisher Welles, was
on the board of directors of the First National Bank
of Dushore when it was first formed and was still serving
there at the time of this publication in 1933, as was Clayton Welles.
In 1900, The Wyalusing Township Directory listed the following family members:
Welles, George H., r 52 ½, (Welles Mills Co.) (M. H. & G. H. Welles) 30 reg Short horn cattle, farmer 660
Welles, Lincoln, r 52 ½, manager with G. H. Welles
Welles, M. H. & G. H., (Matthias H. of Elmira, NY, deceased, and George H.), r 52 ½, manufs of pine, hemlock, and hard wood lumber and farm contractors, mills in Terry, office at R.R. crossing r 52 ½
Welles Mill Company, r 52 ½, George H. Welles propr, merchant miller
Here is a Tax Map of Wyalusing and Camptown, dated 1868 [Source: U.S. County Land Ownership Atlases, c. 1864-1918]; the Welles family was prominent from early on in this area. Eventually, Fisher Welles appears in the 1880 census for Wyalusing, Bradford County, PA as follows:
George H. WELLES Self M Male W 58 PA Farmer PA
PA
Laura A. WELLES Wife M Female W 48 NY Keeping
House NY NY
Virginia WELLES Dau S Female W 21 PA At
home --- ---
Lincoln WELLES Son S Male W 19 PA
Farmer --- ---
Elnor WELLES Dau S Female W 18 PA At
home --- ---
Margaret WELLES Dau S Female W 14 PA At
school --- ---
Fisher WELLES Son S Male W 12 PA At
school --- ---
Georgia WELLES Dau S Female W 4 PA --- ---
Patrick DONAVIN Other S Male W 30 IRE Farmer
IRE IRE
Julia SHAFER Other S Female W 24 PA Servant PA
PA
Martha HUFFMAN Other S Female W 22 PA Servant
PA PA
Fisher Welles, son of George Hollenbeck and Laura Amanda (Sloat) Welles, was married to Clare (Kintner) Welles on March 7, 1890. In the 1900 Federal census for Wyalusing, they have three children, including Fisher Welles, Jr, born in 1891. This family is living right next to the family of Fisher, Sr.'s parents, George H. and Laura Welles, still with four children living at home. In the 1910 Wyalusing Federal census, Fisher Welles, Sr. and his wife have five children: Fisher, Jr., Clayton, John R., Clare K. and Isabel K. Welles. We know that Fisher Welles, Jr. married Florence Vaughn on October 16, 1913, and by 1920 this couple had three children of their own, per the Wyalusing Federal census for that year: Betty, George H. [yet again!] and Barbara. By that same year, Fisher, Sr. has lost his wife, who died in December 1914. There is also a separate household listing for "Marguerite Welles", age 53, perhaps the sister of Fisher, Sr. listed as "Margaret", a daughter in the family of George H. and Laura Welles, in the 1880 census excerpt reproduced above.
Fisher Welles, Sr. continued to be active in Sullivan County business for many years thereafter. He was apparently a man of character, and well respected by those who knew and worked with him. An example of his style of doing business can be found in an anecdote reported in Golden Childhoold Memories of Wyalusing. The son mentioned in this story, Clayton "Cappy" Welles, is the same individual listed above as a bank official in Dushore.
Even until the end of the twentieth century, the Welles family remained conspicuous in their endeavors. Here is an obituary published in 2000 for George H. Welles, the son of Fisher Welles, Jr. that is indicative of this zest for life:
Towanda, PA
February 2000
: George Welles died peacefully in his sleep on Wednesday, February 16, 2000.
George was a fifth generation Welles, born in 1916 to Fisher and Florence Welles in Wyalusing, Pa. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1941 and served 24 years in the Army before retiring in 1965 to take the job of Assistant Commandant at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, N.M. He retired from NMMI in 1980 and remained in Roswell, until his death.
George is survived by his wife, Sallie, whom he married in Hawaii in 1942; four children, Vicki and her husband, Ray of Salinas, CA, Penny of San Francisco, CA, Connie of Las Cruces, NM and Jim and his wife, Kelly of Albuquerque, NM; eight grandchildren; three great-grandchildren and a sister, Barbara Brooks of Newport News, VA. A second son, George, III, preceded him in death in 1993.
It was George's wish that there be no memorial service. A private service will be held at the National Cemetery in Santa Fe, where George's ashes will be interred with his son, George, III. Contributions in George's memory may be made to the NM Rehabilitation Center, 31 Gail Harris Ave., Roswell, NM.
Throughout his remarkable 83+ years, "Curious" George shared his gift of humor and childlike adventures with friends, family and perfect strangers. Life was never dull when George was around. And when his bright blue eyes took on that "extra sparkle," everyone knew George was up to something. His playfulness and zest for life were contagious. And the common memory we all share of George is that he lightened many moments with the gift of laughter. If you've noticed that the stars are twinkling a bit brighter recently, 'tis more than likely a sign that George is greeting past friends and family and creating a bit of a fun-loving commotion with his new halo and wings. We can only imagine!
In celebration of his life and his love of laughter, friends and family are invited to send one of their fondest memories of a personal "Adventure with George Welles" to be read at his service in Santa Fe, NM.
Letters to: Sallie Welles, 2611 N. Kentucky, #108, Roswell, NM 88201.
The following members of the Wells family are buried at the Wyalusing Cemetery in that community:
B.F. CROSSLEY, R.I. RUSH, W. FLOYD KAST, CLAYTON WELLES, WILLIAM GILMORE
RAINBOW ESTATE
Greater compliment could not be paid Sullivan County's recreational advantages than that given by L. E. Phipps, who after traveling around the world sixteen times and residing in China, Japan, India, and various parts of the United States, has chosen Eagles Mere for his summer home, and is expending a hundred thousand dollars or more in the erection of a magnificent cottage at Rainbow Estate and the landscaping and beautification of his four-hundred-acre holding.
Mr. Phipps is an exporter, with offices at 1 Park Place, New York City. His winter home is in Englewood, N. J. He has been coming to Eagles Mere for the last fifteen summers, and built a fine cottage in the park. Three years ago, after the death of Mrs. Amelia Brill Riddle, he purchased Rainbow and since has carried on an extensive development, employing more than a hundred men at times on the project. The new cottage will be ready for occupancy next summer.
The cottage will be one hundred feet long, with the walls of mountain stone set in ruble masonry and roof of hand-split shingles tinted purple. The exterior woodwork will be Northern white pine, painted white. The cottage overlooks a seven-acre lake impounded by a ruble-masonry dam twenty-five feet high. Rusty Run traverses the estate. Rainbow Falls, from which the property takes its name, is a beautiful cascade dropping thirty-five feet over rough stones into a charming glen. The entire estate is enclosed in an eight-foot, dog-proof fence, and a herd of eighty or more deer, many of them tame, roam the woods. The lake has been stocked with trout, and several thousand young trees have been planted.
Mr. and Mrs. George L. Moyer have been caretakers at Rainbow for three years, occupying Deer Lodge at the entrance to the estate. Mr. Moyer oversees the entire estate, patrols the enclosure during the hunting season, and supervises much of the outdoor work. Last winter he fed three tons of grain to the deer, many of which came to the Lodge for apples, carrots and other tidbits.
Frank S. Little is general contractor for the new cottage, employing crews of twenty-five or more stone masons and carpenters on the work. Clayton R. Dunham has had charge of the outside work, including excavating for the cottage cellar. He dredged the lake, built the dam and retaining wall, graded the grounds, and walled up several springs with attractive mountain stone settings. C. E. Bigger was the electrical contractor, and Ritter and Oberrender did the painting and decorating. William McClintock, of Hughesville, an expert in stone masonry, was consultant and adviser on the fireplaces and exterior masonry. The Vallamont Planing Mill Company, of Williamsport, supplied the exterior millwork, which was all genuine Northern white pine of the finest quality. Interior finish was from the A. C. Everhart Planing Mill Company, of Williamsport, the living room, dining room and all paneled fireplaces and mantles being of sound knotted white pine.
RAINBOW ESTATE AT EAGLES MERE
Internal Captions:
View of Lake and Dam from Cottage (upper left)
Rainbow Falls (center)
Mr. and Mrs. L.E. Phipps (upper right)
Winter View Across Lake (lower left)
Handsome New Phipps Cottage (lower right)
RAINBOW ESTATE AT EAGLES MERE
Internal Captions:
Truck Used on Estate (upper left)
Raccoons Are Friendly Fellows (upper right)
Mr. and Mrs. George L. Moyer, Caretakers, and Daughter (lower left)
Deer on Estate Are Tame (lower right)
RAINBOW ESTATE AT EAGLES MERE
Internal Captions:
Ritter and Oberrender, Painters and Decorators
(upper left)
C.E. Bigger and Sons, Electricians and Plumbers (upper right)
Clayton R. Dunham's Grounds Crew (center)
Frank S. Little's Masons and Carpenters (bottom pictures)
Concrete Highway Traverses Sullivan County (upper left)
New Road on Loyalsock Approach (upper right)
Along Famed Loyalsock Creek (lower left)
Northern Section of Sullivan County (lower right)
FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF LAPORTE
Although its assets of $182,842.91 do not mark it as a big institution, the First National Bank of Laporte is a valuable business asset to the county seat and a great convenience to the people of a widely surrounding section. Its depositors include residents of nearly every borough and township in the county. The bank was established September 9, 1909, and has always merited the full confidence of the public.
Officers of the First National Bank of Laporte are: Raymond D. Kehrer, president; Harvey R. Taylor and J. William Moran, vice presidents; Alfred D. Helsman, cashier; Harmon L. Gavitt, assistant cashier. The directors are: Raymond G. Karge, Raymond D. Kehrer, William C. Mason, Francis W. Meylert, J. William Moran, E. J. Mullen, and Harvey R. Taylor.
In its twenty-four years this bank has had but three presidents and three cashiers. Hon. Thomas J. Ingham was the first president, continuing until his death, when he was succeeded by Dr. J. L. Christman. Mr. Kehrer was elected president when Dr. Christman moved from the county. Edward Ladley, now president of the First National Bank of Williamsport, was the first cashier, succeeded by Thomas B. Lawler, and later by Mr. Helsman.
ALFRED D. HELSMAN, CASHIER
HARMON L. GAVITT, ASSISTANT
EAGLES MERE
Eagles Mere as a summer resort has been famous for more than half a century, attracting an exclusive patronage from Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and other eastern cities. Modern hotels, noted for their cuisine and service, have had an important part in this development, attracting and holding year after year hundreds of guests. Many of the cottages are pretentious structures, with grounds beautifully landscaped and cared for. Eagles Mere is one of the outstanding summer resorts of the East, its altitude making it especially healthful and its recreational features so varied as to appeal to all ages. Winter sports, including skating, tobogganing, skiing and coasting, have become popular in the last few years.
In the development of Eagles Mere the Kirk family has taken a leading part. John S. Kirk, suffering from asthma, boarded at the lake during the summers of 1878 and '79, finding that he "could breathe there." In 1880 he erected a cottage on the site of the present Lakeside, and at the urge of Philadelphia friends built it large enough to accommodate a few guests. Demands increased year after year, and additions were made, ultimately resulting in the Lakeside of today, with accommodations for two hundred and fifty guests. Since the death of Mr. Kirk, his son and daughter, Henry E.Kirk, Sr., and Miss Katharine Kirk, have conducted the Lakeside and its cottages. After the death of Congressman Edgar R. Kiess *, who had been another outstanding figure in Eagles Mere life, Henry E. Kirk, Jr., took over the Forest Inn and Casino, the Raymond and the bathing beach.
* Editor's Note: Here is a biographical sketch of Edgar Raymond Kiess:
Ernest Von Ingham was another Eagles Mere pioneer, purchasing from Henry VanEtten a small hotel in 1879 which he enlarged and conducted for many years as the Point Breeze House. Mr. Ingham is credited with issuing the first circulars advertising Eagles Mere as a summer resort. The Point Breeze House is now the Edgemere, moved to a new location. After selling the Point Breeze Mr. Ingham acquired the Eagles Mere Inn, which Mrs. Ingham still conducts.
Crestmont Hotel
Eagles Mere, PA
Lithograph Style Photo
Postmarked 1908 on Back Side
Contributed by Scott W. Tilden
Source: An Old Postcard Auctioned on eBay in August 2015
Crestmont Inn was erected and opened in 1900 by William Y. Warner, of Philadelphia. Standing high over the lake, the Crestmont, accommodating two hundred and fifty guests, has always enjoyed a wide popularity. The hotel has been owned by the Woods family for many years, and William Woods is the manager. Raymond D. Kehrer, Eagles Mere merchant, has long been interested in the development of the mountain resort as a stockholder in the Eagles Mere Land Company and the Eagles Mere Boat Company, and together with the Kirks controls a large part of the real estate around the lake.
Here is another view taken about 1907:
Crestmont Hotel
Eagles Mere, PA
About 1907
Contributed by Scott W. Tilden
Source: An Old RPPC Postcard Auctioned on eBay in October 2015
The seller estiamtes the date as 1907 based on the postcard style with an
undivided back. Scott Tilden has slightly photographed the original photo for clarity.
Hotel Allegheny *
Postcard Photo
Eagles Mere, PA
Reportedly Taken in 1914
Contributed by Scott W. Tilden
Source: An Old Postcard Auctioned on eBay in October 2013
* Note: Mis-spelled on the postcard.
Besides the hotels already mentioned there are at Eagles Mere the Allegheny, conducted by S. J. Peale; the Flora Villa Inn, under the direction of Mrs. Clarence E. Dunham, and the Lake Shore Inn, of which Russell M. Christman is owner. The Flora Villa Inn is the only one of the hotels open the year round. Season for the others is from late May into October.
Beach at Eagles Mere
Internal captions:
Golf a Popular Sport
Lover's Rock Favorite Spot
Looking Across the Lake
Kiddies Love Eagles Mere
Thrill in Sail Boating
HON. CHARLES E. TERRY
President Judge
Tunkhannock
Judge Terry has been president judge of the Forty-fourth Judicial District, comprising Sullivan and Wyoming Counties, since 1904. He was re-elected in 1915 and 1925 for ten-year terms. Judge Terry was born in Tunkhannock, February 19, 1857, was educated in public and private schools and was admitted to the bar in 1879.
ALBERT L. DYER
Associate Judge
Lopez
FLOYE A. DAVIS
Associate Judge
Sonestown
Mr. Dyer and Mrs. Davis are the associate judges in Sullivan County. Mr. Dyer has for many years been a prominent merchant in Lopez, conducting a meat business. Mrs. Davis, widow of Dr. Hugh K. Davis, late county coroner, is a graduate of the Williamsport Hospital Training School for Nurses, and is the only woman associate judge in the state.
A. R. MEEHAN
Dushore
A. R. Meehan is a prominent business man of Dushore, conducting a well equipped service garage near the overhead bridge and also a service station on Main Street. He is the Chevrolet agent in Dushore. Mr. Meehan also is secretary-treasurer of the Sullivan Silk Company and interested in other business enterprises, and always a booster for Sullivan County.
ALBERT F. HEESS
Dushore
Six terms, totaling twenty-four years, as prothonotary and register and recorder and two years as district attorney is the public service record of Albert F. Heess in Sullivan County. Mr. Heess, native of Elkland Township, is a graduate of the Law School of George Washington University, and admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and Sullivan and Bradford County Courts.
WILLIAM C. MASON
County Surveyor
Laporte
Internal captions:
Bruin Takes a Stroll
Game Protector Robert Latimer
Big Game Plentiful
Landing a Speckled Beauty
Ogdonia Hunting Club
Rare Albino Deer
MR. AND MRS. HERBERT L. MOLYNEAUX AT THEIR MILLVIEW HOME
County Commissioner and Mrs. Molyneaux occupy a home within a few rods of the site of the first permanent cabin which was erected in the county by William Molyneaux, great-grandfather of the present occupant, in 1794. The Molyneaux farm now comprises one hundred and eighty acres of the original tract. Mr. Molyneaux has followed agriculture all his life. He was appointed a jury commissioner, later elected to the office, and resigned when he was chosen county commissioner a year ago. He is president of the Sullivan County Telephone Company and a director in the Agricultural Society.
RICKETTS' ESTATE
The mansion house overlooking Lake Ganoga, part of the vast estate of the late Col. Robert Bruce Ricketts, is located near the eastern border of Sullivan County. This estate comprises several thousand acres in Sullivan, Luzerne and Columbia Counties, which Col. Ricketts developed extensively. He and Mrs. Ricketts are buried under a giant hemlock on the estate. Hon. William S. McLean, president judge of the court of common pleas of Luzerne County, has a summer home on the estate. Col. Ricketts' son occupies the mansion at times during the summer months.
HARRINGTON & COMPANY
No industry in Sullivan County is more intimately associated with a greater number of residents of the section than the milk and ice cream plant of Harrington & Company at Dushore. More than a thousand farmers and dairymen in Sullivan, Bradford, Lycoming, Wyoming, Columbia, Luzerne and Susquehanna Counties send their milk to some Harrington plant, the total daily supply ranging from 100,000 to 150,000 pounds. The Dushore supply of milk comes from a radius of 20 miles of the plant. Checks distributed monthly to these patrons are an essential factor in the welfare of the county. The payroll at Dushore where about 50 employes are engaged, further contributes to the buying power of the county.
This industry had its inception in a small creamery which James S. Harrington established in Dushore in 1907. He placed his son, Maurice J. Harrington, who had completed a creamery course at Pennsylvania State College, in charge. Two young men collected the cream from nearby farmers. The equipment consisted of a borrowed ten-horsepower boiler and engine, a churn, a cream vat and seven cream cans. In l910 James S. Harrington retired from the business and it was taken over by his son, who conducted it in his own name for nine years, greatly expanding it and introducing modern methods and practices. In 1917 a large addition was built to the Dushore plant, a condensing plant was installed, and shipment of cream and ice cream mixtures to manufacturers of ice cream in the East was begun. Harrington & Company was incorporated in 1919, with M. J. Harrington as president, who has maintained this position up to the present time.
In addition to its plant at Dushore, Harrington & Company operates a large retail milk plant at Wilkes-Barre under the name of Glendale Farms. This plant supplies both milk and ice cream to Wilkes-Barre, Scranton and other cities and towns in the Anthracite coal region. Another plant is operated in Newark, N. J., from which both wholesale and retail milk are distributed in the Metropolitan Area. Other distribution centers are located in Sayre, Towanda and Reading.
The Dushore plant of Harrington & Company is one of the most modern and complete milk preparation plants anywhere in the country. Sanitation is the keynote in every phase of milk handling as a prerequisite to the quality product which the company markets. Many people visiting the county each year include a trip through the Harrington plant. All are welcome.
Harrington's ice cream is a product which has attained a wide distribution and established for itself a name well known throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New York State.
HARRINGTON AND COMPANY
Internal Captions:
Office Force at Harrington's, Dushore
Purebred Holstein Herd
Foreman Cain, General Manager Snyder
Pasteurizing Room in Big Milk Plant
Receiving Platform at Harrington's
MR. AND MRS. FRANK V. ROHE
Foremost among the agriculturists and dairymen of Sullivan County is Frank V. Rohe, who resides on a farm near Dushore that has been in Mrs. Rohe's family for three generations. Mr. Rohe practices intensive agriculture on his sixty acres, specializing in seed potatoes of the Russet variety. His dairy of purebred Holsteins has been developed for high milk production. He was one of the organizers of the Sullivan County Cow Testing Association and its president for seven years; also a charter member of Cherry Grange No. 1224, which he served as master. Mr. Rohe is one of the county commissioners, elected as a Democrat by the largest vote given any candidate in the field last year. Sullivan County normally is Republican by a large majority.
MR. AND MRS. EDWARD MEEHAN
Law and order in Sullivan County is vested in Edward Meehan, who has occupied the office of sheriff since January 1, 1932. Mr. Meehan is a native of Sullivan County, and a veteran of the World War. He was elected to office from Bernice, receiving an unusually large vote not only in his home town but throughout the county. In his earlier life Mr. Meehan was engaged in lumbering, in automobile garage work, and in the mines. His election as sheriff marked his active entrance into politics and public office. Mrs. Meehan is chief deputy, and with their three children they occupy the sheriff's quarters in the court house at Laporte. Other deputies are subject to call, as are also the State Police from the Towanda detail.
MR. AND MRS. F. T. McMAHON
Succeeding from the office of sheriff, to which he had been elected by a 3-to-1 vote over his Republican opponent, Francis T. McMahon, of Mildred, is now serving his first term as county commissioner of Sullivan County. Mr. McMahon was born near Dushore, and for many years was employed as an electrician for the Connell Anthracite Mining Company. He was constable in Cherry Township for twelve years and justice of the peace for five years. Mr. and Mrs. McMahon take justifiable pride in the fact that they are parents of fourteen children. Of these, six sons and three daughters are living, and they have ten grandchildren. Three of the boys are still at home, and their married children reside in Johnson City, N. Y.
Tobogganing, Snowshoeing, Skiing and Skating
Popular Winter Sports at Eagles Mere
MR. AND MRS. V. B. HOLCOMBE
Sullivan County's improved roads, now being extended to all parts of the county, are attributable in large measure to the aggressive and consistent efforts of V. B. Holcombe, of Dushore, who represented the county as assemblyman in the State Legislature from 1921 to 1933. Although he is no longer official representative, Mr. Holcombe continues to work for the public welfare, and his long service in the Legislature gives him considerable prestige. Native of Bradford County, Mr. Holcombe has resided in Dushore since 1898, where he has conducted a furniture and undertaking business *. He also organized and is chairman of the board of the Dushore Furniture Company.
* Editor's Note: The V. B. Holcombe Furniture and Undertaking business flourished after opening in 1898. The main office was in Dushore, but there were offices in Benton, Muncy Valley and other nearby communities. Here is a photo taken from an old postcard that shows the company location in Muncy Valley about 1910:
V. B. Holcombe Furniture and Undertaking
Muncy Valley, PA
About 1910
Photo: Courtesy of Scott Tilden
Source: An old postcard auctioned on eBay in September 2011
MR. AND MRS. G. L. REISNER
George L. Reisner, of Dushore, occupies the position of Sullivan County vocational education adviser, in which he is supervisor of vocational education for the county, itinerant teacher of agriculture with classes in five of the six high schools, and adviser in vocational agriculture. In addition to his school work Mr. Reisner is president of the Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Sullivan County Relief Board, and active in all the educational activities of the county. He has been instrumental in creating among the boys and girls a real interest in agricultural pursuits. As president of the Chamber of Commerce he has helped to stimulate a concerted effort that should redound to the welfare of the entire county.
J. H. THAYER AND DAUGHTER MILDRED
Serving in the triple capacity of prothonotary, register and recorder, and clerk of the several courts, to which he was elected last year, J. H. Thayer, of Dushore, is continuing a long public life in Sullivan County, he having been district attorney several times over a period of eighteen years. Mr. Thayer came to Sullivan County with his parents when three years old, and has resided there continuously since. He was principal of the Bernice school eight terms and of the Dushore school five terms. When not engaged in teaching, he read law in the offices of B. S. Collins and A. Walsh and was admitted to the bar in 1902. His daughter, Miss Mildred Thayer (also pictured herewith) is deputy and clerk in her father's office.
LAKE MOKOMA *
Sparkling like a sapphire in the sunlight two thousand feet above sea level, Lake Mokoma, at Laporte, is set in the emerald green of vast forests, far from the noise, the crowds and the traffic of the city--ideal for vacationing, for relaxation, peace and health. Bathing, sail boating, aquaplaning, and other water sports, golf and tennis await the summer sojourner at Lake Mokoma, while in the winter there is skiing, tobogganing and skating. Close to the best game lands and trout streams in Pennsylvania, hunters and fishermen find here their Paradise.
Development of Lake Mokoma has gone forward rapidly in the last three or four years, and many beautiful cottages have been erected around the shores of this shimmering mountain lake. Many lots have been sold, and considerable building is anticipated before another summer season opens. The cottages vary from small, frame houses to pretentious structures of native stone, all fitted into the natural sylvan setting.
Lake Mokoma is being developed along the club plan. A picturesque
Club Building, with spacious verandas, comfortable lounge, dining
room and ample locker space is planned to occupy a wooded knoll
overlooking the lake. The lake is on U. S. Route 220, a concrete
highway easily accessible from all parts of the state.
* Editor's Note: You can find a comprehensive history
at Lake Mokoma and Laporte.
THREE VIEWS OF BEAUTIFUL LAKE MOKOMA
Timber Slide Etcetera
Internal Captions:
Timber Slide at Yeagle Lumber Operations (upper left)
State Game Land in Rock Run Section (upper right)
Whirl's End, in the Loyalsock (lower left)
Beautiful Falls Dot the County (lower right)
NORTH MOUNTAIN TOWER
Internal Captions:
North Mountain Fire Tower in Sonestown (left)
North Maintain From Muncy Valley (center)
Ricketts Fire Tower (right)
Haystack Rocks in the Upper Loyalsock (bottom)
HENRY E. KIRK, SR.
Eagles Mere
MISS KATHARINE KIRK
Eagles Mere
HENRY E. KIRK, JR.
Eagles Mere
Henry E. Kirk, Sr., and his sister, Miss Katharine Kirk, recently
completed their fifty-third season at the Lakeside, in Eagles Mere,
which they have seen grow from a modest cottage to the present
magnificent summer hotel. They were small children when they first
accompanied their father, the late John S. Kirk, to the lake, and
since his death have continued to conduct the Lakeside. Many of their
guests have been with them as long as forty seasons, in one case
including four generations of a family. Three years ago Henry E.
Kirk, Jr., took over the management of the Forest Inn and the
Raymond, together with the Casino and bathing beach. He personally
directs the Forest Inn. There are many cottages operated in
connection with these hotels. *
Editor's Note:The Lakeside Hotel, on Eagles Mere Avenue
overlooking the lake, opened in 1880 as a small boarding house. It was significantly
enlarged in 1888 and 1900, but was closed and demolished in 1961. Reproduced here is a photo of the hotel
superimposed on a rate book, dated 1933. Both items were auctioned on eBay in February 2011.
Lakeside Hotel
Brochure and Rate Card Cover
September 1933
Photo courtesy of Scott Tilden
Original items auctioned on eBay in February 2011
DR. H. N. OSLER
Dushore
Dr. Osler, who has practised dentistry in Dushore for the last thirty-eight years, is the oldest man in his profession in Sullivan County. He is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Dental College, in Philadelphia. Native of Hillsgrove, he has always resided in the county, and in early manhood rafted on the Loyalsock, before entering dental college.
WILLIAM WOODS
Eagles Mere
Mr. Woods is the directing head of the Crestmont, one of the largest hotels at Eagles Mere, with accommodations for two hundred and fifty guests. The Crestmont is superbly located on a high eminence overlooking the lake and a wide surrounding region of mountain grandeur. The Woods family have been associated with this popular hotel for many years.
JAMES P. McGEE
Hotel Lopez
Lopez
STRANGEST DEED ON RECORD
Recorded in the Court house at Laporte is probably the strangest deed ever executed, in which a square mile of land is deeded to "Almighty God and his heirs in Jesus Messiah." This land was a part of a religious colony established between Laporte and Eagles Mere in 1864, to await the end of the world. A few years later the land was sold for unpaid taxes. Pictured herewith is the transcript of the deed, and also a part of the Celestia land. At the corner of the road stood the printing office from which "The Day Star of Zion" was published. Peter E. Armstrong was the leader at Celestia, where a large colony was gathered at one time. Many houses were built, and foundations laid for a tabernacle that would seat several thousand.
SULLIVAN COUNTY NEWSPAPERS
Sullivan County boasts two good weekly newspapers, the Sullivan County Review and the Republican News Item, both published in Dushore by B. T. Martin as editor and manager. The Review is issued Wednesdays and the News Item, Fridays. Mr. Martin is a lifelong resident of Sullivan County, was in the store business for thirty years, and has been editor of the Review since April 1,1916.
The Review office is modernly equipped with machinery and type faces, and the papers are highly creditable publications, from both editorial and typographical standpoints. A fine quality of commercial printing is produced in the job department. Besides Mr. Martin the force of the office consists of A. E. Snyder, foreman; Carl Carlson, linotype operator, and C. H. Keeler, bookkeeper.
The Sullivan County Review was founded February 28, 1878, by A. B. Bowman. The next proprietors were Holmes and Strong, succeeded by E. A. Strong, former associate judge. Fred Newell was then the publisher for twenty years. Later proprietors were L. R. Taylor, H. M. Wilcox and W. K. Shultz, from whom Mr. Martin acquired the paper.
A.E. SNYDER, B.T. MARTIN, C.H. KEELER, CARL CARLSON
MONAHAN COAL COMPANY
Early season demands for the high quality anthracite coal mined by the Monahan Coal Company at its operation on Scar Run, in the Loyalsock Valley of Sullivan County, have so far exceeded the October output that the force has been doubled to about 150 men for the winter, and the daily production increased to 250 tons.
Last season the Monahan Company found it necessary to cancel orders for some 15,000 tons of coal, which it was unable to fill, although the production from the mines was well above 25,000 tons. Last summer the company expended between eight and ten thousand dollars on new equipment in order to meet the expected increased demands. Sportsmen are especially invited to visit the mine and inspect the equipment installed to keep the streams clean.
Organized only two years ago, the Monahan Coal Company has built up a clientele that extends northward through New York State and into Canada. Western New York, in the vicinity of Buffalo and Rochester, is the principal market for the coal of the Monahan mines. General sales offices and yards are maintained in Rochester under the name of the Loyal Sock Coal Company. Williamsport, Montoursville, Towanda, Waverly and Elmira are among the nearby markets.
Two factors are outstanding in this rapidly expanding market. Most important, probably, is the high quality of the Loyalsock coal. Second, and almost as essential, is the methods employed in production and marketing. The equipment used at the Monahan mine is all of the most modern type, and every operation from the mining to the distribution is under the personal and constant supervision of the owners, who all their lives have been engaged in the practical experience of coal mining.
The coal at the Monahan mine is a virgin seam of high quality anthracite, unusually free from slate and refuse. It is of high heat value and lasting quality, holding the heat for many hours.
William A. Monahan is president of the Monahan Coal Company, which was organized in November of 1931. The other officers are Joseph F. Monahan, vice president; John P. Smith, secretary; M. J. Buckley, treasurer. The post office address of the company is Dushore.
MONAHAN COAL COMPANY
Internal Captions:
Monahan Coal Company Breaker (upper left)
President Monahan, Executives and Office Force (upper right)
Steam Shovel Loads Culm to be Carted Away (lower left)
Bringing Coal From Monahan Mine (lower right)
W. AND N. B. RAILWAY
The Williamsport and North Branch Railway, with a large part of its trackage in Sullivan County, provides important rail connections with the Lehigh Valley at Satterfield and the Philadelphia and Reading at Halls. The railroad operates regular freight and express service, with passenger tariffs on file. General offices of the company are at Hughesville. The officers are: Edward Bailey, Harrisburg, president; Delmar K. Townsend, Hughesville, general manager and treasurer; H. A. Knight, Hughesville, general superintendent; F. W. Corcoran, Hughesville, secretary and general auditor; R. E. Parker, Hughesville, freight claim agent and car accountant.
WILLIAM P. SHOEMAKER
Attorney--Justice of the Peace
Laporte
RAY P. WAGNER
Dushore
"Live-wire" is the word which best describes Ray P. Wagner, one of the progressive young merchants of Dushore, where he conducts a meat, grocery and confectionery business, with delivery service in the borough and surrounding area. Mr. Wagner is a native of Dushore and was burgess of the borough for several years. He takes an active interest in town and county affairs.
H. W. BENDER
Muncy Valley
Mr. Bender is a junior member of the firm of T. Bender and Son, expert morticians at Muncy Valley for more than a quarter of a century. Their kindly and sympathetic funeral service has gained for them a wide patronage over the southern part of Sullivan County and into the adjoining sections of Lycoming. Mr. Bender is also the postmaster at Muncy Valley.
JOSEPH G. SMITH COMPANY
Pajamas made in the factory of the Joseph G. Smith Company, at Lopez, in the mountains of Sullivan County, are the preferred night apparel of thousands of New Yorkers. So firmly established is the reputation for high quality of the pajamas made by this company and so consistent the demand that in the last five years the factory has been closed only five days by reason of lack of work.
The workroom of Mr. Smith's plant is 50 x 200 feet, with large windows on all four sides--truly a daylight factory. The building was formerly the Mason Company Silk Mill. Under such favorable conditions work becomes almost a pleasure.
The Joseph G. Smith Company is the only industry of its kind in Sullivan County, and one of two factories in the county employing any considerable number of girls. Of the 150 employes, about 125 are girls, gathered from a wide surrounding territory, some of them coming as far as ten miles to work in the factory.
The weekly output of the factory is about 1,000 dozen pairs, including every style of pajamas worn by men. The materials used are domet, broadcloth, sateen and silk. All of the pajamas are machine cut, about 400 garments at a time. The plant is equipped with 120 electric sewing machines, each fitted with an individual motor. There are no line shafts in the plant, and every safety device possible is provided against accident or injury to the operators of the machines.
That this company is a valuable asset to Sullivan County is indicated by the size of the payroll, which runs from $150,000 to $200,000 annually. In his five years' residence at Lopez, Mr. Smith has firmly established himself in the respect and confidence of the residents of his community and the county in general.
Mr. Smith also operates a plant in Williamsport, employing about 250 men and women, and devoted to shirt manufacturing exclusively. This plant has been in operation about a year.
JOSEPH G. SMITH COMPANY
Top: Force of Employees at Joseph G. Smith Company, Lopez
Bottom: Interior of Factory Making High Grade Pajamas at Lopez
MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY
The Farmers' and Mechanics' Home Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Sullivan County takes pride in its record of having met every loss since it was incorporated in 1877. The company had $1,586,071 of insurance in force December 31, 1932, a gain of $176,883 for the year. Losses paid in 1932 totaled $9,129, and there was a balance in thetreasury of $2,672.72, with no indebtedness. Officers of the company are: O. N. Molyneaux, president; K. G. Shelley, vice president; Mary F. Snyder, secretary-treasurer. The directors are: O. N. Molyneaux, K. G. Shelley, Thomas F. Doyle, G. D. Dieffenbach, F. B. Wright, L. J. Norton and Harvey A. Hess. Office of the company is at Forksville.
HOLCOMBE'S FURNITURE STORE
V. B. Holcombe has been engaged in the furniture and undertaking business in Dushore since 1898. At the present time his three sons, P. J., R. L. and V. C. Holcombe, are associated with him. Their stock of furniture is large and comprehensive, including not only living room, dining room and bedroom suites, but chairs, desks, tables, rugs, carpets, linoleums, radios, floor and table lamps, shades, curtains, draperies, dinner sets, and many other articles for the complete furnishing of an attractive home. Mr. Holcombe is county agent for Frigidaire electric refrigerators.
In the undertaking branch of his business Mr. Holcombe has established a wide reputation for the high character of his service. Few other lines of contact with the public call so much for kindly sympathy, for tact and for personality as when death enters a family. Service such as Mr. Holcombe and his sons have given on those occasions over a long period of years have made them everlasting friends in Sullivan and adjoining counties. Their motor hearse and other funeral equipment are of the most modern type, and the latest approved methods of the mortician's art are practiced.
P.J., V.B. AND R.L. HOLCOMBE IN FRONT OF FURNITURE STORE
POTTSVILLE COAL COMPANY
Mining about four hundred tons of coal a day, the Pottsville Coal Company, operating the Murray mine, is one of the largest anthracite coal projects in Sullivan County at the present time. The breaker at the Murray mine has a capacity of seven hundred tons a day, and production will be expanded to the full capacity of the preparation plant. At the present time ready market is found for all the coal it is possible to turn out of this long-established mine.
Joseph P. Dando is president of the Pottsville Coal Company, and began operation of the Murray mine last February. Mr. Dando is a miner of long, practical experience, and formerly was superintendent of the South Penn Colliery at Pottsville. Thomas Walsh, well known promoter, is superintendent of the Murray plant, and John Cawley is the mine foreman. Both of these men are from the Wyoming District, and have had wide experience in successful coal operations. W. H. Schenck is accountant in charge of the office work, and J. J. Adams is in charge of sales at the mine. The post office address of the Pottsville Coal Company is Lopez.
Approximately one hundred and thirty men are now employed at the Murray mine, working in two shifts. Increased output will mean the addition of a large number of men to the force. Twenty-four hour service for trucks is maintained, and as many as sixty trucks have been loaded in a single day. Some coal is also shipped by rail from a siding to the breaker.
Coal from the Murray mine of the Pottsville Coal Company is a high grade, free-burning anthracite. Large markets for the products are found in Buffalo, Boston and Newark, N. J., while considerable of the coal is trucked to Elmira, Utica and Geneva, N. Y., and to Williamsport.
Production at the Murray mine is always with the aim of quality uppermost in the minds of those in charge. Mr. Dando and every man supervising the operations are practical miners with long experience, and thoroughly conversant with every phase of anthracite mining.
POTTSVILLE COAL COMPANY
Internal Captions:
Office and Breaker Forces at Murray Mine (upper left)
Coal Brought to Surface by Cable (upper right)
Part of Mine Force at Murray (lower left)
Thomas Walsh, Supt.; J.P. Dando, President; John B. Corgan, State
Mine Inspector, Kingston, PA * (lower right)
* Editor's Note: We are indebted to Patricia Corgan Brislin, granddaughter of John Corgan, for this
full identification provided in November 2014. He had nine children and 24 grandchildren.
SULLIVAN TELEPHONE COMPANY
The Sullivan County Telephone Company serves 210 subscribers in Forks, Cherry, Elkland, Fox and Hillsgrove Townships in Sullivan County andpart of Overton Township in Bradford County. Direct connections are maintained with the Commonwealth and Bell Systems. The main office of the company is at Forksville, with exchanges at Shunk and Estella. The company was organized in 1904, and gives good service to its subscribers. Officers of the company are: H. L. Molyneaux, president; J. G. Cott, vice president; Mrs. Mary F. Snyder, secretary-treasurer. These officers, together with H. S. Bond, J. Lyman Snyder, H. P. Yonken and Silas McCarty, constitute the board of directors. Mrs. Snyder has been in charge of the Forksville office since 1931.
MR. AND MRS. FRED M. ROGERS
Fred M. Rogers, of Forksville, great-grandson of Samuel and Ann (Gaunt) Rogers, who came from England with thirteen of their eighteen children and settled in Forksville in 1801, lives within a hundred feet of the ancestral home. Mr. Rogers was for twenty-one years a practicing attorney in Philadelphia and New York, and with Mrs. Rogers returned to Forksville in 1915 to care for his aged parents. His father, J. W. Rogers, was justice of peace in Forksville forty years. Mr. Rogers is president of the School Board, president of the Board of Trustees of the Forksville M. E. Church, and president of the Cemetery Association. He is interested in the welfare of Sullivan County, and active in every movement for the good of his native town.
GEORGE E. WALKER
Representing Sullivan County as assemblyman in the State Legislature is George E. Walker, of Hillsgrove, who was elected to that office in 1932. Mr. Walker is the first Democrat to represent the county in the Legislature for nearly a score of years. He has resided in Sullivan County a goodly part of his life, and has always been a real estate owner and taxpayer in the county. At the present time he owns a farm of forty-six acres in Hillsgrove, and conducts a hotel for transients. He also owns a hundred-acre timber tract in the county. In his earlier life Mr. Walker was a lumber jobber in the woods, cutting logs and peeling bark in Sullivan and Lycoming Counties. His vigor belies his seventy-one years.
MR. AND MRS. J. W. LEARN
With secretary, Mildred Murphy
Seven years as agricultural extension representative in Sullivan County has brought J. Walter Learn into intimate contact with a large part of the population, in his efforts to solve their agricultural problems, whether they be farm, dairy, poultry, garden or fruit. Meanwhile Mr. Learn has also featured the rural sociology phase of his work, assisting in directing pageants, competitions in dramatics, and other forms of entertainment. He is a graduate of Pennsylvania State College. Mr. Learn is the secretary and an active worker in the Chamber of Commerce, which is engaged in welding together the various interests of the county for mutual welfare. Miss Mildred Murphy (pictured at right) is secretary to Mr. Learn.
PEALER'S DRUG STORE
Pealer's Drug Store, at Dushore, the only pharmacy in Sullivan County, was owned and conducted by Charles E. Pealer from 1891 until his death two years ago. Mrs. Pealer now owns the store, and Harland A. McCarty, graduate of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, is the manager. Careful compounding of prescriptions is the specialty of the store, which carries a complete line of drugs and medicines, toilet goods, books, stationery and candies. Kodaks and supplies are in stock, with a developing and printing service.
HARLAN S. McCARTY, MANAGER
J.S. DILTZ, CLERK
STATE LANDS
The state owns seventy-five thousand acres of land in Sullivan County, of which forty thousand is state forest and the rest state game land. Roscoe N. Cox, of Dushore, is forest inspector, and Robert Latimer, of Muncy Valley, game protector. Two sixty-foot fire towers are maintained. Eighteen miles of telephone line was built to the Ricketts tower, and six to North Mountain. Twenty-five fire wardens, each with a crew of ten men, are available for fighting forest fires. Less than five hundred acres, none of that on state land, was burned in 1932.
DUSHORE FURNITURE FACTORY
The Dushore Furniture Manufacturing Company, established in 1928, makes high grade upholstered furniture, including living room suites and Cogswell and occasional chairs. V. B. Holcombe is chairman of the board; Paul Sokalsky, treasurer and superintendent of the plant; P. J. Holcombe, secretary. A former silk mill building was purchased and remodeled to adapt it to furniture manufacturing purposes. Custom-built furniture has been a specialty of the company, buyers choosing their designs and coverings from a wide selection. Quality in all materials and expert workmanship are stressed features.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
The Chamber of Commerce organized in Dushore in 1928 has been gradually extending its scope with an ultimate aim of becoming county-wide in its activities. Meetings are held with groups at different places about the county, and considerable interest has been aroused to boost the county's many natural advantages. Officers of the organization are: George L. Reisner, president; B. F. Crossley, vice president; J. Hartley Ballentine, treasurer; J. Walter Learn, secretary. The directors are Messrs. Reisner, Crossley and Ballentine and also Charles Fitzpatrick, M. B. Obert, Dr. R. J. Lynch, B. T. Martin and A. F. Snyder.
SULLIVAN SILK COMPANY
The Sullivan Silk Company at Dushore is the largest employer of female labor in the borough, fifty of the seventy employes being women and girls. This silk mill has been in operation for about thirty years, and was reopened last February after being shut down for a year and a half. Officers of the company are M. J. Harrington, president, and A. R. Meehan, secretary-treasurer. S. R. Merkle is superintendent of the mill.
The Sullivan Silk Company operates seventy looms, weaving broad silk. Output of the mill includes dress silks and satins and linings, all of a high grade. All have a pure silk face; the backs of some are spun silk and others cotton. Considerable of the product is manufactured on special orders, a nationally-known hat company using a large part of the lining silk output in the making of its hats.
At the present time the mill is operating two forty-hour shifts a week. Mr. Merkle, the superintendent, has been with the plant for twenty-four years, and at one time was the owner of the mill. Sullivan Silk is recognized as an important factor in the payroll of Dushore.
EXTERIOR OF SILK MILL
FORCE OF EMPLOYES AT SILK COMPANY
SAMUEL COLE
Dushore
Mr. Cole enjoys the distinction of being the oldest man in continuous business in Dushore, having conducted a hardware store there since 1866. Mr. Cole was born at Cherry Mills February 25, 1856. He is a director in the First National Bank, has been burgess, councilman and school director, and helped to promote both silk mills and other business enterprises. His father was in the Civil War and his great-grandfather in the Revolution; one son died in camp during the World War. Miss Emma Cole is associated with her father in business.
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AND THEIR CLERK, MISS ALTA L. GUMBLE
FOUR C. C. C. CAMPS IN COUNTY
Four Civilian Conservation Camps have been established in Sullivan County. All have been designated as winter camps, and wood barracks and other buildings erected. Camp 95, near Laporte, is a veterans' camp, one of only half a dozen in Pennsylvania. The officers are Capt. Paul L. Singer, Capt. George Atz and Lieut. William C. Rowland, Jr.
The other three camps are for junior civilians, from sixteen years up. Camp 104, several miles over North Mountain from Nordmont, is officered by Capt. Jack D. Thompson, Lieut. Charles F. McNair, Lieut. John M. Cotton and Lieut. William F. Silsby. John D. Berrier is camp superintendent, and with a crew of a dozenforemen directs the forestry work.
Officers at Camp 128, five miles out from Hillsgrove, are Capt. H. Pascale, Capt. K. B. Powers, Lieut. K. Hedrick and Lieut. H. M. Fussell, Jr. Camp 96, at Hillsgrove, has for its officers Lieut. Daniel F. Healey, Lieut. W. D. Griffith and Lieut. John B. Sponsler.
At these camps the Army feeds, clothes and houses the men and provides recreation and hospital service. The Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters has charge of the forestry work. Each camp has accommodations for two hundred men, besides the officers and staff.
The camps are located on either State Forest or State Game lands. Under the supervision of trained foresters, the men are engaged in cleaning up the forest areas, removing dead trees and undergrowth, building roads, cutting fire lanes, and otherwise improving the vast state-owned tracts and safeguarding them from the devastating menace of fires. The men live a healthful outdoor life, observing regular hours. They are well fed and housed, and a variety of recreation and entertainment is provided, with the minimum of discipline necessary to maintain order. The camps are well regarded by the people of the county.
Camp 104
Officers, Men and Fleet of Trucks (upper left)
Lieut. Cotton, Lieut. Silsby, Capt. Thompson, Lieut. McNair (upper
right)
Sergt. Dehne at Entrance (center)
Camp Supt. John D. Berrier and Foremen (lower left)
Men at Head of Company Street (lower right)
Camp 128
Barracks Under Construction (upper left)
General View of Camp (upper right)
Capt. Pascale, Capt. Bowers, Lieut. Hedrick, Lieut. Fussell (lower
left)
Camp 96--Line of Tents Along Street (lower right)
Camp 96--Entrance From Main Road (upper left).
Camp 95--Looking Down Company Street (upper right).
Entrance a Rustic Arbor (lower left).
Lieut. Rowland and Post Exchange (lower right).
CAMP BRULE
Camp Brule, comprising 160 acres of open fields and woodlands and including Elk Lake, situated in Elkland Township, Sullivan County, is the camp of General Sullivan Council, Boy Scouts of America. General Sullivan Council supervises Scouting in Bradford, Sullivan and Tioga Counties and Waverly, N. Y. Robert B. Nearing is scout executive, with offices in Towanda.
Headquarters building, a mess hall and a kitchen have been built at Camp Brule, which is ideal for swimming and Scout instruction. The camp is also used by Girl Scouts and 4-H Clubs. Troops of Scouts have been organized at Lopez, Dushore and Eagles Mere, and a Farm and Home Patrol at Sonestown. Steps are being taken to organize units in other parts of the county.
Camp Brule was first used by the Boy Scouts in 1927, and each year improvements and additions have been made to the buildings and equipment.
MISS ANNA FINAN
Public Health Nurse
Mildred
MRS. LAURA McLAUGHLIN
Mildred
Mrs. McLaughlin is head of the Public Charities Association of Pennsylvania in Sullivan County, a member of the Sullivan County Relief Board, Republican committee-woman in her district, and recently was re-elected school director for a six-year term. Twice she has been appointed foreman of Grand Juries by Judge Terry. Is secretary of Sullivan Coal Company.
MISS CLARA M. WILCOX
Shunk
Miss Wilcox is active in welfare work in Sullivan County, as Red Cross representative and in connection with the county relief administration. She is a former president of the Parent-Teacher Association at Estella, and a few years ago visited seven countries of Europe with a Home Extension Tour. She is a member of the Society of Friends and active in its meeting.
MISS BLANCHE COIT
Dushore
Miss Coit has for eleven years been Home Economics agent for Sullivan and Bradford Counties, working with the women in organizing classes and demonstrations in cooking, canning, sewing and other household arts, and in assisting in pageants, dramatics and various entertainments. She is a graduate of Teachers College of Columbia University.
MRS. MARY F. SNYDER
Forksville
Mrs. Snyder is secretary-treasurer of the Sullivan County Telephone Company, and in charge of the main office and exchange of the company at Forksville. She also is secretary of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Home Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Sullivan County, which has its office in Forksville. Few women in the county are more widely known.
MRS. WINIFRED WAGNER
Chairman County Red Cross Chapter
Dushore
RAYMOND D. KEHRER
Eagles Mere
Mr. Kehrer has been a resident of Eagles Mere since 1888 when his father, the late Daniel Kehrer, established a general store which is still conducted under the name of D. Kehrer and Son. R. D. Kehrer has not only enlarged the store building and the business, but also is engaged in insurance and real estate. He is agent for many of the cottage owners and himself owns considerable real estate in the borough. Mr. Kehrer is a director and the secretary of the Eagles Mere Water Company, secretary-treasurer of the Golf Club, and one of the borough's most substantial citizens.
THOMAS F. KERNAN
Dushore
Mr. Kernan, recently elected district attorney for a four-year term to take office January 1st, is a native of Sullivan County, and has practiced law in Dushore since 1904. He is a member of the Supreme Court. For nine years he was justice of the peace in Dushore. Mr. Kernan is a graduate of the Williamsport Commercial College and the Bloomsburg State Teachers College, and taught school for several years in his early manhood, meanwhile reading law and preparing for his bar examinations. He enjoys a wide acquaintance throughout the county.
HIGHWAY FORCE
Maintenance of the state highways in Sullivan County is under the direction of Edward H. Wagner, superintendent, and Sidney J. Peale, assistant. A considerable force of men is employed the year round, oftentimes being sixty or more. Garage for the storage of equipment is located in Laporte, which is the headquarters for the county. The highways are well maintained at all times of the year; cinders are generously spread on the curves and grades when the roads are icy, and the snow is kept removed throughout the winter months. Snow fences are erected all over the county to prevent drifts from blocking the highways and impeding traffic.
MORAN'S GARAGE
J. William Moran, who conducts a garage and luncheonette at Muncy Valley, takes particular pride in the fact that he is the oldest authorized Ford agency in either Sullivan or Lycoming County, with a record covering twenty years. He maintains twenty-four hour service, and is an authorized AAA station. In the garage business Mr. Moran is assisted by his sons, Charles E. and J. William, Jr., and his daughter, Miss Jule Moran, is in charge of the luncheonette. "We feed you and feed your car, all under one roof," is the slogan at Moran's.
THE MORANS
JAMES, J. WILLIAM, CHARLES E., MISS JULE, J. WILLIAM, JR.
SULLIVAN COAL COMPANY
One of the best known men in the mining industry in Sullivan County is Thomas V. McLaughlin, president and general manager of the Sullivan Coal Company, a new operation in the Bernice district. Mrs. Laura McLaughlin is secretary of the company. Mr. McLaughlin has been a resident of Bernice for 31 years, much of that time as superintendent of the Connell Anthracite Mining Company.
Last spring Mr. McLaughlin organized the Sullivan Coal Company and opened a new vein of coal, erecting a modern breaker and installing the latest improved preparation equipment. Thirty men are now employed and this number will be increased as the market is expanded.
Bernice coal has long had the reputation for high quality, and the new vein which Mr. McLaughlin has opened measures up to standard for heat units, free burning and lasting properties.
The Connell mine at Bernice, one of the oldest operations in the county, which has been shut down for more than a year, was reopened recently with L. G. Sylvester, of Scranton, in charge. The Rock Run Coal Company, near Laporte is one of the county's smaller operations.
ROCK RUN COAL MINE
Internal Captions:
Rock Run Coal Mine Breaker (upper left)
Breaker at Connell Mine (upper right)
Mules Haul Coal to Surface at Sullivan Company Mine (center)
Connell Mine Power Plant (lower left)
President McLaughlin at Sullivan Company Mine (lower right)
J. ROVILO MULNIX
For half a century the name of Mulnix has been associated with the lumber industry in Sullivan County, Avery T. Mulnix having built, in 1883, a sawmill at Lincoln Falls on the same location where his son, J. Rovilo Mulnix, now operates his big mill. He also has two portable mills on his nine-hundred-acre timber tract, on which are fine stands of hemlock and hardwoods. Mr. Mulnix is an ardent advocate of improved roads, fully appreciating their inestimable value to the best development of Sullivan County.
J. ROVILO MULNIX
AT HIS LINCOLN FALLS SAWMILL
BRADY CONFER
Among the year-round residents at Eagles Mere are Mr. and Mrs. Brady Confer. For nineteen years Mr. Confer has been connected with the resort, and at present is caretaker of the Forest Inn, the Raymond and fifty-four cottages, looking after the electrical wiring, the water and sewer lines, and the grounds. During the winter he cuts wood for use in the fireplaces, fills the ice houses and keeps roads open for travel. Mrs. Confer looks after the interior of the two hotels and the cottages as supervising housekeeper.
MR. AND MRS. BRADY CONFER
AT ONE OF THE EAGLES MERE COTTAGES
CHARLES O. EDWARDS
Percheron horses and purebred Guernsey cows are to be the specialized lines of Charles O. Edwards on his farm near Dushore, which he purchased last spring from his brother-in-law, William Gilmore. This farm was the homestead of Peter Gilmore, and had been in the family for three generations. Mr. Edwards had been for several years with the Sheffield Farms Company in New York. He already has a considerable number of young stock which he will use as the nucleus for his purebred Guernsey herd. His Percherons are fine specimens.
FINE PERCHERON STOCK
ON CHARLES O. EDWARDS' FARM NEAR DUSHORE
H. R. HENNING
Dushore
Mr. Henning has been county superintendent of schools in Sullivan County for twenty-one years, and taught in the county for eight terms prior to his superintendency. He has brought about many improvements in the school system, including consolidation of many rural schools where better facilities are available. High schools are maintained at Dushore, Estella and Sonestown (four year), Lopez and Bernice (three year), and Shunk (two year). Seventy-five academic and four special teachers are employed in the county, including vocational, music and health supervisors.
LEWIS POWER PROJECT
M. W. Lewis, of Hillsgrove, is developing a hydro-electric power plant in the Upper Loyalsock Valley. With him is associated his son, Corbin T. Lewis, a graduate of the Bliss Electrical School in Washington, D. C., who was with the Bell Telephone Company in Philadelphia for three years.
Water for the power plant will be diverted by a dam built nearly a century and replaced by a concrete structure ten years ago. Concrete foundations for the wheel pit, a concrete retaining wall 210 feet long and 14 feet high, and other foundations have been constructed. The race will be excavated for 1,200 feet, to provide an 18-foot head of water. Equipment will include a turbine water wheel for driving the electric generators, which will have a capacity of 200 horsepower. An auxiliary plant with an oil engine for emergency use also will be installed.
Mr. Lewis owns two miles of creek frontage, affording many cottage sites. He first planned to supply electric current for manufacturing purposes and to cabins along the creek. With the project nearing completion he is being urged to extend the service to Hillsgrove, Estella and Forksville.
WHEEL PIT AND CONCRETE WORK AT THE LEWIS POWER PLANT PROJECT
CORBIN T. AND M.W. LEWIS
WITH ASSISTANT
W.H. CLARKSON
President AAA Club
Motorists over a large part of Sullivan County are members of the Lycoming County Automobile Club of which W. H. Clarkson, of Williamsport, is president, and where headquarters are maintained. This club is affiliated with the Pennsylvania Motor Federation and the American Automobile Association, and Sullivan County members are assured all the privileges and services which these great organizations give to the automobile owner whether at home or motoring anywhere in the United States or Canada. Local service is being extended into Sullivan County.
WILLIAM H. YEAGLE
William H. Yeagle, operating a sawmill near Laporte, will soon complete the cutting of the last big stand of virgin timber in the county. He has under a seven-year lease from the Central Pennsylvania Lumber Company a tract of twenty-nine hundred acres, comprising hemlock, beech, birch, maple, ash and cherry. As much as a million feet of lumber has been cut from the tract in a single season.
Five different locations for the sawmill have been used in the operation. One of the unusual sights to the present generation is a timber slide extending more than half a mile up the steep mountainside. Mr. Yeagle is a lumberman of more than twenty years of experience, formerly operating in the vicinity of Williamsport and Jersey Shore.
Marketing of the lumber is entirely by truck, in charge of Mr. Yeagle's son, Harley Yeagle. A fleet of six trucks is maintained at the mill and on the road. The bark is sold to the tannery at Lock Haven, annual production some years running up to four hundred tons. Twenty to twenty-two men are employed at the sawmill and in the woods.
W.H. AND HARLEY YEAGLE WITH SAWMILL CREW AT THEIR OPERATION
YEAGLE SAWMILL
NOW COMPLETING BIG SEVEN-YEAR CONTRACT
PUBLISHER'S ANNOUNCEMENT
This souvenir booklet of Sullivan County, profusely illustrated with more than one hundred and fifty photographs made especially for the purpose, and containing historical sketch, mining, industrial and business articles, and brief biographies, has been published primarily to attract attention to the unusual natural advantages for recreation afforded by the county.
Neither time nor expense has been spared to make it comprehensive, and also to portray vividly the true picture of this charming section of the Endless Mountain Region. Exaggeration is unnecessary and impossible in describing Sullivan County's natural beauties. The book has been attractively printed and bound, to serve as a lasting souvenir. No work of its kind and scope has ever before been attempted in the county.
H. G. Sallan is the publisher; Milton A. Brugler, editor, and D. Vincent Smith, photographer. The publisher acknowledges many courtesies during the preparation of the booklet. Copies at $1.00 each may be obtained from H. G. Sallan, P. 0. Box 97, Williamsport, Pa.
GRIT PUBLISHING COMPANY
DESIGNERS, ENGRAVERS, PRINTERS
WILLIAMSPORT, PA.
High Knob Overlook
Near Hillsgrove, PA
An Old Postcard Dated 1939
Photo by Mike Clarke Who Bought the Card on eBay in November 2007
Copyright © 2003 Robert E. Sweeney and individual Contributors. All Rights Reserved. Prior written permission is required from Robert E. Sweeney and individual Contributors before this material can be printed or otherwise copied, displayed or distributed in any form. This is a FREE genealogy site sponsored through PAGenWeb and can be reached directly at ~Sullivan County Genealogy Project (https://sites.rootsweb.com/~pasulliv)
