March 29, 1920: Despite Early Efforts to Keep Going, Warren Merkle Gives Up Family and Possessions

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA.

March 29, 1920: Warren Merkle, near Gilbertsville, is giving up. He is quitting farming, breaking up his household, and selling everything.

After his wife decided that she did not want to live with him or their six children, he tried to keep the family together. His mother, who was “weak-minded” and had been confined to an insane asylum, was keeping house and taking care of the children “as best she could in her condition.”

The Montgomery County probation officer has taken charge of the children. The two oldest have been given to a resident of Gilbertsville, and the four younger ones have been taken to an institution. The wife works as a domestic at the Pottstown Hospital.

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