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ILLON COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01178 6313
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
Gc 974.801 B45WA
7124859
THE STORY OF
BERKS COUNTY (PENNSYLVANIA)
4
BY
A. E. WAGNER, Ph.D. NESQUEHONING, PA. F. W. BALTHASER, M.E. READING, PA. D. K. HOCH READING, PA.
1913 Eagle Book and Job Press Reading, Pa.
!
6
0
W.A. GOOD
00
W.M. ZECHMAN
J. S.ERMENTROUT
00000000
SUPT E. M.RAPP
D.8.KECK
D.B.BRUNNER
.
S.A.BEAR
Allen County Public Library Ft. Wayne, Indiana
Copyrighted, 1913 BY Reading Eagle Company Reading, Pa.
L9/9
PREFACE
A good school system must meet the demands of the community in which its schools are located. To do this the aims, means and methods must constantly be adapted to the changing needs of the community life. The changes involved in such adaptation constitute educational progress. Many such changes are urgent at the present time. Children are often taught many things unnecessary, while essential matters are omitted. The lawmakers, the press, the business men and the general public are about unanimous on this point. In consideration of these matters some time at least should be devoted to the practical things which would prepare the pupil for direct usefulness in the community life.
In all localities, however, a knowledge of the early history of the industrial development, of the local government and of the local geography should form a vital part of the child's proper practical education, since these things are necessary to the child's proper existence as a social being. To be ignorant of these things would mean not only a lack of intelligence, but it makes the proper perforni- ing of the functions of an American citizen impossible.
The upper grades are the finishing schools for the vast majority of children. Provision in them should be made to teach the history and geography of the town, township and county in which they reside. Time should be found to give the children a knowledge of the industrial development upon which their future wages will depend. Means should be furnished so that children will not leave school by the thousands in almost absolute ignorance of the government under which they live and of those civil functions which. as members
4
PREFACE
7124859
of the community, they will be expected to perform. Provision for some of these things is usually made in the high school, but hardly one-tenth of the children in any locality ever enter the high school.
In a county like ours, in which much has already been done that will tend to prepare the boys and girls for the life they will probably live, a forward step along the lines of preparing them more directly to perform their duties as citizens of a republic and of giving them a view of how their grandparents lived and worked is especially urgent and vital. That this volume may supply the need it was prepared to fill is the sincere wish of the authors, who take this means of expressing their thanks to the many teachers and friends who so kindly furnished assistance and information.
A. E. WAGNER, .. F. W. BALTHASER,
D. K. HOCH.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Those Who Were Here Before Us Page.
1. The Indians
12
2. Tribes 17
3. Some Things They Did 19
4. How They Made Fire 21
5. Wampum Was Their Money 22
6. How They Lived 22
7. How They Acted In the Woods 23
8. Indian Boys and Girls 24
9. Government and Laws 25
10. Religious Beliefs 25
11. Marriage Customs 26
12. List of Indian Words With Their Meaning 28
CHAPTER II.
Early Attempts to Make Homes 29
1. The Dutch 29
2. The Swedes 29
3. The English 31
4. William Penn 32
a. Penn's Treaty With the Indians 35
b. Penn's Work and Character 36
5. The Germans 36
6. The Redemptioners 37
7. The Welsh 39
S. Other Nationalities 40
9. Three Great Groups 40
CHAPTER IN.
Purchases and Organization 42
1. Walking Purchase 42
2. Other Purchases 43
3. Petitions for a County 43
4. Erection of the County 46
5. Reductions of the County 46
4
PREFACE
of the community, they will be expected to perform. Provision for some of these things is usually made in the high school, but hardly one-tenth of the children in any locality ever enter the high school.
In a county like ours, in which much has already been done that will tend to prepare the boys and girls for the life they will probably live, a forward step along the lines of preparing them more directly to perform their duties as citizens of a republic and of giving them a view of how their grandparents lived and worked is especially urgent and vital. That this volume may supply the need it was prepared to fill is the sincere wish of the authors, who take this means of expressing their thanks to the many teachers and friends who so kindly furnished assistance and information.
A. E. WAGNER, F. W. BALTHASER, D. K. HOCH.
....
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page.
Those Who Were Here Before Us 12
1. The Indians 17
2. Tribes 17
3. Some Things They Did 19
4. How They Made Fire 21
22
5. Wampum Was Their Money 22
6. How They Lived
7. How They Acted In the Woods 23
8. Indian Boys and Girls 24
9. Government and Laws 25
10. Religious Beliefs 25
11. Marriage Customs 26
12. List of Indian Words With Their Meaning 28
CHAPTER II.
Early Attempts to Make Homes 29
1. The Dutch 29
2. The Swedes 29
3. The English 31
4. William Penn 32
a. Penn's Treaty With the Indians 35
b. Penn's Work and Character 36
5. The Germans 36
6. The Redemptioners 37
. The Welsh 39
8. Other Nationalities 40
9. Three Great Groups 40
CHAPTER III.
Purchases and Organization 12
1. Walking Purchase 42
2. Other Purchases 43
3. Petitions for a County 43
4. Erection of the County 46
5. Reductions of the County 46
6
CONTENTS
CHAPTER IV.
· Page.
Conrad Weiser and Count Zinzendorf 4
CHAPTER V.
Border Warfare and Frontier Forts 54
1., Tedysucung . 54
2. Trouble Along the Frontier 55
3. Franklin Builds Forts 56
4. A Line of Forts 56
5. Fort Henry
56
6. Fort Northkill
57
7. Fort at Dietrick Snyder's 58
8. Fort Lebanon or Fort William 58
9. Fort Franklin 58
10. Regina 59
CHAPTER VI.
Berks County's Records in the Nation's Wars 63
1. The Revolution
a. Jones' Company 63
b. Joseph Hiester 64
c. Hessian Prisoners at Reading 66
d. Conway Cabal 67
e. The Veterans 68
f. Washington Visits Berks 69
21
h. The County Militia
i. Militia at Valley Forge
72
2. War of 1812
23
a. Companies from Berks
22
b. English Families at Reading 13
3. Mexican War 73
4. Civil War 74
a. County Militia
74
b. Berks County Responds to the Call 75
c. Drafting Soldiers 76
d. Excitement at Reading
63
g. Fries' Rebellion 21
·
CONTENTS
7
4. Civil War, Continued Page.
c. The Veterans 77
f. Companies from Berks 28
5. War With Spain 81
CHAPTER VH.
Industrial Development 83
1. Colonial Life 83
a. Homes 83
b. Market Value of Articles About 1800
84
c. Farming Implements 84
d. Clothing 84
e. The Iron Industry and Early Furnaces 85
f. Burning Charcoal 87
2. Rivers and Canals SS
a. Early Navigation of the Schuylkill SS
b. Union Canal S9
c. Schuylkill Canal 91
d. Value of Canals 92
3. Turnpikes and Other Roads 92
a. Tulpehocken Road 92
b. Berks and Dauphin Turnpike
93
c. Maidencreek or Easton Road
d. Centre Turnpike 9-1
e. Oley Road 94
f. Perkiomen Turnpike 95
g. Schuylkill Road 95
h. Other Early Roads 95
i. State Highways 95
4. Stages and Stage Lines 96
5. Railroads 97
a. Philadelphia and Reading 9:
b. Lebanon Valley 98
c. East Penn 99
d. Reading and Columbia 99
e. Wilmington and Northern 99
f. Colebrookdale 100
8
CONTENTS
5. Railroads, Continued Page.
g. Schuylkill and Lehigh .100
h. Pennsylvania Schuylkill Valley 100
i. Allentown 101
j. Other Railroads 101
6. Trolley Roads 102
7. Scenic Roads 103
CHAPTER VIII.
Education 101
1. Parochial Schools 104
2. Quaker Schools 105
3. Catholic Schools 106
4. Moravian Schools 106
5. Pay Schools 106
6. Charity Schools .107
7. Free Schools 107
8. Free School Act of 1834 109
9. Early School Buildings and Furnishings 109
10. School Exercises
112
11. Keystone State Normal School 113
12. Academies 113
13. County Superintendents
115
a. William A. Good
115
b. John Ermentrout
116
c. David B. Brunner 116
d. Samuel A. Baer .117
e. David S. Keck 112
f. William M. Zechman 117
g. Eli M. Rapp 113
CHAPTER IX.
Government 120
1. Finances 120
a. Kinds of Taxes 120
b. Levying the Taxes 121
c. Collecting the Taxes 121
9
CONTENTS
Page.
2. Party, Politics, Nominations and Elections 122
a. Who May Vote 123
b. Primary Elections 123
c. General and Municipal Elections 124
d. Election Expenses 125
3. Township, Borough and City Government 126
a. The Township 126
126
1. Justices of the Peace
2. Constable 127
3. Assessor .122
4. Tax Collector 128
5. School Directors 128
6. Supervisors 129
7. Auditors 129
b. The Borough
130
1. Reasons for Borough Government
2. Borough Council 130
3. Chief Burgess 130
130
4. Other Borough Officers 131
c. The City 131
1. The Mayor 131
2. City Council 132
3. City Controller 132
4. City Treasurer 132
5. Aldermen 132
6. Other City Offices 132
7. School Controllers 132
4. County Government 132
a. Officers 133
1. County Commissioners
2. Sheriff
3. Coroner 134
4. Prothonotary 135
5. County Treasurer 135
6. Recorder of Deeds 135
7. Register of Wills 136
133
134
-
10
CONTENTS
4, County Government, Continued Page.
8. Clerk of Quarter Sessions 137
9. District Attorney 137
10. Jury Commissioners 138
11. Prison Inspectors 138
12. Directors of the Poor 138
13. County Controller 138
14. County Surveyor 138
15. Mercantile Appraiser 138
16. County Solicitor
138
b. The County's Relation to the Courts
139
1. Kinds of Courts
2. The Judges
140
3. Juries 140
4. Accusation and Trial in the Criminal Courts. . 140
5. Manner of Conducting Civil Cases 142
CHAPTER X.
Geography 143
1. Mountains 143
2. Rivers and Valleys 146
3. Minerals 146
4. Caves 147
a. Crystal Cave 147
b. Dragon Cave .148
c. Other Caves 149
5. Divisions of the County 150
6. Charitable Institutions 151
7. Weather Bureau 152
8. Some Leading Facts 152
9. Post Offices 152
CHAPTER XI.
The Townships 153
1. Albany 153
2. Alsace 155
3. Lower Alsace : 157
4. Amity 158
138
11
CONTENTS
Page.
5. Bern
159
6. Upper Bern
160
2. Bethel 162
S. Brecknock 164
9. Caernarvon 164
10. Centre
166
11. Colebrookdale
168
12. Cumru
163
13. District 171
14. Douglass 122
15. /Earl 173
16. Exeter 174
12. Greenwich 176
18. Heidelberg 178
19. North Heidelberg 170
20. Lower Heidelberg 180
21. Hereford 181
182
23. Longswamp
183
24. Maidencreek
184
25. Marion
.186
26. Maxatawny
188
28. Oley
192
29. Ontelaunee
195
30. Penn
195
31. Perry
196
32. Pike 198
33. Richmond 199
34. Robeson .200
35. Rockland 202
36. Ruscombmanor 203
31. Spring 204
38. Tilden 205
39. Tulpehocken 200
40. Upper Tulpehocken 20:
22. Jefferson
21. Muhlenberg 196
12
CONTENTS
Page.
- 41. Union 208
42. Washington 208
43. Windsor 209
44. Township Statistics 211
CHAPTER XII.
The Boroughs 212
1. Bally 212
2. Bechtelsville 212
3. Bernville 213
4. Birdsboro 214
5. Boyertown 215
6. Centreport 217
7. Fleetwood .217
- 8. Hamburg 219
9. Kutztown 220
10. Lenhartsville 221
11. Mohnton 222
12. Mount Penn 222
13. Shillington 223
14. Sinking Spring 223
15. Topton 22.1
16. West Leesport
226
117. West Reading 226
18. Womelsdorf 227
19. Wyomissing 229
20. Borough Statistics 231
CHAPTER XIII.
The City of Reading 232
1. Early History-1248 to 1783 232
a. Prominent Buildings 232
b. Industries 23.1
c. Hunting and Fishing 235
2. Reading as a Borough 236
a. Water Company Organized 237
b. Prominent Visitors 238
13
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page.
3. Reading Today
239
a. City Officials 210
b. Sanitary Provisions .241
c. Industrial Conditions 211
d. Education 212
4. Leading Facts-1912 245
CHAPTER XIV.
Our National Flag
.240
CHAPTER XV.
Public Officials
.248
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Frontispiece :- Good, Ermentrout, Brunner, Baer, Keck, Zechman,
Rapp.
CHAPTER I.
Indian Trap.
Indian Chief.
Kindling Fire.
Corndigger.
Indian Wigwam.
Tomahawk.
Pappoose.
Squaw.
Indian Cache for: Provisions.
CHAPTER II.
Mounce Jones' House.
Oldest Gravestone.
William Penn. Sara Maria. German Man and Woman.
Pioneer Home.
. .
14
ILLUSTRATIONS
CHAPTER III. Map of Pennsylvania, showing Berks in 1754.
CHAPTER IV.
Conrad Weiser.
Weiser Home.
Weiser Grave. Weiser Monument.
Levan's Barn.
CHAPTER V.
Tedysucung. Fort Northkill.
Regina.
CHAPTER VI.
Joseph Hiester.
Hessian Log House.
Washington.
Chair in Which Washington Sat.
First Defenders' Monument.
CHAPTER VII.
Kitchen Fireplace. Fat Lamp. Tallow Candle.
Carrying Fire. Old Plow. Spinning in Colonial House.
Oldest Stove Made in County. Canal Boat. Conestoga Wagon.
Pioneer Road. Milestone. Old Stage Coach. First Locomotive and Train. Horse Car.
15
ILLUSTRATIONS
CHAPTEL. VIII.
Parochial School.
First School House in County.
Eight-cornered School House. Old Wood Stove. Franklin Academy. Keystone State Normal School. Modern Township High School-Consolidated.
CHAPTER X.
Map of Berks County. County Linestone. Entrance to Crystal Cave.
CHAPTER XI.
Sawmill. Gristmill. .
Chapel Rocks.
Carrying Corn to the Mill.
Stone School House.
Ney's Tavern.
Fort Henry. Hand Mill.
Grain Cradle.
Lincoln Home.
Boone Home.
Scene Along the Sacony.
Blue Rocks.
Bethany Orphans' Home. Wernersville Asylum. Quaker Meeting House. Centennial Oak. Moravian Church. Shoemaker House. Old-time Mail Carrier. Octagonal Church.
16
ILLUSTRATIONS
White Bear Inn. Grosscup Home. Cider Press.
CHAPTER XII.
Grain House.
Boyertown Mines.
Log Hpuse.
Pioneer House.
Lutheran Orphans' Home.
Wyomissing High School.
CHAPTER XIII.
Map of Reading. Federal Inn.
Old Court House.
Old Penn Street Bridge.
Present Court House.
Askew Bridge.
New Penn Street Bridge
First School House.
New Boys' High School.
CHAPTER XIV.
Birth of Our Flag.
THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
CHAPTER I.
THOSE WHO WERE HERE BEFORE US.
Two hundred years ago few white people lived in what we now call Berks County. At that time it was the home of wild animals and savage Indians. Great forests of giant trees were found in its valleys and on most of its rugged hills.
What wonderful changes we now see! The forests have nearly all been cut down. Humming mills, beautiful homes, rich farms now are found in its valleys; railroads have taken the place of the Indian paths, and its fertile fields are covered with rich crops of hay, grain and fruit. The savage Indians and wild animals are no longer seen; in their places we have civilized people and the much needed domes- tic animals. All these wonderful changes with many more have taken place in the short space of less than two hundred years. The story of how it all happened is as wonderful as a fairy tale, but it is true. We call it the story of Berks County. In order to understand this story fully, it will be necessary to know something of the causes which produced these great changes.
The Indians. More than four hundred years have elapsed since civilized men of Europe first learned of the race of red men in North America whom they called Indians. Who these Indians were or whence they came no one can tell.
When the white men first came here they were most numerous in the vicinity of the Delaware river, but there is no way of determin- ing how many of them there were.
Tribes. The tribes that dwelt in what is now Berks County or roamed over its forest-covered hills and valleys called themselves the Lenni Lenape, or the original people.
·
18
THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
The Lenni Lenape nation was divided into three principal tribes or divisions: the Unamis, or Turtle; the Unalachtgos, or Turkey; and the Monsey, or Wolf. The Turtle tribe occupied the country be- tween the seacoast and the Blue Mountains and their hunting grounds extended from the Hudson to the Potomac. Their name means "the people down the river." Their chief abode was on the Penn- sylvania side of the Delaware south of the Lehigh River. The sur- rounding tribes that did not belong to the Lenape Confederacy agreed that they were entitled to the honor of being called grand- fathers. As grandfathers they were supposed to have emigrated in a very remote time eastward from the Mississippi. In their travels eastward they are supposed to have conquered the builders of mounds that were numerous in the western valleys.
The Turtle and Turkey tribes were known among the whites as Delaware Indians. They were conquered by the Iroquois in 1742, when most of them emigrated to the western part of the State. The Moravian Missionaries, who made special efforts to Christianize the Delawares, saw their procession, like a funeral train, pass through Lehigh Gap.
The Wolf tribe was the fiercest and most warlike. They occupied the mountain regions at the headwaters of the Delaware and the Susquehanna Rivers. They held their principal council fires at the Minisink Flats on the banks of the Delaware just where it receives the waters of the Lehigh. Here they had extensive peach orchards.
The Unalachtgos lived in the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay. Penn bought his land from the Turtle and Turkey tribes.
The exact boundaries of the different tribes are not known. The Delawares occupied Berks County and the territory north and east. The Shawanese occupied the land along the Susquehanna in the vicinity of Harrisburg. The Conestoga Indians inhabited the land along the Conestoga Creek, extending through Caernarvon in Berks and through a part of Chester County.
There were subdivisions of the various tribes, and these were known by the names of the streams near which they lived. Thus we have the Schuylkill, Sacunk, Manatawny, Tulpehocken and Maxa- tawny Indians.
19
THOSE WHO WERE HERE BEFORE US
Occasionally tribes or parts of tribes migrated, owing to sickness or war. The Ganawese, who lived along the Potomac, and were reduced in numbers by sickness, by permission of the Governor of Pennsylvania, settled near Tulpehocken. The Conestoga guaranteed the good behavior of the Ganawese during their residence in this section.
The Indians were fine specimens of physical men and women, vet to them the earth seems to have served no higher purpose than to be used as a happy hunting ground, for at no point have they left any definite and lasting impressions.
INDIAN TRAP.
They were able to endure great hardships. Their sharp eyes enabled them to find their way through the forest by signs of which the white men would take no notice. Their chief occupations were hunting, fishing and fighting, though they also liked to dance and run races.
Some things they did. They made pots of clay mixed with powdered mussel shells burned in fire. In these they prepared their food. The trees they burned down. then used them for firewood. Their boats were made of the bark of cedar and birch trees bound together with stout straps of bark. These boats they often carried along when they went on a journey, using them to cross or sail up or down a stream. Boats were also made out of cedar trees of which they burned out the inside, scraping off the coals with sharpened stones or mussel shells.
The men and women dressed in skins and under garments made of wild hemp. Hemp was also made into twine, knit together with the pointed ends of feathers to form blankets. They made their bows as long as themselves ; the bowstrings of the sinews of animals killed in the chase; and the arrows of reed about five feet long. At one end of this reed they fixed a piece of hard wood into which they made a hole to fit the head of the arrow. The arrow head consisted of flint stone, hard bone, horn or the teeth of large fish.
The head was glued into the end of the arrow so securely that water could not affect it, and at the opposite end they put feathers. In the abandoned corn fields grew hemp from which their ropes,
20
THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
bridles and nets were made. Pestles about one foot long were used to grind or pound their corn. The first windmills that ground corn surprised them very much.
Their tobacco pipes had stems as long as a man. These pipes and inimense bowls were generally given to friends who came to visit them, and were expected to be smoked out before the visit ended. The bowls were made of horn, red, yellow or blue baked clay, or of stone that was so soft that it could be cut and scraped with a hard shell. They also made mats of fine roots and these they painted with all kinds of figures.
They painted their faces red. Those who were most famous had their bodies painted also. The men allowed only a tuft of hair to grow upon the tops of their heads; the rest was pulled out by the roots as soon as it appeared; so they were beardless as well as bald. On their faces, hands and breasts were fig- ures according to their individual fancies. These were made by prick- ing the skin with thorns and rub- bing the bleeding parts with char- coal. The black of the coal entered the holes made by the thorns and left marks that remained for life. Upon their feet they wore shoes made of skins tied together with strips of skin. The men often sut AN INDIAN CHIEF. their ears and put something into the opening to prevent the parts from growing together, then hung a weight to the lower part so that it hung down the side of the neck like a large ring.
When an Indian killed an enemy he scalped him. This was done by cutting the skin around the head just below the hair, placing the knee upon the victim's neck and rudely pulling by the hair until the scalp came off. The whole operation was often performed in a minute and was usually fatal, but not always. The scalp was painted red and placed upon a pole as a token of victory. He was
21
THOSE WHO WERE HERE BEFORE US
considered the greatest warrior who had the greatest number of -calps dangling from his belt.
When traveling or lying in wait for their enemies they made their bread of Indian corn and tobacco juice because they believed this would satisfy their hunger and quench their thirst when nothing else was at hand. Be- sides corn, they raised beans and pumpkins.
INDIAN CACHE FOR PROVISIONS.
They usually ate but twice a day, morning and afternoon, but used no tables or chairs. Their meats were either broiled, dried in the sun, or smoked. Their bread was made of Indian corn, which they crushed between two large stones or upon a large piece of wood. The meal was moistened with water, made into small cakes, wrapped in corn leaves and baked in the ashes. It was called hominy.
Before the white men came the Indians drank nothing but water, but after coming into contact with the whites they soon learned to drink strong liquors, becoming especially fond of rum. For it they would often exchange their choicest furs or skins.
How they made fire. How they learned the art of making fire is a mystery. Their fire stick consisted of two pieces. The horizontal one was about two or three inches wide and from eighteen inches to two feet long and about one inch thick. The upright piece was usually about two feet long and about one-half inch in diameter. The horizontal stick was made of soft, dry wood, frequently juniper, and the upright piece of the hardest wood they could find.
To make a fire they placed the horizontal piece upon the ground and placed the hard rounded end of the upright piece upon it. Then
22
THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
taking the upright piece between the palms of the hands, or by a method as shown in the illustration, they gave it a swift turning mo- tion and the friction caused heat. The turning of the upright piece wore loose particles of the horizontal piece, and these particles be- came so hot that they began to smoulder. As the constant use wore the hole in the hori- zontal piece deeper and deeper a small nick was cut into it so that the upright stick could work the ignited particles of powder out of the nick upon a piece of punk or some mate- INDIAN KINDLING FIRE. rial that would burn rather easily. From this the fire was started by blowing it. Fire was necessary in their northern homes and they no doubt took good care to keep it from going out, since the task of relighting it was not easy.
Wampum was their money. For money they used a kind of bead made of shells, using the white, black or colored parts. These beads were formed into cylinders one-fourth of an inch long and one- fourth of an inch in diameter. A small hole was made through them lengthwise. They were then placed upon strings.
By arranging them properly the belts contained figures and pictures of animals according to the purpose for which they were made. They were used in treaties and served to assist the memory in retaining the conditions agreed upon. These beads were their riches. The peace belts or war belts varied in size according to the importance of the event they were made to commemorate. At times strings of such beads were worn about the neck and wrist for ornaments. They called these collections of beads wampum.
How they lived. Their way of living was very simple. Plenty of fish were in the streams and lakes. In the forest abounded deer, foxes, bears, wild turkeys and other game which they killed with their bows and arrows. They could gather all kinds of berries and wild fruits and when all else failed they could dig up roots and eat them. They did not plan for the future, so they frequently suffered
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