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THE JOURNAL OFTHE Lycoming County Historical Society

VOLUMEXX SPRING NUMBERONE 1984 JOURNAL of the LYCOMING COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Published Semiannualy in Wiltiamspon, Museum Office - 858 West Fourth Street

Telephone (Area Code 717) 326-3326

BOARD OFTRUSTEES

HARRY KING WILLIAM E. NICHOLS, JR. RALPH R. CRANMER Legal Counselor JOHN L.BRUCH,JR. CLARENCE R. MUTCHLER JOHN B. MCMURTRIE Current SocietyPresident

BOARDOFGOVERNORS

DR. CLARENCE R. MUTCHLER, Preside/zr MRS. JANE INGERSOLL JAMES P. BRESSLER,/sf I,'lcePresfdenr 3rd VicePresident JOHN E. PERSON, 111,2/zd rice Presfdenf MRS. DAWN KEIPER JAMES WEHR, Treasurer Secretal?

1982-1984 1983-1985 MRS. GERTRUDE BITNER MRS. ARLENE HAFER DR.KENNETH E.CARL MRS. JOANNE BENNETT ROBERT SMINK JACK KISBERG RICHARDMIX E. J. DURRWACHTER

EX-OFFICIO BOARD MEMBERS

JUNIOR LEAGUE OF WILLIAMSPORT M rs. Robert Eckenrode

THE GREATER WILLIAMSPORT COMMUNITY ARTS COUNCIL EugeneE. Landon

HISTORICALSOCIETY STAFF Mrs. Mabel Never, ExecutiveSecretary

JOURNAL EDITOR VOLUMEXX Mrs. Lois Hunton SPRING NUMBERONE 1984 MUSEUM STAFF Director and Curator AndrewK. Grugan TABLE OF CONTENTS Assistant to the ])irector Everett W. Rubendall Gift Shop Manager & Tour Director Gloria Z. Grugan Greetings from the President's Desk Assistant Gift Shop Manager Miriam S. Mix Letter from the Director Foreword Indian Gallery MUSEUM VOLUNTEER STAFF Colonial Exhibit Transportation Exhibit 1 1 14 Reg£stTation Committee Miss June Foresman, Chaztman Museum Floor Plan Maps Mrs. Stanley Bassett Military Exhibit 17 Miss Ethel Ertel Country Store 18 Mrs. Frederick Snell One-Room School 19 Music Exhibit 20 Andrew K. Grugan O/peretz'on M eum Victorian Exhibits 21 23 Publicft) © Public Retat£on}.s Andrew K. Grugan Gallery Wild Life Display 25 CuTatodat Departments. Hall of Industry 26 Resource Collections 28 General CuTatov Andrew K. Grugan

,4rchaeoZog] James P. Bressler, Chua'oman William Turnbaugh Karen Rickey Ricki Maietta COVER A Tchfves © Records Miss Gladys Tozier, Chz'ef Miss Jean Little A pagefrom the SusquehannaBoom Company's register book is shown. Each Miss Phyllis Briel symbol is an identifying mark incited on all logs belonging to an individual owner and taken from a specific stand of timber. The original register is in the Museum's Educate'on Andrew K. Grugan collection.

Fine ,4rls Dr. June E. Baskin

InduntT£at Exhibits Francis Maneval ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Mzhe aZs Lewis Harper Bald Eagle Art League members Mrs. Loretta Hessler, Larry Seaman, Mrs. Jane Smith and Mrs. Mary Wilkinson provided the drawings which illustrate this issue. Textiles Mrs. Norman Ingersoll Dr. June Baskin drew the maps, and Miss Gladys Widemire donated the cover Mrs. Patricia Lockspeiser photograph. John Sloan MemoHal Collection Gloria Z. Grugan

D. V'incen{Stnifh Cottectiott Harry L. Rogers 5

GREETINGS FROM THE PRESIDENT'S DESK LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

Dear Members Dear Members This is the last issueof the Journal under the supervisionof Andrew K. Grugan who, on April 15,completes fourteen years of service to the Lycoming During my time servedas President of the Societyin 1971-72I becamein- County Historical Society and Museum, two years aspresident and twelve years terestedin working with ''the Journal.'' Since the Spring 1972Journal I have as director. enjoyed seeingthe publication present a wealth of interesting information to Under Mr. Grugan's administration the Lycoming County Museum has our members. As the various galleries in the Museum have become organized become one of the outstanding historical institutions of the country. It has been with hundreds of artifacts donated by our members I have felt an issue of the accreditedby the American Association of Museumsand hasreceived the Penn- Journal should feature these exhibits in such a way that it could be used as a sylvania Travel Award for Excellence, an award which named it one of the top casual guide to the Museum. ten travel related attractions in Pennsylvania. Now when I am about to retire as your Museum Director, I am pleasedthat Mr. Grugan has very skillfully performed the many types of work that this Journal presentsa walk through the Museum displays. It is a guide to the museum direction entails -- researching, accessioning,describing, exhibiting, many interesting collections accompanied by a simple floor plan and illustrated registering newly acquired objects, planning programs, etc. The exhibits prepared with drawings of some of the typical antiques on exhibit. We have a very fine by him have been of the highest quality, meticulously authentic and artistic. accredited museum so I hope that you will keep this issue and use it to explore The specialprograms he hasconducted for adults and children have been both and enjoy your Museummore fully. informative and delightful, his lectures spicedwith his own wry humor and I also would like to take this opportunity to thank all the memberswho charming digressions. Regularly he has guided classesof elementary school have donated their treasuredheirlooms and artifacts to the Museum,all the children, thousandsfrom Williamsport and county schools, through the people who have contributed so many fine articles to the Journal, all the Museum, giving them insight into city and county history and promoting an volunteers who have given so generously of their time - and talents and last, interest on the part of many in returning to the Museum independently. but not least,all the Societymembers and friendswho havegiven me such For six years Mrs. Gloria Grugan has been travel director and gift shop wonderful support during the past fourteen years. manager for the Society and Museum. Those who have traveled with her testify to her helpful and efficient handlingof their tour groups. Sincerely, We are grateful for the very reliable service Mr. Grugan has rendered and also for the capable help given by Mrs. Grugan. We shall miss them. Andrew K. Grugan They have our very best wishes for much happiness in retirement.

Sincerely

Dr. Clarence R. Mutchler President 7 6 INDIAN GALLERY

FOREWORD Although the Gallery contains items scene has been reconstructed in accor- from various parts of North America, the dance with the account given in John emphasis here, as in other galleries, is on Meginness' Lycoming County, lts Local history, as a record of man's activities, includes all aspectsof life. local artifacts. ' 'Local ' ' in this particular Organization and Condensed History for The museum collections, serving to illustrate those aspects,must include section of the Museum means generally One Hundred Years. materials of great variety ... The museum does not collect antiques as such. central and eastern Pennsylvania, rather Although many of its objects are old, valuable, and esthetically interesting, their than specificallyWilliamsport or Lycom- Other outstanding pieces representing prime importance to the museum is that of historic significance, i.e. their rela- ing County. local Indian culture include a fine large stone mortar and pestle and a stone pipe, tionship to the human history of the county. Materials typical of everyday life its bowl carved in the likenessof a wolf. are more desirable than those of exceptional bearing. A tin washpan, symbolic The oldest object in the Museum is the skuH of a 20-year-old Indian; this piece, of a life of toil, characterizingthe many, may be more significant to the museum which dates back some 10,000 years, was Of the exhibits from more distant areas, than an exceptionalpiece of furniture or a fine painting, relating to a select found along the . the Indian basketsdisplayed high on the and wealthy few. walls of the Gallery are noteworthy. The nature of the Lycoming County Historical Society Museum has not Especially noteworthy in the Gallery Thesebeautiful examplesof the basket- changedsince John W. Strawbridge111, a former staff member, wrote these are three dioramas which cover the local weaver'sart werecollected between 1 895 words in 1969 (JOURNAL, Vol. VI, No. 1). To clarify the relationship he spoke Indian period and which were made for and 1905,generally in the south-western of, betweenmuseum objects and human history, this current issueof the the Museum by James Bressler and a part of the ,by Miss Cora JOURNAL has been planned as a catalog of the Museum's collections; it will group of volunteers from North Central Anthony. Miss Anthony, a Williamsport Chapter No. 8, Society for Pennsylvania native and a teacherin local schools. amplify identifications and explanationsin the individual exhibit areasand will, Archeology. The earliest of the three traveledextensively in the South-west;she if it achieves its purpose, make the displays more meaningful to those who view also taught for a time in an Indian school them displays depicts a village which existed near Halls Station sometime in the span in that area. The plan of the sections is generally chronological and parallels the recom- of 2000-1000 B.C. The activities shown mendedroute on the Museum map (seePP. 14-16). cultivation of corn, grinding of grain, use A final display casein the Gallery con- of round bark huts -- have beenauthen- tains objects made and used by Eskimos ticated by excavations in the area. of Alaska and northern Canada. Includ- ed are hunting and fishing gear, a A stockaded village of approximately soapstoneoil lamp, a cup shapedfrom a 1400 A.D. is represented in the second musk-ox horn. and knives of various diorama; this group of long houses stood types. Among theseitems standsa carv- in Loyalsock Township, near the ed wooden effigy, an early twentieth- ''Golden Strip '' on East Third Street, and centurygravemarker from Fairbanks;this may have beenthe town of the legendary piece may be of Athabascan Indian Madame Montour. the French-Canadian origin. woman who was captured in 1694at the age of 10 and reared by the Indians and who served as an interpreter between the Indians and the British, before the Revolution. The scenein this display also has been based on artifacts; even the cir- cular grave in which an Indian is being buried, kneesdrawn to chin, is historical- ly accurate. The third diorama shows the ''Plum Thicket Massacre '' as it took place on June 10, 1778, on what are now the grounds of Calvary United Methodist Church, at the corner of West Fourth and Cemeterystreets. Although there are no archeological remains of this attack, the 8 9 COLONIAL EXHIBIT

This area of the Museum consists of by a man who operated in both Muncy three sections: a kitchen setting, a parlor and Williamsport. Considered the finest scene, and a textiles display. guns of their time, the long rifles were very accurate. The kitchen is the most complex of the three, crowded with wooden and metal In the parlor, the mantlepiece on cooking utensils and pottery objects of display belonged to Judge William Hep- many types. All the pottery, both redware burn. The two tilt-top tea tables, as well and salt glazed pieces,was locally produc- as a highboy elsewhere in the Museum, ed; the earliest potteries were on East were brought to this area by Quakers who Third Street, where there were native clay settled at Pennsdaleand are of deposits.On displayare two ''turk's Chippendale design. The head'' dishes, very similar in shape to English andirons and the mirror, adorn- modern Bundy pans, and a spittoon; the ed with an example of reverse-glass paint- small opening (two inches) suggeststhat ing, were the property of Michael Ross. the tobacco-chewerof that day neededto A pierced-tin footwarmer on the mantel be very accurate.Early room deodoizers shows the heart motif so popular with were in the form of red clay pots whose early Pennsylvanians. lids were molded to create holders for votive-sized candles; herbs or spices, The textiles display includes both the steepedin water in the lower part of the equipment used for spinning and weav- pots, provided pleasing fragrances. ing and the final productsof thosepro- cedures. Although it later (mid-1 9th cen- Handmade iron utensils, though tury) blossomed into a small-mills opera- designed for practicality, were frequent- tion, weaving in the colonial era was a ly surprisingly beautiful as well. One tru- cottage industry carried out by trained ly outstanding piece is a rotating trivet us- professional weavers such as John Rich ed as an in-the-fireplace broiler. The han- of Woolrich. Rich was among the crafts- dle, which ends in an open heart shape, men who produced the double-faced is typical of Pennsylvania Dutch design. Jacquard-weave coverlets on exhibit; William Lowmiller, who wove at Level m Several iron implements used for baking @ wafers are so molded as to create delicate Corner, near present-day Linden, was M designs on the baked goods. Even the col- another. A second type of woven work onial toaster which sits before the was the so-called ' 'show pieces,'' one be- fireplace is gracefully formed. ing displayed on the kitchen wall and others above the trundle bed. These pieces Among the wooden pieces, several of home-woven linen were produced as recall how taxing kitchen work used to be. both decorative items and demonstrations Bringing water from spring or well meant of the makers' needleworkskills; they donning a carved yoke in order to carry reveal edgings of fine drawn work (kit- two buckets more easily. A large dough chen) or of crocheting. Candlewick em- tray, its original paint intact, is a reminder broidery and trapunto quilting decorate of the kneading and baking required to other ' 'fancywork ' ' examples. produce the colonists' daily bread; an ap- ple peeler, sausagestuffers, and a cottage- cheesemaker, too, are in the do-it-your- self category. Although most of the Pennsylvania long rifles hangingon the wall were not made in Lycoming County, gunmakers did work here in the early days, and one An urn-shaped woven basket 14 inches high, is from the Cora Anthony collection of the handmade weapons was produced 10 1]

TRANSPORTATION EXHIBIT

Transportation comesin many forms, tinued on to Farrandsville, on the river and the Museum's displays run the and to Bellefonte, on Bald Eagle Creek gamut: from canal boats, trains and bicycles to fire engines, baby carriages Two dioramas illustrate canal life. The and even a bob sled. larger of the two, showing a lock and the house of its tender, was made by the Pennsylvania's system of canals pro- Richard Mix family. (On the West Branch vided, during part of Lhe19th century, the Division, 19 locks were used to raise or st&te's first major network of transpor- lower the boats as the level of the land re- tation for passengersand freight. At the quired.) The painting on the wall above height of the canal era, it was possible to the diorama is an original water-color by travel by boat from Philadelphia to Pitts- E. L. Henry, a nationally-known painter. burgh and on up to Erie, or from Elmira Michael Lins, then a Bishop Neumann to the Chesapeake Bay. Serving the High School student, constructed the se- Williamsport area from 1834to approx- cond diorama. imately 1890, the West Branch Division of the Pennsylvania Canal stretched 73 The swinging, or pivoting, bridge on miles from Northumberland upriver to exhibit is believed to be the model for a Lock Haven; from there extensionscon- patent taken out in the 19th century by

This graceful design, cast in iron, decorates the cooking surface of a long- This lantern, with its shiny round reflector and mirrored panels served asthe handled wafer iron in the colonial kitchen. headlampon a packetboat travelingthe PennsylvaniaCanal. 12 13 a Williamsport man. The bridge was so built in Philadelphia about 1850 and was designedthat the stack of an on-coming donated to the museum by Citizens Com- boat turned the bridge floor at a 90-degree pany #2. angleand thus enabledthe boat to pass through. Because a cantilever device The Pennsylvania license plates make swung the bridge back into position up a rare complete state collection. automatically, no bridge-keeper was needed. The use of such swinging bridges Of the bicycles, the earliest are two was widespread. The cargo boat model high-wheelerswith wooden spokes and also dates from the 19th century. iron ''tires'' that very much resemble those of buggy wheels; these bikes are pre In addition to freight and passenger Civil War. The so-called ''bone boats, other craft servedas floating breakers,'' with seat atop the lofty front general stores. Mules or horses provided wheel, belong to the 1880-90 period. Two power and moved the boats at a sedate of the more modern bicycles were produc- four miles per hour a rate limited by law ed locally; one is of Demorest manufac because higher speeds created turbulence Lurefrom the early 1900's, and the other, which washed away the fragile earthen dating from 1920or 1930, was made by banks of the canals. To signal a packet's the Tivy Bicycle Company, which was arrival, the boat captain used a conch located on Walnut Street. shell or long tin horn. Brassbells on the team addedto the din: the fine bells on Also of local construction is the large display were entirely handmadeand tricycle, handmade in the Gohl Carriage adornedanimals usedon the Lock Haven Shop and built almost entirely of wood. run The smaller, girl's, tricycle, which must have belonged to a young resident of the Although the canals flourished, their 900 block of West Fourth Street in the time was brief. and a number of factors early 20th century, was found smashed contributed to their demise. The flood of flat by a truck and was restored by Fran- 1889 was ruinous to waterways, but also cis Maneval. important was increasing competition from the railroads. In 1839the first area railroad was established to haul freight between Williamsport and Ralston; locomotivesand cars rode on a wooden track capped with strap iron. The railroad pictures are al1 1901originals photograph- ed at the New York Central's Newberry yard by Junction Stationmaster James Rechel.

Admittedly fire-fighting equipment has a primary purpose other than transpor- tation, but the Museum's steam engine and hose cart are noteworthy. The steam pumper, built in 1888 and shown in an 1918photo with driver Timothy Shan- non, wasfrom EngineCompany #3, the Hibernian Company, located on Camp bell Street between Second and Third. Factory reconditioned in 1908, the steamer was still in use during the 1927 fire which destroyed the Hippodrome Theater at 744 West Fourth Street. The The Gohls whose family businesswas a carriage shop, rode this bicycle over area hosecart, from South Williamsport, was roads. 14 15

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Among uniforms from this century's originally cast, the piece had Secretary wars and regimental flags of Reno Post Stanton posed with his hands behind the No. 64 stand eight plaster statuettes made President's head. Because of Stanton's by John Rogers, a nineteenth-century suspected involvement in the plot to sculptor from Long Island. Rogers assassinateLincoln, the public considered perfected a method used in reproducing the hand position to be threatening to the the figures: rubber molds were formed President and refused to buy the statuette. from the 70 or 80 originals, which were However, Rogers rose to the occasion and cast in copper or brass, and were filled redesigned Stanton's pose so as to bring with liquid plaster. both his hands into clear view; then the piece sold. Thousands of the statuettes were sold nationwide by door-to-door salesmen, Also noteworthy in the Military Exhibit who guaranteed safe delivery anywhere; is the furniture, all of it signedand dated if broken in shipping, the statuette was by its maker, William (Billy) Slack. A replaced free of charge. Since the figures local man, Slack servedin the Union ar- were relatively inexpensive, in the range my and, after his return from the war, of $8-$100, practically every home resumed his occupation of cabinetmak- displayed a ''Council of War '' or a ing. The staircasein the old post office Wounded Scout. building, now the City Hall, is an exam- ple of his work. This last-mentioned piece, incidental- ly, was one of two owned by General He was the creatoralso of the large George Custer, who carried ''Wounded wooden cabinet, to the left of the main Scout '' and ''One More Shot '' with him exhibit, which is decorated with cut-out on his campaigns; as the General's head- military insignia. quarters shifted, his aide packed and un- packed the statues. Since they were Outstanding among the flags is that of fragile, having no metal skeleton, the aide the Woodward Guards, dating to the must have spent a fair amount of time 1850's. The displayed Texas banner is a gluing fragments together. The Museum's captured one, brought back to Lycoming exhibit includes both of the General's County during the Civil War. favorites.

Rogers' work is notable for its accuracy and faithful detail, the result of careful research on the sculptor's part; his figure of George Washington, made for the 1876 Centennial celebration, is a casein point. Yet for all its correctness,the figure was a commerical failure. Since very few were sold, the piece is extremely rare today; in / addition to the Museum copy, only a few ,--- --<------.<:- - -' I others are known to be extant, one in the collection of the New York Historical Society and another in Smithsonian Institution.

Another figure which did not sell at first was ''The Council of War,'' which portrays President Lincoln, Secretary of Downstairs of .14us(um War Stanton and General Grant. As 18 19

COUNTRYSTORE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL

Although most of us remember school The bell marked the conclusion of two What the surburban mall is to 1984's iron horse and sleigh, probably from the rooms apparently not very different from later wars as well. At the end of World shoppers the small-town general store was 1870's, still bears its original paint. the one on display, the Museum's exhibit War 1, Pepperman, Dr. Youngman and to buyers of the nineteenth and early Blocks, dolls, rocking horses, trains and contains some unusual items. others had a carriage made and readied twentieth centuries. Almost anything that carved wooden animals suggest that the bell to be rung as soon as the Ar- could not be made at home was available children's tastes haven't changed ap- Dating back a hundred years or more mistice should be declared. When the at such an emporium. The Museum's preciably over the years. Oscar Long, a to the latter half of the nineteenthcen- word came, Dr. Youngman struck the bell local cabinet maker, created the two Vic display is basedon a real, but typical, tury, the teacher's desk is from the Klump so forcefully with a hammer that the country store: the Younkin establishment dorian sample chairs in 1876; they are school, near Balls Mills, and was used by, in Linden. marks can still be seen.The bell appeared signed and dated. The upholstery pro- among others, Historical Society presi- in the ArmisticeDay parade in 1918 and bably is not original. dent ClarenceMutchler when he prac- also in the parade marking the end of What could one buy at such a store? !ice-taught at that school; the painted World War ll. Everything from spittoons to brass seen Civil War carpet bags share display desk is the product of a Lycoming Coun- oils tor painting identification numbers on space over the store with leather trunks ty furniture company, perhaps one in Pic- logs: lamps and lanterns .. . footwarmers and valises; some of these latter pieces ture Rocks. Sincelarge slateboardsdid toys of all sorts ... baskets ... fish and pre-date the war between the states. not come into use until after 1850. the animal traps ... shaving mugs ... candle wooden blackboard is even older than the molds .. . scales .. . coffee grinders .. . shoe desk. The tin stove. which has never been cleats tor icy days .. . tobacco .. . horse col- used, also is pre-Civil War, bearing the lars ... cabbage cutters. fvlany of the date 1860. It was manufactured in Jersey store's articles(the springerle rolling pin Shoreat the W. R. Wilson foundry. and the shoe cleats, in particular) were made locally. Perhaps the most ''historical '' item in the school display is the bell, which once The display of irons is a veritable summonedyoungsters to classesin the old history ot that kind of household equip Franklin Elementary School on Mulberry ment. Some are of the sadiron variety, to Street. (Reference here is not to the be heated atop a range. The earliest ones Franklin torn down in the 1950'sbut to had metalhandles: not untillater did the an older structure probably built in the wooden, so-called safety, handles come 1830's or 1840's.)The bell was cast in into use. One of the Museum's irons was Philadelphiain 1818and thus in all manufactured in the 1860's by the E. likelihood was not new when installed in Since our listing of those who con Keller Company. Another is a cumber- Franklin. It was the first bell rung in tributed $25.00 or more to the Lycoming some device to be filled with burning Williamsport to mark General Lee's sur- County Historical Society and Museum charcoaland thus kept hot over a period render at the end of the Civil War. As in celebration of its 75th Anniversary, ot time. Exotic-looking contraptions ridg related by Arthur E. Pepperman, then Wilhelmena Mikusinski has made a con ed like miniature washboards were fluting principal of Curtin Junior High School, tribution to that fund in memoryof her irons. needed to freshen the ruffles which the story goes that Dr. Charles father, John Mikusinski, and her brother, adorned milady's dress Youngman, who was passing the Western Jack Mikusinski Union office just as the newscame in The exhibit contains more than two This sadiron was madeby the E. Keeler from Appomattox, went to the nearby dozen different kinds ot lighting equip- Company in 1866. Long ago one mean school and asked for the privilege of ring- ment: oil lan)ps, pierced tin lanterns, and, ing of the word ''sad '' was ''heavy.'' ing the bell. At first refused, permission mounted outside the store building, a gas was granted after the principal verified street light from late-nineteenth-century the news, and the bell rang out word of Newberry. peace. In the end of the store devotedprimari- Shortly after 1900, when plans were ly to toys standsa high chair from the made to replace the old school, the bell home of Peter Vanderbelt Jr., son-in-law was taken first to Fire Company #l, ot Michael Ross: the chair dates to the directly acrossMulberry Street, and later first half of the nineteenthcentury. Also to Curtin Junior High as part of an ex- pre-CivilWar is a horse pull-toy. A cast- hibit of the Historical Society. 20 21 MUSIC EXHIBIT VICTORIAN EXHIBITS houses were built close to the center of South Williamsport At the heart of the Museum are the During the late decadesof the nine- displays of Victoriana, representingas town, on Third or Fourth or intersecting teenth century, Williamsport became streets, the leaded windows and wooden known for three aspectsof music produc- A fadedphotograph on thewall of the they do the period of Williamsport's Music Exhibit recalls a man who, greatest resplendence.Paintings, fur- grill were taken from a home on Arch tion: sheet music was printed, brass band niture, and decorative and architectural Street, in Newberry. (The Dodge lumber instruments were manufactured, and the although he wasn't a musician, must be items all illustrate the days when the city mill, largestin the world, stood on Arch Repasz Band performed. mentioned in any account of the city's boasted the highest concentration of Street, near the presentlocation of musical history. William King (Killy) millionaires in the world. Lloyd's Lumber Company. The wooden The Repasz is considered to be the Kilpatrick was, accordingto his publici- houses which used to stand in Jaysburg, oldest continuous brass band in the na ty, the ''world's greatestdrum major. on the east side of Arch Street. south of As such. he toured the world with Sousa's The smaller of the two parlors, located Lion, exclusive of the armed service bands. along the east corridor, contains a vane Lloyd's, were built by Dodge for their Founded as the ''Williamsport Band '' in band. as well as with other famous musical organizations, and appeared in ty of typical pieces: a horsehair- millworkers.) 1831 by Jacob Lyons Mussina, the upholsteredchair, stuffed birds, an or organization was re-named during the the Ringling Brothers Circus; a New York nate fire screen, reed parlor organs, and J. Roman Way owned the late Vic- Civil War period in honor of its conduc- City newspaper in 1889, when Kelly was torian mantel, which was made in 18, described him as ''the genius of the a painting by Severin Rosen. Although tor, Jacob Repasz. The Museum displays Rosen'scompositions of fruit and flowers Williamsport. It topped a facing of Min- three instruments of the band's percus- golden wand.'' were not generally popular with collectors ton tiles, examplesof which may be seen sion section: a bassdrum, probably from when the artist came to Williamsport in to the left of the mantel. the turn of the century, and a pair of When Killy died in ]915, after being 1858. the owners of mansions on struck by a train, his funeral procession nineteenth-century tympani. These are ''Millionaires' Row '' bought the canvases Victorian chairs came in all descrip- made of copper and mounted on heavy was spectacular. From the family home freely. tions. John Henry Belter, a New York iron frames; wooden covers protect the on Chatham Street to Wildwood drum heads. Cemetery, it moved to the measured City woodworker of the 1850's,created cadenceof the death march; as he mar- Every proper Victorian parlor contain- pieces with laminated wood backs long ed a center table with some sort of display ched, Killy's best friend carried a velvet before plywood was a household word. Theme song of the band was its Repasz to catch the eye. Here, on a table with an 's chair. with a solid-wood Band March, composed by Charles C. cushionon which lay the drum major's awards and his baton. imitation marble top, a large glass bell, back, sports red carved velvet upholstery. Sweeley and published by the most or "shade", shows off the birds of Lycom- Although two Gothic revival armchairs famous local printers of sheet music, the F. W. Vandersloot Music Publishing ing County. The stuffed peacock was both date to the 1840-70 period, they dif- originally part of a natural history collec- fer widely. The first, finished in a tradi- Company. This establishment operated from 1897into the 1930'sat 233West tion in the old Clay Elementary School. tional dark color, hasa petit point seat and a heraldic-like design on the back. Third Street. across from the Federal Petit point and bead work decorate the fire screen,probably of English origin but Carved velvet upholstery and swirled leaf Building, advertising catalogs and ''high owned locally around 1860.Of the two carvings mark the second chair, which has class sheetmusic for band, orchestra, and parlor organs, both from the period of an unusual light finish. Another Gothic mandolin '' groups. Similar businesses were the United StatesMusic Publishing 1880-1 915, the one to the right was a top- revival pair displays twisted-effect rungs of-the-line piece; ornate, detailed carving and leather seats. Company and the smaller J. M. Warner and two candlestandswarrant this Music Company and Fisk, Achenbach Near this latter pair is a ''two-faced '' and Company. Vandersloot, a member of description. The other reed instrument, to Pine Street Methodist church, wrote and the left, is more like what most homes (gentlemanand lady) desk madeat the J. possessed.The camelback sofa is typically K. Rishel furniture factory for Mr. and compiled 19 hymns in a collection called scrolled and carved. Mrs. J. Walton Bowman. Gospel Songs, with the sub-title ''Echoes from Old Pine. '' Lining the corridor between the two A more formal room is shownin the Brass band instruments were manufac- Victorian parlors are several chairs, a larger of the two parlors, which is furnish tured here from about 1880 until the mantel, leaded glasswindows, and a pair ed with a suite of sofa and four chairs, of rather overpowering gold pier glasses two with armsand two without the so- 1940's. The Henry Distin Company (later Thousands of drum beats have vibrated bought out by Brua C. Keefer) produced decorated with sculptured female faces called gentleman's and lady's chairs. the head of this turn-of-the-century bass surrounded by floral sprays; the size of the 1905 comet and the 1880 heraldic drum. These pieces came from the home of horn, one of a pair in the Museum'scol- these glasses is enough to suggest the Jonathan Augustus Stearns (1 844-1902) lection. The third instrument on display, generous dimensions of the Victorian and his wife, Sarah Huckle Lyon also a Garnet, dates to approximately 1930 mansion. The mirrors are from the Hays (1850-1930).Carvings of women's faces, and was made by Valentine Luppert's Im- house on Hepburn Street and date to the which serve as arm supports, suggest perial Band Instrument Company in 1870's. Although most of the fine old ships' figureheads. Again, the wood's 22 23 light-colored finish is uncommon. the Museum. Made of solid cherry, the LUMBER GALLERY White's Castle.'' which stood in what piece has been ebonized and striped in is now Way's Garden, was the source of gold. It is the work of Frederick Mankey, Just as lumbering was the most impor- both the double-bitted type wielded by the the melodeon, formerly owned by Emily who had decorativefurniture factories tant factor in Williamsport's develop- tree-fellers (''choppers'') and the broad Weaver White (Mrs. John White). The both here and in Emporium. ment, so the Lumber Gallery is the axes used by sawyers to trim trees into pier glass,all of a piecewith the heavy keystone of all the Museum's collections; logs bespeak the physical strength of the cornices. adds architectural interest to the as such, it is the most extensive of the ex- woodsmen. display; these items came from a house hibits in terms of space. in Lock Haven. The chandelier of etched Before the logs were floated down to glass globes and cut prisms is from the Lumbering began early in Lycoming the mills. each one had to be identified Robert Foresmanhome at 951 West County. Evidence suggeststhat the first by a mark to indicate who the owner was Fourth Street area sawmill was built in 1792along and in what stand of timber the log had , some four miles been cut. These identifications were incis- Decorative elements in the parlor in- upstream from the river. Forty-six years ed in the wood by sledgehammer-like clude two ''shades,'' a bust and portraits. later. in 1838. a four-saw mill. termed the devices, also called marks, each of which The shadeat the foot of the pier glass ''Big Water Mill,'' went into operation at bore a unique symbol or combination of contains wax flowers while the larger bell, the foot of Locust Street: there lumber letters or numbers. The Museum's collec- on the table in the foreground, covers an was manufactured on a commercial scale. tion of marks and the register of them arrangement of wax fruit(lemon, melon Other mills -- water-powered at first, from the records of the Susquehanna slices complete with seeds, berries and later steam-run -- followed quickly, and Boom Company is a highlight of the peach halves) made in Sunbury in 1870. Wiiliamsport was in business. Lumber Gallery. More than 700 local Both portraits also date to 1870. Levi Tate marks are listed, and every logger, il was a newspaper publisher and owner of The surge of activity soon exhausted literate as he probably was, could instant- several local papers. The likeness of the the easily accessibletimber in the im- ly identify each one. little girl, Nellie Tallman, was painted by mediatearea. Enter, in 1846,Major her father, a student of Severin Rosen. A James H. Perkins, a en- sad footnote tells us that the child top trepreneur with a plan for floating logs pled from her stool during a posing ses- downriver from areas were timber was sion and died of her injuries only a few still plentiful, trapping the logs and days later. transferring them to the city's mills -: a W plan, in short, for the boom. Local Another sort of Victorian furniture is capitalists subscribed $1,500,000 to the golden oak bedroom suite shown in finance the construction, which was com- a room setting along the west corridor of pleted in 1849. Stretching six miles from the Museum. between the colonial kitchen Linden to Williamsport and capable of and the military exhibit. The set was made holding 300 million feet of logs at one in 1906at the Luppert and Kline factory time, the device revolutionized lumbering in South Williamsport, near the Maynard and made Williamsport ''the lumber Street bridge, and sold for $15 (bed and capital of the world.'' in the peak year dresser). This room also demonstrates the of 1873, 30 sawmills processedmore than Victorian love for decoration. The one and a half million logs into over 3 18 horsehair-covered platform rocker sports million board feet of lumber. an embroideredinsert; a human hair wreath and a sampler with German In the Gallery, models and dioramas words, made on Franklin Street in the late A shade(glass bell) covers wax flowers explain the processesby which living trees nineteenthcentury, adorn the walls. And in a wicker basket; this pieceis in the Vic- were turned into furniture and building primitive plumbing is suggested by the torian parlor, at the baseof the pier glass. materials: cutting, skidding or hauling taken cabinet at the foot of the bed: a floating, and finally delivering the logs to discreetdaytime housing for the essential the mills. But the realia--pikepole, chamber pot. leather apt6n, tin lunch pail -- evoke more clearly the hardworking, hardliving, One more piece of furniture is worthy somehow larger-than-life lumberman. This "marko ' a sledgehammer-like of special note. This is an 1880's device for incising logs, bearsthe identi- sideboard, which stands in the lobby, to Display casesacross from the dioramas fying symbol of the Susquehanna Boom the right of the front door as one enters contain many such artifacts . Heavy axes, Company. 24 25 they went, to break up log jams or to The long-handled iron marks are of WILD LIFE DISPLAY deter would-be assailants. The logsled, in particular interest here. Many of them the center of the Gallery, holds examples werecast in local foundriesand thus are Although most of us associatethe term outlawed, the federal government of- of both kinds of poles. examplesof early industrial products. In 'stool pigeon '' with the criminal element, ficially owns the mounted head, and the addition. sincethe marks were used in the the origin of the phrase is quite different, Museum displays it only by virtue of a Two men whose lives were closely tied forest and sometimesforgotten or aban- as the Museum's display of the passenger certificate of permission, renewable every up with the Susquehanna Boom Com- doned there, the pieces are still found oc- pigeon indicates. During the nineteenth two years. Feathers of the unfortunate pany are representedin the Museum's casionally in area woods. century these birds flew into the area by bird were donated to a New York Indian lumbering displays: Ashley Reeder and tens of thousands to nest and raise their tribe, to whom they are sacred Christ Haist. Reederwas a blacksmith Unlikely as it seems, shillelaghs and young. An expression used commonly in employed full-time by the company to spudshad their usesin lumbering, too. literature of the period describing the All animals in the exhibit, including make chains and tools. A length of chain To the logger the former was a crude, birds' arrival is ''in clouds that darkened birds and butterflies. are native to the which he forged lies beside the boom heavy wooden club with which he releas- Lhesun.'' Thick forests rich in beech nuts. area, although hikers are not likely to en boat, and a peaveyis exhibited in the ed the chains hooked around logs while especially in Sullivan and northern counter cougars or ferrets in today's display case; a heart incised on the point they were being moved; the shillelagh on Lycoming counties, provided food. But woods. The county's reputation as a is Reeder's distinctive mark . display was found in a Lycoming Coun- the birds served,in turn, as food for sportsman's paradise is indicated by the ty ghost town and bears the scars of hard humans, and this fact led to their fishing section and also by the unusual waist worked on the boom for virtual- usage. The name ''spud '' was applied to extinction. dual-mounted deer specimens,the work ly his entire life and, as its last superinten- any of a variety of knives employed in of taxidermist Norman Wilkinson. The dent, carried out its closing in 1912.A peelingbark from cut logs. To net the birds. hunters made use of female was shot in the state's first doe corner display case houses several models a decoy, the ''stool pigeon,'' so-called season in 1940. which he made. The log slide and log skid Other tools important to the lumber- because the captive bird, its eyelids sew were both used in loading logs for man were the peavey and the pike pole. ed shut, was tied to a ''stool,'' a kind of transportation on either land or water. The peavey (sometimes spelled ''peavy '') perch which was staked out in the woods. Rafts also moved products of the lumber was a stout lever like a cant hook but with Wild birds, hearing its cries, were at- ing industry; they were made of logs, the end armed with a strong, sharp point, tracted to bait spread on the ground near- squaredtimbers, or, as shown by Haist's with which logs could be rolled into the by and were caught in nets dropped from model. sawn boards. The shear boom was desired position. Pike poles, heavy spik- trees. The captives were either beaten to located at the up-river end of the funnel- ed staffs, averaged12 feet in length and death with clubs or had their necks shaped boom to divert any logs which were carried with the rivermen wherever wrung. The processwas a tremendously threatened to escape impoundment. wasteful one, sinceonly the fattest birds Boom cribs, of which severalkinds are were taken to market: the others were left shown. servedas anchors for the boom. to decay on the forest floor. The rafting-out platfom] wasa part of the sorting pens at the lower end of the boom, Many baby birds were slain by farmers where logs could be separatedaccording who drove their pigs into the woods. to owner or order. There nest-bearing trees were shaken un [il the nestlings fell to the ground and The Gallery contains two items which, were devoured by the pigs. while not directly connected with the lumbering industry, suggest the great trees The last passengerpigeon in Lycoming which once blanketed this area. In one County was killed near Linden and corner stands a section of the 300-year- mounted in 1890by Charles H. Eldon, a old Tiadaghton Elm; this section,which nationally known taxidermist and a is not from the trunk but rather from one founder of the local Historical Society; of the main branches. measures 30 inches this is the bird in the Museumexhibit. across. Some long-ago farmer turned a cross section of another 30-inch log into The mounted bald eagle also is Eldon's a feed bin for his animals, hollowing the work, done in his Pine Streetstudio in log and attachinga plank bottom. Ap- The generoussize of this dinner bucket 1921. The bald eaglehead, however, is of parently the bin saw long usage, for the (10'' x 6ik2'' x 7'' high) suggeststhat the more recent vintage, dating to 1968when outside is smooth and satiny where it was lumberman who used it was blessed with Mrs. Violet Hushed, piloting her small rubbed by the hungry cattle; the inside is a healthy appetite. A drinking cup rides plane, struck and killed the bird -- where rough. upside down on top, and a small brass else? over Bald Eagle Mountain. Since plate bears the name ''Geo. Blair.'' the possession of eagle specimens is now 26 27

HALL OFINDUSTRY County mills make up the grist mill display. One interesting item in the exhibit Although lumbering comes to mind as Sewing machines on display were is a ''barter stick.'' a kind of calculator the area's primary industry of earlier manufactured at the Demorest factory; marked to show the miller how many days, it wasn't the only one by any means. the original foundry and sewing machine bags of flour he was entitled to keep as Mills and shops of many kinds turned out factory date to 1845. Later, the company payment for the grinding; a tally board, goods for nineteenth and early twentieth produced bicycles (one of these from 1890 with holes for placing pegs, hangs on the century residents. In those days before is on exhibit in the Transportation wall at the back of the display. easy long-distance transportation, com- Gallery) and cast-iron ends for theater munities produced what their citizens and opera house seats. The blacksmith shop indicates that the neededin their daily lives, and many items horseshoer didn't spend all his time shoe- on display in the Hall of Industry were The production of heating stoves is said ing horses. He shaped nuts and bolts on for use in the home or on the farm. to be one of the oldest industries in the a forming iron, a large metal block with West Branch Valley. As early as 1835 holes of different sizes and shapes; the The construction of primitive wooden Isaac Mckinney and his son William had cooled blanks were threaded with an ap- washing machines, churns, and food- built a furnace in the area they called propriately sized die. Using a wooden preparation equipment shows effort to ''Heshbon'' and by 1841had a rolling jack, he removed and replaced worn-out make things easier for the housewife in mill in operation. (The Heshbon site was wagon tires, curving them to fit the those pre-pushbutton days. Washboards chosen because of the superior water wooden wheels. He made cast-iron cook- with rollers instead of ridges took some power it offered; ironically, the mill was ing and baking vesselsand utensils of the of the work out of doing laundry by destroyedby a flood in 1865.) Their sand- type mounted on the wall across from hand. One washing ''machine '' from cast stoves, marked ''Lycoming Fur- the shop, and he fabricated fork-like in- 1890 agitated the clothes gently in a rock- nace,'' were decorated with sheaves of struments for spearing eels. ing motion, but another ground them bet- grain and other agricultural designs. ween a series of rollers and a sliding Other ten-plate stoves on display are from Some local products are of a later, plank; surely not many buttons could sur- Muncy and Lancaster; the rounded more highly technical day. On exhibit is irive that treatment. Churns, too, are of front style is more typical than is Mckin- a 12-cylinder, 160-horsepowerautomobile many types, ranging from the familiar ney's rectangular box. The stoves are engineproduced in 1932by Avco. Almost hand-powered up-and-down variety to termed ''ten plate '' because they were cast as big as today's sub-compact cars, the one using a rocking motion; another is an and shipped in sections; according to one motor is a cut-away exhibition model unwieldy piece of apparatus for which the commentator, putting the pieces together typical of engines made here in the late The founder of Montoursville. John family dog, walking on a treadmill, pro- properly was as big a chore as casting 1920's and early 1930's for trucks and Burrows, owned this ox-yoke, on display vided the necessary energy. them. cars (Auburns, Cords, Dusenbergs) as in the woodworking shop. Burrows was well as for fire engines. The Shepherd an enlisted man with George Feeding the family involved growing Wood shop, grist mill, and horse- Engineering Company, a turn-of-the- Washington's Contintental Army at and harvesting grain and butchering as shoer's establishment were also important century concern at the foot of Campbell Valley Forge and later becamea general well as kitchen work. A fine grain cradle, to homeand farm. By hand or with a Street (one Shepherd building is now part with the PennsylvaniaMilitia. As a a scythe with long finger-like rods attach- water-powered lathe, the woodworker of the Bethlehem Steel complex) built reward for this service, he was given a ed, kept grain stalks from scattering as produced shingles, butter paddles and steam engines for use in manufacturing. grant of land near Muncy, acreagewhich they wer€ cut; this piece was made in the bowls, ox-yokes,barrel staves and he exchanged for holdings in what is now water-powered Ball Cradle Factory at decorative moldings. Barrel staves were Montoursville . Balls Mills. For ''butchering day '' there smoothed on a reverseplane, an upside- were hooks and knives for dealing with down device with its blades on top; this the carcass, lard presses, and sausage stuf- piece is 18th century. The woodshop fers. One seesa definite similarity bet- display includes several new tools -- ween some of the lard presses and one molding planes, adz complete with type of clothes wringer. A ''hamburger wooden blade protector -- bought by a maker,'' probablylocal and certainly man who intended to open a carpenter's home-built. is a real Rube Goldberg af- shop when he returned from the Spanish- fair: chunks of meat rotated on a turn- American War; he apparently changed his table while sharp blades moved up and mind, however, and stored the tools, still down to do the chopping. Even a pump unused, in an attic, from which they came shows ingenuity: the maker added a to the Museum. ''drawer.'' a kind of reservoir so that a supply of water could be always at hand. Parts of several different Lycoming 28 RESOURCE COLLECTIONS In addition to the public exhibits, the Museum possessestwo other large groups of items from which selections are made for occasional display. The John Sloan Collection is composedof more than 300 piecesof original art. American works include Winslow Homer engravings,Currier and Ives prints, and many other original prints and paintings, one of thesebeing from the Hudson River school. African sculptures and textiles make up another group; from eighteenth century England come eighteen engravings of social comment by William Hogarth. Although Sloan lived in Lock Haven, his widow donated the collection to the Lycoming County Museum becausethe artist's family wcre former residents of Williamsport.

Textiles, primarily quilts and hand-woven pieces, comprise a second resource collection; this collection will be reviewed in a future issue of the Journal.

THE SHEMPP COLLECTION TOY TRAINS For a review of this exhibit, seethe Spring-Fall 1983Joumal, Vol. XIX, No l