FOREST LAKE TWP.: A serious conflagration occurred in the township Wednesday night, about 10 o’clock, when the home of H. B. Stone was burned and Charles Boyd, a young man employed on the farm, was perhaps fatally burned. The fire is reported to have started while Earl C. Stone, Mr. Stone’s son, and young Boyd were filling a gas lamp with gasoline. One of the young men was holding a lighted lamp and it fell from his hands, igniting the fluid, causing an explosion and igniting the clothing of Boyd. An attempt was made to smother the flames with blankets, to no avail, and the young man dashed through the house, a literal flaming torch and plunged head foremost through an ice-covered hogshead of water, putting out the blazing garments. In running through the house the boy’s blazing clothing also ignited other light materials in the living rooms, which added speed to the rapidly spreading flames. The house was ablaze in a short time and very little was saved. Dr. A. L. Hickock, of Rush, was summoned to attend the young man, who was severely burned about the limbs and back, the flesh on the back being badly scorched. Boyd refused to take an anesthetic to relief the pain, suffering in silence during the hour and a half necessary to dress the wounds. He is being cared for at the home of Fred W. Powell nearby, and the Stone family is also temporarily being looked after by kind neighbors.

HEART LAKE: L. E. Griffing, on Sunday, brought a young man to the Montrose jail on suspicion of his being the much-wanted John Donato, the Italian quadruple murderer near Troy, NY, and turned him over to Sheriff Conklin. It developed that the young man was a Welshman, his name being Morgan J. Williams, of Scranton, who had become enraged at his mother a few days previous and ran away from home. The boy’s parents phoned the sheriff Wednesday morning, promising to come for him that afternoon. They failed to do this and yesterday the sheriff released him, having no legal right to hold him. In the afternoon the boy’s mother came, but the boy could not be found. He seemed repentant and it is likely will find his way back to Scranton.

CLIFFORD: S. E. Finn is digging a well on his premises. After consulting a “water witch” he feels certain of striking a good vein.

THOMPSON: Charles R. Casterline, a well known and highly respected veteran [137th Regiment, NY Volunteers], who had been confined to his bed for several years, owing to his receiving serious injuries by falling from a train, died Friday morning, Dec. 8, 1911. The funeral was held from his late home, Rev. E. G. N. Holmes officiating. Interment was in Thompson cemetery. ALSO, two of the State experts are here looking after the chestnut blight.

SUSQUEHANNA: Jeremiah Buckley, one of Susquehanna’s pioneer residents, died at his home in that place Dec. 15, 1911. Mr. Buckley had been ill several weeks. For more than 60 years he had lived in Susquehanna, the greater part of that time he being employed as an engineer on the Erie. Two sons and three daughters survive - J. J., of Susquehanna; Thomas J. of Scranton, Mrs. Jennie Maroney, Mrs. Stephen Maroney and Miss Loretta Buckley, of Susquehanna. The funeral was held Monday morning from St. John’s church with interment in Laurel Hill cemetery.

TUNKHANNOCK/MONTROSE: A surveying corps from the State Highway department is engaged in laying out a route for the proposed State road between Tunkhannock and Montrose.

BROOKLYN: The school building for the primary grades, having been completed, Miss Hearn and her pupils moved in on Monday last.

GREAT BEND: Floyd Smith, Fred Blackley and Mr. Woodworth, who are working in the car shops in Memphis, Tenn., will spend the holidays with their families here.

DUNDAFF: Last Saturday night chicken thieves entered the coop of W. R. Colman by pulling the staple and took therefrom about 25 of his choice White Plymouth Rock chickens.

FRANKLIN FORKS: The roads are terrible; the roads are almost impassable, but we hope it will be better traveling soon. ALSO, The Republican, our breezy contemporary, would be somewhat likely to startle its readers with such thrilling, hair-raising stories, as appeared last week, headed “Panthers in Franklin Township.” Were they not prepared from reading other fiction like Willie’s original Comet Stories? We would advise contemporaries to not steal this interesting series without giving full credit. Moral - Be careful with the carcasses of dead calves, for it may excite the literary muse, and Rider Haggard might be very jealous. [Montrose Democrat]

MONTROSE: The Barbeau Family Vaudeville Company open a three nights’ engagement at Colonial Theatre to-night. They come highly recommended. There are ten people in the company and they have a band.

CHOCONUT: The Gorman school is progressing very nicely under the management of Miss Mora McManus. ALSO, Leo Dunn is doing a good business trapping this winter.

RUSH: There will be a Christmas tree at the Baptist church, Monday evening. The church’s untiring Santa Claus is expected with gifts for all.

HALLSTEAD: Work at drilling the oil well is progressing favorably and a depth of over 1500 feet has now been reached. This is within 400 feet of where the bit was lost in the other well. The company hopes to have the well completed before real cold weather sets in. It is hoped that this test will demonstrate whether or not there is oil in paying quantities in this locality.

NEWS BRIEF: Time was when black squirrels were as numerous in this part of the State as grays, but that was some time ago. A man by the name of Denison shot a handsome black squirrel on the Griffis farm, at Forest Lake, Tuesday, which was admired by many here in Montrose. They are exceedingly rare, although it is reported that on the dense primeval timber tract on the Rose estate at Silver Lake they are not infrequently seen. This tract is well protected and hunters are warned off. Charles Beck, the veteran hunter, stated that one autumn he brought down seven black squirrels - not the same day. Saturday Charles brought home five birds and three squirrels, and Prof. J. S. Hosterman, who is “some shot,” secured two birds and three squirrels.

A few nights ago at the dinner table, my 4-year old daughter Ally reminded me how many days were left until Christmas. Given that Ally just had her birthday a few weeks ago I am surprised at how well she is keeping track of her countdown to Christmas. It actually started right after Thanksgiving when she was getting ready for her birthday and she reminded us that baby Jesus would have a birthday after her, followed by her little sister Lauren’s birthday - all of which occur in a whirlwind of 30 days.

As Ally sat there filled with wonder and excitement, I was sitting there wondering how we were going to get everything done. The Christmas tree was not even up yet and there was an ongoing familial debate over whether it could be put up without risking total destruction by our nearly 2-year old daughter Lauren. She appears to be in a phase where she likes to say “Uh-Oh,” which she believes is appropriate to do after she has just ripped, thrown or dropped something that she managed to get her hands on. She also climbs better than a squirrel and appears to be undeterred by bumps and bruises earned from her falls off a wide variety of household furniture. In other words, the Christmas tree would have to be surrounded by high security fencing to provide it any level of protection from Lauren.

We still had not gotten the Christmas cards out - and Lauren had an incident with her grandma’s chihuahua that left her with a scratch on her face. While she is still cute as a button, we really do not want to memorialize a Cujo-encounter on a Christmas card. So now we are combing through the memory cards on the digital camera to try and find something that might work. When would we get that done?

Then there is the shopping - none of which had even been started. When would we get to it - and the mere thought of shopping causes me to suffer some severe anxiety. The prospect of wandering aimlessly through crowded store aisles futilely searching for gifts strikes pure terror in my heart. I never know what to buy and it ends up being gift cards, gift cards and more gift cards.

My anxious thoughts were interrupted by Ally’s questions about Santa Claus. She wanted to know how it was possible for him to go to every house on Christmas Eve. She did not think he could possibly have enough time. I responded that Santa used magic to make sure he had enough time to deliver all his presents. She sat there for a moment and then asked if Santa had magic, how come he did not have a magic wand. I had to concede that I was not sure because I never asked Santa that question. She then decided that she would stay up so that she could ask him about his magic. I pointed out that Santa does not stop at any house where kids are awake. I told her that we would leave a note for Santa with his cookies and milk and ask him whether he had a magic wand. Ally thought this was a great solution - and then she began to calculate how many carrots she would need for all the reindeer. Just watching the pure joy in her eyes was enough to chase all of the worries from my head and remind me just how special this time of the year can be - if we only approach it with the heart of a child.

I was also pretty proud of myself for how I handled Ally’s questioning, and proud of her for her questions. Then later than evening, as Ally was looking at the toy catalog to compose a wish list for Santa, I tried to stress to her that Santa had only so much room on his sled so she could not ask for too many things. She smiled and reminded me that Santa was magic and he could make room with his magic!

From my family to yours, may you have a blessed and magical Christmas!

Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at our website www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org or discuss this and all articles at http://dadesk.blogspot.com/.

It’s tough to say goodbye, especially to two special staff members of the Susquehanna County Library. Leaving shortly are Hilary Caws-Elwitt and Yasuko Ely Straub, after 20 plus years of service. Both are based in our Montrose location; however, Hilary in her capacity as the Library’s Public Services/Information Technology Librarian has visited all our locations.

Technical Services Librarian Yasuko Ely Straub, who married Jim Straub in early October, will retire early next year. Although much of Yasuko’s duties were behind the scenes, many patrons will remember her bright smile when she was on the front desk. Christina Hall will be assuming Yasuko’s duties.

Hilary has been responsible for all of the technology improvements in our library system. According to Administrator Sue Stone, “we would never have been able to accomplish this without Hilary.” She also handled publicity for the library system and the Blueberry Festival. She leaves us by the end of the year to take a position as an IT Analyst with Five Colleges, Inc., in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts.         

Filing some of Hilary’s roles will be Cole Williams, who will be handling information technology, and Liz Holbert, who will be handling publicity.

Yasuko and Hilary will be greatly missed. We wish them well in this next phase of their lives.

If you would like to send either staffer a thank you note for all that they have done for the Susquehanna Library System, you may mail your note to the Library at 18 Monument Street, Montrose, 18801.