History of Williamsport, Pennsylvania

He and his mother were living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1772 when Michael became indentured servants to Samuel Wallis, known as the "Land King" of the West Branch Susquehanna River Valley.

He was able to use his profits to purchase 285 acres (1.2 km2) of land along the West Branch Susquehanna River, between Loyalsock and Lycoming Creeks.

Hepburn, reportedly, gave the orders to Robert Covenhoven and Rachel Silverthorn to spread the word of the impending attacks.

The county seat was awarded to a new community across the creek and Jaysburg soon disappeared from the map and its land was absorbed by the new city of Williamsport.

One of the first county judges, William Hepburn, owned the land on the opposite shore of Jaysburg that was known as Deer Park.

Ross and Hepburn would team together to create Williamsport from land that was swampy and thought to be uninhabitable by the Susquehannocks who had originally inhabited the West Branch Susquehanna River Valley.

A resident of Northumberland wrote an affidavit that he had once "tied up" his boat on a point of land on what is now East Third and State Streets in downtown Williamsport.

The affidavit was the proof that the Jaysburg interests needed to discredit Williamsport as a possible location for the county seat.

Hepburn and Ross heard of this potentially financially devastating document and sought to have it destroyed before it reached the state government.

It is supposed that men working for Hepburn and Ross met up with the messenger bearing the affidavit at the Russell Inn on the corner of East Third and Mulberry Streets in Williamsport and got him intoxicated.

This is when Judge Hepburn and Michael Ross set out their plan that ultimately led towards Williamsport being named the county seat.

Hepburn convinced Ross to offer lots of his property to the state commissioners for the building of a county courthouse and jail.

Construction also began in 1800 and work was completed in late 1804, nearly ten years after Williamsport was named the county seat.

[3] 1778 - The first purpose built cemetery is opened on what is now the site of Calvary United Methodist Church on Washington Blvd.

[6] He left his mother's farm in 1846 and arrived in Lycoming County later that same year and settled in Cogan House Township.

[8] Peter Herdic died on February 2, 1888, as the result of a concussion sustained when he slipped and fell on ice while inspecting his waterworks in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.

[10] The Susquehanna Boom extended seven miles (11 km) upstream[11] from Duboistown to the village of Linden in Woodward Township.

The men working at the end of the boom would sort the logs according to their corresponding brand and float them into the correct holding pond along the bank of the river.

[12] Hughes hid runaway slaves in the hold of his barge on his return trip up the Susquehanna River to Lycoming County where he provided shelter on his property near the Loyalsock Township border with Williamsport before moving further north and to eventual freedom in Canada.

He operated from a third-floor single room, moving down to a storefront location in 1886, establishing a weekly circulation of 20,000 by 1887.

Put happy thoughts, cheer and contentment into their hearts.A familiar newspaper in small towns across the United States for over a century, Grit became a national institution.

Another son, Howard J. Lamade, was vice president, and also served as a top executive with Little League Baseball, helping to build it into a national institution.

This edition stopped publication in the early 1990s (and only then did the Williamsport Sun Gazette begin producing a Sunday paper).

The local landmarks that were damaged or destroyed by the fire included an old log building at the corner of Third and Mulberry Streets, the Russell Inn (this inn served as the first courthouse in Williamsport[4]), and the Wayne Train Station, where an entire train of ten to fifteen cars and its engine were burned.

The followers of the Southern cause were implicated in setting the fire as vengeance for their loss in the American Civil War which had just ended 6-years prior.

They had remained at home while the "leading citizens" of Williamsport were temporarily out of town attending a revival camp meeting.

The fire destroyed many historical landmarks and exposed a bias towards newly arrived European migrants that was fairly common throughout the United States during the Industrial Revolution.

He began experimenting with his idea in the summer of 1938 when he gathered his nephews, Jimmy and Major Gehron and their neighborhood friends.

The first teams, Jumbo Pretzel, Lycoming Dairy and Lundy Lumber were managed by Carl Stotz and two of his friends George and Bert Bebble.

Stotz's dream of establishing a baseball league for boys to teach fair play and teamwork had come true.