Public Opinion du lieu suivant : Chambersburg, Pennsylvania • 10

WW Chambersburg, Saturday, April 14, 1979 Page 10 Public Opinion Staff photos by Christopher Shatzer Historians believe this log cabin uncovered this week in Chambersburg is about 225 years old Workmen uncover two log cabins Rear of log building, possibly a 1770s tack house O'Brien found of 3rd -degree to where the two streams meet. Other clues that the cabins are more than 200 years old are the discovery of wooden pins and handmade iron spikes connecting the logs and a six-over-nine-pane split sash window, all very colonial, Beattie said. The owners plan to sandblast and completely restore the main laundry building for commercial use. A brick house adjoining the easternmost and historians think the older of the two cabins will be restored and rented. Beattie said the rest of the area will be landscaped and the entire project called Fort Chambers Investments, part of the revitaliza-tion of downtown The cabins are located near the confluence of the Falling Spring and Con-ococheague Creeks, site of Benjamin Chambers' fort.

But Murray Kauffman, a director of Franklin County Heritage and local history buff, said that the fort itself was located south of the spring, at the western end of the present Rosedale Parking Lot. However, he agrees with Heritage President Raymond Depuy that the fort may have crossed the stream so it would not have been without water. Could the cabins have been enclosed in Chambers homes of the Chambers family? No one is sure, everyone is speculating and historians are excited and anxious to find out. "We need for somebody to look at how the logs were finished to tell the exact period of the buildings," Depuy said. Beattie said that based on information he received from Mrs.

T.H. Krebs (Lucy) Benchoff, direct descendant of Benjamin Chambers who founded the town around 1730, the cabins probably date back to 1753 or 1754 and the westernmost one appears to have been used as a tack house. Chambers built grist, saw and grinding mills and built his fort at the waterfalls at the streams' confluence. Kauffman said that he and other members of the Kit-tochtinny Historical Society had suspected that the log structures were under the laundry buildings. The entire laundry complex lying between the two creeks was purchased last month by Beattie, his father Alex Beattie and Greg Schellhase from Mr.

and Mrs. J. William Stover, Chambersburg's mayor and his wife. The laundry building had been in the Stover family since 1925. "We knew it was log, but had never seen it," Stover said.

"This is really something. We're excited." He said that one of the cabins contains a double brick storage vault that the laundry used to store furs and woolens. Beattie said the owners plan to mark each timber and log as they dismantle the building and to reconstruct it possibly farther back on the property nearer board moved many expen- ditures to other categories in its tentative budget pres- ented Monday night. Jack Edward Spencer O'Brien was found guilty of third degree murder Friday in the strangulation death last summer of his 4-year-old neighbor, Moria Coleen Harper. A Franklin County jury deliberated more than three hours Friday before reaching its verdict.

The trial of O'Brien, a 17-year-old resident of Columbia in Lancaster County, was moved to Franklin County because of pre-trial publicity surrounding the By LORRIE BROOKS Staff Writer Nobody knows for sure if two log cabins uncovered along West King Street this week were part of Chambers Fort. But local historians agree that they are probably the. oldest buildings in Chambersburg. Workmen razing a building on the former Chambersburg Laundry complex discovered the cabins under layers of bricks, wood, paint and asbestos shingles. According to Benjamin Beattie, one of the owners of the land, several historians were notified of the find and the owners decided to save the structures and to be cautious with the demolition of adjoining portions of the building.

G-A GREENCASTLE The Greencastle-Antrim School District was cited for two items in a recent audit of the 1977-78 fiscal year by the state auditor general's office. The district was cited for internal control deficiencies on business matters and for a clerical error in determining pupil membership, the audit report said. The audit cited the district for making purchases without purchase orders, making inappropriate quick check payments and improper coding of expenditures. The district also made an error in determining pupil membership, which resulted in resident pupil member- district cited in audit guilty murder Moria Harper disappeared from her Columbia neighborhood last Aug. 30.

Her body was found in a cardboard box, wrapped in trash bags, behind the O'Brien residence Sept. 2 and O'Brien was charged the following day. No date was set by Eppinger for sentencing. Post-trial appeal motions were made by defense attorneys after the verdict was read. A third-degree murder verdict carries a possible 10-20 year sentence.

police thefts Police are also investigating a hit-and-run accident which occurred Thursday evening on Broad Street, about 350 feet south of North Street. Police said Janet S. White, Ocker Drive, Shippensburg, had parked her vehicle along the east curb of Broad Street, when it was struck by a full-sized vehicle, rust in color with a tan roof and operated by a white female. The unidentified vehicle continued traveling north on Broad Street, police said. Chambersburg investigate two school ship being overstated by 114 days at the elementary level and 502 days at the secondary level, while nonresident pupil membership was understated by 50 days, the report said.

The report said the auditors were unable to calculate the dollar effect of the errors, but said they will affect the aid ratio for the 1979-80 fiscal year. The district has adopted the state's recommended procedure to review the figures. Superintendent Richard Gingrich said. The district also has amended its business office procedures to comply with the recommendations of the auditors, Gingrich said. The district had been writing quick checks without board approval for refunds of excess earned income tax withholding, Gingrich said.

But the audit report refused to accept quick checks for this purpose. Gingrich said vendor checks which are prepared once a month will be used for the refunds. Quick checks are permitted only for contracts previously approved by the board, the audit report said. Gingrich said the coding of expenditures were wrong since the manual is not "as specific as it should be" on what category expenditures should fall under. The school Operation Wastepaper scheduled today OPERATION WASTEPAPER, the monthly collection of old newspapers and magazines sponsored by PUBLIC OPINION, will be held today from 8 a.m.

to 12 noon. Persons with newspaper or magazines to donate are asked to take them to the Chambersburg Waste Paper Co. plant on Loop Road off Rt. 11 south. Turn right off Rt.

11 at the warehouse. Proceeds from the collection are used for civic and charitable The Chambersburg Police Department is investigating two incidents of theft which occurred in the borough sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning. According to police, person or persons unknown forced open the door to a storage shed on the propertv of Harold Kennedy. 465 E. Washington and removed a craftsman circular saw and a Black.

Decker case in the Lancaster County area. In his instructions to the jury Friday, Franklin County President Judge George C. Eppinger said the jury could find O'Brien guilty of first- or third-degree murder, or voluntary manslaughter, or not guilty in connection with Moria Harper's death. He later called the jury back into the courtroom and said that involuntary manslaughter was another possible verdict. saber saw.

Also, person or persons unknown removed a quantity of scrap metal from the rear of F. Abbott and Sons. 780 S. Second police report. Items included a huge frame printing press, rollers, a printing bed measuring two feet by two feet, and several buckets of bolts, police said.

Anyone with information on these incidents is asked to call police at 264-4131. those considered. The task force will study the implementation of a 911 emergency telephone number in the county, which will allow persons to dial a three-digit telephone number to request emergency police, fire or ambulance service. Commissioners were told earlier this year by members of the Pennsylvania State Police 911 Development Division to appoint a task force to study the implementation of the system locally. The county task force must submit a report to the 911 Development Division on the county's plans for such a system, and the 911 Development Division is expected to include the county's report in its report to the state legislature in October.

91 1 task force to be named The report also said the district had satisfactorily complied with citings from previous years. Slatt ohoto bv Lome Friends honor local doctor and help hospital as well Franklin County Commissioners say they will appoint a task force on Tuesday, April 17, to study the implementation of the 911 emergency telephone system in the county. Commissioners said Thursday that they expect the task force to be an 11-member group consisting of representatives of area emergency organizations. They declined to say say who would be appointed. Commissioners already have appointed Franklin County Planning Director Phil Tarquino to head the task but no members have been appointed, they said.

The names of three members of the Franklin County Fire Chiefs Association who were suggested to serve on the task force will be among By LORRIE BROOKS Staff Writer Dr. John W. Sowers said he just did a job, same as everybody else, and that he wants to leave this world the way he came in without making a fuss. But since March 28 his friends have donated $4,145 in his name to The Chambersburg Hospital's building fund campaign. According to Ruby Ausherman, R.R.

5, chairman of the Dr. Sowers Fund campaign, the fund was originated by Alvin Brechbill, R.R. 5, to show appreciation to the doctor for his years of dedicated service to the community. More than 3,500 letters explaining the memorial tribute to Dr. Sowers were mailed to Fayetteville residents and some of his other patients.

Ausherman said. She said the project committee hopes to receive many more donations in the seven remaining weeks of the campaign. Dr. Sowers practiced medicine in the Fayetteville area for 40 years, rearing in 1976 because of health problems. He was notified of the fund in his name on Tuesday and said he was very surprised and appreciative.

"But I don't think I did any more than anyone else did. A doctor is a part of the general population. We have a job to do and we do it, but it's not an easy one," he said. He said that the people in this community have been wonderful to him and stressed that more doctors are needed in this area. Ausherman said that Dr.

Sowers will be asked to select the new hospital department where the funds should be applied. Dr. Sowers said he spends his retirement "keeping busy," partially by taking care of his small backyard apple and peach tree orchard. "And I'm the maintenance man at 300 Terrace Drive," he joked. Dr.

John Sowers and his poodle "Hank".