Ellendale Forge
Ellendale Forge
Ellendale at one time was an industrial village in Stoney Creek Valley, Middle Paxton Township. Its location is where the Ellendale Road sign is today. It is most famous for the Forge that was built about 1800 and had many owners. As early as 1839, Ellendale Forge and its surroundings were mentioned in a report given by an engineer for the Dauphin & Susquehanna Coal Company stating Ellendale had two sawmill sites, a reservoir and room for a machine shop, foundry or small furnace. Throughout the years other buildings and industry became part of the Ellendale complex. In its heyday the Forge had two sawmills, two dams, girst mill, hotel, store, the ironmaster's home, ice house, firehouse, and various other buildings situated on 240 acres plus 1,000 acres of timber land. The Schuylkill & Susquehanna Branch of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad operated a line within one hundred feet of the Forge.
Some of the Forge owners dating from the 1870's to the early 1900's were attorney J. M. Weistling, Dr. J. R. Umberger, John H. Lick, Robert Bland, William Kaufman, the Hon. John W. Killinger, F. K. Spang and Thomas Wanner. Through census records from Dauphin Borough and Middle Paxton Township, and newspaper articles the following employees worked at the Forge: William H. Snyder, Wilson Lengel, John Margan, Dr. D. P. Snyder, Peter Snyder, John Keller, John Behney, Joseph Dunlap, Alexander MacNeal, Oliver White, Abraham Garman, George Geesey and John Morgan.
Abstracts from the Harrisburg Telegraph newspaper article dated Tuesday, December 24, 1946 pertaining to the Ellendale Hotel (a postcard advertising the hotel shown left) are as follows: Fire believed to have started in the wiring above the fireplace caused heavy damaged to the Ellendale Hotel, Stony Creek Valley. Officials said the loss may reach $50,000. The flames destory the hotel's 100-foot bar, kitchen equipment, furnishings throughout the basement and main floor and several thousand dollars worth of food, beer and liquor. Dauphin Fire Company, Harrisburg Fire Company and Riverside Fire Company worked for hours combating the flames. The fire broke out as employees of the hotel were preparing for Christmas Eve activities.
One of the last magnificant structures located at Ellendale was the dam: a man made dam built in the 1890's with oversize logs and made in a zig zag effect. It was approximately 600 feet wide and about 30 feet deep. When the Game Commission bought this area of Ellendale, to add to the large vast of Stoney Creek State Game Lands, they had the dam destroyed (the breeched dam shown to the right).
Ellendale as we knew it...
By the time our generation knew Ellendale, the railroad, the Forge furnace, the store, the foundry and other buildings have long been gone. Some of our [Dauphin-Middle Paxton Historical Society] members have childhood memories of Ellendale...
John C. Sible of Harrisburg erected the United Ice & Coal Company at Ellendale about 1880. A Newspaper article dated January 1918 states that the ice house at Ellendale harvested 65,000 tons of ice; the ice being 20 inches thick. It is considered the finest natural ice ever served in this area. Ellendale has employed 120 men over the last five weeks providing them with meals and shelter.
No one is sure what happened to the hotels at Ellendale. It is believed that the Forty & Eight Hotel burned down in the 1950's and the Ellendale Inn/Hotel was torn down by the present owners in the early 1960's.
The photo above brings back memories to member Charles Fry. He remembers this very vivid in his childhood. He remembers his older brother, Donald and the neighborhood kids swimming in the Dam to the right. The white spot on the photo to the right was once the United Ice Company where his grandfather Charles E. Fry worked cutting ice and storing it to be used in the greater Harrisburg area. The abandoned ice house eventually fell down sometime in the 1960's.
To the left of the photo would have been the Ellendale Fire Company, which is now a hunting camp. Next was the Ellendale Hotel where his grandmother Clara Stricker Fry worked as a maid. The next building was Samuel Spurrier home; probably the last owner of what was left of Ellendale. Further up from Spurrier's home was the Tyland Cabins and beyond that was the Ellendale Gun Camp that all the rich people from Harrisburg came to hunt small game. The small cabins were made from the abandoned rail beds and were built for the employees that worked for the United Ice Company. They were small with perhaps a bedroom, dining area and a small kitchen. In the summer time there would be flowers sitting on the window; never knew the people that lived in the cabins.
Near by in the lower left of the photo below the water falls was a saw mill owned and operated by Gene Hahn of Stoney Creek. When the PA Game Commission bought the land sometime in the 1950's, they gave Gene Hahn the contract to destroyed the dam stating that the purpose for it to be dismantled was the fear that the dam would break someday. According to Charles Fry and others, the dam was built to withstand anything that Mother Nature could dish out for it was well built with very huge wide logs that were stacked in a criss-cross method, with a stone foundation along its border and that it could have withstood a major flood. It would have been a magnificent landmark for Middle Paxton had it not been destoryed by the PA Game Commission.
Member Jack Beatty of Clarks Valley recalls there were four bars in Ellendale at one time. There was a bar in Ellendale Fire Company building, the Ellendale Hotel, the 40 & 8 Hotel and the Hunting Lodge; there also were slot machines in the hotel. Member Janet Lyter remembers picking apples at Snyder's orchard when she was about 14 years old; they always went to the nearby Ellendale Hotel to have a soda. I was about six years old and my family went to the Dauphin Fire Company picnic at the hotel. To me the hotel was huge with a long bar downstairs and the beautiful large room's upstairs opening up to attractive unique balcony. The Hotel was used for many events by the local people, Harrisburg residents, and the State government.
Copyright 2007, E-mail Questions About Ellendale Forge Here
-- Photographs and Postcard Courtesy of Janet Lyter and the Dauphin-Middle Paxton Historical Society --