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J.V. BROWN LIBRARY
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This material does not circulate
JAMES V. BROWN !: STAR
WILLIAMSPORT, PENNA 17701
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation
http://www.archive.org/details/pictureoflycomin02grea
A PICTURE OF LYCOMING COUNTY VOL. 2
A RESEARCH PROJECT
of The Greater Williamsport Community Arts Council
in conjunction with The Williamsport Area School District
funded through The Comprehensive Employee's Training Act (CETA) Title VI 1977-78 - Lycoming County
Mark Peter Harer and Ruth Rosenberg-Naparsteck, Researchers
Williamsport, Pennsylvania
1978
!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
Introduction.
1
1. World War II in Lycoming County 5
2. Industry and The Williamsport Plan. 15
3. Agriculture, Conservation, Lumbering. .33
4. Transitions in Population and Retail Trade. .43
5. Major Floods and the Dikes. .51
6. Education: From One Room to Many. .67
7. News Media. .87
8. Transportation: Exit Railroads - Enter Highways and .93
Airplanes
9. Public Service Institutions 111
10. Government and Politics 131
11. Trends in Religion. 145
12. Sports and Little League Baseball 157
13. The Arts. 163
14. Our Country's Landmarks - History in Wood and Stone 185
15. The U. S. Bicentennial in Lycoming County 202
Appendix A. Indians in Prehistoric Lycoming County. . 210
Appendix B. Black History in Lycoming County.
224
Appendix C. Flood Forecasting Network
244
Appendix D. County School Superintendents and Directors of BLaST. 248
Bibliography
249
Acknowledgments
253
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
West Branch Valley from Montgomery Pike. . Frontispiece Jersey Shore from Beltway. . Frontispiece
Lycoming County Courthouse .xi Schneebeli Federal Building and U. S. Courthouse xii Williamsport Sun,. Dec. 8, 1941 .
4 Mayor Williamson Buying War Bond (Brown Library Collection) . 9
People Waiting to Register for Sugar (Brown Library Collection . 9
.10
Children at Rubber Pile. .10
Armistice Day Parade . 23
Industrial Park. .23
Pennsylvania Ordnance Works Igloo.
Glyco Chemical Company .
Forge at Williamsport Training School (Brown Library) . .28
Aviation Shop at Williamsport Training School (Brown Library) . Grower's Market (County Historical Museum)
.35
Little Pine Creek Dam.
Center City Mall
"Golden Strip"
Lycoming Mall, Halls Station, Pa. .46
Agnes Flood (Grit) .54
Agnes Flood (Grit) .55
Fourth and Market Streets, 1946 Flood (Brown Library) .
.56
West Branch Valley during Agnes (Grit)
.56
Stevens Evacuation Center during Agnes (Gilmour) .59
Memorial Avenue Bridge during Agnes (Gilmour). .60
Groundbreaking for Dikes (County Historical Museum) .60
The Newman School.
.69
Four Modern Lycoming County Schools.
.75
Klump Academic Center, WACC. .76
Lycoming College Academic Center
.76 .89
Sun-Gazette Building
Grit Building.
.89
Switching Tracks at Newberry Yard.
.95
Engine at Newberry Yard.
Construction on Montgomery Pike, 1940 (Brown Library) .
.96
Susquehanna Beltway. .
Dedication of Airport, 1929 (County Historical Museum)
105
Trinity Place Station. 105
Williamsport Hospital. 117
Divine Providence Hospital 117
Widmann and Teah Fire, 1945 (Brown Library) 118
Loyalsock Volunteer Fire Company 118
James V. Brown Library 125
Bookmobile at Rose Valley School (County Historical Museum) . 125
Courtroom of former County Courthouse (Brown Library). 137
Lysock View upon Completion (Brown Library). 137
Williamsport City Council in 1940's (Brown Library) . 138
Lycoming County Commissioners, 1978 (Paul K. Bloom) . 138
Six Contemporary Churches. . 147 .
Former St. Boniface Church (County Historical Museum) . 148
.27
.28
.35
. 45
.46
"Golden Strip" during Agnes (Gilmour) . .59
.95
.96
Illustrations Continued)
Page
Former Pine Street Church (County Historical Museum)
.148
Little League Board of Directors, 1950 (County Historical
Museum) 159
Lamade Field .
.
.
.
. .159
1949 Little League World Series (County Historical Museum) 160
Interior of Lycoming Opera House (Brown Library) 173
October Festival of the Arts (WASD Art Department) .173
Former Lycoming County Courthouse (Brown Library). .187
Former City Hall (Brown Library)
Former and Present Market Street Bridges (Widemire).
188
Buttonwood Covered Bridge.
.188
Pennsdale Meeting House.
192
Park Home. . 192
Bicentennial Parade (Williamsport Sun-Gazette. .204
Bicentennial Wagon Train (Williamsport Sun-Gazette) 204
Bicentennial Pageant (Williamsport Sun-Gazette) .205 .205
Freedom Train (Williamsport Sun-Gazette)
.214
Prehistoric Artifacts.
215
.215
Map of Underground Railroad in County (Dr. E. Pierce)
227
Daniel Hughes House.
227
Buthune-Douglass Center/former Emery School.
230
Suffrage Parade. 230
Sawdust War. 231
Blacks at Sawmill (Brown Library Collection)
231
Peter Herdic Housing Project (Brown Library Collection) .
.231
Site of Peter Herdic Housing Project (Brown Library Collection) . .
236
Mary Slaughter (County Historical Museum) . 237
Mary Slaughter Home (Grit)
237
Chart of Prehistoric Epochs.
Atlat1 or Spear-Thrower.
. 226
Daniel Hughes (Mrs. Bea Clay) .
187
West Branch Valley from Montgomery Pike
Overlooking Jersey Shore from Beltway
ņ
Lycoming County Courthouse
-
Herman T. Schneebeli Federal Office Building and U. S. Courthouse
INTRODUCTION
This publication is a sequel to Volume I of A Picture of Lycoming County, produced under the Works Projects Admini- stration during the Great Depression of the 1930's. The current volume is the product of a similar program -- The Comprehensive Employment Training Act, aimed at helping to alleviate unemployment caused by the economic recession of the mid-1970's.
Volume II of A Picture of Lycoming County traces develop- ments in the county since about 1940. Though the period since 1940 is relatively short compared with the entire course of the county's history, the changes in almost every aspect of life have been significant. From educ- tion to government and politics, new attitudes and prac- tices have replaced old, which were solidly established in the county for many decades. Far-reaching changes in highways and transportation, technology and industry, and population and commerce, among others, have also helped change the physical appearance of the county.
Besides examining the history of the county's institutions- -whether schools, churches, factories or emergency ser- vices -- this volume also includes chapters on the impact of World War II, major floods, highways and transportation, the arts, and other issues affecting the quality and character of life in Lycoming County since 1940.
Two items which received little or no treatment in Volume I are the history of black people in the county and the long period of prehistoric Indian habitation. Sections on these two groups have been included in the appendix of the pre- sent volume in view of their place in the overall history of the county.
Lycoming County has faced problems and aspirations simi- lar to those of many other rural and semi-industrialized counties of the state and nation. Unemployment, indus- trial diversification, storms and floods, political con- troversy, a decline in farming, new schools, larger hos- pitals, shopping centers, Interstate 80, World War II, rural development and historical preservation have all contributed to the current picture of Lycoming County.
It is interesting to speculate as to how different this picture of Lycoming County might be had the United Nations accepted the invitation of the County Commissioners to locate the U. N. headquarters here. In June, 1946, County Commissioners Clyde H. Tallman, J. Howard Ritter and Jacob F. Matthews wrote a letter to the chairman of the United Nations Headquarters Commission, Sir Angus Fletcher, invi- ting the U. N. to establish its international headquarters
1
in Lycoming County. The outcome of the Commissioners' soli- citation is a matter of history, though one's imagination can still only wonder about the results had the Commis- sioners succeeded.
With or without the United Nations, the history of Ly- coming County is the history of its people. They have made its history and are its history, and it is for them that A Picture of Lycoming County, Volume II has been written.
2
VOTES WAR DECLARATION
Dety-før Pledge-Our Feith 4
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THE WILLIAMSPORT SUN ,
SJPORT, PA, MÖRDAT EYDNING, THỨC & HHT
BATTLESHIP AND DESTROYER LOST IN JAPANESE ATTACKS
Serious Damage to Other Ships Results From Surprise Blow
Wer Message
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DROP PLANS
White Ha _: ' '
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Outcome of Jap
FOR MOSCOW
THIS WINTER
nounceme" Assault on and Adds Several Japanese P . and Submarines Have Been Are rted For" - War Resolution Dr alled for Congress.
- TL WHITH
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Tanks Locked in Big Libyan Desert Fight; Russians Push Ahead
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SENATE AND HOUSE PASS WAR ACTION
War Flashes
· Fargeret
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Chapter 1
WORLD WAR II IN LYCOMING COUNTY
During the 1930's and early 1940's the great dark cloud that moved across Europe eventually engulfed the whole world, including America. Facism and its offspring, World War II, were on the march, and the United States' policy of non-involvement changed to all-out efforts of support during the year 1941. Though events in Europe were worri- some to America while England struggled bravely alone to ward off the Nazi assault, it was events in Asia and the Pacific which finally forced the United States into the hostilities. The clouds of war surrounded America on both sides making military action a foregone conclusion. The only recourse was to take up arms and fight for our de- fense and that of our friends, knowing full-well the cost in human life and suffering.
America's decision to enter the war came on Sunday, Decem- ber 7, 1941, when Japanese bombers delivered a devastating surprise attack against the huge American naval base on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. There, Williamsport enlisted man, Joseph L. Lockard, first spotted the approaching Japanese planes and warned his superior officer. The attack was so unexpected that Lockard's superiors disregarded his warn- ing as a false alarm. With Pearl Harbor, America's long involvement in World War II began. Had Lockard's advanced warning been heeded, the 2,430 American lives might have been saved and the loss of ships and planes kept to a mini- mum. Besides Lockard, who received the Distinguished Service Medal for his action, nearly 30 other county resi- dents were present at Pearl Harbor, about ten of whom were killed. Thus, Lycoming County played a role in the events which affected the rest of the world. When Congress de- clared war on Japan the day after Pearl Harbor, Lycoming County and the entire nation, geared up for one single purpose and goal -- victory.
Just several days after war was declared on Japan, Congress swiftly passed a declaration of war against Germany, but Europe's war had already been waging for several years. This was reflected in the county during those years by an increase in applications for U. S. citizenship by people of European and Eastern European descent. With America's dec- laration of war, mobilization got underway. For a period of four years life was not the same. War was foremost in everyone's mind, and victory the aim and goal of almost every person's actions. America's military and moral strength were meeting yet another test, for only 25 years before, she had been engulfed in the flames of World War I.
5
CIVILIAN DEFENSE
The primary concerns of the civilian authorities of the county during World War II were public safety, conserva- tion of scarce materials, and industrial production. The County Office of Civilian Defense was organized following instructions from the state and national offices. Local civilian defense groups were set up in each of the county's boroughs to oversee such things as blackouts and victory gardens ( backyard vegetable gardens which were encouraged to conserve badly needed foodstuffs). By March, 1942, a total of 3,033 persons were certified as civilian defense volunteers and air-raid wardens. An auxiliary police force had been organized to be activated in periods of air attack or other serious emergencies.
Another group vital to civilian defense were the 1,200 air- plane spotters who volunteered for service throughout the county. They operated plane spotter stations set up in locations where enemy planes would be most visible day or night. The stations were attended around the clock and were equipped with telephones for immediate communication. Many of the stations were of wooden frame construction, and all had large windows on all sides making them diffi- cult to heat. It was not uncommon for plane spotter volun- teers to work all day at their jobs and then put in a shift of plane spotting after work. The plane spotter's res- ponsibility was to report every plane located to a central reporting station, along with information on the plane's direction, its type and its number of engines. All these efforts were devised to protect the civilian population in the event of an enemy attack upon the mainland. Fortu- nately, however, no such attack was ever realized, and actual civilian defense procedures never needed to be placed into operation.
BLACKOUTS
One feature which began as an ominous reminder of the war for local residents came to be a normal occurence by the war's end. This was the "blackout." The first blackout in Lycoming County came in March, 1942. It lasted fifteen min- utes and served as a practice run to familiarize citizens with the techniques of covering windows to keep light from escaping. In case of an attack at night, the blackout meant the enemy could not see its targets as all lights from streets, cars, homes and factories were turned off or screened from the outside. One method people used during blackouts was to keep all lights in the house off except for one room, the windows of which were screened with blackout material. A newspaper of the county during the period reported that the kitchen was a favorite place to stay in a blackout, as the "ice box" and stove were readily
6
accessible there.
During the blackouts, civilian defense volunteers such as air-raid wardens and auxiliary police patrolled the county searching out light leaking from houses and buildings and warned those in violation to block the straying light. These civilian defense volunteers wore official armbands as identification and were required to undergo specified training before the armbands were issued. Civilian de- fense workers were also empowered to enforce travel re- strictions during blackouts. No vehicles were allowed on the roads except emergency and police vehicles, vehicles carrying workers to their factories, and buses and trucks carrying goods. It was required, however, that any vehi- cles on highways during blackouts have their headlights covered with a blackout material and a slit placed in the middle to provide enough light for safe travel. Other restrictions were placed on pedestrians. No one was per- mitted to walk on streets, sidewalks or highways except in cases of need.
After the first blackout, the majority of them lasted long- er periods and were usually unannounced, apart from the surprise blast of the air-raid sirens. Both blackouts and daytime air-raid practices were carried out, the majority of them state-wide. A total of 24 state-wide blackouts and air-raid drills were staged during the war. Initially the State Council of Defense was responsible for the black- outs and air-raid practices, but for a time the Army organ- ized them. The air-raids and blackouts were, thus, a ma- jor element of life during World War II. The inconveni- ence they caused local residents were worth any possible savings of life or property that an actual enemy attack on the county might have incurred. When at the war's end no enemy attack had occurred, no one complained. Because every possible measure had been taken to prevent such an attack, the civilian defense measures were fortunately never needed.
CONSERVATION EFFORTS
In this throw-away age it is generally acceptable practice to toss a soft drink bottle into the garbage rather than to haul it back to the store for the deposit, but no such at- titude prevailed during World War II. Nearly everything salvageable or reusable was saved and turned over to in- dustry for recycling. The newspapers, radio and movies admonished people to conserve wherever they could. Imagine saving the fat left over from frying a hamburger. Other items collected included coat hangers, rubber tires, shoes, clothes, silk and nylon stockings, license plates, and practically any other object made from metal. Col- lection boxes were placed throughout the county where
7
residents could deposit items of reusable material. To do so was considered a patriotic gesture. Occasionally, or- ganizations sponsored collections of paper or rubber in much the same way as scouting or youth groups do today. World War II, however, these collections were not isola- ted money-making projects; they were regular occurrences aimed at relieving the strain on hard-pressed material re- sources. Every pound of metal or rubber collected put the U. S. one step closer to victory.
In
Not only adults but school children, too, contributed to the war effort. For ten cents a week, school children bought a war stamp which was pasted onto a folder; once full, the folder was redeemed for a ten-dollar savings bond. As with war bonds that adults bought, the money was used by the government to finance war spending. Child- ren were encouraged to take tin cans and other used metal items to school where it was collected and added to the county's scrap piles. Many teachers made up charts for each child and recorded the amount of used material each one brought in. The charts were then posted on the class- room bulletin board as a way of sparking competition. Some schools had children collect milkweed pods. Due to the shortage of kapok used as a filler to keep life jackets afloat, the milkweed fibers proved to be an adequate sub- stitute for that purpose.
World War II was a time of patriotic fervor in America. Along with the collection drives and war stamp sales, pa- triotic projects were a regular part of school programs. The Webster Elementary School in Williamsport, for example, put up framed photographs in its corridors of each of the servicemen in the war who had gone to that school. Other schools used different methods of teaching children why their country was at war and what they could do to help bring victory. Thus, for children as well as for adults, the war was not a far-away event that one heard about over the radio; rather, the war was something that involved every citizen and touched every member of the family.
RATIONING OF GOODS
Apart from the blackouts and conservation programs, the greatest sacrifice that the civilian population was called upon to make during the war was the rationing of basic goods. Virtually everything we take for granted today as available in unlimited quantities, was rationed or por- tioned out according to strict regulations. For example, anyone wishing to buy a new car was required to submit an application to the Federal Office of Price Administration. Those were a lucky few whose applications were approved. New cars were scarce, and those persons fortunate enough to buy one during the war were even more scarce. For the
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HOSIE
1
Mayor Williamson Purchases War Bond
4
-
OTTI
People waiting at Washington School to register for sugar rations
RUBBER
Children reluctantly place rubber items on scrap pile
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Will Amsport Armistice Day Parade August 14, 1945
three months of March, April and May, 1942, only 106 new cars were available for sale in the whole of Lycoming County. This was because auto factories, as well as most others, were converted to the production of military ma- chines and supplies.
But if cars were scarce, a man could take little comfort in buying a new pair of trousers. The government made cuffs on trousers illegal effective May 30, 1942. The material normally used for cuffs was broken down and rewoven into material for other purposes. Women, too, were faced with wartime inconveniences. It was not uncommon for women to wait in lines several blocks long just to buy one pair of rationed stockings. Thus, even clothing styles were affec- ted by the war. It was not whim nor fancy which set the styles; rather, it was simple wartime expediency. Not the smallest piece of material was wasted on frivolous uses if it could be put to some more important use.
The rationing program covered a broad range of goods and was stringently enforced. Among other things, rationing affected consumption of gasoline, butter, sugar, bicycles, tires, shoes, coffee, canned goods, meat, and stoves. It was the responsibility of local rationing boards to dis- tribute coupon books to every family. Many schools were used as registration points for rationing coupons. There were five rationing boards in the county, each composed of three members from the respective communities where boards were located. The rationing boards determined the amount of rationed products each family was to receive. Some- times board members had to turn down requests by their own friends for commodities in scarce supply. Instead, boards had to keep in mind the interests of the entire community at all times.
Nearly every product subject to rationing was also subject to price controls to prevent unprincipled merchants or distributors from making exhorbitant profits from products in short supply. Here again, the government acted to pro- tect the average citizen, in this instance from unneces- sarily high prices. The war was an extraordinary time and extraordinary measures were necessary for both the physical and economic welfare of the country. The people of Lycom- ing County played their part in the war effort and made the sacrifices necessary to insure victory at the fronts.
WAR A WAY OF LIFE
The rationing of goods, efforts in conservation, air-raid drills and blackouts served to make war more or less a way of life in the county. School children in Williamsport were issued I.D. tags to wear, women were encouraged to en- roll in free training courses in engineering, science and
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management. The large number of men away at war meant that women had to assume greater responsibility in the run- ning of industry and commerce. It was common to see women leave their homemaking chores to operate machines in fac- tories or manage stores and businesses. Women also served as plane spotters. Sportsmen and hunters agreed to help farmers harvest crops. The shortage of farm workers neces- sitated the use of such volunteer help to bring in impor- tant farm products.
Most factories in Lycoming County converted their normal operations into the production of military and wartime goods. Products manufactured in the county for war includ- ed shoes, army cots, glue and plane engines. The Lycom- ing Division of Aviation Corporation, now Avco, made up to 600 engines a month and was the largest wartime employer in the region. Other products were anti-tank mines, tor- pedo nets, ammunition shells, radio and radar tubes, paper products, cloth -- silk, rayon, nylon and glass fiber -- step ladders, field hospital tables, life boats, cabinets and office files, and lumber. This list is just a sampling of the many products made in Lycoming County during the war emergency.
THE ORDNANCE WORKS
Due to the county's proximity to the major parts of the Northeast and its location in a more remote and less popu- lated region of the state, the U. S. Government established an ordnance works near Allenwood in the White Deer Valley. The function of the ordnance works was the manufacture and storage of TNT for the war. The huge complex covered about 8,000 acres and included parts of both Lycoming and Union counties. Nearly 165 families and their farms, as well as several churches, were displaced. The construc- tion of the establishment brought several thousand new people into the county, for which the housing units at Penn Vale were built to provide accommodation. In all, it was a very large operation and a significant part of Lycoming County's contribution to the war. Once victory was achieved and munitions were no longer needed in large quantities, the ordnance works stopped operations but was used for a short time thereafter as storage for unused explosives. Today the ordnance works is the site of the Allenwood Federal Prison Camp.
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