A distinctive regional style of Pennsylvania longrifles now called the Upper Susquehanna School, or sometimes the Sunbury–Northumberland School, was made in the Susquehanna Valley. It came after an earlier period when frontier craftsmen often focused on repairing military and civilian arms.
Buckwheat grown in Columbia County and ground at one local mill proved popular at a New York City Hotel. And a Benton man who invented a machine to separate pebbles from the buckwheat during harvesting felt his invention wasn't that important.
A great flood in 1816 wiped out a valuable woolen factory located in what is now Forksville, Sullivan County. The Loyalsock Creek floodwaters destroyed the mill, but months later a large iron kettle used to make dye was found downstream. And it survives today.
The first military telegraph exchange of the Civil War was handled by a Lewistown, Pennsylvania, woman who worked as a telegrapher encompassing a forty-five-year career.
Two Susquehanna Valley men who later rose to prominence, one as a landholder and frontiersman, the other a gifted minister, first had to spend several years in the New World as servants to pay for their passages.
Food preservation was one of the most important parts of farm life in the early Susquehanna Valley. It was primarily family work, with women and children carrying much of the daily responsibility with the men carrying heavier duties such as slaughtering and field work.
An unusual monolith, the Standing Stone in Bradford County, for centuries has been an unmistakable navigational point on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River for the Native people, boatmen, soldiers, and travelers.
Before railroads handled the bulk of passengers and cargo in Pennsylvania, the canal system played an important role in handling the mails, cargo, and travelers.
The golden age of vaudeville began in the late 1890s. And a Shamokin, Pennsylvania, man was making a name for himself on the vaudeville circuit with his illusions and magic act. George W. Shade, "the Wonder Worker," was a respected entertainer among his peers.
Both the old country store and the neighborhood store have just about disappeared from the landscape of the Susquehanna Valley. But a Columbia County man well remembered his decades of work behind the counter.
