Haringstown is a folk name for the village that lies in Douglass Township on the Swamp Pike east of Gilbertsville. The little community has had its own identity since the 18th century, but without a post office it appears on no maps or atlases. Also, none of the early atlases or tax maps show any Harings living or having businesses there, but Haringstown village was well known in the local folk culture.
In the early 20th century, the Haringstown name appears frequently in area newspapers. Typical is a notice in the Reading Eagle of December 4, 1915: “Frank Updegrove of Pottsgrove sold to Wallace Reigner of New Hanover township his farm and 2 dwellings in Haringstown.” Also, the same paper in 1929 refers to “Bealer’s Oil Station [gas station] at Haringstown.”
Just who “Haring” was is a mystery. Perhaps the name originated with Ludwig Herring (b.1734 d.1788) who immigrated from Germany onboard the ship Neptune arriving in Philadelphia 09 September 1754. His son Ludwig II, the first of 13 children, was born in Douglass Township 26 January 1761. Ludwig II had nine children, and it’s perhaps from these large families that the Haringstown name originated. None of the Herring family are buried locally and had presumably moved on by the beginning of the 19th century. Ludwig is buried in Schuylkill County and Ludwig II in Venango County.
The center of Haringstown would be today’s intersection of Swamp Pike and Hampton Street. Another well-known marker would be the previous site of Hutts Glass Company. The Montgomery County Atlas of 1848 places Wagonhurst’s Tin Shop near Township Line Road on the eastern side of the village and Hockley’s Tavern on the west. The tavern building still stands beside what had been Bieler’s Store, a country store.
Nineteenth century tax maps consistently show about 20 structures, houses, barns. and shops, in Haringstown. Until the mid-20th century the village was surrounded by fields and farms.
The late Carolia Kulp, longtime Haringstown resident, recalls Haringstown from her childhood in the 1930s. Largely subsumed by development today, a few of the old structures still exist. She noted the Swamp Pike was a dirt road until 1929 at which time it was rebuilt with concrete. She has identified 21 structures from those days including Bealer’s store. She notes that she picked strawberries for them for two cents a quart. Mr. Bealer, she recalls, used to get upset because people went to Acme to shop as all the profits went to New York. Another structure she identifies is a 19th century brick house then owned by Charles Christman who had a loom shop and made rag rugs. The house was also used as a cigar factory.
Another house, now gone, Ms. Kulp noted, was owned by “Abe Latshaw and his wife, Katie. They took in road workers as borders. When their house burned in 1929, they felt one of the borders may have thrown a match or cigarette in the box where the wood chips and paper were kept to make breakfast. Only the chimney was left standing. Also, Abe left hobos or tramps sleep in the barn at night. The only condition was that they had to give up their matches and cigarettes. In the morning they would get them back and given breakfast before they went on their way. In the attic they had an old fashioned baby carriage with an umbrella on top. I wasn’t even six years old when I was in the attic. Abe was a good bricklayer and he loved to hoedown. He used to take me, and I would dance on adult sets when I was 10 years old.”
Another family, she recalls, were the Eshbachs. “The Eshbachs were older people and had a canary in each front window. The house was sold to Russell Latshaw and his wife, Esther. He opened a car repair garage on the property. Their son, Kenneth, worked with his dad until they sold in 1989.” The garage is currently known as J&D Auto service.
The most notable structure in old Haringstown had the unlikely name of the “Swamp College.” In the early decades of the 19th century this was the only seminary of the German Reformed Church in the nation. Here for 20 years the Reverend Lebrecht Frederick Hermann, minister of the Falkner Swamp German Reformed Church, operated a seminary in the church parsonage where he prepared 16 young ministers for ordination. This historic structure, the “Swamp College” was demolished in the 1970s.
It bears repeating that up until the mid-20th century, the area now called New Hanover was known as “Swamp.” The name had nothing to do with swampy or wet ground, but was an Anglo corruption of the German word Schwamm, one meaning of which is meadow-lands. The German tract was made up of the southern Schwam and the more hilly Goschenhoppen to the north.
Also of interest, Bob Wood’s Thursday history talks from 1 to 2 p.m. at Studio B, Boyertown. Topic for Thursday, June 18, is William Antes, New Hanover Gunsmith.
The Historian is produced by the New Hanover Historical Society. Call Robert Wood at 610-326-4165 with comments.
