History of Berks county in Pennsylvania, Part 80

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards
Number of Pages: 1418

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During the Civil War, Mr. Nicolls was thoroughly patriotic. He attended a number of public meetings, which were composed of prominent citizens without regard to political affiliations, and held in this critical period for the purpose of expressing sentiments favorable to the preservation of the Union; and he was constantly liberal in the encouragement of vol- untary enlistment. When the State was threat- ened with an invasion in 1862, he enlisted in Company E, Eleventh Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, commanded by Captain Charles H. Hunter and served as a corporal. This company was named after him, and known as " Nicolls Guards." A movement to signalize

the distinguished part which our county took in the late war has been a cherished object with him since its termination. In 1883 he prepared a suitable and superior design and suggested the centre of "Penn Square" as a proper place upon which to locate the monument, believing that patriotism should be grandly typified in the form of a "Soldiers' Monument" and be placed permanently in the most prominent place of our community so that the eyes of future generations could behold what this generation had done to commemorate the services and sacrifices of our people in behalf of preserving and perpetuating the Constitution and Union of our country. In political belief he has been identified with the Whig and the Republican parties. In 1864 the nomination for Congress was offered to him by the Republican party of the county, but he was obliged to decline it on account of his prominent business connections with the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Com- pany.

During the last forty years Mr. Nicolls has been a great traveler. In 1848 he made a journey of three months to and through the British Islands, having then visited all the places of importance. In 1856 he traveled witlı a party of friends through the southern por- tions of the United States, and also the Island of Cuba. Whilst sojourning in Cuba he ad- dressed a series of interesting letters to the Reading Times, in which they were pub- lished, narrating the experiences of his party in that country, the sights observed, the impres- sions received, etc. In 1872 he visited all the countries in Continental Europe. In 1878 he again made an excursion to Europe, visiting, particularly, the Paris Exposition, England, Sweden and Russia. Some of his letters home were then published on account of their gen- eral interest and information. And in 1884 he crossed the ocean for a fourth time and spent several months in the British Islands.

Mr. Nicolls resided for a number of years at the southeast corner of Penn and Fourth Streets, Reading. In 1870 he began the erec- tion of a handsome and commodious double two-story sand-stone residence, at the northwest corner of Walnut and Fourth Streets, being the

I. a. Nicollo

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first costly improvement of this kind in that section of the city. The plans were prepared by him and the building was erected under his personal supervision. It was finished in 1871, and is even now, though fifteen years have elapsed, one of the finest and most tasteful homes in Reading.

For many years Mr. Nicolls was a vestry- man of Christ Episcopal Church of Reading. He served as a member of the building com- mittee which conducted the alterations of the edifice of this denomination from a brick build- ing to the present beautiful and costly struc- ture, the appearance of which, with its towering and graceful spire, is the most imposing of any church in the city of Reading. He ceased to be a vestryman in 1871. Throughout the course of his life he has been a consistent and devoted member of that branch of the Chris- tian Church known as the Protestant Episcopal Communion of America and England.

In May, 1846, Mr. Nicolls was married to Rosa Catharine Muhlenberg, daughter of Hon. Henry A. Muhlenberg, who was for a number of years member of Congress from this district, also the first minister to Austria, and, at the time of his decease, in 1844, the candidate of the Democratic party for Governor of Pennsylvania. She died May 15, 1867. During her life she was highly esteemed for her intellectual superiority. She was distinguished for charity to the poor people of Reading. The Civil War awakened her patriotism ; and her zeal for the soldiers who went from her native city placed her foremost in the movement which resulted in the creation of the first Ladies' Aid Society in the entire country. She was the president of this society from the beginning to the close of the war, and, as such, was particularly active in performing valuable services in behalf of our men who were away from their homes, by collecting use- ful materials and forwarding the same to them on the field of battle. Her kindness and de- votion were highly appreciated by them, and many of the survivors of that great struggle, who returned and resided in this community, still speak of her in terms expressive of their highest regard.

In January, 1869, Mr. Nicolls was married to Annie Hall Muhlenberg, daughter of Dr. F. A. Muhlenberg, of Lancaster, Pa. They have issue one son, Frederick William Nicolls, who was born on February 7, 1870.

The motto of the Nicolls family is " Fide et Industria." Mr. Nicolls has ever kept it as the guiding rule of his life ; and to it he attributes the success which he has realized on the one hand, and the confidence and esteem which he has received on the other.

GEORGE DE B. KEIM, the eldest son of the Hon. George May Keim and of Julia C. Mayer, his wife, was born in the house of his father, in South Fifth Street, below Chestnut, in the borough of Reading, and being the eldest male grandchild, was named for his grandfather, General George de Benneville Keim. The lat- ter had been named for his grandfather, George de Benneville, widely known as Dr. de Benne- ville, who was born in London, July 26, 1703, and after a varied life, came to this country in the thirty-eiglith year of his age. His father, bearing the same name, was " a French refugee, who, being persecuted for his religion, retired with his family and connections into England upon the invitation of His Majesty King Wil- liam, who took a tender care of them and em- ployed them at his court."

After a preliminary education in local schools (with the exception of a term at Georgetown College, in the District of Columbia, during a part of the period when his father served as a Representative in Congress for Berks County), Mr. Keim was, in the fall of the year 1846, ad- mitted into the sophomore class of Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pa., from which he was graduated in the year 1849. Immediately after graduating, he entered into the laboratory of his kinsman, Dr. Charles M. Wetherill, at Philadelphia, to pursue the study of chemistry, particularly the Liebig system of quantitative and qualitative analysis with reference to min- eral products. Upon returning home, in 1850, he entered the office of Charles Davis, Esq., a prominent and learned member of the bar, (who, in the year 1842, removed from Easton and located at Reading,) and in April, 1852, he was admitted to the practice of the law. While

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HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

residing in Reading, Mr. Keim was actively engaged in local matters. He was a member of the Reading Rifles, which, under the command of Captain Ancona, took a prominent place among the volunteer soldiery ; and for some years he filled the position of president of the Junior Fire Company, a very efficient and use- ful institution.

In 1855, Mr. Keim established himself at Pottsville, the county town of Schuylkill County. Indications then pointed to a largely increased demand in the not distant future for anthracite coal-the important industry of that vicinity, and as a result, the enhancement in value of coal property, and an increase in the number of collieries, as well as in the business and population of the county. Much of the most valuable mineral land was out of the market, owing to the uncertainty of title, and the arrival of the activity looked for would promote measures, either by amicable adjustment or by the tribunals of law, to clear up such difficnl- ties and open for the miner a way to those sealed deposits.

At that time nearly the whole of the valuable coal-field of Mahanoy was without inhabitants and without railroad facilities, and where now are flourishing towns not even a settlement ex- isted. In the western portion of the southern coal-field there was no operation, and where the extensive Brookside and Kalmia Collieries are now located was then a wilderness.

Shortly after Mr. Keim located in Schuyl- kill County a period of great activity com- menced. He "caught on " to the great industry of the region, and acquainting himself with the land titles and requirements of the county, was engaged very early by companies and individ- uals in the settlement of their difficulties and the promotion of their enterprises.

He was employed by the Philadelphia and Reading Coal & Iron Company to attend to the examination of much of their immense estate of leaseholds and lands, and assisted at the birth of that company ; and, in 1874, he was called to Philadelphia in its service and that of its allied institution, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company, filling various positions thercafter in each of said companies until Jan-

uary, 1884, when he was placed in the presi- dency of the same. In June following his election the companies, for the second time in their existence, passed into the hands of re- ceivers (the first time being in May, 1880), when Mr. Keim was appointed one of the re- ceivers of the companies by the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, since which time he has been assiduously engaged in the duties of his ap- pointment and in the endeavor to promote an adjustment of the serious and embarrassing matters connected therewith.

It may be mentioned that Mr. Keim's grand- father, General George de B. Keim, was one of the corporators of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company, and that his uncle, Mr. Wirt Robinson, was, for a number of years, its chief engineer and general manager, succeeding in that position Mr. Moncure Robinson, the eminent engineer, who, after locating and con- structing that road with the assistance of his relative, Mr. Wirt Robinson, resigned the posi- tion, owing to the pressure of other important enterprises in the promotion of which he was engaged.

Historical matters, especially such as relate to his native county and to the State, have re- ceived the attention of Mr. Keim. His inter- est in such pursuits led him, many years ago, to connect himself with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, which honored hin by select- ing him as one of its vice-presidents. The au- thor of this history acknowledges kiudly en- couragement from him at various times whilst prosecuting the laborions undertaking.

By appointment of the Governor of this com- monwealth, Mr. Keim served on the commission which presented Generals Muhlenberg and Fulton as the contribution of statuary from Pennsylvania to the capitol at Washington- these two distinguished men having been select- ed from the common wealth as Representatives, on the one hand, of the German or " Pennsylvania Dutch " element of the people, and on the other, of the Scotch-Irish element. The Hon. Simon Cameron and the Hon. Daniel Ermentrout also served as members of the commission, and the conclusions reached were ouly arrived at after

GEORGE DEB. KEIM

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the fullest discussion and the most careful ac- tion. It must not be forgotten that General Muhlenberg was a grandson of Conrad Weiser, one of the earliest settlers in the Womelsdorf region before the Indian titles were extinguished, a true and useful character, who has honorable mention in connection with the earliest history of the settlement of Berks County.

Mr. Keim was married to Elizabeth Cocke Trezevant, the only daughter of Lewis Crnger Trezevant, M.D., of South Carolina (the only child of the Hon. Lewis Trezevant, a judge of the Supreme Court of that State), and of Eliza- beth Marion Cocke, the daughter of Buller Cocke, Esq., of Bacon's Castle, Surry County, Va. Dr. Trezevant, when his daughter was an infant, moved to his plantation near Memphis, Tenn., where both he and his wife not many years after, at an early age, fell victims to the climate.

Mr. Keim's family, besides his wife, consists of two daughters-Julia Mayer Keim and Su- san Donglass Keim.

J. LOWRIE BELL, a son of Hon. Samuel Bell, was born at Reading, Pa., in November, 1837. He was educated at Russell's Collegiate Institute, New Haven, Conn.

He commenced business life as a clerk with Messrs. Stichter & McKnight, hardware mer- chants at Reading, and remained with them three and one-half years, until 1857, when he entered the service of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company as a clerk, at the freight depot, Broad and Cherry Streets, Phila- delphia. In 1860 he was appointed chief clerk and cashier to the general agent ; and in 1865 he became general agent at Philadelphia in charge of the traffic of the company.

. In 1868 he was appointed general freight agent of all the roads under the management of this company, and in 1880 became its general traffic manager, in which capacity he has charge of all rates for tolls and transportation, and of all commercial questions pertaining to the inter- change of traffic with other companies and transporters.

LEBANON VALLEY .- An act of Assembly was passed on April 1, 1836, incorporating the " Lebanon Valley Railroad Company," for the

purpose of building a railroad from Reading to Harrisburg. This act required an actual sub- scription of four thousand shares of stock before the charter should become operative. This number could not be obtained by private subscriptions, and the project for this railway through a rich and productive country was allowed to slumber for seventeen years. In 1853 the idea was conceived that Lebanon and Reading, as municipal organizations, should en- courage the enterprise by a large subscription of stock, the former by a subscription of two thousand shares, and the latter of six thousand shares. A supplementary act was accordingly passed on 5th of April, 1853, with a provision that the subject of a subscription be submitted to an election of the taxables of the respective places. The City Councils of Reading dis- cussed this subject on May 11, 1853, and then ordered an election to be held on the 15th of June following. This election was to decide for or against a subscription of four thousand shares, amounting to two hundred thousand dollars. In the public discussion of this mat- ter the Adler opposed the subscription ; but the Journal and the Press favored it, expressing the belief that the city would be benefited to the extent of ten times the amount of the sub- scription. The result of the election was as follows :

For subscription. 1658

Against subscription. 682

Majority for subscription 976

The result having terminated favorably, certain taxables applied to the Supreme Court for an injunction. The application was argued at Philadelphia before all the judges on July 27, 1853; but the injunction was refused. (The case is reported in Penna. State Reports, 9 Harris, p. 188.) At the same time three simi- lar cases were argued to restrain subscriptions for stock of projected railways. The Supreme Court assembled at Pittsburgh on Septeniber 6, 1853, and delivered an opinion, deciding that the subscriptions could be made. The subscription by the City Conneils was accord- ingly made, and in payment thereof issued city bonds, amounting to two hundred thousand

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dollars. The construction and completion of this road were facilitated by the assistance of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Com- pany. During its completion an act was passed, May 5, 1857, to authorize the consolidation of the Lebanon Valley Railroad Company with the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company, npon first obtaining consent of the stockholders. This movement awakened con- siderable opposition, but it provailed. The City Councils approved of the consolidation, and encouraged it, especially upon having been assured by the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- road Company that the city bonds would be re- turned and that their company would assume the subscription of four thousand shares. The road was completed and the consolidation effected, and the city bonds were returned; and in December, 1858, the City Councils passed unani- mously a resolution tendering their respectful acknowledgments to the Philadelphia and Read- ing Railroad Company for their generosity in sur- rendering the bonds in exchange for the stock, and expressing an appreciation of the kind and liberal spirit which dictated the action of the company in the premises.

The trains began to run over the road to Harrisburg on Monday, 18th of January, 1858.1 The first train consisted of ten passen- ger cars, and was arranged to convey a number of prominent citizens, including General W. H. Keim and staff, the " Reading Rifles," and the "City Band," from Reading to Harrisburg.

During the construction of the section of the road near Womelsdorf an "Irish Riot" oc- curred, which cansed considerable excitement at Reading. It was reported that one hundred and fifty Irishmen had struck for higher wages on May 3, 1855, and had refused to allow other laborers to work in their stead ; that, among other unlawful acts, they had beaten the foreman and set fire to a large barn in the vicinity, and that warrants had been issued for the arrest of the ringleaders, but that the constable had failed to quell the disturbance. In this alarming situation the sheriff of the

county was sent for on the following day. He responded by calling out the posse comitatus, and making a requisition for three military companies. At two P.M. on the 4th of May the Ringgold Artillery, with seventy-five men, the Reading Artillery, with thirty men, and the Reading Rifles, with thirty men, under the command of General W. H. Keim, accompanied by certain citizens, altogether numhering about two hundred men, started from Reading and marched to Womelsdorf. They apprehended the ringleaders and brought them to Reading and imprisoned them. In marching through town the ringleaders were inclosed in a hollow square of bristling bayonets. This episode became the subject of a humorous poem after the manner of Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade."

The company, in the construction of the road, erected a superh, large and costly wooden bridge across the Schuylkill. This was destroyed by fire during the riot of July, 1877. A superior iron bridge was then built in its stead.

The length of this railroad in the county is sixteen miles. It has the following stations : Sinking Spring, Wernersville, Robesonia, Wom- elsdorf.

EAST PENN .- On the 9th of March, 1856, an act of Assembly was passed incorporating the "Reading and Lehigh Railroad Company," for the purpose of constructing a railroad from the junction of the Philadelphia and Reading and the Lebanon Valley Railroads at Reading, to the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Allentown. The following persons of Reading were named amongst the commissioners : Hiester H. Muh- lenberg, William Strong, George M. Lanman, William M. Baird, Horatio Trexler, William M. Hiestor, Edward M. Clymer, George T. Stitzel and Charles H. Hunter.

The title of the company was changed to " East Pennsylvania Railroad Company," by act passed 21st April, 1857. The construction of the road-way began in June following-the first ground having been broken at a spot, now the highest point of the cut, a short distance north of Temple Station, on June 11, 1857; and it was prosecuted with energy for two years, when it was completed. The last spike was

: The road was opened to Lebanon, twenty-eight miles, for travel in June, 1857.

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driven on the 20th of April, 1859. The begin- ning was signalized by a demonstration at the Temple, speeches were made and cannons fired off, etc; and the completion was likewise an occasion of great joy to the projectors. The day was celebrated on May 11, 1859. Trains began to run then between Reading and Allentown Junction, a distance of thirty-six miles. A dis- tinguished party from New York City-includ- ing a prominent metropolitan brass band-vis- ited Reading. Among the prominent features of the celebration was a song in "Berks County Dutch," entitled " Der Deutsch Kompanie," the rendition of which caused much merriment and is remembered with pleasure till now by many who witnessed the performance on a platform which had been erected on Penn Square, at the market house, below Fifth Street. This song was "the joint production of native talent." It was as follows-the chorus having been re- peated at the end of each stanza :

DER DEUTSCH KOMPANIE. O te Deutsch Kompanie Is te besht Kompanie As ever jined te sea Mit ter Berks County.

Herr CLYMER ish te President, and ven te times vos blue,

He got Moore help from Gotham and put te railroad troo.

Te beoples vot took shtock didn't have many funds, So te Bulls gif te money, and te Deutsch gif te bonds.

Te Kutztowners grumble tat te road ish n't tare,

But tey didn't gif tare money and tey wouldn't take a share.

Ein gloss Lager und zwei gloss Beer- If you haint got no shtock you can't shtay here.

Ven you hear te Drums go boom, boom, boom, Ten you may be sure dat te Got-'am-ites haf come.

Here's to te Light Guard-here to te Band :

Ve'll take em to te Market-House and put em on te shtand.

Ve'll take em out 3d street, vere tey vere before, To see vat te beoples call Lauer's "great bore."

Ve'll put em in te Manshen House as soon as tey do came,

Kept by te "Brince of Lantlorts'-TE BERPON ish his name.

Ve'll march em troo te shtreets and ve'll take em to te "Shprings,"

And ve'll feasht em and ve'll toasht em and all tem sorts of tings.

Schweitzer Kase und pretzels und lager beer too, Ve haf in Berks County, and dem not a few.

Te New York chaps mit te hair at te nose, Tey open teir mouths and town te lager goes.

Talk about your Champaigne, Sherry and such, But lager ish te besht for te bellies of te Dutch.

Too much Champaigne is very bad shtuff, But too much lager beer ish youst about enough.

Te city in te hills and te city on te sea, Are now jined together by te Deutsch Kompanie.

Ve'll keep trate a goin' boys-tat you may bet ; You'll send te Dry Goods, and ve'll send te wet.

Ten success to te party tat jined land and sea ; Tree cheers and a tiger for te Deutsch Kompanie.

Te song ish gittin out-if you vant any more, Begin at te top and go on as before.

This road was leased to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company in May, 1869, for nine hundred and ninety-nine years ; by which company it has been operated since.

The length of the railroad in the county is twenty-three miles, upon which there are the following stations : Temple, Blandon, Fleet- wood, Lyons, Bowers, Topton, Mertztown, Shamrock.

EDWARD MYERS CLYMER was the son of Edward Tilghman Clymer and Marie C. (nee Hiester), his wife, born in Caernarvon township on July 16, 1822. He went to the local schools in his early youth and afterwards to the Abbe- ville Academy, in Lancaster County, and to the academy of Joshua Hoopes, at West Chester. He then selected the law as his profession, and after pursuing his legal studies for a while under William Strong, Esq. (then a practicing attor- ney at Reading, and afterward associate justice on the Supreme Bench of Pennsylvania and of the United States), he entered the Harvard Law School, from which he was graduated in 1845. Upon his return to Reading he was ad- mitted to the bar, on August 4, 1845. He then opened a law-office and soon acquired a lucra- tive practice, which he continued till 1857, at

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HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

which time he became thoroughly interested in projecting the East Pennsylvania Railroad from Reading to Allentown. His efforts in this en- terprise were entirely successful. He became the first president of the company and continued in this office till the road was leased to tlie Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. In 1874 he was chosen president of the coal companies belonging to the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, which it owned and operated in Pennsylvania, and he held this position till his death, which occurred at New York, May 25, 1883. His manage- ment of the coal companies was very successful. Whilst in the active practice of his profession at Reading he took great interest in the political affairs of the county, and having been a Demo- crat, he was associated with the leaders of the Democratic party during that period. He was married, in 1864, to Ella M. Dietz, of New York City, with whom they had issue, one son, Edward M. Clymer, Jr.

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History of Berks county in Pennsylvania, Part 80

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards Number of Pages: 1418

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards
Number of Pages: 1418