At one time Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, consisted of 15,000 square miles. The “Mother of All Counties” saw twenty-nine others carved from it. Medical Doctor W.J. McKnight, who later represented Jefferson and Indiana Counties in the state Senate, wrote a history of Jefferson County and says the first trail carved out by white men in county were from Sunbury, Pennsylvania.
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Folklore and stories associated with the canal system in Pennsylvania in the 1800’s are innumerable. The boatmen, were, for the most part, a hard-working lot. They could be serious, faced with the job at hand. But they often found opportunities to play jokes on other unsuspecting river companions.
The graveyard in the historic Chillisquaque Church Cemetery near the village of Pottsgrove in Northumberland County, is the final resting place of the earliest settlers in the area, a Who’s Who in the history books, with familiar names from both Northumberland and Montour Counties.
From January of 1828 through December 1835, Samuel Hazard edited a weekly edition of his Register of Pennsylvania, devoted to the preservation of facts and documents, and every kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania. Here is a sampling of stories from that publication.
During the nation’s Bicentennial celebration in 1976, the Potter County Historical Society published a book featuring stories on the life of early residents. One of those articles featured recollections of life in the 1800’s for Annis Coleman.
Some people in Pennsylvania thought the world was coming to an end when hundreds of thousands of meteors were seen in the night sky in November of 1833. A woman from Lock Haven Pennsylvania remembered the initial fear and then the wonderment of the heavenly display.
In the summer of 1899, a newspaper reporter from the Baltimore Sun, Charles Weathers Bump, took a trip down the Susquehanna River from Otsego New York, to the Chesapeake Bay. During the twenty-eight-day journey from mid-August to mid-September Bump compiled stories for the newspaper’s readers. In one of his articles in early September, Bump shared his thoughts on a stop in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, and the demise of the Pennsylvania Canal.
Many people remember the opening lines of Paul Revere's Ride, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. But most don't know of the ride of Rachel Silverthorne in the Susquehanna Valley near Muncy, to warn settlers of an impending attack by Indians.
William "Bill" Brewer, spent more than sixty years spreading the Gospel in the lumber camps of northern Pennsylvania. This story shares a humorous encounter he had with a bear while preaching on Young Woman's Creek
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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