Shamut Railroad, along the river. He was unlucky enough to tramp on not one, but two copperheads and was bit, on both feet. Jim knew he had to do something quick or die. He took a knife and cut both feet open. Mr. Ellenberger, who worked up at the dam, said he would take Jim to find a doctor. They tried Doc Rogers, but he wasn’t around. Doc McCafferty was out on a house call. One other doctor, Doc McLaughlin, was home, out in his rose garden.

Jim tells the story in his own words: “I went out to the garden to see him. By that time both feet were black as coal with blood running out. Doc McLaughlin said there was nothing he could do for me. I told him, ‘Okay, I’ll get someone who can.’ He said, “Who are you going to get?” I said, ‘The undertaker.’ He thought I was kidding. So Ellenberger took me to the undertaker – Lloyds. The undertaker said, “You know, Jim, all of my customers are hauled in, you’re the first one to walk in!!” He worked on me, put suction cups on to suck out as much of the poisoned blood as he could. The next stop was to the hospital where I was a patient for 14 days. The next year the one leg got copper marks on it, the size of a penny. And a month later the marks transferred over to the other leg. That went on for several years and finally they vanished altogether.”

Jim attended Freeport school, of course, and remembers a couple incidents. Once in wood shop a boy from Sarver was using a planer. The shavings were building up, so he pushed them off and lost his hand. Jim was sent to the principal’s office once, in about 10th or 11th grade. The seats in the chemistry lab were on a swivel and you could go so far in either direction. There was a steel dog that would stop them from going further. “Well, I discovered that if you put a hickory nut between the dog and the seat and swung on over it, it would crack the nuts beautifully! Mr. Maxwell was the teacher and he wasn’t impressed!”

The Pennsylvania Railroad employed Jim for 42 years, first as fireman, then as engineer. “My job as fireman was to shovel coal and keep the steam up. The engineer would say to me at times – ‘Don’t put that lump in the firebox, put that one over on the apron.’ I wondered why he wanted me to do that, but after a bit the engineer would say, ‘OK kid, kick them off.’ Every engineer knew where there were families that were hard up and the only way they could help them was to provide a little something to keep their stove going for the winter.”

Jim has memories of hobos. “One used to ride the trains and would be in Freeport quite often – on crutches. When he got out of town, he’d hide the crutches because he didn’t really need them. Well, some of the kids saw him without them and found where they were hidden and moved them somewhere else –next time he came back – no crutches. I guess he was using them as a sympathy ploy.

My biggest fear, as an engineer, was of hitting a school bus or a gasoline truck. I have seen many, many buses never stop at a railroad crossing.”

The railroad was one of the themes of the art shows at Laube Hall which were held for many years and which Jim started. Jim was out of school when he got interested in art. He and Rod Chapman took lessons at Har-Brack in evening classes taught by Sam Andrews. He used to do some painting but when the art shows ended, he lost interest in that and prefers to work with metal. Jim spends a lot of time now making Paul Revere candle lanterns. He uses a darning needle to punch the holes in the lanterns. Jim does have paintings in the Freeport Library and the Borough Building and in the Social Room of the Faith Methodist Church in Delmont. Those are seasonable; they change them each season, take one out, and put another in. Another item at Faith Methodist is the first thing he did. Mr. Fritz Neubert, Clover Farm store in Freeport, asked him to come up with something for a contest run by the parent company. Jim made a world, it turns clockwise and an airplane goes counter clockwise around it. There are 57 different flags are on it. Jim got 2nd place, was beat out by some store in Canada. Faith Methodist uses it for the World Day of Prayer.

Jim also has works displayed in museums, at least one piece is in England, and some travel with the Masons. St. Mary’s church in town has a cross of nails, handmade, all 9 inches long and forged by him.

His ideas come from his subconscious – he goes to bed and wakes up with an idea of a project in the morning. One thing he hasn’t made and would like to is a Jewish menorah.

Jim’s sister is now deceased and he has a brother living in Natrona Heights. His wife, Louise, was from W. Va. and they met on a blind date. Louise was coming up to visit her friend, Lauretta Rutowski, and Vic suggested Jim go with them on a blind date. Jim and Louise lived in South Buffalo in a house they had built there 52 years ago and also owned property on McIntire Lane. Sadly, his wife passed on between the time he was interviewed and the time this issue went to

Ed. Note: Jim’s wish is to leave his name on something besides his tombstone, and we can assure him that he has succeeded. Thanks, Jim, for your time and some great stories.

THE WEAVERS
Hello, I am interested in finding a researcher for family genealogy, specifically the Weaver family. Can you direct me or does the Freeport Historical Society do this? Deborah L. Anthony, Community Development, Washington Twp., Erie County, PA
Her email is dragon@velocity.net. We’ve explained to her that we do not do such research, but if any readers want to help or can give her some information, please email her or call Don and he will get the information to her.

FREEPORT POST OFFICE 1907
Gay Revi strikes again with another postcard purchase. To see more of her postcard collection visit her collection Thanks, as usual, Gay.

DR. DAVID ALTER
The Historical Society has a file on Dr. Alter, a famous Freeport physician and inventor. We’d like to share some stories about this modest village doctor whose genius should have won him acclaim and fortune. However, his lack of practical business sense let fortune slip away, not once, but many times during his life.

David’s paternal great grandfather, Johann Jacob Alter, of German descent, arrived in Philadelphia aboard the ship Beulah in 1753. His maternal great grandfather, Peter Sheetz, born in Switzerland, arrived on the ship Loyal Judith in 1740. Their children, John Alter, born in 1771, and Eleanor Sheetz, (sometimes written as Helenor) married in 1794. In 1800 they moved from York County over the mountains to settle on a farm in Allegheny Township, Westmoreland County, near his brother David, who had moved to western Pennsylvania in 1799.

John and Eleanor produced 8 children and three of their sons became physicians. The fifth child, David, is Freeport’s own, Dr. David Alter. He was born in 1807 and was bilingual – English and German – though after he was grown he would only speak English unless his companion could not.

When he was just a boy he read about the life of Benjamin Franklin and developed an interest in electricity. A couple years later he was given a Leyden jar and some electrical appliances from the East, by an uncle and he began to experiment. He was given books on electricity and chemistry and sometimes was oblivious to the work he was supposed to be doing on his dad’s farm.

At the age of 21 he traveled to the Reformed Medical College of the United States in New York City traveling there by horseback and train. Three years later he was graduated as a physician and began his practice in Elderton.

His great abilities as a physician were recognized almost immediately and he treated patients all along the Allegheny Valley. Unlike most doctors of his day, he did not prescribe whiskey under any circumstances. Unlike most doctors of this day, he never charged poor patients and never sent out any bills.

His first wife, Laura Rowley, was from Freeport and they married on January 12, 1832.

In 1843 he moved from Elderton to Freeport and lived in a house on Water Street The house is long gone and the street is now called Riverside Drive. Shortly after this move, his first wife died and he soon married Elizabeth Amanda Rowley, sister to his first wife. Between the two wives, 11 children were born, but only 4 lived to maturity.

The years went on and Dr. Alter experimented and discovered and invented to his heart’s content. There was no measurably financial reward to all this and in the last year of his life he suffered financial misfortune. He was close to losing his home and all property and would have if not for friends who came to his rescue. Their support showed the high esteem in which his neighbors held him
.
Dr. Altar died from a complication of diseases, principally pneumonia, on September 18, 1881. An obituary published in the Freeport journal on September 23, 1881, said: “In the death of Dr. Alter our community loses a good citizen, and the State one of the ablest minds of the age. His whole life was spent in the interest of science and humanity. While he has sown, others have reaped, and in a pecuniary sense, he died poor. But in that higher, nobler wealth he was rich – rich in love for his fellow man, rich in good deeds, rich in Christian experience, rich in the pure life he lived and the good name he left behind him.”

Ed. Note: This article came primarily from writing of Miss Della Means – who she was and the time period in which she wrote it is unknown. Future issues of Grist will tell of some of Dr. Alter’s inventions.

PENNSYLVANIA MAINLINE CANAL
This is the last excerpt from Rod Chapman’s remarks at last December’s dinner meeting of FAHS.
The Canal in Freeport
Many locals know of the controversy in recent years about the Freeport to Butler section of the Rails to Trails. The canal caused similar problems - farmers didn’t want that canal coming across their property. They didn’t care if the government thought it owned the property or if they would be paid. It was ruining their fields, separating their farms. So they put up barricades. The sheriff had to come in and threaten to put the farmer in jail if he wouldn’t tear down the barricade.

The Irish could be difficult as well. In the wintertime they would tear the fences down and burn the posts to keep warm. In the summer they would turn the horses (used to “power” the scoops) loose at night. The horses would wonder out in the fields, eat the oats and trample down everything else. So the farmer would call the sheriff.

A lot of Irish came over to do most of the labor on the canal. In Freeport we had two Irish families. The Gary Owens family settled in the upper end along where the lock came across the river at Dock Hollow. The Mulligans settled down along the river in the vicinity of First or Second Streets and Water Street. The two families apparently didn’t care for each other. Saturday nights could be very rough in town – with 3 saloons in the village there usually was a big fight before the evening ended. Rod never heard or saw anything written that anyone ever died in one of these fights, but there lots of black eyes, bloody noses, and scrapped fists by Sunday morning. Speaking of Sunday morning, these two families were credited with starting St. Mary’s Church in 1826 when circuit-riding priests came to town. There was brotherhood on Sunday morning if not on Saturday night!

The canal finally came through Freeport and you can see where it ran…the railroad high-grade was built over the canal bed. When the canal came through, there were two bridges over it, one at about Fifth Street, and the other at about Second Street. This came across to Water Street (Riverside Drive.)

At the foot of Market Street, about where the apartments are now located and where Smith and Zanheizer had their feed store years ago, Lot #10 on the canal was located. Years later when they were building the high grade, they found a lot of artifacts from the canal here.

Again, our thanks are extended to Rod, for the research he has done over many years and for sharing his canal story with us.

AND ANOTHER WORD OF THANKS
Paul Dudek continues to keep the grass nicely cut around the Mill and we continue to appreciate this very, very much! Bet he is glad the growing season is just about over for this year.



			Grist for the Mill A bimonthly Publication of the Freeport Area Historical Society - August/Sept., 2006
			MEETINGS Meetings are usually on the second Thursday of each month. October through April, we meet at King’s Restaurant in Sarver at 7 in the Community room. Come at 6:30 if you want to join other members for dinner there. In May we resume meeting at the Mill. The November meeting will be a different sort of meeting – a walking tour of Freeport, led by Rod Chapman, followed by a soup and sandwich dinner to be held on Saturday, November 11, in the Social Room of Freeport United Methodist Church, 4th Street. Meet there at 3 and we’ll depart promptly at 3:15. If the weather does not cooperate, this will be a virtual tour with photos while Rod gives us historical background on many buildings and locations in town. Once the tour is done, we will end the meeting with homemade soup and deli sandwiches. Please see reservation information at the end of the newsletter. In December we will resume meeting at King’s. A QUILTING WE WILL GO Two generous members have purchased an Amish quilt and have donated it to FAHS to be raffled off as a fundraiser. The quilt was made by Emma Yoder and is queen size, 90 x 100. The design is Dresden Plate and it is gorgeous. A black and white picture printed here would simply not do it justice. We’ll try to get a photo on the web page, so you may check it out there. Trust us, it’s beautiful! Members should have already received a book of 10 tickets ($1 each) to sell. Please help us with this easy fundraiser. Sell the tickets to friends or relatives or purchase them yourself. Ticket stubs must be turned in by November 1 and this deadline is approaching rapidly. The winning ticket will be drawn at the November meeting, on November 11. Second prize will be handmade decorative pillows. These are made with the old fashioned method of latch hook and are made of hand-spun wool. They are black with a floral pattern. Third prize will be a Freeport throw. MEMORIES This is another in the series on memories of long-time local residents. Blacksmithing, mullet leaves, copperheads, Pennsylvania Railroad and nails – what do these disparate items have in common? Read on: Jim Elliott Most locals know Jim or know of him, in part because of his very talented ability in art. But there is more than art to Jim. He was the son of Guy and Mabel Elliott and was born on Franklin Street. Guy was a blacksmith and one time he got a bad burn from a hot piece of metal. An acquaintance, Mr. Arnold, said, “Ill gets something that will fix you up.” Off he went. It wasn’t long before he returned with a real gooey mixture of mullet leaves, inner bark of an elderberry bush, and beeswax. He put it on the burn and said to Guy, “This will heal you up real quick.” Mr. Arnold had been in the military and was in General Custer’s unit. Fortunately for Guy, Mr. Arnold was on furlough during the famous last stand. The Indians had taught him about this mixture for easing burns. Jim’s dad died when he was just 14 and Jim wishes he knew more about his Dad’s craft. He did some blacksmithing with his Dad, but didn’t stay with it and learn as much as he could or should have. Jim was more interested in playing baseball and swimming. So when Guy died, he took most of that knowledge with him. One Sunday afternoon when Jim was 15, he was walking up the Pittsburgh/Shamut Railroad, along the river. He was unlucky enough to tramp on not one, but two copperheads and was bit, on both feet. Jim knew he had to do something quick or die. He took a knife and cut both feet open. Mr. Ellenberger, who worked up at the dam, said he would take Jim to find a doctor. They tried Doc Rogers, but he wasn’t around. Doc McCafferty was out on a house call. One other doctor, Doc McLaughlin, was home, out in his rose garden. Jim tells the story in his own words: “I went out to the garden to see him. By that time both feet were black as coal with blood running out. Doc McLaughlin said there was nothing he could do for me. I told him, ‘Okay, I’ll get someone who can.’ He said, “Who are you going to get?” I said, ‘The undertaker.’ He thought I was kidding. So Ellenberger took me to the undertaker – Lloyds. The undertaker said, “You know, Jim, all of my customers are hauled in, you’re the first one to walk in!!” He worked on me, put suction cups on to suck out as much of the poisoned blood as he could. The next stop was to the hospital where I was a patient for 14 days. The next year the one leg got copper marks on it, the size of a penny. And a month later the marks transferred over to the other leg. That went on for several years and finally they vanished altogether.” Jim attended Freeport school, of course, and remembers a couple incidents. Once in wood shop a boy from Sarver was using a planer. The shavings were building up, so he pushed them off and lost his hand. Jim was sent to the principal’s office once, in about 10th or 11th grade. The seats in the chemistry lab were on a swivel and you could go so far in either direction. There was a steel dog that would stop them from going further. “Well, I discovered that if you put a hickory nut between the dog and the seat and swung on over it, it would crack the nuts beautifully! Mr. Maxwell was the teacher and he wasn’t impressed!” The Pennsylvania Railroad employed Jim for 42 years, first as fireman, then as engineer. “My job as fireman was to shovel coal and keep the steam up. The engineer would say to me at times – ‘Don’t put that lump in the firebox, put that one over on the apron.’ I wondered why he wanted me to do that, but after a bit the engineer would say, ‘OK kid, kick them off.’ Every engineer knew where there were families that were hard up and the only way they could help them was to provide a little something to keep their stove going for the winter.” Jim has memories of hobos. “One used to ride the trains and would be in Freeport quite often – on crutches. When he got out of town, he’d hide the crutches because he didn’t really need them. Well, some of the kids saw him without them and found where they were hidden and moved them somewhere else –next time he came back – no crutches. I guess he was using them as a sympathy ploy. My biggest fear, as an engineer, was of hitting a school bus or a gasoline truck. I have seen many, many buses never stop at a railroad crossing.” The railroad was one of the themes of the art shows at Laube Hall which were held for many years and which Jim started. Jim was out of school when he got interested in art. He and Rod Chapman took lessons at Har-Brack in evening classes taught by Sam Andrews. He used to do some painting but when the art shows ended, he lost interest in that and prefers to work with metal. Jim spends a lot of time now making Paul Revere candle lanterns. He uses a darning needle to punch the holes in the lanterns. Jim does have paintings in the Freeport Library and the Borough Building and in the Social Room of the Faith Methodist Church in Delmont. Those are seasonable; they change them each season, take one out, and put another in. Another item at Faith Methodist is the first thing he did. Mr. Fritz Neubert, Clover Farm store in Freeport, asked him to come up with something for a contest run by the parent company. Jim made a world, it turns clockwise and an airplane goes counter clockwise around it. There are 57 different flags are on it. Jim got 2nd place, was beat out by some store in Canada. Faith Methodist uses it for the World Day of Prayer. Jim also has works displayed in museums, at least one piece is in England, and some travel with the Masons. St. Mary’s church in town has a cross of nails, handmade, all 9 inches long and forged by him. His ideas come from his subconscious – he goes to bed and wakes up with an idea of a project in the morning. One thing he hasn’t made and would like to is a Jewish menorah. Jim’s sister is now deceased and he has a brother living in Natrona Heights. His wife, Louise, was from W. Va. and they met on a blind date. Louise was coming up to visit her friend, Lauretta Rutowski, and Vic suggested Jim go with them on a blind date. Jim and Louise lived in South Buffalo in a house they had built there 52 years ago and also owned property on McIntire Lane. Sadly, his wife passed on between the time he was interviewed and the time this issue went to Ed. Note: Jim’s wish is to leave his name on something besides his tombstone, and we can assure him that he has succeeded. Thanks, Jim, for your time and some great stories. THE WEAVERS Hello, I am interested in finding a researcher for family genealogy, specifically the Weaver family. Can you direct me or does the Freeport Historical Society do this? Deborah L. Anthony, Community Development, Washington Twp., Erie County, PA Her email is dragon@velocity.net. We’ve explained to her that we do not do such research, but if any readers want to help or can give her some information, please email her or call Don and he will get the information to her. FREEPORT POST OFFICE 1907 Gay Revi strikes again with another postcard purchase. To see more of her postcard collection visit her collection Thanks, as usual, Gay. DR. DAVID ALTER The Historical Society has a file on Dr. Alter, a famous Freeport physician and inventor. We’d like to share some stories about this modest village doctor whose genius should have won him acclaim and fortune. However, his lack of practical business sense let fortune slip away, not once, but many times during his life. David’s paternal great grandfather, Johann Jacob Alter, of German descent, arrived in Philadelphia aboard the ship Beulah in 1753. His maternal great grandfather, Peter Sheetz, born in Switzerland, arrived on the ship Loyal Judith in 1740. Their children, John Alter, born in 1771, and Eleanor Sheetz, (sometimes written as Helenor) married in 1794. In 1800 they moved from York County over the mountains to settle on a farm in Allegheny Township, Westmoreland County, near his brother David, who had moved to western Pennsylvania in 1799. John and Eleanor produced 8 children and three of their sons became physicians. The fifth child, David, is Freeport’s own, Dr. David Alter. He was born in 1807 and was bilingual – English and German – though after he was grown he would only speak English unless his companion could not. When he was just a boy he read about the life of Benjamin Franklin and developed an interest in electricity. A couple years later he was given a Leyden jar and some electrical appliances from the East, by an uncle and he began to experiment. He was given books on electricity and chemistry and sometimes was oblivious to the work he was supposed to be doing on his dad’s farm. At the age of 21 he traveled to the Reformed Medical College of the United States in New York City traveling there by horseback and train. Three years later he was graduated as a physician and began his practice in Elderton. His great abilities as a physician were recognized almost immediately and he treated patients all along the Allegheny Valley. Unlike most doctors of his day, he did not prescribe whiskey under any circumstances. Unlike most doctors of this day, he never charged poor patients and never sent out any bills. His first wife, Laura Rowley, was from Freeport and they married on January 12, 1832. In 1843 he moved from Elderton to Freeport and lived in a house on Water Street The house is long gone and the street is now called Riverside Drive. Shortly after this move, his first wife died and he soon married Elizabeth Amanda Rowley, sister to his first wife. Between the two wives, 11 children were born, but only 4 lived to maturity. The years went on and Dr. Alter experimented and discovered and invented to his heart’s content. There was no measurably financial reward to all this and in the last year of his life he suffered financial misfortune. He was close to losing his home and all property and would have if not for friends who came to his rescue. Their support showed the high esteem in which his neighbors held him . Dr. Altar died from a complication of diseases, principally pneumonia, on September 18, 1881. An obituary published in the Freeport journal on September 23, 1881, said: “In the death of Dr. Alter our community loses a good citizen, and the State one of the ablest minds of the age. His whole life was spent in the interest of science and humanity. While he has sown, others have reaped, and in a pecuniary sense, he died poor. But in that higher, nobler wealth he was rich – rich in love for his fellow man, rich in good deeds, rich in Christian experience, rich in the pure life he lived and the good name he left behind him.” Ed. Note: This article came primarily from writing of Miss Della Means – who she was and the time period in which she wrote it is unknown. Future issues of Grist will tell of some of Dr. Alter’s inventions. PENNSYLVANIA MAINLINE CANAL This is the last excerpt from Rod Chapman’s remarks at last December’s dinner meeting of FAHS. The Canal in Freeport Many locals know of the controversy in recent years about the Freeport to Butler section of the Rails to Trails. The canal caused similar problems - farmers didn’t want that canal coming across their property. They didn’t care if the government thought it owned the property or if they would be paid. It was ruining their fields, separating their farms. So they put up barricades. The sheriff had to come in and threaten to put the farmer in jail if he wouldn’t tear down the barricade. The Irish could be difficult as well. In the wintertime they would tear the fences down and burn the posts to keep warm. In the summer they would turn the horses (used to “power” the scoops) loose at night. The horses would wonder out in the fields, eat the oats and trample down everything else. So the farmer would call the sheriff. A lot of Irish came over to do most of the labor on the canal. In Freeport we had two Irish families. The Gary Owens family settled in the upper end along where the lock came across the river at Dock Hollow. The Mulligans settled down along the river in the vicinity of First or Second Streets and Water Street. The two families apparently didn’t care for each other. Saturday nights could be very rough in town – with 3 saloons in the village there usually was a big fight before the evening ended. Rod never heard or saw anything written that anyone ever died in one of these fights, but there lots of black eyes, bloody noses, and scrapped fists by Sunday morning. Speaking of Sunday morning, these two families were credited with starting St. Mary’s Church in 1826 when circuit-riding priests came to town. There was brotherhood on Sunday morning if not on Saturday night! The canal finally came through Freeport and you can see where it ran…the railroad high-grade was built over the canal bed. When the canal came through, there were two bridges over it, one at about Fifth Street, and the other at about Second Street. This came across to Water Street (Riverside Drive.) At the foot of Market Street, about where the apartments are now located and where Smith and Zanheizer had their feed store years ago, Lot #10 on the canal was located. Years later when they were building the high grade, they found a lot of artifacts from the canal here. Again, our thanks are extended to Rod, for the research he has done over many years and for sharing his canal story with us. AND ANOTHER WORD OF THANKS Paul Dudek continues to keep the grass nicely cut around the Mill and we continue to appreciate this very, very much! Bet he is glad the growing season is just about over for this year.