USA > Pennsylvania > Schuylkill County > Old Schuylkill tales, a history of interesting events, traditions and anecdotes of the early settlers of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania > Part 14
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Several resurrected invitations to these assemblies have the names of Francis B. Gowen, Matt Richards, Willis Hartz, Lewis C. Thompson, William Thompson, F. B. Bannan, Fran- cis Parvin and William Clemens engraved on them. Another, of the Celo Patrol social club, a hop, has the names, John Clay- ton, Benjamin Whitney, Frank Hazzard, Charles Vandusen, of Pottsville, C. D. Elliott and James Trexler, of Reading, and Ben Snyder.
CHARLEMAGNE TOWER
"Did I know Charlemagne Tower ? Why, yes!" said veter- inary surgeon Dr. Heiser, "everybody about Pottsville knew him. He came here from Waterford, N. Y., where the family still maintains a country home, and was the largest owner of coal lands in the county, except P. W. Sheafer.
"Tower City was named after him, Ambassador Tower is his son, he was named Charlemagne for his father. Mr. Tower was Provost Marshal for Schuylkill County, when the U. S. troops were stationed in Pottsville, during the Civil War, to en- force the draft.
"The Tower children were raised very sensibly. Great at- tention was paid to their education. They had a private tutor, Prof. H. A. Becker, who came here expressly from Germany for the purpose of instructing them.
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"Young Charlemagne went to military school afterward, then to college, and finally finished his education abroad at one of the German Universities.
"One of the daughters married Richard Lee, dead now, another, Thomas Alexander Reilley, son of Judge Bernard P. Reilly, of town. The family live in Philadelphia.
"Everybody in Pottsville liked the Tower family, and young 'Charlie' was generally beloved. He loves Pottsville, his birthplace, too.
"An instance of his feeling for the old home-town occurred a short time ago, when Alex. Faust and party called upon him in Berlin. He came forward at once and called 'Alec' by name, shook hands with him warmly, bade him sit beside him and then he inquired about everybody-the odd characters about town as he remembered them thirty years ago, not forgetting to ask if 'Ed. Saylor' and 'Wm. Tarr' were still living.
"No wonder Emperor William likes a man like that. A mil- lionaire and the son of a millionaire and one of the greatest official dignitaries representing the United States in a foreign country and yet not above remembering the humblest in the town of his birth.
"Oh! yes, I knew Charlemagne Tower and his son 'Charlie,' everybody in Pottsville in the 'Sixties' and the earlier part of the 'Seventies' knew them."
[Note .- Charlemagne Tower was one of the most notable of Pottsville citizens. He made his fortune in Schuylkill County through the ownership and sale of coal lands, and re- tired a millionaire, removing to Philadelphia after his retire- ment, where he died.]
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SOCIAL AND LITERARY ADVANTAGES
The social and literary advantages of Pottsville have ever been of the highest order. Dr. J. F. Powers, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, strongly endorsed this statement in a clause of his sermon on "Old Home Week," Sunday, September, 1906, when he said:
"Clergymen, called as they arc from time to time to min- ister to churches in widely separated localitics, have an un- usual opportunity for comparing and discriminating between the people of these various communities-the tone of society- local peculiarities-social refinement and general culture. This is the expression of one in regard to Pottsville (doubtless himself) having served for three years a parish in Cambridge under the shadow of Harvard University; another for nine years in Malden, dominated by the influence of Boston culture; still another for twelve ycars in the city of Philadelphia, a city never slow to assert its own superiority, he camc finally as rector to Trinity Church, Pottsville, to find a congregation in every way equal and in many ways superior in education, in refine- ment, in social culture and religious earnestness to any con- gregation he had ever served. And what he found true of the congregation, he found in a large degree true of the community of which it formed a part.
"In an eminent degree the people of Pottsville are cosmo- politan. They are of the world. They know what they owe, to it and what is due to them from it; with dignity they demand the one, and with promptness pay the other."
Col. O. C. Bosbyshell, former superintendent of the U.
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S. Mint at Philadelphia, says, "The social life during the 'Fif- ties was of the very best. I never knew of a town where the society was better. The people were hospitable, intellectual, generous and neighborly."
Another in speaking of the early literary treats afforded the people adverted to the lecturers, Wendell Phillips, Henry Ward Beecher, De Witt Talmage, Artemus Ward, Schuyler Colfax, Paul Du Chaillu, Horace Greeley, John G. Saxe, Fred. Douglass, Charles Sumner, James G. Blaine, Petroleum V. Nasby and others who visited Pottsville. Josh Billings was advertised to lecture on milk. He had a huge goblet filled with the lacteal fluid to the brim on the stand in front of him, but he never said a word about it.
Then there was the first debating society that met in Thompson's Hall, where Thomas R. Bannan, Franeis B. Gowen, John T. Shoener, Howell Fisher, Mat Richards, James Ellis and others met and argued on the leading questions of the day.
Private theatricals and Shakespearian readings were popu- lar. Mrs. G. W. Farquhar, mother of Guy and Fergus Far- quhar, Esqs., was a great assistance in sueh matters. The family lived in a house on the site of the present Court House. It was erected by Archibald Ronaldson, a Seotchman and coal operator. Queer noises were heard in the night time and it was reported to be haunted. Mrs. Farquhar, who was a Von Schrader from Germany, said:
"I do not mind the noises in the least. I do not believe in ghosts" and Mr. Farquhar purchased the house. It was afterwards discovered that the sounds came from the under- ground workings of the miners of the Pott & Bannan mine.
They afterwards sold the house to the promoters of re-
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moving the Court House from Orwigsburg to Pottsville, and the family removed to the Orchard, corner of Washington and Baber Streets, the residence now owned and occupied by Mrs. Sarah Loeser Briscoe. The John Bannan family removed to their newly built mansion, Cloud Home, in 1853 and also proved invaluable coadjutors to Pottsville society and were liberal en- tertainers.
FORTISSIMO VS. PIANISSIMO
Every lover of music has felt its soft and entrancing in- fluence when from some grand organ, perhaps, the tender and soothing strains awaken the intellect to the subtle and inspiring influence of a vague harmony, that breathes to the soul a memory of some undefined aspiration or ambition that has never been fulfilled. The thought grows through the skillful manipulations of the organist, as he presents his theme from pianissimo to for- tissimo and then when the emotion is at its height and mental musical pyrotechnics fill the brain and swell the soul, the imagi- nation descends from its empyrean heights and runs the gamut of descent to the normal again as the music subsides and finally dies out.
The "Passing Regiment," too, illustrates the difference be- tween the contending forces of sound. The band with its muffled drum beats in the distance. As it draws nearer, the music be- comes plainer, until at last the sound swells to the volume of a
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tornado as the imaginary organization arrives in front of the house and with flying colors passes along down the street and is lost in the distance.
More than one person has suffered embarrassment at an entertainment, or perhaps in church, by trusting too much to the "ff" (double forty or fortissimo) of the music ; by talking aloud when suddenly the strains ceased or became just as soft as they were loud a moment ago.
At one of the early County Public School Institutes held in Pottsville, a young man accompanied by a lady attended one of the evening entertainments.
The Pottsville Academy was crowded to overflowing and on the stage were seated the prominent instructors of the in- stitute, with the lecturer of the evening, the School Directors and others.
Among the former was Deputy State Public School Super- intendent Henry Houck, at this writing a candidate on the Republican State ticket, for the coming election, November, 1906, to the office of Secretary of Internal Affairs.
There was a loud buzz of small talk among the teachers- and the orchestra was sawing away like mad, in a fortissimo passage, when the following occurred:
The young woman who had been chatting to her escort, indicating Mr. Houck, said, "Who is that black-whiskered man with the skull cap on ?"
" Deputy State Superintendent Houck!" yelled the Y. M.
"Deputy State Superintendent Houck!" said a soft voice in response. But alas! there was a crash, the music had ceased and quiet deep enough reigned to hear a pin drop. The audi- ence was breathless. The Deputy State Superintendent had
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been called and in response he came forward to the edge of the platform and bowed his acknowledgments, awaiting the pleas- ure of the audience. There was no response but two very red- faced young people (the man is now a prominent Government office-holder) shrunk into the corner of their seats and subsided for the evening. Both had learned a lesson on musical acoustics that lasted them a lifetime.
* * * * *
On a later occasion Henry Ward Beecher had been engaged to lecture before the County Institute. It was a cold evening, the train was late and Mr. Beecher just arrived and proceeded directly to the Academy. Tired out and not very enthusiastic over his subject he proceeded in a somewhat desultory fashion to demonstrate to young people, men and women, "the import- ance of saving the half of their earnings, no matter how small, for a start in life," when Michael Ryan, a one-armed school- teacher, of Shenandoah, in a loud voice, interrupted him with,
"And live on bread and water ?"
The effect was electrical, Mr. Beecher brightened and answered at once,
" Yes, Sir, and less if necessary." Then followed one of the most brilliant lectures of which Mr. Beecher was capable. The silvery tongued orator had been awakened and a flood-tide of glittering generalities, specialties and facts were presented in a manner that was irrefutable and permitted of no contra- diction.
Mr. Ryan died a short time ago. That he had crossed swords with Henry Ward Beecher was his obituary.
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SUPERSTITIONS OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY
All peoples, lettered and unlettered, have their supersti- tions. The heterogeneous mass of inhabitants gathered into the two hundred thousand and over, population of Schuylkill County, seems to have centered and inculcated in its make-up the combined beliefs of the folk lore of all nations.
It is not strange that the early stories which the writer has attempted to reproduce in these pages should have been believed in the early days, but that people should still exist in the county who believe in witches and witchcraft, seems almost incredible, and yet we rcad in this enlightened age, September, 1906, of one, a farmer in the Mahanoy Valley, who accused a woman of bewitching his live stock. He paid her a liberal sum of money to withdraw her diabolical influence.
For thirteen months horses, cows and swine perished on his land and he was unable to fathom the cause. He had pure water on the farms, clean stables and good fodder. Vct- erinary surgeons could not stop the spread of death.
Whenever a witch died it was believed that her mantle descended to her daughter and she, it was belicved, could cause her neighbor's baby convulsions, his cow to give bloody milk, or his horse to balk or die. Women witches had the power to turn themselves into the form of a sow, cat or rat at their pleasure. Infants who died in a slow decline were supposed to be the peculiar objects of the vengeance of witches, and many were the queer remedies resorted to effect a cure. The "Lost Books of Moses," before referred to, and a book known as "The Long Hidden Friend" (Der Lang Verborgne Freund),
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by John Geurge Holman, of Berks County, contain many curious remedies for the relief of all the ills that flesh is heir to, in man and beast. Strange to say, these books are still in great demand.
POW-OW-ING
Pow-ow-ing is still largely practiced about the mines. But when it is remembered that these healers of burns are practical nurses and experienced in the treatment and bandag- ing of the injured parts before they recite the charm or incan- tation the cures they effect are not so remarkable. In the 'Seventies a woman lived at Minersville, named Mrs. Reed. Dr. Wm. Beach said of her that "She was one of the most skillful dressers of wounds." When a man was burned at the mines she could attend his case as well as any physician. It was this ability that cured or helped the man and not her pow-ow- ing to "draw out the fire." But you could not convince believ- ers in the occult of this.
Erysipelas, a febrile or scorbutic disease, was very much more common in the early days than now and came, perhaps, from eating too much salt meat. Everybody had the erysip- elas then, like the appendicitis now, diseases, like the fashions, having their day. An old residenter, John Kimmel, who lived in a log house on the east side of the Presbyterian cemetery, of which he and his sons were in after years the sextons, was
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very successful in pow-ow-ing erysipelas. The writer recollects having seen him treat an obstinate case that had defied the best efforts of a leading physician and he cured it (or it went away of itself) with a lighted stick which he held over the flaming parts until it went out, pronouncing certain words and making signs. Jacob Hoffman, of Orwigsburg, was also a noted pow- ow-er. Both claimed their work was done through prayer, and both effected many cures.
L. C. THOMPSON
L. C. Thompson, Esq., the popular hardware dealer, con- tributes the following reminiscence:
"My father, Samuel Thompson, was one of the first set- tlers of Pottsville. He came here in 1828 from Juniata County. At about the same time Burd and George Patterson also came. They were two of the most noted of the early pioneers of town and established coal and iron industries here of which you are, of course, familiar.
"My father built the brick building, corner of Market and Centre Streets, since occupied by my hardware business, where he established a general store, for the stores then kept every- thing. He was of Scotch-Irish parentage and was born in 1792. He was thirty-six years of age when he came to Pottsville, and was then already married. He died in 1852, at the age of sixty years. The children were: the late Colonel William
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Thompson; myself, Lewis C .; Emily, wife of Major E. C. Baird, deceased; and Major Heber S. Thompson, Superintendent of the Girard Estate interests in Schuylkill County. We lived in the house, connected with and over the store, until after my father's death, in 1852. I was born there in 1835, when the family home on Market Street, above Third, was built, and occupied by my mother and sister until their deaths. (The house is now owned by Dr. Gillars.)
"My father owned five or six boats on the Schuylkill Canal . for the shipment of coal. On the return trip they brought the goods for our store and carried other freight. One was known as the 'Old Post Boy,' another, 'The Rattle Snake,' the names of the others I do not recollect. The farmers then bought rock plaster in large quantities for the fertilization of their lands. They ground it themselves. This practice has been done away with. Phosphate and other fertilizers have taken its place and rock plaster comes already ground. All this was during the stage coach days.
"At that time John Morris, who was married to a sister of my mother, kept store on Railroad Street, between Race and Arch Streets. Their family home was on the corner of Race and Coal Streets, opposite. He removed the store subse- quently to Centre Street, near the corner of Market, now occu- pied and owned by Mr. Rubinski. There were three Morris brothers in the mercantile business, Samuel, on North Centre, in the building now occupied by green grocer Ginther, and Richard Morris built the building known by his name, now occupied by the Dives, Pomroy and Stewart firm. .
"My father was a Presbyterian. Juniata and Mifflin Coun- ties were peopled with those of that faith. There were several
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others here of that church and they organized the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. My father gave the ground on the site of which Trinity Reformed Church now stands, and a church was built. That branch did not believe in instrumen- tal music in churches and they sang the psalms of David as hymns. After my father's death the congregation was merged into the other Presbyterian churches.
"There were some fine people here, but it was not until about 1850 that the best social features were developed. The early days were largely occupied in the struggles incident to establishing new business ventures. The Patterson families did much toward promoting the social features. George Pat- terson lived on the corner of Seventh and Mahantongo, now Supt. John Wood's, of the Reading shops, home; James Pat- terson, on the corner of Eighth, and Burd Patterson's home occupied the entire square where I now live, on the opposite side of the street, between Eighth and Ninth. Miss Mary Patterson owned and lived in the handsome home now owned and occupied by Andrew Robertson, corner of Market and Sixth Streets. She was a maiden lady and sister of Burd and George Patterson. George H. Potts, who married a daughter of George Cumming, Esq., and sister of Mrs. George W. Snyder, afterward lived here. Mrs. Potts was in delicate health, when a severe thunder storm broke over the town. She died from the bursting of a bloodvessel, superinduced by the shock of a flash of lightning which struck nearby and during which storm the thunder and lightning werc terrific.
"George Cumming, Esq., father of the late Benjamin W. Cumming, and grandfather of Attorney B. W. Cumming, built a fine home on West Norwegian Street, between Third and
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Fourth Streets, on the site of the present family home. He built here with the firm conviction that, owing to its being more level than Mahantongo, Norwegian would be the fine residence street of the town.
"The farmers would come in to town in great numbers from Fishing Creek and the Mahantongo Valley prior to the holidays. They brought large quantities of beef and pork here, for most people did their own butchering then. It was a busy sight to see the long string of wagons on Centre Street. We had a long porch from the second story of our home on the Market Street side. On Saturdays and holidays, the town would get very rough. As children we would sometimes sit on this porch and watch the fighting going on below.
"Geist's Hotel, above, next to Hoover's store, was known as 'The Lamb.' On the S. W. corner of Second and west on Race Street stood the tavern of Natty Mills, it was called 'The Trappe.' He was a great politician and during election times the place was crowded. Natty Mills was a great character. He turned out a fine family, however. His son, Samuel, was educated at West Point. Samuel's son, Samuel, was an instructor at the same Government Institution. Another son, Paul Dencia Mills, married Miss Willing, of Philadelphia, one of the old historic families. Mrs. Lefevre Womelsdorf, mother of Aquilla and Oscar Womelsdorf, was a daughter of Natty Mills."
PART VI
INTERESTING LOCAL STORIES
5
PART VI
INTERESTING LOCAL STORIES
THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY STATION IN POTTSVILLE
I N 1787 when the town of Columbia was layed out a majority of the settlers, Quakers from Bucks, Mont- gomery and Chester Counties settled there. The Quakers bore a decided testimony against the holding of human beings in slavery.
Lots were given free to all the colored people in the vicinity. 1 They formed a community of their own and it was to be ex- pected that the colored people going that way should be har- bored by them.
In 1804 General Thomas Boude, of Columbia, a revolu- tionary officer of renown, a member of the Legislature and who had represented Lancaster and Chester Counties in Congress two terms, purchased a young slave named Stephen Smith from a man named Cochrane, near Harrisburg. The slave's mother came to live at Gen. Boude's, when her former owner attempted to kidnap her. Gen. Boude liberated mother and son shortly afterward.
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Soon after a wealthy planter in Virginia liberated his slaves. There were 56 of them. They were brought to Columbia in wagons. The heirs endeavored to retain them, but after years of litigation the Virginia Legislature deereed them free. Sallie Bell, a Quaker of Virginia, emancipated about 100 slaves. They also went to Columbia.
After this period slaves began escaping in large numbers and most of them sought refuge in Columbia. William Wright, (father of Benjamin Haywood's son-in-law, Wright) was an un- compromising hater of slavery. He had a thorough knowledge of the law and a strong nerve power. He assisted all fugitives who applied to him and, after disguising them, passed them on to another Friend six miles east of Lancaster, and thus the Un- derground Railway began.
As the number of fugitive slaves increased pursuit was more frequent and the kidnapping of the human ehattels by the owners and their agents made it imperative that a direet line to the Eastern States and Canada be layed out; and it was but natural that the slaves should be conducted from bondage to freedom by those who believed in their emancipation, the Quakers.
These earnest sympathizers were found in York, Lancaster, Chester and Montgomery counties. Phoenixville, Philadelphia, Norristown, Reading and last but not least in Pottsville. While some of these stations were not the principal or dividing depots ; when the slaves arrived in great numbers they were divided and sent out in bunches or alone to the branch stations, of which Pottsville was the first north of Reading.
There were two routes through Gettysburg and the stations elose to Mason and Dixon's line were only ten miles apart. The
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benevolent abolitionists divided the slaves ; half went to Colum- bia the other half to Harrisburg. The majority however camc through the southern route of Lancaster and Chester Counties. When they were in danger of apprehension by pursucrs they were at once distributed to more remote points, from Norris- town, Phoenixville, Reading to Pottsville and on toward the east or Canada.
The slaves, many of them came direct from the more south- ern slave States. They traveled by night alone and were guided solely by the North Star. Some of the women had no covering except a single garment made of sacking, many of the men were without shoes or hats. They had to be secreted until they could be fed, washed and clothed and then were moved to the next Station. The great number of sick and injured werc mainly cared for in Chester County. It is a notable fact that all or nearly all who assisted the slaves to freedom were members of the Society of Friends. The slaves were usually tracked to the dividing point and herc all trace was lost. Some of the first pursucrs stated in their bewilderment that there must be a rail- road underground from there. This remark lcd to the naming of the secret system,
THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY
If the slave hunters were not in immediate pursuit the runaways would remain for a while and work on the farms.
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The riot at Christiana occurred in this way. Three non-resist- ing Quakers who were harboring 38 of these miserable refugees were pursued by one Gorsuch, a slave holder from Maryland who with a posse of constables and about 20 whites attempted to capture them. Two men fired upon a colored woman, which was the signal for all the colored people in the neighborhood to assemble to defend those of their race. Firing began and the slave holder was killed. The three slaves who caused the trouble were raided to Canada that night.
Four lawsuits followed out of this affray. To refuse to assist in the arrest of fugitive slaves was considered under the act as "Treason" which means, in the language of the Consti- tution "levying war against the United States or in adhering to their enemies to give them aid and comfort."
Theodore Cuyler in his famous speech for the defense said that this force, it was claimed, levied war against the United States," and another legal authority stated that, "in this riot at Christiana and in the death of Gorsuch and the wounding of others occurred the first blood shed in the great contest of the Civil War."
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