Timeline
1810
1816- First Penn Street Bridge opened.
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1816- The Year Without a Summer affected much of North America including Pennsylvania.
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1818- The Schuylkill Navigation Company began to carry coal, lumber,
merchandise, and produce along the Schuylkill River.
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1819-The Library Company of Reading was incorporated.
1819-Anna Maria Jung (Mountain Mary) died.
1830
1833- The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was chartered.
1837- The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Reading was built.
Its congregation was active in the Underground Railroad and helped
fugitive slaves.
1838- The First school building built in Reading at the corner of 6th and Walnut Streets.
1838- The first large shop of the Philadelphia & Reading Railway company was erected in 1838 on the half block on the west side of Seventh street between Franklin and Chestnut streets in Reading.
1820
1820- Berks Countian Joseph Hiester was elected Pennsylvania’s fifth Governor.
1823- The Lauer family arrived in Womelsdorf and started a small brewery. In a few years Frederick Lauer moved to Reading and started his
Brewery.
1824- Berks County established its own County Poor House.
1840
1840- Berks County’s cigar makers made about 40,000 cigars daily.
1841- Berks County’s “Liberty Bell” replaced when the new Courthouse is opened. It is sold to a Boyertown church which eventually resells it to
Dr. R.T. Ludy of New Jersey.
1846- Reading’s 16 brickmakers made over 9 million bricks.
1846- Charles Evans, a prominent local lawyer and philanthropist, created the Charles Evans Cemetery and endowed it at his death in 1847.
1847- First telegraph message sent to Reading from Philadelphia.
1847- Reading was incorporated as a city with a population of 13,044.
1847- First of the South Mountain resorts opened overlooking Wernersville.
1848- The Reading Gas Company established.
1850
1850- Flood washed away all the bridges on the Schuylkill River in Berks
County.
1852- The Ringgold Band established.
1853- The Reading High School opened with 63 male students.
1853- Monroe A. Althouse, Berks County’s “March King” was born in Centre Township, Berks County.
1856- An African American community at Six Penny Creek established Mount Frisby African Methodist Episcopal Church on land owned by the family of a free African American, Isaac Cole. It is believed this church served as a stop on the Underground Railroad and Is the site
of the oldest known African American cemetery in Berks County.
1857- The Reading Female High School started.
1857- Birth of General Hunter Liggett in Reading, He was a West Point
graduate and a senior officer during World War I.
1860
1861- Berks County’s Ringgold Light Artillery was the first company to
respond to President Lincoln’s call for troops after the attack on
Fort Sumter.
1862- During the Civil War from 1862 until 1864 the Fairgrounds in Penns
Commons in Reading were taken and held by the United States government for a camp and military hospital. The main exhibition building was used as the hospital.
1864- Oheb Sholom congregation was established in Reading.
1866- Keystone State Normal School was established which later became
Kutztown State Teacher’s College (1928), Kutztown State College (1960), and then Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (1983).
1867- Charles Erb & Co. buys Housum’s Hotel in Reading and renamed it
the American House after renovations.
1867- Physicians with the Reading Medical Association and business leaders developed plans for the area's first hospital. The Reading Dispensary opened in downtown Reading on Jan. 27, 1868, and moved to northwest Reading in 1886 under its new name, the Reading Hospital.
1868- The Reading Daily Eagle newspaper started.
1869- The Colebrookdale Railroad line was established from Barto via
Boyertown to Pottstown. Today the Colebrookdale Railroad carries
passengers again.
1869- The Reading YMCA was established.
1870
1870- Ben Austrian, the “chick painter” was born in Reading.
1871- William Merkel and John Gehret while they were blasting for
limestone discovered Crystal Cave.
1873- Reading City Passenger Railway Company was formed that would
offer horse-drawn cars in the city.
1873- St. Joseph Hospital was established by Monsignor George
Bornemann.
1874- The Antietam Creek Reservoir was created.
1875- The Reading Choral Society was organized.
1876- Josiah Dives, George Strickland Pomeroy and John Stewart was founded the Globe Store which came under the sole ownership of Pomeroy in 1922.
1877- Calvin K. Whitner opened his dry goods and notions store, C.K.
Whitner, on the first floor of a converted residence at 432 Penn St.
1877- A Railroad strike killed or injured many in Reading.
1879- The telephone was introduced in Reading.
1879- Wallace Stevens, one of America’s most respected 20th century poets, was born in Reading.
1879 - William Henry Luden launched a candy business in the back of his
father’s jewelry shop at 35 N. 5th Street.
1880
1880- The Reading Iron Works was one of the largest companies in
Pennsylvania with about 2000 employees.
1881- The Schuylkill Seminary was founded. It later became Schuylkill
College and merged with the Myerstown-based Albright College in its current location in Reading.
1883- The Hopewell Furnace which had been operating since 1771 gave its
final blast.
1884- Third Penn Street Bridge opened. This bridge was made of steel.
1885- The Reading Liederkranz was organized as a German Singing Society
in Reading.
1888- The Great Blizzard of 1888 struck Berks County with winds of over 60 miles an hour and temperatures below zero (Reading Times, March 14, 1888, page 1).
1889- The Pennsylvania Cyclone struck north east Reading killing many when the Grimshaw Brothers Silk mill and other buildings in the area collapsed and burned.
1889- James Henry Carpenter founded the Carpenter Steel Company in Reading.
1890
1890- First trip was taken on the Mount Penn Gravity Railroad which ran to the “Summit” and the Tower Hotel. Unfortunately, the line had two deadly accidents including one on August 22, 1890 that killed five people and the second on November 5, 1891 that also killed several. Its popularity continued until the April 26, 1923 fire which destroyed the Tower Hotel, and the Gravity Railroad shut down.
1890- On September 20th the Pottsville Express train wreck happened near Shoemakersville and killed 21 passengers.
1891- General Carl A. Spaatz former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force was
born In Boyertown.
1892- German-born partners Heinrich Janssen and Ferdinand Thun
established the Textile Machine Works at 222 Cedar Street in Reading. Eventually they expanded in Wyomissing and formed the Wyomissing Industries.
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1892- Milton S. Hershey bought 802-804 Penn street in Reading (the former
Groff’s Tropical Gardens) that would become part of his Lancaster Caramel Company which in one week in 1898 made 32,500 pounds of caramels. In April 1899 the building was destroyed by fire (Reading Times August 2, 1898, page 4 and April 7, 1899, page 1).
1895- John G. Speidel patented his elevator that he manufactured in
Reading.
1896- Carsonia Park opened.
1897 - Tom Hannahoe, “mayor of Irishtown” died and his death is honored
for decades with a St. Patrick’s Day serenade by musicians in the Old
Catholic Cemetery on Nanny Goat Hill.
1898- The Reading Iron Company was organized and was one of the most
important companies in eastern Pennsylvania, and employed around
5,000 workers.