This Was Hatboro-Horsham, 1927

From the Public Spirit, Week of July 21-27, 1927

Hatboro council considers sewer system -

The building of a sewer system, which will cost the residents of Hatboro an estimated $200,000 but which will be the most beneficial improvement the borough could have, is being contemplated at the present time by the town council.

This question, which has been unofficially discussed for several years, was formally opened in the meeting of Hatboro Borough Council held in the town hall Tuesday night.

An idea of the expense of a sewage system for Hatboro was gleaned from a communication from the borough of Quakertown which has a similar system installed, giving the approximate cost of their plant and mains, and the mileage of pipe laid.

Although Hatboro has had no special difficulty with its sanitary condition, it is felt that the time has arrived for a better method of sewage disposal than the old-fashioned dry well. The town has grown so rapidly within the last decade that a modern sewer system is imperative in order to protect the health of the borough's residents and the residents of the surrounding country.

An unofficial report has been received that the State Department of Health has been frowning upon Hatboro's method of sewage disposal for some time, and that drastic action will be taken in the near future, unless the town takes steps to remedy the condition in the meantime.

Although no definite action was taken at Tuesday night's meeting, a committee of council was appointed to make a preliminary survey of the situation.

Pitcairn Field busier after Lindbergh's flight -

Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh and his epoch-making trans-Atlantic flight [on May 20-21, 1927] have increased the public's confidence in the safety and future worth of the airplane one hundred percent, according to officials of the Pitcairn Corporation.

Since Lindy's oceanic hop, an unprecedented interest in the heavier-than-air mode of travel has been evidenced. The timid public is awakening to the fact that a man can go up in "one of those infernal flying machines" and come back to earth in the same hale and hearty condition in which he left it.

"Lucky Lindy's" stimulating effect on the aeronautic game has been felt with the fullest force at the country's flying fields. At the Pitcairn aerodrome in Hallowell, all records for passenger flights have been broken during the past two weeks.

An enlarged enrollment at the Pitcairn aviation school, conducted at the Hallowell field and at the factory in Bryn Athyn, has also resulted. The Pennepack Lodge and Tea House at Hatboro, a favorite with the Pitcairn flyers, is filled to capacity with students who are boarding there during their training.

The Pitcairn Field is operated in much the same interests as Lindbergh made his flight--that of demonstrating to the public the practicability and safety of the airplane as a means of travel. Their record of thousands of passengers carried and hundreds of thousands of miles traveled without a single major accident, has done much to further the cause of aviation in this section of the country.

Jim Ray, chief pilot for Pitcairn Aviation, Inc., flew the first of the company's new air-mail planes over a marked course at 135 miles an hour this week in test flights at the Pitcairn Field. And with the ship carrying a load weighing 600 pounds, he took off again and maintained the same high speed. The new plane is one of nine under construction at the Pitcairn factory for the air-mail service between New York and Atlanta.

Editor's note - The federal government purchased Pitcairn Field in 1942 and transformed it into the in 1943.

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Hatboro police arrest joy-riders -

Arraigned before Squire [Magistrate] Reuben Hockman at Hatboro Monday night, six youths who were at first believed to be auto thieves, proved to be joy-riders, carousing about the country in a car owned by one of the young men's fathers.

The six were jailed by Hatboro Chief of Police Kramer after a battle with the Chief and Special Officer Winner on Sunday night. It was necessary for the police to use "jacks" on two of the party, who were taken to the Abington Hospital for treatment before being placed in a cell at the Abington police headquarters.

The six men were arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct after they had created a disturbance at a home on Jacksonville road. An examination of the party and the car disclosed no license for the driver, and the car tags were not issued for the car bearing them. The men gave evasive answers when questioned by the Chief, and when he attempted to place them in the local jail, the fight started.

The men gave their names as Daniel Collins, William Kirklin, R. Allard, Thomas Nolan, Frank Collins, and John Fagan, all of Philadelphia. Kirklin was the driver of the machine.

At the hearing Monday night, the father of young Kirklin was present and proved ownership of the car. Fagan and Collins, the two who resisted arrest and were injured in the fight, were fined $10 and costs each by Hockman, and costs were placed on the other defendants.

Judge approves adoption of Horsham girl -

After a hearing at Norristown this week, Judge Holland, of the Montgomery County Orphans' Court, handed down a decree granting a petition filed by Robert A. and Elsie J. Lennon for the adoption of Helen Frankenfield as their own child.

She shall hereafter, as the decree directs, be legally known as Helen Lennon and shall have all the legal rights and privileges of an actual child of the adoptive parents.

The child, now three years old, was born in Horsham township, her parents being Edward R. Frankenfield and Mary H. Frankenfield, the latter dying May 29. Since the death of her mother, the child has lived with the petitioners.

The father has five other children to support and, it is represented, being only a manual laborer, is unable to support them. The adopting father is engaged in the paint, glass and varnish business in Philadelphia.

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YERKES HARDWARE STORE, 56 So. York Road, Hatboro, Pa....Everything in a Complete Hardware Store. Full Stock Reasonably Priced....Store open Friday and Saturday evenings.

Hatboro and Horsham Happenings -

There have been quite a number of heat exhaustion cases in Hatboro and vicinity since the advent of the hot weather, and also other diseases attributable to excessive heat and humidity.

Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Gunagan and family, of Horsham, enjoyed a trip to Riverview Beach on Tuesday.

Howard Yerkes has sold his double house on New street, Hatboro, to John B. Smith, Sr., with possession the first of September.

The Horsham Athletic Association was defeated, 2-1, by New Britain on the latter's grounds on Saturday.

An old clothes rack from the Col. Robert Loller house in Hatboro has been given to the collection of the Mercer Museum at the Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown. Another new exhibit is a side-saddle belonging to the grandmother of Eugene Blair, of Hatboro.

Chalkley Stackhouse, of Horsham, who had a hand badly injured while operating a reaper on fhe Frank Jones farm on Jarrettown road, is now in the Abington Hospital for treatment.

Mr. and Mrs. Howard Weikel, of Hatboro, are spending the week at Hotel Clarke, Atlantic City, N.J.

The Ladies' Aid met at Mrs. John Haag's in Horsham on Tuesday night. The proceeds of the Lawn Fete, held on the meeting house grounds, were $86.

Franklin Allen, of Hatboro, has accepted a position with the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, having resigned his position with the Reading Railway Company.

Mrs. George Zeitler, of Horsham, is recovering from an attack of ptomaine poisoning.

John Christman, of Hatboro, is at the Citizens Training Camp at Fort Howard, Maryland, for his first year. Louis Searight is with the cavalry at Fort Myers, Virginia, for his second year of Citizens Training Camp.

Owing to the many complaints by residents of Horsham and others of the unsightliness of the rubbish heaps dumped on the old quarry property on the Hatboro-Horsham pike, the owner, Mrs. Ella Jackson, has determined to stop all future dumping on the place. To this end, she has secured the cooperation of the Lower Horsham Civic Association to prevent future trespass.