Foreword
"By the time it came to the edge of the Forest the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, 'There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.' But all the little streams higher up in the Forest went this way and that, quickly, eagerly, having so much to find out before it was too late."
- A. A. Milne, 'The House on Pooh Corner', 1928
"The ocean refuses no river"
- Sheila Chandra, 'Weaving My Ancestor's Voices', 1992
James Rickenbach (1830-1891) lived along the Schuylkill Navigation Canal just north of Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania, with his wife Eliza Hinnershitz Rickenbach and their twelve children. James was a canal boatman, and later went into business repairing and building boats at a drydock along what was his grandfather Jacob Rickenbach's (1757-1831) farmland.
James and his family were caught up in the onset of the Industrial Revolution, were engaged in the Civil War, and were transformed by the changing social fabric of turn-of-the-century post-industrial America.
This remarkable document was written by Rebecca Rickenbach (1868-1941), the second youngest of James Rickenbach's twelve children. Although there is no direct reference to the author in the text, there are several contextual clues which point to Rebecca as the author. The most revealing is that she identifies herself as the middle of the three youngest daughters (Annie Laura, Rebecca, and Lizzie). The text was most likely completed in late 1936, the year of her brother Adam's death, since she mentions at the end of the document that Adam had died a month before.
I obtained a typed copy of the text in 1998 from the current owners of the original Jacob Rickenbach stone house. They had been given a copy from a Rickenbach from New Jersey. Subsequent to that, a granddaughter of Curtin Rickenbach sent me a copy, which she had received from other Rickenbach cousins. I do not know anything about the history of the text, if it was ever published, what the format of the original text is, and why it was written.
The text is presented exactly as written, except for minor grammatical corrections, which are not noted here. I have also arranged the text into "chapters", not part of the original work. I have added extensive footnotes, maps, and photographs, scattered throughout the text as links. It is a work in progress, and I am always adding new information. The appendix at the bottom of the main page contains what I know about Rebecca's brothers and sisters, including photographs. There is also a link to their family tree.
James is one of my great-great-great grandfathers.