© Vincenzo Aiosa
September, 2013:
Red Jacket Pumps – Gumble Bros. Inc – Paupack, PA – Lake Wallenpaupack History
© Frank H. Jump
Recalling old Wilsonville: Before the Wallenpaupack dam by Peter Becker
This view of Wilsonville shows the bridge spanning the Wallenpaupack Creek, just north of where today the PPL dam is located and approximately the site of Mangan Cove. The Owego Turnpike crossed the bridge; at far right, the road from Hawley crosses the Owego and continues through the Wallenpaupack River Valley, now submerged. Note the batching plant on the hillside. The large building was the Taft House, which was relocated to Route 6 across from the dike by an agreement with the electric company. An 1872 map lists it as “F. W. Farnham.” Farnham & Colingwood had a lumber business, saw mill and grist mill in this immediate area. Log rafts could not be floated over the falls, so they had a monoply on the business. © Dr. William Ungerer
Palmyra Twp. (Pike) —
An early crossroads community in the Lake Region that predates Hawley is the hamlet of Wilsonville. Once the center for man’s industrial prowess for taming the power of water, taming the same water source on a grander scale in the 1920’s brought its grand finale.
While Wilsonville was largely taken away and its grounds flooded when Lake Wallenpaupack was formed, today some call the area along the lake shore by the historic name. A PPL campground in the area still keeps the Wilsonville name alive.
Wilsonville is named for the Hon. James Wilson, one of the first justices of the Supreme Court and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In 1793 he purchased 12,150 acres known as the Manor of Wallenpaupack, including this hamlet settled on the Wallenpaupack Creek falls.
While we have record that Wilson started a hemp and flax mill at the base of the falls in the 1790’s at what was known Paupack Eddy- today Hawley-we have yet to know to what extent Wilson visited or lived in this area, still largely a virgin wilderness. His mill at Paupack Eddy failed for lack of material. Wilson died in 1804, and six years later his land was sold at a sheriff’s sale.
Originally the hamlet of Wilsonville was known as Factoryville. Philadelphia businessmen Rev. Richard Peters, Henry Drinker and Abel James tried, possibly as early as 1768, to establish a community centered around raising sheep and producing wool. The plan was abandoned by 1769 as the pioneers learned the ruthless wilderness was not fit for raising sheep.
The area soon prospered due to the falls, with several saw mills being erected between Wilsonville and Paupack Eddy. The same region thrives with commercial activity today, including the Lake Region IGA market and many other businesses. Hawley Silk Mill and Ledges Hotel, two local bluestone landmarks, began in the late 19th Century as factories powered by the same series of falls.
The falls at Wilsonville dropped 70 feet. Three more falls followed before the last at the foot in Paupack Eddy, 325 feet lower in elevation from Wilsonville. Historian Phineas Goodrich wrote in 1880 of the falls’ great power, “Nothing of the kind of equal magnitude can be found in Northern Pennsylvania.” Wilsonville was so prosperous that it was chosen for a the county seat of Wayne County between 1799 and 1802. The hamlet was centrally located in what was then a much broader county, from which Pike County was annexed in 1814.
By 1822, however, the village had so declined there was only a tavern house operated by Leonard Labar. In 1829, the Wallenpaupack creek valley was considered as a route to bring coal from the mines to meet the Delaware & Hudson canal at Paupack Eddy. A rail system would bring the coal as far as the forks of the Wallenpaupack, and then the coal would be taken by a canal or floated 16 miles down the creek to the falls at Wilsonville, and transferred to a short canal or railway to descend to the canal from Honesdale. The idea was dropped in favor of the gravity rail system laid out by the Pennsylvania Coal Company entering northwest of town.
The lumber capacity of mill operations in the area was estimated at 10 million board feet a year in the mid-19th Century, but by 1886 most of the immense virgin trees had been cut. An 1872 atlas shows that Welwood Avenue in Hawley was the way people would travel from this direction to reach Wilsonville. Bellemonte Avenue, which is today Route 6, had not yet been constructed. The road out of Hawley crossed the old Milford-Owego Turnpike just north of a bridge that spanned the Wallenpaupack Creek at Wilsonville. This was just north of the PPL dam which was was built nearly 50 years later.
The Milford-Owego Turnpike was an early and important toll road that nearly follows present-day Route 6 in Pike County, and State Route 3028, still called Owego Turnpike, west of Hawley and heading to Waymart. Part of the Owego Turnpike is submerged beneath the northern tip of Lake Wallenpaupack. The entrance road into the Woodlyn Shore development is part of the old Owego, accessed from Route 590 and directly across from where the modern-day Owego begins.
Early pictures show Wilsonville as a pleasant place, with businesses, houses, roads, trees and flower beds. Much would change with the plans of the forerunner of the Pennsylvania Power & Light Company, eyeing the same creek as a source for its planned hydroelectric generators.
Surveys for the lake were made beginning in 1907, by the Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey Power Company. Surely residents of Wilsonville and farmers in the Wallenpaupack valley could see it would soon be time to move. The power company had to acquire nearly 12,000 acres from nearly 100 property owners. James Butler, an agent for the company, was persuasive in acquiring options.
Many homes and barns were razed or relocated; a cemetery was moved and 17 miles of road were rerouted. Once the project was completed in 1926, Pennsylvania Power & Light Company , through mergers of several stock companies, acquired the rights and properties of the original power company developer.The great dam markedly changed the landscape and diminished the historic falls, but ushered in a new era of industry and prosperity to what became the Lake Region. – The News Eagle – Hawley, PA
OZ Correspondent – Nicole Wilson – Oxol Fluid Beef Co & Grandas (Cigar?) Pentimento – Montréal, QC
© Nicole Wilson
Dominion Medical Monthly & Ontario Medical Journal – January – December 1901 – Google Books
This is a stretch but I am making a leap of faith that the GRANDAS on this pentimento is associated with the Montreal resident Jose Granda – cigar maker – immigrant from Spain. Below is the obituary of his daughter Mary Cook.
Obituary
COOK, Mary (nee Granda) August 10th, 1924 – October 13th, 2012
Passed away at Father Dowd Memorial Home at the age of eighty-eight after a courageous battle with Alzheimer’s. Mary’s late father, Jose Granda, and his brothers were among the first immigrants from Spain to settle in Montreal in 1900 as founding partners in Jose Granda Cigars Ltd on St-Laurent Boulevard. She was predeceased by her brothers Pepe, Adolpho, Armando, Domingo and John, and by her sisters Feliz, Blanca, Luz and Paulina.
Beloved wife of Mr. Douglas James Cook and devoted mother to Linda (Bill Dalziel), Eric (Kathleen Casey) and Nina (Peter Walker). Loving Tita to Ryan, Kristin, Michael, Morgan, Andrew, Stuart, Michael, Maria, Evan and Casey. She will be greatly missed by her great-granddaughter Maya, her nieces and nephews as well as many other relatives and friends.
Family will receive condolences at Kane and Fetterly Funeral Home (5301, Decarie Boulevard (corner Isabella), Montreal, H3W 3C4) on Friday, November 2nd from 2 to 5 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. A memorial mass will be celebrated at St-Ignatius Parish (4455 West Broadway, Montreal) on Saturday, November 3rd at 10:30 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations to Alzheimer Society would be appreciated.Published in The Gazette on October 24, 2012
CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE – Civilization dot ca
CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE – Civilization dot ca
- Selling Smoke – How Canadian cigar boxes pitched their wares – 1883 – 1935 – Civilization dot ca
Queens Correspondent – Marie Anne O’Donnell – Fletcher’s Castoria Ad Remnant – The Kind You Have Always Bought – 39th Avenue – Astoria, Queens
The Kind You Have Always Bought © Marie Anne O’Donnell
Lewiston Saturday Journal – April 30, 1902 – © Google Books
From 39th Avenue platform in March 1963 – CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE © David Pirmann/nycsubways.org
Uptown Correspondent – Iman R. Abdulfattah – Chilcote Tap – Cleveland, OH
© Iman R. Abdulfattah
The Chilcote Company, doing business as Tap Packaging Solutions, manufactures paper packaging and presentation products. The company offers confectioner packaging products, including a range of stock and customizable candy boxes; and photographic packaging products, such as albums, mounts, folders, frames, presentation boxes, proofing systems, and more for traditional and digital photos. It also provides specialty packaging products, including folding cartons and set up boxes; informational packaging, such as binders, certificate holders, plastic presentation pages, book covers, binders, and presentation folders; and entertainment packaging products, food containers, and more. The company serves retail stores, advertising agencies, marketing companies, confectioners, government agencies, and others. It sells its online and through a network of distributors to customers in the United States, Canada, and Hawaii. The company was founded in 1906 and is based in Cleveland, Ohio with manufacturing facilities in Cleveland, Ohio; and San Antonio, Texas. – Inside View
