USA > Pennsylvania > Berks County > Kutztown > The centennial history of Kutztown, Pennsylvania : celebrating the centennial of the incorporation of the borough, 1815-1915 > Part 9
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* Notwithstanding we had nothing * * * but a hock of pork, boiled a second time, and some bread and butter-We found our own tea and coffee, and hay and oats for the horses-this daughter of Lycurgus [the landladvl charged for Mr Dana, myself and serv- ant, thirty-eight shillings lawful money !"1
The next morning, November 9th, the party left Levan's on their way to Reading.
1"Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Bio- graphy," Oct. 1887.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF KUTZTOWN
A short distance east of a tavern on the road, about nine miles west of Levan's they met "Mr. Samuel and Mr. John Ad- ams," bound for their home. The two noted New Englanders turned back to the tavern [Half Way House ( ?) | where the company sat and chatted and "ate bread and butter together." From this statement it is evident that the Adamses passed through Kutztown eastward on the afternoon of this day.
Other noted travelers who, pretty certain- ly passed over this road during the first six months of 1778 were: General Greene, General Gates and family, Ethan Allen, Baron Steuben, Count Pulaski, General Conway, General McIntosh, General Lewis, and Governeur Morris. These dignitaries were traveling to or from York, where the Continental Congress was in session until the beginning of July.
On the 5th of January, 1779, Baron Riedesel, commander of over 2000 Bruns- wickers surrendered by Burgoyne to Gates at Saratoga, (on the 17th of October, 1777) together with other officers, both German and British, prisoners of war, passed through Bethlehem, and certainly Kutztown also, "en route to Virginia to which state Congress had ordered them on parole."
If Washington did not pass over the Easton Road, Lady Washington surely did. This distinguished lady arrived at Bethle- hem from Easton early in the forenoon of June 15th, 1779. Besides her proper escort she was accompanied by Generals Sullivan and Maxwell and other officers. General Sullivan at this time was fitting out an expedition against the Indians on the Sus- quehanna. The military escort of honor returned to camp at Easton before noon. Lady Washington, stopping at the Sun Inn, being shown the objects of interest in the town during the afternoon and attending worship in the evening in the Moravian Church, remained at Bethlehem over night and "early in the morning of the 16th set out for Virginia."1 She must have passed through Kutztown about noon of the lat- ter date.
In the discussion of the physical features of the East Penn Valley (See D. 2) refer- ence was made to the "Travels in the Con- federation" made in 1783-84 by the German scientist. Dr. Johann David Schoepf. This careful observer and diarist journeved over the Easton Road, one day in the latter part of August, 1783. The following is Doctor Schoepf's reference to our town :
1"Pennsylvania-German Society Proceedings," Vol. VI, p. 65.
"After sunset we came to Kutz-town ( 19 miles from Allen-town and 31 from Nazareth. A well- to-do German, in order to cut something of a figure with his name in his ears, gave the land for this place, which is only some three years old, and the houses but few and not large. (P. 195, English translation.)
The ears of the learned German doctor were, evidently, offended at the speech of the people of the valley and, consequently, he was moved to write, on the preceding page, when he tells of the county between "Maguntchy," and Kutztown, somewhat disparaging of the utterance of the people whom he praises, however, for some things. "The farm management seems pretty order- ly. One gets a glimpse of many good stone houses, many of them very neat, and every- thing about the premises shows order and attention. The people are mainly Germans who speak bad English and distressing Ger- man," A pleasant touch of description of the landscape is given when he adds: "The buckwheat, greatly seeded here after wheat for the second harvest, stood in full bloom and with the pennyroyal, so common on all the roads, made a strong and pleasant evening odor."
It would be interesting to know at which of the taverns of the town or vicinity Lady Washington stopped for mid-day meal or Doctor Schoepf tarried for the night, but at the present information as to this is lacking.
In those early days and in the following years many other celebrities, candidates for office in state and nation, occupants of high station, notables of every rank, besides mil- lions of commoner folk, used for purposes of business or pleasure, this highway join- ing the South and East and connecting near the south of the State with roads and traders' paths across the mountains to the West.
MODES OF TRAVEL
Modes of travel in the earlier time were as primitive as the frontier inns to which some reference has been made. Wayfarers journeyed on horseback, by chairs and chaises, by "sopus wagons" (so-called be- cause first made at Esopus, N. Y., in which place the DeTurck family originally settled and whence, prior to 1712, they emigrated to Oley township, Berks county, and finally to Maxatawny Valley ) by "Jersey wagons," curricles, phaetons, private stages or car- riages, and later by public stage coach. In an old book kept by a clerk of the Sun Inn at Bethlehem were found, among other in- teresting entries, the following, of arrivals at that hostelry :
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF KUTZTOWN
"1801, June 20-A gentleman and a lady in a chair.
"July 15-Two gentlemen in a currich, three horses and one servant.
"August 12-A gentleman in a Windsor chair.
"September I-A company in a Jersey wagon.
"September 12-A gentleman and a lady in a phaeton.
"1802, June 4-A gentleman and lad! on horseback, 4 horses and one servant.
"September 18-The President of Cam. bridge University.
"October 3-A gentleman in a 'Sopus wagon.'
"October 20-General Davis, Governor of North Carolina, one child. and negro servant in chairs.
"1803, June 7-Commodore Berry of the ship United States, and negro servant.
"July 29-A gentleman and family of six children, two black girls, and two drivers from Baltimore."
How interesting it would be had there been made more such records not only of the arrivals at the Sun Inn at Bethlehem but also of those who tarried for "bating" or for a night's lodging at the road houses all along this then famous way.
In the early days, moreover, this road was thronged by wagons engaged in com- merce. Trains of Conestoga wagons or "Pitt-Fuehren," sometimes eight to ten teams in the train, rolled eastward and west- ward over the road, loaded heavily with the products which one section of the rap- idlv developing country desired to exchange with the other. The Conestoga wagon, named probably after the stream which flows through Lancaster county, in which county the vehicle likely had its origin, or, possibly, after the heavy draft horses which drew the wagons, a breed developed in the Valley of the Conestoga, was " a huge af- fair, very heavily built, with a [ panelled] bed higher at each end than in the middle, and topped by a dull-white cloth cover which had a similar curve of still more pronounced degree. The wagon was con- structed in concave shave in order that its contents might not spill out when it was going up or down hill. Still another dis- tinguishing characteristic of the convevance was its color. The under body was always painted blue and the upper woodwork was invariably bright red. . . . The Conestoga wagons ] were the frigates of the land."
The harness of the four to six horses by which these wagons were drawn was of the best materials and this and other trappings of the horses, were often gaudily and ex- pensively adorned. Not infrequently there rose from the heavy collars of the animals (collars of leather stuffed with straw or curled hair) metal arches set with about half a dozen sweet toned bells which gave a pleasant jingling as the drivers urged their trains along. At the front of the wagon bed was a chest, having a pent- house lid, for tools. At the rear was suspended a long trough from which, loos- cned from its chains and set up on trustles, the hungry horses might eat their corn and oats, when the train halted for a rest. Un- der the wagon hung water buckets while from the rear end of the projecting "coup- ling pole depended by a leathern thong the wooden tar bucket which contained the lubricant for the massive wheels and axles."
Readers interested in these predecessors of the freight train of today may find in the "United States Agricultural Report," for 1863, an account written by one who was an authority on these vehicles of the long ago. "Pitt-Fuehren" was the local German name for the heavy broad-tire wagons which carried freight to and from Pitts- burg (whence the name). In most cases, probably, these were Conestoga wagons or vehicles of similar construction.
STAGE COACHES
At first travelers for business or for pleasure journeyed, apparently, in privately owned or rented vehicles, such as have been mentioned on a previous page, going when they willed and stopping where and when they pleased. After a time, as the volume of travel increased, public conveyances, stages, rude constructions in their earliest forms as one may infer from contemporary accounts and from tradition, were intro- duced, having definite routings and carrying passengers for stipulated fare, besides the mails and light merchandise. The first pub- lic conveyance at Reading was a two-horse coach, which ran weekly between that city and Philadelphia, fifty-one miles, carrying passengers and letters. The fare was two dollars ; letters were carried for two pence ( four cents) each. Two days were con- sumed in making the trip. The line was established by Martin Hausman in 1789. After several wears the business passed into the hands of William Coleman, who im- proved the service greatly, extending it by wav of Womelsdorf and Lebanon to Harris- hurg. westwardly, and bv wav of Hamburg. Orwigsburg, Sharp Mountain Gap, and
1Seymour Dunbar's "A History of Travel in America," p. 203-4.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF KUTZTOWN
over the Broad Mountain, to Sunbury, northwardly. In 1818 stages between Sun- bury and Philadelphia ran twice a week each way. Between Harrisburg and Phila- delphia a tri-weekly service was given. William Coleman died in 1820. The busi- ness passed, first to his widow, then to his sons John and Nicholas who, in 1823, ran weekly stages between Reading and Easton. Whether this was the first appearance of the public stage coach on the Easton Road we do not know. Ermentrout says: "At first, three times a week the rumbling wheels of the stage enlivened the quiet air of the town." From the same authority the fol- lowing facts are gleaned: Prior to 1837 David Fister, Jacob Graff, and Charles Sea- greaves were proprietors of the Reading to Easton Line. On February Ist, that year, these gentlemen announced that from that time forward, Sundays excepted, a daily coach would be run each way between the two towns-Reading and Easton. There was, either then or later, a line running be- tween Kutztown and Norristown by way of Boyertown. Samuel Hartranft was its pro- prietor and his son John, who later became governor of Pennsylvania, sometimes drove the coach.
Before 1826 the stage coach was locally known as a "steamboat" and was an un- covered wagon capable of holding twenty passengers. Competition between the Cole- man or "Old Line" and several new claim- ants of public patronage on the route from Reading to Philadelphia, led to the intro- duction of an improved conveyance, the "Troy Coach." "It held eleven passengers, with room for five or more on top."
At last the railroad came, not indeed, to Kutztown, but passing several miles to the south. The building of the East Pennsyl- vania Railroad from Reading to Allentown. completed May 11, 1859, was the death of the old stage line. Coaches ceased running
between Allentown and Reading in that year.
For a little over ten years travelers to and from Kutztown made their way across country between this town and Lyons, nearest station on the new railway as best they might. On January 10, 1870, the Kutz- town Branch was completed and then for years until electric car and automobile came, the branch to Topton was the readiest mode of communication with the outside world. Thus, for a time the old road, with which, as we have seen and shall see fur- ther, so much of the history and life of Max- atawny and Kutztown has been associated was almost deserted. Now again, however, the automobile having been invented, the old road has more than regained its old- time popularity as a great highway of the people between the southland and the East- ern States. Hundreds of gas-driven vehi- cles, many of them bearing license tags and pennants indicating that they come from far, pass over the road each day. Again, as in the years gone by, statesmen. candi- dates for high office, notables of every rank pass over the roads in their private cars, which rival the cars of the railway in con- venience and speed. Day by day this traffic is increasing and with it is increasing the business of the town. The Easton Road as we may see was the occasion of the building of the town. Town and highway are close- ly connected in history and in fortune and, now that the old road, after being main- tained for many years by the local authori- ties, has passed under the direct control of the state ( 1911 ) it is to be hoped that its importance may be realized, that it may be improved and be maintained in the excel- lence which it deserves, and that with it. in the centuries to come, the town at the crossing of the Saucony may attain a mag- nitude and an importance of which its pres- ent citizens do not even dream.
OLD LOG CABIN FORMERLY ON KUTZ FARM FACING LONG LANE
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF KUTZTOWN
RAILROADS-THE KUTZTOWN BRANCH
The first movement to connect Kutztown with the outer world by railroad was taken at "quite an early period, before the Phila- delphia and Reading Railroad was complet- ed." ( Ermentrout, p. 10.) A public meet- ing was held in Kutztown to consider the project of building a railway "from Ham- burg, via Kutztown, to Pottsgrove, to con- nect with the Reading and Norristown road. It is said that the killing of a teamster, near Pennsburg, Montgomery County, by an en- gineer of the proposed company, put an end to the project." ( Ermentrout, p. 10).
railroad should not be extended by way of Kutztown, a branch should be construct- ed to that place. In 1856 ( Mar. 9) an Act of Assembly was passed incorporating the "Reading and Lehigh Railroad Company," authorizing the construction of a railroad from the junction of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the Lebanon Valley Railroad at Reading to the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Allentown. By Act of Assem- bly April 21, 1857 the name of the com- pany was changed to the "East Pennsylva- nia Railroad Company." Construction be-
-
.r.
THE P. & R. RAILWAY STATION AT KUTZTOWN
Ermentrout, in his "Centennial Memor- ial" ( 1876 p. 10,) tells us further that :
On February 25, 1837, at the hotel of David Fister, [there ] was held a large meet- ing to urge on the plan for building a road from Hamburg, via Kutztown, to Allen- town. There were passed resolutions, call- ing upon the Legislature to pass an Act already in its hands "to empower the Gov- ernor to incorporate the Hamburg and Allentown Railroad Company." Nothing came of this effort.
In 1854 Allentown Railroad Company was incorporated to construct a railroad from Allentown to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad at any point between Reading and Port Clinton; and if this
gan June 1857. In a little less than two years, the road was completed. The last spike was driven on May II, 1859, and on that dav trains began to run between Read- ing and Allentown Junction. Leased in 1869, to the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- road Company, it has since been operated by that corporation. That line of railroad did not pass through Kutztown, and so, for a little over ten and a half years Kutz- tonians, to get to the railroad, had to travel to Lyons Station, two and one-half miles south of their town.
The Allentown Railroad Company, spok= en of above, began, in 1857, work on the proposed line, then known as the Allentown and Auburn Railroad. To this company there had been subscribed in and around
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF KUTZTOWN
Kutztown more than twenty thousand dol- lars. Lewis K. Hottenstein was owner of five thousand dollars of this amount. Con- struction went on merrily for a time. Then a financial panic put a stop to the project, but not until long reaches of road-bed had been graded. Portions of this partly completed road may be seen in the meadows below Brooklyn, the northern suburb of Kutztown, and at various places along the Saucony Creek to Virginville and beyond. Considerable stone work was done on cul - verts and on bridge piers a short distance below the "second dam" are still to be seen the foundations of a projected "askew bridge." This is interesting as a relic of a type of arched stone bridge favored at the time, a completed specimen of which may be seen in the stone arch spanning Sixth street, near the "outer station," Reading. It may be interesting to note in this con- nection that the latter bridge, crossing the street diagonally, is asserted to be the only "askew bridge" ever erected that did not tumble down. Such fame at least the Sixth street stone bridge has throughout the coun- try, the writer having heard this assertion made of it in a town in the middle west, almost on the banks of the Mississippi. But the bridge on the Allentown and Au- burn Railroad never fell down because it was never put up. About this time the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Com- pany which, in 1869, leased the East Penn- sylvania Railroad, obtained control of the stock of the Allentown and Auburn Com- pany.
In 1868 a public meeting of the citizens of Kutztown and vicinity was held and at this meeting a petition was drawn up re- questing the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- road Company to complete the road from Tonton to Kutztown. The petition met with a favorable response. Work on the branch was begun June 9, 1869. It is of record that Favette Schoedler turned the first shovel of earth. Construction was pushed rapidly forwards and the four and one-half miles of road was completed in a little less than six months, so that on Jan- uary 10, (1870), the first train ran over the
twin steels between the two towns. George A. Hoover was at the throttle of the en- gine, Jack Bern shoveled the coal, George Snodgrass was conductor, Theodore G. Fa- ber looked after the baggage and Randolph Godwin and Allen W. Fritch tended the brakes.1 The Kutztown station was erected during the years 1869-1870. Since its op- ening the Kutztown Branch has been oper- ated by the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- way under a lease.
The first ticket sold after the road was opened was to Lewis Hottenstein.
For many years this line of road was, for its length, the most profitable part of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway system. It still handles a vast quantity of freight and is, perhaps, surpassed only by the short lines serving the recently developed cement districts. For many years the passenger traffic was heavy and there were four daily passenger trains each way. Since the open- ing of the electric traction lines toAllen- town and Reading passenger travel over the steam road has diminished and only two (passenger) trains run in each direction daily. The freight traffic is, however, in no wise diminished but, instead, is holding its own and even slightly growing as the industries of the town and the population of the community together with their needs increase.
The station was remodeled in December, 1913.
The present force of employes at the station are: C. C. Deibert, station agent ; Thomas Nester, clerk; Walter Fronheiser, operator ; James Leapoal, department hand.
The train is manned by J. P. S. Fenster- macher, conductor ; Wallace Reinert, brake- man; Benj. Deibert, baggagemaster; Chas. Heckman, engineer ; Harry Richards, fire- man.
1A big crowd gathered to take the ride to Topton or to see the train pull out. The loco- motive was almost covered with flowers and wreaths. As it was winter most of these adorn- ments were of paper, fashioned, many of them by Mrs. J. F. Wentzel and her sister, Mrs. Ed. Kern.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF KUTZTOWN
HOTELS
Taverns, inns, hotels, road-houses, trav- ellers rests, on the one hand, and highways on the other, are closely related. Where travelers by horses or coach passed need
cupidity, which led the pioneer Levan, whose house stood thus near half-way be- tween the two large towns, to open his door to take the stranger in. Such hospitality
THE FULL MOON HOTEL
was for "Entertainment for Man and Beast." Such need was instant all along the Easton Road. Consequently when the weary and belated traveler came a century
was profitable and soon the pioneer dis- covered that keeping tavern was more gain- ful than tilling root infested acres. So he enlarged his building and converted it into
EMAUS-BUNKER HILL-GENERAL JACKSON HOTEL
and a half ago to the intersection of the "New Maxatawny Road" and the Easton Road, it was but simple German hospital- ity, coupled perhaps with a bit of German
a tavern-Levan's Tavern, Kemp's Hotel- of which the reader has read before. Then men west of the crossing of the Saucony saw how the pioneer was thriving, espec-
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF KUTZTOWN
ially after the Great Road was built and travel over it grew heavy. So, probably, first of all the Swan Inn, also kept by a Levan, was built. Of this, too, mention has been made. But these two taverns were not the only ones in this vicinity nor was the Swan Inn long the only road house with- in the present limits of the borough. How many hotels there were at any one time or at different times, no one knows for sure. There were, of a certainty, not a few, more in the olden times than now, and now there is no dearth, unless for purposes of rest in the approaching Centennial week, when, as is confidently predicted, most of the country will come to sce and hear.
Which were first, when each was opened, how long it dispensed hospitality, liquid and otherwise, it is impossible now to say. From various sources the subjoined rela- tions have been collected. The compiler trusts that he has not been unduly credulous and dependent on uncertified tradition and that the statements here set down may not vary seriously from historic truth.
Of the Swan Inn it may be added that its first keeper was Levan and that after various vicissitudes it finally passed, June 17, 1856, into the possession of Dr. Charles H. Wanner, who, paying $2600 for the property, which was then greatly out of repair, remodeled it and making it a com- fortable home, left it to his widow, from whom it was inherited by the present occu- pants, who, recently, again greatly improved the historic home.
Another hotel of the earliest days of the town was one kept by Henry Schweier. Where his inn was located, when it was erected, when it passed out of existence are not matters of known record. A news- paper clipping informs us that among the first transfers of lots after the laying out of the town were transfers made, in 1785, by the founder to Adam Dietrich and Henry Schweier. The latter, the inn-keeper, pur . chased "six in-lots and eleven out-lots" and on one or more of them erected his hotel.
From Montgomery (old "History of Berks County," p. 860) we learn that about a hundred years ago a man named Lesher conducted a hotel "on the site now occupied by the John Kohler mansion [ now George B. Kohler]. It was a yellow frame build- ing and was quite popular in its day."
The Pennsylvania House, on the western corner of Main and White Oak streets, now kept by George P. Angstadt and famous far and wide for the political suppers fur- nished by its landlord, is one of the oldest hotels in town. It is, however, the second
one on the site, and its predecossor, name unknown, was one of the first hotels in the borough. At one time the old hotel was kept by George W. Fister, who, later, took charge of the Washington House. Accord- ing to the late John G. Wink, the old hotel was kept by David Levan and Daniel Levan. A Mrs. Wingert was the last proprietor before the demolition of the old house.1 The new stone house, evidently a wonder in its day, was erected in 1841. For many years it was run by Charles Kutz, who is said to have been a popular landlord. He died in 1876 and was succeeded by Ed. Steckel, father of Dr. E. K. Steckel. Fol- lowing Steckel came James Frcy ( deceased 1915), Jonathan Bortz, Frank Fritz, Wil- liam D. Gross, Henry Bauer, and the pres- ent occupant, George P. Angstadt. The hotel is still the property of Kutzes ( Frank S. and Charles).
During the Revolutionary Wa:, when travel was unusually heavy as our study of the Easton Road revealed, there were open- ed numerous road-houses along its course. Of these, doubtless, most went out of busi - ness when traffic slackened after the war. How many of these were in Kutztown, no one knows for sure. Quite a number of old houses on West Main street look as though once they may have served as taverns.
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