SMULL: Henry Smull of Brush Valley

 I'm just now getting around to sorting through photos from my big trip to Pennsylvania, to hunt the trail of the Brothers Smull. My first post on my trip is here. I had such a great time with Evonne Henninger who runs the Facebook page Penns Valley Past and Present. Four Smull brothers arrived in Brush Valley to build the Lutheran church in Rebersburg: Jacob, Peter, Henry, and Jesse. Once building was complete, Jesse returned to the family while the three, Jacob, Peter and Henry, remained to build lives in the beautiful newly settled countryside on the other side of the Ridge and Valley Provice of the Appalachian Mountains, sitting between Nittany Mountain to the north and Brush Mountain/Shriner Mountain to the south. Peter was my third great grandfather. Jacob died relatively young but his home still stands on the main street in Rebersburg. Henry and his large family from his two wives, became part of the fabric of the area.

Henry's first wife was Elizabeth Royer, daughter of Johannes Christopher Royer and Magdalene Gross. The couple had seven children. Elizabeth died in 1834 at the age of 37, two weeks after she gave birth to their last child, Thomas Jefferson Smull. Henry then married the daughter of one of the prominent farmers Daniel Kreamer and Anna Kern) in the region, widow Catherine Kreamer Hosterman. They had an additional five children to add to the four children she had during her marriage to George Hosterman. George had died the same year Elizabeth Royer Smull died.  

I had not seen a photo of any of the Brothers Smull until I made my trip to Brush Valley. This is a photo of Henry, born in the 18th century, and his second wife, Catherine. This alone made the trip worthwhile.

Henry Smull and Catherine Kreamer Hosterman Smull c. 1860

Genealogy Trail: Brush Valley - Home of the Brothers Smull

Last week I made the long-awaited trip to Brush Valley in Pennsylvania. This includes towns like Centre Hall, Rebersburg, Aaronsburg, Smullton, and other villages within Centre County at its east end. I had the immense pleasure of having a tour guide, Evonne Henninger, who is the greatest historian of the area for whom I could wish. We spent the morning traveling around the valley and spent a bit more time in Rebersburg, the place my family had settled. I learned more in two days there than in years of studying from afar.

As a refresher, Johann Peter Schmoll and Julianna Sarah Mueller lived in Montgomery County,
Pennsylvania. They had ten children. Four of these went to Centre County to help build the Union Church in Rebersburg. Jacob, the oldest of the four, Peter, Henry, and the much younger Jesse. Jesse later returned to Montgomery County, but the others did not. The church was used from 1823-1876  by the Lutheran and Reformed denominations. According to Evonne, the bricks for the church were made along Elk Creek in Smullton (formerly Kreamersville) in the area of the Raymond Bair farm. Evonne drove me past this location. They razed this church after a Lutheran and a Reformed Church were built next to each other in 1876. The Amish recently purchased one of these, but neither is being used as a church at this time.

Jacob Smull's 1825
Georgian Style Home

After the building of the church, Jacob, Peter and Henry (1799) stayed on and became a big part of the community. Jacob ended up a building a German-influenced Georgian style house on E Main St in 1825 which still stands. He ended up dying in 1830. The two daughters of his marriage who survived to adulthood moved on to Lock Haven in adult life.

Peter, who is extensively written about here on the blog, left in 1847 for Stephenson County, Illinois. His entire family eventually joined him in that area.

That left Henry. Henry farmed and did whatever else he could to make a living. His first wife, daughter of one of the town's earliest residents, Elizabeth Royer, had seven kids. She died in 1834. Henry married immediately the former Catherine Kreamer, who was the widow of George Hosterman, who also died in 1834.  They combined their families and continued with life in Rebersburg. The couple had an additional five children.

One of the cool things he did was operate a toll house on Rockville Rd near Hwy 192. Toll houses existed on many roads in Pennsylvania. The tolls paid for maintenance and operation of the road since the government was not then involved. Henry Smull, in addition to his farm, had a toll house in Rebersburg. The toll house is on the right. Operators of such toll houses could earn a chunk of change each month as well. Tolls at one toll house were:

Henry Smull's Toll House on Right

Toll Gate Charges –

A score of sheep – 4¢ (score = 20)

A score of hogs – 6¢

A horse with his rider – 3¢

A score of cattle – 12¢

A sulkey with 1 horse and 2 wheels – 6¢

2 wheels & 2 horses – 9¢

4 wheels & 2 horses – 12¢

4 wheels & 4 horses – 20¢

Henry also had an opportunity to go to other parts of Pennsylvania and picked up ideas along the way. He

remodeled his toll house with unique diagonal design. During his time in Rebersburg, he also farmed. We went to the farm he ran between what was originally Kreamerville and Rebersburg. Today, the farm is in the hands of the Amish and a new homestead has been built.

Here is Henry's toll house with its unique design:

And here is the Henry Smull barn (later the C H Smull barn and now an Amish barn). This is an example of a L-shaped Pennsylvania barn.

There was so much more to learn about Henry and his kids on this trip. What I loved most is that I could feel the place and see the mountains and see how the villages connected to the mountains. It allowed me to gain perspective that no book or Internet record could provide. And, having a tour guide like Evonne was priceless. More to come.

B&W photos courtesy of Evonne Henninger of Penn's Valley, Past & Present

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."