We Bought a House

By Christopher Miller

I’d like to see Lou Bernard write an article with a title better than that one!

Homes come and homes go. Some are taken through natural causes such as a forest fire or flood. Others are the victims of arson or carelessness. Some homes are completely transformed from the inside out and are virtually unrecognizable after many renovations and additions.

Underneath it all, for those homes still standing, are hand-hewn saw marks, notches cut out of floor joists for the later addition of indoor plumbing or electrical, and the memories of what used to be.

When it comes to my house, it also has a history.

The Courthouse

Rifling through the deed books at the courthouse I saw the familiar sights and names of previous owners: Glossner, Johnson, even Dunn (when the original Dunn of Dunnstown had once owned the hundreds of acres that comprised present-day Dunnstown and the hills behind it).

Someone by the name of Johnson purchased the water rights to the stream that once ran across the road from my house. It wasn’t until the 1920s that a name was listed on the deed along with the word “dwelling.”

You see, that history guy Lou Bernard trained me on how to research the old deeds at the courthouse. Usually if the word “dwelling” was not on a deed it was only talking about land. “Three perches west to an old oak tree and 165 paces north to where the cow stands in the morning…” (thanks, Lou).

Listed on the deed in the early 1920s was the name “Young.” This name would set my research on a trajectory to uncover a very interesting couple and their one-time employment as restaurateurs from Lancaster County.

The Discovery

The obituary ran in a local newspaper in 1953, “Mrs. Matilda Croft Young, 82, who with her husband, James E. Young, for many years operated a restaurant on Grove St., died yesterday at 2 p.m. at her home in Swissdale, where the Youngs have lived and farmed since 1925.” It was never unusual to see that someone who owned a home was also a local business owner, but it was the next item in the obituary that surprised.

“When the Youngs had their restaurant here, at the location now occupied by Dorey and Sabbatino, Mr. Young won wide reputation as the “oyster king” of Lock Haven…and it was from 1910 to 1925 that the Youngs managed the Grove St. restaurant.”

The Oyster King moves to Lock Haven

Born in Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, Ed came to Lock Haven in 1907 when he got a job helping the new managers of the old St. Charles Hotel on Main Street. “They sent Mr. Young on ahead to put in two weeks of work on the hotel before they arrived to take over,” the paper reported.

James married Matilda after three years of working at the hotel and they struck out for themselves to open Young’s Cafe.

“At one time Ed Young owned a well known restaurant in Lock Haven,” the local newspaper reported. “That’s where he got his title as Oyster Man.” “It was the specialty of the house.” “He reckons that his annual trade in oysters alone saw him de-shell 190,000 in a season.”

Ed, as he was known locally, owned and operated a restaurant with his wife, Matilda, on Grove Street and in 1910 decided to go into business for themselves. “She had been fired from her job at the hotel for asking for a 25-cent a week raise,” which equated to an extra $13/year or $7.34 extra a week in 2022 dollars after adjusting for over 100 years worth of inflation.

This is part 1 of a 2 part story which will conclude in next week’s issue of The Record, January 27, 2022.