Lenker Station was a flag stop on the Lykens Valley Railroad. It was located between Elizabethville and Millersburg. The area around the station was heavily wooded and fires often broke out there. Here are some stories of a few of them as reported in the Elizabethville Echo:
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From the Elizabethville Echo, October 12, 1899, as reported in “Echoes of 35 Years Ago,” October 11, 1934:
Fire believed to have been of incendiary origin destroyed the house and barn on the farm of George W. Lenker near Lenker Station shortly before ten o’clock Sunday evening. The farm had not been occupied since the accidental drowning of the tenant, Harvey E. Lenker in the fish dam on the property a few months ago. The loss it is estimated may reach $3,000 about half of which is covered by insurance.
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From the Elizabethville Echo, Rife News, December 6, 1906:
There was a bad mountain fire on Saturday night between Woodside and Lenker Stations. The writer was on the train when it started the size of a man’s hat and owing to the high wind and many leaves on the ground it run over many acres in a short time.
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From the Elizabethville Echo, September 24, 1908:
On Wednesday evening a big fire was noticed in the vicinity of Lenker’s Station, and very soon fifteen fire fighters were on the way on a hand car. They were led by C. B. Koppenhaver and Edward Schriver. When they got there it was seen that five tramps had prepared to camp for the night. The hobos were led from their camp to the railroad track and told to move on as this was no time to start a fire in the woods. The boys were wishing for a trolley to bring them back to Elizabethville as the hand car got heavy coming up grade.
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From the Elizabethville Echo, May 26, 1910, as reported in “25 Years Ago,” May 23, 1938:
The home of Oliver Jury near Lenker’s Station was burned to the ground last Thursday. Members of the family were in the basement when they were attracted by cries of an infant child in a upstairs bedroom, responses to the child’s cries brought discovery of the fire which razed the structure. It is believed that sparks from the chimney set the roof afire. The blaze had gained such headway before discovery that all efforts to save it failed. The house was only recently rebuilt.
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From the Elizabethville Echo, Rife News, April 15, 1915:
On Saturday about noon a fire broke out near the sawmill of Daniel Ditty near Lenker Station which might have caused considerable damage had it not been for William Boyer and a Mr. Frye living close to the scene. But they discovered the flames just in time to avoid it, by a hard fight, to keep it out of thousands of feet of sawed lumber. Part of the sawmill was burned.
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News articles from Newspapers.com.
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