Area History: History of Axemann, Centre Co, PA

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  rbhughes@norfolk.infi.net

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                       History of Axemann, Centre Co, PA


	By Mrs. Myrtle Magargel

This is the first installment of the History of Axemann. 

It appeared in the Centre Daily Times February 23, 1938

Reprinted starting Thursday,          February 19, 1976

Transcribed by Rick Hughes            June 1996

   The proper spelling of the name of this place has never varied.  Named 
for the Manns and the tool they manufactured, we find that Linn's "History 
of Centre County" spells axe with a final "e" and that people who have 
been familiar with the place from the beginning agree with him.  Without 
exception, the 10 or more folks who were consulted, as being the ones 
likely to know, said, "Axemann has always been spelled with an e." Linn 
does not refer to Axemann, save as Boiling Spring, because the post office 
and railroad postdate his history.

   The story of any pioneering people must take into account its springs 
and waterways for they are the hostelries of the new land.  The little 
hamlet we now call Axemann is no exception to this rule.  Its first 
surveys were along Logan Branch and its first settlers made their homes 
beside its great spring.

   After the Indians, the first owner of this area was Edward Crawford.  
His warrant from the state was dated 1784.  It comprised a part of the 
Williams or Waddle farm on which Clayton Walters has lived for the past 38 
years.  Fringing the bank of Logan Branch it slopes up over the hill to 
level acres on top.  Its successive owners have been Col. Thomas Hartly, 
Joseph Allendar, General Philip Benner and Beneval Clapp.

   General Benner bought it in 1805.  He came to Centre County about 1782, 
accompanied by Evan Williams, Thomas Waddle and Mordecai Benner.  Waddle 
was the general's business manager.  Williams was a forge builder and 
wheelwright.  These three men, who represented capital, labor and 
management, so built up the successful business that their respective 
abilities would generate when pooled.

   The Indians had passed from one hill to another by a path that crossed 
the Benner, or Williams, farm.  The spring was a favorite Indian camping 
ground.  Many relics of them are said to have been found near it.

   All this happened, of course, before the Revolution, for after that, 
all the Indians were sent farther west, and the settlers could live in 
safety and peace beside such choice sites as even the great spring.  Up to 
the time of the Revolution no white settlers are recorded, and so Centre 
County has no part in the Great Runaway which depleted little colonies 
farther east.

   Not so long after the close of the Revolution, an old man, named 
Kinnear took up his abode near the big spring.  He was a devote Methodist, 
and thus the history of Methodism in this community is bound up with its 
settlement.

   The early Methodist preachers, as most folks know, were circuit riders. 
 They came once a month to hold what Wesley called preaching services, and 
where there was no meeting house or church, they preached in a private 
house.  Besides delivering a sermon, they baptized children, married young 
people, and sometimes older ones, who had been living together until such 
time as the preacher should appear.  Often they preached a funeral sermon 
for the dead who had been buried weeks before.

   Centre County had not yet been created out of Northumberland at that 
time and it belonged to the Baltimore Conference.  The boundary between 
the Baltimore and Genessee conferences lay somewhere in this section, so 
the Northumberland circuit, as it was then called, was at the extreme end 
of the Baltimore Conference which had been established in 1791.

   Two preachers who rode the circuit during 1791 were Richard Parriot and 
Lewis Browning.  A different man came each successive year until 1799 when 
Northumberland and Wyoming circuits were joined after which only a six 
weeks' itinerary was maintained.  This means of course, that the minister 
came only once every six weeks, and the miles he traveled and the 
hardships he suffered in the meantime were known to none beside himself 
and his Master.

   By 1826 the circuit had shrunk three times and what has been Bald Eagle 
Circuit was called Bellefonte.  John Rhodes had charge, and Marmaduke 
Pierce was presiding elder.  There were 364 white members and 11 colored.  
Bands of Methodists who were to far from the regular preaching place had 
been formed into classes under leaders and met at least once in two weeks.

   Under such conditions the old Mr. Kinnear lived at the "boiling spring" 
and followed Methodist customs.  Whenever he heard that a preacher was to 
come into the neighborhood, he made efforts to have him come to his own 
home to preach and sent out invitations to everyone to attend.  He was a 
quaint old gentleman, this man Kinnear.  He delighted in old-fashioned 
customs and wore knee breeches with long stockings and silver-buckled 
shoe.  What finally became of him history does not say, nor does anyone 
remember as much as his name.  Such account as given here was learned 
through Linn's history, which is the source of most of this very early 
material.  A monstrous sized scrapbook containing data and collected by 
Edwin Garman was most kindly lent to the writer by Mr. Garman.  It, too, 
is the source of much interesting material and for the rest, interviews 
with the older residents of Axemann completed the tale.

   Another early settler near the spring was Alexander Biggs.  He was an 
Englishman who tired of archial government and so he came to the land of 
freedom.  He had been a soldier, was made a prisoner in an Indian campaign 
of the Far East and so learned of Oriental life at first hand.  He saw 
services in Europe as well as with the British army.  Experiences of great 
wealth and deep poverty had both been his before he chose this remote spot 
to end his days.

   Tradition say he gave his daughter a coffee pot filled with gold pieces 
for her marriage dower.  She married a man named Allen.  His sons left him 
and at last in the 90th year of his life, he died and was buried in a 
lonely grave on one of the hillsides.  Its site has been forgotten and few 
today have ever heard his name.









[Second installment - first printed Feb. 24, 1938]



   The first beginnings of community life here came when Gen. Benner built 
a sawmill, a woolen mill and a few houses for his workers on Logan Branch 
at the present site of Grif's Turn.

   The woolen mill began to operate July 5, 1824, under the direction of 
William G. and Ephraim Williams.  It burned down seven years later, but 
was rebuilt at once, this time of stone.  After the Williams brothers gave 
up the making of cloth, as they did in 1834, the building was rented by 
Henry Brockerhoff and used as a distillery.

   None of the residents of the village remembers the distillery when it 
was running, but some do remember when it was torn down.  It stood a 
little back of the house that Harvey Griffith built and some of the stones 
from the razed building were used as a foundation for the house.

   The saw mill was operated by the general himself.  The power that ran 
these mills was water - water going over a huge wheel that was built by a 
man whose special trade it was.  It is said that the man of those times 
was Mordecai Williams, and furthermore, that he built all the water wheels 
in the country. 

   Be that as it may, it took a skilled worker to build them.  They were 
set in the fall of the stream, so placed that they would turn as the water 
ran over them.  It was necessary for the water to be much higher than the 
wheel, and it was arranged by building a dam in the stream.  Sometimes a 
"race" was drawn off from the regular stream, wooden "gate" regulating the 
flow of water to the mill.

   When the mill had run long enough, the miller sent someone to shut off 
the gates and with diminished water supply, the wheel stopped turning.  
Starting the mill was a matter of opening the gates and so making the 
wheel revolve.

   Sometimes the "race" was used for more than one mill, a portion of the 
water being drawn off through a secondary set of gates in the side of the 
stream, while the remainder went further to turn the wheel of the second 
mill.

   One miller and wheelwright of the writer's early acquaintance in 
Sullivan County, used to boast that he could plow the ground, sow the 
seed, reap the wheat, build the grist mill, grind the grain to flour, bake 
the bread and raise the family to eat it.

   While the Williams men were making woolen cloth, and Gen. Benner was 
operating his sawmill, another industry sprang up on the hillside above 
the spring.  It was reached by a road leading up the "Hollow" and employed 
men in digging ore.  Most of these men were Irish.  They settled their 
families along the road for convenience and so the little ravine was 
called Irish Hollow.

   There were found the names of Noon, Kane, Daugherty, Morrison, Mallory, 
Frost, Clotty, Welch, Kelly and Fitzpatrick.  Out of all these families 
only one was Protestant.  All the others were Catholic and walked to 
Bellefonte every Sunday to mass.

   The Valentines owned the land on which the mine banks were located.  
They had ore rights to at least 10,000 acres.  Their furnace was located 
at the southern end of Bellefonte and great wagons drawn by six and eight 
miles were required to haul the ore to the furnace.

   About this time Abram Valentine invented an ore washer that simplified 
and cheapened the work and so revolutionized the industry.  They began to 
operate in 1815 on the same site and with at least part of the same 
machinery that had been used previously by John Dunlop.

   Dunlop's furnace had been built here in 1798.  He also built Logan 
Furnace on the border of Spring and Benner townships about a mile south of 
Axemann.  Both the Valentine and the Logan Furnaces were operated before 
the memory of anyone now living.

   Logan furnace was closed in 1842, but its mile-long tunnel to the ore 
was open to curious-minded youngsters long after that.  George Hughes 
tells of crawling into it when he was a boy.  His grandfather had been one 
of the workmen.  The ore was obtained from the hillside against which the 
furnace was built and was of a very rich quality.  It was mined as long as 
there was enough profit to pay for taking it out.

   Mule-drawn cars brought the ore to the surface where it was put into 
the furnace, whose ruins mark the bank of the hill across the creek on 
what is now the Jodon farm.

   When Dunlop bought the land, he erected a very small stone house, a 
stone barn and an office of the same construction.  The two latter have 
long since been demolished.

   When Valentines came on, they built what is now the front of the stone 
house, and Gov. Hastings later added the large front porch.  The barn that 
followed the stone one was frame and painted black.  So the "Black Barn 
Farm" it became.

   The barn was burned during E.E. Swartz's residence there as a tenant.  
The next one built burned since T.E. Jodon became its owner.  Between the 
Jodon proprietorship and that of Hastings were the Pruners and Dr. Hayes.

   After the iron furnace was abandoned, a cement mill was established, 
the hill is as rich in cement as it is in iron.  The cement had first to 
be burned in a furnace which was built, like the iron furnace, against the 
side of the hill facing the highway.  It was lined with bricks and the 
process of burning started by building layers of stone and coal 
alternatively, on a ground layer of wood.  The coal and stone were laid up 
to the top of the furnace.  Then it was lit and burned for 24 hours, after 
which it was drawn off from the bottom and more layers of coal and stone 
were fed into it from the top.  Easy access to this top was gained by a 
road that led along the crest of the hill.

   The product drawn off from the bottom were pure cement rock, all 
foreign substances having been consumed in the fire.  This rock was hauled 
in a wagon to the mill nearby to be ground.  The mill ran on old-fashioned 
burrs like a grist mill; in fact, it was so much like a grist mill, that 
the miller who could operate one could run the other.

   The first man to own this cement mill was named Searfoss.  From him it 
passed successively to Fetteroff, Dawson, Uhl and Uhl.  The last Uhl was 
Henry, a nephew of John Uhl, who sold it to Henry.  John had been his own 
miller, residing in Pleasant Gap at the time.  Usually, however, a miller 
had been employed and occupied the stone house now part of Jodon's 
property across the creek, which is yet in sufficiently good repair to be 
rented, as it now is to a family named Lucas.

   Henry Uhl had the mill only about a year before it was abandoned.  This 
was in 1890.  The same cause led to its disuse that is given for that of 
Logan Furnace, namely: the expense of getting out the ore in proportion to 
its value.

   Up to a few years ago, the holes in the ground that had been made by 
shafts sunk therein were plainly visible.  When Mr. Jodon began to farm, 
he went over the hill field to pick up stones.  These he dropped into the 
holes, covered them with brush, put in more stones, and finally a good 
foot or more of soil, after which he seeded over the whole thing and now 
has no more productive field on the farm than this one.  What was known as 
the "mud dam" was also turned into a productive field.  To the casual 
observer, there is no longer any sign of buried treasure.

   Not long after the place was bought by the Jodons; a number of men came 
out from Bellefonte to look it over.  They were hoping to form a company 
and prospect for ore, which would naturally have implied rebuilding the 
furnace.

   Mr. Jodon, who owns the ore rights, would have none of this and it took 
something more than gentle persuasion to convince them that he would not 
cede his mineral rights to anyone, nor would he have his farm overrun with 
mining operatives.  They finally gave up the project.  He is not 
interested in anything more than farming there, and until the property 
changes hands, such wealth as lies below the surface will remain 
undisturbed.









Third installment - first printed Feb. 25, 1938

 

   Other old places adjacent to Axemann are the farms lying on the hill 
beyond Irish Hollow.

   According to one authority, this land was bought by Thomas McClelland 
of Bellefonte.  Another story has it that the brothers John and Daniel 
Weaver were the owners and that McClelland only occupied it.

   Both agree, however, that McClelland was the first to live there and 
that he moved out from Bellefonte when that town was very small; that the 
new home was in virgin wilderness with no other means of access than a 
narrow path up from the great spring.  His household goods were taken up 
the hill by pack horses because no wagon could make the trip, and saddle 
bags were used to transport provisions to the cabin afterwards.

   Very wild indeed was the country.  Wolves howled all night long at his 
cabin door and sometimes he had to build fires to keep them away.  One of 
the McClelland girls married Michael Weaver, who was the son of John 
Weaver.  Michael it was who actually cleared the land and did the first 
real farming that was done.  The old Weaver home is now occupied by 
Merrill Weaver, grandson of old Michael.

   Not all the McClelland acres are comprise in the Weaver farm, however.  
The first grant called for 350 acres.  These are now divided and owned 
respectively by the Jodons, the Rockeys, Harvey Hoy, Frank Donovan's 
estate and the Hoffmans.

   The Poor farm, so called, was originally Valentine land.  From them it 
passed to T.E. Jodon and wife who lived on it six years, selling it then 
to George Tibbens, who in turn, sold it to Spring Township for the home 
for the poor.

   Since the new Public Assistance setup, it has been bought by John 
Holubec.  The last couple to live on it and to care for the indigent of 
Spring Township was Mr. and Mrs. George Cox.  Prior to them the Foglemans 
had lived there for several years.

   One of the oldest names borne by a resident of Axemann proper and still 
represented today is that of Heverly.  Linn writes it Heberly.

   The first Heverly here was Jeremiah, thought to have come from Bald 
Eagle.  He kept a blacksmith shop which was located just about where the 
present gas station of Eddie Witmer now stands, at the junction of the 
Boalsburg Pike and the Bellefonte - Pleasant Gap highway.

   It was a small building, now torn down, but its interior would be a 
curiosity to the present day generation.  It contained a forge whose fire 
was kept up by blowing leather bellows by hand, a huge block that held the 
anvil with a black tub of dirty water beside it into which Jeremiah 
plunged his red hot iron to cool.  A leather apron protected his clothing 
as he worked.  There were old horse shoes lying in corners of the shop 
that the boys used for pitching quoits.  Perhaps the men pitched them, 
too.  Who knows?

   He must have done a good business, this old Jeremiah, for in the year 
1823 he employed an assistant by the name of William Mann.

   Heverly lived across the road in the house that is now owned by William 
Rhodes.  Since he bought it, he has incased it with brick, added a sun 
parlor and made many other improvements.  But for many, many years it 
stood as originally built, which was before any one now alive can 
remember.

   Many of the good Axemanners recall Henry Heverly as the blacksmith and 
his apprentice, Jeremiah Swaney, but Henry was the son of Jeremiah.  He 
was the oldest, and so to him fell the right to keep shop where his father 
had located.  All the boys new something more or less about blacksmithing, 
but only one could make a living at it in a small village, so the others 
took up different employment or left the place.

   There were three sons and one daughter.  The daughter married William 
Hunter, who built and occupied the house up Irish Hollow, now the property 
of Dan Keller.  This house is more than 100 years old.  The sons were 
Henry, Charles and James.

   James left home and secured work as a roller in Linn and McCoy mills.  
Charles married and stayed in Axemann until 1890, when he moved to 
Bellefonte.  He was employed at the axe factory as an axe maker.  Most of 
the time he forged axes in the upper shop and at others he worked in the 
lower shop where repairs were made.  He had four sons and four daughters.

   One of the sons is A.C. Heverly of Bellefonte, who was quite young when 
the family left Axemann.  He is employed at Mingle's shoe store.  He says 
that his mother, who had eight children, used to say that if she had her 
life to live over, she would want the same thing over again.

   Steele Heverly was a nephew of Jeremiah.  He was twice married and was 
the father of three sons and a daughter.  The girl, Daisy, married Clyde 
Blackford of Bellefonte and left Axemann.  Harry, Eugene and Jack were the 
boy's names.

   Eugene was clerk in the post office and manager of the store during the 
administration of J.Fearon Mann.  He later married Rilla Stewart and went 
to California to live.  He died there last year.

   Jack Heverly, according to Mr. Hughes' account, had a minstrel show and 
traveled over the whole world.  For a time he worked in the axe factory.

   Mr. Hughes thinks he owned theatres in both Washington and Philadelphia 
at one time but lost his money and died a poor man.  The writer has not 
checked this story, as she has most of them in this history.  It is so 
glamorous and romantic that it would be a pity to find, perhaps, that it 
is not strictly factual and so ethically forbidden to write.

   Steele himself worked at the axe factory and is credited with having 
built the three houses in a row that are now occupied by Womers, 
Johnsonbaughs and Rotes.  He also owned a farm on Spring Creek, which he 
rented out and which is now the property of Mr. and Mrs. A.C. Hartle.  
Mrs. Hartle was his niece, her mother's sister having been his wife.  He 
died 23 years ago in Bellefonte.

   A lady told the writer that she remembered him as an old man when she 
was a little girl.  Once she heard him say "So much to do, and so little 
time to do it in."

   "Ned" Heverly lives in Axemann, a grandson of Jeremiah.  His home is 
the old Clotty place.  He is a carpenter and well spoken of by the people 
who employ him wherever he goes to work.









Fourth installment - first printed Mar. 1, 1938



   Thomas Waddle, as previously mentioned, accompanied General Benner to 
Centre County in 1782 and acted as the general's business manager.  He 
later married one of the general's daughters.

   From he father, Mrs. Waddle inherited the farm now occupied by the 
Williams family.  The Waddle children born to this union were Mordecai, 
Benner, Thomas Jr., Ruth who married a Wilson and moved to Bellefonte, 
Mary married James Hamilton and Sarah married to James Williams.  The 
three girls lived in or near Axemann.

   Thomas went to Jersey Shore, Benner moved up Buffalo Run to a large 
place and eventually gave his name to the place known as Waddle, and 
Mordecai never married but lived with his mother.

   He was sheriff of Centre County for a time and according to all 
accounts was an eligible and much desire bachelor until old age took toll 
of him and crippled him with rheumatism.  He went about on crutches in his 
last years.

   From her father Mary Griffith inherited the land and house at Grif's 
Turn.  This was the old pink house now on the other side of the railroad.  
The white house on the near side of the railroad was erected by her son, 
Harvey Griffith.  Harvey had married and lived up the Hollow the built on 
this land of his mother's and remained there with his family until the 
children were well grown and his wife died.  After this, he mover to 
Bellefonte.  His mother, Mary Waddle Griffith, however, stayed and died in 
the old pink house that her father had given her.

   Hannah and her husband James Hamilton, lived below Pleasant Gap where 
James worked for 50 cents per day and rented out his fields to drovers who 
brought cattle through the county.  In time, and by almost unbelievable 
industry, as one thinks of it these days, he was able to buy considerable 
property.

   Part of it was a house at Axemann which is still called the Hamilton 
Place and is next door to the Gfrer family.  The old Hamilton did not live 
there but did rent it to their son Abram Hamilton who married Catherine 
Martin.  Abram and his wife first went to housekeeping in a log house on 
the Hamilton farm which is now the Tate farm.  Afterward, they moved west 
and were there eight years before returning to live in the Axemann house.

   Their daughter Hannah, now Mrs. Clyde Smith, was six months old at that 
time.  In later years, Abram and his wife moved back to the farm, living 
then in the stone house while the aged couple took over the little log 
house.

   This Catherine Martin was the daughter of the Martin who was the 
bookkeeper for Harvey Mann.  The family lived the same house that the 
elderly Martin couple now inhabit at Axemann.

   Evan Williams, who came to the county with General Benner, was a forge 
builder and a millwright.  He built no only all the General's forges and 
mills, but many more in various parts of the county.  He moved to Rock 
Forge, the moved to Lemont in 1801 and died there in 1857, at the age of 
87 years.

   He had 12 children and of these Mark came to Boiling Springs, later 
Axemann.  There Mark married Sarah Waddle, whose father gave each of his 
children a share of his land.  Sarah's heritage is still known as the old 
Williams place.

   Three children were born in the stone house to this couple.  They were 
Mary E., who lived a maid and died there only three years ago; Mordecai, a 
bachelor who lived and died there, working with his father, and James E., 
who married brought his wife to homestead where they all lived together.

   James taught school at Coleville and at Axemann.  After that he was 
employed as bookkeeper at the car works which stood where Sutton 
Engineering plant is now.  Later he went to the Harris and Company 
Hardware store on the Potter Hoy location and was with them 40 years.  He 
died July 4, 1932.

   This James bought the old Waddle farm which is now rented by Clayton 
Walters and after his death it came to his son, Mark, who lives in 
Bellefonte.

   There were three children born to James and his wife, two of them 
daughters.  One is Mrs. John Bathgate, the other Mrs. Ben Shuey who is 
called Anna by her friends, live on the old homestead and is rearing her 
family there.

   Mark Williams moved to Bellefonte when he married.  He was employed at 
the Bellefonte Hardware 18 years and at Pottter Hoy's12 years before that. 
 His daughter is married to Joseph Allison and there is a son, James H., 
to carry on the name, but not in Axemann.

   The first schoolhouse sat on the same school site that the second one 
does now.  It was made of stone that had been found on the hill behind it. 
 There was only one room.  The seats were arranged as they are at present 
and it was somewhat closed to the hill.











Fifth installment - first printed Mar. 2, 1938



   One of the pupils was George Hughes' mother.  She lived up the Rishel 
Hill at that time.  Hughes himself attended two terms in the old building.

   Some of the teachers he remembers were Johnnie D. Miller. a man named 
Holliston, and one McFeeders or Seeders or something like that.  Mr. 
Holliston seems to have been a sort of humorist for when he wanted to 
correct a bad boy he would say, "Come up here, you dromedary, and I'll put 
the harness on you."  And put it on he did by laying a leather strap most 
lustily across their backs.

   Mr. McFeeders never whipped the pupils but sometimes made them stand up 
beside the hot stove holding a nail out at arm's length.  Another 
punishment was to tie a boy up with a broom.  The boy's arms and legs 
would be tied together somehow with the broom through them, then boy and 
broom together were thrown into the corner.

   Another teacher would make the children hang by their fingers to the 
blackboard without touching feet to the floor.  (It is hoped that such 
novel punishments will not be adopted by any modern teacher who may be on 
the lookout for more effective ways of disciplining her school.)

   One incident that came near being a tragedy happened to little Jane 
Smith, later Mrs. Foster Jodon, and just recently deceased, was a pupil 
more than 70 years ago.

   Johnnie D. Miller was the teacher and had not yet arrived, or else was 
outside.  Anyhow, she and Mary Olewine were sitting together when a boy 
named Simmons came in and pulled a pistol.  He walked over to the desk 
where the little girls sat and aimed it at Mary's head, flourished it 
around and lowered it.

   Then the gun went off.

   The bullet passed between the girls and made two holes in Jane's 
petticoat.  The excitement and commotion that ensued, Johnnie D. appeared 
and asked what was the matter.  He was fearfully strict.  Grandmother 
Jodon, telling the story a few days before her death said to the writer:

   "I knew he would just kill the Simmons boy, and so I told a lie.  I 
said the holes had been burnt in my dress; that they had been there 
before.  The boy hadn't meant to shoot.  He didn't know the gun was 
loaded, so I said that, and it saved him a whipping."

   Among the many teachers who have kept school at Axemann, both in the 
early days and the present are the following:  Thomas Weaver, Jemima 
Tibbens, Holliston, McFeeders, Wesley Schreffler, Samuel Noll, Abner Noll, 
Andrew Greg, Henry Hoy, Harry Meese, Boyd Noll, William Smeltzer, Maria 
Marshall, William Ott, Clyde Jodon, Reba Jodon, Ralph Noll, Mary Twitmire, 
Pearl Waite, John Darthoff, Harry Breon, Elsie Herman, Mrs. Markle, Miss 
Dunkle, Ernest Frank, Franklin Hoy, Margaret Smeltzer, Lee Smeltzer and 
Miss Dunklebarger.

   The Olewine mentioned above lived in the farmhouse now occupied by 
Clint Markle.









Sixth installment - first printed Mar. 3, 1938



   The coming of William Mann to Logan Branch was the herald of that 
industry which later gave rise to a village and named it.  Mann's 
grandfather, Thomas, emigrated from Ireland to America in 1750 when he was 
a young boy.  He began to make edged tools at Braintree, Mass., and from 
there went to Johnstown, N.Y., where he and his son William were 
associated in the same business.  They remained there long enough for 
William Jr., to work with them and learn the trade.

   About that time Pennsylvania's ore mines came into notice throughout 
the country, and the youth William ventured to Centre County.  Here, as 
has already been remarked, he found employment with a blacksmith named 
Jeremiah Heverly.  He continued with him a year, then went into Bellefonte 
and worked with John Hall.

   Returning to New York, he brought back with him his brother Harvey and 
together they worked as blacksmiths in Bellefonte for three years.  Then 
they built a small shop near Boiling Spring as the cluster of houses had 
come to be called and began to make axes.  The trade flourished.  They put 
up a second shop, this time in Bellefonte, took a partner, F.B. Smith, and 
continued the work.

   But the Bellefonte branch did not prosper, so they dissolved the 
partnership with Smith and redoubled their efforts at Boiling Spring.  
Presently they had to enlarge their shop.  Then Harvey took entire charge 
of the business here and William went over to Mauch Chunk where he 
established a business.

   His factory burned down in about a year, so he left that place and came 
nearer to home, building this time at Yeagertown.  This increased and is 
said by some to have had a bigger output than  did the original here.  
Meanwhile a third brother, Robert, had come to Pennsylvania and opened a 
shop at Mill Hall.  These three shops were all separate, but the name of 
their product was the same: the Red Man Axe.

   Many more houses were put up to accommodate the workers, but most of 
them were against the hillsides, for a large dam covered the space between 
the two hills and running as far as the Rote house on the south and the 
Frank Gross residence on the north.  In front of the store was a second 
and smaller dam to run the lower shop, as the large dam had run the upper 
and larger one.  The tail race of the lower dam went through what is now 
Curt White's cellar.

   These dams were necessary to the operation of shops that ran by water 
power.  The huge wheels are familiar to people today through prints and 
pictures that have been seen by everybody.  These two dams lay close to 
the road that wound along the foot of the hillside very much as it does 
today.

   The water was deep too, and one time a team of horses was drowned in 
the big dam, having gone over the road in the darkness and being unable to 
extricate themselves from the harness and wagon that pulled them down.

   The main building of the axe factory is estimated to have been 350 feet 
long and 70 feet wide.  Here, the axes were forged and ground.  One 
authority has it that increasing work expanded forging into another 
building.  The last one to be erected was situated where the White Cider 
mill now operates and was occupied by the rolling department.  The head 
shop was located where O'Brien's garage now stands.

   In the main building where the grinding was done, there were immense 
grindstones, 10 feet wide and more than a foot thick.  These were used 
until they were worn down to small to be practicable any longer.  Then 
they were taken outside and piled up into a series of steps that finally 
reached the top of the dam.

   It, of course, was much higher than the floor with the great water 
wheel beneath it.  The grindstones that replaced those carried outside 
were brought to the shop on flat cars and unloaded by means of a derrick 
that hoisted them into place in the shop.









Seventh installment - first printed Mar. 4, 1938



   A story is told of these mounds of grindstones being used as a pulpit 
by a man who came over the mountain.  The fellow was a simple-minded soul 
who was the butt of all sorts of jokes whenever he went to Axemann.  This 
day they put him up on top of the lofty grindstone steps and bade him 
preach to them.  He did so, but nobody knew what he said for he preached 
in Dutch.

   Somebody stopped him.  "Here, you, talk English.  We can't understand 
you."

   "That's all right," said the chap. "It doesn't make any difference 
whether you understand or not.  You're all going to H--- anyhow."

   Another shop was built over on Spring Creek where the Paradise is now 
located.  There the axes were finished, according to Mr. Hughes, who 
worked for the Manns during their stay in the village.  Two teams were 
kept busy every day hauling the axes back and forth from where they were 
polished.  The old distillery was also used as a polishing shop.

   Continuing Mr. Hughes' reminiscences, we learn that all the work was 
piecework.  The men made pretty good money, $2.50 and $3 per day which was 
a considerable amount when they had their own gardens and so few needs 
that there was little temptation to spend money.  They worked from 7 a.m. 
to 2:30 or 3 p.m. and had fairly steady employment as long as Mr. Mann 
lived.  Fifty men was the usual number employed.


   Both single and double bitted axes were manufactured, about 350 being 
turned out in a day at this plant.  They were of excellent quality, 
distributed to every state in the union and even as far away as Brazil, 
the government itself buying 2,000 and having them shipped down there.

   After the death of Harvey Mann Sr., he was succeeded by his son Harvey 
Jr., who lived only five years after the passing of his father.  Mrs. Mann 
then employed Mordecai Waddle as manager of the factory until the arrival 
of her nephew, J. Fearon Mann, from Lewistown.  He was the son of William 
Mann, who founded the shop in Yeagertown.

   He had been born to the business, so to speak, and at once began to 
make improvements at Axemann.  Chief among the changes was the 
displacement of water power in favor of steam.

   William Mann himself had long since died.  He retired from business and 
returned to the Spring.  Here he lived with his brother's family until he 
died in 1860.

   In spite of the changes and newer methods introduced by the younger 
Mann, business grew slack and finally he sold the shops to the American 
Tool Company.

   But matter did not improve even under the new company, and this was 
due, not to mismanagement, but to the slowing up of the lumber industry.

   Today the sight of a lumber pile is something unusual, and to be found 
in out-of-the-way places.  At that time, however, the fragrance of newly 
sawed timber was apparent even in cities.  Williamsport was approached by 
train through veritable tunnels of lumber piles.  All the trees that had 
gone into these boards had been felled by the help of axes.  When the 
timber was depleted, or need for timber lessened, there was little demand 
for axes.

   Fearon Mann sold, too, the house he had inherited from Harvey Mann's 
widow and moved into Bellefonte.  The farm lands which she had willed to 
her nephew, Cameron Burnside, were soon sold off by him to Moses 
Montgomery.  The Mann acreage had been wide.  Part of it now is Manna 
Kline's farm, and others who shared in the Mann holdings were William 
Stewart, (now the McDowell property) William Martin, Joseph Myers, Frank 
Donovan, Billie Armor and Wallace White.  The upper part of the dam was 
bought by Stewart, the lower part by Wallace White.  Harry Harter 
purchased the shop, engine house, boiler house and later sold them all bit 
by bit. 

   Some of the men who were thrown out of employment by the shops closing 
went to Valentine's Forge to work.  That was a 12-hour day with double 
shift at the change of tricks.  Some went to Lewistown where that axe 
factory was still prosperous.  Among them were Henry and Dan Smith.  
Others were able to get work on the road and many left the place to seek 
their living elsewhere, for as far as industry was concerned, Axemann's 
day had passed.

   Prior to the coming of the Manns, there had been no store at Boiling 
Spring.  Harvey Sr. opened that one that still serves the populace.  
During his lifetime he held it with the assistance of a clerk and a 
bookkeeper and at his death his son inherited it.  Following Harvey Jr. it 
was kept by the nephew Fearon, and after that it was owned successively by 
Henry Myers, W.H. Miller, George O'Brien, Bond White and now S.E. Rote.









Eighth installment - first printed Mar. 5, 1938



   The third one was run by Harry Harter , who built a small place across 
the creek and, as his business increased until he needed  more space, 
moved into one of the old factory buildings.  Later he sold to Homer 
Decker, and Decker sold to Henry Noll, not, however,  of Pleasant Gap.  
Both Miller and Harter were contemporaries of O'Brien in the mercantile 
business.

   At present the Rote store is the only one.  Its modern methods and good 
management discourage any compet-itors in the village.  Mr. Rote has been 
heard to say that he had to learn a new and dif-ferent way of transacting 
business when he made the transition from Pittsburgh to a country town.  
That he has succeeded is well attested by his increasing circle of 
customers.

   All the people had gone to Bellefonte for their mail until Mann's Store 
was opened.  A post office was established then with Mrs. Mann as 
postmaster.  This and the railroad appeared simultaneously something like 
54 years ago.  There was much discussion over the name of the post office 
and the station.  Boiling Springs it had been called up to this time, but 
there was already another Boiling Springs in the state.

   A new name must therefore be found.  Everybody felt it would be proper 
and gracious to honor the founder of the industry of axe making, and 
likewise the industry itself.  Mann Axe was considered as a name, but the 
majority opinion was that Axemann sounded better.

   So Axemann it became for both post office and railroad.  Apropos the 
railroad, there is a story, said to be true, that is told of its extension 
across the mountain.  Here it is:

   Folks had heard of the marvelous iron horse that plunged with snort and 
fiery breath through the land.  So, when the great day came for the engine 
and cars to make their first trip, there were sight-seers gathered all 
along the route; especially they had come from remote nooks and corners of 
the mountains.  The train appeared at last.  The rustics gaped in 
astonishment, and one woman, carried quite away by the excitement, cried 
out "Ai, yi yi.  If that thing gets little ones, I want one of them."









Ninth installment - first printed Mar. 7, 1938



   The Axemanners were not so unsophisticated; they knew an animal from a 
machine.

   But some of their relatives, also on the other side of the mountain, 
who had invested in railroad stocks, told them that they had money in the 
railroad and could ride any time the please.  As they no doubt could by 
paying the fare.

   And speaking of paying fare, there is a tale of the preacher and his 
wife who boarded the train together.  The minister had a pass, so did not 
need to pay.  He accosted the conductor thus: "Does my wife go free, too?" 
 The conductor had no time for an argument or explanation.  He replied 
emphatically: "No, she pays like any other sinner."

   The oldest residents in the hamlet are Mr. and Mrs. George Hughes.  
They are in their own home where they began housekeeping 57 years ago.  
The house is a short distance up Irish Hollow, reached by the road that 
runs back of Rote's store.  It was built by the father of Mr. Hughes whose 
name was James.

   James had learned the blacksmith trade at Pennsylvania Furnace.  He 
built not only the Hughes house, but the two nearest to it about 70 years 
ago.  The other two were occupied by Dan Smith and Adam Hazel.  Mr. Hughes 
was employed at the axe factory during the time it was located in Axemann. 
 He felt that he had a good job and earned good wages.  During his later 
years he came to Pleasant Gap and worked at White Rock.

   The couple had three children, eight grandchildren and six 
great-grandchildren.  He has a store of interesting facts to relate about 
the Manns, speaking especially of Mrs. Mann's kindness to people who were 
her neighbors and workmen in the axe factory.

   Through his tales, one visualizes the lady of the manor and her 
retainers.  She carried food that she had cooked and gave medicines she 
had prepared to the villagers when they were ill.  She had met her 
neighbors on terms of equality without condescension.  With her hired 
girls - they were not called maids in those days - she was uncommonly 
sociable.  One story of her friendliness runs like this:

   Clara had worked for Mrs. Mann a number of years and now was about to 
be married.  She and a second girl were at work in the kitchen a short 
time before the wedding was to take place when Mrs. Mann came in and spoke 
to them.

   "Who broke the mirror upstairs in the bedroom?" she asked.

   Neither girl had even known that the mirror was broken and said so.

   "Well," said Mrs. Mann, "Go upstairs and see for yourselves."

   So upstairs both went and found no a broken mirror but an entire set of 
dishes spread out on the bed, the lady's gift to the girl on her marriage. 
 She had taken this method to apprise the bride-to-be of her wedding 
present.  Dozens of little incidents are current that illustrate the 
goodwill that existed between employers and workmen.

   Harvey Jr. died as the result of an accident.  His horse threw him as 
he was riding in the village.  Mrs. Jodon tells a story that was told by 
her father, Albert Smeltzer, to his family.

   Mr. Smeltzer was on the porch of Mann's store one day with a number of 
other men,  Harvey among them.  A hearse passed by on the road and the 
young man said, "That is a gorgeous carriage but few care to ride in it."  
The very next week occurred the accident and Harvey Mann himself became 
its passenger.



   The death of both husband and only son must have been a severe blow to 
Mrs. Mann.  Soon after this she began the building of a church in memory 
of her husband.  It was finished, paid for and furnished, complete with 
organ and dedicated in 1882.  Up to the time the church was built, the 
Methodists had held class meeting and preaching in the school house.  
Afterwards, they moved into the church and Sunday School was held there as 
well.

   Member of the Methodist church at that time who first worshipped in the 
new building were as follows: Perry Steele Sr., Frank Hunter, Susan 
Hunter, Mary Hughes, Mary Griffith, Josiah Owens, William Hunter, Amelia 
Owens, Mrs. J. Fish and Harvey Griffith.  Frank Hunter was the class 
leader of the little band.



   The Sunday School, of course, included many more names, and other 
denominations.  Mrs. Mann's will provided that the Sunday School should be 
a union school - such were often found in those days when organization was 
more lax - but Methodists were to have the preference in holding services. 
 Other denominations could use the church, but must not interfere with 
them.  She also made provision for trustees to take care of the church.  
The first ones were a Mr. Bell, a Presbyterian; Adam Hazel, Lutheran; 
Harvey Griffith, Methodist; John Rousch, Reform; James Williams, Baptist.

   The last denomination to take advantage of their right to hold meetings 
in the church was a group of Holiness people.  They held revival meetings 
about the year 1924 that lasted several weeks.  Their code of living is 
very strict indeed and many good Methodists were convinced that they had 
been leading sinful lives.  There was considerable stir and commotion in 
the little town over divergent opinions in religion, but finally a 
satisfactory settlement was reached and Methodism emerged triumphant.









Tenth installment - first printed Mar. 10, 1938



   For many years, an enlarged picture of Mrs. Mann hung on the wall of 
the church.  Then another picture was put up, this one said to be of a Mr. 
Crust, who had been active in good works, and then a third photograph was 
hung.  Some folks were not in favor of all these memorials and a scoffer 
dubbed the church "Axemann's Art Gallery."  There was only one thing to do 
after that, ad it was done.  So the walls were bare for a time.

   The picture of Mrs. Mann was restored to its place on the wall, due 
largely, it is said, to the insistence of Mr. Hughes, who held the lady in 
such high respect and gratitude.  So now the donor of the building, in her 
widow's weeds, looks down upon the congregation her benevolence convoked, 
and the coming generation absorbs something of he history and that of the 
church.

   The picture came into the hands of the church through Mrs. William 
Stewart.  It had been presented to her by the hired girls at the Mann 
residence after Mrs. Mann's death and before the sale of her effects.  
When Mrs. Stewart moved to California, she donated it to the congregation.

   Passing over the intervening years we find that the trustees today are 
Ellsworth White, J.C. Gfrer, L.A. Womer, A.C. Jodon, S.E. Rote and Howard 
Hickes.  The church has been insured for five years for $2,500.  It was 
given some repairs and reopened about 10 years ago.  At that time a tablet 
containing the words "Union Church 1882" was affixed outside.

   The guest speaker of the day was Rev. M.W. Kepler, a former pastor.  
The tablet remained there until a year ago, more or less.  Then, having 
been made the target for stones thrown by thoughtless boys, it was so 
badly marked and dented that Trustee Womer took it away to be repaired and 
replaced at some future day.

   The first minister of the Axemann church is not known to the writer.  
So far, no records have been studied before 1884.  Beginning then, the 
names are the same as those who served Pleasant Gap, and are recalled 
through the courtesy of Mrs. W.W. Kerstetter, who lives next door to the 
parsonage in Pleasant Gap.



   They are the Rev. and Messrs. Graham, Lambert, Sarvis, Leidy, Young, 
Hughes, McIllnay, Stewart, Williams, Adams, Salter, White, Melroy, 
Chilcoat, Engler, Durkes, Sower, Fromm, McKechnie, Piper, Kepler, Rishell, 
Metzger, Dershen, Bodtorf and the newly arrived Bernard Henry.

   The membership now numbers 53.  The Sunday School has enrolled at this 
date exactly 112.

   The small house on the Williams farm owned so many years ago by Beneval 
Clapp, was rented from him about 1865 by John Smith who farmed part of the 
land.  The Smiths moved from Madisonburg and lived 23 years in the house.  
There were three sons and three daughters.

   Jane married Foster Jodon and went to live on the Jodon farm back of 
Axemann (it was Boiling Springs then).  The young couple lived in with 
Foster's father.  The farm is now owned and farmed by A.C. Jodon, one of 
the trustees of the Axemann church and an ex-school director of Spring 
township.

   The other far occupied by his father and mother is still part of the 
estate, settlement of which is pending since the death on Feb. 11 of 83 
year old Mrs. Foster Jodon, who was once little Jane Smith, telling a lie 
so a boy would not get whipped.

   Ben Smith was a stone mason and worked away from Axemann.  Harry and 
Dan were employed at the axe factory.  Their work was hard and hot and 
quick.  They shaped the glowing metal into axes and used hand hammers as 
well as those driven by water power.  When the plant shut down at Axemann, 
the Smith brothers went over to Lewistown and entered the shops there.  
Except for the Jodons, who are Smiths on the distaff side, there are no 
longer any of the family in Axemann.









Eleventh installment - first printed Mar. 15, 1938



   The Rote family was established in Axemann by John and Martha Rote.

   John was a Civil War veteran who married Martha Boalich in 1873.  His 
home was in Aaronsburg, and they went to housekeeping in Bellefonte but 
moved out to Axemann, where Mr. Rote ran the engine in the axe factory.  
The young folks lived that first winter with Mrs. Boalich then bought the 
house where Mrs. Rote and now her son and his family reside.  It has been 
the Rote home for 55 years.

   The son Ned was in Pittsburgh, employed as a grocer when his father 
became sick.  He came home at once and took care of his father until the 
latter died a month later.  After that the young man bought the old Mann 
store from Bond White.  He has a good and growing business, not only in 
the village but outside as well.

   Other Rote children include a daughter who is married and lives in 
Pitcairn and another son, Harry of Norristown.  The house in which the 
family has been all these years was built by Steele Heverly.  It has been 
improved in various ways, as have most of the early built houses of the 
hamlet.  Mrs. Rote, senior, is a member of The Centre Daily Times Four 
Square Club and will be eligible in two years for a seat with the 
90-year-old folks.

   Among other old homesteaders in Axemann are the Owens family.  Jerry 
Owens is the third and his children the fourth generation of Owens to live 
in his present residence.  It was bought by Josiah Owens, his grandfather, 
who emigrated from Blaenavon, Wales, in 1869.  

   They came to Bellefonte because a brother-in-law, John Havard, was 
already here, as was another family, the Morgans, who were friends.  At 
that time, Havards lived up Irish Hollow.  All were employed in the mine 
banks, the Havards and Morgans in the one up back of Axemann and Josiah 
Owens a little latter in the one called Logan Furnace.

   The Morgan family walked into Bellefonte to meet the new arrivals.  
Grace M. Jodon remember seeing them returning together.  She said the 
women were wearing kerchiefs on their heads as they did in the Old 
Country.

   Owens first worked at building a road from the Forge up to what is now 
the Al Grove farm on top of the hill, then owned by the Housers.

   After his day's work was done and the night had come, he called his 
family together and had family worship.  The old Bible he used is still in 
possession of his youngest son, Ed, who is employed at the Bellefonte 
Hardware Company.  It is much worn and falls open at many favorite reading 
places.

   On Sundays the little family walked to Milesburg where church was held 
after the Baptist fashion.  Mr. Owens would carry one child and his wife 
another, the rest walked beside their parents.  Eight more came after they 
lived in Axemann and when the Methodists started class in the school house 
and organized their church, the Owens family joined it as it was nearer 
their home.

   The elder Owens had only three weeks' schooling.  In Britain at that 
time, a man had to pay to send his children to school.  There was not 
enough money to send all the children so Josiah has to stay at home.  But 
when his brother who attended was taken ill and had to remain at home with 
the tuition going out just the same, Josiah had his place in school.  
After that, he studied from the Bible and so learned to read.

   When Ed as 10 years old his mother died.  Ella, now Mrs. Gfrer, was 14 
and she became the housekeeper for the boys and her father.  All the other 
girls were married and gone.  All had had a wedding in the little house 
and she, too, in turn, had a wedding with 60 quests present.  But she 
could not leave her father alone, and so with her husband she stayed in 
the old house until Josiah was laid to rest.  Then they went to keeping 
house by themselves.

   The old home became the property of William, a son, who improved and 
enlarged it, but who now lives on a farm in Vicksburg while a nephew is in 
the house.  The rest of the family still living includes Rose in Altoona, 
Joe in Pittsburgh and Mary, the oldest of all, 87, in Johnstown.

   In 1932, Ed, more formally Edward R. Owens, went abroad to visit the 
old home of his ancestors.  From that trip he wrote and published a 
booklet of the places he saw and illustrated many of the scenes.  It is 
delightfully written and full of information.  Four years of school 
teaching and 36 years in the hardware business, the first 18 with 
Potter-Hoy, the remainder where he now is, accounts for his employment.









Twelfth installment - first printed Mar. 15, 1938



   The Gfrer home was formerly Sam Gault's property.  He had a small low 
cottage and as such it was bought by Mrs. Harter, who was the mother of 
Mrs. Elias Breon and Mrs. Lawrence Hile.

   Mrs. Harter added a large front room with ceiling and a large front 
porch.  After the Gfrers moved into it 32 years ago, they made further 
improvements, building a kitchen and putting double windows in the dining 
room.  Mrs. Gfrer has been a member of the Methodist church of Axemann 
since she was 16 years old, having been baptized in the union church 
there.  The Gfrers were of German origin, although said to be French, and 
came to Axemann from Centre Hall.

   Belle Harter, a daughter of the widow Harter married Lawrence Hile of 
Pleasant Gap and together they bought the old Emerick property.  Mr. 
Emerick had been a wagon maker with house and shop under the same roof.  
After the Hiles bought it, they converted the wagon shop into a dwelling, 
living in one part and renting the other.  That is the origin of the 
double house in the row just south of the school house.

   The Hiles left Axemann around 1925 to return to a property they had in 
Pleasant Gap.  At this time they are both living and guests of the Home 
for the Aged at Tyrone.  Their former house at Axemann now being owned by 
John Neese and occupied by Nevin Corman and Owen Coakley.

   Old Mr. Kinnear's house at Axemann has already been mentioned, as has 
its evolution into the mansion now called Edgefonte.  Linn states that the 
Kinnear kitchen was retained and in use after Manns occupied it.  This was 
in 1834.

   As it stands, there are now six rooms downstairs and seven on the 
second floor.  It is probably one of the best, as well as oldest, in the 
County.  When it was built, the old Lewistown Pike came down behind the 
store and through what is now part of the yard.

   The great spring is on the property and a spring house is built over a 
part of it.  At the side nearest the highway, there were three stone steps 
leading down to it, and in former times, before the public drinking cup 
was abolished, there was always one at hand, chained to the place, for the 
refreshment of thirsty travelers.  Part of the wall that enclosed this 
spring has been washed away by floods that came down the Hollow and did a 
great deal of damage.

   This spring is the fourth in size in the state.  It gives forth 5,000 
gallons of water per minute.  This is exceeded only by the springs at 
Bellefonte, Penn's Cave and Rock, all of them in Centre County.  The 
amount discharged by them, respectively, is between 8,000 and 14,000 
gallons per minute for the first, 6,000 gallons for the second, and 5,000 
for the third.

   The house at Edgefonte - as the present owners, the Garmans, now call 
the old Mann house - is supplied by this spring with an electric pump 
forcing the water through it as modern plumbing has devised.

   Situated so near the historical borough of Bellefonte, one expects 
something more ordinary from this place, nor is he disappointed.  Harvey 
Mann, married to Gen. Burnside's daughter, was close friend of Gov. 
Curtin.  During the Civil War, the Mann house was open to conferences 
whenever the governor so desired.  Cameron, secretary of war and Steward, 
secretary of state, both came here to confer with the war governor.  This 
site was selected, it is said, because of its distance from the scene of 
conflict, as well as for the governor's convenience.









Thirteenth installment - first printed Mar. 16, 1938



   More than 50 years of ownership and residence at least part of the year 
entitle the Garman family to a place in the history of Axemann.

   The ancestor of the present generation of Garmans was named George.  He 
married Rebecca Bitzer.  They had 11 children, of whom Daniel was the 
seventh.

   This Daniel was born in 1820 and came to Bellefonte from Lock Haven in 
1859.  He was a jeweler and also kept a livery stable.  He was already 
married, had one son when he moved here and eight more children were born 
after he came to Bellefonte.

   Two years later he bought an old hotel called the Franklin House which 
he tore down and in its place he erected the brick structure that we know 
as the Garman House.

   Two fires occurred in this property.  The first practically destroyed 
the hotel.  This was in 1887.  In October of the same year it was rebuilt.

   The next year a second fire damaged, but did not destroy the building.  
In 1890 Mr. Garman added an opera house to the town, setting it beside the 
hotel.

   This was the only opera house in Bellefonte, the other having been 
burned a few years before.  Both places were under his own management 
until his death in 1907.

   For a year his two sons, A.S. Garman and C.H. Garman, managed them 
together.  Then they separated and each went under its own management.  
Mrs. Bruce Garman, a daughter-in-law, getting the hotel.  From her it 
passed to August Glintz and then to John Junius, who bought it for $2,700. 
 The opera house is now the property of the local lodge of the Moose, who 
maintain rooms in it and rent the State theatre.

   During all this time, the family in general has considered the house at 
Axemann as their summer home.  Not only those in Bellefonte, but from 
Philadelphia, Tyrone, Williamsport, or wherever the children of Daniel 
Garman are found, they are sure of a welcome at Edgefonte.

   Of the nine children born to Daniel, E.F. Garman, long proprietor of a 
novelty store in Bellefonte, is the oldest.  The others are Allen S., Ira 
D., Babe, Cornelius M., Minnie B., William H., Rebecca B., Bruce and 
Robert.

   Many and extensive improvements have been made at the old place within 
the half century that it has been in the Garman family.  The handsome 
edifice of native stone has almost an old world aspect of permanence.  A 
cave in the side of the hill and old trees  grouped around the mansion, 
together with the great spring and stone wall, add to its setting.

   The White family has been in Axemann since 1888.  Emmanuel was the 
first one to move here.  Wallace, his brother, came about a year later and 
John, a third brother, came 10 years afterwards.

   Wallace first lived in the little house that sits on the hill above on 
the road on the Waddle or Williams farm.  At the time it was the property 
of Daniel Royer, who was married to one of the Rousch girls, the Rousch 
father then being the owner, following Beneval Clapp.  Emmanuel lived in 
the big house, now occupied by Walters.  John took the farm that is now 
the home of his son, Epley White.  John farmed for a living and so did 
Emmanuel.  Wallace ran a threshing machine.

   After he bought the lower part of the dam, he hired a man named 
Shreckengast to build a house for him.  It is the one his son Curtis now 
inhabits.  Then he operated a cider mill and a chopping mill.

   The cider mill had been the old "head shop" of the axe factory.  The 
shed across the highway from the house is the old carriage house of the 
Harvey Manns.  Another smaller building had been on the land but it was 
torn down and the lumber used in other places.  The old carriage house has 
been moved down from its location next to the store.  Built on its former 
site is the O'Brien home.







Fourteenth installment - first printed Mar. 17, 1938



   Wallace also bought the old Humes Grist Mill.  It was situated over 
Clint Markle's barn and had not been in use for many years.  He repaired 
it and had it running when it caught fire.  The cause was not known, but 
suspected to have been a cigarette butt.  It happened at night.  There was 
no fire company nearer than Bellefonte, the flames were soon beyond 
control.  This happened about 18 years ago and that was the end of the old 
Humes mill.

   Wallace White was a very active member of the church congregation and 
is well remembered by everybody, his death having occurred only five years 
ago.

   Emmanuel's son Ellsworth, married Minnie Steele, whose father was Perry 
Steele and mother, Sarah Showers.  They first went to housekeeping in part 
of the parental home in the Williams farm and are today living in the home 
they have owned for 38 years.  They have two sons, Ray, who is a druggist 
in Bellefonte, having graduated in pharmacy from a Philadelphia school, 
and Bond, present prothonotary of the County.

   Perry Steele was well-known as a resident of Axemann.  He was a stone 
mason as was his father before him.  He plied his trade anywhere he could 
find work, going as far as Altoona sometimes and being away from home for 
weeks.  Minnie and William were his children.  Minnie was six years old 
when they moved to Zion, and there they stayed for 15 years before going 
back to Axemann.  Then they moved into the hillside home that Perry bought 
from Henry Meyers.  The place they live before going to Axemann is now the 
home of Ray Brown.

   After the old gentleman Steele had died his son William continued to 
live in the home and now that William is dead these four years, his widow, 
with her son Miles and family, is still there.

   Two good neighbors of the Steeles when they lived at Zion were the 
Brooks and the Twitmires, now of Pleasant Gap.  At the Twitmires the 
Steele children often stopped to get warm on their way to Sunday School.  
Mrs. White, who was little Minnie Steele, says, "They were always so good 
to us and I suppose all we ever did for them was to leave tracks on their 
floors."

   Grandfather Steele was one of the men who helped build Old Main at 
State College.

   John White had three sons.  Epley is the only one who stayed in 
Axemann.  His brothers, Lloyd and Lyman, are farmers near Zion.







Fifteenth installment - first printed Mar. 22, 1938



   William Stewart, who bought the upper end of the dam, had been keeper 
of the toll gate near Bellefonte.  From there he went to Axemann, buying a 
farm and living first in the McDowell house and later in the one now 
occupied by Lee Justice.

   He raised a truck garden and sold it in various homes in Bellefonte, 
driving a horse and wagon to haul it.  The daughter Rilla was organist of 
the church.

   After he bought the upper part of the dam, he made it into a garden.  
Mr. and Mrs. Stewart left Axemann for California after their daughter 
moved out with her husband, Eugene Heverly.  But they stayed only a year 
and returned on account of Mr. Stewart's homesickness, so the story says.  
He lived only three weeks, the family staying with the E.E. Whites and Mr. 
Stewart dying there.

   Mrs. Stewart and her daughter remained in Axemann several months after 
that but eventually went back to California where Mrs. Stewart died.  The 
daughter is still living, but he husband, passed away a year or two ago.

   Speaking of thee Stewarts recalls the story of the little boy in 
Axemann who had been brought up in fear of his parents and the third 
commandment.  One day he ran to his mother to tell her that one of his 
playmates had sworn.  He was greatly shocked and wanted his mother to know 
just what bad words the boy had said.  After a short struggle with his 
vocabulary, he brought this out:

   "Mamma, he said the Good Man's name and where Mr. Stewart plants 
potatoes."

   Because the unregenerate often willful misunderstood "where Mr. Stewart 
planted potatoes," many of the good folk of Axemann left off speaking of 
the damsite and called it the meadow instead.

   The town of Axemann is a mile long, counting from the first house after 
passing Manna Kline's farm and entering at Grif's Turn.  About a quarter 
of a mile below the Turn is a lone dwelling put up by Tom Sheer, who 
worked at the axe factory and lived with his family in this house.  An 
amusing incident is told by a lady of the writer's acquaintance about 
herself and sister going there to avoid a storm.  Nothing short of verse 
can do it justice.  Accordingly the following lines are called "An 
Appreciation":



Two sisters, caught by driving rain,

Were forced to go inside

The nearest house, and for an hour

With in it to abide.



The eldest daughter was at work

Upon the kitchen floor,

With soap and water, rag and brush,

She scrubbed it o'er and o'er.



And yet, withal her fierce assault,

They knew her heart was kind,

for on the floor a sleeping cat

Seemed never her to mind.



Nor did the girl his sleep disturb,

But gently passed him 'round -

(I trow not oft such tender act

In households might be found.)



And for a week this gracious deed's

Memorial could be seen -

A dark brown spot, in high relief

Where all the rest was clean.



Sixteenth installment - first printed Mar. 22, 1938



   Prominent in those industrial days, the Scanlon family is still 
represented in the village by Mrs. William Johnsonbaugh.  She had six 
sisters and three brothers.  Their father was Patrick Scanlon, who 
emigrated from Ireland when he was 18.  His wife came over when she was 
three years old.  She had been left motherless almost from birth and was 
cared for by an aunt who, on coming to America, brought little Bridget 
along.

   After the couple had met and married, they began housekeeping at 
Pennsylvania Furnace.  Several of the children were born there, notably a 
little girl whom the mother decided to call Cecelia.  Since she was unable 
to make the journey with him to Bellefonte, it fell to the father's lot to 
bring the infant to the church to be christened.

   Evidently the exigencies of being nursemaid were too much for him, for 
when the priest asked what name should be given to the child, Pat had 
completely forgotten.  But, "Just call her Bridget after her mother." he 
admonished.  So Bridget she became and Bridget she remained until 
confirmation allowed them to amend her to Cecelia.

   After Mr. Scanlon found work at Boiling Spring, the family moved into 
one of the six company houses that were built across the creek on the 
hillside.  All these are now torn down and Mrs. Johnsonbaugh remembers 
nothing about living in one of them save that she fell down the steps and 
broke her arm.

   To own his own home was the ambition of most of the employees of the 
shop, so when the house owned by Fearon Mann, built by Steele Heverly, was 
offered for sale the Scanlons bought it and moved into it.  This is still 
Rachel Scanlon Johnsonbaugh's home.  She was the sixth child and is one of 
the four yet living.  The others are Mrs. Frank Barron of Altoona, Mrs. 
George Vetter of Pittsburgh and Mrs. Agnes Culver of Harrisburg.

   All these daughters were married in Bellefonte, either in the church or 
at the rectory, depending on whether their husbands were of their own 
faith or not, and although they are widely scattered, they all come back 
for visits in the summer, and for a little time are girls again in the old 
homestead.

   The Johnsonbaughs have been married 20 years.  Mr. Johnsonbaugh tells 
to all and sundry that his girl kept him going to the Scanlon house 25 
years before she would marry him and it is true that she preferred to 
remain with her aging parents and fulfill her duty to them before taking 
on other obligations.

   In the winter she worked in Altoona in a tailor shop; in the summer she 
returned to her home in Axemann.  Growing up in the place, everybody 
called her by her first name, Rachel, often shortening it to Rach.  Little 
children addressed her in the same way and after she and the persistent 
young man were married, the youngsters, called him Mr. Rachel until they 
were taught better by their parents.

   They went to Niagara Falls for a time to live but soon returned to the 
old home, leaving brother Henry Scanlon in the city where he since died.  
Both of the seemingly-youthful couple are delightful company.  No small 
part of this history was related to them, and both enjoy reminiscences and 
jokes of their earlier days even when the joke is on them.

   During their term of courtship, Mr. Johnsonbaugh rode a horse from his 
home to Axemann, varied adventures befalling him in consequence.  One of 
these was when a party of girls stole his horse and buggy and drove it 
into Bellefonte.  The horse was a balky beast.  It stopped in the middle 
of the road in the Borough and would not budge.  So the girls had the 
worst of it that time.

   One other evening he rode a horse that kicked and tied it to the barn 
as  usual.  When ready to start home he had the girl friend accompany him 
to the barn with a lantern so he could avoid the animal's heels and mount 
it safely.  But their approach sent the horse's hoofs thundering against 
the sides of the stall and Miss Rachel screamed, clutched the lantern more 
closely to herself and fled outside, leaving her gallant in pitch-black 
darkness with the vicious brute.  Only by lying flat on the ground was he 
able to escape being killed.









Seventeenth installment - first printed Mar. 25, 1938



   The Johnsonbaugh family lived on a farm in Shiloh, and it was from 
there that he made his many trips into Axemann.

   Another adventure that they shared together after they were married was 
living on the train.  Mr. Johnsonbaugh was employed on a steam shovel that 
was digging out a railroad bed.  As the place of work moved, the employees 
moved, too.  So they had their home in a car, with curtains at the windows 
and other evidences of family life.  The locomotive took them along as the 
scene of labor changed and the reveled in their unique experience.

   One time Mrs. Johnsonbaugh went away visiting and decided to return by 
train, so she when to the station and asked for a ticket to Axemann.  The 
agent told her he had never heard of the place.  But she declared she 
lived there; that she had only left the town a few days before and even 
knew the name of the railroad that passed through the town.  She induced 
him to look in his book of stations, and sure enough there it was!  So she 
bought a ticket, got aboard the cars indicated and rode home in triumph.

   Certain ideas about her religion she finds very amusing, and has a 
dozen anecdotes at her tongue's end.  One of these deals with a woman who 
lived in some out-of-the-way place where the population was entirely 
Protestant.  This woman attended a large picnic, and during the course of 
the day, she was told that Mrs. So-and-So over there was a Catholic.  She 
looked long and earnestly at the person in question, then commented in 
amazement, "Why, she looks just like the rest of us!"

   Mrs. Johnsonbaugh remembers Aunt Katie Welch as a old woman who walked 
with a cane and visited their family in the evening.  At such times she 
insisted on having the youngsters out of the way.  "Put 'em to bed.  
Children have big ears."  It is needless to say that Aunt Katie was none 
too popular with the young Scanlons.

   The old lady had a large garden in which she raised vegetables and 
herbs.  Caraway seed were especially favored by her and she had an 
abundance of these plants which bear delicate white flowers before they 
turn into seeds.  One day when she returned home after a day's absence she 
missed her flowers and at once set out for the  Scanlon home convinced 
that the children had taken them.  So they had; the first thing she saw in 
the house was a pitcher filled with the dainty blooms.  Easily aroused to 
wrath, she stormed and scolded but it did no good.  The flowers were gone 
and so were that year's seeds.

   She lived in a little house back of the store, quite alone in the 
world.  Nobody seemed to have known anything about her husband.  She slept 
on a cord bed which like all cord beds demanded attention occasionally.  
Nobody could do it to suit her as well as her young neighbor.  "Come up 
and cord me bed.  Nobody can do it like yourself," was both command and 
compliment.  Many a tug and pull did Rachel Scanlon have with Aunt Katie's 
old-fashioned bed.  It was just another one of the many little things that 
the neighbors say has made up her cheerful and helpful life.  She does not 
know she does them.  Perhaps in the Last Day she will be surprised to hear 
the words: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have 
done it unto Me."

   There are other memories of Aunt Katie in the neighborhood, besides 
those of Mrs. Johnsonbaugh.  She must have been a typical Irishwoman, 
little, old, active, fond of her pipe, and an elegant dancer.  One family 
she visited had a good sized barn and on its floor Aunt Katie delighted to 
do the hornpipe.  She is credited with being able to dance for an hour by 
herself if the music were lively enough.

   In her last days she was cared for by Mrs. Donovan and whether it was 
her always eager curiosity or something of delirium, she asked questions 
to her last waking hour.  "Who is that?" she would demand as she heard 
horses and buggies go past the house.  "Where are they going?"  "Mary - 
Mrs. Donovan's name was Mary - I want you to go out for me."

   Mrs. Donovan, the folks in Axemann remember, was married twice.  Her 
first husband was James Armor.  They lived up Irish Hollow and had three 
children, Billie, Nellie and Gus Armor, she married Jerry Donovan and had 
a son Frank.

   James Armor did hauling for the company before the railroad was built.  
After that, he hauled ore to Valentine's furnace and sometimes back and 
forth to Spring Creek for the branch of the axe factory that had been 
established over there.  He had his own horses, of course.  Of the three 
children only the daughter is still alive.  She is now with friends on the 
Lutz farm below Bellefonte.

   Frank Donovan married and died on what was the Hale farm, a distance 
back from Axemann.  He made his living by farming and his widow and six 
children are still on this farm.









Eighteenth installment - first printed Mar. 31, 1938



   Blacksmiths who were located in Axemann, besides Jeremiah Heverly and 
Jeremiah Swaney, already named, included Henry Heverly, men named Rider, 
Dukeman, Herman, Tom Sheer, Ellsworth Sunday and J. Nicely.

   All of these men were supposed to have located in the old shop where 
the first Heverly plied his trade, except Tom Sheer.  He had his own 
little place on the opposite side of the road near the school house and 
worked there every day.  One morning he was astounded to learn that he had 
just died.

   It all happened because a certain man in the village was notorious as a 
teller of tall stories.  On his way to Bellefonte early in the day, he was 
accosted by a lady who stopped him, and in that spirit of pleasant 
camaraderie that we small-town-folks have she said, "Don't be in such a 
hurry, Sam, (or whatever his name was).  Stop long enough to tell us a 
good lie."

   Sam did not pause, "Can't do it this morning," he called back, "I've 
got to get to town for the undertaker, Tom Sheer has just died."

   "Tom Sheer," gasped the woman but her informant was already out of 
earshot.  "Well, well," she said to her family.  "Who would have thought 
it?  I'll just go up to Axemann myself and get all the particulars."  
Putting on her sunbonnet, she trotted up the road as far as the 
blacksmith's shop, and there she saw Tom himself, wrestling with his trade 
as lively as ever.  Only then did she realize that Sam had done her 
bidding after all.

   The Breons of Centre County settled in George's Valley.  Daniel Breon 
moved from there to a farm which is now State land and lies near the 
superintendent's residence.  From there he moved to the Al Grove farm near 
Bellefonte, remaining on that farm until he died.  His son Elias began to 
do little carpentering jobs around the home and for his neighbors.  It was 
work he enjoyed.  He continued and learned the trade.  This was about 
1876.

   In 1880 he married Laura Harter, moved to the small house on the 
Williams property and lived there two years.  This little house, by the 
way, seems to have been a favorite for young couples just beginning to 
keep house.  To buy a small lot in the village proper and erect thereon a 
house for himself was the next thing he did.  It is the one now occupied 
by Merrill Rice, second from the schoolhouse.  Ten years later be bought 
another lot between his own place and the schoolhouse and on it he put a 
larger house.  This was in 1902 when his three children were well grown.

   Harry, the oldest, remarks that he and his sisters fooled their father 
who had made a larger house for his children's convenience because they 
both were married about this time.  Della Swartz was the young man's 
bride; his sister Bertha married Willis Wion.  The latter couple live in 
Bellefonte.

   Mr. and Mrs. Harry Breon set up housekeeping in Axemann where Harry 
succeeded Mr. Garthoff as the teacher of the grammar school.  In Axemann 
their oldest children were born.  They stayed there until 1920 when they 
bought the Keller farm in Benner Township, a short distance from Pleasant 
Gap and have been there ever since.

   The elderly couple remained in the big house beside the schoolhouse 
where mischevious pupils gave them many an uneasy and startling hour.  
Elias Breon passed away in 1934; his wife less than two years later.  
Leonard, the youngest son, now occupies the homestead with his wife, who 
was Miss Helen Sliker, and their three children.

   Elias Breon was a good carpenter.  He never was an employee of the axe 
factory but worked at his trade.  He was noted as a barn builder and put 
up more barns in Centre County than any other man of his day.  His wife 
Laura was the daughter of the Mr. Harter, who owned and repaired the Gfrer 
house in its earlier day.









Nineteenth installment - first printed April 7, 1938



   The Gross family arrived in Axemann about the time the Scanlons did.  
Jacob and Katherine Gross came from Germany.

   Their family consisted of five boys and two girls.  The boys were all 
employed at the axe factory and answered such names as Henry, William, 
John, Frank and George.  Both daughters now live in Bellefonte; one is 
Mrs. Proudfoot; her sister Miss Mary lives with her.  The rest are all 
scattered except Frank who lives next door to McDowells in what was the 
homestead.  He is a carpenter and has two sons, Philip and David, to carry 
on his name in the village.

   When Austin Johnson bought the filling station from Bond White, he was 
really going back home.  Years before, he had lived in Axemann and worked 
at the factory.  Two sons, Forest and Fearon, were born there.

   Like others when the factory closed, as it did about 1890, the father 
went to work at the Furnace.  When that shut down, he bought a threshing 
machine and so became his own boss.  Not only did he thresh grain but he 
sawed wood, baled hay and did anything he could coax his machine to do.  
Then he went into farming and lived different places: Buffalo Run, Waddle, 
and Pine Hall being among them.

   Next the now elderly couple bought a house at State College and lived 
in it, but sold it in 1926 to Rev. C.W. Rishell whose widow still has her 
home in it.  The Rishells were stationed at Pleasant Gap at this time.  
They moved into the house in February while still serving the charge at 
the Gap, and Mr. and Mrs. Johnson took over the filling station from Bond 
White, buying it with all the land that the latter had purchased from 
William Stewart.









Twentieth installment - first printed April 19, 1938



   The oldest residents of the village at present are Mrs. Martha Rote, 
George Hughes, Mrs. George Hughes and William Martin.  All these are well 
past 80.

   The first two are members of the County's four score year club and an 
account of the other two will be written soon after the close of this 
history.  At present Mrs. Rote and her son and his wife live together.  
Mr. and Mrs. Hughes have their own home up Irish Hollow but have been in 
Bellefonte with their daughter this winter.  Mr. Martin's home is across 
the creek and despite his 81 years he is hale and hearty and serves the 
township as supervisor.

   Although somewhat removed from the village proper, the farm to the 
south known as the Manna Kline farm is counted part of it.  So, too, is 
the Jodon farm half a mile farther on.  These two places are not included 
in the mile measure which begins at the gas plant and ends at Grif's Turn.

   The highway through the village is the same roadbed that was to old 
Pike, resurfacing by the State having made no change except to widen the 
lanes.  In some places, it follows the course of the Bellefonte and 
Lewistown Pike that was abandoned soon after the part of Pleasant Gap, 
once laid out as Harrisonville, was opened.  That was almost 100 years 
ago.  Its course was from Horntown Rd. in Pleasant Gap, of which the Pike 
was a part, past the Markle farm and the Ishler Farm, over the hill to 
come down into Axemann behind the schoolhouse and the store.

   At the store, it follows the highway as far as the Williams place where 
it again leaves the lowland, going up directly in front of Ralph Sampsel's 
door, which is none other than the little house in which so many young 
couples went to housekeeping on the Waddle or Williams farm.

   By this route , the great curve at the turn is eliminated as the road 
passes over the hill and descends near the Sheer house which is as far as 
Axemann proper can be considered.

   Manna Kline had the farm from Mr. Loeb who owned it while the Ephraim 
Kellers lived there.  One of the Keller girls married Mr. Kline and he 
bought the farm.  They lived on it for 32 years, then moved to Bellefonte 
and rented it.  It was part of Mann's territory.

   D.A. McDowell is what is termed a newcomer in Axemann, which means that 
he arrived after the factory was gone.  In spite of this, Mr. McDowell was 
elected tax collector of Spring Township on the Democratic ticket and held 
the office for 12 years.  He also served as County recorder in the 
Bellefonte courthouse for four years.

   Coming from Marion Township near Jacksonville, he lived in Walker 
Township seven years before he moved to Axemann in the spring of 1919.  He 
has farmed, gardened, kept store, and since 1918 handled Watkins products. 
 There was a short interval when he gave them up, owing to his public 
duties, but now he has resumed their sale and also the mending of watches 
and clocks.

   Since he was 27 he has been afflicted with rheumatism which left its 
mark and which grew worse with the years.  But Mr. McDowell does not 
complain for it wouldn't make matters any better.  His experiences in tax 
collecting with would-be tax dodgers are amusing to hear and would be most 
enlivening to write if permission had been granted, which it was not.

   He says that the trouble today is that taxes can't be collected.  The 
power has been taken from the tax collector.  Some folks will pay and some 
won't, and that is unfair for men should be equal under the law.  In 
bygone years, if a man did not pay his tax, or a woman, either, a jail 
sentence could be imposed.  That law is out.  At the same time, in order 
to vote, it was necessary to pay a tax.









Twenty-first installment - first printed April 22, 1938



   On the opposite side of the road are six dwellings put up about 30 
years ago by Isaac Miler, a contractor, who built them with his own, or 
his wife's money as an investment.

   The furnace workers were glad to rent homes near their work.  The 
houses are crowded so closely between the highway and the hillside that it 
is quite evident they were built to be rented.  Father up on the hill 
toward Bellefonte are more houses.  This community is known as Benoni 
Hill.  Back of this yet, lies an old cemetery.

   The latest building there is the bungalow and shop of Andrew Kachik, 
sometimes playfully referred to by the newspapers as Mayor of Prossertown. 
 His attractive home is located beside the old Flack house, brave in its 
white paint, and together they make a handsome couple, going a long way to 
redeem the ensemble of the community.

   Samuel Ray came to Axemann about 30 years ago.  He bought and settled 
where he now lives.  He has one son, Charles, at home, and another, 
Donald, a short distance below him, both across the creek.  Charles is 
employed in Bellefonte and Donald works at the Titan.  Donald was married 
to Margaret Womer and has two sons.  He is superintendent of the Axemann 
Sunday School and with his wife, is active in the work of the church.

   One of the ways the folks in Axemann have long taken to raise their 
church money has been by holding suppers.  Since there is no community 
house in the village, these have been held in private homes, notably the 
homes of the Rays lately, and of the Wallace Whites in bygone years.

   But Mrs. Ray does not believe in suppers for the church.  She says 
(with a good bit of sense) that only the women know how hard it is, and 
that there is nothing in it, after all.  By the time a family has donated 
food, carried it to the supper, served it, paid for their supper, and 
brought back the residue to take home, there has been more spent than if 
that family had made a cash contribution to say nothing of the hard, 
exhausting labor.  She has facts and figures to back up her statement.

   Mrs. Ray is not alone in such a contention.  Women of the churches the 
country over feel the same way and hopefully await the day when their 
church will be a self-sustaining organization, as it would be if folks 
paid as much to the church proportionally as they do to their other 
affiliations.

   Mrs. Ray is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L.A. Womer.  When the Womers 
moved here from Lemont they meant to stay only about a year, but the 
following summer when the state took over the highway, the changed their 
minds because the village became so much more desirable a place to live.

   Mr. Womer is a stone mason.  The limestone front porch of his home is 
an example of his work.  Roy, the elder, now in Baltimore, is a World War 
veteran.  He returned a year after the Armistice, having been in the 
Philippines during that time.  Doyle is now in Ohio.  The little cottage 
near the Womer home was built for him when he married, but is now rented 
to the Newmans.  The third son, William, is at home.  Beside the married 
daughter already mentioned, there are four more, three married and living 
respectively in Mansfield, State College and Lemont.  Miss Mabel, the 
youngest, is at home.  The Womers are Methodists and take an active part 
in the church at Axemann.  Their home is one of the three built by Steele 
Heverly, Rotes and Johnsonbaughs occupying the other two beside them.







Twenty-second installment - first printed May 2, 1938



   More than 70 years ago and for a long time thereafter the Humes farm 
was tenanted by Samuel Olewine.  He was the father of little Mary who sat 
in school beside Jane Smith when the Simmons boy shot off the gun beside 
them.

   Besides Mary, there were Catherine, Minnie and John.  Mary never 
married.  She lived in Lewisburg with her sister Minnie, now Mrs. W.P. 
Lilley, and died only a year or so ago.  Catherine became Mrs. John Kline 
and moved to Philadelphia.

   The family stayed on the farm until their father's death.  After that 
the son, John, opened a hardware in Bellefonte (1902) that is still 
Olewine's hardware store, although John himself is dead and the store is 
the property of his children.

   A daughter, Adeline, lives in Bellefonte and a son, J. Harris, is a 
professor of chemistry at Penn State.  The family bought and held the farm 
above Axemann on the hill but never lived in it.

   After their departure from the place, it was rented by John Breon.  It 
is now owned by Clint Markle.  Mr. Markle is a son of Jacob Markle, who 
kept a blacksmith shop at Lauvertown, the old name for Rockview, or Peru.  
He is a brother of Willis Markle of the Gap and, like the latter, is a 
carpenter.  "A good carpenter," say his neighbors.  He occupied the old 
Jeremiah Heverly house prior to its purchase by William Rhoades, then 
moved into his present home after buying it from the Humes estate.

   He and Mrs. Markle live alone, their children all being married and 
away from home.  There is nothing to indicate to the casual traveler that 
it is a farm house they occupy.  It sits beside the highway with barn and 
outbuildings across the creek, most of the farmland lying along the 
Boalsburg road.  A part of what was farmed is now the property of the gas 
company.

   The mill owned and operated by Humes was burned, as has already been 
told and the miller's house is gone, too, torn down, they say.  It housed 
the family of Henry Sampsel for 16 years.

   Sampsel learned his trade with Miller Burkholder who had a stone mill 
back of Centre Hall.  He came to the Humes mill to assist the first miller 
there, whose name was something like Sangery.  When Sangery died, Sampsel 
became the miller.  Three of his children were born there, William, John 
and Harry.

   From the mill, Henry Sampsel moved to the stone house on Shugert's 
farm, now occupied by the Fetzers, and lived there the rest of his days.  
His son Harry eventually moved back to Axemann and now occupies the place 
that was once the home of his wife, the daughter of William Hunter.  He 
has been in Axemann more than a quarter of a century, and now share his 
home with his son Harry Jr. and the latter's wife.

   One of John's sons, Ralph, also lives in the village, his location 
having already been named as the Williams farm.  John himself after his 
marriage left the stone house on the Shugert farm and began housekeeping 
in another house on the same farm.  It was near the Blue Spring and they 
stayed there until two years ago when they bought in Pleasant Gap and 
moved there.  Others of the original family are scattered.

   The miller who followed Sampsel is reported as William Kaup, who 
likewise worked a great many years in the mill.

   Two Shuey families are among the present residents.  John has already 
been referred to in connection with the old Williams place, married to the 
daughter and living there.  He is employed at the Bellefonte Hardware in 
Bellefonte.  Benner lives next to Gfrerers and is Township supervisor.  
Both men were sons of Daniel Shuey who lives below Pleasant Gap with his 
daughter, Mrs. Reeder Jodon.

   This last spelling of the name Gfrerer, by the way, is the correct one. 
 In writing earlier in this narrative, the writer accidently omitted the 
final "er."  The name is of French origin, spelled with seven letters, not 
five.

   And while speaking of the family, it is fitting to pay to Mrs. Gfrerer 
the debt owed her for the hours she gave to recalling days of both past 
and present for this narrative.  Lying on her couch where she is compelled 
to spend most of her time, sometimes fortified by medicine to strengthen 
her as she talked, she was a real help in gathering data and selflessly 
thoughtful in giving it.  Much of the story has been made possible by her 
recollections.

   The Browns are residents of about 20 years standing.  Ray in the old 
Richart place and Paul living in the homestead.  Their father moved from 
Penn's Valley and farmed for the Jodons before settling in Axemann.

   There are no water works in the little community.  To that fact, 
perhaps, is due the percentage of destructive fires that have taken toll 
of houses on both sides of the creek, possibly six or seven in all.  A 
bucket brigade cannot do much when a house is on fire, and by the time a 
fire company, especially a volunteer company, drives from either 
Bellefonte or Pleasant Gap, the fire has gained considerable headway.  
Each family has its own well or cistern and some have electric pumps.  
Most of the village, however, is still bound to the old hand pump and wash 
basin.

   The one large industry in Axemann today is the manufacture of gas.  The 
employees, numbering only five, are not residents of the town, but of 
Pleasant Gap and Lemont.









Twenty-third installment - first printed May 7, 1938



   To Luther Shoemaker, an employee of the gas plant, the writer is 
indebted for the following simple explanation of what goes on in the plant 
to manufacture gas.

   Artificial gas can be either water gas or coal gas.  The Axemann plant 
makes water gas.  It is made by the action of steam on incandescent coal 
or coke.  The machine for making it consists of five main units: 
generator, carburetor, superheater, scrubber and purifier.

   First, the generator is filled with either coal or coke and brought up 
to a temperature of 1,400 to 1,600 degrees fahrenheit.  Steam passes 
through this fire, carrying a gas commonly called blue gas.  The blue gas 
passes through the carburetor which is filled with checker bricks.  
(Checker bricks are ordinary fire bricks built up checker fashion.)  There 
it is enriched with oil (fuel oil).  From there this passes through the 
superheater.  In the superheater the blue gas and the oil gas are mixed.  
From the superheater it passes through water where tar and part of the 
impurities are removed.  Last, it goes into the purifier where all 
remaining foreign matter is removed and it is ready for use.

   The high temperature is maintained by shutting off the steam and 
blowing with a turbine for three or four minutes.

   The steam is contained in iron pipes.  Gas is distributed to customers 
by a compressor which requires boilers to be going continuously.  The men 
work eight-hour shifts.  Two-thirds of the time there is but one man at 
the plant.  The fifth man is necessary if there are to be no more than six 
working days per week.

   This blue gas is a mixture of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and small 
quantities of other gases.

   Coke had been used at the plant up to a few months ago.  Now anthracite 
is used.  Two hundred thousand cubic feet per day is manufactured which is 
the exact amount the storage tank will hold.  This tank is so constructed 
that it acts as a telescope, thus showing how much gas is being used.  The 
following towns are supplied: State College, Lemont, Pleasant Gap, 
Bellefonte and rural places between.

   Pupils from neighboring high schools are brought to the plant every 
year for observation of the process and visitors can be admitted upon 
application.

   One reason why the plant was located here was its proximity to the 
railroad.  It was also necessary to find a site between the towns where it 
would be consumed.  Robert Hunter of Bellefonte was one of the moving 
spirits of the enterprise.  The land was bought and building started at 
once.  This was in 1929.  The first manager was Frank Murphy of 
Williamsport.  The second and present manager is C.E. Martin who has been 
here now five years.

   Returning to the Mann store to settle a difference of opinion since 
publication of earlier articles, we find through George Hughes, who was 
employed by the Manns, that the first store was opened by Harvey Mann.

   Before that everybody went to Bellefonte to do their trading, as the 
other folks phrased it.  Afterwards they bought what they needed at home, 
for it was a general store they had access to.  Indeed, a curtain in the 
window proclaimed in large letter that it was general store.  After the 
death of Mr. Mann the store was closed.  Sheriff Waddle, who was manager, 
used the building to store axes in, but when the nephew, Fearon Mann, came 
from Lewistown to take charge he moved the axes to another building and 
opened the store again.  Fearon lived in the village about a year, 
according to Miss Mary Linn, then bought the house in Bellefonte where 
Mark Williams now lives and moved into it, commuting to his work in 
Axemann.  After he sold the factory he moved back to Lewistown.

   Another matter to be clarified here relates to the death of the two 
men.  It was not Harvey who fell from his horse and was killed, but, if 
Mr. Hughes' memory is to be trusted, it was Judge Burnside who was driving 
Harvey's horse and buggy, and was thrown from the buggy in a runaway.  
Harvey himself was killed in a train wreck.  The senior Mann died in his 
bed at home.









Twenty-fourth installment - first printed May 7, 1938



   Additional Mann history came to the writer's knowledge this winter in 
Philadelphia.  Meeting a physician there by that name, inquiry brought out 
the fact that he was the son of the minister at Milesburg, born there 
while his father supplied that charge.  He stated that his father and the 
axe makers were related; that Mann brothers emigrated to America, one of 
them settling in New York, another in Virginia and that he belonged to the 
Virginia branch of the family.  The axe makers, we know, came from New 
York.

   The house built by William Hunter more than 100 years ago has recently 
changed hands.  From William Hunter it went into possession of his son 
Frank, a veteran of the Civil War.  He sold it to Mr. and Mrs. James 
Sommers and boarded with them the rest of his life.  After the death of 
her husband 10 years ago, Mrs. Sommers sold the place to the David Keller 
family who lived in it until last fall when they moved to a farm and let 
the Axemann house go to Myron Reitz who, with his father-in-law, Foster 
Jodon, now occupies it.  Mrs. Sommers makes her present home with her 
brother in Centre Hall; her son, Edgar, who was reared in Axemann is a 
resident of Pleasant Gap, well known as an electrician.

   Forgotten on the hillside, unknown to many residents of the village is 
an old graveyard.  This was brought to my attention by Paul Miller who 
wondered if it might answer the question of where some of the old settlers 
were buried.  He had a story from his grandfather, George C. Miller, who 
bought a field from William Hunter, and was asked not to disturb one 
corner of it, because it was an ancient burial place.  Of whom Mr. Miller 
did not know.  It might have been Indians.  Mounds and markers had long 
since disappeared.

   Inquiry among the older folks brought out remnants of a tradition that 
early residents had made the cemetery.  Mr. Hughes remembered one funeral 
there when he was a small boy.  There are said to be about a dozen graves 
in the plot.  They hold the remains of who knows?

   Two other corrections have been made and gratefully received.  One tell 
that the Jerry Owens now living in the old homestead, who is the grandson 
of Josiah, is not William's nephew, but his son.  William being still 
alive and residing a Vicksburg, Pa.

   The other, also by Mrs. Gfrerer pertains to the church history.  The 
favor done to the church by William Crust was that of presenting it with a 
carbide lighting system which was used until it was displaced by 
electricity.  His picture, continues Mrs. Gfrerer, was never hung in the 
church.

   The writer is glad to make these corrections, and begs to say that Mrs. 
Gfrerer is an authority on the church history, as she has been a faithful 
member and supporter of it since it was established.  Another gift for it 
was a Bible for the pulpit given by Mr. and Mrs. G.W. Miller, now 
deceased.

   And so we come to the end of these simple annals - tales of bygone 
days; of Alexander Biggs, soldier of fortune, world weary refugee who 
dowered his daughter with a coffee pot filled with gold; of old Mr. 
Kinnear holding the banner of Methodism high in the forest; of Josiah and 
Amelia Owens walking 10 miles to church, each one carrying a child; of 
Harvey Mann, assistant to a lowly blacksmith, but marrying an aristocrat 
and establishing his own business whose products were sold beneath the 
southern cross; all these are characteristic of the life that has made 
America.

   And when and if the Great American Novel is universally acclaimed must 
it not contain such setting and characters as are here delineated?  Has 
not the real greatness of the country come from such people, good, but 
unassuming folks?



        "Who along the cool sequestered vales of life

         They kept the noiseless tenor of their way"