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On my daily visit to East End Coffee Shop in Lewistown this morning I was checking out the "Postcards from Home" art display located there until Sept. 14. One original painting, created by the incredible, local artist, Jennifer Hartzler, caught my attention.
To someone not familiar with local history, it just appeared to depict a vintage Fisher Price wooden train set with the words "Dang It" spelled out in lettered wooden blocks across the top of the train. Outside of the train was an angry looking Fisher Price figure surrounded by pennies. But, to those who know the backstory, this painting speaks volumes.
The year was 1909, the date Aug. 31, 1:47 a.m., when a train, The Old Number 39 of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was traveling west in the darkness passing through the Lewistown Narrows near Hawstone, close to the Mifflin and Juniata County line. This train was well known for the valuable cargo it habitually transported. To the crew it must have seemed like any other night, until the stillness was interrupted by a loud explosion.
The engineer, Sam Donnelly, thought at first that the engine must have malfunctioned and stopped the train to inspect. He quickly discovered that the explosion was caused by dynamite that had been placed on the track. It blew off the cowcatcher located at the front of the train, as well as the train's headlight.
The railroad men quickly discovered the source of the explosion, a lone man who appeared out of the darkness, wearing a burlap sack over his head with the eye holes cut out. I stop here in the story to imagine just how uncomfortable that must have been inside a burlap sack in the end of August and just how itchy! But I digress.
They quickly noted that he held a revolver in each hand and meant business. He ordered the men to fill burlap bags (he certainly liked his burlap) with money. When he felt they were taking too long to do so, he shot warning shots at them, one of which struck the conductor, Isaac Poffenberger, (yes that was his real name) in the hand.
I would also like to mention that it was highly unusual for a train robber to be working alone -- they historically attacked in gangs.
After many bags were filled, he ordered the railroad men to carry the bags up the mountain. After several trips, he allowed them to go and disappeared into the darkness. The train continued on to Lewistown where the robbery was reported to the authorities.
One can only imagine the disappointment when the robber opened the bags to discover that they were not filled with the $10 gold pieces as he had hoped, but instead newly minted, first-ever Lincoln pennies (thus the "Dang It" in the painting). He left his underwhelming loot scattered about in the woods and escaped, never to be apprehended. Some believe it was a local troublemaker, James Lawler, that had been seen in the area a few days before the robbery and disappeared after, but that claim was never substantiated.
In the late 1950s, three hunters found almost 4,000 of the 1909 pennies in the woods near the robbery site supposedly inside a rotting tree stump. It is believed that there are still thousands of pennies still in those woods yet to be discovered, most likely swallowed up by the earth's natural progression.
Legend has it that the disappointed robber died in the mountains just west of Lewistown without ever returning to reclaim the rest of his loot. Legend also claims that a black figure, believed to be him, can still be spotted roaming the mountain side in death still searching for his missing haul.
This colorful page in our proverbial book of local history is quite noteworthy since it was the last train holdup of its kind in Pennsylvania. Just one more thing that makes our Juniata River Valley unique.
To see more of our local history on display, be sure to stop by the art exhibit I illuded to earlier in this article at the East End Coffee Shop in Lewistown on display until Sept. 14.
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Rhonda S. Kelley is Executive Director of the Juniata River Valley Chamber of Commerce.