Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1904-10-25
BLOT OUT TWO TOWNS
RAILWAY IMPROVEMENTS OBJ
LITERATE PoPULoUs CITIES.
Port Perry and Demmler, Pa, Active
and Prosperous Few Years
Ago, Now Practically
Deserted.

In the building of railroad there is
something that almost approaches IT.
resistibility. Without clamor or talk,
a big railroad corporation quietly en-
cages in undertakings that, to the or
binary man, seem impossible of accom-
plishment, or if capable of being &C.
complished, SO expensive that it is a
mystery where all the money comes
from.
In the big scheme of improvement
which is now nearing completion, two
Of the best known towns in the Mo-
nongahela valley in Pennsylvania have
been obliterated. They are Port Perry,
with all it's old historical associations
clustered about it, and Demmler, the
seat of the first tin plate mill in the
United States. Three or four years
ago they were both populous towns.
To-day Demmler consists of half a
dozen houses, which are occupied by
tenants, living under notice to move
whenever the railroad company needs
the ground they occupy. Port Perry
has passed slower. There are still
a couple of dozen houses in the
town which are occupied. These
tenants are also under notice to quit
on short time.
A few years ago Port Perry was an
important little place. 1t is much
older town than its big neighbor, Brad
dock, just across the Turtle creek bot
tom. In the old days, before the Mo-
nongahela Navigation company slack
watered the Monongahela river, there
was ford at this point.
When the locks and dams were built
In the Monongahela Port Perry was
the head of navigation, practically, for
time. When the dam was built there
the head moved on up to McKeesport.
OF course, this applied only in seasons
OF low water. A little town grew up
about the locks at Port Perry, although
there had been several houses there
for many years before the locks and
dams were dreamed of. A sawmill
gave employment to few men and a
boat yard with score of caulkers al
work, raised the echoes along the river
valley. 1t was pretty little place
and it felt like a great city at one
| time, when lot of men came along
and laid railroad track right through
| the center of the town. Like many an.
other small hamlet, Port Perry thought
1t was bound to become place of some
| Importance.
A half dozen years ago Port Perry
| boosted couple of hundred houses, q
couple Of stores, churches, schoo
building and Odd Fellows hall and
other buildings. It was flourishine
place then and pretty little town
where everybody had garden and
the front yards were filled with flow.
ers and the back yards with healthy
looking cabbages and all sorts Of soul
satisfying vegetables. Then the Lake
Erie, which had also built its track,
through the town, along the river
bank, found it needed more room. 1
bought the houses and lots between i
and those of the Baltimore & Ohio
That included the Ola Fellows hall
The despoiling hand Of the railroad la
borer soon laid the buildings low and
a couple Of dozen houses passed away
/
occupied is now covered by Lake Erie
tracks.
A year or two ago the Baltimore &
Ohio found it would have to put fou,
tracks where one used to answer ant
1t needed room. 1t bought the rest O.
Port Berry. Nearly all the houses
have been emptied of their occupant.
and the few residents Of the town ar,
using the empty houses FOR flrewood
Within few months or less the steam
shovel will come along there. It ii
working but couple of miles abov
now. and all the houses that are LET
will have to make room. SO the oblit
GRAFTON Of Port Perry, once prosper
Gus little town with a post Office, will
be complete and 1t will be dropped en-
tirely from the map.
\