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.

The Miners

#30 Coal – The Miners

Anyone who has spent any time in the Hazleton area after 1830 would know one industry has stood above all others for the impact it has had on the lives of all who’ve lived here, even unto today – the Coal Industry.

If you have ever been in a coal mine, then you know what I’m about to describe. The temperature swiftly drops 20 – 40 degrees as you move further from the entrance into the mine until it reaches a constant, cool level. The operators of the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour say the temperature in that mine is 53°F year round. Each sound, every sound, echoes all around you. Shadows move and jump with each movement of the source of light and should that light be turned off, one is engulfed in a darkness that can only be described as “perfect”. You cannot see your hand in front of your face even if it is touching your nose. A drop of cold water may fall on your nose from the roof above you only to remind you of just what is above you as you stand in this tunnel deep inside, under, a mountain.

A brochure from the 1970’s. 

The Miner is Coney Lazis 

as depicted by George Harvin.

All the stories you have heard in the past about mines run through your mind – pockets of poisonous gas, rock falls, cave-ins, explosions, floods!!  Suddenly, all you want to do is run out of this place! But you are a tourist, you paid to make this short trip into the Earth. You can leave. Others before you not only had to stay for a full shift of work – 10 hours or more of hammering, drilling, blasting – but then had to return to do it all again the next day and each day thereafter or they didn’t get paid. It was their job.

Coal was a known quantity long before it was found in northeastern Pennsylvania, it just wasn’t known to be in northeastern Pennsylvania. It wasn’t until 1791, according to a story published in the Harper’s Weekly in 1857, when it was found by a man named Philip Ginter, that people became aware of its presence. The story goes that Ginter came upon a lump of it while he was running through the woods on Summit Hill along the Lehigh River.[1]  

However, that was only just when coal was discovered along the Lehigh River, and even THAT fact as a “first” is apparently a “first” of uncertainty. It seems coal was well-known to be in the Lackawanna/Luzerne/Carbon Counties area for a very long time, probably from the first presence of “white” men in the area. The presence of coal in these parts was well known as early as 1766, 1760 in Bucks County. It was being strip-mined in the Wyoming Valley and shipped south via river barge down the Susquehanna River throughout the Revolutionary War.[2]

This coal was not the “usual”, soft Bituminous Coal found in other places. This stuff, called Anthracite Coal, was harder – both in texture and to burn. They should have asked Obadiah Gore, Jr. how to burn it. He was a blacksmith who lived in the Wyoming Valley in 1768. He knew how to burn the stuff. Indeed, the Anthracite Coal Industry of northeastern Pennsylvania marks its beginning by the date when Obadiah, after leaving for a short time, returned from Connecticut; making 2018 the industry’s 250^th anniversary.[3] However, it wasn’t until 1817 that a workable burning system was perfected allowing the industry to advance.[4]

Closer to Hazleton, coal was found in 1826, the year after John Drum ^{(Philip, George, Jacob, Philip)} was born. According to local legend, John Charles went out one day to dig out a groundhog in the area of present-day Hazleton and found coal[5] The rest, as they say, is history!

I’m told by his Great, Great, Great Grandson, life-long Drums resident Bob Ray,[8] that not only did he find coal, he got the groundhog, too! Charles was a blacksmith in Conyngham so certainly knew what coal was and what to do with it. He was born April 2, 1778 in Moore, PA. He served in both the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. Because of his service, he was granted land in Sugarloaf where he set up his blacksmith shop. He died at the age of 95, January 16, 1874.

Needless to say, the discovery of coal in this area started a coal mining industry which provided employment for a great many area residents. The first of Philip’s descendants of whom we are aware of finding employment in the coal mines was John A. Drum^{(John, Philip, George, Jacob, Philip)}. He was 20-years-old in 1880 when he was listed in that year’s Census as a “Laborer in Coal Mine.” He must have found the work agreeable, or at least sustainable, because his brother, Nathan A., is listed as being a miner in the 1900 Census. John, however, is apparently no longer a miner by 1900. His place of residence changed by then, as well. When these changes occurred is uncertain, however, due to the lack of census data for 1890. He appears in the 1900 census as living in Schuylkill Haven, a town about 40 miles south of Drums in Schuylkill County, earning his living as a “House Carpenter”. [6] Two of his sons, however, are contributing to the household income via employment with the mines; William (age 15) and Calvin (age 11); are both listed as “Slate Pickers”.

Nathan A. Drum
From the family portrait
taken in the early 1900’s

Nathan A. Drum, age 32 in 1900, probably was a miner even by 1890 when he was 22, however, Census or other records are lacking that can verify this as the case. Living with Nathan in 1900 was his wife’s brother, John C. Balliett, and he, too, had found employment in the mines. John Balliett was only 16 but both he and Nathan are listed as “Mine Laborers”. 

On May 30, 1893, Nathan took Mary Ann Balliett to be his wife. By 1895, they had welcomed their first son into the world and named him Elmer Alonzo. Two years later, Elmer’s sister, Christie Alice, was born. Then in 1901, Nathan and Mary became the parents of a third child and named him Walter.  

This lamb was displayed in a 
Drum home for many years;
in our house for as long
as I can remember.
Nathan and Mary
had this marble lamb carved
in memory of little Walter.

Walter gave the family great joy for almost a year but just a few weeks before his first birthday, Walter contracted pneumonia. He died on June 7, 1902. Had he lived, he would have celebrated his first birthday on June 14. Heartbroken after Walter died, Mary declared she would never have another child. She was true to her word. 

Christie Drum Yoch.
Photo taken approximately 1930.

Christie married a 24-year-old coal miner named Paul Yoch on June 10, 1922. She was 25-years-old. They had two sons, Marvin and Gordon. Christie died nineteen years later, in 1941, while her son, Gordon, was overseas; an Army Sargent, fighting in the second world war. Shortly thereafter, Marvin left to fight as well; a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps. Gordon passed away in 1993 and Marvin followed in 2015. Photos of Gordon and Marvin were included in a previous post entitled “and World War II, too, for some of us.”

Although mining was the livelihood of many families, many people found issues with the industry. They pointed out the dangers and stressed the apparent lack of health and safety measures employed by the mine owners. They said mine owners took advantage of the miners by forcing them to buy the supplies they needed for work and home from the company store and “renting” them the shacks they lived in at rates far too high, deducting the rent from the miners’ pay. In the song  “Sixteen Tons” made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955, we hear the lyrics,

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store.

In the following cartoon, clipped from the September 21, 1896 issue of New York Thrice-A-Week World, we see a Coal Baron counting his money as poor people suffer. This clipping was found among the many clippings included in “The Hat Box Collection” (see the post Faith – In God for information about, and a look into, this box of family papers reaching back to 1800). Ella Santee Drum’s uncle, Jacob Santee, clipped many of the clippings from the 1920’s that are included in this box. Was it “Uncle Jake”, as Ella called him, who clipped this one as well or could it have been Nathan A. who did the honors?

So, it is not surprising that Unions began to form in the Coal Fields of Pennsylvania. Nathan A. was a miner just when the United Mine Workers (UMW) came into existence. How involved was he in this movement? Other than his having paid union dues, we are left to wonder what he thought of the Union. What was his opinion of John Mitchell and did he see Mitchell when he first came to Hazleton in 1899? Was Nathan one of the 112,000 men who refused to work during the strike of 1900? Surely, he was involved in the walkout of 1902 when 357 collieries went idle after 147,000 miners walked off the job.^[7]

He paid dues to the United Mine Workers of America for at least 13.5 years, 1916 – 1930. Dues books he carried show payments to Local Union #2168 of McAdoo 1916-1925 and Local Union #250 Lattimer Mines 1926 – 1930.

Nathan’s primary income, like so many in this area, came from the mines, but he also “made ends meet” financially through his carpentry and blacksmith skills. His backyard garden and farm (chickens, cows, etc) helped to provide food, as well.

Shown below is what appears to be a pay slip of Nathan’s. It was found on the bottom of his carpenter tool chest. Eaten by silver fish, mildewed, dirty, stained; it is still mostly legible. It is dated October 31. The year was partially removed by a hungry silverfish but appears to be in the 1920’s which matches with his Lattimer Mines Due Books.

One wishes the fellow who wrote it had spent more time in school studying penmanship but it seems to show a “Total Earnings” of $39.20 arrived at by adding an Allowance advance of $5.58 to wages earned entered according to number of hours worked.

If I am reading these chicken scratches correctly, the line for “Hours” says 124 @ .2711 = $33.62. At 8 hours a day, 124 hours is approximately 15 days so, I hope this slip is for half a month and not all of October.

Debits include $2.15 for the Lattimer Store and 50 cents for what looks like “Coll”. It is things such as these that makes one wish an ancestor was still around to ask! Perhaps this says “Call” and is a charge for using the company telephone. Whatever it is, the total debits are $2.65 for a balance of $36.55 due Nathan. In 2018 dollars that would be $538.61.

Census data indicates his role in the mines changed over time: 1900 = Mine Laborer; 1910 = Coal Miner, Foreman; 1920 = Coal Mine, Carpenter; and 1930 = Coal Mine, Laborer.

Mining, of course, was, and still is, a highly dangerous occupation. I suppose it was more so in the beginning although I haven’t checked statistics on that to know if true or not. However, the list of mine disasters for the Anthracite Region is long, too long any way you slice it.

The Avondale Fire, Twin Shaft in Pittston, Milnesville Mine blast, Baltimore Tunnel in Wilkes-Barre, Pittston’s Knox Mine Disaster; to name just a few; all too well known.  One’s heart fell when the Breaker Whistle blew. It meant death had come to visit one of the mines yet again.

A miner’s first aid kit
probably carried
by Nathan.
For a story
about this kit
and a danger it
presented for today,
read the post entitled
 “No Boom is
good BOOM!”
 

Thankfully, to my knowledge, at least, Nathan was spared living through an occurrence such as the Tomhicken Disaster. His was not a sudden death, his was a more drawn out process. Perhaps he would rather have had the sudden end vs. the one he got but we don’t get to make that choice. In any case, we’ll never know.

The fact remains that Nathan spent much of his life working in the mines, so it is reasonable to assume his death was most likely the result of his occupation. His death certificate lists his cause of death as “chronic pulmonary tuberculosis (fibroid type)”. Today this condition is one of the conditions that is collectively called “Black Lung”. Nathan died on July 27, 1934. He was 66 years old. 

Nathan A. Drum.
A detail from
a group picture taken in 1923.
He was only 55 at this time
but, to me, looks much older!

He was not a miner when he died, according to the information provided by his son, Elmer, for the death certificate. Elmer listed his father’s occupation as “carpenter.” Nathan A. Drum is buried in the St Johns Cemetery beside Mary Ann and Walter.

John C. Balliett may have started in the mines, but he did not continue with the mines long. By 1910 we find him still living with his sister and Nathan, but now he is listed as a “laborer, odd jobs.” Elmer also appears to have found employment for a short time in the mines. He is listed in the 1920 census as a “Blacksmith Helper in Mines”.

To my knowledge, there was only one more “connection” to the mines of Pennsylvania from the extended part of “the tree”. My mom’s father, Elton Shearer, worked in the mines as an electrician. He appears to have begun this work at age 18 in the Pittsburgh area before he met my Grandmother, Bertha Zboray. In fact, he would drive his motorcycle from Pittsburgh to Milnesville every weekend to see her. He moved back here when they got married in 1921. She was 18. He was 23. He went to work then in the anthracite mines. Elton died in 1949 a week shy of his 51st birthday; of a heart attack.

Elton took both photos on the left making the one on top a “selfie!” On the lower left is a dog named Mr. Danby. Mr. Danby was a special friend because he not only wagged his tail, he sniffed out dangerous gasses. The photo on the right of Elton is an enlargement of the top left photo. Mom said he took these photos when he was 19 making the year 1917.

That coal, and all the industries that surrounded the mining of it, kept many a family alive cannot be denied. That it changed everything it touched cannot be denied either. Fortunes were made because of it and many a life was lost along the way. Even the environment was changed because man dug in the ground for the stone that burns.

Return to Drums of Drums, PA on August 12, 2019 when we’ll take a walk in the woods to get a closer look at coal mining’s environmental impact on the Drums area as seen through The Mouth of Evil.

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[1] “Buried Treasure: Hunter Philip Ginter credited with finding anthracite coal at Summit Hill in 1791”, Pages From the Past Special Edition, Hazleton Standard-Speaker, Friday, Sept. 6, 1991, p B 2.

[2] Bradsby, H.C., ed, History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: S.B. Nelson & Co., 1893). Chapter XI Coal. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/luzerne/1893hist/ accessed 8/6/2018.

[3] Allabaugh, Denise, “Mining Milestone: 250 years after its discovery, anthracite still heating homes” Hazleton Standard-Speaker, February 11, 2018, p C 1

[4] Buried Treasure

[5] 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 B 6.

[6] One wonders if “House Carpenter” was a title used in that area for a Mine Carpenter. It just seems odd that a person’s two young boys would be employed in the mining industry but the father, who once was so employed, is no longer.

[7] “Workers’ rights: UMW roots date to 1880s”, Pages From the Past Special Edition, Hazleton Standard-Speaker, Friday, Sept. 6, 1991, p B 12.
[8] Conversation with Bob Ray, July 15, 2019, at Butler Active Adult Center in Drums.