Remembering Somerfield
Roberto M. Esquivel|Herald-Standard
Virginia Woods Clister stands on a portion of the National Road that was recently exposed due to receding water levels at Yough River Lake. As a child Clister lived in the town of Thomasdale, down the road from Somerfield, until the communities were bought up by the government to make way for a dam project.
Roberto M. Esquivel|Herald-Standard
Visitors walk across the single exposed arch of the triple arch bridge during a recent Sunday afternoon. The Great Crossing Bridge, built in 1818 to carry traffic along the National Road, recently emerged along with the ruins of the village of Somerfield due to receding water levels at Yough River Lake.
In this undated image the Great Crossings Bridge emerges as the lake waters recede. Photo courtesy of The Old Petersburg-Addison Historical Society.
In this undated image people gather at the shore of the Yough Lake. Photos courtesy of The Old Petersburg-Addison Historical Society
This undated image shows flooding at the town of Thomasdale. (Photo courtesy of The Old Petersburg-Addison Historical Society.)
Submitted photo
Submitted photo
This undated image of the Great Crossings Bridge at Somerfield. Also pictured is Henry Clay island to the right of the image. (Photo courtesy of The Old Petersburg-Addison Historical Society.)
The Youghiogheny River that flows under Route 40, through the vast valley between Markleysburg and Addison, is a popular water recreation destination in the southwestern part of the state.
Thousands of water-skiers and fishermen visit the waters every year. But hundreds of feet below the thriving surface lies the remains of a once quaint little town that more than 100 people called home.
When the water level recedes a substantial amount, as it has in recent months, the foundations and tree stumps of Somerfield, and the original Route 40 bridge, can be seen.
“After the terrible flood in Pittsburgh in 1936, the Army Corp of Engineers from Pittsburgh determined that a dam needed to be built along the Youghiogheny River,” said Joan Whetsell, president of the Addison Historical Society. In doing so, several towns, including Somerfield, were flooded. Roughly 142 people were forced to relocate from Somerfield alone.
Several small, neighboring river towns including Guard, Geis, Selpysport, Friendsville, Jockey Valley and Thomasdale were also flooded. All of the residents had to relocate, many of whom went to Markleysburg, Addison and Uniontown.
Virginia Woods Clister was one of them.
Nearly 73 years later, Clister, now 90, returned to the muddy banks of the Yough to once again walk down main street — the original Route 40 — and reminisce about the town in which she grew up.
“Somerfield was a very pretty town,” said Clister, who lived in the neighboring town of Thomasdale. “Mom and I would walk from Thomasdale to Addison to sell Avon and make a little extra money. Now I think, how did we do that?”
Like many men in that era, Clister’s father worked on road construction jobs, moving the family every year or so to wherever work could be found. Her family moved to Thomasdale in the mid 1930s.
“I lived here longer than any place I can remember,” she said.
Clister moved to Flat Rock Road in 1941, where she married the following year.
On a recent warm, fall day, Clister gingerly walked down the boat ramp to the forlorn foundations, remembering the charming town that she and her sisters spent much of their young lives in.
“Somerfield had these big oak trees. It was a beautiful little town with leaves on the sidewalk, and we would scatter them everywhere,” she said. “We would swim a lot in the summertime, and roller skate down the sidewalk. There was no movie theater; we made up our own games. And in the winter, we’d ice skate and sled ride.”
“It was a safe place. We didn’t have to be afraid,” she said as she remembered often hiking up into the woods with her sisters.
Somerfield’s story began in the last 1700s, though it wasn’t until 1816 that a tavern was built and the town — then dubbed Smythfield — was established by a man named Philip Smyth. When they applied for a post office in 1827, however, officials determined that Smythfield was too similar to present day Smithfield. At that point, town officials changed the town’s name to Somerfield after a local reverend, Whetsell said.
“The Great Crossings Bridge was built because the National Road needed to be finished for populations to move westward,” Whetsell said, referring to the triple arch stone bridge — the only one along the Pennsylvania portion of the National Road. “The bridge was 375 feet long, and is still beautiful when it becomes visible, even though it’s beginning to deteriorate.
The bridge was dedicated on July 4, 1818. President James Monroe was even present for the festivities, Whetsell said. According to an old newspaper clipping, officials considered tearing down the bridge, stone by stone, and rebuilding it in new locations, but the “high cost of such a plan may prevent its preservation.”
The town thrived, and faltered, through many eras of transportation, including the stagecoach and automobile eras. It was during the latter era that the town began to revive as cars made their way along the National Road.
“If they wouldn’t have built the dam, I wonder if it would have ever expanded, or stayed as it was. There was no work close by,” Clister said. “Some towns like this, they don’t go anywhere. I wonder what it would be like.”
When it was determined that Somerfield would be one of the towns impacted by the impending dam, an archaeological excavation was performed throughout the valley. Whetsell said the commission discovered evidence of Native American inhabitants from decades prior.
Through skeletons and pottery, they also determined that early man had inhabited the valley several thousands years before. Similar types of pottery and signs of daily living were discovered along the river clear to Pittsburgh, earning them the title of the Monongahela People.
In 1942, all of the residents in the river towns relocated and their homes were torn down. Those buried in the cemeteries had to be moved to ones in Markleysburg and Addison.
“I heard they were compensated, like eminent domain today,” Whetsell said. “They knew they had to go. What a difficult time it must have been.”
“There was protest, and the people were upset,” Whetsell said.
Many townsmen protested to Senator J.W. Endsley, who had lived on the east side of the bridge for 84 years with his wife. An old newspaper clipping states: “While most residents are resigned to the fact that their old homes must go, Mrs. Endsley remains a strenuous objector. ‘It will not be the death of me.'”
“What disturbed me more than anything, was that I claim it as my own, but all these people from Pittsburgh just took over. It made it rough for the people who lived here. It’s a recreational area now I guess,” Clister said. “It’s sad looking now.”
Officials estimated that the total cost of the dam, including land, easements and rights of way, was around $9 million.
“It’s sad, because a lot of older folks lived here,” Clister said. “It’s sad when I stand here and look around, and remember what it used to look like. There are so many memories of people who lived here, and how much they gave up so a dam could be built. (It’s a) shame it had to be, but they call this progress.”