Renovo at 150 – Just the Facts
by Lou Bernard
Did you know that Clinton County is where the color blue was invented? Of course you didn’t, because I only just now made that up. But facts like that are fun to think about. People love short, catchy facts that they can easily memorize and repeat. It’s why Trivial Pursuit is a thing, in spite of the fact that nobody ever wins a game.
As Renovo turns a hundred and fifty, I wanted to throw some cool facts into the mix. It’s a good way to educate people about the rich history that Renovo has. Also I’m feeling lazy, and throwing together a column full of facts sounds good to me. But mostly the history thing.
FACT: Renovo was officially founded on May 26, 1866 as a place to repair railroad cars. The name is Latin for “rebirth” or “renewal.” The first Chief Burgess (Complicated way of saying “mayor”) was J.S. Hall.
FACT: The first public schools in the area were established in 1864.
FACT: The only burial ground within the Renovo limits is the old Saint Joseph Catholic Cemetery on Drury Run.
FACT: The designer of the first Civil War submarine lived very near Renovo. Brutus Devilleroi, a Frenchman from Philadelphia, lived in Westport for a while and visited Renovo often. He designed and built the first submarine used in the Civil War, the U.S.S. Alligator.
FACT: The first police chief in Renovo was George W. Vernes, appointed in 1883.
FACT: The first electric lights were installed in Renovo, replacing oil lamps, in 1904. Streets were paved three years later, in 1907.
FACT: Hydraulic locks and chutes for operating canals were invented in Renovo. They were first created in 1883 by William C. Parsons.
FACT: Renovo was deliberately laid out to be fairly easy to navigate. All east-west streets are named after the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Erie. All north-south streets are simply numbered.
FACT: Many women in Renovo have had excessively long lifespans. Catherine English, Catharine Judge, and Rose Brezovsky have all lived to be over a century old.
FACT: Magician Harry Houdini came to perform in Renovo on February 19, 1924.
FACT: In the early days of Renovo, literally every home in town was a boarding house because of the unusually high number of railroad employees living in the area.
FACT: Renovo’s biggest railroad strike happened in 1922, when hundreds of men lost their jobs. Some left town. Renovo was still recovering from the strike when the Great Depression began.
FACT: The Renovo area was the birthplace of voter fraud. In 1837, voters were encouraged to vote more than once for governor candidate Joseph Ritner in Youngwomanstown, present-day North Bend. The Renovo area had only fifty legal voters, and cast over seven hundred votes for Ritner.
FACT: The first post office in the Renovo area was called the Drury’s Run Post Office, and appears on a map made in 1862. This map hangs on display at the Ross Library.
FACT: Eugene McCabe was the first white male child born in Renovo in 1865. He died in Titusville, Pennsylvania, sixty-five years later, on September 5, 1929.
FACT: John Montgomery Ward, major league baseball player, grew up in Renovo. He was born in Bellefonte, but his family moved to Renovo at an early age.
FACT: Renovo is home to the oldest, longest-lasting newspaper in Clinton County. The Renovo Record, founded on December 21, 1871, was begun by John Upton Shaffer. The first issue contained poetry and superstitions on the front page. The Record is still available throughout Clinton County. But if you’re reading this, then you knew that.
