MYERSVILLE-WOLFSVILLE AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
  • HOME
  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • MWAHS in the Community
    • Facebook Community
    • Contact
    • JOIN!
  • Digital Collections
    • Historical Images >
      • Myersville
      • Wolfsville
      • Harmony, Ellerton, Jerusalem, Church Hill, and Pleasant Walk
      • Other Nearby Areas
      • Colorizations
      • Objects, Ephemera, and PDF Documents
      • Digital Document Archive
    • Facing the Past >
      • Facing the Past: Family Names A-B
      • Facing the Past: Family Names C-D
      • Facing the Past: Family Names E-F
      • Facing the Past: Family Names G-H
      • Facing the Past: Family Names I-L
      • Facing the Past: Family Names M-O
      • Facing the Past: Family Names P-Q
      • Facing the Past: ​Family Names: R
      • Facing the Past: ​Family Names: S
      • Facing the Past: ​Family Names T-Z
  • Research
    • MWA Research Blog
    • MWA in the Civil War
  • Walking Tours
  • Views of Main Street Myersville
  • Facing the Past: ​Family Names: T-Z

When an Apple Falls Far From the Tree: Part One

3/28/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
The late evening of 3 August, 1904, was hot and sultry, but with a luminous Moon. George Bittle closed up his shop but did not go home. As he had done on multiple recent occasions, Bittle sat on his front porch, armed with a breech-loading gun, to watch over his store. The night song of the cicadas and crickets and the calls of the amphibians at Frog Hollow were thick in the humid air around him.

Two months earlier, on 9 June, someone had burgled his storeroom and taken about $50 in jewelry—more than $1,500 in today’s worth and a significant loss. On 6 July, the storeroom was entered through the cellar, but the thief may have been spooked and fled empty-handed, leaving a lit lantern outside the door.

Sometime between 10 and 11 p.m., Bittle’s neighbor, Joseph Wolf (1850-1911), and another man strolled past the storefront. The second fellow wore a dark slouch hat and dark clothing. Bittle was sure it was George Henry Koogle (1884-1958), son of well-known Captain Jacob Koogle (1841-1915), who had been in the store earlier that evening and who possessed a distinctive gait. Shortly after this, Bittle heard noises at the rear of the building, went there—finding no one—then remained awhile, keeping lookout. At about 12:15 a.m. he heard noises at the front of the building and quietly retraced his steps. Under the bright moonlight, he saw a figure half-crouched, fiddling with the door lock.

​Click to read the full article by Ann Longmore-Etheridge at Your Dying Charlotte.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Authors

    Articles and research by members of the Myersville-Wolfsville Historical Society

    Archives

    September 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    September 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly