The Villages

By Christopher Miller

There lies a little village just west of Renovo near the Chapman/Leidy Township line. This village is somewhat shrouded in mystery, for as far I can research there doesn’t seem to be an answer as to how it got its name.
My normal local history books I go to (Linn’s History of Centre and Clinton County, Maynard’s Historical View of Clinton County, Genealogical Society Cemetery books, and Wayne Short’s three-volume set of Renovo History) all do not point to a clear answer.

By all accounts of maps, Drury Run (or Drury’s Run, depending on who you ask) just suddenly…appeared…on maps of the county.

One of the earliest maps of Clinton County was published and produced in 1862, less than 25 years after it was formed from Centre and Lycoming. And guess what? Drury Run appears there, too.

So where did this village get its mystical name from? There are no cards for “Drury” in the genealogy card file at Ross Library.

However – there is one instance of a Drury in our general area, and this appears in Linn’s History of Centre and Clinton County.

Stephen Drury was listed on an 1807/1808 assessment record as a silversmith in Bellefonte Borough. I think, unless someone has a more definite answer, this could be a plausible explanation to the name. He would have been highly skilled at his trade, most likely somewhat wealthy working with rare metals, and very high in demand.

Actually, there were stories of silver mines in the Keatings. Maybe he was onto something here and purchased land along the creek because of known silver mines? That is a bit far-fetched, but you never know!

For the sake of this story, Drury Run has been a small village of sorts since the very beginning containing a church and school, way-back-when.

In the 1870s Drury Run was the home of industry, such as lumber and coal. The Karthus Coal and Lumber Company purchased timber on Drury Run and built a steam sawmill along the banks. In 1873, a fire burned the facility along with one million wood laths. a loss of about $10,000, but the mill was completely rebuilt two months later.

After the downfall of the lumber and coal company, drilling commenced in 1886 at Drury Run. After 156 days, a depth of 3,512 feet was reached after about $6,000 was spent. Sadly, and this may be the curse of Drury Run, dozens of drill bits were lost and machinery breakdowns were frequent. Stockholders eventually gave the “go-ahead” to drill up to 8,000 feet, but in July of 1888 the well was shut down for good.

In 1888 a fire brick company with the latest machinery was located on Drury Run. Renovo Fire Brick Company was first producing bricks to construct their own plant stack which took several weeks before bricks were produced for the open market. Fire bricks were produced in some way, shape, and form through the 1920s and 30s.

On October 16, 1903, after only being open for eight months, the West Branch hotel at Drury’s Run was burned to the ground. The building was only insured for about half of its cost, and many boarders there were employees of the Fire Brick Company. Sadly, all possessions were lost.

The Drury Run area is also home to St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery which was undergoing heavy restoration efforts in 2009. This cemetery, well over a century old, holds the remains of hundreds of individuals including war veterans and a few Renovo-area priests.

Drury Run as a water source is 7.71 miles long and pretty much follows Route 144 North/Tamarack Road.