RAMBLINGS IN THE VALLEY OF JACOBS CREEK - WRITTEN 1932 BY A. L . ROWE and O. P. MEDSGER
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night hours were aroused and amused from their reveries by the witches mounting on behind them and in spite of all their efforts and the mad career of their steed they failed to dislodge them until they gained the border of tha forest where they immediately vanished, with no evil results, except a panting steer and the raised hair on the head of the horseman.

Many of the early settlers of this region were decendants of the Dutch settlers in the eastern part of the state. A people who had brought with them to this country a vast fund of folklore and fairy tales. It is to them we are indebted for the stories of Kriss Kringle, Belsnickle, ghosts, goblins, haunted spots, the magical charm of the horseshoe, and a host of other tales that disturbed the peace of innocent childhood. They may have been pleasing delusions, but thank fortune they are all now but dispelled. These folks naturally invented and cherished the fairy lore relating to this old ruin. The imaginary blasts of Marmie's hunting horn were as real to them as the pipes of Pan were to the ancient Greeks.

By Oliver Perry Medsger

AN ATTEMPT TO FIND OIL AND MANUFACTURE SALT

For a period of 60 years after the furnace ceased its operations this valley was unmolested by any business enterprise. During this period the houses that were erected to shelter the men employed at the iron works fell into ruins and wasted away. Mounds of earth and stone yet remain to mark the location of some of these buildings. Nature stepped in to reclaim the waste places and clothe these hills and valleys with new forms of life. The bark and lumber industries occassionally disturbed its repose, otherwise it assumed much of its primitive condition. About the time of which I write, a wonderful discovery was made in the Allegheny Valley; petroleum in large quantities for the first time in the worlds history was being produced. Fortunes were made from it, and a natural result was that it was sought for in other localities. The persons who owned the land in the valley, and who resided in Philadelphia, formed what was knowwn as the Jacobs Creek Oil Company, for the purpose of testing this region for oil. Beginning near the mouth of Barren Run and extending up the crack for about 7 miles, a series of 5 wells was drilled.


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