Autumn Leaves

Contemporary History 3 - Autumn Leaves

MINE TOO!! BOTH!!

BTW, this is a photo of a comic that appeared in the Hazleton Standard-Speaker September 22, 2018. I hope this is not a copywrite infringement but it just SO captured my content below that I decided to use it and offer every apology that exists if this is breaking the rules. I hope not. If it is, I’ll remove it ASAP.

It was the Fall of 1981 when I first actually met Bernice. We’d been talking by phone that summer as we prepared for her group of adults to attend a program I coordinated in Washington, D.C. I had just been employed again as a staff member of the National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland. My job was to coordinate a civics and heritage education program for adults called Know America. The Center is run by National 4-H Council, a foundation that supports the programs of Cooperative Extension.

Cooperative Extension reaches many people with its research-based educational programming including youth (4-H), single and low-income mothers and families (EFNEP [Expanded Food and Nutritional Education]), gardening enthusiasts (Master Gardeners), Crop Farmers, Ranchers, Dairy Farmers, Beekeepers, small business-people, community leaders, and many, many more; programs differing depending on which state you are in (Extension seeks to meet the needs of the local citizens so programming will differ state to state and even in some cases, county to county).

How many people do you know who own pins like these?
You’d own some of them too if YOU were made an
Honorary North Dakota Homemaker like ME!

One of these groups that continues to be a large part of the Extension community are people who call themselves Homemakers, mostly women, mothers and wives, who seek the most appropriate and economic ways to maintain a quality home life - make nutritious, affordable, meals; maintain a budget; and so forth. Finding the dissemination of information somewhat easier through group settings, Cooperative Extension programs across the country created clubs for these (mostly) women to join and called them “Extension Homemakers Clubs”. 

National 4-H Council is an organization that supports the work of Cooperative Extension, primarily the youth development education arm of Extension, by providing educational programming and raising funds through private donations in support of the work of Cooperative Extension, especially if it supports the youth development work; and what better way is there to provide such support than to offer programs for the moms of the young people?

The program Know America, then, was created to provide an away-from-home experience that utilized the resources offered by the nation’s capital to teach civic involvement and cultural heritage to Extension Homemakers and other, interested Adults. KA was a trip to the nation’s capital, including tours of historic and civic importance, opportunities to meet with their senators and representatives, and workshops on how a bill becomes a law and the importance/value of voting. It was a wonderful, educational, way for adults to see Washington, D.C. It became, for a while, a very popular program.  

In 1979, after spending the summer as a member of a team of young adults implementing a similar program at the National 4-H Center for teenagers called Citizenship Washington Focus (my first full-time job), I was asked to “stay on” and coordinate this adult citizenship education program through the fall. In November of that year I was invited to take on the role of “Advisor” to the National 4-B Program of Botswana; a “volunteer” position (I received lodging and a monthly stipend of approximately $300 for food and other minor expenses) that would send me to live and work in that southern African nation for 18 months. January of 1980, I departed out of Dulles Airport; returning home in July of 1981. In August, the KA Coordinator position was open again, I applied, and they hired me back.

So, it was that summer that I got back in 1981, shortly after I regained the KA reins, when I was first contacted by the President of the North Dakota Extension Homemakers, Bernice Larsen. She was interested in bringing a group of North Dakota Extension Homemakers to the Center to participate in the Know America program. We talked. I sent her information. We talked again, many times. Eventually plans were in motion for her to bring her group and I began to make the D.C. area arrangements.

I am a fall leaves enthusiast. I’ll drive miles out of my way to see a red maple in full fall blush. The one in the photo is in Orono, Maine. I’m certain my neighbors hate me because I am ever so much happier shuffling through a pile of Fall Leaves then I ever am for raking them up! My leaves stay where they fall, unless they get chewed up by a lawn mower or blown into the neighbors’ yards by a good fall gust of wind.

That then is the reason that I misunderstood what was happening on the last day of the first KA visit from the North Dakota Extension Homemakers. The driveway of the National 4-H Center is lined with American Planetrees, also known as Sycamore Trees. These trees have very large, maple-like leaves, sometimes as wide as a dinner plate, or even larger. However, they are not great leaves for the fall. They just tend to turn brown and fall down, no great color. But there those women were, Bernice in the lead, all out picking up those huge, brown Sycamore leaves off the ground! “We don’t have a lot of trees in North Dakota! At least, none like these!” she exclaimed as she chose another specimen for her scrapbook. “But these leaves are nothing!” I exclaimed. “I wish I had the time to show you REAL Fall leaves!” But she was happy with the ones she collected so off they went, happy with their big, brown leaves.

As soon as I could, I went out and found some far better Fall leaves for Bernice - red and orange Maple leaves, yellow Aspin, orange-red sassafras; leaves with beautiful, vibrant colors. I included them in the envelope along with my thank you letter I sent them for attending the program and inviting them to come again. That’s when I learned the truth. Bernice loved the leaves I had sent but told me that it wasn’t the colors the women had wanted, it was those particular leaves; the great big, larger-than-a-dinner plate Sycamore leaves! Bernice explained the best they had in North Dakota were Cottonwoods and their leaves are small at best! These women had never seen leaves so large and THAT was why they were being collected.

Every time we saw each other after that (Bernice brought groups a few more years to Know America and we’ve remained close friends ever since), we’d laugh over those leaves. And each fall, she got more leaves from me, sometimes real, sometimes printed table-place mats, metal napkin rings, or picture frames decorated with metal leaves and I got the same - door decorations, coasters, and more!

This year Bernice celebrated her 85^th birthday anniversary. So, this year she received 84 fall leaf stickers and one nylon fall leaf for her refrigerator to mark her 85th birthday plus an additional nylon leaf that carried my wish for many more birthday celebrations in the future!

Now, although that was a nice trip down memory lane, it only touched on the real reason for this post, the FALL LEAVES! Yes, THAT is the topic of this post – Autumn comes to Drumyngham and brings with it AUTUMN LEAVES! 

And what is the best Autumn month? Why, October, of course!

October! Cooler temperatures after that hot, sweaty summer, but not yet giving us those cold, frosty blasts of winter; big, orange pumpkins; dried cornstalks standing in the field rustling in the breeze; big, yellow and black sunflowers; Orion to keep you company in the night sky overhead; big, fat, orange and black wooly bear caterpillars to “warm” your toes; leaves of red and gold and orange and yellow and brown all falling down around you like the glitter in a snow globe. Rake them into a pile and jump into it! Burn them and fill the air with that wonderful toasty, smoky, sweet aroma. Halloween, filled with the laughter of children! Bobbing for apples. Going on hayrides. Drinking Apple Cider (the freshly squeezed, brown, sweet, non-alcoholic kind you buy at a roadside farm stand that comes in those recycled one-gallon plastic milk jugs). Pumpkin Pie! My BIRTHDAY! I mean, what is there not to like?

#9 - George builds a Tavern; a Place Gets a Name: Drums

#9 - George builds a Tavern; a Place Gets a Name: Drums

Previously we learned that the valley’s settlers, mostly of German descent, knitted themselves into a community as strong as a family.

As the 19^th Century rolled forward, the country grew, and the valley community grew right with it. John Balliet realized early on the need for a tavern and Philip Woodring set up the first blacksmith shop in 1800. In 1809, Nescopeck Township was split to create Sugarloaf Township to accommodate administering the growing population and in 1810, Philip, now 23 years old, built the valley’s first wool processing mill. He built it on the Little Nescopeck Creek near “Ashville”, what is known today as Fritzingertown.[1]

More roads were built as people traveled between population centers, selling goods and services, trading, visiting, and so forth. New conveyances, such as improved stage coaches, were devised to help these people make these trips and, of course, travelers would need food and lodging at the end of the day. Realizing his land was situated on one of the major cross-roads in the valley and on one of the major thoroughfares through the area, a natural trading point[2], 57-year-old George built a tavern. That crossroad soon became known as Drums Corner and the area around it simply as Drums.

Drums Methodist Church and Valley Notes included the following passage[3] about the building.

The first hotel was built by George Drum in 1820. It was located in the building owned by Mr. George Reisenweaver[4] across from the Kermit Reisenweaver Store. Much of the building is the original lumber employed when it was constructed. In the basement there is a hugh (sic) fireplace which was probably used in preparation of food. In the apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Miller, Jr., the old stair rail and spindles show the beauty of the work done in the early days.

This may be the earliest photo of the Drums Hotel in existence. It is the building on the left in this photo of the village of Drums taken in 1908. A chimney, that was later lost to a fire, can be seen on the back of the structure. One of the horse barns can be seen behind the building. On the front of the structure there appears to be a two-story porch that is now only the first floor. The building served as a hotel probably into the 1920's.  It next served as a boarding house.
Across the street from “our” building is the “future” location of the Kermit Reisenweaver Store that opened in 1954. I believe at the time this photo was taken the building was the location of  Brighthaupt's Dry Goods Store.
This postcard is posted on the St. Johns – Drums page of the “History of Freeland, PA” website.

Today, 200 years after the tavern was built, the building that began as a tavern and grew into a hotel, then a boarding house that evolved into an apartment complex, has now been renovated into a single-family home by its current owners, Kevin Kania and his wife Susan Kalada.[5]

When viewed from the rear one can see the smaller original
structure that was George's tavern. As mentioned above,
missing is the chimney that once served the tavern's fireplace.

Kevin and Susan also own and operate “The Bird’s Nest Shoppe and More”, a small boutique that you could say is really for the birds! 

Seed for bird feeders and the feeders to go with it; Goldfinch Feeders, Hummingbird Feeders, bird houses, bat houses, rain gauges, garden ornaments, you name it, can be had there! If they don’t have it, they’ll do their best to get it, if it is “for the birds”!

Their store is located in the building that was built for, and once served the community for many years as, the Drums Post Office; right next door to the building that once was called “The Drums Hotel.”

 “You know, I think I’m actually related to the Drums!” Kevin told me as we discussed the property’s history. Kevin was focused mostly on an uncle of his who married a woman named Drum. What intrigued me more was when he mentioned he thought his grandmother was a Drum too. “Wouldn’t it be something if I was related to the Drums who built the house I now live in?” He asked and then chuckled, as if he didn’t think it might be true. After all, there are more people named Drum than just those related to Philip and George. Turns out Kevin is related to Philip and George. His Grandmother was Mary Elizabeth Hill (Born 1902; Died 1991). Mary first married a man named Fornwald. When he died, she married Albert Richard Drum^{(Percival, Richard, Jacob, Philip, George, Jacob, Philip)} (Born 1897; Died 1968) making Kevin Albert’s Step-Grandson. 

The horse barns that once sat behind, on the right side of, and across the street from, the structure, as well as the hitching rail that once stood out front ready to hold tavern-visitors’ horses, are long gone; long before Kevin and Susan came on the scene. The wonderful stair rail and beautiful spindles that had once guided residents, hotel staff, and guests between the first floor and the second in the “newer” 30’ x 60’ front section that was probably built by Abraham, had to be removed; safety took precedence as their years of service finally grew too great. However, under the modern woodwork that make up the stairs today, still hide the original boards. The “huge fireplace” also still stands in the basement of the 20’ x 20’ “older” two-story section in the back that was once the tavern built by George. Much of the stone foundation appears to be original as well.

Lumber and stones may not be all that is still “original” in the house, however. Not that she believes, completely, in ghosts, but, on certain days, and nights, Susan has been given reason to wonder if perhaps, just perhaps, mind you, maybe a few of the many souls that passed through the building across its 200-year existence just may have stayed. A curtain that seemed to rise by itself, as if someone were looking out at the world passing by, was cause for a brief moment of alarm. And a child’s rocking horse, although a modern toy of the 1960’s, has given the home’s owners reason to think it was giving another child, of an earlier time, some childish pleasure as it appeared to begin to rock on its own. “I don’t go up in the attic anymore, or into the cellar,” said Susan.

Soon George’s Tavern was playing a significant role in the lives of the valley’s residents of the 1820’s. Not only was it a place for refreshment and socialization, and perhaps warmth on a cold winter’s night, it became the Post Office before there was a Post Office! In the early days of our country, long-distance conversations were conducted by letter. Although there were regular postal routes that postal riders used to carry mail from location to location, some established long before the American Revolution[6], much mail traveled by private carrier as well for areas without regular postal service.

The long-established practice was that one would write a letter and address it to the intended recipient and their town. One then tacked the letter up in a place where travelers gathered so it could be found and carried forward. Most taverns and similar such places had a designated location for such letters – usually a post holding up the bar; thus, the term “posting a letter.” Incoming letters, if not handed directly to the recipient upon arrival in the area, were also tacked to the post for the person to whom it was addressed to find it on his or her next visit.  Since Drums did not have regular postal service until 1832, George, of course, had such a “post” in his tavern making his hotel the de-facto Drums Post Office.

Here is an item of mail that is similar to those you might have found "posted" to George's post. This one wasn't.  This document probably was “posted” at Easton and was sent to Wilkes-Barre so highly unlikely it ever saw Drums Tavern unless it happened to be in someone’s pocket when they stopped by for a Gill of Whiskey.

The document inside is dated July 27, 1824 and there is a postmark-like stamp in the upper left-hand corner that appears to say “27 July”.

Actually, this is not an envelope as we’d use today. It is the back of the same document that needed to be mailed. It was simply folded written side in, addressed, sealed shut with wax and sent, apparently for what appears to be 10 cents. 

When regular postal service finally did arrive in Drums in 1832, the Post Office was designated as the East Sugarloaf Post Office and was located in Henry Yost’s store at Drums Corner near Drums Hotel. Henry Yost was named the first postmaster. In 1839, Sugarloaf Township was divided in two with the eastern section being named Butler Township. Since the name “East Sugarloaf” would now no longer do, the name was changed to the Drums Post Office.[7]

Of course, George never saw the regular postal service come to Drums, which in-essence “moved” his “Mail Post” out of his hotel; he died in 1831. Circumstances of his death involve a tragedy for which the details have been covered over by the sands of time. All that has come down to us today is that George died as the result of an accidental gunshot wound[8]. He was 68 at the time of his death.

Like the lives of his grandfather and father before him, his, too, was an intriguing and remarkable life! As a boy of 12 he outsmarted the Indians that attacked his home. When a young man of just 20, he became a Continental Soldier fighting for freedom in George Washington’s Army. In the 1790’s he brought his family over Butler (Bucks) Mountain to join the growing German community in the valley. Once there he worked with his neighbors to establish a church, members of which still gather to worship God today. In 1811 he became a Justice of the Peace and in 1820 he built a tavern that served as the community’s first "Post Office". His memory lives on in the name of the village that took him in and looked to him for guidance.

On October 22, 2018, return to the Drums of Drums, PA and take a ride on The Stage Coach.

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[1] Butler Township History, Butler Township website, http://www.butlertownship.org/about-us/history/Print.html accessed 6/14/2016

[2] 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

[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] This statement is referring to the present (when the statement was written). George did not put his tavern in Reisenweaver’s building, Reisenweaver eventually purchased the building that had once been George’s tavern.

[5] Kevin Kania and Susan Kalada interview conducted April 5, 2018

[6] The History of the United States Postal Service. https://about.usps.com/publications/pub100/welcome.html accessed 2/19/2018

[7] 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].

[8] “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

It Takes a Village Part 3 – The Story of the Hart Children

#8 It Takes a Village Part 3 – The Story of the Hart Children

In the previous post we learned of a number of remedies shared among valley neighbors to meet just about any need, from fixing a broken dish to how to "clence" a wound to relief for my aching back. But life has a way of teaching us we must be prepared for great sorrow as well as great joy no matter how much help we give to each other.

Members of the community still got sick, still experienced tragedies. Indeed, there wasn't a member of the entire community who could offer a remedy strong enough to "clence" the wounds left by the story of the Hart children.

Anna Margaret Rosina Drum was the 5^th child and fourth daughter of Jacob^{(George, Jacob, Philip)} and Anna Margaret Balliet Drum. Born August 22, 1829, Anna grew to be a fine, young woman. Around 1850, she fell in love with, and married, John Hart, a farmer from Hobbie, PA. Hobbie is a village in Hollenback Township located about 10 miles north of Drums and just east of Berwick, Pennsylvania. There on his farm, Anna settled in with John and set up house. In 1852, they had their first child and named her Amelia. Emily was born next in 1854, Alphia arrived in 1856, and little Anna Margaret, named for her mother and grandmother, was born 1858. By the end of July, 1860, all four children would be dead.[1] 

Once again, the details left for us are few but based on census data, descriptions of the disease from the 1860’s[2] and examination of the grave stones that mark these children’s graves, we can guess what must have taken place.

One day in 1860, late in the month of June, one of these little girls, probably Emily, started complaining of a sore throat and a runny nose. Anna would have already noticed how tired Emily had been recently, sleeping much more than usual. Of course, everyone would have thought the poor child had gotten a cold. By the next morning, however, Emily’s “cold” was much worse, now with a fever. By that afternoon or the next day she would have begun to have trouble catching her breath between fits of coughing.

Anna would have been very worried by now but this would only be the beginning; things would get much worse quickly. Soon Alphy would be complaining that she, too, had a sore throat and a runny nose. She too would have been sleeping more than usual and her neck was quite stiff. Soon both girls were coughing, had fevers, and both were growing very weak.

Amelia, at age 8, was probably Anna’s only real help at first with the two sick children and the 2-year -old Anna, but now Amelia was getting sick, too!

Anna must have been frantic! Surely, these “colds” would begin to improve soon and her babies would get better! Neighbors would have come by to help as the news spread, to give Anna a break so she could get some rest. Anna would have needed the help! Except for a 16-year-old farm hand named Josiah Shelly[3], Anna would have been all by herself with these children because John would have left in search of the doctor.

If John returned with the doctor before any of the children had died, the doctor would have found at least two of the three children near death, all three coughing, feverish, and extremely weak. The children would hardly have been able to swallow; their throats being so sore. Emily and Alphy were by now coughing up a thick mucus and would have been so weak that neither would hardly have been able to move.

The doctor would have taken their temperatures and found low-grade fevers. A check of their pulses would have shown rapid heart-beats. Glands in their necks would have been swollen and upon checking the backs of their throats, the doctor would have found a thick, foul-smelling, grey membrane had formed. He would immediately have diagnosed their illnesses as Diphtheria.

Although we can be sure he did all he knew how to do, there would have been very little the doctor would have been able to do, given the state of medicine in 1860. He may have tried having the children breath a mercury Iodine vapor alternating with that of Belladonna. He may even have tried bleeding. What is certain is the doctor’s attempts to save these children’s lives were futile.

Emily was the first to die, passing on Tuesday, July 3. Alphy quickly followed on Thursday, July 5. Amelia succumbed to the illness on the following Tuesday, July 10. However, this tragic story does not end here. As Amelia lay close to dying, little 2-year-old Anna Margaret began to show the same symptoms. Little Anna Margaret died sixteen days after Amelia, on Thursday, July 26.

Left to Right: Anna Margaret’s rectangular stone,
Emily & Alphia's stone carved to resemble two stones,
Amelia's tall rectangular marker. 

On Wednesday, April 18, 2018 I visited the St. James Lutheran Cemetery in Hobbie, PA, where these four children are buried, each beside the other. Looking from left to right, Anna Margaret’s stone, a small, rectangular stone marked “Anna M .M”, is first. To her right (South) we find Emily and Alphia. Emily, written “Emly” on the marker, and Alphia, written “Alphy”, share one stone that is slightly larger than Anna’s, carved to resemble two stones. To their right (south) is a tall rectangular marker, twice as large as the first stone, for Amelia.

Anna M M Hart

Emily and Alphia Hart

Amelia Hart

John and Anna do not rest in this cemetery. They are buried in the St. Peters U.C.C. Silver Maple Cemetery a little over a mile west of the St. James Cemetery on the same road in Hobbie.

One can only imagine the pain and horror these two young parents must have experienced, watching their four little girls die. Yet, with the support of the community, Anna and John continued on. What else was there to do? They had three more children together[4], Martin Luther in 1861, Rosa Magness in 1865, and John Calvin in 1872[5]; but neither Anna, John, nor the community, ever got over, or forgot, that terrible month of July in 1860 when everyone lost so much.

Return to the Drums of Drums, PA on October 8, 2018 for the 9th post, George Builds a Tavern; A Place gets a name: Drums.

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[1] Helman, Laura M., History and Genealogy of the Drum Family (Allentown, PA: Berkemeyer, Keck & Co., 1927) page 19.

[2] Neidhard, C., M.D., Diphtheria, as it prevailed in the United States, from 1860-1866, preceded by an historical account of its phenomena, its nature, and homoeopathic treatment (NY: William Radde, 1867).

[3] Information derived from 1850 & 1860 census data. 1860 data is not clearly written. Josiah (or Jonah)’s age could either be 10 or 16. Neither name appears in the 1870 census for Hollenback or vicinity. A Josiah Shelly is listed in the 1850 census as living in Hazle Township, age given as 7.

[4] Helman, p 19.

[5] Helman does not include the boys’ middle names, only initials, and gives Rosa’s middle name as “Maggie”. The middle names included here came from their gravestones.

A Teacher Called 4-H

Contemporary History 2 – A Teacher Called 4-H

I was trying not to let any of the drops of sweat running down my nose drip off onto any of the exhibits. For the most part, I think I was successful. If not, to the victims I apologize.

September 5, 2018 turned out to be a rather hot day, especially in a non-air-conditioned metal barn built out in the open on the Luzerne County Fair fairgrounds in Dallas, PA. The fair hadn’t started yet, that was scheduled to happen that evening. I was there to help judge 4-H Exhibits. Meghan Carroll, our brand-new, whiz-bang, Penn State Luzerne County 4-H Agent, invited me to be a judge and when duty calls, one answers, so there I was.

Not sure of the location and not wanting to be late, I arrived early – an hour and a half early. Poor fellow at the gate had no idea what to do with me so he asked me to “please go over there by that other car and park.” He knew I was waiting for Meghan to arrive with more instructions. So, that’s exactly what I did. That was around 9:30am. Around 10:15 a Security Guard decided he had best check me out. I guess I was sitting in my car too long. However, in these times, I welcomed his interest.

“Anything I can do to help you there, Buddy?” I heard a voice ask, drawing my attention away from my Cryptogram puzzle I’d been working on. “No, thank-you,” I responded, “I’m waiting for Meghan Carroll, the County 4-H Agent, to arrive.” “Oh, you’re waiting for someone. OK. Can’t be too careful these days. Hope you didn’t mind.” I didn’t. I knew he was uncomfortable with me being there. I also knew he was uncomfortable allowing me to remain there because he then began a conversation.

“Were you from?” “Drums.” “Oh that’s beautiful there!” he exclaimed. Then I added, “I’m here to help judge some exhibits but we need Meghan to arrive to give instructions.” I knew he needed more than just “I’m waiting for someone.” Ice broken, he started to tell me of former security incidents that taught him to be careful under similar circumstances. That ended when Meghan called me. I put her on speaker phone so he could also hear. She wanted to let me know she was on her way and to ask if I would like a cup of coffee. I said that I would LOVE a cup, as large as possible, black. That was good enough to relieve my new friend’s concerns and he headed back to his booth. He got a chuckle out of my “as large as possible” response.

Meghan wasn’t only bringing me a cup of coffee, she was bringing my fellow judge as well, her grandmother, just in from Michigan for a visit. Meghan comes from a 4-H Family; Michiganders but we won’t hold that against them! After Meghan arrived, and we found each other, off we headed to the 4-H Barn. I tossed a wave to my new Security Guard friend as we passed by. That was around 11:10am or so.

Once inside, we got right to work. I have never judged so many different classes of exhibits at one time in all my career.  Usually, judges are given a class or department or etcetera, but this was a small group of exhibits so we judged all classes: Vegetables, sewing, posters, decorated cakes (2), project books, art, photos, group exhibits, everything. I was wondering if some kid would be dragging his cow past me next! That didn’t happen so I guess they had someone else for that department.

My fellow judge was quite impressive in what she knew and in her approach. That made the thing easier! So we went, item by item, class by class, until we’d seen, examined, discussed, and judged, everything. Then we stuck around a bit longer to help Meghan put ribbons on everything.  By 3:00pm I had to leave, but as we were wrapping things up Meghan’s grandmother looked at me and asked, “Where did you learn all this?”

I hope she wasn’t being sarcastic. I might have over-discussed a few things along the way. I, however, took the question as a desire to know. It threw me off-guard a bit at first so I started stumbling around with stuff like being a member of various 4-H judging teams and my 4-H project experiences, experiences in Massachusetts and Maine as a 4-H professional, then suddenly I stopped myself, looked at her and said, “Why, 4-H!” Then we all laughed because it was the obvious answer.

As I reflected on her question and my answer, in the car on the way home, I realized just how amazing my answer to her question really was.  I really was drawing on knowledge I gained around 45 years ago as a 4-H’er! Yes, some was learned as a 4-H Volunteer or 4-H professional in the years since but the majority came from those formative tween and teenage years of my life! And then I thought, why, we hadn’t even scratched the surface of what I knew; learned in 4-H!

It really underscored just how much I DID get from 4-H!

During my ten years as a 4-H Member, 1967-1977, I kept a garden (it was part of my family’s garden but we knew what plants were mine) raising everything from peas to potatoes, cucumbers to corn, pumpkins to peppers, red tomatoes, green tomatoes, plum tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, a few rotten tomatoes and lots and lots of weeds. I had my own hive of honey bees, that didn’t last too long but still. I studied geology, making a collection of rocks, minerals, and fossils – mostly fossils because that’s what interested me the most. I learned some outdoor cooking skills. I built and flew a number of rockets, some of them I even found again after they returned to earth! I learned how to keep my dog well in Veterinary Science and the Earth well in Ecological Studies. I learned how to take a satisfactory photograph and how to write a satisfactory story; like all 4-H'ers, I wrote one for each of my 4-H projects. I kept records, financial and progress, of each of my 4-H projects, exhibited those projects in competitions and fairs, winning some blue ribbons, reds, whites, and LOTS of gold and green ribbons (4^th and 5^th places) and even some ribbon colors I didn’t even know there were (BROWN!? REALLY!?).

I gained further understanding of “Good Sportsmanship” by writing and presenting educational demonstrations and presentations at local, county, and state events, and when they were competitive events, again winning a rainbow of ribbon colors. My educational exhibits were entered in local, county, and state competitions and some were used in street-level store-window displays throughout the Hazleton area during various National 4-H Weeks. I sat on committees planning and implementing such things as the 4-H Club’s Holiday party, the 4-H Club’s Nature Trail on the Penn State Hazleton Campus, County 4-H One-Day-Camps, two State 4-H Leadership Conferences held on the Penn State University Park Campus, just to name a few.

Leadership skills were further learned by serving as an officer (secretary, recreation leader, President, etc.) of the Sugarloaf Valley 4-H Club and the Browns Grove 4-H Club. I organized a 4-H Club myself called the Lower Luzerne County 4-H Radio Club in which we wrote and broadcast monthly 5-minute 4-H shows (one of the Extension Agent’s weekly radio shows each month). I helped plan and performed in shows put on by the 4-H Performing Arts Club, organized by a fellow 4-H’er, April Boock. Served as “artist” on the County 4-H Newsletter Team one summer and fall, drawing a different masthead each month. I served as a 4-H Camp Counselor for a number of county 4-H Camps, one of which was held in western PA and was held exclusively for children who were victims of the 1972 Wilkes-Barre flood that resulted from a visit by Hurricane Agnus. This service was a particular honor and recognition for me since I was only 14 at the time, younger even than some of the campers!

My main interest, and therefore the only 4-H project I studied throughout my 4-H membership, was Entomology. I studied; meaning I collected, preserved, identified, and displayed: more than 200 species (meaning a much larger number of specimens) of insects. Mostly mature insects but toward the end of my membership, branched out to immature specimens as well. I thought about collecting spiders, which are not insects, but only briefly, although I did collect a few webs.

I raised, from eggs back to eggs, Walking Stick Insects, Cecropia Moths, and Honey Bees. I learned how painful the sting of Honey Bees and various Hornets/Wasps can be. I hunted down various grasshoppers and crickets in the neighbor’s fields by following the insects’ mating calls (try it sometime, hours of fun in the hot, mid-day sun! When the insect hears a noise or sees movement, it stops singing. So you stand like a statue until it starts up again, stopping again when it stops, until you finally capture the specimen or it decides the area is no longer safe and flies off further than you wish to follow.). Learned the techniques required to nab a dragonfly with a net near many ponds and streams (I think dragonflies are the fastest insects on Earth!), used fruit traps to capture various wasps, bees and flies, some I sort of wished I hadn’t trapped (see note concerning stings above). I’ve cut open Goldenrod Galls to find the Gall Fly larva inside, combed the cat for fleas, sat half the night by a lamp hoping for an Underwing or Luna moth to happen by (moths and numerous other insects are drawn to lights at night). I’ve caught, by hand, Giant Water Bugs, which, I’m very glad I never learned firsthand, is an extremely stupid thing to do because they can inflict a very painful bite (so I read later)!

That is a lesson I never seemed to learn, perhaps thankfully! While living in Botswana in 1980, on another 4-H experience, I saw some beautiful, large (about an inch in length), yellow and black beetles. So, wishing to collect one to study later and not having my killing jar with me (yes, I did collect insects during the 18 months I lived in Africa), I simply picked one up and wrapped it in my handkerchief. As I stuck it into my pocket, many of the villagers came rushing up to me, some in panic, exclaiming things I could not understand not having a solid grasp on the Setswana language. The 4-B (Botswana’s 4-H program) Regional Director I was with quieted the people down by telling them everything was OK, that I was a “scientist”. At the end of the day, finally back in my hotel room, I pulled my prize from my pants pocket and tossed it into the killing jar (a glass jar with a Plaster-of-Paris base that has been soaked with a poisonous liquid; as it soaks in, the jar fills with the fumes which kill the insect). As soon as my prize; known as a Blister Beetle, I learned later; got a whiff of those fumes it activated its defense system, spraying the inside of the jar with an acid it makes in its body. When that acid hit that Plaster-of-Paris the jar instantly filled with a white foam!

And I had been carrying that thing around in my pocket for a good part of that DAY!

But that piece of info, how painful a blister beetle’s blister can be, is something I happily DID NOT learn, hands-on, in 4-H. It is what I DID learn in 4-H, as I’ve described here, that is so stunning! And AGAIN, I’m just scratching the surface! Yes, there is more but no I won’t go on any longer, if you haven’t already stopped reading, I can’t guess how much longer it will be until you do!

My answer to my new friend’s question above was correct, and not at all an exaggeration! “Where did you learn all this?”

Why, 4-H!

It Takes a Village Part 2 - Village Remedies

In our previous post, #6, we saw how the settlers learned to rely on each other for survival creating a feeling of family amongst the valley’s residents; a feeling that continues on, for many, into today.

However, neighbors didn’t just go out of their way to look out for each other, help each other, they did even more!  Drums neighbors shared what they had with each other, shared their bounty, strength and their knowledge. Useful information was always being passed back and forth. What follows are a few examples I found in the box of “Drum Papers”. My assumption is that these were written by an ancestor for someone else or by someone else and given to an ancestor. Of course, they may have been copied out of a newspaper or magazine but then, why not just cut it out instead of copy?

Need cement? Here’s a suggestion that was offered by a neighbor in the early 1900’s for some “Homemade Cement”: “Rx Take two parts of sand, 2 parts of coal ashes, and one part of wheat flour. Mix with just enough water to form a putty-like mass. In 12 hours after used it will be as hard as stone.”

If it is glue that is needed, George Balliet suggested his recipe for “How to make a good glue” to his neighbors of the 1920’s: Rx Take a tablespoonful of cooking gelatin and dissolve in two to two and a half teaspoonful of boiling water. Boil for a few seconds and add a little sugar while still hot. (signed) Geo. Balliet”

Break a dish? A remedy offered around 1923 was this “China and Glass Cement”: ¼ pint milk add ¼ pint of vinegar - whites of two small eggs - sifting in it a sufficent quantity of lime to form a thick paste.” This note ends with, “Try it!”

Illness and bodily complaints were quite common, and everyone seemed to have a remedy for whatever it was that ailed you! From the 1920’s, here is a way one could “clence” old sores. “Rx Take Iodine and Benzene. Mix together. Clence with sterlized absorbent cotton – to finish the cleaning and leave the wound in germ free condition use a mixture of 1/3 Iodine and 2/3 alcohol.”

Jacob Santee must have had a bad cough in 1907, or maybe his tax collector did! Found on the back of Jacob’s “Triennial Assessment Notice” for 1907 is this recipe: “A Superior Cough Medicine. Mix 1 pint of granulated sugar with ½ pint of warm water and stir for 2 minutes. Put 2½ oz of Pinex (50 cents worth) in a pint bottle; then add the sugar syrup. Take a teaspoonful every one, two, or three hours or as you see fit. This is a sure remedy. Try it.”

“Pinex” used to be available from most drug stores. Its active ingredient was Paracetamol, also known as Acetaminophen; the active ingredient in pain medicines of today such as Tylenol. This remedy was actually a rather common one although the ingredient quantities varied, and some people used honey instead of sugar.

Even commercial enterprises got in on the “remedy act”. This cough remedy recipe was found on a 1.5” x 1” rectangle cut from the back of a “Not-a-Seed Raisins” box: “Raisin Cough Medicine. Take three tablespoons whole flaxseed add 1 pint Not-a-Seed Raisins, chop the raisins and put them into the flaxseed. Add three pints water and cook down to a quart. Squeeze the juice of a large lemon in the same and sweeten to taste. This is excellent for a cough medicine.”

Speaking of pain, here are two that lots of people complain about, even still today – Rheumatism and Lumbago! Rheumatism is the result of inflammation of the joints and muscles. It is usually caused by arthritis. Lumbago is a real pain in the back, specifically in the muscles and joints of the lower back! There are numerous causes for both of these pains but, frankly, if you suffer from either, you don’t care what caused it, you just want it to go away.

Perhaps George Balliet has come to the rescue. This remedy is written on the same paper as George Balliet’s recipe for glue so he may have written this one as well. “For Rheumatism and Lumbago Rx one pint vinegar, one pint turpentine and yolk of 2 eggs. Put in bottle shake well. Put on back or put on red flannel and apply to back.” That’s a remedy that needs to be read completely before using it. That is NOT a mixture one wants to take internally!

There was even something in the pile of papers that was for the dogs! A note signed “by J. R. Masterson”, written around 1925, says this is how to make “A Cheap Dog Feed.”

One of the cheapest dog feeds is a composition of cotton seed meal, corn meal, and molasses. To ten parts of corn meal, add one part of cotton seed meal. Mix the two into a batter with cheap molasses and cook brown. Where the cotton seed meal cannot be secured, make the dough of corn meal mixed with one third molasses and two-thirds milk. This is more preferable than meat and the dog will be less subject to worms.

Don’t have a dog but you do have a cow, you say? And she is off her feed? Jacob Santee recorded just the remedy you need in his account book for 1887. “Cow off her Feed. ¼ lb. Juniper berries crushed fine. ¼ lb. Antimony. ¼ lb. calamus grated. Mix all and give a tablespoonful once a day a few days, then every other day till better.”

Antimony is an element on the periodical chart listed as ₅₁Sb. It is a sulfurous metal that makes up the mineral Stibnite. In earlier times it was powered and used by doctors as a purgative. If taken in pill form, because it is a metal, it is even reusable! (I was going to go into that a bit further but, on second thought, I’m sure there isn’t any need to.) It was also considered effective as a remedy for parasites. However, it seems that there is a fine line between helpful and toxic as not all patients survived the “cure”![1]^{,  [2]}

Dr. Nathaniel Chapman, first president of the American Medical Association, in his work entitled Elements of Therapeutics and Materia Medica, Vol. 2, 2^nd edition, published in 1822, mentions “Antimonium Tartarizatum”. He says that some doctors use this “salt” as a blister to pull the sickness out of the body. He listed maladies such as Chronic Rheumatism, Asthma, and Consumption (Tuberculosis), to name a few, for which practitioners claimed to have found this useful. However, he says the application of the medicine to the skin produces an irritation that is permanent and “most distressingly painful.”[3] 

I don’t know, does this seem like something you’d want to give, or do, to anything, even if it is "just" a cow? And remember, Chapman's book was written, not for cows, but for HUMANS! However, it does seem that there are a few medical uses that have been found for Antimony in veterinary medicine of today.[4] Perhaps Jacob was on to something after all.

Calamus is a plant that grows in wetlands, marshes, and along muddy stream banks. It is also known as Sweet Flag. It is the root that is used for these preparations but since the FDA strictly prohibits its use in foods it is best to use calamus externally only.[5]

One wonders how many of these cows got back on their feed just to stop the treatments, or worse, due to the treatments, got off their feed permanently!

Return to the Drums of Drums, PA on September 24, 2018 for the heart-breaking story of the Hart Children.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimony accessed 2/14/2018

[2] Frezard, Frederic, Cynthia Demicheli, and Paul R. Ribeiro, Pentavalent Antimonials: New Perspectives for Old Drugs, www.mdpi.com accessed 2/18/2018

[3] Chapman, N. M.D., Elements of Therapeutics and Materia Medica, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: H. C. Carey and I. Lea, 1822) p 118.

[4] Frezard.

[5] www.mountainroseherbs.com accessed 2/13/2018