Town History
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The History of Beavertown
Beavertown Borough was incorporated in 1914 and is situated on land which was patented to John Swift in 1760. The town claims its founding in 1770. Later on it was conveyed to Jacob Lechner who, in 1810, laid out the town plot which he named Swifttown in honor of the former owner. In 1810, the famed surveyor, Frederick Evans of Middleburg drew up the first and the original town plot and plan. Shortly after this, he went to Baltimore as a captain of Army Engineers to build Fort McHenry in the harbor there. He was a hero during its bombardment and was promoted to Lt. Col. Later on, however, the present name was given to this village. Since it is a part of what was know as Beaver Dam Township, so named because of many beavers and their dams in the surrounding streams, the name of the settlement is most appropriate.
Not unlike the origin of many other towns, it had a few settlers living in log houses at the time the town was laid out. Along with and in proportion to the increased population, came all the known craftsmen of that period. Expansion and development followed the sawmills which spearheaded the march of progress. Of interest is the contrast of the early saws which moved up and down, and the modern circular saw. Powered by a water wheel, and operated by a crank and connecting rod, they resembled a crosscut saw mounted vertically.
Agriculture and lumbering were full time jobs for the early settlers, their product for local consumption only. Flax was grown in this area, the fiber of which was cleaned in a hemp mill preparatory to spinning or weaving into cloth. Sumac berries were dried and ground in one of the early mills. This powdered sumac was shipped to a tanner who used it to tan Morocco shoes which were very popular with the women.
Also in this formative period were several grist mills which used the revolving stones to grind four. All of these early mills were water powered and some of the mill races can still be seen to this day.
With the advent of the railroad and concurrently a demand for props for the coal regions, and building lumber for the larger cities, lumbering became the fist commercial enterprise. And this was further stimulated by the introduction of the steam powered circular saw mill. Iron ore which was mined for a local furnace only, now became a larger operation due to RR car load shipments to more distant points.
With progress ever on the march the log houses were supplanted by more modern buildings. And so with the individual craftsmen, small factories specializing in a standardized product, supplanted the one man shops. The products of local industries before the turn of the century were: plows, bells, matches, furniture, hydraulic rams, staves, leather and gloves as well as the many hand crafts.
Beginning in 1907, automobiles and trucks were manufactured in a small way, some of which can still be seen in the William Penn Museum in Harrisburg, and in Lewistown.
Industries in the near past were a silk mill, shirt factory, brick plant, potato chip factory and a planing mill having a combined total, of approximately 400 employees. Organizations today are the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Fire Company with Ladies Auxiliary and Home and School Club. One of the most beautiful rose gardens in the state, dedicated as a war memorial, attracts visitors from great distances.
Beavertown is most fortunate in having a municipally owned water system the big source of which is an amazing aquifer well field. For more than 75 years the Big Bear spring on Shade Mountain and Lupfer Run fed an above ground reservoir. As a supplementary source of water for emergencies, a deep well drilled near the old reservoir proved to be an excellent investment. It is still available to our citizens today.
In the Treaty of Albany of 1754, the land on which Beavertown is now located was acquired from the Shawnee Indians, opening it up for legal settlement. It became part of Cumberland County with the county seat being in Carlisle.
The ground on which our community has developed was granted to John Swift by William Penn sometime around 1760. It is fairly certain that John Swift was a Philadelphia Quaker land speculator who never set foot on this land.
In 1772, we became part of Penn Township, Northumberland County. Swift later sold the territory to Jacob Lechner, who was the first Postmaster in what is now Snyder County, and he hired Frederick Evans to survey and lay out the town in 1810 and named it Swifttown in honor of the former owner. This name never stuck however. Locals always called it Beavertown. Why Beavertown? It was probably because the beavers had dams in the several nearby streams and this created many ponds in the community and these were inhabited with numerous beavers. Some sources said that it was because of the many people named Beaver living in the community at the time. The tax assessment records do not support this theory.
Early Commercial Development
At the time the town was laid out several log houses were already constructed. The first to be built after it was laid out was on the northeast corner of Market and Sassafras Streets where Lori L. Karschner now lives. (201 East Market Street) It was built by John Rush. In 1812 J. C. Weiser built the Black Horse Hotel and Tavern, and continued in business until 1823, most likely where Mr. Glenn Kratzer now lives at 200 East Market Street. This was also a stagecoach rest stop. At one time there was a stage route which carried mail from Lewistown to Northumberland. It was called the old rocker coach because it rocked so much. The trip was made every day except Sunday and at noon it stopped at Beavertown to change horses and give the passengers, if any, a rest. The building which houses the beer distributorship was built in 1845 by Moses Specht and it was known as the Oregon Hotel. The fist store in town, formerly the laundromat, also operated by Moses Specht, was located next to this building in an extension of the hotel built toward the east.
The second store was started where Carol Romig lives. (127-131 East Market Street) Other original houses were at the present 105-107 East Market Street and 125 West Market street addresses. Another hotel, built by George A. Smith in 1850, was located where the First National Trust Bank is now located. The dates of some of these buildings is not known with certainty, but the atlas from which much of this information was taken was printed in 1868.
The following is a business directory taken from the same book:
- Moses Specht
- Proprietor of the Oregon Hotel
- Dealer in general merchandise
- Manufacturer of threshing machines, ploughs, etc.
- Jacob Freed
- Tanner and currier
- Dealer in hides and leather
- Elias Specht
- Gunsmith
- John Montgomery
- Foundryman
- S. A. Wetzel
- Justice of the Peace. (A minor judiciary position)
- I. D. Conrad
Beavertown was a slowly growing Pennsylvania German community. The ponds and dams of the beavers had to be drained and after that the land was still swampy except for the higher elevations. In the earlier days farming was the chief occupation of the inhabitants. This was on the fist bench of the Shade Mountain (where the Honorable Ner Middleswarth grew up), where small fields were cleared, at first for buckwheat, which was the only crop that would grow. The methods of farming were very crude. As land in the valley was drained and as new improvements and inventions came along, the people were able to farm more efficiently. The fist binder was owned by John Hetrick and it required eight horses to pull it.
Early Industry
As early as 1840 there as a foundry in which plows, kettles, and farm implements were made. They also made bells which were very popular with the farmers who used them for dinner bells and many other things. A second foundry was established where Mrs. Rudolph Coleman lived. (117 West Market Street) Mr. John Montgomery and later W. O. Stetler ran this foundry and at one time made the train coupler iron models designed and patented by “91” Klingler. As the town developed, this foundry, which created a lot of smoke and noise and angry neighbors, was converted to a bicycle shop operated by the Stetlers. Later Mr. Marlin Ettinger had a shoe repair emporium in this building.
Marlin Ettinger had a shoe repair emporium in this building before Mr. Rudy Coleman bought it and remodeled it into a very nice residence about 1946.
In 1860 there was a sumac mill where Mr. Chris Weller’s garage now stands. (205 South Center Street) The berries were dried and ground up like flour and packed in small bags. This was used to tan Morocco shoes which were then in style for women. The machines were oiled with tallow and bee’s wax. The run which flows from Jim DeLong’s (268 South Center Street) was dug by hand in order to furnish power for a furniture factory located somewhere in that locality. We know very little more.
In 1867, grading was begun for a railroad from Sunbury to Lewistown. Labor was 8 cents an hour or 80 cents for a 10 hour day. The track was laid in 1871 and the first train arrived in September 1871, with the first regular service beginning on November 1st of that year. Until 1931, several passenger and freight trains stopped at the station each day. Thereafter, freight service continued until about 1958. Passenger service was provided by the Greyhound Bus Co. using the Beavertown Railroad Station until 1934.
Nothing helped Beavertown to grow like the coming of the S&R Railroad. It was just before this time that the Central Hotel was built by Dr. I. D. Conrad to furnish rooms for any travelers and the many peddlers that came by train. A [livery stable] was also built to handle their transportation needs. Shirk’s Stove Store was built on Market Street (present barber shop) and it too had a livery stable in the alley. Art Shirk would go to the RR Station to get business for it. Cattle raising brought about the establishment of a small tannery operated by Freed near where Clara Narehood now lives, and in 1871 another large one was built which produced a large amount of leather for the Philadelphia markets. This was the famed Isabella Steam Tannery, built by Mr. Samual Lupher in 1871 on the site where the homes located at 223 and 225-227 South Center Street are now. It was Snyder County’s largest employer for a number of years. Later it employed thirty to forty men in the winter and over a hundred hands in the spring, summer, and fall seasons of the year.
About 1910, it was bought by John S. Wood and Son, of Philadelphia. Young John moved to Beavertown and stayed in the Central Hotel, where he was a rowdy until he went to a sobriety center and met and married his wife, Mary. He then built the mansion where Davy Jones now lives. The tannery business gradually faded, and the buildings and bark sheds were all torn down except for the office which was moved across Center Street and became the home located at 220-222 South Center Street.
About 1876 the first steam sawmill was brought to the surrounding forest and the town was quite a lumber market for years. Then came the mine prop industry which took prop timber from Shade Mountain and was shipped by the carload to the coal mines until the mountain was stripped. This was about the greatest labor boom the town and surrounding countryside ever had up to that time.
At the same time there was also a great amount of iron ore being hauled from the ridges to the railroad and shipped to some distant furnaces. It was around this time that the Central Hotel was booming by furnishing room and board for all the non-resident lumbermen and miners. They would all get up before dawn and have a sit-down breakfast. The hotel help also prepared lunches for them to take along, and then at night they can back for a sit-down supper. After that the drinking began, and the ladies who cleaned and cooked had to be on the defensive against unwanted suitors.
In 1884 the Keystone Match Company was formed to make matches and it did quite a large business and employed a lot of men, women, boys and girls. Eventually, after changing hand several times, it was sold and moved to Selinsgrove. This was located where Marvin Walter now lives. (206 South Center Street) (Note: The office of the old Keystone Match factory is where Mr. Walter lives. The plant, which burned down extended west about 1/2 block from the office.) Men and women received 25 cents a day and after they became experts they got 50 cents a day.
Here is information on this interesting industry from press clippings:
On January 22, 1885, William Yonngman, William Keller and Samuel Weik decided to start a match making business in Beavertown, to be called the ‘Keystone Match Factory’, and so they did. By October 22, 1885, it was in full operation, turning out 20 gross or 576,000 hand-made “barnburner” matches a day. (NOTE: Each box had 200 matches. 144 boxes made a gross. A gross equaled 28,800 matches. That means they made 835,200 matches that day.) Just the week before this, the factory was not in operation on account of the extremely cold weather, so they made up for this when they were able.
Then came a shirt and glove factory. Just after the turn of the century, a shirt factory was built at the northwest corner of Sassafras and Chestnut Streets. George Spaid built and operated it. In October, 1912 he got a new 6 HP gasoline engine, installed more machines, and increased his work force. Mr. Aaron Musser was the plant superintendent, and when George lost interest in making shirts later that year, Aaron bought and ran it. In 1918, he sold it to Charles Coleman. In 1919, Mr. Coleman sold it to a prominent Jewish firm by the name of Prasker Sohn and Company. They quickly lost interest and sold it to Mr. Charles T. Saylor. He soon moved the operation to a new place. This was built originally after the railroad came to town (1871) as the one story Specht Furniture Factory.
In October, 1899, W. H. Specht added the second story to his thriving business. It was also a planing mill, and it had a large steam engine to the west to heat and power all the equipment. This, like all plants in town at that time, had a steam whistle and a very large high smokestack. After Mr. Specht gave up the business, it was sold to Mr. Dory Saylor and he moved his shirt factory from the old [Grange Hall] to this location on the corner of North Union and West Walnut Streets. This newer place was more spacious. Over the years it has been one of Beavertown’s major employers. It stayed in this building until August, 1966, when a new plant built just adjacent to the old one opened. (Construction on the new plant began in December 1965.) The old plant was torn down on September 10, 1981. A landmark for over 100 years was gone, but it is not forgotten!
Sometime around 1890 Johnny Bingaman had an undertaking parlor where Pete Marks had his shoe repair shop, now part of the parking lot for the United Methodist Church.
During the years there were several blacksmith shops, coach and buggy shops, stave mills, planing mills, and a hemp mill. The exact location and dates of many of these are not known. One stave mill was located at the southwest corner of the lot where Craig Mellott now lives. (121 South Sassafras Street) A. W. Engle had a large planing mill where the Rescue Hose Company building is now. Another, in 1879, was located near where Joe and Pat Norman have their antique shop.
Early Cultural Development
The Beavertown Opera House Company
In 1869 a group from Beavertown decided it was high time our town have some culture. So they had constructed on Center Street a two story wood-frame building, with a stage, dressing rooms, orchestra pit, sloping floor with two aisles, a cloak room, alcove, and all other necessary items to stage opera, plays and vaudeville (which came later). On the second floor, there were meeting rooms for community organizations, and rehearsal halls, as well as storage for the stage props and costumes. When the railroad came to Beavertown, many shows were able to come to Beavertown, and even Jerome Kern tried out some of his world famous operettas at the Beavertown “Opera House” which later became the POS of A.
Continued Industrial Development
Around 1900 James Kline manufactured a hydraulic ram that was used quite extensively in the west. Early in the 1900s John P. Kearns and John A. Kearns manufactured automobiles on a small scale. In 1918 B. Edmund David chose Beavertown as a site for a silk mill and the mill was built. It operated on and off until November 1998. This “silk mill” was such for only a short time, but was always a textile plant which changed ownership several times and the building had many additions.
The Beavertown Brick Company was organized in 1926. Here is a letter from that time:
Gentlemen,
Having recently purchased the John J. Tobias farm situated south of Beavertown, and which is rich in certain shales suitable for high grade brick, we are desirous of locating a plant (which will employ 16 hands) in your borough for the manufacture of said brick. The Beavertown Brick Co., Inc. is duly organized under the laws of the state of Pennsylvania, has authorized capitalization of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00) Twenty Five Thousand of which is subscribed for by the officers and callable at par as required $9000 of the preferred being sold in Beavertown and callable at par as required $4000 preferred sold outside of Beavertown at this time and also callable at par as required and the balance, which is approximately $12,000 is now being sold by our Mr. T. R. Graybill. The minimum number of men required to operate our plant is 16 and as business justifies us in expansion we will step this number up proportionately. After investigating the various sites in and about your town we have decided upon that certain field on the south side of the P.R.R. and now owned by Mr. W. H. Moyer, and the field adjacent thereto now owned by Mr. W. H. Bingman. If our proposition interests you to the extent of furnishing the above site we will greatly appreciate this cooperation and with it goes our assurances that we will do everything in our power to make this venture one of mutual profit.
Should you desire any further information we hold ourselves always ready and willing to cooperate with you to the fullest extend of our ability. yours very truly, Beavertown Brick Co. Inc. (Signed Guy H. Oldt, President)
After the Beavertown Brick Co. Inc. got going, it changed ownership and the company name several times until its final demise. It changed owners and became known as the Hill Brick Company and in 1946 it was purchased by and became known as the Glen-Gery Shale Brick Company. Approximately 35,000 brick were made each day from the shale taken from the fields southwest of the plant. About 1960 this plant was abandoned and today is the Garrison Leasing Inc.
In 1943 Ira Middleswarth and Son started a potato chip factory. It was a prosperous industry in our community. It moved to Middleburg in October 1961, where it continues to be very successful and very prosperous.
The Houses of Worship of Beavertown and Vicinity
The first church to be built in the community was the Reformed and Lutheran in 1851. (Today, it is the St. Paul’s Reformed Church.) This was used by both congregations until some dispute arose and the case was taken to court. The Reformed congregation won and then the Lutherans built their own church which was dedicated in 1880. (Now the abandoned building just south of the Rose Garden.)
It is said that on the Ada Carpenter place a cabinet shop was run by Peter Kline in what now is her wash house. He made furniture and it is said that every Saturday evening he swept the shop, lined up benched and on Sunday it was used to hold religious meetings. Some time later this group of people built what was then called the little brown church. It was so called because it was built of planks and painted brown. This church later became known as the Evangelical Church which was built in 1865. (Today it is the United Methodist Church.) Since that earlier time only the Reformed and UM Churches remain, but with many additions and renovations having been made. The Jehovah's Witnesses built a house of worship on Hetrick Avenue and have since moved to a lovely new Assembly Hall at 130 South Zechman Street. Beavertown and Beaver Springs combined to build the Beaver Lutheran Church God’s Missionary Church, built in 1934, just outside of town, remodeled to become a magnificent and ever growing House of God. The Parsonages for the United Methodist and God’s Missionary Churches are on West Walnut Street in Beavertown.
Schools in Beavertown
The first school in Beavertown was a subscription school operated by Mr. “Blue” Moyer. (The blue nickname came from his cruelty to his students. His first name is unknown.) This was for three months of each year. Although Pennsylvania passed laws authorizing local school boards to tax citizens to operate public schools, Beaver Township was the last municipality in the Commonwealth to act on this authority. The first public school houses were located on the corner lot where William Specht lived and in the southeast corner of the present Union Cemetery. It is said that the children from one side of Main Street attended one school, while those living on the other side went to the other. During the winter they would meet on Main Street for snow ball battles.
Then in 1875 a two story brick building, known as The Academy, was built east of the cemetery but this was condemned because it wasn’t substantially built. It is said that when the wind blew hard it shook the ink out of the inkwells on the desks. In a wind storm one day, and while the students were marching in cadence up the stairs, it started to collapse. All were safely evacuated, and then ...Crash ... KA BOOM!!! ... it fell down.
The next school was built by Moses Specht in 1880 near where the Academy fell down. There have been many changes made in the structure of the building and at the present it is the four-room brick structure, known as the Borough Building. Another building used for a school house was first located on the vacant lot next to Aaron Snyder’s home. This was later rolled down the hill to where Annie Thomas lived, presently owned by Barry Hackenberg, and was used for a high school. Later the high school was in the second story of Bailey’s Restaurant building (presently the Susquehanna Bank building) and then in 1927 it came to the what is now the Borough Building and in 1928 the first land grant high school in the nation was built and was named the Beaver Vocational High School, now a site of controversy.
Organizations
During the years there have been many organizations. Of these there are eight that are active at the present time, albeit, some are very thin. They are the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, the Fire Company organized in 1939, Ladies Auxiliary of the Fire Company, the Home and School Club, the [War Memorial Society], the Union Cemetery Association (See Addendum), and the Beavertown Historical Society.
At one time there was a Beavertown Mutual Insurance Company which was incorporated in 1879. In 1950, Beavertown had a Chamber of Commerce for a few years. Then there was the Beavertown Literary Society, Grange, the P.O.S. of A., a P.O. of A., and American legion Post, the Knights of Malta, the International Order of Redmen, The Odd Fellows, The W.C.T.U., The Beavertown Checker Club, The first P.T.A. in Snyder County, the Knights of the Maccabees and town bands composed of all men or boys, the first being the Beavertown Coronet Band, the Beavertown Brass Band, the Beavertown Citizen’s Band, and the Beavertown Boys Band. One musical organization of both sexes was the Beavertown Chamber Orchestra.
