About This Collection
The Pennsylvania State Forestry Commission was created by Concurrent Resolution 31 of the General Assembly and approved by Governor James A. Beaver on April 28, 1887. It consisted of five members who were given a mandate to investigate the rapid depletion of state timberlands and to report their findings and recommendations to the 1889 session of the legislature. Washington Townsend chaired the Commission and the other members were William A. Burkhout, George O. Praetorius, George B. Wiestling, and L. F. Colt. Upon completing their task during the closing months of 1888, the State Forestry Commission submitted their final report to the General Assembly in January 1889. After this point the Commission did not disband, and it was known as the State Forestry Reservation Commission through the early years of the 20th century. In 1919, its name was changed to the State Forest Commission. The collection contains Minutes and Orders of Business relative to the meetings of the State Forestry Reservation Commission and the State Forest Commission. Convened in Harrisburg on December 14, 1899 under the terms of an act to secure state forestry reservations passed on May 28, 1899, the Commission was chaired by Forestry Commissioner Joseph T. Rothrock of West Chester, and also consisted of Deputy Secretary of Internal Affairs Isaac Brown of Corry, President of the State Board of Health John Fulton of Johnstown, as well as A. C. Hopkins of Lock Haven and Albert Lewis of Bear Creek in Luzerne County who were appointed by the governor. Renamed the State Forest Commission in September 1919, the format of the minutes remaining unchanged. The Orders of Business duplicate the minutes, seeming to serve as a rough draft for their finished versions. Included are the names and salaries of numerous Department employees, camp site receipts for all State Forests, general receipts, operation receipts, correspondence, land issues, applications to the bureaus relative to various issues, lease proposals, etc. Examples of specific types of data present include: salaries incurred for forest officers, scientific and other necessary employees; a listing for a camp site receipt of $8.00 charged to W.L. Fox at Delaware State Forest; a listing for a camp site lease to W.T. Morrow of Altoona for site #50154, Jackson Township, Huntingdon County ($7.00); and an application by R.G. Bonnell of Waterville, Pennsylvania, for a lease to remove flagstone from a quarry near Waterville on the south side of Buttermilk Run.
