As an organization managed by mostly volunteers, we are grateful for all the community support, whether it is memberships or business supporters. We welcome our newest business member, Berkebile Real Estate. Thank you!

At the annual meeting on Jan. 28, the following officers were elected:

— 3 Year Term 2026-2029: Jo Ann Bowes, Maribeth Long, Larry Ferree, Elaine Miller and Robert Sandow.

— 2 Year Term 2926-2028: Sue Welch and Peg Shaffer.

From the Collection

By Kathy Arndt

In January, a new file folder entitled Years Ago was added to the collection. The Express used to print a column with the same name that contained short local news stories from decades ago. Here are a few items from 1906, 1916 and 1926, found in a donated 1976 scrapbook.

In 1906, E. Church St. was paved with vitrified brick (a high strength and non-porous brick) at a cost of 66 cents/square yard. In the same year, the street sweeping machine was run by a man and two horses.

Mrs. S.D. Hepburn paid $295.75 to ticket agent Gifford at the railroad station for a ticket from Lock Haven to Nagasaki, Japan. That price included a first class train ticket to San Francisco as well as passage on a mail steamer with first class privileges to Japan.

Norman Hecht (perhaps a member of the Hecht department store family) won third place in the Frederick Piano word contest for submitting an entry containing more than 5,000 words from the phrase “Frederick sells pianos.”

In 1916, there was a collision between a motor vehicle and a horse drawn wagon. A delivery truck from the Jacob Brown and Son grocery store on E. Main St. collided with an ice wagon from the Ferd Lucas brewery in Castanea at the intersection of the Jordan and Fallon Alleys between Main and Water Streets. While one of the horses received a small cut, the delivery truck suffered heavy damage to its hood, radiator and running board from a horse’s “well-aimed hooves.”

There was still a stagecoach carrying passengers between Mill Hall and Loganton. The driver, Chauncey F. Royer, of Loganton, did place an order that year for a large automobile so he could carry more passengers.

Troop K, the cavalry unit from Lock Haven’s Pennsylvania National Guard, was leaving from the train station for a camp near the Mexican border in preparation for a fight with Pancho Villa. The salary for a Private at that time was 50 cents per day and for a 1st Class Sergeant, $1.33. Pay for a Captain was $6.67.

John Philip Sousa, the March King, came to Lock Haven in August, 1916, to take part in the 12th annual tournament of the Lock Haven Gun Club which was located at the top of Bellefonte Avenue. Sousa, who stayed at the Fallon Hotel, was the president of the Amateurs Trapshooting Association of America.

A man was arrested for driving faster than the 15 mph speed limit on E. Main St. The charges were dismissed because of a lack of evidence. Perhaps, because the radar gun was not invented until soon after the end of WWII.

In 1926, Jesse Perry, a crossing watchman for the railroad, was injured by flying glass when two bolts of lightning came through his bathroom window and shattered the glass in his mirror while he was shaving.

It was also during 1926 that the first hole in one was made at the Clinton Co. Country Club by H.E. “Bud” Fredericks on the ninth hole. Crossing Fishing Creek, the ball traveled 110 yards. The citizens of Lock Haven were also advised that year that the playing cards, strange handkerchiefs and old newspapers found in their yards may not have been thrown there by neighborhood children but may have been tossed by airplane passengers.

My favorite story in the scrapbook came from 1906. A traveling salesman staying in a local hotel made a $10 to $1 wager with the hotel clerk that in three minutes he could walk the mile from Grove St. to the Central State Normal School (now CU-Lock Haven). The clerk took the bet but said that the salesman would have to leave immediately because he was sending a friend along on the walk to verify that the salesman did not cheat. The salesman replied that his three minutes were not up yet but when they were he would walk to the school at his normal pace. He won the bet!