Nice.

#15 – Nice

In the previous post we saw there were quite a number of Drums living in in Drums through the years. That many Drums can have an impact on, change the rhythm of (get it?), a community, for sure - not one but TWO hotels, a shoemaker, saddler, woolen mill, Dry Goods Store, civic involvement, I mean, sheesh!

Yet, the Drums put their stamp on the community in still another way, as well. The Drums weren’t only involved with the Post Office at the beginning with George’s “de facto” Post Office in his tavern. Beginning with George’s Tavern in 1820 and stretching through Elmer Drum’s career as a postal carrier, for close to 140 years a Philip Drum descendent had been involved with the Post Office, primarily in Drums.

After the involvement of William and George II in the 1820’s – 1840’s, Abraham’s son, George, was appointed Drums Postmaster in 1854. Abraham Alex (known as A.A.) Drum^{(Josiah, Abraham, George, Jacob, Philip)} became Postmaster in the 1880’s. Nathan S. Drum’s daughter, Carrie M., was appointed Postmaster (called “Postmistress” at the time) in the 1890’s and served in this role until she died in 1941 at the age of 67. Her Assistant Postmaster (“Postmistress”) was her sister, Lottie.[1] Finally, Elmer Drum became a Letter Carrier in the 1920’s and continued in this role until he died January 23, 1959. The 1930 and 1940 U. S. Censuses each list him as “Letter Carrier, U.S. Mail” which is also the profession listed on his death certificate. During his son (my father) Harry’s funeral in 1986, a woman told me, “You didn’t know your grandfather, Elmer, did you? He was such a wonderful man. He looked out for everybody, cared for everybody! I should know because he delivered my mail I don’t know how many years! Such a wonderful man!”

The back of this photo reads “Hazleton Mail Carriers”. There is no date on it. Someone did hang an arrow over my grandfather’s head, however. Back row, third from the left. My guess is the photo was taken in the 1930’s. Given the color of Pap Pap’s hair, however, maybe the ‘40’s.

On January 27, 1959, the Consistory of the St. John’s U.C.C. wrote the following letter to Ella Drum.

Dear Mrs. Drum,

At the meeting of the Consistory on the evening of January 26, 1959, a Resolution was passed commemorating the passing of your husband. …we, the members of the consistory, wish to pay tribute to a Christian man to whom God came first, others came second, and himself last. His life was an inspiration to those who were privileged to know him.

…for the officers and members of the Consistory

(signed) Edward V. Longenberger, President of the Consistory

For the church

(signed) Russell A. Bechtel, Pastor

As for the question of who was living with whom across the years, one mystery emerges from the U.S. Census data. It may be a story of great love, wonderful caring for another, or it may be a story of embarrassment and cover-up! From all that I have come to learn about the various members of this family called “Drum”, I believe it is the former. The truth, however, may never be known and forever be lost beneath the sands of time.

A study of the U.S. Census data for Butler Township of 1870 will show an entry that has John Drum listed as “Head of Household” and the following individuals listed as making up that household: A. Maria (John’s wife); their children, Benjamin F., Philip A., John A., George B.M., Nathan A., Agnes V., and Louisa Jane. These names are followed by the mystery: Bough, James H., age 21, male, white, worker on farm. Obviously, Bough is a hired hand, one assumes, living with the family at the time of the census-taking.

However, a check of the 1880 census data, reveals the household recorded in this manner: John, Head of Household, Hotel Keeper; Anna M (John’s wife, note the switch in emphasis between first and second names); the children, John A., Louisa J., Geo. B. McC., Nathan A., Mary M.; and finally, Bough, James H., white, male, age 32, step-son, single, idiotic.

In ten years this individual named James H. Bough went from a “worker on the farm” to “step-son.” Who was James Bough? Where did he come from? Was he, perhaps, a mentally challenged individual John and his family took in and called their own? There is no evidence James was a son of John’s wife from a previous marriage; in fact, it does not appear she was married previously. After John died in 1881, the next available U.S. Census data is from 1900; the 1890 data being mostly destroyed in a fire. On the 1900 Census, James appears in the household of John’s son, Nathan, this time listed as a “step-brother”. He is not listed in the 1910 Census. He is also not included by Laura Helman in her 1927 genealogy of the Drum Family! James is a mystery.

John presents us with another “mystery” as well. Helman tells us one of John’s sons was named “George B.”[2] When we examine the 1870 census, we find him listed as “George B. M.” In the 1880 census he is found listed as “Geo. B. McC.” “George B. McC” was born February 24, 1865[3], about six weeks before the Civil War ended. The previous year had been an election year in which President Lincoln’s Democratic adversary was the Union General George Brinton McClellan. Was George B. McC. named after the Union General and Democratic Presidential candidate George B. McClellan? John’s brother, Nathan S., was very active in the Democratic Party. It would seem John was too! George may not have liked this designation, however. His grave stone reads simply “George B.”, just as Helman has it.

One final thought about the Drums from Drums. Of course, this “final thought” may be seen as a bit self-serving since I am, after all, a Drum. Still, as one reads the records that still exist of these Drums, it becomes more and more apparent that the members of this family, by and large, were, for the lack of a better term, nice. We read again and again how members of this family helped others, cared for others, worked to make the lives of others easier/better. So many lived lives of service, both public and private.

We see this idea come alive in the questions around James Bough; in the stories about George I’s life, ending up helping his whole community; in Abraham, the sheriff who made friends instead of enemies; in Elmer, who was a beloved Mail Man; and in the lives of the various Drums who held leadership roles in government or just in their churches or community organizations, whether in Drums, St Johns, Conyngham, or elsewhere.

When my father died in 1986, I spoke at his memorial service. Long before this notion of “nice” had formulated, I told the attendees of that service, in part, “his life was a lesson of love. All who met him, learned and with each hand shake, he left behind a little piece of his heart.” That was true for my Grandfather as well, as was noted by the woman who knew Elmer only because he delivered her mail. Yet she loved him enough to tell me her story 27 years after he died!

My dad made this 

little figurine in the 1930’s.

Happy Halloween!

In fact, I’ve only ever found one documented instance that implies something other than members of this family as being nice. Even in this, however, the evidence is rather ambiguous. Judge for yourself. It comes in the form of a letter[4]. The year is 1945 and the letter is from a 19-year-old woman to her soldier sweetheart, Conrad. Her name is Marion but she goes by the nickname “Ditto”. On October 31^st, Halloween evening, she writes, 

Drums, Penna.

October 31, 1945

7:45 P.M.

Dear Conny,

Tonight is the time when all the witches and bats are supposed to be flying around. Yes, and ghosts, too. I’ve seen some of them; the ghosts, however, are the ones that haven’t learned to fly yet – maybe they’re too young. It is a dark and dreary night, though, very suitable for Hallowe’en pranks. So far, they’ve been confined to throwing corn & soaping windows.

After some further chit-chat and news of friends and recent occurrences, she writes in her final paragraphs,

Someone (Mrs. Rhodes) just called up and told us “my brother” was at their place tearing things up. Tch, tch! So now my pop has gone to hunt him up. Shucks, tho’, it’s Hallowe’en; after all . . . . (sic)

Pop just came back & said they (Gertie, Norma, Lucille, Willard, Bob Walp, and Chas) weren’t doing anything. Mrs. Rhodes must be worse than Drums!

I’ll have to say “so long” now.

Always with Love,

                Ditto

George W. Drum.

My mom photocopied this from something
but never recorded the source

On November 7, 1913, George W. Drum^{(George, George, Jacob, Philip)} died. Born in 1832, he had lived his entire life in Conyngham. He had been elected as Justice of the Peace of Sugarloaf in 1860 and continued in that role for the next 53 years except for the four years when he served in the Pennsylvania Legislature. He was a member of the Pennsylvania State Legislature Lower House from 1879-1882. He was the only Democrat to have been elected from Luzerne County in 1878. A tribute to him appeared in the Valley Vigilant on November 14, 1913. Perhaps in partial response to “Ditto” we can point out it included the sentence, referring of course to George W, “There was tenderness, sweetness, purity and love beneath his rather gruff exterior.”  

In another paragraph it said: In professional business and private life he was just and generous, one who was interested in good works and in moral welfare of the town, and for all the qualities of good citizenship. He was incapable of and could never stoop to do a mean or unworthy thing.[5]

This statement could be written about so very many members of this family. It was my son, Philip, who first pointed it out to me. Almost in exasperation he said to me one day, “Dad, was EVERYBODY in this family NICE?! They all just seem so NICE!”

“You know, Philip,” I answered, “I think so!”

Return to the Drums of Drums, PA on January 14, 2019, to read Post #16 – They call it "Progress".

---

[1] Drums, PA, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Drums,_Pennsylvania&oldid=726559076 accessed 9/20/2016.

[2] Helman, Laura M., History and Genealogy of the Drum Family (Allentown, PA: Berkemeyer, Keck & Co., 1927), p 8.

[3] Helman, p 8.

[4] Letter was one of 73 letters found in an attic of a home near Drums corner now in the home owner’s possession.

[5] “Conyngham’s Grand Old Man Dead, Honorable George W. Drum is no more – was the town’s oldest native citizen” Valley Vigilant, November 14, 1913. P 23

Contemporary History #7 – The Christmas Spot

Christmas

For the Drums, as far back as I know, “the Holidays” meant Christmas. Christmas, of course, carries with it many memories. I am sure that, for most of us who celebrate Christmas, there are numerous things that bring memories of past Christmases back to mind, puts us “in the mood” so to speak, but usually there is that one thing that stands out from all the rest that brings back ALL the memories.

Perhaps it is a lighted candle in a frosted window or a log burning in a fireplace. It might be a snowflake landing on your nose or a Cardinal alighting on a birdfeeder. Perhaps it is a sound; jingling bells or carolers outside your home singing “we wish you a merry Christmas” or a choir echoing “Hark the herald angels sing” through a church nave; the sharp thwack of an ax against the trunk of a tree or “Ho-ho-ho” or children’s laughter. It might be a smell; pine needles or gingerbread cookies or peppermint or hot cocoa. It might even be the sticky feeling of pine-pitch between your fingers or peppermint candy cane upon your lips! The list, I am sure, could grow very long.

For me it is this: 

No, not the tree. Above the tree.

Not the angle, higher. On the ceiling.

Here: 

Do you see it? There, in the middle. That’s right, that spot! Nothing makes me think “Christmas” more.

That spot makes me feel warm and happy and a bit "teary-eyed-nostalgic" each time I look at it. It just makes me smile. I can still hear Mom, the day it got there, exclaiming, “Oh no! Now that spot is going to be there forever! I TOLD you to be careful!!” She was both disappointed and angry at the same time. Little could she have ever known the great value that spot has gained for me.

This was Christmas 1955. Nathan was 22 months old. Mom
said that year he asked everyone for a truck for Christmas.
Note all the trucks parked around the edge.
A Nativity was placed on one side of the tree.
On the other is a small, rural scene for the “town”.
Don’t worry, the “town” is soon going to expand.
The Nativity will be placed in another location all its own.

Dad loved electric trains. Even as a boy he would build a toy town at the foot of the Christmas Tree. He made buildings for his town out of cardboard and paint. He put lights inside them, ran cardboard roads between them and sat little plastic or cardboard people in front of them. Then, all around his town he laid track for a toy train. So, after he was married, he continued his tradition. When my brother, Nathan, came along in 1954, Dad built a toy town under the tree for him and gave him a train set. Each year thereafter the town grew bigger and more involved.

By the time I came along in 1957, Dad was putting the town up on a platform, a raised 5’ x 8’ board covered with green (for grass) crepe paper. He had holes drilled through the board through which Christmas lights could be pushed over which the houses could be placed. Having the board raised a foot or so off the floor allowed space underneath for the electrical wires needed for the lights and the trains. The tree, however, always remained in the center.

This photo from 1966 gives you an idea
of the final product we’d create.

Our trees were always real trees. We all agreed that the best tree for a Christmas Tree was a White Pine. It’s still my first choice when I can find one.

Usually around Thanksgiving, Dad would announce it was time to go get a Christmas Tree. We’d pile into his truck and off we’d go to a local tree farm to begin the search for “the perfect tree”. Once found, Dad would crawl under its branches and begin to saw through the trunk, down close to the ground. Then we’d bring it home to wait for Christmas. It was the most fun I could imagine. The day Dad told me I could do the honors of cutting it down was a thrilling day without equal, although I think I needed help getting it cut all the way through that first time. Then it would wait out in the barn until the day came for it to be brought into the house and decorated.

When we were very little, before we went out on our tree-hunting expeditions, Dad got the tree on his own without our knowing. On Christmas Eve Mom and Dad would send us to bed as early as possible, as early as we would let them, anyway, and then go to work putting up the tree and building that town, trains and all! In the morning, Christmas Day, we would rush out into the living room and there we found presents, a whole toy town and a fully decorated Christmas tree that had not been there the night before when we went to bed. Then it was a mad dash into my parents’ room to tell them what I, at that time, thought was fantastic news: SANTA HAD COME AND HAD GIVEN US A TREE WITH A TOY TOWN AND A TRAIN AND PRESENTS TOO!!

My poor parents had probably only gotten into bed maybe an hour earlier if that, having worked the entire night! But up they jumped, well, they got out of bed, anyway, and let me pull them along down the hall to see the wonder that had happened overnight. My brother, who was both older and smarter than me, caught on quicker, earlier than I did, to what was going on. He did his best to keep their work a secret from me. I remember one Christmas he had to drag me back into the bedroom and make me wait, WAIT, QUIETLY, until the sun came up around 7:30am (he didn’t think he could make me wait any longer!) to make sure they were back in bed and perhaps get at least a few winks of sleep. I thought that sun was NEVER going to come up! After I caught on, things got easier for Mom and Dad. Well, at least they got more sleep on Christmas Eve.

About a week before Christmas we would begin the “process.” The furniture would be moved out of the way and the platform would be laid. Then we’d go out to the barn to get the tree, now usually sitting in a bucket of ice. We’d march the tree around to the front door, set it into the tree stand, then push it through the door and into the living room. There was usually some thing that had not been moved far enough away that would get toppled by the branches as they swept by. Then the tree would be placed right in the middle of the platform, right in front of Mom’s floor-to-ceiling living room window, and the decorating would commence.

Mom loved Sonny James. She even got his autograph.

Mom loved Elvis, too. No autograph from him, though.

Mom loved just about any Christmas music there was but especially if Sonny or Elvis was singing it.

I found a stack of Sonny James and Elvis records along with a few others but,
except for these three, none of the Christmas records.
I don’t know, you don’t think she took them with her, do you?

Onto the record player went a stack of Christmas records and for the rest of the evening the house was filled with Sonny singing “Barefoot Santa Claus”, Elvis singing “Blue Christmas”, all of us singing along with Mitch Miller, listening to the Nutcracker Suite,  hearing Gene Autry singing “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer”, Bing Crosby intoning “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”,  and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing songs of the season, and more.

The lights were strung on first, usually beginning as a balled-up mess left from the previous year that always elicited words not expected to be heard at Christmas. Then across the couch and any other available chair or space, would be spread the numerous boxes of Christmas Tree ornaments: chains, bells, globes, toys, glass icicles; even angels and glass grapes that once hung on mom’s mother’s tree! 

Angels and Grapes at the top of the tree.
What? Did you think I was kidding?

Carefully Mom would unwrap each ornament from its tissue paper wrapper and with even more care, hand it to one of us to hang on the tree. Usually, in the early hours of the evening, there was a story that went with the ornament, but as the evening grew longer, the need to finish overcame the need to tell stories.

Some of the ornaments she didn’t trust to hand to us. She placed those on the tree, herself, such as the angels and grapes. That was probably because some of those she DID entrust to us didn’t make it to the tree! Then there were those few times when she, herself, failed to get an ornament to the tree, or back in the box whole again after Christmas. I hate to admit it but I did note a strange twinge of pleasure, kept way down deep inside, of course, those few times when the ornament found its way out of Mom’s fingers and down to the floor. 

After the last string of popcorn (saved from a previous year!) was draped around the tree, on went the finishing touch, TINSEL! Sometimes Mom’s trees looked like they were covered with a spiderweb! She loved tinsel. “It makes the tree SHIMMER!” she’d say. She had to give the tinsel up, however, because it sometimes fell onto the train tracks. The aluminum kind shorted out the system and the plastic kind sometimes caused the trains to jump the tracks. Then we went to town building the toy town below the tree.

Lights were pushed up from below. I liked doing that when they’d allow me to when I was little. The job got “older” as I did too. Buildings of various styles were set over the bulbs; some were made by Dad as a teen, some were store-bought cardboard, some were Plasticville brand. Plasticville had people too so they were added as well. Life-Like brand dirt and trees were added for paths and parks, cardboard roads were laid and matchbox cars placed on them. Animals, birds, even FISH could be found someplace on one of our platforms. These worlds we created were involved.

I’m not sure when this photo was taken
but that is my Diesel train on one of Nathan’s tracks.
He had an oval with an inner and an outer loop.
Switches he controlled from his side of the platform
could be changed to allow one loop or the other to operate.
His outer loop is seen next in the photo to the right
and my loop ran around the outer edge of the platform.

One Christmas morning, 1967 I think, I came out of the bedroom to find that now I, too, had a train set. Nathan’s trains were steam locomotives. My new train was a shiny, silver Diesel engine and three passenger cars. I also, eventually, got a locomotive or two as well. My parents weren’t stupid, either. Nathan’s train, on its own set of tracks, was controlled by a transformer and buttons set up on the East side of the platform. Mine, also on its own set of tracks, was controlled from by a transformer and buttons set up on the West side of the platform.

The cattle pens and “Cow-on-the-track” were to the left of this photo
 just out of the frame so not shown.
You can, however, see one of the switches there in front.

Nathan’s side of the platform was a farm/rural area. He had a cow that would “walk” out onto the tracks and stop his train. He had a cattle yard that had two pens of cattle. These cattle would “run” around their pen until a specific button was pushed and the pen’s gate was opened. Then the cattle would run up a chute and onto a cattle boxcar. Then Nathan would run his train around the oval until the boxcar was back beside the cattle pens. Doors and gates opened, button pushed, and down the chute the cattle would come, off the boxcar and back into their pen.

My side was the city. I had a Semaphore Man who would could stop the train, a Milk Boxcar that unloaded barrels of Milk, a Flatcar that unloaded lumber, and a flatcar that unloaded an automobile. All of these trains and accessories were American Flyer brand trains.

The city side was a busy place. There is a Park, Church, stores, Train Station, work crew, Gas Station and more.

Once we were all in the Living Room on Christmas morning, the opening of the presents commenced! Pieces of wrapping paper and ribbon flew everywhere! 

Below is a shot from 1967. I guess it is obvious but that’s me in the leopard-spot PJ’s and Nathan is looking down at one of his presents. I do not know what I am hugging but I seem to be glad to have it. I am also not sure what the game is there by my side. The box on top of the game says “Woody Woodpecker Hand Puppet”. I did love that puppet. And there on the left side of the photo, peeking in, is my old turtle. He was almost as big as me and I loved sitting on that turtle. I wonder if that was the Christmas when I got him or if he was already a family member by 1967.

Families growing up also can mean families moving apart. Nathan went his way during his mid-1970’s college years and I went mine a few years later. Dad died in 1986 but Mom continued to put up the platform year after year as long as she could. I came back a number of times to help her put it up. The last platform Drumyngham saw was put up by me in 2006. Here is a photo of it (note there is no tree in the middle. Mom’s tree was off to the side that year. By then she preferred an artificial tree; easier to put up and less danger of fire.

The 2006 layout was a tad smaller and had a different platform (one I made instead of the one Dad had made). Many of the things in the photo were on the childhood layouts but some are “new” as well. Mom and I reversed the traditional configuration, placing the farm on the West side of the platform. You can see the barn in the back upper right of the photo. There is a white church, then a yellow building, then a red church-like building. The yellow structure is a Library I made and the red building is a Plasticville church we made into the town hall. On the righthand edge of the photo, almost out of the picture, is a red brick building with the letters “WHAT” on its roof. That is a radio station my dad made as a teenager. You may note a panda bear in the lower right corner. We got him at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.  You never know what you’ll find on one of our platforms. In the upper left corner, you can see a yellow rectangular object. That is a school bus I made. About half-way down the left-side of the photo is a large wooden building. It is a warehouse I made. It is open in the front to receive the cargo, lumber or automobile, that is unloaded from the flatcar or milk barrels from the milk boxcar. On this platform but just off the photo was also a whale, a light house I made, and, around the train controls, I built a Power House Electrical Plant.

Christmas at Drumyngham was always magical.

Which brings me back to my Christmas Spot. Pine trees have pine-pitch. It gets on just about everything. So, if you measure just a tad off, or pick your tree up too high as you place it on the raised platform, as we did, you are in danger of bumping your Christmas Tree into the ceiling, as we did, and leaving a bit of pine-pitch behind. That’s how the spot got on the ceiling.

And Mom was right, at least so far, it will be there forever, to remind me of all that once happened below it.

Thankfully.

Merry Christmas.

There were a lot of Drums in Drums.

#14 – There were a lot of Drums in Drums.

As we have seen in the last post, the popular Abraham Drum and his sister, Margarett, both had a major impact on the community as adults. In researching this family’s history, a few sources told me they thought it was Abraham for whom the village was named! He was well known, ran two hotels, and served for a time as the county sheriff. The news clipping from the time of Abraham’s death that Helman found “in Philip Drum’s Bible”, and as she (possibly incorrectly) copied it, reads:

Abraham Drum, ex-sheriff of Luzerne County, died Nov. 9, 1869, aged 65 years. A widely known and generally esteemed gentleman of this county, Mr. Drum though unpretending, was one of nature’s noble men, an honest man. He was sheriff of Luzerne County several years, and in the discharge of his duties so distinguished himself by his uniform kindness, that he made friends rather than enemies. (Copied by Laura Helman.)[1]  

Mom photocopied this image from a source she failed to identify. If it was a copywritten document I feel certain the document was old enough for the copywrite to have expired.

Abraham married Margaret “Molly” Winters around 1825. Together they had five girls and three boys.[2] Two of the three boys, Josiah and Stephen, with the help of their cousins Redmond and Nathan, opened a store, J. & S. Drum Dry Goods. It was on the same road as, in fact only a few buildings away from, Nathan’s home, the Drums Post Office, and the Drums Hotel, the same one George I opened in 1820 at Drums Corner. An Atlas of Luzerne County from 1873 lists the brothers as “Dealers in fancy and staple dry goods, groceries, hats, caps, boots and shoes, hardware, &c.”[3] Dry goods include items such as fabric, thread, and clothing. 

The brothers had a lot of competition selling these goods for such a small community! Less than a mile to the west, at the crossroads called Beisel’s Corner, across from the Wagon-making and Blacksmith Shop, Joseph Benner had his store, also a dealer in dry goods, groceries, and hardware.

PLUS, just 1.5 miles to the north, in what is now known as St. Johns, Scheidy and Wenner had a shop selling like items![5] 

In today’s world it seems odd to have three establishments each selling the same items in such close proximity, but a mile driven by horse and buggy over unpaved roads must feel a great deal longer than a mile driven in an automobile over the roads of today.

Benner also carried two items not included in the list for J & S Drum, Queensware and Hollow ware.[4] Queensware is a type of Wedgewood Pottery, cream color and very fine. Hollow ware is metal tableware such as coffee pots, sugar bowls, creamers, and so forth.

An example of Wedgewood Queensware from 1887.
These plates may have been purchased from Benner’s store.

I believe this is an example of Hollow ware.
I don’t know the age of this coffee pot
or how it was acquired.
My mom used to use it
when she served “fancy” dinners.

Below is a photo I found hanging on the wall in the Conyngham Historical Society Museum. It is not dated but it still may help us “see” what Drums looked like when the J & S Drum Dry Goods was open for business, even if it isn’t of the location of their store. The question is, where WAS it taken? It is labeled “Drums, PA – WBS” but that doesn’t help – or does it? If only we knew what “WBS” stands for. It might be the photographer’s initials.

By comparing the photo to the 1873 map, I believe we can discern this photo’s location. First, let’s look at the photo and see what we can see.

It appears the photographer was set up in a road, on the left-hand side and we realize there must be a house to his right. We can just see the property’s fence. The next building in line on the right is a house with a sign over the porch. Unfortunately, the sign cannot be read. There is a woman standing on this porch. Next in line is what appears to be a house. However, when we zoom in and look closely at this area of the photo, we realize that there are two houses there in the picture. Next, we see an open area that appears to be another road crossing the road that our photographer is standing in. There is a man crossing the road at this intersection. He is coming toward us. Next on the right is a barn-like structure. There is a wagon and a buggy parked in front of this building. There is a house next to the barn and two more further down the street. In the distance there is a carriage coming toward us on the left-hand side of the road. The left does not appear to be built-up. We come back to the intersection. just past the intersection there is what appears to be another road before we return to the photographer’s location.

After a close examination of the map, I think this may be a photo of the area known as Beisel’s Corner. I further think the photo can be dated to between 1880 and 1900. Here is the Beisel’s Corner portion of the 1873 Atlas map. Let’s see how it matches up with the photo.

On our map, we see a house identified as “J. Walk”. Next to it is a building labeled “Shoe Sh”. I think our photographer was standing in front of the Walk’s house and the Shoe Shop is the building in the photo with the sign over the porch where the woman is standing. The map shows two more houses. Our photo does as well. That brings us to a crossroad in both photo and map. Next, we see “Wagon & B S Sh.” (Blacksmith Shop) on the map. That corresponds to the barn with the wagon in front in the photo. It also could be what “WBS” stands for. The map indicates only one structure at this location, however, it is probable that the shopkeeper had a house as well as the barn or the two were connected. After the shop, the map is empty. The photo has two more houses.

On the left of the photo there appears to be two parallel roads. On the map we see the road and “J. Benner & Co. Store”. I suggest that the “road” closest to the photographer is the driveway/entrance to Benner’s store, the store, itself, being just off the photo to the left.

It is highly likely that this photo was taken at Beisel’s Corner. It appears it was supposed to be of the Wagon & Blacksmith Shop, the barn-like building almost in the center of the photo, especially if that is what “WBS” stands for! The photo is later than 1873 because there are two houses in the distance that do not appear on the 1873 map. It is earlier than 1900 because we see no evidence of the WB&H Railway that will run through this area beginning 1903.

See Addendum added below for another interpretation of this photo.

Although this is not Drums Corner, I imagine Beisel’s Corner looked pretty much the same as Drums Corner, all things considered.

Now, even though the Drums had a lot of competition for their goods, when it came to production of community-citizens, one wonders just how many families were competing with the Drums. In 1830, at a time when the total population of Butler Township was 2,700[6], we know that at least 1% of that population, 33 people, were named “Drum”.[7]  

Furthermore, we can be sure that this number increased as the century moved forward. William, as noted earlier, did not have children. However, between 1832 when his brother, George II’s son, George W. was born, and 1838 when George W’s sister, Rebekah died, just this one Drum household alone accounted for 10 Drum’s. William’s second brother, Abraham, had eight children between 1820 and 1840; his third brother, Jacob, fathered five children between 1820 and 1830 and Philip II, his fourth brother, had ten children that survived infancy (two babies died) between 1820 and 1850. Including the three children he had with his first wife, between 1814 and 1819, the total number of children Philip fathered was 15. The 1873 Atlas map shows 9 Drum households scattered across Butler Township and we can’t forget about the George W. Drum home in Conyngham, making 10; most of which had children.

It is, perhaps, needless to say, but in the 1800’s, there were a lot of Drums in Drums Valley!

I’ve personally always liked being a Drum. Too bad that when I was growing up there weren’t as many of “us” around as there were in the 1800’s. It’s kind of nice being a Drum. Of course, maybe I wouldn’t care for it as much if I’d have known being something else. You see, I’ve never known being anything other then a Drum, but my “Drum-essence” seems pretty good just the same.

Return to the Drums of Drums, PA on the last day of the year, December 31, 2018, to find out just how (#15) Nice being a Drum can be!

Addendum! Addendum! 

But WAIT! I was visiting the Luzerne County Area Agency on Aging Butler Active Adult Center and showed some of the center clients this photograph of "Drums, PA - WBS" with the label removed. Immediately, one man, a life-long resident of Drums, said, "Why that's Drums!" "But where in Drums? I asked. He looked at me like I was silly and pointed toward Drums Corner which is just down the street from the Center. "But where is the Drums Hotel?" I asked. "Behind the photographer." he said and then continued, "This photo is looking toward Fritzingertown direction." That would be Southwest. 

I explained my points made above as to why it is Beisel's Corner and he told me his reasons for it being where he believes it was taken.

If he is right, then the cross road is running on the far side of the barn, not the near side as it seems to me. Even more important to me is that the house beside the "store" in the picture would be Nathan S. Drum's if my friend is correct.

Here is the map of Drums Corner again, enlarged and with numbers to help us line it up with the photo. 

#1 would be the barn in the photo. #2, labeled "P Hess" on the map would be the next house to the right of the barn in the photo. #1 is not labeled on the map so I assume it is either Hess's barn or part of Washburn's "B Sh." which I believe stands for Blacksmith Shop. Note that the original photo is labeled "WBS". #3, labeled "N.S. Drum" on the map is the next in line to the right in the photo. #4, on the map labeled "Andrew's Store and P.O." aligns with the house in the photo with the sign above the porch, and #5, not identified on the map would be the house of which only its fence can be seen in the photo. The houses marked 6&7 on the map might be the two houses that can be seen in the distance in the photo. 

For me, there are issues with both interpretations, however, the original is marked "Drums" and I believe it would have been marked "Beisels Corner" if that was the subject of the photo. We think of a wide area today as "Drums" but that was not the case for much of the valley's existence.

We might be looking at Drum's Corner after all!

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[1] Helman, Laura M., History and Genealogy of the Drum Family (Allentown, PA: Berkemeyer, Keck & Co., 1927), p 28

[2] Helman, p 28

[3] Atlas of Luzerne County Pennsylvania from actual surveys by and under the direction of D. G. Beers (Phila: A. Pomeroy and Company, 1873), p 39.

[4] Atlas, p 39

[5] Atlas, p 39

[6] Two Hundred Years of Progress: Butler Township, 1784-1984 (Drums, PA: The Drums Lions Club, 1984) p 21.

[7] The 33 include, by my count: 1. George (died 1831), 2. George’s 2^nd wife Rosanna Woodring, George’s children 3. Philip, 4. Jacob (died July 1830), 5. George (died 1831), 6. Elizabeth, 7. William, 8. Abraham, 9. Margarett, 10. Philip’s 2^nd wife Magdalena Beishline, Philip’s children 11. Anna, 12. Sarah, 13. Jacob, 14. Elizabeth (she may have married by 1830), 15. John, 16. Mary Magdalene, 17. Jacob’s wife Anna Margaret Balliett, Jacob’s children 18. Isaac, 19. Julia, 20. Caroline, 21. Anna Margaret Rosina, 22. George’s wife Susanna Winters, George’s children 23. Mary, 24 Eliza, 25. Susan, 26. Laretta, 27. Rebekah, 28. Sarah, 29. Abraham’s wife Margaret “Molly” Winters, Abraham’s children 30. Mary, 31. Magdalene, 32. George, and 33. Josiah (born 1830).

Unsnarling Snarls

#13 – Unsnarling Snarls: Getting a few things straight, like names and dates

In our previous two posts, we were gaining context for the dates these posts toss around. Now we will get a few things straight, like names and dates; try to unsnarl some of the inconsistencies we find along the way, or at least acknowledge they exist.

George and Anna Margret arrived in the Drums Valley probably in the mid to late 1790’s. Here is a picture of them taken shortly after they arrived. 

OK, I lied. This is not George and Anna Margret. These folks are my folks, Mom (Eleanor) and Dad (Harry). They are all dressed up for a Bicentennial Parade in which the Sugarloaf Valley 4-H Club marched in 1976, in Freeland, PA. Mom and Dad were 4-H Volunteers who worked with the Sugarloaf Valley 4-H Club. But they COULD have been George and Anna Margret, right? OK, I guess not. HERE is the REAL picture of George and Anna Margaret. 

Man, you guys won’t ley me get away with ANYTHING! You are right, AGAIN! This is not their picture either. This is something I drew when I was 10. I like the sound effects (woof, tweet, meow).

Anna's grave.

George and Anna Margret had eight children; six boys and two girls. Laura Helman tells us there were seven children (five boys and two girls)[1], however, a visit to Anna’s grave site in the St. Johns Cemetery exposes the error. In the oldest corner of the cemetery, beside the road and under a huge, old pine tree, we find Anna's Grave.

Resting to her left, is a child not mentioned by Helman. The stone gives his name as "Isaac Drum.” Born in 1799, he was five-years-old when he died. 

Anna’s stone includes an intriguing inscription. It appears to read: “hier ruhen in gott die gebeine von Anna  Margretda Drummen“. 

Here rest in God the mortal remains of Anna Margretda Drummen. If this is what the stone says, why does her name appear this way? 

My first impression was that it was a humorous play on words. However, logic told me that made no sense. This IS a gravestone, after all! Therefore, it must be how they intended to present her name, but that made no sense, either!

Perhaps the inscription does not refer to her name. If written this way: “Anna Margret da drummen” it could be translated to mean “Anna Margret is there”. Is the inscription actually saying that Anna Margret’s mortal remains are here but her soul is there with God? If so, what a coincidence it is that her last name was Drum causing our “English-reading” eyes to see the name and not the meaning.

Alternatively, perhaps it is both her name and a statement of belief combined on purpose. After giving this some further thought, I remembered that early stone carvers did upon occasion take shortcuts. An example of this can be seen at the St. Paul’s U.C.C. Cemetery in Cherryville, PA. According to information on their website, the 1789 stone carver who carved the stone marking the grave of ANA BARBARA APPIN, took advantage of “Barbara” ending in “A” and “Appin” beginning with “A”, so carved “ana barbarappin”. Another example is found on Anna Margret’s stone where it lists her birth date. She was born October 29. The stone reads "Octobr 29”.

After all, it isn’t easy carving stone.

It isn’t easy pinpointing specific dates for these early Drums, either. It was most likely after George’s service with Cpt. Peter Hays’s Company ended that he married Anna Margret Woodring, probably sometime between 1783 and 1786. Perhaps they knew each other before he went to war or did he meet her after his return? No diaries or letters are known to exist that can give us a clue. It is believed they were in or near Williams when their first son, Philip, was born in 1787.

We surmise the family then moved to Allen late 1789 or early 1790 prior to August 2, 1790 when the collection of data for the first national census took place. Jacob is born next, in 1791 followed closely by their third son, George, in 1792, both probably born in Allen. It is still fairly certain on this timeline that this family has not yet made it to the Drums valley. 

This is part of a road map Texaco put out in 1975 as a service to their customers. It is included here as a service to you, the reader, to help gain perspective of where locations of interest to this family are located. I’ve marked Drums in the upper left-hand corner with a heart. Also marked in the lower right corner is Williams Township which is just South of Easton. I’ve also circled Allentown. Moore Township is North of Allentown. Circled is Mooretown. Cherryville is circled and has a star added to mark the grave of Jacob (whom I believe is “our” Jacob Drum. for more information see the post entitled "Jacob's Story".).

George and Anna’s next child was born in 1797, another boy, and they named him Abraham[2]. It seems likely that it was during these five years, the time between George’s birth in 1792 and Abraham’s birth in 1797, that the Drums finally made it to the valley that would eventually take on their name; Anna and the children probably arriving first with the Woodring’s and then followed by George a few years later. If so, it marks Abraham as being the first Drum child to be born in what would become known as the Drums Valley. George and Anna’s next child is another boy, the five-year-old Isaac, who died in 1804 and rests beside his mother in the St. Johns Cemetery.

Anna must have been very happy when their next child was born in 1801, for finally, after five boys, she was given a baby girl; a girl whom they named Mary Elizabeth[3]. This child’s name was most likely of Anna’s choosing; probably named after her own mother, Maria Elizabeth.[4] Mary Elizabeth is followed by yet another girl whom they named Ann Margarett but who grows up being called Peggy, and later, Aunt Peggy.^[5] Again, Helman does not give birth or death dates but Margarett was probably born in, or before, August of 1804 (at least 10 months before William was born). She is listed as age 45 in the 1850 census so probably had not yet reached her 46^th birth anniversary at the time the data was collected.[6]

Ann Margarett’s name is of some interest. Helman gives her name as “Margaret” (one “t”), which is also how she appears in the 1860 census. However, she is listed in the 1870 census as “Ann Margarett”. She is listed as “Peggy” in the 1850 census. In an article[7] about her nephew, George W. Drum^{(George, George, Jacob, Philip)}, published at the time of his passing in 1913, she is listed as “Peggy Ann”.[8] Given her name as recorded by Helman and the 1860 census, it is reasonable to assume she preferred Margarett or Peggy to Ann, Ann Margarett, or Peggy Ann.

After Margarett, Anna was to give birth one last time, in 1805. Her eighth and final child was a boy they named William. The 1850 census lists Mary Elizabeth as being age 49 placing her birth year as 1800 or 1801. William is also listed as being 49 years of age in 1850. Could William and Mary have been twins?

They are not. It appears the 1850 census data is incorrect on the issue of William’s age. After locating his grave, the stone confirms his birth date as June 24, 1805 making him 45 in 1850. His death was recorded on the gravestone as Oct. 1, 1857.

By 1807, two-year-old William’s oldest brother, Philip, had celebrated his 20^th birth anniversary. He was, therefore, 21 when he bought his land in Conyngham in 1808; perhaps that was also the year he married for the first time. There is some question regarding his first wife’s name, however. Helman just leaves a blank. Other sources say she was either Mary Wotring (Woodring)[9] or Magdalene Beisel[10].

If one of these is correct, the likelihood is it is Mary Woodring. William Drum was probably named after an uncle named William Woodring. When William Woodring died in 1815, and George’s wife, Anna Margret Woodring Drum had also died (June 23, 1821), George married Anna Margaret’s sister, William Woodring’s widow, Rosanna[11]. The likelihood therefore is that Philip was just keeping it all in the family by marrying Mary.

Mary/Magdalene would have been proud of Philip’s first mill, a carding-mill, built in 1810. In 1835 he built the valley’s first woolen-mill a short distance away.^[12] A visit made on April 9, 2018 to the site where their home once stood along the Little Nescopeck Creek found only a half-filled in cellar-hole, still lined with foundation stones; surrounded, here and there, by Daffodils, Irises, and Lilacs.[13]

Together Mary/Magdalene and Philip started their family. Helman does not provide us with birth dates for their first three children but she does give us their names: Anna, Sarah, and Jacob.[14] Once again it is from Census data that we learn their birth years, in two cases confirmed by grave stones.

Jacob’s age is given as 38 in 1850 (therefore born in 1812) but 46 in 1860 (therefore 1814). However, the grave stone clears the matter giving his birth as 1814 and death occurring in 1878. From Anna’s grave we learn she was born Oct. 26, 1815 and died January 2, 1877. Sarah has been difficult to locate in the census. An 1850 listing that seems to be her has her listed as being only 26. The 1860 census seems more accurate giving her age as 41 putting the birth year at 1819. Her grave has not been located.

None of the three siblings would know their mother for very long. Mary/Magdalene apparently died shortly after Sarah was born. Philip was left to care for these three children by himself, but only for two or three years. In 1822 he married for a second time. We know his second wife’s name was Magdalene, Magdalene Beishline.[15]

Return to the Drums of Drums, PA on December 17, 2018 to find out just how many Drums there were in Drums, PA because, as we’ll soon learn from the next post, #14, There were a lot of Drums in Drums!

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[1] Helman, Laura M., History and Genealogy of the Drum Family (Allentown, PA: Berkemeyer, Keck & Co., 1927) p 3

[2] The Helman book lists Abraham as the sixth child to be born, not the 4^th, and gives the birth year as 1804 (no month or day). Most likely she arrived at this birth year by subtracting his age at death, 65, from the year she thought he had died, 1869. It seems she got his death year from an article she found in “Philip Drum’s Bible” (probably John’s son, Philip Alonzo) and copied for her notes. However, she copied the date of death as Nov. 9, 1869, but his grave stone lists it as Nov. 9, 1862.His grave stone also indicates his birth date as October 11, 1797, a difference of 65.

[3] Helman’s book gives this name as “Elizabeth”, however, she appears in the 1850 census as “Mary E.”

[4] Drum, Nora, Miss; Mrs. R. S. Small, and Mrs. Millard Shelhamer, Drums Methodist Church and Valley Notes (Drums, PA: St. Paul’s Methodist Church, 1953)

[5] Helman, p. 3

[6] It should be noted that her age is given as 62 in the 1870 census putting her birth year at 1807 or 1808. The age listed for her in the 1860 census at first seems to be 52. However, upon closer examination, one realizes that the entry was made with great haste, the age actually being 56. The 1850 census has her as 45 years of age. If, however, the 1807/8 birth year is correct, Margarett would be Philip and Magdalene’s youngest child.

[7] “Conyngham’s Grand Old Man Dead, Honorable George W. Drum is no more – was the town’s oldest native citizen” Valley Vigilant, November 14, 1913. P 23

[8] That same Valley Vigilant article lists Mary Elizabeth as “Betsy” and fails to include Abraham and Isaac.

[9] Research conducted by Eleanor Drum in the 1970’s.

[10] Drums, PA, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Drums,_Pennsylvania&oldid=726559076 accessed 9/20/2016

[11] Helman lists the name as Rosanna. Information found on the web site “Find a Grave” lists her as Rosina, however, does not provide a photo of the grave stone and says she is buried in Easton. If this is true, it begs the question of why she is buried in Easton when George was clearly living in Drums at the time. Her grave, to my knowledge has not been located in Drums, however.

[12] Bradsby, H.C., ed, History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: S.B. Nelson & Co., 1893). Chapter XXI (continued): Butler Township. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/luzerne/1893hist/ accessed 6/7/2016

[13] Stupid me failed to take a photo the day I visited the location. I’ll do that the next time I drop by.

[14] Helman, p 3

[15] Helman, p 5