People traveling Route 45 in Union County Pennsylvania, have no doubt seen the road sign for "Hairy John" State Park. Who was "Hairy John" and how did he get his name? George Hickernell, who later lived in the western U.S. as a hunter, trapper, cattle puncher, and more, remembers meeting "Hairy John" when Hickernell was a youngster.
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And as roads continued to improve, before the establishment of railroad transportation in the Susquehanna Valley, the stagecoach became a reliable source of travel. One of the familiar names in the business was Amos Kapp of Northumberland County.
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George Washington Sears was better known to his readers as Nessmuk, a writer of outdoor stories featured in a number of magazines such as Forest and Stream, Outing, and American Angler. He made his home in Wellsboro, Tioga County.
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Earthworks in Lycoming, Juniata, and Centre Counties, including one visited by Conrad Weiser in 1737, may have been ancient burial grounds for some of the earliest inhabitants of what is now northcentral Pennsylvania.
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Frontier farming in Pennsylvania contained numerous hardships. The threat of Indians, wild animals, and having enough food to survive were among them. Penn State Dean of Agriculture S.W. Fletcher (1940-1945) wrote about those lives covering a 300-year-period from 1640 to 1940. This story provides a glimpse into the early Pennsylvania farm.
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Born in Milton, Northumberland County, Laura Johnson Wylie was among the first women to receive a PhD from Yale. She was a professor of English at Vassar College, her alma mater, from 1897-1924.
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Now and Then "Devoted to Local History, Amusement, Instruction and Advancement of the Borough and the Valley of Muncy, Penna." was a privately printed magazine published at irregular intervals between the years 1868 and 1878. Its publisher was Jeremiah Meitzler Mohr Gernerd, who started a music and variety store in Muncy, Pennsylvania, which he continued until 1872. His magazine was devoted to preserving local history in the Muncy area of Lycoming County. The following story describes the arrival of a circus in 1849 and a "humbug" that was part of the show.
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From 1762 to 1825, most of the conveyance of goods or persons was carried on the Susquehanna River. There were few if any roads, and what trails there were along the river and through the wilderness were paths.
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Historians report Conrad Weiser, who acted as an interpreter between the Indians and whites, once owned the Isle of Que along the Susquehanna River near Selinsgrove. Whether fact or part of folklore, Weiser was said to be envious of the beautiful “island” and traded his gun to Chief Shikellamy in exchange for the Isle of Que.
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Each village, town, township, or county receives its name from someone or something. In the village of Buckhorn, situated in Columbia County, the something was a pair of buck antlers (horns) once used to mark an Indian trail leading from Catawissa to Williamsport.
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