I recently had the privilege of spending some time with a wonderful group of young people – the leaders of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapters from universities in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. I originally was recruited to give a talk at their annual Assembly, which was held at Pitt this year, hosted by our student chapter. Then, at the last minute I ended up pinch-hitting for a much more qualified expert, as a tour guide/narrator for a Friday night cruise on the Gateway Clipper. Actually it didn’t take much arm-twisting…

Continue reading

Long time readers of this column will remember that I am a member of a group of chronologically challenged (elderly ?) men whom my daughter Elizabeth calls “The Dirty Old Men’s Book Club”. We meet once a month and discuss a book we have all read and then negotiate the choice of the book for next month. Last month we ended up compromising on Saul Bellow’s highly acclaimed novel, “The Adventures of Augie March”. It unfortunately is much too long for me to read in my normal fashion and properly enjoy it. I managed to get through it and then…

Continue reading

The October program meeting of the Bridgeville Area Historical Society was moved up a week this year to avoid a conflict with Halloween. The speaker was Glenn Flickinger; his subject, “The Origins of World War II”. Mr. Flickinger is a highly successful business consultant who is a passionate history buff with the ability to share his knowledge and enthusiasm with the rest of us. World War II is his favorite topic, probably because numerous members of his family were directly involved in it. In fact, his mother was a nurse in Honolulu on December 7, 1941. He very effectively traced…

Continue reading

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