USA > Pennsylvania > Schuylkill County > Old Schuylkill tales, a history of interesting events, traditions and anecdotes of the early settlers of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania > Part 6
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Mechanism and electricity in telegraphy were experi- mented upon from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans, down. One Ersted, in 1819, discovered that a delicately sus- pended magnetic needle has a tendency to place itself at right angles to a conductor, through which a current of voltaic elec- tricity is passing. Ampere needles, as many as there were letters in the alphabet, came next in 1820. Then Gaus and Weber, at Gottingen perfected the invention. But it remained for Stein- hil to make the first perfect instrument, July, 1837. It oper- ated for 12 miles and had three stations.
The 'Squire was a young man, not much more than a boy, and he assisted Steinhil in his experiments, as a helper, and in the outcome of which he was most intensely interested. The 'Squire had been educated by the Government for its clerical service, and had passed the rigorous examination. He had a foothold among the clerical force at the lower round of the lad- der, but promotion would follow through civil service rules and a pension would come at the end of a long and faithful service. His life was mapped out for him, and yet the 'Squire aban- doned it all, and settled in West Brunswick township, below Orwigsburg.
Homer called beauty a glorious gift of nature, Ovid said it was a favor bestowed by the Gods, but Aristotle affirmed that beauty was better than all the letters of recommendation in the world; and certain it was that Katrina's beauty was her recom-
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mendation in the eyes of the 'Squire. He had had no thought of marrying, but here he was in a new world, all his old hopes and ambitions cast aside, and nothing to take their places; he was lonely and needed a tonic to brace him up. He found it. He fell in love with Katrina.
He was twenty-eight and she seventeen, and it was no luke- warm attachment, but a genuine love affair. The Germans as a rule are a sentimental, warm-hearted, romantic race, and the attachment inspired was one that lasted a lifetime, and many are the stories told of it in the family.
The 'Squire tilled his broad acres after a fashion, but he was no farmer, and never could take kindly to tilling the ground. He had a fulling mill, a clover mill, acted as Justice of the Peace for the township, school director, tax collector and was a general factotum for the public business of the vicinity. He was surveyor of the roads, laid out fields, and did much writing of deeds and abstracts, for those were the days when there were no printed legal forms and everything was written.
In everything he undertook, Katrina was his encourage- ment. She attended to all the business about the homestead and managed the hands about the farm. After twenty-seven years of hard and unrequited labor, the family removed to Pottsville, where a fortunate investment in property gilded the golden years of their old age with the crowning success which the re- sults of their hard and incessant labor had refused to yield.
What a pleasure it was to visit that old farm. Favored nephews and nieces (the former some of the leading professional and business men of Pottsville) recall with pleasure the mem- ory of their experience there. When the 'Squire met them and
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after the German fashion kissed them he told them they were welcome, and they were. What fishing and boating on the mill-dam and creeks followed. The haying, cherrying and ber- rying. The table in harvest, when helpers, children and all sat down, some twenty persons together, and the plenty and home-cooking served on that table. The singing school, the Sun- day School entertainment at the Red Church, where the boys went upon one occasion.
It was on the picnic style and served on tables in the church. They called it a "fest," and bread, butter, ham, pickles, cheese, sausage, cakes and lemonade were served as a sort of a reward of merit in attendance. The boys were hungry and ate only as hungry boys can. They were helped and helped, and still they ate, when one of the church wardens took them by the shoulders, and said :
"I guess you have eaten enough, boys. Get away now and leave something for some of the rest;" and they obeyed.
There was the red ear at the husking bee, the apple-butter stirrings, the candy pullings, skating and sledding during the winter and the game of "shinny" on skates, on the ice. Is it any wonder that the girls and boys of the olden days say, "there are no times like the old times."
Katrina, too, was an original character, and the best of entertainers. No visitor was allowed to go away hungry. Her chicken and waffles, fried oysters and cooking were noted, and nothing delighted her more than when visitors showed their ap- preciation of them by eating heartily. (The maid of all work was known as "Long Ann." Her name was Ann Long.) When she reached her eightieth milestone, her grandaughters tendered
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her a birthday reception. Always handsome, she looked regal at that age as she sat in a high-backed chair, clad in a heavy black satin gown and surrounded by palms and growing flowers, the gifts of her children and friends. She received her guests of the various branches of the family, a hundred or more in number (whilst her granddaughters poured tea into the small lacquered china cups, and served tiny wafers) with the same calm dignity that always characterized her actions. Approached by a nephew, a well-known physician, he said :
"Well, Aunt K-, how are you enjoying it all ?"
"Not at all," she answered. "I am ashamed of such poor stuff. If they would only have left me, I would gladly have roasted a turkey and fried oysters, so that you would have had something good to eat."
Once upon talking to a favorite niece, whilst they lived in the country, she descanted upon "how much better the 'Squire would have had it had he remained in Germany. He would not have had to work so hard."
"But think of it, Aunt K- " said the niece, "then you would never have seen him."
Nothing non-plussed, she answered: "Well, it would not have mattered, if it would have been for his good. I would have been willing."
All things, even the ideal married life must have an end. One day the 'Squire came home, complained of a cold and not feeling well. Nothing serious was thought of it. After several days about the house, he asked for a dish of oysters. He could not eat more than one or two. He beckoned to his faithful
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wife to remove the dish. When she drew near he placed his arms about her neck, and whispered :
"Have we not loved each other always and to the end ?" She said, "Yes."
Trying to disengage herself from his embrace, he fell back on the pillow, limp and inert. The Darby and Joan attachment was dissolved, the 'Squire was dead.
He was only a little Pennsylvania German boy, a great favorite with the 'Squire's brood. The father and mother spoke English well enough to transact their business, when in town or visitors were present, but on the farm the current vernacular only was used. The children must pick up the English lan- guage at school, and as best they could.
"Ho! Boy. Can you tell me where Peter Albright lives, about here ?" said the stranger.
The boy shook his head slowly and answered: "No! Aver der Pater Albrecht lifs over dere."
The Episcopal Church at Schuylkill Haven was early estab- lished, and one of the outcomes was a Sunday School. The late Charles Hill, a carpenter in his early days, had a class in it for boys and Peter Peterpin walked the distance every Sun- day to attend. Mr. Hill afterward removed to Pottsville .. On one occasion, John W. Roseberry, Esq., brought with him a lady, who was a visitor at Orwigsburg. She was very handsome
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and even the boys were not obtuse, but admired her beauty and grace of manner.
On leaving the Sunday School her low Jennie Lind shoe became untied, and Mr. Roseberry gallantly stooped to fasten the latchet. A woman who could not tie her own shoe was an anomaly to the country boys. One of whom remarked: "she might do to marry a lawyer, but such a lazy woman would not make a farmer's wife."
On another occasion the Bishop visited Schuylkill Haven. There was seldom any English service held in Orwigsburg, and the forthcoming service in the little chapel at Schuylkill Haven was much talked about in the county seat. Francis B. Bannan, then only a small boy, secured the required permission to go and see the Bishop. He walked the entire distance to and fro, and on his return was asked about it. when he blurted out somewhat disgustedly :
"Why, Father, the Bishop is only a man."
LAID THE GHOST
Mr. Bannan tells the following story.
"There was considerable talk about ghosts in the early days. In the hollow near the Red Church, below Orwigsburg,
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stood an old stone house known as the "Spook House." It was owned by Abraham Faust, who lived in a new frame house on the same farm, some distance away. President Roosevelt, by the way, would have loved Faust, had he known him. He had twenty-three children and all living, with but the one wife.
"There were mysterious noises about the place. A Ger- man refugee had committed suicide by hanging himself to a tree near the house, and it was said that his ghost haunted the spot. Lewis Shoener, Al. Witman (brother of Mrs. Clara Alt- house), George Douglas and myself discussed the matter and determined to find out for ourselves if there was any truth in the story.
"Securing lanterns, one dark night we walked to the house. The men who had bantered us said that there was a barrel in the cellar with some peacock feathers in it. If we came back, each boy with one of the feathers in his hat they would be- lieve we had been in the house. We secured the feathers and went upstairs where we discovered that a loose shutter struck the lightning rod, and made that peculiar bang and whir that sounded, clear to the road, like a rattling of chains.
"Mr. Faust had offered a reward for the discovery of the ghost, or its cause, and each of the boys was the richer in a small sum of pocket money, when he next came to town, for having laid the ghost. He was satisfied with the clearing up of the mystery, and shortly after the place was occupied by the family, and he rented the new frame house."
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DEATH OF GERMAN PEDDLER AVENGED
In the vicinity of the Old Red Church, there were several settlers that were off-color and ne'er-do-wells, who were looked upon with suspicion and distrust by the thrifty and hard-work- ing German farmers thereabouts. Some of them were sus- pected of witchcraft, and a witch was a person to be feared and conciliated. Wherever such people lived, the superstitions of the settlers led them to treat them well, as it was not known what spell they might work upon their neighbors, through the machinations of the Devil. If the bread would not rise, the butter would not come, infants withered away, crops were blighted, the cows would give no milk, they were bewitched, and many were the incantations and pow-wows indulged in to re- move the malevolent spell. Near Pinedale lived a witch doctor, who was suspected of working these spells of witchcraft, yet no one dared accuse him of it.
A German peddler was murdered. His body was found under a lone pine tree on the edge of the open, his pack rifled, all his valuables and some of his clothing removed. The witch doc- tor was suspected of the crime, yet no one dared openly accuse him of it. The peddler was buried under the tree where he met his untimely end. The grass withered and never grew again, and the snow which fell to a great depth all around the spot, would melt at once, as it fell about the tree. The country people saw strange sights, and one young man, returning home late at night, reported that he had seen the peddler, whom
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he had known well in life, running around the tree pursued by a man with an axe. So great was the dread of the spot, that no one ventured to pass the grave if they could avoid it, and there were rumors of moans and cries in that vicinity, heard from a distance.
Mrs. Kate E. Bender, wife of the late George Bender, of Pottsville, tells the story most entertainingly, and furnishes the sequel to the old tale.
"My father was Joseph Matz, my grandfather, Christian Boyer. They were farmers and well-to-do. We lived near the Red Church, below Orwigsburg. My ancestors are buried in the cemetery of Zion's or the Red Church. Our family was a large one. We sat down, twenty-two at the table, for the hired people eat with the family in the country.
"There was lots of work for a young girl in those days, and I had my share to do. Cooking and washing dishes for such a family was more than one pair of hands could accomplish. It took several. I could spin and weave and card wool. We grew the flax, and raised the sheep on our own farm. In my 'housesthire,' some of which I still preserve, there were ar- ticles of home-made linen and woven quilts of wool, all of the products of our farm. To spin and card was looked upon as one of the accomplishments of a young woman then, like the outlining and fancy work of the girls of to-day.
"My great-uncles were Gabriel and Daniel Matz. The former was a bachelor, and lived with the latter. Daniel was the father of 'big William' Matz who lives near Rock station, and is well-known in Pottsville. My great-uncles owned several fine farms, but lived then at the tannery, near Pinedale.
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"One day our uncle Gabriel made us a visit. He told us that the mystery of who killed the German peddler was at last solved. It happened this way. They were sitting in the big country store of an evening, swapping stories as was the coun- try custom. The talk was mainly on hunting, and the game thereabouts, my uncle having started it by buying some powder. The witch doctor was present, and never much of a talker, he said :
" 'I heard of a man who was killed, once, with an axe. He ran around and around a tree and begged the man with the axe not to kill him. If you do, he said, you will hang for it. You will be found out. If in no other way, the chickens will dig the news out of the ground. ("Wan die hinkle es ausem treck gratza mus.")'
"Everybody understood it, but no one dared accuse the witch doctor, for everyone feared him. Dwelling on the thought of his crime had doubtless finally unhinged his mind, or, it may be, he thought no one would recognize in the story, that he was the murderer. His moodiness increased, and shortly after this he hung himself to a tree. He was buried near the spot, but the peddler's remains were removed to a corner in the ceme- tery, that the settlers might have peace, and that he could rest. When they were dug up, a number of chickens were permitted to scratch in the freshly thrown-up earth, that the peddler's saying might be verified ; and the green grass grew over the spot and covered his grave undisturbed and unmolested thereafter."
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DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER OUTDONE
Sleepy Hollow was not the only locality that boasted of a headless horseman. Schuylkill County had one also, but there was no Washington Irving to immortalize him. Of the latter spectre, as the story goes, both the man was headless and the horse. Mrs. Bender, says :
"After the Little Schuylkill Railway to Tamaqua was built, there were many accidents at the crossing near where we lived, and several men were killed. The people were not ac- customed to the engines and did not understand the danger. One, a man on horseback, had his head cut off and his horse was frightfully mangled. After that it was said that a man without a head riding a headless horse might be seen on dark nights crossing the railway where the accident occurred.
"There was a man, too, who worked in the Matz store, who hung himself in the loft of the storehouse. There was a great ado about where he should be buried. They at first re- fused to bury him in the Red Church Cemetery, but finally they allowed the grave to be dug in a corner of it, just inside the fence. There was talk of his haunting the storehouse, but my parents discouraged such foolish talk, and the story died out."
Note :- The Matz families referred to are connections of Thomas Shollenberger, the late Sheriff Matz and Wm. Matz, Sr., who formerly kept the old White Horse tavern, Pottsville, and other families of that name and their descendants in the County.
PART III
HISTORY OF COAL AND CANAL
PART III
HISTORY OF COAL AND CANAL
HISTORY OF COAL
B ITUMINOUS coal was discovered in England in eight hundred and fifty-three (853), but it was not mined or used until 1239, when Henry III granted mining privileges to the inhabitants of New Castle. It was soon introdueed into London, but encountered opposi- tion from the masses of the people, who imagined it was dele- terious to health. They petitioned Parliament to prohibit its consumption in the city, assigning as a reason, that it would en- danger the health of the King. Parliament granted the peti- tion of the people, restrieting its use.
The use of anthracite or "stone coal," as it was ealled in Pennsylvania, was communicated to the whites by the Indians. Two Indian chiefs, from the Wyoming Valley, visited England in 1710 and witnessed the use of bituminous coal for smithing and domestic purposes. The ignition of the hard or anthracite coal was known to the Indians. The red men in 1766 had some sort of mines in Wyoming.
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When a coterie, six in number, of Mohicans and Nanti- cokes visited Philadelphia, in a talk with the Colonial Governor they told of white men who came in a canoe and took away with them from their mines the ore. The whites not only robbed them, but came again with their implements and dug a hole forty feet long and five or six feet deep and worked the mine and carried away the product in canoes. They took the coal for blacksmithing purposes.
In 1776 two boats were sent from Wyoming on the Sus- quehanna river to Harris Ferry ( Harrisburg). They carried twenty tons, which were conveyed in wagons to Carlisle, where it was experimented with and used in the U. S. Armory.
In the first annual report of the Coal Mining Association of Schuylkill County, formed in 1833 and dissolved in 1845, reference is made to Scull's map of the Province of Pennsyl- vania, published in 1770. The extract reads as follows :
"A coal mark north of the Tuscarora Mountain, or north- east of Reed's, not many miles from the Schuylkill Gap, within the then bounds of Berks County, may be found upon examin- ation, on Scull's map of the Province of Pennsylvania, pub- lished in 1770."
This was the first coal discovered in Schuylkill County, and is supposed to have been found near the site of New Phila- delphia or perhaps a little farther south.
In 1791 Phillip Ginther, while hunting, accidentally dis- covered that anthracite coal would ignite. He made the dis- covery at what is now Manch Chunk. It was a year prior to this, in 1790, that Nicho Allen, a hunter, camped out for the night under a ledge of rocks in Schuylkill County. He had
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built a fire and laid down to sleep, awaking to find the rocks all aflame. Allen lived at the Big Spring on the summit of Broad Mountain. His home was known as the Black Cabin. He afterward removed with his wife to Mt. Carbon. They had no children. He was an Englishman, and afterward migrated to the Eastern States, where he died.
The buying of coal lands in Carbon and Luzerne Counties, immediately after the discovery of coal, gave Phillip Ginther precedence over Nicho Allen as the finder of the black diamonds, and history usually credits Ginther with that discovery. Some authorities, however, state that the discovery of the two hunters was a coincidence or simultaneous almost in date and Allen's name is mentioned with Ginthers. It was not more than five years after the discovery of coal in Schuylkill County, before it was used for smithing purposes. The first coal discovery in Schuylkill County was made in 1790 and the first coal un- earthed within the limits of Pottsville was in 1806.
Col. Jacob Weiss, of Carbon County, carried samples of the black stones in his saddle bags to Philadelphia, after Ginther's discovery, and was credited with being "a fool for his folly." Old John Weiss, a connection of his, who lived near the site of the Odd Fellows' Cemetery, Pottsville, and drove the stage on the old turnpike road from Sunbury to Reading, often told this story and waxed wroth if anyone dared contradict him or assert that Allen had found coal in Schuylkill County prior to that discovered by Ginther. John Weiss afterward drove team for Jack Temple, of Pottsville. The Weiss family lived for a time at Orwigsburg.
Jacob Weiss, with others, formed a company for the min-
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ing of coal, called the Lehigh Coal Mining Company, the first coal mining company in the United States. In 1803 they sent two ark-loads of thirty tons to Philadelphia but found no buyers. The City authorities tried to burn the black stones under the boilers at the water-works but it put the fire out. It was finally used for gravel on the sidewalks.
After the discovery, in 1790, by Nicho Allen of coal, a blacksmith, in Schuylkill County, named Whetstone, brought it into notice, in 1795, by using it in his smithery. His success in- duced several to dig for coal, but they found difficulty in burn- ing it. About 1800, William Morris, who owncd a large tract of land near the site of Port Carbon, took a quantity of coal by wagon to Philadelphia. He made every exertion to bring it into notice but failed. In 1806, in cutting the tail race for the Valley furnace, a seam of coal was laid bare. David Ber- lin, a blacksmith, made a trial of it. His success was complete and it was used continuously ever after, the grate and damper coming into use about the same period.
It was about this time that Jesse Fell, Associate Judge of Luzerne County, discovered that it was necessary to create a draft in order to burn the black stones successfully, and he in- vented the grate. This first grate was used subsequently in the Fell House, corner of Washington and North Streets, Wilkes- Barre. When the new hotel was built on the site of the old, the grate was retained and inserted in a fireplace where it may still be seen.
John Abijah Smith, of Luzerne, saw this experiment of the grate and took two ark loads of coal to Columbia, but could not sell them. Not discouraged, he took two more and with
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them a consignment of grates and a small trade resulted. The grates first used for domestic purposes were too small, the heat- ing properties of coal being over estimated ; the stove soon fol- lowed and the demand for coal increased.
In 1812 Col. George Shoemaker procured a quantity of coal from a shaft sunk on a tract of his land on the Norwegian Creek, Schuylkill County, afterward known as the North Amer- ican mine. He loaded nine wagons with it, and took it to Philadelphia. He sold two of the wagons only by dint of the greatest perseverance. He gave the other seven away and those who had promised to try it, after a trial, denounced him as an impostor for attempting to impose black stones on them for coal. He not only lost the coal, but was out of pocket for the trans- portation.
Jacob Cist, of Wilkes-Barre, leased the Mauch Chunk mine in 1813 and sent specimens of the coal to all the principal cities of Europe. A year later he sent an ark down the river, the first to Philadelphia, which it reached in six days. The boat broke a hole, which the boatmen stopped up with their clothes. The coal by this time cost fourteen dollars a ton and nobody wanted it. Journeymen were bribed by Cist to use it in blacksmith shops. Bear trap dams were created on the Le- high river to overcome the difficulty of navigation. The boats were conveyed to the Delaware and Philadelphia until the canal was constructed. Up to 1820 the whole amount of coal sent from Schuylkill and Luzerne Counties did not exceed 2000 tons. In 1844 the amount from Schuylkill alone aggregated 839,934 tons. In 1906 the Reading Company alone has an out- put of 35,000,000 tons.
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In 1812 an application was made to the Legislature for a law for the improvement of the Schuylkill river. The coal on its headwaters was held up as an inducement to the Legis- lature to make the grant, when the Senator from Schuylkill County arose and said : "There is no coal in Schuylkill County, only a lot of worthless black stones they call coal, that will not burn."
The first machine for breaking coal was erected on Wolf Creek, near Minersville, by Mr. Bast. The first coal lands were located in the Schuylkill Valley. These tracts were operated by Bolton Curry, Barlow and Evans, Burd Patterson, Geissen- heimer and others. There were many valuable coal lands opened up. William Lawton, Blight, Wallace & Co., Porter, Emerick and Edwin Swift owned some that were rich in coal. Joseph Lyons and Jacob Alter owned a large operation. Their success and the great flow of money that came with the invest- ment of large combined capital induced others to try their hand, but not always with the same happy return. Among these were John Rickert and George Rickert, father and uncle of the late Col. Thomas Rickert, of Pottsville, who opened up a small op- eration near Tuscarora. Andrew Schwalm, a prosperous boat builder and contractor, at Buffalo, was a heavy investor in the "Rabbit Hole" and the three sunk their capital with no returns but their experience, which was dearly bought. The vein they were operating was faulty. The Hammers, too, of Orwigsburg, lost heavily.
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