The Deaths of a Father and Son
I have been inside the house on the hill twice. It overlooks the Susquehanna River. Both times, as I walked through the first floor rooms, up the two stairways, through the hallways, and into...
I have been inside the house on the hill twice. It overlooks the Susquehanna River. Both times, as I walked through the first floor rooms, up the two stairways, through the hallways, and into...
Jack took the shovel, pick, and pan, and we found a few fine specks of gold. They say we found some “colors.” –J. C. Hagenbuch; Sunday, July 23, 1905 PREFACE In November of 2018,...
This two-part article tells the fictional story and true facts about a bottle recently discovered in a privy in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. The year was 1875. Mr. Smith, from Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, had taken the train...
On January 2, 2018, I wrote an article about New Year’s Day memories from the early 1900s. Some of these remembrances were gleaned from the diary entries of my mother, Irene (Faus) Hagenbuch. Of...
The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree during the Christmas season is believed to have started in Germany during the 1500s. Our early Hagenbuch ancestors certainly knew and practiced this custom before coming to...
In 2014, I wrote about my memories of Christmas at our family church, Oak Grove, when I was a young boy. Though not quite as vivid, I also have some memories of when I...
Cemeteries are spooky places, right? After all, during Halloween, people set up plastic gravestones in their front yards to scare the trick-or-treaters. Shortly after arriving in California in 2008, the friend I was staying...
Recently, my father, Mark Hagenbuch, and I spent the day visiting a number of sites within Northampton County, Pennsylvania. We were there in search of Hagenbuch history and had high hopes of uncovering new...
My obsession with Johann Arndt’s Wahren Christentum (True Christianity) began in July of 2015 when my son, Andrew, wrote an article about Andreas Hagenbuch’s will. I learned at that time that Andreas had willed...
This is the fourth in a five part series about “the book” owned by Andreas Hagenbuch (b. 1715). At the end of Part 3, the immigrant Andreas Hagenbuch has died and willed the book,...