Dear Dr. Scribblerthorn:
I was recently lounging about the house reading “A Heritage of Herbs” by Bertha Reppert. I came across a passage noting that a church had to pay Henry William Stiegel and his heirs one red rose forever yearly in exchange for providing land for the church.
I have been in this county for decades and never heard such a thing. Does this contract ring a bell? And, if so, is the rent still being paid?
Ryan Dodson
Lancaster
Dear Ryan,
Yes, the contract rings a bell (and fires a cannon). The rent is still being paid.
Stiegel (1729-85), an early ironmaster and glassmaker, founded Manheim and established his Elizabeth Furnace there. His finances regularly were in disarray. As he aged, he grew eccentric and claimed he was a German baron. He maintained a mansion and announced his arrival and departure by blasting a cannon.
To get to the point, Stiegel was devoted to the Lutheran faith. In 1772, Stiegel and his second wife, Elizabeth, conveyed to their fellow Lutherans a plot of land on the corner of Wolf and East High streets in Manheim on which to build a church.
In return, Stiegel asked for 5 shillings and, annually, a red rose — forever. The “forever rose” was forgotten for over a century, but the ceremony — the Festival of the Red Rose — was reinstated in 1892 and continues at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church on the second Sunday in June. No cannons are fired.
Dear Dr. Scribblerchute:
I am a former Lancaster resident. I have just finished reading a new book, “The Watchdog: How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win World War Two” by Steve Drummond.
On page 140 there is a reference to the Eagle Parachute Co. of Lancaster, but no other information about the company. Do you know anything about Eagle Parachute?
Phil Capp
Hingham, Mass.
Dear Phil:
The Eagle Parachute itself dates to the late 1930s. Richard H. Hart, of New Orleans, invented one of the first successful parachutes with features that allowed the operator to “steer” the parachute’s canopy.
The parachute’s most important function during the early going was as a crucial addition to the U.S. Forest Service’s efforts to combat fires. Firefighters flew close to a fire and parachuted down to fight the flames. Later, military personnel used Eagle Parachutes during World War II.
Switching gears for a moment, Follmer, Clogg & Co. began making umbrellas here in 1896 and also made parachutes during World War I. The large building at West King and South Mulberry, which now holds apartments, was part of that operation. Follmer, Clogg & Co. closed that plant and auxiliary buildings in 1939.
Meanwhile, using Hart’s design, the Eagle Parachute Co. had begun operating in New York in 1938 and moved to Lancaster the next year. It opened in the old silk mill building of Follmer, Clogg and Co. at the southeastern corner of the property along West Mifflin Street east of South Mulberry.
That building proved unsuitable for manufacturing parachutes, so Eagle moved into a warehouse at 424 N. Queen St. and leased space at 252 N. Queen St.
Eagle employees made thousands of parachutes for the armed services during World War II. When the war ended, so did the company.
Information for this column has been drawn exclusively from an article by David Gold published in the Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society in 1984.
Jack Brubaker, retired from the LNP | LancasterOnline staff, writes “The Scribbler'' column every Sunday. He welcomes comments and contributions at scribblerlnp@gmail.com.
