Paxtonville PA

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Paxtonville lies on Middle Creek in Pennsylvania and is connected to Middleburg, Koonhunter and Beavertown by the Paxtonville Road. Settled in the late 1700s, it was first known as Kern's Mill, but was renamed after Robert Paxton. Just after the Civil War an iron furnace was built there, but it fell into disuse after a relatively short period of time when richer ores were found in the Great Lakes region. In the early years of the 20th century, brick-making was a major industry, but this ended in the summer of 1963 when fire destroyed the Paxton Brick Company. A water-powered sawmill and cider press were in operation about 1900. At various times businesses included a creamery, a restaurant, a cigar factory, a shirt factory, one or two general stores a barbershop, a grist mill and a gunsmith. As of December 2007, the town boasts a church and a feed mill, as well as a community center. The building housing the community center was previously a two room school house in which instruction was provided for grades 1 through 8. Its last use for this purpose was in the Spring of 1955; after this time pupils were bussed to Middleburg. Around 1890 a school building stood on the north-east corner of Mill Street and the Paxtonville Road.

The soil underlying the village is principally glacial till, but about 150 feet west and 50 feet south of the juncture of the Paxtonville Road and Paxton Street sedimentary rock lies just beneath the soil surface. Stone American Indian artifacts, chiefly arrow and spear points, are to be found at the north edge of town near the bank of Middle Creek. The completion of the Sunbury and Lewistown Railroad in the 1870s connected Paxtonville with these two cities, and for many years a number of daily passenger trains stopped at the Paxtonville station, which was located near the creek. Passenger service ended in the late 1920s. For a short period of time, toward the end of the 1800s, Paxtonville was shown on railroad maps as Benfer. A number of the oldest houses are log, but this construction is not evident because they have frame or shingle siding; they date from the early 1800s. As of 2007 there stands on the north side of Maple Avenue, about 100 feet west of the intersection with Paxton Street, a house of unusual design. Built by Gabriel Gill about 1885, it lacks a frame, but the exterior walls serve this purpose, being constructed of three layers of one inch planks, with the middle layer running at a 90 degree angle to the other two.

Over the years most residents have been of Pennsylvania-Dutch ancestry, as witnessed by family names such as Walter, Gill, Straub and Musser. About 1900 the cemetery was moved from behind its position behind the church on the east edge of the village to its modern location on the south-west edge. Coffins and their contents were carried on horse-drawn wagons. Immediately after World War I donations from townspeople allowed the erection of the Memorial Hall on the west side of Paxton Street. It served a number of functions, including showing movies. During the era of silent films these were accompanied by the Paxtonville Orchestra.