Beginnings [1]
In a museum at Allentown is preserved part of a buck's antlers imbedded in a section of an oak tree. This tree stood on the edge of a swamp near the site of the present town and marked the junction of a path from the forts and settlements and an old Indian trail to North Mountain. Some Indian had hung the antlers in a sapling as a mark for others on the trail, and as time passed the tree grew and covered over the last sign of the horns. In the early seventies a woodpecker reopened the wound in the tree and revealed the truth of what was then considered simply a tradition. From this buckhorn the name of the Buckhorn village now standing here received its name.
Two stores were opened in Buckhorn by Vaniah Rees and M.G. & W.H. Shoemaker during the first days of its founding. These stores were then operated by Charles H. Harris and Roy Pursel. The first public inn in Buckhorn was built by Vaniah Rees, the founder of the town, in 1820, and received the patronage of the stagecoaches running from Bloomsburg to Muncy. It was the first house in the town and stood opposite the famous buckhorn tree. Twelve years later Hugh Allen erected another hotel opposite, which was last run by J. Appleman. The site of Rees's inn was then occupied by the Pursel home, the largest building in the town.
Jacob Harris served as the first justice in Buckhorn, holding office for twenty-one years. His successor was N.P. Moore, the village blacksmith, who also served the public for many years.
The first resident physician in Buckhorn was Dr. Hugh W. McReynolds, who served the residents of the entire Hemlock Township from 1851 to 1876. His successors have been Drs. Stiles, Christian Lenker and J.R. Montgomery. Dr. Montgomery moved to Bloomsburg in 1904.
Street Names
Buckhorn Road • Firehall Road • Schoolhouse Road