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OLD SCHUYLKILL TALES
MRS. ELLA ZERBEY ELLIOTT
F 157 53E462
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
O JY EZRA
DATE DUE
826.65
GAYLORD
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
3 1924 095 619 312 !
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OLD SCHUYLKILL TALES
A HISTORY OF INTERESTING EVENTS, TRADITIONS AND ANECDOTES OF THE EARLY SETTLERS OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
BY
MRS. ELLA ZERBEY ELLIOTT
1906 POTTSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR
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COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY
MRS. ELLA ZERBEY ELLIOTT. --
325209 B 14B X
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PRESS OF GEORGE F. LASHER PHILADELPHIA
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TO THE SCHUYLKILL COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR
U
Y
1865
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E
D
Cornell University Library
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.
http://archive.org/details/cu31924095619312
PREFACE
T HE "Old Schuylkill Tales" may not claim the dignity of a history, yet the brief and impartial records of his- torical events are correct. Those who have read other early histories will find scant reference in them to the early incidents of the lives of the first settlers. The tales are true stories with, perhaps, in some cases, the substitution of fictitious names for those of the principal actors in them, that the, sometimes, super-sensitiveness of their descendants may be satisfied. Some few digressions too, as part of the story-teller's art are pardonable, but the material has all been gathered by the compiler from the lips of the old settlers themselves or their descendants. It is with the view of perpetuating these stories as little pleasantries of the early days that the author presents them to the public.
Those who have attempted to merge general historical facts with local incidents know what difficulty is encountered in pre- serving a consecutive chronological arrangement of the events. The consequent irrelevant lapses that will occur in the embodi- ment of such history and narratives, the latter of which, to as-
PREFACE
sume an attractive and readable form, must necessarily be dressed in a style resembling, more or less, fiction. It should, however, be borne in mind that truth is stranger than fiction and that the rich vein of folk lore in Schuylkill County has not yet been sounded to its depths, there are still rich treasures to unearth.
The writer is indebted to Bayard Taylor's and Beidelman's Histories of Germany and the Pennsylvania Germans, the Penn- sylvania Archives and Rupp's History of Counties, for data ; to the Weekly Schuylkill Republican, C. D. Elliott publisher and founder, for some of the facts, and to many individuals who did all in their power to furnish the substance for the body of the work. With the hope that the tales will be received in the spirit for which they were intended, the author submits them to an indulgent and generous public.
-E. Z. E.
CONTENTS
PART I.
THE EARLY SETTLERS-The Pennsylvania Germans-Where They Originated-Early History of Schuylkill County- Defense Against the Indians-Will Mark Historic Spots -Early Reminiscences-How "Old Dress" Scared the In- dians-Elizabeth's Mad Ride
PAGES.
15-48
PART II.
OLDEST TOWNS OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY-Old Underground Pas- sage-Orwigsburg, Second Town in the County-Schuyl- kill County Folk-Lore-Prologue, Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses-The Huntsickers-Unwritten History of Orwigs- burg-Notable Citizens-The Local Military-Battalion Day at Orwigsburg-Reminiscence-The Somnambulists- Court House Removed-A Ghost Story-Dirt or Sourcrout -The Black Mooley Cow-"Wasser," the Farm Dog- The Long Swampers-The 'Squire and Katrina-Laid the Ghost-Death of German Peddler Avenged-Diedrich Knickerbocker Outdone
49-106
CONTENTS
PART III.
HISTORY OF COAL AND CANAL-History of Coal-The Formation of Coal-Points on Coal-Michael F. Maize-Queer Freak of Child-Wm. H. Lewis-Minersville as it Was-Minersville Stories, Some Folks Will Never Die-The Jolly Four-Not to Be Outdone-The Schuylkill Canal-The First Boat-Build- ers-Schuylkill Haven-Played Better Than Ole Bull-In- dian Stories-Early History of Pinegrove-A Pastor's Ad- vice-Early Educational Facilities-The Early Teachers- Peter F. Mudey-Quaker Meeting House-Henry C. Russel -Letter From Miss Allen.
107-162
PART IV.
HISTORY OF POTTSVILLE-Pottsville as it Was-Site of Centre Street Twenty-five Dollars-Bear Story-On the Road to Heaven-A Negro Grafter-Had a Gift of Repartee-An- other Claim for Name, the Same, Yet Different-The First Railways-Story of Centre Street Fire-Old Hand Engine -Destructive Floods-Tumbling Run Dam Breaks-Mili- tary History-First Military Companies-Judge D. C. Henning-Reminiscent of the Women of Pottsville-When the Troops Returned-Sanitary and Christian Commissions -Not a Foot Washer-Colored Woman Buried in Baber Cemetery-The Presbyterian Chill-Before the War- Stickety Jimmy and Ellen.
PART V.
EARLY CHURCHES-History of Early Churches, Their Origin and Whereabouts-The Log School House-First Religious Service-Hymn Books in Clothes Basket-A Wild Turkey Story-St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church-Roman Cath- olic Clergyman a Good Financier-Other Early Churches-
163-204
CONTENTS
St. John the Baptist Church-Old Records Difficult to Trans- late-Preached Against Vanities of Dress-The Old Town Hall-Charlemagne Tower-Social and Literary Advan- tages-Fortissimo vs. Pianissimo-Superstitions of Schuyl- kill County-Pow-ow-ing-L. C. Thompson
205-246
PART VI.
INTERESTING LOCAL STORIES-The Underground Railway Station in Pottsville-The Underground Railway-Friend Gilling- ham of Pottsville-Aged Resident Preserves Secret-The Early Stage Coaches-Reminiscences of Old Settlers-The Norwegian Creek-Fought Reading Company-Stage Coach Days-The Mortimers Among Earliest Settlers-Old Time Scrappers -- Thirty Thousand Copper Pennies-Cur- few Shall Not Ring To-night-Origin of Ghost Stories-In- dian Stories-The First Physicians-Old Historic Mansion -An Early Romance-Dinah and Vilkins-Record of Potts- ville Postmasters-Early Iron Works, Their Establish- ment-Recapitulatory and Retrospective. . 247-298
PART VII.
OTHER TALES-Hilda, A Mormon Bride and Mother (Chapters I, II, III, IV)-The History of a Newspaper Office Cat- Tiny Tim and Polly-The Dead Man's Foot (Chapters I, II, III) 299-344
ILLUSTRATIONS
Facing Page.
View of Orwigsburg.
53
Old Court House, Orwigsburg
67
Coal Breaker
114
View of Pottsville
167
New Court House, Pottsville
171
Old Red Church.
214
PART I
THE EARLY SETTLERS
PART I
THE EARLY SETTLERS
THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS
Where They Originated.
T HE Pennsylvania Germans whose ancestors were exiled from their homes in the beautiful valley of the Rhine and Neckar by furious religious and political persecu- tion are yet, after a lapse of many generations, bound by invisible ties to the land which has been consecrated and hal- lowed by the same blood which courses in their veins.
The early history of Germany and the frequent quarrels between the Romans and the German tribes is a familiar one. The Franks, Goths, Saxons and Alemanni finally became merged into one tribal relation and these occupied the lower course of the Shelt, the Emeuse and the Schwalm Rivers, west and in the lower Rhine region.
The Palatinate was formerly an independent state of Ger- many, and consisted of two territorial divisions, the Upper or
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the Bavarian Palatinate and the Lower or Rhine Palatinate. The story of the Rhine Pfalz is one of great interest. In that country dwelt the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Germans, two centuries before persecution drove them from it. Nature was lavish to that valley. For more than a thousand years the Rhine was the prize for which the Romans, Gauls, and Germans contended. There is no region of country on the globe that has witnessed so many bloody conflicts as the Palatinate on the Rhine. The Romans struggled for more than five centuries to subdue the various German tribes, only to leave them uncon- quered, and after the Romans withdrew the rich prize was coveted by European nations. The Germans of the Rhine provinces suffered from the French as late as the Franco-Ger- man war, and the crimes committed in the Palatinate in conse- quence of religious intolerance, fanaticism, and political perse- cution are unparalleled in the history of human savagery.
For thirty years the Palatinate was frequently ravaged by contending armies and the country became the theatre of war and a continuous conflict followed until peace came at the end of the thirty years, and the Palatinates were saved to Germany, but at what a fearful cost. The people were no longer com- pelled to worship God at the point of the sword, but their perse- cutions were not yet to end. The worst cruelties were yet to be inflicted on them. Passing over the period of religious persecu- tion which shows the chief reasons for the emigration of the Palatinates to America wc come to the date that led up to the grand Exodus of German Palatinates to Pennsylvania.
As early as 1614 three European travelers started from a point on the Mohawk River not far from Albany, New York,
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and proceeded up the Mohawk Valley about thirty miles, after which they came south to the Delaware River. Henry Hudson is believed to have been the first white man that came within the present limits of Pennsylvania, which was ruled over by the English.
In 1681 the British government made a grant to William Penn which included the boundaries of Pennsylvania, and one of his first acts was a treaty with the Indians, whom he recog- nized as the rightful owners of the soil. Penn made three visits to the Palatinate in Germany, and being a proficient Ger- man scholar, spoke the German language and had no difficulty in inducing the Palatines to settle in his province in Pennsyl- vania.
Many who had no money for their passage were carried by masters of vessels who depended upon them to work out the price of the passage in a term of years. This species of servitude had all the features of chattel slavery. The system of selling emigrants was vigorously protested against by the German Quakers or Mennonites. The German settlers occupied all the counties south and east of the state along Chester and the lower end of Bucks county.
New York received a large German emigration in 1710. The Schoharie Settlers had internal difficulties and many left New York under the guidance of John Conrad Weiser and his son Conrad and settled in Pennsylvania. In 1739 Christopher Sauer began to publish a German newspaper at Germantown. Copies of it in existence now are considered invaluable as an encyclopedia of information. The Germans tilled their land, and Sauer's paper taught them to believe that the English were
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seeking to put restrictions on them as great as those which they had borne in the old country, and the English feared that the Germans would make the province a German province.
It was about 1754 when the largest influx of German im- migrants came to this section of country, in what is now Berks, Schuylkill, Dauphin and Lebanon counties. The early settlers of the lower part of Schuylkill County, then a part of Berks, were mainly from the Palatines or the next generation of those who came from there. When the first blood was shed at Lexing- ton, the Germans espoused the cause of the American patriots in behalf of freedom. In May, 1776, before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Pennsylvania reported that five full companies enlisted from the Germans for immediate service. Every officer of this battalion was a German. It took the field and rendered conspicuous service during the early part of the war. The German Battalion participated in the battle at Tren- ton in 1776 and sustained Washington at the ill-fated fields of Brandywine and Germantown and spent the terrible winter of 1777-1778 with him at Valley Forge. The deeds and suffer- ings of this German Battalion are a proud memorial of the part the German soldiers took in the Revolutionary War.
There is a belief among some people that the Hessian Mercenaries brought over by the British government to fight the Americans remained here after the war was over and that their descendants constitute a part of the element of Pennsyl- vania Germans in this section to-day. This is erroneous. These men were under contract to return after the war was over. A few perhaps remained and made good citizens, but there was an intense hatred in some localities against the so-called Hessian
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soldiers. Some of it still lingers with the present generation. It should be remembered, however, that the Hessians were forced into the British service by the poverty stricken German princes, who sold them to the British like so many slaves. Their service was not voluntary. Many of the Hessians de- serted in large numbers, and found refuge among the German colonists in Pennsylvania and New York. Thirty dollars a head was offered in Europe by the British government for hire- ling soldiers to fight against the Americans, but the rulers of Holland and Russia refused to entertain the proposition.
The so-called "Pennsylvania Dutch" language is a mis- nomer; there is no such thing. The Dutch are designated in Germany as Hollandisch and their language is Holland Dutch. These people came from Holland immediate and settled mainly in New York. Unthinking people are apt to confuse the term German and Dutch. The ancestors of the Pennsylvania Ger- mans who came from the upper and lower Rhine regions spoke a dialect that is known as Pfalzisch and the people at the time of the great emigration from there were known as German Palatines. The dialect of the Pennsylvania Germans is an in- heritance from these ancestors and, barring its English infusion, is substantially the same as when first brought over. Pennsyl- vania German has deteriorated through borrowing from the English. It is now a mixture of bad German and worse English, but the Rhine Palatinate and Rhine Pfalzisch still re- main. The literature still in existence among local families, the German Bible, German prayer book and Hymnal in the central counties of Pennsylvania, a number of them in Schuyl- kill, show that the parent speech has not been forgotten.
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In the region in Switzerland embraced in the Canton of Gresous, the Pfalzisch dialect still exists that was used several centuries ago. The Pfalzisch dialect spread all over south Ger- many and the Pennsylvania German and the south German dialects agree in many particulars. No Schuylkill County de- scendants of German ancestry need be ashamed of the Pennsyl- vania German dialect.
EARLY HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY
Schuylkill County was formed by Act of Assembly, passed March 1, 1811, from portions of Berks, Lancaster and North- ampton Counties. In 1818 a small area was added from Colum- bia and Lehigh. The county has an area of 840 square miles, with an average length of 30 miles, and an average width of 24 and a half miles. The county was named after the Schuylkill river. The word Schuylen is a Swedish one and means to hide.
The tract on which Orwigsburg is located belonged to Lancaster county. In 1752 that part of the State was ceded to Berks County. Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg narrates the history of the German captives, who were taken by the Indians during the years from 1755 to 1765.
Johannes Hartmann lived in the forest, on a spot near where now stands St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Orwigsburg. The records of Zion's Kirche, (the "Red Church") in West Bruns-
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Old Schuylkill Tales.
wick township, one and a half miles southeast of Orwigsburg, tell of the firing in 1755 by the Indians of the first log church just completed by the settlers; the massacreing of the people and the laying of their homes in ashes. Those who could escape --- among them Henrich Adam Ketner and his wife Katharine, who came there in 1755,-fled across the Blue Mountains into Berks county; subsequently returning with others they built the church and re-established their homes afresh. It was at this date that a frightful massacre occurred at the site of what is now Orwigsburg.
Daniel Deibert, born in 1802, published an early history of his forebears, who lived near the spot. William Deibert came from Germany to Philadelphia early in the eighteenth century, when his son Wilhelm was three years old. The latter with his brother Michael, when they came to manhood's estate, left their parents in Bern township, Berks county and in the year 1744 took up 300 acres of land in Manheim township, Schuylkill county, now known as the Peale and Filbert farms. Nearly at the same time, the Deibert narrative states, "a few years earlier than my grandfather settled here, another German family came from Europe, the head of which was Johannes Hartmann and settled where Orwisburg now stands." Daniel Deibert's father, John, subsequently bought 144 acres of land in West Brunswick township, just below the old White Church, in the valley, which farm is still in the possession of the Deibert family and one of the most beautiful and prosperous in the county.
Daniel Deibert tells how, when he was a child four or five years of age, his father and mother, while clearing the land, took the cradle and the three children with them and that he,
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Old Schuylkill Tales.
the eldest, would keep the locusts and other insects from the baby in the cradle, while the elders worked. His grandfather, William, frequently told him stories of how the Indians mo- lested the early settlers.
Christian Deibert a son, was married to Mary Elizabeth Miller, daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth Miller, nee Stout, and was a sister of Hannah Miller, who married Andrew Schwalm. A subsequent chapter is devoted to the romantic courtship and "mad ride" of Elizabeth Stout, their mother, wife of Andrew Miller. Christian and Mary Elizabeth Deibert lived on the Deibert homestead near Orwigsburg for many years.
The Hartmann family had two boys and two girls. They were a pious and religious family. One day in the fall of 1755 the father and his eldest son were to finish their sowing. Mrs. Hartmann took their youngest son, Christian, to John Finscher's mill, near the P. & R. Railway and the Mine Hill Railway crossing, where Schuylkill Haven now stands, to have some grist done. When the father and the three children were eating their dinner a band of Indians, fifteen in number, headed by Hammaoslu (the tiger's claw) and Pottowasnos (the boat pusher) came and killed Hartmann and his eldest son, plundered the log house and set it on fire, carrying the two girls with them as victims into the forest.
When Mrs. Hartman and her son returned from the mill they found their home and out-buildings burned to the ground. The charred bodies of Hartmann and his son and a dog were discovered among the ruins, where they had been thrown into the fire by the mad savages, who performed in ghoulish glee
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Old Schuylkill Tales.
the funeral dance around the flaming pile; but of the girls there was no sign.
They murdered the family of a man named Smith and took with them their little girl three years old. The girls were bare- foot and their feet became sorc. The eldest of the Hartmann girls grew lame and became very sick when they tomahawked her. They wrapped the feet of the two other girls with rags and took them to their camp in the forest. Some hunters found the body of the eldest girl and buried her.
Several times, years after, children were reclaimed from the Indians. On such occasions Mrs. Hartman went to see whether she could hear of her daughter. Once she went as far as Pittsburg, but could hear nothing. Thus nine years passed away when word came that a great many captive white children had been taken from the Indians, and were in charge of Col. Bouquette, at Carlisle. Mrs. Hartmann journeyed thither at once. The children spoke nothing but the Indian language and she did not recognize her child among them. Sad at heart she was about again to return home, when the Commander asked her if there was no hymn or lullaby which she remembered to have sung to her little girl during her in- fancy.
After some hesitation the mother began to sing "Allein und doch nicht ganz allein bin ich," ("Alone and yet not all alone am I") when a grown up swarthy complexioned Indian girl broke ont from among the ranks and fell on her neck and kissed her. What a joyful meeting that was. The captive Sauquehanna (the White Lily), and with her, Koloska (the short-legged Bear), Susan Smith and a sister of Martin Woerner,
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who lived on a farm at what is now Landingville, all returned home with their friends.
The mother's affection for her child, Regina, was returned at once by the freed captive, but it was not until Magdalena Hartmann had conveyed the exile to the brow of a hill, near which had stood their lowly home, that memory fully returned, and she exclaimed "washock!" "washock!" "The green tree," "the green tree;" her memory had returned and she gave one evidence after another of the awakened recollections of the past and her mother's teachings.
John Finscher's mill, built in 1744, was burned and the family murdered about a year after the Hartmann massacre. From 1755-65, Indian massacres were frequent and the early settlers were obliged to often flee for their lives. Daniel Dei- bert says, " my grandfather William and his brother, Michael, saved their lives by fleeing over the Blue Mountains to their father's home in Bern township." They buried their farming implements, but in their haste did not mark the place and on their return could not find the cache. When the Schuylkill canal was dug they finally found their treasures, which had been supplemented in the interim with others. There have been rude cooking utensils found on the Peale and Filbert farms, Indian arrows and pottery, which shows that Indians lived in that locality.
It is claimed by the descendants of Peter Orwig, that prior to. the laying out of Orwigsburg in1794-5, as recorded, one Gottfried Orwig and wife emigrated from Germany in 1747, and located upon a tract of forest land on what is now Kimmel's farm, and that Peter Orwig, was his grandson. If
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this claim is correct (there is no reason to doubt it) then Orwig settled in that locality before Hartmann or the Deiberts. It is probably true that there were others, too, in the vicinity, some of whom never returned after the Indian scare.
Among the Germans and Swiss who landed in New York in 1710 and settled in Livingstone Manor, there were twenty- three families who subsequently settled in the region of Tulpe- hocken, about fifteen miles from Reading. Among them were the families of Lorenz, John-Philip and Martin Zerwe or Zerbe, three brothers. On account of the bad treatment accorded them by the authorities in the dispossessing them of their lands, they left Livingstone Manor, N. Y., and settled in the Schoharic Valley, where they lived ten years. There, after making many improvements to their homesteads, they were deprived of them through a defect in the title.
After enduring many hardships and privations, they trav- eled across the country to the Susquehanna river, where they built rude rafts on which they drifted down the stream to where the Swatara creek empties into the river, at Middletown. They followed this stream to near where Jonestown now stands and distributed thereabouts, settling near "Reith's Kirche."
George Zerbe, Sr., who lived in Panther Valley frequently related the trials and difficulties these three brothers endured with others in New York State and their emigration to Penn- sylvania. Their names, John Philip, Lorenz and Martin, occur among the list of taxables of male inhabitants over twenty-one years of age, 1711, in Livingstone Manor. He told of their nephew, Jacob Zerwe or Zerbe, whose name is also given in
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Rupp's "Thirty Thousand Immigrants' Supplement," as Jean Jacques Servier. They were all from Alsace and Lorraine, France, but subsequently removed to Switzerland, during the fierce struggles in the Palatines. Jean Jacques Servier came to America at the age of 29 in the ship Patience, Capt. Hugh Steel from Rotterdam, last from Cowes and qualified at Phila- delphia, September 17, 1753.
In the list of taxables for the year 1772 in Pinegrove town- ship, then a part of Berks County, appear the names of Benja- min, Daniel and Philip Zerbe, descendants of the three first named and in the record of Jacob's Church, 1799, occurs the name of Johannes Zerbe, a son doubtless, of one of the above. George Zerbe, Sr., first settled near the site of Port Clinton, subsequently removing to Bender Thal. Three sons, Henry, Daniel and George, were the fruit of this marriage. Daniel took up a claim near Cressona, George removed to West Brunswick township where he located a homestead. Henry worked on the building of the new Court House, where he con- tracted malaria from the effects of a sunstroke and died after a six weeks' illness of typhoid fever. He left one son, Henry M. Zerbe, of Lewistown, Mifflin County, the late head of that. branch of the family. Daniel died when still a young man, leav- ing a widow. George Zerbe, Jr., lived to a ripe old age and left three sons and several daughters. He was the father of the late W. M. Zerbey, of Pottsville.
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