The North Mountain Historical Society

Meeting: April 2001

April 16, 2001

April 16, 2001, Dr. Wilson Ferguson, "Eagles Mere before it became a popular resort."

The History Buffs met at the Brass Pelican on April 16 with 37 people present. Jim Vance offered thanks when breakfast was served. After breakfast he introduced Mr. Wilson Ferguson from Laporte who spoke to us on the topic "Eagles Mere before it became a popular resort" The Lake itself was different from other lakes in the area. It is spring fed--no streams empty into the lake. It has a sandy bottom, and very fine white sand. The land around the lake was not Indian Territory as might be expected. There were no Indian settlements in the area. According to Indian law this land was reserved for hunting and Indian tribes agreed not to settle there.

In 1794, after the Revolutionary War, Samuel Wallace obtained what was then known as a patent for a large area around the lake. In 1801 George Lewis bought 10,000 acres surrounding and including the lake for $1.00 an acre and had the land officially surveyed. The lake was named Lake Lewis and the village that grew up around it was named Mt. Lewis. George Lewis had a large stone house built for his family. He then had a glass factory built and utilized the sand from the lake for glass manufacturing. He also used the plentiful timber for fueling the factory. At first his factory was quite successful. He built 10 good frame houses to rent to his workers and a large boarding house to accommodate the unmarried men. There was also a schoolhouse and a sawmill. At its height Mt. Lewis had 250 residents. The glass factory made window glass, pitchers, vases and the like and for a time was quite successful. The glass products were packed in hay, in barrels, and transported by horse and wagon to the railroad station at Muncy. As you can imagine, the breakage was high. To add to the problems of the small glass factory, after the Industrial Revolution glass could be manufactured in England, shipped to the United States and sold cheaper than it could be manufactured and shipped from Mt. Lewis. After 1814, things went down hill for the small factory and it was sold to different people who could not make a success of it. In 1829, George Lewis sold the property to John Richter Jones, a successful Philadelphia lawyer. He moved into the area and occupied George Lewis' large home. At this time doctors were emphasizing the value of fresh, pure mountain air as a treatment or preventative for tuberculosis. Jones got on that bandwagon. In 1847 he secured a post office for the village and called it Eaglesmere. He thought that name would be more likely to encourage city people to come to his mountain retreat. In 1863 Jones was killed while leading troops in a battle in the Civil war. His estate soon sold off property for hotels to be built to provide pure fresh mountain air. By 1911 the Reading Railroad was providing rail service to Sonestown where a stagecoach picked up passengers and transported them to the hotels, The Forest Inn, the Lakeside, the Crestmont and other hotels in Eaglesmere. One thing they offered was a sleeper out of Philadelphia Friday evening that ran to Sonestown and parked there the rest of the night. In the morning the businessmen got off and rode by stagecoach to any of the various hotels where their families were staying. The men had a pleasant weekend and Sunday evening went back down to Sonestown where the sleeper was waiting for the trip back to Philadelphia. This was the beginning of Eaglesmere, as we knew it.