Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

I find these people sometimes, average citizens who had interesting lives. The history of Clinton County is full of them. They weren’t the big community leaders, they didn’t do phenomenal things, but they had neat lives that affected the community for a time.

In this case, it’s Jacob Scheid, who shows up in a 1939 article entitled “Early Resident From Bavaria.” I stumbled on this one while I was looking for a column, not willing to risk getting too close to deadline.

Jacob Scheid was one of our early residents, arriving when Clinton County was about ten years old. Born in Bavaria in 1810 (I’m not sure I’ve ever written about someone from Bavaria before) he came to this area in 1849 with his wife and two daughters. One of these daughters, incidentally, married Peter Keller, one of the founders of Castanea. Later, Scheid and his wife had five more children, their lives being decidedly not busy enough yet.

At first Scheid settled in Farrandsville, and then moved to Mill Hall for a brief time. He bought a house at the corner of Main and Washington Streets in Lock Haven, where he lived for a little while, until he had the urge to build his own house. Hey, most of the other prominent Lock Haven citizens built their houses, so why not? He bought a property at the corner of Main and Henderson Streets, upon which he built a new house. Then in 1854, he built another house at 116 Jay Street, the rationale presumably being that he hadn’t built a house there yet. (To the best of my knowledge, none of these houses still stand. They were all destroyed for newer buildings.)

Scheid was involved in several business aspects in Clinton County. He got into lumbering, as many of the early businessmen did in Lock Haven, and shipping on the canals. He also built a hotel, originally the Keller House and then called the Russell Hotel, which his son-in-law, Peter Keller, operated.

Scheid died in the Jay Street house in 1866, or maybe 1869. (The article I found says 1866, but he has two different cemetery records—one says 1869, and the other says 1866, so who knows? Personally I’m going with 1866, which sounds a little more accurate to me.) He was buried in Great Island Cemetery, which was moved in 1918, and Scheid’s body was sent to Highland Cemetery in a family plot. Jacob Scheid seems to have moved around dead as much as he did alive.

His son, creatively named Jacob Scheid, took over the lumbering and shipping work. He operated a canal boat called the Nighthawk, which would be an awesome name for a superhero. He died in 1938, one of the last surviving canal boat captains in Lock Haven. He’s also buried in Highland, though in his case it was the first stop.

One interesting date in the Scheid family was September 26, to the point I almost want to go play it in the lottery. Scheid and his wife were married on September 26, and both died on September 26. (Different years, of course. Actually, as I mentioned earlier, Scheid himself seems to have died in two different years.) Two of their daughters were also born on September 26 in different years.

The Scheid family seems to be an interesting one, and I’m glad I discovered Jacob’s story in an old newspaper. The next time I happen to be up in Highland Cemetery, I think I’ll find his gravestone and take a look….Assuming, of course, that he’s stayed there.