On behalf of the Bridgeville Area Historical Society, I recently made a presentation on local history to a group of residents at Providence Point, focused on twenty-three persons who figured prominently in it.
The first three were Native Americans, leading off with the anonymous PaleoIndian who visited the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter eighteen thousand years ago and left behind a spearhead that may well be the oldest evidence of human habitation ever in North America.
By 1200 AD his descendants had evolved into a peaceful, semi-civilized society with impressive colonies across North America. In this area they had an extensive village that ultimately became an important archaeological location, the Drew Site. It was obliterated by the construction of the I-79 Bridgeville Interchange. I chose an anonymous matriarch to represent these people.
Two hundred years later these cultures had disappeared, replaced by the more primitive “Noble Savages” the colonists encountered. One of them was Catfish (Tangoqua), an historical figure best known here for his hunting camp in what is now downtown Washington and for Catfish Path, a trail linking his camp with the Ohio River.
The first permanent settler was Christian Lesnett, staking his claim along Coal Pit Run in South Fayette. A cabinet-maker of simple means, Lesnett was typical of the first settlers; in contrast John Neville was a wealthy aristocrat who came from Virginia and built impressive plantations at Woodville and Bower Hill. His world crumbled when the Whiskey Rebels burned Bower Hill to the ground.
Thomas Ramsey was an absentee landlord whose attempt to build a tollgate where the Black Horse Trail (upgraded Catfish Path) crossed Chartiers Creek led to a confrontation with his neighbors and the eventual construction of Allegheny County’s first significant bridge. Ramsey sold his land to Moses Middleswarth, whose son Jonathan became the region’s wealthiest young man and most eligible bachelor when his father died. He had just completed construction of a handsome mansion in Bridgeville as a wedding gift for Betsy McKown, when she eloped with Benjamin Morrison. “Jonathan’s Folly” was a landmark in Bridgeville for well over a century.
Wealthy Pittsburgh attorney Henry Baldwin purchased a large block of land from Presley Neville including what is today the Greenwood Place neighborhood and built a lovely summer home there, “Recreation”. Baldwin served three terms in Congress and fifteen years on the United States Supreme Court.
In 1832 a group of Washington Pa. entrepreneurs hired Charles DeHaas to lay out a railroad connecting their fair city with Pittsburgh. Its completion, in 1871, accelerated development of the Chartiers Valley.
I chose David Schaffer as a representative of the area men who joined Company K and went off to the Civil War. The Schaffer family operated a successful wool fulling mill on the Washington Pike (upgraded Black Horse Trail).
Casper Phillip Mayer came to Bridgeville in 1879 and quickly became its most prosperous citizen. Among his achievements was the development of the Kirwan Heights industrial park. The first industry there was his own “C. P. Mayer Brick Company”, followed by Oliver Higbee’s “J B Higbee Glass Company”, Joseph Flannery’s “Flannery Bolt Company” and “Vanadium Corporation”, and Walter Baker’s “Universal Rolling Mill Company”.
Picking one person to represent the many involved with Bridgeville’s secession from Upper St. Clair Township and incorporation as a Borough was difficult. I chose Allegheny County Detective Robert Lee McMillen. In addition to being one of the Borough’s founders, he represented the law here for four decades.
Including James Frank was an easy decision. Stationmaster for the Pennsylvania Railroad he was killed in a robbery attempt in 1914, a case that is still the area’s biggest unsolved crime.
Four years later prominent local builder Louis Colussy, recognizing his son Albert’s talent as a mechanic, acquired a franchise to sell Chevrolet automobiles, a franchise now recognized as the oldest Chevrolet dealership in the world.
World War I hit Bridgeville hard. Twenty-two young men went to France and did not return. One of them, an African-American named Roy Purnell, died in a hospital after the Armistice and was buried in France. In 1924 our benevolent government announced a program that would make it possible for widows or mothers of servicemen buried in France to travel there and visit the graves of their loved ones. Purnell’s widow, Viola, immediately applied to be included in the program and immediately was advised that it didn’t include Black people. Fortunately, her employer, Dr. James Fife, interceded and paid for her to make the trip on her own.
Bridgeville has always been a hotbed of sports. Burke Jones made the community proud by representing the United States soccer team in the 1924 Olympics in France. Aldo “Buff” Donelli was another fine soccer player, but an even better football coach. For five weeks in 1941 he simultaneously coached a successful Division One football team (Duquesne) and an unsuccessful NFL team (the Steelers).
My brother’s fine book, “Almost Forgotten”, chronicles 116 area men who lost their lives in the service of our country, dating back to the Civil War. He chose Alex Asti to represent them on the cover of his book. Alex was the area’s first (of 62) fatal casualty of World War II, when the cruiser Juneau was torpedoed and exploded during the invasion of Guadalcanal.
Captain and Doctor William Shadish survived World War II, then served in Korea in a M.A.S.H. unit. Captured when the Chinese entered the conflict, he spent 1,010 days in a POW camp. Despite being tortured and brain washed he continued to minister to his patients despite lack of food and medicine. He is credited with saving the lives of hundreds or prisoners, including fellow Bridgeville resident Larry Donovan.
For folks my age, history begins to transition into current events by 1960. I could easily add several dozen names to this Hall of Fame list; I would be happy to accept nominations from any of our readers.