Courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society Photo Album Collection Above, two unidentified men, presumably members of the Hertzel family, photographed at a Revolutionary War memorial in Savannah, Ga. in 1915. The Warren County Historical Society recently uncovered the photo as part of a digitization effort funded by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.

A state grant program is helping the Warren County Historical Society uncover treasures it didn’t know it had.

Most recently, that’s taken the form of a digitization effort of the society’s Photo Album Collection.

“We have recently received a grant through the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission’s Historical & Archival Records Care grant program to digitize the large collection,” Casey Ferry, WCHS event coordinator explained, “thus making it more user friendly — photos can be much more easily accessible — and preserving the actual photos and albums themselves. With the photos digitized, it eliminates unnecessary handling of the originals.

“It was during this digitizing process that we came across these photos which caught our attention.”

Ferry said the men are unidentified.

Courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society Photo Album Collection Now known as the Civil War Memorial after a 2018 re-naming, this photo at left was found in a Hertzel family album in the collection of the Warren County Historical Society.

“There was nothing written on the photos themselves or in the album page,” she said.

Their source in the Society’s collection is “Photo Album Collection, Album #12” which is also known as “Hertzel Album #1.

Now that’s a fairly prominent name in early 20th century county history.

There are Hertzels to be found back in the settler days of the county but the most notable member of the family is probably Andrew.

Hertzel, born in France, started as an apprentice to S.J. Page, a blacksmith, and eventually bought out his employer in 1852.

He operated that business into the 1870s. Undoubtedly his most remarkable contribution during those years (and he wouldn’t have known it at the time) was crafting the drill bits for what became known as Drake’s Well, the first successful oil well.

Hertzel left that trade for timber and, unsurprisingly, the oil business.

“In the upbuilding of the material prosperity of the town and its advancement in every way, Mr. Hertzel has undoubtedly done as much, at least in proportion to his means, as any man who ever lived in the county,” Schenck concluded in his History of Warren County.

These photos are dated 1915 and presumably show members of the Hertzel family. They were taken at a Revolutionary War monument and then a Confederate monument in Savannah, Georgia which still stand.

“Judging by the photos in the various Hertzel albums, the family did travel extensively, especially considering the era,” Ferry said. “This particular album has an interesting mix of topics including candids of Ray Caldwell – pitcher for the New York Yankees who was born in Corydon — and his family, the Tome and Reid families, and travels to Savannah, Ga., and Daytona, Fla.”

The Revolutionary monument highlights the contributions of William Jasper, a sergeant in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment. After several years of fighting, he was mortally wounded during the Siege of Savannah in 1779.

Located in Savannah’s Forsyth Park, the Confederate monument is now known as the Civil War Memorial. Placed to commemorate Confederate soldiers killed in the War Between The States, one source indicates that the city renamed and rededicated the structure as the “Civil War Memorial” after the uproar over the Unite the Right rally held in Charlottesville, Va. in 2017.

“We are definitely unearthing some exciting photographs that have not been seen before,” Ferry said. “This is just the beginning!”