USA > Pennsylvania > Schuylkill County > History of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 27
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The water supply of the town comes from mountain springs, the reservoir and source of supply being of sufficient capacity to furnish water to the boroughs of St. Clair, Yorkville, Mount Carbon and others, in addition to the requirements of Pottsville and the entire vicinity. The quality is first-class, and the supply apparently inexhaustible, the Pottsville Water company owning quite a number of large res- ervoirs located on the different mountains near this borough. Potts- ville is well lighted, both with gas and electricity, the former being in use here fully sixty years, while the electric system of lighting was introduced in 1889, when the Edison Electric Illuminating company, of Pottsville, was incorporated. This was organized as a stock company, with a capital of $60,000. Both companies have large and well- equipped plants. The Schuylkill Electric Railway company was organ- ized in 1889, and on the 5th of October of the same year letters-patent were issued. The incorporators were: Burd S. Patterson, president ; J. H. Zerby, secretary ; John T. Zerby, treasurer ; Gen. J. K. Sigfried and Maj. S. A. Losch. This corporation, having built the main line and important extensions, was changed to the Pottsville Union Traction company, controlled by outside capitalists who furnished the means for further extensions, the original parties gradually disappear- ing. This company has maintained an aggressive policy from the first, and its lines now extend from Pottsville to the following objective
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points, with many intermediate stations: One line to Mount Carbon, Schuylkill Haven, Landingville, Adamsdale and Orwigsburg ; another branch reaches Yorkville and another to Tumbling Run (Lake), the famous and favorite summer resort; also through Palo Alto, Port Carbon, Five Points, Cumbola, New Philadelphia, Silver Creek, Kaskawilliam, Middleport and Patterson, and another continuing north from Port Carbon to St. Clair, while the fourth line reaches Mount Laffee, Buckley Station, Coal Castle, Heckscherville and Glen Carbon, and, lastly, the old People's Railroad company line from Twelfth street to Minersville. The lines of the Pottsville Union Traction company are well equipped with modern appliances and good cars, and an excel- lent service; and brings thousands of people from the neighboring boroughs and outlying districts to Pottsville for business, recreation and pleasure, also affording the people of Pottsville ready access to neighboring points, though not always. as in other cities, at single-fare rates. C. P. King is the president and Joseph B. Haellman is the acting superintendent, but quite recent changes in the control and management of this company cannot as yet be here noted.
The Pottsville postoffice was established in 1825, and Thomas Silly- man was appointed the first postmaster on January 11th of that year. Changes in this office were frequent during the succeeding forty-three years of its existence, the average tenure of office being less than three years to each incumbent ; though it was held by one family (Samuel Sillyman's-he being a noted benefactor of the town) from 1868 until 1891, since which date four postmasters have been appointed-William R. Cole, James H. Mudey and Louis Stoffregen. The present incumbent -G. C. Shrink-was commissioned in 1899, and reappointed in 1904. The office is established in a federal building (corner Second and Norwegian streets ) which cost about $70,000. It is occupied by various federal officials. The Pottsville postoffice was created an office of the first class on July 1, 1906. It gives employment to twenty-nine people, including fifteen carriers, the latter serving 40,000 inhabitants. There is one rural free delivery route established from this office. Inci- dentally, it may be noted that there are fifteen rural free delivery routes in Schuylkill county.
The press of Pottsville has kept even pace with the advancement of .the borough's material interests. Many journals with different plans and purposes have appeared as candidates for public favor as the years have passed, and some have weathered the storms of rivalry and criti- cism, while others have passed out of existence. Eighty-one years ago George Taylor launched the first newspaper enterprise in Pottsville.
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The Miners' Journal of today is the evolution of this early effort, through many changes of name, proprietorship, plan and purpose. Mr. Taylor assumed the defense of the rights of corporation, a very un- popular attitude in those days of violent opposition to moneyed monopolies. He disappeared from the field of local journalism in 1827, and after two changes in the editorship within the succeeding two years, the paper passed into the hands of Benjamin Bannan, who made it the leading paper of the anthracite coal region for many years. Mr. Bannan found the Miners' Journal and Schuylkill Coal and Navigator Register in a deplorable condition. He sent his first paper to the two hundred and fifty subscribers transferred to him, on the 29th of April, 1829. Thereafter he devoted his energies and talents to the compila- tion of coal statistics, espousing the interests of the coal and iron pro- ducers, defending the protective tariff, and in making a readable and popular journal. With the exception of a few years in the forties, Mr. Bannan continued his connection with the Journal as proprietor or part owner until 1873, when he sold his half interest to Col. Robert A. Ramsey, who had been associated with him as part owner since 1866. Under the management of the two gentlemen named above, the Daily Miners' Journal was started in 1869, and continues to the present. In - 1848 Mr. Bannan added to the already formidable titk of his paper, "and Pottsville Advertiser." The Journal advocated the political prin- ciples of the Whig party until the opportunity caine whereby it might aid in the formation of the Republican party, of which time-honored organization the Journal has ever been an able defender. W. R. Cole became business manager for Mr. Ramsey in 1873 (when the latter came into full ownership) and so continued until the death of Colonel Ramsey in 1876. The Journal and the building belonging with it, then located on the site of the present Sheafer Estate building, was pur- chased by P. W. Sheafer and Frank Carter, and the Miners' Journal Publishing company organized, on the 14th of May, 1877; and after the destruction of the building by fire, the plant moved up town. The property soon passed into the hands of J. C. Bright, who again sold it to . WV. R. Cole, the latter continuing at the head of the Journal for a number of years in the Mount City Bank building. On the first of February, 1900, August Knecht, the present owner of the establish- ment, assumed control, in connection with his various other journalistic interests. He started the Pottsville Volksblatt, an independent German Democratic paper, in 1871, but suspended its publication in 1873. For many years he was and still is the publisher of the Amerikanische Re- publikaner and more recently the Herald, the latter a weekly from the
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press of the Miners' Journal. The Amerikanische Republikaner, a weekly paper published in the German language, was established in 1855.
The Advocate was the second English paper to appear in Pottsville. It was started in 1830, but, like many others published in different languages and advocating different doctrines, it has passed away. The Leuchtthurm (Beacon Light). an old German paper published in Orwigsburg, was removed to Pottsville and absorbed by the Schuylkill Demokrat, another German paper, which had been founded in the forties by Lorenz Brentano (of German revolutionary fame who afterwards became prominent in Chicago) and George Philip Lippe, and this paper was continued after Brentano's retirement by Mr. Lippe alone, as the German Democratic organ of the county for many years.
The Jefferson Demokrat, also a German paper, was established in 1855 by Hendler & Schrader as the successor of the then extinct Demo- kratische Freiheits Presse, and in 1865 the Schuylkill Demokrat was merged with it. It is now published by J. Fred Wetter. A Welsh magazine, entitled Seren Orllewinol (Western Star), was founded in 1844, but it was removed to Scranton in 1868. The Pottsville Emporium and Democratic Press was the first English Democratic paper published in Schuylkill county. Its first number appeared, under the editorial management of John S. Ingraham, in 1838. It was a vigorous opponent to the Whig paper then published by Mr. Bannan. The Advocate was consolidated with the Mining Record in 1854, and the publication continued by Col. Henry L. Cake (afterward of the 96th regiment) as the Mining Record until 1862. In the meantime, troubles arising between the publisher and the party leaders, the Potts- ville Gazette was launched as an organ of the Democratic party. It was edited during two political campaigns by Abram Deyo, when it was merged into a semi-weekly publication for a year or two, but even the exciting campaign of 1856 could not revive it. The Demo- cratic Standard was founded in 1857 by Henry L. Acker, who had bought the material of the defunct Gasettc. After publishing the paper for some three years under the above title, and after going through various ownerships, the name was changed to Pottsville Standard, though the paper continued the exponent of Democratic doctrines, though with occasional frictions with party leaders. The Standard was subsequently issued conjointly with a daily paper started in 1873 by William P. Furey, and entitled the Evening Transcript. This was subsequently changed to the Daily Standard, but the weekly edition of the Standard continued. Frank A. Burr was the editor and proprietor
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who conducted these two papers on a short but perilous voyage in high- class journalism. The venture failed, after absorbing the Schuylkill Free Press. The Chronicle Publishing company had in the meantime (1875) brought into existence the Evening Chronicle, a one-cent daily, edited by Solomon Foster, Jr., who soon came into full ownership, and conducted the paper until June, 1877, when he sold it to the Standard Publishing company, a corporation formed by leading Democrats to resurrect the defunct Standard, after Burr's failure, as the Democratic organ of the county, and this is published at present, the company also publishing the daily-the Evening Chronicle. The latter is one of the leading dailies of the anthracite coal region, ably edited, and estab- lished on a sound financial basis. The offices are well equipped with modern appliances and machinery, and turn out a very large volume of mercantile job work, book-binding, etc. The Chronicle and Standard are the leading Democratic journals of Schuylkill county. Charles Meyers is the present proprietor, who is ably assisted by Philip Laude- man as superintendent, Robert C. Shearer as business manager, and a corps of able editors and reporters.
Tiv Saturday Night Review was founded in 1889 by John J. O'Connor and P. J. Martin, by whom it was published until May, 1891, when Mr. Martin sold his interest to J. Hornung, who, after a few months, sold to F. J. O'Connor, a brother of the senior partner. The paper is now published by F. J. O'Connor, and is devoted largely to laboring interests as a specialty. The Pottsville Evening Advertiser, the Workingman, the Emerald Vindicator, and a number of church and society journals have had an existence of long or short duration, and all have assisted in establishing Pottsville's record as an intel- lectual town. The two legal periodicals published here-the Legal Chronicle (by Mr. Foster) and the Legal Record (by A. J. Pilgram and Lewis J. Walker)-are valuable additions to our lawyers' libraries, reporting many important dicisions of our courts.
If any worthy journal has not been mentioned in this connection it is hoped that those interested will attribute the unintentional omission to their own lack of interest in furnishing the data. Last, but not least comes the Pottsville Daily Republican and Weekly Schuylkill Re- publican, whose modest mention is scarcely in keeping with the achieve- ments of these popular and influential journals. The Pottsville Daily Republican is the outgrowth of the Weekly Schuylkill Republican; the latter was started at Minersville, Dec. 14, 1872, by Charles D. Elliott and John O. Beck, both experienced newspaper men. In 1874 Mr. Beck retired, and from that time until 1878 Mr. Elliott conducted-
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the paper as sole proprietor ; then he took into junior partnership with him his general business manager, J. H. Zerbey, who afterwards in 1879 bought out Mr. Elliott's interests and became sole editor and proprietor. The plant was removed to Pottsville in April, 1884, and in October of that year the Daily Republican was started by Mr. Zerbey, the paper soon becoming very popular, a splendid success in every way, with the very large circulation, for an inland daily, of 12,000 copies, and commanding a wide range of influence, excelled by no other pub- lication in the interior of the state. Charles D. Elliott was the asso- ciate editor of the Pottsville Daily Republican from 1886 until 1904, when a stroke of paralysis carried him to his grave, to the sorrow of a wide acquaintanceship and thoroughly appreciative newspaper public. Robert A. Zerbey, brother of the editor, was the competent and versatile assistant business manager of the Pottsville Daily Republican from 1886 to 1894, when he died suddenly. From 1894 up to the present time, Edmund L. Clifford has been the assistant business manager of the Pottsville Daily Republican, and right ably has he filled that position, being an exceedingly painstaking worker, and personally a very popular gentleman.
The Miners' National Bank, incorporated under the State banking laws in 1828, was the first banking institution in Pottsville. Its authorized capital when organized was $200,000, increased in 1856 to $500,000. On the 30th of December, 1864, it was organized as a national bank. Francis B. Nichols was the first president and Daniel J. Rhoades was the first cashier. John Shippen as president and Charles Loeser as cashier for many years, are well remembered by the older citizens. The present officers are: Jacob S. Ulmer. president ; J. H. Mudey, vice-president ; George H. DeFrehn, cashier. The Penn- sylvania Bank was organized as a state bank on Sept. 18, 1866, with a capital of $100,000, but was afterwards turned into a national bank. Charles H. Dengler was the first cashier and for years the leading spirit of the institution. In July, 1875, the capital was doubled. The surplus and undivided profits of this bank now amount to $120,000. David H. Seibert is the president : H. B. Bartholomew, vice-president, and Charles T. Brown is cashier.
The Safe Deposit Bank of Pottsville was chartered Feb. 18, 1870, as a safe deposit company, with trust and banking privileges. Its authorized capital is $200,000, and this sum is considerably exceeded by the surplus capital. Andrew Robertson is president of this institu- tion, H. D. Collins, vice-president, and J. W. Fox is the secretary and treasurer. The Union Safe Deposit Bank is one of the more recent
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monetary institutions of Pottsville. It was established in 1897 with a capital of $100,000. C. F. King is the president, and C. H. Kline, cashier. The Schuylkill Trust company is the outgrowth of a cor- poration organized in 1877, as the Real Estate Title Insurance and Trust company. The business is now chiefly banking and mortgage loaning, in connection with a large trust and real estate business. The organizers of this institution were Charles H. Woltjen, Burd S. Patter- son, Theodore Guyer, Dr. F. W. Boyer and James A. Medlar, who were also the original directors. The reorganization of the institution under its present title was effected in 1899. It is capitalized at $200,000. The officers in 1906 were: Dr. F. W. Boyer, president; August Knecht, vice-president; Norman S. Farquhar, secretary and title officer ; James A. Medlar, manager and treasurer. Several state bank- ing institutions have existed in Pottsville from time to time which are now out of monetary ventures. Some of these have been merged into other institutions under different titles, but the greater number have ceased to exist in any form. The historian has discharged his duty to the public when he mentions the names of these defunct institutions without giving other details. The Government Bank, chartered in 1863, as a state bank with a capital of $50,000, but afterwards turned into a national bank, was an off-shoot of the Miners' Trust company bank, and did not long survive the failure of its parent. The Mechanics' Safe Deposit bank, originally the Pottsville Life Insurance and Trust company, was incorporated with insurance privileges in 1852. The name was changed by order of court in 1873, to the Mechanics Safe Deposit Bank, but it did only a small amount of business. The German Banking company, after some years of successful operations, met with heavy losses and went out of business, but paid its depositors in full, leaving a surplus to be divided among its stockholders. The Pottsville Bank after operating for some years on a small scale, sus- pended, but its depositors also were paid in full out of its assets.
The Miners' Trust Company Bank was chartered in 1850 as a savings or deposit institution only, and commenced business at Schuylkill Haven. A supplement to the charter was issued in 1854, changing the name to the Miners' Life Insurance and Trust Company of Potts- ville, and business was commenced here at once. A second amend- ment to the charter, in 1871, changed the name to the title which be- gins this paragraph. The bank suspended payments in August, 1876, and a deed of assignment for the benefit of creditors was signed in September following. The committee of the depositors investigating the affairs of this concern (A. W. Scholck chairman) then discovered
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how a great deal of "banking" business, running into millions of dol- lars, had been done with a very little capital and how the notes and obligations of persons insolvent and dead for many years and the bonds of fake or bankrupt corporations could be carried along for years as supposed "live" assets of the so-called "bank," and how a set of directors, otherwise respectable citizens and reputable business men, could be duped by an officer of the "bank" and without ever stopping to inquire into the truthfulness of his reports of assets and earnings declare fictitious dividends on the stock, the bulk of which was held by a few who were in the inner ring. With a nominal capital of $100,000, only $12,500 was paid in, and yet when this "bank" failed it had deposits amounting to nearly a million and a half of dollars. During the existence of the institution the owners of the stock were awarded dividends aggregating an annual average of about twenty per cent. When the collapse came, there were turned over to the assignees assets of questionable value, supposed to aggregate about $200,000, but they shrank still further so that the dividend awarded to the depositors after years of litigation aggregated about ten per cent.
The Farmers' Bank of Schuylkill County was incorporated in 1845, and commenced business at Schuylkill Haven. In 1851 it was removed to Pottsville, and was closed by an act of the assembly in 1870, after the death of its president (Joseph W. Cake), but without serious loss to any depositors. The Mountain City Bank, which had erected the splendid building at the corner of Center and Norwegian streets, flour- ished a while but also succumbed to the financial depression following the panic of 1873, which also swept away the German Bank and the Pottsville Bank, the failures of all of these institutions being due to financial depressions, and not to any default in their respective officers.
The Pottsville Benevolent association has existed since 1867, when a serious depression of business affairs rendered it necessary to seek some means of relieving the pressing wants of the poor and destitute. An association of philanthropic men and women devised a plan where- by this might be accomplished, and a temporary organization soon developed into a permanent association which has been the means of doing incalculable good. William L. Whitney was elected president, and for the succeeding ten years this gentleman, who was recognized as the founder of the movement, remained at its head. Many noble men and women engaged in the humane efforts of relieving the distress and misfortunes of their fellow beings through a systematic canvass and classification of worthy subjects. Charity was distributed without
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distinction as to creed, race or color, yet not by the indiscriminate methods of public charities. The borough was divided into ten dis- tricts, each district being in charge of one of the ten members of the executive board, as provided in the constitution. This board is com- posed of both men and women, hence all applications for aid can be promptly investigated, and the worthy applicants easily distinguished from the unworthy. The by-laws provide that the relief committee shall have control of the purchase and distribution of clothing and other necessaries, hence the funds of the organization cannot be per- verted to improper channels. The institution is supported by voluntary contributions from charitable people, materially aided by contributions from churches, lodges, and other benevolent organizations. But after years of experience it was found that the children of dissolute parents, the most worthy of charitable subjects, could not be reached, in all cases, even through the board charity of this philanthropic institution. This defect in the system was discussed by its members and officers for several years, when on the 4th of April, 1873, it was decided to establish a Children's Home in connection with the other work of the institution. The home was opened on the 24th of May, 1873, and John A. M. Passmore, an indefatigable worker in its interests, was placed at the head as president, and Mrs. Albertine Bigelow became the first matron. The physicians of the city donated their professional services to the physical well-being of the inmates. Children between the ages of four and twelve years, free from incurable or contagious diseases, are admitted without distinction. From the opening of the institution a day school and a Sabbath school have been conducted in connection with the home. Orphan children, or those abandoned by their parents, are cared for and in due time placed in suitable private homes by indenture, and thus the good work is indeterminate in char- acter. The institution receives some state aid and a fairly liberal support through the generous contributions of an appreciative public, and these noble charities have never been crippled in their efficiency through lack of funds. To attempt to record the names of individual citizens who have been conspicuous in this work would be a super- fluity, and scarcely consistent in that all have acted a noble part.
The general article on education refers to the Pottsville schools. and places that district among the first four in the county to adopt the public school system. The first school of which record is made within the bounds of Pottsville was opened in ISII in the "Reep church." This was later known as the "Dutch church." The school was taught in the German language, by an old soldier formerly in the German
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cavalry. John Hoff, or Hough, an Irishman, for some years a clerk for John Pott, taught a school in 1818, in a log house on the island where the Atkins furnaces were later established. He was also the first teacher in the log school house built on Center street in 1819, this being the first school house erected within the village limits, and the only one for about fourteen years and later on conducted a private or pay school for boys. But while there were no buildings erected especially for school purposes during the period mentioned, the edu- cational interests were not permitted to languish, and schools were established in accordance with the growth of the town, and the de- mands for instruction. The early schools were all conducted on the basis of subscription, and several very successful institutions of this character were opened by competent and enterprising teachers, and continued for many years. But the encroachments of the public schools, and the popularizing of the system, gradually drove out the private institutions. The Pottsville institute, later known as the Pottsville academy, was one of the most successful and long-continuing of the private schools in Pottsville. It was opened in 1832, and for about thirty years offered special advantages to those seeking an academical education. This was virtually the first normal school in the state of Pennsylvania. In 1849 this institution had a faculty of seven profes- sors, and the curriculum covered a three years' course in the sciences, and ancient languages, higher mathematics, special lecture courses, etc. Many of the elderly men of Pottsville look proudly upon this institution as their "Alma Mater." In like manner a female seminary, opened by Miss Marcia M. Allen in 1843, was the institution in which many of the matrons of to-day received their higher education. The seminary was kept up by Miss Allen for twenty-eight years, during which period nearly all of the young ladies of Pottsville finished their education under her tuition. Miss Allen's name is cherished among her former students as that of a most exemplary woman and excellent teacher.
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