COLUMBIA AND M ONTOUR COUNTIES
149
E lw e lP s e ffo rts additional members w ere se cured a m o n g the more experienced players, until it num bered nearly thirty men. Rapid p ro gress w a s made under his direction, and the band established a high reputation a s one of the b e st m usical organizations in this sec tion. H e retired in 19 10, and F ran k H ow er served a s leader for a time, when he w as suc ceeded b y L . L . Jam es, the present efficient director.
m erly belonged to the Bloom sburg Iron Com pany and later w as purchased by E . R . and I*'. P . D rinker, who laid out the level part o f it in town lots about 1890. County Commis sioner C . E . W ellivcr erected the third house that w as built there. T h e village contains about fifty-five houses. T h e population is about three luindrcd. F em vilte is in the south election district o f Hemlock tow'nship and has about seventy-five voters. A good sclioolhousc fu r FERNVILt.e nishes educational quarters fo r the children in the grades, w hile some attend the iUoonisburg F e n tv iU e. although a suburb o f Bloomsburg, higli school or the normal. is in H em lo ck township, situatc<l ju st across H ere arc locatol the dairy farm s o f J . G. F ish in g cre e k at the Hemlock bridge at R a il Q uick and H . J . T rau b, and the greenhouses road stre e t. T h e land on which it stands fo r o f George K rcsslcr.
CH A PTER XV B E R W IC K A N D W E S T B E R W IC K N atu re prepared the site o f B erw ick and man h a s established upon the spot an ideal modem in d u stria l community o f alm ost 14,000 souls. T h e first settlers considered it a Ic ^ c a l site, an d th e ir wisdom has been proved by the subsequen t development of the town. When the borough w as laid out the limits were m ad e one mile each w ay, but this re stricted a r e a has been overflow n, and the re sult is the existence o f three g row in g suburbs, which a b so rb the overflow in part, the borougli of N esco p eck, in L u zcm c county, carin g fo r the rem ainder. W ith th e territorial expansion which fo l lowed the industrial development o f Berw ick, the populated area w as extended across the west line of the town, and W est B erw ick came into being, w ith a population o f 5 .5 ( 2; on the north line g re w up the suburb o f N orth B e r wick, in B riarcre e k township, with a popula tion o f M 3 0; E ast B erw ick, lying in Salem township. L u zcm c county, is actually a part of B erw ick and holds a population o f (.350; while N escopeck, ju st across the Susque hanna in Lu zern e county, could well be termed South B erw ick, with a population o f 1.578. .Add to this the population o f B erw ick proper, and we have a total o f 15 .2 2 7 persons de pendent in a great m easure upon the car works, shops and foundries o f tlre a te r B e r wick. The expansion o f Berw ick has but partially met the grow in g demands of the people, not from failu re to realize the necessity, but be
cause of the grow th setting the pace fo r the prom oters o f improvements and expansion. W ithin the ten years previous to 19 14 fiftythree new streets, totaling a length o f twentythree m iles, have been laid o u t; ten miles have been graded, tw o m iles paved with brick, and sixteen m iles o f sidew alks laid. Tw enty-eight m iles o f new w ater m ains have been laid, and eleven m iles o f gas mains. U|)on the public schools the sum o f $10 5,0 0 0 has been expended, while o ver $60,000 has been sjK nt u])on m odem sew ers. P a rt o f this amount has come from the Am erican C a r and Fou nd ry Com pany, a history o f which is found fu rther on, the company em ploying d u r ing w orking scason.s at fu ll capacity 6,200 men, to whom is paid out the m onthly sum o f $260,000 in wages. Besides this, the m onthly w age list of the R a c r S ilk M ills, the sm aller factories and shops, and the num erous stores and m ercantile cstabli.shmcnts, form a total o f no mean proportions, unequaled by any other town in Columbia county. W ith this fitting introduction to the indus trial city w c w ill turn backward to the little village o f Berw ick, o r ‘'O w cn svillc,” the nucleus of the present city. FOUNDING OP T H E TO W N
W'hcn the land office w as opened by the Penns in 176 9 fo r the sale of the estate o f Pennsylvania. E v a n O w en, a m cm lwr of the Society o f Friends, w as one of the first to
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