Well, it’s that time of year again – early November. Which means I have to write about the founding of Lock Haven, the early days. The closest thing Lock Haven has to an official founding date is Nov. 4, 1833, when Jerry Church held the public auction to sell off lots for his new community. This makes our city 182 years old.

So, the good news here is that I’m able to pretty much do this one from memory, which is great as I’m stuck for column ideas lately. I know the early history of Lock Haven. In fact, the early Jerry Church days are really my favorite time period.

Jerry Church was born on Dec. 11, 1796 in New York State. His early days are detailed in his journal (still available at the Ross Library! Still $1.75!)

If you’re any kind of regular reader of my column, you’ll know all about Jerry Church. But I’d be willing to bet that new readers aren’t aware that our city was founded by a man who, by today’s standards, was a high school dropout and sexual harasser.

Oh, yeah. I went there.

Jerry Church was thrown out of school at age 13 for attempting to kiss the teacher. In his journal, he wrote, “I began to think that I was pretty smart, and concluded that I would try and kiss the school marm. However, I was mistaken.”

The heads of the school contacted his parents and suggested he was getting perhaps too old for a summer school taught by ladies.

“That checked my education in some respects,” he wrote.

He traveled around the country for quite some time, doing various odd jobs and having adventures. Some of these adventures involved almost starving to death; at one point he shot a nearby bird and asked a local girl to cook it for him. (She gave him a cup of coffee, too.)

He came to this area – which, at the time was Lycoming and Centre counties, no Clinton as of yet – to visit his brother Willard in the fall of 1833, and decided that it was a wonderful place, and that he needed to found a community here.

“We took a walk over the premises,” Jerry wrote, “and found it to be a delightful spot.”

With some effort, he raised the money from an investor in Williamsport. This was most likely Judge Alexander Jordan, a Lycoming attorney. He bought 200 acres of land from Doctor John Henderson, and on Nov. 4, 1833, he sold it at a public auction, naming his new town “Lock Haven” after the local canal locks.

The first lot sold went to Frank Smith, a local hotel owner. Smith bought the property on the southeast corner of Jay and Water streets – what is now Lindsey Place. He set up a hotel there and founded the Thespian Society, a group of hotel owners who were also frustrated actors. They would put on plays in a different hotel every month and invite the public to come and watch. This was the most entertainment that the early Lock Haven citizens had.

The biggest, most expensive plot of land went to James Jefferis III, a retired pirate from Chester County. Jefferis had begun a career as a privateer, sort of a government-licensed pirate, in his teens. He’d had a ship called The Neptune, and had retired from his adventures and moved to this area to be with family when Jerry founded the town. He bought $9,000 worth of land- 120 acres – in the southern portion of town, around today’s East Bald Eagle Street. His house still stands, at the corner of Bald Eagle and Henderson. Jefferis’s son, James Jefferis IV, grew up to become Lock Haven’s sixth mayor. The son of a pirate. Don’t anyone tell me this isn’t an awesome place.

Jerry built a tree house on his property between Church and Bald Eagle streets and hung out there for quite a while. He left the area in 1845, going west for more communities and more adventures. And Lock Haven grew, more than doubling its original size and becoming the community we know today.

I think Jerry Church would be thrilled to see what his city has become. I think he’d be proud of its citizens. We’ll never know, of course, because he died on Nov. 1, 1874, making him unlikely to drop by for further visits. But he was right about one thing. Lock Haven is a delightful spot.

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Lou Bernard is a Lock Haven resident with a keen interest in the history of this area. He is adult services coordinator at Ross Library and may be reached at ross13@rosslibrary.org

or 570-748-3321.