Marlin Ettinger had a shoe repair emporium in this building before Mr. Rudy Coleman bought it and remodeled it into a very nice residence about 1946.
In 1860 there was a sumac mill where Mr. Chris Weller’s garage now stands. (205 South Center Street) The berries were dried and ground up like flour and packed in small bags. This was used to tan Morocco shoes which were then in style for women. The machines were oiled with tallow and bee’s wax. The run which flows from Jim DeLong’s (268 South Center Street) was dug by hand in order to furnish power for a furniture factory located somewhere in that locality. We know very little more.
In 1867, grading was begun for a railroad from Sunbury to Lewistown. Labor was 8 cents an hour or 80 cents for a 10 hour day. The track was laid in 1871 and the first train arrived in September 1871, with the first regular service beginning on November 1st of that year. Until 1931, several passenger and freight trains stopped at the station each day. Thereafter, freight service continued until about 1958. Passenger service was provided by the Greyhound Bus Co. using the Beavertown Railroad Station until 1934.
Nothing helped Beavertown to grow like the coming of the S&R Railroad. It was just before this time that the Central Hotel was built by Dr. I. D. Conrad to furnish rooms for any travelers and the many peddlers that came by train. A livery stable was also built to handle their transportation needs. Shirk’s Stove Store was built on Market Street (present barber shop) and it too had a livery stable in the alley. Art Shirk would go to the RR Station to get business for it. Cattle raising brought about the establishment of a small tannery operated by Freed near where Clara Narehood now lives, and in 1871 another large one was built which produced a large amount of leather for the Philadelphia markets. This was the famed Isabella Steam Tannery, built by Mr. Samual Lupher in 1871 on the site where the homes located at 223 and 225-227 South Center Street are now. It was Snyder County’s largest employer for a number of years. Later it employed thirty to forty men in the winter and over a hundred hands in the spring, summer, and fall seasons of the year.
To be continued
Question and Answer
Q: Why were there so many fires on the Shade Mountain in the past?
A: Many mountain fires were unlawfully set in order to burn off scrub brush so that the huckleberries would have more light and thus grow bigger, better and in larger number. Picking berries was a source of income for some folks during the depression, and even into the late 40s. It’s thought some fire-setters also gained income by fighting the very fires they set.
