fers And
Main Street Had
Own Line In1870
The Late Charles Cooke
Left Valuable Notes On
‘Historic Old Photo
“That’’, reminisced the late
harles H. Cooke, looking at a|
yellowed photograph of a dus-
y, curved village street, “was
the year we had the fight over
the sidewalks.”
“There was the pro-sidewalk
faction and the anti-sidewalk
action. I ran for Constable
ith the support of the side-
walk faction and I was defeat-
ed, but we got the sidewalks,
by gum.
“We made ’em out of hem-
ock planks, 12 inches wide,
one foot apart, excepting at the
ain Street bridge. We had
a four foot sidewalk there, laid with
inch boards crosswise. Certainly
a big improvement, ’specially
uring the spring thaw.” He gazed
longingly at the old photograph and
nodded his head, remembering.
“You ought to write that stuff
Jown, before you forget it,” some-
one told Mr. Cooke.
at was in 1925, and what with
world busy thinking about Cal-
Coolidge and the Frenchmen
yoneting Riffs in Morocco and
President Von Hindenburg defeating
German Socialists and a new
ardner automobile selling for
,395 Mr. Cooke hadn't a lot of
time to write a history, but one day
ie sat down and filled sheet after
sheet with stories he remembered
time he looked at the old pic-
A few years later he died.
is week the picture and Mr.
Cooke’s colorful recollections came
light again—a lively contribution
y the history of an American town.
~ Built First Telephone
As a village historian, Mr. Cooke
well-qualified. He surveyed
ny of the original property lines
Dallas and its vicinity and his
maps are still referred to occasional-
v to settle disputes. He was a man
of varied interests and—a fact that
isn’t generally known—built Dallas’s
st telephone line.
The line connected Smith and
arrahan’s store with its neighbor
to the left in the accompanying
photograph. Thomas Garrahan and
Mr. Cooke built the line after they
d read an article in a New York
newspaper. The “telephone” con-
sisted of two tin cans and a hog’s
ladder, which the inventors ob-
tained from Jacob Rice when he
yutchered. A twine string was
stretched across the creek, from une
store to the other, ‘and messages
- were sent by tapping on the tin
‘cans with the end of a pencil.
Mr. Cooke’s paper discussing the
usiness men whose establishments
were pictured on the old photograph
of Main Street in 1870 is sprinkled
with anecdotes. Mr. Starmer, the
town’s only undertaker, made his
wn coffins and used William Ran-
dall’s spring wagon as a hearse.
‘William Frantz, Mr. Starmer’s
reighbor, was killed one day when
the breech pin of a gun blew out
and imbedded itself in his forehead.
"he most pretentious home in town
was Captain Rice’s, until William J.
oneywell outclassed him with a
more impressive-looking domicile.
One of the carpenters on the Honey-
well home was a popular young fel-
low known as “The Dutchman from
Bethlehem” but whose right name
was Bernard W. Brickel. One of the
agons in the picture was that of
eorge Spencer, a township super-
r, who once reported in disgust
at he had spent a whole year
ooking in vain for a stranger whose
e appeared on the tax list only
as I. O. O. F. and, in the opinion
Mr. Spencer, should be exoner-
because he certainly didn’t live
"township.
h Century Speedsters
One of Main Street's most prom-
erchants — and a fertile
tories—was Theodore Ry-
IMMLER THEATRE
DALLAS, PA.
MATINEE EVERY SATURDAY AT 2
THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
“Northwest Passage”
with Spencer Tracy
"Serial
MONDAY AND TUESDAY
“Strange Cargo”
th Clark Gable and Joan Crawford
Comedy—Travel Talk
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY
“Man From Dakota
with Wallace Beery
~ Comedy—Pete Smith Special
Fox News
NEXT FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
“South of the Border”
: with Gene Autry <
~~ Cartoon—Comedy—Serial
Mr. Cooke remembered these pl
Main Street, in order, were the est
wall); William Frantz’s store, Smith
hall, Lyman Harris’ harness shop,
dence of James Garrahan; Ryman and Sons’ store.
MAIN STREET TRAFFIC JEM: CIRCA 1870
laces well. Along the left side of
ablishment of Lewis Starm, wheel-
wright, cabinet maker and undertaker (note roughbox leaning against
and Garrahan’s store and the resi-
Right side: I. 0. O. F.
the blacksmith shop, later moved
across the street and occupied by Mame Fleming’s candy store; the 70-foot
flagpole, Capt. Jacob Rice’s home and William J. Honeywell’s home. Mr.
Cooke even remembered that the wagon (center) belonged to William
Randall and the team was the property of George Spencer.
man, who was in business with his
brother, John. Theodore used to
drive his buckboard wagon to
Wilkes-Barre every Monday, Wed-
nesday and Saturday to take orders
for lumber and his little bay mare
was known widely for its speed,
a reputation which aggravated
Harper Evans, who owned a buck-
board which looked like Ryman’s
and a horse very much like the
little bay mare. There was keen
rivalry between Ryman and Evans,
who frequently raced over nearby
roads, until Evans purchased a
horse known as Ryman’s Mary, an
obviously superior equine. After
that, when a cloud of dust rolled
along Main Street, informed people
remarked, ‘There goes Harper and
Mary Ryman’.
Mr. Evans was postmaster at
Evans’ Falls. Once a Federal in-
spector scolded him because a reg-
istered letter had been lost some-
where in his office. This provoked
Evans and he sent down to Brong’s
store, obtained a box, packed up the
odds and ends which were his “post
office” and expressed the box to the
First Assistant Postmaster at Wash-
ington, together with Evans’ resig-
nation.
Paid In ‘Dallas Cash’
Mr. Cooke was a clerk af. Ryman’s
at one time and oie of his duties
was to take account of the lumber
hauled from the Ryman’s Kunkle
mill. The custom was to pay the
teamsters in goods, a practice which
resulted in the habit of referring to
cut hemlock lumber as ‘Dallas
cash”. Mr. Cooke recalls with spe-
cial fondness an old-timer by the
name of Adam Hoover who, when
asked how much lumber he had on
his wagon, would reply “Oh, just
enough to ride on, 850 feet—just|
enough to ride on.”
The teamsters’ orders were Pretty}
much alike. Generally, they left the
list on their first trip and picked
up the goods on their last trip. The
order usually went like this: “Now,
Charley, put me up a sack of flour,
10 pounds of pork, 5 pounds of!
sugar, a half pint of ack-ke-hol,
{half an ounce of camphor gum,
don’t put the gum in the bottle,
I'll do that when I get home, 3 turn-
pike tickets and a dinner ticket.”
The turnpike ticket took them over
the road to White Mills in Luzerne.
The dinner ticket, worth 15¢, bought |
their meal. i
Politics was a headache in 1870,
too. Mr. Cooke relates a story|
about the night someone cut the |
rope on the 70-foot flagpole which)
VV VV Vv VV VV UV UY VY YU UY
AD Abobo odd ddd ddsiod dod doieindd
HILLSIDE
FARMS, Inc.
ROUTE 115
TRUCKSVILLE, PA.
Arexanper VEITCH, Manager
— and — i
ORCHARD FARM
DALLAS, PA. . |
James Rircuie, Manager |
Cattle—Registered
Holstein Friesian
Jersey
Milking Shorthorns
Heifers and Bull Calves
Dorset Sheep—Registered |
Flock of about 100
Chickens—Large Flock |
White Leghorns
Rhode Island Reds
Berkshire Hogs—
Different Ages
Rabbits—Chinchilla
SOME OF ALL FOR SALE
Inspection Invited
VV CCV VV POV CIO OO
|
oon ctrl iege ictus. niin
stood near the intersection of Main
and Huntsville Streets, a proud civic
possession, the gift of local Repub-
licans. A man named Badman, who
worked for Captain Rice, volunteer-
ed to climb the pole and replace the
rope in the pulley. After descend-
r Tin Cans
ore Town's Tirst Phones
TOWN’S POPULATION IN
1870 WAS 123, COUNTING
THE $1 LICENSED DOGS
Dallas Township, which in-
cluded the present borough
when the picture to the left
was taken, had a population of
92 taxables and 31 dogs in
1870, according to old records.
The assessed valuation of the
township then, nine years be-
fore the division which was to
bring the borough into exist-
ence, was $38,118. Today the
assessed valuation in Dallas
Borough alone is about $750,-
000.
By the following year the
human population had shrunk
to 80 taxables but the dog pop-
ulation had jumped to 34. Town
expenses were financed by
three sources: Borough tax,
$152.47; road tax, $190.67, and
dog tax, at 50c per canine,
$15.50.
Disabled War Veterans
Honor Father O'Leary
A membership class in honor of
Rev. John J. O'Leary, pastor
emeritus of St. Therese’s Church,
Shavertown, World War chaplain,
was admitted by Wyoming Valley
Chapter, Disabled American Veter-
ans, on Monday night. Rev. Father
O'Leary, who was severely wounded
during the World War, was unable
to attend.
ing, he took a long sigh, looked sad-
ly at his skinned shins and said “It
was a damned mean man who cut
this rope—and a mighty Badman
who put it back”, a pun which, in
Mr. Cooke's seasoned judgment,
earned Badman a niche in village
history.
ChicagoJurist
Delivers Lecture
Explains Principles
Of Mary Baker Eddy
“Mortal Man without vision,
without hope, without incentive
gradually degrades and becomes an
object of pity,” said Judge Samuel
W. Green of Chicago in his address
on “Christian Science: The Religion
of Progress” at Irem Temple, Wilkes-
Barre, on Monday night.
“The Discoverer and Founder of
Christian Science, Mary Baker Ed-
dy, has given to the world a new
hope, a brighter vision, founded
upon spiritual understanding and
progress, rather than upon material
belief and limitation,” Judge Green
claimed.
“In following the Scriptural meth-
od of healing,” he said, “she saw
that the Bible requires spiritual in-
terpretation to be properly helpful
and healing. This new or spiritual
interpretation, she saw, must be
consistent with a proper interpreta-
of God, and man in God’s image and
likeness. The generally-accepted
view of God as being the creator of
both good and evil, or as being
aware of both good and evil as
equal realities, Mrs. Eddy perceived
as being contrary to the nature of
God and the teachings of the Bible.”
“Humanity has apparently labor-
ed through the centuries under the
delusion that man fell from his high
estate as God’s child or likeness,
and that this fall was so real that
his salvation ultimately depends
upon some miraculous or supernat-
ural intervention of Deity in his be-
half. :
“Christian Science teaches that
man has never fallen, but that a
mist, or error, has seemed to shut
SALUTES LEHMAN |
SI
2
Phil Cook
. who saluted Lehman during
his early “Morning Almanac”
over Station WABC on Wednes-
day morning. It was the sec-
ond time Cook had given na-
tional publicity to this section.
Last June he honored Dallas on
his program.
from view the real man—God’s
child—and has provided an unreal
or false concept of man that is ma-
terial, and that lives and moves and
has his being not in God, but in
matter. This false view of man is
responsible for all discord, sin, di-
sease, poverty, hate and death.”
Beaumont High
To Graduate 19
Commencement To Be
Held Tuesday, June 4
Nineteen Seniors will receive di-
plomas from Monroe Township high
school, Beaumont, at the annual
commencement exercises on Tues-
day, June 4, W. M. A, Austin, su-
pervising principal, announced yes-
terday.
Class Night will be on Wednesday,
May 29; the Baccalaureate sermon
will be preached on Sunday, June
2, and the annual alumni dinner
will be held after commencement
on June 4. W. H. Hadsell is faculty
adviser for Class Night, Miss Louise
Ohlman will have charge of the
Baccalaureate and Robert Bellas is
arranging the Commencement pro-
gram.
Humphrey Owen Delegate
At Episcopal Meeting
E. Humphrey Owen of Dallas rep-
resented the Prince of Peace Episco-
pal Church of Dallas at the diocesan
convention of the Episcopal Church
at Hazleton on Tuesday and Wed-
nesday.
hopes to build a church soon, meets
on the second Sunday of every
month at 3 p. m. in the home of
Mrs. F. H. Renard on Main Street,
Dallas. Rev. Ralph A. Weatherly,
pastor of Grace Church, Kingston,
is the missionary.
VV CVV Vv
“SMILING SERVICE ALWAYS”
OLIVER’S GARAGE
Packard and Hudson Cars
White and Indiana Trucks
DALLAS, PENNA.
lid bids ddd olin in Bo didn
— Tree pt
50 Electric Ranges
50 Electric
Refrigerators
250 Electric Irons
: b-
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rm
"=" Luzerne COUNTY GAS
3
ECONOMY co y;s4
Cooks oq
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0
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before | Now
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Convenjent Speeds
The Prince of Peace parish, which
Sree ey