Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-10-08
Ehrtttt1n G1a1

o'Neirs announcement that he will
sell the tollhouses along the old
Berks and Dauphin turnpike between
this city and the Berks county CAPT.
tai on October 80, calls attention ia
the TACT that the turnpike which was
bought recently by the state and the
counties of Berks, Lebanon and Dau.
phin, dates from 1916. But the turn
PIKE was a road long, long prior to
that date. Back in the time of the
french and Indian War the road that
LED from the outpost on the upper
delaware that grew to be Easton. ON
through what was later Reading, to
Johh Harris Ferry was the high
way which the Indians urged on hv
.le lar-seelng French officers We're
Lying in 10 cut. The reason was that it
lay closest to the Blue Ridge. being
right between the elevated land
winch we know locally as the North
ana south mountains. Along this
hlghway there flowed one of the two
streams of immigrants who converr-
ed at Harris Ferry to cross into the
Cumberland Valley and into the
PROMISED lands of Southern Pennsyl-
/ wanna, Maryland, the Virginias and
10 round families of eminence in
American history. The other stream
OF people came from PhiIadeInhio
py way OF Lancaster and Middle
town. When one considers these
Iacts the importance of what state
Librarian Montgomery wrote for the
marker at the site of Harris Ferry
strlkes nome. Harrisburg was CEN
tral point in the days of trails, of
early highways and of roads as il
is to-day of railroads.
When Reading, Lebanon and Hum
melstown began to develop and the
trade and travel to Harris Ferry grew
| there were local attempts to make
road From what early travellers
write these attempts were well
| meant, but not productive of easy
| rldlng even in time when roads
| were by no means comfortable. The
toIlhouses Mr.. O'Neil will sell, like
those he sold last week on the Ian
caster pike near Paoli, date back
more than century. The road from
Harrisburg to Hummelstown was ap-
proved by the court in the very first
othclal year of Harrisburg and Dau-
phln county, probably at the first or
second session of court held here i'm
1893" This section was bought by
the county of Dauphin years ago
Long before 1900, the period when
J, the turnpikes doomed in this part Of
pennsylvania, there had been pub.
lie roads and turnpikes between Har-
Tisburg, Carlisle, Middletown and
Lancaster, the settlements which be-
came Columbia and Marietta, Sun.
bury and York, the latter by wav of
the west bank of the Susquehanna.
: There is curious record about tbs
: latter road to be found in Lancaster
courthouse. BY 1894 John Harris
: FERRY had become an important point
and as Lancaster and Carlisle SET
Elements had roads or trails to il
there was demand for a road tc
Baltimore. This was part of Lan-
caster county in those days and in
D November, 1885, a jury was named tc
the next year that the proposition
was violently opposed by residents
of the west bank of the Susquehanna,
When the turnpike era came the
: people were willing to pay toll if
2 given good roads just like the auto
y mobile owner is now willing to pay
state license if the Commonwealth
Will provide better highways. So in
= 1916 the Berks and Dauphin com.
pany was chartered, the sixth turn
pike company to be incorporated for
this county. The state gave a sub
sidy of $4,000 and about $4,000
was raised among the shareholders
, The state got the last of the shares
a short time ago and the tollgates
{ which used to. make it cost $103 &c
, go from this city to Reading and a
, third of that to go to Lebanon, dis
> appeared. Now Mr. O'Neil will sell
the last vestiges of the old Berks
and Dauphin turnpike, but its ruts
and holes, its bumps and smooth
stretches and its eXorbitant rates OF
toll will linger long in our memor.
les.
No men will be commissioned as
members of the volunteer police OF
Pennsylvania without the approval
of the Public Safety Committee
which has confided the work of or
ganizing that body to Major John c.
Groome, superintendent of the State
Police. Every one of the AIS men
whose applications have been sent
to the Governor for commissioning
as volunteer police under the Sproul
act, must make a statement of will
lingness to serve and furnish much
personal data. This then goes to the
local safety committee and thence to
the state committee and if the name
gets by Major Groome a commission
will issue.
Persons who saw the fire which
destroyed the Hoffer Touring mill a
Steelton from a distance on Satur
day afternoon commented upon II,
lack of smoke which attended tn,
blaze. This fact was especially noteC
from points on the hills back o
this city and Steelton and from Cum
berland county, there being com
paratively little smoke observabl
when the fire was at it's height. Thi
is attributed to the Intense heat anC
to the fact that part of the fire wa,
in the grain stored within the mill
Experienced firemen say that the fire
was one of the hottest they have evel
known and that the measures taker
to protect the adjoining properties
| Uarn nrOnn Mt and Nalnn hla