Week 4: A Short Week, A Long Timeline
Hello! This past week was pretty slow in the work department, as it was Thanksgiving and all.
We had a lovely Thanksgiving, with our adult children all joining us from Wednesday to Friday! It took some thought to figure out how to host Thanksgiving with a house so very under construction, but we ultimately came up with a fantastic idea; we rented a house up the street! It was an adorable 4 bedroom, with a giant dining room table that seated all 12 of us with ease.
Since it was 3 blocks away, it was very easy to bop back and forth between the houses. At one point, Ethan and I were walking up there, and he said how fun it was to pretend we all lived just down the street from each other. While I’m very happy for Ams and Zin that they live in the city and are both happy doing their own thing, I have to admit, it was really fun to be their neighbor for a hot minute!
But back to this house!
Monday, Ethan had off school, so we had a wonderful day doing historical research on the house! Despite the cold and flurries, we hiked over to downtown Jim Thorpe. If you’ve never been to Jim Thorpe, this place is absolutely DREAMY and we were practically giggling with excitement that we are actually living right here in town where we can walk to all of the attractions. It’s such a fantastic combination of historical architecture, nature, and amenities! Here is a quote I love that describes the area, from a book published in 1845:
“...some miles above Mauch Chunk, it becomes wild and picturesque to the highest degree. Dark waters of a river, dyed almost to a black, by the sap of the hemlock soaking in it, everywhere enclosed by mountains from three hundred to seven hundred feet high, and confined to a channel, scarcely three hundred feet wide, trace a circuitous course through, perhaps, the wildest and most rugged region of the state. Determined to enjoy it to the utmost, I furnished myself with a ‘prime principe,’ and taking my seat upon the deck, fairly drank in the varied magnificence of the ever changing scene. Beneath me, the Lehigh either reposed in a black, glittering sheet, or bounded in its rocky channel in wreaths of snow-white foam; about me, on every side, for hundreds of feet, rose the pine-capped mountains, here, dark, jagged and precipitous, interspersed with occasional forest trees, growing in the ravines, or amongst the clefts and crevices of the rocks; now, covered with rolling stones near their summits, bald and desolate; and again, sloping to the river’s bank, evenly clad with bright green foliage, and affording the eye a grateful relief from the almost painful grandeur of the ruder scenes; above me, was the deep blue sky of a summer’s eve, enhancing the effect of every view, by the contrast of its serene expanse with the wild confusion of the mountain scenery around. Everywhere the mountain sides were spotted with tall, gaunt, leafless trunks of withered pines, blasted by lightning, or scorched by the hand of man, and requiring but slight aid from the excited imagination, to see the gigantic guards of these Satanic fortresses. Along the course of the river, not a single lot of arable land is to be perceived; the mountains sink sheer to the water’s edge. In wild magnificence of scenery, I have seen nothing on the Hudson, the Susquehanna, or the Juniata, to compare with the banks of the Lehigh.””
After traversing the “wild magnificence of scenery,” we went to the Recorder of Deeds office located inside the courthouse annex downtown. We were a little confused on how to do a deed search at first, but there was a lovely woman who helped us learn how to properly sleuth by searching for the next deed book and page number buried in the text of the current deed. By this method, we traced the deed back from the computer to microfilm, and from microfilm to the back room, where the real fun began!
Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed, so I can’t show off the giant white canvas spines and the brass roller shelves the books sit on, but it really added to the atmosphere and made us feel like we were doing some seriously important scholarly work. Seeing the pen and ink smudges and the beautiful script handwriting was so cool! We got as far back as 1849 before we lost the trail, when the only book referenced was an Allentown mortgage book. The next step will be to head to the Easton courthouse, or perhaps the Lehigh County Historical Society, to try to track down that mortgage book.
I have a goal of tracing the land back all the way to pre-European settlement times. From what I understand, the Native Americans who first lived here were the Munsee, but I could be wrong. I look forward to learning all about it!
Next stop was the beautiful Dimmick Memorial Library, where we pulled local history books at random and studied them. The day was completed with a lovely lunch at China Garden, and a sneak-behind-the-buildings awe-inspiring historic house tour of the Asa and Harry Packer mansions on our walk home.
“We live here. We live here!!” -Sara & Ethan Ruch, repeatedly during their nieghborhood walk
Since then, we’ve both be digging deep into the internet world of historic research as well, and have assembled the following timeline:
April 13, 1849:
Edward Weiss (spelled Weifs in the script) & wife sold the land to settle the debts of his father Thomas’s estate. The purchasers were Reuben and Elizabeth Ringer. The area of land was measured in perches, which we now looked up and discovered is 16.5 feet. We did not have our survey math game heads on, so we’ll just say that the area of land was big. Like way bigger than it is now, like probably the entirety of the town big. It was bought for $2,086.50. In the deed, there are stipulations that 50% of any iron ore discovered goes to Edward Weiss. Ethan found a whole jackpot of information on Edward Weiss’s involvement in the local iron industry, so that lines up.
May 22, 1850:
Reuben & Elizabeth Ringer sold the land to Josiah White, Caleb Cope, and Lehigh Coal & Navigation. Josiah White is one the founding fathers of Mauch Chunk, so it’s pretty cool to see his name in script on our deed! The measurements have switched to chains at this point. We now know that chains are 66 feet.
In a book from 1884, the author mentioned that in 1850, Lehigh Coal & Navigation plotted out the roads of East Mauch Chunk, divided the land into lots, and sold them individually for $100 each. That would explain this next move:
July 5th, 1850:
White, Cope, and LC&N sold one lot to Nathan D. Cortright, another prominent local figure, and another one to Thomas.. We think it must be Breslin, but in the script, I swear it looks like Brellies, Grellies, Brellin, and Grellin depending on which deed I read. More research is needed there!
February 22, 1851:
Now it gets confusing for a second. Breslin/Brellin sells some kind of piece of it to Cortright, but apparently he retains some piece of it, we’re not sure how big. We’ve lost all track of time and scale at this point. Our minds are slowly devolving, deciphering all this script.
April 5th, 1860:
Cortright sells his share of the property to Isaac & Mary Butz.
April 15, 1863:
Breslin/Brellin sells his remainder to Isaac & Mary Butz.
Dec 13, 1864:
The Butz family sells the property to Elwen and Sarah A. Bauer.
This is where the mystery happened: WHO BUILT THE HOUSE? Normally, one way one can tell is by the value of the land going up. But with the land being divided so many times, it was impossible to determine that way. Cortright’s biography puts him living elsewhere, so we were pretty certain he wasn’t the builder, just a land prospector. For some reason, we had believed Isaac Butz built it in the 1850s, but now that we’ve searched, we know that couldn’t be true if he didn’t own it until 1860!
Kevin then pointed out that it was highly unlikely the house was built between 1861-65, since the Civil War likely took all the able-bodied men away. Isn’t that a heavy thought?
Additionally, there was a terrible flood called “the freshet of 62” that destroyed much of both sides of the Lehigh River, and washed away the bridges that connected Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk. An estimated 200 people lost their lives. (Yes, I went very far down the local history rabbit-hole indeed. This is why it’s taken me 24+ hours to write this!)
So then we wondered, if Butz only owned it until 1864, did that mean that it was actually Elwen Bauer who built the house? It wasn’t until this very morning after lots of digging in old online texts that I found the answer, published in 1884:
BOOM!
So now our very very best guess is that Isaac Butz built the house in 1860, and bought the lot next door in 1863. Then Elwen Bauer took over the store and ran it until sometime between 1895 and 1904, when the sanborn maps report the store as vacant. Elwen was quite a character! I’m sure I’ll be writing a biography on his doings in the future. During his tenure, renovations were done. I’m not sure exactly which ones, but I know the beautiful etched glass in the entryway is dated to 1896, and I know in 1875 there was a fountain on the lot. Clearly I need to do more research here! But for now...Back to the timeline!
Nov. 3rd, 1919:
Ada. B. Amidon, widow, Myron Leslie Bauer, and Addie L. Bauer, all of Philadephia, sold the house to Ella & Sarah A. Bauer for $1. This confused me for a minute, until I realized that Ada’s maiden name is Bauer. She was the oldest daughter of Elwen and Sarah, and the older sister of Ella. And here’s another fun fact: the name “H.E. Amidon” is carved in the etched glass. Was it her husband, or some other relative that created it? So many questions! My best guess is that all of Elwen’s family was on the deed, and they decided it was best to transfer it all into just Ella & Sarah’s names, since they were the only ones remaining in the house.
January 4, 1927:
The 63 year legacy of the Bauer family ends when they sell the building to David and Annie Defrehn. The newspaper was very excited about this, and I was too! Now we know that many of the remodeling projects I was wondering about took place around this time. The Defrehns already lived in East Mauch Chunk and had a furniture store and undertaking business. Their first location on E. 3rd street was completely destroyed by fire in 1924, and they had been set up on E. 4th st. since then.
Sadly, David passed away just a few years later in 1930, but Annie endeavored to keep both businesses going. She received help from an undertaker named Charles A. Haight until he departed to start his own business in 1934. He is another character I look forward to assembling a thorough biography of. I mean…
Obviously we need more info on THAT guy!
1939 (I lost the exact date...too many notes! Doh!):
Annie Defrehn passed away in 1938, and her executor sold the house to John & Anna Kostishion. The Kostishion family resided here for the next 48 years. In fact, most people still call this house “Kostishions,” probably because there were so many of them! John & Anna (whom I think they might have called Betty?) had 11 children. At the time of her death in 1985, they also had 25 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. I suspect I’ll be hearing a lot more stories about this family in the future! As far as the house remodeling goes, this is the family that laid down all the amazing funky linoleum rugs on the second and third floor. I am really looking forward to creating a project with them! (very very safely, don’t worry!)
1959:
The Bell Telephone company purchased half of the backyard of the house, and built a fancy building there that still remains in incredible shape. Apparently everyone was pretty excited about it.
October 8th, 1987:
The estate of Anna Kostishion sold the house to Robert & Rita Hydro. Sadly, Robert passed away in 2020. I did not know him, but I remember seeing him ride his motorcycle with his little dog, “Pooch”. It made me happy every time I saw them. Pooch is still around, and since Rita is our neighbor, we still see him! Robert was known to many as “Bubszer” and he was a very skilled welder, and worked for years at Dorney Park. In fact, our front porch railing is actually the railing from the Red Baron ride! I basically spent my childhood summers at Dorney Park, getting a season pass every year, so I love having parts of the park here at my home! Rita has shared some sweet family memories from when the kids were small and they lived here. Every time I look at the coffered ceiling in the kitchen, I will picture them working on it as a family.
Oct 28, 2021:
That’s us! Continuing this property along, loving and appreciating all of those wonderful people who made this place happen. I hope to find and save at least one thing from each family that lived here over the years.
Well, there’s the deep dive timeline! Time to stop digging for a while, otherwise I’m never going to actually accomplish anything on the house! See you next week!