Oral
Histories of Clermont by:
Mary
Nella Hafner, Dr.
Fritz Guenter, Fred Hagman,Gerald
Kinney, Michael Weidert,Shirley
Moore, Wendell Anderson.
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The
History of Clermont Mary Nella Hafner
Time dims the memory but it also
changes the town. Industries and families move away or die and when your
grandchildren ask 'What was it like when you were young?'-you really enjoy
reminiscing. Our way of life has changed a great deal in the past fifty
years (this is dated app. 1965) but this is my remembrances of Clermont,
plus a few recorded events.
In 1880 the Buffalo Coal Company built 50 two-story
houses, near the present school house, for their employees. You hear many
old-time residents refer to these houses as "The Patch". There was a sawmill
the church and another one at Wermwag.
A two-story school house was built around 1885. In our generation,
many houses were assumed to be haunted by someone other than Caspar the
Friendly Ghost. The haunted house of Clermont was near the creek below
the Patch. The children were told that
the man had been killed by his wife
with an axe and if you looked closely -preferably after dark-you could
see a headless man sitting at his shoemaker's bench. With a little imagination,
many of the local children were sure they could see him. You have undounbedly
heard the song "I owe my life to the Company Store". Although we did not
have such a store in Clermont, the Buffalo Coal Company did build us a
church about 1874 (this church still stands, adjacent to the Clermont-Norwich
Road, across from the school, near Anderson Grove-it is now a hunting camp).
It was a community church and in order to get the necessary furnishings
the women of the church gave an oyster supper to help buy a gold-colored
chandelier with oil lamps, and a bright red carpet. The chandelier cost
$20 and the carpet cost $50.
After the tile factory was built about 1901 the
Methodists built their own church near the factory and sold their share
of the community church to the
Lutherans. It was commonly referred to thereafter as the "Swede Church"
since most of the parishioners were of that nationality. (ed. note the
Methodist
Church was built in 1895, six years BEFORE the tile factory was built).
About 1901 (ed-actually 1895) a Catholic
Church was built near the center of the community. They had a nice
organ in the church and services were held there for about 25 years. Even
after services were discontinued, you
would hear Leonard Amend playing the organ with enthusiasm and reverance.
When I came to Clermont in 1921 there were 3 churches, 2 hotels, four general
stores, a post office, barber shop, pool room, school house, large boarding
house, UNG office, tile factory, Odd Fellows Hall. We had the Pennsylvania
Railroad train service to Olean and Johnsonburg daily and the Shawmut
Railroad with service from St. Marys to Olean. We also had the
HOOTLE BUG. Ask your parents about the BUG.
The Black Row, Queens
Row and Kings Row were the names given to the houses built by the tile
factory. During the winter our main live contact with
civilization was through the railroad. Traveling salesmen came by train
and stayed overnight at our hotels or boarding house. Large boxes of bread
were
delivered by train.
Music? Yes, we had victrolas and gramophones. Records
were odd sounding compared to Hi-Fi and stereo of today, but we listened
and danced and
enjoyed every squeak. Local musicians were very popular and invited
to participate at parties-free of charge. In the latter part of the twenties
we had radios
operated by batteries. Cleveland was the only M.D. who would come to
Clermont in winter. He had a Ford pick-up, but most of the parts were removed
so
that it could be picked up if it became mired in mud or snow. Many
times Dr. Cleveland walked miles to help deliver the Clermont babies. Naturally
he did not always arrive in time and I would have the baby and mother taken
care of. What did the Doctor charge for his services? $35. There was no
pre-natal care for the doctor was not contacted until the baby was ready
to arrive. What did I charge? $5. Without present-day knowledge, most young
children were taught
to believe that the stork brought them into the world. Why was I there?
Well, then the Stork and I brought them. Cars were left blocked up in garages
in the winter to save wear on tires but also because roads without snow
plows were impassable. Horses and sleighs were used to deliver raw milk
to the families and groceries to the numbered wood camps. With no cars
on the roads, the town children constantly went sled riding or ice skating.
To many, the winter social life of Clermont consisted of going to Church
or going to the general store to talk and huddle around the pot-bellied
stove or gas stove. Since the grocery stores were open until 10:00 p.m.
every evening, the men in town would come in to talk and loaf until the
store closed. Seems to me it was always a 12 point buck that got away.
Hunters arrived from the cities and boarded at private homes for $40 a
week. There were many camps too and if a hunter missed a deer a piece was
cut off his shirt-tail that evening. I always expected to see a hunter
with no back left to his shirt. Refrigeration consisted of ice boxes in
summer. The ice had been cut by hand saws in the winter and stored in an
icehouse filled with sawdust. Naturally there were frequent dunkings in
that zero weather since the ice was slippery and the ice blocks had to
be lifted onto a sleigh. John Erlandson had a tile building where he stored
the ice until summer and after many years he improvised an ice machine
to cut the ice. It was delivered twice a week for 1 1/2 cents per pound.
The local children liked to follow the ice wagon in the summer to gather
chips of ice. How did the children escape from school? Miss
Perry didn't believe in spring fever and the days of sulfur and molasses
for a tonic were past. Most of the girls refused to cooperate but I believe
most of the boys tried skipping school legitimately by eating leeks. Now
anyone who has smelled the breath of a "leek-eater" will realize that Miss
Perry couldn't stand the recitations of such a student. Remember that this
was before the days of chlorophyll or mouth wash. Not that we didn't have
listerine; we did, but that was for sore throats and then only if salt
and warm water didn't work. Would you believe that Clermont did not have
electricity until 1946? The stores and most homes used gas lights with
mantles and the yell by mothers in those days was "don't jump, you'll break
the mantles".
Water and air pollution in Clermont? We never thought
of such a thing even though the sulfur was thick in one creek running through
town. We accepted it as mine water. You probably know that the clay for
the tile factory was mined here and then baked in kilns that were "salted".
Curtains and clothes rotted quickly and many a housewife had to rewash
her clothes when the big smokestack spurted soot all over her clothes line.
We were so grateful to have an industry in our town that we complained
lightly. Really we didn't have the "Pony Express". We had our Post Office
and it was another natural hub of our universe. Our newspapers were delivered
by mail and we read every word whether we understood them or not. Harrisburg
was far away and who really expected to see the current President in that
remote place called Washington. They were at fault for all the wrongs of
the world or so we thought. Not us! We visited and gossiped and talked
politics in the Post Office. Before long our children were visiting Washington
and our boys were fighting overseas. It seems to me that we lived more
for the present, with few worries about the future, yet we talked of the
past as "The Good Old Days".
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Oral
History of Dr. Fritz Guenter
"In the somewhat recent course of my own medical practice,
I some time ago ran across a rather interesting phenomenon of legend. In
taking care of some people in Clermont, one elderly lady said I always
feel better on Wednesdays and Saturdays'., and she repeated it on several
different occasions. I finally asked her why she said she felt better on
those days. She said 'it is the custom of the whole town to feel better.
Years ago every Tuesday and Friday Dr. Chadwick used to come to Clermont
on the train, and and it got to be such a habit, the only time people would
get sick there anymore is on Tuesdays and Fridays". Editor's note: Dr.
Burg Chadwick of Smethport started working for the Buffalo Coal Company,
but lived in Smethport. He attended to most Clermont emergencies, often
going by horse. Dr. Guenter also had a history of house calls in Clermont,
often playing "Cinch" with family members while waiting the outcome of
his medical prowess.
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Oral History
of Fred Hagman
Esterbrook cleared the farm that
Hagmans bought. The old road from Norwich to Clermont passed by it. Below
the Hagman place was the Lasher Farm. The McKendrick Farm was on top of
the hill, overlooking Wermwag. It was a long walk for the children to get
to school at Wermwag. McKendricks was about 2 miles from Clermont. They
were on the Lasher Brook Road. There were 36 houses in Clermont and
four streets (Pine, North, Centre and Railroad). Fred Hafman was born there
in 1889. There was a severe diphtheria epidemic in 1909. A great
many children died. Some families were almost wiped out. (editor's note:
J. Sonbergh lost 5 children to diphtheria in 21 days). The old Red
Mill grist mill was located along Red Mill Brook a few miles below Wermwag.
Bill Dick lived below the mill and told about the stones that sat at the
site of the old mill. Artie Jacobson and Fred Haman went fishing and decided
to find them. They located the old earth dam foundation and from it located
the mill wheels. They were about one foot wide and five feet across. Large
trees were growing on the wheels and the numerous floods had buried them
pretty deep. They sawed the trees down and dug the wheels out. They dug
out three wheels and found one more broken wheel. (editor's note: the wheels
were given to the McKean County Historical Society, and at last knowledge
were stored in a barn at Sena-Kean Manor). Bishop's Summit was located
where Fred Hagman's home now stands (named after Joel Bishop, a resident
of Instanter and a pioneer prominent in early civic affairs in Clermont.).
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Oral History of Gerald Kinney
Buster Amend us to like this woman
who made moonshine in Betula. One night he asked my brother Howard to drive
him to the doctor in Smethport. You had to go through Betula. When they
got in front of her place he asked Howard to stop and pull hard on his
arm. After 2 hard pulls Buster proclaimed himself cured and said 'Lets
celebrate and go in for a drink". One day were all hanging around
on the porch and Mark Amend stopped by with a rope. We all talked awhile
and he said he was going to take a walk. He wasn't seen until winter, when
his body was found hanging by the Gumboot mines. My sister Annabelle had
a farm in the Betula Valley. My brother Don and I would walk the Norwich
Road down and spend the week-end, and then walk back, snow or shine. They
had a man who was hard of hearing plow with his mule; we kids would shout
for it to halt, but the man didn't hear us and couldn't figure out what
was wrong with that mule. One day my dog was chasing a rabbit behind the
Shawmut
station. The rabbit turned by the mine cave-in, but the dog went straight
and fell in. I walked back to the station to borrow a ladder, but the agent
would only loan it to my father. I climbed down
and got the dog. When the Hoffmans needed help haying, they'd ask us
kids. They couldn't pay but she'd make a great meal. One of their boys
was hit by a train while crossing the tracks in his Model T. It crippled
him. They all moved to the Port Allegany area. Kenny Robinson owned the
mine I worked in when I was 15, over by Huck's. It had thin rails. We'd
push the cars out by hand. Fred Anderson had the mine out by Dolly's; Jack
Yoder and Fred Burkhouse worked there. When we were 15 or 16 we went to
a carnival in Johnsonburg. It was closed for the night, but one of the
guys said he knew how to run the rides. Carnie yelled "Rube"-it sounded
like a voice from heaven. Karl HAGMAN WAS IN ONE OF THOSE PLANES< GOING
AROUND AND AROUND> He tried to get down and one of the carnies beat the
hell out of him. We were getting beat bad when Chief Redmond saved us.
One day Miss Perry
took us on an outing to Anderson Grove. Three of us were curious if we
were going to pass, so we sneaked back to school and pried a window open.
Someone spilled a bottle of ink all over the report cards. When Miss Perry
came back she made everyone put their hands on their desks. She really
beat us. Once I tied a string between my desk and a girl's. Miss Perry
would walk down the aisle while she was reading. She tripped and blamed
the girl and made her put her nose in her book. We had one teacher, Miss
Pearson-boy was I in love with her. We moved from Cross Fork to Clermont
in the winter I was only one year old. We kids were bundled and sat on
the sled on top of our possessions. It was so cold we had to stop and build
a fire. We moved into the Dumjohn House, by the Odd Fellows Building. Later
we lived in the pasture (the old Mack farm, across the Pennsy tracks from
King's Row.)
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Oral History
of Michael Weidert
When I lived in Crosby, sometimes
we'd walk up to the Pennsy Pond (along the Western
New York and Pennsylvania Railroad tracks, about a mile east of Clermont).
There was an old stump, about four feet high, and we'd dive off it. I remember
when the Fuller boys died there (July 4, 1930).
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Oral History of Shirley Moore
The train (Pittsburg, Shawmut and
Northern) stopped right by our house (the old Miller house, just west of
the PS and N station in Clermont). We had bums knock on the door for a
bite to eat. Sometimes they'd sharpen knives or do odd jobs. We fed them,
they never gave us any trouble. When the trains went over the road (by
the station), we'd wait for the engine to go by so we didn't get burned
by cinders.
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Oral History of Wendell
Anderson
Paul and Margaret Searfoss raised
their family of eight boys and three girls, in the house where Danny Olson
now lives. The only surviving member of that family is Ronald, the
youngest boy. He was called "Pooch" by everybody in Clermont during his
boyhood years. Ella Hafner Bailey was the daughter of Harry Hafner who
was employed by the Gas Company for many years. Her mother dies in 1908,
in the house where Danny Olson now lives, they lived there a few years
before Paul Searfoss got it. Evelyn Paulson never lived in Clermont but
had strong family ties there. Her grandmother, Eva Jacobson and her Uncles
Arthur and Bill lived in the house George and Jean Farrell now live in.
In fact, her Grandfather had it built. Alberta Miller Karrasch was raised
in Clermont, in the house where "Red" Moore lives Ginalsburg was on the
upper side of the road and on both sides of the creek where the old beaver
dam is out past the old John Martin farm, or what is now known as the Walker
hunting camp, roughly two miles out the road toward Wilcox (editor's note:--Ginalsburg
was settled in 1843 as part of the Society of Industry, along with Teutonia.
It was named after Heinrich Ginal, one of the 5 trustees of Gewerbe-Verein.
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