TRIVIA

• In the 1890s, wells were located by a water finder or a well dowser; which was a wooden crotch cut from a cherry, plum or peach tree.

• After picking the ducks and geese, rub them with cornmeal to remove the down.

• Howetown Cemetery was established in 1843.

• The first steam mill in Wayne County was established by James M. Noble in 1854 on Maple Grove Road.

• To brighten silver, save the water in which potatoes have been boiled and use it for washing silver.

• Henry Drinker, in 1787, hired John Long of Stroudsburg to cut a wagon road from the North and South Turnpike to his property - now known as Gas Hollow Road.

• A piece of cotton in the palm of your gloves will absorb moisture from your hands and will prevent staining gloves.

• On February 2, 1889, pioneer Simon Bortree died at age 83.

• Wayne County Fish and Game Association organized in 1890.

• The oldest stone in the Zion Cemetery is marked 1846.

• A roller coaster was constructed in Lake Ariel in 1928 at a cost of $40,000.  Floyd Bortree operated an amusement park there from the 1920s until his death in 1946.

• An oyster supper was held January 14, 1889, at the Charles Waltz Post of the G.A.R., Sterling.

• "Stone picking" was a job every farmer had to look forward to in the Spring.

• C.A. Angel and S.N. Cross inspected the new stone arch bridge over the Butternut at J.D. Gilpin's on the 27th of October 1856 and pronounced it all correct.

• The township was formed on April 25, 1815, and was named Sterling.

• Zion Cemetery was established in 1846 and was used for members and others.

• The Zion Church was dedicated and consecrated by Bishop Potter on November 14, 1853.

• Wherever you see a stone wall, at one time that piece of land probably had been a farmer's field.

• To prevent a smoking lamp, soak the wick in strong vinegar and dry it well before you use it.  It will burn clear and bright.

• Moisten a rag with wood alcohol and rub over damage part to remove scorches or scratches from furniture.

• Sterling was named “the Irish settlement”, Nobleville and Nobletown.  Sterling was established in 1786 and separated from Salem on April 15, 1815.  The village was named after an American General, Lord Sterling.

• It’s believed that the oldest gravestone in Sterling is from 1823.  The first funeral in the Sterling Methodist Church was that of Oliver Bortree in 1884.

• In the late 1890s and early 1900s, people celebrated “Decoration Day,” which was a day the Civil War veterans dressed in their uniforms.

• At one time, Sterling had 3 churches and 6 schools.  Some of the churches included the Zion Episcopal, West Sterling Protestant and a Presbyterian Church.  The schools, which were one-room schoolhouses, included Nobletown, Zion, Jericho, Maple Grove, Lee town and West Sterling.

• The class of 1948 was the last class in the P.O.S. of A. building.  The P.O.S. of A. stood for the Patriotic Order Sons of America.  Alberta Rochfort’s parents were involved in this organization, which the members didn’t have to be a veteran to be involved.  It’s believed, that a relative had to have served in a war to be a member though.

• The Curtis family made maple syrup since the spring of 1933; they started with 50 sap buckets.  They cows got out one time and drunk the syrup.

• The Zion Church came down in 1928.

• Maple Grove, Jericho and Zion were three of the one-room schoolhouses in Sterling.

• The doors of the original United Methodist Church are in the Gilpin House on the Butternut Road.

• There was an annual trek of gypsies through Sterling.

• Phineas Howe was the first postmaster in Sterling and an innkeeper and surveyor.

• The bridge over the Butternut Creek washed out in 1942 and the 1955 floods and a temporary one was put in.