00:18 - Welcome to the Lemon County Historical Society.

00:20 - I'm Shane Keenan. I'm one of the archivists here.

00:22 - Our mission here at the Lebanon

00:23 - County Historical Society is to educate the public about our local history.

00:27 - And we do that through our museum, where we preserve objects for the public

00:31 - to be able to view.

00:32 - We also have a research library, an archive where people can come research

00:35 - their family history and genealogy or various topics of local history.

00:40 - We also have various events

00:41 - that we put on throughout the year that you can come see,

00:44 - and we also have the Union Canal Tunnel Park where you can see the oldest

00:47 - surviving tunnel in the United States, surviving transportation Tunnel 11,

00:51 - a county historical site, started out in 1898, and at first

00:54 - it was just a

00:55 - group of local businessmen and leaders getting together to talk about history.

00:59 - They didn't have their own building yet,

01:00 - so they just had lectures and things like that in publications.

01:04 - And we still do that today.

01:05 - We still put out books and have talks and things like that.

01:08 - In the 1930s we ended up getting our own building.

01:10 - Finally, we were able to start having a full museum

01:14 - and have people walk through, but pretty quickly we grew out of that

01:17 - and that was over on Walnut Street in the 1970s.

01:21 - We bought the building that we're in here today

01:23 - and this was originally built in 1786 for Dr.

01:27 - Reverend William Henry Stoy.

01:29 - It went through various owners throughout the years, including the most large.

01:32 - We did a number of additions onto the building when we tried to restore

01:36 - the building to the way it was more in the 19th century, as close as we could.

01:40 - And today we continue to offer museum tours and also our local research.

01:47 - We also have a rotating is about in the front

01:49 - that is always free to the public to come see.

01:51 - Any time we're open, that will change every so often.

01:54 - So it's always worth coming back,

01:56 - even if you've been here before and whether you are new to the area

02:00 - or a long time resident lived here your whole life, there's always something

02:04 - new to learn here.

02:07 - So we're here in the research library and archive here

02:09 - at the Historical Society, and here visitors can research both their genealogy

02:15 - and family history as well as general local history topics, whether that be

02:19 - things like local businesses like Bethlehem Steel or smaller businesses,

02:24 - also major families like the coalmines, or topics like the Blue Eyed six.

02:28 - And you can see a variety of what we have on our website or on our online database.

02:33 - The vast majority of our collection is searchable on there.

02:36 - If you want to see ahead of time,

02:37 - if we have something that might be good for your research,

02:41 - and you can also always let us know ahead of time what you're looking for

02:44 - and we can try to help you out the best we can.

02:45 - We have a lot of books here on specific families, so you might be able

02:50 - to find something that's already been done by another distant relative of yours

02:54 - on your family history, as well as books here on various local history topics.

02:58 - And then if you get beyond that, there's also a large amount

03:02 - of primary source documents, the original documents

03:06 - and photographs that you can use to try and piece that history together.

03:10 - So these are a few of the primary sources that you can see in our archives,

03:13 - or at least a few examples,

03:16 - whether you're doing family

03:17 - history or researching a business or just general local history.

03:21 - So right here we have this is a family Bible.

03:24 - This is from the book Family,

03:27 - and we have quite a few family Bibles in the collection.

03:30 - And this shows births and deaths and marriages in the family and can be

03:35 - a very valuable resource for someone doing their genealogy or family history

03:39 - In this particular Bibles from the early 1700s

03:43 - over there, we have another valuable genealogical resource

03:46 - that is a birth and baptism certificate

03:49 - for William Henning, and that's from 1814.

03:52 - And you can see there also it's an example of local artwork

03:56 - as these were painted by hand, and they were also printed by a printer

04:01 - in Lebanon, in Lebanon City here up here we have a 1912 Sandborn insurance map.

04:08 - And this was intended originally to show the different risk

04:12 - factors for different buildings in Lebanon City.

04:15 - But for us, it's very valuable to tell what businesses and homes were where.

04:20 - And you get a very nice diagram

04:23 - of what the different buildings were shaped like.

04:26 - And this is the one exception where we can often

04:30 - find the history of a building just based on an address.

04:32 - Usually, if you're interested in finding the history of a building,

04:36 - we need the name of the business or the individual owner

04:40 - that was there at that time.

04:42 - But in this case, we can often find roughly at least

04:45 - what was on a specific street and in a general area.

04:48 - And then lastly, here we have a photo of the Cold Springs

04:51 - Hotel in 1899.

04:55 - Now the Cold Springs Hotel

04:56 - and the resort surrounding that is not very well known today.

05:00 - But at the time this was basically another mountain.

05:03 - And most people in the area know about Mount Gretna as a resort town

05:07 - and as a vacation spot.

05:08 - And it still is to this day, to some degree.

05:11 - Cold spring was

05:13 - a similar type of

05:15 - a resort town in the late 1800s and then unfortunately, all went away.

05:20 - So there's not much there left today.

05:22 - But here you can get an idea of what some of that looked like.

05:27 - So one of the things you can do in our research archive here,

05:29 - we have a rotating archival showcase exhibit

05:33 - and this changes out every once in a while.

05:35 - So there's always something new to look at.

05:37 - Right now

05:38 - we have an exhibit on African-American history in Lebanon County.

05:43 - We are part of the African-American Heritage Trail for the area.

05:46 - This in particular is a copy of a slave return from Curtis Grubb.

05:51 - And Curtis Grubb was the son of Peter Grubb,

05:53 - who started the Cornwall Iron Furnace in the iron mines.

05:56 - We think this about from 1780.

05:58 - We don't know exactly when, but Pennsylvania started

06:01 - requiring the gradual manumission of slaves around this time.

06:05 - So slave owners were required

06:07 - to send the state a list of the slaves that they still had.

06:11 - And you can see here a list of some of the slaves that

06:14 - Curtis Grubb had, including Governor Dick, we at least believe as him.

06:18 - And he later escaped and now Governor

06:21 - Dick Park and Governor Brown is named after him.

06:24 - He was working as a collier for the

06:29 - Cornwall Iron Furnace.

06:31 - And while slavery was not common in this area,

06:34 - just being part of the north and especially with the local religions

06:37 - in the area, like the Mennonites were not fans of slavery,

06:42 - but it still was present, especially in very labor intensive

06:46 - things like iron mining and the iron furnaces.

06:50 - Hello, I'm Bruce Bamberger.

06:52 - I'm another archivist here at the County Historical Society and displayed behind me

06:59 - here are some of the personal objects that belonged to Joseph Johns.

07:03 - Joseph Johns was African American.

07:06 - He had been a slave and worked as a Collier once

07:11 - he was freed, was paid for his work as a collier.

07:14 - Now, what Collier did was to take would it have been cut

07:18 - to special lengths and convert that wood to charcoal?

07:22 - He did this by stacking the wood carefully

07:25 - on several mounds in in the woods,

07:29 - leaving a chimney or vent area in each mound

07:34 - and lighting each of these piles and keeping them slowly

07:41 - smoldering as he tended them.

07:43 - He would occasionally have to get up on top of the piles

07:46 - and stomp down any open pockets so that the wooden

07:51 - there would not be a flashover and the piles would not just simply burn.

07:55 - It needed to be a controlled burn or conversion

07:58 - into charcoal was a very important job.

08:02 - The charcoal used in the smelting

08:05 - of iron used at forges for fuel

08:08 - and the piles had to be tended very carefully.

08:12 - What we have here are his muzzle loading shotgun

08:15 - and we have his watch and the special shovel that he used

08:19 - for tending these piles for what we're used for.

08:24 - Union Forge, where Liddell now is,

08:27 - the silver vase next to me, has a very interesting story.

08:31 - It's connected with the town now known as Quentin.

08:35 - At one point, the town had been known as Bismarck,

08:38 - and during World War One, the thought of having a town

08:43 - named after a German statesman was not a very popular thing.

08:48 - And when Theodore Roosevelt's

08:51 - son, Quentin, was killed in a battle during World

08:55 - War One, the town chose to change

08:59 - its name from Bismarck to Quentin to honor

09:04 - the president slain son.

09:07 - And as a special gift, President Theodore Roosevelt sent this,

09:13 - had this vase made and sent to the town.

09:17 - A very significant piece of furniture on display here, and something

09:21 - that we acquired relatively recently is this cupboard here,

09:27 - dated in the two corner blocks at the top, just below

09:31 - the cornice 1770 is made of black walnut,

09:36 - and it once was in the collection of William du Pont, of the famous

09:41 - du Pont family of a famous furniture and decorative American decorative arts.

09:46 - Collecting.

09:47 - This piece was made for a husband and wife of the Brandt family

09:53 - and the date, as well as their initials,

09:57 - which are can be seen in the frieze here at the top of the cupboard

10:02 - were crafted in a very special technique, which is known as sulfur inlay.

10:09 - Instead of taking in a contrasting piece of light or wood

10:13 - which would be inserted into cutouts, instead, a

10:19 - compound that included sulfur was melted,

10:22 - made molten so that it could be poured into the carving and thus giving that

10:28 - lighter contrasting display of the pale yellow sulfur

10:33 - in the dark black walnut.

10:37 - This is a technique that was doesn't seem to have a precedent in Europe,

10:42 - and it was only practiced in certain

10:44 - areas here among the Pennsylvania Germans,

10:48 - a very early and very intact piece.

10:53 - One of the better known

10:55 - historical factories here in the city of London

10:59 - was that of the Miller Organ Company, established

11:02 - in 1873 by two partners,

11:06 - each with the last name Miller, but not related to each other.

11:09 - The Miller Organ Company was begun

11:13 - and organized as a way

11:18 - to at first to make affordable parlor

11:21 - organs, make and repair affordable parlor organs

11:25 - so that everybody could have one if they wished in their home.

11:31 - The organ right next to me with a walnut case was the very first one made

11:36 - by the Miller Organ Company, which was located at eighth

11:40 - and Maple Streets right along the Union Canal, the Millers.

11:45 - As time went on, they began their factory as a fairly small works

11:49 - and they added on to it fairly conservatively.

11:52 - But fairly quickly as their business

11:56 - grew, adding another building, adding extra

12:00 - floors, etc., until till it became quite a large factory.

12:05 - Initially they made

12:06 - fairly simple organs like this prototype.

12:09 - But as time went on and depending on

12:13 - on the changing tastes and the willingness of people to afford their fine organs,

12:19 - which were made and sent all over the world,

12:24 - you saw as the height of their organ

12:27 - making such pieces as this

12:31 - great Victorian piece with a lot of inlays

12:34 - and painted pipes and veneers

12:38 - and etc.

12:39 - a very special piece in very fine condition On display here in the Society

12:45 - Auditorium are several pieces that relate to Whitey Kauffman.

12:50 - Whitey Kauffman was a 1920s bandleader

12:54 - here in Lebanon, but he traveled widely up

12:58 - and down the East Coast with his band and also played in the South Florida.

13:03 - New Orleans.

13:04 - He had three different,

13:07 - what we would call hits today with the Victor record label.

13:11 - And we also have in our archives papers and photographs relating to

13:15 - Whitey Kaufmann,

13:18 - a common feature in America.

13:20 - Of the 1800s and and

13:23 - well into the 20th century was the one room schoolhouse in the days

13:28 - before the consolidation of school districts

13:32 - and the building of large rambling schools that we now have.

13:37 - The one room schoolhouse typically had benches

13:42 - where older kids

13:44 - sat in the back and younger, smaller kids sat in the front,

13:48 - because in those days in the rural areas, there weren't as as many people.

13:53 - And you had multiple grades studied together in in the one school, oftentimes

13:59 - there would be a stove in the center of the building

14:05 - to keep every everybody warm and the school master's desk at the front

14:10 - of some of the more studious

14:13 - older students would sometimes help the teacher who had to prepare

14:17 - multiple grades or age levels of work help the teacher.

14:22 - With this preparation and teaching of the students.

14:26 - The most of the teaching

14:28 - back then was rote memorization and repetition.

14:32 - So it wasn't by any means

14:37 - the kind of learning process where we asked everybody what

14:41 - their opinion was, but these were the things that they needed to that

14:45 - the students needed to memorize and be able to regurgitate or recite.

14:50 - So rote memorization

14:53 - and recitation were often were the order of the day.

14:58 - And of course, the blackboard now becoming a forgotten feature

15:02 - in most schools.

15:06 - The general store was another feature of an earlier America,

15:10 - and it was a place where you could expect to purchase all kinds of things

15:14 - from from cloth to candy

15:17 - to canning jars to China

15:21 - to different kinds of foods.

15:25 - Most anything that that you that you wanted to purchase.

15:31 - What the

15:32 - owners did in some of the earlier stores

15:35 - was that they had large ledger books

15:39 - and they sometimes had a running tab of credit

15:43 - and you could purchase things and pay for them at a certain time in the week

15:49 - or in some cases it was almost like the old barter system where, for example,

15:54 - a housewife might have a small henhouse

15:58 - and she could trade so many eggs

16:02 - in place of or along with cash if she wanted to buy

16:06 - some a section of material

16:09 - in order to make her daughter a dress.

16:11 - So it would also be a place where you might find

16:15 - people trading a lot of gossip and the news of the day.

16:19 - And sometimes you might see people

16:22 - playing games of checkers or that sort of thing.

16:25 - So it became more than a place to buy just about any kind of thing

16:29 - that you needed in some cases could be likened to the radio

16:34 - or the newspaper where you would get some of your local news

16:38 - and you could expect to see your friends on a regular basis.

16:44 - The pharmacy of

16:45 - the 1800s and and early 1900s

16:49 - may well have looked like this,

16:52 - where you saw rows of cabinets and various compounds

16:56 - and the pharmacist had to know

16:59 - how to carefully mix these compounds and in what amounts

17:05 - so that the effect was not not negative, but in fact would would help

17:10 - the patient as prescribed by by the doctor.

17:14 - So you found things like scales and ways to measure small amounts

17:20 - or to fold to mold and form

17:25 - pills and mortar and pestle,

17:28 - to grind the various compounds and mix them together.

17:33 - And these were held in large glass stopper jars

17:37 - that had curved glass labels

17:40 - and the paint for the compound was written on the back

17:44 - side of the glass and attached by hot wax to the jar.

17:48 - And the wax could could be heated and and melted.

17:54 - If they want to remove the label and place a new label on the jar.

17:58 - Practically every town of any size

18:02 - at some point had a pharmacy

18:05 - such as this one

18:09 - in the golden age, a long rifle making late

18:13 - 1700s in the in the early 1800s.

18:17 - Lebanon, what is now Lebanon County, had three long rifle makers.

18:21 - Their names are somewhat easy to remember because all they began with bees.

18:27 - So there was buyer Barry.

18:29 - And back behind me here in the corner, we have one of the rifles.

18:34 - It was made by Nicholas Buyer and one of the more interesting tools

18:39 - or primitive machines that we have here on display is a rifling bench.

18:45 - Now, in making a gun

18:49 - barrel, the iron was first pounded out, was heated

18:54 - and pounded out into an iron plate, and then it was hammered,

18:58 - reheated and hammered and reheated and hammered

19:02 - so that you had what in effect was an iron pipe.

19:06 - And the outside could be finished,

19:09 - further finished with files and other tools,

19:12 - but the inside of the barrel had to be finished,

19:16 - had had to have a special surface imparted to it.

19:21 - And the way that you did this was with a rifling bench.

19:26 - And what we have here is a rifling bench.

19:29 - This sat on a saw box.

19:32 - And you can see that the guide here has a spiral

19:36 - design to it, and there's a T handle at the one end.

19:40 - And so while the master

19:44 - gunsmith was cutting some of the the carving, the gun stock

19:49 - or cutting and chasing some of the fine brass work

19:54 - that would be inlaid on the rifle, he would often have his apprentice

19:59 - doing the polishing work and the rifling of the inside of the barrel.

20:03 - And that was done by clamping the barrel in place here

20:06 - on the rifling bench, set up at a comfortable working height.

20:10 - And then The Apprentice or journeyman in his shop

20:14 - would be grasping the T handle there

20:17 - and would be pushing this in and out.

20:20 - And with the spiral guide

20:23 - that would impart a spiral

20:25 - or true rifling to the inside of the barrel.

20:29 - And just as when you would see

20:33 - a quarterback on the field,

20:36 - try to throw a nice tight spiral so that his pass would remain accurate

20:41 - and literally bore through the air the same thought was behind

20:47 - the rifling of the gun barrel so that it would impart

20:50 - a bit of a spin to the bullet or the or the the the ball.

20:55 - And keep it from

20:57 - wavering or tumbling

21:00 - that so that the spinning effect, that rifling was what gave it the rifle.

21:05 - Great accuracy

21:08 - on the lower level of the museum.

21:10 - We have extensive displays of craft shops

21:15 - and some of the major industrial activities

21:19 - that went on in Lebanon County, as well as bulletin making.

21:24 - Most people have heard of Lebanon, Bologna

21:27 - and one of our one of our great delicacies and

21:33 - things that relate to railroading

21:35 - and Cornwall or mines.

21:38 - Probably the most important legacy of Lebanon

21:41 - County has been its iron and steel working.

21:44 - And you will find a number of artifacts in displays

21:49 - here that relate to the smelting of iron

21:53 - and the making of iron and steel objects.

21:57 - Two of the most important plants

22:00 - toward the latter part of the iron and steel industry in Lebanon County

22:05 - were the Lebanon plant of Bethlehem Steel

22:08 - and the Lebanon Steel Foundry,

22:12 - which together employed thousands of men at their peak.

22:17 - The Lebanon plant of Bethlehem Steel is also well known locally

22:22 - as the place where, for a time around 1917, Babe Ruth was

22:29 - hidden away, effectively

22:31 - working in a necessary industry that is working for Bethlehem's Steel.

22:37 - But here in their Lebanon plant, that Lebanon plant

22:41 - had begun is the old bolt and nut works

22:44 - and was one of their premier makers of all kinds of connective devices

22:49 - for things like railroads

22:53 - and bridges and ships and later skyscrapers.

22:58 - The Lebanon Steel Foundry represented

23:00 - by the Circle L monogram

23:03 - was a foundry that the specialize

23:07 - in making alloy steel products

23:10 - had some very important defense contracts

23:14 - during the Second World War, made parts for tanks,

23:18 - early turbo blades, for early jets

23:22 - and important things like that.

23:27 - So thank you for coming along and seeing a little bit

23:29 - of what we have to offer here at the Lebanon County Historical Society.

23:32 - We hope you will come out to see us soon.

23:35 - Just be aware that we currently require

23:38 - you schedule ahead of time for any tours you want to take.

23:40 - We're not set up yet to be able to let people walk through on their own,

23:43 - though we are working on that and a big part of that is volunteers.

23:47 - We are heavily dependent on volunteers here,

23:50 - so we're always looking for more people if you're willing to help.

23:52 - And of course we're also always looking for new donations.

23:55 - If you want to let us know

23:57 - what you might have that you might be interested in donating to us

24:00 - and sharing with the public here, If you want to find out more,

24:03 - you can find more details at our website at Lebanon County History

24:06 - dot org and also on our Facebook page as well.

24:10 - Thank you.