This Was Doylestown, 1911

Mechanics Hall opens -

The handsome new hall of Doylestown Council No. 166, O.U.A.M. [Order of United American Mechanics], on East Oakland Avenue, opened this week, and the first meetings were held there. It is one of the finest buildings of its kind in the County Seat, costing about $6,000, and is centrally located.

Designs for the building were made by Architect A. Oscar Martin, of Doylestown, and it was built by Contractor Lewis Treffinger. The front of the brick building is of handsome design and the two double doors are reached by several steps of generous width. Above the second story is a marble date stone bearing the emblem of the Order, handsomely wrought by J. Howard Moore.

One of the large front doors gives entrance to a large floor which, with the exception of the hallway on the other side, takes up the whole width and depth of the building. It is proposed renting this for a store or some light manufacturing enterprise. The other door leads into a large hallway from which stairways lead to the second floor and the basement.

The basement, which is at grade in the rear, is divided into a large banqueting room which runs the full length and half the width of the building. On the other side is a well-equipped kitchen and a large boiler room.

On the second floor there is a toilet room at the top of the stairway and across the building is the ante-room and the dressing room for the degree team. Both rooms are of generous size, and the dressing room is well equipped with closets for paraphernalia for the three lodges which will meet there.

The lodge room is 42x80 feet, one of the largest in town. It is fitted with the usual platforms and well lighted with electric fixtures installed by Electrician Edward R. Walton. The building is heated by steam. It is finished throughout in natural wood and rough coated.

Opera performance to benefit hospital fund -

Doylestown is to be signally honored with a great opera performance of prominent singers for the benefit of the hospital fund.

Madame Estelle Stann Rogers, an operatic contralto, who has been the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Leidy for several days, has suggested the plan to Dr. Frank B. Swartzlander, who has been most active in promoting the hospital movement. The result has been an enthusiastic reception from prominent friends of the hospital project to have a gala "hospital night."

Madame Rogers, who has made many successful appearances in grand opera and will sing in London during the Coronation of King George V, will sing in one of the roles of "Samson and Delilah" and will have a famous tenor and a very prominent baritone to take the other important roles.

Selections will be sung by the trio of artists, and at 10 o'clock this will be followed by a grand ball.

It will be one of the memorable events in Doylestown and is being encouraged by prominent men and women who believe that $1,000 can be cleared for the hospital fund. A first-class orchestra will support the opera stars and every effort will be made to make the hospital night a great success.

National Farm School holds tenth graduation -

Willet M. Hays, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, was the principal speaker at the graduation of the National Farm School [now Delaware Valley College] on Sunday afternoon.

"If we are to establish the ten million farms which this country must soon contain, we must thoroughly educate all the farmers in the knowledge of scientific agriculture and home economics," Mr. Hays advised the fifteen graduates.

"The young men who graduate today are just starting out at a time when agricultural principles bear a special relation to the welfare of the country," he said.

Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf, founder of the school, presided at the exercises, the tenth in the history of the institution. Sylvan D. Einstein and Samuel Hauseman, two of the graduates, also participated in the ceremonies, which were attended by a large crowd of visitors from Philadelphia.

Mr. Hays expressed his belief that agricultural education is necessary to sustain farming.

"City life has pointed out to us that in order to avert the danger of sacrificing the sorely needed vocation of agriculture for the lures of the metropolis, we must improve the farms by scientific methods," he said.

"A total of more than $15,000,000 has been spent by the United States Agriculture Department in recent years to discover new means of improving the soil and the earth's supply of food staples. How to produce foods cheaply is the problem of the present day, and it is for the coming graduates of the agricultural schools to help solve," Mr. Hays stated.

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Council approves trolley line extension -

At the meeting of Doylestown Borough Council on Monday evening, an ordinance passed giving the Philadelphia and Easton Street Railway Company the privilege to extend their tracks a distance of 350 feet on South Main street.

Heretofore the trolley freight line has had no connection with the Philadelphia and Reading Railway line, but this extension will enable freight to be unloaded from the railroad cars onto the trolley cars instead of carting it with [horse] teams on Clinton street.

The matter of loading cars on Clinton street in front of the Railroad House [across from the Reading train station] has been a nuisance. Frequently the street was blocked with freight or by the teams hauling it, so other teams were compelled to wait until room was made for them to pass by. It is expected that the trolley line extension will remedy this difficulty.

Another important matter was the consideration of a petition signed by Third Ward real estate owners asking for the opening of Hamilton street.

Council has passed an ordinance providing for the opening of Hamilton street, but Council is not in the position to say when work will be commenced.

Council does not consider itself possessed of the power to proceed with work on the new street. The street must be surveyed, after which the ordinance will be filed in the Court of Quarter Sessions.

Former Doylestown resident returns for visit -

J. Frank Kramer, of Tabor, Alberta, Canada, formerly of Doylestown, spoke of the boom taking place in western Canada during a visit here this week.

"Young men going out there are having just the same adventures and experiences their fathers or grandfathers had about 1850 in the West," Mr. Kramer told an Intelligencer reporter Thursday. "The land is rich for farming and underneath are coal and metals. You can buy land today for $5 an acre and probably sell it in a few years for thousands of dollars."

Mr. Kramer went West over seven years ago and in the meantime has travelled extensively. He has been in the employ of several of the biggest railroad companies of the West, Southwest and Northwest, and has farmed in Canada where the nearest railroad station was 90 miles away.

He is now interested in coal lands in Alberta, although still holding the position of agent for the Canadian Pacific Railway Company at Tabor, one of the most important places on the road.

An idea of the growth of these parts of Canada, which were open unsettled prairie until quite recently, was given by Mr. Kramer's description of the development of Tabor.

Five years ago it was only a 'water tank," a place for engines to get water. Today, it has 3,800 citizens (larger than Doylestown), has just finished a $75,000 school building, has its own waterworks, standpipe and sewage plant, and is preparing to buy a $20,000 natural gas well.

"When I started to farm on a section in Canada, I was obliged to haul lumber for 100 miles. My nearest neighbor was two miles off," Mr. Kramer said. "Now there are three railroads through that country which was formerly undeveloped prairie. Wonders are being worked up there."

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Doylestown Town Notes -

Students of Doylestown High School had an entertaining program of exercises Wednesday morning to commemorate Washington's birthday. It was as follows: Song, "America"; piano solo, Miss Mary Maneely; reading, Miss Martha Hellerman; essay, "Washington's Americanisms," Herbert Bishop; musical selection, girls' glee club; short talk on Washington, Russell Fretz; address, Principal Carmon Ross.

George Washington Trauger, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Trauger, celebrated his fourth birthday on Wednesday [Washington's Birthday].

A carload shipment of 86,400 bottles for William Neis, Doylestown bottler, attracted considerable attention Thursday when they arrived at the railroad station and were unloaded.

The stork appeared at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Knipe and presented them with a young son.

Mr. and Mrs. William R. Mercer, Jr., of "Aldie," will leave from New York on Saturday for a month's cruise to the West Indies.

Lillian, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Bertles, of East Oakland avenue, is ill with the mumps.

Miss Katharine Siegler, of Doylestown, gave a piano recital Wednesday evening in Coombs' Conservatory, Philadelphia, of which she is a graduate.

Maurice Primost has moved from Mechanics street to William E. Geil's house on North Clinton street.

Doylestown Lodge No. 94, I.O.O.F. [International Order of Odd Fellows], initiated a candidate Saturday evening. After the session, the members smoked fragrant cigars as the compliments of Franklin S. Garner, who in this way celebrated his birthday.

Miss Stella Kohl, Deputy Clerk of Orphans' Court, has resumed her position after being ill for some time.

A flock of wild geese is said to have passed over town on Saturday.

The "Possum Club" will have a banquet Friday night at the Monument Cafe, and a fine roast 'coon will be the center of attention.

From the Doylestown Daily Intelligencer, Week of Feb. 19-25, 1911