Some Port Trevorton/Sunbury Narratives

In 1868, William and Elizabeth lived a couple miles west of Port Trevorton, Snyder; sadly the this is year she passes away. Their home was very rural, as they were outside even the small town, surrounded by very little but nature. To the north of their property was the terminus of Independence Run creek. Their closest neighbors, the Witmers, were a mile away and so their weekly journeys included going to the Port Trevorton to shop for supplies and other necessities.

Magdalena Gaugler was a widow by 1868, living with her bright son Abraham, a few miles south of Port Trevorton, close to the Susquehanna River and the Pennsylvania Canal. Soon enough however, Abraham had a family of his own, and their home became liveliness and exciting. The family included his wife Kesiah and their eleven kids. The large family was in a rural area and besides their neighbors, the Cornwalls and the Brubakers, you’d have to travel awhile to get anywhere. There were a few nearby stores, a boathouse Inn, a grist mill, and even a cemetery. But in right order to, the family would go down Wagner Hill Road in town for their weekly supplies.

In 1858, Daniel, Eva and their children lived east of Sunbury in a small hamlet in Northumberland, a place on the hill with a small creek to the south of the property line and Mile Hill Road to the north. Surrounding the Keefers were neighbors the Brewers and his son Michael Keefer. Other than the neighbors, there wasn’t surrounded by much more aside from the wheelwright and a sawmill over the north hill, a post office to the west, and a school to the east. For supplies the family could travel either to Klinegrove, which was more of four miles east or Sunbury to the west.

In 1858, Betsy Bucher was living in small-town Sunbury in Northumberland County,  which ample small businesses and many neighbors nearby, living their lives to the fullest. In one of the houses in a neighborhood, Betsy lived with her eldest son, John, and his wife Elizabeth and their son named Henry. Living nearby, were the friendly neighbors: the McCartys and the Martins. They were surrounded by many rail lines, boat ports, and schools. As well as churches, stores, and the famous Susquehanna River.