Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-04-17
Ehrntttg Gl1at(

"ii"S ~ "Ouiu pt like, IL IL oSSutAON
in our day, especially if the scene
of the incident happened to be in
the meadows which spread out where
the river front and Market Square
now exist, or in the vicinity of the
bramble covered knoll which is the =
official seat of government of the
second State in the Union. 1t is
some stretch of imagination to go
back to the times when Indians
camped in sulky mood out near the
spring which is the vicinity of Thir-
teenth and Walnut streets of to-day
declined to go to the home of John
Harris to meet the Lieutenant Gov
ernor of the Penns or to imagine
how the wife of John Harris blew out
the candles on the supper table
one night after an Indian had taken
pot shot at the family of the Set
tier of Pennsylvania capital be- I
cause the aborigine was sore at an
English officer who happened to be !;
visiting her. One would hardly ,
think of George Whitefield, the fa-
nous colonial preacher, holding
forth to settlers for miles around
under shade of trees on the banks
OF the Susquehanna near Paxton
creek and the people being so fas-
cinated by him that they left their
fields unplowed and John Harris had
TO literally order them to go home
ana work. These incidents were all
back before the French and Indian
war and we'll authenticated. But
here is one which just came to light
IN some old family correspondence.
IL seems that in early days the idea
OF John Harris. the founder of the
town, and William Maclay that the
Knoll should eventually be the seat
OF the Capitol of Pennsylvania was
something well known They spent
years and years working up senti-
| ment in favor of a capital on the
banks of the Susquehanna and long
before Harris laid out the town and
| began selling lots in 1885 he had
marked off what was voted the capi-
tai. Meanwhile the ground around
the Knoll was used for various pub
nc purposes and a school was es-
tabllshed at what is now the corner
of Third and Walnut streets on the
Capitol park side
Just get this corner in YOUR head
the way it is now. One part is Capt.
tol park the commencement of the
famous boardwalk" to the State
House trodden by generations of
statesmen, politicians and the near
grades of both, bit soon to form
part of circle" On the other cor
ner the towering Penn-H Harris Hotel:
on another the Federal building and
on another line of stores and an
other hotel About 1890 n school
house had been built at this corner
ana the children of the town were
there educated on small payments
by their parents to the schoolmaster.
Tho in OH
out nerve or not good shot because
he made a number of complaints
about the loneliness of the site and
OF the annoyance from animals
from the knoll which is now Capt.
tol Fllll. Finally, according to old
letters, there was great excitement
in the town and the men got their
guns and hustled up to the school
because couple of bears had come
down from the aforesaid knoll and
the schoolmaster had sent the
youngsters home and was barricaed
in the school house against the ami
mails. There must have been n grand
old time in infant Harrisburg that
day. The center of the town was
down around Front and Mulberry
and after all the rivermen, traders,
wagon repairers and other men had
rounded up their youngsters and
made sure they were all safe they
went after those bears from Capitol
Hill and ran them back to the Blue
Ridge. Probably the Penn-Harris
corner was the rendezvous.
That this incident occurred there
is little doubt There was a sue
cession of school houses at that
corner. AS late as 1892 wild buff
falo, presumably some of the herds
which survived in the glens of upper
: Perry and Snyder counties, were
found mixed up with the cattle of
Harrisburg people turned out to
browse in "Maclay's swamp" which
might be located as between North
and South streets along the river
Peter Snyder, an old Harrisburger,
wrote how his brother and himself
shot bear on the outskirts of the
young city and in 1897 had a bat
tie royal to down one big bear raider
which had been chased out to
i"Hannas Woods" which would make
Sixteenth and Berryhill streets the
final scene of one of the most eX-
citing hunting episodes in long
time.
From all accounts, and something
Is constantly being found in old
newspapers to show the trend of
things, the early Harrisburgers were
rather slow in getting around to
Market Square as the town center.
The river front had an attraction
that persisted, probably because it
was the place where the beats dis
charged their cargoes and was one
of the landing stages of the ferry
which was then sending over the
Susquehanna that tide of immigra-
tion that was to make many of the
comm onwealths of the Southwest.
The Harris warehouse, most of the
taverns and the numerous wagon
repair shops which abounded were
all close to the river and the square
was traNersed by a couple of creeks
and in time of rains was so often
overflowed that people sent unkind
messagesg to John Harris asking
whether he would furnish boats or
dukeboards to facilitate travel about
his town. The square was a fine
place for skating in winter and some
of the early newspapers refer to
dangers of untended bonfires being
built in the civic center. And then,
too. there bobs up every now and
then some thing about a race course
along the river front and that shoot
ling matches would be held on the
river bank So it is not hard to
see that Harris had his own troubles