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125 Years Ago - 1885
    Sunday night the canal along the Susquehanna river in Snyder county was frozen over. Nearly all the canal boatmen are at home.
    At the annual election by the teachers of the Snyder County Institute held recently as to who was the ugliest man boarding at the Eagle Hotel in Franklin resulted in Mr. G.W. Hornberger receiving the highest number of votes and was accordingly the ugliest man and received the usual prize -- a dog knife.
   On Monday morning, the commissioners started their trip to the stone quarries of Mifflin County to select the stone for the new Snyder County Jail. A special train awaited to carry them to the quarries. After the visit, they returned to Logan and visited the Standard Steel Works where they saw loco-motive wheels made.

100 Years Ago - 1910
    The White Star Vaudeville Company of Sunbury opened their season in the opera house at Selinsgrove on Thursday evening and gave a pleasing performance to a large audience. Charles O'Brien, the well known funny clown, kept the audience roaring with laughter.

75 Years Ago - 1935
    The Reliance Hose Co. No. 1 of Middleburg cleared about $37 Friday and Saturday at Bingo in the Fire Hall. The money will be used toward the purchase of their new fire truck that is expected to arrive next week.
    Ray VanHorn, Middleburg garageman, has secured the agency for the Oldsmobile automobile. A new 1936 Oldsmobile is now on display at his garage. Prices start at $665.
    The Community Club of Paxtonville will present a three act comedy entitled "Silas Smidge" in the Paxtonville Theater on Saturday evening, November 30th at 7:30 pm.

35 Years Ago - 1975
    With only a few more weeks left in 1975, Snyder County is well on its way with plans for the 1976 celebration of the nation's bicentennial. Snyder County has six areas which have been designated Bicentennial Com-munities by the American Revo-lution Bicentennial Administra-tion in Washington, DC. These are Beavertown, Beaver Springs, Kreamer, McClure, Middleburg, and Selinsgrove. These communities are actively engaged in making final plans for festivities and will have souveniers for sale.

From the Archives of
The
Middleburg Post

Some Headlines From Around The State
About Snyder County's Past

The Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) November 23, 1915
Boy Hammers Dynamite;
Maims Left Hand With Explosive Found on the Highway
Sellinsgrove, Nov. 23. - Isaac, twelve-year-old son of Newton Barner, residing near McKees Half Falls, Snyder county, picked up a dynamite cap lying upon the State highway. The boy tried to flatten the cap by pounding it with a stone, when it exploded, tearing away his two fingers and thumb of his left hand.
Mr. Barner went with his son to the place where the boy found the explosive and unearthed a long fuse, partly burnt, leading to the middle of the road. Digging deeper, the father discovered a stick of dynamite. The motive for planting dynamite in the lonely country road is a mystery to the authorities.

The Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) November 19, 1913
Hunters Kill Farmer
Sunbury, Pa., Nov. 19
John Haines, of Weiss' Mills, Snyder County, a farmer, was shot dead while moving around in some brush. A party of hunters mistook him for game.

The Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) January 11, 1910
Food Carrier Freezes;
Father Drops on Way Home With Needed Provisions
Sellinsgove, pa., Jan. 11 - In his endeavor to take food to his wife and children, William Kreamer, residing near Globe Mills, Snyder county, was frozen to death, his body remaining in the field over night, until found by his son. The home larger was empty, and Kreamer walked to the village, four miles away, to purchase food. With a bag of potatoes on one shoulder and a sack of four on the other, he started to walk home. The weight of the provisions fatigued him, and he decided to lessen the journey by traveling through the fields. As he trudged on he weakened under the load, finally fell exhausted, only to freeze to death.

Indiana Journal October 5, 1898
Centerville Man Caught In Saw
SELIN'S GROVE. Pa.. Sept. 30
Henry T. Sampsell, of Centerville, while engaged in arranging the gearing of a circular saw while it was In motion, was caught by the saw and cut In two. Mr. Sampsell was one of the associate judges of the courts of this county, and was about thirty-six years old.

Daily Gazette and Bulletin (Williamsport, Pennsylvania) October 8, 1874
Burned to Death
A little daughter of Job Walter, of Middleburg, Snyder county, was burned to death one day last week. Her parents were absent from the house, and the little one, going too near the stove, set her clothes on fire.

The Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) December 18, 1919
Doctor Loses Suit;
Jury Believes Old Minister Had Paid Physician's Fees
Middleburg, Pa., Dec. 18 - After several hours' deliberation, the jury in the $10,000 suit of Dr. E. C. Williams against the Rev. A. S. Bierly, the most sensational and expensive case ever tried in the Snyder county court, on Tuesday afternoon gave a verdict for the defendant. It was a victory for the aged pastor, and it is likely that the costs which amounted to at least several hundred dollars a day for a week, will have to be paid by the physician.
The jury accepted the story of the clergyman that he had paid in full for medical service to his daughter, Miss Verna with his $250 check. They also accepted the statement of the experts for the defense that the charges of $100 a visit and $500 a month for attending the girl were "preposterous."
The damaging evidence concerning her relations with Dr. Williams overbalanced evidence she gave against her father and in favor of the man with whom she is now living. Dr. Williams, like the pastor, is a man of means, and has a large practice at his office in Port Trevorton. The sums involved in the case could well be afforded by either the principals.

Indiana Evening Gazette (Indiana, Pennsylvania) January 21, 1913
Huge Coal Vein Found
Almost Inexhaustible Field Reported From Snyder County
Selinsgrove, Pa., Jan 21. - Mining engineers employed by the Reading Coal and Iron company announced the discover of a large area of virgin coal land in Bear valley. Experts say the newly discovered vein will yield millions of tons and will be inexhaustible for 100 years.

The Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) May 26, 1909
Kept Murder Secret 19 Years;
Accuses Man of Killing His Wife With a Whip;
Asserts He Saw Crime;
Harrassed by His Conscience, Alfred Thomas Charges Robert Hassinger With Slaying His Wife to Wed Another Woman, and is Sued For Slander
Selinsgrove, Pa., May 26
    Harrassed by conscience over the secrets of a murder he alleges he witnessed nineteen years ago, Alfred F. Thomas, thirty-eigh years old, of Beavertown, Snydre county, declares he has become so disturbed that he no longer can keep concealed the averred crime, and pleaded that he be brought before the court to air his story.

    Robert Hassinger, sixty-eight years old, a farmer in the western part of Snyder county, caused to be issued on Thomas a capias on the charge of slander, demanding that Thomas be compelled to make restitution for damaged alleged to have been sustained through Thomas' assertion that Hassinger killed his demented wife on July 7, 1890.
    Sheriff Hackenberger went to Beavertown for Thomas. Thomas says that Mrs. Hassinger was cart whipped in her home nineteen years ago, when she was last seen alive, and that her husband in a fit of anger struck her in the head with the butt end of the whip. Soon after Hassinger wedded another woman. Thomas has told his story to the district attorney.

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