Morrisons Cove Herald - Putting cows on the front page since 1885.

Stories and poems have been written and snappy songs composed about what for many is the highlight of the Christmas season, the pine tree, lowly in the forest and magnificent decked out in lights and garland. As Christmas draws near it’s time to...

It’s the time of year when fruit markets and drug stores force one to think about the upcoming year, now just weeks away. The 2024 calendars — be they national park themed, ones with pictures of cute animals or with a religious slant — provide...

One’s final resting place — often well-thought-out and viewed with respect and reverence — is overshadowed for a small number of Morrisons Cove residents by what was once a highly prized landmark that played a huge role in the growth of...

The fragrance of wood smoke hits about a quarter mile from the destination: my sister Janet Ronk’s home. Pulling in the drive brings the deep rich fragrance of cider and apples cooking at a simmer. Summer is over and the apples are hanging in heavy...

Hard country singer Junior Brown is a strong believer that “what was is as important as what is,” and it is a philosophy adopted by a group of Morrisons Cove residents who have set upon a journey determined to capture and record what was for...

After months of scaremongering, fortification construction at vulnerable spots and enlisting volunteers to protect Morrisons Cove and Altoona from southern rebels, all eyes shifted east to Gettysburg and locals started breathing sighs of relief. A...

Most were little boys, 14 or 15 years old, frightened for their families and homes. They were frightened for their own lives. Yet they crept about Blair and Bedford counties, loaded gun in hand and stomachs growling for lack of food. The country...

Fortifications were being built and monitored in key locations to keep Confederate troops out of Morrisons Cove and ultimately the Altoona railroad shops along with the iron furnaces dotted across southern Blair and northern Bedford counties. Men...

Johnny Reb crossed the south eastern end of Pennsylvania, eager to engage troopers from the north in any level of battle in the hopes they would soon see southern victory of the Civil War and the right to indicate the terms of any peace agreement. It...

“To Arms To Arms!” were the words printed in bold face in the hopes of attracting the attention of young and old to the potential plight facing the usually peaceful farmers and merchants of Blair and Bedford counties. The call was aimed at...

The summer 1863 was a hot one — not only in terms of temperature and humidity — but the Civil War was raging on and the southern Confederates were determined to repeat in Pennsylvania the destruction carried out elsewhere. The men in Blair and...

They were given self-descriptive names like Minute Men of the Cove, The Hopewell Rifles and The Chicken Raiders and while hesitant to go into war, these hundreds of men from Blair and Bedford counties turned out in full force when the soldiers flexed...

It was mid-1863 and the country was void of cable news, Twitter, radio. Even newspapers were often scarce and read like information sent in by carrier pigeon. Yet our nation was at war with one another and the fear was huge that your front door...

Experts say the formation of Morrisons Cove was determined by the Ice Age giving our homeland its canoe-shaped basin formed by three mountains. These mountains give Cove residents a sense of security that tornadoes likely will not sweep through as...

Experts say the formation of Morrisons Cove was determined by the Ice Age giving our homeland its canoe-shaped basin formed by three mountains. These mountains give Cove residents a sense of security that tornadoes likely will not sweep through as...

The year was 1863 and it was a time of widespread rumors. Every huckster passing through the area brought stories of death and destruction at the hands of Confederate troops in the south. A trip to town brought Poppa scurrying back with plans to...

Spring is being ushered out by the blazing summer sun and thousands of locals find themselves looking up at the sky. They’re not looking for a rain cloud but rather to offer a prayer that the Confederate soldiers will look elsewhere in their...

As the final days of the school term approach, it seems a good time for the history lovers among us to reflect on how education and schoolhouses in particular used to be, not just 50 years ago, but a century ago. As the people who built the...

It was nothing short of a massive horizontal Jack and the Beanstalk. Let a few volunteers reseed, go away for a week or so and come home to pumpkin and ornamental gourd vines covering the ground around the garage and the northern side of the house....

Many people have places they go annually, often at the same time of the year, but how does the destination and the scenery on the way change and how does it look, say two months earlier or two months later? I experienced this over the weekend when I...

Take a gander to the left of you, and one to the right, look behind and ahead. If you’re living in Morrisons Cove, chances are pretty good that you’ll find a Dilling. Hey, take a hard look and maybe you’ll find one of your own great, great, gre...

When Jim Snyder, president of the Blair County Genealogical Society, talked of investigating one of many abandoned cemeteries in Blair County, and specifically Morrisons Cove, little did one realize the back stories that would pop to the surface, esp...

When one sees the words “if this place could talk,” there is a tendency to conjure images of ghosts, thrilling romance or big money deals. But when one looks at the farm that now belongs to the Bakers, just a stones throw from Piney Creek Road...

A long narrow strip of dark soil in the middle of what is now a corn field in Huston Township is causing a stir of different sorts for two men. For Jim Snyder, president of the Blair County Genealogical Society, the Dilling Cemetery located on what...

A stop at any nursery, hardware store and even supermarket this time of year will give any shopper the difficult task of not bumping into a metal rack overflowing with hundreds of brightly colored small paper envelopes depicting robust annual and...

Roberts, the Pittsburgh-based jewelry company that was called “the oldest in America” in 1946, described Blair County as the jewel of all 67 counties in Pennsylvania. In an advertising booklet aimed at spreading the word about this long-held...

Advertising: the method used by businesses to catch the public eye regarding goods or services being offered. Advertising is everywhere one looks today, but was a challenge for many two centuries ago when newspapers and roadside signs were among the...

They usually start arriving just before the new year and are often hidden beneath the end of year bills, credit card offers and unsolicited health care plans. The annual deluge of seed and plant catalogs is in full swing and for the gardening lovers...

The bitter cold days experienced in Morrisons Cove over Christmas generated conversations recalling similar blustery days of three decades ago. But weather of two centuries ago also comes to mind. While this attempt at weather conversation falls...

Oh, the majestic Christmas tree, we remember those of bygone days, brag on what we had to pay, speak of how the needles so splendidly stay in place and finally, what are we going to do with it after it is pulled from the living room. Most families...

A man, who over the years touched the lives of many young people in the central Morrisons Cove, spent some of the most formidable of his years living under conditions one can barely imagine. Joseph Conlon, best known for his teaching at Roaring...

It’s late fall, the mid-1950’s, an early cold front has brought snow flurries and sharp wind to the region. A group of little girls huddle at a front window of an old farmhouse waiting for the mailman to stop. This certainly has to be the day...

This week wraps up the last leg of the walk around Roaring Spring that lifelong resident Larry Curfman is sharing with readers in his own words. The memories start at “back to Cherry Street.” --------------------------------------- During the war...

Larry Curfman, a Roaring Spring resident with lifelong love for his hometown this week continues his walk down memory lane, a recollection we are using in his own words. Curfman, 84, with a sharp memory for detail and emotion has heard from a host...

If you ever want to know anything about the history of Roaring Spring and its environs, it might be worthwhile to head over to Robinson Avenue and spend a little time with Larry Curfman. Curfman was born in Roaring Spring, at the original Nason...

As we jump in the car for the quarter-mile trip to pick up bread and milk, it’s difficult to imagine the days prior to car and truck or even bicycles, but for many Morrisons Cove residents of the past, if a horse was not around it meant exercising...

She was a simple woman who led a simple life in what would be by today’s standards considered a shanty at the base of Lock Mountain, Piney Creek Road. Yet mention of her name, Marjorie Gertrude Ferry, brings pleasant memories to many Martinsburg...