912 Mahantongo St - A House History

 

History of 912 Mahantongo St, Pottsville, Pennsylvania – The Former Home of Penn State Schuylkill Campus

 

I started this story because I wanted to know more about the house at 912 Mahantongo St. where myself and my Dad spent much time.  Dad was a professor of Math for Penn State from 1960 to 1978. The campus in Schuylkill county at the time was based at 912 Mahantongo St.  I spent time there as a young child waiting for Dad to take me home from school, mostly in the library.

  At first, I wanted just a photo of the building.  That proved my hardest task, but I did eventually find several and include them here.  During the search for the photos, I found many events mentioning the address of the house through newspaper articles.  The house became more interesting, the more I searched. In going down this particular rabbit hole of the 912 Mahantongo St house history, I have decided to keep going and investigate the interesting histories of both Gen. Henry Pleasants and Adm. Norman Farquhar, who lived at 912, as side stories.

 Here is where I will begin to intersperse information about some of the occupants of 912 Mahantongo St.

According to the book “Penn State Schuylkill – 75 years of transforming lives” by Rosanne Troy Chesakis, 2010, 912 Mahantongo St was built in 1874 by a famous Civil War General Henry Pleasants on a street that would become Pottsville’s own “Millionaires Row”, the place to live for the very prosperous in the 1800’s. 

     

  Pottsville Republican – Nov 9, 1995 – pg 3 

                                         

                                                                 Pottsville Republican – Feb 11, 1994 – pg 19

Henry Pleasants was born in 1833 in Buenos Aires, Argentina to an American John Pleasants and Sylvia Naveis of Argentina.  He lived there until he was 13 years when he came to Philadelphia to attend school and lived with his Quaker uncle Henry Pleasants and family.  Henry became a mining engineer and came to Pottsville in 1857 working for the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co.  He entered the Army in 1861 and became the Captain of Co C of the 48^th PA Infantry.

1850 Census Henry Pleasants living with his Uncle’s family in Philadelphia

 

1860 Census Henry Pleasants and first wife, Sarah Bannon, she died the same year – Pottsville, PA South Ward

Henry enlists in the Army in 1861, some say that so he would die and join his wife in eternity.

After the war, sometime between 1865 and 1867, Henry marries Ann Eliza Shaw. Their first child Emma is born in 1867.

1870 Census of General Henry Pleasants living in Pottsville, street unknown but in District 316, South East Ward

 

General Henry Pleasants is most famous for being the creator of the plan to tunnel under the Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia during the Civil War.  He used the 48^th Pa Volunteer Infantry regiment that was made up of Schuylkill county coal miners to accomplish his plan.  The plan was successful, but Burnside’s Union forces failed to use the advantage created by the explosion.  This became known as the Battle of the Crater, July 29,1864.

Photos below found at - https://longislandwins.com/columns/immigrants-civil-war/a-volcano-in-virginia-the-battle-of-the-crater/

 

Col Pleasants and men placing gunpowder

 

The explosion

                                                                                The crater in 1865

After the Civil War, the former general came back to Pottsville, regained his old job and in 1870 was working as the chief mining engineer for the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. He planned all of the shafts in the Pottsville area owned by his company and was thought of as a very skillful engineer. The General dies at age 47 on March 26, 1880, leaving a wife and 4 children as seen in the 1880 census.

 

1874 – 912 Mahantongo built by General Pleasants.

                                                              Pottsville Republican – Aug 6, 1994

 

 

                                                                  Atchison Daily – Mar 26, 1880 – pg 1

                                                            Gen. Henry Pleasants Obituary

                                                                     1880 Census of 912 Mahantongo St

                                 Pleasants family – wife and 4 children and 2 servants living there after Henry’s death

                                                                        

  

                                                           The Peninsula Times Tribune – May 29, 1926 – pg 1

Annie Shaw Pleasants Carpenter passes away in Palo Alto, California as the widow of Dr John Thomas Carpenter , her 2^nd husband. John T Carpenter died in 1899 in Pottsville. He was also listed on Henry Pleasants’ will as one of two property appraisers for the estate.

 

                                                                   Pottsville Republican – Feb 26, 2000 – pgs 1,2

                                                        General Pleasants connection to another early Pottsville family

Gen. Henry Pleasants mentioned above was married to an Annie E whose second husband was a Carpenter.

 You might think that this is the end of the Pleasants family story, but Henry and Annie had a son John. He has an interesting  story as well.  John was born in 1872 in Pottsville and did live at 912.  I do not know when John’s mother married John Carpenter, but by 1890, John Pleasants, age 18, and his brother James, age 15, were living at 212 Mahantongo St. alone.  The youngest Pleasants child, Hiram, was born in 1877 would have been age 13, but it is not known what happened to him. 

                                                           Eleventh census of Schuylkill County, PA – 1890

John may have received his education in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins University.  In the 1891 yearbook for the school, a John Pleasants is shown as a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Alumni Association. 

    

     

 

                                                             Lexington Herald Leader – Jan 14, 1898 – pg 6

  John was working in Philadelphia when he received the position in Boston in 1898.  By 1910, he is shown living in Baltimore and working as a church organist.  The Shaws were a Kentucky family.

                                                                             1910 Census – Baltimore

By 1914, John seems to have settled in Pittsburgh as the organist/choirmaster at St Peter’s Episcopal Church and also offered musical lessons as shown in this ad in the Pittsburgh  Post Gazette.

                                                                               Nov 29, 1914 – pg 10

 

                                        

                                                        Pittsburgh Post Gazette – Oct 1, 1916 – pg 52

                                                        Here John is shown with the St Peter’s Choir

 St Peter’s Episcopal in Pittsburgh also has an interesting chapter.  Built in 1851, the church originally stood at Grant and Diamond Sts.  About 1900, the church and grounds were bought by Henry Clay Frick. The building was dismantled brick by brick and moved to a new location at Forbes and Craft Aves.  The building was donated back to the congregation and that is where John Pleasants would have worked.  It was sadly demolished in 1989.

 Apparently, John enlisted during World War 1, as this article tells of his return.  I have found no evidence of this yet.

                                                                Pittsburgh Press – Jan 28, 1919 – pg 12

 I cannot find John in the 1920 census, but he does show up in 1930, living in Roselle, New Jersey and working as a musician for a church.

                            1930 Census

 

Daughter of Civil War General Henry Pleasants and John’s sister

                                                             Pottsville Republican – Jun 13, 1944 – pg 10

I could not find John in either the 1940 or 1950 censuses.  But he did come back to Pittsburgh and was living at 5105 Fifth Ave, Oakland/Shadyside area of Pittsburgh at the time of his death in 1954. He came home to Pottsville one last time to be buried in Baber Cemetery.

                                                         Pennsylvania Death Certificate

 

                                                            The Pittsburgh Press – Apr 7, 1954 – pg 30

 His address in his obituary and on his death certificate led me to look up it up and this is what I found.

5105 Fifth Ave Pittsburgh is the former Willis McCook mansion built in 1906-07. McCook was a lawyer for Henry Clay Frick and chairman of the Carnegie Steel Co.  This mansion is located on Pittsburgh’s “Millionaire’s Row”. The McCook’s gave up the home in the 1940’s due to high maintenance costs and back taxes.   At the time John lived there it had been divided up into apartments, along with the smaller mansion next to it. The proximity of the home to Carnegie Mellon University, made it a convenient place for many students to live in the 1960’s.   Among those students are some names that may be familiar. Shirley Jones, Andy Warhol, George Peppard and Albert Brooks all lived here when they were students at CMU.  After a disastrous fire in 2004, the mansion was saved and restored and served as a luxury hotel, Mansions on Fifth, since 2011. Nice article on this home’s history here - https://mansionsonfifth.com/history-mansions-on-fifth.php?fbclid=IwY2xjawIIiktleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHfmCzemK3HwHHIpLLC67fXxlZfVuoKZsma28uW14fzOkWJ_pe0A-Aopsdg_aem_qUprXVgqr1wfojbUS-whOQ

So that ends the story of the Pleasants family’s connection….except for one thing.  Whenever, I begin looking into someone like General Henry Pleasants, I also look at their ancestry.  First thing, I look at my tree to see if the surname is there.  Surprise, sometimes it is, and in this case I had one person named Pleasants in my tree.  She was Frances Pleasants, of Philadelphia, and was an ancestor of one of my husband’s DNA matches who has Wilkes Barre roots.  Now, Frances is not a blood relation to my husband but married a man who is.  A very distant cousin that I had to go way way back to see the common ancestor.  But, I wonder if Frances is related to Henry?  Sure enough they were and are a close 2^nd cousin to each other, sharing the same Pleasants great grandparents.    So this and the Pittsburgh connection made this an interesting side story to investigate.

 

So back to 912 Mahantongo St.

 

By 1886 the building was a Boarding House owned by the Hawley sisters, Amanda & Rebecca

                                                         Pottsville Republican – Jan 28, 1886 – pf 4

                                                         Pottsville Republican – Jul 17, 1888 – lot sold

A death at 912 Mahantongo St

                                                           Pottsville Republican – Feb 7, 1891 – pg 4

 

The 1890 census is not available to know what happened to Mrs Annie Pleasants.

1900 Census of 400 Mahantongo St – Hawley sisters are the residents – the sisters ran a boarding house here also

 

  

Pottsville Republican – Aug 10, 1901 - Death of the Hawley sisters brother  

   
                                                                        

                                             Pottsville Republican – Sep 20, 1902 - Death of Rebecca Hawley

                         

                                                                                                Pottsville Republican Jan 5, 1931 – Death of Amanda Hawley

 

1902- Admiral Norman H Farquhar retires from the US Navy and begins living at 912 Mahantongo St. Possibly with his brother Guy.  He would die in 1907 and his brother, Guy and family, are shown to live at 912 in 1910. 

 

Pottsville Republican – Jan 27, 1996 – pg 22 from an article about some of Pottsville’s historical figures and where they lived.

                                                                 The Miners Journal – Oct 14, 1899 – pg 1

1910 Census of 912 Mahantongo St – Farquhar family are the residents – Guy Farquhar is the brother of Admiral Norman H Farquhar also of Pottsville.

 

 Admiral Norman H Farquhar had a very illustrious career in the US Navy.  While he was born in Pottsville, once he was in the Navy he did not spend much time there. When he died, he had a winter residence in Washington DC and a summer residence in Jamestown, Rhode Island where died.  He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

                                                             Norman Farquhar about 1865

 

                              Pottsville Republican – Mar 4, 1899 – pg 1                                                

                                                                     Pottsville Republican – Jul5, 1899 – pg 1

Article written by Walter S Farquhar, the Admiral’s nephew, a long time writer and sports editor for the Pottsville Republican

 

Guy Farquhar, was a prominent attorney and President of the Schuylkill Trust Co. Norman S Farquhar is the Admiral’s son.

  
                                The Miner’s Journal – Sep 9, 1909 – pg 4

 

 In 1915, 912 Mahantongo sold by the Frances E Farquhar estate To Mrs A.C. Milliken – Frances was Guy Farquhar’s wife, Guy passed away in 1914.

                                                                   Pottsville Republican – Apr 7, 1915 – pg 1

 

                   1920 Census of 912 Mahantongo St – Milliken family after Mrs Milliken's husband passes.

 

                            Pottsville Republican – Sep 10, 1931 – pg 6 -  Mrs Cullum is a daughter of Mrs Milliken

      

                 Pottsville Republican – Aug 30, 1937 – pg 6 - Mollie Cullum is granddaughter of Mrs Milliken   

                                         

The Milliken family originally lived in a mansion built on Greenwood Hill in the early 1800’s. Later owned by the Leader Nursing Home.  In 1918, the mansion was used as a hospital during the Spanish flu epidemic. Sometime before the 1920’s they left the home. Later a hospital was built on a Milliken property on Mauch Chunk St. and named the A.C.Milliken Hospital.  The name transferred to a new hospital built on East Norwegian St and later named the Good Samaritan Hospital which is still operating today under the Lehigh Valley Health System. 

A.C. Milliken was the husband of Alice Milliken, who as a widow, lived at 912 Mahantongo St. He came to Pottsville in 1890 as the general manager of the Pottsville Iron & Steel Co.  He died in 1905.                                  

The Miners Journal – Dec 13, 1905 – pg1                                               

                                                                 Pottsville Republican – Jun 11, 1926 – pg 10

  

                                 Milliken Estate sells 912 Mahantongo to Charles Dietz to be used as a funeral home

                                                             Pottsville Republican – Aug 1, 1942 – pg 2

 

                                                                             Dietz Funeral Home

                                                              Pottsville Republican – Aug 3, 1942 – pg 6

The Penn State Chapter

                                            Dietz Funeral Home purchased to be leased to Penn State University

                                                       Pottsville Republican – Jul 22, 1948 – pg 1

 

                                                                   Lot next to 912 Mahantongo St bought

                                                               Pottsville Republican - Jul 30, 1948 – pg 10

                                                                     

                                                                    Tax exemption for 912 Mahantongo St

                                                                Pottsville Republican - Aug 28, 1948 – pg 12

                                                                Improvements made to 912 Mahantongo St

                                                                Pottsville Republican - Sep 30, 1948 – pg 17

 

                                                                             PSU - 912 Mahantongo St 

                                                         Pottsville Republican - Sep 28, 1956 – pg 24

 

                                                                                    Penn State Librarian

                                                             Pottsville Republican – Oct 25, 1960 – pg 5

My Dad, John F Heacock, was a math professor at Penn State Schuylkill from 1960- 1978.  His office was in 912 Mahantongo St.  I attended elementary school at the St John’s Parish school which was located across the street and up the 10^th St hill.  I would very often wait for him to finish office hours or classes in the library at 912 Mahantongo St.  Miss Devendorf would allow me to help her in the library while I waited. Library would have been on first floor to left of front door as looking at building, It extended to the back of the building. Very fond memories of this time.

 

                                                                 John Heacock new teacher at Penn State

                                                                        Pottsville Republican – Sep 2, 1960

                                             Penn State plans move to Rest Haven in Schuylkill Haven, PA

                                                         Pottsville Republican - Apr 20, 1962 – pg 8

Pottsville Republican - Jan 19, 1966 – pgs 1 & 2

Two great happenings in Pottsville. A green light to start renovations on Rest Haven property to become Penn State Schuylkill.   The planetarium benefited not just Pottsville High School, but other schools in the area.  I was fortunate to be able to have field trips there getting exposure to Astronomy and star gazing.

 

 

                           New Penn State campus to be ready for fall classes

 

                                       Pottsville Republican – Feb 26, 1966 – pg 1

                      

                                               912 Mahantongo St for sale again after Penn State makes move

                                                               Pottsville Republican – Jan 10, 1967 – pg 23

 

                                                                     912 Mahantongo St sold to John Tropp

                                                                Pottsville Republican - Mar 2, 1968 – pg 12

                           10 years later, 912 Mahantongo St suffered a fire and the building was eventually torn down.

                                                              Pottsville Republican – Sep 5, 1978 -pg 27

 

 

Some other articles and photos

 

                                                                       Evening Herald – Nov 9, 1995

 Pottsville Republican – Aug 6, 1994

                                                                 Pottsville Republican – Aug 6, 1994

PSU The Call – Apr 18, 1974

 

     

Pottsville Republican – Nov 9, 1995 – pgs 1,3 - Plans to build a new library at Penn State Schuylkill

 

 I did this story mostly for myself, to preserve the history of some of my personal memories. But I hope that it was as interesting to you as it turned out to be for me.  912 has a rich history of war heroes, boarding house proprietors, a funeral director, a musician, teachers and students. From millionaire homes to a college campus.  For me, I truly believe that the beginnings of my love of reading and history are right here in 912.  

 UPDATE Feb 25, 2025:  Sadly, after I wrote this story, Penn State announced the Schuylkill Campus is on a list of 12 branch campuses that may be closed permanently due to financial reasons and decreasing enrollment.  The chosen campuses will not close before the end of the 2027 academic year giving 2 year program students the ability to graduate in 2027.  A final decision is expected by May 9, 2025. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/penn-state-university-closing-branch-satellite-campuses-pennsylvania/

https://www.wtae.com/article/penn-state-satellite-campuses-closing/63920618

 

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