Category: Water Under the Bridge

I recently had the good fortune to be invited to give a presentation to the Historical Society of Collier Township. My subject was a summary of the seven workshops the Bridgeville Area Historical Society just completed, dealing with George Washington’s seven visits to Western Pennsylvania. Coming up with a title for the talk proved to be easy; a common theme running through the workshops was the way these experiences helped convert an ambitious, athletic twenty-one-year-old into a world-renowned statesman. Hence, “Forging a Character”. The audience was impressive. In addition to Sal Sirabella, Gene Czambel, and a nice group of Collier…

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Family history is a subject that regularly attracts my interest. I am not sure what kicked it off this time, but recently I decided to take another look at the Oyler family tree and see if I can add any information to it. For many years our family has maintained and updated a master copy of our own genealogical history. It actually is a descendancy chart recording all the descendants of Adam Douglas and Annie Malinda Smith Oyler (my grandparents) and a trail of Oyler ancestors back four generations to Johan Georg Euler. At each family reunion we make a…

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I recently received the “Official Democratic 2020 Presidential Survey” in the mail, accompanied by a request that I share my priorities for 2020 with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. My first reaction was quite positive – they really are interested in my opinion! Although I consider myself a moderate, probably leaning more to the conservative side than the liberal, I am registered as a Democrat. Living in Allegheny County there really isn’t any point in voting in the primary election unless you claim to be a Democrat. I commend the Committee for being upfront about the real purpose of the…

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The Bridgeville Area Historical Society kicked off its 2019/2020 program season with an interesting presentation on memorabilia from past Presidential political campaigns by Mr. Stephen E. Mihaly, based on his collection of over 20,000 items. When he was a child, his family was addicted to garage sales and flea markets. One weekend they bought him a collection of campaign buttons, introducing him to a hobby that soon became an obsession. He began his presentation with the 1896 election which pitted Republicans William McKinley and Garret Hobart against Democrats William Jennings Bryan and Arthur Sewall. The Populist Party also nominated Bryan…

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One of my current projects is compiling a history of the neighborhood where I have lived for the past fifty years. It was developed in 1939, and we are having difficulty finding information about its early days. This has prompted me to record my recollections of Lafayette Street, the neighborhood where I grew up eighty years ago. In 1939 I was eight years old; my brother Joe, two. We had moved into our new house at 1053 Lafayette in 1937; the neighborhood was still a combination of new houses and vacant lots. Lafayette Street runs, in a general north to…

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One advantage of reading this column is its unprecedented record of presenting exclusive scoops, reports of significant events that no other journalist is covering. This week’s scoop is a critical review of the eagerly anticipated premiere of the Noh play, “Gettysburg”, in the Charity Randall Theater on the University of Pittsburgh campus. Because of my daughter’s role in coordinating the event I have been somewhat apprehensive, apprehensive that the performance would not live up to expectations and apprehensive that it would not attract a significant audience. Fortunately neither apprehension was realized. The performance greatly exceeded my expectations and was enthusiastically…

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Although the purpose of our trip to Gettysburg was focused on the battle itself and Lewis Armistead’s participation in it, it was easy for me to get distracted by other interests. The first distraction came before we even reached the village. As we came in toward town on the Chambersburg Road we passed an impressive stone barn to the south of the highway. Elizabeth promptly reported, “McPherson’s Barn”. I was aware of McPherson’s Barn and its significance in the first day’s battle. Our beloved Company D and the rest of the 149th Pennsylvania Regiment were heavily involved in action adjacent…

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Last weekend I had an unanticipated treat thanks to my daughter Elizabeth– a trip to Gettysburg! She is heavily involved in a symposium on the premiere of a play that will be presented in the Stephen Foster Memorial on the University of Pittsburgh campus at 7:30 pm on September 14, 2019. The play is based on one of the fundamental subplots in the drama of the Battle of Gettysburg, the overpowering friendship of two key antagonists in the conflict – Confederate General Lewis Armistead and Union General Winfield Scott Hancock. The opportunity to revisit the battlefield was too much for…

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Five and a half years ago Jim Fry donated his collection of railroad memorabilia to the Bridgeville Area Historical Society to become the nucleus of their railroad exhibit in the caboose annex at the History Center. His contribution included 140 books and pamphlets, plus thirty-four VHS tapes related to railroading. My column, dated February 13, 2014, reported on the wide variety of material in the collection – detailed descriptions of specific railroads, technical books dealing with rolling stock, scenic railroads all across the country, model railroading, etc. – and predicted it would become the basis for a major asset for…

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Most of us are familiar with the accepted story of how Bridgeville got its name. In the early days a Virginian named James Ramsey had a warrant for “Purity”, 102 acres in the western half of what is now Bridgeville. He assumed his property extended to the center of Chartiers Creek. At the point where the Black Horse Trail, the main road from Washington, Pa. to Pittsburgh, crossed Chartiers Creek, Ramsey made significant improvements and stationed a toll collector there to charge the local farmers for passing through. This idea did not set well for the locals. In 1793 they…

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