One of Danville-Riverside’s heroes was Jacob Gearhart. Gearhart was born in 1735 in Strasburg, then a city in France but now a part of Germany. In 1754, he arrived in New York to find his place in the New World and settled in Hunterdon County, N.J. Between 1785 and 1795, he settled in Northumberland County, in what is now Riverside.

Gearhart was a true patriot. When the Revolutionary War broke out, he was one of the first men to volunteer his services to his adopted country, enlisting in 1775 as a private in the Hunterdon Volunteers. He was a brave and fearless man and soon was promoted to ensign and then captain in the 2nd New Jersey Regiment.

He was so revered by his superiors that he was picked by Gen. George Washington to be in charge of the crossing of the Delaware on the night of Dec. 25, 1776, when the Hessian Camp was attacked at Trenton. For 10 nights, Gearhart, along with several other officers, collected 25 boats of all sizes from the upper Delaware and Lehigh rivers to use in the crossing. It was not an easy task to find these boats, hidden away by their owners, then cut them out of the ice and keep them from being swamped in the rapids while taking them down the icy current to Malta Island, where they were hidden from the enemy.

British Gen. Charles Cornwallis was informed of this action, but Gearhart and his men did their job well, and the boats could not be found.

After the crossing, the boats were put in Capt. Gearhart’s charge. If the battle proved to be a failure, his men had orders to burn the boats. The battle, which lasted only 45 minutes, was a victory for the Colonial soldiers. In 1777, Jacob Gearhart served at Pittstown and at Millstone. He took part in the battle of the Brandywine and spent the winter of 1777-78 with Washington at Valley Forge. Jacob continued to serve his country until the close of the war, when he returned to his home in Kingwood Township, Hunterdon County.

At the end of the war, Capt. Gearhart, along with his brother, moved west to Pennsylvania, Northumberland County. Many families immigrated to this area, which became Rush and Gearhart townships. He settled in a fertile area, about a mile from the Susquehanna River. At the time, this area was dense with forest. The clearing began, and Gearhart built his family a small frame home surrounded by an orchard. This orchard was destroyed by a hail storm in 1846.

Jacob established the first ferry across the river to Danville, which led to a superb bridge being built across the river nearby. He also built the first public road, which lead from Sunbury to Gearhart’s Ferry. Among his many services for his new home, Capt. Gearhart served as a judge for the common pleas court in Northumberland County.

In about 1760, Jacob married Catherina Kline, of Sussex, N.J. They had a large family of 11 children. After a long and active life, Jacob died in 1813 at 78. His wife followed a few years later. Jacob and his wife were buried in the Old Presbyterian Cemetery in what is now Memorial Park, Bloom Street, Danville.

When the cemetery was closed and the bodies in it moved, no remains of the Gearharts could be found. In 1948, a Gearhart descendant purchased a plot in Mount Vernon Cemetery, Riverside, and placed a monument there in their memory.

n Lynn Reichen is president of the Montour County Historical Society. Membership is yearly with a fee of $15 per person, $25 for a family and $300 lifetime. Newsletters are sent out quarterly. Send membership dues to MCHS, P.O. Box 8, Danville, PA 17821. The Montgomery House is open from 2 to 4 p.m. Sundays and by appointment by calling 275-0383 or 275-7875. The Mooresburg Schoolhouse is open for the day the first Sunday in October and by appointment by calling 275-3690. “Once Upon A Time In ....” is a Monday feature provided by historical societies in Union, Montour, Northumberland and Snyder counties. The columns focus on people, places and objects of historical significance.