Col. Robert Bruce Ricketts Elizabeth Reynolds-Ricketts "Back in the early 1900's when Lake Jean was known as Mud Pond, Ricketts was a thriving little town. Named for Col. R.B. Ricketts who owned all the land, it had two schools, churches, a doctor, stave mill, spool mill, railroad station, hotel, P.O.S. of A. (Patriotic Order Sons Of America) Hall, and around 150 or 175 dwellings. The Doctor had a very nice place, as were many of these homes. There was even a Ricketts baseball team and, of course, there was a blacksmith." "Towns don't spring up on mountain tips without industries, and Ricketts was no exception. Here timbering was big business. There were several different lumber camps, all working for Trexler and Turrell. The men were of many nationalities and in some camps no English was spoken. One camp, located about where Lake Jean is now, was operated by Johnny Lane, who employed about 20 or 25 men. Johnny Lane was a hard working, clean living man who once fired a worker for swearing.The men worked ten to twelve hours a day for 15 cents an hour, although Johnny lane paid about 20 cents to skilled bark peelers. Another foreman, Adam Morey, had a camp and employed 50 or 75 men. In bark peeling season, he hired extra men. Morey ran his owning boarding house where 50 cents a day would get a man a bed and three meals. Each camp had its own boarding house, and Mrs. Ellen Johns worked in one of them. Logs of course were skidded out by teams and the various camps hired blacksmith Phil Bates by the day. Another foreman was Ambrose Buckingham. Trexler and Turrell had large tracts around Ricketts and Noxen and employed a great lot of men." "Ricketts was also a summer resort town. The hotel, which was located in Col. Ricketts big stone house at Ganoga Lake, employed about eight girls and a couple of men and housed about 100 guests during the summer months. Oscar Downing worked there one winter and it was his job to keep the fires." "Essential to all the industries and indeed the whole town of Ricketts was the railroad. The Lehigh Valley passanger train ran twice a day about 9:00 a.m. and again about 5:00 p.m. The railroad station was built out of logs and there was a board walk part of the way from the station to the hotel. For those who couldn't or didn't care to walk, there was a branch line that went to the hotel. Branch lines also went to the various lumber camps so that logs came from all directions on company trains to the big mill in Ricketts. After the logs were sawed, the lumber to be moved out was sent off the mountain by train. Norman Fite was an engineer on one of these log trains. The trains also brought supplies and foods for the hotel, the lumber camps, the company store, and everybody." "Mrs. John Gearhart, Maggie Getz at the time lived near Mud Pond (Lake Jean) where her grandfather, father, and uncle worked for Trexler and Turrell. Every morning she had to carry a pail to the station to meet the train and someone would dip her day's supply of milk out of a can for her." Page: 1 | 2