Local history tells of events and things which help us feel what life was like before our time. In the middle 1950's a gentleman in his early 80’s told me about something from his youth which has stayed with me. 1 can't recall his name but he lived between Waynesboro and Greencastle in the village of Zullinger. At the time I was working in that area for the circulation department of the Harrisburg Patriot-News and stopped several times a year to collect for his paper.
The term gentleman fits this man. He had worked as a skilled mechanic in the Geiser and later Landis shops in Waynesboro, lived happily with the values and virtues of his time, and when I knew him, was retired and a widower. Each time I stopped we completed our small transaction and then had a talk. Living alone, he needed company, but it was no sacrifice on my part to visit with him. He was both likable and interesting.
He had grown up in a cabin at the foot of Forge Hill near Roxbury along what is now Pa. Rt. 641. His birthdate would have been in the mid 1870's. At that time the products of the farms and forests of the Spring Run section of Path Valley were brought across two mountain ridges into Roxbury. The crossing of the Kittatinny ridge was called Timmons Mountain, and the Blue Mountain crossing was named Forge Hill. From Roxbury the loads could be taken to one of the mills on the Conodoguinet or to Shippensburg, Chambersburg, or some intermediate point on the Cumberland Valley Railroad.
Bringing a loaded wagon up, and then down Timmons Mountain required adequate horsepower, good equipment, and a skilled driver. Thee continued short pull from Timmons to the upper pan of Forge Hill and the descent of Forge was easier than the Timmons crossing. As we make the trip today we should be somewhat in awe of those earlier travelers.
Penn Township was erected 23 October 1860 when the western half of Dickinson Township was made into a separate political and territorial body. Its creation was the result of a continuing effort lasting for at least twenty years. This subdivision was but one in a series of similar moves begun at the settlement of the Province and continued in Cumberland County until 1929.