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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The second workshop in the Bridgeville Area Historical Society “Second Tuesday” series was focused on the Greenwood Neighborhood. For purposes of this workshop Greenwood was defined as “a neighborhood in Bridgeville bounded by Dewey Avenue, the back yards of houses on Bank Street, Gregg Avenue, and the woods on the hill leading down to McLaughlin Run Road and Baldwin Street”. The facilitator followed the format introduced at the Historical Society Open House last August, tracing the development of the neighborhood from its earliest days to the mid-twentieth century. He began with the original warrants for the land that eventually became…

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I suspect most of us are fans of covered bridges; being a Civil Engineer I have no choice. Last month I decided to take advantage of the Washington and Greene Counties’ Covered Bridge Festival and visit a couple of bridges I had not seen before – Krepps and McClurg. Both bridges are in western Washington County and are of similar size. Krepps Bridge is located about five miles north of Hickory, on Covered Bridge Road, very close to its intersection with Waterdam Road (Legislative Route 4018). It is still in use, carrying Covered Bridge Road over Cherry Creek, a small…

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The Bridgeville Area Historical Society kicked off its 2016/2017 program season with a presentation on the evolution of the election process in our country, by Todd DePastino. Mr. DePastino’s annual appearance in their series is always a treat – this specific illustrated talk was not an exception. It seemed particularly relevant this year. The speaker began by reminding the audience that the U. S. Constitution contains very few specific requirements regarding the popular election of our officials. The members of the House of Representatives were the only ones initially chosen by the voters, Until 1913 U. S. Senators were selected…

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I recently had the pleasure of attending an Open House at the Walker-Ewing Log House, on Noblestown Road, between Oakdale anf Rennerdale. Thanks to Loraine and Rich Forster, I was familiar with the house although I had never previously had the opportunity to visit it. Loraine and Rich have discussed it several times at meetings of the Bridgeville Area Historical Society; I was not surprised to run into them at the Open House. The house is currently owned and lovingly maintained by Pioneers West Historical Society, a non-profit organization with the sole purpose of preserving this magnificent example of frontier…

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The Bridgeville Area Historical Society kicked off a new series of audience-friendly workshops, eponymously called “Second Tuesday”, to remind each of us that they will be scheduled at 7:00 pm on the second Tuesday of each month, at the History Center in the old Pennsylvania Railroad Station in Bridgeville. Our first subject was the J. B. Higbee Glass Company, and there certainly appear to be lots of folks interested in it. The Higbee Glass Plant produced glass tableware in this area from 1907 through 1918 at which time General Electric purchased it, primarily to manufacture light bulbs. The workshop began…

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My daughter Elizabeth, my grand-daughter Rachael, and I visited the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden one recent Saturday afternoon. Getting there turned out to be a bigger challenge than we anticipated. Google Map took us out the Parkway to the Campbells Run exit, then southwest to the site. Right after we encountered a sign saying two miles to the Botanic Garden, we ran into another informing us that Baldwin Road was closed. No problem, we will detour down McMichael to Rennerdale and take Noblestown west to Pinkerton and we’ll be home free. This we did and were rewarded with a sign saying…

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I was saddened to learn of the passing of Bill Norcik. I was a year ahead of him at Bridgeville High School and Penn State and always considered it an honor to be considered his friend. I first became aware of Bill in the spring of 1947. I had recently become exposed to the sport of soccer in gym class and thought it might be fun to try out for the high school team, as a tenth grader. The good news is that a soccer team needs about two dozen players merely to put on a full blown practice. The…

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