This "town story" takes place in Entriken, Pennsylvania.   Special thanks are extended to Bill Entrekin, Rick Entrekin, and Charles Johnson for information, photos, and willingness to help create this story.

Dot Entrekin owned a home and old garage in Entriken.    She lived into her 90's and after her passing, her son Gene sold Dot's home to Evgeny and Melisa Krayushkin who live there now.  They have a three-year old son, Misha.  Yes, I am sure there is a story associated with that last name, but we need Missy or Evgeny to tell it. 

Gene sold the garage in a separate transaction.

My wife and I knew that Gene was selling the properties, but we did not notice the house had changed hands until we noticed  Evgeny, Missy, and Misha as they came and went from their new home.  

The garage/gas station, on the other hand, sat unused for so long; that when a new coat of paint hit the outside walls, the weeds and trash started to disappear and new windows were installed and landscaping too so everyone noticed.  Keep in mind, that change in this town is slower than the advance of most glaciers.

We learned that a new business was about to open, Entriken Motors.  Keith Yutzey, who  lives in Indiana, PA,  planned to use the location to sell used cars and do some light welding also. This is not exactly front page news in most places; but things in Entriken have not changed much in the 30 years that I have been here............  so a new business is at the least noteworthy.  

I was told that Dot's garage was a business for years so I asked some of the local "historians" for the story.   I was thinking this would be an easy StoryTrax post - talk to several neighbors, get the details, take a few pictures, and a few hours later submit the story. 

It has been several weeks since I started this story, and I have modified my schedule.  When it comes to community heritage, every story is "plural."  

Dot's garage was not the town's first.

James Entrekin  for years, owned and operated a garage/gas station on a corner lot in the middle of town.  That information came from several sources and was easy to document.  In fact, a sorry looking, run-down shell of the small building still exists [you can see Dot's garage in the background.]  However it turns out that a blacksmith shop was there prior to the garage. Interesting huh?  I also learned that James Entrekin lived across the road from that blacksmith shop in a home he bought from Chester Reed.  Previous owners were James Grove, George Liveringhouse, and  William Liveringhouse who just happens to be my wife's maternal great-great-grandfather.  And if that is not enough to get you  smiling, William Entrekin had pictures of the shop and the house with my wife's great-great-grandparents standing on the road in front of the house. {By the way, my wife is the former Vickie Hess }

Blacksmith Shop is of course long gone, but  the home that still stands  is owned by Lake Raystown Resort and occupied during the summer by interns working at the Resort.

Charlie Johnson tells me that he was told that the blacksmith shop image left to right is Sam Donaldson, John Lynn and Rash Entriken - father of brothers Horatio and James. 

As I plowed along organizing the "garage story," shoeboxes full of old photos were coming out of the Entriken attics, and I have scanned dozens of images.  We even discovered a photo of my wife's Dad when he was about 8-years old.  Priceless. 

Little Charles Ross (Billy) Hess is front row, second from the left.  Charles Ross didn't like his names so he called himself Billy.

Young Billy Hess, on the left, joins Pete Atkins center, and Billy's father John W. (Jack) Hess far right, on a bench in front of  the James Entrekin Gas Station..........  One grade, one pump.

So James Entrekin built and operated a garage and brother Horatio (Rackey) Entrekin, Dots husband, years later built a garage/gas station next door.  [Their father - William Entrekin founded the town.]   At that time, the brothers became competitors.  Before that time they had a disagreement that kept them from enjoying each other's company or speaking for that matter.  However, I was told that after both brothers passed away, their wives became the best of friends. 

My desire to learn the garage's history and the new owner's story once again led to Charlie Johnson's house just up the street and included some "quality time" sitting on his living room couch asking questions and listening.  Then we took a walk through his back room/former store looking for documents and photographs.  He agreed to a video clip about the garage and you will find it at the end of the text.  He also let me borrow photographs  to scan and save.

I borrowed a photo of Entriken that clearly shows the two "gas stations."    The town has not changed much since then; only  the names, lives, and resulting stories are changed.  I plan to take a 2007 version of this photo for comparison purposes; but I need to wait until late fall or early winter and climb to the top of Backbone Ridge to replicate the correct view.  Right now the summer foliage blocks the view.  Here is the 1954 photo. [Thanks Charlie]  Click on the images to make them larger.

When visiting with Charlie to do research, we often travel down plenty of "rabbit trails," and I am always willing to change subjects and questions to match the memories flowing from Charlie's well stocked brain.  At 94, he has a lot of data to download. 

While rumaging through piles of priceless stuff, we came across an August 21, 1921, photo of the Huntingdon Broad Top Mountain Railroad tracks that went through Entriken.  Those photos took us to a tragic story of a man [sorry no name] killed at the crossing when a train struck his automobile.  [Charlie always calls them "automobiles" rather than cars].  Accident investigators took pictures of the crossing looking south and north.  When I saw the picture of Backbone road without any houses, that took us down another trail.  

Looking North   Looking South (person unknown)  

Today North       The blue spruce would be on the right side of the tracks.

The pile of timber along the tracks was transported by rail to a lumber yard and fashioned into mining props.  Charlie said everyone who owned wooded property cut prop timbers that were sold to the coal mining companies.  In the other photo you can see Charlie's home on the right side of the tracks and the Entriken Train Station on the left.    The pile of trash in the foreground, on the right hand side of the road, was placed there for Charles Saltsman.  He was the local junkman or in today's language - he operated a business recycling scap metal.

I recognized Backbone Road because of the topography.  Charlie pointed out where the Summers farm was located etc. I never thought I could visually travel back in time and see the landscape before the homes were even planned, let alone constructed.  When I pointed to a spot on the photo where Aunt Fern Ford's home [past] and the Moore home [present] is now, he told me how Uncle Bill Ford and Aunt Fern built their home with some timber they salvaged from the Entriken Train Station that was being razed in the closing days of the rail line operation.

As Charlie's mind unraveled the photo mysteries - the dates, names, and stories flowed too quickly for me to get it all.  And at times, he knew where a picture was taken, but not who was pictured.  I did get some with the names clearly printed on the back of the frame.  It included my wife's great uncles, Dan Hess and the often mentioned "Snip" Hess.  I am not sure about the nickname for Snip.  Perhaps he was a very particlular person.  He surely wasn't a barber.

Left to right - Elmer Shultz, Dan Hess, Blair Morningstar, Charles [Snip] Hess, and Ivan Cunningham.

This picture was taken in front of the store that later became Charlie Johnson's Store

The picture on the right was taken between 1910 -11.  The location is where Murdoch's log cabin sits today.  Front row left to right: Unknown Morningstar, Charles (Snip) Hess, Ruth (Hess) Ross, Samuel (Coot) Hess, Carl Hess, Ray Maloney, George (Legle) Morningstar, Elmer Krieger, Blair Morningstar.  Back row left to right: Ivan Cunningham, William Hess, Unknown, John Wolfe, (sitting in chair - ticket agent), Phillip Morningstar, Tom (Peck) Hurley, William (Coachie) Morningstar, Andy Russell, Unknown Morningstar, Unknown.

For those of you who know or remember the people pictured and discussed in the video, this story will probably have the greatest present value.  Take a look at the images below and help put a time, place and name to the faces if you can.

Keep in mind, every town has a "Charlie Johnson." I encourage you to find him or her in your town, and download their hard drive before their "computer crashes" and all those priceless files are lost forever.

Charlie Johnson Video: 

Photo notes: 

The town image from 1954 is stamped with the words, Aerial Survey - Henry DeWolf - Aerial Photographer - Rochester NY - February 3, 1954.   

The train track photos have the name, Gracey Todd McCatthey, August 10, 1921, written on the back.

Town Name:  Entriken was to be named after Entrekin Family; but a clerical error caused the spelling mistake.

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