#10 - The Stage Coach
In our previous posts we saw a community emerge and take on the name Drums, mostly because the family of that name was playing such a prominent role in the community’s growth. George was a leader in his church, provided a means of communication with the world outside of the valley through his “de facto post office”, offered a source of food and lodging for travelers passing through the valley via stage coach or otherwise, and legal services as a Justice of the Peace.
As far as we know, at least three of George’s sons, at
least one of his daughters, and a number of nieces and nephews played a role in the operations of the Drum’s Hotel and
of a second hotel built by the Drums that was known as the Stage Coach Stop Inn.
A number of his descendants played a role in the Drums area postal services. A
few even served in government. However, it can sometimes be confusing to know,
and difficult to discern, which member of this family was involved in what,
when, and how.
Part of the problem with this family in following who was
involved when and in what way is that so many of the children were named George
or Jacob or Philip. A record will state that George Drum did this thing or Jacob
Drum did that thing, but the reader is left with the question of which George
Drum, or Jacob, or Philip, is being referred to! For example, a notice that
appeared in the Hazleton Sentinel on August
12, 1880 read, “Geo. Drum, the popular landlord from Butler, spent a few hours
in town yesterday.”[1]
Problem is, there were at least five George Drums alive in 1880, and although
it might be a stretch for one or two of them to be called a “landlord”, any one
of them could have been this “popular landlord” – John’s George B., Jacob’s
George, the deceased George Jr’s George W., Abraham’s George, and the son of
Abraham’s George, also named George. By George, that’s a lot of Georges!
However, we’ll have a go at it. It appears that in the
1820’s George’s son, George, Jr., helped with the operation of the hotel,
primarily serving as the “postmaster for a time in the late 1820’s”.[2]
In one of the tricks that history often plays, George Sr. and George Jr. both
died in 1831, George, Sr. succumbing to a gunshot wound on February 27 and
George, Jr. passed nine months later on November 24, 1831. George, Jr. was only
39 when he died.
George, Sr.’s son, William, may also have helped with the
hotel’s operation and mail service in the 1820’s. One account states he became
the “Postmaster” of Drums in 1826 and, although this source does not say it, it’s
only logical that he was operating out of the Drum’s Hotel. This source goes on
to say that William then helped establish the Post Office in Conyngham in 1828.[3]
However, information published in the Hazleton Standard-Speaker in 1991
indicates that William became the first Postmaster of the village of Conyngham
in 1826.[4]
This agrees somewhat with the Drums Lions Club’s account in that they say 1826
was the year the valley received its first Post Office and that it was located
in Conyngham.[5] However,
the Conyngham-Sugarloaf Bicentennial Commission reported in 1976 that Samuel
Harmon built a tavern in Conyngham in 1815 and later “became the first
postmaster”. We are left to assume the Post Office was in Harmon’s tavern. The
Commission did not give a date for the Post Office’s establishment; however,
they do go on to say, “William Drum kept the office in 1830.”[6]
Getting back to Drums, however, after both of the George’s
die in 1831, it appears that George, Sr’s son, Abraham; Abraham’s son, George;
and Abraham’s sister, Margarett (known as Peggy or Aunt Peggy[7]),
operated the hotel through most of the 1840’s and into the 1850’s. In the late
1850’s Philip’s son John took over the Drum’s Hotel when Abraham, George, and Margarett
built a new inn a few miles northeast of Drums Corner at Sand Spring and called
it the Stage Coach Stop Inn. After Abraham died in 1862, his son, George, took
over this Inn. This is the George, Abraham’s son, that is most likely being
referred to above by the Hazleton Sentinel as “the popular landlord from
Butler”.
An interesting side note concerns the U.S. Census. By
1850, census data included not only just the names of the household heads, but
now included the names of everyone staying in the household. In the case of a
hotel, that meant the guests and boarders were included as well. In the 1850
census, Abraham Drum is shown as the household head, listed as “Abm” and marked
“Landlord”. His age looks like it is listed as 55, however it should be 53. His
real estate value is listed as $12,000 ($368,000 in 2018 dollars)[8].
Listed after him is his wife Margaret, age 50 (also known as Molly[9]),
his children who were still living with him in 1850 (George, Josiah, Ellinor
[listed as Ellen], Elizabeth, and Stephen), and his sister Margarett, listed as
“Peggy”. Following these are listed six people as follows: Maria Balliet, age
20 (who is probably engaged to Josiah, they will soon marry); Alfred Gordan,
age 25; Barbara Machamer, age 22; Stephen Drumheller, age 25, Merchant; Evan H.
Drumheller, age 13 and Jonas Kidney, age 22, Stage Driver.
 |
| On April 26, 2018, My wife and I had the pleasure of visiting the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. As I came around one of the corners, there in front of me was a picture of the stagecoach just leaving George's Hotel! Well, of course, this isn't George's Hotel, it's someplace in New York, but one could certainly imagine it to be! This painting is entitled Landscape with a Stagecoach. It was painted by Henry Boese in 1856, oil on canvas. The sign said it was OK to take photos so I did, as you can see. |
There is no question that Stage Coaches stopped at both
of the hotels operated by the Drum’s. According to one account, arrival of the
coach was quite thrilling! It reads, “The old four-horse Concord Coaches, with
the great stage driver, his whip and horn waking the echoes that had so long
slept (in) the surrounding mountain sides, thrilled the very soul.”[10]
In 1953, Nora A. Drum(Nathan S, Philip, George, Jacob, Philip)
described the Stage saying[11]: “The stagecoach route
from Philadelphia to Wilkes-Barre passed trhough (sic) Drums. Horses were
changed at the hostelry of George Drum, Sr., later owned by Abraham Drum and
his son. The driver and patrons remained over night (sic), and the next day
resumed their journey. Sometimes the coach had four horses and at other times
six.”
It appears that the passengers overnighted at the Drums
Hotel in the earlier days but at the Sand Spring location in the later 1800’s. Either
way, after leaving Beaver Meadows on its way to Wilkes-Barre, the stage made a
short stop in Hazleton and then continued north to Drums, a trip that took
approximately five hours.[12]
In 2009, Ed Deets, owner of the Stage Coach Inn
Restaurant from 1988 - 2013, unveiled “an exact, authentic replica of a Wells
Fargo stage” and had it on display at his restaurant. A
photo of the Stage was included in a story about the Stage’s unveiling
published at the time by the Citizen’s Voice.[13]
Ed Deets recently passed away at the age of 89.[14]
The first Concord Coach[15],
[16]
was built in Concord, New Hampshire in 1827 by Lewis Downing, a wheelwright
from Lexington, Massachusetts who moved to Concord, NH in 1818 and J. Stephen
Abbot. Each coach was custom made and individually numbered. The tall and wide
vehicles weighed 2,500 pounds each and were equipped with long-spoked wheels
that made it easier to get through muddy and rutted roads. The coach was held
up by a pair of bull-hide leather straps called “thoroughbraces,” that replaced the steel springs found on
earlier coach-types. It was believed that the leather thoroughbraces gave the
passengers a smoother, less jarring ride. But these coaches didn’t come cheap.
A Concord Coach cost between $1,000 and $1,500 each (approximately $24,000 - $36,000
in present-day dollars).[8]
It must have been worth it, though. One passenger, the famous
author and humorist Mark Twain, described a trip out west in a Concord Coach in
his 1870 book Roughing it:
“Our coach was a great swinging and swaying stage, of the most
sumptuous description – an imposing cradle on wheels. It was drawn by six
handsome horses, and by the side of the driver sat the ‘conductor,’ the
legitimate captain of the craft; for it was his business to take charge and care
of the mails, baggage, express matter, and passengers. We sat on the back seat,
inside. About all the rest of the coach was full of mail bags – for we had
three days’ delayed mails with us… We changed horses every ten miles, all day
long, and fairly flew over the hard, level road.”
In the 1970’s, Eleanor Drum, Harry Drum’s(Elmer,Nathan
A., John, Philip, George, Jacob, Philip) wife (my mom), conducted
oral-history research on the valley “before we have lost everyone who knows
about the history of Drums,” she said. She was very good about writing down
what she learned. She was not very good, however, about writing down her
sources. Her notes include a route she learned the stage took but in addition
to not noting her source, she did not record the years when this route was used.
Of course, the route changed over time and, in fact, there may have been more
than one route and/or stage depending on where you wanted to go.
One source mentions Conyngham as having a stage coach
stop[17]
and a close examination of the 1850 census for Butler Township shows another
landlord named Samuel M. Santee recorded. In his household list one finds
Lafayette Phillips, age 30, Stage Driver. However, Mom’s notes describe the
route as follows (altered slightly by me for clarity.):
The stage coach brought mail once a week and the road was the main
route to Wilkes-Barre back to Harrisburg and Philadelphia. From Hazleton it
(followed) Church Street (north toward the Routes 309/940 split. Staying on
309, the stage passed through Harleigh and Milnesville), down around the curve,
down the old mountain road (where) it cut right and went down past Grammy’s
house (in) Fritzingertown, up through Drums, over Straw Mountain, down to
Rumble’s Corner, (and) on up and out to Stage Coach Inn.”
 |
| Mom's notes |
Anyone from the Drums Valley would
recognize this route. Of course, she is describing the route using the
landmarks that exist today, not exactly as they were in the 1800’s.
If you don't know what “Church
Street” is, it is the part of Route 309 that passes through Hazleton.
Some folks may struggle
a little with the landmark “Grammy’s House”. Mom is referring to the home of
Elmer and Ella Drum, my grandparents, which they bought from the Embling’s in
1919. It sits in Fritzingertown just at the foot of the foothills where South
Old Turnpike Road, heading South toward Hazleton, makes a curve to the right
before it almost doubles back on itself to begin the run up the mountain.
“Grammy’s House” is on the inside of that first curve.
When the coach was running, I don’t believe either the house or the
curve existed. The “old mountain road” is the part of South Old Turnpike Road
that runs up and down the mountain. Mom’s notes imply that in the days of the
stage coach, when heading North (down the mountain) on this road, it made a
sharp northerly turn further up the mountain than it does now. It may be that
it turned north in the area of the road known today as Short Road instead of
proceeding to the large horseshoe curve we find today. This map from an 1873
Atlas appears to show this configuration.
 |
| The yellow/green line is the stagecoach route. The red line is the road approximately as it runs today. "Grammy's House" would be about where the green and red lines touch across from the name "S Roth" on the map. 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. |
South Old Turnpike Road runs North through Fritzingertown, over the
Little Nescopeck Creek, past Drums Elementary/Middle School, and through Drums
Corner. At this point it becomes North Old Turnpike Road (NOTR).
 |
| This maps picks up where the previous one left off. I've circled Drums Hotel at Drums Corner and The Stage Coach Stop Inn in the upper right of the map. Straw's Mountain begins about where "D. Durst" is on this map and ends just north of "266" on the map. Rumble's Corner is the crossroad where "A. Straw & Son" is marked on this map, the one that is marked north of the river. 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. |
NOTR continues north over “Straw Mountain” (the ridge between Drums and
St. Johns where members of the Straw family built several homes) and crosses
through “Rumbles Corner” (a crossroad which got its name for similar reason
involving members of the Rumbles family). North Old Turnpike Road then follows
a more or less straight-line northeast to Route 309, joining Route 309 just
below (south) of the location of, in the 1800’s, the Stage Coach Stop Inn;
Stage Coach Inn Restaurant in the second half of the 1900’s: and today, 2018, the Four Blooms Restaurant.
 |
| So this doesn't look so bad in the photo. The photo lies. We are going up (out of the valley) on the old mountain road (SOTR). The mountain is to our right. The Valley is to our left. |
 |
| This is the valley view on the left. As can be seen, there is Guard Rail... and then valley. |
Even
in a car driven today on these very much improved, paved roads, with guard
rails, these roads can be scary.
It is hard to imagine a Stage Coach, pulled by four to
six horses, making its way down either of these steep grades, unpaved in those
days, no guard-rails, especially in the rain or snow! The trip down would be,
at best, treacherous on either of them and the assumption is that many
passengers experienced both in one day! I am sure many a passenger must have
made these parts of the trip with his or her eyes closed! Who knows? Maybe
Jonas Kidney had his eyes closed too!
Abraham and Aunt Peggy opened their new Inn on the
Nanticoke Trail near the spring fed pond called Sand Spring. Nanticoke Trail largely
follows what in the 21st Century is called Hunter Highway/Route 309.
In 1947, Peter and Esther Solutko built a restaurant on the Sand Spring Pond
location and called it “The Stage Coach Inn” to “commemorate its history.” They
knew about the stage coaches on their way to Wilkes-Barre in the 1800’s that
stopped at their location to change horses and spend the night.[18],
[19],
[20]
The Stage Coach Inn Restaurant was a popular restaurant
in Drums for many years. One of its more famous frequent patrons was Hazle
Township native and Drums resident, Oscar-winning actor Jack Palance[21],
[22]
However, the inn’s long run ended in 2013 when its third owners, Ed and Betty
Deets; who once employed Susan Kalada, owner of The Bird’s Nest Shoppe and
presently living in the former Drums Hotel built by George and Abraham; closed
the Stage Coach Inn Restaurant’s doors for the last time.
Return to the Drums of Drums, PA on November 5,
2018 for #11 – The Drums and their Times
Part 1: 1800 -1870’s.
[1]
“Personal”, Hazleton Sentinel, August 12, 1880
[2]
Drums, PA, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Drums,_Pennsylvania&oldid=726559076
accessed 9/20/2016
[3] Drums,
PA
[4] “Red
Letter Days”, Pages From the Past Special Edition, Hazleton Standard-Speaker,
Friday, September 6, 1991,
p A4 and “Conyngham Named after Revolutionary War Hero”,
p A10.
[5] Two
Hundred Years of Progress: Butler Township, 1784-1984 (Drums, PA: The Drums
Lions Club, May 1984) pp 15-16 [page 16 is numbered incorrectly as 17; the
number 16 being missed].
[6]
Bigelow, Mrs. John L. and Mrs. E. B. Mulligan, Jr., Eds., Let Freedom Ring
(Conyngham-Sugarloaf Bicentennial Commission, 1976, Limited Edition) p 14
[7] Helman,
Laura M., History and Genealogy of the Drum Family (Allentown, PA:
Berkemeyer, Keck & Co., 1927) p3.
[8] Conversion
calculator located at: https://www.officialdata.org/
[9]
Helman, p 25.
[10] 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
[11]
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)
[12] “Stage Coach Inn – N. Hunter Hwy Drums, PA”, http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/pennsylvania/41375-stage-coach-stops-pennsylvania.html
Accessed 1/16/2017
[13] Dino,
Jim, “Stagecoach Inn now has Piece of History” Citizen’s Voice, July 18,
2009
[14]
Kalinowski, Bob, “Business Leader Deets, 89, Dies, Hazleton Standard-Speaker,
Tuesday, June 12, 2018, p A1
[17] Biebel,
Mary Therese, “Hometowns: In Conyngham, quiet, historical – and don’t forget
the food” Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, February 19, 2017
accessed 2/19/2018
[18] Gaydos, Kristen, “Stage Coach Inn home to Rustic Charm” Citizen’s
Voice, March 24, 2011
[19]
Dino, Jim
[20]
Greenberg, Lara, “Historic Restaurant Up for Sale” WNEP-TV, 2013
[21] Gaydos,
Kristen
[22] Greenberg,
Lara
I just discovered this. I am a descendent of the Drums. I need to look at my tree but Strauss, Beisel, Woodring, were all my ancestors. My grandmother died not knowing so much of this grand history. She would have been so proud!
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