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Weekly Keystone Gazette, February 3, 1911, page 8
During the high wind prevailing on Monday in Bellefonte some slight damage was done to several properties, chiefly in blowing off chimneys or breaking window panes. A row of telephones poles in Decatur alley, nearest the Lamb street end, were snapped off at the butts by the force of the wind and a crew of linemen for the Bell telephone company were engaged on Tuesday and Wednesday morning in digging new holes and replanting the same.
Democratic Watchman, May 26, 1911, page 4
Violent Rain Storm Last Friday Evening
Wrecked Bellefonte Fish Hatchery and Did Thousands of Dollars Worth of Damage to Farms and Gardens Between Pleasant Gap and Bellefonte.
"The man who argues that the destructive power of fire is greater than water ought to own a farm or garden along Logan's Branch and he would have had a demonstration of the destructiveness of water last Friday evening that would have shaken his faith in man's ability to conquer that element. And it was all the result of a rain storm that did not last over three quarters of an hour in Bellefonte. .
The storm began about 4:20 o'clock Friday afternoon and the rain descended In torrents until about 5:15 o'clock, but at that nobody in Bellefonte anticipated anything like a flood until shortly before six o'clock when the water came rolling down Logan's Branch in billows and waves a foot high and soon overspread all the lower lands. It was a question of only a few minutes until the Phoenix mill dam was flooded and the water was pouring over the breast from one side to the other. An effort had been made to open the flood gates but they were so rusted that one man could do nothing with them and he was finally compelled to flee to keep from being washed over board. The water rose rapidly and soon was pouring over the breast of the dam a foot deep. Naturally the of the Yeager Swing factory was completely submerged, the water was two feet deep in the engine room and the street was submerged to a depth of two feet. So great was the volume of water which poured over the dam that It ran in Water street and at one place ran over into the big spring. At the Watchman office the water rose high enough to give us about eight inches in the press room, but aside from the dirt and bother of cleaning it out and rubbing up the machinery did little damage.
The Yeager Swing company is the biggest loser in this place. They had a large quantity of dry lumber stored In the basement of their plant and all of it was under water. Just how much of it can be redried so as to be of use cannot be told but Mr. Yeager estimates his damage at from $1,000 to $1,500. A large smoke stack at the plant tumbled to the ground owing to one of the guy wire posts being washed away. The dam itself was very little damaged, the superstructure on the breast at the west side being the only portion washed away. This was the only damage done in this immediate vicinity, except for a large hole washed in the west bank of the stream just below the breast.
Raymond Miller, messenger boy at the Western Union, had about as thrilling an experience in the flood as anybody. His mother lives in one of the row of houses near the Nittany furnace and when the water began to rise so rapidly they moved as much of their household goods as possible to the second floor.
While engaged at this work their pig pen with two good sized pigs in it floated off. Raymond could not bear to see the pigs drown and he waded the water waist deep and finally reached the pen where it had lodged against the Lewisburg railroad bridge above the Yeager Swing factory and saved the pigs. A washing ma chine and ice cream freezer were among the articles washed down stream and the owner of the former chased it down toward Milesburg but we are unable to say whether he recovered it or not.
The source of the high water was at the head of Greens valley in the Nittany mountain. There it rained hard and steadily for possibly two hour, before the big storm late Friday afternoon and that had much the nature of a cloud burst in that section. The result was a torrent of water swept down the ravine into the stream that comes down along the pike on Nittany mountain. At the watering trough the trough itself was carried across the road and lodged against the opposite side of the mountain. Tons of rock were washed down the ravine and piled on the road so that they blocked traffic. At one place the road was washed out so that a temporary bridge had to be built. From that point down through the mountain and into the farming section the path of the flood is plainly discernible by the destruction It caused. William H. Nell had just put down some water pipe along the tide of the stream to a spring in the mountain and two hundred feet of this was washed away. Mr. and Mrs. Harry Keller and Mr. and Mrs. William Keller, of Lancaster, took an automobile trip through Pennsvalley on Friday and had supper at the Old Fort. Not being able to get over the mountain they were compelled to spend the night in Centre Hall.
The story of the devastation between Pleasant Gap and Bellefonte may be briefly summed up as follows:
At the Shugert "Blue Spring" farm a number of washouts in the fields, some fencing carried away and the lowlands flooded.
Half of the east wall of the new fish hatchery building was pushed in and the building is partially collapsed, with the inside of it a mass of mud and refuse that made it look like a total wreck. All the trout ponds on the hatchery grounds were completely submerged those on the lower grounds being from two to three feet under-water. In the fourteen ponds, according to superintendent Griffith, were 55,000 adult trout, and most of them were washed away and carried out into the stream. A number were caught in a seine and returned to the ponds after the water subsided, but the number was small compared to those washed away. The story is not true that hundreds of them were carried out into the fields where they died when the water receded.
The bridge leading from the fish hatchery to the Shugert lower farm was carried away, as was that leading from the Pleasant Gap railroad station to the old Hamilton farm.
At the Ross farm the spring house was washed away and S. W. Zettle's new home, the old Dale farm, came in for its share of the filth. Several small buildings were swept away when the bridge there went out, the cellar of the house was filled clear full of corn field and other litter and much of the fencing destroyed.
As Dr. Hayes' "black barn" farm, where Daniel Shuey is the tenant, the water was so high in the stables that the horses and cattle were saved from drowning only after most trying work. The farm implements had to be tied in the implement shed to keep them from floating off and a man who was in the creamery house separating cream found himself in water waist deep before he realized what had happened. The little bridge leading from the flat below this barn over to the hill side was one of the only two left standing between Pleasant Gap and Bellefonte.
Foster Shearer's corn field was entirely washed out so that he will have to plough the ground again and replant it.
The pretty meadow on the D. M. Kline farm scarcely shows any trace of the fine barley set it had before the flood. About a third of the fence along there is gone and all of the stone top dressing of the pike is spread over a field that formerly looked like a garden.
Joe Rightnour's blacksmith shop at "Humes' Mill" was submerged and the filth of the flood deposited there in great quantities.
The bridge at the foot of Rishel's hill rode away and the pretty yards and gardens of that little settlement there are sorry reminders of how beautiful they looked before the storm.
At Ax Mann the cellar was swept right out from under Geo. Miller's store, but as he had very few goods stored there his loss is not great other than to the building. The steel and concrete bridge at that place held but the abutment at one end of it was washed clear out.
At the home of Wallace White, just below the cider mill the attractive yard and garden he has been working several years to beautify is a tight, though not seriously damaged.
Possibly more damage was done at the property of James S. Williams than any where else. The barn that stands on the bank of the creek just where the subway goes under the railroad tracks was almost ruined. Half of It was swept clear away and the main portion twisted off its foundations so that the mows above fell through and their contents crushed the two cows in the stable to death. The bridge leading from the pike over to the Williams home was carried away also.
The meadow at Harvey Griffith's place is terribly washed, many of those pretty willows bordering the stream torn clear out and piles of drift spread all over it.
The Lewisburg railroad fill at the big turn just below the Griffith place was so badly washed out that many cars of stone had to be dumped there before it was safe for the traffic of trains.
The worst looking place in all the trail of filth and wreckage that marks the path of a spring flood was at the toll gate. There the water reached a height of three feet six inches on the first floor of the home of Isaac Miller, the toll house keeper. So suddenly did the waters rise that not a thing could be gotten out of the way, and tables, carpet, furniture and all were submerged and left covered with about three inches of slimy, illsmelling mud. The spring house and small out buildings were carried away, the bridge over the stream went out and Saturday afternoon there was every appearance of a mess that might well have discouraged strong hearted folk; though the venerable toll taker was sitting out in the road in an arm chair, with a pair of rubber boots on, as placid as a May morning, taking toll as if nothing had happened.
A large building lodged under it was all that kept the Nittany Valley railroad trestle from falling into the stream, for the supporting trusses were all knocked out and it will be some days before Supt. Gardner gets trains going again on his mine bank trunk line.
All the low ground at the Nittany iron works was submerged and the stone houses of the company along the pike got cellars and first floors full of the flood. Shovels had to be used to get the mud out of the living apartments and we know now that there are many people who will appreciate that this office has to undergo an average of once a year.
On Tuesday of this week portions of Centre county were visited by another terrible storm and people hereabouts are beginning to have faith in the prediction in Dr. Jayne's almanac that we are passing through as unusual cyclonic period. In Bald Eagle and Nittany valleys It rained quite hard, with some hail, while over in Pennsvalley, from Centre Hall down the storm was of great violence, the worst in that locality for years. Considerable damage was done in the vicinity of Spring Mills. The barn of W. O. Gramley was struck by lightning and one end of the roof blown off. The telephone fixtures in his house were also burned out. The dam at Farmers Mills went out and a big volume of water rushed down the valley inundating a portion of Spring Mills and the public highway for quite a distance. Numerous trees, fences and small buildings were blown down and some corn and oats fields badly washed. Reports state that the storm was also very severe up in Warriorsmark valley."
Democratic Watchman, July 14, 1911, page 4
HOT WEATHER LAST WEEK
"Beginning Sunday, July 2nd, and continuing until Monday of this week there was an unbroken spell of such extremely hot weather as was never experienced before by even the "oldest inhabitant" There was not a day that the mercury did not soar close to the one hundred degree mark and on July 5th it reached 106.
The nights were also hot and sultry, with very little air so that it was anything but pleasant. The hot wave, however, was broken Monday night and Tuesday was ushered in with a fairly comfortable temperature.
Anent the discussion of hot weather in past years Dr. William Frear, of State College, furnishes the following report of the temperature of the hottest days in each year since 1886, as recorded at the weather observatory at the College:
Year Date Temp
1886 28-Aug 91
1887 16-Jul 97
1888 21-Jun 95
1889 10-May 92
1890 8-Jul 94
1891 11-Aug 92
1892 26-Jul 95
1893 11-Aug 92
1894 19-Jul 96
1895 4-Jun 94
1896 9-Aug 93
1897 10-Jul 92
1898 3-Jul 95
1899 20-Aug 96
1900 17-Jul 96
1901 1-Jul 94
1902 17-Jul 89
1903 7/3 & 10 89
1904 18-Jul 89
1905 17-Jun 87
1906 6/9 & 30 90
1907 12-Aug 88
1908 12-Jul 94
1909 8/8 & 9 92
1910 24-Jul 92
1911 4-Jul 99
Democratic Watchman, July 14, 1911, page 8
"A person can't help but swelter this hot weather, and you'll swelter just as much outside of the Scenic as in it. The big argument in favor of the latter is that while you are sweltering you are watching motion pictures of such interest that you forget the heat. Then the large electric fan always keeps the air pure and in good circulation so that it is not uncomfortable. Try it once."
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