The Williamsport and North Branch Railroad, usually abbreviated W&NB, was a north-central Pennsylvania short line that served Lycoming and Sullivan Counties from the early 1870s until abandonment in the late 1930s. It was among many short lines serving smaller counties in the Susquehanna Valley.
Camp meeting groves were a common occurrence in Pennsylvania in the 1800’s. Very few remain. The first Methodist camp meeting of record in Central Pennsylvania was held in the summer of 1805 about two miles below Milton along the Chillisquaque Creek.
Squatters in the West Branch of the Susquehanna Valley reportedly signed their own Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776, not knowing the Continental Congress had signed its declaration that same day in Philadelphia.
Imagine the stories a two-hundred-and-fifty-seven-year-old white oak tree in Union County has witnessed. It was blazed or marked by William Maclay, first a lawyer and then a surveyor who was employed by the Penn Family.
Gold discovered in a duck's craw on a Northumberland County farm created quite a stir for the landowner and neighbors hoping to strike it rich in the early 1900s.
Sights, sounds, and smells often provide strong emotional triggers, taking us back to another time and another place. Such was the case of a man from Lycoming County who had fond memories of an old tannery whistle in English Center.
Following America's fight for independence, Revolutionary War Captain Thomas Strawbridge and his wife Margaret came to the Susquehanna Valley. They are among the earliest of settlers buried in the Historic Chillisquaque Church Cemetery near Pottsgrove, Northumberland County
A mother's voice awakened her young son thousands of miles away, serving with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War 1. As a result, the Montour County soldier and his comrades were alerted to approaching enemy planes, sparing their lives.
Daniel Towner, who was born in Bradford County in 1850, was one of several singers and songwriters from Pennsylvania. His best-known hymn was inspired by a young man's testimony at a Dwight L. Moody Revival in 1885 at Brockton, Massachusetts, where Towner was leading the singing.
The Grit newspaper's history began nearly 145 years ago, in 1882, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. One of the young printers involved in its early days was Dietrick Lamade, a German immigrant who later took over the struggling publication with partners and helped transform it into an independent Sunday paper. In time, Grit became known for bringing the “good news” of rural America into homes across the country.
