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JULY 1908
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.  
JULY 1933