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HOW CLYMER CAME TO BE The land for Clymer and surrounding areas was either unoccupied (because it wasn't fit for farming) or owned by farmers. In 1905, much of the land owned by farmers as well as land owned by Mr. and Mrs. O'Neil and Mr. J. B. Siverd was purchased by W. D. Bigler, an official of the New York Central Railroad (with which C. B. C. Corporation was affiliated). A company named the "Dixon Run Land Company" was formed to lay out the town of Clymer. The incorporators were William D. Keily, Rembrandt Peale, and R. A. Shillingford. At that time a railroad had been completed as far as Mitchell's Mills and people from the area came to buy lots. (Clymer was not a company-owned town.) An advertisement placed in a newspaper called the "Indiana Progress" in early October 1905 serves as a good indicator of how and why Clymer came to be. "The Public Sale of lots In the new town of Clymer, Pa. will be held at that town on October 11 and 12, 1905. This town will be the most active coal town in central Indiana County, Pa, as it is in the heart of the new region developed by the joint line of the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads and the center of lost coal in the county. Two seams of coal, both of excellent quality, are covered by this territory and both seams are being developed. Nine large collieries [coal mines] equipped with modem machinery are now under construction and development by the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corporation, Peale, Peacock & Kerr and Pioneer Coal Company in the immediate vicinity of this town and the labor employed will be centered in Clymer." [The ad also stated that 100 homes would be constructed In the fall and an additional 100 homes would be constructed in the spring.] It is not known if homes were available for sale in Sample Run, or if homes in Sample Run had already been constructed. Most likely there were already homes there. The John Dillen family was the first family in Clymer. They moved from Clearfield in September 1905 to Clymer and started a boarding house on Hancock Street. Their first boarders were mostly engineers and officers of the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corporation. Among their distinguished guests were John S. Fisher, once Governor of Pennsylvania, and State Senator Samuel Richard Peale of Lock Haven. The first store was the Clearfield Supply Company on Adams Street. CLYMER IS NAMED The town of Clymer was named in honor of the Revolutionary War patriot, George Clymer, who once owned much of the land in Indiana County. He and Benjamin Franklin, both from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. The town of Clymer, established in 1905, was originally designed to be a base for coal-mining operations and a home for coal-mining personnel and their families. * Note: To see more
information about George Clymer's intriguing life and photos of him as well.
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