Life at Bloomsburg

Holly Rock Farm – The James B. Mathews House

Holly Rock Farm refers to the two holly trees growing between two massive rocks on the front hill of Bloomsburg.

Bloomsburg's Independence Tree

In front of James B. Mathews’ home, built in 1830 on his 600+ acre farm, stood a very large pin oak tree near the stream, so large that 3 people had to stretch to put their arms around it.

On January 8, 1996, a calm 40 degree day, that tree fell to the ground with great commotion and crushed an adjacent log cabin spring house.

A tree ring count shows that the tree was 10 to 20 years old when the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776!

The 7 foot high stump of the “Bloomsburg’s Independence Tree” and the spring house it nearly destroyed, are being preserved near the pond in front of this beautiful home.

The Bloomsburg Museum

As I have explored this house and its many amazing features, two very innovative things stand out:

In the photos of the barns and sheds to the northwest side of the house, there was a wind mill above where the cistern cover is now.  The stand that held the windmill had a large tank about half way up the stand and there was a heavy pipe that went down to the ground and over to the house.  The other end of this pipe came to what is now the laundry room on the second floor to another tank.  As the wind mill pumped the water up to the first tank, gravity would equalize the water in the house tank and the occupants had running water, long before there was electricity.

Exploring the old basement was always an adventure.  One of the more interesting things down there was the old metal pipes going in various directions.  As we remodeled  parts of the house we saw the same pipes in the walls at all levels.  I believe that those pipes linked a gas generating system in the basement to provide gas lights thru out the house.  Again, no need for electricity.  Later we found similar pipes going out to some of the out buildings, apparently giving light and heat to them as well.

The log cabin that is now serving as a museum for the many tools and gadgets  that I have found around the property, used to be close behind the main house.  Often the “kitchen” was located separate from the main house so that if it caught fire, they would only lose the kitchen, not the whole house.  They didn’t have fire departments in those days.  Hank did talk about the spring and fall pig slaughter where they butchered the pigs and hung them in the smoke house (the log cabin) to smoke for several days or weeks.  They were very self sufficient in those days.

In their later years at Bloomsburg, the Graddick’s apparently had a strong liking for Thunderbird wine. When my family moved into Bloomsburg in 1985, we noted that the roof of the log cabin was all caved in and only being held up by barrels stacked on top of each other, filled with empty bottles of 99 cent wine.  In order to clear out the log cabin, my oldest son and I climbed to the roof on ladders and tossed the empty bottles down to my younger son and daughter.  Eventually we removed all the wine bottles and restored the log cabin to something like its original condition. Later, we moved the cabin to its present location.

There is a name for the places people dump their trash but I can’t remember it.  As I have wandered over the lot, I have found several places that just seem to be always turning up bits and pieces of left over trivia. Recently I found an early version of a credit card for Mrs. Graddick.  It had her name and Glenwood, MD embossed on a small plastic card.  No credit card number or expiration date or anything else.

I recall having conversations with workers and craftsmen who did work at the house about times they had in the 50s and 60s, setting up Lionel trains on the third floor from one end to the other.  I have always loved trains and perhaps my best railroad ever is the 1600 foot riding railroad that travels around the back half of the lot.  Lots of maintenance, but lots of fun for “kids of all ages!”