Mark your calendars for Sept. 14’s concert by David Pinelli at the Poorman Gallery. He will be performing original songs about coming of age in Lock Haven during the ’60s and ’70s. The event is free and starts at 1:30 p.m.

The Genealogy Society’s program on Sept. 9 features Bebe Fultz describing her ancestor Sybil Ludington, “the Female Paul Revere.” At the Poorman Gallery, 352 E. Water St. at 7 p.m. All are welcome!

Put Oct. 8 on your calendar for a Spaghetti Dinner Take-Out-Drive Through! Tickets are on sale at the Heisey House Museum and from board members. Sons and Daughters of Italy, 1 N. Henderson St., Lock Haven, from 5 to 7 p.m. Cost is $10. Proceeds benefit the Clinton County Historical Society.

Annie Snyder’s “Strawberries” is back on display after a thorough cleaning. We’re having a special night of donor recognition and presenting the next paintings in line for restoration: “Peaches” 1913 was donated to the Historical Society in 1979 by the D.K. Shadle Estate and is in need of cleaning and paint repair. “Pears” was donated in 1997 by Susan D. Hanna, and is in dire need of paint restoration.

Our researcher and writer Kathy Arndt was interviewed by WPSU’s Kristian Berg for an upcoming series on the Keystone State. She joins such esteemed interviewees Garrison Keiler, Ted Nugent, Betty White, Peter Coyote and others! The film crew took a few stills of Lock Haven scenes in our postcard collection. We also shared vintage black and white photos of the river and Lock Haven. The WPSU program is projected to air on PBS stations in November.

Thanks go to Jo Ann Marcinkevage for repairing seams and weak spots on our Civil War Infantry uniform!

New to the Collection: 1800s Stereoscope with 3-D image cards; donated by Cindy Pierce, 1927 photo of the Employees of General Refractories Beech Creek Works, winners of the Safety Trophy; donated by Fred Bucheit.1800s carpentry adjustable plane, donated by Jim Berkebile. These items are on display in the Poorman Gallery.

From the Collection

By Kathy Arndt

The subject of this month’s paragraphs is the autobiography of Jerry Church which was recently donated by Reed Mellinger. Much has been written by others about Jerry’s journey to what was to become the city of Lock Haven so my focus is on other aspects of his book.

Jerry Church expressed his thoughts about life in what was initially the last chapter in his 1845 journal. Having experienced life with his father who he described as a “hard drinker,” Jerry, noting that he himself did drink a glass of bitters (a drink made from aromatic herbs, bark, roots and/or fruit) every morning and a couple of drinks during the day, felt that alcohol should be banned so his temptation would be gone. He wrote that “when drink is in, wit is out.” Although he did both smoke and chew tobacco, Jerry was convinced that “smoking has a tendency to shorten life.”

Having started to establish his towns through the use of credit from investors, Church described two kinds of credit: one was rash and dishonest and the other was prudent and wholesome. He felt that credit was good as long as the recipient worked hard to build a business or establish a homestead in order to repay the loan. Jerry was tied to no specific church but he tried to “live as near… Christian circumstances” as he could. He wrote of lawyers as being “a little superior to any other class of men in the world,” but he also described them as “being the only set of men who can make falsehoods look a great deal like facts.”

Jerry Church saved his most pointed remarks for politicians. Although he does not identify the President of the United States in the following remarks, it may have been John Tyler, who served as President from 1841 to 1845. Jerry wrote the following in 1845: “One of our Presidents might be practically referred to, who was not willing to receive any direction from the people who placed him at the helm of state, but taking the helm in his own hands, a self-tribunal to execute his own will in all things and to let the people know that he was the lord and director of this free country; and the people obeyed him in his demands until they lost their money and character.”

Jerry Church decided to move on from Lock Haven in 1845. When he had come to this area, he said, there was one fine residence (now the home of the Clinton Co. Historical Society) and a few inhabitants. When he left the town of Lock Haven, there were seven retail stores and groceries, one drug and two candy shops, three preachers, two meeting houses, six lawyers, two doctors, two justices of the peace, a “fair community,” and “one Jerry Church.” He had accomplished what he had come to accomplish.

In the last chapter of his 1845 journal he wrote that some may criticize the length of his “little” book. He stated that if he considered himself to be a writer, he could have written four volumes. Church expressed his view, however, that many writers stray so far from their subject matter that readers lose interest before they finish the book. He was determined that “no one should have this to say of my little book; for what I say, I intended to say, and it don’t take me long to let it be known.”

In the fourth edition of The Journal of Travel, Adventures and Remarks of Jerry Church that was published in 1983 there is an additional chapter describing some of Jerry’s travels after leaving Lock Haven but for now I have said what I have intended to say. Stay tuned for the next chapter.

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