October has been filled with memorable experiences, the latest of which began with a short visit to Chautauqua. One afternoon I suggested to Beth that we go exploring, and, like the dutiful daughter she is, she quickly assented. The result was an enjoyable trip and a rewarding short course on transportation history for the past three centuries. We began by driving to Mayville, a quaint village located at the north end of the lake, then directly toward Lake Erie on Route 394, “the Portage Road”. Aptly named, this road follows the route of a Native American portage dating back many…

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When I was working on last week’s column I became aware that one of the Waynesburg & Washington Railroad (W&W) locomotives, “the second Number 4”, was still in existence and on display at the Greene County Historical Museum. On further investigation I learned that the 54th Annual Greene County Harvest Festival was scheduled for the first weekend in October. I think our family attended an earlier version of this festival about fifty years ago; it took a very small amount of persuasion to convince Beth we should make a return visit this year. The drive down I-79 was pleasant and uneventful;…

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Leesa Shady must have had me in mind when she established the schedule for the 2025/2026 Bridgeville Area Historical Society program season; the very first one was a talk on the Waynesburg and Washington Railroad (W&W)! Speaker Jim Weinschencker is a classic railroad buff who has been fascinated by the W&W for thirty years and has spent much of that time researching it and preserving its legacy.  My interest in the W&W is at least that long, although my personal involvement in commemorating it has been minimal. The railroad was chartered in 1875 to link the county seats of Washington…

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One of my favorite organizations, the Oliver Miller Homestead Associates, recently sponsored an event at the Homestead, commemorating fifty years of their dedicated stewardship to that venue. I had the pleasure of attending this well-attended event, significantly adding to my knowledge of their organization and the heritage that they continue to enhance. Any discussion of the Oliver Miller Homestead must begin with the story of its namesake. Oliver Miller was born in County Antrim, Ireland, in 1720 and came to the New World with his family when he was a teenager. The Miller family initially lived in West Nottingham Township…

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One of the reasons I enjoy the Fall season so much is the proliferation of rural festivals. High on my list is the Washington/Greene County Covered Bridge Festival, held on the third weekend of September each year. There are thirty covered bridges in the two counties; this year there were individual festivals at the sites of nine of them. As my mobility declines, I find myself preferring the more modest events to the extremely large ones. This year I decided to revisit the McClurg Covered Bridge site and was rewarded with an excellent experience. The drive from Beth’s home in…

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The combination of a series of positive experiences at my favorite local libraries and the realization of the local support that makes each of them successful convinced me that this subject merits a column celebrating “Love Your Library” month. I am grateful for the way the Bridgeville, Mt. Lebanon, and Carnegie libraries enhance my life. Each of these institutions is unique, with its own positive benefits for its clients. The Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall in Carnegie has been providing outstanding services to that community since 1901. In addition to functioning well as a library, this building boasts…

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Production of a memorable calendar with a local historical theme has become an annual Bridgeville Area Historical Society tradition. This year, in anticipation of next year’s quasquicentennial celebration, their theme is historic Bridgeville houses, with a goal of identifying houses that are at least one hundred years old. This is an intriguing project. My initial reaction was that houses that old might be rare; on reflection, however, to a nonagenarian, a century isn’t nearly as long as it seemed when he was middle-aged. The house we lived in at 1053 Lafayette Street is eighty-eight years old, and I don’t consider it…

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Thanks to octogenarian John Poellot and his precocious nephew Jimmy Patton, we have a detailed knowledge of Bridgeville in 1859 – a dozen houses, a grist mill, three farms, a doctor’s office, a hotel, Hugh Morgan’s store, and one hundred residents. By 1901, when the community was incorporated as a Borough, the area between the two crossings of Chartiers Creek had been transformed into a prosperous town boasting well over two thousand inhabitants. Recently, compliments of “Newspapers.com”, we have become aware of a tool that helps us map this remarkable transformation – the “Mercantile Appraiser’s List”, an annual tabulation of…

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In honor of Bridgeville’s quasquicentennial (125th) anniversary next year it is appropriate for us to review our compilation of local history and fill in some gaps. We have frequently mentioned various members of the Murray family and their significant contribution to our heritage but never focused a column on them; this week we will make up for that omission.  James Gailey Murray grew up on a farm in the early eighteenth century, then entered the mercantile trade in Allegheny City, on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. Based on that experience he opened a general store in Sodom (Clifton) which he operated successfully….

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As I threatened last week, this column is a report on our visit to Chautauqua this summer. In addition to “settling in” to our new summer house inside the Institution, we were treated to a wonderful variety of experiences – high level lectures, concerts, classes, and memorable social occasions – all against a backdrop of beautiful weather. Coupled with the environment of the Institution grounds, it made one think of Camelot. Each week during “the season”, the Institution presents a series of lectures on specific themes, featuring prominent expert speakers in the 4,400 seat Amphitheater. The “Amp” is a covered…

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