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MEETINGS
The next meeting will be April 13, at 7:00 in Kings Restaurant Community Room, in Sarver. Come about 6:30 if you want to eat dinner with some of the members. Beginning in May, and continuing through the warmer months, we’ll meet at the mill. The May meeting is scheduled for May 11, at 7 p.m. Meetings are on the second Thursday of each month.
SPRING CLEAN UP
Have a little extra time these days? We need to do some cleaning up, inside and out, at the mill. Call Don at 724/295-4635 to offer your services. We appreciate any amount of help and time you can give.
AND…
We are open, always, to material being submitted to us for publication in Grist. Contact Don or email through the web page (address under Grist for the Mill above). If you don’t wish to write the article yourself, give us a subject and we’ll try to find someone to write it and answer any questions you might have.
ERIC’S PICTURES
Eric Armstrong emailed two pictures taken in1955 by his brother, Chuck. They show Fifth Street in Freeport. Chuck worked at Thompson’s drugstore then and Eric believes the young lady in the second picture is Mary Pat Noble who also worked at Thompson’s.
OPEN HOUSE
Mark your calendars, Open House at the Mill will resume the third Saturday of each month from May through September. Hours are 11 – 4. Come one, come all.
VFW – ANNIVERSARY
Freeport Veterans of Foreign Wars will celebrate its 60th anniversary on May 1. They are now planning for a special observance on Memorial Day. If you have pictures or other artifacts from the early days of the organization, or anecdotes to share, please contact Don. You help is needed and appreciated.
JIM’S PICTURES
Two pictures are printed on another page in this newsletter. Jim Elliott, a long-time resident of Freeport and South Buffalo Township, was kind enough to share them with us. They were taken over 80 years ago. Rod Chapman has taken some time to look them over and give us the following words of wisdom on what we are seeing.
Scene of The Allegheny River in By Gone Days
One picture overlooks the river where the side-wheeler, steam powered pleasure craft, “Julia Belle Swain” is heading upstream to Freeport. Around the late 1920s and early 1930s, an organization in town hoped to make some money and sold tickets to ride the beautiful riverboat. The trip went through Lock #5 and on to Clinton, South Buffalo Township, to swing around and head down to Natrona near Lock #4 and then back to Freeport. On the very top of the craft was a calliope, a musical instrument powered by steam and consisting of a series of whistles played by keys as on an organ. Boy, did that music attract the crowd to the riverbank.
A View of Freeport, PA
The other picture shows a view of Freeport with Buffalo Creek directly below, and the Railroad with a line of boxcars is on the siding. West Penn Power Station can be seen at the end of Water Street (now Riverside Drive.) Four boats are coming to dock at Fourth Street. The Julia Belle Swain is the second craft and the other three are stern-wheelers.
It is hard to distinguish buildings as the print is black and white, but we can see Market and High Streets. In the upper left corner are Franklin and Washington Streets. Note the number of trees that line the streets.
Thanks, Jim for sharing your historical pictures with us; and, thanks to Rod for telling us what we are seeing.
MEMORIES
In the December/January issue, some residents of the area shared Christmas memories. This has led FAHS to plan a series on memories of long-time local residents. The first of these follows.
Josie Lowers
Josie Lowers is the daughter of Robert Haines and Lena Clark Haines and was born 2/3/16 in a house on Market Street. . They moved to Buffalo Street when she was a baby (that house is now owned by the Powell family) and when she was 5 or 6 years they moved to a house on Freeport Road, across from the Freeport Cemetery. There were 7 children in the family. When she was 8, her mother left her father, and he raised Josie and some of her siblings by himself. Her two oldest sisters were already married and her sister, Roberta, went with her mother. Remaining with her dad, besides Josie, were two brothers, aged 12 and 3, and a sister 5. Josie learned early on how to make a coal fire, how to light the oil lamps, how to do laundry over a washboard. She became an excellent cook, still known today for her goodies.
Josie does not know why her parents split up; her dad never said anything negative about her mother. But – although Lena lived in Freeport most of her life - the children who remained with their dad were not allowed to visit her at her home, nor was Lena allowed to visit them. After Josie was married she did have a relationship with both Roberta and her mother. Josie characterizes her mother as not a very nice person. Despite that, Josie nursed her through her final illness – cancer. In those days the patient wasn’t given the diagnosis – Dr. Hotham gave that to Josie.
The house on Freeport Road burned to the ground one day when she was 14; all that was left standing was a chimney. Her dad gathered up beds and some meager supplies and they lived in the garage until the house was rebuilt. By this time electricity was more common and so she no longer had to deal with oil lamps and she thinks the new house had a gas furnace.
Her dad didn’t show much affection, but he took very good care of his children and kept them together. Josie remembers wrapping the youngest up before she would go to school and the baby would go with her Dad on his job - he had a truck and did hauling for a living. Later Robert worked for the borough. Her brother used to sneak out of the schoolyard at recess and get in his Dad’s truck when it was parked nearby. Robert had to bribe him with candy to get him back in school. Josie said they had the only phone in their neighborhood, probably due to her dad’s hauling business. People could see the wire going into the house and would stop and ask to use the phone.
One regret in her life is that she didn’t finish high school – she quit in the 10th grade. Surprisingly, she quit because of clothes. She didn’t have much to wear and needed feminine underwear – something her Dad was unaware of. She wonders to this day why her older sisters didn’t help her out with this.
Josie married at 16, a neighbor, George Hines. Together they had 3 children. Josie worked for Helen Fullerton on Market St., across from where Brestensky’s store was located. She worked for Helen off and on for 20 years, 5 days a week, keeping house. She was able to take her children with her when necessary. Helen paid her $3 a week and was very kind to her. Josie has fond memories of her.
Josie’s brother-in-law separated from his wife and he and his two children moved in with George and Josie. They were with her for 10 years. George’s dad also moved in with them about the same amount of time, after his wife died. Josie was kept very busy caring for all these people; unbelievably at some point George said that she didn’t have any time for him and so he left her. They were divorced in 1945.
Some time later John Lowers returned from the service and moved in down the street. They dated and then were married. Within the first year of their marriage John was badly hurt at Allegheny Ludlum – most of his left hand was cut off. A nurse from AL came up to the house to tell Josie about the accident and took her down to the hospital. In those days there was no disability or help like there is today. But Dr. Heilman did a wonderful job with John. He was in the hospital for about a month, his left hand, or what was left of it, was put in his stomach. He was pumped full of penicillin and knew when he saw a nurse coming to flip over for the anticipated shot! The doctor was able to fashion a tiny finger where his little finger would normally be. John taught himself to do just about everything with the thumb and that new little finger and Allegheny Ludlum put him back to work.
John and Josie had a son and a daughter together. John was very good to the older children and didn’t treat them any differently than the children he and Josie had together.
Josie always worked; she kept house for various people, did washings and ironings, baked and sold bread, rolls, cinnamon rolls, etc., and in the late 1960s worked at a milk store located on 2nd street, not far from where she and John were living. Josie lost that job when another local resident took over. A friend said to her at card club one night – why don’t you sign up for unemployment. John didn’t think it would be worthwhile, but Josie went up to Ford City and signed up. She got a grand total of $18 a week. When her benefits ran out, a kind clerk in the office suggested she make at least $100 in the next quarter and she could reapply. Josie had no trouble making the money. Her second series of benefits were up to $21!
Josie doesn’t like Freeport so much as it is today. She wouldn’t live anywhere else, but it isn’t the same. Her friends are all gone, shops don’t exist. It used to be you could just walk a block or so in any direction and find a grocery store. Bus transportation was excellent (she never drove a car.) The grand sum of $5 would buy a whole table full of groceries. She could take her order into Girardi’s and they would deliver it to her home.
Josie has lived in the Freeport highrise for 7 years now and has many friends there. On January 1 of this year she suffered a heart attack and had a heart cath procedure. She has recovered and is as busy as ever, even walks up street occasionally. Her descendents include 5 children, 17 grandchildren (1 now gone), 34 great grandchildren and 10 great great grandchildren.
She accepted Jesus Christ a long time ago. Mrs. Fullerton told her that if you give some to the church, you always get it back. Josie feels that God has given her a wonderful life. She has been given the strength to deal with many adversities and doesn’t complain. She consistently has a smile on her face and looks decades younger than her age.
Many thanks to Josie for sharing memories and for the goodies she sent home with the editor.
PENNSYLVANIA MAINLINE CANAL
At the December, 2005, dinner meeting of the FAHS, Rod Chapman talked about the Pennsylvania Canal. Grist will include excerpts of these remarks beginning with this issue.
The Eastern and Central Divisions
There was talk for a long time before the legislators got around to making appropriations to start it in 1826. Surveyors and engineers were sent out through the countryside to decide where to put the canal and how to connect it with Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The first stretch would be done by railroad. The rail line would go west from Philadelphia to the Susquehanna – about 100 miles. The central division ran from the Susquehanna to the Allegheny Mountain.
The scope of this project was immense and the equipment available was limited. There was no special digging equipment, no electricity, and no telephones. It was all handwork, pick and shovel.
The engineers decided to place the central division along the Juniata River. The Juniata comes down out of the mountains and enters the Susquehanna at about Duncans Island. The canal had a 60 ft. right-of-way. Of that 40 feet was the actual canal; the sides beveled down to 28 feet wide across the bottom. The minimum depth was 4 feet.
When the canal got to Harrisburg the governor decided to have a big celebration. The canal was finally on the way.
Canals were built close to rivers so that, if they needed water during a dry season, dams built on the river could be opened to flood some water into the canal. Locks also had to be built along the way so that the boats could be lifted from one level to another. The locks were sometimes very close together – for example, along 127 miles of canal between Holidaysburg and the Susquehanna, 88 locks were built. The locks were 90 ft. long and 15 ft. in width. The locks could handle one barge at a time. They were made of masonry, all hand cut stone and the stones had to be dragged in. Some were dug up along the way at stone quarries in the mountains; but they had to take time to build roads to get the stone down to the canal. I’ve often wondered how many stone masons were employed, how many blacksmiths had to do the ironwork, how many laborers were needed – and how did they afford to pay them all.
At some places the canal had to switch sides of the river, because of the topography of the land, and aqueducts would be built at an angle to permit the boats to move along.
In the next issue, we’ll learn about taking the canal over the Allegheny Mountain.
THE YEARBOOKS
Gay Revi is at work again. She has recently placed the 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960 editions of THE FREEPORTIAN online. They have been scanned at high resolution and OCRd for printing. Go to: http://freeportpa.org/docs/37Freeportian.html
Many, many thanks to Vic Rutkoski for letting Gay borrow the yearbooks for scanning and OCRing. If anyone has trouble downloading these yearbooks, here's what to do:
1. Make a donation of $10 or more to the Freeport Area Historical Society, P. O. Box 107, Freeport, PA 16229. (Web address on first page.) Write YEARBOOKS on the memo section of the check. FAHS will let Gay know the names of those who have made a contribution for Yearbooks.
2. Email Gay
3. Gay will mail you a CD that contains all 4 yearbooks in PDF format.
As usual, thanks a million Gay, you are the best!
FREEPORT JOURNAL
From the April 13, 1906, edition:
Should be Easy Figuring
The Citizens of Franklin Street and the members of Council are having as much trouble over an assessment for paving as the general public had in solving the question, “How old is Ann?” We do not understand why the matter should cause so much worry. It is simply a question of paying for what you get. We had the same condition on Fourth Street when it was paved. The ordinance called for a certain width, but the people on the west side from Market to the river wanted it wider at that point, got what they wanted, and paid the additional cost. The ordinance for Franklin St. called for a 15 ft. street. Some of the residents wanted it wider, agreed to pay the cost, and any pupil in our school who knows the multiplication table ought to be able to figure out the assessment.
New Station at Butler Junction
A new station house at Butler Junction, modeled after the modern Italian style of architecture, has taken the place of the old one and Signor DiCarlos Castellini is correspondingly happy.
Can’t Come Too Soon
The City Dads are figuring on cleaning the paved streets by washing with water and wash day can’t come too soon.
And, in an untitled paragraph:
The street commissioner is grading the alley between Chester Long and Mrs. Cain’s property. Last year it was filled up. The borough made a mistake that was almost criminal when it did not buy the lot now owned by Chester Long and open Sixth Street to Putney Lane. Mr. Sweeney offered to give $200 towards the purchase, but the offer was not accepted and now it is too late.
Culbertson Should be There
The Kittanning Times says that John Marron, the noted anti-graft lawyer, of Pittsburg, will lecture to the court house soon, and admission is to be by invitation. We hope that the committee in charge will see that the district attorney gets a ticket.
Ed. Note: Does anyone know what the reference to “how old is Ann” is all about? Notice the spelling of Pittsburgh. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Freeport citizens still express their occasional displeasure with Council! |
