We next go up the hill through the Henderson Woods as formerly known and will soon be on the highest point between Apollo and Crooked Creek. If the day is clear, look to the right and you will see the Elders Ridge Academy Vocational School, and straight ahead, West Lebanon. In the far distance are the Chestnut Ridge mountains. Stop and look.
"BOOST FOR MORE GOOD ROADS ON NO. 188" As you go down the hill you pass the Chambers home, where B.C. Chambers, well known in the past, was born.
At the foot of the hill you pass to W.S. Lorain farm, which for a time was the Shady Plain Post Office.
At the fork of the roads to the left is the Matthew Saddler home, and further down the valley you can see the famous Shady Plains School building and grounds, one of the most beautiful school grounds of the state.
As you ascend the next grade you will pass the home of T.P. Scott, the well-known dealer who handles and hauls more poultry, eggs and country produce to the Kiskiminetas Valley than could be told about in a book.
This is also about the location where the Shady Plain Post Office was first established, about 1868 with John M. Wray as Postmaster, his son Hiram H. Wray of Leechburg, Pa., being his assistant in the Post Office and a country store for many years.
The buildings to the right, a short distance from the road, are the John M. Wray estate farm buildings.
EIGHT MILES "Wray Cross Roads," the Daniel Wray Farm. Now owned by the estate of Will A. Wray deceased. To the east five miles by Route 188, we find West Lebanon, Indiana County. To the right we find Olivet and Elders Ridge Academy, now the "first vocational school in Pennsylvania."We now leave Route 188 and go on State Route 319 via South Bend to Shelocta.
WE NOW BOOST FOR ROUTE 319
At the top of the hill the brick house to the left a short distance is the original Wray Homestead, having been settled on by Robert Wray, Sr. in 1819, and has been continually occupied by the family of George W. Wray and his sisters.
Follwing the road to the left in past the Wray homestead a distance of 2 1/2 miles you reach Crooked Creek. Here the Limestone Rock, seven feet thick, projects from the hill, enough limestone to build many, many miles of improved roads.