Misc: Blue Book Of Schuylkill County By Mrs. Ella Zerbey Elliott: Old Time stories: 447-456. Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Faith Gibson. USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ Page 447 Old Time Stories __________________________________________________________________________ Old Time Stories STORIES RELATED OF JUDGE HEGINS One of the early jurists of the Schuylkill County Courts was Charles W. Hegins, appointed 1850. Judge Hegins had a fine legal acumen and was noted for his strict technical jurisprudence and unswerving probity of character. He was afflicted with curvature of the spine and like King Richard III, was badly humpbacked. The court was held at the old county seat of Orwigsburg before the seat of justice was removed to Pottsville. Pine Swamp, in Brunswick Township, was the home of a mongrel race of a bad mixture of negroes, whites and half-breed Indians, some of them runaway slaves, and criminals and fugitives from justice. They maintained themselves by hunting, fishing, basket making and stealing from the farmers, working at intervals during haying and harvesting. One of these, a negro, was arraigned before the court for stealing a ham and sausages from a neighboring farmer. He was sentenced by Judge Hegins to one year's imprisonment in the county jail. The negro could only speak Pennsylvania German and being inclined to resent the mandate of the court, shouted across the aisle in the prevailing vernacular to one of his cronies who was seated there: "Wass hut der Shillgrut ksawt?" (What did the mud turtle say?) "Two years," said Judge Hegins. __________________________________________________________________________ Page 448 Old Time Stories __________________________________________________________________________ DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE Judge Hegins was a bachelor and boarded at the Pennsylvania Hall Hotel, where Washington Garrett served as mixologist. Every morning he fixed up a fancy cocktail as an eye-opener for the Judge, who was not an intemperate man but a good liver; and "Wash" did his best to tickle his palate with a drink with all the "frills" in it. Garrett got into trouble with a neighbor and suit was brought against him. Judge Hegins had so frequently expressed his appreciation of "Wash's" efforts to please his tastes that he thought the Judge might do him a favor and he related to him the circumstances and asked him to favor him when the suit was brought up before court. Judge Hegins replied: "Washie, you had better settle that case, I am not the same man up at that bar, if you come before me, that I am when I come before you, at your bar." The case was settled. Judge Hegins died about 1855 and was succeeded by E. 0. Parry, who was appointed Judge by the Governor. (Washington Garrett was in the Mexican War and a good soldier.) LONE GRAVE IN TUMBLING RUN VALLEY On the south side of Tumbling Run Mountain (Sharp) is a lone grave in the wilds. It has a small headstone and on it rude inscription, which deciphered states, that Nathan Webb, hunter, lies beneath the mound. The Joseph Webb family, father of Mrs. Samuel Gumpert, of Pottsville, lived in the Tumbling Run Valley. An Obadiah Webb, of Manheim Township, bought a town lot in Orwigsburg, 1795. They were of the same family, doubtless, brothers and sons of John Webb, settled on land (near McKeansburg, 1750.) __________________________________________________________________________ Page 449 Old Time Stories __________________________________________________________________________ A POTTSVILLE AMAZONIAN Hannah Gough, who kept a hotel on the site of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway depot, Pottsville, was a large woman and conducted her place as orderly as could be expected in the early days, along in the 'sixties, with the rough element that came down from the mountain to attend court or other business and who visited Hannah Gough's in droves before going home. Often she was compelled to clear out her bar room before train time, that its patrons might sprint down Railroad Street to Union to the station. Or if on a Saturday night after pay, the crowd became too unruly, she alone and unassisted, put out the unlucky offenders. Her fearlessness and prowess as a queller of disturbances was often a subject of comment. She kept a number of boarders too, and one day one of them propounded this question at the table: "What is stronger than Hannah Gough ?" No one could answer, when he said, "Her butter." HOW THE WOLVES WERE EXTERMINATED. In the early history of the county wild animals abounded. Wolves, catamounts and panthers terrorized the tillers of the soil, who seldom left their humble abodes without a shot gun or rifle. The depredations of wolves about butchering time in the late Fall of the year, when they scented the odor from the freshly killed domestic animals, were particularly annoying and dangerous. After the war of 1812 the U. S. government ordered the sale of all condemned horses (a precedent established that was followed at the close of the Civil War). __________________________________________________________________________ Page 450 Old Time Stories __________________________________________________________________________ These animals were sold for a mere song and hundreds of them were bought by the Pennsylvania farmers, many of them being brought to Schuylkill County. An old Pottsville settler (Jeremiah Reed), said that, "from close confinement in the vessels in which they were transported these horses contracted the glanders." The farmers worked them as long as they could, in most cases isolating them from their other cattle and when no longer fit to work, took them out into the woods and shot them. The wolves came in packs and devoured them, were poisoned by the score and died. This exterminated the wolves. OLD NORTHKILL CHURCH, BERNVILLE The old Northkill Church, built of logs, stood upon an acre of ground donated December 25, 1745, by Gottfried Fidler, to which Samuel Filbert subsequently gave another acre to be used for church and cemetery purposes. Each acre was in the form of a triangle, the two making a perfect square. In 1791 the old log was superseded by a brick structure, which was in turn replaced by the handsome red sandstone building erected 1897. This church was Lutheran until 1834, when the Reformed people obtained an interest in it. John Caspar Stoever was pastor of the log church, 1745. It is related that one of the original donors of the land upon which the log church stood, committed suicide and was buried outside of the stone wall that surrounded the cemetery. Subsequent generations of this man discovered his tomb and on applying to the church authorities for a lot, his remains were re-interred in the cemetery to which, and to the church, he had been a generous contributor during his life time. (The "Penn Germania," January, 1913, Vol. II, No. I, contains a partial list of those persons, born prior to 1801, from inscriptions taken from the tombstones in this cemetery.) __________________________________________________________________________ Page 451 Old Time Stories __________________________________________________________________________ HOW DEVIL'S HOLE WAS NAMED Tuyful's Loch obtained its name from an Orwigsburg peddler who traveled about the southern part of the county about 1811, soon after it was separated from Berks. As is well known the section of the country along the Blue Mountains, between Port Clinton and Tamaqua, is among the wildest and most picturesque to be found anywhere, either in the United States or abroad. Several spurs of the mountain unite here separated in the prehistoric ages by a mighty upheaval of nature and the wierd [sic] result is a huge bowl-like series of short valleys or outlets between the mountains, which tower high above them on every side, throwing their shadows on the limpid and silvery stream at the foot even on the brightest sunshiny day. The rocky declivities are covered with moss, and during the spring or after heavy rains these rocks are overflown, forming cascades and water falls adding to the scene which is one of indescribable beauty and grandeur. The peddler with his pack had been gone on his accustomed trip, but not arriving home at the usual time, his family became alarmed. At last he came looking rather the worse for his experience; he had lost himself in the wilds, and on being questioned said: "Ich wahr drei tag im Tuyful's sei Loch, uhn bin yusht rouse cumma."* And Devil's Hole it has been called ever since. "SIILY [sic] BILLY" BUSINESS The foolish claims, on the part of many persons who may, perhaps, be of the same name as some great dignitary abroad, or military chief who achieved distinction in the early wars in Europe or America, to establish a relationship with them or claim them as founders of their families, is becoming *Transcriber's note: I was three days in the devil's his hole and just got out now. __________________________________________________________________________ Page 452 Old Time Stories __________________________________________________________________________ a craze with some in this country. The story of a Pottsville whom will call Platz (it was not his name) is apropos of this foolishness. The Pottsville man had achieved some distinction and was highly popular in his home town; when he went abroad. Traveling in Germany he heard of a Von Platz, who stood high at the German court and belonged to the Royal family. With characteristic American independence, Platz visited the royal castle and sent in his card, "Herr Platz, Pottsville Pennsylvania, United States of America," and requested an interview with his supposed august relative (?). He could not obtain an audience with General Von Platz and the court police, or royal flunkeys, surrounded him on the return of the emissary, he had liberally tipped to represent him and he was told in the vernacular (German was his mother tongue) "to make himself scarce at once or he would be arrested and imprisoned as an imposter." Platz was cured of his desire to connect himself with the German aristocracy and no one relished the story more than Platz himself on his return. Another story of Platz, who died some years since, was, that, like many a good man he dreaded death, and was very explicit in his directions as to what he wanted done when he was ready to "shuffle off this mortal coil." His good wife demurred at the multiplicity of directions he gave, as death drew near, when he remarked, "Never mind, Maria, I have to do the dying not you." OH! POOR NATTY MILLS One of the good old tales handed down by a resident of Orwigsburg is to this effect: At a political meeting held in the ancient county seat, Lawyer Neville and Natty Mills had a little tilt between __________________________________________________________________________ Page 453 Old Time Stories __________________________________________________________________________ them that gave origin to the poetical saw on Mills that was afterward so popular, appearing on the banners of his political opponent and sung by the Whig Clubs as they marched along. In the course of his speech Mr. Neville said: "Oh! poor Natty Mills, Oh! Poor Natty Mills, We'll give him a dose of castor oil And then a dose of pills." Not to be outdone Natty Mills, who was on the platform and succeeded the speaker, retorted: "Oh! poor Lawyer Neville, A native very queer, One leg he left in Ireland, The other one is here." Neville was a one-legged Irishman and Natty Mills a popular local Democratic politician, who kept a hotel on the corner of Second and West Arch Streets, Pottsville. The same resident of Orwigsburg at this writing, 1914, eighty years of age, is authority for the statement that Charlemagne Tower, Esq., of Philadelphia, late Ambassador to the German Empire, was not, as claimed, born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, but in New York. The Tower family lived in Pottsville, northwest corner of Fourth and Mahantongo Streets. Mr. Tower was raised and educated in the place; before his birth, however, his mother, Mrs. Mulvina Tower, visited friends in New York and the accouchment took place in that State. The house in which the Tower family first lived prior to coming to Pottsville, a modest two-story frame building opposite the Evangelical Church, Orwigsburg, was razed this summer, 1914, to make way for a more modern dwelling. __________________________________________________________________________ Page 454 Old Time Stories __________________________________________________________________________ COULD NOT BE FOOLED When the first train came up to Mount Carbon after the Reading railroad was built, January 1, 1842, it excited considerable curiosity and the people assembled along the line to see it pass. The cars were small box cars and the engine was miniature affair that puffed and snorted and seemed to move with great effort and the train was four hours late from Reading. On the knoll at Auburn a crowd of people from the surrounding country waited to see the "iron monster" and discuss the merits of such locomotion. After the train passed an old lady, much excited, jumped up and waved her arms and said: "Kannscht mich net foolah, 'sin guile unner die inchine, Ich hab sie gesehne schnaufe" ("You can't fool me, there were horses under the engine, I saw them breathing.") Note:--When the Reading railway was completed from Reading to Mount Carbon, trucks with planks laid across them for seats, were provided for such as chose to avail themselves of free transportation and try a ride on the new road. Many took, as they imagined, their lives in their hands when they ventured to take advantage of the new method of locomotion. When General Winfield Scott, commander in chief of the United States army, visited Pottsville, after the close of the Mexican War, a like privilege was afforded by the Reading Company to the people from the southern end of the county. __________________________________________________________________________ Page 455 Old Time Stories __________________________________________________________________________ HESSIAN ANCESTORS February 22, 1776, and after, nearly 30,000 German troops were sent to aid the British during the Revolutionary War, more than half being furnished by the Prince of Hesse-Cassel. All were called "Hessians" by the Americans, although over 6,000 were from Brunswick and 7,000 from other smaller principalities. Most of these men were serving compulsory terms in the German armies when they were sold by their mercenary rulers to the British and sent to fight the colonists. The descendants of some of these are among the leading families of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Some were mere students and others were men of high education and some brought their wives and children with them, all were sufferers of military despotism. In 1785, several families who were of the 1000 or more encamped as prisoners at Reading, who had determined to remain in this country, crossed the Blue Mountains and after some wandering settled in the extreme western end of what is now Pottsville. They called the little village "Hesse Stettle," which name was finally merged into that of Yorkville. The Hessians were frugal and industrious and their descendants are among Pottsville's best citizens. FROM WILLS PROBATED BEFORE 1800, NAMING EARLY SETTLERS OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY (Berks County Register's Office) 1795, November 2, Peter Neuschwender, Manheim Twp. 1798, August 20, Peter Buechler, Pinegrove Twp. 1799, October 15, Martin Dreibelbis, Manheim Twp. 1799, December 24, Jacob Schnell, Manheim Twp. 1785, October 19, John Dietrich Fahl, Brunswick Twp. __________________________________________________________________________ Page 456 Old Time Stories __________________________________________________________________________ 1788, February 28, Ludwig Herring, Innkeeper, Brunswick Twp. 1793, August 27, Jacob Kimmel, Brunswick Twp. 1799, March 4, John Kopp, Pinegrove Twp. 1798, June 25, Peter Meyer, Manheim Twp. 1788, January 12, Balzer Neufang, Brunswick Twp. 1795, June 22, Matthews Reich, Manheim Twp. 1785, June 22, John Runckle, Brunswick Twp. 1793, May 4, Frederick Schnock, Pinegrove Twp. 1789, May 11, Jacob Sheafer, Brunswick Twp. 1785, March 25, Richard Stephens, Brunswick Twp. 1799, October 21, Simon Strause, Manheim Twp. 1786, October 2, George Jacob Ulrich, Pinegrove Twp.