A Year in the Life of a Village: Oakville 1910

It was a good day for Shippensburg photographer Clyde Laughlin to take photographs of Oakville because there were no leaves on the trees. Mr. Laughlin produces post cards from the photos he takes of the towns and villages of Cumberland County. His camera captures a horse and buggy traveling towards him on Main Street, and the two young boys who are peering over a fence watching what he is doing. The white-washed Rail Road Crossing sign post warns people to Stop, Look, Listen.

Located on Oakville Road between the Newville Road (Rt. 641) to the north and the Ritner Highway (Rt. 11) on the south, the village of Oakville did not exist before the coming of the Cumberland Valley Rail Road in the 1800s. In 1902 Cumberland County Commissioner, Phillip Taylor of Oakville, stated that the census takers reported that Oakville had a population of about 100, and there were 13 “Johns” in the place.¹

On April 30, 1910, J. Walter Hard, an enumerator for the U. S. Census, walked from house to house in Oakville talking to its residents and recording the names, ages, occupations, and other details about every person in each household.

His enumeration showed that nine heads of households worked on the rail road, and others were laborers. Ralph Mouer was a blacksmith, John S. Frick was a carpenter. David L. Thrush had the dry goods store, and his son John was his clerk. Leland Thrush was a tinner, and Raymond Dewalt worked at his father’s wagonmakers shop. Earl Beidler was a grain merchant, Jacob R. Forney worked at the warehouse, and Wilber Forney was a house painter. Annie Cramer’s 26-year-old daughter Dela was a dressmaker, Clarence Marquet was a conductor on the railroad, and Josiah F. Snyder was the village minister.

Fifty-eight-year-old William Brewster was a well-known hay and straw merchant. As well as his wife Emma and his son Charles, a railroad depot operator, Charley K. Over, boarded with them. Tragedy would strike Brewster in 1912. On Sunday, August 11, William returned from his brother’s funeral in Altoona to find that his wife Emma was dead.² William would die in June 1925 and be buried in Shippensburg’s Spring Hill Cemetery with his wife, his parents, and other family members.

Twenty-four-year-old Raymond Dewalt lived next door to the Brewster’s with his wife Sadie and their six-month-old daughter, Vera. Raymond worked in his father’s wagonmakers shop. James M. Brown and his wife Annie operated the store next door that Brown had kept since the 1890’s.

William Columbus Smith, Sr., a 71-year-old farmer, and his wife Charlotte lived next to the Brown’s on one side, and Benjamin A. Cramer and his wife Clementine on the other side. Mr. Cramer was the manager of the Oakville Creamery, a job he held for several decades. After his wife’s death in 1924, he moved to Shippensburg. On September 29, 1928, Mr. Cramer and a group of his neighbors were motoring their way to Caledonia Park when he complained of a pain in his side. They stopped at a drug store in Fayetteville where Mr. Cramer bought a dose of peppermint. Shortly after they arrived in Caledonia, Mr. Cramer collapsed. He died in the ambulance before they reached the Chambersburg Hospital.³

The newspapers of the day kept their subscribers up to date on the comings and goings of their friends and neighbors by way of village correspondents. The fact that Jacob Miller was laid up with the grippe, or that Clarence Stirner was whitewashing his shed, or that Hazel Martin from the upper end of the village spent the day at her friend’s house at the other end of the village, may seem trivial to us today, but these bits of news were eagerly digested by the newspaper’s readers. The following items are tidbits about the goings on in Oakville in 1910.

On Tuesday evening, January 11, “The Young Men’s Sunday School class of the Zion Lutheran Church, with a few of their lady friends, were pleasantly entertained at the home of their teacher, Mrs. Benjamin A. Cramer. Thirteen young people were present.”⁴

A “quiet wedding” was held on Thursday evening, January 13 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph K. Gampher on the corner of Railroad and Main streets. The bride, L. Mae Davis, the sister of Mrs. Gampher, married Martin T. Varner.⁵ As the saying went in those days, the newlyweds “went to housekeeping” next door to the Gampher’s.

The Democrats of North and South Newton Townships met at the Oakville school on January 15 to nominate a ticket for the February election.

Oakville merchant, David L. Thrush, was planning to build a new house and had stored a lot of new window sash and door frames in the stable of a lime kiln he owned a short distance from Oakville. On Friday, January 21, high water ran through the stable and slacked the lime he had stored in a box in the stable. The lime got so hot that it burned through the box and spread to the hay on the second floor. The loss was complete. Mr. Thrush had no insurance.⁶

Patron’s Day was held at Oakville School on February 11. Miss Lila McCullough’s students did their teacher justice with their presentations. It had snowed, and the roads drifted so badly that there were no country people at church on Sunday February 13.⁷

A large crowd attended Oakville High School’s graduation on March 29 at the United Brethren Church. Seven students graduated; Margaret J. Stouffer, Anna K. McCaleb, Rhoda Miller [erroneously reported as taking class honors], William F. Dunkelberger, Lester F. Snyder, and Ralph R. Brown. Brown graduated from Shippensburg State Teachers College, served two terms as a supervisor for North Newton Township in the 1930’s and died on August 13, 1950. William C. Koons, who took class honors, taught agriculture for 43 years in Blaine, Perry County where he died in 1971.

In April, J. J. Dewalt & Son, carriage makers at Oakville, dissolved their partnership. The newspaper reported that the business will be conducted by the son, R. E. Dewalt.⁸ The June 2 edition of The Valley Times Star reported that “David Smith has returned from Philadelphia. Minnie Wentz of Carlisle spent the Sabbath with her mother, Mrs. Brewster. Clarance Strohm is wearing a broad smile on account of the new dish washer that arrived at his home on the Sabbath.” Decoration Day was honored in Shippensburg on Saturday, May 28, and the band “composed of Oakville and Newville boys played well and was appreciated by all.”

The villagers were shocked on June 2 by the sudden death that morning of David L. Thrush’s wife Harriette. She had been doing the family washing, and when her son Leland came home for lunch “he found his mother dead, having fallen over against the wash tub on the porch.” Mr. Thrush moved in with his son Leland after his wife’s death. It was Leland who found his father’s body on February 5, 1915, five years after his mother’s death. The newspaper reported that for years his father would “at times fall over and lie in a state of coma. In his stable he had a little room partitioned in which he frequently worked, and in it he had placed a little oil stove for he was very fond of reading his Bible there. It is believed that he suffered one of these attacks this morning, fell over onto the stove and upset [it.] The oil ran out and set fire to him and the building….Mr. Thrush was horribly burned and evidently inhaled the flames or died from the shock.”⁹

In June, the Oakville Band held its first festival of the season. It “was a grand success in every respect with the returns which amounted to $98. Everything was sold by 10:30 P. M. The Band will hold another festival on July 6, to which everyone is invited,” reported The Valley Times Star on June 23, 1910.

A “Krit” runabout motor car was delivered to C. J. Beidle in June.¹⁰

In July, Charles K. Over, the agent for the Cumberland Valley Railroad at Oakville was on a six-week trip to Seattle, and H. K. Lewis, of Darkesville, W. Va. was filling in for him.¹¹ The Washington Camp No. 747 P.O.S. of A. of Oakville held a festival on the school grounds on July 23.

On August 5, the annual picnic of the churches and Sunday Schools of Oakville was held at Boiling Springs Park. “The party numbered about five hundred, and they came to Carlisle in additional cars attached to the east bound morning passenger train of the Cumberland Valley Railroad. Six trolley cars were waiting at the square to convey the party to the park, and all cars were filled. The picnickers were accompanied by the Oakville Band, which gave several fine concerts during the day.”¹²

In August, George Messinger of Hogestown was appointed teacher at Oakville High School.¹³

Col. Robert Hays Smith and his wife of San Francisco were making a short visit with Col. Smith’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Smith of Oakville. Col. R. H. Smith, a member of the Governor of California’s staff, is a banker, capitalist, and oil magnate. He and his wife will board the Mauretania on August 27th for a six-week trip abroad.¹⁴

Mrs. Jacob Myers’ two-pound tomato made the news in the September 1 issue of the Valley Times Star, as well as the fact that the Oakville Band would hold their last festival of the season on September 3.

The Wide Awake Junior Choir of the Christian Endeavor of Oakville held a festival on Saturday evening September 24 to raise funds to purchase new singing books. “They sold ice cream, cake, popcorn and home-made candies, and they raised almost enough to pay for the books.”¹⁵

Mr. and Mrs. Earl Beidler of Oakville came to Carlisle on September 30 “in their fine Mitchell touring car and attended the fair. Mr. Beidler is a well-known grain merchant of that town.”¹⁶ They drove their touring car to Carlisle again on October 15 to visit Mrs. Beidler’s sister, Miss Gertrude Reed, of the Bosler Library.

A private sale of the Beistle property was advertised. The six-room brick house was located near the church, the schools, and the Depot.

In October, the Oakville school received a library from Harrisburg of fifty books by noted authors. Miss McCullough, the librarian, reported that anyone over the age of ten could borrow these books for a two-week period providing he or she agreed to pay promptly any fines for injuries beyond reasonable wear to any book while in their possession.¹⁷

In November there was a change of Cumberland Valley Rail Road agents at Oakville. Charles K. Over, who had been the agent for several years, was transferred to Richmond, Virginia, and he was succeeded by H. G. [sic] Lewis.¹⁸ It was also the month that the building of the Bell Telephone line between Oakville and Green Spring had been approved, and work had begun.¹⁹

“Mrs. R. Hays Smith, of San Francisco, who has been in Europe for some time, returned to Oakville. She was accompanied by Miss Cornelia O. Conner formerly of San Francisco but for the last six years a resident of Florence, Italy. They arrived at Oakville on Thanksgiving and started for California the same evening. While in Oakville, they were guests of William Smith, Sr.”²⁰ Doctor and Mrs. M. L. Emrick partook of Thanksgiving dinner at the Smith’s [Mrs. Emrick’s parents], and Frank Seidle, his wife, and Ed Seidle spent Thanksgiving day at the Miller’s.

The Oakville Sunday School held their Christmas entertainment on the evening of December 23. Friends and families celebrated the Christmas season, and guns were fired off at midnight on December 31.

Photos of Oakville’s Main Street, B. A. Cramer’s house, the Railroad, the CVRR Elevator, the United Brethren Church, and Oakville’s two schools are in the Society’s photo collection.