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Bellefonte Gazette April 2 2005, page 3
The Amazing History Of Bellefonte
By Richard Knupp Sr.
"Forty-five years ago I arrived in this small quiet town of Bellefonte. The beauty of this town did not attract me nor did I know that Bellefonte was historical. Only a beautiful young lady whom I married in 1959 and my opportunity to work for Dr. John Covey as his optician brought me here.
Over the years I developed many great friends in the area. Four of these friends introduced me to an extremely amazing and interesting subject. They were Jack Yeager, Paul Dubbs, Hugh Manchester and Don Shoemaker all of whom were involved with writing about Bellefonte and Centre County.
Anyone who has ever researched the history of Centre County will understand the greatest problem involved in the research of history is that information that precedes the present day media is simply difficult to understand and decipher.
There are two books available that are probably the best sources of information on Centre County. The least used is 1220 pages of extremely hard to read writing and has no index to research information. The second is about the same thickness but does have an index which makes it possible to find out everything in the book that relates to a subject. It amazes me that the above mentioned people were able to decipher enough information to write anything factual about Centre County. It would have taken days of struggle to research most anything.
Modern technology is wonderful. Now I have two computer discs* that contain every bit of information that is in these two books. In a matter of minutes I can find all the information on a subject contained in these books and make copies but still there are major problems in writing.
First of all there is the problem of separating history from stories. Secondly there is the conflict of trying to decide what stories are most factual. What often is considered as Centre County History is often more mythical than historical for one simple reason. Most of the early history is based on memory or unrecorded stories told over and over during a period of 50 years or more before they were put into written form. Even historical documents can be confusing or misleading at times.
Recently I tried to research this place called Lambs Crossing. I could not find anywhere in these books about a place called Lambs Crossing only a place called Lambs. There also are three individuals involved in the ownership of Lambs, William Lamb, Thomas Gordon and John Dunlop, but figuring out who bought what from whom is almost impossible to decipher. Even a place called Red Mill in Penns Valley becomes involved in the subject of Lambs. Somehow either Thomas Gordon or William Lamb supposedly bought it from the other.
Old tax records list a property in Potter Township with having a mill and Lambs may have been listed as being in Potter Township and some writer may have attributed the Red Mill of Potter Township to being the one referred to as Lambs.
Now that I have you completely confused on the issue I will give you a very educated guess as to what is fact and what is myth. It was Lambs so Lamb must have been the founder and would have been the seller and not the buyer. Therefore he did sell it to Thomas Gordon and more than likely moved back to Mifflintown since John Dunlop knew exactly where Gordon lived .when he came here. I cannot venture a guess on the subject of the ownership of Red Mill.
How would John Dunlop know about Lambs? Simple, Dunlop's brother in-law, James Harris, lived across something from William Lamb in Mifflintown so Lamb had provided the information. In a later article I will be writing about the planning of Bellefonte before the main characters arrived in Centre County and then I hope everything will make more sense.
William Lamb did move back to Centre County to be part of Bellefonte since he was here in 1797 when he sold the land, which became Bellefonte, to John Dunlop. I'll bet that you thought that Lambs just became the town named Bellefonte. Not true. The first two parcels of land that Dunlop purchased in 1794 became known as Smithfield and Springfield. And you thought that the original Springfield became Boalsburg. A Springfield did become Boalsburg.
The 1797 purchase that became Bellefonte was known as Innocence and John Dunlop did purchase it from William Lamb. In 1806 Bellefonte became incorporated and also annexed Springfield and Smithfield in that same year. This brings up an interesting point. I think that most historical people know that the first house built in Bellefonte was the home of James Dunlop at the corner of Spring and High Streets. Even though this is true it isn't the oldest house in Bellefonte since William Lamb had built the Wrens Nest, part of Lambs, in 1784 thirteen years earlier but Smithfield didn't become part of Bellefonte until 1806. In other words the Wren's nest wasn't built in Bellefonte but is in Bellefonte.
Probably the best example of a story that became fact is the naming of Bellefonte. There is no history that produces any hard evidence that Bellefonte was named after the spring. As a matter of fact the person who created the story knew nothing about Talleyrand, the French language or what the spring looked like in 1800.
The Story:
"Ann Dunlop Harris and the French Prince Talleyrand were walking around the Big Spring when he exclaimed "la bella font" and so the town was named after the spring by Talleyrand".
Makes a great story since it has lasted one hundred and fifty odd years more or less. Even I believed it factual until I discovered real life stories that contradicted the story and prove it wrong.
Facts:
1. Talleyrand left the United States before Ann
Harris arrived in Bellefonte.
2. According to Tallyrand's memoirs he was injured in a fall from a horse as a youth. This left him somewhat lame and he never again would ride a horse. The airport and most other forms of transportation didn't exist. His only choices would be to walk or come up Bald Eagle Creek, which would be doubtful since these were very rugged and long trips.
3. At that time the spring gushed out of the side of a steep bank that was difficult to climb let alone walk around.
4. A speaker of romantic language places the subject before the modifier. In other words it should be la font belle. The term belle font was surely coined by someone other than a Frenchman. John Dunlop could speak French and was an English speaking person.
5. The basic use of the word font means casting and they were making the finest castings at the Belle Font Forge before the town of Bellefonte existed or the spring became valuable.
There are many more fictional stories concerning Bellefonte and Centre County, which become very boring writing and reading. If any reader has questions about one of my stories or any historical story or comments concerning anything I write, they can be emailed to me at rknupp@kcnet.org or mailed to 441 N. Spring Street, Bellefonte PA 16823.
*You can get a copy of the CD discs of Linns History that I used or other historical books by going on line to http://www.bushbooks.com."
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