Chapter IV- War to War

Millville - The First 200 Years
CHAPTER IV
War to War

    Challenging years have faced the community during its history, but the period from 1914 to 1950 must be considered as a continuing struggle. Not only were local issues of importance, but also an unending chain of national and international affairs interrupted and distracted all. War at each end of the period bracketed the wildest inflation and deepest depression the country had ever known.  Each brought new demands on the community and individuals.

    With the Tablet gone, sold to Eugene E. Cadman and then closed, a daily record of the events of these years was left to the Bloomsburg paper.  Thus, little of the intimate detail has survived.  Only the major happenings were preserved. These and personal remembrances have provided a view of the time.

    One event that created a stir on Main Street was the news of the Lusitania sinking on May 7, 1915. Up till this time, America had kept out of those endless European wars and most who would even bother to comment on the torpedo sinking, could assure you that no change would now be made in this policy. This seemed to be the case, and although statemen battled daily, business problems and household chores were more demanding. The principles involved regarding the war, however, received a thorough airing at the Tuesday evening meetings of the Society of Good Intent.

    During 1917, the noises of war grew louder and when congress passed the war resolution and declared war on Germany on December 7, 1917, the unbelievable had happened.  Millville was soon to see the first of many recruiting posters on the post office wall making it pictorial point, "I want you for U.S. Army." She provided her share of the more than two million men who were sent overseas during this engagement. 

    The United States involvement lasted less than one year. When the armistice came on November 11, 1918, sufficient time had passed though, that several local young men would never return.  Many families read of a new experience, written by their sons and brothers from places with names never before heard: Verdun, Peronne, and Metz.

    The community adjusted to a new factor effecting its progress which since has changed the normal course of events an additional number of times.  War, and young men off to war, both slow the pace of activities and family formation while quickening the economic growth of the entire county. This happened in 1918, but the real impact of war was felt more deeply during the 1942-1945 engagement. However, with the return of the soldiers came a feeling of security. The "war to end all wars" had been won, and the world was safe.

    Business following the war changed hands rapidly and in some cases one owner was in and out of a single business two or three times in the same number of years.  Millville had its share of turnovers.

    The grist mill in 1920 was sold by J.L. Reece and Son to Welliver and Deihl. In 1923, the Reece's again took possession.  The hotel had several operators during this time.  Burr Albertson was the proprietor in 1915 followed by Ralph Deihl and Lunn Pursel and in 1920 Mr. Albertson returned. Grant Johnson also was in and out of business in the old opera house.  He was a member of several partnerships starting in 1903 that continued till 1911when he took sole control.  In 1917, he sold out completely and then returned in 1919 again.

    A small shop was set up on the alley, now known as Post Office Avenue, in 1926 to assemble milk bottle washers.  This show was soon too small and moved to one of the store buildings in the Union Hall (presently Woolcock's Hardware).  This was the start of the Girton Manufacturing Company which moved its shop three more times before the second war.

    As the business boom continued into the twenties with increasing success, the community prospered. Farmers in the area were receiving increased returns for their products and their helped to improve the demand for 'store bought' products available in town.

    Some of the local prosperity was attributed to the wonderful hardtop road just completed on State and Main Streets. In 1919, the State and the town council cooperated with several area residents to have the dirt replaced with the first hard surfaced roads in the community.  This helped the transporting of goods, moreso now that the gasoline truck was being used for the heavy hauling.  A wagon sunk axle deep in the street mud could usually be pulled back on to solid ground with the help of an additional team, but the trucks were helpless when attempting to aid each other. The black top was definitely an improvement.

    The 1929 'crash' on Wall Street did reach the town but little of the panic that was felt in the larger concentrations of population effected Millville. The businesses of town were still largely based on agriculture and lumbering.  These operations never saw the same wild speculation of stock that accompanied other 'boom' type businesses.  Most were family owned or partnerships that required a continual reinvestment to make the successful.  Therefore, few families in the community were able to afford the speculative investment taking place at the time.  Several who lost their savings continued with their business and recovered without major hardships.

    The market closing did signal a change in the business growth of the area and till 1942, very little expansion was made in the business in town. Several had reversals and a few closed, due sometimes to the economic climate or to changing technologies, or both.

    The Eves wagon works knew both of these conditions.  For about eight years they assembled a few units each year from stocked parts, but in 1939 sold the inventories and most of the buildings to the Orangeville Manufacturing Company. 

    The silk mill of Jordan and Levine, which had opened in the early twenties in a new brick structure below the mill dam, processed raw silk successfully for several years. But by 1923, it was in increasing difficulty and was thrown into bankruptcy soon.  The building was sold in 1942 to Paul Girton.

    Interestingly, this industry was the first in the community with electricity.  A large steam boiler provided power to an engine which ran a drive shaft located down the center of the main building.  A belt from the shaft returned to the engine room and ran the first electric generator in town.  This unit provided light for the building and electricity war also distributed to some sections of the community by the Millville Electric Light Company from here.

    A group of local businessmen formed the Millville Electric Light Company with an original investment of $5000 and proceeded to erect poles for the installation of lines.  Its activities were the cause of great interest and after raising a second sum of money to complete the facilities, the company finally connected its lines to the silk mill generator.  Thus lights in the home became a reality for the town.  In 1923, the company sold the lines to the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company who have continued since.

    In 1931, the school authorized an expansion of the school required by increased attendance of the area youngsters.  It was completed in 1932.

    The farmer had two problems during these years, although his family would not want for a good meal, he could only sell most of the produce he had available to the local townspeople as payment of the bills he incurred with them.  He generated little hard cash to use for larger purchases or to reimburse those creditors more distant.  This was really a major crisis for him if he had mortgaged the farm and was required to make continuing payments of this loan.  Large sums of cash were required to meet this payment.  Some men who had worked for years at the only trade they knew were forced to sell their interest in the family homestead and either remain as a hired hand or leave for another location hoping to find a job to support them.  These jobs were few.  The fortunate were those that could remain on lands they had previously purchased where they planted sufficient to provide for their immediate needs. 

    

    The hardest memories of this period, for the farmer at least, are the crops plowed under, the pigs that were slaughtered, and the general destruction of food done to cause a shortage great enough to stabilize prices and create a cash market for these items. 

    

    With the federal government attempting to provide a program that would correct the completely depressed economy, many new projects came to the area. The first of these was the CCC or Civilian Conservation Corps.  The purpose was to establish reforestation camps for unmarried men between the age of 18 and 25 who were unemployed.  Local camps were established near the area and some of the local citizens either worked in the camps as instructors and officers or served as members of the CCC.   Still told are the tales of life there and of the roads and woodlands that have been built or altered by these young men.

    The biggest program, and the one with the largest local effect, was the WPA.  This Works Progress Administration was designed to provide meaningful work in the public area rather than a direct dole as relief for the unemployed. Nearly five billion dollars was appointed for this single program.  It started in the summer of 1935 and continued till 1939.  Many of the area roads were built, rebuilt, repaired, surfaced, or resurfaced under this program.  In addition, other interesting projects were undertaken.  A writers project saw several local men apply their talents to numerous titles. A large collection of these remain, now buried at the Bloomsburg Public Library.

    In addition to the road work, other building projects were financed by the WPA. The North State Street sewer was constructed and connected to the original system  and the athletic field at the high school was completed for school use.

    Electricity has been installed on every property in the area today.  However, when Congress passed the Rural Electrification Administration Act in 1935, ninety percent of the farms in the country had no electricity.  This area was no exception.  The REA made possible on the farm what had been in use for a decade by the townsfolk.  It changed the way a farmer did business.  Not all benefitted equally from the savings of electricity on the farm, but the dairy farmer as an example, could reduce the time spent milking by 70 percent or greatly increase the number of animals handled by the investment of less than $100 for a new-fangled milking machine.

    Fires have altered the business community substantially in this two hundred years. Fires during the first half of the twentieth century permanently closed a few of them.  When Heller and Cutler started the tannery in 1907 and built their first building, no methods were available to prevent a large fire from consuming the structure.  Thus, when flames licked from under the eves at the northwest corner of the tanning house that evening in 1933 and quickly spread to the roof, no automatic sprinkling system squelched the flame. An alarm was sounded calling the local volunteers. The hose carts stored in the shed at the corner of Center Street and Post Office Avenue were pulled from the garage by eager men who hauled them manually down the alley and on toward Moorhead Avenue hoping to arrive in time to save the building. Eight fire companies from many surrounding communities came to the aid of the little town that night.  The fire was finally stopped with a wall of water pumped from the wagon works dam and race as it progressed toward the storage sheds connected to the main building.

    The tannery, at the time of the fire, was being operated by Mr. Greenbaum and Mr. Collins.  No attempt was made to replace the roof or repair the vats which had been badly damaged.   The facilities stood idle for some time and then was purchased by the Millville Planing Mill Company.

    Another fire in 1940 destroyed the old worsted mill at the north end of town. This three story building erected in 1866 was in use as a hatchery at the time of the fire.  Wayne Hartranft had purchased the property and converted a portion of it for his use.  After in burned, he erected a small building to serve the purpose but soon abandoned the venture.

    Hotels came early to town and the major one served the community for a remarkable number of years before it was removed.  In 1936, the shareholders concluded an arrangement with the Atlantic Refining Company for the sale.  The hotel was closed the next year.  It was not removed till early 1939 or 1940, however, and then a modern gas station was erected on the site.  The stables which were originally a part of the hotel, but which had been converted to a small gas station, were also removed.

    In the mid-thirties, the country was involved with the worst depression it had ever experienced. It needed none of the responsibilities of any war. Internal problems were yet unsolved.  How could a family in this rural community be concerned with Nazism and Fascism in a land not easily imagined- definitely never understood?  Yet, during this time the groundwork for a global revolution was being laid by two countries in Europe. People around Millville, on the other hand, were hoping that their family might avoid the necessity of applying for relief and planning in any respectable way possible to assure the next season's bread and meat.

    When Japan moved in on China in 1937, the country determined to defend itself and while working to solve its financial crisis, the national leadership strengthened its relations with Canada and Latin America.  Very little of this affected the town nor the people directly.  The Grange did pass a resolution to be forwarded to their representative in Washington, but little else was undertaken.

    By the summer of 1940, changes had taken place in the thinking of everyone.  In September, the Congress passed the Selective Service Act and the draft was back in business.  The town's men, from 18 to 25, travelled to Bloomsburg to sign up for this obligation.  Soon several were called for instruction, and by the end of the first year when those previously called were held in, the area had a good representation in the service.

    Pearl Harbor, and the war which followed, took many young men from the area. The cemetery on the hill overlooking the town is dotted with markers that stand as testament to their contribution.  The other graveyards, set near the churches of the region, hold similar memorials.

    With the men of the community gone, the women were forced to take up the work that remained to be done.  Store clerks were now nearly all women or elderly men returned from retirement to fill the important jobs.  Production of everything had to be substantially increased to meet the demands of the army and the sizable relief efforts that were being carried out in the war-ravaged countries.  Farm products soon were in short supply.  Labor to increase the output of the area farms was difficult to recruit.  With ever expanding shipments of food overseas, it became very nearly impossible to get many items. 

    The small manufacturing plant of Girton's was diverted to production of equipment for the battlefield.  As the thirty men that originally made milk bottle washers left for war, they were rapidly replaced by women with their hair tied up, welding tool clips for tanks and assembling the mines that were shipped off after the men.  Three hundred people worked there in 1945.  Most of these were women.

    Steins converted from women's apparel to army uniforms and other cloth products.

    What with food rationing, gas rationing, war production, friends and relatives in the war; none could say that they were not touched by the event.

    "After THE war ..." as is still used in the area, a change came.  The young men returned to a town that had changed little from the time of their departure. But they changed it. Some went back to the old jobs, to the old places. Others, however, wanted something different.  They may have gone into business for themselves, opened a service station, or a small store.  Others married childhood sweethearts and moved on to other areas where the post-war boom was making new and different jobs with opportunities.

    Those that remained started families- a lot of families.  The baby boom was on locally. The school purchased additional acreage and planned a new addition while trying to fit all those extra youngsters in somewhere.  When they counted heads in 1950, the population had increased by more than a hundred in only ten years.  Things were looking better and optimism was the order of the day.

    

    

    

Additions and corrections made for this Second Edition. DBG

Second Edition- Copyright Dean B. Girton Dec. 30, 2022