BULLETIN JO/^f/9& HISTORICAL SOCIETY MONTCOMERY COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA Jvoj^msTowjv

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PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY AT IT5 R00M5 18 EAST PENN STREET NORRISTOWN.PA.

APRIL, 1944

VOLUME IV NUMBER 2

PRICE 50 CENTS Historical Society of Montsomery County

OFFICERS

Kirkb Bryan, Esq., President S. Cameron Corson, First Vice-President Charles HArper Smith, Second Vice-President George K. Brecht, Esq., Third Vice-President Nancy C. Cresson, Recording Secretary Helen E. Richards, Corresponding Secretary Annie B. Molony, Financial Secretary Lyman a. Kratz, Treasurer Katharine Preston, Acting Librarian

DIRECTORS

Kirke Bryan, Esq. Mrs. H. H. Francine H. H. Ganser Nancy ,P. Highley Foster C. Hillegass Mrs. a. Conrad Jones David Todd Jones Hon. Harold G. Knight Lyman A. Kratz Douglas Macfarlan, M.D. Katharine Preston Charles Harper Smith Franklin A. Stickler Mrs. Franklin B. Wildman, Jr. Norris D. Wright ^ohii Winter

John Hall /(3^ d/ QSp

<>f>v=S.T*..'fcMW«.^-\'»\'b . ATHENSVILLE (NOi (Enlarged from John Levei Part of Leverings Map of LowerMerion 1851

IDMORE) IN 1851 \Iap of Lower MeHon) THE BULLETIN

of the

Historical Society of Montgomery County

Published Semi-Annually—October and April

Volume IV April, 1944 Number 2

CONTENTS

Early Recollections of Ardmore Josiah S. Pearce 63

Some Facts About Plymouth Township Public Schools George K. Brecht, Esq. 137

Reports 152

Publication Committee

Mrs. Andrew Y. Drysdale Hannah Gerhard Anita L. Eyster Charles Harper Smith

Charles R. Barker, Chairman

61 EARLY RECOLLECTIONS

OF ARDMORE

BY JOSIAH S. PEARCE

Reprinted, hy permission, from the

''ARDMORE CHRONICLE"

1906-07

The Historical Society op Montgomery County

Norristown, Pa.

1944

63 "Early Recollections of Ardmore" originally appeared in the "Ard- more Chronicle/' being published as a continued article from April 14, 1906, to March 30, 1907, inclusive. In more recent years, it has been re-published in the "Ardmore Chronicle," with some added material, but has never appeared in book or pamphlet form.

Josiah Sibley Pearce, author of "Early Recollections," was born at Humphreyville, now Bryn Mawx, November 10, 1841, and spent most of his life in Ardmore (formerly Athensville), where he died, June 19, 1915. He was the son of Joseph T. Pearce and Rebecca Sibley, his wife. The elder Pearce was auctioneer, cabinet-maker and first postmaster of the first post oflice (significantly called "Cabinet") on the site of Ard more. Old residents well remember the jocular vein in which he con ducted his vendues; the son inherited this sense of humor, which, it is related, oft enlivened the otherwise somber precincts of undertakers* conventions, and which, as the reader will note, is lacking in few of the following pages. No extended reference to Josiah S. Pearce is required here; he was one of Ardmore's best-known citizens, was the president, for fifteen years, of its Trust Company, was a member of the legislature of Pennsylvania, a Civil War veteran and a prominent Mason. An ap preciative account of his life, by Mr. Luther C. Parsons, will be found in Volume I of the BULLETIN.

The Historical Society of Montgomery County has owned for many years a file of the "Ardmore Chronicle" which includes a complete set of the issues containing "Early Recollections," and has recently become the possessor, also, of a two-volume, typed transcript of the entire article, fully indexed, and illustrated with original photographs, maps, etc. (See List of Accessions, page 155.)

So, with the courteous permission of the "Ardmore Chronicle," the BULLETIN now presents to its readers the first instalment of "Early Recollections," which will be followed by further instalments as promptly as conditions of publication permit.

The Publication Committee

64 Early Recollections of Ardmore

By JOSIAH S. Pearce

At the earnest and repeated solicitation of a number of friends who are or have been residents of Ardmore, and after very serious consideration on the part of the writer, this article, with possibly a number of others which may follow it, is written, not as "The Early History of Ardmore," as an nounced in the editorial columns of the Chronicle one week ago, nor as a correct chronicle of the growth of Ardmore from the proverbial "straggling village," with its smithy, its gro cery and the country tavern, to a thriving village of nearly five thousand people. The writing will be more in the nature of a series of rem iniscences of men and things associated with the growth of the village and its vicinity, with occasional, or possibly fre quent reference, as occasion demands, to the life and work of some of the people who live or have lived in what is now Ardmore during the last half century or more. The writer's apology for presuming to be at all fitted for the task assumed may be found in the fact that with but four exceptions there is no person now living in Ardmore who has continuously resided in the village a greater length of time than himself. And right here he encounters his first dilemma. The reader will naturally ask—Who are the four? Why does he not name them? Surely this is local history. The only ac ceptable answer to these pertinent inquiries is that the quar tette are all ladies, and we all know how danger always lurks in coupling dates with the lives of ladies of any age. With the exception of a trifle over three years spent in the Army of the Potomac from 1862 to 1865, the writer has resided in what is now Ardmore, and what was originally Athensville since the year 1842. At this writing he is unable to call to

65 06 BULLOTIN OF HISTOEICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMBEY COUNTY mind any other man who has been continuously resident in the little village for so long a time. There are a number of residents of.our present prosperous suburb who are older in years and abler in practice than the writer, who could much more acceptably perform the duty assumed by him; but these have all become residents since the date given, and therefore cannot be permitted to detract from the "distinction" falling to the "oldest inhabitant," even in writing reminiscences. Consequently there will be but few readers of the articles going to make up this series who, while being in a position to criticise their form, and purpose, or even the desirability of such form of correspondence, will be able to either attest their accuracy or question their authenticity. In the dates given in the articles which will appear from week to week for some months accuracy will be secured as far as possible, but our readers will, we trust, not be hypercritical, either-in regard to dates or the correct spelling of names when we call to their minds the fact that during the greater portion of the time covered by these articles no records of any kind were kept, for the reason that under the old form of township government no place for either, making or keeping recotds, excepting such as are kept at the county seat, was provided. Consequently births, marriages, deaths and all misfortunes of a like character went unrecorded. Even the church (for during nearly all the time about which we shall write there was but one church in the village) kept very meagre-and imperfect records, and they related only to those connected with the church or congi'egation. It is said that a recent pastor of this old congregation of St. Paul's was, soon after accepting the pastorate, somewhat embarrassed, and even shocked, when an applicant for an extract from the church record became profane in presence of his Reverence on account of their inaccuracy. The story goes that the seeker after information desired to know just the number of times he had been saved. .When told by the pastor that his name appeared five times in thedist of converts he replied: "Parson, you're short in your count, and your records are no good. It's six at least." EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 67 In the enforced absence of any records it is manifest that much that will be written will be from memory, and conse quently much must be forgotten that should enter into our story to make it complete,-and very much that is remembered omitted for obvious reasons. No effort will be made to trench upon ground heretofore occupied by any of the great historians who have heretofore written up the village, the township, the county and themselves, usually with special emphasis on the latter. As already stated, we shall not attempt a history, but will endeavor to tell of the days when our handsomest residential section were farms, when our beautifully macadamized roads were simple lanes of mud, when tallow candles, burning fluid and kerosene furnished our light, and old-fashioned wood or coal stoves or open fireplaces supplied our substitute for heat. When we walked to and from the city without a thought that we should live to be able to ride there in 14 minutes, when there was no water supply other than wells, and no telegraph, no telephone, no electric light, power or heat. When we could not have understood had we been assured how man could talk with man across the then unexplored continent, or how, with only God's pure air as a transmitter, we could talk across the sea. How the scythe and the sickle, the grain cradle and the flail, should in our generation be supplanted by the mowing, reaping, harvesting and threshing implements and machinery of the present. Nor would it have been possible to explain to the children of the forties how their children, when fifty years had rolled away, would be carried by a power then unknown wheresoever they would in horseless carriages. When steam, that mighty servant whose power had but just begun to be known, should during the three score and ten years possible to their existence be harnessed to every tool or implement then operated by either horse or man. All of these things and more have come to pass in the wonderful years of which we shall write, and, while some may ask what these great dis coveries and inventions have to do with "reminiscences" of Ardmore, we will answer that, while they have possibly had little to do with the village, the village has had much to do gg BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY with all of them. In her growth Ardmore is abreast of the times, and while in the forties the little hamlet was, with all the world, in ignorance of what was in the future for the world and the hamlet, the Ardmore of today takes rank with the foremost of her class and, in taking that place, adopts and accepts all that goes with it. With scarcely an exception, every wonder to which we have referred, and they have all been wonders, is in the service and employ of the people of the now exceptionally prosperous village. In writing of the old, we will be obliged to write some what of the new, both as regards places and people, so that in many cases as we will tell of the changes in both, generation following generation will bring our story down to date. This, whilst not reminiscent, is necessary for the purpose of descrip tion, and will, we trust, not be subjected to a too rigid criticism by those who read. If the articles which follow, and which we shall endeavor to make as interesting as a dry subject will permit, prove of interest to the readers of the "Chronicle," it will be all and more than we anticipate. The work attending the recital, as h^ been said, has not been sought, or hurriedly or willingly entered into, but if it shall in a measure constitute a compliance with the many requests made in such flattering terms, the writer will be more than compensated for his initial eifort. One of the difficulties presenting itself in writing of Ard more is to determine about what to write, the "what" in the matter being used rather in the sense of the words "how much." Ardmore, as is well known, has not, never has had, and possibly never will have, any specific lines of boundary, and for the purpose of our articles such distinctions will not be required, as we shall feel at liberty, and in fact fully justi fied, in extending the scope of our subject, even to the extent of trespassing beyond the lines of the township and county. Lying as it does, so close to the line of Delaware County, Ardmore has gradually but permanently overstepped her county restrictions and contributed very materially to. the development and enrichment of the township of Haverford, EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OP ARDMORE 00 just as the villages of Haverford and Bryn Mawr have grown over the county line, the first forming the village of Preston and the latter the nameless settlement south and west of old White Hall, known a few years ago as Garrigues's Brick Yard. It will not therefore unfavorably affect our reminiscences if all these lines are ignored. In Buck's "History of Montgomery County" he says, in speaking of Athensville: "In 1858 there were 28 houses in this village"; therefore we will not be expected to write much for the reader, when there was not much to write about. The road leading from Montgomery avenue, in the old times, and even yet, known as "The Old Road," to the inter section of Linwood avenue, formerly called Church road, and the rechristened portion of Linwood avenue, now known as Argyle road, was originally considered to be the eastern boundary of the village of Athensville. There were very few houses east of this road prior to the date given by Mr. Buck. The Louis Wister farm, the Owen Jones farm, the William G. Lesher farm, the farms of Josiah and Jane Knox, the fine old homestead of Mrs. Mary Jones, mother of Owen Jones (later known to everybody as "the Colonel"), and the Jacob Phillips property, the westernmost end of which is now orna mented with the tower of the Springfield Water Company, while the remaining portion of the property has been beau tifully improved by Mr. Joshua L. Bailey, constituted all the property holdings east of and abutting on this boundary line. The Wister farm contained originally 170 acres, and is today comparatively unchanged in appearance in all the time covered by our recollections, although it has appreciated in price from $90 per acre to over $2,000 in the same period. In 1850, it was the property of John Wister (Louis's father). It lies on both sides of Montgomery avenue, extending from the Owen Jones property to Anderson's lane. About the year 1858 the fine old stone mansion, one of the finest in the country at that time, which had been built many years, but perfectly preserved, was destroyed by fire, nearly all the con tents being saved, and the present residence of Mr. G. M. Chi- chester, whose wife is a daughter of Mr. Wister, was erected 70 BULLETIN OF. HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY on almost exactly the old site. The old barn was saved from the flames, and stands yet in the same place;^ The death of Mr. Wister, which occurred .quite recently, removed from our midst a.man who had devoted almost all of a long life' to maintaining this old, place; in the same condition in which it came to him. No part of the original tract was sold or offered for sale during Mr. Wister's"lifetime, and no buildings built upon it during the same period other than the erection of the fine residence which took the place of the old mansion of our earliest recollections. Even the farm buildings remain as we knew them fifty years ago, With the exception of the build ing of a frame extension to the barn and an addition or two to the ricks which occupy the front of the beautiful property. Mr. Wister has many times been the recipient of unasked advice on the propriety of moving the barn and its attachments and accessories to the rear of his beautiful old home, and we who knew him best require no information as to the very comprehendable reply which he had always ready for the givers, of such advice. Many who will read this will recall pleasant memories of Louis Wister., Honest to a.fault, fearless of any and every thing on earth, frank .and outspoken at all times, and con cerning everything,' peculiar in. some things, but faithful in all things. His ponies, his poultry, his pigeons, his squirrels, his at times peculiarities of dress or any other of his hobbies all tended to attract to him a. profound respect, even though some of his idiosyncrasies were not' less than amusing, while his bluif, hearty and cordial, manner added to his exceptional popularity. He was a most, earnest Republican in politics, but could never be induced to accept office of any kind. During the War of the Rebellion he was more than aggressive, and it was then said of him that his arguments upholding his proclivities were not infrequently punctuated with words which he never taught his children. The portion of this tract fronting on Anderson's lane, opposite the home of the late Edward Glenn, was known, and

1 This bam 'was struck by lightning:, and burned, July 5, 1913.—Ed. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE " fJI is at this time known, as Wister's Woods.-• It was the most e^rtensive tract of woodland in the vicinity of Ardmore, and was Mr. Wister's game preserves, and as such was most carefully guarded by the cwner. The death of a rabbit or squirrel in this wood, or even the report of a fowling piece, incurred Mr. Wister's positive wrath, an expression of which no gunner had the temerity to encounter. The Owen Jones property,• only a small portion of which abuts on our village boundary, extending from there to Wynnewood station, is now the residence of Robert Toland, Esq., there being no lineal descendant of the Jones family now living. ... Mrs. Mary Roberts Jones was a sister of the late George B. Roberts. She died several years ago, and their four chil dren, Anne, Emily, Owen Glendower and J. Aubrey, all'died unmarried. The late J. Aubrey was the last to die, and is remembered by many of the later residents of Ardmore. • The old homestead has been greatly improved in appear ance and convenience since the days of the Thirty-fifth "Con gress, of which Mr. Jones was a member. When the Fifth Congressional District was composed of Montgomery County and a few suburban wards of Philadelphia. The fine old man sion at that time, and in later years, was honored by such guests as President Buchanan, Governors Bigler and Pollock, the Woods, of Conshohocken, Judge Smyser and Colonel James Boyd, of Norristown, besides others distinguished in politics and the legal world, Mr." Jones"being at that-time a member of the bar of both Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties. The manor or farm was known, and had been known for the previous half century, as Wynnewood, the old titles run ning back to the days when it was a portion of the Wynne plantation,^ and being the wooded portion, was known as

'2 The Jones family took title, hot from the Wynne, but from the Owen, family. In 1707, Evan Owen, son of the original settler, Robert Owen, sold 450 acres to his brother-in-law, Jonathan Jones (see Phila. Deed Book E4, vol. 7, p. 40) whose mother was Mary Wynne, wife of 72 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Wynne's wood. The transition to Wynnewood is quite natural. The'station was not established until some time after the opening- of the new line of railroad, but when it was decided upon the name followed very naturally, the old school-house on the property already bearing the name. The Jones tract and the Wister tract were contiguous, and the owners were always the closest of friends. They differed only in politics, and then not seriously. About twenty years ago the entrance or driveway to the Jones mansion was by a lane crossing the railroad at grade just west of Wynnewood schoolhouse, with a rear or farm entrance off the old road near the location of the present imposing main entrance, west of the old Penn House. The grade crossing entrance was abandoned when the portion of the property fronting on Lancaster Pike was sold, within a comparatively recent time. This portion of the property was the birthplace of the Merion Cricket Club, in the early seventies, their first games being played here. In 1880 this ground was abandoned, the Club purchasing the field at the end of Cricket avenue, in Delaware County, from Dr. John B. Biddle. Cricket avenue took its name from this purchase. The phenomenal growth of the Club, and its subsequent removal to Haverford, after a sojourn at Ardmore for about ten years, the story of its suc cesses, its disasters and its position today, at the very head of the list of wealthy and aristocratic social organizations of the county, would prove most interesting were we permitted to write it, but we are reminded that all of this is not Ardmore history. In reality the Club passed through Ardmore in its triumphal march from Wynnewood to Haverford, and we find justification in thus digressing in the fact that, in addition to having it stop with us for a short time, many of the best

Dr. Edward Jones. Jonathan Jones was the gn'cat-^'andfather of Colonel Owen Jones. The Wynne plantation was not in Lower Merion, but in Blockley, and has given its name to Wynnefield.—Ed. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OP AROMORE

of Ardmore's people are honored with membership in the organization. We have referred but briefly to Colonel Owen Jones, the owner of the tract about which we have written so much, but will promise to speak more at length of him in connection with his extensive holdings of property in the very heart of the village. Of the William G. Lesher farm there is not a building or even a fence remaining that thirty years ago helped to make it an attractive, productive and profitable farm. It extended from St. Paul's Lutheran Church, on Lancaster pike, eastward to about opposite the lake on the Bailey property, and then of about the same width southwestwardly almost to the Dela ware County line, embracing all of both sides of Linwood avenue, with the exception of the small plot then the property of the Lutheran Church and cemetery, and the small Saunders place. A portion of this farm has since been added to the Lutheran cemetery. The farm buildings on the original place were situated at what is now the junction of Argyle road and Linwood avenue, the quaint old two-and-a-half story farm-house standing on almost the exact spot now occupied by the beautiful residence of William H. Gibbons, Esq., while the large stone barn and other farm buildings stood very near to the place now occupied by the home of Mr. William T. Reynolds. The site of the old spring house is still and -will forever con tinue to be marked by the bubbling spring of the same delicious water that many times quenched the thirst of those who, as boys, drank of it with the writer, but who have nearly passed to the great beyond. The spring is now a beautiful grotto and constitutes an attractive feature of the Reynolds's very pretty home. The family of the late William G. Lesher, whose death occurred but a short time ago, reside on a portion of this, their grandfather's, farm in a handsome residence built by their father about sixteen years ago. The original tract of seventy- seven acres was purchased in 1846 by Mr. Lesher from Jane K. Pogue, and from the time of its purchase to within a few 74 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY years of his death, which occurred in 1876, he farmed and trucked the place very profitably. A few years prior to his death he retired from the business and leased the place, having bought the property on Lancaster pike opposite Wyoming avenue, now owned by his daughter. Miss Kate Lesher, to which he removed and where he continued to reside until his death. The late Crawford Barr was a tenant of the farm for some time. In 1887, Mr. Lesher, Jr., as executor of his father's estate, sold the farm in two parts. The part lying northeast of the Church road, containing about forty-five acres, he sold to Mr. Joshua L. Bailey, who has substantially and beau tifully improved it. The remaining portion, of over thirty- acres, he sold to the Ardmore Real Estate Association, who laid out Linwood and Athens avenues and divided the property into forty lots, all of which have been sold with the exception of one acre. The Ardmore Real Estate Association was com posed of Messrs. Richard Hamilton, William G. Lesher, Henry Blithe and Walter W. Hood, each of whom contributed to the improvement of the tract by building homes for themselves at once, in what has since become one of the finest residential sections in the country. Mr. Hamilton still owns and resides in his improvement. Mr. Lesher's family occupies his late home. Mr. Blithe continues as the owner of the property now leased to Mr. Utley B. Wedge, while the Hood improvements have been purchased by Mr. W. H. Gibbons, Mrs. Clora E. Bahlstrom and Mr. Jacob Myers. The Club House property, now owned by Mr. Henry Ep- plesheimer, Jr., was also a portion of the original Lesher tract. No buildings were erected upon it until within a few years, when the Philadelphia Cycle and Field Club bought the lot and erected the club house, which Mr. Epplesheimer has altered into a very comfortable home. The Cycle and Field Club has disbanded. While resident in the turnpike property before mentioned Mr. Lesher bought the lot on the corner of Lancaster and Ardmore avenues and built thereon a large brick store for his only son, which the younger man conducted up until almost the time of his death. The store was added to and improved several times until it assumed the proportions WILLIAM G. LESHER HOUSE SHOWING DEMOLITION, ABOUT 1891-3 (from a photograph owned by Miss Kate Clevenger) EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE ^5 and did the business of a department store. A very short time prior to Mr. Lesher's death he sold the property to E. A. Bowker Company, who conduct it as a grocery, meat and provision store,. having abandoned the department feature some time since. Of the junior Mr. Lesher we will write more fully as our story continues. In the Knox farms, originally containing over 200 acres (one is now owned by Mr. Charles C. Knox and the other, somewhat smaller, is the property of Mrs. Edmund Green, who are the only surviving children of Josiah and Sabina Knox), a half-century has wrought but little change. These farms may be said to be just beyond the southeastern limits of Ard- more. The Knox family is one of the oldest in Lower Merion, and they appear to have all been farmers, owning farms of such magnitude that the old titles refer to them, as was com mon in the original grants, as plantations. The present residence of Mr. Charles C. Knox and a much smaller one which preceded it in history were the residences of Josiah Knox. He was a very plain, scrupulously honest and exasperatingly industrious farmer, invariably raising better crops than his neighbors, and harvesting them earlier. This could not be accomplished without the closest attention to detail, and it was said of him that no matter what the job was, Josiah was always on hand. He died in 1869. The smaller farm was known as the Jane Knox farm. She later removed from it to Bryn Mawr, where she died several years ago. This farm was leased by Mr. John H. Smith, who is now a resident of the village, for thirty-one years, during'which time he paid in rent over $25,000. He was born on this farm over seventy- five years ago and was reared by the Knox family. His boy hood, added to his tenancy, constitutes him as resident on the farms for over half a century. He was seventy-five years of age on February 16, 1906, and claims to be the youngest old man in the county. He is working for the township, doing a full day's work every day. These farms are not unlike the Wister place, in that they are today as they were over fifty years ago. Very little of either of them has been sold, and, whilst all around them the 7g BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP MONTGOMERY COUNTY farms have in many instances become almost villages in themselves, the Knox farms have thus far been proof against the inroads of village extension. The Knox family were all Democrats in politics, which conviction is still exemplified in the only survivor bearing the family name. They were not officeholders in the olden time, and the' survivor is scrupu lously preserving the family record. The family were all Lutherans, having been identified with the old church ad joining these farms for generations. The old graveyard of this church contains many graves marked to the memory of a Knox. The name has, however, almost run its course in the village or its vicinity, and unless all indications are at fault a heretofore large and influential family will be left without a descendant in Lower Merion in a few years.^ The present lovely old home of Dr. Macfarlan, on the Church road, adjoining and almost a part of the Owen Jones properties, was the home of Mrs. Mary Jones (the elder) in the fifties. It has been one of the few well-kept and perfectly preserved of all the countryside in Lower Merion. While there have been few additions to it in.the nature of buildings, those already there, which were built nearly a century ago, consti tute a permanent improvement which it would be difficult to improve upon so long as the place is used as a substantial country residence. To those who knew it fifty years ago it cannot fail to recall the always present evidences of that genuine open-hearted Quaker hospitality and goodness which characterized and made altogether lovable one of the best old ladies who has ever or will ever be identified with our local history. Her interest in and solicitude for the boys who attended Wynnewood School and annoyed her in many ways, for which her kindness was always administered as chastisement, is a most pleasant mem-

3 By the wills of Charles C. Knox, who died March 14, 1937, and his sister, Mrs. Margaret C. Green, who died February 17, 1932, the family homestead was bequeathed in trust as a home for aged persons, and is now the Knox Home.—Ed. KNOX HOMESTEAD IN 1913 DR. SMITH HOUSE IN 1911 (after its removal from Tuimpike) (photographs by Charles R. Barker) EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OP ARDMORE 77 cry in the minds of the few who, with the writer, recall her loveliness and the charming charitableness to the mischievous. She died in 1876 at the home of her only daughter, Mrs. Naomi Morris, on the Gulf road, west of Rosemont, at a ripe old age, the property descending to her only surviving grand son, J. Aubrey Jones, last of Col. Owen Jones's family to die. The little place referred to as the Jacob Phillips property included all the land lying on the northeast side of Lancaster avenue, between Church road and the property of Eliza Kug- ler, near the pretty little lake upon the Bailey property. Upon the death of Jacob and Sarah Phillips the property descended to their only child Amanda (during the sixties), who shortly thereafter became the wife of Robert R. Dickie. After the death of both Mr. and Mrs. Dickie the property was sold by the heirs to the Water Company, who retained so much of it as they desired for the purpose for which it is now in use, disposing of all the remainder to Mr. Bailey, who so changed and improved not only the old dwelling house, but the entire property, as to render it almost unrecognizable as the old Phillips place of our boyhood. The dwelling was entirely remodelled during Mrs. Dickie's lifetime, but has since been materially improved by Mr, Bailey. For years the old house was used as a boarding house, man aged by Mrs. Phillips, being among the first houses in or near to the village, where teachers in the public school and other homeless wanderers could find a home with home comforts, which included in Mrs. Phillips's house an abundance to eat. Later Mr. Dickie carried on the business of a butcher in a building which stood close to the turnpike near to and west of the old dwelling, having one of the best "routes" through the country, then so common; but this was long before the days of meat markets and provision stores in Athensville. The route and Mr. Dickie's business were victims of Ardmore's progress. The property lying almost directly south of the village, now owned by William H. Button, Esq., upon which a score of houses are now in process of erection, was owned, in the early days of our story, by Samuel Saunders, who has been dead for many years. 7g BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

He occupied the house and, with his wife and two daugh ters, managed the little farm, which contained in the year 1850 about 26 acres. The quaint old house and the equally quaint old barn stood well back from the road leading from the old Lutheran Church to Cobb's Creek. The house was re modeled and improved in appearance several years ago, but the barn remained unchanged .until a comparatively recent date. Now both have been torn down to make place for the extensive although somewhat delayed improvement being made by Mr. Sutton. The old place more than once attained unenviable notoriety as a manufactory for counterfeit "coins of the realm," a quan tity of which were quite recently unearthed in the old garden while excavations were in progress for the houses now being erected on the property, which, it will be remembered, was the subject of all sorts of stories by all sorts of "space writers" for both the local and Philadelphia newspapers. The writer well remembers the excitement aroused in the little village when United States marshals and their deputies, to the num ber of half a dozen, arrived and, hiring a hay wagon from a nearby farmer, of whom there was at that time no scarcity in the neighborhood, proceeded to make the arrest, after first surrounding the house. Saunders was found at home, and as soon as he was secured his strong boxes were broken open, the buildings all carefully searched, and all his tools, metals ^and dies were, with him, loaded into the wagon, which was driven, first to Norristown, and from there to Philadelphia, where he was given a preliminary hearing. He was speedily tried, convicted and sentenced to a term in the United States prison at Sing Sing, N. Y. But few coins were found at the time, notwithstanding the search for this evidence of guilt was continued for several suc ceeding days, which is accounted for by the discovery recentlj'" made, which unearthed at least a peck of well-executed imita tions of half dollar pieces, and which may, and in all proba bility will, be followed by later discoveries as other portions of the old garden are uncovered. Saunders was the owner of other properties in addition to EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 79

the one at Athensville. One of these was in Haddington, on the south side of the Haverford road, near what is now Sixty- third street, and the other was in Marple Township, Delaware County. He made frequent trips between these places and his home, and it was thought that the Delaware County place would most certainly supply additional damaging evidence at his trial, but such was not the case, no work having been done at either place, so far as the officers were able to discover. He died at his Athensville home in the year 1861, after a prolonged and acute period of suffering, his body being in terred in the old Friends' Burial Ground, in Haverford. All his family are deceased, his only surviving daughter, Gulielma, having died only a few years ago, when the property was sold in two or three parts, one of which is now being improved, as before noted. A story of the attempted escape of Saunders from the pen itentiary through an ingenious scheme was extensively circu lated shortly after his incarceration, which was believed by many to be true, but by equally as many given no credence. As an "early recollection" the story may be given for what it is worth. It was that his sentence to hard labor was being executed by him in employment in the carpenter or wood-working shop of the prison, where he was compelled to assist in the manu facture of cases or boxes to be used in the shipping of rifles; that after these boxes were filled Saunders nailed the lids on very securely; that he used mock nails, or really only the nail heads, on a particular box, in which some air holes had been left, thus giving to the box an appearance of being securely fastened, exactly similar to all the others of the shipment; that he then got into it, fastening the lid from the inside; that the box, with others, was carted some distance and loaded on a boat, but, unfortunately for him, it was stood on its end, with Saunders's head down.. He was therefore obliged to reveal his condition, and was taken back to the prison, presumably right end up, where he continued serving his sentence, but was pardoned before his term expired. Whether the story was true or false, Saunders 8Q BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP MONTGOMERY COUNTY never denied it, but appeared rather to be pleased at the notoriety it gave him. Adjoining the rear of the Lesher property on the west, was the farm now owned by S. Clarence Wells, a grandson of the owner of fifty years ago, Mrs. Barbara Rogers, whose death occurred on the old homestead in 1862. Her husband, Eli Rogers, predeceased his wife several years. The old mansion has been preserved and not materially changed in all these years. At the time of and prior to Mrs. Rogers's death it was an ideal country home, the attractiveness of which was greatly enhanced by the fact that Mrs. Rogers had four or five grown daughters, all of whom lived at home. One son, Charles, died a comparatively young man. All the daughters married, with the exception of the eldest. Miss Susan, and all are now, and have for some time been, deceased. The entrance to the place, which contained originally, about twelve acres, was by leaving the turnpike at what was then Mud Lane—now Cricket avenue—and Sheldon lane, to a pri vate road, on or about the same bed as is now the bed of Spring avenue, to the corner of the Rogers property, and then across the intervening fields to the house. Mud Lane and the private road were each sixteen and one-half feet wide, and in many places of almost the same depth in muddy weather. The laying out of Athens avenue and the improvement of the entire place by Mr. Wells have made of the,old farm one of the most desir able sites for suburban improvement to be found anywhere in the neighborhood. The old house yet remains, but its beauty and attractive ness are gone, being eclipsed by the improvements all about it, and the death of all those who in years agone as occupants and guests "ornamented ye house by frequenting it." The private road before referred to as leading to the cor ner of the Rogers property extended a short distance further up the hill, to What was in the fifties the Bevan property, now owned by Mrs. Edmund Green. The Bevans were rela tives of the Fiss family, who owned this and a number, of other small properties in the neighborhood, included in which was a curiously-constructed little house next to the Beyan EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE gj

house called, for some unexplained reason, "The Salt Box." Another house stood quite close to this one of odd construction, which was for years the home of George McConaghy, Sr., a man well known then and until comparatively a short time ago to almost every person in the village. Our early recollec tions of the Bevans are among the most vivid of which we shall write. There were two brothers — Benjamin and George — descendants of the Fiss family, as already stated. Both were bachelors, and an Aunt Mary (but always known as Polly) Fiss was"their housekeeper. After the death of the old lady, about 1854, George, the younger of the brothers, became insane and was possessed of a desire or rather a determination to preach, which he did, to the terror and disquiet of the neigh borhood within a radius of over half a mile from his pulpit, which he had himself constructed in the open air against the end of the little barn on their property. His audience was the growing vegetables in the truck patch, and he called the bean poles his standing committees. The entire end of the barn, to the very peak, he had pro fusely and not altogether inartistically decorated with decid edly unintelligible hieroglyphics done in whitewash. He never left home, but preached every night, and, too frequently, all night, in a voice so loud that his words were readily distinguishable at the Red Lion Hotel. The neighborhood endured the annoyance for some months, when he was, with some difficulty, removed to the State Asylum for the Insane, at Harrisburg (that being the nearest institution of the kind at that time) where he lived to be nearly ninety years of age, dying about the year 1887. Ben jamin removed to West Philadelphia and married soon after the removal of his brother broke up their veritable bachelors' hall. He died a few years prior to the death of his brother, leaving a family. The Fiss property, as has been said, was composed of several small pieces, at least two of which belonged to William Fiss. The larger of these tracts was known as Fiss's woods, which wassold by William Fiss's daughter, Mrs. Ann Clark, to Charles Stark in 1883. In 1899 Stark sold this, with an ad- 82 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP MONTGOMERY COUNTY joining lot, to G. C. & J. F. Bowker, who laid out Walnut ave nue and extended Simpson road, thereby dividing the property into desirable building lots, which have nearly all been built upon and sold and the neighborhood beautifully improved by the erection of a number of very pretty dwellings. The last of the Fiss generation to which we have referred died during the late fifties. .'] During the time of the Fiss occupancy of their holdings in the village, "Billy," as everybody knew him, lived with his family in an odd little one-story house, afterward always called by the undignified name of "Fiss's shanty," which was built near the western edge of the woods before referred to in what is now the grove in the rear of the Bowker houses, on the southeast side of Walnut avenue. Later this shanty was occu pied for years, or until about the year 1898, by "Paddy" Mas- terson and his family. "Paddy" will be remembered by many who will read this as a typical Irishman, possessing all the good qualities and one or two of the bad ones frequently accredited to his nationality. In certain conditions "Paddy" believed himself to be a musician, both vocal and instrumental, his musicales (?) always being held out of doors and at night, so that his vespers, together with Bevan's preaching, although their places of ren dition were 200 yards distant from each other, constituted an out-of-doors Torrey and Alexander entertainment for over half the village. The number of properties in this vicinity which were orig inally owned by this Fiss family has occasioned the use of the family name so frequently in our story. In many of the old titles are to be found the names ctf John, Joseph, William, Samuel, Thomas, Benjamin, Mary, Sarah, Ann, etc., no de scendant of any of whom being at this time a resident of the village, and no next of kin living nearby. The house now known as "the old Sheldon house," standing close to the tracks of the Ardmore and Llanerch street railway, which is now occupied by an indefinite number of colored families, and is, with its surrounding ash heaps, unanimously voted the village dis grace, was in the late forties a well-kept, comfortable home. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 83 owned and occupied by Tobias Smith and a large family, very few, if any, of whom are now living. The place originally con tained six acres, lying between Sheldon lane and the present extension of Simpson road, or, until recently. Maple avenue. The house and a few attachments built in the rear of it was used by Mr. Smith as a manufactory of sausage and scrapple and other pork products for several years, the hogs being slaughtered, "worked up," and the meat smoked in the little buildings referred to, "Tobey Smith's" brand of hams and bacon then holding the place in the Philadelphia markets that Armour's and Swift's products have now usurped. Then, as now, the Smith family was a numerous one, and certain rather undignified prefixes to Christian names were in common use to distinguish the John's and the Isaacs from each other. Among the Johns there was John, always called "Jack"; another was "Milk John," he being a dealer in that commodity, and "Wood John," who lived some distance out of the village, but was a frequent visitor on account of his business, which was selling and delivering cord-wood. "Rube's John" was another, being a son of Reuben. Then there was "Old John," "Colored John," etc., but we are speaking now of the Smiths who were then residents of the village who had been christened Isaac. Of these there were two, one of whom was the eldest son of Tobias and the other a son of Levi. Tobias's son was "Ikey," or "Toby Ike," or "Little Ike," according to preference, while the other, on account of his "figure," was everywhere known as "Big Ike." Both of these men are well remembered by many present residents of the village, and both deserve in the village history more than the reference we have made of them, for the reason that both enlisted in the service of the country early in 1861 and won for themselves splendid records in the ranks, "Toby" Isaac being a member of Murphy's distinguished Twenty- ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, while "Big" Isaac was a mem ber of Company B, First Pennsylvania Cavalry, recruited in the township by Captain, later Colonel, Owen Jones. Both served the term of their enlistment and returned to their homes with impaired health. Both are long since dead. "Big" g4 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Isaac died unmarried; the other was twice married and left a large family. The Fiss property, through a division made prior to the times of which we write, became the property of Tobias Smith, Eli Rogers and Dr. James Anderson; some members of the family also sharing in the partition. We have referred to the latter, as also to the Smith and Rogers places. The original Charles Stark property was the portion bought by Dr. James Anderson at that time, and was by him sold to George Blithe in 1839. After a residence upon it for twenty-two years, or in 1861, Mr. Blithe sold it to Charles Stark and removed to Jacob Sibley's property, on the corner of Lancaster avenue and Church road, now the residence of Mr. Thomas J. Sibley. - Mr. Stark occupied the property until his death, which occurred only a short time since. He tore down the old yellow stone house which had been built during the Fiss ownership, and which had served Mr. Blithe as a home for so many years, and built almost on the site of the old house the one now stand ing at the corner of Athens and Cricket avenues. Mr. Charles Stark was one of our best citizens; quiet, un ostentatious, scrupulously honest and very industrious. He and his only brother, Christian, who is also among the number of those recently deceased in the village, made for themselves an enviable reputation as proprietors and operators of a summer boarding house which spread far beyond the limits of the village. Both the men were bachelors, and both excellent cooks. Their "unexcelled cuisine" meant an abundance of the best of everjrthing good to eat, cooked in the very best manner, with cleanliness as a specialty, and reasonable rates as an assurance of a full house at all times. During the winter they followed the business of pork butchering, with the same success as attended their summer vocation. In this work many will recall the services rendered these brothers of Joseph Archer, who might very properly be called their out-of-doors agent. He is also among the recent dead. His name must be written here for the reason that he was a private soldier in Battery I.of the Second Regiment EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OP ARDMORE g5

Pennsylvania Artillery (the writer's regiment), serving almost three years in the Army^ of the Potomac. Mr. Charles Stark's birthday celebrations began at this old place in 1861, and were annually observed up to the time of his death. These occasions were, as many of us remember, some what unique, and constituted a diversion not alone for the household, but as well for the entire neighborhood of his home. Both these men were remarkable in thiat they took not the slightest interest in politics, society or current events. While, however, they were too retiring in disposition to suit the majority of their friends, their readiness to extend the helping hand was well known to many a needy applicant, but no charity was ever bestowed by them unless a promise was given by the recipient that no housetop publication was to follow. The farm known in recent years as the Owen Jones Farms (he having been the last owner of the place prior to its being divided into building lots), and which was bounded by Lan caster pike, the private road now Cricket avenue and Sheldon lane, the County Line road arid Ardmore avenue, containing a trifle over fifty-four acres, and which is now covered by over 100 houses and other buildings, was sold March 4, 1844, by Thomas Whiteman, later of Roxborough, Philadelphia, to Joseph Hunt, who continued as its owner and farmer for exactly ten years, when he sold it to William Maag, a brother of the wife of the senior William G. Lesher. Mr. Maag never occupied the farm, but rented it to William Thompson, Dennis Gallagher and others for several years, or until November, 1866, when he sold it as a whole to Colonel Owen Jones, who continued to lease it for a short time, when he divided it into lots, and opened up the whole tract for building purposes. Mud lane, which had a width of but sixteen and one-half feet, was widened to its present width as far as the abandoned trolley station,-* and from there extended on to the County Line. The

4The first terminal of the Ardmore & Llanerch Street Railway (Company stood at Cricket avenue and Sheldon lane for some time after it was abandoned as a station. It was removed in 1911 to County Line road, where it again became a station.—Ed. 80 - BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY new avenue was not then given a name which appeared to be acceptable, but became Cricket avenue when the Merion Cricket Club removed from its birthplace at Wynnewood and purchased from the Dr. John B. Biddle Estate the tract of four or more acres at the southern end of the new avenue, upon which they erected a small club house, near to the present location of St. Mary's Laundry. When the Cricket Club pur chased its present magnificent field at Haverford all of the tract above referred to was sold through the Bryn Mawr Trust Company, with the result as seen today. The annex to Ardmore of almost a village in itself, although in Delaware County, adds verymateriallyto the importance of the greatlyenlarged village. The'development of the tract by Colonel Jones necessitated the opening and improvement of Spring avenue and the County Line road. Ardmore avenue was opened the entire length of the western line of the property, and all the avenues were dedicated to the Township as public highways. Prior to this time there was no public road leading from Lancaster turnpike to the Haverford road, between the road east of the Lutheran Cemetery (then known as Kelly's Hill road) and the present Buck lane, at Preston, a distance of a mile and a quarter. Haverford College farm then had two entrances, one off the turnpike opposite Lewis Warner's store, and the other off the Haverford road, opposite the College pumping plant. These entrances were connected by a contin uous lane through the college campus and farm, so that tres passing was as common as it was annoying. Notwithstanding the fact that three gates were to be opened and closed in using the lane, drivers prferred it as a "near cut" from Athensville to Coopertown. The sale of the lots laid out by Colonel Jones was vigor ously pushed as soon as the survey was completed, George H. Baker, who had served under Colonel Jones in the army, being his agent, through whose influence the Public School and the Masonic Hall were located on the new tract, and a number of lots, principally on Ardmore avenue, were sold to private par ties, thus launching the boom which proved a profitable ven ture for the owner as well as for the village. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ABDMORE 2,^

A short time before the date of,the sales above referred to; in fact, as soon as the survey was completed, and while the stakes were all new and fresh showing the division lines of the lots, the Colonel declared that he was determined to sell the entire tract at auction. To this end he appointed a public sale, and on the day set a good attendance was present. He announced that the lots would be sold regardless of.price, as had also been announced in the posters calling the sale. The attendance at the sale was large, but the bidders were few. The first lot put up was at the corner of Ardmore and Spring ave nues, 100 feet front and 303 feet in depth, now owned by Mr. Howard J. Butler. Bids were slow in coming when the Colonel announced his determination to sell it, and so instructed the auctioneer, the result being that the lot was knocked down to Edward Dougherty for $510, who immediately announced that he would build a row of small houses on his purchase at once, which announcement stopped the sale and changed the Colonel's mind on the subject of what he knew about launching booms in real estate. An adjourned meeting was at once called in the office of Stadelman & Baker, at which Mr. Dougherty was in attendance and was very much in evidence. The out come of the meeting was that Dougherty carried with him to his home $200of the Colonel's nice, clean money as a consider ation for his willingness to call the sale off. Then reasonable restrictions were imposed and the sale of lots privately continued by Mr. Baker as before stated. The lots on the turnpike front were among the first sold. The cor ner of Ardmore avenue (which, by the way, was then Athens avenue) and the turnpike was bought by Joseph T. Pearce. The adjoining lot of 100 feet front, now owned by the Dela ware & Atlantic Telephone Company, but recently by Dr. H. A. Arnold,® and the Anthony Nunan lot was bought by the writer,

5Dr. Herbert A. Arnold, practicing physician and militai-y surgeon, •was a long-time resident of Ardmore, where he died in 1933, at the age of seventy-six. He served in Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War, and on the southern border during the imbroglio -with Mexico. He gg BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY who later sold to James S. Cross, who built the house still standing. George H. Baker bought the Spohn place, now the property of Charles H. Frederick (the site of the Hadley home and the Columbian Tea Store). Dr. Samuel R. S. Smith bought the large lot the front of which is now covered by the Colonial Block of stores, and the firm of Stadelman & Baker bought the corner of Cricket and Lancaster avenues, now owned by Mrs. Ida E. Stadelman. The lot on the corner of Ardmore avenue and Lancaster turnpike, now the property of E. .A. Bowker, was purchased from Joseph T. Pearce about one year after the first sale of lots on the turnpike front of the tract, by Benjamin Hunter, who, a short time afterward, was tried, convicted and executed in Camden, N. J., for the murder of W. H. Armstrong. Hunter held the title less than twenty-four hours, when he transferred it to William G. Lesher, Sr., who at once built a portion of the present store for his son, who commenced business and carried it on most successfully almost up to the time of his death. He proved to be one of our best business men, and as well one of our best citizens. His loss to the community is still felt and will continue to be regretted for years to come. He was identified with so many of the interests of the village where men of integ rity, energy and •philanthropy count for so much that his death, while comparatively a young man, leaves a vacancy in the community for which there are too few available appli cants. James S. Cross, now of Paschalville, Philadelphia, but then a clerk for Stadelman & Baker and a nephew of Mrs. J. L. Stadelman, after improving his purchase as stated and renting the house for some years, sold both, and they were afterwards re-sold, but not changed in appearance up to this time.

retired from the National Guard of Pennsylvania in 1914 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Both Dr. Arnold and his wife, Mrs. Louisa Harley AiTiold, were descended from old settlers of Montgomery County. Two of their family, General Henry H. Arnold, Chief of Air Forces of the United States, and Mrs. Frederic Poole, are members of this Society, and another son. Lieutenant Colonel Clifford H. Arnold, has for many years been a practicing physician in Ardmore.—Ed. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE gg although indications are now apparent that the old properties will get into the "Pike Front" procession and keep step to the music of $200 per front foot. Mr. Baker built the Spohn home for his residence and en joyed it for years until reverses culminating in an assignee's sale deprived him of it. The little store, now the Columbian Tea Store, was built by Frank Spohn when he left the employ of Mr. William G. Lesher on account of a change in the firm, and opened the new building as a meat and provision store. He was a very honest, conscientious man and a good citizen, being another of Ardmore's business men who died in the midst of his usefulness, while yet too young to enjoy the fruits of a life of labor. Dr. Smith built the large frame house recently moved from the turnpike front to Cricket avenue to make place for the eight stores known as The Colonial Block. When this house was built it was admittedly the most pretentious house in the village, and the care bestowed upon the grounds by the Doctor, for years afterward made it at all times one of Ardmore's most attractive homes. Since the removal of the house to its present location it has been remodeled and much improved both in appearance and convenience, and although more im posing and costly dwellings have been since reared in the vil lage, it is still a most desirable home. His family still reside in the old but renewed homestead, his son-in-law, R. A. Mont gomery, Esq., managing the estate. Prior to the purchase of this home by Dr. Smith he had owned and resided upon Brook- field Farm at Mount Pleasant, now the delightful summer home of Hon. Wayne MacVeagh, but in the fifties and earlier known as Judge Jones's farm. He removed to this farm from Chestnut Hill, where he relinquished a lucrative medical prac tice to retire to private life. During the war he sold "Brook- field" and removed to the Mrs. Mary Jones homestead, now the residence of Dr. Macfarlan, on Church road, and while resi dent there he bought the ground and built the house above re ferred to in which he lived until his death, which occurred only four years ago. Dr. Smith was in all respects the perfect gentleman, honored and respected in his profession and in the 90 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY community; an excellent neighbor and a true friend. Long after his retirement from active practice he was ever ready as a consultant, but not for gain. It was said of him that he never accepted one cent of compensation for any service rendered after he removed from Brookfield. Of a family of seven chil dren but three survive, Miss Elizabeth S., Mrs. R. A. Mont gomery and Miss Emily S., all of whom are yet residents of the village and occupants of the house built by their father over thirty years ago. The corner, or drug store, property completed the turnpike front of this tract. Stadelman & Baker bought this lot as a firm and at once transformed it from a cornfield into a lumber yard. It was not a beautiful transformation, the yard becoming a storage place for stone, sand, terra cotta pipe, etc., but it was, nevertheless, a necessity. The growing village needed it in its business. It was thus used until the dissolution of the firm when in a division of the assets Mr. Samuel F. Stadelman took, as his portion, the triangular piece of ground and the drug department of the firm's business, which he removed to its present location after building the store now conducted by his estate. The present residence of his widow and family was built soon afterwards. The lumber yard was then moved to the corner of Lehigh and Montgomery avenues, and is now the property of Smedley & Mehl, that falling in the division to the share of Jacob Stadelman. Samuel F. Stadelman was the son and youngest child of Captain Jacob Stadelman, the owner of the old Black Horse Hotel and large tracts of land on City Line near Bala, and in Ardmore. Samuel joined the original firm of Stadelman & Baker some years after its formation, having graduated from the academic department of the Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg , taken a course in pharmacy and fitted himself for business. His admittance to the firm added to their other departments the drug business, to accommodate which an annex was built to the store about where the basement store of the Merion Title & Trust Company, on Anderson avenue, now is. For many years it was the only drug store in the village, or within a radius of several miles, and did a profitable business EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 9]^ from its Inception. He was universally admired as a man, and his loss to the village and vicinity was a serious and deplorable one. He died in 1892, while yet a very young man, of heart trouble with which he had been afflicted for some years. He was a most devoted member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church and prominent in the higher councils of the church organization. He was Justice of the Peace from 1881 to 1886, and administered the duties of the office most satisfactorily. For years he was an officer of the first association formed in the neighborhood for the relief of the poor and the suppres sion of vagrancy, which he assisted in organizing and having chartered as "The Relief Association of Bryn Mawr, Ardmore and Vicinity," and to which he devoted much of time and money in fostering its interests. He was faithful as a friend, pleasant as a neighbor, consistent as a Christian and devoted as a husband and father. His loss to the community has not been repaired. We must be pardoned for continuing the recital of our recollections of this old farm for the reason that its transfor mation from a farm to a village in itself has been more com plete than in any other piece of land of equal acreage in the village. Prior to the year 1866, when the farm became the property of Colonel Jones, there was but one dwelling house on the entire fifty-four acres. That house is still standing, and is the pretty remodeled cottage of Mr. H. L. Cooper, occupied until recently by Mr. R. J. Hamilton, on the corner of Sheldon lane and Spring avenue, and is, with perhaps two exceptions, the oldest house in the village. The large stone barn stood about 150 feet northwest of the house, while the little old stone spring house stood quite near the little brook on the south side of Spring"avenue, the avenue being named for or by reason of the presence, almost in the roadbed, of this old spring of deliciously cool water. Both the barn and the spring house have been torn down for years—the dwelling alone surviving the transformation. And now a word about the owner prior to 1866. Joseph Hunt was one of the best and most respected residents of old Athensville. As has been said, he resided on this farm for 92 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY* imany years, and in removing from it he did not at once leave the village, but bought and moved with his family to the old James Morgan place, on the north side of the railroad, nearly opposite to the Autocar works, where he remained for some yeai'S, and again removed, this time away from amongst his many friends, to Cheyney's Shops, near West Chester, where he died a few years ago, and where his children still reside. Our reminiscences must necessarily include-much of the life history of some, if not of all, of Athensville's old time people, and we can assure the reader that we will not have occasion in all our writing to refer to one more worthy of mention than Joseph Hunt. Prior to the breaking out of the war he had been always a staunch Democrat, the writer well remembering his advocacy of the principles of Jackson and Jefferson. The first news of Sumter made of him a Republican equally as earnest as he had been in the cause of Democracy. During the war he was a zealous upholder of the cause of the Union, it being no unusual occurrence to have at his home meetings of the leading people of the village in the interest of the men in the field, the filling of quotas of the township and county, the raising of bounty funds and the care of soldiers' families- In his efforts in this direction he was ably seconded by such well-known men of the time as Charles Kugler, William Miles, Joseph T. Pearce, and Louis Wister, of the village; Joshua Ashbridge, of what is now Rosemont; Thomas G. Lodge, of Bala (although Bala was then unknown), and others equally interested in the cause of the North. He was never an officeholder, although always a hearty supporter of his principles, and a good worker for others, in variably doing the right as he saw it, and doing it well. No man ever removed from the village leaving more friends to regret his going than Joseph Hunt. Reference has been made in our story to the fact that through the influence of George H. Baker, who was at the time a School Director, the Township of Lower Merion purchased the lot on Ardmore avenue and erected thereon the first public schoolhouse in the village. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE Qg

I It was built by Mr. R. B. Deal, in the year 1875, who had just previously erected the schoolhouse at Mount Ple,asant. From the opening of the building it proved to have been a mis take, being too small to accommodate the children, and as a consequence was enlarged at least twice prior to the year 1900, when it was burned to the ground, the cause of the fire being attributed to an explosion of chemicals in the laboratory located on the third or upper floor. Previous to this time the old Wynnewood School was the nearest public school to the vil lage, its two small rooms accommodating (?) as many as 150 children. This building, a two-story stone structure, was also destroyed by fire, and the smaller one-story building now in use was erected on the old site, the greater number of the scholars in attendance being transferred to the Ardmore School. The present beautiful and most substantial building was erected in 1901 and 1902, and although considered at the time to besufficiently large for a generation to come, is already almost too small to accommodate the over 400 children in attendance. It was built from plans drawn by D. J. DeNean, architect, by Sheaff & Son, of Chester, Pa;, and is admitted to be among the finest school buildings in the State. Three halls and two churches in the village served as school rooms, while the new building was being erected. . In 1869 arid 1870 the Masonic Hall was built on one of the lots of this sub-division by Cassia Lodge, No. 273, F. & A. M. Durant, of Philadelphia, was the architect, and Benjamin Humphreys, of Humphreysville (now Bryn Mawr), was the builder. The Lodge removed from the Odd Fellows Hall on the turn pike, now owned by Martin Whelen, in June, 1870, the officers at the time of the removal being Dr. Algernon S. Uhler, W. M.; Josiah S. Pearce, S. W.; Benjamin Shank, J. W.; Jacob L. Stadelman, secretary, and Benjamin Humphreys, treasurer. The appointed officers were: George H. Baker, H. L. Lit- zenberg, Charles S. Heysham, George C. Ristine, T. Jefferson Bevan and William W. Bealor, all of whom are dead with the exception of George C. Ristine(nowa resident of Bryn Mawr), and the writer of this story. Of thirty-one officers and past offi- 94 BULLETIN OF HISTOBICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY cers of this Lodge when the hall was built, but two are now living. The style of architecture of this building has never been the subject of unqualified admiration, but it has served as a home for the Lodge, in which it has grown from a membership of 100 at the time of which we write to over 300 at the time of the writing.® Two prosperous Lodges have in the meantime been organized from the membership, Fritz Lodge, No. 420, of Conshohocken, and Wayne Lodge, No. 581, of Wayne, both honoring the subject of this sketch as a worthy mother. The present officers of the Lodge are: Charles H. Meredith, W. M.; Dr. Elmer E. Fleming, S. W.; William V. Collier, J. W.; James C." McCurdy, secretary, and Richard Hamilton, treas urer. There are also three trustees and ten appointed officers, none of whom were members of the Lodge at the time of the occupancy of the then new, but now somewhat passe, building. Other earlier purchasers of lots and builders of homes on the old Whiteman farm will be the subject of reference as our story proceeds and our "recollections" become refreshed by association of the "men and things" of the days agone. The tract of land bounded by Lancaster, Ardmore and Spring avenues, extending westward to a line about midway between Greenfield and Holland avenues, as well as the lots on the north side of Lancaster avenue, now owned by the Autocar Co. and Mr. Edward S. Murray, were, in the forties, the prop erty of John Litzenberg, who died in the year 1854. The improvements on this tract consisted of the Red Lion Hotel, a large and most substantially built stone structure, which has not materially changed in all these years. The care ful preservation of the building and the important altera tions made in its interior arrangement have not to any great extent changed its exterior. It was in the olden times one of a number of country taverns which were to be found on almost every mile of the old-

®The Masonic Hall referred to was torn down in the fall of 1916, and was replaced hy the present building.—Ed. •^u- I /I •" • ;.

RED LION HOTEL AND STORE (from a -photograph owned by the Litzenberg family) EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 95 rough and miserably kept toll road, all of which were well patronized by the mountain teams and Conestoga wagons ply ing between Philadelphia and the western part of the State. A double house, one-half of which was occupied as a dwell ing by Miss Hannah Stanley (a sister-in-law of Mr. Litzen- berg) for many years, the other half being used as a feed house, but later also altered to a dwelling house, stood in what is now the front yard or lawn of the residence of the late Henry Litzenberg, but now the general offices of the Autocar Co. There were no other buildings on this tract, excepting stables and other outbuildings, until the property passed to the ownership of Horatio G. Litzenberg, only son of the owner before mentioned, in 1854. He substantially improved the property by generally overhauling, painting and otherwise repairing the old hotel and erecting the new barn, which is still standing; and, in addition, adding to the convenience of the place by building numerous outbuildings, nearly all of which still remain in use. During the lifetime of both the father and the son, and for some years thereafter, the easternmost half of the hotel build ing was used as a general store. In fact, up to about 1860 it was the only store in the village, the nearest store to the stand at that time being conducted by Lewis Warner in a small build ing in the yard of his home, now the residence of Gardiner L. Warner, of Haverford. Everything was sold at Litzenberg's that could be sold in a country store: groceries, dry goods, flour, feed, salted meats and fish, cigars, tobacco and the end less variety of a village's necessities were kept in stock at all times, notwithstanding the fact that it was necessary in the early days of which we write to haul everything by wagon from the city, such conveniences as local freight service by the single track railroad being then unknown. Three days in every week a large, two-horse wagon made the trip to the Delaware River wharves and back, in transporting to Athensville the stores required to "keep up the stock." Regular days for serv ing customers at a distance were maintained, the nearby coun try being divided into routes and served by a driver and clerk, who took the orders for the next week's service. 96 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Cobb's Creek had two days per week; Haddington, the Gulf and Mill Creek had each one day, all of these places being mill districts, "the hands," or operatives in the mills constituting the bulk of this wagon trade. A large two-horse wagon was required in this service, while the deliveries and taking of new orders consumed the entire day. The loading of this wagon and the unloading of the Philadelphia wagon always took place in the evening, and was a daily village event. Many willing hands assisted in this duty, and many a sarsaparilla, etc., particularly the etc., was given in exchange for the labor expended, in roll ing barrels of mackerel and carrying boxes of goods into and out of the store, for the bar of the hotel was so convenient to the store as to be almost a part of it. The space now occupied by the three large rooms used as offices and refreshment rooms by the Dallas Brothers was all embraced in the old store, but would not be recognized today as the place known in the fifties as Rash Litzenberg's store. - The Litzenberg store did not differ either in its appoint ments or the habits of its patrons from all other country stores of the times of which we write. It was kept open for business every evening, with the exception of Sunday, until ten o'clock, the clerks in the store acting in the capacity of bartenders in the hotel, an always open doorway leading from behind the dry goods counter in the store to behind the bar in the hotel, which bar in the early days of our recollections was a little box in the corner of the room, partitioned off from the rest of the room by a lattice-work division reaching from floor to ceiling, with a narrow shelf on one side upon which the bottles and glasses containing the pump water, etc., were set by the man behind the bar for the inspection, etc., of the customer. Later, as the village grew and the demand for additional facilities for dis pensing the liquor, etc., became manifest, the box in the comer gave place to a longer and wider and more modern shelf, such as is sanctioned and approved today by the International Union of Bartenders. The other furniture of the old bar-room consisted of a few chairs and a big bar-room stove—^the. first to sit upon and; the latter to spit at and warm up by on the outside. In the store EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 97 every box, chair and barrel, in addition to the counter space that was not working*, had an evening occupant regularly, and it would be beyond the realm of possibility to tell of the number of weighty questions that were discussed and forever settled by the habitues of the old store. Particularly was this the case during war times, when discussions have been known to wax so warm that threats were made to send a too rebellious par ticipant in the debates to Fort Lafayette, at that time a prison for political offenders and Southern sympathizers, while on exraordinary occasions of argument parties have been told to go to a very much more tropical region. The proprietor of both hotel and store, as has been said, was, from 1855 to 1875, Mr. Horatio G. Litzenbei'g, who was, in many ways,a remarkable man. He was a thorough business man, small in stature, active, shrewd, fully of energy and honest in everything—a really good man in every sense. As landlord of the hotel, operator of the store, farmer of the little farm, bankerfor the village, and treasurer and principal con tributor to the old Lower Merion Baptist Church, he was really the most important man in the village. He would buy or sell, get gain or suffer loss, advise others or take advice, alWays in the best of humor; but he would not brook imposi tion, and Baptist as he was, he never quailed before a man twice his weight if throwing him into the turnpike became in his mind a good, honest, Christian necessity. His death occurred on March 23, 1880, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Mary L. Yocum, who then resided in the Garrett Kitselman house, now the property of the Merion & Radnor Gas and Electric Company. Failing health, both in body and mind, superinduced by overwork, necessitated the retirement of Mr. Litzenberg from business several years before his death, when the store, hotel, farm and all his many interests passed into other hands. Of the clerks who had served under him, some of them for years, a few of whom are remembered, none appeared as his logical successor. Elhannan W. Fisher had died, David Ramage was also deceased, George H. Baker and Adoniram J. Stanley had gone to the war, and, upon returning. Baker had gone into 98 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY business on his own account, while Stanley died soon after of disease contracted in the army. George Griest and William H. Ramsey, who also recog nized the old store as their alma mater, formed a co-partnership under the firm name of Griest & Ramsey, and conducted the business of the store very successfully for a short time, not withstanding at that time sharp competition was springing up in all parts of the fast-growing village. Mr. Ramsey soon retired from the firm and entered business alone, buying the old store south of Rosemont Station and later building, the large stores and other buildings at his present location in Bryn Mawr, where he has conducted a profitable business ever since, being recognized at this writing as Bryn Mawr's merchant prince, with apologies to Ardmore for his early training. Mr. George P. Yocum had in the meantime also returned from the army and after a short experience as teacher in the old Wynnewood School had married Mr. Litzenberg's only daughter, Mary, and upon Mr. Ramsey's retirement associated himself with Mr. Griest, the firm becoming Griest & Yocum, and thus continuing for only a short time, when Mr. Griest retired, and William G. Lesher associated himself with Mr. Yocum, as Yocum & Lesher. Mr. Yocum assumed control of the business of both hotel and store when Mr. Lesher retired shortly afterward. During the interim between the retirement of Mr. Litzenberg and the assuming of the entire management by Mr. Yocum the hotel had been leased to and managed by Samuel Himmelwright and Joseph Gravell on short leases, but upon Mr. Yocum's acquiring proprietorship Mr. Reuben G. Smith, the present proprietor of the Green Tree Hotel, was made manager of the Red Lion, in which position he continued for about two years, when he bought the property now the Ardmore House, which had been conducted under a restaurant license by Jacob Strahley for some time, and opened Ardmore's second hotel. Later the hotel passed to the management of Thomas H. Boyd, who had married Miss Hazeltine Stanley, a cousin of the Litzenbergs, and the store was leased by. Mrs. Yocum to Oscar S. Dillin, then to Charles Dillin and his son. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE "99

Joseph, and upon the death of his father Joseph became the last proprietor of the old store that for years had beeii proof against a change in proprietors, but at the last had changed so frequently that its prestige was lost, never to be regained. In 1879, about one year before death summoned Mr. Lit- zenberg, it had taken Mr. Yocum, the active representative of the Litzenberg estate, when the property was olfered for sale during the Boyd and Dillin tenancy, a purchaser being later found in Mr. David Dallas, who bought it in 1885, and yet continues his ownership of all he then purchased (about three acres), with the exception of the portion sold to the Merion and Radnor Gas and Electric Company on the west side of Greenfield avenue, now ornamented (?) with a big gas-holder. Mr. Dallas altered the interior arrangement of the building to suit the hotel business exclusively, a small store which was divided from the rest of the main floor and for a short time conducted by his son, David, Jr., being also abandoned in order that the room might be used as the hotel office. As an old-time hostelry the Red Lion was possibly as well known known as any hotel in eastern Pennsylvania. In addition to its being one of the then many convenient over-night stops for the "long roaders," as the Pittsburg teams were known, it was patronized exclusively by drovers as a resting place for their herds or droves, in many of which there were hundreds of cattle en route to the stock yards then in West Philadelphia, provision being in the fields (now covered with buildings) for feeding and watering the stock, the hay or fodder being loaded on a wagon which was driven back and forth amongst the drove while the contents were "pitched off" to the hungry cattle. The old hotel pump, still in service, supplied an abun dance of water for all, no matter how large the drove. Two years since the hotel management again changed, although David Dallas, Sr., still retains the ownership, when the sons of the owner—John J. and David, Jr.—became the proprietors, who, while conducting the hotel in the best pos sible manner, are not beset with any of the old-time accessories of hotel management we have enumerated. This, then, was ^ the passing of Ardmore's and Athensville's first store and first lOQ BULLEriN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP MONTGOMERY COUNTY hotel, both of which were at one time the largest, the best and, for a long time, the only places of the kind in the village^ Now the store is a thing of the past; fifty other stores in the village, having taken its place, are doing its work in the face of spirited competition by Philadelphia merchants, while the hotel, with but a single helper, meets all, and more than all, the requirements of the village thirst. Truly a great change, but it took forty years to effect it. Of the family of the late Horatio G. Litzenberg there is surviving Horatio Litzenberg Yocum, treasurer of The Merion Title & Trust Co., and Charles C. Yocum, of Narberth (the only surviving children of George .P. and Mary Litzenberg Yocum) ;.and the family of Henry Litzenberg, who died less than one year ago, leaving to survive him a widow, Kate E. Butler; two daughters, Mary and Sarah; and one son, Leroy V. Mr. Litzenberg's eldest son, Walter, died unmarried in the year 1885. In 1884 the children above named divided the tract lying south of the Lancaster turnpike, containing about twentyrnine acres, into over fifty lots, of which the Red Lion Hotel lots were a part. The first lot sold was immediately after the com pletion of the survey, the purchaser being Joseph Creighton and the lot the one now owned and occupied by the family of the late William M. Huey. Creighton built the house ;still standing, which was the first new house erected on the tract. St. Mary's P. E. Church, Mrs. Margaret Clevenger, •Miss E. A. Gopdrich and others were among the early purchasers of desirable lots, all of whom improved their purchases at once. • While Mr. Litzenberg's three children were all living he gave to his daughter, Mary, and his son, Henry, the lots upon which they built homes, and which are now owned by Mr. H. L. Yocum and the Autocar Co., respectively, being adjoin ing lots, situate on the south side of Lancaster turnpike. .

The "Red Lion" finally became the property of the Autocar Com pany, and was torn down in 1941. Time and space will not permit further reference here to its most interesting history.—Ed. " EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE

These properties were their homes during the life of each of the children, one of them (the Yocum home) being the place of death of both. It is worthy of note that three generations of this family have, with a single exception, all died since 1854, the exception being Mrs. Martha E. Snyder, now of Clearfield, Pa., who is still living, but upwards of eighty years of age. Mr. Horatio Litzenberg has been referred to as having been prominently identified with the old Lower Merion Baptist Church, and in this connection we recall his almost weekly entertainment of the founder, and at that time pastor, of this church, Rev. Horatio Gates Jones, D.D., who drove from his ' home in Roxborough, a distance of nine miles, every Sunday morning, for over a quarter of a century, to minister to his people in Lower Merion. In addition to this, many weekday trips were also made, as the old parson married or buried everybody of his faith who required either service. He almost invariably took dinner with Mr. Litzenberg, driving to his home in the afternoon or by night if detained by an evening service. The writer well remembers the parson's curious but com fortable old carriage, drawn by a white-faced sorrel horse, driven by "Aaron," his coachman, who supposedly had more name, but if so it was never made known at that time or since. The weather never interfered with this journey, which served as an inspiration to the Baptists of the village, who, noting the faithfulness of the old pastor, "hooked up" their teams and followed their faithful leader. At the time of which we write, the Lutheran, or, as it was then known everywhere, the old Dutch, Church, was the only church and the only place of worship nearer to the village than the one so familiarly called Parson Jones's Church, on the Gulf Road. Charles Thompson Jones, who will frequently be mentioned in succeeding chapters of our story as being in the early forties an extensive property owner in and near the village, was a son of this great and good man, as were also Hon. Horatio Gates Jones, Jr., a State Senator and prominent lawyer of Philadelphia, and Nathan L. Jones, an extensive 102 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY lumber dealer of Manayunk, ail of whom are long since dead. The two latter were members of their father's church in Lower Merion, where either could, and frequently did, take the place of their father in the pulpit and conduct the services of the church if occasion required, while both, being good singers, "belonged to the choir." After the retirement of Mr. Jones on account of infirmities of old age, and his death, which occurred in 1853, the Litzenberg home entertained supplies as hospit ably as it had previously entertained the old pastor. Amongst these, some of whom afterward became pastors of the church, are remembered Rev.'G. M. Spratt, Rev. Leonard Freshcoln, Rev. E. W. Cooper, Rev. Levi Parmalee and many others, changes in the pastorate succeeding each other almost too frequently for many years. All of these preachers are the legitimate subjects of Ardmore's early history, as they either lived, visited extensively or "boarded round" in the then quiet hamlet. We have spoken of the division of the Litzenberg farm into building lots, and of the improvement consequent upon this division. Apropos of this feature of our story are a few lines on the subject of the opening of the road that made the division and consequent improvement possible. The road opened about the year 1866, now known as Ardmore avenue, was christened Athens avenue when it was laid out, Ardmore then being a familiar word only to the dwellers on or near to the "high hills* of Ireland. The jury of view granted the road on the line dividing the properties of Joseph Hunt and H. G. Litzenberg. The necessity for the road was not a question of moment for the jury, there being no road running northeast and southwest for a distance of over a mile. Haydock Garri- gues, Edwin Johnson and the Board of Managers of Haverford College were foremost in the agitation' of the subject of a better and more convenient means of reaching the village, but they all lived and had all their property interests in Dela ware County, while about one-half of the projected road was in Montgomery County. The efforts of these gentlemen to induce the residents of Lower Merion to take hold of the project were futile for some time, but finally Mr. Hunt, Mr. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE

Litzenberg- and others took the matter up and carried it through successfully. The road was opened along the property line as stated to the Delaware County line, and thence by a Delaware County jury it was granted through the Llewellyn property to the Haverford road, it being several years later when the road was continued on to Coopertown. Opening a road in the sixties, being interpreted, meant the setting back of the fences and collecting the damages. This road was not made an exception to the rule then observed, so that it was a long time before the driver of more than one wagon per day availed himself-of the new "short cut,"- and before reaching the end of the road he regretted not having gone round by way of either White Hall or City Line. The present beautiful drive can scarcely be believed to have once been a positive disgrace to two counties. But it was. One of the most determined opponents to the opening of the new road was David Llewellyn, who owned all the prop erty through which the road passed between the county line and the Haverford road, as well as a large tract on the south side of the road; where the very did stone house and farm barn still stand, now so old as to be almost a curiosity, and yet they are in appearance today unchanged from their appearance of fifty 3'ears ago. Mr. Llewellyn was well known to every man, woman and child in the then little village, being a daily patron of the store and shops then so necessary to the farmers living all about the village, as well as to the villagers them selves. He was a very plain, honest and consistent Quaker, but was not an enthusiastic agitator of public improvement, nor, in fact, of private improvement of his own property to any considerable extent. He urged as his principal objection to the opening of the new road that it would only make it that much easier for the boys on the pike to reach his farm and steal his apples. His objection went down under pressure, his friends by opposing him doubling the value of his land and making pos sible the beautifying of the countryside by the erection of homes such as those of James M. Rhodes, Esq., John S. Arndt, 104 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Esq., George H. Lea, Esq., and others, all of which are built on the original David Llewellyn farm. The tract lying next to and immediately west of the Lit- zenberg farm, fronting on Lancaster Turnpike, was owned up to the year 1841 by John and Christlanna Litzenberg, the owners at the same time of the last tract to which reference has been made, perhaps too extensively. In November of the year named, this little farm of only about twenty acres was sold to Dr. Isaac W. Anderson, a son of Dr. James Anderson, who for a life-time resided at St. George's, the old home on Montgomery avenue, from which Dr. Joseph W. Anderson, another son, was recently buried. Dr. Isaac was the father of several children, one of whom was Hannah A., wife of Hon. William H. Sutton, of Haverford, •the only survivor of her family now residing near to her birth place, the two sons, Andrew Crawford and Isaac, being resi dents at this time of the far West. He resided on this property for several years, during which time he was in the active practice of medicine. His family removed from, this home to the old John Taylor property, west of Haverford, recently occupied by John S. Arndt, Esq. The Doctor died in the month of December, 1854, at the home in Athensville, and soon thereafter his widow, Martha Y., and her brother, John Y. Crawford, Esq., of Mount Pleasant, as executors of the will of Dr. Isaac W., conveyed the property to George C. Duncan, a butcher, who had previously resided at the Five Points, now on the western boundary of Fairmount Park. After the death of Mr. Duncan in 1867, the property being left by will to his wife, she and her children laid out into small lots and sold the unromantic and not highly ornate suburb of Ardmore, known as Duncantown, it being the extreme rear or southern end of the little farm. In 1878 the remaining portion of the property, consisting of a trifle over twelve acres, was conveyed by George C. Duncan, Jr., the eldest son and executor of Elizabeth Duncan, widow of George Duncan, Sr., whohad died the year previous, to William J. Fergueson and Charles E. McCoy. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OP ARDMORE^ ]^()5

In March, 1881, Fergueson and McCoy again sold the property to James A. Holland, who occupied it until 1887, the date of his death. Three years later his heirs transferred the little tract to the Bryn Mawr Trust Company, who opened Holland avenue the entire length of the property and laid it out in small build ing lots, the demand for which, for the building of small houses for artisans and laboring people, warranted such divi sion of the property as is shown by the present improvement of the street, upon which are" built and occupied at this time over fifty houses. Of these various owners much might be written, for the reason that their lives are all interwoven with the later life of Athensville and the early life of Ardmpre; but, unfortunately, as is too frequently the case, the good they did has been interred with their bones, for they are all dead, no owner of the place having survived to witness the transforma tion from farm to hamlet. A few words regarding those best remembered must there fore suffice, as we fear our writings of so many, if extended, would produce uninteresting reading and share the fate of such productions. Dr. Isaac W. Anderson has been mentioned as the first owner of this property, as we recollect it. He was one of the very best men to whom Athensville can substantiate an honest claim. He was a practicing physician of considerable note, and there are many yet living in Lower Merion who remember his personality and not a few who yet attest his faithfulness and skill, particularly as these qualities apply to families and patients, who, as is yet the practice, referred him for well- earned fees to the reward awaiting him in the next or some other succeeding world. His quaint old doctor's gig was a welcome sight to afflicted humanity for miles around the village, while his quiet, plod ding and very safe horse was known to the people as well as was the Doctor himself. His positive unostentatiousness was the subject of comment, for he was rigidly plain in ever3d:hing. His exemplary life guaranteed him entrance into the homes of the best people, while his^ well-known ministrations for 206 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY humanity's sake gave him entrance into the homes of the worst; consequently he enjoyed an extensive, but not too lucrative, practice. He and his family were most consistent members of the old Radnor Methodist Episcopal. Church, to the success of which he was a liberal contributor. As a student under his father, he inherited not only the profession, but in addition his religious tendencies, as well as many of his per sonal characteristics. No man surpassed him in consistency, honesty or integrity. He was such a man as the world always regrets to lose and whose loss, though to him an assured gain, is none the less a loss to all mankind. The influence and example of such men are felt long after they are gone, and in this instance the world is better today by reason of the fact that Dr. Anderson once lived in it. - Mr. George C. Duncan, another owner of this property, was possibly as well known at the time of his ownership as any man in Montgomery County, for the reason that no man would be content after seeing him until he knew all about him that could be learned. . He weighed about 350 pounds, notwithstanding which he attended faithfully to his business, covering the distance be tween Ardmore and Philadelphia, and return, almost daily. In doing this, as well as in attending to his local business, he invariably rode on the very front of the wagon, which exerted a very depressing effect on that end of the vehicle, no matter how heavily it was loaded. His business was that of a butcher and was conducted on an extensive scale, his sales being made in city markets; but upon his removal to Ardmore he added to his Philadelphia business two or three country routes, which' were "run" by his sons, at least four of whom were good butchers, the routes, before the advent of meat markets in the country, being most profitable investments. Large numbers of cattle and sheep were slaughtered at this old place, the slaughter pens being located in the rear of and close to the house still standing, now the property of Joseph P. Dillin. A blind man could find the place undirected if his sense of smell was no worse than his sight. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE

His funeral was one of the largest ever held in this vicinity, many being attracted through curiosity to view in death a man of such enormous proportions, and see a coffin thirty-two inches in width and over two feet in depth. His wife, Elizabeth, was one of the most honest, outspoken and positive of women, being noted for all those character istics, as well as for her kindness of heart, her goodness to the poor and her abhorrence of improvidence. She gladly bestowed charity with a willing hand, but her opinion on the subject of downright laziness was bestowed with equal willing ness and not infrequently with considerable emphasis accbm- panying^it. Ten children, six boys and four girls, were born to this couple, a few of whom are yet among the village folk, William being in business on Spring avenue; Philip, owner of the station "hacks," and Samuel, ex-Supervisor of the township and now a foreman for Commissioner Edward Campbell, are among the survivors of this large family. A great many of our readers will remember the last owner of the Isaac W. Anderson property as a farm, whose owner ship, although brief, is recognized in the name given the street which bisects the tract. For many years prior to his purchase of this property James A. Holland had been in the employ of George B. Roberts, Esq., the owner of the Pencoyd farms, or had been a tenant under him, removing to Ardmore from that place. He was a most industrious and energetic man, his life being, as he frequently said, "a life of work with no let up." Under the old form of township government he held the office of Supervisor of Roads when the township was divided into the upper and lower districts. He resided at the time in the extreme lower end of the lower district, but was assigned the care of the roads in the upper or west district, from five to seven miles distant from his home. His faithfulness as an official was attested by the fact that it was said that he was invariably the first man at the designated place for work in the morning and the last to leave the place in the evening. He-was a very "plain, blunt, man," honest and capable, but not a sucess as a money-saver. His wife was Rebecca, a daugh- 3^08 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY ter of John Montgomery. She survived her husband several years, but is also deceased. Four children survive, all of whom reside near to, but not in, Ardmore. They are John, George, Thomas, and Laura, wife of William E. Conner, of Delaware County, some of whom yet have property interests in the village. The property adjoining the Holland place on the west, which must be our village boundary in this direction, was owned in 1848 by Abraham Levering, who named it Illinova. It was occupied by his son, William, while the place immedi ately opposite to it on the north side of the Turnpike, now owned by Miss Kate Lesher, was owned by the same gentle man, and was the residence of his son, John. The father, Abraham Levering, owned and resided on the farm now made famous as the palatial residence of Percival Roberts, Esq., on Flat Rock Summit. His family consisted of ten children. In addition to the above-mentioned, there were three boys, Joseph H., a prominent physician, who was murdered at Humphrey- ville (now Bryn Mawr) in 1865; Abraham, Jr., and Jeiferson; and five daughters, Eleanor, the first wife of Charles Kugler, Esq.; Catharine, widow of David Morgan, of Ingeborg; Han nah, wife of Christopher H. Garden, of Philadelphia; Deborah and Annie. The surviving brothers reside in Indiana. But it is of the William Levering property we are writing. In the early days of our "recollections" the present Alfred Godwin homestead, served the same purpose for William Lev ering. The old stone house, then one of the best in the village, has been greatly enlarged and improved by successive owners, but the front portion of stone is not very greatly altered in appearance in half a century. There were about fourteen acres embraced in the property, and in the forties there were standing on it, in addition to the homestead, a small tenant house and a blacksmith shop. The house was a low one-and-a-half story frame, and stood very near to the present location of the stable of William McCon- aghy on Wyoming avenue. It was occupied for many years by James Shaw. The little stone smith shop, which was later converted into a dwelling house, stood close to the Turnpike, EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE " JQQ

about where the two new stores recently built by Alfonzo Talone now stand. . In this house (formerly the smithy) lived in 1849 a very honest and industrious colored man named Israel Roman, whose calling was that of a well-digger. He did a good busi ness, as in those days everybody was obliged to have a water well or "catch rain water," it being long before the first thought had been bestowed upon piping water over twelve miles for village consumption. One afternoon, about the year named, the village was thrown into a condition of excitement, occasioned by the announcement that Roman was dead at the bottom of the well at the Levering home, and that it was impossible to recover his body, the well being very deep, with several feet of water covering the body. The story proved to be true in every par ticular, further investigation revealing the fact that the well was filled with foul gases to such an extent that it was impos sible to descend into it. No appliances for grappling for the body were available, so that it remained at the bottom of the well until Nathan Thomson, the then village blacksmith, forged a hook with which the body was soon brought to the surface. The excitement attending the accident was greater by far than would be occasioned today by a similar accident befalling one of the most prominent men of the village. But the times have changed, the sudden death of even a great man being not more than a nine days' wonder. Roman's successor in business dug a new well for Mr. Levering as his first job. In 1854, Mr. Levering removed to Lafayette, Indiana, where he almost immediately established headquarters as State Superintendent of Sabbath School Work, to which and kindred religious effort among the young people lie devoted his life. He is yet living in Lafayette, Ind., and has only recently written assurances of much interest in the story of his old home as told in our reminiscences. We congratulate him on his vigorous old age. In 1853 this property was purchased by Simon Mudge, a 210 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Philadelphia merchant, who occupied it as a residence until 1865. During his ownership, three, at least, of his daughters were married from this house. The older people of the place must remember the charivari, or callithumpian, serenade ten dered to the eldest daughter, Emma, and her husband, Charles S. Throckmorton, who, most imprudently, remained at Mr. Mudge's house the night of the wedding day. A description of this musical (?) fete will be permitted as a digression, for the reason that while it was not an Athens- ville conception, it was universally practiced in the village on all convenient and appropriate opportunities. On the occasion of Miss Mudge's marriage, which was very select, the noc turnal concert was opened with an overture very soon after the performance of the ceremony, and before any of the guests had left the house, the curtain rising on the performance about 8:30. It is proper to say that the groom was very well known in the neighborhood, but belonged to the fraction of the 400 who honored Athensville with the distinguishment of even a sparking acquaintance. The "Captain" of the troupe on this occasion was Edwin Stadelman, then in the coal busi ness in the village. He proved his ability as an organizer by enrolling nearly one hundred men and boys as musicians, each one of whom provided his own instrument and performed on it in his own sweet (?) way. Captain Stadelman was the only man especially dressed for the occasion. He wore overalls and a jumper and a silk hat. On each shoulder was fastened a well-worn whitewash brush as epaulettes, while he carried in his hand a pick handle as his baton and wand of authority. The instruments consisted of every known and several un known (up to the time) noise-makers, the leading instrument being then, as always, the horse-fiddle. For the information of the last generation of readers, this instrument should be described. It was the largest packing box in the village, or a box larger than that, if time was given for its construction. It required no lid, the top edges of the sides of the box con stituting the points of contact for a sixteen-foot hemlock three by four, which was the fiddle bow, one rasp of which across the box would terrorize a cemetery. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE m

On the evening in question the troupe gathered all around the Mudge residence, observing the most profound silence, but every performer awaiting the Captain's signal to play. The bridal party were in the refreshment room when the pick handle was wielded, directing the opening of the concert, and here we stop for want of words. It cannot be told. A few dogs who had accompanied the performers to the scene added to the din their final yelps as they started for home, and Isaac Warner's hogs, quietly sleeping in his orchard 100 yards away, broke through the intervening fence and scampered across lots to Haverford College Farm, where they were sorted out from amongst the swine belonging to the College farmer and re turned the next morning. The concert continued for some hours, until the bride and groom "made their appearance" and shook hands with the Captain, when the entertainment was declared ended and the troupe disbanded, only, however, until another opportunity was presented for a similar effort. In April, 1865, Mr. Mudge sold the property to Bernard Sprungk, who occupied it for less than two years, when it was sold at Sheriff's sale to Charlotte E., wife of Samuel Slay- maker. Mr. Slaymaker was a broker, with his office in Phil adelphia. He repaired the house and increased it in size, con tinuing to reside in it until about 1884, when it became the property of the Ardmore Real Estate Association, which at that time consisted of William Miles, William G. Lesher, Henry Blithe and Walter W. Hood. By this company Wyoming and Locust avenues and other streets were opened and dedicated to the township, the entire tract divided into lots, all of which have been sold and many of them re-sold, and nearly all built upon. On the rear of the Mudge property, adjoining the large farm of Haverford College, was a pond or lake having a sur face of over an acre, and, there are yet living several men who, as boys, had their first swim in Mudge's dam, and possibly as many women who there, as girls, took their original tumble on skates. Just south of this pond, on the same stream, in the rear 112 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

of what is now Duncantown, on the Haverford College prop erty, was another pond, larger, deeper and in every way better than the Mudge pond, invariably called "the Quaker dam," being maintained by the college as a swimming pool for the students. Some of the wealthiest of Philadelphia's business men are among the number who, as boys in the forties and fifties were given at times, by members of the faculty, their first lessons in water athletics in this old Quaker dam. Professors Joseph G. Harlan and Moses Stevens, of the college faculty, are remembered as instructors to boys who are now old men. Scarcely a vestige of either pond is left, while the little stream which fed them, rising at Anderson's spring on the pike, flowing through Ellis Maris's meadow, now the property of A. A. Hirst, Esq., then through the Haverford College grounds and the Llewellyn farm and on to Cobb's Creek, has decreased in volume, its sparkling purity being a remembrance only, while its very course has been changed to push it farther away from the improvements built almost upon its banks. The John Levering property before referred to is now owned and occupied by Miss Kate Lesher. The improvements upon it are practically as they were fifty years ago. The old stone house has been the subject of some change in appearance as well as convenience, but the old walls, built in the long ago, yet stand. When Mr. William G. Lesher, Sr., moved from the farm on Church road to this property, about the year 1856, he added somewhat to the buildings and beautifully improved the grounds, the yard in front and at the side of the house being planted with flowers and plants in a most attractive manner. An old ice house in this yard did not harmonize with its surroundings and was torn down. During the tenancy of John Levering the place was very plainly but neatly kept, which means more than is at first apparent — the neatly cut grass being the result of tedious clipping with sickle and scissors, as, while "there were pro phets in those days," there were no lawn mowers. Having referred briefly to William, we have but to repeat our reference in speaking of John. They were twin brothers. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE

remarkably resembling' each other in appearance and being equally alike in habits, character, disposition and in all other respects. They were of the very best of the eaiiy residents of the old village, and it was and yet is regrettable that the village lost them in its infancy and in their comparative youth.' This property was sold in 1850 by the Levering family to Jane K. Pogue; later to Joseph Hunt, and about 1855 to Wil liam Thompson, who occupied it for about two years, when it was acquired by Mr. William G. Lesher. During the time cov ered by those numerous transfers the place contained about four and a quarter acres, lying on both sides of the Pennsyl vania Railroad, embracing the lot now owned by Smedley & Mehl, used as their coal yard; the Haverford Electric Light Works and the Samuel Williams property. In 1883 the Smedley & Mehl lot was conveyed by Mr. Lesher to Jacob L., William and Samuel F. Stadelman, execu tors of Jacob Stadelman, deceased, and the coal business re moved from opposite the station to this lot, where it was very profitably carried on by Jacob L. Stadelman for seyeral years, when it was sold to Henry F. Bruhner, who held it but a short time, when he sold it to H. W. & R. Smedley, who held the title for about two months, when it was again sold to Smedley & Mehl, the present owners. Of Mr. Lesher's family of five children three are yet living. Margaret, widow of Enoch Clevenger, who was the first of Mr. Lesher's family to marry, and who owns and for years resided on the" farm on Haverford road, a part of which is how the beautiful lake and pumping station of the Springfield Water Co. (Mrs. Clevenger now owns and occupies one of the neatest and most attractive of Ardmore avenue's pretty homes); Emma, wife of Henry Blithe, of Philadelphia, but largely in terested in Ardmore real estate; and Miss Kate, owner of the John Levering residence on Lancaster avenue, or, more prop erly speaking, the old homestead, are all of the generation who survive. A daughter, Julia, and an only son, William G., are deceased. 214 bulletin of historical SOCIETy OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Lehigh avenue was not opened until a comparatively recent date, the Lesher property adjoining the Litzenberg lot, now Murray's coal yard and feed mills, but then Litzenberg's sid ing, coal yard and feed store. The easternmost half of this property is now owned by Mr. Lesher's daughter—Mrs. Emma Blithe. For some years Charles Kenderdine was a tenant of this property and is remembered as being a most useful and influ ential villager. He never became a property owner in the place —which was a matter of regret—he being a really aggressive advocate of public or village improvement, of whom there were then not too many in evidence in suburban towns. When the Pennsylvania Railroad was straightened between Ardmore and Rosemont the overhead bridge on Lehigh avenue was built, there never having previously been a crossing or even a road at this place. The opening of the road, while not particularly favored by the owners of the properties abutting on it, proved of great value to these opponents, transforming as it did the lots from pasture fields into the best business loca tions in the place. But the old owners were obliged to leave to their heirs and assigns the pecuniary reward of their defeated opposition — another evidence of the fact that "taking no thought of the morrow" is not a good sentiment in real estate transactions or the opening of necessary roads. We must not go beyond the properties lying on the west side of Lehigh avenue in writing of what is now conceded to be Ardmore, although, were we writing exclusively of Athensville, we would feel justified in going almost as far west, in laying our claims, as Haverford Station. Crossing Montgomery avenue at Lehigh avenue, we have, as the northern boundary of the village, the large farm owned until recently by Dr. Joseph W. Anderson, extending east- wardly along Montgomery avenue a distance of nearly 4000 feet, and containing over 100 acres. It will not be an exaggeration to say that fifty years ago the farm and its owner were known from one end of the county to the other, the former as being one of the most valuable with- EAELY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE in a radius of miles, and the latter as being one of the leading physicians of his time, as well as one of the wealthiest men of the Township. Until quite recently this property has been unimproved with other than the fine old residence and farm buildings erected long before our "recollections" can be made to apply. It was not offered for sale at a price attractive to investors, or, in fact, at any price, being farmed in 1900 as it was in 1850, until the experienced eye of Mr. C. J. Mcllvain, to whom price is subordinated to desirability in everything, fell upon it, the result being a complete transformation from a fertile, but of late years unprofitable, farm to a countryside unsurpassed in Eastern Pennsylvania, dotted with beautiful homes, traversed by the best built roads, planted and ornamented with the choicest trees and plants, and in every possible way made most attractive. The old farm has been in the Anderson family since the twenties, our earliest, as well as our latest, recollections of it being that it has always been known as the Doctor Anderson, farm. It descended from Dr. James, the father, to Dr. Joseph, the son, the latter retaining the ownership up almost to the time of his death. In addition to this farm, the elder Dr. Anderson owned several smaller tracts and lots of land in and near to the village and in other parts of Eastern Pennsylvania, as will appear as our writings continue, as well as several much larger tracts in Clarion County. The road leading from the Lancaster Turnpike to the en trance to his home on the Old Road, now named officially as Anderson avenue, was then Anderson's lane, and the grade crossing which is now supplanted by the overhead bridge at Ardmore Station, and which was in the early forties the stop ping place for the few trains running on the old Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad, was called Anderson's crossing. The road, recently officially named Glenn's lane, was orig inally known as Mill Creek road, although for a long time it, too, bore the name of Anderson's lane. It was for a long time the only road leading from the Turnpike to Mill Creek between BULLETIN OF HISTOKICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Bryn Mawr and the present Cherry lane, at Wynnewood Manor. Travel to the creek with its then numerous mills and fac tories, as well as to "The War Office," the original name for Merion Square, was all confined to this very hilly and narrow road, which was then a much-traveled thoroughfare, a condition that was corrected in the early seventies, largely through the efforts of Dr. Edmund 0. Evans, who, as a pioneer in cham pioning good roads, succeeding in having opened through the Anderson farm, the present excellent and comparatively road, not, however, without encountering strenuous opposition from the owner of the land, who saw in the proposed improvement only the irreparable mutilation of his farm. The wisdom of the effort was immediately manifested in that the old road became an unused lane, while the new one was used by every driver between Bryn Mawr and the City Line who had occasion to drive from the Turnpike in the direction of the Schuylkill River. It is conceded to be one of the best and most necessary of all the highways in the Township. The.Ajiderson family owned the lot where Ardmore Station now stands, and it was with no little difficulty, and in the face of the most determined opposition on the part of the owner (the- young Doctor), that the Railroad Company secured the lot for station purposes. On the south side of Montgomery avenue, east of Smedley & Mehl's lumber yards, the family owned several small lots, as also the Dr^ George S. Gerhard property, on the corner of Montgomery and Anderson avenues. In other parts of the Township the elder Doctor and his descendants owned a num ber of small places, while his name appears on the records in connection with numerous mortgage holdings and other inter ests, indicating that in the forties and later. Dr. James Ander son was one of Montgomery County's most prosperous, as well as one of its best known, men, while in public affairs; the religious interests of the neighborhood and his devotion to the cause of temperance, he earned for himself a name in the old village which is yet respected and honored by the few of those who knew him who are yet living. ANDERSON HOMESTEAD IN 1911 SIMPKINS-McAFEE HOUSE IN 1913 (photographs by Charles R. Darker) EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE ^17

His family was a very large one, he having married twice. Ten children are remembered by the writer, but there were at least four more than this number who died when quite young. Three of his sons followed the profession of their father and became well known to the medical world. These were Isaac W., James Rush and Joseph W., the last named being well remem bered by nearly every.reader of this story. A daughter, Sarah, married Mr. William A. Fisher, late of Bryn Mawr, of whom William Righter Fisher, Esq., a member of the Philadelphia bar, is the only son, and Naomi, wife of Dr. J. A. Linn, is the only daughter. James Rush was an ordained minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as a practitioner of medicine. He frequently preached in the nearby churches, but never prac ticed his profession in the village, except when called as a con sultant. He died in 1863. A daughter, Mary, married John Buckman, of Burlington, N. J. Another daughter, Naomi, died unmarried at her father's home, in 1860. She was one of the loveliest of women. A. Jackson, a member of the Montgomery County bar; Ultimus Adjutor, the .youngest son, and Dr. Joseph W., the last to die, all passed away within the last few years. The only survivors of the large family are John F., residing near Bridgeport, Montgomery County, and Miss Corona B., the youngest of the children, who owns and resides in the old homestead, now known as St. George's, being the only one' of two or three generations of this large family to remain during a lifetime in the village and to continuously reside for all that lifetime in the house wherein she was born. The old house has been changed from a farm house to a lovely country home, while its environment has changed from. the little village to a bustling town. Of all the large family who have occupied the place during almost a century but one remains in the village, but the name of Anderson will be asso ciated with the place when all who bore the name have passed away. Dr. James Anderson died on June 1st, 1858, at the home- wherein he had passed a long and very useful life. The old Hg BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP MONTGOMERY COUNTY house, now greatly improved in appearance and convenience, was the old Doctor's residence, his office and his farmhouse. As his home it was all that the word implies; as his office it was the Mecca for almost all the early residents of the village when illness or accident demanded his attention and advice, and as his farmhouse it was the headquarters from which, during his lifetime and for many years subsequent to his death, emanated all the directions required in the manage ment of a large farm, when farming was a very different proposition from what it is today. Before the years of the Civil War there was a small tenant house situated in the field, about midway between the old homestead and the western boundary of the property. It stood well back from the old Lancaster road and was not either pretentious, ornate or commodious. It was occupied by the help on the farm — one of whom is remembered as John McGann — a most faithful and devoted Irishman. A few of his descendants yet reside in the vicinity, who are among the best of our people. He was a most honest and industrious farm hand, and, while in the employ of the Doctor, accumu lated sufficient to purchase a home for himself in the somewhat unromantic suburb of Haverford, known at that time and yet as Kilkenny, although it is not that way on the map. The old house has long since been torn down, and it may be truly said that the place thereof knows it no more, for it is now part of a beautiful residential section, and in its stead are built and being built homes such as few sections of the township have to be proud of. Dr. Joseph W. Anderson, having been until so recently a resident of the village, there will be little in the nature of recollections to be written regarding him or his life as one of the most influential of all our village folk. He was a Christian gentleman, peculiar in some things, but consistent in all. Quiet and reserved in manner, able in his profession which he may be said to have practiced for his love of the profession and humanity rather than for gain, his charges to the poor being such as the patient chose to pay rather than such as he was warranted in exacting. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE

He retired from active practice some years before his death, when the growth and prosperity of the village had attracted to it more physicians than were in the township when he succeeded to his honored father's practice, and when failing health required the taking of the rest he had so well earned. The youngest of the sons of Dr. James Anderson was named Ultimus Adjutor—so named because he was to be "the last helper." He died only a few years ago and is, therefore, almost as well remembered as is the younger doctor. He was a big, big-hearted, honest farmer — a friend to everybody and everybody's friend. Physically he was an athlete. Eschewing the profession of his father and brothers he chose the rugged life of the farm and the quarry, and for years he managed the farm for his brother and did it well. The scythe and the grain cradle, the sledge and the drill were to him as mere playthings, for heloved them all in their day and generation, which was before the time of reapers and binders, mowers and other farm machin ery which he lived to see supplant his old-time equipment. The large quarry on the Mill Creek road he opened with his own hands and assisted in its development until hundreds of thousands of tons of stone were taken from it. But the farm is gone and the quarry is no more—^the one being a beautiful countryside, while the other is covered by a velvety lawn which surrounds a beautiful suburban home. •Reference has been made to the fact that in the long past Dr. James Anderson owned the lot on the corner of Anderson and Montgomery avenues, which was sold by Dr. Joseph W. Anderson to Dr. George S. Gerhard, and upon which Dr. Ger hard built the home he has until recently occupied. This own ership, or, rather, this lot, is entitled to more than passing reference, for upon it, almost in the exact spot now occupied by Dr. Gerhard's stable, stood "The Little Bethel," and the story of "Little Bethel" must be told. It was a very plain, simple, one-story stone building, in size about twenty by thirty feet, having double-pitch shingled roof, with the front gable, or entrance quite close to the road. Both within and without 120 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY it was white-washed—a fresh coat being applied every spring. A door in front, with a window on each side of it; three wln- dos on each side, with two in the rear, made of the little build ing a tjT)ical school house of half a century ago. •In front of the little building.stood two giant buttonwood trees, which were cut down long after the old gentleman's death. To have attempted their destruction during his lifetime would have provoked a tragedy. The building was erected by Dr. James Anderson for the convenience of his own and a few neighboring children in ob taining a primary education and for the further purpose of accommodating the neighborhood with a place in which Sun day School could be held or small religious gatherings pro vided for. The Doctor selected the teacher of the day school, furnished the wood for heating the room and the scrubbers for cleaning it. The candles with which it was lighted were made at his house, and the bucket of drinking water was carried from his spring. A number of the neighboring youth were scholars under this private teacher employed by the Doctor—a small charge being made to meet the expense of tuition, while every child supplied himself or herself with books, slate, etc., as re quired by the teacher as ammunition in teaching the young idea gunnery—and some other things. The writer's first day at school was spent in the "Little Bethel," very much to the teacher's discomfiture, as he was feelingly advised just before the hour for closing, when the teacher enforced a ruling which hurt. But it was the Sunday School that made the fame of "Little Bethel," if not world wide, at least township wide, for every body in Lower Merion knew of. the little school. For many years Mr. William A. Fisher, a son-in-law of Dr. Anderson, who later became a licensed preacher of the Methodist Epis copal Church, and whose death only a few years since was so sincerely mourned, was superintendent, while Mr. George Blithe, a resident of the village (being at that time the owner of the property now owned by the estate of Charles Stark, on Cricket avenue), was assistant superintendent. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE ^21

The school was Union throughout—creed, color, sex, age, height, "nor any other creature" acted as a bar to attendance at this school. All were welcome, the consequence being that some of the best men and women and any number of the worst who in later years contributed to the village fame could trace their early spiritual training to the "Little Bethel" Sunday School. The furniture of the little room was of the plainest, con sisting of benches, some high, some low, some with backs and some without, but all hard. A pulpit or reading desk and a very plain and very small bookcase for housing the scanty library, together with an old-fashioned wood-burning stove completed the equipment. The good old Methodist hymns were read from the pulpit. The singing was "raised" by Mr. Blithe, and the col lection "lifted" by one or more of the worst of the boy scholars, while the sheet-iron stove served as a heater for the room, and its hot top served admirably as a place for the same sort of boy as took up the collection to drop a piece of asafoetida or a pinch of red pepper during prayers. More than once has an early amen been brought about by the introduction in this way of a motion for prompt adjourn ment. At the time of which we are writing "The Little Bethel" Sunday School was the only one in the village, notwithstanding existing necessities. The old Lutheran. Church, then standing in the corner of the graveyard on Church road, conducted a Sunday School in the little old building still standing, only dur ing the summer months, but the "Litttle Bethel" School was open all the year. No more faithful Sabbath School officers than Messrs. Fisher and Blithe ever exercised such functions in any similar body. It was never too inclement for them to be at their posts, and only serious illness occasioned the absence of either. The same may be said of the teachers, among whom we recall the late Dr. Joseph W. Anderson and his sister Naomi; Mr. and Mrs. Joseph T. Pearce; Hannah, eldest daugh ter of Nathan Thomson, later the wife of Josiah Longacre; William Rudolph, a licensed exhorter of the Methodist Church; and others. There were then no lesson leaflets or prepared 2^22 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county studies for the children, the exercises being confined to a study of and recitation from the Bible, with invariably an address by the Superintendent. The rewards for attendance and for committing verses of Scripture to memory were little blue and red tickets, each hav ing printed upon it a Scripture text. One blue ticket was the reward for attendance, one blue for committing six verses of the scholar's own selection; six blues were exchanged for one red, and on anniversary days the reds were good for a book costing anywhere from a fip to a dollar, according to the num ber of tickets earned and not lost. The attendance was always up to the capacity of the little building, for there was no golf nor baseball, nor anything of a similar religious character to attract the children on Sunday afternoons, so that everybody went to Sunday School. And then there were celebrations when the "Little Bethel" joined with the Lutheran and the Union of Humphreysville, and Coopertown and Fairview, for a day in the woods. It was the event of the year. The time was usually a day in August, when a thunder storm was scheduled for the afternoon; the place, "a woods," anywhere. All rode to the grounds in wagons, or walked. No automobiles or bicycles were ever seen at a Sunday School picnic fifty years ago. A stand for the speakers, benches for the scholars, and tables for the refreshments were erected the day previous to the celebration, delegations from each school participating, meeting in the grove to do this work. The exercises consisted of singing, speaking by the minis ters, declamations, single double, triangular and worse, by the children from each school, and refreshments. All the former were endured in blissful expectation of the latter. At noon it was bread and ham and sometimes pie, and then amusements for two hours; swings, quoits, corner ball and sometimes Cop enhagen filled the gap between speeches, and at four in the afternoon it was lemonade and cake and the thunder storm, when all who could took refuge in, under or within sight of the wagons, and then all went home, if not happier and better than when they came, they were at least fuller and wetter. Less than a score of those who, as scholars, attended the EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 223

schools held in "Little Bethel," are now living, while possibly not more than twice that number have any recollection of hav ing seen the old building; but its influence for good has been and, let us hope, is yet, felt in the neighborhood it so well and SO inexpensively served for so many eventful years. The little building was frequently used for mid-week prayer-meetings, under the direction of Mr. Fisher, Mr. Blithe or some member of the Doctor's family, there being then, as has been said, but one church in the village, and that some what inaccessible, the road leading to it, now so smooth and dry, being then a mass of quicksand held in place by hundreds of buried cedar bushes and tons of stone which were annually lost to sight and are not even now to memory dear. This old building was torn down to make place for the improvements which, there as elsewhere, went to transform Athensville into Ardmore, not even a picture of it being in existence, for in its day and generation there were no kodaks. It was one of the landmarks of the early days, and we think deserves the extended notice we have accorded it. Not one of the officers or teachers of the little Sunday School is living to day, while of the scholars whom we recall as sitting with us in the "Little Bethel," nearly all have "joined the innumerable throng." The lot on the southeast corner of Montgomery and Ander son avenues was purchased in 1867 from Priscilla, widow of Henry Purdy, by Dr. Joseph W. Anderson. In the original deed made to Henry Purdy in 1825 he is named as "Henry Purdy, a colored man," and there was no error in the description of the man. He was never ashamed of his color, and made no protest against being called a "nigger,", always claiming that "nig gers" were of two kinds, black and white, and that while the black variety were as "ornary" as possible, the white variety were worse. This lot was about 150 feet square, and Purdy had built upon it a small stone house fronting on the old road, and quite near the eastern, or Jacob Sibley, property line. Attached to the house was a frame wagon-shed, back of which was a frame stable. ^24 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

•He was what is known as a huckster, driving about the country with his wares, and always keeping in stock in the wagon-shed, among other things, a supply of the best oysters purchasable, a commodity of which he was a most excellent judge, and of which his wife "Prissy" was an equally excellent cook. In the early fifties Purdy's was the only place nearer than Philadelphia where oysters could be had, and there was no man then in the village too aesthetic to stand at the tail of Purdy's wagon and eat while-he knocked them open. He attended all the public sales or vendues, of which there were then a great many, and sold from the same old white- covered wagon the "raws," while his bowls of oyster soup- costing a "fip," cooked on a charcoal furnace at his side, were always well worth the money. For a "levy," or levenpenny bit, which was two "fips," or twelve and one-half cents, a plate of raw and a bowl of soup could be had, including the crackers, which the old man broke with a little mallet and dropped "in the soup." For a quarter, a very sturdy farmer could be made to feel like a gourmand. Notwithstanding the competition in this vendue trade, which naturally sprang into existence, it was seldom indeed that Purdy did not sell out. It was charged against the old man that oyster soup was not the only liquid refreshment sold from his wagon, but the charges were met by the assertion that he had never had a license to sell anything but oysters, which was true. A number of good village stories have been told with Henry Purdy as either the hero or the victim, and possibly an equal number wherein his wife figured in the same way. One or two will bear repetition. He was at one time engaged to post the bills for a large stock sale in the neighborhood. Taking his hammer and tacks and paste-pot, he proceeded with the work and, being unable to read, he posted every bill on fence, telegraph pole or other convenient place upside down. The public thought it a scheme to attract attention, and consequently everybody read the bill at the risk of having to undergo an operation for the removal EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 125 of a cataract, and the sale proved to be the best sale of the season. About the year 1864 he was struck by a locomotive at And erson's crossing and instantly killed just as he had finished a colloquy with a neighbor over the absence of a hired man lately employed by Jonathan Haycock, who then owned the property on Montgomery avenue now owned by Mrs. Sarah B. Mason. Purdy, referring to the missing employee, said, "He run oif, didn't he?" "Yes," replied his friend, "he went on the cars and took his portmantle." "Portmantle de debbil," said Purdy, "'Twant no portmantle at all, 'twas a menice." His wife claimed to be Priscilla McClellan, being a manu mitted slave of the family whose name she changed for love of Purdy. She was a well-known character in the village, and vis ited with the best families. Her claim to having been reared in the McClellan family was well-founded and genuine, as was proven repeatedly by the quite frequent visits of the well- known family to her humble, but always neat, home. The Gen eral has on more than one occasion been a guest of "Aunt Prissy" and verified her claim that she had nursed him in baby hood, watched over his boyhood and retained the respect of his manhood. It was no unusual thing to see the McClellan family barouche stop at her door and unload, the visitors "staying to supper," while the horses, coachman and footman were mean while cared for at the Red Lion. On these occasions Henry would remark, "Keeps a fellow busy knocken de heads offen de chickens for Prissy's 'ristocrats." She died in 1870 at the Home for Aged Colored Persons, at Belmont and Girard avenues. West Philadelphia, of which in stitution she became an inmate some years previously through the influence of Dr. Anderson, who in this way applied the old "mammy's" means to securing her every comfort in her de clining years. Her remains lie beside those of her husband in the-graveyard of the Radnor M. E. Church, of which she had been for many years a most devoted member, and where ser vices were held at the time of her funeral, when in a very large attendance for such an occasion, there was not one colored per son present, but at which the best families of the vicinity were 126 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

represented, to honor and evidence their respect for a really remarkable woman, even though of a race which does not at this time command the respect to which it might well be entitled. Immediately after acquiring the Purdy property, Dr. And erson remodeled the old house and added largely to its capacity and convenience. The old buildings were all torn down and the little place converted into an attractive cottage home which was leased to Mr. Edw. Steele and a Wharton family of Phila- .delphia, for some years, when it was purchased by the late Allen B. Rorke, who removed all the buildings, graded the grounds and turned the old place into his lawn. How well he did it is attested by a glance at it today. It is now the propertj' of Edwin S. Dixon, Esq., being a part of the beautiful sur roundings of one of Ardmore's handsomest homes. This property, now owned by Mr. Dixon, familiarly known in recent years as the McAllister place or the Rorke property, was, in the early days, a portion of the Stephen Goodman tract. The Goodman family had, previous to the earliest of our recol lections, been owners of considerable tracts lying between Anderson's farm and St. Mary's, the farm of Owen and Mary Jones. Stephen Goodman was a brother of Catharine, wife of Jacob Sibley. Mr. Goodman owned north of the Turnpike, which included, in addition to the Edwin S. Dixon property, a part of the property recently purchased from Josiah S. Pearce by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and a lot now embraced in the westernmost end of the property of Mr. G. A. Warner. Mrs. Sibley owned south of the Turnpike the land now owned by Henry Becker, Josiah S. Pearce, The Ardmore & Llanerch Street Railway Co., William C. McCIintock, The First Baptist Church, Daniel Shupert and others on the southeast side of Cricket avenue above Athens avenue. In 1879 the heirs of Catharine Sibley, who died the year before and who had inherited the Stephen Goodman tract, sold the Dixon place to Charles E. Blumner, who erected the large stone house, but was unable to complete the other contemplated improvements.' He sold, two years later, to James W. McAllis ter, Esq., president of The Franklin Fire Insurance Company, EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 127

one of the best of all Ardmore's short term residents, who in (?•) 1891 sold to the late Allen B. Rorke, who greatly enlarged and improved it by buying the Purdy lot, thoroughly remodel ing the already fine residence, erecting stables, conservatories, etc., and generally beautifying the place, making of it one of the very handsomest homes in the village. He was, however, not long permitted to enjoy it. The messenger that so fre quently comes in the midst of life, took him at the very zenith of his usefulness, when his heirs sold to Mr. Dixon, the present owner. Stephen Goodman, or "Uncle Stevey," as he was best known, was never married, and for years prior to his death, which occurred in 1854, he lived with his sister, Mrs. Sibley, in the old farm house, built over 100 years ago, which was recently demolished to make place for the new trolley station, A brother, George, who also resided with this sister, was killed by the cars, just in rear of the house now owned by the Estate of Dr. Robert H. Alison, in the year 1849. Jacob Sibley farmed the little place described above as be ing on the south side of the Turnpike, until his death, which occurred in 1856. His children were: William, of whom we shall speak later; Charles; George Washington; Jacob; Catharine, wife of Ed win Urian; Elizabeth, wife of Thomas McClintock; and Mary Ann, wife of Amos Parsons, of Merionville, the last named be ing the youngest and only surviving child. The writer well remembers this very honest, upright and exceedingly industrious old man, and his equally honest, just and good wife. The time of which we write was in the days when there were no milk-men in Athensville, Sibley furnish ing the daily supply of that necessity to many nearby families. Daily trips to the old milk house and daily pleasant greetings by this kind old body are a bright spot in our early recollections. The old lady smoked, not a bad-smelling pipe, but cigars, and more than once to old-fashioned pennies have been given the writer, one "for keeps," and the other to be expended at Litzenberg's store for either four "commons" or two "half Spanish" for the old lady's comfort. They were not ornamented 128 bulletin of HISTOEICAL society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

with gaudy bands, nor even sold from boxes stamped by the Revenue Department of the Government, but it could be truly said of them that while neither beautiful in appearance nor delicious in aroma, there was an element of strength within them that does not attach to the best brands manufactured at this time. The property now owned by Mrs. Sarah B. Mason, fronting Montgomery avenue and extending through to the railroad, adjoining the Dr. Gerhard property on the west, was owned in 1842 by George Epright. Almost every Ardmorean refers to it as the Philip Garrett place, he being a recent owner and well- known resident. The writer's parents removed from what is now Bryn Mawr to this place in 1842, and to the best of his knowledge, he accompanied the parents, but was not of much assistance in the moving, being then of the unripe age of one year. This tenancy continued for a short time, or only until the new house being built at the time by Mr. William Miles for the Pearce family was completed, the new house being now one of the oldest in the village. It is now owned by the estate of John G. Mc- Menamin, and was until recently the home and business place of Mr. H. 0. Gruber. When the writer moved his parents to the new home, the Epright place was rented to John Clopp, who had built upon it a small shop which he used in the manufacture of cigars, long before the days when these contributors to solace and a bad habit were required to be made only in a registered factory in order that they might become an item in the Government's revenue account. The little shop stood quite close to the Little Bethel and was a busy place in the then quiet village. Clopp made high- priced cigars his specialty, his "special brand" at $1.00 per hundred being a favorite with connoisseurs. There was. no de mand then for Cincos or Marcellos, but preferences change with the times, even in the flavor of a smoke. About 1850 the place was bought by Jonathan Haycock, who took down Glopp's factory, using the ground as a truck garden for about ten years, when, at his death, it descended by EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORB j[29

will to his widow, Mary Ann Haycock, who is remembered by many of our present villagers as one of the kindest and best of women. Her patience and submissive endurance of years of acute suffering preceding her death were remarkable evidences of Christian resignation and fortitude. She was an aunt of Philip S. Garrett, who acquired the property through her and who, as soon as his ownership was established, rebuilt the house and all the other buildings on the place, thereby making of it a very comfortable, as well as a very pretty, home. In the "year 1897, a short time before his death, he and his wife Elizabeth, who was the youngest daugh ter of Samuel McAfee, transferred the title to the present owner, who has removed all the old buildings and erected in their place one of Ardmore's neatest and most attractive homes. Between the Clopp tenancy and the Haycock purchase the place was occupied for a time by Err Davis as a renter. He was the father of the late Morgan R. Davis, Sr., of Haverford; Mrs. Daniel Shupert, of Bryn Mawr; Elijah, Barbara and Err, Jr., who was the youngest son. Bearing the father's Christian name he was known to everybody as "Boss." He was the nerviest boy of his time, as was evidenced on an occasion when he was about twelve years of age. He was sleep ing in the old house which stood quite near to the spot on which the Mason house now stands, when about midnight he heard a noise which satisfied him that an attempt was being made to burglarize the house by boring holes in the back door. Without alarming any one either inside or outside of the house, he took a double-barrelled shotgun belonging to his brother which he hung out of a window immediately over the head of the thief and only a few feet distant, discharging both barrels at the same time into the head and shoulders of the operator of the boring tool. Naturally the shot alarmed the village, particu larly that part of it comprising the Davis family, who, upon going to the Boss's room to investigate, found him quietly re turning to his bed as though nothing unusual had occurred. The burglar's tools and a badly cullenderized hat were found at the door, and a trail of blood' led across the fields 130 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

toward Mill Creek, but the burglar was not apprehended, the Police Department of the township not then having, as now, bloodhounds "on the force." Burglaries in the village, which had heretofore been quite frequent, immediately fell oif several points, and "Boss" was for some time not only the village lion, but really the entire menagerie. Samuel McAfee, the father of Mrs. Garrett, resided with his daughter in this house for all the years intervening between the time of the sale of his place to Mr. Glenn and his death, which occurred in 1875. Since the death of Mr. Glenn the McAfee farm has been divided into several small but very beautiful places. Mr. Glenn's son-in-law, Dr. Charles C. Royce, owns the mansion and the tenant house nearby, while William T. Elliott, Esq., George Clymer Brooke, Esq., and others have shared in the division and in vying with each other in beautifying the 'old McAfee farm. But we will write now of the man and later of the farm and its previous owner. In addition to being a good farmer, Mr. McAfee was an excellent judge of horses and an equally good horse doctor! He may truthfully be said to have been the David Harum of his day in Athensvllle. His opinion and services were then in great demand, there being no veterinary in the village or near to it, and as he never charged a neighbor for either advice or attend ance, he was naturally a much-sought adviser. His general knowledge of veterinary science, gathered as it was from a little study and a large amount of experience, saved the neigh boring farmers many of their dollars, while no estimate is pos sible of the value of his ministrations to suffering animals. It was never too early, too late, too inclement or too incon venient for Samuel McAfee to attend and relieve a sick or suf fering beast. His remains lie under the very eaves of Old St. David's Church of Radnor, beside those of his wife and near to those of a generation of his forbears, and not far from the scenes oi his early life of almost a century ago. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 131

He is survived by two daughters, Elizabeth Garrett and Sarah, wife of Garrett Kitzelman, the former residing in Phil adelphia, and the latter in this village. We have spoken of Philip S. Garrett as one of the owners of this property and as possibly the owner best known to those who will read our story. From his early manhood he was a resident of the village, having come to the place before his majority, to learn the trade of carpenter with the late Philip L. Goodman, when learning the trade signified more than it does today. He learned it thor oughly, married a village maiden, lived in the village all the remaining years of his life with the exception of the last two. He died in West Philadelphia in 1899, having removed there only a short time previously. He was for many years foreman for Mr. C. Anderson Warner, at one time the leading builder of the place, and in that capacity he had charge of the building of many of the best buildings in Ardmore and its vicinity. He was one of the few good workmen who never aspired to the position and dignity of a master builder, being content to do for others that which he could well have done for himself. In politics, as in his calling, he was not an aspirant for honors or position, never seeking office, but working assidu ously for others; always in the ranks of his party (the Demo cratic) but never aspiring to lead it; never dictating, always following and always to be depended upon. His widow, a son Lewis M., and a daughter Eliza (both married) survive him, both residing in West Philadelphia. The youngest of the family, Mary, for a time a clerk in the Ardmore Post Office, also married and removed to Philadelphia. She has died since the first installments of our recollections have been printed. The reference which has been made to the Samuel McAfee property, on Glenn's lane, may be extended and an interesting fact in relation to it introduced which will carry with it an equally interesting story of a previous owner who was well known in the neighborhood. In the year 1854 Samuel McAfee purchased this property from Absalom Simpkins, and it is of the former owner our reminiscences must treat first. 132 bulletin op HISTORIOAL society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

When Simpkins bought the property, some years previous to this date, there was no house, or, if any, a very small log house, built upon it. Simpkins, with the assistance only of his wife and son Enoch, then a boy of seventeen, quarried and carted the stone, dug the well and the cellar, did all the stone and brick work, hewed all the heavy timbers, made the window frames, sash and doors, did all the carpenter work, painting and plastering, together with all the other necessary work re quired in building the house yet standing northeast of the present home of Dr. Royce, until recently occupied by Michael Walsh while in the employ of the late Edward. Glenn as coach man. That he did it well is attested by the fact that it is still standing, and is in exceptionally good condition for a house over fifty years old, being materially unchanged in appearance, and evidencing little indication of decay. He did .not install electric lights or bells, nor did he pipe the house for either gas or water, which was possibly an over sight, but not an unpardonable one when one thinks back half a century. ^ When he sold the property to McAfee he did so for the pur pose of emigrating west, which he did as heroically as he did everything else that he undertook. Packing all the household goods and wearing apparel they desired to take with them in two large two-horse wagons, and selling the remainder at auction, he and his wife and three children started from Athensville, taking with them an extra horse and two cows. Their place of destination was southern Illinois, at that time the far West, and they drove the distance in about eleven weeks, carrying with them their stores and camping en route. All arrived safely with the exception of the cows; they impeded the progress of the caravan, and were sold early in the journey. Locating on a farm, they started life anew, being success ful in this venture, as in all others where the indomitable will to win assured success. Some members of the family have visited friends in the village within the last decade, but more than half of those who EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE ^33 left Athensville for the long journey have since taken the longer one from which there is no returning. Being next'neighbors to Dr. James Anderson, they were also next friends, the old Doctor frequently referring the halt ing and doubtful to Absalom Simpkins as an evidence and illus tration of the possibilities of push. The quarry opened by Simpkins when building his home, now close to the Mill Creek Road, was then in the most inacces sible part of the little farm, being nOt only in the most distant corner from the road, now called Glenn's lane, but as well in the lowest part of the land, and entirely surrounded by hills. The opening of Mill Creek road gave easy access to it, and later enabled Mr. McAfee to work it profitably for several years. A number of buildings in the village have for their foun dation walls the product of this old quarry. The stables of the Red Lion Hotel are built entirely of this stone, every pound of which was carted by Mr. McAfee in a one-horse cart, "Charlie," a faithful old bay, furnishing^all the mbtive power required to mpve the comparatively great mass. A very pretty little lake was made by Mr. McAfee near the roadside and close to the Hampton property line, which he always designated as "the head waters of Trout Run," but there is scarcely a trace of it left. The quarry, like its neighbor on the Anderson farm, was abandoned during the ownership of Mr. Glenn, the hillside showing little evidence of the carting away of many hundreds of tons of its base. The cozy home of Mrs. Anna B. Miles on Montgomery ave nue was the home of her late husband, William Miles, at the time to which our reminiscences revert, when, with his mother, Mrs. Mary Miles, he occupied the home to which in 1851 he brought as a bride, to the comparatively new house, the lady we all know so well, Mrs. Anna B. Miles, who has continuously occupied the property to the present time. The house, then new and very comfortable, has been the subject of improvement and re-improvement on several occa sions, being today greatly enlarged, altered and beautified, so that it is one of the few of the best of Ardmore's older homes, 134 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

while the. owner holds the same records as one of the best of our older residents. In the early forties Mr. Miles carried on the business of a master carpenter, many of the homes of the earlier residents of Athensville being the result of his efforts as a designer as well as a builder, architects being then as scarce in the country as are at this time combination architects and builders, such as he was. at the time of which we are writing. He carried on the business successfully for many years, and until the village grew to such a size that modern carpentry, in which contracts, bids, specifications and the supervision of architects (are required), became a necessity in order that the place could be kept abreast of the times, when he retired from the business in favor of men who as boys had been apprentices under his instruction, some of whom had been regularly inden tured or bound to his service and who, in later years contrib uted much to the village improvement through their handi craft and skill. Mrs. Mary Miles died in 1896 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. John Austin, leaving to survive her four children, Wil liam; John, for many years in the employ of Mr. H. G. Litzen- berg in the coal and lumber department of his business; Charles, who left home when a' young man and located in New Jersey; and Kate, who married John Austin and resided in Delaware County. All of the family are dead. Of all the children William was the most successful in busi ness, his close attention to which, coupled with ability of a high order, enabled him to amass a fortune. In his early life, as a carpenter, he was well and most favorably known, but much better known in later years when engaged in a business in which his abilities had more latitude 'and in which their exer cise tended to increase his already extensive circle of appreci ation and acquaintance. While engaged in business as a carpenter and builder his shop was at the old homestead. In those^ days there were no trades unions or Saturday half holidays, the men working from "sun to sun" every day and in the evenings until ten o'clock by the light of candles or of whale oil or burning-fluid lamps, so EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE ;l^35

that a "boss carpenter" was obliged to have a large shop in order to be able to meet these conditions and the other more important one of getting value for the thirty dollars per year and board he was furnishing his apprentices during the four years consumed in learning the trade. There were then no mills for the manufacture of sash and door or the working of flooring and mouldings, so that this work constituted the winter pastime for the journeymen and apprentices. •Mr. Miles, with Mr. Philip L. Goodman, were in the early days the only boss carpenters or master builders in the little village; and as such they built nearly all or quite all the build ings erected in it during their early business career, and yet such has been the march of improvement and the consequent demand for change in building construction that very little of the work of either of them is now remaining. Then almost everything was done by the day, and that it was well done was very much in evidence when one of their old buildings is torn down to remove the blot it constitutes on the new countryside, beautified as it now is by the homes de manded by the home-builders of the twentieth century. No resident of either Athensville or Ardmore was more thoroughly identified with the interests of the village in every particular than was William Miles. Honest, upright, consis tent, but in everything remarkably modest and unassuming, attesting his faith at all times by his works, and contributing liberally of both time and means in the furtherance of right and justice, while for wrong and hypocrisy he ever had words of loudest condemnation, which he did not hesitate to voice. In 1861 he retired from the business he had so long con ducted, as has been stated, and joined Mr. Horatio G. Litzen- berg in opening a lumber yard on the property of the latter in rear of the old Odd Fellows' Hall, in which he continued, how ever, for only a short time, when he availed himself of the pos sibilities of a broader field and, retiring from the Litzenberg partnership, and leaving the well-founded business to his late associate, he entered into partnership with the late John M. Lindsay, and under the firm name of Lindsay & Miles leased 136 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY from Samuel Lindsay, his partner's father, the coal and lumber yard at White Hall, on the old line of the railroad where Bryn Mawr Hospital now stands, where they did an excellent busi ness in coal, lumber, lime, etc., until the year 1884, when the line of the road was changed between Ardmore and Rose- mont, when the White Hall yard, as it was then known, was compulsorily abandoned. At the same time the railroad offices, telegraph office and water station were moved to the new line while the yard, used up to that time for the purpose of sawing and storing the wood used for fuel in the locomotives, being no longer a necessity, was also abandoned. At the same time Athensville became Ardmore, Humphreysville became Bryn Mawr, and Haverford School Station became the Haverford of the present. But Mr. Miles was not sleeping while all these changes were in progress. He quietly purchased land at what is now Rose- mont, to which he moved his business, having taken care in making the purchase to acquire more land than was necessary to accommodate his immediate business requirements, in order that when, later on, a station would be demanded at Rosemont, he would be in a position to control its location. This he suc ceeded in doing almost immediately by donating to the railroad company the lot occupied by the first station built at Rosemont, and thus securing station facilities, switches and siding privi leges exactly to his liking. . His foresight in this transaction was eminently character istic of the ability of William Miles as a thorough business man. (To be continued) Some Facts About Plymouth Township Public Schools

By George K. Brecht, Esq.-"

In connection with my occupation as a public school teacher, in the summer of 1890, I came from my parental farm home in Worcester Township to Norristown to see Reuben F. Hof- fecker, Superintendent of Public Schools of Montgomery County, to learn of any position that might be available. Pro fessor Hoifecker served as superintendent of public schools for-twenty-five years or more until his death in December, 1903. Superintendent Hoffecker was found at his home, located at the west corner of Marshall and Cherry streets in Norris town, the house still standing there with a bay window, part of a first floor room, extending a short distance over the side walk on Marshall street. In this alcove he could often be sieen from the street at work upon matters connected with his occupation. I was informed that the school directors of Plymouth Township had decided to establish a school in their system in which some of the higher branches should be taught. The sup erintendent suggested that I go to see S. Powell Childs (Sam uel Powell Childs), Secretary of the School Board, to get the particulars about the position. I was given specific directions by a sketch on paper as the route to take to get to the residence of Mr. Childs. I had known the location of this residence but was not familiar with the roads leading thereto from Norris town. I engaged a horse and carriage at a local livery stable and drove to the residence of Mr. Childs, finding my way with out difficulty from the directions given. This was on an August day in 1890.

*Read before the Society, November 21, 1942.

137 138 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Mr, Childs was at home at work on his farm. This was lo cated at the Northeasterly end of Plymouth Township adjoin ing- Whitpain Township, near Five Points, in the small village of Narcissa. Mr. Childs met me cordially. While I had known of him, I had not had the pleasure of meeting him theretofore. His appearance and manner impressed- me at once, he being a well built man, somewhat venerable in appearance, amiable, well-informed and intelligent. He was an outstanding citizen of the district and the county. I later learned that Mr. Childs had been a member of the Board of School Directors of Plymouth Township as early as 1857, and served until his death in May, 1900, as a director, and as Secretary of the Board, with a few interims of a year or so at a time, when he was out of office; but with recurring regularity he was returned as a member of the board. He was one of the most valuable members of the board during his terms of service. As a result of the interview I placed with Mr. Childs my application for appointment as teacher of the new school and was favored with the election to the position. My duties started in September, 1890, and I spent five pleasant years in this ser vice as principal of what was termed Plymouth Township High School, and in effect, as supervisor of the schools of the district, until 1895. I then registered as a law student in the office of Childs and Evans (Louis M. Childs and Montgomery Evans). I have kept in close touch with the schools and the educational affairs of the township ever since, being an active member of Plymouth Alumni League, the association of the graduates of the high school, and as solicitor for the school dis trict for forty years last past. Incidentally, I will note that among the first students in the high school was a young woman who twelve years later became my wife, and ever since we have taken life's journey together. I appreciate your indulgence in permitting me to advert to these matters involving so much personal reference. Now, I "will proceed to relate some of the facts pertinent to the subject of this article. SOME FACTS ABOUT PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP PUBLIC SCHOOLS 3^39

There had been five schools in operation in the township. These were, the North Star School, located on Sandy Hill at Germantown Turnpike, just above the village then known as Hickorytown, more recently called Plymouth Center; Cold Point School, located in the eastern corner of the township on the border of Whitemarsh Township and on the eminence which is a continuation of Sandy Hill and which farther on continues into Militia Hill at Lancasterville, and then on into the Fort Washington hills; Plymouth Valley School, in the vil lage of Plymouth Meeting adjoining the Pljonouth Meeting House and grounds of the Friends, also near the border of Whitemarsh Township; Eight Square School, located on North Lane, also known as Spring Mill Road, which extends from Ridge Pike in the upper end of Harmanville in a southerly dir ection, crossing Conshohocken Turnpike Road and extending into Spring Mill; and Sandy Hill School, later called Black Horse School, located in the western corner of the township, near Mogeetown, just outside of Norristown. Then, too, the district was sending pupils from the village of Connaughtown, adjoining the Borough of Conshohocken, to the Conshohocken schools, and was paying $400 or more per year to Consho hocken. Some controversy between the two districts as to this matter and the charge for tuition occurred. About 1910 Ply mouth School District established its own school in the vicinity, leasing the second floor, with the approach thereto, of Wash ington Fire Company, on West Elm Street just outside of Con shohocken in Plymouth Township, and equipped this room. This arrangement continued until the consolidation of the schools in 1915. The citizens of Plymouth Township and vicinity early evinced an interest in providing proper educational facilities for their children. Evidence of this is found in the following deeds:

1. DEED—Michael Wills, of the Township of Plymouth, yeoman, and Ann, his wife, to Peter Keiger, Andrew Wills, John Davis, John Hallman, John Brant, John Shoemaker and Samuel Spencer, all of Plymouth Township; Abraham Yerkes, John Perrier, Harman Yerkes, William Fisher, Frederick Dull and Thomas Shepherd, all of Whitemarsh 140 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Township, dated the. 12th day of 2nd month, 1818; acknowledged the same day before Daniel Davis, Justice of the Peace; recorded June 5, 1819, in Deed Book No. 36 page 62 &c. This deed recites that in consideration of the public utility of a house being erected on the following described lot, to be used as a school house and to be free as a place of worship on the first day of the week to any society professing the Chris tian Religion, and also for and in the further consideration of the sum of Ten Dollars unto them in hand paid by said parties of the second part (names here repeated), the erection of the said house and its application to the above mentioned purpose and the receipt of said sum of Ten Dollars they do hereby ack nowledge, this conveyance is made to the parties of the second part and their heirs. The lot of land conveyed is located in Plymouth Township, Montgomery County, on Spring Mill Road, adjoining other lands of said Michael Wills and lands of John Hallman. The tract is triangular in shape, containing 11.78 perches along Spring Mill Road and the lengths of the other two sides of the triangle are 11.14perches and 7.42perches respectively. The lot is part of 150acres which Jane Wills (mother of said Michael) by her last will and testament, dated Jan. 20, 1804, did give and grant to said Michael Wills, his heirs and assigns. The quality of the grant or conveyance is shown in the habendum as follows: To have and to hold said premises to said parties of the second part jointly and their heirs, in trust, for the Inhabitants of the townships of Plymouth and Whitemarsh residing or to reside within twelve furlongs of the said—to be used as a School house and liberties thereunto and to be used on the Sabbath as a house for worship unto Almighty God by any society professing the Christian Religion, making application therefor, and to be equally free for all the various sects of Christian profession without any pi'eference or prejudice for or against any but if several should make application for the same for the pui*pose aforesaid then alternately that all as much as practicable may be accommodated to the only proper use and behoof of the Inhabitants of the townships of Ply mouth and "Whitemarsh residing within the Limits aforesaid for the purpose before described forever. 2. DEED — Thomas Egbert and Margaret, his wife, to George Priease of Whitemarsh Township, yeoman, Daniel Davis, of Plymouth SOME FACTS ABOUT PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP PUBLIC SCHOOLS ^41

Township, yeoman, and Ulrich Schlater of Whitpain Township, weaver, dated the 1st day of 1st month 1821; acknowledged the same day before J. R. Gonard, Justice of the Peace; recorded January 4, 1821, in Deed Book No. 37 page 86 &c.

This deed recites that in consideration of the public utility and private advantage of having a school house erected on the hereinafter described land as well as for the further consider ation of the sum of One Dollar, this conveyance is made to parties of the second part, their executors and administrators, of a lot of land in Plymouth Township on the line dividing the townships of Plymouth and Whitemarsh and adjoining lands of Daniel Wensley, Alan W. Corson, Michael Roreboth, Thomas Egbert and Samuel Levezey, containing 40 perches of land. The lot is part of the premises which Joseph Foulke on the 9th of 11th month 1816 conveyed to Thomas Egbert in fee, in Deed Book No. 33 page 190 &c. To have and to hold to said parties of the second part, their executors and administrators, in Uiist for the inhabitants of said Townships of Whitemarsh, Plymouth and Whitpain, re siding within ten furlongs of the same to be kept and occupied as a public school house and liberties therefor to the proper use and behoof (as a school house and liberties) of the inhabitants of the neighborhood as before described. The Friends, or Quakers, long before had established a school in Pljmiouth Meeting. Norristown and Conshohocken, bordering the Township, also may have reflected the advan tages of better educational facilities. The township early adopted the public school systeni auth orized by the legislature of the Commonwealth about 1834. The earliest deed found on record in the Court House of Mont gomery County conveying premises to public school directors in Plymouth Township is the following:

3. DEED—George K. Ritter and Sarah, his wife, to James Wood, Sr., Thomas J. Whitney, Peter Colehower, Aaron Conrad, David Jarrett and Charles Galloney, School Directors of the District of the Township of Plymouth, their successors and assigns, dated March 18, 1840; acknowledged the same day; recorded March 14, 1840 in Deed Book No. 67 page 141 &c.' The consideration is $100. 142 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY This conveyance was for one-half acre of land in Plymouth Township on the Perkiomen and Germantown Turnpike Road, having a frontage on said Turnpike of 101.5 feet and extend ing Southwesterly 226.6 feet on the northwest line thereof by land of Leonard Johnson (in more recentyears owned by Hon. Charles Johnson), and 209 feet on the Southeast line by other land of George K. Ritter (until recently owned by Clarence B. Weeks). The rear line of the lot was 100feet in length. The school records as far as they have been located, show that the school affairs were carried on by the various boards of six members more or less successfully. These records show frequent non-quorum sessions, because of very inclement weather, or illness or attendance upon jury duty by members. The personnel of the board was subject to frequent changes, although a few persons would remain to guide the boards in keeping the schools supplied with teachers, levying taxes and collecting the same. Often considerable delay was experienced in getting tax collectors to makefull settlement of the tax dup licates. This delay in most cases was occasioned by extending leniency to the taxpayers. The demands of the taxpayers that the schools be operated on an economical basis is shown by the tax rate, as for many years it, was as low as mills,-and teachers' wages ran as low as $32 a month, prior to the year 1890. In 1890 a sentiment arose in the district for higher educa tional advantages which resulted in the establishment of a high school. Then, the graded course of study was introduced into the schools. In the earlier days the country districts had no graded courses of study and the courses were not uniform in the different schools of a district. Each teacher and school had their o-wn subjects of instruction. Lower Providence Township, I believe, was the earliest of the country districts to adopt a graded course of study and to have graduating exer cises upon the completion of the course. Worcester Township soon followed, introducing the graded course in 1886. The fact that the pupils, or the parents, were required to furnish-the textbooks and supplies militated against securing uniformity in the conduct of the schools. During the 1880s the law re- SOME FACTS ABOUT PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP PUBLIC SCHOOLS quired that some of the textbooks should be furnished free and a few years later required the district to furnish the textbooks, paper and supplies free. This worked to the more efficient con duct of the schools, with further statutory requirements to increase grounds and better arranged buildings, and higher teacher qualifications. Some of us still cling to the notion that the one time one room brick school houses and the teachers gave better grounding of the fundamentals in training than does the modern system. These views may be affected some what by prejudice, and be befogged by the long passage of years, or, perhaps, by lack of familiarity with the operation of the modern school. The township high school was continued until a few years after the consolidation of the schools in 1915. About May, 1918, the school directors decided to discontinue the high school grades in the schools and to send the pupils of those grades to the larger and better equipped schools in Norristown and Conshohocken and other districts. This method has con tinued since. Following the writer of this article, these persons were employed and acted as principal of the high school, or super visors of the schools of the district: Willard S. Campbell from 1895 to 1898, 'He was also later principal of the Jenkintown High School. He had served for a time as principal of the Hancock School in Norristown, and later as an instructor at Eisenhower High School in Norris town. After leaving Norristown Mr. Campbell taught in one of the Philadelphia high schools for many years until his re tirement a few years ago. Mr. Campbell is also well known as an impersonator of Abraham Lincoln in his lectures on the Great Emancipator. For a number of years Mr. Campbell served as choirmaster in several Norristown churches. Winfield R. Hartzel followed from 1898 to 1907. He then was employed as an instructor in the Northeast High School in Philadelphia and continues in that occupation. He is a well known resident of Norristown, having been choirmaster in churches for many years. Then followed Harvey W. Kline, who acted as principal for 144 bulletin op historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

a short time and then entered the medical profession. Samuel Wolford had charge of the schools for a short time. Harriet W. Matthews of Conshohocken served as principal for a number of years. She is now Mrs. Arthur H. Sagebeer of Limerick Square in Limerick Township. Wallace L. Danehower followed for several years when Charles W. Maurer filled the position until the consolidation of the schools in 1915. Mr. Danehower was then returned as supervisor of the schools, and efficiently arranged the system under the consolidation. Mr. Danehower died in January, 1918, and his widow, Alice Yeager Danehower, was elected to take charge of the school system and continued in that position for-a number of years. Cyrus 0. Taylor followed and he was. succeeded by J. Maurice Strattan, who .is the" present incumbent. The consolidation of the schools marked an epoch in .the educational system of Plymouth Township. As early as 1913 the School Board took action looking towards consolidation and the closing of the one room schools. Resolutions were enacted to raise money to finance the project. Some of the citizens, es pecially in the western end of the township, opposed the pro ject. Petitions signed by numerous objectors were presented to the Board of Directors, and the petitions were courteously considered., At least one meeting in Lysinger's Hall, Cold Point, was held for public discussion of the matter. The Board decided that the movement had the support of some of the best citizens of the township and probably the majority thereof, and proceeded to carry the project into effect. Then the remon strants instituted court action to get authority to hold a public election to decide whether or not the township should be divided into two townships. The court authorized an election and the proposal to divide the township was defeated by a moderate majority. Under the law proceedings to create a bond issue had to cease until the matter of division of the town ship had been decided. The Board then proceeded with the project, created a bond issue of $32,000, and took further action to consolidate the schools. It was decided to locate schools in three places in the SOME FACTS ABOUT PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP PUBLIC SCHOOLS ^^45 township. The main school was located on Conshohocken Turn pike Road between Harmanville and Plymouth Meeting and was called the Consolidated School. Black Horse School was to be continued, and upon the request of the citizens near Consho hocken, and the desire of the Board to satisfy the wishes of the people as far as possible,, another school was located on West Elm Street, near Conshohocken. This was named Ivy Rock School. Alan Wood Iron and Steel Company, whose large plant is located in this vicinity, donated the land for this school build ing. By the terms of the deed to the School District the land is to revert to the Company, if the premises are no longer used for public school purposes. The new building was not completed until 1915, when the old unused buildings were disposed of at public sale. Dedica tion exercises were held in the Consolidated School. The fol lowing was prepared for use on said occasion:

AFTER TWENTY-FIVE YEARS The test of time often is necessary to prove the value of events as well in,education as in other lines. The history of the public school system reads variously as studied from different times, localized in different sections of the country or state. Passage of years and even change in the temperament of com munities has been needed to determine and work out the most efficient means to accomplish the purpose intended, and to overcome local or individual prejudice that stands in the way of establishing effective schools to meet the demands of the times. Today, the state requires high and trained intelligence to work out the destiny of .its subjects and to make their lives prosperous and happy. Today, as never before, the state is lib eral in furnishing the means to make possible the education and training of its children, so that not only the favored few but all may have the advantages of training that will tend to prepare them for useful citizenship. The inhabitants of Plymouth Township and vicinity early saw the advantages of free education, for, more than a hun dred years ago, schools were established by benevolent individ- 146 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY uals, if not on a free basis, then at a reduced cost. The people of this township early embraced the advantages of the common school system. From its geographical location the community was affected by the proximity to Philadelphia and to the larger boroughs of the county, where advanced ideas and methods would first be in use. Then, too, its citizenship from the first was of types that desired and required high educational advan tages, and, if not procurable at public expense for the benefit of all, then in any event in individual cases at private expense. The school records show that Plymouth Township for many years had maintained the public schools for terms of -ten months in the year. Twenty-five years ago a step in advance was taken by the school fathers in establishing the township high school. In this they acted in accord with the demand of the times and of the community in general. Progress has now been made in a bound, and withthe consolidation of the schools, Plymouth has placed itself in the very forefront with modern standards.With this ideaand what goes with it, worked out along proper lines, the schools.should prove a boon to the community and should attract desirable people to locate in its bounds. All this should promote the prosperity and happiness of the people. Whowill now question the value of this action of the School Board?Who willcontend that the advantages of a higher edu cation should not be given by the community itself, esecially when it can be done without undue burden upon any? It is be lieved that local pridewill induce all to desirethe independence afforded by having within its own borders the means of giving its children the best available training. Honor should be given to Frank Ramsey, S. Powell Childs, George Corson, Charles Marple, John J. Brooke and Patrick Lynch, the members of the School Board who brought the means ofhigher education to your doors in establishing a higji school, and to their successors, who maintained, or continued the system. Due credit should be given to Thomas Sinclair, William B. Richards, William S. Dickerson, John Gillen, Thomas Coulston, Percy Rex, I. Harold Shoemaker and Milton R. Marple, the members of the Boards who instituted the SOME FACTS ABOUT PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP PUBLIC SCHOOLS 147 consolidation project, and who brought it to its consummation in the completion of this fine school building. These men be came imbued with the idea of advanced education and have been brave in acting upon their convictions and they have brought to you the best possible school facilities under the circumstances. Differences of opinion may obtain as to the means and methods of working out the system; yet, by keeping in" authority men (and perhaps in time women) of industry, intelligence, sound judgment and integrity, and working with them, when their efforts tend toward results that will best serve the greatest number, the outcome will not be in doubt. Those who have gone out from your schools look back with pleasure, and are grateful, because of the advantages that were afforded them by the township, and the inspiration given to them for higher and better living. Such give you congratula tions for the success you have attained in maintaining this high standard of your educational system, and for the good things still appearing to be your due, fair Plymouth. You have given good account in twenty-five years. May the next quarter of a century show no backward step.

Improvement in the school work followed, with increased costs and increased compensation for the teachers. Because of the growth of population it became necessary to add to the facilities of the district to accommodate the chil dren of school age. This increase in population occurred par ticularly in the neighborhood of Black Horse. About 1921 the Board of Directors took action to acquire grounds and erect a new school building with eight rooms at Black Horse. It was also decided to build an addition to the Ivy Rock School. A bond issue of $85,000 was created with the sanction of the voters, and the project put through. About 1927 the facilities of Black Horse again proved in adequate and additional grounds were acquired and the build ing was enlarged. Funds for this matter were raised by a $45,000. bond issue, created with the approval of the electors. The directors of the School District by wise administration and the exercise of sound judgment have been able to liquidate 148 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

the school debt, and by December, 1942, this will have been fully accomplished. The members of the Board of Education of Plymouth Township School District who have brought about the.result of clearing off the indebtedness are Fred W. Woerner, Presi dent; Lewis Gi McQuirns, Vice-President; Warren C. Isen- berg, Secretary; Theodore Nitterauer and Alan W. Jones, with Milton R. Marple, a non-member Treasurer of the Board. (Mr. Marple had served as a director for many years, and he died September 24,1943.) It may be noted that a move was set afoot to establish a junior-senior high school in the district, under statutory pro visions, which might be made available to adjoining districts not having high schools. Action was taken to create an indebt edness of $170,000 to put through the plan. A vote of the elec tors being necessary, at an election held May 15, 1934, the result was 877 voted against the proposal and 337 voted in favor. Thus, the matter was defeated by the narrow margin of forty votes. Plymouth Township has an area of 8.4 square miles. The 1940 census gave it a population of 4380. After the census of 1920 the requirements were met to make it a township of the first class politically, there being at least 300 inhabitants per square mile. The population being less than 5000 the township continues as a fourth class school district. It is interesting to note changes in financial matters during the course of years. I have already noted that the tax rate for school purposes was as low as II/2 mills. When the high school was established a special levy of 1 mill was made for building purposes and 1% mills for general school purposes. The con tract for building a one-room high school building added to the North Star one-room building, was awarded to Evan Brooke, the lowest bidder, at $995. The cost of equipment, heating etc., was several hundred dollars more. The economically minded section of the township seemed to resent this increase of cost of operation of the schools, and retired the members of the board by whose action the high school was established, at the expiration of their respective terms. It is to be noticed that the SOME FACTS ABOUT PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP PUBLIC SCHOOLS members of the board who were dropped were returned to the board in subsequent elections. The sentiment in favor of better schools grew with the passing years and the satisfactory re sults of the improved school operation. In 1915, after consoli dation took place, the tax rate was increased to 5^ mills. In addition a per capita tax was imposed for school purposes and this tax has been five dollars for a number of years last past. The current tax rate on taxable property is 16^2 mills. The school budget fifty or sixty years ago ranged from $2500 to $3000. In 1914-15 the budget is listed at $45,153. This amount includes the proceeds of the $32,000 bond issue for consolidation of the schools. For 1942-43 the budget includes for current expenses $80,916. In this amount $64,550. is listed for the instructional part of the service. A debt service item to complete the liquidation of the indebtedness is added, thus making the total proposed expenditures for the current period, $i00,916. In the earlier years the pupils of school age numbered from 350 to 400. In 1920 the number was approximately 600. In 1942 the enrollment was 542 in the lower grades, carried in the township, with 202 attending high schools in adjoining dis tricts, the cost of which was met by Plymouth Township. Then, too, among the children of compulsory attendance age in parochial and other private schools number 138. Before 1890 the number of teachers employed was five, and beginning in 1890 the number increased to six. In 1920 the number is found to have been fourteen and in 1942 twenty-five. Non-denominational religious interests obtained in many country districts in earlier years. Thus school houses, especi ally those established through private enterprise, were used for these services on Sundays. As herein noted the Eight Square school house was used for religious services. The North Star school building was also employed in this manner. Hick- orytown Union Mission acquired this latter property when the school district abandoned it for school purposes. This organi zation is now the Plymouth Center Union Mission. It is a non- denominational religious organization organized and carried on through the leadership of Eck Carson and J. Edwin Ewing. 150 bulletin of historical society op MONTGOMERY COUNTY

NORTH STAR SCHOOL The preparation of this paper was suggested because of an inquiry by an interested person as to the origin or reason for naming this school the "North Star School." Various lines of research and Inquiry fail to disclose any definite information as to the reason for the name. It is well known that on the property adjoining the school property to the northwest, many years ago, a tavern stand was operated known as the North Star Tavern. This property is now occupied by H. Stanley Drake and Elizabeth Johnson Drake, his wife, it having been the home of Charles Johnson, the father of Mrs. Drake. Charles Johnson was for many years a well known political leader of Montgomery County and held offices in the Common wealth of Pennsylvania at Harrisburg, he having been the first Seci'etary of Revenue. The property is referred to as a tavern stand in the deed from Samuel Johnson, of Norriton Town ship, merchant, et. al., to Charles Johnson and Isaac Johnson of Plymouth Township, limeburners. The Charles Johnson, grantee in this deed, was probably an ancestor or related to the Hon. Charles Johnson, above named. The deed is dated April 13, 1835, and is recorded in Deed Book No. 61, page 612, on M'arch 20,1843. A suggestion has been made that the designation "North Star" originated from the fact that the Germantown and Per- kiomen Turnpike Road as it proceeds from Hickorytown, now Plymouth Centre, up the ascent toward the north points in the direction of the North Star in the heavens. On clear nights this sign post on high would readily strike the sight of.the travelers along this highway. Thus, the term "North Star," would nat urally come to mind and appropriately be applied to the sum mit of the hill, after passing which the star would not be so readily in the line of vision. I am indebted for some interesting facts connected with this school to Mrs. Linda W. Dettre, widow of Ambrose Dettre, of Powell Street, in Norristown. Mrs. Dettre was born in 1850 and is living with her sons, R. Ronald Dettre (now Sheriff of Montgomery County), and Linn A. Dettre; she is still keen SOME FACTS ABOUT PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP PUBLIC SCHOOLS

and alert mentally and attended this school in her childhood days. She moved to Norristown in 1871. Christian Looser was her grandfather and James Looser, her father. They lived on a farm on "Jolly Road" northeast of Germantown Turnpike Road. This farm was later owned and operated by James K. Thomson whofor a time was a school director in the township and at other times school auditor. He also served as director of the poor of Montgomery County. Mrs. Dettre recalled the names of some of the teachers of the school, these being Jacob Ramsey, David Knipe, Carlo Green and Ambrose Dettre. Her last teacher was a Mr. Pennypacker. She became the wife of Ambrose Dettre. Ambrose Dettre acted as superintendent of the Sunday School conducted on Sundays in the summertime in this schoolhouse. He also led the music at times. Mrs. Dettre (as Miss Loeser) was a member of this Sunday School, taught a class and at times led the music. Ambrose Dettre was en gaged in the real estate and insurance business in Norristovm for many years. He died a number of years ago. • Among the teachers of the North Star School in addition to those hereinbefore mentioned were David L. Crater, Mag gie McGonagle, Anna Getman, Francis Stein, Freas Styer, Joseph G. Trank, A. Lincoln Beerbrower, Laura H. Martin, Lizzie Hallowell, Alice Hoffman, Mary Brooke, Lillian Brooke, Anna Marple, Ida Seltzer, Sarah S. Childs, Mazie Trucksess and Anna Hallman. My thought is that this account of some of the events in the evolution of an educational system of a community and the naming of some of the persons who were instrumental in pro moting the work should have sufficient value and interest to merit its inclusion in the records of the Historical Society. Without doubt there were other persons not mentioned herein who gave valuable assistance in carrying on the work of edu cation in the district in bringing to pass the result obtained, and their names are omitted only because they were not brought to notice in the researches and inquiries made in con nection with the preparation of this paper. Report of Recording Secretary

Nancy Corson Cresson

Our meeting on Februai*y 22, 1944, was the best attended for some years, about one hundred new members having been admitted during the year. Most interesting papers were read. Mr. Elmer Sehultz Gerhard, of Germantown, addressed the meeting on the subject, "Zinzendorf in Germantown, Two Hundred Years Ago." Mr. Harry Emerson Wildes, of Valley Porge, read a paper entitled "The Meaning of Valley Forge." A large collection of books and maps was received from the estate of Chester P. Cook, our late president. This gift is of invaluable interest to the Society. The Society also increased the number of trustees from five to fifteen. This being the annual meeting, the following officers were elected: President, Kirke Bryan, Esq. First Vice-President, S. Cameron Corson Second Vice-President, Charles Harper Smith Third Vice-President, George K. Brecht, Esq. Recording Secretary, Nancy C. Cresson Cori-esponding Secretary, Helen E. Richards Financial Secretary, Annie B. Molony Treasurer, Lyman A. Kratz

Trustees Kirke Bryan, Esq. Mrs. H. H. Francine H. H. Ganser Nancy P. Highley Foster C. Hillegass Mrs. A. Conrad Jones David Todd Jones Hon. Harold G. Knight Lyman A. Kratz Douglas Macfarlan, M.D. Katharine Preston Charles Harper Smith Franklin A. Stickler Mrs. Franklin B. Wildman, Jr. Norris D. Wright

152 Report of Corresponding Secretary

Ella. Slingluff

NEW MEMBERS

HONORARY General Henry Harley Arnold

ANNUAL

George H. Bennett James M. Voss Mrs. Kirke Bryan Irwin G. Lukens James H. Egan, Esq. Mrs. Lucy S. Unger David E. Groshens, Esq. Miss Marian B. Harvey M. Paul Smith, Esq. ; William J.'Moran, Jr., Esq. James R. Caiola, Esq. F. C. Dieterle Raymond Pearlstine, Esq. Mrs, Philip Kind Edward Foulke, Esq. William H. Rorer Henry M. Tracy, Esq. George L. Harrison, Jr. William P. Landis, Esq. Mrs. Mark Guilbert Jesse R. Evans, Esq. Mrs. Harold G. Knight E. Arnold Forrest, Esq. Kari p; Scheldt E. Roy Bishel Raymond K. Mensch • George.Bassert William F. Moyer Mrs. Thomas L. Christian Wallace M..Keeley, Esq. J. Fenton Cloud Mrs. A. Irvin Supplee William Davis Rev. Howard H. Krauss Mrs. William Davis Karl Kent Kite Francis T. Dennis, Esq. Norman Kulp Rudolf W. DeStafano, Esq. Jonathan B. Hillegass, Esq. Harry W. Gehman Harvey D. Howden John Hoffman Gilbert S. Jones W. Paul O'Neill William S. Acuff, Esq. J. Stogdell Stokes Garrett A. Brownback, Esq. James I. Wendell William A. Bookman Mrs. James I. Wendell H. Walton Wood Kenneth Howie Mrs. H. Walton Wood Joseph A. Ranck Ralph F. Wismer, Esq. Mrs. R. F. Walker Victor J. Roberts, Esq. " Mrs. LaT^ence W. Rice Daniel A. Skelly Miss Mary Walker Thomas W. Faulkner, Jr." George C. Niblo Raymond R. Lawson

153 154 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

RESIGNATIONS

Maxwell Stevens Miss Anna Dunn C. Arthur George Rev. John F. X. O'Neill

DEATHS

George R. Ralaton Adolf Muller Alvin B. Faust Theodore Lane Bean, Esq. Roland Taylor Mrs. Laura Riegel Cook

Librarian's Report

Katharine Preston

ACCESSIONS (Names of donors in italics) Mr. Alan R. Cook and Mrs. Josephine Cook Willaon: The donors, son and daughter of the late Chester P. Cook, of Merion, Pa., president of the Society at the time of his death, in 1942, have presented to the Society their father's magnificent collection of maps and atlases, as well as a fine collection of books, chiefly of Pennsyl vania interest. Henry M. Tracy, Esq.: Charter of the Plymouth and Whitemarsh Turnpike Company, granted in the year 1848. Known as Butler Pike. Photograph of Matson's Ford Bridge spanning the Schuylkill River at Conshohocken, dedicated November 11, 1921.

George R. Ralston Estate: Insurance Map of Norristown and Bridgeport, Pa. Joseph Knox Fomance, Esq.: Records of the Court of New Castle on Delaware. Vol. II, 1681-1699. Land and Probate Abstract only. Published by the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania. REPORTS

Proceedings, Pennsylvania Society, Sons of the Revolution, 1912 to 1943. Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 1940. Publications, The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, 1917, 1918, 1919.

The Misses Cresson: Mr. John Howard Dugan's copy of "The Centennial and Memorial Association of Valley Forge." Model of the Taj Mahal.

Mr. George Heaton: Steel engravings, as follows: D. E. Farragut; Abraham Lincoln; J. C. Fremont; Death of Ellsworth; Naval Conflict in Hampton Roads; Action between the "Monitor" and the "Merrimac"; Battle of Wil son's Creek—Death of General Lyon; Capture of New Orleans— Attack on Fort Phillip; P. Sigel.

Miss Elma H. Snediker: Daguerreotype of General William J. Bolton, left by Tacy D. Smith. (With newspaper clipping.)

Mrs, C. Howard Harry: Sermon in Memory of Rev. James Grier Ralston, D.D., LL.D., preached on December 12, 1880, by Thomas Murphy, D.D., in the First Pres- bjrterian Church, Norristown, Pa.

Rev, Herbert D. Cressman: Historical Sketch of St. John's Lutheran Church, Center Square, Pa. 175th Anniversary Year. (The donor, who is pastor of the church, is author of the Sketch.)

Mr. Charles R. Barker: "Early Recollections of Ardmore," by Josiah S. Pearce. In two volumes (MS), 1913. (A typed copy of the original article which appeared in the "Ardmore Chronicle," 1906-7, indexed and illustrated by the donor.) Sources of the Declaration of Independence. An Address Delivered by Hon. Albert J. Beveridge Before the Historical Society of Pennsyl vania, June 2, 1926. 156 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

George K. Breckt, Esq.: (On behalf of his sister, Mrs. Emma K. Weber, 43 N. Whitehall road, Jeffersonville, Pa.) 1. Report of David .R. Ouster, Teacher of Methacton School, from Sept. 18 to Oct. 18, 1855, to Andrew Morgan, President of Board of Directors of Worcester, Montgomery county. (On one side, sheet shows attendance record of male pupils; on the other, that of female pupils.) 2. Report of same teacher of same school for the "second month" (date not mentioned, but presumably October-Novembei*, 1855.)

PURCHASED Southeastern Pennsylvania. A History of the Counties of Berks, Bucks, Chester,. Delaware, Montgomery, Philadelphia and Schuylkill. Super vising Editor, J. Bennett Nolan, Esq. Vols. I, II, III. The Historical Society of Montgomery County has for its object the preservation of the civil, political and religious history of the county, as well as the promotion of the study of history. The building up of a library for historical research has been materially aided in the past by donations of family, church and graveyard records; letters, diaries and other manuscript material. Valuable files of newspapers have also been contributed. This public-spirited support has been highly appreciated and is earnestly desired for the future. Membership in the Society is open to all interested per sons, whether residents of the county or not, and all such persons are invited to have their names proposed at any meeting. The annual dues are $2.00; life membership, $50.00. Every member is entitled to a copy of each issue of The Bulletin free. Historical Hall, 18 East Penn Street, Norristown, with its library and museum, is open for visitors each week day from 10 to 12 A.M. and 1 to 4 P.M., except Saturday after noon. The material in the library may be freely consulted during these hours, but no book may be taken from the building.

To Our Friends

. Our Society needs funds for the furthering of its work, its expansion, its growth and development. This can very nicely be done through bequests from members and friends in the disposition of their estates. The Society needs more funds in investments placed at interest; the income arising therefrom would give the Society an annual return to meet its needs. Following is a form that could be used in the making of wills:

I HEREBY GIVE AND BEQUEATH TO THE

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY,

PENNSYLVANIA, THE SUM OF DOLLARS ($ )