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We Notice That by Ben MeyersThe Question for Today: Where is (Was) Swampoodle?
Natives Want to Know
Dear Ben:
Do you know the exact locale of a place once called Swampoodle? Was it up the east end of Kish Valley? That is, if it even actually existed.
Aunt Annie (Ramer) Smithers claimed that she as well as [her siblings] Howard, Emma, and Carrie were all born in Swampoodle. But none could verify the exact location.
It may even have been farther distance, anywhere in Mifflin, Union, yes, even Blair or Schuylkill Counties because Gramps Joe Ramer worked at clearing off the virgin timber in all those places.
Mrs. Alice (nee Ramer) Mickey sent me some newspaper pictures of a sawmill supposed to be located in Swampoodle. Gramps Joe, then aged and blind, wearing a broad-brimmed Amish-type hat, with full beard and cane, was sitting on a log near the sawmill, while playing around were some kids. Some mountain men and mules were there, too.
Won’t you see what you can find out about Swampoodle, as Aunt Carrie Bobb, near 92, wants to know where she was born for sure?
Sincerely,
Lynne O. Ramer
Who Can Help Them?
Dear Lynne: Personally we can’t be of much help in answering your questions. However, maybe some of the WNT readers can give an assist. If so we’d be glad to hear from them.
The very names itself implies Swampoodle was in or close by a swamp terrain—consisting of soft, wet, spongy ground. The handiest such place we know of in this immediate vicinity is of course Bear Meadows. There the land is boggy and unfit for growing much else than trees, bushes, flowers and suchlike. Also such a place isn’t so good for pasturage. And of course unsuited for human habitation, unless a person was to build his dwelling on piles, which sometimes is done.
Anybody know where Swampoodle is—or was?
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We Notice That by Ben MeyersYes, Virginia, There Are (or were) Swampdoodles
Several Turn Up
Yes, Virginia, there is indeed a Swampoodle!
At least, there was a Swampoodle, a flourishing little community. And it may be still existent.
Not only one such place, but actually three, have been reported by as many different readers.
This was all in response to Lynne Ramer’s yelp-For-Help appearing in the WNT column lately.
Tom Harbeson of Milroy, our ex-District Forester for the state, says that the Swampoodle he is familiar with was located in Buffalo Township, Union County.
“Some of my folks were born in the village known as Forest Hill,” says Tom. “Near by Forest Hill was another settlement. It was called Swampdoodle because it was situated on low, swampy ground.
“There wasn’t much to say in favor of Swampoodle as a site for a village to be located upon, but some folks actually did just that. One family I remember bore the name of Mook. There were quite a few members of the clan. I don’t know whether it is called Swampoodle any more.”
Pinpointing the locale as being in Union Country by Tom Harbeson fits in neatly with this having possibly been the place where Gramps Joe Ramer lived for a while when some of his children were born.
The old photo of Joe Ramer at his cabin quite definitely fixes the location as Union County and that was where he had lumbered on the virgin timber. Lynne Ramer’s Aunt Carrie Bobb could well have been born there, also Annie, Howard and Emma.
George Zeigler tells us he remembers the time when Joe Ramer hauled timber off the mountains in the far-eastern portion of new Lancaster Valley. That ties in with the general direction of the Swampoodle mentioned by Tom Harbeson as being in Union County.
George remembers there was a settlement in that section of New Lancaster. he isn’t too sure of its name, but it was a swampy, spongy place and might have been the site of another Swampoodle.
Another Swampoodle is reported by Jim McCafferty, ex-hotelman. However, its locale is too far distant in another direction to have been the one the Ramers are interested in.
However, Jim’s report verifies the belief that not only was Swampoodle once used as the name of a certain location, but it had a more general usage to describe sections that might be of a boggy nature.
In other words, Swampoodle was for real, not just something dreamed up.
“I remember Swampoodle well,” says Jim McCafferty. “It was when I was living in Philadelphia. The place was situated at a spot near 13th and Oxford Streets.
“The distinguishing feature of that Swampoodle was an old cemetery at a higher-than-average spot. It was some five feet higher than the street level and there was a fence around it. My aunt told me that the old name for the area was Swampoodle.
“I don’t suppose it’s still known as Swampoodle. Doubtless it was finally taken into the corporate limits of the city of Philadelphia, just exactly what has happened to various other areas which were absorbed into the city as its limits were pushed further outward.”
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| Joseph S. Ramer and his second wife Rachel Barbara Reed |
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