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Plan would tap town's history to brighten its future
By RAN&Y WELLS
Indiana Gazette Staff Writer
Indiana, PennsylvaniaCHERRY TREE - In 1768, representatives of the heirs of William Penn paddled up the West Branch of the Susquehanna River as far as their canoes could take them. At the last navigable spot on the river — known as Canoe Place — they met with American Indians to begin surveying the western Pennsylvania land ceded by the Indians at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, N.Y.
Today, Canoe Place is called Cherry Tree and a tall, stone monument stands at the edge of town near the confluence of the Susquehanna and Cush Cushion Creek. . It commemorates the land sale and the historical significance of that spot as the beginning point of the "purchase line" that ran west toward Kittanning.
Cherry Tree is about to become the starting point for 24st-century canoeists who went to retrace the route of the first explorers there and to relive a little of the adventure of the rugged loggers and raftsmen who made Cherry Tree a center of the area's timbering economy a century later.
Don Rager is asking Cherry Tree-area residents to lend their ideas, skills and knowledge to some plans he has for preserving Cherry Tree's history and bringing part of it back to life.
Rager was born and raised in Cherry Tree. He graduated from Cherry Tree High School in 1949 and then left his hometown to serve in the Army. He later lived in Delaware and Murrysville while working as a terminal and maintenance manager for Ryder's auto-carrier division.
He moved back to the Cherry Tree area a few years ago after he retired. While reminiscing about his boy-hood days swimming, fishing and boating in the old McKeage Dam near town, he decided that Cherry Tree's past should be preserved and that Cherry Tree's history might also draw tourism dollars to the community today.
Rager pitched his idea to the borough council, and the council appointed him Cherry Tree's historical coordinator.
"Don was interested in everything that's going on," said the council president, Monica Beltowski. "He's realty taken the ball and run with it. I believe everybody's really behind him."
Rager is planning a community meeting Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the borough office building to out-line his ideas and to recruit others who want to get involved.
His plans for showcasing Cherry Tree's history center on three main projects.
The River Water Trail
Cherry Tree Borough has applied for a grant to help build a canoe launch downstream from the Route 580 bridge in the borough. It will be the first access point on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River Water Trail, a 240-mile floating trip back through the 1800s, when Pennsylvania was the timbering capital of the world.
The river trail is being developed as cooperative venture of the Lumber Heritage Region of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Initiative of the National Park Service.
There are 64,000 square miles the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and the West Branch of the Susquehanna is the single largest stream in the watershed.
The intent of the river trail is to commemorate the 19th-century history of the Susquehanna when it was a "superhighway" famous for its log drives, especially between 1830 and 1880. It was a major mode of transportation for logs harvested in Indiana and Cambrai counties and then floated downstream to shipbuilding markets in the Chesapeake Bay.
The Cherry Tree monument is the town's most famous land-mark.
The river trail will have 26 public access points and will be divided into 16 sections. Detailed maps are being prepared for each section, providing canoeists with historical references and the same markers used to guide rafters in the 1800s.
Work on Cherry Tree's canoe launch should begin this spring, and Rager said volunteers will soon begin making some improvements to the upper stretch of the river.
"What we're going to need is people who can help clear brush growing into the center of the river from the banks between Cherry Tree and Burnside," he said.
Cherry Tree Museum
More mementos of Cherry Tree's timbering and railroading days and other articles from its history may be displayed in a museum planned for the borough.
After Robert Tonkin, the town's oldest lifelong male resident, died last month, his family agreed to donate his two-story frame home to the borough for use as a museum. Volunteers will be needed eventually to help with renovation work, and Rager hopes Cherry Tree residents will share old photos and other items from their town for display.
McKeage Dam
Re-creation of the McKeage Dam along Route 580 is the most ambitious of Rager's visions for his home-town.
The dam on Cush Cushion Creek was built in the 1800s. It created a lake that Rager estimates was about 65 to 100 acres in size. The lake was a popular recreation spot, and a rustic, log lodge was built amid towering pines on the shore of the lake.
The dam broke in the 1936 flood, and all that remains are remnants of the dam's stone and earth breast. Also still visible is the millrace and foundation stones for an old grist-mill that operated just below the dam.
If ft can be rebuilt, the McKeage Dam. could again be a popular fishing and boating resource for the area and could provide water for fire protection for the borough, Rager said.
The dam's rebirth seems dependent on having the property — now overgrown with trees — donated to the borough.
Rager has one other long-range idea for Cherry Tree's history revival. He'd like to approach officials of the R.J. Corman Railroad Co., the owner of tracks that run through town, about building an excursion railroad to take day-trippers from Cherry Tree to Clearfield.
Rager hopes other Cherry Tree residents will share his enthusiasm for his hometown's history and will volunteer at Wednesday evening's meeting to serve on committees; helping with the projects, and by arraigning future meetings and taking notes.
Some notable events in Cherry Tree's History.
1768 — American Indians ceded to the heirs of William Penn much of the land in western Pennsylvania. A landmark cherry tree at Canoe Place, the last navigable spot on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, near Cush Cushion Creek, was a starting point for the boundary, or purchase line.
1830-1880 — Logs cut from thousands of acres of timber in Indiana, Cambrai and Clearfield counties began the trip to market by floating down the Cush Cushion and Susquehanna at Cherry Tree.
1855 — Cherry Tree was incorporated as a borough.
1894 — Pennsylvania Gov. James Beaver was present when the town's stone monument commemorating the 1768 land purchase was unveiled.
1907 — Cherry Tree was damaged by flooding.
1938 — Seven people died on a "last raft" trip that began near Cherry Tree to commemorate the heyday of the 19th-century logging and rafting industry.
Other Articles of Interest. [Click on Photo to Enlarge]
[Click on Photo to Enlarge]
Editor's Notes:
Wow! I was pleasantly surprised today to receive your letter/data. I have begun to work on a number of Web-Sites making additions, corrections, etc. I am totally unable to get my mind around it all. So many things have been brought to my attention with what you have sent.
I am writing this so as to let you know I’ve received it and will return everything as soon as I am finished. These are priceless treasurers. I feel as though I’ve struck gold.
One thing in particular that has broadened my recollections: the story of Cherry Tree and Cush-Cushion Creek. The photo to the right is that of Cush-Cushion-Creek – the place where I was baptized. We then attended the Cookport Baptist Church. Rev. Straw (then pastor) used this location for all his baptisms. This photo was taken in the 1990's and the Creek was only a trickle, far from the running stream I recall at 8years old. Regardless, this picture that was taken off a dirt road (coming into Cookport from Heilwood, turning right past the church and then at a curve in the paved road going straight. My brother Ken took me by the spot on our last visit to them. I shall never forget the occasion of my baptism.
Leaving Pennsylvania didn’t get me far from Cush-Cushion. I have moved down-stream and have fished in it, swam in it, raised two boys near it and, as the photo below observes, baptized others in it..
When I baptized this child it was with water taken from the Chesapeake Bay – water that is partially from the Cush Cushion and Susquehanna.
Getting ahead of the story, – While I was real young – about the same age as when I was baptized, we visited Uncle Harold in Cherry Tree. In the Obit. you sent of Bertha Kunkle, it names a sister-in-law, wife of Harold Fleming, Alberta. The Indiana paper called her a sister of . . . , but she was a wife of Bertha’s brother, Harold Blair Fleming. Dad used to take us to Uncle Harold’s in Cherry Tree to get our hair cuts, Ken and myself. We would often be allowed to play. Uncle Harold Fleming had 5 boys. After the second he kept trying to go for a daughter. . . much like your folks may have tried several times for ONE boy! ? We always had a grand old time. In the paper clippings you enclosed there is lengthy stories about Cherry Tree, and, I am especially surprised to learn that the old washed away earthen dam works just opposite of Uncle Harold’s home was not other than the dam-works mentioned in the newspaper. We would be allowed to swim just below the old dam walls. However, we were forbidden to be allowed to swim in the stream (Cush-Cushion) further down the road where the water flowed more swiftly. The 5 boys had tied a rope to a tree and we would sneak down there and swim and swing out over the water. No one ever was in danger in our opinion, however, one time we went there with a time limit and left the time run over and our hair was all wet, etc., and we panicked at what would be done to us when we went home. We lied of course when ask if we were swimming, and dad exercised his power as a father when Ken and I got home.
As the article goes on to say, the stream flows down to the Chesapeake Bay. Well, that is where I again got into the waters of the Cush Cushion / Susquehanna. I have swam, fished, and sailed on the down-waters of the creek that begins not far from Cookport/Heilwood, PA. I think that is a mazing! I am not able to find right now the fish I caught not far upstream from Newport News but it was a good catch. We have taken the boys in the 1960's to swim in the Albemarle and Chesapeake Bay. I have baptized a child (photo) with water that was taken from the waters head of the Cush-Cushion –Creek – without realizing where the water came from. Even more! The Chesapeake Bay is the entry way to the Inland Water-way which allows boats and ships to go safely in-land from Virginia down to the Albemarle bay and further south. I believe it actually allows one to approach Florida. Think of that. Inland water from the ‘Cush’ goes all the way down the Atlantic coast of North America! Now it goes to reason that there is some of the Cush Cushion and Susquehanna water that flows all that way down through that Inland-Waterway (canal). In reality, if one set one’s mind to it – it might be said that, with a brief rail trip (forge) one could go from Lake Erie all the way to Florida without ever getting into the Atlantic Ocean. [Lake Erie through the Erie Cannel to the PA Railway - to the ‘Cush’ / Susquehanna - to the Chesapeake Bay – to the Inland Waterway - To the Albemarle Sound - to the end of the Inland Waterway. Wow. I find this exciting. I recall standing as a youth at the place where it was told that George chopped down the tree and wondering at the thought of it all – not even thinking about all of this. Quite amazing.
As far back as I can recall, Harold, Grandfather Harry Blair and all his (HUGE) sons were timber-men. They had rather large Saw Mills in and around the Cherry Tree area. My Grand Father, Harry Blair told me about floating logs down Dixon Creek that passed through the valley below our house in Dixonville. If that is so, when he was a youth, I am most sure he floated logs down the Cush’. Today, there is nothing in the story that includes any Flemings or Uncaphers. I find that most unusual. Uncle Harold, after he was too ill to lumber, bought the service station at the cross-roads in Cherry Tree and operated it for quite some time. He was well known then. Now, as in this article, there is no mention of any of them. Harold owned the largest home structure in Cherry Tree – 5 stores tall with a large attic. It gave us much fun to climb those stairs and then run down. I’ll never forget it.
