USA > Pennsylvania > Schuylkill County > Old Schuylkill tales, a history of interesting events, traditions and anecdotes of the early settlers of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania > Part 4
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The Frau gave him a cup of coffee, which was a forbidden luxury for the Peterpin children, and he drank it as he had seen his father do, last of all for his dessert. When he finished it he saw a thick sediment of something white in the bottom of
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the cup. It flashed over him in an instant, it was a witch pow- der; he would be turned into a black cat, too. In a flash he had left the table, was out of the door, and ran as fast as his short legs would carry him over the meadow, up the hill, until he came to the large pine tree that stood at the head of the lane that led into their own pastures and here he lay down and parted com- pany with every atom of his good supper, leaving it under the tree (with the story of which he had intended to excite the envy of the other children), and oh! how white and sick he was when he entered the home kitchen. By degrees the tale of his undoing was wormed out of him and the mother laughingly told him that, "the white powder at the bottom of the cup was only sugar which he should have stirred up to sweeten the coffee."
About this time Father Peterpin had a brand new black oil-cloth cover, wagon-top and all stolen from the farm wagon in the wagon-shed, attached to the barn. He related the circum- stance to Herr Huntsicker, who volunteered to get it returned. The Herr wished no money for it, he said. His clients never paid him outright, but left their scant cash on the gate post. "He dared not ask anything, but they must live, too," said the Herr. "Peterpin had been kind to him and he would like to repay him." Now the farmer had been most pronounced in his protests against the belief in the magic art. But Huntsicker said he should pray for the return of the wagon cover and he would do the same; and that disarmed Peterpin and he con- sented.
The children were all safely stowed away in bed and the "Mutter" was sitting at the light of a rush tallow-dip candle
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reading her Bible and prayer-book, for they were staunch church people, when Peterpin betook himself to the upper barn chamber to watch for himself.
The old clock in the kitchen had struck the hour of twelve and he was beginning to feel drowsy, when he felt a slight stir in the air and a mellow yellow light was cast over the surround- ings and there was Huntsicker with his head bent forward com- ing toward the barn, reading from the black book of Moses. Huntsicker made a large circle in front of the wagon shed with the rod he carried in his hand, and within it numerous signs and figures; his incantations grew louder and louder and as he pro- ceeded the air was peopled with mysterious fiery shapes.
All at once flashes of lightning lighted up the scene and a loud report like a cannon, or thunder, filled the air and a huge wagon wheel of red fire rolled down the hill, followed by a motley crew stumbling as they ran and drawn on apparently against their will. Who they were Peterpin could not tell, but he said mentally, again, the "Long Swampers." In the midst of them they carried the wagon-top and cover and others brought pitch-forks, bags of grain, farming implements and other articles that had likewise been stolen from the farm and which Peter- pin had either never missed, forgotten or overlooked. They deposited them in the wagon-shed and withdrew muttering and cursing as they went. The big drops of perspiration stood out on the farmer's face and hands, but he kept his post at the barn loft window until they were gone and Huntsicker had obliter- ated the figures in the strange circle, and he, too, gradually dis- appeared in the same mellow yellow light he came in, and that finally died out, towards his own home. Then Peterpin
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retired, too, to tell his good wife. Madam Peterpin hinted that he might have slept and dreamed it all, but acknowl- edged that she, too, plainly saw the yellow light and flashes of lightning and heard the strange noises but feared to look out further.
At early daylight, after a sleepless night for both, they re- paired to the barn, where they discovered that the things enum- erated by Peterpin were all there and stowed in the wagon shed.
Shortly after the Huntsickers disappeared without any sign of their belongings being left in the cabin. No one had seen them come and no one had seen them go. The belief ex- isted for a long time among the country folks that Huntsicker was in league with the Devil and that he and the Frau had been spirited away by the same spirits that they had conjured with just once too often.
The Orwigsburg Postmaster, however, said that Herr Huntsicker had disappeared just after receiving a large official- looking envelope from Germany. The belief gained credence after a time that he was a political refugee and had been in dis- favor with the German government, but was finally pardoned. Huntsicker shunned and feared all strangers and would remain in hiding for days at a time. He was doubtless a learned man and practised the experiments of chemistry and astrology, with magnetism and the use of pyrotechnics, on the honest, but simple country folks to mystify them and to keep them at a dis- tance; and perhaps the results of the use of his occult powers served to while away the time of his enforced exile and contrib- uted to his own personal enjoyment.
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RELIABLE SHOE CO
Old Court House, Orwigsburg
Old Schuylkill Tales.
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Huntsicker and the lame negro were probably one, for neither was ever scen when the other was present. The necro- mancer possibly thought himself above being seen perform- ing menial labor. It might detract from his prestige as a ma- gician and it might be he had never performed it in the old country. Thus Huntsicker's powers might be explained away in the light of the present day, but he was no mythical person- age, and many more stories of what he performed are still re- lated among the descendants of those who lived in West Bruns- wick township in the early days of Schuylkill County.
UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF ORWIGSBURG
The Court House was erceted in 1815, the cost of the build- ing was $5,000; before it was built, a Court of Quarter Sessions was held in the public house of Adam Reiffsnyder ( Arcadian Hotel), on the third Monday of December, 1811, before Presi- dent Judge Robert Porter, when the following attorneys were admitted : George Wolff, Charles Evans, Frederick Smith, Wm. Witman, James B. Hubley, John Spayd, John W. Collins, M. J. Biddle, Samuel Baird, and John Ewing. Courts were au- thorized to be held in the same place until the building of the Court House was completed.
Wm. Green, Sheriff of Schuylkill County, reported the precept directed to him as duly executed. Township Constables.
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werc appointed and a grand inquest of twenty-one citizens were sworn and affirmed. Sheriff Green was the grandfather of the late Judge D. B. Green, of the Schuylkill County Bench and Bar. He removed to Orwigsburg from McKeansburg. Hc built the old Orwigsburg Hotel, erected about 1815, at the northwest corner of the big square known as the "Rising Sun" Hotel. The Arcadian Hotel on the southeast corner was built prior to this, in 1796, and was known as Orwig's and Reiffsny- der's. In front and on the sides of both of these public houses stood the town pumps. John Kobb owned the hotel directly op- posite Reiffsnyder's. The jail was not built until 1814. The house two doors below the Court House, owned by Associate Judge Rausch and subsequently occupied as a residence by Dr. Henry Haescler, was utilized as a lock-up. The cellar was used as a prison cell, the windows being protected with iron gratings. The prisoners were handcuffed and chained to stumps of trees which had been left in the ground. Among the first Judges of the Schuylkill Courts were : President Judge Kidder, of Wilkes-Barre, who came every three months to at- tend court, and Associate Judges Yost, Rausch and Jacob Hammer. The latter resigned when the Court House was re- moved to Pottsville, not desiring to leave Orwigsburg. These Judges were all appointed by the State and were subsequently succeeded by Judge E. O. Parry and Judge Hegins, the latter of whom it will be remembered was afflicted with curvature of the spine.
With the building of the Court House in 1815 came many new citizens, the legal lights of the County ; Christopher Loeser, considered one of the best lawyers in Pennsylvania and a sol-
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dier of the War of 1812; John Bannan, Wm. B. Potts, E. O. Parry, Wm. Witman, lawyer and Justice of the Peace. 'Squire Witman was married to a sister of Mrs. E. O. Parry. John P. Hobart, James H. Graeff, J. W. Roseberry, these were, with several others, the leading lawyers of that period. Mrs. Roseberry, a widow, and mother of the above, kept a private school for girls in the town. There were no public schools then. There came to Orwigsburg from the South a widow named Bartlett, with two daughters named Louisa and Lavina. The former married Christopher Loeser, Esq., the latter became Mrs. Charlemagne Tower, whose husband, a large owner of coal lands, was one of the only two millionaires Schuylkill County has produced and whose family history is too well known to need recapitulation here. Charlemagne Tower, Ambassador to Germany, is a son of this union.
NOTABLE CITIZENS
Orwigsburg was the pioneer town of the County and had many notable citizens during its early years. Edward B. Hub- ley represented the district of Berks and Schuylkill County in Congress. He was a Democrat. Francis Hubley sat on the bench as Associate Judge. George Rahn, grandfather of the late C. F. Rahn and father of Charles Rahn, Clerk of the Courts, was Associate Judge, Sheriff and Prothonotary. John
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M. Bickel was State Treasurer and County Treasurer. Frank Hughes, Attorney General of the State; Jacob Hammer, Asso- ciate Judge, member of Legislature, Clerk of Sessions, Register and Recorder and Prothonotary. John W. Roseberry, member of the Legislature. Michael Graeff, hotelkeeper, also a Legisla- tive member. Charles Frailey was a State Senator, Associate Judge and Prothonotary.
Of thesc, Jacob Hammer and John W. Roseberry were Whigs. John T. Werner, editor of the first Whig paper pub- lished in Orwigsburg, which he purchased from a Lebanon County man, who ran it for a short time, was elected Sheriff. The "Freiheitz Press" enjoyed great popularity for its fearless, outspoken opinions. Sheriff Werner was subsequently re-elected to the office of Sheriff and was succeeded by his son, the late J. F. Werner, P. & R. Land Agent. Sheriff Rausch was a native of Ringgold.
The early merchants were, the Schalls, Hammers, Becks and Jacob Huntzinger. Other familiar business people were the Gracffs, Linders, Schafcrs, Zulichs, Shoeners, Bodeys, Kimmels, Fegleys, Hummels, Hoffmans, Dr. Benjamin Becker, Dr. Doug- lass, Dr. Medlar and others, whose names have been obliterated from the scrolls of time, but yet live among the memories of their descendants.
The surroundings of Orwigsburg belong to one of the rich- est agricultural sections of the State. The fertility of these lands has been enriched to a high degree of cultivation by the industry of the farmers, many of whom have become well-to-do, if not wealthy, through the fertility and production of their broad acres. The Kimmels, Hoys, Deiberts, Fegleys, Folmers,
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Yosts, Albrights, Buehlers, Moyers, Scheips, Kemmerlings, Potts, Zerbes, Wagners, Schollenbergers, Matzs, Krebs and Haeselers, were among the early tillers of the soil. Some of their descendants of the third generation are living upon the same broad acres tilled by their forefathers.
THE LOCAL MILITARY
There were two military companies in Orwigsburg; the Greys were the oldest in point of service. John M. Bickel was captain. Jacob Hammer, too, served six years; one more year would have freed him from military duty. Fourth of July was a great day and celebrated at least by the military. On one occasion when the Declaration of Independence was read Jacob Hammer made a speech on the sentiment, "The land we live in." Those were great days. Stands were erected in the public square, where gingerbread, small beer and peanuts were sold. The day usually ended with a dance and "frolic" at the hotels. If the farmers were not too busy haying they came as far as from Lewistown ("Tuyfel's Luch"), for the day and those south who did not travel to Hamburg came to Orwigsburg. The girls walked barefoot until near the town, where they might have been seen washing and dressing their pedal extremities at some of the many meadow brooks. Whether this was to save their
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shoes or because they were accustomed to it is not explained, but perhaps they were actuated by both motives.
BATTALION DAY AT ORWIGSBURG
It was just after the county seat had been removed from Orwigsburg to Pottsville. Naturally the ancient burghers felt hurt over the removal and sought for some means to retrieve their lost prestige. They could not retain their population, but they could still draw crowds on Battalion Day. Pottsville at least should not take from them the Battalion.
What a day that holiday was. Fourth of July was nothing to be compared with it. The rural swains came from far and wide for the great event, some even from Womelsdorf, which was a great concession, for Berks County, too, had its "Batta- lion," and the rivalry was great between it and Schuylkill. It was then that the busy farmer took his day off and local happen- ings were counted from before or after Battalion Day.
The country boys and girls who walked about hand in hand, carrying their knotted handkerchiefs in which were tied the precious "lebe kuchen," "grundniss," or other dainties of the day, which in some cases included "knock wurst und kimmel brod" from the beer counter or crackers from the oysterman's stand-all were in their happiest vein. The oysterman was col- ored and came from Long Swamp. He was considered an im- portant man in those parts and was seldom seen outside of the
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Swamp only at Battalion and at the vendues. It was rumored that he had once cooked oysters at a stand in Reading, and that prior to these festal days he hitched up and brought the bivalves from that city, from the results of the sale of which and the peddling of herbs and a medicine he concocted he made his slender living. The hot stews were made of the thinnest and bluest skim milk, with a lonesome looking oyster or two floating around in the bowl. But they were a great feature.
Pink lemonade was on sale and beer was plenty. A well- known Court-house official from Pottsville, who formerly lived in Orwigsburg, was heard to remark that, "you could make money by remaining in Orwigsburg over night, as the beer was two cents cheaper than in Pottsville and the mugs half again as large." The interest, too, in the "Frolic" at the Hotels, which would close the day's festivities, was never greater.
The chief attraction of Battalion Day was the military. The Young America drum corps was only youthful in name and the veteran drummers and fifers strutted about with a martial tread that would have been hard to counterfeit. Banners floated about and the old flags hung high on their flag staffs, manipu- lated by their sturdy carriers, who would not have flinched had they been twice as heavy or the march a day's length, for had not they or their sires done the same in the days of 1812 or '76 for the liberty of their beloved country ?
On this particular Battalion Day everything was being done to outshine all previous ones, for was not the reputation of the oldest town in the County at stake? Should hated Potts- ville have everything, even to this great, first and only real gala event of the year, in Schuylkill County ? Never !
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The "Greys," the crack Orwigsburg military company, strutted about in their well-worn regimentals and every man in the company felt as if the safety of his country and the success of Battalion Day depended upon him alone and did his duty accordingly. The drills began early and all the movements of camp life from sunrise to sunset were carefully carried out by the militia.
A new soldier company, however, had been formed by a younger element and they were alike the pride and despair of their Captain, a veteran of the war of 1812.
Henry Rheinheimer was a "Pruss," who came to America in his young manhood and entered the army for the defense of his adopted country in the war of 1812. He was a good soldier and a brave man, and although there was but little fighting he came out of the contest a corporal, a fact of which he could not have been prouder of had he been made a general. "Henny" had wandered to Orwigsburg after the war and lived in a little two-roomed cottage in the outskirts, where he maintained him- self with an occasional day's work on the farms around and about the town and with the manufacture of a home-made brand of coffee essence. If the essence was made of burnt rye and beans and cheap molasses it was purer and better of its kind than any of the concoctions of the present time that masquer- ade under the highflown name of superior brands of coffee and often, too, come under the ban of the Health Boards.
He was known everywhere as "Henny wot makes the ess- ence" and was popular all through the country, where he could obtain a night's lodging or a meal anytime among the farmers, in return for which he rewarded his entertainers with stories of
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the war and his experiences in army life and at the old home across the sea.
When he had a batch of the mixture ready he packed the tin boxes in his old, black oil-cloth knapsack with its crossed straps, donned his battered silk hat and with the few necessaries he needed en route tied in his red bandanna and hung from the end of his staff, which he carried over his shoulder like a musket, he was equipped for his long tramps.
He had drilled the country bumpkins and yokels until flesh and blood could stand no more. His was the inventive genius that placed a straw on one foot of each of the awkward squad and a wisp of hay on the other, and instead of the "right" and "left" which they could not learn had used "hay-foot, straw- foot," over and over again until he was so hoarse he could shout no more. But the thought of Battalion Day and of being sal- uted as Captain Rheinheimer sustained him.
The sun arose bright on the fateful day and the crowds in wagons, on horseback and on foot began arriving early. The flag was run up the staff in front of the old Court House, guard was mounted, the drums beat, the fifes played, and the usual drills and tactics of a day in camp followed. As the hour of parade drew near, the wind changed and a heavy storm began brooding in the west. The veterans had acquitted themselves nobly and with the same precision that veterans alone acquire and the new company's turn came.
Captain Rheinheimer swelled with pride; now he would be justified and see his reward. Their "left, left, left, right, left," could not have been better, their wheeling was unsurpassed, the manual drill and tactics of the new Company would follow and
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certainly all would be well. But it was just at this juncture the clouds began to thicken, the sky grew dark, gusts of wind came up, and the big rain drops began to patter among the leaves of the trees and a heavy storm broke over the town. People sought the friendly shelter of the surrounding doorways and over-anxious and solicitous relatives who had scurried home at the first warning of the oncoming downfall had returned laden with umbrellas which some of them pressed upon their offspring in the new soldier company. As the rain fell the awkward squad raised the umbrellas and the confusion was great.
Twice had the gallant captain given the order, but with the crowd pressing down upon the scene, the guards could not keep them back at the point of the bayonet, and the raising of um- brellas by some of the raw recruits the confusion was great and the scene indescribable.
Captain Rheinheimer would make one more effort. Draw- ing himself up to his utmost height and in his most stentorian tone of voice he shouted :
"Umbrellas oder no umbrellas, I tell you ; Shoulder arms !"
REMINISCENCE
Daniel De Frehn, of Pottsville, relates the following: It was during a term of court in the seat of justice at Orwigsburg. 'Squire Witman was approached by a fellow lawyer who asked
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him the time of day. The 'Squire felt in his waisteoat pocket for his watch when he discovered it missing and said :
"I changed clothes this morning and left my watch in my other vest." After a time he bethought himself again, and being inconvenienced by the want of the chronometer sent a man from court with a message that the bearer should be entrusted with his watch which he had forgotten.
The man returned and said the maid-servant had already given the watch to a man, who said the 'Squire had sent him for it. 'Squire Witman had doubtless been overheard. The thief made good his escape and the watch was never recovered.
THE SOMNAMBULISTS
It was before the 'Squire married Katrina; she was only seventeen and had been an inveterate sleep-walker from her youth. Her brother John was not much better and between the two there was not mueh peace about the house. Neither might walk about for months, but sometimes both got up in one night and wandered around and made times very lively for the mother who was alone with them much of the time. That is, if the aged grandsire was not considered or the other children taken into account. The father was pursuing his business in the distant city of Buffalo and only returned home at long intervals, for those were the days of slow and uncertain locomotion.
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In vain did the mother caution and admonish. It did little or no good and matters seemed to have reached their climax when Katrina was discovered trying to climb into the smoke house one night, where she might have smothered if the spring lock on the door had closed on her. After that she was locked in her room, which was a low, half-story chamber over the kitchen. Matters had apparently quieted down with Katrina, but not so with John.
He had been engaged in driving a balky young horse to and fro, from the 'Squire's new mill, in West Brunswick. The horse had a freak of standing still; nothing could induce him to move, and then of starting just as abruptly. Threats, blows, coaxing, nothing availed when these tantrums came on, and John was determined to break him. He thought and talked of noth- ing else by day and on this particular occasion must have dreamed of it.
One night there was a terrible noise and thumpety, thump, in the house. It continued from time to time and the family all turned out of their beds to see what had happened. John slept in the attic and the noise appeared to emanate from the front part of the house. At the head of the stairs in the large old-fashioned hall stood a big wooden chest with drawers and old-fashioned brass handles. John had imagined the chest to be the balky horse. The horse would not go and in his zeal he overturned the chest and pushed it with all his might. It slid face down the entire flight of stairs. He mounted the chest and received a blow from contact with the wall below that. knocked him senseless, rendering him ill for several days.
Katrina had not been heard from for some time. Locking
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her in seemed an effectual preventive. It was during moon- light nights that her sleep-walking was worst and the mother said, "she was affected by the moon." Katrina herself was very much ashamed of her escapades and besought the family not to mention them before the 'Squire or his family. One beauti- ful moonlight summer night, however, she awoke suddenly to find that she was not cured, and Oh! horrors, that, that worst of dreams that she had always feared had been realized and become only too true.
There she was, clad only in her night dress, barefooted and bareheaded, walking on the main street of the town, south of the big square toward Reading. The stage from Sunbury to Philadelphia passed through Orwigsburg about two o'clock at night. The night was almost as bright as day, the passengers had seen her; it was indeed their hooting and jeering that had awakened her. She had climbed over a low porch roof from her bedroom window, down an arbor and made her way several squares to the spot where she was rudely awakened. Poor Katrina ! how many bitter tears she shed over that event, but she never walked any more in her sleep, at least not outside of the house. The 'Squire married her shortly after, and it is to be presumed that he was wakeful enough to prevent it.
COURT HOUSE REMOVED
In 1844 the business of the court had increased to such an extent that an addition was built, in which was located the
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