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April 4 and 6, 1936
Thirteenth installment
"Also organizing their congregation before building a church, the Lutherans worshipped in the schoolhouse until the first St. Mark's Church was built in 1870, two years after they separated themselves from the Methodist congregation.
The first Lutheran Church was very different from the one in use today. It was a frame structure of the type familiar to this section, with ground floor, second floor and gallery. The gallery was reached by a second pair of stairs and was reserved for the use of the choir and organ. A board railing like a breastwork provided safety for its occupants.
This building was also more or less of a social center, especially during the winter when singing school was held there. The Andy Swartz mentioned above in this account, was the singing school teacher. He held such affairs all over Centre County.
Often a singing convention was held in Pleasant Gap, lasting a week. There were three session every day with a grand concert Saturday night as a wind-up. People came for miles to attend these conventions and were entertained free by the members of the class residing in Pleasant Gap, who considered such hospitality the ordinary thing, counting the pleasure derived from having company sufficient recompense.
Mr. Swartz's charges were low enough to allow everybody who had musical leanings to enroll. He asked 50 cents for a term of the singing school, and $1 for the week of convention. Sometimes singing school scholars attended who had no ear for music at all but just went for the fun of it. That they had plenty of this is proved by the reminiscences of some of the older folks who attended.
The new brick church was built in 1917. It was erected on the site of the old one, the congregation worshipping in the schoolhouse in the meantime. This church is of modern architecture, elevated somewhat above the level of the highway with concrete walks and green lawn. The outside is attractively landscaped, verging at the rear into a well kept cemetery. The land for the church and the old part of the cemetery was obtained from Jacob Rapp, who lived in the house now owned by the Coldron family. Burying here was free in the beginning. The first grave antedated the first church, being that of Harvey Larimer and his wife in 1869.
Mr. Larimer was buried from the old Larimer farm where he lived at the time. His wife, according to the tale, was buried from Bellefonte, where she died. The writer has not checked up on the stones in the cemetery, but this information is doubtless true. Grave digging in the new cemetery was done in as haphazard a way as it had been done in the old one farther up the Pike. The graves were laid in long rows as a death occurred, causing families to have their dead scattered in as many as half a dozen different places through the burying ground. In 1890 the matter was improved by the formation of the Pleasant Gap Cemetery Association. Hereafter, a charge of $10 was made for a lot in this graveyard. Before this, those who so minded could help to keep up the fence against the wandering animals of the village. Now the association would see to all the business connected with it. Most folks were greatly upset at the charge and thought it was a shame to have to pay to bury the dead. The first members of the association were Christopher Dale, who lived then where the superintendent of the hatchery now lives, Andrew Swartz, Jeremiah Eckenroth, Albert Smeltzer and Emmanuel White. Present members of the association are A.D. Smeltzer, Harry Bilger, Blain Swartz, M.M. Keller, T.E. Jodon and C.G. Dale.
People who have lots are expected to take care of them. Should it happen that there is no one interested in taking care of some grave made years ago, the association pays the caretaker to mow the grass and do such work on it as may be necessary to keep up its appearance so that it may not detract from the cemetery as a whole. The old cemetery behind the Methodist Church had been neglected for years. Since it had been a public burying ground, people lost track of whom the original owners of the land had been. Some of the older men of the town denied that the Methodist Church had any claim to it. Occasionally, as Memorial Day drew near, the church members sent a delegation to mow down the brush and cut off the ever-springing locust trees in the plot behind the fence.
Finally the fence was taken away, and members of the church combined with a CWA project to improve the unsightly spot. It required many day's labor, but was transformed into a gently sloping level lawn, with headstones gleaming white against the green perspective. Later it was found to be part of the church property. It has been necessary to enlarge the still growing graveyard several times. Land has been purchased by the association in every direction, save that in front, where the church stands. A few years ago it became necessary to raise the price of lots to $20, which is still a very low charge compared with that in other places. There is no profit in the association. No salary is paid to anyone except the man who mows the grass, and the end of the year seldom finds any money to carry over to the next."
April 6, 7 and 8, 1936
Fourteenth installment
"The Lutheran congregation is part of the Boalsburg charge, formerly belonging to Bellefonte. Beginning with 36 members and increasing membership chiefly through confirmation instead of by revivals, it has doubled itself since the church was organized here. The present minister is J.W. Wagner. He has been with the congregation 14 years, having been tendered a 10th anniversary celebration by his people four years ago. His predecessors were the Rev. Brown, Etonecypher, Lesher, Courtney, Trostle, Gutzy, Furst, Tomlinson and Hockenburg. Mr. Hockenburg of the Bellefonte Lutheran Church was the man who established the church in the Gap.
Change to the Boalsburg circuit from the Bellefonte was made in 1877. Most important to the people of this section was the road across the mountains, then called the Bellefonte and Lewistown turnpike. The word turnpike infers turnstile or tollgate. The money from such, of course, went to the company that built the road.
The first tollgate remembered in Pleasant Gap was near the present reservoir, well up the road, and was kept by John Barnes. Linn says that John Barnes had been a tollgate keeper in Centre County for more than 50 years. The gate was brought down nearer to the village afterwards and located in the house now owned by Harry Bilger. It was later moved again to the hose now occupied by James Bilger, which was built by the turnpike company for use as a tollgate house. Tollgates were finally abolished here June 1, 1916. A number of amusing anecdotes are told of the different ways men took to avoid paying toll as they traveled the turnpike. The most common was to hand the keeper a bill of large denomination for which he had little or no change and so allow the owner to get through free.
Stories are told of two men who employed this means once too often. The first tale says that Keeper Barnes who was handed a large bill by a man who was in a great hurry. Mr. Barnes surprised him by taking the bill and calling out, "When you want your change, you can come and get it." The second story is that of a man who invariably had nothing but a bill of such a denomination that it would take all of the keeper's change, with the result that the man would go through without paying.
One day the keeper was ready for him. As the fellow came up to the gate, he thrust out a $20 bill. The gatekeeper took the bill, and began to count out change for him from a bag he had in readiness. One, two, three, four, five, all in pennies. The man was in a hurry and protested in vain. The counting went on: six, seven, eight, nine, and very deliberately. Once the keeper made a mistake and had to start again. But it was done at last; $19.90, all in pennies, was transferred to the traveler. He never had a bill ready afterwards. Tollgate keepers at the Pleasant Gap gate were John Barnes, Sidney Miller, Mrs. John Showers, a widow, and Frank Weaver.
Linn tells us that the first road laid out in Centre County across the mountain was opened by petition of Potter and Miles townships inhabitants about 1801. They asked for a road "beginning at the Brush Valley road near Robert Pennington's, thence over Nittany mountain, through what is called Connelly's Gap, the nearest and best way to Milesborough."
The same authority says that the stage went from Northumberland to Bellefonte every Friday, leaving at 5 a.m. The passengers had dinner at Mifflinburg, supper at Aaronsburg and stayed at the latter place all night. At seven the next morning they were off again, having dinner at Earleystown and reaching Bellefonte at 4 p.m. that afternoon. On Mondays the stage would start back to Northumberland, stopping at the same places en-route and reach its destination Tuesday afternoon. The fare was $4.50. A later account of the stage trip between Lewistown and Bellefonte says they left Bellefonte in the evening, traveled through the night and reached Lewistown at 7 a.m.
So far, it has not been possible to locate the exact route of the first stage from Northumberland. As Earleystown is west Centre Hall, it is doubtful if that route lay near Pleasant Gap. There is an old road coming down from McBride's Gap, closed long ago and impassable now since the construction of the reservoir. It would be interesting to know whether or not that was the road traversed by the old stage to Northumberland. This route between Bellefonte and Northumberland was used in the 1790's.
April 8 and 9, 1936
Fifteenth installment
"The older people of Pleasant gap remember the stage coach very well. Mention has already been made of its noise as it traveled the roads. Two horses were used for the trip when it was made in two days. For a time the trip to Lewistown was attempted in one day and then four horses drew the huge contraption. The body of the stage was large enough for 12 or 14 passengers to sit inside. It was attached to the running gear by leather springs that let the great body sway back and forth as it went. The roads were rough, even worse than are the Township roads of today, with deep mud holes and projecting shelving rocks on the mountains. They were narrow in places, making it difficult to pass on a "dug road" where the lower side might hang over a precipice.
One elderly man, William Florey, remembers when there were two rival companies bidding against each other for the Lewistown traffic. Two stages ran opposition, and as speed was one of the assets of the trip, the drivers of the rival stages sometimes raced each other on the road.
One can imagine the scene. The unwieldy coach jolting from side to side, dipping into ruts, uplifted by large stones. A double team of foam flecked horses galloping ahead as the driver perched aloft on his seat, cracked his whip and urged them faster in the race. Inside, the terrified passengers tumbled against each other in the winding road, with visions of a possible upset or runaway in their minds. Even fares were cut, the narrator adds, to stimulate competition. What had been $1.50 trip one way went down to $1, and then as low as 75 cents. At last the matter was settled. One company won out and after that the prices went back to normal and passengers were hauled in a safe and leisurely way across the Seven Mountains. Some of the drivers' names as remembered are: Nick Runkle, George Walker, Jim Weeds and Bill Horner. With the coming of the railroad through Pleasant Gap or rather near it, the mail came to the Pleasant Gap railroad station and the stages were a thing of the past.
The contract to carry the mail between the post office and the railroad station, a distance of about a mile, was given to J.W. Gill of the Gap. With the exception of two or three years, he has had the job ever since. Mr. Gill is now past 80, but he makes daily trips to meet every train, driving a horse and buggy and filling his place as well as he did at first.
Not only is mail now brought into the village by train, it is carried through in the afternoon by special mail bus and two R.F.D.'s run through the town. Route 3 comes down the road from Rockview and serves patrons near the Cross Roads, going directly into Bellefonte about noon. Route 2 comes from Bellefonte over the hill, up East State street, turns at the corner and up the state highway to the upper end of town, then down the Horntown Road and so on towards Zion, returning to Bellefonte around 4 or 5 p.m.
Where the R.F.D. is more convenient, the residents of the Gap use that route and give their address as Bellefonte RD. If the post office is more convenient, the family uses the village name as its address. Most folks who live below the post office are likely to receive mail at both addresses. The time of rural delivery is convenient for patrons who wish to answer letter at once. With a 5 p.m. mail going out of the post office, letters can be received at noon and answered in a few hours. One of the rural carriers, Boyd Spicher, lives in Pleasant Gap. Mr. Spicher was retired two years ago after acting as mail carrier since Sept. 1, 1903. His first route took him from Bellefonte to the hatchery, thence up past Peru to Zimmermans where he turned and came back to Pleasant Gap, then down to Gilltown, Night Bank, through Irish Hollow into Axemann and so on into Bellefonte again, a trip of 22 miles in all. He kept three horses and drove them alternately, sometimes using a bicycle as well. In all these 32 years he did not miss more than five days except for vacations. Once he was off for a vaccinated arm for a day and a half. Gradually the route carriers had a few more miles put on their trips as the number of routes would be changed or one was eliminated. When Mr. Spicher stopped driving he had a route 54 miles long which he drove in a car. He remembers a runaway he had in Pleasant Gap when the mail was scattered all over the street. The horse ran home and into the barn. Mr. Spicher followed, gathering up what Uncle Sam had entrusted to him earlier in the day and taking the horse once more from its stable, proceeded to finish the job."
April 10, 1936
Sixteenth installment
"Interesting, indeed, would be the account of how the town was named and who named it. The phrase, "So called from its position at the foot of the mountain gap," tells very little. Was Matthew Riddle the man with initiative who first bestirred himself for a post office in his birthplace? Certain it is that he was appointed the first postmaster and kept the post office and a store under the same roof about where the W.H. Noll home is now situated. The store seems to have been the first one in the settlement. Of taverns there were at least two: Connelly's and one put up by Thomas Harrison somewhere in Harrisonville. About this time, too, or perhaps a little later, was one at the foot of the mountain near the oldest tollgate, kept by a man named Corman. The succession of postmasters, as given by Linn, following Riddle, were: J.G. Stones, J.G. Larimer, Jacob Miller, Henry Eckenroth, Howard Barnes and Robert Barnes. The remainder are from Mr. Mulfinger's diary: Abner Noll, William Grenoble, Mrs. William Hoover, John Griffith, George Cable, Abner Noll, George Showers and Mrs. Grace Tressler. The latter is the present incumbent. During the time the post office was in the hands of Abner Noll, either as appointee or acting postmaster, the office was held in a part of the store now used as a wareroom facing the street.
Since it is no longer under Noll's name, it is kept in a small building attached to the store. Mr. Noll was first appointed in 1892. The office has been near the junction of the old and new Pikes ever since it was established, except when Henry Eckenroth was postmaster. He had it for a short time in his shop near the schoolhouse. At the time the store roof caught fire, Miss Alice Grenoble was acting as clerk for her father in the post office. At one time it looked as though the post office might have to be abandoned. Miss Alice hastily collected all valuables together in readiness for a hasty departure but was not forced to leave. Another bit of excitement in regard to the post office was when one of the employees ran away with the funds. He was apprehended later, and the matter settled out of court. Mrs. Ziegler, Henry Eckenroth's daughter, tells that when her father was postmaster, the mail came by stage in the night. She says that the family would go to bed, knowing that they would be awakened by the noise of the stage as it came down the mountain and so have time to rise and get the mail bag out, ready for the stage to take as it deposited the one for the Gap. So little was the mail for Pleasant Gap in these days that one man remembers it was kept in a small box that sat on a chair."
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