This document may NOT be used or copied for commercial use.  This document remains
the sole property of the submitter/author.  All rights reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contributed by:   EEHeine@aol.com

*********************************************************************
Mary De Hart Babb was the daughter of John De Hart, Jr. (1769-1874). 

The following is from an article published in the Reading [PA] "Eagle," 
shortly before her death in 1903. I think it gives a wonderful picture
of how women of her generation lived.

MODEL HOUSEWIFE

One of the Good, Old-Fashioned Mothers, Whom Everybody Delights to
Honor, is Mrs. John Babb of Stony Creek. 

Berks County has many model mothers and housewives—the
old-fashioned kind of wives who do honor to the name of wife. Such an
one is Mrs. John Babb, who lives at Stony Creek Mills, just east of
Reading. She is the widow of the founder of Babb's hotel, the
well-known inn at that place. Mrs. Babb is the mother of 16 children, is
87 years old and still attends to all her household work, even to the
washing. She is a daughter of John DeHart, who died in Alsace years ago,
aged almost 100 years. The DeHart family is noted for its longevity. Of
Mrs. Babb's children, 14 are living. John Babb, the husband, who died
about 6 years ago, was physically an almost perfect man, his stature
being as erect as...

All this may account for the good health of the offspring. Mrs. Babb
was 21 years old when she married and her youngest child
is now 20, which shows that she became the mother of 16 children
within a period of 36 years. The eldest of the children is David, who now
conducts a smithy at Stony Creek Mills, and has 5 children. Then comes
Sarah, Mrs. Jacob Bower, of Amity, who has 4 children. William was born
next and he died at the age of 8 months. Emma, Mrs. Henry Christian, of
Alsace, whose husband died 8 years ago, has 1 child. Rosa, Mrs. Daniel
Reider, of Hooper, Nebraska, is the only one of the family who is married
and has no children. Lydia, Mrs. Frederick Heine, of Hooper, Nebraska, has
9 children. Elizabeth, Mrs. Dallas Leinbach, of Reading has 4; Mary, Mrs.
Richard Long, of Reading, 3; Minerva, Mrs. John Fisher, Stony Creek Mills,
2; Ida, Mrs. Lewis Kern, Stony Creek Mills, 6; Margaret, Mrs. Thomas
Jefferson Keller, Stony Creek Mills, 3; George, of Stony Creek Mills, 6;
Daniel of Gibraltar, 5. John died in the late war, being severely wounded
at Bull Run. His body was never recovered. Miss Savilla is the only one
of the children who is single. She lives in Reading. James, the youngest,
lives at Stony Creek Mills and has 1 child. These surviving children are
all in good health.

Mrs. Babb was busy washing when the Eagle representative called
to take her picture. She did the work without apparent fatigue
and said she also did all the ironing. She lives in a neat
brick house, a short distance from the old hotel stand, which "Johnny"
Babb made famous. He built the residence before his death. It is about
20 years that they retired from the hotel business. Mrs. Babb is healthy
with the exception of an occasional spell of rheumatism. Her hearing and
sight are well-preserved. She generally goes to bed at about 9 p.m. and
very seldom gets up before 7 in the morning. Her sleep is never so sound
in the early part of the night as it is towards morning. She raised all her
children without the aid of a nurse and rarely had hired help when they
lived at the hotel. She attended to all the cooking herself and had the
reputation of being able to make a first-class meal in an unusually short
time.

John Babb was raised in the vicinity of Snyder's hotel, Alsace, and
was a blacksmith by trade. He built Babb's hotel about 40 years ago. The
travelling public was very anxious that a hotel should be built there
since a great many teams passed that road in those days, and there was
quite a demand for a watering place. The business conducted by Mr. Babb
was a very orderly one, and the hotel soon became noted as one at which
a first-class meal and excellent accommodations be had. The hotel has
been considerably enlarged since then. For quite a number of years Mr.
Babb conducted the blacksmith shop across the way, along with the hotel.

Mrs. Babb said to the Eagle: "I liked the hotel business very well, but
could never bear to see anything disorderly about the place, and we never
tolerated anything of the sort. When we first started in business here
Stony Creek Mills was about one-fifth as much of a place as now. There
were only 3 or 4 houses here. The woolen mills were not yet erected
and a paper mill stood on that spot."

"Mrs. Babb is a member of the Spies church, being confirmed by Rev. Wagner of
Reading. She attended the church regularly until several years ago,
when the distance became a hindrance."

Stony Creek Mills was established in 1864 and got a post office in 1879.
In 1912, it consisted of 50 single houses and 15 double houses.
Population was "not far from" 500. Spies's Church ministers included
Frederick Herman (Reformed) and Henry A. Muhlenberg (Lutheran); later,
T. T. Yaeger (Lutheran) and A. S. Leinbach (Reformed).