The April, 2005, Archives of the Benton News

This is Saturday of the MerleFest. From our perch in the mountains of North Carolina high above the valley below, we see 500 or so tents, campers and mechanized behemoths spread out in the smoke-filled creek-bottom area. There is no sun yet and the pickers aren't up, although we could hear them most of the night. We'll put on a pot of coffee and tell a story that many of you from west of the Benton area have heard your ancestors tell. It is a story that we first heard over a cup of coffee with Rohrsburg resident Bob Clewell, well over a year ago, and looking at the creek in the valley below us reminds us a similar stream called Green Creek.

Green Creek is a short stream that flows down a narrow, tree-lined valley, through the town of Rohrsburg and across farm land until it empties into Fishing Creek near Orangeville. "Little" Green Creek begins near Derrs and flows about four miles to Rohrsburg while a branch flows almost eight miles down what old timers called Staley Hollow to Rohrsburg. On the surface, nothing seems exciting about this particular creek, but more lies below the surface.

For those who don't know the area, Rohrsburg is a collection of houses by Green Creek in Greenwood Township six miles from Benton (south on route 487 and south at Maple Grove on route 254). The town was named for German-born Frederick Rohr (Roher), about 1825. Rohr, then 46, committed suicide in 1839 in the waters of Green Creek.

By 1883, the town, originally called "Rohrsburgh," had a "couple of stores, a hotel, Robert Campbell's blacksmith shop; two churches and about twenty dwellings. Over the years, the town had a store run by Shoemaker and Reese and Joseph Sands had a mill on the creek north of town starting in 1832. Except for some garages, the commercial part of the town has moved to other locations while the rest of the crossroads town is rather unchanged from when these stories took place.

Twenty or so years after the death of Rohr, a young farmhand by the name of Preston headed off for a field beside Green Creek one morning with a team of horses and a plow. He didn't return at noon, and the family found the team standing in the field but Preston--some say his first name was Milton--was never found.

One of the strangest of the stories of the small stream with the strangely colored water involved a spot known to some as the "Spinning Wheel" and to other as the "Witch's Kettle," about two miles below Rohrsburg and a mile and a half or so from where the creek joined Fishing Creek. Every mother in the area had warned her children about the rapidly swirling waters that reached about 60 feet wide during high water. The Rohrsburg-Orangeville road at that time ran beside the creek at that location, about 60 feet higher than the creek.

We'll tell you that there are several versions of this story, and we don't claim that ours is completely correct. We don't think that the story was ever written when it happened, and so it has become somewhat distorted through the telling and retelling of the details. The story goes that a man with the name of "O'Blosser" was taking a load of lumber to Bloomsburg. He and his team of horses and sled with all the lumber plunged over the side of the road and into the Spinning Wheel, never to be seen again.

A strange aspect of the Spinning Wheel was that much less water flowed down Green Creek below the whirlpool than above. Some felt that an underground outlet was discovered near the covered bridge a few hundred feet below the whirlpool.

Various theories were tested as to what happened to O'Blosser. A tea kettle filled with metal was lowered into the swirling waters and the man conducting the unscientific test maintained that he let the cord out 200 feet and the tea kettle was still sinking! Garbage and trash was hauled from both Orangeville and Rohrsburg and dumped into the swirling water in an effort to plug the hole. Eventually, so the story goes, the hole was plugged and today there is no evidence of the Spinning Wheel. The road high on the side of the hill is no longer used, traveling instead almost at creek level.

The next episode along Green Creek happened February 8, 1900, when Tom McHenry heard a noise in his barn about a mile below Rohrsburg and went out to check. He was shot in the chest as he walked toward the barn. A rifle fired from a barn window killed McHenry in a single shot. No tracks were found in the snow and the person who killed old Tom was never convicted, although Mrs. McHenry was tried and found not guilty.
--This story came from conversations with Bob Clewell and Richard Shoemaker, the writings of Paul Trescott, a former editor of the Berwick Enterprise, and an article in the Bloomsburg Morning Press of December 21, 1932.

The Benton News was not published April 28 or 29, 2005.

Tuesday, April 26, and Wednesday, April 27, 2005. April 26 was the birthday of Alan Lamoreaux and Nathan Schlichter. April 27 was the birthday of Bea McMichael, Stillwater, and Charles Wodrig, Stillwater. Bill and Carla Lee celebrate their wedding anniversary on Wednesday.

April 27 was the birthday of Hiram Ulysses Grant, born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, in 1822. He changed his name while a student at West Point to avoid the initials HUG. He ended up being the commander of the Union Armies at the end of the Civil War. He had some unusual habits. For example, he would never go back. If he went past where he was supposed to be he would continue until he could work his way around to where he had been, but he never retraced his steps. As a general, it meant he would never retreat. Those who supported the general said he was tough. Those in the North and the South who were horrified by his brutality called him the Butcher.

As a general, he sent thousands of men to their death, but he had a complete aversion to killing animals to the point that he would not eat fowl of any kind. Anything that walked on two legs was off limits to feed to the man. The sight of bloody meat at a table would send him from the table. Grant saw a mare being beaten once, and the general had the man doing the beating tied to a post for six hours.

Grant became the 18th president of the United States, but within ten years of leaving the White House he was completely broke. He came down with throat cancer and was forced to write his military memoirs, a wildly successful book, in order to survive financially.

Geraldine Kile McGinn, a 1947 Benton schools graduate, has lived in Florida for many years and recently moved back to this area. "Gerry" is selling real estate for the Lutz Agency in Bloomsburg.

One of our favorite places to look for used, rare and out-of-print hardbacks is in Enola, at 167 Enola Road. Owner Michelle Haring does everything in her power to be a gracious host when you are shopping in her store, and the web page that she has crafted shows the same degree of loving care. If you need a book, try www.cupboardmaker.com .

Philadelphia is ranked as the "most depressed" City in the nation in the latest issue of Lehigh Valleys' Men's Health magazine. Pittsburgh logs in with a tie for 14th place. Midway between the two locations is Benton, with few of these symptoms.

We are writing an abbreviated version of the Benton News today from North Carolina. We are currently nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Wilkesboro. We'll tell you a little about this beautiful county in the coming days, but today we'll mention a product that we found in Clayton, North Carolina. Keith Hartman, son of Max and Loraine Hartman, lives in Clayton and owns a company called Quality Woodcrafts. Keith and his crew create all sorts of wooden products that show huge amounts of imagination and require the utmost in precision. Products range from puzzle foot stools where the name of a child--your grandchild, perhaps--is carved in two-inch deep letters to a similar product in a coat rack or a name plaque. The products are constructed out of poplar, a hardwood, hand rubbed in an oil finish and stained in walnut or finished natural. The letters of the child's name are hand painted in primary or pastel colors and are removable. The letters only fit in their correct sequence and are great to teach color and spelling and manual dexterity. Email us and we'll tell you how to get more information. Keith recently finished a large two-story steel building that he uses for the woodworking.

If you wonder what happened to the Benton News, we'll tell you that we are in an area where we must rely on a mobile internet service to get daily email. We are unable to send or receive emails from our equipment, since the local wireless provider does not support data over wireless. We therefore cannot upload the web version or the email version of the News from our own computer.

Monday, April 25, 2005. It is the birthday of Janet Kriebel in Benton and in Seattle the second birthday of Rebecca DePoe. Today is the wedding anniversary of John and Charlotte Sibly. A year ago at this time, Elsie Buyers was facing major knee surgery.

Randy Hess wrote from Nashville that he has made a change from playing with Trace Akins for the past six years, saying that he felt it was time to make a change. Tired of being on the road all the time, he said that "I am trying to stay in town more and build up session work to be a producer." Randy still ventures out, playing with Dierks Bentley last week and before that with the Wilkinsons. He'll play with David Frizzell for a weekend next month."

The benefit auction for the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center played to a capacity audience last night at the Benton Fire Company building, about 60 more than last year.

There was plenty of food for everyone from The Old Filling Station Restaurant, Chris & Denny Dawson, owners; Sakuntala Indian Restaurant, Mushtao and Milli Elahi, 236 Iron Street, Bloomsburg; Benton Women's Club, Kathy Leamont, President; Market Square Classic Grill, Scott & Janice Maguire, owners; Central Park Hotel, Rose and David Bardo, owners; Double "J" Chuckwagon, Jerry & Joanne Laubach, owners; the Creekside Restaurant, Route 487, Orangeville, Rod Kile and Nancy Chappel; Kevin and Sherry Bissinger Catering 784-2301 or 387-0439, Bloomsburg; Kathy's Kakes, Kathy Leamont, owner; Hoboken Sub Shop, Becky L. Green, owner; Country View Restaurant, Route 118, Benton; Benton Red Rock Corner Store, 121 State Route 118, Madeline Bonham, owner. Drinks came from Pepsi Bottling Group. These fine restaurants and organizations have supported the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center. We hope that you enjoyed the food samples provided and support these organizations when you think of fine dining.

Music was provided by the group Raven Creek, featuring the regulars of the group, Joe and Loraine Feola and Blaine Long. They were joined by Grace Feola on the spoons and Rick Marcera on bass, a long time musician who played clubs and cruises. Last night he played acoustic bass coupled and provided harmony vocals. Joe and Loraine's granddaughter, Elizabeth, was especially popular, even though she is only six years old, as she ripped into a number from Oh, Brother Where Are Thou? This is a very popular group and donated their time and energy to the success of the evening.

Auctioneers Jim and John Vance kept the audience entertained and busy. Items auctioned ranged from furniture made from wood that has been carbon dated as being approximately 500 years old, to lessons on turning a bowl or fly fishing, to exotic vacations in Hollywood and Branson and New York city and Ocean City, Maryland. When the auction was over, the Community & Cultural Center was much better financially better off and everyone had an excellent time.

County Commissioners William M. Soberick and David M. Kovach attended. Rep. David Millard spoke. Mayor Jan Swan, a member of the Advisory Board and major donor of the auction, attended and introduced many of the honored guests. Two members of Town Council attended. Elsie Buyers, president of the Center, read the list of donations for auctioneers Jim and John Vance to sell. Chuck Chapman along with his wife, Kay, presided over the details of the planning for the event.

Many thanks are in order to the Benton Volunteer Fire Company, the many patrons of the auction, to the musical group Raven Creek, to the Pepsi Group of Berwick who provided drinks, to the people who donated items for the auction, the many people who contributed time and skill in the preparation of delicious food, and to the many people of the Northern Fishing Creek Valley who turned up the community spirit and supported the evening.

A number of people asked about the plants that were on each table. They were donated by Stoney Acres Nursery, Benton. The beautiful plants were called "Treasure Trove Rose Bicolor Schozanthus." They take full sun to part shade. They were donated by Rick Kingsbury, owner, and one lucky person from each table got to take one home.

We are also grateful to the Benton Women's Club and Kathy Leamont who didn't close up shop at 6 PM, but stayed keeping everyone in coffee and deserts.

Benton Women's Club
From L: Tina Wood, Barbara King, Nora McDaniel

Food ranged from pulled pork to Indian, from smoked turkey to pastries. The restaurants provided a huge variety of food and both the venders and the guests sampling the food had a great evening. Several venders stayed for the auction.

We overheard a conversation yesterday involving a lady who recently became single. When asked if she was going to start looking for a new husband, the woman arched her back and simply said that she had in her lifetime had "cats, dogs and sex, and she wanted none of the above."

Like to camp. Like to save money? Try the web site that gives you free places to camp.

We head for a remote site near Wilkes Community College for MerleFest 2005 this morning. The 18th annual festival in celebration of the music of the late Merle Watson and his father Doc Watson is held on the WCC campus in Wilkesboro, NC. The music is strictly bluegrass, contemporary acoustic, Celtic, blues, folk, old-time, Cajun, jazz, and singer-songwriter. We will be able to send and receive email via our cell phone, but will not be able to upload the web page for about seven days starting Wednesday morning. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Printing on a McHenry whiskey bottle:
Printing on side:
"REWARD. We will give $100.00 for evidence leading to the detection of any one refilling the McHenry bottles with any other whisky or adulterating the McHenry Whiskey in any manner or for selling something else and calling it McHenry when McHenry is asked for."
Rohr McHenry Distilling Co.

Printed on back:
"This whiskey is the product of selected Rye and Malt pure mountain spring water and scientific distilling with years of perfect aging in charred barrels in heated warehouses and coming direct from us it brings to you the finest & purest Whiskey made, and costs you no more than the other brands."

April 24, 2005. Today is the birthday of David Laubach, Kempton, PA, his 67th. David celebrates his birthday on the same day as Barbra Steisand. Today is the wedding anniversary of Dottie and Donald Rabb. Congress authorized the creation of the Library of Congress for the use of the House and Senate on this date back in 1800. Like any number of Government programs, it has expanded and is now a national library.

Today is the long-awaited Village Sampler. Food and music are available at 4 PM, when patrons will be admitted. At 6 PM, the auction begins. There will be a number of surprise additions to the auction to benefit the Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center, including...

. a beautiful 50" x 54" afghan lovingly created by Ruth Buckwalter. It multi-colored and can best be described as "happy." It should have very spirited bidding.

. a wicker dog bed donated by the Benton News staff reporters, Buster and Chloe, who vouch for its "sleepability."

. A collection of 31 antique post cards, many over 100 years old, and mostly of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area. Donated by Linda and David Bronson, Dotyville.

Many may remember September 12, 1960, when the Benton Kiwanis Club held their auction on the square at the Gene Bardo gas station.

EVERMORE is in concert tonight at the Stillwater Christian Church. The activities are from 6:30 to 9:00 PM. Tim Karnes, the lead vocalist for the group, competed for Central Columbia and was chosen for the Pennsylvania State Chorus. The chorus of approximately 240 kids was in concert Saturday at the Hershey Theatre.

Benton Borough street sweeping will take place, weather permitting, on Monday and Tuesday, April 25-26, from 7 AM to 3 PM. Please move all vehicles to off-street parking until the street cleaning is completed.

There once was a feller by the name of Keller.
Who made a mistake that sent him to the cellar.
His wife said to him one day, "Dear,
Just how big is my rear?"
He didn't lie, he simply decided to tell 'er!"

The FFA of the Benton Area Schools will hold a "Game Banquet" April 28 in the Benton Park (in good weather) and in the High School cafeteria (in case of bad weather). All meat used will be "wild meat." The event begins at 6:30 PM and is open to the public by donation of a covered dish brought to the park that evening. George Wilcox, a wildlife conservation officer, will speak on the upcoming hunting season and local turkey hunter Ken Dressler will "talk turkey."

We neglected to list the birthday of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI on April 16. If you would like to wish the new Pope a belated birthday or have other reasons for contacting him, his email address is benedictxvi (insert @ here) vatican.va and according to SearchBug it is a valid email address.

Some may remember the fire in March, 1961, at what was then known as the Hess Bakery. Five families were driven from their apartments and a business curtailed operations when a fire estimated to cause $7,000 in damage burned at the Main Street location. One fireman, Jim Fausey, then 23, was injured fighting the blaze and one family lost everything they owned. The five families involved in the fire consisted of 15 people. The fire started in a partition between two stairways leading from first to second floors, and was not discovered until flames followed holes around a heating pipe and broke out on the third floor. Gene Bardo was the fire chief then. Others helping fight the blaze included Donald Rabb, Jim Chapin, Elisio Giangirolami and Bruce Evans. The building sets vacant on Main Street and has for several years. The old expression of "getting off dead center" comes to mind...

A word recently unearthed in Great Britain is "pollyanna," used locally as an exchange of gifts to ensure that everyone in a group gets a present. Often a ceiling is placed on the price that can be paid for the present and names are drawn at random for the exchange of presents. We know that you know all this, but the word is not used in Great Britain and we read the English version of the usage of the word when we glanced at the World Wide Words Web site. According to the site, Pollyanna clubs or societies were usually associated with churches and were probably named after the Pollyanna stories of Eleanor Hodgman Porter first published in 1913.

We live in a part of town that occasionally is visited by some strange folks. This conversation might not be entirely accurate because of our overtaxed memory and the lateness of the hour, but is about how it went. Two men we didn't know held a lengthy late-night conversation outside a neighboring business. One of the men said to the other that it seemed to him that he had seen the other man somewhere. The second man sized the first man up and then told him that he wouldn't be surprised that he was correct. One of the men asked if the other had ever been in Lancaster. The answer was "no," and the first guy allowed as how he had never been there, either. With a quick scratch of the head, the second man said, "Well, then, who the heck was them two guys that met in Lancaster?"

If you are an alumnus of the Benton Area Schools you should have received the announcement of the Alumni Banquet scheduled for May 28. It is important that you keep your alumni records up to date. You can simply draft an email to the Alumni Office at the high school to update your mailing records. It's simple. If you haven't received your announcement yet, the school probably does not have your correct mailing address. Send an email to Brady Hess at alumni (insert @ here) bentonsd.k12.pa.us if you have changes. We'll see you at the banquet!

We stopped last night at the Sugarloaf Fish Supper and smiled when we heard a familiar voice on the loudspeaker telling the patrons that number "517 through 525 sit over yonder." The smile soon disappeared from our faces when we found out that tickets were no longer being sold and one of the last couples in line said they expected to wait two hours to eat. Not being able to get food in one location has never kept us from finding food in another, so we headed off for a BLT salad leaving scores of patrons milling around the outside of the building. Minutes later a gully-washer hit the northern end of the county and we were happy that we had a comfortable place to sit and eat.

For the record, at the fish supper last night with take outs and people served inside the historic building the total reached about 923. The hard-working people of the upper valley ran out of every dessert they had, including both ice cream and pie. People were still eating at 8 PM, Linda Bronson tells us.

April 23, 2005. Birthdays on this date include poet and playwright William Shakespeare, 1564; 15th U.S. President James Buchanan, 1791; and Illinois politician Stephen Douglas, 1813. Don't forget the Sugarloaf fish supper today from 3-7 PM at the Sugarloaf School Memorial Building. The cost is $9 for adults and $4 for children. Today is the feast day of St. George, the patron saint of England.The Jewish holiday Passover begins at sunset.

On this date in...
1900, the "New York Journal" first used the word in print that has evolved into a word we all know--hillbilly. Like other words in our language, the word was spelled differently over a hundred years ago. The spelling then was "Hill-Billie," defined as a "free and untrampled white citizen of Alabama who lived in the hills." The article continued that "he has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him."

1985, the Coca-Cola Company announced that it was changing its 99-year-old secret formula and would begin marketing "New Coke," the "most significant soft drink development" in the company’s history. So much for that idea.

Donald L. Robbins, 51, (Nov. 1, 1953-April 21, 2005), 75 Apple Orchard Road, Benton, died Thursday. He was the son of Erla Rider Robbins and the late Norman Robbins. He was a 1971 graduate of Hughesville High School and was a self-employed logger. In addition to his mother, he is survived by his wife, the former Tisha Creveling; a son, Dale, at home; and brothers Thomas, Muncy Valley, and John, Benton. Services will be Tuesday at 11 AM at Bunnell Funeral Home, Inc., Millville. Burial will be at Talmer Cemetery. There will be a viewing Monday from 6 until 8 PM.
--from the Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary can be found

The "Women's Poetry Workshop" meets the third Wednesday of each month from 4-6 PM at the Phillips Emporium, 10 East Main Street, Bloomsburg. The Wednesday workshops include discussing, reading, hearing and writing poems. The discussions include well-known poets and the poetry that members write. The organization has one member from the Benton area and more are encouraged to come out for a night of poetry. To register, interested women should contact Carolann Heckman, 389-0522, or Nancy Herbert, 784-0607.

Buster, our male Bichon, asked that we include this ditty by an unknown writer...

There once was a feisty young terrier,
Who liked to bite girls on the derrière.
He'd yip and he'd yap,
Then he'd leap up and snap;
And the fairer the derrière, the merrier.

Starting Monday morning and extending for about two weeks, the news will arrive late or not at all. When it does arrive, it will probably be abbreviated. We apologize for this inconvenience.

It is spring and we have a right to bare arms! Unfortunately, the weather isn't cooperating... Father used to tell us that "winter is not over until we've had our onion snow." It feels a whole lot like we could have that onion snow this morning!

We will conclude with more discussion of the one-room schools, ending up where we began this discussion four days ago. If you read the Benton News daily, you'll recall that this thread started when Jane Sterner called the Columbia County Historical Society for information on the Union School, or the Fishing Creek School.

The school that students referred to as "Union High" was first identified to us by reader Marvin Albertson and along with other readers who helped identify the school we pieced together the following information. The school probably was started by Jonathan Colloy (possibly now "Colley") near Pealertown. Christopher Pealer taught in the first school in the Township, although we are not certain where it was located. In 1885, "Fishingcreek" operated nine schools for a term of six months. The average attendance was about 249.

Jane Sterner graduated from three schools in twelve years...
• First, she graduated from the Savage Hill School in eighth grade. For two years, she rode with teacher Phoebe Appleman and the rest of the time she walked a total of six miles each day to get to and from school. Her actual graduation from eighth grade took place in St. James Church.
• She then went to "Union High," which some called the Fishing Creek School and others called the Union School. That school, at the only four-way crossroads between Jonestown and Bendertown, was her source of education during her freshman and sophomore years, and therefore the use of the word "high" to describe the school is somewhat misleading. The school--now converted into a private residence--was later owned by Lewis Creveling, now deceased, a principal at Hughesville Schools before he retired. Vernon and Lois Rhinard lived in the home until Mr. Rhinard passed away several years ago. Phoebe Appleman was one of the teachers in this school.
• Mrs. Sterner completed high school at Orangeville.

Union High, as the residents of Fishing Creek Township called it, was built on ground sold by the grandfather of musician Al Hess, a man by the name of Harmon Hess. The school was built, but burned September 8, 1894, according to Pat Hess, even before the first class met in the building.

June Hartzell wrote about her experiences in a one-room school. She wrote that "when we moved to Light Street and attended the Scott school, Mr. Jenkins the principal there, wanted to put me in 8th grade instead of fifth. In a one-room school you learned the grades above you and reviewed the grades lower. I passed 8th grade with flying colors but father said it would make me way too young when I graduated. Miss Kile was the teacher at the McHenry School where I went. In bad weather she would drive to our house by Green Creek Mill and the neighbor Kline's would hook up the horses and bob sled and take us up the hill to school. We had the pot-bellied stove in the middle and Miss Kile would bring a kettle with meat and the students would bring a vegetable and we had hot lunches. The McHenry School pupils have a reunion once a year."

Betty Rooker Titman wrote in "Learning in the One-Room School" that one of the punishments handed out was for a boy who broke a rule to have to "sit with the girls." The same rule applied to the girls, except that the girls soon learned what was going on and soon became "chatterboxes." Betty was a student at Richard's Grove School near Unityville with forty to forty-five students in the room. Points were deducted for every word spelled incorrectly and for every punctuation mark incorrectly used.

Reichart's Grove Schoolhouse

We'll talk a little about graduating. Whittier Letteer remembers that he was the only graduate of his class from the Stillwater Borough one-room school. When he completed the eighth grade, he went on to class in Benton where he met up with "lots of kids" his age. Wayne McMichael followed by a year at Stillwater. Years later in 1955, Whittier served as best man when Wayne and Lois Morgan "tied the knot" at the Waller Methodist Church.

The end of the school term in the eighth grade meant, depending on the year of graduation, the administration of the "Common School Diploma Examination." To be able to take the exam, the teacher had to recommend the student and his/her grades had to be on file with the County Superintendent's office and sent to a county office.

When the examination day arrived, the students traveled to a school designated near the center of the Township. A teacher from a different district would give the tests, according to Ethel C. Watts, writing in The Common School Diploma Examination. Each teacher had one examination for each student. The student had an examination paper for each test, with the exception of reading and writing. The reading examination was from an advance reading book and the questions involved meaning of words and general story outline. The writing test involved writing the alphabet in both large and small letters and to copy a stanza of poetry that had been written on the blackboard. When the examination was over, the papers were picked up and sent to the County office for correction.

And so we come to the end of this four-day session on one-room schools. We remember the story of the Irish father who felt that his son was gaining a great deal from his education in the one-room school, something the father never had. We'll share that story with you. A traveler who passed by the house was introduced to the son. The father told the passer-by that the son was "a fine bye, and smart-lookin." The father, not knowing when to quit, told the man that the son was "good at all his books, but he is especially fine at langwidges." The father instructed the boy, "Me son, say 'horse' in arithmetic for Mr. O'Shea."
--We are indebted to Pastor Brad Spangenberg for limited use of his project involving former teachers who were parishioners and friends of Rev. Spangenberg at the Millville United Methodist Church. Excerpts from the manuscript are provided with permission. We also would like to thank all the readers who wrote in with comments about one-room schools.

April 22, 2005. Jeff Kelsey celebrates his birthday today and Frank and Barbara Edson celebrate their wedding anniversary. Prayers are needed today for Ted Fritz, 49, and for Zane Hartman.

On this date in...
1864, the U.S. Congress mandated that all coins minted as U.S. currency bear the inscription "In God We Trust." The action was taken by the Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, who received many appeals during the Civil War urging that the United States recognize the Deity on United States coins.

1913, The Times of London advocated a change in the construction and maintenance of roads. The paper noted that a reasonable average width of a main road was 18 feet, but wheels of vehicles using the roads touched only about 6 inches of the surface. To save resurfacing expenses for the entire 18 foot width, the paper offered the solution that roads be laced with four plates (two in each direction) to take the wear from the wheels.

1970, future presidential candidate Henry Ross Perot, Dallas, reportedly lost $450 million in the stock market.

1985, researchers from Washington and Lee University concluded that Martha Washington was worth 29,650 pounds when she and George were married, about $5.9 million in today's dollars.

William H. "Bill" Hinchcliffe, 77, (March 16, 1928-April 10, 2005) died Sunday, at the Coatesville VA Medical Center. Born in Nanticoke, he was a son of the late Clifford Howard Hinchcliffe and Gertrude Hannah (Snyder) Hinchcliffe. Surviving are nieces Linda Long, Nancy Fricke, and Carol Lore, daughters of Madge Kline Hinchcliffe, town. A brother, John A. Hinchcliffe, preceded him in death May 1, 1999. Private graveside services will be held at Elan Memorial Park, Lime Ridge.
--From the Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary can be found.

It has been a year since a fire of suspicious origin damaged one of the two Twin Covered Bridges. The bridges span Huntington Creek in Fishing Creek Township, east of both Route 487 and the village of Forks, off route 1020. Both bridges were constructed in 1884 by W.C. Pennington and named for John Paden, a sawmill operator who lived near the bridges.

Leaves piled beside the bridge apparently caught fire. Passing motorists spotted the flames and called for assistance. The Orangeville and Benton firemen kicked out boards on the side of the bridge and extinguished flames coming from a major support beam. The bridges were closed to the public following a November 2003 wind that ripped through the upper Fishing Creek Valley and did extensive damage to the area. A tree landed on the bridge farthest from the road, the same bridge as was damaged in the fire.

Funding is now available for repairs to the East Paden Twin Bridges work, estimated at $274,323. Commissioner Chris Young is hopeful that the Twin Bridges will be completed in time for the annual "Dinner on the Bridge."

Pennsylvania may not have a horse in the Kentucky Derby, but we have a jockey! Jeremy Rose, 26, Bellefonte, will ride atop Afleet Alex at the May 7 running of the 131st Kentucky Derby. Rose rode Afleet Alex to a convincing, eighth-length victory in the Arkansas Derby, following the path used by Smarty Jones to reach Churchill Downs last year. Rose has been up on Afleet Alex in eight of the horse's nine starts, winning six times and running second twice.

Benton Borough street sweeping will take place Monday and Tuesday, April 25-26, from 7 AM to 3 PM, weather permitting. Please move all vehicles to off-street parking until the street cleaning is completed.

Bloomsburg University license plates should be available for purchase in Pennsylvania by the end of April.

The Greater Pennsylvania Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association is attempting to reach and serve families affected by Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. If you know of family members who can benefit by getting support and resource information specific to their situation, call the Greater Pennsylvania Chapter at 800 272-3900. The regional office is in Wilkes-Barre at 63 North Franklin Street. This is the office that serves Columbia County.

We are borrowing from Bloomsburg University Alumni here, but if you work in an interesting place or have some other connection that you could use to arrange a tour for a history-orientated group please let us know. We would like to organize another Benton News tour for local residents. If you would be interested in speaking to a history-orientated group, let us know about that, too.

We read about a young man who came from a very poor family. By way of explanation for the lack of money in the family, the father explained that the family had sent the son through a one-room school, and "that how they got so poor."

The past two days we have talked about the one-room schoolhouses of a long-gone era, and we'll continue with that discussion today and conclude this four-day article Saturday. To do that, lets go back in time to about the end of the Civil War and we'll concentrate on a small part of Union Township then known as the Rock neighborhood. About 25 families lived within about a three-mile area, all on farms on thinly wooded timber tracts. The area was well named, since it grew more huge boulders and rock ledges than people.

The buildings of the area included a couple of primitive saw mills, a blacksmith shop, a dozen scattered farmhouses and a few temporary shacks thrown up by woodsmen, a country store and a one-room schoolhouse that served triple duty: it was the school house, the house of public worship and the place where Sunday School met. The one-room school house was the only semblance of village life in that sparse world.

The post office was about five miles away, and the mail was only delivered when a woodsman or resident happened to pass the post office. Entertainment came from the winter religious revivals and the Sunday School picnics in the summer. There were quilting for the women--or as they were often referred to, "women-folk"--and house raising kept men busy at times, as did corn-husking and apple cutting. There were occasional military drills, a hold-over from the Civil War, and from time-to-time it was necessary to conduct a proper drumming (a "musical serenade" of tin pans, drums and wind instruments characterized by discordant notes and atrocious sounds) to celebrate the marriage of local residents. It was a stark life...

It was often the case that the site for a rural schoolhouse would be picked that was too inhospitable for other uses, and this was the case with the Rock School built on an "abrupt hillside." The Rock School operated in the summer months of 1868 by teacher Laura Mandeville, who later married a man by the name of Frantz. She then taught for two more terms, winter and summer. Nancy Wilson (who later married a man by the name of Austin) then picked up the teaching duties through 1873-74. It is about this teaching tenure that we write today.

Will S. Monroe wrote about his "Eight Years in a Rural School," which was the Rock School. Monroe was born in what is now Hunlocks Creek, Luzerne County, March 22, 1863. His early life was spent in what is know known as Roaring Brook. His "rural school" days consisted of attending two months in the summer and three months in the winter. Later, he attended the Huntington Mills Academy, which launched him into a field of poetry, writing and public teaching, and for two years he was a special correspondent for both the Philadelphia Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Monroe described his first 50 lessons in learning to read at the Rock School. He wrote that they were "monosyllables--stiff, unnatural, uninteresting." "Disyllables" came along in the second part of instruction and the 24 remaining lessons "improved in sense and spirit." Monroe wrote that he learned by "jaw" and not by "heart," saying that rarely did "we put much heart into the exercise." Spelling recitation was with all students standing in a straight line and "whenever a word was misspelled, the first pupil spelling it correctly passed above those who had missed it. The line would have a head and a foot to the two ends. The (non) reward for reaching the head of the line was that the best speller then had to go the end of the line and work his way to the front again.

Monroe described the first 50 pages of his Fourth Reader as filled with "absurd elocutionary rules." For a library, the students at the Rock School had to rely on the Sunday School library. Monroe said the library of about 100 "goody-goody" books "repelled" rather than encouraged reading.

The Rock School practiced complete separation of the sexes--boys on one side of the room and the girls on the other. Only during lunch and before school began in the morning were the boys and girls allowed to be together.

Sheila Brandon has pictures of the Rock School on her Lower Luzerne County website .

A custom-designed shirt especially designed for the Community Center. Donated by Cindy Hittle and Tina Posey for Sunday's auction.

April 21, 2005. Today is the wedding anniversary of Phil and Laurie Edson. Ken Druckenmiller and the Benton Flower Station completes their first year of collocation with Stoney Acres Nursery today. We had a new arrival in the family Wednesday and we regret that we didn't get time to respond to any emails or phone calls yesterday.

Alan and Duane Updyke, owners of the Suburban News, donated an attractive advertisement for the Village Sampler and Auction in the issue of the SN that hit the newsstands and circulated via the U.S. Mail Wednesday. Companies like the newspaper, the Pepsi Group of Berwick who are donating the soft drinks for the auction, and the Affordable Self-Storage Co. who are providing storage locker facilities through the day of the auction, are part of what makes living in this area so delightful. We'll get around to thanking everyone who participated in the Village Sampler in the very near future.

We often recall the time that young Henneery was getting' along badly in school, and his father told everyone the reason was because "they're learnin' him to spell taters with a 'P.'"

Learning to spell was a lot different "in the old days" of one-room schoolhouses. We sometimes read of the "loud school" before about 1870, where every student studied audibly and vociferously. But we suspect that the one-room school houses after that date were loud in a different way. There was scratching of fingers and chalk on slate, the tapping of the "steel-toed" shoes worn by the farm boys, the rattle of the dipper in the water bucket by the students who wanted an excuse to wander "legally" around the classroom. The attention of the teacher was obtained by the snapping of fingers and there were many parades of students within a given grade to go to the front of the class. Occasionally, the disciplinary rod met the back side of a student and that usually resulted in certain sounds.

The readers were McGuffey, Webster marketed his blue-back speller, and there was Ray's arithmetic and Harvey's grammar. Ray's Primary Arithmetic was for grade levels 1 and 2 and Ray's Intellectual Arithmetic for grade levels 3 and 4. The books required a different type of thinking than most math books; i.e., the students learned math and also leaned the practical ways to use math, because most of the problems in Ray's were word problems. Several lessons in Ray's Primary Arithmetic deal with the learning of math facts from addition through division. These lessons took the math facts in order, and make word problems out of them.

Elocution was popular, especially on the last day of school, and presentations like "the Deathbed of Benedict Arnold" somehow thrilled parents. Spelling bees and ciphering matches were popular.

Irene Karschner taught in the Little Green Creek school on the Austin Trail, which was sometimes known as the Redlines School. She wrote that the school included a pot-bellied stove in the middle of the room, school boxes were piled on the shelves in the rear of the room, winter garments hung from nails in the wall. There was no chair for the teacher, since it had fallen apart before she arrived and apparently no thoughts were given to replacing it. A water pail was carried from a well at a neighboring house. Each pupil got one tablet and one pencil per month. Each student had a poem book to learn each month. There was one text book for each student for the year, in each subject taught. Maps and a globe helped with the geography and history. At noon, the teacher and the students played ball. When it rained, they played games indoors.

Lesta Bangs, writing in an article entitled "Recreation in the One Room Schoolhouse," said that the children of the Millville area planned their own free time in the schoolhouse between noon and 1 PM when they had their "lunch hour." In the lower grades, the smaller children played games like "Drop the Handkerchief," "Blindman's Bluff" and "Ring around Rosy." A strand of rope was sufficient to jump rope or play horse. Mrs. Bangs wrote that a Hop Scotch pattern could be made on a piece of smooth ground simply by dragging a stick. Tag was a popular game after all other games were exhausted. In the fall and in the spring, upper grades played a baseball game known as "Roundtown" and a variation known as "double bats." Tug-O-War and Crack the Whip were popular, and as cold weather arrived the game of "fox and geese" was popular.

William Heacock wrote about Benton students playing Anthony Over (or "antiover" or "Andy Over") over the schoolhouse. Students would get on each side of the schoolhouse and they threw a ball over the house to the other people. Then whoever caught the ball ran around the house and tried to tag one person from the opposing side. There was another game played with a woolen ball which was called sock-about, hitting a player with the ball, and when the ball became well soaked up in wet weather you knew when the thrower hit you. In Benton, "Long Tom" or "town ball" was another diversion, as baseball had not arrived in the Borough when Heacock did his writing. The Market Street covered bridge on a rainy day made a good place to play and an easy walk from the school which was on Market Street during that period.

It is hard to imagine how much instruction a good pupil could acquire under often crowded conditions of the one-room schoolhouse. Still, the students gleefully "sang" the multiplication table and capitals and rivers of the United States and "spoke their pieces" Friday afternoons. Spelling bees were also popular in the Benton schoolhouse and a good rivalry developed among schools in other school districts, notably Stillwater and the Karns school.

Mrs. Karschner also wrote about the Chestnut Grove School, a former one-room school in Jackson Township, a school very similar to the Little Green Creek school. Seats and desks in this school would permit the seating of two students at a time and a recitation bench had a prominent position at the front of the classroom. The coal stove was shielded on two sides to protect the hides of students forced to sit too close to the heat source. An old-fashioned pump organ was used for musical programs and music instruction. "Skip to My Lou" was popular.

Before 1860, rural schoolhouses were usually log structures on packed clay floors. Rough boards extending from the walls served as crude desks. Seats were plank benches, without backs. Blackboards were just that! They were boards painted black. Frame structures came along about 1860. During this entire period based on standards imposed today little concern was shown for the well-being of the child, although somehow everyone seemed to survive. The state did not regulate restrictions on punishment in those days, although Edgar Baker wrote that "teachers ought not to use excessive punishment." Edgar always claimed that he "never had a student on which I inflicted punishment with a whip or strap." He passed out punishment in other ways, however. Students sometimes had to stay in their seats during recess or lunch, sometimes they were forced to write the same thing a number of times. Sometimes for short periods they were made to stand on a platform facing the blackboard with their heels over the edge of the platform.

Before 1880, the school year varied depending on the need for labor on the farm. The very young children, too young for much farm work, got a few weeks of schooling in the summer. The older boys who were needed on the farm got three or four months of schooling during the winter. The length of the term often was dependent on how much money was available to pay the teacher.

Edgar Baker once wrote of his teaching career in Upper Pine and contrasted it with his education years when he attended a one-room school. As a teacher, Edgar never had over 20 students and one year only had 13. But when Edgar was a student, he was one of about 50 in the school and Edgar was told that 30 years prior to him attending the schoolhouse, there were something like 90 in the school. Irma Eyer taught at Pleasant Valley in Franklin Township, Lycoming County, in 1932-33. She had six boys and two girls, and the two girls were repeating 8th grade, not because they had flunked it but because "many country girls did not go on to high school, but just spend another year in eighth grade."

The General Assembly passed a law in 1895 requiring all children between 8 and 13 to be in school at least sixteen weeks a year.

There were usually no graduation ceremonies in Lycoming County according to former teacher Irma Eyer. Certificates were sent in the mail to students. In Columbia County, a graduation ceremony took place, usually in a Township church. The County Superintendent of Schools, at that time it was William Evans, would speak, the pupil with the highest grade gave the valedictorian speech, and students with perfect attendance were recognized.

A number of readers said they enjoy hearing about one-room schools, and so we'll continue with this series when we have the time. In the meantime, Jane Sterner, 81, 683-5341, is looking for information on a two-year school that was called the Union School or Fishing Creek School. It was a one-room building and like a Junior high school, then students went to another for graduation, She believed the school closed in 1943. Can any reader identify this school and provide any more information on it?
--We are greatly indebted to Brad Spangenberg whose Essays on the One-Room Schoolhouse were invaluable in the preparation of this article.

April 20, 2005. Happy birthday today to Richard Lehet, 66, and to Richard Sutliff, 70.

On this date in...
1862, the first test of pasteurization was completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard. Jars that were sealed since winter were opened by members of the French Academy of Sciences. The jars contained dog's blood and urine that had been maintained at a temperature of 30ºC. Neither liquid showed observable decay or fermentation. This implied that the heating of foods sufficiently to kill germs would not significantly altering their chemical composition. Pasteur's process is known today as pasteurization and uses heat to destroy harmful microorganisms in products. The products are then sealed airtight for safety. Pasteur's scientific breakthrough allows products such as beer and milk to be transported without spoiling.

1935, Your Hit Parade, with Kay Thompson, Charles Carlyle, Gogo DeLys and Johnny Hanser, was first broadcast on radio. Frank Sinatra later was a featured vocalist. The show stayed on the radio for 24 years and on network television from 1950 to 1959.

Quickies...
• Talk about growing up in a hurry! EBay Inc. will be 10 this year and should reach revenue figures of $1 billion in a three-month period. Google Inc. is three years younger and is somewhat over $700 million in quarterly sales. We would love to hear your predictions of the companies or the industries that you predict might achieve that sort of growth over the next 7-10 years.

. Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 5.4% in March, The national unemployment rate for March was 5.3%.

• Advertising in the Suburban News brings a lot of people to the upper Fishing Creek Valley and we expect that an advertisement appearing in today's paper for this weekend's auction will be no exception.

In an article on April 17 in the Benton News, we chatted about NASA's third scheduled moon landing that lifted off on April 11, 1970, the flight where the famous "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here" message following the explosion of a cryogenic oxygen tank. At Mission Control, people scrambled to get the crew home safely before the oxygen and power ran out. Dick McHenry, a Summer Benton resident, was at Cape Canaveral the night Apollo 13 blew the oxygen tank. He worked for Link Flight Simulation. We'll let Dick tell the story...

"I was working the 3rd shift on the Apollo command module simulator and the lunar module simulator. I got to hear the conversation between the astronauts and Houston CapComm live when it happened. NASA had the backup astronauts at Houston and the Cape flying simulated missions just like the Apollo 13 astronauts were in real time. In our simulators the back-up astronauts would say pop a circuit breaker at both Cape Kennedy and Houston and if it worked ok then they would tell Fred (Haise), Jim (Lovell), and Jack (Swigert) it was ok to do it in the space craft. They were trying to shut down as much stuff to conserve power as they could without endangering the space craft and crew. It was a scary time."

"When they got back safe they came to visit us at the cape and thanked us for the good job of the simulators. They said the only complaint they had was that of all the simulation training they had we never gave them a blown oxygen tank malfunction. Then they started laughing."

"I also know and understand about Ken Mattingly and the Germen Measles scare. I was one of only 6 primary contacts who was allowed to be around the astronauts in our simulator building during the last 6 weeks before they went into space. I had to go through very intense physicals before I could be a primary contact. If my wife or son or daughter or I got even a cold during this time I had to report it immediately. If our daughter didn't show up at school the school notified NASA and they would have put the hammer down on me. The reason was she could have not been to school because she might have been sick and it was my duty to report that to NASA in the first place. NASA took care of their astronauts."

We thank Richard for recalling some of his memories of his days at Cape Kennedy (1967-1973) and Houston Space Center (1973-1974) and looking forward to Dick and Janet returning Back Home to Benton, PA, later in the year.

It is nice to have the tree gone that has been resting on the Benton dam for the past six months.

The name Pennington has been associated with the Benton area for well over a century. Many remember M. D. Pennington and the Pennington General Store on Main Street. Anna Pennington, 330 Third St. Benton, is selling a large collection of antiques, collectibles and shop tools on Saturday, May 14, in anticipation of moving into her new house in Green Acres. The list of tools for sale is impressive, as is the list of antiques.

Cheryl McDonald, 925-2447, is the person to call to reserve the Benton Park for an outing this summer. And while you are thinking of the town park, don't forget to bring a rake and come out to the park for the spring cleanup on Saturday, April 30, starting at 9 AM.

We have posted most of the donations to the Northern Columbia Community & cultural Center auction Sunday, but we have some more that we'll add during the course of the auction. These include...

• A wall-hanging Parcheesi board from The Ol' County Barn, South Comstock Road. Donated by Nancy Fox.

• A Jamison City Area Centennial Plate commemorating July 1-4, 1989, and the Proctor Inn (1890-1908). Donated by The Ol' County Barn, South Comstock Road. Donated by Nancy Fox.

• An appliqué embroider and embellished, hand-made and framed by Joanne Heinbach. This is truly a beautiful item. Donated by Joanne King Heinbach.

We will start a discussion of one-room schools in Pennsylvania today, and continue and conclude tomorrow with the bulk of the article.

Teaching in the one-room schoolhouses of rural Pennsylvania in the mid-1800s was not a lucrative endeavor. The Pennsylvania School Journal in 1852 reported the salaries of some teachers in the state. One of the higher salaries was for a lady who received $20 per month from the "Board" and $10 from parents for six months out of the year. Low salaries appeared to be commensurate with low scholastic standards. Each farm community seemed to turn out one or two students who wanted to teach. They usually attended an upgraded school until they could successfully complete all the problems in "Brooks Arithmetic" and pass an examination by the County Superintendent.

Not until about 1900 did the quality of the average teacher in the state improve. Teacher-training classes in the high schools and the impact of the Normal School Act of 1857 did a lot to improve the quality of teachers.

Using statistics provided by the state, by 1922 there were about 10,000 one-room schools left in the state, but only about a fifth of the teachers had completed a four-year high school. The average state salary in 1918-1919 was $411 a year for a one-room school teacher.

We have often written about one-room schools in the Benton area in the pages of the Benton News. Over in Greenwood Township, a few miles west of Benton, just a little over 100 years ago there were eight school buildings, two with two rooms. These schools included the Redline School, about two miles north of Rohrsburg. The Rohrsburg School was located where the present Kreamer Garage is now located. The first four grades were on the first floor and grades 5 through 8 were on the second floor. Two miles from Rohrsburg on the Austin Trail was the Little Green Creek School. Dating from 1916, the Greenwood Center School, three miles east of Millville, provided both a single room for grades 1 through 8 and a three-year high school. The Bunker Hill School was about two miles north of the Greenwood Center School and was torn down in the 1930s. Three miles southwest of the Center School was the Pine Grove School. The Greenwood School was two miles or so west of the Center School near the Greenwood United Methodist Church. There was an Eyersgrove School and an Iola School. These schools ended their careers in 1941-1942. After that students were bussed to the Greenwood Consolidated Schools, now the Greenwood Friends School, located on Route 254 about three miles east of Millville.

Ethel C. Watts, writing in Curriculum of the One Room School, wrote that the last bell of the morning rang at 9 AM, followed by roll call, then a scripture reading of at least ten verses from the Bible, followed by the Lord's Prayer. If the teacher could sing, two or three songs followed. Then it was down to business: the 3 R's, spelling, English, History, Geography and Health and sometimes physiology. Art would be taught Friday afternoons. A recess was granted from 10:30 to 10:45. Writing was the last class before lunch. Spelling was all taught by memory. Recess came along at 2:30 PM. At 3:55 pupils cleared their desks and gathered up the debris that had found its way to the floor, put on their coats and hats and overshoes row by row, gathered their lunch boxes and started their walk for home.
--We are greatly indebted to Brad Spangenberg whose Essays on the One-Room Schoolhouse were invaluable in the preparation of this article.

April 19, 2005. Jim Kelsey has a birthday today, as does actress Kate Hudson, 26.

On this date, theologian Joseph Ratzinger, 78, a hard-line enforcer of Catholic Church doctrine for the last two decades, was chosen to succeed his friend and close ally Pope John Paul II. Ratzinger, 78, became Pope Benedict XVI, the 265th leader of the world's largest Christian institution.

The Renaissance Jamboree takes over Bloomsburg's Main Street Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM. No one should get hungry, thirsty, or not have things to do during this festival. There are six venues for entertainment, 90 groups selling food and 250 crafters. If you plan to attend, hop a shuttle from parking lots at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds at the west end of town or the Bloomsburg Hospital on Route 487. Handicapped can park behind the library on Market Street.

Yesterday the Pirates had a 4 win, 8 loss record for the year, the same as the Yankees but with a difference. George Steinbrenner and his Yankees have an estimated $206-million annual payroll while the Pirates' have a meager annual payroll of $38-million. Fur should fly soon!

Why is it always easier to forgive an enemy than a friend?

The Mill Race Golf Course is open for business, carts and all. Jim Hartkorn and his crew are doing a fine job and that will be evident by just playing a round. The restaurant is not in full swing yet.

The St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church, Coles Creek, in Sugarloaf Township, has had ties to the area since 1792. John Godhard probably first organized the church and Rev. Caleb Hopkins along with 56 citizens from Stillwater to North Mountain organized the parish. The names of those 57 people are still common to us and include: McHenry, Cole, Coleman, Fritz, Kline, Peterman, Hess, Kile, Laubach, Rhone They were largely German, Dutch and Scotch Irish in origin. Other names from tax files from before 1800 include Keeler, Colley, Bartleson, Viets, Cutter, Young, Jackson and Laubaugh. Rev. Hopkins also organized parishes in Milton, Jerseytown and Bloomsburg.

A Bishop by the name of Onderdonk consecrated a log building for use as a church in 1828. Services were probably conducted in homes prior to the official consecration. Forty-eight years later, on Palm Sunday in 1876, the log structure burned. The Rev. John Hewlett oversaw preparing the ground for the present church and the cornerstone was laid on May 23, 1876. The first service appropriately took place on Thanksgiving Day, 1876.

Most of the priests during the early years of the church were "circuit riders" and only performed services like baptism and funerals. Only one priest was "in residence" at the church--the Rev. John D. Rockwell. He and his wife, Julia, are buried within the iron fence behind the church. His faithful horse, Ned, is also buried in the cemetery. Rev. Rockwell was the pastor of St. Gabriel for the last 20 years of his life. The St. Gabriel window above the altar was consecrated in 1922 as a memorial to the Rockwells.

The interior of St. Gabriel's church is solid chestnut. Pews in the church were of virgin timber cut by James Peterman. The stained-glass side windows were given by descendants of the pioneer families who were the first baptized communicants.

The Cemetery actually existed long before 1812. The land was deeded to St. Gabriel's Church by Ezekiel Cole. Many descendents buried in the cemetery can no longer be identified. Field stones were frequently used to mark the graves, and many of these stones no longer contain any trace of information, others are broken, missing or relocated.

The original Meneely bell, cast in 1882 and inscribed 0 Make a Joyful Noise unto the Lord, was a gift from Blanche Bernard. The bell was brought by wagon team from Troy, New York, to Bloomsburg, then brought to Sugarloaf Township and mounted on a frame in a large pine tree in 1884. The bell was later moved to the front of the church where it hung for years suspended between two pine trees. The bell was lost for many years until it was discovered by Franklin Newheart. On being found it was restored to its original condition by a grant from the Kaplan Fund administered by Brad Cole, Annapolis, a descendant of Ezekiel Cole. The tower from which the bell now hangs was designed and built by Franklin Newhart. The bell was rededicated July 16, 2000.

One story about the church involved a young couple who moved to Jamison City from Germany about the time that Jamison City was in its prime. The wife died shortly after moving to this area, possibly from the severity of the winter, and was buried in St. Gabriel's cemetery. The husband and children moved away shortly after her death. The mother of the woman, desperate for news of her American family, came from Germany to find her daughter. She found that the daughter was dead, and her son-in-law and her grandchildren had moved from the area without telling anyone where they were going. The mother fashioned a small cross out of wood and placed it at the end of her daughter's grave and at the other end planted an oak tree in her memory. She stayed and watched the tree grow until she was sure that the memorial was securely rooted. She had no friends and no income and soon became a charge of Sugarloaf township. The Country Commissioners finally paid her transportation to Philadelphia, and from there she was returned to Germany. The memorial in the form of a pine tree did not survive. Someone felt that the tree was "in the way" and cut it down. The simple cross deteriorated with time and the memorial to a stranger who died in a foreign land was gone.

The church will celebrate their exciting history through a homecoming on Sunday, July 24. The Rev. Joseph W. Hess, Jr., will again serve as Celebrant and Concelebrant for 10 AM services with Virginia Thomas serving as lay reader. The day before, those interested in genealogy will meet in the social room of the church from 9 AM until 3:30 PM. Those who attend the genealogy sessions are generally related in some way to the first settlers of the Benton area. St. Gabriel's Church may be tiny, but there will be lots of enthusiasm in Coles Creek for reunion weekend.
--We need to acknowledge the assistance we received for this article from Brad Cole, Father Joe Hess, Virginia Thomas, Helen Gammon and from the many writings on the subject of St. Gabriel's Church and Cemetery by Polly A. Laubach-Eckrote, Berwick.

Brad Cole adds a postscript that thanks need to be extended to all "those who have given of their time and resources over the years to help St. Gabriel's hold onto its historically significant past as well as remain an active congregation. Please come and help celebrate our past and support St. Gabriel's future. Any questions, please contact Betty Fritz Victory, 925-6671."

Have you ever noticed that it is impossible to shoot the truth?

We followed a young man down the street this weekend and couldn't help but notice his sagging pants in the style of rap artists Ice-T and Too Short. Just walking took up more energy than we like to expend, since every third step or so involved some hitching and rearranging of the baggy bottoms. The droopy drawers attire made us think of prisons where various size of clothes are limited and belts, a favorite of the "hanging" crowd, are taboo. In Virginia, we know that the legislature unsuccessfully tried to impose a $50 fine when pants are worn with "underwear visible in an indecent manner." Locally in warm weather, we often see a local contractor wearing "crack kills" tee shirts, and they probably aren't referring to drugs. Local high school students tell us that the Benton Area Schools have no dress code for "sagging." We wonder if judges ever officially see young men attired in court in this manner, or if kids on trial show up as if heading for church; i.e., a quiet suit and tie and a minimum of jewelry.

Now that we are retired, we conclude that extensive wardrobes only count for weddings, funerals, job interviews and court. Defendants usually try to convey their innocence through the clothes they wear (with the exception of Michael Jackson who seemingly rolled out of bed and came to trial in his pajama bottoms.)

Martha Stewart showed up for her trial with a very expensive Hermes Birkin bag, and came out of prison wearing a "Martha Stewart Poncho." For the upcoming Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center auction, Sharon Little crocheted a hand-made poncho that is a copy of the actual poncho Martha Stewart wore when she was released from prison. We are hoping that Martha will find out and send in a bid!

Courtney Love, charged with cavorting with cocaine, arrived in court on different days in grungy cardigans, a thrift store floral dress and a black strapless evening gown. Early on in the Michael Jackson trial, the defendant wore a business suit and wire-rimmed glasses looking for all the world like the guys he is paying big bucks to defend him. His suits then went to burgundy, scarlet and blue and were weighed down with gold crests and brass buttons as if his next stop was his yacht on the Mediterranean. He has dangled a gold watch chain, pocket squares and military medals from Great Britain during his trial.

Going under the assumption that problems are only opportunities in work clothes, we'll continue to under dress for every occasion. If you have ever tried to dress someone who is built like a turnip, you know that "sagging" is a problem with us older men, but since we are not yet considered dangerous we continue to wear our belt and somewhat moderate clothes. Don't expect to see us dangling a pocket square any time in the future. And if you see us in a suit, someone has passed away. We hope it isn't "you know who."

April 18, the 108th day of 2005. Today is the birthday of Ruth Kline and she celebrates the day with talk show host Conan O'Brien, 42. Ruth plans to celebrate by playing cards for most of the day, followed by a trip to Red Lobster. The family is not allowed in until 8 PM when her social calendar opens up! Regular gas prices were $1.669 and $1.689 locally a year ago today.

On this date in...
1775, three men began a horse ride from Boston to Concord to warn the residents of the approaching British army. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later wrote a famous poem, Paul Revere's Ride, glorifying the silversmith and dentist Paul Revere. William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott also rode that night to warn residents, but only Prescott made it all the way to Concord. Although Revere was nabbed by a British cavalry patrol near Lexington, the three riders got the job done! When the British forces arrived in Lexington to raid munitions stored by the provincial congress, they found the minutemen waiting for them.

1906, six consecutive shocks formed the Great San Francisco Earthquake, responsible for some 3,000 deaths and catastrophic damage. There were many fires that followed the quake and some took weeks to contain. Half of the city's population was forced to sleep in city parks.

1934, the first Laundromat, then known as a "Washateria," opened in Fort Worth, simply a coin box on an ordinary washing machine. For the first time, folks could rent washing machines for laundering clothes. Later, dryers could be rented, too. Today, one of the finest Laundromats in the state is Back Home in Benton, PA. If you haven't used it yet, stop and take a walk through.

1984, scalp surgery was performed on Michael Jackson to repair second-degree burn damage done after the his hair caught fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial. Jackson was hospitalized and recuperated for months before he could return to work. Out in Santa Maria, Jackson's face and scalp turns red virtually every day during testimony during his on-going trial.

1953, New York Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle hit a 565-foot homer in Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC.

If you ever wondered why "the older generation" didn't have a drug problem when they were growing up, head over to here.

Those Romans were ahead of their time. Didja ever notice that the Roman numerals for forty (40) are "XL?"

It is time for Manufacturers Days, June 15-18, at the factory tour capital of the world in York County. You can crunch on warm Martin's Kettle Cooked potato chips while imbibing at one of the counties wineries, cool off at York International, watch York Barbell get ready to make men out of boys and pause with a Pfaltzgraff. The American Bus Association even calls York County one of the top 100 events in North America. At Hope Acres Fully Robotic Dairy Farm, you can watch the cows milked by robots. Get in a twist at Snyder's of Hanover, a pretzel bakery, and wash it down with a stop at Bube's Brewery, and for desert stop at Wolfgang Candies. Other factories include Harley-Davidson, Bradley Lifting Corporation, Utz Quality Foods, Wilton Armetale and Snyder's of Hanover. Most tours are free.

While you are in York, don't forget that the city was the first capital of the United States. The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation in York. George Washington might never have become the nation's first president if the Conway Cabal, a plot to overthrow him, wasn't thwarted in York's Golden Plough Tavern. York manufacturing developed The York Plan, the model used for World War II production.

We sometimes include Micro$oft Word tips and this is a repeat. The tip involves the simple task of summing a column in Word. Lets say you have a table of 6 columns and are using Word 2000 and lets say one column contains currency that you want to sum. In Word 2000, you can enter the formula right into the table. Click in the cell below the last number in your column. In the menu bar, click "Table" and then "Formula..." A formula dialog box will ask you what you want to do. The default is =SUM(above) so click "OK" and the total will be in that box.

As the end of April arrives each year, we start getting antsy for the MerleFest scheduled this year Thursday through Sunday, April 28 through May 1. Last year we heard talent from classic country swing of Asleep At The Wheel to the speed of Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder to Guy Clark's troubadour twang on "Black Diamond Strings" to Ralph Stanley's mountain holler on "A Robin Built A Nest On Daddy's Grave," plus the music of Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Patty Loveless, Alison Krauss, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Tim O'Brien, Blue Highway, Chris Thile, John Cowan, Peter Rowan, Tony Rice and our favorites the Kruger Brothers.

We usually can send and receive email when we are at the MerleFestl, but have no ability to put up our web page during the show because of our remote location in the North Carolina hills outside of Wilkesboro. About a week from now, you will notice that the Benton News is getting' mighty thin, something we can't seem to personally do!

We may not be getting thin, but we really have a lot to be thankful for. For example, how wonderful it is that wrinkles don't hurt.

April 17, 2005. Happy birthday today to Blanche Getz.

On this date in 1790, Benjamin Franklin died. This remarkable man was a printer, publisher, author, inventor, scientist, and diplomat. He invented a stove which is still manufactured. The lightning rod and bifocal eyeglasses originated with his ideas. He helped establish a fire company, a library, an insurance company, an academy, and a hospital. He is responsible for this quote: "Genius without education is like silver in the mine." Also on this date, in 1961, about 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. In 1964, Ford Motor Co. unveiled its new "Mustang" model.

NASA's third scheduled moon landing lifted off on April 11, 1970. On April 13 came the famous "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here" message following the explosion of a cryogenic oxygen tank. At Mission Control, people scrambled to get the crew home safely. Time was counting down with oxygen and power in short supply.

Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Ken Mattingly were to be the crew of the 13th Apollo mission. Mattingly was bumped from the Apollo 13 crew by a suspected--but nonexistent--case of German measles, but became invaluable in the behind-the-scenes effort to bring the astronauts home. Astronauts Fred Haise, Jim Lovell, and Jack Swigert were forced to abort their mission and use primitive celestial navigation techniques to return to Earth. Congress even decreed that people around the country and in churches pray for the safe return of the astronauts. The craft was eventually guided home manually with little life support and made an accurate splashdown. The Apollo 13 Command Module splashed down in the South Pacific on this date in 1970 within sight of its recovery ship.

Mattingly eventually made his own moon flight, as command-module pilot of Apollo 16 in 1972, and during his subsequent career in Arlington as a Navy Admiral he became my boss. In the movie, Apollo 13, Mattingly was played by Gary Sinise. Fred Haise and Pierson Holcombe went on to be presidents of divisions of Northrop Grumman at the same time.

Today...
. At 10:30 this morning, coffee is served at the Benton Presbyterian Church. A Celtic Worship with bagpipes begins at 11 AM and a fellowship hour will follow with Scotch Broth, shortbread, lemon curd, marmalade, oatcakes and scones.

. At 2 PM this afternoon a concert in memory of Greg Notestine begins at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Berwick. Entertainment will be provided by the Benton High School Chorus, Bicentennial Choir, Brighter Light, local barbershoppers, Good Shepherd Sanctuary Choir and Sacred Chorale. There will be a freewill offering that will go to a trust fund for Kim and Greg's daughters Rachel and Emily Notestine.

Friday President Bush declared nine Pennsylvania counties a disaster area following severe storms and flooding earlier this month. Federal aid was ordered to supplement state and local recovery efforts making federal funds available in Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Wayne, Wyoming, Northampton, Bradford, Bucks and Columbia counties. The assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs. Thousands of structures up and down the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers were inundated for the second time in less than seven months, prompting evacuation of more than 6,000 residents and causing tens of millions of dollars in damage. Over in Wilkes-Barre, the Susquehanna crested at 31 feet, nine feet above flood stage. Over 300 homes in Luzerne County were damaged by floodwaters for the second time in six months following the remnants of Hurricane Ivan. In Shickshinny and Plymouth Township, about 60 homes suffered from water damage. In Columbia County, Bloomsburg and Catawissa suffered the most damage.

Saturday, regular unleaded gasoline was for sale between Benton and Camp Hill from a low of $2.019 (B.J.'s Wholesale Club, Camp Hill), to $2.079 in Benton, to $2.199 (Sunoco, Dauphin County).

Another high-school quarterback from Pennsylvania plans to play football at Notre Dame. Zach Frazer, a 222 pound Mechanicsburg quarterback who threw for 3,674 yards last season as a high school junior, has given Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis a verbal commitment to begin playing at Notre Dame beginning in 2006. Ron Powlus, Berwick, played for the Irish for five years at Notre Dame. Notre Dame went 30-17-1 during Powlus' four years as starting quarterback. Former quarterback Powlus is now Director of Personnel Development for the University.

We suspect that someday you'll realize that the older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight as your body and your fat take on a close, personal relationship.

Upcoming...
. The FFA of the Benton Area Schools are planning a "Game Banquet" for April 28 in the Benton Park (in good weather) and in the High School cafeteria (in case of bad weather). All meat used will be "wild meat." The event begins at 6:30 PM and is open to the public by donation of a covered dish brought to the park that evening. George Wilcox, a wildlife conservation officer, will be the guest speaker. Stay tuned for more details.

. The April meeting of the Femme Fatale Chapter of the Red Hat Society will be at The Hoboken Sub Shop at 2 PM, Wednesday, April 20. The menu will be a pan fried Haddock platter with a lemon dessert. The price is $8, which includes tax and tip. The ladies are having a white elephant sale to raise funds for the Lark in the Park, and ask that those attending bring several items to auction. Carol Vance will be the auctioneer. Proper attire is required--a purple outfit and a red hat. Chapter is open to new members and guests are welcome.

. The 50th Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival advance discount ticket cut off date is Thursday, May 5. Festival dates are May 12-15.

We had to smile broadly when we read about a wanna-be South Korean driver, 70, who had to take the drivers test 271 times before he passed the academic part. Over the years, he paid about $1,000 in fees.

We have this tip for those of you who have lost something around the house. Buy a replacement and the lost item will show up.

April 16, 2005. Happy anniversary to Randy and Denise Hack, Stillwater, Today is the first Saturday after April 11, which means it is the annual opening of fishing season. Temperatures could be in the 70s Saturday.

On this date in 1912, American aviator Harriet Quimby became the first female pilot to fly across the English Channel. She left England in her "purple satin flying costume" wearing a hood rather than a helmet. She flew in a 50-hp monoplane on loan to her heading for France in a plane she had never flown using a compass she just learned how to use, flying somewhat like a driver we followed on route 11 last Tuesday. Flying in poor visibility and fog, Quimby landed less than an hour later in France (25 miles from her intended destination). The news of the Titanic sinking days earlier limited reporting of Quimby's achievement. She died later in 1912 at a flying exhibition near Quincy, MA, but in a career that lasted only eleven months she became the first American woman licensed pilot. Her face is on the 50¢ U.S. airmail stamp with her Bleriot monoplane in the background.

A people which takes no pride in the noble
achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything to be
remembered with pride by
remote descendants
--Lord Macaulay

The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

Katie Knorr has a 17' Michie Craft aluminum white water canoe and two paddles for sale. Katie can be reached in Elk Grove at 925-2087.

Kathy Leamont is one of the food providers at the upcoming Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center Village Sampler April 24. Many with a sweet tooth know her for her delicious pastries marketed under the name "Kathy's Kakes." Although she is a home-based business at 181 Rakich Road, she is certified with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. Her professional baking and decorating career extends back more than 30 years. One of Kathy's popular items at the moment is her frosted cookies arranged in a flower pot and decorated with "your wishes, greetings, thoughts and smiles." They are even available with white chocolate at an additional cost.

Lila Allen walked by the house Friday with a donation for the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Auction. We immediately noticed that she walked with a good gait compared with the problems that we had seen her with recently. The donation was machine-sewed hand-quilted American Flag wall hanging 21"x37" which she had made herself.

Lila has had some interesting careers in the last 45 years. She has been a hairdresser, a painter and housekeeper. She spent 18 years in the Benton Area School District where she was a Chapter 1 Aide, Office Clerk and her last position was as the District Office Receptionist. She will leave her current position as dishwasher/prep cook at the Market Square Restaurant on April 30. Lila has served as the Benton Halloween Parade Treasurer for the last 13 years, worked with the Benton Rodeo Association for 18 years, and marched with the Catawissa Military Band for 13 years. Her daughter Denise and son Kenny will be hosting a Retirement party in her honor later this month. After she retires, Lila plans to travel, continue her quilting, gardening and woodworking projects and take a well-deserved break! We also suspect that she'll rest only long enough to make another American flag for another good cause...

April 15, 2004. It is the day that taxes are due. You have until midnight to get your federal income tax return electronically processed or into the mail. This country existed until 1861 without an income tax. The Civil War made such a tax on citizens making more than $800 a year a necessity. The Supreme Court decision of 1895 declared a tax on income to be in violation of the "direct tax" clause of the Constitution. The solution the boys in Washington came up with was the 16th Amendment which authorized Congress to "lay and collect taxes on income from whatever source derived." Otherwise, we hope this is not a taxing day for you...

"The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf."
--Will Rogers

It is the birthday today of Jeff Andrysick, Jennifer Hatcher, and Ken Bond. These three fine people celebrate their birthday with another fine guy, Leonardo da Vinci, born in Italy in 1452, the man who painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Leonardo was full of ideas but never completed many of the projects he started, a fault we can relate to. Michelangelo is supposed to have said about him, "He cannot create, only imagine." From the time Leonardo was thirty until the time he was fifty-five he only completed about ten paintings.

On this date in 1955, Ray Kroc made McHistory when he opened the first McDonald's in Des Plaines, IL. Kroc began his career by selling milk shake machines known as Multimixers. Among his first customers were Dick and Mac McDonald, owners of a drive-thru restaurant in San Bernardino. Kroc sold them several machines, then bought the rights to market the brother's product and hired them to work for him. On his first day of business, sales of 15¢ hamburgers and 10¢ French fries totaled $366.12. There is no telling how many burgers have been served at McDonald's, but the company says that "billions and billions" have been served.

Randolph C. Brown is the new President and Chief Executive Officer of First Columbia Bank & Trust and Columbia Financial Corporation. Mr. Brown has 25 years of banking experience, serving as President and CEO of the National Bank of Geneva and President and CEO of First Tier Bank & Trust in Olean, New York.

First Columbia Bank's original charter dates back to 1899 when The Bloomsburg National Bank opened. A vice president and one of the most famous directors of that bank was attorney Paul E. Wirt, who was born in Cambra and who obtained a patent in 1882 for a fountain pen, marketed out of Bloomsburg as the Paul E. Wirt Fountain Pen. Mr. Wirt served for many years as vice president and director of the Bloomsburg National Bank.

In 1926, Bloomsburg National Bank merged with Columbia County Trust Co. to become Bloomsburg Bank - Columbia Trust Co. One of our favorite stories about that bank was back in 1932 when John Harrington Jr., then 9, and his sister Lillian, 7, climbed through a six-inch washroom window and picked up two sacks of Sunday School collections and climbed out again. Margaret Harrington, 14, gave them away after they offered her $2. As is almost always the case, the criminals were apprehended and security measures tightened.

In 1990, the Bank changed its name to First Columbia Bank & Trust Co. Branches in Northumberland and Luzerne County are now open, making a total of nine branches and more than $260 million dollars in assets. Judith Scavone is the branch manager of the local branch of the bank.

Shirley Ritter came through her operation with flying colors. Doctors feel that they got all the cancer and that no further treatments will be necessary, other than to rest and heal and partake of some of hubby Harry's home-cooked food. Shirley will be Back Home in Benton, PA, Friday afternoon.

When the tragic events of the final days of Terri Schiavo were being played by the minute in the press, we all said that we need to make decisions about the need for a living will, a legal document that helps families avoid miscommunication and bad feelings should the unexpected occur. Living wills, sometimes known as "medical powers of attorney" or "health care directives," let you express your medical requirements now in case that you can't later because of incapacitation. It might be time to take another look at what you resolved to do.

Didja hear about the banker, the used-car salesman and the lawyer standing in front of the coffin of a recently deceased friend? The banker said he wanted to leave some money in the coffin so that the friend would have some money to spend "over there." They all agreed it was a good idea. Both the banker and the car salesman dropped $100 into the casket. The lawyer removed the bills and wrote a check for $300.

Satellite views of your house are available again for free. Go to the Google map site . Add your address, including city and state or zip code, and you may get a conventional map drawing (Benton Borough is not available at that detailed level). If you click on the "satellite" link in the upper right hand corner of the map you'll see a satellite photo of your house. You can zoom in and out or grab the map with your mouse and move it around to see your neighborhood.

County Commissioner Chris Young reported Thursday that The Larson Group has been granted $160,000 from DCNR (Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources) and with the matching funds from the county there is $320,000 available to do all of the East Paden Twin Bridges work, estimated at $274,323. Funding in the amount of $45,677 would be left over for the park work. Commissioner Young reports "Hopefully the work will get started quickly so that the Twin Bridges will be completed in time for the annual "Dinner on the Bridge."

Thursday, April 14, 2005. Pat Truskoloski, Red Rock, celebrates her birthday today as does Jacob Janney, Elk Grove, who is 88 today. Jacob is the father of twelve, six boys and six girls; grandfather to 25; and great-grandfather to 23 (and one more on the way). Don't forget the Benton Chapter of the FFA's spaghetti dinner Thursday night from 5 to 7:30 in the high school cafeteria. The price is $6 for adults and $3 for children. Tickets are available at the door.

On this date in...

1865, actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth was permitted upstairs at Ford's Theatre and entered President Abraham Lincoln's private theatre box as Lincoln watched a performance of Our American Cousin. Shortly after 10 PM, Booth shot Lincoln in the head, then leaped to the stage below shouting "Sic semper tyrannis!" ("Thus always to tyrants!," the state motto of Virginia). He broke his leg, but managed to escape by horse several miles away to Virginia. Booth was hunted down and shot in a barn the next day.

1912, David Sarnoff, then 21, a telegraph operator working atop Wannamaker's department store, New York, picked up a message of distress from the Royal Mail Steamship "Titanic" of the White Star Line shortly after 10:40 PM. The message, relayed from ships at sea, provided the chilling news that moonless night that "S.S. Titanic ran into iceberg, sinking fast." For the next 72 hours, Sarnoff received and transmitted information on the disaster, including names of the rescued. The ship sank in under three hours and 1,517 passengers died at sea. Sarnoff later founded NBC (1926), created an experimental NBC television station (1928), and became president and chairman of RCA.

1927, Clarence Birdseye patented frozen fish fingers in the United Kingdom. Birdseye was a Massachusetts trapper and biologist in Labrador ten years before and knew that frozen fish and caribou meat tasted as good as fresh food. He knew that slow freezing of food produces ice crystals and soggy food when thawed, but fish exposed in the sub-zero temperature of Labrador froze solid almost immediately. It took Birdseye eight years to develop a satisfactory commercial system of quick freezing.

1956, the first practical commercial black-and-white video recorder was demonstrated by Ampex Corporation. The VT-100 was a behemoth the size of a deep freeze and it took five additional 6-foot racks of circuitry to make it operate. The magnetic tape moved at a speed of 15 inches per second and was two inches wide. A 14-inch reel could carry a 65-minute recording. CBS bought three of the video recorders in 1956 paying $75,000 each.

L. Jane Brewington, 93, (Sept. 20, 1911-April 11, 2005), Palm Beach Gardens, FL, and formerly of Berwick, died Monday in Florida. She was born in Berwick, the eldest daughter of the late Harry and Nellie Kile Fahringer. She graduated from the Bloomsburg Normal School and taught in the Berwick School System for over 35 years until her retirement in 1977 when she and her husband, Woodrow G. Brewington, moved to Palm Beach Gardens, FL, to live near her son, Robert. Her first husband, Lewis C. Smith, died in 1951, and her second husband, former Columbia County Sheriff Woodrow G. "Woody" Brewington, died in 2000. She also was preceded in death by five brothers and two sisters. She is survived by a son Robert L. Smith of Palm Beach Gardens, and a daughter: Sally Davies Bell, of Amhurst, VA; three grandchildren; and a brother. Funeral services will be held Saturday, April 16, at 11 AM from the First Baptist Church, 224 West Front St., Berwick. Burial will be in Pine Grove Cemetery, Walnut Street. Friends will be received Saturday from 10 AM until the time of the service at the church.
--From Thursday's Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary can be found

Community Banking Week is being celebrated through Friday to inform the public about the many contributions made by community banks throughout the Commonwealth.

• The Benton branch of the CCFNB is collecting used eyeglasses for the Lions Club. The glasses will be distributed to adults and children who are visually impaired.

• The Benton Branch of the First Columbia Bank & Trust Co. continues their community food drive through April 30. The Bank has collection boxes for donations of non-perishable food items, paper and cleaning supplies and personal hygiene products from bank employees and customers. The public is invited to drop off donations. The Bank is also sponsoring a coloring contest for children up to the age of 12 and will select a winner at random from entries submitted to the branch. On Friday, a "Neighborhood Indoor Picnic" will be held at the bank with free refreshments served from 11:00 AM until closing.

Thursday's Press Enterprise reported that Benton Area Middle School Principal Gary Powlus will "take over as superintendent this summer," quoting Dr. Andrew Pollock, "who is set to retire June 30." It is true that Dr. Pollock will retire in June and we certainly wish him the best in all his future undertakings. Dr. Pollock joins a succession of Superintendents who have had a short career in that position, following the long careers of L. Ray Appleman and Ben Pollock in similar positions. The budgetary march is a long one and the presentations by Dr. Pollock and Beverly Ribble Tuesday night resolved some but not all issues involving finance at the local school. It will not be until the School Board meeting in May that a "final" budget will be approved, including completion of salary negotiations with Mr. Powlus.

There are a lot of sore backs and tired people this morning, the day before income tax filing, reminding us what Mark Twain once wrote, "The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin." Why does the word "procrastinating" keep coming up at tax time?

We do love to eat ethnic foods, but we are a bit touchy about cleanliness. When we eat at Ethiopian restaurants, we make sure that our hands are extremely clean (since no utensils are used) and when we eat Chinese we always visit the men's room before we commit to eating. If the men's room doesn't come up to certain standards, we don't eat there. The country of China is coming clean about its filthy toilets, and plan to host a world toilet summit. The country is planning to hold its first ever toilet exhibition which will lift the lid on new technology.

One of the beautiful items donated for the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center auction coming up April 24 is a beautiful quilt lovingly handmade by Marian Remley, Divide. The quilt consists of about 400 patches and 18 sunflowers in what is known as a "Sunflower design," also known as "Dresden Plate" or as "Friendship Ring." The quilt is about 7 feet long and is absolutely lovely. Marion tells us that when she works on a quilt, "I work just like I was working at a factory!" She starts early in the morning and works throughout the day.

Over 50 years ago, she quilted with the Ladies of the Divide Union Church, including Lois Remley Stere, Cora Regan, Eileen Benjamin, Esther Remley, Mabel Sutliff and Anna Van Sock. Some of these women are shown above.

Marian Remley and the quilt that she donated
to the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center
Auction coming up April 24 at the Fire Hall

American Rivers is a national non-profit conservation organization with a national membership of about 40,000 dedicated to protecting and restoring healthy natural rivers and the variety of life they sustain for people, fish, and wildlife. On Wednesday, American Rivers announced the most endangered rivers of 2005, and our very own Susquehanna River was named the most endangered in the United States. The organization's press release said that an estimated 860 billion gallons of untreated sewage foul America’s rivers with pollution and make millions of American sick each year, and is particularly apparent along the Susquehanna River. The article reports that "throughout the Susquehanna River watershed, aging sewer systems discharge enormous volumes of raw or poorly treated sewage, which eventually flow into the Chesapeake Bay. Unless local, state and federal lawmakers invest in prevention and cleanup, the Susquehanna will remain among the nation’s dirtiest rivers and more and more of Chesapeake Bay will become a dead zone."

Wednesday, April 13, 2005. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was born on this date in Shadwell, Virginia. He became the third president of the United States and the driving force behind the Declaration of Independence which includes the lines, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." His political career began in 1769 in the Virginia House of Burgesses where he unsuccessfully attempted to emancipate the slaves under his jurisdiction. He retired forty years later as president of the United States. He died on July 4, 1826, at his Virginia home known as Monticello. If you don't remember what his house looks like, look at a nickel, or turn to www.monticello.org/ .

Don't forget to keep Shirley Ritter in your prayers today and she faces surgery. Starting at 9 this morning at the Benton United Methodist is the "over 55" driving class, and there is still room if you want to come by.

The Finance Committee of the School Board met last night and trimmed the possible $441,000 deficit to a slight surplus, depending on options selected next Monday night at the regular School Board meeting. The cuts proposed were in the areas of reading services, tuition reimbursements for principals, computer services, athletics, elimination of a fourth-grade teacher and possibly a high school guidance counselor. The Wednesday edition of the Press Enterprise provides further information.

On Saturday, April 9, the Boy Scouts of Benton collected 562 canned or boxed goods from residents of the Borough to benefit the Benton Food Bank. The troop wants to thank the community for supporting this project and thereby helping the area food bank.

The April, 1903, edition of the Old Farmer's Almanac provided this advice: "The time is now at hand for earnest work in preparing the soil for planting most of the garden and field crops. You have, no doubt, before this time decided just what crops to plant on each piece of land. You would not think about planting your asparagus roots on your heavy soil, nor of planting your corn on your light, sandy loam, which is best adapted to asparagus."

Farmer Moofie and his field workers are planting sweet corn behind Earl Keller's house just below Forks. They are putting clear plastic over the ground to keep the frost from killing the corn. We are amazed that, following the heavy rains of a week ago, the dust rolls off the tires of cars driving on dirt roads of the area. We took a ride through the country yesterday after spending Sunday fighting the cherry blossom traffic in Washington, DC. We love to get in the car and travel through the woods visualizing how the horses and wagons must have created the roads we still travel as they turned this way and that to avoid the trees and stumps and swamps of our area. No one has bothered to straighten out the back roads and we are reminded of the poem about how "the rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road."

Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.
--Chesterton, G(ilbert) K(eith)

An advantage of the country road is that we can get away from the 18-wheelers, we don't have to achieve "X-number of miles per day, we can't drive fast but we get a good look at the fields and the farmhouses and the people who dot the countryside. A wave is returned, as is a smile, and a stop will result in a conversation about quilting or the weather or the condition of the soil or the model of the John Deere performing the labors of the field. We love to stop in the middle of a bridge and watch the water running under our vehicle.

We passed a rural mail carrier leaning out the right window to make a delivery, then he slid back to the left of the car to arrange his mail for the next stop, when the process repeated. We look for the signs of the growing greenery that is spring and the wildlife that often hides close to the road as if to check on the passing vehicles. We listen carefully for the sounds that we'll never hear on the open road, the sounds of cattle, birds, stones under the wheels of the car, horse's hooves on the floor of a wooden covered-bridge.

"A road like this was not built for anyone in a hurry. It follows every curve of the stream, approaches the covered bridge at a right angle, turns abruptly and disappears into the dark mouth of the tunnel."
--Helen Hooven Santmyer

We love to drive by the rural houses where the dogs rest in anticipation of announcing the arrival of a visitor. We love to see the dogs rouse from a deep sleep and instantly go into their barking mode as they guard the manor. Some dogs continue to lie at rest and give a deep-throated growl, others run along the porch and complain about the disturbance to their sleep, others run along beside the car as if to demonstrate how vicious they really are.

We stop at country stores, an unhurried return to the past. It may take a few minutes for the proprietor to size you up, but discover the wheel cheese and admire the relics of the past and you'll soon acquire a new friend for life.

Drive by and admire the barns of the area, the old mills now falling into disuse. Make sure that you look up at the sky to see the colors that man can never duplicate. Look on the water of the area for the geese and the ducks. You aren't on a superhighway. Take the time to look, listen and enjoy. A lot of nice people live in these quiet places.

If Eden be on earth at all, 'Tis that which we the country call."
--Henry Vaughan, 1646

April 12, 2005. Today is David Letterman's birthday. On this date in 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, then 63, died of a cerebral hemorrhage; he was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.

On this date in...
• 1633, Galileo Galilei went on trial for supporting Nicolaus Copernicus' theory that the earth revolves around the sun and that the sun was at the center of the universe.

. 1934, wind gusts on Mt. Washington, New Hampshire, reached 231 mph. Yesterday's peak gust of wind hit 67 miles per hour and there is still 9" of snow and ice on the top of the mountain. The Mount Washington Auto Road and Mount Washington Cog Railway remain closed for the winter season. And how do we know this trivia? Currently making the summit her home is Becky Peterman, still attempting to de-ice the tower equipment with a crowbar and navigating the summit in zero visibility, but still pecking out a daily report which you can read on www.mountwashington.org/. We also suggest that you include Mt. Washington in your Summer travel plans. Becky probably could use a break, if you would like to head on up sooner...

. 1994, Laurence Canter, an Arizona attorney, created the first Internet spam program. With his attorney wife, Martha Siegel, they created a software program soliciting business for their law firm of Canter & Siegel that flooded Usenet message boards. Thousands complained, but a new business of unsolicited mass internet advertising was born. The term "spam" came from a sketch in the Monty Python's Flying Circus in which a waitress offered a menu full of variations of spam to a patron who wanted nothing to do with it.

The Finance Committee for the School Board of the Benton Area Schools will meet tonight at 7 PM in the Benton High School cafeteria. Extremely important budgetary issues need to be resolved and it won't be fun or easy! With several school directors on record as promising no new tax increases, we assume that tomorrow we'll be telling you about groups upset about money-tightening issues. We certainly hope that it goes better than it did for the taxpayers of the Towanda School District. That administration is proposing a $20.2 million budget for Fiscal Year 2005-06, which includes a 27.5% increase in the school property tax.

There will be a benefit breakfast at the North Mountain Fire Company April 17 from 8 to 11 for $6 per person, to benefit Michael Buck, son of Gloria and Gary Buck, Elk Grove, who has had surgery for cancer. Please turn out and find out what the Royal Order of the Raccoons do to help the community. For donations or more information, call Albert Schumacher at 925-6054 or Rose Howard at 674-4766.

The Royal Order of the Raccoons are also selling tickets for a Kawasaki Prairie 4 x 4. There are several cash prizes. Donations are $5. Tickets can be purchased from Albert Schumacher, 925-6054, or Rose Howard, 674-4766, or at the Jamison City Hotel.

Saturday is the opening day of trout season. The trout, raised in seven hatcheries across the state, haven't a clue what is in store for them beginning this weekend as lines are dipped in Fishing Creek and adjacent streams in the hopes of catching rainbows, browns and a few golden rainbows (often and incorrectly called palomino trout). Volunteer fire departments like our own Back Home in Benton, PA, provide camaraderie for sportsmen and hold fundraising breakfasts for the nearly 1 million licensed anglers, including about 10% from states other than our own.

Eighty years ago, in 1925, the daily limit was 25 trout. The present limit is five daily that exceed 7 inches minimum.

Some of the streams we know to be good are Spring Creek, Centre County; Pine Creek, Lycoming and Tioga counties; Kettle Creek, Potter County; Tionesta Creek in Warren County; Little Lehigh Creek in Lehigh County; Yellow Breeches Creek in Cumberland and York counties, and (let the drum roll begin!) Fishing Creek in Columbia County.

The Stillwater Christian Church invites you to an evening they are calling "Out Kry." It happens April 24 from 6:30-9 PM. The evening will consist of...
. CHALKWAVE - interpretive dance
. TRUE LIES - Teaching teenagers to Love, Honor & Remain Pure.
. LIVING WATER - Drama production featuring a concert by EVERMORE

The evening will be for teenagers and parents. There will be merchandise on hand for sale. There is no cost for the evening, but a love offering will be taken. For more informatin, contact Mike Delp at the Stillwater Christian Church, 925-2356.

Joan Allen received back-to-back nominations for her powerful performances as Pat Nixon in Oliver Stone's Nixon (1996) and in The Crucible (1997). We predict that she will be a strong contender for an Oscar this year for her performance in the new movie The Upside of Anger, as she plays a mother of four who turns to the bottle after her husband leaves her, then unexpectedly falls for her husband's best friend. Besides Joan Allen, the movie includes Kevin Costner, Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell and Alicia Witt. In case you haven't heard of some of these actresses, just wait until this movie hits national distribution. The movie and the cast are excellent.

April 11, 2005. We did not publish a Benton News on Sunday, April 10, 2005 and therefore did not mention the birthdays of David DePoe and Bridget Andrezee (20) today. A year ago we celebrated Easter on this date. We celebrate birthdays today of Bud Allegar, Taylor Remphrey (22), and Dorothy Kocher. Ron and Sheila Thompson celebrate their anniversary today.

The Benton Little League opening day celebration is coming up April 16 at 10:30 AM. This would be a wonderful time to come out and celebrate the opening day of Little League! Events begin with an official escort from the Benton Police Department and the Benton Fire Department through town starting at the Fire Hall and ending at the field on Mendenhall Lane. There will be a flag raising ceremony from Benton Scouts #51 and other opening day festivities! Please show your support and follow the escort to the field or just be there to wave them on and shout "PLAY BALL!" This event is being sponsored by The Royal Order of Raccoons, Jamison City. The first games at Benton will be a girls softball game at 1 PM and a teener league game at 1 PM.

The Benton office of First Columbia Bank & Trust Co. is collecting nonperishable food items and hygiene products for the entire month of April. Anyone wishing to donate an item or two please stop by for a visit and a cup of coffee.

We got an email from a confused reader who drove to Benton for the first time to see what Benton looked like. He seemed a little confused in an email he sent to us. We had apparently once said something about things happening on the "square" and when he got to Benton, he couldn't find the "town square." He actually asked someone when he got here where the square was, and they pointed up Mill Street, but he just couldn't find it. He wrote to have us explain this mystery. The term did sound just a little strange to us when we thought about it, since we had been in Gettysburg earlier in the day where we indeed had been in their genuine town square at the intersection of route 30 and business route 15. Many history books have talked about the high grounds south and east of the town square of this famous Pennsylvania city when describing events that began on July 1, 1863.

We remember trips to New England where town squares once housed grazing cows used for the common good of the town, and we remember town squares where politicians mounted their soap boxes to vent their anger about some issue in the days before "30 Seconds" was invented! We remember kids strutting around town squares to see and be seen. In the wild and wooly west the town square often had a hitching post and a watering trough and a place to sit and talk. Beautiful bandstands with John Phillip Sousa marches played by the high school band came to mind when we thought about town square. We have seen many a court house residing in a town square and we have often seen majestic churches, tall steeples, and ornate clocks in town squares.

So we apologize to someone coming to find the "square" in Benton. We don't have an open, four-sided area planted with grass and trees and used as a park, which is what most think of when they think of a "square." We are really talking about the intersection of Main and Market Streets, bounded by two restaurants, the Kozy Korner restaurant and the Market Square Cafe, the Sports Center, the coin shop, and the Columbia County Farmers Nations Bank. Janet (DePoe) Campbell (‘67) remembers when she was in school in Benton, "we tried to play frozen trumpets in the 'square' for the lighting of the Christmas tree." The "square" started life as a "T" when Main Street terminated at Market Street and then veered to go west and up the Distillery Hill or veered east to go by the Presbyterian Church and across the covered bridge. The major commerce of the town has nevertheless been conducted in the area known as the "square." We do admit that we don't know the derivation of this usage of the word in the Borough, so lets just assume that it means that area is properly arranged and in good order, a place to get a "square deal" from the "square shooters" in the area.

We have mentioned Google Maps at http://maps.google.com/ before, but we get lots of questions from readers about how to find addresses in the local area, so it is time to mention this free service again. Once you get to the web site, just type in what you're looking for--an address, a city, or a point of interest and Google will promptly bring up a map of the location. We had excellent luck by typing in a specific addresses, but the program knew the area for "Waller, PA" but didn't find the exact location. When we plugged in "Divide, 17814," it managed to find nine locations for unknown reasons. When we tried out specific address, it worked fine, as did "cherry blossoms, Washington, DC."

Once you have found what you are looking for, click the map with your mouse, hold your mouse button, and drag your mouse up and to the right. Drag to a new location and the map will go right along for the ride. There is a zoom slider, too. Do a search for "pizza , Benton, PA." There should be about nine hits for the area. The only pizza listed for Benton was Valley Pizza, 570) 925-5544, Main Street, Benton, PA 17814.

April 9, 2005.

On this date in 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, bringing the Civil War to its end. Ulysses S. Grant had written to Lee just two days before saying that continuing to fight was hopeless. Lee responded, "Though not entirely of the opinion you express of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the army of Northern Virginia, I reciprocate your desire to avoid useless effusion of blood, and therefore, before considering your proposition, ask the terms you will offer, on condition of its surrender." They sent each other several more letters negotiating the surrender before their meeting at the Appomattox Courthouse, carefully signing each letter "Very Respectfully, Your obedient servant."

Whenever the weather turns warm again, we'll probably get in the camper and take a Pennsylvania trip. It has been a few years since we visited "Roadside America" in Shartlesville, about 97 miles from Back Home in Benton, PA via Pottsville. It is hard to get a sense of what this place is all about from the billboard that read "You Have to See It!" without providing any other information. It isn't even completely obvious from the large fiberglass Amish couple standing to greet at the entrance. Inside is a miniature village representing small-town America lovingly created by the late Laurence T. Gieringer who worked on what is now a 6,000 square feet room, including the walkways around the outside, all of his life. There are lots of buttons to push to get mechanical things to work, trains to move, or lights to blink. The overhead observation deck is for parents, and has its own set of buttons.

Life in rural America, as seen through creator Gieringer's eyes, was a collection of town squares, parks and railway stations without any pawn shops, Starbucks stores or tattoo parlors. Trains run through tunnels in the hills, over bridges and through the woods, past grist mills and cows and through towns. Everything is at the scale of 3/8" to the foot. No changes have taken place since 1960, a year before Gieringer died.

In the underground portion of the layout, you can visit Luray Caverns or a coal mine. Every-half-hour there is a Sound and Light show when night descends on the town, and a patriotic multimedia slide show illuminates one wall. The color is faded from the show, which runs on six 1950's style projectors. It is still moving to see images of the Statue of Liberty, Jesus and the American flag as Kate Smith belts out "God Bless America."

For Mother, there is a Pennsylvania Dutch Gift Haus, specializing in Pennsylvania Dutch Gifts, Hex Signs, and other items needed by the visiting women while the men and the kids examine the sprawling exhibit and watch the trains running on the 2,250 feet of railroad and trolley tracks.

Neil Welliver, 75, formerly of Millville, a painter famous for his landscapes of the Maine woods has died. He was 75. Welliver, who moved to Maine in the 1960s, died Tuesday from complications from pneumonia. Much of Welliver´s work focused on the woods surrounding his farmhouse and were often massive works, sometimes as big as 8 feet by 8 feet. Welliver was born in Millville, and attended the Philadelphia Museum College of Art and the Yale School of Art. He founded the Graduate School of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. Welliver was survived by his third wife, Mimi Martin Welliver; three children; and two grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at St. Margaret´s Episcopal Church in Belfast on July 22, which would have been his 76th birthday. You can learn more about Mr. Welliver by visiting http://www.neilwelliver.com/ed_beem.htm or from an article in today's Press Enterprise.

The items originally published at this location for the Village Sampler Apirl 24 can be found here.

The Golden Yakkers, a kayaking club whose members reside in and around Central, has been enjoying off-season walks recently. The purpose of these Friday outings is to get in shape for the approaching kayak season, as well as to enjoy the outdoors and each other’s companionship. On Friday the goup toured much of Benton. The walk began in Hoboken, taking in the site of the former Christian Church building, the Benton Cemetery and the Laubach grave, the "Old" bridge, the "New" bridge, Benton Manor Apartments, and the place of the former Ritz Theatre. From there the group went west to the site of the former Bloomsburg & Sullivan railroad depot and around the former Opera House (the former town hall) to the site of the building where the great 1910 fire originated. They proceeded east past the site of the former Moses Van Campen and on to the Benton Park, before turning south past the Benton Dam and enjoying a soft ice cream at the Tastee Freeze. A future outing will follow part of the Bloomsburg & Sullivan railroad grade.

The Golden Yakkers

Harry and Jane Ackerman, two of the moving forces in the Golden Yakkers, suggested that a way of attracting people to the area would be to select a day and advertise a tour through part of town, ending with a light lunch at one of our local dining places and tie it in other businesses. If there is interest, the project could be expanded to a series of tours of communities through the service area of the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, with walking tours of Millville, Huntington Mills, Jamison City, Orangeville, Stillwater, and so on. If you have interest in this sort of event, or if you would volunteer to assist in providing history of a particular town in the area, please contact us.

April 8, 2005. John McHenry, Camp Hill, Ken Dressler and Charlotte Sibly, Benton, have birthdays today and celebrate with former first lady Betty Ford, 87. Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain in 1513 on this date. On this date in 1935, Congress approved the Works Progress Administration (WPA), President Franklin Roosevelt's national works program to relieve the economic hardship of the Great Depression. More than 8.5 million people worked on 1.4 million public projects before disbanding in 1943.

Members of the Boy Scouts of Benton delivered bags to doorsteps in the Borough on Tuesday for the annual food drive for the Benton Area Food Bank. Please place your boxes or canned goods in the bags and put the bags on your sidewalk for pick up Saturday morning, April 9. The Boy Scouts thank you for your donations and help.

Upcoming...
. The folks at St. James United Church of Christ will grease the skillets for a buckwheat cake and sausage supper Saturday from 2 to 7 PM. The adult price of $7 even includes their home-made ice cream.

. At 8 PM is the Opera Concert in Weis Center at Bucknell University under the sponsorship of The Bucknell Opera Company and Wilkes Opera Workshop. Admission is free. There will be selected scenes from 4 operas.

. Pennsylvania fishing season runs from 8 AM on the first Saturday after April 11, to midnight, Labor Day. Opening day this year is April 16.

. Beginning at 10 in the morning of Sunday, April 17, the clan will gather at the Benton Presbyterian Church to celebrate their annual Scottish Heritage Day. The music of ancestors of the church will roll across Fishing Creek, as bagpiper Stuart Erwin plays in true Scottish fashion along the bank of Fishingcreek. The community is invited to commemorate the heritage of the Presbyterian congregation as they host a Scottish Tea, featuring shortbread, oat cakes, and scones, with accompaniments of homemade lemon curd, clotted cream and marmalade. Coffee, tea and punch will be served. A church service featuring Scottish readings, hymns and music begins at 11 AM. Fellowship and traditional Scotch broth will be served at the continuing tea in the social room after the service.

. May 22 at 6 PM at the Benton United Methodist Church. The Benton United Methodist Charge invite you to share in an evening of Contemporary Christian Music with Evermore, a local Christian Rock Band. After the first set of music there will be a time of refreshment and fellowship. The Band will then play a second set. A love offering will be taken for the Band. Please come and share in this Praise and Worship Opportunity!

. May 29 at 5:00 PM at the Benton United Methodist Church, Main Street, will be the Memorial Day Service entitled, "Power and Promise of Peace." The Benton Council of Churches invites you to attend this Interfaith Service of Reflection and Prayer; an opportunity to worship our Lord and Savior and to honor those that served, and are serving, in our Armed Forces. We will also remember those that paid the ultimate price for the Freedoms we enjoy. Please come and participate in this community event!

It is hard to get ahead with much of anything these days. Starting August 29, the Powerball jackpot will increase, but the chances of winning move from slim to none.

Thursday morning the legislative team of State Senator John Gordner, Rep. George Hasay and Rep. David Millard walked into the Fire Hall in Benton with the look that a father might have the night before Christmas. Each of the men knew something that no one else in the room knew, each could see the anticipation on every face in the room, each of the men knew the contents of a large brown envelope and the lips were sealed on all of them. Christmas would come in due course.

Shortly after 11 AM, Rep. David Millard stood and with a broad smile introduced Rep. George Hasay, R-Shickshinny. Both men spoke of the things that make the Northern Fishing Creek Valley a great place. Rep. Millard then introduced Sen. John Gordner, who was described as "a major thrust in getting the Northern Columbia Communty & Cultural Center off the ground." Gordner described Rep. Millard as having the energy of the "energizer bunny." He spoke of the relationships that the three legislators have in order to get things done in Harrisburg. Sen. Gordner recalled the auction from last year and gave a firm plug for the upcoming auction on April 24.

Sen. Gordner reminded everyone that "some things happen quickly; some things take awhile," a reference to the process in the evolution of the funding necessary to get the Community Center built. Sen. Gordner said that the concept of the community center started out with the dream of a "wonderful lady," Elsie Buyers, now the president of the Center, and with the desire of the local Council of Churches to find a place where local kids from the surrounding communities can go to "work off their energies, to congregate and to have a good time." Sen. Gordner then told the audience that "we are going to have a great kick-off today."

From L: Sen. Gordner, Rep. Millard, Rep. Hasay

Sen. Gordner reminded the audience that DCNR (Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources) committed $150,000 to the Center and the Berwick Health and Wellness Foundation committed $75,000 to the local project, and Sen. Gordner hinted that the Berwick Foundation would favorably consider a new application for additional funding.

Sen. Gordner emphasized that the Center is "more than just Benton" and is more than "Benton Township and Fishingcreek Township and Sugarloaf Township and Jackson Township, because it goes into Luzerne County, it goes into Sullivan County, it goes over into Millville." It is going to cover a broad range of folks." Sen. Gordner reminded listeners that "we will be having a senior center here, we'll be having a library here, we'll be having a gymnasium here." He went on to say that it is "going to be a meeting place, a congregational place."

He then talked about the "sweat equity" that has gone into raising over $400,000 so far from the local community for the project, mentioning the auctions, the fund raising, the donations of individuals and corporations, small business and large alike. With that he reached down and picked up the brown envelope, and simply said, "So, I brought along an envelope!"

Walking to the front of the room, along with Reps. Hasay and Millard, and Center representatives Elsie Buyer, Kay Hoosty and Chuck Chapman, Senator Gordner slowly opened the envelope. Just as expectant children breathlessly await the opening of Christmas presents, the audience waited for the opening of the envelope. Sen. Gordner told the group that "on behalf of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we would like to present a check to the Center in the amount of $600,000, made out to the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center. We suspect that no child ever had a better Christmas present than the one delivered to the Fire Hall Thursday.

Copy of check presented to the
Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center
Thursday by Senator John Gordner,
Rep. George Hasay and Rep. David Millard

from L: Charles Chapman, Rep. George Hasay, Rep. David Millard, Sen. John Gordner, Elsie Buyers and Kay Hoosty

Thursday, April 7 2005. Happy birthday today to George Welliver, Bloomsburg. George celebrates his birthday with Walter Winchell who always began his broadcasts by saying, "Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea." Billie Holiday was born on this date in 1915 and both Francis Ford Coppola and David Frost were born on this date in 1939. Tony Dorsett came along in 1954 on this date.

On this date in...

1906, Mount Vesuvius erupted. Vesuvius is famous for the catastrophic eruption in 79 A.D. that buried the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

1827, John Walker, an English pharmacist, sold his first "friction matches," a mixture of antimony sulphide and potassium chloride that produced a flame when rubbed against a coarse surface. He began to sell the "friction lights" in little cylindrical tins with a piece of sandpaper to customers in his pharmacy. He never patented the invention, and his production was just a sideline to his pharmacy business.

1794, chemist Joseph Priestley left England forever and came to the United States. Earlier, his laboratory, home and library were destroyed by a mob angry at his support of the French Revolution. His French colleague, Lavoisier, was executed a week after he left England. During the last years of his life in America in the town of Northumberland he spent his time quietly writing, and furthering the cause of Unitarianism in the new nation.

Down in Florida Tuesday, State House lawmakers approved a measure 94 to 20 to allow people to use deadly force to protect themselves in public places. The law will allow people to "stand their ground" in "dangerous situations," if they have a reasonable belief they are in danger of death or great bodily harm. Governor Jeb Bush says he will sign the bill.

Quickies...
• We have received many emails about the problems we are having with our new EPSON printer. To see the problems one person had with his EPSON, go to www.tourbus.com/printer_smash.htm Be prepared to smile.

• Krysten Ritter has signed for a new series starting in September called Pool Guys, giving the green light to a half-hour pilot from Regency TV. The show is described as "Laverne & Shirley with dudes." Pool Guys revolves around two 21-year-old best friends who live in California, clean pools for a living and share the ultimate dreams: to clean the pool at the Playboy Mansion.

• Something that we overheard yesterday reminds us of the story about Sweden's King Gustav who was walking one day when two young girls spotted him. One girl gasped and told her friend that the monarch was old and wrinkled. The monarch turned and told the girls, "Yes, but he hears well!"

• It was a shock yesterday to come Back Home to Benton, PA, and find gas prices over $2.229 when we paid $2.119 earlier in the day in Camp Hill. And remember just a few short months ago when Benton had the lowest gas prices in the state?

• We had to smile at an advertisement we saw yesterday that read in part, "You can't heat this one--nine-room and two-bath home."

• We also smiled when we heard about the elderly lady who was asked why she had never married. "It takes a mighty good husband to be better than none" was her quick response.

• We expect a "major announcement" coming from the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center later today and from several important state lawmakers.

Rivers and streams are back to "normal" following this weekend's flooding, which was either worse or not as bad as Hurricane Ivan--depending on how far from water your home might be--but certainly not as severe as the 1972 floods. Bradford County was declared a state disaster area by the Guv Monday, and statewide more than 5,715 homes were evacuated. We have seen some estimates that the total damages from last weekend would be around $1.7 million dollars. State inspection teams will be in the area Friday assessing flood damage to determine who qualifies for federal assistance. In Luzerne County, Plymouth Township, Shickshinny, West Nanticoke, Plainsville and Jenkins Township were hard hit.

Most of the last weekend's flood damage was not caused by small streams, but by the Susquehanna River. Route 11 at Route 54 was closed as a precaution in Danville, but re-opened Monday. Low-lying portions of route 11 were closed until about noon Wednesday in the Northumberland/Shamokin Dam area. Shickshinny firefighters are still pumping water out of basements and clearing mud from clogged storm drains. A number of local residents are still pumping out their basements.

Last September, Luzerne Country received $1.6 million in federal assistance for homeowners and renters. More than 1,250 county residents applied for the grants. Luzerne County residents and businesses received an additional $1.8 million in low interest loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Information on filing flood insurance claims is available at www.fema.gov/nfip/tips.shtm.

Flooding in the state can occur at almost any time of the year. We have an average annual temperature in the neighborhood of 50° and that ranges from an average of about 29°F in January and February to about an average of 72° in July. We receive a very generous average of about 42" a year of rainfall. We live in a weather belt that has produced some doozies of floods over the years.

Many of the floods were "pumpkin floods," occurring during the autumn season. Ask Ruth Kline about the pumpkin flood in which every single pumpkin--thousands of them--in her acre or so floated south. Records show a "Great Pumpkin flood" of October 5, 1786. Imagine trying to wade through raging waters with thousands of pumpkin balls belting your butt! Pittsburgh did one better. They had both a pumpkin flood (in 1810) and a "Barrel Flood" in 1865 when thousands of barrels of oil washed down the Ohio River.

One of Bradford Counties worst floods happened in March of 1807. Snow fell for three days accumulating to 5 feet, then a warming spell arrived, casting havoc on the Susquehanna. We previously wrote about the Johnstown flood in 1889, but history rarely mentions the problems that Williamsport had at the same time. In short, the river kept rising until logs from the major industry of the city started floating down the river from bank to bank. Think a thousand pumpkins on the loose are bad? Consider two hundred million feet of logs on the loose! Market Street in Williamsport was under six feet of water before it was over.

Following the floods of 1889, there were no state-wide floods in the state for another 47 years. The "St. Patrick's Day Floods" of March 18-20, 1936, didn't bring pumpkins or logs down the rivers, it brought huge cakes of ice. The Juniata River at Amity Hall even cut a new channel across route 11 that was a reported 100 feet wide and 30 feet deep.

A flood we will never forget is the storm that formed June 16 off the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula and created what became known as Hurricane Agnes. She arrived in Pennsylvania on June 21, 1972, dumping huge amounts of rain over the next two days, then turned southwest into Western Pennsylvania and dumped what she had left over the Appalachian mountains. The rainfall fell from 16" to 18" in a north-south pattern through Northumberland County, and fell on super-saturated ground from previous rainfalls, in a similar pattern to what occurred locally last weekend.

Wilkes-Barre had been hit with 33 feet of water in the "St. Patrick's Day Floods" of 1936, but dikes were later built to protect the valley up to water depths of 37 feet. By the time that the sun came up on Friday, June 23, 1972, water had reached 34 feet. Taking no chances, an estimated 10,000 people manned the sandbags, but by 10:30 AM the river had reached 37.2 feet. At 1:12 PM, the dike at Forty-fort broke. The raging water took out the North Street bridge in Wilkes-Barre. An estimated 100,000 people suddenly needed to evacuate their homes as fires broke out and some buildings burned to the water line. The official high was reached at 7 PM, Saturday, June 24, when the river reached 40.91 feet.

Even Main Street in Benton got hit hard with
the large volume of water.

Then as now, Bloomsburg had little or no flood protection as the waters climbed nearly two and a half feet above the previous record crest of 27.8 feet set in 1936. The flood reached 31.2 feet on Sunday, June 25, well above flood level of 19 feet. The Magee Carpet Company was completely inundated. You can read much more about Hurricane Agnes under FEATURES in an article entitled Hurricane Agnes. We go into much more detail about local damage.

A bridge above Benton
following Hurricane Agnes in 1972.

Did we mention how nice it was Wednesday to see temperatures hit 82° with no precipitation? Perhaps we should tell you that showers are likely Thursday with a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon. Highs in the lower 70s. Chance of rain 70%. Rain tonight could be heavy and a flood watch has been issued.

Wednesday, April 6, 2005. We celebrate the birthday of Stephen Hess today. On this date in 1789, George Washington was elected the first president of the United States, the only president to be unanimously elected, and on this date in 1909, explorers Lt. Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson became the first men to reach the North Pole. Peary celebrated the occasion at 90 North Latitude by leaving an American flag standing in the ice, plus a glass jar containing two notes.

Dayne A. Hartman, 76, (Aug. 24, 1928-April 5, 2005), 255 Everett St., Benton, died Tuesday at home. Born in Benton, he was a son of the late A. J. Hartman and Grace (McHenry) Hartman Edson. Dayne was a 1946 graduate of Benton High School and a 1950 graduate of Bloomsburg State Teacher's College. He took additional classes at Bucknell University and Oneida State University. He married Jeanette (Henrie) Hartman. Dayne served over 35 years in the Benton Area School District as a teacher, assistant administrator and in various sports capacities. Dayne was a member of the Benton town council for 12 years, coached Little League baseball and was a life member of the Boy Scouts. Dayne loved sports, and when his wife Jeanette was out of the room, he often watched sporting events with two television sets at the same time. He belonged to the West Creek Rod and Gun Club for 58 years. Dayne was active in the Benton Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) where he served as church moderator, vice moderator, a member of the Diaconate and the church board, and was a member of the Christian Men's Fellowship Group. Along with Chef Letteer, he co-hosted the yearly buckwheat supper. Surviving are his wife, Jeanette, and children Diane R. Neary, Springfield; Patricia Grace Peterson, Benton; and Stuart J. Hartman, Oley. There are eight grandchildren. Two brothers live in Bloomsburg: Buddy McHenry Hartman and Thomas Roger Hartman. A daughter, Amy Grace Hartman, and a sister, Jerrie Appleman, previously died. Funeral services will be held Friday at 10 AM at the Benton Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). A viewing will be Thursday from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 PM. at the McMichael Funeral Home.
--from an obituary in the Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary can be found.

Shirley Keller's hip replacement surgery apparently went well. She remains a patient in the Geisinger Hospital, and will return to Balanced Care Nursing Home about Saturday.

For years, the concept of instant energy has been associated, in our thinking, with the high-energy snack "gorp," or "good old raisins and peanuts," and is simply a variation of "trail mix." Long favored by hunters, canoers and campers, we'll share our recipe for the concoction, although we don't remember anyone asking for it. Take two large bags of M&Ms, a box of seedless raisins (not white) that have been slightly sugared, 8 to 10 ounces of chopped dates that have been slightly sugared, and add a large jar of dry roasted peanuts. Mix and toss in a plastic bag for your next wilderness adventure.

Republicans we talk with down the river in Harrisburg seem excited about the prospects of former Steelers wide receiver Lynn Swann, currently a college football analyst on ABC-TV, competing for the Republican gubernatorial nomination next year. Swann, along with former Lt. Gov. William Scranton, Scranton, and state Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, Harrisburg, are determined to unseat Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell next year. At the moment, the Super Bowl hero and member of pro football's Hall of Fame appears to have the upper Republican hand in the gubernatorial race.

We hear about the mothers of the days of long ago,
With their gentle, wrinkled faces and their hair as white as snow.
They were "middle-aged" at forty, and at fifty donned lace caps,
And at sixty clung to shoulder shawls and loved their little naps.

But I love the modern mother who can share in all the joys,
And who understands the problems of her growing girls and boys;
She may boast that she is sixty, but her heart is twenty-three,
My glorious, bright-eyed mother who is keeping young with me.

It has been a year since Clair Harvey, President of the Fishingcreek Sportsmen's Association, requested Town Council's permission to "take over" the 1.59 acres of Borough-owned lookout area on route 239. In the last year, the group has cut trees to gain visibility of the beautiful Fishingcreek Valley, and in the near future will cut about 20 additional yards of trees in order to view Benton easier, according to Clair Harvey. The group has put up signs, installed guardrails and fences, and put down gravel. The club has a ten-year lease with right of renewal.

Scientists funded by the Agricultural Research Service gave some nursing facility residents 200 International Units of vitamin E daily for one year, and the patients ended up 20% less likely to get upper respiratory infections than the same group who took a placebo. The findings about colds and sniffles are important because the elderly have lowered immune responses and incur greater health risks from upper respiratory infections. The scientists studied 617 people over 65 years of age who met the study's eligibility requirements. All 451 participants who completed the study were residents in some type of nursing facility.

We continue today with the history of the vocational school of the Benton Area, today looking at the year 1924, thanks in part to "the Broadcaster," on loan to us from Dave Albertson. This yearbook was published by the Junior Class of the Benton Vocational School.

The senior class, the class of 1924, consisted of Alton Appleman, Ray Hess, Lola Ash Gifford, Lois Hess Rohrer, Ruth Larish Hill, Kathryn Ruckle Brink, Mabel Whitenight Cutmore, Lisle Bittenbender, Robert Shannon, Lena Bender Butler, Margaret Hess Hess, Marie Parks, Mary Savage Dietrick, Howard Brewington, Norman Shultz, Thelma Boston Cornell, Eitheda Keefer Hess, Gertrude McMichael Houseweart, Lois Trainer Savage, Joseph Derr, Carl Taylor, Ella Freedly Robbins, Gertrude Wenner Sands, Ethel Charles Smith, Larue Hess, Grant Lunger, Rosalyn Fritz Traube, Sara Knouse Stastka, Reba Stevens Shannon, Helen Whitenight Dodson, Irene Keefer Kashner and Irene Rhinard Creveling. We have added married names in some cases to help identify these members of the class of 1924.

The Junior Class consisted of Dallas Baker, Samuel Laubach, Fred Zarr, Chapin Wenner, Glenn Hess, Charles Jones, Earl Carpenter, William Bonham, Margaret Peterman Moffatt, Mable McHenry Brewington, Phoebe Yorks Appleman, Mary Hartman, Tloris Fritz Zarr, Mable Coleman Barker, Anna Polk Eyer, George Mather, Hilda Knouse Stedman, Gladys Hirleman Walker, Elda Keefer Pealer, Gertrude Quick Farver, Evelyn Harrison Yore, Kathryn Dodson Fritz, Lawrence Savage, Cletus Hartman, Raymond Ribble, Jay McMichaeI, Fred Stoker, Larue Evans, Clair Van Horn, Frank Pealer, Ernest Hess and Doris Letteer.

The Junior Class members had some interesting nick names. Herman Funk was "Hermie" to other members of the class. Mary Hartman, later a member of the Benton Faculty and now a member of the Benton Schools Hall of Fame, was called "Bobby." Lawrence Savage was called Kaiser. Jay McMichael was "Jake." Glen Hess was "Skipper." Doris Fritz was "Jack." Larue Evans was called "Pumpkin." Dallas Baker was called "Friday."

After graduation from the Vocational School, Mary Hartman graduated from the Bloomsburg Normal School and held a Master's Degree from Pennsylvania State University, with continuing education from five other universities. Scores of Benton graduates remember her as a person who prepared them for life. Commencement, class night, May Day, special assemblies and the college preparation educational club (now the Honor Society) were the responsibility of Miss Hartman.

Joe Derr was a man whose name is still used daily in the Benton Area School System. Joseph Derr was born in 1906 and was raised by a grandmother and an aunt. He was one of six children who lived at the crossroads near the church and the cemetery, a location once referred to as "Derr's Crossing" and today simply as "Derrs." Joe Derr lived quite a life, making a great deal of money in the plastics industry, was murdered, left a $1.3 million estate, and since his death his estate has provided funding to the Benton area to improve the park, library and financial security of graduating seniors through scholarships. His will set up a $440,000 perpetual trust fund that's shared equally by Benton Park, the school library and a scholarship program for graduating seniors that to date has funded 198 scholarships worth $140,550. A possibility is that Derr left the money in memory of a teenage lover who died just before Derr left Benton in 1924. In any event, his yearbook includes the notation, "WANTED: Advice on 'How to avoid the girls.'" The yearbook recalls that "before a series of attacks on his heart, Joe was a fair student." Additional information is available under FEATURES in an article on Joe Derr.

In athletics, the 1924 baseball team won every game but one, and lost that in extra innings. Football showed signs of improvement. Benton beat Espy by 35 points, then lost to Danville, Berwick and Catawissa. Benton then avenged Shickshinny for the bad showing the previous year when we lost by 124 points. The school was so happy with the football team's performance that they dedicated the yearbook to the "beloved football coach, G. H. Dippe."

The faculty consisted of L. R. Appleman, Principal, Blanche Shultz, Assistant Principal, Esther Smith, Supervisor of Home Economics, Ward McHenry, History and Mathematics, Alvin Sutliff, Supervisor of Agriculture, and Flora Fritz, English and Music.

Today would be a good day to listen to the birds sing

As a continuation of Sunday's article on strange town names, a reader reminded us that the town of Millville once had a block or so of houses in an area that was known as "Swampoodle," near the area known as "Bentown."

We often get questions about Icelandic horses raised in Santa Ynez, CA.
Pictures of an Icelandic horse show at David and Heidi Kline's ranch in Santa Ynez are available for viewing here by using the password "iceys" in lower case.

We are going to go back in time today to 1802 and the establishment of the town of Bloomsburg. A history of the town written by W. M. Baillie is available on the internet through the courtesy of the Columbia Country Historical Society and we suggest that you take the time now to read this article.

We hope that you read the article on the Historical Society web page before you continue. If you did, you know that Johann Adam Eyer bought the land for what is now the town of Bloomsburg from his brother Ludwig and with his brother laid out lots to establish the town. Johann Adam was the financier and absentee landlord and Ludwig was the onsite agent and later his brother's legal agent.

Johann Adam Eyer was born in 1755 in Bucks County, the son of a German Lutheran immigrant who settled in Northampton County. Johann (or John or Johannes or even "Hans") Adam Eyer (or Oyer) was a schoolteacher, and taught in Bucks, Chester, Northampton and Lancaster counties. Teaching in the early 1800s only lasted three months or so, attendance by students was not mandatory and parents paid the teacher directly. The school board then was simply the family that paid the teacher.

Johann Adam taught in the little town of Hamilton Square in what is now Monroe Country for 20 years, so we assume he knew his three R's and we know that he knew his music from records of his playing the organ in church. In addition, his handwriting was superb, and he excelled at the writing of wills and other legal documents. Johann Adam was a very capable man of finance and a talented fraktur artist, a musician and investor. He managed so well, in fact, that when he died in 1837 at the age of 82 he left a sizeable estate. Johann Adam never married, but he was considered the head of his extended family.

We should mention the unusual German custom of repeating given names in some German families. Johann Adam had a brother named Johann: Johann Friedrich. In cases like this, the custom was that Johann Adam would call himself Adam and Johann Friedrich would use Friedrich instead of his full name.

Through Johann Adam Eyer, a group of houses along Fishing Creek known as "Eyer Staeddel," or Eyer's Village, emerged before the name Bloomsburg came along. Ludwig and Johann Adam laid out lots and streets to form a town. In 1807, Johann Adam gave Ludwig formal power of attorney to manage sales while he recruited many prospective lot-buyers from his location in what was then Northampton County.

Johann Adam's real love was not in the establishment of small towns, but in the practice of the art of fraktur, an ornate type of written or printed German, somewhat like Gothic lettering in English. Frakturs were handwritten to show events like recorded births and baptisms, then embellished with drawings ranging from animals to soldiers to angels.

Fraktur writers often produced their work without compensation, but when possible the work was sold to bring in revenue. Johann Adam's fraktur was generally of making copy books and song books, and generally avoided birth and baptism certificates popular with other fraktur writers. Johann Adam frequently depicted heart-shaped or scalloped leaves with vines. For a description of the bidding at a Sotheby's New York City auction on a Johann Adam fraktur, go here.

Pennsylvania slowly began improving public instruction starting in 1834 and by 1854 a law was passed requiring every school district to teach reading, orthography, writing and English grammar. Public money only went to school districts that complied. The transition from instruction in German to English began at once, although it was a slow transition. As reading and writing German disappeared from our schools, the need for the art of fraktur died out and no one was able to step in and continue the writing in either education or in religion. With the gradual disappearance of fraktur writing went the ability of the teacher to make money with his art. And succeeding generations would often, upon the passing of an older member of the family, make huge bonfires of old and unwanted pieces of paper, books and family records. The cherished possessions of a previous generation disappeared.

Johann Adam probably felt that his name was unimportant in what he produced and he rarely signed his name to any fraktur. Thanks to the only incorporated town in Pennsylvania as a next-door neighbor, we now know a little more about the fraktur writer we know as Johann Adam Eyer.
--Thanks to descendents of the Eyer family for much of the information in this article.

Just as people in Mississippi probably don't see anything unusual with the name of "Hot Coffee," we think nothing strange in town names like "Waller," "Fearnot," "Panic," "Intercourse," "Blue Ball," "Quiggleville," "Climax," "Mars," and the town names that have a Native Indian origin, like "Shickshinny, "Mocanaqua," "Conococheague," "Wapwallopen," and "Nescopeck."

While we are at it, we might as well give you some more towns in the state that are--well, unusual. King of Prussia, Bath, Possum, Bird-in-Hand, Virginville, Corner Store, Forty Fort, Home, Slippery Rock, Jersey Shore, Loyalsockville, Peach Bottom, Porkey and Slate Lick just aren't your "every day" town names.

Many state towns had difficulty making up their minds about names. New Holland was originally "Saeue Schwam," which means hog swamp. "New Design" sounded better, but didn't last as a name for long until it became New Holland. Paradise, so the story goes, got its name from the beauty of the area. Settlers met to come up with a name for the town, and a man by the name of Abraham Witmer leaned back and commented that "this place is paradise to me." Blue Ball got its name from a 1766 tavern located "at the sign of the Blue Ball." Harry Kinzer built a hotel in 1843 for men who were in the area working on the railroad and his last name became the name of the town. Turniptown got its name from a farmer taking his wagon load of turnips to Strasburg. Because of an accident, his endgate opened and turnips rolled down the hill.

Whatever the name of your town, no matter how strange the word is to someone somewhere, we hope you are able to live in a state where all families are united and trust each other, where a marriage or a funeral doesn't start an uncivil war, where gossip and lying are no longer part of conversations, where the lessor and the lessee are on good terms, where the governed are proud of those who govern and those who govern fairly represnet the views of those who elected them.

Didja know that...
• Burger King's "Enormous Omelet Sandwich" packs a whopping 730 calories and 47 gram's worth of saturated fat? A Whopper hamburger weighs in at 700 calories and 42 grams of fat.
• Dandelion leaves contain twice as much calcium as spinach, more vitamin A and E than broccoli and high amounts of iron, riboflavin and lecithin. Put them under a hot bacon dressing and you have a wonderful meal.

Quote of the Day:
"Do not conceive that fine clothes make fine men, any more than fine feathers make fine birds."
--President George Washington

We continue today with the history of the vocational school of the Benton Area, today looking at the year 1923, thanks in part to the Buff and Blue, on loan to us from Dave Albertson. This yearbook was published by the Junior Class of the Benton Vocational School.

The senior class consisted of Karl Hagenbuch, John Ruckle, Dale Smith, Mahlon Strauch, John McHenry, Harold Moore, Ross Pennington, Russell Shultz, Ernest Knouse, Leon Hartman, Jay Karns, Elmer Kline, George Laubach, Kathryn Fritz Bennett, Edith Hirleman Hess, Eleanor Hoffa, Marie Karns Wright, Helen Barett Lechleitner, Mary Dodson Gearhart, Florine Eveland Maines, Martha Follmer Yowmans, Edna Keefer, Mary Mather Iobst, Evade Michael Sharek, Zora Smith Zimmerman, Madalyn Wright Holt, Elizabeth Yost Sutliff, Ruth Force Floyd, Esther Chapin Laubach, Maude McHenry, Daisy Cotterman McHenry, Emily Seward Kingsley, Gladys Sanders Litts. We have added married names in some cases to help identify these members of the class of 1923.

The junior class, the class of 1924, consisted of Alton Appleman, Ray Hess, Lola Ash Gifford, Lois Hess Rohrer, Ruth Larish Hill, Kathryn Ruckle Brink, Mabel Whitenight Cutmore, Lisle Bittenbender, Robert Shannon, Lena Bender Butler, Margaret Hess Hess, Marie Parks, Mary Savage Dietrick, Howard Brewington, Norman Shultz, Thelma Boston Cornell, Eitheda Keefer Hess, Gertrude McMichael Houseweart, Lois Trainer Savage, Joseph Derr, Carl Taylor, EIla Freedly Robbins, Gertrude Wenner Sands, Ethel Charles Smith, Larue Hess, Grant Lunger, Rosalyn Fritz Traube, Sara Knouse Stastka, Reba Stevens Shannon, Helen Whitenight Dodson, Irene Keefer Kashner, Irene Rhinard Creveling. We will cover the class of 1924 in an edition later in the week, and will specificaly include Joe Derr--the man for whom the library at the high school is named.

The faculty consisted of L. R. Appleman, Principal, Blanche Shultz, Assistant Principal, Esther Smith, Supervisor of Home Economics, Ward McHenry, History and Mathematics, and Alvin Sutliff, Supervisor of Agriculture.

In sports, the baseball team for 1922 again won the County Championship. Football did not turn out as good. When we played Danville in an away game, we lost by 56 points and when we played Danville at home we lost by 50. In neither game did we score any points. Shickshinny came next and we lost by the score 124-0. We also played Bloomsburg, Berwick and Catawissa in 1923. It appears that none of the players went on to college or professional football stardom, but many are names still recognized: Glenn Hess, Fred Zarr, Mahlon Strauch, Leon Hartman, Dallas Baker, Samuel Laubach, Donald Kline, Relza Hess, Jay Karns, Ross Pennington, Larue Hess, Lisle Bittenbender, George Laubach, Charles Jones, Samuel Creveling, John McHenry, and Frank Moore.

In spite of the football team, the school maintained its humor. Here are some examples...
Dale: Yes, I have rather a broad acquaintance in the city."
She: "I know it. I saw you with her last night."

Dump: "What do you find the hardest part about the Bible?"
John R: "The book about work."
Dump: "What is the name of it?"
John: "Its called Job."

"Adam lost paradise because of an apple. Now many a man loses his freedom because of a peach."

Carl Hagenbuch mused that "women are like eggs. You can't judge their qualities by their outside appearances."

Samuel C.: "I see you're wearing golf stockings."
Lois: "How do you know?"
Samuel: "I just counted 18 holes."

Local merchants included N. B. Cole and his mill at West Creek, "Once tried, always used." General stores included B. F. Mather, Jamison City; B. G. Keller, selling stoves and hardware; J. D. Woodworth's Sons, selling hardware, automobiles and accessories in Shickshinny. A. C. Harrison, a cash grocer, advertised that he was buying produce. Kessler's Hatcheries, J. Lee Kessler, Prop., sold day-old chicks and pullets in season. Rabb's Pharmacy, Main Street, R. W. Rabb, Ph.G, sold drugs and "Kodaks." Dodson and Fritz sold "the Dodge Car," under the name Dodge Brothers Cars; John F. Wright sold Page, Willys-Knight, Jewett and Overland cars; Laubach Motors Co. sold Lincoln, Ford, and Fordson vehicles; and J. W. Wright, Bloomsburg, sold the Hupmobile. Irvin Diltz & Son carried a "full line of meats and groceries." The Benton Furniture Store, E. P. Chapin, Proprietor and Funeral Director, also carried "a full line of Columbia Graphanolas and records." A. T. Chapin advertised that he was a "practical embalmer and funeral director." The McHenry House, John H. Knouse, Prop., advertised that they had electric lights, bath, steam heat, meals served, refreshments. Beckley College, Harrisburg, needed students and offered "courses of college grade." The Universal Theatre presented "the highest class photo-plays obtainable--selected from the out-put of such known concerns as Metro, Fox, First National, Select, Universal and the open market."

April 3, 2005. What happened last night? At precisely 2 o'clock, it was 3 o'clock! Well, the answer is that it is time for Daylight Saving Time and a sleep-deprived nation wakes up happy to be on "summer time," but still wanting to go back to bed for a little shuteye. Regretfully, the threat of flooding is real for most in low-lying areas of the upper Fishing Creek Valley. At 9:30 Saturday, the rain gauges in the Borough read 2" for the day, and rain fell for most of the night and the unexpected sounds of thunder woke many. About 7:30 Sunday, the area got a brief dusting of snow.

The Taylor Residence in Stillwater
Along route 487
Part of the former Frank Beishline Farm

Fishingcreek Out of Control
Picture also taken in Stillwater

It is the birthday of Helen Raski and Kim Fantanarosa, Clarks Summit. These two ladies share their birthday with Marlon Brando, Doris Day and with publisher Henry R. Luce, born in China in 1898 to a Presbyterian missionary family. With a classmate, he founded Time magazine in 1923, Fortune magazine in 1930, Life magazine in 1936, and Sports Illustrated in 1954.

On this date in...
1860, Pony Express mail service began in St. Joseph, Missouri, heading west 1,966 miles through the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada to Sacramento, California. The next day, another rider left Sacramento heading east for Missouri. Each rider rode about 75 to 100 miles before switching with another rider. The switch was made at one of 190 way stations along the route; each way station being about ten to fifteen miles apart. The Pony Express riders delivered the mail within ten days for $5 per ounce. This mail service became antiquated quickly because of the overland telegraph.

1953, TV Guide was published for the first time Radnor, Pennsylvania, reaching 1,500,000 readers in its first year.

Annabelle (Edwards) Ashelman, 81, (Feb. 9, 1924-April 1, 2005), 753 Bowman Mill Road, Orangeville, died Friday at the Bloomsburg Hospital. She was a daughter of the late Harry and Grace (Fairman) Edwards and graduated from the former Orangeville Vocational School. Surviving are her husband, D. Pierce Ashelman, a member of the Benton class of 1937, and children Peggy J. Morris, Millville, and Harry E. Ashelman, Orangeville. She was preceded in death by brothers Kenneth and Myron Edwards and a sister, Hazel Trump. Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 2 PM at the McMichael Funeral Home with visitation beginning at 12:30 PM. Burial will be in St. James Cemetery.
--from the Press Enterprise, where a complete obituary can be found

The Forksville Folk Festival will kick up its heels June 24-26 at the Fairgrounds. This is the one for you if you like folk music and storytelling. Buster and Chloe will be staying home, since there is a "No Pet" policy at the festival site. Go to www.forksvillefolk.org for more information.

Want to keep up on local school news? Go to one of these web sites...
Benton Area: www.bentonsd.k12.pa.us/
Millville: www.millville.k12.pa.us/index.html
Central Columbia: www.centralcolumbia.k12.pa.us/
Southern Columbia: www.scolumbiasd.k12.pa.us/scahs/main.htm
Danville: /www.danvillepa.org/education.htm
Bloomsburg: www.bloomsburgpa.com/schools.php
Berwick: www.berwicksd.org/
Northwest: www.northwest.k12.pa.us/

We like to meander when the weather gets nice and a favorite local spot to visit is Ashland, 40 miles south of Back Home in Benton, PA, via routes 42 and 54. Pioneer Tunnel is a place where visitors can experience what a real anthracite coal mine was like. Visitors ride into the Tunnel on electric mine cars designed to carry passengers. Once inside the mountain, guests alight from the cars to follow their guides as they give an explanation of deep-mining methods. If you have never really seen "black," wait until they turn out all the lights. There is also a narrow-gauge steam train ride on the Lokie (meaning "small locomotive") Henry Clay, a 30-ton steam saddle tank engine once used to haul coal cars and now used to pull passenger mine cars 3,000 feet along the side of Mahanoy Mountain. It is also fun to listen to the guides telling about mining and claim jumpers and neighboring Centralia. Profits from the Pioneer Tunnel go to community welfare programs like parks and playgrounds.

We'll continue today with some of the contributions made to the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center for the auction April 24.

. Southwest Airlines has donated two round-trip tickets to any of Southwest's 59 cities in the U.S. This includes their most recent addition, Pittsburg. This now makes Philadelphia and Pittsburg as the most recent airports to serve Pennsylvania residents. Retail value of the tickets--$800.

. Two complimentary passes to Six flags Darien Lake, New York. Regular admission $33.99. Donated by Six Flags Darien Lake, NY.

. Site drawing from the Millennium Collection of artist Sue Hand. The scene is in Central showing the intersection of Jamison Road and Central Road. Estimated value $35. Donated by Edd and Terrie Sidinger, Jamison City.

. Apartment on W. 75th Street, New York, 3 days, 2 nights. The private apartment has one bedroom, a sofa bed and a loft and of course includes a modern bath and kitchen. It is located between Columbus and Amsterdam and is a block and a half from Central Park. The apartment is on the 4th floor and is a walk-up. The steps number 54. Date by mutual agreement. No smokers or pets. Donated by Elsie Buyers.

. Site drawing from artist Sue Hand. The scene is in Bloomsburg, at the Fountain in the Summer. Estimated value $35. Donated by Edd and Terrie Sidinger, Jamison City.

. $25 gift certificate given by Dr. Dale Neiderheiser, Benton. Donated by Dale Neiderheiser.

. Two 3-day boarding stays from Pine Creek Kennels, 37 Pine Creek Rd., Benton, PA. Total value $84. Donated by George & Karen Scarince.

. Krygier's Catering pies, three of them: coconut cream, cherry crumb & lemon Meringue. Donated by Mary Ruth Krygier.

. Stanley Products, valued at $80, donated by Devona Albertson

. Gift certificate and beauty products from "Girl Talk," Benton's newest hair & nail salon, Park Street. Donated by Sandy Martin.

April 2, the 92nd day of 2005. There are 273 days left in the year. Happy birthday to Congressman Paul Kanjorski who celebrates his birthdays with Hans Christian Anderson, born in Denmark in 1805 and whose birthday is celebrated "year-round" in a California town we love: Solvang. Anderson never married, and when he was found dead in a bathroom late in his life he was holding a love letter written to him 45 years before.

Kids Fun 2005, hosted by Bloomsburg University's SOLVE Office, will be held from 1 to 3 PM Saturday at the Nelson Field House. The university's student organizations will provide games and crafts for children, following the theme, "Under the Sea." About 25 student organizations and several hundred local children are expected to participate. Don't forget to change your clocks tonight and it is always a good idea to also change the batteries in your smoke detector. With the weather forecast for today and the condition of the local creeks, it might be best to check your boots for leaks. The National Weather Service has issued dire warnings about the rain this weekend.

On this date in...
1792, the U.S. Congress authorized the first U.S. mint. President George Washington appointed David Rittenhouse as the first director of the U.S. Mint and soon a mint building was under construction at Seventh and Sugar Alley (now Filbert Street), Philadelphia. The three story building had a sign reading between the second and third floors, "Ye Old Mint."

1827, a man by the name of Joseph Dixon manufactured the first lead pencils. Mass production of lead pencils in this county didn't begin until after the Civil War.

1972, Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. appeared sans clothes in the April (Vol. 172, No. 4) issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine. This issue of "Cosmo" became an instant collector's item and an additional 700,000 copies had to be printed.

Ronald L. Green, 45, (Sept. 2, 1959-April 1, 2005), Berlin Trailer Court, Benton, died Friday. Many in the local area knew of his serious illness and had contributed money for his care through collection jars at local restaurants. Ron was born in Bloomsburg, a son of Roy E. Green, Unityville, and the late Ruth (Kessler) Green. He attended Millville High School and worked at the Orangeville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center until he became ill in February. He previously worked at the Benton Foundry, Inc. Surviving in addition to his father, is his wife, the former Shirley C. Moss; a son, Ronald W. Green, Morley, Michigan; two daughters at home, Jennifer L. Green and Jessica M. Green; two granddaughters: Mya Sitler and Sierra Green, both at home. Also surviving are five brothers: John Green, Millville; Robert Green, and Roger W. Green, Benton; Frank Green, Unityville; David Green, Tivoli; and a sister, Barbara J. Derr, Bloomsburg. Funeral services will be Monday at 10 AM in the Dean W. Kriner, Inc., Funeral Home, Benton. Friends may call Sunday 6-8 PM. Interment will be in in St. Gabriel's Cemetery.

Saturday's Press Enterprise says a Dollar General store is in the planning stage for route 42 South of Hotel Iola. According to the article, construction could begin in May and the store could open by September.

If anyone thinks this is an endorsement of a product, we will automatically cancel your free subscription to the Benton News! At the end of February of this year, we replaced our aging and agitating printer with an Epson that did things like scan photos so we could display them on the web site. It was a copier and it scanned text. Yesterday we changed the black ink for the first time and things went downhill very quickly. It simply stopped working. Epson was not able to fix it over the phone and gave us a choice of sending the printer to one of three different places, places like Rockville, Maryland, and Pittsburgh.

We had bought a three-year warranty so we tried taking it back to the Bloomsburg store where we bought it. That warranty had not yet kicked in because the three-month Epson warranty had not expired. And besides the claim made in the store before we bought it that if something went wrong to just bring it back in for repair or replacement was suddenly null and void. Now, it seems, under the store's warranty program, we have to ship the printer off into the night. Does it seem peculiar to anyone besides me that a program can change so much in a little over a month?

And so with the auction coming up and with constant demands to copy and print things for the Benton News, we are without a printer. We recommend that small children cover their ears, because we are definitely not in a good mood. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause readers.

We're off to see the forsythias, daffodils, crocuses, magnolias, tulip trees, and most of all the cherry blossoms. We'll join the estimated one million tourists who will drop in at the Tidal Basin, although not in the Wilbur Mills sense, for the 93rd annual festival to celebrate the 3,000 cherry trees that Japan gave to the people of Washington in 1912. The Benton News will return to normal in the Wednesday edition, although we will continue to publish until then.

We were in Washington, DC, in October of 1974 when Rep. Wilbur D. Mills (D-Ark.), 65, encountered a problem with his friend, Annabell Battistella, 38, who jumped into the Tidal Basin and had to be rescued. Mills, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, had left his wife home to tend to her broken foot. Somehow, the Honorable Wilbur Mills and Mrs. Battistella got a little too much hootch about two in the morning and Mills ended up bleeding from his nose and had scratches on his face. Mrs. Battistella, known as the "Argentine Firecracker" to a few hundred of her close friends, worked in a local strip joint using the name Fanne Foxe. So, obviously, when we say we are going to "drop in" to see the Cherry Blossoms we didn't mean it in the Battistella way!

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
--A.E. Housman (1859-1936)

We regret that we don't have a lot of time to devote to the Benton News today or for the next several days. So we'll use the opportunity to answer a question posed by a reader about where on the internet she could find a good history of Pennsylvania. So we'll make a suggestion that she and other readers read up on the state history here.

We'll post some more of the many items that will be donated at the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center auction April 24.
. Two handmade Eastern Bluebird Houses; hinged bottoms. Donated by Lynn Watson.
. Collectable 1996 Bloomsburg Fair 1957 Chevrolet Collectible bank with certificate of authenticity. Donated by Paul Reichart.
. Collectable 1992 Hess Gasoline Truck, 18 wheeler and racer & batteries. Value $50. Donated by Paul Reichart.
. $50 saving bond from the Columbia County Farmers National Bank. Donated by the CCFNB.
. Golf Package: Balls, umbrella, one round of golf w/cart at Mill Race for 2 people. Donated by the Columbia County Farmers National Bank.
. McHenry Whiskey Miniature Bottle from the McHenry Distillery. Donated by Sharon Little.
. Hand decorated compact mirror, made in Hawaii by Janice Wright of Wright Collections. Donated by Elsie Buyers.
. LG internal CD Read/Write Drive w/software. Donated by Elsie Buyers.
. Walt Disney World tote Bag; Minnie Mouse Through the Years Coffee Mug; Winnie the Pooh Plush; Disney Mini Beans and Banner, 2 sets of Disney character crayons, Disney 75th photo album and more. Donated by Ronald & Kathi Taylor.
. Two tickets to see the Haygoods, a family music show, at Music City Centre, 1835 West Highway, Branson, MO. Donated by Music City Centre.
. Twenty-three framed political buttons, dating back to Ulysses S. Grant. Donated by a prominent local Democrat, the collection includes a number of Republicans. Donated by John & Dianne Harvey.
. 2 serving trays (Twin Bridges, Yost's service station). Donated by Ronald & Kathi Taylor.

April 1, 2005. Today is the birthday of Dorothy Passamonte, Mount Morris, New York, and it is the wedding anniversary of Phil and Jackie Malhoyt, North Street. Karaoke at Kameeo's is back tonight from 10 PM. Don't forget the Orangeville Fire chicken BBQ Saturday, April 2, from 4 PM. The platter cost is $7 for adults and $4 for children. Be careful! Today is April Fools Day.

The meeting of the Finance Committee for the School Board of the Benton Area Schools has been moved to April 12 at 7 PM in the Benton High School cafeteria. It had been scheduled from April 4. Please make a note of this change.

Borough Secretary Dolores Huda announced that Benton Borough is taking mowing and trimming bids for Benton Park, the field area extending to the dam area and the airport property. Specifications and maps of the area to be mowed may be picked up at 150 Colley Street, Benton, between the hours of 8 AM and 4 PM. A special meeting to open the bids will take place April 12 at 4:30 PM in the Borough Secretary's Office at 150 Colley Street.

Have you heard about the two assistant undertakers by the name of Mal and Mel who were storing some embalming fluid in a closet? Mel got his half of the job stored promptly but Mal lagged behind on the job. When the boss yelled at Mel to hurry up and finish, Mel told him that the rest wasn't his job, that "The rest is for Mal to hide."

It is definitely Spring, and it is time to plan some drives through the Pennsylvania countryside. Try a fanciful fling in Frackville 67 miles from Back Home in Benton, PA, via I-80 and I-81, shorter if you go over hill and dale. Stop and see the fiberglass 15-foot high pioneer mother with her scary child. The mother in her bonnet is holding a pie and gazing towards the highway. The little girl is hanging onto the woman's dress and has the face of a 40-year old man. The girl is dragging a decapitated doll across the statue platform. The statue started its life at the Pot-O-Gold Diner in Hamburg, and moved up the interstate after that establishment closed sometime after 1986. We talked with Granny yesterday and she said that the statue is waiting for warm weather so she can be repainted. From I-81, get off on exit 124B, take route 61 towards Frackville. Granny's Motel and Kitchen is on the right at 115 West Coal Street. Having lunch? You couldn't pick a better place: lace curtains and tablecloths, a front drawing room, Victorian lamps on the tables and a bathroom walled with antique license plates.

Christopher Birt, 27, who received a kidney transplant Thursday, and Brandy Gross, 19, his donor, were both doing well Thursday night. Brandy is expected to come home by Saturday, and Christopher should be discharged Monday. Both were awake and in their respective rooms Thursday evening. Brandy, as the donor, has considerable more pain than Chris, but is expected to do terrific long-term. Christopher's surgery also went quite well, "as if guided by the hand of God Himself"! Sharon Beck, Christopher's Mother, thanks all readers for their prayers. Brandy's parents are Jody and Susie Gross, Sweet Valley, and Christopher's grandmother is Betty Burt, Raven Creek.

Donation items for the April 24 auction to benefit the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, originally published in this space, are now listed here.

We continue with our discussion of the Benton Vocational School, thanks in part to yearbooks that we borrowed from Dave Albertson. Today we'll concentrate on the year 1922.

In 1922, the yearbook was a function of the Junior class, not the senior class. In 1922 the yearbook was called "the B.V.S. Tattler."

The class of 1922 included graduates Marion Brewington, Guy Harrison, Robert Hosier, Edward Laubach, Stanley Wright, Alton Hess, Sara Baker Kline, Max Bittenbender, Roscoe Savage, Ethel Bray Laubach, Harold Cole, John Yost, Glenn Keller, Pauline Doty Cole, Erma Dietrick Scott, Grace Fite White, Elizabeth Keefer Keefer, Lola Keefer Dietrick, Lorcen Getz Harrison, Maude Hess Ash, Geneva Smith Cross, Erma McHenry Brewington, Corrine Horn Donmoyer and Irvin Harrison. We have added married names in some cases to help identify these members of the class of 1920.

The Junior Class included Karl Hagenbuch, John Ruckle, Dale Smith, Mahlon Strauch, Jolin B. McHenry, Harold Moore, Ross Pennington, Russell Shultz, Ernest Knouse, Leon Hartman, Jay Karns, Elmer Kline, George Laubach, Kathryn Fritz Bennett, Edith Hirleman Hess, Eleanor Hoffa, Marie Karns Wright, Helen Barett Lechleitner, Mary Dodson Gearhart, Florine Eveland Maines, Martha Follmer Yowmans, Edna Keefer, Mary Mather Lobst, Evade Michael Sharek, Zora Smith Zimmerman, Madalyn Wright Holt, Elizabeth Yost Sutliff, Ruth Force Floyd, Esther Chapin Laubach, Maude McHenry, Daisy Cotterman McHenry, Emily Seward Kingsley and Gladys Sanders Litts.

Lunch was under the direction of the Home Making Department for those "who come from the country and all who wish to get their lunch at school." Here is the menu for two days: "hamburg sandwiches, 12¢, mashed potatoes, 4¢, cocoa, 5¢, bread and butter, 3¢, doughnuts, 2 for 5¢. A variation of that menu included scalloped salmon, 12¢, macaroni and cheese, 8¢, and pie, 6¢.

The faculty of the vocational school in 1922 consisted of L. R. Appleman, Principal and teacher of history; Blanche Shultz, Assistant Principal, sewing, educational tests; Alvin Sutliff, Supervisor of Agriculture; Esther Smith, Supervisor of Homing Subjects; Leah Robins, English, music; and Ward McHenry, mathematics and science. Esther Smith later changed her last name to McHenry and became Mrs. Ward McHenry. Scores of students knew her as Mrs. McHenry.

The baseball schedule for 1922 included two games with Bloomsburg, Milton, Berwick, Shickshinny and Catawissa. Ward McHenry was the coach and had guided the previous year's team to the County Championship. This was the year of the first football team in Benton's history. When the call for players went out, "the majority of the fellows turned out." Gustav Dippe was head coach, the assistant coach was Dr. J. S. Hoffa, Edward Laubach was manager, George Laubach was captain. The team lost by 66 points in their first game. In fact, Danville scored 66 points in that game! Benton kept their scoreless record going in the second game with Berwick. It was time for decisive action and in the last game of the season--again with Danville--the team was ready. In the November 19 Danville game, we got on the scoreboard with 6 points. Danville, however, tallied up 76 points. Oh, well, there is always 1923...

Football did produce some long lasting cheerleading for Benton. Does this cheer bring back memories?

Benton.
B-E-N-T-O-N
That's the way we spell it!
This is the way we yell it!
B-E-N-T-O-N

The class had its share of humor. Someone quoted Mahlon Strauch, talking about his future bride, as saying "Oh Hel-Hel-Hel-Helen!" Lois A. asked the question, "Do you believe in free love?" Zhender B. replied, "Sure when I'm broke."

Stores in the local area included a millinery store operated by Mrs. F. M. Golder. Holland McHenry ran a "Cash Grocery Store," with a "full line of groceries, tobacco and notions." A. R. Pennington told readers to "come to our store to get your summer suit. We will take your measure and get you an All-Wool Tailor made Suit." Frank Hosler was still running his café and billiard parlor. John F. Wright sold the Overland 4 for $550, the Willy's Knight for $1425 and the Paige from $1065 to $1800. The Magee Garage, West Main Street, Bloomsburg, also sold the Paige. H. W. Belles was a "dealer in general merchandise and coal." William H. Hess operated the Benton Coal Elevator and promised that all coal would be "screened clean." The Benton Storage Battery Company was also an agent for Perlus Health and Accident Insurance. William C. Follmer sold fertilizer and ground lime. Harold Thomas and Guy Harrison ran the Orangeville Store Company, advertising "Merit First, Price Last." Over in Cambra, the Cambra Store Company sold the Steward, a "fine, big, powerful, speedy, all purpose truck," for $1475. Locally, E. P. Chapin sold the Reo Light-Seven on behalf of the Berwick Store Company. The truck was "snappy, speedy, powerful and so beautiful in design." Burr Appleman ran the Klean Kool Ice Kream Parlor on Main Street. Rabb's Pharmacy, the Rexall Store, sold rubber goods, Nyal Remedies, Avalon Farm Remedies and was the "headquarters for Amateur Finishing."