A Publication of Tri-County Heritage Society

LOCAL HISTORIAN

The

January 2006 Vol. 36 No. 1

Serving Berks, Chester and Lancaster Counties

An Old Canal Boatman Remembers

by Rodney F. Rhoads

My great grandfathers youngest brother George Schaeffer (1871-1946) was a character in family circles because he was always traveling, first on the canals: the Schuylkill Navigation, the Erie, the Intercoastal Waterway, then as a tugboat captain in New York and along the east coast, and finally as a railroader for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad. He was also remembered as a ladies man because of his sparkling personality, his vocation, and the fact that he was a widower. His wife had died early on, leaving him with a young son Calvin, who was raised by Georges sister Kate. The nature of his work and heavy travel precluded his remarrying. In family conversations, George was always the man who had been up on the Erie or in New York Harbor. Very little other information was conveyed, and he remained a man of mystery to the author in a family with deep roots in the transportation history of eastern Pennsylvania. The Schaeffer family and intermarried kindred were canal boatmen or railroad men through and through. The family names of Schaeffer, Reichart, Ney, Bausman, Emrich, Kantner and Staller are etched into the history of Schuylkill County, the Schuylkill Navigation, and the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad in particular. The very first canal boat used on the Schuylkill Navigation Canal was constructed by George

Photo courtesy of the Author

David and Sarah (Sallie) Bausman Schaeffer, parents of George Schaeffer.

Photo courtesy of the Author

Reichart and Jacob Huntzinger at Orwigsburg. George Reichart was a member of the first group that towed and poled this boat by hand from Orwigsburg to Philadelphia over ten days on the then new Schuylkill Canal in 1825. David Schaeffer, my great-great grandfather (and the father of George Schaeffer) was a boatman on the Schuylkill Navigation. His wife was Sarah (Sallie) Bausman, sister of the famed John Bausman of Lock 12. My great grandfather Charles S. Schaeffer was dredge foreman on the canal for many years and lived at Lock 60 in his last years. Nevertheless, despite all this history, the fine details of our familys life on the canal Photo courtesy of Author as canal boatmen was not George Schaeffer preserved and transmitted down to my generation. (1871 - 1946) It was with great surprise and excitement that documents recently came to light in the collection of the Pottsville Free Public Library and fortuitously gave a more human side to the familys canal experiences. An unpublished manuscript/scrapbook compiled by Edwin F. Smith titled Schuylkill Navigation was the result of many interviews by Smith of old-timers on the canal. The manuscript was finalized ca. 1943; the typed interviews were pasted into a scrapbook of other canal papers and donated to the library. To my glad eye, George Schaeffer occupied several pages of interview notes. Despite some missing pages of Georges interview, there is ample detail to flesh out his and his fathers life on the canal. George was only nine when he started on the canal on his fathers boat. This would have been 1880. George indicates that his father David (1827-1898) owned two canal boats. The newest one was the Duke, which got its name when a Schuylkill Haven druggist named Coxe advanced David the money for its construction. He was so grateful that he named the boat after Coxes favorite pethis dog Duke. The second boat was named the William Washington. It, according to George, lived up to

Photo courtesy of Author

Schuylkill Canal looking south from Bausmans Lock, Lock 12, in ca. 1880s.

its patriotic last name and died a heros death on the Potomac during the Civil War when it caught fire while carrying supplies for the Union Army. George relates that at first David had only one team of mules for the two boats. He would give them a days rest in between trips, unhitching the empty boat, and then start off with a newly loaded boat of coal for Philadelphia or New York. The sons of the family, including George, then had to clean and move the empty boat to the coal chutes at Bousums (Bausmans) Lockthis was Lock 12 in Schuylkill Haven, where their uncle John Bausman presided as lock tender. There the empty boat was loaded by the Schuylkill Navigation at chutes 9, 10, 11 or 12 for their fathers return pickup. David and his wife Sarah had twelve children and also adopted a little girl. Sarah accompanied her husband on the boat along with some of the smallest children. As the sons grew into manhood, they acted in various capacities on the boats and as drivers of the mules. Initially David hired boatmen, but soon his sons became the deckhands and drivers. George tells of one incident when his seven-year-old sister fell off the canal boat into the canal at Birdsboro and sank to the bottom, grabbing the vegetation on the bottom, which necessitated a boatman diving in and breaking her death-grip to save her. Mother Schaeffer also had to contend with cleaning the living quarters as the boat crews had a way of leaving insects behind them and dirt on deck and in the lockers. According to George, after scrubbing out the litter with strong washing soda, she used swamp tea (water cress) under the chaff bars, which served as beds on the boats. As he indicated, the battle ended in her (Sallys) favor. Davids load down the Schuylkill Navigation was always coal. His return load, however, varied with the season and the final port where he unloaded. From New York he brought back molding sand, part of which he sold in Philadelphia and the remainder to the mills in Reading. In the summer, when he took his boat to Philadelphia, hed send a postcard ahead to a man named Scott on Paddys Island in the Delaware. When David tied up at the foot of 2

Chestnut Street, Scott would be on the lookout and send rowboats across filled with baskets of peaches or sweet potatoes. Cantaloupes and watermelons also were purchased in Philadelphia and though David might start out North with a backload of 2000 melons, customers would be waiting for him at every lock and feeding place on the way home. As George relates, customers would ask, Mr. Schaeffer, what have you got this time? Punkins was his jovial reply, and hed be lucky to have six melons left for the family by the time he reached Schuylkill Haven. The fact that he bought the melons for 10 in the city and sold them for 25 each all the way up, accounts for Mr. Coxe, the boats mortgage holder, being paid off so promptly. David, after having the Duke constructed, paid it off and then engaged to sell it to the Schuylkill Navigation. Henry Zulick was the superintendent of the loading chutes at Bausmans Lock and told David that unless he could load 200 tons of coal into it, they wouldnt be interested. He loaded 204 tons, 15 hundredweight on her and then added his own personal stock of anthracite for his cook stove on board on top of the dead hatch. The company then bought the boat and made him captain of it as the usual maximum load was 197 or 198 tons,

Canal Boats at Schuylkill Haven

according to George. This incident angered some, especially a group of Philadelphia lads called the Schuylkill Rangers, a gang of Irish lads who not only extorted money from canal boatmen as they passed but also had boats of their own on the canal. Envy of his status and new company boat finally culminated in the attempted murder of my great-great grandfather on the canal in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. One Schuylkill Ranger boatman tried to pay off his grudge by yelling to David, Lay over against the bank till we get by! Schaeffer obligingly drew over by the berm bank to let him pass. Just as the two boats were opposite, the Ranger poised a harpoon-like pike pole ready to throw. Georges mother saw what

grandfathers tugs. George describes the Dolphin as a little steam tug which, from its narrow and peculiar construction, his father called the hog-trough. Its hull was so narrow that the deck had to be widened so that it came out from the edge of the boat in a sort of overhang. Thus one walked above the water rather than over the body of the boat. It had only a four-foot draught so it was able to navigate the upper reaches of the canal where larger tugboats could no longer go. The Dolphin itself was a hermaphrodite and had been made from the once proud 90-foot iron hull Havre de Gras by cutting the ends off the faulty midsection and reassembling them into a stumpy little 65-foot long boat, much to the disgust of the old boatmen who liked a shipshape craft. After Painting by Karlton Smith the bow and stern had been joined, it well earned An Artists version of the Dolphin in its last days at Lock its name of Dolphin, presumably by leaping up and down in the water. The coal-burning boiler 60, Mont Clare, Montgomery County, Pa.* in the Dolphin had, interestingly enough, once was coming and yelled to her husband who, just in served the little railroad observation car kept for time, dropped to the deck as the pike pole passed the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad officials over him with tremendous force. It would almost and was known as the Witch. The boiler was certainly have passed through Davids body had as wide as the Dolphin, George related, lacking he not quickly acted on his wifes warning. As it only a few inches, and there was only a little room was, it struck a tree on the bank and stuck there behind it, below-decks, for coal. It stopped for quivering. Luckily a Fairmount Park guard on the coaling at locks or anywhere along its route. The hill had witnessed the attempted murder and came Dolphin served on the Delaware as a towboat, as running down. He yelled, Captain, tie up your a paymasters boat through the length of the canal boat, come to City Hall with me and press charges and, finally, as a tow for my great-grandfathers against this man, as he placed the fellow under dredge. It was kept in the Basin at Reading when arrest. When Schaeffer demurred, the guard said, not in use and was finally kept at Lock 60 when This is a madman; hes not safe to be at large! the upper reaches of the canal were closed. When At City Hall, David told the judge, I dont like to this proud little tug was finally scrapped, one of do this; the man has a family who will suffer. The Johnny Hiesters grandsons luckily rescued the judge said it was too bad the man himself didnt pilothouse, and it is now in the Canal Museum at think of his family and gave him a prison term of Reading. (John Hiester had a boatyard at Reading fifteen years for intent to kill. and was a good friend of the Rhoads and Schaeffer George remembered one memorable trip when families.) his boat took to dry land near Birdsboro. At Just before he passed away, George was that location, the reinforced berm was on one interviewed for an article in the Pottsville Journal side and the weaker towpath bank on the other. Unfortunately, muskrats had tunneled the bank extensively here on the weak side of the canal, and when the boat nipped this section of bank, the water came pouring through the newly breached channel and the loaded boat rode the overflow right out into the field. After the bank was repaired, all the coal had to be hauled by wheelbarrow to an empty back boat passing by and the damaged boat taken to Schuylkill Haven for repairs. George also related that there were aqueducts on the towpaths at certain places when the water level was too high where a cascade or sheet of water spilled over into the river or canal and the driver had to have the mules wade these watercourses. Of special interest to this writer was Georges Photo courtesy of Author description of my favorite tugboat, the Dolphin, The boat Bruce, thought to be built at Landingville, in which I had played on as a young boy at Lock Poppy Deiberts boatyard, is seen here being guided by 60 until it was scrapped in 1945, when the canal the mules at Blue Mountain Dam, ca. 1908. property was passed to the state of Pennsylvania. (continued on page 4) The Dolphin and the Catfish were two of my great3

(continued from page 3) about his life experiences on the canal and as a tugboat captain for the Morans in New York Harbor. His fondest memory was of a tugboat he captained named the Hercules. It was 115-feet long and was built as a coastal boat. He recalls taking a month to pull a tow to Florida before WWI. This was when he was employed by the American Tug Boat Company. It was a memorable trip even though he contracted malaria en route and was a very sick man on the return trip. His fondest wish was to revisit the site of the now sunken Hercules, aground on a reef 52 miles from New Haven, Connecticut. George also recounted tales of voyages along the east coast and told of working for the canal boatyard of Francis Warner in Schuylkill Haven when the canal was closed due to ice in winter. George went to work for the Reading Railroad after WWI and lived in Cressona, Schuylkill County, until his death in 1946. While the author never personally met Mr. Schaeffer, he * The original painting of the Dolphin docked at Lock 60, Mont
Clare, is owned by the Schuylkill Canal Association and is on display in the Locktenders house of that historic site.

often visited his son Calvin and Georges sister Kate in Reading. George was among the last of the breed as the canal was effectively closed for commercial traffic in the early 20th century; thus he served on the canal for only two decades or so. A boatman through and through, he typified the hardiness and love of adventure of all the Schaeffer brothers as well as his father David. We are indebted to him for leaving us these brief descriptions of a bygone era. v
References Bowman, John B. Folklore of the Schuylkill Canal, vol. 2. Unpublished manuscript. Pottsville, PA: Pottsville Free Public Library, 1947. Dietz, A. Interview of George Schaefferuntitled. Pottsville Journal 23 July, 1945. Smith, Edwin F. Schuylkill Navigation. Unpublished manuscript. Pottsville, PA: Pottsville Free Public Library, 1943.

The Family Line of George A. Schaeffer I. Johann Nicholas Schaeffer (1676, the Palatinate - 1744, the Tulpehocken) married Maria Catherine Suder A. Johann Peter Schaeffer (1703, Palatine - 1775,Tulpehocken) married Elizabeth Feeg (1711, NY - ) 1. Johann Nicholas Schaeffer (1730, Tulpehocken - 1797) married Maria Susanna Haag (1734, NY - 1797, Tulpehocken) a. Johann Jacob Schaeffer (1767, Tulpehocken - 1847, Sch. Co.) married Anna Marie _?_ (1768 - 1820, Sch. Co.) I.) Samuel Schaeffer (1790, Sch. Co. - 1848, Sch. Haven) married Salome Kantner (1795, Schuyl. Co.-1848, Schuylkill Haven) A.) David Schaeffer (1827, Schuyl. Haven-1898, Schuyl. Haven) married Sarah Bausman (1833, - 1904, Sch. Haven) 1.) George A. Schaeffer (1871, Schuylkill Haven - 1946, Reading)

A full genealogy of this Schaeffer family is available at TCHS library. 4