The SNYDER COUNTY POST History Page

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From the Archives of
The
Middleburg Post

Presented by Emily Johnson, VP Snyder County Historical Society and the Simon Snyder of Pennsylvania: Citizen and Governor
1759-1819 exhibition committee

125 Years Ago
March 11, 1886

    On Saturday of last week, "Squire Gift" staked off the foundation of the new jail. Work on it will commence as soon as the ground opens. Anthony McCauly of Lewistown, has the stone and the brick for the new prison.
    Miss Kate Steininger of Hartleton recently completed a quilt that contains 3525 patches.
    Aaron Stetler, proprietor of the planing mill in Middleburg, the beginning of this week, placed a new engine in the mill. It is a powerul animal and works like a charm.
    Moses Specht recently sold his farm near Beavertown, containing 68 acres, to Peter Bubb, of Beaver Township, for $6,500.

100 Years Ago
March 11, 1911

The Good Roads Train was at the Middle station on Tuesday. The attendance at the lecture was very good as the cars were well filled. The modern road equipment on display was very good.
Selinsgrove is advocating an ordinance prohibiting out-of-town merchants from littering the streets with their literature. This is good gospel and could be found profitably by other towns.

75 Years Ago
March 12, 1936

Mr. George Shindel reports that he is having dandelion out of his garden today for dinner. This is the first dandelion dinner in Middleburg reported this year.
Mr. Stanley Bingaman of Mt. Pleasant Mills suffered a deep gash in his left foot while trimming a log. The axe he was using hit a knot, reflected, and the injury required several stitches.

50 Years Ago
March 12, 1961

Snyder County's only candidate for the office of Judge in the Union-Snyder County Judicial District is Irvin Graybill, Jr., Middleburg attorney, who is serving his second term as District Attorney of Snyder County.
Mrs. Lear Shambach will be candidate for Tax Collector in Center Township.

Closed Churches Within Snyder County...

Directions:
Mount Pleasant Mills is on PA 35, 1 mile west of the intersection of PA 35 and PA 104. Potato Valley Road is the north-south cross street in Mount Pleasant Mills ? it is also known as Fremont Road. From the square in Mount Pleasant Mills, go two blocks north on Potato Valley/Fremont Road. The church was on the right.

Brief History:
The village of Fremont is now known as Mount Pleasant Mills. When the 1894 denominational split divided the congregation at Fremont, the Evangelical Association maintained control of the building, known locally as "The Dam Church." Beginning in 1894, the congregation was served by the East Pennsylvania Conference of the Evangelical Association, and it was one of the few central Pennsylvania Association congregations to survive until the 1922 denominational re-union.
Services were discontinued about 1930, and most of the members transferred to the United Brethren congregation, now Emmanuel United Methodist. The building was sold to Rev, Oscar G. Martin, who used the lumber to erect a shed that still stands on the family property one mile north of town.
While the United Evangelicals supplied Fremont for a few years following the division, their congregation did not survive and never erected a building.

Directions:
From the square in Middleburg, go one mile west on US 522 to Kissimmee Road. Turn right on Kissimmee Road and go 2 miles to the village of Kissimmee. The church is on the left.

Brief History:
This congregation dates from 1854, where a United Brethren class erected a building at the site of the present Zion United Methodist Church. There was a split in that congregation. The split group erected a building somewhere between Zion Church and the village of Kissimmee and then, using materials from their first building, erected the present building in Kissimmee in 1916. The United Brethren group from which they split did not survive and they sold their property to the Evangelicals in 1890, which property is now Zion United Methodist Church.

miles to Paradise Church Road. Turn left on Paradise Church Road and go 1 mile. The church is on the left.

Brief History:
The Paradise congregation was organized by Eusebius Hershey about 1848. A one story log church building was constructed in 1854 on land deeded by William T. Reichenbach for a church and a free burial ground. The present church building was constructed on the same site in 1899. In 1924 several families left Paradise to start a holiness church, Chapman Community Chapel, located about 0.5 miles to the west.
The Susquehanna circuit of the United Brethren Church existed for almost 100 years. It was established in 1854 and continued until the dismantling of the Allegheny Conference in 1951. While various other churches were on the circuit from time to time, there were seven main churches that kept the charge together. While various denominational and congre-gational mergers have recon-figured the region so that none of the seven exits any more as a distinct congregation, they continue in ministry as parts of local United Methodist congregations.

Fremont EV

Kissimmee
St. Luke's UB

Paradise UB

Directions:
From Port Trevorton, go 3 miles south on US 11-15 to Black Woods Road, in the community of Independence. Turn right on Black Woods Road and go 2

Ministers of the Evangelical Association entered this area in 1834 and formed a class.
A log church building was erected in 1835. In 1856, some dissenting members withdrew to form the short-lived Zion Evangelical congregation west of Port Trevorton. In the 1894 denominational split, some dissenting members withdrew and erected a United Evangelical building across the road. This congregation remained in the Evangelical Association and was served by the East Pennsylvania Confer-ence of that denomination from 1894 to 1922.
Following the 1922 denominational re-union, the two congregations remained on separate charges for many years. The two Witmers congregation began being served by the same pastor in 1964, and in December of that year a fire destroyed the Witmers East building. In 1965 the East and West congre-gations united to form a single congregation, the present Witmers United Methodist Church, and erect a new building.

Witmer's West EV