Father Pitt

Category: Scott Township

  • Along the Tom the Tinker Trail

    The Tom the Tinker Trail runs beside a gurgling stream through a narrow valley in the Kane Woods Nature Area. The trail is named for a fictional character in the Whiskey Rebellion: farmers who paid the whiskey tax would receive threatening notes signed “Tom the Tinker.”

    Yes, there is a manhole cover in the middle of this idyllic scene. A sewer line runs down the hill through the stream valley.

    All through the woods we can see evidence that there was once a little community tucked into this narrow valley. Above, a ruined foundation clings to the side of the gorge.

  • Waterfalls in the Autumn Woods

    Along the Tom the Tinker Trail in the Kane Woods Nature Area.

  • Abandoned Homesite in the Woods

    A long-abandoned homesite in the Kane Woods Nature Area in Scott Township. You can recognize it by the ornamental plantings now run wild—or, if not, the crumbling steps are a dead giveaway.

  • Early Fall in the Woods

    Leaves are starting to turn along the Liberty Trail, Kane Woods Nature Area, Scott Township.

    Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.

  • A Walk in the Woods

    A stroll through the dappled shade of the Kane Woods Nature Area, Scott Township.

    Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.

  • Waterfalls in the Kane Woods

    Not all the waterfalls were frozen. These were moving, and we present them with sound—just two minutes of water burbling through the winter forest.

  • Frozen Waterfalls

    Camera: Olympus E-20n.

    Melting and freezing produced these frozen waterfalls in the Kane Woods Nature Area, Scott Township.

    Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.

    Camera: Olympus E-20n.

  • Old St. Luke’s

    Father Pitt is especially fond of Old St. Luke’s, partly for its history (its congregation was at the center of the Whiskey Rebellion), but mostly for its situation in a picturesque country churchyard.

  • Woodville Plantation

    Under layers of later accretions is a Revolution-era house that belonged to the Neville family. When General Neville, an old Washington crony, was appointed collector of the Washington administration’s very unpopular whiskey tax in 1794, the Whiskey Rebellion broke out: rioters burned Bower Hill, General Neville’s home, and he fled for his life to this house, which belonged to his son.

    This was a southern gentleman’s house: the Nevilles were from Virginia, and settled here in Yohogania County when Virginia claimed this part of the world. They kept slaves in the 1700s; Pennsylvania abolished slavery in stages.

    The house has been lovingly restored and is now a museum open Sunday afternoons. Inside, among many treasures, is an original 1815 Clementi pianoforte, bought for the house in 2006.

  • Old St. Luke’s

    This colonial-era congregation in what is now Scott Township found itself at the center of the Whiskey Rebellion, which began when General John Neville, a church member and an old pal of President Washington’s, was appointed tax collector. The current stone building was put up in 1852, but the congregation was founded in 1765.