Soap ends

What in the world do you do with the ends of your bars of soap? I don’t really think there is much soap in the soap. Not so long ago, if you took a bar of soap out of it’s wrapping it would dry out and harden up. I always brought them home and stored them in a onion bag or a basket to dry. They really did last a lot longer then. These days soap bars melt at the first hint of humidity; not a good situation when you have long-showering grandsons using the bathroom frequently.

I know that I’m almost the only one in the world that uses bar soap, the manufacturer makes is especially so it will melt fast, so I’ll buy more.

Papa’s great-grandfather was a soap maker in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The factory was “down by the river” in New Brighton. According the a centennial history larger businesses failed after and during the war of 1812, but, “..There were small businesses such as the fancy soap and candle business started by Isaac Warren Sr. in 1812 around Seventh Street.”

Now we know that the afore mentioned Isaac Warren didn’t arrive in Pennsylvania that early. His naturalization papers say, in part: Isaac Warren, a native of England, being duly sworn according to law saith (sic) that he came to America in the year of 1832. The burial record on file at the cemetery where he is buried says: buried 1870, age 79, Isaac Warren, first soap maker from Canterbury, England, 5^th generation soap maker.

Isaac Sr.’s nephew, also known as Isaac, apparently born in Pennsylvania about 1838, is the great-grandfather of whom I speak. The younger Isaac was a nephew of the older, and named as such in the Isaac Sr.’s will. Isaac the younger and his sister were raised from a young age by the senior Isaac and his wife. Probate records, orphan’s court records, cemetery records or any other source that we’ve been able to find do not reveal his parents names, nor can we find where they came from, went to or when.

But I think that if either Isaac were here today, I could get some soap that wouldn’t melt up in a week. And I could probably get my questions about them answered, too.