Pennsylvania
Norwich
This is a provisional page, here as a starting point for this family community.
We welcome more details, photographs, history, or even a complete re-write.
And of course
web links to your communities web sites.
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Norwich, McKean County, Pennsylvania State
Population: ?
Location: 41º39´34"N 78º22´25"W
When the first Norwich settlers arrived in the county in 1815 there were few established settlements. Smethport, today the largest town in the area, had just two families living there. The Norwich group moved south a few miles, bought land along side Potato Creek, felled the trees, built cabins and cleared the land, and the villages of Norwich and Betula were born.
 One can only marvel at the courage and versatility of these early pioneers. Carlyn Seighman, in her book 'Rememberance', tells the story of this fine house (right) built by the Kimble family. Later the house was jacked up and a basement put underneath. And even then it wasn't finished! Much late still, they cut the roof off, jacked it up under stilts, and built a second story.
By 1890 there was a road system, and the villages were getting nicely established. For the next 20 years the communities slowly developed, unaware of the drastic changes that was about to happen....
In 1909, the Goodyear Lumber Co. moved into the area and built a new town of Norwich a few miles south of the original. The railway line was extended, a massive timber mill built, and the company soon had a town of 5,000 as the lumber company stripped the area of it's native Hemlock and hardwoods.
 Part of Norwich during the boom years.
Even though this was planned as being only a 10-year operation, nothing was spared in building the community. Churches and schools were built, and an array of shops and businesses flourished for a while - that is until Charles Hull built the Norwich Department Store - the largest store in northwestern Pennsylvania..
A massive building which sold anything and everything, employed two tailors, and even had overhead electric cash carriers that took your money up to the office and returned with your change. Before long, several of the smaller businesses in the area were going bankrupt.
A while later, the Department Store burnt down in suspicious circumstances....
|  Two views of Norwich Department Store.
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10 years later, 26,000 acres had been cleared of timber and the company moved its mills, employees and their houses to another area. The railway line was removed, and Norwich became a ghost town.
This 1948 map shows what little was left of Norwich and Betula after the timber company moved out. The junction above Betula was known as Norwich Corners.
Below: The same house in the 1800's and in 2003!
Our thanks to Carlyn Gallup Sleighman for the photographs.
Today, only a few houses of the former towns remain, but decendants of several of the original pioneer families still live in the area.
Web Links
Planet Smethport
Updated 06 July 2006
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