Map is from the 1875 Tioga County Atlas
How Elk Run became Bungy
Legend has it that the name Bungy came about when "old" Arch Robbins" (Then
Young Arch Robbins and now long deceased) used to hang out at the store in Elk
Run with his friends. His family, not quite approving, said, "Why do you want to
hang out at that old bung hole?" and that became the name Bungy.
My own theory, which probably is not worth two hoots, but it is an
interesting coincidence, is this. The Smiths (one of the four major and
previously unrelated Smith lines of Sullivan) and Woods, and several other name
lines came from Ridgefield Connecticut in the 1820s. During the Revolutionary
War, in the Battle of Ridgefield, barrels of flour at the mill in Ridgefield
exploded from the heat and made a terrible noise. It was thereafter called
Bungtown and that name is very similar to Bungy. |
How Chandlersburg Became Elk Run
Elk Run took its name from this little creek that runs through it. The
earliest known name of the area was Chandlersburg for the Chandler family that
settled here early, and some of whose descendants (though none of the name
Chandler) still live here.The Chandlers are all in the cemetery behind the
school, though some of their tombstones were lost when they were used as base
markers for softball games in my father's era - the 1920s-30s. When the post
office was established here, it was given the name Elk Run and that is how the
name was changed, although in the nineteenth century, either name might be used.
Early in the twentieth century, the name Bungy was applied as the result of a
joke and it has come into common use and has gradually displaced the Elk Run
name which was more common until twenty or thirty years ago. To my horror, the
Zip code directory defines the area as Bungy rather than Elk Run.
This photo was taken by Joyce M.Tice in June 1998 from the bridge in Elk Run
looking north. I used to play in this stream when I was a child, as did
countless others, and this is where my father threw his arithmetic book in the
water when his older brother and his friend bet he didn't dare while they were
on the way home from school one day. He sure showed them - but suffered
consequences when his father found out. On the map, this location is right where
the stream crosses the road in the center of the school district where so many
buildings were once clustered.
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