Home → Columnists ( October 21, 2026 )
Shipped Nearly 14 Tons of Wool: Last week the Susquehanna County Sheep & Wool Growers Association collected the largest pool of wool in its existence. One hundred and eighteen brought in their wool to be graded. After the expense of handling the wool was deducted, the growers received 42 cents a pound for the clean wool and 34 cents a pound for the rejections. Under the careful management of the board of directors, made up of M. C. Whitney, J. A. Fraser, John McNamara and Clayton Garey, the pool had more than doubled since it was organized four years ago. More than $11,000 was received by the sheep growers for the wool.
Jackson – The Emma French Tent of the Daughters of [Civil War] Veterans, were tended a pleasant surprise visit by three old soldiers from Scranton, at the regular meeting of the tent. Their names are as follows: Chas. T. Russell, Henry O. Russell and John G. Sander. The old gentlemen sang songs popular in Civil War days. One of the men was a drummer boy in the battle of Antietam and had with him the same drum he used in that famous battle. He gave an exhibition of his ability as a drummer. Their entertainment provided much merriment for everyone. One member of the Myron French Post, of Jackson, H. M. Benson, was present and enjoyed a pleasant visit with the comrades from Scranton.
Clifford – Saturday, October 16, ushered in with glorious sunshine and gave promise of the much wished-for, fair wedding day, when two of Clifford’s fairest daughters were to be the brides –for “happy is the bride the sun shines on”– lingers with us still through all the ages of proud progression and of speed. The contracting parties were Helen, daughter of Eugene Kennedy, of Clifford, to Chartwell, son of Mr. and Mrs. Chartwell Griffin, of Clark’s Summit, and Madolyn, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Scutt, to John, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Spedding, of Clifford. ALSO On Thursday night vandals damaged the interior of the Birch school in the township, to the extent of several hundred dollars. Doors and windows were broken into pieces, desks smashed and school books torn and destroyed. Trooper McClane of the state police is working on the case, suspicion pointing to local people, youths who are not in love with their studies.
Montreal, Canada – An exhibition game had to be called off when Babe Ruth knocked all the baseballs outside the grounds, exhausting the supply. Thirty-six balls were lost.
Montrose – Richard Meehan is taking a course in embalming in the Eckerly School, in Philadelphia. His position with Undertaker M. J. O’Brien, is being filled by Miss Josephine Williams.
Forest City-Susquehanna – A section of the new pave has been opened to the public. The new section, which shortens the detour, is on the east side and north of the Stillwater dam, between Uniondale and Herrick Center. The erection of a viaduct over the Erie tracks and the Stillwater dam will delay the opening of the section between Stillwater and Uniondale until spring.
Hickory Grove – The approaches to the new concrete bridge at Hickory Grove, on the “Joe Smith Trail,” have been completed and will be open for traffic in a couple of weeks.
New Milford – Marshall Hayden, aged 89 years, recently drove with horse and carriage to Troy, Bradford County, where he visited his daughter, Mrs. M. A. Foote. Sixty-five years ago Mr. Hayden, then a young traveling salesman, often visited the town.
Thompson – From the appearance of things Monday morning, it looked as though we would soon be changing our automobiles for a bob-sled. ALSO We were asked the other day if we were going to vote. We replied, saying we had not registered; how could we? They told us it all depended on how we were going to vote. If for Vare, it would make all the difference in the world; if for Wilson, it wouldn’t make any difference. How is it?
Ararat – Miss Electa Potter is attending the Teachers’ Institute this week at Montrose.
Uniondale – Legrand Dart, of Tirzah, who is 81 years old, left Wednesday for Kansas City to visit his brother, Henry, at that place. From there he will go to Tacoma, Wash., where he expects to make his future home with another brother.
Birchardville – A large crowd attended the sale of personal property at V. E. Cobb’s, coming from all over the county. The farm had been sold to Elmer Gardner some time before. Mr. Cobb has gone to make his home with his sister, Mrs. Irving Truesdell, at Vestal. His son, Elmer Cobb and wife, who have been working the farm for some time, have gone to his home in Delaware. The Cobb family have lived on the old farm for four generations.
Dimock – What has happened to the whistle at the Milk Station, as it does not blow in the morning as in times of the past. ALSO Leslie Barnes, who drives the kid wagon from Elk Lake to the school, seems to be putting in all of the time during school hours by helping the farmers with their silo filling, returning home at night with his load of jolly boys and girls.
Susquehanna County Now Has A Crow Farm – It is an old saying that “you must go away from home to learn the news.” Here is what the Deposit Courier-Journal says, “A farmer named Billings, near Susquehanna, PA, has taken a contract to furnish a New York millinery manufacturer [hats] with crows’ heads at 25 cents apiece. It costs something to get a dead crow. Alive it is an elusive bird and ammunition is expensive, but Billings is an enterprising speculator and has set up a chicken incubator, in which are placed, as fast as laid, the eggs of about 100 hen crows that have been trapped and confined with perhaps a dozen cock crows. Within fifteen days the little creatures are hatched and a fortnight later they are ready to be beheaded. It is understood that the head of a crow chick is worth just as much as an adult of the same species. At the uniform rate of four for a dollar, dead, they will pay the producer. Billings has the only crow hatchery in the world.
The undersigned takes this method to inform the settlers on lands belonging to the Estate of Henry Drinker the elder, late of the city of Philadelphia, dec., that he has resigned the agency of said Estate, and that Mr. James C. Biddle is now the sole Agent, to whom all persons having any concern or business with said Estate, will in future apply. WM. DRINKER. Oct. 20.
The Court of Appeal for the Montrose Artillery Company will be held at the house of D. Curtis, in Montrose, on Monday the 6th day of November next, at 9 o’clock, am. B. J. DIMOCK, Capt. Oct 20.
NOTICE. THE COURT OF APPEAL for the Bridgewater Yeomanry Guards, will be held at the house of D. Curtis, in Montrose, on Monday, the 6th day of November next, at 9 o’clock, am. A. C. LUCE, Capt. Bridgewater, Oct. 13, 1826.
Ian Natowsky and Gyeong Moon have two children together but are now separated. Moon has custody of the minor children approximately eighty percent of the time with Natowsky having custody the remaining twenty percent of the time. Moon became concerned with Natowsky’s custodial periods based upon reports received from the minor children regarding his sexualized behavior. Moon also came into a possession of an audio tape of Natowsky which was made during one of his custodial periods that suggested potential acts of bestiality. Moon shared these concerns with various third parties and reported the concerns to a child welfare agency. After concluding an investigation, the child welfare agency determined that the allegations were “unfounded.”
A designation of “unfounded” means one of three things: “(1) the incident did not occur; (2) the injury was not of a serious nature, or (3) substantial evidence was not found.” Natowsky, however, concluded that the unfounded designation means that Moon had lied to third parties about his alleged sexual deviance. Without legal counsel and acting on his own, Natowsky filed a civil action against Moon seeking $1.2 million in damages purportedly resulting from her defamatory statements, i.e., the suggestion that Natowsky had engaged in acts of bestiality with the family dog. To support his position that Moon’s statements were not true, Natowsky attached the child protective service letter indicating that the investigation had determined that the allegations were “unfounded.”
The trial court dismissed Natowsky’s complaint noting that it failed to demonstrate that the allegations were not true, i.e., the child protective service finding of “unfounded” did not establish that the allegations did not occur; rather, the unfounded designation could simply indicate that there was not “substantial evidence” that the allegations occurred. Natowsky appealed the dismissal of his civil complaint. The Superior Court affirmed the trial court’s decision, though it should be noted that this was largely based upon Natowsky’s failure to properly present his legal argument, i.e., Natowsky again represented himself on appeal.
Natowsky added an additional issue on appeal – he contended that the trial judge should have recused herself because she had Korean ancestry and Moon was also Korean. Natowsky argued that the trial judge was not only Korean but also had a documented history of advocating for Asian Americans in the local community. The trial judge considered Natowsky’s claim, noted that she had conducted a self-assessment as to her own biases and prejudices, observed that she had no familiarity with either litigant, and concluded that there was no evidence to even remotely suggest that she could not be impartial. Finally, the trial judge noted that any recusal would “establish a dangerous precedent, barring judges from presiding over cases involving litigants of their own background.”
In rejecting Natowsky’s recusal claim, the Superior Court explained that “Natowsky advances no specific evidence from the court proceedings of bias on the part of the trial judge, but instead baldly supposes that because the trial judge was a member of the same minority group as Moon, she must be biased. Natowsky’s argument – based on generalized presumptions – falls far short of satisfying his burden of advancing evidence of bias.” The trial court’s dismissal of Natowsky’s civil complaint was affirmed.
Natowsky was representing himself and it is unlikely that an attorney ever would have made such a frivolous claim demanding recusal based upon the racial composition of the judge. The trial judge was right when she noted that requiring a judge to recuse himself or herself based upon racial or ethnic grounds would be a “dangerous precedent.” Many years ago, I had one litigant demand my recusal based upon my ethnicity not matching his ethnicity – and his demand that the next judge have a similar ethnicity to him. The litigant also expressed a desire to have a judge from a more urban area, i.e., Harrisburg or Philadelphia. When I denied the request, I politely explained that the standard for recusal is simply whether the judge can be fair and impartial, and neither my ethnicity nor my geographic location had any bearing on that question.
Good day Dear Hearts, I Love You. Our nation is bogged down in a war with Iran and while the war has been going on for six months, the battle between us has been going on for fifty years. Today I want to suggest to you this war has been going on for as long as thousands of years. This is part 1 of a “Pastoral Reflection on the Iran-Israel War.”
For the record, I don’t have a master’s degree or a Doctorate. I’m just a 74-year-old man who has witnessed the world and has been deep into God’s Word for over half of my life. A critic may say, “who are you to write this?” When people speak about the Iran-Israel conflict, they almost always begin with politics. They talk about borders, governments, alliances and military strategy. But beneath all of that lies something far older, deeper and more powerful than any modern headline. It is a spiritual story that began in the tents of Abraham nearly four thousand years ago. And if we do not understand those beginnings, we cannot understand the spiritual dimension of the conflict unfolding today.
The Bible tells us that Abraham had two sons. Ishmael, born to Hagar, came through human impatience. Isaac, born to Sarah, came through divine promises. Both boys were loved by Abraham, and both were seen by God. But their destinies were different. God said of Ishmael, “I will make him a great nation.” Yet of Isaac He said, “My covenant I will establish with him.” From the very beginning, Scripture shows us that the tension between these two households was not merely personal, it was spiritual. It represented two ways of approaching God; one rooted in human effort and one rooted in divine promise. And although Ishmael and Isaac lived thousands of years ago, their spiritual legacies echo through the centuries and shape the world we live in today.
Islamic tradition teaches that Ishmael settled in the region of Mecca and became the ancestor of many Arab tribes. Whether every detail of that lineage can be historically verified is not the point. What matters is that Islam sees itself spiritually connected to Ishmael. Meanwhile, Israel traces its identity through Isaac, the son of promise, through whom God established His covenant. So, when we look at the modern Middle East, we are not simply looking at nations. We are looking at spiritual worldviews that trace their roots back to Abraham’s two sons.
And this is where the Iran-Israel conflict takes on a dimension that political analysts often miss. Iran is not simply a nation with political ambitions. It is a nation whose leaders interpret world events through a religious lens. Iran’s ruling class follows a branch of Islam called Twelver Shi’ism, which teaches that there were twelve Imams, spiritual leaders descended from Ali, Muhammad’s cousin. The twelfth of these, Muhammad al-Mahdi, is believed to have disappeared in the ninth century. Shi’ite theology teaches that he did not die but entered a state of hiddenness. One day, they believe he will return as a messianic figure to establish justice and usher in the end of days. This belief is not a distant hope for Iran’s leaders. It is a present mandate. They believe they are living inside an unfolding prophetic drama. They believe their suffering, their endurance and even their conflicts are part of preparing the world for the Mahdi’s return. In their worldview, chaos is not failure, it is a spiritual accelerant. Confrontation is not recklessness, it is obedience. And Israel, in their theology, is not merely a political rival. It is a spiritual obstacle to the fulfillment of their eschatological vision.
This is why Iran’s leaders speak of the conflict in spiritual terms. They believe they are standing against corruption, injustice and oppression. They believe they are advancing divine history. They believe their endurance under pressure proves their choosiness. And they believe that the Mahdi will soon appear to vindicate their struggle. Israel, on the other hand, does not frame the conflict as an end-times mandate. But Israel’s identity is inseparable from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Jewish people see their survival as tied to the covenant God made with their forefathers. “He who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps,” the psalmist wrote. For Israel, existence itself is a testimony to God’s faithfulness. Christians, too, see this conflict through a spiritual lens. We believe that Christ is the fulfillment of the covenant, the promised Messiah and the One who has already triumphed over all powers and principalities. We believe that nations rise and fall, but the kingdom of God endures forever. And we believe that spiritual battles are ultimately won not by armies, but by the sovereign hand of God.
So, when we ask, “What is really happening between Iran and Israel?” we must look beyond politics. We must see the spiritual story unfolding beneath the headlines. Iran believes it is advancing its prophetic destiny. Israel believes it is protected by the God of Abraham. And Christians believe that Christ has already secured the final victory. This does not mean that every person in Iran or Israel thinks this way. Many simply want peace, stability and safety. But the leaders who shape national direction often act from deeply held spiritual convictions. And those convictions influence decisions, strategies, and responses in ways that political analysis alone cannot explain.
As we watch events unfold, we must remember that the spiritual roots of this conflict go back to Abraham’s two sons. The tension between Ishmael and Isaac was not about ethnicity, it was about two spiritual worldviews. One rooted in human effort. One rooted in divine promise. And today, those worldviews continue to shape nations, beliefs and conflicts.
Next week, we will look more closely at Iran’s belief in the Twelfth Imam, Israel’s covenant identity, and the question many people are quietly asking, “Whose God wins this battle?” The answer, as we will see, is not found in military strength, but in spiritual truth. God Bless.