As development expands throughout the area, people new to the community sometimes ask "what was here?" or "what happened here?" before my home was built.

            The Northgate community in Upper Hanover Township was once a popular golf course.  Opened in 1979 golfers enjoyed playing there until it closed in 2006. 

The Northgate community in Upper Hanover Township was once a pop- ular golf course.  Opened in 1979 golfers enjoyed playing there until it closed in 2006.

            Prior to that it was a working farm dating back more than a century.  At the time the farmland was converted into a golf course it was farmed by the Willis Eschbach family.  Before that, it was farmed by Harry Eschbach, Willis' father.

            Harry was a tenant farmer of the 153-acre farm in 1930.  The farm was owned at that time by John Ortt of Brooklyn, New York.  The farm had one of the largest barns in the area.  Built in 1928, the barn was described as one of the finest and best-equipped in the area.  There were about two dozen cows, two horses, five hogs, and 1,000 chickens being raised there.   

            The United States was in the early years of the Great Depression.  Telephones existed in the more populated areas but not so much out-of-town in places like Harry's home.

            Shortly after 3 p.m. on May 29, while winds swept through the Valley just east of Pennsburg, Harry was working near the barn and smelled something burning. Being in the country and thinking it was someone nearby burning brush, it didn't draw any suspicion.  After about a half-hour and still smelling a strong odor of something burning, Harry sent his son, Ralph, to the lower part of the barn to investigate while he checked out the upper part.

It took only 40 minutes from the time the fire was discovered until the barn was reduced to ashes.  A spark from the fodder-cutting machinery was suspected as the cause of the fire.

            Harry encountered heavy smoke and a small fire coming through the boards of the threshing floor.  He called to his wife to summon the fire company.  Not having a phone, she drove about a mile to the Hevener & Shelly store where she had a telephone call made to summon the fire company.

            It took only a few minutes for the interior of the barn to explode into a mass of flames.  Harry and Ralph had only minutes to release all the livestock and chase them out of the barn.  Any firefighter who has fought a barn fire and chased the animals through the pasture knows that the livestock tends to try and get back into their safe place, the barn -- even if it is on fire.  One of the hogs did just that and perished because of it; another was so badly burned that it died of its injuries.

            All the other livestock escaped unharmed but 500 of Eschbach's 1,000 chickens perished in the blaze.  Eschbach lost his tractor, wagon, and other farm machinery in the fire.

            Volunteer firefighters arrived quickly and found most of the barn already engulfed in flames.  The intense fire, fed by a brisk wind, threatened the home, which was 25 yards from the barn.  So concentrated was the heat that the roof and side of the house closest to the barn were scorched.  A rocking chair, sitting by a window inside the home, was blistered.  Window shades, on the side of the home facing the barn, were scorched even though the windows were closed.  Shoe mats on the front porch of the home were burned to ashes.

The Pennsburg Fire Company's 1930 apparatus included, from left, a 1923 Dodge Chief's car, a 1928 American LaFrance pumper, a 1929 American LaFrance ladder truck, and a 1922 Hahn pumper.   Pennsburg Chief, Elias Mensch, was severely burned at the Eschbach barn fire.

            Pennsburg fire chief Elias Mensch suffered severe burns on his arm while standing 40 feet from the barn.  

            Using water from the Macoby Creek, and pumping it through their engine to the scene of the fire, firefighters were able to protect the home. 

            To give an example of how intense the fire was, it took only 40 minutes from the time the fire was discovered until the barn was reduced to ashes.

            It was suspected that a spark from the fodder-cutting machinery entered a blower and was carried by a blast of air into the barn.  The loss was estimated at about $11,000 (about $200,000 today).

            Just hours after the barn was destroyed, neighboring farmers and other residents came to the farm and offered Harry their assistance and the use of their farm machines.  Volunteers helped milk the cows, feed and house them, haul the milk to the local creameries, and bring feed and other supplies to the farm.

            The barn was rebuilt five months later.