Notes on the Churches

I’m nearing the end of my transcription of my grandmother’s papers.  Although I plan to continue blogging about my family research, I feel a little sad to be near the end of this particular project.  After this one, only two more posts left from Frances.

Emporium area Churches-Frances Elizabeth Schwab Murray, with additions from Riley Murray, as told to Frances

Ed Dundon built a Catholic church in Sterling Run during early logging years.  It was used only a few years as the loggers and their families moved away.

Dr. James Brennan was the first priest in Driftwood at the St. James Church.

The first Catholic Church that I remember was located on the corner of East 6^th Street and Chestnut Street, where years later Jack Quigley built his home.  Jack’s son lives in the home now (1972).  When the church was built, I do not know, but as a young boy, I remember the old empty church slowly rotting away.  I have no idea what year the present church was built, but I fought fire there in 1913 when the steeple was hit by lightening.  The high towering steeple was never rebuilt as it was before. (RM)  I remember so well the new steeple was finished and the bell rang for the first time.  Mrs. Mike Dolan, her daughters, Rose, Kathryn and Clarice, and myself stood on the back porch of the Hotel Dolan while the bell rang out so clear. (FM)

Church affairs at Cameron, before the present-day and only church ever built, was very few. Church was held in the schoolhouse so upkeep was nil.  We had church whenever the circuit minister was able to come Sundays.  The yearly picnic in the Rockwell Grove was the highlight of all of us kids.  Everyone went and spent the day.  School was every Sunday morning and up until 1915 we always had Wednesday night prayer meetings.  We took turns in conducting both the Sunday school and prayer meetings.  I understand service is now being held quite often in the little church and they have regular Sunday school each Sunday.

Emporium Presbyterian--Church ladies raised money for the church with quilting bees, ice cream socials and suppers.  We always had big crowds at our Christmas parties with Santa passing out the gifts.  Young and old looked forward to the Sunday school picnic at the Sizerville Park.  The rest of the town churches did about the same things, too.

Emporium used to have revival meetings in the Keystone Park.  I believe the Free Methodists were the ones who conducted the revivals.  There was also a tabernacle built where Acky McDonald has his garage.  Howards Saw Mill furnished the wood to build it.  The traveling evangelist was a very good speaker and a lot of folks went forward.

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.

Oh what fun...

When I was transcribing this, I was very taken by my grandfather's use of the word "needed" instead of "wanted"  in the section about fishing.  I think that reflects a different relationship with the environment and a refreshing lack of entitlement than often seen today.

Holidays and Entertainment-Frances Murray, with additions from Riley Murray as told to Frances Murray

Holidays in Cameron

Thanksgiving wasn’t celebrated very much, mostly a little extra for our dinner.  No turkey.  We raised or own chicken and that’s what we had.  Birthdays was just a day when you were one year older.  We always had a Christmas tree.  Strung our own popcorn, made our own popcorn balls and other homemade trimmings.  Our gifts were mostly all wearables and dinner a lot like Thanksgiving dinner.  With a family of 13, She didn’t have time to do any fancy cooking.

Our Sundays’ time of getting up was same as usual.  First we got dressed in our best clothes.  Off to Sunday school and church.  We weren’t allowed to play on Sundays.   We went for long walks, no cars to ride, no stores were open on Sunday.  You did your shopping on Saturdays.  Long hike over the pipeline into Hunts Run, into Cameron, and back home.  Halloween was the time we took wheels off wagons, putting the fronts to the back and vice versa, upsetting the little houses built in the backyards.  4^th of July was spent shooting firecrackers, setting off dynamite—just making as much noise as possible.  Watch parades, they always had 4^th of July parades and dances.

Circus

It was the only one to ever play in Keystone Park.  They had a terrible time getting to the Park.  Broad Street bridge would not hold the heavy wagons, so the elephants had to haul them across the creek.  It rained that night and it took all the next day before the circus could get started on their way.  During the First World War, a large circus was booked to Emporium, but when they got here, they couldn’t find a place big enough to set up tents.  All they did was water the animals and move on.  One circus was held on 4^th street now, now Howard’s Circle. (RM)

Fishing licenses came in about 1919 and I bought one for $1.10.  Before that you needed no license, you caught as many fish as you needed, and you fished anytime but Sundays.  I never did much hunting so I don’t remember when licenses had to be bought. (RM)

Lots of hunters came to Cameron to hunt, especially grouse, which was plentiful, very seldom saw a deer though there was lots of bear.  One of the yearly hunters was a big time baseball pitcher, an Indian by the name of Chief Bender.  He always brought along his hunting dogs and stayed at McFaddens Hotel.  George Stewart acted as his guide.  Hunting and fishing was the pastime to the men in Cameron.  Not on Sundays.  Summertime was berry-picking time in the hills of Cameron, such as huckleberry which we sold for 10 cents a quart, black and red raspberries, plenty of blackberries.  The red raspberries sold for 25 cents a quart.  And up in Mooley Hollow, lots of wild gooseberries, but the state had them all dug up because they were said to spread a blight.

The old time Cameron County fair was the big fall attraction.  The exhibits were things you see at today’s fairs in smaller counties.  The farmers tried to outdo each other on their entries, so did the women.  In 1913 my father won a prize for his entry of the biggest head of cabbage and tallest sunflower—also on the cantaloupes. 

The bandstand and dance parlor was always an attractive spot.  We used to come to Emporium on the 6:30 evening train with a big group.  The railroad would stop the 11:30 night train to let us off at Cameron, but we had to have at least a group of ten or more.  Hayrides were seldom used in Cameron as the people who had the horses and wagons were too busy doing their farm work, but wintertime was sleigh riding.  The big box sleds, filled with straw, plenty of blankets and we were bound either to Emporium or Sterling Run, perhaps to a church affair or a dance, sometimes to Emporium to the home of Mrs. Isabel Ensign for an oyster supper.  These trips took many hours of travel each way as there was no roads as we know them today.  No snow plows either and snowfalls were much heavier than of today.

Pennsylvania Powder Company Plant Explosion, January 7, 1957

My post today starts with some background about the dynamite industry in Emporium and concludes with a letter from my grandmother about the 1957 explosion and articles from the local weekly, Cameron County Press-Independent.  My family was very linked to the Pennsylvania Powder Company. My great-great uncle was president of the company and my grandfather was an employee.  (And my uncle was publisher of the paper.  Ah, small towns...)

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Excerpted from Businesses in Emporium – Riley Murray, as told to Frances Schwab Murray

Gun Cotton & Picric Acid Plant (1914)

Emporium was known as the powder town.  It was here dynamite was made for the Panama Canal.  So, when the United States wanted to build a gun cotton and picric acid plant to manufacture it for use overseas during world War I, they chose Emporium, knowing the town had all the requirements needed:  men who knew the powder business and railroad outlets to all lake and seaports.  At that time we had trains running steadily to Erie, Buffalo, NY & Philadelphia.  The tannery was located where the high school and football field are now built.  The tannery had a railroad spur to their plant so the government built from the tannery up the flat to where the bridge crosses into Rich Valley, using the entire flat between the Rich Valley Road and the creek.   The grounds were enclosed by a 6 foot wire fence with barbed wire fence topping and armed guards patrolled that fence every hour of the day and night.  The gun cotton did not explode as did the dynamite, but when anything went wrong it was an instant flash of fire.  Buildings were built with outside chutes to slide down for a quick getaway, but few men made it to the door, it went too fast, and at night it would light up the sky like daytime as far away as Cameron.  Picric acid was a terrible acid.  I think it was used to make mustard gas.  As long as it was made here we never had any birds, nor leaves on the trees.  It ate the window curtains full of holes.  On damp days, if you went outside, your eyes would burn and you would begin to cough.  The men who worked at the picric plant, skin and hair turned yellow, the red heads turned green.  Oh, we had all colors of people up here in the old hometown.  The married men’s wives with white hair had the same color, too.  Wages were very high so there was no trouble getting workers.  Although they were here for a short time, they came by the coach carload, but shortly left by the baggage car.  Few knew their names except the railroad men who had to send the bodies back to their hometowns.  Some of the masonry works still can be found on the flat where the plants were built.  They had special, cave-like forts built into the hillside on the opposite side of the plants where they tested out the gun cotton. 

I never worked there.  At that time I was a boilermaker on the railroad at the roundhouse, worked there until 1922.  Then I went to the Hercules Powder plant, worked there until they moved to New Jersey.  Then I went to Pennsylvania Powder, worked until the end, as they never rebuilt after the explosion of January 1957.  Hercules & Pennsylvania Powder made dynamite and gelatin while the new plant made smokeless and picric acid.   At the smokeless plant they searched the men going in and out every day.  They didn’t allow anyone to take pictures from the road—or close by.  So far as I know, no pictures of the plant is around.

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Letter to Riley Murray, Jr., eldest son of Frances Schwab Murray

Postmarked January 12, 1957

3¢ stamp

Saturday morning

Dear Bus & family,

I’ve been trying all week to get my wits together long enough to write, but after they’ve been jarred out of you, and each night you relive the terrible ordeal all over again…I’m not much good at anything right now.  Dad [ed. note: Riley Murray, Sr.] went down to the plant Thursday morn.  They’ve started to clean up, got it going pretty good (the clean up), but this deep snow and terrific cold is hard on those guys who have always worked indoors, so they freeze out quick. 

Monday morning Dad left the house at a quarter to 4—taxi had to get him as the car was being fixed.  I went back to bed, but just couldn’t get to sleep.  Dad’s strange actions that morning had me on edge  [ed. note: He had strange premonitions].  I lay on the davenport bed (we’ve been sleeping downstairs since Christmas), looking down at the plant thru the big window, when this terrible big flash lit the sky.  I jumped and just hit the floor, half way between the bed and dining room table when I was knocked into the birdcage.  The things on the one dining room window by the bathroom went onto the floor.  I was looking out of the window when you could see dirt and rubbish high in the air. 

Dad was sweeping snow off the drums at the box house when it let go. He was thrown by the concussions, rolled almost to the change house and then back.  He tried to crawl under the drums, out of the way of falling stuff.  When it quit coming down, he ran and blew the whistle and it was just seconds until it tooted.  Then he called the office to send doctors and ambulances—Connie [ed. note: Erickson] was in the office, it took all the windows out there--the sink off the wall and Connie went outdoors under the porch. 

The one paper I sent you had a pretty good account of what happened, but no mention in any paper of the 3 men who were the real heroes, and none of them worked at the plant either.  Erwin [ed. note: Frances’ youngest son] ran right into everything, looking for Dad and started to help him to get air to Paul Streich and Charlie Tauses in the glycerin mix.  The air started to go so Erwin called by his shortwave (he just got it at Christmas).  Byron [ed. note: Frances’ middle son] was on the one end of the office (plant) so they rushed a compressor from the borough plant down.  Erwin and Ray Erwin took it while Dad and Bobbie Baker cut in the lines.  Erwin said when he asked Charlie how much air he had to have, he said, “40 pounds, but I can do with less, but if it goes below 20, that’s it for us all.”  Several times the compressor balked, and they never could get it up to 40, but Ray and Erwin stood there and worked it along.  Erwin said he was in the South Pacific and scared a good many times, but never as bad as when that compressor balked after what Charlie had said.   But he’d made up his mind, the compressor would never go below 20 if Ray and he had to move it by hand—an impossible thing to do.  But he said he moved beams and things Monday all by himself—he couldn’t even budge on Tuesday. 

Byron said when Erwin called by shortwave and said you can relax now, we ran her thru [ed. note:  i.e., using the compressed air, they safely mixed the glycerin with the acid], Smithy’s [ed. note: William Smith] legs let him down and he went to the floor.  When Erwin came up to the office, Byron said he was as white as a sheet and soaking wet with sweat, as was Ray, Charlie and Paul.  Charlie told us last night, he never thought Erwin and Ray could pull them thru after the air stopped coming once.  But Paul Streich said., “Steady, Charlie.  Murray’s a damn good mechanic, he’ll get her going steady.”  Byron stayed down at the plant office on the shortwave until 4:30. 

Anyone who had their radio on here in town would have been drove crazy by the telecast Frank Berman was putting put.  I was lucky to get my call thru to you as soon as I did for later in the day, no calls could get thru.  Poor JoAnn [Schwab] heard the news over the radio and she tried to call all day, didn’t get thru until 11:30 Monday night.  I got calls from the Epleys in Kentucky Tuesday morning—Philadelphia and N. J. Monday night,  Oil City and Bradford Monday.  This phone was a madhouse for the entire day and for the first hour every woman who had a relative at the plant, called me, thinking Dad would be able to call before their husbands could.  Smithy was just leaving for work, he was just going out the door, when he was thrown off the porch.  He had intended to go out at 6 and help the fellows in the mix house , but he had taken home a lot of book work and had stayed up until one-thirty working on it, overslept—so missed being the 4th one.

Whiting Herrick’s place was really banged up worse than anywhere else.  He has started a petition to have the plant stopped from rebuilding, but I don’t think he’ll have to bother, as it would have to be rebuilt from start.  They found 23 buildings now has been destroyed or damaged and the one magazine they thought was ok, they found had the door blown off entirely, even the frame (the lower one). 

They found a lot more of the remains Thursday and had a joint funeral service Friday night at Coppersmith’s, we were there.  Dad was up this a.m. 9 o’clock.  They took Wykoff to Sinnemahoning to bury.  Will return for Knisley, take him to Castle Garden.  Then Barton to Lock Haven where military services will be held.  He had 3 small children, 3 girls, youngest 5 weeks old. 

Geo. Streich, you remember him, he gave up the powder plant a year ago this coming spring.  He was so glad Monday he’d left, but he didn’t stay around long.  He died from a heart attack, 2 o’clock yesterday morning, so we are going to see him tonight at Coppersmiths. 

Dad’s back still bothers him, but is getting better-he feels better now that he can be busy.  Minard Sprung has a punctured lung.  He has tube drainage, but is coming along good.  Walker is up walking around the hospital, all the rest are home. 

So, all in all, it was a terrible tragedy for the 3 who were taken, but it could have been so much worse.  And we know no one goes until your time is called and miracles still do happen.  I’ve got to quit and go to the store, but I could write of this for hours.  Everyone is ok here now. 

Military Monday-From Frances' Papers

WWI and WWII - Riley Murray and Frances Schwab Murray

We were asked to write about the people’s reaction to World War I and II ending.  I think people’s reaction to wars ending is the same, regardless of whatever kind it is.  Some folks it’s joy and merry-making; others it’s sadness and tears for those boys who won’t come back.  Emporium and Cameron County had their share.  We had our own brand of celebration, it’s hard to explain, but people went wild with joy, celebrated in every way that was possible.  The railroad engines cut loose with whistles, the church and school bells really rang out, and we had lots of bells to ring in those days. Anyone who had a gun joined in making noise, the rest of us yelled and sang until our voice was gone.  Emporium had its parade, but on a much smaller scale than the ones you have seen on the TV.

Service Star Women - Frances Schwab Murray

Mrs. Ceil Husted, Mrs. Florence McWilliams and myself, Frances Murray, met at a party in August 1943.  All three of us had our sons in the service.  Naturally, our talk was of the war.  We stayed until all hours, long after everyone else had gone, discussing ways in which we could be of some help to our servicemen.  We knew a lot of boys were stranded here in Emporium because they had taken the wrong train.  Mrs. Husted thought we might contact the Pennsylvania Railroad and see what could be done.  Perhaps we could serve coffee and sandwiches there.  We decided we would need help, both in workers, money and place.  Mrs. McWilliams and I went that next week to see Mrs. Minard, who granted us permission to use the Methodist Church Sunday school room for a get-together meeting, asking all servicemen’s mothers and wives to meet with us.  We put an ad in the paper and on September 6, 1943, we had 29 women meet with us.  We explained Mrs. Husted’s idea, all agreed it was a fine idea, promised to help if we could get permission to use the depot as a contact point for canteen.  Officers were elected for one year.  Mrs. Russel McQuay, President, Mrs. Earl Husted, Vice President, Mrs. Florence McWilliams, Secretary, Mrs. Riley Murray, Treasurer.  Each member to pay $1 per year dues.

After some delay, we secured permission to use the station.  Our first job was to clean the station.  A group of us women took our pails, brooms, and needed supplies, washed windows, scrubbed the floor and it sure was dirty.  So on October 2, 1943, we four officers met the first train with a bucket of sandwiches and Thermos jugs of coffee.  Later on we set up a table, and from that first day in October until December 1, 1945, we never missed a train, even though once, the Erie train due at 1105 didn’t arrive until 3 o’clock in the morning.  The people of Cameron County was behind us 100%.  No words can explain how wonderful people were.  We never ran out of money.  We had our audit reports published in the paper and the people knew when the money was low.  They put on dances, paper drives and suppers and gave of their money freely.  Mr. and Mrs. Husted fixed up their basement so we could prepare and keep our supplies there.  We had two large coffee urns donated, the women used their own Thermos jugs to keep the coffee hot at the canteen.  We had allocated certain day each week to certain workers.  Those who could not work at the canteen made sandwiches, baked cookies or doughnuts at home.  We had card tables set up just above the crossing so we could find the boys who wouldn’t have time to go to the station, and in rain or snow, we were there and to those women who worked at the upper end, no word of thanks can ever repay them.  They were wonderful.  The Service Star Women were mothers, wives and sisters of our boys and girls in service.  We took the Service Star because each woman had a Service Star flag in her window.  Our aim was to serve those in service.  We did more to put the name of Emporium on the map than any other group before it or after it.  We have letters from the lowly private to big brass in Washington, DC, from our Canadian neighbors, to far-away New Zealand, Australia, and Britain, as we served any boy or girl in uniform of his or her country.  We sent their telegrams free and also found free lodging for those who had got on the wrong train or missed connections.  When the OPA went into effect, we had to keep count of how many servicemen we served so we could get our quota of sugar.  Our minute book shows that for the months of September and October 1945, we served 66,728.  So, you see we did serve the service boys.

From the first day until the last, we never missed a train, four times a day (and sometimes special troop or hospital trains were run, but we always met them), seven days a week.  We had special trays made to put on the night Erie train, also put the trays in the baggage car—the conductor had the service people go there to eat.  The railroad men would bring our trays back on the early morning train—they were helpful to us-so were the operators at the J.N. tower.

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.

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

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.

The Mystery of Albert Murray, Sr--Or, Who the heck is Erastus?

So, now a post about actual research on my genealogy.

I started on our Murray line about a year ago.  I began with my grandfather, Riley Murray, Sr,  who was born June 21, 1895 in Cameron County, PA and lived there his whole life.  His father, Albert Murray, was born March 3, 1856 and married Katharine Doll on July 3, 1882.  I had the names of all their children, but as to earlier information, I had my grandmother’s memory as a reference. 

My grandmother’s notes said essentially this:  The Murrays came from Ireland and settled near Rochester, NY where Albert  senior was a prison guard.  Albert and his wife, Mary, had the following children:  Mary, Lucetta, Richard, Hopkins, Stanford, Albert, and Asa.  Mary died at Albert Jr’s birth in Syracuse, NY.  Albert Sr, died when Albert Jr was seven, and all the children were put in a Catholic orphanage to be raised.   From there Albert Jr was sent to a Catholic foster home.  And, beyond a few additional tidbits from other relatives, that was it.

As a novice to genealogical research, I wasn’t sure where to begin so went to the internet for census research.  My great-grandfather, Albert Murray, Jr, and his family were easily found in 1900 in Emporium, PA.  But when I started to go back further I was quickly overwhelmed.  I didn’t yet know of many reference options and I didn’t understand how to review search results with spelling variations in mind.  I searched and searched for Albert Murray, Sr, wife Mary and their family.  I pursued the possibility of orphanages but that seemed like a bottomless well.  I then decided to focus on prisons in New York, keeping the locales of Rochester and Syracuse in mind.   An internet search uncovered the history of a new, state-of-the-art prison built in the early 1800’s in Auburn, NY.  Bingo!  When I added Auburn to my search requirements, I found Albert, Jr in the 1860 census.  But, he was not in an orphanage, he was with his siblings, minus Asa, living with adults by the name of Erastus and Loretta Murry.  There was also another brother, George, I had never heard of.

So, who were Erastus and Loretta?  Foster parents?  Relatives?  How would I find out?  The next Eureka moment resulted from another internet search.  I turned up what seemed to me to be a rather obscure site, Old Fulton NY Post Cards.  However, a newspaper article I found there referenced the appointment of Erastus Murray as a gatekeeper at Auburn Prison in 1860.  The seed of doubt was planted and I became obsessed with uncovering the mystery of Albert Sr and Erastus.  

Then another clue through an internet search engine--an Auburn area 1856 burial record at Throopsville Rural Cemetery for Christina Murray, age 32, wife of Erastus.  Thus a second seed of doubt, after all Albert Jr was born in 1856, his mother supposedly dying at his birth.  Could Christina actually be Albert’s mother? And Erastus his father?

With these new pieces of information I decided to target Erastus and Christina, moving away from Loretta and much further away from where I had started with Albert Sr and Mary.  What a surprise when I found Erastus and Christina in the 1850 census, with all of Albert’s siblings who were born before 1850, and then with the help of the Cayuga County Historian’s office, again in the 1855 NY census.  I found Erastus, in the Auburn City Directory as a laborer, then as a soldier in Civil War records, and later in census records living as a farmhand, without his family, well into his senior years, and in a newspaper record of his death at a poorhouse in Rose, NY in 1895.

I still didn’t know anything but the most basic information provided in census records about where and when Erastus and Christina were born.  All indications from census records are that the entire family had been born in Cayuga County, NY.  There has been no sign of an Albert, Sr or wife Mary and son, Asa, although there was a daughter, Mary, who married an Asa (Van Patten).  I still didn’t know who Loretta and George were, but I am guessing that she was a second wife and that the son George was a half-brother.  And I didn’t know what happened to the family after 1860, but it appears Erastus deserted the family or the family otherwise fell on hard times.

I found out a lot and learned early the importance of using sources to verify (or invalidate) family stories. I still have a lot of work to do on the Murrays, but after pounding the internet in every way I could think of, I took a break to research another line.   But, the mystery, the puzzle, the clues, the history lessons, the surprising discovery…it’s just plain addictive.

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-Frances Schwab Murray, 1966-Part 2

As a fair warning, this is the second of seven parts.  I want to to keep the length of each post manageable for readers.

Click here for Part 1

A year later Alice was born.  Dr. Smith of Emporium was Mom’s doctor, her first doctor at childbirth.  We lived in that house until Alice was about 2-1/2 years old, when Dad and Uncle Alfred built our house next door to the big boarding house that Grandpa Stewart ran, just above the coke ovens.  We lived there until 1906 when we moved to Detroit, Michigan.  We went by train to Buffalo, caught a boat and sailed the lake to Detroit.  It was my first sight of a big boat and water everywhere.  I was a nosy kid and had to explore the workings of the boat.  Mother missed me and with the sailors’ help, where did they find me, but down in the engine room watching those big wheels turn.  I’d never saw an indoors toilet before either until on that boat.  Every time you sat down water rushed up so you can imagine how many times Lake Erie rushed up and washed me. 

This being the day after Halloween 1966, it brings back memories of Oct. 31, 1906 in Michigan.  A gang of us kids went out--at that time it was all tricks, no treats--upset an outhouse.  The poor Italian fellow when it went over—his yells.  We lit out as fast as we could run and crawled under someone’s porch as the cops were hot on our trail.  That was down near the River Rouch [ed. note-Rouge] where the Ford Motor plant is now built. 

At that time, 1906, that big field was our playground.  We lived on Peterson Street.  My grandparents lived on Homels Street-the alley separated the two houses.  One day a bunch of us kids set out to see the Wildwood Cemetery [ed. note-Woodmere Cemetery] where Uncle George’s son Howard was buried.  A couple of the kids who lived on Peterson Street, were along.  There I saw my first vault and crematory.  Boy, what a scare.  Us kids watched as they put a body in a big pan and pushed it into the furnace.  As the heat increased, the body began to sit up.  When it moved, so did us kids and I know I never went back there again. 

We spent a lot of our time watching the soldiers as they drilled and paraded at Ft. Dearborn.  My dad worked in the tunnel that was being put under the Detroit River.  Uncle Howard Burlingame was the Super on that job.  He was Aunt Alice Clark’s first husband.  When the job was done, Dad went back to Pennsylvania.  He was working in Idamar, PA digging coal so in Jan 1907, Mother and us 5 kids, with Uncle Ed, left for PA too.  We went by train through that tunnel that Dad helped to build.  We stayed a short time with Aunt Jennie and Uncle Fred until our furniture came. 

We moved into one of the houses in the Block Row.  There, in May 1907, my youngest brother was born.  Dr. Walter Bush was Mom’s doctor and my brother was the first baby he brought after coming to Cameron County.  A few days after the baby was born, all 5 of us kids came down with whooping cough.  The hired help (our Aunt Esther) left, and when the baby was 10 days old, he got the whooping cough.  I slept on a cot in Mom’s room and I had to jump up and stick my finger down his throat to get the phlegm up.  Boy, what a job for a 10 year old kid.  Then a few days later we 5 kids came down with the mumps, so Dad had to come home as I didn’t dare go near the baby.  Dad was like a bull in a china shop.  He and I cooked some rice for our supper.  I don’t remember how much we used, but as it cooked, we bailed it out of the kettle with the dipper.  When it was done, we had a dishpan full.  Dad carried most of it out to the pig. 

Those were the days—no running water, outhouses, oil lamps, coal or wood stoves to heat those old houses.  The snow blew in on the floor through the doors and windows.  Bread froze, so did the water pail. 

Dan O’Brian, big lumberjack, he as the tallest and biggest man I had ever seen, in 1907.  He used to come to Schwab Bros. store, in Cameron, from his shanty house way up in the hills, to buy his groceries.  We kids were scared to death of him, as tales of his fighting powers were known by all the folks in Cameron.  He always wore a sleeveless jacket made from a cowhide, fur side out.  Summer or winter.  And a coonskin cap, but a tailless one.

That spring Dad and us kids were planting potatoes.  We’d had an early thaw, lots of snow and the early rains had the nearby creek running bank-to-bank with cold, muddy water.  The neighborhood kids, Yuharts, were throwing sticks in the stream.  Anne was about four years old.  She slipped into the stream and was washed down by us.  Dad and I together got her out.  Dad rolled her over a barrel.  Boy, did the water ever come out of her.  No first aid as we know it now.  When Charles was about 2 years old, we moved across the river at the mouth of Mooley Hollow.  That’s the house where Mary was born in 1910 and Evelyn in 1912.  The house was across the road from where Jack Stuart lives now.

One spring day shortly after Mary was born, Dad and several others and I went berrying in Russel Hollow for raspberries.  I stepped over an old log and a rattler hit.  He missed my leg, but its teeth got caught in my woolen skirt.  Boy did I ever move and yelled “I’m bit”.  Dad yelled stand still, but I took off for home and I could run.  The road out of the Hollow was fenced off and had a fence across the road, leading to the main road into Hunts Run.  When I got to that fence, I didn’t wait to open it up, but went over the top.  Somewhere in that leap I lost the snake.  Boy was Dad mad when he caught up with me, but I had only the yellowish-green marks on my skirt to show where it had hit.  My berry-picking was over for that day.  The summer before Evelyn was born I almost got it again while picking berries in Mooley Hollow.  I had come home for a couple of days.  I was working in Driftwood at Riley’s Hotel.  I had worn Dad’s Wisconsin boots.  They were high top boots (leather) and came up to my knees.  That’s what saved my leg as I stepped over a log in a dried up creek bed.  I was carrying a revolver, so I shot it.   

Up to this time, in the same hollow, there was some of the remains of a lumber camp.  Us kids used to play around them.  One day the three Lupole kids, my brother Nelson, and myself went up the hollow to pick gooseberries and my dog Shep followed.  As usual he went off after a squirrel.  Pretty soon we started for home, but he didn’t come to our call until we were pretty well in sight of home.  He came tearing down the road followed by an old mother bear.  He’d been chasing her cubs.  Boy, Shep was scared.  He’d run between my legs and down I’d go.  That old bear followed us clear to Walker’s house.  Good thing their place was fenced in.  We sure did a quick crawl under that fence and the old bear turned back.  I was about 13 at that time.

Part 3