BULLETIN HISTORICAL50C1ETY MONTGOMERY COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA JVORR/STOWM

22MPRY

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY AT ITS ROOMS 18 EAST FENN STREET NORRISTOWN.PA-

OCTOBER, 1944

VOLUME IV NUMBER 3

PRICE 50 CENTS Historical Society of Montsomery County

OFFICERS

Kieke 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

TRUSTEES

Kirke Bryan, Esq. Mrs. H. H. Franoine H. H. Gansee 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 Ardmore Station (from "Slimmer Excursion Routes," Pennsylvania Railroad, 1877) THE BULLETIN

of the

Historical Society of Montgomery County

Published Semi-Anrmally—October and April

Volume IV October, 1944 Number 3

CONTENTS

The Meaning of Valley Forge . Harry Ehnerson Wildes 159

Early Recollections of Ardmore (continued) Josiah S. Pearce 169

Reports 248

Publication Committee

Mrs. Andrew Y. Drysdale Hannah Gerhard

Anita L. Eystbr Charles Harper Smith

Charles R. Barker, Chairman

157 The Meaning of Valley Forge

By Harry Emerson Wildes*

I Valley Forge marked the turning point of the Revolution. The men who came to its wind-swept, snow-clad acres in stormy December, 1777, were battered, hungry, sick and in distress. Abandoned, as they thought, by the .civilians of the Continental Congress, deserted, all too often, by the politicians of their states, the ragged, barefoot, volunteers huddled help lessly about their smoky, green-wood, fires. Defeated at Brandywine, at Paoli and at Germantown, they had neither lost their confidence nor weakened in morale until the smooth tongued statesmen had turned against the army leaders. The fearful winter, despite its tragic hardships, taught them that their courage, fortitude, patience and unstinted fealty to ideals would lead them to eventual victory. A disciplined, re sourceful and heartened army marched away from Valley Forge to victory at Monmouth. . This yve owe to Washington, who welded unrelated, virtu ally independent army groups from thirteen states into an integrated national army. He taught the need for a federated union of free men, enlightened and politically equal, to realize the ideal of liberty, democracy and the pursuit in peace of happiness. He set a pattern for the world to follow. The foundations of a great nation, made possible by Wash ington at Valley Forge in time of trouble, in days of sorrow and perplexity, wrought revolution not only for the thirteen struggling states but for oppressed people in all the world. The doubt, distress and danger, the cold and hunger, the suffering and want, of Valley Forge were sacrifices to the wel fare of a new-born nation. The unfailing patriotism of the

•Read before the Society, February 22, 1944.

159 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY soldiers, their unceasing vigilance, their courge and devotion, were bright examples for a world to follow. The point need not be labored; the analogies are all too evident. This world of turmoil, of sacrifice and suffering is, in a larger sense, but an outgrowth of the tribulation faced by- Washington at Valley Forge. The lessons learned upon those snowy hills serve well today in troubled Europe, in steamy, pest-ridden South Sea jungles, in the icy fogs of Attu and in the cold wintry wastes of all the seas. From the broken world of 1944, as from the shattered colonies of 1778, can come, with God*s will and men's desire, the full fruition of George Wash ington's example. But Valley Forge is not alone in offering such inspiration. This southeast section of our state, seed ground of American liberty, is full of similar suggestion. We have here, in Mont gomery, in Chester and in Philadelphia Counties, literally hundreds of memories that can give encouragement and hope. Our great men of the past, many of them, like Senator Jon athan Roberts, virtually forgotten, others shamefully neg lected, our historic sites and relics, all too seldom visited, offer to the nation opportunity for pride and glory. Why do we so often overlook them? Other regions prize their histories. New England's writers combed their neighbor hoods to tell of men and incidents that in no wise match our Pennsylvania heritage. New Yorkers foist their local happen ings upon the rest of the United States. Chicago, San Fran cisco, New Orleans and the South insist on recognition. Only we hang back, shyly and with diffidence. Why must this be ? Like all Pennsylvanians, Montgomery County is conserva tive. Prom the days of William Penn we have believed in mod eration, not in blowing horns; we have been tolerant and cau tious, too. Tradition rules our region, custom is king. Always we prefer ancient habits and well-tried folk-ways to novelty and innovation. That is why no social institution that has ever proved its worth is allowed to wither on the vine. Still fiourishing in Montgomery County are associations for the catching of horse thieves, meeting solemnly each spring as though to re-assure THE MEANING OF VALLEY FORGE 101 themselves that they are still alive, although none of the wide- waisted members has moved to snare a thief in half a centu^. The,Daughters of the American Revolution hold their solemn conclaves, though the irreverent suggest that each and every one would promptly faint at the sight of a determined rebel. We live in calm placidity that smacks of Quaker retire ment, of Pennsylvania German quietism, of the social aloof- hies's and the uniqueness of the individual that grows out of wide acres that needed no protection against'enemies. Each IbcM community prides itself upon its own peculiarities but in a gentle, unobstrusive way that is quite free from brashness or ffOm boasting but which is, none the lessj the height of social snobbery. Look, for example, at the smug superiority shown by "Whit'emarsh and the Gwynedd Valley toward the Lower IVlerionite, and, to be quite fair, vice versa. Strangers new coihe into the County sometimes find,themselves baffled by what seems stiff aloofness; they cannot understand our reluct ance to experiment. ' Yet, withal, we are modest; we do not boast. We sit back, complacently and let others search out our merits. It was New Orleans, not Philadelphia, that discovered Corporal Albert Schmid, greatest of our war heroes. It was Blair Niles, of Vir ginia, who, in Passenger to Mexico, celebrated the work of Sara York Stevenson, and Carl and Jessica Bridenbaugh, of Brown Universnty, who wrote Rebels and Gentlemen to praise our past. It was Carl Van Doren, of New York, who talked about the uprising of Pennsylvania's Continental Army in his Mutiny in January. :' Not for well nigh two hundred years after his birth was there a full length biography of Anthony Wayne; not for a century after his death did Stephen Girard achieve a complete life history. Nicholas Biddle has not as yet been honored, though a book is even now in preparation on this greatest of American financiers. » , . .> We seem, indeed, not to hate our past so much as to ignore it. We lay small stress upon our proud early history; above the elementary grades we do not speak of William Penn nor of James Logan, of Robert Morris, Jay Cooke nor Tom McKean. 1Q2 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

We start our history teaching all too often at the finish ofthe Revolutionary War; the Pennsylvania Department of Educa tion is even at this moment recommending that we abandon all mention of colonial history for every student in the public schools beyond the age of thirteen.. True, there is a Pennsylvania law requiring that every public school insist on Pennsylvania history, but how well is that law enforced? Has your small son come home this week closely clutching a new History of Pennsylvania and, if he has, have you glanced into it? For the only histories that are avail able skip through the story of the state with such lightning speed, omitting almost all essential facts and carelessly mis spelling names, that almost all the schools, and certainly the largest institutions, defy the law. Compulsory teaching of Pennsylvania history boils down to a half-joking recommen dation that the teachers be sure to mention Pennsylvania once or twice a week in order to obey the letter of the law. We decry our history; we play it down as though it were something to regret. It is a pity, for this southeastern section of the state has a proud past that is unequalled in the country. We built a nation here; we set the pattern for a culture. No other area in all America has done so much to be commended. No other locality so decries its past. Every colonial skir mish in New England receives abundant recognition in that history-conscious area; Virginians are extolled; New Yorkers insist that even their minor incidents must be infiated into magnitude. Pennsylvanians, however, are modest people, they hide their glory well. Unhappily, others take us at the valuation that we seem to set upon ourselves. I have been studying of late the contents of the history textbooks used in public schools, twenty-seven of the dreariest and most uninspiring volumes known to mod ern man. Judged solely by what the authors say in these volumes, the sole source of knowledge for so many thousand Pennsylvanians, the commonwealth has been of small impor tance while Montgomery County did not, so far as these books are concerned, exist at all. In twenty-seven textbooks, the all- THE MEA'NING OF VALLEY FOEGE 163 important winter at Valley Forge is so minimized that its very name occurs in but eight books out of twenty-seven and, in one of these, Ralph Harlow's history, which so many progressive schools select as their authority, Valley Forge is indexed under the absurd entry, "Valley Forge, Battle of." Valley Forge, indeed, receives less mention in the texts than do the Battles of Germantown and Brandywine, but to say this is misleading, for these two battles are usually brack eted in one sentence as fields where Washington met but failed to check the British. Not more than three books out of twenty- seven give more space to these engagements. Not one book even hints at Whitemarsh, or Edge Hill, Crooked Billet or Fort Washington, the Skippack or the Perkiomen, Gulf Mills, Barren Hill, Camp Pottsgrove or Gwynedd. To take the word of textbook writers, there were no Swedes in Pennsylvania, no Welsh and no Pennsylvania Ger mans; they do not flatly deny the presence of these important elements in Pennsylvania's population, but the high school students who get their history from the texts do not find a single word about such people. You'll seek in vain for David Rittenhouse or John James Audubon, for Joseph Priestley or Christopher Sauer, for Chief Tammanend or Tedyuscung. These latter names, you may well say, are unimportant for the nation's general history, arid perhaps they are, but there are hosts of other Pennsylvanians who are wholly ignored. Zinzendorf is never mentioned, nor is Thomas Miffiin. General Hancock receives but the insulting line that "he never did any thing wrongly that could be traced to him." Stephen Girard is mentioned but twice in twenty-seven textbooks, one of which accuses him, falsely, of trading with the enemy, and the other of which charges him with predatory methods, though without naming those methods precisely. Four textbooks refer in pass ing to his college, the first great philanthropic foundation in America; twenty-one other books pass him by in silence. Pas- torius is honored by five textbooks, Arthur St. Clair in three. Jay Cooke and Robert Morris by a very few. Most history and most biography in the past were written by New Englanders who stressed the great men of their area, 164 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

omitting Freneau and Cobbett, Benjamin Rush and Broekden Brown, William Cramp who built the navies of the world, and Matthias Baldwin who made the railroads run. Parkman and Motley and Bancroft got their due as historians, but not a book of all the twenty-seven says a word of Henry Lea, John Bach McMaster or Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer. In this great center of physicians, the names of Brinton, Agnew, Gross, Hare and Pepper remain unsung. New England had her soldiers and her sailors, but so had Pennsylvania; you'll seek in vain in twenty- seven textbooks for more than passing mention of John Bariy, Stephen Decatur, George McClellan, George Meade, Hancock and John Frederick Hartranft. If these are left out, what is included? If twenty-seven textbooks omit every mention of Paoli; if they sedulously strike out the Christiana Riot, the war of Pennsylvania against Maryland, the three campaigns of Pennsylvania against Con necticut, the Wyoming Massacre and the Sullivan Expedition what goes in? In every one of twenty-seven books, you'll find an •adequate account of the Aroostook War in Maine but nothing on Ben Franklin's Pennsylvania war against the French; each high school history tells of Oriskany in New York but not a word about Kittanning or Bushy Run or Mirii- sink. They talk about the Whiskey Rebellion but fail to state that the uprising started in this section of the country; they utterly ignore John Fries and the Hot Water War about the window tax; they keep completely silent on the Long Finn and his first American dictatorship; they have nothing on the Buckshot War. Yet they do have space for Santa Anna, giving half a page or more to that Mexican dictator. They speak of Haile Selassie and Earl Browder, of Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino, of Charles Bryan and the Nicaraguan Sandino, of James Oliver Curwood and Albion Tonrgee, of Angelina Griihke and the shipyard worker who drove the most rivets in the First World War. Who was Thomas McKean or Alexander J. Cassatt? Who was Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, or Samuel Gordon, Bodo Otto or Peter Wentz? Why was Whitpain or Worcester, Tow- THE MEANING OF VALLEY FORGE ][g5 amencin or Trappe? Were there other Muhlenbergs than the Virginia preacher who threw off his clerical garb in the pulpit? You'll never know from high school texts and never from the more pretentious histories. That Montgomery County quarried marble and that up- country Germans brought music and art and literature into America, that the log cabin and the Pennsylvania barn origi nated in this area, that loyal Pennsylvania Germans saved the Revolutionary Army at a time when New England's ardor had cooled, andthatthe staunch pro-Unionism ofthis section of the state did much to hold the North together are matters which the classical historians withhold from the general public. With the exception of General Hancock, who was a Presidential candidate, there is not a solitary Montgomery County name, no, nor any one from Delaware or Chester County, dating from post-Revolutionary days, in those twenty-seven high school books. We need revival of our patriotic pride. We need the inspir ation that here, at our very doorsteps, history was made. Valley Forge must not become a symbol merely of the dog woods in the spring, nor for a pleasant picnic grounds in sum mer ; it must stir within us the memory of what our ancestors and our neighbors have accomplished. It is well that Norristown's high school is named the Eisenhower High School, but do all the students there realize for whom the school is named? Is it not at least barely possible that many of them, the freshmen let us say, assume that its namesake is the general? I ask the question as the result of a survey made in Phila delphia where, as here, the schools are named for eminent men of the past. Simon Gratz and John Bartram were major mys teries to most; William T. Tilden was, at best, a tennis player, and, by some, put down as an unlucky presidential candidate. As to Audenried and Barrett, as to Bartlett and Gillespie, Shoemaker and Thomas and Vaux, the junior high schools, the mental darkness was Stygian. Believe it or not, to many Philadelphia students, even the name Vare meant nothing and 166 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Stetson was merely a hat. There are about 200 elementary schools named for sponsors who, even to the well educated, convey no shred of recognition. Is the same true of Montgomery County? Do the people here know why we have an Egypt Road and why we have DeKalb and Marshall Streets, and Swede and Chain and Barbadoes? In Germantown, they do not always know where Stenton gets its name, or Logan, Olney, Grumblethorpe or Wingohocking; they cannot invariably identify Musgrave and Wister, Clapier or Phil-Ellena, to say nothing of Chew, Pul- aski, Seymour or Queen Lane. Would this hold good for King-of-Prussia and Blue Bell, for Broad Axe and Limerick, for Trooper and Center Square? Do we all know that the University of Pennsylvania once owned Norristown and that Betzwood was the early Holly wood? The great Betz barony, that new Germany with Buck Taylor, King of the Cowboys, as its viceroy, must not be for gotten. We need more light on sparkling Peter Legaux' Spring Mill experiment with native wineries and on his earnest effort to have Valley Forge made the capital of the United States. I'd like to know more about James Vaux and his agricultural ex periments at Fatlands in the heart of Montgomery County's Egypt. The "canawlers" of the Schuylkill Valley intrigue me as does the Upper Salford tradition of how Washington fled in terror of assassination to the home of Captain Philip Gable on Sumneytown Pike. Just how much actual fact lies in the Van Buskirk legend at the time of the Lacey Massacre at the Crooked Billett? These are legitimate fields for the Historical Society to investigate. Our fellow members have an enviable record for careful research and for inspiring writing; the files of the Sketches and of the present Bulletin are rich mines for the scholar, as I am the first to testify. No other local Historical Society in the state, not even our neighbors of West Chester or at Doylestown or at Reading can equal the authoritative publi cations of this Society. No other county association matches the Montgomery County record for encouraging historical THE MEANING OP VALLEY FORGE interest among the high school students; the roll of honor of prize essayists is long and commendable. There is still, however, much to be done. Montgomery County writers have a fertile soil to cultivate. Only yesterday^ I received a letter from the Pottsville historians suggesting that someone do a history of the Schuylkill Valley; not long ago, over at Hatboro, the community was in distress because no one there had bothered to look up the life story of General John Lacey. It seems incredible, but there.has never been a full length paper read to this association on the life of General Richard Montgomery; his name appears but once in all our publications and then only as a fleeting item. No one has yet given us a careful study of the extraordinary Isaac Norris, though he, luckier than Montgomery, receives a passing bow at intervals. Isn't it possible to have a mouth-watering lecture on Pennsylvania-German cookery, or must we allow that to go by default, as it has, to a more appreciative writer up in Harrisburg or to the grateful New Yorker who came here, fed well, and went home to write a book about us? I say these things not to find fault, because I much admire the cleverness of our program chairmen, past and present, but to suggest that local history merits a warm spot in our atten tions. The Main Line of the Pennsylvania with its strange congeries of peculiar people is our province, at least to large degree, yet the Main Line story has all too often gone by default; those Flourtown witches clamor for a paper in their honor. Let us, before it is too late, collect the facts that cluster about such historic houses as the Stotesbury palace at White- marsh and the Widener estate; it is not too late, though it soon will be, to write the full history of Grey Towers of Ogontz. This, it seems to me, is the proper function of a county histori cal society, to gather not only the unusual but also the routine and everyday affairs of our locality, so that, years hence, the eager historian, delving in the mass of information thus squir rel-like hoarded, may find material for his use. The pleasant fact that we have had no first-class snows for several years may not seem important to us now, save that it spares our gas 2gg BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY and chains and tires, but it does serve to illumine the unusual- ness of that terrible winter at Valley Forge. The record of our rationing today, of our success at War Bond drives, of our boys in service, of our contributions to civilian defense and of all our other activities is grist for the mill in future genera tions. What would you not give to have the complete story of the Revolutionary War as the average up-state farmer saw it? What would you think of a colonial journal that gave tempera tures and barometer readings for every day in the year, that offered a perfect record of every birth, marriage and death and that reported the sayings of our forefathers? They left us all too imperfect reports, so that the gaps in our knowledge are both wide and deep, but we can remedy that lack so far as our own generation is concerned. In that way, we can guarantee that the" future will understand the purposes for which we strive today; we can rest assured that the heritage of America iS' safe. For that heritage has been endangered. Irrespective of political ideals and without any comment whatever on our social viewpoints, it is none the less true that Montgomery County, like all the rest of America, has weathered a revolu tionary change in the composition of our people. Few of us today can trace our roots to Revolutionary times; more and more, we find that neighbors and associates are folk of less long residence in the United States. This mixture of alien stocks has been a blessing to the nation; it has enriched our lives and made us better peoples, but it has also weakened to some extent the sense of partnership and kinship toward our early settlers. Newcomers have not always understood American traditions, nor have they always cherished the ideals for which the set tlers stood. To keep alive the sense of solidarity, to preserve the consciousness of kind, to maintain in vital, living form the American spirit that was saved at Valley Forge, we need all the more fervently to know and to understand the purposes for which America has stood. That, it seems to me, is the function of the historical society. Early Recollections of Ardmore

By JosiAH S. Pearce

(continued ffom page 136)

In the meantime the interest of Mr. Lindsay in the firm had been acquired by Mr. William M. Calahan, who was no stranger to Mr. Miles, he having learned the trade of carpenter, and worked under Mr. Miles's instruction in the capacity of both journeyman and foreman. He was also related to him and was named for him. The firm then became Miles & Calahan, and as such con ducted a prosperous business for several years, when Walter Beva'n, a young man well known in the neighborhood, and in whom Mr. Miles reposed unlimited confidence, and who had for some time served as bookkeeper in the offices of the firm, associated with him an elder brother, Henry G. Bevan, ac quired the business and, under the firm name of Walter Bevan & Brother, continued it until the death of Mr. Henry C. Bevan, when it was sold to Mr. William E. Williamson, who, after an ownership of about two years, sold it to the present very suc cessful firm of Mehl & Latta, who, if indications are to be em ployed as a guide in arriving at conclusions, will continue as the owners for some time to come. It was during the Walter Bevan & Brother ownership of this property and business that that firm purchased from Col onel Owen Jones the land and built the extensive southern annex to this village now called by the somewhat unelassical name of Vinegar Hill. Chestnut avenue, and Maple avenue (now Simpson road), then took place on the village map, and the Bevan operation, as it was then known, tended to relieve for the time the demand for small houses for the homes for the working classes, who were flocking to the then fast growing village.

169 JYO bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Mr. Miles was a musician of more than ordinary ability and, until well along: in years, conducted singing schools in all parts of the surrounding neighborhood, gave private instruc tion in vocal music and was in constant demand by all the churches in the vicinity as a choir leader and trainer, as well as by all projectors of musical soirees where instruction in music to volunteer talent was more than an apparent necessity. In these early days the late Joseph H. Hoffman, of Rox- borough, and Mr. Miles vied with each other in their efforts to secure some results in voice culture, not in Athensville alone, but in all parts of Lower Merion and the nearby townships, holding their schools in the old Temperance Hall, later the office of The Home News, recently destroyed by fire, and in the Odd Fellows' Hall, in the village, as well as in almost all the neighboring churches and school houses. He was a thorough and exceptionally patient teacher, as >vell as a true lover of music, both vocal and instrumental, ac cepting as compensation for his efforts in teaching rather the feeling of satisfaction in his success than the money compensa tion, for which he cared very little. His tuning fork was at all times as convenient in his pocket as his lead pencil, and although today he would be dubbed an old-time singing master, he was, in his way, a much appreciated instructor. In politics Mr. Miles was originally a Whig and later a staunch Republican, but never an officeholder or seeker after preferment. During the war he contributed liberally of both time and money toward the cause of the Union, interesting himself particularly in the care of the families of the men at the front, of whom the old village furnished its full quota. His faithfulness as an Odd Fellow preserved from dissolu tion, on more than one occasion. Banyan Tree Lodge, No. 378, of which he was a charter member and most loyal supporter. In its days of adversity, particularly during the war, he was one of the very few of its older members to stand firmly against any thought of giving up the ship. On many occasions, as is shown by the old records, the presence of Mr. Miles and one or two others constituted the entire attendance at the regular meetings. EAKLY RECOLLECTIONS OF AEDMORE

As a charter member of the Lower Merion Building and Loan Association he demonstrated his ability in the manage ment of institutions of its nature to such an extent that he contipuously served as an officer or in the directorate of the Association for over thirty years. As a proof of his interest in the improvement of the vil lage and its surroundings, which did not relax up to the time of his death, he associated himself, just one year prior thereto, with the late William G. Lesher, Jr., Walter W. Hood and Henry Blithe in forming and incorporating The Ardmore Real Estate Association. - •' The first purchase of real estate by this Association was in 1884, from Charlotte E., wife of Samuel E. Slaymaker, con sisting of the Abraham Levering property on the south side of the turnpike, at Wyoming avenue. The tract was laid out in lots and the avenues yet traversing it were opened and macadamized, a number of substantial buildings were erected and the entire tract sold, realizing a handsome profit to the investors and adding materially to the village extension and improvement. The' Association is still in existence, being now composed of Mr. Richard Hamilton, Mr. Henry Blithe, and the representatives of the estate'of Mr. Lesher, their holdings con sisting of some small parcels of land on Linwood avenue in one of Ardmore's most desirable sections. In church work Mr. Miles was for-many years closely identified with "Parson Jones's" old Lower Merion Baptist Church, but later associated himself with the Church of The Redeemer, of Bryn Mawr, it being through his- efforts and those of the late George F. Curwen, more than any others, that the beautiful site now occupied by the handsome buildings of that church was se cured when the old church and cemetery were removed from the turnpike west of Haverford Station to the new location. Mr. Miles died at the old homestead in the month of August, 1885, sincerely mourned by a community which had learned to love, honor and respect him.- • Two daughters had predeceased him many years. His widow and one sister, Mrs. James Morgan, residing with her son, David C. Morgan, on Ardmore avenue, are all who survive ]^72 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COTOTTY of the generation of both families, an only brother of the surviving ladies, Mr. Richard Broades, having died within the past two years. The next property westward from that of Mrs. Miles, best known as the Cuthbert property, was owned in 1841 by Philip L. Goodman, who sold it in 1849 to Mr. James P. Cuthbert and removed to the property a short distance further east, on Montgomery avenue, now owned by Dr. L. 0. Lusson, Mr. W. F. Jones and others. Mr. Cuthbert occupied the house built upon it at the time of his purchase for at least thirty years, and during that time built another larger house on the east end of the lot, into which he moved from the old house, and in which he resided up to the time of his death, which occurred on Washington's Birthday, 1891. Mr. Cuthbert was, by profession, a tailor, and at the time of which we are writing was well known to every man, woman and child in Athensville. About midway between the houses referred to stood his tailor shop, a very plain and quiet, small, one-story building, wherein the old gentleman could always be found at his work. He kept no help other than that rendered by his family, and did a good business, he being for many years the only tailor in the village. In addition to the patronage of the little village he did all the work in his line for the students of Haverford School, before the time when it aspired to classification as a college. The school at that time had about seventy-five boys in atten dance, whose wear and tear, as can easily be imagined, kept one needle pretty busy; but Mr. Cuthbert was a very indus trious man, being at all times equal to the emergency. In the forties there was another tailor in the village, who had his shop on the eastern end of the property now owned by the Merion and Radnor Gas^ and Electric Co. His name was Charles Wilkins, but he was out of business at the time to which we refer as being the season of Mr. Cuthbert's monopoly. In 1870, when the advent of more tailors in the village gave Mr. Cuthbert more leisure, he successfully aspired to the EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 1^3

minor judiciary, being elected to the office of Justice of the Peace, in which position he served for one term of five years, and was succeeded in the office by the writer, who served the same number of years, "the pair of us" administering a quality of justice in Ardmore for a decade such as Blackstone never wrote a word about. During his term his little shop served as a hearing room or Magistrate's Court, from which the late John Whiteman, who was at that time Constable for the township, started with many a culprit to the county prison at Norristown after he had received the primary justice fitting his crime at the hands of "Squire" Cuthbert. Mr. Cuthbert was a tall, spare man, who walked every where that either duty or pleasure called him, holding stead fastly to his oft-expressed conviction that horses were an altogether useless adjunct to a tailor's business. He was a devoted member of the Lower Merion Baptist Church at Bryn Mawr, to which he and his numerous family walked regularly to every Sunday morning service, with which pedestrianism no weather was permitted to interfere. Joseph Cuthbert was the eldest of his family of eight chil dren. He is remembered as a very industrious and useful man. He was a plasterer by trade, and by profession a poet, known as "The Bard of Ardmore." His productions were for some time regularly published in the "Home News" and other papers, and were at least unique. He was one of the first purchasers of a home in the Bevan operation on Chestnut avenue, and is entitled to all the honor due for naming the place "Vinegar Hill." It is a matter of sincere regret that his illness of mind necessitated the removal from the village of so useful a man. Another son, Alexander, is still a resident of the village, being in business on Sibley avenue; and still another, Richard W., is the well-known druggist of Thirty-eighth and Chestnut streets. West Philadelphia. Five children of the family are yet living. Within the quite recent past this property has been ac quired by Mr. David Dallas, who has so altered and improved 174 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY the houses and beautified the grounds that an infrequent visitor to the village would scarcely recognize in the two pretty cottages and their well-kept surroundings anything of the old place where rents were either repaired with a needle or col lected by law. The adjoining property on the west contained, in 1843, about four acres, and was then owned by Charles Thompson Jones, Esq., by whom in that year it was sold to Washington Keith, who held the title for but a few months, when he sold it to Mary Smith, who was also an owner for but a short time, when it became the property of Joseph Hunt, who has been referred to as the owner of the Owen Jones tract on Lancaster turnpike, between Ardmore and Cricket avenues. -Mr. Hunt resided on the property for several years after leaving the farm, and in 1869 sold it to the Pennsylvania Railroad Com pany. The straightening of the railroad between Ardmore and Haverford stations involved the taking of a strip of land from the rear of the lot, which destroyed a part of the front yard of the house. The house was built facing the railroad, with back buildings and the stable toward Montgomery avenue, so that every time the railroad took a strip from the back of the lot they narrowed the front. After taking the strip for their right of way the railroad sold it in 1872 to James Morgan,-who continued in the o^er- ship until the time of his death, in 1892. In 1908 another strip of ground was taken when the rail road laid two additional tracks to Paoli. Then the heirs of Mr. Morgan sold the front-back yard, being all that was left, to James A. Barry, presumably retransferring the property to the Pennsylvania Railroad, by whom it is still held. Mr. Morgan occupied this property for about twenty years, and his family continued the occupancy for about thirteen years sub sequent to his death. He was a very plain, honest and much-respected retired farmer, having, when he removed to this property, relin quished the management of a large farm near Flat Rock Sum mit, in the lower end of the township, upon which he had resided for many years. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 175

His family consisted of his wife, who was a daughter of Richard and Mary Broades and the only surviving sister of Mrs. Anna B. Miles (to whom reference has been previously made); and her only son, with whom she resides. Mr. Morgan was in all respects a good citizen and an excellent neighbor, being altogether unobtrusive in everything he said or did, never seeking office and holding only such positions of trust or profit as were thrust upon him; and these he filled with scrupulous integrity. Beyond his connection with the Lower Merion Building and Loan Association, of which he was treasurer for many years, and to which position his son succeeded, and his faithful service as a vestryman of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, he held no public or private office in the community. In politics he was a modest but earnest Republican, always voting and working for the party, but never pressing to the front as a leader. We have referred to the peculiar situation of the house on this property, in that it was built to front on the railroad. This is not remarkable when it is known that at the time, and for years after it was built, every lot abutting on the railroad right of way had an entrance gate opening almost against the tracks, while lots lying between the turnpike or the old Lan caster road and the railroad were all traversed by well-worn paths leading from one road to the other. Accidents and nar row escapes were, therefore, more than frequent, a well- remembered case being that of "Jake" Pratt, late of Pratt's Express, who was struck by the locomotive of the Niagara Express when going to the Morgan house, in the year 1879. He was repaired with difficulty and is still living, but does not "walk nor trespass on the railroad," for all the old gates are wisely and very securely nailed shut, and no new ones are permitted. The lot lying west of the Morgan property, between it and the lumber yard of Smedley & Mehl, was owned in the fifties by Dr. James Anderson, and later by his son. Dr. Joseph W. Anderson, who farmed it in connection with the large farm on the opposite side of Montgomery avenue. In 1886 this lot was "UQ BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY sold in parts to Thomas Fagan, George L. Rowland and others, who at once erected the houses still standing. This lot and the western end of the Morgan property were both sold in smaller lots at about the same time, Mr. William, H. Miller, Mir, Horner Smith, Miss DeHaven and others be coming owners of the smaller lots and so improving them by the erection and maintenance of attractive homes that the old-time vacant ground became a really very creditable exten sion of the village toward Haverford, and served as a connect ing link on Montgomery avenue between the two villages. The remaining lot on Montgomery avenue east of Lehigh avenue is now the property of Smedley & Mehl, upon which is built their, large lumber shed and storage house. This lot was originally the property of H. G. Litzenberg, and was really a back lot to his lumber and coal yards, which occupied the site of the coal yards and feed mills of Mr. Edward S. Murray on Lancaster avenue. All the ground north of the railroad from the Morgan property to Lehigh avenue was unimproved until the small Litzenberg lot was purchased by the Stadelman in terests for the purpose for which it is now used, the storage shed being built by J. L. Stadelman soon after the dissolution of the firm of Stadelman & Baker, During the time the State owned the railroad one of the first sidings granted by the State authorities or canal Com missioners, was "put in by Mr. Litzenberg on the lot fronting on the turnpike, who operated a coal and lumber yard and feed store there during the remaining years of his life. Mr. William Miles has been referred to as being associated with Mr. Litzenberg for some time in business at this place, then, and for years afterward, known as Litzenberg's siding. Some time before the death of Mr. Litzenberg (his son-in- law, Mr. George P. Yocum, having succeeded to his business), the Pennsylvania Railroad, having long before bought the "Public Works" (which included the railroad) from the State, gave to the Litzenberg heirs notice that the siding privileges would be revoked in thirty days, at the expiration of which time all rights accruing under the original grant must be sur rendered and the siding vacated, giving as the reason for the EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ABDMOEE

demand the statement that the strip of land occupied by the siding was required to accommodate the four tracks about to be laid by the company. The company declined a reasonable proposition to move the siding back, for the reason that the two tracks on the south side of the road were to be used ex clusively for passenger traffic and no switches or sidings would be installed excepting on the north or freight side of the road. The demand was contested on the ground that the right to the siding had been vested in the property by the state and, therefore, it was not in the power of the railroad company to divest the right. However, at the expiration of the time nametd the company spiked the switch and removed the frog. They had already bonded the ground required for the additional tracks, which they at once proceeded to occupy, necessitating the destruction of the coal trestle and bins and the tearing down of the feed store, which stood quite close to the tracks. The result was a protracted and determinedly-contested law-suit to recover both the s-witch and damages for. the total loss to the Litzenberg heirs of an excellent business. In both demands the claimants were successful, the damages awarded being substantial and more than ten times the amount prof- ferred by the company prior to the trial, while the switch is still in use for the accommodation of the Autocar Company, the Merion & Radnor Gas & Electric Company and Mr. Edward S. Murray, it being restored when the idea of the two passen ger tracks on the south side was abandoned in favor of the present management, whereby the freight traffic is confined to the middle tracks, with the passenger tracks outside. An old frame house stood for many years near to where the new stone row now known as Murray Place now stands. It was occupied for years by George Baker, Sr., whose only son was the junior member of the firm of Stadelman & Baker. It was torn down during the administration of Mr. Litzen- berg's affairs by Mr. George P. Yocum. The purchase of this property by Mr. Murray and its con sequent improvement was of much importance to the village. He has not only erected an almost perfect plant for his busi ness, but has demonstrated conclusively that even a bustling 178 bulletin of HISTOEICAL society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY business place can be so constructed and maintained in-the very-heart of the village as to be altogether unobjectionable. The coal yards of Smedley & Mehl and the old electric light plant must of necessity be referred to in our recollections, although it may be claimed that, being west of Lehigh avenue, our western boundary, they both properly belong to Haver- ford. The coal and lumber yards were located at their present site by Jacob L. Stadelman when the Pennsylvania Railroad bought from his father's estate the railroad front of the Merion Title & Trust Company's lot, which was formerly the coal yard, and from which Mr. Stadelman was obliged to remove in the same manner and for the same reasons as pre vailed in the case of the surrender of the Litzenberg siding. Mr. Stadelman was at the time the local freight agent for the railroad at Ardmore, and was, by virtue of his position as such,-and for other reasons, in position to deal most advan tageously with the company. Of this advantage he availed himself by securing the assistance of the company not only, in locating, but in building for him, the new siding. Thus, with the Litzenberg siding vacated, Mr. Stadelman enjoyed for a time a monopoly of the coal trade in the village and vicinity, there being then a siding at Bryn Mawr on=the west, with none on the east above Hall's yards, at .Fifty-fourth street and Lancaster avenue. . • - Mr. Stadelman in 1892 sold the property to Henry^ F. Bruner and the business to H. W. & R. Smedley, and not:very long thereafter Roland Smedley, one of the partners, sold, his interest to Frederick H. Mehl, the firm becoming Smedley & Mehl, who soon after equipped the property and have-'con tinued in business up to this time. The business has grown under careful management to be one of the best, if not the very best, in the village. Since this siding was built the railroad company have constructed-, and maintained sidings at almost every station, there being three in the village at this time, with apparently sufficient business for all. The plant of the Electric Light Co., which was originally the Haverford Electric Light Works, and a contemporary of EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMOEE ^79 the Gas Company, was located next to the coal yards of Smed- ley & Mehl, where an excellent business was done for some time ; but upon its absorption by the Merion & Radnor Gas & Electric Co., which at the same time took over the Wayne Electric Light Works, the old plant was abandoned,, the machinery being removed to the newly-acquired plant at Wayne,, from whence now comes the current used in this vil lage, while the gas is pumped from Ardmore to Wayne, the consolidated companies having offices at both villages, with facilities for supplying all intervening territory. The property now owned by this corporation adjoining the Odd Fellows' Hall, or Martin Whelen property, on the east and extending to the Litzenberg lot, now the large plant of the Autocar Company, changed owners very frequently during the early years of our history, but has now assumed the appearance of a village industry that has come to stay. In the year 1840 Dr. James Anderson bought one and one- half acres, which included this lot, at sheriff's sale for the sum of $750.00, it having been sold under foreclosure proceedings as the property of John Rupley. In 1844 Dr. Anderson sold the portion of the lot now represented by the holdings of the Gas Company to Charles Wilkins, who, in 1851, sold it to Randolph Pearson. During a portion of the time covered by the Wilkins own ership West Haverford Post Office was conducted by Mr. Wilkins in an old house that stood almost exactly on the spot now occupied by the Garrett Kitselman house. During this ownership it was, in addition to being the residence of Mr. Wilkins, his tailor shop and the post office. But we will not speak of the post office now, promising reference to it in sub sequent letters. Another small frame house was later built on this property about in the place now occupied by the gas holder east of the company's offices. It had numerous tenants, one of whom was Michael McColgan, who was the husband of Mary, a daughter of George C. Duncan. He was a short, fat and exceedingly good-natured butcher, carrying on his busi ness in a small shop that stood for a while on the Litzenberg lot,- now owned by Mr. Murray. He was not a resident of the 180 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY village for a very long time, but it is safe to assert that no man in the village was better known than "Mike," for every body appreciated his genuine Irish wit and admired his almost unequaled proficiency in repartee. He and all his family are numbered with the dead of the village of the past. Garrett Kitselman and his wife, who has been named as the eldest daughter of Samuel McAfee, sold this property to Mr. Martin Maloney, who has recently been created a Marquis by His Holiness the Pope, for the uses to which it was then applied and which are yet continued. When he was just ordinary Mr. Maloney, he was well known in the village, where he was superintending the con struction of the little plant which has grown to its present proportions in a comparatively short time; but the Marquis is now an infrequent visitor to the place, notwithstanding the fact that the work which he began bids fair to continue until our west end is covered with sky-scraping gas-holders, which are not the least bit pretty. The Pearson ownership of this property terminated in 1866, when William Pavitt became the owner. In 1869 Pavitt sold to Joshua Ashbridge, who sold to Samuel McAfee four years later. Mrs. Kitselman inherited the property from her father in 1875, retaining the ownership until the blandish ments of Marquis Maloney won the property for the Lower Merion Gas Co., or the Merion & Radnor Gas & Electric Co., or the United States Improvement Co., or possibly for all of them. Both Pearson and Pavitt were butchers, both doing a con siderable business during their occupancy and slaughtering all their cattle on the premises. When the Gas Company purchased the property and the news spread through the village, there was no little apprehension on the part of the nearby residents regarding a possible and very probable unpleasant odor from the gas works, notwithstanding the assurances to the contrary by Mr. Maloney, who promised green swards and flower beds, with beauty all around and positively no odor; a statement which has been proven as partially correct. He further averred that if the said nearby residents had endured the smell arising EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE from the slaughter houses which, years before, had nauseated half the township, they would welcome any odor his people could generate as a delicate perfume, A mild protest against the building of the works shared the fate of all mild protests, the plant being very quickly erected and the service introduced. Additions have since been made, and it may be said the work is not yet completed, while the service rendered by the company has been such as to remove all the original objection to the works and to merit the admission that the project of the Marquis has been of great benefit, not only to the village, but to the country all about it. The Haverford Electric Light Company, now a part of the same corporation, installed their service at about the same time as the gas company, thereby adding to the convenience and attractiveness of the growing village a lighting system equal to any in the country. The first street light placed by the gas company in the village was in front of the house recently sold by the writer to the Pennsylvania Railroad, now used as a boarding-house. It should be there yet, but it isn't. The Odd Fellows' Hall, now the property of Martin Whelen, was built by the Athens Institute and Library Association in the year 1856. The place selected for the site of the building was purchased from H. G. Litzenberg and consisted of the front half of the lot, which extended through to the railroad, the rear half being in use as a lumber yard. He sold to the Institute or Association at a very low price in order that the long-felt want for hall facilities and a place for lodge meetings might thereby be filled. There being no accommodations for either society or public meeting purposes in the village, it was thought that the venture would prove a profitable investment, but the hope was never realized. The Association, as originally, consisted of William Miles, Horatio G. Litzenberg, Joseph Hunt, Joseph T. Pearce, Charles Kenderdine, William Sibley and a few others, all of whom were active members of the Lodge of Odd Fellows (Banyan Tree, No. 378), with the exception of Mr. Litzenberg, who never 1^2 bulletin of HISTOBICAL society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

attached himself to any secret society and was not a believer in such organizations. The Odd Fellows' Lodge, which had prior to this time been meeting in the Temperance, or "Sonny's," Hall, near the Old Buck Tavern, immediately moved to the new hall, as did also Cassia Lodge, No. 273, F. and A. M., in the year 1866. The Odd Fellows continued to meet in the room until the year 1896, when they removed to their present quarters in the Merion Title & Trust Company's building, while the Masonic Lodge vacated the room and occupied their own room in Masonic Hall, on Ardmore avenue, in 1869. Shortly after this, the old hall was abandoned for the pur poses for which it had been erected, and became a carriage works. The audience room is now a cabinet shop, .and the basement is in use as the tinsmithery of the present ovmer, Mr. Whelen. The lecture or audience room being the only place of the kind within a radius of several miles, was at first liberally patronized for balls, fairs, concerts and lectures; but the patronage did not long continue. Six big, square wooden posts, supporting the upper story, stood in the middle of the room, making dancing a hazardous risk; but it was eitiier dance around the posts or forego the pleasure, there being no other place in which to trip the light fantastic toes of that generation, which enjoyed tripping quite as fully as do the owners of the pedal digits of the present day. A debating society was organized and met regularly in this room for years, wherein the forensic ability of the early settlers found abundant room for expansion and demonstra tion, regardless of either the posts or the subject; such subjects as "Which aifords man the greater pleasure, tobacco or the ladies?" and "Resolved, That the elective franchise should be conferred upon women," were here settled so effectually that - they have never since been the subject of question. The milkmen's balls of the sixties are yet remembered by grandmothers who, as girls, made them attractive, while some of the amateur concerts of that early date must still rever berate in the ears of some of the writer's contemporaries who EAELY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE ^§3 constituted either the talent or the tortured of the occasions. When the Hall of the Athens Institute and Library Asso ciation was built there was but one house on the same side of the turnpike between it and the Lesher properly line, now Lehigh avenue, and but one on the east side between it aiid the McGowan house, now the eastern end of the Autocar Works, both of which have received notice in our story, and both of which have been torn down to make place for new buildings. The acquisition of the property by Mr. Whelen and his improvements of it have wrought wonderful changes in ap pearance, the tall, old building being almost hidden from view by the numerous foot hills erected all around it, so that its not very imposing upper story can be seen only from a dis tance. When we think of the building as it was forty years ago, and recall the associations of that time, we are surprised that in the growth of the village its most imposing building has b^n its object of greatest change and deterioratioil. The charter of the Athens Institute and Library Associa tion was long ago surrendered, and. there is not living at this time one person who was an original stockholder in the scheme. The word "Institute and Library" incorporated in the name given the old corporation might suggest that a library had been at the convenience of the literarily inclined of the early villagers, but such is not the fact; no effort was ever made to venture such a luxury, the town not "being ripe for such an innovation. Two or three churches and Sunday- schools used the audience room at various times as meeting places, preliminary to church organization, and a number of singing schools voiced at the conceptions of eminent composers within its walls, but beyond these no uses were made of the hall that would warrant its being known as an institute. The political meetings

Company, and its demolition was necessary in order that its ground could be used in the construction of the new building. When McGowen bought the lot he paid less than two dol lars per front foot for it. Two hundred dollars per foot is refused for it today. The place will go down in history as having been the site of the first township police station and lock-up ever used in the village, and it will also be written of it that it was the very worst ever used in any village. It has been removed to more commodious and much more inacces sible quarters, on the very edge of the village, the township, the county, and of general utility. It was also the home of the first fire company in Lower Merion Township, Merion Fire Co. No. 1 occupjring their new fire house on a portion of this lot in February, 1888, where it yet remains, despite orders from the owner to move. The old fire house is rapidly falling into decay, and the same condition attaches to the village supply of public spirit, otherwise a new fire house on the ground owned by either the township or the company would replace the present apology for a home for a volunteer organization which has been of incalculable benefit to the community.® The next property eastwardly from the McGowan lots was the Nathan Thomson property, now owned by Mr. F. P. Azpell and the Young Men's Christian Association. Mr. Thomson bought this property in 1841 from Charles Thompson Jones, who has been referred to as being at that time an extensive land owner in Lower Merion. At the time of its purchase by Mr. Thomson it had a frontage on Lancaster Turnpike of 120 feet, and contained 107 square perches of land. The price paid by Mr. Thomson was ?140. A strip of this land about twenty- feet in width was condemned and taken by the Pennsylvania

8 In the' spring of 1908, the Merion Pire Company commenced building a new fire-house on the southeast side of Greenfield avenue, southwest of Lancaster avenue, to which it removed in the fall. An addition to this building was made in 1914. In 1917, the old building on Lancaster avenue was torn down, the Autocar Company having bought the property.—Ed. Jgg BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Railroad for widening their right-of-way in 1880, and in 1890 the easternmost forty feet was sold to the DirigOi Club of Montgomery County for ?3,000. The club house was built on this purchase almost imme diately, and occupied by the club until within the last year, when it was sold to the Y. M. C. A. for less than the original cost of the lot and building. The Dirigo was the first Republican Club in Lower Merion to aspire to property ownership, and if its experience is to be a guide for the politicians of the future, it will be the last of its kind in Ardmore. It adopted the somewhat euphonious name of Dirigo, which, being interpreted, meant "I direct." The organization was a failure, the club disbanded and the property has been sold at a loss to the projectors. A simple change in the final vowel of the name would cause it to be written "Dirige," and would telf the whole story, the signification of the word being "a mass for the dead." The club was incorporated March 4, 1890, the following named being the corporators: H. Le Grand Ensign, Henry Andrews, George C. Anderson, Howard L. Roberts, Paul J. Kugler, Charles T. Fellows, Joseph Cuthbert, David Shelmire, L. D. Spiece, William J. Clark, Frank A. Hower and Charles P. Herold, all of whom, with the exception of Mr. Hower, were at that time residents of the village. At this time but three of the number are residents of the place, and two are deceased. The acquisition of the property by the Y. M. C. A. was a most desirable disposition of the Dirigo elephant. The neces sity of permanent quarters for the use of the Association was apparent, and was appreciated by the creditors of the defunct political club to the extent of a surrender to the Christian Association of the evidences of indebtedness held by many of them, which aided the organization by substantially reducing the amount of the required purchase money. It was thought at the time that the home thus secured by the Association would be its permanent abode, but such is not the case. Again, a change in owners has been made, and Henry Harrison be- EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE ^87

comes the owner and the Y. M. C. A., after a very short occu pancy, moves across the road to pastures new. On almost the exact spot now occupied by the Dirigo Club building there stood for over forty years the village smithy. It was not "under a spreading chestnut tree," as Longfellow preferred to locate it, but it was partly shaded by a very odorous ailanthus tree that grew in front of the old shoeing shed, and the village blacksmith was Mr. Nathan Thomson, one of the best men who ever lived in old Athensville. He con tinued to wield his hammer until an old man, when the shop was rented to the late Morris J. Kane, who moved to the pres ent smithy on the McGowan lot when improvements rendered the demolition of the old landmark a necessity. Mr. Thomson was known far and wide as an excellent blacksmith, his shop being extensively patronized by the farmers from a distance, as well as by the tradesmen of the village and its vicinity. He died in 1894 at his home, which was situated but a few feet west of his shop, and, although an old man, whose usefulness had ended, he was sincerely mourned by old and young alike. His eldest son, Joshua, as his executor, sold the property within a year after his father's death to Franklin P. Azpell, who tore down the old house and other buildings on the lot to accommodate the four stores now occupied by Henry Harri son, the Redman Market House and himself. Mr. Thomson's family consisted of eight children, all but one of whom were born in the old home, which was built in 1841. The children all married, and are all dead, Nathan, Jr., the youngest son, being the last to die, only a few months ago. His son, Joshua, was also a blacksmith, who had learned the trade at his father's forge and carried on the business for the father during his declining days. He was a member of Gosline's Zouave Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers during the Civil War, being seriously wounded while in service in the Army of the Potomac. He recovered from the injury, and followed his calling until his death, which occurred about four years ago at Danville, Pa. 2gg BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

The eldest daughter, Hannah, married Josiah Longacre, now an inmate of the Hayes Mechanics' Home, at Bala. An other daughter, Mary, was the wife of Henry Andrews, late postmaster at Ardmore. Two others married brothers named Pope. Sarah was the widow of William H. Hannaberry; and Kate, the youngest daughter, was the wife of John Bixler. Joshua's wife was Joanna, daughter of Matthias Y. Scheffey; and Nathan married a Miss Jennie Bennington, of Maryland. As before stated, all the family are dead; the father and mother died at the old home, but all the children died else where. Mr. Thomson was a member and for many years an officer of the Lutheran Church in the village, in which position he exercised a power for good that was little less than remark able. While very plain and exceptionally retiring in his man ner, he was most upright and consistent in his walk and conversation, so that his acts, rather than his words, were appreciated as indicating the upright man. Politically Mr. Thomson was a Republican, but before the sixties a Democrat, never talking politics, but acting in it as he did in everything else, with absolute sincerity. He -never held or aspired to hold office of any kind, and it was with some difficulty that he could be induced to take any part in even local politics. He was one of the mildest of men, slow to anger but, when occasion required it, the "brawny arm" which his trade had given him was employed to the discomfiture and surprise of those who presumed too greatly upon his reputa tion for absolute gentleness. The Ardmore Hotel property, now owned by John Grady, is the next property eastward of the Thomson place. Since 1842, when this was another of the Charles Thompson Jones properties, the following changes in ownership have taken place: In 1842 it passed from Mr. Jones to Nathan Thomson, and became a portion of his business holdings. It so continued until 1856, when Mr. Thomson sold it to Matthias Y. Scheffey, who retained ownership until 1865, but did not reside upon it during his ownership, and in that year he sold it to Jacob Strahley. In 1869 Strahley sold to Reuben G. Smith, who held EAKLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE ]^g9 the ownership until 1891, when he sold to Joseph H. Edwards. In 1898 Edwards sold to William Hughes and Benjamin F. A. Fleming, who, in 1891, conveyed to John Grady, the present owner. A pending sale to a Mr. Armstrong, of the Eagle Hotel, in West Chester, will again add to the number of owners in a few weeks. During the ownership of Mr. Thomson a wheelwright shop, •operated in connection with Mr. Thomson's blacksmithing business, stood on this property, quite near to the smith shop. It was the west end of a building which comprised both house and shop, for the wheelwright resided in the house and almost under the same roof. For many years this house and shop were tenanted and the business carried on by William Rudolph, who has been referred to as a licensed preacher of the Methodist Church, and also as a good wheelwright. His services in connection with the Little Bethel have served to introduce him to our readers. As a speaker he was in frequent demand to conduct services at funerals, in which he was always very satisfactory, and may be said to have been peculiarly fitted. Clergymen were not so numerous in the old village as in the new, and for that reason "Billy," as everybody knew him, got all the odd jobs, with the exception of weddings. He claimed, and justly so, that he got everything but fees, which latter he many times more than earned by walking several miles to put the soul of a dead sinner far beyond dispute, receiving as his compensation only a share of the customary fuiieral dinner, which was then an imposing feature of the obsequies. In later years, when the old shop was changed to fit it for other uses, Mr. Rudolph adopted the calling of a house painter, which he followed for several years immediately preceding his death. During the latter years of his life he but seldom officiated in the pulpit, but was at all times a faithful church-goer. A large family of children, about a score in number, blessed the union of William and Mary Ann Rudolph, but nearly all of them are dead, a son, Edwin, alone remaining in the village, who follows the business last followed by his father. 290 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

His eldest son, Samuel, starved to death in Andersonville Prison during the war. He was taken prisoner while serving in the Army of the Potomac during the McClellan campaign, and taken to Andersonville, where he died, and was buried in an unmarked grave. His fellow prisoners carried to his par ents the story of his revolting death. Unsuccessful efforts were later made to recover his body, but it was found impos sible to even trace it> either as to date or place of interipent. He is therefore one of the great army of known but unrecqv-p ered dead, whose memory we revere, together with those who were recovered but were unknown. Mr. Scheffey has been mentioned as one of the most nu merous owners of this property. He was by profession a shoemaker, and resided for several years in an old frame house that stood very near to the present shops and residence of Mr. William G. Frankenfield. He was for several years a supervisor or road foreman on a section of the old Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad, extend ing from the Turnpike crossing at Haverford to Bowman's Bridge, which would now be written "from A. A. Hirst's to Parsons's shops." Reference will be made to this old road in later installments of our story. Mr. Scheffey's equipment for making repairs on the road and keeping it properly inspected consisted of a few tools and three Irishmen, which he carried from place to place on. a small flat car, drawn by a horse. It constituted a frequent and very attractive railroad excursion for the boys of that time when permitted to accompany Mr. Scheffey and his "gang" on their trips to and from their places of work. The approach of one of the very few locomotives then in the service of the State, when the foreman's car was working "in the block," occasioned no fear of a collision, either to the engineer of the locomotive or to the "conductor" of the little car. When either met or were overtaken on the single track, the car was lifted from the rails and the horse led to the roadside until the train passed, the train meanwhile slowing down or stopping, as the necessities of the case required, until the "switching" was accomplished. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 191

But there were then no eighteen-hour trains between New York and Chicago, nor even "millionaire expresses" with "Ardmore the first stop," so that the "Scheffey express," as it was then known, was never in the perilous position that a first thought would suggest. Today the old way would be hardly practicable. When the old line of the railroad was abandoned and the new line opened to West Philadelphia, the moving of all cars by horse power was prohibited, and this was the passing of the "Scheifey Express." More approved methods of track repairing, as well as everything else connected with railroad management, was given a Pennsylvania Railroad boost when that company be came the owners of the new and greatly improved road. Mr. Scheffey was a participant in this boost, but on the wrong side. The change practically drove him out of the business of rail roading, when he returned to his erstwhile calling—^the mak ing of boots and shoes, in which business he continued until his removal from the neighborhood in the late seventies. While resident in the old village Mr. Scheffey and his family identified themselves with everything tending to im prove village conditions. In church work they were all iden tified with the old Lutheran Church and Sunday-school, while in the social circle of that time his daughters were always in evidence. Two of his daughters married two Athensville boys, who had returned from honorable service in the army. The eldest, Miss Clementine, became the wife of George W. Calla- han, who, after a service of three years in the Army of the Potomac, entered the service of the United States in the signal service of the War Department, where he is yet employed. Another daughter, Joanna, was the wife of Joshua Thomson before referred to. ' Two sons, Lewis Cass and Amos Matthias, and one daugh ter, Sarah, removed from the village several years ago, when the family became residents of Pottstown, Pa., where the parents both died when quite well advanced in years. There is no descendant of the family resident in or near to the village at this time. 192 bulletin of historical society of montgkjmery county

During Mr. Scheffey's ownership of this property it was occupied for several years by the late Henry J. Werner, the old wheelwright shop having been converted into a store, which was the first store in the village to open in competition with the Litzenberg store at the Red Lion. Lewis Warner conducted a store at Haverford before the opening of- the Werner store, but that was not in the village proper. Mr. Werner and his wife have both died within the quite recent past, but his family is yet represented in the village by at least two of his children, Mrs. William G. Lesher and Mr. William A. Werner, while others of his family reside in Phil adelphia. ' During Mr. Strahley's ownership he occupied it himself and, converting the store into a saloon, he took out a license for the sale of malt and brewed liquors, thus becoming pro prietor of the village's first licensed saloon, and a most vigor ous competitor for the business of the Red Lion Hotel, a considerable part of which he diverted to the new saloon, as well as to the regret of the neighborhood. Since that time the place has been continuously licensed as either a saloon or a hotel. During the next ownership, that of Mr. Reuben G. Smithy the old buildings were altered to meet the requirements of a hotel license, which Smith secured, and in a very few years they were all demolished and the present large building erected, thus firmly establishing the property as one of the best hotel stands in the county. The later owners were, or are, all well known to the latter-day residents of the village. Each in turn has improved the property, until it is today, both as to buildings and location, all that can be desired for convenience as a public house. One of the owners named, Mr. Smith, is now the proprietor of the Green Tree Hotel, on the old Gulf road, which was for years conducted profitably by Ellis Ramsey; and another, Mr. Hughes, owns and manages the Penn House, situated--in a little corner of Delaware County so close to our sister village as to justify designating it as a Bryn Mawr hotel. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 293

It has been but a few years since Ardmore was sneerlngly alluded to as a village having one church and two taverns to recommend it to prospective home builders; now it has the same number of taverns, while the number of churches has quadrupled. As a village it was never very bad, even when it had but one church, and now, having immensely increased its church advantages, it is not any too good; but this is not to be construed into an argument for the increase in the number of either at this time. The property adjoining the Ardmore House on the east was purchased in 1843 from Charles Thompson Jones by Joseph T. Pearce, in whose family it remained until 1890, when it was sold fey the writer to the late John 0. McManne- min, who organized the firm of McMannemin & Norton, plumbers, who built the brick store and dwelling now occupied by Henry J. Norton, who succeeded to the business of the firm after the death of Mr. McMannemin, which occurred a few years ago. The front portion of the old frame house, still standing as almost the only old house left in the business section of the village, was built in 1848, an addition in the rear being built about eight years later. About 1884 the ice cream saloon, ovens and other buildings recently vacated by Mr. H. C. Gruber were built for the use of Isaac H. Evans, then a resident of Bryn Mawr, who opened the place as a bakery and confection ery, with steam power for the manufacture, and parlor for the s^le, of ice cream, there being at the time no place in the village devoted to such purposes. His career was short, and he soon sold out to a Philadelphia firm known as Martin & Moos. Martin died and the business was continued for a time by the surviving partner, Joseph A. Moos, who also failed and was sold out by the sheriff, when George H. Reitenbaugh, now postmaster at Ardmore, bought the business. He con tinued it for a short time, but still it was not successful when he sold it out to another Philadelphia firm, F. A. Brandenberg & Co. Upon the death of Mr. Brandenberg, Mr. Gruber, his late partner in business, succeeded to it, and has built it up to a condition that has obliged his removal to larger and much 194 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY better quarters, in order to accommodate its flattering pros perity. The early history of the old place records, for many years, no changes in either owners or occupants, but later years have shattered the record, as the same years have shattered" the buildings and the general appearance of the place. The original owner carried on an extensive cabinetmaking and undertaking business on this property, from 1844 to 1866, when he retired from business, being succeeded by the writer. The shop in which this business was carried on fifty years ago stood on the extreme western end of the lot. It was built at the same time as the house, by William Miles, and was torn down in 1846, when the business was removed from the place to the lot opposite the trolley terminal now occupied by Mr. W. G. Frankenfield. In the fifties and later this old shop was a busy place, six or more men and boys being constantly employed in the manufacture of furniture and coffins. There being no other place of the kind anywhere in the vicinity, Mr. Pearce manu factured coffins for his own trade, as well as for Jesse Schlater, an undertaker, then at the General Wayne; and for John C. Bloom, who was engaged in the same business at the Eagle, now Strafford, in Chester County; and for other undertakers in West Philadelphia, Conshohocken and Manayunk. . There being at that time no steam factories for the manu facture of either furniture or coffins, orders for both were taken, and all the work done by hand subsequently. Suits of furniture, or individual pieces, were ordered weeks before they were required, while coffins were invariably made after the death of a person had made measurement of a body.per missible. Early recollections of these coffins and the old-time funerals are not inapropos of our story. Everybody who is privileged to see a cartoon will be famil iar with the shape of a coffin of fifty years ago. They were made of walnut lumber and finished, as was also much of the furniture of the time, in wax polish. The inside being unfin ished and unlined, a bunch of shavings for the head of the EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE ^95 corpse and a winding sheet for the body completed the outfit, and all at a cost of about twelve dollars. Carriages were never hired, but always loaned by the farmers whose wives cooked the funeral dinner, which con stitute a most important feature of all such occasions. When the distance between the house of mourning and the cemetery was not over a mile, the remains were invariably carried to the grave on the shoulders of the pall-bearers, while the "mourners" walked in procession. The old-fashioned hearse was drawn by one horse, the color of which, either the hearse or the horse, was never the subject of the sligTitest criticism. The vehicle itself was posi tively indescribable. It cost three dollars to ride in it, and about twenty dollars to build. The first hearse of which the writer has distinct recollection had but two wheels, and was without springs, being a simple box on wheels, upon which the undertaker sat to drive. It was in all respects a typical con veyance for "rattling one's bones over the stones," etc. The minister frequently rode at the head of the cortege on horseback, and invariably preached a sermon. No short talks or brief service would then be accepted as satisfactory. Over some subjects he was then, as now, filled with more perplexity than inspiration in his efforts to win the thanks of an aflflicted family, but such conditions are likely to continue so long as it is only the good who die young. It was in the Pearce home that the post office, now grown to be such an important and altogether indispensable adjunct to village existence, was established and, of all our early recollections, none are more vivid than those associated with this, important event in our local history. If there was ever a time when the old village "sat up and looked about" itself it was when it was named and accepted by the Government as being of sufficient importance to war rant its being listed in the United States Post Office Directory. A new form of township government — the appointment of a police force, the organization of a fire company, the introduc tion of supplies of water, gas and electricity, the laying of sidewalks, the numbering of houses and the installation of a ]^96 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY political machine, have been as nothing compared to the estab lishing of a post office in the quiet little village of less than five hundred people, more than fifty years ago. The date of the event was February 2, 1853. Hon. John McNair was at the time the member from this district of the thirty-second and thirty-third Congresses, and it was through him the office was established. Owen Jones, William Miles, Joseph T. Pearce, Charles Kugler, William Sibley and A. S. Mendenhall were the men who petitioned for the office, suc cessfully carried through the effort and secured for the place a much-needed improvement in its postal facilities. Joseph T. Pearce was appointed postmaster without opposition, he being not only the only applicant, but the only person who could by any means be induced to consent to serve in the position, which is not strange when it is stated that his salary for the first year amounted to $53.60, which amount included rent of office, light, heat and clerk hire. The office was opened for business on February 10, 1853, in the room used until quite recently by Mr. Henry C. Gruber as a dining room. The first mail was sent and received on that day, and Mr. A. S. Mendenhall, at the time the teacher of the old Wynnewood School, so arranged in advance that he sent and received the first letters passing through the new office. The selection of a name for the office was the occasion for a number of very important conferences, the postal authorities insisting upon the selection of a name unlike any other in the State, and not a duplicate of any in the United States, if possible. Athensville, then the name of the village, could not be considered under any circumstances, there being several Athensvilles in other states. Athens was suggested, but was out of the question, it being the name of the county seat of Bradford County, in this State. Merion, Montgomery and other local names had all been pre-empted when the name of Cabinet was suggested by Mr. Mendenhall. The directory was consulted and there was found to be no Cabinet Post Office in all the country. The name met with the approval of the self-constituted committee on christening, and was adopted. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE I97 subject, of course, to the approval of the Post OlRce Depart ment, which also approved the selection, and ordered the opening of the office for business as soon as the necessary equipment was received. It has been said that the name was selected on account or by reason of the fact that the office was to be located at a cabinetmaker's place of business, but such is not the case, Mr. Mendenhall having in mind when he offered the suggestion the Cabinet of President Fillmore, of whom he was an ardent admirer. The name was retained until the general change was effected, when Anderson's Crossing, Athensville and Cabi net all went down under the new name of Ardmore, given the village in 1869 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, upon the sug gestion of Rev. George W. Anderson, D.D., who was also the sponsor for both Bryn Mawr and Rosemont, the latter place being his home then and for many years thereafter. A few years before this change was effected an effort was made to change the name of the railroad station from Athens ville to Cabinet, to overcome, at least in part, the difficulty attaching to misdirected mail matter, and a large sign, having "Cabinet Station" very imposingly painted upon it, was erected at the crossing, but the name was never adopted by the rail road authorities, nor favorably considered by the people. The mails were, at that time, carried only on through or fast express trains, the exchange being made from platforms built close to the tracks, whereon stood the postmaster, or his substitute, holding the pouch in front of him at arm's length, so that the route agent could catch it on his arm as the train sped by, very similar in every respect to the method until recently employed, with the exception of the substitution of an arm of steel for one of flesh and bones. When the pouch was too heavy to be exchanged in this way the train was flagged for the purpose, when frequently some remarks ensued. One exchange daily in each direction constituted the service for many years,-^uring a portion of which time the westbound mail was exchanged at 4.30 A.M., while it was no unusual annoyance to wait on the platform for the eastbound exchange for half a day. jgg BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

. The first postmaster served until about the year 1866, when he resigned, and his son-in-law, George H. Baker, was ap pointed and the office removed to the general store of.Stadel- man & Baker, which then occupied the present site of the Mer- ion Title & Trust Company's building, where the mail was for some years kept in a small case behind the dry goods counter, and "handed out" by any clerk who chanced to be in attendance. The demand for better accommodations for the increasing business of the office resulted in the erection of an annex to the rear of the store, to which the office was removed and a new case installed, containing ten lock boxes. From here the office was again removed a few years later, to the west side of Anderson avenue, when Mr. Baker built the store building now occupied by the Lower Merion Publishing Co. and Nathan Harrison, where a really commodious office was fitted up and conducted by him until a short time before his death. Joseph P. Baker, the only son of George H. Baker, suc ceeded his father as postmaster for a short time, when Heuben G. Smith, having become the owner of the building in which it was located, received the appointment as temporary postmas ter, which he held for a few months, when Henry Andrews was appointed to the postion, which he filled until relieved during the Cleveland administration, when the late Enoch Enochs was appointed. During the administration of the last- named official, the office was removed from the old Baker store to its present quarters in the Trust Company's building. At the expiration of Mr. Enochs' term, Mr. George H. Reitenbaugh became postmaster, and at the end of his term received re- appointment and is the present incumbent. ', With the salary and allowances at existing figures, it is pertinent to inquire — who'll be the next? The location of the office has been changed five times in the fifty-three years of its existence, and of the seven men who have served in the capacity of postmaster four have been Republicans and three Democrats. During the administration of Mr. Reitenbaugh, the office bqcame an office of the second class, when Miss Winnie EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 299

Harkins, now Mrs. Russell Stroup, was appointed assistant postmaster. When she retired from the office to become assis tant to Mr. Stroup, Mr. Paul J. Kugler was appointed, and is the present incumbent. At the time of and for some time after the establishing of Cabinet Post Office there was no office east of the village or between the new office and Philadelphia. Some years prior to the time, however, there had been an office in the village, to which reference has been made in previous chapters of our story. It was named West Haverford and was located in the house already described as the Randolph Pearson home, now the property of the Merion & Radnor Gas & Electric Co. The mails were carried to and from it by stage on Lancaster Pike during its earliest days, but it was, for a short time, supplied by train on the old Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. Charles Wilkins was the postmaster, and the mail was kept on a shelf in a room in his house used by him as a tailor shop, within easy reach of the postmaster, who handed it out be tween stitches as he sat on his table. During the forties this office was removed to the old store south of Rosemont Station, then known to everybody as Hen derson's store, and Mr. John G. Henderson, the proprietor of the store, was the postmaster. He held the position and ren dered most acceptable service for many years, surrendering it when removal to Harrisburg, at which place he had been appointed ticket agent in the offices of the Pennsylvania Rail road, rendered it imperative. The West Haverford office was the official office of Haver ford School, as it was then known, until the office at Haver ford was established, when the new station was built, where it yet stands. The change in the location of the railroad left the old store some distance away, and resulted in West Haverford becoming Bryn Mawr, when the office, with its name changed to suit, was removed from William H. Ramsey's old store to William H. Ramsey's new store, with William H. Ramsey as postmaster. The existence of a hotel in Athensville served the faculty of Haverford School as a convincing argument against be- 200 bulletin of historical socii?rY of Montgomery county stowing its patronage on the new Cabinet ofRce, and justified them in carrying their mail matter more than twice the dis tance, and consuming much more of the time of their mes senger. But such men as Joseph Cartland, Jonathan Richards and others, who were then the heads of the faculty, took no risks in temptation. Nevertheless, there were many letters and much other mailable matter sent and received through the new office for and by the Haverford students, who, in this way, avoided the scrutiny imposed even upon their correspondence, for these were the days when the honor of the boys was not put to the test,as is wisely the practice at this time. The case which originally held all the mail, both sent and received through the new office, is still owned by the writer and, when compared with the present equipment, is, in addi tion to being a curiosity, an excellent object illustration of the almost phenomenal growth of the village requirements in fifty years. It is about two and a half feet square and one foot in depth, and was altogether too large for the accommodation of the mail matter of its time. It contained about thirty small pigeon holes or compartments, while the present equipment is composed of cases containing over seven hundred boxes and drawers, besides several auxiliary cases and attachments. The post office at Merion Square, our near-by village, known to all the old residents as "The War Ofllce" (the place having been a recruiting office during the War of 1812), was in operation many years before the office in this village was established. It was supplied from Manayunk, "The Square" having then, as it yet has, no railroad facilities. The late Hamilton Egbert was for many years postmaster and the office was named Lower Merion, which name it retained until within the last few years. The "office" was in the general store of H. & N. Egbert, and consisted of a box kept on the grocery counter, the mail being carried on horse back or by wagon tri-weekly. As soon as the new office at Cabinet was in full swing a change was made in the service of Lower Merion from a tri weekly to a daily service, with Cabinet as the supplying office, when John Stillwagon was appointed carrier on the new EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 201 route. This route is known today as a "Star Route," the mail being carried by stage twice each day in both directions. Then it was by no means a "Star Route," Mr. Stillwagon receiving as his compensation less than forty cents per day for walking the distance of over four miles and carrying the old leather pouch on his shoulder. He also collected and distributed the Mill Creek mail en route, for which service it is hoped the old man has been compensated in the world to which he has long since gone, as he never received any in this. The establishing of the stage line to Merion Square, about twenty years ago, by Joseph E. Shinn, has had the effect of changing carriers on this route with the same frequency as proprietorship in the stage line has been changed, although for many years after the route was changed and made a part of the "Star Route Service," Isaac Burns carried the mail with an old soldier's faithfulness for about the same sort of compensation. Within the comparatively recent past the old name of Lower Merion has been dropped as the name of the post office^ as has also Merion Square as the old-time name of the village, both going down under the more euphonious, but not, to many of the older residents, more acceptable name of Gladwynne. A short time after the change in the name of the village from Athensville to Ardmore a post office was established at Kelly's upper mill, on Cobb's Greek, which was named Wolf- enden. It was located in the general store of Taylor Wolfen- den and he was appointed postmaster. The office was supplied with a daily morning mail through the Ardmore office for several years, but at length succumbed to the large amount of trouble and the small amount of compensation attaching to its administration, for when Wolfenden declined to serve as post master no successor to him could be found, and the office was discontinued. A portion of the territory for which the office was a convenience is now served by a rural free delivery ser vice, with Newtown Square as the supplying office. Patrick Mulligan, the watchman at the Merion Title & Trust Company's offices, since the organization of the com pany, was the carrier of the Wolfenden mail during almost the entire life of the office. When post offices were established at 202 bulletin op historical sociE?rY of Montgomery county

Haverford on the one side of the village and at Elm Station, now Narberth, and Wynnewood on the other side, and when everything became Ardmore, but more particularly when a salary attached to the position of postmaster, which made it alluring to "the workers" of the political parties, the little office became and continues to be one of the best offices on the ^eat Main Line. As has been said, the salary of the first postmaster for the first year amounted to $52.60, with no allowance for rent, light, heat, clerical assistance or even twine with which to tie the packages of letters. The salary of the present incumbent is $2300 per annum, with an allowance of $1000 yearly for an assistant postmaster, with liberal salaries for at least three clerks, a further annual allowance of $480 for rent, light and heat, with no limiit to the allowance for string. In 1841 the property now occupied by the Mahan Block was a portion of the holdings of Charles Thompson Jones, Esq. In 1843 he sold it to Christopher H. Garden, who was a brother-in-law of the Levering brothers, before referred to as having resided on the properties at what is now Lancaster and Wyoming avenues. In the same year it was sold three times. Garden selling it to Washington Keith, and Keith selling to Thomas Entreken. In 1852 Entreken sold it to Joseph T. Pearce, who, in 1866, conveyed it to his only daughter, M. Louisa, who at the time became the wife of George H. Baker. Repeated changes in ownership followed the death of Mrs. Baker, which occurred in the month of January, 1886, during which time the title was in Josiah S. Pearce, Joseph P. Baker, Charles H. Frederick and David Dallas until the year 1901, when Mrs. Frank H. Mahan became the owner. The first house built upon this property was a one-and-a- half story frame cottage, with no outbuildings or attachments of any kind. Later, during the Entreken ownership, it became a business place and was occupied by Randolph Pearson as a butchering establishment, the front portion of the lot being covered with butchering pens, slaughter houses, stables, etc. The place again became a private residence about the year 1859, when the outbuildings were all torn down and the little EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OP ARDI4ORE £03 cottage repaired and the place generally "slicked up." It was occupied by several tenants until about the year 1868, when the cottage was taken down and the stone house, only recently removed, was built by Mrs. Baker. The house was, for a time, known as "The Black Rock House," it being one of the first in the neighborhood to be built of the stone taken from the Black Rock quarry, which was then operated by the late Hamilton Egbert. ' The house, at one time one of the prettiest on the turnpike, fell before the demand for business places, and the Mahan Block, a most creditable improvement to the turnpike section of the village, arose in its place. Since 1843 eleven persons have held title to this property, all but four of whom are dead. In 1860 and prior thereto the place was frequently distin guished from neighboring places in directing inquirers to it by a huge buttonwood tree growing in full vigor near to the eastern line of the property, close to the turnpike line. It was the largest tree in the village, and was respected accordingly. When it was cut down the stump measured exactly six feet across, and it may be supposed that all the village protested most earnestly against its being manufactured into butchers' chopping blocks, of which it yielded a score, but it, like the old buildings, stood in the way of demanded improvements and must needs be removed. All of the past of this old place has gone, but has not been sacrificed, which is attested by the fact that the present im provement is one of the best and most desirable in the village. It has removed every old landmark of the original cottage home, but in this instance there are no unfavorable criticisms .to be suggested. During the ownership of Mr. Entreken the lot in rear of the little cottage was planted with choice fruit trees, Mr. En treken being an arboriculturist of some note. He claimed to have in his collection an apple tree, grafted by himself, which bore seven "different manner of fruits." The writer well remembers the tree, and also recalls the difficulty experienced by the old man in keeping even a small proportion of those 204 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY seven varieties of apples on it until they were sufficiently ripe to enable him to verify his claim. He can also attest the fact that there was a difference in the flavor of the various products of that tree. This property was, for a time, occupied by William A. Ott, who leased it from Mr. Entreken. Ott was also a butcher, who stood over six feet two inches, and weighed considerably over two hundred pounds. He was therefore studiously avoided by all the little fellows when skylarking was being indulged in, a distinction which he enjoyed to the fullest extent. He claimed to be the one man in the village who could not be bested in a wrestling bout, and held the record as such for some time. On one occasion, when the matter was a subject for discussion with Mr. Horatio G. Litzenberg, who was a small man of about the same age as Ott, not over five feet six inches in height, and weighing about 135 pounds, Mr. Litzen berg informed Ott that he believed he could throw him. Nat urally Ott was much amused, and scorned the imputation, when Mr. Litzenberg, acting very quickly, caught the big fellow unaware, and, employing a sort of home-made jiu jitsu in the effort, threw him violently to the ground, dislocating Ott's shoulder. Dr. Joseph H. Levering was a witness to the bout, and immediately proceeded to reduce the luxation, as the doctors say; that is, the Doctor supplied the power neces sary to pull the big bone into place, while Ott supplied all the yelling necessary to the operation. For several days, Ott, swathed in bandages, and smelling strongly of soothing lotions, was kept busy explaining how it was done, but was never afterward heard to propose a test of strength when Mr. Litzenberg was in the same township. Old "Parson Jones," who has been named as a friend and oft-time guest of Mr. Lit zenberg, frequently referred to the incident as a repetition of the David and Goliath encounter, highly creditable to Horatio, as well as: beautifully illustrative of the doctrine he so loved to inculcate—that "the victory is not always with the strong." It was generally believed at the time that Dr. Levering's bill for hurting Ott secondarily was cheerfully paid by Mr. Litzen berg. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORB 205

. .. The properties known as Dr. Alison and Reuben G. Smith properties, on the corner of Lancaster and Anderson avenues, were originally other portions of the tract owned, up to about the year 1850, by. Charles Thompson Jones. About the year named it was conveyed as a whole to William Young, who resided on the property while engaged in the business of selling flour and feed in a small two-story frame building, which stood on the east side of Anderson avenue, on land now used as a driveway or approach to the station, in rear of the Merion Title & Trust Company's building. . Young was by trade a carpenter, his business as a dealer in flour and feed being run as a sort of side line to the building of houses and barns, but the combination was not a successful venture. He retired from the mercantile business after a time, but retained possession and ownership of the lot on the west side ofAnderson avenue until 1857, when he sold it to William Thompson, who succeeded Randolph Pearson in the business of butchering when he, Pearson, moved to Sixty-third and Market streets. West Philadelphia, where he died in the year 1892. Thompson removed all the slaughtering equipment from the Mahan lot to the old stone stable yet standing on the Doctor Alison property, and built to it all required attach ments for his business. Thompson was a horse dealer, as well as a butcher, and he has also been referred to in these letters as a farmer. He was an expert in all these callings; particu larly in the business of horse trading which, with him, was more than a business—it was a profession. The old stable before referred to as still standing on this property has, on more than one occasion, been the scene of deals in horse flesh that have convinced the parties with whom he dealt that the business was more than a trade to Thompson. In 1865 he sold the place to Henrietta R., wife of Jacob L. Stadelman. Up to the time of this change in ownership an old-* f^hioned stone house occupied the site of the present Alison residence. This old house Mrs. Stadelman had removed imme diately- after her acquisition of the place when the present house;was planned and built for the late Philip L. Goodman. 206 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

It was acknowledged to be the finest house in the village at the time, and, immediately upon its completion, it was occu pied by Jacob L. Stadelman and a large family, who removed from it after the death of his father, to reside in the old home stead, at the Black Horse Hotel at Old Lancaster road and City Line. The family continued to reside at the latter place until after the death of Jacob L. Stadelman, which occurred in December, 1899, after which time the old place was sold and the family scattered to different homes of their own. The old house to which we have referred, after the removal of William Young and during the construction of the new line of railroad from Athensville to West Philadelphia, was rented for a time to Mr. Hugh De Grant, who conducted in it a work- ingman's boarding house. The laborers on the new railroad patronized the house in force, taxing its utmost capacity, as well as Mr. De Grant's well-known forbearance and toleration. He was a very good man, a Christian man, honest, upright and worthy in every respect, but utterly lacking experience with an Irishman's appetite when a pick and shovel tonic was being hourly used as a sharpener. He frankly admitted that one experience in taking such boarders had entirely altered his conceptions of the human capacity for food. He therefore abandoned the business and secured something easier—engag ing in the business of hauling logsto thesawmill. Mr. De Grant died in February, 1885, after his removal from the village, but his family is yet represented in this neighborhood. Three of his daughters have been among the best teachers in our public schools, another was the wife of Lewis J. Haley, a road supervisor in the employ of the township, a son resides in Manayunk, another is filling a responsible position with the Pennsylvania Railroad at Harrisburg, which he has retained for thirty years. The eldest of the family, Henry, a boy with the writer, and Mary (Mrs. Haley) are deceased. Five chil dren survive. In 1882 Mrs. Henrietta R. Stadelman sold the Alison and R. G. Smith property to George H. Baker, who shortly after ward built the stone store building and numerous other build ings fronting on Anderson avenue, which were originally hay EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 207 and feed houses, but have since been used as barber shops, dwellings, plumber shops, tin shops, restaurants, employment offices, shoemaking shops, or for almost any purpose. . The office and machine room of the Lower Merion Publishing Company, and the store, dwelling and pool room of N. Harri son,, were all embraced in the one store, which was really a model store at the time, but the acme of sub-division of the whole property has been reached, and that without a too sin cere regard for the beautiful. ' The firm of Stadelman & Baker having dissolved just previous to the building of the new store, Mr. Baker took the grocery and feed business and removed the post office into it as soon as it was completed. Mr. J. L. Stadelman took the coal and lumber business to the present Smedley & Mehl stand, and Mr. S. F. Stadelman took as his share, on the dissolution, the drug business, building the drug store where it yet stands, and moving to it from the old departihent store. Shortly after these changes the old store building, while occupied by Martin Whelen as a tin store, was destroyed by fire and never rebuilt as a store, the Merion Title Building occupying the site of the once busy store and offices. Mr. Baker was unsuccessful in business from the date of the dissolution of the old firm, notwithstanding the fact that as a member of the co - partnership he had been most successful. He continued to meet with reverses which he was unable to surmount until an assignment for the benefit of his credi tors was made to William H, Button, Esq., who sold every thing Mr. Baker possessed, the new store included, leaving him without a dollar, and in debt. It was then that Reuben G. Smith, the present owner, be came possessed of this property. The building has been the scene of several ventures in various kinds of storekeeping which have closely followed each other, nearly all of which have failed. The present tenants, however, appear to have broken the spell, and the property is today one of the most valuable in the village. I. 208 bulletin op historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Meantime the larger part of the lot, including all the older improvements, was sold to Dr. R. H. Alison, who came to the village a stranger, almost immediately acquired an excellent practice, identifying himself with local affairs, was chosen-to the position of School Director and Township Commissioner, which offices he filled most satisfactorily, but declined re-elec tion. He was with us sufficiently long to be called an old resi dent, but not of the class to whom either our readers or the Doctor himself would have permitted us to class amongst our early recollections of the village. His loss to the village was one of the greatest sustained in his profession, and, being so recent, has not lost its keenness. In addition to filling the position of Postmaster at Ard- more for fifteen years, Mr. Baker was a Director of the Public Schools of Lower Merion for almost an equal length of time, during which service he was instrumental in having erected more new school buildings and introducing more new com forts into the old ones than any (other) man who has ever served in that thankless capacity. He was treasurer or other responsible officer of a number of lodges, clubs and societies with which he was identified, filled several positions falling to the lot of the Democracy, of which party he was a devoted adherent, and which was then the dominant party of the To-wnship and County, and was in many respects a most use ful and influential man in the community. In 1861 he enlisted in Company B, First Pennsylvania Cavalry, under Captain (later Colonel) Owen Jones, and rose to the rank of first lieutenant and acting assistant quarter master of that well-known regiment. After a service of three years in the Army of the Potomac he returned, and joined in partnership with Jacob L. Stadelman, who had been captain of the same company for a portion of the time it was in service. • The new firm succeeded E. & J. L. Stadelman, of whom we will write later. Mr. Baker died at the University Hospital, Philadelphia, in July, 1889. In his case death may be said to have come to him when it would seem that there was nothing else to come. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 209

He had lost everything he had striven so hard to accumulate, his family, with a single exception, were gone, as were many of his erstwhile friends—he was a physical "wreck, his influ ence was no more, and, worse than all, he was an acute suf ferer from an incurable disease. When the end came it was not unwelcome. The death of his son, Joseph P. Baker, about three years ago, removed the last of his four children from earth. A second wife, Martha McCarroll Baker, survives, but is not a resident of this vicinity. Reference has been made to the fact that Mr. Baker was during the greater part of his business life an office holder, either as postmaster or in some local position which paid less and was more trouble. His office in the new store, as well as the office of the firm in the old building, was for years the "Betz Building" of the village. The Democratic Party were, in the seventies, in power in the village, the Township and the County, and Baker's office was the Mecca where all aspirants for office were wont to be present and to fall down and worship. Slates were made and broken by the, at that time, party leaders, among whom were some of the best men in Lower Merion. Included in the list of leaders who directed the Democracy of Lower Merion from this office were Owen Jones, Dr. S. R. S. Smith, Enoch Enochs, Jacob L. and Samuel F. Stadelman, John Whiteman, Philip S. Garrett, Thomas McCully, William Sibley, Hiram Litzenberg and many others, all of whom are dead. Road Supervisor was then the best To"wnship office in the gift of the people, and a nomination was equivalent to election. Any candidate receiving the endorsement of the "Ardmore ring," as it was then known to both parties, was certain of his election. The Republicans charged all the crimes in the political cal endar to this coterie of politicians, just as the Democrats are" now countercharging the Republicans, who are doing exactly the same thing, except that the office, from whence cometh the orders, as well as every good and perfect gift, is no longer in even the vicinity of old Athensville. 210 bulletin op historical society op MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Then School Boards "were made at Athensville, or later, at Ardmore. Teachers were appointed in this office, books and supplies were purchased through the firm, tax collectors were selected, elected and bonded by the same leaders, and assessors of real estate were eligible only after examination as to qualifi cation by the "Ardmore ring." But the office, the ring and the domination of the Democracy in Lower Merlon are all gone, and we have in their stead, a combination not a whit better, if quite as good, for then the best element of the party did the dictating, which condition does not exist today in either party to that desirable extent which would ensure on all occasions the selection of only the best men for public office. The property lying on the southeast side of Anderson ave nue and bounded by Lancaster avenue, the Pennsylvania Rail road and the properly recently purchased by the latter from Josiah S. Pearce, was, in 1851, one piece or parcel of land. It was sold in that year by Dr. James Anderson and wife to Wil liam Young, who, in 1853, sold it to Jacob Stadelman, Sr., who held the title until the lot was sold in two parts, about fifteen years ago, to the Merion Title and Trust Co. and the Pennsyl vania Railroad. As already stated. Young opened a flour and feed store on the lower or railroad end of the lot in a building fronting on Anderson avenue, which later became a residence for the employes of the succeeding owners. Young was not successful in the business, nevertheless his effort proved an inspiration for his successors. Edwin and Jacob L. Stadelman, who were cousins, formed a co-partnership, leased the property, bought Young's very limited stock and equipment, built an office and scale shed on the turnpike front, opened a coal yard and feed stores"and erected stables, shedding, etc., to meet the requirements of a prospective profitable business. Anderson avenue at that time crossed the Pennsylvania Railroad at grade, which permitted the siding that had been put in by the firm to be extended a few years later across the road and along the entire railroad front of the lot on the north 'Squire Azpell's Office and Shop (from a photograph otvned by-tke 'Sqidre, who appears in it) EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 211 side of the turnpike, now owned by the heirs of the late Dr. R. H. Alison, to the line of the Frank H. Mahan property. Exten sive bins for coal storage were built, and every facility- for conducting a large business was introduced, with the result anticipated—the firm doing a very profitable business until the close of the Civil War, when the senior partner, Edwin Stadelman, retired and soon afterward, in May, 1866, died. He was a thorough business man and a good citizen, and during the absence of his partner in the service of the country he managed the business, practically unassisted, most satis factorily. Jacob L. Stadelman and George H. Baker, upon their return from the army, in 1865, organized the firm of Stadel man & Baker, succeeded the old firm and took over all its assets and a good business. Both were experienced in the busi ness proposed to be conducted, Stadelman having learned the hardware business in Philadelphia, as well as the coal and feed business in the late partnership with his cousin, while Baker enjoyed the advantage of years of experience in the grocery business under Mr. H. G. Litzenberg, where he began as a young boy. =A large brick and frame store was built over and all around the old office building, suitable for the storage and sale of everything salable in a country store. The coal and feed busi ness was greatly increased as a result of the introduction of new and better facilities and a substantial increase in the capital of the firm, together with that always desirable ele ment in business, the infusion of plenty of young blood. The lots on the southwest side of the turnpike, now owned by Mrs. Samuel F. Stadelman, the present site of her resi dence, drug store, bowling alleys, garage, etc., were later bought by the firm, and a lumber yard opened in connection with its other departments. The post office was moved from Mr. Pearce's to the store, then a drug store was built (the first in the neighborhood), fronting on Anderson avenue, near to the present location of the post office, and Mr. Samuel F. Stadelman was admitted to membership in the firm without changing the firm name. 212 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

The business was successful in every branch from the start, and proved of great convenience to the people of the neighborhood, as well as of great pecuniary benefit to the firm, whose business was drawn from not only the village, but from all the surrounding vicinity. It also constituted a strenuous opposition to the Litzenberg store and yards, for the new firm took out a license for the sale of spirituous liquors at whole sale or in measures of one quart or more, and sold of it a great deal too much. In the early days of the firm's existence Mr. J. L. Stadel- man was appointed freight agent of the Pennsylvania Rail road and agent of the Adams Express Company, the offices for both agencies being in the office of the busy store. There was then no siding on the north side of the railroad, adequate facil ities for the freight requirements of the village being afforded by the firm's coal siding. The time of which we are telling was long before the era of banks or trust companies in the village of Athensville, or, in fact, anywhere in the neighborhood; but Stadelman & Baker supplied the "long-felt want" by making of their offices a sort of money centre for all the surrounding country. Checks could be cashed or gotten in exchange for money, bills changed, notes discounted and everything then necessary for the financial convenience of the neighborhood attended to with promptness and dispatch. Contracts were taken for furnish ing supplies of all kinds, hauling of everything was solicited, building materials of every description were kept in stock, and business of all kinds was not only assiduously sought, but was promptly and satisfactorily attended to. During the most prosperous period of the existence of this firm the first of the large buildings of the College of St. Charles Borromeo at Overbrook was built. The station was then known as City Avenue, but there was no siding connected with it, Ardmore being the nearest siding to the operation. All the facing stone, . as well as large quantities of other heavy building material were shipped to and carted from the Stadelman & Baker siding, which at that time was a private trackway, not owned EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 213 by the railroad company, but later, when removed, it became railroad property and so continues. After a most successful career this firm dissolved in 1882, when all the firm's property, both real and personal, was divided in the most amicable manner and all the business con tinued by the separating partners, as has been before stated. Shortly after this change the old store was destroyed by fire and was never rebuilt during the Stadelman ownership. In 1892 the rear half of the lot was sold to the railroad company, and very soon thereafter the front portion was bought by the Merion Title and Trust Company from the heirs of the senior Jacob Stadelman. All evidences that the place had ever been used as a coal yard were soon obliterated by the railroad company, the siding being abolished and the ground consumed in the widening of the roadbed, Anderson avenue was lowered so as to pass under the tracks, a bridge being permiteed by the township authorities to be built by the railroad company entirely too narrow for the depressed road, and a driveway constructed on the newly-acquired property from Anderson avenue to the new shelter, thereby adding to the station's convenience of approach, there having been up to this time access to the station on the north side only, and from Anderson avenue alone, Coulter avenue not then being open for travel. Meantime the little box used as a station was loaded on a fiat car and carried four and a half miles west to Upton, where it served for station purposes until Upton Station was so hur riedly abolished that in less than twelve hours the station was not only wiped off the map of the railroad, but platforms, baggage stands and everything appertaining to station accom modations was loaded on cars and carried away. What eventually became of the old Athensville station building even the railroad people have forgotten. The present station building, admitted at the time to be the handsomest on the main line, had, in the meantime, been erected on land acquired from Dr. Anderson, the younger. A public or company siding was put in and a small freight house erected on the north side, a short distance east of the station, 2X4 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY to which the freight and express offices were removed from the counting room of the store. Mr. Stadelman was retained as freight agent, the actual duties being performed by his brother-in-law, William E. Hamill, who was his assistant. Mr. Hamill was stricken with paralysis while sitting at his desk in this little freight office, and, although he lived for sev eral years thereafter, he never entirely recovered from the effects of the stroke. He was one of Ardmore's best and most highly respected residents, coming to the village from Frank- ford, Philadelphia, where he had been for some years in busi ness for himself, but which had not been entirely successful; but in this neighborhood, where his faithfulness and ability in managing details for another were severely tested, he proved himself invaluable. The front half of the lot was improved by the erection of the first half of the present Trust Company building in 1895, the second or banking section of the building being erected about two years later. Why the remaining portion has not been built and the improvement as originally contemplated completed deponeth sayeth not. The old twin houses, now "the Arcade," and the store of Mr. James E. Dow, were built by the senior Jacob Stadelman about the year 1868 and have been occupied at different times by the best people of the old village, for they were originally among the best houses in the place. Among the tenants are remembered Jacob L. and Samuel F. Stadelman and their mother,- the widow of Capt. Jacob Stadelman, Sr.; Mr. Wil liam E. Hamill; the late Marshall Tevis; Nicholas Brice; Mrs. Rebecca M. Neff, who was a sister of Dr. Samuel R. S. Smith; and others. Nearly all these tenants and all the former owners are dead, while the old houses, no longer a village ornament, are waiting the decree which should long ago have been issued condemning them to be no longer cumberers of the ground. Reference has so frequently been made in our story to the change in the name of the subject of our recollections from Athensville to Ardmore that more on the subject would be but repetition and therefore adjudged altogether unnecessary, and EAKLY RECOLLECTIONS OP ARDMORE 215 yet the contest, or possibly a better terra would be, the contro versy, indulged at the re-christening of the place, has not been even mentioned. Jacob L. Stadelman was, at the time of the change, the agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Athensville Station, and as such was the recognized authority of his principal in the village on all subjects from the collection of its freight charges to the promulgation of its edicts. It was through him that the decree was announced that a change in the name would positively be made and that suggestions for a new name, left with him, would receive due consideration by the company. As a consequence a number of names were suggested, but of which number Ardmore was not one. The list of submitted names was kept in the office of.the Stadelman & Baker store and everybody was invited to vote for names already sug gested or submit an addition to the list, according to their individual preference. Dr. Joseph W. Anderson and William Sibley strenuously opposed a change from the old name, in which they were seconded by Mr. Charles Kugler, whose suggestion, when resistance was no longer practicable, of the name Athenia was accepted by Mr. Sibley and approved by the Doctor. Mr..Miles submitted the name Merioneth, the name of the province in Wales from which the Merions took their name. Dr. Samuel R. S. Smith submitted Ardenheim. Mr. Stadel man urged Cabinet, while Owen Jones thought St. Mary's, the name of his farms, would be appropriate. Louis Wister was tardy in sending in his preference and had to be urged, when he suggested John Whitemanville, for, he said, "Whiteman bosses the place, anyhow." Numerous other names were sug gested, but none received substantial approval by vote. Discussions, suggestions, meetings, demands, protests and other forms of discord all availed nothing, although when the compilation of the return of the votes cast was completed Ard enheim had the other names beaten to a finish. Mr. Stadel man, as a consequence, submitted the name to Mr. Joseph Les ley, who was at the time Secretary of the railroad company, having his residence at Bryn Mawr, with the statement that it 2X6 bulletin op historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY was in accord with more village opinion than any other name, Athensville always excepted. Mr. Lesley had been appointed by the railroad officials as a committee of one on names, and, acting in the premises as thoroughly and conscientiously as he did in everything he was called upon to do for either his company or the world in gen eral (for he was one of the best of men), he had taken counsel and suggestions from others than our villagers in the prosecu tion of his duties as committeeman. Among these non-resident counsellors was his close and cherished friend, Rev. George W. Anderson, who resided at what is now Rosemont, who had been for years pastor of the Lower Merion Baptist Church. He proposed the name Ard- more, and Mr. Lesley approving the suggestion, reported it to his company, and it was adopted, and we, the people, were at once directed to govern ourselves accordingly. Dr. Smith always claimed that he was not entirely ignored in his suggestion, being successful in the first syllable of the name, even though he lost all the rest of it. Mr. Lesley, anticipating the inquiry that would naturally follow the naming of not only the old village of Athensville, but as well the new village of Bryn Mawr, as to the significa tion of the names, which were both wholly new to the neigh borhood, was ready with his explanation when explaining was in order. Both names signified high grounds or hills—Bryn Mawr being Welsh and Ardmore Irish—and, as both places were on high ground, the names were quite appropriate. It was thought at the time that Ardmore was more appro priate for an additional reason, for then Bryn Mawr had among its residents but three Welshmen, while Ardmore had Irishmen galore. It must not be supposed that the old residents of the vil lage accepted the new name without voicing a protest. A num ber, yet living in the place, can remember the dissatisfaction expressed at the time, and the declarations, both expressed and implied, that they would not submit to such an arbitrary manifesto. A few firms and business houses refused for some time to change their letters and billheads and other stationery BARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 217

to conform to the new name; but the majority acquiesced within the succeeding few months. The change in the name of the post office following the other change, almost immediately- compelled the acceptance of the new name by everybody 'who wrote or received a letter or "took a newspaper," for then the latter constituted the bulk of the incoming mail. In a short time Athensville was only a memory and today all that is left of the old name is bestowed on a road or avenue one-fourth of a mile in length and fifty feet wide, traversing the best portion of the south side of the village. When some time after her change of name, Ardmore "grew up," another trouble beset her people, and Stadelman's store was again given full credit for being the incubator. A number of the villagers, or about one-half the property owners, but fully two-thirds of the voters, conceived the idea that Ard more should be incorporated or, in other words, be made. a borough. Surveys were made, petitions and remonstrances were circulated and numerously signed, counsel were em ployed, meetings held and enemies made when the project was abandoned for lack of the required approval of a majority of the resident property owners. The survey included all the old village and a portion of Haverford and was made by the late' Samuel M. Garrigues, who took his life, as well as his transit, in his hands when he crossed the village line into Haverford, for it was anti- borough unmistakably and almost unanimously, while the sentiment in the old village was almost evenly divided. Dr. Anderson and Louis Wister, both large property owners strenuously opposed annexation. Mr. Wister was asked by one of his friends if he would consent to be included within the borough limits if he should be chosen as the first Burgess. His reply can be imagined by anyone who knew the splendid but emphatic old gentleman. Some of the arguments employed by the opponents of in corporation are recalled. Haverford declared that it would sacrifice anything rather than lose its identity; annexation to a village having two taverns in full swing was a step tending to end civic righteousness in that exclusive suburb and would 218 bulletin of historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY not be countenanced; newcomers from the city did not want sidewalks, lighted streets, police and increased taxation, these being the things that drove them away from a city. Valuations would be increased and taxes raised proportionately—un necessary and altogether needless officers would be imposed upon the people and next we would have water works, sewers and other luxuries to pay for. The people of the township out side the proposed borough limits saw in it increased taxation for them through loss of valuable taxable property, included in which was the township's largest public school, while those inside the limits opposed the expenditure of the enormous sum necessary to purchase the same school property and operate.a borough government at the expense of a comparatively few taxpayers. These and numerous other objections prevailed, with the result, as before stated, that when the petition for and the remonstrance against the project were placed sided by side the opponents were found to be in the majority. The borough feeling slumbered, but did not die; the enact ments constituting townships of the first class, of which Lower Merion was the first constituted, and whose people drafted the act and had it passed by the Legislature, was con sequent upon the agitation of the question of making Ardmore a borough. Possibly it is well ,the first effort failed, for the success of the latter is beyond peradventure. Criticism may be in order for centering so much of our story about the Stadelman & Baker comer, and yet from ho other place can certain village history be so appropriately told, and at no other place in either the old or the new village did so many interesting and properly appropriate things con nected with our recital take place. It was for many years previous to, during and succeeding the Civil War the village centre of information, as well as the centre for village gossip and the headquarters of the village's amusement and entertainment. The village was then, as now, the capital village of the township, and the store and offices of EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORB 219

Stadelman & Baker were the legislative, executive and judi cial halls of the capital. In the days when the Democracy was recognized as the dominant party in the county and township, funds were sub scribed here for the payment of everything, from the printing of the ballots to the organization and maintenance of mounted marching clubs, which were drilled and equipped through the same fund. Hickory poles were bought and hauled for long distances by the Stadelman & Baker teams, so that in every national campaign the village was noted as having the tallest and best hickory pole in the neighborhood. "Old Glory," with a Democratic string to it, was raised over different parts of the village regularly every four years, the poles being planted always between the S. & B. store and the Red Lion, the corners now occupied by the E. A. Bowker and the Miss Goodrich stores, being the choicest spots for their erection. Banners or an immense flag were always in evidence over the turnpike opposite the store and at other places at the centre of the old place. At one time an ox roast was considered at the village head quarters, but at the suggestion of J. Henry Askin, the founder of Wayne, who was a liberal contributor to the cause of Dem ocracy, the actual obsequies were held at Wayne, the Lower Merion Democratic Association turning, out a large cavalcade in attendance upon the celebration. There was in the early days but one voting place in the township, and on election days everybody was obliged to go to the General Wayne Hotel to vote, or impair his record as a good American citizen. Teams were run regularly during the entire day between the Stadelman store and the polls, but for the convenience of Democrats only. The little tickets were kept in stock in the office, and each voter was fully equipped and posted before taking his seat in the wagon. If not posted and equipped he walked. No blanket ballot, such as is used to perplex voters at this time, was then in use, and it is a ques tion whether the old "vest-pocket" ballot, then so easily voted, was not better than the present expensive and incomprehen sible sheet that is annually subject to a change for the worse. 220 bulletin of historical society op MONTGOMERY COUNTY

There was then no telephone or telegraph office in the village, so that the faithful sat in the old store until two or tl^ee o'clock in the morning until the counting off was completed 'and the returns carried by a messenger on horseback from "Davy Young's," as the old General Wayne Hotel was then generally known. George Zynn was for years a driver in the employ of the Stadelman & Baker firm, as were also George Blithe, Jr., Daniel Garter, Andrew Orr and others, nearly all of whom were Democrats, and all of whom have served more than once as the bearer of glad tidings from "The Wayne," for they could be depended upon, while there were volunteers for the service who could not. Then the. law did not require that all bars, liquor stores and places at which liquor could be had, be closed during election day, as is now the case, and, as the agent of importance as an accessory to hilarity following success, or as a solace to the regret of defeat, was on sale at both ends of the line, there was at times much uncertainty as to the arrival of the returns if the messenger could not be depended upon. Zynn claimed that on certain occasions the Democratic majorities were so heavy that the messenger from the Wayne really stag gered under their weight when he reached the boss's office. The office and store were the headquarters for news other than that pertaining to political affairs, for then the township had no newspapers, no Union News, or Arcade or similar place for the purchase of current events on paper. The Phila delphia papers were then served from Philadelphia to Down- ingtown by Theodore Plumley, who rode west on the pilot of the first west-bound freight engine, scattering his papers as he went, and walked, or rather, ran, back to his home, which was in the old log house, recently torn down, on the McGowan property, serving his papers en route and covering over twenty miles daily on foot. He was a news bureau in himself, and never permitted the S. & B. office to be overlooked in pass ing it daily. The firm were his best friends in life and death, for they stood by him in trouble and paid all the expenses of his burial, when his means and his life both went out together. f!

Stadelman's Pharmacy (about 1880) (from a tintype owned by the Stadelman family) EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 221

, It was also the constable's headquarters, where John Whlteman deposited his money and his news at the same time. Even the clergyman of the village (for then there was but one) used the firm's facilities for looking up new residents or keeping in touch with the health of the old ones, arranging for transportation to funerals, weddings and pastoral visits, orin straightening out other troubles which came his way, so that the ofllce was really indispensable to existence in the village until the advent of the present facilities for dispensing all the varied things to which we have referred as being always on tap,in either the S. & B. office or in their cellar. ; It must not be inferred that the store and office were in any sense a loafing place for either employes or the public. With the exception of the Litzenberg stores in ante-war days and the Lesher store during the life of Mr. Lesher there has. never been, and we feel there never will be, in the village a busier place than the Stadelman & Baker establishment previous to the dissolution of the firm and the division of the business among the partners. Of this large and very profitable business but a single branch remains at this time—^the drug and prescription store of the estate of Samuel F. Stadelman, the junior partner, being yet conducted on a portion of the original holdings of the firm. Numberless stores of all kinds in all parts of the village— a bank or trust company on the old store site, three or more coal sidings not far removed from the location of the old trackway, a larger lumber yard and new and larger feed stores—are doing the greatly increased business of the new and prosperous village. The two or three wholesale liquor stores, of which the Stadelman & Baker store did the larg^t trade, went out of business as the changes to which we have referred were in progress, while the proprietors of all the stores in business prior to the year 1900, with a very few exceptions, are dead. In some cases new proprietors succeeded the original ones, but jn the management of all the old stores the successors lived only to see the business scattered, while in two instances 222 bulletin op historical society of Montgomery county the dissolution of the old firms or the death of the old proprie tors was followed by the bankruptcy of their successors. " Eight features of the Stadelman & Baker business, viz.; the grocery, dry goods, feed, coal, lumber, liquor, provision, and cigar lines, are all housed and conducted in different places, while upon the old site there yet remain the Post Ofiice, the money centre, the hardware business and the drug store before mentioned. The new office of Mr. Baker—having taken over all the business of the old office, with the exception of that taken else where by the Stadelman brothers—had taken with the busi ness all its manners and customs. It continued to be the vil lage headquarters until unmistakable"evidences of misfortune were apparent in both owner and office, the culmination of which was reached on the evening of January 29th, 1886, when M. Louisa, the first wife of Mr. Baker, died without a moment's warning in the office where her husband sat at his desk. The Merion Title and Trust Company is not one of the old institutions of Ardmore, but, having been one of the impor tant factors in the development of the old Stadelman & Baker property,-as well as of the village, a brief notice of this, the first, and up to this time the only banking institution of the village, will not be out of place in our reminiscences. It was organized in 1889 and opened for business on April 1 of that year, in the McClintock Building, on the corner of Lancaster and Cricket avenues, in the room now occupied by Charles F. Hartley as a shoe store. The room was built for and for a time occupied by Mr. William C. McClintock as a drug store, and when leased by the new Trust Company required considerable alteration to adapt it to the purpose for which it was to be used. The well-grown and at the time very prosperous village demanded banking facilities, and the claim was recognized by a few of the leading business men of the place, who joined with Bryn Mawr's progressive element in organizing the Bryn Mawr National Bank, which, however, did not meet the village requirements, when it was determined to open a place EARLY EECOIiliECTIONS OF AEDMORE 223 of deposit for the village, in the village, to be a village institu tion. The effort was therefore launched, the first meeting of the projectors being held in the office of Walter W. Hood, then in the second story of the McClintock Building, on the evening of February 8, 1889. There were present at this meeting Messrs. William G. Lesher, W. Henry Sutton", Richard Hamil ton, Josiah S. Pearce, Jacob Myers, Samuel F. Stadelman, Jos eph W. Anderson, Walter W. Hood, James E. Dougherty and Philip S. Garrett. Mr. Hamilton was called to the chair, and Mr. Hood was chosen as secretary. The initial discussion of the meeting was had on the ques tion of a name for the Company, when it was determined that "The'People's Title and Trust Company" should be adopted. At an adjourned meeting held one week later Mr. Charles H. Oberge was chosen chairman for the evening, when the ques tion of name was reconsidered, and the present name adopted and advertised accordingly. The name was the choice of Mr. Lesher, whose arguments favoring it prevailed against all other suggestions. On February 23 Mr. James M. Rhodes was unanimously elected President of the Company; Walter W. Hood was chosen as Vice-President and Title Officer; Morris W. Stroud, Secretary and Treasurer; and Thaddeus Norris, Assistant Secretary; with the following named directors: Jacob L. Stad elman, Josiah S. Pearce, Jacob Myers, William G. Lesher, William H. Sutton, James M. Rhodes, Walter W. Wood, Samuel F. Stadelman, Richard Hamilton, Henry Becker, Charles H. Oberge and John B. MacAfee. Later, Mr. Sutton was chosen Solicitor, and the required details arranged for commencing business on April 1. Since the formation of the Company, in addition to the gentlemen above named, and those composing the present management, the following named gentlemen, who have vol untarily retired from membership in the Board on account of removal from the neighborhood or inability to continue in ser vice, have been connected with the management of the Com pany: Dr. George S. Gerhard, C. Anderson Warner, Allen 224 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

B. Rorke, John S. Clarke, John L. Garncross and Parker S. Williams, all of whom have been in the directorate. In 1894 Mr. Rhodes declined re-election to the' presidency of the Company, when Josiah S. Pearce was chosen President^ in which position he yet continues. The present management is as follows: Josiah S. Pearce, President H. A. Arnold, M.D., Vice-President Horace W. Smedley, Secretary Horatio L. Yocum, Treasurer William P. Landis, Trust Officer

Directors—Josiah S. Pearce, W. Henry Sutton, Charles S. Powell, Algernon B. Roberts, Jacob Myers, H. A. Arnold, M.D., Edward S. Murray, John S. Arndt, Richard Hamilton, Horace W. Smedley, R. J. Hamilton, Frank H. Mahan.

The Company has a deposit line of considerably over half a million dollars, with over 1500 depositors, and is owner of a plant worth over $100,000. It has, during its comparatively short life, been instru mental in the sale of millions of dollars' worth of real estate in Montgomery and surrounding counties. Through the effort of the Company the road leading from Lancaster avenue to the railroad station east of the Trust Company's buildings was opened July 2, 1895, the expense attendant upon which amounted to more than $3000 and was contributed as follows: Pennsylvania Railroad, $1000; Walter Bassett Simth, $200; The Ardmore Real Estate Association, Henry Becker, and Josiah S. Pearce, each $150; and Charles J. Fryer, $50. The Merion Title and Trust Company contributed the balance and paid the cost of opening and macadamizing the road. It is a much appreciated improvement and convenience, but it is not a public road. The first half of the present Trust Company Building to be erected was built by Samuel R. Haws in 1895, at a cost of $10,597. The second, or office section, was built by Joseph f.i' ?'•

Home of Josiah S. Pearce (1906) Baker Store (1911) (photographs by Charles R. Barker) EAE.LY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORB 225

Dyson and completed in .1897, at a cost of $17,200, the new building being occupied by the Company on May 1 of that year, at which time a reception was held and the new building thrown open for the inspection of the public. .The institution has apparently met all the requirements of the neighborhood so far as a financial institution can do, and could not well be eliminated from the village conveniences. It enjoys the patronage of a large majority of the good people of the village; its usefulness is increasing year by year and,.best bf all, its stockholders are fully satisfied with their invest ment. The property recently sold by J. S. Pearce to the Pennsyl vania Railroad was bought by the grantor in two parts; the westermost 60 feet was purchased from John C. Diehl in 1867, and the balance was bought when partition was made in settling the estate of Catharine Sibley in 1878. The Diehl lot had on it at the lime of purchase a small frame house, stable andrshoemaking shop, all of which stood close to the turnpike. Mr. Diehl occupied the property and did a good business in the manufacture of boots and shoes for over 25 years. The old house was remodeled and enlarged, and occupied by the writer the day succeeding his marriage, in October, 1868. The old stable was torn away and a stable, carriage house, shop and warerooms suited to the undertaking business were erected, the old shoemaking shop being sold to James Murray and by him removed to Kilkenny, a suburb of Haver- ford, where it served him as a home for several years. Mr. Diehl moved to Lancaster, but after an absence of a few years he returned to the .village and built the little shop on Mill Creek road near the Hampton place, which he occupied until his death, which occurred at the home of Mrs. Anna B. Miles in 1896. His wife had predeceased him several years. A son, William H. Diehl, who was the only surviving child of a large family, now almost seventy years of age, is an in mate of the Soldiers' Home, at Hampton, Va., he having been a member of Small's Twenty-sixth Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers during the Civil War. He was wounded in an engagement in Virginia. 226 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

Mr. Diehl, Sr., was among the last of our old residents, to pass away, and is therefore well remembered as a very modest, industrious and exemplary old gentleman, with a strong pre dilection for fishing. He was an Odd Fellow of long standing, and during his later life proved a valuable support to the Ibcal lodge, of which he was a charter member. The brethren at tested their appreciation of him on his 80th birthday, when, at a celebration of the event, a valuable present was made to their "Grand Old'Man." Prior to the beginning of the long term served by John Whiteman as Constable, Mr. Diehl had very satisfactorily performed the duties of that office. He was also for several years Town Clerk of the Township, when all the duties apper taining to the office consisted in the registration of strays, at 25 cents each. The emoluments for the year frequently amounted to 75 cents. The portion of this property referred to as having been a part of the holdings of Catharine Sibley was originally part of the tract ovmed by her brother, Stephen Goodman," who devised this lot, with other property previously referred to, to Mrs. Sibley. It was purchased in 1878 from Charles Sibley, one of the heirs of the Sibley estate, who received it as his share in the partition. The house now used as a boardinig house was built for Mr. Pearce by Mr. C. A. Warner in 1880, and occupied bj' the writer until 1903, when it was sold to the Pennsylvania Rail road, who directed the granter to vacate in thirty days,'in o'rder that the house might be razed and work begun on the new rail road station. That work has not begun goes without saying; that it never will begin can be said without going—very far for an inspiration. At the time of the sale of the property representing the interest of Charles Sibley in his mother's estate, Mr. Joseph A. Morris, of Bryn Mawr, bought one hundred feet front, and Mr. C. Anderson Warner a like frontage, which, with the Pearce purchases, consumed the entire Lancaster avenue front of the property. Two years later Mr. Morris sold his lot to the writer, it now being the site of the brick dwelling, shop And EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 227 stables occupied by Mr. William G. Frankeafield. Mr. WarUer still retains his purchase, which has not been built upon. The old John C. Diehl residence and the shop and stables built ten years previously were all torn down at this time, or within a few years thereafter. •;During the Catharine Sibley ownership of this property another shoemaker's shop stood almost opposite the Sibley homestead (now the site of the new trolley terminal) being quite close to Mr. Diehl's shop. It was conducted by Matthias Y. Seheffey, who has already been spoken of in these letters. This shop was sold to Bernard Smith, and by him moved to the north side of the turnpike east of Rosemont Station, and changed into a dwelling house. It is yet standing. An old frame house, then occupied by Mr. Seheffey and his family, also stood near to the present site of the brick shop and dwelling, with a dilapidated frame stable in rear of the house. After Scheffey's removal the old place was occupied for several years by Mr. John H. Smith, before referred to as hav ing been a tenant for many years of the Knox farms.. He was at the time and for years afterwards engaged in the milk busi ness, and he facetiously claimed that the place was admirably suited to his calling, in that there was a well of excellent water at the back door of the house. The well is there yet, but the water is no longer excellent. From 1868 until this time the place has been an undertak ing establishment, from which over 8,000 funerals have been directed, an accurate record of all of which, together with a similar record of about 4,000 additional, conducted by the writer's father, from the present McMannemin place, has been carefully kept, and is found to be a valuable aid in the compila tion of village history. During the Pearce ownership of this place two houses, four stables and three shops were either razed or removed from the premises, not one of which was taken away to the injury of .the beauty of the village nor amidst the lamentations of the villagers. , In 1850 the C. Anderson Warner property, excepting the westermost one hundred feet, which was purchased from the 228 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

Sibley estate, was owned by Dennis Kelly, who, although not an actual resident of the" village, was, at the time referred to, not only a property holder in the village, but an extensive land owner in other parts of Lower Merion Township and a very extensive land owner in Haverford Township, Delaware County, and was, as well, an almost daily visitor to the then quiet little business settlement of Athensville. The story of his life would make a volume in itself, but a brief reference to him is all that is permissible in our recollec tions, notwithstanding the fact that fifty years ago there was not a person in the village who was not familiar with his rosy Irish countenance and as well familiar with his reputation for scrupulous honesty, unswerving integrity and unmeasured philanthropy. His home was in the extreme southern corner of the Town ship, in the vicinity of which were his largest holdings in real estate, which embraced, in addition to his farms in Montgom ery County, which contained upwards of 100 acres, almost all the property, on both sides of Cobb's Creek, in Delaware County, for almost a mile eastward from the present crossing of the Ardmore & Llanerch Street Railway, and the new Phil adelphia and Western road. In addition to these holdings, he owned valuable mill properties at Kellyville and Clifton; in the same county. St. Dennis's Roman Catholic Church was named in his honor, he having donated the ground for the church, rectory and cemetery, and paid all the cost of the erection of the first buildings used by the then small congregation, all of which have since that time been either torn down or remodeled, and new and larger buildings erected in their stead to accommo date the largely increased demands of the present congrega tion. The church built originally had, as its parish limits, from Berwyn, then Reeseville, to Hestonville, now Fifty-second street, and from the Schuylkill River southwestward for over six miles. Seven large churches of the Catholic faith and three large colleges are now embraced in this territory. Cobb's Creek was, in the fifties, a busy settlement, with Athensville as its base of supplies. Litzenberg's store and feed • EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OP ARDMORE 229 house supplied the greater part of the Creek's necessities, while the same proprietor's tavern furnished some of its luxuries. Saehriste's Mill, Boyle's Mill, Burn's Mill, Hazlett's Mill, the upper bank, Springhouse row, the widow's row, the powder mill, the lower bank and other subdivisions of Mr. Kelly's mill district were familiar names to the village of the olden time, and are not indeed entirely obsolete at this time. Mr. Litzenberg, Mr. William Miles and Mr. Philip Good man were among Mr. Kelly's closest and best friends in the village, the two last named being builders in whom he reposed unlimited confidence, while for all he entertained the highest regard. A number of grandchildren of this really remarkable old man are yet living, some of whom reside near the village, but of his children all are dead. In the year 1870 six of Mr. Kelly's daughters were living, all of whom were widows. In 1854 Mr. Kelly sold the Warner property to Mr. Jacob L. Warner, a brother of the present owner. It was, at that time, a vacant lot, but the following year the house now stand ing was built by Philip L. Goodman, the master carpenter, with whom the present owner learned his trade..Mr. C. An derson Warner purchased the property in 1860, substantially improved it, and has since that time occupied it as his home, .He-is one of the very few remaining of the old residents of the village; in fact, he is almost an original villager, having been born at Haverford just west of the line we have chosen as the old village boundary. He was, at the time of this pur chase, a practical builder, an excellent draughtsman and a man of almost infallible judgment in matters pertaining to build ing. Consequently he soon became the leader of his profession in the rapidly growing village and its vicinity, and when the gentlemen before mentioned retired from business, their man tles fell upon worthy and competent shoulders. Several fine residence and nearly all the public school buildings in the town ship, built during his active business career, were designed and erected by him. 2^0 bulletin op historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY

He was, in his early days, almost a record breaker as a pedestrian, and if he knew to-day the number of miles he has walked (for "Andy" never aspired to either bicycle or auto mobile) in looking after his business, involving trips innum erable to Norristown, Conshohocken, Manayunk and not only to Philadelphia, but all over it, he would be either surprised at the vigor attending his old age or use himself as a living illustration of the advantage derivable from walking as a health-promoting exercise. For a short time after the completion of Mr. Warner's residence, it was tenanted by Mr. William H. Potts and later was, for many years, the rectory of the Church of the Re deemer, now of Bryn Mawr, but then of Haverford, for it stood on the north side of Lancaster Pike, at Stewart avenue. Rev. Edward L. Lycett was at that time rector of the then com paratively weak, but exceptionally eminent church, and re sided in the Warner house for years, removing from there to the old stone mansion on the Dr. R. J. Dodd farm, at Mill Greek — then called Glenwood — the house being then and for years thereafter known as "The Haunted House." Mr. Lycett was thus an early Ardmorean, or, rather, an ^rly Athensvillian, and the village wants to claim him as such, for he was one of the best of God's good men, such as not only the village but all the world have but a meager supply of. He died in August, 1878, his remains being the first interred in the beautiful cemetery surrounding the new church at Bryn Mawr. Several of his children survive him, some of whom are nearby residents. St. Mary's Church, on Ardmore Avenue, now a prosper ous, wealthy and influential church organization, can trace its birth to the time of Mr. Lycett, and must admit its humble birthplace to have been in Masonic Hall, almost opposite its present beautiful church home, where for years this devoted Christian man and his equally devoted family nursed the in fant Mission effort to a vigorous childhood, which has since grown to an adult of the most flattering proportions. A small triangular piece of ground containing about sixty perches, which adjoined Mr. Warner's land on the east and EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 231 best known as the John Barr lot (he having- been the last owner prior to its division into two parts), was, in 1837, the prop erty of George Kooken, who continued his ownership until 1865, when his heirs sold it to the late Charles Kugler. Subse quent to the death of Kugler, or in March, 1888, his heirs sold it to John Barr, who a little more than a year ago transferred it to Mr. C. Anderson Warner. It was originally a part of the somewhat extensive Good man holdings, which embraced a number of the properties ad joining and near to this lot. Stephen and Conrad Goodman were brothers of Mrs. Catharine, wife of Jacob Sibley, their names appearing in many of the old titles to small lots on both sides of the Lancaster turnpike between Anderson Avenue and Church Road. Conrad died before our "early recollections" can be applied, and Stephen died in 1854. The Barr lot was a portion of Conrad's little farm.® The peculiar shape of the lot, exactly triangular, was the result of the opening of the Lancaster turnpike through, or rather across, the corner of the Kugler property, the greater part of which was thrown south of the, at the time, noted high way. The road was opened without having regard for property lilies and, cutting diagonally across the little farms, threw the property lines several degrees from a right angle, which, while now corrected on the north side, is particularly noticeable on the south side of the road. The old stone house, but recently torn down, was built in 1798, and stood until it was no longer an ornament to the vil lage or even a comfortable place of residence. The lot was bought by Mr. Warner for himself and the late Mr. Enoch Enochs in order that the old house and its appurtenances could be destroyed. This has been done to the marked improvement

®The small triangular lot on which this house stood was a corner of the farm of Conrad Goodman, cut off by'the opening of the Lan caster Turnpike in 1792. Conrad and John Goodman (sons of Stephen Goodman, the original settler) had partitioned their father's farm between them in 1791. The Conrad Goodman referred to by Mr. Pearce was of a later generation. [Montgomery Co. Deed Book 6, pp. 292, 296.]—Ed. 232 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county of the adjacent properties and the whole village. The old house had been rented to a greater number of tenants than possibly any house in the village or perhaps in the township, while at the same time it served more purposes than usually fall to the lot of a building erected for residential purposes. It was for many years a residence, and not a bad one, as residences then went. Afterwards It was many kinds of a store, some of which were suspected of having a speak-easy predilec tion. Then it was for years a toll-house, when the gate was kept by Casper Whiteman and later by his son Davis. During and just succeding the close of the war it was used as a raanufac- toiy of government boots and shoes or army brogans, being operated by Davis Whiteman, James A. Whiteman (better known as Dock), Thomas Whiteman, George Printz, Jr., George Zynn and others. This may be said to have been the hey-day of the old house's prosperity, it being to the village of the sixties almost what the Autocar works are to the village of the sixes. Shoes by the hundreds of pairs were carried by wagon, stage or train from the United States Arsenal in Philadelphia, cut out ready for the maker, and returned in the same way ready to wear — corns on the soldiers' feet. Thousands of pairs of shoes, and no man can guess how many corns, were made in this old house. Several times since its use as a toll-house and shoe shop it has been a residence, and then again a store; but now, like nearly all its tenants, it is dust and ashes. The new and very pretty home of Mr. Robley A. Warner, engineer in charge of the township sewer system, has, as a portion of its lawn, or front yard, the portion of the Barr lot taken by Mr. C. A. Warner, his father, in his division of the place with Mr. Enochs. The Enoch Enochs property was owned in 1850 by Edward Daugherty, and contained a trifle over six acres. It extended from the line of the Warner and Barr properties on the west to. the line of the Sibley tract on the east, and from-the turn pike to the old Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad, which then occupied almost the exact bed of the present Coulter Avenue. It EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OP ARDMORE 233 extended in rear of the Warner property, and when the hew line of the railroad was constructed it bisected the rear portion of the property from end to end, somewhat to the injury of the place on account of the necessarily deep cut required to over come the steep grade at the junction pf the new line with the old, which was directly in' rear of the Warner lot. In 1840 a portion of the lot was owned by Dennis Kelly, but was later acquired by Daugherty, as was also a triangular piece atthe junction of the two lines of railway which, in 1851, was owned by James Aden, a colored man. The three pieces were sold as one tract to Mr. Enochs by Daugherty in 1860, and has since been subdivided and sold to a number of other owners. Another small piece of ground adjoining the Enochs purchases was owned in the year 1886 by Harry E. Freese, who in that year transferred it to the Ardmore Land & Improve ment Company, and by that company (it was) conveyed, in 1887, to Hester, wife of Enoch Enochs. The Ardmore Land & Improvement Company was incor porated in 1886 and was composed of James Campbell, Thomas Thompson, Harry E. Freese,' and possibly one or two others. The company bought several small pieces of land on the north side of the railroad, which it laid out in small building lots, opened Coulter and Thompson Avenue and erected several of the houses now fronting on both these streets. The operation was named Argyle, for what reason no one could ever guess, for it was in almost the centre of a village which had already had two names, either of which was prefer able to the new suggestion. The projectors of the new village annex have all departed from out the village coasts, while the name has become only a reminiscence, so far as the north side is concerned, but has recently been adopted as the name for one of the south side's most aristocratic avenues, the suggestion of the name being carried over by a well-known family resident on the new ave nue, who were original Argyleans. Later William Sibley, Esq., improved his land on the north side of the railroad (which adjoined the Enochs tract) by the opening of Sibley Avenue, which, with Thompson Avenue, 234 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county opened through the Church Road, developed not only the Enochs property, but the entire section, making of it one of the best and most attractive residential sections of the village's numei'ous additions and extensions. A small, two-and-a-half-story frame house, clap-boarded and whitewashed within and without, built some time in the late thirties, stood on very near the present site of the home of the.late Mr. Enochs, which latter was erected during the Civil War. Mr. Daugherty resided in the old house during his own ership, which covered the period consumed in building the new line of railroad from Athensville to West Philadelphia, which was, at that time, invariably spoken of as the "road to avoid the planes." In this house Mr. Daugherty accommodated a number of workmen, engaged in the construction of the road, with board, and owned and worked a number of horses and carts on the operation, in which he also held the position of foreman or "gang-boss," as it would be known today. Later when the new line was opened he continued in the service of the company in the capacity of section boss. He was a very honest and industrious Irishman, and his family, which was very carefully and intelligently reared and liberally educated, were among the best of the people of the then little village. The triangular lot referred to as having been the property of James Adeh, situated at the junction of the old with the new line of the railroad, was sold in 1857 to A. J. Crummie, who a few years later sold it to Mr. Enochs. The house was a very small two-story frame structure, in which Aden and his family resided for several years, during the greater part of which time he was employed as hostler at the Red Lion Hotel. After his removal it was occupied by numerous tenants, some of whom did not move in the best circles, until, during the ownership of Mr. Enochs, it was torn down. The wall of the old well indi cated the location of the old house for several years after its removal. It will be remembered as showing quite distinctly on the north slope of the cut near where the present freight house now stands. The switch-tender, Jacob Ristine, Jr., whose duty it was to switch the few trains requiring his attention either to.Belmont EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMOBE 235 or West Philadelphia, as destination required, occupied a little shanty during the building of the new road and for some time thereafter in the front yard of the Aden homestead. By day only was he expected to be in this shanty; therefore, at night, when no trains were running, "Jake" went to Possumtowh, now Brjm Mawr, to sleep. The switch was always locked when Ristine left his post, and the only key to the lock was with him on all occasions, so that a train requiring his services when he was off duty was obliged to wait until he returned. Sometimes when he was late in arriving there was an exchange of cour tesies during the throwing of the switch, but not at all times, as the Pennsylvania Railroad was not then the exacting and all-powerful dominator it is today, but was simply a little urchin of a railroad cutting its first teeth. The Daughterty property was so changed by Mr. Enochs in adapting it to the purposes of his business as not to be recog nized as the place in and about which Daugherty lived and made his money. The railroad company, as has been said, cut the property in two pieces and in doing this made a deep cut through it from end to end, which obliged the company to concede to Daugherty a grade crossing, so that he could have access to the part of the place lying on the northeastern side of the new line. This crossing was maintained until quite recently, being one of the last of the grade crossings to be abolished by the railroad. Since the closing of the crossing, access to the rear of the place has been had by way of the new avenues opened along the property lines, while almost the entire section northeast of the tracks is now embraced in the new and greatly enlarged freight yards and a few building lots owned by Mr. Enoch's son, Alexander, and others, upon which very neat and desirable homes have been built by the present owners. Although not to the manor born Mr. Enochs was honored as having been one of the oldest and most respected residents of the village. He was one of the few who were permitted to witness the growth of the village, and take note of its progress during half a century. His quiet, urbane manner and dis position made him hosts of friends, which his very consistent 236 bui-letin of histokical society of Montgomery county life enabled him to retain, and his death, only a short time since, was a village loss which occasioned universal regret. The firm of G. B. & E. Enochs, marble workers, of which he was a member, did a large business, having yards in Phila delphia and Louisiana, as well as in Athensville. The Southern business of the firm suffered most disastrously during the Civil War, but through the effort of Mr. Enoch Enochs, the business was restored to almost its original proportions. . In politics Mr. Enochs was a prominent Democrat, being at all times at the service of his party, which acknowledged him as a leader in village, township and county. He was always in demand as a counsellor in political matters, his advice being considered next to infallible by the unterrified. He served one full term as postmaster at Ardmore during the Cleveland administration, rendering most acceptable service. It was during his incumbency that the location of the office was changed to the room it now occupies. Pour months subsequent to his death his widow, a most estimable old lady, joined him in the long sleep. They are survived by a large family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, several of whom reside in or near to the village. The wives of William V. Collier, Esq., and William P. Leedom are daughters, and Alexander is the only surviving son of this very respected couple. The latter has succeeded to his father's business and continues the long-established marble yard at the old homestead, where it has been for forty years. The William Sibley property included, a short time prior to his death, which occurred in the month of June, 1896, all the land on the north side of the turnpike between the Enochs property and the Church "road, extending back to the property now owned and occupied by the Misses Hoffman. The western half of the little tract, or the Sibley homestead, has been owned by the Sibley family for more than three-quarters of a century. In 1835 William Sibley built a small schoolhouse on the spot now occupied by his late residence, where he taught a private school for several years, or until his residence was built, when the school was transferred to it. There are two or three persons still living who, as children, attended this EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 237 scHool, and, although over seventy-five years of age, they recall the difficulties attendant upon acquiring an education when the home and the school were from three to five miles distant from each other, when there >vere no railroads or other transportation facilities, and the journey on foot was obligatory. The writer's recollection of the older settlers of the eastern end of the township assure him that a great many of the best of the old families were at least partially educated in the little school conducted by William Sibley. We have said that the present residence of James B. Law, which was the lifetime residence of Mr. Sibley, was erected by him. This must be somewhat modified in that there was a portion of it erected before the time of Mr. Sibley, there having been erected on the lot as early as 1826 a house of which the present residence is a portion, as is shown by the original date stone yet to be seen in a section of the old wall. During the years spent in teaching his little country school, Mr. Sibley found time to fit himself for the profession'which, in after years, he followed with profit to the entire neighbor hood as well as to himself, and when quite a young man he entered the office of Joseph Fornance, Esq., of Norristown, where he studied conveyancing and real estate law. With this education added to his practically self-acquired knowledge of field work, he was thoroughly equipped for the profession of his life which he so much honored. Field surveying, conveyancing and general title work, together with the preparation of all forms of legal papers, for then there were no title insurance companies, made of him a very busy man, arid, later in life, when he assumed new duties and additional responsibilities he may be said to have accomplished, even up to the time of his death, much more than is ordinarily accomplished by a single man in any walk of life. His almost perfect penmanship well nigh made him famous, he being for many years admittedly the best penman in Montgomery County. Many instruments of writing pre pared by him are objects of admiration even in these days of ornamental penmanship and the finest typewriting. For more than fifty years he was actively engaged in this 238 bulletin op historical society of Montgomery county business, having but one office, and that his residence, during all of that time. The writer studied field work and elementary surveying under Mr. Sibley for some time, and recalls--the effort frequently and vividly after the lapse of nearly -fifty years. He was a very tall man, and what might be called a very wiry man, built in every way for a record-breaker in pedes- trianism. He seldom used a horse, so that journeys to the fields were invariably made on foot. Conshohocken, Norristown and well on in the direction of Media were all within the limits of his professional bailiwick, and when a boy of seventeen accom panied him on one of these trips in the capacity of rodman and chain carrier, it meant more to the boy than is apparent on the surface. He could divide a perch into about five steps, for he was always in a hurry, while the assistant, loaded down with rods and chain, managed to keep within sign of his chief by getting in at least double the number of steps and consum ing four times the amount of energy. Arriving at the work an ordinary boy was not just seething to get at it vigorously, but that is exactly the manner in which he went at it or immedi ately graduated, so that, after a preliminary training of a few days in the effort to acquire an education in surveying under William Sibley almost any boy would do as did the writer- prosecute a vigorous search for something easier. ' ^• It is unnecessary to say that he never succeeded in teach ing many boys civil engineering, notwithstanding the fact that a number of us graduated. In addition to his other business, Mr; Sibley was a self-taught clock- and watch-maker, in which Work he was fully as proficient as he was in his chosen pro fession. For many years he was the only repairer of time pieces within a radius of several miles of his home, and conse quently had all he could do, while there was, scarcely a clock or watch owned in the neighborhood that-did not have in its case one of his business cards bearing the date of its last treatment by him. - He was a typical handy man, building his own buildings, and doing well the work of the stone mason, carpenter, painter, or other mechanic. He had, at the time of his death, complete outfits of tools for doing everything from watchmaking to EAKLY RECOIiliECTIONS OF ARDMORE 239

bricklaying, many of, which are yet preserved by his son, Thomas J. Sibley, who resides on a part of the old property. He was the eldest of the seven children of Jacob and Cath arine' Sibley, who have been heretofore mentioned, all of whom,, with the single exception of the youngest, Mary .Ann, wife of Amos Parsons, are dead. His ability, as well as his superior educational attainments, were appreciated by -the people, who continuously elected him to the position of School Director for twenty-six years, during which time he served the B.oard as treasurer for sixteen years without compensation. ;Fr,om 1855 to 1860, he filled the office of Justice of the Peace,;-his administration of the-duties of the office ,being acceptable as all his other work invariably proved to be. This position gave him the title of "Squire Sibley," by which he was universally known to the time of his death. •- The late Col. James Boyd, one of the most eminent mem bers. of the Montgomery County bar and a close friend of the 'Squire's, never missed the opportunity of declaring publicly that William Sibley was the only 'Squire in the county who knew how to spell the word subpoena. •He was, for a long time, a trustee of the old Lutheran Church during the greater part of which time he acted as sec retary of the board. He was also a prominent member of the choir of this church, and, together with Mr. Scheffey and one or two others, took excellent care of the bass of the good old- fashioned hymns, while Matthew Baily, a good old-fashioned Englishman, presided at the old-fashioned organ in the old- fashioned sanctuary. In politics he was a very prominent Democrat, being a most ardent opponent of the policy of the Republican Party and particularly so of the administration of President Lincoln dur ing the war. His outspoken sentiments too frequently led him into acrimonious argument and controversy, yet in everything he possessed and evinced an honesty of belief in the right, as he saw it, which did not fail in eliciting the admiration of his equally earnest political opponents. He lived to be more than eighty years of age, leaving to survive him a widow, one son, already mentioned, and one 240 bulletin op historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY daughter, Annie, wife of James B. Law. Mrs. Law has been dead for some years. Her family continue to reside in the -old homestead. The northwest corner of Lancaster Avenue and Church Road, now the property and residence of Thomas J. Sibley, was the eastermost and of the William Sibley tract, or a por tion of the six and a half acres before referred to as extending along the Church Road to the lot now owned by the Misses Mary and Henrietta Hoifman. The Church road constitutes not only the eastern line of the Sibley property, but has been, until recently, recognized as the village limit in the same direction. The road has been so frequently changed during the Sibley ownership and the changes have had so marked an effect upon the property that a word about it appears to be warranted in this connection. In location and width it is today as it was originally laid out no one knows how many years ago. The change is manifested in its thickness.^® Before the opening of the new line of the railroad the driv ing road was almost level from the turnpike northeastwardly. The opening of the new line necessitated a deep cut in the road crossing when a narrow wooden bridge was built which' was then and for years afterward known as the red bridge,' it being distinguished from all other bridges of its day and gen eration by its coat of fiery red paint which made it at least conspicuous. The structure was so narrow that two wagons passed upon it with difficulty, and being but slightly elevated, required the raising of the road but a trifle. Then the locomo-

10 How early Church road may have been in use, is not of record, but its official opening dates from 1750. The original road connecting Haverford road with Mill creek was the one (now called Argyle road) passing in front of the Lutheran Cemetery. Formerly, this connected with Glenn road across the present site of Ardraore, but in 1750, com plaint was made to the Court that after having been in use more than forty years, this road was now "stopped." The Court thereupon granted a road following the present courses of Glenn road, Montgomery avenue and Church road. Church road was returned as a private road, "to be opened at the expense of the persons that want it." [Phila. Co. Q. S. Docket 3, pp. 151, 154.]—Ed. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OP ARDMORE 241

tives and cars were built higher and so was the bridge and the road was raised to meet the lift. Then both the railroad and the bridge were widened and again raised, so that a brake- man could sit on the top of a car while passing under the bridge. Then another and greater raise was bestowed upon both road and bridge to enable the brakeman to stand on the car top and pass under without butting the bridge. All these requirements tended to the raising of the roadbed or ap proaches to the bridge until it is today a small mountain with the Sibley home nestled at its base and would not be recognized as the highway which it is said William Penn had an interest in locating. In 1826 there was built upon this corner a small stone house which, in 1850 and later, was occupied by George Blithe, who carried on the business of pumpmaking, his log-yard and work benches being in the back yard next to the railroad. He removed to this property from the Stark place on Cricket Ave nue, which property he owned, and where he carried on the same business. He bought the oak logs standing in the woods, felled the trees, hauled them to his yard, hewed them into octagonal form, bored them and finished them into a completed pump with no other assistance whatever than that furnished by one of the gentlest horses that ever served a master and which contributed only in the item of transportation of both the raw material and the finished product. The old pump maker's long augers possessed a fascination for the-boys, as well as for some of their elders, as the green chips and borings of the fragrant oak wood piled up at the end of the log. Then every property was obliged to have at least one well and one pump, while some had two or three, for this was at a time when the old oaken buckets were being superseded by Mr. Blithe's new oaken pumps^and it was also a period in country life long before the Springfield Water Co. possessed the power and authority to charge for water at so much a drink. That Mr. Blithe made the pumps is literally true. When an order was given him he let the contract for forging the big iron pump handle, the rods and the bands to Nathan Thomp- 242 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county son, but reserved to himself all the balance of the work. He turned the spouts and the little top ornaments on his foot- power lathe, made the leather buckets and painted the "top stick" in his little shop on this property. In short, he was master of his business, and that he did everything well is attested at this late day, where, in some farm-yards remote from the water-supply, are yet to be found pumps working almost perfectly that were made by Mr. Blithe forty years ago. Mr. Blithe has been mentioned as having been connected with the Little Bethel Sunday School, and it must again be said that he was in all things a most exemplary man and a good citizen; plain and unostentatious, but honest, true and good. His only son, Henry, married Miss Emma Lesher during the early sixties and removed to West Philadelphia to enter business as a chemist and druggist, where he yet remains as a resident, but is largely interested in valuable real estate in the village of his youth, being a stockholder in the Ardmore Real Estate Association, as well as an individual ovnier of several properties in the best section of the village. The Blithe family, who were together in the old house, consisted of the father, step-mother, Henry, Annie, Susanna (who married John Ott) and Sarah. All are dead with but two exceptions, the son and youngest daughter, as is also Emma Lesher Blithe, whose death occurred only a few weeks ago. Among the early tenants of this property was Edvdn Urian, whose wife, Catharine, was the eldest daughter of Jacob and Catharine Sibley, whose names have necessarily appeared so frequently in connection with many of the prop erties to which reference is made in our sketches. We have not much to write concerning the Urian family, for the reason that they removed from the neighborhood about the year 1855 and were not particularly identified with either the old or new village. But there was born to these parents in this old house one who was not only identified with the growing village but was EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 243 lovingly identified with one or more of the young lives of almost every home in the vicinity of the old Wynnewood School. In the late thirties Harriet Urian, the first female public school teacher in Lower Merion Township, first saw the light. As a child she attended the old Wynnewood School until about the year 1856 when she was employed in the same building as teacher, where she continued for years in the same capacity, notwithstanding the fact that her parents had long before her retirement from the position removed from the village to a new home at Darby in the adjoning county of Delaware, where both parents and daughter have since died. Previous to the appointment of Miss Urian (which was an experiment) the second story of the old school building had served the teachers as living rooms. The teacher's family was removed, the partitions dividing it into rooms were torn out, and the room fitted and equipped for school purposes, the School Board deciding that thereafter only bachelors would be eligible to appointment as principals at Wynnewood, which was then the best school in the township. The little folks, now the first grade, Vere moved to the second-storyroom to the number of forty or more, there having previously been more than double this number in the lower room under one teacher. Thomas Ellwood Rose was principal at the time, but was almost immediately succeeded by M. Johnson Rhoads, who taught for several years. Miss Urian continued as the only female appointee, prov ing most efficient and entirely satisfactory, and adopted the profession as her life work. Later the school house was destroyed by fire, and the pres ent building was erected. The Ardmore School was built, since which .time old Wynnewood's requirements have been met by one teacher. When the new school was opened at Ardmore the female teacher's worth and efficiency had been clearly demonstrated and was no longer a Question of experiment. They are now employed in every school in the township, and have proven superior to male teachers in training children, particularly in 244 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county

the primary and intermediate grades, while in the high school, where the best talent in the country is employed, the highest branches in the curriculum are being successfully taught by ladies. Little old Wynnewood and Miss Urian have the honor of inaugurating the movement in what has become a great township wherein the efficiency of female pedagogy is no longer even debatable. John Urian, a house carpenter and a brother of Edwin, was, for some years, a tenant of this property. Another bro ther, George, is remembered as living in the house with John during nearly all the term of the latter's tenancy. Both were among the most highly respected of the early villagers, but were most retiring and modest in disposition and were almost remarkable in that neither of them took the slightest interest in public affairs. Consequently both died without leaving the usual complement of enemies. A Mr. Butz, Thomas Smith, John Carlisle and George H. Mowrer are also remembered as lessees of this property during the lifetime of the senior Mr. Sibley. When Mowrer removed from the property in 1882 the old house was torn down, and on its site the present residence of Thomas J. Sibley was erected. There are less than a half a dozen places in the village that have not been the subject of conveyance by either deed or will from the owners of the forties to some person who has not been connected with the old owners' families or descendants. In the year 1872 John Carlisle moved from the Sibley tenant house to the house now owned' by Charles M. Stuard, on Cricket Avenue. Carlisle was among the early purchasers of lots, on the Owen Jones tract, and when he built he was among the first to improve the Cricket Avenue front of the new residential section laid out by Mr. Jones, which, previous to this time, had not been improved by the erection of buildings of any description. In 1880 Carlisle sold the property to Mr. Jacob Myers, who, in 1902, removed from it to the corner of Linwood and Athens Avenues, selling it to Andrew Hamilton, who, the same day, sold it to Charles B. Prettyman, a real EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 245 estate dealer of Philadelphia, from which Mr. Stuard pur chased it in 1904. The story of Ardmore would be but partly told were ref erence to John Carlisle omitted or only cursorily made, for he was really a noted man in the village, combining his occupa tion of journeyman butcher, well digger and skewer manufac turer with that of a wholesale and retail dealer in the product which superinduced a fatal attack of angina pectoris in Anan ias and Sapphira. The occupation of skewer maker engaged him while walk ing about the village, as he drew from one pocket the raw material and, after whittling it into perfect skewers, returned the finished product to another pocket, while his chips served to indicate the courses and distances he had made during his busy day, for he was never idle. The demand for the Carlisle brand of skewers was at all times greatly in excess of the capacity of the works, which may be said to have been run day and night. Accompanying the skewer industry, in the slaughter house or digging wells, Carlisle exemplified his faculty for entertaining his willing listeners with stories which gave hiTn real notoriety as a compiler of the highest type of fiction, for, while he was undoubtedly one of the village's best-known citi zens, he was also one of its least believed. When one asked him a question the interrogator knew ex actly what to expect in reply, and his expectations were invar iably realized. Consequently his stories were harmless and much less to be condemned than the harangue of the con scienceless scoundrel who leads one into a stock transaction for the purpose of unloading his bad holdings. He was thoroughly honest, and never told a falsehood to the injury of anyone, holding at all times that a lie was the proper answer to any question that was none of the question er's business, so that on numerous occasions his yarns were the cause of real amusement and may be said to have been, at all times, decidedly relishable. On one occasion he met on the road three or four young men of the village smart set, who, thinking to have some sport at his expense, called to him, "John, stop and tell us a lie." 246 bulletin of histobical society of montgomeky county

"I can't do it," said he, "Crawford Barr has just fell dead in the barnyard and Fm going for 'Squire Sibley to get him to hold an inquest." Of course the smarties hurried to Barr's barn, which stood on the site of the present residence of Mr. William T. Reynolds, only to find Barr attending to his farm work as usual, While Carlisle was elsewhere whittling skewers. After selling his property on Cricket Avenue he removed with his family to the West, where he died several years ago. None of his family, who, by the way, were most estimable people, reside in the neighborhood, so that there is nothing of Carlisle left in the village other than his habit, which has never altogether forsaken us. George H. Mowrer has been mentioned as having been the last tenant of the old corner house. He was a carpenter by trade and a very popular man in the village. He was another of the village boys who went to the war and returned un harmed. It was during his tenancy of this house that he achieved, with two others, a distinction which, while not par ticularly enviable, was none the less honorable and altogether commendable. The story is, therefore, worth the telling, even though it be admitted to be not an early recollection, for there are many yet living who remember the unfortunate occurrence and its consequences. John Whiteman was at the time (January, 1877) constable of the township and the sole conservator of peace and order in the village,' as well as in the township, for then there was no police force. He was suffering from an injury sustained a short time previously while making an arrest, which necessitated the use of crutches. He called upon Mowrer, and George Ltzen- berg, of Radnor, Delaware County, who was also a constable, and deputized both to assist him in making the arrest of David Mundel, a resident of Bryn Mawr, for whom a warrant had been issued, and who had, the day previously, violently resisted arrest by Constable Litzenberg. The three officers proceeded to the Mundell home in Whiteman's sleigh, prepared for the promised and expected trouble, and they were not disappointed. EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF ARDMORE 247

Failing to gain admittance to the house, they forced the door, confronting Mundell and demanding his surrender. Mundell had armed himself with a corn cutter, or piece of scythe blade, about two and a half feet in length, with which he attacked the officers with murderous frenzy. Just as the mur derous weapon was descending with tremendous force upon Whiteman's head, a well-aimed bullet struck Mundell fairly in the center of his forehead, when he fell dead at the feet of the posse with scarcely a struggle. The excitement in the neighbor hood was intense. The three officers were immediately arrested by direction of the Coroner, and held in bail for the next term of Court, when they were tried on the charge of involuntary, manslaughter, and convicted. The prosecution was relentless, being backed by the wealth of a brother of the victim, who employed private counsel to assist the District Attorney, one of whom was the, at that time, noted lawyer, William B. Mann, Esq., of Philadelphia. • The officers were sentenced to short time in the Montgom ery County prison, where they may be said to have served in luxury, while their families were cared for by their friends in the neighborhood. Upon their release it was with great, diffi culty that an ovation was not tendered them, only the inter vention of the cooler heads among the best of the people pre venting the demonstration. It was one of the cases in which the people felt that justice had miscarried, and in which the Court (then the Honorable Henry P. Ross, President Judge) practically admitted that there could have been no conviction had the too zealous officers refrained from breaking open the door of the offender's home in order to reach him. It must be added that the trial did not disclose which of the officers fired the fatal shot, an examination revealing the fact that all the revolvers had been discharged.

(to be continued) Report of Recording Secretary

Nancy Corson Cresson

The meeting of the Society on April 29th was very well attended. Mr. Ljrman A. Kratz, chairman of the Committee on By-Laws, read finally the proposed revised By-Laws of the Society, which were then unanimously adopted, and ordered to be spread upon the minutes. Our speaker for the day was Rev. Wilmer H. Long, pastor of Trinity Reformed Church, Norristown, who addressed the Society on "Trees of Penn's Woods." Pictures of these beautiful trees were thrown upon the screen, in illustration of the paper. The Prize Essay Committee awarded prizes for papers by High School students on historical subjects, to William Campbell, of Lower Merion, and Miss Marie Martino, of Norristown.

Report of Corresponding Secretary

Helen E. Richards

NEW MEMBERS

LIFE George L. Harrison

ANNUAL

William S. Alderfer Robert Dechert G. Edwin Brumbaugh Mrs. Robert Dechert Jane Keplinger Burris Mrs. Charles P. Fox Richard M. Cadwalader, Jr. Elmer S. Gerhard Charles M. B. Cadwalader Mrs. Charles A. Gruber Mrs. Jerome W. Connelly Mrs. Roger W. Hallowell Mrs. Woodward W. Corlci-an Miss Mary Letitia Henderson Philip Dechert Mrs. Fred P. Jasperson

248 • REPORTS 249

Rev. James Hart Lamb, Jr. . Clair L. Peifer- Mrs. J. Masson Hunsicker Raymond Pitcairn Elmer P. Landis •• Percival R. Eieder Mrs. A. M. Lehman John Russell, Jr. J. Walton Lyslnger Jeremiah J. Sullivan • Mrs. J. Walton Ljrsinger Mrs. Jeremiah J. Sullivan Pederico F. Mauck Thomas Raebum White, Esq. Mrs. Lillie A. McClintoek Mrs. Norvin S. Wile Dr. Wilbur H. Oda

DEATHS

Miss Elsie M. Edwards

Librarian's Report

Katharine Piston

ACCESSIONS

How. Edward Martin, Governor of Pennsylvania: , Pennsylvania's Welcome to the Conference of Governors. Harris- burg, May 28th to 31st, 1944. (A handsomely illustrated book, describing the historical, industrial, scenic, agricultural, cultural and military features of the state. With the arms of Pennsylvania on front cover, and end maps in colors, indicating points of his torical and scenic interest.)

The superscription reads: "Historical Society of Montgomery County, with the Compliments of Hon. Edward Martin. Governor, . .. and through the co-operation of Franklin S. Edmonds, State Sena tor, and Miss Nancy P. Highley, Trustee. 15th June 1944." 250 bulletin of historical sociBTy' of Montgomery county

Estate of Chester P. Cook (through Mr. Alan R. Cook and Mrs. Josephine Cook Willson): • Map of Montgomery Shier. Described by Christopher Saxton. Aug mented and published by John Speed. 1610. Map. The Countie of Radnor Described, and the Shyretowns Sittua- tiops. .Anno 1610. Map of Chester County. By James Hindman. Constructed by virtue of an Act of Legislature of Pennsylvania, passed 19th March 1816. Diary of Joseph Price, of Lower Merion township. (A typed copy from the original, covering period 1788-1805, inclusive.)

Miss Ann Pechin: Stewart Fund Essays. Written by the Seniors, Classes from 1934 to 1942, Upper Merion High School.

Estate of Herbert A. Aitiold, M.D. (through Clifford H. Arnold, M.D., administrator): Original Minute Book of the West Philadelphia Railroad Company. Map of the Vicinity of Philadelphia. By C. K. Stone and A. Pomeroy. 1860.

Joseph Knox Fomance, Esq.: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Annual Report, 1942. (Same) Memoirs. Vol. I. (Being a Republication.) Ed. by Edward Armstrong. Pub. by McCarty & Davis, 171 High St., Phila. 1826. Re-pub. by J. B. Lippincott & Co., for the Society. 1864. Memorials of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. Ed. by Frank Smith. Privately printed. Boston, 1931.

Kirke Bryan, Esq.: Norristowh War Records. (These are letters sent by the Norristown Y. M. C. A. to the Norristown men in the service during World War II.)

Mrs. C. Howard Harry: Semi-Centennial History of Blair County, Pa.

Mr. Henry S. Landis: Tombstone Records. Kline's Brethren Meeting-house and Delp's Cemetery (both in Franconia township); Lederach Family Burying- ground; Frick's Burying-ground (Hatfield township),. REPORTS 251

Mr. Charles B. Barker: Tombstone Inscriptions. (Chiefly Delaware and Montgomery Coun< ties.) Vols. I, II.

Miscellaneous: William Penn, ,1644-1718.'- A'Tercentenary Estimate. By'William Wistar Comfort. 1944. Cultural Story of An American City: Cleveland. By Elbert Jay Ben- ton. Part 1. 1943. (Through Western Reserve Hist. Soc., Cleveland.) Genealogy of the Deckard Family. By Percy Edward Deckard, M-D. The Centenary of the Cincinnati Observatory, 1843-1943: ".Cincin- .'nati: The Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, a,nd The University of Cincinnati. 1944. John D. Rockefeller. The Heroic Age of American Enterprise. By Allan Nevin.'Vols. I, II. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1941.

Purchased

History of Allegheny County, Pa. Vols. I, II. Chicago: A. Warner & Co. 1889. History of Venango County, Pa. By J. H. Newten. 1879. A Short History of Westmoreland County, Pa. -By C. M. Bomberger. , . 1941. . The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Memoirs. Vol. IV, Part 1.;. Pub. . by McCarty.& Davis, No. 171 Market St., Phila. 1840. ••,, • George Summers of Douglass and Lower Dublin Townships, Pa. T7B2- 1923. By G. Byron Summers. The Lincoln Family Magazine. Pub. by William M. Clements. Jan., 1916. The Mitchell Family Magazine. Jan., 1916. The Montgomery Family Magazine. Oct., 1915. Lithographic Views. (Pub. by T. M. Fowler and James B. Moyer, except that of Pottstown, which is by Moyer alone.) Pottstbwn, Pa., 1893; Pennsburg, Pa., 1894; Telford, Pa., 1894; Schwenksville, Pa., 1894; Souderton, Pa., 1894. Prize Essay Committee

Mrs. Stuart B. Molony, Chairman

FIRST PRIZE ($10.00)

Bill Campbell, 349 Trevor Lane, Cynwyd, Pa. Subject: "A. History of St. George's, Ardmore." Lower Merlon High School, Ardmore, Pa. Mr. George H. Gilbert, Principal. Miss Eula E. Baer, Head of English Department.

SECOND PRIZE ($5.00)

Marie Martino, Norristown, Pa. Subject: "The Iron Horse Comes to Norristown." Norristown Senior High School. Miss Emma E. Christian, Principal. Miss Dorothy E. Berger, Head of Engli^ Department.

HONORABLE MENTION

Susanna Stover, Butler Pike, Norristown R. D. 4, Pa. Subject: "Ply mouth Meeting Highlights." Springfield High School, Springfield Township. Mr. Richard C. Ream, Principal. Mr. Norman F. Reber, Teacher of History.

252 The Historical Society of Montgomery County has for its object the preservation of the civil, political and reli^ous 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 ($ )