How the Calhoun Family Came to Hosensack, Lehigh County in the "Good Old Days"
including Some of Our Remembrances of Harry S. Treichler of Hereford, Berks County, Pennsylvania
When the stock market crash came in 1929, my father was a young architect working in Allentown for a firm building bank buildings. As one might im¬agine, with banks failing, there was little call for new bank buildings, and my father was out of regular work from that time until 1933. My parents lost most of their assets when the banks failed, almost lost their house when we lived in Haverford Township in Delaware County, and to top that all off, I became seriously ill in 1932 adding to their financial worries in those bad days. All of this conditioned my parents to think of security were such a catastrophic event as The Great Depression once again occur.
My father, George William Calhoun was the son of Scotch-Irish immigrants living in West Philadelphia, while my mother, Mary Evelyn Glase, was a country girl having been born of Dutch parents in a grist mill in Little Oley, Berks County along the Ironstone Creek. Her father, of course, was a miller having run mills not only in Little Oley, but also in Bechtelsville close to where Thomas Edison was experimenting with concentrating the local iron ore by a magnetic process. My mother could understand a little Dutch; her older sister was taught in Dutch at Heydt's Schoolhouse close to their mill. I'm sure that theirs was a sparse living.
My mother always loved the country, and she became an active, willing coll¬aborator with my father in seeking a small place in the country where one could at least grow food, and live inexpensively in the event of another financial collapse. My father now back to regular employment and a pay check, my parents, always frugal, managed to put some money away, and we began the regular weekend trips into the countryside of Montgomery, Berks, and Lehigh Counties in a search for a small, inexpensive farm.
The mid-1930's was still a bad time for many as the Depression had little abated, and many properties were being foreclosed. We looked at quite a few such places, but not many came within my parents' budget until one day in the spring of 1937 we found ourselves driving along what is now called Palm Road adjacent to the then very active Perkiomen Branch of the Reading Railroad. Across the valley could be seen a very forlorn looking farmhouse perched on a barren hill above what turned out to be Hosensack School. In those days, the farmers kept their field lines cut, and as most of the timber had been taken off, one could see for miles. Today, most fields are enclosed by brush, and. the woodlots have regrown. My mother thought that we should investigate this place, but my father remonstrated that we couldn't just go knock on a stranger's door, and ask whether their property was for sale. To this, my mother replied, "Are you a man or a mouse." His answer was, “A mouse." In the event, we did drive over to the opposite side of the Hosensack Valley and found the house we had seen at the top of a long, winding lane.
When the knock on the door was answered, my parents offered some lame excuse as to why they were there to the effect that they understood that a property was supposedly for sale in the area, and might this be it. The surprising: answer was, yes, the property was for sale, no, they didn't own it, but the owner was one Harry S. Treichler living in Hereford. He had bought the property at foreclosure in 1936, and the current occupants were "on the county”; that is, they were placed there by a Lehigh County relief agency, and a small rent paid to Harry Treichler. The run down farmhouse had absolutely no conveniences, not even a well and handpump outside the house. Water had to be carried in buckets from a spring below the house, and up a steep hill. Heat appeared to be a kitchen cook stove and a fireplace. The general condit¬ion of the small, stone farmhouse was very rough and dingy; upstairs in lieu of plastered ceilings there was muslin cloth on which had been pasted wall paper, all dirty and hanging in festoons. Despite all this, the house itself was structurally sound. The occupants said it had been a hard winter there and that they would be happy to be out of it and placed elsewhere. After receiving directions on how to find Harry Treichler in Hereford, we drove over and found him at home.
It wasn't too long after that my father and Harry reached agreement. If the condition of the house was awful, the farm did consist of 25 acres, barn, springhouse and other outbuildings, and, of course, including the outhouse way out by the pig sty. Moreover, the price was right, and Harry even agreed to point up one of the barn walls which had a bulge. A nicely drawn plot plan on linen was part of the deal. My father did insist on having the present occupants out of the house before settlement. That wise stipulation was the one where we began to know the real Harry Treichler.
Harry duly notified the occupants that they would have to move, and that he had another house where they would be put, also by the largesse of Lehigh County. This was one-half of the old Schultz Mill residence, and was right down the road. The man of the house wasn't too inclined toward work, and would intone, "The Lord will provide." This didn't set too well with my father who had had to resort to doing odd jobs in order to keep food on the table while he was out of work, and his reply, to us anyway was, "Yes, the Lord and the people of Lehigh County." Well, these people by this time seemed to feel that they had acquired some property rights to the farm, and announced that they would not move - they found that they liked their present home after all. Harry explained that they had to move as he was selling the property. The reliefers dug their feet in and said they would not! Wrong way to approach Harry Treichler. Harry said they would move - they said they would not. Impasse? No. Harry said they were going to move, or he would take the roof off the house. Speak of direct action! The family didn't believe him until Harry's workmen showed up one day with ladders and proceed¬ed to remove some slates. Harry's gentle persuasion did the trick, and the family, now realizing that one didn't mess with Harry Treichler, peacefully moved down the road. Settlement was made, and the Calhoun family now began the arduous task of making the old house to some degree livable. We had learned that Harry Treichler spoke plainly and truthfully, and that he meant what he said. My father gained a lot of admiration and liking for him thereafter.