Those Places Thursday-Yes, More from Emporium, PA

This is a continuation of historical information my grandfather dictated to my grandmother, Frances Elizabeth Schwab Murray, in the early 1970s.  It’s mostly just a rundown of various locations, but I hope it will be useful to someone researching the area or the families.

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Emporium Businesses, Homes, Schools-Riley Murray as told to Frances Murray

In the days before electric refrigeration, the railroads had to use ice for their refrigerators in the Pullman dining cars, as well as pack ice in the refrigerated railway express cars for their perishable products, so a trestle was built so the ice could be placed in the top of the express cars.  The ice was brought in from Lime Lake. The railroad ran on both sides of the trestle and the men would push the ice in carts, or buggies as they were called, up the trestles and dump the ice down in the top of the refrigerator cars.  Some of the ice would spill onto the ground and after the trains pulled out, the kids used to take their wagons, go to the trestle and fill up with ice that had fallen beneath the trestle, take it home to their own ice box or some would sell the ice cheap.  This trestle was built east of Quaker State gas station. Some of the railroad tracks can still be seen today.

Do you remember when E. H. Hick, on duty at the Pennsylvania Railroad tower, threw the wrong lever and caused a wreck at that ramp into the railroad depot?  Riley Murray ran the wrecker at that roundhouse.  New roundhouse was built in 1918.  The cars, the wall was pushed in, but not one pane of glass was even cracked.  You can see the dent in the brick wall by the window today.

Across the railroad tracks on Broad Street is the Cottage Hotel.  It was owned and run by Mr. and Mrs. Doug Petty.  The Commercial on Broad street was run by several different people, but for the past 75 years or more, owned and ran by Mr. and Mrs. Butler, these later years by their third daughter, Mrs. Bea Bear.

On Hemlock Street, where Murrays Service is located was a block works where Fred Bliss made concrete blocks, later John Thomas made it into a garage.   On Third Street was a machine shop and small foundry run by Allen Randolph and Nick Boar where Kautz Plumbing is now.  On Third Street was the Emporium Supply Co., run by Strayer and Rentz.  Pop Strayer was well known in them days.  He owned and lived in the house now occupied by the Kenneth Signor family on East Allegany Avenue.  Mr. Rentz built and lived in the house that Jim Klees lives in on 4^th Street.

There was a grocery store on 4^th Street.  Later on it became a laundry owned and run by Floyd Hilliker.  Later Hilliker ran the Hilliker and Murray Garage.  Now it’s the Keystone Garage.  On the corner was Justice of the Peace Larabee’s home.  Next to Larabee’s home was a dressmaker shop.  Dr. Smith married the dressmaker after his first wife died.  A left-handed shoemaker by the name of Yonkie was on the other side.  Schless Green house was next to the dressmaker shop.  Across the street was Maz Glasl, Sr shoe and repair shop.  I bought the shoes I was married in from Mr. Glasl.  On the other side of the Schless Green house was Annie and Pat MaHanney’s candy store. (Mike Dolan’s sister and brother-in-law)

Pete Beatty ran a cigar store on 4^th Street where the Sears Roebuck store is now.  It was known as the Smith Building which was built in 1908. Don Minard ran a store on the corner of 4^th and Broad; years later the First National Bank was built there. Murray Overhiser ran the store where the Cabin Kitchen now stands. Theatorium opened on Broad Street about 1906.  Moved to 4^th Street in 1907 where Skip Kibe is.  Closed in 1929.

The Opera House.  I’m not sure, but I think the Farrells first built it as a skating rink, with level plank floors.  Was made into a picture show place. In 1915 and was run by Thomas Andrew and brother-in-law John Vail until their sons took over.  The water trough was in the middle of 4^th and Broad Streets.  No idea when placed there, but was removed in 1910 when the street was paved.  There was hitching posts all up and down the streets.  The drinking fountain was put in about 1915.

First place in town to have electric lights was where the coffee shop is now.  At that time it was a saloon run by Dan McDonald.  Mr. Kraft owned a bottling works located on Broad Street where the Motor Coil parking lot.  Later on it was used as an ice plant where they made 50 pound cakes of ice.

Mr. and Mrs. John Parsons owned and ran a store where Mrs. Ben Erskins now lives.  He built a new home on his vacant lot next to the store.  They never lived in the home, as they disagreed on furniture.  She wanted all new ones.  So, after the death of Parsons, the home was sold to Charlie Rishell.  After the death of Mr. and Mrs. Rishell, the home was sold to the Presbyterian Church for a manse. 

Mrs. Ben Erskine’s house was built by Mr. Dodson who ran the drug store, known as the French Pharmacy, on the corner of 4^th Street where the A & P store is now.  Mr. Dodson was the father of Mrs. Neil Coppersmith, Sr.  Verne Heilman, son of Dr. Heilman ran a hardware store next door to Judge La Barr combination furniture and funeral parlor.  Later it was run by Mr La Barr’s son-in-law, Charles Rishell.  After Rishell’s death, Neil Coppersmith took over the entire building.  It is now a furniture and appliance store.  Across the street from where Carl Kelly has his insurance office was once the office of Dr. Gallaher’s optical parlor.  He was also a Justice of the Peace.  Frank Munday had a harness shop where the laundrymat is now.

Leckner ran a shoe store where the Silco store is now.  After Mr. Leckner’s death, the store was run by his daughter and his son-in-law, John McUlchay.  Next to the Leckner store, Charles Carmello ran a store.  These have all been replaced by Silco.  An Adams Express office was located in what is now Phil’s shoe store.  John Logan was manager of the office.  His daughter married Guy Felt of the Guy and Mary Felt nursing home.  John Day ran a grocery store where the liquor store is now.  There were no electric ice boxes or such, but Mr. Day kept his vegetables fresh by using a cold water sprinkling system.  Next door to Mr. Day’s store was once a grocery store run by Alex McDougall.  John Day built the house on 5^th Street where the George Rishell now resides.  Before that house was built, the Presbyterian Church was built on that lot.

Balcom and Lloyd ran a general store where Jasper Harris & Sons is now.  The Cameron County Press-Independent printing office was in the upstairs over the store.  The Press moved in 1910 to what was known as the Climax Powder office, but is known now as the Emporium Water Building.  John Blinzer ran a barbershop on the corner of 4^th and Broad.  Jimmy Quinn was one of the barbers.  Mr. & Mrs. John Blinzer ran the first 5 and 10 cent store in Emporium in the Metzer Building where McCorys is now. 

Milford "Smitty" Smith, Pressman, Typesetter, left, John Raymond Klees, Publisher, 

Emporium Independent, right.

On Broad Street where Johnson garage is, Fred Logan had his livery stable, sold hay, grain and feed.  Later on he built a new building to become Logan Garage which was destroyed by fire in 1928.  The fire was caused when Billie McDonald ran into the gas pump while driving the Borough roller.  The garage was rebuilt at once.  Next to Logan’s Garage was a blacksmith shop run by Joe Fisher.

Across the street where the Post Office is, there used to be a miniature golf course, built and run by Jack Norton, who was the electric engineer for the Emporium power plant.  Jack tore up the golf course after a few years and the grounds were used by carnivals that came to Emporium.  The ground was owned by the Warner Hotel, later sold for the Post Office building.

See by the Echo that Joe Olivetti has bought the house on East Allegany and now has torn it down.  That house was built by the St. Charles Hotel which Olivetti also bought and tore down.  Seems as though the idea in Emporium is to tear down and rebuild instead of restoring the old homes that could have easily been restored.  They were built when homes were meant to last.

Seeing the house torn down (1973) brought back a few memories that had almost been forgotten.  That house was built by Charles Fay, who also built the St. Charles Hotel, but my memories are of another family who lived in that house; Blane Monroe, his wife, and two daughters.  Mrs. Monroe was the former Jeannette Porter, daughter of the famous author, Gene Stratton Porter.  The Monroe family lived in Emporium for several years.  They hired my sister, Roberta, as nursemaid for their daughters.  When they returned to Philadelphia, they took my sister back with them.  She lived in their home until the girls no longer needed her services.  Mrs. Monroe later left her husband, went to California, where she married a man by the name of Meekem.  Mrs. Meekem took up writing herself, and after the death of her mother, Gene Stratton Porter, Mrs. Meekem finished writing several books her mother had started working on at the time of her death.

The first house built where the Coppersmith funeral home is located-who built it I don’t know-but a family by the name of Newton lived there.  When the house was torn down, as a small boy I got the big bell that was on the front door.  It was an extra large bell as Mrs. Newton was hard of hearing.  Joe Kaye built his house on the Newton lot.  Years later two wings of the house burned, but Mr. Kaye never rebuilt them, but lived in the house as we know it today.

The Rhinehul’s house on Broad Street was built by Mr. Garrity.  It’s been there as long as I can remember.  Dr. Bryan and his family lived there. One of the Bryan girls was a schoolteacher.  She taught in the Emporium school.  I don’t remember her name.  I think it was Nina.

Fred Julian built the house next to Garritys.  Julian also built the Climax Powder Co.  Dr. D. Johnston moved into his home in 1914.  His family still lives there now in 1972.  Next to the Julian home on 5^th and Broad Streets was the home built by J.P. Felt who owned the flour and feed mill.  After J.P.’s death, his son, dentist Dr. Leon Felt, lived there with his first wife, the former Carolyn McQuay in 1912 or 1913. Divorced.

B.W. Green, a lawyer, built the home on 6^th Street now owned by Tom Tompkins.  Mr. Green had his law office on the corner of 4^th Street and Broad, where the Emporium Trust Co. is as of today.  James Creighton built his home on the west side of B.W. Green.  Thad Moore built his home next to Creighton.  Next Creighton was Bill Grose’s home.  It was torn down later to build the Climax house in1903.  Bill Wyman lived in the Climax house for years.  Next Dynamite Smith House.  Max Balcom’s father lived in the house on the corner of Maple and 6^th.  Next Gould house corner of Maple and 6^th.  Joe Kaye built the house Mrs. Mark Orr lives in now.  Corner 5^th and Maple, Pete Beatty house, is now owned by Mrs. Violet Hammersly.

The Weidenberger house on West 6^th was built by Lynn Cravens.  Dr, Heilman built the house on 4^th Street across from what is now known as the Sylvania Club.  But that was the home of Henry Achu who had it built for their residence.  Two of the oldest houses left standing today, 1966, is the Swartwood home, occupied now by their daughter, Helen, and her husband.  Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lloyd and the Harry Andrews homes both located on the east end of town. 

Emporium had a horse-drawn bus used to meet all the trains at both depots.  Dave Hayes owned the bus and horses.  He ran the livery stable which was right behind the present Post Office.  The fire department had a long ladder and I remember when the Henry Achu home burned, some of the fireman were riding to the fire on the bus, and, as the fireman swung the corner of 4^th and Broad Street, the ladder swung to the side and swept the fireman off the bus.  That was in 1912.

The early fire department begun in 1893 consisted of hand drawn hose carts with a firehouse called a Hamilton hose house in where Pat Lewis has his store.  They had a gas whistle mounted on a pole by the hose house.  The Mountaineers were located on Broad Street where the Borough building is now.  Their gas whistle was on the corner of 4^th and Broad where the bank is.  The Citizens hose house was on Locust street.  In what was later the Sons of Italy Lodge room, back of what is now Joe Olivetti’s store, the gas whistle was on a pole by the East End Post Office.  The first fire truck was bought in 1916, an American LaFrance truck.  Later on another truck was bought.  As the town grew so did the addition of more fire equipment.

A lot of old-timers will recall where the Macabee Lodge was located.  Today the sign is still on the outside of the building.  It was also known as the Metzer Building.  (Riley Murray)  The Lady Macabees had their Lodge there, too.  Now the Ladies Lodge is know as the North American Benefit Association.  I joined the Lodge 50 years ago when it was known as the Women’s Benefit Association.  Run entirely by women, the first president was a woman from Warren, PA.  It is now the leading women’s fraternal organization in Canada. (Frances Murray) 

The McGinnis Steel Mill was located on Cameron Road: east of the present Press Metal.  The steel mill went from Emporium to Corry, PA.  A cheese factory was located where Ed Horning now lives.  The milk plant (no pasteurized, raw milk was the kind sold at the time) built in Plank Road Hollow.  Later turned into a home now owned by Ruby Broker. 

The Gus Haupt and Charles Zarps blacksmith shop was located in the vicinity of what is now the fire house and city hall.  Zarps shod oxen, for which special shoes had to be made.  Later John Narby and Augustus Zarps ran shops in the West End, while Charles Zarps had his in the East End. 

Mankey Furniture factory was located on Pine Street, east of the football field—made all kinds of furniture.  It was working 1894, as my brother worked there at that time.  It closed about 1900.

Dr. Bardwell, Dr. Falk, and Dr. Fullmer all had offices and lived in the house where Dr. Hackett is now.  Dr. Leon Felt, dentist, had his office where the Lathrop Dental Office is located.

Grist Mills-The only flour mill was owned by J.P. Felt where they had one bin for flour, but sold two kinds out of it.  It was called Felt’s Best.  Mr. Hausler ran a feed mill, ground only feed.  Later Mr. Battin ran it and the last one to run it was Ted Rogers that I remember.

Schools

Plank Road (now used as a shooting club), Rich Valley, West Creek, Sizerville, Whitmore Hill, Bradytown, Canoe Run, Huntley, Cameron Mason Hill, Sages Farm. The first high school built on 6^th Street was built in 1893, finally torn down in 1974.

Miscellanea

First known orchestra in Emporium was composed of John Coy, first fiddle, Clark Harrington, second fiddle and Elaine Coy, bass fiddle, and was called Coy’s Orchestra in 1871.

Jack Wiley and Cyrus Sage and Braynard Mathews operated a saw mill just below Sages farm.

Some of the private homes had sidewalks made of flagstone, others had wooden plank walks.  The concrete walks were put in a few at a time, as it ws hand mixed.  Fred bliss did most of the concrete work in Emporium.

Magazines were many.  Saturday Evening Post.  Liberty.  Harpers Weekly.  A lot of westerns.  Women’s Home Companion.  Comfort.

There was about five houses built on what is now the airport.  I presume there is a lot of men who remember Cora Brooks, who lived on what was known as Cooks farm, up Rich Valley way.

Alex Mason took the last big log raft down the Driftwood Branch.  He also took the last raft down the Sinnemahonig River.  It was rafted near Wright Mason farm in 1915.

Parsons Dry Cleaning shop used to be the Emporium Library.

Another building has an old time sign outside the third floor--the Smith Building. 

Mike Tulis came to Emporium to work on the railroad when it was first being put through.

Crime & Punishment, Cameron County, PA

Cameron County Hangings-Riley Murray as told to Frances Murray

The first man to be hung in Cameron County that I remember was Orie O’Dell for the shooting of his wife.  After his trial, Mr. O’Dell was kept under 24 hour guard.  My father, Albert Murray, was on duty as night guard.  His hours were from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m., seven days a week.  His pay was $60.00 a month.  I used to take my father’s evening meal to him and sometimes ran errands for Mr. O’Dell.  They hung him in 1907.  The platform from which O’Dell was hung was erected between the jail and courthouse.  Chet King from Port Allegany owned the patent on the hanging scaffold.  He always set it up and sometimes did the actual hangings instead of the sheriff.

The second Cameron County hanging was an Italian man whose name I have forgotten.  He shot Jim Kibe by mistake.  He laid in wait for Mr. Farley with whom he had had some sort of an argument at work.  Seeing Mr. Farley start toward the door on his way out, he fired at the first man to open the door.  Mr. Farley had turned back and Mr. Kibe was the one who was shot as he opened the door.  After his trial, this man, too, was under 24 hour guard.  My father was also night watchman on him. While on duty Father caught cold, got pneumonia, and died February 9, 1909. Shortly afterwards this man was hung on the same scaffold of Chet King and the same place as Mr. O’Dell.  I believe this was the last hanging in Cameron County, as the electric chair at Bellefonte was use from then on.

Some years after this man was hung, Chet King committed suicide.  Both the O’Dell and the Kibe murders were committed in the east end of town, on Allegany Avenue.  Kibe was killed at the door of the American Hotel.  Mrs. O’Dell was shot in their small store, which is now the house on the east side of what is now known as Steels Tavern.

Those Places Thursday-Emporium, PA

My grandfather, Riley Murray, was that guy.  The one who was out and about, driving around town, at who-knows-what time in the morning.  He was the guy who knew when things were amiss.  He knew his town of Emporium, PA.  Apparently, as part of the Cameron County Historical Society project my grandmother worked on, he dictated information to her in order to record details about the early businesses and buildings in Emporium.  This post about hotels and restaurants will be a little dry unless you really have an interest in Emporium and want to gain some context if your ancestors lived there.  But I’m back to my amanuensis role and recording the notes here so that they will be available to the diligent search engines helping historians and genealogists alike.  A genealogical "pay it forward", if you will.

I will say, though, the reference to the “Bucket of Blood” Hotel really made me wish I could ask him some details.

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from Cameron County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project @ Rootsweb

Hotels and Restaurants

Riley Murray, as told to Frances Murray (recorded sometime 1966-1973)

During Prohibition days, bootlegging was a wholesale thing.  The man who liked his drink took a chance and drank most anything.  We had several deaths in Emporium of men who drank rubbing alcohol.  They weren’t men from the wrong side of the tracks either.  Bootleggers wasn’t just a 1920s thing according to George Huntley’s book. [ed. note:  The Story of the Sinnemahone, published in 1936]    “Sinnemahone” was once used in a Cameron County village at camp meetings way back in the 1800s.

The hotels and saloons were always plentiful in Emporium and Cameron County. The first hotel built on the corner of 4^th and Broad Street was called The Biddle House.   Don’t know who ran it, but Riley Warner built the Warner Hotel, as we all remember, in 1893.  My father was town policeman and then, as in later years, the police made the Warner lobby their stopping place.  My father and Mr. Warner became very good friends so when I was born in 1895, my father named me Riley after his friend, Riley Warner.  Hotel Warner and Parker Jackson, like the Broad Street railroad depot, are only memories.

Across the railroad track on Broad Street was the Cottage Hotel owned and run by Mr. and Mrs. Cummings.  It is now run by Doug Petty. 

The Commercial Hotel on Broad street was run by several people, but for the past 65 or more years was owned and run by Mr. and Mrs. Butler.  The later years the hotel has been run by their daughter, Mrs. Bea Barr. 

Sam McDonald ran a hotel on 4^th Street where the coffee shop is now located.  Later he ran the Central Hotel on Allegany Avenue. Later Mr. Bonsteel ran the hotel, but about 55 years ago, a fire badly burned part of it.  It was later rebuilt into apartments, then later torn down.

The Donovan Hotel was on 4^th Street where Leo Egan had his funeral parlors.  After the Egan building was burned down, the building was owned by Leo’s parents.  The first floor was furniture store and funeral parlor; second floor as living quarters.

The City Hotel was first owned by Billie McGee.  He sold to Mike Dolan.  The Dolan sons still carry on the hotel interest. 

The Cook House Hotel on Allegany Avenue was located where Tony Caruso has his home now. 

The first proprietor of the St. Charles Hotel was Charlie Fay, but the only two I can remember is Herman Maline and Lundeen Johnson, who were pardners in 1910 or 1912. It is only a parking lot now, across the street from Joe Olivetti’s store on Allegany Avenue.

Across the street, the American Hotel, owned and run by Dick Kelly.  Before he ran the hotel, Kelly ran a saloon on 4^th Street where the Silco store is now.  After the saloon, Mr. Kelly ran Kelly’s Bakery where the Western Auto store is located.

Dick Loyd ran a saloon where Charlie’s Tavern is now.  Mr. Loyd had both legs cut off while working under an engine when he worked on the railroad.

A lot of old-timers will remember where the Bucket of Blood hotel was—between Swiderski’s store and the former Ford garage.  It was first run by Costello, then later by Mrs. Lyons.  [ed. Note:  one jotted note listed the Eagle Hotel associated with the names of Costello and Lyons, but no other information.  This might have been the real name of the hotel]  When Billy Dalyrimple peddled the newspapers, he and the kids that helped him used to sort the papers in the hotel lobby.  We can’t remember the real name of the hotel, yet for a year we lived next door over a candy store run by Mr. and Mrs. Morton.  Over 57 years ago we went to housekeeping in the upstairs apartment in the house next door to the hotel, so I can say it was some hotel.  

Mr. Huff ran a hotel where the Crescent is now located.

Across the street where the gas station is now, Mr. and Mrs. Shroup ran a boarding house.

Neil Cutler ran the Junction House.  It and the railroad station were a combined affair until the new depot was built in 1914. Most of Cutler’s trade was the railroader who could rent a room and eat their meals between their layover runs.  The public was served also.

Major Dowal’s restaurant and rooming house on Allegany Avenue and Portage Street was turned into the Ponderosa Hotel by new owners.  It burned.  The owners opened Ponderosa Tavern on 3^rd a few years later.

Homestead Hotel began as the F.X. Blumle Bottling Works.  After the death of Mr. and Mrs. Blumle, his son Joe remodeled into what is now known as The Homestead Hotel.

Occidental Hotel stood where Jaspar Harris & Sons is now.

Creighton’s Barroom was on 4^th Street where the Beacon Loan is now.

Alpine House (hotel) in Sterling was built years ago.  No longer standing.

Gardeau had a large hotel built back when lumbering was a big production in the 1890s.

Sizerville had the Sizerville Hotel.

My Life Mostly in Cameron County, Part 6

This is the sixth and final post of this series (not seven, as I originally wrote).  I’ll be posting more Cameron County, Pennsylvania history from my grandparents over the coming weeks, but it will have fewer personal stories.

This final section ends, not in 1966 when my grandmother started writing, but in 1973, just three years before she died.  Maybe you’re researching Cameron County families, or maybe you just joined me for the ride, either way, I hope you enjoyed “My Life Mostly in Cameron County”.  But, during this last leg of the trip, when my grandmother writes, they “had lots of clean fun and didn’t get into any trouble doing our thing”, don’t you have to have one final laugh?

Parts              One         Two        Three       Four         Five

Part Six:

I remember the Sunday school picnics which was held in the grove down by the creek.  The property belonged to Mrs. Rockwell and later to her grandson, Roy Page, but all the town took part.  No picnic I’ve ever been to since matched the cooking of Mrs. Jenks, Kate Clark, Dora Lester, my mother, Aunt Jennie Schwab, and the Fauvers.  The homemade ice cream, fried chicken, pies and cakes galore.  Nobody had a can of beer or bottle either.  Years and years later I used to take my Sunday school class to that same picnic grounds and they learned to swim in my old swimming hole. 

Guess that’s almost all I can remember to write about.

Well, when I was about 4, we lived in the house where Margaret and her daughter Jean was born.  I was an unruly brat--get tantrums, run out and throw myself in the road (no cars then), yell and cry like a banshee.  Mom of course would have to come and get me.  One day Haze Dunlevy said, “Mrs. Schwab, do you mind if I break her of that habit?”  He worked in the store on the corner.  Mom said, “ Go ahead.”  He sure did.  First time I pulled another tantrum, he got a pail of cold water and I got it full force.  I don’t remember it, but Mom said I never tried that trick again. 

When I see all the things kids have today, I wonder how we got so much pleasure out of what we did, but we enjoyed our days to the fullest, had lots of clean fun and didn’t get into any trouble doing our thing.  Summertime swimming in the creeks—no pools.  Picnics and our simple games.  Winter was sled-riding time, solo or on bobsleds, and ice skating.  And I want to say this, the creeks had much more water in them then than they do now.  My dad used to help cut ice on the main stream to fill the ice houses for the hotels, store, or anyone who had an ice house—no refrigerators or ice boxes then.  They’d drive the horses and sleds right out on the ice which would be 24 to 30 or more inches thick.  No washing machines.  No electric irons.  We carried water from springs or wells, used oil lamps.  They had to be filled every day and the globes washed also.  I was almost 16 when I went to Jamestown, NY, stayed at my grandmother’s.  I worked in the Falconer Woolen Mills for six months and came back home and went to Emporium.  Worked at the St. Charles Hotel for about three months, then back home, only to go back and work for the Dolan’s at City Hotel.  Stayed there until 1915. 

I had seen Riley Murray as he worked on Mr. Dolan’s automobile, but not until the day my dad and two brothers were struck with lightening did I ever talk to him.  After Dad got out of the hospital, we began to go steadily.  I had been going with Al Zwald, but he was an electrician on the Pennsylvania Railroad transferred to Keating and we just drifted apart.  I quit my job and came home a month before Eloise was born. 

Then August 18, 1915 Riley and I was married.  We didn’t have any honeymoon (from Emporium to Cameron).  I stayed home from August until October.  We boarded with Frank Gerbers in the house Preach lives now until January.  Went to light housekeeping at John Fenton’s, East Allegany Avenue January till June 21^st.  We moved into the apartment over Aunt Sadie Morton’s store June 21, Riley’s 21^st birthday.  It is now the house next to Felix Sinderveski’s store.  East Allegany--lived there until 1917.  We moved to 255 East 6^th Street when Bus [ed. note:  Riley Murray, Jr] was one year old.  He was born in Port Allegany Hospital.  Life seems to have moved along swiftly. I was busy raising my three boys.  I don’t seem to remember any outstanding things except the boys as they came along.  Byron on August 18, 1918, on our third anniversary.  He was such a big, fat baby, then along came Erwin, July 15, 1920 and from then on my health seemed to go downhill.  I was taken to the hospital, operated on August 18, 1920 and for weeks didn’t know anyone.  Had another operation November 20, 1920 and that was a dilly, too.  Was in the hospital until December 24 and had to stay in bed after I got home.  Couldn’t even lift the baby, Erwin, too, was big and fat. 

When Tiltons lived in the house where Mom and Dad died, and Bernie Tilton was about four years old, he choked on a round sour-ball candy.  Jennie screamed and I was at Shuyter’s sitting on their porch.  I ran up and for a few minutes I never worked so hard or fast.  He was about gone.  I did everything I knew what to do, so one last resort, I sat him up on the table, hit him between the shoulders hard as I could and up came the ball.  Doctor got there shortly after and said that’s what saved Bernie as he’d have been dead by the time Dr. Bush got there.  I don’t remember how sore Bernie’s back was, but I know my hand was swollen and sore for days.

About five years later, Kenneth Chandler broke his leg.  I helped Dr. Bush set it before he sent Kenneth to Williamsport Hospital.  Compound fracture, it was bad.  When Francis Burfield fell off the fire escape at the schoolhouse a year or so after that, I helped Dr. Johnston get him ready for the hospital.  Francis broke his arm.

Don’t remember dates, but I was nurse for Dr. Bush when Mrs. Charlie Viner’s boy was born.  Bush had two babies coming at the same time and they both had the same nurse, so Bush got me to be at Viner’s while he ran between both houses.  Good thing they weren’t too far apart.  Then I was nurse for JoAnn’s birth, followed by Gary, Donna, Jean Schreffler (Dorothy Lundquist’s girl).  I also nursed Martha through pneumonia.  1928 I stayed five days and nights with Grandma Murray, washed and laid her out when she died.  I went to Sylvania to work that fall.  Didn’t only work one year, my health went on the bum, so I was home to grunt and groan.  I stayed and worked with Riley’s Aunt Sadie until she died 48 hours later back in 1931. 

As the boys grew, our house seemed always to be filled with extra boys.  When the boys were in their younger years, Riley worked on the railroad days, ran the picture show nights, so I was busy handling the task of raising our three boys. We went on long hikes together, sometimes just the boys and I, but Riley always went when he wasn’t at work.  But railroading was seven days a week at first. 

Guess I’d better end this babble.  I’m now 76 years old going fast into the 77 years.  We will celebrate our 58^th wedding anniversary August 18, 1973.  Our life was filled to the brim, had some hard knocks, but came through okay.  I loved life and enjoyed every minute of it. I have been very fortunate. Been blessed with a very thoughtful husband. I’ve never regretted my marriage. Riley has always been my main standby.  He was always by my side when he was needed.  We have three wonderful boys--they’ve been a credit to us and our town, always been very proud of them, three daughters-in-law that have been very good to us—our own daughters (if we had had one) couldn’t have been any better. We now have 10 grandchildren and four great grands. And I know their parents are as proud of them as we are of them and as we have been of our sons.  We are no longer as active as of old.  I don’t mind growing old and gray, but I do hate to be crippled and useless.  There’s so little I can do to be useful, but I do what I am able to do and find there are others worse off than I.  So I accept what I can’t change and sit and enjoy the young folks, tend to my knitting and sewing.  Just taking life easy.

                                                                       

Just me.  F.E.M.

My Life Mostly in Cameron County, Part 4

Part    One   Two   Three

Part Four: 

Several miles from Cameron was at one time a little village by itself, the Old Pump Station at Cameron, before my time, but us kids often went up there in later years and went through some of the homes that was still standing when I was about 14.

Town of Calder, the brick works was there and it was a busy little place.  Some beautiful brick homes were built, especially the Super’s house.  Arlene Mitchel and her brother went to Cameron School.  Her father, Walter Mitchel, was Super.  While someone was sick or away, a short time only, when I was about 14, I washed dishes at the McCracken’s boarding house there. 

The road to my grandparent’s farm went past the brick works so we got a thrill watching the men work at the kilns.  We didn’t get to the farm often in winter, but we sure had to walk there a lot in the summer to help.  When we lived in the Block Row, a bunch of us kids were going hunting for nuts.  We hadn’t got out of sight of the houses when a bobcat (we always called them wild cats) was treed by the noise of us kids.  We sent a couple of the younger kids back to get Charles Stuart while we kept the bobcat in the tree. It was a big fellow and Charlie soon had it with his trusty gun.  All us kids were armed with clubs and every time it moved, we put the rocks after it.  So it stayed put in the tree. 

The big event for the more daring of us kids was to push the hand car owned by the brick works about a 1.2 mile up the track, get on and let it pick up speed as it came down the hollow and ride down past town, past the Valley Hotel and store.  Sometimes it jumped the track and someone got hurt, not serious, but we could’ve been killed.  My arthritis, the doctor claims, is from an injury.  I had so many, no telling which one is to blame.  But the winter Charles was born, Uncle Fred couldn’t bring our coal to the house.  He had to dump it by the creek, so I had to carry it, by the pail, to the house.  I was about 10 years old, crossing the bridge, the ties were about 2-1/2 feet apart, covered with about six inches of ice.  I slipped, went through, pails, coal and all onto the ice about ten feet below.  My left knee was cut badly.  I had to crawl through snow about a block.  That’s the leg that hurts so much now.

Several years before we went to Michigan, Dad and Mr. Clark was timbering the Brady Drift mine on Sunday.  I took Dad’s dinner pail up to him.  I went in that mine to the very end—cool, dark and damp—water dripped down from the roof.  Jack had stepped on a nail so Dad put me on the mule and sent me to get first aid material, which was turpentine and bandages.  But little ole Jack (mule’s name) and I made out okay, but I could have made better time going the short cut path down the mountain. 

How we Canoe Run kids fought the Cameron kids at school.  Guess that’s when I learned to throw rocks so good.  The girls who couldn’t throw had to carry the coats and pails while the boys and girls fought the Cameron gang.  We were called the “Coal Eaters” and we called them “Cameron Snakes”.  Of course we fought among ourselves, our lard pail dinner buckets made good weapons.  I used one up fine on Frank Walsh and another time on Mary Greenalch (a cousin).  She was as bad as I was to fight, but she always pulled my long curly hair, which gave me a good chance to use my fists on her (my Dad made me a boy early).

She was the cause of my having to stand in the corner the only time in my school life.  Before we went to Michigan, I was about eight years old, we came in at recess time.  She pulled my head back by the curls.  I jumped up and hit her over the head with my book (Geography).  It sure went bang.  Uncle John was the teacher, boy was he strict.  He called us both up to his desk.  She cried, but I was mad.  So he stood her on one side of the chimney, me on the other.  I was partly hid by a big map.  I wrote and erased as I wrote all kinds of things.  He couldn’t catch me, so he let me go to my seat after about ½ hour, but she had to stay one hour.  He gave me quite a talking to late and said, “Weren’t you afraid I’d whip you?”  I said, “No, because if you did, my dad would lick you.  I wasn’t the one who started it.”  His terms as a school teacher was filled with his brutal whippings.  Everyone was scared to death of him, even boys bigger than him.

When Evelyn was 4 months old, our house caught fire January 1913.  Dad had gone to work.  Mother was dressing the kids before the big stove in the dining room when she heard a noise, thought the baby had fallen out of bed, said go see.  When I opened the stair door, the smoke billowed down into the room.  I finally made it upstairs and got the baby out of the burning bed.  Screams from the kids brought the neighbors through deep snow and cold.  They carried the half-dressed kids to the neighbors while Mom and I tried to get some of our things to safety.  Everybody in town came to help.  We got out most everything in the downstairs, but nothing from upstairs.  We had only the clothes on our backs.  I tried going back upstairs, but went through the extra pipe hole in the floor.  Mom got up on a chair and pushed my leg back up, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this, as the flames were really hot.  Mrs. Kate Clark, bless her soul, had to revive Evelyn who was overcome by smoke.  That was a day I shall always remember.  That same Mrs. Clark had saved my life a few years earlier.  I had jumped over a fence, bare-footed into a pile of broken glass, trying to head off our runaway cow.  I was so weak from loss of blood, I couldn’t sit up when she came to our house, with a Bible.  She used only that to read a verse from as she ran her hand over my feet.  The bleeding stopped at once.  I could never remember what she read, but still to this day in 1966, I have the scars on my feet.

Part 5

                                    *************************************** 

From blogger:
When I was about 5 or 6, I came across my brother, who was 6 or 7, brawling with another kid.  Not understanding the gender norms of the times (late 1950s), I ran up, swung my metal lunch box and hit the kid in the head. (He wasn’t hurt badly.)

So, some type of genetic memory involved, or what?

My Life Mostly in Cameron County, Part I

Well, I’ve transcribed almost everything.  But I do need to do some editing.  I found multiple drafts so I need to organize much of the information before I can post it.  I’ll retain my grandparents natural syntax and grammar because it’s essential to their story-telling style.

But I do have some ready.  Here’s Part One of:

My Life Mostly in Cameron County

Frances Schwab Murray, 1966

I am of Swiss, English, Scotch and Welsh descent.  My father, Alex Schwab was a full blood Swiss.  Mother’s father was Scotch and English, her mother English and Welsh.  My father was born in Siselen, Berne, Switzerland.  My mother was born in Canoe Run, Cameron County in 1876.  Dad was born in 1871.  They were married in Cameron, PA August 7, 1893.  I was born August 13, 1896 at Rathbun, PA, the second oldest as my sister, Jennette was born August 4, 1894.  Like Abe Lincoln, I was born in a log cabin, as Dad was working in the woods.  Back in 1923 or 1924 part of that cabin was still standing.  When I was 6 months old, my parents moved back to Cameron where my sister Margaret was born in 1898 and 35 years later I attended her at the birth of her youngest daughter, Jean. 

One of my first remembrances is of the dolls Uncle John had bought for Jennie and I.  China dolls, one dressed in red and the other in blue satin.  We had them in the go-cart and Margaret, who was just beginning to walk, pulled the dolls out of the cart.  Both were broken beyond repair and Jennie and I were heartbroken. 

When I was about 4 years old, while feeding the chickens, I fell on a sharp can I was carrying the feed in, cut my chin open and had a bad cut above my eye.  I sure did some yelling.  Aunt Esther and Winne Shearer helped Mom to care for the cuts.  I’ve still got the scar to show this happened.  It happened in the house where Margaret was born and now that house has long been torn down. 

Dad and Mom moved to Weedville.  It was there Nelson was born in 1900.  I remember the house and time very well.  Mom had no doctor, but great-grandmother Costello was her midwife.  Dad worked in the coal mines, timbering the tunnels.  Nelson was about 6 months old when they moved to Canoe Run in a house across from the coke oven.  We didn’t live there very long and moved across the creek to the little bungalow where Alice was born. 

When we lived across from the ovens, Dad had a lumbering job and Mom boarded the men.  They slept in the house next door to our house.  The three McKay boys worked for Dad.  They used to catch rattlesnakes. And sell them to carnivals and shows.  They had boxes with glass tops so you could see them.  One day they had nine in a couple of the boxes.  One of the old teamsters was afraid one of us kids might break the glass and get bitten so while all the men was at work he took an ax and as they crawled out, he killed them one by one.  There was a terrible row when the McKays got back that night.  Later years one of the McKay brothers was bit by a rattler and died. 

It was in the bungalow at the foot of the hollow that Dad woke me up, sometime during the night and said I have to get up and dress, go for a neighbor, Mrs. Cordright, who was also a midwife. Because my mother was awful sick and needed help.  I was afraid to go as it was about ½ mile from us, past the cemetery where the small pox victims were buried, and trees had grown up on all sides of the road.  But barefooted and in the dark, away I ran.  About halfway there I fell over something that I thought was human.  This made me run all the faster until I came to Mrs. Cordright’s house, opening the door, I fell headfirst inside.  Mrs. Cordright came out in the hall in a nightgown and cap with lighted lamp.  I thought my lungs would burst.  I couldn’t speak for sometime.  She hurried and dressed and with lighted lantern we went down the road only to meet her red and white heifer coming up the road.  That’s what I had fallen over.  I can laugh about it now, but believe me, I sure was one scared kid. 

NEXT WEEK:  Part Two of My Life Mostly in Cameron County-Frances Schwab Murray, 1966 

Swiss Family Schwab

So when did the genealogical research seed get planted?  It goes back to 1975.  I was in Venice, Italy on a semester abroad program and took a weekend trip Switzerland.  As part of that trip I wanted to stop in Siselen, near Berne.  I am one-eighth Swiss and knew my great-great grandparents, John and Mary Schwab, had emigrated from Siselen with their family in the late 1800s.  I went, not knowing much more than a few names of dead relatives.  Siselen is a small town and it took no time to locate the main cemetery.  I was startled to walk among the headstones and see so many with the last name Schwab and with such old dates.  Even at the time, I wished I had done more research so perhaps I would have been able to identify the graves of relatives—and, who knows, even meet a distant cousin.

The following year I asked my grandmother to record our genealogy for me.  And later I received notebooks of historical remembrances she wrote down for the family and for the Cameron County Historical Society.  I don’t know if she ever gave her notes to the Historical Society, but I do know I was grateful I had made the request.  That was the year my grandmother died.  Little did I know it would take me almost 35 years to follow-through.

The first phase of this blog will be my grandparents’ remembrances of Cameron County, Pennsylvania, where they spent most of their lives.  Much of it will be information the Historical Society, long-time residents and anyone who enjoys first person history would appreciate.  I will be transcribing their comments, grammar and all, with editing done only when absolutely necessary. 

After that, I’ll begin telling the stories of my research on specific family lines.  My goal when I started a year ago was to trace each line back to Europe.  If I complete that task, who knows, maybe I’ll make a trip back to Siselen with a little more knowledge.