Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/138

 COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES (he wants of the few people, and the town was amply supplied with blacksmiths, carpenters, w eavers, etc. T he first industry o f im p o rtan t was the tanner}' o f Daniel Snyder, at Main street and Light Street road, started in i8 t 2 after many O stad es o f a financial nature. Another tannery was opened by Philip Christman, who sold out afterw ards to WiUiam Robison. T h e first wagon shop was started under peculiar circumstances. In the year 18 16 a stranger came to Bloomsburg and stopped at one of the taverns overnight. Inquiries of the landlord elicited the fact that he was a wagonm akcr, his name was Jam es W ells, and he was from Connecticut. T h e landlord needed a wagon, as did also others, this useful vehicle being conspicuous by its aW n c c at the time in the town. Wells endeavored to obtain the use o f tools from the carpenters of the town, but the prejudice against "Y an k e es" w as so great that he was repeatedly refused. Finally W il­ liam Sloan agreed to let him have a bench and the use o f tools in his shop, then located on M arket street on the site of the present L u ­ theran church. T hey went to the farm of Sloan near Bloomsburg and procured from the fences sufikicnt seasoned wood to build the first one-horse wagon ever seen in the town. Sloan at once began the manufacture of w ag­ ons. the product being of the “ Dearborn" class. He sent salesmen around and soon had a thriving business. In 18 32 John K . Grotz became his partner and decided to add the m aking o f plows to the factory. H e went to Lew istow n, Mifflin county, to buy a plow, and started fo r home with it in his wagon, but on the w ay sold the latter, and fastening a sapling to the plow point hauled it sled-fam ion more than h alf the way. T he making o f plows was not very successful, but the wagon business prospered under the original founders and th eir successors, M . C . Sloan & Brother, until 1890 . when it w as discontinued. In 18 32 a number o f canalboats of the "a r k ” variety were built in Bloomsburg by John WliiteniRlit. John Barton, Isaac Green, Samuel L u d w ig and Geoige Frey. These boats were loaded with grain and other products and shipped to southern ports, where both the boats and their contents were sold. O ther smaller plants of the past were the foundr}’ of S. M. Hess, which produced car w heels and fencing, and the establishment of the Bloomsburg Planing & Cabinet Company. In 1864 Peter S. Harman and Benjamin F. Sharplcss opened a foundry and machine shop, running it fo r four years, after which Mr.

107

Harman severed his connection and Mr. Sharplcss continued the establishment for some years as the Eagle Iron W orks. It stood on T hird street, next to the Colonel Freeze property, and was removed when Center street was opened through it. One of the local industries between (838 and 1841 w as the culture of the silkworm by Robert Cathcart and W illiam G. H urley, their mulberry grove being on the north side o f First street. But it was mainly a " fa d " and soon languished, the promoters hardly making expenses. PROSPFJIITY AND GROWTn

The growth of the town was gradual and of a substantial character, and never savored of the "boom " method which so often wrecks a town as well as the promoters. In 18 38 the population w as a little over three hundred and the log and frame bouses had for the most part been superseded by brick structures. T he dis­ covery o f iron in the hills near had resulted in an increase o f population, but it w as not un­ til the building of the furnaces in the early fifties that the town took its first spurt of growth. A fte r the establishment of the iron business the advent of the M ckaw anna & Bloomsburg railroad in 1858 gave a fresh impulse to the population, l i i i s road had a station originally outside o f (he town limits, but before many years the depot w as %vcll within the built-up portion. In 1881 the North & West Branch railroad was built and helped somewhat to de­ velop the river side of the town, but for some years the only means o f reaching the depot across (he river was by ferry. In 1888 the bridge question was agitated and the Bloomsburg Bridge Company w as or­ ganized. The Pennsylvania Railroad Com­ pany proposed the erection of a bridge to cost $100,000. they to take $55,000 of the stock, and the Bridge Company $45,000. A fte r sev­ eral interviews the project w as abandoned, and (he Bridge Company dissolved in 1890. A n account of the subsequent building o f this bridge is given elsewhere. These lines o f railroad seemed to presage the development of Bloomsburg into a railroad center, but so far (he prediction has not been fulfilled, although there is little to complain o f in the w.ay o f shipping or passenger facil­ ities. T h e only thing needed to complete the chain o f railroads is a through line north and south connecting the Reading with the roads