The War to End all Wars

#27 War – WWI. The War to End all Wars

In the previous post we looked at Drums who served during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Of course, it is not revolutionary to say that there is nothing “civil” about war, even if it is a Civil War; perhaps ESPECIALLY if it is a Civil War. Wars come in all sizes. Some are “local”, some “regional”, but at least two of them (some might argue more), so far, have been “world-wide” and there were Drums serving in both. Once again, however, Helman had to mostly pluck them from the extended family tree.

Harry made this napkin holder as a teenager. 

For instance, for WW1, Helman mentions Abram H. Thomas.[1] Abram’s father was Abram D. Thomas who, in turn, was the son of Jacob Thomas and Magdalena Drum Thomas^{(Abraham, George, Jacob, Philip)}. Helman tells us Abram H. Thomas was attached to the U.S. Aviation Corps serving ten months in France during WWI. One assumes this means Abram was a pilot although not necessarily. His length of service implies he was, perhaps, servicing aircraft, not flying sorties. Fighter pilots had a life expectancy of only several weeks when flying in combat.[2]

However, whether on the ground or in the air, Abram was part of a very new aspect of American warfare. American air forces were being built from scratch. No American aircraft had ever even had a machine gun mounted to it prior to 1917. Even flight uniforms were unknown to American personnel. [3] These pilots flew planes that were primitive and unreliable. The pilots themselves lacked the depth of experience required for success.[4] However, U.S. participation in, and support of, WWI air warfare was the birth of the American Air Force that later became so dominant around the world.[5]

In her Drum Genealogy, Laura Helman also mentions the service of Rudi Harcourt[6]. He joined “The Drum Tree” by marrying Bennette Adele Helman. Her father was George Helman, Laura Helman’s brother. George’s father was Abraham Helman and George’s mother was Mary Magdalene Drum^{(Philip, George, Jacob, Philip)} Helman.

A third such example mentioned by Helman is Sgt. George Dana Lauderbach[7]. His father was Jonas Lauderbach and his mother was Anna Margaretta Drum^{(Isaac, Jacob, George, Jacob, Philip)} Lauderbach.

It is good that Helman included the service of these “Drum Tree” members, but it seems so odd that Helman missed the WW1 service of at least two members of the Drum’s Family Tree whose name was Drum; Clarence and Elmer.

Clarence Drum^{(Wallace, Reuben, Jacob, Philip, George, Jacob, Philip)} was an Army Sargent with Battalion A, Third Regiment, Pennsylvania Field Artillery. He was born in 1893, making him two years older than Elmer. He died 36 years later, on the 30th of July, 1929. Clarence is buried in the St. John’s Cemetery in St. Johns, PA.

Elmer Alonzo Drum^{(Nathan A., John, Philip, George, Jacob, Philip)}, served as a private. That’s a postcard to the right, not my grandfather, but it is probably how he felt. In fact, that’s what he told Ella when he gave it to her. In fact, that’s what the card says across the bottom: How it Feels, During a “Hike,” in Full Marching Order, and Wearing Our “Cinderella” Army Shoes. 

This is a photo of my Grandfather.

 

Elmer Alonzo Drum, was born July 6, 1895 in Drums, PA. According to his Honorable Discharge, when he enlisted he had grey eyes, black hair, stood 5 feet 5½ inches, had a “ruddy” complexion, and was 22 10/12 years of age. His occupation was as a carpenter. He was inducted into the Army on April 30, 1918 at Shickshinny, PA as a Private, 2nd Class, Co. M, 145th Infantry, USA (United States Army ). His service with A.E.F. (American Expeditionary Forces) from June 15, 1918 to March 30, 1919 included fighting in the Meuse - Argonne Offensive and the Flanders Offensive.

He is also in the next photo of the “boys” from the area.

I cannot recall if mom said this photo of “The Boys from the Area” was taken before they went or after they returned. I’m thinking after because a number of them are wearing medals. Elmer is right in the middle. A Sailor, the only one in the photo, is directly behind Elmer. I believe, but I am not certain, that the sailor is Seaman 2^nd Class Patrick McLaughlin, Naval Reserve Force. If this is Patrick McLaughlin, then the photo was taken prior to their leaving. McLaughlin enlisted June 5, 1918 and died from Pneumonia in Hazleton November 5, 1918.[8]

The men of the 37^th Division were taken from Camp Lee in Virginia on June 11 to Hoboken, NJ in preparation for their transit across the ocean on June 15.[9] That leaves a rather small window of opportunity, between June 5 – 11, for when the photo could have been taken in which both Patrick and Elmer could be present.

I also think, but again I am not certain, that Clarence Drum is sitting to Elmer’s left (fourth in from the right, wearing the tie.). Unfortunately, a list of who everyone is in the photo was not kept, probably because the photo has been hanging on a wall all this time. If Mom had been given the opportunity to glue it into a scrapbook like most of our pictures and documents, she would have recorded their identities, proving that there are pros and cons to everything.

Elmer’s Discharge obverse

Under “Wounds received in service”, Elmer's discharge says “none” but Ella, my grandmother, would always mention that while fighting in the “Argonne Forest”, her husband, Elmer, had been exposed to Mustard Gas. She always believed that his Gall Bladder Cancer, the disease that took his life in 1959, was somehow directly related to this gas exposure. Although there was never any medical confirmation for her theory, it is true that mustard gas can damage human DNA placing exposure victims at greater risk for cancer.[10] 

Elmer’s Discharge reverse

In one of the first letters he sent home, he included the following list.

These are some of the things we rec’d.

2 uniforms

2 shirts

3 suits underwear

1 overcoat

1 raincoat

1 pair fist mits (sic)

2 pair canvas gloves

5 pair socks

2 pair hobnail shoes

1 pair russet shoes

2 pair leggings

2 towels

1 razor

1 mirror

1 tooth brush

1 hair brush and comb

1 sweater

1 mess kit and cup

3 woolen blankets

2 straw ticks

1 pair overalls and blouse

1 cartridge belt

1 rifle

1 bayonette (sic)

1 shelter tent

That’s about all I can think of.

It’s about all I’d be able to carry and he didn’t even mention his helmet! He also did not mention his gas mask. One wonders if that was issued later or if he decided it may be best not to mention the mask in a letter to his mother.

I used to have that gas mask and the bag it came in, but when I was still in single digits age-wise I started to go fishing. That gas mask case made the BEST bag to put my lures and newly caught fish into. I know. Who knew?

Same thing for his sleeping bag. Man, that was a great sleeping bag for camping. I took it with me the first year I went to 4-H Camp. I kept a small stuffed rabbit down in the bag’s toe to help keep me from getting homesick. As far as I know, none of the other kids ever knew that bunny was there. Funny thing is that I still have that rabbit. In fact, here he is! Not so much the sleeping bag or the gas mask and its case.

Originally the S.S. Leviathan was named the “ S.S. Vaterland”.
This is a postcard of the “ S.S. Vaterland”.
It says the ship is the “largest in the world”.
Shortly thereafter the name was changed to S.S. Leviathan.

The 145^th Infantry was part of the 37^th Division. Members of this Division trained at Camp Lee in Virginia. On June 11, 1918, they were taken by train to Hoboken, NJ and from there, on June 15, they boarded the ship S.S. Leviathan and headed for France. A short history[11] of the Division’s role in the fighting published by the Army reports that “after fast and safe passage” the ship arrived at Brest, France on June 22 and the soldiers debarked on June 23. They were given 3 days rest at Pontanezen Barracks and then loaded onto a train in which they “rattled in box cars” for eight days until they detrained on June 29 in the Bourmont area (Haute-Marne).[12]  

 

The Infantry was ordered on to Baccarat. There they took over the trenches on August 4 and experienced their first “training under fire.”[13] Relieved on Sept. 16, they were taken by train to Robert-Espagne and on Sept 21, by bus to Recicourt. This was the beginning of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and it was the 37^th Division’s “lot” to be one of the American Divisions to start the fight that “contributed so great a part towards the final victory.” It commenced on Sept. 25 with an artillery barrage that began at 11:00pm and reached its maximum at 5:30 on the morning of the 26^th.[14]

The order “fix bayonets!” was passed down the line of the wet, tired soldiers. Then the whistle blew and up the ladders and out of the trenches clambered the men, advancing out into the smoky fog that stung their eyes and burned their throats[15]; out from Avocourt into the area Elmer and his fellow soldiers knew as “no-mans-land.”[16] 

“No-mans-land” was a section of this offensive’s battlefield Gen. Hugh Drum (no relation, darn-it), First Army’s Chief of Staff, called “the most ideal defensive terrain”. Unfortunately, Elmer and his fellow soldiers were not defending this area, they were trying to take it. A difficult task to be sure, with heights on the left and heights on the right from which the enemy could pour weapon fire down on the advancing infantry. It was made that much more difficult by the weather. As the locals say about the area, “Pas de neige, toujours la pluie, pluie, pluie” (no snow, always rain, rain, rain).[17]

It was sloppy going that only got worse.

It had started to rain the night of the 26^th and the rain continued for the next five days. It was not long before the battlefield turned into a sea of knee-deep mud. Making matters worse, the enemy was putting up severe resistance. Their resistance forced the soldiers to fight for every foot they gained “through the gas-filled Bois Emont, Bois de Bauge, and on to the Bois Communial de Cierges.” Having reached that point, they were relieved on October 1.[18]

This is a pillow and a handkerchief Elmer
sent home to Ella from France.
The top half of the pillow depicts a young woman
holding a U.S. flag, folding it back to display
the words "Forget Me Not". The letters are
made out of bullets. On the right stands a Dough boy.
Below this image it reads,
Dear flag of our country, whose stars and whose bars
Call all her sons to defend her.
God help us be true to the red, white and blue.
Her principles never surrender.

A 48 star U.S. flag is displayed
on the bottom half of the pillow.

The handkerchief is bordered in lace.
It is embroidered with flowers
 and the year 1918.

It was then on to the Saint-Mihiel sector by bus on October 2. There they experienced heavy fighting including artillery and airplane bombardments described as “one of the heaviest bombardments of this barbarous method of warfare (gas) that the enemy attempted.” [19] Next it was on to Belgian which was achieved on October 22. From that point they would launch the now famous Flanders Offensive. Again, they experienced heavy fighting but made constant advance. Their efforts put the Division across the Escout River by the morning of November 11.[20]

As they continued to fight, the soldiers kept hearing rumors of peace, and indeed an Armistice had been signed. It provided that “all hostilities were to cease at eleven o’clock that day” (Nov. 11). However, the battle continued to be fiercely fought right up to the 11:00 am hour![21]

Then, right at 11:00am, a sudden stillness fell across the battlefield. It was a stillness that some described as “oppressing.” It must have been almost un-nerving. A few hours later, one of the soldiers produced a baseball and a game of catch broke out “where three hours before no living thing could be exposed.”[22]

When clocks read 11:00am in Europe, it is 6:00am in Drums, Hazleton and New York City. So, when America awoke, it exploded with joy! People rushed into the streets of the major cities. Hazleton was the scene of “wild jubilation”[23]. Famous 5^th Avenue in NYC was crammed and the city became a mad celebration of bands, parades, auto horns, air raid sirens, church bells, kissing, hugging, laughter, and pure joy.[24] I imagine Nathan and Mary at least gave each other a hug. We Drums tend to be subdued.

 

Among the various pieces of paper and photos Elmer had saved are two postcards depicting ships. One is the S.S. Leviathan and the other is labeled as the RMS Aquitania. I can only assume that the RMS Aquitania was the ship that brought my grandfather home. 

 

Hanging on our living room wall is that photo of “the boys from the area” that went to fight in France. Above the photo hangs Elmer’s WWI helmet and dog-tags.

The helmet has a slight dent in it. No one ever told me how that dent occurred. I've done a lot of things but at least I know that I didn’t do THAT!

The certificate lower right in the photo is Elmer’s High School Diploma from Butler Township High School dated April 20, 1911. The large photo above the diploma is Elmer taken probably in 1924 by Edwin Finstermacher.

When Elmer was discharged April 10, 1919 at Camp Dix, NJ, Infantry Major George H. Farrell signed the document. Beside “Character” he wrote “Excellent”.

On July 3, 1919 (almost age 24) Elmer was married to Ella Nora Santee in the St. John’s German Reformed Church by Rev. W. D. Stoyer.

Shortly thereafter they purchased a farm in Fritzingertown from Charles Embling. There they had two children, Harry Nathan Drum on August 4, 1923[25] and Clara Vera Drum on Sept. 5, 1925. 

Elmer died January 24, 1959. He was 63 years old.

Ella died December 18, 1976, seventeen years a widow. She was 79. 

Elmer and Ella are both buried in the St. Johns Cemetery behind the St. John’s U.C.C.; the same cemetery in which George, Philip II, John, Nathan A., and Harry N. and their wives, and many of their children, are buried; each just a short walk away from the other.

Join us again on July 1, 2019 for the next Drums of Drums, PA post: And World War II, too, for some of us.

---

[1] Helman, Laura M., History and Genealogy of the Drum Family (Allentown, PA: Berkemeyer, Keck & Co., 1927), p 26

[2] http://www.usaww1.com/World_War_1_Fighter_Pilots.php4 accessed May 4, 2018

[3] Bergs, Christoph, History of the U.S. Air Service in WWI, posted 4/10/2017 http://centenaire.org/en/autour-de-la-grande-guerre/aviation/history-us-air-service-world-war-i accessed May 4, 2018.

[4] Harries, Meirion and Susie, The Last Days of Innocence: America at War, 1917-1918 (NY: Random House, 1997) p 47

[5] Bergs

[6] Helman, p 11

[7] Helman, p 16

[8] Officers and Enlisted Men of the Navy who lost their lives during the World War, from April 6, 1917 to November 11, 1918, Vol. 2, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, in: World War; 1914-1918 (Heritage Books, 2007), p 491.

[9] Penker, H. W., Major – H.Q. 37^th Div., The Thirty-Seventh’s Bit (USA: 37^th Div., 1918), p 2.

[10] Palermo, Elizabeth, “What’s Mustard Gas?” Live Science,  https://www.livescience.com/39248-what-is-mustard-gas.html accessed 6/27/2018

[11] Penker, H. W., Major – H.Q. 37^th Div., The Thirty-Seventh’s Bit (USA: 37^th Div., 1918)

[12] Penker, p 2

[13] Penker, pp 3-4

[14] Penker, p 6

[15] Harries, Meirion and Susie, p 356

[16] Penker, p 6

[17] Harries, Meirion and Susie, p 349

[18] Penker, p 7

[19] Penker, pp 8-9

[20] Penker, pp 10-15

[21] Penker, p 14

[22] Penker, p 14

[23] Photo caption, Pages From the Past Special Edition, Hazleton Standard-Speaker, Friday, Sept. 6, 1991, p D 9

[24] Harries, Meirion and Susie, pp 423-424

[25] Helman incorrectly states Harry’s birthdate as August 11 on page 9 of her book.

The Drums and their Times Part 2: 1870’s – 1970’s

#12 – The Drums and their Times Part 2: 1870’s – 1970. [1]^{, [2]}

I don’t know about you but I’ll hear of an event in a person’s life or read a family’s history such as I am unfolding here, and, out of context, find it meaningless. However, put it into an historical context and suddenly things take on greater meaning, understanding. Isaac Drum was four years old at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. Nathan Drum was buying lumber in 1873, three years before Custer’s Last Stand. In our last post we were putting things in context for 1800 – 1870’s. In this post we are on the move again! We pick it up where we left it off, in the 1870’s and run up to 1970.

By the 1870’s the country was certainly on the move. “Progress” was everywhere. I don’t know if there is a record of when the first telephone was installed in Drums but an advertisement in a special "Bicentennial" edition of the Hazleton Standard-Speaker indicated that the first telephones in Hazleton were being placed in larger businesses in 1878.[19] If true, that's pretty remarkable.  Alexander Graham Bell’s invention was only demonstrated for the first time in Salem, MA in 1877.  I wonder if John Drum ever saw one of those Hazleton telephones, or thought about having one put into the Drums Hotel, before he died in 1881.

John was probably thrilled, however, when his nephews, Stephen and Josiah^{(Abraham, George, Jacob, Philip)}, got their new 1876 Centennial Coffee Grinder for their store at Drums Corner. It must have been quite the attraction! They should have gotten a new Edison Phonograph as well, another invention demonstrated in 1877. Nathan A. did get one of those but his was the 1914 model called the “Amberola D X.”

 

However, with progress came higher prices. In 1873 Nathan S. Drum^{(Philip, George, Jacob, Philip)} paid $19.12 for 1,275 feet of yellow pine; that’s $15.00 per 1,000 feet. A few other things he could have bought included a strap of sleigh bells for $.65, a cross cut saw for $.35, a hog for $9.00, or a cow for $20.50.[3] ((as an aside, according to the conversion calculator, Nathan’s lumber would have cost him $385.84 today)). I wonder if he was buying that lumber for the new Methodist Church they started to build that year. A discussion of the building of this church will be included in a later post.

So, what did a pound of coffee cost that the Drum brothers ground in their brand new 1876 Centennial Coffee Grinder? At least one source said that in Drums two pounds of coffee cost $.53. Some other prices from that time included: 1 gallon of molasses $.50; 1 lb. candles $.16; 1 doz. Eggs $.10; 1 ax $1.25; 1 carriage whip $1.87; 1 silk handkerchief $.65; a bushel of potatoes $1.00; a pr. Shoes $1.41; and 1 pr. Boots $1.50.[4]

Higher prices are never received well. Here’s a note that was found among some papers stored in an attic in New York state that proves it!

 Otisville, Mich.  Oct. 29^th, 1876

D. B. Lee, Sir

Which I suppose is Dead Beat Lee. I hear that you charged me 75^cts for straw enough to fill a bed. Well I suppose that is all right as you are a follower of the meek and lowly Jesus and do unto others as you would have others do unto you, you contemptible low lived Son of bitch. I may yet live to meet you in the flesh and if not if it is my lot to go to a theological Hell I shall be sure to find you there and whichever place I find you I will try and make it warm for you, you God damned Hypocrite. Please accept from yours truly,

                                  Mark Wood

It continued to be a changing world Nathan A. grew up in. Southern Africa was in turmoil. The British fought the Zulu Wars in 1878-80 and the first Boer War in South Africa about that same time. The Boers won their independence in February of 1881. The year 1881, however, was also a sad and shocking year. In March word came that the Russian Czar, Alexander II had been assassinated. Then on July 2, Charles J. Guiteau assassinated U.S. President James A. Garfield.

Garfield lingered on through the hot summer until he finally died, probably from the infection caused by his doctors rather than Guiteau’s bullet, on September 19. Then on November 21, John Drum died in Drums at age 56.

These deaths were followed in 1885 by the passing of Gen. George B. McClellan and President Ulysses S. Grant. McClellan was just 58 years old. Grant, who died from throat cancer, was 63.

In March of 1888 “It” hit! The Blizzard of 1888! The East Coast of the U.S. was paralyzed. Sixty mile-per-hour winds made being outside unbearable. Street cars jumped their tracks. The N.Y. Stock Exchange suspended business. Over 200 people lost their lives to the storm. As work crews emerged from their homes, once the storm had passed, to clear the roads, one can be sure 20-year-old Nathan A. was among them! 

Perhaps he borrowed Jacob Santee’s fur cap! In 1887, Jacob Santee bought one for himself. We know this because Jacob kept an Accounts Book. In it he listed various incomes and expenses. One he listed in January was a fur cap he bought for $2.00. Some of his other expenses in 1887 included: overalls $1.95; Geography Book $.25; groceries and provisions $9.77; a post hole digger $5.50; a complete harness $25.50; a saw $.50, a wrench $.25; and a platform wagon $39.50.

Here is the title page in case you couldn't
make out the cover.

Jacob Santee's Account Book of 1887
showing the fur hat and Geography Book purchases.

The Geography Book is still in the Drum Library, although a tad worse for the wear. If Jacob had bought it today, instead of $.25 he’d have had to lay out $6.40.[5] Still not a bad price for a Geography Book. No word on what became of the fur cap.

According to his Account Book, he made a round trip to Mauch Chunk that year and “car fare” cost him $2.79. Mauch Chunk is a town known today as Jim Thorpe, about 25 miles Southeast of Drums. His car fare to Wilkes-Barre was $1.48 and to Drifton $1.45. He had his horses shod numerous times throughout the year paying $.45 in June, $.55 in July, and $.82 in December. He doesn’t say if the price difference was for the same number of shoes or not.

Elmer Drum was born in 1895 and Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898. As far as we know, neither Elmer, nor his dad Nathan, ever went there. There is no record of either of them ever going to Alaska, either, even though gold was discovered there in 1897. As soon as word got out on that find, the Klondike Gold Rush was on!

Nathan wasn’t in Cuba the next year, 1898, either, as far as we know, when the U.S.S. Maine blew up in Havana Harbor. Some said it was an over-heated boiler that caused the explosion. Others, with over-heated emotions, blamed it on Spanish sabotage. Those were the ones who were believed, and the Spanish-American War was on! Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders became, perhaps, the most famous regiment to come out of that war.

In 1801, the United States consisted of 16 states. As the century moved forward, more states joined. Although there were a few that left around 1860, they returned along with some more new ones and the century ended in 1900 with the United States consisting of 45 states filled with 76,304,799 people. One of those was a coal miner named Nathan A. Drum and another was his five-year-old son, Elmer, both living in Drums, PA when the century closed.

1899 saw the 2^nd Boer War break out in South Africa and then, in 1900, a bloody revolution called the Boxer Rebellion broke out in China. The 19^th Century was a century to be remembered. War and violence brought it to a close.

This is a “pre-4-H” emblem
that was used in Iowa.
I am shamelessly using it here
to promote our National 4-H
History Preservation website

However, education was also developing, both in the classroom and out, as the 19^th became the 20^th Century. Educators began experimenting with clubs for children outside of the classroom where the students could “learn by doing”. Land-grant university personnel began to see advantages to teaching new agricultural and homemaking methods, developed through research, to young people through clubs.

The first such club to be documented was organized by A.B. Graham in Ohio in 1902[6] when Elmer was just seven years old. Soon Young Farmer Clubs and Boys’ Clubs and Girls’ Clubs and Corn Clubs and Tomato Clubs began to form all across the country. Here is a 1915 guide book for Extension Girls’ Club Members in Maine.

Under the direction, support, and leadership of The Extension Service, USDA, the program became known nationally as 4-H Clubs by 1924[7], the year after Elmer’s son Harry Nathan ^{(Elmer, Nathan A., John, Philip, George, Jacob, Philip)} , my dad, was born.

Elmer A. Drum, age 2.

In 1897, Elmer would have been too young, just two, to join such a club even if one had formed in Drums. Of course, that would have been impossible. The first 4-H Club to form in Pennsylvania was organized in Mercer (North of Pittsburgh) in 1912. Use this hyperlink for more information [note: once this link opens, zoom in until you can see a pushpin on the left (Western) side of Pennsylvania. Click that pushpin and information will open. Zoom in until you see a pushpin on the right side of the state (Eastern) and click that pin. A short history of 4-H Clubs in Lower Luzerne County produced by 4-H’ers in 1979 is available there] {and yes, I am still shamelessly promoting our National 4-H History Preservation website.}

At age 3, Elmer was still too young to remember, even if Elmer had seen it, an occurrence about town that had everyone excited! But, I’m sure his dad Nathan saw it, or at least heard about the “Winton Motor Carriage” that Alvin Markle and Sam Price drove down a Hazleton street on July 29, 1898!

This actually was a big deal. Only 22 of these vehicles were sold in 1898 and one of them was putt-putting about in Hazleton![8] I’m sure it set people to talking! After all, it was the first automobile ever seen in Hazleton and the darn thing got all the way up to 20 MPH[9] -- practically flying – BREAK-neck speed!

By now the world, itself, was changing at what those who lived through it must have felt was, “break-neck speed”! Not only were people “flying” down the streets in their new “automobiles”, but soon they were flying overhead, too! It was 1903 when two brothers, Orville and Wilber Wright, put their bicycle knowledge and mechanical engineering skills to good use and invented a contraption with a small motor and wings that flew. After a number of failed attempts, on December 17 everything finally came together and for 59 seconds Wilber flew their contraption 852 feet over the beaches of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.[10]

Just sixteen years later, the people of Hazleton found themselves running outside and craning their necks toward the sky to see one of those airplanes fly over Hazleton, the first one ever seen over the Hazleton area. It was carrying the U.S. Mail from Chicago to New York City.

Ten years after that, in 1929, the famous aviator, Charles A. Lindbergh landed a plane at the Reifenberg Airport in Drums. Yes, Drums has an airport.

This is just one of the many things on display at the Conyngham Historical Society’s Museum on Main Street in Conyngham. If you want a special treat, head over there on a Saturday afternoon and see what else they have on display!

He stayed the night at the Hotel Altamont in Hazleton. What he spent that night was not reported but if he’d been there when the place opened on July 5, 1924, he’d have paid $2.50,[11] unless he paid the $5.00 rate for one of the fancier rooms.[12]

Just sixteen years after Hazleton saw its first automobile, Hazleton saw its first public bus transit line established! The Motor Transit Company incorporated April 6, 1914 although regular bus service did not begin until 1925[13].

Now if planes were flying overhead and cars and buses were zipping along the streets of Hazleton, and perhaps even Drums, why it’d be enough to make a person’s head hurt! Well, not to worry! For just $.10 you could get “5 cures” (which appears to have been 10 capsules; 2 capsules per “cure”) and for $.25, fifteen “cures” of “Sherman’s Headache Cure”, available from Orator F. Woodward of Le Roy, NY.

And once that headache is cured, you may just want to celebrate with a big bowl of ice cream! But where to get it? Well, for just $.25, two packages of Jell-O Ice Cream Powder could be purchased so you could make your own. Only one package would be enough, however, because one package mixed with one quart of milk would yield two quarts of ice cream according to the Jell-O Ice Cream Powder advertisement.

However, be careful, some people get headaches from eating ice cream and you may be out of “Sherman’s Headache Cure”!

Therefore, perhaps you would prefer to have fruit-flavored Jell-O Gelatin, the “Dainty Dessert”, instead. One box of six flavors only cost $.10, according to this same advertisement.

The year was 1914 when “It” hit again! The “worst blizzard since 1888” roared through the Hazleton area creating, in some places, 15-foot-high snow drifts! One easily imagines 19-year-old Elmer out building snowmen for his best girl or fighting a snow-ball fight with the neighbor from the “next farm over.”

That’s Elmer on the right, during the great snowball war of 1917, 

before he headed off to fight the war to end all wars in 1918,

the war now called WW 1.

By 1918, Elmer, now 23, was leaving snowmen behind and exchanging snow-balls for bullets as he was marching off to the war in France, World War I.

 Harry made this napkin holder when he was a teenager.

Long-time Hazleton Resident, Eva Sharpless, remembered the Hazleton of the early 1900’s for a Standard-Speaker reporter when Sharpless celebrated her 107^th birthday anniversary on February 15, 2018. Sharpless told stories of growing up in Hazleton and remembered things like how they’d buy goods from men in horse-drawn buggies and carts. Berlitz Bakery sold their goods that way, she recalled, as did a rag-man and a vegetable man; ringing their bells on the dirt streets of the city to alert people they were coming. “They all rang bells. They had horses, not horns” she recalled.[14]

Harry, age 5 and his sister, Clara, 2.
Year was 1928.
Photo by Edwin Finstermacher.

It appears most of the Drums faired alright when the Spanish Flu hit the region in the fall of 1918, but thousands of people died from it in the Hazleton area alone. However, with “the boys” coming back from Europe, there was much excitement and joy for many as well.

When Lindbergh landed in Drums the first time - he did it twice, 1929 and again in 1933 - Harry was not quite 6 years old. He probably didn’t remember Lindbergh landing. Another thing we can be pretty sure Harry didn’t remember was the arrival of the “Talkies”, that is, movies with sound! They came to Hazleton for the first time in 1927.

Sharpless remembered the “talkies”. Before they came, she said she would go the Family Theatre and watch the silent films. She said they would have a piano playing exciting music during the tense scenes and the words were written across the bottom of the screen, so the audience could read what the people in the scenes were saying.[15]

Apparently she would still have been able to see a silent film in 1928 if she went to the Capitol Theatre. This ad that appeared in the May 9, 1928 afternoon edition of the Plain Speaker (page 6) is advertising, among other things, a silent, black and white, comedy movie called "Something always Happens" starring Esther Ralston and Neil Hamilton. I was not able to find much on the other shows advertised with Esther's movie. They may have been live performances.

If Elmer had a radio, he might have heard the first radio broadcast made from Hazleton on April 27, 1930. In the same way, if he had a TV, he might have seen the first TV Broadcast from a Northeastern Pennsylvania TV station, WBRE-TV, in 1953. Sharpless was amazed by television, “How wonderful. You can sit in your living room and see (a movie.)”[16]

Of course, to get TV, one not only needed a TV set, but an antenna, too! The best place to set up your antenna was on the roof. Most of the antennas in the Hazleton/Drums area in 1954 were blown down when Hurricane Hazel hit, just one year after Harry built his house, the same year Nathan H.^{(Harry, Elmer, Nathan A., John, Philip, George, Jacob, Philip)} was born.

Harry’s house came through ok, but it took the roof off Clyde Young’s barn and no sooner did he get that fixed then it got damaged again by Hurricane Diane in 1955!

After Hazel, Dad must have decided the roof was no place for a TV antenna. This is a pic from 1964 of our Halloween decorations that year. The antenna is behind the scarecrow. I’ve circled it. By the way, the sign says, “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater.” To a pumpkin, that was pretty scary!

I guess reception wasn’t so good on the ground. Here is a photo from 1980. I think it was supposed to be of Mom’s` Christmas decorations in the front window, but it sure shows the TV antenna fairly well. There it is, now up on the roof. I circled it once again, as if you’d not be able to find it on your own.

The world almost stopped in amazement in 1957 when the USSR launched a small silver sphere into space called “Sputnik”. The “Space Race” was on! 

The “race” ended July 20, 1969 when the United States landed two men on the moon and brought them home safely. And again, the world took notice.

Of the landing on the moon, Sharpless said, “To think I lived to see a man on the moon.”[17] 

The Moon Landing was such a special moment that fifteen year-old Nathan H. filmed the TV broadcast with his Kodak Brownie 8mm Movie Camera!

Of course, the moon-walk was in all the papers.

And a few magazines, too!

Although I remember the moon landing quite clearly, I was, after all, twelve at the time, I don’t have any memory at all of Sputnik. But then, Sputnik was launched on October 4, 1957, but it wasn’t until October 8 of that year that I made my first appearance in the maternity ward of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hazleton. 

I do remember 1963, however, when, on Friday, November 22^nd, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX. I remember it because I was so angry. The TV coverage of his funeral on the 23^rd pre-empted my cartoons that Saturday morning and to a six-year-old, at least to THIS six-year-old, Saturday Morning cartoons were very important. In fact, the funeral was all that was on TV that whole weekend! No. I haven't gotten over it yet.

I also remember the blizzard of January 13-14, 1964. It gave me 22 inches of snow to play in! And that was followed by another storm on February 18-19 which added 25 inches MORE! It was WONDERFUL, that is, it was to me.

That’s me on the right. I think that’s my brother at the far end of my snow tunnel.

I don’t think everyone shared my joy, in my house or in the area. For example, I am certain that my dad, who had to plow it off our driveway, he didn’t like it at all.

Return to the Drums of Drums, PA on December 3, 2018 when we’ll be using our 13^th post to start Getting a few things straight, like names and dates.

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[1] Unless otherwise cited, historical information found in this chapter for the 19^th Century is based on information found in A History of the Nineteenth Century Year by Year (in Three Volumes) by Edwin Emerson, Jr. (New York: P.F. Collier, 1901)

[2] Unless otherwise cited, historical information found in this chapter for the 20^th Century is based on information found in Pages From the Past Special Edition, Hazleton Standard-Speaker, Friday, September 6, 1991

[3] 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)

[4] Drum, Nora

[5] See conversion calculator at: https://www.officialdata.org/

[6] Wessel, Thomas and Marilyn Wessel, 4-H: An American Idea 1900 – 1980, A History of 4-H (Chevy Chase, MD: National 4-H Council, 1982) p 4.

[7] Wessel, p 42.

[8] Auto Editors of Consumer Guide, History of the American Auto (Lincolnwood, ILL: Publications, International, 2004), p 14.

[9] “Red Letter Days”, Pages From the Past Special Edition, Hazleton Standard-Speaker, Friday, Sept. 6, 1991, p A 11.

[10] Wright Brothers, www.history.com accessed 3/29/18

[11] Once upon a time … in Hazleton: Second Century Celebration, (Hazleton: People’s First National Bank and Trust Company, 1988.

[12] Christorpher, Carl, “Rooms with a view: Plush and elegant, Hazleton’s downtown hotels attracted celebrities”, Pages From the Past Special Edition, Hazleton Standard-Speaker, Friday, Sept. 6, 1991, p C 10.

[13] “Motor Transit Company at 100”, Hazleton Standard-Speaker, Feb. 1, 2013, p C1

[14] Monitz, Kelly, “Happy at 107: Lifelong resident shares fond memories of city,” Hazleton Standard-Speaker, February 21, 2018, p A11

[15] Monitz

[16] Monitz

[17] Monitz

[19] "104 Years of Service and Progress" (Deisroth's advertisement), Hazleton Standard-Speaker, Section A, Thursday, July 3, 1975, p 3.