Reminiscence

76 7601b SttuplkiUll 9talo. certainly all would be well. But it was just at this juncture the clouds began to thicken, the sky grew dark, gusts of wind came up, and the big rain drops began to patter among the leaves of the trees and a heavy storm broke over the town. People sought the friendly shelter of the surrounding doorways and over-anxious and solicitous relatives who had scurried home at the first warning of the oncoming downfall had returned laden with umbrellas which some of them pressed upon their offspring in the new soldier company. As the rain fell the awkward squad raised the umbrellas and the confusion was great. Twice had the gallant captain given the order, but with the crowd pressing down upon the scene, the guards could not keep them back at the point of the bayonet, and the raising of umbrellas by some of the raw recruits the confusion was great and the scene indescribable. Captain Rheinheimer would make one more effort. Draw- ing himself up to his utmost height and in his most stentorian tone of voice he shouted: "LUmbrellas oder no umbrellas, I tell you; Shoulder arms!" REMINISCENCE Daniel De Frehn, of Pottsville, relates the following: It was during a term of court in the seat of justice at Orwigsburg. 'Squire Witman was approached by a fellow lawyer who asked 01b Sdpuglkill galro. 77 him the time of day. The 'Squire felt in his waistcoat pocket for his watch when he discovered it missing and said: "I changed clothes this morning and left my watch in my other vest." After a time he bethought himself again, and being inconvenienced by the want of the chronometer sent a man from court with a message that the bearer should be entrusted with his watch which he had forgotten. The man returned and said the maid-servant had already given the watch to a man, who said the 'Squire had sent him for it. 'Squire Witman had doubtless been overheard. The thief made good his escape and the watch was never recovered. THE SOMNAMBULISTS It was before the 'Squire married Katrina; she was only seventeen and had been an inveterate sleep-walker from her youth. Her brother John was not much better and between the two there was not much peace about the house. Neither might walk about for months, but sometimes both got up in one night and wandered around and made times very lively for the mother who was alone with them much of the time. That is, if the aged grandsire was not considered or the other children taken into account. The father was pursuing his business in the distant city of Buffalo and only returned home at long intervals, for those were the days of slow and uncertain locomotion. 78 01b Srbuplkill ffalrz. In vain did the mother caution and admonish. It did little or no good and matters seemed to have reached their climax when Katrina was discovered trying to climb into the smoke house one night, where she might have smothered if the spring lock on the door had closed on her. After that she was locked in her room, which was a low, half-story chamber over the kitchen. Matters had apparently quieted down with Katrina, but not so with John. He had been engaged in driving a balky young horse to and fro, from the 'Squire's new mill, in West Brunswick. The horse had a freak of standing still; nothing could induce him to move, and then of starting just as abruptly. Threats, blows,, coaxing,-nothing availed when these tantrums came on, and John was determined to break him. He thought and talked, of nothing else by day and on this particular occasion must have dreamed of it. One night there was a terrible noise and thumpety, thump,. in the house. It continued from time to time and the family all turned out of their beds to see what had happened. John slept in the attic and the noise appeared to emanate from the front part of the house. At the head of the stairs in the large old-fashioned hall stood a big wooden chest with drawers and old-fashioned brass handles. John had imagined the chest to be the balky horse. The horse would not go and in his zeal he overturned the chest and pushed it with all his might. It slid face down the entire flight of stairs. He mounted the chest and received a blow from contact with the wall below that knocked him senseless, renderi;g him ill for several days. Katrina had not been heard from for some time. Locking 01b Srbupfkill galtz. 79 her in seemed an effectual preventive. It was during moonlight nights that her sleep-walking was worst and the mother said, "she was affected by the moon." Katrina herself was very much ashamed of her escapades and besought the family not to mention them before the 'Squire or his family. One beauti- ful moonlight summer night, however, she awoke suddenly to find that she was not cured, and Oh! horrors, that, that worst of dreams that she had always feared had been realized and become only toQ true. There she was, clad only in her night dress, barefooted and bareheaded, walking on the main street of the town, south of the big square toward Reading. The stage from Sunbury to Philadelphia passed through Orwigsburg about two o'clock at night. The night was almost as bright as day, the passengers bad seen her; it was indeed their hooting and jeering that had awakened her. She had climbed over a low porch roof from her bedroom window, down an arbor and made her way several squares to the spot -where she was rudely awakened. Poor Katrina! how many bitter tears she shed over that event, but she never walked any more in her sleep, at least not outside of the house. The 'Squire married her shortly after, and it is to be presumed that he was wakeful enough to prevent it. COURT HOUSE REMOVED In 1844 the business of the court had increased to such an extent that an addition was built, in which was located the .1 80 lb Srbuylkill Ualro. several county offices. With the discovery of coal in the County, the coal industry eclipsed that of the commercial interests of the agricultural districts. On December 1, 1851, the County seat was removed to Pottsville. With the removal came a large influx of the citizens of Orwigsburg, the lawyers and others connected with the workings of the legal business of the Cfounty. This was in accordance with an act of the Legislature which gave a majority vote in favor-3,551 being for and 3,091 against the movement. A movement for the removal was started as early as 1831. A meeting was held at the Exchange Hotel, Pottsville, on November 19, at which Benjamin Pott, Burd Patterson, Thomas Sillyman, Jacob Seitzinger and John C. Offerman were appointed a committee to solicit subscriptions to defray the expense of erecting public buildings in Pottsville. The people of Orwigsburg fought the movement. A meeting was held at the Court House, where these men were denounced as "idlers" and "lot holders," and so strenuous was the objection that it was not until 1842 that it took definite shape. The first bill passed by the Legislature for the removal, was declared unconstitutional and after the election a second bill was passed and Pottsville was declared the County seat. The second Court House was erected on ground purchased from the George Farquhar estate and the building was erected through the contributions of the citizens, and the total cost was $30,000. Two men were executed for murder during the establish- ment of the seat of Justice in Orwigsburg. The first white man hung in Schuylkill County expiated his crime for the murder 01b ScbnoThill Qralm 81 of his grandparents. The other, a colored man named Rigg, was hung for murdering an Irishman. There were extenuating circumstances in the latter case. John Bannan, Esq., the lawyer for the defense, considered the provocation that led up to the killing very great, and frequently was heard to remark that if his client had been a white man he would not have been made to suffer the extreme penalty of the law. So great was Mr. Ben- nan's sympathy excited for the doomed man, that on the day of Rigg's execution the Bannan mansion, on the opposite corner from the Court House, was closed as if for a death within its precincts. Henry Hammer, of Minersville, eighty years old, relates that at the time of one of these executions, he was clerking for his uncles, Eli and Elijah Hammer, who kept store in Potts- ville in the building now occupied by P. F. Brennan, as the Boston store. The whole county turned out and went to Or- wigsburg to witness the hanging, and the proprietors of the store with others drove to the scene. There was nothing doing that afternoon; Pottsville was empty and trade was suspended. There was a Camp Meeting in session at the Lessigs, half-way between Orwigsburg and Schuylkill Haven, and the young clerk and a friend of his had planned to spend the evening there with the young ladies whom they afterward married. In the middle of the afternoon they took time by the fore- lock, closed up the store for the night, hitched up and drove to the Camp Meeting. Just before reaching Lessig's they en- countered the crowd returning from the execution; among them were the Hammers.

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