The "Mice Were Lucky Back In The Good Ole' Days" Story

An early mousetrap!

It was an ordinary day.  Standing in the Lititz Museum, taking a photograph of an early mousetrap that has found a home in the Museum.  The mousetrap was designed by David Tannenberg who happened to be the most prominent organ-builder in America at the time.  He and his family had recently moved to Lititz, Pennsylvania's colonial woods.  One of the first things he was thought to have built after moving to Lititz was a mousetrap.  The story goes like this....In the late 1990s, a Massachusetts man sent a photograph of a mousetrap to the archives committee of the Lititz Moravian Congregation.  A tag on the trap said it was an early mouse trap made in Lititz by David Tannenberg about 1765.  There were only two such traps in existence at the time.  But, there was no sure way to tell who actually made the mouse trap.   It was assumed that David built the trap based on the woodworking skills of David and the design of the trap.  The trap was a deadfall trap with wooden pulleys on it's trigger mechanism.  As soon as the mouse would trip the trigger, the suspended piece of wood would fall on the mouse, killing it.  Eventually Mr. Tannenberg died and his collection of pieces was sold leaving the Lititz Museum with noting but photographs which had been taken of the trap. Recently, a local craftsman, Mr. Robert Key, used the photographs to create an exact model of the original mousetrap.  He in turn donated the trap to the Lititz Museum.  The newly built trap has never caught a mouse in it, but it remains a very good replica of the original mouse trap.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Perhaps a cement block on the top of the trap may have worked a bit better!  But, did they have cement blocks back then?  They certainly had mice!