USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > Catasauqua > A history of Catasauqua in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania > Part 27
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This reminds us of gas-bags. Catasauqua has always produced a great deal
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of gas, as is especially noticeable on sultry days. The top fillers at the furnaces have always had some wood aglow by which escaping gas was quickly ignited and consumed and thus prevented from doing any harm. In this we have a good objeet lesson : when gas escapes ignite it. There was a time, however, when gas was bought. first in Philadelphia, and later in Bethlehem, and shipped to Cata- sanqua in bags for use in the Bridge Street Presbyterian Church. The bags were attached to a pipe system in the church and weighted so as to give proper pressure to the flame. This was done from the time the original church edifice on Bridge Street was completed in 1852 and continued until the Catasauqua Gas Plant was put in operation in 1856. Dr. Danowsky and Nathan Lauden- schlager also filled bags with gas at their plant near the old Lehigh Valley depot at Allentown and sold them for the illumination of private homes and public buildings.
Miss Esther Pritchard Hudders was one of the prominent landmarks of the village. She was of New England origin, born in Susquehanna County- her ancestors coming from Wales. She was a woman of education ad an expert with the needle. She taught school in the church basement and on two days of the week gave sewing lessons to the girls. Every woman with daughters was a patron of Miss Hudders and the latter, with that calm and dignified manner. would cut a big apple pie for her pupils as willingly as she would a switch from the limb on which the apple had grown. For many years Mrs. Hudders lived at Second and Pine. the home erected by her husband shortly after the town became a borough. The house was always a favorite one for the younger element to congregate in.
The Rev. John Jones left a family of exceptional children, gifted in mental endowment and full of the tricks of healthy youth. A daughter Maggie spent much time under the training of Rebecca Mickley Thomas. A cireus came to the outskirts of the village and Maggie wanted to go. Mrs. Thomas refused unless she went in the company of a grown person. At noon, a chaperon had not been found and Maggie disappeared leaving the dinner dishes untouched. Nightfall came and the search began. With the last vestige of daylight, Miss Margaret 'Jones was discovered sitting close to the old church bell, high up in the fork
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of the big oak tree on Church Street. It took some persuasion to make the climber come down and she washed no dishes that day. The entire village was out on scout, the crowd at the cireus had undergone a sharp inspection, but when the next big circus came to Allentown, Mrs. Thomas saw that Miss Mar- garet Jones, daughter of the deceased Welsh divine, was on one of the best seats in the ring.
George Breinig, the father of our late townsman, Simon Breinig, was a shrewd financier. He managed to secure a farm for each of his children as rapidly as they married and started life for themselves. In publie he usually wore a silk hat, a pair of ealf-skin boots, and while one leg of his trousers was down the other was drawn up and hung over one ear of his boot. On a certain occasion he heard that a farm in the direction of Guthsville was to be sold at auction. Mr. Breinig went to the sale and offered the highest bid for the farm. The auctioneer and some gentlemen at the sale gazed at the man with blank amazement. Finally he was asked whether he could pay for the farm or bring security for the price. Mr. Breinig said, "I own several farms in Northampton County which are paid for, and I think I could pay for this, but since you hesitate I shall go home and you may keep your farm." After some inquiry it was learnt that Mr. Breinig's statement was correet. Then they came and begged him to take the farm at his bid by which he had offered a good price. After some persuasion Mr. Breinig took the farm.
Arthur W. Hamilton related that matches were first used in England in 1680; that they were sold in small boxes containing about three dozen, for 15 shillings each, or $3.65 in U. S. money. Matches were made in Paris in 1805. Pocket matches were made by John Walker, an English druggist, who sold eighty-four for a shilling. When Frederick Eberhard settled at Dry Run in 1832, very few people knew anything of the luxury of a match.
The most inflammable substance commonly known was punk. In every home was found a piece of flint rock, a piece of steel, and some punk. To start a fire the dry punk was laid down and the steel and the fire stone struek together in such a manner as to cast the sparks upon the punk. At times sparking was re-
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quired until one's elbows tired before the punk caught. People used to cover the last glowing embers of their fires at night very carefully with ashes in order to keep them alive and have a start for the next day. If, perchance, the fire was found to be out in the morning (great misfortune) and Mary was awkward with striking sparks, she would take a eroek and quickly run to the neighbors a half mile across the fields to borrow some fire as kindling for the breakfast blaze. Often the eroek would get so hot before she reached home that she burnt her fingers.
Mr. Eberhard dried small squares of pine wood and, with a knife, split them open in eross ents about one-eighth of an inch apart, each way, so that the block looked like a checker board. To keep the ends apart he laid slivers both ways between the rows. Then he dipped the slivered ends of the blocks into sulphur and phosphorus by which process he made the first sulphur matches used in this community. He sold them in the block to the merchants at Weavers- ville, Siegfrieds. Laubachs. Catasauqua, and Allentown.
The employees of the Crane Iron Company, for whom houses had been built on : Wood and Church Streets. formed a type of community life which was beautiful so long as a homogeneous people occupied those homes. Besides a common pump on Front Street. there were two old fashioned bake ovens. one on each street named, devoted to the use of the community. The individual in charge of the oven heated it by split wood every day from Monday morning until Saturday evening. At a given hour of each day the ashes were drawn and the ovens wiped elean with a "Huddle-lumpen." Then the busy house- keepers would hasten thither with well raised loaves of bread in straw baskets, with cakes, pies, etc. The dough loaves were dumped out of the baskets upon a large wooden paddle with a long handle, "Backoffen-schieszer," by which they were placed with great skill into the oven. That was mother's bread indeed ! A half hour later the whole community was fragrant with the breath of freshly baked goodies. When a cake fell it was, of course. the oven's fault.
We often hear of the strict school discipline of former years and sometimes of the laxity of it in public schools of the present day. On the 17th of March,
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1869, a great parade of Irishmen from the entire valley appeared on our streets. The Stars and Stripes headed the column, then in its wake, the flag of Erin in festive furl, with silk hats and green ribbons galore. Brass bands alternated " Yankee Doodle" with "Wearing of the Green, " and shamrocks and shillelahs flourished in peaceful force. A greater than Barney McNulty played the fifo and long columns of men kept soldier step to the beat of the drum, while along the line came the clear echoes of the Scottish bag-pipes. The High School, deep in the mathematical problems of "Brooks," heard the call of the heather, the toot of the horn and the beat of the drum, then the trampling of horses and the tread of marching hosts -- and out of the double doors of the Upper Second Street building poured the "well-disciplined" boys and girls of that Catasauqua High School. Two teachers sat helpless at the desk. The ringleaders near the door had ventured and pell-mell after them, like a flock of sheep, went every pupil of the school. It was ten o'clock on that early spring morn and at the after- noon session each desk had its usual occupant. What punishment could be meted out to this illustration of the power of the mass against the eleet ? And some of the leaders were girls who took to the banisters and rode down the stairs to make time, those not being the days of the limited skirt.
During the winter of 1855 and 1856 a number of young people of town organized a Dramatic Club. Meetings and rehearsals were held in the Bridge Street school house. After the parts had been well worked out, nights for the exhibition were appointed. Thomas Jones and Samuel Davis were the eurtain boys. Mrs. Kate Fuller, Mrs. Mary A. Thomas, and Mrs. Dr. Daniel Yoder impersonated some of the chief characters in the play. William R. Thomas was stage manager. The Rev. Dr. Earle and David Thomas looked upon the hilarity with suspicion and attempted to stop or prevent the performance from coming off. But their efforts helped the thing along, and crowded houses greeted the amateurs whose performance was a great success.
The wife of the late Dr. Frederick W. Quig, who was for over sixty-three years a member of the Bridge Street Presbyterian Church and in her girlhood of the Maneh Chunk Presbyterian Church, often related how in the primitive
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days of "Bierysport" the Presbyterians of the "Old School" doctrine held service in Kurtz's grove. The grass was raked clean the day before and at three o'clock on Sunday afternoon, Rev. Leslie Irwin cantered in from the Bath Settlement. His members, some twenty odd, carried wooden stools, hymn books and Bibles. A tuning fork set the pitch and long metre was the favorite tune. In this day of eant and question and religious sensations, it is a relief to pause a moment and contemplate such old-time worship.
George, the son of JJacob Deily, served his father on his large farms for fifteen years after he reached his majority. The father sold his potatoes to people of town and among them a number of bushels to David Thomas. His constant admonition to the boys was, "Be sure you give good measure." When George reached the Thomas home with the number of bushels ordered, Mrs. Thomas insisted that not a potato be put into her cellar until all the bags be emptied and the potatoes remeasured. George explained that the potatoes were measured at home. good measure was given and that he did not have a half-bushel measure with him. But Mother Thomas insisted upon her demand. By this time George grew earnest and said, "I will go home to fetch the measure, and will measure your assignment on condition that you pay extra for what is over the amount at which we intend to give you this load." Mrs. Thomas agreed to this. After the load was measured Mother Thomas paid for three peeks of potatoes more than for which Mr. Deily meant to charge her. Mr. Thomas tantalized his madam quite a bit about good measure in potatoes.
Levi Kraft, a tinsmith who worked for C. G. Schneller, and Horatio Good from up the valley, went to Mauch Chunk, where they joined their company designated for the Mexican War. The company proceeded to Wilkes-Barre. whenee they were transported by canal to Harrisburg, by rail to Pittsburgh and by river-steamer to New Orleans. Both these men lived to return, wearing the peculiar uniforms of that day, with coal-senttle shaped caps decorated with metal chains. Kraft served three years (1861-1864) in the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regulars, and died a few years ago in the Soldiers' Home at Dayton. Ohio. Good went to California where he was killed by the Indians.
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After the Mexican War others returned to their homes at Allentown. JJohn Kuhn, however, was missing. A year later he returned ; but the cruel severities of the Mexican Prisons caused him to become insane. He found a home in the Lehigh County Poor House. For twenty-five years he made his annual summer visits to Allentown and Catasauqua in his old uniform with his hat bedecked with flowers and a cavalry sword swinging at his side as he marched along. People generally knew him as "Mexico JJohn," and no one ever thought of molesting him, but rather showed him respect and encouraged him in his inno- cent amusement.
Very few Indian relics have been found in the vicinity of Catasauqua. During the construction of the Lehigh Valley R. R. a skull, surrounded by boards, pipes, Indian tools, etc .. was found a short distance below the station. Many arrow heads of flint were found opposite the month of the Coplay creek. while the canal was being dug, showing that the Indians had a sort of factory . for arrow heads at the spring that empties into the river at this point. Shortly before his death in 1866, Joseph Miller related to William HI. Glace. Esq., that he heard his grandfather say that there was an Indian burying ground on the lowlands; that the elder Miller, who lived in the old stone house above the Cemetery gates, on the road to Hokendanqua, peering through the heavy under- brush at different times, saw parties of Indians bury their dead on the low- lands.
The following important item is quoted from the recent publication of William H. Glace, Esq .:
Gentlemen :- I am from good authority informed that the enemy Indians have attacked the Frontiers in Northampton county and that intelligence has been given to an officer of credit by a Friend Indian that a considerable body of French and their Indians design again to invade the Province and a number are on their way to fall afresh on the Minnisinks or parts adjacent. The par- ticular view of the Ohio Indians at this time, as it is reasonably supposed. is to obstruct the Susquehanna Indians in their treaty with the English and to prevent thereby a well-established peace between them.
How the forces, within the battalion I have the honour to command, may he disposed of, upon the expected incursion of the savages and the French who prompt them with a cruelty equal to that of the barbarians, I cannot say ; but you may depend on it that I shall ever endeavor to serve the country by doing all in my power to succour every distressed part as soon as possible.
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But, gentlemen, you must know that the number of forts which are on the east side of the Susquehanna will require a very large part of the First Battalion to garrison them and to allow of scouting parties to watch the motions of the barbarians. It will therefore be necessary that the inhabitants should do all in their power to defend themselves and neighbors against an enemy whom we know by experience to strike great terror wherever they commit their ravages.
I recommend it to you to persuade your neighbors to associate themselves immediately into companies under disereet offieers of their own choice, that we may be able to preserve our own and the lives of our tender wives and children. Great must be the advantage we shall give the enemey if we are unprepared upon their sudden invasion.
It needs not much reflection upon what happened about 16 months ago to bring to your minds the amazement and confusion with which the spirits of our people were affected upon a sudden ineursion of Indians of whose mimbers we were never well informed. It would appear as if I had an ill opinion of the disposition of my countrymen to suggest any special motives upon this occasion.
I only pray that Divine Providence may direet you to proper measure and then you can not fail of success in an endeavor to serve your country. In which service you may depend on my promise that you will be ever joined by Your most humble servant, CONRAD WEISER, L. Col. Attest : WM. PARSONS.
Reading. April 27th, 1757.
George Charles is a family name among the Schnellers, whose progenitor in Germany was George Charles Schneller, a native of Dresden. As a youth he went to Herrnhut, Saxony, and studied theology. Later he came to Fairfield, England, where he was married to Miss Hannah Meller. From Fairfield he was sent as a missionary to the Isle of St. Kitts, one of the West Indies. The Islands being an undesirable place to edneate their children, they sent their sons, George Charles and David, and their daughter, Rachel, to the Moravian schools at Nazareth and Bethlehem. The George Charles at the Nazareth school was the great-grandfather of our townsman Charles G. Schneller. It will be refreshing to read the appended letter of the father to his son. This letter is but a sample of many similar epistles written in the name of the Lord, by parents and friends to loved ones.
St. Kitts, March 27, 1807.
Dear and beloved Son,-
We, your parents, hope you are well. It is a long time indeed since you sent us a letter. We do often, not only think, but speak of you. Brother Lan- caster calls you the little Englishman. He loves you, and out of love has sent
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to you the present of half a guinea which, before this comes to you, undoubtedly you will have received.
On your birthday we considered both the Watch-Word and the text for that day, and prayed our dear Saviour to give to you a cheerful, a willing and obedi- ent heart to love Him, for He will never leave you nor forsake you, doubt it not.
Give our kind salutation to your Master and Mistresses. to your Labourers. vea to all the Christian Brethren and Sisters.
We expect soon to receive a letter from you. When you see your brother David give him two kisses: one from me, one from his mother; and salute your sister, Rachel.
We remain your poor vet tender affectionate parents.
GEORGE CHARLES AND HLAANNAH SCHNELLER.
*
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CHARLES G. SCHNELLER, ONE OF CATASAUQUA'S EARLY SETTLER
The first excursion to Biery's Port was on an " Ark" run from Allentown, June 26, 1829. Ogden E. Frederick relates with warm enthusiasm the narrative of his mother-in-law, Mrs. James W. Fuller, who was a member of that merry party. She was then a child, Clarissa Miller, eleven years old. She told of
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how the "Ark" was decorated with U. S. flags, how crowded it was and that it was drawn by two horses. The scenery along the water course in those days was truly rustie ; and in the month of June must have breathed upon the quiet air a sweetness unalloyed by the many gases that now stain its borders and l'ade its foliage.
The day on which the first train arrived at Catasauqua on the L. V. R. R., July 4, 1855, brought great excitement to the stately community of the Iron Burg. There was then a beautiful rustic park along the east bank of the Lehigh, where we now behold the picturesque cinder tip. A cannon was stationed in the park ready to fire when the train rounded the curve above Fullerton. All the people of town flocked to the park in their best Sunday bomets and gowns. When at last the engine came snorting around the bend to which all expectant eyes were directed, the deafening roar of the cannon shocked every nerve. After the train had stopped and the magnates, barons and other great men alighted and formed a procession toward the Eagle Hotel for the banquet, a shrill call of the furnace whistles of Hokendanqua announced that a fire had broken out at that plant. The crowd promptly swung its gaze and directed its hastened steps toward Hokendanqua. In the rush for positions on the barges two of them were over-loaded and, when about mid-stream on the Hokendanqua dam, one of them tipped so as to slide a number of people overboard. Although no one got water into his Ings, the principals of the tragedy lost all their starch. The blaze shot up the hoisting shaft and destroyed the buckets and rigging. When Mr. Thomas looked upon the conflagration he dolefully said, "Now we are ruined."
Let it be said, however, that those old boys were an ingenious set. They ran a bannister over the steps leading to the cab of the top-filler and by means of a rope and pulleys worked by a horse hoisted buckets to fill the furnace.
A local sport of the original Fire Company of the Borough was the Water Fight. One part of men played the hose attached to a plug supplied by the furnace pump upon their fellows, who returned a stream from the old hand fire engine. The engineer at the furnace regulated the pressure so as to give
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the hand engine men a vantage from time to time. The fighting parties swayed forward and back until at last one or the other party, drenched and exhausted, vielded to their victors and cried "Enough." The onlooking crowds shouted with langhter and applauded while the men were struggling in the combat. Thus the water-fight Saturday became a great day of sport.
It is quite natural to suppose that the Iron Works attracted visitors from near and far. Prominent among the visitors of the past were Sir Morton Peto. Simon Cameron, Horace Greeley, and Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil. The bridge-house was repeatedly crowded with people. It was the custom of the villagers to come ont at eventide to see the men cast pig-iron.
When the girls of the Moravian Seminary were brought for their annual inspection of the works, those young men who were detailed to escort them through the plant were deemed lucky. They never forgot to take the sweet lassies by the water-house and the horizontal eylinders, driven by water power, which lifted ponderous doors and dropped them with a bang and a splash which caused the ladies to shriek and jump into the expectant arms of the young men who lead them safely on.
Oh, sentiment so sweet, Thy charm can never cease !
Two interesting curios were placed beside the laboratory of the Crane Company on Front Street in 1907. They look like the mouths of two projecting cannon. They are discarded tuyers of the furnaces. A tuyer is a tube through which hot-blast is forced. The one next the street did service in the first furnace erected by the company.
Relative to the flood of 1841 we quote from the records of the Crane Com- pany, "On Thursday, January 7th, at nine o'clock in the evening, the river rose so that the back water prevented the wheel from turning at half after ten covering the tow-path of the level above loek 36. At twelve it was two feet over the banks, and was one foot over the bottom of the hearth of the furnace. At 1.20 the water was at its height, and 34 inches in the furnace. It was at its height until 3.30 o'clock when the river began to fall. The water wheel was
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muddied all over and the water was nine inches over its top. The dam and canal bank was broken so that when the water fell in the river it was too low to turn the wheel though every effort was made to fill up the bank, but they could not succeed and were obliged to throw the furnace out on Monday, the 11th of January.
David Thomas, Thomas S. Young."
The furnace was blown in again on May 18, 1841.
The flood of June 4 to 5, 1862, caused the water to rise from twenty-four to twenty-seven feet above its ordinary level, or four and one-half feet higher than the flood of 1841. Bridges, buildings of all descriptions, canal boats, tim- ber, trees, and household furniture floated down the river. Miraculous escapes, and resenes were made. Uriah F. Koehler, at the risk of his own life, rescued the Hockenberger family : Dr. William A., his wife, and sons William, Joseph and Henry. He ventured into the water on horse back and brought his neighbors from the house at the lock to the old Koehler school house, where they lived until their home was habitable again. On the last trip the horse swam to shore. The roar of the onrushing current was terrible; it could be heard for miles around. And the agonizing shrieks of many victims on logs and floating buildings can still be heard in the memory of our old people.
For a number of years a corn-whiskey distillery stood where the blacksmith shop of the Davies and Thomas Foundry is located. This afforded the farmers of the community a good market for their corn, and a very desirable place for hog feeding. Farmers marked their pigs and brought them to the distillery where they were fattened and when they were fit for the slaughter they were brought home and the happy butchering day began. During the fall and winter seasons there were as many as a thousand hogs in the pens at the distillery at one time. This is why some years ago the unkind nickname of "Hogtown" was given to the Third Ward. At one time cholera broke out among the hogs, and they died like flies. Their carcasses were hanled to an old ore mine shaft near Schoenersville. Exorbitant taxation and growing restrictions caused the proprietors to desist from distilling any more "Bolinky;" the hog yards were
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turned into lumber yards by JJohn Knauss, who also ran a planing mill. After this plant was burnt to the ground, Daniel Davies acquired it for foundry purposes.
When Mrs. Wells became organist in the First Presbyterian Church, in 1870. a Choral Society was formed and the first attempt to render classical music in Catasauqua was made. James Prescott succeeded Mrs. Wells in 1876 and developed the society to such a degree that people from all over the Lehigh Valley journeyed to Catasauqua to hear concerts that were worth while. The Iron Borough still enjoys a lofty distinction for good taste and great skill in the rendition of high class music. The only noticeable feature to-day is the fact that many places once proudly held by the Welsh and the Irish are now meekly occu- pied by the Germans.
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