Archives for the Benton News for August, 2007

 

August 31, 2007. Happy birthday to Marvin Albertson and Linda Cragle. During the night of August 30, one hundred and forty-three years ago a number of military squads camping just south of Benton were given orders to stop anyone they met and guard them until daylight, to arrest all men and grown boys, and to surround a number of houses until daylight. The soldiers spread out quietly and secretly south to Stillwater, north and west into Sugarloaf and Jackson Townships. Some went to Cambra and New Columbus. All operations were conducted with the utmost of secrecy, although even the most remote destinations seemed easily reachable by the soldiers, guided it appears by local citizens. To learn more, head to the FEATURES section and read about the Fishingcreek Confederacy.

I recently found myself in a spirited conversation about the collapse of the mortgage industry and the meltdown of real estate in this country. Blame seemed to flow to mortgage brokers and bankers. It seems to me that blame should go continue further up the ladder of responsibility to the leaders of the banking and political world in Washington who, in my opinion, are fiscally irresponsible. After all, if the government can crank out funny money of currency and credit at the national level without reducing the debt of the nation, isn't the private sector entitled to be just as stupid? Poppycock, you say! Well, lets put it another way. The federal debt is currently estimated as something like $8.985 TRILLION--much higher than I can even count. Here is another way of saying it: every man, woman and child in the U.S owes $29,672.26 and the national debt continue to rise at something like $60 million per hour not counting future contingent liabilities. We are not only the greatest country on our planet, but also the most indebted. And before you yell "bunkum," remember that I haven't even mentioned the debt that most of us have on mortgages, college loans, credit cards and car payments.

A reader who has no ties to the local area wrote that he enjoys reading about the small towns of the area and asked if I would pick one and write about it. I had to smile because the suggestion reminded me of how Americans historically believe any absurdity if it appeals to their imagination or emotion. Take the story of the first White House bathtub. H.L. Mencken published a made-up story in the New York Evening Mail of December 28, 1917, about the first tub. He said it was installed by Millard Fillmore in 1851, even though bathing was considered unhealthy at the time and he faced substantial public, medical and legal opposition. In 1926 Mencken confessed that it was a myth but the information was still being circulated as valid as late as the 1960s and could be found "as fact" in reference books. The story was as absurd as the story Johnny Carson once did on the Tonight Show where he showed video from Italy of Italian women harvesting spaghetti from trees and stuffing it in boxes to ship to America. It was so absurd it seemed believable.

Anyway, the job of writing about a small village of our area didn't seem easy. I am trying to get over a huge summer cold and I am away from home. I would have to rely on research others had done, and the telephone. Anyway, I chose to do it and picked Fairmount Springs, a crossroads community less than nine miles north-northeast of Benton.

I was struck by how times have changed, how news is different today. Back in late May, 1919, the news of the area was the death of the Fairmount Springs team of horses owned by Budman Ashelman. His barn was hit by lightning and caught fire, but the flames were extinguished before considerable damage was done. The horses were later found dead, but there were no marks on their bodies to indicate they had been struck. As the story slowly spread through the farms of the area, the story was told and retold and all possible theories were examined.

In 1921, the news of the day in Fairmount Springs was that a local man had to appear in federal court to answer allegations of sending obscene pictures of postcards through the mail. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer of May 23, 1921, the man allegedly conducted a nationally advertised scheme for the sale of “snappy” pictures. According to the article, rather than trust the pictures to the mails, which would have been a felony, he is said to have made all shipments by express.

The first Fairmount Springs post office was established in 1835 as the Fairmount Township post office. The name was later changed to Fairmount Springs. J. C. Pennington was the first postmaster and Jeremiah Briton the second.

Fairmount Springs had a 27.6 mile rural route for about thirty years that was established December 15, 1904. During those years, only a few carriers served the patrons. The post office in Fairmount Springs remained in operation after the rural delivery ended. The rural route was consolidated with routes one and two out of Benton.

J. P. Laubach, the Benton automobile dealer and father of the man who later became the owner of a large construction company in Benton, was the carrier until April 1, 1918, when substitute carrier David Wolfe became the regular carrier. Wolfe carried mail on a substitute and regular basis for thirty years from 1904 when the post office was established until his retirement.

J. P. Laubach acquired a motorcycle to deliver mail, complete with pedals and chain just like a bicycle, and had an air-cooled one-cylinder engine located in the frame just like today's motorcycles. The first J. P. Laubach was an auto dealer for Ford, Lincoln and Fordson and later Dodge Brothers; his son, J. P. Laubach, operated the Chrysler-Plymouth and International Truck dealerships. The son, rather than the father, was the contractor.

Laubach and Wolfe both made the trip by horse and buggy early in their careers. Wolfe made the trip according to the creed of the U. S. Post Office, except for times when “exceptionally high drifts” kept him home. He said that only once in his career was he unable to carry mail two days in a row.

The route was run in the afternoon, and the carrier would start out about noon after the mail would arrive. About six hours were originally needed to complete the route. On unfavorable days, the carrier would often not get home until ten at night. The winter of 1934 was one of the worst on record--an “old fashioned winter” was the way Wolfe put it—and he had to make part of the trip on foot. On his last day of service, the carrier left at noon and was finished by 4 PM.

The post office was always located at the Fairmount Springs store. At the time of the closing of the rural route, George Post operated the store and was the postmaster. A well-known Benton man, A. R. Pennington, was postmaster of Fairmount Springs from 1870 to 1904. Merchant H. G. Pennington was the next postmaster until 1909. A. R. Pennington’s son, M. D. Pennington, a Benton merchant, was the next postmaster, followed by W. E. Albertson and E. G. Smith.

Fairmount Springs’ first schoolhouse was built in 1824 in the form of a double-log house suitable for both church and school. It was conveniently located beside the Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike that ran through the community until 1845 when the road became public. Paulina Culver was the first teacher in 1824.

Fairmount Springs over the years has had a hotel and a store, both taking advantage of the turnpike that once went through the community. The community also had a business that manufactured sleighs and wagons; there were blacksmiths and saw mills.

Jacob Long was an early settler, arriving with his family in 1792 from near the “Delaware River.” Joseph Potter settled at Fairmount Springs even before the building of the turnpike. Gad Seward ran the stone tavern in Fairmount Springs in 1818, a “favorite resort for all inclined to mirth” and those who liked a good cup of "flip." He also operated the turnstile at that location for the Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike Company. Many in the Seward family still reside in the area from Red Rock to Fairmount Springs.

 

August 30, 2007. During the night of August 30, one hundred and forty-three years ago, a number of military squads camping just south of Benton were given orders to stop anyone they met and guard them until daylight, to arrest all men and grown boys, and to surround a number of houses until daylight. The soldiers spread out quietly and secretly south to Stillwater, north and west into Sugarloaf and Jackson townships. Some went to Cambra and New Columbus. All operations were conducted with the utmost of secrecy, although even the most remote destinations seemed easily reachable by the soldiers, guided it appears by local citizens. To learn more about this subject, turn to the FEATURES section on the side panel and refresh your memory about the Fishingcreek Confederacy.

The Annual Sugarloaf Alumni Banquet will be held Saturday, September 1, at the Sugarloaf Memorial Building, Grassmere, at 6 PM. Graduates and all former students who attended Sugarloaf School are cordially invited. For information, contact Shirley Hess Fulmer, 925-2936.

You can’t be pulled over by a police officer for not wearing a seat belt in Pennsylvania, but in neighboring New Jersey, Maryland, New York and Delaware, primary seat belt laws are in place and allow cops to stop and ticket any non-belted driver. Drive carefully and safely over the upcoming holiday weekend.

Crossing the United States and driving all of the federally designated National Scenic Highways has always been a goal of mine, and yet I have yet to travel the entire scenic route that runs east-west in the Northern Tier of our own state. This route runs through historic towns and some of the most beautiful, undisturbed and undiscovered wild lands we have ever seen. The two-lane highway is US Route 6.

Tuesday, John & Charlotte Sibly, Bill & Joyce Johnson, Edd & Terri Sidinger and Marcia Kay and I got our kicks on a portion of Route 6 that I had never been on before--a short distance in Tioga and Potter Counties from Wellsboro to the PA Lumber Museum between Galeton and Coudersport. Our trip took us from the shores of Hammond Lake to Route 6 near the 47 miles of the "gorge-ous" gorge of Pine Creek often called the "Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania" near the gas-lit boulevards and stately homes of Wellsboro where the Sidinger's favorite barrel-roofed Wellsboro diner and the Penn Wells Hotel are located. The Pine Creek Rail Trail is nearby, a wonderful place for riding your bikes along the floor of the Pine Creek Gorge. Visualize as you peddle the 145 or so sawmills that once resided in the floor of that canyon and carefully listen to hear the whistle that once blew in that valley from the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek & Buffalo Railroad. The railroad and its successors--the Fallbrook Railroad, the New York Central, the Penn Central and finally Conrail--operated through the gorge through October, 1988. I still remember grumbling about the 3 AM freight train that rumbled up the valley as I camped at Pettecotte Junction in Cedar Run on Pine Creek.

We also traveled though or near to Colton Point State Park and the 1930s charm of a CCC-type atmosphere at Denton Hill State Park, the towns of Galeton and Coudersport, ending at the PA Lumber Museum.

The route had its beginning in 1807 when state officials directed that a road be cut through the Moosic Mountains in order to get to the western parts of the state. The road eventually connected all of the county seats in Pennsylvania's northern tier with charming villages, plentiful farming communities and thriving towns in between. The communities it serves includes Erie, Warren, Kane, Coudersport, Wellsboro, Mansfield, Towanda, Wyalusing, Tunkhannock, Clarks Summit, Scranton, Carbondale, Honesdale, Milford, and Matamoras.

Route 6 runs from the Delaware River in Port Jervis, New York, to the Ohio state line near Pymatuning Reservoir. Older readers may know the route as the "Grand Army of the Republic Highway."

Route 6 in Pennsylvania was incorporated in 1925 into a highway system that eventually connected the United States from Cape Cod to Long Beach, California. Today, it is the second longest highway in the United States.

Our final stop Tuesday was at the PA Lumber Museum, a place where you can learn more about the tanning industry that once was king in Jamison City than you can Back Home in Benton, PA. It is the place where each July there is a Bark Peelers' Convention with events like a greased pole "knock your opponent silly" contest. Two opponents sit facing each other on an 8-foot greased log suspended above a sawdust pit. Pillows are the weapons. Landing in the sawdust is the ultimate defeat. Old clothing is recommended! Other contests include tobacco spitting, fiddling, frog jumping and birling. In birling, contestants stand on a white pine log floating in the water. The last person on the log is the winner. Having teeth is not a necessity for opponents!

The Lumber Museum includes an impressive visitors center and then branches out to various buildings where specific aspects of Pennsylvania's lumber industry are demonstrated. These "out-buildings" include an engine house with a 70-ton Shay engine that came from the Erbacon & Summerville Railroad in West Virginia. There is a steam-operated log loader in the Loader Shed and lots of log cars. There is a horse barn. A Filer's Shack--you guessed it, the man who sharpened the saws--plus a Blacksmith Shop and a Mess Hall where the cook and the "cookie" worked. (You guessed it! The "cookie" was the cook's helper.) There is a Circular Sawmill, a Sawmill Pond, a 15-ton tannery switch engine, and much more.

One day, I shall return to travel all eleven counties and the 400 miles across the northern part the state on what has to be one of the most scenic drives I have ever seen. If you want to see a small part of the Northern Tier, try the PA Heritage Festival in Troy September 15 & 16, or the Falling Leaves Festival at Coudersport October 5 & 6 or the Yesteryear Collectibles Show & Sale at the PA Lumber Museum October 6 & 7. The next weekend is the Flaming Foliage Festival at Renovo on the 12 through the 14th.

 

August 29, 2007. Susan McHenry celebrates her birthday today, along with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Chris and Amy Vincent and Jeff and Jody Andrysick celebrate their anniversaries today. We breathed a huge sigh of relief when we found out that Rosie Fronheiser, a fall victim at Ives Run Park, did not break her hip as first feared. She is now home in Elk Grove and recovering, a bit sore, but recovering.

Quickies...
• We concur with those who advocate flying an American flag on Tuesday, September 11, 2007.

• Would you like to know at what time sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset will occur? Want to know more about the Moon's phase? You can go here and specify the date and location.

• Harrisburg's George N. Wade Bridge carrying Interstate 81 over the Susquehanna River has a rating lower than the Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis this month--and yet it carries 74,000 vehicles each day. So now the question is this an attempt by the Guv to shore up budget problems or is this a bridge I should detour?

• The historic Pennsbury Manor, Morrisville, will celebrate the grand opening of its new visitors center with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 AM on Saturday, Sept. 29.

• Jim Birch, honorable secretary of the Priestley Society in Birstall, England, will give a talk entitled "A Walk Through Priestley's Birstall" at 7:15 PM Wednesday, Sept. 12, at Townside at the Savoy Restaurant, Northumberland. The event, which is free and open to the public, follows the annual dinner meeting of the Friends of Joseph Priestley House. For further information, call (570) 473-9474.

• The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has added 83 state forest and park areas totaling more than 941,000 acres to Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Deer Management Assistance Program. Ricketts Glen is one of the enrolled state parks.

• Former United States Navy Admiral Hyman G. Rickover is said to have once told a subordinate who used the Pluralis Majestatis ("Majestic Plural" or "Royal We"): "Three groups are permitted that usage: pregnant women, royalty, and schizophrenics. Which one are you?"

Nevertheless, we use the plural pronoun in reference to oneself alone here on the Benton News a lot, even though we know that the rulebook says that the "Royal we" (or "Victorian we") is restricted to august personages such as monarchs, bishops, Popes, and other high muckety-mucks. Our favorite use of the "Royal We" occurred when Margaret Thatcher announced to the world when her son Mark and his wife had a son in 1990. The Iron Lady said, "We are a grandmother."

That being said, we'll now proceed with a daily rant about issues of health, always a concern. We are heavily into exercise. This week we are concentrating on weightlifting and perform this exercise as we stand up. We don't want to be in the position where we are called upon to stand to offer a chair to a lady--and we can't. We feel that we can do as much as we ever did, we just don't want to! We have everything that we had 20 years ago, except that most stuff is a little lower. We want to feel fit as a fiddle, but it's hard shaped as we are like a cello. We suspect we may be over the hill because we feel like the morning after and we haven't been anywhere. We can remember back to when we were 20 and we didn't care what the world thought of us. At 30, we started worrying what the world thought of us, and now we realize that it isn't thinking of us at all. We know that life begins at 40, but then so does hair loss, bad eyesight, arthritis and the habit of repeating everything three times. We tell you these things just to console ourselves at no longer being able to set a bad example. We often think that life would have been so much easier if we had been born 80 and worked our way toward 18. This nonsense of being told to slow down by a doctor rather than by a policeman is for the birds.

Do you remember the story about Harry Truman promoting politics at Yale University? A student asked the former president how he would go about getting into politics. Truman replied, "You've already started. You're spending somebody else's money, aren't you?"

We often recommend the Belarc Advisor, a way to ensure that you know everything currently installed on your computer. Free for personal use, the Belarc Advisor generates a complete listing of all hardware, peripherals, OS patches and software on your computer. The listing produced by Belarc is generated in your browser as a web page with links. It also shows license keys for software, something which is really important to have in a single place when re-installing.

 

August 28, 2007. There is a full moon tonight called by Native American tribes the "Full Green Corn Moon" or the "Full Grain Moon." It is Harold and Jane Ackerman's anniversary and Dan and Cathy Hartman's 25th wedding anniversary.

A reader wants to find a copy of a newspaper article dated October 23, 1954, about Edward Davis, RD 4, Benton, entitled "He's Licked Deer Damage," by Don Shiner. A picture in the article shows Edward Davis kneeling by a salt lick. The story ran in an unknown newspaper October 23, 1954. No other information is known. Can any reader help?

The Allentown Fair opens today and runs through Labor Day, but it will cost a dollar a person more this year for admission. The cost of admission is now $6. Tropical Storm Ernesto dropped rain on the fair last year during five of the fair's seven days. Attendance was down 25%. Admission to the Bloomsburg Fair this fall will be $4.

Welcome to the following new school teachers in the Benton School district: Kelly Lutkiewicz, Donna Rentschler, Charles Kline, Christopher Blockus, Jillian Bolesta, Gregory Fritz and Megan Huntington. Regretfully, because we are traveling at the moment, we are unable to include a copy of their pictures in the web version at this time.

Soprano Alanna M. Bath, Bendertown, has captured the hearts of audiences in Northeast and Central Pennsylvania with her exciting stage presence and rich soprano voice. She now has a new website that includes her resume, news and events about upcoming performances, photos and more. This is a great way for her friends back home to see what she is up to and where she'll be performing.

Recently I made some homemade apple butter for our morning pancakes during a stay at Painter Den. The process seems so simple today compared with the machinations of previous generations where apple butter kettles like the one owned by Dayton Hess and now owned by his great granddaughter, Lisa Hess Gordner, were used during the autumn ritual when "the frost was on the pumpkin and the fodder was in the shock." Gallons of the delicious topping for bread were made by workers with wooden paddles and spices and sacks of sugar and cinnamon. Men operated the peelers, while the women and children cored and sliced the apples. The paddles were moved back and forth to keep the sauce from sticking. The "bilin' was under way and by the end of the day there would be an accumulation of spicy, dark-colored apple butter ready to store in stone crocks for use during the long winter months.

The nights at Ives Run, Tioga, Pennsylvania, have been cool, with a hint of fall in the temperature. When fall announces its immanent arrival, I often think of the ritual of making apple butter.

I don't know the history of apple butter making and eating in this country, but the Schwenkfelders had a lot to do with it.

In Europe, the Christian Schwenkfelders often suffered persecution like slavery, prison and fines at the hands of the government and state churches in Europe. They were forced to bury their dead in the town dumping ground and not permitted to marry unless the ceremony was performed by a specified creed. They left their homes and farms as well as cattle, crops and other belongings and fled to Saxony. From Saxony, they came to Pennsylvania, landing in Philadelphia on September 22, 1731. On September 23, they declared their allegiance to King George and on September 24 they held a thanksgiving service in an open field near Front Street, Philadelphia.

Ever since the first organized group of the followers of Casper Schwenkfeld landed in Philadelphia there has been an annual meeting of Schwenkfelders on or about September 24.

September 24 represents the first Day of Remembrance, or Gedächtnestag, the oldest continually celebrated day of thanksgiving in the United States. When the first band of Schwenkfelders landed in Philadelphia a simple lunch was served at a thanksgiving service. Since that time apple butter has been a part of the yearly gathering luncheon, just as turkey is connected with Thanksgiving Day.

Each year on the Sunday closest to September 24, Schwenkfelders gather to honor their past. While sharing the simple meal of bread and butter, apple butter and water, today's Schwenkfelders remember what the immigrants endured for their faith.

The Schwenkfelders survived on the high seas due in part to an ample supply of apple butter, a fruit product that keeps its goodness without preservatives or refrigeration. On arrival they celebrated with a meal of bread and apple butter, an occasion still commemorated in Schwenkfelder churches.

Robert Margerum, a local custom wood worker, has a son-in-law, Rev. Nick Pence, who is the Pastor of Palm Schwenkfelder church in Palm, a small town south of Allentown on Route 29. Nick is a United Church of Christ Pastor, as is Robert's daughter and Rev. Pence's wife. Nick was formerly at St. Paul's U.C.C., Summit Station.

Heather Radick, a frequent visitor to Central, recommends the Pennsburg museum which you can learn more about by visiting www.schwenkfelder.com/ . Heather says there are "great programs and exhibitions, and admission is free, but you can give a donation." The web site indicates that the museum is "dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history of the Schwenkfelders and the history of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Perkiomen Region."

Apple butter is a main “sweet” condiment on the traditional “seven sweets and seven sours” Pennsylvania German dinner table. The next time you are looking for a side dish at a restaurant, consider Schmierkees un’ Lattwaerrick, cottage cheese and apple butter. Actually, just ask for Schmierkees and most waitresses around here will know exactly what you mean. It is good eating.

 

August 27, 2007. None of the birthdays we told you about on Sunday was correct. They should all have been for today. So happy birthday to Lee Fritz and Mother and Daughter Faith and Regina Schlichter. We apologize for the error. These fine people share their birthdays with the Chinese philosopher Confucius. According to Mother, Confucius said a lot of things that I don't think the man ever thought about, but he did instruct his followers to love others, to honor one's parents, to lead by example, and to treat others as they would like to be treated.

Quotes of the Day:
• "Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls."
—Mother Teresa, born on this date in 1910

• "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."
—Confucius, born on this date in 551 BC

Congratulations to Ed Campbell, Lightstreet, a first-time lobster fisherman in Maine. He brought home an estimated 250 pounds of lobster.

How times have changed. I recently sat down with a batch of old newspapers in search of articles about black bear in our state, in preparation for an article I wanted to write before an upcoming North Mountain Historical Society meeting on the third Monday of September.

The newspapers were from 1918 and from late August in order for me to find out what was on people’s minds at this time of the year back then. To my surprise, I found several articles about the “Musquaw,” the old American Indian name for our common black bear. I had never realized that “Musquaw” was so commonly used at that time. In the following paragraphs, I'll substitute "bear" for the use of the term "Musquaw" which was used more frequently in the articles.

Take for example an article I found in the Philadelphia Inquirer for August 25, 1918. The article was about the Musquaw in Pennsylvania, noting that the bear seldom grew to a very large size, but in “the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Range," the black bear grew larger than “its cousin, the cinnamon bear.” The sportswriter told of finding one “in the forests of Oregon, “a monster that must have weighed fifteen hundred pounds.” The writer described him as very beautiful, a long, jet-black fur, handsome as a picture and magnificent in his native wildness.”

The writer in 1918 described the animals as “not carnivorous from choice” saying that “seldom will they eat meat unless forced to, and then they do so with the utmost of disdain and repugnance.”

The article said that the bear feeds on snails, nuts, berries, roots and shrubs, nosing and rooting around the mountains and woods, searching for the winter store of nuts carefully concealed by squirrels, gophers and other rodents.”

The writer illustrated his point by talking about hunting in the Big Horn Mountains of Montana where he shot and wounded a buck. He tracked the buck for about three miles until he came upon the dead carcass in a clearing. “A large black bear was standing over it, pushing and pulling it with his claws and rolling the carcass from side to side. He smelt, pawed and cuffed it, but never tasted the meat.”

The writer continued that this little diversion was kept up for ten minutes or so, until “Bruin scrambled away and continued his search for nuts and roots. He evidently preferred the latter simple diet to that of choice venison.”

The writer told a number of stories of how the bear would go to extremes to find honey bees and the effort they went to in order to get honey. The writer noted that no other animal that he was aware of could eat the massive amounts of honey that a bear would consume at one sitting. “Any other creature or being devouring such an unlimited quantity of this sweet dessert would soon be troubled with unpleasant symptoms and even nausea, but with the "Musquaw there seems to be some provision of nature which counteracts the effects of honey for he is never affected with honey gluttony, no matter how much he may have feasted himself."

The writer described how the black bear is a great climber, noting that “he will, if hard pressed, go up a tree like a cat, but unlike the feline, he does not come down head foremost, preparing to descent slowly and carefully backward.” The writer speculated that his "climbing properties are no doubt inherent, occasioned by his exceeding fondness" for honey. "And again, in choosing a place to hibernate, by going up old tree stumps, which are often hollow, he can find a hiding place generally secure from the hunter, in as much as the entrance may be many feet in the air, and consequently not easily discovered."

The writer told of "One bear, shot by me, in the Black Canyon of the Big Horn in the month of April, when hibernation had ceased, had one of his fore-paws entirely bare of fur. According to the writer’s Indian guide, the bear “had gone into winter quarters rolling fat, and had actually sucked his paw all those months, thus exhausting his fat and virtually living upon his own body."

The mother emerges from hibernation in the spring with a litter from one to four, although usually containing two. "The cubs are born without fur, blind and exceedingly diminutive, resembling baby kittens somewhat, and are perfectly helpless until almost four weeks later, when their eyes open and they begin to develop a soft, light-colored fur."

The writer told the story of being at a military fort “on the frontier,” when an officer riding on horseback came upon a lanky black animal pulling down berries from the bushes and making himself generally at home among the willows living in small creek bottoms.

According to the story, the bear ran “at a lively gait toward the mouth of the canyon.” The writer explained that “it should be understood that a deadly animosity seems to exist between all bears and all dogs. For some reason, both are at special warfare, even more so than any other species.” According to the story, the “lieutenant rode to within forty yards of the fleeing bear, and simulated the bark of a dog so naturally that it seemed to fill the Musquaw with the most intense fear and fright.” The "Pursuer by dexterous flailing and much barking” managed to head his quarry in the direction of the post.

"Two ladies of the garrison, on horseback, chanced to be riding on the open prairie to get the morning air. They saw, in the far distance, a strange black object racing toward them with someone on horseback in stern pursuit" and stopped to see what all the fuss was about. "Straight toward them came the bear and following closely behind and barking at the top of his lungs like a dog was the officer." Wheeling around in a flash, the ladies headed back from “whence they had come,” the bear close behind and the officer yelping just behind the bear. The writer said it was “indeed a remarkable chase, and long to be remembered. First came the two ladies on horseback, urging their steeds to the top of their speed; then a real, live black bear on a dear run, close behind them; next, the officer riding his trusty charger, shouting and yelling and barking like a dog.”

Men, officers and ladies swarmed out of the garrison to see what was the matter, but the bear never paid any attention to them in front, concentrating his energies on getting away from the imaginary dog barking behind him.

"Helter-skelter, pell-mell he went, through a wire fence, without stopping, and the exhausted bear, in an utterly bewildered condition found himself to the centre of the parade ground, with a hundred rifles pointed at his heart. One soldier, the best marksman in the command, advanced a few steps, took careful aim behind the fore-shoulder and pulled the trigger.”

In response to the shot, the "bear tumbled in his tracks to rise no more, and thus ended one of the most remarkable bear hunts ever recorded, especially when truth is taken into consideration as one of the necessary adjuncts of the story.”

 

August 26, 2007. Helen Harvey is home from the hospital, a little brused but otherwise okey. Ed Kocher is home following hip replacement surgery and rehabilitation. Today is also the birthday of former U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson, born in 1908 near Stonewall, Texas. He was a member of Congress, John F. Kennedy's vice president, and became president when JFK was assassinated in 1963.

This Day was once known as Women's Suffrage Day, this day that marks the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote. Longtime Suffragette Carrie Chapman Catt said of her experiences: "Never in the history of politics has there been such a nefarious lobby as labored to block the ratification." Upon ratification, Catt founded the League of Women Voters, an organization now dedicated to providing impartial, in-depth information about candidates, platforms, and ballot issues.

Looking at some of the stuff we receive electronically, we now realize that the email of the species is more deadly than the mail.

Pitchers at the Northern Columbia Horseshoe Tournament Saturday came from Reedsville, Williamsburg, Allentown, Mill Hall, Muhlenburg, Camp Hill, Stillwater, Auburn, York, Carlisle, Shavertown, Bloomsburg--the list of locations is indeed long and we won't bore you with all the locations. Bill Case, Harrisburg, had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance when he came down with heat exhaustion in the 92° weather, but he was released and returned home in good shape. In Class A shooting, Steve Strausbaugh, Manchester, shot a 66.29 to become the big winner, while John Monismith, Enola, shot a 55.14 to take second place.

A Certificate of Occupancy has been given to the restored and expanded building behind the Bakery Antique Company on Main Street which permits the relocation to this location from their Route 487 location in Benton Township and the reopening of the Henny Penny Country Store featuring Homespun, Handmade and Heartfelt items. The store will have a Fall Open House at a date to be announced, but could open for business as early as next weekend. The building has two stories with two porches and a 20-foot ceiling inside. When open, the walls will be adorned with quilts and there will be rocking chairs on the porches. The store features a line of soaps and soap balls. There are gourmet seasoning salts for cooking, and delightful herb blends for soups and stews. And they have their trademark primitive dolls and folk-art quilts. It is a lovely place. Call 925-5204 for hours and featured items.

Lowell Thomas called this native of Benton "one of the noblest men alive." In pre-Castro Cuba they named him "The Man with the Flaming Heart." A tribe in the Belgian Congo gave him their highest title: "Mender of Old Baskets." The man was Dr. Frank C. Laubach, a missionary whose work in over 100 countries of the world and his "Each One Teach One" program in over 300 languages resulted in lifting an estimated 100 million people out of illiteracy in depressed areas of the world.

Dr. Laubach believed he had the secret of saving the world from its self-destruction. He organized what he called "an army of compassion" to win the world in "a war of amazing kindness."

The objective was to win the struggle for men's minds and hearts by helping economically depressed people help themselves. As a result, many of the literate were able to achieve enough income to rise above a hunger level, often well above it. But the illiterate remained at a great disadvantage. They become the vast, unhappy multitudes of the hungry. Hungry people become angry people.

Then as now, the more we can help people become literate, the less anger and discontent there will be. Such was the reasoning of this creative man who, imbued with a love for the unfortunate of this world, tried to lift the level of life everywhere--and he did it, too.

Dr. Laubach was the author of a booklet which he titled, The Game with Minutes. The idea was simple. In the course of a day we waste a good many minutes or fractional pieces of time waiting during a commercial for our favorite television program to resume, or waiting for the dentist to usher us into his waiting chair, or waiting for our spouse to get her nose powdered. Dr. Laubach suggested filling these fractional time segments with prayers or mediation. Many over the years have followed Dr. Frank's advice and have been filled with peace and strength as a result.

Back in 1947, Dr. Laubach realized that more people speak English than any other language in the world. He also knew that English is a tough language to learn and for most it was a very messy language. The World Language Foundation at that time was an outfit that believed that everything would be simpler if everybody knew one language. The problem was which language.

English, of course, had the head start with at that time more than 400,000,000 people around the world who could speak it. The Chinese came next with about 200,000,000, but no one but the Chinese wanted to speak mandarin, and not even all the Chinese agreed to that. You begin to see the light with the problems of a one-world, one-language race. English is tough for any foreigner and as one once said, "Ingglisch too tuf az iz." Even a native spends years just learning how to spell it. The foundation believed that a new alphabet was the answer, and they came up with a global alphabet, with thirty-seven characters, representing every sound in any language. Because each character stood for a sound, the foundation believed that English in this global alphabet could be mastered in a few months.

Dr. Laubach, a specialist in phonetic alphabets, had another idea. He advocated keeping the same old twenty-six letters, but wanted to "clean up" the spelling. About 20 per cent of all English words, Laubach said, should be changed so that they were spelled as they were pronounced.

As an example, we write though, tough, cough, plough, through. Spelling of these words under the Laubach plan would become thoa, tuf, kawf, plow, throo. That, said Dr. Laubach, "eeze enuf for anibodi." Even brilliant minds have misguided thoughts from time to time.

 

August 25, 2007. Brandy McHenry has a birthday today. Herbert and Jane Fritz celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary and on November 7 she will turn 77. This is another busy weekend in the upper Fishingcreek Valley. There is a family-style beef dinner from 4:30-6:30 tonight at the Sweet Valley Fire Company, and a chicken barbecue from 4 to 7 in Unityville at the St. John Lutheran Church. The Centre County Fair is ongoing in Centre Hall. Give M. Ruth Kline your best thoughts today as she recovers from a fall Friday in which she broke her wrist. We'll tell you about another major happening this weekend in a second, but we'll tend to our departed first...

Passing...
• William J. Franczak, 76, New Tripoli, passed away August 22, 2007, in Bethlehem. He was born in Plains Township, a son of the late Joseph and Anna (Krzyicki) Franczak and was a member of the graduating class of 1949 of the Benton Schools. He served as a Sergeant with the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean Conflict from 1951–1954 where he earned a Purple Heart, Korean Service Medal, U.N. Service Medal and National Defense Service Medal. He was an accountant and a manager of state store sales for the State Civil Service for more than 12 years prior to his retirement in 1991. He is survived by his wife, Emily (Stevenson) Franczak, New Tripoli, a daughter, Rebecca Smith, Estill Springs, Tennessee; a son, W. Michael Franczak, Shickshinny; a brother, Ernest Franczak, (Patricia), Berwick; a sister, Eleanor Dluzeski (Raymond), Huntington Mills; and numerous relatives out of the local area. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Elizabeth A. (Janosik) Franczak, and a brother, Joseph Franczak, and a sister, Helen Franczak. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Monday, August 27, 2007, at 10 AM in St. Agnes Catholic Church, 445 N. Main St., Sellersville. Interment will follow in Our Lady of Czestochowa Cemetery, Doylestown. Family will receive friends on Sunday, Aug. 26, from 3-5 PM. in the Sadler-Suess Funeral Home, 33 N. Main St., Telford.
--Obituary courtesy of a complete Press Enterprise obituary for August 23, 2007.

• James J. Kay, (March 13, 1919-August 23, 2007) died Thursday at the age of 88 at the Bonham Nursing Center, Register. Jim was born in San Antonio, Texas, on March 13, 1919, a son of the late James C. and Elma (McIntosh) Kay. He spent his early life in Beaumont, Texas, where he graduated from South Park High School in 1937. He lived in Sugarloaf Township since 1958 when he retired from the U.S. Merchant Marines. He was last employed by the United States Lines, Inc. as a marine engineer. His sailing career spanned World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam Conflict. He was a member of the U.S. Coast Guard for four years during World War II. He was a member of the former Benton Lodge #667, F & AM, and served as the lodge's Worshipful Master in 1989. At his death, he was a member of Oriental Lodge 460, F & AM, Orangeville. He belonged to Caldwell Consistory, Bloomsburg, and Irem Temple Shrine, Dallas. He was a life member of Fort Rickett's Post 8317, VFW, Benton. He was preceded in death by his wife, the former Margaret A. "Peggy" Pugh in 1991 and by a sister, Myrtle Davis. A son, James L. Kay, Baytown, Texas, survives, as do seven grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, a sister and a number of nephews and nieces. Funeral services will be Monday afternoon at 2 from the Dean W. Kriner, Inc. Funeral Home, Benton. Friends may call Monday from 12:30 to 2. There will be a Masonic memorial service at 1 PM. Military services will be provided by the combined VFW group. Jim will be cremated and his remains will be buried at sea by the U.S. Navy, according to his wishes.
--A complete obituary will appear in the Saturday edition of the Press Enterprise. This obituary couresy of the Kriner Funeral Home.

Picture courtesy of Harry Ackerman

Now back to events taking place close to home. There is horseshoe pitching in the form of a National Horseshoe Pitchers Association of America tournament at the Northern Columbia Horseshoe Courts on Community Drive behind the fire hall. The Benton Firemen are supplying eats of hot dogs, homburgs, barbecue, soup and drinks Saturday and part of the day on Sunday.

The construction of the nine horseshoe courts is complete. The pavilion has been sectioned off and wired. Water and electricity are connected. Pitching at the courts has been taking place every Tuesday and Thursday evening beginning around 5:30 with both adults and teens participating. League play will be organized next season. Photo courtesy of Harry Ackerman

Tournament pitching for today and Sunday will begin at 9, with the second group of pitchers beginning about 1:30.

Fifty-five pitchers are registered to compete and they come from Harvey's Lake, Philadelphia, Altoona, Mill Hall and points in between. The public is encouraged to bring a lawn chair, and "make a day" at the Northern Columbia Courts. The Fire Company will provide toilet facilities.

The Benton Tournament will not be as large as the World Championships held in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1920 when a fireman from Akron, Ohio, won the title of the game that at that time was often called "barnyard golf." In that tournament, state champions and champs of counties, cities, villages and crossroads from all over the country took part. George May won the title by winning twenty-six straight games of 50 points each. The pitching distance was forty feet and the steel stakes were eight inches high. Most of the throws were ringers or leaners. Shoes that fell farther than eight inches from the stakes were not scored. Ringers counted three points and the next closest shoe one point.

It always seemed as though anyone could pitch horseshoes. That is, until I picked up some regulation shoes that were just so in weight and size and things did not turn out to be as easy as I thought. I was so mad at how poorly I was doing that I spent hours on the court trying to pitch the shoes to the peg. Today, you'll see businessmen and farmers pitching and there will be lots of smiles on their faces. They genuinely look like they are having fun.

Press Enterprise Reporter Gary Pang examines a legal wringer with Carlton Young

In fact, I suspect that a person can get as much exercise out of a game of horseshoes as a game of golf and it doesn't cost a penny. You can use any pair of shoes you want, you don't have to have either a caddy or a golf cart, you don't have to wear polyester, the man you are pitching against obliges by pitching the shoes back to you rather than making you walk several miles during the game. You'll constantly be stooping down to pick up the shoes and there is some exercise in that. Every minute means more work for those muscles. You'll know you put in a day's work after an hour's play, and the next day you'll want to go back for more.

Remember that 55 or so players plus their spouses and families will be in Benton today and Sunday. They, like us, will become boosters for the upper Fishingcreek valley. The horseshoe courts will be one of the cheapest forms of advertising the area can ever get.

The horseshoe courts are the first of the projects associated with the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center to open. Each of these projects will mean additional tourists to a community now well established for its antique trade. In fact, tomorrow, I'll tell you about another business that will open in the Borough next week.

Quickies...
• Coming up Tuesday and running until September 3 is the Allentown Fair, North 17th Street.

• The Red Planet will be spectacular on August 27--but, then, anytime it is seen it is spectacular! But don't believe any of that poppycock that is circulating about "Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky" August 27 and that "It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye when it comes with in 34.65M miles of earth." All that is bunkum!

• The Class of 1972 is planning a reunion in September. Most classmates have received an invitation, but some can not be located, including Bryan DeVaul. Contact Barbara Fritz at bfritzlibrary AT yahoo.com if you have not been contacted.

• Dick and Janet McHenry say their hurricane-ravaged house in Enterprise, Alabama, is 99.9% rewired and sheetrock goes up next week.

• Athena Aardweg, daughter of Becky and Rick Aardweg, Schoolhouse Lane near Grassmere Park recently was walking along Fishing Creek between Grassmere Park and the former location of the old covered bridge known as the Welle Hess Bridge when she and her father noticed what seems to be the base of a building. The beams are in a side stream next to Fishing Creek. Do any readers have any recollection of what this mill or building might have been. Athena says, "It is extremely hard to tell how long these beams could have been in the water as through storms this spring has this surfaced." We've asked lots of people, including Bill Mather, etc. Athena can answer questions at 925-2627.

I feel a lot like the orange who went to the doctor. He wasn't peeling well. Beginning Monday, the distribution schedule for the Benton News will be unpredictable. Marcia Kay and I will be camping at Ives Run with four other couples and I suspect that I won't have good internet coverage in the Tioga/Hammond Dam area. Besides, the way I am feeling, I will probably just relax a whole lot.

 

August 24, 2007. Dale and Anna May Brandon celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary today. They have two married daughters, one living in Missouri and the other in Delaware. They also have five grandchildren, two girls and three boys. They were married on a three-day pass when Dale was in the US Army. They spent their first year of marriage in Alaska at Fort Richardson. Elaine Taylor Hartman and Pat Thomas, Bloomsburg, and Mary Ann Hartman Hoffman, Columbia, SC, celebrate their birthdays today.

Women are so romantic. A reader told me about a mood ring she was given by her husband. She wrote, "When I'm in a good mood it turns green. When I'm in a bad mood, it leaves a red mark on his forehead."

Don't tell people what to do. If the person is gifted he won't need to hear it, and all the rest will resent it.

Coming up October 6 & 7 is the second annual Covered Bridge Music Fest at the Benton Rodeo Grounds from 11 AM to 6 PM both Saturday and Sunday. Performers will include the Tim Johnson Band, Pat & Al Hess, Mike Lewis from Channel 16 and the Greenwood Valley Boys. Special events will include apple butter making, vendors, home-made ice cream, and carnival rides and games. The events benefits the Covered Bridges of Columbia County. Dick Holcombe's up and down saw, originally an 1800s water-driven saw, will be here and Dave Bronson will run and describe the saw three to four times each day to those who are interested. An auction is tentatively scheduled for Sunday under the direction of Olin or Ray Knecht.

For those who are looking for a laptop computer and the basis for the search is price, consider the Toshiba Satellite laptop (Intel Celeron M 520) for $399 which you can find for a limited time at http://urltea.com/1ajp?Toshiba. Remember that the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center will provide free wireless high-speed internet for members when it opens and a no-frills laptop with a wireless card like this may be exactly what you are looking for. Volunteers at the Center will assist members in obtaining a free email address.

From the time thousands of years ago when man first scratched his impressions about the hunt of the day on a cave wall as an alternative to the use of formal language, people have argued about what it all meant. Today's art galleries burst at the seams with modern- and bizarre-art forms. The artist tells us what the blobs and the streaks were meant to describe, and we simply shake our heads in wonderment. The tortured souls, marital tension or social protests that the artist attempts to display just doesn't compute. Give me a painting that tells a story and I am happy. Give me a Norman Rockwell or something as simple as a Wallace Nutting and you've made my day.

It seems best, methinks, to view the works of an artist who is concerned with the subject at hand, not with gastric distress that cause him or her to plunge droplets of paint onto a prone canvas. I want to see portraiture or history painted with a degree of reverence, a splash of the spectacular, a little of the spoken word transformed into something that reminds me of an everyday life. I want the emotion of the painting plainly felt and clearly recognizable. If the painting is that of an apple, I want the realism of a worm hole. I do not want to first suspect that the apple might be W.C. Fields' nose as viewed over Mae West's right shoulder.

An artist who realistically captures the moment is Diane Derr, and her current project is the massive mural in the entrance to the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center.

Diane Derr was born 58 years ago on October 29, 1949, in the Berwick hospital, and considers herself a native of the town of Bloomsburg. She was the only child of Fred and Ruth Wolfgang and still adds her signature to completed works as Diane W Derr "so that it is readable but not blaringly obvious." Her mother was a "Sunday painter" and liked water colors best. Diane's mother gave her art and craft materials. Diane "gravitated toward art," while suspecting the existence of some sort of "art gene that runs through the family." Her first landscapes were primarily "streams and bridges." Landscapes remain her passion, noting that some of her portraits turn "Apocalyptic."

Diane, a member of the North Mountain Art League which will make its home in the Community Center, was recommended to the Center's Board of Directors by Dr. Ken Wilson, a former head of the art department at Bloomsburg University where Diane, a "non-traditional student," received her Master's Degree in 1985.

Diane has done similar work at Russell's Restaurant, Town Perk, Balzanos Corner Gatherings, St. Luke's Church in Lightstreet, the children's museum in Bloomsburg and many local homes in the area.

This is not her first large mural. Back in 1983, she and five college students she hired painted a mural in Skatetown, which Diane remembers was "200 and some feet long, about like the size of the gymnasium" in the Community Center.

Diane's background includes a ten-year period in the 1970s when she lived on Upper Raven Creek Road, Benton, next to "the Smith farm." Dianne is married to William D. Derr II and the couple have three children, all "creatively minded" and three grandchildren, also creative.

When I first saw the painting undergoing construction in the cavernous entry foyer of the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center it struck me as a simple, gentle view of the upper Fishingcreek valley as viewed as though someone was riding a helicopter slightly south of the Orangeville area and turned their attention to the north. The painting was checked for authenticity by viewing pictures taken from an airplane using the services of a local pilot.

Pictures were used for reference and an original sketch was created of what the mural would eventually look like. Approval from the Board of Directors of the Community Center and authorization to proceed followed. From that beginning, Diane moved to the production phase of locating on the imposing wall exact locations for communities of the area and marking out the boundaries of each scene of the mural.

Although unable to donate all of the work for free, Diane agreed to reduce the cost of her work by 50% as a consideration, and a local resident designated their contribution to specifically cover costs of the mural.

When I dropped in on Diane, she was busily studying the photographs and the maps, glancing all the while at the huge mural which measures 14' from the floor to the ceiling and 45' from side to side. The mural is "a generalized overview of the area as viewed in the 1800s, not the 1900s--some of the covered bridges, the dam at Benton, the tannery in Jamison City." One of the 30 or so falls on Kitchen's Creek forms a prominent place in the mural. The one depicted is a "wedding-cake falls" of the park (falls that drop in tiers as contrasted to "bridal veil falls" which fall directly from an overhanging rock.)

The countryside is heavily forested, much more of course than it is today. The mural extends from Pine Summit to the west to Shickshinny to the east. Diane notes that "The geographical structure will be generally suggested." Diane is keeping it "real general." The mural will incorporate rocks, animals and trees on the bottom as a finishing edge to the mural. The purpose is to show points of interest. The mural will incorporate a selection of animals and plants native to the area.

It would not be fair to the artist to show the mural during its "work in progress." The first public viewing will take place during the opening day celebration of the Community Center October 13.

When asked which of her paintings impressed her the most she responded, "I always say I hope it is the next one. I think that a lot of artists are perfectionists. Right after I finish it and I have done the best that I can do and I look back, I think--Oh--I could have done all these things better and then I'll come back in a couple of months and I'll think well it is better than I thought it was."

Diane reflects that "This might be the crown of what I am doing in my life, because I don't know how many more "going up on things I have left in me," a reference to her need to move up and down on a JLG Scissors Lift in order to complete the 14' high mural. "This may be the epitome of what I do."

Frankly, it could very well be the jumping off point for a very successful career.

 

August 23, 2007. Travis Kline and Brass Pelican waitress Becky Westover Stahler celebrate their birthdays today. Lee and Carolyn Remley celebrate their wedding anniversary. Don't forget that tonight is Volunteer Night at the Community Center. They really could use YOUR help.

On this date in 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin or Life Among the Lowly was published. The book by novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe stirred up controversy about slavery and became a runaway best seller. The book was based on the life of Reverend Josiah Henson and his contributions to the Underground Railroad. It was Henson's life experiences that inspired Ms. Stowe's creation of the character Uncle Tom in her 1852 outcry against slavery.

Quickies...
• Prayers are needed for Laura Christian, Maple Grove, as she faces critical surgery today and for Helen Harvey, a fall victim and currently a patient in Bloomsburg Hospital. Helen is the mother of Diane Harvey Laubach.

• Why do we call a pair of pants a PAIR? Because it has two legs? A shirt has two arms, but we don't say, "a pair of shirts"? (An answer is at the end of this email. We are not saying it is the right answer, simply "an answer...").

• Not all of Pennsylvania laws make sense. Take the ones shown at www.dumblaws.com/laws/united-states/pennsylvania/ for example.

• Judy Whitmire continues to look for a Thunderbird Dairy milk bottle. All leads would be appreciated. Email me at dkline AT epix DOT net and I'll forward to Judy.

• Congratulations to Erica Latorra, daughter of Robert and Nancy Latorra, and Austin Kelsey, son of Jeff and Sandra Kelsey, all of Benton, for achieving the dean's list at Susquehanna University.

• Watch where you spread that stuff. Out in Idaho, cow manure and the methane gas from the cow manure may be utilized by a nuclear power plant. The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho, states that Alternate Energy Holdings is planning to build a nuclear plant in southwest Idaho and is working on an agreement with dairymen to buy their manure.

• For those people with vision problems, a possible solution in terms of magnification may be available by heading to www.lssproducts.com/category/magnification, one of the services provided by LS&S, LLC, Northbrook, Illinois.

Quote of the Day:
"Trying to sneak a fastball past Hank Aaron is like trying to sneak the sunrise past a rooster."
--Joe Adcock

Didja hear about the Chicago radio announcer who introduced a record and announced that the next song "is for Charlotte Burke, who is a hundred and eleven. Hey, Charlotte, congratulations on a ripe old age!" There was a short pause and then the radio announcer said in a somewhat more subdued voice, "I'm sorry, I got it wrong. This next one is for Charlotte Burke, who is ill."

Word of the Day: "Lilac."
LILAC (phrase). An untruth.
Usage: "He's a nice enough feller, but he can lilac a dog!"

Why do we call a pair of pants a pair? Pants only became a single garment late in the late seventeenth century. The garments used to cover legs (most often called "hose") were two sleeves of fabric, tied to the belt with laces (usually called "points"). In the eighteenth century, hose became "trousers" and stockings "hose." Pants, short for "pantaloons," is a plural word even though the garment became singular.

Thought for the Day: (I never said it was a thought that you might like) If the President and the Vice-President were both impeached, the country would have a woman President without even having to elect Hillary.

The skate park area at the Community Center has been excavated with the final grade. A number of the pledges made to the Community Center earmarked specifically for the skate park have not been fulfilled. The Board of Directors of the Community Center voted to build a skate park, and continue to discuss how best the skate park can be built. Center Director Rob Hutchison located a company by the name of Solo Ramps that makes concrete ramps that are durable, maintenance free, and quieter than other ramps.

In tomorrow's Benton News, you'll meet a former Bentonian who is back in Benton for a month or so and making a huge splash. You may not know her name today, but you'll remember it for years to come after you find out what she is doing for the upper Fishingcreek Valley. I'll tell you about a weekend activity that you will want to watch and you can even get a darn good lunch while others are horsing around.

 

August 22, 2007. Happy birthday today to Clark Sellers and Lindsey Keller. Ed Kocher remains a patient on the rehabilitation side of the Orangeville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Orangeville. Fishingcreek remains an August trickle of water despite the recent rain. The creeks should rise today following last night's downpour.

There is a new web site put out by the State Aging Department at http://www.aging.state.pa.us/ designed to help older residents of the state and their loved ones find information about programs and services. The site can be used to contact Pennsylvania's local Area Agencies on Aging, provides information on long-term living, how to report and recognize elder abuse, application information for Pennsylvania's PACE/PACENET prescription drug benefit program, where to find legal advice for older adults, how to get help with utility bills and find health and wellness tips.

Volunteer night is Thursday at the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center from 5 to 7 PM. The game room will be cleaned in preparation for laying the slate flooring. There are windows to clean, carpet to vacuum, library shelves to assemble. Please come help if you can. Heavy lifting is not something you'll encounter!

There are 128 charter memberships sold in the Community Center, representing 280 people. The membership year does not begin until the grand opening on October 13, 2007.

Bob Parks sent along a story about a Sunday school teacher asking Johnny if he thought Noah did a lot of fishing when he was on the Ark. "No," the boy replied. "How could he, with just two worms?"

The story made me think of the many times I fished with my father at Painter Den for catfish, the name we used for the fish when we were heading out to "get enough" for breakfast" or bullheads the name we used when we had been fishing for an hour and the fish with the cat-like whiskers were not biting.

Father and I used to round up our bamboo poles, "bobbers" and fish worms and head for the Painter Den pond about twilight, just so there was enough light to get a fix on where to position the row boat.

What a lazy, dreamy way to spend an evening with your father. Often A. J. Hartman, Frank Edson and Dallas Baker would join us in the rowboat and I learned an awful lot about life during those moments in the dark when they forgot that I was around. I can assure you that fishing for catfish was not just a "boy's sport."

We would last until 10 or so, then bring the 100 or more to shore and "clean a mess" of fish. Well--to be exact--Father cleaned the fish. I was a slow learner, carefully watching Father make short work of the cleaning process. Each time we would fish, I would say to father, "Now, how did that go again?" And Father would patiently show me "from scratch" how catfish were cleaned.

I remember one night when I transferring the cleaned fish to a pail of fresh water. I was sitting on the porch floor with my feet dangling under the railing overlooking Painter Den pond when I realized that something was in the dark to my right. In fact, it was basically in the pail of fresh water. A raccoon was taking the cleaned fish out of the pail almost as fast as I was putting them in.

Some fishermen at Painter Den would turn up their noses at the bewhiskered catfish. To them, the catfish was a little too clumsy to make a reel sing very loudly and it wasn't a very beautiful fish. It takes its name, if one old reference book I found can be believed, on account of the purring sound they give when taken from the water. I doubt if this is true, since as a kid I often stroked the back side of captured catfish out of pity for the fish and never once heard the slightest indication of a purring sound!

Catfish are shade-loving fish, browsing during the day until they find a shady spot to contemplate nature, or whatever it is that catfish do to occupy their day. An old stump in the water or a submerged tree is heaven for the catfish during the heat of the day.

One of the stories told time after time was about the "old days" when the fathers of the fathers I was fishing with would head to catfish water and submerge sections of stovepipe with a bag tied tightly over one end. The lengths of stovepipe were laid in the ponds at night in the shallow water. A little buoy would be tied somewhere to the stovepipe and allowed to float on top of the water. Come the next day, the catfish looking for cool spots would poke their heads into the stovepipe, liked what they saw just as though it was Providence provided. Dark and cool, the stovepipe soon became crowded with fish in their new apartment. All was well until nightfall came and these boys from over a century ago would wade into the water and tip up the open end of the stovepipe. The water in the pipe ran out the bagged end of the pipe and the catfish remained in the pipe. The boys simply tipped over the stovepipe and dumped the previously lolly-gagging fish into the bottom of the boat.

When I would see the "bobber" dip under the water, I would get the "stringer" out. The stringer was a stout cord with an iron pin at one end to string the fish and a stick at the other end to prevent them from slipping off. The stringer floated behind our row boat and our "catch" followed in parade fashion.

A catfish is an accommodating fish, willing to swallow a worm right down to the last wrinkle and he holds fast for all he is worth. Any worm put in the mouth of a catfish will remain right there even if it means that the catfish will give up its life. A catfish isn't like a bass that will spit out the hook. It wasn't unusual to donate a foot of line or so and a hook to half of the catfish we caught. Hooks were cheap back then, but we spent a lot of money on them! Besides, for fishermen who have been gaffed by the barb on the backs of the catfish, it is far better to donate the hook than to get nipped.

The taking of catfish under the pretense of hospitality never appealed to me, and I have never heard of someone I actually knew "piping" for their dinner. It seems to me that the only civilized way of fishing for catfish is with a long bamboo pole and a "bobber," with worms and with patience, along a shady side of a pond or a slowly moving creek, when the peace of summer settles over the mountains of Pennsylvania.

 

August 21, 2007. Ken and Lynn Dressler celebrate their wedding anniversary today.

I get everything I set my mind to, but right now I can't remember where I set my mind.

I've told you before about the first time we saw the pump organ, clothed in dust in the balcony of the Leraysville Welsh Congregational Church, 75 miles north of Back Home in Benton, PA. I was just a snot-nosed kid getting married that day, and I was banned to the balcony over the front of the church so that I couldn't see my Leraysville bride before the ceremony and therefore bring a plague of bad luck to the marriage.

The minister, a reverend Jacob Zook, told me how the Epworth League had donated the organ and copies of a 32-page songbook called Pentecostal Hymns Advance Pages to a former church in the town. The songbook had music for observed holidays like "Dewey Day" and "Grand Army Day," as well as Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. The giving of organs to churches seemed to be an old philanthropic custom. Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), for example, is said to have given 7,689 organs to churches over his lifetime at a cost of more than $6 million.

The Epworth League was a Methodist Episcopal Church organization, later replaced by the Methodist Youth Fellowship. The league donated the organ, and the church simply had to pay for the transportation of the organ from 5707 West Lake Street, Chicago, to Leraysville. A letter safely affixed to the inside of the organ said that the church was to pay the tidy sum of $150 COD when the organ arrived to cover the expenses of shipment from Chicago.

I asked Reverend Zook why it was no longer being used, why some parishioner didn't sit down on a Sunday morning with this beautiful instrument and belt out Nearer My God to Thee or some other such piece. He explained that an upright piano replaced the organ and the church had no need for the musical exercise cycle. I asked if the church would sell it to me, and Reverend Zook said no, but if I would make a $50 donation to the church it would be mine.

Now you have to understand the position I was in. I was about to get married--a position which I felt I might be ill suited--and about to set out on a two-week honeymoon to Cape Cod. I had just agreed to spend $50 of the money I had for the honeymoon, and I had not even consulted my soon-to-be bride as to whether all this was allowed. But a deal was a deal, and I gave the minister the $50. He told me to cinch up and make my way to the front of the church; the bride had just arrived. Needless to say, I felt slightly apprehensive, but knew that the wedding would not take long, the "dry" reception with no orchestra would be short, and then my first romantic words to Alice following our marriage would be "we only have $75 for our two-week honeymoon (and an ARCO credit card), but we own our very own pump organ."

After the honeymoon, I returned to Leraysville and picked up the organ, visualizing how it must have looked in its prime, nestled with the two pot-bellied stoves just in front of the alter, the "back" of the organ--the ornate side--facing the congregation sitting on their wooden-slatted benches, the organ wheezing and squeaking out its tunes.

How was I to know that solid oak weighed so much? We took it to Middletown, PA, where we began our married life.

The organ traveled with us until after Alice passed away. I sold the restored organ to a friend in Manassas, Virginia, who promised to sell it back to me if she no longer needed it. After owning it for five years, the friend called and told me to come and get it. I mentioned this to Walt Davis, Manassas, a transplanted Bentonian, and he said he would gladly come and help me load it. It turns out that the organ eventually was loaded on a truck and shipped to son David's house in California, then when David moved to New York state the organ was shipped back across the United States from California to New York. I doubt if any other Epworth organ has traveled this much.

Think you know how to figure things out? Try Magic Gopher at www.learnenglish.org.uk/games/magic-gopher-central.swf .

 

August 20, 2007. Gary and Carolyn Beach celebrate their 41st wedding anniversary today. They were high-school sweethearts and married in Turbotville in 1966. They have a son Bradley, daughter-in-law Donna and two grandchildren Alyssa and Ryan, all residents of Virginia. On this date in 1866, President Andrew Johnson formally declared the Civil War over.

Because I mentioned a Sullivan County hunting camp in yesterday’s Benton News, a reader asked me to say something about deer hunting as it once was.

Accoring to the Game Commission, the deer population began to decrease about 1897 in Sullivan County. Deer licks were abolished, seasons were closed for does and dog running, field areas were cleared and planted to stimulate undergrowth for food and cover.

I have some old letters from 1915 written following the opening of small game season and after deer-hunting season began. The writer of the letters in a handwriting that defies specific interpretation, noted that following the beginning of the small game season in October hunters were at the ‘favorite haunts,” although the exact place where they went seemed to be a secret, writing “every sportsman knows where the hunt is the most plentiful or at least he thinks he knows.”

The letter indicated that “all game except deer, elk, hare, rabbits, bear, shore birds and upland or grass plovers can be killed now until November 30.” The rabbit and hare season opened in 1915 on November 1 and deer season opened on December 1.

The season for bear also started in October and it ran longer than others, the closing day being December 31. The writer indicated that the “ North Mountain haunts are well filled with hunters. Many intend to remain over night and will continue the quest for game tomorrow.

There were some new rules for the 1915 season which were adopted by the legislature and signed by the Governor. One of the new rules prohibited the ownership, transfer, sale or transportation of ferrets except under license granted by the Game Commission “for good reasons.” Another rule new in 1915 prohibited the taking of bear in any way, except by the use of a rifle or gun shooting only one ball, and forbid the trapping of bear in any way. The new rules didn’t end there. It was illegal to hunt for hire by making it illegal for any man paid as a guide or in any other way as a hunter to “give, sell or present games of any kin to his employer, and similarly forbade the employer from receiving game from such employee or guide.

The season limits in 1915 were 30 grouse, 40 quail, 20 woodcock, 20 ring necks, 40 squirrel, 60 rabbits and 30 hare.

Harry Miller, Jamison City, the first game protector for Sullivan and Columbia counties, began his years of employment in that capacity June 21, 1915. Mr. Miller covered about 25 miles of local roads and forest paths daily on foot. The Commission appointed A. Lincoln Cox in 1919 as game protector for Sullivan County, and supplied him with a Model T Ford. Cox served until September, 1932.

When the deer-hunting season opened in the state on December 2, 1915, the writer indicated that the majority of hunters “remained overnight in camps in remote locations. Almost no reports were available on the number of deer killed.

The writer noted a Philadelphia Inquirer article stating there were 89 fatalities and 64 injured in the “18 states where deer season ended as Pennsylvania’s season opened.” The writer wished hunters his best, noting that in Pennsylvania deer hunters wore bright red caps and some bright red patches on their coats in “order that excited Nimrods may not mistake them for deer.”

I love to read the accounts of time spent at early hunting camps, especially as it occurred at the site of the present Painter Den club prior to the club’s official founding in 1927. There were several ways to get to where the local men camped, but none of the routes was easy. Miney Peterman often helped carry provisions into camp from his home in Nordmont. There was the Quinn Trail off the present Grassy Hollow Road starting at the present Lewis Falls. There was a trail at Ore Run.

A huge tent was constructed at the north-east end of what is now called Painter Den pond for sleeping and a smaller tent put up to house the cook and to serve as a place to eat. The stormy days and frigid nights of early winter were not for the faint of heart.

The small hunting parties stayed in the tents white among the scrub trees. The gridiron, as the early cook stove was often called, would hold slices of venison steak and for the bird course of this game supper there would be a couple of plump grouse broiling. Later in the evening, some strips of dried venison would be chewed and chewed and chewed. Water carried from a laid-up spring was used for cooking and for rinsing of dishes. White lightning helped keep the chill of the mountain air “off the bones.”

Had the scene been a few years previous, there would be a couple of deer hounds chained not far from the camp and I can imagine they would have roused from time to time to sniff the wonderful smells of broiling venison. When the appetites of the men and the dogs were satisfied, the hunters would bring out bits of flannel and their cleaning rods and began the process of rubbing their shotguns or rifles as if their aim would be more true as a result.

The men spent large amounts of time discussing the hunt that would begin at the break of day and they rehashed the hunts of previous years. Chief deference was usually given to the oldest of the hunters or the loudest of the hunters, or at least to the person who had hunted those particular woods the most times.

The hunters had taken up short-term residence by the beaver pond where they had long heard the stories of the “painter,” a local term for the “cat-a-mount,” a “catch-all” term to describe any mountain critter that could not be positively identified. It didn’t matter that officially there was no such an animal and it didn’t matter that “painter” was a local derivation of the word “panther,” a term known all across Pennsylvania by hunters. The hunters knew there were no “painters” left in the state, but they kept their eyes wide open “just in case.” The term “mountain lion” was never used, and the words “cougar” and “puma” were not used, either. The term “painter” pinpointed the critter as much as these fellows needed, and they kept one ear listening for the possibility that they would hear a “painter.” Their concern was compounded since they erected their tent over what old loggers called a “painter den.”

The hunters would debate almost anything, and hunters were often upset with the dates set for the hunting season and with the number of native white-tailed deer found in the woods. Some hunters insisted that deer were “not fit for use” when shot during their mating time, or “running time,” as some put it. These hunters wanted the season to be in September and October, saying that to put it “after November is too late.”

As long as there are hunters, the debate over hunting will continue. As long as people take to the woods, there will be an opportunity to be with nature. As long as I am able, I intend to spend as much time in the mountains as I can. But not in a tent in the winter…

 

August 19, 2007. It is the birthday of Joann Heimbach, Betty McCahan, Connie Shaffer, and Ed Cole. Also celebrating birthdays today are former President Clinton and Tipper Gore.

On this date in 1856, Gail Borden patented his process for condensed milk, but had successive failure of two milk condensing plants in Connecticut. Borden had previously lost almost everything on his "meat biscuit," a dehydrated meat mixed with flour. It was not until the outbreak of the Civil War, and the resulting demand for longer lasting condensed milk by the Union army, that Borden's became successful. Borden's factory built in 1864 produced Eagle Brand Consolidated Milk.

Patriotism will be a key element in the upcoming grand opening of the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center October 13, 2007. There was a time when patriotism was first and foremost in the hearts and minds of Americans, but during lulls when we were not fighting for our country in our own land and when we were not fighting for our friends on foreign lands there were times when the subject became relegated to holidays like the Fourth of July and special events.

Some readers will still remember the chills that raced down their backs as Kate Smith would sing “God Bless America.” When I lived in Arlington County, Virginia, my every guest would be taken by the former residence of Kate Smith and that would begin conversations that would last for minutes. No one then ever said, “Who is Kate Smith?”

The man who wrote the words to “God Bless America” wasn’t even born in this country. Isadore Balin was born in Russia in 1888, but was brought to this country as an infant. He loved music, even singing for his food in a Chinese restaurant on the Lower East Side of New York city. He felt that the name Irving Berlin had more of a ring to it and changed to that name. Berlin served in World War I where his musical ability was recognized. He was allowed special disposition to produce a show for the soldiers called “Yip, Yip, Yaphank.“ Berlin wrote all the songs, including one he called “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning.” Berlin also did a show during the Second World War featuring patriotic songs which he called “This is the Army.” One of the songs was “God Bless America,” but somehow it just didn’t seem right for the show and he didn't use it. Berlin stowed it away in an attic trunk for the next 20 years.

Along came the year 1938 and the music of Kate Smith heard Friday nights on CBS. Kate's musical show also featured unknown talent, people you now have heard of, people like Jackie Gleason and Abbot and Costello. In Europe, the Germans were rattling their weapons under the guidance of a man by the name of Hitler. It was time to unite our nation, and Kate Smith with her wonderful voice was thought to be the one who could do it. All that was needed was a song. Irving Berlin came to the rescue just a week before Kate’s show aired. He pulled the song “God Bless America” from the attic trunk and sent it by messenger to the studio where the show was in rehearsal—without a suitable song. Kate sang it once and loved it. She sang it on her show and created such a stir that she was forced to sing the song again on the next 14 shows!

Records and sheet music sold quickly for Kate Smith, who had the exclusive rights to sing the song. Meanwhile, Berlin didn’t want to profit from the song and gave all profits from the song to the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts of America.

Return to the days of rousing patriotic music when the grand opening of the Community Center takes place on October 13. Join with veterans groups of the area in celebrating the music that makes our area and nation great. The celebration of the opening will take place from noon until 5 PM on October 13 in an old-fashioned "barn-raising" type of community get-together. The patriotic portion will take place at 1:30 PM.

I have been surrounded for the past five days with the beauty and remoteness of Sullivan County. My stay at Painter Den always reminds me of the early days of the Commonwealth. That happened to one of my guests, too, who walked into one of the barracks-like bedrooms with its rows of single beds lining the walls and said that she immediately thought of a "Civil War army hospital filled with wounded." Here is a short "refresher" on the early days of Pennsylvania.

William Penn started the process of finding people to emigrate to what we now know as Pennsylvania by signing people up to pay 40 shillings per hundred acres, and "shares" of 5,000 acres for 100 pounds, one shilling per hundred acres quit rent. Masters got 50 acres free for every servant brought over; at end of their service, the servant would get the same amount. Rental of land went for a penny per acre not exceeding 200 acres. These generous terms induced many to set out for the new world.

Penn was first a preacher, then became "Penn the Promoter." He published Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania to reach potential investors and emigrants--primarily rich Quakers--to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In the book, he told what they would need to take along. "Passage will come for Masters and Mistresses at most to 6 pounds a Head, Servants 5 pounds a head, children under seven years of age 50 shillings, except they Suck, then nothing."

King Charles II of England granted land in 1662 to Connecticut under the Connecticut Charter for new settlements. In 1768, the Susquehanna Company made arrangements for settling land in what is now the Wyoming Valley and eventually some of its territory extended as far south as Sunbury in what was then a much larger Northumberland County. The land was divided into five townships, each five miles square, with enough land for forty settlers and their families. These five townships eventually became Plymouth, Kingston, Hanover, Wilkes-Barre and Pittston. When Connecticut settlers arrived in what is now known as the Wyoming Valley, some of the land was occupied by settlers claiming a warrant from the colony of Pennsylvania. King Charles II had granted charters to both Connecticut and Pennsylvania at different times for some of the same land. Both groups claimed the land, the Connecticut Charter from 1662, the Pennsylvania Charter from 1681. Fighting was inevitable in what many call the First Yankee-Pennamite War.

The Penn family discouraged "settlement and improvement" before the time of the American Revolution. Squatters didn't pay for the land, rarely paid taxes and often kept surveyors and rightful owners from the land. After the Revolutionary War, during the period 1792-1833, settlement and improvement became a requirement to satisfy all warrants so long as the settler or someone acting on behalf of the settler lived on the land year round.

The Pennsylvania warrants were in 600-acre lots. The Susquehanna Company had long, rectangular lots. Until about 1789, claims were very unsettled and conflicting land grants were common in our area. The last dispute wasn't settled until 1820. Many of the hard-working Yankees from Connecticut lost their land to Penn grants because of loss of many of the deeds after the Battle of Wyoming.

When the 13 colonies broke from England, many settlers from both the Pennsylvania and the Connecticut colonies had to abandon their homesteads because of Indian tribe threats encouraged by the English. The English used the Indians along the wilderness frontier to force the colonials to fight multiple foes. At the end of the war, settlers claiming warrants from both states moved back to their old homesteads and conflicts flared again. Connecticut eventually gave up its claim to lands in the Commonwealth and Pennsylvania gained sole control of the land.

Wealthy merchants, speculators, politicians and military officers sometimes claimed multiple warrants under their own names and those of relatives and friends. In Sullivan County where I am staying, Senator Muncy owned multiple warrants which held back development and is partly the reason that Sullivan County is today in part a remote area.

 

August 18, 2007. This will be another typically busy summer weekend, with a ham dinner from 4 PM at the Fairmount Township Fire and Ambulance Company, Route 118, and an ice cream social at St. James Church.

Karen Edwards has a 49th birthday today. The Elvin & Esther Remley family reunion celebrates its 25th year today at Benton Park. The Remley clan gets together each year on the Saturday nearest "Pap Pap & Mam Mam's" anniversary, August 17th. This year's reunion falls on the wedding anniversary of Carl & Betty Remley, Divide, married 46 years today.

To remove the remains of sticky glue and tape from glass, china or metal, rub peanut butter on the sticky area until the glue is gone. Oil from peanut butter can leave a stain on porous material.

The Benton Borough Council met August 13 at the Benton Volunteer Fire Hall. Items of note included...

• Carol Vance questioning about "what has been done regarding the loud cars which travel on Market Street." Chief Karschner said that police have not been able to issue a citation as the situation has not occurred when they are on duty and in that area. Police know the person causing the disturbance and will make a visit to the home.

• Lila Allen expressed appreciation to the work being done by Ed Kocher, Zoning Officer. She mentioned ordinance violations within the Borough including an "unmoveable camper" on North Street, a driveway on Third Street that needs to be cleaned up, a boat and trailer on Third Street that needs to be moved off-street, grass growing up around a truck on Third Street extension; car unmoved for two months with two flat tires on Third Street; car parked for two months in no-parking zone on Third Street; grass in need of mowing on Fourth Street property.

• Philip Shultz complained of noise caused by loud cars and cars running the stop sign at Market and Third Streets. Storm sewers are blocked at the same location. Street Commissioner Joe Peters responded that this work is scheduled to be done. Joe also reported that the drain at Third and Colley Streets is getting worse. He requested that Doug Vincent be contacted to correct problem. Council concurred.

Grant Little suggested a police log replace the police-incident report. The suggestion will be reviewed by the Police Committee. David Kline made an official request that if a police log is presented to Council a copy be sent to him for publication in the Benton News.

Mayor Swan presented a Certificate of Appreciation to Chris Luttrell for Main Street Revitalization and Promotion of Benton Area Tourism for her establishment of The Bakery Antiques Company and Benton Antiques, Etc. Store.

Mayor Swan discussed a letter of appreciation sent to Bob Brewington. She stated that Bob has donated the use of his vans in 2006 and 2007 to transport prisoners from Bloomsburg to Benton. The prisoners are largely responsible for the work which has been done in the Park. Council agreed to purchase a $100 gift certificate to be presented to Bob Brewington for his van donation in 2006 and 2007. Motion carried.

Approval was given to the Benton Volunteer Fire Company to serve food at the Northern Columbia County Community Center Horse Shoe Competition on August 25 and 26.

Effective September 1, 2007, the Borough Secretary will be doing the secretarial/billing duties for the Sewer and Water Authority. This is set up for a six-month trial period. A time study will be done by Kay to determine the hours required for this additional work.

A meeting with School Administrators and Fire Company members has been scheduled for September 12. A public meeting on the town park is scheduled for October 24. A total of 388 park surveys were sent, and 116 returned (30% return rate).

Officer Charles Balon, Bloomsburg Police Department and a Taser International Representative, provided a Taser gun presentation. He explained and demonstrated the performance of a taser gun. He provided instances where a taser gun can be very persuasive in halting criminal behavior. Mike Klem moved to allocate $1,200 for the Taser purchase, and empower Chief Karshner to research and make the purchase decisions. Dan Jankowski seconded the motion. The motion carried with one abstention, Allen Hess, and one negative vote, Grant Little. Council will develop "A taser policy" when the Taser is purchased.

Benton Area School starts its 2007-08 school year Monday, August 27.

 

August 17, 2007. Tonight is the night that by ancient Irish legend "cat nights" began. This is also the origin of the saying about cats having nine lives. Seems, according to the legend, that witches can turn themselves into cats eight times, but the ninth time, August 17, it can't come back in human form. August 17 is the birthday of Ron Hontz.

Ron received an interesting birthday present from an old friend (?) in the form of a resolution, which read in part...

WHEREAS, Ron Hontz has clandestinely retired to the community of Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania, absconding from Sweet Valley, PA and

WHEREAS, Ron Hontz has been a citizen of the world for sixty-one years, as of August 17, 2007, and

WHEREAS, Ron Hontz has earned the admiration and suspicion of his neighbors by his curmudgeonality, and general all-around aloofness, and

WHEREAS, Ron Hontz has served as a computer junkie, investment counselor, and historian for Sweet Valley, Pennsylvania, and

WHEREFORE, be it resolved that Ron Hontz be honored and awarded this Life Membership in the

Hunlock Creek Equivocators, Recluses, Misers, Insurgents, and Town Sages. (HERMITS)

With all rights and privileges thereunto appertaining.

The resolution was signed in the year two thousand seven and the year of the Common-wealth of Pennsylvania, two hundred and thirty-one by H. Ross McGinnis whose title read "Half – Fast Attorney."

Davy Crockett, a soldier, statesman and King of the Wild Frontier, was born on this date in 1786 in a small cabin near Limestone, Tennessee. Actress Mae West was born on this date in Brooklyn in 1892 or 1893. She started as a vaudeville dancer but moved to the stage in 1926 in a ditty called Sex, which got her arrested and thrown in jail for a week for "corrupting the morals of youth." The arresting officer testified that she not only "revealed her navel but moved it up and down and side to side." She was suddenly a star, writing and acting in Diamond Lil (1928) and The Constant Sinner (1931), later moving to the movies for I'm No Angel (1933) and She Done Him Wrong (1933).

Picking out fruit? Two things usually are true...

. The first is to follow your nose. If it smells good--meaning if it is fragrant--it is probably good.

. The second is weight. Of two melons of equal size, the heavier one is almost assuredly going to be better.

When selecting watermelon, cantaloupes and honeydews...

. Turn the melon over and if the underside is yellow and the rind overall has a healthy sheen, the watermelon is probably ripe. If the melon is hard, white or very pale green on the underside, it's probably immature.

. For cantaloupes, a large bald or smooth spot is a bad sign, though it's all right for one side of the raised surface to be bleached. And cantaloupes should be detached from the stem in a smooth stem end. An unacceptable condition will have some stem fibers at the end. Let the cantaloupes that are less than five inches in diameter for someone else.

. Honeydews change from white with a greenish tinge to creamy white or creamy yellow as they mature. They will also have a textural change in the skin from very hard and smooth to somewhat giving with a velvety feel and perhaps a light stickiness when ripe. Best quality honeydews weigh about 5 pounds.

Didja hear the one about the man taking a test in the hospital? A nurse asked him to bring a specimen to her in a bottle. He was shy and he conned his wife into returning the bottle to the nurse. "Is this urine?" the nurse asked. "No, it's his'n."

 

August 16, 2007. August 16 is the date when Elvis died. Willard David (Bill) Hiscox of Palm City, Florida, and Hughesville has a birthday today. Congratulations to Staff Sgt. Taylor Remphrey who just received a promotion. Taylor will be home in time to attend the Bloomsburg Fair and will be home for about a month.

Didja know that...

• the judge who lost a $54 million lawsuit against a dry cleaner over a missing pair of pants continues to press his suit?

• Jimmy Stewart from Indiana, Pennsylvania, will be honored Friday when the U. S. Postal Service releases a commemorative postage stamp with a photo of him as he appeared in The Stratton Story?

• Trans fat is a common term for a type of unsaturated fat that is not beneficial to health which is found in foods prepared using partially hydrogenating plant oils, such as Crisco. The higher melting point of these oils make them attractive for baking and for extending their shelf-life. Eating trans fats increases the risk of coronary heart disease. For these reasons, health authorities worldwide recommend that consumption of trans fat be reduced to trace amounts.

Term of the Day: Like Father Like Son.
--Barclay, "Ship of Fools." 1509.
An olde prouerbe hath longe agone be sayde that oft the sone in maners lyke wyll be unto the father.

On this date in 2003, Avis Young McHenry put in her last day of work at the Cambra Post Office. Avis became the Postmaster of the Cambra Post Office June 12, 1982. Avis is now a resident of the Bonham Nursing Home, as is John Herbert Laubach. Both would appreciate a short, friendly visit and some conversation about things past. If you are in the Orangeville area, Ed Kocher is a short-term resident of the rehabilitation side of the Orangeville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center following his hip replacement surgery.

The name Ricketts" has been a local, household name for the past hundred years. Lake Jean, then known as Mud Pond, and the nearby town of Ricketts was thriving a century ago. The town, named for Col. R. B. Ricketts who owned the land, had two schools and a couple of churches, a doctor, a post office and store, saw mill, stave mill, spool mill, railroad stations, hotel, a Patriotic Order Sons of America Hall and around 150 to 175 houses. The town doctor lived comfortably in his home in town, and other residences ranged from shanties to decent homes. The town even had a baseball team for when the men took a break from timbering.

If you are wondering about the term, "Patriotic Order Sons of America," the organization was originally the Patriotic Order, United Sons of America, and you may know it under that title. The group was basically an anti-Catholic, anti-immigration, anti-Irish offshoot of the Know Nothing Party. The organization had its beginning before 1847 in Philadelphia as the Irish were immigrating in droves and then dropped out of sight about the time that the Republican Party was formed. The group reappeared about 1868 with the United dropped form its name. The organization had three degrees known as "Red, White and Blue." The flag holders of these groups are still seen in cemeteries, but the organization is disestablished to the best of our knowledge.

An 1897 Philadelphia Inquirer article quoted the Patriotic Order Sons of America, saying, "It is our felicity to be citizens of a country without a peer, under a political order without a rival in all the world. We contemplate with exultant pride the success of a government whose cornerstones are the wisdom, virtue and patriotism of those it was appointed to govern."

 

August 15, 2007. Happy birthday today to Allen Kocher and Ronald Beckman. The Mayflower sailed from Southampton , England, on this date in 1620. This ship carried the Pilgrims from Plymouth , England , to Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts . It left Plymouth on September 6 and dropped anchor near Cape Cod on November 11 (both dates according to the Old Style, the Julian Calendar). This voyage was inspired by the successful establishment of the first permanent English settlement, Jamestown , by the London Company of Virginia in 1607.

You can now go online to to get the ratings of Pennsylvania ’s 54 steel-deck truss bridges, an initial step in listing all 25,000 state-maintained bridges. Pennsylvania has the third highest number of bridges in the nation and nearly 6,000 of them are structurally deficient--the largest number of deficient bridges in the nation. The average age of bridges on the state system is 50 years old. None of the bridges is in Columbia County .

Stephen Runkle of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission will be the featured speaker Monday morning at the Northern Columbia County Historical Society. He will bring with him a PowerPoint presentation on Canals and Canal Life in the Susquehanna River Basin Region when he begins his session about 9. The presentation will be given to the group at the Brass Pelican Restaurant, Elk Grove. The presentation will provide an overview of the region's canals and their engineering and construction. Canal boats and their operation are discussed. Additionally, the presentation covers the life of canal families, the various canal occupations, and recreation on the canals.

The presentation utilizes canal photographs from the archives of the National Canal Museum , Easton , and the Erie Canal Museum , Syracuse . In addition, pertinent photographs from the personal collection of William Shank of the American Canal and Transportation Center are used. One of the highlights of the presentation will be listening to audio recordings of canal songs.

The speaker is a Hydraulic Engineer and Engineering Supervisor formerly with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. He also has served as an independent contractor with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission in the field of water resources engineering. Steve’s engineering experience spans over 36 years. He lives in Mechanicsburg and is active in local historical groups.

Tomorrow, the Senate Local Government Committee, chaired by Sen. Bob Regola, R-Westmoreland, will hold a joint hearing with the Senate Labor and Industry Committee, chaired by Sen. John Gordner, R-Columbia, to hear testimony regarding Pennsylvania 's Uniform Construction Code. The hearing will run from 6:30 to 9:30 PM at the Westmoreland County Community College/Science Hall, south of Pittsburgh in Youngwood , PA.

Ever wonder why covered bridges are covered? Well, obviously, if they were not, they would not be "covered" bridges! And besides the natural environment would rot the timbers if they were not covered by a roof. Shelter from a storm could be sought under a bridge, kids could fish or jump from the lower timbers, horses would not be "spooked" at the sight of water running below. And a stop in the darkness of the bridge "when seeing Nellie home" was a favorite trick of dashing young men.

"In the sky, the bright stars glittered
On the bank the pale moon shone
And 'twas from Aunt Dinah's quilting party I was seeing Nellie home.

"On my arm a soft hand rested
Rested light as ocean foam
And 'twas from Aunt Dinah's quilting party I was seeing Nellie home.

"On my lips a whisper trembled
Trembled till it dared to come
And 'twas from Aunt Dinah's quilting party I was seeing Nellie home."

It never hurts to ask. The Community and Cultural Center is in need of a flag pole. Like the surprised fellow once told me soon after he got married, "It doesn't hurt to ask." So I'll ask. Is it possible that a reader has a flag pole to donate? The Community Center also needs to borrow dehumidifiers for about a week if any readers can help out.

Innovative Building & Design, Inc. has just completed a quality custom built ranch on a country acre; located just east of Benton . The home has three bedrooms, two tiled baths, 1,500 square feet of living space w/full Superior Wall walk-out basement, Kenmore Gold appliances, vaulted wood ceilings, laminate flooring, central VAC, central air, fully landscaped with a paved driveway. A MUST SEE with many more upgrades; please call (570) 925-2077 for more information or to schedule an appointment. The price is $229,900.

New House for Sale in Benton Township Built by
Innovative Building & Design, Inc.


A lot of communication concerning sheep, wool and woolen mills came in following our recent article on the woolen mill in Millville . Gahrad Harvey was very informative. He said that he sold 150 pounds of wool in June, 2003, for $.33 a pound and two different grade lots totaling 746 pounds for $.23 a pound. In 2005, he sold 304 pounds at $.40 a pound and 302 pounds for $.32 a pound.

These prices are what he received for Dorset wool sold to a mill in Indiana at the Northeast PA Wool Growers Association Wool Pool. Gahrad recorded the cost of shearing the sheep in 2006 as being $130 for 47 head. Gahrad said, "Simple math quickly tells you that there is no money in wool unless you are raising Merino sheep even today, and at that, you must be a good marketer of your wool."

Of the 47 sheared, four were black sheep. The mill would not purchase the black wool so Gahrad give it to the shearer who took the donated wool to a mill in Bedford in exchange for woolen blankets. The mill at one time made woolen blankets for the Union Army during the Civil War. The same equipment used then to produce the blankets and woolen goods are producing the blankets and woolen goods today.

Gahrad had a disastrous experience a few years ago with the black wool. He took the wool to a sheep and wool festival where he found a wool processor in Michigan who agreed to make it into yarn. He had 44 pounds of raw wool from the processing of eight fleeces. The mill had an employee working for them at the time who knitted sweaters. Gahrad had a beautiful sweater made from the yarn, a sweater he calls his "$1,000 sweater." Gahrad proudly wears the sweater during colder weather when he attends the Benton Christian Church. Many have seen him wear it.

The price for knitting the sweater was $202. The cost for processing 44 lbs of raw wool into yarn came to a whopping total of $794. Now you should understand why Gahrad calls it his $1,000 sweater. Gahrad told us that "When I completed selling all of the yarn, primarily on eBay, I recovered about $300 of the failed investment."

He did not take his two bags* of (white) wool to the wool pool this year because of the distance and the price of fuel and wool. "The wool pool has various locations for pick-up; the closest for me is Laceyville, which is approximately a 120 mile round-trip. 120 miles divided by 12 miles/gallon = 10 gallons of gasoline @ $2.90/gallon, added to the cost of the shearer at $3/ head sheared ($180) = a losing proposition."

*Bah, bah black sheep do you have any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, 2 bags full.

Gahrad must shear his sheep once a year, but he has seriously considered dumping the "wool in the field and plowing it under." He has the wool crop for this year bagged hoping the price takes an up-turn by next year, but adds that " Mexico is purchasing breeding stock. One can only guess what that will do to the market. New advances are being made in wool research that show promise for new fabrics, but with the way the world markets are moving today, where will we (USA) be in that picture?"

 

August 14, 2007. Happy birthday to Grace Stowe. Steve Martin was born on this date in 1945. Today is the anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act in 1935, creating the nation's first public retirement system. In 1945 on this date, President Truman announced that Japan unconditionally surrendered, ending World War II.

Didja know that...
. the 55,000 farms in our state produce more than 4.4 million tons of manure each year? A 1,000 pound cow can produce a little over a hundred pounds of manure each day, A 1,000 pound flock of chickens will produce 22 pounds of manure.
--These and other facts vital to your day are available at www.manuretrader.org/ .

. the Homecoming at St. Gabriel's Church will be October 13 and 14 with Sunday worship at 10 A.M. Genealogical information will also be shared on Saturday with lunch on your own. The homecoming will not be held in 2008, but will be held every other year.

. In the heat of the summer, the opening topic of many conversations is the upcoming events. It is time for Penn State's Ag Progress Days (August 14-16, Rock Springs, PA), the Kinzer Rough and Tumble Antique Engine Show (August 15-18, Kinzer, PA), the Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair (August 23-30, Center Hall), and the Nittany Antique Machinery Show at Penn's Cave, Centre Hall, September 6, 7, 8, & 9.

. Chris Lattrell, owner of the Antiques, Etc., Old Antique Bakery and the owner of the building in which the soon-to-open Henny Penny Country Store will be housed, was honored by the Borough Council last evening. Mayor Swan said, "we have an individual here who has made a significant improvement to Main Street." There isn't any doubt that Chris Lattrell has made a huge contribution to the community by improving three aging buildings and promoting the tourism trade into the area. The community joins in the congratulations to Chris Lattrell.

. The Cemetery Hill Street Improvement Project will be awarded to the apparent low bidder, Sokol, Inc., pending legal and engineering review. The low bid was $120,633.23. Coupled with an approximate $83,000 FEMA grant, the contribution from the Borough would be 37,401. The next low bidder, Pikes Creak, came in at $156,231. The company has 60 days to complete the project, which means that by the end of October the job will be finished. The project includes a storm sewer beside the street to Hill Street starting near the township line where it will tie into existing storm sewers. A swale will be created to the Sunny Hillside intersection.

The article that was originally in this location about the Millville Woolen Mill has been moved to the FEATURES section..

Alice K. (Fetterman) Oman (April 17, 1942-August 12, 2007), formerly of the Benton area, died Sunday at home at 2209 Third Street, Bloomsburg (Espy). She had been in declining health for several years. She was 65. She was a daughter of the late Paul E. and Helen L. (Hanson) Fetterman. She was born and educated in Bloomsburg, a member of the class of 1960. She had been employed by the Bloomsburg Hospital, Milco Industries, the Magee Carpet Company and Benton Wood Products. She was a former tax collector for Sugarloaf Township. She owned and operated AOK Craft Shop on Route 487 north of Benton for nine years, retiring in 2001. Surviving are her friends, Dixie L. and Don Rosencrans, Benton, and a step son, David Oman. She was preceded in death by her husband, Alvin H. Oman, on December 31, 1983, and by her brother, Paul J. Fetterman, on January 31, 2006. Graveside services will be held Friday at 10 AM at Briar Creek Union Cemetery, Briar Creek Township. Arrangements are under the direction of the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc., Benton.
--A complete obituary will be published in the Tuesday edition of the Press Enterprise

 

August 13, 2007. Benton Town Council meets this evening at 7 o'clock at the Benton Volunteer Fire Station. Clyde "Jug" Albertson, Elk Grove, and Scott Faust, Derrs, celebrate their birthdays today. They share their birthdays with Cuban President Fidel Castro, 81, and "Master of Suspense" filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, born in London in 1899.

Upcoming...
• September 1, 2007. Fairmount Springs will hold community yard sales on Saturday 9 AM to 4 PM. Several households will be setting up on Old Tioga Turnpike and Old County Roads.

Speed in the Borough has always been a problem. Consider the letter dated August 8, 1917, to the Editor of the Wilkes- Barre Times Leader by John W. Knouse, Benton. His letter asked, "does the late law of this state allow automobiles to run more than 15 miles per hour in cities and boroughs? If so, what is the limit? Also, what is the limit in the country? The response from the newspaper editor stated that "the state law allows 24 miles an hour in country, but cities, boroughs and townships have different laws fixed by local authorities. In Wilkes-Barre it is 24 miles and Luzerne country limit is the same."

The next year brought new problems to the Benton area. The solution was novel enough that the Philadelphia Inquirer in its edition of July 15, 1918, mentioned it. The problem was that the B&S Railroad discontinued its Sunday train service to Benton and residents therefore stopped receiving their daily newspapers. Finally it was decided to ask for owners of automobiles to volunteer to do the work. Forty-one responded. "A schedule was arranged, with each man taking a turn. By this arrangement the town is assured of Sunday news service."

This spirit of community cooperation has long been practiced in the area. It was evident during the preparation for the annual Farmers Picnic--an event that fewer of us remember each year, an event that "took two weeks to prepare for, a day for it to happen, and a week to recover from." Virtually every family within gunshot of the Borough made at least three pies for the event. It has long been evident with the volunteer fire company and their usefulness to the area. If you don't believe that, you should have seen the number from the ambulance crew who jumped out of bed recently when we needed an ambulance at our house at 1 in the morning. It is true with countless numbers of people who volunteer their valuable time to help prepare the Community Center for its opening October 13. It is true with many contactors who are working on the Community Center building, people like Rick Iddings and his company, Innovative Building & Design, Inc., 406 Shickshinny Road, Benton.

Rick donated the entire vestibule for the Center, the main entrance to the entire facility. The way it is being finished on the inside at the moment is with drywall and metal studding in order to pass the requirements for fire protection. When fall comes, the company will put "up the kind of wood we would like," according to the Center vice president, Chuck Chapman. The wood being considered includes knotty pine on the walls. Logs will cover the cathedral ceilings to provide a rustic, country appearance.

The value of the contribution on the part of Innovative Building & Design, Inc., is at least $20,000. They did a super job of selecting a company called Quality Stone Veneer, Lancaster, to lay up the exterior dry-stack stone veneer. There is no mortar between the joints. The man who actually laid the exterior stone, Josh, said he drives from Richfield, Pennsylvania, each day. The community will be very proud of the entrance to the building and to the major contribution provided by this local contractor.

The main entrance to the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center during the construction phase. (The exterior is now completed).
Josh is mixing mud for the laying of the stone.

Didja know that there are three covered bridges still in use in Sullivan County? They are in Sonestown, Hillsgrove and Forksville. The county also at one time had covered bridges at Nordmont, Campbellville and Hillsgrove.

The article that was originally in this location about the Millville Woolen Mill has been moved to the FEATURES section.

 

August 12, 2007. Kathi and Ron Taylor celebrate their wedding anniversary today. On this date in 1859, the Presbyterian congregation in Raven Creek was organized during a meeting in the "log church" in Sugarloaf known as St. Gabriels.

The Sunday Press Enterprise reprints one of Ted Fenstermacher's Tracking Yesterday columns about John G. McHenry.

A reader asked if Dick Holcombe, whose up and down saw will be in Benton for the Covered Bridges Music Fest October 6 and 7, was related to former funeral-home director "Si" Holcombe. He is, a brother. Dick and Ann Holcombe have been married for 70 years and have lived in Dushore during their married life. They have two living children: Margie Gorsky and Richard, Jr., seven grandchildren and many great grandchildren.

There once was a girl who loved Boise
Because it was peaceful, not noisy
And honest and godly
And no one spoke oddly
As they did around Newark, New Joisey.
--Garrison Keillor

It was "a breath of fresh air," as Mother used to say. Mose, 20, an Amish carpenter "for now," was my guide in telling about the reconstruction of the O.B. Savage barn south of the Borough in Benton Township, a well-known "stop and gawk" point along Route 487. I ran into Mose in L&K Mills as Karl Ash and I discussed what was happening to the historic barn. Mose walked up to me from the back of the store, and proudly said, "I am working on that steeple," a deep sense of pride in the way he said it, as if to let me know that this was a special job that not just anyone could tackle and complete satisfactorily.

I asked if he was doing a "restoration" of the barn. Mose knew the difference, responding that he was just "replacing," putting on a metal roof instead of slate that previously covered the steeple, rebuilding some rotted foundation, that sort of thing. Mose found something to smile about every time he answered a question. Not a lot of words were wasted in his responses. Mose wasn't about to clutter up his day with a lot of talking. "In places," was his smiling answer to the question about the rotting foundation. Many of his answers were followed by questions to me. There was nothing negative about Mose!

He explained the use and construction of the cupola on the roof of the barn. "A lot of air goes up through that area," referring to the long, wooden-roofed and wooden-sided structure that runs parallel with the top of the main barn. "It was just for the looks of it," he confided when I questioned the utility of that part of the roof system. He said it would be painted next summer "after the wood dries."

The current appearance of the O.B. Savage barn

Mose works for an Amish company called Country Renovations and said his boss, Noah Peachy, lives in Turbotville. Noah and two other Amish carpenters working on the barn are from Watsontown. When I asked Mose where he was from, he told me, then asked me where I was from. When he answered my next question, he added a question--asking if I had met the Amish in Benton.

I told Mose how the northern portion of Columbia county and the lower end of Luzerne County were devastated by a terrific tornado on September 17, 1890. Both counties experienced extensive damage. Exposed crops in the path of the hurricane were entirely destroyed. Barns, outbuildings and orchards were leveled to the ground.

The original Hulme barn lost most of its roof. All the sheds and out buildings were blown down, much of the brick house blown in and the roof torn off.

Mrs. Hulme was caught by one of the falling buildings and had one of her ribs broken and another badly crushed. The B & S work train was nearby and the railroad men hastened to the scene and released Mrs. Hulme and dug the cattle and horses from the debris. The Hulme loss was estimated at $2,000. The storm continued in an easterly direction and missed the town of Cambra by a matter of feet but slammed head on into Harveyville.

The barn owner, Herbert Hulme, rebuilt the barn and said that he put the steeple on the barn to remind him of God, that when he was in his barn he felt like he was in a church. Mose had not heard the story, and with each point that I made he nodded his head and responded simply, "yeah." As I continued with the story, Mose punctuated each sentence two or three times with a simple "yeah," nodded his head and kept a smile on his face. He looked like he could hardly wait to climb the four ladders that it took to get to the roof to tell his friends the history of the barn.

Both the cupola and the steeple are being rebuilt. In this sense, I am referring to the cupola as being an ornamental polygonal base on the roof of the barn. The steeple rests on the cupola. But why the steeple? The steeple was a useless expense when the barn was rebuilt after the tornado. In barns and I suppose in churches, the steeple has little to do with the saving of souls. Over the years, many a church struggled with the weight of a heavy mortgage and the steeple has often been the cause of it. But, then, as Phillip Johnson once said, "Architecture is the art of how to waste space."

I once drove into a Norman Rockwell-like village in New England. I couldn't help notice the local Methodist church constructed along John Wesley's preference for an octagonal shape, neat as a pin and most probably paid for. I drove by the Presbyterian Church with its central dome and two entrance porticos. I told a waitress in a delightful little morning coffee shop about my observations. She then asked if I had seen a certain church from a famous lookout in the town. She commented, "you'll never see a steeple as nice as that one. It is the highest in town."

When we shook hands to part, Mose proudly told me that he had been invited to the Amish home on Route 239 north of Benton over Memorial Day. Before we parted, his chest seemed to stretch out as he glanced down at his trousers held up by his suspenders. He wanted to tell me about his future wife and the wedding planned for next fall.

An article in the June 6, 1900, Wilkes-Barre Times told about a 24-year old steeplejack who was killed falling from a Methodist Church steeple in that city. He had climbed the steeple with the aid of the lightning rod, 250 feet from the sidewalk, and was reaching the top when the rod gave away and he fell. Just thirty years previous, the lightning rod had been placed in position and no work had been done on the steeple since. The steeple climber at that time met death in the same manner as did this fellow.

Quote of the Day:
"The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines."
--Frank L. Wright

Here are two other non-religious steeples you may recognize...

The steeple on the former Benton Town Hall. The first use of the building was as an "opera house." We are not aware of the prior use of the building for religious purposes.		The steeple on the former Stillwater school house, presently undergoing renovation by Bob and Sandra Kelsey. Note the "cross" on the door. The building may have been a church at one time.

A reader asked why I don't mention the name of Tyler Brewington more often. After all, he is one of four golfers invited by the Northeast PA Classic to participate in this week's PGA Tour Nationwide tournament. The other three invited golfers were professionals. His credentials are impressive for an amateur golfer. He qualified for the U.S. Amateur this summer and competes in San Francisco August 20. He came in fourth overall in the 2005 Pennsylvania Open, and was the top-ranked amateur. He is Rider University's number-one golfer. He has an equipment sponsor. GolfStat ranks him 50th in the nation. Tyler has as his goal to be a PGA touring pro. But--back to the question. The Press Enterprise provides excellent coverage of Tyler's golf career; no need for me to get involved. I don't play the game since I discovered that two can live as cheaply as one can play golf. I never was good at golf; in fact, the closest I ever came to a hole in one was five strokes. The closest I come to 36 holes is on a harmonica. I wish Tyler the best of luck and will continue to read the Press Enterprise to see his progress.

The article in Saturday's Press Enterprise about the decapitated rattlesnake head that clomped down on a man's finger reminded me of an April 27, 1906, story in the Wilkes-Barre Times. The article in the newspaper with a byline of Benton indicated that 15 inches of snow lay on the top of North Mountain, the result of an extraordinary snow storm. The same day, "in a valley less than three miles from the summit of the mountain, surveyors were operating and killed a blacksnake 7 feet 3 inches long, warm enough to put up a hard fight for its life."

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August 11, 2007. Today is the birthday of Linda Cragle. Jay and Susan McHenry, Stillwater, are celebrating their anniversary, their 28th. This weekend will be another busy one. The Whitenight/Dodson families and the McHenry families are meeting this afternoon in the Benton park for a reunion-picnic. It is so very nice to see the Benton Park being used again.

It was just 86 years ago that the third robbery of the Rohr McHenry Distilling Company took place. According to the July 28, 1921, Philadelphia Inquirer, fifth-nine barrels of whisky, valued at $59,000, "the last in the place," was stolen from the warehouse. Ivan S. Lauch, the guard, said he was held up by twenty-five men who loaded the liquor on five trucks and a sedan, warning him that it meant death if he gave an alarm.

Today is the Fun Festival at Orangeville at the Masonic Hall, the North Mountain Firemen's Carnival and the Eric Hess Memorial Tournament at Mill Race Golf Course to benefit the Benton Little League. The always interesting Arts & Crafts Festival is on today and Sunday from 10 to 5 at Eagles Mere. The antique show is taking place today and Sunday at the Lycoming County Fairgrounds, Hughesville. Next week is the Rural Heritage Day in Lewisburg, from August 15-18. This festival celebrates the rural traditions of the state with antique farm equipment, textile production, woodworking, metal work and open-hearth cooking demonstrations at the Dale-Engle-Walker House. Call 524-8666 for more information.

Additional upcoming events include...
• October 6 & 7, 2007. The second annual Covered Bridge Music Fest will be held at the Benton Rodeo Grounds from 11 AM to 6 PM each day. Performers will include the Tim Johnson Band, Pat & Al Hess, Greenwood Valley Boys, Mike Lewis from Channel 16 and the Greenwood Valley Boys. Special events will include apple butter making, Dick Holcombe's up and down saw, originally an 1800s water-driven saw; vendors, home-made ice cream, and carnival rides and games. The events benefits the Covered Bridges of Columbia County.

The contestants in Thursday night's karaoke contest at the North Mountain Fire Company Carnival held by Christine’s Karaoke ranged in ages from 13 to 78. The outcome was very close. Taking home the $100 first place prize was Don Dacosta, Dushore; the $50 second place prize went to Bill Hellenthal, Berwick, and Cassie Hunter, Williamsport, was awarded $25 for third place.

Didja hear about Bertram who was a member of a family with an amazing tradition? His father, grandfather and great-grandfather had been able to walk on water on their 21st birthday. On that day, they walked across the pond to the town's tavern for their first legal drink. When Bert's 21st birthday finally arrived, he took a boat to the middle of the pond and stepped out of the boat, only to sink and almost drown. The rescue squad got him to the shore where when he composed himself he was furious. Crying, he asked his grandmother why he had broken the family tradition of not being able to walk across the pond like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had done. Granny grew reflective and in a soft, assuring voice told Bert that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were born in January, but that Bert was born in August.

The daily section on this date included portions of an article about the North Mountain House. To read this article about the Ricketts' era, head to the FEATURES page. There are three articles in that location about the Ricketts family.

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August 10, 2007. It is the birthday today of Erika Lenbergs, Jermey Griffith, Ken Sutton, Elizabeth Christian and Marcia Becker. Today is the birthday of Herbert Hoover, born in Iowa in 1874, son of a Quaker blacksmith. He ran for president in 1928 and within the year the 1929 stock market crash sent the country into the economic collapse. Both Ted Whitenight and Ruth Kline are now at home from their hospital stay. Ed Kocher reportedly came through his hip replacement with ease.

There is tin siding and roofing that is excess to the needs of the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center. It is now piled near the construction trailer at the south end of Community Drive. If anyone is interested in the siding or roofing, drop off your offer at the Center temporary headquarters on Main Street. The Center also has an urgent short-term need for dehumidifiers for the Center on a loan basis. The concrete under the gymnasium has not set up sufficiently to lay the flooring.

The Rod & Custom Cruise-In starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds. Gates open at 8 AM and swing shut at 10 PM today and Saturday. The show ends at 2 PM Sunday.

The daily section on this date included portions of an article about the North Mountain House. To read this article about the Ricketts' era, head to the FEATURES page. There are three articles in that location about the Ricketts family.

A new pet grooming shop will open next weekend in Benton Township at 4417 Red Rock Road, sharing the John Watson Landscaping Building south of the Riverside Market. The "all-natural" pet grooming shop will be run by Leeann Branas, who has thirty years experience in the business, with her sister-in-law Tracy Branas. They can be reached at 925-2194 and 925-2162. Hours are by appointment only.

When I was growing up, the convergence of West Creek and Fishingcreek was a popular spot. Ed Baker and I spent whole days building forts, swinging on grapevines, swimming, eating wild grapes, raspberries and teaberries, swimming, building and sinking rafts--well, you get the picture. West Creek had the warm water, Fishingcreek had the deep water.

A few years ago, a friend came Back Home to Benton, PA, and asked if I was busy. "No," I said, "what do you want to do?"

He suggested going swimming--back to the old swimmin' hole in West Creek. We couldn't drive, so we walked, carefully picking our way across the round, algae-covered goonies of the creek, up the steep bank, through the briars and the poison ivy until we arrived at the old swimming hole we once loved so dearly and which he hadn't seen in years. We plunged into water much colder than it ever was when we were growing up. We paddled around. We walked back. Later, I got an email from my old friend. He was so lame he couldn't walk for a week. I was happy to share in his pain! I emailed right back and admitted that I had been periodically rheumatic ever since!

Water is a great institution. Occasionally it does rain in uncomfortable quantities, but it is a wonderful drink for those who care about their health, it makes a wonderful improvement to home life now that it is used for bathing more than once a week, and at this time of the year is useful for the mitigation of the heat of the summer. And there are the fond memories of us country-reared men of our favorite old swimmin' hole, whether it was a large puddle, a wide and deep place in the creek, where West and Fishingcreek come together, the rock hole or the Benton dam. To the boyish imagination it had all the grandeur of a Roman bath. It was a source of infinite joy. It had its dark side, too.

The old swimmin' hole has contributed a great deal to both literature and obituaries of this nation. The hamlets of the state love their swimming holes, yet there isn't one around where a small child hasn't tried to see how much water they could get into their lungs without permanently impairing their usefulness.

When I was growing up, the greatest necessity for a swimming hole was our mothers. They added the final touches to the swimming hole. If there were no parents to object to swimming holes they would hardly be worth it.

Swimming holes have produced millions of good swimmers, but have also been the demise of large numbers of children. Every boy should learn to swim so that he will be able to rescue other boys who are learning to swim. Regretfully, there aren't graduation exercises from swimming holes.

Oh! the old swimmin'-hole! whare the crick so still and deep
Looked like a baby-river that was laying half asleep,
And the gurgle of the worter round the drift jest below
Sounded like the laugh of something we onc't ust to know
Before we could remember anything but the eyes
Of the angels lookin' out as we left Paradise;
But the merry days of youth is beyond our control,
And it's hard to part ferever with the old swimmin'-hole.
--The Old Swimmin' Hole, by James Whitcomb Riley

Probably none of us remember back to 1913 when a fire, thought to have started from sparks from a log fire burning close by, destroyed a large frame building formerly used as a drying house by the duPont Powder Company at Powder Hole, a short distance from Wapwallopen. Wednesday, a boy--just 16 years old--died while swimming in the cold waters of the Powder Hole trying to escape from the 94° heat. The water was clearly posted "No Trespassing." Six others have died here since the 1920s. The signs didn't keep swimmers out. Never has, never will.

A cardinal rule is to keep an eye on the folks in Harrisburg, and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is no exception. Mostly at the instigation of that Commission, the state has removed 70 dams over the last ten years. The removal has made some temptation go away, but it also removed our links to the past--the race, the milling of the grain, the less complicated world, the gathering of friends. We have to delicately balance the hazard to humans and wildlife with the nostalgia of the setting and the beauty and enjoyment it provides.

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August 9, 2007. Happy birthday to Doug Deitrick. Ed Kocher has a hip replacement operation today, so please keep him in your prayers. Congratulations to Wayne Hess for his hole-in-one on the ninth hole at Mill Race on July 24. Today is the opening of the Fun Fair at the Masonic Lodge in Orangeville; breakfast begins at 7 AM. Tonight is the opening of the North Mountain Fire Company Carnival. The entertainment there tonight is Karaoke music under the firm control of Christine Karns. Tonight at 5 PM is Volunteer Night at the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, where the tasks include working on toilet partitions, toilet accessories and lights in the gym-storage room. There is cleanup which will save paying the prevailing wage to the contractor so they can focus on more construction-related items. Other upcoming events include...

• August 15, 2007. The August meeting of the Fishing Creek Femme Fatale Chapter of the Red Hat Society will meet at Queen Mother Jackie Malhoyt's home on Red Gravel Road. Stillwater. at noon on Wednesday. Please plan to attend. If the weather is nice bring a chair for outdoors. Proper attire of a red hat and purple outfit are required. Guests are welcome and the chapter is open to new members. Call Queen Mother Jackie, 925-2722, for additional directions, if needed. It is a covered-dish luncheon.

The daily section on this date included portions of an article about the North Mountain House. To read this article about the Ricketts' era, head to the FEATURES page. There are three articles in that location about the Ricketts family.

 

August 8, 2007. Happy birthday to Shawn Becker, William Mathe, Noreen McDormand and Scott Maguire. A year from today, the summer games of the XXIX Olympiad will begin with the opening ceremony in Beijing, China. Ruth Kline remains a patient in ICU at the Bloomsburg Hospital. On this date in 2003, Ruth was planning her getaway from the Orangeville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center after a short "tuning up" stay.

No matter how you feel today, get up, dress up and show up.

The daily section on this date included portions of an article about the North Mountain House. To read this article about the Ricketts' era, head to the FEATURES page. There are three articles in that location about the Ricketts family.

If you don't ask, you don't get.

Upcoming...

• August 16, 17, 18, 2007. North Mountain Fire Company Carnival. Thursday, August 16: "Like Father Like Son." Friday, August 17: "Hickory Rose Band." Saturday, August 18: "Appalachian Nites."

• August 19, 2007. Dick Brewington, chairman of the annual Benton Tiger Athletics Association Golf Tournament is hoping to get some more golfers to sign up for the third annual Benton Tiger Athletics Association Golf Tournament at Mill Race. All proceeds benefit the athletic teams in the school district by providing funds for much needed items that are not within the school budget. A registration form with all the information included can be found here.

• August 23, 2007. Larry Lahiff, Emergency Management Coordinator with Columbia County, will present "Emergency Management Awareness" on Thursday evening at 6 PM at the Orangeville Nursing and Rehab Center, 200 Berwick Road (Route 93), Orangeville. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, please call the Orangeville Nursing and Rehab Center at 683-5036.

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August 7, 2007. The Northern Hemisphere is considered to be halfway through the summer on this day. We celebrate the birthdays today of James Fox, Rod Pennington, Terry Griffith, and William Mather. Bill is the former postmaster of Benton from January 31, 1958, until Gary Strauch took over August 20, 1983. Today is the 65th birthday of Prairie Home Companion storyteller and host Garrison Keillor. The Summer Reading Program of the Columbia County Traveling Library is tonight at 6:30 at the Stillwater Park.

The umpteenth family picnic at Painter Den took place Sunday with 162 attending, 12 of whom were under the age of 7. Attendance was down from previous years. Some suspected that the Guv had put up toll booths on the road and many were trying to take alternative routes to the cabin. Roads were extremely dusty; in fact, even the mud puddles were dusty. As always, everyone had a great time. The highlight of the day was "pond racing" with a snowmobile.

Chris Hoyt at "full throttle" crossing Painter Den pond. For this adventure, he chose to use his wife's snowmobile rather than his own. The "getting-out part" was tricky. A 4' x 8' piece of plywood was submerged in the water with one end laid on the rocks of the bank. Chris looked like a rainbow when he shot from the water as lots of color and water and a screaming machine formed a perfect arc through the air, finally landing of the front skis on dry land. Photo courtesy of Donald Rabb.

Some of the hottest weather of the season is about to descend on us. The high today could climb above 95° degrees, with the heat index reaching 102. Showers and thunderstorms are forecast for tonight and Wednesday, but don't take that to the bank just yet! We are inches of rain short of what the average is for this time of the year. The Benton dam is not running over, the creek through Central is dry.

From Our Local History...
• In November, 1922, Robert Edson, a First Class Scout of Troop 3, Benton, was honored for "forest preservation and fish conservation during that summer, according to a Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader article of 1922. Robert Edson was a brother of Frank Edson, now deceased. Scout Edson's record for the year included assisting his scoutmaster, Mr. Long, in transferring 3,200 trout, ranging in size from four to ten inches, from dried-up ponds in dams in Fishingcreek during the prolonged drought of the summer and fall; distributing forest protection posters; inspecting plantations of young trees and fighting fire on three occasions.

• The heat that is expected today would have been welcome in the icy waters of Fishingcreek back on February 15, 1913, when Rev. W. L. Burrell, pastor of the Christian Church of Benton who had been conducting revival services, immersed two converts in the waters of Fishingcreek as the temperature sunk close to the zero mark. "The ice was cut in the Benton dam and in four feet of water the immersions were made, converts remaining the water during prayer and singing," according to the Wilkes-Barre Times.

Now lets go W A Y back in time today to the 1820s or so, back to the days when the kitchen hearth, six feet wide and four feet deep, was the center of the household. These were the days that for the six o'clock breakfast of meat and vegetables and pickles everyone gathered for prayers--family, farmhands and servants. Dinner was at 12 and tea at "sundown."

Inside the house, it was work, work, work. "A woman's work is never done" was the often-quoted statement. There was cooking, washing, sewing, spinning, weaving, taking care of children--there was "no rest for the weary." Breakfast had to be over by daylight so the men could get at their work. Even with all the demands placed on these stout-hearted people, no one seemed to be unhappy. They had few comforts and no clue to the conventionalities of modern civilization.

People in the country did things together in those days, whether it was for a corn-shucking or a barn-raising. When a man needed a new barn, he called in his neighbors for a "barn-raising" and made a party of the occasion, just as, if one of their houses was struck by lightning, he held himself ready to return the favor.

It was a cardinal doctrine of the pioneers that every able-bodied man should "earn his salt" and they carried the doctrine into practice with unrelenting severity. There was simply no room for the idle. Houses and barns needed to be erected and ground cleared. With the need for rail-making, fence-building, plowing, sowing, reaping and barn-raising there was plenty of work to keep all the hands busy.

This form of communal gathering will be revived Back Home in Benton, PA, on October 13 during the grand opening of the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center. In many aspects, the community will enjoy the social aspects of an old fashioned barn-raising that day as the entire community comes together to welcome the long-awaited Center to the upper Fishingcreek Valley.

The full particulars will be published about two weeks or so from now when all the "t's have been crossed and the I's dotted.

As a postscript, I'll say that the very old barn-raisings featured hard cider and West India rum. Our early settlers did not have the knack of erecting a building with more timber in it than could be carried on a wheelbarrow. To erect the frame of a barn or house was a work which taxed the strength of all the men and boys in the community and which brought the local carpenter into a place of importance.

It was considered altogether out of the question to do the work without stimulants, and these were furnished generously, for, though a man might be "close" about many things, he could not afford to ration those who came to the raising if he hoped to spend the rest of his life in the community. Having this in mind, he bought rum liberally, while the hard cider was brought from his own cellar. The ability of cider to make men work was recognized, but was hardly regarded seriously because every one had an abundance of it at home, while drinking rum at the expense of another was something altogether more important. It was hard to raise a building without it but I also found examples where it was hard to raise the building with it! There were examples where it was necessary to continue the work to a second day because the "sprits from St. Croix" had done their work not wisely but too well.

Never to worry, however! There won't be any spirits from St. Croix at the barn-raising on October 13!

Back in the "old days," when a barn was to be raised the whole neighborhood was invited. The pioneers didn't have recreation, but they were not without amusements. They didn't have theaters or social functions, but they had fun and plenty of it. Life was dead serious for them, but they looked at life from the sunny side. There were camp meetings where hospitality was dispensed to everyone. Politicians came to town to speak. October 13 should be just as much fun Back Home in Benton, PA.

L. V. Horn (May 21, 1912-August 6, 2007), Mill Street, Benton, died Monday at the Bonham Nursing Center. She was 95. Born in Stillwater, she was a daughter of the late Alfred and Zella (Golder) Deitrick. She was a graduate of Benton High School. Mrs. Horn had been a long time employee of the Benton Area School District where she worked in the cafeteria. She had also done custodial work for Dr. Kowalski. She was preceded in death by her husband, Harry Max Deitrick, on January 17, 1979. Surviving are her daughter, B. Kareen Karns, Benton; grandsons Timothy and Trent Karns and grandchildren Kay Marxen, Timothy Karns, Jr. and Jeffrey and Jennifer Karns. Also surviving are two great grandchildren Kaydence and Rorie Karns and a sister, Lavenia Campbell, Benton. In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by sisters Sylvia Edgar and Evelyn Adkins. Private services will be held at the convenience of the family with burial in the Stillwater Cemetery. Arrangements are under the direction of the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc., Benton.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home. A complete obituary will be published in the Tuesday Press Enterprise.

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August 6, 2007. Happy birthday today to Dr. Tom Becker, Camp Hill, and Joyce Keller, the unofficial Mayor of Iklertown. (Iklertown [or Eichleretown, as it was once called] is within the borough of Stillwater.)

Didja know that in Pennsylvania, there are four types of incorporated municipalities: cities, boroughs, townships, and towns. In Columbia County is the Town of Bloomsburg; the Boroughs of Ashland (partial), Benton, Berwick, Briar Creek, Catawissa, Centralia, Millville, Orangeville and Stillwater; Townships are Beaver, Benton, Briar Creek, Catawissa, Cleveland, Conyngham, Fishing Creek, Franklin, Greenwood, Hemlock, Jackson, Locust, Madison, Main, Mifflin, Montour, Mount Pleasant, North Centre, Orange, Pine, Roaring Creek, Scott, South Centre and Sugarloaf

The article about John Julius King, Chief Damage Controlman, U. S. Navy, which originally appeared here has been added to our PERSONALITIES section on the side panel. John joins Hurley Shultz, J. Wayne Yorks, Frank Edson, Dr. Frank C. Laubach, Jim Vance, Jim "Ivory Knuckles" McHenry, The Heg Family: Biddle, Charlotte, and Philip, Ira Ricketts McHenry, O. B. Savage, and Helen Smith Gammon as personalities you should know more about. Soon we'll add another personality: A. R. Pennington.

John Herbert Laubach is currently a resident of the Bonham Nursing Home, Stillwater. Keep Ruth Kline, a patient in ICU at the Bloomsburg Hospital, in your prayers.

A Quakertown youth, 23, on what many of us call a "4-wheeler" and others call an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) was out to get some gas Saturday night when things didn't go quite right. His first mistake was to take the 4-wheeler after his father had told him not to do it. His second mistake involved alcohol. There were also some other mistakes made. We'll tell you about a couple of them.

After getting his gas, he headed west on Colley Street as if to ride out of town. The Chief of Police, Randy Karschner, heard him revving his engine while driving through town and started to investigate, but didn't see him since he didn't have his lights on. It was pretty hard not to hear him. He probably didn't have a muffler.

When Chief Karschner reached the stop sign at Third Street, the rider passed him on his way back into town. Randy turned his police lights on. The 4-wheeler whizzed by. Randy turned, and took after him. The pair came zooming down Two and a Half Street, made a hard right on Market Street, then North on Main Street, passing several cars while driving with his headlights off. Much of the time, Chief Karschner could not see the rider because the riders lights were off, and followed the screaming machine by sound only. At one point, he went over a hump in the road and some residents of Third Street said the 4-wheeler was airborne. He was seen in pursuit near Sutliff Motors. He drove into a field on the Richard Kriebel farm and went all the way to West Creek. The Chief turned off his lights, knowing that he would have to get out of the field sometime. Sure enough! Back to Route 239 he came, and the chase began again. The pair went around the parking lot of the Lutz Agency. He finally crashed his 4-wheeler on Klinger Hill Road when Chief Karschner passed him and the youth attempted to turn around. He went down over a bank and was unable to get the machine back up to the road. He fell off the 4-wheeler and got tangled up in a barbed wire fence cutting his legs. When tested for alcohol content, he tested at .119 blood-alcohol content. The Benton Ambulance responded to check him out.

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August 5, 2007.

Lets finish up the story of the silk mill in Benton. When we left you yesterday, we were telling about the poor working conditions faced by the women in the mills. As time went on, conditions didn't improve.

Wilkes-Barre newspaper articles in 1919 reported that "1,000 boys and girls have left their places." A mill on Jones Street, Wilkes-Barre, had 800 strikers and 100 went out at the Sugar Notch mill. About half "of the force" employed at the Hess-Goldsmith throwing mill went on strike. Six additional mills in the Wyoming Valley soon followed suit. Each day that passed brought the workers closer to organizing into a labor union. Local Congressman T. D .Nicholla made speeches advancing the organization known as Textile Workers and an organizer from the National Mine Workers gave a pep talk about unions to the workers. A headline in the September 19, 1919, Times Leader read "Silk Mill Workers Prepare to Carry Fight to a Finish Plan to Organize Every One." Workers were told they had the full "sympathy of the Textile Workers International organization." In Lackawanna County, strikers stopped work at the Black Diamond and the Petersburg mills. State troopers could no longer "preserve order in the Mid-Valley section" of Luzerne County and county authorities swore in fifty deputy sheriffs to guard mill property. Rioting and other disorders were widely reported. Learn more about silk mills in the Wyoming Valley by going here.

With this capsule view of the silk mill industry in Pennsylvania, we shift our focus now to Back Home in Benton, PA. Perhaps the local owners of the silk mill "learned their lesson" from the years of strife in the Wyoming Valley with silk mills. Following its years at the Distillery, the next stop for the steam whistle was on the roof of the local silk mill on Colley Street. Some may know the building by a name it took in later years--the dress factory.

We know that the owners of the local silk mill were very proud of their Colley Street factory, so proud that manager George Moore organized a tour of the building for the general public in March, 1920, On Saturday, March 20, the plant held a party and opened its doors at 7:30 PM to the general public.

Manager Moore arranged for short speeches by "Reverend F. C. Laubach," Samuel Moody and Claude Shaffer. An orchestra furnished music and the Boy Scouts served a free luncheon. Few recognized that Rev. Laubach would end up a world-famous missionary, perhaps the most famous person to ever graduate from the Benton schools.

The Benton mill was owned by a company known as the Dunlop Company, and they held open houses in similar mills they owned in other parts of the country. The Dunlop Company also owned a "Shinglehouse" managed by Edward Moore, formerly of Benton, and at that open house they expected 350 to attend, according to the Benton Argus of March 18, 1920. The name of the silk mill in Benton in 1920 was the Har-Bred silk mill and over 300 "availed themselves of the opportunity to visit the model mill, and inspect it from stem to stern." The Argus of March 25, 1920, reported that "many were the remarks regarding the sanitation, ventilation and cleanliness of the plant." Bob Sands remembers that the silk mill owners also ran a mill in Olyphant.

I'll tell you a little about the entertainment of the evening, since a name will pop up that many of you will recognize. The high school orchestra played. Mahlon Strauch sang a solo and the silk-mill employees joined in on the chorus. S. B. Seeley, Benton, who held "a responsible position with John Dunlop & Sons," gave the address of welcome, and also told of the aims and objectives of the company. George Moore, the superintendent of the mill, told how the company aimed to make the mill a pleasant and profitable place of employment. Rev. Frank C. Laubach, who had recently returned from the Philippine Islands, "spoke interestingly of his experiences." The boy scout leader, Mr. Long, then told his Boy Scouts to serve the dinner. As they say, "a good time was had by all."

The trucking company that moved virtually all the silk in the state was Arrow Trucks, Patterson, New Jersey. The truck cabs were unique. There were no handles on the doors of the trucks, since silk was considered such a valuable cargo to haul. It was felt that no one could yank open a door of the truck at a stop sign and steal the cargo. The drivers all carried pistols to keep the evil doers away, Bob Sands remembers.

Two local men who worked at the silk mill were Howard Sands, father of J. Robert Sands, and A.J. Hartman, father of Tom and Buddy Hartman, Bloomsburg. In fact, A.J. was the reason that the whistle eventually came into the hands of the Otto Little Planing Mill. When the silk mill closed at the end of the 1920s or the beginning of the 1930s, the whistle came into the possession of A.J., who eventually transferred it to Otto Little. But that is a story for another day.

Didja hear about the grandmother who told her little granddaughter what her childhood was like? She told the wide-eyed child that she ice skated on a pond and went swinging on a tire over Fishingcreek and she rode a pony and picked wild red raspberries and huckleberries. Finally, the little girl told her adoring grandmother, "I sure wish I'd gotten to know you sooner!"

I promised a reader that I would say something about the woodchuck, although it beats me what I would ever say. I could tell you that is sometimes called a whistle pig by the French Canadians since the critter sometimes whistles when it is startled. In the vicinity of Hudson's Bay, you'll hear it sometimes called a "thickwood badger" and in Alaska it is sometimes called a "tarbagan." It is usually called a groundhog. It is short legged, heavy set and is generally a dirty brown. Regardless of what it is called, the groundhog lives in a pretty remarkable burrow.

It is dug in the slope of a hill or by the side of a big stone--or where a horse might step. The critter makes an excavation twenty or thirty feet long which descends four or five feet from the entrance to his home, then gradually rises to a large round chamber where the groundhog family sleeps and bring up their young. The little ones are born three to eight at a time.

Farmers sometimes break into one of the critter's holes when he makes the mistake of traveling directly over his opening, although the farmer is not likely to feel as unkindly toward the groundhog as when farmers used horses. The legislators of New Hampshire at one time hated the animal so much that the state put a 10 cent bounty on the hide. Hunters don't go after them since the fur is worthless and the meat is not exactly palatable. I asked a number of hunters if they ever ate groundhog and many of the older ones said they had. I then asked when the last time was they had it. The usual response is "when I was a kid." Yeah, right! If it was so good, how come you haven't eaten one in fifty years?

A reader who preferred not to be mentioned by name wrote that "Woodchuck can be quite tasty if disguised properly. My mother makes a nasty woodchuck stroganoff. In fact not to many years ago she was challenged by her preacher that if she served him any type of wild game he would know it. She took him up on this challenge and made woodchuck stroganoff which she not only served to him, but also to lots of other people who attended a church fellowship meal. Her preacher found it to be very tasty and wasn't aware of what he ate until the following day when it was brought to his attention at church. I understand he found no humor in this and was rather upset with her."

Except for being a nuisance, the groundhog doesn't much bother anyone. He is strictly a vegetarian and loves clover and grass. He generally stayed out of Mother's garden, enjoying instead open fields and rocky hillsides. The first rains that fall after the farmer finishes his first crop of hay brings up a new stand of grass. The groundhog seems to fall in love with eating the young tender hay during the latter part of August and the beginning of September. The animal becomes increasingly fat and inert. About the end of September or perhaps a bit later, the animal goes into winter quarters and it doesn't come back out to face the world until the middle of March.

I can't think of a more remarkable example of a hibernating mammal. It doesn't lay up an store of provisions as does the squirrel. The food that it eats are not goods that will keep, and so the groundhog must sleep or he'll starve to death. It disappears with regularity within a few days of the autumnal equinox and remains underground until about the time when the sun cuts the plane of the equator at the vernal equinox. Often the weather is still very warm when it retires for the winter. And in the spring it often makes an appearance in March when snow is still on the ground. It is forced to make long treks to find patches of grass not covered by snow. The animal is thin, a mere shadow of his size the preceding fall.

Scientists have studied the animal during the term of hibernation. Physical waste is minimal, its heart beats very slowly and its breathing can only be detected by some sort of delicate instrument. Even pet groundhogs kept in a house follow the same rules of hibernation. Groundhogs in the south, however, do have periods of waking up when it goes out to get something to eat. The hibernating is simply a device of nature--one of the mysteries of nature--to insure that the animal can get along without food when there is no food to be had. If he didn't hibernate, the species would become extinct.

I suspect that there isn't a use for the groundhog that is worth mentioning. The same goes for porcupines, but that is a story for another day.

The Orangeville Firemen drench the crowd during the second pass of the Firemen's Parade Saturday night. It was all in good fun and everyone had a great time. Rep. Karen Boback rode with honor with members of the Benton and Millville VFW. The County Commissioners helped judge floats. The streets were lined with drenched people. It was a great evening!

Shirley Marlene (Savage) Bjork, (May 2, 1933-Dec. 28, 2006) New York City, died from complications of congestive heart failure. She was 73. Shirley was born in Benton to Orville Bartley and Margaret (Heim) Savage and was raised on the family farm south of Benton. She was a graduate of Benton High School and of the nursing school at Wilkes Barre Hospital. She moved to New York City in 1954 and began working as a registered nurse at New York Hospital. She married Alfred Francis Bjork in 1957. She was eventually promoted to Head Nurse of Neurosurgery where she worked until the birth of her son Christopher in 1965.

After her husband's death in 1967, she returned to work to support her young son, and held several senior positions including Clinical Head Nurse and Head Nurse of Intravenous Therapy. In her later years she worked training medical assistants and as a school nurse at various New York City public schools where she greatly enjoyed helping young children. She was lovingly known as "Nurse Shirley." She is survived by her son Christopher Bjork and daughter-in-law Catherine Coy, her grandchildren, Madeleine, Patrick, and triplets Alec, Will, and Elizabeth Coy-Bjork of Madison, Wisconsin. She is also survived by her brother and sister-in-law Richard and Beth Ann (Harrington) Savage, Berwick, and her nieces Meg Dyer (Paul) and Heidi Savage, both of Berwick, and Mary Jo Skjoldal (Glen), Catawissa. She is survived by her companion, John Tunney, New York City. Shirley had a great love of people and travel and particularly enjoyed her visits to Wisconsin and her trips to the Southwest. She took great delight in her grandchildren and family and was especially devoted to her only son. Her sparkling eyes, bright smile, great sense of humor, and generous, loving heart will be deeply missed by all who knew her.

Memorial services will be held Wednesday afternoon, August 8, at 5 at the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc. Burial will be in the Waller Cemetery.
--obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home and Chris Bjork. The Sunday Press Enterprise will contain a complete obituary.

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Saturday, August 4, 2007. There are 49 days until the official start of autumn. Roxie Walters celebrates her birthday today. Ron and Faye Igou celebrate their wedding anniversary. Jazz musician and Grammy Award-winning singer Louis Armstrong was born on this date in 1901 in New Orleans. He got the nickname Satchmo, short for "Satchel Mouth." He learned the cornet in 1913 when he was sent to a reform school. On this date in 1693, a monk named Dom Perignon invented champagne at the Benedictine Abbey of Hautvillers in the region of Champagne, northern France. His first champagne was made by re-fermenting wine in the spring and then placing it in sealed bottles to make the wine sparkling. Don't forget the lawn sales at Cambra beginning at 8 this morning.

Tonight, the popular Tim Johnson is on the main stage of the Benton Carnival playing his country music, just after the hugely popular firemen's parade (forms at 4:30, moves at 5:30). The water battle begins on its second pass on the parade. Observers must stay on sidewalks and only use water balloons, garden hoses and water guns. Chicken BBQ will be ready from the grill at 4 PM.

The Mountain View Barn is a new addition to the BUSINESS listings on the side panel of the Benton News. Their two-story barn is located on Route 118 three miles east of the Ricketts Glen Park Entrance on Route 118. The shop is filled with an eclectic mix of old, used and new--functional or just decorative, for home and garden. Weekdays open, call for hours. Year round open Saturdays and Sundays. 570 477-2483.

From the Didja Know Department comes this...
. Tylor Brewington, 21, a golfer for Division I Rider University, won the St. Peter's College Invitational and the Pennsylvania AGA Stroke Play Championship and took third at the U.S. Amateur Qualifier this year.

. For the first time in years, there is a path to the abutment to the former Bloomsburg & Sullivan Railroad Bridge from the west side of Fishingcreek near the pavilion of the horseshoe pits. The area along Fishingcreek is being opened up to show its natural beauty, with the intent of having several lookouts where walkers can rest.

• The pavilion at the horseshoe pits has been completely stained, the fence is up around the pits, ground leveling along Fishingcreek behind the facility is nearing completion. Several "lookout" areas are ready for the next step. Virtually all of the work has been accomplished with volunteer labor spearheaded by Carlton "Butch" Young.

We'll help trace the history of the whistle that once "overlooked" Benton from the McHenry Distillery. Lets make sure you remember where we left off. John G. McHenry, in addition to being a United States Congressman, owned the Distillery and the People's Department Store. This store was located across the street from the intersection of Main Street and Market Street, approximately where the lawn area of the CCFNB bank is today. The continuation of Main Street south did not occur until after the fire of 1910. The Main Street of the Borough ran into a "T" when it arrived from the north at Market Street. The store burned in the fire of July 4, 1910, and the people who had bought stock in the venture were left without the store, the stock or their money. Insurance satisfied the wholesale firms, but left everyone else stranded.

The 10-story bond house with its approximately 17,000 barrels of ripened or near-ripened whiskey burned in March, 1911. Sixteen months after the bond-house fire, in September, 1912, rumors of insolvency of the McHenry business empire began circulating. The congressman attended the Democratic Convention that nominated Woodrow Wilson, the last public function he attended. When he returned to Benton and his home on the hill, friends said he "looked terrible" and for the first time residents realized that John G. was seriously ill. By September 17, his district office in Selinsgrove announced that "Congressman McHenry is very ill" in a sanatorium in Danville, New York, 125 from Back Home in Benton, PA, a few miles east of Binghamton. His illness was discussed by his office's press release, reporting that Rep. McHenry's "illness is attributed to a nervous breakdown, owing to press of work during the recent session of Congress."

The whistle moved from the Distillery to the "silk mill" in Benton, although we are not certain how or when. Most of us have heard of the silk mill in the Borough, but we generally don't know much about it. Before I tell you about it, however, it is important to know something about the industry itself.

Silk mills were common in northeastern Pennsylvania, partly because they employed mostly female and child labor and were therefore inexpensive to operate. The silk industry began moving its plants to Pennsylvania.. There was one in Bloomsburg, Benton and Dale Ruckle tells me there was one in Millville--which was distinguished by a square three-story tower. The mill was purchased by Paul Girton, according to Dale, and incorporated into his sprawling manufacturing plant. All was lost when the factory burned.

A spool of silk from the Millville factory. Photo courtesy of Dale Ruckle

The mills were sprinkled over most of the Wyoming Valley. The Benton silk mill was a finishing mill. There were also "silk throwing mills" where raw silk was spun, such as the one in Parsons "at the Empire." The Parsons mill ultimately furnished employment to about 3,000 "hands" and the Times newspaper heralded its coming, saying it relieved "Parsons people of immediate worry regarding the future of their town.

Silk mills began springing up all over the Wyoming Valley. The Wilkes-Barre Times of January 17, 1906, included an article about the Crane Brothers silk mill on Elm Street, Kingston. This mill moved from Tobyhanna into a mill previously occupied by the Anthracite knitting mills.

Owners of the silk mills all must have used the same press agent, since their plant openings all sounded about the same as the Wilkes-Barre Times reported in the January 17, 1906, newspaper; i.e., the Wilkes-Barre Silk Company has been thoroughly overhauled and improved while it has been filled with new modern machinery and a private electric plant established in connection with the mill."

Things were actually not all rosy in the silk-mill business. A Wilkes-Barre Times article of August 5, 1907,reported that the Wilkes-Barre Silk Company went on strike at a time when they employed about 500 "hands, mostly girls." This mill went on strike at the same time Scranton mills began their strikes. The workers refused to reenter the plant unless they were guaranteed an eight-hour day.

The workers had cause to strike. The mill worked its people more than sixty hours per week, but the workers insisted on working not more than forty-eight. The mill began work at 6:45 each morning and worked until noon, when the employees were given three-fourths of an hour for lunch. Starting at 12:45, the mill then operated until 6:15. These hours were used during the week, but on Saturdays the mills closed at noon, giving the girls "a half holiday."

After closing on Saturday, each employee was required to see that the machine she operated was cleaned and placed in readiness for operation on Monday morning. This work required about one hour to complete, making the hours worked sixty each week. The kindly owner of the mill said he couldn't grant their request for an eight-hour day, but would agree to start the mill at 7 AM, give one hour for lunch and close down at 6 PM, with a "half holiday on Saturday."

The strike affected neighboring plants. Strikers gathered in the roadway in front of the mill and discussed the strike in all its phases. Officials of the adjacent Hamford mill, a silk finishing mill of about 300 employees beside the Wilkes-Barre Silk Company, called the police fearing their employees would be induced to join the ranks of the strikers. Three officers were sent to the scene. They patrolled the street in front of the mill and prevented the strikers from attempting to talk with the employees at work.

Another strike affected the Forty Fort Silk Mill Co. on Shoemaker Street, Swoyersville. The Wilkes-Barre Times seemed to have no sympathy for the situation, reporting, "the girls do not seem to know exactly what they are striking for and so far have presented no grievance of any kind to management. That strike seems to be a sympathy strike with other workers in silk mills. The manager of the mill, when contacted by a Times reporter, said that he knew "absolutely nothing about the reason for inaugurating a strike." The paper quoted "one of the girls" who reportedly said "We don't get enough money for our work, and we decided we might as well remain at home and drink birch beer as to work all day in a hot factory for a few cents a day."

The apparent outcome of this strike was that the owner of the mill granted an eight-hour day, but could "not see his way clear to give the increase in pay asked for." The newspaper noted that "in view of the fact that he is now paying the highest rate of wages for this class of work which is paid in this city or vicinity, it is hardly likely that the demand for the increase will be insisted upon. Meanwhile the 2,500 striking silk mill workers in the valley decided to have an outing at Luna Park.

When we return Sunday, I'll tell you about the rioting and the calling out of additional police which will set the background for the introduction of a silk mill in Benton, a mill that the owners liked so much they even had free parties for the general public. I'll tell you about Rev. F.C. Laubach and his connection with the mill. I'll tell you how the whistle got from the silk mill to the planing mill.

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August 3, 2007. Terry Hack turns 56 today. It is also the anniversary of Rick and Maryann Bardo. On this date in 1933, the Philadelphia Athletics beat the New York Yankees, 7-0. The Yankees had posted the somewhat unbelievable feat of playing 308 straight games without being shut out, beginning August 2, 1931. Two years and one day later, Lefty Grove stopped the streak, blanking Ruth, Gehrig, Dickey and the Bombers, 7-0. On this date in 2004, the opening of the new Benton Meats & Seafood Market on route 487 in Benton Township north of the Borough line was only days away. Bill Schnitzler operated the market. With a Cuba Sí, Castro No! and Se Acabó! -- "It's Over!" was the report out of Cuba a year ago today as ailing Fidel Castro temporarily yielded power in Cuba to his brother Raul.

The history of the Distillery whistle, promised for yesterday and today has been pushed off for another day. I wish I had a good excuse, but I don't. There just aren't enough hours in a day.

Upcoming...
• August 26, 2007. The Stillwater Christian Church hosts a hymn sing. Get more information here.

What a strange year we'll have next year in politics! We have the religion issue with GOP candidate Mitt Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Liberals consider Romney a right-wing Republican and Christian conservatives think of Mormons as members of some kind of cult. Barack Obama has the race issue to overcome, Hillary Clinton has the gender prejudice hanging over her when voters perceive of her as Commander-in-Chief and Bill Richardson has the anti-Hispanic bias. Any prejudice of a racial, religious, gender or ethnic nature should not be part of the American way and is frequently grounded in a lack of knowledge of the subject. We need to put the petty stuff behind us and elect the very best person we have to the presidency and to all other offices.

The Columbia County Commissioners publicly expressed their views on the replacement of the West Paden Covered Bridge in a Letter to the Editor of the Press Enterprise. The letter was published in the Wednesday edition of the newspaper and the Commissioners provided a copy of the letter to the Benton News. According to the letter, the Federal Government--FEMA's Municipal Funding Source--provided $668,738 to the County and specifically earmarked that money for the West Paden covered bridge.

Louise Higgins, President, Columbia Montour Visitors Bureau, writes that "there are more covered bridges in the Valleys of the Susquehanna (Centre, Clinton, Columbia, Juniata, Lycoming, Mifflin, Montour, Northumberland, Union and Snyder Counties) than exist in any other place in Pennsylvania. Without question, the crown jewel is/was/will again be the Twin Covered Bridges spanning Huntingdon Creek.

"People come from all over the world to visit these testaments to yesteryear and simpler times. Guest books located at bridges in these counties are filled with visitors from across the United States, Canada and Europe.

"The Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau’s latest version of its Covered Bridges of Columbia and Montour Counties map/guide has been in production since 2002. Since its inception, it has been the most popular brochure the Bureau produces; 100,000 copies have been printed and, to date, approximately three quarters of this supply has been distributed.

"The six Visitors Bureaus, representing the 'Valleys of the Susquehanna,' have positioned themselves squarely in the middle of numerous regional initiatives. One such initiative is a sixteen page, full color image piece published in 2006. This magazine-style piece highlights four tourism-related "road trips" within the region: Wineries; Victorian Architecture; Antiques, and Covered Bridges. Why were these four tourism-related road trips targeted? Answer: Economic Development! The Valleys of the Susquehanna's target markets are 'Dual Income No Kids'; young professional couples and "Empty Nesters" (Retirees with grown children). Both groups are distinguished for having a great deal of disposable income. The four tourism-related road trips (including Covered Bridges) were chosen for their ability to draw visitors into our region and to spend their disposable dollars."

The Board of Directors for the Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau represents more than two-hundred organizations and events in the region. "Like Upson County, Georgia, and Union County, Ohio, which have utilized FEMA money to rebuild their Covered Bridges, the CMVB fully support the decision of the Columbia County Commissioners to rebuild the West Paden Bridge. When the West Paden joins her sister, the East Paden, Columbia County will, once again, be home to one of only two sets of Twin Covered Bridges in the United States."

Teresa Wojton, the owner of Whispering Pines Camping Estates along with her husband Dave, continue their concern with the health of their daughter, Valerie. Teresa recently asked if I know how to get rid of groundhogs, saying "We have seen a lot of activity this year and it seems they get larger each time we see them."

Well, no, I don't, but in my usual style, I'll write something until I can think of something to say! This article will be upcoming, along with an article dedicated to a "mess of beans."

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August 2, 2007. John Sibley celebrates his 74th birthday today. Tonight is volunteer night from 5 to 7 PM at the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center. For those who can paint, we will be painting the pavilion. Please come in appropriate painting clothes. Dennie and Chris Dawson are getting lots of nice compliments about their new sign in front of the Old Filling Station. The continuation of the story of the whistle that once was on the McHenry Distillery got taken off for today because of the lack of space. We'll try for it tomorrow. Plum Crazy is the group on the main stage of the Benton Carnival tonight.

The driver of a red Honda Prelude stopped the U.S. Mail for half an hour or so Wednesday afternoon when the car he was driving collided with the mail truck on its way to Bloomsburg. The driver was going west from Main Street on Market Street. In front of Dr. Kowalski's dental office, just past Two and a Half Street, the driver of the car drove under the left front of a truck inscribed U.S. Mail and owned by Jack L. Wohlford, 73, Bloomsburg. Jack said the driver of the car "turned off Main Street and came right down the middle of Market Street looking to his left." Jack pointed south on Two and a Half Street, and with a wave of his hand, said, "he was looking off in this direction." The driver of the truck said "I blew my horn and got all the way over to the right, but I couldn't get out of his way."

The mail will still be delivered on schedule, since the Bloomsburg Post Office immediately dispatched one of its trucks to come to Benton to carry the mail to Bloomsburg. The mail will then go to Harrisburg via other means. The post office driver runs "Bloomsburg to Bloomsburg. The truck was heading to Lightstreet from Benton on its way to the post office in Bloomsburg. The round-trip each day is from Bloomsburg, to Millville, to Benton, and back to Bloomsburg with some intermediate stops.

Jack slowly shook his head as he surveyed the damage to his truck and said "I've been thinking of closing this business down anyway." He added, "I haven't had an accident in 40 years." He did admit that "this street is kinda bad" referring to the narrowness of the traffic lanes on Market Street for trucks to pass.

The driver of the red Honda Prelude said that his name was Leonard, and asked my name. I told him and commented on his banged-up eye and his decided limp. By this time he was sitting on the sidewalk smoking a cigarette. He asked that I not use his last name. His parting comment was, "I don't particularly like this gentleman's attitude," referring to the investigating state police officer. The Thursday Press Enterprise reported Leonard's last name as Kislavage.

Wednesday night's Market Street Accident.
Leonard, the driver of the car, is in the right of the picture.

Quote of the Day:
"Neither snow nor rain not heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
--often thought to the official motto of the U.S. Post Office. It is not. Try Herodotus

The Orangeville Public Library will offer a George Turner presentation on Thursday, September 20, 2007. The presentation will take place at the United Methodist Church at 7 PM. The topic is the Orangeville Civil War Orphanage (the predecessor to Orangeville Academy). The public is invited.

If you are a Pennsylvanian who registered your telephone numbers for the Do Not Call list in 2002 you need to re-register by September 15. List registration was valid for five years from the date of initial participation. Subscribers can register their names, addresses, landline and/or cell phone numbers by calling (888) 777-3406 or by visiting www.nocallsplease.com. The toll-free hotline and web site are accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Those who do not re-register by September 15 will be dropped from the registry on November 1.

I am not a fan of either high heat or the bitter cold of the winter. The temperatures these days are pun-ishment to my declining body. I share what I have, and so here is some pun-ishment for you. Didja hear that police were called to a daycare where a three-year-old was resisting a rest? Or didja hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now. When fish are in schools they sometimes take debate. A thief fell and broke his leg in wet cement and became a hardened criminal. His thieving wife stole corn from a garden and was charged with stalking. A professor discovered that her theory of earthquakes was on shaky ground. A dentist and a manicurist fought tooth and nail. Like a calendar, my days are numbered so I'll move to a new topic.

There is a new neighbor in the Borough, one that will attract hundreds of people to the upper Fishingcreek valley over the coming years. Horseshoe courts and a spanking new pavilion at the entrance to the Northern Columbia Community and Cultural Center are nearing completion thanks to private donations primarily from two local men, Carlton “Butch” Young, New Columbus, and Harold Ackerman, Jamison City, men who love a sport indigenous to the United States.

Horseshoe pitching began in the crossroads communities of the United States, where well-fed farmers would gather in front of the blacksmith shops in the twilight after the activities of the day ended. For the most part, these men sat, smoked and talked while they watched the tossing of the horseshoes by the more experienced men as they played the easy going, well-mannered game. At the end of the game, there were no hard feelings and little perspiration, but generally an agreement to meet at the same time the next night. It was a typical sport of well-fed, complacent, "life is good" folks.

Take the time to drive down Community Drive, a continuation of Two and a Half Street, to visit the courts and then proceed south along the beautiful Fishingcreek to the Center itself. The courts are on Center property south of and adjacent to the Benton Volunteer Fire Company parking lot.

In keeping with the Community Center being a project of the entire upper Fishingcreek Valley and the southern portion of Sullivan and Luzerne counties, the pavilion is a "community project" of neighbor helping neighbor. The pavilion was built in partnership with the fire company so that organization can use a portion of it for their chicken barbecues.

In keeping with the fitness and recreation aspects of the Center, board member Carlton Young asked that horseshoe courts be included in the activities of the Center. The Board of Directors of the Center agreed and the new addition is expected to generate considerable use since it is one of few such facilities in the eastern part of the state north of I-80. Evening leagues for the public are being planned, beginning next summer.

The first NHPA (National Horseshoe Pitching Association) sanctioned tournament is scheduled for the weekend of August 25. Pitchers from all over Eastern Pennsylvania are expected to compete. The public is welcome and encouraged to watch the competition.

Carlton received tremendous support and encouragement from many people and businesses. The exterior walls of the pavilion are in place, thanks to Roger Wandell, Aaron Wandell, Chip Saxe and Al Long. The doors and windows of the pavilion and the fencing around the pits will soon be installed. Mike and Kevin Yost of Yost Bros. Excavators along with two helpers, Lee Kocher and Tom Rabock, donated many hours of excavation. Fought’s Disposal Service donated its tractor for moving top soil. Miles Little donated tons of top soil to use in dressing up the courts. Stoney Acres Landscaping donated the railroad ties for the courts. Randy Diltz, New Columbus, made and donated the pegs. Phil Edson and friends are currently wiring the pavilion for the cost of materials. “The private financial support has been critical for this project,” stated Carlton, “but the value of the volunteer help has been priceless.”

A Community Center should serve the entire community and if the mounting enthusiasm over the horseshoe courts are any indication, the community will make the entire project a success.

It is no secret that President Harding (1921-1923) loved the sport of horseshoe pitching and he even went so far as to have pits installed on white house grounds to help him relax from the strains of running the government. President Roosevelt (1933-1945) helped popularize the study of birds, and President Wilson (1913-1921) loved to read aloud the poems of Wordsworth, but neither of these activities would "do it" for me. Neither would listening to Margaret's piano music which relaxed President Truman or the golf of President Eisenhower.

Horseshoe pitching belongs in the same league as the church social, the old swimming hole or the Benton dam, the Farmers Picnic, or the Bloomsburg Fair. I associate the sport with the smell of growing corn or ferns in the forest after a rain or wet, black earth. I can trace its history even farther back, to the days of the husking bees, the butchering in the fall, listening to frogs and crickets sing, with simple tasks and neighborly get-togethers, with a fried chicken dinner on a Sunday morning following a soothing sermon and just preceding a long hammock nap.

Horseshoe pitching will never fit in with the rigors of the big city. Those who strain their nerves for the sake of love, life and money might find pitching a big bore. Those of us from Back Home in Benton, PA, celebrate the arrival of the pits and the hundreds of people who will visit our area to play the game. It will mean a great deal to the local economy. It certainly means a great deal to Harold Ackerman and Carleton Young.

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Wednesday, August 1, 2007. We celebrate the birthdays today of Dr. Brian Becker, Camp Hill; Shirley Keller, Dotyville; Barbara King, Benton; and Seth Eyer, Millville. We hope that it is OK to mention a woman's name when she reaches the age of 80. I am sure that Barbara will tell me if it isn't. These folks share their birthdays with writer Herman Melville and with Washington lawyer Francis Scott Key, who wrote the lyrics for our national anthem.

Covert Action brings their variety of music to Benton tonight. Covert Action is a busy and popular band. This week, for example, they play nightly through Saturday in Clarkstown, Slabtown and Bloomsburg. The "Pet and Toy Parade" is tonight, forming at 6 PM and moving at 7 PM.

The Benton News has often retraced the steps of the McHenry Family and the Distilling Company that was the leading industry in the area for many years following its founding in 1812. The health of the area depended to a great extent on the health of the distillery. When we began tracing the whistle that was mounted on the distillery, we came upon some interesting stories and so we'll digress as we tell about the whistle and some of the things it has "overlooked" in its long lifetime of service on the Distillery, on the silk mill and on the Otto Little & Son Planing Mill. We really don't know much about the whistle that was on the distillery or what year it was made although we did inquire of the company that made it.

I remember something to the effect many years ago that out of the hearing of a steam whistle an American feels like he is in the wilderness.

Little is known about this distillery whistle, although it is assumed that it operated at a low psi, compared with train horns operated by compressed air, typically 130-145 psi, and fed from a locomotive main-air reservoir. This whistle is actuated by a manual lever on a pull-cord. The configuration and dimensions of the bell ("bell" being the correct term for the trumpet assembly) determine the frequency produced (measured in hertz).

The deep-throated sound of this whistle was felt in the chest when we tested it last weekend. Numerous people have told me they remember the sound of the whistle when it--or a similar one--was on the planing mill.

The brass whistle certainly could date from the days when Rohr McHenry headed the McHenry Distilling Company. Rohr was 77 years old when he passed away. He spent his entire life in the local area. He was in the mercantile business for many years and eventually headed up the Distilling Company started by his father in 1812. He was a large land owner in Columbia County when he passed away and left a large estate. He was well known throughout the state. He outlived his wife by 18 years and was survived by his only son, John G. McHenry. The cause of death, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, was "sunstroke," although his official obituary does not mention sunstroke. John G. McHenry was Benton's only United States Representative.

I haven't found any records of the blowing of the whistle on the distillery, or what year the whistle was acquired. I did write to the "Powell Valve" people who manufactured the whistle. The company now does business as the William Powell Valve Company, Cincinnati. The whistle is very large: 28" in height overall with a diameter of 8". The inlet is 2.5" OD. Needless to say, it is also very heavy. After the distillery burned, the whistle was used for a time to signal the lunch break and the end of the working day for the workers at the Otto G. Little Lumber Company, Benton. To show how I tend to forget things not written down, I vividly remember a planning-mill whistle blowing at noon and at 12:30. Miles Little, a man who certainly should know, said that the whistle blew at 7 AM, noon, 1 PM and 5:30 PM.

An event right out of the movies of Hollywood once took place at the McHenry Distillery Bondhouse when 16 men, described in an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer as "bootleggers" armed with revolvers driving "several high-powered automobiles and a giant truck," swooped down on the bond house and fought a short but "sharp" battle with four distillery guards before they were forced to flee from the scene with one of their number badly wounded. In fact, one of the raiders was so badly injured that he had to be carried into a waiting car.

This wasn't the first time that the bond house had been raided for its store of whiskey. As a precaution, the Distillery had raised the number of guards on each shift from one to four as a measure to guard the hundreds of barrels of whiskey stored in the building. The guards "used their rifles and revolvers with such effect that they saved the valuable liquor under their charge."

A touring car was a popular body style in the early 20th century, being a larger alternative to the runabout and the roadster. They were open cars, often fitted with convertible tops. Most early touring cars had a tonneau at the rear giving seating for four or more. By the mid-teens in the United States, the touring car body had evolved into a variety of types, with the four-door touring car, equipped with a convertible top, being the most popular body style offered. The Inquirer described the get-away cars as convertibles.

The truck and three touring cars with their tops down and their head lights off approached the bond house shortly before daylight. The bond house, which is visible in photos shown in the Rohr McHenry article on the FEATURES page of the Benton News, sat about 100 yards from the present Distillery Hill Road on a little hill. The bond house was at that time "thickly hedged" with trees on both sides of it. "Carefully and silently the bootleggers halted their machines." Four remained with the cars, while "twelve stealthily approached the lone building." Can't you just visualize the Hollywood version of this movie!

Separating into two parties of six men each, the squad advanced toward one side of the bond house while the other deployed in the opposite direction. The four guards barricaded inside the structure heard the approach of the cars and with loaded rifles and revolvers covered the steadily advancing raiders from behind barred windows and doors.

While motives are simply not understood all these years after it happened, it appears as though the "bootleggers" intended to attack the bond house from two different directions, since the twelve split into two groups and went in different directions. They probably intended to attack at a given signal, but that didn't happen. One group of six attacked before the other group was in position and ready to commence the fight. The plan went awry.

As the first party arrived in front of the door on one side of the building the guards inside poured a volley of revolver shots at them and then rushed to the other side of the house in time to pour a second volley into the other force which was just ready to launch its offensive.

The raiders attempted to batter down one of the doors with heavy poles, but the rain of lead from within was too much for them and they, together with the party on the other side, turned and fled toward their automobiles which had remained on the road with their engines running in order to provide an instant getaway. One of the marauders was hit by a bullet fired by a guard just as he reached his car and fell, but was dragged into the waiting automobile and they sped away.

When we see farm ponds and covered-over land where the Distillery once was one of the "busiest hives of industry in the county," we lose sight of what was once a major industry. Frank Deitrick was treasurer and general sales agent and it was from his offices that most of the commerce flowed into and out of the plant. The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader of November 11, 1909, reported that the distillery had in its Benton warehouses "a fine stock of over thirty thousand barrels of matured and maturing whiskey." That is a lot of hootch!

To give you an idea of the capacity of the distillery, Deitrick went to Chicago in the fall of 1909 where he "closed a contract" for a term of five years for "case goods" which called for shipment during that period of a minimum of 16,000 cases and a maximum of 30,000 cases annually. This one contract at its minimum combined with several other smaller contracts along with the regular direct trade of the company "insures the sale of over 76 per cent of the company's present manufactured product."

Company advertisements indicated that the "demand for straight and pure rye whiskey, such as is manufactured and sold by the distilling company, is increasing very rapidly. The public is becoming educated on the liquor question and is requiring not only for the home and the sick room--but for its use generally, a pure article rather than being satisfied with the blends and compounds which, until the pure food law became effective, were sold in much larger quantities that at present."