Cultured Carbon County

The Race of My Life

2012-01-21T13:26:00.015-05:00

Click Here - FOR TIMES NEWS
Announcement of Candidacy

I find myself saying I've been making myself ready for this moment all my life. I have run many races in my life, literally and metaphorically. This one may be the biggest one of all.

I just got off the phone with my brother in North Carolina, a former Secret Service agent and current owner and director of global investigations for Vaudra Inc, an intelligence protection company. He said how he's always admired people who are willing and able to take a chance in life. My big brother then told me how proud he was of me.

It is to the people of Carbon County that I aspire to represent. My roots are deep here. But more importantly, I have spent my 44 years deeply involved in what matters here: the people.

You can read through my history of serving people and see the variety and scope to which I have pitched in here. You can talk to people who know me and you will hear through examples of what exists in my heart. For in the end, no matter what else we ever hope to accomplish in our lifetime, it is our relationship with people that matters most.

Some of you who have been reading my blog from the beginning may be surprised by this announcement. Looking back on my poem, “My Carbon County,” about all the great leaders and all those who toiled so hard on this dirt, I am struck by my last lines: “Now is my time and you are my place. Give me the vision you dreamed for me. Let me stand on its pillar so that I can see: my Carbon County, may I awaken your dream for thee." I wrote that two years ago. (Read the entire poem here - February 23, 2010.)

It is time to take my commitment to a new level, as I am announcing my candidacy for representative in the general assembly for the people of the 122nd legislative district. Entering this will take a tremendous commitment. I am now at a time in my life, and in my heart, to take on this role.

My Background:

I have been married to Kimberly (Schleicher) Rabenold for 25 years this past December. We have two sons of whom we are most proud. Nathaniel is a 2009 Kutztown University graduate and is currently making plans toward an advanced degree. Nathaniel was a member of the Golden Bears Football team and majored in History.

Jonathan is a 2011 Lehighton Area High School graduate attending Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne Florida majoring in their Ocean Engineering program. He was recruited into the inaugural class of players of the F.I.T. football program. They look to compete in the fall of 2013. Jonathan will be taking two courses this summer at Oxford University, England.

My brother Rick, an accounting executive at Redner's
Coporate Headquarters sits with Randy, "Double R"
Rabenold. My nephew and adopted brother Zach
and oldest brother Randy. (Missing from the
photo are my sisters Rebecca Finsel and Rhonda.)

My dad is the most dedicated man I know. He served in Korea in the First Provisional Marine Brigade, came home, met my mother, and worked his way through college on the G.I. Bill. He taught art in Jim Thorpe for 37 years, coaching basketball most of that time. He ran the Jim Thorpe Summer League Basketball program for 50 years. I have never heard an unkind word said about him.

My mom, the former Ruthie Haas shaped my disposition in such loving and implicit ways, ways that even now, 3 years since her death, strike me in unguarded moments. She worked hard, I’d see her toil in the bead of sweat on the tip of her nose. She was always working. Many remember my mom and her wry humor from her years of waitressing at Trainer’s Inn. She raised us 5 kids, plus my nephew Zach, if with nothing else, a proper set of manners on how to treat people. I never heard her say an unkind word about anyone.

And I am delighted to see these same attributes carried on in our own two sons. For that, without question, comes largely from Kim. She has been the steadying ballast of our family, a millstone that has shaped some rough edges, but with a heart that could warm the deepest chills in my bones. I am lucky for many things in my life, but it is Kim to whom I’m most grateful.

My father has always said it was his father who saved his life in Korea. Zach Rabenold died just before the Chinese invaded and tore open the conflict at the Chosin Reservoir. Dad was shipped home to attend to his mother in her time of need. My granddad Zach was a welder at the Packerton Yards during the time of labor strife there. His wife, my grandma Mary “Mamie” (Strauch) Rabenold, delighted me with these stories through the years. Mamie’s father, Heinrich Strauch, was a first generation German-American who escaped the Prussian Wars in the early 1870s. He was a “butcher to the miners” during the Molly Maguire days. They lived in Hacklebernie.

My dad’s family had hard patches to overcome. My grandfather and many of his brothers and sisters were “farmed out.” Zach was sent to Jonathan Gombert of the Mahoning Valley as a farm hand and saddler. Gombert lost his arm at the battle of Antietam and later became sheriff of Carbon County. My grandfather Zach lived at the Carbon County Jail with the Gomberts for 2 years as an orderly.

My mom’s family also came from the farms of Mahoning and Lizard Creek Valleys and struck out through hard work to build their own corner grocery store. Calvin and Rebecca (Nothstein) Haas ran “Haas’ Grocery” store from 1930 until the 1960s. From that point, my uncle, Bobby Haas, with the help of his brothers and sisters, my aunts and uncles, ran the store until 1998. That store was an important part of my life, I spent almost all of my free time there from as little as 3rd grade until college. I started by bagging potatoes, restocking the candy, tapping molasses, and the best part, burning the trash.

I learned many things there: respecting the customer and hard-work. But besides all those lessons, I learned of the social nature of running a community business. I learned how people need and rely on people. Applying that to my life through 44 years, I realize to greater levels how God has placed us here to look after each other.

I mortgaged my home through Jim Thorpe National Bank. I bought one of the last new cars sold by K-Chevrolet on First Street in Lehighton before they lost their dealership to downsizing. I shop at Marzen’s Feed and Grain, Palmerton Lumber, and Lehighton Hardware long before even considering walking into Lowe’s. We have purchased every kitchen and laundry appliance in our home from Ed's TV of Lehighton. I love Mallard Markets, for they have local breads and products you can’t find anywhere else. I drive to Palmerton for my milk at Hahn’s Dairy.

We are all in this life together. We live here in this great county together. My pledge to this county is I will serve her as I have lived here all of my life, with loyalty and commitment.

My Record of Service:

Leadership Experience:

• 21 years of classroom experience – Last 17 at Lehighton Area Middle School teaching Social Studies, 3 years teaching Emotional Support at Lehighton Area High School, 1 year at Wiley House School (Kids Peace) in Bethlehem.
• Nominee for Pennsylvania’s Professional Standards and Practices Commission - (2010) (I turned down the appointment before Senate confirmation)
• Honored to have served in various leadership roles among the great teachers at the Lehighton Area School

With friend and great
American hero, Ira Smith, Battle of the
Bulge and POW. He was originally from
New Tripoli. It was my privilege to know him
and tell his story.
He is missed by all.
(Click here to read Ira's farm and war story.).
(Click here to read of the day Ira went home to his farm for the first time in 72 years.)

Community Service:

• Lehighton Area Community Book Swap Founder and Coordinator (2005-Present)
• Local and district winner of the Veteran’s of Foreign Wars “Voice of Democracy” Contest (1985)
• Franklin Township Little League Baseball Coach/Assistant Coach
• Cub Scout and Boy Scout Assistant Leader –Pack/Troop 187 (1993-2005)
• Sunday School Teacher - (1990-2000)
• Board of Directors Carbon County Classic Car Show - (1997-2002)
• Jacob’s United Church of Christ, Weissport – Church Elder, Lay Supply Minister & Vice-President - (1997-2005)
• Board of Directors Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural Center - (2008-Present)
• Board of Directors Mauch Chunk Historical Society - (2010-Present)
• Author of CulturedCarbonCounty.blogspot.com (2010-Present)
• Head Varsity Boys and Girls Cross Country Coach (2008-Present)
• Assistant Varisty Coach -Boys Basketball, and both Boys and Girls Soccer
• American Legion Post #314 District and Inter-District Oratory Contest Judge
• Life Member Lehigh Fire Company #1
• Member Lehighton Legion Post #314
• Sons of the American Legion
• Member Beaver Run Rod and Gun Club
• Memorial Day Speaker for the United Veteran’s Organization

Hunting with my family is one of our deepest and most important traditions
we have. It is our heritage here. And it is up to us to preserve
and protect it, including being good stewards of the land. Nate and I helped to bring in nephew Ryan's 6-pointer this year. It was an adventure
and a late night but we got him home. A night we won't soon forget.

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At the CD release party for Free Range Folk, local bluegrass band.
Here with artist Brad Kunkle. Brad was an athlete of mine.

Jackson Square, New Orleans

On the Oregon coast with nephew and niece Josh and Amber Finsel.

Jim Thorpe St. Patrick's Day Parade with my sons and their
friend Rory, 2011.

Lehighton's Jeni Beers Moves onto States

2011-10-27T22:41:00.002-04:00

The District XI Cross Country Championship was run in a the damp rain today, but that didnt stop Jeni Beers from a berth in the State Championship at Hershey next week.

Despite the raw weather, Jeni turned in a time of 21:38 (just 18 seconds slower from her previous week time at league championship on the same course under perfect conditions). She placed 10th earning her the final medal spot in the Girls AA race.

Notre Dame of Green Pond took first and Bethlehem Catholic second for team title of the District AA. They will send their entire team of 7 runners to states. Others making the state cut-off of 10 additional runners are: Amber Carro1l of Tamaqua (21:01), Kelsey Patrick of Tamaqua (21:24), Emily Smith of Moravian Academy (21:26), Rebecca Askins-Gast of Moravian Academy (21:34), Andrea Stevko of Palmerton (21:42), Samantha Corcoran of Northern Lehigh (21:43), Ashleigh Lesko of Wilson Area (21:47), Jess Yeneskie of North Schuylkill (21:58), Angelina Biondo of Pen Argyl (22:03).
(Complete Girls AA Results.)

Rounding out the Lehighton girls, who placed 12th of the 19 competing schools were: Emily Oldt (23:40), Cassie Rehnert (24:36), Alyssa Schleicher (27:04), and Erica Koutch (28:20).

The Lehighton boys had a tougher go in the AAA Meet. Daulton Radler finished 101 of 149 with a time of 19:57. Rounding out the Lehighton boys were Dave Magyar (22:34), Chris Bosco (22:52), and Josh Gornick (25:08).
(Complete Boys AAA Results.)

The Last Practice - It was "Twin Day" at our last practice (note the unusal bright and sunny day)
Though unplanned whatsoever, all but one Lehighton runner wore a team shirt to the final 2011 practice.
(L-R)-Bosco and Radler sport our 2009 edition, Gornick in Blue, Oldt and Schleicher have last year's tye-dye, while
Koutch, Rehnert, Beers and Coach Rabenold all model this year's shirt. What a crew!

Seniors Dave Magyar and Alyssa Schleicher ran their last race in a Lehighton XC uniform. What a wet way to go out! Their presence on the team will be missed next year. Best of luck.

Jeni Beers takes 5th Place in MVC Championship - Lehighton Girls Team Places 5th

2011-10-19T23:00:00.005-04:00

(Left to Right) - Ally Armbruster (mgr), Emily Oldt, Coach Marushak, Cassie Rehnert, Erica Koutch, Alyssa Schleicher, Jeni Beers, Coach Rabenold and Sophie Coombe (Middle School XC Team).

Left to Right - 4th place Kaitlyn Smith, Pleasant Valley; 5th Jeni Beers, Lehighton;
2nd Dana McAllister, Pleasant Valley; 1st Abby Ross, Poc Mtn East; 3rd Kirsten Henning,
Stroudsburg; 6th Bryanna Vias, Poc Mtn East; and 7th Kristen Eberhardt, Pl Vlly.

Making steady progress all season, Lehighton freshman Jeni Beers medals in her first Mountain Valley Conference Championship at Bethlehem Municpal Cross Country course on October 18, 2011. She was expected to be in the top 7, however it was a pleasant surprise that she placed 5th with a time of 21:20.

Jeni, Alyssa, Emily, and Cassie hitting their strides.

Beneath the old Oak and the Martin Tower - The girls take off.

Abby Ross of Pocono Mountain East has a solid lead with 200m to go.
She went on to win by 18 seconds over second place.

Emily Oldt battles for her eventual 21st place.

Freshman runner Cassie Rehnert is eyeing the competion for next year, turns
in a solid 36th place.

Senior Alyssa Schleicher is coming into her best racing form of her
injury-ridden career.

Times from Left to Right - PV-21:19, Leh-21:20, PV-21:09, PME-20:51,
STR-21:13, PME-21:23, and PV-21:30. A total of 39 seconds separated
these top 7 girls.

She was supported by fellow teamates, Emily Oldt (23:28), Cassie Rehnert (24:23), Alyssa Schleicher (26:48) and Erica Koutch (27:37). All will compete next week on the same course in the District XI Class AA finals where Beers will hope to contend for a State Championship berth.

Pocono Mountain East Senior Abby Ross took first place at the meet with a time of 20:51. The remaining MVC will be competing in the AAA District XI race. The Lehighton girls finished 5th in the MVC finals, besting East Stroudsburg North and South.

Jeni is seen here just escaping the early box she was in. Just behind her is Pocono Mountain West's
Skyler Dunham who finished 23:08.

Jeni looked a bit done in around the halfway point, falling back
as low as 8th. She found some inner-reserve to pass 3 in the
last mile.

A hard run race...nice job Erica.

Emily showing her classic steady form.

No one is sure if Cassie knows just how fast
she can go. Her times continue to improve.

Great form, holding strong over her competition in the final 50m.
Jeni was able to overtake PME's Vias, but less than a second
short of Smith of PV's 4th place.

League Cross Country Commisser, Mark Brown
Of East Stroudsburg South awards Jeni her medal.

A season of battling the beginner runner's bane, the shin-splint,
Josh Gornick is finally hitting positive strides.

Dave too has been hampered with injuries is also finally hitting
his senior season strides just in time, when it counts.

The Lehighton Boys were anchored by the efforts of Daulton Radler, Lehighton's top finisher with a competitive time of 19:39. Rounding out the boys results were Dave Magyar (21:14), Chris Bosco (21:45), and Josh Gornick (25:52). The boys did not have enough mates to run a complete team.

Despite all the rain and an unusual number of injuries this season, both teams have worked hard and have made good progress. This group is perhaps the hardest working Team in my four years of coaching and were very coachable. And as evidenced by their ever improving times, they seem to be peaking at just the right time: for Leagues and now District XI Championship next week. Good Luck!!! Coach R.

Pre-Race Jitters??? - Someone is always good for a laugh or two.

But this is how Coach M exudes game-faces.

More Pre-Race Jitter Busting Jokes and Smiles.

Hams anyone?

Daulton looks to have given it all. 50m to go.

The girls hitting their pre-race strides.

As the boys make their final strides, seniors Dave and Alyssa have one more race next week.

Switchback Railroad Hike - The Fall 2011 Tour

2011-10-17T11:03:00.012-04:00

Here we see the barney car emerge from the pit. An "outrigger" was winched down
onto the "cat step." This safety device is identical to the one adopted by
successive rollercoasters and gave both a distinctive clink-clink-clink sound as the cars
ascend the plane. At the base of Mt. Pisgah, the cars traveled 2,250 feet of inclined
plane and 664 feet of elevation. The engine house is at the top.
Jordan Cook is all smiles as he made many ventures this day, including some
new metal finds that may be parts of the former steamstacks of the engine house.

Once again, students, family and staff of the Lehighton Area Middle School took part in a 3-hour hike of the remains of the Switchback Railroad engine house atop Mt. Pisgah in Jim Thorpe (formerly Mauch Chunk.)
The adventurers marveled at the view and the rich history of this forgotten place, which is perhaps the most important link in the early development of coal production that fueled our Industrial Revolution.
The 50-plus hikers even ventured out to the former Hacklebernie Tunnel that was first driven in 1824 by Josiah White himself in an attempt to bring a source of coal closer to the shipping terminus at Mauch Chunk and the Lehigh River.
The mine was not extremely profitable and was used intermitantly over the years. Eventually it was driven clear through to the Nesquehoning side of the mountain. Keith Bellhorn's grandfather, a miner who lived in Hacklebernie around the 1930s walked through the tunnel each day coming and going from his job as a miner in Nesquehoning.

Students gape at the view of the Lehigh Gorge - With all our recent rain, the
Glen Onoko Falls were quite visible, a rare treat for this time of year.
The Lehigh River is approximately 1,000 feet below.

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Here, Miss Finkboner makes her way across the top of the collapsed tunnel.
Since the tunnel was driven in 1824, 24 years before the construction of the
Switchback's "backtrack," a short trestle was built to traverse the mine.
This is also the place where the Switchback actually got its name from the Y-
switches that allowed descending coal cars to zig-zag down the mountain
side, each time it reached a terminus or switch that kicked the car onto the opposing
section, "switchbacking" down the mountain, eventually connecting to the "downtrack"
and on down to the coal chutes to the Lehigh River.

Parents and students were eager to see the mine's entrance, defying the steep
30 foot drop.

Students were enthusiastic to find the entrance of the collapse tunnel, the first coal
mine tunnel ever driven in North America.

Students even scaled the side of the mountain to reach the nearly closed opening of the collapsed mine tunnel.

Among the students attending the hike, along with parents, grandparents and siblings were: Shain Hrusovsky, Emily Miller, Haley Nahf, Sam Maholick, Jordan Cook, Gavin Sherer, Grace Lienhard, Emma McClafferty, Lily Hutton, Scott Kuzma, Cameron Zerbe, Lindsay Carrigan, Kelsey Knappenberger, Daniel Brown, Ryan Nametko, Trent Derhammer, Daniel Thomas, Isabelle Meckes, Justice Schlier, Amanda Mathisen, Gage Whiteman, Seth Nace, Mark Solt, Brooke Focht, Benjamin Mathisen, Emily Bartron, and Alex Hawk.

Everyone had a blast.

Students even were able to make 3 different GeoCache finds.

Among the L.A.M.S. staff members attending the hike were Mark Maholick, Jake Molchany, Carly Finkboner, Mollie Llewellyn, Sharon Focht, and Ronald Rabenold.

A repeat of this hike is planned for April. Part 2 of the hike, the "downtrack" and downtown Jim Thorpe tour ending at the Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural Center with its complete Switchback Railroad train display, is planned for early May for 3 evening tours. (See The 'Essential Jim Thorpe Tour' is our Spring hike, Part II of the Switchback tour.)

Related links on this website:
Spring Hike 2011(This post has many vintage photos of the SBRR), Josiah White's Genius, October 2010 Hike, PA Canal Society Visits Mt Pisgah, and My Sunday Hike.

Also, if you are looking for a comparable site in the area, I suggest you look into the Penn Haven Junction inclines of the Beaver Meadow Railroad above the Black Creek. In the "Virtual Lehigh Gorge" tour, about mid-way through, are pictures and some history of those dual inclines that once operated there.

Salt, Time, Cabbage...and other secrets of a long and happy life

2011-10-12T22:44:00.002-04:00

The brick-wall water filter of the old cistern, now a
ground cellar, is the backdrop of Charlie's
yearly sauerkraut making.

Charlie learned how to make sauerkraut with his Aunt May starting in the Great Depression. He knows that sauerkraut is more than some cabbage in a crock. There’s salt and time added too. All together, it is more than the sum of its parts, as a good life is more than the sum of its days.

Many different salts have been added to the life of Charlie Fritz. He learned his way around a hammer with the guidance of his father Willard who was a fine cabinet maker. And he got a taste of farm life from his mother’s sister May and her brother Clayton "Geat" Beaver, who ran the family’s small truck patch farm in East Weissport.

Charlie’s early life was also filled with the lore of the hazards and pride of men who worked for the railroad. His grandfather Warren Beaver was a steam train engineer on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. He never drove a car as all his years guiding his engine along steel rails made him unwilling to learn how to steer a car. He retired before having to change over from steam to diesel engines.

Trees planted by Aunt May and Uncle Clayton still produce today.

Growing up, Charlie helped manage the small apple orchard, pruning limbs and sending the harvest to the cider press. One tree that still remains there today was planted in 1909. (He has the paperwork on it.) It was as hollow as any partisan politician, but was twice as fruitful. He remembers Uncle Geat telling him, “Prune it hard enough so that birds could fly through them.” True advice he never forgot.

Charlie shows what is left of Aunt May's ball of twine.

Charlie has a special ball of twine. Aunt May saved lengths of butcher twine for some unforeseen future use. It is one among the many things handed down to him.

Like the sauerkraut he was making this October day, the knowledge of it reaches back to generations before us, along a long string of time. And when it is ready six weeks from now, others will enjoy the fruits of these labors. Charlie and his wife Melba have been making the sauerkraut for their Weissport church for over thirty-years.

Melba prepares the 200 pounds of cabbage by removing the outer leaves and cutting out the “cabbage hearts,” the hard inner stem. Charlie is inside his old family cistern that he converted to a ground cellar which is perfect for fermenting sauerkraut: it keeps the crocks at a steady cool temperature away from light. It also keeps the noxious fermenting cabbage gases outside the house.

Melba keeps cutting out the cabbage hearts outside
the doorway to the ground cellar.

Two hundred pounds of local cabbage.

As a boy growing up in this house, the cistern held water that ran off the roof. It was their only water supply until the 1940s. With the sooty steam engines of the Jersey Central still making their runs along the Lehigh below, as well as other routine roof debris, it was important to let the first part of each rain shower clean off the roof before diverting the water into the tank.

The cistern had a large and a small section. The main part, about 7’ by 7’ by 7’, is where the water entered. It was separated from the smaller 3’ by 7’ by 7’ section by a double, red-brick wall, which by their porous nature served as a filtering system for the water. The drinking water was drawn from this smaller section.

In the dry summer months, they hauled water from the Barry family spring in Long Run. These yearly dry spells allowed them to climb inside the cistern to scrub it out. They got down inside with a discarded wrought iron caboose ladder.

Today five crocks sit inside the old cistern waiting for cabbage. Like the brick, the crocks must not have a heavy glaze on them or the fermenting process won’t quite work. It makes one wonder, who was the first to discover these ways of making food like this and how to filter water in this way?

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The 10-gallon crock is the first to be filled. Using a 3-blade, wooden framed shredder from the 1930s, shredding a half a head at a time, Charlie shreds about two cabbage heads before adding two tablespoons of non-iodized canning salt. It is then gently tamped down with a wooden stomper until it is firmly packed together.

Once, about 30 years ago, while making sauerkraut with Aunt May, Charlie was frustrated with the older, warped shredder they had been using for years. Aunt May told him he could get the brand-new one she had up in the attic. To his surprise, it was still in its original 1938 package. It’s the one he’s been using ever since.

Tamping, not crushing, the shredded cabbage enough to get the air out.
About 1-pound of canning salt per 45-50 pounds of cabbage.

The process is repeated until 100 pounds of tamped cabbage, with two pounds of salt, fills the crock. The six-gallon crock is next to be filled. He uses his Aunt May’s ever-present, but soon to be diminished ball of saved twine to seal the cloth over the top to keep the dirt out while allowing it to breathe.

The cloth will be tied with Aunt May's twine.

Charlie served in the Army Security Agency during the Korean Conflict, intercepting Chinese Morse code. He and his cohorts got so accustomed to listening in on the transmissions, they could discern the sender by their idiosyncratic style of tapping. Being in North Korea, he had nothing to spend his money on so he sent it home. On his direction, his parents bought a 1954 Chevy for him.

Once home, he was re-assigned to Two Rock Ranch Station in California. With a love of travel, he loaded his Chevy with his parents and Aunt Sula. They drove across country, stopping at the Badlands, Sequoia, and Yosemite National Parks. Then his father and aunt flew all the way home by propeller plane, with all the stops that day of flying entailed.

When his enlistment expired, his father flew out alone. This time, father and son drove back across the southern range, visiting the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park. The most memorable was seeing Bryce Canyon with its bright rock covered in snow. It would be the final salt of his father’s life. He died of a heart condition at the age of 47 that October of 1955.

A retiree of Bethlehem Steel, Charlie still enjoys seeing the country as much as he enjoys keeping his family traditions alive. He also keeps bee hives in two locations in Franklin Township. You could say he knows how to take both the sweet and the sour that comes along in life. You don’t have to know Charlie and Melba very long to know that.

This batch of sauerkraut will be ready in about six weeks but it won’t be served until Jacob’s United Church of Christ’s February 5, 2012 Pork and Sauerkraut dinner. All the work and aging will make it just right. (Jacob’s is also having a dinner November 5, 2011, equally tasty, but without homemade sauerkraut.)

Aunt May's ground cellar as it looks today.

Besides the fellowship that always comes with the sharing a meal, these dinners provide a chance to appreciate both the sauer of the kraut and the sweetness of the many deserts. But most of all it gives us time to reflect upon all the things that go into a long and happy life.

Lehighton Cross Country Girls Sweep East Stroudsburg North and South

2011-10-11T22:31:00.000-04:00

Chris Bosco turns to Daulton Radler and
says, "This is how champions tie their shoes."

Daulton Radler says, "Just watch my back."
Emily Oldt says, "Yup!" as she laughs.

The Right Stuff? Some days they never cease to show me they do.

The Lehighton girls put in a good day on the course today, extending their record to 3-9, by beating both
East Stroudsburg North and East Stroudsburg South in a Mountain Valley match-up near Bushkill Falls today.

Freshman Jeni Beers came in second overall, just ten seconds behind Pocono Mountain East's best runner, Senior Abby Ross. Jeni had a time of 20:32 her career best time. Junior Emily Oldt came in 4th overall and second for Lehighton with a career best 21:59, followed by Freshman Cassie Rehnert with 23:03. Senior Alyssa Schleicher has been turning in good times with some strong running form, helping to anchor the crucial last 2 spots that allowed Lehighton to hold off ESS with a time of 26:36. Freshman and newcomer to the sport Erica Koutch continues to improve with a 26:58. Lehighton is looking forward to 3 more years from these talented freshman girls.

Coach Marushak going over passing strategy. Cassie Rehnert,
Josh Gornick and EMily Oldt say is it enough to take
6 spots in the last mile?

The different ways pre-race jitters can look is evident here.

All those jitters are gone at the sound of "Go!"

Emily Oldt's sneaky, sly form hides her speed.

Daulton is not going to let them stay there.

Eyes up Chris Bosco...good form.

Jeni Beers shows how she uses her arms to pump it up over tough hills.
The rest show their jealousy with their smiles.

The boys were without all their teammates today and did not have enough to qualify for a team. They dropped both matches to ESN and ESS. But that didnt stop them from turning in some season and career best times.

Daulton Radler had a 19:03, Ryan Coulter 19:57, Chris Bosco 21:06 and Josh Gornick 25:11.

All these atheletes should return and be solid once again for Lehighton.

Determination on Josh Gornick's face.

The methodical steps of a seasoned
senior runner. Nice run Alyssa!

Erica shows a bounce in her step.

Sophie Coombe was able to knock 30 seconds
off her Middle School race time at this same
course from just 3 weeks ago.

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Ryan had no idea just how fast he could run today.

As the Mountain Valley League Meet approaches next Tuesday 10/18/11 at Bethlehem Muncipal Golf Course, our harriers seem to be peaking at just the right time for perhaps a medal there and possibly a District berth to the state championships...Keep your eyes on the prize!

The 2011 Jim Thorpe Victorian House Tour - A Success Story...

2011-09-25T21:39:00.002-04:00

The Jim Thorpe Victorian House Tour was an outstanding success. A joint effort of the Mauch Chunk Historical Society, the Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural Center and the Mauch Chunk Mentors Inc, the tour consisted of 19 downtown historic buildings (check out http://jimthorpevictorianhousetour.org/ for pictures of all.)

55 Broadway as it looks from the front of the Dimmick Memorial Library.

Front door of 55 Broadway.

Attendance exceeded expectations. Most of today’s foot traffic on Broadway was comprised of collectors-edition, guide-book toting folks, all interested in learning more about the history and Victorian era architecture of our county seat. I spoke to many satisfied and enthusiastic patrons throughout the 5-hour day. One family from Kentucky caught sight of the websight and planned their first-ever visit here solely to attend this event. As many as 350 visitors took advantage of today’s tour.

The property I hosted today was 55 Broadway, currently owned by John and David Drury of Jim Thorpe. This property holds the distinction of being the oldest of the surviving mansions in Jim Thorpe. It was most likely built by John Fatzinger in the 1840s. However, another early industrial pioneer of the town, Mr. Issac Salkheld may have built it in the 1830s.

Issac Salkeld came to Mauch Chunk in 1823 and worked for Josiah White and Erskine Hazard at the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company’s Iron Works, in the vicinity of the Old Jail on West Broadway. Issac also took charge of the building of the famous Mansion House Hotel in 1826. He was known to have built the first brick home in Mauch Chunk, but where this building existed is anyone’s guess. This building at 55 Broadway could be his homestead.

The side view shows the addition out the back, including an
original doorway converted to a window and a bay window
to the right is of the same brick and mortar as the updated
facade, possibly remodeled when James Blakeslee took
ownership. The parking lot was a side yard with an ornate fountain.

Several hundred of these tour
brochures were carried about
town today.

Another competing theory is the Great Fire of 1849 started here, when a servant girl carelessly tossed still smoldering cinders of the kitchen cook stove beneath the wooden porch stairs, and this brick building was built in its place. Other historians believe the fire started a bit further down the street near today’s Antonio’s Pizza.

If the mansion was not the one built by Issac Salkeld, it was then most likely built by his son-in-law John Fatzinger sometime in the 1840s. John Fatzinger married one of Issac’s daughters and also entered a business partnership with Issac’s son Jacob, forming ‘Fatzinger and Salkeld Iron Co.’ This business took over the iron operations of the LC &N on West Broadway.

However John did not live there long and both the residence and the iron works went to Jacob and his wife. Jacob and John by the way were “double brothers-in-law” with Jacob marrying John’s sister Catherine. The Fatzinger family moved to family land of the Seneca Valley in New York state.

Jacob and his family lived at 55 Broadway until 1880. At that time Jacob retired, selling both his home and the iron works. James Irwin Blakeslee purchased the home and which point it is conjectured that much of the present day dentil and gingerbread work were applied, including the bay window and a new brick façade. The home was also said to have impeccable gardens and an ornate cast-iron fountain in what is today the parking lot.

A detail view of the front door.

The front of the residence near the end of the Victorian era.

James Blakeslee, though he was Asa Packer’s brother-in-law (James was a brother to Sarah Blakeslee Packer), was a successful businessman in his own right. He created and owned many important businesses such as the Mauch Chunk Gas Works, the electric Trolley and powerhouses in both Mauch Chunk and Lehighton.

Sometime near the time of the construction of the Dimmick Memorial Library in 1889, James commissioned the building of 56 and 58 Broadway for his son, Asa Packer Blakeslee, and for Asa’s father in law, Francis Sayre. Imagine Asa Blakeslee’s predicament: His father-in-law in the other side of his duplex, with his father immediately facing him across the street.

Following the death of both James and Caroline Blakeslee in 1901, their youngest son Charles lived at 55 Broadway until his death in 1924. The home left the hands of the Blakeslee family upon the death of Charles’ wife Jean’s death in 1936.

John and David Drury, owners and operators of the Inn at Jim Thorpe, also operate the second and third floors as single, suite and apartment rentals as an extension of the Inn. The downstairs main living space operates as a favorite coffee shop that also sells homemade ice cream and real Italian ice.

Modern day Victorian visitors - Lilly Hutton and her family
enjoyed the tour. This family was one of more than a few
who took in Kyle's carriage service today.

Most of the above research was provided by the talented Mauch Chunk historian, Jack Sterling, who once again chaired this year’s house tour. But Jack was quick to thank three other instrumental people: Richard DeFeo of Mentor’s Inc as well as a board member of the MCMCC; Bill Allison, board member of both the MCHS and the MCMCC; and Abby Beerman, a most apt and hard-working Allegheny College student intern.

A Crazy Week: Raising and Razing two roofs and a '46 Ford Convertible - My 100th Post!

2011-08-09T15:11:00.002-04:00

I love my brother Rick's expression on this shot...he's always horsing around. Here, he's pretending the house is going into the van.

It has been another hectic summer culminating in one crazy week. All of this is leading to my youngest son Jon's imminent departure for Florida Institute of Technology this Sunday. To ready ourselves, we did some major housecleaning, a yard sale, spreading 9 ½ tons of new stone and mulch, planting, gardening, fresh coats of paint everywhere, and along with all the normal tree pruning on Beisel’s Christmas Tree Hill.

We had always thought we would keep our outhouse, our second last outbuilding remaining from the original Ahner farmstead. The floorboards had been weakening, but it was the tin corrugated roof that was now failing the rest of the building. It was finally decided to rid the yard of this eyesore. The excavation of the 5-foot-deep pit was interesting. I found a handful of vintage marbles, a few old style Gillette safety razors, a few pairs of eyeglasses and as a matter of course on this old farm: GLASS!

You don’t have to dig very much and it doesn’t really matter where and you are bound to find glass. Herman Ahner at one time hatched a plan to recycle glass, he must have seen some financial gain to be made in it. So it is as ubiquitous here as blades of grass. A few of the keeper bottles found was a pint bottle from Lehighton’s former Kirkendall dairy and two Coca-Cola bottles stamped “Palmerton.” One oddity was about 6 bottles in original condition with some now brownish liquid in them with a brown screw-top lid. The liquid inside them smelled like turpentine. But then again, all the bottles smelled of turpentine.

After all these years, we never realized our
outhouse was a three-seater. The child-size
seat was covered and piled with garden tools.

Pint-sized bottle from Lehighton's
Kirkendall Dairy.

With the pit filled and sod placed on top, we could now turn our attention to more constructive endeavors: thatching a roof in the style of the Pennsylvania Dutch. My other son Nate graduated from Kutztown University with a minor in Pennsylvania studies. Part of his senior project was to conduct a roof thatching at the Kutztown Folk Festival. So why not build one here?

If you know Phil Meyers, you'll know he's always got a new
antique car. This 1946 Ford is just one of his many beauties.

So the whole family pitched in, under Nate’s supervision and direction, to put up a 12’x12’14’ Pennsylvania Dutch-inspired “Tiki hut.” The main posts were cut from a friend’s nearby wood. The lathe beams that the reed bundles or “fackles” were attached we cut from our property. (The Dutch used rye stalks instead of reeds; we used cat-tail reeds because our wetland property is loaded with them.)

The first few "fackles" are bundled on by Nate.

And true to the Dutch manner of construction, the frame was built on the ground, making it easier to secure the layers upon layers of fackles to the lathe. Once finished, with many hands at the ready, the roof was lifted and pegged with 10” iron nails. To make a worried father feel better, another nail was pegged above and the entire joint bound with rope.

Even Nephew Mason Rabenold was employed
for some cheap labor.

I quess Jon needs to get used to this type of flora
if he plans to stay in Florida for the next four years.

The hut was a great success and kept many of the younger crowd at Jon’s sendoff party remarkably dry despite the nearly 6 inches of rain we got that day.

So there it is. The capstone of my summer becomes the capstone of my year and a half of blogging by becoming my 100th post. I thank all my dedicated readers of this site!

Can you hear the grunts?

It's true about the many hands thing.

Satisfaction in a job well done.

Enjoy!

Ronald and Kimberly Rabenold

David Heintzelman's Long Tradition with a Knife

2011-08-07T21:28:00.009-04:00

David quietly works the sausage press as he has done for thousands of Tuesdays since 1957.

The Heintzelman name has been associated with quality meats for 105 years. And nothing says Heintzelman like their area famous ring bologna. David Heintzelman has been making it as long as he can remember. His grandparents William and Laura started the business, passing it on to their sons Norton and Phaon. It was David’s father Norton who started making of the bologna.

The Heintzelman family in the early 1900s. Children of William and Laura,
Norton and Phoan stand left of their parents.

Monday was always slaughter day and Tuesday has been sausage and bologna day. I was fortunate enough to spend a Tuesday with David and Barry Smith, though now retired, had been working at the market since 1976. Fortunate because I got to see over a century of accumulated experience create this almost mythical meat before my eyes. Fortunate to see the seamless and rhythmic work of Barry and David, who are like a pair of steady draft horses. (Fortunate too that David trusted me with a few trade secrets that will not be reported here.)

Making Sausage and Bologna:

First, previously cut beef and pork are brought into the kitchen in tubs of 50 pounds each. One hundred-fifty pounds all told will be made today. (They will make 1,500 pounds over Saturday, Sunday and Monday the week before Christmas.) The meat is first run through the 5-horse power electric grinder which flashes like lightning when it first starts up. It grinds with such force a pan hangs in front of it to keep all the meat falling into the tub. (My first mistake was standing in it’s line of fire.) After a second pass with a finer screen, the meat, coriander, salt and secret ingredient is added to the stainless steel industrial mixer. From there, about 25 pounds of the mix is placed into the sausage press at a time.

Irreplaceable Barry Smith - Though recently retired,
Barry had been a dedicated employee since 1976.

On this day, 100 pounds of fresh sausage was made first. This process is near identical as is used for the bologna, except with slightly different ingredients. Sausage is stuffed into the small intestines of a pig. Bologna uses the girthier steer’s small intestine, both of which David is well adept at handling. From the water bucket, Dave works a splash of water through the sometimes 20 feet of intestine, rinsing it all the way through with the ease of his experience. The casing is now ready to be loaded onto the press tube and the meat mixture slides through easily.

Filling the casing in ring-sized increments and tying it off is done with equal alacrity. Now a two-man job, the rings are tied together with a single length of twine until enough to fill a length of the wooden rack stake is ready, which is about 12 or 13 rings. Then each rack is carefully taken to the smoke house, the top rack puts them about six feet from the floor. Once placed, Dave will carefully separate each ring from touching the next and returns to continue loading rings onto the wooden stakes.

Barry and David pressing the bologna.

The rings go in a translucent white over pink and come out as brown as a chestnut mare. Once all are hung, a fire is prepared in the pit. The wood is bought from a local Mahoning Valley firewood supplier who only brings maple, chestnut, or fruit trees, but mostly maple. David feels oak is too strong a flavor and hickory is too scarce to find anymore. (Though at one time plentiful, Carbon County’s tanning industry virtually wiped hickory out of this area a long time ago.)

Once some coals are established, larger split fuel logs are placed on top and the steel plate is placed over top of that with just the right gap left at the bottom for a proper draft. As Dave prepared to adjust the draft, his eye went to the sky. Seeing it was a damp, overcast day, he left it open a bit wider to compensate. The steel doors, with a few small holes drilled in them, are then shut, but not too tightly. As usual, after just a few moments, smoke began to evenly seep out at all the edges of the door. The fire was just right.

With the bologna all racked above,
David waits for the fire to cook down
before covering with a steel plate
and closing the door to the proper draft.

Next door, Barry is doing the same in this side-by-side smoker. His fire is for smoking sausage. David points out to me how he’ll check back on the fire, putting his hand on the door where he checks to feel the heat. The trick is not to get it too hot that you start a grease fire but hot enough to reach an internal meat temperature of 160 degrees. There is a permanent handprint on the door from all the years of checking. The bologna will smoke for about four hours.

The right smokehouse door has a handprint
mark on the door from the years of David
testing for sufficient heat from his
butcher's hand on the hot metal.

From the smokehouse, the meat will go into steam boilers for finishing. Many times the meat has already reached 165 degrees and will float, telling David it’s done. The rest of the rings will stay in until the temperature is brought up and then they too will float.

Bobby Ebbert, recently retired from the meat business,
handed the Heintzelman tradition off to Kyle Elsasser.
Bobby leans on the steaming kettle while the scrapple
mixer/cooker is to the right.

The Heintzelman smokehouse has gone through a few permutations over the years. The side-by-side cinder-block house was once a two story structure. The top section used a coal-fire for longer smoked products such as dried-beef and Lebanon that smoked for more than a week. David’s father Norton had a wooden smokehouse that caught fire from a smoking job that got too hot. And once in June of 1987, a quick change in the weather caused it to overheat and fire spread to the second floor of the kitchen house.

The Earlier Days:

In former days, the wood was all cut and split on site. David remembers how the wood shed at one time had an 80-pound steam line run to it to power a steam engine that turned the saw. The cement slab remains as evidence of the steam engine’s place. Later, David would bring his Ford F-20 tractor down at the same spot and the saw blade was belt driven. The coil of belt rests with the unused saw.

David imagines the old steam engine as
though it were only yesterday.

Early on their original 28 acres wasn’t enough to raise enough beef to meet the market’s demand. Over the years they augmented the farm by leasing 15 acres further out the Mahoning Valley and 55 acres of what is today the Meadow Crest development, land situated between Heintzelman’s and Ebbert’s Park. And eventually they added weekly trips to auction as well.

Though it has been a long time since they raised steer on the farm, the folks at the Leesport Farmers’ Auction will attest to David’s fussy reputation he established over the years of buying 6-10 head each Wednesday. David learned one key to the Heintzelman success from his grandfather: raise and buy the best as it is actually cheaper and easier in the long run. It keeps the customers happy and saves in the hassle and extra work of cutting and dealing with inferior cuts of meat.

Rear view of the farm as it looks today.

A small brook flows through the property and eventually down to the Mahoning Creek. Above the Heintzelman farm was the Lobien Farm and they had a series of 5 dams that many kids enjoyed swimming in until copperhead snakes were discovered living there. Back in the early 1900s to the 1930s or so, the Ku Klux Klan was said to have acquired the main barn and used it as a meeting house and dance hall. Later, the barn was converted to apartments but is gone today due to a fire.

Henry “Hen” Danzer, ran a hammer mill on Mahoning Street in the present day vicinity of Peach Alley, in the dip by the Fairgrounds. He made chicken feed there and this is where the Heintzelmans got feed when they had chickens, hogs and cattle. Back in the early 1900s, Jonathan Gombert also ran a water powered hammer or bone mill in the vicinity of the Mahoning Valley Convalescent Home. Today a truck comes by to haul the bones away for milling into feeds. Perhaps back in the day, these were ground into local feeds.

David explains how the ceiling of the coolers still show the
early design for the purpose of draining water away
from the blocks of ice that sat on top of the cooler
in the days before modern refrigeration.

Originally, the meats were cooled with 100-pound blocks of ice stored on site in an ice house. It was located at the approximate location of the white cinder-block apartment on “Heintzelman’s Curve.” The walls were 6-8 inches thick and were insulated with sawdust. The blocks were also packed in saw dust. One hundred pound blocks would be loaded on top of the coolers. Evidence of this system can be seen today in the way the ceiling is slanted to allow the melted water to runoff. Later, David’s dad installed an ammonia coiled cooling system. The compressor was powered by a Ford engine.

Behind the market is a fenced-in loading dock. The steer would walk onto the scale and have its weight recorded. It is then led to a series of chutes that enter the slaughter room. Once inside, the chutes lead to the knock-down pen.

The slaughter room with the old bull ring on the floor.
Steer were lead to it, their head pulled down to the floor
and were struck with the backside of an axe. Later,
a slaughter pen (off frame to the right) was built and
a .22 caliber cap drove a 4-inch steel rod into the
back of the head.

Previous to this setup, a steer was led in and fastened to a bull ring on the floor. With his head securely pulled down, he was struck by the blunt end of an axe. David recalls a few instances when one stroke wasn’t enough, a few times a steer just looked at you. Later, he remembers his father giving up the axe for a rifle. And later, with the more secure pen, a gun with a 22-caliber blank propelled a 4-inch steel rod into the back of the steer’s head. With that, they fell “like a sack of potatoes.”

Early on, they used 3 delivery trucks to deliver on this side of the Lehigh. When William first started he had a gentleman’s agreement with the folks at Fairyland Farms, his former employer. When he left, he agreed that he would keep out of Franklin Township and in return, the Diehl’s stayed out of Lehighton and Mahoning. These trucks were kept cool with ice too.

The early high-pressure ammonia system was later replaced by modern refrigeration compressors. The heavy coils of pipe were discarded but came in handy in the 1970s when the new United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) updated their slaughter house regulations. Al Sleva, a Mahoning Valley metal worker, used the piping to make new cattle chutes and a knock-down pen in the slaughter house. And though they no longer slaughter steer any longer, all the original equipment is all still intact.

The rear of the shop shows the cattle chute leading into
the slaughter house on the left.

An overhead metal track connects the kitchen to the slaughter room to the two coolers. Sides and hind quarters can easily be slid on hooks from one area to the next quite efficiently. Before entering the warm meat cooler, the four quarters would be weighed for each steer.

The 1970 USDA inspectors visited each Monday. They were required to inspect the condition and manner in which they were slaughtered and had to report it. David recalled a few times being called from Washington because an inspector’s report wasn’t posted and he would have to read off the weights of each steer slaughtered that week. Some steer dressed out at 700 pounds, though the average was around 500-600.

Regulations also called for the warm meat to be brought down to at least 40 degrees within 24 hours. That would be a tough order back in the ice-cooling days. So the two-cooler system at Heintzelman’s became a necessity, otherwise the previously cold meat would tend to get “sticky” if stored with the “warm” beef.

In addition to their widely popular bologna, those who enjoy Pennsylvania Dutch treats like scrapple, fresh and smoked-sausage, liver pudding and home-cured, smoked bacon will tell you their partiality to Heintzelman’s.

David, now semi-retired, has been working in the shop since he was a little boy, but full-time since he left the army in 1957. He and his cousin Joel Heintzelman (Phaon’s son) formally took over the business in 1962 from their fathers.

An old shot of Joel and David boning out ribs from the 1980s.

Many things have changed over the years. None of David’s children went into the butcher shop and Joel never married. Dave and Joel “retired” in 1994 when it sold to Jason Green who sold it to Robert and Neal Ebbert in March of 2006. And with Barry Smith’s recent retirement, the Ebbert family has passed the business on to Kyle Elsasser, who brings his experience from another local meat market. Kyle too is keeping the business “in the family” with David’s willingness to prepare the bologna and sausage each Tuesday. Kyle also uses the help of his parents and grandfather, so once again, it remains a “family business, something of a rarity today.

A modern view from above the farm.

Larry Fogel, Kyle Elsasser's grandfather works at
hanging beef jerky.

Here’s to wishing Kyle success on into another 100 years of fine meats for our area.

The original homestead of Laura and William with sons
Norton and Phaon.

Kyle looks over the sausage while it smokes.

Parryville and Bowmanstown from the New Turnpike Bridge

2011-08-04T15:43:00.003-04:00

This is the span over the Lehigh in November of 2010. From a person who works on bridges tells me this crane
was one of the largest he's ever seen.

The new Pennsylvania Turnpike bridges over the Parryville Dam and the Lehigh River are complete. But it was the Route 248 and original turnpike construction that marginalized two communities that were once thriving industrial meccas: Bowmanstown and Parryville. A hike to the top of the new cut out above the bridge now affords one a marvelous view of these important towns of the industrial revolution.

From about 300 feet above the project, Parryville, Route 248, and
Lock #13 of the Lehigh Canal in the background. Note the large
steeple-less building on the hill and compare it to the old pictures
of the Carbon Iron Works.

“Bowman’s Station” grew along Lock #15 of the Lehigh Canal (which was operational in 1829). By 1855, Henry Bowman Junior had discovered a metallic red paint ore on “Stony Ridge and formed the “Carbon Metallic Paint Works.” When the rock was burned, it produced a light ochre to dark brown substance which could be used as pigment and was also later used as an ingredient in fertilizer. Bowman also started the “Poco-Metallic Paint Company.”

The former Prince Manufacturing is nestled in the center of this picture
taken from above the new Turnpike Bridge Project. The Turnpike
Tunnels through the Blue Mountain are in the background.

In 1858, Robert Prince started the “Iron Ore Metallic Paint Company” at the Lehigh Gap. They produced 4,000 tons of paint pigment annually by 1875. In 1879 Prince went to work with Henry Bowman at Bowman’s Station to form the Prince Manufacturing Company. By December of 1882, the post office was officially named “Prince Post Office,” a testament to this company’s early importance. In 1885 it was changed to “Bowmanstown.”

Many and various ore mining operations existed along “Stony Lonesome Ridge, from East Penn Township to “Hazardville,” and along the Gap and out to “Millport,” which was later renamed “Aquashicola” due to another Pennsylvania town with the same name.

Carbon Iron Company pictures courtesy of the
Barry & Brad Haupt collection.

Parryville grew in large part to the Carbon Iron Company. It was about 1855 when Dennis and Henry Bowman started the Poho Poco Iron Works in Parryville. In 1858 they reorganized as the Carbon Iron Company and had direct rail and canal access. There were three furnaces: two were 52 feet tall, the third was 65 feet.

At the height of their production, the company employed 150 men and made 600 tons of iron a week. In May 1877 it was reorganized again as the Carbon Iron Manufacturing Company making pipe. In the end it was known as the Carbon Iron and Steel Company.

Beams were transported under the McCall
Bridge and down the former Lehigh Valley
Railway right of way, past the current sewage
plant.

Historian Bill Allison composes a shot.

Bowmanstown's train station.

Parryville's train station

A walk of rediscovery into these once industrial, now secluded, towns can reveal some of the remaining historical buildings that were once cornerstones to our industrial past.

(SOURCE: Thomas D. Eckhart’s “History of Carbon County” Volume 1)

Free Range Folk Hits the Opera House

2011-07-17T22:15:00.004-04:00

Sara Ruch (washboard and saw), Amber Breiner (bass), Shawn McCarty (mandolin),
Josh Finsel (banjo), and Kevin Ruch (guitar)

Free Range Folk made another appearance at the Mauch Chunk Opera House on Friday night. This area’s own 5-piece folk and bluegrass band opened for Greensky Bluegrass with a 6 song set, 5 original with one cover. Their combination of authenticity and laid-back pickin is a welcomed summertime treat.

Their lyrics, from Ruch’s honest and heartfelt vocals, sink in deep like a day soaking in sunshine. They warm seeds of thought that erupt in an unshakeable smile while Sara Ruch’s skillfully wicked musical saw leaves you mesmerized.

Songs come from their collective experiences of as living as close to the earth as any in these parts. Their lyrics reflect the things they’ve absorbed from the earth while McCarty’s mandolin holds it all together.

Song one, “Hitchhiker” by Ruch makes you wait for that sunshine, hopeful for that ride, and hopeful that we can all be so gracious in the end. Breiner’s bass play adds the natural flow of a step by step journey we all take while Finsel’s banjo provides the rhythm.

“Polypore Joe” by Finsel celebrates the simple life of mountain man Joe, who passed on his contentment in the arts of mushrooming and winemaking. Ruch’s “Bubblin’” stays on that theme, seeing life through the cycle of springtime dandelion to the labors of summer, and letting the wine warm you while expectant of another spring and another chance at making some wine. (Which by the way there was plenty of home-made wine on hand from the Fourteen Acre Farm, which could be considered Free Range Folk’s home farm.)

Song four was Finsel’s “The Bottom of the Hill,” which they also played at the public showing of “Gasland” earlier this spring. The slow ballad “Hill” reminds us how our society tends to ignore the environmental price tag we pay for energy.

Song five, “Lehigh,” a local sentimental favorite, gained a new twist, as Finsel added the line “Married my girl by the Lehigh,” precisely what he did several years back, above the “Turnhole” of the Lehigh at Glen Onoko, marrying bassist Amber Breiner.

They wrapped up the set with Jane’s Addiction’s “Summertime Rolls.” Folk’s rendition does a good job staying true to the same feel as the original while making it their own and all the while pulling everyone into memories of their own summertime love.

From “Bubblin’”:

"When the cold comes we'll be drinking by the fire...
Dreamin of a summer with no end
Warming our souls with our labor
and when the spring comes we'll do it all again."

Many left hopeful to hear another chance to let them do it all over again.

You can catch them this friday at the Lehigh Valley Folk Festival at 5 and 9 pm. (See http://www.bluegrassnight.com/LVBF/schedule2011.htm ).

You can check out the band at their website and hear 11 of their songs at http://www.reverbnation.com/freerangefolk and their website http://www.freerangefolk.net/.

The Hoppes Grist Mill at St. Peters Church, Mantzville, Mahoning Valley

2011-07-14T17:37:00.019-04:00

(Photo courtesy of Abby Beerman)

Little about walking into the mill today gives the impression that it has sat idle for some 60 years. Entering it feels as though the owner momentarily stepped out the back door. The C. J. Homm’s “BB Feeds” sign, that lists prices of turkey starter and ground oyster shells, looks as vibrant today as any modern sign. The workings sit and wait as though their master will soon return to once again make them rumble.

Whenever Berlyn Miller (left) and Chester Mertz of the
Mahoning Valley get together, it always begins with
"Wie bist du?," Pennsylvania Dutch for "How are you?"
One can imagine all the Dutch conversations that
occurred in this mill, back when people came to
"mill about,"sharing gossip and news.

The mill was built by John Hoppes in 1845. And his great, great grandson, Berlyn Hoppes, has lived across the mill race his whole life. According to Hoppes, it passed down to his son David Hoppes who ran it up to the Great Depression. Then a partnership, formed by two men of Coombe and Shimer, ran it until Calvin J. Homm became the last operator, mainly as a cleaning mill. Then it went to Fred Johnson and he continued the Christmas Trees. He also owned several companies including a medical equipment manufacturer. (See the 1800s era birthing chair equipped with stirrups further down this post.)

Karl Jens, current owner of the Hoppes Mill near St. Peter’s Church, is a gracious, soft-spoken gentleman. He recently opened his home and mill property to a joint visit of the Mauch Chunk Historical Society and the Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural Center.

Karl Jens shows how the grain could be diverted from one
chute to another. The grain is first elevated to the top floor
and dispersed to the various mills or storage. Chutes and
elevators run throughout the building.

The group was fortunate to have Jens’s hospitality and his detailed tour augmented by Hoppes’s color commentary. Near the steps leading into the first level, within the stone foundation, are two chutes with metal covers. In the working days, hoppers would be attached for farmers to pour their corn or grain into the funneled receptacle below the floor for the main elevator to pick up.

The group inspects the main elevator and grain hopper
at the immediate entrance to the Hoppes Mill.

Elevator cups mounted on belts: These elevator belts hang
in storage and appear to be the slightly smaller size. (The main
elevator belt and cups were a bit bigger.) Belts like
these run through wooden tubes in the mill to deliver the grain
upward to the 4th level, whereupon it can then be diverted
by gravity in any number of wooden chutes.

The main elevator, as well as all the subsequent lesser elevators within the mill, consists of a cup-studded belt that scoops the grain, cup after cup, directly to the 4th level of the mill. From there, the grain could be diverted to any number of locations in the mill depending on what needed to be done to it, by way of rudimentary yet efficient square-wooden tubes or chutes.

A brush cleaner.

Grains could be stored in large bins on the 3rd level or sent directly to one of the roller mills or sent to be cleaned of chaff and have fungicide applied to it (“Saracen-M” according to Hoppes) and returned to the farmer who would store it for seed for the following spring.

The jaw dropper of the mill of course is the 26-foot steel Fitz water-wheel. Though the race is long gone, with just a few pulls, the giant wheel once again awakens to life. Once started, it can spin and spin like a fly-wheel with little sustaining effort. Imagine the water shooting from the race over the top of the wheel, catching the tread-like sections that run across the 4-foot width all around the outside wheel, each one big enough to catch about two gallons of the falling water each.

Paul Borits of Packerton remembers assisting Johnson to convert the water wheel into a hydroelectric power generator. However Johnson passed away before he could see the idea through.

The steel Fitz 26-foot overshoot wheel that
replaced the original wooden wheel in 1920 will still
turn with enough elbow grease. The wheel
housing is inside the mill to the left as you walk in.

Another view of the spokes. The housing
plank only has room for two people and is
difficult to get pictures.

On the second level of the mill, above the wheel housing is a 35-foot lever on a suspended fulcrum. A rope, now missing, would have been attached to the end of the lever and run through a hole in the floor. The operator could start or stop the flow of water from his control center from the 1st level. The inside edge of the wheel is lined with teeth. From this same location on the 1st level, the operator could engage a smaller toothed wheel to the water wheel to engage the power train of the mill.

This is the ceiling of the 1st level, just outside the wheel
housing. The main drive shaft and belts power everything
throughout the mill. The "spit" sign is visible on the beam,
a closeup shot of which can be found below.

Though the dam, 1,200 feet to the rear, is today filled with dirt and the race long gone, at one time held enough water for a day’s operation. Hoppes recalls that during the dry months, the dam only recharged enough each evening to give the mill 5 or 6 hours of operation.

Following the workings of this grist mill is an exercise in the Zen of efficiency. Everything from the bag-filler, to all the “mills,” to the giant wooden spool in the 4th level for hoisting out the top bay, was powered by the water.
Originally the mill was a grist mill that used grist stones. Two stones with a diameter of about 3-4 feet sat flatly on top of the other. The top stone did the turning, driven at the center with an 8-inch square axle. Some of these stones were solid with domed tops while others were made up of pieced together stones held together with a steel band.

Berlyn describes to Chester how the channels had
to be re-chiseled. One millstone on the property
was specially designed to channel buckwheat, which
technically wasn't a grain.

Occasional maintenance was needed to re-chisel worn grooves. Jens has many millstones from the mill on display in his yard. Some of which are European in origin, as millers knew the stones used as ballasts of ships made good millstones. A few millstones remain inside the mill. One rests on the 4th level of all places, undoubtedly hoisted there with the hope of some future use. A round shroud that encased the grinding stone was also found there.

But what the group was able to see, still in their place of operation, were various roller and cleaning mills. One all-wood flour mill, complete with wooden auger, was made in Chambersburg Pennsylvania by August Wolfe and Co. Mill Works. Inside, the silk filters remain largely intact.

The wooden auger of one of the flour mills.

The August Wolfe Mill from Chambersburg PA.

Having all wooden parts is an important feature in a mill to avoid sparks. Dust created in the milling of grains can be highly explosive. (Recall the mini-explosion created when your 5th grade science teacher added a spark to a puff of flour.)

Hoppes recalled the days of the mill’s operation and how the window panes in his house across the stream would rattle.

In fact, vibration in a mill was a problem. We were told that the mounting of the mill stones was done in such a way to keep them independent of the structure of the mill to minimize this ear-numbing, teeth-jarring rattle and grinding.

The sign posted by C. J. Homm on the main beam reads, “If you spit on the floor at home, spit on the floor here, because we want you to feel at home.” Coincidentally, a similar, albeit more concise version of this sentiment, was found on a website picture of the “American Midget Marvel Flour Mill,” of the same type housed here at the Hoppes mill (see pictures).

Pictured here is an "American Midget Marvel" from another mill that
coincidentally has a similar warning about spitting in the mill.
("Don't spit on the floor.")

The Hoppes Mill’s “American Midget Marvel Flour Milll” is on the 2nd level. Perhaps not the most politically correct of all names by today’s standards, the “Midget Marvel” was built by the Anglo-American Mill Company in Owensboro, Kentucky. The “Midget Marvel Mill” was invented by an English milling engineer, A. B. Tattersall, of London, England. Mr. Tattersall had written a number of books advertising his mills, such as "The Story of a Wonderful Mill."

The header beam in the gable end of the 4th level
shows a rope burn from years of hoisting.

This is the wooden spool in the peak of the mill with belt drive power from 3 levels down. The rope went out the
gable end and used to hoist things from level to level
if needed. (See previous picture of rope burn and outside
of the mill up and the peak to see the hoisting hatch.)

Homm's advise.

Mills were dusty places and dust in a mill
held the potential for explosions. This vintage
air filtering machine was removed from its
working location.

Remains from millstone days: A millstone shroud.

Another device in this mill, perhaps not seen in many mills, is an air-filtering machine that looked like something from the Willy-Wonka factory or from the imagination of Dr. Seuss. It was a drum-like machine studded with piston heads draped in a silk covering. The pistons pumped dirty air from the mill to filter out the explosive dust. (I hope you were awake for that science lesson.) There were two wooden-chambered ducts leading out a window on both the 2nd and 3rd levels.

Karl explains the American Midget Marvel roller mill and the corresponding
wooden chutes that direct the grains throughout the mill as Bill Lampert
and Mason Rabenold stand by. Wooden chutes frame the shot.

Karl explains how to adjust the scales on the
sack packer to Steve Hlavka.

Hoppes also had some stories about Homm’s use of a Buick engine to drive the works in later years. Later, he used a V-8 Ford engine equipped with a working radiator for cooling. Other modern improvements were added including an electric-motor-driven conveyor to lift grain bags to the window on the 1st level.

Ruminating over the stones: Members of the Mauch Chunk
Historical Society and Museum Boards
review what they've discovered.

Attending the tour were: John Drury, Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural Center director and founder, Steve Hlavka, Mauch Chunk Historical Society president, Board members of both the MCMCC and the MCHS, Jack Sterling, Ron Rabenold and intern Abby Beerman, Lifelong Mahoning Valley resident and a Baldwin Steam Engine employee Chester Mertz, Pennsylvania Canal Society Vice-President Bill Lampert, as well as Kim, Rick, Lisa, and Mason Rabenold.

The Karl Jens Story:

Karl enjoys sharing the workings of his mill with others. The silk screens
in this flour mill are still intact. (Photo courtesy of Abby Beerman.)

When Karl and his wife Candy purchased the mill, they fell in love with the property not knowing that the mill went along with it. Ever since, the Jens’ have devoted themselves to its history.

Karl was born in Germany. Arriving in the states as a young man, he worked for 6 months in a tropical greenhouse on Long Island until Uncle Sam sensed his presence. He was promptly drafted and sent back to Germany. It did not matter that he wasn’t yet a citizen. It did not matter that he knew little English, they only tested his proficiency in German and deemed him worthy of the job of interrogator for Military Intelligence Service (MIS).

He then ran a successful nursery in New Jersey before retiring to this beautiful section of the Mahoning Valley. The impeccably kept property is located along St. Peter’s Church Road and is replete with a greenhouse of some vintage and exotic plants. He was also so kind to show us his Lehigh Valley Railroad train display.

The Hoppes Mill is far left and the Karl and Candy Jens
property as it looked in the Cal Homm days.

That's Cal Homm in the back left discussing Christmas tree
practices with the Penn State Cooperative agent below right
along with other Mahoning Valley tree growers.

Just previous to Jens’ purchase, the land was used by the Terry Graver family for growing of Christmas trees, which evolved from Calvin Homm to Fred Johnson. When Fred passed away, Terry Graver continued to take care of the property and the trees until the estate was settled. Much of the original farmland is serparately deeded today.

Cal Homm was a tinkering genius and is said to have several patents to his name. Berlyn says he invented an early 3-wheeled hydraulic tractor that self-leveled itself when cutting between rows on a hillside. (Cal's homestead is the brick home at the "T" of Golf Club Road and St. Peter's Chruch.)

The birthing chair:
A leftover from Johnson who
dabbled in medical supplies.

The Berlyn Hoppes Ancestry:

The following is a cursory stab at the Hoppes history. (It sounded correct when I discussed it with Berlyn.) The most reliable piece is the 1860 Census record showing John Hoppes (born circa 1805) married to Elizabeth (b. c. 1813). John was listed as a “miller and farmer.” They would be Berlyn’s great, great grandparents.

Their children and their ages in 1860 were: David 18, Mary 14, Solomon 10, Margaret 22, Sally 6, Rebecca 4, and Catherine 1. According to Berlyn, the Jens/Hoppes/Homm mill was built by his great, great grandfather John who would have been about 40 in 1845 the year the mill was built. The mill then passed on to John’s son David who ran it up to the Great Depression.

According to the “History of Schuylkill County (1881), the “Hopples” built a mill in this vicinity of the Mahoning Valley in 1831 and another in 1835. Whether these mills existed at this site and whether these were indeed predecessors of the John Hoppes family is pure speculation.

Talking to Berlyn and Karl, both pointed to another grist mill on Golf Club Road, just about a mile further west in the Mahoning Valley. Both Berlyn and his wife felt that could have been the mill started by Solomon Hoppes. In that mill, the residence and mill were all contained in the same building. I couldn't imgaine living in a place of constant daytime vibrating rumblings if you were feeling under the weather and had no other place to go.
Solomon Hoppes lived in West Penn and was born on July 3, 1809 (died December 11, 1860). By age comparison, he could have been a brother to John Hoppes (b. 1805). Some accounts claim he was a miller and his son Elias (c. b. 1844) was a miller who later relocated to Heidelberg Township.

In 1880, Elias and Anna Maria were still listed in the Mahoning Valley, Carbon County. He was as a “miller” and she a “milliner.” (Whether indeed she sewed clothing and hats or the census worker erroneously assumed a miller’s wife was a “milliner” is not known, but the word play is interesting to think about.)

Elias was 35 and Anna was 29. Their children were Minnie 7, Albert 6, and Odilen 3. Not unusual for that time, a 19-year-old servant named Ellen Arner and a miller’s apprentice named Moses Snyder, age 23, were living with them. But there were 3 other non-relatives living with them.

Curiously, they had two “scholars” and a “professor” living with them. Scholars Emma Kistler 18 and Frank Klingaman 21 were taught by William H. Raush age 23. Where this mill was and whether it had a relationship to Berlyn Hoppes’ family is only speculative.

Author and historian Wilma Dykeman wrote the following poem about a mill in Tennessee:

"The Blowing Cave Mill"

"Nature determined the rhythm of life at that place. Stones had been a long time forming, trees had been a long time growing, water had been a long time flowing, before they came together shaped into a wall, into grinding stones, into siding and shingles and a great wheel fed by a long, tight trough gathering the streams clear flow to turn the creaking wheel outside, and inside the heavy stone grinding corn into meal, wheat into flour. Food. They came with their bulging sacks from summer's harvest and waited their turn for the miller's time. Nothing could be hurried. The water flowed, the wheel turned, the millstone ground, flour and meal gathered in the bin. Patiently the farmer's talk gathered:

An early picture from the Cal Homm farm.

Berlyn Hoppes' home is far left from the mill.

neighbor's news, twice-told jokes, political denunciations, all grist for this welcome fellowship. Like progress of the seasons or procession of the constellations life in that place turned at its own rhythm."

Looking out from the past of the 3rd level: A reminder that these
historic places need constant attention or they will
fade away from us. (Photo courtesy of Abby Beerman.)

Stubbornness Sat Smugly on the Curve of a Hillside

2011-07-06T10:29:00.003-04:00

Stubbornness sat smugly on the curve of a hillside

Beneath coy breaths of clouds, hanging heavy as Chinese rocket smoke in chill night air.
Its cellar had high arches of hefty brown stone, the kind the mason cut as coarsely as he could
To find the tenant still unhappy.
Between the colonnades were pearled agate tiles in copper and gray,
Though carefully placed many were peeling, as if by design, in a most inconvenient pattern.
They couldn’t agree on something as simple as the lettering on a temporary sign.
It wasn’t the spacing or the merits of its catchy syntax or edgy euphoniousness.
They couldn’t agree on the timing. It made the rest feel so upstaged.
Making those feel justified to rail on about the one about to run off to South Carolina
With the woman he went to summer camp with so long ago.
Stubbornness can hit you like that, like a crowded field of windmills.
It can be written in black marker on the fender of a rusted out ’55 Chevy,
Whose days as a dog coop are numbered,
Written to a father in his son’s own hand, “This is what happens when we can’t agree.”

The Essential Historic Mauch Chunk (Jim Thorpe) Virtual Tour – In 12 Easy Stops

2011-07-02T14:11:00.001-04:00

The following tour is adapted from the spring tours I give my 5th grade students and their families. This past May, over 100 students and family members attended. Here are the highlights and important dates discussed.

If you enjoy this taste of a tour, you can schedule a tour of your own through the Mauch Chunk Historical Society either through the Website or tour coordinator Bill Allison. If you wish, you can request me to be your guide. (Click Here for more Tour details and to contact Bill.)

If you have any questions for me, feel free to contact through this site or on Facebook.

Josiah White Park:
Students and their families wait for the 6 pm hike to begin.

STOP #1 – Josiah White Park and the Jersey Central Train Station

It all started with coal and Josiah White. Well it was Josiah who first successfully and painstakingly developed the infrastructure to move the coal from mine to market. It was first discovered by Philip Ginter (or Ginder) in Summit Hill. This “mine” was actually a quarry, as the folded over “Mammoth Vein” was a total of 60 feet thick and laid exposed on top of the hill. Early attempts that included the help of Jacob Weiss and Jacob Cist had failed. Josiah White comes to town in 1818 and begins to tame the wilderness. He gets backing through the establishment of two companies: “The Lehigh Coal Company” and the “Lehigh Navigation Company.” These separate companies were needed as some investors saw opportunity in the coal fields but were leery of the transportation end of the business. The other company was formed for investors who saw the opposite as true. Eventually the two merged as the “Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company” and many men achieved great wealth from it, though as a corporation it had years of financial difficulties including in the present day as it just filed for bankruptcy in recent months. A devout Quaker and industrious man, he lived 2 years on a work scow on the Lehigh River with anywhere from 50 to 100 men, depending on the season of the year. The peak work pool occurring in the summer months though the “Stone Turnpike” was surveyed and cleared during the winter of 1818-19. The cart loads traveled the 9-mile steady declination from mine to river but White saw the future need for a more efficient system. Once to the river, coal was shipped on barges down the Lehigh River. The river was made more navigable through White’s ingenious “Bear-Trap” lock invention. About 12 of these lock and dams were built from Mauch Chunk to Allentown. They created slack water and allowed the flat bottomed barges of coal to flow over the rocks. When the train of 10-14 boats reached a dam, a wicket was turned, taking away the water pressure that held the lock closed. Once released, the boats were shot through in the sluice. Once the boats cleared the last dam, the worker would retrace on foot, resetting the locks to recharge the dams with water for the next day’s shipment. This method was used until the Lehigh Canal became operational in 1829. White also tried to bring the supply closer to the river by driving the Hacklebernie coal mine tunnel on top of Mount Pisgah in 1824. This was the first underground mine tunnel in North America but it did not at first yield a profitable supply. By 1827, the Stone Turnpike was replaced by the Gravity Railroad, the first leg of what would become the famous “Switchback Railroad,” the first railroad in Pennsylvania, the 2nd in North America, but it was the first of any significance. The rails were wooden with early iron straps capping the top. Cars carried about 1.5 tons and were sent down in trains of about 15, with men on board operating a rudimentary braking system. Coal drifted by gravity during the day, with mules aboard a specially designed car. At night, the mules would tow the empty cars back to the mine. By 1845, the “Back Track” was completed. A steam engine house sat on top of Mount Pisgah and pulled the empty cars over 2,250 feet of inclined plane, rising 664 feet of elevation. Inside the engine house was a 27 foot wheel that wound up steel bands connected to “barney cars.” The barney cars pushed the cars up the hill in the same manner as modern rollercoaster. In fact, the first coasters were named “switchbacks” because this railroad was the world’s first rollercoaster. Once at the top, the cars rolled the 9-miles to the base of Mt. Jefferson, where another steam engine pulled the empty cars up a 2070 foot plane and up 464 feet of elevation. At the top, cars were filled with coal from the quarry field and sent by gravity to the present day hillside location of approximately 200 feet up the hillside between the bridge and the Harry Packer Mansion (See Stop #4). Once emptied down the “chutes” to the awaiting canal boats (and later railroad cars), the cars drifted to the bottom of Mt Pisgah and the process was repeated. From 1845 to 1872, coal was hauled during the day and dare-devil tourists rode at night with speeds that could exceed 60 miles per hour. In 1855 Asa Packer’s “Lehigh Valley Railroad” was completed. This line ran from Easton to Mauch Chunk and eventually serviced Sayre, PA and Buffalo, New York. It ran on the east side of the river. It is the line operated today by Norfolk-Southern. In 1872 the “Hauto Tunnel” was driven, allowing rail service directly to the mines which marginalized the Switchback as a coal hauler. From 1872 until its demise in the Great Depression, the Switchback was the second most visited tourist site in the nation (Niagra Falls was #1.). It is said that President Grant and Thomas Edison were once passengers. In 1887, the Jersey Central built the train station we have here today. The Lehigh Valley Railroad station was in the approximate location of today’s sewage treatment plant. It had a carriage bridge across the river to allow arriving passengers access to the Mansion House Hotel. The “Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company”

STOP #2 – The Mexican and Civil War Soldiers’ Monument:

Discussion of Floods, Fire and Plague:

Floods:

July 4th, 1831 – the Mauch Chunk Creek inundates Broadway causing substantial damage and consternation for this fledgling town.

June 9th, 1841 – The Mansion House bridge is swept away. Adam Beers and his wife and children, among others, are never seen again.

June 4-5th, 1862 – 5’ 1” of water in the bank lobby; 17” recorded in the Mansion House parlor; Dams of the Upper Grand section of the Lehigh Canal above Mauch Chunk are breached, sending tidal surges down the river. LC & N Company superintendent John Leisenring estimates 200 people are lost.

A December of 1863 newspaper passage reads: “Another victim of the Freshet Found – On last Monday, while John Schmidt was leveling some earth near the head of the Island, he alighted upon the remains of another victim of that terrible disaster. They were those apparently of a boy about ten years of age; the skeleton was divested of all flesh, and but a small quantity of hair adhered to the skull. Possibly the hair and the teeth which were perfect might serve to identify the individual. The remains were decently interred near where they were found.” The “Island” I imagine to be the strip the land between the river and the canal.

Fire:

July 15, 1849 - Started at the alley by a careless act of placing still hot coals from the cook stove beneath the wooden porch. It raced down Broadway to Susquehanna Street by a “violent” wind, crossed Broadway and burned the other side up to present day “Treasure Shop.” Every prominent business owner lost something: Packer and Leisenring lost stores; the Post Office, 2 newspapers, the jail. 23 buildings all told. Mr. Ebert fell from the 3rd floor of Conner’s Hotel (today’s Inn at Jim Thorpe.) Three released from the jail were caught looting homes and had $250 in jewelry on them and were taken to the nearest prison in Allentown. The only paper to run a story is one in Allentown on July 19th.

Plague:

The summer of 1854 saw a major world-wide cholera outbreak. Hundreds died in cities like Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and London. Anywhere from 20-50 died locally, though Mauch Chunk was considered a safe haven from it, thought to be “above the cholera line.” The disease is spread through bacteria in the water and was thought to have been introduced to town by travelers, canal boatmen, or workers on Packer’s Lehigh Valley Railroad. An August 17th, 1854 account: “Some cases have been reported among the boatmen on the canal in this vicinity; but we have not heard the particulars or the result…Sickness and death: Since our last some 10-15 persons have died in this vicinity of Cholera and Cholera Morbus. Among them Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Weiss, Mrs. Leonard Blakeslee, and Mr. Joseph Hunter, Catherine Keen and child…Many more remain sick, two or our most skillful physicians among the number. Mr. West died Tuesday night and Mrs. West on Wednesday morning, leaving a large family of orphan children. We have not time to dwell further upon the mournful subject this week. Every precaution has been taken to prevent the spread of the disease.” Dr. Thompson died August 19th and Dr. Righter on October 11th.

Susquehanna Street, sometimes referred to as the “Golden Way” was the main business street. The Hotel Switzerland at one time was the center of three hotels; built in 1827, it is perhaps the oldest remaining building in Mauch Chunk.

Succession of Homes on the County Annex Parking Lot: 1829, Josiah White builds “Parkhurst.” This home served as the home for three LC & N superintendents: White, Andrew Douglas, and John Leisenring. Sometime around 1886, when Dr. and Mrs Wentz built their Victorian mansion here, “Parkhurst” was taken, piece by piece across the river and sits as a three-unit row home at the bottom of Center Street. The lower unit is a B & B named “Whitehurst” in Josiah’s honor. The mansion became a Moose Lodge and fell into disrepair. It was acquired by the County for back taxes and razed for the current parking lot.

Packer Death Succession:

1. Lucy – 1872 (41 with 3 kids; the only Packer to have children; she married Dr. Garrett Linderman who came to Mauch Chunk during the Cholera epidemic.)

2. Asa – 1879 (74)

3. Sarah Blakeslee Packer – 1882

4. Robert Sayre Packer - 1883 (40; no kids)

5. Harry Eldred Packer - 1884 (33; no kids; Mary Augusta adopted Hazel after his death.)

6. Mary Packer Cummins – 1912 (73; no kids)

Succession of Court Houses:

o 1843 -Converted LC & N stone warehouse –(When county split from Northampton)

o 1854 – Columned classical style (too small; razed)

o 1893 – Current; cut from red Devonian stone from Rockport.

STOP #3– Harry Packer Mansion:

• Used as a model for Disney’s haunted mansion;

• James Exel house built 1890; Leases Hotel Wahnetah 1895;

STOP #4 – Carriage Road -

• Top location of the “Coal Chutes” – a complex of 5 “chutes”;

• Tore down when Hauto Tunnel was built after 1872; Kemmerer married _Annie?_ Leisenring and built his home; Carriage house is all that remains; home fell in disrepair when the K’s went to Wyoming (Kemmerer WY is in Carbon County.)

• Kemmerer’s “Carriage Road” comes out at the upper edge of the Subway parking lot;

• You can begin to see why area became known as the “Switzerland of America.”

STOP #5 – Switchback Placard –

• After the Chutes, empty cars returned to the bottom of Mt. Pisgah

• Show picture of Hotel and Station; note what could be a SBRR or chute car that sits behind the home.

• Point out the lower section of the walled cemetery that is privately maintained by the Leisenring family. The Packer plot is the bottom portion of section 1 of the public section of the cemetery. Standing on the Switchback Trail, you can see be above the rooftop of the Packer Mansion, yet be below the level where the Packers are buried, all 200 feet above Broadway.

STOP #6 – Far End of Cemetery –

• Benjamin Barge – German immigrant/Educator; The choir director of St. Marks, Mr. Brobst, modeled for the statue; 100 tons; 80’ high; brought down the Mansion House hill on horse and wagon; hoisted with horse and ropes; Every Halloween, Jack-o-Lantern top of his head;

• Binder Brothers – From bottom of River St; made many monuments including Angel;

STOP #7 – Looking Down on Castle -

• Dr. Bertine S. Erwin – Friend and Physician of the Packers.

STOP #8 – Dirt Parking Lot at Top of Opera House Hill –

(This is much easier to see in Fall to Spring)

• Point out top of Mt Pisgah; Point to the Trail; encourage exploring biking out to the Lake;

STOP #9 – Behind The Old Jail –

• Mention the Mollies - “Day of the Rope” – June 21, 1877: (Honoring Jefferson’s ideals?: “…All men created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” near our nation’s 101th Birthday.

o Michael Doyle, Edward Kelly & Alexander Campbell (handprint?) – Morgan Powell

o John “Yellow Jack” Donahue – Morgan Powell

o Frank Gowen: Pres. of Phila & Reading RR; P. & R. Iron Co; Schuylkill County DA: “The name Molly Maguire attached to a man’s name is sufficient to hang him.”

o Judge Lavelle: “The Molly Maguire trails were a surrender of state sovereignty. A private corporation initiated the investigation through a private detective agency. A private police force arrested the alleged defenders, and private attorneys for the coal companies prosecuted them. The state provided only the courtroom and the gallows.”

• Big Martin Leskowski – First convicted 2/16/1904 – Murder of Boardinghouse operator Mary Yanesick of Lansford; First Escape: Cons Sheriff Rothermel’s daughter to give him some lamp oil; grabs her keys; 2nd Capture: Butte City, MT with a wife and children; Sentenced to be hanged 2/27/1909; 2nd Escape: Left water run in cell while he hacksawed bars; Leh Press (2/9/17): “Mr. Leskowski is a powerfully built man, and speaks the English language rather fluently, but is also able to speak several others. He is well read, and is highly intelligent.” 3rd Capture: Tucson, AZ 2/1917 – Returned to Carbon; Execution set for July 19th, 1917 – “Gallows erected and poised;” Had he been executed, he would have been the last man in US to be hanged; all states passed laws against hanging, but his orig. sentence called for it; Atty James M. Breslin “won a stay;” then commuted the sentence, and was eventually pardoned and released.

• William O. Williams – 1980s; didn’t bath or eat for weeks; lathered up; squeezed through window; hung by his head out second story; Couldn’t fit through a window 4x the size today!

STOP #10 – Dr. Erwin’s Castle

• A local physician and friend of Mary Packer. A bit eccentric, the house fell into disrepair while the aging doctor still lived in it. Currently, a woman of local roots owns the site and is trying to build a vacation home while keeping as much of the remaining structure as possible.

STOP #11 – At Water at Opera House

• This is the area where Josiah White experimented on the “Bear Trap” Locks – so called to keep curious on-lookers from asking questions.

• Continues across and under “Race” St – thus known as it was originally a “Mill Race;” Grist Mill, Lumber/Planing Mill and other water powered industries;

• 1882 – Harry Packer & others donated $1,000 to $500; “schooner”/beer mug/ship; Quaker Hutton; Vaudeville WC Fields and Mae West; Tower tore down in 1930s; Closed as a movie house in 1959; MCHS saved it in 1973; re-opened in 1982 for its 100th birthday;

• The Marion Hose Company building was constructed in 1885 with most of the financial backing coming from Mary Packer Cummings.

• The First Presbyterian Church was constructed in part from the kindness of the “Recluse of Gnaden Hutten,” (See related story here.)

END #12 – Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural Center

• The tour ends at the Museum where you can see models of Bear Trap Locks and a complete rendition of the 18-mile Switchback Railroad. There are many historical artifacts and informational displays on the history of Carbon County including a 20-minute video of the county’s history. The MCMCC is a non-profit organization. (See their site here.)

TOTAL TIME= 2 hours

STOP #13 OPTIONAL

Most of our Spring hikes were quite hot and humid. This unauthorized stop may be the most needed, as the Rainbow's End Ice Cream and candy shop is owned by the grandparents of one of my students who took the tour two of the three nights, getting a much longed for cool and refreshing ice cream from within...

30 Year Anniversary of Heath McLaughlin's Death - Be Careful Kids...Please

2011-06-22T14:30:00.008-04:00

It seems that each generation's youth finds challenge in exploring the natural world about us.

It was a hot summer day when Heath and Mikey decided to go for a swim in the Lehigh Canal. Heath couldn't swim very well and the two of them hatched together a raft of logs. It unraveled.

The grief his mother must have felt, struck me unexpectedly when his stone confronted me the other afternoon. Beside the fact of seeing his mother's name, was reading the inscription across the bottom: "God is our refuge & strength...A very present help in trouble." (Psalm 46:1).

I wasn't particularly close to Heath. But Mikey, Rim and Hoatsie and I spent many afternoons together exploring around the canal: on our bikes, with our poles, along the tracks daring a fire-breathing locomotive to come along and push us off. But I can't help but think what I would have done or could have done if we were all together that day. Heath's "present help" wasn't enough on that day. I remember all of us boys gathered around the fire house as the responders returned. We knew the answer, but I had to ask. The one man, with his flat back, barrel chest and pus-gut making a perfect "D"-shape, answered my query with "well he certainly isnt smiling anymore."
(CLICK here for Lehigh River death and Heath.)

After posting this link on Facebook, I got a number of people say that they too remember that day. Damian Walck and David Pasternak were biking up the tow path when they encountered Heath's frantic friend (Mikey Strohl) who was pedaling down to them in a real panic. He was screaming, "My friend is drowning."

So Damian and David pedaled as hard as they could and went to Drumbore's Garage and Auto Parts, just up from the Boatyard near the start of Fairyland Road before Motola's. When he called it into the police, they didn't believe him but sent the rescue call anyway.

Damian said, "We met up with the reporter when we rode back to the canal...that's where he asked us what happened...It was a actually my first experience of that nature...I was only 11."

Heath McLaughlin
1968~1981

Four years prior to Heath's death, our community lost a talented athlete in Mark Krieger. He fell to his death in during a day of hooky from from school with his friends at Glen Onoko. Just this week 2 hikers and a first responder were injured at the Glen. The first hiker fell from the second falls.
(CLICK here for the Times News Article.)

These are the lessons my generation grew up with. As I write this, my son Jon and his recently graduated friends J.T. and Matt are heading off to Wild Creek. So kids, be careful out there, please. Think of Heath's smile, and the many more he could have had, had he lived all these 30 years since.

A Beautiful Forgotten Place: The Reber Home of Franklin Township

2011-06-12T16:30:00.012-04:00

The last Reber to live here died nearly 50 years ago, yet the forsythia and ivy survives.
The home is beyond repair and most likely will be but a memory soon.
CLICK HERE for a YouTube video shot in the former gardens of Ivy & Forsythia.
CLICK HERE for a YouTube video of the Interior.
CLICK HERE for a YouTube video of the Cold Cellar that at one time reached the house cellar under the road.

The Reber homestead of Franklin Township has been an alluring mystery. My wife grew up near it. It has reminded her of Boo Radley’s house from “To Kill a Mockingbird,” full of mystery and danger. For me, it was a rundown but still a beautiful, forgotten place. It was a destination of our youth, waiting for the right night to explore it with flashlights. But what was it like to live there? What’s the story of this family and what led this to be the way it is today?

In fron of the Reber property today, one can find the
old cold cellar archway that is said to have
run under the road into the cellar. The roadway
from Harrity to Main Road is known today as Reber Street.

Much help and guidance for this article came from Jim Thorpe historian Jack Sterling.

Much of "Harrity's" existance is due to the early iron works that developed there. It was first settled by a Jacob Houseknecht in 1791. It was located on the Reber land (across Reber Street) out at the Pohopoco/Big Creek. Jacob’s son, Martin, sold 86 acres to David Heimbach Sr. in 1826. In 1827 he built the “New Hampton Furnace" there. In 1834, David Sr. died in Allentown. Upon returning from their father’s funeral, David and John Heimbach died one day apart of Typhoid Fever that November.

In 1836, the New Hampton Furnace was purchased by William Martin and he changed the name to “Maria Furnace” in honor of his wife. His son Paul managed it. Later he ran it along with a partner named John V. R. Hunter.

Thomas M. Smith and Thomas S. Richards, ironmasters from Philadelphia, acquired the furnace and purchased another 2,428 acres in the vicinity. (Could this be the beginning of the Parryville Ironworks?) In March of 1841 Stephen Caldwell of Philadelphia acquired Richards’ interest and continued iron making under the name 'Smith and Caldwell.' By 1845 it was enlarged with a company store and ten dwelling houses. Then the business was leased and managed by Samuel Balliet and Samuel B. Lewis until the end of 1858. Here is when Edward Reber and Joseph Anthony became owners of this land. (The above information was paraphrased from Thomas D. Eckart’s “History of Carbon County,” Volume I.)

According to one source, the area of Harrity, from the Turnpike area near Big Creek and on to P. J. Whelihan’s (formerly Platz’s) on to the Reber homestead itself was named by Frank Reber. The same source said he was sheriff of Carbon County at one time and named this village in honor William F. Harrity, formerly of Philadelphia. I am skeptical about this information at this time as there was Franklin Reber who was a grandson of Edward. Also, I cannot find a "Frank Reber" listed as sheriff. Edward Reber is the earliest known Reber I can find who inhabited Harrity. Edward Reber's son, William H. Reber, was county sheriff from 1917 to 1920. Perhaps Edward's father was Frank but I cannot say that, as I am partly inclined to say that this information may be jumbled. Further investigation in this area is needed.

In 1870, Edward and Mary Reber (41 and 43 years old) were listed on the census as “Raber” and listed themselves as "farmers" in Weissport. Their children were John 19, William H., 16, Molly 14, Almira 12, Franklin 11, Emma 8, Esther/Hester 6, Edward 4, Harry 2, and Martha 1. They had 2 domestic servants living with them. In 1869, he had been one of Carbon County's commissioners.

In 1880 they were listed as “Rabert” of Franklin Township and were operating a hotel, most likely Getz’s Hotel (Platz’s) which he is said to have built. However he did own or operate the Franklin House as well from about 1884 to 1887, which today is a barren grassy hill below the Bunker Hill Cemetery on Main Road in East Weissport. The room rate was $1.00 per night. His 1897 obituary also mentioned that he ran the Centennial Hotel in Lehighton "many years ago." Edward and Mary’s children at home in 1880 were: Frank, 21, a school teacher, Emma 18, Hester 16, and Harry 13.

Unfortunately, it was only within the last 10 years that
saw the last of the Franklin House as it stood here
at the beginning of Main Road, despite preservation
efforts of Rod Mann and others.

In May of 1886, Edward Reber opened a post office at Harrity and was at that time living in the well-built river stone home.

Also in Harrity, where Marzen’s Feed and Hardware is today, was the gristmill operated by Amandus Anthony and John Reber. Anthony sold his interest to Reber in 1877. John and Henrietta had a son William E. Reber (1872-1946) and a daughter Mary (b. 1855).

Coincidentally, Edward and Mary Reber’s daughter, Hester, married Washington Atlee Miner, who was the son of John Miner who moved to Weissport from Mauch Chunk who was involved in iron making there. Another daughter, Emma Reber, married John Oscar Weiss, a grandson of Thomas Weiss.

Edward Reber died in 1897 and his services were conducted in his Harrity home. This may be the time when William H. Reber takes possession of the homestead. Speaking to a descendent of a funeral director who worked with the Mayes Funeral home, he remembers his father also performing a funeral from that home, possibly Lottie Reber, daughter of William H.

A close inspection shows a hand-laid stone wall about 15 feet in.

William H. Reber and Sarah C. Reber (born December 10, 1852) were married in 1879 and by 1900 were living at their ‘Harrity’ homestead. Harrity was quite the self-sufficient enclave of the day. William listed his occupation as “hotel owner,” (Later "Getz's" and most recently "Platz's.) Lillian M., 21, Charlotte (“Lottie”) 19, and Ella, 16, all lived at home. Lillie stayed home a kept house her entire life while Ella worked as a second grade teacher on West Broadway, Mauch Chunk. Lottie taught piano from both home and in people’s homes. Keith Bellhorn's grandmother got lessons from her.

A view of the 60-acres looking toward Big Creek and
the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

By 1910 William and Sarah’s family was living at 94 Broadway in Mauch Chunk near Trap Alley. William listed his occupation as agent in the machine trade, living among the Lentz’s and Blakeslee’s.

In 1917, William Reber was sheriff of Carbon County. He could have lived at the county prison on West Broadway, Mauch Chunk but the former sheriff's family suffered the escape of "Big Martin" Leskowski, and Reber possibly kept his family away from this by also managing the Mansion House Hotel and keeping his family there.
You see, Big Martin had killed boarding house operator Mary Yanachek (also reported as Yanesick) in cold blood in 1905 and had been sentenced to die by the noose. But he escaped when he fooled the sheriff’s daughter out of her keys. Once he was extradited back to Carbon Prison from Butte Montana, where he lived for a number of years and had even started a family, he set out to escape again.

This time, in Sheriff Reber’s custody, he obtained a hacksaw, leaving the water run in his cell’s sink as a cover for the noise, and cut himself free. He was caught again but eventually secured a full pardon. (There will be more on the Big Martin story on a future post.)

William H. Reber was a one term sheriff.
According to tradition at that time, the
sheriff and his family lived in the jail. However
with Big Martin's escape prior to Reber's tenure, perhaps he thought better of
his daughters living there.

In front of the former Mauch Chunk Junior Senior High - 1941:
(The Elementary teachers taught at the Mauch Chunk School on West Broadway.)
First Row: Miss B. R. Bailey (Art, French), Miss A. M. Zanders (Nurse), Miss W. P. Maehrer (Commercial subjects), Mr. T. O. Mitman (Principal/Sociology), Miss M. F. Bevan (Acting Princ/History), Mrs. H. McCullion (History, English, Librarian), Mr. R. F. Dubs (Math/Speaking), Miss H. M. Johnson (English).
Second Row: Miss H. G. Wharen (6th Gr.), Miss L. A. Cresci (1st Gr.), Miss V. Law (Offc Clerk), Mr. F. B. Myers (Science), Miss M. M. Ross (Geography, Health, English), Miss M. M. Gabert (4th Gr.), Miss M. C. Carey (3rd Gr.).
Third Row: Mrs. C. E. Barry (Music), Mr. O. H. Maehrer (Phys Ed, Health), Miss L. S. Smith (5th Gr.), Mr. C. W. Keeler (Latin), Miss L. C. Horn (Home Ec, Hygiene), and Miss E. M. Reber (2nd Gr.)

No longer sheriff in 1920, William and Sarah were living at 154 Susquehanna Street (the “Golden Way”) in Mauch Chunk where he was most likely still managing the Mansion House Hotel, which was known to be one of the largest hotels in the world at one time. However, he listed his employment as “overseer on a farm” for the census taker. Lottie was a music teacher and Ella still teaching in public schools.

Union Hill Cemetery

It was common practice at the time for women teachers who wanted to
remain in their job to remain unmarried. The last three ladies in row two
and Ella Reber in the the back row never married. Some kept their marriages
a secret. Miss Cresci was actually Mrs. Benny Freed. He was the
manager of the American Hotel (today's Inn at Jim Thorpe) which explained
why Miss Cresci spent so much time there. Her parents emigrated to Mauch
Chunk from New York City and owned a candy store across from the Dimmick
Library.

In August of 1920 and October of 1923, W.H.’s brother John and sister-in-law Henrietta died. By 1930, W.H., Sarah, and Lillie were back in Franklin Township on the farm. Lottie and Ella stayed in Mauch Chunk at around 45 ½ Broadway, renting their apartment for $20 a month. They became members of the First Presbyterian Church on West Broadway.

Sarah was the first of W.H.’s family to pass away. She died on October 23, 1937, followed by William’s death July 17, 1942, leaving the three unmarried daughters alone in the family homestead. In 1955, the sisters called Robert and Fern Miller, of Fairyland Farms, down for a visit on the eve of their wedding to give them a silver cake knife but did not attend the ceremony. Around that time, the Reber sisters offered to sell Robert’s family the back 60 acres of their property for $25,000. At the time, they felt the price was too steep for farm land and didn’t take the deal.

From the rear of the Reber home, looking toward Fairyland Farms.
Their complex of barns and store are just out of view below the crest of
rising landscape.

On Christmas Eve 1958, Lillie M. Reber passed away. Shortly after, Willie Kemmerer of Harrity started working for the sisters, washing windows and sweeping floors. In earlier days, his mother Elsie (Goldberg) Kemmerer did farm chores like milking the cows back in the 1930s and 40s. Willie remembers the house to be “like a mansion.” Deep window sills, statues, a floor to ceiling ornate mirror, corner cabinets, a baby grand piano, grandfather clocks, and marble top tables. The front room, where Lillie, “the cook” stayed, had a plain brass bed. But Lottie and Ella had canopy beds and marble topped dressers.

He remembers Ella, the public school teacher, to be strict and stern. He recalled being given long-over-due permission to replace the stub of a corn-broom with a new one. One day, while sweeping the porch, Willie remembers the scolding Ella gave him. She told him the new broom was for inside, the stubby broom would have to do for the outside. He remembers cleaning the windows and how careful he needed to hold the glass for fear of pushing them out of their frames.

Willie regrets not knowing more about the Reber history. Lottie, well-built, tall and stocky, was the more affable of the sisters. Whenever she would reminisce to him about former days, Ella would get suspicious and stern, cutting off her sister’s stories. He remembers how a spring through the cellar was used to keep the milk refrigerated. According to Willie, the cold cellar near the chestnut tree beneath the road in the front property ran as a tunnel all the way under the road and into the cellar. He remembers seeing where the outline of the tunnel could be seen in the cellar where it was sealed off. A look into the cold cellar at the road today reveals hand laid stone in the tunnel about 15 feet in.

Jim Thorpe Times News -
October 1, 1963

It was a Sunday evening in 1963, September 29th in the Reber home, when Ella died. Twenty-five days later, on October 23rd, Lottie Reber died in the Gnaden Hutten Hospital. She was the last surviving member of the Rebers. She, along with her two sisters and parents are buried on Union Hill Cemetery.

Willie remembers some relatives from Philadelphia arrived to claim much of the treasures and antiques from the home. One he remembers to be a “colonel.” Since William’s daughters hadn’t had any children, these descendents could have come from John’s only child to have children, Mary Reber, who according to the records looks to have married a Philadelphia attorney. The lineage is a bit tenuous to prove however.

In around 1964, the property went up for public sale and the home and 60 acres sold to the attorney couple Jim and Maryann Lavelle for $39,000. Jim Lavelle later became judge in Carbon County, who has since retired and Maryann still practices. The home initially had a few tenants but has been uninhabited for the last forty years. At one point about 20 years ago, someone broke inside and started a fire which has hastened the deterioration of the slate roof. Today, the floors are nearly all but collapsed and it will not be long when it will no longer stand.

The last of William and Sarah's descendants.

POSTNOTE: As a side note, William Reber’s brother John and his wife Henrietta farmed in Towamensing Township in 1910. By 1920, they owned and operated their own mill. They had a son William E. Reber born in 1872 and a daughter Mary born in March of 1877. Mary was still with her parents in 1900 at the age of 23 and disappears from the records. But in 1920, the census lists a sister Mary aged 64 is living with John and Henrietta. Whether this truly was a sister or a daughter is unclear. The 1920 census also lists a “John M. Reber, 77,” living with William H. Miller, 50, and Mary I Miller, 43, in Philadelphia. William was listed as a lawyer and listed John as his father-in-law.

William and Sarah's nephew lived in institutions
his entire life and was buried alone.

Sadly, they also had a son who is buried with them in the Union Hill Cemetery who is not listed in any census with his parents and was most likely born with a significant mental or physical impairment. William E. Reber was born in 1872. He was a “patient” at the Danville State Hospital for the Insane in 1900 but the label “inmate” was applied in 1910.

By 1920, he was closer to his parents, transferring to the State Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane in Hanover Township, Allentown (Allentown State Hospital). By 1930, he was living at the Wernersville State Hospital. A search of these institutions will quickly show how large they were, having hundreds of employees from doctors to attendants to druggists to firemen to musicians. They had upwards of 1,200 “inmates.” He outlived his parents by twenty plus years, passing away in 1946. Someone survived, possibly his sister Mary, to take care of his arrangements.

Allentown State Hospital with its many wings.

William E. Reber's last years were here.

Danville State Hospital for the Insane.

A Day of Seven Rat Snakes and Swallowtails along the Black Creek Gorge

2011-06-05T22:49:00.013-04:00

Watch this Black Racer get off the wall while a Swallowtail
flutters by. (Click here for YouTube video.)

It was a day of Rat Snakes (I at first posted these snakes as Black Racers. However on subsequent encounters with them since, their behavior is more like a Rat Snake, as this type freeze when approached, while Racers do just that.) and Swallowtails. Seven snakes all told. I haven’t seen a rattler yet this year, unusual. The first I saw scaling the railroad tie retaining wall of the Reading and Northern Railroad bed along the Lehigh Gorge State Park trail between the Buckeye Pipeline and the Black Creek. It is fun to watch the gravity-defying journeys from ledge to crevice, seeking out the Five-lined Skinks that frequent the same terrain.

I found two sets of congregating snakes like this and three solitary ones. (Watch them of YouTube as well as a passing train of the Reading and Northern's Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway.)

But it was a big day for the Eastern Swallowtail too. Casually watching a butterfly, one would think the random flutters were at the mercy of the winds. The care-free looking wanderings are impressive. I found myself a comfortable rock and followed them along the canopy of the cottonwoods and black birches. Occasionally two would meet, I think both males, defending their territory, or they could have been breeding, which I learned they do about three times per season.

I’ve also experienced a behavior called ‘puddling’ where as many as 25-30 of them circled around a puddle of mud near Rockport. I’m told males search out sodium and other nutrients in liquids like urine, which very well could have been the case as the area is frequented by many bikers and rafters.

I like to take a 3-4 hour trek once per weekend. My wife asks me if I’m bored peddling that long. It is this tedium that helps me unwind and clear my mind for the coming week, simply spinning. It's what I like to do on my constitutional day of rest.

What I enjoy best on these days is to give myself the permission to lose my sense of time. Today, along the Black Creek, sitting among the bare rocks, imagining the high water of spring, evidenced by high debris caught in branches five feet above the bed, I let go. It was a moment I felt as free as the frolicking swallowtails about my head. And then, time just stopped.

The Black (or AKA Hazle Creek) has water that mesmerizes me. It is as crystal clear as any water you’ll ever see. It has been denuded of most aquatic life from the acidic discharges from the Quakake and Stockton Tunnels found upstream, not to mention the former beryllium plant that once polluted these waters that a $17 million cleanup in the 1990s supposedly took care of. But part of me can see the beauty in the aquamarine clear color, splashing white on clean rock.

I thought about Professor Terry Clark’s post about his visit with his Uncle Mike, the last of his father’s family. At 89 and in a home, Mike’s advice to Terry was simple, “Enjoy everyday you live.” (Professor Clark's "Coffee with Clark" Blog Post 'Ghosts and Legends')

Professor Clark's Dad and Uncles. Uncle Mike on right.

Simple advice. We hear it, we know it’s true. But like the gnat that flies in our face, most of us shoo advice like this away with excuses of why we can’t enjoy things as they are now. We say, “Maybe when I get those vacation days…maybe when I’m not so busy, then, I will heed those words.”

I snap out of my free moment of nothingness, my thoughts returning to the stories I’m working on, the bills that need my attention (my son's $50,000 a year tuition) and the supper time that is beginning to call from my stomach. I tell myself, as my school term winds down, "I will take those days and fill them with moments like these." Those are the easy days. Easy to say, hard to do.

The Black Creek Gorge as it flows from
Weatherly to the Lehigh River at Penn
Haven Junction.

It takes true zen to take the days of swooping gnats at your eyes and turn them to days of swallowtail butterflies. Moments like today remind me I do have my moments of mastery, no matter how fleeting. I am thankful for these lessons. Namaste.

Their Hearts Can Sense Our Presence: Memorial Day at Dinkey Memorial Church Cemetery

2011-05-29T11:15:00.008-04:00

The 37 White Crosses help us to remember them, those who were lost in World War II (Dinkey Memorial Cemetery, East Penn Township, Pennsylvania.)

The following is the speech given today at the Memorial Day Ceremony at Dinkey Memorial Church. Following the text of this speech, you will find a few additional stories. Be sure to check back to this post from time to time as more Ashfield stories will be added or linked to this post...Thank you!

"We pause here together today to remember those who gave of themselves for our country. They were immigrants and farmers, they were our ancestors, they were citizen soldiers, they did what they did for us. At our feet, in this soil, lie the men and women who answered a call to serve. We stand here today, enjoying the benefits of what they did, what they gave through their toil, pain, and sacrifice. They didn’t do it for themselves, they did it for us.

These local boys were part of something bigger. Every one of them was local somewhere. There are veterans buried all around us. Many right here in this graveyard. Some died in service, some lived lives long after. They all have a story.

So let’s for a moment try to understand these Americans and how they helped bring us to where we stand now. Let’s hear their stories, for in doing so we learn about ourselves and the threads they have woven into this rich American fabric.

Out in a lonely grave in Normal Square, lies the body of my Great Grandfather’s Great Grandfather: Colonel Peter Nothstein. After the Revolutionary War he settled here to farm in the Mahoning Valley. Many of his descendents walk among us today.

From the War of 1812, Private Michael Sloyer lies over there…

He served under Captain George Hess of “Humprey’s Riflemen.” I’m certain that he hunted the woods around his Lizard Creek Valley farm. I'm sure he was a good shot. He is buried here. (Born September 29th, 1785; Died July 18, 1858. He served in the First Rifle Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers; Capt George Hess Jr’s Humprey’s Riflemen.)

The War Between the States: There are many Civil War veterans from our area, many buried here. Among those at Dinkey are Nathan Kulp and John Brindle.

Nathan Kulp was wounded in the hand and discharged after two years service and returned here to live a long life. (Born May 2, 1841; Died Jaunary 2, 1913. Served in the 51st Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Company F; Mustered In 10/16/1861; Transferred to Reserve Corps 11/6/1863 with hand wound; another source says it was in 1861; taken from "Bolton's Journal.")

John Brindle was a recent immigrant who lived here both before and after the Civil War. He enlisted, fought for two years including the bloody battle for the Wheatfield at Gettysburg, before being discharged due to injuries. He was a bachelor laborer until the day he died. (He lived here in East Penn both before and after the war; Company K, 81st Pennsylvania Infantry- Mustered in 10/27/61; discharged on a surgeon’s certificate in 1863; born 1821.)

The First Great War:

There are men like Private John L. Craig. Private Craig was just 20 when we joined WWI. He lived a long life after the war. He married Mamie and had two daughters, Elane and Lucella. He worked as a telegraph operator for the Central Jersey RR and later as a laborer at the NJ Zinc. He lived to be 95 and is buried here. (U.S. Army; Born January 14, 1897; Died September 2, 1992; Telegraph Operator for the Central New Jersey RailRoad in 1930; Mamie was the daughter of Augustus Rehrig, who was a carpenter in West Bowmans. John was laborer at the New Jersey Zinc and living with his father-in-law in 1920.)

We are fortunate that the VFW thought to have those 37 white crosses in the rear of this cemetery to remember those who were lost in the Second World War:

For their loved ones never saw them again. Out there, those 37 names represent 37 stories, 37 families who suffered terrible heartache, for their remains were never found.

One of those white crosses out there is for Stanley W. Hoffman who lived here in East Penn was missing in action during WWII. They named the bypass in Lehighton in his honor. (Born in 1919; enlist March 3, 1942; first served at Fort Meade Maryland; he had two years of High School and wasn’t married at the time. He lived with William J. & Dorothy Hoffman of West Bowmans in 1920 and by 1930, he was living with his grandmother Ada Hoffman, 63.)

Staff Sergeant Walter E. Haydt’s plane was last known to be over Hinshinbrook Island near Ingham Australia in December 18th of 1942. His parents waited until February 18th, 1943 before they heard anything. If you talk to Walter’s brother Ray Haydt of Union Hill, he’ll tell you, the anguish of not knowing wore his parents down. The end of the war, to his family was bittersweet. Our Shoemaker-Haydt American Legion Post #314 carries his name in remembrance of him.

One family, from Bark River Michigan came here to Carbon County to pay their final respects to their son, 22-year old army pilot, Lt. Fred J. Knauf, was flying his Curtiss P-36 back to West Point. His plane violently crashed atop the Broad Mountain near the fire towerr on March 28, 1942. The newspaper said “his body was blown to bits.” A young girl from New Columbus found his ID bracelet. On July 21 of 1942, his parents and young sister drove here from Bark River, Michigan to listen to the 21 gun salute and to hear taps at the 6 PM service. A 4-foot stone was dedicated that night. The young girl presented the bracelet she found to Lt Knauf's family. Before leaving, Lt Knauf’s parents tenderly scavenged the area then started on the long drive back to Bark Falls, with a box of metal from their son’s wreckage.

Ezra Kreiss Junior at his grandfather's house. Ezra Sr was killed
in the weeks before D-Day, his LST training mission ended his life.

Ezra Kreiss of Slatington married my Aunt Madeline Haas. She was expecting when he shipped out. His LST was sunk by a German sub in the English Channel in the days leading up to D-Day. His body was never recovered and lies at rest at the bottom of the Channel. What broke my aunt’s heart the most was knowing her dear husband couldn’t swim. She raised her son, Ezra Junior, without him ever seeing his father.

The paper incorrectly identified
Ezra and Madeline's son. Their
only son was Ezra Kreiss, Junior.

My own father, Randy Rabenold fought with the First Provisional Marine Brigade in Korea. But soon into the fight, his own father died back here in the states. While home for his bereavement, my Dad’s unit was annihilated by the Chinese at the Chosin Reservoir. When he returned to what was left of his unit, his comrades had been transformed, shells of men with thousand yard stares. My dad often has said, that his father’s death, probably saved his life. He will be honored later today by the Carbon County Sports Hall of Fame for his 37 years of coaching at Jim Thorpe,

Randy Rabenold at Fort Pendleton, CA.

Some say Zach's death saved
his son.

Randy as a Marine in Korea.

Just last week, we buried a WWII veteran who was a friend of mine, Ira F. Smith. He was born and raised on his family farm in Kistler’s Valley. He was the youngest of 9, and by the time he was 17, both his parents had passed away and his family farm was sold. So in peacetime, he decided to enlist. When war broke out he went off to war without parents, with a home or hearth to fight for, he didn’t even have a sweetheart yet. He was wounded by an American .30 caliber bullet in the battle of the Bulge, taken prisoner, and held in a warehouse that was bombed by American planes. He fell 2 stories through the rubble and broke his back. After his liberation, he spent a full year at Valley Forge rehabilitation center. He returned to the Lehigh Valley to raise 2 children. For years he never talked about his service, not because it was too painful to recollect, but because he was too humble. He certainly never complained and never bragged. He absolutely would never say that his country owed him. He worked for over thirty years in a dynamite factory, with his fused left wrist and his crooked back. He did it because that was how his parents raised him. Because it was the right thing to do.

Ira F. Smith of New Tripoli gestures to General Leonard
after his liberation from Stalag 12A.
CLICK HERE FOR
Ira's War Story, Part I
Ira's War Story, Part II.

65 years later, Ira gestures as he retells his story.
CLICK here for
Ira's "Going Home after 72 Years" story.

So look around you. Their stories are everywhere. They once stood here among us. We are the products of them. We stand on their shoulders. We breathe today, the free air they fought for us to have.

Their stories are our stories. Each one joins a chorus of stories that stretch all across this land. It is who we are.

They left the comfort of their homes, the embrace of their sweethearts, the home cooked meals of their mothers, and willfully went off into the unknown, into a world of war.

Your presence here today says you appreciate them. You have come here today to remember them.

Ira F. Smith's internment. (Photos by Ed Kline)

Veteran's remembering veterans. (Photo by Ed Kline)

And though their voices are now silent, and their ears no longer hear, their hearts sense your presence, and it honors their love and their toil that is buried here beneath our feet.

Saluting the dead. (Photo by Ed Kline)

Taps at the edge of the Kistler Valley, near Ira's original family
farm. (Photo by Ed Kline)

Thank you for listening to their stories. Thank you for helping to honor them today."

Echoing taps all down the valley. (Photo by Ed Kline)

It was so nice to see many acquaintances at the Dinkey services today. Former U.S. Government teacher and Korean war veteran Ray Koons has so many stories of his own. He had to drop out of school when his father passed away to work to help his mother. Then he joined the Marines. When he returned, he got his GED and became one of those teachers that everyone notes as having had a big impact on their lives. He is and always will be a hero of mine.

It was also nice to see Ira Smith's daughter at Dinkey today. Linda and Ed Kline introduced me Ron Smith. His father was one of 10 brothers, all but one served in World War II. When the last brother was drafted, the President intervened and kept him at home. Ron's father Earl G. Smith, born February 17, 1919 served under Patton's 4th Armored Division. He too was twice wounded and campaigned in the Battle of the Bulge, the Ardene's, and Patton's "100 Mile March." At one point in the war, a general needed a cake baked and asked Earl to do it. While he was back, his unit suffered heavy casualties. Ron said, "Just like your dad, neither one of us would be here if it wasn't for some odd twist of fate."

His father too, was too humbled to accept the accolades and medals he deserved, and at the age of 70, when the army tried to present them to him he refused them. He wouldn't let them in the house.

Much of Earl's information and service records he kept privately in his wallet, until one day, when plowing his fields in East Penn, just over the hill from where he is buried, he lost it. But Ron remembers his father telling the story of how he ran into a man from his brother Louie Smith's unit and asked him if he knew him. To his surprise, it was indeed his brother Louie he was talking to. Both men had changed so much that neither at first recognized the other.

After returning home and as he aged, Earl G. Smith increasingly said how afraid he was to die. He said that he felt there was no way, God would forgive him for what he had to do in war.

A few weeks before his death in May of 1995, Earl had a dream that God did indeed forgive him.
He died peacefully in his sleep.

(I will try to get a picture of Earl's grave on this post soon.)

Thanks to everyone for sharing your stories with me.

Here are SOME of the OTHER DINKEY VETERANS: (More to be added later...)
• William Bennett was married to Rebecca Beltz of Parryville. He was a blacksmith. They had one child, Alfred. His family never saw him again. Most likely buried in an unknown grave in Fredericksburg, Virginia.; (KIA 12/13/1862; Born in NJ in 1816; Married Rebecca May 25, 1844 in Parryville; (b. 1820 or 1822; d. 1/9/79); child Alfred; 1860 census Blacksmith;) (Served with John Brindle who is buried at Dinkey;)

• S Sgt Don Frehulfer; Born in Lehighton, his father was a Blacksmith on the LVRR; He enlisted ___, went missing 5/22/1944, US Air Force; another record says Staff Sgt US Army Air Force; non-recoverable; MIA or buried at Sea; Florence Italy; 765th Bomber Squadron, 461st Bomber Group, Heavy; awarded the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster; Purple Heart; April, 1944, this group bombed Italy France Germ Czech, Hung, Aust Roman, Yugos, Greece; aircraft compnant plant in Budapest; (on the white crosses at Dinkey)

Civil War:
Lewis H Rehrig; 7/19/1839-3/11/1906; Capt Co D 10th NJ Reg GAR

Nathan Eck; 8/18/1831-5/20/1916

Herman Peters; 1840-1898; Co M.D. 176 Reg

William Rehrig; 6/8/1806-9/1/ 1875

George Rehrig 12/26/1826-4/22/1901; Pvt Co K 54 Regt PA Inf

WWI:
Wm Fenstermaker 1894-1967; pvt co M 109th Inf; USA; WWI

Albert Ginder 1894-1964; Pvt btry B; 33rd F.A. WWI

Granville Fritzinger 1890-1966;

PFC Royal J Schoch; 1892-1957; Co K 112th Inf 28th Div;

WWII -
T5 Stanley A Tartar; Co C 5th Engr Bn; 1919-1947; WWII

George I McFarland 1897-1960, Pvt 334th O.M. Depot Co.; WWII

Edgar T Zubar, Cpl US Army; WWII; 2/8/1908-4/14/1982

Harold Leiby Pvt US Army WWII 8/4/28-2/16/02

Robert M Kleintop 6/20/1923-1/2/2003

The Haas's of Andreas & Snyders

2011-05-22T13:49:00.003-04:00

The United Methodist Church along Route 895, taken facing
northeast.

Just a quick post of the Haas gravesites found along Route 895 in Andreas, about a mile before Route 309. If traveling west, you will see the orange brick of the United Methodist Church on the Right. I must apologize for this hasty montage of pictures. They may not be in the correct position. I figured it was more important getting these online, as I am uncertain when I'll get time to do it right. If you see something below

that you have questions, feel free to contact me by email or Facebook.

Mother and Father, Mary Alice (Straub) and David Haas
on the left, with Clinton and Mamie on the right. Clinton died just 12 days
before Mamie, who died of cancer. Clinton died an agonizing, unknown death.

This is the hotel that sat behind the train station at New Ringgold that
Clinton owned before moving to Lehigh County. Some of the Haas's met
their spouses here. Today the building is gone, replaced by a modern
gas station, catty-corner from the New Ringgold Inn, run by 80-something Beaty
Beisak whose mother was Mayme Haas (she married William Kistler). Mayme was
the daughter of Lewis Haas of Andreas. Beaty remembers the hotel well
as a little girl and remembers operating the signals to tell the trains to stop
to pick up passengers. Beatty has been the Poppy Queen Chair fpr the
New Ringgold VFW for 30 years. Her husband flew B-29s in the war. She's also
Election Inspector in her ward. She's the happiest bartender I ever met. She owns and
operates the Inn. Stop in and see her on her birthday, October 7th.

Looking for the Apocalypse along the Lehigh Gorge...

2011-05-21T22:54:00.001-04:00

The following are the closest things I could find of anything resembling the Apocalypse.

The Eastern Cottonwoods, their fluffy, dropping
catkins or racemes, make for ghostly-like
appearances along the Lehigh Gorge.

Serpents among us lingering from Genesis?

The Copperhead slinks away. (Click here to see video of this serpent slinking away.)

About 4:00 AM, a southbound train derails at the Penn
Haven Junction trestle. Certainly the engineer may
have thought his end was near. Well, at least the
derailment happend at the end of the trestle anyway.

Workers were on the scene most of the day. The two
boxcars seen here were off the tracks.

This black snake defying gravity is
traveling in the wrong direction.

This Five-lined Skink raced about as if needing to get somewhere.

This skink is facing, looking for God in a Thunderhead.

The Serpent prepares for the battle that surely is to come.

The Skink looks to be sulking. Disappointed by the
day's non-happening?

Still, he looks ever vigilant. I can't tell if he's hopeful or
if he feels left out. Do lizards have emotions? Souls?

A rock slide could be evidence of nature in turmoil on the front
edge of impending doom.

Ellen Werley Nothstein's Last Mother's Day

2011-05-08T16:49:00.007-04:00

Ellen Werley's mother's grave in Lehighton Cemetery.
She re-married John Swartz who was a night "track
walker" for the Lehigh Valley Railroad. He was struck
and killed between Weissport and Parryville, even though,
as the paper noted, he was extremely careful and diligent
in his work.

Here is Ellen surrounded by her children on Mother's Day 1950. Ellen was widowed by the age of 48 in 1917.
She had to sell the farm that her husband Fred inherited from his father James. James died of a stroke in April of
1882 when Fred was just 15. It was said that James was hauling stone from the quarry on his farm. Fred and Ellen were living there in 1917 when Fred's stroke occurred. She moved in with Mr. & Mrs. Albert Durling on North St Lehighton, taking care of them and also cleaning houses to support herself and her two young daughters. By 1920, she was taking care of Phanes and Annie Gerber. First at North Fifth Street then at 415 N. Fourth Street Lehighton. It was said she was to take care of Annie who was an invalid, however it was Phanes, a magnetic healer, who died first. Annie died sometime after 1930. Daughter Etha and her husband Amzie Siglin moved in with her at that point. Seen in this picture are from left, Katie Boyer, Etha Siglin, James, Andrew, and Rebecca Haas. Becky and Katie were still at home and pitched in by cleaning homes with Ellen. It may have also driven Becky to marry at the tender age of 16. This picture was taken outside Ellen's Fourth St home. She passed away in July of that year.

Fred Nothstein died of a stroke on
his Mahoning Valley Farm in 1917.

Ellen Werely Nothstein was born in Lowhill Township near Werley's Corner. Her parents were Daniel (1827-1875) and Annie (Hartman) Werely (1836-1881). (Daniel was the son of Sebastian & Lydia Werley.) By the time Ellen was 11, she was living with Daniel and Sarah Shoemaker of East Penn Twsp, Carbon County. (Daniel is buried in Lowhill Cemetery, possibly with the Hartman family. Annie remarried John Swartz of Lehighton and is buried along side him, roughly halfway between Joe Obert's monument and Fourth Street.)

From Farmers to Grocer’s to Tire dealers to Real Estate: They were Enterprising Haas’s

2011-05-04T09:07:00.007-04:00

A watercolor by Kutztown State College student Randolph Rabenold of
Haas Store painted in 1953.

When I started working on some family history of Cal and Becky Haas, I thought I’d find some interesting stories about this colorful man and how he built a family business from scratch. I was pleasantly surprised to find how his brothers were just as enterprising in their own business ventures.

It all started on a working man’s farm in Schuylkill County. David Haas (April 1856-early 1930s) and Mary Alice Straub (May 1862-about March 1926) were married in 1878, when he was 22 and she was 16. They had twelve children (of 17 born) live to adulthood.

1. Agnes (March 1882)
2. Clint (September 1883)
3. Ivan (August 1887)
4. David E (January 1889)
5. Alice (?)
6. Jeremiah “Jerry” Victor (December 22, 1892)
7. Jennie (c. 1895)
8. Raymond (March 1896)
9. Walter (c. 1899)
10. Calvin (November 1899)
11. Sadie (1902)
12. Wilmer (1905)

David & Mary Alice's Clan -
Front, left to right: Wilmer, Jennie Haas Kemmerer, David, Agnes, kneeling front, Mary Alice, Sadie, kneeling front, Alice, and Calvin on the end.
Back: Walter, Jerry, Ivan, Clint, Davie, and Raymond.

Farm life didn’t seem to be leading them to any sizable wealth, which I believe led to a hunger to do better, to accomplish a more comfortable life in retail trade.

Dave and Mary Alice lived here, at 222 South
Sixth Street, Lehighton from the
1920s to 1930s. Dave shucked oysters
to make ends meet. Rory Hahn's mother was
born here after the Haas's passed. Rory
just sold it in the last year.

Eventually, David and Mary Alice seemed to follow their children into Lehighton. They lived at 222 South Sixth Street. Oysters were to become a common thread from father to son. It was David who first made a business of shucking oysters delivered in large burlap bags. He’d sort them right away between fryers or stewers for soup, careful to save the juice. And when David passed away, it was Cal who took over this endeavor.

It was Mary Alice who passed away first, and David resorted to taking in boarders to make ends meet. In 1930, he lived with two other widowers, 74-year-old Catherine Walk, listed as a “boarder” and Susan Levan, listed as a 69-year-old “housemaid.” Cal’s daughter Miriam has an early memory of taking groceries to her grandfather with her dad Cal.

#1 - Agnes Haas Kunkle (?) –

Not much is known about the eldest child. By 1910, she was married to Laurius Kunkle (?) and living with them was Irvin J. Kershner (?). The handwriting on this record is hard to read. Is it possible that this could be a son of Jennie Haas Kemmerer? One surviving story is that when she died, her daughters fought over who would pay for her burial. She was buried in a thin, cardboard casket.

#2 - Clinton Haas –

He married Mayme (b. 1888) in 1904 when he was 20 and she was 16. By the 1910 Census, they had two children, Paul (1905) and Verna (1907). They were still in West Penn near his uncle Lewis Haas’ farm, he was working as a laborer and doing “odd jobs.” He was also looking after Augustus George, a thirteen year old orphan. (His parents were Lewis and Ellen and had a sister Savanna. It looks like Ellen died and Lewis moved from Slatington to Allentown.)

By 1920, Clinton was a farmer, lumberman, and hotel owner in Snyders. He sold lumber to the mines and ran a general farm. He employed Clarence Kistler (34), Embrose Luderllner (56), Amandus Balliet (17) as “servant” wood cutters and lived with him on the farm or at the hotel. Also living with the Haas's was the bar tender Benjamin Holler (66) along with Nathan Reinhart (58) “farm hand.” Helen Young (14) was a domestic servant on the farm too. In addition to their children Verna and Paul Haas, now there was Olive (b. 1912) and Elwood A. Haas (1918).

By 1930, Clinton and family were living in South Whitehall, between Wernersville and Walberts along old Route 160. He was now living on a farm and working as a self-employed real estate broker. Elwood (now 12) was still at home along with Verna and her husband Erasmus Zehner (29) and their children Fern M (2) and Curtis (1 month old in April). Erasmus worked as a “huckstering merchant.” Daughter Olive (18) married John Cogalia (25) in 1928 who worked as an auto mechanic. They had a 1 ½ year old daughter Dorothy O. Coglia. And they had a group of boarders and servants living with them, some continuing on from the hotel back in Snyders. William Ruch (45) a clerk at a roadside stand, Clarence Kistler (45) a hired farm hand. Reuben Kutz (58) and Leroy Hess (19) were “out of work laborers.” Catherine (16) and Edna (13) Solt worked as “servants.”

#3 – IVAN HAAS:

This yellow home on the left is 121 South Ninth St Lehighton
where Ivan lived with his family, bringing his little brother
Cal along with them before 1920.

In his WWI Draft card, he was working for his brother Clinton, and asked for an exception “due to health.” By 1920, Ivan was still living in West Penn and was a “huckster” of groceries. In 1930, Ivan and Lena were living at 121 South Ninth Street Lehighton as a “green grocer.” (Incidentally, this is near where the Rabenold family was also living.) Living with him were sons Leslie (19) who was a weaver in the Silk Mill, Elmer (12), Marvin (7), and daughter Elsie (2). On his 1942 draft card, he was living at 101 Stedman Ave with Lena and working in Bethlehem at Rowler Smith Electric, defense contractor. He died May of 1963.
(Cal living with Ivan goes back to when Cal was just ten years old. Cal moved to Ninth St with Ivan and his family. He was living with him by 1910. Ivan owned a farm. On David and Mary Alice's farm at that time was Jeremiah (Jerry), Jennie, Raymond, Walter, Sadie and Wilmer.)

Methodist Cemetery in Andreas.

#4 – DAVID E. “DAVIE” HAAS:

Another Haas Business - Second and Bridge -
This was once Davie Haas's home and Ice Cream Shop. He
didn't run it long, moving over a block to Third St by 1930.

Davie married Jennie in 1906 when he was 17 and she was 19 while still living in West Penn. They stayed with his brother Ivan and his wife Lena (c. 1890) along with their young daughter Beulah.

Davie's family lived here at 381-383 South Third from the
1920s until the mid to late 1940s. They also owned and rented
out the small pink home on the corner. This is where Elaine
Haas Frantz grew up. She always loved the charming little
house where railroad workers rented, but the family moved to
the Allentown area after her graduation from LHS. Davie, like
Clinton, became a Real Estate broker. (Coincidentally, it was
Miss Evelyn Christman who purchased this property from the
Haas's. Click this link for "Secrets of the Big Creek Valley"
to learn more about her and involvement in the business
and death of Pierce Rehrig.)

Davie Haas first set up house near the Ebenezer Evangelical Church near Third and South Streets where he was an elder. In the 1920s, he moved the family to the Bridge Street Hotel where they lived and operated an ice cream parlor in the front triangular section. By 1930, they purchased 381-383 and 393 South Third Street. Davie owned his $12,000 home and was a “produce merchant in town.” His daughter Beulah (c. 1907) married Elmer Raudenbush (c. 1901) who lived at 381 and they had a daughter Shirley (c. 1928). Elmer also worked in produce. Elmer was born to Grant and Lily Raudenbush who were next door neighbors to Ivan when they lived in West Penn Township.

In the small home below at 393, Chester (c. 1892) and Minnie (1896) Asplin (Walter’s Daughter?)lived with their children Lenette (c. 1914) and Abbott (c. 1917). Chester was from Ohio and was working in the Penn Lace Mill (across from Baer’s Silk Mill) as a weaver.

#5 – ALICE HAAS ___(?)___:

Alice Haas ___?___ has a granddaughter named Bernice who lived/lives in Lehighton.

#6 – JEREMIAH “JERRY” HAAS:

In 1920, Jerry Victor Haas (27) was also living in Lehighton, on Tenth Street, near the Sebring farm. Jerry was a driver on a Baker’s wagon and perhaps introduced his brother Calvin to this line of work. Jerry and his wife Carrie B. (b. February 1896) had their 3 year old son Henry D. Carrie was the daughter of Henry Junior (b. May 1863) and Rosa (b. July 1861) Danzer who first lived in Hacklebernie and then moved next to the Sebring Farm in Lehighton. By 1930, they lived at 915 Carrot St. in Allentown and owned a tire shop at 538 Tilghman Street. They added a son Robert (7) in addition to Henry. His 1942 WWII draft card said he was 49, 5’ 9” tall, blue eyes and gray hair, 185 pounds. Jerry died in February 1974.

#7 – JENNIE HAAS KEMMERER:

Jennie M. Haas was born in June of 1894. She also was widowed at a young age. She had a daughter whom she didn’t get along and suffered from episodes of insanity from time to time. She was known to sit in front of the store smiling, batting her eyes and waving her hanky at all the men who came into the store, introducing herself to them all saying how she needed a man. It’s been said that Jennie’s husband was related to Franklin Township Kemmerer’s who were involved in the lumber business.

#8 - RAYMOND O. HAAS:

By 1920, Raymond (23) was married to Beulah M. Haas (20) and living on a farm in New Mahoning (just above the former Spring Dell ice cream shop). They had a daughter Myrtle B. Haas (2) and nine month old Mary A. (January 1920). They still farmed there in the 1930s and also had Eleanor (9) and Lelah M. age nearly 4.

#9 - WALTER E. HAAS

Walter Haas (c. 1899) married Alice (c. 1898) around 1917. They lived at 372 South Second Street. They had Stella (c. 1918), Minnie (c. 1920), and Pauline (c. 1922). Walter worked in the produce business and owned his $5,000 home. In the 1920 Census, Walter and Alice were in Lehighton, living near Railroad Street, 21 and 20 years old, working as a laborer on the “steam railway.” They had a daughter named Stella.

Wally Haas had his grocery store here before moving into
cabin rentals in Clearwater Beach Florida. In the 1990s, his
nephew Bobby Haas purchased the property as a rental but
has since sold it.

They ran a store at 372 South Second Street in Lehighton back in the 1930s. His niece Elaine Haas Frantz described him as “not a drinker, but he didn’t go to church either.” He had two daughters, Minnie and Evelyn. Minnie was a nurse at Palmerton Hospital. In the early 1940s Walter moved to Clearwater Beach Florida when daughter Evelyn was in 9th grade. He rented nine cabins out to tourists. When Elaine Haas Frantz graduated from Lehighton High School in 1945, she and her sister Beulah traveled by train for a visit. Beulah left after a few weeks but Elaine stayed for eight months working in various waitressing jobs until finally returning to her father David’s new home in Allentown.

Rory Hahn’s parents bought David Haas’ 222 South Sixth Street home after David passed away sometime in the early 1930s. He remembers his parents referring to a “Wal” Haas and sometimes as “grandpa.” “Wal” Haas held the $800 mortgage for Rory’s parents, Donald & Anna Hahn. Only in the last year has Rory and his wife Linda moved out of this home.

In December 2003, a 23-year old Raymond Herbert Haas died in Jacksonville, Florida. His parents were Herbert Jr. and Patricia Haas. I cannot confirm any relation to Walter.

#10 – CALVIN H. HAAS:

Then the two paths of Cal and Becky merged in Lehighton. And life here hasn’t been the same since.

Rebecca Emma came from the Nothstein clan, one of the founding families of the Mahoning Valley who settled there in 1800. (They joined the Beck’s, Freyman’s, and Musselman’s.) Frederick Nothstein descended from Colonel Peter Nothstein of the Revolutionary War. His grave is on the hill near the ball field at Normal Square. Fred married Ellen Werley. They had 2 sons and 3 daughters: Etha who married Amzie Siglin, James, Rebecca, Kate who married Elvin E. Boyer from Bowmanstown, and youngest son Andrew.

The Nothsteins around 1907 - James, Andrew
Becky and little Katie with mother Ellen.
Ellen was a Werley from Werley's Corner,
but came to live in East Penn with Daniel
and Sarah Shoemaker. It was from there
she met Fred Nothstein of Mahoning Valley.
(Missing from the photo is father Fred and
oldest daughter Etha.)

Cal Haas was born on his parents’ farm in West Penn on November 14th of 1899. His father was one of 3 Haas brothers who married 3 Straub sisters (William married Emma S. and John married Sarah).

This death announcement of Mrs. Levi Shafer of Weissport
has a trove of Haas info. You can see the three Haas
brothers who married the three Straub sisters. (Oscar
Straub was actually James Oscar, Cal's uncle who
ran the grain elevator in Weissport.)

Becky was born on December 5, 1902 on the Nothstein family farm. But when she was 14, Fred died of a stroke, causing her to work with her mother cleaning homes. Ellen had to sell the farm and move into Lehighton as a servant for Phanus and Annie Gerber. Gerber lived at 415 North Fourth Street and was said to be a magnetic healer. Ellen continued to live there after the Gerbers passed away with Etha and Amzie.

Here is 415 North Fourth Street in Lehighton, the former
home of Ellen Nothstein after she sold the farm. She first
lived here with as a servant to a magnetic healer, then
her daughter Etha and her husband Amzie Ziglin lived
with her too. (The nearer half double next to smaller
yellow home.)

Announcement of Fred's stroke in the Lehighton Press,
January 26, 1917. Also on this page are Fred and
Amandus Haas.
No relationship to Cal can be drawn at this time

Ellen Nothstein was widowed at age 48. Here she is across from her 4th
Street home in Lehighton on Mother's Day 1950. Encricled by her children,
from left: Katie Boyer, Etha Siglin, James, Andrew, and Becky. Ellen
died that July.

By the time Cal Haas turned 10, he was living with his brother Ivan and his wife Lena at first on their farm near David and Mary Alice. Another brother, David E. also lived with them for a time. Ivan came to Lehighton to work as a green grocer by 1917 and Cal came along, living at 121 South Ninth Street. So it was Ivan who most likely introduced Cal to the grocery business.

Cal and Becky on their wedding day.

Apparently the uprooting they endured at an early age sent Becky and Cal to marry at a fairly tender age on June 21, 1919: he at nineteen and she at sixteen.

They first rented the upper end of the row home at 457 South Seventh Street. Cal worked a variety of jobs, as a laborer on the Lehigh Valley Railroad and for the gas works (over the bank near the mouth of the Mahoning Creek).

He also peddled cookies and bread to people’s homes for Strohl’s Bakery near the corner of Fourth and Mahoning. (It was the smaller building next to what later became Young’s Bakery; today the Strohl building has been rebuilt into a dance studio and the former Young’s Bakery is now Verona’s Pizza.) On his baker’s route is where Cal learned the value of the home grocery business he would later develop so well on his own.

All of Becky and Cal’s children were born at home, delivered by Dr. Haberman who charged $2 for the house call and $10 for child delivery. Madeline F. (9/25/20), Miriam C. (5/11/25), and Mildred E. (2/24/27) were all born in the Seventh Street home.

The first home of Cal and Becky on South Seventh Street.
The far end of the row is where Cal bounced quarters into
a milk bottle, scuffing up the kitchen corner wall.

One astonishing thing about this industrious man was he did it with just a third grade education. And yet he loved to read. Bill and Arlene Snyder were perhaps Cal and Becky’s best friends. The Snyders were generous with their time and gifts. In fact, having no children of their own, Arlene “Lenie” often warned the Haas children not to tell the Snyder nieces and nephews what they gave them.

By 1930, Cal was the owner and proprietor of his own grocery business at Fifth and Coal Streets in Lehighton (today’s Nationwide Insurance; Cal’s great grandson Nate Rabenold works there today).

A current watercolor by another Kutztown product,
artist Cris Hess. Created from a 1996 picture.

Cal & Becky's former home is a now Markley's Nationwide
Insurance Agency. Nate Rabenold is an agent there, making
him a third generation Haas to earn a living there.

The home/business was appraised at $10,000. Oral history says that Lawrence Buck of Towamensing Township most likely built the store in 1929 because he was known to have done remolding work there in the early years of the store. (Lawrence was born in Weissport in 1888 and by 1917, had moved his family to Akron Ohio where he worked as a wheelwright and carpenter. The Bucks moved back to the area by the 1930s.)

The Haas family continued to grow at the new home with Robert C. (born September 1, 1932), then Ruth Arlene(9/7/34), Hilbert (5/14/36), and Betty Mae (9/10/40). There were a few children born who did not survive. All these children would of course have a role in the family business.

Happy times behind the store during the War. That's Bobby and his
sister Ruth on the front sled. Successive generations continue to sled there.

Cal’s idea of a grocery business did not involve sitting and waiting for his customers. His enterprising nature had him in the streets peddling his groceries. According to daughter Miriam, even the 1931 blizzard wouldn’t stop Cal. With a team of horses he borrowed from Bill Snyder’s parents, he hitched a sleigh and away he went with his deliveries. Cal (like daughter Ruth) was always hot no matter how cold it was. He was well known for wearing only a thin brown cardigan even on the coldest of days.

Cal called his delivery wagon his “store on wheels.” And he always had a rabbit painted on it as Haas is German for ‘rabbit.’ Mondays and Wednesdays were designated as Route #1 and Tuesdays and Thursdays were Route #2. Saturday was the big order day when he visited his best customers from both routes. The truck would hold about fifteen to twenty orders at a time and on Saturdays he returned for two or three times to restock. While out, the oldest Haas children, Madeline, Miriam, and Mildred, would walk the neighborhoods with pad and pencil taking orders that Cal would deliver in between trips. Miriam remembers having the truck re-stocked and ready to roll each morning at seven a.m.

One of Cal's new delivery sedans. According to Bobby, his
dad had to replace two of the ones he wrecked up. His dad
never owned a car, so he used the delivery van with a home-
made wooden bench seat in the back if he took more than
one friend anywhere.

Son Robert (“Bobby”) would often accompany his dad on these long trips. He remembers, with gas hard to come by due to war rationing, how Cal would coast in neutral with the engine off from the hill before Beltz’s airport on into LaRose’s Skating Rink. And Bobby, being the boy that he was and in a hurry to get home, would trick Cal when they made a cold-call stop at customer’s home. As Cal readied to toot the horn, Bobby would lean outside the truck to throw a falsetto voice, saying, “None today please.”

It was on these trips that Cal showed his mischievousness teasing of women. Mrs. Stein was a regular customer on the very south end of First Street, near Niehoff’s greenhouses. For a long time, she did her best to deflect Cal’s playful entreaties. Not to be taken lightly, on this particular day Cal decided to show her just how frustrated she made him. At Mrs. Stein’s rejection, Cal pulled a piece of liver pudding through the front of the zipper of his pants. Standing at the folded down driver’s seat that served as his cutting board, Cal informed Mrs. Stein that since she was not interested he wouldn’t need a certain piece of anatomy, to which he dramatically hacked with his knife. It was Bobby and Donnie Niehoff who helped the fainted housewife from the street.

Most every corner store had one of these pictures.
Freihofer's Bakery shot the owner holding their bread.
This 2'x3' picture hung in the store until the day it closed
in 1996.

Cal would stock his store through bartering. He’d trade groceries and lunch meat for poultry and potatoes with farmers along his route. On Friday’s run to Monroe County, he could stop at up to fifteen different farmers for four or five dozen eggs here, potatoes from this one, and another five or six dozen of eggs there. Through this piece meal process he built up his inventory.

The store had large wooden barrels of molasses and white and brown vinegar as well as kerosene for sale stored in the basement. Delbert Haydt’s farm, Haydt’s Meats in Trachsville, was originally the farm of David Griffith, Delbert’s father-in-law. Delbert remembered being out on delivery for his father-in-law when he stopped to barter and fill some items on his orders from Haas’ Store. He asked Cal for several quarts of molasses. So while Delbert gathered the few other items, Cal went to the cellar to tap out the quarts. But Cal seemed to be gone an awfully long time. When Delbert found him, he was asleep at the open tap, up to his ankles in molasses. (Delbert graduated from Lehighton and recently passed away, March 22, 2011.)

Bobby Haas remembers two other sticky situations in the cellar. Once a barrel rolled off the plank between the truck and the cellar door and broke open on the sidewalk. Another time, one opened up in the cellar. It took gallons of hot water peppered with much Dutch cursing to get it all cleaned up.

All these long days gave Cal little time at home. And many nights were filled in the cellar shucking oysters. Many who visited Cal would often pitch in and bag fifteen pound bags of potatoes from the bin while they shot the breeze, sometimes as late as two or three in the morning. Cal took over this endeavor after his father passed away in the early 1930s. The oysters were delivered on ice in large burlap bags from Peterson’s of Allentown. He had a counter built with a hole in the center to drop the shells in. Bill Snyder would take the shells to fill in the ruts on the dirt alley down the back.

Bill Blocker and Dick “Jockey” Semmel were among those who would come to sit with Cal while he shucked. In fact, Dick Semmel would get a three-week leave from the Army and spend all twenty-one nights listening to Cal. He had a colorful way of telling stories, mostly off-color. Cal had a way of saying whatever came to his mind and had a reputation as a good story teller. One theme repeated quite often was how much he liked Becky’s sister Kate so much better than Becky.

When asked why he didn’t marry Katie instead, he’d remark how lucky he was to have them both for marrying one. Katie was his “schweet schwester from Valksville (Walksville).”(Cal may have heard this line repeated by his father and uncles who undoubtedly chided each other about their sister wives. (Among my old notes from Ruth Haas on the Straub's (interchangeable with Straup) James Oscar Straub, an uncle to Cal, became the operator of the grain elevator in Weissport that still stands along the railroad tracks today.)

The Rail spur as it left the grain elevator in Weissport, run for a while by
Oscar Straub and later, Kenny Straub as "Strauby's Mill." Oscar was
Cal's uncle.

The iconic Purina red-white checker can still be seen today.

Bill Blocker remembers how kind Becky Haas was to him during the war and when he was sick. He remembers fondly the regular care packages she sent him when he was overseas. After the war, he would do odd jobs like bagging potatoes, or straighten up the cellar or some painting job. He also remembers taking the piles of oyster shells out to the farm where the Meadow Crest development now stands, across from the fairgrounds. The farm ground their own chicken feed and Bill remembers the raucous sound of the hard shells hitting the grinder.

Bill Blocker was a long-time Haas family friend who sold coal.

A Strauby's Mill receipt to Haas' from
the 1950s.

Ezra Kreiss with the Haas's Dachshund "Suzie."

There are many stories that point to Becky’s kindness, but perhaps this care for Bill grew out of the loss of Madeline’s husband, Ezra Kreiss, who was lost at sea during a training exercise in the English Channel leading up to D-Day in June of 1944. His LST was sunk by a German submarine and his body was never found. Madeline worked at the store her whole life, first with her parents and later under her brother Bobby. Little ‘Ezzie’ spent a lot of time in the store with his mom and grandparents.

(Eventually Madeline remarried Chester Folweiler, who it can be said was rather eccentric himself. One of his many exploits, possibly in the early 1960s, was his attempt at walking across the state. He started at the Delaware River and made it to Paoli. Becky answered the call at the store, to whom he said, “Ma’am, I’ve failed.” The newspaper headline read, “30 Miles and Ouch!”)

Cal's 1942 tax receipt.

All the necessities Cal sold during the war were rationed. Kerosene, sugar, butter, meats and so on. And Cal did what he could to provide his customers with more than their ration stamps would allow. For this, Cal enlisted Earl Simmons of the Simmons Brothers garage and “drayman” coal haulers from north Fifth Street. Earl would make a run with his coal truck, suited with false paneled compartments beneath a bed of coal, to “smuggle” bootlegged meat back into Lehighton for the store. Cigarettes were also rationed and bootlegged. Bobby remembers breaking down packs into bundles of five and re-wrapping them to be sold to their trustworthy customers without stamps.

Not ones to disregard past loyalties,
for every shipment of coal from long time
friend Bill Blocker is a corresponding
order from another longtime friend William
and Earl Simmons.

Earl was a good friend of Cal’s. The two of them enjoyed deep sea fishing together as can be seen in home movies. But sometimes Cal’s pent up steam was greater than the situation could bear. One fishing trip resulting in never leaving Lehigh County. On the way to Delaware, always through Ironton, the men stopped in at the Ironton Hotel for drinks and a meal. Well they were having such a wonderful time, flirting with the woman bartender that they never left, spending their two days vacation at the hotel. (Click here for Youtube video of Cal deep sea fishing.)

There are more than a few stories of Cal’s excesses with alcohol. On at least one occasion, Cal would stop at his favorite stop, Diehl’s Triangle Hotel at South First and Bankway. A call would come in, “Cal’s too drunk to finish his route,” and Bobby or Miriam had to walk to the truck and finish the deliveries. And sometimes, Lehighton cop “Tuggles” Armbruster would bring Cal home and he’d walk back to the Eagles club. Another time, Cal drove the wrong car home. Tuggles came to retrieve it and Cal said he’d get his car in the morning.

Perhaps Cal's second favorite watering hole,
the Eagles Club, as it looks today.

From the Eagles looking south toward the park in Lehighton.

Cal had one of the first television sets in town. He enjoyed movies, baseball and boxing. On Friday evenings, he would set up rows of chairs for all his friends to come in and watch with him. And movies stars always had a special name from Cal: Bela Lugosi became “Belsa Vigosi,” Erol Flynn, whom he didn’t particularly care for was a “woman sucker,” and the star Hugo Haas, was “Yugo Haas, one mean devil.” The hapless Mets were his team.

The Southern end of town - Diehl's old "Triangle Hotel" was formed
where Bankway splits off of First Street.

The store was also the neighborhood hub for telephone calls too, with only about half of the surrounding homes owning one. So the Haas children often times acted as messengers, carrying work instructions to the railroaders from their dispatchers as well as urgent news from family members far and wide.

Over regulation today? In 1950, you needed a yearly $2.00
license to sell margarine!

Cal would also relax by loading up the car with a picnic lunch of oyster stew in a thermos and take Becky to the ‘Ridge Cup’ just over Pine Hill to go car watching and ball bouncing. Cal was somewhat of an eccentric when it came to counting. He counted his money by filling lengths of pipes with quarters and half dollars when he needed to save for tires or taxes, keeping his accounting of his savings on long pieces of butcher paper strung up in the hallway. One of his savings ventures went to pay for a 1950 Ford with a police engine that he paid $2,000. Taxes and tires are other things Cal saved for in this way.

Cal had some idiosyncratic hobbies. When they moved from their Seventh Street home, the corner wall in the kitchen needed repairs from all the knicks he put in it from his incessant pitching of quarters into a milk bottle in the corner. But he is probably best known for his ball bouncing.

More regulation for the small businesses: a permit
to sell soft drinks and syrups.

He reached one million two different times. According to Bobby he wore out five different balls in the process (Jockey Semmel said seven). He’d record a circled dot for every one hundred on a piece of butcher paper. Customers waited for meat in increments of one hundred. One day Cal went to prove to a disbelieving salesman about his feat and went to pull out the records in his safe. He near lost his mind when he found they had been taken out and they were never found.

And the next generation's entrepenuarial spirit - "Garvin's Restaurant" was at the corner of Third and Coal, two blocks
from the store. It was started in the 1960s by Cal and Becky's daughter, Mildred "Sis" Haas Garvin. (Sis passed away
April 29th, 2011.)

Dick “Jockey” Semmel was quite fond of Cal, and Cal for Jockey. But when Dick first moved into the neighborhood as a teen, Cal would intimidate him. He remembered how Cal would stare at him in the store while he waited to go out with Bobby. One day Cal broke the silence and said, “I don’t like you…you’re von of dem gang leadas (leaders).” For the longest time, Dick only referred to him as “Mr. Haas,” but eventually they became quite close. One day, a salesman asked if Dick was his son, to which Cal replied, “Not exactly…I catch the fish and he feeds dem to da multitudes.”

Son Hilbert's employment certificate to work at the family
business when he was 16 in 1952.

When Bobby wanted to join the Navy, he would plead, saying, “And Ruthie wants to go to nursing school too.” To this Cal would say, “You hain’t join’ no European Navy and she hain’t goin’ to college….If she goes, so will dat gumball machine.”

Could you get sticker shock with
prices like this today? And even at those
prices, look at the accumulated total this
customer acrued.

Cal leading his daughter away from their
home and store one last time back in
September of 1953.

One sore spot for any store owner were all the unpaid bills, as most customers bought “on the tick.” After one night of drinking he supposedly fed $8,000 of unpaid bills into the furnace. Cal also kept a “death book.” Each time someone he knew died, he’d record the date and manner of the death. Charles Drofich’s entry read, “…ha ha you dirty rat, you owed me $100.” One time, someone had been prank calling Cal after midnight over several nights, whispering, “You’re gonna die! You’re gonna DIE!! YOUR’RE GONNA DIE!!!” On the last night, Cal finally replied, “And you’re gonna get struck by lightning and die you bastard!”

But his drinking days were for the most part over by the early 1950s. It was said, one of his last nights of over indulgence came on September 6th, 1953, the night of his daughter Ruth’s wedding, in his stupor, accused Bobby of stealing $66,000 from him.

Sometime in early 1967, as he watched his wife’s slow demise to Parkinson’s, Cal would say, “she wont be around much longer.” Cal had lost a leg in his last years due to diabetes, and to pick up his spirits Dick and Bobby took him for a long ride. It was early June and they saw all the old haunts: along the Lizard Creek, to Snyders and to West Penn, Cal’s birthplace. He pointed out where his brother Clinton’s hotel once stood (a gas station now sets there, diagonally across the railroad tracks of the old, New Ringgold Hotel) and how he first became acquainted with a woman there before he met Becky.

A March 1962 full page ad in the Times News.

On June 28, 1967, Cal began getting pain down his arm and in his chest, so Madeline took him to Gnaden Hutten hospital. In minutes, Cal’s humor had the nurses and staff in stitches. Madeline had phoned the store to tell everyone he was going to be okay. But minutes later his heart arrested and Cal died.

Daughter Betty Haas Forsythe said Becky never feared
ordering necessities from Sears. Check #115 from
October 1963 was signed by Cal. Only 210 checks later,
both Cal and Becky were gone by 1969, as
evidenced by daughter Madeline Haas Folweiler's
signature.

Later that year, Cal’s ‘Miracle Mets’ won the World Series. And forty-two years later, when his daughter Ruth died, her “Phillies” won it all too.

Becky eventually succumbed to her disease in a Lehigh Valley nursing home on June 6, 1969.

Undergoing a facelift in the early 1970s under the
ownership of Bobby Haas. Hilbert, Madeline, and Sis
also worked there at that time. And at different times, so
did all of grand kids of Cal Haas.

All the Haas Siblings Late 1970s/Early 1980s - Madeline, Miriam, Ruth, Robert, Betty Mae, Mildred "Sis" and Hilbert
with his classic beanie, enjoying their traditional Christmas Eve Party in Robert's basement.

The end of the Line - 1996 - Walmart and the big chain stores spelled the
demise of the "Mom and Pop" stores across our communities.

#11 – SADIE HAAS WEIGNER BALLIET:

Sadie and Raymond Washburn Weigner (b. Aug 28, 1899) and they had three children: Clifford, Luella (said to be quite pretty), and George “Georgie.” Raymond died young and Sadie later remarried a man named Balliet and they had a number of children together. Sadly though, Sadie would die in childbirth, many blaming her husband who either didn’t believe in doctors or according to some, was too cheap to hire one.

#12 - WILMER HAAS:

Was born on November 17, 1904 and died in Allentown in July 1976.

Unbroken Successions of Life

2011-05-01T19:50:00.001-04:00

The lock tender at Lock #10 or perhaps his wife, possibly as recent as 100 years ago,
or closer to 200, planted the spearmint here, and successions of life has renewed here.
Cycles of oak trees have done the same.
Every lock tender's family, and all who have followed and continues to follow
this path to this spot, can continue to enjoy them today.

The rear of the Reber Home - Though this, of the oldest
structures of Franklin Township, is in severe disrepair,
the forsythia and ivy once planted here by Mrs. Sarah Reber,
or eldest daughter Lillie or Lottie or youngest Ella, not only
still thrives here, but has completely taken over the entire area. Sarah died first
in 1937, then her husband in 1942, leaving the three unwed daughters to
carry on. Lillie passed in '58, then Ellie in September of '63, and lastly, her
sister Lottie less than a month later. The Reber blood line stopped there.
It is a pity this forgotten beauty cannot be enjoyed. (Click here for video.)

These plants reclaim themselves in the same soil of their ancestors, planted here with the caring hands of our ancestors.

All of us who have descended upon this time and place are free to enjoy them. We can revel in their unkempt wildness. They exist here in their present form after the many successions of suns and seasons have taken them through their cycles of life and expansion, to death, always followed by another renewal.

Spring's freshness along the canal just above
Lock #10. The green grass, the white dogwoods,
the lime green of the Norway Maple, and the
red buds of the silver maple, planted by others so long
ago yet can still be enjoyed today.

I don't know if it was for pride or some form of competition with their neighbors, or just for the hobby of filling idle hours, as to what led these plants to first grow here. Sometimes I think about what thoughts and expectations went into selecting that plant in that location. What were the circumstances for their selections? Where they passed from mother to daughter like an heirloom? Or maybe reclaimed from a former homestead. It is fun to imagine it.

But all these years later, what is most important to me, is that I can still take in this beauty that was set into motion so many years ago.

The front view, below the grade of the road
today known as "Reber Street," once known
as part of the "Main Road to Harrity," of the
Reber property shows what remains exposed
of the cold cellar. It is all hand-lain stone, vaulted
ceiling about twelve to fifteen feet deep and it still supports
all the modern car traffic above. All around are the day lilies the
Reber family took such pride and care to plant.

The Dust on My Shoes - A Post Script to "Things I Learned in the Floods"

2011-04-25T18:43:00.006-04:00

This is a postscript to "Things I Learned in the Floods," posted April 12th, 2011:

This is the old road leading from Weissport to Parryville before Route 248 was built.
Back then, anytime you left northern Carbon County to travel to the Lehigh Gap and Lehigh County,
you passed Lock tender #10's Cold Cellar and his wife's forsythia bushes.
The road is directly between them looking back toward Weissport. Route 248 is about 80 feet above.

GE tried to modernize the canal with an “electric mule.” A motor mounted on an I-beam guide-rail, operated by two men, was to replace one boy and his mule. That was considered progress. It didn’t last long. The latest flood wiped away the modern resurfacing on the tow path and once again the concrete anchors of these blips of canal history are visible. They can be seen once again at regular intervals between Lock #4 and Long Run. They were something I thought I’d never see again.

Here is one of the anchor points for GE's
failed "Electric Mule" experiment. They
are visible now only in flood damaged
areas above Long Run on the Lehigh Canal.
An I-Beam shape is noticeable at center.

One of the advantages of living close to one's roots is you can unknowingly and unexpectedly find yourself on the same path of an ancestor. You can also find yourself on the same worn down paths of your own making on your own ruts of routine. Our oldest son Nate is working as an insurance agent in the very building my grandparents Cal and Becky built as their home and store, the same place my mother’s own borning cries once bounced.

Though comfort can be found on these familiar paths and old routines, new ones must be struck upon. My mom’s great uncle Albert Nothstein struck out to the Pacific Northwest. The nay-sayers said he’d be back with his tail between his legs. Well they were certainly wrong.

Rarely, though I fill many of my days walking along the canal, do I try to imagine my great, great grandfather James Nothstein captaining his “Mary Ann” on these waters. Nor do I always think about my wife’s great grandfather and great, great grandfather Amos and Calvin Ahner operating the Weigh Lock. Staying within ourselves, digging through our own layers, redressing old injuries we didn’t even know we had, isn’t a place to allow yourself to get stuck in either. There are days I find comfort in my own old days and there are days I find myself caught up in the romance of how I imagine my ancestors’ lives to have been. And sometimes, looking back seems all too pointless, a waste of energy.

Uncle Albert Nothstein took the path
that lead him to the Pacific Northwest.
Though you never knew me, nor I you,
I thank you for the lesson Uncle Albert.

Our oldest son seems to be content for now to stay within the vicinity of the old paths of his ancestors. And yet he has become, and continues to become, his own man. Our youngest, Jon, is ready to set off like his great, great, great uncle Albert. Perhaps he is bored or unconcerned with his history here or perhaps his determination is too strong to be ignored. There are new paths that beckon, they must be struck.

But in the end, those who are truly fortunate, will one day touch their own humanness that lies beneath their silt, clay, and dust. It will be those, with the dust in the corners of their fingernails, their shoes coated in the dust of their journeys who have searched the land where the waters have washed the layers away, who will have earned it.

They will be the lucky ones, for they took the chance to really feel.

The Rickert Family of Weissport Revisited - A postscript

2011-04-23T21:57:00.012-04:00

This post is a post script to the story “Rickert’s Coal Yards and the Coolidge Republicans of Rickertsville,” story posted on January 13, 2011.

The Rickert family grave area of Union Hill, facing the Rickert property along
the canal, near "Rickertsville," East Weissport.

Jacob Rickert came to Weissport sometime in the 1850s and became a prominent businessman with his canal front property. He was born February 10, 1821 on a Bucks County farm of his parents, Daniel and Elizabeth. The 1850 Census shows him living with his first wife Mary M. (Newhart) Rickert (2/2/1826-1/26/1858) in Upper Towamensing Township as a shoemaker. They lived next door to David and Sarah “Grunswack,” possibly Greenzweig. David was also a shoemaker.

It is said he worked as a clerk in Lehigh County until 1846, then moved to Stemlersville in 1849 and purchased a hotel there from 1851 to 1857. He purchased land in North Weissport in 1857 and began selling building lots which became known as “Rickertsville.”

Jacob Rickert had two sons from his first wife Mary: Hiram T. Rickert (5/22/1848-10/19/1930) and Daniel F. Rickert (9/1/1850-2/3/1902). Hiram married Ida Rickert (11/18/1858-8/11/1926) and Daniel married Margaret A. (Campbell) Rickert (10/15/1856-2/15/1935). It does not appear that Jacob and his second wife Eliza had any children.

Sadly, so shortly after establishing themselves in Weissport, Mary died and was buried on Union Hill. The 1870 Census lists “J.K. Rickert,” forty-nine, as a “coal merchant.” He was remarried to Eliza A. (12/18/1833-1/10/1890) who was thirty-six. Twenty-two year old Hiram is listed “at home” while nineteen year old Daniel is a “clerk in a store.” Lydia Hoffman, sixty-three, is also living with the Rickerts. Their home was estimated at $2,400 and had $400 in personal property.

Current vice-president of the Pennsylvania Canal Society Bill Lampert recently
visited the Rickert property in final preparations for the Society's
2011 Field Trip next week. Seen here at the Lock #11 cold storage spring
house about .75 miles downstream from the Rickert property.

Living nearby was the father and son flour dealers, Joel and W.F. Klotz, whose home was valued at $5,000 and their respective personal property was worth $300 and $150.

In 1870, living one residence away is “Henry Kempball,” or otherwise named Henry Campbell. Henry, a thirty-eight year-old boot and shoe maker, and his wife Caroline, thirty-seven, owned their house worth $1,000 but had $500 in personal property. Their house was the same value as their neighbor’s house, “boatman” Simon Brown with personal items worth $500. The Campbell’s children were Eliza, sixteen, Margaret, thirteen, George, ten, Jane, seven, Mary, four, and Daniel, one.

Around 1870, a lime-kiln was constructed on the property. This is about the time when Jacob and Hiram began trading in fertilizer, feed, and grain in addition to anthracite coal.

By 1880, there appears to be some ties built between the Rickert’s and the Campbell’s. Jacob and Mary’s son Daniel married Henry and Caroline’s daughter Margaret. Daniel, now twenty-nine and listed as a ‘laborer,’ and “Magie,” twenty-three, are living together in Franklin Township. Another possible evidence of their friendship is that the Campbell’s named two of his sons after Rickert's sons: 'Daniel' in 1869 and ‘Hiram' in 1872. Both men were once listed as shoemakers, but in the 1880 Census, both men list their occupations as ‘merchants.’ Perhaps what became the Rickert warehouse was the Campbell residence. (Today, a white residence behind Straussberger's garage was formerly owned by the Zimmermans. There was a Reuben Zimmerman who lived nearby. In between that home and the small white framed building on the Rickert property existed a hotel that no longer stands.)

On November 12th, 1897 Jacob passed away, out-living two wives. (Eliza died in January of 1890.) At the hearty age of seventy-eight, Jacob was working on the roof of one of his smaller buildings when he was “suddenly stricken with paralysis of the lower limbs” and fell to the ground. “Despite his advanced age he remained conscious throughout his confinement and recognized his many friends who called to see him."
According to his obituary in the Lehighton Press, at age sixteen he was a clerk in a general store and five years later branched out to Trauchsville and “did a thriving store business besides conducting the hotel at that place, the structure still standing and serving that purpose today.” “He came to Weissport some forty years ago and conducted the flour and feed business for many years, besides serving as Justice of the Peace.”

His funeral was “largely attended” and was held at the United Evangelical Church, conducted by Rev. J. W. Woehrle who was assisted by the ex-Bishop C. S. Hamn of Phildelphia, Presiding Elder A. M. Stirk, of Allentown, Rev. J. K. Seifert of Catasauqua, Rev. Kistler of Lehighton, and Rev. Reingold of Phifer’s Corner. The worth and esteem of this man was certainly evidenced by the presence of this array of clergyman.

Pallbearers were Reuben Zimmeran, Ephraim Romig, Eli Koch, John Hagenbach, Harry Welsh, and David Straup. At the time, Romig was a sixty-four year old car repairer for the railroad, Hagenbach was a fifty-eight yeat old lock-tender, and Zimmerman was a sixty-four year old mail carrier.

HIRAM T. RICKERT:

Jacob’s oldest son Hiram T. Rickert and his wife Ida had two sons: Harry L. Rickert (10/29/1875-9/6/1959) who married Meta (Faust) Rickert (9/6/1879-12/8/1962) and Miles J. Rickert (3/3/1878-3/5/1967) who married Myrtle M. Rickert (7/6/1889-5/16/1969).

Around 1897 Harry married Meta and in October 1898, they had a son Hiram Donald Rickert, who went by simply Donald and also H. Donald. Harry was working as a clerk at the Rickert Coal yards.

By 1920 H. Donald was married to Catherine (Hoffman) Rickert (age twenty-one) and living in Lancaster with his mother-in-law Mary Hoffman, eighty-five. He was an insurance agent. They also had two servant women living with them. At some point in the 1920, Donald and his father and grandfather formed the Fidelity Company of Lansford, an investment and insurance venture. It is said in the Eckhart book he lived there at that time, perhaps moving from Lancaster and later moving to Yardley, a Delaware River-side town similar to Weissport.

Based on placement in the family plot, Theo could be Harry and
Meta's son. However, he may be the namesake of Miles' father-
in-law, therefore possibly the child of Miles and Myrtle.

By 1930, Harry, fifty-four, and Meta, fifty, were living at the Rickert House along with eighty-two year old Hiram, now a widowed,“retired” coal dealer. In July 1942, the Lehighton Press announced that Mr. and Mrs. H. Donald Rickert and their son Hiram of Yardley were visiting their parents Mr. and Mrs. Harry Rickert of Weissport.

Miles married Myrtle (Menzel) Rickert sometime around 1910 and by 1920 was living with his in-laws at 250 South First Street in Lehighton. His in-laws were Theo and Lizzie Menzel. Theo worked at the yards as a car repairman while Miles was the care-taker of a railroad bunkhouse. They had two daughters, Gladys Rickert (born c. 1911) and Verna E. (c. 1926). On his World War II draft card, Miles listed his brother Harry of Weissport as his next of kin contact, even though Myrtle was still living.

On October 19th, 1930, Hiram died, having been a widow since Ida’s death in August of 1926. He had spent his entire life in the East Weissport community, always enjoyed good health and was busy in many activities, died at eighty-two of pneumonia. Harry was listed at home while Miles was living in Lehighton. The obituary listed three grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Two ministers were in charge of the funeral: Rev. J. J. Kreisel of the Ebenezer Evangelical Church and Rev. J. Franklin Snyder of St Paul’s Lutheran in Weissport. Heller and Son were the undertakers.

On September 6th, 1959, Harry L. Rickert passed away, survived by his wife Meta, his son H. Donald, still living in Yardley, and his brother Miles still living in Lehighton. He died in Gnaden Huetten Hospital. The Mayes Funeral Chapel in Weissport handled the services.

DANIEL F. RICKERT:

By 1900, Daniel and Maggie Rickert were living in Franklin Township. Daniel’s occupation was “landlord” and was at that time suffering from a terminal illness. Living with them then was Robert Jacob Rickert, thirteen, Carrie E. Rickert, ten, and Allen H. Rickert, six. His February 1902 obituary said he the fifty-five year old was “one of the best known residents of the east side died Monday night after an illness of two years. Danny was a whole souled man and was well liked by his numerous acquaintances. He was a painter by trade and served as a school director and auditor for several terms."

Daniel's untimely death obviously put a strain on the family's finances and this branch of the Rickerts didn't seem to fair as well. In 1910, Maggie Rickert, widowed and now fifty-three, was the head of her Canal Street household and was an at home dressmaker. Carrie was a saleslady at a grocery store and Allen was an apprentice as a printer. Joining her is her widowed mother and sister, Caroline Campbell, seventy-six, and Elizabeth Mills, fifty-five, a nurse. They lived near Harry and Meta as well as Charles Fisher and his family. Fisher tended the “Fisher Lock,” at the Boatyard. Maggie was number “172” by the census taker, Harry was “175” and Charles Fisher was “174.”

Oldest son Robert was a boarder in Salisbury Township working in a steel works. By 1917 he was working for Bethlehem Steel at the Moore & Sons Plant in Elizabeth, NJ. By 1942, Robert married Annie Weisel (daughter of Edward and Emma A. Weisel) who was born July 25th, 1889 and died September 27th 1980. They lived in Hellertown where he owned a Chevrolet Garage and Auto Parts business at 1606 Main Street and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Saucon Valley Trust Co. Robert and Annie are both buried in Hellertown Cemetery. They did not have any children.

Allen Henry Rickert, born January 18, 1894, was working at Queen City Silk Company in Allentown with his wife as of 1917 and was “partially supporting” his widowed mother. By 1942, he was living at 3121 Linden Street, Allentown. His employment is rather complicated, he listed Merchant National Bank of 702 Hamilton Street as his employer, but also listed “self-employed” with the address 825 Walnut Street.

In 1930, Carrie and her husband Ellis D. Miller, both forty, were living at 1243 Turner Street in Allentown. He owned his own insurance agency and their property was said to be worth $10,000. They had a daughter Margaret, nine, at home as well as Ellis’ mother Eliza A. Miller, seventy-two, and Carrie’s mom Margaret, age seventy-three.