History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men, Part 42

Author: Hain, Harry Harrison, 1873- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Harrisburg, Pa., Hain-Moore company
Number of Pages: 1102


USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men > Part 42


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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of the Rising Mountain at a point just a little west of "the bear ponds," on the Rising Mountain, flows northeastward through the Little Illinois Valley and empties into the creek at Mt. Pleasant. Houston Run and Laurel Rum, which are still farther south, have their source practically as far west as the headwaters of Sherman's Creek and flow in the same direction through long narrow valleys parallel to the main Sherman's Valley, the Houston Run empty- ing into the creek approximately one mile southeast of Blain, and the Laurel Run emptying into the same stream about one mile west of Landisburg.


Sherman's Creek flows in an almost eastern direction, draining the greater part of western Perry County and emptying into the Susquehanna River at Duncannon. Its history dates back to pro- vincial times, when it was crossed by the first main trail to the West, known as the Allegheny Path. Its main tributary is Mou- tour's Run, named after the first authorized settler of Perry County soil. It is spanned by many bridges erected by the county.


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386


HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


Various floods have overflown its banks, but mention of them follows later in connection with the high waters on the rivers. Many gristmills line its banks; in fact, it was one of the original streams which drove the machinery of the many pioneer mills for which Perry County territory was noted and from along its banks flour was transported to the starving Continental armies. Many old-fashioned up-and-down sawmills also lined its banks. Along its banks in childhood there played children whose names have since graced the pages of history of many states of the Union and of the mighty nation itself. As noted elsewhere it was once made navigable for smaller craft by an act of the Pennsylvania Legisla- ture. Scenic beyond description at many points its trend led it towards the Susquehanna River through Fishing Creek Valley, but the barrier of the famous Ironstone Ridge diverted it northward and it made a detour around Cove Mountain and enters the Sus- quehanna at Duncannon.


OTHER STREAMS.


Buffalo Creek. This historic stream, mentioned in Indian his- tory, rises in Liberty Valley, Madison Township, and drains the northern section of western Perry, emptying into the Juniata above Newport. It also is spanned by several county bridges. It is noted for its picturesqueness. Its name perpetuates the fact that long years ago large herds of Buffalo once roamed the forests of our county's territory.


Little Buffalo Crock. Separates Juniata Township from Centre. flows through Oliver, and empties into the Juniata at Newport.


Little Juniata Creek. Originates in the extreme western part of Centre Township and flows through Centre, Wheatfield, Penn and Duncannon Borough to the Susquehanna.


Cocolamus Creek. Rises at the foot of Shade Mountain, near Evendale, in Juniata County, flowing through Greenwood Town- ship, emptying into the Juniata River below Millerstown.


Montour's Run. See Sherman's Creek, above.


Raccoon Creek. In Tuscarora Township. Empties into the Juniata, near Millerstown.


Fishing Creek. In Rye Township. Flows into the Susquehanna at Marysville.


Horse V'alley Run. This stream rises in Horse Valley, in west- ern Perry, and flows through the Waterford Narrows, where the mountain breaks, passing into Tuscarora Creek, Juniata County. It is joined by Laurel Run from Liberty Valley, just before enter- ing the narrows.


Jobson's Run. This stream rises in Liverpool Township and en- ters Greenwood Township. Juniata County, at the extreme south- west corner of that township, flows northwest and joins the west


387


RIVERS, STREAMS AND OLD FERRIES


branch of the Mahantango Creek, northwest of Oriental, Juniata County.


McCabe's Run. Drains Kennedy's Valley.


Laurel Run. Drains Sheaffer's Valley.


Guntur Run. Guntur Run is the only stream that rises in west- ern Perry and flows westward. Rising at the watershed it flows about one and one-half miles through Perry County soil and then crosses to Franklin County. It continues to near Forge Hill, turns south and flows through a gap in the Kittatinny, entering the Cum- berland Valley north of Roxbury.


Other Streams. There are dozens of others in the various com- munities, mostly smaller ones.


From John L. McCaskey, a consulting engineer connected with the Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company of Pittsburgh, himself a native Perry Countian, comes the following expert opinion :


"Nature was niggardly in her treatment of Perry County in coal beds; not enough in any coal pockets, except to burn the fingers of the would-be operators, but lavish, doubly lavish in her sharing the gift of the white coal (electric motive force) in her scores and scores of waterfall in creeks and rivers. More, doubly so now, than could be used in furnishing power for operating mills and all farm machinery, besides lighting and also heating every church, school, dwelling, barn and all other necessary buildings. I safely predict that the residents of a century hence will not have a build- ing unwired for both heat and light and that power will be used for all domestic purposes, including irrigation, to be secured by the mere throwing of a switch. Its citizens are already to be con- gratulated for utilizing in part, the unlimited supply of white coal. From it will be developed the utilization of air nitrates and other elements into abundant fertilization and the restoration of worn- out soils."


HIGH RIVERS AND FLOODS.


Where rivers of the length and importance of the Juniata and Susquehanna exist, with huge basins draining continuous rainfall and accumulated melting snows, there will naturally be times when the raging waters attain the flood stage, for be it remembered that if the Susquehanna drained one more county it would drain the soils of over half of the counties of the commonwealth. The rec- ords available of high waters upon these rivers give the dates of the earlier floods as being in 1744, 1758, 1772, 1784-85, and 1787. Of the first three little information, save that the rivers were raging torrents, is left to posterity. During the winter of 1784-85 there was a flood known to this day as "the ice flood." Historical rec- ords fail to tell much about it save that "it carried away all fences . and buildings on the lowlands." Near the mouth of Sherman's


388


HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


Creek it carried away Marcus Hulings' gristmill. During the fall of 1787 there was a flood known as "the pumpkin flood," getting its name from the fact that in the Wyoming Valley it was severe and carried away many thousands of pumpkins from the fields of the Yankees, as the Connecticut farmers who had located there, were known. It is said that these innumerable pumpkins dancing on the waves and riding the tide "looked like so many jewels stud- (ling it." As the river receded the pumpkins were strewn in pro- fusion over the lowlands.


Then there were the floods of 1800; August, 1814; August, 1817. 1840, 1846, 1847, 1865, 1867, 1868, 1881, 1889, and another great ice flood in 1920. On the Juniata there is mention of a "great overflow" in 1810, also known as a "pumpkin flood." Its worst havoc was in the vicinity of Mifflintown. Of these floods accounts are vague about those of 1800, 1814, and 1817. The food of 1840, on the Juniata, carried away two spans of the Mif- flintown bridge. The high waters of 1846 were at their worst on March 16. (Some authorities say March 18.) This flood re- opened the channel above Duncan's Island which originally con- nected the Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers. Sherman's Creek, as usual, was higher the two previous days and swept away part of the Fio Forge dam, the puddle mill of the iron works at Peters- burg (now Duncannon) and the Sherman's Creek covered bridge. All the bridges on Cocolamus Creek were swept away. The Juni- ata River bridge, above Duncannon, and the eastern span of the Susquehanna River bridge were also carried away. On May 14 of the same year the balance of the Susquehanna River bridge burned. It was rebuilt, and on September 10 and II, 1850, was again entirely consumed by fire. On March IS, 1859, it was par- tially blown down. The bridge over the mouth of Sherman's Creek, swept away in 1840, was not rebuilt until 1846, an act of the Legislature of April roth of that year having authorized the county commissioners to reconstruct it.


In September, 1847, the Juniata's waters were seething and car- ried away the bridges at McVeytown and Port Royal, two spans of the Mifflintown bridge (the second such occurrence), and the east half of the Millerstown bridge, which fell at II p. m. The Mil- lerstown bridge was rebuilt during the winter by Isaac Kirkpat- rick, who fell from the trestle work and was drowned under the ice. Ilis son Garrett finished it, he being then less than seventeen years of age. Before he was twenty-one he contracted for and built the Newport bridge. The reader will recall that the bridges of this period were all covered wooden bridges. On May 11, 1860, the rolling mill dam on Sherman's Creek, near Duncannon, was washed away. The late William Wertz, of Newport, had a faint recollection of the flood of 1847, although he was but four years


389


RIVERS, STREAMS AND OLD FERRIES


old. The unusual sight of folks going to and from their homes in boats is what impressed him.


The great flood of 1865 came tearing down the Susquehanna Valley on March 17th, 18th, and 19th, carrying destruction in its course. At Duncan's Island it swept away the building which was used jointly as a Methodist church and school building. The first story contained two schoolrooms, for in those days the island was more thickly populated, with boating and river traffic at their height. The second story had been added. by the school board for a Methodist church, at the earnest solicitation of Rebecca Dun- can, who stood the entire expense of its addition and its furnishing for worship. On the opposite side of the river, at Duncannon, the waters filled the first stories of the homes on Market Street as far north as Ann Street, to a depth of five feet. The Juniata bridge was in danger and the Duncannon Iron Company, which conducted a small railway over which its products were hauled from the island to the plant, ran their train of cars on it for its protection, but both bridge and cars were swept away. The iron company's ware- house on the island was also torn from its foundations and swept down the river. At Duncannon the waters were twenty-two feet above low water mark. * W. J. Roberts, yet living and now resid- ing in South Dakota, was then employed in the vicinity and saw the bridge swept away. It landed on Wister's Island, below Dun- cannon. Surrounding the old stone tavern there were two barns and some other buildings, but when the waters receded the old stone tavern was found to be the only remaining structure. Build- ings of all kinds went down the river in the torrent. Cornelius Baskins then again resumed operating the old ferry of his ances- tors. On February 15. 1867, the eastern span of Sherman's Creek bridge at Duncannon was swept away. In 1868 the waters were again eighteen feet above low water.


In 1881 there was an ice flood on the Juniata, and for the third time two spans of the Mifflintown bridge were carried away. On February II it was at its height, and at 5 p. m. the two western spans of the Millerstown bridge went, and in their course carried with them the two western spans of the Newport bridge. Aaron Shreffler rebuilt these two spans at Newport, and the bridge was opened for traffic on October 8, 1881.


While Sherman's Creek is ordinarily a stream which peacefully flows along, carrying the waters of the larger part of western Perry, yet there have been times when it was a raging torrent, leaping over its banks and the adjoining meadows, a veritable river, wild with rage. In 1886, on January 4th and 5th, it reached its greatest height. At that time at the old Gibson mill, "West-


*Mr. Roberts died just previous to this book's going to press, early in 1922.


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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


over," it rose to such a great height that it entered the lower doors of the mill, which stands across the meadws on a considerable ele- vation and is run by the waters of another stream. To realize its wildness at the time one must be familiar with the surroundings here described. This flood was the result of a three-day rain, com- bined with melting snow.


In its course through the county this flood carried away seven covered bridges, and at Duncannon it undermined and washed away a pier of the iron bridge of the Pennsylvania Railroad, drop- ping two spans and carrying away the engine and twelve cars of a freight train which was passing at the time. Eight of these cars belonged to the Duncannon Iron Company. Anthony Baldwin, the conductor ; Henry McCahan, assistant conductor, and R. M. Turbett, brakeman, lost their lives while in the performance of their duties on the train. All three of the men were residents of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, the train being known as the Hunting- don local. The engineer, Wm. Noel, and John S. Miller, conductor of the Duncannon Iron Company's ore train, which was combined with the other train, were swept away by the flood, but were res- cued at Allen's Cove, some miles below.


The indebtedness of Perry County with the beginning of 1889 was comparatively small, but after several days of heavy and con- tinuous rain, on May 30, 31, and June I, came the great onrushing waters down Sherman's Creek, Buffalo Creek, the Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers and all their tributaries-the same flood which almost annihilated Johnstown, Pennsylvania -- and washed away the bridges, including the three large covered wooden bridges at Mil- lerstown, Newport, and Duncannon, with the result that the county debt grew to enormous proportions through their rebuilding. They had been made free many years ago, as had the toll roads. These river bridges connecting main highways should be a part of the state highway system and should be built by the state.


During the autumn of 1894, four years after the flood, the State Forestry Commission of Pennsylvania communicated with the commissioners of the various counties, asking them the cost of the repairs and renewals of highways and bridges damaged and de- stroyed by high water since and including the Johnstown flood. William B. Anderson, then clerk to the Perry County board of commissioners, itemized and submitted the following report, the cost totaling almost a hundred thousand dollars :


1880 $13,261.29


1890


53.764.10


1891


6.710.07


189.


11,848.92


189.


14,048.97


Total


$99,633.35


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RIVERS, STREAMS AND OLD FERRIES


'This flood was terrible on both Juniata and Susquehanna. Above Duncan's Island it again opened the original channel which had connected the two rivers, as had the flood of 1846, tearing away the two canals at their junction. The Pennsylvania Canal Company, then a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany, spent a small fortune restoring them. The Millerstown bridge was rebuilt in 1892.


Painted on the Eby building, at the northwest corner of the Newport public square, is a heavy black line six feet above the pavement which shows the height of the angry waters throughout that town on June 1, 1889, but the casual observer little thinks of the hours of suspense while the river was rising, of the dangers which attended it or of the many thousands of dollars' worth of


THE FLOOD OF 1889 ON WALNUT STREET, NEWPORT. The building to the left is the old Evangelical Church.


property destroyed, the attending sickness and the horrible condi- tions following in its wake. No town along the Juniata fared worse than Newport. The rain began falling in torrents on Thursday, May 30th, continuing all day Friday, so that by Satur- day at dawn the river banks were overflowing. Citizens residing below the old railroad tracks (then the through line) then began removing their household goods to the second stories of their homes, the cellars hastily filling with water. By 6 a. m. the water was knee-deep between the square and the old canal, and by IO a. m. it had crossed the railroad tracks on Third Street. Thirty minutes later it measured six feet deep at the mercantile establish- ment of J. S. Butz. Early Saturday afternoon all of Front Street was abandoned, the residents having been removed in row boats, many from second-story windows. When night came all of the town below the old railroad tracks was practically abandoned, and, according to a copy of The News the family of Jesse Butz was the only one to remain over night in the section below Second Street. On Saturday it kept raising all day until ro p. m., when it stood stationary until 10: 30, and then started slowly to recede. The most disastrous losses were the washing away of James Wilson's


392


HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


boatyard buildings and lumber and the lumberyard of Sweger & Shreffler. According to a reliable estimate the losses amounted to $204,600.


Mr. S. M. Shuler, a prominent Liverpool merchant, kept a diary during the greater part of his life, devoted chiefly to the weather, and from it the entries of June 1, 2 and 3. 1889, form a pen pic- ture of conditions all along that noted river during this devastating flood. It follows:


June 1, 1889 .- Boom logs commence running. A number caught here. River very high. Great amount of damage done in the town. The report is that two spans of the Millerstown and Newport bridges are gone. New- port partly under water. Only one train out of Liverpool, and that was the repair train from Sunbury, which removed the big slide below the station. A freight train passed up at 5: 15. The logs running thicker than before. Millions and millions of dollars worth of property destroyed. Logs ran balance of day and no doubt all night, along with bridges and almost anything.


June 2, 7 a. m .- The river and canal one at George C. Snyder's and be- low town and still rising one and one-half inches an hour. Great destruc- tion along the whole river.


0: 30 a. m .- The river at a standstill. Water on the towpath in front of W. H. Miller's blacksmith shop.


10: 30 a. m .- The river still on a stand and, from what D. Brink and F. Rowe say, wants about eighteen inches of being as high as in March, 1865.


12: 00 m .- Logs still running.


2 p. m .- River commenced to fall. Great amount of damage all along the river and canal, but the most damage was on the Juniata River; it was five feet higher than ever known. Up to 4 p. m. the Juniata fell about eight feet, and the Susquehanna about six inches.


June 3 .- River fell about two and a half feet last night. First freight down. Mail train down with daily papers. No mail.


During the onrush of the waters Mr. Shuler measured and re- corded the rise and fall at periods covering June 1 and 2. The figures are here reproduced :


JUNE 1, 1889-RISE.


6 to 7


31/2 inches


II to I (2 hours) 5 inches


7 to 8


3


I to 2


21/2 6.


8 to 9


3


66 2 to 3 2


0 to 10


21/2


66 3 to 5 (2 hours) 31/2 46


I0 to 1I


21/2


5 to 6 I12


JUNE 2, 1889-RISE AND FALL.


6 to 7


134 inches


10 to 11


1/2 inch


7 to 8


66 II to 12 on a stand.


8 to 0 1/2 12 to i on a stand.


9 to 10 1/2


66 I to 3 fell I inch.


Heavy rains of March 4 and 5, 1920, caused the ice-bound Juni- ata to break on March 6 and take with it the ice upon the Susque- hanna to a point near Covallen Station, on the Pennsylvania Rail-


.


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RIVERS, STREAMS AND OLD FERRIES


road, below Duncannon, where the huge cakes of ice jammed into a massive gorge, damming back the waters and inundating the low- lying section of the town. The waters attained a depth of just two feet less than in 1889 at this point. At this point the Penn- sylvania Railroad tracks follow a high fill which extends far out in the river from the original shore, and the waters reached its top and sent whirling upon the railroad ton upon ton of ice. This is the third serious ice flood of which there is record. The winter had been a hard one and the ice was from twenty to thirty inches in thick- ness. The ice-bound Susquehanna and Juniata on this occasion broke all records for extensive freeze-ups. The rivers were frozen over on December 20, 1919, and successive cold waves only tight- ened the artificial bridge which remained upon the Juniata until March 6, 1920, or seventy-seven days, and upon the principal course of the Susquehanna several days longer. Previous long records of ice-bound waters on these rivers were in 1882-83 and 1917-18, the latter being during the period of the great World War. Each of these winters the river was ice-bound but fifty-nine days, and during each there were great misgivings as to what might happen, but when the ice moved there were no great losses or alarming incidents. The 1920 ice flood was at its worst at the vicinity of Duncannon. The lower part of Duncan's Island was inundated and considerable damage done to the cottage colony. Below Duncannon there is an island in the Susquehanna, known as Wister's Island, upon which resided the family of Jacob Auxt. the island being a part of the Fred Smith dairy farm. Auxt re- fused to heed a warning and remained upon the island. He was driven with his family to the second story and the waters finally compelled him to vacate that and place the family upon the limbs of a large cherry tree. A rescuing party from the mainland, headed by J. R. Mckibben, manager of the Perry County Telephone and Telegraph Company, found the family wrapped in blankets, perched upon the forks of the tree, where they had spent the greater part of the preceding long and gloomy night.


There were very high waters at many other times upon these rivers, but hardly to be named in the same class as those narrated above. In February, 1882, the Susquehanna's waters were high, and John W. Albright, of New Buffalo, undertook to row across the river to Halifax. Unable to stem the tide he was being car- ried down the river to a sure death when he called for help. His cries for help attracted one William Reed, upon shore, who secured a rope, mounted a horse and rode to the Clark's Ferry bridge, six miles down the river, where he dropped the rope to the waters below and drew Albright to the bridge. . He had been in the boat two and a half hours during a blinding snowstorm. The point where he was rescued was within three hundred feet of the breast


.


394


HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


of the Clark's Ferry dam, where his small craft would have suf- fered destruction and where sure death awaited him.


Very high waters occurred within the county in September, 1843. Sherman's Creek and Buffalo and Little Buffalo Creeks overflowed their banks, and along Buffalo Creek Bosserman's mill dam and the county bridge at Milford were swept away. B. Wag- goner's dam, on a branch of Sherman's Creek, and John Worm- ley's and Rev. Heim's mill dams. on Sherman's Creek, were also swept away, as was a bridge which crossed it in Madison Town- ship.


EARLY PERRY COUNTY FERRIES.


With the Susquehanna River skirting the entire eastern bound- ary of the county, and with the Juniata cutting it into two sections it was necessarily the location of many ferries prior to the period of bridges. Of all the ferries for the transportation of vehicles, Crow's Ferry, below Liverpool, alone remains, and it is soon time that the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania should erect a bridge there, as it is on a much-traveled route and as there is no bridge from Duncannon to Selinsgrove, a distance of thirty-five miles. As these old ferries were a part of the county's early life they are briefly described.


CLARK'S FERRY.


Those words to the present-day generation mean the small set- tlement at the east end of the Clark's Ferry bridge over Green's dam, now generally spoken of as the Clark's Ferry dam. To a former generation they had a different meaning. They meant the ferry, which crossed the Susquehanna from the end of Peters' Mountain to the point where Clark's Run flowed into the Susque- hanna River, about the centre of the territory comprising Dun- cannon Borough. There the Indians had a fording, which they knew as "Queenashawakee," and there later the traders and the pioneers crossed, for it was on the first through road to Hunting- don and Pittsburgh. O'er it trailed the famed Conestoga wagon trains of that earlier day on their way to the Ohio Valley. With the increase of travel came a ferry. The Clarks operated it so long that the name became inseparably connected with it, and even later followed to the location above, over which crossed the boats of the Pennsylvania Canal. In 1808 it became a part of the route of the stagecoach line to Huntingdon and Alexandria.


John Clark, who lived at the west end of the ferry, has often been credited with having established the ferry. He had built many years before the stone tavern, which still stands and which is owned and occupied by Joseph Smith as a dwelling. The date of the establishment of the ferry has also been a question variously




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