History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men, Part 39

Author: Hain, Harry Harrison, 1873- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Harrisburg, Pa., Hain-Moore company
Number of Pages: 1102

USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men > Part 39

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

system was installed. In 1903 an adjoining tract of land contain- ing fifty-two acres was purchased from George W. Loy, for $2,500, the funds being supplied by private contributions. A year later the Samuel Burkhart farm, near Bloserville, in Cumberland County, was left to the Home by will. Owing to its separation from the Home by a great mountain and a long distance, it was sold by order of the Cumberland County courts and the funds placed in charge of a trustee for the benefit of the Home.

The reservoir and sewer system was constructed in 1904, and a boys' dormitory and school building in 1905-06. Owing to the increasing size of the Home and the necessarily increasing size of the number of employees, a double frame house was purchased in Loysville for $2,000 in 1909, for their accommodation. The Jacob L. Minich plot of ten acres of fine farm land adjoining the Home, was purchased during the same year, and also a tract of twenty- two acres from John HI. Shumaker, for $2,000.

The Annie L. Lowry Memorial Hospital was erected in 1909, being a gift through her executor, Elwood Bonsall, Esq., of . Philadelphia, who donated $8,500 from the residuary funds of her estate under a provision of her will, which directed that such funds be applied to "such charities as he deemed most worthy." In 1910 a modern system of sewage was installed to replace the old and then obsolete system, at a cost of $1,556. During 1910 the old hospital was removed to a new location and fitted up for employees of the Home, and upon its former site a home for the use of the super- intendent was erected at a cost of $4,500. In 1913 the ice house was built, and in 1914 brick refrigerating rooms of an approved type were installed.

During 1913-14 the Sharetts Memorial, costing $10,000, was erected by Luther T. and Edward H. Sharetts, of Keymar, Mary- land. It houses the printing department, now grown to consid- erable size, the gymnasium and the band room. In 1914 the Eme- line Loy Murray Memorial was erected. It is a one-story brick building. 26×45 feet, being a modern and up-to-date kitchen. During 1913-14 a deep well was sunk to augment the water supply.

The year 1914 is important in the life of the Home from an- other standpoint. As noted the Home had increased its acreage at various times, but in 1914 the large and fertile Arnold farm adjoining the Home, consisting of 182 acres with farm buildings, and a number of valuable springs, was purchased for $18,225. Its purchase was made possible through a gift or annuity of $14,000 from Fred and Margaret Mehring, brother and sister, of Keymar, Maryland.

In 1909 a movement was begun for the installation of elec- tricity for lighting purposes, and in 1910 the Sherman's Valley Electric Light, Heat & Power Company, connected with the insti-

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tution, was chartered by the commonwealth. Bear's mill, in Madi- son Township, had been abandoned some years before for milling purposes. The mill, with all its water rights, was purchased from Jos. B. Lightner. The dam was rebuilt of concrete and all the waterways renewed and a new turbine wheel with new electrical outfit placed in the mill, where, since, January, 1910, electric cur- rent is made to light the whole institution, also all residences and churches in Loysville. All industrial operations of the Home are driven by this plant. It is now planned that in 1921 the power of the Weaver mill will be added to this plant, which will enable the company to give service to Landisburg, Elliottsburg and interven- ing points as well as serve the growing institution.

During the spring of 1915 the Bear Mill farm, surrounding the light plant, with a total acreage of 132, of which sixty is in cultivation, was purchased. Its purchase was not made from the point of desirability in so far as the farm land is concerned, but as an essential to the water-power and the electric plant.

On the first day of the year, 1919, the Home got possession of the Weaver mill, an old, well-established and well patronized flour and feed mill, for which $5,000 was paid. With it was a house, barn and sixteen acres of rough land. The management foresaw that the capacity of the light plant would soon be overtaxed with only the power from the Bear mill, which was the reason for this purchase. An additional twenty-eight acres of bottom and adjacent hill lands were purchased for $375, in order to be sure of title to all necessary water rights. April 1, 1920, the Home paid $4,000 for the David H. Kleckner place, just east of and adjoining the Home buildings, consisting of a house and five acres of land. It was purchased on account of water rights, as water from the springs on the Mehring addition flowed through it, and for that reason the Home was not at liberty to decrease the flow of the stream. These springs have since been enlarged and connected with the water main and an electric pump installed, and this valu- able additional water supply made available for the institution.

Owing to incapacity it became necessary to replace the sewage plant in 1917 and a new plant of the Imhoff type was installed. It was built after plans approved by the state and is supposed to endure for a long period of years. Cement porches were added to the Fritz dormitory in 1918-19, through a bequest of $2,000 from Mrs. Charles S. Weiser, an original member of the Board of Lady Visitors.

In June, 1919, one of the most modern of all the group of build- ings was completed and given over to the Home by the Pittsburgh Synod. It is known as the Pittsburgh Synodical Dormitory, and is the home of forty boys from eight to twelve years of age. Its cost, with furnishings, was $20,000.

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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

The Home grounds was the scene of much building activity dur- ing the summer of 1921. Among the projects is a large pavilion, seating 1,300 persons, on the campus for out-door entertainments ; a second nursery building, by the West Pennsylvania Synod for the home of twenty children from three to six years of age; a dormitory for girls of eight to twelve years, by the Allegheny Synod : a dormitory for forty older boys and a vocational school building, by the East Pennsylvania Synod. The completion of these projected buildings will see the plans of the present manage- ment fairly well through.

The printing plant at this institution is most complete, having grown from a few fonts of type and a small job press to its pres- ent size. There is printed the Orphans' Home Echoes, for which a charge of fifteen cents per year is made, with a price of ten cents per year in clubs. Its circulation is over 8,000. For thirty years, or since its beginning in May, 1892, Mr. W. L. Gladfelter, a prominent paper manufacturer of Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, has donated all the paper used in its publication, which in the past year alone amounted to five tons. Thirty-three church papers are printed at the plant, most of them being monthlies, and from four to thirty-two pages in size ..

This institution closed its year in June, 1919, with an enrollment of 262, and the year of 1920 with an enrollment of 282, which shows its wonderful growth in taking care of orphan children of the Church since its start with but the small number of eighteen under Rev. Philip Willard in 1869. During the last year twenty- five boys and twelve girls were sent from the Home, and thirty- five girls and twenty-two boys admitted. There is always a large waiting list. The health of the children is unusually good : on only a few occasions in the fifty or more years of its existence have epidemics brought death to the inmates. The public schools of the surrounding districts have a seven-months' term, while the Home has a nine-months' term, with grades from the kindergarten to the third year in high school. Of the teachers during the 1919-20 session, one was a college graduate, four State Normal graduates, and two held provisional certificates in the county. Vocal and musical instruction is under the charge of a special teacher. There is a girls' orchestra and a boys' band, each under the instruction of a tutor. These musical organizations go on tours and give exhi- bitions in Lutheran communities. During 1920 the band was on a lengthy tour to western Pennsylvania. Religious instruction is a part of the daily program, morning and evening services of a brief nature being conducted as the children sit at table in the dining room. A Sunday school is conducted in the chapel. That idleness is detrimental is taught in the Home by assigning to the pupils such tasks as they can perform. The boys assist in the

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housekeeping in their own quarters, and with the heavier work about the kitchen, dining room and grounds; with such farm work as they are able, and in the printery and elsewhere. The girls are employed at the various phases of housework, in the kitchen, din- ing room, laundry and sewing room. Plans are being made for vocational training. The Alumni Association devotes its funds to helping pupils to a higher education.

The farming operations on the lands belonging to the Home are in themselves no small matter, and it is from them that comes much of the product which sustains it. The yield of wheat last year was 1,220 bushels; of corn, after filling two 100-ton silos, 4,225 bush- els, and of other crops accordingly. Forty fat hogs were butchered and twenty-two large steers fed and marketed. Two tractors are used in the cultivation of the lands. Donations from individuals and the various congregations connected with the synods support- ing the Home are of frequent occurrence and consist of a variety of things from valuable and useful articles down to the smallest things of use in the home. A modernly equipped dairy furnishes all the milk and butter products from the Home herd. Not con- sidering the products of the Home it costs about $48,000 annually to sustain the IIome.

In a word we are proud to have within the borders of Perry County this wonderful institution, supported entirely by volun- tary contributions. As a native Perry Countian the author be- lieves that he expresses an opinion that is unanimous. Children who are deprived of either parent, or of father and mother, are denied or deprived of many of the inherent rights of childhood, and it is into this breach that the Tressler Orphans' Home steps and gives the orphan children of Lutheran parents a home, plenty of food for the development of their bodies, proper clothing for their protection, a liberal education and the ability to work. A nurse is in continual attendance and a physician within a moment's call. It is a creditable work that has been so successfully conducted for a period of over a half-century by practically two men, Rev. Philip Willard and Charles A. Widle, the present superintendent, and one of whom the great Lutheran denomination should be proud.

THE COUNTY HOME.

Before the formation of Perry County, the county home of Cumberland County was located at the site of the present Perry County Home. On April 12, 1810, the directors of the poor and of the House of Employment of Cumberland County purchased from Adam Bernheisel, of Tyrone Township, his farm of 112 acres, the same having been warranted by William McClure in 1763. The sum paid was $5,196.36. In those days contracting `was not done in the modern way and the records show that on

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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

October 8, 1810, the contract for masonry on the County Home was let to Robert Cree for $1,900, for carpenter work to George Libey (Leiby) for $1,850, and for plastering to Thomas Redding for $230-making the cost of the entire building $3,980. The building was located east of the present one and sufficed at that time for all the territory which comprised Cumberland County, which, of course, included the territory of present-day Perry.

When Perry County was formed the institution became the property of the new county, with the proviso that the poor of Cum- berland County be allowed to remain for several years, which con- dition was carried out. The previous owner, Adam Bernheisel, had erected a brick dwelling house, which was used by the steward as a residence. In 1839 the almshouse was burned to the ground and was rebuilt at once, Samuel Shuman being the contractor. The building erected at that time stood until 1871, when it was replaced by the present one.

The present County Home is a four-story building of brick, con- taining about seventy rooms. Its partitions are of brick and the stairways are of iron. Its cost was approximately $60,000, includ- ing improvements. The county commissioners who were in office at the time of its building were John Stephens, Zachariah Rice, and J. A. Leinaweaver. J. R. Shuler was their clerk. It is located on the road connecting Loysville with Landisburg, and the fine farm produces much of the edibles of the large family which is housed in the institution. Those who are not aged and whose health is good help in the many duties around the farm and home. The equipment belongs to the county. There is record of the court appointing visitors to the County Home during the period of 1850-1860.

The steward at this time is Robert Eaton, under whose manage- ment, with the able assistance of Mrs. Eaton, the Home is con- ducted in a practical manner. The building is neat, clean and in order, and the farm in good shape. The present board of directors is composed of G. W. Dunkle, of Duncannon; S. A. Shope, of Marysville, and E. M. Wilt, of Andersonburg.

The clerk and secretary to the board of directors from January 1, 1882, to January 1, 19II, was H. D. Stewart. Since then Samuel Ebert is the incumbent.

As showing some of its activities the following facts are copied from the financial statement of 1920: Seven outdoor physicians over the county were paid $189.75 for attending the poor. Six undertakers were paid $300 for burying eleven persons, all save one in other parts of the county. Merchandise amounting to $2,- 627.54 was purchased for the institution, being mostly for food and clothing. The salaries and expenses of the three directors, the steward, the matron, the farmer, the clerk, the minister, the

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attorney, and the physician only total $2,058.82, surely a creditable showing. Products not used at the Home retailed for $1,051.37. which more than covered the cash expenditure of $1,005.53, for the current needs of the Home and farm. Outdoor relief checks totaled $1,295, and outdoor relief through stores amounted to $191.06.

The number of inmates at the Home in the beginning of the year was fifty-six, twenty-six males and thirty females. During the year three males and three females were admitted. Two were dismissed and one died, which closed the year with twenty-six males and thirty-three females. Tramps were relieved to the num- ber of 150, one being a female. During the year the following clothing and bedding were made at the Ilome: 100 sheets, 100 pillowcases, 25 bedspreads, 10 chaff ticks, 75 towels, 6 tablecloths. 58 aprons, 19 dresses, 15 comforts, 12 pillows, and 10 children's dresses.

The farm produced 600 bushels of wheat, 1,000 bushels of oats, 2,500 baskets of corn in the ear, four bushels of clover-seed, 500 bushels of potatoes, five bushels of sweet potatoes, six bushels of turnips, fifteen bushels of onions, fifty bushels of tomatoes, and 2,000 heads of cabbage, besides all the small garden vegetables used at the Home. The pork dressed, weighed 6,000 pounds, and the beef, 900 pounds.

At the formation of the new county the first steward was George Hackett. Beginning in 1839-the records prior to that having been destroyed by the fire which burned the building-the stewards were :

1840-43-Daniel Minich. 1870-74 -Joseph S. Bistline.

1844-50-Benjamin Rice.

1875-76 -Isaac B. Trostle.

1851 -H. Kleckner. 1876-79 -Henry P. Lightner.

1852-54-Benjamin Balthauser. 1879-82 -T. P. Orner.

1855-57-Jacob Balthauser. 1882-90 -P. G. Kell.

1858-59-Samuel P. Campbell.

1890-1911-John R. Boden.

1860-62-Thomas W. Morrow. 19II-12 -Irwin I. Rice.

1863-66-John Hopple. 1912-14 -Wm. J. Rice.

1867-69-Jeremiah Minich.

1914- -Robert J. Eaton.

The following paragraph, from the Perry Forester, of April 14, 1824, tells of the removal of the first of the inmates of Cum- berland County, by the officials of that county :

"About forty of the paupers belonging to Cumberland County, passed through Landisburg this morning from the poorhouse in this county, on their way to Cumberland, attended by the commis- sioners and some of the overseers of that county. About ten of the Cumberland poor have been left by the overseers to be boarded. which makes about twenty in all, in the Perry County poorhouse at present." That word pauper is happily no longer in use in the · county press.

CHAPTER XIX. POSTRIDER AND STAGECOACH.

C ARVED in large granite letters along the Eighth Avenue side of the massive New York post office building is this inscription :

"Neither rain nor snow nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift com- pletion of their appointed rounds."

Herodotus, who lived some twenty-five centuries ago, was the anthor of those words, but he was referring to the military cour- iers of the Persian Cyrus-tireless horsemen who sped from place to place throughout the empire. And yet they seem not inappro- priate to the army of postmen from the time of the postrider down to their present-day successors in city and country or to those tire- less workers who work through the night on speeding trains, dis- tributing the mails for the four corners of the earth. When storms rage and equinoctial torrents fall the city carrier and rural de- livery man are on their "appointed rounds." They are the only representatives of the great United States government who come to every man's door.

When Cumberland County was established in 1750 there was no regular post from Philadelphia, neither did such exist at the time of the Albany treaty in 1754, nor when the first settlers war- ranted lands in what is now Perry County a year later. The trou- bles with the Indians were largely responsible for the establishment ill 1757 of a weekly horseback post, history recording it as "in- tended to better enable the governor and the assembly to com- municate with 'his majesty's' subjects on the frontier." The first regular post from Philadelphia to New York started in 1756, and from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, in 1786.

Just when the first route was established that carried the mails to Perry County territory is unknown, but in 1798 Postmaster General Joseph Habersham issned proposals for carrying the mails, once in two weeks, over the following routes: "From Harrisburg, by Clark's Ferry, Millerstown, Thompsontown, Mifflintown, Lewistown, Huntingdon, Alexandria, Bellefonte, Aaronsburg, Mifflinburg, Lewisburg, Northumberland, and Sunbury to Harris- burg. The mail to leave Harrisburg from October 15 to April 15. every other Monday at 6 o'clock a. m., returning the next Mon- clay, by 7 p. m. Other seasons of the year in proportion to days' length."

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With the turnpike came the stagecoach, considered a great affair in that day. They continued to run until the advent of the packet boat and even then ran during the winter months when the canal could not be operated. John and James Patterson, of Millerstown, drove the stagecoach which operated between that place and Clark's Ferry about the time of the building of the canal. A whip with four-in-hand was then the admiration of the youngsters, as are aeroplanes of to-day. So regularly did they run upon schedule time that residents of the wayside referred to their passing to set their clocks, we are told.

In the days when the mails between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were carried by stagecoach a Perry Countian had a unique experi- ence. Isaiah Clark, a Millerstown merchant, was on his way to Philadelphia to purchase goods, and when near Philadelphia the stagecoach was held up by three outlaws known as Wilson, Poteet. and Porter. According to the late John A. Baker's version of the affair, Clark counseled the occupants to resist, as the stage was well filled. With pointed pistols facing them, however, all stood while they were searched and robbed. One man hastily secreted his purse in one of the cushions by ripping it and thus saved his belongings. The mail pouch was rifled, which at that time was a capital offence. The robbers being apprehended, Wilson and Poteet are said to have been hanged. Porter, who turned "state's evidence," was pardoned by President Andrew Jackson.

The earliest record of an effort to run a stage line into the county was made in 1808, announcement to the public being made as follows :

JUNIATA MAIL STAGE.

The subscribers beg leave to inform the public, that on the 3d day of May next, their Stage will commence running from Harrisburg by the way of Clark's Ferry, Millerstown, Thompsontown, Mifflintown, Lewis- town, Waynesburg, and Huntingdon, to Alexandria, once a week. Leave the House of Mr. Berryhill, Harrisburg, every Tuesday, at I o'clock p. m., and arrive at Alexandria on the Friday following; returning, leave Alex- andria every Saturday morning and arrive at Harrisburg on Tuesday morning.

As the company have procured elegant and convenient Carriages, good Horses, and careful drivers, they flatter themselves that the passage of those who may please to favor them with their custom, will be rendered safe, easy and agreeable.

Fare for travelers, 6 cents per mile, each entitled to 14 pounds baggage, gratis ; 150 pounds baggage equal to a passenger.

JOHN WALKER, GEORGE MULHOLLAN,

JOHN M'CONNELL, THOMAS COCHRAN,

GEORGE GALBRAITH, JOHN M. DAVIDSON,

ROBERT CLARK.

April 14, 1808.

N. B. Horses and chairs will be procured at the different towns, for those passengers who wish to go off the road or proceed further than Alexandria.

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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

On the afternoon of May 3 the stage "Experiment" arrived at Clark's Ferry, crossed Duncan's Island and arrived at Millerstown before nightfall. Such was the beginning of an enterprise which was to continue many years and which was in that day an innova- tion. The route was later extended to Pittsburgh and connected with a similar one at Harrisburg for Philadelphia.

In April, 1828-twenty years later-this line of stages began running daily from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. In the meantime it had progressed from once a week to three times a week. About 1830 the three sections of stage lines was converged into two, with the terminus of each at Huntingdon, the eastern section being operated by Calder, Wilson & Co. Passengers were then con- veyed from Philadelphia to Huntingdon in two days, and from Huntingdon to Pittsburgh in three and a half days. By 1832 it had so far advanced that passengers arrived at Huntingdon by 4 o'clock of the second day, and at Pittsburgh by evening of the third day. To attain this speed the coaches ran both day and night, as the trains do. At this same period an accommodation line was run by day from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, making the trip three times a week and consuming three and a half days.

Nature then was the same as now, and the elements frequently caused serious delays in the mails, sometimes as much as several days. The line was not without competition, and with the building of turnpikes during the period was enabled to progress as it did.

Before the organization of Perry County, on May 26, 1817, and also in 1819, J. Meigs, then postmaster general, advertised for bids to carry the United States mails over seventy-one routes in Pennsylvania, among which were the following routes through or contiguous to Perry County territory :

Route 49. From Harrisburg by Halifax, Selinsgrove and Sunbury, to Northumberland, twice a week, 55 miles. Leave Harrisburg every Sunday and Wednesday at 4 a. m., and arrive at Northumberland next day by 11 a. m. Leave Northumberland every Monday and Friday at 2 p. m., and arrive at Harrisburg next day by 6 p. in.

Route 68. From Harrisburg by Clark's Ferry, Millerstown, Thompson- town, Mifflintown, Lewistown, McVeytown and Huntingdon to Alexandria, twice a week, 100 miles. Leave Harrisburg every Tuesday and Saturday at noon, and arrive at Alexandria Thursday and Monday by 6 p. m. Leave Alexandria every Saturday and Thursday at 6 a. m., and arrive at Harris- burg Tuesday and Saturday by 9 a. m.

Route 70. From Carlisle by Wagner's Gap, Landisburg and Shower's Mill to Douglas' Mill, once a week, 24 miles. Leave Carlisle every Friday at 5 a. m., and arrive at Douglas' Mill by 2 p. m. Leave Douglas' Mill every Thursday at noon and arrive at Carlisle by 6 p. m.

Two years later, in 1819, the above routes were again adver- tised and the following one in addition :

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Route 73. From Frederickstown, Maryland, by Creagertown, Maryland ; Emmittsburg, Maryland; Gettysburg, Stary's, Carlisle, Shearman's Creek, Millerstown, Straubtown, Mt. Pleasant Mills and Selinsgrove to Sunbury, once a week, 129 miles. Leave Fredericktown every Tuesday at 2 p. m., and arrive at Sunbury Friday by 6 p. m. Leave Sunbury every Saturday at 6 a. m., and arrive at Fredericktown by Tuesday at 10 a. m.

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History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men, Part 39

Author: Hain, Harry Harrison, 1873- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Harrisburg, Pa., Hain-Moore company Number of Pages: 1102

Author: Hain, Harry Harrison, 1873- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Harrisburg, Pa., Hain-Moore company
Number of Pages: 1102