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First house built in Freeland
These two photos came from John Zubach, and they were published in the Pennysaver of July 1964. The front page read: "Take a look readers! Here is the first house built in Freeland. Where? At 539 Walnut St., on the lot now occupied by the Stanley Nowak house. The home was built by William Johnson in 1858. This photo is the courtesy of George Johnson, retired Water Company employee and grandson of the builder. Left to right are: Mr. Johnson's grandmother, Mrs. William Johnson, his three aunts, Mrs. Mary Washburn, Mrs. Isaac Ashman, and Mrs. Elizabeth McClellan, who lives at 529 Walnut St. The photo on the left is the same home taken in the summer."
In his 1880 history, William Munsell wrote this about William Johnson: "William Johnson, of Freeland, teamster, lumberman and blacksmith, was born in county Derry, Ireland, February 12th, 1835. He enlisted in the 147th Pennsylvania volunteers, August 11th, 1862, and was discharged in 1863 on account of disability. His wife was Margaret Jane Birkbeck, of South Heberton." On the earliest Freehold maps, "Margaret Johnson" is shown as one of the owners of properties surrounding Freehold.
In
the caption under the photo shown at top left of this page, we see
that the house sat "diagonal to the building line, for when it was
built, in what was then a wilderness, it fronted on the old stagecoach
road that ran from Eckley to South Heberton." The map detail at right
illustrates this, at 539 Walnut Street. The article continues: "fronted
on the old stagecoach road with ran from Eckley to South Heberton,
where it met the Butler Valley-White Haven road which ran along what is
now Schwabe Street, Freeland."I conferred with Charlie Gallagher about the road. He wondered whether "perhaps Birkbeck Street had a little different path after the split with Alvin street (and onward to Spruce St. then to Highland & Eckley). Or maybe the original trail wasn’t Birkbeck St., but the alley that borders the Freeland Cemetery, extended that would get it closer to the Johnson house. These early wagon trails were narrow through wilderness and may not be anywhere near where the current streets were eventually laid out. Spruce Street comes off of Alvin and runs southward along what was Wilson Pontiac, crosses Johnson and runs along what was Dr. Soltis’ home and Dr. Feissner’s. At one time it extended through (what is now woods) to the Highland Road (before 940 was relocated to South Street)."
In
1948 the home was no longer occupied and both home and property had
been purchased by Stanley Nowak. Tearing down the first house built in
Freeland was an event, covered by both the Plain Speaker and the
Standard Sentinal in May 1948.