The Villages

By Christopher Miller

This week finds us in the western end of the county at Cook’s Run.

Cook’s Run was settled at some point during or after the Revolutionary War, the date was a bit fuzzy in old records. What is for sure is that it was settled by a man named James McGinley who had originally named the area McGinley’s Bottom (it is okay to laugh at this one, I chuckled when I first read it, too). At the time, this was Pine Creek Township of Northumberland County prior to all of the cutting and chopping of counties in the 1830s.

The land warrant was made out to William Cook, one of the McGinley heirs, so it stayed in the family since 1785. From here though it was bought and sold, bought and sold, multiple times over.

“John Baird (who bought the land in 1810) came from New Jersey, and found this place almost a wilderness, only a few acres cleared with a small log hut on it,” read a history of Clinton County book. Shortly after settling in, he began to make a new home for himself and his six daughters. A saw mill was built, because of course you need to cut trees to make improvements, he built a hewed-log house with an eventual addition to either house his growing family or escape from them, and had constructed a big stone chimney in the middle of the house.

Baird was also postmaster for a time and got the mail route through from Dunnstown to Coudersport in 1830, this being the only post office in what is now Noyes Township for many years.

A school was established here in 1854 and for a time was the only “institution of learning” within Noyes Township, but the school was replaced 20 years later.

Aside from lumbering and farming, coal mining was big business at Cook’s Run which in 1888 was the scene of a deadly explosion.

The Clinton Democrat newspaper on November 8, 1888 reported in big, bold print:
GREAT MINE HORROR
Cook’s Run, this County, the Scene of the Explosion,
SEVENTEEN PERSONS KILLED, Only a Few of the Unfortunate Men Escape Death.
Unfortunately, it is headlines like these that sell newspapers.

“A telegram was received in this city at 6 o’clock Saturday night stating that a terrible disaster had occurred at Cook’s Run, Clinton County, in the mine of the Kettle Creek Coal and Mining Company,” the article started, and that there was a frightful loss of life of no less than fifteen men.

The explosion had occurred at No. 2 mine about two hours before the telegram was sent to Lock Haven. Air was forced into the face of the mine and a rescue crew walked in, feeling their way along the grimy passageways into the drift, meeting a horrible scene of the dead.

Attention was given to the wounded who had survived the blast of which five survived and a few escaped the mine, miraculously.

The theory of the explosion was that a gas feeder (pocket) was struck, filling the space with gas which, when coming in contact with a lamp, caused the explosion. Another theory was that dynamite was being used by an inexperienced individual who did not have a fuse and set it off in another way.

The next day the local undertaker went up to the mines with sixteen coffins that nearly filled the baggage car of the train. Sadly, by that day the cause of the explosion was indeed identified as being from dynamite instead of mine gas.

Below are the names of identified men who were in the mine and did not make it home that evening:
Charles Alman, 27
John Carlson, 25
John Anderson, 20
John Beckus, 28
George Beckus, 22
Aaron Carlson, 25
Michael Curran, 37, leaves widow and eight children
Patrick Donley, 55, leaves widow and seven children
Michael Marcy, 22
Sylvester Marcy, 19
George Mellets, 35
Martin Pierson, 30
Maurice Yanka, 27
Don Closkey, 40
Unknown, 24

In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps came to town and established camp S-78-PA near Cook’s Run. The U.S. Army ran the camps, but foresters, carpenters and other people directed the work. The CCC fought forest fires, planted trees, built roads, buildings, picnic areas, swimming areas, campgrounds and created many state parks. When not working, the men socialized and had opportunities to learn crafts and skills.a

Coal was still big business for Cook’s Run. An article from 1965 detailed how 15,000,000 pounds of coal was carried to York Haven, PA from the mines of Cook’s Run to be turned into electricity for Renovo, Lock Haven, and Jersey Shore.

Thanks to Rich Wykoff for providing images from the area to accompany the story.