Christian M. Myers (1841-1917)
Christian Myers was born in Plumsteadville to Samuel and Susanna Myers. He was educated in public school and inherited the mechanical genius of his father. He married Eliza Beidler Stover in 1863 and soon after took over her father Samuel’s Flour Mill in Pipersville, today known as the Stover Myers Mill.
Christian served as millwright, dressing his own mill picks. He improved the mill several times with the latest machinery. In 1904, Christian finally retired and turned the business over to Norman L. Worman, the mill’s foreman.
Christian wrote daily in a diary. His notes do not focus on the strange and unusual moments of his life, but rather on his day-to-day activities, giving the reader a chance to walk a step in Christian's shoes. The weather was of highest import as it impacted when seeds were planted and harvests reaped. Through his brief notes we see how different chores were in 1905 from that of today: picking berries, husking, corn, butchering hogs, or making sauerkraut and cider. We also see the innovations of the day from the installation of the new trolley line to the plating of telephone poles.
January 20, 1905
"Isaac Renshimer and a whole possee of neighbors began to fill our ice house at the dam. Ice 6 in. thick...We had 7 men in the ice house to pack the ice. 16 men in all made only 6 1/2 hours of time."
January 21, 1905
"Isaac Renshimer plowed more than enough ice lose to fill the house by 9:30... Sam Walter cut ice loose as fast as they needed it. They worked from 8 am to 4 pm til when the house was full to 2 ft of square 60 cakes to a layer."
Many an Election Day was spent in celebration at the local taverns. This Photo was taken at the Ottsville Tavern following the November 5th, 1912 election of Woodrow Wilson as President.
In 1904, a 32-mile trolley line opened between Doylestown and Easton. For 45 cents one way, people could ride an electric streetcar on tracks along a dirt road (today's Route 611) that passed through Plumsteadville, Pipersville, Ottsville, Ferndale, Riegelsville and other country villages on the way to Easton.
May 15, 1905 and June 26, 1905
"I helped German tenant to splice all the wires and ordered him to straighten up the posts and stretch and fasten all the wires along the turnpike."
"We tore the old fence away entirely and planted 20 posts and put 4 wires on about half of it. My Tenant Mr. Crock helped about 7 hours faithful work. He and I planted 1/2 the posts and put 4 wires on that far."
Strawberry Pickers take a break on Jacob and Alice Greuup's farm in Springfield Township, from Images in America, Bucks County, by Kathleen Zingaro Clark.
July 10, 1905
"Delaware and Atlantic Telegraph and Telephone line man here to see at what figure I would allow to plant 16 poles and maintain the line. I told him I would take a dollar a pole. He said he would report it to the Company."
Christian Myer's (Stover Myers) Mill on Dark Hollow Road circa 1910, Tohickon creek runs along the back of these buildings. The last time it flooded was in September of 2021.
September 29, 1905
"Phares drilled Norman's wheat by 1 o'clock with Windegraves disk drill. 5 bushels wheat and 5 cut____?, 12 quarts Timothy seed. It was cut out fine in consideration of the enormous red weeds as high as a man which Phares dragged down with my heavy short linked chain."
sAuerkraut was made in the fall, by slicing cabbages into fine strips. Six to ten inches of the prepared cabbage were placed into a barrel with a handful of salt sprinkled on top. The process was repeated and As the barrels were being filled, they were tamped down with a wooden “stomper” in order to compact the layers.
Working to pack fresh dew corn from 10 am to 4pm, to ensure it would get to the philadelphia market within 18 hours after being harvested.
December 18, 1905
"Normans killed 6 hogs. 1 white one for us, 1 white and 2 blacks for themselves, and two black ones for Wolf. Norman, Jonas Gruver, Milt Gehr and Phares. They did it in 3 1/2 or four hours in fore noon. Mother helped take all fat and entrails."