We now have a local history museum in Mansfield representing the area in and near Mansfield including Richmond, Sullivan, Rutland, Covington, Tioga and more
Visit the History Center on Main Street at 83 North Main Street where our library resources are housed. We also have a museum location at 61 North Main Street.
Regular hours are noon to 3 T, W Th or by appointment. Extended Summer Hours
Also visit us on Facebook -- Museum established 2012 - Memberships available, Donations welcome

If you have ancestors in our area, the History Center would like to meet you and show you what we know about your family and learn what you know that we don't. Mansfield area people are the core of what we value. Our genealogy database of nearly 100,000 individuals with local connections may include your ancestors. We also have filing cabinets full of resources and a thorough knowledge of our past residents, schools, and businesses. It's worth a visit.

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Bradford County PA
Chemung County NY
Tioga County PA
Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice
Diaries & Letters of Tri-Counties
1903
Burt Strange, Gravedigger, of Sylvania and Sullivan Township

 
1901 1902 1903 1904 1905
Diary of Burt Strange
Township: Sylvania, Columbia Township, Bradford County PA
Year: 1903
Transcribed (Extracts only) by Fay TILLER Morgan
Introduced and Annotated by Joyce M Tice 
from her Sullivan-Rutland Genealogy Project
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Photo from I.O.O.F. Collection submitted by Fay TILLER Morgan
Joyce's Search Tip - December 2010
Do You Know that you can search just the 355 pages of our
Diaries and Letters on this site  by using the Diaries button in the Partitioned search engine at the bottom of the Current What's New Page? But diaries and letters are wonderful sources to understand the culture of time and place. Read them and enjoy them slowly.
Excerpts from Burt Strange diary Sylvania Pa - Burt Strange was born in Sullivan Township, Tioga County PA 1866, son of Laura Mosher and Ezekial Strange. He married Sophia Stock and they lived in Sylvania, Columbia Township, Bradford County PA. He died 1940 and is buried in the Gray Valley Cemetery in Sullivan Township. During his working life he was a gravedigger employed by the funeral buisiness of Waldo and Soper in Sylvania. Later this became Soper and Mosher. Because of his business, Bert's diaries are particularly valuable. They record more deaths and burials than most. Bert tells us who he buried but rarely the cemetery. However, we know a lot of that from other records. Since many of the "customers" were from the adjacent Sullivan and Columbia townships  we have information about many of them in my Sullivan-Rutland Genealolgy Project. I have annotated the diary entries with some of that information. Fay has extracted birth, death, marriage, and burial information form diaries that she once had available. We do not have the originals, nor do we have access to them at this time.
1903    
Events
 Commentary by Joyce M. Tice - Incomplete
 SRGP ID
1903 Feb 1 I and Rex Soper buried Ed Ruggles' girl  
1903 March 6 went to L Gray's funeral  
1903 Mach 8 I and Rex Soper buried Lynn Card baby  
1903 March 11 I and Rex Soper buried E Ninegar child  
1903 March 17 went to Albert Lee's wife's funeral  
1903 April 14 I and Rex Soper buried Walter Bailey baby to Roseville  
1903 April 17 went to Mrs Nelson's funeral  
1903 April 25 I and Rex Soper buried Nick Gee's boy to Gilletts  
1903 April  27 I and Rex Soper buried Burt Burgess' Mother  
1903 May 23 I and C E Waldo went to Troy for C N Mosher's wife. Ma and Soaf went funeral  
1903 June 1 went Aunt Sarah Strange funeral  
1903 July 1 I and C E Waldo went to Albert Lee's to bury his girl  
1903 Aug  8 I and C E Waldo buried Linas Smith  
1903 Aug 20 went Mrs Wilbur funeral  
1903 Aug 21 went to Mary Scouten funeral  
1903 Aug 26 I and C E Waldo buried Deke Smith Matthew R. Smith of Sullivan Township, my great great grandfather - Wood Cemetery
1903 Sept 10 Albert O Smith's barn burned  
1903 Sept 18 Soaf had her third boy at two oclock PM  
1903 Oct 12 went to Troy with hearse for Mr Beeman  
1903 Oct 14 went to Nancy Dewey's funeral  
1903 Oct  15 I and Rex Soper buried Gus Embra child  
1903 Oct 18 I and Rex Soper buried John Gafford  
1903 Oct 31 went D York child funeral  
         
1903    
Deaths
  
1903 Jan 14 John Stock died  
1903 Jaan  31 Ed Ruggles child  
1903 March  4 Mr Layfette Gray died  
1903 March 5 Lyn Carl baby died  
1903 March 14 Mrs Albert Lee   
1903 March 14 and Charley Beardsley  
1903 April 15 Mrs Nelson died  
1903 April  25 Mrs Burgess died  
1903 May  21 Mrs C N Mosher died  
1903 May  29 Sarah Strange died  
1903 June  29 Frances Lee died  
1903 Aug 1 Miss Manda Updyke died  
1903 Aug  18 Mrs Steven Wilbur died  
1903 Aug  19 Mrs Mat Scouten died  
1903 Aug  24 Deke Smith died  
1903 Oct  11 Mrs Lyman Dewey died  
1903 Oct  27 Jesse Williams died  
1903 Oct  29 David York second girl died  
         
1903    
Births
  
1903 April  21(?) a boy to Mrs Carl Slingerland  
1903 Oct 12 a boy to Mrs Purley Ludington  
1903 Oct 4 a boy to Mrs Frank Hagre  
1903 Sept  27 a girl to Mrs Roy Smith  
1903 Dec  8 a boy to Richard Simmons  
1903 Sept  18 Frank Strange  
         
1903    
Married
  
1903 Aug 20 Rex Soper and Alice Waldo  
         
1903 Mar 5 my sow due  

The History Center on Main Street, 83 N. Main Street, Mansfield PA 16933   histcent83@gmail.com
Published On Tri-Counties Site On 5/24/2002
By Joyce M. Tice
Email: JoyceTice@aol.com