USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Plymouth > Reminiscences of Plymouth, Luzerne County, Penna.; a pen picture of the old landmarks of the town; the names of old residents; the manners, customs and descriptive scenes, and incidents of its early history > Part 6
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Black Jack was one of the conspicuous characters of Plymouth. It was said of him that he could play the fife on a march from Plymouth to Wilkes-Barre without cessation. He used to work for my grandfather and on one occasion I had it all planned to accompany him on a sled load of grain to Wilkes-Barre. At the opportune moment, however, my grandmother despatched me on some brief errand and when I got back Jack was gone. I felt very much aggrieved over the shabby trick that had been played upon me, but it was doubtless fortunate, for when Jack came home his condition was not such as would have made his company very desirable. One morning early he came to our house and told my mother that he was going away, and gave her his fife for me to
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keep until his return, and I have poor Jack's fife in my possession yet.
All of the colored people in Plymouth that I ever knew had the prefix "black" attached to their given names. Black John and Black Anthony I have already referred to, and there was a servant of Mrs. Chauncey Reynolds who was known as Black Ann. I never heard mentioned any surnames of these persons if they had any.
Concerning later military organizations here, about the time of the close of the war, or shortly after the military spirit, particularly among the younger generation began to manifest itself and many military organizations sprang up throughout the State. Plymouth at one time boasted of three infantry companies captained respec- tively by A. F. Levi, Wm. W. Woodword and Martin Carey. The militia laws of the State, however, being so crude and unsatisfactory, and no adequate or material financial support being provided, these organizations did not long survive. One, and perhaps the most formidable feature of the military arm of the State government at that time was the multitudinous array of officers con- nected with it. At one time it is said that there were in command of some three hundred military companies in the State, no less than twenty-one major generals, with perhaps near that number of brigadier generals, each with a large retinue of colonels and majors as staff offi- cers, which in the aggregate nearly equalled the number of privates.
About 1879 the military establishment was thor- oughly reorganized, resulting in its present superior state of efficiency.
CHAPTER X.
Early Methods of Traveling-Weaver's Stage Line-Steamboats -The Little Jim-Transferring Canal Boats-Shows and Circuses-Burial Grounds and Cemeteries-Early Medical Methods-Doctors-Bogus Diplomas.
M ENTION has heretofore been made of the early methods or means of traveling from place to place. There being no public means of traveling, the people as a rule having employment enough at home to engage their time and attention, unless called away on business or allured by some unusual attraction in Wilkes- Barre, generally remained at home, and those who were thus called away, if not possessed of horses and convey- ances, took the only safe and independent course, of going on foot. The city of Scranton was then unborn and Pitts- ton, with little or no inducements to offer, was nearly as far distant as is Philadelphia to-day, so that about the only easy accessible points of attraction were Kingston and the Borough of Wilkes-Barre. The route there was through the Narrows and over Ross Hill. Many of those with teams would tie their horses to the fence, or to the trees in the grove near the entrance to the bridge and walk across to save bridge toll which was an item of expense worthy of consideration in those days.
On the lower side of the road, near the entrance to the old covered bridge, in an old framehouse, a man named Gunton did quite a thriving business selling melons and oysters in season, the latter in small kegs of one or two quarts size. The first attempt towards estab- lishing a means of public conveyance was sometime in the early 50's when Charley Weaver established a stage line from Plymouth to Wilkes-Barre. His two-horse coach would start from Lance's barn at the lower end of town and make two round trips daily. The fare for the
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round trip was fifty cents. The patronage, however, was not sufficient to insure success and the project was soon abandoned.
After the L. & B. Railroad got in operation, the fare to Kingston was fifteen cents, and across the flats to Wilkes-Barre, on the horse cars, ten cents. Several un- successful attempts had been made at different times to navigate the river from Tunkhannock to Wilkes-Barre, but only during high water stages could a boat get through. I think a Captain Converse was one of the pioneers in those attempts. When Hendrick B. Wright was in Congress he obtained an appropriation to dredge the channel at Fish Island near Wilkes-Barre, sufficient to permit a boat to pass through. The river from that point to Nanticoke being navigable at low water, and he with others formed a company and put on a stern-wheel steamboat bearing his name to ply between Wilkes-Barre and Nanticoke. The boat made four daily trips between the two points and proved to be much of a convenience to the traveling public. This enterprise proving so success- ful, Fremont Jenkins put on a small boat named the "Magnolia," and afterwards added the "Plymouth," both side-wheelers, and Theodore Renshaw put on the "Mayflower," and afterwards the larger "Lyman Tru- man," and Joel Walp had a stern-wheeler, the "Wilkes- Barre .. "
The intense rivalry between these steamship lines in connection with the railroad soon made the business un- profitable; and with the gradual filling up of the river channel with culm and the low water, caused by the dis- use of the Nanticoke dam, made navigation impossible.
The Hendrick B. Wright was wrecked by the ice, as was also the Wilkes-Barre; the Truman blew up and the Mayflower was taken over to Harvey's lake.
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Aside from a small pleasure yacht, the "Wingohock- ing," brought here from Philadelphia by James Martin, the first regular steamboat service on the river here was a tug boat called the "Little Jim," rechristened the "Wil- liam Patten," and brought here by that gentleman for the purpose of towing canal boats to and from his coal chutes to the canal entrance at Nanticoke. I believe that George P. Richards was the first engineer on that boat.
Before the advent of that tug, the custom had been for boats with their teams to cross the river by means of a rope ferry below Harvey's wharf, and then to tow them up the "Pool" to near the Outlet lock above Butz- bach's, from which point they would be "poled" to and from their respective wharves.
Boats destined to points further up the canal, before approaching this Outlet lock would through their boat horns sound notice of their approach, in time for the "tender" to prepare the lock for their entrance into the canal. Occasionally some expert bugler would perform that duty and often on a calm summer evening their pleasing melodies could be distinctly heard in town.
Besides the annual elections, the events of most ab- sorbing interest, particularly to the rising generation, was the periodical visits of Van Amburg's Menagerie, and Dan Rice's and Forepaugh's Circuses to Wilkes- Barre. The former was the only one of these exhibitions I was ever permitted to attend. The circuses, aside from the financial aspects of the case, were considered entirely unnecessary and of a demoralizing nature, and in conse- . quence my only recourse was to view with wistful gaze the gorgeous pictures of the forty-horse chariots and the wonderful acrobatic feats as displayed on the side of a barn.
On all such occasions it was most aggravating to see
ACADEMY STREET FROM SHAWNEE AVENUE
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the long processions of male and female, adult and juve- nile pedestrians wending their way to Wilkes-Barre in the early morning, equipped with their day's provisions and prepared to spend the day in undisturbed enjoyment of these to me forbidden pleasures.
There was, however, one consoling feature which tended somewhat to mitigate the pangs of disappoint- ment; "Milly" would always call us up before daylight in time to see the elephants and camels and ponies and wagons with their sleepy attendants pass by on their way to Berwick. I was about sixteen years of age before I ever attended a circus and then I ran away from school at Wyoming and walked over to Pittston at night to see it.
Passing now from the gay and frivolous, to the more serious and grave concerns, I have already described the private burying ground of the Hodge family in the French orchard. I have heard intimated that there was in very early days another graveyard somewhere in the vicinity of the flat road near the "swing gate," but of this I have no definite knowledge, nor is there any evidence of one having been there. The one on the corner of Shawnee Avenue and Reynolds Street, known as the Reynolds graveyard, was established in 1828. In the records in Luzerne County Courthouse is filed a lease from John Turner and Benjamin Reynolds, to Calvin Wadhams, Joseph Wright, Jamison Harvey, Noah Wad- hams, Freeman Thomas, Samuel Wadhams, George S. Clark, Henry Gabriel, Joshua Pugh, and said Turner in common with the others, for land for 900 years, "for the purpose of a private burying ground." This lease is dated November 20, 1828, was acknowledged May 14, 1845, and recorded August 6, 1851, and on November 20, 1828, Benjamin Reynolds and John Turner acknowl- edges receipt from the lessees of $10, "in full in advance
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for all rents for term of 900 years." Most all of the bodies have been removed from this burying ground to other places; but few remaining, of old residents, their graves uncared for and perhaps long ago forgotten, and the ground is overgrown with weeds and briars, and made a depository for tin cans and other rubbish by the unsympathetic occupants of the adjoining lots. There is another private burying ground on "Turkey Hill," known as the Davenport burying ground which has I believe- since the establishment of the Shawnee Cemetery further up the hill-been abandoned as a burying ground.
Until within recent years many interments of Ply- mouth residents were made in the cemeteries at Forty- Fort or Wilkes-Barre. The Hollenback Cemtery at Wilkes-Barre was opened in 1856 and my sister Cornelia was the second person to be buried there in June of that year.
Perhaps the earliest public burying ground in Ply- mouth is the old Shupp graveyard near the L. & B. junc- tion. I have no knowledge of when or by whom this graveyard was established. It formerly comprised sev- eral acres of ground but all the larger part of this has been covered over by the D. & H. Co. with huge piles of refuse from their adjacent mines, and only a garden patch in size remains, in a very dilapidated state, but is still being used by the public, where interments are yet being made three and four deep.
Perhaps at no distant day the general public will be- come sufficiently enlightened to substitute the more humane and sanitary method of cremation for the repul- sive and revolting one of sepulture; and why, from an economic point of view, should the dead be permitted to encumber the ground and be in the way of the living?
From graveyards to doctors, or vice versa, is a very
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easy and seemingly logical transition of topics of discus- sion; while we all have faults, and are prone to mistakes, -the easiest of all human accomplishments,-unfortu- nately perhaps we can't always hide, or bury them in everlasting oblivion. In the early days when doctors were few and far between, and not easily accessible, the mothers, or some neighborly old grandmothers were the family physicians; and not until the patient got beyond their skill was the doctor summoned, when, after inspect- ing the tongue and examining the pulse, he would look wise, and if he didn't resort to blood letting would al- most invariably prescribe the proverbial dose of Rhubarb, or Calomel and Castor Oil; all very excellent remedies, and well calculated to arouse a very decisive, if not en- thusiastic hygienic interest; but the vilest prescription I think, and one on which I always drew the line, was sul- phur mixed in molasses; that dose is the climax of nasti- ness. The prevalent diseases or ailments of today, were diagnosed under different names, for example, diphtheria was probably an aggravated sore throat, pneumonia, in- flammation of the lungs, and appendicitis, either inflam- mation of the bowels or dry belly ache.
In nearly every house might be seen hanging from the rafters in the attic, or strung along the beams, a well ar- ranged assortment of catnip, sweet fern, sage and various other "yarbs" possessing sedative, laxative and purga- tive, or other medicinal virtues, while a bag of roots of varied species was usually near at hand, or in case of emergency some old Nimrod of Knowledge and experi- ence would be despatched to the woods or fields in search of squaw roots, golden-thread, burdock or other roots necessary to the requirements of the domestic pharmacy, and the compounding or manufacture of all which into teas, salves or poultices was by no means an occult art.
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I have often heard mention made of a Doctor Mont- ross of early days, who lived somewhere back of the mountain who was regarded somewhat as a medical pro- digy, but my earliest recollection of the fraternity was a Doctor Boyd of Wilkes-Barre, who perhaps, at that period was more instrumental in increasing the census statistics of the town than any one other. Then there was a doctor John Smith also of Wilkes-Barre, an early practitioner here who always sat cross legged in his lumb- ering top buggy which was drawn by a horse with a maximum speed of about one mile in seventy-five minutes, but who always brought sunshine and hope in his visits. Doctor Ebenezer Chamberlin was one of, if not the old- est early resident physicians. He was a very genial and kind hearted man, known to almost everybody from his pointed and witty sayings, and characteristics. He lived here for many years and had a large practice. He also served as Justice of the Peace for a number of years. Doctor J. E. Bulkley and Doctor Brisbane both of Wilkes-Barre were frequent visitors. In later years there were as resident physicians Doctors Bixby, Rickard, M. G. Whitney, Wilson, and McKee,-father and son,-all of whom were respected physicians and each enjoying a large practice.
In the late 70's quite a commotion was stirred up amongst the medical fraternity throughout the State, by a report to the authorities from our Minister in Ger- many, the Hon. Andrew D. White, to the effect that a man named Buchanan in Philadelphia was engaged in the business of selling doctors' diplomas purporting to issue from an institution called the "Philadelphia Uni- versity," which being confounded there with the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, an institution of learning, of world wide reputation, was heaping discredit upon that
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institution. An investigation resulted and legal meas- ures adopted which had the effect of unearthing many of those bogus certificates throughout the country, much to the chagrin and discomfiture of the possessors thereof.
CHAPTER XI.
Early Methods of Weighing-System of Barter-Reason for Peculiarity of Prices of Commodities-Currency Conditions -Spanish Coins-Fips and Shillings-Counterfeit Notes- Era of Shinplasters-Customs of Early Merchants-Means of Travel-Wholesale Merchants-Arrival of Goods- Pedlars and Their Wares.
I N early days most commodities sold by weight, were weighed on steelyards. For small articles or quanti- ties these were weighed by holding the steelyard with the article to be weighed suspended thereto, with one hand, and with the other, adjusting the balance upon the ex- tended steelyard arm which indicated the weight; hence, in the records of sales or purchases made, it is not un- usual to find such seemingly, to us, odd quantities named as for example 634 pounds of coffee or 1014 pounds of sugar. It used to be said of one very early merchant that in his dealings with the Indians, his hand weighed one pound and his foot two pounds.
Purchases were very commonly made by means of barter, or exchange of commodities,-ready money was in many cases, an almost unknown quantity. The farm- ers banking capital and facilities was his grain, hay, pota- toes and other articles of produce, with occasionally some portions of a dressed hog, or a quarter or side of beef or veal, most of which articles were always very acceptable in payment to the doctor, the shoemaker or the blacksmith, while the housewife sold butter and eggs or
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home knit woolen mittens and stocking, and then, as most every household had its own seamstress, the concomitant and convenient rag bag, with "paper rags" worth three cents a pound at any of the stores, was a small but valu- able aid in the procuring of thread and other such neces- sary items.
Another one of the peculiar early customs unknown or unpracticed at the present time, although a popular one as late as the time of the war of the rebellion, was the making the prices to be charged for many articles, or commodities, 61/4 cents, or 121/2 cents, a pound or a yard. The reason for such common use of the fraction in connection with the sale price of articles, was doubt- less owing to the condition and value of the currency then in general circulation, which consisted almost entirely of Spanish silver coins and State bank notes; a standard of value being, generally, a "Spanish Milled Dollar."
Hon. John Sherman, former Secretary of the U. S. Treasury, in his memoirs says, that "in 1793 foreign coins were a legal tender for circulation in this country. Spanish coins found great favor-Spanish dollars though three grains heavier than ours, were readily exchanged in Mexico and the West Indies for our bright new coins. This led to an exchange of our dollars for the Spanish ones which were promptly received at our mint at a profit. This put upon the government the expense of making coins with no advantage. This was free coinage. In 1806 President Jefferson prohibited the coinage of silver dollars and when S. P. Chase became Secretary of the Treasury in 1861, there were probably not 1,000 silver dollars in the United States."
"By the Acts of Congress of 1834 and 1837, the ratio of coinage was made 16 to I, with the result that gold coins were largely introduced and circulated, but as
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16 ounces of silver was worth more than one ounce of gold, the silver coins disappeared except the depreciated foreign coins, then a legal tender."
Those Spanish coins were nearly all worn so thin and smooth through circulation as to be almost undecipher- able in appearance, but if there remained resemblance of any of the original earmarks of coinage on them they would pass at full value without question. The smallest of those coins was counted as 614 cents in exchange, and the next size 121/2 cents and they were called respectively six pence or "fipenny bits,"-for short "fips,"-and shillings, or "eleven penny bits." A bit be- ing 121/2 cents which term was probably of Southern origin where it was commonly made use of. Most all of the bank notes were counterfeited, and nearly every mer- chant had one of Thompson's Monthly Bank Note detec- tors, which gave a minute description of every known counterfeit bill, and which he would always consult upon presentation to him of any unfamiliar note.
At the commencement of the war, even this debased silver currency entirely disappeared and the merchants and business men were put to great straights, before the issue of fractional currency by the government, to make change for bank notes in their business dealings. This inconvenience they overcame however, by many of them issuing their own scrip, or "Shinplasters," in denomina- tions of five cents and its multiple up to 50 cents; of course, the only basis of value to this scrip was the repu- tation of the party issuing it. Even brass and copper tokens of all manner of devices and purporting to rep- resent cents were put in circulation which were really of not as much value as a button, but almost anything was accepted in change without a murmur. After the issue of "greenbacks" by the government, it was nothing unusual
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when making change of fifty cents, to cut a one dollar note in half.
Every spring and fall, before canal navigation closed, it was the custom of the merchants of the town and val- ley, to go to Philadelphia to replenish their stocks of goods. Their route of travel would be by stage from Wilkes-Barre to Tamaqua ; leaving the old Phoenix Hotel long before daylight, they would take breakfast at Drums on the mountain and arrive about noon at Tamaqua, and from there take the train to Philadelphia. In later years a packet boat would connect at Catawissa with the Read- ing railroad. They usually traveled together and would put up in the city at the Black Bear Hotel on Third Street, the White Swan on Arch Street, or the Merchants, on Fourth Street, the principal hotels, and would make their purchases of the same firms.
The names of those wholesale merchants are yet very familiar. There was James Kent Santee & Co., and Ludwig, Kneedler & Co., dry goods, and Eckel & Reigel, C. C. Sadler provisions, G. S. Gilbert drugs, Joel J. Bailey notions, James Shields & Co., hardware, Godfrey Keepler, a jolly Dutchman, whom I later knew very well, Frishmuth & Co., who sold the white papers of smoking tobacco with the Indian and his pipe for a label, and Mason, whose shoe polish bore the familiar label of a colored boy shining a boot which reflected an angry rooster.
Their purchases were loaded on canal boats at Peter Wright's Son's wharf, and their arrival at Plymouth a week or ten days perhaps later, was always an event of very general interest, more especially to the women of the neighborhood, most of whom usually had given some special commission to the storekeeper to execute. Sup- plementing as it were these Philadelphia excursions, the
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merchants had frequent opportunities of replenishing their stocks of small wares, particularly of candies, no- tions, and medicines, from traveling peddlar wagons which habitually passed through town. The medicine men usually drove gaily caparisoned horses hitched to gaudy wagons and distributed almanacs and descriptive circulars advertising remedies warranted to cure all ailments, or selling the well known Ayers Cherry Pectoral, Hines Tar Syrup, Swaynes Ointment, Indian Vegetable Pills, or galvanic ointment.
The first introduction here of kerosene oil, was by one of those wagons, in the form of crude oil put up in small phials and labeled Petroleum or Rock Oil, a sure cure for rheumatism.
CHAPTER XII.
The Past and the Present, Comparisons-The "Appy Og"- Mythical Superior Traits of Honesty -Early Habits and Characteristics of People - Social Courtesies - Sociability Among Neighbors-Quilting Parties-Visiting-Apple Cuts and Candy Pulls-Deferences to Old People-Incidents- The 400 Society-Town Newspapers-Names of Business Men and Firms.
I N apparent contravention of the old proverb that the world grows weaker and wiser, in comparisons made between the present and the past, one often hears lamen- tations by old people like those made by the Jews in olden times, of the departed glory of the "good old days" of yore, when everybody was honest and happy.
There is not much doubt I think, that a greater and more genuine spirit of sociability prevailed among our forebears and predecessors, than exists in communities today. Evidence of this may still be seen in most every
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isolated country village or community which is cut off from railroad and other civilizing modern conveniences and luxuries. A natural human instinct there draws the people together, "to scorn delights and live laborious days;" their sympathies and their interests are mutual; what concerns one, is of more or less interest and concern to all the others; whereas, in populous centres, sur- rounded by all the wonderful means of speedy travel and communication with the outside world, the people are imbued with the progressive and wholly selfish spirit of the age which is, "every fellow for himself;" people come and people go unnoticed, and they don't really know their next door neighbors, and it is very question- able whether the people of today with all their luxurious surroundings are, in fact, as really happy and contented, and enjoy life as did those of a century ago in their homely simplicity, when their wants and desires were governed wholly by their resources, and they retired to bed and peaceful slumber in the happy assurance that they were "cocks upon their own dung hills."
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