Renovo at 150 – The Beginning
by Lou Bernard
Happy anniversary, Renovo.
Renovo is turning a hundred and fifty this year. A century and a half. Renovo was incorporated as a borough on May 26, 1866—Let’s get that out of the way right now, because I know how quirky some of these founding dates can be. (Lock Haven has a clear, obvious founding date. I’m still sort of trying to recover from the research on Flemington and Loganton.) But I’m going to write about the history of Renovo for the anniversary, otherwise I’d have to go find a real job.
Renovo has a fairly convoluted history. Awesome, to be sure, but complicated. So, in an effort to begin the year in a simple, easy fashion, I’m going to lay out the history for you as best I can.
The Native Americans had a long history of being in the valley, going back centuries. Mostly the Leni-Lenape, and they didn’t keep any kind of records we can understand. As for European-based settlers, the earliest known in the Renovo area is William Baird.
Baird did not found Renovo—I had to explain that once to a class doing research. There’s a big difference between “earliest settler” and “town founder,” and I suspect Baird just wanted to be left alone. Legend has it that he first arrived in Renovo about 1825, paddling up in a canoe from Jersey Shore. He bought land and a cabin from the Price brothers, Thomas and William, and settled there with his family. He farmed and hunted the land, and watched as other settlers bought land in the mountains and built cabins, as well.
Baird also got to watch as the railroad came in. About 1847, the Pennsylvania and Erie Railroad built tracks along the Susquehanna River, going up through the mountains. Railroading was in its heyday, and the lure of new areas to build was too hard to resist. The mountains of northern Clinton County were rough terrain, with very few stops, so the company began to establish a few repair shops and supply places there.
The first post office in the area was created in 1851, with Michael Stout as the first postmaster. This was known as the “Drury’s Run” post office, after the stream running down into the Susquehanna. At the time, Renovo was still a few years away from existing—The big community in Chapman Township was North Bend, known as “Youngwomanstown” at the time. You can see all this on the 1862 map at the Ross Library.
It was 1863 when P&E Railroad purchased the land—Right smack in the middle of the Civil War, they bought twelve hundred acres of Baird’s land for the purpose of creating a community. The company laid out the place with streets and alleys, and began building homes for the railroad employees, stores, churches, schools. Renovo can be said to be very much a company town, basically created just for the purpose of use by the railroad company.
Around this time, the community got its name. Renovo is Latin for renewal or rebirth, and the people began calling it that. They were repairing and renewing the railroad cars, and it was thought that the whole area was getting a sort of rebirth. The name seemed to fit. (The Renovo citizens are lucky they didn’t end up with “Swampoodle,” which was the name given to a small establishment for railroad officers to the north.)
It was May 26, 1866, when the citizens campaigned for incorporation, and they received it. Renovo, Pennsylvania was incorporated as a borough, and officers elected. J.S. Hall was the chief burgess, whatever that is. The first councilmen were Jacob Givler, Patrick Shelley, J.Y. Rothrock, and Peter Quinn. (Patrick Shelley would later become a constable, and most likely die in the line of duty. I’ll get to that in a future article.) William Hartzig and D.M. May were elected constables.
That’s how Renovo was born. It took years, and happened in stages, but May of 1866 was the culmination of the effort. And this year, we’re celebrating the history of the community. I’ll be writing about it, remembering the past….And looking toward the future.
