Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

It’s a question that I get, often—Where the different ethnicities settled, back in the old days. These days, we have a certain amount of diversity in Lock Haven, and there’s not really any one specific place for each group.

Everyone is mixed up, all over town, which works out well. But back in the early days, there were different neighborhoods.

Now, I have to admit that the question of which group settled where has never intrigued me all that much. I’m a mix of several nationalities; every one of my grandparents was from a different country. So growing up, I was never instilled with much of an ethnic pride.

But I’ve found an old article from 1951, with information supplied by local businessman A.H. Claster, and it gave some details that do interest me somewhat.

The first immigrants to present-day Clinton County were mostly Irish, British, Scottish, and German. This is what led to the Irish-German Canal Riot of 1833, which I’ve written about before. When Lock Haven was founded, many of them settled into their own neighborhoods, along with any other immigrants that came along.

The Italians settled along the southern portion of Henderson Street, in the neighborhood where, fittingly, the Sons of Italy now stands. Most of them gathered in a couple of blocks around that area.

In 1833, the Irish were mainly living near the river in small homes along East Water Street, which was about all there was to Lock Haven initially. This was a convenient location for them to be while they worked on the canals.

But later on, as Lock Haven grew, they moved up to South Jones Street, which for a time became the Irish neighborhood. (And don’t e-mail me to argue that this isn’t the way YOU remember it, because I’m talking about the late 1800s here.)

The Germans originally lived in the Water Street area, as well, but many of them moved out of Lock Haven eventually, and gathered over in Pine Creek Township. And over in Woodward Township, Swissdale was understandably settled by Swiss immigrants, but first called “German Settlement” before the name was more correctly changed to Swissdale.

The Jewish community had an interesting migration through Lock Haven. According to the article, the Jewish people came during the 1850s, largely because of the availability of lumbering jobs—To be fair, they weren’t the only ones attracted to the lumber industry. The first Jewish family to settle in Lock Haven was named Stein, and they built a house on Spring Street. As more Jews came to the area, they settled nearby, with the Stein house becoming their initial place of worship. And the corner of Spring and Fourth became the Jewish neighborhood.

About 1902, a synagogue was built on the corner of Commerce and Clinton Streets. The building still stands, but it’s apartments now. And the Jewish people all moved over there, and that became the Jewish neighborhood for a while, until the new synagogue was built on West Church Street.

The Jewish people began to acquire their own cemetery as early as 1874, when Philip Price donated a plot of land for that purpose. In 1899, another adjoining plot was acquired by some local Jewish families, and also used as cemetery land, and in 1911, the Claster family bought another one.

In 1939, all of the groups gathered together, joined their individual plots, and founded the Beth Yehuda Cemetery Association. It’s still there to this day, along Glenn Road. Many people assume it’s part of Saint Agnes, the Catholic cemetery across the street, but that’s not true—Beth Yehuda is a completely different cemetery.

These days, there aren’t too many ethnic neighborhoods; we’re all mixed up together. But the settlements in the early days are worth noting—They helped contribute to what Lock Haven is today.