Around Hughesville

Book excerpt: In 1816, Jeptha Hughes purchased a tract of land along Muncy Creek and named it Hughesburg. The town grew, and it was renamed Hughesville in 1852. Local artisans, such as millers, blacksmiths, coopers, and cobblers, flocked to the area and plied their trade. Schools and churches were established, the Williamsport and North Branch Railroad made daily stops in the area, and farm families raised livestock, field crops, and vegetable gardens. The Hughesville Fair, an agricultural exhibition begun in 1870, became an annual tradition. Around Hughesville chronicles the people and places of this rural community between the 1880s and the 1930s, when Hughesville was a town that embraced innovative industrial change as it retained its old-fashioned country charm.