Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

To look at it on the map, you’d think Leidy Township is nowhere. And you’d be right. Up on the northernmost end of Clinton County, it basically is nowhere, and I mean that in a good way. Leidy Township is one of my favorite summertime destinations mainly because it isn’t very near anyplace else.

I’m looking specifically at Kettle Creek State Park here, which is pretty much my favorite of the state parks. Pennsylvania has some great state parks, no denying that. I’ve been to over half of them. But again and again, Kettle Creek tops my list of the best ones.

There are all sorts of explanations for the name, but the most likely is that the Native Americans had a natural kettle there. They called the creek “Sononjoh,” which meant “Lost Kettle.” It’s been documented that a deep depression in the stone near the creek, said to have been used by the Native Americans to cook, was found by the early settlers. It was destroyed when Route 120 was built in 1927, so if you’re looking for proof here, all I can offer are old newspaper articles.

Leidy Township itself is interesting. It was part of Chapman Township, struck off in 1847, and that didn’t hurt Chapman Township any—It’s still the biggest one in the county, acreage-wise. Leidy was named after Judge George Leidy, a Salona politician.

A 1939 newspaper article says that the area was “settled by pioneers,” which is accurate enough. The first of these was Simeon Pfoutz, who went up by canoe in 1813, when the area was still part of Lycoming County. He paddled up Kettle Creek about eight miles, looked around, and called it good. He cleared some land and began building a cabin, then returned to Perry County and gathered up his wife, son, and a friend, Paul Shade. They all settled in what later became Leidy Township.

Simeon’s daughter, Martha, was the first white kid born in present-day Leidy Township. She also became the first wedding there when she married Isaac Summerson later on. Summerson owned a hotel, the first in the township where alcohol was served.

Simeon Pfoutz, in addition to being the first settler there, also built the first sawmill. He was later followed by Jacob Hammersley and Archie Stewart, who built the first grist mill in the area, producing flour for baking needs. A school was built in 1844, soon after Clinton County was founded, and taught by a man named Grimes.

In 1847, a post office was established at present-day Westport, and named the Kettle Creek Post Office. It was discontinued soon after, however, as there was another Kettle Creek Post Office at the head of the creek. The postal service is pretty touchy about the reuse of names.

And the first Civil War submarine has a historic connection with Leidy Township. The sub was designed by a Philadelphia inventor named Brutus DeVilleroi, who bought a large plot of land from local farmer Elliot Cresson, and settled there for about a year and a half. DeVilleroi designed and built the USS Alligator, a lengthy submarine, and offered it to Abraham Lincoln for use during the war. NOAA, who had researched this, believes that DeVilleroi made the money to build this sub in Leidy Township, while he lived up there. My own personal theory is that he found an old vein of silver, and managed to mine some of it to raise the money. DeVilleroi, who listed his occupation as “natural genius” on the census, was certainly capable of that.

Sure, Leidy is nowhere. But it’s the kind of nowhere that you want to get to. I enjoy going up there in the summer, using Kettle Creek to get away for a while. And if you happen to see me up there digging for silver, just let me go. I’m doing historic research.