The Villages

By Christopher Miller
“Lou Bernard was right!”

Those are words I never thought I would utter or have publicly printed, but the man is actually right in this instance. “Back in those days a fire broke out almost every hour, on the hour,” he said once on a tour of Lock Haven. His statement has a great deal of truth to it. More on that later.

Clintondale. Where do I begin? Why not at the beginning.

The earliest recollections of Clintondale, which straddles the Clinton/Centre border just east of present-day Lamar, appear in History of Clinton and Centre Counties by John Blair Linn of Bellefonte. “Porter township, including Clintondale 1,056; Clintondale village 150” was found in an 1880 census record.

The citizens of Clintondale were also recorded in local history for their intelligence, prosperous, and enterprising souls as was recorded in the book Historical View of Clinton County:

“Clintondale is pleasantly located on Fishing Creek, near the center of the township. The village contains eighteen dwellings, one church, one schoolhouse, post office, a grist mill, tannery, a variety of mechanical shops, stores, and the usual number of shops. The citizens are enterprising, intelligent and prosperous. A short distance from the town, in a pleasant grove on the bank of the creek are the camp meeting grounds of the Evangelical Association, where religious encampments are held every year.”

“The first schoolhouse in that part of Lamar now embraced within the territorial limits of Porter township was located near Clintondale on the farm of Mr. John Watson. It was built in 1808, and, like all other primitive buildings, was made of logs. The first term of school in this house was taught by Andrew Ackens, who did good service here in the capacity of teacher for a number of years.”

As well, there were no hotels or “liquor saloons” in Porter township at this time.

Clintondale was also very well known, even recently, for its grist mill operation. The bicentennial issue of a local newspaper mentioned that the mill was now running on “electric motors producing 300 horsepower, and that flour was still produced there as of 1976 and was sold to PSU bakeries and several places in New Jersey, to individuals, and grocery stores to make things such as crackers, pretzels, cracker meal from the local winter wheat harvest.”

Wheat was such a big operation with this mill that it gained national attention when former mill owner J. H. Shollenberger was appointed as European Marketing Specialist for the United States Department of Agriculture. He took up permanent headquarters in Berlin, Germany, moving his wife and children there in 1931. Thankfully in 1934 they immigrated back to the United States, perhaps as Germany was beginning to be a scary place to live.

There was also once an ice cream manufacturer and bustling creamery in Clintondale. On April 16, 1915 “Rube” Fleisher was named the new Handy Dandy ice cream dispenser for the Tucker Ice Cream Mfg. plant of Clintondale. And earlier, in 1902, it was reported the “Clintondale creamery, owned and operated by George Oil, is doing a wholesome business, having a monthly output of nearly 7,000 pounds of butter, 400 gallons of sweet cream and 500 gallons of buttermilk. Arrangements are being made for a pasteurizer to be placed and operated in a short time.”

Unfortunately though, Clintondale was susceptible to many fires throughout its lifetime as a quaint village at the southern end of the county.

The first recorded fire occurred in April 1884 when a home and three barns were destroyed by fire. “There was an insurance of only $2,200 on the dwelling house of Dr. Houston, which, with most of its contents, was destroyed by fire Friday afternoon.” It was also noted that ex-Senator Peale had been visiting Clintondale on this day and that he worked “like a good fellow” in rendering assistance.
The most devastating fire that almost wiped the village off of the map happened on the evening of Wednesday, April 23, 1902.
The story of an eye-witness, Mrs. Mary Jane Shilling, being described as “a very pleasant and respected old lady of Clintondale who was an eye-witness of the fire and lost her property at this time” was recorded in a Centennial issue of the local newspapers.

The fire started on a warm, windy day in April when either a horse knocked over a lantern, or boys who were up to no good smoking in the barn, caused the fire. “Mrs. Shilling noticed men running, when questioning one of them she found the barn was on fire, so she left her work and ran, her home was 300 yards away from the fire with only an empty lot in between.”

Shilling was a “janitress” (a fancy word for a female janitor) of the local church. When she rang the bell to garner attention, nobody came because it was Wednesday night, the regular evening for prayer meeting service so no one initially thought anything of it.

As the fire spread, a fire truck was called for from Bellefonte, but as they were loading the steam engine on the train flatbed car, an axel broke and the steam engine was not able to be moved when it arrived in Clintondale.
The Shilling house was the first to burn with only a handful of items to be rescued from the fire – the family organ, sewing machine, and bedding. Others bedding and clothing were thrown from homes, gathered, and moved away from the growing fire, but they ended up disappearing, being taken by sightseers who accompanied the fire company from Bellefonte.

In all, 10 homes, a warehouse, blacksmith shop, barns, one store, a creamery, and church and school house were destroyed. Ironically, the fire shifted and missed four houses: those of the town minister, doctor, storekeeper, and an old lady (this is what the interviewee said!)

Nobody was burned in the fire but sadly a life was lost when a little girl, Agnes Felding, when left unattended, fell into the creek and drowned.

All of Clintondale was rebuilt with the exception of one house.

Pastors from area churches took up collection drives for food, money, furniture, bedding, provisions, and clothing for the fire victims.

Again, 18 years later in November 1920, a fire took place in Clintondale that destroyed the interior of the local mill. “Clintondale people were aroused Saturday evening about 10 o’clock by a car of boys from State College giving the alarm that the mill, owned (then) by J. L. Rachau was on fire. The Hand-in-Hand Hose Company arrived 20 minutes later. The building, being stone and having a steel roof, saved the spread of the fire although it was a very hard task for the firemen to extinguish.”

Today, Clintondale exists off of the main roads with route 64 cutting through Lamar for travelers going north or south. A mill still does exist here and I hear that it is still producing that grade A quality flour.