Lou’s View – March 3, 2016
Avis
by Lou Bernard
March. Slow time of year. Sometimes in March, I have to do things just to amuse myself. Last year, I unilaterally declared March to be “Travel Month” and I spent the whole month writing about paranormal legends from other states. That was fun for a while.
March is also Women’s History Month. I didn’t come up with that; it’s really a thing. And I like that. When I got my start writing, I was doing columns on local women for a women’s magazine. Don’t judge me.
So I’m going to play into this. A lot of the time, when I’m stuck for an idea, I tend to gravitate back to women anyway. WRITING about them, I mean. You know. Because of that magazine. The one I used to write for.
Let me try that again. For each of my columns in March, I’m going to write about a woman who had some impact locally. I’d also like to try and stay away from the ones I’ve already written to death—I love the stories of Annie Halenbake Ross, Maria Molson, Mary Elizabeth Crocker, Annie Snyder, and Margaret Church, but I’ve written about them a million times. I want to try some new ones.
To that end, I’m going to ask you—Can you name the community in Clinton County that was named after a woman?
I’ll bet a lot of people don’t know this. That’s right, I’m going to write about Loganton Jones.
Of course I am just kidding about that last part. Though, seriously, how awesome a name would Loganton Jones be? I want to adopt another kid just so I could name her that. But no, seriously, I’m talking about Avis.
Avis is just about as far east as you can go and still be in Clinton County. And it’s named after Avis Cochran, daughter of one of the men who helped found it.
The community of Avis was pretty much formed in the early 1900s, in small stages. It was sort of a combination of two communities—One was Oak Grove, owned by the Oak Grove Land Company. The other was Avis, which was owned by the Cochran Land Company, a business in Williamsport. This was largely owned by J. Henry Cochran, a Pennsylvania Senator. For a while, it was uncertain which was going to be the actual town, but Avis eventually swallowed up Oak Grove, becoming one town.
Cochran had a daughter, Avis, who was born in 1877. So he chose to name his new community after her, because why not? She was in her late twenties at the time, and pretty much as grown as she was going to get. The place that bore her name, however, was still growing, and continued to add land and buildings.
Avis was married to William Orville Hickok in Williamsport on June 11, 1903. William was the son of William, Senior, and Louisa Hickok of Harrisburg, which was where they later lived, on the corner of Front and Locust Streets. Both of their sisters acted as bridesmaids, William’s sister Louisa, and Avis’s sister Helen. (The name “Hickok” seems to be spelled differently depending on where you look, and I have no idea what would be considered the correct spelling. I’m not even sure I’m consistent within this article.)
Henry and his wife held a nice reception for the couple in their home in Williamsport, and then the two of them went back to Harrisburg.
Avis Cochran Hickok died in 1949, and is buried in a cemetery in Harrisburg with her husband. The community that is names after her remains, however, an important part of Clinton County history. Plus I got a column out of her, which was my real interest here. See you next week.
