Methodist Hall - (Monthly Programs)
50 East King Street
Littlestown, PA 17340
Museum and Welcome Center
2nd Floor - Borough Building

10 South QueenStreet

Littlestown, PA 17340


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Littlestown was layed out by
and named for Peter Klein (Little)
A window to the past.
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Ephram Myers Farm
(Also Known As) Appler Farm


Barn Burned down in about 1968-69 - House to right of barn is where McDonalds is now located
House at top is where Royal Farms Convenience Store and Gas Station will be located

Disclaimer - It is important to remember that memories are just that. It is not uncommon that some facts may be incorrect and should not be considered to be historically factual. They are a good indicator of their time period, but should be taken as memories.

Memories out of the Past
by Charles Ross Appler
Taken from the April 2007 edition of Appler Family Newsletter

I look back with fond memories to my childhood and adolescence growing up on what was once considered to be one of the “show-case’ farms in the area of Littlestown, PA. Located at the north edge of the town, one could not help but notice the imposing big white barn with it’s magnificent straw stack in front during late summer & fall as they made their way northward to Gettysburg on Route 97. It was built in 1862 by Ephriam Myers, a well to do citizen of that area. It had a substantial 2 story brick tenant house by the road surrounded by almost a dozen Norway maple trees and its was always my job to rake the fallen leaves- quite a chore! It had a beautiful porch along the front and side, overlooking the road and town. Here I was born and raised where my parents, Edwin U. & Myrtle B. (Snyder) Appler tenant farmed the nearly 200 acres. Since we were closer to the town school than the country school several miles up the road, my father paid a supplemental fee to allow my siblings and myself to attend elementary school in tow. My early chores were to bring the cows in from the meadow in front of the barn in preparation to milking, weeding the garden by the side of the tenant house, and hoeing Canadian thistles from the corn field acreage. During my adolescent years, I had to assist, whenever possible, with the regular farm work out in the fields. In winter, I trapped for muskrats in a small brook that ran from a spring in the middle of the farm and emptied into Sneeringer’s quarry across the road. In the early 1930's, the then owners of the farm was Sarah Jane Myers (Ephriam Myers’ daughter) who had married Dr. George Stoner, a medical doctor with the Public Health Service at Ellis Island, NY. They decided. To build a summer home on the hill adjacent to the tenant farmhouse. I remember playing in the partially framed house while it was being built. Like the imposing barn and tenant house, the summer home was an even greater showplace! I looked forward to the Stoners being in residence as I was paid to take their ‘wet’ garbage daily to feed our pigs in the pig barn. I also looked forward to being taken to the movies by their Black maid on her day off. I never tired of listening to Mrs. Stoner playing her antique rectangular grand piano or showing me her progress painting her many water color and oil scenes. I came to be good friends with their son, Dr. Herbert Stoner, a dentist of Baltimore, Md.. And their daughter Marian, who was married to Dr. Arthur J. Huey, an ear, nose & throat specialist of New York City. After the death of Dr. Stoner and Dr. Huey, Mrs, Stoner and her daughter Mrs. Huey lived there year round.

Then came WW II and I enlisted in the U.S. Navy and left the environs of my early years. My father continued to tenant farm until after Mrs. Stoner’s death when Mrs. Huey took over. He was about to retire himself and had purchased the Laura Frey homestead across the road at the junction of the Bonneauville Rd. Unfortunately he died on the farm before this moved came about. Mrs. Huey modernized the tenant house, installing plumbing, bathrooms and heat. It was then that my brother, Grant E. Appler and his family moved in and continued to tenant farm the place. After Mrs. Huey’s death, he bought his own farm in the area. Eventually the farm was sold to a group who held it as an investment. The summer house was sold separately. The investment company had no interest in the upkeep of the barn and tenant house, and thus, both suffered over the years. Finally the barn burned down and the farmhouse was dismantled, and that area grew up with weed and brush - a sore sight compared to what it had once been! Most of the acreage became part of the borough of Littlestown in what is now called The Appler Development. (I’d like to think in memory of the years that Applers were tenant farmers who handled the business end and had an accounting with the non-resident owners until they came to reside there year round.)
The last chapter now has come to a close with the sale of the summer home to The Royal Farms Co. Their plans did not include the house, so it was offered free to anyone who would incur the cost of moving it from it’s original location. Currently the house is jacked up to make the move a couple of miles up highway 97 to a foundation being readied for its arrival. When this is accomplished, the hill on which the 3 primary buildings were located will be excavated, hauled off and a new convenience store/gas station built in its place. To me, there will always be a ‘lump’ in my throat as I pass by that area that was once a ‘show place’ in its time and which will always remain that way in my memory! This truly marks the end of an era!

Hay Stack in front of Barn in late Summer and Fall of Year

 

Summer House being prepared to be moved a few miles up the road
Check out the Move


 

 

 



Littlestown Area Historical Society's Programs
50 East King Street, Littlestown, PA 17340
Barts Centenary United Methodist Church's Historic Building