COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES LIG H T STREET
T h is neat and homelike village, a short dis tance rK)rth of the Susquehanna and northeast o f Bloom sbu ^, is now merely a place o f resi dence for retired farm ers and a few store keepers who cater to their wants. A t one tuDC it was a tow*n o f some pretensions. T he plot of the town o f iVUIiamsburg was laid out in 18 17 by Philip Seidle and in 1821 the residents were John Hazlett, Uzal Hop kins, William McCarthy* Jam es McCarthy, George Zeigler and a M r. I^ake. H alf a mile south were the blacksmith shop of Robert Gardner and the farmhouse o f John Deakcr. T he upper gristmill was built in i8 2 t by Mc Dowell & Millard, and here Gen. Matthew McDowell later established the first post office under his own name, 'rh is mill was rebuilt in 1868 by Peter Ent. It is now operated by Harr)* Heacock w*ith the modem roller process. The lower gristm ill was huilt in 1825 by Samuel L . Bettle, w*as later owned by Kelchncr & Son and is now operated by w . H . O ccn ley & Son. It also is a modern mill. Both of these mills arc operated by waterpower from Fishing creek. Each mill had a distillery beside it. T w o iron furnaces were locatetl in the past at Light Street. One at the upper end, aliovc the mill, w as built by McDowell in 1845, soon a fte r the construction of the mill. It was a charcoal furnace, and was operated later for some years by Peter Knt, and after him his son Wellington ran it till 1868 and then aliandoned the work. The lower furnace was owned and run by Bettle, and stood just above his mill. Kev. Marmaduke Pearce, a Methodist clergym an, came to Light Street about 1844 and became the owner of the lower mill. lie found the walk to the post office at the u|>]icr mill too far and took steps to remedy this by applying fo r the post office. When his object w as attained he changed the name of the place to Light Street, from the fact that he had lived on a street o f that name in his native city o f Baltimore. Soon after the two settle ments came to be one long village and so remain to this day. A t one time a tannery was operated in the town by J . W. Sankey and later by O iarles Rink, but is now closed. B esides'the mills the town, with a population o f af>out three hundre<l. has three churchrs, a school build ing and a P. O. S. o f A, hall. William M . Ent, a descendant o f Peter Ent, conducts a hardware store in the town. W il liam M . Robbins, the postmaster, is also a fu r
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niture dealer, and stores are kept by J . E . White, Franz Craw ford and R . W . Ivcy. C F . Jackson, barber, R . M . Kester, butcher, and Grant Drake, blacksmith, constitute the rest of the commercial men of the town. The largest house in Light Street is the old tavern, now a private residence, built by Peter Shook about 1865. H e Owned consid erable land in the village and built the tavern himself, burning the brick on his farm near the creek. Owin^ to opposition from the neighbors he lost his liquor license some years later, sold out and moved aw ay. H is prop erty w as sold to various parties, but in 19 14 all of the various parcels have come into the hands o f H arvey Hutzell, thus again vesting the ownership tn one person. The ” United States Ilo tc r ’ w as opened in the early sixties by Philip G. K cllcr, who re built a private residence tor the purpose, add ing a large hall on the third story. T his was then the only hall in the town and a popular resort for the young people. William B . Goodheart was the next owner* and M r. Spear ing the last. When the building w as burned a small frame house was erected on the site to retain the license, which was later re scinded. T he remaining veterans of the C ivil war in Light Street are John Craw ford, Joseph Miller* and &imuel Keller. r.APEit M ILL
West o f Light Street, on Fishing creek, near the site o f Fort Wheeler, is the plant of the Bloomsburg Paper Company. Here a grist mill* three stones high and operated by an overshot wheel, was built by John Barton many years ago. H is successor w as a man namc<l Phillips, who for a time manufactured buttons from clam shells, but w as not successful, finally selling the property to Thomas Trench in i 8 ^ . In 1840 the mil] w as adapted to the mamifacture o f paper by Thomas Trench, who some years later took his son. C. C. Trench, in ]iartnership with him. The product was used for wrapping pur poses. In 1882 Jam es M . Shew bought the factory and began the manufacture of water proof cartridge paper fo r the DuPont Pow'der Company, o f Wilmington, Del. He later took his son-in-law, Robert J . Ruhl, into partner ship. and at Sir. Shew 's death the property came into the hands o f Mr. Ruhl, the pres ent manager. The plant has thrice been destroye<l by fire, first in 1855, when it was rebuilt by the
