Imagine “Pat” Steedle, Riverton expressman, politician, Rotarian, song leader, former Boy Scout and what not, sitting in the darkness along a Pennsylvania highway in his X Y Z’s drying his clothes over a bonfire.
That is how the April 23, 1931 issue of The New Era recounted for its readers’ amusement an experience that George Steedle had with his moving van. Sandy Steedle sent us this great story about her great-grandfather, the subject of the feature article in this last newsletter, “Geo. D. Steedle moved millions with Steedle’s Express & Philburco buses.
Enjoy this humorous essay from an over eighty year old edition of The New Era, “Pat Steedle and His Truck Imitate Submarine on Highway at Reading.” The necessary concession to the budgetary restraints placed on the Gaslight News which limits each issue to four pages sometimes results in some good stuff not being able to get past this editor’s desk.
Such was the case with this article and the scanned images of a Tacony-Palmyra Ferry stock certificate I bought off an eBay auction last January.
There are many more stories about local characters in the old Riverton and Palmyra newspapers preserved here. Let us know if you find a topic which you would like to see further explored here or in the Gaslight News. We welcome readers’ submissions. – John McCormick
Added July 3, 2018: We thank Paul W. Schopp for sending this great photo of a Tacony-Palmyra Ferry beside the bridge as it neared completion.
