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| Here is Lehighton's first chief of police, William Swartz. He was killed by a rowdy and drunk youth of twenty- two at the Carbon House that sat at the corner of North and First Sts. He left eight children when he was shot in 1917. |
~QUESTIONS POST: Here is the link back to the questions. You could have a tab open with each post to go back and forth to.
~BACKGROUND STORY: From the twenty-five stop "Trolley Tour" to accompany the commemorative 150th book sold at the event. If you missed out, the Lehighton Memorial Library will continue to sell these.
1. "C": Mayor Thomas Mase
2. D: Friday
3. D: 6 Parks. The consensus was that the "Upper and Lower" parks count as one. Baer Memorial, Skyline, and The Grove were definitely thought of as parks. However, the new Rails-to-Trails Bike path trail-head was overlooked. Also, included here is "Sixth and Coal Sts" athletic field.
4. A: $5 for a moving permit.
5. A: Basketball
6. B: Dr. Marvin Snyder
7. C: The Excelsior Marines was not a Lehighton Organization. The Germania Saegerbund was located next to the "Academy" Building on southern First St. The Loyal Order of Buffalo (L.O.O.B), Lehighton Herd #17 started in April of 1913 with Lehighton Press's David McCormick's father William, the Civil War Veteran, was the first chair. Applicants for membership had to "be of the Caucasian race and not less than eighteen years of age and more than fifty years of age." Admission fee for the herd was $10 for 18 to 40 year olds and $15 for 41 to 50 year olds. Fifty cents a month paid in a advance were the yearly dues. Though they stated they were not an "insurance organization," payments were made to sick and disabled "brothers." "No sick or death benefits shall be paid for illness or death resulting from immoral or intemperate habits of any Brother." Along with the International Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) there were a total of nine secret societies in Lehighton as of 1890.
8. C: Field Hockey
9. B: the Lions
10. C: Miss Carbon County Pageant
11. A: Packerton Yard (Some thought this choice was wrong because it was technically out of the Borough limits. The Baer Silk Mill at it's peak employed about 400 around 1915. Scotty's Fashion was third and Blue Ridge Pressure Castings had a Lehighton payroll of less than 100.
12. A: ice cream
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| Jess Ripkey, Livi Frendt, Izzy Baka, and Sam Banning work the registration table from the LAHS Student Council. |
14. D: Count Zinzendorf himself oversaw the selection of the site at the mouth of the Mahoning Creek for his group of hard-working Moravian missionaries.
15. D: Kleintop's Diner was located at the bottom of Ninth St where the "fotune teller" single-wide is today. One of the Kleintop boys was the recently deceased Paul Kleintop that ran Normal Square Inn in the 1990s and early 2000s before retiring to become a Carbon County Community Transit bus driver. His specialty and my favorite: Vienna Onion Roast. Melted in one's mouth!
Parting gift Question: Lehighton has about 155 fire hydrants in the Borough limits.
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| The Brights Department Store credit card. Brights put Lehighton's Cohen Department Store out of business partly by providing free bus transportation to its Lansford Store in the 1950s. Later, Brights bought out Cohen's less than a year after starting this program. Brights also provided a free Mother's Day luncheon for all its female shoppers. As for how they procured the finest items? Lehighton purchasing agents were often flown to Newark New Jersey for buyers meetings sometimes up to two to three times a week, employing local pilots like Mr. Walp from South Street to fly out of Lehighton's own airstrip off Ninth St at the Fairgrounds. |
Round #2:
16. Blue Ridge Pressure Castings, is still a leader in the manufacture of specialty parts for the automotive industry. Knepper Airplane Parts building is now a hospital auxiliary building, the Hersh Iron Foundry closed many years ago while Blue Mountain Machine has recently become a leading producer of mobility chairs.
17. A: An escalator and an elevator. Bright's had style. Once it moved to the Carbon Plaza Mall in 1976 (it occupied the Mahoning Valley Cinema down to and including Big Lots) it also opened their own "Hess Brother's"-styled restaurant. They also provided their own store credit card like the large stores like Macy's and JC Penny's.
18. C: W. Melvin "Mush" Moyer and Earl Haupt formed "Moyer and Haupt" in 1945. They sold their dealership to the Bennett group in 1986. Mush Moyer formed a orchestra known as the Lehightonians from 1928 to 1942. They started their American Motors dealership in 1957.
19. D. Serfas Motors (used just one final 's') was located on Iron St at the alley behind the former Classic Theater/Times News Building. The fire occurred in May of 1918. The current building was built sometime after this date and was once occupied by Moyer and Haupt before they moved to First St.
20. B: Dave Warner, son of Dave "Pap" Warner from North Eighth Street was a three year letter winner at Syracuse and tried out for the Eagles before getting cut.
21. D: Colonial Court reviled Asa Packer's mansion as the grandest of Carbon County homes. It burned to the ground in 1916 and was catty-corner from the Grove.
22. A: 1940.
23. B: about 6,500.
24. C: about 40 degrees north latitude.
25. D: Lewis Dunbar. It was later taken over by Mel Gilham who moved it from Fourth St to the bypass in the 1980s. It continues today under the ownership of Craig and Jennifer Gilham, Mel's son. Lewis enlisted in Ohio and that is where he married his wife who was from that state. By 1930, his mother-in-law moved here to Lehighton and lived with Lewis and his wife.
26. C: Moravians first came here to live in 1746. Therefore our birth as a town goes to 1866, but our founding was in 1746.
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| These placards were used in the southern section of town during Lehighton's 1903 outbreak. This one was from 1916 Lehighton Board of Health. |
28. A: Orville Shoemaker was from Lehighton, made a go of this business first in Allentown before resettling back here and making Lehighton "Grandma's Chips" permanent home, north and opposite of the Legion Home, next to the home of James and Shirley Wentz.
29. C: Semanoff's grocery store was on the corner of Fourth and Iron Sts, most recently well-known as Marshall's Meat Market. This iconic Lehighton building is the last of many that once had a porch overhang roof over the sidewalks in front. This is an ideal bus stop location for kids bused to the western end of town today.
30. A: Denny Semmel. Made it to the NCAA championship round in the national wrestling tournament for West Point. He is currently a fifth grade math teacher at Lehighton.
Parting Gift Question: The first bridge between Weissport and Lehighton was built in 1804.
SPORTS:
1. Jim Thorpe - Lehighton was led by point guard Randy Rabenold while his father Randolph Rabenold was Jim Thorpe's assistant coach. Lehighton went on to win twenty-one games in a row to earn an undefeated season in the inaugural Centennial League of 1976.
2. Thomas Kresge, brother to Steve and Greg who themselves also fine Lehighton players. Son of Russell and Donna Kresge.
3. Betty Mullen Brey - Her son is the current Notre Dame Men's Basketball coach, their winningest coach in their history.
4. Hughie Jennings played here before going off on a Hall of Fame career as a major league player and coach. He was from Pittston and a lawyer by trade.
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| This picture of an unidentified wreck at the Lehighton Fair certainly matches what is known of the two fatalities from September 6, 1958. It was said that there was only a light wooden picket fence. According to newspaper accounts these wrecks occurred about an hour apart. However, according to the death certificates of Shirley George of Trachsville and of Dennis Mertz of Bankway, the time of injury was listed for both at 3:30 PM. Mertz died of "severe shock" and internal injuries ("mutilated left leg and thigh") while the George died of a "fractured neck" along with internal injuries ("compound fracture of the left hip"). This picture confirms the lore of what I heard in my youth, inevitably came up anytime an adult was nearby whenever we were climbing the trees near the chicken house near the horse stables. Thanks to Roy Mertz who helped with these details. |
FAMOUS:
1. Franz Kline. His works are in most every major museum in the world. He was known to come home, especially for fair week, in his grey Ferrari. He came to Lehighton with his mother, after his father killed himself over a sour real estate deal on the family hotel prorperty he first sold and then tried to reclaim. Franz was a handsome young man who excelled in sports too. He was known to punt the football bare-footed.
2. The Lehighton Fair was first located in the vicinity of First Ward school at Fourth and Alum Sts in the 1870s to the 1890s.
3. Boston. Moxie executives wanted to 'modernize' the recipe to the resistance of the Lehighton bottlers. The coporation closed the Lehighton bottler as a result of this disagreement.
4. Fred Horlacher ran a bottling works at First and Bridge Sts. After he moved to Allentown, Horlacher Beer had a large and loyal customer base in the Northeast, especially after son George took it over.
5. Dennis "Denny" Seiwell is a brother to Darryl Seiwell of the locally popular "Becky and the Beasts."
BOROUGH:
1. Three: Gnaden Hutten, Lehighton, and the Ss Peter and Paul Cemetery at the end of North Fourth St.
2. There were fourteen people employed in cigar making in Lehighton in 1880. Two of which were women who were "tobacco strippers" the one facet of the industry reserved for women. Painters was the next group with eleven, followed by five ministers, four doctors and three barbers.
3. Constitution Avenue is the short block in front of the Municipal Building.
4. Armando Gallasso.
5. Lonnie Armbruster.
CORNER "STORES":
1. "Ev-Ko" was formed from Mel Everett and Paul Koch's last names. Their partnership dissolved after a fire with Mel keeping the furniture line of the business and Koch continuing with the appliance line of their business on Coal St, eventually expanding to Palmerton and Bowmanstown.
2. Hammel's Store. Prior to becoming a merchant, Hammel worked at the New Jersey Zinc and later in the Packerton Shops while working part-time as a vaudeville magician. A fact that attests to his carrying of small magic tricks.
3. Owned and operated both the Lehighton Hotel (at the corner of Main Lane and First St) and the Hotel Carbon (at the corner of North and First Sts). The Mandours owned the Hotel Lehighton until it was demolished to become the Lehighton Elderly Hi-Rise.
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| This picture was taken just south of the intersection of Fourth and Iron Sts. Though he ran bread for George A. Strohl's Lehighton Bakery, Cal with his currently hip 'man-purse' shows his comical side with his outward turned foot, on a truck bearing his name. His hard work eventually manifested itself in "Haas' Store" at Fifth and Coal Sts, Lehighton's longest running family run corner grocery store. |
5. Henry Bretney. Son of the Dine Bank Cashier and related to the Bretney Photography studio, Henry Bretney's character lives on in the many who knew him. He was a close friend of Franz Kline. A painting Kline gave Bretney can be viewed at the Lehighton Memorial Library.
CURRENT EVENTS:
1. Mary Strohl, who along with her sister Karen Reichard, the borough police secretary paired up to compete in Trivia Night. Both Mary and her son Steven were "150 Club" members.
2. Lehighton Area Pool Pals, who was headed up by Citizen of the Century and Shade Tree Committee member Mark Hoffman among many others.
3. Patrick Mriss, brother of assistant chief Michael Mriss.
4. Henry Long, who's Perseverance Jazz Band played immediately following Trivia Night.
5. Frank Kuhn. A former Laneco Store Manager, Frank fulfilled a dream of one day owning his own store.
FINAL JEOPARDY:
The final contestants were given a choice between an open-ended question and a question that was more "cut and dry." They unanimously decided to go the shorter route. It was "Name the streets and alleys that were named after people. The team of Mriss and Young had the most at eight of the twelve.
They had Dunbar Alley ,Grant Alley, Hamilton St, Sgt Stanely Hoffman Blvd, Blakslee Blvd, Lentz Ave, Stedman Ave, and Graver St. They missed Ebbert's Park, Willard St, Lentz Alley, and Penn Ave.
The open-ended response was going to involve judging from the audience. Contestants would have been given ninety seconds to explain why they loved their hometown.
BATTLE QUESTIONS:
There were sixteen "Battle Questions" developed for this game that went unused. Some of them are presented here for information purposes.
#1. Borough Council: Had a contestant felt knowledgeable of the seven current council member names, they could have selected this question and chosen another competitor to 'battle' against. The person who gives the last correct answer wins. Given that there are seven names, the person initiating this question should have chosen to go first. They then should have said the most familiar of the names, such as "Grant Hunsicker." The other person would then given another valid name such as Sesquicentennial Committer person "Helen Torok." This would continue back and forth until all the names were used or someone couldn't give another name. Remaining members are: Scott Rehrig, Lehighton firefighter Joe Flickinger, Lisa Perry, Darryl Arner, and Jared McEvoy.
#2. "Women": There have only ever been four women to serve on Borough Council. Two of them are currently serving. The others were Melissa Ebbert Wagner and longtime councilperson and mayor's wife Bessie Bauchspies.
#3. "Homes": This one was tricky. Working backward, name the current to the previous owners of the Funeral Home at Third and Alum Sts: Corey and Rebecca Schaeffer, Ken Phifer (1988-1998), William Garrett (1947-1988), Wendell Swartz (1944 to 1947), and John S. Lentz. All but Lentz used the home as a funeral home. Lentz was yardmaster at the Packerton Shops.
#4. "Papers": Name all the newspapers that once operated in Lehighton. I wont give you the answer here, but there were at least five of them.
#5. "Streets": Name all the streets and alleys named after people. This question was used in lieu of the open-ended essay question discussed earlier.
#6. "Streets": Name the streets and alleys named after trees. All but two are alleys. However the two that are named 'streets' are actually nothing more than the width of an alley: Birch Alley, Cedar St, Cherry Alley, Cypress St, Maple Alley, Peach Alley, and Poplar alley.
#7. "Chiefs": Name the last twelve (and most likely only) police chiefs of Lehighton. Our first known police chief, William Swartz was also our only patrolman lost in the line of duty in 1917. He left eight children. Next came Mark Blank who would later become a U.S. Marshall in Scranton. Then Harry Yenser who died of a heart-attack at the wheel of his squad car in front of the Municipal Building in 1947. Then it was Lee Walsh, Bill Kunkle (contestant and public works supervisor Kris Kunkle's father), Lionel Cote, Edward Hutto (who killed himself outside his wife's church because of his concern with her apparent close relationship with its minister), Frederick Scott, Dennis Wentz, Matt Bender, Neil Ebbert and currently Brian Biechy.
#8. "Streets": This one was discussed at the beginning of the 'question' post. If I could have done it again, I would have chosen this question as the Final Jeopardy questions: Name the streets and alleys that are named after industrial elements: Carbon Alley, Carbon St, Ochre St, Coal St, Iron St, and Alum St.
The remaining categories will simply be listed here in an effort to save them for another Trivia Night in the future.
#9. Name the original first four numbered streets in Lehighton (they obviously weren't always just numbers).
#10. Sports: Name the members of the 1975 to 1977 (two-years) of Lehighton boys basketball team. The 1976 team won the Centennial League and the 1977 matched that but also won the District 11 title.
#11. Name Lehighton's Furniture Stores, including appliances.
#12. Clothiers and Department Stores
#13. Family named restaurants.
#14. Gas Stations: Must give the owners name, not simply "Exxon."
#15. Pharmacy: Again must give the owners name.
#16. Garment/Silk Mills.
What's Next for Lehighton History Here? For the remainder of this year, this blog will feature mainly Lehighton stories. There will be one more post on trivia questions as well as at least one post focusing on Lehighton's mayors and police chiefs.
Thanks for visiting!
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