Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-21
JUSTICE FOR DARBY CREEK
" II Had Long Ago Been Called
River II Might Now Have
Its Deserts
BY GEORGE NOy MCCAIN
THERE is section of southeastern Pen,

| sylvania embracing about forty square
miles in which, during the present year new
| homes and new industries will add, 1t Is
| estimated. S25 900 900 to its valuation.
| One of its avenues of traffic Is a small
! river that for years was navigable for light
| craft.
For some years past this waterway has
been permitted, through lack of government
attention, to fall into disuse.
Recently efforts have been made to in
| duce the government to dredge and improve
| as commerce route
! Three great railroads converge at q point
| on its banks. The opportunity for establish
ing ing great railroad terminal is ready to
! Delaware river craft and light draft
! coasting vessels could unload their cargoes
of lumber, building material, sand and even'
food supplies for shipment to adjacent points
with ease and celerity.
But the government which has been busy
frying fat IL the rivers and harbors bills of
the past for the benefit of uncharted, re-
mote and inconsequential southern streams,
declines to do anything for this waterway in
the center of great manufacturing district
7 REFER to the Darby river. Locally it
L is known as Darby creek.
In the same way the laundering old pio-
neers or careless photographers dubbed the
| Perkiomen river, which winds its way fifty
miles through eastern Pennsylvania, creek.
Anywhere else in the United States, per-
haps, these streams would receive their
At points in it's course the Darby river is
| 300 yards wide.
1t is wider than that il the submerged
lands bordering 1t are included-land that
could be reclaimed for sites for industrial
| establishments by the suction pipe and fill
ing process.
! little more than three months ago
| petition signed by 300 manufacturers and
| business men was taken to Washington. 1t
| prayed for the dredging of Darby river and
| its restoration as water highway.
All the satisfaction the petitioners got was
| in the way of advice. They were told to 60
home and get the people along the river, or
| the state, or even Delaware county, to put
up funds for this improvement.
| II the government observed this practice
all over the country there would be some
thousands OF miles of rivers unimproved.
. And it would have been just about as we'll
If they had never been improved.
| Tn THE meantime, however, what are the
= congressman in southeastern Pennsylva-
nia-and that includes certain districts in
Philadelphia--doing about this?
Of course it is easy enough. and equally
convenient. to fall back on the report Of
| the Wilmington engineers, who looked with
disfavor upon the project.
But there is such a thing as demanding a
| square deal. Three hundred business men,
in the matter of judgment, might in pinch,
and in the sum total of their conclusions,
| have as much common sense as two or three
engineers.
| But this is all beside the issue There is
one other way out of the dilemma.
George Kyle and his coworkers can have
recourse to the Legislature of the state for
| aid in this emergency.
1t might be possible that IL the state
| would make modest appropriation the gov
ernment would meet it half way.
Anyhow it's worth an attempt.
A PICTURESQUE celebration is dated to
a come off on October 16 at Norristown.
It's the reunion of former students of Tree
| mount Seminary.
1t was famous old educational institu-
! tion. an academy of high school grade, whose
| building was a conspicuous landmark on the
| hill at the southeastern edge of Norristown
1t will not be the first reunion That was
held in 1915 when an organization was
formed. The great war and the business
and social upheavals of the intervening years
initiated against another get together"
| meeting of the old boys.
Among the famous students prior to 1850
| were General Winfield s. Hancock and John
| F. Hartranft. who together with the Schalls.
| got the nonmiltary part of their education
at Treemount
The late Archbishop Thomas F. Kennedy,
| OF Rome, Mexico and South America, was
one of the students.
AS high as 200 boys attended the seminary
| ach year in the heyday of it's career.
1t closed its doors about 1885 after an
| existence OF over forty years.
| q CAMERON CORSON is president of
| ~. the Alumni Association. Others of the
| former students interested in the reunion are
| Charles II. Shaw, John W. Harry, George
| H. SteinmetZ and George NJ. Painter
Peter Bolger, former civil service COM
| missioner and political writer of this city.
is another OF the old grads of Treemount
| Seminary.
Rev. Samuel Aaron, noted Baptist min.
icta and nnnra aDp nd mutt ella
! cate, founded the seminary in 1874. Finan-
| cal reverscs compelled him to close the
school two years before the Civil War.
| Then John w. Loeb, an unusually gifted
man with genius for teaching, recognized
| the seminary.
He conducted the institution for nearly
| quarter of a century, shifted his vocation to
| finance, and became the first president Of
| Norristown Trust Co.
| THAT was more than thirty years ago.
l. The school died with his departure.
OF the children of DR.. and Mrs. Loeb (nee
Linda is the wife of Horace G. Jones Vice
| president of the Union League, textile
manufacturer; Flora NJ. wife of William A.
Lesenrng, of Mauch Chunk, Pa. Ida F.,
| wife of " II. Larzalere, leader of the
Montgomery county bar, and Ella R., widow
| of Addison r. Wright, of NorriStown.
These daughters and their sister, Miss
Mary Loeb, were excepted from the pro.
| vision tnat lfeenOunt was exclusively for
young men and boys and, after rudimen-
| tary schooling elsewhere, were pupils of
their father and his staff in the seminary.
MIR. BOLGER has vivid recollection of
| Nl Doctor Loeb and his uncommon teach.
ing genius.
| He had a lot of cheerful rhymes and other
memory bracers to clarity rules.
lie had, too, kind of Jules Verne's way
| of foreshadowing great inventions of pic.
turing the future to his pupils.
Doctor Loch was man of imposing
appearance with full, black whiskers, kindly
eyes and was very tall and impressive of
| carriage.
Former District Attorney Jacob V. Got
walls, of Montgomery county, was q teacher
in the institute after the Civil War.
| One of the features of the reunion in Oc.
tober of the Treemount boys will be visit
! to the grave of Doctor Loeb.