History of Beaver Meadow, Carbon Co., Pa
From
Hazleton PA Plain Speaker, Fri., Sept. 3, 1937
http://boards.ancestry.com.au/localities.northam.usa.states.pennsylvania.easternpa/49692/mb.ashx
Oldest
Town in Lehigh Field To Celebrate 150th Anniversary
Celebration
Finishing touches to decorations
and lighting effects, together with installation of Nick FescinaÕs loud
speakers today and tomorrow will put Beaver Meadow in position for the rousing
start of its sesqui-centennial celebrations which begin Labor Day and continues
to Saturday, September 11 inclusive.
The oldest town in the Lehigh
coal fields, Beaver Meadow has planned through the services of a general
committee headed by Burgess William F. Williams, miner-poet, and subcommittees,
to observe its 150th birthday anniversary in rousing style.
Streets are decorated, there will
be music and speeches, the new state highway will be dedicated and parades, sports
events, band concerts and other entertainment will be enjoyed. Thousands will
join the Beaver Meadow people in the events of the week.
MondayÕs fete will be the opener
in the form of the Legion parade, which will bring into line all the Carbon
county posts and Freeland, Hazleton and McAdoo veterans. Tuesday will be Slovak
Day to honor the settlers of the last century, scheduled to bring together the
various Slovak societies of the Lehigh coal fields, with bands from this city,
Lansford and other places to furnish music and with many paraders in line.
Dedication of the new state road
will be WednesdayÕs feature to be followed Thursday with band concerts. On
Friday there will be a pet parade and the soap box derby. Saturday September 11
the windup will feature boxing bouts, wrestling, baseball and other sports
directed by Patrick Roarty, well known Drifton athlete.
The committee chairmen who have
handled the plans are:
General Chairman: Burgess William F. Williams.
Sylvester Rossi, chairman of concessions and
decorating.
John Hitcho, chairman of refreshments.
William Hill, chairman of entertainment.
George Phillips, chairman of lighting.
John Matyas, chairman of soliciting.
D.J. North, chairman of advertising.
Secretary: Winfield Warren.
Treasurer: John Manko.
Beginning History
Beaver Meadow owes its founding
to the colonization movement launched originally by the Moravians.
Through what is now its main
street marched the Indian savages who took this path when the historic
captivity of the Benjamin Gilbert family of the Mahoning Valley in 1780 saw the
redskins take their captives on the Old Great North Swamp Trail, practically what is state highway route
309 today, from the Nesquehoning Creek to swing into the Susquehanna Valley.
The great county of Northampton,
one of the three original counties of Pennsylvania, formed in 1752, was the
mother of Carbon county, in which Beaver Meadow is located. The county was as
big as New Jersey. On March 13, 1843, East Penn, Lausanne, Mahoning, Banks,
Towamensing, Lower Towamensing and Penn Forest townships were lopped off to
make most of Carbon county. Kidder and Penn Forest came from Monroe, and the
rest from Northampton.
Turnpike Was Main Street
The Lehigh & Susquehanna
Turnpike ran through the tract and naturally the houses grew along this main
street . The first house, built of logs, was erected in 1804. At the foot of
the Spring Mountain was a toll gate kept by a man named Green. William H.
Wilson, Revolutionary war hero, with the rank of colonel, moved to Beaver
Meadow April 10, 1826. He opened a tavern. His body is buried in the old Maple
Grove cemetery. When, in 1831, James Lamison became Citizen No. 3, he opened a
tavern also. In 1833, N.R. Penrose located at Beaver Meadow. He was a relative
of the family from which United States Senator Boise Penrose came.
Penrose Was Pioneer
Penrose was the land agent of
Judge Barnes and built the big property known as the CornishmenÕs Home
which Web Hoyt occupied with his tavern. Later James Gowan or Gowen,
father of Judge Franklin B. Gowen, who was president of the Reading in the days
when through his indomitable faith in anthracite he made the Reading the
biggest coal company in the anthracite region. William T. Carter when he
operated Coleraine used this structure for a company store. It was torn down in
1910.
The first brewer was Henry
Brenckman, native of Germany. He operated a small brewery until his death in
1860. He was a busy man. He made his beer and also the barrels, marketed the
output of CarbonÕs first brewery but found time to also run a tavern.
Railroad Boomed Town
Beaver Meadow grew fast, for the
Beaver Meadow Railroad Co. had its mines, shops, machinery plant and car works
in the town. Hopkin Thomas, Welsh genius, was the first master mechanic. He discovered
the first effective method of making a chilled steel car wheel in the history
of railroading and also was the first man to successfully invent a device that
allowed hard coal to be used to fire locomotives. He also built the first ten
wheel engine in the United States. It was named the Nonpariel.
Mergers In Those Days Also
However the spirit of mergers
arose. N.B. Penrose built an iron works and this was sold after the start in
1848 to S.W. and B.W. Hudson who in 1859 broke partnership, B.W. taking the
business. In 1865 he sold to J.C. Haydon who moved the plant to Jeanesville.
This was the start at Beaver Meadow of the Jeanesville Iron Works, great plant
that supplied the world with pumps and which even today is operated as part of
the great Worthington establishment at Harrison, N.J.
The merger in the sixties of the
Beaver Meadow Railroad with the L.V.R.R. brought more mergers and transfers and
the railroad shops were moved to Weatherly in installments starting in 1842.
Coal Was Discovered In 1812
CoalÕs discovery by Nathan Beach
in 1812 gave the region the proper impetus to grow into a settled industrial
section. He found coal near the point where the Leviston station to the
southwest of Beaver Meadow stood. Beach opened a mine, called a quarry in those
days, in 1813. It was hauled by wagon to Bloomsburg and to Berwick. The Lehigh
& Susquehanna Turnpike was used for the highway. Beach got $8 a ton
delivered in Philadelphia once the traffic in coal extended to larger centers.
First Coal Operator
The Beaver Meadow Railroad &
Coal Co. took over 200 acres of land and in 1841 A.H. VanCleve and Co. opened
the mines. William Milnes & Co., Milnesville is named after Milnes, took
over the mines in 1846 and then sold them to Hamberger & Co. who worked
them until 1850. The old story of mines being worked out to yield a fortune to
successors of abandoned leases is heard here for Hamberger & Co. quit in
1850 and the mines were idle for 31 years, to 1881 when Coxe Brothers & Co.
took them over. Since then the Lehigh Valley, Jeddo-Highland Coal Co., then the
Coxes again and now the Sterrick Creek Coal Co.: that is the sequence of
operators. Coleraine nearby was a busy spot with Rich & Cleaver holding the
first lease, selling in 1862 to Radcliffe & Johnson who turned over the
property to William T. Carter who sold to A.S. Van Wickle, with the Coleraine
Colliery Co. and the Coal-Rain Coal Co. as successors today. Jeanesville, bit
producer owes its birth to a Beaver Meadow man, James D. Gallup, who discovered
coal there. Incidentally the tract was sold after coal was found, for $20,000.
Since the mines were opened, almost 2,000,000 tons of coal have been produced.
First Steam Power In County
Beaver Meadow furnished the first
steam power railroad in the county, the Beaver Meadow Railroad, the town was
then in Banks township, and work was started in 1833, three years after the
Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Co. was incorporated. Canvass White who built
the Erie R.R. and Ario Pardee, afterwards Hazleton coal operating pioneer, were
the surveyors of the line which ran from Beaver Meadow to Penn Haven, near
Mauch Chunk where coal was discharged into canal boats. The Planes road to Weatherly was part of the old roadbed of the line.
Parryville was reached in 1836 and in 1841 a flood swept away all the bridges
from Weatherly to Parryville so that Mauch Chunk was made the end of the line.
It was absorbed by the Lehigh Valley later.
In the beginning, wooden rails,
protected with an iron strip on top were used. Final absorption took place by
the L.V.R.R. in 1866. It had the impressive name at first of the Delaware,
Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad.
L.V.R.R. Merger
In the same year the Lehigh
Valley was merged with the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad extending the lines to
Schuylkill county and beyond to Mt. Carmel. Banks township from which Beaver
Meadow was created, was part of Lausanne township until 1842 when Banks
township was established and named after Judge Banks, then on the bench of
Northampton county of which Carbon formed a part until one year later.
TresckowÕs Birth
Tresckow, another Beaver Meadow
neighbor, was opened in 1851 by a Germany company, hence the old name of Dutchtown. Samuel Bonnel followed this
firm as operator and the property was sold in 1854 to the Honey Brook Coal Co.,
acquired ten years later by the Jersey Central, Lehigh & Wilkes-barre coal
Co., and now a Glen Alden holding. Audenried and Yorktown collieries were also
developed as the result of the start Beaver Meadow gave the region.
Evans Opens Mines
John D. Evans of Lansford, opened
Beaver MeadowÕs second Home colliery, name after him, in 1889. Later some
firebug burned down the breaker. In 1906 the A.S. Van Wickle estate took the
property on ten years lease. However that same year the Evans Colliery Co. was
formed and operated the mines until about three years ago. W.E. Smith was the
general manager.
Coxeville, on the outskirts of
Beaver Meadow, has grown up since the seventies of the last century as a normal
building project due to the Coxe holdings close at hand.
Stauffer First Burgess
Beaver Meadow borough is the
oldest borough in the upper end of Carbon county. It was formally organized as
a borough in 1897, or 110 years after the land site was deeded to Patrick and
Mary Keen in 1787, to later become the property of Nathan Beach. The land deal
took place in 1787, hence next weekÕs sesquicentennial. In 1830 Beach sold 300
acres to Judge Joseph Barnes of Philadelphia.
J.M. Stauffer, leader of the 1896
movement that failed to win a charter in that year but which succeeded in 1897
in getting the power to establish a borough, was the first burgess. John Martyn
Jr., was the first president of Council and H. Walter Riess was the first
secretary. Today William F. Williams is burgess, John M. Kotch is president of
Council, Winfield Warren is secretary, John Andrejco is treasurer, and the
Councilmen are Metro Sheer, John Baran, Michael Kostick, George Hometz, John M.
Kotch, Charles A. MacGowan and Joseph Mondel.
Heroes of Ō76 Were Pioneers
Other Revolutionary War graves
are in the borough. They are those of Ephraim Ladd, of Connecticut, whose state
placed a marker on his resting place; Daniel Washburn and James McGarvan, of
Pennsylvania. Daniel Washburn was a descendant of Alfred the Great. He was the
great granduncle of the present Mrs. Martha Klotz, whose maiden name was Martha
Washburn, and who is now a resident of Weatherly. Her great-great-grandfather,
Caleb Washburn, is also buried in this old cemetery. She is 79 years of age, is
possessor of all her natural powers and recalls when she picked huckleberries
with Mrs. Charles Schwab, steel magnateÕs wife, whose maiden name was Dinkey,
and whose father was Reuben Dinkey, master mechanic at the old railroad shop.
Mrs. Klotz Remembers
Beavers
Mrs. Klotz tells of the beavers
that once were common in the region and who had their houses in the creek which
now is the culm wash to the south and east of the borough. She states that the
dams the beavers built were a nuisance since the waters flooded lands nearby
and the children would often launch drives against the animals, to break down
the dams and make possible the flow of the creek.
Recall Little Jack
Among the noted persons of the
years gone by was Little Jack Gallagher, who was postmaster and one
of the big political leaders of Carbon county.
Native Born
Mrs. Joseph Roberts, aged 79,
mother-in-law of Burgess Williams, like Mrs. Martha Klotz, is a native born
Beaver Meadow woman and has many interesting recollections of the days when the
town was in its youth.
Oldest Resident
As far as can be learned, Mrs.
Michael North, formerly Miss Catherine Paul, born at Leviston, Beaver Meadow,
P.O., is the oldest resident of Beaver Meadow. She was born August 3, 1849, and
is 88 years of age.
Dinkey and Dinkey Engines
Let it be known that Beaver
Meadow did its share in furnishing the language with its slang afterwards to
become part of the vernacular. Just as Honey Brook gave the world ŅGet your goatÓ and Jeanesville coined ŅdogholeÓ so Beaver Meadow contributed ŅdinkeyÓ. The
late Reuben Dinkey, who was afterwards a hotel keeper at Weatherly and whose
daughter, the wife of Charles M. Schwab was once the master mechanic of the
L.V.R.R. shops at Beaver Meadow. He built a small engine type for light
traffic. It was called the
Dinkey model. There is
where dinkey came into existence to live long after
Mr. Dinkey has passed away. A fine church is at Ashfield in Carbon county,
given by his daughter in his memory, and named after him the Dinkey Memorial
Church. But the name is carried on in almost every place where the English
language is spoken.
First Gravity Mine Drainage
The records show that Beaver
Meadow pioneered in the eighties with the first gravity mine drainage tunnel in
the region, tapping the Coxe mines into the Quakake Valley.
Wilson First Postmaster
Beaver Meadow got its post office
early, in 1830. William H. Wilson, Revolutionary war hero and tavern keeper was
the postmaster. He was succeeded by A.H. Broadhead. Wilson again took the job.
Robert Tresize was postmaster for many years. The present postmaster is George
Veleznock. John Kotch and John McGee were former postmasters also.
Schools came early also. The
first was conducted in 1835 by Miss Lydia Blackburn. Thomas McCurley was the
second teacher. He served for many years and lived to an honored old age. The
present head of the schools is Miss Sophia McGee.
The water supply is furnished by
the Citizens Water Co. and the P.P. & L Co. started service to the town in
1911. The borough at one time had its own telephone company, with rural
connections and with Robert Tresize as manager.
Beaver MeadowÕs Churches
Early settlers were not lacking
in their spirit of devotion to the faith of their fathers and the church
history of the borough is of rare interest. It is noteworthy that from the
Beaver Meadow churches came the movements that coalesced in the organization of
parishes of faiths in nearby communities.
St. MaryÕs R.C. Church
St. MaryÕs R.C. church, mother of
the Catholic parishes in the Lehigh coal fields, dates back to the historic
days of the building of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Turnpike, chartered in 1808
by act of the legislature. The first Catholics were Irish immigrants, whose
spiritual needs were ministered to by Jesuit missionaries. These indefatigable
workers covered northeastern Pennsylvania on horse back and mass was celebrated
in various homes in Beaver Meadow when a congregation was formed in 1841 as a
mission out of the then established Tamaqua church.
On January 17, 1842, the Rt. Rev.
Bishop Francis Kendrick of Philadelphia, purchased the land in the then
Lausanne township in the then Northampton county where the church property is
located. Later this section fell in the newly established Banks township and
the newly formed Carbon county and lastly in the newly created borough of
Beaver Meadow.
The Beaver Meadow Railroad &
Coal Co. sold the land to be used for church and cemetery purposes.
On this tract was built the
original church, located in what is now part of the adjacent parish cemetery.
In this edifice the congregation worshipped for 48 years.
Following formation of the
congregation, priests from the Tamaqua parish served as the ministers. First
was Rev. Father Maloney and later Father H. Finnegan served. The old St. MaryÕs
church was built about 1847, there being no authentic record of the actual
date. It is recorded, however, that the first resident priest was Rev. Father
Hugh McMahon, who took charge July 23, 1849. The first baptismal record
reads, Margaret, daughter of Hugh
McGinley and Bridget, his wife, baptized April 22, 1849, by Rev. Hugh
McMahon. The second resident
pastor was Rev. Michael L. Scanlon, who was installed December 17, 1853.
It was under his pastorate that
St. GabrielÕs Church of Hazleton was founded and Hazletonians no longer walked
to Beaver Meadow to attend sacred services. A church and rectory were built and
one their completion, Father Scanlon took up his residence at Hazleton, and St.
MaryÕs became a mission of St. GabrielÕs, which was a case of the parent
returning to the child.
This arrangement continued until
1868 when the division of Catholic districts into the dioceses of Philadelphia
and Scranton occurred and Beaver Meadow was placed in the former and Hazleton
in the latter.
St. MaryÕs then became a mission
of St. PatrickÕs at Audenried, later moved to McAdoo, under the pastorate of
Rev. Francis Marron. It was later separated from St. PatrickÕs and Rev. Bernard
Ruxton became the pastor.
He was succeeded by Rev. Francis
Brady in 1898 and it was he who in 1900 directed the old church be moved from
the cemetery lot to a site near the present edifice. He had already taken
residence in the present rectory, built at the same time. The large and
handsome new church was built in 1904 under the pastorate of Rev. Father John
McEnroe, who served from 1902 to 1907. The cornerstone was laid October 4,
1904, and the dedication took place September 10, 1905. The present pastor,
Rev. Dennis J. Melley, serving from 1930 to the present date, has proven
himself an efficient, kindly and progressive spiritual leader and under his able
guidance many improvements have been made to the parish property and spiritual
work has flourished.
The founding of St. PaulÕs
Evangelical Lutheran Church was due to an odd circumstance. Back in 1896 a
number of Lutheran pastors of the Upper Lehigh Valley Pastoral Association,
returning from a mission festival at Quakake, stood at the L.V.R.R. station
waiting for their trains and learned in conversation among themselves that
Beaver Meadow had many of the Lutheran faith but no church. Revs. James O. Schlener,
then pastor of Christ Lutheran Church, Hazleton, and D.G. Geberich, of
Weatherly, canvassed the then township section, organized a congregation and at
a service February 5, 1896, formed a temporary charge. This was made permanent
March 15 of the same year. The first officers elected were: Christopher
Kisthardt, Christian Noll, Fred Hinkle, Jacob Schmidt, J.J. VanBlargen, elected
as deacons, and Harry Miller, trustee.
A union was effected with Salem
Lutheran Churchy at Audenried, and Rev. A.O. Ebert was named as the first
pastor.
Services were conducted in the
school house until the present church on Second street was erected. The corner
stone was laid August 22, 1897 and on December 26 that year the building, a
handsome frame Gothic structure was dedicated to the service of God. The
congregation is under the spiritual guidance of Rev. M.C. Hallock, a young,
progressive and eloquent man of spiritual grace. For many years prior to the
forming of this congregation, Lutherans of Beaver Meadow held services in the
Old Presbyterian, then Methodist, then Reformed church in the present P.O.S. of
A. hall, whose steeple base is still in place to recall that the building was
once a House of God. Preaching was in Geman and Rev. E.A. Bauer, old time
pastor of Christ Lutheran church, Hazleton, served as the visiting pastor.
St. Peter & PaulÕs G.C.
Church
Founded and organized April 23,
1895 St. Peter & PaulÕs G.C. church, the pioneer members who served as the
first board of trustees were Joseph Yackanicz, John Koons, Michael Sulin, John
Dudinyak, Andrew Bur, all deceased, and Harrison Mondero and Nicholas
Yackanicz, who survive to see the seed they helped plant prove fruitful.
Ground was bought, the church was
built and dedicated all in the same year. Dedication services were in charge of
the Rt. Rev. Basil Takatch, his Excellency coming from Homestead where he had
headquarters as Greek Catholic bishop.
This church was used until 1932
when the congregation had grown so large that a new edifice was imperative. The
present handsome church was dedicated by Rev. Nicholas Martyak of Hazleton,
pastor of St. JohnÕs G.C. church, acting as bishop pro tem. The first pastor
was Rev. Victor Martyak, later recalled to his native land where he is still
active as a pastor. The present pastor is Rev. Anthony Mhley. The present
trustees are Michael Hadzick, John Andrejco Sr., Michael Phillips, Stephen
Hametz, Michael Adamjourka, John Manko, Metro Tchir, John F. Baran, Anthony
Goyda, Frank Sherba, John Yackanicz and Andrew Savco. There are 230 families
listed in the church membership.
Presbyterian Church
The Presbyterian church, long
since disbanded, was located in its own edifice, in what is now the P.O.S. of
A. hall. It was founded in 1838, soon after the town was settled. A.H. VanCleve,
first coal operator when the mines were opened, founded the congregation. Later
as population shifted, the majority of the Presbyterians who stayed in this
region moved to Weatherly or to Hazleton.
Methodist Church
While the Presbyterians built the
original church, the Methodists also used it for joint services. Old familiar
names were recalled in the list of early ministers, among them Revs. King and
Moorehead. These clergymen covered the Stockton-Weatherly-Beaver Meadow circuit
and they served under the direction of the old Danville district
superintendent, then called by the original Methodist name of presiding elder.
Later as the Methodist grew in
numbers, the present property was acquired on the main street. The corner stone
of their own church was laid by the Methodists in 1874. It was rebuilt in 1911
and the present pastor is Rev. Harry J. Schuchart. It is an active congregation
and its members play a leading part in town affairs.
Reformed Church
Records are missing and there is
a haze on the history of the Reformed congregation. It is said that for a long
time a German Reformed Congregation existed and held services in the vacated
Presbyterian edifice but this may be a confusion of the German Lutheran congregation
with the Reformed in the unwritten history of the Reformed activities in the
borough.
Background of Nations
Back of this church history is
the picture of the nationalities who have made Beaver Meadow. The old Irish
settlers came with the English, Welsh, Scotch and Germans, the last being
probably the latest of the first arrivals in the wilderness.
The Slovaks have played a big
part in building Beaver Meadow, not only in religious but in community work.
The first Slovaks, who preceded by years the Austrian Gallicians, were Andrew
Sholtis, deceased; George Gasper who now lives on North Wyoming street,
Hazleton; Michael Marusak, deceased; and Andrew Bacalar, deceased. It was from
these people, the four playing their part, when the settlement they made at
CoxeÕs near the then new breaker was built, that St. JosephÕs of Hazleton
fathered.
St. JosephÕs, first Slovak
Catholic church to be built in the United States, was promoted by the early
comers and the Beaver Meadow Slovak Roman Catholics went to Hazleton to church
then as they do today. The group bought land from the Diamond Coal & Land
Co. and put up the church later destroyed by fire, to be replaced by the
handsome edifice now in use. It was Beaver MeadowÕs Slovak colony who played a
bit part in this new enterprise and secured Rev. Ignatz Yaskovick, the first
priest.
Tyrolers at Beaver Meadow
Tyrolers also have played their
part in the History of Beaver Meadow. The first came there in 1883. They were
Daniel Rossi, still a resident of Hazleton; the late Hannibal Rossi who was a
hotel keeper here for years and a might hunter; Bernard Ecker, deceased, Simon
Martini, deceased, Phillip Fellin, deceased, and Simon Fascinelli, deceased.
This nationality picked two places to settle, one at CoxeÕs and the other in
Beaver Meadow proper. Scattered through the region, are many descendants of
these pioneers at Beaver Meadow.
Industries At Beaver Meadow
Beaver Meadow once had a shoe
factory, burned down many years ago. It was run by a man name Lanyon. It had
one of the first powder mills in the region, the site being still discernible
in the overgrown brush across the Beaver Meadow Creek. Nearby was a saw mill,
also one of the first in the region.
Beaver MeadowÕs Hotels
William H. Wlson, Colonel in
George WashingtonÕs army and Revolutionary War hero opened Beaver MeadowÕs
first tavern.
It was also a store and is
located where the Ready Pay Store is now located. Wilson was also postmaster
and his daughter, Mrs. Sarah McLean, grandmother of the Edwards family at
Beaver Meadow, served as postmistress. WilsonÕs tavern-store was next taken over
by a man named Wilhelm; who was a son of the Wilhelm who for many years was
paymaster of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Next came Charles Britton and he was
succeeded by George Rowe.
The next hotel was that which
N.R. Penrose built, the CornishmenÕs Home. Web Hoyt took it over and it was
known by his name. However, it became the
Barracks when the Civil War
broke out. Hoyt later married one of his landlordÕs daughters. The Barracks name was won in Civil War days. The 10th New Jersey was sent
to Beaver Meadow and kept there for some time. Some say that the regimentÕs
loyalty was not trusted. This seems to be an error. The facts in the case are
probably that the 10th New Jersey was sent to Beaver Meadow just as other
troops were held in Hazleton and at Audenried to protect the hard coal mines,
vitally needed to turn out fuel for munitions plants, against the Fishing Creek
Confederacy, Columbia county southern sympathizers suspected of entertaining
designs on the hard coal mines so that the South could win the Civil War.
Coal Is King, Says Beaver
Meadow
The L.V.R.R. moved its shops to
Weatherly, thinking that water power would be cheaper than steam. The early
railroad kings guessed wrong, for the Weatherly shops had to burn coal just the
same and haul it to the plant for some distance.
Has Enjoyed Happy History
Beaver Meadow has been fortunate
in having no big epidemics, riots, fires or crimes in its history. It has grown
into a modern community with fine homes, cement paving of the main street,
modern firehouse, modern fire company, borough hall, street lights, a complete
sewer system and several industries.
Was Ahead of Hazleton
In the olden days it was the
metropolis of the Hazleton section. When Hazleton was only a patch, Beaver
Meadow was a town, and many Hazletonians of the old days would go to Beaver
Meadow to do their shopping. As Hazleton grew, some Beaver Meadow people
located in Hazleton and gradually the Luzerne county town outpaced its elder
sisters. However despite the county line which divides them Beaver Meadow and
Hazleton interests are one and the most cordial spirit of co-operation exists
between the two communities.
Back in the early days the whole
region was a wilderness. The old timers tell of the stories their fathers
narrated to them of killing wolves and deer at night right along the main
street, back of which woods stretched all the way to the Poconos and the
mountains to the south.
Beaver Meadow took the front of
the stage again this year when Miss Anita Boyle was salutatorian of the
Hazleton High School and Miss Miriam Rosenberg was valedictorian. This honor
list is of note for both young women came from Beaver Meadow and they entered a
strange school in a strange city to take first honors in a class of almost 500
competing students.
Beaver Meadow enters its 151st
year with confidence and courage. It has turned out railroaders, engineers,
merchants, lawyers, baseball players, industrialists, doctors and soldiers. Its
record in the wars of the nation has been spectacular and many of the men who
dug the famous Petersburg mine and blasted LeeÕs fort into the air in 1864 came
from Beaver Meadow. In the world war it gave its young men to the flag and they
all served with distinction.
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