Putting cows on the front page since 1885.
Putting cows on the front page since 1885.
Sorted by date Results 1 - 50 of 75
Few articles I have written since starting on this adventure with the Morrisons Cove Herald have generated a positive response as the one published last week about snow sledding. It seemed to bring a laugh and spark some memoirs for many readers. But one reader chided me for missing an excellent opportunity to caution adults, especially drivers, to ease up on the accelerometer any time they spot a group of sledders. “You never know where all of those kids are and one may be very close to the roadway,” the reader said. She was spot on and the...
Ahhh, Christmas, little more than a week away. If there is time, put down the scissors and gift paper, ignore the mountain of socks and underwear yet to be wrapped, and let the mind race to 2024. Think for a minute about the weather lore compiled by the Farmer’s Almanac, that life Bible since 1818. No one is vouching for the accuracy of these predictions, but one can only hope they are more accurate than the weather predictions made by the staff for 2023. We’ll know more this time next year because, determined to make better use of my time in...
Stories and poems have been written and snappy songs composed about what for many is the highlight of the Christmas season, the pine tree, lowly in the forest and magnificent decked out in lights and garland. As Christmas draws near it’s time to dig out the torn and taped box with the artificial green branches spilling out or dig out warm coats and gloves and head to the forest or the tree farm down the road. Do you still drag in the Douglas Fur or scotch pine and tie it into the far corner of the family room or has the big flip been made a...
It’s the time of year when fruit markets and drug stores force one to think about the upcoming year, now just weeks away. The 2024 calendars — be they national park themed, ones with pictures of cute animals or with a religious slant — provide the opportunity to block off April 8, 2024, when it will be what some are touting as the “Greatest Show on Earth.” We’ve turned to the 2024 Farmers Almanac for best details of the total solar eclipse. This one will be visible from just some areas of the country, but editors of the near two century old...
One’s final resting place — often well-thought-out and viewed with respect and reverence — is overshadowed for a small number of Morrisons Cove residents by what was once a highly prized landmark that played a huge role in the growth of southern Blair and northern Bedford counties. About six dozen people, young and old, are interred in a makeshift cemetery under the shadow of the Rebecca Furnace at the edge of a remote corn field three miles east of Martinsburg. The cemetery, known by older locals for some time, began getting a little atten...
Two woolly worms have taken up residency on my back deck near a pot of orange mums. The story they tell is confusing, as these tried-and-true weather predictors are telling different stories. One of the guests is completely black, front to end, a sign, according to woolly worm experts, that the winter will be a cold, snowy one from December to April. This guy's housemate leans to the brown with little black in the midsection but sporting warm, toasty shades on large parts of the front and back...
The fragrance of wood smoke hits about a quarter mile from the destination: my sister Janet Ronk’s home. Pulling in the drive brings the deep rich fragrance of cider and apples cooking at a simmer. Summer is over and the apples are hanging in heavy clusters. The snap of cold lets all know it’s time to drag out the copper kettle and build a fire. It’s the first time in 17 years the Ronks have made apple butter and I made the short list, an invitation to spend the day. A latecomer to the apple butter boil party, I missed the days of preparation,...
Hard country singer Junior Brown is a strong believer that “what was is as important as what is,” and it is a philosophy adopted by a group of Morrisons Cove residents who have set upon a journey determined to capture and record what was for their community. Lead by retired dairy farmer Gerald Burket, a group of volunteers have started peeling off the layers of the onion comprising Piney Creek. At least a section of the winding, twisting two-lane roadway starting just outside Martinsburg and traveling to the Clappertown area, about half way...
After months of scaremongering, fortification construction at vulnerable spots and enlisting volunteers to protect Morrisons Cove and Altoona from southern rebels, all eyes shifted east to Gettysburg and locals started breathing sighs of relief. A firsthand look at the drama playing out in Gettysburg and locally is found in journal entries posted by Morrisons Cove resident Henry C. Lorenz, who reported on his findings the third week in June 1863, when he rode through the Cove to Woodbury and Pattonville (Loysburg) and spotted northern militia...
Most were little boys, 14 or 15 years old, frightened for their families and homes. They were frightened for their own lives. Yet they crept about Blair and Bedford counties, loaded gun in hand and stomachs growling for lack of food. The country these kids were determined to defend and save could not or would not deal with the basic needs of the unpaid northern soldiers of Pennsylvania. To stay alive and able to do battle, they had to resort to measures they detested, actions that left them with a scarred reputation they carry to this day and...
Fortifications were being built and monitored in key locations to keep Confederate troops out of Morrisons Cove and ultimately the Altoona railroad shops along with the iron furnaces dotted across southern Blair and northern Bedford counties. Men were stepping forward to man the fortifications and the rumors of impending southern troops attacking kept the volunteers worn out. It was summer 1863 and Confederate soldiers were eager to advance into central Pennsylvania and strike a devastating blow to the northern initiative to end slavery and...
Johnny Reb crossed the south eastern end of Pennsylvania, eager to engage troopers from the north in any level of battle in the hopes they would soon see southern victory of the Civil War and the right to indicate the terms of any peace agreement. It was the summer of 1863 and the confederates were meeting with no resistance to their northern forays despite their destroying public property and made off with supplies at will, Civil War historian Cloyd Neely recorded in a document he authored using stories of Civil War soldiers of the Duncansvill...
“To Arms To Arms!” were the words printed in bold face in the hopes of attracting the attention of young and old to the potential plight facing the usually peaceful farmers and merchants of Blair and Bedford counties. The call was aimed at citizens and returned soldiers, calling them to a 6 p.m. meeting at the Blair County courthouse to adopt measures for protection against a feared raid by militia from the south as the Civil War dragged through yet another summer. The recruiting poster was published on the front cover page of the summer 202...
The summer 1863 was a hot one — not only in terms of temperature and humidity — but the Civil War was raging on and the southern Confederates were determined to repeat in Pennsylvania the destruction carried out elsewhere. The men in Blair and Bedford counties were hesitant, for a variety of reasons, to take up arms and head to the trenches built at mountain passes in Morrisons Cove to keep the rebels at bay. The call went out by Pennsylvania leaders for state militia volunteers, but very few volunteers responded, according to one Civil War...
They were given self-descriptive names like Minute Men of the Cove, The Hopewell Rifles and The Chicken Raiders and while hesitant to go into war, these hundreds of men from Blair and Bedford counties turned out in full force when the soldiers flexed muscle to the south and east. While the Morrisons Cove residents showed up to build the mountain gap fortifications known as Wilkinson Forts named for Woodbury resident John Wilkinson, who supervised construction, interest waned when it came to manning the potential access points. This chore likely...
It was mid-1863 and the country was void of cable news, Twitter, radio. Even newspapers were often scarce and read like information sent in by carrier pigeon. Yet our nation was at war with one another and the fear was huge that your front door would be broken down at any point or a match lit under the foundation would rob you of your family. Rumors, be it from hucksters passing through Morrisons Cove or a letter from Aunt Tillie in Lancaster, scared our ancestors, and they did not sit idly by hoping the rumor mill was wrong. Morrisons Cove...
Experts say the formation of Morrisons Cove was determined by the Ice Age giving our homeland its canoe-shaped basin formed by three mountains. These mountains give Cove residents a sense of security that tornadoes likely will not sweep through as lunch time approaches and nights dozing in the bathtub are not common. But our mountains — Dunings to the west, Lock to the north and Tussey Mountain forming the eastern border — have small, seemingly insignificant weaknesses. The gaps, as these areas have become know, were discovered by the first...
Experts say the formation of Morrisons Cove was determined by the Ice Age giving our homeland its canoe-shaped basin formed by three mountains. These mountains give Cove residents a sense of security that tornadoes likely will not sweep through as lunch time approaches and nights dozing in the bathtub are not common. But our mountains — Dunings to the west, Lock to the north and Tussey Mountain forming the eastern border — have small, seemingly insignificant weaknesses. The gaps, as these areas have become know, were discovered by the first...
The year was 1863 and it was a time of widespread rumors. Every huckster passing through the area brought stories of death and destruction at the hands of Confederate troops in the south. A trip to town brought Poppa scurrying back with plans to look for caves or other hiding places he could take the family if troops were spotted coming over the mountain east from McConnelsburg with all eyes on Blair County and Morrisons Cove. To call it scary times for the farmers and shop keepers would be an understatement. Woolen blankets produced at the...
Spring is being ushered out by the blazing summer sun and thousands of locals find themselves looking up at the sky. They’re not looking for a rain cloud but rather to offer a prayer that the Confederate soldiers will look elsewhere in their search for supplies to meet the needs of war time life. The year is 1863 and as the southern armies cast their gaze away from significant defeats, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania starts coming into sharper focus. Middle school history class focuses on the burning of Chambersburg and Gettysburg, the b...
A glance out the dining room window toward the stream and the usually lush green grass is brown with little sign of life. Not an unusual sight if it is the tail end of August, but a noteworthy scene considering it is the first full week of June. The weather watchers look back to April when rainfall levels were down by three inches and May moisture was off by even more. The National Drought Mitigation Center of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a handful of federal government agencies are...
As the final days of the school term approach, it seems a good time for the history lovers among us to reflect on how education and schoolhouses in particular used to be, not just 50 years ago, but a century ago. As the people who built the schoolhouses and attended classes in the tiny structures have long ago passed away, we feel especially honored that the folks at the Blair County Genealogical Society provided us with a copy of an article which ran in the Altoona Mirror on Oct. 26, 1948, spelling out the history of the eight-sided...
It was nothing short of a massive horizontal Jack and the Beanstalk. Let a few volunteers reseed, go away for a week or so and come home to pumpkin and ornamental gourd vines covering the ground around the garage and the northern side of the house. My 2022 experience with annual vegetable plants which reseeded gave new meaning to the term “volunteers.” The two intertwined and set about taking over. At one point the vines and their lovely orange fruit covered the purple clematis vine and trellis, obliterated the three sizable boxwood along the...
Many people have places they go annually, often at the same time of the year, but how does the destination and the scenery on the way change and how does it look, say two months earlier or two months later? I experienced this over the weekend when I made a serendipitous trip to the family owned cottage in Clearfield County. My usual trip time is the last week of July when summer’s sweltering heat is blowing out the windows and shade and iced tea are at the top of the agenda. I can say without hesitation that springtime at Mahaffey Camp, as i...
Take a gander to the left of you, and one to the right, look behind and ahead. If you’re living in Morrisons Cove, chances are pretty good that you’ll find a Dilling. Hey, take a hard look and maybe you’ll find one of your own great, great, greats was a Dilling. When I first wrote about the abandoned cemetery in Huston Township bearing about a half dozen Dillings, I had no idea the nerve I would touch resulting in phone calls and texts making claim to the name first brought to the Cove in 1737 by Casper Dilling. The response piqued my curiosity...
When Jim Snyder, president of the Blair County Genealogical Society, talked of investigating one of many abandoned cemeteries in Blair County, and specifically Morrisons Cove, little did one realize the back stories that would pop to the surface, especially regarding the Dilling family, one of the earliest to stake out a tract and throw a plow into the sod in the Martinsburg area. Catherine, Henry and George Dilling, three unmarried siblings living on a farm in Huston Township between Clover Creek and Piney Creek, have been identified by Snyder...
When one sees the words “if this place could talk,” there is a tendency to conjure images of ghosts, thrilling romance or big money deals. But when one looks at the farm that now belongs to the Bakers, just a stones throw from Piney Creek Road in Huston Township, it’s difficult to imagine what of much drama occurred here. Enter Ella Snowberger, the intrepid Morrisons Cove Herald reporter of 80 years ago, and some of the mystery surfaces. Some of us first heard about the Baker farm a week ago when Jim Snyder, president of the Blair County Genea...
A long narrow strip of dark soil in the middle of what is now a corn field in Huston Township is causing a stir of different sorts for two men. For Jim Snyder, president of the Blair County Genealogical Society, the Dilling Cemetery located on what is now the Brent and Betsy Baker farm, a stone’s throw from the Smithfield Church, is the latest in a growing list of undiscovered or forgotten small graveyards. For Allen Edwards, it is the beginning of a multi-year restoration project. “These small family-owned cemeteries are something you use...
"As surely as the sun rises He will appear; He will come to us like the spring rains that water the earth." Hosea 6:3. It's inevitable, just as winter and snow follow the warm sun of fall, spring bursts out all over our flower beds, ornamental shrubs and lawns. This week is shaping up to be a banner spring stretch of warm sun, gentle breezes and the hum of lawn mowers. "It's turning into perfect weather to dedicate some time to the garden," said gardening sister Donna Martino. Addressing a...
A stop at any nursery, hardware store and even supermarket this time of year will give any shopper the difficult task of not bumping into a metal rack overflowing with hundreds of brightly colored small paper envelopes depicting robust annual and perennial seeds and bushel baskets of healthy vegetables. Ah, the air is a little warmer, the showers bring fragrance detectable after a long winter and the garden bed is shouting that it needs attention. But don’t rush out to stock up on the four packs of beans, zucchini and marigolds. Many of the f...
Roberts, the Pittsburgh-based jewelry company that was called “the oldest in America” in 1946, described Blair County as the jewel of all 67 counties in Pennsylvania. In an advertising booklet aimed at spreading the word about this long-held family-owned and operated company, the enterprising family gathered historical information and wrote vignettes about each of the counties in the commonwealth. They were first published in the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph and, in response to popular demand, were later compiled in a booklet of sorts and made ava...
Advertising: the method used by businesses to catch the public eye regarding goods or services being offered. Advertising is everywhere one looks today, but was a challenge for many two centuries ago when newspapers and roadside signs were among the few offerings. But one Pittsburgh jewelry company came up with an angle the owners hoped would keep their name and the quality of their product in the forefront for months if not years. The Roberts Jewelry Company, which boasted as being the oldest jewelry company in America, regularly ran...
They usually start arriving just before the new year and are often hidden beneath the end of year bills, credit card offers and unsolicited health care plans. The annual deluge of seed and plant catalogs is in full swing and for the gardening lovers among us, they present a promise of normalcy. Despite the sad state of world affairs, spring will come, it’s a promise. The seed catalogs are arriving. The temperatures will warm and the earth will once again produce a bounty of produce and flowers. The seed catalogs are offering the great things o...
The bitter cold days experienced in Morrisons Cove over Christmas generated conversations recalling similar blustery days of three decades ago. But weather of two centuries ago also comes to mind. While this attempt at weather conversation falls short of the weather talk generated by the late George Acker, the central Cove predicator of cold, warm, snow and hurricanes for the upcoming year, some interesting weather talk can be found in a look at Pennsylvania published in book from 1832. The author of the “Gazetteer of the State of P...
Oh, the majestic Christmas tree, we remember those of bygone days, brag on what we had to pay, speak of how the needles so splendidly stay in place and finally, what are we going to do with it after it is pulled from the living room. Most families wait until New Year’s day or shortly after to usher out the dying flag ship of Christmas, Some do the deed 12 days after Christmas, that date promoted as the true date of the joyous holiday, but few push their luck much further than that. The longest living tree to remain in place and lit without b...
A man, who over the years touched the lives of many young people in the central Morrisons Cove, spent some of the most formidable of his years living under conditions one can barely imagine. Joseph Conlon, best known for his teaching at Roaring Spring High School and Spring Cove School District, touched thousands of lives, few of whom may be aware he spent one very lonely Christmas Eve as a prisoner of war in a German detention camp. The prolific writer died in 2015 at the age of 90, but he penned an account of that Christmas Eve and today we,...
It’s late fall, the mid-1950’s, an early cold front has brought snow flurries and sharp wind to the region. A group of little girls huddle at a front window of an old farmhouse waiting for the mailman to stop. This certainly has to be the day that it arrives. It’s been anticipated for so long. And arrive it does, the latest edition of the Sears Roebuck Christmas catalog. It was filled with a cornucopia of wonderfulness that, for the little girls, would never find its way to their house, but it was so much fun just to look and dream. This scena...
The halls may be decked with boughs of holly and the jingle bells may ring when the door is opened, but if the corner that long hosted the pine tree remains bare, Christmas still needs to show up there. As the decades-old debate over real or fake continues to rage, the number of natural trees gracing homes, at least in this area, is dropping and it's mostly not out of choice. In the event you have yet to shop for your live tree, it might be best to start beating the proverbial bushes. Now, just...
It may not been a cooked goose or a plum pudding, but if it's the holiday season, many of us want to cook and have friends and family over to share holiday joy. Many are tuned into social tradition, be it food, holiday decorating, or both, but along with the anticipation of Christmas and New Year's comes the drive to entertaining and the stress that accompanies when the spotlight is turned on the home and the food. The internet is awash with holiday decorating, food and entertain ideas, from...
As the temperatures turn decidedly cooler and Old Man Winter rears his head signaling he is taking over, the thoughts of a retired dairy farmer living in Southern Morrisons Cove turn to his younger days and oddly enough, to honey bees. For many years, Ray Grubb of Salemville Road traveled out of the cold and into the sunny environs of Florida with these buzzing insects, so heavily depended upon to pollinate much of the fruits and vegetables grown in this country. The ride south was usually a...
Motorists traveling south on Route 36 first spot it about a half mile outside the tiny community of Woodbury. The blur of red, green, yellow and blue lights to the right slips out of view as the road dips but comes back into sight as the traveler passes the Woodbury Church of the Brethren. But it isn't until one passes the Logue farm that the full splendor of the massive tree, which has developed a significant following, comes into full view. Yes, John Over and his sons Joe and Ed have done it...
"If you would have a mind at peace, a heart that cannot harden, go find a door that opens upon a lovely garden." - Author unknown It may seem silly to talk about a lovely garden in mid-November in Pennsylvania, but long after the leaves of deciduous trees have ceased grabbing all the attention, a close look at this pre-winter garden shows subtle and sometimes surprising finds. The vining bittersweet still spills over the fence with its cracked yellow pods giving way to brilliant orange berries....
This week wraps up the last leg of the walk around Roaring Spring that lifelong resident Larry Curfman is sharing with readers in his own words. The memories start at “back to Cherry Street.” --------------------------------------- During the war years, around 1944-45, there were three or four P-36 twin tail fighter planes flying over Roaring Spring. People ran outside to get a look at the new twin tail figures. I also remember my parents talking about a man named Will Ketner. The Ketners lived a half block from our house near the P.S. McGee Da...
This past growing season was one with a little too much rain and little too much dry, but by and large, a look around any farmer's stand is proof positive that most crops provided a bountiful harvest. The potato and apple bins are overflowing and the tables are piled high with beautiful solid cabbages and onions. Keeping the produce in good shape in the hopes of stretching it far into the cold winter months can be a challenging task, one that requires work as the veg is harvested and later with...
Larry Curfman, a Roaring Spring resident with lifelong love for his hometown this week continues his walk down memory lane, a recollection we are using in his own words. Curfman, 84, with a sharp memory for detail and emotion has heard from a host of friends who read the first part of this history walk which ran earlier this month and are awaiting the next leg of the trek. We left off Curfman’s reminiscences when the family apartment in the Odd Fellows Hall was on fire. He was six months old. The year was 1938 and he eventually got into the a...
The warm noonday sun may still be thawing the frost on the pumpkin, but old man winter is quickly scheduling his attacks on the region and experts are predicting 2022-23 will serve as a reminder of cold, hard winters of the past. Morrisons Cove no longer has George Acker, the elderly weather forecaster who would predict hurricanes, tornadoes, heavy snow storms, thunder showers, even summer warm stretches, but we do have the weather "bible," the Old Farmer's Almanac. Tim Goodwin, associate editor...
If you ever want to know anything about the history of Roaring Spring and its environs, it might be worthwhile to head over to Robinson Avenue and spend a little time with Larry Curfman. Curfman was born in Roaring Spring, at the original Nason Hospital in July 1938. Today at the age of 84, Curfman’s sharp mind recalls detail and emotion so quickly, it’s difficult for a scribe to keep pace. He recently put some of his thoughts to paper and we’re going to pass along what he had to say. Curfman’s story will continue in the Herald in coming...
Paul Kurtz was an educator much of his lifetime, starting as a classroom teacher then Blair County superintendent of schools. This means a lot of people knew Kurt, but few knew him when it came to his true passion. Kurtz, who lived for many years in a big brick house on the North Side of Bellwood, spent his free hours gardening and thinking about gardening. His primary interest was perennials but his all-consuming passion was dahlias. It is a genus of bushy, tuberous, herbaceous perennials...
As we jump in the car for the quarter-mile trip to pick up bread and milk, it’s difficult to imagine the days prior to car and truck or even bicycles, but for many Morrisons Cove residents of the past, if a horse was not around it meant exercising the always available “shank’s mare.” Ella Snowberger’s “Bygone Days in the Cove,” is replete with vignettes of people forced to make a trip to Johnstown or Altoona who had little choice but to rely on the good old shoe leather express. She speaks of a man from Southern Cove who had a meeting with...
This spring and summer has been one of too much rain at times and not enough at other times in the region. Despite a fickle precipitation mix from Mother Nature, fall is shaping up to be a noteworthy show for even the toughest leaf peepers, experts predict. One thing for sure the much anticipated color display of yellows, oranges, reds, rusts and purples in Penn’s Woods will be much brighter than the lackluster fall foliage display of 2021. The Bureau of Forestry of the state Department of C...
