Centre County, PA: Miles Township & Smullton's Inception

There's a Smull genealogy website out there that for all intents and purposes, is full sound and fury, signifying nothing. But it does pose some interesting questions, most of which a little research and tenacity has seemed to resolve. Still, it calls to our attention the town of Smullton. Not a town, really, but a stopping point that had a post office in Miles Township in Centre County, which is really the originating source of our Smull roots and their stories.

Miles Township

It was indeed named in honor of one of our ancestors, George H. Smull, grandson of one of the four original Brothers Smull, Henry.[UPDATE: since this was written, I have been able to connect the four brothers to others via the parents, Johann Peter Schmoll and Juliana Sara Mueller]. And for the simple reason that George managed somehow to get the village its own post office. Prior to becoming "Smullton," it was Kreamerville for decades. Again, a family tie in. Henry's second wife was Catherine Kreamer, daughter of settler Jacob Kreamer. That marriage produced five children, including George H. Smull's father.

Jacob Kreamer owned a lot of land and farmed in the narrow strip of valley at the edge of the mountains. Son Joseph took over the family farm. The Kreamers would remain a presence in the area through today.

George H Smull was the son of Reuben Smull and Louisa Gramley, Born 23 Jun 1869 in Rockville in Brush Valley, his father farmed in the area. Reuben would later purchase the Joseph Kreamer farm. Reuben was described as a "man of no pretensions, minding his own business, and this, by the way, is a characteristic trait in the family, which has poduced a number of substantial, successful, yet unassuming citizens."

George H Smull

George was their only child and attended all the schooling the area had to offer (which was still conducted exclusively in German) and then went on to schools in Spring Mills, Selins Grove, and even Dakota, Stephenson County, Illinois. After several years in Illinois, he returned to Pennsyvania. He married Daisy Blanche Stover, on 04 Jul 1891. The couple would have no children.

George spent some time in the circulation department of the Keystone Gazette in Bellefonte which gave him opportunity to travel the area. In 1896, he became an insurance agent for New York Life. He did well in this pursuit and ended up managing a number of neighboring counties. The couple had a home in Rebersburg, but preferred their country home on the farm.

In the early 1900s, the need for a post office became pressing for the citizens of the area. On September 24, 1904, the US Postmaster finally named a postmaster for the newly minted village of Smullton, George H Smull. It was considered a fourth class post office. "A fourth-class postmaster’s position was highly prized in rural America. Although the job paid very little, it drew trade into the postmaster’s store and conveyed the mark of a town leader on the lucky recipient," according to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. George resigned in early March of 1910 and a postal examination was held to replace him. That post office, like most fourth class post offices, eventually closed to consolidate postal operations. It shut its doors in 1957.

George died at the age of 58 on 06 Nov 1927 in Centre County. His wife Blanche moved to Harrisburg and supported herself as a clerk until her retirement. She died 18 Jan 1963 in Carlisle, Cumberland, Pennsylvania.

The nature of Smullton has changed over the years. This article on Smullton was published in 1991:

Smullton: Portrait of a 1-Street Town
by Barbara Brueggebors, Times County Editor
Nobody's quite sure just when or how Smullton got its start, but everybody agrees the Miles Township village didn't start out as Smullton.

"We were Kreamerville for quite a while," says 85-year-old native son, Raymond Bair.

"We got to be Smullton after George H Smull fought to get us a town post office."

The one street community is located along Smullton Road about a half-mile south of (and parallel to) Rebersburg in rural Brush Valley. Elk Creek twists and curves through the town and its outlying fields.

Smullton proper is just about the same size as it was when the post office came to town way back in 1902 (ed note; 1904). There are 38 houses (all but one owner-occupied), no stores or churches, one beauty shop. The post office closed in 1957.

A half -dozen farms cling to the village's outskirts and more than a dozen houses and mobile home sline the paved lane leading to Rebersburg.

Mr Bair still lives in the red brick farmhouse his father purchased just west of the village in 1899.

"He bought this place from Mariah Kreamer and her son, George," says the retired dairyman and electrician. "The house was built in 1880 from bricks made down here in this meadow."

Mr Bair's 101 acres stretch from the foothills of Brush Mountain on the south to the back alleys in Rebersburg on the north.

"When I was a boy, the Smullton kids all walked to Rebersburg for school," Mr Bair says. "There was a boardwalk then right alongside the lane. When the boards got bad they put in gravel; and finally, they let it grow over with grass."

Mr Bair can remember two blacksmith shops in town, one run by Harry Smull, another by Charles Bressier and his son, Wilmer.

The community had a church too - at least up until 1932, when the entire membership voted 8 to 7 to disband.

"That was the Methodist-Episcopal Church," Mr Bair recalls, "It's since been turned into a residence. Dean Matter lives there now."

Carl Winters' dad, Clayt, was the last to run the old Smullton Creamery, which burned down in 1918. Up until the fire, it did a thriving business with farmers east of Madisonburg.

Smullton had two general stores that took turns housing the post office.

"Scott Walizer had a store and a cobbler's shop where Warren Royer's trailer is now," Mr Bair sai. "The old building burned down about five years ago.

"Ed Smull's store was down near the church. That building later was moved to the west end of town," he added.

Once settled in it new location, the store was kept by Herbert Stover, who also opened a photographic studio on the second floor.

Mr Stover's son, John, now 72, lives right across the stree from his father's former store building which now is a residence.

"My dad was what you call a go-getter," John Stover says. "Besides taking pictures upstairs, he had a printing outfit and a loom in the back of the store. And he ran a coal yard over in Coburn for 14 years."

"Dad had skylights - half-inch thick glass with wire in it - put in the roof of the place so he'd have the right light for his photos."

Stover's Store, like so many of its counterparts in other rural communities, quickly became the town's social center.

"About every night of the week, the store was sitting full," John Stover recalls. "The men would play cards or just sit on the two big benches in there and eat peanuts or cheese and crackers. Saturday night was the big night. We sold homemade ice cream, and I'd have to make it - every Saturday."

After Herbert Stover died in 1946, Wilbur D Meyer took over the store and operated it another dozen years.

The benches were gone though and when Mr Meyer rang up his last sale in December 1959, the town was without a grocery for the first time in anybody's memory.

While Smullton hasn't changed much size-wise, Mr Bair sees changes in its makeup.

"It used to be that I knew everybody in Smullton, Rebersburg, Wolfs Store and most of the people in Millheim," he says.

"But, over the years, it seems like the bulk of our younger people moved out Unless they farmed, there just wasn't anything doing around here for them. Now there's people in Smullton I don't know."