USA > Pennsylvania > Schuylkill County > Old Schuylkill tales, a history of interesting events, traditions and anecdotes of the early settlers of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania > Part 8
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A jolly evening ensued and time fairly flew, until at last "Jimmy" himself interposed; "they must retire, he did not keep an all-night house." The land agent was almost speechless
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with good-cheer, and past arguing the matter, and the trio with the assistance of the hostler placed him in his conveyance and hung the reins over the dashboard; the old mare knew the way home. The others were dismayed to find it was almost three o'clock, and they discussed what they would offer as an excuse to their irate wives.
The wily lawyer had provided himself with a box of con- fectioncry in advance, and said :
"He would just give her that and say, they had had initia- tion at the lodge and he was rather late."
The storekeeper followed the lead, and thought he would say :
"He had been watching at the bedside of a sick lodge- brother." But the Captain was obstinate. He drew himself up in his red unmentionables, donned his overcoat and hat, assumed a military air and saluting with his walking stick as if it was a sword, and the two his superior officers, said :
"Gentlemen! I have no reason to give. I will just simply say, 'Good morning, Mrs. Coats !' and she will say the rest."
NOT TO BE OUTDONE
"Daddy" Schu had been unfortunate in his matrimonial adventures. The first two wives, excellent women, both, that they were, had succumbed to the inevitable and died after a happy ycar, each, of married life. They were sisters and had
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lived together prior to the marriage of Melinda, the eldest, and they continued this domestic relationship. It was not unnat- ural, the gossips said, that "Daddy" should marry Lucy after the year of mourning had expired. But that Lucy, too, should die before the next year ended was more than either they or "Daddy" had reckoned upon.
"Daddy" belonged to that class of men that find it hard to endure life without domestic companionship, and twice there- after he sought consolation with partners, whom, it must be con- fessed, did not size up at all in comparison with the two sisters ; and that after the death of each, even he, drew a breath of relief that all was over and he was again a free man.
The "Widow" Drury kept tavern on the mountain side above the town of M- Hearing of "Daddy's" bereave- ment, she donned her brightest green shawl, best grey alpaca gown and bonnet trimmed with flaming red ribbons, and sallied forth to attend the funeral. No one wept more copiously than she, when Parson Frame recited the virtues of the deceased wife, who was a friend of hers, and it was hinted that susceptible "Daddy" succumbed then and there.
The widow, however, raked up an imaginary cow case with a neighbor, and began the siege to the citadel of "Daddy's" heart by visiting his office the next day after the funeral, and every day or two thereafter, for he was a Justice of the Peace, to consult him about the cow and the advisability of bringing a suit.
She was tired of tavern keeping, and allowed that a fine brick house, like "Daddy's," on the main street, opposite and aside of the two hotels and the postoffice, was not to be over-
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looked. It was just after the first visit, that she confided to a crony, that she "would never let that fine new rag carpet, with the double red and green stripes lengthwise, remain in his office, when she was mistress there."
Poor "Daddy ;" it was only five weeks after he buried his fourth wife, when he led the widow Drury to the altar, and was again a benedict.
Lawyer Dreer passing his office one morning, en route for the People's Railway and the Court House in Pottsville, on legal business, saw "Daddy" in the doorway and said jokingly, for Dreer was something of a wag:
"How is this, 'Daddy,' marrying so soon again ? Didn't you tell me the day Magdalena died, that you were resigned, and that the Lord had taken her away; and if I remember rightly, you even said, 'Blessed be the name of the Lord.'" "Yes, yes," said "Daddy," "so I did! so I did! But as long as the Lord takes, I'll take too."
Poor old "Daddy!" The widow Drury, his fifth, was a virago, as everybody knew, and "the Lord," they said, "cer- tainly never wanted her," at least not just then, for she lived to a doubly green old age. "Daddy" died after a few months of wedded experience, and was buried in the old cemetery on the hillside, and many were the expressions of regret and the tears shed over his departure; for he was an innocent old soul, an Israelite indeed, in whom there was no guile, and genuinely liked by everybody.
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THE SCHUYLKILL CANAL
The Schuylkill Navigation Company was incorporated by an Act of Assembly approved by Governor Simon Snyder, March 8, 1815. Work was begun and during the spring of 1817 the canal was made navigable to Schuylkill Haven. The freshet of 1818 carried away the dams and locks and the work of reconstruction followed, but the work was not completed until 1821, and then only to Reading. The waterway was 108 miles in length. It was not until 1827 that the canal was really completed, although boats were run to Philadelphia in 1824. They were small affairs, rafts and scows, and werc towed the entire distance by men who walked at the end of a long line. Sticks were fastened to the ends of the lines and these were placed against the breasts or shoulders of the men who thus propelled theni. After the completion of the towpath, mules were used as a means of propulsion.
There were many drawbacks to a successful navigation during these years. The waterway was shallow at points and filled up with sand and debris. The sides of the canal fell in and many difficulties were encountered with the locks and dams, all of which were repaired and reconstructed. It was not until 1846, however, that the canal was enlarged by increas- ing its width to enable boats of a larger tonnage to pass through ; and stcam power was talked of for propulsion.
In 1843, the amount of coal sent through the Schuylkill, Delaware and Raritan canals, from this region for New York
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and Philadelphia, reached 119,972 tons. This was the ban- ner year for the canal.
The rate of toll on the canal was 36 cents per ton, with 5 per cent. allowed for waste. The whole charge by ton of coal by railroad, at the same time, was $1.10 to $1.25.
Transportation was slow but it was very cheap. So cheap that the railroads could not enter into competition with it and the railroads killed the canals. They bought up the canals and hundreds of miles of waterway that were constructed at a heavy cost were destroyed. In 1870 the canal was leased for a term of ninety-nine years to the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company. In 1878 that portion of the canal between Mt. Carbon and Schuylkill Haven was abandoned, and in 1886 it was further abandoned to Port Clinton. The Reading Rail- way forced the Schuylkill Canal out of business.
The rehabilitation of the mutilated and dead canals of Pennsylvania would be a great enterprise and yield a most profitable return to the people. But there is no possible hope for competitive waterways to the rival railways in the busi- ness situation of to-day. The centralization of capital, the immense railway interests at stake, the power of the railway companies, all prevent the practical carrying out of any senti- inent favoring the re-opening of the dead canals of Pennsyl- vania; the Schuylkill Canal among the number.
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THE FIRST BOAT-BUILDERS
William Wildermuth built the first boat launched on the Schuylkill Canal. The boat was a small one with a capacity of 80 tons. It was built in 1830 on a lot adjacent to the Dr. Douglas home, on the lower street of Orwigsburg. Wilder- muth was born and raised near Landingville and learned car- pentering in West Brunswick township. He was encouraged to undertake the enterprise by Dr. Benjamin Becker, then a leading physician of the county.
When the boat, which was the only one ever built in that town, was completed it was placed on a Conestoga wagon and hauled to the Seven Stars, above Schuylkill Haven, where it was launched on the canal. The completion of the enterprise was made the source of a general jollification. The people of Orwigsburg turned out to see the boat hoisted on the wagon. The mules that drew the wagon had red, white and blue paper rosettes on their heads, and the wagon and harness were trimmed with the tri-colors and gaily decorated. Horns were tooted as the boat passed through the town, the people cheered and many accompanied the procession to the Seven Stars, where a large assemblage of people awaited the event and a general good time ensucd.
In the same year, 1830, Mr. Wildermuth opened the first boatyard at Landingville, with a saw-mill attached.
In 1832, Andrew Schwalm, who came to Orwigsburg from Tulpehocken, Berks County, opened another boatyard adjoin-
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ing Mr. Wildermuth's. Mr. Schwalm had been engaged in boat building at Buffalo, N. Y., where he was successful.
About this time, Wm. Wildermuth took into partnership with him, his son-in-law, Samuel Leffler, who continued in the business until 1876, when he died. He was succeeded by his sons, William and Samuel Leffler.
W'nı. Wildermuth retired and removed, with his daughter, to Scranton, where he died in 1868, at the ripe old age of 84 years. Hc was interred at Orwigsburg. He was the grand- father of C. W. Wildermuth, of Pottsville, the Pauls, of Port Carbon, and Lefflers, of Landingville, and has other descendants in this county and various parts of the country.
Andrew Schwalm continued in the business from 1832 until 1845, acquiring what was considered a small fortune for those days. He retired, but later engaged in partnership in another yard for a short time with Samuel Leffler. The latter subsequently entered into a copartnership with his brother, George Leffler, which arrangement only lasted about a year.
Hundreds of boats were turned out by these pioneer boat- builders, Wildermuth, Schwalm and the Lefflers, between 1830 and 1846; when the canal was widened and deepened, the boats were enlarged to double their capacity and with this enlarge- ment in construction, the veteran builders retired from active business life. Andrew Schwalm died in 1863. He was the grandfather of the children of the Frederick Haeseler, John and Joseph Schwalm, Wm. E. Bover and W. M. Zerbey fami- lies, of Pottsville, Philadelphia and Mahanoy City, and has numerous other descendants in different parts of the country.
The writer remembers him as a large-framed man, sparse
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in figure, tall, about six feet in height. His complexion dark, sallow, smooth face and with hair black as a raven's wing up to the time of his death. Andrew Schwalm was a man that inspired the confidence and enjoyed the respect of all who knew him. He was grave and dignified, almost to austerity, and belonged to that class of the early settlers who were im- pressed with the seriousness of life and had little time or taste for its frivolities. It was Bill Nye who said of his New England progenitors that "they had considered it not only a misdemeanor to laugh but almost a crime."
Clad in russet corduroy velvet trousers, double-breasted blue cloth waistcoat with golden buttons, a swallow-tailed blue broadcloth coat to match, high round linen collar and huge black satin stock, his thick black hair cut round, like the pre- vailing style of the Oliver Cromwell period, the black silk hat or high beaver, the latter of which he wore on every occasion, Andrew Schwalm was a perfect type of the old-time Puritan Pennsylvania gentleman. He, with his wife, Hannah Miller, had twelve children, eight of whom survived to man and womanhood's estate. Two sons and six daughters.
George Rickert, father of the late Col. Thomas Rickert, with Menton Ludwig, opened a boatyard, in 1853, near the Reading station, at Landingville. They closed it after an ex- perience of two years. Solomon Fidler succeeded them and re- mained in business until 1884. Wm. Deibert and son, Henry, were among the successful boat-builders of a later period.
George Adams, of Adamsdale, worked at Landingville, but started for himself in 1858 at Adamsdale. Mr. Adams car- ried on the business on a large scale, sometimes employing as
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high as forty men, and had six boats on the stocks at one time. The men worked, during these busy times, in day and night shifts.
The boats built at Landingville were not alone for the Schuylkill Canal. They were constructed for New York, Balti- more and New Haven. Scows were built for the D. and H. Canal. The boats that first had a carrying capacity of 80 tons, were afterward constructed with a freight limit of 200 tons.
During the big freshet of 1850, the boatyards were all flooded and the material and buildings were carried away. The boat "Jennie Lind," was on the stocks ready to caulk. The boat was carried to the towpath bridge. Herc the boat collided with the bridge, tore out part of it and then swung around, where it remained. The boat was drawn away with a windlass and brought to drydock at Schuylkill Haven, where it was finished. Stocks were carried away and boats taken from the stocks in the freshet.
Other boatyards were conducted successfully at Schuylkill Haven, the Saylors; and at Pottsville, John Crosland and Samuel Grey, at Mt. Carbon, and Joseph Shelly on the site of the pioneer furnaces.
The Schuylkill Canal was first projected for the trans- portation of lumber and farm products down the river, but all this was changed with the fruitful mining of coal.
Abraham Pott, of Port Carbon, built the first railroad in the United States. It was successfully operated in 1826, 1827, and was about a half mile in length and extended from the junction of Mill Creek to a point where it connected with the canal. This pioneer railway had wooden rails laid upon more
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regular log rails, and a train of 13 loaded cars, drawn by one horse, ran over it, drawing a load to each wagon of about 1} tons of coal.
It is claimed that the first horse railway in the country was one built in Massachusetts. It was three miles in length and led from the granite quarries, at Quincy, to Neponsit Run. It was not completed until 1827, giving precedence to that built in Schuylkill County. The railway, from Summit Hill to the Lehigh River, at Mauch Chunk, was nine miles in length, and was also completed after the Pott railway, in 1827.
To Abram Pott is also given the credit for first having used coal cars that opened at the bottom for unloading, thus doing away with the dumping of the car. He was the first settler, too, to use anthracite coal to generate steam for the steam power engine. Up to 1829, water power alone had been used at the saw-mills.
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN
Martin Dreibelbeis, who came here in 1775, is generally accredited with being the first settler of Schuylkill Haven. That there were others, notably among them being the Finschers, who were massacred by the Indians, there is no doubt. Martin Dreibelbeis was born near Moselem, Berks County, in 1751. He settled on the eastern bank of the Schuylkill River, where he established a saw mill and grist mill. The latter was built
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of stone, and part of it was used as a dwelling house by the family. It was strongly built, and during the early incursions of the red men the mill afforded a place of refuge for the settlers against the murderous and savage Indians.
Martin Dreibelbeis lived on lower Main Street, on the banks of the river, until 1799, when he built a house in what is known as Spring Garden. He died shortly after, at the age of 48, his son Jacob, by the terms of his will, falling heir to his land, which embraced most of Schuylkill Haven proper, and his son Daniel that part north, including the land on which stood the newly-built homestead. The first marriage was that of Mary M. Dreibelbeis and John Reed in 1795, by the Rev. Henry Decker, of Reading. Of this couple more will be found in the early history of Pottsville.
Jacob Dreibelbeis laid out the town in lots in 1811, which were sold at a nominal price. It was not, however, incorporated until 1841. Martin Dreibelbeis donated a piece of ground for religious, educational and burial purposes. This log school- house was built upon the ground now included in part in the cemetery of the New Jerusalem, or White Church, on the turn- pike road.
Jacob Dreibelbeis retained the mills of his father after the latter had retired to the hotel, afterward known as the "Mackey House," in Spring Garden. Daniel Dreibelbeis built a saw mill and grist mill on the rear of the property now occupied by the First National Bank. These mills were removed by the Schuyl- kill Navigation Company about 1828. The mills were propelled solely by water power.
From the year 1817, when the work of construction began
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on the Schuylkill Canal, the growth of Schuylkill Haven was gradual and substantial. From 1827 to 1846, from the time the tow-path was completed, up to when the canal was enlarged, the "Haven" was anything but one of "Rest." After 1886, when that portion of the eanal between Schuylkill Haven and Port Clinton was abandoned, and boating on the raging eanal was relegated to inoceuous desuetude, the enterprising residents of that Borough became painfully aware that something must be done if they would maintain their place in the ranks of towns of enterprise in the county and State. They not only met, they resolved and they acted on this resolution, and the result is that the town is enjoying a period of industrial activity, from the number of small manufacturing interests established and main- tained, second to none in the county.
The large Reading Company coal sehutes and railway in- terests contribute their part, also, toward employing a large number of men, all of which contributes toward the prosperity enjoyed by the people of the Haven.
Note :- Benjamin Pott, son of John and Maria Lesher Pott, was married to Christiana, daughter of Martin Dreibelbeis and his wife, Catharine Markel. Their children were : Hannah, Mrs. C. F. Whitney; Sarah, Mrs. Lewis Vastine; John L .; Christina, Mrs. D. K. Snyder ; Amelia, Mrs. George Schall, and Miss Emma Pott.
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PLAYED BETTER THAN OLE BULL
Henry Hesser was not only a good fiddler, but really an artist on the violin. He was in great demand at all of the social occasions in the village of Schuylkill Haven, and the country people for miles around considered him a musical prodigy of great ability and perspicacity ; and more than that, he was noted as a master of the violin by everyone. He "under- stood the notes," they said, but had in addition a "Blind Tom" facility for taking a theme and interweaving and surrounding it with fancies and interpolations that were very pleasing. He brought out, too, on that king of instruments, with great skill and ease, his own dreams and ambitions and there is no doubt but that Mr. Hesser was more than ordinarily musically gifted.
Ole Bull, during his first concert tour, visited Philadel- phia and, in the course of time, an early day traveling salesman came to the Haven, and to while away the evening, sat in the barroom of the Washington Hotel, and told stories of the wonders of the metropolis; and among them, related how Ole Bull had captured musical Philadelphia with his wonderful prowess on the violin.
The room was full, the interest great, and all listened in silence, but with a manifest air of disapproval. This disappro- bation grew stronger and stronger as the story proceeded, until the suppression of opinion became almost unbearable, and the crowd arose as one man. The rigid tension was relieved by one, Ike Bensinger by name, their spokesman, who piped up in his thin, falsetto voice :
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"Did you ever ? Did you ever hear "Hcn" Hesser play ?" And the drinks, of course, were on the traveling man.
INDIAN STORIES
One of the Indian legends related by an aged resident of the Panther Valley, was that of an Indian ghost, who wandered around the crags and bluffs through which the Swatara creek runs, near Swatara. His father told him that the Indians who lived there had been out on a marauding trip, and returned with a large amount of loot and some gold. One of the braves con- cealed the gold under a rock near the creek. Hc was killed by his companions for the treachery, and ever after his wraith was seen wandering in and out among the rocks to find his ill- gotten treasure. The narrator remembered frequently tracing his steps in and out on the Indian causeway, to find that treas- ure. His genii was the red man's ghost, whom he hoped to en- counter some time unexpectedly, and wrest from him his secret of wealth, that would prove as fabulous as that of the hidden recesses in Monte Christo's Halls, but he never found him nor the treasure.
Gold was said to have been found upon the "Gobbleberg," and the Indian superstition claimed that when it thundered and lightened the rocks were sometimes cleft in twain and the hid- den recesses were discovered to be gorged with nuggets of gold.
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Whoever could claim them before they closed was in favor with the spirits of the air, and the genii of the mountain. Many hunted for this gold, but it was like hunting for the pot of that precious metal that hangs at the horns of the prismatic rainbow.
Many of the flights, by the thoroughly frightened settlers, to the block houses and Indian forts were superinduced by false alarms. "The Indians are coming" ("Die Incha Kummah"), was sufficient to startle the sparse communities into almost im- mediate flight. On one occasion an old woman, whose son could carry her no farther, was left in the woods (at her own request) to die. She could not live much longer anyway, she said, while the rest of the family hastened on to a place of safety. When the Indians came up to her place of refuge they proved to be a squad of Captain O'Leary's Colonial Guards, who were pro- tecting the woodsmen out to sight such timber as was needed to cut for the use of the navy yard at Philadelphia, and they carried the old lady to a place of safety between them.
Another legend is told of an Indian maiden, Wanomanie, who sprang from the highest point of the rocky crags on the pin- nacle of Sharp mountain (south of Henry Clay's Monument) into the declivity below and was killed. All because her father Sagawatch would not allow her to marry the dusky lover of her choice. It was said that on moonlight nights, in harvest time, she could be seen on a misty evening, through the clouds, taking the spring into the abyss below, her lover a close second, taking the lcap after her, and Sagawatch leaning over the crest of the mountain to watch the lovers going to their certain death. Whether these ghostly sights were only apparent to those who had been imbibing too freely of spirits of another brand, or
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whether they were the innocent victims of hallucinations of the brain, will be left to the vivid imagination of the reader to con- jecture.
EARLY HISTORY OF PINEGROVE
There were settlers about this vicinity as early as 1755, but it was not until about 1795, that a small settlement was formed about Jacob's Church, next to Zion's or the Red Church, near Orwigsburg, the oldest church in the county, about two miles below the present town of Pinegrove, then a part of Berks County. It was not until about 1830, that the village had any reputation as a town, when it contained thirty-one houses. The farmers in the three rich valleys centering here brought their grist to Fegley's mill, on the Swatara creek. The blacksmith's shop, three hotels, and three stores with the mill, formed the business nucleus, from which the town subsequently sprang.
The original name of the town was Barrstown. This was changed to Pinegrove in 1829. The name proper is Pine Grove, with the accent on the last half of the word instead of making a compound word and giving it a nasal inflection on the first part. The first church in the town was built in 1817.
The Union Canal, from Lebanon to Pine Grove was com- pleted in 1832. The coal was first hauled down from the mines in wagons. In 1832, the canal company built a railroad, from the junction to the canal, a little over three miles. The first coal operators were Caleb Wheeler, Jas. C. Oliver (who lived
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in Pottsville), and John Stees (father of Fred. Stees, of Phila- delphia, and for so many years National President of the P. O S. A.), who operated the mammoth vein, at the head of Lor- berry creek. The coal was brought from the mines in cars containing from 23 to 22 tons. They ran down a plane from Lorberry, and it took one horse or a mule to haul an empty car back again from the junction to the mine.
In 1840, the Swatara Railway was built, from the Junc- tion to Tremont and Donaldson. It was laid with "T" rails instead of the wooden article used heretofore. The town of Tremont was laid out the same year by Messrs. Follweiler, Mil- ler and Hipple. (A son of the latter, Dr. Charles Hipple, mar- ried Delia, a daughter of Judge Seitzinger, of Pottsville, and subsequently removed to the West.)
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