Spring 2008
Volume 8, Issue 1

ANNUAL “WALK-IN” BASKET SOCIAL AND “TAKE-OUT” CHICKEN BARBECUE DINNER HIGHLIGHT SPRING FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES

Plans have been finalized for our spring fundraisers, the ‘Walk-in’ Basket Social to be held at the Lehigh Township Fire Company, Cherryville on Saturday - April 26, and the ‘Take-Out’ Chicken Barbecue Dinner to be prepared at St. Paul’s UCC, Indianland Church on Saturday - May 10. This year we especially need your volunteer help, because several key individuals will not be available for both functions. Help is needed to set up/take down the fire company tables for the basket social, as well as to barbecue the chickens for the take-out dinners. Both events have been very well attended in the past and with your help, their success will continue.

Ticket cards for the basket prizes will be sold at the fire company door on April 26th. Each card with 26 “pre-numbered tear-off stubs” will cost $5.00. BUT, if you buy two cards you will receive an additional card for FREE! In other words you will get 3 cards for only $10.00, thus saving $5.00 and giving you 78 chances to win! The winning ticket numbers will be drawn at 6:00pm. Also, the fire company kitchen will be open, and food may be purchased at the event. Call Nancy at 610-767-0676 to donate a basket, or to volunteer to help out at the fire company.

Ken Bloss’s delicious chicken barbecue operation is known throughout the Lehigh Valley. Tickets for the meal, which includes ½ charcoal-barbecued chicken, a foil-wrapped charcoal-baked potato, a roll and a side of applesauce, cost only $7.50. The packaged dinners may be picked up between NOON and 6:00pm. (Please note the earlier pick-up time than in previous years). The deadline for purchasing tickets is April 30th. For more information, to purchase tickets or to help at the event, call Beverly at 610-767-3634.

ANNUAL FALL MUM SALE SUCCESSUL ONCE AGAIN!

If you didn't arrive before noon on Saturday, September 16 to purchase garden mums at the LTHS annual mum flower sale, you probably were out of luck in obtaining the colorful, reasonably priced 8-inch potted plants. Although 300 mums were purchased from Lehigh valley Home & Garden Center for resale (50 more than had been purchased last year), they were sold out before 12:00PM! Most customers took advantage of the 3 plants/$12.00 sale price, rather than choosing 2/$10.00, or a single plant for $6.00. This fund-raiser seems to have really caught the attention of area residents, who began showing up well before the advertised start time of 9:00AM. A decision likely will be made to increase the number of plants purchased for next year and to limit the sale to a one-day event, rather than two days as has been previously held. So, if you missed out this year, be sure to mark your 2008 calendar for our next sale, customarily held the third weekend of September.

P.O. HESS DELIVERY WAGON FOUND IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Acting on a tip from an LTHS Historical Centre visitor during the Christmas holiday, vice-president Frank Mummey contacted the Goschenhoppen Historians, Inc. of Perkiomenville about LTHS possibly acquiring the original P.O. Hess General Store horse-drawn wagon currently in their possession. After several emails and a personal letter to the group, our request was presented at their monthly meeting. They decided that indeed the wagon should be displayed closer to Cherryville, where the general store was located. In exchange, the group would like a similar replacement wagon for their annual festival. A separate fund will be created to purchase such a wagon. Call 610-760-1814 for more information.

LEHIGH TOWNSHIP HISTORICAL CENTRE TRANSFORMED INTO HOLIDAY WONDERLAND

Having been invited to participate in last December’s Governor Wolfe Historical Society’s Holiday House Tour, it was decided that our newly re-constructed Lehigh Township Historical Centre should be decorated to reflect the holiday theme of the tour. A number of artificial pine and spruce garlands, wreaths and swags, along with a variety of wooden and plastic ornaments to adorn the greens, were donated and hung in the LTHS Centre by a society member-family. Even though one of the holiday open house sessions had to be canceled due to inclement weather, the holiday season attracted several hundred visitors, who enjoyed the many festively deco-rated displays encountered there.

Documenting the New Deal Era

Historical society member Nancy Thatcher is in the process of collecting information about the programs of the New Deal Era. Since 2008 marks the 75th anniversary of the start of the New Deal, there is renewed interest in how local people were involved in or affected by some of its programs. If you, or someone you know, was in the Civilian Conservation Corps or worked on a WPA project, she would like to hear from you. In addition, she is seeking information about work done by the WPA in Lehigh Township. Such work could include the construction of roads or buildings. You can contact Nancy by calling 610-767-0676 or by writing to her in care of LTHS, P O Box 244, Danielsville, PA 18038.

INDIANLAND ONE-ROOM SCHOOL HOUSE UPDATE

Built in 1865 and used primarily to instruct public school students in grades 1-8 until it was closed in 1951, the Indianland schoolhouse had been renovated with wood paneling, a suspended ceiling and a plywood and carpeted floor during the early 1970s. These items have since been removed, revealing the plastered walls and ceiling (with suspended light fixtures) and evidence of a vestibule type entryway that existed during the 1940s/50s. These features are confirmed in a description of the school’s interior as retold by retired Lehigh Township teacher, Kathryn Day. Mrs. Day’s narrative will be used to restore the schoolhouse to that general time period. Displays also will be designed to depict how education may have taken place during earlier times, as well.

Repairs to the exterior of the building also have been completed. Damaged roof slates and loose crumbling bricks have been repaired and/or replaced. The rusted, leaking rain gutter and down-spouting have been removed, and the wooden cornice/soffit areas re-painted making them ready for new rain gutter installation. Contributions of school desks, text books, slate tablets, etc. that had been used during the one- and two-room schoolhouse period (not necessarily from Lehigh Township) are being sought by the society.