USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of Carbon County, Pennsylvania; also containing a separate account of the several boroughs and townships in the county, with biographical sketches > Part 24
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SCHWAB SCHOOL HOUSE AND SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, WEATHERLY.
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THE NEW YORK I PUBLIC VIRKERYI
TILDA FOUNDATIONS.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
attendance from far and near and there was a street parade in which many visiting bands, drum corps, civic societies, and a company of regular soldiers, from Fort Hamilton, participated. Mr. Schwab, accompanied by his wife and other members of his family came from New York in a special train to witness the dedication exercises. Twelve teachers and a supervisory princi- pal are employed, while the high school course requires three years for completion.
Weatherly is amply provided with hotels. The first license for a tavern in the place was that granted to Benjamin Romig in 1831. The next hotel to be opened was that of William Tubbs, which stood on the present site of the Gilbert House. The present hotel received its name from Charles Gilbert, who was the landlord from 1843 to 1848. In 1851 the Carbon House was opened by Joseph W. Leadenham. Lawrence Tarleton is the present owner. The Weatherly Hotel occupies the site where the Packer House stood for many years. The last named building was erected as a dwelling by Aaron Grimes in 1856. It came into the possession of Levi Hartz in 1868, and he conducted it as a hotel until his death, which occurred about 1890. The present building is owned by Henry Schaffer. The Verzi House was built by Joseph Verzi in 1882. Harry Gangwer is the present landlord and owner. Another hotel is that of Abraham Patterson.
The first postmaster of Weatherly was R. D. Stiles, who was appointed in 1848. During the incumbency of Thomas Dunn, in 1903, the only rural route starting from this office was established. This route leads through Packer township. James M. Dreher is the present postmaster.
The only newspaper purblished in the borough is the Herald, which was established by H. V. Morthimer in
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
1880. It is issued weekly, and has been owned and edited by Percy E. Faust since 1886.
A board of trade was organized in 1898, and this body has rendered valuable service to the community.
The various fraternal and beneficial societies are well represented here. The Grand Army Post was named in honor of Colonel James Miller, and was or- ganized on August 11, 1882, with forty members. Not many of these remain. A soldiers' monument, which stands on the hill near the Schwab school building, was erected and dedicated in 1906.
The borough obtains its water supply from the Weatherly Water Company, which was chartered Jan- uary 24th, 1882. The works were built the same year, and the source of supply at first was Shep's run. In 1883 an additional supply was obtained from Penrose creek. The water works system now consists of stor- age and distributing reservoirs, gravity supply mains, and a high and low distributing system. Penrose creek, which rises in Banks township, is the principal source of supply. A storage reservoir having a capacity of 3,000,000 gallons is situated on this stream.
Church services were first held here by the Presby- terian denomination in the year 1838. Rev. Daniel Gas- ton, who resided at Beaver Meadow was the pastor. After 1841, services were usually held in the school house until 1852, when a church building was com- menced. The edifice was dedicated on the 9th of Octo- ber, 1853. The adherents of the Methodist denomina- tion and of several others also worshipped in this build- ing.
In 1866 the Methodists erected a building of their own. The father of this church was Rev. Emory T. Swartz, now of Scranton. It was named the Centenary Methodist Episcopal church, because the year of its
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
erection was the centennial of Methodism in the United States.
The corner stone of St. Nicholas' Roman Catholic church was laid on October 25, 1874. The building was completed during the following year. Rev. E. V. Mc- Elhone was the first rector. This church was for many years a mission of St. Mary's church at Beaver Meadow, as was St. Joseph's at Laurytown. In 1902, during the residence here of Rev. F. X. Wastl, St. Nich- olas' was organized as a separate parish. In 1907 the building was enlarged and remodeled. Various other improvements of a substantial nature were made dur- ing the pastorate of Rev. Wastl.
Salem's Reformed church was the next to be built in the borough. The church edifice was erected in 1875, the first pastor being Rev. J. Fuendling. He was suc- ceeded by Rev. M. H. Mishler, who served about four years, when Rev. A. M. Masonheimer, the present pas- tor, was called.
Zion's Evangelical Lutheran church was built in 1876. There were but thirty members at the time of or- ganization, and for a time the church had no regular pastor. Its first regular pastor was Rev. Lewis Smith, who took charge on October 1st, 1883. Rev. W. Penn Barr accepted the pastorate of this congregation in 1903. During the following year the church building was remodeled at a cost of $7,000.
Christ Episcopal church had its beginnings during the eighties. Meetings were first conducted in Oak Hall, where the congregation and Sunday school was organized. Mrs. Emma J. Blakslee Pryor was one of the most influential persons in the establishment of this congregation. In 1888 the present church building was completed.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Bethesda Evangelical church was erected in 1890 on land donated by Dr. J. B. Tweedle and Daniel Yeakel.
The Holiness Christian Association gained a footing here in 1896, following a series of open air meetings. A house of worship was put up in the same year.
One of Weatherly's institutions which is believed to be unique is the town cane, given as a badge of honor by the people of the borough to the oldest male resident of the community. This custom was established in 1907, and its originator was J. F. Kressley, a former chief burgess of the town. The present holder of the cane, and the first to whom the honor has come, is Lewis Flickinger, who was born in Mahoning township, Car- bon county, on December 3, 1818. It is provided that upon the death of the person entitled to possess the cane, it shall become the duty of the chief burgess pub- licly to present it to the oldest man remaining a resi- dent of the borough. The cane is of beautiful work- manship and bears an appropriate inscription.
WEISSPORT BOROUGH.
While Weissport is one of the smaller boroughs of Carbon county, it nevertheless occupies a conspicuous position in the early history of this portion of the state. It is bounded on the north, east and south by Franklin township, to which it formerly belonged, and on the west by the Lehigh river. Like Lehighton, its sister borough on the opposite bank of the Lehigh, Weiss- port was first settled by the Moravian missionaries. A portion of the original tract of land purchased by the Moravians in 1745, and on which Gnadenhütten mission was established, near the mouth of the Mahoning, in 1746, extended across the river and embraced the north- ern part of the present site of Weissport.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
In 1754, the mission was removed from Gnadenhüt- ten to the spot where Weissport now stands, and the place became known as New Gnadenhütten. While the principal settlement was now located on the eastern bank of the river, its parent on the Mahoning was not entirely deserted.
But scarcely had the new community been ushered into being when those remaining at Gnadenhüttten were attacked by Indians and most of their number slain. This occurrence prompted the missionaries and their Mohegan and Delaware converts, numbering several hundred, to desert New Gnadenhütten, and flee to Beth- lehem for safety.
The Indian massacre took place on the evening of the 24th of November, 1755; during the month of January, 1756, Benjamin Franklin built Fort Allen, which stood on the present site of the hotel of that name. A short distance to the rear of the hotel may still be seen the well which was dug under Franklin's supervision. It was within the enclosure of the fort, and supplied the soldiers of the garrison with water.
Having served the purpose for which it was erected, Fort Allen was evacuated in January, 1761, and it was not until nearly a quarter of a century afterwards that the permanent settlement of Weissport was begun. The place is named in honor of its founder, Colonel Jacob Weiss, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, who was a native of Philadelphia.
Colonel Weiss first visited the locality in 1784, and soon thereafter purchased seven hundred acres of land between what is now Parryville and Long Run from the Moravians. The land was heavily timbered and his object in making the purchase was to engage in lumber- ing operations. He erected a log house for his own use on the identical site of Franklin's fort, besides building
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
a saw mill and a house for the man whom he employed as his sawyer, John Roth.
In 1785, Weiss brought his family, consisting of his wife, two children, and his mother-in-law, to the new home. At the time of his coming the Arners, Solts and Hoeths were already settled along the Poho Poco creek, several miles to the eastward, while the Dodsons and a few other families lived in the valley of the Mahoning, on the opposite side of the river.
The land was soon denuded of its timber, and in a few years fields were cleared and planted. Colonel Weiss purchased other large tracts in the vicinity, and was engaged in lumbering on an extensive scale for many years.
Farming proved rather an unprofitable occupation at first, however, because the soil was rough and barren, while frosts during the growing season, due in large measure to the moisture of the forests, were of com- mon occurrence.
On the night of October 6, 1786, Colonel Weiss and his family narrowly escaped being drowned when the Lehigh suddenly and unexpectedly overflowed its banks, spreading all over the flats about the little set- tlement. Near the hour of midnight the family was aroused by the wailing cry, "We are surrounded !" Years had gone by since last the region had been vis- ited by hostile Indians; but the first thought suggested by this signal of distress was that a war party had fallen upon them, bent on murder and pillage.
As soon as the true nature of the situation was un- derstood, hasty preparations were made to escape to the nearby hills. All of the family excepting Colonel Weiss and his wife were driven to a place of safety in a wagon. The Colonel made his escape on horseback, while his wife was borne to higher ground in an arm chair by some of the men of the settlement.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Near the river stood a house occupied by a man named Tippey, his wife and two children. They were less fortunate than their neighbors. Their dwelling was swept from its foundations by the fast-rising flood, and was carried away by the current. In this ex- tremity the parents clung protectingly to the children until the house struck a tree, about a mile down the river, when the little ones were washed to destruction. Tippey and his wife caught hold of the limbs of the tree and were rescued in a canoe by one of Colonel Weiss' men, who had been a sailor. This event came to be known as "Tippey's Flood."
About the year 1800, settlers began to pour into the region west of the Lehigh, and this gave rise to agita- tion for the construction of a bridge across the river at Weissport. The bridge was built by Northampton county, of which Carbon then formed a part, in 1805, the cost of the structure being about $3,000. Follow- ing its erection, the road leading from Bethlehem to Gnadenhütten, which was built by the Moravians, more than fifty years before this time, was extended to Lausanne, at the mouth of the Nesquehoning creek, a short distance above the point where Mauch Chunk is now situated. In 1808 this road became a part of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike, connecting Berwick and Easton. The original bridge at Weissport was partially wrecked by the flood of 1841, but, after being repaired, stood until 1862, when it was entirely swept away. It was then rebuilt, and has since been main- tained by the county.
In 1827, when the building of the Lehigh Canal was begun, there were but a few houses at Weiss' Mill, as the place was then designated. It was at first planned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to locate the canal on the west side of the river; Colonel Weiss,
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
however, offered the company a free right of way through his lands on the opposite bank, and this re- sulted in the canal being built on the east side of the river. Weiss and his sons then made a town plot, pro- viding for lots, streets, and a public square. About forty lots were soon disposed of, being sold on the plan of a lottery for seventy-five dollars each. By this ar- rangement the holder of each ticket was entitled to a lot, the only uncertainty attending its purchase being with reference to its location.
The public square, which to-day is one of the chief attractions of the place, was presented to the town by Colonel Weiss. The building of houses was begun in earnest with the completion of the canal through here in 1829. The tavern now known as the Weissport House was built in that year by Peter Snyder, and oc- cupied by Daniel Heberling, its first landlord.
Weiss was now burdened with age and infirmities, and the active control of his affairs devolved upon his sons, Francis and Thomas. The former was a sur- veyor, doing most of the surveying in this region for many years.
About 1832, Lewis Weiss, one of the sons of Thomas Weiss, began the building of boats along the canal for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company and for the Morris Canal and Banking Company. In 1836 he opened the first store in Weissport, continuing the business for more than twenty years. Another store was opened by Daniel Heberling, about the center of the town, in 1838. He, too, remained in business for an extended period of time. One of the successful boat builders in the early history of the place was Andrew Graver, who came here from Lehighton in 1836. He retired in 1877. Nathan Snyder opened a boat yard in 1846 which he conducted until 1872. The
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
rolling mill established by Lewis Weiss in 1855 was one of the leading industries of the town for nearly thirty years. This plant, which had several times been en- larged, was last owned and operated by William Lilly and Company, being closed down in 1883.
Weissport has witnessed the establishment of a num- ber of manufacturing enterprises which contributed greatly to the prosperity and up-building of the town, but which, for various reasons have ceased to exist. One of these enterprises was conducted by the Lehigh Valley Emery Wheel Company, which was organized in 1874 with a capital stock of thirty thousand dollars. The industry had flourished in a small way some years prior to the organization of the company. Among its leading spirits were William Lilly, who served as presi- dent of the company until his death, which occurred in 1893; J. G. Zern, W. C. McCormick, L. E. Wills, W. R. Butler, and others. The operations of the company covered a period of about twenty-six years.
The Fort Allen Foundry was established by William and C. D. Miner in 1874. It prospered for a time, but has now been closed for many years.
About 1890 Fred Horlacher, Charles Wolters and othiers formed the Carbon County Improvement Com- pany, which conducted a planing mill, facing mill, an artificial ice plant, and an electric light plant, which furnished light for both Weissport and Lehighton. The company failed after a time, and the property passed to the control of a party of Mauch Chunk capi- talists, headed by James I. Blakslee. The flood of 1901 destroyed the buildings of the company and they were not replaced.
The silk-throwing mill which is now in operation here was established by A. L. Storms and William G. Miller. Miller has since withdrawn from the partner-
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
ship, his interest having been purchased by Nathan Everett. This and the Eureka Manufacturing Com- pany, a furniture making concern controlled by J. W. Heller, represent the only industries now situated in the town.
Many of Weissport's people are employed in the Packerton shops of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Com- pany; a smaller number work for the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey, the line of which passes through the town. Others are employed in the boat yards of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, situated just across the canal in East Weissport; some follow boating on the canal as an occupation, while a certain number earn the means of a livelihood in the zinc works at Hazard.
Owing to its low situation, Weissport has suffered severely from the floods which at various times have destroyed life and property along the Lehigh river. The most disastrous of these floods were those of 1841, 1862, and 1901. In the freshet of 1862 scarcely a house in the place escaped being damaged by the water. Eighty-nine buildings of all descriptions were then destroyed, while wrecks of bridges, broken canal boats, lumber, saw logs, and debris of every variety covered the site of the town. Four residents of Weissport were drowned in this flood. There were two floods in 1901-one during the latter part of August, and the other in December. Most of the place was submerged on both occasions, and heavy property losses were sus- tained.
The postoffice here was established in 1850, Alex- ander Lentz being the first postmaster. Two rural mail routes having this office for their starting point, and running eastward through Franklin township toward the Monroe county line were instituted in 1903.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 1
Weissport was incorporated as a borough on June 3, 1867. The population of the place in 1870 was 359. Each decennial census since then has shown some growth, and in 1910 the number had risen to 638. In this connection it should be remembered, too, that the borough line extends only to the canal, much of the town lying east of this in Franklin township.
The first schoolhouse in Weissport was erected in 1838, its cost being $400. It stood near the river, and was swept away by the flood of 1841. A small, one- story octagonal stone building was erected in its place. This structure is still standing upon its original site, being now used as the town lock-up. It was used for school purposes until 1865. The old church of the Evangelical Association was also utilized as a school house from 1853 to 1862, being destroyed by the flood of that year. The present building, accommodating all the schools of the borough, was built in 1865.
Weissport to-day has two hotels. The first to be erected has already been mentioned as having been built by Peter Snyder, and occupied by Daniel Heber- ling, in 1829. It is now conducted by Robert Hongen, being known as the Weissport House. The meetings of town council are held here, the borough having no building of its own.
The Fort Allen House was built in 1857 by Edward Weiss, son of Colonel Jacob Weiss. It occupies the site of the old log house which the colonel erected in 1785, and stands within the limits of the stockade for which it was named.
One of the interesting buildings of Weissport is Jacob's Reformed church. Before the construction of this edifice, the only church building this congregation has ever owned, the Reformed and Lutheran people worshipped under the trees along the Lehigh river.
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
This congregation is undoubtedly an outgrowth of the Gnadenhütten mission, this fact having been attested to by early residents of the place. The church was built in co-operation by the Reformed and Lutheran denominations. The congregations were formally or- ganized under a tree, near the spot where the church now stands, on August 1, 1838, under the leadership of Rev. Cyrus Becker, representing the Reformed ele- ment, and Rev. F. W. Meendsen, an indefatigable worker in the cause of the Lutheran church throughout the Lehigh Valley.
At this meeting Jacob Weiss (hence the name Jacob's) presented a lot on which to build the church. In addition to this he gave an acre of ground on the hill to the east of the canal for a burial ground. The Presbyterian denomination was also intended to share in the gift; but the adherents of that faith forfeited their rights by not taking part in the building of the church, which was completed and occupied on Christ- mas Day in 1839. The church was jointly owned until 1893, when the Reformed people bought out the Lu- therans' interest for the sum of $1,300. In the same year the congregation began to remodel the building, which work was finished several years later.
The church is one of the few buildings of Weissport which withstood the various floods that have wrought such havoc in the town. The building was not yet finished when, in January, 1839, Colonel Weiss died at the advanced age of nearly eighty-nine years. He was the first to be buried in the cemetery on the hill, where his remains repose.
Ebenezer church of the Evangelical Association dates back to the year 1833, when the first services of this denomination were here conducted. The congre- gation was founded in 1835 by Rev. J. M. Saylor and
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 1
Rev. Jacob Reigel. A church building was erected on the site of the present school house, and was occupied until 1853, when the present house of worship was begun. Under Rev. Moses Dissinger, in 1870, the church became a regular station; up to this time it was either a mission or a part of a circuit. The congrega- tion was quite prosperous until the division in the As- sociation took place; a majority of its membership then left the mother church and built a new one a short distance across the canal in Franklin township. Since then the church has again been conducted as a mission.
St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran church was built in 1893, the corner stone having been laid on the 6th of August of that year. The early history of this congre- gation has already been given in connection with that of Jacob's Reformed church.
Weissport is furnished with water by the Lehighton Water Supply Company, while the town is also electri- cally lighted by the plant of its sister borough.
The Weissport National Bank, having a capital stock of $25,000, was opened for business on July 1, 1912.
Its president is Milton Snyder, while W. H. Straus- burger is the cashier of the institution.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Biographical Sketches
Bachman, Griffith H., a veteran of the Civil War, and a retired locomotive engineer, living at Weatherly, springs from one of Pennsylvania's oldest families. The first of his ancestors coming to America served as a secretary of William Penn, from whom he received for his services the two townships in Lehigh and North- ampton counties, now known as Upper and Lower Sau- con.
He was the progenitor of the Bachman family as it is found in the Lehigh Valley to-day, and his de- scendants are scattered throughout many states of the Union.
John Peter Bachman, the father of the subject of this notice, was born at Cherryville, Northampton county, Pa., in 1796. He was a shoemaker by trade and also tilled a small farm. His companion in life bore the maiden name of Mary Magdalene Fenster- macher, who was three years his junior. They became the parents of nine children, three of whom survive: James, of Eldora, Iowa; Daniel, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and Griffith, of Weatherly.
Griffith H. Bachman was born at Cherryville, the home of his ancestors for generations, on November 21, 1834, growing to maturity at Parryville, Carbon county.
In 1855 he came to Weatherly, entering the employ of the Beaver Meadow Railroad Company as a brake- man. He continued in this capacity until the breaking out of the Rebellion, when he enlisted in the army, be- ing enrolled as a member of Company G., Eighty-first Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. This
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regiment, which was largely recruited from Carbon county, is rated as seventh among the celebrated "Fighting Regiments" of the Union Army. Out of a total of thirteen hundred men and officers upon its honored rolls, it sustained over a thousand casulties. Mr. Bachman served through the Peninsular cam- paign, and was honorably discharged as a corporal on February 16, 1863, owing to disability. When Penn- sylvania was invaded, later in the same year, having recuperated, he re-enlisted, becoming a corporal in the Thirty-fourth Regiment. After a short term of service, he was again honorably discharged.
Returning to civil life, he resumed railroading at Weatherly, and when the Beaver Meadow Railroad was absorbed by the Lehigh Valley, he was retained by the latter company.
From 1865 to 1893 he was an engineer. In the lat- ter year he participated in a general strike as a mem- ber of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. La- ter he was dismissed from the service of the company, ostensibly because of his advanced age, but in reality, as he thinks, because of his prominence as a promoter of the strike.
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