Berks County Pennsylvania Miscellaneous News Articles

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The Centinel (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
July 5, 1809

Reading, June 17

The Execution

Last Saturday the Execution of the unfortunate Susannah Cox took place. Never did Reading behold so numerous a collection of people. The taverns were all crouded the preceding evening and all night wagons loaded with people from the country, were passing through the streets, some coming upwards of 70 miles to see this truly unfortunate girl terminate here earthly existence; and from the ground occupied by the spectators (a number of them having placed themselves in sections, previously) on the

hill, allowing each to take up one yard, the number rather exceeded twenty thousand. A little after eleven o'clock the mournful procession moved from the jail - the unfortunate girl with a wonderful serenity, intermixed with a smile in her countenance, walked straight up to the awful place of execution, on the commons, at the foot of the hill, supported and comforted by two Reverend Ministers, kneeled down as soon as arrived, and committed her last fervent prayer to an Almighty God and Redeemer, to whom she had, during her confinement (after the death warrant being read to her) most earnestly supplicated for mercy and forgiveness of sins and transgressions, with whom she had made her peace, & from whom, she assured, she, had received the comfort of his mercy and grace. She shortly after ascended the scaffold, willingly surrendering a body of sins for the satisfaction of the offended laws of the country, when she was launched into eternity without a struggle. The greatest decency was observed during the whole awful scene, and tears of sympathy were seen flowing spontaneously from the almost numerous croud of spectators. It was indeed a day of sorrow.

Gettysburg Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
July 3, 1822 Page 3

Reading, June 22

Since our last notice of the discovery of human bones in digging in the vicinity of this borough, there have been recently dug up the skeletons of three of the aborignes of this country. They were not more than eighteen inches from the surface of the earth, and were found parallel to each other, about two feet apart, the head and feet being due east and west. Several trinkets such as beads, iron nose rings and copper wrist bands were found among the bones - also two pieces of brass in the shape of coins, but of the medallion order, one with the portraits of William and Mary of England & the other with the portrait of Charles H. supposed to have been minted during their respective reigns in the 17th century. - Journal.

Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
January 15 1823 Page 4

Reading, Dec. 25

We have been told of a singular occurrence that took place on Saturday evening the 14th inst. Near the line of Berks and Scuylkill counties, on the centre turnpike. John Geiger was driving his four horse team with a wagon loaded with sundry articles, among which were several barrels and tow of his own children. The evening was very dark and himself intoxicated, and coming to the precipice, which any one who has traveled that road must recollect, turned his horses short off, when, like the lullaby song, "down came rockaby baby and all". The crash was heard by a neighboring family, who proceeded to the scene with a lantern where they found the wagon bottom upwards, the four horses either dead or in the agonies of death, the wagoner groping about, some distance off, insensible, and not knowing where he was or how he came there, the children affrighted and crying, and the barrels, & c rolled to the foot of the hill. I is a little singular that neither the man nor his children received any material wound. - Chronicle.

Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
June 4 1823 Page 3

Reading, May 28

Alarming Riot

We understand that at the battalion training, on Wednesday last, at Hamburg, in this county, a serious fracas occurred between the citizens and the workmen employed on the Canal. It seems the managers endeavoured to keep those in their employ at work until the training should be over, fearing, from certain indications, their riotous disposition; but the citizens having assembled in the taverns of the village, the Canal men marched in a body of 30 or 40 to the attack, armed with clubs, stones, an such missiles as they could lay their hands upon; they were met by the citizens in a similar manner, when a furious contest ensued, eventuating in the defeat of the assailants. A number were severely wounded on both side, some of whom lie at the point of death. - Chron.

Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
July 21, 1824

Reading, July 9

Accidents

On Tuesday afternoon two unfortunate occurrences happened in this borough, Mr. Frederick Post's child, aged about 3 years, was run over by and loaded wagon and killed on the spot. It was a lovely child and its parents doted upon it. It was playing in the street and at the moment was unobserved by either the carter or those who should have taken better care of it.

The premature explosion of a charge of powder placed in a rock at the quarry near the Canal, for the purpose of blowing it, has shockingly mangled a Mr. Bagley, who was engaged in quarrying. It is supposed he will recover from his wounds but it will be after much suffering. -Chronicle.

From the Reading Chronicle

Great Flood

On Thursday the 29th ult., this part of the country was visited by a deluge. It commenced raining about 5 o'clock P.M. and continued until 11 or 12 o'clock at night. The river Schuylkill and its tributaries swelled with a rapidity and to a height unprecedented in the memory of the oldest inhabitants. The extent of damage by this flood has not yet been fully ascertained, but enough has been heard of to render it enormous. The loss to the Navigation Company is very severe, and it is to be regretted by the friends of the Improvement, that it will require a length of time to make the necessary repairs. The very extensive culvert near the late Elisha Geiger's is wholly swept away, and some of the other culverts are damaged. Between this place and Pottstown, there are more than 20 places in which the embankments of the Canal are washed away and the channel filled up; and we learn that above this place to the head of the Navigation, it is similarly injured. The forge known by the name of "Gibraltar," owned by Mr. M'Intosh, together with a stone dwelling house near it, was swept away by the breaking of the dams, and also the forge owned by Mr. Yocum, in Cumra.

At Hamburg the tannery of Mr. Featner was very much injured, and a frame stable swept away. Very few of the mill dams escaped without injury, and many are destroyed, and the roads in every direction are considerably cut up.

We learn from other places that this rain was confined to a space of about 15 or 20 miles in width and 50 or 60 in length, extending from east to west, and that its course was attended with equal destruction along the various streams of water.

Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
October 13, 1824

In the borough of Reading, sixty thousand pounds of wool are annually worked up by the hatters; and upwards of one hundred and fifty thousand fine and wool hats annually manufactured. Instead of 300 hands being employed in this branch of business (as stated in our last) between 4 and 500 are constantly at work. At no very remote period we trust and believe Reading will be as prolific in many other manufactures. - Berks and Shuylkill Jour.

Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
April 14 1824

Reading, Pa., April 7

A lad in the service of Jonathan Loos, of Heidelberg township aged about 12 years, being sent one day last week to clean out a cow stable, he hung himself at one of the stalls with a cow chain. The chain was fixed so low that he was obliged to fall upon his knees, in order that it might have effect.

Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
September 6, 1826

Reading, Aug. 22
Trial For Murder

On Friday the 11th instant, before the court of this county, came on the trial of Lydia Karshner for the murder in June 1826 of Mary Ann Trine, a child of about two years old. The prisoner at the time she committed the act was proven on the trial to have been 14 years and 9 months old, is small of her age and has the appearance of being younger than she really is, which circumstances excited the sympathies of all who attended the trial, and which very likely saved her from the gallows.

From the testimony, it appeared that the prisoner was in the service of Mr. Mathias Trine, the father of the murdered child of Long Swamp township. The day before the murder was committed; Lydia was engaged in washing some articles of clothing, one of which the child had mischievously dragged from the washtub over some old ground bark from the tan-yard and stained. The mother of the child attributed it to Lydia's carelessness and either scolded or chastised her having permitted the child to do so, which it seems, prompted her to revenge. On the following day towards evening, some geese and goslings were going towards the tan-yard which the child ran after, followed by Lydia. When the geese had got to an old tan pit, filled with water, one of the goslings fell in and the child stopping down to look at it, Lydia gave her a push which precipitated her into the pit, head foremost. Shortly after, Mrs. Trine asked Lydia where Mary Ann was, she replied that she had gone to her grandmother's, close by, or that she did not know where she was. The mother not finding her child at its grandmother's, went to the tan pit and there discovered it floated on the water dead. An inquest was immediately summoned by Justice Albright, who sat until late in the night and until the prisoner voluntarily confessed to the Rev. Mr. German, the pastor of a neighboring church that she had caused the death of the child as above mentioned. Lydia was then conveyed to the jail of this county where she has since remained.

The jury having patiently and attentively heard a mass of testimony, and the very able and ingenious arguments of the counsel on both sides, retired at about half past 7 o'clock on Wednesday evening, having been engaged in the trial nearly a week.

In a short time they returned with a verdict of murder in the second degree. His honor, Judge Porter, sentenced her to a servitude of five years in the penitentiary at Philadelphia, a proportional part of which time to be in solitary confinement.

Daily Gazette and Bulletin (Williamsport, Pennsylvania)
June 27, 1884

William Bressler died at Couglersville on Monday from injuries received from a fall.

One Hundred Years Old
An Old Lady of Berks Rounds Off A Century Today

Her Name, Place of Residence and Personal Peculiarities. She Enjoys Good Health And Has (…..?……) for One So Old

Reading, Dec. 18. Mrs. Catherine Gabel, of New Berlin, Berks county, will be one hundred years old on Friday, an age attained by few. She enjoys as good health as ever and moves about the house unaided and with the utmost freedom. During the present treacherous weather she remains indoors, but during the past summer she took frequent walks in the garden in the rear of her residence. Her eyesight is good, and all her faculties are remarkably active for a woman of her age. Her memory fails her in recalling recent events, but she recollected many incidents of her childhood. Mrs. Gabel lives a retired life, but on Friday several hundred of her old acquaintances are expected to call upon her.

She was the mother of ten children, eight of whom are living, as follows: Mrs. Elizabeth Gabel, widow, aged eighty-one, residing near Pottstown; Mrs. David Gabel; living near Boyertown; Henry and Jacob Gabel of Pottstown; John Gabel residing near New Berlin; Mrs. Susan Landis, residing with her mother; Mrs. John Ehst, of New Berlin, grandmother of the late Jacob Ehst, Reading, and Miss Barbara Gabel, aged sixty-two, the youngest of the children, also living with her mother.

Mrs. Gabel was born in Chester county, and has been sixty years a widow. Although removed from Reading but an hour's ride, she has not visited this city for over thirty years. She never had her photograph taken and it is not known that she ever rode on a railway train. Her children are all active, and bid fair to reach the ripe old age of their mother. Henry Gabel, aged seventy-five, runs a farm of over 3,000 acres in Virginia, has an interest in a saw mill, and, with his brother Jacob and another partner, under the firm name of Gabel, Jones and Gabel, operates the well known Gabel ore mines at Boyertown, and the brothers are also operating the furnace near Bechtelsville.

THE BUZZARD GANG CAPTURE OF TWO MORE OF THE FAMOUS OUTLAWS.

Reading, Pa., April 29, -Two more of the famous Buzzard gang of outlaws, ten of whom escaped in a bunch from the Lancaster jail several years ago under the lead of Abe Buzzard, their captain, were captured by Constable Bowman about fifteen miles from here. They are Charles Gibson and Joe Groff, two notorious convicts, incendiaries, and jailbreakers, who were serving eight and five years respectively when they escaped over two years ago. Gibson is the son-in-law of John Frankford the alleged horse thief. They visited different portions of the country since their escape, and returned several weeks ago. They went around among the people parading themselves as detectives who had sworn to capture Abe Buzzard, dead or alive. Instead of this they help frequent interviews with Buzzard, and aided in and planned a number of daring robberies. Early this morning Constable Bowman pounced upon them in a barn near Welsh Mountain, and captured them single-handed. They were judged in the Lancaster jail. Gibson says that he has lived principally near Pittsburg, where he ran a saloon. Both declare the prison walls cannot hold them.

Atchison Globe, Atchison, Kansas, March 23, 1887 - Donated by Sara Hemp

Mrs. Wm. Hetherington, wife of Wm. Hetherington, president of the Exchange National Banks, died suddenly at 12:00 last night, of fatty degeneration of the heart. Mrs. Hetherington has been sick for two or three weeks, though not at all seriously, and her death was sudden and unexpected. The funeral will take place at 2 p.m. tomorrow from the residence to Mt. Vernon cemetery. The deceased was born September 24, 1827, in Berks county, Pennsylvania. She was married May 9, 1848, came to Atchison with her husband, and has resided here since that time, universally loved and respected. Four children survive her: W. W. Hetherington, cashier of the Exchange Bank; C. S. Hetherington assistant cashier of the same bank; Mrs. B. P. Waggener, and Miss Grace Hetherington.