USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 65
USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 65
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" Among the inmates of that room was a lady who had been confined to her bed for two weeks, and when compelled by the dire necessity of the case to join this company, she found her husband was not among them, and the agonizing thought that he had fallen a victim to the destroying torrent could not be suppressed. . . . We may pieture, but not realize, the feeling of the wife and mother during the long hours of that anxious night. It was a far easier task to rejoice with her in; sympathetic feeling, when at morning's carliest dawn the husband was seen on the other side of the river, giving notice to those opposite of his safety. Wel- come news, which quickly sped to the ear of the wife. He, anxious for the safety of a father and sister, had crossed the bridge in order to apprise them of the threatening danger. His foot had not ceased to tread it more than a minute or two before it was carried down the stream ; the way for his return was eut off. He was safe, and gratified in being able to get his pa- rent and sister to a place of safety, and his timely warning induced others to seek a position of greater security. The remainder of the night was passed amid doubts and fears in regard to the safety of the dear ones separated from him, from which he was not re- lieved until it was light enough to communicate by
signal with those on the other side of the river. Fear- ful seenes were enacting elsewhere. Dr. Flentje, an intelligent physician, was in his office (situated a few doors above the Mansion House) with a patient who had called to see him, when, the water rising rapidly in the room, the doctor went in the adjoining one to a back window for the purpose of communicating with a neighbor; whilst there he called to his friend to come also, but the response was, 'He could not, that the water was coming in so fast, and the door was shut, and he was unable to open it.' Anxious for his safety, the doctor returned to the door, which, with some difficulty, he succeeded in opening. The water was then in the room up to his waist, and rising with great rapidity. The means of escape apparently cut off', he kept hold of the open door, and by that means supported himself, the water bnoying him up. The lights were out, and in the darkness his companion was not to be seen. Here he clung for a while ; next a tenpenny nail driven in the wall furnished a place to cling to, when he thought of the stove-pipe hole, situated near the corner of the room, the bottom of the aperture of which, by measurement, was found to be just fifteen inches from the ceiling. Into this he thrust his arm and supported himself during the height of the water; he was thus able to keep his mouth and nose above it, not escaping, however, with- out swallowing a considerable quantity. When thus suspended, he felt with his feet for the stove, but it had been overset. How long he hning there he had no means of knowing ; but he could feel with his feet the retiring of the waters, and we presume he re- mained until sheer exhaustion relaxed his hold, when, in a state of semi-unconsciousness, he must have sought a resting-place above the water, for when fully aware of his situation, he found himself lying upon the top of a case near the middle of the room, with the dead body of his patient near by him on the floor. As mentioned elsewhere, the extreme height of the water did not continue more than fifteen minutes, and we are inclined to think it might have been the undu- lation of the waves that marked the depth of water in the doctor's office, it being just four inches below the ceiling.
" Another remarkable preservation from death was exemplified in the case of Leonard Yeager, cabinet- maker. He was at his dwelling, situated on Broad- way, when abont nine o'clock he was informed that his shop, which stands on the east side of Susque- hanna Street, was in danger ; his wife, alarmed at the aspect of things around them, was unwilling for him to leave her. Another message coming about ten o'clock, he went down, and, though the water covered the street to a considerable depth, crossed over to his shop, where he found his men and boy endeavoring to take care of his stock. Thinking he might procure a room of a neighbor in which he might place some of his furniture, he left the building and went over for the purpose of making the arrangement. While thus en-
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
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gaged the water made a rush (as he describes it), and he returned to his shop, where his men were busily engaged up-stairs, and told them to get away as soon as they could ; they promptly obeyed, and the men were enabled to gain the houses on the other side. Emanuel Dorwert, his apprentice, aged about twenty years, also made the attempt, but owing to the rapid rise of the water, and his companions urging him to desist from the effort, he returned to the shop as Leonard reached the door from above. Here they stood for a time, Leonard afraid to let his boy go, or to venture himself, supposing the place they occupied would be the safest. But very quickly they were ad- monished by the rising flood and the shaking building -some of its pieces which covered the porch on which they were standing falling upon and about their heads, and the back part of the structure yielding to the foree of the waters-that their position was one of extreme peril. Upon consulting together, and making hasty preparation by stripping off their coats and boots, they made a plunge into the current, with the hope they might reach the Mansion House. Leonard got hold of a piece of timber; this was struck by another and put his head under water, but he quickly emerged, and as he passed the Mansion House, observing a light, he called for help; if heard at all there, they were powerless to assist. Emannel ealled also, and Leonard thinks from the sound of his voice when op- posite the house, they could not have been more than six or. eight feet apart. He could not sec him in the darkness, and it was the last he heard of him. His body was found on the 6th of the month near the gap, his head mangled, it is supposed erushed between the floating timber. Yeager, soon after passing the hotel, found himself so completely packed in the drift-wood that he could not stir hand or foot, and in the short in- terval that elapsed in his passage from the Mansion House to the gas-works, thinks he was stunned by a blow from something floating by. At the gas-house, not being able to use his limbs, he thought a leg was broken, and thus went down through the narrows. When about the railroad bridge his arms became re- leased, and he was enabled to crawlout of the water on to the mibbish, over which he scrambled until he reached an empty canal-boat a little below the tavern at Bur- lington, upon this he succeeded in getting. We sup- pose the accumulated mass of timber surrounding it furnished the way. He kept himself on the hind box
until it reached the island above Weissport, where it struck ; here, finding it was filling with water very fast, he worked his way to the forward box, which he barely reached ere it broke loose from the one he left. On this he was carried down by Weissport, the boat taking its course between the canal and the roll- ing-mill chimney, and thence through the back part of the town. At the lower end of it he passed a house afloat, and distinetly heard the voices of its inmates in their unavailing cry for help. When opposite Parryville, the light from the furnace-stack enabled
him to see his position, and, approaching very near the shore, he had some thought of jumping off and endeavoring to reach it, but he feared to make the at- tempt. Some distance below this place the boat was swept so near to the mountain that he was enabled to grasp an overhanging limb, by which he succeeded in getting on to the tree. The boat, without striking, pursued its way down the stream.
" Upon descending the tree he found the water at its foot to be about knee-deep, from whenve he made his way up the mountain-side, where he spent the night. He had vest, shirt, and pantaloons on; his eoat and boots had been left in the shop, and the rub- bish of the river had stripped him of his stockings. About daybreak he reached the house of Christopher Rapp, at Parryville, where he was furnished with dry clothes and a breakfast, and at onee, much against the judgment and advice of those he was with, started for Mauch Chunk. To get there, a creek whose waters were much swollen had to be crossed, but by going up it a considerable distance he found a log, over which, though covered with a foot or more of water, he ventured, getting safely over, and arrived opposite the town during the morning. A more wel- come bulletin, written upon a piece of iron and held up to be read by those on the other side by the aid of a glass, announcing his safety, we are inclined to thiuk, was never before received by his distressed wife.
" A sad ineident which occurred on the following second day (the 9th of the month) after the freshet is deserving of record. Elizabeth Ziest, of Tamaqua, and Anna Kirschner, of Mahoning Valley, were at the time of its occurrence living with George Fegley, opposite Penn Haven. Owing to the sudden and rapid rise of the water it was with much difficulty they escaped; it is said a tree assisted one, and the other was extricated by her hair. The morning after the freshet they were sent by George to a neighbor's, some little distance from the river, for shelter until he could go to Manch Chunk and make some ar- rangements for them, his house having been entirely washed away. Here they stayed some time, and Eliza- beth, in conversation, remarked that she was under the impression that she would still be drowned. This idea seemed to have taken fast hold of her, though endeavors were used to convince her that she only fancied so from the effects of the fright she had re- ceived ;. she nevertheless persisted in the belief that she was to lose her life by drowning. After remain- ing at the neighbor's house some days they concluded they would go to Mauch Chunk and see their em- ployer, who had then arrived there, and they would endeavor to reach their respective homes that their relatives might be advised of their safety. On their way they called upon some acquaintances at East Manch Chunk. They arrived at the river in the carly part of the afternoon ; and after they had taken their places in the boat a young man who had joined them
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BOROUGHI OF MAUCH CHUNK.
pushed it from the shore, and then jumped to get in himself, but the current was so strong that instead of getting into the boat he only succeeded in reaching the stern where the women were sitting, eausing it instantly to upset, throwing all of its human freight into the rapid current. He and the oarsman by great efforts reached the shore, but the young women were lost; the body of one was recovered near the com- pany's schute, and the other lodged for a time on the pier of the old bridge opposite the Mansion House, and was taken from the river some distance below it. This accident, if possible, east a still deeper gloom over the citizens of the town. Six lives, including these, were lost.
"The borough, after the retiring of the flood, pre- sented a sorry appearance. Broadway showed its effects, and Susquehanna Street from the dam to be- low the Mansion House was nearly half swept away, together with the wall at the river-side. Below, the gas buildings, with its gasometer, were demolished, also the wagon road through the narrows for a con- siderable portion of its distance, leaving no token in places by which it could be recognized that a road ever existed there; so completely were earth and stone removed that a foot passenger had great difficulty in getting along, and it could only be accomplished by elinging to the rocks and shrubbery on the side of the mountain. The damage to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company's works at and below Mauch Chunk to the Delaware River was very extensive. Down to Allentown it was marked by the breaking of guard-banks, the destruction of locks and lock-tenders' houses, and in a number of places the bed of the canal was so entirely washed away as to leave no indication that it ever existed there. From Allentown to Easton the damage was not so great, and required but a short time and small outlay to repair it. This part of the canal was ready for the passage of boats by the 25th of the Seventh month. The devastation was so great between Mauch Chunk and Allentown that it involved a heavy ontlay of money in lumber, iron, aud other materials, and the labor of between two and three thousand men and five or six hundred horses and mules for nearly four months before navi- gation could be resumed. The first boat was loaded and started from Mauch Chunk the 29th day of the Ninth month, 1862."
The Borough Incorporated .- The town having obtained a population of over twenty-five hundred in 1849, a majority of its voters, deeming that its in- terests would be best subserved by self-government, petitioned the Court of Quarter Sessions for a charter of borough incorporation. This was granted Jan. 26, 1850, and formally accepted by an election in which Charles O. Skeer, E. W. Harlan, Josiah Bullock, Jacob H. Salkeld, Leonard Blakslee, and J. R. Twin- ing were elected conneilmen. They chose E. W. Har- lan as burgess at their first meeting, March 11, 1850; James I. Blakslee was elected treasurer ; Thomas L.
Foster, surveyor; J. R. Struthers, borough counsel ; C. L. Eberle, clerk ; F. C. Kline, high constable ; and George Kisner and Owen Williams, street commis- sioners.
Following are the names of the successive burgesses from 1850 to 1883:
1850-51 .- E. W. Harlan.
1852 .- Jesse K. Pryor.
1853 .- L. D. Knowles.
1854 .- J. I. Blakslee ( February).
1854 .- Jacob Gilger ( March).
1855 .- Samuel B. Hutchinson.
1856 .- E. W. Harlan. 1857-58 .- I. T. Dodson.
1859 .- T. R. Crellin.
1860 .- J. W. Enbody.
1861 .- L. F. Chapman.
1862 .- S. M. Line.
1863 .- A. H. Fatzinger. 1864-65 .- Joshua Bullock.
1866-77 .- W. H. Stroh.
1878 .- W. T. King.
1879 .- T. R. Crellin.
1880 .- J. S. Keiser.
1881-82 .- Henry Lobien.
1883 .- John Brelsford.
Upper Mauch Chunk, as it is commonly called, constitutes the Second Ward of the borongh. It is composed almost entirely of residences, which border - regularly-laid out streets on the level ground more than two hundred feet above the lower town. This vast natural terrace or buttress of Mount Pisgah was early recognized as available ground for building, and was laid out in 1846. David Pratt was the first set- tler there, in the year 1823, and he cultivated a con- siderable portion of the ground now covered by houses as late as 1840. Elliott Lockhart, Philip Swank, Nathan Tubbs, Joseph Weyhenmyer, and Charles Faga lived there as early as 1837, and the latter has kept store since 1856. There are no me- chanical industries in Upper Manch Chunk except the car-repair shops of the gravity railroad, e-tab- lished in 1847.
East Mauch Chunk constitutes a separate borough, divided from Mauch Chunk proper by the Lehigh River. The locality was known during the early years of the settlement as " The Kettle," an appellit- tion that had some degree of appropriateness from the slope of the great hollow surrounded by a colos- sal amphitheatre of hills. A few families lived here years before the town was laid out. John Burns took up his residence at " The Kettle" in 1824, and John Riddle at a later period. The spot being a favorable one for the location of a town, and affording a large tract of comparatively smooth ground, sloping gently towards the river, the Coal and Navigation Company in 1850 laid out about sixty acres in lots, which were i placed in the market, and soon found purchasers. I These lots, some of which are now worth two thou-
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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
sand dollars, originally sold for one hundred dollars each. From time to time additions were made to the original plat, until at present the town covers nearly or quite two hundred acres. Over four hundred and fifty lots have been sold, and upon nearly all of them improvements have been made. Many of the houses are elegant structures, and nearly all have the ap- pearance of comfortable homes. The town is laid out on the rectangular plan, with broad streets running back from the brow of the hill, and erossed by other streets at regular distances.
The first merchant of the place was Isaac Butz, who, after keeping store about five years, sold out to E. Bauer in 1864. Mr. Bauer is now the oldest mer- chant of East Mauch Chunk. Others who have gone into business here are Samuel Kennedy, John Dick- man, Hooven Brothers, John Muth, and Robert Bauchspies. The first public-house, the Centre Hotel, ; teacher at the upper school-house. For a short period was built by Solomon Driesbach, who kept it for many years.
Incorporation .- The town grew rapidly, and by 1853 it had attained such a population as warranted application for its establishment as a separate mu- nicipality. In response to the petition of its people it was incorporated as the Borough of East Mauch Chunk by the Court of Quarter Sessions, Jan. 1, 1854. Jolin Ruddle was chosen the first burgess, and Jacob S. Wallace, Lucas Ashley, Thomas L. Foster, David Mummey, J. R. Twining, and John Beighe were elected as the first council. The names of the bur- gesses during the past thirty years cannot be accu- rately ascertained from the minute-books, and we therefore omit them. The present burgess is E. H. Blakslee.
The East Mauch Chunk Post-Office was estab- lished in June, 1870, J. M. Dreisbach being appointed postmaster. E. Bauer was his deputy, and attended to the business of the office.
This borough, although a distinct corporation, is practically one with Mauch Chunk proper, and will be found so treated in this chapter, its churches and schools appearing with those of the older borough. It is a town of houses rather than business institu- tions, and will doubtless some day rival its neighbor in population, though not in wealth or commercial activity.
Educational .- The first school of which any mem- ; ory is retained was kept in 1821, in a log building ! owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. It was sustained in part by the company and in part by the parents of the few pupils who attended it, a stipu- lated price being paid for the tuition of each one. In 1823 the Coal and Navigation Company built a log school house, above the foundry-dam, in which in later years the eccentrie " Irish schoolmaster," James Nowlin, taught. In 1824 a slab house, which was sub- sequently lathed and pebble-dashed, was built on the spot now occupied by A. W. Butler's residence. This was also opened as a school-house, and so used for
many years. There were two teachers in Mauch Chunk prior to Nowlin's time, whose names have been preserved, and one of them, Margaret Maline Brooks Balton Sanders, seems to be well worth pre- serving as a curiosity. She was a New Jersey lady, who came here in 1823 or 1824, and remained per- haps ten years, or until after Nowlin's school had been established and the greater number of the children of school age attracted to it. Mrs. Jane Teeple also had a small school of very young children in the house where she lived.
James Nowlin, the " Irish schoolmaster," to whom allusion has been made, is said to have been the first teacher in the upper school-house, and if that state- ment is correct, he must have come here soon after it was built, in 1823. In 1829 he announced, in the Le- high Pioneer and Courier, that he still remained as during the early part of his career he had a rival in a Mr. Hunter, who taught at the Slab school-house, heretofore mentioned. Hle taught all of the common English branches, and in addition the higher mathe- maties, including surveying, and received a tuition- fee of $2.50 per quarter from cach pupil. Nowlin, however, was the most popular teacher, and outlasted Hunter. He had a mixed school of abont one hun- dred and twenty pupils, which included many who have since become prominent in Mauch Chunk or a wider field, as R. Q. Butler, a leading public-spirited school-man, who has for the past quarter of a century been identified with almost every step in educational improvement, Hon. John Leisenring, A. W. Leisen- ring, Robert Sayre, S. Roberts, and Rothermel, Penn- sylvania's noted artist and the painter of the great battle-scene, "Gettysburg." Nowlin taught five and a half days in the weck, and received $2.50 per quar- ter for each of his pupils. He was a good mathema- tician, but not equally master of the other branches, and was a rigid disciplinarian. The punishments in- flicted by him were severe and frequent, the instrument used being what he denominated the "taws," a short, stocky hickory handle, to which were fastened four leather lashes. The unhappy pupil who gave wrong answers in class, as well as the one who disobeyed in- structions, was sure to receive a stinging blow from the "taws" upon the hand, which he was instantly obliged to stretch out. The frequency and severity of the punishment, which would not be tolerated to-day under any circumstances, was never resented then, and in spite of his application of the lash, Nowlin was popular with his scholars. He won their regard by his genial ways on the playground and his dex- terity in playing ball, at which he could exeel any of the boys. In 1831 the upper school suffered slightly from the withdrawal of pupils of the younger classes to attend a school opened by S. Ross, whose wife, Mrs. A. M. Ross, taught needlework, but Nowlin's fame was too great to make the efforts of any rivals danger- ous, and he kept on teaching with great success until
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BOROUGH OF MAUCH CHUNK.
after the adoption of the common school in 1835. The poor fellow drifted about, and finally died at the Schuylkill County Poor-House.
The school directors elected in 1834, who assisted in bringing about the adoption of the free-school law in the following year, were S. S. Barber, Asa 1. Foster, G. W. Smith, William Butler, Sr., Samuel Holland, and Merrit Abbott.
After Nowlin's departure the schools were taught by Amos Singley and others, no one of whom retained position very long, until J. H. Siewers, Esq., became the teacher, about 1841. He was an able, successful, and popular instructor, and in 1854, in recognition of ; erected, which afforded accommodation for all of the his services, character, and capability, he was elected the first county superintendent. llis labors in the Mauch Chunk schools extended through a period of The average enrollment of pupils in the schools of Mauch Chunk - is now about one thousand, of which the Second Ward has a slight majority. about twelve years, during which he materially ele- vated their condition and commenced the work of grad- ing them. He was succeeded in 1853 by Charles Bow- man, the present principal of the commercial school, who came from Philadelphia, where he had gained considerable experience as an educator. In 1857, Jolm W. Horner became the principal teacher, and was succeeded by Professor Rice, who, after teaching here five years, removed to Paterson, N. J., where he subsequently died. He was followed by Dr. Cyrus Luce. B. C. Youngman taught about one year, and in 1875, L. H. Barber, who had taught since 1872 in Upper Mauch Chunk, became principal. He resigned in 1880, and Lee Huber filled the position from that time to June, 1881. In the fall of that year the present principal, J. T. White, was engaged.
The grading of the schools, which had been com- menced by Mr. Siewers, advanced very gradually, and in 1863, Thomas L. Foster, on retiring from his office as county superintendent, reported that there was not a graded school in the county, the nearest approach to that condition being in the towns and villages. The system reached a fair degree of perfection under Professor Rice.
The present school-house (on Broadway) was built in 1840, and at that time compared favorably with the best in the State, except those of Philadelphia and pos- sibly one or two of the other cities. Rupp, in his his- tory of Carbon County, says, "One of the finest public school-houses to be met with in the State, outside of Philadelphia, is found at Mauch Chunk. Her schools are well managed." Sherman Day, in his " Ilistor- ical Collections of Pennsylvania," wrote, "The people of Mauch Chunk are remarkable for their industry, enterprise, intelligence, and hospitality. A splendid edifice erected at Manch Chunk for school purposes will vie with any building of the -kind in the State." And still, after a lapse of only forty-three years, the "splendid edifice" is outgrown, is found to look shabby in the midst of the finer modern buildings, and is to be razed to the earth to make room for a new and larger structure, which will probably deserve in this decade as high compliments as the old one re- 1 1882-83, 1883-84.
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