We All Need It

A post card currently up for sale on eBay, dated 1912 from H. Minney to Mrs. Janet Burnett of Carnegie, PA. Click each image for a larger view.

Monongahela Riverboat T.P. Roberts

Above is the Monongahela riverboat T.P. Roberts from a postcard postmarked Monongahela, PA. 1909. The T.P. Roberts was an engineers boat that visited the Elizabeth Marine Ways at least twice. Visit the website “Steamboat Building In Elizabeth PA” view other photographs and to read more about the boat and the people who worked on her.

Monongahela Matchbox on Ebay

I know that some of you collect Monongahela ephemera so here is a box of Monongahela Safety Matches made by Monongahela Candy Company currently up for sale on eBay. Notice Washington’s scowling face. I guess he never cared much for Monongahela after the Whiskey Rebellion.

Mingo Park Map

Here’s a great map of Mingo Creek County Park. Click here to download the .pdf file of the map. Keep a copy on your iPhone for future reference when out at the park.

A Cold Bath

Monongahela Republican - Monongahela City, December 19, 1851

A COLD BATH – Our friend Mr. William Coulter, while skating on the river, on Wednesday last, broke through the ice and went down in ten feet water, and a hundred yards from the shore. He succeeded in keeping from being carried under by supporting himself on the surrounding ice. A large number of citizens were soon collected, but the ice being insufficient, their efforts to rescue him were unavailing. At this desperate extremity he commenced breaking the ice with his elbows, and succeeded in getting within a few yards of shore, when being overcome with cold he sank down helpless; but by the laudable courage of some of the bystanders he was rescued and carried to a private house where, after much difficulty, the vital current was started to his extremities, and is now on a fair way of restoration. His clothing was frozen to his body, and had to be cut in pieces to be removed. He is said to have been in the water at least half an hour, and the thermometer 4 degrees below zero, which is certainly an extraordinary feat of human endurance. A crew composed of such metal would render valuable service in a Polar expedition.

Improvements To Mingo Park Bicycle – Walking Trail

Washington County is making substantial improvements to Mingo Creek Park with the installation of a new trail alongside the main road in the park. Most of the trail is now paved with 4 new bridges to be installed as soon as weather permits.

Bicycling on the main park road has been unsafe for years with the lack of berms, sharp corners, limited sight distances (see photo 1) and no speed limit enforcement. It was safer to ride the huge berms along route 88. Cost of the improvements will amount to $546,000.

It’s money well spent considering that hundreds of people will use the trail all year-round. Compare that to the cost of the Aquatorium renovation which will cost $1,200,000 for a structure which is only used about three times a year when it isn’t under water or covered in mud.

More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About The Charleroi-Monessen Bridge

click image for larger view

An extensive report of the history of the Charleroi Monessen Bridge can be found at HistoricBridges.org

What I found most interesting was the appendix at the end. It tells of how all the records of the American Bridge Company (the company that built the bridge) were lost with filing cabinets full of documents and scores of historic photographs thrown away. It’s tragic.

Transcript of a telephone interview, on the subject of American Bridge Company records, with Raymond Shepherd, director ofthe Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Old Economy Village (Ambridge, Pennsylvania), 24 July 1997.

Key:
DSR David S. Rotenstein
RS Raymond Shepherd

DSR: Can you tell me why you do not have the records of the American Bridge Company?

RS: As they were closing, they offered Old Economy •the Commissioner •any furniture that we wanted from their offices. So I went down to the Strip District [Pittsburgh] where all the records were and everything and took what I needed. When I got there 1 saw all these banks of records of files and so on and I asked what they were. They said, ‘Well, they’re our business records.’ I said, ’1 hope that you’re going to do something with
them. Would you think of giving them to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to Old Economy for the archives?’ And they said, ‘Absolutely not. We don’t want people going through our records and looking and finding mistakes and things like that.’ There was even an architect’s drawing of one of their bridges, I recall, it was the Bay Bridge in San Francisco that was over top ofthese maybe ten file cabinets that were four drawers each, legal sized, and I said, ‘Well, could you at least let us have that?’ They said, ‘Absolutely not.’ So when I asked, and I will again ask, when I engineered our getting the furniture, to find out what did happen. But it’s my understanding that ail the files were thrown on the trash heap in Pittsburgh to get rid of them. We do not have them and I do not believe that the Western Pennsylvania Historical Society [Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh] got them either, but you might want to check them.

DSR: Do you recall the name of the American Bridge Company official with whom you spoke?

RS: Not now …. I think they’re gone. We did our best to try and encourage – as a matter of fact, when I went back to the American Bridge headquarters here in Ambridge, there were probably a hundred photographs just sitting against the wail on the floors and I said, ‘Well, gee, what about those photographs. What are you going to do with those?’ This is the time that it was U.S. Steel, that they were trying to place it before the Russian College went in there. I said, ‘Would you give us some of the photos….’ We do have some photos, for instance, the building of their headquarters building back in 1905, 1910, whatever it was. And i said, ‘It would be very nice to have that as a document of the history of Ambridge.’ And they said, ‘When we’re finished with them, we might consider it.’ But I’ve tried two or three times since then to get those photographs and they wouldn’t give them to me. [He explains that his efforts to secure the records were 'five or more years ago, at this point.']

DSR: You said something earlier [before the tape] about insurance liability. Was that something they said specifically?

RS: Oh yes, that was exactly the reason that they would not give them to us. I said, ‘These bridges, a lot of them have already been taken down and it would be such an important part of the history of bridges in the United States.’ And they said, ‘[It's] of no importance. We’re not interested in that, in these records to survive.’

This reminds me of a story I was told about how boxes of old photographs in the archives of Monongahela’s newspaper, The Daily Republican, were discarded when the newspaper was sold to The Observer Reporter. The person telling me the story said he (or she – can’t remember now) rescued a few but many were thrown out.

A Little More History Of The Liggett Spring And Axle Company

From the July 31, 1902 edition of Iron Age

The Liggett Spring and Axle Company, manufacturers of high-grade carriage and wagons springs and axles, whose plant is now located in Allegheny, Pennsylvania are going ahead rapidly with their plans for building a new works near Monongahela City. The company have secured at this place at tract of 150 acres, on which the new plant will be built, and the main building will be 600 feet long. Contracts have been given to the McClintic-Marshal Construction Company, Park Building, Pittsburgh, PA., for the erection of the buildings, all of which will be of steel, except the boiler house. The Coshocton Iron Company, recently organized at Pittsburgh, and who are a constituent interest of the Liggett Spring and Axle Company, will also direct the plant on this new track.

2012 New Year’s Resolution:

to post at least three stories per week on Lost Monongahela! Hope you are successful in keeping your resolutions and may you have a happy 2012!

The Race Track – AKA Armstrong Field, Ringgold Soccer Field In Monongahela PA

I am working on an upcoming blog post and could use your help. Do any of you have any information or memories about the area known around Monongahela as the “Race Track” aka Armstrong Field? Currently located there is a soccer field, a softball field and on the southern end is Cox’s arena.

Here is a link to a great article in the Union-Finley Messenger with information about the Cox arena and Armstrong Park. To summarize the article:

• In 1874 the Monongahela Valley Agricultural Association purchased the 25 acre plot known as the “Driving Park”. The association sponsored fairs featuring horse racing.
• Later, the “Monongahela Driving Park Association” sponsored harness racing. Betting was allowed and thousands attended.
• Later the area became known as the “Monongahela Speedway” as harness racing gave way to automobile racing. In 1936 “Deb Miller drove a Miller Special at an average speed of over 70 miles per hour which broke all records at that time for dirt track racing.”
• During World War II victory gardens were planted there.
• Shane and Kate Cox currently sponsor equestrian events most weekends throughout the summer. You can contact Shane and Kate at thecoxarena@aol.com

I found a few old newspaper articles that mention this area and I’ll post a few stories this week.