We recently had the privilege of meeting with a group of South Fayette Seniors and discussing the pioneers who originally settled what is now South Fayette Township. We have talked and written about early settlers in the general Bridgeville area; this was our first opportunity to focus on South Fayette. We began by revisiting the series of events that led to the establishment of the township in its present form. Pennsylvania’s claim to southwestern Pennsylvania was finally upheld in 1780. At that time Washington County was established; it consisted of all the land west of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers….

Continue reading

While sorting through some old papers at home recently Alfred Barzan came across a nostalgic artifact that he thoughtfully has donated to the Bridgeville Historical Society. It is an eight-page mimeographed program for the “Bridgeville Grade School Operetta, 1938”. Although its pages have turned brown in the ensuing eight decades, its contents are easily legible and overflowing with nostalgia. Apparently the talented students at Washington Grade School took over the Auditorium at Lincoln High School at 8:15 pm one evening and presented a pair of vintage operettas. Nowhere in the program is the date given; the subject of both operettas…

Continue reading

The Bridgeville Area Historical Society opened the new year with one of its rare Sunday afternoon programs. The speaker was a young lady named Dana del Bianco who specialized in studying Stalinism, at Carnegie Mellon University. Her subject was a Soviet hero of World War II, Roza Shanina, a decorated sniper. Miss Shanina was born in Yedna, Russia, in 1924, and educated at a pedagogical college in Archangelsk, Siberia. She was working in a kindergarten when war broke out and she joined the Red Army. Women were treated as equals in the Soviet Union; it is not a surprise that…

Continue reading

One of the most interesting persons to crop up in our review of “Pop” Ferree’s workbooks is a gentleman named Robert Johnson, or on occasion, Robert Johnston. He is mentioned prominently on page 46 of “Bridging the Years”, the official publication of Bridgeville’s Golden Jubilee in 1951, in an article entitled “Bridgeville’s First Factory”. According to this source, Mr. Johnson is the same gentleman who became famous as the first excise tax collector to be tarred and feathered by the Whiskey Rebels, at Pigeon Creek, on September 6, 1791. The description of the grist mill he built a dozen years…

Continue reading

The Bridgeville Area Historical Society recently acquired a curious set of workbooks with no record of their donor nor any explanation of their origin. I was able to borrow the first one in the series and have enjoyed going through it. The worksheets are 8” by 10 ½”, some typed, some filled with meticulous hand calculations, and some containing scaled plots of land surveys. Each book has a return address label on it, giving the name of Joseph A. Ferree and his address on Chestnut Street. Book One is entitled “Bridgeville, 1786 – 1846. There are more than three hundred…

Continue reading

The Bridgeville Area Historical Society recently received a valuable collection of memorabilia related to the Bridgeville High School class of 1946, from alumnus Paul Schmidt’s widow via fellow classmate Ed Chabala. A very young Paul Schmidt is portrayed in a photograph on page 90 of the Society’s Images of America book, “Bridgeville”, helping his mother make apple butter in an outdoor kitchen. Paul was a member of Boy Scout Troop 245 in 1943 when I joined it, and preceded me through high school by three years. After Paul grew up and left Bridgeville he maintained contact through his boyhood friend…

Continue reading

As we enter a new decade it is appropriate for us to roll the calendar back a century and examine Bridgeville one hundred years ago. According to the 1920 Census its population that year was 3,092, still significantly smaller than its neighbors, Carnegie and Canonsburg, but enough bigger than the mine patch towns in the nearby townships to be an important commercial center, filled with small businesses. Evidence of the proliferation of these businesses is an advertisement in the January 21, 1920, Canonsburg “Daily Notes” for Franco-American Coffee, “Begin Tomorrow with a Smile”, that lists area dealers where it can…

Continue reading

Although it is still 2019 as I write this, it will be a brand-new year by the time it is published. In addition, we will be deep into a new decade, the tenth one which I will enjoy. Even more impressive is the fact that my nonagenarian friends will be celebrating their eleventh decade – that is impressive! Like any other year, 2019 was full of ups and downs. We lost half a dozen “best friends”, each of whom had lived long, productive lives. This makes our continued contact with current friends and with family members even more precious. Rather…

Continue reading

In today’s world Wikipedia has replaced the Britannica as a basic reference for significant, as well as trivial, information. Wikipedia follows a simple format for similar subjects. For small communities they always include a topic entitled “Notable People”. The Bridgeville entry in this category includes seven persons – five athletes and two writers. The criterion for being included in this list is unknown to us. Synonyms for “Notable” include “worthy of note”, “remarkable”, “distinguished”, “prominent”, “outstanding”, “eminent”, and “prestigious”. That would appear to be a good context for considering candidates for this designation. As a point of reference, Wikipedia credits…

Continue reading

Writing a weekly column is an interesting experience, primarily because of the absence of immediate feedback. My family and close friends do comment frequently, but the vast majority of my audience is remote and unknown to me. Occasionally someone I know will remark on something I’ve written or some complete stranger will announce “I recognize you from your picture. You’re the guy who writes that column in the paper. I enjoy it!” Nonetheless I sense a bond with all of our unknown readers and have, for the past few years, set aside this one week to write a Christmas letter…

Continue reading