The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1901-12-19
FROM EAST BENTON.

ton township last week.
Winter grain hereabouts looks
eceptionally welt. 1t has good
top for winter protection.
The American flag again floats
over Our school at the Forks. Now
hurrah for young America.
There is an old saying that we
never have Indian summer until
there has been a squaw winter.
Then Indian is now in order.
The beautiful white snow that
came so unexpectedly one day last
week, sneaked away one night as
though it were ashamed to stay.
I A great many people hereabouts
are affected by a Kind Of grippy cpl
demic. First you sneeze, then you
wheeze, then you hack, then you
cough, and some even squeeze.
SO many of Our young ladies
are departing from single bliss.
| " neither they are decoyed, trapped,
or voluntarily step into the matri-
monial net, may be of little or no
consequence to them, for they get
there all the same. But it is safe
to say they are all betrayed with a
kiss. And lit is easier for camel
to go through a needles eye" than
for a man to enter matrimonial
bliss, without widow or miss.
JOHN McHENRY, THE OLD
HUNTER"
Our attention was recently called
to the nimrodical feats of the "Old
Hunter" with request to write
an article on the subject.
| But before entering upon such a
task it is, perhaps, best to consider
at some length, the conditions and
circumstances surrounding the old
pioneer hunter at the time of his
birth. Personally, we are not ac-
quainted with any of the facts, but
by consulting the history of Colum-
bia and Montour counties we CLEAN
the following
| That at the time Of his birth all
the territory Of the great Fishing
creek valley, bounded by Mob and
| North Mountains, and still further
north, no telling how far, was a
dense, unbroken forest, and unex-
plored. There is something en-.
chanting about the woods, but this
great forest, SO dense and fai
reaching, was formidable barrier
to the onward march of improve.
ment and civilization. To remove
this forest and TO utilize the soil fol
the benefit of the husbandman
seemed like an effort Of dipping thu
ocean dry with abucket.
Here, in the year of 1888, single
handed and alone, at or near Still
water. Daniel McHenry began al
attack upon the unbroken fores
and cleared up plot for home
nearly eight miles distant from an.
settlement.
5 The falling trees, crashing fror
e the blows OF his axe, echoed an
6 reverberated from the surrounding
# hills. Hence the loneliness in tn
n solemnity and solitude of night an
t in the heart of the forest, with II
# human being as companion, an
$ the only music, the signing of th
gentle zephyrs passing through tn
e branches of the trees, or their rust
+ ling among the leaves; and mu
@ muring, gurgling and ripping
n the waters of Fishingcreek rollin
!. by. must have been awe-inspirin
le in the extreme, to the lonely seeks
n of a forest home.
t. Here, under conditions and ci
N cumstances like these, was boz
re John McHenry, September I
#. I7S5, the first white child that ev'
er opened its eyes in Columbia count
n. north of Mob Mountain. Trul
,e he was a child of the forest ar
,e raised in the woods.
n- But the beginning of planting
nd new home in the forest by DAM
10 McHenry marked a new era tn
lie was destined to revolutionize Il
old condition, for the seed tn
en- sown in the forest, in the plantir
er of a home, multiplied and bo
m fruit more than a thousand fol
ms The forest gradually melted fro
MS the blows of axes like the winter
he SHOWS melt from the heat of the a
ge preaching summers sun, un
is thousands upon thousands we
cb happily domiciled-well sheltere
he we'll clad and we'll fed.
llv But of the inconvenience a
he hardships of pioneer life we ha
,n. not here space to write Suffice
roe it is to know that The whole cou
10 try, once covered by an unbrok
ie. forest, now teens with animati
ms and activity, so that the valleys a
,sv hills resound with the hum of II
ipp chinery and the screeching of
on dustrial whistles where once rov