Vintage postcard: "Birds Eye view of Knoxville, Pa."

This very old postcard (1900-1910?) features a view of Knoxville, Pennsylvania, and its covered bridge.

Knoxville, incorporated in 1851, is a tiny borough that now boasts perhaps 600 residents. It is located in Tioga County, along the edge of northcentral Pennsylvania.

It has a nice public library housed within a century-old Queen Anne style residence.

An excellent early history of Knoxville can be found on this page at Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice.

Here are some historical tidbits from that page, to whet your appetite:

• "The first settler at 'Delight,' near the mouth of Troup's Creek-where Knoxville now is-was Simon Rixford. He had been a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and was afflicted with deafness caused by his close proximity to the artillery during battle. Few details of his service have been handed down. He enlisted at the age of 15 and served seven years."
• "Jonathan Matteson and Daniel Cummings built a log distillery in Knoxville in 1815. They brought the water from a spring on the north hill. They distilled whiskey from corn and rye. Stephen Colvin, a son-in-law of Jonathan Matteson, carried on the business for the proprietors. They continued the business until 1825."
• "A few extracts from the minutes of the proceedings of the board of [school] directors are given to illustrate the changes in the laws, wages of teachers, and text books, and the duties and difficulties these unpaid officers have to grapple with: ... January 11th 1855. -- On motion voted our present teacher be discharged for incompetency and general lack of government. ... March 16th 1861. -- On motion the following text books were adopted: Davies's arithmetics, Kenyon's grammar, Sanders's series of readers and speller, Colton and Fitch's geography, and Comstock's philosophy."

Read much more here.

On the reverse side of the postcard, which has not yet been used, the following is printed: "10046 J.F. Rugaber, Westfield Pa. Printed in Germany."

There is also this peacock logo...

"The PCK Series" stands for Paul C. Koeber Co.

According to the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City, the company was in business from 1900 to 1923 and was based in New York City and Kirchheim, Germany.

Metropolitan further states that Koeber "published national view-cards and illustrations in chromolithography and in black & white. Much of their color work has a dark heavy feel to it because of the many thick layers of ink they used. In their later years they published postcards using tinted halftones."