e Covey Star.
VOLUME IV.
=~
SALISBURY, ELK
(Get It
At Jeffery”
I
When in need of anything in the line.of Pure
Fresh Groceries, Fancy Confectionery, Marvin's
Fresh Bread,
CALL ATCase.
Oppo=ite
THE
300ks,
Stationery,
Notions, ete.
LEADING GROCERY.
Space is too limited to enumerate all my bargains here,
Call and be convinced that I sell the best of goods.at the
lowest living prices.
My business has grown wonderfully in the past few years,
for which I heartily thank the good people of Salisbury
and vicinity and shall try 1
future patronage.
J -
Posbtoftice.
TI.
harder than ever to merit your
Respectfully,
JEFFERY,
- Grrant Street.
4 6“
15
10 «
8B. «
7
6
Ca=h Prices Talk!
mnt. ©
Arbuckle’s Coffee, per 1b.
18 Ibs. Granulated Sugar, $1.00 Lanc: ister Ginghams, per vd,
Rice,
White Hominy,
Navy Be
Lima Bans,
ans,
Cakes Coke Soap,
Water Lilly Soap,
10
25
25
25
25
25
Bargains
251
.05
05
Men’s Suits from $4.00 up.
Best €alico, per yard,
Childrens Suits from - °.75 up.
Special Bed-rock cash prices on
ing.
|
at |
in Ladies’ Shoes
$1.00 and $1.25.
rr ———TY {]} RS ——
For the (! A SH, we defy all competition and guarantee to give
you substantial
ralue for your money.
Respectfully,
BARCHUS & ILIVIINGOOD,
SALISBURY, PA.
yugar-Making Utensils!
eer ~~ _
Supply your wants in this line where you can get the goods for
the least money.
“Sm Heelers Buckels, Spout, Sur Pas, Sp Cans. Ee
We also carry at all times a large line of up-to-date -
————
==EIARDWARDE,
Stoves, Tinware, larness, Collars, Paints, Oils, Glass, Etc., Etc.
Our motto is, “LARGE SALES and SMALL MARGINS.”
Ce R. Haselbarth & Son, Salisbury, Penna.
Grain Flour and Heed!
v
8. A. Lichliter is doing businees at the old stand.
With greatly increas-
ed stock and facilities for handling goods, we are prepared to meet the
wants of our customers in
ALL KINDS OF
In short anything to feed man or beast.
"OF CARBON OIL and can save merchants money on this line, as we buy car-
STAPLE GROCERIES,
Feed, Flour, Corn, Oats, Ktc.
\ \' © load lots. We wre also
*
’
We pay cash for good Butter and nice, clean Fresh Eggs.
Furthermore, we are JOBBERS
Headquarters For Maple Sweets.
what advantages we offer.
S.A. LICHLITER, Salisbury, Pa.
Come and seo
A few more local agents wanted for
ning Green ANDRAE BICYCLES.
established at Johnstown,
Uniontown,
A - ton and all other leading cities.
Ae B
“Just ask any Andrae rider.
_ Catalogues mailed to anybody on application.
HIGH GRADE. BICYCLES
Are. | KOS Noto T
PRE
the Celebrated, Fast-run-
Agents already
Connellsville, West New-
soon!
A few more good agents wanted.
Write to the
J USTICE CYCLE CO. L't'd., Gen. Agts,
714 PENN AVE. & 713 LIBERTY
ST.
nor
'Overcoats and all lines of cloth- |
can be told from
PITTSBURG, PA.
“AXIE" YODER.
A True Story of the Life of the Old
Axe-Maker of Elk Liek Township.
BY W. H. WELFLEY.
[“Axie and the other Argonauts,” the |
article mentioned inthe first paragraph
of the following article, and which seems
: : |
to have been somewhat misleading, was |
published in Tie Star as well as in the |
Somerset Ilerald. By request of the
| author, Tue Star reproduces his excel- |
lent article in last weekls Herald, in |
| which it is calculated to represent the |
old axe-maker as he really was—Ebp.]
The readers of the Herald will doubt-
less remember an amusing article which
appeared in ifs columns in 1895, entitled
“Axie and other Argonauts,” the cen-
tral figure or hero of which was the late |
Joseph J. Joder.
Now, it is true that the legends con-
cerning him as they are related in that
i article, dosubstantially exist among the
older families of Elk Lick and Summit
townships, where they have been hand-
ed ‘down for several generations, and
the talented author, when he condensed
them into a newspaper article, was not
drawing very much, if any, upon his
imagination.
These legends had their first origin
among the more ignorant of his neigh-
bors—people who did not really know
understand a man who, notwith-
standing his plain garb and the fact
that he had been brought up among
| them, was, so far as education and gen-
eral information were concerned, far in
advance of many of his fellows—and
they place him in a somewhat false
light in the eyes of the present genera-
tion, anTong whom his name still lin-
gers. His lines were cast in what may
be called the primitive times of the set-
tlement, days in which, any man of an
investigating turn of mind could ex-
pect to be accused of dealing in the
“black art.”
A different {ory of this man’s life
that which would be
looked for after hearing these legends
as they are still Felnfed, and it is the
present writer's pur: ose to try and tell
something of this story.
Jacob Joder (the nawme in our time is
usually spelled and pronounced Yoder)
was one of the early pioneer settlers of
Somerset county. Ile is said to have
been born in Switzerland, or possibly
in one of the German protestant prov-
ineer, and came to America when quite
a young man. It is known that his
father also emigrated to America, but
his name is forgotten, nor is it known
that he ever lived in Somerset county.
Jacob Joder (or Yoder) took up a
farm on the east bank of the Cassel-
man river, about two and a half miles
west of what is now Meyersdale, about
the year 1780, possibly a year or two
earlier, or perhaps a little latter; the
precise date can not now be determin-
ed. What is now known as Yoder sta-
tion is on this farm. His wife was a
daughter of John Hochstetler, who was
the pioneer ancester of the Hochstetler
family of our day.
The family of Jacob Yoder consisted
of four sons and three daughters, as fol-
lows: John, Elizabeth, Joseph J., An-
na, Sarah, Daniel and Solomon. Of
these, John Yoder was married to a
sister of the late Michael Sipe, and
woved to Holmes county, Ohio; Eliza-
beth Yoder became the wife of Jost
Schrock ; Anna Yoder was married to
Frederick Helmuth, and they also mov-
ed to Holmes county, Ohio, in 1835.
Jacob Yoder died in 1828, and his re-
mains rest in a graveyard near the Cas-
selman river.
Daniel and Solomon Yoder became
the owners of the home farm after their
father’s death, and lived and died in
Bomerset county.
Joseph J. Joder was born on the: Yo-
der farm on the 11th day of December,
1788, and on this farm his early days
were passed. In his time there were
no common schools. His family were
Amish. Now, the writer does not wish
to convey the idea that the early Am-
ish people were against the educating
of their children. To this they gave
some attention, but it had to be in the
German language; it was educating
their children in the English language
that they resisted.
But, notwithstanding the attitude of
Jacob Yoder’s co-religionists on the
matter of the education of the chil-
dren, his son Joseph received what for
that day was a fair English education.
He wrote quite a legible English hand,
as specimens of his writing as far back
as 1820, which have been preserved,
will show.
‘Jost Miller, who lived near the mouth
of Blue Lick run, nbout a mile and a
half down the river from Meyersdale,
was a blacksmith. In 1810 Joseph Jo-
der went to his shop and became an ‘ap-
prentice to this Jost Miller, remaining
with him for two years. Hethen seems.
to have worked at the trade two years
K LICK POSTOF FICE, PA. FEBRUARY 24, 1898.
NUMBER 5.
le with one Jacob Dietz. In 1814
he stayed with his father for a short
time on the farm, and later entered in-
to a partnership with John Bittner,
who was also a blacksmith. This con-
tinued until late in 1815.
About this time he determined to go
{ to Philadelphia, where he apprenticed
| himsel to Elliot & Co. for the purpose
of learning the art of watchmaking
and repairing. This was in January,
| 1818. He remained in the citv some-
thing over a year employed in this busi-
| ness. Deciding to quit the city, he laid
in a considerable stock of the more
| fancy goods of that day, supplied him-
[ self with a set of watchmaker’s tools
| and returned to Somerset county, when
he engaged in the occupation of ped-
dling, as well as repairing watches
and clocks.
An old account-book shows that he
sold goods on credit to one hundred
and thirty-two persons in Somerset
township, all of which accoants were
settled and paid save two; these two
persons living somewhat out of the
way were never asked to pay. Would
a peddler or any other business man
fare so well in giving credit to the de-
scendants of these people in the pres-
ent day?
In 1820 he established himself in Sal-
isbury and opened a shop for the re-
pairing of watches and clocks; but that
section was then still sparsely settled
and he soon left the town and returned
to his father’s farm.
In December, 1820, he married Ger-
trude Schrock. He settled himself in
a shop near the mouth of Blue Lick
run and resumed the blacksmithing
business. This was in a general way,
doing all sorts of such work in thisline
as is required in a community of farm-
ers, He was prot long in finding out
that there was need and a call in the
community for axes and edge tools,
such as drawing krives, etc., and that
none of the blacksmiths were able. to
make them; for hardly on2 ina hun-
dred among them could weld caststeel
upon iron. He therefore began to ex-
periment in the way of welding cast-
steel and in tempering it when it was
welded, and in time mastered it thor-
‘oughly. But to do this, it was neces-
sary to devote some time to the study
of chemistry and metallurgy. He bought
the needed books, supplied himself with
an outfit of chemical apparatus, ete.,
necded for his experiments and inves-
tigation, and in time he became a rath-
er expert chemist, at least so far as the
working of iron and steel was .con-
cerned.
Now a man can not do a work of this
sort in just the same manner that he
would go about in the making of a
horse-shoe or a cow-chain. He had to
prepare for himself a sort ot a labora-
tory where he could carry on his exper-
iments and keep his apparatus, etc,
free from the hands of outside med-
dlers.
der lock and key; and just this is what
gave rise to those legends that became
current among the more ignorant of
the community that he dealt in the
black art, and had entered into a league
with the evil one; some even went so
far as to say that he made counterfeit
money in this secret chamber.
Among other things used in the suc-
cessful welding of steel was borax. He
had a method of pulverizing and pre-
paring this article for use, the secret of
which was zealously guarded ; and when
so prepared it was worth, perhaps,
three or four times as much as was the,
raw article. -\WWe have said that he
thoroughly mastered the art of weld-
ing and tempering steel.
He ndw quit common blacksmithing
entirely, and devoted his time to the
making of axes, chisels. drawing knives
and all sorts of edge tools that were
needed in the community, as well as
animal traps, forks and other imple-
ments of steel. The fame of his axes
and edge tools for excellence speedily
spread all through the surrounding
country, and they were eagerly sought
for as much as fifty and sixty miles
away.
The axes had a stell poll, as well as a
steel edge. The weight, number. piece
and maker's name were all carefully
stamped on each axe, and they were
nol. ground to a sharp edge, as are the
axes we buy in the stores in our own
day; on the contrary, the edge was left
at a thickness of perhaps n sixteenth of
an inch, and was ground to an edge by
the purchaser. Such as were not sold
from the shop were taken out and left
at the stores’ through the surrounding
country, to be sold on commission.
In his work .he always used a four-
pound hand-hammer. In time the pat-
ent axe of the present day, which was
sold at a much Jower price, came into
competition with the Joder axe in the
stores; but in the community in which
they were made, the Joder axe always
held its own as long as Mr. Joder was
able to make them. Of sy was
Naturally he would keep it. un- |
not possible for any one man to make
all the axes and other tools that were
called for, and he soon began to take
apprentices, who were carefully in-
structed in the art,and who, as they
became free, were given employment
as journeymen. The ‘late Aaron
Schrock, of Middlecreek, who was his
brother-in-law, was the first of these
apprentices. The article, of indenture
bearing the date of September 22, 1821,
and written by Joseph J. Joder himself
in a fair clerkly hand, is still in posses-
sion of Capt. W. DM. Schrock, a son of
Aaron Schrock, and, as it is something
of a curiosity, is here given:
THIS INDENTURFE Witnesseth, that
Aaron Schrock, of the township of Broth-
ersvalley, in the eounty of Somerset, by and
with his own conset hath put himself, and
by these presents doth voluntarily and of
his own free will and accord, put himself
apprentice to Joseph J. Joder, of the same
place, blacksmith, to learn his art, trade and
mystery, and, after the manner of an ap-
prentice,. to serve him from the day and
date hereof, for and during the full end and
term of three years next ensuing; during all
of which term the apprentice his said mas-
ter faithfully shall serve, his secrets keep,
his lawful commands everywhere readily
obey. He shall do no damage to his said
master, nor see¢ it done by others, without
letting or giving notice thereof to his said
master. He shall not wagte his said mas-
ter’s goods, nor lend them unlawfully té any.
He shall neither buy nor sell. He shall not
absent himself day or night from his said
master’s service without his leave, nor haunt
ale-houses, taverns or play-houses, but in all
things behave himself as a faithful appren-
tice ought to do during the said term. And
the said master shall use the utmost® of his
endeavors to teach or cause to be taught or
instructed the said apprentice in the trade
or mystery of a blacksmith, and procure for
him sufficient meat, drink, apparel, lodging
and washing, fitting for an apprentice, dur-
ing the said term of three years, and give
within said term one month’s schooling,
and give him also yearly twelve days free
in hay-making and harvest-time; and when
he is free give him two suits of clothing,
one good watch, and one good rifle.
And for the performance of all and singu-
lar the covenants and agreements aforesaid,
the said parties bind themselves each unto
the other firmly by these presents.
In Witness Whereof the said parties have
scot their hands and seals hereunto. Dated
the first day of September, in the year of
our Lord one thousaad eight hundred and
twenty-one.
Sealed and delivered
in the presence of AARON SCHROCK, Senl.
Abraham Miller, i
Peter Miller, Jr. Joskru J. JODER, Seal.
Certainly a man capable of drawing
up an instrument of writing such as
this is, was no ignorant mountebank,
| given to consulting “Hex doctors”
“Erd Speigels” and the like.
(Continued next week.)
“BARkER’S LINIMENT” made H. M.
Berkley our Republican county chair-
man, but it failed to win in the Ebens-
burg postoffice fight. There are other
things, too, that *“Barker’s liniment”
will not be able to do. Every old fraud
will in due course of time go the way of
the Phil Sheridan Oil Company, of
which much can be learned by cousult-
ing old back numbers of the Meyers-
dale Commercial, and for the keeping
mum of which a certain editor evidently
was paid a good round price—a price
so large as to change the said editor’s
politics and give him a complete change
of heart in one night. “Murder will
out,” as the old saying puts it, and Tue
STAR hereby gives notice that it has se-
cured documentary evidence that will
put some corrupt politicians of Somer-
set county in a dangerous hole if they
don’t promptly mend their ways and
lead a more honorable career. The
people are with Tne Star and we know
exactly what we are doing. Tha people
must and will rule.
Tur Berlin Record recently made a
very unjust and unkind thrust at the
County Commissioners. The only rea-
son the Record did this was because
Editor Marshall asked for the printing
of the Commissioners’ annual state-
ment and failed to get it. If the state-
ment would have been given to the
Record, does anyone suppose for a mo-
ment that its editor would have raised
howl about the Commissioners? No!
of course not.. At any rate the Record
had no fault to find with those officers,
last year, when it was given the annual
statement to print. It shows very bad
principle when a newspaper jumps on-
to public officers for no other reason
than because they do not always throw
patronage to the editor. Of course
nothing else can be expected from such
papers as the Commercial and the Herald,
for they have had a soft thing of it so
long that they felt themselves the own-
ers of all the patronage coming from
the county officers, and when men took
charge of affairs that believed in doing
justice and the square thingall around,
they of course set up a howl calculated
to heap unnecessary expenses upon the
county, and this, too, while they are
pretending to advoeated economy for
the county. The greed for patronage:
has caused the Herald and _Commercia
to make themselves unreasonable and
ridiculous, end the Record ought to
know better than to follow their filthy
aad disgr. ceful example.
Tne Berlin Record is at present shed-
ding many gallons of briny tears be-
cause it did not get the County Com-
missioners’ annual statement to pub-
lish. Listen to its tale of woe:
“This year the tax payer foots the
bills for publishing the report of the
County Auditors, without receiving a
report that he can rely on after he has
read it. As the reports appear, there
are two sets of them varying materially
in their items and footings, so that the
tax payer is puzzled to know which is
the correct one or whether either one
is correct. The chances are that both
are wrong. I‘ive papers get the report
to print, this year, with the Record
tabooed.”
Yes, the Record ts tabooed, and there-
by hangs a tale. Why shouldn’t the
Record be tubooed in this matter? Tt has
long ago been demonstrated that Edi-
tor Marshall is a great réformer when
he can reform a few dollars from some
other fellow’s pocKet into his own.
When he cannot do this, then he be-
comes a great bellyacher and resorts
to ali manner of false assertions to
make the tax payers feel that they are
being victimized.
In his great single tax, free silver,
prohibition and would-be granger sheet,
he tells things that he kuows to be the
rankest and foulest kind of falsehood.
When he says there are two sets of Au-
ditors’ reports, he says what he knows
to be untrue. When he says the Audit
ors’ report is published in five news-
papers, he deliberately lies. What oc-
casion is there for all this rant and rot
about the Auditors’ report? Why does
the Record not tell the truth? Here is
the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth: It is a well-known fact
that the Commissioners are required
by law to publish an annua! statement
of the county’s affairs, which they have
been doing year after year. The same
was done this year, and the report was
given to three of the county papers,
namely, Tue BrAr, the Standard and the
Democrat. It seems, however, that this
arrangement did not suit the Herald,
the Commercial and the Record. And
why? Simply because the latter three
papers did not get the contract. This
is all there is to it, and that’s where the
howl comes in. Allowing their jealousy
and greed for patronage to get away
with their judgment, the Herald gang
instructed their political tools, the Au-
ditors, to object to the Commissioners
report and get out a report ot their
own. This the Auditors did and gave
the same for publication to the two
Scullsheets, the flerald and Commercial,
for publication. The two Scull sheets
published the same and of course will
now try to compel the county to pay
them for printing a statement which is
unauthorized by law, which has already
been proven to be full of errors, and
»which; in short, is nothing but a bogus
statement. All this they aredoing and
at the same time claim to be advocat-
ing economy. The little “me-too” sheet
over at Berlin, which has ne standing
politically and very little in any other
respect, also takes up the ery, and the
bewhiskered editor of the same is flut-
tering about like an old hypnoti.ed
hen, making a fool of himself, under
the mistaken notion that he is a great
reformer.
The Value of a Navy.
Pittsburg Times.
The explosion which wrecked the
Maine, whether an accident or not, calls
to mind what might have happened to
other warships on previous occasions if
luck had not discovered fires in time
to same them. The unpleasant trath is
that a great battleship is a mine of
destruction. It is a collection of maga-
zines filled with the most dangerous
explosives, and every magazine in close
reach of the ship’s fires, electrie wires
or other agents that are liable to cause
an explosion. Fire and powder, the two
agents to wreck the ship, are always’
present, and never widely separated.
It is doubtful if a battle ship is ever
safe.
If a torpedo wrecked the Maine, a big
battleship has little to boast of. IL is a3
vulnerable as Samson, who was undone
bythe guile of Delilah. The modern
ironclad battleship is an unknown
quantity. The Monitor, the pioneer of
this creation of the sea, caused more
damage to itself than to any enemy. It
foundered with its crew. Since then,
besides minor accidents, the Captain
was foundered with a loss of 472 men,
the Thunderer exploded her boiler and
killed 45, the Grosser Kurfurst was
sunk in a collision, lesing 380 men ; the
Victoria, rammed by the Camperdown,
lost 430, and the Maine freshens these
horrors of iron warships with another
terrible slaughter. Since the ironclad
was invented it has had little chance to
demonstrate what it could do in war,
but it has less to show as a Feb l
of the enemy than as a calamity to its
owners! The countricg with the navies
are the countries that suffer from them.
It is an open question if a few torpe-
‘and some coast defenses, with
speedy cruisers to hamper an enemy,
are pot after all the most effective pro-.
tective armament for the United States.