MEETINGS
The next meeting will be June 8, at 7:00 in the Mill. Meetings are on the second Thursday of each month. The July meeting will be on July 13.
OPEN HOUSES- AT THE MILL
Open house dates for June and July are June 24 and July 22. Stop in and visit between 11 and 4.
MEMORIES
This is the second in a series on memories of long-time local residents.
Bob Camerlo
Grist: Were you born in Freeport?
Bob: No, I was born in Cabot where my parents, Augie and Angie Camerlo, owned a business – a beer garden. I don’t remember living there ‘cause we moved, when I was a toddle,to Butler Junction (BJ) where both sets of my grandparents lived. My parents moved because they were tired of the hours connected with the bar business. So we moved into BJ and lived over our new business – a grocery store. Both sets of grandparents were first generation Americans and they moved from Italy directly to BJ.
Grist: Did you work in the store from an early age?
Bob: Yes, probably I was 9 or 10. I delivered groceries over in BJ when I was only 14 – stick shift and all. When it was time to get my license, I got the permit one day and took the test the next day and passed. The state policeman said, “You’ve been driving somewhere, haven’t you?” “Well, I just moved vehicles for my father, I wasn’t really driving anywhere.”
Grist: You attended Freeport school?
Bob: Yes, we lived out of the attendance area (BJ had a one-room school house then) but my Dad paid tuition for me to attend school in Freeport. Freeport has always had a good school system; even today it’s special.
Grist: Eventually the business was moved into town?
Bob: We actually had two locations at one time. One was in the old Devereaux building across from the current building where the flowers are planted. And we had one where the Salsgiver building is now located. That building was the old Butler store. We had one closer to the river, about where the Nationwide Insurance is located. At one time there were 7 grocery stores in town. We eventually moved to the final location, across from Athletic Looks.
Grist: Did you learn how to do all aspects of the business?
Bob: Yes, I could do smidgens of butchering, smidgens of produce, etc. I was never fully functional in any specific area. My entire working life I was the boss. Now I want to be anything but the boss!
Grist: Speaking of boss, how did you take over from your Dad?
Bob: Dad and I had very different styles of management and I knew I had to do something. In fact I was looking around for something else to get into. We began to buy buildings as rental properties and Dad knew a lot about electrical and plumbing matters, so he started making apartments out of them. He then devoted his working life to this and stepped away from the grocery business and I took over management of the store. I was in my early 20s. It ended up working well. One night I was in the store and the husband of one of my employees came in to say hello. Paul was on his way to a school board meeting and mentioned they would be opening bids on the old Laneville school. I asked if I could bid and he said yes. I wrote $827.50 on a piece of paper and sealed it up. The next day I got a call saying they needed a check for that amount. My dad turned it into two very nice apartments with a large parking area.
Grist: You had other businesses, the deli, the 5 & 10, card shops.
Bob: Yes, we got the 5 & 10 first. With the deli I could see some changes ahead in the grocery business. We actually began with a bakeshop right next to our store, in the former A & P building. We later bought property across the street and put the deli and bakery in there. My wife, Andrea, sort of got us in the card shop business. She was a true blue Hallmark card buyer and suggested we sell them instead of American Greetings in the 5 & 10. She called Hallmark, they came to check us out but decided the population of the town was too small and the space available for cards was too small. Within 6 months they called me about a card shop in Grove City in a shopping center and so we went into that business. We had 8 card shops eventually.
Grist: You closed the grocery store first?
Bob: Yes, I could see the grocery business was changing directions, stores were getting bigger and bigger and we had no place to expand.
Grist: What made you give up the card shops?
Bob: I had over 100 people working for me and I no longer knew them all. One time I went into a store and a young lady walked up and asked if I needed help. She didn’t know who I was and I didn’t know her name. A friend in the business bought all 8 stores and kept the employees, paid them what they were being paid, and made my assistant, Susan, the District Manager.
Grist: You must have lots of amusing memories.
Bob: One that comes to mind involved Phyllis and Steve Green. She was in the store bending over a frozen food case and I was walking toward the back when someone hollered my name from the front. I whipped around and didn’t I hit Phyllis right in the back side with my hand! I didn’t know what to do, ignore it, apologize…maybe she hadn’t noticed. So I did nothing. Next day in comes her husband. Steve says, “Bob, what’s this I heard about you patting my wife in the derrière?” (Reader, what Steve actually said is a 3 letter word beginning with “A”) Steve thought it was pretty funny but I was embarrassed both when it happened and when Steve joked about it. He thought it was cute; I sure didn’t think so!
Another time a couple customers hired a belly dancer – it was my birthday and they had her come in at lunchtime when the deli was jammed. I just rolled with it.
There are lots of memories of John Shoop. One time he was complaining about a severe headache, sinus problems, said he was really in pain. I said, “Oh, I’ve got some great medicine for that. It’s the best thing in the world.” He said he’d try anything, so I gave him the “medicine” – it was Midol...what does John know about Midol! So it worked and he’s going around telling everyone about this great stuff he took, called Midol. Finally someone said, do you know what those are for, John?
Grist: If you hadn’t gone into the family business, what might you have done?
Bob: I don’t know, I had no secret passions. My one regret, which I lament to this day, is that I didn’t go to college. My Dad never suggested it or encouraged it; it was automatically assumed I would go into the business.
Grist: And you surely did well at it.
Bob: Yes, and it’s been great to be part of a small town. Freeport is special and unique; you don’t realize this until you go somewhere else.
Bob and Andie still have a Freeport address – in River Forest. They are the parents of 3 and grandparents of 2. The Historical Society thanks Bob for sharing these memories with our readers.
EMAIL UPDATES
Drum Family
Carol Drum emailed us to say she is researching the John Drum family, residents of Freeport between 1816 and 1840. They were members of the Presbyterian Church, now the United Presbyterian Church of Freeport on High St. John Drum’s wife was Nancy Anna Eichar(t). Carol knows of at least 3 children and is searching for another child. This child would have been born around 1820-1822. Please email her directly at caroldrum@covad.net if you have information to share.
Hudson Family
Claudia from MN emails us as follows:
We recently found a connection to some families in the area of Freeport. We are looking for information, descendents, materials, etc. on the following people:
William K. Hudson 1837-aft 1920. Wife’s name is Anna Jane (last name unknown). Mother’s maiden name was Varner – 1842-1900.
Children were: Thomas J. Hudson 1861-aft 1930. 2nd wife was Mary P. Hudson, maiden name unknown.
Edward H. Hudson 1863-1910.
Frances J. Hudson 1877- ?
Also looking for obituaries for the following:
William Hudson, b. 3/26/01, died Nov., 1966.
Blanche Hudson, b. 10/3/03, died March, 1986. Both of these people were listed as residents of Freeport, PA in the SSDI. (Note: We are not sure, but SSDI may stand for Social Security Disability Insurance.) Readers, if you have information for Claudia, please contact her at menzel8535@aol.com Thanks, readers.
PENNSYLVANIA MAINLINE CANAL
We continue with excerpts from Rod Chapman’s remarks at the December dinner meeting of FAHS, with information on the Allegheny Mountain section.
Up and Over
Engineers and surveyors had been working on this tall problem. To go south around the mountain would take the canal down to Maryland – too many miles to go to get to Johnston. A tunnel would be from 4 to 9 miles long depending on the angle it was built. But that was clearly out of the question – they didn’t have the machinery it would take to accomplish this.
So the decision was made – it would go over the top of the mountain. A series of inclines would be built and the design of the barges would have to be modified as well as the packet boats. They took a 60 ft. length of barge and divided it into four 15 ft. sections. Bulkheads were built on either side. Cargo had to be taken out of the larger canal barges and reloaded onto the flexible ones. Packet boats were built into sections coupled together. The packet boats were enclosed with a roof and windows so that passengers could see out, but not get wet or sunburned.
The incline tracks were made of wood with ironwork laid over the top,
clamped down and fastened. Wooden ties were not used; they fastened the rails to individual stones. A 150 ft. right of way was put in because they needed two tracks, one going up, one going down. Many trees and stumps had to be removed. They didn’t have equipment like we have today, but they apparently had lots of manpower because they got this work done pretty fast.
There were 5 inclines on each side and the first incline that went up on the eastern side was pretty steep and probably the longest. Mules would hook onto the barge and pull it over to the next incline and so on.
In 1825 John Nickels, a Chicago reporter, made the trip. He had breakfast at the Lemon House on the Johnston side and was ready to leave by 6 a.m. when the boats were loaded. At first he enjoyed the sights. But by the time he got to the 4th incline, he was feeling uneasy. “What if that 3-inch hemp rope breaks!!” The view at the top was beautiful – no clouds in the sky, and you could see for miles. Mr. Nickels didn’t enjoy heading down the steep incline to Holidaysburg and was glad when the 6 to 6 ½ hour trip was complete.
Many prominent people came over from Europe especially to take this ride. Among them were Charles Dickens and his wife who made a tour of the United States in 1843. Their trip included this ride over the Allegheny Mountain.
We’ll continue with more on the PA canals in a future edition of Grist.
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