Beavertown celebrates its bicentennial [The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.]

Aug. 16--BEAVERTOWN -- It may be named for the critters that once resided in its streams, and it may be known as a home of Monkee Davy Jones, but there is much more to the small western Snyder County borough of Beavertown.

Residents are celebrating the borough's 200th birthday this month and taking time to reflect on their heritage and the people who made it, and are making it, what it is today.

Mayor Cloyd "Bill" Wagner, now in his sixth term, is just one of them. As a founder, chairman, adviser and historian of various organizations, a local genealogist, publisher and editor of The Beavertown News, he has enough on his plate to give him little free time.

But the 80-year-old, a former cryptographer for the Army Security Agency -- and that's just one of the titles he has held --seems to thrive on keeping busy. And it seems he would rather do it nowhere else.

"For the last 40 years of my life, I've dedicated my service to Beavertown," he said proudly.

And the Beavertownians all seem glad to have him.

"I've always looked up to Bill Wagner," said Craig Aumiller, ambulance foreman and resident of Beavertown for 49 years.

He knows Wagner as a history buff who has done a lot for the borough.

"Bill was always there," he said.

So was Aumiller's father, George, who served as the town's lone police officer for 25 years, patrolling the town in his own vehicle. When he retired in 1995, so did the police force. No one replaced him. He died in 1997.

While the borough does receive some contracted police protection from officers in Middleburg, it's not the same.

"You don't have a home boy here," Aumiller said.

Another long-time celebrated citizen is 71-year-old Paul "Popeye" Saylor, who has his hands in a little bit in everything, it seems, helping to keep the borough running properly.

He's president of the Beavertown Fire Company, and has served with the company since 1970. He not only drives the emergency vehicles -- he is also the chief cook and bottle washer, and helps a number of other volunteers each Easter with the auxiliary to make nearly 40,000 peanut butter eggs, and 1,000 doughnuts each year on Fausnaught Day, to sell and raise money for the fire company.

Saylor has also served on the Borough Council for 30 years, is a member of the Snyder County chapter of the American Red Cross, and can be seen shoveling driveways, mowing lawns, assisting a funeral director with removals, maintaining the cemeteries and fixing water lines.

"He does everything," said Karen Kirk, the postmaster relief at the Beavertown post office for the 838 residents who get their mail there. Even the little children know him and call him Popeye, she said.

Popeye and his wife, Kate, according to one borough resident, keep the borough running and energized.

"I've never seen a couple that is more like the spark plugs of a community," said 86-year-old Robert Bitting, who has lived in Beavertown for a little more than 20 years, and contributed his share to improving the town.

He and Craig Aumiller numbered the town's houses shortly after he moved there.

Bitting worked for RCA for 24 years, and one of his jobs during that time was to help create and market a product called Selectavision, an early version of the modern-day VCR.

Aside from the current celebrated Beavertown citizens, there are plenty of lasting and fond memories of those local heroes who have since passed on.

Linda Thomas, the borough secretary and a 44-year resident of Beavertown, said Vesta Coleman was one of them. The former school teacher in Beavertown and Beaver-Adams Elementary School, now has a room named after her in the borough building, where she used to teach. The room is now used as a polling station and a Scout room.

"She was a very well-loved woman," Thomas said. "A very well-rounded citizen."

Coleman, who lived into her 90s, was active in church groups, with the library, and the Women's Club. Her husband, Rudy, owned and operated an insurance business in town.

Mayor Wagner considers two men to be the major personalities associated with Beavertown.

Ner Middleswarth was one of them. Middleswarth moved to Beavertown in 1792, when his family purchased a large tract of land one mile south of the current town limits. He went on to be the owner of several mills, formed a company to fight against the British, and was a legislator, serving as a local representative and state senator.

Moses Specht was the other. Born in 1818, Specht became a skilled accountant and a builder and businessman in the 1840s, and was the principal promoter of the railroad. He also served as the Snyder County sheriff for a number of years.

The town has boasted other well-knowns, including legislator Reno Thomas, popular writer and television personality Euell Gibbons, inventor William Klingler (of the railroad coupler), and professional baseball players Sam Herman, Frank Thomas and Ken Wagner.

The town also continually celebrates its veterans with a memorial at the Beavertown Rose Garden.

Mayor Wagner said he finds satisfaction in serving the borough and working to improve it.

Through his cooperation with the Borough Council and other borough, county, state and federal entities, he said, "Together we have made Beavertown and its infrastructure a lot better than it was when I first came into office."

For the most part, he feels as though he has succeeded in his efforts to speak on behalf of its residents. He also continues to be involved in what he calls the "fun part" of being mayor -- ribbon-cuttings, speaking at special functions and attending various banquets, seminars and social functions.

"I have never received one penny in compensation for anything I have ever done for Beavertown, in or out of office," Wagner said. "It is my honor to serve my beloved hometown in many ways, as I have always done."

Kirk, at the post office, said she loves Beavertown because of the camaraderie and support she sees there.

"It's the way they come together as a group," Kirk said. "They help each other. They make you feel welcome."

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