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conservativeman633

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Posts posted by conservativeman633

  1. On 5/7/2020 at 9:41 PM, Bon said:

    Penfield, which encompasses the intersection of Routes 153 and 255, in Huston Township, is an older village than one might think.

    The driving duo of lumber and coal gave rise to the locale’s economy is the late 19th and early 20th century, but the town was settled or founded by a man named Gould Hoyt in 1839.

    Mr. Hoyt was the son so Catherine Hoyt, a Vermont native and a Revolutionary War nurse and veteran who lived from 1758 to 1845.

    Her short obituary listed her as a “mother of the revolution.”  She is buried in an unmarked gravesite just north of the intersection.  A historical marker notes the approximate spot.

    As is told, Gould Hoyt had neat penmanship and the Penfield was named for his talent.

    John DuBois, the 19th century lumber baron, whose namesake is given to DuBois itself, expanded his logging operations and railroads throughout the Bennetts Valley, essentially connecting DuBois to St. Marys.

    DuBois was the catalyst whose ever-expanding resource extraction interests made the Penfield area rapidly grow.

    Markets needed laborers and immigrants, at this time, served the purpose.  Many single men, and later their families, arrived from poorer regions of southern Italy as well as Eastern and other European regions and spiked the population growth of Penfield and the surrounding communities.

    Many of their names and family traditions still thrive in Penfield today. One ingrained tradition was the willingness to work hard to get ahead.

    Tanneries, that processed hides into leather, often became a spin-off industry of the lumber business.  Tree bark and an abundant supply of coal were two essential products that kept tanneries in business.

    The 1912 photo shows Elk Tannery company houses in Penfield.  They were simple wooden structures, simply built, to provide double-family occupancy.

    Large families were often crammed into these units.  Rent was often deducted from worker’s wages.  The abuse of that system, as well as company store policies, was often a source of labor strife at the time.

    The photo shows the surrounding hills, sets of railway tracks, dirt streets and a locomotive watering tank.

    The company house design resembles that of the somewhat more picturesque New England “salt box” style, but the working families of Penfield, then, saw them basic shelter as they hoped for a better future.

    89A8DCF3-610A-409A-B2D2-759CF2C3AC0D.jpeg

    Thank you !

    Excellent information.

  2. 5 hours ago, mr.d said:
    You are here: Home » News Local News

    PA Great Outdoors Visitors Bureau: History of Hallton

    February 2, 2020 12:30 am·
    Author: exploreJefferson
     

    lumber-cart-clarion-river-hallton-elk-coWhen the town of Hallton was first settled around 1810 by Amos Davis, it was known as Spring Creek. By the 1820s, Job Paine and James Watterson built a sawmill in the area where it became a rally point for rafts men during the rafting era of lumbering along the Clarion River.

    (Story courtesy of Rob Keith)

    hallton-elk-county-sawmill-1894

    In the 1880s, James K. Gardner and John G. Hall formed the Hall, Gardner & Co and constructed a sawmill. It was then that the town became known as Hallton.

    logs-in-river-spring-creek-hallton-1896-elk-county

    The Clarion River Railway was completed to Hallton in 1891, and the Tionesta Valley Railway that came down Spring Creek from Sheffield also served Hallton. Hall would die in 1889 and William H. Hyde (Joseph S. Hyde’s son) would join the venture.

    hallton-sportsmens-lodge-now-hallton-hilton-elk-county

    In 1905 Frank Clawson would construct a wood chemical plant up Spring Creek from Hallton on the west bank of the creek. The Hall, Gardner & Co sawmill would close in 1909, but it would take until 1948 for the Clawson Chemical Company plant to close, which also forced the abandonment of the Clarion River Railway.

    boy-chemical-factory-in-background-hallton-elk-county

    Like many small towns along the Clarion River, once the lumber industry moved on, so did the citizens and industries in the town. The history of the town is captured in the photos and the stories told by the people that lived and worked there.

    For more information on the history of and current activities available in the Pennsylvania Great Outdoors, go to VisitPAGO.com.

    Most recent PAGO logo 2018


     

    Thank you for the history !!  Hallton hasn't changed much !!

  3. 19 hours ago, Keyser Soze said:
    
    Page 4  DuBois HISTORY
    
      Meantime many lumber camps operated in the forests where crews cut and
    stocked logs splash-dams aided in creating temporary flood stages in the
    streams for floating the logs to the millsite where they were rapidly converted
    into huge piles of sawed boards and bill-stuff, box-shooks, ship-spars and
    shingles, constantly being sent to markets by rail.
    
         To get over the near half-mile of low lying beaver dam, to the homes now
    being built on higher ground on either side of it, slabs from the mill were
    used to lay a kind of corduroy, or mud-bridge later to be called the 'plank
    road',—now the tree-lined 'boulevard.'
    
         Very soon after the mill began to operate, it was found that coal veins
    of 5 ft. to 6 ft. thickness lay in the strata west of town, of easy access to
    the railroad. Development began by erection of tipple and siding, and within
    three years a considerable trade was added to that of the lumber, and DuBois
    became a live and growing town, so that with the year 1880 a bank and a
    newspaper were established. Hotels and boarding houses sprang up on Long and
    Courtney streets. A Methodist church was built on Booth street, a Catholic
    church on State street ,a grist-mill on Long and a schoolhouse where the City
    Hall now stands. While the postoffice was on. Long street side of the town, the
    Main street section developed toward the coal mines so that for many years
    there was a dual town known as the East or DuBois side, to distinguish it from
    the older or `Rumbarger' side. Rivalry existed for a long time between the two
    sections ,coal miners and their families for Rumbarger, and mill-men and
    woodsmen for the DuBois side. Both sides were about equally noted for
    pugilistic capacity and the frequent encounters in bar-rooms and picnics and on
    the streets later resulted in fixing to the Rumbarger section, the appella-
    tion of 'Bloody First' ward. Donegal Hill, as another title to that section,
    
    

    http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/history/dubois-history.txt

    Thank you !!   I was looking for the location of "Shantytown" in particular-------------------can't seem to open your site.      I was wondering where, exactly, Shantytown was in relation to D-Hill.....?

  4. 16 hours ago, Vader said:

    Again, you're likely mistaken about what church was being discussed. There was a progression of Catholic churches with St. Mike's starting up  somewhere around 1911-12.

    St. Josephs, which was built roughly two or three years after this piece, falls in the time-frame you're looking at.

    I read this piece several years ago, and it deals primarily with the succession of parish priests at St. Joe's, but it also includes many of the relevant dates and events surrounding other parishes as well. It's actually a very good read. There's some items about St. Mike's on Page 3.

    https://dioceseoferie.org/stcathstmikedubois/images/pdf/StJosephHistory.pdf 

    This one seems to discount your thoughts out-of-hand.

    https://liturgicalcenter.org/media/parish_pdf/E/e-7.1.pdf

    Excellent history----thank you very much !!  I know the authors of the first one, but I don't know who wrote the second.  They were great to read!

    Again, the news item I posted was the "birth" of the Polish church in the first ward, though years from the actual building. Remember a "church" is far more than a 'building', and it started far before 1911-12.  Much like St. Catherines started far before the first actual building of a 'church'...        It seems that , in 1891, the idea of their own Polish church was "born" in their minds & hearts, and a mere 20 years later it came to pass.  No, it is not St. Joseph at all.  The article of 1891 is the earliest known mention of what will eventually be St. Michaels Church (building) in DuBois..

    BTW, Fr. Urbonas is the namesake of the local K of C council because of his devotion to the order......

  5. St. Michaels was the Polish Church---there was no other.  St. Michaels is also in the First Ward as the news item mentions.

    It appears that in 1891(not 1890, my error) the people were gathering to discuss and plan a Polish Church which was to become St. Michaels when finally built.  St. Michaels is "not far" from St. Catherines, especially the original church which was closer than the present one today.      In other words, as the title of the thread suggests, the "birth" of St. Michaels church.

     

    St. Joseph was the Lithuanian/Slovak Church....not Polish....

     

    Just thought others would have some interest in this subject, and apparently some do !

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