Read Their Stories

Crime and Punishment in Early Pennsylvania was Not for the Faint of Heart

Whipping posts, stocks, and pillories were used in the sentences imposed by the early courts of Pennsylvania around the time of the American Revolution. In the Susquehanna Valley, the first courts in Northumberland County were located in Sunbury. Northumberland County covered a large area in Pennsylvania when it was formed from five others in 1772. Accused criminals from throughout the Susquehanna Valley were tried in Sunbury, and if found guilty, punishment was meted out. Custom and also custom law permitted each passerby to throw one stone at the culprit's head. In the stocks, the offender sat upon a platform with his hands and feet protruding through the framework. But for career criminal Joe Disberry, an even crueler punishment never stopped his life of crime.

May 29, 2025 · Terry Diener

James Aiken, Teacher, Poet, and Orator

James Aiken spent nearly sixty years of his life in the Susquehanna Valley, mostly in Union County. The teacher, poet, and orator was born in 1799 in Otsego County, New York . Aiken was an advocate of the temperance movement and was a frequent public speaker on behalf of the cause. At the time of the 1850 census, he was living in a temperance hotel in Lewisburg.

May 24, 2025 · Terry Diener

Pioneer Raftsman John D. Nerhood

John D. Nerhood, who was born in Centre County, was among a unique group of men who rafted the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers. He rafted for ten years and later owned a lumbering operation in the wilds of Centre, Huntingdon, and Fulton Counties until about 1912, when he retired.

May 19, 2025 · Terry Diener

Teaching In A One Room School

The one-room school in Mooresburg, Montour County, is a survivor. The Montour County Historical Society celebrates its 150th anniversary on Saturday, May 17th. Visitors can step back in time to experience the early days of education in one-room schools. One of the teachers in those one-room schools who witnessed the transformation of the education system was Miss Margaret Madden, a fixture in front of the classroom for sixty-three years. Beginning her career as a teacher in the 1850s, she was younger than some of the students she taught. She was never marked tardy or absent during those six decades.

May 14, 2025 · Terry Diener

Whistler's Mother in Schuylkill County

Overlooking the town of Ashland in Schuylkill County is the one-of-a-kind statue of Whistler's mother, based on the 1871 oil painting by James McNeil Whistler. The story of why it was erected there more than 85 years ago highlights the importance of mothers and returning home. Carved into Whistler’s Mother's pedestal, a line from poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge: "A Mother is the Holiest Thing Alive."

May 10, 2025 · Terry Diener

Bradford County Settlers Conduct Mass Slaughter to Protect Homes and Livestock

In 1805, settlers in what became Bradford County, conducted a systematic slaughter of wildlife that had been foraging on the few sheep, swine, and cattle the pioneers possessed. Although hundreds of animals annually fell victim to the traps, snares, and guns of the pioneers, their depredations still remained a serious obstacle to the welfare of the settlers.

May 04, 2025 · Terry Diener

Former Montour County Resident Makes His Fortune in Mineral Springs and Laxatives

Harry L. Kramer and his father, F.L. Kramer, ran a mercantile business in Danville for a number of years. His family moved west and settled in Indiana. In 1890, the 29-year-old entrepreneur attracted investors and started up a health resort built around a mineral spring. He made a fortune in a chocolate-coated laxative packaged under the name Cascaret’s. The key ingredient to the cleanout remedy was buckthorn bark from a tree known as the cascara. This businessman was also a great promoter, who provided a Danville baseball team with uniforms and equipment, with Cascaret's prominently advertised on the jerseys.

April 29, 2025 · Terry Diener

Anecdotes

As I research stories for my Susquehanna Footprints website, I often find short anecdotal stories that include topics that include strange, as well as comical topics. Here are a few that could make you scratch your head, smile, or both. Between 1831 and 1844, on the basis of his study of Bible, William Miller, a rural New York farmer and Baptist lay preacher, predicted and preached the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. Stories appeared in newspapers and books.

April 22, 2025 · Terry Diener

The Story of a Great Hoax

In July of 1860, thirty-one Danville residents, most well-known, respectable citizens, “pulled a fast one”, strung them along, and “pulled the wool over the eyes” of their fellow townsmen. Half a century after the Japanese Embassy Hoax, one of the few remaining participants still surviving described the incident, coinciding with the arrival of real Japanese Embassy officials in the United States.

April 17, 2025 · Terry Diener

Asa Dunham, First Pastor of Hidlay Church in Columbia County

During the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening (1784–1830), Reverend Asa Dunham was among the many circuit-riding preachers sent out by denominations to minister to early settlers in the Susquehanna Valley. Dunham’s meetings resulted in founding the Hidlay Presbyterian Church in Columbia County.

April 12, 2025 · Terry Diener