Welcome to the Bingen Station

Welcome to the Bingen Station. . , The village of Bingen, Pennsylvania, located in Lower Saucon Township, grew out of the organization of the North Pennsylvania Iron Company, established by the North Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1869. F.A. Comly, the President of the railroad need the village after Bingen on the Rhine in tribute to the German population of the area. The iron business, which later come under the control of the Thomas Iron Company, continued to operate in Bingen until 1900. The property later become the site of the F.H. Clement and Co., a Bethlehem-based construction company, and then passed on to Weyhill Farms, which is now the number two golf course for the Saucon Valley Country Club. Other prominent businesses located in Bingen in the 1800s were the D.D. Ritter and A.S. Gangewer Companies, which manufactured bricks using the clay separated from the iron ore. The Bingen Brick Company, located near the Reading Drive Trailhead, operated until the late 1930s. In addition, flour and feed mills and a blacksmithing business served the village's and surrounding farmers' needs. , The North Pennsylvania Railroad Company tracks between Philadelphia and Freemansburg were completed and put into service on January 1, 1857. Locally, railroad spur lines served the nearby Saucon Iron Company and the Friedensville Zinc Company. In 1879, the line was leased by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and was designated as the “Bethlehem Branch.” In 1924, it become the Reading Railroad, which was sold to Conrail in 1976 and then to SEPTA the same year. The last passenger train on the line ran in 1981. , The village of Bingen grew to contain two stores, one hotel, a gristmill, the Saucon lime works, the Ebenezer New Reformed Church, a two-room schoolhouse, and about 20 houses. The railroad station was built around 1871, just north of the trailhead, and housed the village's post office, telegraph station, and a newsstand that sold candy, tobacco, and periodicals. The post office was later relocated to the Weiss Store, where it remained until the early 1930s when rural mail routes took its place. , The station was removed from service to the railroad in the 1950s, and eventually the building was demolished. Near the Bingen Road crossing are two buildings that once served the community: Gruver's Hotel and the Weiss Store. The store was opened by the Yeager family between 1856 and 1857 and eventually was acquired by Preston Weiss, who continued its operation at the site until 1962. William Yeager, who operated the iron company's works, is believed to have sheltered runaway slaves from the Underground Railroad in his home and barn, which are located along Bingen Road. Additional points of interest include Gruver's Hotel, located next to the Weiss Store, which contained a barroom and barbershop and remained in business until the 1950s. The Bingen House of Fashion, co-owned by a Gruver family member, continued to operate in the building until 1988. , [Sidebar] The Ghost of Bingen , On Jan. 7, 1899, a 25-year-old night telegraph operator named Harvey H. Wurster was brutally murdered here at Bingen Station. The alarm was raised at 10:30 PM when no response was received from the station, and upon investigation, Wurster was found dead with his head crushed, his money drawer empty, and signs of a struggle. A 17-year-old named Llewellyn Stout from Spring Valley was arrested due to matching footprints in the snow. As news of the arrest spread, there were threats of a lynching, prompting Stout to be transported to Easton jail. , Shortly after arriving at the Easton jail on Saturday evening, Llewellyn Stout confessed to Detective Johnson. In his confession, he admitted to going to the Bingen station to play cards on the fateful night. Stourt and Wurster had a quarrel fueled by alcohol, and in the heat of the argument, Stout struck Wurster multiple times with a coupling pin, killing him, He then placed Wurster's body in a seated position, took the money, and hid it along with the murder weapon under the station platform before returning home. Stout entered a “not guilty” plea, and following the trial, the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. Governor William A. Stone set August 22, 1899, as the execution date, and James Van Hise, an experienced hangman who had hung 62 previous men, was called to carry out the execution for a fee of $250. Hangman Van Hise used a method involving weights, and Stout was executed on the designated date. Twenty minutes after the drop, he was pronounced dead. , In the years since, there have been many reports of an unexplainable floating light seen in the woods surrounding this sign, along with sounds of quickly moving footsteps in the woods when no person or animal is visible. If this, in fact, is the ‘Ghost of Bingen,’ the question remains on if it's Harvey Wurster or Llewellyn Stout. Or is it both, perhaps still looking to settle that long-ago score? , [Captions (left to right)] , . Here are a few station photos from the early 1900s. The top photo shows passengers boarding the train while the engineer enjoys some fresh air from the cab window. , . Reading 3621 and 3625 at Bingin in April 1975, about a year before the transition to ConRail. General Motors Electro-Motive Division made these EMD GP35 models in the 1960s, and with 2500HP, they were well-suited for heavy hauls of ore from Bethlehem.