No one knows where the name “Pleasant Run” originated, but it surely refers to the stream called Deep Creek. Pleasant Run is the hilly area in the north end of New Hanover Township, but don’t go looking for it. There’s no village, crossroads or store. It’s just a place that used to be – not even a place – more of an area, but long time residents know all about it.
Route 663 was built about 1928. Before that the road to Pennsburg ran down Schultz Road by what is now the township’s Pleasant Run Park and up over Deep Creek Road and then northerly through the woods to the top of the hill. There wasn’t much traffic then. If a car were to go by, people would stop, look and say, “Oh, there goes a machine.”
North of Pleasant Run Park, Schultz Road now ends at Deep Creek Road. Just after that intersection on a small rise on your left are three dwellings. A hundred years ago the first one was the home of Simon and Annie Smith; the second, Fox’s Hotel; and the third, Kershner’s store. That’s the center of Pleasant Run.
The 1877 map of New Hanover marks the “Pleasant Run Post Office” at the Kershner Store site. There was a store there before that date owned by a Gilbert. Of those early days nothing is known, but a Nov. 2, 1901 article in the Town and Country notes, “The village of Pleasant Run on Saturday evening was the scene of one of the largest surprise parties given in that vicinity in a number of years. William J. Kershner, postmaster and merchant, was tendered a surprise in honor of his 42nd birthday anniversary.” But, for us the story of Pleasant Run is the story of Henry and Pete Yerger and their store. Henry (b.1871, d.1941) and Pete Yerger (b.1881, d.1963) are buried in the New Hanover Lutheran cemetery with their parents.
Esther Smith Miller, youngest of Simon and Annie’s 10 children, was their neighbor, tells their story and still puts flowers on Pete Yerger’s grave. This is the story.
The Yerger brothers were part of a large family living nearby on Kulp Road. Pete married Eva Smith but after about seven years she died. On her death he became inconsolably grief stricken. Later in life, asked why he never remarried, he said, “I never loved anyone else.” All his life he kept her clothes, aired them out and packed them away again every year. Sometimes personal tragedy seems to either enbitter people or make them more kindly. Pete Yerger was the latter.
Meanwhile, store owner William Kershner must have died because Mrs. Kershner asked Henry, Pete’s older brother, to buy the Pleasant Run store. He protested that he knew nothing about the store business, but she said she would continue to live there and teach him. So he put money into it, Esther thinks, about the spring of 1910. As a way to get him past his bereavement, Henry asked his younger brother to come join him in the store business and do the buying and clerking which he did.
Yerger’s store became famous throughout the area for good prices and the colorful personalities of the owners.
At first, Alfred and Kate Fox owned the hotel next door. Every morning Alfred, with horse and wagon, went down Deep Creek Road and got the Pleasant Run mail at the Green Lane train station, and in the fall he picked up hunters from the city who boarded at the hotel. Esther says they all looked foreword to hunting season; the hotel was full of borders and the store sold a lot of boots, hunting clothes and shotgun shells.
There was a barn behind the hotel and on Saturday nights they had hoe-downs, square dances. These were quite popular among the young people who, it is said, came from miles around. Oliver Kulp and a Bickel were fiddle players and someone was a figure caller. Esther says they probably didn’t charge admission and the musicians played for the fun of it. “They got good crowds no matter how hot. It was a rip-roarin’ place.” Incidentally, the hotels at Perkiomen Heights and Green Tree Inn also had hoe-downs.
But, the hotel closed when the Crump family bought it about 1915, and it became a farm house. Because of its history and central location, the Crump residence became the meeting place of the Pleasant Run Women’s Club. This brought social activities for area families such as summer picnics, Halloween Parties, Christmas Programs and New Year’s Eve parties. Somewhere about this time the Pleasant Run post office closed and all the mail now came from Perkiomenville.
Yerger’s store became the classic country store with nail kegs seats around the pot belly stove. Raymond Hank, who lived in a log house nearby on Deep Creek Road, recalls standing on one of the nail kegs and smoking cigars when he was five years old. I asked, “Who gave you cigars?”
“Pete.””Why?””They were trying to see if I’d get sick so I’d stop smoking cigars.”
“Did you get sick?'”No. I chewed tobacco too.”
“Did you ever get sick?'”No, but I don’t smoke now.”
Raymond Hank’s father was from upstate and a foreman on the road building crew for 663 when he met Florence Kulp at the Perkiomen Heights Hotel. They were married about 1930.
The Yergers had a sister, Annie, who died in 1906 and left two children. In time the brothers took them in and raised them. Another sister died and left a son, Curtis Sesholts (sp?). They took him in too. When he was older they paid room and board and expenses so he could go to Pottstown High School. Esther says they were very good to their nieces and nephews and raised them as their own. Once a certain charity came around collecting, but Pete refused to contribute. They said, “Won’t you even give 50 cents so a person can have a bowl of soup?” Pete said, “No, if people would take care of their families like we do you wouldn’t need to collect.”
However, Pete allowed people to run up “huge” accounts during the depression, 500 dollars or more. When Henry complained, Pete said, “Well, what are the families going to do? They have to feed their children!” When times got better, some people “squared up” and some didn’t.
Continued next week…The Historian is produced by the New Hanover Township Historical Society. Contact Robert Wood at 610-326-4165 with questions or comments.
