“Memories and More” – From Standard Speaker on 1/22/08
CVHS January 22nd, 2008
Historical society program keeps valley history alive
By AMANDA CHRISTMAN
Staff Writer
Edward Hutton grew up in Conyngham . His family owned the Conyngham Water Company and he attended school in the borough’s tworoom schoolhouse off Main Street near where the borough building is today. Hutton, 86, still remembers the sights and sounds of the borough in the early 1900s. Hutton and others spoke before a crowd of 50 Sunday afternoon at the Conyngham Borough Building during “Memories and More,” a Conyngham Valley Historical Society’s event. Jacque Wetzel of the society said the organization thought it would be a good way to practice the tradition of oral history. “It’s interesting to have something like this,” Earl Miller, Sugarloaf Township
supervisor for the past 37 years, said of “Memories and More.” He said the stories would help keep the valley ’s history alive and can be passed on to younger generations to tell. Hutton remembers that most of the borough’s streets were dirt roads and that a local farmer plowed snow off
Main Street with a wooden plow he kept in his barn on Surrey Lane. The rumor in town, Hutton said, was that the man also kept a still – a bootleg alcohol distillery – in the barn. “I wonder if that’s how it got the name ‘Whiskey Hill,’” Hutton said of the area, pausing
for a moment as the audience laughed. Hutton remembers when the mail was delivered by a horse-drawn wagon; the horse was notorious for running away. The population in 1920 was about 377, a drop of 29 people from the 1910 census, he said. The decline in population was
apparently due to the flu epidemic in 1918. By 1927, Hutton said, there were 108 houses, three churches, two hotels, one saloon, one barber, one icecream parlor
and a cigar factory. Water rates were set at $1 per month for the first 1,000 gallons and then 50 cents for each additional 1,000 gallons.
In 1949, the water company grew to about 230 customers and continued to expand as more developments were built. The company had more than 835 customers by 1991, when the family got out of the water business and handed control to Conyngham Borough
Authority. But Hutton’s favorite memory is playing baseball when he was in school with his friends. “We would play ball in the morning and then at recess …,” he said. Teams, Hutton explained, were picked once a week. Hutton said he was pleased to make his public speaking debut at the event because it brought back good memories. “Everybody has a story,”
Hutton said. Vivian Luchi, who sat in the audience, recalled resident Harold Roth, from St. Johns and his amazing bicycle trek to Hazleton, where he attended high school.
A bus ride into town cost a family $2 per month and some couldn’t afford it, Luchi said.
Roth, she said, would ride his bicycle from the valley south to state Route 309 daily. Even in the snow and ice he would ride, Luchi said.
Before the workout, Roth started his day at 4 a.m. so he could milk the family’s dairy cows, she said.
Luchi remembers that on one occasion the boy was late and got sent to the principal’s office. The principal, she said, didn’t believe Roth’s amazing story about his trek to school and stopped at the family farm one day to make sure he wasn’t telling a tale.
“So when your kids complain about walking a little bit just think of this guy,” Luchi said.
Miller said he too had to find innovative ways to get to high school. He “thumbed it,” every day after riding his bicycle to Conyngham, until his parents allowed him to use the family car.
The lifelong Sugarloaf Township resident and local farmer said Conyngham had only a few streets by the time he graduated high school. He remembered plowing snow for the borough after he graduated.
Edith Rothwell and her husband, Wayne, moved to Conyngham in 1964. Wayne was the minister at Salem United Methodist Church, Broad Street, Hazleton, at the time.
“Back then you didn’t lock church doors,” she said.
The parish sold off the parsonage, so the Rothwells had to find a new place to live. Edith said they found their home in Conyngham.
The couple owned Spari Convalescent Home in 1970 and had 27 patients. The home is now Fritzingertown Senior Community Living Center.
They also owned Swankoski Convalescent Home, which is now Butler Valley Manor on Route 309.
After that, Wayne was sent to minister in western Pennsylvania before the couple retired in Florida. However, the Rothwells found themselves back in Conyngham eventually.
“I’ll tell you it’s a wonderful place and we need to keep up the history,” she said.
achristman@standardspeaker.com
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