Fall 2000 Dinner and Program

Sponsored by the Columbia Montour Tourist Promotion Agency, headquartered at Knoebels Amusement Resort, Elysburg, the Festival offers 200+ crafters, plenty of good food, and live entertainment.  Rides, games for children, face painting, wagon rides.  Demonstrations of scroll sawing, blacksmithing, jewelry making, and much more!  Sat offers a Fun Auction with 250+ items including dinner at some of the areas finest restaurants.  Bus tours both days include a stop at the Twin Covered Bridges (reservations required).   Antique car display on Sun.  Festival is free and open to the public.  A weekend of fun for the whole family!  570-784-8279

GETTYSBURG BATTLEFIELD TOUR, Saturday, October 7

The Columbia County Historical & Genealogical Society [CCH&GS] is sponsoring a tour to the famous Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg on Saturday, October 7.

Pre-tour Program: Before the tour, on October 4, Wednesday evening at 6:30, George A. Turner, retired Bloomsburg University history professor, will give an illustrated talk on this significant battle which many historians view as the turning point in the Civil War. The forty-five minute presentation will be on the factors contributing to the battle of Gettysburg and its key aspects. After the program, there will be a review of the trip’s itinerary. To attend the program come to the CCH&GS, Room #207, located on the second floor of the new addition to Bloomsburg Public Library.

ITINERARY: The tour, using an air conditioned van, comfortably accommodating fourteen passengers, will depart from the Market Street Shopping Plaza on October 7, Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m. There will be a stop at Harrisburg for a restroom and coffee break before arriving at Gettysburg around 9:15 a.m. Prior to lunch we will do the following: (1) visit the site where Captain Robert Bruce Ricketts' battery defended East Cemetery Hill, (2) go to Plum Run and Trostle’s Woods where Columbia County Iron Guards, Co. A of the 35th Pa. Regt., fought, (3) tour the National Cemetery where President Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address, and (4) see the Electric Map program of the battlefield at the Visitor Center. After lunch, (5) we will go to the "Cyclorama" program and (6) then meet with our licensed battlefield guide at 2:15, for a two-hour tour of the battlefield. The return trip to Bloomsburg will begin at 4:30, with a stop for dinner outside of Harrisburg, arriving home around 8:15.

COST: If you are a member of the CCH&GS, the cost is $33.50 per person and $37.00 for a non-member. The fee includes pre-tour program, transportation, Electric Map of the battlefield, Cyclorama, and tour of the battlefield. Costs of meals and refreshments are at your expense. Restaurants are near the Visitor Center.

RESERVATION: It must be paid by September 26, no refunds. Make check payable to CCH&GS and send to: Columbia County Historical & Genealogical Society, 225 Market Street, P.O. Box 360, Bloomsburg, PA 17815. For more information please call George A. Turner at 784-4608 or the CCH&GS at 784-1600.

A WORD ABOUT THE BATTLE: At Gettysburg, a small town of 2,400 people, Union and Confederate armies, consisting of 170,000 soldiers, unexpectedly fought a three day battle from July 1 to 3, 1863. When the fighting ended, federal forces under the command of General Meade halted General Lee's military campaign into the North that posed a serious threat to the Union and, specifically, to Washington, D.C. Lee's depleted troops retreated to Virginia and never invaded the North again. Human cost of this battle for both sides was staggering; combined casualties reached 50,000. Soldiers from Columbia County were part of this battle, and two of them, George W. Mears and Chester S. Furman, later received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their role in the fighting. Colonel Wellington Ent of Lightstreet was the colonel of the 35th Pa. Regt. Captain Robert Bruce Ricketts of Orangeville commanded an important artillery battery on East Cemetery Hill.

Fernville History Project

Pat Parker and Mark Fritz, members of the Columbia County Historical & Genealogical Society and residents of Fernville, are planning to write a booklet tentatively titled "Do You Remember Fernville?" They would very much like to hear from individuals whose your parents or any ancestors who lived in Fernville, Hemlock Township, PA.

Starting with early landowners, they will trace the growth of this small residential community that began in the last half of the 1800s across from Bloomsburg on the North side of Fishing Creek. It was once the site of a tannery, one-room schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, general store, and several homes.

They would like to include your memories, legends, folklore and, eventually, your pictures from the beginning to the present day in the publication. If you have pictures of Fernville and would like to share them for this project, please contact Parker or Fritz to describe them and to work out the necessary arrangements for providing them. They can also accept pictures if you like to send via the internet.

If you can be of any assistance, you are encourage to call or write to Pat Parker (570-784-6506), 558 Drinker Street, Bloomsburg, PA, 17815; or e-mail to Mark Fritz.

It would be most helpful to include full names and dates in your stories where possible, and no matter if you are an "old timer" or a "newcomer" to the village, we want to hear from you - hopefully before the next flood!

THE GOSCHENHOPPEN FOLK FESTIVAL

The Columbia County Historical & Genealogical Society is sponsoring a bus trip to the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival at East Greenville, Pennsylvania, (thirty miles north of Philadelphia in Montgomery County) on Saturday, August 12. It is an annual event sponsored since 1967 by the Goschenhoppen Historians, Inc., a non-profit historical and educational society dedicated to the "collection, preservation and dissemination of the history and folk culture of the Pennsylvania Dutch and related groups.

DESCRIPTION

The Festival portrays selected aspects of everyday life of the Pennsylvania Dutch population of our region in the 18th and 19th centuries - or at least before the general impact of the industrial revolution. The organizers are insistent on giving the most genuine rendering of those early times. To this end the Festival Committee documents as completely as possible every detail including food, dress and practices shown. Moreover, they attempt to educate the public by demonstrating the way things were done, not merely erecting inanimate displays. To be sure, it's nothing like a fireman's carnival. The Goschenhoppen Folk Festival is a leisurely family event that is both educational and entertaining. It is held 'in a shaded church picnic grove. There is walking involved to see the entire program, but the grounds are flat. The event is organized into the following principal areas: home skills, pastimes, crafts, and trade. There are over thirty demonstrations, some of which are: pottery making, blacksmithing, pewtering, butchering, woodworking, weaving, quilting, apple butter making, and sauerkraut making. Furthermore, there is an on-going stage program of entertainment, including a play, lectures, and demonstrations. Itinerant characters like hucksters, tramps, ice-men, and busybodies. for example, wander the grounds to give the impression of early times when they were known throughout the community. There will be an array of Pennsylvania Dutch foods available on the grounds.

ITINERARY

The bus will leave at 8:00 on Saturday morning, August 12, behind the Taco Bell in the Giant parking lot and will arrive at the festival around 10:20. We will leave the festival at 5:00, stop for dinner at the Meyer's Family Restaurant, and return to Bloomsburg around 8:30.

COST

The cost is $30.00 per person for individuals twelve and over which includes transportation and the admission fee to the festival. The fee for children who are under age twelve is $21.00. If you are a member of the Columbia County Historical & Genealogical Society, there is a ten percent discount to make the fee $27.00.

RESERVATION

A reservation is required and must be paid by July 29; there are no refunds. Make check payable to the CCH&GS, and send it to Columbia County Historical & Genealogical Society, 225 Market Street, P.O. Box 360, Blooms-burg, PA 17815. If you have any questions or need more information, please call the Society at 570-784-1600 or Bonnie Farver at 570-759-2968.

75th Anniversary Night Air Mail - Numidia Airport

Barnstormers, Businesses, and V-12s: Columbia County’s

Brent D. Glass, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

Charles McCollester, President, Pennsylvania Labor History Society

Jesse C. Teitelbaum, Executive Director, Luzerne County Historical Society

Robert Janosov, Luzerne County Community College

Thomas Dublin, SUNY, Binghamton, NY

Robert Wolensky, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Richard Healy, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom

Harold Aurand, Penn State, Hazleton

Joseph Gowaskie, Rider University

Lance Metz, National Canal Museum

Joseph McKerns, Ohio State University

Michael Workman, University of West Virginia

Elizabeth Ricketts, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Melvyn Dubofsky, SUNY, Binghamton, NY

Rev. Robert Cornell, author of The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902, Professor Emeritus, St. Norbert College, DePere, Wisconsin, and former U. S. Congressman