Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/306

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COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES ship{Kd each week (o markets in the East, using the old mill as a cold storage house. The place is called **Uncle John’s Farm*' and is under the maiugcment o f (jcorge Dcnby. T he citizens o f E sp y have alw ays taken pride in the beautifying of the streets of the town. The first residents imported the Loinl>ardy poplar and the weeping willow, whUc later lot owners liave added the maples and other shade trees to the list. Travelers on the electric line of the North Branch Transit Com­ pany have ample op]>ortunity to admire the results of the efforts of the citizens to make the town attractive. 'I'hc public buildings o f Espy consist o f a high school, three churches and a frame Udd Fellow s tiail. which replaced the town hall, burned in 1889. The po]>ulation of the town is about six hundred.

One mile aboc Espy is the little village uf A ln u 'd u . once callcil A flo n . It contains some neat residences* the stores o f C M . Creveling Company* and Frank White, two churches, a schoolhouse. and the blacksmith shops o f V. I L Knglchart and William Sncidman. The ]K>pubtion is about three hundred persons. Slost of the old lime quarries here were operated by the Creveling family for tUy years, some of them coming into the liands of other parties at different periods. A t present there are three plants in active operation near the (own. II. X . White has a quarry with two kilns which he is pre|>aring to enlarge. Rhone Trescott operates the plants of the ‘’Silver Sp rin g Q uarry Company” with nine kilns and fine stone crusher for making road ballast. H e has the only vein o f galena, or lead ore, in the coiimy* but the production is small. .An industry o f all these towns along the Sus<|uehai)na is that o f coal dredging, after the high water has subsided. Most of the residents of the tow*ns depend almost cntirel) on the anthracite taken from the river l>c<l for their winter fuel. 5jomc of the large steam <iredgcs take from thirty (o fifty tons a day from the river. ITic Creveling cemetery at Almeilia was given to public use by members o f (bat nu­ merous family and is one of the handsomest ami best kept bur)*ing grounds in the county. RCUOIOCS

T he denominations represented in hh town­ ship are the Methodist. Lutheran. Presbyterian

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and Evangelical. The oldest of these is (he Methodist at l^ight Street. A t a camp meet­ ing held at Huntington in the autumn of 18 19 a nunil>cr o f residents o f that town were converted and on returning home were formed into a class by K ev. John Rhoads, then the pastor at Berwick. F o r eight years the meet­ ings were held at the home of John Brittain, btit in 1827 Gen. Daniel Montgomery, o f l>anville* donated a plot o f ground in Light Street to the Methodists and they built a log chapel upon it. The trustees at that time were Paul L'rcas, John Brittain* lohn M illard, Samuel Mclick and Peter MclicK. In 18 5 1 the church was incort>orate<l and a new deed was cxcctited by the Montgomery heirs. That year the log house was razed and a frame building rqdacc<l it. Most of the pastors of the church here have liccn connected with the Orangeville circuit. The present pastor at Orangeville* Rev. A . R. Turner, holds regular weekly ser>ices in Light Street. The Presbyterian Church had but one con­ gregation in the past at Light Street. The church there w as built in 1853, but sendees were irregular and in (he later years, after 1883. it has l>cen useil as a dwelling. Methodist services were first held at Ksny in 1828 by Rev. Isaac John. In 18 33 (be fa ­ mous evangelist* Lorenzo Dow. visited here and preached to a large congregation in the schoolhouse. The services being frei|uent)y interrupted by the Ikarking o f dogs in an ad­ joining lot* he announcdl that he had come to preach to men, not dogs. When a car­ riage was offercil him as a conveyance to Mainville he refused it in favor o f a truck wagon. The first church here was built in 1838 and the present one in 1883. The latter was dedi­ cated by Bishop Bowman. The pastor at that time was Rev. H. C. Cheston. H is imme­ diate successors were Revs. R . H . Wharton, Jam es Beyer and Richard Mallalicu. The present pastor. Rev. Edmund J . Symons, preaches also at Lime Ridge and .Mnicilia. From 1851 to 1853 Rev, William Weaver* pastor of the I.nthcran Church at Bloomsb u ^ . preached cxvasionally at Espy, and dur­ ing that jieriod a congregation w as formed from those residents of the town who attended the Bloomsburg church. They wcrc:^ David Whitman, Jo h n Shuman, Samuel Krcsslcr, John Kressfer* J . D. W erkheiser. C ym s Bar­ ton, Conrad Bittenbcnder. In the summer o f 1853 ,a church w as erected and dedicated. Rev. R. A . Sharretts becoming the first pastor. His successors were Revs. J . R. Dimm. D. S. Tnickenmiller, J . M. Rice, ) .