Put this event on your calendar to attend the Society’s annual dinner and membership meeting at the Ridge Street United Methodist Church in Almedia, starting at six o’clock. It will be a roast turkey dinner, served family style. Dinner reservations, $11.50 per person, are required, and must be paid by April 18. Please use the dinner reservation form at the bottom of the page.

The talk will focus on the electric railroads that ran through Columbia County in the first twenty-five years of the Twentieth Century. At the time this was the latest in technology, and the citizens of the area wanted every advantage that big city residents enjoyed. The electric railroad was intended to be an interurban, joining Bloomsburg with Berwick, Catawissa, and finally Danville, to unite the region with an inexpensive means of public transportation.

The program will feature many images documenting the story of the rise and decline of the electric railroad, including ones depicting the trolley cars and physical plant, the men who worked on the line and the problems they faced in keeping the cars running, and the people who enjoyed riding them. Although the trolley cars lasted only a brief time, they touched the lives of everyone who lived in Columbia County, and were fondly remembered long after they had passed away into memory.

The Ridge Street United Methodist Church in Almedia can be easily reached from Bloomsburg by either taking U.S. Route 11 or the Old Berwick Road to turn on Ridge Street which intersects with both routes. It is approximately 3.3 miles east from the corner of East Street and U.S. Route 11 in Bloomsburg.

COLUMBIA COUNTY HISTORICAL & GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY’S

ANNUAL DINNER AND MEMBERSHIP MEETING