Santa Claus in Tioga County
- by Lou Bernard
- December 5, 2023
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There have been a lot of important people from the PA Wilds. Several governors grew up in this part of the state, for instance. And plenty of important people have visited the area. And in one notable year, this included Santa Claus.
And he visited a boy who would grow up to become the governor.
William A. Stone was born near Wellsboro, in Tioga County, on April 18, 1846. Growing up in the Pine Creek Valley and the PA Grand Canyon landscape, he was fired by President Chester Arthur at one point, but went on the become the governor of Pennsylvania, serving from 1899 to 1903. In 1918 he published his memoir, “The Tale of a Plain Man,” which was originally printed in a limited edition of five hundred copies, but sold out immediately. Stone responded by turning it over to a publishing company for a broader reprint, which went well.
The autobiography probably sold well because it does not read like a typical, dry biography. It has a lot of interesting and lighthearted points, and one of these is right in the first chapter, when Stone tells of seeing Santa Claus in Tioga County as a child.
Stone cites the Santa sighting as his earliest memory, which would have put it roughly around 1850. Stone’s father had lost his wife and remarried, giving Stone a half-sister and three half-brothers. All of them, by his account, were good to him as he grew up.
“My earliest recollection was being hustled out of bed early in the morning by my half-brothers to see Santa Claus as he galloped over the brow of the hill in his sleigh behind his reindeers in a scud of blinding, flying snow,” Stone wrote. “I thought I could see him and hear the bells on the reindeers. The others said they could see him and hear the bells jingling.”
Stone’s family clearly wanted to make that holiday a special Christmas for young William. So his brothers woke him up, claiming that they’d seen Santa Claus outside, and Stone had gone along with it, witnessing Santa himself, even though it was snowing and there wasn’t much visibility at the time. Anyone who has tried to drive in northern Pennsylvania in the winter will understand the visibility problem.
In the book, Stone admitted that he may have fallen victim to a certain suggestiveness on that morning.
“They pointed him out to me and I saw or was persuaded to see him,” he wrote. “Afterwards I had some doubt whether I did see him. We often see things through the influence and insistence of others that we cannot see when they are not with us.”
Photo: William Stone, courtesy of the Ross Public Library
It was, however, a good holiday by the standards of the Stone family, and he remembered it fondly as an adult.
Stone wrote that he remembered receiving a small amount that year, as the family was poor and couldn’t afford much. However, he was happy with his gifts, which were equal to what his siblings received. He wrote that he remembered getting two round bulls-eye candies, and some doughnuts that were supposed to be shaped like an animal—An elephant or a horse. After some consideration, he decided that they had to be horses, which were plentiful in Tioga County at the time, whereas Stone had never seen an actual elephant.
“That was as much as the others got, and it was enough,” he said. “We were happy and proud of Santa’s gifts as any children could be, and had no doubt of the existence of Santa Claus.”
