Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

Let’s imagine. Let’s imagine someone broke into my home office and stole everything. All my files, books, archives, my Bigfoot action figure, the whole thing. I have no idea why anyone would do this; maybe he’s an insane person who wants to study local history. But let’s say I somehow lost everything.

So, in rebuilding, I’d obviously need to prioritize. Some of the sources are more valuable than others. Let’s not bicker over how I get the books; let’s stipulate that I have some sort of source for this stuff. So, which ones would I consider the most important? Which books are the best for studying Clinton County’s history?
The first one I’d have to start with would be Linn’s History.

John Blair Linn wrote “History of Centre and Clinton Counties” in 1883. This book weighs about as much as my kid, and is several inches thick. It covers both counties, and it does a thorough job. In every region, there is one book that is the best for learning the history, and in Clinton County, Linn’s is the one.

Published fifty years after the founding of Lock Haven, Linn’s History covers the local history back to the colonial days. It mentions the geology of Clinton County, talks about Jerry Church and how he founded both the city and the county, and has a chapter on each township. I mean, this book even gives an accurate history of West Keating, and how cool is that? There are other books that give a comprehensive local history, but if pressed, Linn’s would have to be the best one.

Next I’d jump ahead a hundred years, and choose the Lock Haven Sesquicentennial book.

This one was published in 1983, when Lock Haven turned a hundred and fifty. It’s a good book, too, with essays on a lot of the interesting bits and pieces of our history. There are two things, though, that make it very valuable.

The first is the timeline. Through several of the pages, they put in a timeline that begins in 1833 and runs clear up to 1983, with notes on what was going on in each year. This is very helpful when I’m looking for ideas on what to write for anniversaries and such. The other thing is a list of mayors (missing a couple, but they didn’t know that at the time) from 1870 to 1983, making it very easy to find out who was running the city during any given time period.

I’d have to try to get my hands on another ten-volume CCGS index to the local cemeteries.

In 2008, the Clinton County Genealogical Society went through every single cemetery in the county, and wrote down who was buried in every grave. There are ten of these books: Nine split into townships, and one for Highland Cemetery. Each one is indexed alphabetically in the back, with maps and directions to every cemetery.

This makes it very easy to find out where someone is buried, and if necessary, go straight to their grave. These books have saved me hours of wandering around looking for random gravestones over the years.

Another one I’d have to acquire is “Historic Lock Haven”. Okay, what I’d really prefer here is a copy of all of the Historic Resource Survey Forms, but we’re looking at hours of photocopying time there, and the book would streamline this a bit. This book contains photos and details of most of the buildings in the city deemed historic, and helps to learn about the history and architecture of the community.

And I’d have to get at least one Henry Shoemaker book, preferably “Tales of the Bald Eagle Mountains,” which is my favorite. Because, hey, it’ll keep me busy, and it’s Shoemaker.

With those, my collection wouldn’t be exactly complete, but it would be enough to keep me studying and writing about things. And sooner or later, I’d have to pick up a new Bigfoot action figure.