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Subject: [RHEA-L] More Pa. Rhea info
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 00:16:19 EST

Census: 1790 Head of Household Census Index, A-L Twps: Chester County, PA
James Rhea- Kennett Twp.
Samuel Rhea- Coventry Twp.
Catherine Rhea- East Nantmill Twp.
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Transcribed from Bell's History of Northumberland County Pennsylvania
CHAPTER XVIII.

MT. CARMEL.

OLD HOTELS - THE TOWN PLAT - FIRST IMPROVEMENTS AND SUBSEQUENT GROWTH -
THE FIRST MERCHANTS, PHYSICIANS, AND LAWYERS - THE POSTOFFICE -
RAILROADS - MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT - THE MT. CARMEL COAL
TRADE - GENERAL INDUSTRIAL INTEREST - FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS - WATER AND
ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANIES - SECRET AND OTHER SOCIETIES - THE PRESS -
SCHOOLS - CHURCHES - CEMETERIES.

FIRST IMPROVEMENTS AND SUBSEQUENT GROWTH

When the town plat was resurveyed in 1853 the improvements in
this locality consisted of the Mt. Carmel Inn, of which Felix Lerch was
proprietor; Bradford's steam saw mill, then in full operation; a small
frame building east of the mill, occupied by the teamster; a frame
double-house near the Inn, also erected for the employees at the mill;
and the old Riffert tavern (no longer kept as a public house), in which
Jesse Yarnall resided. The Lamerson improvement had been abandoned.
These buildings were erected in 1853. Alexander W. Rhea and George
Schall built a two-story frame office nearly opposite the Mt. Carmel
Inn: Rhea was a civil and mining engineer in the employ of the Locust
Mountain Coal and Iron Company, and was killed by Mollie Maguires, for
which Hester, Tully, and McHugh were hung at Bloomsburg; Schall was
general agent for the New York and Middle Coal Field Company, and
subsequently a member of the firm of Schall, Donohoe & Company, pioneer
coal operators in the Mt. Carmel region. David J. Lewis built a two-
story frame house at the southeast corner of Mt. Carmel avenue and Oak
street and opened therein the first store in the town: and David Davis,
a miner, erected a two-story frame house at the southwest corner of
Market street and Mt. Carmel avenue. These three buildings were erected
in the year 1858; they were completed about the same time, and were the
first houses built at Mt. Carmel after the survey of the town plat.
For some years the growth of the town was very slow. Mining
hamlets were built at the different collieries of the surrounding
region, and the uniform policy of the coal companies in this respect was
not favorable to the concentration of population at one point. In 1860
the collieries upon

END OF PAGE 659
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Cemeteries: Chartiers Cemetery, S - Z: Carnegie, Allegheny Co, PA
STEWART RHEA ISABEL 68 1891 1959 CHARTIR B
***



Patricia L. Hall
Olathe, Ks.

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