How the Calhoon Family Came to Hosensack, Lehigh County in the "Good Old Days" (Page3 of 3)
including Some of Our Remembrances of Harry S. Treichler of Hereford, Berks County, Pennsylvania
In the old days, many property deeds were not recorded in the county court¬house especially if the property was still in the hands of original owners for generations of the same family. If sold, the old deeds were given by hand to the purchaser, some of them going back to the mid-1700's. Harry had a large collection of these early deeds gotten in the course of his many-real estate dealings. The story as told by Harry goes something like this: Some government agency, possibly the Army Corps of Engineers, somehow got wind that Harry had this collection of deeds in his possession. An emissary was sent to call on him whose mission was to secure these deeds for the gov¬ernment to be used possibly in mapping. Harry willingly allowed this person to examine the deeds, but adamantly refused to part with them. He could study them to his heart's content, but they would remain in Harry's possession, Mo amount of persuasion would move him, and the government man left empty handed. Some time later, Harry received another request by the same govern¬ment agency that they again be allowed to examine the deeds, to which he agreed. This time, the person who showed up in Harry's office was an Army officer, all resplendent in dress uniform complete with medals. Once again, Harry produced the deeds, the officer looked them all over saying that they were needed by the government. He stood up, said that he would take them with him, and proceeded to stuff them into his briefcase. "The hell you will, hollered Harry, ''put them right down where you found them,” at the same time leveling his two six-guns at the self important officer. Not wishing to receive another medal for bravery in the face of the enemy, this surprised and chastened officer did as he was told, for he had the sense to realize that you didn't argue with an enraged Dutchman the likes of Harry S. Treichler, especially when he was pointing his two six-guns at you. The officer left empty handed, Harry still had his collection of deeds, and nothing more was heard from the government "snot noses" as he inelegantly called them. Harry Treichler was a real, old time American -what was his was his; what was yours, was yours. No tinhorn Army officer was going to overawe or intimidate the likes of that stolid Dutchman. What¬ever came of those old deeds after Harry died, I do not know, hut hope they ended up in caring hands.
Although Harry had died in 194& an untimely death in an auto accident in Trexlertown, his legacy of good advice over the years lived on. Deciding he should have a lawyer, my father asked Harry who might be a good one, and Harry recommended his own lawyer, Linn Schantz of Allentown. If Linn Schantz was Harry's lawyer, that was certainly enough recommendation. It wasn't all that long thereafter that lawyer Schantz' expertise was needed. At the foot of our farm property was the old one room Hosensack, or Kline's School. The ground for the school had been cut off from this property at the time the school was built in the late l800's. In the 1950’s or so, when the one room schools were phased out, it was announced that Hosensack School was to be sold at public auction. My father, who was a. registered profess¬ional engineer, decided to check over the property lines as found in the deeds, and discovered that they were incorrect; in fact, the schoolhouse had been built in the wrong place those many years ago, and actually sat on a portion of the adjacent neighbor's property. Hoping to get this mess straightened out before the sale, my father laid the problem before the school supervisors, recommending that the property be resurveyed and the lines corrected. The supervisors, being hard-headed and Dutch, announced that they didn't care about all that, and that the sale would go on as scheduled. It was time to go see lawyer Schantz.
On the day of the sale, my father and Linn Schantz were present along with the prospective bidders. As the auctioneer began to call the sale, Linn Schantz stepped forward asking just what was being sold. Why, the school property, of course, was the reply. With a. few well chosen lawyerly comments to the hard-headed school supervisors, Linn Schantz stopped the sale. The obtuse supervisors then agreed to have the property re-surveyed and the lines corrected as ray father had tried to persuade them to do prior to the sale, and at the second sale, my father bought it in.
Harry Treichler’s often earthy advice and help over the years was much app¬reciated by my father. Even though these things happened many years ago, they are still vivid in my mind. Harry was a down-to-earth straight dealing man who was helpful to our family, and the like of which one rarely finds in these modern times. He was one of a kind.
My parents lived retired on their farm until they died, and now my wife and I, too, are spending our retirement years on this same farm, very happily.