Part 21

MOYLAN, south of Media, art colony, residence of Charles H. Stephens and Mrs. Charles H. Stephens (Alice Barber), contains valuable North American Indian collection, the old stone building, remodeled for art studios and dwellings, is among the most interesting in the county. Southwest of MEDIA is the Williamson free school of mechanical trades; generously endowed; built in 1888; includes twenty-four buildings on 230 acres; pupils between sixteen and eighteen years of age are received; they live as families, twenty-four in a cottage with a matron; preference to those born in Pennsylvania; benefits of school are entirely free, including boarding, instruction, and clothing during the entire course of three years.

MEDIA, county seat from 1851, population 4109; charter, with famous provision against sale of intoxicants, still intact, was granted, 1850: Courthouse with ample square, formed nucleus of the town; present building, modified colonial, Avondale marble, architects, Brazer & Robb. Old Providence Friends Meeting House, built, 1699; original Taylor log cabin is on State Street, and the old Rowland mansion. Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, stone, Gothic, has altar painting, “Murillo’s Holy Family,” copied by P. McIlhenny. Presbyterian Church, modified classic. Leiper Presbyterian Church, Gothic, Avondale marble, midway between Leiperville and Swarthmore, built in 1800, Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, and Elisha Kent Kane, while guests of Judge George G. Leiper, worshiped here, slates on the roof were brought from Scotland; near is colonial residence of Perry Lukens on Fairview Road, hardware and other materials were brought from England, has original latch string lock. AVONDALE, old colonial residence of Thomas Leiper, near Crum Creek, built on plan of his Scotch home.

WALLINGFORD, residence of late Dr. Horace Howard Furness, America’s greatest Shakespearean scholar. He left a working library of several thousand Shakespeare books, including “The Variorum” edited with his son. SWARTHMORE, college, founded, 1864, by members of the Hicksite Society of Friends, is located on a hill with a fine view of the Delaware River, campus over 200 acres, includes large tract of woodland and rocky valley of Crum Creek; buildings, mostly stone, French Renaissance, include the Sproul Astronomical Observatory, built in 1911, gift of William C. Sproul, contains one of the best telescopes in America; Library, English collegiate Gothic, built, 1907, local stone, with terra-cotta and Indiana limestone trimmings, architect, Edward L. Tilton, New York; the reading room is open through two stories, height twenty feet with gallery on three sides; Gothic beamed ceiling and leaded ceiling lights, interior finished with dark oak. In fireproof tower room is the Anson Lapham Friends’ Historical Library, one of the largest collections of Quakeriana in America, contains original manuscripts of John Woolman’s Journal.

Near the Library stands a house with gambrel roof, built in 1724, marked, with tablet, by Delaware County Historical Society, “Birthplace of Benjamin West, born in 1738, first great American painter, founder and second President of the Royal Academy, London”; exterior unchanged, now residence of college professors; the college owns, and is still collecting original paintings and drawings by West. Meeting house built, 1881, follows the traditions of early colonial style. Parrish Hall, the main building, erected 1864-69, rebuilt after the fire in 1881, contains a portrait of George Fox by Sir Peter Lely, and other interesting portraits of early Friends and later benefactors of the college. Wharton Hall, men’s dormitories, built in form of Oxford quadrangle, architects, Buntley & Sprigley. Stone gateway, north entrance, designed by Frederick B. Pyle.

XXII

LYCOMING COUNTY

Formed April 13, 1795; named for creek called by Delaware Indians Legani-hanna (Sandy Stream) or Lycaumic; mountainous with rolling hills; North Mountain, highest land, 2550 feet above sea level. Formerly a lumber region, now chief industries are agriculture and manufacturing. WILLIAMSPORT, county seat, founded, 1796, population 36,198, has a system of well kept roads; the Grampian and Vallamont drives wind over the hills north of the city, giving a view, over the West Branch Valley, that is remarkable for extent and beauty. Courthouse built in 1860, city hall, and post office are mid-Victorian. Masonic buildings include the Masonic Temple, Scottish Rites Building, Acacia Club, and Howard Club. Franklin School, Mulberry Street, North of East Fourth Street, has mural decorations of local scenery, “A Sweep of the Susquehanna Near Jersey Shore,” artist, J. Wesley Little.

Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, East Fourth and Mulberry Streets, has windows from England, also by Tiffany and Lamb. “The James V. Brown Public Library,” East Fourth Street, French Renaissance, Pennsylvania white marble, built in 1907, architect, Edgar V. Seeler, Philadelphia; contains a small permanent collection of paintings and an original portrait of Washington, by Rembrandt Peale, painted in 1795; art exhibitions are held here. Central Presbyterian Church, opposite Park Hotel, has windows by J. & R. Lamb. Covenant Presbyterian, West Fourth and Center Streets, has large windows by Tiffany and Lamb. Trinity Protestant Episcopal, West Fourth Street and Trinity Place, modern parish house, used as a community center. Opposite is Way’s Garden, two and one-half acres, with fine old elm trees. Annunciation, Roman Catholic Church, West Fourth and Walnut Streets, Tiffany window, “The Ascension.” St. John’s Protestant Episcopal, architects, Duhring, Okie & Ziegler, windows by Nicola d’Ascenzo.

Brandon Park, beautiful with fine shrubbery, trees, and winding paths, has a band shell, playgrounds, swimming pool. Monument erected by Daughters of the American Revolution, Fourth and Cemetery Streets, on site of massacre of white settlers by Indians. Site of French Margaret’s Village, niece of Madame Montour, noted on Scull’s map, in 1759, is now within limits of the seventh ward; she was a notable character and enforced prohibition in her town; four miles east of Williamsport, on west side, mouth of Loyalsock Creek, near Montoursville, is site of Ostonwakin or Otsuagy, home of Madame Montour, famous French halfbreed, who lived there from 1727, and was still there in 1742, when Count Zinzendorf came to the village. The great Indian Trail from Muncy led up the Susquehanna River, on line of the present highway, through Ostonwakin, to East Third Street, Williamsport, then north of Third and Penn Streets to Park Street, there turned to West Fourth Street and to Lycoming Creek, French Margaret’s town.

MUNCY, population 2054, on site of Fort Wallis, in

1778, commanded by Colonel Thomas Hartley. St. James’ Protestant Episcopal Church, built, 1859, English Gothic, architect, Richard Upjohn, New York, who first used principles of Gothic architecture in America; has Tiffany memorial window to Rev. Edwin Lightener. In Muncy Cemetery is monument to John Brady, famous Indian fighter, granite shaft of excellent proportions; his grave is in the old Hall’s burial ground at Hall’s Station. Site of Fort Brady; south side of Muncy, residence of Captain John Brady, fortified by stockade, was place of refuge, continuing so after his death; burned with Fort Muncy in 1779, when Muncy Valley was overrun. Another on the frontier was Fort Minigar, built, 1774, at White Deer Mills, north bank of White Deer Creek, probably stockade, included both fort and mills, burned, 1779. Picture Rocks village, founded, 1848, here Indian picture writings formerly decorated walls of rocks, rising from Big Muncy Creek. Studio of the late J. Wesley Little. Fort Antes, opposite Jersey Shore, marked by Daughters of the American Revolution.

XXIII

SOMERSET COUNTY

Formed April 17, 1795; named for Somerset, England. Chief industries are agriculture and mining. A mountain country of remarkable beauty, largely forests, although glades, or natural meadows, about the headwaters of streams are numerous and extensive enough to have the name, “The Glades,” applied to the whole county; standing on the summit of either mountain range that bounds it, east and west, one gets a view of unsurpassed beauty; at distance of twenty miles the other stands out in bold outline, with intervening country of hill, valley, forest, glade, and numerous watercourses, which find their way to the Ohio, Susquehanna, and Potomac rivers; immortalized in James Whitcomb Riley’s “’Mongst the Hills of Somerset.”

Nearly all this country, between the crests of the Allegheny Mountains and Laurel Hills, is one vast coal field, extending over the entire length, from Maryland to Cambria County, every vein of coal from the great Pittsburgh seam down being represented. Traditions of Indian villages are in the famous Turkey Foot, Casselman River forms middle toe at town of Confluence; also in Elk Lick township, Indian arrowheads and stone implements are found. In 1749, Christopher Gist, agent of the Ohio Company, was the first white man known to have crossed Somerset County; his route, along Nemacolin’s trail, a Delaware Indian chief, led him through Addison Township and to the, later known, Great Crossing; again passing through in 1750, he kept a diary.

George Washington in 1753, crossed through Addison Township, with four frontiersmen, one as Indian interpreter, one French interpreter; every spot of earth that Washington trod in the line of duty is sacred soil for all true Americans; he passed through Somerset eleven times; on Braddock’s ill-fated expedition in 1755, he lay for ten days at Great Crossing, on a bed of sickness, exempt by order of General Braddock. First road cut in 1754 was under Washington’s direction, afterwards substantially the Braddock Road, following Nemacolin’s trail, the chief who guided him; it began at Cumberland, Maryland, then a fort, and reached the Youghiogheny River, south of present village of Somerfield, at the Great Crossing; marked, only historic marker in the county.

The National Turnpike, commenced in 1811, has the same general course, occasionally using the same roadbed, crosses the Youghiogheny at Somerfield over a great stone bridge, still in good repair, completed July 4, 1818, and turned over to the United States on that day. President James Monroe and members of his Cabinet attended the opening of the bridge; this road became a great highway, over which passed a vast commerce, both east and west, wayside inns were nearly every mile, now none exist; the “Endsley,” stone house, in Somerfield, built, 1818, long a noted tavern, is now a private residence.

Next great road in the county was the Forbes, or Bouquet Road, cut by Colonel Bouquet in 1758, it

traversed the county from east to west, and like the Braddock Road, was purely military, constructed under protection of a strong army; over it passed the army of General Forbes on way to conquer Fort Duquesne; George Washington was with this expedition in command of the first Virginia regiment. The road started at Bedford and followed an Indian trail, it was improved between 1785-95 and became known as “The Great Road”; afterwards about 1806 as the Stoyestown and Bedford Turnpike; later taken by the State Highway Department, it is now a great speedway, “The Lincoln Highway,” entering the county at BUCKSTOWN, crossing Stoney Creek at KANTNER, one mile west is Stoyestown over one hundred years old; six miles farther west is JENNERSTOWN, laid out in 1822 by General James Wells, who, in 1771, was wounded by Indians.

On Laurel Hills, three miles west of URSINA, is the Jersey Baptist Church, with ancient burial ground, has written record since 1775, first log church built, 1788, twice rebuilt; fine mountain scenery all along the route, and several places of historic interest, here, and in other parts of the county, sites of forts which date back to French and Indian wars and the Revolution, unmarked; few are now living who can point out the locality of these historic places with any degree of certainty. The Glades Road, laid out in 1772 from four miles west of Bedford to the Youghiogheny, via Stoney Creek, was made turnpike in 1816; along this road in 1810, on a farm nine miles east of Somerset, was born Judge Jeremiah Sullivan Black, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania; United States Attorney General; and Secretary of State. First railroad through Somerset county was the Pittsburgh division of the picturesque Baltimore & Ohio, opened in 1871, with its famous tunnels. At Mason & Dixon’s line Negro Mount is about 2825 feet above sea.

SOMERSET, county seat, population 3121; laid out in 1795, elevation above sea level 2180 feet, has had three consuming fires, and has been rebuilt with greater beauty. Courthouse built, 1906, French Renaissance, Indiana limestone, architect, J. H. Fuller, Uniontown; Soldiers’ Monument in grounds, pedestal with names of more than 400 Somerset County men who died in war for the Union, 1861-65; Somerset Trust Company, Indiana limestone, built, 1916, architects, Mowbray & Company, New York, Renaissance, beautiful proportions. Churches, built by E. H. Walker, Somerset; all with memorial windows, mostly made by Pittsburgh firms; are, Grace United Evangelical, brick, 1914; the Christian Church and parsonage, Doric, brick, 1910; St. Paul’s Reformed, Gothic, brick, remodeled, 1915; also Trinity Lutheran, Corinthian, built, 1877, brick, architect, M. Simon, Harrisburg. Throughout the county are many churches; in some places where there is not even the semblance of a village there are churches that would be a credit to any town.

XXIV

GREENE COUNTY

Formed February 9, 1796; named for General Nathanael Greene. Surface, fertile valleys, hills, and rolling uplands, making a region of natural beauty, well watered from the tributaries of the Monongahela River and Wheeling Creek. There are still a number of covered wooden bridges throughout the county, from fifty to a hundred years old, a very old double bridge crosses Ten Mile Creek, one mile east of Waynesburg; formerly an old forge and furnace were on this creek. Many Indian village sites that were occupied long before the advent of the whites are here; their age is indicated by large old trees growing on their mounds; three distinct forms of ancient burial are found here, showing that three waves of population swept over this land before the coming of the Europeans; the two principal Indian mounds now in the county, are at Crows Mills. Two great Indian trails crossed the southern part of the state, the Warrior Branch passing through this county to the Ohio River. A chain of forts crossed Greene Co., ending at Fort Zane, now Wheeling; three are especially well known--Fort Ryserson and Block House at western end of county; Fort Jackson west of Waynesburg; and Fort Garard on Whitely Creek; seven miles west of GREENSBORO, the birthplace of Robert J. Burdette, and his eminent sister Mary G. Burdette.

The earliest glass works were established by Albert Gallatin, on the Monongahela in 1785; they were the forerunner of the vast business at Pittsburgh and vicinity. First settlers were Scotch-Irish. Chief industries, agriculture and the mining of bituminous coal; the Pittsburgh vein of rich depth and highest coking value, and three other veins, almost as rich, namely, the Waynesburg, Freeport, and Mapletown. Oil and gas production is very valuable, there are a number of gas-pumping stations within the county. The Philadelphia Gas Company has one at Brave, said to be the largest in the world; near Brave is JOLLYTOWN, with a monument to Jesse Taylor, first Greene County soldier to fall in the Civil War.

County seat, WAYNESBURG, population 3332; laid out in 1796; named for General Anthony Wayne, who with his troops proved most successful in ridding this section of the Indians. A chain of parks with formal gardening goes through the center of the town, divided by streets; in the center of one is the Soldiers’ Monument; erected in 1899; Waynesburg College, empowered by the Legislature to confer honorary degrees, faces College Park; portrait of Dr. A. B. Miller, a former president, is in Alumni Hall. Courthouse, colonial, with cupola, surmounted by wooden statue of General Greene; was erected in 1852; brick, painted gray, has six lofty Corinthian columns supporting the front porch. Jail on same ground.

First Methodist Church, Romanesque, Cleveland stone, has memorial windows. The public schools are liberally provided with the Elson photogravures, reproductions of great masterpieces, mostly in sepia. Five miles southeast of Waynesburg is Gordon Ridge; Nettle Hill sixteen miles southwest, both notable places of particularly beautiful scenery. CARMICHAELS, originally New Lisbon, one of the oldest towns, beautifully located, has Greene Academy, incorporated, 1810; Senator Albert Cummins was born near here.

XXV

WAYNE COUNTY

Formed March 21, 1798; named for General Anthony Wayne. A picturesque, mountainous section, possessing more lakes than any other county in the state, some over 2000 feet above sea, ranging in area from 3 to 358 acres, many of them well stocked with bass, perch, pickerel, and other fish, while the whole county abounds in trout streams. From north to south is a wonderful expanse of scenery; FARVIEW, altitude, 1500 feet, on the Moosic Mountain, near Waymart, includes, in its panorama, the distant Catskills; from the southern roads, extended views are also enjoyed. A beautiful drive follows the Wallenpaupack Creek (slow water) passing the Falls at Hawley, meeting place of the Paupack Indians; good roads continue to Milford and the Water Gap, or to Gouldsboro, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. On the road from Honesdale to Carbondale the path of the old Delaware & Hudson Gravity Railroad may still be traced.

Early industries were hunting, lumbering, and tanning; now the modern creamery is an important factor, also stock raising and agriculture. One hundred years ago a small colony of Germans settled a half mile west of Bethany and started a glass factory, utilizing native sand and clay; from 1847 to 1861 window glass was manufactured at Tracyville; in 1865, Christian Dorflinger built large factories for manufacturing and cutting glass, at White Mills, five miles south of

Honesdale; glass-cutting factories are now numerous in the county, and gold decorating of glass has been introduced among Wayne’s industries.

HONESDALE, made the county seat in 1841; population 2756; altitude, 1000 feet; named for Philip Hone, president of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which started here for tidewater at Rondout on the Hudson, built 1826-28, abandoned, 1898; Honesdale owes its growth and prosperity to the canal; it was one of the anthracite stepping stones to a waiting market. Three locomotives were purchased by the canal company to draw coal from the mines in Carbondale and vicinity to the canal at Honesdale; the first one, the Stourbridge Lion, was brought by canal boat to Honesdale in 1829 and a trial trip was made; the wooden rails, then used for the railroad, were not firm enough for the strain of the engine, and it was never run again; however, Wayne County takes precedence in having had the first locomotive ever run in America make its trial and only trip at Honesdale; it is now at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington. The New York & Erie Railroad follows the course of the old canal through the town.

Courthouse built, 1880; brick with stone trimmings; contains portrait of General Anthony Wayne, copied from original in Wayne family, Philadelphia, by Miss Jennie Brownscombe, native of Wayne County; two large Parrott guns in front are relics of the Civil War. It faces Central Park, where stands a Soldiers’ Monument, dedicated in 1869 by Governor John W. Geary; pedestal with bronze plates inscribed with names of nearly 350 Wayne County men lost in Civil War; also fountain in center of park, memorial of the National Centennial, both placed by the women of Honesdale who are said to be the first in the state to organize a Village Improvement Society; they, aided by the town council, have done much for the beautifying of the town; the parks have received special attention; besides Central Park are North Park, and on either side of the Main Street bridge lie Torrey Park, West, and Riverside Park, East, overshadowed by Irving Cliff, 300 feet high, named in honor of Washington Irving, who, while in Honesdale in 1841 with Philip Hone, climbed to the summit of the ledge overlooking the town.

Grace Protestant Episcopal Church, Gothic, stone, contains white marble font, good design, gift of Philip Hone, in 1848. Baptist Church, wood, classic, with Ionic columns supporting the porch, built 1843-45. Glen Dyberry Cemetery contains grave of Attorney General Samuel E. Dimmick, died, 1875, marked by granite shaft; his residence, brick, is south of courthouse. North of Honesdale is stone arched bridge over Carley Brook, made in 1909; builder, Samuel Brown from England.

BETHANY, first county seat in 1800, was staked out in the primeval forest. Courthouse, built, 1800, is now used as a store; new courthouse and brick offices were built 1820-23, the office building still standing; courthouse was abandoned in 1842, after it was remodeled it became the University of Northern Pennsylvania, with the public square as campus, and was burned in 1857. Between the old cemetery and the street stands the first Presbyterian

church erected in the county, in 1822. Several old dwellings have beautiful colonial doorways. An old tavern, built by Henry Drinker, in 1802, still stands. PLEASANT MOUNT, altitude, 1600 feet, sixteen miles north of Honesdale, residence of General Samuel Meredith, officer in the Revolutionary War, and United States Treasurer under Washington, commission dated September 11, 1789; he lived near, on manor lands, from 1803-17, said to have been visited by Thomas Jefferson; the house was burned; granite monument in his honor was erected by the state, unveiled, 1904, represents a Continental general, from a design by Miss Clara Keen; architect, Martin Caufield, both of Honesdale.

The Delaware River forms the eastern boundary; a woodland road follows the river. At MILANVILLE, is the old Skinner house, oldest, still in use in Wayne County, loopholes near the roof were made for defense against Indians; many Indian relics were found around here. Wayne County’s only battlefield, unmarked, is in Sterling township, called “Little Meadows,” near it passed an old Indian trail, from Delaware River to Wyoming Valley; on July 4, 1778, the day after the Wyoming Massacre, Indians attacked a few white people, with loss on both sides. On the Eastern and Belmont Highway is a nine-sided, stone schoolhouse of early construction. Three others are found in the county.

XXVI

ADAMS COUNTY