“Water Under the Bridge” is a column written by historian John F. Oyler. It appears weekly in the Bridgeville Area News, a TribTotal Media publication, as well as in a more expanded form on his blog.
About the Author: Aside from being Bridgeville’s foremost historian, Dr. John F. Oyler is also an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh, where he teaches classes in civil engineering.
Water Under the Bridge, Copyright © 2016-2020
Last week Ed Wolf posted all twenty-four pages of the June 19, 2008, “Bridgeville Area News” on the “Bridgeville, Then and Now” Facebook page. My column in that issue discussed the optimistic plans for the Bridgeville Public Library, located at that time in the old railroad station, to build a new facility at the end of McMillen Street, funded by a campaign to raise $3,500,000. I lauded their efforts and recorded my hope that the station would survive as an historical building. What a change we have seen in the ensuing sixteen years! Thanks to the generosity of the McDivitt…
For the third straight year, Public Art Bridgeville is sponsoring an outdoor sculpture exhibit. This year’s exhibit includes three popular holdovers from last year and seven intriguing new ones. Let’s take a self-guided auto tour and check out all ten pieces. We will begin driving south on Washington Avenue from Kirwan Heights. After we pass under the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad bridge, we see, on the right, a striking combination of interwoven curved blue shapes with an orange thread inter-twined with them. Immediately, we realize this must be one of Guy Bellaver’s “Quarks” series. And, of course, it is….
My favorite fellow brick collector, Jean Bear, recently received an inquiry requesting information on brick making in the Bridgeville area in the late nineteenth century. The questions were posed by a gentleman named Brendan Gallagher, who is the great-great-grandson of James Frain, a well-known local resident in his time. Mr. Frain died in 1896 at the age of fifty-two. His son “lived on Prestley Road with the Schultes and Mayers”. Family lore reports that he or his heirs sold a brick yard to C. P. Mayer. There is also a family rumor that there are bricks with the name “Frain”…
In March the Bridgeville Area Historical Society reverted to its traditional “last Tuesday Evening” schedule with an excellent presentation on the Whiskey Rebellion by local historian Brady Crytzer. Mr. Crytzer spoke extemporaneously, covering the “big picture” causes of this significant event in the early years of our new nation and the important role it played in defining the nation’s identity. He is a history professor at Robert Morris University; the author of seven books about local history, including one on this subject; and narrator/commentator on several television series dealing with American history in the colonial/Revolutionary War era. The speaker began…
Several times each year my daughter Sara takes a break from her busy routine and comes here to visit me. This year her visit coincided with a trip to Seattle by Beth and her family, and the opportunity for us to baby-sit their dog, Gunnar. It’s been well over seven years since I have had a dog; Gunnar was a welcome visitor. Recent DNA tests have reported that he is part Walker Tree Hound, part Great Dane, and part Pit Bull; I still think he is mostly Blue Tick Hound. I have been declared too feeble to take Gunnar for…
In recent years my favorite sport event has become the Iditarod, the sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome. It commemorates the 1925 Serum Run to Nome when relay teams of mushers and sled dogs delivered vaccines to Nome to head off a diphtheria epidemic. In 1972 three Alaskans, concerned that the advent of motor-driven snowmobiles would force sled-dogs onto the Endangered Species List, proposed a rigorous long-distance race replicating that historic event. This year’s Iditarod is its fifty-second running. It began with a ceremonial start in Anchorage, followed by an official “restart” eleven miles north, in Willow. This year…
Illegal immigration and/or “the Border Crisis” are major concerns and frequent topics of discussion for my “Conservative” friends. They are generally concerned that I am not specifically aware of it nor of its severity. Out of courtesy to them I have recently invested a little time gathering information on it and attempting to put it into its proper perspective. One must begin by defining terms. Most of the sources I have found define an immigrant as being someone of foreign birth residing in this country. A recent Pew Institute article reported that there are around forty million people meeting this…
As I reported in last week’s column, Warren Merritt’s presentation to the Bridgeville Area Historical Society contained far more information on the history of coal mining in this area than could be covered in a single column. This week we will attempt to include the other local mines that he covered and identify those in neighboring communities for which we have relevant information. We will begin with the Katie Mine. According to its mine map it worked the Pittsburgh Seam under Gould City Hill. Its tipple was located near Villars Street and served the Bridgeville and McDonald (B & M)…
When I was researching the history of coal mining in Bridgeville a year ago, I came across a video of a recent talk on Bethel Park’s mining history by a gentleman named Warren Merritt. I immediately contacted him and asked if he would be interested in presenting a similar program for our Historical Society. This month my efforts were rewarded when he did precisely that. Mr. Merritt, a mining engineer, is a graduate of Michigan Tech, retired from a long, productive career with CONSOL Energy Inc., currently dividing his time between consulting and researching the rich heritage of bituminous coal…
As the years pass and my productivity declines, I find myself dialing back on many of my activities. So far that has not included this weekly column. I still derive a lot of enjoyment from it, particularly when a specific column motivates the readers to comment on it. I try to acknowledge feedback when it is received, but my weak acknowledgements are inconsistent with its significance. For example, the recent pair of columns on Route 66 stirred memories in a number of the readers. Tom Grossi reported that he and Jerry Martincic had driven Route 66 to California in 1964…