Frederick A. Godcharles was born in Northumberland Pennsylvania in 1872. During his lifetime he served as a politician, a newspaper editor, author, and Pennsylvania State Librarian and Director of the State Museum of Pennsylvania. Weekly newspaper columns led to his book Daily Stories of Pennsylvania: Prepared for Publication in the Leading Daily Newspapers of the State.

One of those stories involved an eccentric hermit and a leaning tower on Blue Hill, in Northumberland County.

Eccentric John Mason’s Leaning Tower on Blue Hill Destroyed April 22, 1864

By Frederic A. Godcharles

Travelers up and down both branches of the Susquehanna River years ago will well remember the leaning tower high up on Blue Hill, opposite Northumberland. This peculiar building hung over a precipice and viewed from the river level, looked as if a breath of air would topple it to the rocks below. It was built by John Mason, who owned a farm of ninety acres of land on the hill, and who, from his eccentricities, came to be known as the “Hermit of Blue Hill.”

The tower, which was built as a sixteen by eighteen feet, two stories in height, and of octagonal shape. It leaned at an angle of about twenty-two degrees and for safety was clamped to the rock upon which it was built with strong iron rods. The roof was flat, and there was a railing around it for protection of those who had the courage to go upon it and look down the frightful precipice.

John Mason built this odd-looking house in 1839. William Henry did the carpenter work. It stood there until the spring of 1864 — a period of twenty-five years — when, on a Sunday afternoon, April 22, it was destroyed by a party of railroad men in a spirit of deviltry. They loosened its moorings and the curious tower rolled down the rocky precipice with a tremendous crash and landed on a raft of logs passing downstream. Its destruction removed one of the oddest, as well as one of the most conspicuous, landmarks along the Susquehanna River.

It is generally accepted that John Mason was of English origin, born in Philadelphia, December 7, 1768, and died on the farm of Colonel Meens above the present city of Williamsport, April 25, 1849.

During his life at the Blue Hill home, it is told of him that he was a sterling athlete and could skate to Harrisburg in half a day; that he often walked to Williamsport, always carrying an old umbrella. His eccentricities were much talked about in his day.

During the winter following his death, his remains were removed by friends, on a sled and carried to the scene of his hermit life and buried under the wide spreading branches of a chestnut tree a few yards in the rear of his leaning tower. A neat marble tombstone, properly inscribed, was erected to mark the place of his burial.

This grave has long since been so trampled upon by curious visitors, that it was entirely obliberated many years ago. Relic hunters so defaced the stone that it was removed to a neighboring farmhouse for preservation. This is all that remains by which to remember John Mason, “The Hermit of Blue Hill,” the builder of the “Leaning Tower.”

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Godcharles, Frederic Antes. Daily stories of Pennsylvania: prepared for publication in the leading daily newspapers of the state. [Milton, Pa.: s.n, 1924] Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/25000228/>.

Ripple Studios, Copyright Claimant. View from Blue Hill showing Northumberland & Sunbury, Pa. at the junction of the north and west branches of the Susquehanna River. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2007661558/>.