St Matthews High School - Samascript Yearbook (Conshohocken, PA)

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TRADITIONAL DUST Light of Other Days SPRING Mill, a charming village adjoining Conshohoekcn on the east, has recollection of some of the most famous people in the early history of our country. Among those whose names are connected with the locality is Benjamin Franklin, who often visited this vicinity. One day he noticed a stream rippling rhythmically through the meadows, playing hide-and-seek among the moss-covered rocks. It looked like a ribbon of quick silver thrown over the emerald green of the valley. The water was so remarkably clear that lazy lizards, resting at the bottom of the brook, resembled lovely pieces of old jade lying on bottle-green velvet, and the water plants, miniature forests in a glass case. Franklin was enchanted by the crystal clearness of the water and by its icy temperature and conceived a plan of piping it to Philadelphia. This idea, however, was never carried out. Today, Hamilton Paper Mills utilizes this stream in the manufacture of its famous product and the quality of the water plays an important factor in the manufacture of Hamilton Bond Papers. Another famous Spring Mill personage was Peter Le Geaux, who lived in THE MIRROR the house now known as Colonial Inn. Washington and Lafayette often visited him at his home and tradition says that he discussed with them the possibilities of transforming the encircling hills into vineyards. He intended to use the grapes for making champagne and envisioned the district as the nucleus of a great champagne industry in America. Both Franklin’s and Le Geaux’s plans were doomed to failure. Although Lee Tire and Rubber Company, Walkers, and other important industries are located here, some persons still mourn idyllically beautiful .Spring Mill as a land of lost opportunity. Bernadette Clark, ’45 Gulph Mills GULPH MILLS is a small settlement lying southwest of Conshohocken. The name is an intriguing one to the ordinary observer, and for a time, puzzled even terminologists. “On very old documents the place is usually called ‘Gulph’. In the 19th century the preferred spelling was ‘GulT, but today there has been a return to the earlier orthography.” Once “Gulf”, or “Gulph” meant not only an indentation on the coast of a Thirty-one

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The Perry Jewels SITUATED in as gloomy an atmosphere as that which surrounded the “House of Usher” is the old Perry mansion. The murky air seems exactly fitted to the shadowy place. The house is of imposing proportions even by daylight, but in the fog it seems actually enormous as it sprawls atop a small hill. The architect, apparently, was a pessimist for the gables, bay windows, and other protrusions glare in contempt at human beings. We approached the house with some trepidation and, halting at the door from which the plate glass had been removed, gazed into the large colonial reception room whose broken window-panes and half-crumbling walls presented a scene of desolation. A huge chandelier dangled periously from the weakened ceiling. The villagers had described this chandelier to us. In fact, they had given us an account of the entire house, including the tale of the missing Perry jewels. According to legend, the sale of the bankrupt Perry family’s goods, to pay off debts accumulated by the last of the clan, had not included the famed Perry jewels. No amount of investigation disclosed any trace of the gems. After the sale, the house was left to decay, and again and again marauding searching parties had explored the old home, hoping to find the treasure, but all failed. Actuated by curiosity, we decided to do a little exploring ourselves. While we hesitated at the door, uncertain about entering, a sudden storm arose with the violence of a tempest. The old house shook, the weakened walls trembled dangerously, and the chandelier swayed with the increasing velocity of the wind. Suddenly a great crack appeared in the center of the ceiling and slowly widened. Even as we watched the gigantic candelabrum broke loose and came crashing down. The floor gave way beneath it and part of the fixture sank below the surface leaving the uppermost portion at floor level. Fascinated, we gazed at the sight that met our eyes. Lined around the circular iron flange at the top of the chandelier were bracelets, necklaces and rings — a wealth of glittering gems. The mystery of the Perry jewels was solved at last. Edward V. Fineran, ’43 Paradise Lost (Continued from Page Twenty two) Then, came the inevitable meeting with the top-sergeant. Well, maybe the stories about these men are a little exaggerated, but I still believe that to be a top-sergeant you have to have a stone heart and the loudest voice in the camp. The food was delicious, but I soon got tired of beans three times a day. Then I received my equipment which consisted of a rifle and a few other necessaries. These I was ordered to place neatly in a pack, and report for drill. Drilling in the hot sun in the parade ground with rifle and pack was the most gruesome of the labors at the camp. After a century our platoon was dismissed, and we prepared for supper by peeling a few hundred potatoes. We were, at this point, entitled to an hour of relaxation, but I had to fix my belongings in a locker, which contained one-half of the space I needed. But, “where there’s a will, there’s way,” and I really accomplished a packing miracle. As I was very tired, I prepared to retire for the night, but this was not to be. To make the day perfect, I was ordered to go on guard from ten to twelve. Well, I didn’t collapse as I thought I would, but it was then and then only that I realized how easy I had had it at home, and that I had lost paradise when I entered the Army. James McFadden, ’45 THE MIRROR Thirty

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body of water, but also a deep cleft, chasm, or abyss in the land. This latter meaning is now obsolete, but the early settlers apparently had the old significance in mind when they called the settlement “the Gulph” for it is a deep cleft or chasm in the hills. There is a stream flowing through the cleft called Gulph Creek. Years ago several mills were built close to the brook so as to utilize the water power, and the vicinity around the mills was named “Gulph Mills.” The place is mentioned in the diary of Dr. Albigence Waldo, who was surgeon of a Connecticut regiment during the Revolutionary War. He was evidently impressed by the forsaken character of the region and wrote: “The Gulph seems well adapted by its situation to keep us from pleasures and enjoyments of this world or being conversant with anyone in it. It is an excellent place to raise the ideas of the philosopher beyond the glutted thoughts and reflections of an Epicurean. It cannot be that our superiors are about to hold consultations with spirits infinitely beneath their order by bringing us into the utmost regions of the Terraqueous Sphere. No, it is for many good purposes that we are in Winter here.” Among these “good purposes,” he listed “plenty of wood and water, few families to steal from, warm hillsides on which to erect huts and an incentive toward heavenly mindedness because at the Gulph the soldier would be like to Jonah in the belly of the great fish.” It is a far cry from the time that Dr. Waldo wrote his jeremiad till now and today Gulph Mills is a quiet little settlement of about sixty families. The most prominent building is the Gulph Christian Church to which most members of the community belong. Those who live in the village enjoy a singularly beautiful bit of countryside, a rural Paradise unmarred by the encroachment of commerce and trade. Ballygomingo Lake BALLYGOMINGO LAKE, called the “Bal” for short, lies about a quarter of a mile northwest of the Gulph Mills P. and W. Station, in one of the many beautiful valleys formed by the Blue Ridge Mountains. The lake is oval in shape, the upper end being narrower than the rest of it, and is about a half a mile long and an eighth of a mile wide. The thick growth of trees that covers the hills isolates the water from the rest of the world to such a degree that a stranger passing by would never know it was there. It is hard to believe that this beautiful lake was once the site of a baseball diamond. Years ago, however, it was the only field of the kind for many miles around, and, because of this, most of the baseball games between neighboring districts were played here. As the sport grew in popularity, other districts built diamonds of their own and this one fell into disuse, until finally, the field and the upper valley were bought by a brewery. A dam was constructed at the lower end. where the batter’s dug-out had been, and then the watercourse of Gulph Mills Creek was turned from its original path so that it would empty into the lake and keep it supplied with fresh water. This was done for the purely commercial reason of procuring ice. When this need disappeared, the inhabitants of the Gulph Mills district and many others began to use the lake as a swimming pool, but Mr. Decker, the present owner, restricted the swimming to dwellers in Gulph Mills for he feared accidents. The cool freshness of the water provides an excellent escape from the heat of a summer afternoon. Though the lake is not equipped with any elaborate means of pleasure, a diving board, raft, and row boat provide means for Bernadette Clark, ’45 (Continued on Page Thirty-nine) Thirty-two THE MIRROR