Down River – July 31, 2014

Having Some Fun this Year:

As we reluctantly make the transition from July to August, summer at its midway point in this year of 2014, let’s take a moment to note what a commendable job Clinton County’s 175th birthday committee has done.

And let’s particularly recognize member county municipalities for being party to the party, most recently this past weekend in Chapman Township and Wayne Township (was that Marcellus Shale entrepreneur Bobby Maguire playing the spoons at the shindig at the old Shoemaker estate on Sunday?).

Maria Boileau and her countywide band of volunteers have been outstanding in ratcheting up our collective consciousness of years gone by.

Which leads to my recent stumbling upon the Lock Haven Express Centennial Issue from 1939; particularly fascinating was the history of train service in Clinton County, as the headline read, “Railroad Came Into Clinton County 80 Years Ago.”

There was an extended story from one Joseph A. Bull, identified as the chief clerk – general division, Pennsylvania Railroad.

Bull wrote back in 1939:

“For one who stands on the platform of the Lock Haven station and sees today’s locomotives hauling smoothly, rapidly and dependably passenger and freight traffic to and from all points of the compass, it seems almost impossible to realize that 80 years ago Lock Haven was celebrating on July 1, 1859, with speeches, parades, music, lights and a general jubilee, the arrival that day of the first railroad train in Lock Haven.”

Bull relied on the Clinton Democrat of that era to describe the scene:

“The long expected time for the completion of the railroad to Lock Haven having arrived, the first passenger train landed here on Friday evening, July 1, at 7 o’clock in charge of Capt. S. Harvey Walter, the gentlemanly conductor, assisted by Mr. Nichols, ticket agent at Williamsport, and Captain Lehman, baggage master.

“The Artillery (Captain Jarrett), the Steuben Rifles (Captain Brown) and our excellent Brass Band in full uniform, attended by a large concourse of the beauty, pride and substantial of the town and vicinity, were on the ground to hail the great event.

“A long procession, composed of the military and citizens, as then formed, and marched through the principal streets.”

Bull’s story went on to describe the railroad’s advance to Renovo, “The first passenger train to reach Renovo was that of the Sunbury and Erie Railroad – a railroad projected between these termini, in order to capture for Philadelphia and Baltimore some of the traffic to and from the Great Lakes section which had been taken by the New York Canal to New York City. However, construction languished after 1859 due to the political situation in 1860 and to labor shortages resulting from the government needs for men during the Civil War.”

Bull relates it was 1862 when “the first whistle of a locomotive was heard at Renovo.

“He noted the subsequent Philadelphia and Erie Railroad wished to join Sunbury, Williamsport and Lock Haven with the Atlantic Seaboard and the Great Lakes, ultimately giving rise to the decision to “establish their shops at Renovo on land belonging to William Baird, the original settler of Renovo, who went there by canoe from Jersey Shore in 1825 to establish a home and clear a farm.”

Bull detailed development of Renovo, the railroad depot completed in 1865, 112 x 75 feet, of brick construction. It was about 1863, he wrote, the Philadelphia and Erie Land Company was created and laid out lots and named the town “Renovo.” Lots were put up for sale “upon such easy terms that almost every man could establish a home for himself and family. Lots were eagerly bought and houses sprang up near the shops.”

And Renovo grew to the point that those shops meant a lot in 1939, the county’s 100th birthday: engine house, 41 men; erecting shop, 179; machine shop, 100; boiler shop, 145; blacksmith shop, 20; power plant, 12; electric shop, 24; tin shop, 5; M.W. Camp Car repair shop, 70; planning mill, 47; freight car repair yard, 50; C.T. yard, 17; storehouse, 34; master mechanic’s office, 10. “Total at Renovo, 754 men.”

The shop pay roll at Renovo for the month of October of 1939 exceeded $100,000. Total Pennsylvania Railroad employment in the county that month was over 1,000 with a payroll of more than $150,000.

Sadly the rail story in western Clinton County has been one of slippage since the halcyon days of 1939. But many Renovo residents today hold out hope that soundings about some new non-rail developments may come to fruition; if and when they do, that would make Clinton County’s 175th birthday party even better.

Seeking Redress:

That sure was a bold step by U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson and four of his Pennsylvania Congressional colleagues to ask the NCAA to rescind a couple of the remaining sanctions stemming from the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State.

I suspect NCAA President Mark Emmert and his minions will jump right on that.

In the meantime I have decided Down River also will be seeking redress for what I perceive as past improprieties.

I am writing Russian President Vladimir Putin and asking him to return the Crimea to Ukraine.

I am writing former Lock Haven Junior League umpire Don Malinak, asking him to change a called third strike against me in a 1956 Rotary-Pennwoven game.

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