MEETINGS
June 6 and July 11 meetings will be held at the Mill. Please note change of date for July meeting.
NEWS OF THE MILL
The Historical Society plans to have an Open House at the Mill on Saturday, July 27. This will coincide with the Freeport International Baseball Invitational. Interested visitors can visit by making a donation.
More cleaning needs to be done before then and volunteers are always needed. We will work at the Mill on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. starting June 13. Please call Don to be sure that work will be done on any given Thursday and also to see what equipment might be required - such as a broom, bucket, mop, etc. Don can be reached at 295-4635.
We have received a bid of about $13,000.00 from Bill Bower, an Amish craftsman, to make repairs to the roof. This money will include new metal, replacing any bad wood in the roof and new gutters. We are required to obtain at least one more bid.
WHAT'S NEW WITH THE GRANT?
Over $4,400 has been pledged to date and some of the pledges have already been paid. Any extra money we have after repairing the roof can be put to other needed repairs. We do not yet have a date when pledges need to be paid.
The grant is a "work in progress". Rivers of Steel is working with Don and there is still much work to be done. Grants will be awarded for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1 - this means that no "paid" work will be done on the Mill until then.
THANKS
To these wonderful supporters who have made pledges:
Blair & Margaret Grube
Franklin & Sara Jane Bouch
Frank M. Craig
Don & Bonnie Collar
Gary Keefer
John E. Shoop
Carol Hale
Walter Ward
River Forest Country Club
Allegheny Ludlum Technical Center
Barry and Sandy Jordan
David Rowley
Betty McKnight
Denise R. Blackburn
J. M. Elliott
Rev. D. A. DeBlasio
Grace Fatchet
Al & Robin Bennett
Tom Meyers
Ruth Sleighter
Susan Przybylek
Jean M. Sokolowski
Joy M. Laube - in memory of Dutch
Edward N. Shirey
June Thompson
Redmond Funeral Home
Harry E. Brenneman
IS YOUR ELECTRIC BILL TOO HIGH?
While doing some cleaning at the mill recently, Historical Society member, Robin Bennett, found an old electric bill from West Penn Power Co. It was sent to M. C. Mickey on 5/19/49 and was for a grand total of $2.50. How times have changed!
HEIRLOOM RECIPES
Stay Soft Drop Sugar Cookies
2 C. sugar ½ t. salt
1 C. shortening 2/3 t. nutmeg
3 eggs 1 ½ t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla ½ t. baking powder
4 1/3 C. flour 1 C. sour milk
1 C. raisins
Cream sugar and shortening. Add eggs, one at a time. Add dry ingredients alternately with sour milk and vanilla. Mix in raisins. Drop by spoonfuls on cookie sheet. Bake at 325º for 10 or 11 minutes until slightly browned. Sugar slightly.
Submitted by Betty McKnight in memory of her mother, Carrie Rowley.
Q and A
Q. When was the high grade put in, how was it done, what happened to railroad traffic while it was being built? - Paul Rieger
A. The high grade was built over the old canal right of way. The canal was built between 1826 and 1829. The Benjamin Franklin was the first boat to go down the canal from Freeport. It took 5 hours to make the trip to Pittsburgh. The canal was never a success, it was simply too slow. Often local mills could only grind grain during the freshets in the spring months - meaning the mill operated for only about 3 months each year. When the steam engine began to be used, milling could be done all year around.
Another type of mill was a horse mill. In those mills a horse was harnessed to a beam that turned a set of burrs. The horse went around and around the stone burrs in order to turn the top burr on the stationary bottom burr.
Grist mills were among the earliest
commercial establishments to operate in most communities. It wasn't
convenient to have to travel for days to a mill to have grain
ground. The grist mill was a place where local and national news
could be exchanged as people waited for their grain to be ground.
The miller was like a living town bulletin board; he heard about
everything that was going on in the community.
RAILROAD NEWS A BIG THING WHEN CENTURY WAS NEW
Of course we are referring to the 20th century!! The following is another article by Vernon Ross, written in about 1956.
Nineteen hundred and six was a year of great activity and change on the PA Railroad in the Alle-Kiski Valley. This activity was of such local interest that a weekly newspaper of June 15 of that year devoted almost a full column to local items of railroad activities and personnel changes in the area. One of the items was that a baggage agency had been added to the freight and passenger services at Creighton station. Another item stated that 4 additional trains were stopping, at least during the summer months, at Denny Station.
Mr. R. J. Claypool was named acting agent at Saxonburg (Cabot) on the Butler Branch of the PA RR. He succeeded A. G. (Alf) Ross who resigned to become a railway mail clerk on the B & O.
Another important item of the day was the contract for relocation of the tracks at Blairsville. It was awarded that spring.
In the same issue of the newspaper an advertisement of the West Winfield Railroad Co. showed that there were 7 trains running each day between Butler Junction and West Winfield. All of the trains made connections at Butler Junction with trains of the PA RR for Pittsburgh, Blairsville, Butler and intermediate points.
WOODEN REPLICA
Our next fundraising item will be a wooden replica of Trinity Episcopal Church on 6th Street. If you have any knowledge or information about the history of this building, please contact Karen McDermott at 724/295-2242.
JEFF COLEMAN
Representative Jeff Coleman will visit the mill on June 6, 2002.
FROM JOHN SHOOP'S WEATHER
BOOK
1848 - 1870
4 of June 1858 there was amost tremendous storm & the hevest rain I ever saw & skies were all over red as fire a tremendus seen…the thermom on 21 June 1858 stood 86 in Shade…Dutch John Miller went to the penitentiary on the 21 day of June 1858…on the 24 June 1858 we had the hevest rain I ever saw…my morning Post runs out Augt 19 1858…the water was let out of the canel on account of a slip above the Dock on June 2 1858 & was let in again June 26 1858…the Seceder Church was Struck by litening & killing Mrs. Watson & burning R. Morris & J. Ralston considerable June 27 1858…there was a hevy rain on the fist July 1858 at 8 in the Eve…on the 11 July at 5 E hrdest rain I saw…William Osburn Died July 16 1858…James Atkinson' girl was Drowned at the head of Island July 16 1858…on 6 Augt therm stood 86 Shde 103 Sun…the thirm stood Augt 17 in sun 130 shade 84…there was frost in Butler Co. on 24 Augt 1858 which frose the bucket…Gilespie & Burgs oil factory was burned down Sept. 7th 1858…Ember day Sept. 15 clear & warm…the wheat was Worth 1.10 ry 60 corn. 50 oats 40 flower 5.50 a barrell…Doct Gilespie died Sept 23 1858…on the night of 4 Oct 1858 the river 6 feet…the first snow we had in the fall of 1858 was Oct 8th 1858…The first Steamboat that com up in the fall of 1858 was the Venango Oct. 13
Editor's Note: Spelling, punctuation and grammar are as written by John Shoop.