On The Trail of Cherry Tree Joe McCreery

We’ve all heard the stories, and the saying that “Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction.” It’s difficult at times to separate the facts from the folklore associated with many of the lumbermen, and the raftsmen, who plied their trade in the Susquehanna and Juniata Valleys.

Such is the case of a raftsman known as Cherry Tree Joe McCreery. The stories associated with Cherry Joe’s exploits are a mixture of truth and myth.

Altoona Tribune newspaper editor Henry W. Shoemaker, an author, folklorist, and a tale-teller in his own right, shared a letter he received in March of 1934, in which a fellow raftsman and friend talked about McCreery. Shoemaker shared it in his newspaper column. 

“Recently this writer has received an interesting letter from Edgar B. McCormick of Cherry Tree, Pa. in which that venerable raftsman and former pal of Cherry Tree Joe McCreery gives some biographical data concerning the almost mythical personality of "Cherry Tree Joe."

It appears that Cherry Tree Joe McCreery was born in Lycoming County Pa., in 1805, and came with his parents to Cherry Tree, Clearfield County, in 1818, which picturesque little lumber town at the headwaters ' of the West Branch he immortalized more than the suppositional visit of William Penn in 1701. In 1834 Cherry Tree Joe married the daughter of the celebrated Dr. Nathan Banks of Blairsville, Indiana County.

For many years Cherry Tree Joe ran rafts from Cherry Tree to Anderson's Ferry, now called Marietta, below Harrisburg. On one occasion when he failed to return from a long rafting trip he had gone on to Baltimore from the "Ferry", his wife, Mrs. Eleanor R. McCreery, took her first-born child and carried it over to some relatives near Chest Creek, eight miles through the wilderness. It got dark before she reached her destination and she told Mr. McCormick she heard the wolves howling along the way. This child lived to become a great "scrapper" like his illustrious sire "Cherry Tree Joe." During the Civil War, despite being a lifelong Democrat, he enlisted with his two sons in the Cavalry, one boy being killed at Chancellorsville.

Mr. McCormick says: "I was with Cherry Tree Joe when we shot the river at the Side Pocket, below the White Bridge, and closed navigation until the fall flood." It appears that Joe's favorite libation was "Sam Thompson," and with a few drinks of that under his belt, he was unbeatable at a time when there were lots of good men on the river going around with chips on their shoulders. Mr. McCormick states: "Rafting was an uncertain enterprise at best. Sometimes the water played out. And sometimes our raft stuck on a bar. Then we walked home until the next rise. I have walked forty miles in one day in the mud. When the Civil War broke out, timber sold as low as four cents a cubic foot. Before the war was over, one raft of oak from Cherry Tree sold for 33 1-2 cents a cubic foot. In 1851 our grub consisted of buckwheat cakes, hog, honey, and molasses. The only relief was to draw your belt a little tighter. From Cherry Tree to Marietta, in Lancaster County, under favorable conditions, the trip could be made in ten days, but sometimes twice that long. We were paid $20 to $30 for the trip and board. Thousands of men were engaged in the business. Six men on one of these rafts in the spring rise. No one left in Cherry Tree but the women and children. Those were the kind of days when Cherry Tree Joe McCreery made history on the river."

Newspaper editor Henry Shoemaker said “The rivermen had their own compositions and lyrics that told of gaudy tales of their vigorous life; Most notable was the “Joe McCreery” song. It was actually prophetic, starting:

"In years to come when no rafts run the Susquehanna River --

"And the cheery cry of land-tie-up is heard no more forever;

"Down Rocky Bend and through Chest Falls, on nights too dark and dreary.

"The Phantom raftsmen chase the ghost of Cherry Tree Joe McCreery."

The song was historical, too, for Joe McCreery, a master pilot, was chased many times by raftsmen who accused him of causing log tie-ups at Chest Falls. They always coaxed him out of hiding eventually because his skill, though questioned at times, usually was needed to unravel the jam.”