Bloomsburg

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Bloomsburg

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This sign outside of Bloomsburg Town Hall declares Bloomsburg as the only incorporated town in Pennsylvania.

History abounds in only town in Pa.

By JILL WHALEN StaffWriter

James McClure was the first settler of what would become the town of Bloomsburg.

In 1772, McClure built a log cabin near the banks of the Susquehanna River. He was one of the region’s first European settlers, and arrived from Lancaster.

Two years later, he welcomed a son, James McClure Jr. The baby was the first Caucasian born in the area, J.H. Battle wrote in “The History of Columbia and Montour Counties.”

The Susquehannock Indians had also called the Susquehanna River Valley home for years before McClure’s arrival. To protect his family from Native American attacks, McClure added a wooden stockade around his house, according to published reports from Edwin M. Barton, a historian for the Columbia County Historical Society. The property became known as Fort McClure, and a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission marker notes the site near West Main Street and Red Mill Road in Bloomsburg.

“Early in 1781 the McClure house was stockaded by the noted Indian fighter, Moses Van Campen, to protect settlers in this region after destruction of Fort Jenkins in 1780,” the marker reads. Fort Jenkins was six miles north of Bloomsburg, and suffered a relentless attack by Native Americans.

In what would become Bloomsburg, settlers were largely self-sufficient by the end of the 18th century.

As time wore on, and more people made their way into the area, roads were built to access other regions. Around the same time, streets within what would become the town’s limits were laid out in 1802 by Ludwig and John Adam Eyer, according to information from the Columbia County Historical Society.

The North Branch Canal opened soon thereafter and created another access point to the region. The new roads and waterway were inviting to settlers, and the area’s population increased.

Newcomers built cabins along the newly laid streets, and a store and hotel opened by the early part of the 19th century. Taverns, blacksmiths, weavers and carpenters also set up shop within what would become the town limits.

Two businessmen even planted an orchard of Chinese mulberry trees to raise silkworms for silk.

The silkworms, however, failed to produce.

Another early business venture was a tannery opened by Daniel Snyder, Battle wrote in his book.

“Daniel Snyder came to Bloomsburg with the express purpose of establishing a tannery, but found himself so seriously embarrassed financially after purchasing land, that he was on the point of relinquishing the idea,” Battle wrote in his 1887 book. “Fortunately for the prospective enterprise, Mrs. Snyder was able to sell several pounds of butter every week; and taking a roll of some size he bartered it at the store for a shovel, and was thus enabled to begin the work of digging the vats.”

Iron ore was found in the region in 1822.

“Drift mining was at once begun, but for some years the product was hauled to furnaces on the south side of the Susquehanna, thus depriving Bloomsburg of the advantage it should have derived from the mineral wealth in its vicinity,” Battle wrote.

Additional iron ore deposits were found in the area in the mid-

AT A GLANCE Famous natives

Country and western singer/songwriter Lacy J. Dalton was born Jill Lynn Byrem in 1946 in Bloomsburg. She had a number of hits in the 1980s, including“Takin’ It Easy,”“Crazy Blue Eyes” and“16th Avenue.”She continues to write and record.

Former Major League Baseball pitcher Paul F. Hartzell was born in Bloomsburg in 1953. He played in the American League for the California Angels, Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles and Milwaukee Brewers.

Actress Krysten Ritter was born in Bloomsburg and raised in nearby Shickshinny. She has starred in television shows such as“Breaking Bad”and “Don’t Trust the B-- in Apartment 23,” and in movies including“Confessions of a Shopaholic”and“What Happens In Vegas.”

U.S. Census stats

❒ Population estimate for 2012 — 14,633 ❒ Median household income — $31,237 ❒ Land area in square miles — 4.35 ❒ Persons per square mile — 3,415

Water

Bloomsburg is bordered by the Susquehanna River to the south and Fishing Creek to the northwest and west.

Another theory hints that the name came from a person who attended a town Fourth of July celebration.

Battle wrote, “Someone, with excellent tact, called for three cheers for Bloomsburg at the instant when patriotic enthusiasm was at its height. In the excitement of the moment, the name made a favorable impression on the popular mind.”

Other notable events in the town’s history occurred in 1874, when the Bloomsburg Gas Co. and the Bloomsburg Water Co. were incorporated. Streetlights were fueled with gas the following year.

Bloomsburg’s Town Hall was built in 1890. It is still used by the municipality for offices and the town’s police department.

The Columbia County Courthouse is located on Main Street in Bloomsburg.

The Columbia County Courthouse is also in Bloomsburg.

According to published reports, Columbia County was created from Northumberland County in 1813, and at the time, the county seat was in Danville.

In 1914, state Rep. Leonard Rupert presented petitions signed by more than 1,000 people requesting Bloomsburg as the county seat.

The request was met with protest, and it wasn’t until 1845 that Bloomsburg became the official seat.

The courthouse’s facade has changed and additions have been added over the years, according to Bonnie Farber, executive director of the Columbia County Historical and Genealogical Society. The original courthouse was made of brick Bloomsburg’s Town Hall and had several columns, she said.

The Town Fountain on Market Square in Bloomsburg was refurhouses municipal offices, includbished to its original appearance in 2002.

The town fountain in Market ing the police department.

Square is also a notable piece of 1800s, and iron processing furnaces added to neighboring townships.

Bloomsburg’s history, Farber said. were built by McKelvey, Neal & Co. The land that remained in 1870 was Charles R. Buckalew solved the dif- The town used money from the ficulty by securing the passage of organized as the town of BloomsThe iron fueled the industry for estate of candy shop owner David the special act of incorporation. burg. almost 75 years but supplies evenStroup to purchase the fountain Bloomsburg’s Town Council has from the J.L. Mott Co. in New York Bloomsburg holds the distinctually began to dwindle, according tion as Pennsylvania’s only “incor- six members and a mayor. Unlike to Barton.

City in 1892.

Eventually, textile mills, such as porated town.” It came from a spe- in boroughs, where mayors can The current fountain is a only vote to break ties among a sev- restored version of the original, cial act passed by the General Magee Carpets, and small manuen-member council, mayors in Assembly in 1870. facturing enterprises began to which had deteriorated and was According to Barton, “The com- incorporated towns can vote with sprout and replace iron processing dismantled in 1966. In 2002, it was munity leaders of that time, desir- council on every motion. Mayors businesses. refurbished to its original appearalso preside at all meetings. ing to establish a municipality, Private and public schools also ance, and in 2005, the original The origin of the town’s name is crane sculpture was replaced on found it difficult to set off the builtbegan to form around the middle unclear. Battle writes that the up section from Bloom Township part of the 19th century. the fountain. in such a manner that it would not name may have been suggested by Market Square also features the State’s only ‘town’ settlers who had lived in Bloomsleave the remainder of the town1908 Civil War Soldiers and Sailors burg, N.J., or was a nod to Bloom The area at the time was known ship with population too small to Monument. According to informaTownship, which was named in as Bloom Township, and was one support a township government tion from the historical society, the of 12 townships that made up and also too widely divided in terri- honor of Samuel Bloom, a Normonument was constructed from thumberland County commissionColumbia County in 1813. Eventutory.” er. ally, portions of the township were Barton wrote that state Sen. See HISTORY, A10

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Thursday, September 19, 2013

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Towns

Bloomsburg Stately homes line historic district

By JILL WHALEN StaffWriter

The board looks at building permit applications to ensure that the historic qualities are preserved in details such as the style of windows.

According to information published by the Columbia County Historical and Genealogical Society, the majority of buildings in the district date from the latter half of the 19th century. It has a few buildings that were erected between 1830 and 1850, along with several 20th century buildings.

“Architectural styles are varied, from Austere Federal to highly decorative Second Empire and Romanesque,” the society reports.

Private homes of note are listed in a self-guided walking tour pamphlet prepared by the society and the Columbia Montour Visitors Bureau.

Among the gems are the Ikeler House at 42 E. Fifth St., an 1895 home with an “onion” dome and other Byzantine influences, and the Van Tassel House, 3 E. Fifth St., a Queen Anne-style home, where the ghost of a one-time owner is said to roam.

Not only does she appreciate the town’s historic aspects, Vought said, but she believes the town has much to offer, from arts to businesses to things to do.

Resident Curt Laugbuch echoed her thoughts.

“I’ve been here all my life, and I just think it’s a nice small town,” he said. “It’s pretty, plus there are many businesses and industries.”

Bloomsburg University is a plus, and so is the town’s small size.

“We have one of the nicest parks,” Laugbuch said of town park, which lies along the Susquehanna River and features a pond, playing fields, playground and picnic area.

“This is a good town with a lot good things going on.”

Nancy Vought always admired the stately, white home on East Second Street in Bloomsburg.

A 25-year employee of Bloomsburg University, she would often walk past the place during her lunch hours.

“One day, I saw the ‘For Sale’ sign and the rest is history,” she said.

She and her husband, Raymond Vought, bought the home and converted it into Main Street in Bloomsburg is lined with many businesses, as well as the Columbia County Courthouse. the College Hill Bed & Breakfast.

The home, built in 1860, is the former residence of Bloomsburg’s first mayor, the late Elias Mendenall. And it’s

By JILL WHALEN also just steps away from the StaffWriter university and within the limits of the Bloomsburg Within a block or two of Historic District.

Main Street in downtown Nancy thinks the location Bloomsburg, you can rent a is prime. bicycle, buy records and eat “This street is part of the sushi. (national) historic district,” There are dozens of resshe said, motioning to the taurants and shops along the other historic homes along several-block stretch that East Second Street. The disruns through the Columbia trict was created in 1982 by County town. the Bloomsburg Town CounAdrienne Mael, downtown cil, and spans an area of manager for the nonprofit approximately five-by-four Downtown Bloomsburg Inc., blocks. said that between businesses Anyone who owns properand events, the town is quite ty within the historic disbusy. trict, which is bounded by “We have a lot of really Penn, Fifth, West, Willow, great businesses in our downMillville and Light streets, town, and we’re always changmust not change any of the ing and evolving,” she said. building’s architectural Last year, work on a downdetails. Painting a home in town facade program wrapped, any color of the rainbow is Mael said. Property owners permitted, but the town’s took advantage of matching Historic Architecture grants to improve their properReview Board won’t allow a ties’ appearances, she said. person to change a home’s And while improvements Streetlights like these line architecture. are positive and businesses Main Street in Bloomsburg.

The board, which Vought are busy, what really brings people to the downtown are downtown. There are beauti- chairs, also doesn’t dictate what a home’s interior looks special events held each year, ful buildings on Route 11.” like.

Mael said.

He called Bloomsburg a “You have to keep the pilArt walks, chili cookoffs, “great town to live in” and a Downtown Trick or Treat place where folks can bike to lars and the arches and the jwhalen@standardspeaker.com Night and the Renaissance work and children can walk things like that,” she said.

Jamboree are among the to school. offerings, she said.

Around 200 years ago, the “The Renaissance Jamboregion was known for agriculree is a street fair featuring ture, he said. A century ago, it hundreds of different booths was known for its industries, from businesses and nonprofand now, he said, it has potenit organizations. It spans the tial as a tourist destination. entire downtown,” she said.

“As we move ahead, we Downtown Bloomsburg have to look at where our works with community orgapotential lies,” he said. “I nizations, such as the Moose think tourism has a lot of Exchange, to plan many of potential for us.” the events.

Nancy Vought, proprietor of For example, the two nonthe College Hill Bed & Breakprofits, along with Richard The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Monument was fast in Bloomsburg, agrees.

Briggs of the Briggs Farm Not only does her facility installed on Market Square in Bloomsburg in 1908.

Blues Festival in Nescopeck, host those visiting Bloomsare planning a two-day “Des- ry, the arts and businesses. burg University, she said, she a bakery. tination Blues” music festirecently had guests from as The Moose Exchange, nesIt also has studios and val in February. far away as Arkansas. tled in the downtown area, is exhibition space for artists, Buses will take attendees Those visitors, she said, a former Moose Lodge saved and holds performances, to blues performances in were in town to take advanby the community in 2009. It concerts and other events.

Bloomsburg and across the is used as a community “Bloomsburg still has a lot tage of biking and kayaking region, said Oren Helbrok, on the Susquehanna River. kitchen by organizations as of the almost stereotypicalexecutive director of the Others stay in town to take well as a place to hold educa- type attractions that you’d Moose Exchange, an arts and tional workshops. expect of a small town. There in the arts, including shows community center. offered by the Bloomsburg It also hosts a number of is a theater downtown,” But special events aren’t retail businesses, including a Helbrok said. “There is art in Theatre Ensemble, she said. the only draw to the town, record and hat store, a comic the vicinity. There is music.

Helbrok said. There is histo- book store and tea room and We have attractive storefronts jwhalen@standardspeaker.com

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ERIC CONOVER/Staff Photographer

The College Hill Bed & Breakfast in Bloomsburg is the former residence of Bloomsburg’s first mayor, Elias Mendenhall, who served from 1870-72.

History (Continued from A9) 17 blocks of granite, weighs 100 tons and stands 60 feet tall. It contains the names of the Civil War battles fought

by Columbia County soldiers.

Nearby is the 1907 Caldwell Consistory building, built from more than 1 million terra cotta bricks.

Farber said the majority of buildings in Bloomsburg’s Historic District, which was established by the town council in the 1980s, date from the latter half of the 19th century. Many properties still have hitching posts in the front or small stables in the back.

Farber said many folks are interested in the history of the town and their fami-

lies. The society, formed in 1914, helps more than 2,500 people annually with research. At its headquarters inside the Bloomsburg Public Library, the society houses an extensive collection of books, directories, county histories, cemetery records, yearbooks, church records and genealogy results.

It also houses a number of Civil War items, and chairs used in a Columbia County trial of members of the Molly Maguires. Three Mollies, convicted of murdering a man who was on his way to Centralia, were hung in Bloomsburg in 1878, Farber said. jwhalen@standardspeaker.com

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Towns 1948

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&

Bloomsburg

Then Now

Bloomsburg University, Lower Campus

2012

Carver Hall can be seen on the lower right of these aerial views of Bloomsburg University’s lower campus taken more than 60 years apart.

COURTESY OF BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY

Bloomsburg University ready to mark 175 years

By JILL WHALEN StaffWriter

Bloomsburg University will celebrate a milestone in 2014 when it marks its 175th anniversary.

The college that began as an academy to teach the youths “the elements of a classical education” has changed over the years, becoming a two-year college, a school for teachers — and the state university it is today.

Thousands of students study at the college each semester. Bonnie Martin, the university’s communications manager, said 9,950 undergraduate, graduate and non-degree students were enrolled at the school in 2012-13.

According to Martin, students study 54 majors across the university’s colleges of education, business, liberal arts, and sciences and technology.

Mercedes Moran, of Hazleton, entered her senior year of studies at the university. In a way, she is following in the footsteps of her father, Mike Moran of Hazleton, who took master’s degree courses at the school, she said.

Mercedes said the university’s location is key. Its 72 instructional and support buildings are spread out on 282 acres in the town of Bloomsburg.

“I like that everything I need is really close to campus,” she said. The smalltown atmosphere, she said, also appeals to her.

“It’s not a big town but everything is there,” she said.

According to information from the university, the school was known as the Literary Institute when it began in 1839. In 1869, it became the Bloomsburg Literary Institute and State Normal School and students received a two-year “normal school” certificate when they completed their studies.

Around that time, a building — now known as Carver Hall — was constructed. It was named for first principal Henry Carver and now houses the offices of the university’s president and provost.

The “normal school” continued until 1916 when it was purchased by the state. Its name changed to the “Bloomsburg State Normal School.”

“By the 1920s, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania began to standardize course offerings and move from the two-year normal school certificate to a fouryear degree. Bloomsburg was granted the authority to offer a bachelor’s degree in education in June 1926,” Martin said.

ERIC CONOVER/Staff Photographer

Carver Hall, built in 1869, is included in the National Register of Historic Places.It houses the offices of the president and provost, and its clock tower was the result of a fundraising project by students and faculty in 1911.

COURTESY OF BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY

Bloomsburg President Harvey A. Andruss, left, and John Hoch, dean of instruction, remove the word “Teachers” from the wall in front of Carver Hall in 1960, signifying the end of an era.

AT A GLANCE

in 1983.

Martin said the school is constantly upgrading its ❒ The university’s library educational offerings. is named after Harvey For example, the univerAndruss, who served the sity, with help from a $2 school as president from million commitment from 1939 to 1969. philanthropist Susan ❒ During World War II, McDowell, established the the U.S. Navy V-12 Officer McDowell Institute for Training Program was conTeacher Excellence in Posiducted on campus.The tive Behavior Support. The service is commemorated institute gives students in the naming of Navy Hall. enrolled in the university’s ❒ The beacon at Carver College of Education the Hall was dedicated in management tools they memory of the 27 former need to be successful edustudents and alumni who cators by reinforcing died in World War II. appropriate behavior, Mar❒ In 1964, the first year tin said. master’s-level classes were “The elements of posioffered, 2,592 students tive behavior support are were enrolled at the incorporated into the curschool. riculum and all education students complete online modules before student Earliest enrollment records are from that year, teaching,” she said, noting that it is the only program when 712 students studied of its kind in the state sysat the school. tem.

The following year — Martin added that the 1927 — the school officially year-old MyCore general became the Bloomsburg education program allows State Teachers College. students to customize their It remained a teachers college until the state Leg- education while they meet 10 general education goals islature approved an through classroom studies expansion of the curricuand co-curricular activilum and the introduction ties. of graduate programs, The university also Martin said. recently launched a sci“In January 1960, the ence, technology, engineerword ‘teachers’ was ing and mathematics dropped and the school (STEM) magnet program became Bloomsburg State for high school juniors. StuCollege,” she said. The institution became Blooms- dents enroll in college-level courses for college credits, burg University of Pennsylvania when the Pennsyl- Martin said. vania State System of jwhalen@standardspeaker.com Higher Education formed

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Towns

Bloomsburg

LARRY DEKLINSKI/Staff Photographer

Attendance at 2012’s Bloomsburg Fair was comparable to 2010 despite an increase in admission from $5 to $8 to help pay off a flood repair loan.

Several hundred thousand visit fair annually

By JILL WHALEN

Previous floods had caused some damages to the grounds but never before The Bloomsburg Fair has had there been a deluge durbeen a staple in Nancy Wining Fair Week,” she wrote. tersteen’s life for as far back As waters began to rise duras she can remember. ing the latter part of fair “I haven’t missed a year, week, vendors closed up only the year that there was shop and owners removed polio and we weren’t allowed livestock, she wrote. to go,” the Bloomsburg “At 9 o’clock Friday mornnative said. Wintersteen, ing, (fair) President Patterwho built a home across son announced over the pubfrom the fair’s grandstands lic address system that the about 25 years ago, isn’t Fair was officially closed for about to miss another. the season and urged people “I enjoy the people,” she to evacuate as rapidly as posexplained. “You see people sible.” that you haven’t seen for Water rose quickly, and years, people that you went staffers aided attendees as to school with. Everybody they left the grounds. comes home. It’s just like a “The official closing reunion.” brought out mixed reactions.

Only a narrow alley sepa- Some said the Fair should rates Wintersteen’s property have been closed earlier. One from a fence, and a side woman, hearing that entrance sits just several announcement over the radio yards away from her mailin her home, wept. She loved box. Thanks to the prime the Fair and was perturbed location, Wintersteen joked that it had to end so ignominithat she becomes more popu- ously,” Burrus wrote. lar with family and friends The vendors when the fair rolls around.

The fair attracts vendors Last year, the fair, in its 157th year, recorded almost a and visitors from across the area, state and nation. half-million visitors. It was Donald Flaim of Nuremquite a change from 2011, berg has been setting up a when the fair was canceled for the first time ever. Flood- booth for his Hazleton busiing from Tropical Storm Lee ness, F&L Gutters, since the brought waters measuring 6 1970s and joked that fair week usually means rain feet high in some spots and caused more than $1 million will arrive at some point.

Despite the often wet weathin damages.

But it wasn’t the first time er, Flaim loves the fair.

“It gives me a good chance the fair was flooded.

In her book, “The Blooms- to talk to customers,” he burg Fair, It Grew and Grew said. “I always like to go to and Grew,” Emma H. Burrus the fair.” writes of major flooding Flaim, 74, said his wife caused by Hurricane Agnes once predicted that after he in June 1972 and Hurricane retires, he will sit on a stool Eloise in September 1975. in the corner where he usuAgnes left the fairgrounds ally sets up a stand, just so he and buildings covered with can talk to people. as much as 6 inches of mud, Flaim started visiting the she wrote. fair as a youngster, picking “Grounds Superintendent up odd jobs at booths and Claude May organized every stands. carpenter, every plumber, “I remember we would every electrician, every walk out to the river and mechanic and every laborer hitchhike from Bloomsburg he could get. The job of home to Nuremberg,” he said. cleaning and restoring went Joe Stanavage of Hazleton forward and the Fair opened opened his first stand at the on schedule with most every- fair in 1982. He’s sold everything back to normal,” she thing from walkaway sunwrote. daes to cotton candy, but Damage to the School found a following with “Joe’s Exhibits Building was so Homemade Pierogies,” a severe that it had to be torn stand at Seventh and D Avedown, but Burrus wrote that nue where folks buy pieroHurricane Eloise was worse. gies, halushki and a combiAccording to Burrus, nation platter called “Weezwhose book was published ie’s Combo.” prior to Tropical Storm Lee, Last year, he and his famithe fair had always operated ly opened “Joe’s Mini Doughright up to the scheduled nuts” at Ninth and C Avenue, hour of its closing date. selling dipped-to-order cin“Eloise broke the record. namon sugar, chocolate and

FAIR FACTS

StaffWriter

ERIC CONOVER/Staff Photographer

Nancy Wintersteen’s home overlooks the Bloomsburg Fair’s grandstands. She only missed the fair once. peanut butter, and sugared doughnuts. And this year, he’s selling kielbasi on a stick, pie a la mode and lemonade from beneath a large tent at Sixth and C Avenue that adjoins the pierogie stand – and brings his total of stands to three.

“The Bloomsburg Fair has been good to me,” Stanavage explained. Not only does he appreciate the business, he said, he looks forward to seeing familiar faces.

“When I first started, I’d meet people who were students at Bloomsburg College.

Now they’re married and have children or grandchildren of their own, and they’re still coming. I’m getting to meet their families,” he said. “They’ll meet at Joe’s.”

Kathy Singley grew up in Bloomsburg and remembered how school let out for fair week. She and her family would visit every day, and when she met her future husband, Carl Singley, the couple would also stop by the fair quite often.

The Singleys, of Zion Grove, are still going to the fair — only now they’re overseeing two stands. Carl has a stand for his business, Catawissa Monument, where he displays monuments and answers questions about his business in Catawissa.

And Kathy looks after The Iced Tea Wagon and More, a neighboring stand on the corner of Ninth and C-1 Avenue that the couple acquired a few years ago. There, folks can buy hamburgers and cheeseburgers; mint, sweetened or unsweetened iced tea; halushki — and homemade seafood chowder.

“We have people who come back every year for the seafood chowder,” including

■ The 158th Bloomsburg Fair will be held from Saturday to Sept. 28.

■ The Bloomsburg Fair is the largest agricultural fair in Pennsylvania.

■ Attendance at the 2012 fair was 416,613.

■ Grandstand entertainment this year includes Lee Greenwood, Hunter Hayes, Casting Crowns,Three Days Grace/Finger Eleven, Halestorm, Scott McCreery, Austin Mahone/Coco Jones, and Justin Moore.

■ More information on the fair can be found at www.bloomsburgfair.com. a man who travels all the way from Virginia, Kathy noted.

While Kathy and Carl don’t get to see the fair like they used to, whenever there is a bit of down time, they try to visit some stands.

“The best thing to do?

Eat,” Kathy laughed.

The Rev. Dr. Philip Smith, pastor of Mount Zion Lutheran Church in Zion Grove and Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Nuremberg, remembered how the West Berks (Lutheran) Mission District Council ran buses to the fair.

Smith, who pastored in the Reading area before taking the local charges in 2007, said trips were always wellattended.

“There are few fairs that are still country fairs,” he said, “Bloomsburg is one of them.”

The history

In his aptly titled “History of the Bloomsburg Fair,” state Rep. David Millard, R109, of Columbia County writes about the fair’s history, his memories and other items of interest.

Millard grew up just three houses away from the fair’s outside fence and never missed the annual September event.

“I started working at the fair when I was 10,” he said.

He manned the ring pitch stand in his first year, then moved on to other concessions as he grew older. One of his favorite places to work — fair-wise — was at Jack the Blanket Man. Folks might remember the woven blanket stand and savvy salesman, he said.

To this day, Millard never misses the fair.

“I’m on the one-a-day plan,” he said of the places he stops to eat. “I visit all of the apple dumpling stands and they’re all delightful. I stop by a lot of the other stands, too.”

Millard supplied this early history of the fair from his book: Historians have called it a “street carnival”; the men who first set it up called it an agricultural fair.

That was back in the fall of 1855 when Franklin Pierce was the 14th president of the United States and James Pollock from Northumberland County was the 13th governor of Pennsylvania. Columbia countians, about a thousand of them, dug into their respective pockets for the 10 cents that admitted them to this new adventure in Bloomsburg. How many others jumped over the rail fence will never be known. The big event was staged in Caleb Barton’s field at the lower end of Second Street, now Main Street.

It all came about because of the enthusiasm of one man, Dr. John Taggart. He had visited a county fair in the northern part of Pennsylvania earlier in the summer. Impressed by the values to a community of an agricultural exhibition, he convinced others of the benefits that could come from such a movement in Columbia County.

Finally, five men held a consultation and decided to undertake an agricultural fair if they could find willing exhibitors of fruits, vegetables and other farm products. Through personal solicitation they found enough interest to encourage them and proceeded with arrangements for an event that was to become The Bloomsburg Fair. The men who ventured all of this were Dr. John Ramsey, B.F. Hartman, Caleb Barton, William Neal and I.W. Hartman.

There were a few exhibits of fruits and grains. Caleb Barton showed his grain drill which he had been using for a few years. B.F. Hartman entered his driving horse which was tested for speed from the foot of Scottown Hill to the double-track bridge. Most of the gate receipts were to pay for the police service. The remaining two dollars were awarded to B.F. Hartman as a premium for entering “the race,” the only one entered.

Very little is known about the first few years of the fair.

Presumably it began as a one-day production. By 1857 it was running for two days.

In 1858, and continuing until the late 1870s, it was a threeday fair. About 1878, four days of the fair were being held. In 1892 it began operating for five days.

Then in 1897, for some unknown reason, the Fair week was dropped back to three days. By 1923 it was back to a six-day exposition.

A five-day and six-nights fair began at 4 p.m. on Mondays; for the full six days and six nights Fair and gates were opened on Monday mornings. The Fair was extended a full seven days and nights in 1988 and a full eight days in 1989.

Gradually through its long history, the Bloomsburg Fair Week moved slowly up the calendar from late October into late September. Since about 1930, Fair Week officially begins the third Monday after Labor Day. In December of 1858 a Committee reported that C. Barton and Co. had offered 10 or 11 acres at the west end of Bloomsburg for $200 an acre, $100 to be paid April 1, 1859, and $200 each year thereafter. As an alternative Mr. Barton offered to lease the same lot for $10 per acre per year for one to 10 years.

When the Treasurer reported that the total financial status of the Society amounted to $300, it was voted to accept the offer of C. Barton and Co. to lease 10 acres for 10 years.

In 1859 the need for fencing the grounds was discussed and advertisements were placed for sealed bids for fencing. Some of the specifications called for a seven foot fence of good fence boards placed up and down. The fence was to be tight with boards 12 inches wide and secured with no less than six nails. Posts were to be set three feet deep.

Payment of $150 was to be made when the material was delivered on the ground, $50 when the fence was finished, the balance in October or November provided sufficient funds were taken in at the Annual Exhibition. The contract was awarded to Thomas E. Eves who agreed to build the fence for $1.50 for each 12 foot panel. The fence was to be finished July 1, 1859. jwhalen@standardspeaker.com