This photo is a view of Penfield in 1912. According to information from the Dubois Historical Society, Penfield was settled by the Gould Hoyt family.
Gould’s mother, Catherine, was a Revolutionary War nurse who is buried in a nearby cemetery. She tended the troops in Lanesboro, Mass., during the war.
After the war, she married the Revolutionary War soldier Seth Hoyt and some years later, they moved to New Haven, Vt.
After her husband’s death, she came to Huston Township, where her children had settled at an early date.
Gould Hoyt was known for his excellent penmanship, so hence the name Penfield.
The John Dubois logging operations moved into the area in the decades after the Civil War. Dubois prospered there and became one of the early lumber barons of Clearfield County.
After the lumber boom, coal mining became the single dominant factor in the local resource extraction economy. Deep mines, scattered throughout the Benezette Valley, brought thousands of new workers and their families into the area.
Many came from southern Italy and Sicily, as well as other parts of Europe. Descendants of these families still live in the Clearfield and Elk County locale.
The photo shows company houses that were likely owned by mining operations and rented to miners. The photo shows double family houses of simple construction.
They were not well insulated and lacked basic facilities and conveniences that are taken for granted today.
Life in mining towns was often poor and tough. Families, though, were close and neighbors usually looked out for each other.
