Spotlight on : by Lou Bernard
Mill Hall
It ’ s my first issue of Good News ! You may or may not have seen my writing locally , but if not , my name is Lou and I ’ m the Clinton County historian . Every month , my plan is to dig up some neat facts about the various local areas , and feature them in this space . So make sure you stay tuned for all the cool stuff I ’ ll be coming up with .
In this issue , it ’ s Mill Hall . Mill Hall lies in Bald Eagle Township , and was founded by Nathan Harvey . He traveled out from Philadelphia and settled in the township in 1804 , and founded the community in 1806 . Harvey built his home , and then established several businesses , including a mill and a local meeting hall . The Main Street of his new community ran along the path of an old Native American trail . He named his new village after the mill and the hall , Harvey evidently being the creative type .
Mill Hall was without both education and medicine until 1815 , when the first school house was built and the first physician came to live there . The doctor was Dr . Noah F . Essig . Mill Hall was incorporated as a village on February 16 , 1849 , with William Smith as the first burgess . (“ Burgess ” seems to pretty much mean the elected guy in charge .)
Mill Hall , like many communities , has a Church Street . But in this case , Church Street wasn ’ t always named because of the churches on it . An 1862 map shows the same street , but at the time , it was ironically referred to as “ Devil ’ s Gangway .” This is a common term in the past for rough or dangerous terrain , often when loggers would use an area for sliding logs down to the canal or the nearest body of water .
Because of the abundance of clay in the area , the Mill Hall Brick Works was created in 1892 . A $ 50,000 investment began the company with two machines and thirty employees . J . W . Smith was the president , Frank Torbert was the vice-president , and J . S . Hanna was the secretary and treasurer . They were able to produce twenty thousand quality bricks per day .
I hope you enjoyed learning about Mill Hall , and want to see more ... Because I ’ m just getting started .
Lou Bernard is a local writer and can be reached at loulhpa @ gmail . com .
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