Two hundred and fifty years ago this October Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon ended their survey of the southern border of Pennsylvania, built a modest monument on top of Brown’s Hill, and then turned around and retraced their steps back to the eastern seaboard. Largely through the efforts of one man, Pete Zapdka, this historic event was celebrated this year by a festival at the Mason Dixon Historical Park in Core, West Virginia. Zapadka is the type of person who decides something should be done and then proceeds to make it happen. Four years ago he attended a ceremony in…

Continue reading

For its October “Second Tuesday” workshop the Bridgeville Area Historical Society interrupted its study of the history of Bridgeville High School to focus on the community’s most famous “cold case”, the murder of Pennsylvania Railroad Station Agent John C. F. Franks attempting to prevent a robbery one hundred and two years ago. On a peaceful Saturday evening, October 16, 1915, a pair of strangers, whose presence in Bridgeville had been noticed for several days, entered the Norwood Hotel bar-room and enjoyed several drinks. A few minutes before 8:00 they paid their bill and left. They crossed the railroad tracks and…

Continue reading

The Jefferson College Historical Society has a long and distinguished record celebrating the history and heritage of the Canonsburg area. They recently invited me to speak at their Fall meeting. With the subject of the talk left up to me, I decided to discuss the impact of the Flannery Brothers on the Chartiers Valley region, knowing that their involvement with the Standard Chemical Company in Canonsburg was historically significant. James Flannery began the family’s successful business career by opening a funeral parlor in Homewood. By the time his younger brother, Joseph, graduated from Holy Ghost College (now Duquesne University), there…

Continue reading

The first program in the Bridgeville Area Historical Society 2017/2018 series was a treat for railfans, a discussion of the Little Saw Mill Run Railroad (LSMRR). This three mile long line ran from a coal mine located where Wentzel Avenue intersects Banksville Road today to a barge loading facility on the Ohio River in what is now Pittsburgh’s West End neighborhood. The speaker was a retired railroader named David Aitken who possesses a remarkable knowledge of railroading and coal mining in the nineteenth century, especially in the South Hills area. He has researched these topics extensively and was able to…

Continue reading

This week we have a guest columnist – my brother Joe – reporting on a significant event that I was unable to attend. In his words: On May 16, 2017, students at Chartiers Valley High School under the guidance of Robert [Bob] Rodrigues, a history teacher at the school, honored 32 men from the school district who had perished while serving in the military during World War 2. In an outdoor ceremony held behind the school a plaque bearing each man’s name was added to an existing monument. This was the fourth such project carried out by Bob and his…

Continue reading

The Bridgeville Area Historical Society continued its research into the history of Bridgeville High School at its September “Second Tuesday” workshop. This time we were able to cover four graduating classes – 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1938. The facilitator began the session by reminding the audience of conditions in the middle and late 1930s. The Depression had dragged on and actually got worse following Franklin Roosevelt’s re-election in 1936. Severe weather events were big news. The Dust Bowl Heat Wave brought 109 degree temperatures to Chicago. The worst hurricane ever recorded (185 miles per hour winds) hit the Florida Keys….

Continue reading

It has been our opinion that the only visit of a sitting President to the Chartiers Valley was the trip President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife took to Washington, Pa. to visit relatives of Mrs. Grant. Recently I learned that I was grossly mistaken and that President James Monroe had indeed visited Canonsburg on September 5, 1817 and then gone on to Pittsburgh. It turns out there is a monograph by a gentleman named S. Putnam Waldo, entitled “The Tour of James Monroe, President of the United States, through the Northern and Eastern States”, which describes a remarkable trip…

Continue reading

I received a message recently from the Pioneers West Historical Society regarding their Annual Historical Log Homes Tour on Saturday, September 16, 2017, from 10 am – 2 pm. They thanked me for attending the event last year and devoting a column to the Walker-Ewing Log House, and invited me to come back this year. Unfortunately that event conflicts with another commitment for me; nonetheless the tour merits mention. Pioneers West is a wonderful organization of dedicated people committed to the preservation of the Walker-Ewing Log House, which is located at 1355 Noblestown Road in Collier Township. The house was…

Continue reading

I thoroughly enjoyed the eclipse. However before I get into that I must apologize for an error in my column on the last “Second Tuesday” workshop. The correct date for the next workshop is September 12, not 19 as reported. I initially made myself a small pinhole projector from a cracker box, but was disappointed in the size of the image. Consequently I fabricated one about forty inches long from a box that originally contained a vacuum cleaner. This was much more successful and I was pleased with the photographs I was able to take of the images. The children…

Continue reading

Most of the time I have to put a lot of effort into writing this column, but sometimes the columns write themselves. This was the case today. I had to drive up to Conneaut Lake and meet with a handyman who is doing some much needed work on our cottage. I haven’t spent much time there since my wife died, and the place desperately needs a caretaker; fortunately my neighbor there found just the right person for me. Consequently I found myself heading north on I-79, a trip I have made many times in the past. It was strange this…

Continue reading