SUSQUEHANN
SUSOUEHANNA TIMES & THE MOUNT JOY BULL
Vol. 78, No. 40, October 4, 1978 MARIETTA AND MOUNT JOY, PA
FIFTEEN CENTS
Donegal football last week and next
Aimee and Dr. Ferguson at the site of the ‘‘new’’ Nelson
He designed a town
Dr. Frank Ferguson, who
lives in Maytown with his
wife Eileen and children,
Mike, Aimee, and Jack,
has planned the moving of
an entire town in Tioga
County on the northern
border of Pennsylvania.
The town, Nelson, was
slated to be inundated by
an artificial lake being
constructed by the Army
Corps of Engineers on the
Cowanesque River. The
Corps’ plan was to com-
pensate the residents of
Nelson for their properties,
so that they could move
elsewhere. But the resi-
dents of Nelson, under the
leadership of Mrs. Ila
Wiley, protested breaking
up their community which
goes back many genera-
tions.
Bucknell - University took
an interest in helping the
residents of Nelson in
preserving their community
and called in Dr. Ferguson,
who teaches environmental
design at Penn State-Capi-
tol Campus in Middletown.
Ferguson went to work
planning a new town for
Nelson.
It was a hard struggle.
First the funds from Buck-
nell ran out; Ferguson kept
working for the people of
Nelson without pay. He
went to Washington and
testified before Congress
on their need to hold their
community together.
Congress approved a bill
authorizing a new town for
Nelson.
Ferguson had to come up
with a complete plan for
the new town in only five
months’ time.
Working day and night
he managed to produce the
.plan on schedule, including
‘designs for a town center,
two residential
recreational area, water
and sewer systems. The
project was so exhausting,
Ferguson said it took him
six months to recuperate.
Construction of the
“new’’ Nelson started this
spring.
areas, a
[continued on page 7]
—story on back page
Local Landmark destroyed
College students charged with vandalism
There has been a wave
of vandalism in Falmouth.
A covered bridge has been
destroyed, and so has the
statue of a hang-dog white
horse, which stood along
Rte. 441 near Falmouth for
30 years.
The builder of the statue,
Carl Lewis, is bitter about
the mindless destruction
wrought by the vandals.
“It doesn’t make any sense
—but then, what does
anymore?’ Mr. Lewis
rhetorically asked a report-
er who visited him last
week.
The statue was made by
Mr. Lewis out of welded
steel rods, covered over
with metal lath and plaster.
Its feet were imbedded in
concrete: the destruction
was apparently accomplish-
ed by wrapping a chain
about the statue’s neck and
ripping it out with an auto.
“People came from art
colleges in New York and
measured it all over once,”’
Mr. Lewis related. ‘‘People
would bring their kids here
and let them sit on it. And
it was a landmark.”
Mr. Lewis told of how
truck driver Bob Brandt,
brother of representative
Ken Brandt, was at a truck
stop in the Midwest when
he was asked where he
hailed from. ‘I live along
the road that runs between
Columbia and Harrisburg,’’
he replied. The other driver
shot back, ‘‘How far from
the white horse?’
When an article about
the horse appeared in the
Lancaster paper, people
phoned Mr. Lewis and
offered to rebuild the horse
~ for him. But he declined
~~ the offer:
“l guess. the
point is, that’s the way
they want it. I'm not going
to have it fixed.
‘Maybe if you leave it
here, people who have read
about it in the papers will
see it and think about it.”
Falmouth stands next to the broken
remains of the horse he built 30 years ago. It was
recently ripped out and smashed by vandals.
In the background is the building where Mr. Lewis
formerly ran an antiques shop, its windows also
smashed by hooligans. The sign, offering $100 reward,
was put there by neighbor Scott Sargen.
Lewis’s neighbor, Scott
Sargen, put up a big sign
behind the broken statue.
“THE HORSE VANDAL-
IZED—REWARD $100” it
reads. Sargen, upset about
the rampaging vandals,
called all the local news-
papers to help bring the
problem to the attention of
the community.
‘“m going to put up a
sign, too,”’ Mr. Lewis said.
‘“A big one—and it won’t
offer a reward. It'll be a
warning.
“1 don’t care if they lock
me up,’’ he added.
For many years Mr.
Lewis ran an antiques shop
in the tiny concrete block
building behind the statue,
which he made as an
advertising gimmick. He
eventually gave up trying
to do business there, he
says, because of repeated
vandalism and robbery at-
tempts. All the windows
were broken out of the
store on several occasions.
—As we go to press, we
have learned that three
college students were ar-
rested for vandalizing the
horse and charged with
criminal mischief. The stu-
dents wanted to put the
horses head in their dorm-
itory.