Noise or Progress, you be the Judge.

# 17 - Noise or Progress, you be the Judge.

Standing at Drumyngham, one looks south at Butler Mountain. At night, one can sometimes see the Hazleton Airport searchlight scanning the skies, shining from behind the mountain just about where the Milnesville Mines used to be. Just below that and to the east (left) slightly, in the winter when the leaves are off the trees, the headlights of cars driving down the South Old Turnpike Road (“the Old Mountain Road” as we used to call it) toward Fritzingertown can be seen.

I tried to capture this for you in a video. It was a lot harder to do than I expected but this video does give you an impression. Right in the center of the picture there is a point of light. I believe this light is from, or near, the house my Grandfather, Elmer, once owned in Fritzingertown. Below this point of light can be seen the headlights of cars and trucks moving north on I81. Close examination also gives you the red tail lights of vehicles moving south, or up the mountain. Above Elmer's house are flickering lights moving from left to right. Those are headlights of cars coming down South Old Turnpike Road. It is a much better visual experience when seen in person! The sound in the video is the noise from the interstate, again much more subdued in the video than when experienced in person.

Off to the right, or southwest, the Conyngham Gap is clear against the sky, all lit up by the lights near Interstate 81 Exit 145, the Candlewood Suites, the Hampton Inn, and a restaurant called “The Top of The Eighties”, named after the two nearest Interstates I80 & I81. It was through this gap that John Balliet first entered the valley. I think those lights are too far away for my poor smart phone to pick up. I was unable to capture any good shots of that area.

Below that stands old Sugarloaf Mountain which witnessed the Sugarloaf Massacre in 1780. This “mountain”, rather a large cone-shaped hill, has stood watch over the valley long before the English, or the French, or perhaps even American Indians, wandered past.

Interstate 81 from the
bridge at Beisel's Corner.

Cutting down across Butler Mountain at about a 3% grade, running from the Conyngham Gap down the side of the mountain and curving to the north at the foothills, then disappearing from sight behind Ransom Young’s farm, is Interstate 81. It starts in Dandridge, Tennessee and ends on Wellesley Island (near Fisher’s Landing) in New York, right at the Canadian border. In between, among many other things, I81 crosses the Little Nescopeck Creek with-in shouting distance of Cal Schaffer’s house where Nathan, Mary, Elmer, and Christie had their picture made, run’s practically on top of the spot where John Balliet had built his lean-to, and just west of the cemetery in St. Johns where so many of Philip’s descendants now rest. 

Like Elmer’s widow, Ella; Nathan’s widow, Mary, saw I81 be built too. Neither she, nor Ella liked it. Mary thought it tore up the valley terribly and according to Ella, “it just makes too much noise!” I know what she means. On March 2, 2018 the Hazleton/Drums area was hit by a “Nor’easter” that dropped five to eight inches of snow on the area in just a few hours. Somehow the guy who delivers my Standard-Speaker newspaper still got through to deliver it! When I went out to get my newspaper at 4:30AM, I realized something was very strange and different. I stood there in my front yard for a few moments wondering what it was when it suddenly hit me. There was no noise. All was silent. The storm had momentarily shut down I81 and with no trucks or cars moving up or down the mountain, or anywhere else, really, there was a quiet like I had rarely experienced before. I thought to myself, “Ella was right!” Some may call it “the Greatest Public Works Project in History”[1] but it DOES make a lot of noise!

It was all President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s fault. While serving as the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during WWII in Europe, he had seen the advantages of having a limited access[2] national highway system that would easily enable the movement of military men and supplies around the country. I often wonder, however, why it wouldn’t, therefore, be the perfect military target as well!  However, on June 29, 1956, he signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. He felt it was one of the most important achievements of his Presidency. Most historians agree.[3] But it is still noisy, well, the trucks that use it are, anyway. 

Interstate 81 was a big deal when it was built through Drums. As a boy, I remember how a house that belonged to one of Ransom Young’s uncles, Harold Young, had to be picked up and moved in 1963 just to make way for the interstate to go through. 

According to Ransom Young, the year 1965, when the Drums section of I81 was opened, was the year Drums “lost its innocence” and would never again be the same.[4] He is probably right.

Even though an exit was not put in at Beisel’s Corner as had been rumored would happen at the time, I80 & I81 offer the world plenty of access to Drums. I81 has an exit near Dorrance (Exit 155, approximately five miles north of Drums); an exit at the Conyngham Gap (Exit 145, approximately five miles south of Drums); and intersects I80 just west of I80 Exit 262 onto Route 309 (approximately two miles north of Drums). I80 exits onto Route 93 in Sybertsville (Exit 256, approximately five miles west of Drums). Clearly, an exit at Beisel’s Corners wasn’t needed to bring the world to Drums. I can attest to that given the number of cars that speed past Drumyngham on a daily basis. Nor was it needed to give Drums access to the world.

Of course, a number of the Drums from Drums didn’t need the Interstate Highway system to “see the world” as a traveler. Philip I certainly can lay claim to being a traveler having crossed Europe and the Atlantic just to get here. Although he probably would have enjoyed a super-highway across Europe, he had to settle for the Rhine.

Elmer, too, can lay claim to the title of “traveler” having fought his way across France and Belgium, crossing the Atlantic by ship twice, once to get there and once to come home. I’ve done a bit of “wandering” myself having visited Canada; London, England; South Africa; Lesotho; Zimbabwe, a month after it was born; and throughout Botswana while I was living there in 1980 – 81. I’ve also had the privilege, mostly through 4-H Membership or 4-H Employment, to visit 49 of the 50 U.S. States and the District of Columbia (I hope to get to Colorado soon to make all 50). And, yes, the Interstate system helped me quite a bit, even with Hawaii, well, not to get there but once there, certainly!

 Another thing that helped me is a technology called GPS.

Originally developed by the military, Global Positioning System (GPS) technology became available for limited public use in the early 1980’s and fully available in 2000 when President Clinton signed legislation making it so. Based on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (no kidding!) and using satellites flying miles above the Earth’s surface, it has become almost second nature to many Americans who care little as to why or how it works, just THAT it works.[5]

I first came in contact with GPS in 2006. I was in Louisville, KY talking about 4-H during the National Afterschool Association Conference and needed to visit McCracken County 4-H Youth Development Agent Danielle Rudolph across the state in Paducah. So, I rented a car and it came with GPS. In a report submitted after the trip, I commented about the GPS system saying that each time I deviated from the designated route, “…my little computer friend would chastise me with, ‘please return to the highlighted route!’” My report ended by describing the GPS system as “the COOLEST thing!!”

It is probably true that every one of the Drums, from George through Elmer, would be in total shock if they could see the valley today. Harry would be, perhaps, less shocked. He would simply shake his head at the number of houses built since he died in 1986, and the number of cars that now drive way too fast past the front of his house. He would be so tickled to learn about “smart phones” and email, and the world wide web. Eleanor saw these things, she even used email albeit slowly, once she got used to it.

One more thing of interest can be seen looking south from Drumyngham. Just to the left, on the south side of I81, just after the big northerly curve, stands a peculiar metal tower - in the lingo of 2018, a “Cell Tower”. It is one of many such towers spread across the country that are required for all “cell phones” to work. It is the reason telephones don’t need to be attached by a wire to the wall anymore; that’s a bit oversimplified, of course, but to the point.

 …as seen from Drumyngham.

County Road at Beisels Corner around 1910.
This one looks to be more mud than dirt.
Photo by Edwin Finstermacher.

Almost gone are the telephones that were once attached to our walls, with buttons to push that “dialed” the number you wished to reach. Gone ARE the telephones with actual dials, discs one turned that “ticked” out the number you wished to be connected to. Gone before those were the telephones you cranked and then asked someone else, someplace else, to “connect me please.”

Gone are the dirt roads traveled mostly by horse and buggies. Long-time Drums resident Robert Shelhamer once said he could remember a time when the Township had only a ½ mile of paved roads. He said that as late as 1960 nearly all the township roads were unpaved.[6]

Drums Post Office, July 27, 2018

Gone is George’s tavern and Abraham’s stage coach stop. Even the Post Office is moved away from Drums Corner over to a mall on Route 309.

Gone are the wool mills, carding mills, grist mills, saw mills, dry-goods stores, blacksmiths, saddlers, coal mines, electric trollies, WB&H railway, and the silence of a winter night.

Even the Drums, themselves, are almost all gone from the valley. Although a few Drums are still in the area here or there, those of us still living here in the Drums valley could probably now be counted on the fingers of only one hand.

August 10, 1995, approximately 6:00 am.

What remains is the future and the future, oddly enough, is represented by another Philip Drum. Although the clock on the delivery room wall at the Eastern Maine Medical Center read “4:56” that afternoon, my wristwatch was showing the time as “4:54” when the world first heard the cries of Philip Drum^{(Ronald, Harry, Elmer, Nathan A., John, Philip, George, Jacob, Philip)}.

August 10, 1995
approximately 6:00 pm

August 10, 1995 started out as a beautiful day in Bangor, Maine and it only improved as the day moved on. Of course, I wasn’t the one in labor so my opinions and those of my wife may differ a bit on this detail. However, we can certainly agree that the day ended as beautifully as it possibly could. When the nurse first handed new-born Philip to me I said, “Happy Birthday, Philip” and then introduced him to his mom. 

On October 8, 1995, my 38^th birthday anniversary, Philip was baptized in the St. John’s U.C.C. He was baptized Philip (after the original Philip of ten generations previous), Ronald (after myself), Dupuis (his mother’s maiden name), Drum. I like to think that in addition to the family members who were present in the church to witness the event, also present were those eight previous generations of mothers and fathers, each smiling and watching and nodding their approval.

Twenty-two years later, on May 12, 2018, the day before Mother’s Day, we all watched again as Philip’s name was called and he walked to the front of Alfond Arena on the campus of the University of Maine in Orono, Maine to accept his Bachelor of Science degree in Anthropology.

Each Drum before him made his or her mark on their world which made Philip’s world possible. Now we wait to see what adventures, what marks, will be added by THIS Philip.

Like two “P’s” in a pod, or on the quad, as the case may be.
Note the UMaine Black Bear behind them.

 In our next post February 11, 2019, we go back in time again, back to the first Philip, to begin an investigation into the Drums and their systems of faith.

We’ll begin with #18, The Reformed.

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[1] “History of the Interstate Highway System”, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/history.cfm accessed 3/8/2018

[2] “Limited access” means one must use specified entrance/exits to gain entry onto, or get off of, the highway as opposed to crossroads/intersections/driveways.

[3] “History of the Interstate Highway System”

[4] Katchur, Mark, “Creation of Interstates 80, 81 began sprawl in Butler Township”, Hazleton Standard-Speaker, May 28, 2002, p 1.

[5] The History of Car GPS Navigation, www.pcmag.com accessed 3/5/18

[6] Katchur