Notes from
Monument Square

Newsletter of the
Mifflin County Historical Society
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Volume XXVI Number 2 MARCH 2000
(Text version of Society News & Notes)
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Office & Research Library,
1 W. Market St., Suite 1
Lewistown, PA 17044-2128
Phone (717) 242-1022
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McCoy House Museum
17 N. Main St., Lewistown
Sunday afternoon
1:30 - 4:00 p.m.
(May thru December)
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Newsletter Editor : Forest K. Fisher
MCHS e-mail: mchistory@acsworld.net
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Society News & Notes

MEMBERSHIP
We wish to acknowledge and welcome new annual and individual life members of the Mifflin County Historical Society. Memberships are a vital source of income, allowing the historical society to operate the office, research library and museum as well as other special programs.

New Annual Members

Ida E. Hambright, McVeytown
Robert C. Solt, McClure
John Laughlin, Lewistown
Stanley & Beatrice Rutherford, Lewistown
Mrs. Rebecca Duncan, Millerstown, Pa.
H. Paul Gross, Cool, Calif.
Betty V. Kline, McVeytown
Lynn M. & Margaret L. McKee, Lewistown
Virginia Narehood, Reedsville
Doris S. Radcliffe, Richmond, Va.
Hope Harbeson Simpson, Milroy
John Wion, New York City
Georgia M. Woodward, Atwood, Calif.
Mr. & Mrs. Emory L. Harshbarger, Harrisburg
Thomas Bortell, Lexington, Mass.
Jessie O. Houser, Milroy
Jeff L. Johnson, Altoona, Pa.
Linda G. Miller, Milroy
Betty J. Oldt, Lewistown
Susan Landis, Lewisberry, Pa.
Eleanor T. Wall, Dover, Del.
Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Werner, Newton Hamilton
Sidney Bobb, Plainfield, Ind.

Spring Banquet to feature cavalry reenactor in April McVeytown Fire Hall April 27, 2000 - 6:30 P.M.

It is said that the Congressional Medal of Honor is never"award-ed"; it can only be "earned".
It's a little known fact that 4 Mifflin County men are recipients of the nation's highest award for valor, earned only by courage "above and beyond' the call of duty.
Less than 4000 of the millions of Americans who served their nation in time of war since the creation of the Medal in 1862 have been so honored.
ome hear the stories of four soldiers "from the horse's mouth" at the Society's Spring Banquet on April 27 at the McVeytown Fire Company banquet hall. William Rankin, Lewistown native, 4th United States Cavalry veteran of 35 years, and Medal of Honor recipient, travels back to Mifflin County from "Fiddler's Green", the eternal resting place of all cavalrymen, for a short visit to recount for us the courageous deeds of these local heroes. Bill will also give a glimpse into the life and times of a 19th century American soldier and Mifflin County as he knew it before and after his Army service.
William will be portrayed by Richard Wessel of Lewistown. Richard has been a mounted Civil War Union Cavalry reenactor for the past ten years. Through diligent ongoing study and research, he has familiarized himself extensively with 19th century American military history and Bill Rankin's personal
history in particular. You're certain to be informed and entertained by this presentation.
It is very important to get your reservations in by the April 20th deadline. Arrangements with the kind folks at the McVeytown Fire Company must be confirmed, so they can make the necessary preparations. Unfortunately, reservations made after the deadline cannot be guaranteed. 

County sports items needed for spring

McCoy House Museum opens the 2000 season during Kid Connection, the last Saturday in April. “Sports in Mifflin County” is our theme for this initial exhibit.
Sports have always been a part of our county’s diverse heritage. Take this 1890s contest from the pages of the Lewistown Gazette, for example. What was this sporting event?
It happened in Morrison’s barn, in the Yeagertown area, January, 1894. The Yeagertown Athletic Club arranged it.
The Ohio Champion came to town to meet Yeagertown’s best! ALL of the admission fee would go to the winner. When it was over, victory went to the Yeagertown champ, plus the purse - $3.76. Boxing? Wrestling? Marbles? If you guessed wrestling, you were right.
Can you help us? A few sports items have already been pledged, but we need additional items for a successful opening exhibit for 2000.
If you have any sports related items - old uniforms, equipment, programs, clippings, photos, etc. - that you would be willing to lend for the exhibit, please call Karen Aurand at the society office, 242 - 1022.

Life Member Passes
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Mifflin County Historical Society life member Walter Bailey Stumpff, 103, formerly of Lewistown, died Feb. 28, 2000 at Woodside Hospice House, Pinellas Park, Fla.
Born January 16, 1897 in Mifflin County, he was the son of the late John H. and Minnie (Hough) Stumpff. His wife, Jessie H. (Moore) Stumpff proceeded him in death.
Surviving children are Walter B. Stumpff, Jr., Tuscaloosa, Ala. and Mrs. Dr. Wallace B. (Nancy H.) Rummel, St. Petersburg, Fla. He had nine grandchildren and 27 great-grand children.
He was the last World War I veteran from Mifflin County, having served in the United States Army.
He retired from dairy and livestock farming. He was also a retired rural mail carrier, delivering mail from horse and buggy, later on motorcycle, jeep and finally by car.
Services were held March 8 from Heller-Hoenstine Woodlawn Funeral Home, 200 N. Main St., Lewistown, with Rev. Wallace B. Rummel and the Rev. Daniel E. Rummel officiating.
Interment was at Lind Memorial Cemetery, Lewistown.
– The Sentinel March 6, 2000

Bus tour to visit Lancaster area

Bus now leaving! On Saturday, June 10 the bus departs at 6:30 a.m. from the Mifflin County Library parking lot. This spring’s Mifflin County Historical Society bus tour will be a one day visit to Ephrata and Lancaster.
The bus will stop along the way for breakfast, at the traveler’s expense. The first stop (10:00 a.m. to noon) is the living-history complex at the Landis Valley Museum. The site interprets Pennsylvania German rural life from 1750 to 1940.
A fast-food lunch will be at the traveler’s expense.
The Lancaster home of James Buchanan, Wheatland, is the next stop (1:15 to 2:15). Buchanan served as U.S. President from 1857 to 1861.
The tour visits the Ephrata Cloister from 2:30 to 3:30. Medieval-style buildings are unique elements of this religious community, with its emphasis of the austere, celibate life over materialism.
The Sturgis Pretzel House established by Julius Sturgis in 1861, is the final visit. Reputedly the oldest pretzel bakery in the United States, travelers will tour Sturgis from 3:45 to 4:15 p.m.
Dinner at Good & Plenty Restaurant, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., will be family-style, all-you-can-eat meal. The cost is $59 per person and includes: transportation, Landis Valley Museum, Wheatland, Ephrata Cloisters, Sturgis Pretzel House and the meal at Good & Plenty.
Payment is due when reservations are made. Call Ray C. Allison at 248 - 9321 or send payment to him at 34 Grand Parkway North, Lewistown, PA 17044. 

Dr. John Purdy Reynolds,
Alamo Defender – Physician
Southwestern University of Georgetown, Texas recently displayed the medical legacy of this Mifflin County native.

On March 6, 1836, eight days before his thirtieth birthday, John Purdy Reynold died at the Alamo. Mifflin Countians William M. McDowell and David P. Cummings died with the other defenders, including famous frontiersman Davy Crockett.
Southwestern University of Georgetown, Texas recently displayed the medical legacy of this Mifflin County native - Reynolds medical books. Their significance cannot be underestimated, as notes by Reynolds add to the picture of the young doctor’s life beyond his home state of Pennsylvania.

Born on March 14, 1806, John Purdy Reynolds was the son of David and Polly Reynolds. David Reynolds was a prominent citizen of Lewistown.
John Purdy Reynolds completed his undergraduate studies, by some sources, at Franklin College in Lancaster County, and studied medicine in Philadelphia.
Was he a practicing physician? His books indicate he was. The Reynold’s family thought so and erected a marker at St. Marks Cemetery in Lewistown bearing this inscription:
“My Brother, John Purdy Reynolds, M.D., March 14, 1806, killed in the Battle of the Alamo, Texas, March 6, 1836.”
In one of Reynolds’ books, Wistar’s System of Anatomy he inscribed in his own hand, “Commenced reading Anatomy Oct. 13th, 1832, Mifflin, Tenn.” Perhaps his private practice wasn’t in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, but in Mifflin, Tennessee.
How did Reynolds reach Texas? Contemporary accounts in the local newspapers say that he went to Texas for the express purpose of aiding the Texans in their fight to win freedom from Mexico. It is entirely possible he did, as some accounts suggest, travel to Texas via Tennessee with the legendary Davy Crockett and his volunteers.
The Handbook of Texas states that Reynolds traveled from Tennessee to Nacogdoches, arriving in 1835. He joined the Volunteer Auxiliary Corps of Texas in January, 1836 and, according to the Handbook, went to San Antonio de Bexar with Crockett.
Some sources call Reynolds the medical officer or senior medical officer, yet records from San Antonio refer to him as a private, with at least five other physicians or surgeons on the rolls. One argument: the books left in Tennessee indicate he wasn’t going to Texas as a doctor.
However, an equally strong argument can be made that any medical books he would have taken with him had no chance of surviving the destruction following the battle.
We’ll probably never know, but Reynolds’ books add to his story.

Useful Internet Sites
FamilySearch.org from LDS
Recently, The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania reviewed what might be considered the greatest single source of genealogical information - FamilySearch. Maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), FamilySearch covers the globe, including almost all continents.
FamilySearch debuted in the spring of 1999 and has expanded exponentially ever since. Records are now linked from the International Genealogical Index to the Family History Library Catalog.
By linking IGI to FHLC, researchers have the convenience of seeing descriptions of 2 million rolls of microfilm and hundreds of thousands of books and maps in the LDS system.
To contact the LDS system, use www.familysearch.org and follow the prompts. A search can be limited to a certain batch or film number. This makes finding relatives in the same batch or film easier.
Also, LDS has made it easier to search for children of the same parents. Only the father’s first and last name and the mother’s given name are needed. Up to 200 search results are shown on a page.
Another new product from the Mormons is Pedigree Resource File, a new lineage-linked database on compact disc. It contains family history records that individuals have submitted through the FamilySearch Service. The family information is organized in family groups and pedigrees and many include notes and sources.
The FamilySearch service has already generated more than 88,000 of what it calls “Collaboration Lists,” which are electronic mailing lists created by registered users of the FamilySearch service.
[Information from the GSP newsletter, Penn in Hand, Vol. XX No. 4 - December, 1999]

ACQUISITIONS

The Mifflin County Historical Society always welcomes artifacts that have a direct relationship to our county’s heritage or local genealogy. Each year we receive a variety of county-related materials, such as books, clothing, paper items, and artwork.
We wish to acknowledge and thank the following donors for their generosity:

Duane Botteicher, Cleveland, Ohio. - PA and NY Central RR report forms and passes and various publications.

Willard Shank, Milroy - Book: Index of Obituaries for 1999 taken from the Lewistown Sentinel.

James Bratton, Burnham - Graduation diploma: Ethel C. Bubb - 1910; Perfect attendance certificate - Bruce Bratton - 1921; Certificate: to enter high school - Bruce Bratton - 1926.

Vivian Goldberg, Lewistown - Underwood manual typewriter used in the Lewistown School District.

Bobbi Moist, McVeytown - Book: Stone Valley Remembered - compiled by James O. Smith, 1989.

Mifflin County Library, Carol Veitch, Lewistown - Assortment of photos and photo postcards.

Robert L. Wilson, Lewistown - Assortment of 19th century photos of Lewistown area given to the donor by Dick Ruble.

M. Kimberly Rupert, Arlington, Va. - Model of the P-40 airplane used by The Flying Tigers; book about the P-40; book about The Flying Tigers; three histories about NATO; flags of the 15 traditional NATO members; a certificate acknowledging donor’s father’s years in SHAPE.

Linda Fisher, Lewistown - Wooden swivel school desk chair.

Jack Hobaugh, Tucson, Ariz. - Book: Hobaugh’s of York Co., PA complied by the donor, Jan., 2000.

Harold Bennett,Mifflintown - Bell & Howell Infallible Electric Eye Camera in case with instruction booklet.  

BOOK NOTES
In 1975, Mifflin County artist Anne K. Fisher worked with the Kishacoquillas Valley Bank of Belleville, Pa. on a bicentennial project of prints depicting the life of Chief Logan. Her research sources included the works of Allen Eckert and original copies of books on the Girty family, Chief Logan and Pennsylvania Indian wars, some out of print for over seventy-five years at that time.

Happily for the history buff, some of these books are now in print again. The stories of Chief Logan and his contemporaries on the frontier of the 1700s can be found in the reprints of the history classics below.
These may be of interest to our members and friends, but are not offered here by the historical society.
Each can be obtained directly from:

Wennawoods Publishing
RR#2 Box 529C Lewisburg, PA 17837
(800) 796 - 1702
email: wennawoods@csrlink.net
Web site: www.wennawoods.com

History Of The Girtys by C.W. Butterfield. 1890 reprint of the Girty brothers -- Thomas, Simon, James and George and their half-brother, John Turner in Lord Dunmore’s War, on the
Western Border War of the Revolution, and in the Indian war 1790-95. Excellent source of information on whites living with Indians from original sources. 310pp ...21.95

Notes On The Settlement And Indian Wars Of The Western Parts Of Virginia And Pennsylvania From 1763-83 by Rev. Dr. Joseph Doddridge. A wealth of information on the settlement of Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, with biographical notes on Logan, Michael Cresap, Simon Girty and many others. 320 page reprint was originally published in 1912 complete with index. Considered one of the great writers of his time…16.95

Chronicles Of Border Warfare, or a History of the Settlement by the Whites, of Northwestern Virginia, and of the Indian Wars and Massacres in that section of the State by Alexander Scott Withers. Published in 1831, this account of border warfare in the Virginia/W.Virginia/Kentucky/Ohio/Pennsylvania area is a classic on early pioneer/Indian relations. Good footnotes and
research makes this book one that many historians have used in their writings. 447pp…………………………….16.95

Mifflin County Yesterday and Today...
Learning local history in the Mifflin County School District - Elementary students remember Mifflin County Alamo fighters in March

“Mifflin County honors her sons of Texas liberty, each first Saturday in March, at Saint Mark’s Cemetery in Lewistown. The memorial ceremony takes place at the monument erected to the memory of Dr. John Purdy Reynolds by the Reynolds family.” These are the words students in the Mifflin County School District read in the text, Mifflin County Yesterday and Today, a unique feature of the school district’s fourth grade curriculum.
Written in 1993 by school district educators, students learn about local history. Starting with the earliest inhabitants to the present, MCY&T contains almost 80 articles and numerous pictures in the 104 page book.
Students of Armagh Elementary’s fourth grade teachers, Stephen J. Rynkewitz and Marilee McNitt, were prepared again this year to tell the story of the county’s three Alamo heroes – David P. Cummings, William McDowell and John P. Reynolds – on Saturday, March 11, 2000 at St. Mark’s. The memorial program included student presentations. Last year’s ceremony was not held due to a snow storm. This year’s event was scheduled later in hopes of better weather. Look for a more complete report in the June letter. 

Editor's Desk
On behalf of the historical society, I would like to thank Kathryn E. Stallard, Head of Special Collections, John G. Tower Library, of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Southwestern recently hosted an exhibition of Dr. John Purdy Reynolds’ medical books, discussed in the article on page 7. Thanks for highlighting our hometown hero!
Kathryn corresponded with me last year about the Reynolds exhibit. I plumbed the society’s files on Dr. Reynolds and sent copies along to Texas. She was able to use several images of the Reynolds monument at St. Mark’s Cemetery in the exhibit, with credit to the historical society.
The recognition of the importance of his medical books and the information imparted by the writing in Reynolds’ own hand within most of the books, adds a bit more to the story of this local Alamo hero.
On another topic, the response to our calendar project exceeded our expectations. Dozens of individuals have pledged their support, as well as five businesses. We’ve included an appeal for support in this issue of the newsletter, hopefully through our members and friends, additional businesses will soon help out.
Selecting twelve special photos for the first-ever calendar is a rather daunting task - too many from which to choose! Take the photo on the facing page, for example. Physically, it’s just a diminutive, little snapshot, easy to overlook. Subject it to the rigors of modern computer technology to enlarge and enhance, and...Eureka! What a little gem! A glimpse of life at Lewistown Junction. I had to remove a large thumb print that was planted on the right side, probably done while processing in a home darkroom, oh, so many years ago.