Mary Hepler Kehler
Lehigh street looking north in the early 1900s. Notice the trees along the walks. The steeple at left is the Lutheran Church then located on Lehigh avenue. Streets were unpaved and a horse and buggy is in the center of the picture.
      (Evening Herald, Frackville Edition, August 30, 1975)   The Frackville Star was first published in 1892 with U. Grant Mengel as the editor and P. F. Berdanier as associate editor. This weekly newspaper sold for one cent per copy or fifty cents a year, "payable in advance." It was published by the Star Publishing Co. on North Nice street.
      Many people in town considered this a "scandal sheet!" It was the cause of many marital quarrels between husband and wife because the editor believed in printing it as he saw it... or better still... printing who he saw with whom!! There aren't many of these newspapers around... they were either quickly read and discarded or destroyed completely!! In fact, I am told many husbands hid their copy before their wives could see it!
      The Power of the Press was evident even in 1902. Here is an article taken from one of the Frackville Star's.

THE ONE HORSE WATER CO. BALKS AGAIN
      "The consumers who use the water furnished by the Haupt Water Co. are obliged to depend on the generosity of their neighbors for water for domestic use, through the action of the water company, who turned off the supply, Wednesday morning, and in many cases even failed to notify their patrons that this was done. The people who depended entirely on this supply for all purposes are placed in a very peculiar position. Some have spent several hundred dollars on bath tubs, closets and hot water apparatus, and now find this expenditure for naught at a time when they most need it: many consumers paid their water rent in advance. The two men who compose the Water Co. claim that the pipes of the system are frozen and hence the turning off of the supply. This however is not believed by the majority of the people, who think the action of the Water Co. is one of spite because Council failed to take the plant from their hands. Be this true or be it not, there is great indignation expressed over it, and steps will at once be taken to secure a new supply of water. With this end in view Council will be asked to proceed at once and put in a municipal plant, entirely ignoring the present company in the matter. To a man up a tree it seems as if Council had two very effective methods at hand to force this one horse company to either vacate the streets of our borough or supply our citizens with water. The first and most effective remedy is to install a borough plant, and the second is to compel them to live up to the requirements of their original charter and furnish a good water service. If they can't do this, then compel them to vacate the streets, to which they have no legal right. Council has the remedy. Will they apply it?"
      When Mr. Mengel passed away the paper was taken over by Lyle Mengel. At this time it was two cents a copy or two dollars per year. The heading at this time read "Ye Only Paper Printed In Frackville"; "Ye Different Kind of Paper-Not Afraid To Print What We Know Is Right"; "Not Controlled By Ye Gang Or Boss".
      Residents of town rushed to buy this paper to see what new gossip was prevalent for that week! If you had arranged to have an advertisement in the paper that week and did not pay for it before the printing deadline, the ad was printed "upside down" and everyone quickly opened their papers to see "Who didn't pay for their ad this week?"

Go to the The Haupt Family biography which was originally printed with this tale (now located in the Old Timers section).