Historical and biographical annals of Berks County, Pennsylvania, embracing a concise history of the county and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families, Volume I, Part 85

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846; J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : J. H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1018

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When he finished his connection with the post-office he resumed his work in the Journal office, and in January, 1866, became co-proprietor and associate editor of the

Mr. Crater is a writer of considerable ability, especially on historical subjects, for which he has a decided fondness. paper. Up to the year 1869 the firm bore the name of

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HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

J. Knabb & Co .; in that year they also became the pro- at Lebanon; once at Harrisburg; and twice at Allentown, prietors of the Daily Times, which, in 1871, was consoli- dated with the Evening Dispatch, under the title The Times and Dispatch. The Reading Times Publishing Company was organized in 1897, with Mr. Zimmerman as president and editor. This paper is one of the foremost journals in the State, and exerts the strongest kind of influence upon the moral and material development of its city, standing in high esteem with the political leaders in the State and at Washington. After more than half a century of journal- istic work in Reading, he retired in October, 1908. In com- memoration of the event a public subscription dinner was given him at the "Mineral Springs Hotel," in which up- ward of eighty leading citizens of Reading and adjoining cities participated.

Mr. Zimmerman was happy in the choice of his vocation and his home. He is a great lover of nature, and evidently believes, with a distinguished writer and fellow-pedestrian, that "the shining angels second and accompany the man who goes afoot, while all the dark spirits are ever looking out for a chance to ride." It was his habit for nearly forty years to take daily walks into the country, accom- panied often only by his favorite dog, returning after a long excursion to his editorial desk by noon. Nothing turned him aside from the calling for which he was so eminently fitted. He had many flattering offers to engage in other fields of work, but in all cases these were declined. In his early manhood he had arranged to enter the law office of Hon. William Strong, and was also importuned to study for the ministry; his manifest destiny, ' however, made and kept him a journalist and writer of no mean ability. A brother editor comments on the jour- alistic abilities of Mr. Zimmerman in this language: "Mr. Zimmerman is a writer of force and ability. His writings are pure, easy and graceful. He is witty and humorous when occasion demands. In controversy he is gentlemanly at all times, and in argument he is fair and generous to his opponents. He has a genuine taste for literature, poetry and the fine arts, as many of his articles attest. He is one of the ablest writers in the old Commonwealth. Many of his articles show alike the eye of the artist, and the hand of the litteratur." One of these productions, that most widely published and copied, was a sketch . of his visit to the Luray Caverns in Virginia; the merits of this inspiration of the moment were seen hy the Hotel and Cave Company, who caused to be published upward of sixty thousand copies in illustrated pamphlet form for general circulation. The newspapers of Richmond, Va., copied this article, and the favor it met with called out the request that Mr. Zimmerman also write up the unde- veloped resources of Alabama.

Mr. Zimmerman was united in marriage with Tamsie T. Kauffman of Reading, on June 11, 1867. Several years previous, in 1863, he enlisted in Company C, 42d Pa. V. I., but that company did not see active service. He was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania German Society, as well as one of the reorganizers, in 1898, of the Historical Society of Berks County. He has been for many years a member of the Board of Trustees of the Asylum for the Chronic Insane of Pennsylvania, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Reading Free Public Library. The degree of L. H. D. (Doctor of the Humanities) was conferred upon him by Muhlenberg College in 1904. He was also a member of the 27th National Conference of Charities and Corrections-office at Chicago; was also elected President of the Pennsylvania Association of Sup- erintendents and Trustees of the Insane Asylums and Feeble-Minded of the State of Pennsylvania, 1908-09. In October, 1908, he was elected president of the Pennsylvania German Society.

besides numerous occasions in Reading. He was sub- sequently selected by the Society as its special represen- tative before the Chautauqua Assembly at Mt. Gretna, at which time he was elected one of the vice-presidents of that body in honor of the occasion. Within the last ten years Mr. Zimmerman has made upward of a hundred public addresses in various parts of the Commonwealth. He has frequently been mentioned as an available candidate for mayor of Reading, and twice his name was presented for the Congressional nomination from the Berks Legislative district, both of which honors he de- clined. He is a well-known figure in Reading, and has a host of devoted friends, who were won by his lofty, manly spirit, universal friendship of heart, and strong sense of right and duty; he is in particular favor with the Germans, in whose behalf he has written and spoken much.

Very early in life Mr. Zimmerman began to read poetry for the intellectual pleasure and profit which its elevated diction afforded him, and at the age of eighteen he had already made considerable progress in a predetermined sys- tematic perusal of the whole line of English poets, or of as many of them as lay within his reach. The instinct of the translator asserted itself in marvelous maturity, when he began to make this one of the prominent features of The Reading Times. Hundreds of these matchless trans- lations from the German classics into English appeared from time to time, the Saturday issue of the paper invar- iably containing a translation into English of some German poem, the original and translation appearing close together in parallel columns; in recognition of their merit he has been made the recipient of many presents, from friends at home and abroad. Worthy of mention among these are seventy-five volumes of German poetry from an admirer, residing in Berlin, Germany; his collection of tobacco pipes from Germany, England, Ireland, France, Denmark, Finland and Holland is palpable evidence of the widespread influence his work has had upon readers. Mr. Zimmerman has shown remarkable aptitude and poetic skill in all his translations, preserving with remarkable fidelity the exact measure of the original poems, and the rhythmical beat of each syllable with remarkable fidelity.

One of his most noted translations from the German, viz., The Prussian National Battle Hymn, appeared in the Berlin (Germany) Times, with a half-tone portrait of the author of the translation.

Some very original work has been done by Mr. Zimmer- man in his translations of English classics into Pennsyl- vania German, that curious mixture of German dialects and English words which continues to be the chief spoken language of over half of the inhabitants of Berks county. His first attempt, Clement C. Moore's "'Twas the Night before Christmas," caught the fancy of the press at once, and its favorable mention brought him congratulatory let- ters from such men as Prof. Haldeman, the eminent phil- ologist of the University of Pennsylvania; Hon. Simon Cameron; Gen. Hartranft; P. F. Rothermel, painter of the "Battle of Gettysburg"; Prof. Porter of Lafayette College; Prof. Horne of Muhlenberg College, and other men of prominence in the literary world. Poems of Tom Hood, Oliver Goldsmith, Heine and Longfellow followed, and were received with hearty interest by the German people.

"Luther's Battle Hymn," a translation from the German into English, was a wonderful inspiration, and fairly ran up and down the country, as soon as it was given to the public through The Reading Times. In five weeks it brought eighteen columns of letters to the paper that published it, from eminent divines, professors, publicists, poets, historians and others in the higher walks of society. Notwithstanding there are some seventy or eighty transla- tions of this magnificent poem, Mr. Zimmerman's effort has been characterized by Rev. Dr. Pick, the publisher of these translations, as "the newest and best that has been

Mr. Zimmerman has delivered quite a number of ad- dresses on public occasions. He has been selected half a dozen times or more to speak before the Pennsylvania Ger- man Society : Once in the court-house at Lancaster, where the Society was organized ; once in the court-house at York, in response to the address of welcome, and in the evening made." The new version was especially favored by being of the same day at the banquet in the same city; once sung with enlarged choirs in different denominations of

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town and city, and sermons here and there were delivered on the translation. Following is Mr. Zimmerman's trans- lation of the famous hymn :

"A rock-bound fortress is our God, A good defense and weapon, He helps us out of every need That doth us press or threaten. The old, wicked foe, With zeal now doth glow; Much craft and great might Prepare him for the fight, On earth there is none like him.

"With . our own strength there's nothing done,

We're well nigh lost, dejected : For us doth fight the proper One, Whom God himself elected. Dost ask for his name? Christ Jesus-the same ! The Lord of Sabaoth, The world no other hath; This field must He be holding.

"And were the world with devils filled, With wish to quite devour us, We need not be so sore afraid, Since they can not o'erpower us. The Prince of this World, In madness though whirled, Can harm you nor me ; Because adjudged is he .. A little word can fell him.

"This Word shall they now let remain, No thanks therefor attending ; He is with us upon the plain, His gifts and spirit lending. Though th' body be ta'en, Goods, child, wife and fame; Go-life, wealth and kin! They yet can nothing win : For us remaineth the Kingdom."

Mr. Zimmerman's translation of Schiller's "The Song of the Bell" met with even more favor from the public; no less than twenty columns of newspaper matter made up of letters from all over the world came to the translator, and though twenty years have elapsed since its first appearance, Mr. Zimmerman receives continued inquiries for the trans- lation from far and near. The Philadelphia Ledger says : "Mr. Zimmerman's translations have been highly com- mended by literary authorities at home and abroad. He has shown a special gift for making his English readers familiar with the spirit of the best German poets. Even those who are well at home in German will find a special interest in comparing the translation with the original, for he is sure to find that Mr. Zimmerman has not only seized the meaning of the author, but he has so put it into an English clothing as to show that the real bone and sinew of the original still lives in its new dress." Hon. Andrew D. White, U. S. Minister to Germany, in a letter to Mr. Zimmerman about his translations writes: "They have greatly interested me, as you seem to have caught their spirit and rendered them admirably. I am not sufficiently strong in literary criticism to compare them with other translations, but they seem to me to be thoroughly well done. I have also been especially interested in your trans- lations into Pennsylvania German of some of the poems. Although not a philologist, the reading of them has also greatly interested me, and they, too, 'seem very spirited and in all respects interesting." Prof. Marion D. Learned, of the Department of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, says : "A masterful hand is visible in all the translations. *

* *

** *

It is perhaps safe to say that Schiller's 'Song of the Bell' is the most difficult lyrical poem in the German language to render into English with the corresponding meters. Your

version seems to me to excel all other English translations of the poem, both in spirit and in rhythm. Especially striking in point of movement is your happy use of the English participle in reproducing Schiller's feminine rhymes. Your version, however, while closely adhering to the form of the original, maintains at the same time dignity and clearness of expression, which translators often sacrifice to meet the demands of rhythm. Your poetic instinct has furnished you the key to this masterpiece of German song." The New York World says : "Mr. Zim- merman's rendering [Schiller's 'Song of the Bell'] is a triumph' of the translator's art, and recalls the work of Bayard Taylor." The New York Herald says : "Mr. Zim- merman has placed his name in the category of famous litterateurs by a very creditable translation of Schiller's 'Song of the Bell.' "

The following ably written criticism is from the pen of J. B. Ker, who, while a resident of Scotland, once stood for Parliament: "To Col. T. C. Zimmerman-Sir : Having read and studied your noble translation of Schiller's 'Song of the Bell,' I have been forcibly impressed by the music of the language into which you have rendered the poem. This is a merit of capital importance in the translation of this poem. In estimating the value of translations of the great German poems, it is necessary to bear in mind the weight which the literary and critical . consciousness of Germany attached to the ancient classical canons of poetry. There is no question here as to whether the ancients were right. The point for us is that their influence was loyally acknowledged as of high authority during the Augustan age of German literature. Proof of this can be found in Goethe as distinctly as it super-abundantly appears in Lessing's famous 'Dramatic Notes,' where the poetic dicta of Aristotle are treated with profound respect. In the study of Aristotle's work on the Poetic, nothing is perhaps more striking than his dictum that poetry is imitation, with the explanation or enlargement so aptly given by Pope in the words :

""Tis not enough no harshness gives offense, The sound must seem an echo to the sense. Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows; But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse, rough waves should like the torrent roar; When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line, too, labors, and the words move slow, Not so, when swift Camilla scours the main, Flies o'er the unbending corn, or skims along the plain.'

"Not knowing the German recognition of the law and acknowledging its realization in the works of the leading Tentonic poets, one of the crucial tests of a translation of a great German poet is, Does the language into which the original is rendered form an 'echo to the sense'? It seems to me that one of the strongest points in your trans- lation of the 'Bell' is that the words which you have selected and gathered have sounds, which, like the music of a skillful musical composer, convey a signification in- dependently of their literal meaning. Not to protract these remarks unduly, few words could more appropriately refer to the music of strong and distant bells than your rendering-

'That from the metal's unmixed founding Clear and full may the bell be sounding.'

"Very slight poetic capacity must admit the music of these. words as eminently happy in the 'Song of the Bell.' The echo to the sense is also striking in the sound of the word-symbols in many places throughout the rendering where the poet describes the occurrences conceived in con- nection with the bell's imagined history. Speaking of the visions of love,

'O, that they would be never-ending, These vernal days with lovelight blending,'

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the way in which the penult of the word 'ending' conveys the idea of finality, while the affix of the present participle yet prolongs the word as though loth to let it depart, is a beautiful and enviable realization of the Aristotelian rule, a prolongation of the words which expresses doubly a prolongation of desire. The four lines reading :

'Blind raging, like the thunder's crashing It bursts its fractured bed of earth As if from out hell's jaws fierce flashing, It spewed its flaming ruin forth,'

have a vehement strength and a rough and even a painful and horrid sound which apply with singular propriety to the horrible images by which the poet presents the catas- trophe to our quickened apprehensions. The beautiful lines.

'Joy to me now God hath given,' etc.,

in which the bell founder exults, avoiding, as they do, the deeper vowel sounds and preserving as it were a series of high musical notes save where the gift descends from heaven to earth, when the vowel sounds fall from high to low, form a delightful resonance of the happy sentiment they embody. The general experience of translations is that they are more prosy than sonorous or musical. Few, however, if any, will deny the melody of your language in many places and its remarkable appropriateness in others, and those who have worked on similar translations can best judge how great is the success you have accom- plished in this valuable contribution to Anglo-Saxon liter- ature."

Mr. Zimmerman published a collection of his addresses, sketches of Out-Door Life, translations and original poems in two volumes, entitled "Olla Podrida." The volumes, which were published in the fall of 1903, were received with great favor, almost the entire edition having been sold in a month's time, a number of the public libraries having become purchasers.

We present to our readers a few short selections from Mr. Zimmerman's translation of "The Song of the Bell":

"Firmly walled in earth and steady, Stands the mold of well-burnt clay. Quick, now, workmen, be ye ready ! Forth must come the bell today ! Hot from forehead's glow Must the sweat-drops flow, Should the master praise be given ; Yet the blessing comes from Heaven.

"The work prepared with so much ardor May well an earnest word become; When good discourse attends the labor, Then flows employment briskly on. Observe with care, then, what arises- See what from feeble strength escapes ; The man so poor, each one despises, Who ne'er foresees the form he shapes. 'Tis this that man so well adorneth, For mind hath he to understand That in his inner heart he feeleth Whate'er he fashions-with his hand.

"O sweetest hope! O tender longing ! The earliest love's first golden time ! The eye, it sees the heavens thronging With rapt'rons sights and scenes sublime ; O, that they would be never-ending, These vernal days with lovelight blending.

"Through the streets with fury flaring, Stalks the fire with fiendish glaring, Rushing as if the whirlwind sharing! Like the blast from furnace flashing Glows the air, and beams are crashing, Pillars tumbling, windows creaking, Mothers wandering, children shrieking, Beasts are moaning,

Running, groaning,

'Neath the ruins; all are frightened, Bright as day the night enlightened.

"From the steeple, Sad and strong, Th' bell is tolling A fun'ral song.

Sad and slow its mournful strokes attending Some poor wand'rer tow'rds his last home wending. Ah! the wife it is, the dear one;

Ah! it is the faithful mother,

Whom the Prince of Shades, unheeding, From the husband's arms is leading, From the group of children there, Whom she blooming to him bare ; On whose breast saw, maid and boy, Growing with maternal joy. Ah! the household ties so tender Sundered are forevermore; Gone into the realm of shadows She who ruled this household o'er. Now her faithful reign is ended, She will need to watch no more; In the orphaned place there ruleth A stranger, loveless evermore.

"And this henceforth its calling be, Whereto the master set it free! High o'er this nether world of ours, Shall it, in heaven's azure tent, Dwell where the pealing thunder lowers, And border on the firmament. It shall, too, be a voice from heaven, Like yonder starry hosts, so clear, Who in their course extol their Maker, And onward lead the wreath-crowned year. To earnest things and things eternal Devoted be its metal tongue, And, hourly, Time, with swift-winged pinions, Will touch it as it flieth on.

Its tongue to dest'ny 'twill be lending ;

No heart itself, from pity free Its swinging ever be attending Life's changeful play, whate'er it be. And as the sound is slowly dying That strikes with such o'erpowering might,

So may it teach that naught abideth, That all things earthly take their flight."

Following is Reading's Official Sesqui-Centennial Hymn, as written by Thomas C. Zimmerman, and sung on Tues- day evening, June 6, 1898, by a chorus of 600 voices, to an audience of 20,000 people, assembled on Penn's Com- mon :

"All hail to Reading's name and fame! And let the welkin ring With song and shout and roundelay, As we together sing. And may our songs, with glad acclaim, To heav'n, like incense rise, While glowing hearts in tones proclaim Her glory to the skies.

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"'Tis sev'n score years ago and ten Since this fair town was born; Its sweet young life must have exhaled

A breath like rosy morn. So let us sing till yonder hills Send back the joyous song ; Till echoing dales and rippling rills The gladsome sound prolong.

"Let others tread life's stately halls, Where princely pleasures flow ; Give us our homes, like jewels set In evening's sunset glow. And may our hearts, in swelling pride, Forget not those of old-

The men of Reading's pristine days- Whose hearts have long grown cold.

"Let all, therefore, with mingled voice, Repeat the glad refrain ;

Let civic pride, in flowing tide, Rejoice with might and main. And God, the Father of us all, With His protecting care, Will bless us while we praise in song Our city, bright and fair."

Mr. Zimmerman also wrote the Sesqui-Centennial of Berks, which was adopted by the Historical Society of Berks as the official hymn. Following is the translation :

Air :- "America." "Hail, beauteous Berks! to thee Let song and minstrelsy Their tribute pay ! Let joy in rapture break Till echoing hills awake, And woodland summits shake, On this glad day.

"Our sires, long since at rest, With mem'ries, sweet and blest, Were at thy birth. With axe and brawn and brain, They toiled, with might and main, A dear loved home to gain On this green earth.

"And now, with upturned eyes, Your children's gladsome cries Their homage bring. From all our mines and mills, From Manatawny's hills, And Ontelaunee's rills, Let praises ring.

ment to Stephen C. Foster at his home in Pittsburg, which, according to the Pittsburg papers, had its real inception in an editorial prepared by Mr. Zimmerman for the Reading Times, after a visit to that city and finding no memorial to perpetuate the memory of the world's greatest writer of negro melodies. This edi- torial was republished in the Pittsburg Press and in- dorsed by that paper, which also started a fund to pro- vide a suitable memorial and called on the public for popular subscriptions, the ultimate result being the stat- ue which now adorns Highland Park, in that city. The following from the Pittsburg Times, in a personal no- tice of Mr. Zimmerman's visit to that Park several years ago, said: "Out at Highland Park yesterday passers- by noticed a handsome, military looking gentleman mak- ing a minute study of the Stephen C. Foster statue. Every feature of this artistic bit of sculpture, from Fos- ter's splendid face to Uncle Ned and the broken string of his banjo, was examined with affectionate interest. The man was Col. Thomas C. Zimmerman, editor of the Reading (Pa.) Times, and the statue was the fruition of his fondest wish. Col. Zimmerman has been for many years one of the staunchest admirers of Foster's imperishable songs and melodies. Sixteen years ago while in Pittsburg visiting the late Major E. A. Mon- tooth, he asked the latter to show him the monument to Foster, and was painfully surprised to discover that no such memorial existed. Shortly after his return to Reading he wrote an editorial for his paper, calling the attention of the world in general and Pittsburg in particular to the neglect of Foster's memory."

MILTON BRAYTON McKNIGHT, son of David Mc- Knight and Elizabeth Hiester, his wife, was born in Read- ing, Sept. 30, 1855.

Paul McKnight, his great-grandfather, of Scottish an- cestry, came to America in 1752, from the North of Ireland, and settled in Chester county.

Paul's son, John McKnight (born May 31, 1774-died March 9, 1855), came to Reading in 1808, and conducted a Branch of the Bank of Pennsylvania of Philadelphia, which Branch Bank was afterward incorporated as the National Union Bank of Reading.

David McKnight (born May 2, 1814-died Aug. 29, 1873), a son of John McKnight, assisted and succeeded his father in conducting' the Reading Branch of the Bank of Pennsylvania, and upon the incorporation of the Union Bank of Reading (afterward the National Union Bank) became its first president, and held this office until his death.

On his mother's side, Elizabeth Beck Hiester (born May 5, 1817-died Oct. 11, 1897) was a daughter of Joseph Hiester of Reading (born Aug. 4, 1768-died April 16, 1830), and a granddaughter of Joseph Hiester (1710-1772), who came to America from Westphalia, Germany, in 1737.

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Historical and biographical annals of Berks County, Pennsylvania, embracing a concise history of the county and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families, Volume I, Part 85

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846; J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago : J. H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1018

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846; J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : J. H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1018