The Squirrel

Contemporary History #10 – The Squirrel

I think that in Pennsylvania, it is illegal to feed large game animals such as Elk, Deer, Bear, and Wild Turkey. I say “I think” because I’ve just spent an hour googling the question and the responses I got, including the law, itself, seemed ambiguous. I got information that said a ban has been proposed (nothing said if it was accepted), or that you can’t feed animals with the intent to shoot them (so what if you don’t want to shoot them?).  Some of the information I’ve seen says you can’t feed ANY wildlife. Except wild birds. That was the one clear piece of information I found. You can feed wild birds but I get the impression the Game Commission folks scowl upon even that.

As an aside, by the way, Wild Turkeys are wild birds. I’m just saying.

I like feeding birds: Cardinals, Goldfinches, Chickadees, Nuthatches, Titmouse, Purple Finch, Downey Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, those screechy Blue Jays, even the House Sparrows and House Finch that sit and eat for hours are welcome. Heck, I may not enjoy them most of the time, but even the Starlings are sometimes fun to watch, especially when they get after each other over a snippet of suet, only to lose it in the end to a woodpecker.

I don’t feed the birds because I think they’ll starve without my few handfuls of seeds to get them through till tomorrow. Nope, my reason for feeding them is far more self-serving and selfish. I enjoy seeing them. That’s it. Totally.

 

 I don’t know why the Red-Bellied Woodpecker is called that. As far as I’m concerned, the head is redder than the belly!

Even I have to laugh at myself when I get all excited over seeing some bird I’d not seen before come to visit my feeder: a Rose-Breasted Nuthatch or a Chipping Sparrow, or what I think was a House Wren!

I don’t feed anything else, other animals, that is. Well, that’s not the goal anyway. I think a chipmunk took up residence below my feeder to grab seeds that fell his way. A number of years ago, when the feeder still belonged to my mom, we saw a hawk take a sparrow. However, my intent is to just feed the birds some seeds and suet. That is the goal and I do all I can think of to achieve that goal (of feeding only the birds).

This past March I found a large, empty bag in my yard that looked like one of my 40lb. sunflower seed bags. As I recall, it said “Wildlife Food” or some such thing on it. I thought that was an odd thing to have blowing across my yard so I put my trash in it and gave it to Mr. Cunfer, our trash man. Then I found another one out in the area I call my “park”.

Dad had an apple orchard at one time beside the house. I’ve allowed it to return to a more natural state but I keep a path cut through it for exercise and nature observation. These are two photos of the path. You have to look very closely to see it, but in the photo on the left there is a blue and white Pepsi bottle. I guess I'm not the only one to enjoy my park!

An invasive rose-like plant that I think is Rosa rugosa seems to be trying to overtake my property. When the plant blooms in the spring it does produce a lovely aroma. That seems to be its only redeeming quality.

Some of it grows along Butler Drive which runs beside by my park. If it would just grow only there, I’d welcome more of it as it makes a pretty good fence. But it doesn’t just grow there. It wants to grow everywhere; everywhere creating great clumps of thorny strangles. It was deep within one of those thorny strangles that I saw another of these bags, again empty. I left it there. I wasn’t about to fight the rugosa thorns to get it out!

Anyway, it appears someone was feeding the deer, on my property. I know it wasn’t me! I’d like whoever it is to stop, at least on my property. I can see it now, the Game Commission Ranger at my door with a summons. “But officer, it wasn’t me!” I’d be yelling as they drag me off to Game Commission Prison or whatever they do with wildlife-feeding scofflaws.

Actually, there is one other animal I apparently feed. I stress this is not my goal. My goal, once again, to be sure we are very clear, is to feed the birds. I do all I can to not stray from this goal. However, I know my goal is about to be over-ridden when I’m working at the computer, or watching TV, or reading, and I suddenly hear a “thump” on my roof.

Beside our house is a Norway Maple. My mom planted it in the 1990’s. I’d have chosen a Red Maple for the vibrant Autumn Leaves but she apparently liked the purple leaves of the Norway Maple year 'round. 

I understand that now we consider this tree to be as invasive as that d__n R. rugosa monster but when she planted it, she bought it from a local nursery; they were selling it for its ornamental quality. The squirrel climbs this tree and then jumps across to my roof (that’s the thump). If I listen closely enough, I can then hear the pit-pat of his little paws as he runs across the roof. If I get to the kitchen in time, where the feeder is hanging outside the window, I can catch the moment when he then hops from the roof onto the post the feeder hangs from and climbs down onto the feeder to begin his meal.

Bird feeders aren’t made for a creature of his size. So, he does struggle some to stay on the feeder, finding all sorts of acrobatic ways to get to the feeder and at the seeds.

The feeder in the video is the feeder I had in 2017 when I first moved back to Drums. It actually was the feeder my mom had hung (well, I had hung it for my mom). That lasted until spring when the squirrel decided to cut through all the acrobatics and just go for broke. He chewed through the nylon cord I had hung the feeder with causing the thing to fall to the ground, causing the thing to break into a number of pieces. Somewhere deep within the darker corners of my heart, I’m sorry to report, I secretly hoped he got hurt when the thing fell; not badly, but just enough to learn a lesson.

My first-ever feeder was a metal mesh feeder I got when we moved to Ashland, MA in 1984. When we bought a house in Grafton, MA in 1988, I made a wooden feeder and bolted it to the house outside one of the windows. In the following photo, this feeder can be seen. It had two shelves where seeds could be poured. Lots of birds like feeders like this, especially larger birds like the Blue Jays. There are no perches to balance on. Just fly in, grab a seed, and go.

Of course, as can be seen in the photo, squirrels liked it too, for that very same reason! Except they don’t grab and go, they sit and eat. Our first cat, Max, can also be seen in the photo. She would sit and watch the squirrel and the squirrel would keep an eye on her. Oh, how she would have LOVED it if I would have just opened that window…  She watched the birds come as well. When they came, she would sort of chortle deep in her throat until the birds flew away. Eventually, she’d grow tired of the show and go curl up for a nap.

Our next move took us to Maine. Our apartment there didn’t really have a good place for a feeder so I left the wooden one behind for the new owners to enjoy (or remove!). 

Our next move came in 1999 to Virginia. For that location I bought a nice plastic feeder made by Rubbermade. I’d forgotten about the metal mesh one!

The Rubbermade Feeder was a great feeder! I liked it so much that I kept it even though we didn’t have a place to hang a feeder when we lived in Maryland. When I headed back to Maine in 2015, I took that Rubbermade Feeder with me and hung it out on the little deck of my second-floor apartment.

In the video we see a Nuthatch and a few Chickadees. Situated where this feeder was, on a second-floor deck, it was never visited by a squirrel the entire two years I was there.This video was taken during the first, wait, maybe it was the second, blizzard Maine experienced in 2017. 

Yes, Maine was hit twice that year; the first one hit on February 13 and the second one hit a month later, on March 14. A bit more research tells me the video and these two "snowy" photos were taken during the February storm. By the time we got to number two, the March storm, the feeling was, “Who cares? Here we go again!” So photos were not made.

I liked this Rubbermade feeder so much I brought it back to Drums with me in September 2017, even though I knew Mom’s feeder was still hanging where I’d hung it for her. 

Yes, we get snow in Drums, too!

When Mom’s feeder crashed to the ground, I remembered that Rubbermade feeder and, using a heavy gauge wire, hung it in the same place.

The Rubbermade feeder had a door in the roof that you used to refill the feeder. Squirrels are problem solvers. After some months of figuring, the squirrel solved the problem of how to open that door. So, using more of that wire, I wired shut the door. This frustrated the squirrel no end. The photo to the right is the Rubbermade Feeder before the squirrel figured out how to open the door (which, by the way, he is sitting on in this photo. Shhh Don’t tell him) The feeder seen being visited by the Goldfinches in the earlier photo above is also this Rubbermade Feeder, but AFTER I wired the door shut. The wire holding the door shut can be seen in that photo.

Unable to open the door any longer, the squirrel went back to balancing himself in various positions on the feeder such that he could enjoy all of the seeds he cared to enjoy, which he would do for hours on end, emptying the feeder in very short order.

Susan Kalada, owner of the “The Bird’s Nest Shoppe and More”, a boutique that sells all things bird feeding and more located in the former Drums Post Office building on North Old Turnpike Road, told me about a feed she had that was laced with cayenne pepper. Apparently, the pepper does not bother the birds but it plays havoc with mammal tongues and throats. Instead of buying her seeds, I bought some cayenne pepper powder instead and laced my own seeds.

That did the trick - somewhat. The squirrel began to chow down on those seeds until the pepper began to have its effect. The squirrel jumped back, rubbed its paws over its face a number of times, jumped up onto the post and rubbed its face on the post some, then jumped up onto the roof and back to the Norway Maple. However, he didn't give up. He came back only to repeat this procedure. If the burn was bad enough, he sometimes just jumped to the ground and ran away.

I actually felt sorry for the little fellow.

I did not stop using the pepper, however. I didn’t feel THAT sorry!

I had a friend in Maine who loved a local Chinese Restaurant’s “Hot and Spicy Soup” which she’d order extra spicy; the greater the burn, the better. She’d take me to lunch there and order this soup for herself, extra spicy. There she’d sit, tears streaming down her face, as she moved spoonful after spoonful of this soup into her mouth, all the while exclaiming how good it was; all the while with tears continuing to flow copiously down her cheeks! I mention that because that’s how it got with the squirrel. He’d sit there and eat and eat until it appeared that he just couldn’t stand the burn any longer, at which point he’d run away. He still didn’t like having to balance either so he continued to seek ways to get in from above, too. If only that wire wasn’t there…

I began to see chew marks in the feeder’s roof.

I began to wonder if I should be scared to sleep in the house at night.

One day I came out to the kitchen to find the squirrel balanced on the feeder biting off bits of the roof. Not eating seeds, mind you, nipping off bits of the roof overhang. This activity continued for a week or so, each nip bringing him closer to the reservoir of seeds. The nips became a notch in the roof. At first I thought he was just making it easier for himself to sit on the feeder as the notch perfectly fit his back. But he kept nipping and the notch continued to grow. Eventually, it passed the wall of the reservoir and became a hole in the roof. The hole grew larger, too.

This pleased the Blue Jays because they were almost too large for the feeder as well but just right for grabbing seeds through this hole in the roof. The House Sparrows, who like to sit for hours and just consume seeds, liked it too. One day I found that a sparrow was now INSIDE the feeder, happily sitting and eating.

That must have given the squirrel the idea. He kept nipping, the hole continued to grow larger, until one day I came out to find the SQUIRREL now INSIDE the feeder. Of course, he still had to maneuver around the pepper so there were still frequent occasions of his hustling out and running away, only to have him return again the next day and each time, staying longer.

Finally, the birds stopped coming. Who can eat with a squirrel in your face, or beak, as the case may be? So, I waited (what else was there to do?) until the squirrel finished off the rest of the seeds that remained in the feeder, leaving behind just empty shells – and cayenne pepper.

Once the squirrel, too, stopped coming (meaning the seeds had all been consumed), I took down the Rubbermade feeder. Here it is.

Oh look! There to the right you can still see some of the Cayenne Pepper! Also, if you look closely at the roof, on the sixth row of “shingles” in from the left, you can see a few of the first chew marks in the roof.

Where is the hole, you ask?  Let me turn the feeder around for you so you can see the other side. That’s the side with the hole; and the door, too. 

Since I now once again needed a new feeder, I began looking into what feeders were available in the area to be purchased. Then I remembered the old metal mesh feeder still stored in the basement, I replaced the Rubbermade with the mesh!

I apologize for the blurry spot on the feeder. I took this through the kitchen window and was unable to clean the window prior to taking the photo. I couldn’t get a photo from outside either for the same reason, which is that there is a wonderful, great big spider’s web right below the feeder, just out of this picture, and I didn’t want to disturb her (the spider's) work. I saw she did have a grasshopper recently caught in her web so she will eat well this weekend.

Nothing has returned yet to feed at the feeder. It will take a bit of time for the birds to realize there are seeds here again. Same thing for the squirrel. When they do, the birds will find lots of seeds and the squirrel will find that he will have to re-learn all those acrobatic moves again if he wants to steal more seeds. He may even be so heavy (probably from eating all those seeds previously!) that he breaks the chain and brings the mesh feeder down. But that’s OK. This one won’t break.

One more thing for sure, he ain’t chewing a hole in THIS feeder!

Books. Books. BOOKS!

# 32 - Books. Books. BOOKS!

A few words regarding this photo before we start. All of the volumes in this photo have been added to the “Drum Library” by me. They were not volumes read and used by earlier members of the Drum Family Tree. I include them here, therefore, as a representation of books, the topic this post celebrates. Shown here are the collection’s earliest published to the most recently published. The oldest-published acquired to date is shown in the lower left-hand corner. I call it “Elements of Therapeutics and Materia Medica” but, according to the book’s title page the full title is: Elements of Therapeutics and Materia Medica to which are prefixed two discourses on the history and improvement of the Materia Medica, originally delivered as introductory lectures (honestly, the titles are sometimes longer than the books!). It is volume 2 of the set’s second edition and was written by Dr. Nathaniel Chapman, first president of the American Medical Association. The book was published in 1822. Directly above this book in the photo we see Lessons Selected from the Historical Parts of the Old Testament; for the use of Schools. It was published in Dublin in 1824. In the center of the photo we see a book by Pete Souza. He served as the Official Photographer for the Obama Administration and the book is a collection of some of his photos and memories. It was published in 2017. On the photo’s right is the Washington Post’s paperback version of the 2019 edition of The Mueller Report. Now to the post!

Our posts so far have looked at the lives and times of various Drums since Philip first arrived in Philadelphia in 1738 from Germany. We saw how they knitted themselves into the community as the community emerged around them; sometimes because of them. We examined the Drum’s religious beliefs and watched various Drums march off to war (no pun intended but I already used this joke at the end of a previous post [which, BTW, was a sly attempt at getting you to read one of the earlier posts if you had not already done so!]. Did you get the pun? Drums. War. Marching. Right. Anyway!). The most recent posts involved our family members interaction with the Anthracite Coal Industry. Now we begin to look at the more personal elements that made up being a Drum. Their education, employment, illnesses, hobbies; in other words, their daily lives.

As I’ve said before, the biggest issue with researching this family’s history is the lack of diaries, letters, or other personal documentary material that might give us information about what transpired before we arrived on the scene! In “The Hat Box Collection” (see post #25 Faith – In God for information about, and a look into, this box of family papers) we find a multitude of handwritten receipts and recipes, obviously showing that someone in this line could write, and therefore, read; or at least had friends who could. This collection includes newspaper clippings as well, and a few informational agriculturally-related pamphlets. However, most of those that we can identify to individuals, belonged to “extended Family Tree members” such as Elmer’s wife Ella’s uncle, Jacob Santee, or earlier Santee and Balliett family members.

Still, the assumption, and I stress it is just an assumption, is that most of the Philip Drum Family Tree members could write and, therefore, read, although some of the evidence is circumstantial requiring leaps in faith for sure. We know that Progenitor Philip (1702-1788?) could at least write his name. He signed the Oaths of Allegiance and Abjuration upon arrival in Philadelphia in 1738. Some of his fellow passengers had to “make their mark” (usually an X), not being able to write even their name. If Philip could do more than just write his name, if he could read and write (probably in German), it would be difficult to believe that a parent would not pass this knowledge on to a child. So again, we assume Jacob (1730-1774?) could read and write.

We have stronger evidence that Jacob’s son George (1762-1831) was able to read and write. He became a Justice of the Peace in 1811 which would obviously require him to write out and read documents, or at least sign his name to documents in order to render good judgement/know the law. This same logic applies to his son Abraham and daughter Margarett. They played a major role in the two Drums Hotels operated by Drum family members. Indeed, Abraham Drum served as County Sheriff for some time as well, again a position logic would tell us would be enhanced by the ability to read and write.

This same logic is applied to another of George’s sons; Abraham’s and Margarett’s oldest brother; Philip (1787-1858) who built and operated the first carding mill in the valley. Philip’s children included politically active merchants Nathan S. and Redmond while Philip’s youngest son, Edward, is credited with playing a role in the establishment of the Conyngham Post Office. Philip’s oldest son, John (1825-1881) was the Drums Hotel’s proprietor until he died.[1] Abraham’s sons, Josiah and Steven, ran a dry goods store. All of which, although not “proof-positive” they could read and write, one has to agree that not being able to do so would surely prove to be a handicap in such roles!

At this point we begin to find real, hard evidence of Drum family reading and writing ability among the receipts and other documents that have survived. We assume it was John’s son, the coal miner Nathan A. (1868-1934), who wrote the inscription in the bible he gave to his wife as a Christmas present in 1895[2] and there are a number of envelopes (absent the letters, darn-it!) and postcards (mostly tax notices or with messages that tell so much like, “Wish you were here.” Darn-it, again), probably saved for the stamps (yes, we are stamp collectors, too), that were sent to Nathan and Mary. There is abundant evidence of his son, Elmer’s (1895-1959), reading/writing ability as well as Elmer’s son, my dad, Harry’s (1923-1986) ability. Heck, I witnessed Dad reading and writing! For example, I often saw him reading my school report cards and signing his name on them certifying he’d seen those “tremendous” grades of mine. Usually, after one of those episodes, there was more encouragement provided to me for further reading, if you catch my drift.

Thus, it appears that the Drums could read, but what did they read? Newspapers probably were high on the list. Legal documents such as deeds and wills, certainly; religious tomes certainly, as well: Hymnals, Bibles, and prayer books. Here is a little prayer book that probably belonged to Nathan A. and his wife Mary entitled Sweet Incense. This collection of prayers includes a Certificate of Reformed Church Membership on the cover-page ready to be filled out. Clearly this was a “presentation book” for a newly admitted member such as a young person newly confirmed into the church. This copy, if it was presented to someone, was never filled in. It possibly was given to Nathan as commemoration of his daughter Christine’s, birth. It was published 1898 (Christine was born 1897). It may also have been presented to the Drum’s to commemorate their son Walter’s birth. He was born 1901 but died just a week shy of a year later; perhaps the reason the booklet was never filled in.

Given that most of us Drums could read, what importance did newspapers and books play in the lives of the Drums? In a box found in the back of our attic, were newspapers and books obviously saved from times past; yet another collection from varied sources and times. From this box came the oldest printed document I’ve yet found connected to/saved by this family. It is a newspaper page, written in what apparently is German. There is nothing about this item that this “reader” found that gives obvious reason for it to have been saved. Perhaps it was simply packing material left over from some move!

Given the following that appears on the reverse of the page shown here, it was published in Easton, PA and appears to be called “The Correspondent”. It is dated “Freitag, den 7ten Januar, 1831 (Friday, the 7^th of January, 1831).

Was it a newspaper read by George? He died February 27, 1831 from “an accidental gunshot wound.”[3] Perhaps, this was one of the last things he read.

A number of smaller religion-related booklets from the Drum Library have been preserved. I lived in eastern Massachusetts in the 1980’s and I think I may have picked up the copy of Alleine’s Alarm there, but the rest of the books in the photo came from the Drum’s “collection”. Alarm, by the way, does not show a publication/copyright date but I believe it is from around 1850. The oldest of the other little books in the photo is Gospel Hymns Number 5. It was published 1887, although I can’t figure the use of it, it’s just the words! I guess it was handed out during a service to be followed as the hymn was played, but I like to see the music, too. It helps me follow along. I guess that’s just me. The youngest of this group is the 1957 volume entitled Prayers for Every Need. I included it here because, well, it’s as old as me. The others are Grace Before Meals (1911), A Child’s Book of Prayers (1918), and Prayers for all Occasions (1940).

I’m including the next book just to prove the Drums didn’t have a corner on the religious books market. Just 5 ¼ inches high, this little book is falling apart, obviously heavily used, but you can tell it was much loved. It is entitled The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; Translated out of the Original Greek and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised. It belonged to my Grandmother, Bertha Zboray (my mom’s mom), when she lived in Hazleton (around 1915). The inside cover page is brown paper and her name is written on it in pencil so it was almost impossible to capture in a photo, but it reads:

Miss Bertha M.  Zboray

624 Lincoln St.

Hazleton,

                  PA

Getting back to the Drums’ collection, the religious books they read were not only small things. They had some large to gigantic books as well! Following is a photo of some of those. The oldest of the ones included in this photo that are not bibles is entitled Household Treasury of Christian Knowledge published 1891 (on the right in the photo). Moving clockwise, is a volume entitled Manger to Throne published 1893. Story of the Bible was published 1908. It probably belonged to Ella’s Uncle, Jacob Santee. Next we find two family bibles. The one above “The Story…” is a bible published in 1893; the year Nathan and Mary were married. Was it, perhaps, a wedding gift? However, Nathan presents Mary with a new bible on Christmas, 1895. This leaves us with the quandary, why so many bibles! The next bible in the photo makes a tad more sense. This one, the one in the middle of the photo, belonged to Ella’s father, George Santee. It was published 1879. The final book in the photo is Bedtime Bible Stories. It was probably read to my brother, Nathan, when he was very young (and probably to me as well). It was published 1955.

For much of history, through the 18^th Century and into the 19^th century, to give or receive, or even to buy, a book was a noteworthy occurrence. Although people owned books throughout history; that ownership was usually a mark of wealth and distinction - or a necessity; Lawyers owned law books; physicians owned medical books. Thomas Jefferson was known to have owned enough books to make a small library. In fact, after the British burned Washington, D.C. during the war of 1812, Jefferson sold his personal library to the United States to replenish some of what had been lost in the burned Library of Congress. Then he bought more books (A man after my own heart).

However, for “common people” to own books, or even one book, was a luxury.  I can’t imagine that Philip or his son Jacob, owned any books. George and even his son, Philip, if they did own a book, probably would have considered it a frivolous waste of money. But by the end of the Civil War, books were becoming more accessible and cheaper to buy, so therefore more people were purchasing and owning books. Books of religious nature, poetry and romance, exciting tales of Knights, Pirates, and war or Western exploits, advances in science, biographies, and more soon began to appear in the “everyday man’s” household.

Jacob Santee, Ella’s uncle, who at one time called himself a Jeweler, owned a number of books that made it into the present Drum library. One I particularly like, because it was written by a U. S. President, Theodore Roosevelt, is African Game Trails. This was a Library cast-off (I hope) because it has the Butler Township High School sticker inside the cover. According to the sticker, it was volume 1,227 in their collection. This edition is from 1921 and seems heavily used.

I don’t know if Uncle Jake actually went to the Columbian Exposition of 1893, but he owned a book about it as well as a Columbian Exposition Commemorative coin. A Journey Around the World, 1901, was also his. We are sure both were his because he either wrote or stamped his name inside them.

These next two books are books I believe were used in classroom study. I think the Peerless Atlas belonged to Uncle Jake, although he didn’t put his name in it. The “course in Geography” belonged to; or, at least, was used by; Ella's sister, Jennie Santee.

On the inside cover, in very fancy script, is written "Master Christian Schoesche's Book, Center Hills, Luzerne County, Penna." Above that, in less fancy script (neatly written school cursive, actually), we see "Jennie Santee". That is followed by what appears to be  "Jenie Sante". This incorrect version appears to have been erased, or someone attempted to erase it but used a bad eraser that just smudged the graphite somewhat badly. Christian Schoesche was Jennie's mother's brother, or to put it another way, Jennie's uncle. My guess is that he used it first and then passed it to Jennie.

I included the outside cover and inside cover-pages in the photo for your perusal.  Swinton’s Geography is dated 1879. Someone, I'm guessing Jennie, seems to have used its cover page as an opportunity to practice making letters. The Peerless Atlas shows a copyright date of 1901. Both are quite interesting! To check out another Geography book of Uncle Jake’s, visit the post: The Drums and their times, Part 2.  He stamped his name in that one.

Another volume Jake did not identify as his but I believe was his, is this volume 3 of the three-volume set entitled A History of the Nineteenth Century Year by Year published in 1900. I’m sure he got it because it covers the Civil War. I have since found volumes 1 and 2 to complete the set. One I found in a used book shop in San Antonio, TX and the other was given to me by my son (he knew I was looking for it). Yup, I like books, too.

It appears that after the turn of the century, 19^th to 20^th that is, the relationship between Drums and books picked up. In this next batch we find books of wide interest with the earliest being 1911 and the “youngest” being 1943.

Joyce of the North Woods is the 1911 volume. On the inside front cover, we find “Ella 1914” written so, I can only assume my grandmother liked this book. Buddy in Dragon Swamp and Finding New Trails are both 1942 editions. Inside “Trails” is a stamp reading, “Butler Township School District”. I hope this was also a library cast-off.  Knowing us Drums, it was.  Heidi is the youngster at 1943. The “G” Man’s Son at Porpoise Island is actually not an original Drum’s Library acquisition. That one, according to the inside cover, belonged to my mother’s brother, Nelson Shearer. It was published in 1937. Nelson acquired it in 1939; at least that’s the year he wrote inside beside his name.

 

It’s no mystery that we Drums liked books. Given the following collection, we must have liked mysteries, too! Representing the many Mysteries in the collection are these four Carolyn Keene volumes from 1932. 

Another book I particularly like is this little volume entitled Science of Trapping. It is copywritten 1909 but marked “revised edition” so may be “younger”. 

Speaking of mysteries, however, I have no idea why the cover art includes three swastikas (see them up there in the top left corner? Right before “Science”). Prior to the 1930’s when it was adopted as the emblem for the German Nazi Party, the swastika was a long-held symbol of good luck and fortune. Perhaps that is just what one needs to be a successful trapper!

It is clear that by the time Elmer and Ella’s children came along, reading was seen as essential to a child’s development. There are numerous children’s books in the Drum’s Library that were once owned and read by Harry and Clara.

Some of them even have their owner’s names in them. The Blue Network Stories for Children was Clara’s. She was born 1925 and the book was published 1929. Children’s Best Story Book belonged to Harry. He was born 1923 and the book was published 1922. As proof these belonged to them, here are their names “carefully” written on the inside cover pages. Harry’s seems more scratched then written and is missing the “Y” in “Harry”, but his name is there none-the-less. Maybe he got help writing “Drum”.

Book enthusiasts looking at this photo are all cringing right now. Yes, that is duct tape holding “Children’s Best” together. I think my mom did that but it wasn’t the first time some type of tape was used on this book (note the red tape below the silver duct tape) or other books from this collection.

Those things you were able to get, you found a way to keep. Enough said.

Here are a few more of Dad’s books. Actually, A Frightened Baby was Clara’s and “Harry Drum and Ella Drum” is written inside Aesop’s Fables (the book with the rose on the cover).

I like that “Boys’ Best” book because it has a Drum on the front. I mean, who wouldn’t like a book with a DRUM on the front?

In addition to library cast-offs, it appears that at least one other source of books for this family was a Hazleton store known as The Bon Ton. Here is a Bon Ton ad that appeared in the Hazleton newspaper Plain Speaker in 1928. It doesn’t mention books.

However, the price tag that is on the inside cover of this 1928 book mentions Bon-Ton. That 1928 price of 25 cents would be around $3.75 today. I’d pay that for this cute, little book!

It seems when my mom was a teen, her fancies didn’t completely fall in line with the teenager’s reading stereotypes. Here is proof from 1946 that my mom read more than just love stories. That’s her maiden name written on the back of Edison’s head. Of course, her dad was an electrician so that probably helped with the reading selection. Maybe he gave her the book!

Mom and Dad made sure that we children, Nathan and I, found a love for books as well. Here is a tiny book that I loved to pieces - literally. It was one of the first books I ever owned and I made sure no one could get confused over the book’s ownership. Take note that I didn’t “scratch” my name in it, either! It appears, however, that I did have some problems forming letters but not bad for an early try, if I have to say so myself! 

For the next few years, each year, my parents gave me a few more of these “Tiny Golden Books” and I treasured each one.

I also made sure to write my name in each one, some written better than others, but the name is there all the same.

No matter what other toys or books I received in any given year, it was the “Tiny Golden Book” that I looked most forward to receiving and enjoyed the most. You could make book on that!

One more book to show you and here it is.

You probably just said, “What the heck?” This little book is an 1874 edition of Who were the First Builders. The pages in it that remain do not show an author’s name. The publisher was T. Nelson and Sons of London, Edinburgh and New York. The “builders” it is referring to are beavers, termites, and birds. If there were more, the pages are no longer in the book to tell us their stories. On the inside cover page, in most elegant handwriting, is the following:

Award of Excellence

presented to

Marian W. Morris

by her attached teacher

M. A. Longstreth

12 mo. 1874

I received this book as a gift from my mom, 12 mo. 1972.

On the inside of the cover she wrote, “In Wilkes-Barre flood of 1972.”

I don’t know how she came upon it. We were in Drums, not Wilkes-Barre, during the flood.

But she knew I’d love it.

And I do.

In our next “Interests” post, we’ll have a look at some of the other reading materials that were saved by a Drum “tree-leaf” over the years. To read that one, return on September 9, 2019 for “Extra! Extra! Read all About It!”

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[1] See earlier posts for discussions about these family members, especially the post “The Stagecoach” located at:  https://drumsofdrumspa.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-stage-coach.html

[2] For picture of the Bible and Presentation Page see previous post entitled: Baptisms, marriages, and deaths, oh my!: https://drumsofdrumspa.blogspot.com/2019/03/baptisms-marriages-and-deaths-oh-my.html

[3] “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

The Mouth of Evil

#31 Coal - The Mouth of Evil

In the previous post we met those Drum Family Tree Members we are aware of that made a living working in the coal mining industry. I suppose doing that work made life; if not their own, that of their families’; easier; helped pay the bills, at least.  In this post, we’ll have a look at how coal made life, for everyone, harder.

One method of getting to the deep coal veins was to dig a tunnel down to it and drag it back to the surface. Another method, one that was later deemed cheaper and easier than digging a tunnel, was to just strip away whatever was over the coal veins and get at it that way. Either way, digging for coal produced great quantities of material that was piled off to the side. As more material was removed from either type of mine, the piles grew higher. Known as “culm banks”, these piles literally became mountains of their own.

Streams and rivers were diverted, ground water changed its flow. The natural ground water filtration was impaired allowing acids and toxins to flow into streams and wells.  Where the strip mines were working, huge craters surrounded by mountains of rock and soil soon dotted the landscape. Life became a grey and earth-tone existence where once purple violets, white daisies and yellow dandelions bloomed against a sea of green grass.

However, down in the valley of Drums, just north of the mines and the strippings of Harleigh, Milnesville, Jeddo, and Ebervale, the people lived lives untouched by the environmental disaster happening just on the other side of the mountain to the south – or so they thought. They didn’t know it then, in the early 1890’s, but their world was about to change.

This is an aerial photo of the area that I believe was taken in 1938. In it we can see the Milnesville Strippings in the photo’s lower right corner, Butler Mountain cutting across the middle of the bottom half of the photo and the Drums Valley on the top two-thirds of the photo.

It started on June 20, 1885. One thing led to another, you might say, when approximately 28 acres of land over the Harleigh mine caved in creating an open pit where water quickly began to collect. The strippings in the photo are not the mining operations that were involved in the Jeddo Tunnel. Those were operations at Harleigh, which is a little South and East of the area included in this photo. Mining engineers feared that the weight of the water would grow so great that it would break into the near-by Ebervale Mine, also not in this photo but closer.

What to do? Ebervale Mine officials thought that if they could control the flow of the water, they might be able to use Ebervale’s existing mine pumps to pump the Harleigh pit water away. So, holes were drilled between the Harleigh works and the Ebervale works allowing the water to drain into the Ebervale mine in a controlled manner. The Ebervale mine pumps were able to handle the additional water. The gamble paid off, for a while.

To every problem there is always at least one solution and this problem appeared to be solved.

And it was solved, until January of 1886. That’s when it started to rain. It rained a lot. It rained so much that mines throughout the area began to flood, their pumps were unable to handle the large quantity of water they were now being asked to handle. The Ebervale Mine was in the gravest danger, already close to capacity due to the Harleigh run-off and now this.

Then things changed for the worse, much worse.

To every solution there are always more problems.

The wall between the Harleigh works and the Ebervale works, weakened by the drain holes, gave way. The already over-worked Ebervale Mine pumps, now suddenly under 40 feet of water, stopped working. There was nothing to do. The mine was closed. The coal, and the jobs, were lost.

However, to every problem, we recall, there are always solutions, at least one. George Markle’s son John, unwilling to give up, found that solution. Working with engineer Thomas S. McNair, they hit upon the idea of draining this mine too! How? They would drive a tunnel - an 8’ x 8’, three-mile-long, 700 feet deep, tunnel from the bottom of the Ebervale Mine to the Little Nescopeck Creek down in Drums. And while they were at it, why not solve a number of the other mine water problems in the area by draining the other mines as well? So, they decided to run a second tunnel from the Ebervale mine over to the Jeddo Mine. That’s how the Hazleton Standard-Speaker told the story in 1991. [1]

The story is told slightly differently in 1984 by the Drums Lions Club.[2] Their version says that a series of rain storms December 9 and 10, 1885 caused the Black Creek to overflow its banks, break through a diverting dam and flood both the Harleigh and Ebervale Mines. They say the tunnel is 7’ x 9’ but generally agree with the rest of the story as was told by the Hazleton Standard-Speaker.

Work began on the tunnel in 1891 and five years later, in 1895[3] (the year Elmer was born), the $500,000 tunnel ($15M in 2018 dollars[4]) built by King & Scott Company, was finished. The solution worked! The water drained. The coal was available for mining once again.[5]

To every Solution, however, there are always additional problems. It turns out that mine water runs somewhat acidic. It dissolves metals, Sulphur, and other toxins from the ground. Miners would refer to the water pumped out of mines as a “Sulphur creek”.[6]

Down through the tunnel poured this “Sulphur creek”; 40 million gallons a day if you believe the Hazleton Standard-Speaker or just 50,000 gallons a day according to the Drums Lions Club. Either way, it’s a lot. Out into the Little Nescopeck it splashed, just to the east of the road that crosses the Little Nescopeck, the South Old Turnpike Road, the same road that the Stage Coaches used to travel as they came down the mountain, past Grammy’s house, through Fritzingertown, and up into Drums (see Post #10 – The Stage Coach).

Actually, the tunnel exit is not directly at the Little Nescopeck Creek. The tunnel exit is approximately 1,500 feet south of the creek and empties into what was once a feeder stream for the creek. That feeder stream then empties into the Little Nescopeck Creek approximately 700 feet east of the South Old Turnpike Road where it crosses the Little Nescopeck.

In the following photo, I’ve zoomed-in on the lower right corner of the photo above to show greater details. We now see the strippings on the bottom half of the photo and again see Butler Mountain cutting across, dividing the coal fields from Drums. In the top half of the photo one can easily see the curve of the Wilkes-Barre & Hazleton (WB&H) Rail Line as it comes off Butler Mountain and curves past Kis-Lyn, across the Little Nescopeck Creek and on toward Beisel’s Corner. Beisel’s Corner can be seen in the larger photo above.

In the photo below, I’ve marked the location of the Drums WB&H Station. Next to it is the point where Old Turnpike Road, the Little Nescopeck Creek, and the WB&H Rail Line crossed each other at Fritzingertown. The next arrow to the right marks the Kis-Lyn WB&H Station. The fourth arrow on the photo that is pointing down marks Elmer’s Farm in Fritzingertown. Last, we see the opening of the Jeddo Tunnel, a.k.a. the “Mouth of Evil”.

For more information about the WB&H Rail line, visit the post They call it Progress.

Life-long Drums Resident Pete Medvecky took me on a hike back to the tunnel entrance on April 9, 2018.[7] It was the perfect day for a hike in the Pennsylvania woods. The buds on the undergrowth and hardwoods had not yet burst open in their spring-green spender but the snows of winter had all melted away. The air was a cool mid-40’s allowing us to make our way on a hike some might call slightly challenging without becoming overheated or overly tired.

Of course, we were surrounded by the sounds of rushing water since the creek is so near but as we approached the tunnel exit the sound of rushing water increased. Then suddenly it appeared, the grey-green Sulphur creek seemingly appearing from out of the ground. 

I decided to go ahead and use this photo even though it
does include the tip of my finger (top right corner). That
just goes to prove that I ain't no professional photographer!

Upon closer examination, you realize that sunk down into a man-made crevasse is a hole with a metal gate that resembles the gates of a prison through which this grey-green water is rushing. And you realize this gate is meant to keep people out, not in. It’s the water that rushes out through the bars of the gate, as it makes its way down to the Little Nescopeck. 

Even here at what many have called “The Mouth of Evil”, was a sign of hope. Pete pointed it out to me. A horseshoe was embedded in the concrete wall just outside the gate. “Look at that!” he said pointing at the wall across the “creek” from us.  “I’ve been here plenty of times before but that’s the first I noticed that horseshoe! One of the workers must have put that there when they made this wall back in 1891 or 1892!” 

Sure enough, there in the side of the wall, just above the water-line, was a horse shoe embedded in the wall. My first thought was the builder must have been Pennsylvania German. The prongs were pointed down. My guess is that, knowing all the evil that tunnel would bring each moment of its existence to the world around it, some Pennsylvania German worker, thinking this may be the perfect place to pour out a bit of good luck as well as the coming bad, encased it there forever (see post 25 Faith – In God for more on horseshoes). 

Having seen the mouth of evil, we turned to retrace our steps back to Pete’s car. However, I wanted to see where the Sulphur creek actually entered the main stream of the Little Nescopeck Creek. Near-by that spot, if the family stories I’d been told were true, one of Philip’s mills had been located, as well as his house. So, we headed to that spot along the creek.

As we stood beside the clean portion of the Little Nescopeck, east of, but within sight of, the place where the Sulphur creek joined the main stream, the Spring Peepers (small frogs that are a harbinger of Spring), began singing their high-pitched Spring song around a small pond untouched by the poisons pouring past it just a stone’s throw to the west.

The clean Little Nescopeck is at our feet in this photo, flowing west, away from us. That greenish-gray water in the distance is the Sulphur creek joining the main stream of the Little Nescopeck from the South. The “Peeper’s Pond” is just off the photo to the left.

I looked down at the clear, clean, swirling creek water at my feet and thought of my father, Harry, telling me how his grandfather, Nathan A., had told him about the day the tunnel opened and this clear, clean Little Nescopeck Creek changed almost instantly into a grey-green cloudy stream of poison. It was said that Nathan lamented that day; the day the creek he had so often enjoyed spending an hour or two alongside fishing, died, almost instantly.

It’s been that way ever since.

In our next post, we will begin looking at the daily lives of the Drums. We'll begin with the books that they read. Return to the Drums of Drums, PA on August 26 and become well-read by reading Interests - Books, Books, BOOKS!

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[1] Christopher, Carl, “John Markle’s Brainchild: Jeddo Tunnel an enduring engineering masterpiece”, Pages From the Past Special Edition, Hazleton Standard-Speaker, Friday, Sept. 6, 1991, p B 13.

[2] Two Hundred Years of Progress: Butler Township, 1784-1984 (Drums, PA: The Drums Lions Club, May, 1984) pp 22-23.

[3] Two Hundred Years of Progress

[4] Conversion calculator located at: https://www.officialdata.org/

[5] Christopher

[6] Jackson, Kent, “Mining a rich vein: Old-timers remember life and death in deep mines”, Pages From the Past Special Edition, Hazleton Standard-Speaker, Friday, Sept. 6, 1991, p B13

[7] Pete Medvecky interview and hike conducted April 9, 2018.