For perhaps sixty to eighty years, singing schools trained congregations to read and sing music, provided rural communities with winter entertainment, and created one of the most important courtship settings available to young people in the Susquehanna Valley.
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In the 1880s, the Bloomsburg Car Manufacturing Company in Columbia County produced an estimated four thousand railroad cars. It was a leader in the manufacture of standard railroad freight cars, small mine and colliery cars, rotary dump cars, and other materials for the railroad and mining industries.
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In an effort to boost weekend ridership, Pennsylvania trolley companies would build recreational parks. They included athletic grounds, picnic groves, amusement rides, theaters, and dancing facilities among the amenities. One such park was located in the Shamokin area of Northumberland County, developed by a local businessman and former Congressman Monroe Henry "Farmer" Kulp.
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The fur-trading industry in Pennsylvania, including the Susquehanna Valley frontier, spanned roughly from 1701 to 1763. One writer describes it as " a strange compound made up of honest men, scheming rogues, misfortunes, rich profits, fierce competition, incredible deception, Indian threats, bold risks, and untold hardships."
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In 1888, William Edwards Charles, of Middleburg, at 18, was hired to tend four mules towing two canal boats from Port Trevorton in Snyder County to New York City and back in 1888. Read Part Two of the diary, beginning July 1st of that year, detailing his experiences, including the July 4th celebration.
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At the age of 18, William Edward Charles of Snyder County, near Port Trevorton, was hired to tend four mules towing two canal boats from Port Trevorton to New York City and back in 1888. His diary entries in June and July provide insightful content on canal life as seen through his eyes.
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Even the casual follower of history has read or heard of the exploits of frontiersman Daniel Boone. His homestead is located in Berks County Pennsylvania. But his cousin, Hawkins Boone, who settled in the Susquehanna Valley, is a lesser-known name. As a defender of the local frontier, Hawkins gave his life at the Battle of Fort Freeland in Northumberland County.
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As early as 1731 traders had left written records of the Shawnee Indian village of Ohesson, ruled over by Chief Kishacoquillas in an area that is now Lewistown, Mifflin County. The Scotch-Irish, who first settled in the area, were undaunted by the burning of Fort Granville in August of 1754, and returned to establish new communities.
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In 1771, the Susquehanna River was declared a public highway by the provincial assembly, and a sum of money appropriated to render it navigable. But a fateful steamboat explosion near Berwick in May of 1826, ended efforts to navigate its shallow currents and rapids.
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Eking out a living on the Pennsylvania frontier in northern Pennsylvania was both arduous and dangerous. Treat Shoemaker was part of a large family that settled in Bradford County in the early 1820's. Escaping a stalking panther is a story retold in a Towanda newspaper in 1902.
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