November, 2007 Archives for
the Benton News

November 30, 2007. Happy anniversary to Marv and Marilyn Seward, their 51st. Today is also Wilbur Kocher's birthday and the 48th anniversary of the 21st birthday of Phyllis Young Harrison. Wilbur and Phyllis celebrate their birthdays with author Jonathan Swift and with Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. Garrison Keillor wrote that Twain said "Mamma has morals," quoting Twain's daughter Suzy, "and Papa has cats." Some of our favorite Twain quotes include "You have the words, Livy, but you'll never learn the tune," uttered when he heard his wife swear. Other memorable quotes include "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt." He said, "Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."

We are thrilled about two new businesses in the area: Young's Automotive, Stillwater, 925-6940; and Strevig's Family Restaurant and Tavern, Route 487, in the remodeled building that previously housed the former Kameeo's Restaurant and the former Mortgaged Inn. Look for the restaurant to open next week.

Bob Webster is a favorite speaker at the North Mountain Historical Society and will be back on the third Monday of December at the Brass Pelican Restaurant, the week before Christmas. Bob has made a program change, and tells us that "I put together a program that I think might be interesting to people on the customs and traditions of Christmas." Bob will talk about the various customs of Christmas, many of which have nothing to do with the birth of Jesus--things like Santa Claus, Christmas trees, Saint Nicholas, Christmas carols, sending Christmas cards, hanging up mistletoe, He'll take all these customs and traditions and explain where they started and how they started. The program is free and open to the public. Breakfast is served around 8 AM and the program begins about 9 AM. It all happens Monday, December 17.

Joe Paterno’s salary this year will be $512,664, according to the Harrisburg Patriot News. The salary seem fair for a man who has been the head coach at the same University for 42 years! For comparison, the Iowa coach made almost $3 million in 2006 and Alabama's coach makes $4 million a year.

Didja ever notice that quiet people are not the only ones
who don't say much?

Helen and Alfred Snyder ran the grocery store in Central for 19 years. It was a great gathering place for the locals who could be found sitting around in the evening discussing the important and not-so-important news of the day. Country grocery stores used to be something like barber shops; if one wanted to know the lowdown, check in there. Alfred drove the school bus that carried the local kids from home to school and back.

Helen recently went to Washington, D.C. on a bus sponsored by the Columbia County Commissioners in order to see Washington and the World War II Memorial on the Mall in the Nation's Capitol for the first time. Her trip came more or less by accident. She is one of the generous souls in the area and sent in "a small donation" to help finance a veteran who could not afford to make the trip. As she explained how she got to go on the trip, she said "it snowballed back to me so that I could go." Helen's brother, Michael Maziarczyk, was a radio operator and Helen was particularly interested in seeing the Korean Memorial in which she could see the role of the radio operator. She had such a good time on the trip that she said "if there was ever another one going, I'd sneak back in!"

She shares her thoughts of that day in the following letter...

"I wanted to see if anyone would tell of the bus trip to Washington, D.C. on November 12, 2007, to the World War II Memorial. No one has and it's been too significant not to be told." At this point, she wrote a comment in her own handwriting, and added it to the side of the six-inch by six-inch typed letter. The comment indicated that "Mr. Wesley Swanson, WWII Korean/Vietnam from Millville has written by now, but I would like to add more thank you's too."

Helen then continued her account of the trip, saying, "We left the old Giant parking lot along Central Road with almost our full load, continued on to Berwick and then to Burger King where anyone who wanted was invited for a free coffee.

"After that stop we were on the way. Before that I must tell of the care and concern the younger people showed in helping we (us) oldies and (mostly slow and lame) to get on and into our seats.

"Being I was from the Benton area I was in luck when I started to the bus from my car with a small tote bag, a pillow for my hip (higher the better) though not necessarily for cushioning and a cane; who should come to my assistance but two kids I've known for years, Jim Vance, Jr. and Nevin Dressler, Jr. I felt pampered as they unloaded me to be able to grab the rail to get on the bus.

"On the road to the restaurant for brunch in Maryland we sadly we lost two of our bunch to an unfortunate fall at restaurant steps. One the victim, the other, her true friend to stay behind with her. Then on to D.C., my first trip ever. Not having gone through high school and in 1944 did they have that trip to D.C.?

"I was in tears a few times by then. First to see the old gents and two lady vets and their efforts 60 years ago and then again that day; then to see the George Washington Memorial, then the Lincoln Memorial, then the bus stopped and the World War II Memorial right in front of me. I waited to get off till my eyes cleared and I had a bit more space to maneuver. It was the first time I thought to use the word "awesome" since the Grand Canyon in 1986.

"There was no clear direction for the Vietnam and the Korean Memorials and we scattered to go at our own pace in our own direction, being slow and not wanting to hold anyone up I walked long and hard but missed the other two but did walk all around the whole World War II basin with all the states and other countries counted for. Again waiting for the home trip I witnessed the care and the kindness given to the veterans who needed it by their care givers and the younger men on board.

"I had enlightening conversations with two veterans on the trip. One a seatmate and one who helped me type in my brother's name on the registry. It was amazing to hear their ideas and the fluency of topics from men who had gone through so much and are still so able.

I had just turned 18 two months before the end of the Japanese war and am now 80. These men have to be at least five years older. If one didn't know it would be a guess of a much younger voice and opinion.

To close all I can say with a grateful heart is to finish with a sincere thank you to all the veterans and to the coordinators of the trip.

Helen Snyder
Stillwater, Pa"

A Suzuki Firebelch 500 motorcycle was in my arsenal of weapons years ago. It was my answer to the rising gas prices. If Dave Garroway or Barbara Walters were live on the Today show from an outside location in Washington, D.C., my now-deceased first wife and I would hop on the motorcycle and head for Washington. We would park anywhere and see a free outdoor concert of the Beach Boys or other middle-of-the-road group that sucked in a huge television audience for NBC. There was only one problem.

Cars keep coming much too close for comfort. Motorcycles seem to travel in a blind spot for cars which became all too evident once when driving my car I changed lanes without adequately seeing what was to my right. I almost ran into a motorcycle. From that time on, wherever I drove the motorcycle I assumed that someone would try to hit me and then it became a game of figuring out which car it would be. I was always on guard, always alert. Nothing ever happened and I was fine. Computers are much the same.

Security is a major problem for the person just starting out on a computer. Some get that point; others ignore it. Some newbies surf paranoid, afraid to open anything or try anything. Some newbies believe that by clicking a button on what appears to be a legitimate web site will really win them an all-expense paid trip to a time share in Jamaica or that opening that enclosure on an email from someone they never heard of will give them more information about this charming Nigerian woman who is willing to give them half of the $15 million she secretly has in a bank account in the United States. The real answer lies somewhere in the middle and somewhat parallels the amount of personal insurance the user carries. Some insured have just enough to get their driver's license, while others are protected from having their roof collapse from floating elephants in a hurricane.

Computer protection is a little more than developing an unflinching good habit about not opening unknown attachments. Every person who writes to me had best be running an anti-virus program. I take no chances on incoming email. If my filters tell me there is a problem with an incoming email, it gets trashed and not opened. For a newbie, I would say that something like the free version of Avast is good enough, or perhaps buy Norton or if you run Comcast McAfee comes free. Keep in mind that if you change anti-virus software it is essential that you completely delete the old anti-virus software first and don't think things will work correctly by running multiple anti-virus programs on the same computer.

It is important to read about malware and why downloading Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware is important computer protection.

It seems like a lot of people are waiting for their ship to come in
when they never sent one out!

A very interesting web site, http://www.gravmag.com/oil.html, can provide a wealth of information about the oil situation in this country. This web site is worth a visit.

A House panel voted Wednesday for a version of an open records law, House Bill 2072, which is similar to the just-passed Senate bill, but has at least one major difference. It treats all four government groups--executive branch, legislature, courts and local agencies--the same, presuming that most records are open. The House wouldn't exempt the Legislature and the courts from this stricter standard, as the Senate bill does. It is slated for a vote next week.

Clair Ivan Crawford (July 20, 1942-November 28, 2007), Main Street, Orangeville, died Wednesday. He was 65. He was born in Lightstreet, a son of Ivan Crawford, Berwick, and the late Dorothy (Funk) Crawford. He was a 1961 graduate of Central Columbia High School. He is survived by his wife, Barbara (Dildine) Crawford, and his father, and by daughters Rae L. Morris (Dave), Stillwater; Tameria K. Wodrig (Chuck), Stillwater, and Zina N. Minnick (Bill), Mifflinville. There are five grandchildren: Haley and Hamilton Morris; Brooke and Weston Wodrig; and Caitlin Minnick. Clair had two brothers, Earl Crawford (Joyce), Lightstreet; Max Crawford (Renna), Buckhorn, and a sister, Jane Smith (Tom), Millertown. A Celebration of Life Service will be held Saturday, December 1, at 2 PM at the Orangeville United Methodist Church. Burial will be private in the Laurel Hill Cemetery, Orangeville. Immediately following the service at the church there will be a fellowship luncheon at the Orangeville Fire Company where people will be encouraged to share stories about Clair’s life.

November 29, 2007. Happy birthday to Robert Edward Kline.

Upcoming...

. December 19, 2007. The Fishing Creek Femme Fatale Chapter of the Red Hat Society will hold its Christmas gathering at Balzanos at Husky Corners, Bloomsburg, at 1 PM. The menu will be tossed salad, Panko chicken, baked ziti, mixed-steamed vegetables, rolls, dessert tray, coffee, tea, iced tea and soda. The cost will be $13 including tax and tip. Reservations and prepayment are required and should be made to Jackie Malhoyt, treasurer, 8 Red Gravel Road Stillwater 17878 not later than December 15. Everyone is asked to bring a $5 gift to exchange.

. December 20, 21, 22, 2007. A Night in Bethlehem will be performed from 6 to 8 PM nightly at the Benton United Methodist Church. The whole family will enjoy the night of food, crafts, sights and sounds as you journey through Bethlehem the night the Savior was born.

. February 28-March 9, 2008. The Florida Strawberry Festival, Plant City, Florida. There are over 5,000 acres of strawberries produced by some 2,600 farms, but the festival is also famous for citrus, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, okra, peppers, beans, dairy products, eggs, ornamental horticulture, tropical fish, beef cattle, swine and other related products.

Congratulations to the following local people who were elected solely via the write-in process during the recent election, noting that the winner has the option of declining the position...
. Benton Borough, Chris Meigs, Assessor; Dan Hartman, Borough Council

. Benton Township: Pam Tucker, Auditor

. Sugarloaf Township: Kay Stanton, Auditor

. Stillwater Borough, Ferne Yost, Sherry Weaver, Auditor; David Miller, John S. Kline, Jr., Thomas Dougher, Jr., Borough Council

Someone once said that business is what, when you don't have any, you go out of. Some local businesses and churches are doing a thriving business with books for the Christmas season. Here are some examples...
. Red Rock Corner Store is selling Peter Tomasak's new book, The Life & Times of Robert Bruce Ricketts, which retails for $26.45 including tax. The 410-page book is loaded with pictures of the local area and would make an excellent Christmas present. Only 100 copies have been printed to date.

. Brass Pelican Restaurant. The latest version of the Jamison City book is now on sale at the Pelican. I'll review the book when I get my copy. There are also many other books for sale at the Brass Pelican.

. The Christian Women's Ministries of the Benton Christian Church is selling cookbooks as Christmas presents for $10 each. Contact Peggy Follmer, 925-5908.

Quickies...
. For the reader complaining about the lack of storage space on his computer, Google Inc. plans to soon offer users a way to store information on its hard drives they would otherwise put on the hard drives of their personal computers. Google will let users store documents, files, music and video free and then permit access through the internet from any computer.

. Didja hear about the $800,000 in stolen tractors and the arrest of a California man on suspicion of vehicle theft and possession of stolen property? A global positioning system (GPS) known as "LoJack" on a stolen John Deere asphalt roller led the Fresno County Sheriff's Department Ag Task Force to equipment including a backhoe and two diesel engines. Police recommended that equipment should always be inventoried and photographed. John Deere uses GPS to assist in driving equipment and minimize passes through fields with fertilizers and chemicals. A LoJack system installed costs about $800. The savings from locating a missing tractor--Priceless.

. My advice for those people who drink like a fish is to swim, not drive.

. Didja ever wonder what it would be like to live in a four-level condominium?

. Authority to create a series of interrelated non-commercial radio stations serving the Dushore and Laporte areas in Sullivan County and other areas of the "Endless Mountain" area was recently filed with the Federal Communications Commission. The filing indicated the station would serve the educational-program market with news, public information and jazz.

By an overwhelming majority--48-1--a bill to expand the public's access to government records passed the state Senate Wednesday. The bill now goes to the House where yesterday the State Government Committee approved a bill modeled on the Senate version. The measure defines as public all records of the state's executive branch and local government agencies, unless a record falls into one of 28 exceptions dealing with investigations, personal privacy, public security, and unfinished drafts.

Game Commission bear-check stations recorded preliminary figures of 2,004 bears killed during the November 19-21 season, and an additional 23 bears during the two-day archery-bear harvest. The total bear harvest of 2,027 for these two seasons is significantly less than the 3,122 bears during all three seasons of 2006 and the 4,164 during the 2005 season. Local totals for 2007 and 2006 are Bradford, 38 (33); Luzerne, 35 (46); Sullivan, 22 (67); and Columbia, 20 (17).

 

November 28, 2007. Tuesday was an absolutely beautiful hunting day in Sullivan County, the fog lifted, temperatures hovered about 38°, a light snow fell. In fact, it was such a nice day that all the deer must have taken a trip to a neighboring county. The movie The Trouble with Cali began filming in and around Scranton a year ago today. A release date has not been announced.

Quickies...
• The Benton United Methodist Church will take "Angel Food" orders at the church Friday, November 30, from 5-7 PM and Saturday, December 1, from 9-11 AM.

• Robert Ridall and Ramona Heaps will represent Benton and Sugarloaf townships for the next four years. Ramona Heaps was certified by Judge Thomas James, Jr. Monday and will assume her position on the Benton Area school board December 5. A new representative to the Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech board will be named.

• The Sullivan Review has begun publishing Wednesday mornings in lieu of Thursday mornings on a trial basis.

• Nina Ford, Huntington Mills, one of the many volunteers who make the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center such a nice place to visit, got a deer on the way home from volunteer duty Tuesday morning. Nina wasn't sporting a rifle. She used the back door of her Firebelch 500 automobile, which the hapless deer chose to ram. She said it made her feel just like Daniel Boone! A body shop is looking at the damage now.

• A reader suggested that a review of www.patreasury.org/Unclaimed/Search.html , the Pennsylvania unclaimed property listing, might result in finding a treasure worth keeping.

The Christmas season is approaching, and for those who are thinking of a new computer the question is "desktop" or "laptop." There are reasons for and against for both. Here is a quick, incomplete comparison...
• Desktop, meaning a personal computer. You can probably get more whoopty-dos with a PC, lots of power, a Firebelch video card, powerful processors, maximum memory and capacity. You can get hugemongous monitors and a keyboard and mouse to your liking. You'll end up with wires running everywhere, a relatively heavy tower that is always in your way and travels poorly. Add-ons can make the meter spin. Optional speakers can rattle windows, but can produce impressive sounds.

• Laptops. Easy to carry and use, small, convenient, makes a nice resting place for the family cat who likes the warmth rather than the feel, slides under the car seat on a long trip and can be used as a GPS when you get lost and can access a wireless network when you stop at Starbucks or Panera Bread or a library in a far-off city. The mouse, keyboard, monitor and speakers are built in and there are few external wires. You'll be able to eat your Country Store baloney in your undies in the living room while using a wireless connection, rather than sitting in Aunt Sally's uncomfortable desk chair she bought when she went to house-keeping. There are downsides, too, as when the laptop disappears from under the car seat, or Grandma steps on the darn thing during one of her sidestep maneuvers or the mouse no longer responds to the "e" key, or the monitor gets scratched, or meltdown takes place when you stay in a gin-mill longer than you intended. Laptops are difficult to upgrade once purchased.

Bottom Line: Power users probably need the PCs. Everyone else can consider the laptop. Either way, if specifications are not complete when you buy your new computer there is a high probability that you are getting a model that is obsolete.

Computers are not high on the list of Christmas giving and so we should look elsewhere for the appropriate present. I asked around and came up with a number of suggestions. One man, who apparently had spent all his money on whiskey and women and wasted the rest, didn't plan to buy any presents this Christmas. This romantic soul said he and his wife do their shopping right after Christmas when the sales begin.

Some of the men intended to buy gadgets they felt their significant others needed. One felt that four new snow tires would do it "for the Mrs." One 70-plus year-old man said he was getting "Mother" the new set of pots and pans she always dreamed of, although he admitted he didn't have a clue what kind or how many she needed.

Women are quite different in their shopping. They include "ponder" in their purchases, leaving out the male trait of "quickness and finality." Men are more likely to find a flannel shirt for Cousin Ralphie, then buy eight more identical shirts for each male member of the family--with none in the correct size. Women wouldn't think of throwing out the sale slip, whereas men don't have any idea what they did with it. Men tend to get one big present that encompasses the entire family, like a GPS to hang in the family truck. Women head to the mall to "find a little something" for everyone and as a result are a boon to the Chinese economy.

If I had the money, I would give Marcia Kay the perfect gift--and would test drive it a couple of times before I presented it to her.

As a result of all this, Christmas becomes very orderly. When the first man in the family opens his present the rest of the men in the family know full well what he will receive--the only question is how close to the right size it will be. On the other hand, men can never figure out what the women in their lives will give them. Will it be the white shirt one size too small as an inducement to go on a diet? Will it be the orange tie with powder-puff blue shirt that looked so good on the Macy's gift table? Or will it be a gift certificate to the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble?

The best thing about shopping for Christmas presents is that the women in my life have always told me not to worry about it, that they would handle the job themselves. I like it that way although I think I'll go out and test drive something just in case...

 

November 27, 2007. Happy birthday to Hope Miller.

The first day of buck season has some definite characteristics...

Getting up early after staying up late, but not feeling tired.

Eating buckwheat cakes and sausage, home fries and eggs at 5 in the morning.

Hearing old timers say that deer season doesn’t excite them all that much anymore as they pour syrup in their coffee and drizzle cream on their cakes.

Putting on so many clothes you can hardly move.

Panting to the top of the mountain and then freezing as you vegetate in your deer stand.

Remembering what you left in the car after you get to your stand.

Hearing the first shots and deciding you picked the wrong stand.

Hearing the first twenty shots and knowing you picked the wrong stand.

Moving to another stand and hearing a "meat shot" where you were just standing.

Thinking you have a spot all to yourself, only to turn around and find someone slashing through the underbrush toward you.

Downing all the smashed food that you had packed for the entire day by 9 AM.

Seeing wild turkeys you’d been hoping to find for the past month.

Attempting to suck down Reese's Pieces candy with frozen thumbs inside stiff gloves.

Staying out all day in weather you wouldn’t dream of working in.

Seeing a buck appear out of the fog, seeing a huge rack, slowly raising your gun, steadying the cross hairs on the shoulder, hearing a snort, squeezing the trigger, and watching the white tail wave goodbye.

Wanting to wrap your rifle around a cherry tree.

Having fun and forgetting cares and worries, a time to come alive, a time to be free.

You can learn more about deer hunting in our state by visiting the Game Commission website.

Didja know that Schwendfelders were the forerunners of the Quakers. They came to Pennsylvania in 1734 carrying with them their sixteenth century volumes of literature reproduced in neatly written manuscripts. In 1734, upon their arrival, they established a "Gedachtnis Tag" which could best be described as "Thanksgiving." These people established the Perkiomen Seminary, Pennsburg, PA.

The annual Christmas Musical at the Fairmount Springs United Methodist Church is coming up December 9 at 2 PM. This is my favorite musical event of the holiday season! The church is usually lined in poinsettias and just as pretty as any church you'll ever see. This year there will be over 30 participants with many music instrumentals and many vocal selections. Ashley Sorber has promised to climb behind the piano and Arithe Sorber will charm us with her flute, the congregation will be called on to break into song, there will be some prayer reminding us that we are honoring Jesus and the season. Thelma Steinruck, Mill Street, will loosen up her 86-year old vocal cords to produce her famous "Yodl - Ay - EEE - Ooooo." Come and enjoy an afternoon of music. Everyone is welcome. For more information, call 864-3618.

Many lenders who focused on people with poor credit have gone bust while big banks and investors who made subprime loans or bought securities backed by them are reporting billions of dollars in losses. As this scenario plays out around the country, the consolidated statement of income for the nine-month period ended September 30 for the CCFNB Bancorp, Inc., parent company of the Columbia County Farmers National Bank, is much different. Although subject to year-end audit adjustments, the local bank enjoyed an increase of earnings per share from $1.47 a year ago to $1.61 during the current period.

Pennsylvania law does not start with the presumption that government records are public records and that citizens are entitled to see them. The law defines the concept of "public record" very narrowly to include only those documents that are an "account, voucher or contract" or a "minute, order or decision." This precludes a wide range of information that should be open to the public, including studies, reports, plans and databases--none of which is covered under the current law.

The Pennsylvania House attempted to correct this problem and made a mess out of the situation, tacking on amendment after amendment, before lawmakers quit in frustration. They then hammered out a new bill which is patterned after the Senate version of the changes to the law. Although House leaders claim the House will vote on the new bill within the next ten days, the exact language hasn't been made public at this writing. It appears as though the Pennsylvania Senate version of the Open Records Bill, known as "The General Assembly of Pennsylvania Senate Bill No. 1 Session of 2007, will be voted on this week. Stay tuned.

 

November 26, 2007. It is the opening day of what we call "buck season" in Pennsylvania. Be a responsible hunter and neighbor: observe safety zones and private property and be sure of what you are shooting. The local school is closed, the woods have yards of orange in them, men and boys and some women and girls of legal age are in the woods trying to "bang a buck." The weather is much better than it was for the opening day of bear season--although rain is forecast.

Man (the hunter) will attempt to outthink buck (the animal) for the next two weeks as hunters head outdoors in pursuit of the male white-tailed deer. Deer for the next two weeks will rely on their natural instincts without resorting to a lot of thinking. Man will think things through and pretty much ignore his natural instincts. Many hunters will simply lose the chase because of the simplicity and effectiveness of the animal instinct.

Lets see if I can explain. A deer isn't alarmed by hearing dogs bark and roosters crow, or by cars and trucks in the distance. Deer watch as we cross back and forth in their field of vision. They smell the coffee, the buckwheat cakes and the wood smoke, watching intently for anything out of the norm, while the sights and sounds of its environment that it has known since it was a baby don't alarm him. When the season arrives for deer hunting, the hunter dons his required orange coloring, gets downwind from the expected path of the deer, and hides well. Still, a deer notes the strange shape and knows it doesn't belong in his world. The instinct of the deer, alert 24/7, is danger, even though it has never been fired at, harmed in any way, never read in the newspaper that hunting season had opened. The deer doesn't stop and think, he bolts instinctively before he ever attempts to reason. The hunter has no idea what he did wrong since he looks at the hunt from his relatively complex point of view, not from the black and white of the deer's thinking.

If we think back to the primitive hunter who relied on the animal for his food, clothing and traditions you'll realize that these people thought like animals. They were tuned in with the animals they were after. These people didn't sit on a stump or climb a couple of feet up a knurly old tree. They realized that sitting on a ridge looking down into the valley was simple two-way vision and at one end the hunter was outlined against the sky. Deer simply saw the hunters and chose a route away from the hunters. The hunters never had a clue that a deer was in the area. The giveaway was possibly a dark-colored outfit attempting to blend in against nature's background. Many hunters have watched in the distance as a granddaddy buck stood motionless for minutes, always outlasting the hunter who never did figure out why he didn't get a chance to shoot the deer. The deer, which can only see grey and shades of gray, doesn’t see the fluorescent clothing; it sees the movement. (Birds, on the other hand, do see color, but again if the hunter blends in with the environment, if the lines of the hunter are broken up, the hunter has a better chance of not being detected.) And imagine what a deer will do if a hunter peers around a tree trunk and sees a deer close up. That deer will be in the next township in seconds. (Ancient hunters were said to slowly rise up with a branch in front of their face.)

Deer do not look up or down, but seem to look in a line on their own level. Deer hunters in a tree or prone on the ground will often do better than one sitting or standing (although for the same reasons this is not true of a turkey hunter). Deer listen intently, and the sounds of nylon or a squeaking boot or cellophane or just a broken stick under a hunter's boot will give the hunter away. If the sound doesn't spook the deer, it may spook other woods birds or animals which in turn alerts the deer. Clear away twigs before you plop down. Think of a huge whitetail running in the woods and the number of feet he runs without you ever hearing a sound; then think of the nasty crack you heard when you broke off a branch as you sat down. Take the time to look at yourself as your prey looks at you. Good luck with the hunt.

Keep Ora Karns in your thoughts today. She is back at Loyalton Bloomsburg but is very weak, on oxygen and needs to use a wheel chair. At the moment, she cannot use the walker because of her weak legs. She is fine mentally, with good memory both short and long term.

Northern Columbia County Town Watch (NCCTW) will hold its November meeting Monday night at 7 PM at the Benton United Methodist Church, Main St. The December meeting will also be held there on Monday, December 17. We are looking for new members and will be voting in new officers in December. NCCTW is a joint effort between law enforcement and the community designed to enhance security and keep our neighborhoods safe!

The police scanner yesterday reported a string of calls to the Buckhorn Wal-Mart for shoplifting, which brought to mind a story which goes something like this... A lady was weed-eating her yard in preparation for the onslaught of snow and accidentally cut off the tail of her cat hiding in the tall grass. She rushed her cat along with the tail to Wal-Mart instead of heading for a vet. She explained to the puzzled receptionist at the SuperCenter that she had heard that Wal-Mart is the largest re-tailer in the world.

One of the emails that lined my inbox yesterday dealt with minorities and I thought it worthwhile to repeat it here. On the subject of minorities, the writer made the point that we need to show more sympathy for these people since they travel miles in the heat, risk their lives every day by crossing a border, don't get paid enough wages, do jobs that others won't do or are afraid to do, live in crowded conditions among a people who speak a different language, rarely see their families and face adversity all day every day.

The writer wasn't talking about illegal Mexicans. She was talking about our troops.

The email ended, "Doesn't it seem strange that many Democrats and Republicans are willing to lavish all kinds of social benefits on illegal aliens, but don't support our troops and are now threatening not to fund them?"

We have a lot to be proud of with the people who made our state what it is. The Quaker followers of William Penn (and the Baptist followers of Roger Williams who settled Rhode Island) were the only American colonists who founded colonies to escape religious oppression and were of a mind to give that degree of religious freedom they claimed for themselves to others of differing religious opinion.

It is always a pleasure to stand at the Capitol building in Harrisburg and look outside at the valley and the river and the hills surrounding that city and then to look inside the dome of the building where are inscribed the words of William Penn concerning the founding of his colony:

"That we may do the thing that is truly wise and just...
"That an example may be set up to the nations...
"That there may be room there for such a holy experiment...
"For the nations wait a precedent...
"And my God will make it the seed of a nation."

"And my God will make it the seed of a nation." How true those words became. The Constitution of the United States unequivocally states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Other colonies accepted this principle that stemmed from our Commonwealth and they embodied that concept in their State Constitutions.

Deb and Nevin Dressler, in conjunction with the Columbia County Commissioners and others in the area, had the privilege to accompany the World War II veterans and widows to Washington, D.C. on November 12 to visit the World War II Memorial. There were more than 40 veterans and widows on the bus. The group spent two hours at the World War II Memorial and several vets asked to see the Viet Nam and Korean memorials. Other visitors at the memorial wanted to shake the veterans' hands and little kids wanted their picture taken with the vets. The experience brought up a lot of memories and the guys enjoyed the opportunity to share common feelings.

Another trip is planned in the spring for other veterans in the area. If you know of a veteran who would like to make the trip, please contact the Columbia County Commissioners at 389-5600.

Picture courtesy of Deb Dressler

 

November 25, 2007. The Benton Volunteer Firemen are holding their monthly buckwheat cake and sausage breakfast this morning. Iva Mae Conner celebrates her birthday.

Some old pictures surfaced of a five-passenger touring car built by the Duesenberg Automobile and Motors Company, Indianapolis, being driven through the streets of Benton with Harry Magee in tow. I remember seeing the car in Los Vegas at the Imperial Palace, along with another one once owned by Mr. Magee.

The 1930 Duesenberg on the left was originally owned by Harry Magee.

You can get a preview of the many classic cars on display now at the Imperial Palace by going here.

The Duesenberg was built from 1913 to 1937. The Duesenberg "Straight 8" had eight cylinders "all in a row" with hydraulic brakes on all four wheels. The car was advertised to have extreme flexibility, power and easy riding. Fred S. Duesenberg also built racing cars and airplane motors. An unusual feature of the car was the one-piece camshaft mounted above the cylinder heads and overhead valves. The car has a wheelbase of 134 inches. The brakes were operated hydraulically with a central piston located near the gear box connected with smaller pistons in the drums on the wheels by tubes which carried a special fluid. The "parking" brake which took the place of the usual emergency brake worked directly on the drive shaft with the result that there are no brake rods on the car.

The vehicles that were commonly called "Duesies" in the 1920s and 1930s introduced an interesting name into our vocabulary, although evidence exists that the word "Duzzie" (or doozy as some dictionaries spell it) had been around before the 1920s. If you have further interest in the subject, visit the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana, a National Historic Landmark.

Two "people" who had doozies for names come to mind. The first was "BRFXXCCXXMNPCKCCCC111Mmnprxv1mnckssqlbb11116" (whose Swedish parents got fined $753 for naming their son that silly, unpronounceable name). The second doozie of a name was Sik Kohl.

John Herbert Laubach recalled that there are some references to Ezekiel Cole, the first man to build a prosperous grist mill on Fishingcreek, in the "Day Book" of John Christian Laubach. Christian (the early Germans tended to "throw away" the first name) Laubach moved into the northern end of Columbia Country about 1794 or 1795. John Herbert wrote,

"I would not consider the Day Book spelling as authoritative. John Christian tended to write things according to German phonetics. However, since so many of John Christian's associates were German immigrants, they probably did use the German spelling in their early days.

In any case, John Christian referred to Ezekiel Cole as "Sik Kohl." In German, an "s" that begins a word is pronounced as a "z." Hence, the German "Sik" would be pronounced "Zeke."

On December 24, 1794, John Christian recorded that "Sik Kohl" had borrowed a substantial sum (22 Pounds) from Johannes Gotthart," known elsewhere as "John Godhard." Godhard was the grandfather of John Christian's wife. He came to live with John Christian late in his life. Several local persons borrowed money from him.

There were additional references to "Sik Kohl" in August, 1795, when John Christian worked for Zeke Cole in connection with corn, perhaps the milling of corn. The "Day Book" of John Christian Laubach was lent me by Ethel Laubach, the widow of John Paul Laubach. It was written in German and tracked much of the day labor of John Christian from the time of his youth near Bethlehem, Pa. The time period was from 1782 until 1795. John Christian settled near the crest of what is now Kearcuff Road, near Camp Lavigne."

In the late 1800s, wildlife was dwindling as a result of deforestation, pollution and unregulated hunting and trapping. From this period emerged the Game Commission.

"It is feast or famine," Mother used to say, commenting on whether things were going well for her or not. The same has long applied to the availability of white-tailed deer in our state. The Philadelphia Inquirer, in an article in its issue of November 5, 1879, provided some insight into the hunting of deer long before anyone now alive can remember.

According to the article, deer had been plentiful "twenty-five years before," but "indiscriminate hunting, in and out of season, nearly exterminated the game. In 1877, sportsmen in parts of the state decided to take extreme measures to insure the future availability of deer."

Hunters banded to form a game society. In Pike County, a law was drafted prohibiting the hunting of deer in that county for three years. Heavy penalties awaited those who strayed from the rules. Deer were given a brief, three-year respite from both hunter and hound.

The article told about a large buck, followed by three hounds, which dashed through the village of Bushkill a few years previously, down Main Street until it plunged into Bushkill creek. A score of hunters, with guns, were soon on its track. It was headed off in the creek by a woman who was washing clothes in the stream, and it doubled on his tracks and started back for the mountains. A shot from one of the hunters turned it again, and it ran through the back yards of half a dozen houses and made for the Delaware River. As it jumped a rail fence, it was hit by another hunter. It fell, but was quickly on its feet, and it continued on its way to the river.

Two boys were fishing for bass in the Delaware. They saw the deer coming, and began yelling to chase it back. It jumped in the stream and swam toward the Jersey shore. The boys tried to row ahead of it, but could not. On reaching the Jersey shore, two farmers saw it and forced it turn. It jumped back in the river. The boys rowed in front of it, and one of them struck it with his oar. The other grabbed the deer by the horns. With a sudden jerk of his head, the buck pulled the boy from the boat into the river. The lad swam for the shore. The Pennsylvania shore of the river was now lined with excited men, women and children. The dogs that had chased the buck from the woods swam out to where it was in the river, and a terrible fight broke out between the dogs and the buck. A hunter jumped into a boat and rowed out to where the deer and dogs were fighting. He shot the buck through the head and towed it ashore.

As the winter weather hits our streets and our sidewalks, you might ponder where all the highway deicing rock salt that is used to raise the freezing temperature of snow is processed. On the outskirts of Geneseo, New York, where I spent the Thanksgiving holiday, is the home of the American Rock Salt Company, the largest operating salt mine (18,000 tons each day) in the United States. This is the only underground salt mine in the United States built in the last 40 years.

The American Rock Salt Company owns and operates a rock salt mine located approximately 35 miles south of Rochester just east of the western and central New York and Pennsylvania snow belt. Its principal customers are government agencies that purchase rock salt for ice control on public roadways. The Company has mineral rights to over 10,000 underground acres, most of which are located within a mile radius of its drill holes.

Some may remember that in 1994, the Akzo salt mine collapsed. At the time, the mine was the largest salt mine in North America. The mine was across the Genesee River Valley from the present American Rock Salt mine. On March 12, 1994, part of the mine roof collapsed and millions of gallons of water flooded the mine which covered an area roughly the size of Manhattan some 1,200 feet underground. There were no injuries.

The following is a picture of Idlers Camp, Forks, so named, the grandson of the original owner maintains, because Sheriff Dent and others from the Columbia County Courthouse spent a lot of their idle time there. The thought was that since "they didn't have a real job" that would be a perfect name for the place. William D. Creasy, generally known as W.D. Creasy, was a justice of the peace in Forks, the owner of Idlers Camp, and lived on the farm of his father, John P. Creasy, a soldier during the Civil War.The farm was the first one below the old Forks Hotel. The grove was situated where Fishingcreek angles east and meets Knob Mountain. Older readers will remember that it was east of where Carl Fleckenstein lived.

To access the grove, it was necessary to turn behind the Twin Bridges and continue on that road as far south as the road went. There was a great deal of lawn around the grove and was an ideal location to hold a picnic. The ACF in the early 1940s held its company picnics there. Those who attended the picnics from Berwick would ride the train to Bloomsburg, then ride the Bloomsburg & Sullivan Railroad to Forks.

During a severe flood in March, 1941, the high, swirling waters moved the supporting stone pillars and the building collapsed. The family tore it down. Today, the area is grown up during the warm months with an invasive weed known as Japanese Knot Weed. The foundation and part of a huge outdoor fireplace remain.

 

November 24, 2007. Today's birthdays include Paxton DePoe, Luke Becker and Agnes Hess. Bill and Janet Beishline and Ron and Alice Strauch celebrate their wedding anniversaries.

Quickies...
• Want to get the "skinny" on a place? Go to http://zipskinny.com/ and enter your zip or click or the state and select a town or city.

• Are you smarter or stoopider than the average person? Take a simple IQ test at http://www.flashbynight.com/test/ and find out.

• Beta 1 of Firefox 3 has now been released with some wonderful new features. The program will be released to the public in the near future.

• There was an enthusiastic response to the request for someone with whom to communicate by email for the former Bentonian currently living in Oregon.

It is a new day and a new bill to change Pennsylvania's Open-Records Law has been introduced in the state House of Representatives. House Democrats decided to introduce a new bill closely aligned with the Senate's open-records proposal. The House will likely take up the bill when they return to session December 3. Open records could be considered next week in the state Senate.

A local farmer once named his favorite dog "Dog," his second favorite dog was named "Dog," and, in fact, his wife's lap dog was named "Dog." Life was simple. When the farmer called out for "Dog," he was sure of getting all the dogs in the household. It isn't as easy for us humans. People ended up with last names--known as bynames or surnames--to distinguish them from others with the same first name. Bynames were given to an individual--not a family--by convenience and circumstance, not by birth. Surnames were taken by families and passed on to their offspring, generation after generation, although spelling often changed. The surname in our family changed from Clyn to Cline to Kline. Many surnames originated as bynames.

As everyone who reads the Benton News knows, names of towns and the reason for the names are important in our area. The Borough and the Township of Benton can be traced back to Thomas Hart Benton, Zaners gets its name from Charles Paxton Zaner and Fowlersville goes back to the first postmaster, Gilbert Fowler. Lopez takes its name from a drowning victim, probably of Spanish background. Mocanaqua comes from the Indian name of Frances Slocum who took the name Maconaquah" meaning "little bear woman." These are names connected with a family.

In fact, many of our local post offices took their names from influential members of the community and many from its first postmaster. The little community of "Laubach," for example, was named for Andrew Laubach. The town of Jim Thorpe takes its name from the man King Gustav V of Sweden called "the greatest athlete in the world.” Waller takes its name from Dr. David J. Waller, Sr., a Presbyterian minister and civic leader in Bloomsburg.

Our county name came from the song, Hail Columbia. Many who live in the area have last names which denote occupations; i.e., Baker, Smith and Taylor come to mind, as do Chapman (English for merchant); Cooper (English for a maker of barrels); and Shumacher (German for shoemaker). Names sometimes take on an aspect of a relationship, as in Dickerson or Larson, Norse for Lar's son. We have the Greens, the Whites and the Browns--obviously names that originated with a color.

There are the names than came from a geographical location like Berwick or Lungerville or Hill or Coles Creek or Honesdale or Koonsville. Rohrsburg was named for German-born Frederick Rohr (Roher). There are those who obtained their names from a thing, like a rose or a frost or a foot or from snow or a factory. Stillwater falls into this category. You can be "from" or "of" a place.

Some towns were named in error like Hazel Town, but those errors are usually corrected as the post office tried to do with the name Hazeltown. A clerk in Harrisburg finally got the name spelled the way it is today. Jameson City was another town incorrectly named, but eventually made right. Another botched town name was Emmaus, misspelled as Emaus on the original charter and known as E-mouse for many years until they got the name changed back to the correct spelling.

And then there are those people who have made such a difference that their names become the basis for a new word in the language.

• Bloomer. Schoolteacher Amelia Jenks Bloomer met her future husband, Dexter, and convinced him that although marriage was okay, the word "obey" would have to be omitted from the vows. The committed feminist went on to promote dress reform for women, and founded The Lily, a women's suffrage journal. Shortly after her marriage, Bloomer began writing editorials for upstate New York papers and eventually promoted the "bifurcated skirt" which we all know as "bloomers" in a rebellion against the "hoop skirt." Imagine the snorting when she first appeared at a meeting of the Seneca Falls ( New York) Temperance Society with her skirt shrunk all the way to her knees and the lower part of her legs enveloped in some sort of men's trousers.

• Chauvinism. Nicolas Chauvin was a soldier of the First French Empire. He fought for Napoleon and was severely wounded. Napoleon gave Chauvin a saber of honor as compensation, as well as a red ribbon and two hundred francs or about forty dollar a year. Chauvin was happy beyond words and grateful for the remainder of his life to Napoleon. His name has come to mean exaggerated and aggressive nationalism.

• Mesmerize. Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer became possessed with the powers of an invisible magnetic fluid. He wore a sack around his neck containing a magnet and slowly the magnet was credited with being the cure for ear trouble and the gout and much more. Once when bleeding a patient, a common cure for "what ails you," he noticed that her cramps went away when he approached. He soon was attempting healing by magnets. Not until he became famous did he realize that it wasn't the magnet although we suspect that he did have some sort of "animal magnetism." One can't deny that the powers of a charismatic personality creates the notion in a believer to effect untold numbers of miraculous payoffs. He once "mesmerized" a young blind pianist by dressing her in a loose smock to transfer his magnetic powers through the hands-on kneading of her breasts, thighs and buttocks. The Imperial Morality Police decided that the cure of a hypnotic, or spasmodic sleep (as he called it), was worst than the illness!

“The deer hunting season started out badly, but has now picked up so much that more hunters have been killed than usual.”
-- Philadelphia Inquirer, November 24, 1910. This quote is taken from a paragraph from the News from Back Home in Benton, PA, for Sunday, the day before the opening of buck season in the Commonwealth. The article is about—surprise, surprise—deer hunting.

 

November 23, 2007. Bob and Kathryn Maynes celebrate their 61st wedding anniversary today on Bob's 86th birthday. Bruce Jankowski turns 54. On this date in 1945, most U.S. wartime rationing of foods ended, including meat and butter. There are 29 days left until the official start of winter and Christmas is fast approaching. Don't you wish that you had taken out a Christmas Club this year!

In Search of...
• A propane-powered kitchen stove. The need for a lot of cooking played out a local couple's 30" propane stove on Thanksgiving day. Any reader with one they want to part with, please email me. Cold cereal isn't going to cut it for this couple, judging from the cold-weather forecast for the coming days.

• A correspondent. A 69-year-old disabled veteran who now lives south of Portland, Oregon, and is a full-time occupant in a recreation vehicle, would like to have someone with whom to email and correspond. He grew up east of Route 239 near the Hamline Church. Email me and I'll put you in touch.

• Lovers of piano music to listen to Ray Charles, Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis on stage at the same time playing their very best hit music! Then throw in Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones and you have some fine music.

Didja know that Judi Ann Stish is a native of Hazleton where she graduated from Hazleton High School in 1972? Judith is now married to Rudy Giuliani.

Another major holiday is behind us, with two more to go nationally before the end of the year. There are three more in the local area--Monday begins the first day of rifle deer-hunting season. This day has long been a "major" holiday in the local area.

Mother used to love the opening day of buck season because it meant that Father was in the woods and she could head out to do her Christmas shopping. Local school kids love the day because it means a day off from school. Hunters love it because it gets them out of work or the house and into the woods. Those of us who no longer hunt love it because it allows us time to spend walking through the woods, and if things get a little too slow we can drink a glass of beer and play a little poker. All this is by way of introduction to the fact that the Benton News will be delivered for the next two weeks, but probably never on the schedule to which you have grown accustomed.

Mother often mentioned the wreck of the Hesperus, and we have often quoted her not quite knowing why or what it meant. She would say things like, "I can't go shopping today. I look just like the wreck of the Hesperus!" If you want to figure out what happened to old Hesperus, read the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), once a poet and professor of English literature at Harvard. The poem is dreadful, quite frankly. When you are having trouble sleeping, go ahead and read it.

"Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this,
On the reef of Norman's Woe!"

It was a cold raw wind that blew over the gently rolling hills of the Genesee Valley in New York state on Thanksgiving day. The temperature was a balmy 56° when I rolled out of Benton Thursday morning and a nippy 36° when I arrived 30 miles south of Rochester about 8:30 AM--much different weather from the local area. A hard rain fell for much of the day, changing back and forth to snow flurries. As I drove up the lane to son David's home, a field full of Icelandic horses graized off to my right. I thought of the fjords in their native country of Iceland and wondered whether the sturdy horses lived outside all winter. After all, winters in Iceland are longer and harsher than they are in New York state.

Sources like the Icelandic Sagas do not mention horses being stabled during the winter. None of the stories of the winters of Iceland equal the winter of 1515, which the Icelandic people refer to as the "horse-perishing" winter. A writer by the name of Hannes wrote that there was more snow "than ever, with famine and the livestock perishing all over the country. There was probably more frost than ever because the legs of sheep and horses froze even though their bodies were still fleshy. Much of the livestock of the country perished, and many people lost everything they owned, especially horses.

November 22, Thanksgiving Day, 2007. On this Thanksgiving Day, remember that the ideal diet is expressed in four words: No more, thank you.

Birthdays today include Clair Harvey, Kelly Yost and Sharon Remphrey. Barry and Sylvia Harrison celebrate their wedding anniversary. On this day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot in Dallas, Texas.

Copies of Peter Tomasak's new book about Robert Bruce Ricketts, In Command of Time Elapsed--The Life and Times of Robert Bruce Ricketts, will begin selling Friday afternoon at the Red Rock Corner Store (570 925-5648) at the intersection of Route 118 and Route 487. Peter has limited the printing to only 100 books for now. If you want a copy, act now! Don't say we didn't warn you.

The state House of Representatives gave up on fast-tracking the Open Records Act without resuming debate Tuesday, promised to write a new bill along the lines of what the Senate has approved, then left for a 12-day Thanksgiving break. I figure the House leadership got the message about the real meaning of "open records."

At the end of the second day of bear hunting, the preliminary harvest is 1,638 bears, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. In 2006, 2,185 bears passed through check stations the first two days. The top bear-harvest county in the state after the first two days was Clinton with 142. Lycoming County came in fourth with 97. Locally, results for this year and last are Bradford, 28 (30); Luzerne, 22 (40); Sullivan, 20 (59); Columbia, 14 (16); and Northumberland, 2 (2).

Rev. Dr. Donna Laubach Moros, retired missionary, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), daughter of Harold Laubach, and granddaughter of Harry and Clara Laubach, wish all a Thanksgiving prayer for peace on earth..

For those of you who don't want to do your Black Friday shopping with all the crowds, you can do it on-line by visiting http://bfads.net/ . Actually, there are online sales going on over Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Friday-Saturday and Cyber Monday. In-store sale items are also listed.

The feast of Thanksgiving has arrived. Today is the big day. Thanksgiving dinner is the central idea of the day and behind all of that is the giving of thanks for the blessings of the year.

Our Puritan fathers made a big hit when they conceived of Thanksgiving day. They probably had little idea when they shouldered their blunderbusses and box traps for their November gunning of wild turkeys that their descendants would brag about how it "used to be" and would continue the tradition. The Puritans, one suspects, paid more attention to the religious side of Thanksgiving than people do today.

It must have been quite a meal those Pilgrims had. They might have had wild cranberry sauce on their wild turkey, but there is a question as to whether there was sugar to sweeten the sour mix. Turkey was the main course and historically has the same relation to Thanksgiving day as the firecracker has to the Fourth of July. Remove the turkey and the feast is nothing.

Most of us have forgotten that the idea of setting apart a day to be observed by the people of the United States in thanksgiving and prayer originated in Congress during the first session of the first congress in September, 1789. Congress then passed the resolution to the first president, George Washington, and a few days later he made the first Thanksgiving proclamation.

The original log of the Mayflower, which ex-Ambassador Bayard carried over the Atlantic as a gift from England to Massachusetts, recalls the memoirs of the first Thanksgiving day when Pilgrim fathers and Indians ate the festival dinner in honor of the safe arrival in the new land of promise.

The day celebrated the abundant harvest that had blessed the Puritans following the early years of hardship.

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercising in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.
--William Bradford in his History Of Plymouth Plantation

Thanksgiving is our oldest national holiday. The holiday predates the Fourth of July by about 125 years. Each year a special celebration adds to the enjoyment of the holiday as we "go over the hill to Grandmother's house." The customs of the holiday have changed but the constant from the initial days on Plymouth Rock has always been the turkey, although "turn of the century" feasts often included roasted pig stuffed with "sausages, oysters and chestnuts."

For the record, Alka-Seltzer didn't come along until something like 1931 and commercials for Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz, oh what a relief it is!--or as they say in the United Kingdom, plunk, plunk, fizz-ics--came much later.

Around 1900 and before mince pie was always the dessert for a Thanksgiving feast, sometimes the first in a series of desserts. Nobody pretended to think that it was digestible but the "pangs of the morrow" were forgotten in the "eagerness to indulge for the moment the almost boyish fondness for the forbidden dainty."

So lets express our thanks for Thanksgiving and I'll start. You pick up the pace when I finish my short list. I am thankful that I can make a quick trip to New York state and break bread with David and Heidi on Thanksgiving Day, for the continued health at the age of 93 of my mother in law, for the hospital care being administered to my step-daughter, for Marcia Kay putting up with my bitchy mood during these trying days, for drivers who aren't on their cell phones, for not having more people in this world who define evil as good, for that first-down indicator on television, for the success of the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, for Buster and Chloe, for a fast connection on the internet, and for being able to scrape together the time to bring you the News from Back Home in Benton, PA.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

November 21, 2007. Terry and Terri O'Connell celebrate their wedding anniversary today. If our paths don't cross again before Thanksgiving , have a wonderful day.

Yesterday I reported that the fellows at Soapstone Hunting Club bagged two bear. Actually, by the end of the day, they had three down. The successful hunters were Eric Ignatavich, Mike Thomas and Colton Fought, 14. All hunters were from the Benton area. Lee Remley reported there was ten inches of snow on the ground, although he admitted that he didn't go out of the cabin to verify the depth of the snow.

The website for the "Valleys of the Susquehanna, includes eight unique and distinctive road trips throughout a 10-county region. The eight road trips includes...

• Homegrown in the Valleys: This road trip features local farmers markets, pick-your-own produce farms, farm stays, and places to find seasonal produce year-round.

• Post Office Art and Architecture: The tour takes visitors to eleven post offices: eight feature unique artwork from the New Deal Era, and three are wonderful examples of Federal architecture. A WVIA-TV documentary about this road trip will premiere in the spring of 2008.

• Underground Railroad: Gain an understanding about Pennsylvania’s Underground Railroad heritage, including local safe havens for those fleeing the bondage of slavery.

• Art Thrives on 45: Explore scenic Route 45 (also known as the Purple Heart Highway) which is home to more than 45 artists and artisans, working in both traditional and contemporary styles.

• Victorian Homes: Victorian Homes magazine called Williamsport’s Millionaires’ Row “Pennsylvania’s Mother Lode” of Victorian architecture. When combined with Lewisburg, Bloomsburg, Danville, and Bellefonte’s offerings, visitors can experience architecture within the context of many unique downtowns.

• Covered Bridges: There are more covered bridges in the Valleys of the Susquehanna than there are in any other place in Pennsylvania. Visitors are encouraged to experience first-hand these historic “wooden monuments”.

• Antique Trail: This road trip takes shoppers along scenic country roads, and into downtown specialty shops, restored mills and barns, flea markets, farmers markets and homes of antique dealers and sellers.

• Wineries/Vineyards: PA ranks fourth nationally in the amount of grapes grown, and eighth in the production of wine. Savor wine from the region’s eight wineries, or take a stroll through the scenic vineyards.

Each road trip features a detailed map, as well as electronic documents that can be easily downloaded and printed. Website visitors can also request that a brochure about the Valleys of the Susquehanna be mailed to them, free of charge.

From My Position Sitting on the Fence:		A reader wrote that there is too much "slang" in the Benton News. Because of eyesight problems, I rarely take the time to reread what I have written, except casually to change "glad" to "happy." I concluded that the reader was correct, but decided that even if I promised to put my thoughts into good English in the future, there was an excellent probability that I would not.
		I then turned to the reading material on my desk, picked up the first article I came to, dating to 1923. I looked for slang in that article. I found the following: It's up to you I don't think Not on your life You can search the I guess That's going some Can you beat it? Sure I will! That looks quite spiffy There's some class to that Are you on? That's awfully nice It's a cinch Oh, fudge! Cut it out Talking to beat the band They're not in it It's all bosh Northing doing That's nifty Never again Cough up! He has nothing on me The surest thing you know Not to be sneezed at That's the real thing Not by a long shot That will be about all

A writer whose name I probably never did know once said something to the effect that "slang is the language of the slums." Slang is a kind of colloquial language used by both the educated and the uneducated. All professions seem to employ it, whether it is literary slang, legal slang, or whatever.

Slang at times has the force of narrative told with pictures and can be stronger than generally accepted words. Where did slang originate and why do we use it in lieu of purity of speech? The person who first used words now considered to be "slang" might know, but even he wouldn't know if he hadn't heard it before. Look at the sport of baseball where batters "choke" their bats by grabbing it above the handle, taking it around the neck in a way that suggests choking. I read a newspaper article from 1908 which used terms like "pea," "pellet" and the "marble" and the "pill" and the "blobule" and the "bulb" in describing the ball used in baseball, all slang we no longer use. I didn't find many slang words for the bat in baseball, so just plain bat it is, with no varieties except for "stick." I found "fungo" used to describe knocking out fly balls, popular along with "steal" and an older word "muff."

Continuing with the 1908 article, "bean" was another good slang word, as in its use for the word "head." A player got hit on the "bean" and the "ump" told him to head for first base. The pitcher was happy since now he wasn't taking his "bumps" meaning that the pitcher was no longer being hit hard. For the next batter, the catcher yelled "Give it a ride, old boy!" This command was a lot like "Get a piece of it" and "take a bite out of it." The term "break up the game" doesn't mean that at all.

Over the years, fighters have had their slang, too. A fighter's head was his "nut" or "knowledge box." His eyes were his "ogles" or his "glims." His nose was his "horn," his "conk," his "smeller," his "cutwater" and his "proboscis." His mouth was his "potato trap" or his "kisser," and his ears were his "lugs." His arms were his "fins" or "dukes," and his fists were his "manleys" and his "bunches of fives." His stomach was his "bread basket" and his legs were his "pins." When he got thumped hard and didn't wince he was "game." The beating he gave or received was "punishment" and when he got too much he turned "groggy" until his opponent finished him off by "putting on the kibosh."

Gamblers had their slang, too. Some were "cappers" whose business it was to haunt lobbies of theaters and the offices of hotels in quest of "suckers" to "rope in" to play the "game." When the player got in trouble, he sometimes played "both ends against the middle" or "both ways to the pudding." When he died, other players would say he had "cashed in his chips."

Quickies...
• Christine's Karaoke will be at the Jamison City Hotel Saturday night starting at 9:30.

• Columbia County Traveling Library will make a new stop in Benton today at the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, Community Drive, from 10:30-11:50 AM and then will continue to Stillwater Park from noon until 1 PM. The stop at The Center replaces the Two and a Half Street stop. Both the Bookmobile and the Perry Avenue library will be closed for Thanksgiving.

• Jimmy Rollins boldly proclaimed in January that his Phils were the team to beat in the NL East. The shortstop then made sure his words wouldn't ring hollow, putting together a brilliant 2007 campaign that was capped off Tuesday with National League Most Valuable Player honors. Rollins became the first player in history to collect at least 200 hits, 25 homers, 15 triples and 25 steals in a season.

• Abraham Lincoln wrote in his famous Thanksgiving Proclamation...
"The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful years and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God."

• The Judiciary Committee of the state House of Representatives voted down two gun-control bills and tabled a third Tuesday. The first would have provided municipalities with limited power to pass firearms ordinances. The second would have limited handgun purchases to one a month, with exceptions for dealers, collectors and law enforcement. The tabled bill would require gun owners to report a stolen firearm and would allow State Police to create a registry of lost or stolen firearms. The committee approved penalties for the murder of law enforcement officers and created the specific crime of "criminal homicide of law enforcement officers."

Pennsylvania Game Commission officials announced Tuesday that bear hunters took 1,005 black bears in 49 counties on opening day of the 2007 season, compared with 1,461 in 2006; 2,026 in 2005; 1,573 in 2004; 1,454 in 2003; and 1,348 in 2002. The first-day harvest was down 30%. One hunter in Potter County shot a male bear which weighed in at 712-pounds (estimated live weight). The top bear-harvest county in the state after the first day of season was Clinton with 78 (123 in 2006). Other counties and the bear shot this year and last on opening day includes Bradford, 16 (18); Sullivan, 12 (35); Luzerne, 10 (31); and Columbia, 8 (12).

Ernest "Ernie" B. Koons (October 24, 1930-November 19, 2007), Park Street, Benton, died Monday at the Bloomsburg Health Care Center. He was 77. Ernie was born in Muncy, a son of the late James S. Koons and Ethel I. (Bates) Koons Baker. His stepfather was the late Dallas C. Baker. He was a 1948 graduate of the former Huntington Mills High School. He was a draftsman and detail engineer, last employed at the former Orangeville Manufacturing Co. He lived in Benton since 1983. He was a member of the Benton United Presbyterian Church and of the Masonic Lodge in Morristown, New Jersey. Ernie was a fire policeman with the Benton Volunteer Fire Company. He was married to the former Diane Decker and has a daughter, Carolyn Levy (Charles), Mountaintop; two sons: Jay Koons (Christine), Cambra; Michael Koons (Margaret), Williamstown; a stepdaughter: Carol Cox (Keith), Glen Mills; three stepsons: Frank Holdren (Carol Ann), Millville; George Holdren (Shelby), Benton; and David Wesner, Revere; 16 grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. Ernie was the last of his immediate family. He was preceded in death by a stepson, Kennard James Wesner, and a stepbrother, Robert Baker. Memorial services will be announced by the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home, Benton. Memorials may be sent to the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center, P.O. Box 305, Benton, PA 17814.

November 20, 2007. Happy wedding anniversary today to Earl and Joann Heimbach and to Wayne and Mary Baker. On this date in 1929, the Leo Reisman orchestra recorded Happy Days are Here Again just three weeks after the stock market crash that plunged the nation into the Great Depression.

Quickies...
• New York state claims there are lots of deer there and is counting on raking in millions of dollars over the next few months thanks to a hyped-up deer-hunting season which started over the weekend.

• Pennsylvania's rifle-deer season begins the Monday after Thanksgiving, November 26, and runs through December 8. The estimate is that more than a quarter of a million deer will be harvested.

• The recount on the November 7 voting for school director in Benton and Sugarloaf Townships is complete. Write-in candidate Ramona Heaps petitioned the court Monday morning to consolidate the various spellings of her name, which would give her a 250-247 edge over her "on-the-ballot" opponent, Evy Lysk. Because of the shortened workweek, a decision on that is not expected before the middle of next week, and even that may be too optimistic.

• In Lackawanna County, six write-in candidates for local office won, even though they had ballot-listed opponents.

• The State "Open Records" bill will be taken up today with all its 77 amendments and the entire House will consider its final passage when the Legislature returns next month. HB 443 would slam the door on the public and would give less access to public records than we have today. Its provisions would enable agencies to label as confidential records that are now available, and it would create blanket exemptions for much agency correspondence and all email.

Quote of the Day:
"There are two things you don't want to see being made--sausage and legislation."
--Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)

Charles Libby, 90, was the featured speaker at the November North Mountain Historical Society. He spoke about being part of Gen. Patton's European Theater of Operations and about serving with the CCC at the Emmons camp north of Elk Grove.

Those of us who didn't receive an education in a one-room school missed a lot. Many who have had that experience claim they deeply value those years. Yet many of these schools were little more than abandoned log cabins or hastily throw up buildings that were unfit for human habitation by today's standards and many were sorely lacking in convenience, comfort and lighting. The size of the school often depended on the population, but most seemed to be not more than about fourteen by eighteen feet.

The fact they even existed at all was due to volunteers and the dedication of those who provided the education. The school term was usually during the winter months, so heating was a problem since the wood was generally also provided by contribution. The school was usually either too hot or too cold. If parents had children in the school they had an interest in keeping their children warm and they provided wood for the fireplace common in early schools or in the pot-bellied stove in the middle of the room common in later years. The older boys stoked the fires after the teacher lit it after she (or he) arrived in the early hours of the school day. Many students had to blow on their pens to keep them from freezing and to use them for writing.

Still sits the schoolhouse by the road,
A ragged beggar sunning;
Around it still the sumacs grow,
And blackberry vines a-running.

Names of schools were a problem. Take the ridicule that female students got in the Princeton Middle School. Schools were often named after hills, trees or animals. In Arizona, for example, a public school was often named after some kind of mesa or cactus. Locally, the school on Savage Hill was named for the location, and the same applies for the Loyalsock School, the Rock Oak Bridge School, Stone Church, Smith Hollow, Sheep's Public School, North Mountain School, the Wildcat School, Pine Grove School and the Sodom School.

Well, I'll betcha that last one woke you up! Why would a school be named "Sodom?" Well, according to John Lindermuth, librarian at the Northumberland County Historical Society who found the answer in the book, The Sodom Schoolhouse and its Influence on the Foundation of American Education, by Glenn A. Good, 2002, until recently schools were identified by the area in which they were located. From 1817, the school, located on Route 45 outside of Montandon and about 34 miles from Back Home in Benton, PA, was named the Chillisquaque Schoolhouse. A church also occupied the building during this period. A man by the name of Lot Carson (also spelled Corson) built a nearby tavern to serve the stagecoach trade about 1835. Lot frequently had too much to drink and the story goes that he died by drowning when he was getting water from the well.

Because husbands frequented the tavern, the wives of the area considered it a den of iniquity and the area became known as "Sodom" and from that came "the Sodom Schoolhouse." The school closed in 1915.

Lindermuth cites an old newspaper account of Carson who donated the land for the school building. As to the eight-sided building design, area historian John Carter suggested it was Scottish influence and the design enabled the teacher to be in the center so that she could always be in front of the group. Another newspaper account said a resident of the valley was certain the design duplicated that of an eight-cornered stone church in the north of Scotland.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And scenes we left behind;
No, wheresoever be our lot,
We keep them still in mind,
The scenes mid which we often roved
In childhood's early morn,
The old red schoolhouse on the hill
The cot where we were born.

"Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorra brimstone...And He overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities...."
--Genesis XIX: 24,25. Thus sayeth the King James version of the Old Testament.

Others may know the name "Sodom" from the movie Sodom and Gomorrah in which manly Stewart Granger (and his hairdresser, who always stayed off screen) takes a batch of Hebrews to the Jordan while his uncle looked for other bodies of water and arable land in a story that only resembles the Biblical version because of a similarity of names. I don't remember any more of the movie version than that, but in any event you have to admit that Sodom is a strange name to hang on a one-room schoolhouse.

November 19, 2007. There have to be some very worried bear this morning! Remember that you can get complete weather forecasts on the Benton News in the upper right corner of the main page. At this writing, the Benton Area Schools are on a two-hour delay this morning but the buckwheat cakes at the Pelican will be on time as will the speaker. Happy birthday to John McHenry Unbewust.

On this date in 1863, President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated the national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield. The only flaw in his words came with his prediction, "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here..." There were only two-hundred and seventy-one words and the pronoun "I" was never used! The speech followed the main-event oration of Edward Everett. A Harvard graduate--later its president--Everett was a professor of Greek, a former governor of Massachusetts and ambassador to England. An audience of possibly 18,000, including Lincoln, congratulated him on his stunning delivery. Everett later wrote to the President, I should be glad to flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.

The Gettysburg Address began Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. The speech ended with Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

There isn't much point in giving all the specifications of a monster submarine under construction in England when you could go here and read about it for yourself. Here are a few details, however. Britain now has a massive 7,400-ton nuclear-powered sub known as the HMS Astute more complex than the space shuttle, and able to circumnavigate the globe without surfacing. The "boat" is 318 feet long, and as wide as four double-decker buses. Astute's sonar is so advanced that if she were in the English Channel she would be able to detect ships leaving New York harbor 3,000 nautical miles away. The nuclear reactor will never need refueling, and could stay underwater for its entire 25-year lifespan. She will carry 38 Tomahawk cruise missiles, with a range of 1,240 miles, but no nuclear weapons. Astute is the first of four vessels to be built.

We recently asked readers to contact their state legislators over some provisions of the "reform" of the restrictive aspects of Pennsylvania's open records law which generally hold government documents as confidential unless specifically designated as open. The "reform" comes in the form of "the Open Records Act," No. 443 in the 2007 Session of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. One of the provisions of this bill would basically make any email sent to the state government confidential and therefore exempt from the public's right to know. The other aspect we find disturbing about the proposed bill deems "inaccessible" any record containing a birth date or address. If interpreted literally, this bill would seal birth, marriage, death, deed, probate, divorce, and hosts of other county court records. The House and the Senate are expected to vote on the bill this week.

There isn't much memory left of old threshing machines. We pass by them as we slowly walk through the museum at the Bloomsburg Fair, and we sometimes see them in the museum of the Rough & Tumble Engineers Historical Association, at Kinzer, when the Old Thresherman meet for their yearly August reunion. One shows up from time to time at the fall reunion of the Nittany Antique Machinery show at Penn's Cafe.

When we came across a local picture of a threshing machine in operation on the former Jasper Shultz farm on upper Ravencreek Road, we studied it long and hard. I don't remember Jasper Shultz or his daughters Blanche, Catherine or Suzie, but after studying the picture for a time and remembering back to the days when father did some threshing, I conclude some things about the times. I will hold off for a little before I show you the picture.

I conclude from the posture and the demeanor of the people in the picture that Jasper Shultz was a pretty good-natured man, a person who remained even-tempered and cheerful through the frantic threshing season. The Shultz family goes way back in the upper Ravencreek area. The family once lived in the first farm on the right heading north on upper Ravencreek road. Jasper was the son of Russell Shultz who was born in 1827 and Catharine Beishline Shultz, born in 1833. Jasper had four daughters, Catherine, Suzie, Blanche and Grace. Catherine Shultz married Eugene Hess; Blanche Shultz married Carl Hartman; Suzie Shultz married Roy Hess; and Grace Shultz married Alfred Jackson. Several were school teachers.

I would guess that Jasper Shultz was a popular man, judging from the appearance of his three fine-looking daughters.

I suspect that Elmer George Houseweart (August 2, 1878-Oct. 26, 1956) is in the picture, since he owned the threshing machine (possibly with others), but I am not able to identify him for sure. I suspect that the men in the picture might have been apt to use a little profanity during the wheat harvesting season, but not in any kind of a mean way. With so much work to do during the daylight hours, it was important that the workmen knew who was boss from time to time--in a warm and cheerful way, mind you!

I suspect that the man who ran the threshing machine was a popular man. Sure, the operation sometimes got caught up in a thundershower or a rainstorm, sometimes a cylinder tooth broke or the straw stacker became hopelessly clogged. The thresherman I knew always seemed to talk out of the corner of his mouth, with the other side of his mouth reserved for continual expectoration. The thresherman talked a lot while raising and lowering one or the other of his eyebrows.

Back at the turn of the century, reports came in from all over the United States of the power units of threshing machines blowing up with the operator killed or blown fifty feet or so.

In the picture, Elmer's threshing machine is out of sight inside the barn and the steam-power unit is outside. Elmer is the grandfather of Fred and Marianne Houseweart. He was born in Lopez in 1878 and lived to 1956. He moved into the local area about the turn of the century. Actually the history of the Houseweart family is an interesting one, starting with brothers Valentine and James Houseweart. Sometime soon, we'll tell you that story here on the News from Back Home in Benton, PA.

The steam power unit for the thresher had steel wheels, and had a tall stack to minimize the sparks. A continuously running belt ran into the barn to the threshing machine. Fred Houseweart says that the yearly threshing would begin at the farm of Arthur Houseweart, then move on to Wesley Houseweart's farm, then to Elmer Houseweart's farm, to the farm of Jasper Shultz, then to the farm of Doyle Houseweart, ending with the farm of Bert Houseweart. The machine would take turns thrashing everyone's wheat.

The steam thresher with its traction engine probably wasn't bought new when it sported a brilliant red paint all varnished and polished. The machine was a monster, both in size and in payment, and owning a thresher and a new-fangled corn-husking contrivance was a large undertaking.

If you think that the threshing machine was something to behold, you should have seen an early corn husker with its curved knives rotating on a continuously running belt.

Farmers often got together in a cooperative ownership of equipment. The Houseweart family was an example of owning a machine and running it by themselves when they wanted it and at the price they could afford.

They probably were tired of waiting for one of the privately owned machines to harvest their grain, which often happened with traveling group of harvesters. Often the grain was almost ruined by the time the men arrived long after the grain was ready. A week or two difference in when the grain was harvested could mean the difference between a profit and a loss for the farmers. After their own wheat was harvested, the men would often rent out themselves and their equipment until the end of the threshing season.

Both the farmers and their wives (who fed the thresherman what father used to call sinkers) benefited from getting the wheat threshed quickly.

It was always necessary to keep the equipment running during the season in order to justify the ownership of equipment which often cost several thousand dollars. The process would begin before "first light" and would continue all day until the steam was turned off just before the day turned pitch black.

A machine like the one that Arthur Houseweart owned kept four to six men pitching in the bundles of grain as fast as they could be handled. Repairs would be postponed until night, if at all possible. A patched-up old machine meant that a breakdown could occur at any time when it would mean irreparable loss. In many parts of the United States, a threshing machine was run until it wore out, then it was scrapped at the end of the season and a different (sometimes new) piece purchased the following spring. A good steam-threshing machine probably lasted only three or four seasons before it was ready for the scrap heap, and many burned beyond recognition. Some severely injured the owner/operator. If was no business for the faint of heart.

The Barn of Jasper Shultz on Upper Ravencreek Road
with the Houseweart Threshing Machine

 

November 17, 2007. Christ UMC in Central has a Thanksgiving dinner open to the public today after church service. Church is at 9 and the dinner with all the trimmings is around 11:30. Happy birthday to Julie Bardo.

A program of interest happens Monday at the North Mountain Historical Society monthly meeting at the Brass Pelican Restaurant. A man who helped build a "road from Jamison City over to Red Rock" will return to the area. Charles Libby, 90, Loyalsock, will be the featured speaker. He lived at the CCC Camp at Emmons from 1934 to 1936, a few miles "up the road" from Elk Grove. Charles has a keen memory of the operations of the CCC, and has a special fondness for Grassmere Park. His talk will be of World War II and the battles in which he participated. Charles is an interesting speaker. Breakfast is on the table by 8 AM and the speaker begins behind the new amplified lectern about 9 AM or as soon as the last buckwheat cake has been shoveled devoured.

Upcoming...
• November 25, 2007. Southern Gospel Singspiration on Sunday at 7 PM at Bible Baptist Church, Route 239, Benton. Bible Baptist Church is located next to the Benton Township Building at the top of the dug. For more information call 925-2592.

• November 23, 24, 25, 30 and December 1 & 2. Bloomsburg's TreeFest featuring trees set up by hundreds of people who decorate rooms and trees in Caldwell Consistory on Market Square. Wreath decorating will take place from 10-4 on Saturday, November 24, and Sunday, November 25, from 12-4. An elegant Scottish high tea will be presented on Monday, November 26, at 2 PM and again at 6.

It is pop quiz time again, this time with a turkey and a Thanksgiving theme. Go here. (I only got 13 out of 20 correct.)

Didja hear about the farmer whose barn burned? His insurance agent tried to explain they could not pay the farmer in cash for his loss. "Read the policy," the agent insisted," "All our company intends to do is to build you another barn exactly like the one that was destroyed." The farmer by this time was enraged, and he thundered back "If that is the way you varmints do business, cancel the policy on my wife before it is too late."

The time of the year when I become less dependable than usual will arrive this week. There is bear hunting and Thanksgiving and deer hunting and Christmas shopping all bunched up at the end of the year just when I wanted to finish some projects I started this spring.

It seems like only days ago that the maple trees looked their finest against the blue of the sky. Now they are bare and silhouette against a gray sky. There is just a bit of goldenrod and some Queen Anne's lace left as a memory of summer. The groundhog began his winter sleep late this year, and the sound of peepers, frogs and birds has disappeared. Bear are closely watching the weather in hopes they can soon begin their winter sleep. The critter we see the most is the whitetail deer--and according to the stories of local hunters, we don't see much of them. What deer there are in the mountains are desperately seeking buds they can forb to get through the winter. Little do they know what awaits them on the next couple of weeks.

The telltale signs of hunting season are all around us. The break between bear hunting and deer hunting will not take long, and will be occupied with Thanksgiving.

My memory of Thanksgiving over the years involved the watching of the Berwick Marathon. This year will mark the 98th "Run for the Diamonds," starting at 10 Thursday morning. I was never one for watching parades on television, and besides when Mother cooked there was no time to spend watching television (unless it was one of her soap operas). The windows in our house always seemed to fog over as the turkey slowly cooked and spread the wonderful smell of Thanksgiving food throughout the house. The day was usually grey and overcast and often it was cold enough to spit some snow.

Think about what the early settlers were thankful for when this time of the year rolled around in the upper Fishingcreek valley. Think, for example, what it was like for the wives of the early settlers who came up the Fishing Creek Valley and lived for months at a time without seeing a person outside their own family, except for the new addition which seemed to arrive each year. Think of making the garden in the spring, spading the earth, throwing up some sort of fence around the plot of ground, hauling water to the garden in a container, maybe walking to town to get a little sewing from the "hotel women" in order to have a little money. An addition of a cow brought unexpected joys and some welcome changes to the meal situation. The unexpected death of one out of the team of horses threw all schedules off balance. Some years the entire crop of food would be corn meal. The house slowly enlarged to the point where a living room and two bedrooms emerged. A milk cow and then another made it possible to work toward the day they could say they had a "herd." More money came into the family as the mother took in washing when it was available, and did her share of the milking and made a little butter for selling, and made all the clothes. With unabashed joy, the farm families of our area gave thanks at this time of the year.

Think for a moment of the things in your life for which you can give thanks. I'll let you finish this story. You don't need me to do it for you.

November 17, 2007. Happy birthday today to Cindy Becker.

On this date in 1978, a murder-suicide took place in Jonestown, Guyana, when religious-cult leader Jim Jones directed the ingestion of Kool-Aid laced with cyanide by at least 900 of his followers. He and his mistress then did the same. Earlier that day, Jones directed the murder of California Congressman Leo J. Ryan, three news people and several "defectors." Ryan, on a fact-finding tour of Jonestown, was boarding a private airplane with his group when they were shot.

Walter Davis, Manassas, Virginia, was in Jamison City recently and stopped to see Ed and Alice Allegar. Many readers don't know about the semipro league in which Ed played. A host of players who made it to the major leagues started in the Southern Association (or as it was often called, the Southern League) during their careers, men like Ty Cobb and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. Teams tended to come and go, but Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, and Macon played with other teams from Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga, Birmingham, Bristol and Jacksonville. A similar league was the South Atlantic League, also known as the Sally League. Ed pulled in a Most Valuable Player award while playing minor-league baseball, but as a member of the Giants farm club there were not enough openings to bring him to the majors. Ed now lives in Jamison City, a retired teacher from the Benton Area School System, married to the former Alice Sutliff.

The Hess gas station in Enola was a busy place Friday with its regular, unleaded gas selling for $3.09. The attraction was both the gas and the boxes of toy trucks piled to the ceiling. I stopped to pick up two of the winter 2007 version of the long-selling Hess toy truck, this year a "Monster Truck with Motorcycles." The man in front of me bought 20 and the lady at the register "claimed" that someone that morning had loaded a truck with 200 of them. The cost for the two Hess toy trucks was $46.62 including tax. I felt like a piker--only buying two!

It was a sad day a week or so ago when Camp Hill narrowly defeated our Benton boys in soccer. Today at 10 AM, at Hersheypark Stadium the Camp Hill Lions (21-5) will meet Sewickley Academy (24-1-2) for the PIAA Class A crown.

There was some email praise received for the local church congregations and their community spirit of celebrating the Thanksgiving season together. The subject came up because Sunday night there is a community church service at the Benton Christian Church, with the guest clergyman from the Christ the King Catholic Church and the music provided by the Waller Methodist Church.

What the reader didn't understand is that there has long been a tradition of community involvement with the local churches. Take, for example, the strong ecumenical flavor during the dedication of Christ the King when five Protestant clergymen, including the pastors of three Protestant churches in Benton were present along with 32 diocesan priests.

At that dedication, Msgr. Donald E. Adams, then editor of the Catholic Witness, made the statement that many had joined "hands and hearts [snip] to make Christ's presence felt in your entire community." Msgr. Adams then recognized Rev. Richard Lichti, Presbyterian; Rev. John Richardson, United Methodist; and Rev. Robert Matthews, Christian Church; Dr. Harry Franks, Disciples of Christ, Bloomsburg, and Rev. Canon Kermit Lloyd, Episcopal, Harrisburg. One of the visiting priests at the Christ the King dedication was Father Jerome Gallagher, a native of Jamison City who was then serving in Paterson, New Jersey

Coffee hadn't even arrived when I heard that we live in a sick society. I had just sat down for a "coffee with the boys" when I heard that the war in Iraq is sick, that tolling of I-80 is sick, about sick relatives, cars that were "sick," and policies, politicians and prices that were sick. I hear this sickness so much that I have finally decided that I am sick, too. I am sick of all the bellyaching' and bitching, I am sick of hearing the excessive negativity in the world.

I am sick that so many feel that the use of drugs is an acceptable practice, and I am sick of the people who complain about drugs but don't do anything about them.

I am sick of hearing about the high price of gasoline and am thankful that we aren't paying $4 a gallon. I am sick of paying more in taxes to build bigger and better schools for the education of our youth when so many adults are breeding like common farm animals and do absolutely nothing to educate their own children and then blame the lack of success on the school system. I am sick of mothers like Britney Spears.

I am sick of the judicial system that turns the true misbehaving society loose from jail and incarcerates the person for an unreasonable period who has made little more than an error of judgment. I am sick of having to help finance these people get on the "road to recovery" knowing full well that they have no ability to stay out of jail. I am sick of criminals who use guns to rob and murder getting any of my tax dollars in an attempt to rehabilitate them back into society. I am sick of the press glorifying the criminal and denouncing law-enforcement officials when these criminals are brought to justice. I am sick of people who stand up for the community getting blasted by the neasayers who sit on their butts and complain.

I am sick of hearing candidates for the highest office in our country tearing down their fellow candidates--one of whom will be our next President--rather than convincing me why the guy doing all the talking is worth his salt. I know how bad some of the candidates are; I don't need to be told. I want to know how "good" someone is. I am sick that we have almost a year to listen to candidates tell us how bad the other fellow is and sick that so many millions of dollars will be spent to elect someone to a job that pays $400,000 plus change per year.

I am sick of the high cost of fuel, which increases in price for no reason other than it might look like rain in Venezuela.

Even though I am sick of all these things, I can get well and our country can get well. We can all help our country get well. I'll continue to pay taxes and continue to serve the community in any way that I can. I'll continue to honor those who get the highest education their level of ability permits, and will especially honor those achievers who utilize the education they receive for the common good and who contribute to the elevation of society.

This is the week of giving thanks, culminated by joining with our families on Thursday. Start by appreciating the food you eat and those who prepared it for you. Thank God for your life and for those around you. Be thankful that you are not spending the holiday alone. If you are alone this Thanksgiving, find out from any member of the Benton United Methodist Church about the freewill Thanksgiving meal at the church. Family values are very important in the upper Fishingcreek valley. Be a part of your community family on Sunday night at the community Thanksgiving service and on Thanksgiving Day at the Methodist Church.

"The measure of a country is how many people are trying to leave--and how many people are trying to get in."
--Tony Blair

November 16, 2007. The Benton Lions Club served some wonderful chicken dinners last evening. Happy birthday today to Mikelanne McHenry Welliver and to David McHenry. We have lots of readers who "don't know sickem" about hunting bear, and yet for thousands of men come Monday hunting bear will be a primary activity in the state as we enter a period something akin to having a state holiday. The three-day bear season opens Monday, November 19. Didja know that the success rate among all Pennsylvania bear hunters is about 1 in 30?

Wanna see a movie made in Dallas, Pennsylvania, and learn the language of northeastern Pennsylvania? Learn about Heynabonics by heading to www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sMI2jb16eo. Henya!

Upcoming...
• November 17, 2007. Jonestown United Methodist Church turkey supper from 4 PM until ? Price is $8 for adults and $3.50 for children.

• November 18, 2007. A community Thanksgiving service with the Rev. Father Donald Cramer and the Waller United Methodist Church choir at the Benton Christian Church at 7 PM.

The following is extracted from the minutes of the Benton Borough Council meeting of November 5, 2007, from the official Secretary's records.

The meeting was held at the Benton Volunteer Fire Hall, John Jankowski, presiding, with O. Grant Little, Daniel Hartman, Allen Hess, Dan Jankowski, Michael Klem, Mayor Swan, Joseph Peters, Randy Karschner and Kay Yankovich in attendance. Joshua Price, a new member as of the November election, was also present, as was Boy Scout Troop 16, attending as part of the requirements necessary to earn their Communication Merit Badge. Council welcomed the members and leaders of this troop.

Items discussed ranged from the number of stray cats roaming the Borough streets to a letter from Rod Pennington about the Cemetery Hill/Hill Street project. Mr. Pennington appreciated the project, but expressed concern there will be issues at the corner where the concrete support wall was removed if some type of support and water diversion is not installed. Council agreed to observe the area throughout the winter months; and, if required, additional work to correct the problem will be completed in the spring of 2008.

Street Commissioner Joseph Peters expressed his gratitude to the Job Corp Landscaping Class for help with the park leaf pickup. They will return again on November 15 for final leaf pickup. He estimated the Borough saves 130-160 hours of paid hours per visit. A heater for the block building at the airport, which houses the paint and working supplies, will be purchased.

Mayor Swan reported that residents parking their vehicles on Church Street beside the Post Office have become a problem. It was suggested that a 15-minute parking sign be placed in this area to allow for better parking and better traffic flow. On motion of Mike Klem and second of Dan Hartman, it was decided to place a fifteen-minute parking sign on the south side of Church Street between Third and Fourth Streets, alongside the Post Office. Following discussion a role call vote was taken with the following NO votes: Hess, Little, John Jankowski, and the following YES votes: Hartman, Dan Jankowski, Mike Klem, Mayor Swan’s vote was required to break the tie: Mayor Swan, Yes. Motion carried.

Mayor Swan provided information on upcoming events scheduled at the Community Center. She encouraged Council to consider membership, volunteerism, and promotion of the Center.

The Mayor requested Council to consider hiring a cleaning person for the Borough Office. Dan Jankowski stated that the fire company is also looking into this, and possibly the fire company and the Borough could work together on this project. He will provide more information at the next Council meeting.

Grant Little reported that the Little League Association is discussing the possibility of building a new little league field, and has contacted the Rodeo and AYSO. This would be a Rodeo Association decision as they lease this property.

Grant Little would like Council to consider inviting a Benton High School Student Council Member to become a member of the Borough Council. He stated this is being done by the United Way Board as well as other non-profit boards. It is an excellent way for a young individual to become involved in the community.

Grant Little provided spreadsheets for the General Operating Account, Liquid Fuels Account, and Benton Park Account. The sheets provided information on the 2006 and 2007 budget figures as well as expenses incurred during the current year. Grant noted that the park is part of the General Fund; however, this is a separate profit center with no tax dollars subsidizing the park expenses. Each budget was reviewed with suggested changes discussed by Council.

Dan Hartman stated that he was not entirely satisfied with the work done by Larson Design Group for the Cemetery Hill/Hill Street Project. He asked Council to consider requesting Request for Proposal statements from other engineering firms in the future.

Mike Klem reported that he and Randy Karschner have held discussions on ideas for joining with other municipalities to provide more police coverage. They will continue to pursue this issue.

Grant Little announced that the next Park Committee Meeting will be held November 14.

We'll resume the visit with Peter Cmiech and Barbara Niedzwiecki that we began in the Thursday edition. Peter pointed out where the horse barn and five horses were located to the north side of the cabin road "at the center of the job."

Sullivan County Map Showing the Wilds of Davidson Twp.

To the south side of the road was the first saw mill run by the Baer Brothers, a smaller mill on a gently rising slope of a hill, a less desirable location with little room to spread out. The third mill was "toward the stone corner" at the western end of the pond, located in that end of the property to save skidding logs several miles around the pond. Clem Baer had a diesel Minneapolis-Moline to run his second saw mill. A gas engine ran the first and the third saw mills. Diesel engines were a more dependable source of power and much safer from a fire-starting standpoint than steam engines.

Peter recalled how Clem Baer would "holler" about feeding the horses too much. Clem would yell, "Look at the feed. It's gone. It's gone!" Late one night, Clem arrived on the mountain and stopped to see how the horses were doing. Peter remembers Clem later telling him, "You oughta see the coons running out of that barn." Peter explained that there was never a top on the container of feed and suddenly he understood where all the horse feed was going. After the timbering was over in 1949, the barn was sold to Peter's mother and moved as a barn to Luzerne County.

Peter's voice grew husky as he thought about things he hadn't brought to the surface in fifty years. Clem had one horse that was bigger than the others, but one that would not let anyone shoe him. Peter recalled, "we had to shoe him every once in a while, you know, so we got ropes and flipped him over." He continued, "they put him down a few times, but after that when he saw the ropes coming he would lay down himself."

We arrived at the "wye," an intersection of dirt roads that split directions, one road going toward Bear Swamp and one road going toward the Painter Den cabin. On the inside of the turn toward the cabin is an area called the "bakeoven," for reasons that are only generally understood. I suppose, and this is the common interpretation, that during the logging operations around 1900 the loggers went to this location where food was served to the loggers. I suspect bread was once baked in this area, but no one in memory has found evidence to support that, another example of things lost over the passage of time.

Peter's next story involved the timber beyond the "wye." He said, "Andy McHenry told me that I wasn't to cut no trees over there, we don't want that cut." Peter said that one of the men later saw a tree he wanted to cut and began cutting it. Andy happened to see it, and yelled "Don't do that!" "Geeze, was he upset," Peter said in an elevated voice, "he told me to "go get some nails and we'll nail it back down again."

The initial logging was done with horses, but eventually some Army trucks were bought and used. Peter remembers that the trucks were often not turned off in the winter because of the danger of not being able to get them to start and he would be stranded on the mountain.

Baer Brothers eventually purchased an International tractor, which during cold weather would be parked just inside the Painter Den gate on a downhill slope in order to start it in the mornings. Peter used the tractor with a "V-blade" on the front to plow the roads during heavy accumulations of snow, but Peter remembered that the tractor would "hang up" on the snowdrifts and he would have to shovel the machine out of deep drifts, a very responsible job for a young kid fresh off the farm.

When Peter got the job, his uncle dropped the 13-year old boy off at Clem Baer's house and said "there he is." Peter noted that "My family never worried about me. They knew I was going to do my job," then continued, "It wasn't long, I was pulling out two truckloads a day of timber, 8 to 10 tons of timber on each truck, because they weren't big trucks like today."

One day Clem told Peter to "get on that thing, run it." talking about the International. "This is what you do. Do this, do that, push the brakes, you know," Clem told Peter at machine-gun speed. Peter said that every time he was on a hill, it "wouldn't stay there for me to hook on to the tree." He said that sometimes he had to put three or four chains on to keep the tractor where he wanted it. He paused, then continued, "Can you imagine a 13-year old kid, maybe 14 already, getting put on a tractor and saying 'go on use it." Peter remembers the first hill inside the gate at the bottom of the Grassy Hollow road. "Back in them days," Peter began, "you didn't have no brakes. Clem's brother Ted stalled his motor out on that first hill. We didn't have no brakes, the truck was going backwards. It was a good thing that the poles were up (referring to the hinged gate with a barrel on one end for counter weight) as the truck rolled backwards down the hill" and through the gate.

Other equipment used on the job was a "1928 nine-passenger LaSalle sedan, 12 cylinder. Peter remembers watching the fuel gauge going down as they came up Grassy Hollow, the sedan filled with loggers, fuel oil strapped to the front end, fuel oil in the truck and strapped to the back end, "nine of us people in the car and snow on the ground."

A note found in the Painter Den cabin on November 15, 1943, is quoted as written: "Arrived at camp 12:30 a.m. and was expected to find Doctor Rab and Dial Baker in at camp but no wone was in seit. I went in camp and found no one in seit so I went to work and billed me a fire and cooked meself a fine dinner and after words I got drunk by my self but I did enjoy myself very good. Thank you Painter Den Gun Club. (Signed) Clem Baer."

Peter explained that there would be two on a crosscut saw, and that went on until Clem and Peter's uncle jointly bought a chain saw, which was "so heavy that two men had to carry it and they couldn't keep that thing running." A typical work crew consisted of three as skidders, two guys cutting, a truck driver or two. "I would skid the whole tree to the skid way, then the guys on the skid way, maybe four or five men there, took over."

One time Peter had to go to Jamison City to pick up fuel. He took the old International, which didn't have any brakes. "Heck, we tore those brakes off in the woods." When he pushed the brakes down, nothing happened, "I slid on the gol-darn dirt, wheels were locked. Finally the tractor stopped. That was the scare of my life."

Brothers Clem and Johnnie worked in the woods, along with a half brother, Teddy. The worst timber accident happened to one of the Baer Brothers when they were walking between two trees behind a team of horses. Somehow, he got caught between two trees and broke both legs, or as Peter said, "He got two that day."

After leaving Painter Den, Baer Brothers went to the Cambra area and worked for Cappie Hoyt timbering across from the present Jerry's Engine Repair. Peter went right along with the timber gang. He was by this time one of the gang and after working for five years he still wasn't old enough to have a drink, but he was, as Clem often said, "the best skidder I ever knew."

Edward Cole, Benton, along with other students enrolled in legal studies courses at Bloomsburg University spent three days in Washington, D.C. last week with faculty member Mark L. Usry where they received briefings at the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, European Union Delegation to the US, Organization of American States, U.S. Dept of Commerce - International Trade Administration, US Customs and Border Protection, and the US Small Business Administration, the Assistant US Trade Representative, AFL-CIO. The group had lunch and a tour of the Hillwood Museum, the former home of Marjorie Merriweather Post, a leading American socialite and the founder of General Foods.

Washington, D.C. trip. Edward Lee Cole is in the back row, third from the left

 

November 15, 2007. Happy anniversary today to Ken and Dorothy Wilson.

Quickies...
• The Benton Women’s Club has 29 people participating in the AARP driver training program which ends today.

• The gymnasium at the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center is expected to open November 17.

• On the first Sunday of each month, the Benton United Methodist Church holds a Fellowship Breakfast from 8 to 9 AM. A freewill offering is taken. Everyone is welcome and the food is wonderful.

• The notice in the Wednesday Benton News about "the Open Records Act," No. 443 in the 2007 Session of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, deeming "inaccessible" any record containing a birth date or address, among other items, drew an immediate response from a number of readers interested in genealogy. The readers realized that if interpreted literally, this bill would seal birth, marriage, death, deed, probate, divorce, and hosts of other county court records. If this is of concern to you, I suggest sending a letter to your local state Representatives and Senator expressing your concern. The House and the Senate are negotiating on the bill, but the open records House vote will probably take place next week.

A new listing in the BUSINESS section is for Mini Acre Farms Dog Grooming, 1473 Old Tioga Turnpike, Stillwater, PA 17878. Their motto is "Big and small we groom them all." Full grooming, medicated baths, nail clipping and grinding. Deshedding program. No tranquilizers are used--only TLC. Call Susan Learn at 236-9312 for an appointment. Morning, afternoon, and evening appointments available.

The history of Sullivan County, at the location where the three of us stood Wednesday on the warm "Indian-Summer" day, wouldn't "fill a teacup," as Mother used to say. The land was bought from the Indians in 1768 and it was part of the territory that Connecticut once claimed. Lycoming County claimed it for a long time and before that Northumberland County called it theirs. If fact, to find original land surveys, one has to trudge to the prison-like basement of the Northumberland County Court House on Market Street, Sunbury.

The three of us were standing at one of the highest locations in our state. The black humus under our feet contained lots of water, which would take years to flow from where we were standing to reach the Loyalsock and eventually find its way to the west branch of the Susquehanna River near Williamsport.

Indian war-paths once led near where we were standing along Painter Den pond, following a path from the North Branch of the Susquehanna. The first white man didn't see these woods until after 1786, probably a rugged individual who didn't like being around other people very much, didn't much care for society in general and reached out for wide open spaces where he could cut down some trees and fashion a rough-cut log cabin on the rise of the ground, where he could learn the best ways to cook venison and bear meat. He probably found the solitude he was looking for in Sullivan County, until someone came along and called him a "squatter" and told him that his clearing lease had expired and it was time for him to move on.

In the timeframe we are talking about, Sullivan County was an almost unbroken wilderness that ranged from uninviting swamps to mountain laurel to huge beech, cherry and hemlock trees. The woods were said to contain elk, wolves and some of the critters we still know to live on North Mountain. The catamounts, or cats of the mountains, included what the men of the mountain called painters, a local term for what we now know as mountain lions and which was the derivation of the name of the hunting club, Painter Den.

The three of us--Peter Cmiech, Barbara Niedzwiecki and I--stood in a clearing overlooking a fawn-brown clearing devoid of any vegetation. It was round, about thirty feet across, mounded in the middle with some evidence that critters of some kind were living in the rotted sawdust. The sawdust was the remains of a once-active saw mill, operated by a man I always heard referred to as Clem Baer. I don't remember ever meeting the man, but I always knew of his influence in the early years of Painter Den club. Clem Bear was an old-time logger, as were all five brothers in the family, a man who had much of the log skidding work done by a 13-year old by the name of Peter Cmiech, now a 79-year old man with whom I was talking.

Clem (Baer) Niedzwiecki pronounced his last name "Nedge Vege ski" but everyone knew him as Clem Baer. His daughter, Barbara, explained that Niedzwie means "bear" in Polish and that her father's name was "Clemens" on his driver's license, but he always said it was "Clement." Barbara was a former corrections officer, now retired, and loves swapping stories with Peter Cmiech (pronounced Ka Mich) about her father's influence on logging during the years 1943-1949 when Peter was a "skidder" at the three sawmills Clem operated on Painter Den property.

In 1943, Painter Den Club executed a sale of timber rights on club land to the Baer Brothers, many of whom lived near the Broadway area of Luzerne County. Baer Brothers completed an outstandingly clean operation from their saw mill at Kinney's Clearing and from their other two smaller mills on the property. Between 1942 and 1945, timber was much needed to help with the war effort.

The meeting at Painter Den came about because of a chance meeting between Frank Edson and Peter Cmiech. Peter stood at the gate to Painter Den property with a far-away gaze on his face, thinking about the days when he worked year-round skidding logs on the property. Frank and Peter began talking and Frank agreed to have Peter taken to the old mills. I agreed to the assignment. To understand why the trip was important to Peter, we have to go back in time a bit. Lets begin the year that men began hunting in the area. The year was 1925.

During the first year of hunting, in 1925, trees around what is now the Painter Den cabin ranged from five to fifteen feet high and outgrowths of rocks substituted for the lawn we have today. The first hunting group was made up of Harley Smith, R. W. (Doc.) Rabb, Karl Z. (Butch) Hess, Jay McHenry, Robert Kline, Kinney Freas, Alvin Sutliff and their cook, Charles Kennedy. Ray Welsh and Raymond Mordan had a tent in the Elk Run area and came up each morning to hunt with the group. Tents and supplies were brought in from the top of Nordmont Mountain across Cherry Run with a wagon and two horses owned by Anthony (Tone) Perry, father of Libby Lewis and Phoebe Jean Walters. The group had to cut their way across an old log road that was so poor it did not ever show on a map published that year. It took a whole day to make the trip.

The group walked to what is now Painter Den property and usually found deer tracks in a clearing known by lumbermen as the "Jordan Camp." This is the spot where Barbara, Peter and I were standing. This is the spot where at the age of 13 Peter began his year-round job of skidding logs. This is the spot where for the next six years, Peter called home.

The hunting group would be tired back in 1925 after walking all the way into the mountains and would stop at the Jordan Camp and would usually find deer tracks. Kinney Freas frequently stopped at the clearing, built a fire and made a warm spot to hunt. Butch Hess once took Bob Kline and Kinney Freas down to Meeker Run via the Quinn trail, up Heberley Run (now generally referred to as "Grassy Hollow"), then to the clearing. After that long walk, Kinney refused to go on the rest of the week's safaris. He went to his favorite spot at the clearing and stayed there. Members named the clearing after Kinney and the name stuck. Kinney's Clearing is one of the first sights seen when entering Painter Den property.

Peter went into great detail about the Kinney's Clearing sawmill that once turned out the logs, the position of the loading docks, the outbuildings, the roads leading to the mill, that sort of thing. Each description was accompanied with a personal story. Hardly waiting to take in air, Peter told about the time that he was standing on the log truck with a towering pile of jammed-up logs high over his head. Peter finally wrestled the logs loose and they formed an avalanche of logs falling on the truck bed. When the logs crashed to the floor of the truck, Peter remembers that he "shot up in the air like a cannon" but was not injured.

Peter stayed nights in what he called "Central City" at what he referred to as "Conner's Hotel" which must have been the Central Park Hotel. He rode to the top of the mountain each day "with the workers who used to come up" the Grassy Hollow road. He told about the various logging roads and how the roads were built. Peter talked about cutting "laggings," lengths of timber used to support the ceiling of mines, out of black cherry.

When we began talking about the horses used for the lumbering, Peter's eyes lit up. He wanted to show me where the horse barn was for the three mills, and to tell me about the first mill. He especially wanted to tell me about the horse that loved to get new horseshoes while lying on its back, but I'll tell that story and more in Friday's edition of the News from Back Home in Benton, PA.

Barbara Niedzwiecki and Peter Cmiech

 

November 14, 2007. It doesn't appear as if we'll know who the winner is in the Evy Lysk/Ramona Heaps match-up for school director for awhile longer. Write-in votes won't be through the recounting cycle before Thursday or Friday.

On this date in 1851, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, was first published in New York City by Harper & Brothers. The book began, "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago--never mind how long precisely--having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world." In the Bible, Ishmael was the outcast son of Abraham, the patriarch of the Jews. By adopting the name Ishmael, the author adopted the fictional posture of an outcast son. The sea story is told by sailor-narrator Ishmael about a sea captain's search for Moby Dick, the great white whale that had once crippled him. Through the pages of Moby Dick, we meet Queequeg, Ishmael's bunkmate, a whale harpooner from Polynesia. We learn everything there is to know about whaling in the nineteenth century, including Captain Ahab's obsession with Moby Dick. Find out more about Herman Melville at www.melville.org/melville.htm and read the book at www.princeton.edu/~batke/moby/moby-1.html .

On this date in 1972, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 1,000 mark (1,003.16) for the first time in its 76-year history. Two years ago on this date, the market closed at 10,539. Last year, the Dow Jones closed at 10,686.04, its highest close since Aug. 3. Yesterday, the Dow industrials shot out of the cannon 319.54 points, a gain of 2.5%, to 13,307.09 amid increased confidence that the worst of the subprime-mortgage fallout is out of the way for major Wall Street firms.

A bill now under consideration in the Pennsylvania House is commonly called the "the Open Records Act," No. 443 in the 2007 Session of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. It will be the topic of upcoming articles as legislators consider an open-records act and campaign finance reform this fall. The bill would direct that most government records be made available for public inspection and would shift the legal burden for justifying a denial to the government. In its current state, the House Bill 443 would "deem inaccessible" any record containing a birth date or address, among other items. If interpreted literally, this bill would seal birth, marriage, death, deed, probate, divorce, and hosts of other county court records.

Upcoming...
• December 8, 2007. An "All You Can Eat Roast-Beef Supper" open to the public at the Millville Community Fire Company from 4 to 7 PM. Admission is $8 for adults, children 6-12 cost $4 and children under 6 eat free. The menu is roast beef, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, Harvard beets, corn, rolls, desserts, coffee, iced tea and some of Millville's excellent water. Takeouts are available.

• December 9, 2007. Buffet-style buckwheat cakes and sausage breakfast with Santa Claus at the Millville Community Fire Company from 7 AM to noon. Santa Claus will appear from 10 until noon. The price for adults is $7, children 6-12 $4 and children under 6 eat free. There will be "old fashion" and regular cakes, home fries, sausage gravy, sausage, bacon, eggs, toast, orange juice, coffee and water.

• December 15, 2007. Santa Claus comes to Millville Community Fire Company in an event that is open to the public. It takes place at the Millville Community Fire Company from 2 to 5 PM. Santa will be making a trip through town checking his "naughty and nice" list and then comes to the fire company to see kids and to give each kid a gift.

We receive a large number of emails about things that "just ain't so!" The Snopes search engine for the Urban Legends Reference Pages stands ready to assist you at www.snopes.com/search before you forward something that you suspect is bogus. Bookmark that page now. Enter a word, a phrase, or several words and select the appropriate match. You do not need to enter the word "and" between search terms. As an example, type in "human statue of liberty" and hit enter.

Term of the Day: "Terminal Moraine."
Sign once posted by Harry Cole, Bloomsburg, on a rock along the road near the Iron Bridge on Camp Lavigne Road. The depiction was of an Indian. Although Harry was close to being right for the actual location, the terminal moraine was a bit farther south. A terminal moraine is a linear ridge marking the farthest position of advance of an ice sheet, and forms by the melting of ice and the release of the debris. When the edge of the ice sheet stays in the same place for a long period, the debris builds up to form a ridge. Each time the ice sheet stops for a period during its retreating phase, it deposits a new moraine perpendicular to the ice sheet flow direction.

A reader sent along some daffinitions which we'll share with you...
. An adult is a person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle.
. A committee is a body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.
. Dust is mud with the juice squeezed out.
. A mosquito is an insect that makes you like flies better.
. A secret is something you tell to one person at a time.
. A toothache is a pain that drives you to extraction.
. Tomorrow is one of the greatest labor saving devices of today.
. A yawn is an honest opinion openly expressed.

November 13, 2007. Today is the birthday of Betty Zane Unbewust, Dick Karschner, Lucie Hartzell, Donald Ribble and Maria O'Brien. The wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on this date in 1982.

The Columbia County Traveling Library will visit the Rainbow Hill School from 1:20-1:45 PM today; followed by the Little Tiger Teachery from 1:50-2:10; Central Hotel, 2:30-3:30; and Benton Riverside Market, 4-6:30. Requests for service, books, inter-library loans and information can be made by calling 387-8782.

The founding of Pennsylvania, about 40,000 square miles, was confirmed to William Penn on January 5, 1681. Penn started the process of finding people to emigrate, at terms of 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 and at the end of service, the servant would get the same amount. The rental was a penny per acre not exceeding 200 acres. These generous terms induced many to set out for the new world. Penn "the Preacher, then Penn the Promoter," published Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania in April, 1781, 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."

Many in England then knew about Putney Common, a large, wild-green area close to Putney and Barnes in south-west London, an area often used for organized sports activities and for walks in the wild yet close to the city, an area known for its rare wildlife, bird life, and plant life.

Readers of the Benton News also know that when "Penn Manor Lands" were surveyed locally in November 8, 1769, they were named for London's Putney Common, and were two separate tracts of five hundred and thirty acres each.

One of the warrantees was James Athill. Here is an original source document from December 24, 1783, collected from local Philadelphia newspapers, written by Attorney Athill.

The second warrantee of the local Penn Manor Lands was Francis Hopkinson, father of 12, a District Judge of the United States for the State of Pennsylvania, a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776 where he signed the Declaration of Independence. He died in 1791.

The warrants for the upper Fishingcreek land were issued eighty-nine years after Penn received what is now Pennsylvania, on March 6, 1770. The warrants were for land on Fishing creek, "eight or ten miles above the end of Fishing creek mountain, or about two miles north of the town of Benton."

Steven Eric Heschl (June 5, 1962-November 10, 2007), Benton, died Saturday. He was 45. He was born in Quakertown, the fourth child of Fred and Marie Heschl. Surviving are his mother, his sister, Audrey Heschl, both of Benton; brother, Gary (Vickie), Harrisonburg, VA; brother Carl (Barbara), Hellertown; nephews Eric Heschl, Chad Aspinwall, Brent Aspinwall (Kim), Justin Schmidt, niece Kallie Kilgore and baby Olivia, and his special companion, Dinsdale, his pet dog. He is preceded in death by a sister, Donna Marie, his father, Fred, and his maternal and paternal grandparents. A memorial service will be held Saturday morning, November 17, at 10:30 at the McMichael Funeral Home. Family will receive friends following the memorial at the funeral home.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home

The Chairman of the Board is Elsie Buyers and the Board of Directors of the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center are Charles M. Chapman, President; Jean Mac Dermott, Treasurer; Kay Chapman, Secretary; Paul Reichart, Rich Kisner, Russell C. Seward, James Vance, Sally Brewington, Carlton Young, John Kitchen, Allison Hess, and Craig Merluzzi

Questions generally arise when a Googler stumbles on the Benton News for the first time about why we use the word "News" in our title when we don't include much "news." These people are used to CNN and Fox News and our daily newspapers where international news and national news dominate, followed by events taking place at the state and local levels. For most of American history, from the first settlements in our country well into the 20th century, the colonies and later the states and the localities spent more money and set the policies that dominated more people's lives than the remote goings-on in Washington, D.C. or in the rest of the world.

It wasn't until the Civil War and World War I came along that man became mobilized, huge expenditures took place on the national level and a new national direction began to take shape. Even the White House and executive branch power was concentrated in the central portion of the White House, and it wasn't until 1903 when Theodore Roosevelt's six children got in the way too much with the official duties of Government that the West Wing was added.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the federal budget was under a billion dollars a year while the combined industries under the control of J. P. Morgan was valued at $22 billion. Writings from before the Civil War often refer to "these" Untied States to show the regional aspect and even southerner Robert E. Lee claimed that he fought for his "country" and defined his country as Virginia.

Our Commonwealth, founded in 1682 became by 1776 one of the most prosperous of the colonies. Philadelphia had something like 20,000 residents--more than either New York or Boston which had been around 50 or so years longer--and agriculture, commerce and industry in the state led the nation. Our Commonwealth has long been known for its localism and its adherence to various ethnic backgrounds. A Texan will tell you he is from Texas. A Pennsylvanian will tell you that he is from "Benton" or "Derrs" or "Millville," or wherever their hometowns might happen to be. Even Philadelphians will say they are from a certain, self-contained neighborhood. The diversity that William Penn preached didn't keep the German or the Scotts-Irish, the Welsh or the Quaker communities from sticking together.

During the Colonial days, Pennsylvania was the leading producer of raw iron outside of England and our deposits of bituminous and anthracite coal were the largest in the world. We needed to get commerce started and by the 1790s turnpikes sprung up, like the one we recently talked about between Lancaster and Philadelphia and others closer to our area like the one that crossed what was at one time known as the "Blue" mountains or today known as the "Endless Mountains." Insurmountable obstacles were overcome such as the Allegheny Portage Railroad and the Horseshoe Curve and the Allegheny tunnels and the influence of the Pennsylvania Railroad. By 1900, Pennsylvania produced half of the nations' steel.

So, no, there isn't much news in the Benton News. But we do love our Commonwealth and we'll go right on telling stories about it. So now that we have that rant and half of November's holidays out of the way, we can start to concentrate on Thanksgiving. Go here.

 

November 13, 2007. We celebrate the birthdays of Dr. Andrew Pollock and Kevin Schlichter, and the anniversary of the opening of the Brass Pelican Restaurant. Don't bother heading to the bank or to the post office today. Don't forget the Veterans' Day celebration at the Benton Area Schools this morning at 10. We honor veterans today and we recognize St. Martin's Day, the beginning of Indian Summer.

Indian Summer can occur between St. Martin's Day and November 20. If we don't have a spell of fine weather during that time, there's no Indian Summer. According to popular belief there is peculiar weather occurring every year at this time of greater warmth than the preceding days or weeks. Tradition alone takes the term back to the time of the Indians. I am a "Doubting Thomas" by nature, since I have seen an Indian Summer in October, in November and in January.

On this date in 1986, just down the road a piece from the former town of Emmons and the village once known as "Baumtown," near the runoff of Peterman Run, Elk Run, Bloody Run and Painter Run, Clyde "Jug" Albertson opened a restaurant under the direction of manager Monica Diltz. Monica stirred in her favorite buckwheat cakes, let them raise overnight, threw some Pennsdale sausage and some home fries on the stove and a tradition of "bucks" and sausage was born. In fact, the original buckwheat cake batter is still in use today, and with each day the cakes get better. We still remember the sign we saw there about 15 years ago when we drove our snowmobile to the front door. It read, "You have to go up this road a long ways to beat our prices." In fact, assuming that the road is not snowed shut, you have to go up that road a long ways to do anything...

About this time in November in...
• 2003, Sam Dressler finished his first Boy Scout project of painting a fire hydrant on Third Street, the first of 25 in the Borough. The colors were the school colors of orange and black.
• 2004, the Sun-Dry Laundry opened between Fourth and Fifth Streets at Market, Benton. The laundry is still as spotlessly clean and attractive as it when it opened three years ago.

Didja ever think that a perfect husband is one who stands by his wife in troubles she wouldn't have had if she hadn't married him?

Today would be an excellent day to kick back and listen to the National Anthem, this version sung by a boy of 7. You can hear it here.

An early evening fire Sunday brought nine pieces of fire apparatus to the commercial building occupied by Rick Grassley in the former Benton Meat Market on Route 487 across from the McMichael Funeral Home.

The cause of the fire was not immediately determined. There was smoke damage. Fire apparatus from Benton, North Mountain and Unityville responded.

The Lancaster New Era included an article about a woman who called the local police department to report that a man grabbed and fondled her, then ran off with her purse. Police asked her to call her cell phone and the robber answered the phone. He demanded $185,000 for the return of the phone, but the woman succeeded in getting him down in price nearly 99.9% to $200. Police met the alleged robber at a specified meeting place and arrested him while he was still holding the phone. Charges are indecent assault. He is currently released on $100,000 bail.

A car owned by a Waverly couple had to be towed from State Route 220 in Laporte Township, Sullivan County, Friday night after it struck a bear which was sleeping on the road. The passengers in the car were not injured. You don't want to know about the bear.

Didja ever notice that the only way you can entertain some folks is to listen to them?

Charles Sherwood Stratton (January 4, 1838-July 15, 1883), was born a dwarf in Bridgeport, CT, to "normal" sized adults. In 1842, P. T. Barnum discovered four-year-old Charles, who was then 25 inches high, weighed 15 pounds, and was only six pounds more than his birth weight.

Barnum proclaimed the child to be an 11-year-old European marvel, called him General Tom Thumb and taught him to sing, dance, mime and act and together they traveled around the world meeting various leaders and royalty, including President Abraham Lincoln and Britain's Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren were married February 10, 1863, in New York City's Grace Episcopal Church. The newlyweds stood atop a grand piano to receive 2,000 guests.

The Benton M. E. Church duplicated the evening 80 years later on May 7, 1943, when members of the community put on an evening of entertainment they called The Wedding of Tom Thumb. The program consisted of children of the community dressing up for the wedding as various adults of the Benton area. The program was announced by a youthful Mahlon Fritz, but the evening apparently did not leave a lasting impression with him since he could not recall any of the details sixty-four years later. The bride groom was played by Karl Keeler and the bride by Nancy Jo Shultz. Alex Ash provided the ministerial duties. Paul Dodson was best man.

Others in the 1943 production included Joy Adamson and Philip Shultz as train bearers, Sara Anne Albertson as Matron of Honor. Bruce Evans, Robert Fritz, Alfred Harrison and Tommy Vincent were ushers. Marlene Penman, Genevieve Dixon, Elaine Harrison, Coreen Horn, Nancy Smith and Ruth Ann Stoker were bridesmaids. Nancy Search, Judy Ash, Beatrice Hess, Carolyn Sue Evans were flower girls. Beatrice Hess Roberts, then 5 and precocious even at that tender age, remembers that "I was the cutest Flower Girl that ever walked down the aisle in the Benton Methodist Church."

Nancy Smith Shea remembers that she was six years old and the production "was quite the extravaganza" requiring numerous rehearsals to complete the production. Nancy wrote that "The dresses were all hand sewn and beautiful. It was just like a real grown-up wedding and I felt very glamorous. As I recall there was a ramp of some sort built in the aisles of the Methodist church so that the kids were all elevated and easy to see. The church was packed."

Ann Shannon was the bride's mother and Clair Harvey the bride's father. Margaret Ann Ash was the groom's mother and Sterling Dixon, then 7, the groom's father. Wedding guests included Franklin Seig, Sandra Baker (a few days shy of her 7th birthday), Billy Follmer, Alfred Appleman, Sally Dodson, Larry Taylor, Robert Appleman, Tommy Keeler, Joan Polk, Jimmie Laubach, Blair Whitenight, Jimmy Harvey, Marilyn Stevens, Richard Hartman, Billy Confair, Joel Confair, Carlamae Hess, Jackie Healy, Laura Comstock, Spencer Vincent, David Dodson, Harold Herritt, Nancy Shannon, Franklin Knouse, Joyce Fritz, Joyce Hess, Mary Ruth Pennington, Calvin Follmer and Wayne Hess. Jim Laubach was ten years old in 1943, and "vaguely" remembers the event and being dressed in an old black suit. He had to fold his arms in back for one type of weather condition and in front for the opposite.

We are not sure who directed the program. Sandra Fritz thinks that "Mary Pennington had something to do with it. Maybe Mrs. Klase?" Edna Smith had a lot to do with the production. The program featured an organ recital by Gordon Keller. Homemade ice cream and cake was sold in the basement of the church after the wedding.

Guests attending the wedding included...
Mr. and Mrs. Todd Butt: Franklin Sieg, Sandra Baker; Doyle Pennington: Billy Follmer; Mr. and Mrs. Robert Brewington: Jerry Appleman and Sally Dodson; L. R. Appleman: Larry Taylor; Mr. T. C. Smith, Robert Appleman; Squire Freas: Jimmy Laubach; Horace Harrison: Blair Whitenight; Mr. and Mrs. T. H. Ash: Jimmie Harvey and Marilyn Stevens; Chief of Police Arley Meeker: Richard Hartman; The Pres. and Mrs. Roosevelt: Billy Confair, Virginia Bender; Madame Chiang-Kai Shek: Carlamae Hess; Mr. and Mrs. Ross Harrison: Jackie Healy, Laura Comstock; Dr. C. K. Albertson: Spencer Vincent; Mr. E. P. Chapin: David Dodson; Rev. and Mrs. J. H. Herritt, Harold Herritt and Nancy Shannon; Gen. McArthur: Franklin Knouse; Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hess: Ronnie and Janet Follmer; Ben McHenry and Myrtle Crossley: Billie Hess and Joyce Fritz; Mr. J. P. Laubach: Calvin Follmer; Mr. Gordon Keller: Wayne Hess.

The main church ushers were Ella Mae Knouse, Louise Hess, Esther Shannon, Norma Fritz, Janice Breece, Marjory Vincent, and Natalie Vincent.

A reception for the bridal party was held in the basement of the church immediately after the wedding.

The Methodist Church has hosted many weddings over the years, but none larger, more extravagant or more entertaining that the wedding of Tom Thumb.
--Information for this article supplied by Laura Comstock, who during the 1943 Tom Thumb wedding was attired in her mother's pink wedding dress.

 

November 11, 2007. Today is Armistice Day or Remembrance Day or Veterans Day or World War I Memorial Day. Whatever the name, the significance is that at 11 AM in 1918 World War I ceased. The Allied and Central Powers signed an armistice agreement at 5 AM in Marshal Foch's railway car in the Forest of Compiegne, France. You might want to follow the long tradition of bowing your head in remembrance at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Four years of brutal fighting resulted in the death of nine million soldiers and 21 million wounded.

The day will be honored in this country today and Monday. Dr. Karen Boback, always an enthusiastic supporter of the veteran, will speak at the VFW in Benton tonight at 7, and on Monday during the 10 AM Veterans' Day celebration at the Benton Area Schools.

The program at the school Monday includes a welcome from Mr. Powlus and some band music in the "Spirit of America" by the band, the pledge to the flag, and the National Anthem. The staff of the school who served or continue to serve in the Armed Services--Doug McCracken, John Welgosh, Joe Flite, Steve Spencer, Alan Hannas, Jay McHenry and Brady Hess--will be recognized. All veterans in attendance will then be recognized. Grades 4, 5 and 6 will jointly sing America the Beautiful. The members of the VFW who attend will be introduced.

The Patriot's Pen program segment comes next including an award and speeches. The Voice of Democracy segment will be introduced by Mr. Cashman, awards will be presented by Fred Long, and a speech will be delivered by Sean Christian. There will information on flag etiquette, and there will be some singing and poems. Miles Cole and Katie Cross will make sure everyone knows the meaning of Veteran's Day, and then Jack Laubach, accompanied by Rep. Karen Boback and Mr. Powlus, will mount the stage to receive the "Veteran of the Year" award.

A school staff presentation will be given to Alan Hannas, a closing delivered by Mr. Powlus and Joe Goode will lead the group in "My Country 'Tis of Thee." The VFW firing squad will end the program as taps and echo sound through the building.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
--Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918), Canadian Army

One of the popular stories that made its rounds during the Second World War was the one about the Englishman, Arabian and Yank standing on a street corner somewhere in Europe when a very pretty Oriental lady went by. The Englishman exclaimed "By Jove!" The Arabian murmured a reverent, "By Allah!" The Yank breathed softly, "By tomorrow night!"

No one can ever make the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag as meaningful as Red Skelton did. You have all heard it, but it is worth listening to again. Go here to listen.

A program of related interest is coming up on the third Monday of November, November 19, at the North Mountain Historical Society get-together at the Brass Pelican Restaurant. A man who helped build a "road from Jamison City over to Red Rock" will return to the area. Charles Libby, 90, Loyalsock (between Montoursville and Williamsport), will be the featured speaker. He lived at the CCC Camp at Emmons from 1934 to 1936, a few miles "up the road" from Elk Grove. Charles has a keen memory of the operations of the CCC, and has a special fondness for Grassmere Park.

Charles will probably tell the group about his heroic actions of June 6, 1944, the day the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy to stop the Nazi advancement. He loves to tell about the Battle of Omaha Beach when he was just a small part of the 2,700 ships and 186,000 soldiers in that operation. He tells of the difficulty of getting across the beach in a tank as part of the 628th Tank Destroyer attached to the Fifth Armored Division serving under General Patton. He can still remember looking up and seeing the four cannons pointed at his tank "ready to give us a workout." Or he might tell the group about the Battle of the Bulge December 16, 1944, when twenty-four German divisions launched an attack in the Ardennes which drove a bulge 60 miles wide and 45 miles deep into the American lines during a period of bad weather when Allied planes were grounded. He can tell about the Belgium campaign, about the numerous other battles he participated in, and as Charles puts it, "I can tell you a lot more about some of the little things that happened" during his war years of 1941 through 1945.

Didja ever notice that there are two kinds of bachelors?
There are the kind that are too fast to be caught,
and the kind that are too slow to be worth catching.

Jamie McMichael, 16, Market Street, a Junior at VoTech, is heading for Europe next summer. She is raising money for the trip and her church is supporting her through orders for a hoagie sale at the Benton Christian Church. Cyndi Pinchotti, Rohrsburg, a senior, was also selected for this 20-day trip. The girls will visit France, Greece and Italy as part of the People to People Ambassador Program learning about the culture and professional lives of people in Europe.

On December 9, there will be a basket bingo of Longaberger® and other baskets at the Benton Fire Hall beginning at 2 PM to benefit Cyndi Pinchotti. Doors open at 12:30. Tickets are $20. Tickets are available from Cyndi Pinchotti or Melody Wemple, 458-5846 or 441-004. Tickets will be available at the door. This fundraiser is in no way connected with or sponsored by The Longaberger® Company.

A reader asked for a recommendation of an "interesting" book to buy at Christmas to give as a present. Although out of print for the past ten years, Introduction to Folklore is a book by author David C. Laubach. Used bookstores should have the book and it can be found on eBay.

David was a member of the 1956 graduating class of Benton High School. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Laubach, and grew up in Laubach, Pennsylvania, on what is now Camp Lavigne Road. He received his bachelors' degree at Bloomsburg State College in 1960 and taught at Loyalsock High School for nine years. He then spent a year in England in a teacher-exchange program.

When the book was published by Harcourt Brace, David was chairman of the English Department at Westfield High School, Westfield, Massachusetts. He earned his Ed.D. in 1985 at the University of Massachusetts. His research interests include folklore, linguistics, children's and young adult literature as well as literature pedagogy. Dr. Laubach is now at Kutztown University in the English Department, where his courses include linguistics, folklore, methods of teaching literature, Shakespeare on the stage, adolescent literature, and world literature as well as undergraduate and graduate instruction in Faulkner and in the English curriculum.

 

 

November 10, 2007. Happy birthday today to Frank E. Beishline. Allison Kocher and Michael Hack get married this afternoon. It is the birthday of Martin Luther. Originally organized as naval infantry in 1775 and known as the Continental Marines, the U.S. Marines Corps celebrates its 232nd birthday today. Semper Fi!

Today is Sadie Hawkins Day, a day popularized by Li'l Abner, the main man in the syndicated newspaper strip by cartoonist Al Capp that ran from 1934-1977. It is a day of the year girls and women may take the initiative with their sweethearts--including proposals of marriage. It is also a favorite theme for high-school dances.

A usual busy weekend in the upper Fishingcreek Valley has arrived. There is a Veterans' Day Parade this morning at 10 in downtown Bloomsburg. The Dallas Chapter Eastern Star Building Association will hold its annual craft sale in the Eastern Star Building, Foster Street & Woodlawn Avenue, Dallas, today from 9 until 3. Lunch will be served, Welsh cookies will be sold and the Christmas shopping should be great. This afternoon there is a benefit spaghetti dinner for the Carl Poust family from 4-7 at the Eagle Hose Company, South Mercer Street, Berwick. You can eat family-style ham this afternoon from 4:30-6:30 at the Sweet Valley Fire Hall, or enjoy a spaghetti dinner from 4-7 at the Town Hill United Methodist Church, 417 Town Hill Road, Shickshinny. Tonight is the round and square dance from 8-11 at the Jerseytown Community Center.

A joint U.S. House and Senate conference committee has stricken language from a transportation funding bill that would have forbidden the use of federal money to turn I-80 into a toll road, according to a press release from Reps. Phil English, R-3rd, and John Peterson, R-5th, who inserted the language into the bill earlier this year. It now appears that the Federal Highway Administration is the last resort to deny the state's application to turn I-80 into a toll road.

A "first-of-its-kind" molding machine will be installed next year at the Benton Foundry, Route 487, according to Foundry Management & Technology Magazine in order to increase the maximum size for its gray- and ductile-iron operation from 250 lb. to 350 lb. The new machine is being specially developed with a 28x32-in. flask to accommodate the foundry's plans to deliver larger products in higher volumes for manufacturers of pumps, valves, and manifolds, as well as components for electric motors. The company believes that the demand exists for larger castings in the metalcasting industry.

The Benton Foundry recently installed a new machine to optimize the finishing of castings, and a new plant ventilation system will be installed and operating by the end of the month for maximum dust-control in the plant.

Mail destined for a Benton address (zip code 17814) is sorted in Harrisburg, Lancaster and/or Benton. The use of an incorrect post office box number or rural address, even though you have not physically moved, has caused some USPS-delivered mail to be returned to the sender. Make sure that your correspondents have your correct address.

Have you ever noticed that there is a big difference between having an aim in life and just shooting at random?

On November 25, there will be a fundraiser for the Benton Middle School S.T.A.R., a Pampered Chef Bingo at 1 with doors open at noon. It will be held at the Benton High School Cafeteria. Cost is $20. The fundraiser is to help fund the 7th grade trip to BTE and 8th grade trip to Hershey Park for science day. S.T.A.R. is selling Poinsettias for $8 each. Orders are due November 16 and delivery is December 7, 2007. Call Tina Posey, 925-2124.

 

In 1917, President Wilson urged canning "as a patriotic duty only second in importance to the raising of foodstuffs." Herbert Hoover strongly urged women to can fruits and vegetables to insure a plentiful supply of food through the winter during the war in order to "feed our own population of one hundred million," as well as our allies "across the water" as well. During those war years, canning clubs sprung up at the urging of the National Emergency Food Garden Commission in a nation-wide campaign for the conservation of war-gardens produce. For the price of a two-cent stamp, the organization sent housewives a manual on drying and canning.

Canning was a way of life in the upper Fishingcreek Valley. Here is a family recipe for canning lima beans from 1894. The way that I visualize the process from what I read is that a quart-sized glass jar was filled with beans. The space between the beans was then filled with water from a tea-kettle, heated on a wood stove, and the jar was placed in position above the steam box and then covered until the jar and contents were sterilized. The lid of the jar was not placed on it before the sterilizing process began, but was placed with the jar under the cover for 35 minutes in order that any microbes on it might be exterminated.

Crab apples have always been a favorite of mine, especially when spiced. Many readers won't even remember crab apples, but this was the procedure for canning them. With a small, sharp knife the core was removed without greatly "marring the eternal beauty" of the crabapple. During the coring process sugar was place in cold water on the stove, allowing three-quarters of a pound of sugar for each pound of crab-apples. The sugar and water were allowed to come to a boil and then skimmed. Then after the jar was filled with crab-apples the hot syrup was poured in the jar in place of water. The contents were sterilized in fifteen minutes. Immediately after each jar was removed from the sterilizer, the lid was screwed tightly on and the jar was placed where it could be seen and admired on the front of the table. The men-folks were always quick to mention how nice the newly canned fruit and vegetables looked. These men knew where their bread was buttered!

The antique people, Kovels on Antiques and Collectibles, reminds readers that the gray zinc lids used on old canning jars are dangerous to use today. The old glass jars are interesting collectibles, but they're not safe to use for any canned food because the lid and jar seal are not tight enough and the food will eventually spoil. The old jars are made of brittle glass and may shatter from the heat of the canning process. Approved lids today have a rubber seal built into them.

Some food experts recommend not using cookbook-canning recipes from before 1990. Display your old canning bottles and cookbooks and don't take chances with food poisoning.

The Guv has announced that he is supporting legislation that would create a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence for anyone who discharges a firearm with the intent to injure, maim or kill a law-enforcement officer. The Guv is also supporting a mandatory sentencing bill for gun control.

Bedbugs was a topic mentioned yesterday, a huge problem for past generations. One New York City reader took the time to write in detail about the subject. Her email read...

"Regarding bedbugs, we had just gotten our first apartment in 1953, at the end of June. It was the cheapest one we could find in Brooklyn, a 'cold-water flat' which meant you had to provide your own heat and hot water, via a side-arm hot-water heater and a small space heater (one for 3 rooms!) It was a third-floor walk-up, in a 75 year-old tenement, and we had to fumigate the place to get rid of the roaches.

"Things were fine for several weeks, and at the beginning of August, which I later learned was the "mating season" for bedbugs, we started getting bitten to pieces every night. By the time you felt the stinging bite, jumped up, and turned on the light, the critters were nowhere to be seen! I told my mother-in-law, and she said, "Oh you must have bedbugs!" and she told me how to handle the situation. Evidently, you don't feel the bite until they are long gone.

"Every morning, I had to strip the bed down, wash the bed sheets in boiling hot water, and bleach, and leave them out on the clothesline all day. I then had to spray the coils of the bedspring with kerosene, (thank goodness it wasn't a box spring like today) and put the feet of the bed in cans of kerosene. I then sprayed the mattress on both sides with DDT, and let it dry out all day long. Just before bed time, I'd put the sheets back on the bed, and go to sleep with kerosene fumes all around us. Luckily, I didn't smoke!

"It didn't help. The bugs still got to us and bit us bloody. It was summer so we didn't even have the top sheet on the bed. Each morning we had welts all over us. Then Mom-in-law said, 'They must be in the wallpaper.' So we used a brush and painted all the seams with kerosene. They came crawling out and we had to cut them up with a knife to kill them. This was our routine for the whole month of August! Finally when the weather cooled down after Labor Day, we felt like we were over the siege. We scraped all the wallpaper off the bedroom walls, and painted with an enamel paint to make sure if they were still in the walls they would be sealed in forever. We even painted the wood floors with deck enamel. We never saw another bedbug, so they must have moved over to the other apartment on that floor.

"One thing I couldn't understand was how the bedbugs got into our bed with the feet of the bed sitting in cans of kerosene. My mother-in-law told me that they crawl up the walls, across the ceiling and over top of the bed and drop down on you and have a feast!

"I'll never forget the 'Summer of Hell' and the things we had to do to get rid of the critters. By the way, 'cold water flats' were outlawed that same year, so we got a nice new apartment in a Housing Project in 'Canarsie-By-the-Sea' and never worried about bedbugs again after that. I sure never wanted to see another one again!"

In the Sunday edition, we'll tell you about the Benton Area School District Veterans' Day Program on November 12.

 

November 9, 2007. Christopher Kelsey has a birthday, as does Budd Fritz, who turns 85 today and still makes the best wilted lettuce in town!

Quickies...
• The Benton Christian Church served 179 buckwheat cake and sausage meals Wednesday night at its annual gathering.

• Do you have a beer-drinking buddy who needs a Christmas present? You might consider Steven D. Hales' new book, Beer & Philosophy (Blackwell, $19.95). Stephen is a professor of philosophy at Bloomsburg University.

• Didja ever notice that what isn't worth saying is often made into a popular song?

• Pfaltzgraff owner Lifetime Brands Inc. may sell or close some or all of its 44 Pfaltzgraff stores and 36 Farberware-branded stores as of September 30 according to the CEO of the company.

• Bloomsburg University student Dan Knorr, 22, was elected mayor of Bloomsburg Tuesday and will take office as the youngest person to hold the position. Knorr was unopposed.

• The Benton Park received extensive coverage in today's Press Enterprise. The changes taking place in the park and the changes planned are listed.

Upcoming...
• November 12, 2007. Patricia Beyer, PhD., Associate Professor in Geography & Geosciences at Bloomsburg University, will present a free lecture on the "Environmental History of Lower Fishing Creek: Ideas for an Educational Trail in Bloomsburg, PA." Dr. Beyer will share her work which includes an environmental history of the last two miles of Fishing Creek before it joins with the Susquehanna River in Bloomsburg. Her presentation will convey the importance of rivers, their natural variability, and their historic importance to life in this area. This will include the subject of flooding. She will also share her ideas about an interpretative trail to further connect people to Fishing Creek. The lecture will take place at 7 PM at the Columbia County Conservation District, 702 Sawmill Road, Bloomsburg.

• November 14, 2007. The November meeting of the Fishing Creek Femme Fatales chapter of the Red Hat Society will meet at two o 'clock at Becky's Hoboken sub shop. The menu will be chicken and waffles with mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie and beverage. Price is $10 and includes tax and tip. the new Queen Mother Geraldine Yost Laubach will be coroneted and a white-elephant sale is planned. Please bring white elephants to auction. Guests are welcome and the chapter is open to new members! Proper attire of a Red Hat and purple outfit are required.

• December 1-2, 2007. Henny Penny's Country Store, outback at 230 Main Street, is having a winter open house with refreshments, door prizes and discounts. If you haven't tried Henny Penny's yet, stop in and take a look a the historically inspired folk-art and primitives for your home. Call 925-5204 for more information.

"No warmth, no cheerfulness, no helpful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member,—
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds
November!"
--Thomas Hood

Didja ever notice that the design on birthday cakes is often lovely,
but the arithmetic on the number of candles is lousy?

Congratulations are in order to the Columbia Montour Home Health Services/VNA, recognized as a 2007 HomeCare Elite agency, a compilation of the most successful Medicare-certified home health providers in the United States. The Bloomsburg-based agency is ranked as one of the top 50 agencies in Pennsylvania. Their three major programs are home health, hospice, and Nurse-Family Partnership. Columbia Montour Home Health Services/VNA is affiliated with Bloomsburg Health System.

Didja ever notice that the design on birthday cakes is often lovely,
but the arithmetic on the number of candles is lousy?

The "Old Saying" of the Day...
"Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite!"
--"Sleep tight" simply meant to "sleep well." Don't believe the other meanings you may have heard. If you know what bedbugs are, skip the next section. If you are mildly curious and are wondering what is up here, read on.

Didja know that the black walnut tree was a handy tree to have growing in the back yard when a stranger left who had accepted bed and breakfast and then departed leaving a colony of bed bugs in the back bedroom? An infusion of the leaves of this tree was used to rid the house of the unwanted bugs.

The bedbug was frequently brought home on one's luggage, picked up in trains and on boats, and it also traveled from one house to another. It was difficult to kill by starvation, for it lived without human blood, on decaying wood and even on dust. It traveled along pipes and up and through crevices to a roof and down over to another house if the house became deserted. Bedbugs in a house were not considered a disgrace; leaving them unattended was a disgrace.

Bedbugs lived best in dirty houses but lived anywhere they could find a hiding place--in crevices of woodwork, behind wall paper or picture moldings. Bedbugs were quiet during the day, but became active at night. Old-timers hunted bedbugs by removing wall paper and by stripping wooden beds. Boiling water killed them, but insect power was generally ineffective. Some people said that fumigation worked, burning two pounds of sulfur to every thousand cubic feet of space after closing all cracks in a room and putting the sulfur in an iron pot set on bricks in a tub of water to prevent fire. One report we read said a family introduced the common cockroach to the house in order to get rid of the bedbugs. It worked, but later the family admitted that the experience has been "scarcely desirable."

The bedbug has no wings, but he gets there just the same.

And then there was the St. Louis man in 1895 who, according to the Aberdeen Daily Times, tried to banish his crop of bedbugs with gasoline. After carefully smearing the furniture with the fluid he lit his pipe to await developments. A South Dakota newspaper in 1913 compared the bedbug with the "fly, the mosquito, the flea and the louse as a conveyor of infection. The newspaper claimed that a bedbug would transmit "relapsing fever," whatever that was. It was also possible, the article claimed, to get bubonic plague, "kala-azar," smallpox and typhoid fever from the bedbug.

An article made its way to the top of my desk from the Philadelphia Inquirer of July 2, 1916, about a secret order known as the Knights of the Golden Eagle. I recognized the name of the organization from reading an article that art teacher Martha Follmer Youmans wrote many years ago about the Copperhead Confederacy.

Martha Youmans was the aunt of Sam, Calvin, Faith and Bill Follmer, and to the late Janet Floyd, Ronald Follmer, Frances Hughes and Sara Phillips, the sister of their fathers, and the only girl in their family. She was the daughter of William C. Follmer and Cora (Campbell) Follmer. She and her husband John Youmans lived in Williamsport all their married life. Mrs. Youmans did a lot of art work for Dr. Frank Laubach, Benton's famous missionary, for his books used to teach reading.

Mrs. Youmans was of course writing about the 100 alleged Copperheads who were arrested for draft evasion in 1865 (55 were released almost immediately) and then gathered in the Benton Christian Church before being marched to Bloomsburg. They were then forced on a train and taken to Fort Mifflin on the Delaware about six miles from Philadelphia. More of this story, which some in the local area know as the "Fishingcreek Confederacy," can be found here.

In her account of the incident, Mrs. Youmans tells of her then 88-year-old uncle, Dr. Freas M. Golder, recalling the troubles of his maternal grandfather, Samuel Hess. It seems that in 1864 Samuel was walking near the house now owned by Franklin and Sara Newhart on Camp Lavigne Road, owned at that time by Brad Long, when he came upon 15 men armed with guns. Samuel was related to one of the armed men, an Elijah Hess, who planned to shoot his rifle into the encampment of an estimated 100 soldiers who had come from Sunbury via Bloomsburg to arrest them for draft dodging. Samuel talked long, hard and persuasively until the young hotheads went home without incident.

This all took place in the same timeframe as when a man by the name of Robnson was killed outside a barn on Upper Raven Creek Road. The Youmans account does not differ to a great degree from the version on the Benton News in the FEATURES section, but she went into some detail about the possibility of a fort in our local hills that had cannons and guns supplied by the south or brought to the upper Fishingcreek Valley from Canada. The word was out that there was a true "Copperhead Confederacy" ensconced in the hills of the area, not just a bunch of draft dodgers. This idea was probably fueled by the widespread dislike of President Lincoln in Columbia County at that time.

Not all Northerners agreed with the Union cause during the Civil War. Those who sympathized with the South were known as Copperheads, a name said to be derived from the practice of placing a copper penny in a front window of one's home as a token of dissent.

Mrs. Youmans made the point that following the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation, abolitionist speakers in New York city drew huge audiences, black and white. The Democratic Party continued to prepare for the emancipation of slaves and the resultant labor competition when southern blacks would supposedly flee north. In March 1863, a stricter federal draft law required all male citizens between twenty and thirty-five and all unmarried men between thirty-five and forty-five years of age to be subject to military duty. The federal government entered all eligible men into a lottery. Those wealthy enough to afford to hire a substitute or pay the government three hundred dollars might avoid enlistment. Blacks, who were not considered citizens, were exempt from the draft.

On July 11, 1863, the first lottery conscription was held. On Monday, July 13, 1863, five days of mayhem and bloodshed began that would be known as the Civil War Draft Riots. Men began joining the organizations they called "Copperheads" who were sympathetic to the south and the fraternal organization known as the "Knights of the Golden Eagle." Some people fled to Canada with their families and never returned according to Mrs. Youmans who interviewed members of the community to write her report.

On August 13, Gov. Andrew G. Curtin ordered 1,000 state militia troops from Philadelphia to Bloomsburg and from there north to Benton. They moved into the area to hunt Copperheads, although they did a lot of plundering of henhouses and pigpens. Gov. Curtain was angered by the conduct of the troops and the troops were placed under the command of Capt. George Cadwalader to deal with this den of insurrection and something like a thousand of them camped just south of the Borough along Fishingcreek in a grove of sugar maples known as "Appleman's grove." No forts were ever found and according to Mrs. Youman's account Capt. Cadwalader concluded that the whole "Copperhead Rebellion" was a farce, which was not a huge consolation to the 44 men incarcerated at Ft. Mifflin as about 20 of them faced a military tribunal.

The stories told by the former Benton resident came from conversations with her uncle, Dr. Freas Golder, who died in 1965 at the age of 88, a man who practiced dentistry from the house now owned by Huber and Nancy Kline, Main Street. Dr. Golder heard the stories from his maternal grandfather who served in the Civil War.

"A cavalry company of 150 men passed through Sunbury, on Monday. Some 30 infantrymen proceeded to Bloomsburg, and then Benton.
--Sunbury Gazette, August 1, 1864

 

November 8, 2007. Happy birthday to school-board member Bob Ridall and to Joe Feola.

Readers who enjoy driving the Pennsylvania Game Commission former CCC road known as "Grassy Hollow" beside Heberly Run in Sullivan County will have to wait until next spring to make their next trip. The Game Commission representing the Northeast District advised by telephone that the washed-out road will not be repaired until next year.

Members of the Sullivan County Museum and the Columbia County Historical Society met at the former summer residence of Col and Mrs. R. Bruce Ricketts at Ganoga Lake Wednesday. Miles Little acted as tour director.

The group also visited the final resting place of Col. and Mrs. R. Bruce Ricketts high on a bluff beside the former Susquehanna & Tioga turnpike as the first snowflakes of the late fall season fell. Elizabeth Reynolds Ricketts (April 13, 1842-November 19, 1918) and Robert Bruce Ricketts (April 29, 1839-November 13, 1918), 79, passed away within six days of each other. They had reposed in a receiving value at Hollenback cemetery, Wilkes-Barre, and were then taken to the North Mountain cemetery on December 4, 1918, according to an article in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. It was the special desire of Col. Ricketts to be buried on the Ricketts preserve at North Mountain.

The burial plot had been cleared of underbrush by John Green, who was Col. Ricketts' body servant during the Civil War, and who came north with him afterward. Green continued to live on the mountain after the passing of Mr. Ricketts. According to the Time Leader article, the bodies were "enclosed in concrete sarcophagi and the graves marked by a massive boulder of conglomerate." A sarcophagus is a stone container for a coffin or body. Only the family and a few relatives attended the funeral and services of commitment at the First Presbyterian Church. The carriers were employees from the Ricketts' farm.

Didja know that Colonel R. Bruce Ricketts...
• was one of the candidates mentioned for the Democratic Gubernatorial nomination in June, 1890. He disposed of tracts of woodland that year to an English syndicate and the Philadelphia Inquirer maintained that forty thousand acres were transferred. The price paid was $28 an acre. Mr. Ricketts celebrated with a vacation in England.

• and the survivors of Ricketts Battery met in Berwick in annual reunion in September, 1912. Col. Ricketts was elected general president. The reunion during the following year was held at Gettysburg on July 2, the fiftieth anniversary of the day the battery went into position on east Cemetery Hill.

We'll now return to our continuing discussion of turnpikes in our area. We'll rejoin the story just when we were about to mention tolls.

In 1807, the Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike charged tolls for every five miles according to the following schedule: for every score of sheep 4 cents; every score of hogs 6 cents; every score of cattle twelve cents; every horse or mule with rider three cents; every sulky, chair or chaise with two wheels and one horse six cents or with two horses eight cents; every coach, stage-waggon (sic), or light-waggon (sic) with two horses and four wheels 12 cents; or with four horses 20 cents.

To give you an idea of the usage of the Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike, the gross amount of tolls from the time tolls were first taken in November, 1806, to July, 1807, was $1,339.07. The rates of tolls were originally the same as those of the Susquehanna & Leigh Turnpike.

By 1832, during the height of turnpike usage in this country, there were 220 companies chartered serving approximately 32,400 miles with another 600 miles in construction. A system of canals and the introduction of railroads subsequent to 1832 led to more turnpikes being abandoned than constructed from that time forward. Construction of turnpikes after 1840 was practically unheard of; even the profitable Lancaster Pike closed in 1873, with its last ten miles sold in 1899 after over a century of use. The Union Turnpike in Luzerne County was an exception.

The state took over most of the turnpikes and local governments took over some. Public funds then maintained the roads, although America's new-found love of the train kept roads from much development again until about 1900.

Outside of the Lancaster Pike, it appears that an investment in a turnpike company would have been a poor investment and one report we found dating from 1832 indicated that not a single turnpike company after the Lancaster Pike returned a dividend "sufficient to remunerate the proprietors" although we admit that the Union Turnpike at the time they were being purchased by Luzerne County "claimed" that they returned 12% to their stockholders.

Most revenue came from long-distance travelers and tolls were high. Local travelers hated the system and did everything in their power to avoid the toll system and the inconvenience of having to stop and shell out money. Often the turnpike company granted special privileges for those on their way to worship and some early pictures of turnpikes show riders in wagons holding up their prayer books. Users heading to the grist mill or on their way to a funeral were exempt from paying toll on certain turnpikes. Some turnpike companies even exempted all farm-related travel.

There were ways around the system. It didn't pay to hire a guard for overnight travel, so most turnpike gates were thrown open for the night at 10, although that was not true around the larger cities the morning of "market day."

By 1821, Pennsylvania had chartered 146 turnpike companies, mostly in populated areas of the state.

Turnpikes were expensive to build and to maintain and to keep in toll-keepers. After all expenses, there wasn't much left for the stockholders. The turnpikes served the farmer well, helping them transition from substance farming to commercial farming. Because of turnpikes, farms dotting the Pennsylvania backwoods increased in value and helped promote a more satisfying life outside the big city. Even so, the turnpikes mostly served the more populated areas of the state, leaving little farmers to survive in the mud with little ability to get his farm-produced goods to market farther away than the corner store.
--Most specific history of the Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike came from Poulson's American Daily of March 3, 1809. Other references as shown.

 

The subject of turnpikes is covered in this web site in three FEATURES locations; i,e.,

• The Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike: The History of the Berwick Turnpike

• Sketches from the Susquehanna-Tioga Turnpike, by Kenneth T. Wilson, Jr.

• Turnpikes, Including the Union Turnpike, the Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike and the Susquehanna & Lehigh Turnpike

The turnpikes of the area are also discussed in other FEATURES locations, including an article on Ganoga Lake and the history of Jamison City. No, Interstae 80 is not mentioned in any of these articles!

Whittier Letteer, Dennis Threlkeld and Ted McHenry serving buckwheat cakes and sausage Wednesday night at the Benton Christian Church

 

November 7, 2007. Today is the birthday of Richard Bardo, Jane Fritz and Lorena Bennett and the anniversary of The Reverend David Diehl becoming the full-time pastor of the Benton Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 2004. Billy Graham was born on this date in 1918, Al Hirt in 1922, Dame Joan Sutherland in 1926. William Appleman, a farmer in Benton Township was one of many citizens seized by soldiers on the morning of August 31, 1864, because of his opposition to the federal draft. Appleman died on this date in 1883 when he was 73. On this date in 1874, the Raven Creek Church building was dedicated. There are 45 days until the days start getting longer. Put Richard Kriebel in your prayers again with his continuing battle with hip problems. Dick was again readmitted to the hospital last evening.

Election results...
• Benton Township... Fourteen voted straight Democrat and 19 voted straight Republican. For County Commissioner, Kovach received 104 votes, Golomb picked up 105 votes, Young received 188 votes and Soberick received 132 votes. In the school board race in Benton Township to elect two, Robert Ridall received 188 votes, Ramona Heaps, 160, and Evy Lysk 121. In the race between Conner and Ashelman, Conner got 195 votes and 73 wrote in the name of Ashelman. Bob Conner asked that the Benton News mention his gratitude to voters for their votes for him and for the three incumbent county commissioners.

• Sugarloaf Township for school director, 115 votes were cast for Robert Ridall, 119 votes cast for Evy Lysk and Ramona Heaps received 94 write-in votes. It should be noted that to arrive at the totals for Mrs. Heaps every suspect ballot for the write-in candidate was discarded when Mrs. Heaps' name was misspelled in any way. Election officials may eventually give a higher number of ballots to the write-in candidate in Sugarloaf Township The combined final vote for Benton and Sugarloaf townships for school director was Ramona Heaps 254 votes to 240 votes for Evy Lysk, noting that official vote counts could differ because of minor misspelling of Mrs. Heaps' name made when casting ballots via electronic media. The voter intent is clearly understood. Transferring that intent to an election ballot is another.

• Benton Borough... Eight voted straight Democrat and 18 voted straight Republican. For County Commissioner, Kovach received 70 votes, Golomb picked up 50 votes, Young received 105 votes and Soberick received 82 votes. For school board, Kelly O'Brien received 133 votes and Gerry Newhart received 126 votes. In the race for Town Council, Josh Price picked up 96 votes as a new member, Dan Jankowski got 126 votes, Mike Klem got 116 votes and Grant Little got 111 votes. All were elected. In the write-in column, Dan Hartman received 9 votes and will apparently serve a two-year term.

All three Columbia County commissioners--Bill Soberick, 64, Chris Young, 46, and Dave Kovach, 52--were returned to office in Tuesday's light election. The Press Enterprise reported that 25.59% of the registered voters--43,729 registered voters, 11,192 cast ballots--turned out to vote. The election was marked for some by long lines at some polling places. Last evening long lines formed at Sugarloaf schoolhouse as voters struggled to type in write-in names and otherwise figure out the computers used for voting.

In other races, Shirley Turner becomes county treasurer. At the state level, Democratic Superior Court Judges Seamus McCaffery and Debra Todd were elected to the state Supreme Court, tipping the court 4-3 in favor of the Democrats. Judges up for retention remained on the bench 66 for 67. Republican Hazelton Mayor Lou Barletta won re-election to a third term.

The final score in the Benton/Camp Hill soccer game was 2-0 in favor of Camp Hill.

The Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike was intended and built as a continuation of the Susquehanna and Lehigh Turnpike which ended at Nescopeck Falls. The legislation that established the turnpike that passed over Jonestown and Red Rock mountains called it a "trifling addition of a few miles more" to "form a chain of communication" from Philadelphia to the "head of the Seneca Lake." Building the turnpike would "open up a vast extensive country." The promise was that the turnpike would be the "nearest and best from Philadelphia and from New York to the shores of Lake Ontario and Upper Canada, as well as to Niagara" through "connections and dependencies." It was to be the "safest at all times."

The distance from Philadelphia to the head of Seneca Lake was estimated to be 212 miles over the original turnpike, compared with the 260-mile trip it would be today traveling the modern Pennsylvania Turnpike and New York State Route 17 to Watkins Glen at the bottom tip of Seneca Lake. The section of six miles from the Pennsylvania/New York line to Newtown, New York, the termination of the original turnpike, was in "open country" through which there was a good road."

The men who pitched the turnpike knew how to pursuade people. The state Legislature was told that "To dwell on the immense importance of such a communication to the United States, in the states of Pennsylvania and New York, in the city of Philadelphia or to the interior country would be superfluous to the enlightened Legislature which the communication is intended.

This advertisment appeared in Paulson's American Daily in the edition of October 27, 1806.

The first section of the turnpike was authorized by an act of the Legislature "March 19th, A.D. 1804" enabling the Governor to incorporate a company by the name of the President, Managers and Company of the Susquehanna and Lehigh Turnpike to make an "artificial road from Nescopeck on the N. E. branch of the Susquehanna, to the Lehigh River." The original capital stock was authorized in the amount of $60,000, composed of 600 shares at $100 a share. The success of the Susquehanna & Lehigh Turnpike carried over to the need to continue pushing north into New York state with a turnpike.

A company incorporated in 1807 to build a turnpike from Berwick to what is now Elmira, New York, began construction at the Susquehanna River at Berwick and moved north as fast as the limited subscription to its stock would permit. The turnpike was not completed to Elmira until about 1825. The road became important to the local economy as early as 1810.

When the legislature chartered a turnpike, it specified the details of width, grade, and surfacing and detailed its maintenance responsibilities. Most turnpikes were specified to be four rods (A rod is equal to 5.5 yards or 16.5 feet) wide, sometimes a bit wider if population and usage demanded. Looking at the standards established in the rest of the state, it is evident that the Susquehanna & Tioga marched to a different drummer. In most places, it was not as wide as specified, it was not an artificial-stone road, it didn't have 9 to 15 inches of crushed rock on a bed of 5- to 8-inch rocks.

On top of Red Rock mountain, much of the road was the width of a modern car, plus a foot or two, and the bed of the road where it crossed swamps was corduroy--logs placed perpendicular to the direction of travel.

It appears that the state laid down specifications for construction, but then rarely inspected to insure that the instructions had been followed. When the state finally inspected the Erie and Waterford turnpike because of complaints, for example, they found that the roadbed was "no harder than the natural soil of the land through which it passed."

Based on the experience gained in the building of the first 30 miles and the testimony of the surveyor who "explored the whole of the section from Berwick to the state line," the early thought was that the turnpike could be built for about $1,000 a mile, which would mean that the entire turnpike could be built for $71,000. But by 1809, the outlook was grim for completion of the road. The assets of the corporation included money from individuals payable in money and in land and totaled 113 shares of stock sold at $100 each, leaving the company short by 597 shares at $100 per share--a deficiency of $59,700. The estimated cost per mile was based on experience gained during the construction of the Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike.

The surveyor noted that "the only mountains of any consequence in the whole distance are the Nob Mountain and the 'Bald' or North Mountain," the "ascent of which will require an elevation of not more than six degrees, or twenty-one inches in a perch." The exact route of the original turnpike up Red Rock Mountain is no longer exactly known, but I doubt that these elevation standards were met! The Act of Incorporation required no specific degree of elevation.

The "breadth" of the road, to be formed "by an arch of about eleven inches," was to be twenty feet exclusive of ditches on both sides of the road. The road was to be "bedded where necessary," with "wood, stone, gravel or other proper and convenient material, sufficient to secure a solid foundation." The wording permitted the use of corduroy "over a hilly country."

The original conception was that there would have to be eight bridges of any consequence. The faded type of Poulson's American Daily is almost illegible, but the bridges that I could read included one of 76 feet on the "south branch of the Loyalsock," one of 40 feet on the middle branch of the Loyalsock, one of 40 feet on the middle branch of the "Towandee," one of 65 feet on the main branch of the "Towandee," one of 40 feet over the Sager Creek, one of 25(?) feet over the Jack Creek, a branch of Sager Creek, and 20 feet over Bentley Creek.

We'll discuss tolls on the turnpike when we get together tomorrow, tolls for both critters and people.

 

Tuesday, November 6, 2007. Today is election day. Happy birthday today to Charles Hartzell. District 4 runner-up Benton (17-5-1) takes on Camp Hill (18-5) at 3:30 this afternoon in boys varsity soccer at 3:30 at Hersheypark as park of the PIAA state championships. Go Tigers! The Press Enterprise has an article in today's edition. We'll let you know the outcome this afternoon.

On this date in 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln, 51, defeated three other candidates for the United States presidency. He failed to win a majority of the popular vote, but carried 18 states with 180 of the total 301 electoral votes.

We begin a series today in which we journey back in time to when settlements first developed along streams and rivers, while farther inland population spread somewhat slower. Outside of the larger towns and cities, the road system was deplorable. One visitor from London wrote that "To travel day after day, among trees a hundred feet high, is oppressive to a degree which those cannot conceive who have not experienced it."

The subject today from my seat on the fence is "turnpikes," a name derived from the gate or bar that was suspended across a road to stop the traveler until he paid his toll, after which the gate was turned to permit his passage. There are also two related articles in the FEATURES section if you have further interest in the subject of local turnpikes.

The idea of turnpikes probably originated with the Romans, but then the idea fell into disuse until the latter part of the eighteenth century when companies in Great Britain and France reintroduced the idea. As early as 1792, the General Advertiser noted that the House of Representatives of the United States indicated that the time would soon arrive when "turnpike roads would be opened in every part of the union."

The first record of a private turnpike company to improve the condition of roads in England dates to 1663 and by about 1700 turnpikes were becoming common in that country. The idea spread to the United States and between 1790 and 1832, there was a flurry of activity in building turnpikes so that farmers could get their produce to the markets in the larger cities. Residents of those cities wanted lower cost produce so turnpikes made sense to them, too.

Pennsylvania's first turnpike was authorized by the General Assembly incorporating the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Company in 1792, only three years after the inauguration of President Washington. The sixty-two mile long Lancaster Pike, completed in 1794, was built for $7,500 per mile. The cost of construction was derived from the sale of stock at $300 a share, sold to 600 people, selected by lot. It seems that 2,276 people tried to buy the stock and so a lottery system was derived to select the lucky buyers. Many others objected to the turnpike idea, saying that the building of roads should be a function of government.

The charter for each turnpike company in Pennsylvania required it to construct to certain specifications and to keep the turnpike in good repair (although there is little to suggest that the state paid much attention once the turnpike was authorized). Turnpikes were allowed to collect tolls according to a set-rate schedule. The charter permitted tolls to be raised if stockholders did not get a 6% return on investment, and they could be lowered if dividends exceeded 15%.

The Lancaster Pike was a success and even the three large bridges on that route were wonders of its time. There was the final link in the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike known as the "Permanent Bridge" at what was then High Street (Market Street) over the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, the bridge over the Brandywine at Downingtown and the "Conestoga" outside of Lancaster. The company made some rules, like not using a "wagon or other carriage" with wheels less than four inches wide between December and April if the weight of the wagon exceed two and a half tons. Tolls were less expensive for wagons with wider wheels. The Lancaster Pike continued in successful business for the next 25 years, paying good dividends and was widely touted as the most successful turnpike in America.

The success of this turnpike stimulated the building of other turnpikes. The Lancaster and Susquehanna Pike Turnpike opened in 1803. Then came the Germantown and Reading Turnpike Company, followed by turnpikes that ran between Philadelphia and Trenton, Easton to Wilkes-Barre, Sunbury to Reading, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. There was a Nanticoke and Hughesville Turnpike Company which made a stop in the village of New Columbus. It was during this environment that the Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike Company was chartered in our area and over the next few days we'll spend some time examining the turnpike as it was viewed about 200 years ago.

The Union Turnpike in Luzerne County came along in 1877, well after most turnpikes had reached their prime. The turnpike ran along the gap in the hills where Shickshinny creek flowed and eventually made its way to Huntington Mills. It is generally the path of the modern Route 239. According to a Times Leader article of August 3, 1908, the company consistently returned 12% on the investor's dollar. There was also a turnpike company in New Jersey in 1804 with the same name.

In 1822 the Committee on Roads, Bridges and Inland Navigation of the Senate reported that the Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike, and others, "will afford facilities for traveling and transportation unequaled, as to extent, in the United States."

To give you an idea of some of the turnpikes in the local area we'll skip ahead in time and tell you about an article in the Wilkes-Barre Weekly Times of April 22, 1899, which gave some insight into the deeding of turnpikes and toll bridges from private ownership to the public sector. Petitions for the acquisitions by Luzerne County of the various toll bridges and turnpikes were presented to the court and judges returned them with the names of private citizens who viewed the roads and reported their value to the county. Here are some of the matters taken up by Luzerne County back in 1899...
• There was a toll bridge at Pittston belonging to the Pittston Ferry Bridge Company.

• The matter of the Union Turnpike belonging to the Union Turnpike Road Company was referred to W. F. Fessler, S.F. Lynch, John Pascoe, C.W. Kline and Thomas Malone. A. W. Jackson, master, presided in the matter.

• A similar matter was taken up about the acquisition of the turnpike road belonging to the Dallas and Kingston Turnpike Company and the Hunlock Creek and Muhlenberg Turnpike Company.

• The toll bridge at Wilkes-Barre belonging to the Wilkes-Barre Bridge Company (Market Street).

• The acquisition of the toll bridge at Shickshinny belonging to the Paddy's Run Bridge Co.

• A toll bridge at Pittston belonging to the Water Street Bridge Co.

• The acquisition of the toll bridge at Nanticoke belonging to the Susquehanna Coal Co.

• The acquisition of the toll bridge at Wilkes-Barre belonging to the Wilkes-Barre and Kingston Bridge Company. (North Street).

• The acquisition of the toll bridge at Plymouth belonging to the Plymouth Bridge Company.

• The application for the acquisition of the toll bridge at Berwick.

The Wilkes-Barre Leader newspaper of December 26, 1878, felt that the Union Turnpike was so important to the Huntington Mills high school that an advertisement for the school prominently mentioned the Union Turnpike. The advertisement read, in part, "The design of the school is to give young men and women a practical education and prepare students for college. The opening, or first academic year, will begin Monday, Sept. 2d, 1878. The location of this new institution is at the above named village in the healthful valley of Huntington, on the Union turnpike road, five miles from the depot" of the railroad at Shickshinny. The "Terms of Tuition" for eleven weeks, by the way, was $3 for the Primary Department and $5.50 for the Academic Department. "Instructional music" was extra.

Turnpikes generally didn't make the newspapers and were generally free of scandal, although one incident in the Shickshinny area touched on the bizarre according to a Wilkes-Barre Weekly Times edition of August 13, 1899. William Campbell was found dead one August afternoon in 1899 in his outhouse with a bullet hole through his heart. On the floor beside him lay a revolver with one exploded cartridge with all other chambers loaded. His body was immediately carried into the house and medical aid was summoned, but death had been instantaneous. A rumor began that the Director and Treasurer of the Union Turnpike and former Luzerne County Commissioner had committed suicide. Crowds gathered and sides were formed; one side representing the suicide claim and the other side claiming that suicide was preposterous.

Campbell was, after all, the "esteem of his townsmen and a large circle of friends" and his "home life all that could be desired." He was in the "best of health and spirits" and seemed to be "enjoying life to its utmost." The friends of Mr. Campbell claimed that his revolver fell from his pocket "and was discharged by striking the floor and the bullet was discharged upwards entered his body causing death." They based this claim on the fact that the "shirt he wore showed no signs of powder marks, which they claim would have been the case had he committed suicide." Doctors immediately secured another of Campbell's shirts and began holding the same gun at arm's length to determine if powder marks would be left on the shirt. I could find no record of any doctors being shot or otherwise injured in this experiment. The matter was unresolved.

When we return Wednesday, we'll continue our discussion of early turnpike roads in the area and will discuss the Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike in detail.

 

November 5, 2007. Please include Ora Karns in your prayers today. She is in the Bloomsburg Hospital, a possible stroke victim. On this date in 1872, suffragist and activist Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) was fined $100 for attempting to vote in a presidential election. First a teacher, she became active in temperance, but was not allowed to speak at temperance rallies because she was a woman. She joined the women's rights movement in 1852 and dedicated her life to woman suffrage. She lobbied for the abolition of slavery, women's rights to their own property and earnings, and women's labor organizations.

Tests are always fun, and here is one making its rounds. You only need four correct answers to pass. Answers at end.
1) How long did the Hundred Years War last?
2) Which country makes Panama hats?
3) From which animal do we get catgut?
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
5) What is a camel's hair brush made of?
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?
7) What was King George VI's first name?
8) What color is a purple finch?
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?

Gina M. (Zanin) Tomasak (January 16, 1970-November 1, 2007), Sweet Valley, died Thursday of a brain aneurism at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. Born in Scranton, she was a daughter of the late Frank Zanin, Clarks Summit, and Noreen Koch, Chambersburg. Gina was a manager at Red Lobster in Wilkes-Barre Township. She is survived by her husband, Peter Tomasak; stepchildren, Lana Tomasak, Pamela Maculloch, Peter and Amy Ann Tomasak; and by nine grandchildren. Memorial services will be today at 2 PM in Bennett Presbyterian Church, Bennett Street, Luzerne. Friends may call today from noon to time of service at the church.

Our deepest sympathy is extended to Pete. He was scheduled to be the guest speaker November 19 at the North Mountain Historical Society at the Brass Pelican Restaurant, Elk Grove, on the subject of Robert Bruce Ricketts and the publication of his newest book, In Command of Time Elapsed--The Life and Times of Robert Bruce Ricketts. Under the circumstances, President Jim Vance announced that Charles Libby will be the guest speaker. We'll tell you about this interesting speaker and his World War II topic in a future edition.

Quote of the Day:
"An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry."
--T.S. Eliot describing the election process.

Tuesday we have an election and it, as always, is important to have a big turnout and make informed decisions. Please get out and vote.

We liked the sign at a propane filling station that said simply, "Tank heaven for little grills."

Paula Radcliffe and Martin Lel won Sunday's New York City Marathon. Britain's world record holder Radcliffe won with a time of two hours, 23 minutes, nine seconds. Daughter-in-law Lydia Becker, despite starting in the first row of the women's division and getting national television exposure--a daunting position to be in with over 38,000 runners breathing down her neck--finished at three hours, fourteen minutes and one second. On the men's side, Lel jet-skied the 26.2 miles through the five boroughs of New York City in a time of 2 hours, 9 minutes, 4 seconds.

The answers to the pop quiz at the top are:
1) How long did the Hundred Years War last? 116 years
2) Which country makes Panama hats? Ecuador
3) From which animal do we get cat gut? Sheep and Horses
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? November
5) What is a camel's hair brush made of? Squirrel fur
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal? Dogs
7) What was King George VI's first name? Albert
8) What color is a purple finch? Crimson
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from? New Zealand

		In tomorrow's edition of the Benton News, we retrace our steps on the Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike. Sure, I know there is a long article on the subject written by me and a similar version written by Dr. Ken Wilson in the FEATURES section. And I can hear you grumbling that you know that travelers to our area after 1787 often followed a route from Mauch Chunk to Berwick, first using the Lehigh River from Philadelphia. This overland route connecting to the Lehigh dates back to 1789 permitting commerce between the Susquehanna and the Delaware on what many called the Lehigh-Nescopeck Highway. After 1813, that route generally became the Susquehanna and Lehigh Turnpike, terminating at Nescopeck.
From where I sit on the fence...

You will undoubtedly remember reading that Berwick was incorporated in 1818, the same year as the completion of a 1,256 foot long, 28-foot wide covered bridge connecting Berwick and Nescopeck.

Pennsylvania started opening public highways in 1800. A Pennsylvania act signed March 28, 1806, authorized construction of turnpikes. In 1807 a company called the President, Managers and Company of the Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike Road incorporated to build a turnpike from Berwick to the Tioga River at Elmira, New York (at that time called Newtown) by the "best and nearest route." You know the route because it is today the route over Jonestown Mountain and Red Rock Mountain.

Beginning in tomorrow's edition of the Benton News, we will go back in time to the United States of two hundred years ago when the concept of the Susquehanna & Tioga Turnpike took on real status. In order to do that, we have consulted Poulson's American Daily Advertiser in an edition of March 3, 1809, and other publications we could get our hands on from that era. If the name of the daily advertiser isn't familiar to you, it was a continuation of Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser, which you probably haven't heard of either. In 1841, the publication merged with North American to form The North American and Daily Advertiser. Anyway, we'll wait until tomorrow to begin and we'll start with Robinson's Directory for 1809, which if you are so inclined, you can purchase by heading here.

Hurrah for November we all will say, For it brings the happy Thanksgiving day.

Harry Edwin Myers (December 7, 1930-November 2, 2007), Derrs Road, Benton, died Friday evening at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, following a fall of about twnety feet in Fairmount Township. He was 76. Harry was born in Wilkes-Barre, a son of the late Marvin and Edna (Hoover) Myers. He attended Benton Schools and served in the Korean War, attaining the rank of Corporal. He was a professional welder at American Car and Foundry (AC&F) in both Berwick and Milton. He retired in 1993 after 23 years of service. He also worked over the years for Girton Manufacturing in Millville and Car-Mar in Berwick.

He and his wife, Nancy (Heath) Myers celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on July 13 and an open house in their honor was held at the Benton Fire Hall the following day. In addition to Nancy, he is survived by Alayne Laubach (Randy), Stillwater, Janice Sworen (Tom), Harrisburg, Lisa Neely (Larry), Fairmount Springs, and Kevin Myers (Rebecca) Derrs. In addition, he is survived by a grandson, Jason Laubach; granddaughters Tara Laubach, Kristen and Caitlin Sworen; sisters, Dorothy Getty, Numidia; Audrey Welkom, Numidia; and Lois McHenry, Buckhorn; and brothers Darold Myers, Americus, Georgia, Robert Myers, Danville, Karl Myers, Orangeville, and Richard Myers, Numidia. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a brother, Howard Myers.

Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 3 PM at the Derrs Christian Church, 466 Derrs Road, Benton, with a visitation from 1:30 at the church. Burial will be in Jackson Cemetery, Derrs.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home, Benton. A complete obituary will be published in the November 5 Wilkes-Barre Times Leader and the Bloomsburg Press Enterprise.

 

November 4, 2007, the 308th day of 2007. There are 48 days until the official start of winter. Daylight Saving Time ended at 2 AM. Remember to "fall back" by setting your clocks back one hour. Birthdays today include Jeannette Hartman, Casey Hartman and Carley Jane Kocher.

Good luck today to daughter-in-law Lydia Becker, Camp Hill, who, with about 37,000 others runs the New York City Marathon today through the five boroughs of New York. NBC Sports will broadcast a one-hour highlight show nationwide beginning at 3 EST this afternoon; check your local listings for details.

Don't forget that Tuesday is Choose Day, which many Americans know as "Election Day." It isn't on Sunday, it isn't on Monday, it takes place on Choose Day.

Quickies...
• Pennsylvania's three-day black bear season opens November 19.

. Until 1880, there were fifty different standard times in use in the United States, though nobody had ever heard of daylight saving time.

. Statesmen gathered at Samuel Dimmick's law office, Honesdale, and at that location in 1859 Horace Greeley, Dimmick and others agreed to nominate Abraham Lincoln for president.

. The magazine Saturday Evening Post was first published on August 4, 1821, in Philadelphia. Initially it was four-page newspaper with no illustrations. The Saturday Evening Post had a circulation of 90,000 by 1855.

Pathetic Verse of the Day:
It's a comf'terbul feelin' when you don't have to care
'Bout choosin' your words or bein' quite fair
'Cause friends'll just listen and let go on by
Those words you don't mean and not bat an eye.
--Baxter Black

We didn't all come over on the same ship,
but we all seem to be in the same boat.

Here are some questions from a test currently in use by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Questions are followed with answers:

1. How many stars are there on our flag?
2. What color are the stars on our flag?
3. What do the stars on the flag mean?
4. How many stripes are there on the flag?
5. What color are the stripes?
6. What do the stripes on the flag mean?
7. Who elects the president of the United States?
8. How many changes or amendments are there to the Constitution?
9. How many senators are there in Congress?
10. Name the 13 original states?
11. Which countries were our allies during World War II?
12. What is the 49th state added to our Union?
13. How many full terms can a president serve?
14. According to the Constitution, a person must meet certain requirements in order to be eligible to become president. Name one.
15. Who was the main writer of the Declaration of Independence?
16. What special group advises the president?
17. Name one right guaranteed by the First amendment.
18. How many times may a senator be re-elected?
19. How many times may a congressman be re-elected?

ANSWERS
1. 50.
2. White.
3. One for each state in the Union.
4. 13.
5. Red and white.
6. They represent the 13 original states.
7. The Electoral College.
8. 27.
9. 100.
10. Conn., NH, NY, NJ, MA, PA, Del., VA, NC, SC, GA, RI and MD.
11. Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, China, France.
12. Alaska.
13. Two.
14. Must be a natural-born U.S. citizen; must be at least 35 years old by the time he/she will serve; must have lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years.
15. Thomas Jefferson.
16. The Cabinet
17. Freedom of speech, press, religion, peaceable assembly, and requesting changes in the government.
18. There is no limit.
19. There is no limit.

The roll-top desk came from as far north as one can travel in our part of the state. It had served the state's second largest county which was named for William Bradford, a lawyer and judge from Philadelphia, and the second United States Attorney General (1794-1795).

I bought it at auction about 1965 when the folks at the Bradford County Courthouse, Towanda, decided that eight roll-top desks in the court house were no longer needed to make a man look important. They were put up for auction and I really wanted to have a roll-top desk. A stranger to the world of auction bidding, I bought the first one auctioned and was thrilled. I suddenly realized that I might have overpaid. My fears went away when the bidding began on the next roll top and it sold for a higher amount. The last desk sold was over 400% higher than I had paid. I was thrilled. Few things in life make a fellow feel more important than a roll-top desk and a swivel chair. Getting a good deal is one of these things!

I opened the file of material I had collected about roll-top desks. The first scrap of paper that fell to my lap was an advertisement from 1902. The headline read, "Want to make Pappy happy? Buy him a roll-top desk for Christmas." I was indeed a "childless" Happy Pappy!

As I read some of the articles about roll-top desks that I had collected over the years, one stuck out in my memory. It was about some signs posted on a roll-top desk of a “scholarly lawyer” which at first glance seemed to throw discredit on the attorney. The signs read,

“Please don’t throw papers on this hear desk.”

“Please put the telephone book where it belong. It don’t belong on these premises.”

“Please don’t bother me.”

“Please get out quickeren you come in.”

It turns out that the attorney was on vacation and his desk was occupied for the week by a very busy office boy.

I also liked an article I found in the Grand Rapids Herald of June 3, 1898, which discussed “Landlord Rice” of a Grand Rapids hotel who bought six roll-top desks for the writing room of his hotel for the use of traveling men. When a "commercial man" arrived at the hotel he was given the key to one of the desks, which he kept until he left. The article indicated that "The scheme is a new one and Mr. Rice is sure it will find favor with his customers. The desks, while in use, are strictly private to the holder of the key."

But as Bob Dylan sings, "the times they are a-changin." I now feel a little like the man I read about in an article from 1900 published in the Biloxi Daily Herald who called on “the head of a big business house” and found himself seated at a roll-top desk which was absolutely free of papers. “I’m glad to find your desk clear,” the newspaperman remarked; “you will have plenty of time to talk to me.” “Yes, I’ve cleaned up everything for the day,” was the reply, “and have determined to do away altogether with this desk. I haven’t time for details or pigeonholes, and have ordered a glass-top flat desk on which I will handle the mail as I always have. But every matter is eventually to be attended to by some one in the establishment, and as I read I turn the communications to the man who will look after them. By his means I am almost at liberty to give my attention to the 101 questions which arise in a day’s business, and which are submitted to me for final settlement. That glass-topped desk without pigeonholes ought to be worth five years of life to me.”

And so with heavy heart I announce the end of the days for the roll-top desk that has been a faithful companion since about 1965. It isn't that it is worn out. It has years and years ahead of it, and probably grows more valuable each year. I am switching to a table with no pigeonholes in it. A glass-topped table will do nicely, thank you. Maybe I will be able to get five more years out of me!

If any readers have an interest in the roll-top desk to make Pappy Happy for Christmas, email me and I'll send pictures.

 

October 3, 2007. Doug Pennington and Dan McHenry celebrate birthdays today. Whittier and Joyce Letteer, Stillwater, put 56 years of marriage on the books today. Keep Harry Myers in your prayers as he recovers from a fall.

The weekend has arrived in the upper Fishingcreek valley and the eatin' will be good. There is the fish supper today at the Sugarloaf School, just off Route 118 at Grassmere, starting at 3 and running until about 7 or so. The pork supper at St. James UCC on Zaners Bridge Road is a sure bet from 4 until 7. You can eat chicken and waffles at the Millville Fire Company from 4-7 PM and then head on to the Jerseytown Community Center to dance the night away from 8 until 11.

On Sunday, a basket-bingo party for a worthwhile cause takes place at the Benton Volunteer Fire Company from 2 PM, with the doors opening an hour before. The Carl Poust family will benefit.

We should also remind you of the busy week ahead. Tuesday is election. After you vote Tuesday, you can stop at the Sugarloaf School for an election-day chow-down from 8 AM until 7 PM. The day after election, Wednesday, is the annual buckwheat cake and sausage supper at the Benton Christian Church, Third and Church Streets. Whittier Letteer and just about everyone in the church work their hearts out to make this an evening to remember. It begins at 4:30.

Other events taking place next week that you might enjoy includes a "Native Grasslands as an Energy Source" lecture November 8 at PPL's Susquehanna Riverlands Energy Information Center, Route 11, from 7-8:30 PM. If you missed the recent lecture on "The History of Montoursville in 1907," you can catch it November 8 at 10 in the morning in the community room of Thomas T. Taber Museum, 858 W. Fourth St., Williamsport. On November 10, there is a ham dinner from 4:30-6:30 PM at the Sweet Valley Fire Hall on Main Road, a spaghetti dinner from 4-7 PM at the Town Hill UMC to benefit Boy Scout Troop 17 and a Veterans Day parade at 10 in the morning in downtown Bloomsburg. Park at the hospital parking lot. That night, the Columbia-Montour Barbershoppers tune up and sing out beginning at 7:59 PM in the Central Columbia High School Auditorium and there is bluegrass galore with the Double Barrel Bluegrass Band with David Hampton and special guest musicians at the Raven Creek Community Hall.

Heard, but not confirmed...
• Less than eight months after Don Imus mouthed his way off national television and radio, he has signed a reported multiyear deal to return to morning radio on WABC, starting Dec. 3.

• The administrative law judge in Washington, D.C., who "pressed his suit" to collect $54 million because the dry cleaning company lost his pants has been booted out of office and told to vamoose the building.

The name of Eleanor Sands Smith was mentioned recently in an article about Ivan Ash. That article said that Helen Newman Ash was an assistant editor to Mrs. Sands in the production of the magazine, The Unicorn. The reader heard about Mrs. Sands and asked if I would tell her more about the woman.

What I remember was that Mrs. Smith was a Benton native, a former teacher and an internationally known poet. She died in January, 1976, at the Boone Health Care Center, Millville, following a long illness involving a number of hospital stays. Her parents were Raymond and Ella Heller Sands. She spent much of her life working with retarded children, but she was best known as a poet.

She prolifically wrote and she published collections of her works in well-known editions of St. Martin's Summer and Everywhere is Here and Lonesome. She was editor of the Unicorn from 1939 until 1941. Newspapers published her words, papers like The Christian Science Monitor, the New York Herald Tribune, Poetry Magazine and numerous poetry collections and anthologies included her works. At one time, she was poetry editor for the Morning Press and conducted a poetry reading radio show on WCNR, Bloomsburg.

She was listed as an invited member of Who's Who in International Poetry, London.

After her retirement as a teacher, she became a devoted historian of the area. It was at this point in her life that she began painting in wool of various scenes that portrayed Benton's past. She did a number of paintings that showed the scene in Benton immediately following the disastrous fire of July 4, 1910.

Mrs. Smith was instrumental in having Benton named in 1975 as one of the first communities in the state to be designated as a Bicentennial Village. In her role as the coordinator of the Thomas Hart Benton Bicentennial Committee she developed a series of events that marked our nation's 200th anniversary and specifically identified those events that occurred in the Benton area. Mrs. Smith, then vice-president of the Benton Garden Club, got the plans rolling and Mayor Jim Dildine appointed her as chairperson to spearhead the project. Her theme became "We Came, We Stayed," a reference to the fact that many of Benton's residents were descendents from the area's first settlers. Martin Appleman was the general coordinator for the project.

The Smith family lived on Third Street at Center, and in later years on Market Street. Mrs. Smith and her husband Ranald L Smith had three children: Jennifer, Melissa and Ranald. Mr. Smith, who passed away in 1966, and Mrs. Smith are interred in the Benton Cemetery.

Fishermen know the freshwater drum, sometimes known as the silver bass, as the fish most commonly called "sheepshead." It is a popular fish because of its excellent taste. Dave and Theresa Hilley, Cambra, fished the Delaware Bay on October 17 when she caught a sheepshead that set new Delaware state records. You can see the fish for a few more days by heading to www.billssportshop.com. Using sand fleas for bait, the fish that Theresa caught weighed 13.95 lbs and measured 26" long with a 26" girth.

Republicans Michael S. Klem, 45, Daniel S. Jankowski, 31, and Grant Little, 57, and Democrat Joshua Price, 25, are running for the four open four-year seats on Benton Borough council. There is one two-year term available with the person elected determined by write-in. No candidate has yet announced that he is seeking that office.

In Benton Township, Republican incumbent Robert Conner, 69, is running for a six-year term as supervisor. Randy Hack, 48, the Democratic incumbent in Fishing Creek Township, is the only candidate for the six-year term as supervisor. Carl D. Remley, Democrat, 75, is the only candidate for a six-year Supervisor position in Jackson Township.

Over in Millville Borough, current Republican councilmen Roy E. Bower Jr., 64, Charles D. Hartzel III, 53, and R. Lee Milroy, 74, are unopposed in their four-year term. Ron W. Reichenbach, Democrat, is unopposed in Pine Township for another six-year term as Supervisor. Edward "Edd" C. Sidinger III, incumbent Republican from Jamison City, is running for a six-year term as Supervisor in Sugarloaf Township. No candidates are running for the four-year seats on borough council in Orangeville or Stillwater Borough.

Shirley Turner, a Republican, and Kristen Gensel, a Democrat are both running for the office of Columbia County Treasurer to replace Shirley Drake who is retiring. Republican District Attorney Gary A. Norton, Republican Prothonotary and Clerk of Courts Tami B. Kline and Register of Wills and Recorder of Deeds Beverly J. Michael are unopposed. Dr. Lori Masteller, a Republican, is going for her second four-year term as coroner. Democrat Luther J. Black, and Republicans Sandra L. Whispell and Rodman R. Ralston are running for the three auditor's positions.

Incumbent Democrat Evy Lysk, 55, and Robert Ridall, 48, (endorsed by both parties) are running for two four-year terms in Region II consisting of Benton and Sugarloaf Townships. Ramona Heaps is running as a write-in candidate. For school board in Region I, Kelly O'Brien Gavin, 37, is running for a two-year term to represent Benton Borough and Jackson Township. Ms. Gavin was endorsed by both parties. Incumbent Geraldine Newhart, 60, is the candidate for a four-year term in Region I with the support of both parties. Rick L. Posey, 47, and Dennis R. Threlkeld, 54, are running for four-year terms in Fishing Creek Township and Stillwater Borough. Kathleen Wells is a write-in candidate.

 

 

November 2, 2007. On this date in 1947, Howard Hughes flew the Spruce Goose on its only flight. The government contracted with Hughes Aircraft Company to build a behemoth long-distance plane that could take off and land on the water. Designed to hold 750 fully equipped troops or two Sherman-class tanks, the wingspan was longer than a football field and it was powered by eight huge propeller-powered engines. Hughes could find little metal to build such a plane and the war ended before the H-4 was completed in 1946. Congress, with no tolerance for waste or incompetence outside its own halls, ordered Howard Hughes to prove that the plane could fly. With Hughes himself at the controls, the craft took off and reached an altitude of 70 feet traveling about a mile before landing.

Billy Pasukinis scored his 105th career goal yesterday in the District 4 Class A final in a match up with defending champion Lewisburg. The local team lost 2-1. According to a Press Enterprise article in Friday's paper, the standouts included Tigers goalie Spiece and Pasukinis, but Sean Christian and the entire defense deserve lots of credit. The Tigers play the District 3 champion, Camp Hill (17-5), or Antietam (16-6), on Tuesday. The time and location will be announced.

Benton United Methodist Church will take orders for its Angel Food program today and Saturday through the Community Outreach Ministry. The hours to order are 5-7 today and 9 AM to noon Saturday. The church will have a clothing giveaway Saturday from 9 to 1 and a Fellowship Breakfast November 4 from 8 until 9 AM. A freewill offering will be taken. The Church will hold a community Thanksgiving Dinner on Thanksgiving Day at noon. If you would like to join in the dinner, please call Janet English at 925-2417.

A site I like very much for mapping information is http://atlas.freshlogicstudios.com/. Give it a try.

The last for Halloween...
• The “Trunk or Treat” at Stillwater Christian Church was a huge success with "somewhere around 50 attending."
• The Benton Halloween Parade judges said they loved all the floats and that there were many to have to choose from. Here are the results: House Judging: First: Verbelya's; second, 135 North Street; third, 70 Mill Street. Parade Floats: First, Bogert Family, animal revenge; second, CCFNB Bank, Dragon Castle; third, Chamberlain, Herman & Lily go surfing; fourth, cub scout pack #51, outdoor camping.

Flick Your Bic was a saying popular when I was growing up Back Home in Benton, PA. It simply meant that something riled us up, got our attention, made us spring into action. In early backwoods towns of our state, there have been many things that flicked the Bic of people over the years.

Right now, just before the elections that come our way next Tuesday, the school board issue is front and center. Most of us are detached enough from the details of running a school system that we are unable to knowledgeably offer our opinions based on "being in the know." We form our opinions, but generally hold our tongues. We like the members of the community who are elected, men and women who are willing to stand up and serve in the community interest. We trust their decisions and feel they are based on a first-hand knowledge of all of the facts. Are they always right? Well, we doubt it, since no one we personally know is always right.

We generally agree that we need to provide the best education at a reasonable price, continuing in a long tradition of producing graduates in the upper Fishingcreek valley who go on in life to produce and achieve. We generally pay little mind to those who are negative about education. We pay no mind to those who believe that all teachers are flawed. When we look at the background of the people who are negative about education, when we examine the education they have in their resume of achievements, when we realize they generally don't even have children in the public schools and are rarely seen at school events to know the interests and desires of teachers, students and parents, we start to understand why they think as they do. On close examination, the true agenda of these people will flick my Bic every time. While the message may have some merit, the messengers flick my Bic.

We often hear people say they won't discuss politics or religion in a public forum, since opinions have long since been formed and aren't' likely to be changed come "hell or high water."

Back in 1884 in Muncy, a 3,000 word editorial appeared in the Luminary, a local newspaper that still serves "Muncy, Hughesville, Montgomery and surrounding areas," about a local problem that flicked Jerry Gernerd's Bic. Just as in the mystery stories where right up front you are told the butler did it, I'll give the bottom line--cows were outlawed from the borough streets. Still, the details of the story are interesting and worth retelling.

For readers unfamiliar with Muncy, the borough is 30 miles from Back Home in Benton, PA, via Millville and 27 miles over hill and dale via Unityville.

Gernerd felt that Muncy had three eras, a past, a present and a future. Lets start with the "past," remembering that the man wrote his rant in 1884. And keep in mind that Muncy is a great borough and I'm not picking on anyone there since every other small borough in the state endured exactly the same problems as Muncy.

The "past" in Muncy was described as "practically one great hog pen." "A filthy hog pen with its attendant pile of manure graced the backside of virtually every house in town" and was at that time considered an essential to living and economic survival. The "oink" noise was deafening.

I suspect that two thirds of all hogs in the world look just about like some other hog somewhere. Since hogs ran up and down the street every time they got out, I assume the situation would be a bit like someone who always lived in Philadelphia gazing at a herd of Holsteins for the first time trying to pick a certain one out of the pack.

The hogs rooted up the sidewalks, loved it when it rained so they could bath in the puddles of the streets, loved the spring and summer when they could forage in the gardens and flower beds of the borough. The writer claimed they "enjoyed more privileges than town council!" The hogs of the town were the pride of the townspeople.

The "present" in Muncy was described in 1884 in a different light. The town and the writer were very proud of the borough's school house, and the writer noted that "passing our stately school house" he was impressed with the plants and flowers in the windows, noting that the flowers are "prophetic of a higher civilization." His glance then moved to the borough itself. "Why," he wrote, "have we such filthy alleys and often such filthy sidewalks? Why are high and strong fences necessary to protect our yards and gardens?"

His rant continued about the rights of property owners. What was the real reason for his tortured writing, you ask? Cows! He felt that Muncy had moved from hogs into the age of cows, writing that "we make street companions of the dumb brutes and sometimes some people take them as their model for manners." By this time, the man had worked up a head of steam and thundered into the world of dogs and chickens. "We must shut up our cows, and we don't hesitate to add, our dogs and chickens." His idea was to "bring flowers to the front and send the cows to the rear."

The future in Muncy, the writer thought, was with flowers. He equated cows and flowers by saying cows were real but flowers were the ideal. "One is gross, sensual, selfish, of the earth earthy, and the other is heavenly, ethereal, spiritual and refined.

Well you can imagine that Gernerd stirred up a hornet's nest. He soon had to write a second piece defending his first piece, this time honed to 2,000 words, and then had to write two more pieces defending both of his earlier pieces.

One irate townsperson wrote that since "no appropriate ceremonies have been arranged for the proper observance of Independence Day," a "Town Cow Parade" would be in order. His proposal was that the owners of cows "that works upon the streets for a living for herself and profit for her owners shall lead his cow in a street parade, properly marshaled, at a fixed hour of the day, so that all citizens can be made acquainted with the cows and their owners." He continued, "those that keep two cows could have their wives lead the gentler one."

By mid-July, Borough Council had a petition asking that cows not be allowed to run at large. A second petition was soon presented asking that cows be shut up at night but allowed to roam freely during the daylight hours. Oh, the turmoil! The borough now found itself divided by the "cow party" which many said were "old-foggy" and by the "anti-cow party" who generally didn't like their flowers chewed off at the stem and were not fond of finding trail markers on their garden paths.

Matters went downhill! Borough council meetings were overrun with people. The cow party maintained that the prohibition was aimed at pleasing only a few people and that--really--only a few people had been injured by cows and that they generally stayed off Main Street and that there just wasn't any pasture land nearby and that the adjacent township permitted their cows to run at liberty.

So now we are back to where I told you the butler did it at the beginning of this story. Borough council passed an ordinance on October 13, 1884, that come the new year "no horses, cows or sheep could run at large in the borough." By the spring of 1885, fences began coming down in the borough, but a new problem loomed large. The ordinance of the previous October had not included chickens and a minor wave of protest began circulating. But that is a story for another day...

Winifred O. (Keller) Williams (July 6, 1919-November 1, 2007) Cemetery Road, Stillwater, died Thursday. She was 88. Born in Fishing Creek Township, she was the daughter of the late Arden and M. Ruth (Taylor) Keller. She was a 1937 graduate of Benton High School. An active member of Stillwater Christian Church, she had served as a deaconess, Sunday School teacher, Sunday School Treasurer, Bible School teacher and was in charge of the Fellowship Committee. She had also been Secretary/Treasurer of the Stillwater Cemetery Association for many years. Her husband of 40 years, Harry M. Williams, preceded her in death on April 26, 1979.

Surviving are her two daughters: Mary R. Myers (Karl), Orangeville, and Linda DiRado (Anthony), Benton; grandchildren Jeffrey Myers, Karen Avery, Amber and Shannon DiRado and great grandchildren Tyler and Krista Avery. Also surviving are a brother, Carlton Keller (Shirley), Stillwater, and sister-in-laws, Joyce Keller, Iklertown (Stillwater), and Stella Bodman, Jerseytown. She was preceded in death by a brother, Ronald Keller, on July 6, 1994.

Funeral services will be Saturday afternoon at 2 with viewing preceding at the McMichael Funeral Home, Benton. Burial will be in the Stillwater Cemetery.

 

November 1, 2007. Gloria Milnarik and Ethel Kelsey celebrate their birthdays today and up in Elk Grove Walt Leonard is celebrating his 66th birthday. Ken and Ethel Kelsey celebrate their 63rd wedding anniversary.

It seems like we went through one of the warmest Octobers on record.

The Benton Lions Club and the Halloween Committee thank everyone who helped make the parade a success by donating time and money, and especially those responsible for the floats, plus the walkers and bands that made it a wonderful parade to watch.

The regular meeting of the German Heritage Society of the Susquehanna Valley will be tonight at 7 PM. The special topic for this month will be “German Minorities Today and Their Literature.” Dr. Susan Schurer, professor of German at Susquehanna University, will be the speaker. She includes groups such as Afro-Germans, Turks, Arabs and Rumanians in her talk. Schurer has published articles in the areas of East German and multicultural German literature as well as Pennsylvania German topics. November’s meeting will be at its regular location, the Degenstein Community Library on 5th Street in Sunbury. The public is invited to the free program. Refreshments will be provided. For additional information, please call Jeff Sheaffer, German Heritage Society president, at 374-7730.

Don't look for the continuation of the Ivan Ash story in today's Benton News. It isn't there. I am traveling and somehow forgot to transfer the article to the laptop. The article for today would have discussed the Ash family and names you probably didn't know were in the Ash family but are. With regret, the Ash article will not be able to continue until next weekend. We apologize for the oversight on our part.

All that reminds me that Father used to say that "promises were like crying babies in church--they should be carried out immediately!"

It shows that I am getting very forgetful, a bad situation for me. I lost my car keys two weeks ago and haven't a clue where they are. I neglected to transfer the Ash genealogy to the laptop I took with me and everyone knows how little I enjoy genealogy and would not want to do it over.

Forgetfulness is a sign of the advent of old age. There are other signs, namely...
• The clothes I bought years ago won't wear out. Shrink, yes, but not wear out.

• A dull evening is something to look forward to.

• I can tell secrets to my friends, since they can't seem to remember them, either.

• I would procrastinate, but can't seem to find the time to get around to it.

Didja know that in Australia, the smallest continent in the world, there are something like seventy-two libraries on wheels? Didja ever hear about the Blackpool Beach Library in England that takes its books to the beach by wheelbarrow. Beach-goers simply take a book, read it and when the wheelbarrow rolls through the following day, they replace the book and gather in a new book to read. In Finland, the Pargas Library delivers books around the various islands of the country by boat and that is also the way that the Kalimantan Floating Library in Indonesia operates. Indonesia also has the East Jave Library to deliver books by bicycle.

Other countries have it a little more difficult. To the northeast of Nairobi, Kenya, the dessert is so severe that cars can't navigate the sand. Camels plod through the nomadic villages with hundreds of books on their backs. Pakistan and the Alif Laila Bookbus Society operated a double-decker bus to get the books to the people. In Papua New Guinea, librarians walk for hours to get books to the children of remote villages.

Books are delivered by elephant in Thailand and old train cars serve as libraries. In Zimbabwe the books are carried to the people by the Nkayi Donkey Mobile Library Cart, which even includes a solar-powered television. Many of the children are seeing television for the first time.

The Brooklyn Public Library with their 60 branches has several bookmobiles, and also has a special needs Bookmobile that visits schools for special-needs children, with books and games tailored to autistic and mentally challenged children.

In New York City there are three different library systems. In addition to Brooklyn's Libraries, Queens Borough Public Library has more than 60 branches and growing, and has the largest collections of foreign language books available for their diverse population of Latinos, Chinese, Korean, Indian and Arab residents.

The New York Public Library covers the other three boroughs of NYC, Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island with over 80 branches. In New York City there over 200 branches, among which are more than 30 that were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. Ruth Cavanaugh, Staten Island, who provided the information about New York libraries, said, "Those sturdy stone buildings will last for another hundred years!

Here in Columbia County, books are brought to about forty communities by the 1996 33-foot Columbia County Traveling Library bookmobile. There is also a library for the Columbia County Traveling Library on Perry Avenue, Bloomsburg, which is open to the public to use the book collection and public-access computers. The CCTL provides a free service to find your ancestors, search over 25,000 family and local history books, or the complete U.S. Federal Census from 1790-1930. You can download Pennsylvania legal forms or get answers to basic legal questions, or take practice tests. The library and its bookmobile are up to date with adult and juvenile books, including best sellers, large print, fiction and nonfiction, audio-books on tape and CD, videos and DVDs.

The Columbia County Traveling Library bookmobile provides free library service to Columbia County residents. Take the time to learn about the history of the first bookmobile that debuted at the Benton Farmer's Picnic on July 21, 1941, under the direction of the first librarian, Ruth Beers.

The bookmobile can carry 3,000 books with a full selection of current children’s and adult books, best sellers, audio books, large print and DVDs. The bookmobile has a wheelchair lift and is air conditioned.

Here is a quick library quiz to end this session.

1. What was the greatest library in existence from the time of Alexander the Great to the fall of the Western Roman Empire?

2. Which national library has over 25 million books and the largest annual budget?

3. Who founded the first library school and invented a book classification system which is still used today?

4. What is the largest genealogical database?

1. Alexandria Library 2.Library of Congress 3. Melvil Dewey 4. Ancestry Library Edition

Margaret W. “Peggy” (Willits) Stevenson (March 2, 1931-October 31, 2007), 1360 Elk Grove Road, Benton, died Wednesday at the Orangeville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. She had been in ill health since March. She was 76. Born in Harrisburg, she was a daughter of the late Fred W. Willits and Margaret Morgan (Kulp) Willits. She was a 1949 graduate of Springfield High School, Delaware County. She retired in 1996 as a house mother for a group home in Chester County and moved to the Benton. She and her husband, James J. “Jim” Stevenson, would have celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary on the 24th of November.

Surviving are her husband, and six children; i.e., James Stevenson, Jr. (Vonnie), Hummelstown; Bruce Stevenson (Shari), Chesapeake, VA; Lynne Stevenson, Parkesburg, PA; Glenn Stevenson (Chris) Clearfield, Utah; Robert Stevenson (Myrna), Vacaville, CA; and Shirley Durband (Bruce), Martelle, IA. In addition there are two surviving sisters in Georgia and Delaware and a brother in Carlisle. There are 17 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by a brother, John Willits. Memorial Services will be held Saturday morning, November 10, at 11 at Christ United Methodist Church, Central.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc., Benton. A complete obituary will be printed in the Press Enterprise of November 1, 2007.