Blair County was established in 1846 and shortly thereafter, speculators took an interest in the uninhabited lands in this central part of the state. Building lots were offered for purchase at the lower end of the Bald Eagle Valley at the beginning of the 1850s. Two brothers both born in England were the first afforded to choose prime acreage in this undeveloped corner of the county. One of these brothers would not only be considered a founder of the Borough of Tyrone, but would also go on to lay the groundwork for Penn State University and be its first superintendent.
Tyrone’s Original Proprietor
It was a hectic Saturday afternoon in the 1880s when a gentleman entered a grocery store in downtown Tyrone carrying bushel baskets of brilliant red apples. The store had placed a blurb in Friday’s Tyrone Daily Herald that a special delivery of Sinking Valley produce would be on hand that weekend and it seemed everybody in town had seen the ad. The gentleman approached the counter and offered the apples to the shopkeeper and told him to credit his account.
The storeroom echoed with the cacophony of a dozen different accents as the shoppers waited for attention. However, the words from the mouth of the man toting the apples sounded differently — one might say, almost poetic. His very presence captured everyone’s attention. The shirt was starched, the cut of his coat was sharp, and his handmade necktie was of beautiful silk. Yet, perched on his head was a straw hat from another age that had seen better days before most of those present were even born.
Who was the man with the apples? Many knew that he had been a Tyrone school board member. Some recalled seeing him on Belmont Ridge near the cemetery tending fruit trees. Others knew him as the man perched on a rocker at a big bow window in his West Tyrone house looking out at a large town that did not even exist when he and his brother, Robert, first came here in the autumn of 1850. And, if one were to talk to this man, William Griffith Waring, some wisdom may be shared; but, his life would remain a mystery. He was not one to go on about his own accomplishments.
From Hereford to Phillipsburg
The years before Mr. Waring arrived in Tyrone were very productive. An uncle already in America is perhaps the person who encouraged William G. Waring to journey across the ocean from his birthplace, County Hereford, England.
The sixteen-year-old suffered a perilous voyage as the ship foundered outside of the Gulf Stream. Half starved and weary, the young Waring considered this one of life’s tribulations and continued his journey inland to Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania, arriving in 1832. In this mountain location the Phillips family had established a factory that manufactured screws. They wanted the employees, primarily boys of school age, to be educated so William Waring spent his evenings teaching classes to the young laborers.
Word traveled about this inspiring and enthusiastic young educator. Soon, positions were made available at the Bellefonte and Boalsburg Academies, as well as other schools in the vicinity. He rose to become principal of the Bellefonte Academy and it was at this time he was credited with initiating the first teachers’ institutes in Pennsylvania. At his encouraging, beginning in 1846, teachers from various schools met at a central location for an annual session where instructors compared methods and experiences. The school system of Pennsylvania adopted this practice in the 1850s as a requirement of its administration. William G. Waring is also credited with being influential in the creation of the position of county superintendent.
Polymath
In addition to the pursuit of education, Mr. Waring had an innate sense of perception. Although not formally trained in the profession, he was sought after as a surveyor and was generally the only one available in the Centre region of Pennsylvania. In his spare time, he studied horticulture, entertained visitors of various backgrounds (William G. Waring was proficient in four languages and knew the Welsh dialect, as well), and played the flute. His passion was farming and cultivating what the good earth could provide.
Additionally, he also was the American representative of Sir Isaac Pittman, the founder of the system of shorthand writing. They were classmates in England, and William G. Waring vowed to promote this word method in the states. Consequently, Waring tutored his own son, W. George Waring (born in 1847 in Boalsburg) in shorthand writing and the two improved the Pitman system, thus forming the Waring School of Shorthand.
William G. Waring considered himself to be a “culturist.” This is a word he coined. Although his main achievement in life was the establishment of the Farmer’s High School (the original name of Pennsylvania State University), he felt profound satisfaction in having introduced the world to The Fruit Grower’s Handbook. Published in 1851 this 135-page book has been celebrated over the years as a horticulturist’s treasure trove. The book was practical and useful; yet, wonderfully illustrated and enriched with maxims and homilies about cultivating and appreciating all aspects of horticulture.
Mr. Waring’s handbook was important in local history for several reasons. It is perhaps the first book published out of Centre County. Waring, being the first head of what became Pennsylvania State University, ultimately found that when a textbook was needed for classes he would teach, he had already written it. In fact, thousands of copies of The Fruit Grower’s Handbook were in use in schools all over the country. And it should be noted that one of the first business ventures in Tyrone, Centre Nurseries, has an advertisement in this book. In the scientific community today, botanists credit his book for preserving information about many species that only survive in plant museums.
The Farmer’s High School
Educators and politicians had sought William Waring as a proponent of a farmer’s high school that might be located in the fertile and isolated Nittany Valley of Centre County. The spot chosen was at the very geographic center of the state. Waring was instrumental in agitating this project through any opposition and five local farmers donated land for the purpose of a campus. In 1857, a house was built on this campus named Oak Cottage, and it was here that Mr. Waring supervised the construction of Old Main and drew plans for laying out the school’s grounds.
The enterprise of establishing the school was a success; however, for W. G. Waring, it was a project he abandoned following personal tragedy. First a young son died in Oak Cottage, then another soon afterwards at their home near Boalsburg. When his grief-stricken wife of fifteen years, D. Melinda Coble Waring, fell ill and died, Mr. Waring bid the administrators and the Nittany Valley goodbye. He submitted his resignation in 1861 and returned to his orchards in Tyrone.
Tyrone Years
W. G. Waring began a new life in Tyrone. Not yet fifty years of age, he pursued his passion of writing and spent long days tending to his fruit trees. His business was brisk and tree shipments left Tyrone daily. The trees on the ridge were enjoyed by the community, as folks climbed Ninth Street hill on the way to the cemetery. Both the Caldwell and Cass mansion properties on South Lincoln Avenue had Waring’s trees as part of their landscaping.
In 1867, Waring left his trees to the care of his brother and sons while he toured Europe for two years. On his return, he became a regular contributor to the New York Tribune, of which he was also a stockholder. His weekly agricultural column detailed his amateur experiments in fruit and plant culture. Such articles appeared occasionally in various periodicals, including Country Gentleman magazine.
Approaching his 90th birthday, William Griffith Waring died in Tyrone on May 18, 1906, after breaking a hip. He was still tending his plants at the time of his fall and was otherwise enjoying great health.
The Waring Tract
One year after his death, his will was probated and it became evident how much of Tyrone the Waring family owned. Most of the land west of Tenth Street to Eighth Street and beyond had been part of an original purchase from the Lyon Shorb Company, the iron concern owning much of the valley. The Waring tract was outside of the original village and remained a part of Snyder Township until Tyrone started expanding slowly to the southwest. William Griffith and his brother Robert possessed the land from the Juniata through the meadows and as far into the hills as could be seen. Robert and his family supervised the cemetery that began on the hillside in the 1850s.
Mr. Waring’s will mentioned there were 23 heirs and the document specified that the land on the river side of Washington Avenue would be divided into building plots. This insured that Park Avenue would be developed across the meadow.
The first house was built by William Griffith Waring himself about 1851 near the Big Spring. There were about eight homes constructed for family members over three generations in this part of town.
The Sons
His son Edmund married into the Beyer family of East Tyrone and became an agent for the extremely profitable lumber industry that existed here in the late 1800s. W. George Waring continued his studies of language, and became an educator. He wrote various textbooks on advanced language usage, which were published at the Herald Press and marketed from Tyrone, Pennsylvania in the late 1870s. He published a subscription magazine, Phonetics, which also originated in Tyrone. W. George switched careers later in life and was widely known as a chemist, a mining engineer, and an expert in metals, spending some of his time in New Mexico.
The youngest son, Frank R. Waring, was an architect and a proponent of social improvement. He supervised the construction of many homes in Tyrone during the growth years of the 1880s through the 1920s.
The Famous Grandchildren
Among William Griffith’s grandchildren, Frank Malcolm Waring stands out as a stellar businessman. In 1890, at age sixteen, he became a bank clerk. He advanced to cashier and became adept at business and finance. In 1902, when he was twenty-seven years old, he resigned his position and found enough confidence in local merchants that he was able to form Tyrone’s third national bank, the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Tyrone. Along with his wife, Jesse Calderwood Waring, the couple entertained at parties and events as a singing duet. Malcolm and Jesse raised a raucous household of five children, two of whom would leave Tyrone and make the Waring name world famous.
Young Tom Waring was a pianist and composer; Tom also sang. A Tyrone dance band he formed with two close friends around 1918 needed an assistant. Older brother Fred agreed to help out. By 1923 the group known as Waring’s Pennsylvanians was on its way to becoming world famous. Tom became one of the top vocal recording artists of the 1920s, and Brother Fred used his ingenuity to create one of the most successful entertainment organizations of the Twentieth Century.
Little remains today in Tyrone to remind us of the dynamic William Griffith Waring. His trees and gardens have given way to homes on Belmont and Jefferson Avenues and to the extension of the Tyrone Cemetery (later named Grandview). The lanes that the Waring family laid out in West Tyrone are now paved streets and the 99 steps to the cemetery are folklore. But if one is given the chance to take a walk on the Penn State Campus, the basic layout of tree-lined Allen’s Walk, the lawn of Old Main with its quadrangle walkways, and the attention paid to the landscaping of the grounds are a testament to W. G. Waring’s life of hard work. His presence is still felt on campus one hundred and fifty years after he left.
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