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Youngwomanstown, North Point, North Bend - named in that order, the community about 25 miles northwest of Lock Haven began as a pioneer settlement more than 200 years ago, having been the site of a American Indian village for an unknown number of years before that.

Regarding its first name, sources tend to agree on two issues: one, that the area's native Americans bestowed the name "Youngwomanstown" (in their language, "Chinis-quay-ka-non") upon the land on the west bank of the stream that they relatedly called "Young Woman's Creek," near where it empties into the West Branch of the Susquehanna River; and, two, that the creek and land were so-named after the discovery of a young woman's dead body floating in the waters near where the creek enters the river.

A number of differing tales exist about the unfortunate woman. One has it that a beautiful, young Indian maiden simply was attempting to cross the stream on a float but was tragically "swept away to the Spirit Land."

A more involved and romantic version of this legend appeared in an 1875 article in the Renovo Record newspaper, the story written by A.J. Quigley, Esquire, "an old and prominent citizen of Young Womanstown." His story related that the young maiden had fallen in love with "a young chief of another tribe," but that her father refused to allow the match. In desperation, "she deliberately cast herself into the turbid current near the mouth of the stream and was never more heard of."

More censorious of the American Indians is the tale that the location was where they killed a young white woman prisoner "who could walk no further." They paid a price because "ever after this murder, if Indians encamped there at night, her ghost would appear gliding over the surface of the stream, and about the camp, and that they were sure to be fired upon by unseen faces if they remained a second night."

Yet another condemnatory version has it that "the Indians scalped and then murdered a young woman there and then threw her body into the creek, hoping it would float off into the river and their act would thus be concealed."

Finally, maybe the light and cheery suggestion of one H.L. Diefenbach, Esquire, editor of the Bloomsburg Columbian, approaches the truth. He wrote that the area "was once a great rallying-point for Indians from all points, and perhaps the Indian belles gathered there in large numbers to charm and entrap the young hunters and warriors whose paths led that way, and hence that name."

Historians agree that the earliest known white settler was William Reed, who, sometime prior to June 1779, built a log cabin and cleared a few acres at the mouth of Young Woman's Creek. Whether or not he had a title is debated, but apparently Reed soon sold his "improvements" of the land to a man named Campbell (sources differ as to whether his first name was Samuel or William). Then on June 2, 1779, (according to Clinton County historian J. Milton Furey), Campbell conveyed the property to Thomas Robinson.

Furey wrote that the Youngwomanstown area then was deserted by Robinson and the few other nearby white settlers "on account of the troubles with the Indians all along the West Branch" (at least partly due to the incitement of the British during the Revolutionary War). After the Fort Stanwix treaty in October, 1784, which granted the remaining lands within the borders of Pennsylvania to the United States, Robinson and others returned.

Robinson obtained a pre-emption warrant in October, 1785, for just under 308 acres of land adjacent to the mouth of Young Woman's Creek, and "adjoining John Fleming's improvement." Robinson then sold the entire property to Andrew Epple of Philadelphia on Jan. 10, 1787. Epple's ownership further was solidified by his obtaining of a commonwealth patent, with the signature of Benjamin Franklin (president of the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) on it.

Epple leased his Youngwomanstown farm to William Bennett from about 1790 until 1800. By 1798 Bennett was cultivating from 30 to 40 acres of wheat and rye. He also built a large log house with an enormous stone chimney near the mouth of the creek.

Ownership of the Youngwomanstown tract passed to Andrew Epple Jr. in 1799, to Joseph Reed in 1802 and to John Philip De Haas in 1805, about the year the small community boasted its first inn.

In 1810, De Haas conveyed the land to John Quigley. Born in York in 1772, Quigley was remembered for poling a canoe "all the way up the river from Northumberland in the year 1812," bringing along "100 young apple trees" and then planting them at the Youngwomanstown settlement.

The village prospered, with the erection in 1827 of a building at the mouth of Young Woman's Creek that served both as school house and church. Rev. Daniel M. Barber, "one of the most prominent and eloquent ministers of the Presbyterian church for over half a century in the West Branch Valley," was placed in charge.

About 1830, John Quigley was appointed postmaster. In about 1831 his son, Michael Quigley, Esquire, born at Youngwomanstown in 1807, built a water-powered saw mill. That same year he was appointed a justice of the peace by Gov. George Wolf, Pennsylvania's seventh governor who served from 1829-35, a position Quigley continuously held through re-elections "until the day of his death, on Feb. 16, 1888."

Michael Quigley's important role in the development of the community continued in yet another direction in 1844, when he started the first general store in Youngwomanstown. By 1851, the village consisted of his store, a hotel, a blacksmith shop and the small combination church-school house, along with a small number of farm houses and log cabins.

In 1854, R.K. Hawley and Co. constructed a large, water-powered gang saw-mill (a very efficient arrangement of parallel blades in a single frame) on Young Woman's Creek about one-fourth of a mile from its mouth. John H. Haynes superintended its operation until 1865. Its yearly cut was about three million board feet.

In 1859, a new Presbyterian church was built, under the supervision of H.M. Webster. Sometime later, the area's Presbyterian and Methodist denominations both held services there on alternate Sundays. Today, it is the North Bend United Methodist Church.

The Philadelphia and Erie Railroad first opened through Youngwomanstown in 1863. At the suggestion of residents A.J. Quigley and W.T. Lesher, the company adopted the name of "North Point" for its station, as the site was the most northerly point on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.

Until 1879, the post office retained the name "Youngwomanstown" because there was another town in the state called North Point. In that year both the post office and the village-railroad station adopted the name "North Bend," which remains today.

A large steam-powered saw mill was built in 1872 by Mensch and Lowenstein of Wilkes-Barre, about a mile up Young Woman's Creek from its mouth. To provide wood for this mill with its capacity to produce six million board feet a year, a four-to-five-mile-long narrow gauge railroad was laid to a 6,600-acre tract of timber land.

By 1875, North Point consisted of about 40 families. Some "fine residences" had been built not long before that, including those of Michael Quigley, Esquire, A.J. Quigley, J.H. Bailey, J.W. Crawford and Capt. Robert Bridgens, Esquire (born in 1796, a "most respected and honored official and citizen," known both as the man who "ran the first steamboat that ever plied upon the waters of the West Branch" and one of three commissioners "chosen at the first election after the organization of Clinton County" in 1839).

By 1875, a shoe shop, blacksmith shop, three stores and one "good" hotel existed. The stores were kept by H.H. Lowell, Warren Summerson and H. Lowenstein. The hotel, built in 1872, was owned by Mrs. T.J. Black and leased to H C. Stoner; it was later known as the Thompson House, and it still stands today as a private dwelling.

Also serving the community in 1875 were a passenger and freight depot, telegraph office, post office, a building where Chapman Township (organized before Clinton County's formation) elections were held and two "good schools" that were "in operation eight months in the year." Apparently the teachers were doing a very good job, as Clinton County historian D.S. Maynard wrote, "The inhabitants show evidences of intelligence beyond that possessed by the people of many country places."

North Bend continued to grow, and by the early 1890s the community consisted of "some 500 souls," according to Furey. Lumbering continued to be the major occupation, along with work at the large Gleasonton Tannery started by L.R. Gleason and Sons in 1881 by Young Woman's Creek about a mile north of North Bend, putting out about 30 tons of leather monthly by 1889.

A large amount of local freight traffic was handled by the station at North Bend. According to Furey, "Its gentlemanly and efficient agent and operator, Mr. H.G. Haynes, has been in charge of the depot here for over 24 years."

Throw in its two small saw mills, two shingle mills, two hotels, two blacksmith shops, two shoemaker's shops, two school houses, three general stores, one large gang sawmill (erected at Gleasonton in 1892, employing 60 to 80 men to cut 60,000 to 120,000 board feet daily, and becoming the largest lumber producer in Clinton County by about 1897), one wagonmaker's and general repair shop, one church (it became the North Bend Methodist Church in 1895), and contemplated furniture factory and large planing-mill, and you have a North Bend community poised for a bright future in the coming century.

SOURCES: (1) "Clinton County: A Journey Through Time," 1989 Clinton County Sesquicentennial book, editors Susan Hannegan and Jean May; (2) J. Milton Furey's 1892 "Past and Present of Clinton County"; (3) John Blair Linn's 1883 "History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania"; and (4) D. S. Maynard's 1875 "Historical View of Clinton County, Pennsylvania"