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Anyone Recognize These Civil War Veterans From Safe Harbor?

Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA) - 2/12/2016

Today's mystery photo shows 16 Civil War veterans, several long of beard, posing before a building somewhere in the Safe Harbor area.

Kelly Thomas, a security guard at Safe Harbor Dam and a former resident of the old Safe Harbor village, says the men are members of the Capt. G.S. Hess Post 571, Grand Army of the Republic.

Thomas thinks one of the men is Benjamin F. Hookey, who was a butcher in Conestoga. He doesn't know the names of the others.

The photo is 3 by 4 inches, so facial details are not so clear. But Thomas is hoping someone will recognize an ancestor.

Records show that Post 571 was formed either in 1884 or 1888 and operated until 1924. The apparent ages of the men suggest the photo was taken closer to the latter date.

George Hess took the First Safe Harbor Artillery to war as an infantry company, joining Company D, 30th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, also known as the First Pennsylvania Reserves. The company was mustered on June 8, 1861. Hess was wounded at Charles City Crossroads in Virginia on June 30, 1862, and died as a prisoner of war July 4. He was 34 years old.

Married with several children, Hess had lived in Safe Harbor and is buried in Safe Harbor's German Reformed Church Cemetery. His father, Abraham Hess, was the proprietor of the Mansion House Hotel in Safe Harbor. George Hess took over the place just before he joined the war effort.

Thomas found a list of officers of Post 571 in the Nov. 17, 1911, issue of the Lancaster New Era. They are butcher Hookey, Noah Wade, W.W. Aument, Amos Dabler, Cyrus Gontnor, Benj. McMullen, Mathias Peters, Tobias Finefrock, H.K. Ganze and George W. Kise.

No doubt, some of these men are in the photograph.

Thomas has added the photo to his collection of all things related to Safe Harbor, which - prior to the Civil War, flooding along the Conestoga River and economic downturns - was a flourishing town of more than 1,000 residents.

Prostitution continues

Prostitution did not end following the American Vigilance Association's 1913 report that found 27 brothels in Lancaster city. It continued, though subdued, in Lancaster, but also spread to Eden and Columbia.

The Jan. 1 "Scribbler" column discussed that report, which was used by the Lancaster Law and Order Society to pressure Lancaster's bordellos to close.

In response, Charles Wolf, a retired Millersville University professor, has provided The Scribbler with a copy of a follow-up 1934 report, conducted by an outside investigator for the Law and Order Society.

Wolf used the report to identify houses of prostitution active in the 1930s in Lancaster, Eden and Columbia. During the 1980s, he sponsored chartered coach rides at night, called "Insomniac Tours," to unusual places. Former bordellos were among the sites.

The 1934 vice report listed 13 locations in the city that remained active, complete with the first names of "madams." It explained that city taxi drivers earned good fares driving patrons to Eden and Columbia.

"The cheap brothels in Columbia were said to be frequented by Lancaster's younger element," the report said, "whereas an alleged notorious parlor house in Eden, Pa. was spoken of as attracting customers who pay higher prices for prostitutes' services."

Wolf's nocturnal tours were popular. He told police ahead of time so they wouldn't question why a busload of people was pulling up in front of a former brothel at 3 a.m.

Wolf recalls, "My serious worry in this case was that one of the passengers would say at one of the stops: 'My grandmother used to live there.' "

Jack Brubaker, a retired LNP staff writer, writes "The Scribbler" column twice a week. He welcomes comments and contributions at scribblerlnp@gmail.com or 669-1929.