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125 Years Ago - 1885
    Irvin Bowersox commenced work on his new house on the French Flats in Middleburgh this week. Dr. Barber is pushing his new house up with avisity on the "Flats". The cellar wall is already up.
    On Wednesday morning, the folks of Middleburgh awaoke to find themselves separated from Franklin by a body of water almost covering the French Flats, and at some points higher than the fences. It is said to have been the highest water since 1865, and fishing was excellent in Dr. Barber's new cellar.
    The match factory at Beaver-town is now in full operation. They turn out twenty gross, 576,000 matches a day. The matches are of the best quality.

100 Years Ago - 1910
    E.D. Swineford of Port Trev-orton raised a watermelon that weighed 44 pounds and measured 40 inches in circum-ference the shortway around.
    At a meeting of the Directors of the Middlecreek Valley Tele-phone Co. in their office in Middleburg, it was decided to begin continuous service in Selinsgrove, November 1st. That means the exchange will be open all hours of the day and night. It is probable that Middleburg will be put on the continuous service also before too long.

50 Years Ago - 1960
    Square dancing will again start up the season this Saturday when the Penns Creek Fire Company resumes its series of old time hoe-downs. Ed Moger, a newcomer to the community, will call the old favorites. Dancing will be from 8 o'clock until midnight in the fire hall.
     Miss Marcella Barkey, East Main St., Middleburg, is confined to her home after she was sawing wood and the saw hit a knot and jumped into her right leg, requiring 27 stitches.

35 Years Ago - 1975
     The official bicentennial plate for Middleburg was designed by James Dippery, local artist. The plate will be sold by the Middle-burg Bicentennial Committee to raise funds to help defray the town's expenses for next summer's celebration.

From the Archives of
The
Middleburg Post

The Last Bison In The Area...

    By the close of the eighteenth century, the last herd of Pennsylvania bison, numbering nearly four hundred animals of all ages, had taken refuge in the wilds of the Seven Mountains. The settlements in Middle Creek Valley prevented them from wintering there, and the persistent slaughter in the West Branch Valley made it unsafe for them to try to escape to the north.
    Hemmed in on all sides, they survived a while by hiding on the highest and most inaccessible mountains, or in the deepest and darkest ravines. The winter of 1799-1800 was particularly severe, and life on the bleak mountain tops became unbearable to the starving animals.
    The herd was led by a giant coal-black bull called "Old Logan", after the Mingo chief-tain of the same name. The herd started one winter's morn-ing for the clear and comfort-able stretches of the valley of the Christunn, now known as Middle Creek.
    While passing through the woods at the edge of a clearing belonging to a man named Samuel McClellan, they were attacked by the landowner, killing four cows. Previously, while still on the mountain, a count of the herd had been made and it numbered three hundred and forty-five animals.
    Passing from the McClellan property, the herd invaded the barnyard and haystack of Martin Bergstresser, a Snyder County pioneer. His first season's hay crop stood beside his newly completed log barn. The hay was to be used to feed a number of cows, sheep, and a team of horses.
    With "Old Logan" at their head, the famished bison herd broke loose through the stump fence, crushing the helpless domestic animals beneath their hooves and we soon pulling the hay pile to pieces.
    Bergstresser, who was in a field nearby cutting wood, heard the commotion and rushed to the scene. Aided by his daughter, Katie, about 18 years old, and Samuel McClellan, four buffaloes were slain.
    Confused by the death of their comrades, and the attacks

of the settler's dogs, the terrified buffalo swept up out of the barnyard and up the frozen bed of the creek.
When they were gone, desolation lay about the farm with broken fences, destroyed spring house and a decimated hay mound. Six cows, four calves, and thirty five sheep lay crushed and dead among the ruins.

    The horses which were in the barn remained unharmed.
    When McClellan returned to his home, he was greeted with a sight of horror. Three hundred or more bison were snorting and trotting around the lot where his cabin stood, obscuring the structure by their huge bodies.
    McClellan rushed bravely through the crazy, surging mass only to find "Old Logan" standing guard in front of the cabin door. He fired at the monster, wounding him, which so infuriated the giant bull that he plunged headlong through the door of the cabin. The herd, accustomed at all times to follow their leader, forced their way after him as best they could.
    Inside the cabin were McClel-lan's wife and three little children, the oldest being five years old. The cabin became jammed with the large beasts. Martin Bergstresser and three other neighbors, all carrying guns, reported to the scene and decided that it would be best to tear down the cabin as the only possible way to save the family.
    When the cabin had been sufficiently dismantled, "Old Logan" and his band swarmed from the ruins like black bees from a hive. McClellan had the pleasure of shooting the grand leader, but it was small satisfaction.
    When the men entered the cabin, they were shocked to find the bodies of the pioneer's wife and three children dead and crushed deeply into the mud of the earthen floor. It was decided to put on a hunt for the killing buffalo and a group of over fifty hunters showed up at Berg-stresser's house, armed and ready for the action. Many dogs, some partly wolf, accompanied

the hunters. They were out two days before discovering the herd, as a fresh blizzard had covered all of their paths.
    The bison were all huddled together, stuck up to their necks in snow in a great hollow space known as the "Sink", near the town of Weikert. They were numb from cold and hunger, but even had they been physically fit, would not have been able to uncrust themselves from the heavy drifts.
    The slaughter soon began using guns, but mostly killing the beasts with long bear knives. The snow was too deep to attempt to skin them, but many tongues were saved. Then the party marched down to the lowlands singing German hymns.
    Three hundred buffalo stood upright in the frozen crust. Some returned later in the season to see if any hides could be saved, but the alternate freezes and thaws had rendered them useless.
   The barren flat where the McClellan cabin stood is known as the Buffalo Field. It is situated in high ground a short distance to the east of the old Port Ann distillery near Troxelville. The date of the annihilation of the last bison herd is put at December 31, 1799.
    Colonel John Kelly was riding his horse Brandywine on the way to the mill on a misty morning, when he came across a mammoth buffalo bull blocking a narrow crossroads. Kelly dismounted, took leisurely aim, and shot the bison through the heart.
    The spot where this beast was killed, which proved to be the last of it species shot in Pennsylvania in a wild state became known as Buffalo Crossroads. The beast's huge skull was nailed to a pine tree and was a familiar landmark for many years. About 1820, it was blown from the tree and was picked up by a Kleckner child, relatives of Kelly.
    For over 50 years, it rested on the mantle of the fireplace of the Kleckner homestead situated near the Buffalo Crossroads