Area History: Part I: History of Pleasant Gap, Centre County, PA

Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Rick Hughes

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J. Thomas Mitchell Reviews
History of Pleasant Gap

This newspaper article has a handwritten date of 10-25-51 affixed to it. 
Considering as how the last paragraph encourages Mrs. Magargel to write a history
of Pleasant Gap it was more likely written in 1931.  

I am placing it before the History of Pleasant Gap because it offers a broader
overview of the history of the region

J. Thomas Mitchell, Esq., of Bellefonte, well known authority on Centre county
history gave the following interesting talk on the history of Pleasant Gap area
recently before the Women's Club of that area.  *    *    *

I am always glad to talk on local history.  It is most important in these days of
unsettled world conditions that our people should realize what has happened in the
past since the basic acts and inclinations of mankind are the same today as they
were yesterday.
Those descendants of colonial ancestors in this country should be particularly
interested in what their forefathers accomplished, but it has been forced upon my
attention in recent years that many persons, who have only lately come from the
Mediterranean races and of western Europe, are often stopped on the street by some
of the men who talked about some article of mine published in the weekly papers. 
Therefore, I am particularly please at this invitation.
In talking about local history to the citizens of Pleasant Gap, it seems most
pertinent to refer to one of the nearby curiosities of this region, the "Blue
Spring." This was a body of water flowing at the rate of nearly six millions of
gallons each 24 hours which in recent years has entirely disappeared owing probably
to the excavations around the State Fish Hatchery.
I remember when it was a clear stream about 12 feet wide and two feet deep issuing
directly from the side of a low hill.  This spring and the upper portion of Logan's
Branch was for many years the site of the camping ground of Logan, the great Indian
chief and his followers.  He was the son of the former chief of the Shawnese tribe
and is known to have lived in this section of Pennsylvania as early as the year
1766.  We might turn next to the reason for the existence of your town.  The first
settlements in these mountain regions of Pennsylvania were along water routes.  Bald
Eagle Creek, Penn's Creek, Spruce Creek and Logan's Branch, in the order named
attracted the first settlers since padding a canoe along these waters was much
easier than following the Indian trails of those days.  Remember, no roads existed
at the beginning of the colonization of this region, and an Indian trail could only
be followed by sharp eyed woodsmen.
The first road into what was to be Centre county was the one built by Reuben Haines
in 1772 to haul his lumber from Penn's valley to the river at Sunbury.  Two years
thereafter an addition to that road was laid out as far as what was to be James
Potter's "Old Fort," with a possible extension toward the Indian trail crossing
Nittany Mountain by means of McBride's Gap.  In the year 1779, when this section
became a part of Mifflin county the "Haines Road" was continued as far as Spruce
Creek Valley.
At the same time a road was authorized across the Seven Mountains and in 1790 a road
was laid out from the continuation of the Haines Road around the end of Nittany
Mountain through Nittany Valley to the Bald Eagle Creek.  That road followed the
general direction of the highway now extending from where Boalsburg now exists
through Centre Furnace to Logan's Branch where it crossed that creek at about the
location of the old stone house which stands on the other side of the stream near
the Fish Hatchery.  The first settlement in your section must have been prior to the
year 1790 and was probably just south of the Fish Hatchery by a family named
Connelly, since it is shown on the old Howell map of 1792.  The Connellys seemed to
disappear from our records in later years with one exception.  As early as 1790 the
stone house to which I have referred opposite the Hatchery on the west side of
Logan's Branch was erected by Alexander Dunlap, who ran a tavern at that place.
Tavern licenses were only granted in those days where the proprietor could show the
court that he had good stabling for the horses.  This was most important since his
inn was on what they then called a main highway.  The condition of the bed and board
for the traveling public was rarely considered, big beds were the custom and it was
common to have several men in each bed.  In the cold winters the guests sometimes
slept on the floor in front of the kitchen fire covered with robes and blankets.
About the year 1800, when Centre county was first erected, another road was directed
to be opened from the Centre Hall location across the mountain to Bellefonte.  In the
year 1806, by order of the court, this road was re-laid from Bellefonte to Nittany
Mountain at the mouth of the "Gap" your town now covers.  This road followed
generally the route of the highway now existing along the east side of Logan's
Branch.  With the appearance of this road and the former one around the end of the
mountain which joined each other at the Hatchery location all the travel from Penn's
Valley and the Ferguson township section of the county followed these routes.  To
picture conditions in the early years before the formation of our county we must
bear in mind that the first settler was Andrew Boggs who built a cabin near
Milesburg in 1769.  For the 15 years following there were probably not more than a
dozen families in Bald Eagle Valley.  Penn's Valley began to open for settlement in
1772 with the building of the Haines road, and during the years prior to the
Revolution was the most populous part of the county.  It was not until 1784, when
iron ore was discovered near Centre Furnace, that Nittany Valley began to secure its
share of colonists.  In 1785 William Lamb bought a large tract of land that included
what was to be Bellefonte town.  John Patton and Samuel Miles started the first
charcoal-iron furnace in 1792, calling it "Centre Furnace." Philip Benner made his
famous trek from Chester county with 92 persons in his train and started "Rock
Forge" ironworks in 1793.
The accomplishments of these two men of course increased the Nittany Valley
settlement as villages soon grew up around the two iron plants.  Miles Patton and
John Dunlop started "Harmony Forge" at Milesburg in 1795, to be followed by the
building of "Bellefonte Forge" by Dunlop in 1796 and his furnace at "Logan" in
1798.  Of course this started a rush of settlers to these sections.  While the
colonists were allowed to manufacture iron they were not permitted to reforge it or
to construct beams or tools.  Under the new republic this grew into the most
important industry of the day.
With the finding of iron-ore so much superior in quality to the heretofore found in
this country the mountain valleys of this state came into their own, within a dozen
years this population had furnished not only great ironmasters but actually great
judges, congressmen, and a senator of the United States.  The possession of forged
iron made its owner rich in the days when only a few hundred dollars promoted the
man to the upper-class of its citizenry.
These iron operations had to obtain their ore, charcoal and limestone by way of
roads, hence the ironmasters pushed the building of these highways to the best of
their ability, and as they had the money of the community their wishes were usually
carried out.  These plants were also forced to transport their finished product
either across or around Nittany Mountain to Sunbury, or to try to cross the Seven
Mountains to Lewistown.  This latter route was the most desired route since iron
brought high prices in the Pittsburgh market.  By the year 1800, when the county was
erected, the Pleasant Gap section was at the junction of the two main roads used by
the iron plants and conditions of living had greatly changed.  Nittany Valley,
including Half Moon Valley, from Stormstown to Zion, began to be dotted with
cultivated farms and at least two settlements had been definitely established in
lower Nittany Valley.  The Indian tribes had practically disappeared.  James Potter,
the younger son of the great general who at one time had been Vice-president of
Pennsylvania under its first constitution, had improved the "Old Fort" house
established by his father and had erected at least three houses and a new mill at
Potter's Mills.  Aaronsburg, Millheim, Spring Mills, Centre Hall and Earlysburg had
appeared as towns in Penn's Valley and a government post office was placed in
Aaronsburg, the first in the county.  Howard, Milesburg and a grouping of houses
around what was to be Unionville were to be found in the Bald Eagle Valley, as well
as settlements all along the "Officers' Surveys."  Among Milesburg's inhabitants were
to be found such names as Samuel Miles, a colonel in the Revolution and a former
mayor of Philadelphia, Richard Miles, his brother, also a captain in that war,
Joseph Green, the architect and carpenter who constructed both Centre Furnace and
Milesburg Forge, and the sons of Samuel Miles who afterwards became prominent in the
county, as well as Roland Curtin, the future ironmaster of that valley and the father
of our late governor.  The county seat in its five years of existence had grown into
a village of some two hundred people.  It was continually visited by Gen.  Philip
Benner, probably the greatest of our early ironmasters, as well as by Andrew Gregg,
then the congressman from our district.  Its own citizenship included such names as
Col. James Dunlop, his son, John, the ironmaster, Capt. James Harris, in 1801 a
state senator from this district, William Lamb, its first settler, James Smith who
owned all the land west of Spring Creek in that neighborhood, William Petrikin later
one of the county officials, John G.  Lowrey for years treasurer of the new county,
and Robert T. Stewart, a lawyer, who later joined John Lyon in the iron firm of
Lyon, Stewart & Co.  With this influx of men [of] distinction and ability the new
county at once assumed an extraordinarily prominent place in the councils of the
Commonwealth.  Together with the great ironmasters such as Patton, Benner and
Dunlop, one of the less than ten congressmen from Pennsylvania was Andrew Gregg. 
Samuel Miles was then a state senator and James Harris a representative in the
General Assembly.  Jonathan Walker, Charles Huston and Robert T. Stewart were among
the practicing attorneys.  With the increase of the iron plants there was probably
more wealth concentrated within fifteen miles of the county seat than in any other
county seat west of the cities of Reading and Lancaster.
During these years the territory between Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap was practically
neglected but with the completion of the furnace at Logan in 1798 land began to be
taken up in the southern part of Spring Township and farms were developed in your
neighborhood.  From 1800 to 1820 the effect of the iron industry was felt in another
way.  These plants owned many thousands of acres purchased merely for the hardwood
timber necessary for charcoal burning, much of which was along the northern side of
Nittany.  Hundreds of wagon loads of charcoal were hauled to the different furnaces
and many homes sprang up along the roads used for that purpose.  Several of the
letters of that time mention the charcoal burner's shacks along the route.  Many of
them may have been placed in the location now covered by your town.
Some time prior to 1820 an unusual state of circumstances had arisen.  Two men,
Lewis and Connelly, the latter having been a descendant of the Connelly family we
first talked about, formed a band of robbers who had their main hideout about where
the "Boy Scout" camp now exists in the Seven Mountains.  They held up several
individuals crossing the mountain between Pleasant Gap and Lewistown and finally
began to stop loaded wagons in that section.  A sheriff's posse chased them for
miles and captured the gang, both leaders being killed in the final fight.  A few
years before that time stage routes had been established from Sunbury to
Bellefonte.  These stages were pulled by at least four horses and later an extra
team was kept at the nearest toll-gate approaching each mountain.  A stage trip was
a rough journey since the horses were urged to gallop on the level roads to make up
for the slow movement they were forced to take on their mountain trips.  Sometimes
when they came to a marshy piece of road and the going was hard the cheaper class
passengers who were seated on the top of the vehicle were asked to get off and
occasionally to help push it along.
By 1822 the demand for a better route to the Juniata Valley were so importune as to
initiate the construction of the turnpike from Bellefonte to Brown's Mills, now
called Reedsville.  It abandoned the water route and cut straight across the
hills.  One of the first toll-gates then in use was located opposite what I have
always known as "Noll's Store," and later was moved a couple hundred yards to the
south up the mountain.  With the appearance of what was called a good road several
buildings were erected along its length.  I believe the eastern part of your town
was then laid out in a plot called "Harrisonville." John Blair Linn, in his
extremely valuable history of this county, seems to think that the first house to be
erected in Pleasant Gap was in 1845.  Perhaps that was the time when the town first
received that name.  I feel that many buildings of some nature came into being prior
to that time.
There must have been a gate house by the year 1825 when the turnpike began its
operations.  It is known that John Swaney built the original one and he must have
had a stable to care for the horses.  The original gate house was finally called the
"Green Tree Tavern." It later became the property of William Riddle and passed from
his hands into those of Gottlieb Hagg, who built a distillery adjoining it.  Of
course in the early days there was no such thing as a temperance organization. 
Practically everyone, even the ministers and elders of the church, used some form of
strong drink in the cold weather with their unwarmed houses.  Cabins or houses built
of hewn logs must have existed in various places along the roads to the mountain
which were replaced during the 1840's with more permanent structures.  Mr. Linn
does speak of James Hamilton who lived in 1824 in the stone tavern built by
Alexander Dunlap.  He also refers to John Furey who owned a farm in your section in
1826 and he writes at some length of George Lonbarger and his family who first
settled at the head of Logan's branch in 1829 and then moved to the north side of
Nittany where your town is now situate.  During the years just prior to the naming
of Pleasant Gap three newspapers appeared in our midst, the Bellefonte Patriot, the
Centre Democrat and Der Centre Berichter, the latter being published in Aaronsburg,
and printed entirely in German.  These were also the years when temperance societies
began to be organized.  They were, of course, endorsed by the managers of the iron
plants to keep their men from too much indulgence, however, from the letters of
those years they did not affect the habits of the bosses.  In 1835 came the adoption
of the public school system, which, however, did not go into full effect until the
year 1839.  At that time the papers announced that barely five percent of the
population of Pennsylvania could read and write.  This was particularly the reason
why the early constitution and laws of our country limited the qualification of our
voters to the possession of land or of a certain amount of money.  Politics were
rampant in those days with the rising of the Anti-Masonic party and the subsequent
existence of the Know-Nothing party.  The first came about because certain Masons
were supposed to have killed a member who wrote a book about their lodge secrets,
the second party arose to combat the influence of the swarms of Catholic- Irish who
were fleeing from famine in their land.  Political opinions were then personally
resented by each man's opponents.  All parties then were branches of the dominant
Democracy which swept into power under Andrew Jackson; besides the regulars there
were the Democratic-Republicans, the Anti-Masons, the Know-Nothings and the Whigs.
The erection of Clinton county in 1889, which took all our territory south of the
West Branch, was the cause of bitter personal strife even in the legislative
halls.  The temperance societies were so strong they even ran a temperance ticket,
and John Thompson of Half Moon Valley, as a temperance advocate, came very close to
beating the regular Democratic nominee for sheriff.  These were also the days of
militia organizations and companies of troops, riflemen and cavalry were formed in
every section of the county.  From 1846 to 1848 our young men were anxious to join
the war with Mexico.  Several of our militia companies volunteered as a body but
none were accepted.  However, a few of our individual citizens, like John Irvin
Gregg, a son of the Senator, did get into the scrap, when Gregg began his famous
military career.  In 1849 many of our residents attempted the long trip to the newly
discovered California gold fields.  One of these men, John Bilger, the former owner
of the "Centre Democrat," was elected as the first Governor of that new state in
1850.  In the same year that his younger brother, William, who had also work on the
same paper in Bellefonte, was elected Governor of Pennsylvania.
By 1840 Spring Township had nearly 1800 residents and almost 2500 by the next ten
years, and many homes had been built along the road leading to the top of Nittany
Mountain.  By that time Centre had assumed a leading place among the counties of the
Commonwealth on account of its great iron industries.  It had furnished a Senator of
the United State in the person of Andrew Gregg.  Andrew Gregg in 1823 and James
Irvin in 1847 had both been nominated for Governor although neither was
successful.  Henry Petrikin was the leading Democratic politician of those years and
always occupied one of the official sinecures.  Thomas Burnside, John Mitchell,
William W.  Potter and John Blanchard had been some of our congressmen.  Charles
Huston and Thomas Burnside were successively Justice of the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania.
It would take more time than I am allowed tonight to describe the growth of your
town in the last hundred years.  It has been wonderful to see how it has grown and
the real beauty not only of your homes but of your location.  I will close simply by
referring to the fact that our own progressive citizens started to exploit the
marvelous vein of limestone extending along your mountain.  This business alone,
when completely developed, should, in the next quarter century, see Pleasant Gap as
one of the largest communities in our commonwealth.  I am going to take this
opportunity to urge that your club consider the project of writing a history of
Pleasant Gap.  You have among your membership a lady fully competent to undertake
such a work in Mrs. George Magargel.
Old letter, church records, store books, the newspapers of the period would be
valuable sources, and Mr. Linn's history should give your historian a start.  This
might cost a little money but would be well worth the while to your children and
grandchildren.

 

		History of Pleasant Gap

		By Mrs. Myrtle Magargel

This is the first installment of the History of Pleasant Gap.  It appeared in the
Centre Daily Times March 16, 1936
Reprinted starting      December 1, 1975 Transcribed by Rick Hughes, January, 1997

Fourth in size in Centre County, the town of Pleasant Gap is steadily growing.  It
lies at the foot of Nittany Mountain, on the northern side, and was founded,
according to sign boards erected by the state, in 1845.  Long before this, however,
settlements were made by the ancestors of its oldest families.  So many interesting
stories are told of those early days, and so fascinating is the development of the
village, that it seems worthwhile to make them into a permanent record.  Such an
account must necessarily be limited -- it's a difficult thing to do with such a
wealth of material at hand.  Unless otherwise mentioned, all facts herein recorded
have been verified.
The sources of the narrative are "Linn's History of Centre County," various deeds
and records in the court house, and most important of all, the living witnesses of
those bygone days, men and women whose years are drawing to an end, whose
recollections must be embalmed if they are not to be forever lost.  As early as
1770, a survey of land was made by Patrick Travis, or Traverse, which included the
environs of Pleasant Gap and extended as far east as Hecla.  About this time a man
named Treaster located on the mountainside west of the present village and raised
his family there.  His clearing became later the Larimer farm, which is now owned by
Charles Spicher and Harry Breon.
The Cornplanter Indian tribe lived around here then and were friendly with the
Larimer family.  Logan, the famous chief, had a camp near by, and the Indians often
came to visit him.  The tale is told, and believed to this day, of a lead mine or
pocket somewhere up on the hill of the Larimer farm, which the Indians located and
from which they brought out the lead but would never tell the white men; nor has
anyone found it yet.  The Larimers moved away from the farm and down to a house in
Pleasant Gap soon after the new turnpike was put through.  The house is still known
to the older folks as "The Old Larimer Place," and it lies below the cross roads,
being today the home of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Bell.
Crossing the Larimer, now Breon, farm is an old trail which was a packhorse path
from Philadelphia.  It followed an Indian path to Pittsburgh, which led past the
Blue Spring.  At this spring in 1782 Hugh Connelly built a rude tavern.
Another authority says that Daniel Dunlop, of Lancaster, built an inn here in
1784.  There is some likelihood that Dunlop added to the first structure, as was
frequently done then and later.  At any rate, both dates are later than the Great
Runaway, when all white settlers left the frontiers during the Revolution, and
although the peace was not signed in 1782, the Indians were sufficiently cowed to
allow the more venturesome to return and make settlements in the coveted territory.
This road by the Blue Spring has continued to be a public thoroughfare to this
day.  It is one of the oldest in the neighborhood and is the one on which the State
Fish Hatchery is located.  The Spring itself deserves a word in passing.  It is
reputed to be bottomless.  According to current belief, it has swallowed, at one
time or another, a team of oxen, a large copper kettle, and a number of small
animals, sheep, calves, chickens more of them than the raconteurs can remember. 
Mothers still warn their offspring not to go near it, and are uneasy if the school
children who must pass it do not get home on time.  Practically all of what is now
Pleasant Gap was once the property of Michael Swaney, or Swiney or Sweeny.  The
second spelling is the old Scotch-Irish.  The third is the legal, as found on
documents, and the first is the local pronunciation..
He came to this country when he was 24 years old, and with his wife, Martha Steele,
took up wild land from Harrisburg at one-half cent per acre.
There is no record of this in the Centre County court house, so it must have been
some time before 1800 when Centre County was formed.  One account gives him 22
tracts of land.  Another account says he owned 234 acres.  The boundaries of his
possessions seem to have been the Fureys on the east, the Ross acres on the north
and the Nolls on the south.  This latter is not verified, nor has his western
boundary been certified.  The Steele farm lay to the west of the Larimers.  It is
still in possession of the family heirs, being owned and occupied by Mrs. Crotzer,
whose father was a Steele.
Four of Michael Swaney's children stayed in this place and settled on their father's
acres.  His son John is recorded as having built the first house in Pleasant Gap in
1845 at the Cross Roads and in it keeping a tavern called the Green Tree Inn.
It is declared, however, by one of the Swaney descendants that she remembers her
mother said a man named Bates kept the tavern before John Swaney went in to it.  It
had a bar room on the lower side, and was not nearly as large as the house is now. 
John Swaney made an addition to it when he moved in.  The house is still standing
and in good condition.  It is now owned by George Gettig and is occupied by them and
also by their daughter and her family.
The old Swaney home was a cabin located near the railroad that connects White Rock
quarries with the main line.   In the midst of the dense woods it was alive with
wild animals.  Many times did the father rise to drive the wolves from his door at
night.
His nearest neighbors were a mile away, and although other settlers came into the
Upper Bald Eagle Township in sufficient numbers to allow a new township, Spring, to
be erected in 1801, it was for the most part wilderness with each family living in
isolation in its own little clearing, for many years.




[Second installment - first printed March 17, 1936]

Among the families recorded as neighbors of the Swaneys, or at least part of Spring
Township that fed the town of Pleasant Gap, are the following names: Treaster,
Larimer, Ross, Baird, Furey, Mease, Florey, Hamilton, Lonbarger, Rothrock, Jodon,
Weaver, Swartz, Gill, Tate, Steele, Riddle, Noll, Hile, Waddle, Benner, Barnes,
Harrison, Krise and Horner.
Besides John Swaney, three of his sisters married and stayed near home.  One married
William Riddle, another John R. Tate and the third married Elijah Gettle.
Riddle's wife died and he married a second time, but inasmuch as a considerable
acreage in the village was owned by Riddle, apparently carved out of the Swaney
land, it is highly probable that the Riddle land was part of the Swaney girl's dower.
Martha, who married Tate, lived in a new house still known as the "old Tate home,"
located between the houses of Mrs. Verda Rimmey and Perry Krise, and now owned by
White Rock.  The Gettles built and occupied the house now owned by the Zimmerman
heirs, and housing for the past few years the Frank Irvin family.  While not the
oldest, these houses are among the first ones built on the new pike.  The Ross home
lay north of the Swaneys, and part of the Ross acres are still in possession of
William Ross, son of Joseph Ross, grandson of the William Ross who came from Ireland
in 1822.  The year 1800 had seen the first Ross in this country, Joseph Ross, who
came with his brother-in-law, William Baird.  The death of William Ross and his
legacy of American land to the brother still in Ireland, made the latter an
immigrant.  The first house was a small cabin in a meadow below town.  Here
William's son Joseph was born.  Later, the stone house was built a short distance
below on the public road.  The farm now owned by the second William, who rents it
with his tenant living in the stone house, is part of the first clearing of the
brothers.  That the acreage was a large one is proven by the fact that they erected
their second stone house on the farm at a considerable distance from the first.  It
is still used.  Wings have been added, the lawns have been landscaped, and the
entire effect now is that of an age old classic home.  It is a show place for
thousands of people every year, for it is the residence of the superintendent of
Rockview penitentiary.  The Baird property lay across a small stream from that of
his brother-in-law Ross.  The same spring fed the stream and supplied water to both
families, each building his own spring house.  While the Ross home has remained in
the family, the Bairds long ago disposed of their share.
The name Baird is quite well known in town and is borne by more than one family, but
they are said to be of different stock, that came later to the Gap.
The Ross family, on the contrary, has one male resident, with his little grandson,
Joe, and two ladies, the latter being Mrs. Roy Bell and Miss Belle Ross, both
sisters of William Ross, who live near the Bell home.  Miss Belle Ross has been
housekeeper at Rockview for more that 15 years.  Mrs. Roy Bell still has a cradle
belonging to the first Ross baby in America.
The Larimer family came from Lebanon County.  John and Hugh Larimer appear at the
same time as owners of land against the mountain.  John's sons were John Gibson,
usually written J.G., Adam and Harry.  J.G. later moved down to a house below the
Cross Roads, now occupied by Roy Bell, but still called "The Old Larimer Place" by
the older residents of the town.  Harvey Larimer remained on the farm until he
died.  The only ones in the Gap at present to carry on the name are J.G.'s son Rush,
now 83 years old, and his son John, together with John's family.  The old gentleman
lives with his son and the family.  He is unusually active for his years, many of
which were spent in Lock Haven as a druggist.  The rest of the Larimer family is
scattered over the country, as are many others who were born and reared in Centre
County.




[Third installment - first printed March 18, 1936]

The Fureys originally came from Ireland and moved from Carlisle to Centre County on
pack-horses.  They cleared their farm to the east of what is now the Zion road.  The
old Furey house stood across the road from the present home of Frank Brooks, a mile
below Pleasant Gap.   When Mrs. Furey went to visit her neighbors, the Swaneys, she
made the trip on horseback through the woods that were so dense she could see the sky
above her only at the cross-roads, when there was a small clearing.  One of the Furey
daughters married Hugh Beatty Tate, and became the mother of two ladies who reside in
the Gap today, Mrs. Rachel Noll and Mrs. Blanche Fetteroff.
Mrs. Noll is the older, now up in her 70s, and has an excellent memory.  The writer
is indebted to her for much information concerning the past.  Neither woman has a
family and the name Furey, while heard often in other places, is no longer
registered in Pleasant Gap.
The Mease family came here from Lebanon County.  Mr. Mease owned 800 acres of land
in Benner Township.   Martin Mease II came from his father's home in Penn's valley
and lived for a time on what is now state land, occupying the site where the
chaplain of the prison lives.  Then he built a grist mill on Logan branch, near the
site of the fish hatchery.
The exact location of the mill can be determined by the old stone ruins by the
hatchery barn.  The mill was on the road spoken of as originating from an Indian
path between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and was completed in 1830.  He also built
himself a stone house against the hills, now occupied by the Fetzers, and is said to
have built the house which is the present residence of the superintendent of the
hatchery.  While not verified, this may be true.  The wide floorboards and other
evidences show that it is an old house.  Mr. Mease also built the stone house near
the Pleasant Gap railroad station, but did not live in it himself.  This is the old
Hamilton home.
The name Mease is no longer heard in the neighborhood, but the family survives
through the distant side.  Two Mease daughters married brothers named Keller. 
M.M. Keller and his sisters, Mrs. A.D. Smeltzer and Mrs. R.W. Noll belong to
the Mease family.
The Swartz family came to this section from Millheim at the close of the
Revolution.  Like many others, Henry Swartz settled in a small cabin on the side of
Nittany Mountain.  His father, George Swartz, had gone to Millheim in 1792, but
Henry crossed over and began to clear the 300 acres which his father had
purchased.  Henry Swatrz was among the first to live against the mountain.  Among
those to follow him were Jacob Gill, Samuel Noll, Jonathan Krise, the Knofsingers,
the Kaufmans, Horners, Floreys, Lonbargers and other families.  Henry Swartz lived
first in a collier's hut, but after three years he moved into a log cabin.  From the
log cabin in 1840 he moved into what Linn calls "a brick mansion" that he built for
himself.  The wood used for the inside finish of this mansion was brought up from
Philadelphia to Lewistown by canal boat and from Lewistown hauled over the mountain
by teams.
The house is now owned by White Rock.  Henry's son, Andrew, left it to move to
Pleasant Gap 43 years ago.   After Andrew's death, his widow continued to live here
until she passed away.  Elmer, son of Andrew, who had been living in the brick house
on the farm, then came to Pleasant Gap with his family and occupied the house his
father and mother died in.  Now he is gone and his widow and their daughter, Mrs.
Margaret Swartz Schreffler are in the same town house.
Another daughter of the Swartz's is Mrs. Harry Breon, who, although not living in
the village, is considered a resident because of the proximity of the Breon farm.
The term "collier's hut" may need some explanation.  These colliers were charcoal
burners who denuded the side of the mountain for wood to turn into charcoal, which,
in turn fed the furnace fires in the early days of iron smelting.   One of the
furnaces was located at Hecla and many men made a living by selling charcoal
there.  A man might not always take his family to the woods to burn charcoal, but
would erect a little hut and live by himself while at his long hours of work.
Whether or not that is what Henry Swartz did is not stated, but it is not
impossible, as some provision had to be made for the timber that was cut in clearing
the land.  If a man could sell it as charcoal, he would find that was preferable to
merely burning the logs.




[Fourth installment - first printed March 19, 1936]

Jacob Gill, founder of the Gill family, and for whom Gilltown was named, bought his
land from Henry Swartz.  There was a road along the base of Nittany at that time,
used by the men who traveled back and forth between Hecla and the charcoal burners'
dwellings.  That road gave the mountainside people an outlet.  Later, they
identified themselves with Pleasant Gap, and when the Zion road was opened, the old
one fell into disuse.  Two of Jacob's sons, Isaac and Amos, stayed in the
neighborhood and the other children went west.  Amos himself married and lived in
Gilltown, but none of his male descendants are living.  Isaac was the father of
three sons who live now in Pleasant Gap, all men up in years, the oldest being
J.W. Gill, while the other two are Albert and Nathaniel.
J.W. has been mail carrier between the post office of the Gap and the railroad
station ever since the route was let with the exception of two years during that
time.  He is a member of the Four Score Year Club and it is his sons who will be
mentioned later in this history in connection with White Rock.  Jonathan Krise "took
up" land on Nittany Mountain when he was a young man about 90 years ago.  His son
Perry, who lives in Pleasant Gap, is 76 years old, remembers that his father had 50
acres cleared out of the 100 his deed called for when he died at the time Perry was
five years old.  The only other son, Henry, went to war and was killed at the battle
of Gettysburg.  His name is on the monument in Bellefonte.  He was only 16 when he
enlisted.  That left Perry to take the man's place in the home.  There were eight
sisters.  One of them, Elizabeth, is still living in Los Angeles, at the age of
92.  The Krise girl buried in the old graveyard was his sister.  When Perry grew old
enough, he cleared 10 more acres himself, and farmed the entire 60.  The Krises also
picked huckleberries on the high knoll of the mountain, and with the Horner family
living near them huckstered the berries in Bellefonte.  Sometimes they could pick 40
quarts in a day, and never less that 20.  The berries sold at 10 cents per quart.
After the death of Mrs. Jonathan Krise, the farm was sold to William Knoffsinger,
and it is now owed by Mrs. Pearl Waite.  The Horner family which still occupies the
mountain farm although it, too, is owned by Mrs. Warne, bought it from Abram Florey,
great-grandfather of R.E. Florey who lives with his father, William Florey, in a new
house at the lower end of the town.
Abram Florey, after selling his partly cleared land of 75 acres to Eli Horner, went
farther out along the mountain towards Lemont and cleared another farm.  This was
smaller and its acres extended down about to the reservoir of Rockview.  The Abram
was the father of Mrs. Mary Lex and of "Joe" Florey who lived in what was then the
new house beside the Methodist church as has been mentioned already as the Florey
place.  John Horner, Eli's son, berried and made quite a productive farm out of the
old Florey clearings.  John was the father of George Horner who recently died, and
the grandfather of the Samuel Horners who live in Horntown.




[Fifth installment - first printed March 20 and 21, 1936]

Between the Florey clearing and the road over Nittany Mountain was the Lonbarger
settlement.  It was opened by Wash Lonbarger, Wash being the undignified
abbreviation for George Washington.  Mr. Lonbarger had a number of sons who helped
him in his task.  Their names were Pierce, Oscar, George and "Dode".  There were
also two daughters.
It was Oscar who came down to Pleasant Gap and made his home in Horntown, where his
widow and sons still live.  The younger son, Curtis, occupies the house with his
mother, and has a small barber shop at the lower end of town in which he works
evenings after his day's employment at the Fish Hatchery.  Another son is also
employed at the hatchery.
The Lonbargers originally came form York in 1809.  The first of the family settled
in Bellefonte, and about 1834 went to the Nittany Mountain acreage, which was then
wholly untenanted.  Known as the old Lonbarger road, a little traveled dirt road
branches off from the state highway a mile or so above Pleasant Gap and winds up and
westward.  On this are the ruins of the old school house, and father out, open fields
partly grown up with brush.  This is the site of the old settlement.  Beside the
Lonbargers, who made their home there, were later the Fureys, John Housers, "Ad"
Hoover and a family named Raymond.  Some lived on top of the mountain and counted
Centre Hall the more convenient post office.  The Black Hawk road provided one
outlet for these folks, and the road down through McBride's Gap another.
When Rockview penitentiary was instituted, all this land was bought up by the
state.  A number of buildings still in use were torn down and it is estimated that
the number of acres under cultivation in that section which are no longer tilled is
around 500.
The Hamiltons lived near the railroad station in an old stone house built by Mr.
Mease.  Mr. Hamilton came to this section from Pine Grove, a descendant of the Carr
family.  It is he who helped establish Pleasant Gap Methodism by material
assistance.  So far as known, there are none of the Hamilton descendants in the
neighborhood.
The Noll family has lived in this part of Centre County since 1801.  The family
itself sent its first representative to America from Rotterdam, Holland, in 1732. 
He landed in New York and later found himself in Lebanon County where his
descendants stayed until John George Noll pushed on to this side of Nittany Mountain
and settled near Rock Forge.
His four sons were named Samuel, George, Henry and Emmanuel.  George Noll built the
little house across from T.E. Jodons and reared his family there.  Samuel cleared
and lived on the farm that is now owned by John Holubec and lies between the
mountain road and Gilltown on the side of Nittany Mountain.  He had three sons,
William Henry, John and Samuel, and two daughters.  Samuel married Rachel Tate, who
is still living in the village and has been mentioned before as Mrs. Rachel Noll,
her husband having died years ago.  The couple was childless.
Henry settled on the Sunday farm, then called the Abe Stein farm, and his children
were born there.  When his son John was a little chap, the family moved to a new
home that they had bought and built a house on.  This was the land now owned by
H.J. Markle, on the right-hand side going down.  John or "Jack," as he is best
known around his home town, remembers that he sat in the stove oven as the household
goods were carried in wagons from the Stein farm to the new place.  "Jack" and his
little friend, Abe Stein, perched on the road, found the stove oven door was open
and youngster-like crawled in and traveled in triumph together.
Other children of William Henry were the two brothers, William and Abner, who owned
and operated the Noll Brothers store at the upper end of town since 1882; Boyd, of
Zion; James C., a lawyer, who practiced in Bellefonte, then went to Oklahoma, and
died there, and another brother, Samuel, is also deceased.  The generation
succeeding this one is almost too well known to need mention.  Of the two brothers,
William H. and Abner, the first has three children, Samuel Sr., associated with the
older men in the store; Henry T., who enjoys the distinction of being one of the
state's pioneer aviators, having been flying for more than 12 years, and conducting
an aviation school here at home, and the daughter, Mrs. R.S. Melroy, who is also
in the mercantile business with her husband.
Children of William H. include four daughters, living out of town with their
husbands, and the youngest one, Miss Ethel, who teaches in the brick school house,
at home; also a son, Ray C., residing in Pleasant Gap, and general manager of White
Rock for 12 years.
Gilbert Noll, living in Pleasant Gap but maintaining an office in Bellefonte as
interior decorator, is a descendant of John George, who was his great-grandfather. 
Gilbert Noll was also district chairman of the Democratic party of Spring Township.



[Sixth installment - first printed March 24 and 25, 1936]

The first route of the Bellefonte and Lewistown turnpike passed to the east of the
present highway, and approximated the Horntown road thru the Gap.  It was on this
that Thomas Harrison laid out his plan of lots for the  village to be known as
Harrisonville.  It was recorded in the court house in 1846.  It provided for two
streets parallel to the turnpike, which is now the Horntown road, the one on the
west side to be named Pine and on the east Oak street.  Crossing these three streets
at approximately right angles are four more streets, spaced at intervals of five
lots, and named in order, Walnut, Chestnut, Furey and Logan, Walnut being nearest to
a road traced and marked "Road to Nittany Mountain." Beyond Pine street appeared
Michael Sweeney's holdings.
Harrison sold lots in 1834 to Elias Horne and to David Horne in 1835.  Other buyers
were John Poorman, James Harrison, Peter Markel, William A. Clark, William Blair,
and in 1893 Thomas Harrison's heirs continued the sale.
Elias Horne is said to have been a shoemaker.  He paid $11.50 for the 50 foot front
and 300 feet back that constituted his venture into a planned village.  It is
doubtless his name that is carried on as Horntown.  His house is only two doors from
the one erected and still designated as the old Harrison place and occupied every
summer by Mrs. Etta Grethers, who is the grand-daughter of Thomas Harrison.  Tom
Taylor was another buyer.  He put up a blacksmith shop and its ruins attracted
children 30 years ago who played on its site and found old horseshoe nails and
pieces of iron there.  It set opposite the house owned by H.V. Kile, and now rented
to the Kline family.
It was in Harrisonville that the Riddles lived.  William Riddle married one of
Michael Swaney's daughters.   They lived first in a house that is now torn down, but
it was located a short distance north of the brick home they put up later, which is
directly below the Hile place, above mentioned.  William was twice married and had
two sons, Hugh, son of the Swaney girl; Matthew, son of the second wife, named
Taylor.  In 1845 the route of the turnpike was changed.  No longer did it pass
through Harrisonville, but took a course almost identical with the state highway
between Bellefonte and Lewistown as it runs today.  The newly formed hamlet was cut
off from the main artery of travel, and people who built here afterwards generally
preferred to live along the Pike, as it is still called.
The first house on the new road was John Swaney's tavern at the Cross Roads.  A man
named Bates kept it at first, but after he went out, Swaney made an addition to it
and kept tavern there himself.  He called it the Green Tree Tavern.  The land, of
course, had belonged to his father, Michael.  Michael and his wife, by the way, are
buried in the Union cemetery in Bellefonte.
The second house was the Ammerman place, already mentioned and located.  Other homes
among very early ones but not dated exactly are those of Swaney's daughters, Martha
and Mary, both on the new road, while another daughter married to William Riddle
lived in Harrisonville the few years before she died.  Mary Swaney, who married John
R. Tate, lived below the Methodist church in the house with two front doors
belonging now to White Rock.  It must have been a very fine house in its day but now
is rented to employees of the White Rock company.  It stood by itself until the Tate
sons, Potter and Scott, each built himself a house on either side of his father's
home.  In the Potter Tate house, his daughter Mrs. Verda Tate Rimmey now lives
alone.  The Scott Tate house is owned by Perry Krise who also occupies it by
himself.  Martha Swaney married Elijah Gettle and a house was built for them on the
same side of the road, in a little clearing.  The White Rock road has been opened
opposite.  It is owned now by the Zimmerman heirs, and has been occupied lately by
the Frank Irvin family.




[Seventh installment - first printed March 25 and 26, 1936]

Beside the Methodist church was Joe Florey's new house, which he bought before it
was finished, and completed.  The Hugh Beatty Tate place, now owned by his daughter,
Mrs. Blanche Fetteroff, stood near the Cross Roads.  On the present Griffith
location was an old building, long since torn down.  Above the Methodist church on
almost the exact spot, was a small cottage where Mrs. Armstrong lived.  The present
Armstrong family in town is a lineal descendant of this woman.  Above her place was
the Robert Barnes house, now occupied by his son Frank, and having the usual
addition to enlarge it.  A log house stood on the site of Mrs. Mary Baumgardner's
home.  This burned down a few years ago, having caught fire from a bake shop
operated on the premises.  The small house opposite T.E. Jodon was there, having
been put up by George Noll, son of John George Noll and brother of Samuel who is
grandfather to Abner and William Noll.
Next came the Gettle house, and finally one built for Mrs. Emma Jodon Swarm by her
brothers in Axemann.  It was built for her when she married John Swarm who was a
carpenter and preferred to live in this place because it was handy to towns where he
could ply his trade.  This house is the one Henry Noll now occupies.  On the opposite
side of the road was the school house, standing by itself with one house near.  That
was the one William Shuey now lives in.  It was owned by Henry Eckenroth who taught
school in the nearby building and also kept a little store in a small shop that is
now a house occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Waite at this writing.  The Waites are
about to move to one of the White Rock farm houses, but it will remain their
property, Mrs. Waite having formerly owned it with her husband, William Klinger. 
Mr. Eckenroth was a veteran of the Civil War and had lost an arm in the service.
Another house was that now occupied by George Deibler.  That building is said to
have been moved here from Hecla, and was inhabited by a family named Cox.
The house across the railroad track was the third and remaining house on the west
side of the new pike at that time.  It was a log house, and was called the Fishburn
place by the older residents, but housed a family named Corman.  Miss Alpha Corman
kept a millinery shop in one of the rooms.  Charles Schreffler owns it now.  
Additions have been made, as usual, the entire place has been weather boarded, and
no one would suspect that it was built of logs so many years ago.
Above the Swarm home was the business center of Pleasant Gap.  It consisted of the
store, located where William Noll's house now stands, a saddler shop and two houses
owned by John Barnes now the property of Harry Bilger on one side, on the other the
hotel, a house now owned and occupied by John Noll, and farther up the road, the
farm house now owned by the Nolls.  An old house near the foot of the mountain was
called the toll gate house.
Out from the Cross Roads toward Zion, scurrilously known as Sheep street, were the
house now occupied by John Ripka, first by Squire Thompson; the one now tenanted by
the Park family, then owned by John Harrison; the Henry Noll home which burned down
and was located about where H.J. Markle has built a concrete house, and the
foundations of the Jerry Eckenroth house which is now owned by Harry Ishler.  Below
the Cross Roads was the Rapp place, now owned by the Colburns, John Furey's place
which is the old Florey place, through the marriage of John Furey's daughter Ida to
William Florey and their long residence there.  The Larimer home is now owned by Roy
Bell, but was built by a Mr. Ammerman and at first consisted of only two rooms, one
up and one down, and the log house is now occupied by John Tate, once the home of
Johnny D. Miller, a school teacher.
Between the Cross Roads and what was once known as Lauvertown, now Peru, there were
none of the present day dwellings.
The town grew slowly.  Practically all the men had to go away from home to find
work.  A shoemaker, blacksmith, store keeper or the toll gate keeper might make a
living in the village with the aid of his garden, poultry, pigs and cow, but these
occupations were limited to one man, respectively.  Most of the others worked at
mine banks that furnished ore for Bellefonte's furnace.  Some went to the furnace
itself, or to the axe factory at Axemann, or to the woods, Green Valley being the
nearest lumbering point.
But wherever they went the pay was pitifully small.  In the mine bank, a man worked
10 hours for 80 cents; eight cents per hour.  The "boss" made 12 and a half cents
per hour or $1.25 per day.  The so-called "bank" might be Gatesburg, Warsaw, Taylor
or Nigh Bank, as they all lay near together and paid the same.  Men walked there and
back on their own time.  For the workers in Pleasant Gap in those days, life was
little more than work, eat and sleep six days out of seven.
 



[Eighth installment - first printed March 27 and 28, 1936]

Men also went to State College to dig cesspools.
Some were more skillful and had learned to do carpentering, and so engaged
themselves at that.  They might drive a horse back and forth, some carpenters
keeping a horse for that purpose.  Their pay ran a little higher, something like
$1.15 per day and later a trifle more, but all eked out life with strict economy and
the most meager of comforts, compared with what we enjoy today.
When the children grew old enough to work, the boys were often put on farms for the
summer, getting their board and lodging, and $6 per month for doing a good share of
a man's work.  The girls went to "live out" as they called it, usually with some
farmer's wife a $1 per week.  If she was a good girl who could bake, wash, iron,
churn, scrub and nurse the wife through sickness she might get $1.25.  A really good
girl, who in addition to all these other duties, could milk eight or nine cows night
and morning, was worth $1.50 per week.  Very few of the houses were plastered.  None
at all were papered at first.  One woman says that when paper hangers came to work at
the second Methodist church, they boarded with her mother and for their board,
papered her parlor and hall, which was considered a great attraction.  Some folks
did not even have plaster on their walls.  Everybody burned wood in the kitchen and
coal was a luxury reserved for the "room stove," if used at all.  Furnaces were
unheard of.  Practically all the houses, unless built very recently, have had
additions put to them from time to time.  Most of the early ones consist of the
regulation two rooms in front and two or three upstairs with a closed stair and
cellar way.
These have been remodeled by adding a kitchen to the back, raising the roof and
making its pitch steeper, and generally, changing the closed stairway into an open
staircase.  Sometimes small shops, or wood houses have been moved to be made into
summer kitchens, connected to the house.  Always, unless the original structure has
been too old to remodel, it has formed the nucleus that has developed into a
comfortable and attractive home.
It was on Ross land along Logan Branch that the earliest school was established. 
The year is given as 1808 and names of the pupils attending it included Baird,
Mease, Hamilton, Swaney, Noll, Waddle and Moore.  Its teachers were James Harbison,
Malcolm Ander, Charles Nab and Lewis McKean.  Seven or eight years later this school
house was moved down to Logan Forge and another put up on John Furey's land.  In the
Furey school the roll bore such names as Swartz, Poorman, Furey and McLellan.  Its
teachers included Joseph Williams, Miss Blakeney and David Keller.  At the Logan
Forge school Miss Blakeney was also a teacher, as were John Thompson, James
Moreland, Harvey McClanahan, Charles Larimer and the Rev. Kotalow.




[Ninth installment - first printed March 30, 1936]

No date has been ascertained of the erection of the Horntown schoolhouse.  The land
was donated by the Riddles.  Therefore, it was sometime after William Riddle married
one of Michael Swaney's daughters.  Riddle's land had been part of the Swaney acreage
and no doubt was secured on the same terms that the other Swaney girls and their
brother, John, obtained theirs.  By 1836, the schoolhouse was in use.  It was
centrally situated for the district, and superseded the Furey school.   Moreover, it
was located in the proposed town of Harrisonville and seemed an ideal spot for a
schoolhouse.  The site, even today, is the best of the three schools in the town, so
far as playground facilities are concerned.  The first schoolhouse in what is now
Pleasant Gap saw yeoman service.  It was the first meeting place of the Methodists,
who were the first religious society in the village.  It housed the winter revivals
of four and six weeks in the evenings when excitement was intense and people came
for miles to the meetings.  Today's generation cannot conceive the emotionalism that
was loosed in those early days when life meant mostly work, and the only legitimate
outlet for a man's feelings came with the winter "Big Meetin'." One of the men who
went to the first Horntown school, and has vivid recollections of being whipped at
least two or three times a day (so he says); is John Noll, who lived with his father
and brother down near the present Markle farmhouse.  John Schreffler is the teacher
that "Jack" Noll remembers as the man who laid on the rod to big and little alike
whenever he thought they needed it.
Another of Mr. Noll's recollections is that of moving from his birthplace on the
Sunday farm to their new home.   He and a little boyfriend went on top the load of
moving.  The stove went too, with its oven door open, and little Abe Stine and Jack
Noll sat in the oven as they rode along.
The first Horntown schoolhouse was moved away from the school ground where the
second one was constructed.  Some say it is now serving as a barn on the house
occupied by John Deibler, but another authority insists that John Deibler's barn was
once the first schoolhouse on the Pike.  The brick schoolhouse on the state road is
also the third one to be placed there.  That land, too, was donated by the Riddles
with the same proviso as that of Horntown: that when no longer used for school
grounds, it should go back to the heirs.
The first schoolhouse had but one room.  Nobody now living remembers when there was
not a schoolhouse there.
The last teacher to keep school was Abner Noll, and the first teachers in the new
[two] room building were Miss J. Jennie Twitmire and Samuel Noll.  Miss Jennie had
the primary room and Mr. Noll the grammar school.  This was opened in 1891, and
school continued to be held in it until the spring of 1928.  Before this, however,
the number of pupils had so increased that a building was rented from Noll Brothers
and school kept in it, as well as in the other three rooms already provided by the
township.  Two rooms were provided in the rented building.
With the erection of the new brick schoolhouse, it was supposed that all the pupils
would be housed in the one building.  This was found to be wholly impossible.  The
two rooms rented from the Noll Brothers had been given up and the high school and
the grammar school both brought down to the new building.  But all the rooms were
overcrowded, and no place at all was left for the smaller children.  This, of
course, had been foreseen before the opening of the school, and so the directors
continued to use the old Horntown schoolhouse, putting the youngest children there
because of its better and safer playground.  This latter arrangement has continued
to this day.
It was soon found that the high school must vacate the brick building. 
Representatives from Harrisburg demanded that more room be given, more
paraphernalia, and two teachers instead of one, if the town were to keep the high
school.  So Noll Brothers were again asked to come to the rescue with the same
building, which had stood vacant for two years, and the high school moved back,
occupying both up and downstairs this time in 1930.




[Tenth installment - first printed March 31 and April 1, 1936]

After the new code establishing high schools was formulated early in 1900, Pleasant
Gap started its high school in the lower room of the schoolhouse on the Pike.
For a time the eighth grade occupied the same room, but later it was put back with
the other grades, with the high school functioning alone.
Only one teacher was employed.  Latin, algebra, general history, geometry, English
and other subjects prescribed by the curriculum were taught.
In time the enrollment of the schools increased so much that it was necessary to
find more room.  The hall above Noll's store was vacant, and it was according
furnished for the high school.  This was about 1915.  When the knitting mill closed
down, that building was opened both upstairs and down, the high school keeping
sessions upstairs and the grammar downstairs.
In the Pike schoolhouse the lower room was used for fourth and fifth grades, while
the room on the upper side accommodated primary children from the west side of town.
Horntown schoolhouse was given over to the youngsters of Horntown, who had not yet
attained the fourth grade.
With the building of the new brick schoolhouse, the grade lines were more sharply
drawn, and all pupils enrolled in the first and second grades were sent to Horntown,
where the playground was larger and safer than the one at the new building.
It is not possible to list all the high school teachers.  Among the names mentioned
are: Shuman Williams, S.L. Wilson, Leslie Gilliland, Miss Mary Twitmire (now Mrs.
Wade Evey), Prof. Shuman, Prof. Gramley , Roscoe Treaster, Harold Wion, L.E.
Baird, R.U.  Wasson, James Ritter, Forrest Benford and Philip Wion.  The latter two
named are in charge of the high school this year again for their second term.  The
high school is really only the ninth and 10th grades, but pupils are prepared for
entrance into the junior class of Bellefonte High School and have been transported
there at Township expense in the past few years.  Tuition is also paid.  Until the
past five or six years, pupils who went to Bellefonte found their own way.  Going
back to early records, we find the following names in Linn's history as teachers
prior to 1881: Joseph Williams, David Keller, Miss Blakeney, John Thompson, the
Rev. Mr. Ketalow, James Moreland, Henry McClannahan and Charles Larimer.
Since that time the following are remembered as grade teachers: John Harrison, James
Corl, Samuel Brooks, James Noll, Samuel Noll, William Noll, Abner Noll, Harvey Mease,
Clem Dale, Jennie Twitmire, John Kline, Lillie Ross, Johnnie D. Miller, Harry Breon,
John Schreffler, Frank Miller, Alice Davis and Elsie Herman.  The town remembers the
two-room schoolhouse so well that it is hardly necessary to state that it is now the
property of White Rock company and has been made into a double house for the
employees after being moved into Bilger Ave.
One teacher who has been employed in Pleasant Gap is especially worthy of mention
from his years of service.  Harry Breon who is still teaching has now, in 1936, 20
years to his credit in Pleasant Gap and 36 years all told in the Township.  His work
has been with the seventh and eighth grades nearly all these years.  From grammar
school as it was called in the building up town, he came into the new brick building
when it was first opened, teaching seventh and eighth grades.
The other teachers that year were Mrs. Magargel, fifth and sixth grades; Miss
Watkins third and fourth, and Pro. R.U. Wasson, in the high school room.  Horntown
was taught that winter by Miss Glenn.  Another teacher worthy of note in Spring
Township annals is Mrs. Belle Barnhart Grove.  Her total service in the school room
is 42 years.  She is now on the Board of School Directors.  Five of these years were
taught in the Horntown building.
Teachers employed this year are Profs. Forrest Benford and Philip Wion, in the high
school; Mr. Breon, Miss Myra Boone, Miss Margaret Smeltzer and Miss Ethel Noll, in
the brick building, and Miss Eloise Pownell in Horntown.
In those earlier days when anyone could finish common school and step into the
teacher's chair after passing examination given by the county superintendent, it
behooved folks who had the interests of the school at heart to work for better
teachers.  Summer schools for teachers, teachers' institutes and local normal
schools were a part of every county.  Instructors were employed to hear lessons from
their teacher-pupils during the month or six weeks term as the case might be, for
"getting a school" often depended upon the candidate passing his examination.  The
old system of marking certificates was interesting.  It consisted of figures.  One
signified very good, two was good, three was fair and so on.  Decimal points were
used to indicate whatever might be between the units.  A favorite question after
examination day among teachers was "How much does your certificate count?" The
smallest sun was naturally the best.
All this is preface to the fact that Pleasant Gap had a summer normal about 40 years
ago.  It was help in the schoolhouse on the Pike and taught by college students.
One teacher -- instructor is a better word -- was Samuel Deitzel of Franklin and
Marshall; another was William Stover, and another Prof. Hosterman.
The session lasted six weeks and about 25 or more attended.  It was held several
summers, but exactly how many is not remembered.  The teachers were students from
the Township and adjoining ones, and the school was finally given up when county and
state schools were established.




[Eleventh installment - first printed April 2, 1936]

The first public building in Pleasant Gap was used not only as the Horntown school,
but also as a meeting place for the Methodists.
A class had been organized about 1836 under the leadership of William Hunter, after
whom came William Furey and Frost McGinley as leaders.  It was part of the
Bellefonte circuit and met every two weeks.  With the Rev. Guthwalt as pastor, a
great revival was held and 56 joined the class.  So it was decided to build a
church.  Land for the church was given by John R. Tate, a member of the class,
about 1850.  It was an old-fashioned edifice, as remembered by some of the town's
octogenarians, with a basement in which prayer meetings and Sunday School were held,
and an auditorium on the first floor.  It cost $1,500.  At the end of 25 years or
less, it was badly in need of repairs, so under an active minister named Rev.
Galbraith, it was decided not only to make such repairs as might be necessary, but
to raise the building higher.  It was jacked up by the male members who were working
on it, and had reached the desired height when one of the jacks broke and the whole
church fell into the cellar.
Nobody was hurt although several men escaped apparently by a miracle.  The crash was
heard all over town and distracted relatives rushed from every direction to the
scene.  However, it was possible to salvage part of the lumber and more was
bought.  The new cornerstone was laid in 1875 and the building then erected is
standing today, having cost exactly twice what the other did, and being very much
different architecture.
This past year one notable improvement has been started: that of stained glass
windows.  One large one has been placed in front, a gift of the Ladies' Aid and of
R.P. Bell and Mrs. R.U. Wasson, brother and sister of Miss Ida Bell whose will
had given the Ladies' Aid a legacy of $50.
This money was used, and with it an equal amount from the brother and sister, to
make a memorial to Miss Bell and her parents, who were faithful members of the
church.
Continuing the history of this church, it is unique in having been owned for a time
by three of its members.   Michael Weaver, James Hamilton and John Furey came to the
rescue when a company which had not been paid had the church put up at sheriff sale.
The members had paid such pledges as were made and a great deal of labor was
given.  Nevertheless, when the treasurer disappeared and with him, all accounts of
the moneys he had been holding, the belated creditors began proceedings.  This later
proved the truth of the adage, "no great loss without small gain," for it was found
that there had been no deed to the property; and by this sale through the court, a
perfectly legal title was acquired.  Behind the church was a large enough space for
a graveyard.  Burying in Bellefonte had been the custom before this place was
utilized by town residents.
The land was free to all, and many families took their dead to what came to be
called the Methodist graveyard.  It is said that the first to be laid to rest in it
were a Miss Walker, a sister of Miles Walker whose people lived in the neighborhood,
and a Catherine Krise, a daughter of Jonathan Krise who lived on the side of Nittany
Mountain.




[Twelfth installment - first printed April 3, 1936]

Another grave in the Methodist Church cemetery is that of Aunt Sallie Stoner.  She
was among the last to be buried there.
Aunt Sallie was a Negro who lived with her husband in a little cabin down on Sheep
St.  She took in washing for a living, while her husband did odd jobs he could
get.  She finally died of pneumonia and nobody seems to know what became of the old
man after that.
But Aunt Sallie was a good church member.  She attended services in the church here
and was welcomed, the other members treating her as one of themselves.
During one of the revivals her husband was converted.  The story goes that he rose
afterward to give his testimony, as was customary, and expressed himself thus: "I
can't never tell you how happy I am.  I know I'm saved.  My sins are all washed away
and I feel like a new-born baby." This old couple was supposed to prevent children
from getting whooping cough by kissing the youngsters.  One woman recalls being
urged to let the old darky kiss her when the disease was going through the
neighborhood.  A great many of the kids, she says, did take advantage of the
germicide.  This being the only church within a radius of several miles, everybody
attended it irrespective of the denomination.  In those times when the church was
practically the only meeting place that was open regularly and the people's
monotonous lives demanded the Sunday break, the church was filled every Sunday and a
goodly number came out to mid-week services.
Revivals were held every winter, with huge crowds attending.  Many went to the
alter, professing conversion and later united with the church.  There are now about
200 on the roll of the church.  Many, however, are on the inactive list.
But complaints were heard concerning the graveyard.  The newly dug graves often
filled up with water and sometimes it had to be dipped out before the arrival of the
funeral train.  As wells were dug lower down in the town, people were afraid that
they might be tapping the underground stream that flowed through the cemetery.  The
new cemetery had been opened at the Lutheran Church and most folks thought that was
a better place to bury.  So the old burial ground behind the Methodist Church was
abandoned, save now and then when someone from a distance wished to be laid beside
his relatives at home.  It was also used by those who felt that it was a shame to
charge for burying the dead and refused to be a party to such iniquity.  The last
grave to be made there was probably that of a Mr. Redding.  He and his wife had
worked at the Garman house in Bellefonte until late in life.  Then they moved back
to one houses back in the mountain and were kept there in food and other necessities
by the Garmans.  It was there that Mr. Redding died; and probably because it was
free ground he was buried in the old graveyard.
Mr. Sarvis was the minister.  Grange picnic was going on, and nobody was in town to
help with the funeral.  Mr. Sarvis helped to lower the coffin into the grave
himself.  Mrs. W.W. Kerstetter has kept a record of the succession of ministers
who have served Pleasant Gap charge since she came to the village in 1884.  The
names in order as she remembers them are as follows: Graham, Lambert, Sarvis, Leidy,
Young, Hughes, McIlnay, Stewart, Williams, Adams, Salter, White, Melroy, Chilcoat,
Engler, Durkee, Sower, Fromm, McKechnie, Piper, Kepler, Rishell, Metzger, Dershen
and Botdorf, the latter being in charge at the present time.
The first house used as a parsonage when the circuit was carved out was the present
home of M.M. Keller, opposite the brick schoolhouse.  Next the Swartz house was
rented.  The charge next decided to buy a parsonage and selected the house now owned
by George Magargel, three doors below the church on the opposite side.  The residence
opposite that of the church was then owned by Josiah Ziegler.
After some dickering, it was settled by Mr. Ziegler taking the lower house and
locating the parsonage directly across the road from the church, where it has since
remained.  Mr. Hughes was the first pastor to live in the new property.  His
predecessor had slept there and maintained a study, but boarded with the Kerstetters
next door.  Since that time, married men have been sent to Pleasant Gap and the
parsonage has been their home, with the exception of Mr. Piper, whose home was in
Milesburg.




[Thirteenth installment - first printed April 4 and 6, 1936]

Also organizing their congregation before building a church, the Lutherans
worshipped in the schoolhouse until the first St. Mark's Church was built in 1870,
two years after they separated themselves from the Methodist congregation.
The first Lutheran Church was very different from the one in use today.  It was a
frame structure of the type familiar to this section, with ground floor, second
floor and gallery.  The gallery was reached by a second pair of stairs and was
reserved for the use of the choir and organ.  A board railing like a breastwork
provided safety for its occupants.
This building was also more or less of a social center, especially during the winter
when singing school was held there.  The Andy Swartz mentioned above in this account,
was the singing school teacher.  He held such affairs all over Centre County.
Often a singing convention was held in Pleasant Gap, lasting a week.  There were
three session every day with a grand concert Saturday night as a wind-up.  People
came for miles to attend these conventions and were entertained free by the members
of the class residing in Pleasant Gap, who considered such hospitality the ordinary
thing, counting the pleasure derived from having company sufficient recompense. 
Mr. Swartz's charges were low enough to allow everybody who had musical leanings to
enroll.  He asked 50 cents for a term of the singing school, and $1 for the week of
convention.  Sometimes singing school scholars attended who had no ear for music at
all but just went for the fun of it.  That they had plenty of this is proved by the
reminiscences of some of the older folks who attended.
The new brick church was built in 1917.  It was erected on the site of the old one,
the congregation worshipping in the schoolhouse in the meantime.
This church is of modern architecture, elevated somewhat above the level of the
highway with concrete walks and green lawn.  The outside is attractively landscaped,
verging at the rear into a well kept cemetery.  The land for the church and the old
part of the cemetery was obtained from Jacob Rapp, who lived in the house now owned
by the Coldron family.  Burying here was free in the beginning.  The first grave
antedated the first church, being that of Harvey Larimer and his wife in 1869. 
Mr.  Larimer was buried from the old Larimer farm where he lived at the time.  His
wife, according to the tale, was buried from Bellefonte, where she died.  The writer
has not checked up on the stones in the cemetery, but this information is doubtless
true.  Grave digging in the new cemetery was done in as haphazard a way as it had
been done in the old one farther up the Pike.  The graves were laid in long rows as
a death occurred, causing families to have their dead scattered in as many as half a
dozen different places through the burying ground.  In 1890 the matter was improved
by the formation of the Pleasant Gap Cemetery Association.  Hereafter, a charge of
$10 was made for a lot in this graveyard.  Before this, those who so minded could
help to keep up the fence against the wandering animals of the village.  Now the
association would see to all the business connected with it.   Most folks were
greatly upset at the charge and thought it was a shame to have to pay to bury the
dead.  The first members of the association were Christopher Dale, who lived then
where the superintendent of the hatchery now lives, Andrew Swartz, Jeremiah
Eckenroth, Albert Smeltzer and Emmanuel White.  Present members of the association
are A.D. Smeltzer, Harry Bilger, Blain Swartz, M.M. Keller, T.E. Jodon and C.G. Dale.
People who have lots are expected to take care of them.  Should it happen that there
is no one interested in taking care of some grave made years ago, the association
pays the caretaker to mow the grass and do such work on it as may be necessary to
keep up its appearance so that it may not detract from the cemetery as a whole.  The
old cemetery behind the Methodist Church had been neglected for years.  Since it had
been a public burying ground, people lost track of whom the original owners of the
land had been.  Some of the older men of the town denied that the Methodist Church
had any claim to it.  Occasionally, as Memorial Day drew near, the church members
sent a delegation to mow down the brush and cut off the ever-springing locust trees
in the plot behind the fence.
Finally the fence was taken away, and members of the church combined with a CWA
project to improve the unsightly spot.  It required many day's labor, but was
transformed into a gently sloping level lawn, with headstones gleaming white against
the green perspective.  Later it was found to be part of the church property.  It has
been necessary to enlarge the still growing graveyard several times.  Land has been
purchased by the association in every direction, save that in front, where the
church stands.  A few years ago it became necessary to raise the price of lots to
$20, which is still a very low charge compared with that in other places.  There is
no profit in the association.  No salary is paid to anyone except the man who mows
the grass, and the end of the year seldom finds any money to carry over to the next.




[Fourteenth installment - first printed April 6, 7 and 8, 1936]

The Lutheran congregation is part of the Boalsburg charge, formerly belonging to
Bellefonte.  Beginning with 36 members and increasing membership chiefly through
confirmation instead of by revivals, it has doubled itself since the church was
organized here.  The present minister is J.W. Wagner.  He has been with the
congregation 14 years, having been tendered a 10th anniversary celebration by his
people four years ago.  His predecessors were the Rev. Brown, Etonecypher, Lesher,
Courtney, Trostle, Gutzy, Furst, Tomlinson and Hockenburg.  Mr. Hockenburg of the
Bellefonte Lutheran Church was the man who established the church in the Gap. 
Change to the Boalsburg circuit from the Bellefonte was made in 1877.  Most
important to the people of this section was the road across the mountains, then
called the Bellefonte and Lewistown turnpike.  The word turnpike infers turnstile or
tollgate.  The money from such, of course, went to the company that built the road.
The first tollgate remembered in Pleasant Gap was near the present reservoir, well
up the road, and was kept by John Barnes.  Linn says that John Barnes had been a
tollgate keeper in Centre County for more than 50 years.  The gate was brought down
nearer to the village afterwards and located in the house now owned by Harry
Bilger.  It was later moved again to the hose now occupied by James Bilger, which
was built by the turnpike company for use as a tollgate house.  Tollgates were
finally abolished here June 1, 1916.  A number of amusing anecdotes are told of the
different ways men took to avoid paying toll as they traveled the turnpike.  The
most common was to hand the keeper a bill of large denomination for which he had
little or no change and so allow the owner to get through free.
Stories are told of two men who employed this means once too often.  The first tale
says that Keeper Barnes who was handed a large bill by a man who was in a great
hurry.  Mr. Barnes surprised him by taking the bill and calling out, "When you want
your change, you can come and get it." The second story is that of a man who
invariably had nothing but a bill of such a denomination that it would take all of
the keeper's change, with the result that the man would go through without paying. 
One day the keeper was ready for him.  As the fellow came up to the gate, he thrust
out a $20 bill.  The gatekeeper took the bill, and began to count out change for him
from a bag he had in readiness.  One, two, three, four, five, all in pennies.  The
man was in a hurry and protested in vain.  The counting went on: six, seven, eight,
nine, and very deliberately.  Once the keeper made a mistake and had to start
again.   But it was done at last; $19.90, all in pennies, was transferred to the
traveler.  He never had a bill ready afterwards.  Tollgate keepers at the Pleasant
Gap gate were John Barnes, Sidney Miller, Mrs. John Showers, a widow, and Frank Weaver.
Linn tells us that the first road laid out in Centre County across the mountain was
opened by petition of Potter and Miles townships inhabitants about 1801.  They asked
for a road "beginning at the Brush Valley road near Robert Pennington's, thence over
Nittany mountain, through what is called Connelly's Gap, the nearest and best way to
Milesborough."
The same authority says that the stage went from Northumberland to Bellefonte every
Friday, leaving at 5 a.m.   The passengers had dinner at Mifflinburg, supper at
Aaronsburg and stayed at the latter place all night.  At seven the next morning they
were off again, having dinner at Earleystown and reaching Bellefonte at 4 p.m.  that
afternoon.  On Mondays the stage would start back to Northumberland, stopping at the
same places en-route and reach its destination Tuesday afternoon.  The fare was $4.50.
A later account of the stage trip between Lewistown and Bellefonte says they left
Bellefonte in the evening, traveled through the night and reached Lewistown at 7 a.m.
So far, it has not been possible to locate the exact route of the first stage from
Northumberland.  As Earleystown is west Centre Hall, it is doubtful if that route
lay near Pleasant Gap.  There is an old road coming down from McBride's Gap, closed
long ago and impassable now since the construction of the reservoir.  It would be
interesting to know whether or not that was the road traversed by the old stage to
Northumberland.  This route between Bellefonte and Northumberland was used in the
1790's.




[Fifteenth installment - first printed April 8 and 9, 1936]

The older people of Pleasant gap remember the stage coach very well.  Mention has
already been made of its noise as it traveled the roads.
Two horses were used for the trip when it was made in two days.  For a time the trip
to Lewistown was attempted in one day and then four horses drew the huge
contraption.  The body of the stage was large enough for 12 or 14 passengers to sit
inside.  It was attached to the running gear by leather springs that let the great
body sway back and forth as it went.  The roads were rough, even worse than are the
Township roads of today, with deep mud holes and projecting shelving rocks on the
mountains.  They were narrow in places, making it difficult to pass on a "dug road"
where the lower side might hang over a precipice.  
One elderly man, William Florey, remembers when there were two rival companies
bidding against each other for the Lewistown traffic.  Two stages ran opposition,
and as speed was one of the assets of the trip, the drivers of the rival stages
sometimes raced each other on the road.
One can imagine the scene.  The unwieldy coach jolting from side to side, dipping
into ruts, uplifted by large stones.  A double team of foam flecked horses galloping
ahead as the driver perched aloft on his seat, cracked his whip and urged them faster
in the race.  Inside, the terrified passengers tumbled against each other in the
winding road, with visions of a possible upset or runaway in their minds.  Even
fares were cut, the narrator adds, to stimulate competition.  What had been $1.50
trip one way went down to $1, and then as low as 75 cents.  At last the matter was
settled.  One company won out and after that the prices went back to normal and
passengers were hauled in a safe and leisurely way across the Seven Mountains.  Some
of the drivers' names as remembered are: Nick Runkle, George Walker, Jim Weeds and
Bill Horner.  With the coming of the railroad through Pleasant Gap or rather near
it, the mail came to the Pleasant Gap railroad station and the stages were a thing
of the past.
The contract to carry the mail between the post office and the railroad station, a
distance of about a mile, was given to J.W. Gill of the Gap.  With the exception of
two or three years, he has had the job ever since.  Mr. Gill is now past 80, but he
makes daily trips to meet every train, driving a horse and buggy and filling his
place as well as he did at first.
Not only is mail now brought into the village by train, it is carried through in the
afternoon by special mail bus and two R.F.D.'s run through the town.
Route 3 comes down the road from Rockview and serves patrons near the Cross Roads,
going directly into Bellefonte about noon.  Route 2 comes from Bellefonte over the
hill, up East State street, turns at the corner and up the state highway to the
upper end of town, then down the Horntown Road and so on towards Zion, returning to
Bellefonte around 4 or 5 p.m.
Where the R.F.D. is more convenient, the residents of the Gap use that route and
give their address as Bellefonte RD.  If the post office is more convenient, the
family uses the village name as its address.  Most folks who live below the post
office are likely to receive mail at both addresses.  The time of rural delivery is
convenient for patrons who wish to answer letter at once.  With a 5 p.m. mail going
out of the post office, letters can be received at noon and answered in a few
hours.  One of the rural carriers, Boyd Spicher, lives in Pleasant Gap.  Mr.
Spicher was retired two years ago after acting as mail carrier since Sept. 1,
1903.  His first route took him from Bellefonte to the hatchery, thence up past Peru
to Zimmermans where he turned and came back to Pleasant Gap, then down to Gilltown,
Night Bank, through Irish Hollow into Axemann and so on into Bellefonte again, a
trip of 22 miles in all.  He kept three horses and drove them alternately, sometimes
using a bicycle as well.  In all these 32 years he did not miss more than five days
except for vacations.  Once he was off for a vaccinated arm for a day and a half. 
Gradually the route carriers had a few more miles put on their trips as the number
of routes would be changed or one was eliminated.  When Mr. Spicher stopped driving
he had a route 54 miles long which he drove in a car.  He remembers a runaway he had
in Pleasant Gap when the mail was scattered all over the street.  The horse ran home
and into the barn.  Mr. Spicher followed, gathering up what Uncle Sam had entrusted
to him earlier in the day and taking the horse once more from its stable, proceeded
to finish the job.




[Sixteenth installment - first printed April 10, 1936]

Interesting, indeed, would be the account of how the town was named and who named
it.  The phrase, "So called from its position at the foot of the mountain gap,"
tells very little.  Was Matthew Riddle the man with initiative who first bestirred
himself for a post office in his birthplace?  Certain it is that he was appointed
the first postmaster and kept the post office and a store under the same roof about
where the W.H.  Noll home is now situated.
The store seems to have been the first one in the settlement.  Of taverns there were
at least two: Connelly's and one put up by Thomas Harrison somewhere in
Harrisonville.  About this time, too, or perhaps a little later, was one at the foot
of the mountain near the oldest tollgate, kept by a man named Corman.  The succession
of postmasters, as given by Linn, following Riddle, were: J.G. Stones, J.G.
Larimer, Jacob Miller, Henry Eckenroth, Howard Barnes and Robert Barnes.  The
remainder are from Mr. Mulfinger's diary: Abner Noll, William Grenoble, Mrs.
William Hoover, John Griffith, George Cable, Abner Noll, George Showers and Mrs.
Grace Tressler.  The latter is the present incumbent.  During the time the post
office was in the hands of Abner Noll, either as appointee or acting postmaster, the
office was held in a part of the store now used as a wareroom facing the street. 
Since it is no longer under Noll's name, it is kept in a small building attached to
the store.  Mr. Noll was first appointed in 1892.  The office has been near the
junction of the old and new Pikes ever since it was established, except when Henry
Eckenroth was postmaster.  He had it for a short time in his shop near the
schoolhouse.  At the time the store roof caught fire, Miss Alice Grenoble was acting
as clerk for her father in the post office.   At one time it looked as though the
post office might have to be abandoned.  Miss Alice hastily collected all valuables
together in readiness for a hasty departure but was not forced to leave.  Another
bit of excitement in regard to the post office was when one of the employees ran
away with the funds.   He was apprehended later, and the matter settled out of
court.  Mrs. Ziegler, Henry Eckenroth's daughter, tells that when her father was
postmaster, the mail came by stage in the night.  She says that the family would go
to bed, knowing that they would be awakened by the noise of the stage as it came
down the mountain and so have time to rise and get the mail bag out, ready for the
stage to take as it deposited the one for the Gap.  So little was the mail for
Pleasant Gap in these days that one man remembers it was kept in a small box that
sat on a chair.




[Seventeenth installment - first printed April 11, 1936]

The post office opened in 1845 and from then on the little hamlet pursued its
uneventful way until it was inflamed by the fall of Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call
for volunteers.  With no time to debate the matter, Pleasant Gap men joined others
from Bellefonte and the surrounding territory and found themselves on the way to
Lewistown to entrain for Harrisburg and Washington.  The first to go were Abe
Miller, Calvin Waltz, Matthew Riddle, George Corman, and Henry Pennington.   They
were followed by Potter Tate, his brother, Scott Tate, David Rossman, George Koon,
Henry Miller, Levi Miller, Henry Eckenroth and Joseph Ross.
John Griffith, a native of Centre County, and in Ohio at the time of the war,
enlisted there, coming back here after the war; Henry Eckenroth, a school teacher,
left an arm on the battlefield, and Henry Miller was captured and sent to Libby
prison.
So far as can be learned there was no preparation made for the soldiers' going. 
There is no account of lint being scrapped here and sent to the front for use.  It
is likely that the settlement had hard going to keep itself and no leisure for
so-called war work.  The men were gone, as somebody said, and that was the end of
it.  Sometimes a letter came from the army and was shared with a neighbor.  For the
most part, if recollections be true, the war was not fought in the home.  When it
was over and the men came home, life was not much different, except that now the men
had an organization, attended the post meetings and took themselves and their
families every year to a reunion some place in the county.
One year the reunion was held in Pleasant Gap in Riddle's woods, which lay above
Pike's schoolhouse.  "I saw droves of soldiers going up the road," is the way one
old man remembers it.  It seemed to him that there must have been 1,000 people in
the town.  Other folks think that should be cut in half.  Whatever the number, there
was a big time in the Gap, with the band playing, refreshments on sale, speakers
making orations and everybody urging the soldiers to eat.
Some of the picnickers sat at tables and vied with each other in having soldier
guests to eat with them.  No soldier was supposed to bring food.  The people took
care of them and it is said that there was hardly a table that did not have one or
more soldier guests.
Every man in the County, or anywhere else, it seems, if he had worn the blue
uniform, was placed that day in a seat of honor, and fed to repletion.  Folks who
came too late to find a table unoccupied sat down on the grass with their baskets
and made a happy meal.
Various committees had been appointed to take charge of the day's doings.  The band
had supervision of the refreshment committee.  They offered from the stand such
eatables as were then considered good sellers, including candy, peanuts, cigars,
lemonade, etc.  But they had a great deal left over.  They put it in the schoolhouse
and locked it up for the night.
But next morning, lo, the schoolhouse had been broken into and the stuff stolen. 
They started to hunt for it, looking along the road and finally found some of it up
the mountain road.  It was evident that it had been taken away in a wagon.  They
never did find out who took it, but they knew it went over the mountain.




[Eighteenth installment - first printed April 13, 1936]

In 1870 the villagers were delighted to hear that a man from Williamsport was to
move to Pleasant Gap and start a cigar factory.  Heretofore, there had been no
industry of any sort to employ workers.  One can imagine the hopes and speculations
that were rife as Gottlieb Haag made his way into their midst.  Haag arrived the
first of November, 1870, driving up from Williamsport with a one-horse spring
wagon.  He was accompanied by young John Mulfinger, then 11 years old, and in the
wagon besides themselves, Haag had two shoats, two dogs, some seed potatoes and
various other articles.  It took a day and a half to make the trip by wagon, Haag's
wife and son, Harry, having gone by train.  They took possession of the hotel which
Haag had bought from a man named Hicock, it having passed through the hands of
Furey, Larimer and Morrison since Riddle built it 20-odd years before.  With the
hotel, Haag purchases two acres of land.  One acre of this was put in tobacco the
next spring, the crop being planted back of the hotel about where the Westervelts
live now.  More tobacco was raised down in Valentine's fields, now owned by T.E.
Jodon and the Independent Oil Company.  An annex was built to the hotel and men
began to make cigars.  Four men were employed and an extra amount of tobacco was
imported from Harrisburg.  Young John himself was kept busy all day stripping
tobacco.  Haag's next venture was a distillery.  The building was erected next to
the hotel and machinery installed.  A picture, owned by Mr. Mulfinger, shows a
two-story house with one window in the center of the attic and painted in huge
letters on either side , and below, respectively, are the words, "New Haag
Distillery." By this time John was 16 and he was made distiller, a job that he kept
as long as the distillery was running.  Haag likewise built a grist mill, which was
enlarged five years later.  There had been an old one before that on the site of
Noll's garage below the store, but it was out of repair and useless.  The new grist
mill went up beside the distillery.  Haag in the meantime had bought six more acres
of land from the Humes land toward the mountain.  The grist mill was a natural
evolution from the distillery for as the farmers were able to sell their grain at
home, instead of making the long and expensive trip across the mountain where it was
marketed, they were able to increase their acreage and the amount sold.  This in turn
created more supply, opened another market for grain at home and gave the farmers
more profit.
It was about this time that the village took a spurt of growth and began to attract
a larger population.  The Pleasant Gap band was flourishing at the time, doing its
practicing in the schoolhouse.  Mr. Haag, direct from Germany, had all the German's
love of music, and he conceived the idea of putting a third story on the hotel for
the use of the band, the "music band," as he called it.
This was found to be impractical, so he rebuilt the old store.  The store which had
been erected by Matthew Riddle in 1846, had been sold and passed through various
hands, including the Larimer brothers, John Campbell, J.G. Stine, Lawrence McIntire
and Stine and Company.  It was during Stine and Company's ownership that it burned
down.
The fire broke out on the lower side of the store about 3 a.m.  June 14, 1874. 
There was no fire company, no bucket brigade and very little water.  Before all the
residents knew there was a fire, the building was doomed.  It had stood where W.M. 
Noll's house now stands.  All that was saved was one barrel of salt.  Mr. Haag,
therefore, resolving that the music band should have a proper place to rehearse,
decided to rebuild the store with a second floor into which the band could move.  He
did this without knowing to whom he would rent the room below it, and used it himself
as long as it stood vacant, putting grain and such store inside as he wished.  The
new store building was completed by July 4, 1897, and Haag planned a huge
celebration.  Pleasant Gap actually put itself on the map that day.  People came
from as far away as Snow Shoe.  There was a patriotic celebration, a picnic,
speeches by men from out of town, a shooting match and later, a public dance.  The
Pleasant Gap band played during the day.  Freddy Smith's orchestra from Bellefonte
was engaged for the dance in the evening.  The new building was open for inspection
and so was the bar room.  One or two accounts say everybody got drunk.  The latter
is probably an exaggeration, as ladies did not drink in those days.
Besides the grist mill and distillery, Haag operated a chopping mill, a slaughter
house and a butcher shop.  He was indeed the pioneer capitalist of his day in
Pleasant Gap, and to that he added the duties of salesman for the Haag brand of
whiskey.
The capacity of the distillery was 30 barrel per day.  Most of it was rye, but some
corn whiskey was also made.   He traveled as far as Mifflin County to vend his
products.
Besides being the pioneer capitalist, Haag was also the first sanitary engineer the
town had known.  Among other improvements, he had a pipe line dug for water and
installed running water outside the hotel.  Before this most water was taken from
the mountain brook that flowed through the upper end of town or from reservoirs. 
People dammed up the stream and dipped up the water.  Water at the Pike schoolhouse
was secured in the same way for drinking purposes.
Another house that was built by Haag was the one so long occupied by the Saxion
family back of Noll's store.   Mr. Mulfinger and William Noll started housekeeping
in it.
Finally, in 1888, Mr. Haag sold his holdings here to John Mulfinger and moved into
Bellefonte.  Mr. Mulfinger then took possession of the hotel and kept it until he
sold out all the property he had obtained from Haag to Noll brothers in 1920.
He closed the distillery, Dec.  17, 1898.  The sale of his real estate was followed
by the public sale of loose property.  At this sale C.K. Stitzer, who acted as
clerk, tells that more than 600 articles were listed.




[Nineteenth installment - first printed April 14 and 15, 1936]

John Mulfinger enjoys a well earned reputation throughout Pleasant Gap.  During the
days the writer was collecting data for this little history, her questions were
answered every day in this manner, "Well, I don't remember exactly.  You ask Johnny
Mulfinger, he keeps a diary and can tell you anything."
So, one February afternoon, to Johnny Mulfinger and his diary a visitor was
announced and made welcome.   Mr. Mulfinger was ready with his answers, and the
famous diary was open for inspection.  It occupies shelf after shelf in the old
gentleman's bookcase and, having been written every day for more than 50 years, is a
real history in itself.
The entries are not very long, and some days have only a record of the weather --
weather probably being the only thing that happened in Pleasant Gap that day -- but
anything of importance that occurred has been noted down with deaths in red ink. 
One entry, for instance, is the following: "1910, July 6.  Porch roof of store
afire.  Ed Wolfe climbed up lightning rod.  I got ladder from distillery.  Dave
Stine in post office.  Madeline Noll carried water in bucket from creek.  Dave
passed it up the ladder to Ed on roof.   We got it out.  Boys threw fire crackers up
and set it afire." The Îboys' were Henry Noll and William Bilger.  Henry -- still
called "Hen" -- has done greater stunts in aviation and found it more thrilling
experiences than he ever dreamed of when he threw firecrackers in the air.  William
Bilger died about five years ago from the effects of gas received in the World War. 
Another day in the diary is thus recorded: "Wednesday, February 28, 1934.  16 below
zero .  .  .  Fair.  Herbert Showers found dead.  67 years old.  Asphyxiated by
gas.  Broken main pipe at the dinkey track.  Not discovered until set afire by
dinkey."
And later:
"Saturday, March 3, 1934.  Herbert Showers buried at Zion."
Mr. Mulfinger is assistant postmaster and has acted as postmaster for a number of
years, whenever a substitute was needed.  He has been married twice, and twice lost
his wife by death.  His home is a short distance up the brick pavement of the state
road, where his daughter, Mrs. Harry Showers, and her husband keep house for him.
He is a quiet, unassuming man with his desk arranged as neatly as the most
meticulous housekeeper could expect.
His chronicles are a fertile field for the writer.  Tragedy stalks through its pages
as do comedy, mystery and incontrovertible facts -- all more interesting to Ourtown
than would be that of the great Samuel Pepys himself.  Retiring from business, as
told in the account of Gottlieb Haag, he still keeps in touch with the daily event
of the village, continues to record at night such as are of interest, and is counted
from one end of the town to the other, a final authority on every happening of
importance since he came to Pleasant Gap 65 years ago.  It is to him and his diary
that many thanks are due for verification of stories and dates.  The Kerstetters
came here about 1883.  They found a few more families than were here at the advent
of Gottlieb Haag.  During the next decade more followed.  Among those to be noted
were John Griffith and family, who preceded the Kerstetters, as did Andrew Swatrz
and William Bell.  Adam Hile was already here, while the families of John Herman,
Samuel Gettig, Herbert Showers, Harvey Barnard, John Uhl, Albert Smeltzer, William
Corl, William Brooks, Henry Twitmire and Lloyd Eckenroth were among those to settle
here about that time.
A great many men who were really carpenters and some who thought themselves
carpenters located in the town.  As has been mentioned before, this town is more
centrally situated than most others for men whose work is in the building
profession.  Lots that had sold, as Harrisonville lots sold, for $11 or little more
had by this time risen to $50, and by 1900 it cost $60 to buy a lot in Pleasant Gap
of regulation size.  Men who were carpenters could buy the lot, build a house, and
either rent or sell it without any trouble.  It was frequently done.  The families
referred to above were all permanent settlers, and their sons and daughters are
still residents, owning their own homes and having their business and labor here. 
It was still a quiet community when the second shock of war came to it.





A

ADAMS
_____, 17, 62
ALABRAN
_____, 49
ALEXANDER
_____, 57
ALLISON
_____, 57
AMMERMAN
_____, 11, 12, 38, 40
ANDER
Malcolm, 13
APPLEBEE
Harry, 34
ARMSTRONG
_____, 11, 43
Harry, 51

B

BAER
_____, 42
BAIRD
_____, 7, 13, 39, 53
Joseph, 38
L.E., 14
William, 7, 38
BALLIOT
Francis, 56
BARLETT
_____, 57
J.R., 56
BARNARD
Harvey, 24, 39
BARNES
_____, 7, 19, 37, 57
Frank, 48
Howard, 21
John, 12, 19, 30
Robert, 11, 21, 29, 30
Rush, 32, 42
BARR
_____, 39, 49
BATES
_____, 6, 11
BATHGATE
_____, 55
BAUMGARDNER
Mary, 11
Bell
Ida, 16
R.P., 16
Roy, 6, 7, 12, 29, 37, 42
William, 24, 29
BENFORD
Forrest, 14, 15
Benner
_____, 7, 64
Philip, 2
BENTON
_____, 34
BIDDLE
_____, 29
BILGER
Harry, 12, 18, 19, 29, 30, 32, 43, 45, 57
James, 19
John, 4
Jonathan, 30, 52
Miles, 24
Nelson, 65
Virgie, 25, 27
William, 24, 30, 31, 32, 33, 43, 44, 51
BLAIR
William, 11
BLAKENEY
_____, 13, 15
BLANCHARD
John, 4, 35
BOGGS
Andrew, 2
BOND
William, 62
BOONE
Myra, 15
BOTDORF
_____, 17
BREON
_____, 15
Harry, 6, 8, 15, 55
BROCKS
Jasper, 25
BRODERICK
_____, 59
BROOKS
_____, 26, 41
Edward, 52
Elwood, 28
Frank, 8, 28, 41
James, 28
Jasper, 28, 50
Orlando, 28, 38, 52
Ray, 28
Samuel, 15
William, 24
BROWN
_____, 19
Clayton, 64
BULLER
Howard, 43
Nathan, 43
BURNSIDE
Thomas, 4

C

CABLE
George, 21
CAMPBELL
John, 22
CARR
_____, 10
CASSELBURY
_____, 33
CHILCOAT
_____, 17
CLARK
William A., 11
COLBURN
_____, 12
COLDRON
_____, 18
Roy, 48
CONFER
_____, 45
CONNELLY
_____, 1, 3, 21
Hugh, 6
CORL
_____, 26
Anna, 49
Hazel, 27
James, 15, 27, 32, 33
Robert, 27, 42
William, 24, 27, 30, 49
CORMAN
Alpha, 12
George, 21
COURTNEY
_____, 19
COX
_____, 12, 54
CRAMER
_____, 36
CRAWFORD
_____, 32
CREVELING
John, 43
CRISSMAN
Harry, 65
CROTZER
_____, 6
CROWNOVER
_____, 36
CRUMLISH
_____, 49, 50, 59
H.J., 43, 49, 58
CRUST
William, 48
CUPP
Charles, 42
CURTIN
Roland, 2

D

DALE
C.G., 18, 54, 58
C.G., 54
Christian, 53, 54
Christopher, 18
Clem, 15
Johann Heinrich, 53
John Henry, 53
William, 54, 57
DAVIS
Alice, 15
DeARMITT
Anthony, 32
Charles, 39
DeBRASKY
_____, 60
DEIBLER
_____, 49
George, 12
John, 14, 45
DEITZEL
Samuel, 15
DERSHEN
_____, 17
DIXON
_____, 49
DUBLER
_____, 49
DUCK
_____, 40
DUNKLEBARGER
Grant, 61
Mary, 61
Walter, 61
DUNLAP
Alexander, 1, 3
DUNLOP
Daniel, 6
James, 2
John, 2
DUNZIK
Fred, 39
DURKEE
_____, 17

E

ECKENROTH
_____, 12, 57
Charles, 35
Earl, 34
Henry, 12, 21, 29, 36, 38
Jeremiah, 18
Jerry, 12
Lloyd, 24
ECKLE
Willard, 51
EMERICK
_____, 57
Lyman, 39
ENGLER
_____, 17
ETONECYPHER
_____, 19
EVEY
_____, 26, 49
Jared, 27
Mary, 27
Mary Twitmire, 25
Wade, 14, 26
EYRE
T.L., 35

F

FAUBLE
A., 35
FEHRER
Joe, 31
FETTEROFF
Blanche, 8, 11
FETZER
_____, 8, 41, 42
FINNEGAN
Steve, 34
FISHBURN
_____, 12
FISHER
_____, 57
FLOREY
_____, 7, 8, 9, 12, 43, 63
Abram, 9
Joe, 11
R.E., 9
Rea, 51
William, 9, 12, 20, 31, 32, 33
FOSS
_____, 37, 65
FOZZY
_____, 32
FRANCIS
John, 48
FROMM
_____, 17
FUREY
_____, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 22, 28
John, 3, 12, 16
William, 15
FURST
_____, 19

G

GALBRAITH
_____, 16
GANSEL
Harry, 32
GARBRICK
Harry, 56
Peter, 56
GARDNER
_____, 49
M.F., 62
GARIS
Charles, 24
GARMAN
_____, 17
GARNER
Harry, 51
GETTIG
_____, 26, 40, 65
Christian, 28
Clayton, 29
George, 6, 29, 54
Irvin, 32
Nellie Griffith, 25
Samuel, 24, 29
GETTLE
_____, 7, 12
Elijah, 7, 11
GETTLES
_____, 43
GILL
_____, 7, 61
Abner, 35
Elmer, 34
J.W., 9, 20, 30, 61
Jacob, 8, 9
Merrill, 61
Newton, 28
Sallie Johnson, 25
GILLILAND
Leslie, 14
GINGHER
_____, 49, 63
Paul, 63
GLASSER
William, 48
GLENN
_____, 15
GOSNELL
_____, 37
GRAHAM
_____, 17
GRAMLEY
_____, 14
GREEN
Joseph, 2
GREGG
Andrew, 2, 3, 4
John Irvin, 4
GRENOBLE
Alice, 21, 25
Kline, 24
William, 21, 56
GRETHERS
Etta, 11
GRIFFITH
_____, 11, 37, 61
H.I., 43
Harry, 37, 42
Hector, 48
John, 21, 24, 36, 37, 39, 57
GROVE
Belle Barnhart, 15
Susie Gill, 25
GUTHWALT
_____, 15
GUTZY
_____, 19

H

HAAG
_____, 22, 23, 26, 36
Gottlieb, 22, 24, 31
Harry, 31
HAAS
William, 43
HAGG
Gottlieb, 3
HAINES
Joseph, 51, 52
Reuben, 1
HALL
_____, 49
HAMILTON
_____, 7, 8, 10, 13
James, 3, 16, 64
HARBISON
James, 13
HARRIS
George, 35
James, 2, 3
HARRISON
_____, 7, 11
Irvin, 32
James, 11, 31
Jennie, 30
John, 12, 15, 31
Ruth, 34
Thomas, 10, 11, 21
Tom, 30
HARTSOCK
Harry, 32, 33
Jesse, 32
HAZEL
Claire, 34
Oliver, 24
HEISEY
_____, 29
H.P., 55
HERMAN
_____, 49, 62
Elsie, 15
John, 24, 35, 43, 49, 51, 58
W.D., 40, 48, 49, 58
HERRON
J.W., 48
HICOCK
_____, 22
HILE
_____, 7, 11
Adam, 24, 52
Donald, 51, 52
H.V., 33, 52
Harry, 27, 32
Otto, 30, 52
Ward, 51
HOCKENBERRY
John, 52
HOCKENBURG
_____, 19
HOCKENBURY
John, 48
HOFFMAN
_____, 28
HOHMAN
George, 48
HOLUBEC
John, 10
HOMAN
Sarah, 54
HOOVER
_____, 65
William, 21, 32, 34, 42
HORNE
David, 11
Elias, 11
HORNER
_____, 7, 8
Bill, 20
Eli, 9
George, 9
John, 9
Samuel, 9
HOSTERMAN
_____, 15
HOUSER
Abram, 48
Charles, 39, 64
Edward, 64
Jacob, 64
James, 30, 51, 64
John, 9
Melvin, 51
Reuben, 64
HOWELL
_____, 1
HOY
_____, 49, 62
Harry, 40, 62
Harvey, 62
Henry, 29, 38, 62
John, 62
Sinie, 42, 54
Theodore, 57
W.F., 62
HUGHES
_____, 17
HUGHES
Rick, 5
HUMES
_____, 22, 41
E.L., 33
HUNTER
William, 15
HUSTON
Charles, 3, 4

I

IRVIN
Frank, 7, 11, 34, 42
James, 4
Samuel, 51
William, 34
ISHLER
_____, 54
Harry, 12, 48
John, 48
William, 48

J

JACKSON
Andrew, 4
JACOBS
_____, 57
JODON
_____, 7, 29, 37, 39, 45, 50
Cora, 25
Foster, 37, 51
Jane Smith, 51
Rebecca Iddings, 51
Reeder, 33, 61
T.E., 10, 11, 18, 22, 27, 28, 43, 44, 51, 61
Tommie, 25
JOHNSON
Daniel, 50
Forest, 50

K

KAUFFMAN
_____, 46
KAUFMAN
_____, 8
KEENE
Arabella, 49
KELLER
_____, 8, 37, 42, 50, 55
Dave, 48
David, 13, 15, 33, 55
Ephraim, 54, 55
Frank, 38, 39, 42, 54, 55, 57
Harvey, 40, 54, 55
M.M., 8, 17, 18, 50, 55, 56
Margaret, 56
Martin, 55
KELLER'S
David, 55
KELLY
_____, 49
Harry, 50
KEPLER
_____, 17
KERSAVAGE
_____, 49
KERSTETTER
_____, 17, 24, 26, 30, 33
Ammon, 30, 32, 33, 40, 48, 60
Guy, 51
Harold, 51
James, 28, 49
K.  William, 26
Michael, 26
W.W., 17, 45, 61
KETALOW
_____, 15
KILE
H.V., 11
KLINE
_____, 11, 49
D.M., 37
John, 15, 52
Manna, 55
Klinger
William, 12, 38
KNAUFF
_____, 49
KNEPP
Burton, 50
KNOFFSINGER
Henry, 61
William, 9, 61
KNOFSINGER
_____, 8
KOON
George, 21
KOTALOW
_____, 13
KRISE
Catherine, 16
Jonathan, 8, 9, 16
Perry, 7, 11

L

LAMB
William, 2
LAMBERT
_____, 17
LARIMER
_____, 6, 7, 12, 18, 22, 29, 48, 55
Charles, 13, 15
Harvey, 7, 18
Hugh, 7
J.G., 21
LAURBACK
_____, 29
LEATHERS
_____, 40, 50, 54, 55, 62
LEE
_____, 49, 57
John, 53
Lego
Paul, 59
LEIDY
_____, 17
LEITZELL
_____, 57
LESHER
_____, 19
LEWIS
_____, 3
LEX
Mary, 9
LINCOLN
_____, 21
LINDQUIST
Theodore, 58
LINN
_____, 8, 15, 19, 21, 29, 51, 61
John Blair, 3
LOEB
_____, 55
LONBARGER
_____, 7, 8, 9
George, 3
Wash, 9
LONBERGER
Curt, 65
LONSBURY
Luther, 48
LOVE
John G., 35
LOWREY
John G., 3
LUTZ
Vivian, 29
LYON
John, 3

M

MABUS
Blain, 35
Blaine, 34
MACARGEL
_____, 62
MAGARGEL
_____, 15, 39, 49, 62, 63
George, 4, 17, 53
Myrtle, 5
MARKEL
Harvey J., 37
Peter, 11
MARKLE
_____, 13, 37, 40, 50, 60
Blair, 51
H.J., 10, 12
Harvey, 38
Harvey J., 50
Ward, 38
Willis, 28, 50, 57
MARTZ
Al, 32
MAYO
Katherine, 62
McAWEE
_____, 49
McCLANAHAN
Harvey, 13
McCLANNAHAN
Henry, 15
McGINLEY
Frost, 15
McILNAY
_____, 17
McINTIRE
Lawrence, 23, 29
McKEAN
Lewis, 13
McKECHNIE
_____, 17
McKINLEY
Ed, 32, 33
McLELLAN
_____, 13
McPHERSON
Mac, 48
MEASE
_____, 7, 8, 10, 13, 55
Ed, 30
Harvey, 15
Martin, 8, 42, 53, 54
MEEK
George, 35
MELROY
_____, 17, 60, 65
R.S., 10, 59
METZGER
_____, 17
MEYERS
Sam, 32
Thomas, 41
MILES
Richard, 2
Samuel, 2, 3
MILLER
Abe, 21
Frank, 15
George, 24
Henry, 21
Jacob, 21
Johnnie D., 15
Johnny D., 12, 32, 38
Levi, 21, 44, 45
Sidney, 19, 38, 41
MILLWARD
_____, 49
F.D., 45, 48, 49
Frank, 27
MITCHELL
J.  Thomas, 1
John, 4
MONG
_____, 40
J.M., 37
John, 53
Luther, 51
MOORE
_____, 13
MORELAND
James, 13, 15
MORRISON
_____, 22
MOWERY
_____, 37
MOYER
Guy, 42
MULBARGER
_____, 49
MULFINGER
_____, 21, 23, 24, 29, 31, 46, 57, 65
Fred, 51
John, 22, 23, 26, 30, 33, 64, 65
MUSSER
_____, 39, 55
Cornelius, 42, 55
Elmer, 34
M.P., 42
Philip, 42
MUSSERS
_____, 42
MYERS
Victor, 51

N

NAB
Charles, 13
NEFF
Bess Wasson, 25
NOLL
_____, 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 22, 33, 36, 45, 60
Abner, 14, 15, 21, 27, 30, 33, 60
Bill, 65
Boyd, 32
Ethel, 15
George, 10, 11
Gilbert, 10, 39
H.T., 60, 63
Henry, 12, 24, 45, 49
Jack, 13
James, 15, 39
John, 12, 13, 32
John George, 10, 11
Madeline, 23
Martha Miller, 38
R.W., 8, 43, 55, 58
Rachel, 8, 10, 42, 55
Ralph, 34, 48
Ray C., 35
Sam, 27
Samuel, 8, 14, 15
W.H., 21, 30, 33, 35, 65
W.M., 23
Will, 32
William, 11, 12, 15, 23, 27, 31
William H., 44
NORRIS
Archie, 45

P

PARK
_____, 12
Jim, 39
PATTON
John, 2
Miles, 2
PENNINGTON
Henry, 21
Robert, 19
PEPYS
Samuel, 24
PETRIKIN
Henry, 4
William, 2
PHILLIPS
Reginald, 48
PIPER
_____, 17
POORMAN
_____, 13
John, 11
Samuel, 39, 63
POTTER
James, 1, 2
William W., 4
POWNELL
Eloise, 

Q

QUIGLEY
Hugh M., 35

R

RALSTONS
_____, 28
RAPP
_____, 12, 38
Jacob, 18
RAY
_____, 50
RAYMOND
_____, 9
REAM
_____, 57
REDDING
_____, 17
REISH
Clayton, 43
REYNOLDS
Fred, 48
W.F., 35
RICE
Blair, 61
RIDDLE
_____, 7, 13, 21, 22, 43, 55
Anna, 33
Arthur, 24
Matthew, 21, 22, 29
William, 3, 7, 11, 13
RIGHTMIRE
William, 31
RIMMEY
_____, 26, 29, 49
Charles, 29, 32
David, 29
Earl, 48, 49, 50, 51, 60
John, 29
Verda, 7
Verda Tate, 11, 25, 29
William, 29
RIPKA
John, 12
RISHELL
_____, 17
RITTER
James, 14
ROSS
_____, 6, 7, 13, 29, 43, 53
Belle, 7
Joseph, 7, 21
Lillie, 15
William, 7, 39
ROSSMAN
David, 21
ROTHROCK
_____, 7
ROYER
John, 30
RUNKLE
Nick, 20

S

SALTER
_____, 17
SAMPSEL
Gladys, 37
John, 41
Lee, 61
Lloyd, 40, 41
SARVIS
_____, 17
SAXION
_____, 23
Wilbur, 34
SCHRECKENGAST
Luther, 31
SCHREFFLER
Charles, 12, 26, 60
John, 13, 15, 32
M.W., 60
Margaret Swartz, 8
SHELLEY
_____, 51, 57
SHENEBARGER
Margaret, 55
SHOEMAKER
Ayer, 34
T.A., 35
SHOWER
Herbert, 43
SHOWERS
_____, 26, 28
George, 21, 28, 34, 48
Harry, 24
Herbert, 24, 28, 32, 33, 34, 43, 46
John, 19
Ward, 43, 48
SHUEY
_____, 37
Henry, 33
John, 31, 33
William, 12
SHUGERT
_____, 27, 35, 40, 41, 55
John, 35
SHUMAN
_____, 14
SIMPSON
_____, 39, 42
C.A., 55
SMELTZER
_____, 26, 27, 28, 39, 55, 57
A.D., 8, 18, 27, 28, 50, 55, 63
Albert, 18, 24, 28
George, 27
Lee, 32
Margaret, 15
W.C., 35
William, 43
Smith
Freddy, 23
Hannah, 64
James, 2
SOMMERS
_____, 39
Edgar, 45, 51, 61
SORENSON
G.D., 43
SOWER
_____, 17
SPICHER
_____, 20, 60
Boyd, 20
Charles, 6
Michael, 35
STEARNS
Charles, 34
STEELE
_____, 6, 7, 41
Martha, 6
STEIN
Abe, 10
STEINBERG
_____, 39, 61
Hyman, 39
STEWART
_____, 17, 49
Robert T., 3
William, 31
STINE
_____, 23, 29
Abe, 13
Charlie, 31
Dave, 23
J.G., 23
Jim, 24
John, 32
STITZER
_____, 38, 39, 43, 59
C.K., 23, 37, 39, 50, 60
STOCKMAN
Ambrose, 32
STONE
J.G., 29
STONER
Sallie, 16
STONES
J.G., 21
STOTZER
G.K., 59
STOVER
Harry, 39, 60
J.M., 55
J.M., 42
William, 15
STRUBLE
Lot, 30, 31
STRUNK
_____, 43, 49
John, 39, 63
SUNDAY
_____, 10, 13
SWANEY
_____, 7, 13, 38, 55
John, 3, 6, 7, 11, 38, 44, 54
Martha, 11
Mary, 11
Michael, 6, 11, 13, 38
SWARM
_____, 12, 26
Emma Jodon, 12
John, 12
SWARTZ
_____, 7, 13, 17
Andrew, 18, 35
Andy, 17
Blain, 18
George, 8
Henry, 8, 9
SWATRZ
Andrew, 24
Henry, 8
SWAYNE
N.H., 35
SWEENEY
Michael, 11
SWEENY
_____, 6
SWINEY
_____, 6

T

TATE
_____, 7
Andy, 28, 42
Hugh Beatty, 8, 11
James, 51
John, 12, 40
John R., 7, 11, 16
Potter, 11, 21
Rachel, 10
Scott, 11, 21
TAYLOR
Tom, 11
THOMAS
Lulu, 25
THOMPSON
John, 4, 13, 15
Squire, 12
TOLAN
_____, 49
TOMLINSON
_____, 19
TRAVERSE
_____, 5
TRAVIS
Patrick, 5
TREASTER
_____, 5, 7
Roscoe, 14
TRESSLER
Grace, 21, 62
Joseph, 35, 39, 55
Olie, 51, 52
TROSTLE
_____, 19
TWAIN
Arthur, 65
TWITMIRE
_____, 26, 27, 28
Harry, 32, 33
Henry, 24, 26, 32
J.  Jennie, 14
Jennie, 15
Mary, 14

U

UHL
_____, 26
Henry, 29
John, 24, 29
Roy, 29

V

VALENTINE
_____, 22, 29, 35
VonGUNDEN
_____, 25, 40, 56
George, 56

W

WADDLE
_____, 7, 13
WAGNER
J.W., 18
WAITE
Paul, 12, 29, 38, 62
Pearl, 9
Samuel, 49
WALKER
_____, 16
George, 20
Jonathan, 3
Miles, 16
WALTZ
Calvin, 21
WARD
L., 52
WARNE
_____, 9
Harold, 48
WASSON
Mame Bell, 25
R.U., 14, 15, 16
WATKINS
_____, 15
WEAVER
_____, 7
Frank, 19, 58
Fred, 48
John, 42
Michael, 16
WEEDS
Jim, 20
WEISTER
_____, 48
WEIXELL
_____, 63
WELLS
_____, 58
Gideon, 26, 40
Guy, 43
Howard, 48, 54
WESTERVELT
_____, 22
WHEELER
Roy, 48
WHITE
_____, 17
Emmanuel, 18
WILKINSON
Roy, 35
WILLIAMS
_____, 17
Bessie, 39, 50
Boyd, 37
Edna, 50
J.O., 50
Joseph, 13, 15
Shuman, 14
Tommie, 39
WILSON
S.L., 14
WION
Harold, 14
Philip, 14, 15
WOLFE
Ed, 23, 48
WOMER
_____, 31
WOOD
_____, 49
WOODCOCK
_____, 25
WOODS
Warren, 39

Y

YEARICK
_____, 62
YODER
David, 48
YOUNG
_____, 17

Z

ZELEZNICH
_____, 49
ZETTLE
_____, 53
ZIEGLER
_____, 21
Josiah, 17
ZIMMERMAN
_____, 7, 11, 20, 39, 49
H.E., 39
Harold, 38
Homer, 51, 52


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