Part 3. From the Lykens Standard, 9 May 1902:
RECOLLECTIONS OF 40 YEARS
Regarding the Lykens Valley Coal Mines and Vicinity Adjacent
BY RICHARD NOLEN, ESQ.
Which first appeared in 1865 in the Upper Dauphin Register and Lykens Valley Miner, published by Samuel B. Coles and G. Washington Fenn.
In 1852 we succeeded in having a law passed bringing the polls down to schoolhouse No. 5 in Lykens; the following year, 1853, Henry Sheafer procured the passage of an act by the Legislature to again change the polls to schoolhouse No. 3 in Wiconisco. In 1854 I got up a petition and after obtaining a few signatures took it to Harrisburg; it was near the close of the session, but the Hon. J. C. Kunkel, who was then a member of the Senate, favoring its object, had it immediately attached to another bill of the same nature and passed both houses thus bringing the election polls back to schoolhouse No. 5 in Lykens. It can thus be readily seen that we had a considerable contest as to where the place for holding the township elections should be fixed.
In 1846 the railroad was rebuilt on a greatly improved scale. The same year I constructed for Henry Sheafer, who contracted with the company for their construction, the row of stone houses near where the Shourt Mountain breaker now stands.
About this time, Mr. Thomas Couch come to the place, and soon afterward was appointed agent for the company, as a misunderstanding had occurred between Henry Sheafer and Edward Gratz. In 1848 Mr. Benjamin Carman opened a store in the upper end of the brick house near the present coal yard, that room having been occupied as a store by Henry Sheafer for some length of time before. Mr. Carman built the house at the northwest corner of Main and Market Streets, where Charles H. Miller now keeps store, during the same year for Messrs. Ware and Beidelman, and after finishing it, he (Mr. Carman) moved his store from Wiconisco into the new building. In 1850 Henry C. Harper took the store and kept it until July 1851, and then sold out to William Hetherington of Schuylkill County, who retained it until 1852, when he disposed of it to Mr. Lewis Heilner from the same county.
Allow me here to relate the circumstances connected with the building the first church in Lykens: In the spring of 1848 while I was building the foundation under the building at the northeast corner of Main and Market Streets, Mr. Edward Gratz and Hon. A. O. Heister came along and entered a conversation with me, during which the Judge remarked that we should have a church, and advised me to use my efforts in that direction. While expressing my cordial wishes consonance with the Judge’s, I remarked that we lacked the ground and the means necessary to construct a church; that as much as we would like to have one, those circumstances would had prevented us. Mr. Gratz spoke up, saying he would give the lot and one hundred dollars more towards building a church. He afterwards made his word good to the fullest extent. Some time subsequently I conversed with the preacher on the subject and we held a meeting, at which meeting we resolved upon building. I opened a subscription list and procured a sufficient amount to justify us in proceeding. In the spring of 1850, a building committee was appointed; I agreed to do the stone work and proceeded with it until the fall of that year. A misunderstanding then occurred between Mr. Henry C. Harper, one of the building committee, and the railroad company in regard to iron bolts used to keep the upper floors in its place, Mr. Harper thinking the railroad company charged too much for their iron work. This caused the work on the church building to be laid aside until the next year, when Rev. John Commins, the minister in charge, persuaded me to go and finish the church and I done so. In January 1852, it was dedicated.* [*The present G.A.R. Hall, N. 2nd Street].
These facts relative to the church history I have recounted for two or three reasons: To show to the citizens of Lykens that they are greatly indebted to the liberality of Edward Gratz, Esq., and show that Methodist denomination commenced all the religious services and Sabbath schools in this section. I have now shown that one of that denomination preached the first sermon ever preached in all your section; opened the first prayer meeting; commenced the first Sabbath School; and built the first church. The churches of Wiconisco Township now number three – Methodist, Baptist and Evangelical; and in Lykens Borough seven – Lutheran, Methodist. Episcopal, Evangelical, Reformed, United Brethren and Catholic, besides old Lutheran about being erected.
In 1850 the main road leading from Lykens was laid out by Daniel Hoffman and cut open by Isaac Burd, supervisor. The next year (1851) I was elected supervisor and made the road leading from Lykens to intersect with the main valley road. The same fall I cut out and made the road leading up the valley.
Here I must sketch the most atrocious and cold-blooded murders that ever disgraced the annals of Dauphin County: On Sunday, the 3rd day of May, 1858=7, about 10 o’clock in the morning, one Daniel Henrich, who boarded at this time with Mr. John S. Updegrove, in Lykens, left said place to go over to or near Gratz to do some plastering, that being his trade. He stopped to see his mother, living at that time a short distance below Lykens, after which he started for the Big Run coal mines, stopping to see one William Williams, whose family was the only one living about the mines. This was the last account we had of Henrich for three weeks; on the 25th of the month Mrs. Lebo, living a little below your town, had a quilting party, and Mrs. Sarah Hoover, residing on the other side of the Short Mountain, was invited to come over to the party.
[Continued in part 4].
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From Newspapers.com.
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