By Alvin L. Leisey, Jr. and Donald E. Leisey
Alvin L. Leisey, Sr. (7/10/94 – 2/17/73), our father, was born in Reinholds, PA. He was the sixth of seven children born in Cocalico Township, Lancaster County, PA to George (3/24/1857 – 7/20/1930) and Amanda Nagel (7/11/1856 – 11/8/1946) Leisey. His siblings were Thomas (1879 – 1962) – never married, lived with his parents and worked in a hat factory; Susan (1880 – 1956), married Harry Lutz and had two children; Elizabeth “Lizzie” (1883 – 1916), married Harry Weider (Lizzie lost her life in a house fire) and had three children; Amos (married Stella Dornan), no children, Amos worked for the Reading Railroad as a Station Master, and was an Assemblyman from Chester County in the Pennsylvania Legislature for 30 years; Elias married Clara Mae Frankfort, had seven children and was the Station Master for the Reading Railroad in Ephrata, PA; and Robert “Bob” married Pearl Leidenberger, mother’s sister, and had one step-child. Uncle Bob worked as a brakeman in Birdsboro for the Reading Railroad. With the exception of Uncle Tom, Dad, Uncle Amos, Uncle Elias, and Uncle Bob all worked for the Reading Railroad. Dad and his siblings grew up and worked on the family farm in Reinholds, PA. Dad attended Sunnyside School and West Stevens School, both one-room schools. He left school after the eighth grade. Many members of the Leisey family, including Al Jr., have been Masons.
Ethel Marie Leisey (2/26/03 – 8/31/88), our mother, was born in Pottstown, PA. She was the sixth of nine children born to George Washington Leidenberger (6/17/1871 – 2/6/1951), a paper hanger, painter and cabinet maker and Mary Ellen Wagner Leidenberger (6/26/1870 – 7/13/1931), a dress maker. It is interesting that just like Mother had dropped her first name, Ethel, and used her middle name, Marie, many of her siblings also went by their middle names i.e., Ella May “May” (6/15/1892 – 11/7/1962) married Edward Robert Hatfield and had seven children; Edna Pearl “Pearl” (7/22/1894 – 12/1/1962) married Robert Leisey, dad’s brother, had one child; Ernest LeRoy “Roy” (8/23/1896 – 3/31/1951) married Ellen Swenson – they had four boys; Andora Ruth “Ruth” (12/17/1898 – 1/28/1958) married Herbert Levengood – had one child; Iva Irene “Ivy” (2/16/1901 – 1/23/1997) married Robert “Curly” Albright – they had one child; Cora Elizabeth “Doll” (5/5/1904 – Unknown); George Washington (8/17/1905 – 11/5/1905), Leonard Harold “Leonard” (August 11, 1909-September 28, 1965) -never married; and Charles Reuben “Bob” (3/6/1912 – 11/3/1978) – married Phoebe and had one son, divorced Phoebe, and married Verna.
Alvin, Jr., reminisces that he would accompany Mother and Dad to Grandfather and Grandmother Leisey’s farm in Reinholds, PA. They would take the train because Dad could get free passes due to working on the Reading Railroad. Grandfather Leisey would meet the family at the train station in Rheinholds in his fancy “Stage Coach” pulled by from two to four horses. Mother, who was a large lady, would tip the stagecoach to the side when she would get on board and Grandfather found this very amusing. The grandparents’ farm house, had a porch around the entire house. The Leiseys were Reformed Lutherans.
Grandmother Leisey (Amanda) grew up following the Mennonite Religion, but became a Reformed Lutheran when she married our grandfather, George. Grandmother Leisey told Alvin Jr. that as a child she could hear the cannons during the Civil War and would tell Alvin, Jr. stories relating to the battle of Gettysburg. According to Alvin Jr., she probably lived within 20 miles of Gettysburg Battle Field, near the Susquahanna River and close to Colombia, PA. Grandmother and Grandfather Leisey, in addition to raising their own family, took care of Harry, Carrie and Clayton Weider because their mother, Elizabeth died when their house burned down. Grandmother Leisey (Amanda) died on November 8, 1946 at the age of 90.
Grandfather Leisey (George) died on July 20, 1930, at the age of 73. Grandfather and Grandmother Leisey’s bodies are interred at the Muddy Creek Congregational Church’s Cemetery in Reinholds, PA. According to Al Jr., our grandfather was a “happy go lucky” guy who had a large number of friends. When he died there were 300-400 people at a dinner at the Reinholds Fire Company in his honor after the funeral. The Leisey Farm was subsequently sold to Aunt Susan and her husband, Harry Lutz.
After completing the eighth grade, Dad left home and worked at various odd jobs before taking a job as a telegraph operator with the Reading Railroad Company. In 1917, Dad joined the Army to fight in World War 1. It was a war that lasted four years and caused the deaths of millions of combatants and laid waste to much of Europe. Dad advanced through the ranks and was given a battlefield promotion to sergeant in Battery “F” – 310th Field Artillery. He was assigned to the Field Artillery unit because as a farmer, he was accustomed to managing teams of mules and horses. As a result, he was given the job of managing a team of 20 mules that were used to pull the cannons. Even though he only went to the eighth grade in school, and did not have the opportunity to take courses in geometry and trigonometry, he was able to calculate the coordinates in firing the cannons. Dad fought the Germans in the battles at Belleau Wood and Aragone Forest in France. He was gassed with mustard gas during these battles that had an impact on him both physically and mentally throughout his life.
After returning home from WW I, Dad worked as a riveter on the Peace Bridge at Niagara Falls that joined the United States and Canada. He then returned to the job he had prior to entering the Army as telegraph operator for the Reading Railroad at St. Peters, PA. St. Peters is near Pottstown, PA, where our mother lived. Dad and Mother met and were married in 1922. After their wedding, Mother and Dad moved to Walnut Street in Birdsboro, PA, where Dad accepted a job with the operating train side of the Reading Railroad. Dad took the job during a major labor dispute between the Reading Railroad and the union. Mother worked at Reed’s knitting mill in Birdsboro, making men’s stockings from 1930-32.
Alvin Lewis Leisey, Jr., was born in Birdsboro, PA on May 10, 1923. When Alvin Jr. was 6 months old, Dad and Mother moved to Coatesville, PA where Dad had been transferred by the Reading Railroad. After a short period of time the family moved back to Birdsboro because Mother was very unhappy with the move. She did not know anyone and felt very isolated living in an apartment in Coatesville.
On September 25, 1925, Melvin Thomas Leisey was born in Birdsboro. His middle name was taken from Dad’s oldest brother, Thomas. Melvin went by the nickname of Meb because he had a childhood speech impediment and could not pronounce Melvin.
Robert Bruce Leisey was born on October 2, 1929, at 716 East Second St., Birdsboro, PA. Bob was named after Dad’s youngest brother, Robert. Bob’s middle name was taken from a pharmacist in Birdsboro whose last name was Bruce.
Donald Eugene Leisey was born on September 23,1937, at 716 E. 2nd Street, Birdsboro, PA toward the end of the Great Depression. Don’s middle name was taken from Eugene Shirk, a coach of Al Jr. at Birdsboro High School, and later a long time coach and athletic director at Albright College, and a former mayor of Reading, PA.
The Great Depression had a devastating impact on our family. From 1931-37, Dad worked on the “extra board” for the Reading Railroad, which meant he only worked when the railroad needed him. He had to work one day a month to keep his seniority. His brother, Bob and other friends from the railroad would call in sick one day each month so Dad could get in his required day of work. In order to support the family, Dad would work for farmers in the fields picking potatoes, tomatoes and helping with other farming needs for money and/or crops. Alvin, Jr., relates that he was making more money delivering papers and setting up pins in a bowling alley than Dad was making working in the fields. Al Jr. said that Dad cut down a large black oak tree, 10 feet in diameter, that was threatening to fall onto the house at 716 East Second St. in Birdsboro. As a reward for cutting down the tree, the landlord forgave the rent on the house for two years. The wood was chopped into logs for the stove by Al Jr. and Meb. The tree was estimated to be 368 years old and Al Jr. relates how ecstatic he and Meb were after they had finally completed cutting the wood.
In 1938, the family was forced to leave their rented house at 716 East Second St. in Birdsboro because they were many months behind on the rent. The family moved to Church Hill, near Honey Brook, PA. The house at Church Hill had no central plumbing (outside toilet), heating (fire place) or running water (spring house). Mother contracted rheumatoid arthritis and had to maneuver around the house with one leg on a chair. Al Jr. feels her arthritis was relieved because of the purity of the water from the spring-house at Church Hill. There were no school buses during that time and Al Jr. would have to walk to and from Honey Brook High School each day, which was about 4 miles away. Some days he got lucky and a milk truck would take him to school on its way to the creamery in Honey Brook. Meb and Bob attended a one-room school-house at the top of Church Hill. It is interesting to note that Dad, Mother and Meb as well as Uncle Amos and Aunt Stella are all buried in the St. Marks Episcopal Church’s Cemetery overlooking the Church Hill property where we lived. After a few years, the family moved to a house in Supplee about two miles from Honey Brook. Again, the house did not have indoor plumbing or running water. The family moved to Honey Brook in 1942.
In 1941, Alvin Jr. graduated from Honey Brook High School and enrolled at Penn State University where he studied for a year. On December 7, 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, WW II began and Alvin enlisted in the Marine Corp. where he was wounded on Engebi Island in the Eniwetok Atoll, Guadacanal, and other Marshall Islands. He was shot by a sniper and on another occasion, was blown out of a foxhole. Al Jr. was awarded a Purple Heart for his injuries.
Meb joined the Navy shortly afterwards and was sent to the European campaign. He was on an LST during the Battle of Normandy at Omaha Beach. Meb would relate the loss of LSTs and devastation and death of military personnel happening all around his LST as it was taking equipment, supplies and personnel to the beach-front. Fortunately, Meb and the crew on his LST, performed their duties and escaped the area unscathed.
The family would look forward to receiving V-mail or censored mail (mail was read by officers and anything that might jeopardize the war effort, such as where the troops were located, was inked over so it couldn’t be read) from Alvin Jr. and Meb. On Sunday evenings Mom, Dad, Bob and Don would huddle around the radio, listening to Gabriel Heater to get an update on the war and try to determine where in the world Al and Meb might be located.
The family moved to Broad Street, Honey Brook in 1942. The family was thrilled to find a place to rent that had central heating, running water and indoor plumbing. The downstairs had a bedroom, living room, dining room and kitchen. The upstairs had three bedrooms and bathroom. All the rooms were very spacious in comparison to what the family had in previous houses. The house also had a full attic that was used for storage and a full cellar where our coal was stored and the furnace was located. It was always fun going to the cellar especially during hot, humid, summer days, because it was cool, but had a musty smell.
In addition there was a large barn that housed our pigs, a large chicken coup where we raised chickens and an acre of vegetable garden where Dad would raise string beans, sweet corn, peas, lima beans, red beets, cabbage, lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, etc. The “truck patch” was a real supplement to the family income. Not only did we consume most of the vegetables, we also sold vegetables throughout the community.
Brother Bob made a basketball court on the second story of the barn, that previously was used for storing grain and hanging tobacco, so Don could practice basketball with his friends during the cold and snowy winters.
Dad was a hard worker. After working for eight hours as a freight conductor on the railroad in Coatesville, Dad would come home and work the truck patch. He prepared the soil with hand tools after he hired someone to plow the field with a tractor. He worked the truck patch in the extremely hot, humid summers and would come into the house after he was finished with his clothes soaking from perspiration. Dad instilled his work ethic in his sons.
Mother boiled and sterilized the jars and lids for canning on a cast iron, cook stove. She would cook, prepare and place in jars, the vegetables grown in the truck patch and the fruits from the cherry and apple trees which were then stored in the cellar. She also made and bottled grape juice from the grape arbor. Mother worked over the hot cook stove during the hottest and most humid days of the summer. The food she canned lasted most of the winter, and was another way of reducing the family’s overhead because we did not have to purchase those items at the store.
Don remembers as a young boy sitting on the back porch shelling peas and lima beans and taking the stems off of string beans. He enjoyed raw vegetables and when Mother went inside the house, he would eat a handful of the shelled vegetables like they were candy. He said the raw peas were his favorite and he could not get enough of them, much to his Mother’s dismay. Don would hide a salt-shaker in his pants when he worked in the truck patch, and would pick, salt and eat a ripe tomato or two. Potatoes and red beets were brushed off, cut and eaten raw.
Each year after the pigs grew to the proper size, they were taken to the local butcher, who would butcher the pigs for a portion of the meat. Dad also sold off some of the better cuts of meat. Almost every part of the pig was used for food. Some of the by-products were: pickled pigs feet, pickled tripe, sausage, bacon, and scrapple. Nothing was better than a meal of pork and sauer kraut served with onion mashed potatoes on a blustery, windy, snowy and cold winter day!
The chicken pen supplied the family with eggs. Every morning we would feed the chickens and collect their eggs. Each Saturday, Bob and Don would have to choose a chicken, chop off its head, dress it and put it into boiling water to pick the feathers prior to giving it to Mother to prepare for Sunday Dinner.
Don remembers that one of the chores during the winter was to go to the cellar and sprout the bushels of potatoes. By sprouting the potatoes, it gave longevity to the potatoes and prevented them from rotting. Mother also stored the sauer kraut she made in crocks in the cellar and warned all of us, including Dad, not to eat the sauer kraut until it aged properly. Despite her warnings, we all found reasons to go to the cellar to sneak a hand full of sauer kraut. It was a tradition to open the sauer kraut and have it for dinner with pork and mashed potatoes on New Year’s Day.
Mother was a very good cook. She was very resourceful and creative in preparing our meals on the wrought iron “cook stove” fueled by wooden logs or coal. Potatoes were one of family’s staple foods. The potatoes were grown in the truck patch and stored in the cellar. Mother would prepare and serve numerous different potato dishes at our meals – fried, boiled, mashed, mashed with onions, potato cakes, baked, scalloped, etc. We even made mashed potato sandwiches. No leftover food was ever thrown away. Mother could always find a use for them in a future meal. Nothing ever was wasted and our parents made sure we ate everything on our plates. Some of mother’s greatest dishes were: chicken pot pie, filled noodles, chow-chow, pork and pork and sauer kraut, soccatash, mush, and scrapple. She always prepared wonderful desserts, such as shoo-fly pie, pineapple up-side-down cake, raisin pie, rhubarb pie, rice pudding, bread pudding, lemon morangue and lemon sponge pies, and many other very tasty desserts.
The piano was a major source of entertainment along with the radio and a hand-cranked Victrola. While living in Birdsboro, Dad bought Mother a new Baldwin piano. According to Al Jr., we were one of a very few families to have a piano. Mother never took piano lessons and “played by ear,” meaning if she heard a song, she could play it on the piano. Friends and family would gather around the piano and sing while Mother played, especially during the Christmas season. While living in Birdsboro, Mother played the piano in an orchestra, and family and friends would attend orchestra practices at our house.
Although Dad was involved in his church during his youth, he did not attend church in his adult life. As a young boy, he received an award for having 14 years of perfect attendance in Sunday School which he proudly displayed in the China Cabinet in our dining room.
Our parents had very compartmentalized roles. Mother was in charge of the house and raising the boys, while dad worked and earned the money for the household. Mother was our spiritual leader and insisted that her boys attend Sunday school and church each Sunday and participate in the activities of the church. Mother was the real leader of the family, and Dad rarely expressed his opinions.
Mother was on the Board of Directors of the Honey Brook Methodist Church for many years, a member of the church choir and performed in church plays, participated in strawberry festivals, and was a founder and first president of the Senior Citizen’s Club of Honey Brook. After mother passed away, the family set up a scholarship fund at the Honey Brook Methodist Church in her memory. The E. Marie Leisey Scholarship Fund has assisted numerous young members of the church to attend college.
According to Al Jr., Dad was recognized as an accomplished “bee keeper” and was called upon by friends and others to find the Queen Bee and put it back into the hive. He wore no special clothing or mask and would reach into the middle of a swarm of bees and pluck the Queen Bee without being stung.
After retiring from the Reading Railroad, Dad, a member of the Honey Brook American Legion Post 422, would walk to the American Legion Hall each day and proudly raise and lower the American flag. Mother was president of the American Legion Auxillary for several years. During World War II, mother worked in a factory in Honey Brook which made uniforms for the troops.
Failing or even getting poor grades in school was never an option. We were expected to work hard and make and save our money. If we did not behave in school, we could expect severe punishment at home. We were expected to be independent thinkers, sound decision makers and not rely on our parents or brothers for solving our problems. Our parents expected us to be leaders and not followers. They expected us to finish what we started. We were expected to honor our commitments, be a person of our word, and follow through on our promises. Our parents rarely stated the above to us, but we always knew what their expectations were. We knew that there would be consequences, including corporal punishment, for errors in judgment or defying family standards. The word love was rarely used in our family, but we knew that they cared about us and loved us. Our parents never owned a house and were proud of their sons when they purchased their first houses.
Dad passed away on February 17, 1973, from a stroke at the age of 79. Mother, who spent the last 15 years of her life living in her hometown of Pottstown, passed away after a series of mini strokes on August 31, 1988 at the age of 85 at Tel Hai, an assisted living facility outside of Honey Brook. Both Dad and Mother are buried at the St. Mark’s Cemetery at Church Hill about five miles from Honey Brook.