I Got the Hammer

By W.W. Ellis

This is a story of a redheaded feisty young woman and her family history. She experienced teenage pregnancy and, later, a fifty-year-plus marriage. She would tell you. I did my duty through better and through worse. I stood by my man!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662450259

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I Got the Hammer

W.W. Ellis

Copyright © 2021 W. W. Ellis

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2021

ISBN 978-1-6624-5024-2 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-5025-9 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Martha and Harry Craft on East Weber Avenue One Spring After Noon

Fellow Strikers

My heroes:

Granddad Ellis, underground farmer (coal miner), tea tattler, Bible reader, and churchgoer.

Granddad Craft, half Seneca Indian, fought in France during the great war. He was wounded in that war and worked on the railroad and in the woods, cutting pulp wood.

Uncle John Weible served in WWII in the north African campaign into cicely and up the boot of Italy and headed for Central Europe at the end of the war. He also served his country as Justice of Peace in his hometown.

Kermit Weible, brother of John, still missing in action in WWII.

Uncle Nick, served in the tank core during the battle of the bulge in Belgium.

The son of a contractor as a carpenter, he built houses and boxcars for the railroad—B and O railroads.

Uncle Jim Craft, shell-shocked in WWII, came home a young man with totally white hear. He later survived an explosion while working at Durez.

Ted Stevens, my unknown father, served in the army.

Cousin, Ray Shaffer, friend, and hunting partner served in the United States Army.

To all my forefathers who cut the timber, mined the coal, and worked on the railroad and in the factories to make America great. The men and their families supplied the raw material that built the giant industrial and financial networks of the east coast of North America and, later, all of America.

In memory of my good friend and mentor, Manny Fried, struggling actor off Broadway. Hotel bellhop, factory worker, union organizer, victim of McCarthyism, life insurance salesman, playwright, creator of the Buffalo Labor Writer’s Council, author of several books, adversary of monsieur what’s-his-name of the buffalo, and college professor first lieutenant US Army.

Clearfield County in western Pennsylvania was first settled in the late 1700. Martha’s ancestors were among the earliest to arrive along the west branch of the Susquehanna River, near Chest Creek. As lumbermen, the trees were cut throughout the year. In the spring when the snow was melting and the small Chest Creek would swell to swift flowing, the logs were tied end to end and floated downstream. As more branches of the creek joined, the logs would be tied side by side to form a wider raft. Away they went, down the Susquehanna to Harrisburg and the sawmills. It was a long walk up stream and back home.

DuBois spring up in Clearfield County, along Sandy Lick Creek. It took the name of lumberman, John E. DuBois, who is credited with creating jobs and the growth of the town. Coal became the next big job-creating industry for the area. Deep shaft coal mining grew up all around DuBois and Clearfield County. The east coast was developing into the world’s largest industrial complex. The coal and lumber had to be transported and that brought the railroad to DuBois—more jobs, more growth. DuBois became the biggest town in the county. A lot of thirsty workers needed to quench their thirst. Frank Honie started the DuBois brewery and produced the first Budweiser made in the USA. He started several other businesses, an ice company for one. The ice was used in train cars to keep the Budweiser cold when it was shipped to its customers. More jobs, more growth.

The town was made up of three separate communities. The east side, on the north side of town, was made up of larger estates, that’s where the golf course was and the little tannery lake was. Donegal hill, to the west, is where St. Catherine’s Catholic Church, the Lithuanian club, and the Irish, Italians, and Polish communities thrived. On cottage hill, to the east, the Presbyterian’s church, Methodist church, and the church of England served its population.

Around DuBois, in Clearfield County and Jefferson County, several settlements grew into towns, each with their own history. Each different but connected.

Falls Creek, in Jefferson County, was a rival to DuBois. In early years, Falls Creek had more industry. It was home to the largest tannery in western Penn. It was also home to a glass factory, brickyard, and china factory. On the dark side, Falls Creek was known as a hideout for some famous bandits and horse thieves.

Sykesville, also in nearby Jefferson County, was a coal mining center, lumbering town, and other manufacturing companies. It was first named Shaffer after the earliest settler but later became Sykesville named after a major land developer named Jacob Sykes.

Sykesville’s earliest inhalants were the Senecas, first nation of the Iroquois Indians. Later the Delawares, who were being relocated from the east coast across the Allegany’s to The Great Pine Forest along the banks of Mahoning Creek, near what is today’s town of Punxsutawney—the home of Groundhog’s Day. After the Indians, came the Hovers, Buhites, Yohe, Claytons, and many other settlers.

Reynoldsville was settled on the banks of Sandy Lick Creek. Several major transportation routes converged here and the lodging business grow. Taverns and eating establishments did well servicing travelers. Most of the town was a swamp until developed.

Luthersburg in Brady Township was first settled by the Pennsylvania Dutch, along an old Indian trail later becoming state route 410 to Troutville and state route 219 and 322 south of DuBois and on to the south to Grampian, Curwensville, and Mahaffey.

Mahaffey was the junction of two major railroads and where Chest Creek flowed into the west branch of the Susquehanna River.

Curwensville was known for its brickyard, in the center of Clearfield County, along the west branch of the Susquehanna River. Grampian was the home of a showplace farm owned by Frank Honie, owner of the DuBois Brewing Company. They raised award-winning horses and a prize bull and well-attended orchards. It later became the Fairman Dairy. Bill Fairman delivered dairy products throughout the county.

Cottage Hill soon was built up into a second-generation neighborhood. It became a community of families who were of different class backgrounds. There were working people, lawyers, and businessmen—the poor and the well-to-do. It was like a small town suburban neighborhood.

The neighbors on one side lived in a large yellow brick mansion with a housekeeper and gardener. On the other side lived an auto mechanic in a farmhouse. The Honies who lived in the mansion with the manicured lawns owned and operated the DuBois Brewery. Frank Hony was co-owner with his sister. They inherit the business from their father. Frank Jr. and his wife, Hallie, never had children. I often wonder if they passed one another during the day in that big house. In the whole block, there were only a few houses and one large apartment building with a store in the front. This is a square block of land bordered by Weber Avenue, Highland St., Washington Ave., and Church St. Within that square, there were nine houses. Four of them were large and belonged to wealthy people, and the others belonged to workingmen—a miner, a truck driver, a mechanic, a telephone company employee, and an old widow with little income.

The same Moore family who cheated Minerva’s father out of his land lived on the other side of the block across the alley. On their side of the block, there was only two other houses—the Moore family’s large house and barn along with a small cottage which must have been servant’s quarters at one time. They had a tennis court where they and their rich friends played.

They often lost their tennis balls in the Ellis family’s garden and would come looking for them. One such occasion, lawyer Moore was looking for his tennis balls in the garden tramping down the vegetables when Grandma spotted him. She didn’t take to this too kindly. She took him down the alley on the run with a rake in her hand. Shortly after that, a wall went up around lawyer Moore’s property, and no more tennis balls or tennis players turned up in the Ellis garden.

Several of the neighbors worked in the mines with William. The drift mine was out Hyland St. about a mile, and they would walk to work together. They worked in drift # 1 for Johnny DuBois.

Minerva inherited part of her father’s land which she sold to her brother for $500 and bought a Ford with the money. William and his fellow miners would sometime take the car.

The mines, owned by John E. Dubois, worked a day shift and a night shift, and the men would swing from days to nights—one weekdays; one weeknights. When an accident occurred, a cave in or an explosion, no one knew who was involved, until quitting time. When an accident occurred in the mines, the families and friends and neighbors of the miners would gather in their homes waiting for the word.