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.