Lou’s View: THE PLACES BEFORE THE PLACES
By Lou Bernard
Don’t ask me for directions. Trust me, you don’t want to do that. Oh, I totally know where I’m going, and I know how to get there. I could even explain it to you. But unless you’re familiar with the layout of Clinton County in the past, you’ll never follow along. “Okay, so beginning from where John Sloan was born, go toward where the haunted hotel used to stand and turn left at Mayor Edgar Heffner’s business. Pass where the Civil War monument used to be and go to the Bridgens Mansion. If you hit the old Samuel Crist place, you’ve gone too far.”
I have a tendency to view Lock Haven through the past, and often describe it to others in that way. I’m told it takes some effort to keep up. But there comes a point where even I get a little vague—I’m much more familiar with the founding of Lock Haven and everything since. Pre-1833, I’m not quite as good.
There were Native American communities around the area. One man made a study of them, to the point he became a local expert. Thomas Brown Stewart was a dentist and archaeologist, and he gave us a lot of information on what existed before the European settlers arrived. Stewart knew what he was doing, so I can guarantee his information was as accurate as possible.
The Native Americans referred to the whole Susquehanna River valley as “Otzinachson,” which was said to mean “Demon’s den.” According to the book of the same name, they believed that ghosts and demons lived here, which didn’t stop them from living here themselves.
Monseytown was along the north side of the Susquehanna River, a mile or so upriver past the Jay Street Bridge. It was “occupied by the Monseys of the Wolf Clan or tribe of Delawares,” and was said to be a big farming area, growing corn and beans until about 1758.
There was a burial ground not far upstream, on a farm once owned by Isaac Packer. This was destroyed in an atrocity in 1877, when Packer discovered the place and ground up the bones to fertilize his corn. The thought of it makes me cringe; it doesn’t speak well of our treatment of either history or Native Americans back then.
Great Island was called “Mecheek-Menaty,” which meant “Great Island.” It was a Native American area, and so was the area now occupied by Dunnstown, once upon a time. It was near Great Island, which was important, and also had a useful spring, which is crucial. According to Stewart, it’s been suggested that a Susquehannock town called “Utchwig” was on or near Great Island.
Another place was on the opposite side of Great Island. I’d know it as the McCormick Farm. You’d know it as that place just outside the city limits, sort of near the first Great Island Bridge, and not far from Memorial Park. (I tried to warn you about the directions.) Old records show that it was a village ruled by Chief Nehwaleeka in 1768.
Patterson was another Native American community, somewhere near present-day McElhattan. There’s a monument to it near the McElhattan bridge, placed there in 1913 by Henry Wharton Shoemaker. I’ve taken some heat for relying on Shoemaker’s information before—His reputation was often trashed by his political opponents, and he was said to have made up some of his information. But I’ve researched the man, and I believe that he was more accurate than he is generally given credit for.
There are places around….Places that existed long ago, before the places we know. They’re no longer here, but we can still find the sites of them. It’s why, in our society, we’re so interested in stories about an apocalypse. We basically live on one.
