Ellen Werley Nothstein's Last Mother's Day

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.  Ellen took care of Annie until she died on April 30th, 1935.  Ellen continued on to live at 415 North Fourth St, shown here still as a dirt road in 1950.  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.)




In May 1935, Ellen inherited the home of Annie Boyer Gerber "in appreciation for services rendered."  She inherited home #413, 413 1/2 and 415.  A view of the home today shows a large barn style double home.