Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-11-14
BUSINESS AND
SCHOOLS IN PAST
Two Fine Addresses Delivered
at Dauphin County His
torical Society

Members and friends of the Dau-
phin County Historical Society who
gathered to the number of a hundred
at the home of the society on South
Front street last night enjoyed two
unusually interesting addresses on
Harrisburg in years gone by with
some comments upon the present.
They were the first of series ar
ranged by President B. NJ. Mead for
the winter, and both were valuable
contributions to local history as well
as most entertaining.
Spencer C. Gilbert, who has been
called by Philadelphia newspaper
editors Harrisburg's front-rank citi-
zen, and A. Carson Stamm, the law
yer who has given much of his time
to the development of education and
the affairs of the city school board,
were the speakers, and both given
rising votes of thanks for their re-
marks. ''I have never had the pleas
ure of listening to more delightful
talks on Harrisburg and l voice the
thanks of everyone for them," said
President Mead.
Miss Caroline Pearson, for the
Harrisburg chapter of the Daugh-
ters of the American Revolution, pre-
sented as a loan from the chapter
q framed copy of the letter OF Cen
era1 e. c. Charlton, who married
Harrisburger, by the way, to Mayor
James H. Preston, of Baltimore, re-
lating how he came to secure the
recognition of the Star-Spangled
Banner as the National anthem. DR..
; George A. Gorgas presented an IN
teresting collection of medals.
In introducing Mr.. Gilbert, Mr.
Mead exhibited a draft of the patent
for the manor of Lowrie, Cumber-
land county. in which is included
the summer home of Mr.. Gilbert and
which in colonial times carried with
1t the title of baron and the powers
of Judge. This was taken from
State records of 1740.
Mr.. Gilbert disclaimed being a
baron and said he was plain busl-
ness man with an abiding love 1or
his native city where four genera
tions of his family had been in busi-
ness and where on May l next he
hoped to celebrate the centennial of
the Gilbert family in business here
and the eightieth anniversary of the
present firm. Mr.. Gilbert told how
he was brought up on Market street
as a neighbor of the Herrs, the
Docks, the Rawns, the McCormicks,
the Zollingers, the Pollecks, the
Reilys and other Harrisburg families,
how the clerks lived with the folks
and the heads thereof looked after
their spiritual welfare as we'll as
their raiment. He described the
coinage Of that day with some OBJ
servations as to the difficulty Will
liams Jennings would now nave with
"fps," "levies," half dimes and
other metal currency, to say nothing
of the State bank notes, one OF
which with face value of $5 he ex-
hibited as a memento of sorrowful
day in 1860 when with other Har-
risburg business men he received
numbers of notes of a Hollidaysburg
bank that had closed between issues
of the Counterfeit Detector." Such
juvenile delight as running the toll
gate" on the old camelback bridge,
tending store for growers who did
not cover cracker barrels and her.
ring boxes; the way business was
done in book stores, shoe shops and
the like, the selling of stone
wrapped in rags to Leopold Weyler,
the Market Square rag man. on the
eve of circus day and various and
divers other episodes were given. Mr..
Gilbert closed with a splendid trib-
ute to Harrisburg and an appeal TO
it's people to enjoy the advantages
which Providence has given to the
city, predicting that when the State
improvements are made, the city be-
comes an art center and other things
planned come about that it will be
one of the great places of the Com
monwealth to live in.
The address of Mr.. Stamm re-
viewed the school systems of Harris
burg. He contrasted the South Ward
school, the elegant "five-room school
of 1860, with the magnificent Edi-
son Junior High School with 45
rooms and other things, presenting
some facts about the growth of the
school facilities of the city which
surprised his hearers. Mr.. Stamm
paid special attention to periods 60
and rs years ago and to-day with
observations. especially on the
growht of democracy in education
and the decline of the private school
attendance. The excellent paper of
Mr.. Stamm, which will appear at a
later day in The Harrisburg Tele-
graph, and in the publication of the
society, is one of the most thought
full studies of the big problem of
Harrisburg to-day that has been