A Year in the Life of a Village: Huntsdale 1910

The humming of the saws at the mill could be heard as you approached the general store. Sheaffer & Williamson Dealers in General Merchandise reads the sign above the windows on the second floor of the general store. As in many villages, the general store also served as the Post Office, and the Huntsdale Post Office sign hung from the porch roof. Six men are standing on the porch staring at the photographer on the other side of the road. Wooden posts stand at the edge of the dirt road ready for customers to tie up their horses. The scene resembles other small villages in the county, but this is the village of Huntsdale on Pine Road in Penn Township, Cumberland County.

It is the year 1910. The man taking the U. S. Census on April 15, went up and down both sides of the road recording the names of every person in each household. Sixty names in all. They started with the household of farmer James D. Allen and his wife Anna. Their neighbor, Adam McGonigal, a building painter, his wife Anna, their five young children and 16-year-old step-son, Carl E. Harder, were the next to be recorded. Next door to them were laborer Frank M. McManus and his wife Anna. Their three children were grown and had moved away, and seven-year-old William H. Albright was boarding with them.

The David A. Sheller family was next. Sheller was a retail merchant who sold butter and eggs. His wife, Charlotte, kept house. They had four young children; Cleatus (who would die of heat stroke in 1941), Ethel, Beulah, and 14-year-old Addison who worked as a clerk in a restaurant. Christian Tritt lived next door with his 22-year-old daughter Orlena and his 13-year-old son Clarence. Farmer William Weakley, his wife Anna, and their two-year- old-son Joseph were neighbors. Samuel Brandt, a farmer, and his wife Elizabeth lived with their two grown daughters, Anna Belle, and 21-year-old Mary who worked at home as a dressmaker, and their two small children. Their neighbor, Widow Mary Walker, a laundress, lived with her daughter Elva, her son Leo, aged 20, and his wife Dillie C. Fifty-eight-year-old James Priest was boarding with them.

William Hutchinson and his wife Elizabeth, both in their 70s, rented their house, and William did odd jobs. Next came Emanuel and Sarah Kreider and their daughters Esther and Ella. Emanuel and his wife would celebrate their fiftieth anniversary at their home in Huntsdale and die there nine months apart in 1937.

The census taker was nearing the Sheaffer and Williamson general store, but first he visited the household of 62-year-old Anna M. Shenk, her son George, a 40-year-old laborer, her 38-year-old daughter Abbie, and Vonida aged 24. Anna would die in Huntsdale in April 1919, the day after her 70th birthday.

The Williamson of Sheaffer and Williamson general store was Owen E. Williamson, aged 42. He was unmarried and living with his parents, 79-year-olds Jason E. and his wife Hannah. The census taker marked Owen’s occupation as a retail merchant in groceries. Seventy-one-year-old widow, Elizabeth Whistler, was renting a house next door to Owen Williamson’s business partner, William J. Schaeffer. Sheaffer, aged 35, his wife Birdella 34 and their children, 8-year-old Lizzie, and their 10-year-old son, William J.V., who was the village newsboy.

Several more families lived beyond the general store. House carpenter, Isaac Shenk, and his wife Rebecca; Noah and Anna Cockey and their two daughters Mary A., aged 18, and Martha, a dressmaker; grain and feed merchant David Brandt, his wife Maud and their three-year-old son Vern rented the house next to the Cockey’s. The widow Catharine Brandt as well as Benjamin F. Kough, a laborer, lived next door with his housekeeper Isabella Crebs. The last household the census taker visited was the family of school teacher Warren Otto. He and his wife Mae had three sons, John, Robert, and Adin.

The year 1910 began with the traditional firing of guns and noisemakers, and the weather was fair. On January 21, the Huntsdale wooden bridge was damaged when the piers under it were knocked out by melting ice and snow from the recent heavy rains. William Tritt, the saw mill owner, began repairs on the bridge.

February, saw the deaths of two well respected Huntsdale women. Mrs. Sarah Enck, wife of George A. Enck, the miller at Enk’s Mill, died of asthma, and on February 7, widow Rachel White was found dead in her bed. She was 80 years old, and a long-time member of the Church of God. Patron’s Day at the schools in the county was a special day. On February 22, the Huntsdale School presented a Patron’s Day program with songs, music, readings, and recitations by its pupils. Owen Williamson, the general store owner, was one of the men who addressed the audience.¹

In March, a surprise birthday party was given for Mrs. Mary Otto. Fifteen friends sat down for a fine dinner.² On the afternoon of March 7, 82-year-old John Hutchinson, a wheelwright and longtime resident of Huntsdale died.³

In June, 77-year-old Joseph Widders moved to Huntsdale from the village of Hays Grove where he was born and lived all his life until his move. “Seventy-one ate dinner at the moving.”⁴ Eight months later he died of a stroke leaving a wife and four children.⁵

Reverend C. R. Oellig of Waynesboro, PA preached at the Huntsdale Church of the Brethren on Sunday, July 3, and later that day at the Church of the Brethren Old Folks Home which had been dedicated two weeks before.⁶ The Ladies’ Sewing Circle of Huntsdale met at the home of Mrs. W. Schaeffer.⁷ On July 12, an electrical storm spread over parts of the county. Shortly before four o'clock in the afternoon it struck Mrs. Katherine Brandt’s house in Huntsdale. The newspaper reported that “Mrs. Brandt was severely stunned and shocked, but this morning is improving. Mrs. Whistler occupies a side of the house, but fortunately she was not home. The lightning seemed to first strike a locust tree. Then it struck the spouting of Mrs. Brandt’s frame house, shattered the weatherboarding, and tore some off. It set fire to the roof, but by the heroic works of [the general store owners] Messrs. Sheaffer and Williamson, the flames were quickly distinguished [sic].”⁸

August was cider-making time. William P. Tritt advertised that he would begin making cider on August 9th, and each Tuesday thereafter.⁹ Blacksmith J. D. Dickson advertised to buy or rent his property. It consisted of a two-story weatherboarded house with a kitchen and stable, a large smith shop with a wagonmaker shop attached, on a good-sized lot.¹⁰

A temperance meeting was held at Huntsdale Church on the afternoon of September 25.

On October 15 and 16, the Brethren’s semi-annual Love Feast was held at Huntsdale Church.¹¹ The weather was beautiful, and many people from the western end of the county attended.

On October 22, an auction of the mill properties was held. In March, the mill owners, Tritt & Houston, advertised the sale of the mill property and residence. It consisted of “19 acres more of less (No.1) a brick house in good repair, (No. 2) a building with a sawmill, shingle mill, post borer and cut-off saw and 32 horse power water wheel. (No. 3. A two-story building, lower floor [a] large planer and rip saw, upper floor a Sprout & Waldron chopper, twenty horse power wheel. (No. 4) a building attached to No. 3, containing a No. 1 four screw cider press…”¹² The properties did not sell, so the owners put them up for auction in October. A bid of $2,900 was not accepted, and the properties were not sold.¹³

Thanksgiving was celebrated on Thursday, November 24 in 1910. Friends and families spent the day eating and visiting. Mrs. Rena Gardner, who worked at Bowman’s store in Carlisle, spent the day with friends in Huntsdale.¹⁴ At 1:00 on Thanksgiving, D. L. Lefever of Huntsdale held a sale of his hogs and 40 head of his cattle.¹⁵

Mrs. Lizzie A. Carns of Huntsdale held a reception the second week of December in honor of her son and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Andrew Miller, who were married on December 6. Many of the village’s residents, friends and families where served a bountiful meal, and the bridal couple received “many useful gifts.” ¹⁶ Miss Elizabeth Enck [of Mechanicsburg] spent the second week of December in Huntsdale visiting her brother George S. Enck.¹⁷ On December 17, Huntsdale grain merchant, H. K. Miller, was in Carlisle on business.¹⁸

William H. Miller, the student’s banker at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, spent Christmas Day with his relatives in Huntsdale.¹⁹ The wedding of Dr. George E. Bartholemew of Philadelphia, and Mae M. Brindle of Huntsdale was held at the Huntsdale home of Mr. and Mrs. H. G. Sheaffer. The bride wore a gown of white satin and carried a bouquet of white roses. The bride was attended by her sister, Miss Emma Brindle, who carried a bouquet of pink roses. Miss Mary Brindle, of Carlisle Springs, played the wedding march and was accompanied on the piano by Mrs. Willis Sheaffer of Huntsdale.²⁰

The year 1910 ended with the traditional New Year’s Eve firing of guns and the sounds of noisemakers. The weather was fair and warmer with rain or snow expected for January 1.

Sometime between 1910 and 1915 William Sheaffer dissolved his partnership in the general store, and Owen E. Williamson ran it until his death in 1937. The general store and dwelling were sold at a public sale in 1937 to E. Jay Egan, of Chambersburg, for $2,800. The newspaper reported that “The purchaser, an experienced storekeeper, has taken possession and will continue the business which Mr. Williamson had conducted for many years. The store also housed the Huntsdale post office. The store building is a two-story frame, and the dwelling a two-story frame fronting on the Pine Road for 70 feet. The sale included the real estate and the merchandise in the store. There were a number of bidders.”²¹