Category: Water Under the Bridge

Veteran readers of this column are aware of my fascination with Catfish Path, the ancient Indian trail from what is today Washington, Pa., to the Ohio River, roughly following the Chartiers Creek valley. The southern terminus of the trail was Catfish Camp, allegedly named for a Native American whose name, in the language of the Delawares was Tingooqua. I have assumed there was someone with that name, but never knew for sure that he actually existed. Last Fall when I attended the re-enactment of the termination of the Mason-Dixon Line survey, I was surprised to see a re-enactor portraying a…

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Curtis Copeland Jr. did a fine job convincing us that his father was indeed “Bridgeville’s Favorite Son”; the passing of Skip Colussy has me wondering if there is room for more than one person to claim that distinction. I was three years behind Skip at Bridgeville High School, a Freshman when he was a Senior. I remember being particularly impressed that someone I knew was on the football team. His mother sponsored some sort of youth group at the Bethany Church, and we occasionally met at the Colussy home, so it was easy for me to consider Skip a friend….

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I have been aware of the Neville House since I was a child and have visited it many times since it became available to the general public. Nonetheless I seldom pass up the opportunity to go there. Their pre-Christmas Open House this year, “Christmas through the Centuries” was such an opportunity. Originally constructed in the late nineteenth century, it is now known as Woodville Plantation and is owned and maintained by a non-profit volunteer organization, the Neville House Associates, as “a living history museum”. John Neville purchased a block of land “five miles from Fort Pitt” in 1774; he became…

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A record crowd turned out for the Bridgeville Area Historical Society’s November program meeting, confirming Curtis Copeland. Jr.’s assertion that his father was indeed “Bridgeville’s Favorite Son”. Although his presentation focused on Curtis Copeland, Sr.’s experience in the Korean War and the influence it had on his later life, it necessarily covered the entire life of this remarkable man. Curtis was a year ahead of me in high school, graduating in 1948 and entering an adult world that was not particularly welcoming to a young African American boy. The economy was weak and jobs were hard to come by. I…

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Dana Spriggs has been a major contributor of artifacts to the Bridgeville Area Historical Society since its earliest days. Most recently he sent us full size copies of the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps for Bridgeville for 1907, 1913, 1924, and 1931. Produced primarily as a source of information for insurance companies, these large scale (one inch equals 100 feet) maps are sufficiently detailed to provide a wealth of information on our community in those years. We already had the 1907 and 1913 maps, but the two later ones are brand new to us and are extremely well appreciated. The 1924…

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Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece Fallingwater has long been a treasured asset of this region and a “must-see” destination for visitors here. Recently a second Wright showplace, Kentuck Knob, has become available for public tours. Located near Chalk Hill on Route 40, east of Uniontown, it was constructed in the late 1950s and has been lovingly maintained ever since. The I. N. Hagan family, of Uniontown, were close friends of the Edgar Kaufmann family and frequently visited them at Fallingwater. Through the Kaufmanns they were able to interest Mr. Wright in designing a deluxe Usonian house for them on a beautiful…

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This month’s presentation in the Bridgeville Area Historical Society’s “Second Tuesday” series was a salute to the Greatest Generation and World War II, in honor of Veterans Day. It was held a day late because the focus of the program, ninety-one year old ex-B 24 ball turret gunner Staff Sergeant Santo Magliocca, was busy on Election Day, working at the polls. The program began with a brief discussion of the contribution of the Greatest Generation, both at home and at the front, during the War. Then Joe Oyler summarized a small part of his book “Almost Forgotten” by recognizing the…

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On another lovely Autumn Saturday I drove to “the Original Mason-Dixon Historical Park”, in Core, West Virginia, to participate in a short hike to the point where surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon crossed Dunkard Creek for the third time, prior to ending their monumental survey at the peak of nearby Brown’s Hill. The park is jointly owned by Monongalia County, West Virginia, and Greene County, Pennsylvania. This particular event was the 249th anniversary of the termination of their survey; there are plans to have a major festival next year to celebrate the milestone anniversary. Finding the Park was an…

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The October program meeting for the Bridgeville Area Historical Society was an extremely entertaining discussion of the life and works of Stephen Collins Foster by Kathryn Haines, Associate Director of the Center for American Music at the University of Pittsburgh. Foster was born in the Lawrenceville area of Pittsburgh on July 4, 1826, coincidentally the day on which both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died. Although his father was a prominent citizen of the city, by the time Stephen, the youngest of their ten children, was born, the family’s economic status was modest, at best. He was a self-taught musical…

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We visited Meadowcroft Village and Rockshelter on a lovely autumn afternoon, attracted initially by the fact that they were supplementing their normal programs with a special re-enactment of Native American life in this area three or four centuries ago. Our first stop was the atlatl demonstration. The atlatl is a spear-thrower, a custom designed tool that uses leverage to greatly increase the speed and range of a hunter throwing a spear. The thrower rests the spear in the atlatl, then snaps his wrist as he brings the spear forward, effectively increasing the length of his throwing arm fifteen or twenty…

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