6-29-2024 12:05am

June 29, 1914: Popular Little Jimmy Wentzel Survives Wild Ride

Lesley Misko Editor

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

June 29, 1914: Little Jimmy Wentzel, a man in years (27) but not in size (slightly over three feet), has had an exciting adventure that he won’t forget in a hurry. He and Ed Mowday were about to leave the Little Oley Hotel, and Jimmy was waiting in Mowday’s carriage, when the horse shied, took a wild plunge and started off on a mad run towards Boyertown.

Jimmy had no lines to hold the horse, so he grabbed its tail, attempting to stop him. The horse kept on running and jerked Jimmy about in the carriage “in a manner that was more exciting than agreeable.” Jimmy pluckily held on to his seat, awaiting an opportunity to jump out. When they reached the old Phoenix mine site in town, the horse slowed for the slight upgrade and Jimmy got down over the side of the carriage, dropping to the ground with only a small cut on his finger.

The wild flight caused a bit of excitement in town, and little Jimmy was the hero of the hour for his miraculous escape. Mowday said he had never been so worried in his whole life until he heard that Jimmy was safe, expecting to find him bleeding and mangled somewhere along the roadway.

Jimmy is one of the most popular persons in Boyertown, with many friends all over the area and a loving, supportive family. He is particularly fond of his older sister Della and was very upset when she “eloped” with St. John’s organist John Zuber in 1891. Fortunately for Jimmy’s state of mind, their father dragged her home from Reading where the couple had been hiding out.