Schools and our Church

Catlin Hollow Church

Thought I  would give a little history of Catlin Hollow to start with.  It is located in Charleston Township and  was organized in December, 1820 and  was taken from Delmar Township, which was organized in 1873.  It would seem as Dartt Settlement was being settled, several other pioneers came further northwest and settled in what is now known at Catlin Hollow.  Among those early settlers were Daniel Dennison, Edward McInroy, Jessie, William and Nelson Catlin.  Many of these people are buried in the Catlin Hollow Cemetery.

There was a pioneer saw mill constructed in Dart Settlement in 1816 in what was called Catlin Hollow Run,  that supplied lumber for the homes and various building that went up in the communities in the area.  Many of the pioneers were involved in farming, there was an established carding machine that ran for a number of years.

The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Catlin Hollow was organized about 1850.  Among  the early members were Cyrus Catlin and wife, Joel Catlin and wife, Edward McInroy and Dexter Catlin and wife.  I have always found it  interesting to find that the Baptist and the Methodist have shared this church throughout the years and obviously the Episcopal were involved with the Methodist at one time.

My family attended this church all though my growing up years, in fact, I was the last person to be married in this church and it eventually was closed and sold, with the money earned from the sale going to the Whitneyville Methodist Church and it was used to help build a new parsonage.

I am in possession of the original doors that were on the church and some of the stained glass that was in the windows.  I had a hanging made for each of my children so they could share in the history of this beloved church.  Many happy memories are involved in the four walls of this church and the beloved people that attended the services there.

Schools: 

The schools of Charleston were maintained by subscription and it was felt that in this township they were the best of any township.  They had good teachers usually graduates from the State Normal school at Mansfield.

The garage at our Homestead had been the Old McInroy School.

This came from the school in 1908 (compliments of Joyce Tice)

If you go back and look at the "beginning" pictures and see the garage, you can see what it looked like.

I can remember Daddy talking about the school he attended on Reese Hill, close to where he lived growing up.  On a winter day, they talked their teacher (he called her the school mom) into getting on their sled at lunch break and they rode all the way to Hills Creek and didn't get back until to dismiss that evening, so they didn't have class in the afternoon.  He said they couldn't talk her into that again.  He stated that the fire in the school house was out when they got back and they were cold, but they all had a good time.

Charleston School

The first consolidate school in the county was opened in 1909 and remained active until 1956.  It is really neat to me to think I went to school in the same school that my parents did.  You could roll a marble down the steps from the eighth grade class room and it would hit the water fountain and bounce and end up in the furnace room.  I think every kid knew that trick.  Now that school had memories!!

Now by the time Jerry and I went to school there, they had to construct two additional little buildings on each side.  On the right side was the second grade class room, and on the left was the third grade class room and then when we got to the fourth grade, we got to go back inside.  Each of the little building had their own coal stove, and the boys all had to take turns helping the teacher keep the fire going.

This was our second grade class room

This is where Jerry and I attended second grade.  This picture was taken by George Riebe.  He is the son of the people that were responsible for us to have hot school lunches in later years and his father was a janitor at the school.  One year after I had moved to Ohio and was home visiting, I stopped to visit them and asked them if I could go through the school one last time.  I knew they were going to tear it down and I so wanted to have a last look and he honored my request.  What a joy it was to walk those halls again.  Mrs. Carrie Olson was my first grade teacher, I later had the joy of caring for her as a patient and talking about her teaching career.  Second grade was our pastor's wife, Mrs. Barbara Finch, third grade was Mrs Shelley and we were all scared to death of her, fourth grade was Mrs. Christine Selleck, another lady that was my patient, fifth grade was Mrs. Cassie Gross whom, I dearly loved, she was suffering from leukemia and died soon after.  Sixth grade, we moved upstairs and we got to change classes, I had Mrs. Adeline Hess, Mrs. Doratha Wetmore and Mr. Brace.

It was sometime in these years when I was upstairs that it was decided our school was no longer safe and we would all be transferred to the Charleston High School in the newly constructed class rooms to finish up our elementary education.  If we were going to continue on to college we would go into Wellsboro to continue our education, and that is when I left a lot of my Charleston friends and transferred to Wellsboro.  That is another story, as I really missed those kids, but did make new friends.

Gerow Siblings and Parents 1951

Gerow Siblings and Parents

I believe this picture was taken when Aunt Lucille and Uncle Earl were home from Florida and it was decided that we needed to have a family picture taken.  This is taken in the lower yard on the farm on Bryant Road in Charleston Township.

Left to Right in the back:  Ardys Gerow Hazelton, Norma Gerow Plumley, Lucille Gerow Beeman, Eloise Gerow Drew, and Ethlyn Bush Gerow Goodwin and in the front, Gale C. Gerow and Marietta Clark Gerow.

Aunt Ardys married Harry Hazelton and they had three children, Robert, Connie and John

Aunt Norma married Ward Plumley and they had one son, Dale Alan

Aunt Lucille married Earl Beeman and they had five children, Patricia, Earl Ray, Janet, Roger and Pam.

Aunt Eloise married Raymond Drew and they had two sons, Eugene and Daniel.

Mother Ethlyn married Burt Goodwin and they had two children, Kathy Elaine and Gerald Burt.

Grandma Gerow was a very kind and caring person, who had a love for people and animals.  She always had a pet cat, usually by the name of either Snooky or Pepper.  She loved to play with the kids and could entertain us in many different ways.  She loved a clean and neat house.  She was hard of hearing and depended on her hearing aid.  She and I would sit together in a large wooded rocking chair and rock and talk and she would quote poems to me.  She always chewed "teaberry"gum and took it out just before going to sleep and laid it on a dish beside her bed.  She would brush her hair each night and clean her brush and roll the hair and deposit the hair into a special dish on her dresser and that hair would be used in her needlework.  It was beautiful when finished.

One of the poems that she would say to me that I remember to this day is as follows:

Words

"Keep a watch on your words, my darling: 

for words are wonderful things.

They are sweet like the bees' fresh honey;

Like bees, they have terrible stings.

They can bless like the warm, glad sunshine

and brighten a lonely life.

They can cut in the strife of anger; 

like an open two-edged knife."

This little poem is still very appropriate today, rather they are typed on the internet or said in person, they still can hurt.

Grandpa Gerow was also a very kind person and had a love for animals and had to have his chickens and milk cows and piggies.  In the years that I remember him, he milked his cows by hand and he had a creamer that he separated the cream from the milk and sold the cream and kept the milk.  He had Jersey cows.  Grandma made home-made butter and always had buttermilk and home-made dutch cheese. Grandpa also raised big white rabbits that he sold for meat and I tried not to get attached to the rabbits, as I knew where they were going.

Grandpa had a round chicken house and I thought that was really neat, but that way, the baby chickens did "pile up" in a corner and suffocate as they often did in a square house.  The house was painted red and looked really sharp.  I was sad to see the new owners tear it down.  It would have made a super "play house"!!

We will talk about butchering time a little later on, as that was a favorite time in the farming year and Grandpa was always present at that event. Grandpa was known throughout Charleston Township for his Black Linamint.   He would cook it outside in a cast iron kettle over an open fire.  It was used for healing for humans and animals.  When I worked for a local pharmacy one summer, the pharmacist at Kentch's Pharmacy showed me the recipe they had on file for this in Grandpa's hand writing and they made me a copy and I still have that copy with his signature.  One of my prize possessions.  Other folks have tried to make it since his death, but it has not been the same.

Eloise and Lucille on Lady

Houses 

This picture is taken in 1923 at the house where Grandpa and Grandma Gerow lived in Catlin Hollow.  The house is no longer there.  It burned when I was in second grade 1949 I think.  Leonard and Ruth Reese lived there at the time.  When Grandpa and Grandma moved from Knoxville in 1919, this is where they moved to.  The barn was across the road from the house and it was a rather lovely and large farm.  Grandpa build a large corn crib that was in my life time inhabited by a gentleman as his home.  Eloise was born in Knoxville; however. Lucille, Norma and Ardys were all born in this house.

The pony's name in the picture is Lady and the dog is Jack, it is my mother is the side holding her doll, this doll was later refurbished and given to my daughter Krista.  She had a porcelain head, feet and hands and leather body and legs and arms. She also had real hair, a lovely doll for the early 1900's.

Grandpa and Grandma's House in the 1950's 

I do not know when Grandpa and Grandma moved from Catlin Hollow to the Bryant Road.  That was not the name of the road at that time.  We called it Grandpa's road.  There were only two houses on the road.  Glenn and Mary Peer and Grandma and Grandpa.  I have reason to think it was right after World War II started.  I base that on a story that I was told, but I choose not to write it, as some might find it in poor taste.  

This is the only place I remember them living and I loved this setting.  There was a working wind mill up beside of the barn and how I loved to hear the swish - swish sound that it would make.  Jerry and I would often walk up to the windmill and just watch it go round and round.  We were both fascinated by it.

The house was huge and I often dream of being inside and I can see it so clearly, it was an enchanting home to me.  They had a huge enclosed back porch with lots of rocking chairs.  That is where the cream separator was kept.  Boots were taken off here along with our heavy coats and hung on special hooks.  We walked into the kitchen and you know what was there?  Grandma's beautifully polished wood fired cookstove with a warming oven, hot water holder the works, it was beautiful, beside of it was Grandpa's rocking chair and behind that was the entrance to the summer bedroom.  That was a beautiful room.  White ruffled curtains to all of the windows.  Roses on the wallpaper, white painted woodwork, high poster bed just inviting you to come lay down and read a book and open the windows.  Behind this room was the wood shed a huge winter storage vegetable room.

Back  to the kitchen was a large kitchen table with a oil cloth table cloth, pitcher pump, huge sink and then the pantry, with a huge window facing the west with lacy curtains.  All of Grandma's cupboards had etched glass and the shelved were lined with pretty shelf  paper with lace edging.  She had her ice box in this huge pantry.  She did all of her baking in here, it was a lovely room and smelled of fresh herbs and apples.  In the kitchen was a back stair case that led to the attic and Jerry and I would love to go up there, what a treasure chest that was.  This attic even had windows and it was warm, as it was over the cookstove!

As you leave the pantry and start to the living room to the left is a door that will go down cellar to the coal stove and the canned goods and to the right is a love seat, where the toys are stored, not just toys, but anything that she thought us kids would enjoy.  Catalogs, books, etc.

Next into the Dining room/Living room w/ huge bay windows.  This housed a huge dining room table, chairs and  buffet, two rocking chairs, sofa, desk and chair, two comfortable chairs, radio and later a television.  Off to the left their bedroom. On further an open staircase to the upstairs.  On to the parlor, with a piano, all the girls played the piano, large sofa, end tables with beautiful blue glass tops.  Wall paper was a velvet brocade in gold.  Several overstuffed chairs and rocking chairs and straight chairs.  I am fortunate enough to have several of those chairs.

The upstairs has five rooms and a full bathroom.  There is a half bath downstairs also.  How that lady kept all of that clean and found time for her garden and still read, I don't know, but she did and she loved to read.  Maybe that is where I found my love for books.  They also loved to travel,  Grandpa had a Kaiser car and they made the trip to Florida every winter to visit Aunt Lucille and Uncle Earl. Remarkable folks.

The Beginning

This is the house where it all began for me.

Charleston Township - early 1940

I am a lady that was born on a rural dairy farm in the early 40's in northeastern Pennsylvania to a Christian family.  My parents had a love for the land and the animals that God entrusted to their care.  We were surrounded by many cousins, aunts. uncles and grandparents along with neighbors that took an interest in us and shared the good and the bad times with us.

It is my hopes that with this blog, I can recapture some of those stories that were told at threshing time, ladies aides, church gatherings, grange meetings, milk meetings, family gatherings, holiday meals, and just little snippets of things that are stored in my memory that might be of interest to my grandchildren and great-grandchildren at a later time.

My parents purchased this home in Catlin Hollow in the late 30's and started to work on the farm, clearing the land.   From what I understand, the house didn't have any windows and that was the first task, no inside plumbing. The farm they purchased was originally the McInroy Farm and had not been occupied for many years.  In my research of Catlin Hollow, the McInroy Family was among the first families to settle in Catlin Hollow.  My mother was currently working at Corning Glass and attending college in Mansfield and trying to help my father.  It sounded like a busy household back then.

The barn with the milkhouse to the left.

My parents started farming with a team of horses, and my Grandpa Gerow always said that my mother was really good with a team, as she was the oldest in her family of five girls, so she learned at an early age to work the team.

This is Dutch and Ned the horses and cousin Eugene; they are getting ready to spread manure.

This is a beginning of the story I hope to continue as I find time to post, hopefully it will be of interest to my family members over the years.  I know I have enjoyed my rural upbringing and have wonderful memories of my parents and brother.