Second in a series of nine 1904-1905 newspaper articles in which two old-timers are portrayed reminiscing about the Lykens Valley of the past. The two fictional characters, the “old railroader” and the “patriarch,” wander into the offices of the Elizabethville Echo, Elizabethville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania at different times and tell a concise, folksy history of the valley.
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Local Reminiscences for Home Historians
We were just in the act of flagging a train of thought and switching it into a mass of other copy when the Old Railroader got the right of way and began:
“As I was saying, railroads ain’t everlastin’ and so nothin’ this side of Kingdon Come had endurin’ qualities that won’t peg out, as Josh Billings says. There used to be a railroad station here in town and it’s here yet but the name it first had wouldn’t last. You see, time was then they called it Washington Square. Before that our uptown was Cross Roads.
“Washington Square had one house in 1832 and had nothin’ to brag about except that it was the railroad office for Elizabethville. Maybe that’s like a joke to some folks but blamed if it ain’t the honor bright truth. Now to tell you, it was this way, – The down town of the present borough made the first history when Mr. John Bender, along about 1817 laid out a patch of ground and built a house there. That was Benderstoettle. Well, Mr. Bender though a heap of his wife, just like us folks these days, and being her name was Elizabeth, he made out he’d call the place Elizabethville. When the lower and upper ends were built up more the whole town got that name and Washington Square fell out of use.
“The house Bender built wasn’t the first however, as a Mr. Peter put up a home for himself before the town was laid out on the site of the building in which Mr. Charles Deibler and Mr. Long now live. But the Bender house stands today. Adam Messershith was the next owner and when Mr. Nathaniel Feidt bought it, he remodeled it so that it’s one of the comfortable houses of the town even today.
“Now while I’m thinking of it, Bender kept the first hotel on the old Harrisburg road. Some of our neighbors remember the town had no less than four hotels at one time and whoever didn’t get his share o’liquid lightning them days hadn’t the price, I reckon.
“Benjamin Buffington opened the first store in 1842 and at that time you could count the houses on your fingers. The first wagon-maker was Benjamin Buffington, but land alive! twasn’t anything like the present works of the Swab Wagon Co. The old stone church which was to be big enough to hold all the denominations, was built in 1833 by John Adam Heller under contract for a couple o’hundred dollars. Then about 1871 the Methodists put up the church which the United Brethren got in 1877, where Max Miller now runs a store.
“Oh, yes, the world do move. Elizabethville had to start from small beginnings, move up a notch now and then and when you think it over today, why, ain’t she a hummer?”
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From the Elizabethville Echo, 22 December 1904.
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