USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a history, Volume I > Part 12
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The office of justice of the peace was an old English office, and natu- rally was incorporated into our government. Under very early common law in England, justices were judges of record, appointed by the King, to administer justice within certain prescribed limits. During our colonial existence, justices of the peace were appointed by the gover- nors, and during the period between 1779 and 1788 they were appointed by the Supreme Executive Council of the State. Under the constitu- tion of 1790 it became an elective office, when properly certified to the Secretary of State. The old-time "country squire" was a conspicuous character. His influence was second only to the "country parson," and often the two dignitaries were hand and glove in their communities. The statute law imposed upon them some extraordinary duties, and gave them the exercise of very arbitrary power. The "country squire" was esteemed an oracle of the law, and his rules of practice were often sug- gestive of results greatly at variance with the pretensions of "members of the bar," who in former years frequently rode long distances to con- duct important cases before them. It was no unusual experience for a country squire to be in commission for a quarter of a century, some- times for life. Experience taught them wisdom, and they often adjudi- cated cases intent only upon doing even-handed justice, without refer- ence to the well understood forms of law and with a seeming contempt for superior courts of review. These senior justices enjoyed the confi- dence and respect of a wide circle of acquaintances, and in many in- stances transacted the business of large communities. Many of them were, and still are, practical conveyancers, excellent penmen, correct orthographists, and from long experience were capable of drawing wills and instruments of writing that compare favorably with those of the legal profession.
Time has greatly modified their official duties. As late as 1819 they were required to examine all trappers of wolves and panthers, and cer- tify their returns to the treasurer of the county in order that the reward of twelve dollars for each head could be collected. Prior to the revised constitution of 1838, justices of the peace were appointed by the execu- tive of the State, and for the term of good behavior. At that period they were commissioned for a certain district, embracing several townships.
The county commissioners are important officers in the county gov- ernment of Pennsylvania. There are three commissioners elected for a
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY
term of three years. A provision of the laws here give the minority a chance to say how county affairs shall be managed. Each elector votes for two persons, but the three having highest votes are elected. Vacan- cies are filled by appointment by the remaining number on the board. It is the duty of the commissioners to determine the tax rate from state- ments of the assessors, and levy the county taxes. They must keep in good repair the court house and prison, and build new ones when author- ized to do so. They must also construct county bridges and keep the same in good repair. Road damages assessed to property owners for land taken for new roads or streets within the county must be proved before the commissioners. All bills against the county must by them be approved, before paid by the county treasurer. At the close of each fiscal year they publish a statement of the receipts and expenditures. The commissioners' office has charge of the following public records: I. County Commissioners' tax lien docket; 2. Commissioners' cash book docket ; contract docket ; bond book docket; register of expenditures of county docket; assessors' valuation of taxable property docket; tax duplicate docket; registry of jurors docket ; militia enrollment docket; registry of valuations of surveyors' compass docket ; and minute book.
There are three directors of the poor in Montgomery county, who act under a special law ; other counties have different systems. These direc- tors have general supervision of the almshouse, or County Home, as now called. They elect the steward and other officers, in whom is vested the management of the County Home and farm property that goes with it. They also make a report of the receipts and expenditures at the year's end.
From the beginning of the government in Montgomery county there have been three auditors, elected for a three-year term (since the amended constitution of 1874). They are elected in like manner to the county commissioners. They meet at the county seat the first Mon- day in January of each year, and audit, adjust and settle the accounts of the county commissioners, treasurer, directors of the poor and prison inspectors. The chapter on "Bench and Bar" will treat sufficiently on the formation of the various courts within the county.
Court Houses, Prisons, Etc .- By the act locating the county seat at Norristown, September 10, 1784, it was necessary to lay out a town plat, which was accomplished, and the record says it was to be known as "Norris." This platting was executed in 1785 by William Moore Smith, whose father, on behalf of the Pennsylvania University, held the remain- ing part of a certain tract of land. The law specified that the place should be selected "on the east side of the Schuylkill, near Stony Run." Hence they chose the ridge between that stream and Sawmill run, a half mile eastward, taking what is now known as Main street (then Egypt, after the highway by that name) as a base line. The surveyor then proceeded
IOI
COUNTY ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT
to lay off Airy street, sixty-six feet wide, placing the county lot between, and extending to each of these streets, on the dividing line or water- shed between those two confluents of the river, making streets at right angles now known as Swede and DeKalb streets.
On this public lot of one hundred and forty feet on Main (then Egypt) the same on Airy, and extending to both, having a depth of five hundred and fifty feet, the prison was erected, at the corner of Airy and Swede streets. It was a low stone building, covering but little of the ground, which extended as an open lawn down to Penn street and the court house. After some years a two-story addition was made to it, much larger than the original building, built up against its southern face. In the rear of the old jail stood the whipping-post, an institution now justly departed forever. Thus Norristown, as originally laid out, con- sisted of four rectangular streets, one eighty and three sixty-six feet wide, with three rear alleys, east, west, and south, twenty-eight feet wide, and a like bisecting alley between Main and Airy, but only extend- ing from Green to the county grounds. Providing for the public build- ings, on the west end of the town plot, with a tier of eleven lots (fifty by two hundred and fifty feet) on Swede street, facing the public grounds (between Main and Airy), Smith laid out the residue of sixty-four lots, uniformly fifty by two hundred and fifty feet, on the said four streets, as follows: Ten on the south side of Airy street, between DeKalb and the county lot, and all the remainder (except five on DeKalb, above Penn), thirty-eight in number, on both sides of Main, between Cherry and Green alleys.
The original court house, a stone building two stories high, was erected a few feet back from the northwest corner of the present public square, it being part of the county lot, but the unoccupied lower part being conveyed also for public use as an open square forever ; some years after its completion an addition of twenty or thirty feet was made to the west end of the building, uniform with the original structure, except that a recess on the north face was added to afford a platform seat for the judges. The old prison and court house, as originally built, cost about $21,000, and were finished in 1787. A building similar in form, and also of stone, was erected some thirty feet east of the court building for the accommodation of the public records and the officers having them in charge. This building was put up in 1791, and was also enlarged some years later. The earliest sessions of the court were held, so tradition informs us, in what was known some years ago as the "Dykes house," occupying the site of the first office and dwelling on the northeast side of Penn street, adjoining the court house, the building then being a tavern. The potter's field of the prison, as also the garden of the jailer, was located northwest of Airy and Swede streets. The place is marked on the original plot, two hundred feet on the latter and
102
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY
two hundred and fifty feet back from the former. This lot is the only ground marked on that draft north of Airy street.
But few boroughs in Pennsylvania, if indeed any, can boast of a superior county jail or prison to that found in Montgomery county. Considering the date of its construction (1851) and its cost, it certainly was in the lead. As the borough grew and all things took on a better air of prosperity, the people felt in the forties that their old original prison house was a disgrace to the county. It was shamefully dilapi- dated, and the grand jury took action and the court ordered that new county buildings be erected as speedily as possible. The cost of the county prison, all told, was $68,000. It is of durable sandstone, sixty feet front by one hundred and thirty feet deep, and originally had forty cells. It is two stories high, and the upper part was designed for soli- tary confinement convicts. It was completed late in 1851, and the pris- oners all moved to it.
As soon as the jail had been finished in 1851, the same architect planned a new court house, which was badly needed. During 1852-54, the work of construction went forward rapidly. It had one hundred and ninety-six feet front on Swede street by sixty-four on Airy and Penn streets. It was a brick structure, faced with Montgomery county mar- ble. Originally it unwisely had a tall spire, clock and bell. When fin- ished it had cost the county $150,000. At that date it had no superior in Pennsylvania. After a time it leaked around the "spire" mentioned, which was removed and the present neat style of a cupola, containing a new clock and a bell of 3,230 pounds weight, was provided instead of the old spire. This court house served well the purpose for which it was intended, but as the county grew even to the proportion of a "small empire," it was found inadequate for the space demanded by the numer- ous county offices, courts, and other governmental departments. Con- sequently in 1902 the building was remodeled and rebuilt in part, with great extensions, giving much more room for the business of the county. And still, with an everincreasing business, there is not sufficient room to properly transact the business with ease and comfort, and the county is looking to further extensions in the near future. At the head of the great stairway leading to the second floor of the court house of to-day, one may read on a bronze plate this inscription: "Montgomery County Court House Constructed 1854; Rebuilt in 1902." The rebuilding of the court house, as it now stands, cost the county taxpayers in excess of three-quarters of a million dollars, and still the quarters are quite cramped for many of the departments.
The controller's report on the finances of the county for the year ending January 1, 1923, contained in substance the following: The balance on hand at the beginning of the new year was $65,592; receipts during the year were $2,094,323; disbursements $2,159,756; the county fund and transfer of sundry items, $1,306,604; dog taxes, $15,088; State
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COUNTY ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT
tax, $560,059; treasurer's fees on fishing licenses, $343; liquor license fund, $16,896; mercantile licenses, $66,259; hunters' licenses, $9,907; dog law fines, $1,294; fishing law fines, $40; prothonotary's fund account, $15,568; register of wills, $20,195; recorder of deeds, $52,667; sheriff, $14,427; ex-sheriff Nagle, $53. Included in the disbursements is $1,266,- 261 for salaries of commissioners, controller, district attorney, coroner and treasurer's offices. The cost of the prison was $3,347.28. The de- linquent taxes since 1914 amounted to $72,303 for State, and for the county, $34,121. The work on the Norristown bridge amounted to $7,126; coroner's salary, $788. The election cost during the year, $27,208; registration, $2,167; primary election, $10,888; general election, $10,479; advertising proclamation, $1,670. The support of convicts totaled $25,- 299; insane, $76,000; inmates State Training School, $3,399. Of the $231,227 spent on bridges in the county, the largest items were $94,000 for the Conshohocken bridge; $70,000 for the inter-county bridges; and $50,000 for other bridges not specified. County road repairs aggregated about $194,000; county appropriations to State roads, $46,000; snow removal, $3,700; the Telford road, $6,000. The courts, aside from judges' salaries, cost the taxpayers $50,000; court house expenses-light, heat, janitors, salaries, etc., $12,000. The House of Detention cost nearly $10,000; assessors received $55,000; mothers' assistance fund, $8,177; the entire cost of charitable and penal institutions was $107,230; of bridges, $231,377 ; road damages, $14,980; roads, $255,171.
According to the latest report issued from the county controller's office, Montgomery county has resources as follows :
Court House and Grounds. $600,000 00
Prison and Grounds ..
150,000 00
Almshouse and Grounds.
450,000 00
House of Detention, Cherry Street, Norristown 10,594 64
County Bridges 2,000,000 00
156 Shares of Norristown Water Company Stock. 14,040 00
Outstanding Taxes (Less Exonerations). 125,000 00
Sinking Fund
70,000 00
Due from Various Sources 12,124 68
Cash Balance in Treasury.
63,821 04
Total Resources of County $3,495,580 36
The liabilities of the county are as follows :
Bond Issue, Four Per Cent. Account. $80,000 00
Bond Issue, Three and a Half Per Cent. Account. 150,000 00
Outstanding Warrants and Unpaid Bills 63,597 35
Excess of Resources Over Liabilities 3,201,983 0I
Total Liabilities $3,495,580 36
Sworn to by Horace W. Smedley, County Controller, saying the foregoing is true and correct to the best of his knowledge and belief.
The disbursement of county funds was as follows :
Commissioner's Office $63,244 28
Controller's Office 11,697 27
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY
Coroner's Office
1,222 00
Clerk of the Courts' Office. 3,698 51
District Attorney's Office. 14,771 36
Prothonotary's Office
6,293 21
Register of Wills Office.
1,350 38
Recorder of Deeds Office ..
4,447 49
Sheriff's Office
3,002 00
Treasurer's Office
13,257 88
Bonded Indebtedness
11,620 00
Elections
27,208 93
Charitable and Penal Institutions.
107,230 00
Bridges
231,377 34
Road Damages
14,980 70
Roads
255,171 01
Courts
48,589 04
Court House
12,143 34
House of Detention.
9,744 08
Justice of the Peace.
15 51
Miscellaneous
425,195 92
Total
$1,266,261 45
The following is a list of the persons who have served as officers in Montgomery county since 1880:
Recorders-Henry W. Kratz, 1881; Aaron Weikel, 1884; Benjamin Thomas, 1887; George S. Pauling, 1890; George W. Keys, 1893; M. H. Murphy, 1896; Horace B. Righter, 1899; Earl L. Jenkins, 1902; William Todd, Jr., 1905 ; T. D. Buckwalter, 1911 ; T. D. Buckwalter, 1915 ; S. Paul Sheeder, 1919.
Registers-J. Roberts Rambo, 1881 ; Joseph W. Hunter, 1887; Albert Helffenstein, 1890; Joseph C. Crawford, 1893; Edward Elsenhaus, 1896; Rhine Russell Freed, 1899; Henry W. Aikens, 1902; Ed J. Caine, 1905; Daniel Stewart, Jr., 1911; R. C. Miller, 1915; R. C. Miller, 1919.
Prothonotaries-John McLean, 1881; William B. Woodward, 1884; George B. Sheetz, 1887; Samuel E. Nyce, 1893; M. S. Kulp, 1897; Brooke, 1900; A. D. Hallman, 1903; same in 1906; S. B. Drake, 1909-13'; Harvet S. Frederick, 1917 ; I. T. Haldeman, 1922.
Sheriffs-Joseph Frankelfield, 1880; Edwin S. Stahlnecker, 1883; Henry C. Kline, 1886; Clinton Rorer, 1889; Albert D. Simpson, 1892; Charles Johnson, 1895; John K. Light, 1898; John Larzelere, 1901 ; Ed- gar Matthews, 1904; Chauncy J. Buckley, 1907; Charles E. Schwartz, 1911 ; Louis R. Nagle, 1915; Jacob Hamilton, 1919.
Treasurers-J. R. Yost, 1880; Henry A. Cole, 1883; William H. Young and Isaac Fegley, 1887; Edwin S. Stahlnecker, 1890; Samuel Effrig, 1893; A. C. Goodshall, 1895; Henry W. Hallowell, 1898; George N. Malsberger, 1901 ; Henry B. Freed, 1904; William M. Higginbotham, 1907; H. P. Keely, 1911 ; George H. Anders, 1915; Irvin H. Bardman, 1919.
Clerk of the Courts-Edward Schall, 1881 ; Edward Schall and Alex- ander Maulsberger, 1884; Alexander Maulsberger, 1887; Abner H. Geh- man, 1890; Daniel A. Shiffert, 1893; William P. Young, 1896; I. N. Cook, 1896; Henry W. Aikens, 1902; Howard S. Stillwagon, 1905; Howard S. Stillwagon, 1908; James A. Strech, 1911 ; same in 1915; J. C. Johnson, 1919.
Coroners-Samuel Akins, 1880; Samuel Akins, 1883; * Mil- ton R. Kurtz, 1892; same in 1895; Grant R. McGlathery, 1898; James J.
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COUNTY ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT
Kane, 1901 ; Joseph N. King, 1907; William Neville, 1911 ; Grant R. Mc- Glathery, 1915, died in office, and William Neville was appointed to serve in his place; R. C. Hoffman was elected in 1919, failed to qualify, and William Neville served out his term of office.
County Surveyors-Joseph W. Hunter, 1880; Edwin S. Ritchie, 1892; same in 1895; same in 1898; same in 1901 ; S. B. Latshaw, 1907; James Cresson, 1911 ; same in 1915; John H. Dager, 1919.
The following is a list of the principal officers of Montgomery county at this date (1923), and with the exception of the judge of the Orphans' Court and the prothonotary, their term of office expires in 1924; all are elected for a four-year term. The judge of the Orphans' Court, as well as the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, hold a ten-year term of office.
President Judge, Hon. Aaron S. Swartz *; judge, Hon. John Faber Miller; judge of Orphans' Court, Hon. W. F. Solly ; district attorney, Frank X. Renninger ; indictment clerk, George C. Corson ; prothonotary, I. T. Haldeman ; solicitor, T. Lane Bean ; clerk of quarter sessions, J. Crawford Johnson ; recorder of deeds, B. Paul Sheeder ; register of wills, Robert C. Miller; county treasurer, Irvin H. Bardman; sheriff, Jacob Hamilton ; county commissioners, William Warner Harper, Roy A. Hat- field, Harman Y. Bready ; commissioner's clerk, Daniel Stout; controller, Horace Smedley ; coroner, William Neville, Conshohocken; county sur- veyor, John H. Dager ; almshouse steward, John H. Bartman ; almshouse matron, Mrs. J. H. Bartman ; physician, Dr. W. Z. Anders ; prison war- den, Romanus Fellman; probation officers, Miss Susan Dumore, and Harry B. Chain ; mercantile appraisers, George L. Rubicam, Jenkintown ; county superintendent of schools, J. Horace Landis.
Note -* Judge Swartz, on March 7, 1923, tendered his resignation, after thirty- seven years on the bench. Governor Pinchot now had it under advisement more than a month, but finally was prevailed upon to grant the just request of the veteran of the Montgomery County Bench.
CHAPTER IX. TRANSPORTATION.
The matter of transportation has always been among the difficult problems to solve in all civilized portions of the globe, and America must be given credit for her large share in solving this problem not for this country alone but for all other countries. We had our Fulton, he gave the world its steamboats; we had our Morse, he gave to the world the electric telegraph ; we had our Edison, he gave us our electric car sys- tems and telephones; we had our two Pullman brothers, they gave the traveling public our sleeping-car system; we had our George Westing- house, he gave the world the automatic air-brake,-and the great world abroad was quick to borrow these inventions wrought out by these Ameri- can men of genius; and also in their communications with us the foreign countries whisper under the sea, over the American submarine tele- graphic cable invented and laid beneath the rolling waves by another American-Cyrus W. Field.
Waterways-Like all countries where goodsized streams are found, the earliest means of transportation was by boats of different kinds, usu- ally at first the dug-out or canoe, made from the trunk of some mighty forest king. The Schuylkill was first graced by a rude fort ordered built in 1633 by Arent Corsson, under Governor Van Twiller, of Manhattan. This was to protect the Dutch fur traders who had just engaged in a large fur trade with the Indians, especially in beaver skins. In 1643 no less than 2,127 packages of skins were shipped to Europe. The fort was known as "Beversrede," named from the beaver skin trade. It is believed this fort was near what was later known as Gray's ferry, at the western extremity of the city of Philadelphia. This was about the first water transportation on the Schuylkill, and in 1730 action was taken to protect the fishways and dams along the river from being injured or totally destroyed by the boatmen in the fur trade, who in many cases ruined the dams and fishways built by the men engaged in fishing for a livelihood. This trouble almost caused a civil war. William Penn had to pass an act in his time to prevent such destruction. The canoes in use then carried as high as one hundred and forty bushels of wheat, and Penn wrote to England that some of them carried four tons of brick, and yet the boat was all fashioned from the trunk of one poplar tree. For a half century the war went on between landsmen who made their living at fishing and prized their improvised dams and "traps" for catching fish, while the boatman with his heavily loaded cargo of furs left no stone unturned to win out, and finally the government authorities had to settle it and it was decided that the landsmen must thereafter put no obstructions in the waters of the stream. That ended the war.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY
A company was incorporated in 1792 to make a canal from Norris- town to the Delaware river at Philadelphia. From the former place the Schuylkill was to be improved so that continuous passage might be had for boats with the interior of the State. Half a million dollars was sunk in trying out this scheme for a water transportation system, but all to no avail. But in 1811 the two old companies reorganized, and in 1827 the canal was completed and William Penn's dream of connecting the waters of the Schuylkill and Susquehanna rivers became a fact. After an en- largement of this canal had been effected in 1846, coal boats of 180 tons could easily be floated through the waterway. In 1860 it was shown that the average annual coal shipments through this canal to the iron furnaces of this county alone, amounted to more than half a million tons. Some knowledge of the commerce on the river may be gained from a statement made in a Reading newspaper under date of March 6, 1802:
Within the present week were taken down on the Schuylkill to the mills and city of Philadelphia in the boats of this place in one day the following articles: 1201 barrels of flour; 1425 bushels of wheat, 17 tons of barr iron, 1492 gallons of whiskey, 365 pounds of butter, and 500 pounds of snuff. The whole amounted to upwards of one hundred and sixty tons, and would require, in the present condition of the roads, at least one hundred and sixty teams of good horses to haul the same to market.
Owing to the abundance of pine and hemlock timber among the mountains and sources of the Schuylkill, the first settlers, excepting a few hunters, came hither to avail themselves of this means for a liveli- hood. At first rafts were entirely constructed of logs, seldom over twelve feet in width and generally sixteen feet in length.
The Montgomery County Historical Society has the following facts on the old canal days and the manner of operating such transportation : A company known as the Schuylkill Navigation Company was organized in 1825 to build a canal system extending the entire length of Montgom- ery county from Philadelphia to the north and west. For many years the stage coach was the only common carrier known to this part of the country. When constructed, this canal had numerous ports, and car- ried much heavy freight. Millions of tons of coal were carried on these canal barges or "arks," as some called them, each boat dragged slowly along by means of the power furnished by one or two horses tramping along on the well-trodden tow-path, a picturesque sight. The music of the boatman's horn as the boat neared a "lock," signaling to the lock- keeper for its coming, was pleasant to hear up and down the Schuylkill Valley, where the canal took its windings with the stream's banks. Boatmen frequently played a tune creditably on those tin boat-horns. This canal is still in operation, though little freight is carried, as the steam and electric railway systems have been able to successfully com-
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