Swatara Furnace - Page 28, August 2nd, 1830

The above page number, 28, is not a typo, I am having to change the way I present information from the ledger; I have had the ledger for almost a year now and have only gotten as far as page  20, (Post from 30 September 2016). For the time being I am going to discontinue adding new surnames from every page; it is just too time consuming; I'm sure all of my followers are more interested in progress reports from the furnace site, what was  going on, new  things mentioned for the first time etc. I skipped pages 21 thru 27, there are new surnames on these pages which I hope to get back to and record at a later  date. In addition to progress reports from the furnace site I am going to add things that are not quite new, but things that might be interesting to my followers; today's post falls under the "Interesting Things" information. I also have hundreds of "Furnace/Forge area photographs" that I am going to add to my upcoming posts; after today's   ledger post I will start with pictures of "Highbridge", I have also seen it printed as "High Bridge".

Ledger Post

Page 28, Middle,  - August 2nd, 1830

There is something new in the above scan that I just picked up on, it seems we are now dealing with information from another ledger book, in both the top and bottom sections we see this: (Blue Book) which is underlined. The interesting part is the Surname "Trump", I'm sure everyone has become familiar with the Trump name over the past year or so. Sam Trump has been mentioned several times in this ledger book, nothing exciting though, just a couple of dollars here and there; the above is big time money though, Trump was paid $1.50 a day for 91 days, a total of $136.50; it could be fifteen to eighteen weeks work depending on how many days a week he worked, this could be three or more months work, also $1.50 a day is the highest pay I have seen, a few skilled workers did make $1.50 a day, most of the labor pay was one dollar or less per day. So, who was Sam Trump? What did he do? This would be something for a Genealogist to look into. Trump's wife is also listed in the top section of the scan, she received .05, total of $13.75 for something. I would say that the Trump's lived at the furnace site, in the bottom block under House Charge Trump was paid for seven candles, dried apples, meat and apple butter.

Swatara Furnace/Forge Area History

Highbridge Photos

Williams family photo from between 1921 and 1923. My Uncle Bill Williams at the far right, to his left is my Mother to be, Ruth Williams, (later Ruth Grumbine), the two at the left are unknown.

Williams photo from the early 1930's. Bill Williams at the left, Helen Williams (later Helen Brogan, then Kimmy) center, girl at far right unknown

View from the ground of the three sitting on the bridge.

In 1935 my Dad, Arthur W. Grumbine purchased a Leica 35 mm camera, it was also in 1935 the Eastman Kodak Company released Kodachrome Color slide film. Sometime between 1935 and 1939 my Dad took his first color slide pictures. The above was taken in Summer time, the one below in the Fall. There will be more color slide photos in following posts.

Swatara Furnace - Page 20, July 12th and 14th

Some Blacksmitthing Things

Water Supply For The Big House, Fountain 
and Garden

Ledger Post

Page 20, 1830 Middle - July 14th

Note: There are only three new surnames on Page 20, one new name was listed at the top of page 20 for July 12th, (Not included on the above scan); also one new name at the bottom of page 20 that doesn't show up on the above scan.

Page 20

Craig, Andrew, 7/12/30 To Store for Tobacco - .03. (Top of Page)

A new Meas, (Not scanned, bottom of page)  this makes three so far.

Meas, Adam - 7/14/30 - .64

The next new surname is in the second block from the top in the above scan, I can't figure out what his name is, looks like "Sam Filiec", I think Mr. Filiec sold things to the Company Store, there are twelve pairs of Men's shoes and six pairs of Women's shoes, plus eighteen "Coars??? and four of something else. The grand total for this stuff was $69.75, far right of the ledger page, (not shown on the above scan). Some profit is being made at the Company Store; the woman's shoes cost the store one dollar thirty-seven and a half cents, John Meas (bottom block) paid one dollar sixty-two and a half cents for a pair of women's shoes.  In the top block, Mr. Wonder is selling E&G beef at .04&3/4 cents a pound, the store is selling the beef at .06 a pound.

Blacksmith Products

The Blacksmith Shop made most of, or all of the things needed for the construction of the Furnace complex, see pictures below.

My Son John has done quite a bit of Blacksmith work as a hobby, John gave me some advice on the above support rods. From the ground level the rods seem to be about one inch square; the above rod is on the East side of the Furnace above the Cast Arch; they were bent on an angle and would have served to help support the Cast House roof. There are two ways to put the slot into the bar, one would be to use a "Hot Chisel" to cut the hole into the bar while the bar is at it's highest temperature, the other would be to "weld" two 1 by 1/2 inch rods together with a spacer that was pulled out before the rod cooled.

I took the above picture ten years ago on Oct 15, 2006. This is the back of the Furnace facing the Furnace Bank; the two rods, red circles, 1 and 2 stick straight out, I believe they helped support the "Bridge" that went to the top of the Furnace Stack, the workers hauled charcoal, limestone and iron ore from the Furnace Bank to the top of the furnace stack and dumped it into the stack. I hope all of these rods are still in the furnace stack and that nobody pulled them out and took them home.

Furnace Castings - Water Supply to the Big House, Fountain and Garden

I took the above picture and the one below on Oct 15, 2006. The red circle at the top,number 1 is the West end of the Big House, number 2, red circle, is modern day PVC pipe, probably installed by Boyer's after 1961, number 3, oblong red circle is what I believe is the cast iron pipe that supplied water to the Big House, garden and lower yard water fountain.

Above is another piece of partially buried pipe which I think supplied water to the house, garden and fountain. 

I would like to have some assistance  -  would somebody who is working on the current Furnace preservation project be kind enough to cross the creek and see if that old pipe is still there, and perhaps looks like ancient cast iron?

I took the above photo at one of the Pine Grove Historical Societies Lawn Party's in the early 1990's. This is a cast iron drain pipe that a roof downspout went into at the Northeast corner of the wooden section of the Big House; you can see the mold seam inside the red circle; this pipe was most likely cast at the furnace.

Swatara Furnace - Pages, 17, 18 and 19 - June and July, 1830

Ledger Post

Page 18, 1830 Top - June 30th, July 1st, 2nd and 3rd
Note: Page 17 not scanned, three new surnames from
page 17 appear later in this post

I think, but I am not sure, that this is the first page in the Ledger that any "Mason" work was mentioned; there is no doubt that there was loads of mason work that needed to be done before the first fire in the furnace was set; stone masons were needed for dam breast work, raceways, bases for the wooden aqueduct that carried water from the first dam to the head-race, then from the end of the head-race to the waterwheel itself, there was the furnace and waterwheel pit plus foundations for the many wooden buildings associated with the Furnace Community; I didn't mention The Big House and the other smaller stone houses, who knows when they were built; E&G may have wanted to have some furnace money coming in before they started on the fancy stuff, maybe something will turn up later in the ledger to let us know.

New Surnames in this post

Page 17

Powers, Wm - 6/23/30 - Dn to Sundries

Tregan, Dave - 6/24/30 - 1 Plug Tobacco - .03

Correll, John - 6/24/30 - Pd Him $1.00

Page 18

July 2 - Building Dn To Cash Pd G Eyany?? for 12 3/4 days Mason work c 1 in full  12.75

Also on Page 18 but not on the above scan

Shultz, David - 7/2/30 - Pd Him $2.00

Barr, Enos - 7/6/30 - for 1 Plug of Tob - .03

Page 19 - not scanned

Rigler, Stephen - 7/6/30 - Pd in full - $13.04

Wright, John - 7/12/30 - To house charge - 1 Pt molasses - 1 1/2 cents - 1 loaf bread .15

Stein, John - 7/12/30 - for 1078 Spruce board - .08 - $8.62 

Swatara Furnace Area History

Williams Family History - Part Two

The Furnace Company Store - Part Two

The above photo from the Williams family collection, taken sometime between June 1921 and 1925.

It looks like the above photograph was taken with a low resolution box camera, there was no date on the back of the picture, however, there are some important structures that show up in the picture: Number one, inside the red circle, is the one story frame kitchen mentioned in the Eckert to Boyer deed, number two, also circled in red is the stone smokehouse with a small wooden shed with an angled roof (small red circle inside the number two, large circle), The stone smokehouse is also listed in the above deed. The wooden shed attached to the smokehouse was still being used as a tool, wood and coal house when we were forced to vacate the Big House in November 1961, Miss Margaret A. Boyer had her coal supply stored in this shed. Number three, (red circle) is what we called "The Spring House", the far end of this building, towards the mountain had a depression filled with water that was filled by a number of springs further up the mountainside, we stored our coal supply in the dry and higher end of this wooden building.

The above picture was taken by my Dad, Arthur W. Grumbine

As you can see the above was taken by a higher quality camera than the first picture in this post. My Dad had the date, 1923 on the back of his enlargement; he told me the one story kitchen was removed about 1925 by George Boyer, Dad also said there were very rusty plumbing fixtures in this old "Out, Back, or "Summer Kitchen", there was also a big tin bathtub and other rusty plumbing fixtures in other rooms in the main part of the house when my Grandparents first rented it; water for the house and the circular fountain in the front yard had been supplied at one time by the Furnace/Forge dams up near the Highbridge; these dams had washed out by the time Grandparents rented the house in 1921.

I don't want to bore my followers, but, I do have a number of present day family members and friends who are interested in what went on after 1921 in The Big House area.

 So, here we go; to start with, the seven members of the Williams family never did all live together at The Big House. In June of 1921 ;six of the seven family members lived in their rented house on High St in Lebanon, at this time, the seventh member of the family, my Aunt Helen Williams was in Nursing School in Philadelphia; she, and my Mother to be, Ruth, and their Brother Lloyd had already graduated from High School in Lebanon; the twins. Dorothy and her Brother, Aaron "Bill" Williams were in the sixth grade in Lebanon; Ruth had already taken secretarial courses at a business school in Lebanon, she had a secretaries job in Lebanon. Lloyd was working as a "Roller" with his Father at Lebanon Iron and Steel works.

I have over sixty family diaries  from 1898 to 1977, as one would expect some years are missing. I don't know what happened during the late Summer of 1921; for some reason the house in Lebanon was given up; The Big House at Swatara Furnace/Forge was now the Williams family's main home. My Grandmother, Georgia, told another story that I heard many times over, she said when Helen came from Nursing School in Philadelphia to visit, and saw the Big House for the first  time she "exploded", Aunt Helen said: "You gave up our modern house in Lebanon for this!" The Williams family home in Lebanon had electricity, telephone, indoor plumbing with a bathroom with tub and toilet, and central heat from a large coal furnace in the basement. The Big House at the Furnace/Forge had none of the above.

Unfortunately there are no diaries from 1921, 1922 or 23, (1924 and 1925 were the first diaries after the move was made. My Uncle Bill Williams started to keep a diary in 1926; in this diary was a slip of paper dated, Nov, 26 1921.

"Got 1 pair of shoes Saturday Nov 26, 1921  -  Price $1.98, they are Mule hide shoes, I am in 7th grade, Outwood school, Bheney is the school teacher."

The above tells me they had made the move permanent from Lebanon sometime between June and November of 1921; Uncle Bill failed to mention that his twin Sister Dorothy was also enrolled at the Outwood School. I have a picture from the Pine Grove paper showing Uncle Bill and Aunt Dot in a group picture at the Outwood School, Uncle Bill's longtime friend, John Thompson from Suedberg was also in that picture.

Undated Williams family snapshot taken in the yard between the Big House and the Carriage Barn

This photo probably taken late 1920's or early 1930's. at the far left is the "three hole" stone outhouse, this outhouse was still in operation at one of the Pine Grove Historical Society's Lawn Parties in the early 1990's; the stone structure to the right of the outhouse is what was left of the " Smokehouse", (see thee picture at the top of this post). No names on the picture at all, I know who three people are though: standing, at the far right, My Uncle Lloyd  Williams, standing, center, my Mother to be, Ruth (Williams) Grumbine, Standing, far left, Dr Lombard from Lebanon, Dr and Mrs Lombard were close friends of the Williams family, Dr Lombard was also the Williams family dentist; I never met the Lombard's, but recognized them from other pictures that had their names written on the picture backs  . I don't know who any of the other people in the picture were, probably all from Lebanon. 

I am not done yet with Furnace Company Store, or my family history, these will both show up in a future post, my next post will be from the Ledger Book.

Swatara Furnace Area History

The Furnace Company Store

Some Williams Family History

The Swatara Furnace/Forge "Big House", Company Store and Carriage Barn

We will start this post with the Furnace/Forge Company Store. Go back to my post: "Saturday, March 5, 2016", The Mountaintop view of the Furnace/Forge complex. You can see the whole area in this photo. I have enlarged the above section of the Mountaintop picture as much as I can, further enlargement destroys the sharpness of the small section of the big picture. Number 1, big red circle, is the Company Store, I will explain what is in the small red circle, Number 2 later on in this post, I just found what is inside the small red circle several weeks ago when I enlarged the above picture even larger than what is posted above. The "Store" is showing up more and more as I get further and further into the Ledger, I have found some pages that are "Store" purchases from nearly top to bottom of a page.

Before we continue with the "Store" I need to furnish some of my Williams family information. My Grandparents, William Thomas and Georgia (Britton) Williams were living in Lebanon, on 111 High St., where Grandpa Williams was a "Roller" at a local Iron and Steel Company; they lived in Lebanon with their five children, Ruth, (my Mother to be), Helen, Lloyd, and the twins, Dorothy, and Aaron (Bill). Both Grandpa and Grandmother loved to fish. Sometime early in 1921 they were told about an excellent fishing stream just North of Suedberg. As soon as the 1921 fishing season opened they took the train from Lebanon to Suedberg and went up Mill Creek to a spot called the "Deep Hole", from there they fished down the stream to a wooden bridge that crossed the creek. I have heard the following story told to friends by my Grandmother more times than I can count, there were a few variations in the tale from time to time, but, the ending was always the same. 

"After we finished our fishing for the day we spied a large stone house and barn through the trees on the other side of the creek, we crossed the bridge and went into the yard of the house, the place looked abandoned, the grass in the yard was knee high, we walked up to the house and found there was at least one resident in the place, a cow walked out of what turned out to be the kitchen, that kitchen door was hanging on by only one hinge. At this time we walked back to Suedberg and caught the train back to Lebanon."

Sometime between the opening of the 1921 fishing season and June of 1921 my Grandparents decided to rent the Big House for the Summer of 1921, they wanted to spend their weekends and vacation time there to fish and get away from the heat and noise of Lebanon. Things did not work out the way they planned though. The four months rental of The Big House turned into forty years and  three months, we had to vacate the place as of November 1961

This is turning into a two part post. Part two will have more about The Company Store, a little more family history and my finding out about The "Store"

Swatara Furnace - Page 13,14,15 and 16,  June1830

Ledger Post

The above scan - Page 16, Top, June 20th, 1830

I did not scan pages 13, 14 or 15; there was nothing new on these pages concerning the Furnace project; there were five new surnames though, which I will list later in this post. 

I think the scan above shows us something new though, (page 16 top). Go back and look at my post from March 1st 2016, in that post I jumped ahead to Feb 3rd, 1832 and supplied canal and canal boat information. Now look closely at the above scan, if I am correct it looks like this is the first mention of the "Canal" in the "Ledger Book". The ledger entries are quite small and not too clear.  I  try to translate as follows:

???Charge pd Expense to Pine Grove  06 1/4 cents. Next line down: pd Shown to Canal,  1.60. Then below are the names of eight men, seven of the eight are surnames that have appeared in earlier posts, the one new name is "Tho Barman". A number of these men were paid large sums of money, I think most of them were unskilled laborers which only got wages of 50 cents a day, (earlier posts), at 50 cents a day one would have to work 40 days to make $20.00. So, whats going on here? Did Eckert and Guilford  "Farm Out" some of their employees to work on the canal? Maybe some of our followers who are interested in Union Canal stuff can figure out what was going on.

Now I will list the other new surnames from pages 13, 14 and 15.

Page 13, June 8, 1830

Levi or Leon Felty, - 5 bundles of straw c $1.05 -  $5.25

also on June 8, 1830 - John Everhart - order for shoes - $1.50

Page 14,  June 12, 1830

Daniel Strupenhauer - 30 cents to Smith Shop. Also on page 14, David Sellers, June 14, 1830, - .03 cents to Store, 1 plug of Tobacco.

Page 15, June 15, 1830

Leonard Felty - .08 cents for Blacksmith

Now, the above "Leonard Felty" might be the same fellow as the "Levi or Leon Felty above on Page 13, June 8th; this a good genealogical question for any present day Felty family members who might be following these posts.

  

Swatara Furnace Sketch

A Late 1800's Sketch of The Swatara Furnace Stack and the Stager Home behind it. - Thanks to Dave Kreichbaum.

Way back in 1990 I was doing research on the Swatara Furnace/Forge area; at that time I contacted Lloyd Stager, a long time family friend of ours and made an appointment with Lloyd to take us (my Dad Arthur and I) on a tour of the Furnace/Forge area; Lloyd pointed out many interesting things to us, locations where many of the now gone Furnace/Forge buildings had been located, Lloyd, along with a number of his Brothers and Sisters, were born and raised in the wooden home right behind the Furnace stack. Lloyd also showed us the foundation remains of the home where his Mothers family, (the Rager family) had lived back in the 1800's. In a later post I will go into more detail concerning the Stager family, who was born where, when etc. This information was supplied to me by Mae "Stager" Ditzler, another close friend of ours. Anyway, when we had finished our tour Lloyd asked us if we had  talked to Dave Kreichbaum about the area. I had talked to Dave a few years earlier, Dave gave me some information at the time, most of it I already knew though. My Dad said, "It wouldn't hurt to check in with Dave again" so on our way out we stopped at Dave's home which was not too far from the Outwood Lutheran Church.

Dave told us a story about what happened to his Grandfather some time back in the 1800's, Dave's Grandfather, a teenager at the time was fishing at one of the Furnace/Forge dams, a big storm came up, Dave said his Grandfather took off for home as fast as he could go so as not to get soaking wet; unfortunately he left his fishing rod on the dam breast, when he went back the next day to get his rod he found that the fishing rod, along with a small section of the dam breast had washed down stream, he never found his rod. 

We were getting ready to leave Dave's when he said, "Oh, I do have something you might like to look at", Dave came back with the above framed Furnace sketch, he said it had been passed down through his family, he didn't know who the  artist was, or when the sketch was done. We asked if we could photograph it, Dave said "sure", so, I took the above picture. Dave knew both my Dad and I were photographers, he said if we had time would we make a copy for the Pine Grove Historical Society, (they have a copy), he also said it would be nice if both the Lebanon and Schuylkill County Historical Societies  got copies when we had time to make them, we also got permission to use the photo in any newspaper or magazine article as long as we mentioned who was the owner of the original sketch. Dave was afraid of what might happen to the original sketch when he passed on; he said this was the earliest representation of the furnace he had ever seen, and copies would insure that the furnace in this state would be made available to interested people at a later date. 

Now, at the lower left of the sketch, "Old charcoal Furnace Ellwood, Schuylkill Co Penna"  RKB. 

Does anybody know who the artist "RKB" might be? Maybe a lady artist using the "K" middle initial for her maiden name of Kreichbaum ???

Now some technical stuff , the wooden shed at the right contains the "Twenty-two foot Water Wheel", "two Blowing Tubs" ,  "One Receiving Tub", plus whatever other machinery that was not mentioned in the deed; "Eckert to Boyer." The stone foundations to the left of the "Cast Arch"are all that was left of the "Cast House"at the time RKB did the sketch.