Phoenix Cement Mill (Lone Star Cement); Quarry; to right of quarry is Village of Phoenix

            Phoenix was a place that was composed not of houses, but of homes where family values shaped the content and rhythm of daily life. It was a village that knew the sorrow of tragedy as disease and accidents claimed the lives of many of its people. It was also a place of joy and happiness as people found pleasure in the events of their daily lives and celebrations. Above all else, the village of Phoenix existed for its children. It was the younger generations that were the focus of their parents' hopes and dreams, and it has come now to the children to commerate what their parents have accomplished.

            The catalyst for the creation of the village of Phoenix was the rise of the Lehigh Valley region to a position of dominance in the American portland cement industry. The portland cement industry in the United States began in the Lehigh Valley, partly because of its geology. The Jacksonburg Formation, a deep limestone deposit lies just below the surface of the Lehigh Valley. The formation's rocks yield the world's most nearly perfect mix of ingredients for portland cement - high quality limestone and clay-based argillaceous. These rocks, mined in open pit quarries, when crushed, pulverixed, and burned at 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit in long rotary kilns, convert the rock mixture into 'clinkers' about the size of marbles. The clinkers are cooled and again pulverized which is then portland cement ready to be stored, bagged or bulk-shipped to consumers all over the world.The area surrounding the Borough of Nazareth became particularly attractive to potential Portland cement manufacturers due to the high quality of the raw materials that were found there.

            The development of the portland cement industry caused major changes in the community of Nazareth. Founded in 1740, Nazareth had functioned as a closed religious community, governed by the Moravian church, until it became a secular borough that was open to all in 1856. The secularization of Nazareth greatly increased the business opportunities that were available to its residents. Within three decades, diverse products such as, guitars, farm machinery, carriages, guns, hosiery and clothing were all produced in Nazareth. The many jobs that were created by these industries attracted a steady trickle of European immigrants to Nazareth.

            When the Pennsylvania Geological Survey revealed that Nazareth was located at the center of the Lehigh Valley's cement rock deposits, local entrepreneurs were ready and able to take advantage of this fact and begin the production of portland cement. The plants that they constructed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries created hundreds of jobs which were filled by immigrants from southern, central and eastern Europe.

            One of these facilities was constructed by the Phoenix Cement Company, a company founded in 1899. Its mill was completed by 1900 and it immediately created a great demand for labor. This demand was largely filled by immigrants. To provide shelter for many of these immigrant workers, the company constructed houses for them to live in. These houses, and adjacent boarding houses, were the first settlements of the village of Phoenix, later to be incorporated into the Borough of Nazareth.

            My grandfather, Alois Hadl, was one of these early immigrants. He came from the small village of Urbersdorf, Burgenlund, Austro-Hungary. He left Europe from Antwerp, Belgium in the vessel Vaderland and reached Ellis Island, New York harbor on January 14, 1903. It is very probable that he was recruited to come to America by an immigrant labor recruiter. Their job was to go back to their native land to recruit additional workers for an American company. They would tell people that they knew to come to America because they could assure them of a job that would enable them to make a decent living. After each trip, the company would pay them a fixed amount for each person that had been recruited. Without the successful effort of the labor recruiters, the cement companies of the Nazareth area would have had a difficult time securing enough employees to staff their constantly expanding mills.

            Boarding houses, company houses, labor recruiting characterized the early development of immigrant communities such as the village of Phoenix and other villages and small towns in the Lehigh Valley. Within two decades, these villages evolved from a tract of land bordering a cement mill to a place where many families owned their own homes, started their own businesses, and realized that their children had to acquire a solid education inorder to succeed in America.

            They built a series of single-room public schoolhouses to provide a basic education for their children. One of these structures was located on Poor House Road, later renamed Mauch Chunk Street, and was called Jefferson School. This early school just happened to be a few hundred yards from where my father, Frank Hadl, built his house in the village of Phoenix. I can remember when, as a young boy, we played baseball, 'kick-the-can', 'Red-Rover, Red-Rover send 'Charlie' right over', 'Andy-Andy-coming-over, 'marbles, climbed the steel flag pole, and played other games in the abandoned play ground. It also was about this time, cc 1942, that a branch of the Catholic Knights of St. George acquired the structure, held meetings on the premise, and in time improved the building by adding a basement. I helped with digging the basement. The 'school' was eventually used for social functions and wedding receptions. My sister Emma and Lester Roth had their wedding reception at this facility. It is now a private dwelling.

            It took an immense effort on the part of the catholic immigrants who settled in the village of Phoenix to establish a local parish. In 1907, a small group of catholic families from Nazareth sought approval to esablish a parish in Nazareth by securing the signatures of catholics in the area of Nazareth. These families managed to secure 300 signatures. The construction of the church was completed in the fall of 1908. The church was consecrated and dedicated to the Holy Family. A rectory was added in 1911. The church has a school on the second floor, and when its construction was completed in 1910, a new era in the education of the children of the village of Phoenix began. The school was called: Holy Family School.

            Having grown up in the village of Phoenix, I now realize we faced a far different world than the one that confronts children today. Our world was dominated by the struggles of our parents and grandparents to adjust to a new land. Metaphorically, we were the bridge for our parents between their two lives, their old world and the new world. Most importantly, as first generation children of immigrants, we represented our parents' hopes for a better life. It was for us and our future that they came to America. In a very real way, our parents gave us the means to life their future with more material comforts, and a better education. Their true legacy is a reverence for faith, traditions, family and children; values that remain to this day.

            Demographers and the latest Census Bureau data present a sad picture of first and second generation children of immigrant parents in that new census figures show a decline in the number of people identifying themselves as German, Italian and other European ancestries.

            More people are just calling themselves "American." It appears that with the passage of time from the actual immigration more of the offspring are not identifying themselves with their heritage.

            When I was young, my parents explained that I am an American citizen, but my heritage was from Austria. I am definitely an American first, but it is with pride and love that I acknowledge my ancestory and relate my genealogy and their stories.