Williamsport Facts
Fact 1: Play ball! As the birthplace of Little League baseball, Williamsport is also home to the original field used for the sport's World Series. Started in 1939, Little League baseball is considered to be the first organized sport for kids.
Fact 2: Early in his career, before he had achieved lasting popularity, Mark Twain was acquiring fame on the lecture circuit, speaking about his adventures and travels. One of his tours brought him to blossoming Williamsport on New Year's Eve, 1869, and Twain ushered out the old year regaling visitors with his story-telling prowess and wit.
Fact 3: In the late 19th century, Peter Herdic, one of the town's most influential businessmen, proposed that the city pave part of West Fourth Street with wooden blocks. Believing that such an endeavor would raise the city's prominence and quieten traffic, he convinced the town to act. The paving did spur area development in the short-term, but it also ultimately helped throw Williamsport into dire financial straits when the economy took a downturn.
Fact 4: Always full of ideas and plans to make Williamsport more prestigious, lumber baron Peter Herdic built an elegant hotel to attract visitors to the city, and he financed Trinity Episcopal Church, the Gothic-styled edifice on West Fourth Street. Herdic is also credited with creating an early version of a taxi. It was pulled by horses, featured a back entrance, and had seats along the sides. In a gesture of humility, he named the invention a "herdic."
Fact 5: Millionaires were at no premium during Williamsport's economic heyday, although most, expectedly, were men. A notable exception was Anne Weightman Walker Penfield. Referred to as the "wealthiest woman in the world" and the "woman Midas," she flaunted her wealth in a spectacular West Fourth Street home and with Parisian fashions and connections to rich, influential contemporaries. She also entertained in sumptuous style, as residents will recount to this day.
Fact 6: In the late 18th century, America's frustration with British rule was reaching a boiling point throughout the colonies, and Lycoming County residents were no different. In fact, they drafted a document officially severing ties with Great Britain on – curiously enough – July 4, 1776. They then sent notice to Philadelphia, only to find out that legislators there had already taken similar actions – and gained lasting fame in the process.
Fact 7: Williamsport's 19th-century lumber boom brought with it many distinctive characters. One of them was "Cherry Tree" Joe McCreary, who was born in Muncy and became famous for his displays of strength. One of the most talked-about feats was Joe's breaking up a 7-mile-long log jam by leaping dangerously from log to log to keep the timber moving downriver. Legend even has it that Joe was the real-life inspiration for folklore's Paul Bunyan.
Fact 8: History also remembers Williamsport as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Daniel Hughes, a raftsman for the lumber industry, was a prominent player in the movement of slaves northward. He secretively transported them from Baltimore to Williamsport before directing them on the rest of the way. Hughes even donated part of his own land for an African-American cemetery, which shelters men who fought in the Civil War.
Fact 9: Given the furious pace of lumbering during Williamsport's boom days, you'd think that the landscape would have ended up completely barren. And for a while, it was. Deforestation had visibly taken its toll, but luckily, legislators stepped in to heal the environment. The state bought much of the land, turning it into parklands, and lawmakers also promoted tree-planting to area landowners. As a result, the Susquehanna Valley flourishes again.
Fact 10: The culture of the American church owes a small debt to Williamsport citizens. As a result of their passion and spirituality, we have two classic, familiar songs. Reverend J. H. Hopkins, an Episcopal rector, composed "We Three Kings of Orient Are" for a Christmas program, and James M. Black, a Methodist church member, penned the rousing anthem "When the Saints Go Marching In."
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