CHAPTER 16
Table of Contents

Prior to World War II, Brunswick had many hucksters bringing their wares to town and selling them door to door. They could legally sell anything that they had an order for. For example, anyone could order ahead for cleaned fowl to be delivered.

Among the hucksters, the names may ring a bell of recognition: Mr. Beachley, Mr. Ahalt, and Mr. Ziegler came from the Middletown area with dairy and other farm products.

Every week, Mr. Harrison from the Virginia end of the bridge, brought meat, as well as ponhaus, pudding, and sausage. He always stopped at the corner and the housewives came out. Bob Potterfield and Howard Harrington, both from the Lovettsville area, also took orders for meat.

Also from Virginia came Charlie Everhart with sweet corn. One observer remembers the dressed groundhogs he used to bring.

Jim Harrison, a black huckster from the mountain area near Burkittsville, came two times a week with fresh produce from his own garden in the mountain. He drove a horse and buggy in the back of which he carried his wares. Another black huckster was Rich Harris from Weverton. Jim Wolf brought butter and produce from the Bell's Mill area. Mr. and Mrs. Myers brought in all types of home-grown fruits and vegetables from their place near Trego. Mr. Jennings and Mr. Wastler were from Brownsville.

Boats from Norfolk, laden with fruit and other produce, supplied wholesalers who met the boats at the Baltimore wharves. They transported fresh food like oysters, crabs, and watermelon, later carried in all directions throughout the state. Locals remember entire truckloads of cabbage.

Shep Sheppard, Tony Cincotta, and a Mr. Sulcer were all wholesalers, helped by John Hardy, Brother Jackson, and Alvey Stouts.

With the appearance of supermarkets, a greater variety to select from and the convenience of one stop shopping (and higher prices?), brought an end to the more personal buying process of former days.

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Much of the firstcentury of Brunswick included uncertain times, when jobs were not secure and family coffers were not overflowing. People in general had to really "dig in," sometimes literally, to feed their families. Gardening was a way of life, not just a hobby or healthful pastime.

Many families had chickens, a pig or two, rabbits, and pigeons. Some even had a horse or two. The small-animal food could be processed for the table without drawing much attention, but a butchering attracted an audience. During the Great Depression of the thirties, people HAD to do something to put enough food on the table. For many in the days before supermarkets, this was a way of life.

Mr. Herbert Cooper butchered a number of hogs in his large back yard along the branch at Second Avenue and "B" Street. The Charlie Woods family also comes to mind. Some senior citizens remember the many "pig pens" in the alley behind the 100 block of Ninth Avenue and behind homes on Wenner's Hill. Some raised as many as five hogs. The butcherings took place in November, December, and January—in cold weather—when the meat could chill as it hung from a heavy crossbar on posts. If the weather turned warm unexpectedly, the cut meat was in danger of sweating, so it would be placed on corn cobs, to provide an air space; the meat would then be turned every hour to prevent spoilage.

Life was especially interesting for a family on Walnut Street, because they kept their hogs over on the Tow Path. Daily they would gather "slop" from the neighbors and carry it across the railroad tracks

to their animals. They "herded" the hogs across the railroad tracks to the site of the butchering at the appropriate time. Such was life during the depression era.

Eventually restrictions were placed on keeping such animals within town limits. Ordinance 187, passed on December 12,1944, established distances hog pens (100 feet) and chicken houses (40 feet) should be from inhabited dwellings. This became effective January 15, 1945.

On September 13,1966, Ordinance 269 replaced the earlier law, and hogs and hog pens were eliminated from within city limits; a $100 fine or ten days in jail was the penalty for violation.

S - Dutch Burns - Teeny Phillips

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Salty herring and fried potatoes for breakfast is a vivid memory for Dutch Burns. The heads were cut off the fish and they were gutted, then preserved in brine in wooden buckets with a wire handle. Storekeepers bought the fish in the buckets, which were set on the pavement and sold singly. To eat them, the fish were fried hard; people ate bones and all. With coffee, this was a standard breakfast for many older folks.

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There are still people around who recall when horses were used to pull ice wagons and other vehicles. But do you remember the hitching posts and do any remain today?

Dutch Burns' thoughts go back to about 1918, when he was six years old. One horse "holder" he recalls was a (wooden?) rail in front of Bill Harrington's grandfather's, between the Cincotta building and the buildings east of it and another in front of W - M M M Dutch Harmon's cigar factory located at 9 West

Potomac Street (Longerbeam's today).

Some hitching posts were the size of water pipes, two in the ground with a crossbar between for the reins to be tied to.

Some of the holders were iron rings in trees. The large tree that used to be in front of Wernts' two stores had a huge ring that two horses could be hooked to. Also, there were a couple of horse heads in town for "parking" horses.

As the hitching post was fading out, hucksters used a heavy iron weight at the end of a rope attached to their wagon; at a stop, they quickly dropped the weight. At least one huckster used none of the foregoing methods. When he took his wares from the wagon, the well-behaved horse would immediately walk on to the next stop and wait there for his driver, repeating this pattern all along the route. Dutch recalls a driver on East C Street off Maple Avenue. He would say "All right," and the horse would go to the bottom of C Street, turn around, and start back to his owner.

S - Dutch Burns W -MMM

Before automobiles and parking meters, what did one do with the horses he rode to town or around town to get to work?

There were stables in the alley more recently called Mooseheart Drive, next to the Moose Club. Pappy Allgire kept his horses there, each in its own stall. The Catletts had quarters for their horses behind their home in the 500 block of West Potomac Street. Harry took a team to bottom land east of the Potomac River Bridge where he worked the family farm.

H. N. Werntz kept his horse behind his store at 101 East Potomac Street, across the alley, in Dr. West's carriage house, where Dr. Hedges also stabled his horse.

Behind the high school (1913-1928) on Fourth Avenue there were four or five stables for horses at the spot where the auditorium of the 1928-1965 school stood. The Flooks and Staleys brought their horses to school. After the fire of 1928 the stables were not rebuilt.

S - Dutch Burns - E R F

I used to think "A" Street was the only place to sled ride in Brunswick. What crowds gathered there as soon as the snow built up an inch or two!

On cold nights there would be a bonfire to help keep us warm.

From Second Avenue you'd be able to drift half way up the 300 block—if you didn't crash into someone coming from the east. Coordination and cooperation were the name of this game.

If you played with the rules and the base was hard and slick, you could start at East Brunswick School and make it half-way up the hill to the Episcopal Church.

Then I learned about Georgia Avenue. That was great too. You started at Potomac Street—or Brunswick Street, if someone was on guard duty at Potomac—but you really had to manipulate at Walnut Street to avoid sailing across the ditch, I thought. Some sledders were even able to turn the corner at the boHom of the hill.

Then I heard about sledding down "D" Street hill between Maple and Second Avenues. Jack Brady said you couldn't start at the top, but had to take off at about the Arnold house. You either made that corner at Sanger's or plunked into the branch.

Oh to live on New York Hill when it snowed! Were they kidding when they said they started at Moler's Store (9th and "B") and stopped at Ten Row for gosh sakes? There were two dangerous curves to negotiate, but worst of all, was it worth the long walk back?

And surely someone must have used Park Avenue. Just don't hit that culvert!

What protected us when we were kids? It surely wasn't good judgment. There were accidents, but having fewer cars in circulation helped. And if the snow was deep enough, the cars stayed off the streets. Hey, what's the weather forecast?

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When Mr. Edward Shafer was mayor, a cowboy and Indian sham battle was held each Fourth of July. This was a planned program played out on the area that later became Brunswick's football field, across Potomac Street from City Park.

The Red Men's Lodge, in realistic costume, took the role of the Indians, while the cowboys were played by members of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. The latter was an organization of boys of good character, age 16 and above, who paid 50 cents per month dues.

Mr. Lawrence "Monk" Haller and Hyatt Beans always helped with this event. Mr. Beans was a "cowboy," and the Indians always caught him, but by the end of the battle he was always rescued— unharmed.

There were guns with blanks sounding off. No one was ever hurt, and even using blanks, the player always shot into the air.

With this event there were always homemade games over in the park; hobby horses (carousels, in modern parlance) were brought in for the youngsters.

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The late Mrs. Esther Smith Measel was the widow of Walter P. Smith, of Brunswick, and Frank Measel, of Mountaindale, when she recalled having lived in the Westall building early in her marriage to the affable baker of Brunswick.

She and her husband rented four rooms; the kitchen and living room were on the first floor rear, while her two upstairs front bedrooms faced Potomac Street. Their son Neil was 14 months old when they moved there, and Genevieve was born in the house.

At the time there were two other apartments, she recalled. The three back rooms upstairs formed an apartment and the other three rooms downstairs formed the third apartment, for a total of five rooms up and five down. "There were two wide sets of stairs," she recalled. One went up from one side to a landing, then on down to the other side of the house. "We lived there from about 1915 to 1918."

She also remembered that Mr. and Mrs. Franl Howe lived there when their son Franklin was a baby.

The Westalls, owners of the property, lived next door while they also owned the third house from the corner, now occupied by Mrs. Donald vAdelaide) Musgrove.

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Virts lived in the second floor apartment when their daughter Marjorie was born. At the same time, youngJames "Punk" Youtz lived with the Westalls. "Punk" started school from the corner house. Marjorie Virts and "Punk" Youtz later married and today the Youtzes live on Dayton Avenue.

Mr. Judge Ayres believed the Westalls opened a store there but gave it up because family responsibilities prevented their operating it. Other persons have mentioned a store in that building; ads appeared in earlier directories. But the location was too far away from the other businesses to succeed.

Remember . . . the first high school was held in a store room of the Westall house.

The Westalls finally remodeled this building into a single-family dwellingand sold thetwo neighboring houses that they had owned. They lived in the corner house themselves until Bessie Strickler died and her husband moved out of town.

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By 1914 there was a Good Roads Commission waging a campaign against speeders on state roads, and a motorcyle policeman was soon to be placed on local highways. This was welcome news because "the improved roads are too frequently used as speedways by many motorists, and general traffic is placed in constant danger."

"If speeders endangered only themselves through their reckless driving, little objection could be raised . . . interfering with . . . personal rights and liberties."

"Often it is dangerous for the ordinary horsedrawn vehicle to proceed on roads much used by speeding autoists, who have no regard for the rights and safety of others."

S - The Brunswick Times, Sept. 3,1914

Everyone connected with the railroad had access to a pass. One easy traveler tells about the frequent trips he and friends made to Chicago. They would ride No. 9 to Chicago, ordering a sleeper or just riding coach. They would wash in the washroom, eat, and go to the WSM Barndance until 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. The train home pulled out around 2:00 a.m., and arrived at Brunswick about 6:00 p.m., and the travelers would go immediately to bed. Sleeping through the night, they were refreshed and ready to rise and return to work the next morning. All that for nothing, except the cost of the sleeper.

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The F.B.I. had a "field day" in Brunswick once during the Second World War. There was a Japanese Zero airplane that had been shot down in the

early 1940's stored in back of the powerhouse on a flatcar without a cover.

Over 700 people "stole" parts from it, all of whom were arrested. It was a big haul for the F.B.I.!

A loose bolt Iying nearby was picked up for a souvenir; the culprit that did that was arrested too, of course. One F.B.I. man was here for a week. Our good railroad workers had only made a mistake: Since the plane was not covered and there was no guard on duty, which have been normal procedure, no one thought he was committing an offence.

Quite embarrassing to the men was the fact that a Brunswick woman processed their papers in the govenment's office in Washington.

S - Dutch Burns

Ammy Ambrose Babo Merriman Beans Gaither Beasel Orndorff Beech Howard Blutch Daugherty Bo Myers Bones Sigler Boogie Snoots Buffalo Jackson BunBun Giles Bunky Wigington Bunny Powers Bus Cummings Buzz Harrison Cap Rinker Catfish Burkhart Chaz Gross Chewed Green Chick Forrest Chisel Hahn Chisel Voorhees Cook Cannon Corky Virts Cotton Hill Cuz Wellen Diz Hawes Doody Hahn Duck Brawner Finks Heffner Fireball Fauble Firecracker Smith Flobie Woods Fritz Powers Fudgie Fauble Goose Breeden Goose Orrison Gytney Sigafoose Ham Hahn Hammer Orndorff Happy Sigler Heavy Sigler Henny Conner Hezzie Snowden Honey Woullard Hook Sulcer Hotdog Phillips Ikey Lewis Jelly Lipscomb Jockey Virts Juice Foreback Luke Haines Maury (Marie) Wenner Midge Brown Monkey Runkles Mud Brooks Mutch Hahn Mutt Good Mutt Roluick Muzzy Taylor Nappy Pierce Nel Bartlett Nel Gladstone Nick Burns Panny Hutts Parry Wenner Peachie Garrett Peanut Howie Peg Ayres Philco Phillips Picket Barger Ping Weddle Pink Nalley Poodie Brawner

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5/21/07