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!
|