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Page 102 JOHN RUMBARGER
bought from John DuBois, lying along what is now East Park Avenue,
was not cleared.
That part of the Henry Shaffer tract lying west of the
cleared land down to and adjoining the Rumbarger tract was low and
swampy and covered with a straggling forest from which the white
pine timber had been removed.
George Shaffer III on his part of the land had cleared some higher
ground east of South Brady Street.
One may have an idea of the condition of the land on
South Brady Street, by the description of one of the viewers who
subsequently laid out the public road from the station south to the
Erie Pike. He said "when we were surveying the road through that
swamp (meaning that part from the foot of the hill on South Brady
Street south) we had to wear high rubber boots and jump from one log
to the other to get through. I said to Mr. DuBois, who was along,
`It would take a very wide road through this locality and it could
not be built on thirty-three feet'. Mr. DuBois replied, `Make the
road as wide as you want to and I'll see that it is built.' " George
Shaffer III had no road on his property. The only means of access in
the way of a road was over some timber roads or log roads out to
what was known as the "Hill Road". The highway from Salem, viz: the
Goodlander place, was over the hills and afterwards designated as
the "Hill Road."
From the pike down through Pentz Run Valley to Main
Street was a forest, with the exception of a few small farms, viz:
the first, J. A. Dixon, who had built himself a hewed log house a
little west of South Brady Street; a half a mile above was William
Beightol, who was shut off of the public road by the land of Andrew
Pentz, Sr. On the east was what was known as the "Rocky Mill",
having been practically a lumber camp started in the early Sixties
by Smith, Canfield & Co. Then, further south, came Simon Walburn
that had formerly been what was known as the "Duttry Improvement",
and from there through to the pike was a forest.
Through the woods, starting a little north of the pike,
timber roads had been constructed for the hauling of square timber
from the lands of the farmers and afterwards saw logs, from this
valley, to be landed on the banks of Sandy Lick Creek. One of these
timber roads extended through to South Main Street and the other
turned off to the north near the intersection of Brady Street with
Dixon Avenue and keeping on the east side of Pentz Run down to the
bank of the creek. A part of this road was later adopted as Jared
Street. As before noted, on the south side of West Long Avenue was
the Heberling Saw Mill dam. The spillway of this dam was on the west
side of the Run, a little east of the present location of Orange
Alley. The saw mill stood on the east bank of the dam, and the
present Pentz Run contained the forebay through which
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