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.