Early settlers in northern Pennsylvania used clumsy axes and hoes to clear land and prepare the soil for farming. Thrashing was done with a flail or trampled by oxen or horses. Men usually worked at lumbering, clearing land, building fence[s], and raising field crops, while women and children tended livestock, made dairy products, and preserved food.
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Rivers such as the Susquehanna were the transportation highways before canals and railroads transported farm produce and lumber throughout Pennsylvania
In his book, Pennsylvania Mountain Stories, Henry Wharton Shoemaker shares a trip he made to Fanny Heddens Hotel in Washingtonville, Montour County in the early 1900's.
In 1893, Pennsylvania Governor Robert E. Pattison appointed a commission to come up with a report on the forts erected throughout Pennsylvania to protect early settlers from the Indians prior to the year 1873. Here is a brief story on Fort Antes, in Lycoming County
An anecdote from Otzinachson: or a History of the West Branch Valley of the Susquehanna by J.F. Meginness
Captain Jack, whose baptismal name was John Wallace Crawford, was born in the late 1840's in Donegal, Ireland. After his father came to this country and obtained a job in the mines near Minersville, Schuylkill County, Jack, his mother, and the rest of the Crawford offspring arrived to join the elder Crawford.
John Mason owned a farm of ninety acres of land on Blue Hill, overlooking Northumberland, and who, from his eccentricities, came to be known as the “Hermit of Blue Hill.”
Fire ripped through a block of buildings in downtown Ridgway, Elk County on April 23, 1910
The list of settlers who moved into areas of the Susquehanna Valley is a long one. On that list is the name of German immigrant Ludwig Derr, who is believed to be the first settler in the Buffalo Valley.
Seth Kinman moved west where he gained fame as a hunter, adventurer and storyteller. He presented several U.S. Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln with elkhorn chairs.
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