Reading, Pennsylvania

“ The original settlers were principally Germans, who gave character to the town, both in language and customs. For many years the German tongue was almost exclusively spoken, and it is still used in social intercourse and religious worship by more than one-half the present population.
The manufacturing interests of Reading are second to no city of like population in the United States; while it is the third city in Pennsylvania in its manufactures, [Pg 416] Pittsburg and Philadelphia alone exceeding it. Among these manufactures the working of iron holds the first rank. ”

“ The advent of the Friends brought back more energy and more learning into the province, and the diligence and thrift they displayed in all matters were equally felt in their care of the younger generation. Gabriel Thomas, in his Historical Description of the Province of Pennsylvania, including an account of the City of Philadelphia, written in 1697, records, "In the said city are several good schools of learning for youth, in order to the attainment of arts and sciences, as also reading, writing, &c." ”

“ Reading (61) , capital of Berkshire, on the Kennet, 36 m. N. of London; a town of considerable historic interest; was ravaged by the Danes; has imposing ruins of a 12th-century Benedictine abbey, &c.; was besieged and taken by Essex in the Civil War (1643) ; birthplace of Archbishop Laud; has an important agricultural produce-market, and its manufactures include iron-ware, paper, sauce, and biscuits.
Reading (79) , capital of Berks Co., Pennsylvania, on the Schuylkill River, 58 m. NW. of Philadelphia; has flourishing iron and steel works; population includes a large German settlement. ”

“ Reading is served by the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, by the Schuylkill Canal, which carries freight to Philadelphia, and by electric railways to several villages in Berks county. The city occupies an irregular tract of land gradually descending from the base of Mt. Penn westward to the Schuylkill river, and therefore possesses excellent drainage facilities. The river, which is unnavigable and winding at this point, forms the western boundary of the city for more than 4 m., and is spanned by three public bridges and a number of railway bridges. ”

“ KARAUSTA, ACHILEFFS, Pvt., 972 Pennsylvania Ave., Tyrone, Pa. KELTZ, HARRY A., Pvt., 323 Fairmont St., Latrobe, Pennsylvania. KELLY, ALDEN, Pvt., 303–A S. 17th St., Reading, Pennsylvania. KISSLING, HARRY, Pvt., Sinking Springs, Pennsylvania. KLEIN, WILLIAM R., Pvt., Mohnton, Pennsylvania. KLOPP, JOHN E., Corp., West Leesport, Pennsylvania. KOCHEL, GEORGE, Pvt., 1448 Muhlenberg St., Reading, Pennsylvania. KOEHLER, CHARLES, Pvt. 1st class, Reading, Pennsylvania. KOMPA, ANTHONY, Pvt., Reading, Pennsylvania. KOTOUCH, ROBERT, Pvt., Greensburg, Pennsylvania. ”

“ The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 219 South Sixth Street; architect, John Notman; has best points of work done in 1850, showing traditions of the past, with developments and characteristics of its own; interior has a most beautiful reading room. The University Buildings, from Thirty-fourth to Fortieth Streets, Walnut Street to Woodland Avenue, add much to the architectural attraction of West Philadelphia; entrances to the campus, near the dormitories, are fine Tudor gateways, wrought iron, with brick and stone piers. (See University of Pennsylvania.) ”

“ They are at the same time bold and enterprising. The women are educated to housewifery, excellent companions and housekeepers, spending their leisure time in reading books of useful information and rendering themselves not only useful but amiable and pleasing.”
“What is the state of science in New England?”
“It is greatly cultivated and more generally diffused among the inhabitants than in any other part of the world.”
“What is the character of the Pennsylvanians?”
“Pennsylvania is inhabited by a great variety of people. ”

“ The wholesale district is centred at the east end of Market Street near the Delaware river. The best retail shops are farther west on the south side of Chestnut Street and on Market and Arch streets. Most of the leading banks and trust companies are on Chestnut Street and on Third Street between Chestnut and Walnut streets. Several of the larger office buildings and the stations of the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia 81 Reading railways are in the vicinity of the city hall ”

“ A school has been maintained for those classed as “illiterates,” and instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic given to 346 prisoners. The inspectors acknowledge the honor done them “by the visits of distinguished representatives of the prison systems and state departments of the nations of Europe, Asia and South America, with others of Canada and our own country, who were in attendance at the recent International Prison Congress in Washington.” ”

“ We are delighted to report some improvements in the prison at Reading. After strenuous effort by some members of the Board, a few men have been allowed to work on the poor farm. In 1917 they succeeded in raising several hundred bushels of potatoes and were helpful in drainage projects. The experiment is considered a success in every point of view. Next year under the law providing for the employment of prisoners on county land, which was approved July, 1917, more land may be cultivated and more prisoners employed. ”

“ Through William Penn’s liberal policy to early settlers, and later being the seat of government of the United States, many national institutions were originated here, and many more historical buildings are here than in any other city in America. It comprises the whole of Philadelphia County, and has a distinctive character of its own, reminiscent of the old Quaker life, which is given in this book in two Colonial Walks; the Revolutionary Period is given in automobile routes, framed on Washington’s itinerary ”

“ Here, also, the rudiments of education can well be imparted, and as there is nothing to distract the attention, the lessons make an impression such as is never witnessed in the community at large, much less in the congregate system of imprisonment. Our visitors to the Penitentiary frequently witness examples of this, which are truly remarkable. Many who had grown up without any literary culture, not being able to write or even to read the simplest matter on entering the Prison, in the course of even a few months have become capable of writing quite a good hand, and of reading with facility. ”

“ Several years ago more than one thousand persons from every section of Pennsylvania, and not a few from Southern New York State, journeyed to a most out-of-the-way place up in the wilds of Potter County to do homage to the memory of a great man, and to view the scene of one of the saddest failures in the history of the settlement of our great Commonwealth. ”

“ Literature in the West now began to have an existence. Another young poet from Chester County, Pa., namely, Thomas Buchanan Read, went to Cincinnati, and not to New York, to study sculpture and painting, about 1837, and one of his best-known poems, Pons Maximus, was written on the occasion of the opening of the suspension bridge across the Ohio. Read came East, to be sure, in 1841, and spent many years in our sea-board cities and in Italy. He was distinctly a minor poet, but some of his Pennsylvania pastorals, like the Deserted Road, have a natural sweetness ”

“ The neighborhood (I like to hover around a while, before alighting) is still a land where all things always seem the same. The trains run up and down our valley, carrying a little of the world boxed up in shabby cars, but leaving no mark behind. In another year the people will begin to visit the city more frequently; in still another, the city people will find their way to us; in five years, population will increase and property will rise in value. This is my estimate, based on a plentiful experience.
Last week, Madeline and I attended the wedding of Elwood Withers. ”

“ When the United States were yet very young, in fact, before the Federal Constitution was even proposed, before Washington was elected president, when the small cluster of log huts, protected by a stockade called Fort Pitt, was all that constituted Pittsburgh, is the time this old newspaper began its long and honorable career. ”

“ School House Lane and Greene Street, Germantown Academy, built, 1759; colonial, native stone; founded by Christopher Saur, and others of German birth, to furnish education in “English, High Dutch, and the German language.” It has always held high rank as a school; the bell was brought to Philadelphia in 1774, in the tea ship Polly, the cargo was not allowed to land, it was taken back to England, and returned here when the war was ended; telescope used by Washington during battle, when the building was used as a hospital, is here; several British soldiers were buried in the yard ”

“ The first colonists of Pennsylvania, were, perhaps, less negligent in providing the means of elementary instruction, than those of most of the other settlements. In the year 1689, only seven years after the foundation of Philadelphia, a public school was established in this city, by members of the Society of Friends, which was incorporated in 1697, and after undergoing various changes in its organization, received, in 1711, a final charter from William Penn. ”

“ Of the total population 51 per cent. is urban—i.e. they live in places which contain over 4,000 inhabitants, there being, in 1900, 119 such places, or more than in any other State. The average number of inhabitants to the square mile in 1900 was 140.1.
Cities. The population of the 18 largest cities in 1900 was as follows: Philadelphia, 1,293,697; Pittsburg, 321,616 ”

“ When I went to the city to live, where there were no such opportunities, I naturally enough turned to the gathering of books, with the result that when I went to Harrisburg in 1903 I left locked up in my house, 1540 North Fifteenth Street, in Philadelphia, over ten thousand volumes. In the main they were books relating to Pennsylvania and early imprints of the province and the state. It was the most complete collection of material of that kind which any individual had ever possessed, and in some respects was unequaled by any public library. ”

“ Earliest settlers Scotch-Irish, later Germans. Chief industry agriculture, the land east is limestone and very fertile; west, slate lands prevail, abounding in pure streams and rich meadows; the Conococheague and Conodoquinet Creeks drain the central part of the county, they are crossed by many stone arch bridges of graceful architecture, the most notable is at Hiester’s Mill, three arches. ”

“ John Read subsequently removed to Newcastle county, Delaware, and placed this son in a respectable school at Chester, Pennsylvania, where he made good proficiency in the first rudiments of his education. From there he was transferred to the seminary of the Rev. Dr. Allison, at New London, who was eminently qualified to mould the young mind for usefulness, by imparting correct principles, practical knowledge, and general intelligence, fit for every day use, combined with refined classics and polite literature. ”

“ Philadelphia lost power as New York City gained it. Though the counties tributary to Philadelphia constituted the old center of population and political power, the significant fact of growth in Pennsylvania was the increasing importance of Pittsburgh at the gateway to the Ohio Valley. In the Great Valley beyond the Blue Ridge lived the descendants of those early Germans and Scotch- Irishmen who early occupied the broad and level fields of this fertile zone, the granary of Pennsylvania. ”

“ We may, indeed, be proud as Philadelphians, that our city has been able to afford so many distinguished names as are to be found in the catalogue of those who have at different times directed the affairs of the college and university. ”

“ Philadelphia being the seat of government of colonial times, is extremely rich in historic portraits. They are in The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Independence Hall; Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Carpenters’ Hall; American Philosophical Society; Pennsylvania Hospital; Academy of Natural Science; The Library Company of Philadelphia; Mercantile Library; College of Physicians; United States Mint; University of Pennsylvania; many banks and insurance companies. ”

“ We shall scarcely need any more than this will bring us; for, as pa says, a mere competence in the city is a splendid fortune in the country. You need leisure for books and travel and society, and you shall have it. Now, let us make a place for both!"
Thereupon she showed him how the parlor and rear bed-room might be thrown into one; where there were alcoves for bookcases and space for a piano; how a new veranda might be added to the western end of the house ”

“ The new Library of the State Normal School contains portrait of Washington by Peale, painted at Valley Forge; historic autograph letters; Indian stone relics; large herbarium; and small permanent collection of original paintings, among them works by Hugh Breckenridge and Mary Butler; annual exhibitions of modern paintings and sculpture are held; Della Robbia reproductions in auditorium; Chester County Historical Society rooms are here, containing many interesting local historical collections ”