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 94

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 94


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many persons little over middle life can recall such threshings in their early years. The primitive way of cleaning the wheat was to throw scoopfuls of grain and chaff into the air and let the wind blow away the chaff. Then came the horse-power and treadmill, with the windmill or fanning mill, and later the steam thresher and separator. While still "in my forties" I can recall all four meth- ods of extracting the grain in the community in which I was reared. The flailing out of rye left the straw in fine shape for use as bands in the tying of corn fodder, then the method used. Along with the self-binder and the steam thresher and separator has come labor-saving machinery for almost every operation, and the many little homes which once nestled by the side of the farms, and even the tenant houses upon them, where dwelt those who helped in the farm operations, are largely gone, the result of the introduction of labor-saving machinery and the demand for labor from the mill and factory of the town and city. The former laborer is to-day often the skilled operative of the industrial plant.


Agriculture is the most important and most extensive single in- dustry in America, for it is both a necessity for maintaining life and the basis of all commerce-of the big meat packing industry, the canning factory, the dairying industry, and all of their kind. The very life of the great transportation lines depends upon the handling of the products of the farm and the manufactured prod- ucts dependent upon it. The life of the town and city are so inter- twined with that of the farm that neither could long exist without the other. Were there no towns and cities where would the sur- plus products of the farms be sold ? And were there no farms how long would life be sustained ? In Pennsylvania the commonwealth conducts the great and noted State College, second to none in the nation, and also holds a number of farmers' institutes in every county. The national government, through the Department of Agriculture, furnishes bulletins and the result of tests upon every imaginable subject, and in almost all counties (including Perry) farm bureaus exist, with their farm agents (wrongly named) in charge, thus helping advance agricultural science. There is room for improvement in the production of Perry County. During 1920 there were 23.591 acres in corn, with an average yield of only 38.1 bushels per acre. The cash value of the crop was $808.935, according to the State Department of Agriculture. The wheat crop was harvested from 25,805 acres, with an average yield of only 15.4 bushels per acre. The cash value of the crop was $675,574.


One reason why the average crop per acre is as small as it is in Perry County is that one class of farmers have been hard task- masters on the land. They have cropped the soil for years and have returned but little to the soil in the way of fertilizer. A


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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


noted Perry Countian still living, refers to that condition in these words: "As early as 1850 there were a number of fields in our vicinity that had been farmed to death. Some that were still culti- vated yielded poor crops, while others had been abandoned and were covered with scrub pines in places growing so thick that any living being larger than a dog had hard work to get through."


While the soils of Perry County are not noted for their fertility yet there are several limestone sections in which the soil rivals any other in the state. In the vicinity of Blain, Landisburg, and Loys- ville, and in the famous Pfoutz Valley, farms bring from about ten thousand to almost twenty twenty thousand dollars on occa- sions when they come into the market, and they do not lie next door to any city or have a market at their very side. William Woods, of Blain, once owned five farms at one time valued at $125,000, and in recent years Jacob Loy, of Blain, owned seven at one time, all very valuable. From the public records at the county seat records of a number of sales at good prices are to be found. In 1915 Frank P. Lightner purchased 179 acres in Tyrone Town- ship, from the heirs of Daniel E. Garber, for $16,017.52. In 1920 Elmer E. Rice purchased 286 acres in Saville Township, from John E. Lesh, for $16,000; Aurand A. Ickes, 185 acres in Centre Town- ship, from Chas. L. Johnson, for $14,550; Dr. W. T. Morrow, the John S. Ritter farm near Loysville, from Samuel B. Shu- maker, for $10,500; Ralph B. Adams, 190 acres near Bloomfield, from the H. C. Shearer estate, for $10,200; Charles D. Stahl, 240 acres (much of it woodland), in Madison Township, from Mr. and Mrs. Flickinger, for $14,800 ; Herman H. Smith, 138 acres, a mile west of Bloomfield, from Miles Ritter, for $14,000, and Wm. J. Hall, a Spring Township farm, from John S. Zimmerman, for $15.750. In 1921 N. Kurtz Bistline purchased 167 acres, located in Jackson Township and Blain Borough, from Sarah C. Loy, for $17,000; Charles L. Darlington purchased 181 acres in Spring Township, from Frank G. Dunkelberger and others, for $17,000, and John L. Bernheisel, 153 acres in Tyrone Township, from Thomas Bernheisel, for $16,000.


The spring sales of farmers who are retiring, of estates and of others are a noted institution, from the time of the pioneer. Chas. L. Johnson, an ex-sheriff, holds one annually, which has attained wide fame, and at which the proceeds often exceed $10,000. At these sales personal property of every nature is offered, as well as livestock and agricultural implements.


In 1914 the State of Pennsylvania through the Department of Agriculture, issued a publication called "The Soils of Pennsyl- vania," eighteen pages of which describe minutely the soils of the various townships and sections of Perry County, from which the following is taken :


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"The soils of the county, leaving out of consideration the trap dykes, are derived from eighteen geological strata, differing sufficiently to be sepa- rately classified.


"The strata begins with the Trenton limestone, which outcrops in Horse Valley, and extends through the Utica shale, the Hudson River shale, the Medina and Oneida standstone, the Clinton shale, the Onondaga grey and red shale, the Lower Heidelberg limestone, the Oriskany sandstone, the Marcellus black shale, limestone and ore beds, the Hamilton lower shale, the Hamilton sandstone, the Hamilton upper shale, the Genesee shale, the Portage shale, the Chemung olive shale, the Catskill red sandstone and shale, the Pocono grey sandstone and the Mauch Chunk red shale. All these together, with the narrow trap dykes, enter into the composition of the soils throughout the various townships of the county."


With the exception of five states-Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, West Virginia and Kentucky-Pennsylavnia has more native-born farm- ers than any other state. In Perry County they are all native-born, not a foreigner and only one negro. In the state ninety-two and six-tenths per cent are native-born and of the white race, with not a single Japanese or Chinaman. The state has 202,252 farms. These figures are from the State Agricultural Department, which in turn compiled them from the Federal census of 1920. The last census credited the county with having 2,105 farms and with 5,683 families, from which the deduction is made that, while it is a rural and an argricultural county, yet but thirty-seven per cent of the families are engaged in agricultural pursuits. The 1910 census showed that seventy-five per cent of the Perry County farms were operated by owners, twenty-three per cent by tenants, and the re- maining two per cent by managers. During 1920 the totals of the various products were as follows: wheat, 392,000 bushels ; oats, 546,600 bushels; corn, 980,900 bushels; potatoes, 190,500 bushels, and hay, 51,700 tons. The tractor is just being introduced, but. owing to the physical formation of the county, will never be- come of general use. Speaking of motors recalls that the first steam tractor was sold to Andrew Keller, over forty years ago, by Jacob Sheibley, long an agricultural implement agent.


While the argricultural, animal and poultry production in recent years has attracted attention, yet as early as 1884 there was a con- siderable poultry plant located in East Newport (Oliver Town- ship), with Hirsh & Fulton as proprietors. They had four hun- dred laying hens and a hatching and brooding house, using four incubators with a capacity of two hundred eggs each. While this plant would be considered very ordinary now, yet in that day it was one of the larger plants of central Pennsylvania.


As early as 1873 George A. Wagner embarked in the nursery business in Spring Township, and for a period of almost half a century has supplied fruit trees, vines and plants not only to the inhabitants of the county, but also to surrounding counties and even to states far distant. He was a pioneer in this line and the


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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


Wagner nursery was known far and near. Trees from his nursery were among those which brought to the county for a number of years the prize of the state for raising the finest varieties of apples in the entire commonwealth.


Agriculture in the great Susquehanna Valley, of which Perry County is a part, originated not so far from Perry County's south- ern line, for that pioneer minister at "Paxtang" (now Harris- burg ), told William Maclay that John Harris "was the first per- son to introduce a plough along the Susquehanna." The mod- ern farmer often thinks that all his ills are of recent origin, but as early as 1823 The Forester, Perry County's first paper, in various issues was bemoaning the "Hessian fly," that destroyer of the wheat crop. On one occasion the statement was made that "if Gregg is elected governor he will exterminate the Hessian fly."


Perry County farmers who have migrated to the neighboring counties of Cumberland and Lancaster, and to the valley of the Ohio and the many states drained by the Mississippi, as well as farther west, have not only become successful farmers in their new homes, but hundreds have amassed fortunes. Not unlike the professional men who have gone forth, they have been a credit to their native county.


As showing what can be done with hillside lands, in 1890, J. C. Hench began the cultivation of berries and small fruit on eighteen acres of what was considered practically worthless land, in Wheat- field Township, at a point almost central to Duncannon, Newport and New Bloomfield, and became the largest berry producer of the county, often raising 500 bushels in a season and employing as many as twenty pickers at a time in the busy season. In those days berries retailed at three boxes for a quarter, or thirteen for $1.00, and yet Mr. Hench amassed a competence. Later in life, after he had largely curtailed the production of berries, he was elected a commissioner of Perry County on the Republican ticket.


In the dairying line the Dickinson, Gilbert & Keen Creamery, at Loysville, was the successful pioneer. It was later followed, in 1919, with a milk condensory at Elliottsburg, operated by the Hershey Creamery Company. During 1921 the Supplee-Jones Company opened a large shipping depot at Duncannon for for- warding dairy products to Philadelphia via fast express trains. It would appear that Perry County is but starting in the dairying businesss. Future years will tell.


To the efforts of a few men Perry County is indebted for stand- ing first on at least four occasions as growing the finest apples in Pennsylvania. Among these men are William Stewart, Daniel Rice, and D. R. Kane, of Spring Township. Some years ago the Perry County Fruit Growers' Association was organized, and, largely through its efforts the growing of fruit was stimulated.


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Exhibitions were made at the State Horticultural Shows, and, in 1914, when the exhibition was held at York, the county captured the first prize for the largest and best display of apples. William Stewart and Daniel Rice, of Spring Township, and the Samuel Sharon Fruit Farm, near Newport, were the exhibitors who staged this first successful exhibit. Then, again in 1919, 1920 and 1921- three successive years-at the State Horticultural Exhibition at Harrisburg, the award was made to the county for the largest and best display of apples. The principal exhibitors at this last show (1921) were William Stewart, Daniel Rice, Sharon & Jones, and D. R. Kane. In the United States Government Year Book New York State is accredited with being first in the Union in the pro- duction of apples, with Pennsylvania second, notwithstanding that so much is heard of Pacific slope fruit farms. It is no mean posi- tion to hold-standing first three consecutive years in the second apple growing state of the Union.


Along the county's northern tier, from Pfoutz Valley to Ickes- burg, a number of baby chick hatcheries do a large business over the state, shipping by parcel post. J. A. Schiffer ships 2,000 a week during the season, from what he terms the Cyclone Hatchery. Mrs. John Ward operates the Buckeye Hatchery, with a dozen incubators. At Ickesburg Ira M. Johnson hatched and shipped over 50,000 last year. His plant consists of three mammoth incu- bators in which the eggs are turned automatically. These are men- tioned to show that Perry County argiculture in the broad sense is varied.


As the county commissioners refused to employ a county farm agent, or to contribute towards the support of one, it was done independently, beginning with the organization of a County Farm Bureau, July 1, 1921. The officers of this association were: Edgar A. Stambaugh, president ; Daniel Rice, vice-president ; John Bern- heisel, secretary, and E. R. Loy, treasurer. At the regular annual election, December 7, 1921, the following officers were elected : John M. Gantt, president; E. R. Loy, vice-president ; John L. Bernheisel, secretary ; D. A. Kline, treasurer.


Even the wood lot is receiving an attention once not accorded, for, according to the State Forestry Department, during the past year over five thousand such trees were planted on private lands in Perry County, that department furnishing the seedlings without cost. Of these trees over two thousand were white pine, 1,900 being Norway spruce.


During the past two years, largely through the efforts of Rev. L. E. Wilson, rural life institutes were held each fall at Roseglen, Wheatfield Township, at which home and church problems as well as agricultural matters were discussed. Noted speakers from abroad were there with their messages along these lines. These


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community meetings show the trend of the times towards civic betterment in the farming communities, and presage better condi- tions in any community. Rev. Wilson is pastor of the Duncannon M. E. Church, and is to be commended for filling a broader field in religious and community work.


Long before the present Perry County Agricultural Fair became a reality there was a county fair held at New Bloomfield. The first fair was held there on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, October 13, 14 and 15, 1852. Finlaw McCown was the president of the County Agricultural Society at that time. Charles McIntire and Jacob Lupfer were the secretaries, and David Lupfer the treas- urer. Daniel Gantt, later Chief Justice of Nebraska, was chairman of the premium committee, and Rev. Matthew B. Patterson was an exhibitor and won a prize. The last fair was probably held in 1859, as the local press contains nothing in reference to it after that. The dark clouds of Sectional War were then rising, which evidently was the reason for its abandonment. Jacob Billow was president of the association for the larger part of the period when the fairs were held there.


Then, in 1868, a notice calling for a fair to be held at "Everhart- ville," near Newport, was issued, being dated August 5th, and signed by Jesse L. Gantt, president ; J. E. Singer, D. R. P. Bealor, C. L. Murray, and William Kongh. Sr. The first fair at that loca- tion was held on October 6, 7 and 8, 1868, and there is record in the public press of its continuance until at least 1874, when the seventh fair was held.


The present Perry County Agricultural Society fair was insti- tuted in 1885, with B. F. Junkin, president; Dr. James B. Eby, secretary, and J. H. Irwin, treasurer. The directors were J. B. Black, A. S. Whitekettle, J. M. Smith, T. H. Milligan, T. H. But- turf, and William Wertz. In 1911 the association was incorpo- rated anew. The officers since the organization have been :


Presidents: Secretaries: 1885-90-James B. Eby.


1885-89-B. F. Junkin.


1889 - Frank Mortimer.


1891-97-F. A. Fry.


1890-08-D. H. Sheibley.


1898-99-J. B. Eby.


1900 -Chas. K. Diven.


1900-22-T. H. Butturf.


1901-20-J. C. F. Stephens. 1921-22-M. L. Ritter.


J. C. F. Stephens was assistant secretary from the organization in 1885 until 1901, when he was elected secretary, his connection with the annual fair thus exceeding the periods served by any other. The fair grounds are located a mile north of Newport, on the old John Kough farm, opposite the Evergreen school building.


Agriculture in Perry County has been stimulated towards better things by the organization known as the Patrons of Husbandry, or more frequently termed The Grange. In many cases this or-


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AGRICULTURE IN PERRY COUNTY


ganization is to the farming community just what the community centre is to the city and town. The meetings of the organization also include literary and other entertainment. Exhibitions made by these granges at the county fair have equaled those at ex- hibits of far greater note, save that the display was not so expen- sively garbed in modern receptacles and cartons. On May 23. 1919, a County Pomona Grange was organized at Green Park Grange Hall, with Win. E. Raffensberger, master ; J. Frank New- lin, lecturer, and E. A. Stambaugh, secretary. All members of the order in Perry County are entitled to become members in that organization. There is also a Junior Grange connected with the organization in Buck's Valley. The first organizations were formed about 1874 or 1875, but disbanded.


Of those granges now in existence the oldest is Perry Grange, No. 759, organized in Hunter's Valley, October 16, 1881, with J. W. Charles as master, and Jacob Charles, Jr., secretary. It meets at the homes of its members and now has a membership of but 16.


Pine Grove Grange, No. 1038, in Miller Township, was organized May 19, 1891, with H. B. Cumbler, master, and W. H. Evans, secretary. It meets at Pine Grove schoolhouse and has a membership of 78.


Oliver Grange, No. 1069, was organized in Oliver Township, August 2, 1892, with John W. S. Kough, master, and Philip Troup, secretary. It meets at Oak Hall schoolhouse and has a membership of 109.


Green Park Grange, No. 1615, was organized at Green Park, Tyrone Township, May 27, 1914, with E. A. Stambaugh, master; Carrie Stam- baugh, lecturer, and Paul Noll, secretary. It meets in a fine hall which it has erected and has a membership of 229.


Ickesburg Grange, No. 1729, was organized March 29, 1917, at Ickesburg, Saville Township, with D. N. Hall, master; Miss Mary J. Gray, lecturer, and James O. Gray, secretary. It meets in P. O. S. of A. hall and has a membership of 81.


Buck's Valley Grange, No. 1745, was organized in Buck's Valley (part of Buffalo and Howe Townships), June 26, 1919, with Wm. E. Raffens- berger, master; Miles Stephens, lecturer, and S. W. Billow, secretary. It meets in Grange Hall and has a membership of 172.


Community Grange, No. 1767, was organized in Juniata Township, July 6, 1918, with J. F. Newlin, master ; John M. Gantt, lecturer, and H. H. Shumaker, secretary. It meets in its own grange hall and has a member- ship of 135 members.


Shermanata Grange, No. 1796, was organized in Penn Township, May 31, 1919, with E. T. Charles, master ; Mrs. Lena Smith Snyder, lecturer, and C. L. Snyder, secretary. It meets in a fine new grange hall, erected in 1920, and has a membership of 192.


Perry Valley Grange, No. 1804, was organized in Perry Valley (parts of Greenwood and Liverpool Townships), July 29, 1919, with C. E. Reis- singer, master; Brant Mangle, lecturer, and Herbert Sarver, secretary. It meets at Beaver's schoolhouse and has a membership of 117.


Shermansdale Grange, No. 1858, was organized at Shermansdale, Carroll Township, September 1, 1920, with Alfred P. Barnes, master; Edward C. Hall, lecturer, and H. C. Minich, secretary. It meets in Mechanics' Hall, at Shermansdale, and has 109 members.


CHAPTER XXXVI.


*THE TUSCARORA FOREST.


U NDER original natural conditions Pennsylvania was one of the best wooded states, if not the best, in the eastern half of the United States. Not only were forests dense and trees large and valuable, but the varieties were of a greater commercial value. For years the state stood first, then second. Few counties in the state excelled Perry, which had a reputation for prompt shipments of fine lumber. Its forests were well set with rock, chestnut and black oak, white and yellow pine, hemlock, locust, hickory, etc.


Even before 1700, when an act was passed by the Provincial Assembly putting a penalty of ten pounds for felling or removing a tree or other landmark, there was legislation on forestry in Penn- sylvania. This, however, had principally to do with landmarks and was not intended to deal with the preservation of the forests in a general sense. While the nation and some of the states had viewed with alarm the stripping of the hills of timber, thus inter- fering with the water supply, very little was done in Pennsylvania until 1896, when Dr. J. T. Rothrock, Pennsylvania's first Com- missioner of Forestry, recommended in his report the forming of state forests, in the following words:


"In view of the generally admitted effect of forests upon the water supply of our streams, I would strongly advise that as soon as the condi- tion of the State Treasury will permit, an attempt should be made to ob- tain control of at least a portion of the timber areas on the watersheds of one or both branches of the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania, by imitating the example of other states, and be placed in a position in the near future to influence the water supply by controlling the character and condition of the forests upon the watersheds. The experiment may be made by degrees, as the condition of the treasury may warrant, but a beginning cannot be made too soon, as the emergency becomes more pressing each year, and the diffi- culty of obtaining control of these areas is annually increasing."


The act first authorizing the purchase of lands was passed by the Legislature of 1897, the member of assembly from Perry County


*Forester H. E. Bryner is a son of Mr. and Mrs. A. K. Bryner, of Southwest Madison Township, where he was born May 16, 1883. He was an attendant at the New Bloomfield Academy, Shippensburg State Normal School, Ursinus Academy, Ursinus College, and the State Forestry Acad- emy, where he graduated in 1908, being the first Perry County native to graduate in forestry. Mr. Bryner has since been promoted to the State Forestry Department at Harrisburg. We are indebted to him for much valuable information, as well as to various other officials of the Depart- ment of Forestry. D. B. McPherson, his successor, is also a native Perry Countian.


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THE TUSCARORA FOREST


being J. Harper Seidel, and the state senator of the district of which Perry is a part being William Hertzler, of Juniata County -both of whom supported it-and it was signed by Governor Daniel H. Hastings on March 30, 1897. It applied to lands sold for taxes. Another bill signed on May 25, 1897, authorized the purchase of lands in large bodies. Under the provisions of the former act the first purchase of lands was made in Clinton County on June 13, 1898, by Dr. Rothrock, the Commissioner of Forestry.


While the attitude of the various governors of Pennsylvania is not exactly a matter of Perry County history, yet it is deemed of sufficient importance in connection with our two Divisions of State Forests to be briefly recorded. Governor John F. Hartranft, the first to consider it, called attention to the coming need of forestry legislation. Governor James A. Beaver urged it further and also had the State Board of Agriculture take it up, but nothing prac- tical resulted. Governor Robert E. Pattison presided at a meet- ing to draw up the law to create three forest reservations of 40,000 acres each. It was defeated. During his administration the first forestry commissioners were appointed. When Governor Daniel H. Hastings was inaugurated in 1895, he helped the movement from the start. When the Department of Agriculture was created in that year the interests of forestry were provided for and a spe- cial division given charge of the work. Legislation was passed during his term, as previously stated, and at its close, in 1899, the state had already acquired 19,804 acres.




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