May 19, 1884: Young Boy Leaves Home to Avoid Beating over Missing Money

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

May 19, 1884: The 10-year-old son of Nathaniel Seasholtz of Fagleysville left the house soon after dinner ( the noon meal) and told a neighbor that he was leaivng home in preference to another beating. He has not been seen since.

He had been sent to the creamery on an errand and, on the way, a neighbor David Levengood asked the boy to deliver a sealed envelope to Levengoood’s grandmother as he passed her home. When she received the envelope, which had contained $140, the money was counted again and again, and each count was $135.

When Seasholtz learned about the missing money, he believed that his son had appropriated the $5 for his own use and had administered a terrible whipping, warning the boy if the deficiency was not made up by evening, he would repeat the punishment.

It was feared that, overcome with remorse and shame, the boy committed suicide, and happily, he was found two weeks later, alive and well, working on a farm in Phoenixville. It was not reported whether he ever returned home.

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