YEARS GONE BY ARCHIVES |
The Pottsville Republican of July 8, 1908 A regular stated meeting of the Borough Council was held on Monday evening with the following members present: Messrs. Meck, Saul, Bubeck, Rauch, Mengle and President Schumacher. Secretary Runkle, Chief Burgess Baker, electrician Marshall and Supervisor Knarr were also present. Minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. E. L. Thomas presented a petition to the council signed by the taxpayers of the South Ward and of town, asking council to donate the plot of ground next to the Gerber Shoe factory to the recently organized fire company of that ward. The fire company in turn agrees to build a suitable fire house on that plot and furnish a room where council and school board may meet, also a place for the supervisor to store his tools and a place for a lockup. Mr. Thomas showed council the necessity of such an organization in that ward to give fire protection to the eight or ten industries located in that section. C. E. Berger, Esquire, presented an ordinance on vagrancy, this ordinance provides for fining all tramps and suspicious characters found in the borough and upon failure to pay the fine, imprisonment in the borough lockup or county jail. Mr. Berger stated that he would like council to accept the ordinance at this meeting and to do so they would have to suspend the rules unanimously. On motion of Mr. Saul, council unanimously suspended all rules to take action on the ordinance presented by C. E. Berger and on motion of Mr. Keller the ordinance was passed. Van Dusen Rickert of Pottsville, representing the Eastern Pennsylvania Railway Company, said they would like to buy the electric light plant and asked council to appoint a committee to confer with this company. Frank Brown spoke briefly to council about the G. H. Gerber Shoe Company buying the plot of ground next to their factory upon which the lockup now stands. He said that they intended to make their factory second to none in the state and that they intended to enlarge their factory this year and also next year, and offered council $400 for the site next to their factory. He said he did not think the taxpayers of the South Ward were willing to bear the expense of erecting a hose house on that site and asked council to kindly consider its offer to buy it. George Naus asked council to allow him to connect to the sewer running through Baker’s farm, saying his sewer ran through there but that when council ran their sewer through it, it blocked up. The electric Light Committee reported placing lights on Pennsylvania Avenue and changed some of the lights on Dock Street from one side to the other. The Road Committee reported fixing the various streets in town and receiving a carload of brick to lay crossings and pavement. The question of donating the ground on Columbia Street to the fire company or selling it to the Gerber Shoe Company now came up for discussion. Mr. Lautenbacher, speaking on the subject, urged council to sell the ground to the shoe factory, not that he wasn’t in favor of the fire company but said he thought the shoe factory was a great help to the town employing when running fully 230 hands. This raised quite a discussion and finally on motion of Mr. Lautenbacher, the matter was laid over until next month to find out if the shoe factory wants all the ground or half of it. On motion of Mr. Saul, the president of council was instructed to notify the superintendent of the Water Company to finish their part of the agreement relative to the laying of pipes on William Street. On motion of Keller the Light Committee was instructed to place a light at the rolling mill. On motion of Saul, the matter of blocking the sewer of Mr. Naus was left in the hands of the Solicitor and Road Committee. The Pottsville Republican of July 16, 1908 NEW FIRE COMPANY IS ASSURED – TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETING As has already appeared in this column, there has been a fire company organized in the South Ward of the town. The special reason for the creation of the new company is that in their particular section of the town there is no fire apparatus. Between the greater section and this district and the Rainbow, Schuylkill and Hook and Ladder Companies, there is the Reading Railroad and very frequently trains block all crossings and on account of the air brakes on the trains they are unable to move , sometimes as long as ten minutes or more. In the meantime should a fire be in progress, the building would be at the mercy of the flames and might be altogether too far gone to get control of same when theses companies could get across again. This section below the railroad, particularly Berne Street and the Long Run Road and the Schuylkill Mountain Road are being built up so rapidly that additional fire protection is now necessary. The following milk and business places are located in this district: Reed and Leininger, Schuylkill Haven Rolling Mill, Saul and Zang, Gerber Shoe Company, S. Thomas Knit Mill, Daniel Sharadin Est, Meck and Company, Daniel Phillips Lumber Yard, Samuel Riney, Daniel Riney, Daniel Bitzer, J. F. Bast, Charles Bittle, Milton Meck Lumber Yard, Thomas Bast, Mrs. Mary Hoffman, Frank Runkle, H. J. Dohney, Daniel Sharadin Furniture Store, and others. The School Board is now enlarging its school building to four rooms which will hereafter take care of a great many more of our children and this institution needs the best kind of protection for we need only to think back a few months to the awful calamity that befell Cleveland, Ohio. The South Ward represents the second ward of the borough, contains besides the manufacturers and business places, many new and beautiful homes. The new organization has been met with hearty approval and the movement is being sanctioned by the citizens in general. It is the aim of the organization to have as many members of the other wards as possible, while the home of the fire company will be in the South Ward, its assistance and help will be rendered to the extreme parts of the town and for that reason they invite all the residents of Schuylkill Haven to join their ranks and become associated with them. On Monday night, July 20th at 7:30 there will be a special public meeting held at the mill of J. F. Bast to consider further details of the organization. The question of purchasing a steamer will be taken up and arrangements made for same. Everybody is urged to be present at the meeting. The Pottsville Republican of July 20, 1908 EXCITEMENT CAUSED BY FIRE – BOROUGH COUNCIL HELD MEETING Saturday afternoon at about four o’clock, fire was discovered in the private hallway of the D. M. Wagner furniture store building that leads to the lodge rooms. The blaze was in a pile of burlap and was caused by someone carelessly throwing down a lighted match. The blazing burlap was thrown into the street and the Schuylkill Hose Company, which was summoned on a still alarm, extinguished the blaze. The Town Council held a special meeting on Saturday evening with Messrs. Caffrey, Lautenbacher, Meck, McKeown, Keller, Rooney, Saul and President Schumacher in attendance. In May 1892, an ordinance was passed giving the Bell Telephone Company a right of way through town for its poles and wires, but the ordinance was not on the ordinance book. The object of the meeting was to restate this ordinance and direct that it be placed in the ordinance book, which was done. The Pottsville Republican of July 24, 1908 Spontaneous combustion caused a slight fire in Squire C. H. Goas’ harness shop on Saint John Street on Thursday night, and for a time caused great excitement, as Squire Goas’ building is of frame and adjoins another frame building, which in turn, adjoins the Hotel Grand. On the other side of the shop, separated by a ten foot driveway, is Adam Moyer’s big livery stable and Keystone Hall, and to the rear of the shop is another section of the livery stable. The fire was on the second floor, which is used by the Squire for a work room. The timely discovery of the fire by Adam Moyer and the prompt sounding of the alarm resulted in the extinguishing of the flames before much damage had been done. Squire Goas’ loss is not over twenty five dollars and the damage to the building, which is owned by D. D. Yoder, of Reading, will be fully covered by half that amount. The Pottsville Republican of July 20, 1933 TOWN OF SCHUYLKILL HAVEN NOW HAS TWELVE SALOONS Groceryman John W. Freeman, of Centre Avenue, Schuylkill Haven, formally embarked in the saloon business this week. The place is known as the Spring Garden Beer Garden. This place has been conducted by Mr. Freeman as a grocery store for twenty six years. The town now has twelve saloons, about the same number as in the old Brooks High license days. They are: the old Columbia Hotel conducted by W. G. Yost; the Yuengling Building on West Main Street, Robert Riffert, proprietor; the old Rudolph place conducted by William Sharpe; the Menas place, formerly the James Mellon Café; the Gabe Luongo Saloon on Saint John Street; the Central Hotel, Joseph Matonis; the Joseph Delago place, formerly the Stanton Saloon and the Frank Yenoski place in the West Ward; the William Hyde Saloon, formerly a grocery store; the Benjamin Luckenbill saloon, for many years owned by Jack Bader; the old Earl Whitman place, now operated by Francis Breinich, his son in law and the Freeman place. Some of the former stands dated back to Civil War days. The old George Paule saloon is now an A and P store. The Spring Garden Hotel is another chain grocery, the Frank Loy place at the old docks is a dwelling and the Hotel Grand is vacant. The Pottsville Republican of July 25, 1933 The Reading Railroad Main Street crossing which has been in bad shape for a long time is now being put into good condition. The crossing has been a real danger to the springs of motor cars and drivers will be glad to learn that the company has decided to repair it. The township road from Main Street to the state highway, on which much money was expended last summer, is in bad shape, and daily growing worse. The holes are so deep that they are a real hazard. The Schuylkill Haven borough has the machinery and skill to put the piece of road into a permanent good condition and drivers are wondering why something is not done. The borough highway department would do the work at cost. A heavy wind and rain storm visited this section last evening. The storm came during the handing out of the four hundred local relief orders and many of the men had to seek shelter until the storm had passed. |