The Benton News Archives for October, 2006

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October 31, 2006. Happy birthday today to Rod Vincent and Rick Wilson.

The Borough will return to something close to normal today following Trick or Treat Monday. At our house, we always put out a minimum of 400 pieces of candy; when gone, we turn out the lights and close the door. Our supply of candy was gone at 7:05 PM. Dressing up in costumes and scurrying from door to door for treats dates to the Middle Ages when the poor would beg door to door, receiving food in return for offering prayers for the dead on All Souls Day. Shakespeare wrote about the custom in Two Gentlemen of Verona in a reference to "a beggar at Hallowmas."

Today is the eve of All Saints Day, or All Hallows' (meaning hallowed or holy) Eve, and so Happy All Hallows Eve, the day we normally call Halloween. The observance is based on a Celtic holiday called Samhain marking the death night of the old year and the end of the harvest. November 1 became known as All Saints Day, or All Hallows Day, and honored Christian saints and martyrs based on the Medieval belief that dead saints regularly intervened in the affairs of the living. On All Saints Day, churches put bones of the saints on display and held mass for the living. On All Hallows Eve, Soul Cakes were baked and set on doorsteps for the poor, bonfires were lit and lanterns carved from turnips to ward off ghosts of the dead.

On this Halloween date in...
. 1926, magician Harry Houdini, 52, died from acute appendicitis a few days after receiving punches in his stomach. Houdini gave a lecture on spiritualism in Montreal. A McGill University student asked Houdini if he could take a blow to the stomach. Before Houdini could prepare his stomach muscles, one of the students hit him several times and he died from peritonitis days later. Houdini's name when he was born in Budapest was Erich Weiss, but he took his stage name from a French magician by the name of Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, a man Houdini later denounced in the book The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin (1908). He was a master at escaping from locks, handcuffs, straitjackets and even underwater in sealed chests. A Houdini Museum in Scranton is an interesting local trip.

. 1984, Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, daughter of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and mother of another, Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated by three Sikh members of her bodyguard in the garden of her New Delhi home. Gandhi was Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977, and again from 1980 until her assassination on October 31, 1984. In spite of her famous surname, she was not related to Mahatma Gandhi.

We note with deepest sympathy the passing Monday of Sonja Turner, Bloomsburg, wife of George Turner. The family was all present at her bedside. The funeral will be on Friday at 11 AM at Wesley United Methodist Church, Bloomsburg, with private interment to follow. No wake is scheduled, but the family will greet friends at the back of the sanctuary after the service. Details will be printed in Tuesday's Press-Enterprise. The Columbia County Historical and Genealogical Society lost a wonderful friend when Sonja died. Current president William Baillie wrote that "her quiet cheerfulness, personal warmth, and variety of abilities have often been evident, including in recent months in her regular and helpful service on the Pamphlet Committee."

The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Our topic for today isn't interesting for everyone; i.e., it is about politics. Specifically, it is about polls about politics. It started yesterday morning when a bunch of guys and I were tossing down the morning brew that is passed off as coffee. I posed a question of the six or eight (the exact number varied by the time of the morning) that were drinking full-strength coffee. The subject came up because U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., found a report by the Center for Security Policy, a think tank of the conservative ilk, that recommended that governments and pension funds divest from businesses that operate in nations that sponsor terrorism. Santorum did not name any companies that actually invested in nations of that sort, but accused Casey of investing Pennsylvania pension funds in companies with ties to terrorist-sponsoring states and states that engage in genocide. The accusation was that Casey aided and abetted terrorism and genocide.

On the other side of the issue, State Treasurer Bob Casey Jr., his Democratic opponent in the Nov. 7 election for Senate, suggested that the federal government should produce a list of such companies that states could follow. Santorum responded that states and local governments should pay to do it themselves, and cited Missouri which actually did just that.

Sen. Santorum's argument was that the states have to do it, because the Federal Government, were they to do it, might offend our allies, what with the Commerce Department and the State Department and maybe even the Agriculture Department butting in. Santorum didn't agree with Casey's allegation that by not publishing a list of proscribed companies the Government was "aiding and abetting terrorism and genocide" just as he accused Casey of doing.

Well the first question I posed on this subject went to the heart of which politician was correct in his allegation. Almost all of the people at the table thought the question was uninteresting and 40% thought that Santorum made a good point, although none of them could think why he made it. Sixty percent at the table thought that a list of the evil doers would be inaccurate most of the time. I then asked if this question made a difference in the way they would vote next Tuesday, and 40% said "maybe yes, and then again maybe no." Twenty percent were undecided, and the balance indicated they didn't understand the question.

I then asked who the men would vote for--Santorum or Casey. One said that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be as effective a leader. The others didn't seem to be paying attention to the question. One went off on a tangent telling me that as soon as this election was over, politicians would start jockeying for position for the 2008 Presidential election. One thing seemed to be clear--the American public could save a lot of time and energy on polls if we just had the Senatorial election tomorrow and the Presidential election next week.

Our polling ended when one man, lips to the cup as he drained the coffee, decided that many politicians were just people who had risen from obscurity to something worse. With that he headed home and the conversation ended.

We don't care what the experts say, we think that a cell phone’s address book should include an entry marked "ICE," short for "in case of emergency." The person's full name and phone number should be there. It would not even hurt to include an "ICE 1" and "ICE 2."

The German Heritage Society of the Susquehanna Valley will hold its November regular meeting on Thursday, November 2, at 7 PM at CareerLink, 713 Bridge St. Selinsgrove. The public is invited to join members and guests as they kick off the holiday season with a German Christmas Program. Society Recording Secretary Stefanie Feidt will present the video The Nurnberg Christkindlmarkt and will teach a lesson on the making of Moravian Star Decorations. She will be assisted by society member Hilde Stutzman. The video will introduce the viewer to the history and magic of the most famous German Christkindlmarket, and attendees will have the opportunity to make their own Moravian Star decorations. A short business meeting will be held before the presentation. Refreshments will be served throughout the meeting. As always, socializing will precede and follow the meeting. For more information, please feel free to contact GHSSV President Jeff Sheaffer at 374-7730.

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October 30, 2006. On this date in 1938, Orson Welles broadcast The War of the Worlds, an adaptation of an H.G. Wells novel in which Martians invade Earth, and presented it as if it were really happening on the Halloween broadcast of Mercury Theater on the Air. It began, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have a grave announcement to make. Incredible as it may seem, strange beings who landed in New Jersey tonight are the vanguard of an invading army from Mars." Thousands of listeners missed the first part of the show and didn't know it was Welles's The War of the Worlds. People clogged switchboards and some reported seeing the aliens.

While you are getting warmed up for tonight's Trick or Treat experience in the Borough, you might want to check out the places in Pennsylvania where allegedly "haunted" activity takes place. Start here and make sure you check out the listings for Bloomsburg. Trick or Treat is observed in Benton Borough tonight from 6 to 8 PM. I hope that I make out better this year than I did last year. A little boy knocked on my door and took one look at my balding head and gave me candy! Halloween house judging will also take place tonight.

For those readers who do not know if they are too old to Trick or Treat, here are some guidelines. If you get winded from knocking on doors or if you have to have a kid chew the candy for you or if you only use high-fiber candy, or if you lose your balance and fall over when someone drops a candy bar in your bag, you might want to skip Trick or Treat this year. If people say "great James Carville mask" and you're not wearing a mask, or when the door opens and you yell "Trick or--" and can't remember the rest, or if you have to choose a costume that won't dislodge your hairpiece, or if you go as a Power Ranger and need to use your walker we suspect that you should skip Trick or Treat this year.

Federal election have been held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November since 1845. November was chosen because it is the most convenient month for farmers and rural workers to travel to the polls. The particular day was chosen in order to avoid the election falling on November 1, a religious holiday for Roman Catholics, and because merchants usually balanced their books from the previous month on the first day of the new month.

We told you a little about the bluegrass show coming up November 11 at 8 PM at the Raven Creek Community Hall, 999 Upper Raven Creek Road. We told you that the admission is $8 and there will be food available. And we told you that the featured bands will be Stained Grass Window and Like Father, Like Son. Because of the home-town appeal of these two groups, we should tell you more about the groups. For more information or directions call 925-5790.

• Stained Grass Window is performing for the 13th year before a wide variety of audiences. They provide musical entertainment at family-centered events large and small. The group has labored hard on their journey to become an accomplished musical group. While they still work hard, they have matured as performers and have now come to understand that what they provide is not just something that is musically competent. The fact is only a minority of the people they play before are musicians. People come to have a good time, not to be music critics. Their purpose must be to provide entertainment, allowing the members of the audience to just sit back and relax and enjoy.

Mark Doncheski, Danville, plays banjo, mandolin, finger style guitar and bass. He previously played bass with Dark Hollow, a regional bluegrass band. Bob Knorr, Berwick, is the newest member of Stained Grass Window and anchors the group on bass. He also plays guitar and mandolin, as well as being heard on both lead and harmony vocals. Rick Marcera, Asbury, joined Stained Grass Window in March of 1999 from the cruise-ship circuit. Rick plays bass, guitar, mandolin, saxophone, drums, piano, and he sings a pretty powerful song, too. Ken Shafranko, Williamsport, provides harmonies and a lead vocal now and then. He is the resophonic guitar player and is the emcee of the group.

• Like Father, Like Son is a bluegrass band whose traditional roots and contemporary touch continue to provide inspiration for a distinctive and soulful sound. At a young age, all band members were influenced by their own musical fathers who instilled the love and influence of early bluegrass into their musical lives. Each member brings to the band his own unique style and talent, all based on a strong traditional foundation, resulting in a powerful and driving sound that is all their own.

Scott Eager is a lifelong student and experienced player of bluegrass music, and is especially well known for his distinctive touch on the mandolin. Scott is proficient on several other instruments, and sings lead and harmony parts in the band’s arrangements. David Hampton is widely known for his top-quality lead vocal and guitar styles. He began entertaining at the age of 13. His distinctive lead vocals are a key to the band’s original sound. Brian Eldreth is known for his strong and versatile style of bass playing which provides the band with a solid base to build their unique sound. Brian started playing when he was 12 and also plays several instruments.

Marqueen M. (Hess) Kitchen, (May 23, 1928-October 27, 2006), 2531 S. R. 487, Orangeville, died Friday at the Orangeville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. She was 78. Born in Bendertown, she was a daughter of the late Edgar and Violet (Karns) Hess. She was preceded in death by her husband, Raymond F. Kitchen, Sr. on December 9, 2004. Mrs. Kitchen assisted her husband in the operation of Kitchen's Lawn Mower Service, Orangeville. She had also worked for Elmer Young driving school bus for the Central Columbia School District. She attended schools in Bendertown and was a graduate of Benton High School. Surviving are her three children: Gloria A. Yaple (George), Benton; Roberta E. Buck (Charles), Bloomsburg; and Raymond F. Kitchen, Jr. (Pastor Gail Kitchen), Shickshinny. Grandchildren and great grandchildren also survive, as well as sister Shirley Hess, Lightstreet, and brothers Teddy Hess (Gilda), Bloomsburg and David "Butch" Hess and his Wife, Sandy. Services will be private and at the convenience of the family.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home

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October 29, 2006. Happy birthday today to Amy Bierbach and to Randy Hack who turns 48 today.

On this date in...
• 1682, William Penn landed in what is now Chester after finishing a two-month voyage from England in the ship Welcome. He was soon taken by boat to Philadelphia, landing in the area known today as Penn's Landing. This area became the center of Philadelphia's maritime and commercial district. Today the area is a riverside park and the place where Philadelphians gather in the summer to hear music and to usher in the New Year.

• 1945, at Gimbels Department Store in New York City, the first commercially produced ballpoint pens by Reynolds Ball Point Pen went on sale for $12.50.

• 1956, John Cameron Swayze and The Camel News Caravan were replaced by Chet Huntley and David Brinkley; who ended each nightly report with the words, "Good night Chet. Good night David. And good night from NBC News."

Some readers may have heard about the problems that www.uTube.com recently experienced when traffic jumped more than 440%! The website of Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment Corporation, a company that "buys and sells used tube mills, used pipe mills and used rollforming machines" went kerplunk when huge volumes of youTube fans inundated the website after seeing television and newspaper accounts of Google's acquisition of www.YouTube.com.

Some readers may not know much about youTube, but if you have a fast internet connection, it can be loads of fun. Take an old chestnut of a poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service, for example. I am going to ask you to read the poem by going here, then head over to www.youTube.com and watch it read by an ordinary guy who isn't really so ordinary. Go to
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lBkuz1TlVc.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
--Robert W. Service

There will be a Home and Garden Party Open House anytime November 12 from 10 AM to 7 PM at 575 Old Tioga Turnpike, Benton. Call Laura Bobersky at 864-2887 if you have any questions or need directions. Come browse around beautiful home decorating items such as stoneware, pottery, pictures, swags, Christmas items and much, much more. There are selected items on sale from 50% to 75% off. Check out the deals. There will be door prizes, a free drawing, and refreshments for all who come. Bring your friends. It is always more fun to shop with friends. (Bring two or more friends and receive a free 10 ounce jar candle)

Word of the Day: "Jauntsamore"
JAUNTSAMORE (phrase). Asking if one wants seconds at mealtime.

Anyone who enjoys National Parks or National Monuments should bookmark www.nps.gov/parks.html. Simply find the park you are interested in, click again, and you are instantly transported to its website.

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October 28, 2006. Happy birthday to Emma Lou (Funk) Savage. June and Alvin Lynn celebrate their wedding anniversary today. It is the anniversary of the dedication of a copper lady dressed in robes who stands at the entrance to New York harbor. Her complete name is Liberty Enlightening the World and she is one of the tallest statues in the world. She is located on Liberty Island in the Harbor. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States. The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on this date in 1886 and was designated a National Monument on October 15, 1924. The Statue was extensively restored in time for her centennial on July 4, 1986.

Until 1880, there were fifty different standard times in use in the United States, though nobody had ever heard of daylight saving time. Time reverts to standard time at 2 AM on the last Sunday of October.

This 'n That...
. Golfer Arnold Palmer was born in Latrobe in 1929, a small industrial town in Western Pennsylvania at the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains some 50 miles east of Pittsburgh. Palmer was named Athlete of the Decade for the 1960s in a national Associated Press poll.

. Charles Brace Darrow, (1889-1967), Germantown, is credited, erroneously, as having invented the board game Monopoly, which he copyrighted in 1933. A domestic heater salesman. Darrow eventually sold Monopoly to Parker Brothers, claiming it to be his own invention, many historians treat Darrow as one of the game's final "developers." Monopoly ended up being the best selling board game in America that year, and it made Darrow the first millionaire game designer in history. You can find a commemorative plaque in Darrow's honor near the corner of Park Place, Atlantic City.

Dean Blue, Orangeville, is on the mend following being butted on the butt by a battering buck. Ask Dean to tell you the story.

We are writing from Newport, Rhode Island, where many still believe that the history of the New World began with Vikings in America and there are erections in this city purporting to be from our red-bearded cousins. For example, there is a stone tower in Newport that many swear dates back to AD 1050 with evidence pointing to the Vikings. In addition to the many mansions of the city is the Old Stone Mill, sometimes known as the Norse Tower, the Viking Tower, or the Mystery Tower. This strange twenty-four-foot high structure stands in Touro Park. Made of lime-mortared fieldstone, there is no ceiling, but that is understandable after all these years. There are arches between the legs of the structure with small, square openings in the wall above. The who, what, when and why of this structure seem to be lost to the ages. There are some similarities between the stone tower and early church buildings in northern Europe, leading to the conclusion that the tower could originally have been a Viking church. The Newport tower is oriented to the true points of the compass, as were churches in Denmark and Norway. Whatever the truth is, at least some tourists believe the story and some give credence by citing the fact that the Hotel Viking, the Viking cleaners and the Viking Tours are nearby.

 

 

October 27, 2006. Happy birthday today to Charity Robbins. Charity celebrated the day by working at the Nursing Home in Millville.

On this date in 1787, New York newspapers began publishing in the New York Independent Journal a series of eighty-five essays by Publius, the pen name of Alexander Hamilton (who became the first secretary of the Treasury), James Madison (the fourth president of the United States) and John Jay (the first chief justice of the United States). The essays, known as the Federalist Papers, urged approval of the U.S. Constitution.

 

It's the birthday of President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, born in New York City in 1858. He was the first American to win a Nobel Prize (in 1906).

Upcoming...

• Sgt. Kevin Forte will be home from New Zealand for Thanksgiving--and for hunting. Kevin will be happy to have consistent weather when he comes Back Home to Benton, PA. At the moment, the weather "down under" is "crazy." Kevin tells us that "one day it will be sunny and warm with blue skies, the next five days will be gale force winds, ranging and cold." It can't make up its mind here." Kevin, we have people around here that are the same way...

James Lee Merrion, 42, a guest at the Columbia County Prison. pleaded guilty Wednesday to 28 counts of burglary in and around the Benton area. Charges included burglary, theft, attempted theft, criminal mischief and felony trespassing. The Press Enterprise for Thursday has the whole story.

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October 26, 2006. Happy birthday today to Chandlee Stowe and while we're at it we'll wish Chandlee and Grace Stowe a happy wedding anniversary (even though we wished them the same thing back on October 4. Isn't it marvelous they have so many anniversaries, but they look and act like they just got married!). It's the birthday of the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, born on this date in 1911.

Here are some quick tips to make your jack-o'-lantern look its best and last the longest. Pick out a pumpkin with no mold, especially around the stem. Never pick the pumpkin up by the stem. Look for dents and scratches; knock it and see if it has a full sound. Use a nonpermanent marker to trace the jack-o'lantern face, then cut with a saw blade with a jagged edge. Cut the top hole large enough to fit your hand and cut at an angle toward the center of the pumpkin so the lid sets on top and doesn't fall through. Scoop out the pumpkin center, then coat the edges with petroleum jelly to slow the dehydration process. Use a votive candle in a glass jar inside the pumpkin.

The Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center will have a skateboard park next year. With a skateboard park comes community involvement and participation. For a good background in what is involved in the planning and implementation of a community skateboard park, head here.

This 'n That...
• The first paper mill in North America was established near Philadelphia in 1690 by printer William Bradford and papermaker William Rittenhouse. Bradford (1663-1752) was arrested in 1692 for printing a leaflet critical of the Quaker government. He was tried in the first case in America that raised the issue of freedom of the press. His press was seized and he and a man who distributed the paper were briefly jailed. The trial resulted in no decision because of a split jury.

• Mario Andretti is the only racecar driver to win the Daytona 500 (1967), the Indianapolis 500 (1969) and the Formula One world title (1978). Mario was born in 1940 in Montona, Italy, just as Mussolini and Hitler were teaming up. After the hostilities ended, the Andretti's homeland become part of post-war Yugoslavia. They became refugees from Communism, spending several years in a camp at Tuscany. The Andretti family immigrated to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, in 1955.

Have you ever had something remain in your memory for years just as vivid as the moment in time when it occurred? I am not talking about the bad things in life, like the death of a parent or a child. I am referring to the good things in life. Things like an unforgettable Christmas.

The part of Christmas I liked most when I was growing up hung from the Christmas tree in the form of clear, hard candy. There just wasn't any extra money to go around and so the tree was chopped in the woods, the ornaments were handmade and edible and often in the form of a reindeer, the only candy mold that Mother seemed to like. According to an old recipe book, Mother would take two cups of sugar, a half cup of light corn syrup and the same of water, a tablespoon of vinegar, and a few drops of flavor extract and food color. She would mix the sugar, corn syrup, water and vinegar in a hefty saucepan past the time that it came to a boil until the foam subsided into large bubbles which a cook told me equates to 280° on a candy thermometer. Mother would turn down the heat and boil slowly until the thermometer read 300° and a little syrup dropped in cold water formed a tiny ball. Mother took the candy from the stove at this point and flavored and colored and stirred it all in until she got the same color throughout.

Mother then poured the mixture into lightly oiled cookie cutters laid on cookie sheets. When the candy got hard, she ran hot water on it and pressed out the candy.

I mention the old rock candy recipe because on the third Monday of December at the North Mountain Historical Society, we'll gather for breakfast as usual but we are asking for those who can to bring a recipe from a Christmas dessert of years past along with a sample of the dessert. I will collect all the recipes and assemble them into a Christmas dessert book in time for holiday celebrating. Everyone who attends will get a copy. A special Christmas program will accompany the dessert sampling. Please start now finding the old recipe that you can share with the group. The program and the sampling are free.

Harold E. VanSickle was 88 when he passed away. He was born September 11, 1912, in Jamison City, but was raised in Bloomsburg. He was a 1931 graduate and class president of Bloomsburg High School, and received a degree in accounting from the Wyoming Seminary. We won't tell you more here, but if you would like more information on the VanSickle family, click here.

Historian John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton (1834-1902) knew that political power was a serious threat to liberty. He once wrote, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." In our modern political world, corruption in the form of both money and sex continues unabated. Former Representative Mark Foley comes to mind as does Duke Cunningham, Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff. Remember Abscam, an FBI sting operation involving a senator and six representatives who were caught thinking they were receiving cash from an Arab sheikh. The sting targeted trafficking in stolen property and ultimately led to the conviction of a United States Senator and six members of the House of Representatives, the Mayor of Camden, members of the Philadelphia City Council, and an inspector for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Remember the former FEMA head who spent more time worrying about what clothes to wear than how to rescue dying people in Katrina's aftermath. Former Representative Wayne Hays back in 1976 put his mistress down on the official payroll before she even learned to type. What about cheating on your wife with a mistress who claims you beat her? And remember Wilbur Daigh Mills cavorting around the Washington Tidal Basin with Mrs. Foxe's fanny? Ten women testified that Robert Packwood caused sexual harassment ten or so years back. From inappropriate behavior with young children, to spousal infidelity, to parking in "no parking" zones, to drunken behavior in Washington restaurants with members of their staff, to getting oiled by an Arab sheikh we are often exposed to "holier than thou" actions until a scandal that is too outrageous to ignore knocks the blinders off our eyes. Power continues to corrupt just as much today as it ever has in our history.

Quote of the Day...
"Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac"
--Henry A. Kissinger

From the "Don't Shoot the Messenger" Department...
The November 1 issue of the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology reports on measurements of soot produced by traditional cook stoves used in developing countries. The study reports on the stoves emitting harmful smoke particles with a greater impact on global climate change than previously thought. According to the study, as many as 400 million of these stoves are used daily for cooking and heating by more than 2 billion people worldwide. Cook stoves tested in Honduras, as an example, produce twice as many smoke particles than expected. These dark, sooty particles, which are darker than those produced by grassland or forest fires, have a climate-warming effect because they absorb solar energy and heat the atmosphere. Smoke from cook-stove fires is a major cause of respiratory problems, eye infections and tuberculosis, according to the researchers. Honduras is typical of Central American countries, where more than 80% of families cook their meals over open wood fires. These families can’t afford or don’t have access to electricity, gas or alternative fuel sources.

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October 25, 2006. Happy birthday today to the Windows XP computer operating system, released by Microsoft on this date in 2001. Last year on October 19, Dushore recorded 71° but that changed by the time that October 25 rolled around as rain, sleet and snow fell in Sullivan County accumulating about six inches of the white stuff before it was all over.

On this day in 1854 during the Crimean War, 650 members of an English light cavalry brigade led by Lord Cardigan during the Battle of Balaclava made a heroic and ill-fated charge against a Russian artillery post. Two-thirds of the British force were killed or wounded in the charge, which was immortalized in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem The Charge of the Light Brigade in which the lines "Theirs not to reason why / Theirs but to do and die" made the charge a symbol of warfare at both its courageous and its most tragic.

Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered.
Into the jaws of death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred
--Poems of Alfred Tennyson

This 'n That...
• The National Road, which includes 90 miles of roadway through southwestern Pennsylvania once traveled by early settlers including George Washington and Daniel Boone, has been called "The Road that Built the Nation." Historic sites along the road illustrate America’s westward expansion. The National Road was created during the administration of President Thomas Jefferson to provide a route from the eastern seaboard into the central part of the country to open up the Midwest for settlement. It was the first Federally-funded interstate highway that ran from Baltimore, Maryland to Vandalia, Illinois. US 40 follows roughly the same path as the National Road.

• Camptown Races by songwriter Stephen Foster who was born in Pittsburgh on July 4, 1826, was inspired by the five-mile horse race that ran between Wyalusing and Camptown. The "camptown" was a temporary workingmen's living arrangement along with a rag-tag mix of horses.

So that it doesn't come as a surprise when the curtain is closed behind you, the 2006 General Election coming up Tuesday, November 07, will have a referendum question on the ballot asking "Do you favor indebtedness by the Commonwealth of up to $20,000,000 for the payment of compensation for service in the Persian Gulf Conflict of 1990-­1991?" The referendum seeks the authorization for a $20 million bond measure that would be used to compensate Persian Gulf combat veterans. The measure would give a one-time check to veterans in all military branches, reserve and guard units who were from Pennsylvania during the period August 2, 1990, to August 31, 1991.

The Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST) announced on Tuesday low-interest loans and grants for the commonwealth's water resources. Millville Borough Municipal Authority received a $1,354,458 loan and a $517,892 grant to construct a 160,000-gallons-per-day water treatment plant to eliminate the potential for contamination of the authority's drinking water.

Confused about the confusing Middle East? Go here to learn 5,000 years of Middle East history in 90 seconds.

Fear heights? If so, stay away from the glass bridge in the Hualapai Indian Reservation on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The bridge will be 4,000 feet above the Colorado River. The stucture is said to be able to withstand more that 71 million pounds, winds in excess of 100 miles per hour and an 8.0 magnitude earthquake within 50 miles. More than one million pounds of steel went into the construction of the Grand Canyon Skywalk. The visitor's center will be accessible and open to the public beginning first quarter 2007. It is anticipated the skywalk will open to the public during fourth quarter 2006 via a temporary tunnel while the visitor's center is being completed.

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October 24, 2006. We celebrate the birthday of Elwood Erney and the wedding anniversary of Robby and Jody Karschner today.

On this day in 1929, the U.S. Stock Market crashed on what became known as "Black Thursday" as about 13 million stocks were sold off in one day. Late in the day, six major banking institutions, led by the firm of J.P. Morgan and Company, put up $40 million each to steady the market. The action by the banks held off a stock market crash for another five days, but by the next Tuesday, the market had lost almost 26 billion dollars of value. Banks failed, individual investors lost their savings. The end of the "Roaring Twenties" and the beginning of the Great Depression had arrived.

This 'n That...
. The Pittsburgh Alleghenies played their first National League game in 1887. Baseball was thriving in the eleventh year of the National League. Batters got four strikes this year and were allowed to take first base when smacked by a ball. In New Orleans, manager Abner Powell offered "Ladies Days" to fans. Two years later, the Pittsburgh Alleghenies became the Pirates after "pirating" second baseman Louis Bierbauer away from the Philadelphia Athletics.

. Exposition Park in Pittsburgh was the National League's host for four games of the first World Series in 1903. The Boston Americans walked off with an upset victory over the Pittsburgh Nationals in this inaugural baseball fall classic. The Bostonians captured the series, five games to three, scoring a 3-0 triumph in the eighth and final game. Players like Cy Young and Honus Wagner played, but Patrick Henry Dougherty was the standout for Boston, hitting two home runs in the second game. Fans for the first time realized that the American League was more than just a refuge for players who defected from the older circuit.

Have you ever wondered why...
. the third hand on the watch is called the second hand?
. we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?
. "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing?
. "tug" boats push their barges?
. they are called "stands" when they are made for sitting?
. "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected?
. "wise man" and a "wise guy" are opposites?
. if love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
. we put suits in garment bags and garments in a suitcase?

It has long been a custom for graduating seniors to autograph the yearbooks of their friends who were graduating with them. Before the days of yearbooks in the Benton schools, autograph books were frequently distributed and today we are going to read some of the entries in the autograph book of Ada Diltz, sent to us by June Hartzel. Ada was the daughter of John and Mary Sutliff Diltz, granddaughter of George and Sophie Hess Diltz. Sophie was the daughter of Andrew and Mary Shultz Hess. OK, now that we have the genealogy out of the way, lets look at what these kids signed 111 years ago, remembering that their pencil notations are hard to read and I may have some names slightly incorrect. Spelling and word usage are as written. The notations generally began, "To Ada" or to "To Addie."

. "When days are dark and friends are few remember me and I will you. Adria Fritz." The same words were written by David Hess, Central, in a later notation.

. "Remember me dear Ada when on these lines you look. Remember it was Ivan who wrote this in your book. Your friend, Ivan Larish. P. S. Remember me as a friend."

. "Fall from the ocean to the deck. Fall out of bed and break your neck. Fall from earth to heaven above, but never never fall in love. Your schoolmate and cousin."

. "I never try to write for fame so I will only sign my name. From your friend, F.M. Golder, Central." Glen Laubach also wrote the same words in a later notation.

. "Old wood to burn old shoes to ware. Friends to trust, old books to reed. Your friend and schoolmate, Jennie Warner. Remember me!"

. "Your album is a golden spot in which to write forget me not. Your friend, Rush Harvey."

. "Remember oh remember the happy days of youth when you and I were schoolmates and always told the truth. Jimmie Harvey"

. "I wish you mutch I wish you plenty. I wish you Clyde when you are twenty. Ever your friend, Lola Larish, Guava, Col. County."

. "I thought, I thought, I thought in vain. I last thought I would sign my name. Your friend, Glen Laubach."

Melanie Norton of the Sullivan County Historical Society/Museum will be the guest speaker at the November meeting of the North Mountain Historical Society. She will speak on the subject of "fiber." Melanie is a spinner and her talk will briefly explain her "road" to fiber, with an explanation about how spinning evolves from the fur of an animal to a warm garment on you. Along with the talk there will be examples to demonstrate the differences in what can be done with natural fiber. Melanie's road began about ten or so years ago and has "become one of the most relaxing things" she does, except perhaps to walk with one or more of her animals: llamas. The talk will be a glimpse into a world that once consumed the average homemaker in generations past. Step into the world of hand-spinning real homespun yarn at the History Buffs breakfast on November 20 at the Brass Pelican. As always, the buckwheat cakes will be ready by 8 AM and the speaker will walk behind the podium about 9 AM. The meeting is free and open to the public.

We have added an application for residents who may be interested in becoming a member of the Benton Area School Board.  The vacancy is for Benton Borough/Jackson Township and will exist until next December.  The new member may elect to run on the ballot and finish the two-year term (Dec. 2009) . Interested parties should complete the following form and drop it off at the Administrative Offices of the school. Get the application by going here.

It is pumpkin carving time and you can do it on the Benton News by going here.

Dr. Karen Boback, Republican Nominee, Pennsylvania House of Representatives, District 117, was guest speaker at a recent Benton Women's Club covered dish meeting.  Karen enjoyed door-to-door campaigning in Benton and brought her favorite blueberry crumb pie for all to enjoy. She offered this comment, "The residents have been so kind and welcoming to me. My home and phone visits reinforce my belief that 'we are all in this together."  She thanks the fine people of Benton for having an input in her campaign. 

Benton Women's Club
Picture used with permission of Benton Women's Club and Dr. Boback

from the L: Kathy Leamont, Frank Gould , Richard Lehet, Sandy Lehet, Lorena Bennet, Nora McDaniel, Dr. Karen Boback, Laura Gould, Linda Firestine, Tunkhannock, Marie Morgan, Carl Morgan, Barbara King, Donald King

.

October 23, 2006. Happy birthday today to Shirley Ritter, and happy anniversary to Richard and Jon Jost.

Quickies...
• In Benton Borough, leaves will be picked up every week between 7 AM and noon on Mondays and Wednesdays for odd-numbered houses and Tuesdays and Thursdays for even-numbered houses.

• The Benton Fire Company served 309 people at their Sunday breakfast. The fire company thanks everyone for their support, and hopes to see everyone again at next month's breakfast Sunday, November 26. The fire company will also be having a chicken and biscuit dinner on Saturday, November 11.

• The Columbia County Housing Authority is actively seeking applications for the waiting list for Benton Manor. The charming apartments are one-bedroom units with one unit handicap accessible. A community room and laundry are on premises. Utilities are included in the rent and rents range from $353 - $441. Tenants must be 62 or older and income eligible. HUD annual household income limits do govern eligibility. The income limit for 1 person household is $21,540 and under and for a 2 person household $24,600. Call 784-9373 for further information.

This 'n That...
• More than 2,000 traditional quilts, many made by area Mennonite women, are displayed at the Kutztown Folk Festival. Prize-winning quilts are auctioned at the end of the annual July event. Mark your calendars now for June 30 through July 8, 2007.

• Just 49 miles from Back Home in Benton, PA, about ten miles below Towanda between Wysox and Wyalusing, is the Marie Antoinette Lookout. The French Asylum on the Susquehanna River overlooks a large expanse of land occupied by a community of French exiles during the French Revolution. Among the buildings, none of which survive, was a house purported to be for the French queen and her two children. Readers have an excellent opportunity to learn more of the French Queen by watching Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst who plays the queen who was engaged at the age of 14 to King Louis XVI to be the royal reproducer-in-chief.
--Marie Antoinette PG-13, 118 minutes Contains sexual content, partial nudity and innuendo.

We return now to the aftermath of the Benton fire of July 4, 1910. The Borough convened a public meeting two days after the fire to provide assistance for property owners to rebuild. A Relief Committee established procedures for distributing contributions for the fire victims that began arriving from surrounding communities and organizations..

Contractors began to rebuild some of the thirty-six homes destroyed by the fire. Within two months of the fire, the lumber company of R. T. Smith & Son was awarded contracts to rebuilt for C. L. Hirleman, Main Street, and N. T. Smith, Two & ½ Street. Evan Buckalew decided to rebuilt on Main Street, as did Ira Hess, who had "some idea of building of brick." The Columbia County National Bank acquired land for construction on Market Street across from the former Exchange Hotel. Dr. Bruce Hess announced that he would construct a home, as did Arthur Harrison. The Pennington lot quickly had a store under construction. S. B. Harvey decided to rebuilt, but moved his house to Centre Street "where stood a barn." His son-in-law, C. L. Hirleman, built on the back side with his house facing Market Street. Much of the rebuilding and the lumber for the rebuilding came from R. T. Smith & Son. The company hired more carpenters. Skilled and unskilled people appeared daily wanting to work, and most were hired. The one trade that was in short supply was that of plasterer.

The Benton Fire of July 4, 1910

The Argus in an editorial wrote, "The way that Benton is leaping from the ruins of the disastrous fire of the 4th is no surprise to the editor, as he has supreme confidence in the progressiveness of the people of our town. We have, however, some people that predicted dire things, the town had gone to the eternal bowwows, but thank God they are but a mere handful."

The Patriotic Order Sons of America (P.O.S. of A.) bought "a lot in the business section" intending to build "a two- or three-story building, renting the ground floor for business purposes."

Rebuilding of ten buildings began quickly and eleven more were expected to be completed by the end of the year. A. R. Pennington built a house for Charles W. Hess. A residence for Myra Everett was under construction on 2 & ½ Street. Work began on a jewelry store for Ray B. Keeler, Main Street. Other property included a residence for John R. Keeler on Main Street at North Street. A store and two dwelling of A. T. Chapin, Market Street, showed "promise of construction" as the Argus noted there was "some material on the ground." A house for J. C. Kline and Pierce Kitchen on 2 & ½ Street had a dug cellar. The Argus noted that the owner was awaiting workers to begin the house above ground. Real estate deals and rumors of real estate deals flowed fast and furious, including one by A. T. Chapin to Harry Rinker for a lot on the corner of 2 & ½ Street and Main Street, which had recently been purchased of W.W. Meyers. Boyd Gibson began his new home at the corner of Third and Market streets.

Harry Keller had operated the McHenry House for a few months before the 1910 fire, but a month after the fire, the license was moved to D. J. Donovan, who then moved to the McHenry House from the Exchange Hotel. Mr. Donovan stated his intent to remodel the entire hotel with all new plumbing and refurbish every room. The Argus was very happy about Mr. Donovan being "at last in actual charge of the only hotel we now have." The paper predicted that "within a short time the McHenry House will be the most up-to-date one in the country as 'Donnie' has a record of doing things and right quick too."

Donovan still owned the land at the corner of Main and Market Streets. When he announced that he wanted to sell two or three of the lots where the hotel once stood, he immediately got seven offers. B. O. Sheldon erected a temporary building on the Exchange Hotel lot "until he could get a permanent place."

By the time August 11, 1910, arrived--just slightly over a month after the fire--the houses of Ira Hess, Main Street, and S. S. Harvey, Centre Street, were started. John J. Mather had an option on the lot owned by D. J. Donavan beside the Pennington & Seely store on Main Street. The lot had a 60-foot frontage and everyone agreed it was a fine place to locate the Borough's post office. Jay Yorks owns the building in 2006 and it houses the Kozy Korner restaurant and Jay's Sporting Goods. The post office was in the north side of that building at one time.

Stockholders of the People's Department Store debated about resuming business. The Hon. John G. McHenry helped things along by promising to rebuild it for their occupancy.

The Argus predicted that "ere the snow flies, there will be several more buildings started or completed and we predict that before the year 1912 is born that there will hardly be a spot in the fire zone that will not be rebuilt."

Within a year there were twenty-two houses rebuilt and the "best village by a dam site" was on the road to recovery. Little did anyone realize that more disastrous fires were on the horizon.

October 22, 2006. Ed and Susan Cole celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary today. The Underground Railroad talk by Dr. M. Diggs takes place today at 2 PM at the First Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall, 345 Market Street, Bloomsburg. Refreshments will be provided. (Benton News archives, October 6, 2006)

From cooking to homework, the need for conversion is great; i.e., how many tablespoons are in 2/3 of a cup? How many meters are there in a mile, or centimeters in a yard? These and hundreds of other conversions can be determined by going here and downloading the free program known as "Convert."

This 'n That...
• The Rockville Bridge is the longest stone-arch railroad viaduct in the world. The bridge links Harrisburg with the west shore of the Susquehanna River. The first bridge at this location, later destroyed not by high water but by a tornado, opened on September 1, 1849, when the Pennsylvania Railroad began operating over it. The second bridge was an iron-truss and opened in 1877. The present 3,830 feet bridge, completed in 1902, has forty-eight 70-foot spans and is 52 feet wide.

• Washington Atlee Burpee, (1858-1915), founder of W. Atlee Burpee & Company, first opened a store in Philadelphia, selling poultry and corn as feed for poultry. He sold poultry into the 1940s from his catalog as well as seeds for vegetables. The family home, Fordhook Farm, Doylestown, specialized in testing onions, beets, carrots, peas and cabbage, and was an experimental farm as early as 1888 to produce seeds and to test and evaluate new varieties of vegetables and flowers.

The Grit is back! The 124-year-old Williamsport newspaper has been reborn as an Ogden Publications Inc. every-other month magazine. The newspaper first saw the light of day in 1882 as a supplement for a newspaper. It became an independent Sunday paper, and eventually expanded outside the state.

There is an excellent map here that shows where the railroads and the canals were in Pennsylvania in 1860.

The events of July 4, 1910, changed life in the Borough of Benton starting when someone yelled "fire" from the area around George Crossley's Center Street blacksmith shop and barn midway between Third Street and what is now Main Street. The fire spread rapidly. There were not enough men to fight the blaze, there was no public water system, the hand pumper fire truck did not work and the fire hose was useless.

The fire destroyed about four blocks of the prime business part of Benton in less than three hours. Virtually nothing remained in the area bounded by Second Street to the east, Market Street to the South, Third Street to the west and Center Street on the north, as well as the east side of Main Street where it intersected with Market Street. The home of Dr. Isaac Patterson on the corner of Main and Center Streets, now the Old Filling Station restaurant, survived as did two homes on the southwest corner of Colley and Third Streets and the Presbyterian Church at the corner of Market and First (now Park Street).

Sixty structures--a third of the town--were destroyed, including 36 houses. Houses along Market and Two & ½ Street were especially hard hit. Two hundred residents, more than a quarter of the population of the Borough, were immediately homeless. Many jobs were lost as businesses went up in smoke. The Borough tax base dried up. Many were without insurance. Luckily, no one perished in the fire.

Market Street, Benton, July 5, 1910
Picture taken from about "the square" as we know it today
Photo courtesy of Bob Edwards

The Argus never gave any indication how the fire started or who was responsible for starting it. There was no investigation of the cause.

In the days following the fire, the Argus editorially commented on the "spirit and resolve" of the residents of the community in dealing with the devastation.

The following is a list of business places and houses destroyed by the fire of 1910 as taken from the Benton Argus published in July, 1910. This list will be incorporated in an overall history of the Borough of Benton now in preparation (actually we have been going through various stages of preparation for a year. We are now at the Preparation G stage. They next one will be a gasser!) which lists the Benton places of business in 1876 taken from the Benton Independent published in 1876, a list of business places in Benton in 1901 as taken from a directory of Columbia Montour Counties, the July 1910 Argus we just mentioned and Benton as it existed in 1963 as recorded by Harold Yost (now deceased) in his personal diary.

List of houses and business places that were burned in the 1910 fire taken from the Benton Argus. There were 60 places, homes, businesses and barns. Twenty-nine families were homeless as a result of the fire.

Businesses
Odd Fellows Hall, post office and confectionary store all in one building.
Peoples Department Store
Dr. J. Bruce Hess office & Rinkers Confectionary Store
Exchange Hotel, D. Donovan, Prop.
McHenry & Long Pool Room in the Exchange Hotel A.C. Karns Livery Stable. Hotel barn.
H.A. Kemp Studios.
Dr. Golder, Dentist, in the bank building.
Lena Golder Millinery Store
Columbia County National Bank
Argus office and barber shop.
Meat market and John G. McHenry office all in one building.
Fred Hagenbuch store.
A.T. Chapin Furniture Store.
Ray B. Keeler Jewelry Store and repair shop.
Resifent P., William Austin and Myra Everett in Chapin Furniture Building

Homes
Harry E. Long, Ira Hess, Pierce Kitchen, Harry Gibson, Boyd Gibson, Eran Buckalew, John R. Keeler, John Chapin, A.T. Chapin, A.R. Pennington, S.S. Harry, Mrs. John G. McHenry, Onez McHenry, Noel T. Smith, J.L. Kline, Paul Kline, Wes Colley, Jack Derr, Rosa Hess, Ritter Hedden, Wallace Myers, A.C. Harrison, Dora Blu house (best spelling I could make of the name), George Crossley, C. W. Wesley (two double houses), Mat Kase (double houses),

The following had personal effects, but no real estate.
Telephone company had offices in the bank building, Dr. William Hoffa had offices in the Odd Fellows building, William Lesher, Peter Farley, Rev. W.I. Burns (possibly not spelled correctly), Clyde Hirleman, Fred Dodson, William Rantz, Charles W. Hess, Claude Albertson, Sara Dodson.

We'll continue with the story of the aftermath of the Benton Fire of 1910 in Monday's edition.

 

October 21, 2006. Robert Rabb and Kathleen Harvey have birthdays today and David and Linda Bronson and Pat and Dennis Threlkeld celebrate their wedding anniversaries.

Upcoming...
• October 22, Benton Fire Company will serve its monthly breakfast--including buckwheat cakes--from 7 AM to 1 PM at the fire hall. Cost is $6 for adults and $3 for children ages 6-12.

• Laura Bobersky tells us that the date for the Halloween party in Central is October 28 from 12 to 2 PM.

• November 5, the Benton United Methodist Church will have a fellowship breakfast from 8 AM with a free-will offering taken for the breakfast. Everyone is welcome for breakfast.

• November 5 at 7 PM, Honoring God and Country Service in the Junior-Senior High School Auditorium. There will be a time of fellowship and refreshments following in the school cafeteria. "A Touch of Brass," an ensemble affiliated with the Catawissa Military Band will be playing before and during service. The guest speaker will be Major General Wesley Craig, Commanding General of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard's 28th Infantry Division (Mechanized).

• November 7 from 9 AM to 4 PM, an election-day lunch and indoor yard sale at the Benton United Methodist Church. Everyone is welcome.

If you want to know something about Scott Township, head here.

Ever since Hector was a pup, I have heard that a person should not drink cold water after meals. In fact, after Father had a stroke, his doctor suggested that we not allow him to have iced water after a meal. From what we now know, cold water will neither cause cancer nor solidify fat.

I suppose that using the term Hector was a pup, will cause some to say "there he goes again with one of his old sayings" that really has been around since Hector was a pup, or from when Pontius was a pilot, or from when Pluto was a planet. Hector is a reference to the best warrior--meaning a darn good commander in chief--of the Trojan forces during the Trojan War with the Greeks in what is now modern Turkey almost 1200 years before the birth of Christ. When Hector was a pup--a very young person indeed--really would put him right up there with a truly old person.

Friday we wrote about buckwheat cakes, and received a bevy of emails from all over the United States on the subject. A question from one reader was especially interesting. He wanted to know what else could be made with buckwheat flour. We are no authority, and we had to turn to ethnic cookbooks to find that a version of buckwheat cakes are eaten in Russia as "blinis" and in the Bretagne region in northwest France as "galettes." Here are the ingredients of these two dishes...

• Blinis: customarily served with sour cream and caviar or smoked salmon, but can be served with pancake syrup. This variation uses yeast, warm water, honey, both buckwheat and all-purpose flour, milk powder, sour cream or plain yogurt, butter, eggs and a pinch of salt. Drop on the griddle to form 3-inch cakes.

• Galettes can be served with ham, cheese and eggs. When made from buckwheat flour, a crepe is called a galettes, and may include eggs, ham, mushrooms, bacon and topped off with fragrant salted butter. Galettes made from buckwheat dough often have a salty taste, while Crepes made from wheat dough often have a sweet taste. Galettes batter is made with farine de blé noir or buckwheat flour. A typical galettes is made with buckwheat flour plus an egg, water, olive oil and salt. A wooden spoon is slowly turned to incorporate the water into the mixture and eliminate the lumps, then the mixture is let stand for an hour. A knod of butter is heated to almost boiling. The batter is ladled on the griddle and cooked until golden brown, then flipped. Stuffing (such as Swiss cheese, ham and tomato) is added to the top side. When the bottom is golden brown, fold in half and serve.

Buckwheat contains double the amount of Vitamin B1 and B2 compared to wheat flour, and three times more than white rice.
• Vitamin B1, useful in preventing an enlarged heart and heart disease.
• Vitamin B2, helps to prevent high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries.
• Fiber in buckwheat is effective in preventing cancer of the digestive organs and several types of related disease.
• Buckwheat strengthens capillary vessels by promoting elasticity and functions to lower blood pressure. It is said to be useful in preventing diabetes and for stimulating memory cells. It is more efficiently absorbed when taken with Vitamin C.

The Borough of Benton has long been known as a sleepy little valley community where little happens. But in tomorrow's edition we'll return to the days following the disastrous fire of July 4, 1910. The world as many knew it in the Borough was turned upside down. Your assignment for tonight is to read the FEATURE article on The Benton Fire of July 4, 1910, by George A. Turner. We'll give you a "head's up" on what happened during the aftermath of the fire by telling you that the Benton Argus called the rebuilding effort "marvelous." For more about this subject, return with us tomorrow when your coffee is ready and you have a few minutes to relax.

Ivan B. Hoyt, (June 11, 1932-October 20, 2006), a farmer, a truck driver for Berwick Sand and Gravel and a school bus driver with 42 years of experience for the Northwest Area School District, died Friday at the Bonham Nursing Center. He was 74. Born in Huntington Township, he was the son of the late W. Lawrence and Edith E. (Herring) Hoyt. He was a 1951 graduate of Huntington Mills High School and served in the US Army during the Korean War. He lived at 99 Keller Road, Benton, He is survived by numerous cousins including Ralph S. Good (Shirley), Orangeville, and C. Robert Hoyt (Virginia), Media. Graveside services will be held Tuesday at 1 PM at Scott Cemetery at Waterton. A combined veterans group will conduct graveside military rites.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home. A complete obituary will be published in Saturday's Press Enterprise.

 

October 20, 2006. Happy birthday today to Edward Lee Cole, the younger of the two barbers in Ed Cole's barber shop; to Bill Johnson and to Monica Diltz.

We recently received two different emails from people who found out about the upper Fishingcreek valley by reading about it on the Benton News. They visited Benton and while here tried buckwheat cakes for the first time. Neither liked them, not because the cakes were not good, but because they were different. Basically, buckwheat cakes differ from baker to baker in how sour they are, their color and their texture. Locally, we tend to think of buckwheat cakes about as Dallas Baker once described beer: "All beer is good, some beer is just better than others." Buckwheat cakes and the growing of buckwheat are not new to the upper Fishingcreek valley, while ten miles from Benton the cakes are often unknown.

A headline in the Benton Argus of October 17, 1906, read, "Benton Miller Over Flooded by Buckwheat." The article was about "Miller Mather," John J. Mather, and the problems he and other county millers encountered in getting the buckwheat needed for the production of flour. John had only been "on his own" in the business for two years at this time a century ago.

John Kimble and John J. Mather bought the "Benton Mills" property and made it into a 50-barrel roller mill in 1898. Kimble was born in Benton in March, 1875, the son of a miller. Kimble pursued milling all his life. He worked in Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Washington, where he was in charge of flowing, arranging and installing mills of various capacities throughout the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Nevada. He also remodeled mills in the Southwest and South. In 1904 Kimble and Maher installed another unit in the Benton Mills for buckwheat flour. That same year Mr. Mather became the sole owner of the mill. You can learn more about this and other mills of the upper Fishingcreek valley by turning to the FEATURES article about mills.

According to the Argus article, John Mather advertised heavily with little success in the weeks preceding the mid-October timeframe a hundred years ago in order to get buckwheat. In desperation, he set out from the mill asking farmers to sell him buckwheat. He agreed to pay sixty cents a bushel for all the buckwheat farmers would sell to him. When he returned home in the evening, he had found all the buckwheat he would need for the winter, and immediately lowered his price to fifty-five cents a bushel. He told his workers that he no longer anticipated any "dire consequences" from the buckwheat shortage.

John Mather ordered new machinery after purchasing the interest from Kimble, but the mill burned in 1918 before it could be installed. He rebuilt the mill and installed all new equipment and resumed operations in October, 1918. Following World War I, the mill operated for the export trade. Buck's Brand Self-Rising flour was a popular product of the mill during that period.

John J. Mather continued operations until his death in 1928, when he was succeeded by his son, R. Bruce Mather, who operated it until his death. His widow operated the mill until son John took over. The mill is still in operation as Christy Harrison's Benton Roller Mills, just south of the bridge over Fishing Creek in the Borough of Benton. Buckwheat is no longer milled in Benton, although Fought's Mill, Hughsville, still produces it. Buckwheat can easily be found in flour form at area stores and in buckwheat cakes at the Benton Christian Church buckwheat supper coming up the night after election, at various firemens' breakfasts such as the Benton Volunteer Firemen's breakfast on October 22, at several stands at the Bloomsburg Fair, amid the sticky buns and ham at the gathering place around the breakfast table in the Dave Moss home, and at the Brass Pelican Restaurant, Elk Grove.

Whittier Letteer remembers his father, Gearhart Letteer, telling of hunting in Nordmont at the home of Miney (Minard) and Minnie Peterman. Minnie greased her griddle to make the buckwheat cakes by smearing the griddle with the lard end of a pig's tail which hung from the ceiling of the kitchen by an old inner tube. Minnie would yank the pig's tail down, grease up the griddle, then let go of the crude greaser. Gearhart remembered the grease that ended up on the ceiling. Many from the area remember their parents making buckwheat cakes for breakfast, then taking the left-over rolled-up cakes and jelly to the fields for lunch. Buckwheat flour is sometimes used to coat venison steaks after marinating overnight in Italian dressing. It is said to make a delicious meal.

We started this article by saying that some didn't find buckwheat cakes to their liking the first time they tried them. For each of these people, there are an equal number who grew up eating and loving them. Consider this. Monica Diltz, who is celebrating her birthday today, started her buckwheat batter twenty years ago when she opened the doors of the Brass Pelican restaurant for the first time. She kept the batter going every day since November 12, 1986--the past twenty years.

When you stop at the Pelican, we would like to recommend that you take with you as a present to Monica a picture significant of the area, framed if you can. Monica is collecting pictures of the area and hanging them on the walls in the restaurant. She has amassed quite a collection, and she is especially interested in Diltz history or pictures.

We wrote this article from a remote mountain cabin shortly after getting up from a delicious breakfast of--you guessed it--buckwheat cakes and sausage, sausage gravy, sticky buns, eggs and bacon, prepared by Whittier and Joyce Letteer. We had our share of buckwheat cakes this morning, but we certainly will never get our fill of them.

 

We took a day off Thursday, and when we booted up our computer Friday we noticed that things were different on our computer. Using a sophisticated control system, we captured the changes that took place overnight. You can see these changes by going here.

 

October 18, 2006. Happy birthday to Mike Minjack who turned 62 today, and to Pedro Coen, grandson of Rev. and Mrs. Vernon McDormand. Connie Mack, manager of the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team, announced his retirement on this date in 1950. On this date in 1957, the Everly Brothers made #1 with their pop hit, Wake Up, Little Susie. We will not publish an edition for Thursday, and so we'll wish Joey Sue Laubach a Happy Birthday in advance.

How do they do these things so quickly? The Wilkes-Barre Barnes & Noble bookstore, including their Starbucks store and café, is open for business--at least on the first floor. Barnes & Noble is located in the Innovation Center on the square in Wilkes-Barre and includes a Joint Collegiate Bookstore, LLC, for King’s College and Wilkes University.

There are changes proposed to the state's dog law that are designed to improve the conditions under which dogs are bred and sold in Pennsylvania, including naming a special enforcement team to enforce the kennel provisions of the dog law. The Guv's proposal includes strengthening criminal penalties related to the dog law and cruelty statutes and requiring kennels to double their cage size and walk the animals for at least 20 minutes every day.

A bombshell at the Monday night school board meeting came when Director Shultz submitted her resignation, effective with the end of the meeting. We feel that anyone who gives of their time and energy to volunteer for a worthwhile cause deserves special recognition. On behalf of those in the Benton Area School District, "thank you, Nicole," for your years of service and dedication.

The Benton Lions Halloween Parade will be on October 31, 2006. The line up will start at 6 PM and move at 7 PM. Line up will be on McHenry Alley behind the high school. Halloween House judging will be on October 30.

The Benton Lions are holding a "Take-Out only" chicken dinner. The cost is $7.50 per dinner and members are taking orders now. Pick-up date is November 16 at the Benton Christian Church between 4-6 PM. Call 864-2735 to place an order or ask any Lions member. You must purchase a ticket to receive a dinner. No extra dinners will be sold the night of pick-up. The meal consists of chicken, baked potato, roll, baked beans, applesauce and brownie.

The Lions are also starting their annual "225 ticket" sale. please call or see your Lions Club member to receive your tickets. Tickets must be received before December 7.

Do you remember the stories about a Philistine warrior known as "Goliath" famous for his battle in the 11th century BC with David, the young Israelite boy who later become the King of Israel? The Citizens Voice reports that U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, has reported $878,797 in contributions and $325,037 in expenses since the election cycle began last year. Kanjorski’s Republican opponent, Dr. Joseph Leonardi, reported his campaign has raised $130 and spent $458 from July 1 to Sept. 30. Leonardi reports $539 in expenses during the election cycle, and he reported a $1,891 debt and $335 in available cash on Sept. 30. Kanjorski has no debt and $906,662 in available campaign cash. Well, we can say that Dr. Leonardi came to Benton to meet and greet and we appreciate that. Oh, well. the November edition of Esquire Magazine, page 206, endorses Dr. Joseph Leonardi.

In the Senate race, the Santorum bunch raised a reported $3.7 million from July though the end of September. For the same period, the Casey bunch raised $4.24 million

It was nice hearing from Staci Wilhelm Loranca, the great, great niece of Nellie Hess and the great-granddaughter of Lulu (Hess) Hartman both formerly of Two and One-half Street. Staci's grandmother, Mary Jane Hegedus, was also born in this house about 80 years ago. The house remains in the family, so Staci and her husband, Derek, and daughter, Abigail, return to Benton as a vacation retreat from the hectic hustle-n-bustle of Royersford, Montgomery County. Want to avoid "hectic?" Benton is a good place to do that.

Charles Dewey Harris, Kailua, Hawaii, writes saying he was happy to have found the Benton News. Charles was born in Bloomsburg, grew up in Lightstreet, graduated from CMVT in 1974 and then joined the Marines. He was stationed in Hawaii in 1975 and has been there ever since as a resident after his discharge in 1980. "Many of my classmates and friends are from Benton and surrounding areas. These were my 'stomping grounds' as a young man. It is a hoot to read about the locals and the stories of the area," he writes.

Charles and his wife, Nalei, were in Pennsylvania earlier this month to visit family and friends, to see the fair and the changing of the leaves and to enjoy the cool fall weather. They drove to Dushore to shop at Fenton's, "the world's best selection of Dickies clothes" and dine at the "Jolly Trolley" for lunch. They stopped at the Birdsong Winery for a couple of bottles of the mountain grape and later pulled over at "Wright's View" on old 220 to check out the spectacular scenery. Charles said it was "clear and beautiful and the leaves up on top were at peak color! Absolutely gorgeous! You could see all the way to the Allegheny Plateau! I gazed out for 15 minutes! Hawaii has its own natural beauty as a "tropical paradise" but PA is just as beautiful in its way. I love Hawaii but part of me will always be in PA."

I had intended to end with a verse that I thought was appropriate, but when I scanned "30 Seconds" in the Tuesday Press Enterprise and read this verse, I decided not to include any poetry today. The verse, for those who didn't see it, went like this...

Verse, it seems, is suddenly in vogue.
Poetry animates hero and rogue.
But with so much to say
and so little time,
I'd prefer more reason
and a little less rhyme.

October 17, 2006. David Keller celebrates his birthday today with author Arthur Miller and daredevil Evel Knievel.

On this date in 1989, an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale killed 67 people and injured over 3,000 in the San Francisco Bay area, The quake damaged or destroyed over 100,000 buildings and caused billions of dollars of damage. More lives might have been lost had the World Series not just started. A crowd at Candlestick stadium of over 60,000 people were safe in the earthquake-proof stadium watching the baseball game.

Congratulations to Kay Yankovich, Everett Street, who was offered the position of Benton Borough Secretary Tuesday night. She has accepted the position and will start on October 30.

We hear there is a video going around the Benton area showing a mountain lion in the woods off Route 118. We haven't seen it, but would like to see it. Has anyone seen it or know where we can view it?

The Fishingcreek Femme Fatale Chapter of the Red Hat Society will hold its October Meeting at the Gourmet Buffet at Columbia Mall near the Wal-Mart store at noon on Wednesday, October 18. Proper attire of a Red Hat and Purple outfit are required. The chapter is open to new members and guests are welcome.

The Columbia County Traveling Library will be in the Benton area Wednesday, stopping on 2 1/2 Street in the morning from 10-11, the Senior Center from 11:05-11:15 and moving to Stillwater Park from 11:30 AM until 12:30 in the afternoon.

Many will remember the five-level department store "The Boston Store," started by three Scottish immigrants: Fowler, Dick & Walker. The store was just south of the square on South Main Street, Wilkes-Barre. It was there from 1879 to 1980. Can't remember what it looked like? Go here.

We now switch to Solomon Boscov, who founded a department store in 1911 in Reading. The Boscov organization purchased the Hazle Township "The Boston Store" in 1980 and with the deal came the store that bordered South Main Street in the front and South Franklin Street in the back. A thousand cars could park in the parking lot entered from S. Franklin Street. According to the Times Leader, the Wilkes-Barre store in now 34th out of 38 stores in revenue.

We traveled north via the Route 15/future I-99 corridor Monday, then along the Genesee River as it flows northward--one of the few rivers in the world that flows north--through western New York from where it begins south of Genesee, Pennsylvania. It empties into Lake Ontario north of the City of Rochester. Our destination was close to the Letchworth State Park gorge, which we have mentioned in the Benton News several times. There are also falls along the river within Rochester, where the water provided power to 19th century industry. A dam at Mount Morris is the largest flood-control dam east of the Mississippi. The dam was only a few miles from where we camped.

The Genesee Valley gently rolls away from the Genesee River as it flows northward from its Pennsylvania origins to the outskirts of Rochester. The valley is rich in agriculture with top soils along the river over 10 feet deep, and limestone deposits ground into the soil by thousands of years of glaciation. When rains come to the valley, the ground becomes saturated quickly, which may account for its black appearance rather than the red or brown to which we are accustomed. Saturated ground under the wheels of a motor home don't make for good traveling, and we spent several hours Tuesday mired in Genesee top soil. We stayed in that position, in fact, until pulled out by a tow truck. From now on we'll stick to the hard roads, thank you.

We passed through the city of Corning, nestled on the banks of the Chemung River and surrounded by the rolling woodland of southwestern New York. The town is the home to some famous companies putting it on a sound economic base. Coming has an active downtown/historic district and a town plan that encourages walking. The car in that town is a nice thing to leave parked, and sidewalk visiting and old-fashioned friendliness are the beneficiaries.

The Market Street Historic District is a four-block area of fine old commercial buildings that have been restored to a late 19th-century appearance. Brick sidewalks are lined with shade trees and a colorful collection of specialty shops, restaurants, antique stores and--in case you forgot this is Corning--glass-blowing shops.

There is a restored 1880 ice cream parlor and the beautiful Riverfront Park, a gift of Corning, Inc. One of our favorite stops is the Coming Glass Center where all aspects of glass is depicted, including its history, uses, manufacture and service as an art form. The center comprises the Corning Museum of Glass, the Hall of Science and Industry, the Steuben Glass Factory, and several retail shops.

Didja know that Mark Twain wrote Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and several other works while residing at a nearby Corning farm?

We want to tell you a little about Nathaniel Rochester, (February 21, 1752 - May 17, 1831), born in Cople parish, Westmoreland County, Virginia, and died in Rochester, New York, in 1831. Nathaniel only had a meager education, but later was elected to the legislature of North Carolina. He manufactured arms at Hillsboro, importing the iron on wagons from Pennsylvania. He manufactured flour, rope and nails" at Hagerstown, Maryland, then became a member of the Maryland assembly, postmaster, and judge of the county court. He became the first president of the Hagerstown bank.

In 1800 he went to "Genesee country," New York, and bought a large amount of land in Livingston county, New York, near Dansville. In 1802, three Maryland speculators--Rochester, Fitzhugh and Carroll--bought the Allan Mill tract consisting of a dismal swamp beside the tumbling waters of the Genesee River in what was then known as the Falls Town. In 1811 Rochester began the process of establishing a town on the Upper Falls tract. He laid out streets and established plots of land for municipal, church, and business use. Later that year, he began to offer the plots for sale and named the would-be settlement "Rochesterville" after himself.

He became secretary of a convention to urge the construction of the Erie canal. In 1824, he helped organize the Bank of Rochester, and became its first president. He helped found St. Luke's church in Rochester. He served as the first president of the Rochester Athenænum (which would later become Rochester Institute of Technology).

 

October 16, 2006, the 289th day of the year. John Unbewust and Tina Burt celebrate their birthdays today.

On this date in...
• 1758, Noah Webster was born, He was America's first lexicographer, the author of the first American dictionary, and an advocate of American English. His American Spelling Book, published in 1783, was the first to Americanize the spelling of English words such as colour and labour by dropping the "u."

• 1846, the painkiller, ether, was used for the first time in Boston's General Hospital. Ether dates back to 1275 when it was discovered by Spanish chemist Raymundus Lullius and was given the name "sweet vitriol." In 1540, the synthesis of ether was described by German scientist Valerius Cordus. Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus discovered the hypnotic effects of ether. German scientist W.G. Frobenius changed the name of sweet vitriol to ether in 1730.

• 1859, United States anti-slavery activist John Brown led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, and seized the armory to provide for his militia. His plan to arm slaves with the weapons he and his men seized from the arsenal was thwarted, however, by local farmers, militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Within 36 hours of the attack, most of Brown's men had been killed or captured. Brown was captured and later hanged.

Quickies...
• This will be a poor week for readers of the Benton Snooze, since from here on until the week end we won't be on schedule at all. Don't think that we'll be in Tahiti sipping drinks with umbrellas in them or eating a whole pig at a luau or watching dancing girls in grass skirts, but we will be away. And for much of the time we won't be near cell phone service so we won't be able to stay in touch.

• We have to feel somewhat sorry for some election officials. The Boston Globe, in a headline reading, "Typo Will Cost Michigan County $40K," reported that it will cost about $40,000 to correct an embarrassing typo on its November 7 election ballot. It seems that the 'L' was left out of 'public."

• A Pennsylvania state record was set last month when a 47-pound flathead catfish was fished out of the Ohio River by a West Sunbury fisherman, a new Pennsylvania state record for the species.

• Internet Explorer 7 will suddenly appear in your computer in the next couple of days, whether you want it or not. Although at the moment we much prefer using Firefox to using Internet Explorer, we'll keep an open mind. After all, we're promised many of the features in IE7 that we have in the current Firefox: a more modern look, tabbed browsing, better printing, RSS feeds, multiple search providers, and better security.

• The Food Bank at the United Methodist Church needs paper shopping bags to replace stock damaged in June. Please place them inside the side door.

Quote of the Day:
"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."
--Oscar Wilde, born on this date in 1854

Several readers have asked for more sayings that Father used to say, and now that it is "cold as a well digger's tail" outside I have a little time, so I have "racked my brain" until I am "limber as a dishrag." Nevertheless, I came up with a list as "sorry as a two-dollar watch," although I was as "slow as molasses in January" doing it and am just as "happy as if I had good sense" even thought the list is currently "rough as a cob." These sayings are "as scarce as hen's teeth" and "nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full o' rocking chairs."Although I can think of these old sayings, I often forget them "faster than greased lightning," which makes me "madder than a wet hen." I got some of them "back-assward" so I'll "hold my tongue" with those.

Right now I am plumb tuckered out" from "running around like a chicken with its head cut off" and need to be hightailing it out of here. This is going to be an "awful looking site" when I post it. I hope some reader doesn't grab me by the "scruff of the neck and give me a rakin."

On Tuesday, October 17, at 7 PM there is a special event meeting open to the public about the Avondale Mine Fire of 1869 noting that "Anthracite's Most Deadly Disaster May Have Been Arson." Joe Keating, an anthracite preservationist from Nanticoke, and Bob Wolensky, a professor at King's College and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, will discuss their research on arson as the cause of the Avondale mining disaster of 1869. A fire in the Avondale colliery shaft in Plymouth Township killed 110 men and boys in what became anthracite's most deadly calamity. Although history has judged the event an accident, the authors review the evidence presented in the coroner's inquest, newspaper accounts, and a deathbed confession in 1871--all suggesting that the fire was deliberately set. Contemporary labor-management conflicts and ethnic tensions add support to their argument. The public is cordially invited to the presentation free of charge. Light refreshments and snacks will be served.

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 struck off Hawaii Sunday morning, with shaking and power outages felt as far as 150 miles away on the island of Oahu. Jarod Savage and Amanda Letteer are teachers on the island of Lanai. They did not lose power and report that they are OK. Jerod says it woke them about 7:15 with everything in their apartment shaking but they are fine. They did not lose electricity because their power source on the island is a gas-powered generator.

Bertha D. (Ebner) VanPelt, (January 16, 1920-October 14, 2006), 513 Main Street, Orangeville, a former employee of Dockey Shirt Factory and a floor lady for the Milco Industries, passed away Saturday at her home. She was 86. Born in Orangeville, she was a daughter of the late Harry I. Ebner and Gertrude E. (Williams) Ebner. She attended the Orangeville Normal School and was a lifelong resident of Orangeville. She was preceded in death by her husband, Frederick Lee VanPelt, on August 25, 1980. Surviving are her son, Rodney Lee VanPelt and his fiancée, Donna Stackhouse; a daughter, Donna Lea Jacoby (Lloyd), Mansfield; eight grandchildren: Lori Lenhart, Rodney VanPelt, Tami Letteer, Gena Gray, Jody Karschner, Tina Ignatavich, Heather Jacoby Yacovissi, and Jonathan Jacoby; and 21 great-grandchildren, and one great-great granddaughter. There are two sisters surviving: Frances Avery, Spencer, North Carolina, and Mary Smith, Selinsgrove. She was preceded in death by the following siblings: Hazel Thomas, Elsie Busch, Esther Deiterick, Sarah Brobst, Renna Bronzburg, Irvin Ebner, Edward Ebner, Glenn Ebner, Russell Ebner and Leon Ebner.

Funeral Services will be held Wednesday at 11 AM at the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc.. Burial will be in the Laurel Hill Cemetery, Orangeville. There will be a viewing Tuesday from 6 to 8 PM and Wednesday from 10 AM until the time of the service at 11 at the McMichael Funeral Home.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home. A complete obituary will be published in the Monday edition of the Press Enterprise.

 

October 15, 2006, the 288th day of the year. Yesterday saw cool weather for the Pumpkin Fest, and today will be more of the same. The music was great, the food and venders were busy and it was a delightful place to spend a fall day.

The N4C Thrift Store, Mill Street, had one of their largest volume days ever Saturday. The store was jammed most of the day as more and more people discover how nice it is. A volunteer at the shop ran into problems when she found a comfortable pair of loafers for sale. She bought the loafers and put them on, replacing the pair of new shoes she wore to the shop. At the end of her shift, she looked for the new shoes that she had worn that morning. She didn't find them, then realized that another volunteer had put a price tag on the shoes and sold them--for about a tenth of the price she had paid a few days before.

On this date in...

• 70 BC, Virgil was born. He was considered by some as the greatest of the Roman poets, known for the Aeneid. He died in 19 BC.

• 1939, the New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) was dedicated. The 680 acre airport is located in the Borough of Queens, New York City, bordering on Flushing Bay and Bowery Bay, eight miles from midtown Manhattan.

• 1951, television sitcom I Love Lucy premiered on CBS and ran for 180 episodes until May 6, 1957. The series starred comedian Lucille Ball, her husband Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley. Lucy was the last main cast member still living when she died on April 26, 1989.

There are 30 places in Columbia County that are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. For all readers who can honestly name over 20 of the locations--without looking--we'll give a free subscription to the Benton News. Start thinking. Answer at end.

Tonight's 60 Minutes (Channel 22 at 7) includes separate interviews with the three Duke lacrosse players indicted on rape charges and the exotic-dancing partner of the woman who accused them.

If you are wondering about the fire alarm that went off in the middle of the night Friday, we understand that a passing motorist drove into a cloud of smoke on Main Street and called 9-1-1. The cause, it turns out, was an outside wood furnace belching black, irritating smoke that made travel through the Borough difficult. Readers of the Benton News know how we feel about these behemoths in the Borough.

Web Site of the Day...
It would have been so nice to have had the internet when I was growing up. How I hated to learn stuff. How much easier learning would have been, how much better the school environment would have been. Everybody hates having to learn stuff, right? Well, no! There is the Free Dictionary which makes learning fun. The site includes a dictionary, a thesaurus, acronyms and idioms. It includes a word of the day, a quote of the day, an article of the day and today’s news.

A number of readers commented on the upcoming retirement of Rep. George Hasay, 57, Shickshinny, at the end of 2006, ending a 34-year career as a state lawmaker. Hasay's successor will represent residents in Columbia, Luzerne and Wyoming counties in the very strange carving up of voting districts. In Columbia County, there are Benton Township and Benton Borough. In Luzerne County: the townships of Fairmount, Hollenback, Hunlock, Huntington, Nescopeck and Salem, and the boroughs of Nescopeck and Shickshinny. Parts of Wyoming County are also in the district. Fred Nichols, 30, a Shickshinny borough police officer, is the Democrat candidate for the $72,187 position--$5 more a year than the annual pension Rep. Hasay will draw for the rest of his life following his retirement. Karen Boback, 54, Harveys Lake, is the Republican candidate. Dr. Boback, many pointed out, beat out Benton's Michael McCormick, 25, in the primaries. Mike is now active in the campaign for Dr. Joseph Leonardi running for Congressman in the 11th Congressional District against Paul E. Kanjorski, who is serving an 11th term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

We began a discussion of the election of school board members in yesterday's edition. We discussed the at-large system where residents would be allowed to vote for people from anywhere in the district for any of the board's nine seats. The regional system lets residents vote for open seats only in their region and allows only people from that region to run, ensuring each area has a local representative on the board.

Before we get too deeply into that subject, we would like to point out a peculiarity of the Benton Area School Board, or at least it is strange in our eyes. The Benton area school board meets as a committee of the whole once a month in advance of the regular school board meeting and the chair of each committee can bring items to the board's attention. If it is decided to make the item an agenda item it comes back the next week as an agenda item. Conversely, if a committee chair does not like an item, he can chose not to bring it to the school board and thus effectively stonewall an item, even it the committee members wish it presented.

The Policy Committee consists of Chairman Evy Lysk, Bruce Hess, and Gerri Newhart. We do know that Evy Lysk is for a change to the way school board members are elected, but we do not know how the committee feels. And under the "Committee of the Whole" concept, it doesn't matter a whole lot. The chairman rules--and that is true in each committee.

A concept that we think would be more effective would be that each committee discuss an item and decide among themselves if the item should be considered by the entire board. Operating as a committee of the whole, directors are no longer getting a majority opinion of what the committee wants to do before an item comes before the entire board. If a committee chair does not want to add an item for consideration by the entire board, he can do so. If he forms a minority opinion, not shared by others on his committee, he can still bring it to the board for vote or can withhold bringing it to the attention of the board.

If the school board decides to change the method of electing members as Policy Chairman Lysk wants, it would probably take a year or more to complete. Following a vote to change, it would be necessary to file in order to make it legal to do so. The issue would slowly move through the Court of Common Pleas. If it is accepted by the court, it would get on the ballot. The current system applies until all this is approved.

Again, we recommend that residents of the Benton Area School District think about these issues and contact their school board member in order that the wishes of the constituents are followed.

Didja know that the United States has an official list of 85,014 cultural resources worthy of preservation known as The National Register of Historic Places? The National Register is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect our historic and archeological resources. Properties listed in the Register include districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that are significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture. To find out which ones are in Columbia County, go here.

 

October 14, 2006. Get out today and see the beautiful scenery in the area, maybe drive up to the Pumpkin Festival at the Ol' County Barn north of town. It should be beautiful in the coming days following the 24° Friday morning. Don't forget the North Mountain Historical Society meets Monday morning at the Brass Pelican.

On this date in 1890, Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, was born in Denison, Texas. He came from a poor but religious family. His pacifist mother cried when he chose to go to West Point, and he later served in World War I and World War II. He lead the invasion of French North Africa, he was named Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, and planned the invasion of Normandy. He ran for president against Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and 1956 promising to get the United States out of the Korean War, and he did. His vice-president in both terms was Richard M. Nixon, who became president in 1968.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
--Dwight Eisenhower

Follow-Up...
• The Benton Fire Company thanks everyone for attending their first Fall Festival last Saturday. It was a huge success! Thanks to Tom Kline for donating his time and his John Deere tractor that was used for giving hay rides. A lot of kids will have fond memories for years to come.

• Profits for the Covered Bridge Association from last Sunday's Bash at the rodeo grounds now total $4,060 and growing. The McNett Band just contributed $100 and other donations are rolling in. Not bad for an event that was planned and consummated in a six-week period! There were 123 auction items and two were auctioned off twice, as folks handed them back in to raise more money. Chris Young and Robert Parks both claim responsibility for the nice weather. The event will be tied into the Knoebels Covered Bridge Festival next year and many more vendors are a possibility. A two-day concert is also being considered.

Cinda L. Hartman, Hartman & Lally Insurers, Inc., Berwick, is looking for any family of Erma Bennet, a graduate of the Bloomsburg State Normal School in 1912. Cinda has the diploma of Erma, and she would love for a family member to get it. Erma was "a person of good character and studious habits, for having completed in a satisfactory manner the Pianoforte, History of Music and Harmony Theory, as prescribed by this Institution." It is signed by D.J. Wallis, Jr., Principal, George E. Wilbur, secretary and Marion E.A. Miller, Supervisor of Music. Descendants of Erma might treasure this. Call Cinda at 570 752-3688 if you might know the family.

Representing District 117 and parts of Columbia, Luzerne and Wyoming county, Representative George Hasay (Republican) retires at the end of the current session. Dr. Karen Boback, a teacher in the Tunkhannock Area School District for 33 years, inspector of elections for Harveys Lake Borough and an adjunct professor at College Misericordia, is running for his position as a Republican. Friday, Karen came to Benton to meet and greet residents of the area. Karen Boback, R and Fred Nichols, D, are the contenders for the open state representative seat in the 117th district. We felt that Karen displayed great charm and she certainly is hard working. We have yet to see anything on Nichols, 30, a Shickshinny Borough police officer who lives in Hunlock Creek.

Many people with fast internet connections listen to radio through the speakers on their computer. You can go to www.mikesradioworld.com/us_pa.html to find the radio stations in Pennsylvania that broadcast over the internet.

Term of the Day:
Gizmo: "Navy slang for a gadget type of doohickey.

Ongoing...
• The Benton Women's Club is holding a Pampered Chef fundraiser from the 19th of October to the 19th of November. All proceeds will stay in the local community. Call Carole Whitenight, 925-5806, or Michele Minier, 925-2845, to see a catalog and place an order. Merchandise can also be previewed at www.pamperedchef.com . Call Carole or Michele to place orders. Pampered Chef offers gifts of cookware, seasonings, and various goodies perfect for any occasion. Gift certificates are also available.

• Benton Fire Co. is hosting a bus trip to the Sands casino in Atlantic City on Saturday, November 4. The bus will leave from Benton Fire Hall at 7 AM and return at 11 PM. The trip costs $32 per person with $20 refunded upon arrival at the casino. You must be over 21 years to sign up. Please contact Dave Albertson, 925-6185.

• The Benton Fire Co. monthly breakfast will be served on Sunday, October 22, from 7 AM to 1 PM, featuring a full breakfast menu with all you can eat pancakes and buckwheat cakes. Adults $6; children 6-12, $3.

• A Fall Craft Show with 100 artisans plus refreshments is coming up October 28 at the Columbia-Montour Area Vo-Tech School, 5050 Sweppenheiser Drive, Bloomsburg, from 9 AM to 3 PM.

• Chuck Chapman remains at Geisinger Medical Center following a knee replacement. He is expected to be released Saturday.

• The Fairmount Springs UM Church Ham Supper is today from 4-6:30 PM. The fare is $7 for adults, $3 for kids 3-10.

On Monday night, the Benton Area School Board met for its monthly Committee of the Whole. Chairman of the Policy Committee, Evy Lysk, requested consideration of the abolition of the regional voting system which ensures all the district's municipalities are represented and which is now used in the Benton Area School District. She is pushing for "At Large" voting, saying that taxpayers would be better served by a board drawn from the district at large.

The policy of the school board is contained in the local board procedures adopted November 17, 2003, entitled "Membership." The policy is too long for complete coverage here, but we'll try to summarize, understanding that we probably will leave something out that someone considers important.

The board consists of nine members elected for a four-year term. Terms are staggered, so that not all members are up for election at any one time. Directors are elected every two years in a cycle of five and four members. Elections are in the odd years, along with other municipal offices. The primary next spring will nominate one candidate for Benton Borough/Jackson Township, one for Fishingcreek Township/Stillwater, and two for Benton Township/Sugarloaf Township. None are up for election in the upcoming November election.

There are three Benton Area School District regions and three directors are elected from each region.
• Benton Borough/Jackson Township
• Benton Township/Sugarloaf Township
• Fishing Creek Township/Stillwater Borough

A board member must be at least 18, of good moral character, a resident of the district for at least a year and can't be a member of the municipal council. He can't have been removed from any public office for malfeasance, can't be engaged in business with the school district, must take an oath of office and file an statement of financial interests, and must resign if he leaves the school district and may be asked to leave if he misses two or more meetings of the council (unless illness is an overriding factor).

Local constituents should voice their opinion on this issue to their local (regional) School Director(s) in advance of Monday's meeting. When we return Sunday, we'll examine the issues in more detail.

 

October 13, 2006. It is the birthday of Bill Danilowicz, Art Search, Jan Swan, Mary Gaye Kline, Rose Zimmerman and Jill Byrum, known better as Lacy J. Dalton. We hope that you are not afraid of black cats, walking under ladders and the number 13. Chuck Chapman will not be released from the hospital following his early-morning surgery Thursday, but is reported to be doing well in recovery.

On this date in 1792, George Washington laid the cornerstone of what was called the "President's House" or the "Presidential Palace." Irish-born architect James Hoban won a gold medal for his design of the three-story building with over 100 rooms. President Washington oversaw the construction of the house, but never lived in it. The first residents, President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, moved in in 1800. Adams wrote," I pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof." Franklin Roosevelt had those words carved into the mantel in the State Dining Room. Not until 1888 was the name "White House" adopted.

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
-Emily Bronte (1818-1848)

Quickies...
• To toggle back and forth to your desktop without using your mouse, use the Windows key and the "D" key. To go back to where you were, just hit the Windows key and the D key again.

• Bloomsburg University football coach Danny Hale has been nominated for the 2006 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award. If Hale wins, he will receive $100,000 to support charities he designates. Liberty Mutual will also grant $20,000 for student scholarships to the alumni association of the university.

• Dan McGarigle, El Segundo, California, pointed out that the aerial images on MapQuest are better than they are in Google Earth for certain locations, like Benton. For comparison purposes, try both. MapQuest now provides new "Aerial Images" for their new beta site. Go here, then Enter Benton, PA, then in the upper right of the given map is a new button that says "Aerial Image."

• The Benton Area School District Fall 2006 Newsletter has been prepared and will be distributed soon. It will also be published at www.bentonsd.k12.pa.us/news/index.htm at a later date.

• The Press Enterprise gives lots of coverage today for the Jack Palance sale in Hazleton.

A reader asked when the current Columbia County Farmers National Bank building on Market Street was built. We have told you a number of times that John G. McHenry organized the bank in 1902. At that time the bank was located in a frame building on the east side of Main Street next to the building housing the present Kozy Korner restaurant. The site is now a municipal parking lot. The Columbia County National Bank was chartered July 3, 1902, and John G. McHenry served as president for many years. This bank was destroyed in the July 4, 1910, Benton fire.

Less than a month after the fire, the board of directors of the Columbia County National Bank made a trip to Hughesville, Muncy and Montgomery, looking at the bank buildings of those towns in order to come to come to some conclusion as to the style of building that they would erect. The board of directors consisted of John G. McHenry, S.B. Karns, C.F. Seeley, J.B. McHenry, Frank Mather, Alfred McHenry, W.L. Yorks, Charles Dildine and George B. Hummer.

By mid-January, 1911, the plans and specifications for the new bank were complete and February 6 was set as the date for submission of bid packages. Construction was due to begin "as soon as the weather permits." The building would set on the former McHenry estate. The specification called for the bank to be built of brick with stone trimming. It would be two stories, with the exterior of the building about 40x62 feet.

The bank "arrangements" would be unique and modern, with room for a ladies waiting, a retiring room, the cashier's public office and president's private office, with a directors' room in the rear together with a spacious working floor. The main floor was to be elliptical in form with the lobby tiled and the remainder of the interior in mahogany. The second floor was "given over to rental." The building had a heating plant and all modern conveniences.

A contract was awarded to the Berwick Lumber & Supply Company for $8,156.79 to build a "handsome" new building in the location where it is now. The bid did not include the bank partitions of the first floor and the furnishings, plumbing fixtures, finished hardware, heating, light fixtures, cement floor in basement and the vault doors. All of these were awarded under separate contacts. The Benton Argus noted that the "bank plans, as previously stated, contemplate a structure that will be a credit to the community in which it will be located and to the bank as well.

The Farmers National Bank of Orangeville, established in 1917, later merged with the Benton bank and the Columbia County Farmers National Bank was created.

Around the Area, One Hundred Years Ago this month...

• Catawissa. The Bloomsburg Daily reported that two pigs were "intermingling with pedestrians, running in front of horses and mixing up with traffic generally" in the business section of Catawissa. According to the article, the two "porkers" belonged to a Fourth Street man, and "in some manner" they had escaped from his yard and were making "things interesting along Main Street." The rooters were "unconventional in their manners" as they snooted into doors and front yards and dodged from one side of the street to the other." They, according to the article, "stirred up the usual lethargy of life in that burg." Telephones were soon ringing. The owner reached where the pigs were and a lively chase of the porkers began. The "police patrol" was mercifully not called and the pigs were finally returned to their pens in the owner's yard before they had a chance to trip up any horses or do serious damage.

• Berwick. The headline of the Bloomsburg Daily for October 3, 1906, was "Stranger broke speed law with automobile -- arrested at Berwick." The essence of the story was that an automobile bearing the number 8852 on the license tag "shot though Berwick at what all the borough officers who witnessed the same regarded as far in excess of the legal speed." An alert bystander did take down the license number and it was "ascertained that the state license" was owned by a man from Pikesville, Maryland. To the surprise of everyone, the car reappeared two days later when the man "entered the employ of the American Car and Foundry Company." The man was "promptly taken in charge" by officers of the borough and given a hearing by the local Burgess, who "promptly fined him $10 for his violation of the law."

 

October 12, 2006, the 285th day of the year with 80 days remaining. Corey Becker celebrates his birthday today.

Every school child in this country knows that at 2 AM on this date in the year 1492 a sailor on board a tiny ship known as the "Pinta" cried "Tierra, tierra!" Italian-born Cristoforo Colombo, 40, arrived at his Bahamas landfall from the port of Palos in southern Spain on his first voyage. His three ships were the Santa Clara, named after the Saint, but which the crew nicknamed Niña, the 69-foot Pinta and the 85-foot Santa Maria. Over the ensuing years, cars, mattress sales, and even streets and whole cities were named in his honor, much to the chagrin of people with names like "DeSoto" and "Cabot." The stories about Columbus range from the good (going bravely where man had never gone, navigating an unknown ocean), to the bad ("discovering" an inhabited land that he thought was India), to the ugly (theories of him being syphilitic and his crew learning to suck smoke from burning sticks introduced by natives Columbus called "Indians").

Admiral Cristóbal Colón, his new name in Spanish and his honorary title bestowed on him simply because it appeased Columbus and didn't cost the court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella any money, had little trouble convincing the Spanish Sovereigns to finance a second voyage, this one with seventeen ships, over a thousand men, and horses, sheep, and cattle. Columbus, however, became increasingly ill and nervous, a cough developed and his log mentions his aching bones.

Although Columbus was Spain's greatest explorer for the Crown of Castile, he returned to Spain in chains from Hispaniola after the Queen's commissioner found seven Spaniards hanging in the colony of Isabella.

Columbus did not actually reach the mainland of what is now North America until his third voyage in 1498, the first voyage where women were allowed to sail with the men.

In 1503, attempting to return home from his fourth journey and still looking for a strait linking the Indies with the Indian Ocean, Columbus did find gold by trading for it with natives of the present Panama. Columbus desperately needed the gold to repay his loans. Off the coast of Cuba, Columbus and his ships were hit by a storm, and the ships finally had to be beached in St. Anne's Bay, Jamaica. In 1503. Jamaica was not a Spanish colony and with no one to rescue them, they were marooned. One of Columbus' captains rowed a canoe to Hispaniola where he was imprisoned for seven months. Meanwhile Columbus had his share of problems when half of his men staged a mutiny, which he eventually put down. Columbus was rescued in 1504, returning home to Spain on November 7, 1504, his last voyage complete.

Columbus, 54, died in the spring of 1506 believing that he had found the Indies and China. It wasn't until 1513 that it was discovered that the western lands were not Asia. An edition of Ptolemy's Geography displayed the land mass as two continents. Columbus had been mislead by the Romans' 1,400 year-old calculations, which underestimated the circumference of the earth. Still, the anniversary of this date in 1492 is celebrated throughout the Americas and in Spain and Italy.

From Christopher Columbus, lets head to New Columbus. Betty "Nana" (Rhone) Hayman, a long-time resident of the Town Hill/New Columbus area, will be 80 on Sunday, October 15. The family is asking for a card shower including your favorite family recipe. Betty's address is 1690 Old Tioga Turnpike, Stillwater, PA 17878. For many years, Betty worked at Nor-Pole, Orangeville, and when she was about 50 decided that she would like to have her own restaurant. For almost 20 years after that, starting when she was about 50, Betty owned and operated Nana's Restaurant with her daughter, Janet "Sis" Yost heading up many of the kitchen duties. Today Betty is active in church suppers with the Town Hill Methodist Church. She has three children: Becky Montreal, Tennessee; Larry Hayman, Orangeville; and Janet Yost, New Columbus.

And since we talked about geography so much in the first couple of paragraphs, we should tell you that the high school systems across the country could do more with that subject. Don't believe it? Try this! Place the state by playing geography with your family.

Hospital stays...
• Chuck Chapman has his knee replaced in surgery at 6 AM today.
• Richard Sutliff was released from Geisinger Medical Center Wednesday. A stent was not inserted as earlier predicted. Further medical procedures await Dick upon his return to Illinois.

Web Site of the Day:
Build a Strong Password
Passwords can safeguard the access to personal information stored on your computer and your online accounts. Identity theft often results when criminals or other malicious users steal this information. Read this Microsoft site for suggestions to make sure this does not happen to you.

Krysten Ritter is in the episode of Gilmore Girls airing October 17 at 8 PM on THE CW (formerly the WB).

The benefit car and motorcycle show to help cancer victim, Albert Wood, at the Sullivan County Roadhouse (formerly the Swiss Chalet) went well, according to organizer Kristin Karns. Over sixty entries of cars, trucks and motorcycles showed up. In the "Muffler Rapping" contest, twelve people revved their engines to find out who was the loudest. Beth Litwhiler, representing L&K Mills, was the loudest with her Harley Davidson motorcycle. Chris Whipple, representing Whipple's Auto Body, Hughesville, was the loudest car with his Pontiac GTO. Albert received permission from his doctor to attend the show. Over $3,500 was raised to help him with his medical expenses. Christine will host her karaoke at Kameeo's Friday night from 9:30 to 1:30 and at the Jamison City Hotel at the same time Saturday night. She will also be in Jamison City for Halloween October 28.

 

October 11, 2006. Today is the birthday of retired teacher Beatrice Marie Roberts and the wedding anniversary of Philip and Susan Shultz. If she were alive, Eleanor Roosevelt would be 122 today. She married Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a distant cousin, in 1905, and together they had six children. FDR contracted polio in 1921 and was permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Eleanor was actively involved as the First Lady. She was the first president's wife to give her own press conference. She wrote a daily syndicated newspaper column entitled "My Day." After FDR died in 1945, Eleanor became a delegate to the United Nations and chaired the Human Rights Commission.

My recovery from a sleep-deprived night is about complete. I spent a fitful night--perhaps the longest night of my life--sleeping in an "Army-type of situation" Saturday surrounded by many other men in a hunting cabin. I heard sounds that should be investigated: freight trains, highway traffic, jets landing in the deep woods, one-sided conversations. Over the years in that same environment, I have heard a Bloomsburg lawyer stand on his bed and recite poetry. One man was noted for making noises even before his head hit the pillow. Another uttered deep-throated "death knell" sounds for most of the night, enough to scare a person half to death. Snoring has always been the cause. A lack of sleep has always been the result.

Snoring is simply noisy breathing through the open mouth during sleep and happens when normal breathing is inhibited by the passage of air between the nose and throat. Alcohol brings on the situation, as does smoking, blocked nose, sinusitis, enlarged tonsils and excess body weight. Middle-aged or older men and overweight menopausal women--meaning those who have a "hangover" before they start drinking--are especially prone.

It is always "the other guy," although I still vividly remember a kid once pinching my big toe so hard that even today I can feel the pain. He claimed he did it because he thought that he heard snoring coming from my bed--and then claimed that he had listened to the sound for over an hour.

Think of the poor Asians, whose facial structure is said to amplify the problem. Even in this county, experts claim that 45% of the population snore from time to time, and as we get older the percentages rise. Even staff reporter Chloe, a Bichon Frise, snores. Snoring can send a bed partner to another room--and stay there for the rest of their life. Snoring is often a precursor of Obstructive Sleep Apnea, a potentially life-threatening sleep disorder.

Sleep apnea (Apnea--from the Greek, meaning "want of breath") is when the snorer stops breathing for a couple of seconds, sometimes up to 30 seconds, and long enough to deplete oxygen in the blood and brain. Loud snorts can follow. The snorer often awakens abruptly a few times in the night, gasping for air or abruptly sitting up in bed. Sleep apnea may contribute to heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes and hypertension. One readers tells us that "The use of a Variable Positive Airway Pressure or Constant PAP machine is not that hard to get used to and very effective."

Skip a bedtime glass of warm milk (it tends to close the throat) and other dairy products and the alcohol. Lose some weight. Stay away from rich or fatty meals late in the evening. Don't eat fried foods, vitamin C, baked goods or chocolate just before bedtime. And for a really restful night, men should stay away from sleeping in a roomful of men. As I said, my recovery from a sleep-deprived night is about complete.

A reader asked about consulting the 1887 history by J. H. Battle, the History of Columbia and Montour Counties. There are almost 550 pages of the Columbia County and 220 pages of the Montour County version. You can read a local on-line version here.

Quickies...
• Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs could very well fire up their 1,083 "ticket-in, ticket-out" slot machines on November 14 following approval of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The slots will be located on two floors of a 40,000-square-foot addition to the Pocono Downs grandstand. The claim is that 90% of everything taken in will be returned to customers in the form of winnings. The house win will be benefit the United Way of Wyoming Valley. A permanent casino will eventually be built.

• House Speaker Dennis Hastert will not be appearing at fundraisers on behalf of Rep. Don Sherwood because of "travel schedules."

• Mill Race Golf Course will hold their annual turkey tournament on October 15. It is a shotgun at 10 AM. The format is a two-person scramble Call 925-2040 to sign up. There will be prizes, a raffle and half the field get turkeys.

• Jack Palance, 87, is auctioning off more than 3,000 items at his 150-acre Holly-Brooke Farm, Hazleton, starting Thursday. The items were collected from all over the world. Palance won the best supporting actor award in 1992 for the movie City Slickers. Palance is getting rid of 1,400 books, his movie posters, movie props, the contents of a Ukrainian church and much more.

• H & P Embroidery, 235 Shultz Hollow Road (near Divide), Benton, is having a open house at the Jackson Township Hall October 28 from 11 to 4 PM. They will be displaying everything that they make. There will be cash and carry items that will make ideal Christmas presents. Cindy Hittle and Tina Posey, owners of H & P Embroidery, specialize in machine embroidery of shirts and jackets for personal and business use. The sisters will custom design what you want in the way of a custom business logo, a name on a shirt, sweatshirt or jacket. They also do groups, blankets, towels, etc. They have hundreds of patterns and are getting more all the time. Call 925-6586 or 925-2124 for more information.

Web Site of the Day:
The American Presidency, http://ap.grolier.com/ This site has a good biography on the presidents and short biographies on the vice-presidents who came in second best and on six first ladies. If you just want the highlights of the presidents, they have a section with that. There are discussions involving presidential politics, including some scandals and some who ran for president and lost.

Many will remember when Benton had a bed and breakfast beside Fishingcreek and Route 487 alongside the Mill Race Golf Course. The Red Poppy Bed & Breakfast was an intimate country lodging in a non-smoking antique and collectible setting. The establishment was open all year. Set in Victorian charm, the B&B had a queen-sized bed in each room, ceiling fans graced the ceilings, and each room was sheer delight. A full breakfast came with each overnight stay. Carl and Madeleine Chiolan were the proprietors and carefully watched over the Lilac Room, along with rooms known as the Periwinkle, the Poppy and the Rose rooms. Madeleine is now the cheerful and knowledgeable manager of Antiques, Etc., Main Street.

October 10, 2006. Birthdays today include Loraine Hartman, Don King, Dottie Rabb, Frank Edson, and Jerri Ann Danilowicz. Merton and Geraldine Laubach celebrate their wedding day today. Geraldine Laubach's daughter, Jerri Ann Jones Danilowicz, and her cousin, Frank Edson, were born on the same day, weighed the same and sisters Lillian Edson and Geraldine had beds next to each other at the Geisinger Hospital. Richard Sutliff will undergo a stent procedure today in the Geisinger Hospital.

Those who are old enough to remember this sort of thing claim that iron rings were nailed on horse's feet in Western Asia and Eastern Europe even before the Christian Era. We can find records from early Olympian Games of discus throwing using a device somewhat akin to the modern quoit; i.e., it was metal or stone, about a foot in diameter, and thrown with a strap lashed through a round hole in the center. The player would let go of the strap during his swing so the discus would take off like a screaming meemie.

Those who could not afford the discus used "horse hardware"--which we now call "horse shoes--and threw them at a stake. So lets review: The Grecian game of discus throwing evolved into quoits and that evolved into horseshoe pitching, and that evolved into the subject of this article.

England set up rules of the game back in 1869 establishing the distance between the stakes as 19 yards. The player stayed behind the stake, throwing the quoit with his first step. Points were counted as a measurement between the nearest parts of both quoit and stake. In this country, mule shoes were often thrown by Union soldiers during the Civil War using a variety of rules of play.

Actual horseshoe pitching rules were first drawn up in this county in Kansas City in 1914 and published by the Grand League of the American Horseshoe Pitchers Association. Minor changes have evolved over the years Today, something like fifteen million people pitch horseshoes in North America.

A facility for playing horseshoes will slowly take shape at the N4C (Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center) next spring. This facility will be outside the N4C building and could be built while final work on the community center proceeds. The horseshoe park will be a fenced area approximately 56' x 90', and will contain nine courts. With this number of courts, tournaments sanctioned by the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association (NHPA) could be held in our area, bringing competitors from leagues across the state. The rest of the time, the courts would provide local league play and entertainment.

The horseshoe park will be built on land next to the Benton Fire Company parking lot. A nearby pavilion will serve the horseshoe courts, but will also serve for picnics and gatherings for many groups through the Northern Columbia and surrounding regions.

Present planning calls for nine NFIPA regulation courts with clay pitching material. There will be full-length concrete walkways for each court, fully enclosed inside a four-foot chain-link fence. Courts will be lighted for night-time pitching. Most pitching will be done from May through October. The hope is to have two evening leagues, made up of singles and doubles. A minimal expense will be incurred by each pitcher per season.

During the 2007 operating year, the planning is for one sanctioned NHPA tournament in the July or August timeframe.

The intent is for recreational use by members in the Elderly Housing complex, by intramural use by area schools, with competitions between Benton, Millville and Northwest. Horseshoe pitching classes are anticipated.

Membership details are being finalized, but could be in the Northern Columbia Horseshoe Club at a minimal annual membership fee. Income will come from annual memberships for users, from 50/50 raffles during tournaments, profits from food concessions and from revenue from horseshoe pitching classes.

The pavilion will be 16/ x 32/, with storage area for shovels, hoses, scoreboards, chairs, lawn mower, etc. A table for computer-kept statistics during the tournaments will be kept in this location. Long-range planning calls for an enclosed 16' x 32/ kitchen area for food concessions. There will eventually be restroom facilities 5' x 16'. There will eventually be an additional area 48' x 36' for picnic tables and barbecues.

For tournament information, statistics, and information about clubs and pitchers and related information, go here . Anyone interested in getting involved in horseshoe pitching can contact Carlton "Butch" Young, 925-5060.

Gary Norton, Esq., Columbia County District Attorney, came calling Monday night at the Neighborhood Watch meeting.

Atty. Norton brought with him a written plan to implement a regional police department throughout the townships of Fishingcreek, Benton, Jackson and Sugarloaf, and the Boroughs of Stillwater and Benton. He asked that the plan be distributed and considered.

Attorney Norton said that he has been told that Jackson Township is not interested in this sort of plan. He has also been told that Fishingcreek Township is "thinking of joining the regional force that now exists between Orange Township and Orangeville Borough" rather than aligning through the Benton Area School District wherein all the municipalities in the Benton School District would be aligned with each other. He did note that if Fishingcreek Township joins with the Orange Township group "it is better than not joining at all."

The District Attorney discussed how the plan would be prorated if the six municipalities--or a lesser number--were to sign on. The cost would be based on road mileage, population and incidents. The cost of the plan could be determined on one of these factors or on all of the factors. "There is no right or wrong way of doing it," Norton said, pointing out that "the agreement can be whatever the parties agreed to."

Pennsylvania holds the record for being the first in many things, but lost out on one record last week. The current Guinness World Record for pumpkins is a 1,469-pound behemoth grown last year in Pennsylvania. A Rhode Island farmer has now set what could be a new record for the largest pumpkin in the world--a 1,502 pounder.

We love a good story, and no one tells a better one than Budd Fritz. Most of the fun is listening to the inflection of the voice and watching the raise of the eyebrows, the wave of the fingers at the appropriate time, the occasional scratch of the forehead, the pause in the story at just the right moment, the special use of terms unique to Back Home in Benton, PA. If you can envision all that in the written word, I'll try to tell a story just as Budd told it Sunday morning at Painter Den in front of the fireplace as we gulped down our morning coffee.

"The second-grade teacher," Budd began, "told her class to tell a story that had a moral to it. Little Mary she had her hand up. 'We bought two dozen eggs off a farmer. We put them all in one basket and we started up the road and we dropped the basket and busted all the eggs. The moral of the story is don't put all the eggs in one basket.'"

"So Janie she held her hand up and she said 'we bought a dozen eggs and put them under a hen and we only got ten chickens and she said don't count your chickens before they're hatched.'"

"So little Johnnie held up his hand. He said 'my Aunt Martha was a fighter pilot during the World War. Her plane got shot down and she bailed out with a fifth of whiskey and a machine gun. She said she drank the whiskey on the way down and she landed right in the middle of 75 Germans. She said she killed 70 of them with a machine gun and she run out of shells and she clubbed the rest with her machine gun and killed them.' He sat down. The teacher said, 'what's the moral of your story?' He said, 'don't mess with Aunt Martha when she's been a drinkin.'"

Web Site of the Day:
Biography Dictionary, www.s9.com/ The Biography Dictionary is a search on very short biographies of over 27,000 notable men and women. The dictionary can be searched by names, birth years, death years, positions held, professions, literary and artistic works, miscellaneous achievements and other keywords.

Charles A. Saab, (June 6, 1942-October 8, 2006), Lancaster, formerly of Millville, died Sunday at the Lancaster Regional Medical Center. Born in Bloomsburg, he was a son of the late William S. Saab and Ann Mausteller (Saab) Mackley. He was 64. He was born in Bloomsburg and was a graduate of Millville High School. He was employed by RCA/Bosch Industries, Lancaster, until his retirement in 2005. He is survived by siblings William S. Saab (Gloria), Millville, operator of a filling station in Millville, the former Leighow's Esso; and Sandra A. Lehet (Richard), Benton, owner of Red Rock Barns and Gazebos. His nieces and nephews are Todd Saab, Stephanie Omlor, Ann Lehet, Michael Lehet, Robert Saab and Matthew Saab. Charles also had six great nieces and nephews. His friends and family will gather Friday evening, October 13, from 7 until 8 at the McMichael Funeral Home, Inc. with a memorial service following. Interment will be in the Millville Cemetery at the convenience of his family.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home. A complete obituary will be published in the October 10 edition of the Press Enterprise.

The Columbia County Covered Bridges Association thanks all those who contributed to making the Covered Bridge Music Fest and Craft Fair Sunday a success--the several music groups, vendors and craft folks, the Rodeo Association for the use of their grounds, Benton fire police and Benton Boy Scouts who set up and cleaned up, and Mother Nature, who gave us a beautiful day!

 

October 9, 2006. Today is the wedding anniversary of John and Sandy Kogut.

On the Mend...
• Richard Sutliff, Naperville, Illinois, visiting Back Home in Benton, PA; in the Geisinger Hospital, with heart-related problems following a chow-down of gigantic proportions.

• H. Dayne Kline, Green Acres Drive, at home, improving daily.

The Covered Bridge Music Fest and Craft Fair Sunday at the Benton Rodeo Grounds owes a huge thanks to Pat and Al Hess and friends, the Jerseytown Tavern All Star Band, Lykens Valley Bluegrass, the McNett Country, and Tim Johnson Band. All of these talented musicians donated their talents and time. Loads of other people, organizations and donors deserve thanks, too: Chris Young, Robert Parks, the Benton Rodeo Association, many more. And at the top of the list has to be a man who never sought the forefront, but whose desire to raise money for a good cause inspired the Sunday event.

We are talking about Blaine Long, who arranged for the groups to play and who handled many of the important details of the event. All this was handled during a time that Blaine was undergoing serious medical problems. Way to go, Blaine! Picture courtesy of Harry Watts, Millville

the McNett Country Band
Photo courtesy of Harry Watts

Upcoming...
• The Waller Community 4-H Club is holding a fundraiser at the Benton Fire Hall on Sunday, October 29. It will be a Tupperware party featuring make-your-own-ice cream sundaes and will be held from 2 to 4 PM. The entire community is invited.

• A beautiful fall! The fall foliage is slightly earlier than usual this year in some places. At this very moment, it is the height of the glory of fall on top of North Mountain in Sullivan County. Peak colors should occur in the local area about the middle of October, and the very cool weather forecast for the end of the week could bring out some wonderful colors. The cooler temperatures will signal deciduous trees to stop producing chlorophyll which will expose other leaf pigments which create the brilliant reds and purples seen in maple, sassafras, sumac, and some oak.

• The friendly folks at the Millville Christian Church will hold their last ice cream social for this year on Friday, October 13. It all starts at 4 PM and runs until 7. Those who know say the church has "the best home-made ice cream," along with home-made pie and cake. Soups and sandwiches are also featured.

John Geiser McHenry
A Representative from Pennsylvania

John G. McHenry was educated in the public schools of Benton, drove a lumber team in his youth and probably spent his early years dreaming of hanging out his shingle as a lawyer. After graduating from the Orangeville Academy, however, he launched into a business career as a farmer, manufacturer, banker, distiller and politician.

To look at John G. McHenry in his run for Congress, we need to go back in time exactly 100 years. If you would read the Bloomsburg Daily or the Bloomsburg Columbian from this date a century ago, you would find campaign advertising that would read like this:

"FOR CONGRESS: In the impending battle of the ballots the farmers of this Congressional district have an opportunity to use their votes in a way that will promote their own interests. It is by supporting John G. McHenry for Representative in Congress. Mr. McHenry is by birth and occupation a farmer. From personal experience he has learned the needs of the farmer as well as come to understand the vest importance of the industry. As a boy he toiled in the fields and as a man he has strived to help his fellow laborers. And the Grange National Banks, acknowledged to be the best and most practical beneficence over bestowed upon the agricultural interests, will stand for all times as a monument of his intelligence, his sagacity and his devotion to the welfare of the farmers.
--The Columbian, Bloomsburg, September 20, 1906

FOR CONGRESS: Speaking of Mr. McHenry, the other day a Republican citizen of this town said he would vote for him for the reason that when a neighbor needed help McHenry never considered his politics but only took into account the sufferers' needs and his own resources. "John G. McHenry has never failed to give material and moral encouragement to worthy and aspiring Benton boys and girls," he added. "The prospects and prosperity of those with whom he was associated in youth have always since been sources of interest and pleasure to him. He is as unselfish as he is generous."
--The Argus, September 12, 1906

John G. McHenry faced public debate much as candidates do today. Perhaps as the incumbent, he would not have had to debate, but he chose to do it and wrote the following open letter (published in the Bloomsburg Daily October 26, 2006):

"Determined that the voters of this Congressional District shall have the privilege of both seeing and hearing the candidates for Congress and shall have an opportunity of learning the views of the candidates upon matters of public interest and what the men stand for, John G. McHenry has challenged his opponent, Dr. E. W. Samuel, of Mt. Carmel, to a series of joint public debates.

The newspaper continued, "The challenge reads as follows and as usual shows Mr. McHenry to be willing at all times to stand on the vote of the people and to be willing to tell them exactly what he thinks upon all public matters:"

"Benton, Pa., October 22, 1906. Open Letter and Challenge to Dr. Samuel."

"I respectfully ask you to meet me in public debate and discuss the issues involved in this campaign at the following named places:
Shamokin, Oct. 29th, (1906)
Milton, Oct. 30th,
Sunbury, Oct. 31st,
Bloomsburg, Nov. 1st,
Berwick, Nov. 3rd.
or at such places and upon such dates as may be mutually agreed upon. All expenses for said meeting to be divided equally between us.

"The people of this district have a right to know something about us and what we stand for.

"Let the voters be the Judges and render their decision on November 6th.

John G. McHenry, Candidate for Congress"

Candidates at the state level campaigned a bit differently. On October 24, 1906, a "mass meeting" took place in Benton and the following day a similar meeting took place in Bloomsburg. State candidates gathered and made speeches. The two major candidates--a Mr. Emery and a Mr. Tilden--came from Philadelphia and Shamokin. Fred Ikeler, Bloomsburg, was a speaker. Candidates and residents from the south end of the county boarded a special train which left the D.L. & W. station in Bloomsburg at 4 PM and stopped at every station between Bloomsburg and Benton. The fare for a round trip was specially priced the same as a one-way fare.

The opera houses in Benton and Bloomsburg were where the meetings took place, and were decorated with bunting and "made ready for the occasion." The Catawissa band was at the Bloomsburg rally and the Orangeville band was at the Benton rally.

The Bloomsburg Daily noted that "Mr. Emery, the candidate of all reform parties in the state, is enough in himself to guarantee a great outpouring of voters."

John McHenry was helped a great deal by the endorsement of National Secretary W. B. Wilson of the United Mine Workers, who asked for support for McHenry "on account of his well-known friendliness to labor."

John G. was well thought of in his home community and in Washington, D.C. He passed away December 27, 1912. The business of the House of Representatives was suspended February 16, 1913, in order for members "to pay tribute to the memory of the Hon. John Geiser McHenry." On February 27, 1913, on the floor of Congress, Mr. Gregg of Pennsylvania, said of John Geiser McHenry, "he was a gentleman. He was kind and considerate. He was at all times modest and retiring, yet he remembered the dignity of his position in life. He belonged to that old-fashioned, honest class of gentlemen that is fast disappearing. The world needs more of them--the ones who meet one with the glad handclasp and the cheery good morning. Such as John McHenry. Long will he live in the memory of his associates, and longer will he live in the thoughts and lives and hearts of his constituency. What more can I say than that--his life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him, that nature might stand up and say to all the world, 'This was a man'."

Following that speech, the House adjourned until February 17, 1913 at 12 o'clock noon. The Senate of the United States passed a resolution (S. Res. 483) that, as a mark of respect to the memory of his death, suspended the order of business of the United States Senate.

-=-=-===-=-=-

The farm at 4095 Maple Grove Road, once owned by Bubb and Edith Laubach, was sold at auction at 2 PM on Sunday, October 8, for the price of $283,000 plus a 10% buyer's premium. The apparent purchasers were Scott and Janice Maguire, Distillery Hill, owners of the Classic Grill, Main @ Market Street, Benton. Settlement is scheduled within 30 days.

Auctioneer Steve Letteer began the bidding at $150,000, and slowly drew bids that went to $175,000, then to $185,000, then $195,000. Steve was earning his money at that point, as he slowly pulled bids from the reluctant audience. He took a short break to confer with owners Shirley Kitchen and Ed Laubach.

When the auctioneer returned from a short break, the bidding immediately went to $235,000 and raced to $255,000. Another conference took place with the owners. The four bidders conferred with their spouses and stared hard at the red barn and the outbuildings and the white house.

The bidding went to $260,000, then to "seventy" where one of the bidders dropped out. Steve thanked him for bidding, and the bidding went to "going once, going twice" and another bid came in for $275,000, proceeded through $277,500 and other variations of $2,500 increments. At the 281,000 level, the price went to 282,000, and finally to 283,000--asking $284,000. At "283 once, 283 twice, 283 sold" the farm at the south end of Benton was struck down. Number 66, Scott and Janice Maguire, were the high bidders and soon to be the new owners of the property.

The farm goes back in local memory to Moses Savage, father of O.B. Savage, who later sold the farm to Fred Brochard. Bubb and Edith Laubach purchased the farm in 1945, a year before their son Ed was born. The property has Fishingcreek to the rear, has road frontage on Route 487 and on Sunny Hillside Road.

If you missed this auction, there are additional upcoming auctions listed on the side panel of this web site under UPCOMING EVENTS. Here are some of the highlights...
. October 12, 13, 14. The Jack Palance Collection, Hazleton
. October 18, 2006. 1353 Ridge Rd, Stillwater, PA
. October 21, 2006. State Route 239 and Sunshine Road

Quote of the Day:
"The only good thing about old age is that it doesn't last long."
--Larry Paul, Paperdale Road

Amish Quote of the day:
"Betzawl inmer guut tzurich fa iwwel"
--Amish, meaning "Always return good for evil."

October 8, 2006. Today is the birthday of Donald Baker, who turns 72. There is a farm auction at the Bubb Laubach farm this afternoon. Go here for full details. The Covered Bridge Music Fest and Craft Fair runs from 11 AM to 6 PM at the Benton Rodeo Grounds to benefit the Columbia County Covered Bridges Association. Beginning at noon, there will be local musicians, starting with Pat and Al Hess and friends, followed by the Jerseytown Tavern All Star Band, Lykens Valley Bluegrass, the McNett Country, and Tim Johnson Band. All of these talented musicians are donating their talents and time.

Joe and Lori Vereen will host a pig roast, and there will be other food vendors. There will be several craft vendors. An auction will begin at 4 PM, with items on display from 12 noon. Adult admission to this event is by a donation of $10 at the gate, children free. Join other supporters of covered bridges in this effort. If you cannot join the fun you can still help by sending your donations to: CCCBA, 529 Zaner-Rohrsburg Road, Orangeville, PA, 17859. Make checks out to "CCCBA."

The Columbia County Covered Bridges Assn. Inc, is a non-profit organization, and all monies go toward the preservation and maintenance of the bridges they own and toward the major repairs needed.

Glenda Edwards found the Benton News and read with interest about Philip J Varker. Glenda is a second cousin three times removed from Rev Philip Varker. She has been trying to get a copy of The Lord Will Provide book for years with no success. She is also trying to find photographs of the Rev. Philip Varker and family. If anyone can help, contact us and we'll put you in touch with Glenda. We'll tell you some more stories next week about the Reverend and his family as they lived in Central over 100 years ago.

Father always said that politicians wore three hats: one they wore, one they tossed in the ring and one they talked through! Elections are coming up early next month. People who don't know America is the land of promise should keep their ears open during an election campaign. These are the days of not voting for the better candidate, but voting for the one who will do the least harm. That is not the way it has always been, and Monday we'll look at a man who ran for Congress from Back Home in Benton, PA. We'll look at the campaign of John Geiser McHenry exactly a hundred years ago, the only Bentonian who was ever elected to Congress. He represented the Sixteenth Congressional District.

For today, we'll be content to tell you who the incumbents were in the Borough in 1906 as the election approached: The Burgess (Mayor) was W.C. Fullmer. Councilmen were H.E. Long and J.J. Mather. The Overseer of the Poor was Thos. Edgar. School directors were W.B .Crossley and S.B. Karns. The Constable was W.O. Robbins. The High Constable was Adam Black. The Auditor was G.S. McHenry, the Judge of Elections was J.L.C. Kline, Inspectors were A.H. Edgar and Fred R. Seeley.

It isn't easy to forecast how successful something will be. Take the N4C (Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center) Thrift Store on Mill Street. The store was opened in an effort to generate operating funds for the N4C when the community center opens about June of next year. The store has been very successful. First, a number of community-minded residents volunteered their time to operate the store, scores of people decided to clean out their shelves, closets and spare bedrooms of formerly loved but currently unused items and donate them to the thrift store, and when the doors opened in the former Doyle Sutliff Chevrolet garage, people came and they shopped and they keep coming back.

Several stylish ladies make a point of stopping every day the store is open. If you haven't stopped, we'll tell you that it is different from shopping in a department store. Since each piece is unique, you better be quick or the person standing next to you will grab it and put it in her basket. Be light on your feet. Here are some suggestions...

• Come often since merchandise changes daily.
• Shop for quality. Only merchandise of good quality is accepted. You'll find original recordings, first editions, collector's items, brand name clothing and major labels.
• Plan to stay awhile. You may need to look at each item in order to find a treasure.
• Watch sizes and try on clothing. Take sizes with you. Don't guess at Cousin Claudia's collection of clothes. Shopping for gifts at the thrift store is fun. There is a dressing room for you to try on clothes before you buy. Make sure that the garment is in an acceptable condition.
• Feel free to try out appliances and games before you take them home.
• You'll find dishes, jewelry and collectibles in like-new condition. There is clothing with new tags still attached. There are some antiques, like a Chalfonte oval platter with gold bands marked on the underside "Havilland, France" that sold for $5. Because the china was hand-painted in a custom-design, and because fine Havilland pieces have been produced for over 150 years, the buyer got a real deal.

There is a lot of truth in the old adage about one man’s trash being another’s treasure. Treasures do appear in thrift shops, but you'll have to dig deep to find them. The store is open from 10 AM until 4 PM Thursday and Friday, and 10 AM until 2 PM on Saturday. Diane Laubach contributes many hours a week to making the store the fun place it is, and many other volunteers help out. Additional volunteers would be enthusiastically welcomed. Call Diane at 925-5199 if you can help.

Over the years, I have sided with Clarence Darrow who once reportedly said, "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." Those words echoed through my head for days as the sadness associated with the shooting of the Amish girls in Lancaster County hit me. I can't envision a more dastardly deed than that committed against the peaceful people whose lives were shattered when an armed man invaded a one-room school house in their rural community. The police have said he intended to assault them sexually, but the police arrived and he shot all ten hostages--one just six years old--in the head and then killed himself.

What came next was unexpected. The families of the victims did not lash out in anger. Instead, they expressed compassion for the 32-year-old milkman who killed their children and they showed genuine concern for his family. Money for medical expenses is pouring into Lancaster County, and the Amish are taking some of that money to establish a fund for the killer's family, a widow with three young children. Wouldn't it be nice if our world could be blessed with peace if all of us, including the combatants in Iraq and Afghanistan, would follow the lead of the Amish this week. Maybe Clarence Darrow's thinking was from a previous age...

"The quality of mercy is not strain'd.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath.
It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."
--Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice

October 7, 2006. Today is the birthday of Brian Laubach. Don't forget that today is the Sugarloaf Fish Supper from 3-7 PM at the Sugarloaf Memorial School Building, off Route 118 at Grassmere Park; the Benton Fall Festival at the Benton Fire Hall from 4 until 9 PM with food, games, hay rides and a live band; the Huntington Valley Fire Company sponsors a flea market/craft show at the fire station beside Route 239, Huntington Mills, from 8 until 3. A chicken BBQ will begin at 11 AM; and a tool auction is in Stillwater at Jerry's Auto Sales.

The Benton News will not be published in a morning edition on Sunday, October 8.

James Whitcomb Riley was born on this date in 1849. He once wrote...
"Wunst they wuz a little boy wouldn't say his prayers,--
An' when he went to bed at night, away up-stairs,
His Mammy heerd him holler, an' his Daddy heerd him bawl,
An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wuzn't there at all...
All they ever found wuz thist his pants an' roundabout:--
An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!"

Sunset in the Hills of Pennsylvania.
Picture of the hills outside of Millville
Courtesy of Harry Watts

Quickies...
For the readers who like Pennsylvania white-tailed deer up close and personal, go to www.pelorian.com/deer.html .

• A friend told me he was depressed. His doctor had refused to write a prescription for Viagra. He said it would be like putting a new flagpole on a condemned building.

• Keep this in mind as you peck away on your computer. U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., resigned from Congress after allegations surfaced via AOL Instant Messenger of inappropriate contact with underage pages. Our only point is that what you type, what you send, what you forward on your computer is out there for the world to see--it is not the innocuous medium of communication that you may think it is.

Didja know...
• On January 1, 2007. Pennsylvania's minimum wage will increase from $5.15 to $6.25 an hour.
• You can read a list of famous Pennsylvanians by going to www.50states.com/bio/penn.htm . Are you going to fly into or out of our Commonwealth? Go here to find our airports.

We sometimes get in trouble with readers if we don't give enough details, so we suppose there will be a reader who doesn't know that sauerkraut is fermented, finely sliced white cabbage with a distinctive sour flavor. The word means sour cabbage, and is taken directly from the German.

Several local people are making sauerkraut, and some have canned what they have produced this fall. Bob Lewis, for example, told us that he has made his first batch in a record 12 days. Others tell us that the cabbage later in the fall makes the best "kraut." Everyone who makes sauerkraut will tell you that the container in which it is made is critical to good sauerkraut. Mother always used a stoneware crock, which is still in the family. She always packed the cabbage in the crock, put a dish cloth across the top, then sealed it with a board topped off with the weight of one of the round stones characteristic of Fishingcreek. Father got the container almost fully airtight, although the fermented gasses could escape. It was Mother's job to skim the brine each day to remove molds that grew on the surface when the mixture came in contact with air.

When the sauerkraut was finished, it would keep for months during the fall and early winter in an airtight container without fear of rotting or mildewing or being invaded by mice. Ship captains were said to keep sauerkraut all the way across the ocean in order to keep scurvy to a minimum.

We don't remember the recipe Mother used to make her sauerkraut, but Libby Lewis uses the measure of a scant half cup of salt for each ten pounds of cabbage. The short version of the recipe is to finely shred cabbage and mix with salt. Pack the mix with your knuckles, a potato masher, or the Lucille Ball way of making wine--by stomping on it with your feet. Fill the crock to the brim, cover with a board or a plate and something heavy. If you are canning the mixture and need more juice, make a weak brine by dissolving two tablespoons of salt to a quart of water. Screw the bottle lids tightly and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. After bottles are cool, be sure they have sealed before putting them away.

Sauerkraut helped make the Reuben sandwich popular, and combined with pork, bratwurst or hot dogs it is hard to beat.

Although popular Back Home in Benton, PA, sauerkraut isn't as popular as it once was. Consider the sauerkraut peddler of a hundred years ago. Although none probably ever made it to Benton, sauerkraut peddlers visited taverns and inns plying their trade as it was done in the "old country." The equipment the peddler wore seems strange to us today. He traditionally wore a blue or white apron running from the neck nearly to his ankles. Around his neck, a cord suspended a circular metal box made out of pewter, hinged on the top, which circled his middle half way around. There were three compartments, two of which had hot water. Well-cooked hot dogs--a century ago known as "frankfurter sausages"--were in one compartment with boiled sauerkraut in the other. The third compartment contained potato salad. According to an edition of the Bloomsburg Daily from October, 1906, one "sausage and a generous spoonful of sauerkraut and potato salad cost 5 cents."

The sauerkraut peddlers hunted out the bowling alleys where physical exertion produced some large appetites. Taverns where food was not served were popular places to find the peddlers. Halls where associations met were also good places to find them. Most were "free lances" who visited every place they could think of where they could make a sale.

There are many things in life I would love to see again, including restored Twin Bridges, a train ride from Benton to Bloomsburg on the old Bloomsburg and Sullivan Railroad, and a helping of frankfurter sausages from a sauerkraut peddler...

Friday, October 6, 2006. Happy birthday today to Robert Zeitler. Tonight at 11:13 EDT is the Full Harvest Moon, the full moon nearest to the Autumnal Equinox. Every three years, it comes in October and 2006 is one of those years. There are 32 days remaining until election day.

Pennsylvania will invest in a local clean-energy project, according to an announcement out of the Governor's office Thursday. The Benton Area School District will receive $350,000 for a biomass-fired boiler-heating system designed to heat the elementary, the alternative school and the middle/high school buildings using a renewable source. Benton is the first school district in the state to receive such a grant. The flexible-fuel system could replace 37,000 gallons of heating oil a year and use local biomass materials such as native grass pellets, wood and corn pellets to provide 80% of the district's heating needs. The project will produce a savings in heating at the schools while providing revenue to...

• local farmers producing biomass like corn and loggers producing wood pellets.

• local mills to dry and prepare the corn and wood into usable pellets.

Burning shelled corn (corn pellets) and burning wood pellets produces roughly the same amount of heat (8,000 BTU/lb). Corn produces more ash and therefore has a higher maintenance factor, but locally could be obtained cheaper than wood pellets. Burning corn can be up to 82% efficient, compared with an efficiency for wood of about 75%.

Some may remember (Benton News, ARCHIVES, February 15, 2006) when Michael Curtis Reynolds, 47, was planning an attack on America and Back Home in Benton, PA, was one of the places where Reynolds planned to hit. The FBI connected the man with Al Qaeda. The attraction was not the buckwheat cakes, the Benton dam, the friendliness of the people--it was the transcontinental gas pipeline that climbs the ridges just outside of town.

Reynolds was arrested by the FBI when he showed up at a hotel in Pocatello, Idaho, to collect $40,000 he had requested from the "terrorist" to finance the plot. Reynolds apparently planned to blow up the Transcontinental Pipeline outside of Benton and oil refineries in Perth Amboy, NJ and Wyoming.

Yesterday, a federal grand jury charged Reynolds who has been held in the Lackawanna County jail on unrelated weapons charges pending Washington review of terrorism charges. According to the Friday edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the indictment alleges that Reynolds "offered to assist al-Qaeda in engaging in acts of terrorism within the United States by identifying targets, planning terrorist attacks, describing bomb-making methods, among other services." Reynolds sought to enlist "al-Qaeda members to carry out violent attacks" against the transcontinental natural-gas pipeline that runs from the Gulf Coast through Pennsylvania to New Jersey and New York City.

A reader with pets asked how she could get rid of mice that were entering drawers in her kitchen. Mice do carry diseases and germs. Mice are mostly nocturnal, so your pet should let you know if you have the little critters running around in your cupboards after dark. Try to find the place of entry and close that off. Steel wool works fine to fill in around water pipes. Remember that a mouse only needs a quarter of an inch opening to squeeze through. We suggest that you head for the garden or your health-food store before the first frost and bring in some peppermint leaves. Crush the leaves and put them in an old pair of panty hose and put several in various drawers.

The Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble brings the 400-year old William Shakespeare classic Much Ado About Nothing to life in Bloomsburg. The story is of two lovers who break up due to malicious rumors and innuendo but are eventually reunited and the rumormongers punished. Much Ado About Nothing lights up the stage Thursday and Friday evenings at 7 PM, Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 3 PM, through October 29. Tickets are $8. For reserved seats, call 784-8181 or (800) 282-0283.

When we went to bed last night, we had not heard the results in Scranton. The city is in a financial mess. Scranton City Council was expected by many to unanimously reject a proposal by their Mayor last night to float a $44-million loan to get out of trouble.

My mind works like lightning. One brilliant flash and it is gone.

Former Negro slaves who legally obtained their freedom from their Virginia owners before the Civil War often ended up in Columbia in Lancaster County, and then assisted in "losing" runaway slaves that ended up in that Borough. The practice was so prevalent that some thought that there was an "underground railroad" hauling former slaves out of town. The name stuck and additional railroad terms emerged; i.e., "Conductors" showed slaves the route from "station" to "station." The operation was funded by "stockholders" amid a great deal of secrecy. Often a "station" knew nothing about the next stop since everyone working on the Underground Railroad was breaking a federal law. After 1850, the fine was $1,000 dollars and five years in jail. This is why there is so little documentation on the Underground Railroad.

Mark your calendars for October 22, at 2 PM at the First Presbyterian Church, 345 Market Street, Bloomsburg, for a program on the Underground Railroad. Dr. Mamie Diggs, Williamsport, will tell how her great grandfather helped bring escaped slaves to freedom. The program is sponsored by the Bloomsburg University-Community Task Force on Racial Equity, the Columbia County Historical and Genealogical Society, and the Roaring Creek Catawissa Valley Historical Study Group. Refreshments will be provided after the program.

Dr. Diggs often generates a story from within the community on a family's involvement in the railroad. Locally, there are many homes reported to be stations on the underground railroad, as well as some churches and meetinghouses.

Henry Jones, an escaped slave from Virginia, is thought to have been a conductor of the railroad. Mr. Jones died in 1882 and is buried in Catawissa at the Greenwood Cemetery.

Have you noticed that the only time the world beats a path to your door is if you're in the bathroom?

The article that originally appeared in this section on this date about Lt. Bruce Crawford and his World War II bombardier experience over the Borough of Benton has now been moved to the FEATURES section. You can find it here.

And while you're watching video on your computer, you might as well smile at the Garth Brooks spoof of Wal-Mart . (This is very popular and may not play because of excessive use during peak periods)

Thursday, October 5, 2006. Happy birthday today to Carol Lehet and Dr. Bob Sequenza.

Recovering...
• Sonja Turner (Mrs George Turner), Bloomsburg, was operated on last week for a Stage 4 tumor of the brain. The surgery went well and she has not had mental impairment, but she has lost mobility. Phone calls and visits are not advised at this time.

• Dayne Kline is recovering from congestive heart failure and a stay in the hospital. He is at home on Green Acres Drive.

We suspect that growing old is somewhat akin to being penalized for a crime you haven't committed.

Six members of the Benton High School Class of 1937 gathered with 23 of their friends and relatives at Painter Den Club Wednesday afternoon.

The class members in attendance were (L to R): Bill Mather, Dorothea Mather, Lois Allegar, Pierce Ashelman, Herman Pennington and Theresa Hartman. Bob Allegar, fourth from the left, is the husband of Lois Allegar.

Benton High School Class of 1937, in reunion at Painter Den Club

Others attending included Marilyn, Marvin and Russell Seward, Jeannie Walters, Libby Lewis, Bob and Elizabeth Chamberlin, Don Baker, Bruce Crawford, Lynn and Carolyn Watson, Marian Remley, Ken Remley, Whittier and Joyce Letteer, John and Zane Unbewust, M. Ruth Kline, Ed Cole, David Kline, Bob and Betty Lewis.

Class of 1937 and friends, October 4, 2006

Lots of war stories were told, including ones about...
• Sgt. Pierce Ashelman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralston Ashelman, Stillwater, R.D., receiving the Bronze Star and presidential citation for "courageous performance of duty in combat in the European theater. That award came in August, 1945. Pierce served in Austria, near the site of Hitler's summer resort.

• Robert Eugene Lewis, who at the age of 18 on the advice of his uncles Ben and Frank selected the military for a career. Bob was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harold A. Lewis and graduated from Benton High School in 1953. Many will remember that Bob was an outstanding athlete at Benton High School before entering the Navy. He played varsity baseball and soccer for four years. Many will remember him working at the Horace Harrison IGA, Main Street. Benjamin Perry was stationed at New London, Connecticut, and Frank Perry was stationed at Seattle, Washington. The men convinced Bob to enlist in the Navy and "see the world." Bob started his Navy career at the Bainbridge, Maryland, installation of the Navy. By December, 1954, Robert E. Lewis, Radioman Seaman, USN, was aboard the USS Salisbury Sound (AV-13), operating in the Western Pacific as a flagship for the Formosa Patrol Force.

• Lt. Bruce Crawford during the war year of 1943 as a Bombardier flying the B-17 Flying Fortress, the American heavy bomber that helped turn the tide of battle in World War II.

The article that originally appeared in this section on this date about Lt. Bruce Crawford and his World War II bombardier experience over the Borough of Benton has now been moved to the FEATURES section. You can find it here.

The area lost an important part of its past during the No-Name Storm of June 28 when the West Paden bridge was lost from the "Twin Bridges." During the same storm further upstream Huntington Creek the Josiah Hess bridge was seriously eroded. That bridge is in danger of falling.

Funds to aid in the stabilization and restoration of the Josiah Hess bridge will come this weekend from the Covered Bridges Music Fest on Sunday at the Benton Rodeo grounds from 11 AM to 6 PM. A donation to the project will gain your admission and once inside you can hear local musicians, and enjoy food and craft vendors who will offer their services, and contribute part of their profit from sales. As an added event there will be an auction of donated items. Here is a partial list of items that will be auctioned off at 4 PM.

AUCTION ITEMS LIST

$20 Berwick Diner gift certificate
Oil change @ Kramer's Auto -Berwick
Oil, lube & filter @ Jack William's - Berwick
2 certificates for 10 wings @ Wings & Things- Berwick
Columbia County Covered Bridge Association Crock - Stillwater-2003
$50 gas card
$25 gift certificate for Garrison's farm & feed - Berwick
$50 gift certificate for TPC Power Center - Bloomsburg
Oil, lube & filter @ Steve Shannon's Tire - Berwick
1 large pizza w/one topping @ Valley Pizza - Benton
$25 gift certificate for Stony Acres Garden Center - Benton
Columbia County Covered Bridge Association Crock Josiah Hess-2002, first year, very rare!
2 whole subs w/chips and 2 large sodas @ Hoboken Sub Shop - Benton
1 case mountain dew
New toy race car track w/ cars
Black and Decker hedge trimmer
Dead bolt set
New 3x9 Tasco gun scope
Case of mixed soda
2-$25 gift certificates for the Old Filling Station - Benton
2-$25 gift certificates for M&M Repair Center - Huntington Mills
Case of Pepsi
Oil change @ Crane Auto- Huntington Mills
2 oil, lube & filters @ Zeb's Auto Service - Koonsville
Signed & framed Sue Hand water color print of Bittenbender Covered Bridge
3 hand made gift baskets including a "fisherman's" basket
2-$10 gift certificates for Melonie's Kool Kup - Orangeville
Rustic Snow Man door hanging
2-Ribbon & bow sampler boxes
$25 gift card for Giant
2-$10 gift certificates for Kemler's Restaurant- Bloomsburg
2 gal McHenry jug, w/o cork
Truck load of split firewood
Bloomsburg Hissung Crock
3 gift certificates for value meals @ Taco Bell
4-5 yellow 1 gal fall mums
Milk can
Tool kit
$25 gift certificate for Rose Maries - Shickshinny
2 pajama sets ($35 value each)
2 silk night gown & robe sets ($35 value each)
1 blue denim sport shirt lg with Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau logo
1 Med T shirt with Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau and covered Bridge logo
Pen and Ink sketches of Covered Bridges of Columbia County, set of 25 by D E Schuppert

October 4, 2006. Happy birthday today to Stephen Becker, Camp Hill, and happy anniversary to Chandlee and Grace Stowe and to John and Paula Deeter. Dayne Kline remains a patient in the Bloomsburg Hospital.

On this date in 1939, a Pennsylvania barber named Pierino from Canonsburg recorded That Old Gang of Mine with the Ted Weems Orchestra, Eventually the singing barber went solo on radio, television and stage as Perry Como, and recorded for RCA Victor for over four decades.

Congratulations to Debra Jankowski, Benton, a recent graduate of the Wyoming Valley Health Care System/University of Scranton School of Nurse Anesthesia.

The Huntington Valley Fire Company will hold one of their popular flea market/craft shows on October 7 at the fire station beside Route 239, Huntington Mills. There will be fresh produce and flea market items from 8 until 3. Additional vendors are needed. A chicken BBQ will begin at 11 AM. Prices are $7.50 adults and $4 children.

We recommend that you simply forget about the emails you receive that say that your message could not be forwarded because of a virus. These are random spoofs created by someone's infected computer (not yours) that contains your email address and randomly sends out false messages such as these. Delete them and get on with it. Life is too short to worry about the problem and we suspect you won't get to the bottom of it anytime soon.

Over coffee Wednesday morning, the "boys" discussed the state of hunting in the state. Leon Robbins told about getting four or five kids, giving them a 22. caliber rifle and having each of them have a shot at a treed coon. Leon said the kids would shoot and shoot and never hit the coon. Leon felt that the kids did "get a good sport out of that."

It was an interesting discussion, since I had just done some research on what it was like to go hunting exactly 100 years ago. I had turned to the pages of the Bloomsburg Daily, a newspaper issued each evening, except for Sunday evenings. The issue for this date in 1906 included the unusual story of a Waller man shooting four coons on the same day in the same tree. James Shultz, "near Waller," was "out hunting with his two nephews on his farm when a coon was spied on the limb of a tree. The story continued, "as the hunters approached closer they were amazed to find four different coons on the limbs of the same tree and the senior Shultz was successful in bringing them all down with his gun before they could escape. Every one of them was a large animal."

The 100-year old newspaper also included an article about rabbit hunting, in which the newspaper made the assertion that the "prospects for a good rabbit season which opened on that date, were never so good as this fall." The paper noted that the outlook was that some "large bags of bunnies would be slaughtered during the season." The paper mentioned that the 1906 supply of rabbits was large because "quail have grown so scarce as to be practically extinct." The paper noted that the rabbit has "grown highly in appreciation as furnishing good sport, in consequence a good many sportsmen have begun to propagate them."

The weather a hundred years ago this week was not the best. The Bloomsburg Daily noted that Thursday probably went "on record as the coldest October day in the first half of the month that can be recalled by even the oldest residents." It opened with a snow storm, "while the wind all day long was of a sort that caused people to shiver and made both overcoats and gloves essential to comfort." At 5 AM, the temperature was 38° and it only rose to 39° during the day. "The snow did not consist of a few stray flakes, hailed as the first snow, but it was a heavy squall that would have done credit to Thanksgiving Day, obscuring objects a short distance away and powdering the streets and the mountains white."

Some of the "boys" lamented over coffee about archery season which started last Saturday, noting that one in three Pennsylvania hunters is a bow hunter. The essence of the conversation was that most agreed if a hundred deer were shot in archery season there wouldn't be more than 15 or 20 actually tagged. The assertion was that hunters would grab the muzzleloader or a gun and turn around and shoot another buck. We will point out that wildlife scofflaws in this category could find themselves targets of the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Turn In A Poacher (TIP) Hotline, 1 888 PGC-8001.

The state of hunting in the commonwealth is a matter of concern. Jim Collins, an outdoors columnist for the Towanda Sunday Review, recently wrote about the loss of adult resident license sales. He quoted PGC figures showing license sales down 39,536, or 9%, and junior resident hunting licenses sales down 15%.

According to the Chairman of the Board of Game Commissioners, fewer people are hunting/trapping. The license sales in 2005 vs. 2004 were down 10%. Non-resident adult sales are down 14%. Seven-day license sales are down 52%. General hunting license sales are down 50,973, or 9%. Income from the sale of all hunting and fur taker licenses are down 10% to $18,158,818 in 2006. The reason for the diminished sales could be a change in the interest levels of the youth of today and the ability levels of the senior crowd. Or the reason could be that the game just isn't there anymore.

October 3, 2006. Grant Gault and Eleanor Sands celebrate their birthdays today with Roy Uwe Ludwig Horn, usually just known as "Roy," of Siegfried & Roy fame. The reunification of East and West Germany took place on this date in 1990.

The leaves are approaching their finest in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania. Learn more at www.endlessmountains.org/ .

Dayne Kline remains a patient at the Bloomsburg Hospital and is expected to be there through Wednesday. Dayne planned to take his high-school class and friends to Painter Den Wednesday for some rest and relaxation in the mountains. The trip is still on, but without Dayne. All other details of the trip remain the same.

Upcoming...
• The annual Covered Bridge and Arts Festival at Knoebels Amusement Resort begins Friday and runs through Sunday 10 AM to 6 PM. The festival celebrates covered bridges in the area, and features Knoebels amusements, plus bridge tours, entertainment and lots of good food. The Covered Bridge and Arts Festival began in 1981, with an estimated 40,000 people expected this year. The Columbia and Montour County area has the third largest concentration of covered bridges in Pennsylvania. Throughout the festival, crafters will demonstrate blacksmithing, jewelry making, scroll sawing and broom making. An estimated 250 crafters will be on hand over the weekend offering a variety of handmade items. Over 20 food vendors, including Vance's Homemade Apple Dumplings, will be there.

• A Benton Fall Festival is coming up at the Benton Fire Hall Saturday from 4 until 9 PM. There will be food, including homemade pie; drinks, including homemade Benton Cider; games, including the dice table and the "Big 6" wheel for the adults and soda-ring toss, candy wheel, ball games and free activities for the kids; hay rides behind an antique John Deere tractor; a live band in the form of Garage Kept; and a bonfire like only the Benton Volunteer Fire Company can built. All proceeds benefit Benton Fire Co.

• Sugarloaf Fish Suppers are planned in October, on the 7th and the 28th. What can we say about these famous meals? The folks at Sugarloaf served 790 at their fish supper in April of this year.

• Albert Wood’s Benefit is this Saturday. There will be lots of show car and bikes. Tickets are $15 at the door and that includes the pig roast, soda and beer for you and a guest at the Sullivan County Roadhouse. Christine Karns will be set-up for Karaoke. There are prizes from The Inn Under; Fishing Creek Lodge, Grocery and Grill, Central; The Old Filling Station; and a Dale Earnhardt clock and car-cleaning bucket. The Central Park Hotel made a monetary donation to Albert.

We extend a hearty Benton welcome to Chloe, Mayor Swan's new border collie puppy.

Something like 413,000 people turned out for the Bloomsburg Fair this year, down 27,000 from last year and about 100,000 from some years in the past. With only two days of bad weather, fair authorities are scratching their heads for reasons for the decline. Many blame higher prices across the board, while others say computers now keep real-time information compared with informal estimates from prior years.

Quote of the Day:
"If a man makes a better mousetrap than his neighbor, his neighbor will borrow it."
--Anonymous

Wristwatch maker Fossil Inc. has come up with a better mousetrap, using wireless Bluetooth technology. On two of their watches, a small screen on the face displays the name of phone callers. You can send the call straight to voice mail or answer the phone, although speaking directly into the watch like Dick Tracy is a few years away.

Items of note from the Benton Town Council meeting Monday night...
• Grading will begin immediately in the town park, but seeding will be held off until spring. Benton Mobile Concrete got high marks for all they have done to reinforce the area that had washed out beside the dam.
• The local police reported 41 "incidents" during the month of September.
• The Borough received 22 applicants for the position of Borough Secretary.
• The Borough is projected to end up $59,000 "in the black" at the end of September and Grant Little projected that "it appears as though the budget will be balanced by the end of the year."
• Council and the Rodeo Association have not agreed on the fine print regarding the lease of the rodeo grounds, although subcommittees for both groups have agreed on the basic points. One council member seemed to sum up the Council's urgency of the matter when he groused that "there are still five years on the lease."

May You Always Be Blessed
with walls for the wind, a roof for the rain, a warm cup of tea by the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you, and all that your heart might desire.
--An old Gaelic blessing, seen hanging on a wall in Mt. Lebanon, PA.

Need a quick recipe? If you like to cook, or if you like to eat, you should visit www.cooking.com/recipes/ .

October 2, 2006. Today is the birthday of Jackie Becker, Camp Hill, and comedian Groucho Marx (1890). The Marx Brothers--Groucho and his brothers Harpo and Chico--were an American institution. Groucho coined it differently: "Marriage is a wonderful institution. That is, if you like living in an institution." Today is the first Monday in October, the day that the U.S. Supreme Court begins a new term.

On this date in 1920, the only triple-header in baseball history was played. The Cincinnati Reds won two out of three against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

LOST: a Labrador Retriever from the Chapmans' Shady Hollow Angus on Shady Hollow Road. "Shadow" is an aging black male, graying around the muzzle. The dog was wearing a choke chain collar. If you have any information, please call Chuck or Kay, 925-6972.

Congratulations to...
• Tyler Brewington playing for Rider at the Cornell Invitational Sunday at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Course. Rider won the event and Tyler shot a one-under par 215 for the 36 holes.
• Benton Cider for getting a picture of their famous stand at the Bloomsburg Fair on the opening screen of the Bloomsburg University Voice web site .
• The Bloomsburg restaurants that got great reviews from the Bloomsburg University Voice web site, like "Town Perk is a great place to eat," "La Fontana offers a night of quality Italian dining inside or out," and Balzano's is a "gem of a restaurant."

The Bellbank Bridge at Bell's Ford on the Octorara Creek was next to the home and grist mill of Colonel James Patterson Bell, an important figure in the Revolutionary War. The bridge carried Street Road which connected Upper Oxford Township (Chester County) to Colerain Township (Lancaster County). The Bellbank Bridge burned in the late 1970’s and a conventional open bridge took its place.

Some citizens are investigating the possibility of having the covered bridge reconstructed somewhat the way it was when it was built in 1850, but at this point they are about $1.2 million from their goal. The $1.2 is the PennDOT estimate of funding needed to construct a covered bridge. Using that figure as a rough gauge of the costs of replacing the West Paden bridge, it isn't difficult to realize that it is almost certain that the fine old landmark in Columbia County is gone forever.

Lets go back in time today to the year 1918 and take a look at the national picture and then focus on the Benton area. The New York Philharmonic Society halted all works by living German composers, the Federal government appropriated $1 billion for maintenance of vital railways. Babe Ruth's pitching helped the Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. Eddie Rickenbacker downed 26 enemy aircraft. The Benton Roller Mills burned to the ground. R. J. Knox was the minister at the Benton Methodist Church and Rev. Samuel Moddy was at the Raven Creek Church. Former Benton resident Nola (Johnson) Baker was born.

Fleitz & Sproul Fruit Farms owned an estimated 1,600 acres of orchards in Vosburg, Benton and Mechanicsburg. Their Benton headquarters was on the former Pioneer Farms. J.B. Laubach was the town dentist, Glen A. Tubbs ran the "Sanitary Barber Shop," Charles W. Hess ran the Benton Meat Market, the Kleen Kool Ice Kreem Parlor served food on Main Street on the first floor and in the basement ran the Benton Hatcheries at the corner of Center Street and Main Street, the Columbia Steam Laundry under the direction of George Ash "treated your clothes white," and H. W. Belles delivered the coal to keep you warm. When someone you loved died you called the Ira R. McHenry & Son Burial Association and then called Bell Phone 56-16 for the Benton Marble and Granite Works to get a monument. Merchants in the area included the Benton Store Company Department Store, selling "Ford--the Universal Car" and John F. Wright selling the Overland "85-Four." H. W. Biddle represented the town drug store. The Benton Water Supply Company told its customers that "Pure water is the best health insurance." Rush Harrison in Forks, Pennington & Seely and Keller & Conner in Benton were the larger stores.

The store owned by Byron "Barney" S. Keller originally did business as Keller Brothers, and later took on M. E. Conner as a partner. The front of the building in this picture from 1910 reads "Benton Hardware: Keller & Conner."

The Main Street building and the store can be traced into the 1880s. The building was also used as a store prior to Mr. Keller purchasing it. In 1926, the store did a brisk business in galvanized roofing and lightning rods. We were not able to find a death record of Mr. Keller at the Benton Cemetery, but Marvin E. Conner is listed in the Benton Cemetery as having been born in 1875 and passing away in 1953. For the record, his wife's name was Josephine.

Keller & Conner "sold all kinds of hardware, nails and bolts, and they fashioned stove pipes so they could be replaced when they wore out" according to Dayne Kline. The store was on the right side of the building, facing from Main Street. On the left of the building was an apartment occupied by Barney Keller's daughter and son-in-law.

Leland Hess was the next owner of the building, but we should tell you as way of background that Leland was a barber before he was a baker. In fact, he started in the barbering business in 1928 and later Clark Fritz (the father of Budd Fritz and Joyce Fritz Letteer) joined in the business at the location old timers will remember as the Gene Miller Barber Shop, Main Street, and the younger generation will know as the "Paintball store." Leland eventually moved from the barbering business in July, 1935, into the bakery business. He opened a bakery in the summer of 1935 on Center Street in the entire first floor of the building where Bob and Eleanor Sands now live.

In June, 1941, Leland Hess bought the building occupied by the Keller and Conner store for $1,100 and the building went from its use as a hardware store to that of a bakery, operating until June, 1969. The store unit on the right of the building was the bakery.

Jim Laubach tells us that he is "still looking for donuts as good as Leland's honey-glazed, sweet-bread-dough donuts, and that's been for at least 60 years now."

Joyce Fritz Letteer remembers working in the bakery for three or so years during her high school years during the 1940s, selling hot rolls, bread and other bakery products. Joyce worked in the bakery until she got married in 1951. Joyce worked at the bakery at the time she got her driver's license. Leland's son, Elery Hess, gave her the keys to his new yellow convertible automobile as a birthday present and Joyce was allowed to drive to Bloomsburg to see a baseball game. Joyce remembers nursing the car up the Bloom Hill hoping that she wouldn't have to stop and then restart the car as a test of her ability with a manual transmission.

The apartment on the left of the Main Street building was occupied by Leland and Edith Hess until they moved to the Waller area. When son Elery came Back Home to Benton, PA, after World War II, he joined his father in the bakery business about 1946. Still later when Ellery married in November, 1949, the newlyweds moved into the apartment. Elery stayed in the apartment until August, 1954, when the couple bought a house on Cemetery Hill from Harold Sutliff and moved to that location.

Joyce Letteer remembers that the front part of the store had a sales counter, slicer and a mixer. The next part of the building had ovens and deep fryers for doughnuts. There was a little space, then a door that led into the bakery.

Elery eventually took over the business as Leland spent less and less time at the bakery. Leland passed away in March, 1984. The bakery equipment was eventually sold to Gary Burelli and the era of the building being used as a store ended. Elery built three apartments on the first floor of the building with a total of nine units in the building. Elery sold the Main Street building in 1979 to Nevin Hartman.

The building is now owned by Christine Lattrell, who also owns Benton Antiques, Etc., at 235 Main Street, the former Benton Store Company Department Store. That building was later the Neil S. Harrison store and later the C.A. Edson & Sons Plumbing Store. The newly purchased building will reopen in "April or May" of 2007 as an antique shop with multiple dealers. The building has been vacant, unused and unloved for years. The last use of the building was as a nine-unit apartment house operated by Nevin Hartman, with an additional living unit in the rear of the property adjacent to the rear alley.

Activity at the Benton Antiques, Etc. Annex October 1, 2006

 

October 1, 2006. It is the birthday of Carla Lee, Tara Lane Kline and Gerald Kocher. Former president Jimmy Carter turns 81 today. It is the wedding anniversary of Ted and Helen Fritz. You can pick up an all-you-can-eat breakfast from 8 until noon at the Fairmount Township Fire and Ambulance Company on Route 118, Sweet Valley, east of Ricketts Glen State Park. Adults $5.50, children $3.

For many of us, now that the Bloomsburg Fair is over autumn can begin. Temperatures Saturday morning reflected the definite arrival of fall. Slight color changes are evident in our trees, and on top of Red Rock mountain and in the Poconos it is much more striking. Planning a fall trip to catch the scenery? Go to www.pavisnet.com/pafall/ or www.fallinpa.com first.

Robert J. McKelvey, Cape May, New Jersey, recalls widow ladies referring to an "eligible bachelor as being 'Pensioned Off and Handy' numerous times, way back when." This is a term we had not heard until Bob used it and our ears perked up, especially since we live in an under-pensioned world. A bachelor is a man who doesn't have anybody to share the trouble he'd have if he were married, a man who would rather have loved and lost to getting up for the 2 AM feeding. His marriage vow is never to take one. I remember visiting a bachelor friend once. He was in his kitchen washing his dish. He was a man who didn't have any children to speak of, a man who prided himself on being able to get into bed from either side. For years, he practiced planned parenthood--he lived with his mother and father. He always wanted a gal in his arms, but not on his hands.

Back Home in Benton, PA, during our retirement years, we lead a hard-working life. Every moment is filled with a meeting about this or a meeting about that. There isn't enough time to see our favorite old television show or explore to find a new one we enjoy. We see few movies and fewer plays or shows. It is a constant round of meetings, and frankly we don't know many people who have the time to "come out and play." Everyone seems to be as busy as we are--watching children or grandchildren, working, helping the less fortunate, volunteering for one thing or another, that sort of thing. We know one man who works around the clock, but he still owes so much money that his will should be made out to small claims court.

While most readers will have definite thoughts about wintering in Florida, I love to go there in the winter and not just because they have found land on my property. We remember standing in a line at a viewing and hearing one lady say the corpse looked "so healthy," and the other one saying "Why shouldn't he? He just came back from Florida." When we are in Florida, our work schedule melts away, we can walk and eat healthy and enjoy the constant sunshine and be with lots of people who can "come out and play." There is always someone to play pinochle, to go to dinner, to enjoy an evening of conversation, to relax.

Sorry about these random thoughts, but the term 'Pensioned Off and Handy' is a fine old term and brought them to mind.

Many have reported sightings of mountain lions in our state, even though the Pennsylvania Game Commission officially snubs the notion. But have you ever read the accounts of Bigfoot sightings in Columbia County? No, we are not kidding. Go to www.pabigfootsociety.com/sightingscolumbia.html .

Rounder recording group and O.A.T.S. favorite The Grascals took home the top award for Entertainer of the Year at the 17th Annual International Bluegrass Music Award. The Grascals have been around for only two years in the bluegrass world.

Upcoming...
• Acoustic Jammin’ Friday nights in October from 5-8 PM at Kristie's Kafé, 3694 Suite E Route 487, Stillwater. The dates are the 6th, 13th, 20th, & 27th. There is free admission.

• Early Bird Sports Expo, January 25-28, 2007, at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds.

In Monday's Benton News, we'll tell you about a covered bridge that was destroyed in 1979, known as the Bellbank Bridge, Colerain Township, Lancaster County. A group wants to transform the steel-beam bridge into a wood-covered bridge as it was when it was originally built before the Civil War. We hope that the local Covered Bridge folks are listening and thinking of the Twin Bridges.

The Industrial Revolution brought changes in the late 18th and early 19th century involving manual labor being replaced by one dominated by industry and the manufacture of machinery. Textile, iron-making and trade were helped by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. Thanks to coal, steam power and powered machinery greatly improved production and changed methods of manufacturing in this county.

The Second Industrial Revolution, sometimes called the second phase of the Industrial Revolution, brought developments in the chemical, electrical, petroleum and steel industries. Mass production of consumer goods changed the way that food, drink, clothing and transportation served our county. It was a time of the introduction of the cinema, radio and gramophone.

The Second Industrial Revolution in this county was often associated with electrification and names like Tesla, Edison and Westinghouse. The steam-powered rotary printing press and the paper-making machine, mechanical typesetting with the linotype and the monotype, the growth of machine tools capable of making precision parts for use in other machines were cornerstones of the era.

Men like Gottlieb Daimler exploited the breakthrough of using petroleum instead of coal gas as a fuel for the automobile. Henry Ford took things a step further when he made the internal combustion engine a mass-production phenomenon. Two-stroke petrol engines began powering motor cycles, motor boats, pumps and small workshops. During this period, the German Empire replaced the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as Europe's primary industrial nation.

The subject will be addressed in detail on the third Monday of October as the North Mountain Historical Society presents Robert Webster, Montoursville, in a discussion he calls "America's Second Revolution." Bob will cover the changes that took place in America during a thirty-year period between 1890-1920. He will go over their contribution to the depression years in this county and their impact on the 20th century. It happens Monday, October 16, at 9 AM, at the Brass Pelican Restaurant, Elk Grove, following breakfast. The discussion is free and open to the public. Buckwheat cakes are ready on the griddle about 8 AM. Last month's meeting had to turn people away for lack of room, so come early and enjoy the fellowship associated with these meetings.

 

September 30, 2006, the 273rd day of the year. It is the birthday today of Lynne Musser, Henrietta Erney and Courtney Foust who celebrate their birthdays the same day as Louisa May Alcott, Truman Capote, Angie Dickinson, Johnny Mathis and Deborah Kerr. On this date in 1927, Babe Ruth hit his 60th homer of the season to break his own major-league record. Actor James Dean was killed on this date in 1955 in a two-car collision near Cholame, CA. The sun will rise after 7 AM this morning.

We came across some statistics that are alarming; i.e., about 20% of all credit cards are maxed out; if you are between 55 and 64, you probably have less than $56,000 saved for the retirement years; the average household paid $1,000 in interest on the money it borrowed last year; and last but not least the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation projects that 75% of all the pension plans it guarantees are underfunded. Ford and General Motors are prime examples.

We reluctantly smiled at the T-shirt we saw that read, "Drove my Chevy to the Levee, but the Levee was gone."

Didja know that...
• A Benton Fall Festival is coming up at the Benton Fire Hall, Saturday, October 7, from 4 until 9 PM. There will be food, games, hay rides and a live band. All proceeds benefit Benton Fire Co.

• There is an interactive, online agricultural directory that provides free listings of more than 2,100 agricultural businesses in every county in the state, from farms and greenhouses to farmers' markets and equipment suppliers. You can find it at http://agmap.psu.edu .

• Site preparation can now begin at the Northern Columbia Community & Cultural Center site. Most of the wood has been burned, and we do apologize to the residents of the Hoboken section of the Borough for smoke that insisted on blowing their way. We were gratified that Steve Miller drove from Tennessee to help prepare the site.

• on this date in 1788, the Pennsylvania Legislature elected the first two members of the U.S. Senate--William Maclay, Harrisburg, and Robert Morris, Philadelphia.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) recently announced that former Elk Grove resident Carol Griffith Zeisloft has been chosen as a 2006 Congressional Medal of Distinction winner. Carol was selected based on her unyielding support of the Republican Party, and for her outstanding leadership in business and contributions she has made to the local economy. Only an elite group of business and professional people were nominated to receive the award before the awards selection committee reached a final decision.

Congressman Tom Reynolds said, "Mrs. Zeisloft has served as an Honorary Chairman of the Business Advisory Council and has provided much needed support. This award could not have gone to a more deserving candidate." Carol is President of Three Z's Incorporated, 37 Carriage Lane, Newark, Delaware, and an Elk Grove resident when her leisure time permits.

This week's Garrison Keillor joke is this: "Politically speaking, I'm for the two party system: one on Friday and one on Saturday night." We would have expected Garrison to tell a story like this instead: The judge awarded a divorce to Lena, who had charged nonsupport. The judge said to Ole, "I have decided to give your wife $400 a month for support." "Vell, dat's fine, Judge," smiled Ole. "And vunce in a while I'll try to chip in a few bucks, myself." Ole and Lena are the same couple who had gone to the Olympics a few years ago. A lady turned to Ole as he sat on a bench, "Are you a pole vaulter?" Ole replied, "No, I'm Norvegian and my name ain't Valter."

Set designer Ellen Lenbergs, granddaughter of John and Zane Unbewust, Main Street, returns to Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble for Shakespeare's comedy, Much Ado About Nothing Oct. 5-29.

Quote of the Day:
"The air is perfectly quiescent and all is stillness, as if Nature, after her exertions during the Summer, were now at rest."
--John Bradbury

The term "Indian Summer" refers to a spell of warm, quiet, hazy weather that may occur in October or even early November. The term "Indian Summer" is generally associated with a period of well-above-normal temperatures that occur after a killing frost/freeze as we had last night in some areas. It is even possible to have several Indian Summers occurring in a fall, especially across the northern areas where frost/freezes usually come early.

W. Jackson "Jack" Taylor (November 3, 1932-September 28, 2006), Rakich Road, a man who served his country during the Korean Conflict as a combat photographer and at his death was an independent distributor for Lincoln Log Homes, died Thursday at home. He was 73. Born in Philadelphia, he was a son of the late William Jackson Taylor and Dora Gertrude (Robacher) Taylor. Jack was a medical photographer at Temple Hospital, Philadelphia, for 18 years and was the Audio Visual Coordinator for Bucks County Community College for 12 years, before moving to Benton in 1984. In addition to his wife of 24 years, Kathryn H. "Kay" (Singer) Taylor, three children survive: Susan Babon, Langhorne; William Hugh Taylor (Trisha), Robesonia; and Meredith Oliver (John), Bloomsbury, NJ. Also surviving are four step children and twelve grandchildren. A viewing for family only will be held at McMichael Funeral Home. He will be remembered by many of the people he loved at a celebration of his life to be announced at a later date. Contributions may be made in his memory to Geisinger Hematology / Oncology at the Knapper Clinic, 100 Academy Drive, Danville, PA 17822.
--Obituary courtesy of the McMichael Funeral Home. A complete obituary will be published in Saturday's Press Enterprise

The rear of the Columbia County Farmers National Bank
with a beautiful rainbow, Friday night,
Back Home in Benton, PA