Nice, wonderful, kindly Miss James

Some folks requested I dig up some of Lester Trauch's Man Around Town columns and post them here. Well, Voila.

Very briefly, Lester worked at The Intelligencer newspaper in Doylestown for over 50 years. He lived in Doylestown too and, if you were around, say, any time from 1930 through 2001, you probably would have seen (or more likely heard) him. Everyone knew Lester and Lester knew everybody.

I never met him, but he's a living legend at the Intell and everyone's got a story about him.

Anyway, for many years he had a column in the paper called Man Around Town. It was sort of just a "what's Lester thinking about?" kind of column and it was usually pretty great.

(I always thought it would be cool to have a gossip column. I could call it Dame Rumor and it would be the best thing ever.)

Anyway, here's one I just found:

June 23, 1956

Dr. Mercer

by W. Lester Trauch

Dr. Henry Chapman Mercer, who was to become Doylestown's greatest nationally and internationally known resident, was born a century ago tomorrow.

He was born June 24, 1856 in the house at the corner of N. Main and N. Broad Sts.

Mrs. Frank K. Swain, of "Fonthill," soon after the death of Miss Sarah James, Doylestown's benefactress, said wouldn't it be wonderful to have some marker or tablet placed somewhere on the house showing it was Dr. Mercer's birthplace.

Mrs. Swain said, too, that Dr. Mercer always felt so warmly about the beautiful, old house, that he had among his papers data showing when the house was built, how much the men were paid to work on it and other information.

Delighted with Mrs. Swain's suggestion and imagination we could hardly refrain from talking about it at the time of Miss James' death in June 1954.

"Whatever you do." said Mrs. Swain, "Don't do anything that will detract from Miss Sarah James' glory and triumph.

"Let nice, wonderful, kindly Miss James have her hour of glory before you mention what I have told you." cautioned Mrs. Swain which is a perfect example of her understanding and shows why she remained invaluable to him and his career.

We are reminded of the late Irvin M. James who used to point out in the '30s that generations from now no child could over point to a certain place or house and say "That's where I was born." "All they can do," he wisely warned, "is drive by the hospital and say 'That's my birthplace.'"

Mrs. Swain's idea of commemorating the birthplace of Dr. Mercer, archeologist, antiquarian, inventor and scholar, should be seized upon by the Bucks County Historical Society.

He died March 9, 1930.