Samuel Pannebaker’s car

Many of the papers in my grandfather’s collection came from John and Beulah Patterson, aunt and uncle to my great grandfather, both of whom died childless. Beginning in the early 1950s, my great grandparents lived in the same East Waterford house as the Pattersons, after moving from Harrisburg back to the old hometown. Following John’s and Beulah’s deaths, these papers, I surmise, stayed behind in the old home. When my great grandmother moved to spend the final decade of her life in the single-level house my grandfather built in Honey Grove for just that purpose, the papers moved with her. She died in 1994; my grandfather moved in for the final two decades of his life; and the papers remained–until I took them to Ohio a year after his death.

There are lots of records from S.E. (Samuel E.) Pannebaker, father of Beulah but not one of my ancestors. He seemed to be a man of some prominence in East Waterford, owning a mill and serving in some sort of official capacity with the Citizens National Bank of East Waterford. I have stock certificates from that bank as well as papers from a Pennsylvania Supreme Court case in which he sued the local short-line railroad for taking away the siding that served his business. I’ll write more about that later.

S.E. left behind for my eventual possession lots of information about stocks and commercial papers he owned. Among many others, he owned stock in the Zee Zee Tire and Rubber Company of Philadelphia. Zee Zee stockholders had the privilege of purchasing Zee Zee “casings, tubes, and re-inforcers” at wholesale price, and S.E. held a card that identified himself as the holder of such privilege. That card survives to this day.

Also surviving: Pennsylvania automobile certificate no. 179531, issued on January 22, 1919, for S.E.’s “Pneumatic Tired Motor Vehicle.” According to the registration, S.E. drove a Kline, a pricey car that was originally manufactured in York, Pennsylvania.  The certificate reminds drivers of a number of rules of the road, including the speed limit of 24 miles an hour on all public highways.