Connellsville Crossroads Magazine - Summer 2020

FAY E T T E CO U N T Y C U LT U R A L T R U S T

Summer 2020 | $10.00

IN THIS ISSUE

C onnellsville Crossroads

ON THE COVER Ida May Alsop, last known Connellsville Canteen lady, turns 106.

4-6 7- 9

Contents

Summer 2020

History in the Trash Heap - Jamie Patton

50th Anniversary High School Musicals - Karen Hechler

10-11 12-15

Unlock Your History - Daniel Cocks

Spanish Influenza - David L. Geary, Ph.D - William R. Morris

16 - 17 Ida Mae Alsop - Rev. Dr. Elder Twila Lee Wynn 18 - 19 20 21 22 - 23 24

Henry Clay Frick - Cassandra Vivian

Wade Edgar Swink - Sebastian Bryner Dr. Margaret Chung - Daniel Cocks

Andrew Piter WWII B-17 Crash - Donald J. Madar - Jeff Antol Neighborhood Partnership Program Partners

One of the Fayette County Cultural Trust’s initiatives is a Downtown Connellsville program. Please check out our new web site at: www.DowntownConnellsville.org

The Fayette County Cultural Trust is a fiscal agent for the Rural Arts Collaborative program. For more information please visit us at: www.RuralArtsCollaborative.org

C onnellsville Crossroads Fayette County Cultural Trust Volume 12, No. 2• Summer 2020 X Executive Director Daniel Cocks President J. Michael Edwards Vice President Karen Hechler Treasurer Bryan Kisiel Board Members Gerry Browell John Coleman Mary Dreliszak Vicki McWilliams Lori Omatick Graphic Designer Daniel Cocks

I hope that all is well with our readers and the Coronavirus has had minimal effect on you.

These are tough times for America and this will surely go down into the history books as one of the worst pandemics in our lifetime. I’m sure 50 years from now, readers who weren’t born yet, will be learning about this virus and how it affected all of humanity.

The Fayette County Cultural Trust made the tough decision to temporarily close down the Connellsville Canteen WWII Museum on March 16th. This decision allows our staff to be safe and also allows our downtown restaurants to make the extra funds that may have been spent at the Canteen. We continue to pay our staff for the time being. We expect to reschedule the many programs that we had to cancel this spring.

The Cultural Trust still has projects planned this year. One of them includes a public art project on the northern side of the Christian Church located at 212 South Pittsburgh Street.

This project is going to replicate a huge stained glass window. Local artist Randi Stewart has been commissioned to paint the project. The Christian Church has already installed lighting so this project will be illuminated at night. The other projects, in the works this year, include continuing on façade improvements on historic downtown buildings and filling the flower planters along Crawford Avenue with flowering plants.

In this issue of the Connellsville Crossroads you will learn about Ida Mae Alsop. Ida was born on the 4th of July, 1914. She is a special lady and the last remaining Canteen Volunteer who helped serve the troops passing through Connellsville during WW II. She will be turning 106 years old. Her late husband, James Alsop, was the first African American police officer to serve in the City of Connellsville. This July we wish Ida a very Happy Birthday!

J. Michael Edwards

www.FayetteTrust.org www.DowntownConnellsville.org www.ConnellsvilleCanteen.org www.RuralArtsCollaborative.org

President Fayette County Cultural Trust Connellsville Crossroads Editor www.fayettetrust.org S. Joy Lewis X Subscription orders may be placed on-line at www.FayetteTrust.org/ Connellsville-Crossroads.html.

Or in person at the Connellsville Canteen, 131 W. Crawford Ave., Connellsville, PA 15425 Or by phone, 724-603-2093.

X Connellsville Crossroads magazine is published quarterly (March, June, September, December) by the Fayette County Cultural Trust, 139 W. Crawford Ave., Connellsville, PA 15425.

The official registration and financial information of Fayette County Cultural Trust, Inc. (EIN 65-1283985) may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll free, within Pennsylvania, 1-(800)-732-0999.

Registration does not imply endorsement.

S. Joy Lewis

Connellsville Crossroads Editor

What an interesting time this is! Everything is upside down, people are staying home, some are sick, it is a time to slow down, reflect and work on the home and the yard. And make plans for the future! We are all learning new vocabulary, like flattening the curve. I have been spending way too much time on Facebook instead of being more productively employed, and I hope you haven’t had the same problem. One of the interesting comparisons we can make is that Connellsville today has almost exactly half the population it had in 1918. So, doing the math, the population is half as dense. And as my brother in the very densely populated Alameda County, California pointed out (on Facebook, of course) – The spread of Covid-19 is based on two factors, how dense the population is and how dense the population is.

The brightest spot lately in our news is that yesterday and today (April 14) are the first two days that the number of Covid cases in Fayette County is not double (or more) the number from one week before. I’d have to conclude that the curve is, indeed, flattening.

And one correction to make - the final photo in last issue’s story on John Shal’s Legacy should be captioned Janet Parkerson, Nicolete Cloutier (not Faith Strickler) and Dan Kelly.

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History in the Trash Heap

by Jamie Patton

Carmichaels

*This article was inspired by letters salvaged from a trash heap outside a home in Greene County that once belonged to John B. Gordon.

in farming and raising livestock. According to Samuel Bates, “Hon. John B. Gordon was reared on a farm and received instructions from his father in the art of husbandry, an honorable occupation.”ii Gordon was a wellknown and respected member of the community serving seven years as Major in the 46th Regiment of the Militia and by 1825 he was elected county commissioner, serving two terms. In 1847 John had married Delilah Ingram, shortly before his election into the House of Representatives for Greene County, during which time he again served the state for two terms between 1847-1849.iii The collection of letters details life in Greene County mainly focusing on these topics: Whigs vs. Democrats and the Second American Party System, bank bills and charters, transportation (construction of roads), and illness.

We may find many of these subjects relatable, but one in particular piqued popular interest during the 1840s.

By 1840, Greene County was home to 19,147 people, most of whom were rural farmers. Besides the Monongahela, there were no major waterways for transportation, which limited the growth of the county. The opening of roads, improvement of the Monongahela River and construction of railroads positively impacted development

In the late 1840’s, before modern advancements in technology, one way to connect with others was by writing letters, especially within connections of business, family and politics. By the time of the Civil War, people produced and read more letters than any other genre of writing.i Delving into period letters has helped to decipher what life was like and what was deemed important at the time. Thanks to the letters of one man, John Brice Gordon, we can gain insight into a small county’s communications before the Civil War. Without local correspondence, we miss the big picture: how local history matters. These salvaged letters have given us a chance to see behind the headlines of national issues through a different lens.

This local Greene County, Pennsylvania correspondence, which includes the content of common issues, helps us closely examine this antebellum time. Some topics of the day are still modern issues. Each letter was written by either a concerned citizen, family or fellow legislator to receiver John Brice Gordon. John Brice, born in 1798, moved to Greene County after being granted a patent on a 1,000-acre piece of land outside of Waynesburg in southwestern Pennsylvania. John found success 4

and growth. Earlier in Pennsylvania history, the best course to travel across the state was via Braddock’s Road.

However, this was a great deal of travel back and forth from the newly settled areas.iv Unfortunately, when the opportunity arose for the construction of the National Road, Albert Gallatin, a resident of the neighboring county, supported the construction of Route 40 through Brownsville, thus causing Greene County to be bypassed.

The County would be bypassed again when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was extended westward from Cumberland, MD to Wheeling, (West) Virginia in 1852, as the first railroad built across the Allegheny Mountains.v Instead of allowing them to cut through the corner of PA, the Pennsylvania Railroad made sure to be the only railroad operating within Pennsylvania, forcing the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to go around the southwestern part of the state.

One of the major proposals during Mr. Gordon’s term in office was, “the state road bill from Waynesburg to Uniontown by way of Carmichaeltown” (or as we know it today, Carmichaels). The new proposed road was crucial, since as previously mentioned, there was inadequate transportation within the area and it would better connect the county allowing more room for advancement.

Israel Craft, the commissioner of Carmichaeltown at this time, wrote often to Mr. Gordon, mostly against the proposed direction of the road. In his letters he presents many petitions for the said road, but also provided

insight about new and better routes. In January of 1849 he writes, “the said route was up a small stream for miles that but few of the persons residing there could accommodate.” The so-called stream, Muddy Creek, would be a hindrance for travelers especially during the winter, at this season of the year when (with) high water and ice, the road would be impassable.”vii Mr. Craft writes again specifically pertaining to his farm as well further disputing the proposed road, “I live nearly in a direct line from Waynesburg to Uniontown but no complaint is made of the location till after it passes my farm, after that I have no interest on either route proposed neither do I know that I shall have.”viii He also states within the letter how the proposed route along Muddy Creek would cost more money, “appropriation be made to build at least 10 bridges that would cost, at least, $400 each.”ix The current day equivalent is upwards of $13,000 each. Another gentleman by the name William Crawford also wrote in regard to the petitions against the proposed road, “I sent you some copies of a petition for a review of the state road from Charles Swan’s to Uniontown, that part of the road west of Swan’s house appears to give pretty general satisfaction.”x One man, James Barnes, also wrote specifically of being stuck in the middle of the two proposed routes which has caused turmoil among other town members.

At the end of his letter, he writes, “I never saw men appear to act more conscientious under any appointment.”xi John B. Gordon House Waynesburg, Pennsylvania

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Unfortunately, it is unclear what became of the road discussed in these letters. Almost ten years later, a turnpike for Greene County was built by the Waynesburg Turnpike Road Company, chartered by the Commonwealth, in March 1859. It extended from the mouth of Bates Fork in Franklin Township through Waynesburg to the east end of Morrisville and then to Rice’s Landing on the Monongahela River. This new road, not quite in the same direction as the prior proposal, was a needed advancement in Greene County’s transportation, also opening up better access to the river.

Finding this collection of letters to John B. Gordon opens a world of insight, and we receive glimpses of what life was like in Greene County during the late 1840s, including being able to see the playing out of national issues and trends on a local scale. We also get to relate in some ways to the struggles of those before us as even to this day, the country strives to reach new levels of advancement. As a young student who could not decide on

her future, the letters have sent me on journey to become my dream, a Historian. Many people who would have found these artifacts would not think twice about their value. To conclude, next time you decide to clean out your attic or basement and get rid of all those old boxes, take a good look first before throwing them out. Better yet, if it is old, and even if it isn’t particularly old, but it includes content that relates to the local area, make an appointment to drop it off at your local historical society.

Their mission is to collect, protect and share local history, and they have a lot of experience sifting, sorting and evaluating. One man’s trash is truly another’s treasure. I learned an incredible amount about the town, home and county I live in from these discarded letters. Items like these make splendid additions to the collections of local historical societies and can be used for ongoing historical and genealogical research. What is quoted above only scratched the surface of the contents and there is much more potential for study.

Adam Nemmers, Kassia Waggoner and Mary Couts Burnett. Yours in Filial Regard: The Civil War Letters of a Texas Family. (Fort Worth, Texas: Texas Christian University Press, 2015). ii Bates, Samuel. History of Greene County, Pennsylvania, (Chicago: Nelson, Rishforth, 1888), 665. iii “John B. Gordon,” Waynesburg Republican, January 3, 1877. iv G. Wayne Smith. History of Greene County, PA. (Morgantown: Cornerstone Genealogical Society, 1996). v Ibid. vi Israel Croft, letter to John B. Gordon, January 15, 1849. vii Ibid. viii Ibid. ix Ibid. x Wm Crawford, letter to John B. Gordon, January 19, 1849. xi James Barnes, letter to John B. Gordon, January 20, 1849. i

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by Karen Hechler EXCELLENCE IS THE WORD BROADWAY TO CONNELLSVILLE, 50 YEARS OF MAGIC When you begin your career as a teacher, you hope, as an idealistic young person, that you will instill a respect and appreciation for your subject in the students who participate in your classes. You hope that they will see the value and lifelong benefit of having spent some time with you in discussing and applying the subject material to the real world. Sometimes the light bulbs go off in the minds of students, and they immediately understand the values being stressed in class. Sometimes, years later, a now adult will stop you and share how your class made a difference in their lives. When you teach a mandated class that everyone must take, some students thrive on and love the subject; others decide to dislike and even hate the subject.

There are other teachers who offer elective classes where the students are selected to attend, or the students can choose to participate. Some of these teachers offer the students an opportunity to perform in front of an audience where they can act, sing and dance, hear applause and read great reviews about their talents. For a teacher to work intensively, with great dedication and vision, with a group of willing young people for weeks and months and then present the results of that hard work in a magical setting like a Broadway musical, must feel like the greatest of accomplishments.

On Saturday, February 29, 2020, those who attended the Gala Celebration of 50 years of Broadway Musicals in Connellsville saw that truth become evident. The love, appreciation and gratitude of many accomplished former students who participated in those 50 outstandingly professional performances was directed to Merle Stutzman, Henry Molinaro and Michelle Harbaugh, the producers and directors of these life enhancing and life changing musical experiences. To be able to get that close to your students, to introduce them to such a life altering experience, and to be so respected for that magical moment on the stage must produce treasured memories for these three outstanding high school music teachers. One of the performers even thanked Merle for making her feel like a STAR! The entire afternoon had a particular magic. New Haven Hose Social Hall had been beautifully decorated as if for a wedding or prom. Fresh flowers on each table, beautiful settings, and a small golden box of excellent Colebrook candies greeted each patron. We got to see some of the past costumes from earlier musicals created

by Carol Kirk and students at Connellsville Senior High School. The atmosphere was electric as you greeted peo-

ple and looked for a seat. Delicious hors d’oeuvres and a meal served during the entertainment were prepared

by Sparks Catering. Having a program to direct you through the festivities was a must in my opinion. The Ink Spot, which is owned by Dave and Karen Holbrook of South Connellsville, was right on the “Spot.” It was particularly beautiful, jammed with historical covers of all the 50 musicals and filled with vital information. This magnificent program was produced as a gift by the owners of the Ink Spot! What a lovely and generous gift to the community. Copies will be treasured and preserved by members of our community and enjoyed for years to come. They might even be found in the archives of the historical society.

Many people were responsible for this event. The three committee chairs, Chip Rowan, Barry Craig and Justin Teets, all had a connection with the musicals produced at Connellsville High School over the years. Barry, involved in the first musical, Oklahoma!, has 50 years of happy memories of being part of the productions. Chip was responsible for preserving the 1995 and 2020 musical anniversary celebrations, videotaping them and then making them available for the public to purchase. Justin even showed us how to swagger as it was done in Grease. Every one of the musicals was produced with a professional eye towards the outcome. When you attend a Connellsville Broadway musical, you expect and witness an event that rivals what you see on the professional stage. Even if you are only in the audience, you feel a swell of pride for what was accomplished by the ensemble, and you forget that they are high school students, prepared to perform by faculty members of the local school district and other local talent, many of whom have served, in some way, to help prepare past musicals over the years.

Three directors of the musical Left to Right: Michelle Harbaugh, Cindy Molinaro (widow of the late Henry Molinaro), Merle Stutzman and Barry Craig, committee member.

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I can’t begin to imagine the mix of emotions - pride, love and humility, in the minds and hearts of the directors and their families present at the Gala. We saw a touching tribute to Henry Molinaro in which he discussed the musicals he had produced and we heard his beautiful voice singing, “Ave Maria.” How proud, but how sad at his early loss, was this moment for his family.

Michelle could only stay a short while because she had to be at the high school for the production that evening.

But Merle had a blast. He was surrounded by grateful, loving, adoring former musical participants who celebrated him, Henry and Michelle all afternoon. Very few teachers get to participate in such an outpouring of gratitude to them from so many former students. They deserve it and can treasure those moments always. How wonderful to hear such testimonies to the difference you have made in so many lives. All those long hours of practice were worth it.

It was amazing to hear Judy Keller, former teacher and committee member, read the biographies of those former students presenting songs from the musicals in which they had participated. So many of the performers went on to study music, voice and theater in their higher education. Some went into teaching and produced their own musicals. Some became nationally known professional actors, some performed on cruise ships, and some even performed on Broadway. Can you imagine that! I loved the video from Howie Michael Smith. Connellsville musicals are part of his “tool box” which helped him get to Broadway. How must it feel to hear one of your former students thank you for helping them get to Broadway?

Not many teachers have that honor. How many teachers can hear a former student like Sandy Costello Vargo say that when she attended meetings of music teachers’

conferences that a quarter of the teachers were “Merle’s Kids?”

In all there were 16 different performances involving approximately 30 of Merle, Henry and Michelle’s former students dating from 1971 to 2018. All of these talented performers were accompanied on the keyboard by the unbelievably talented Levi Graft, also a committee member. Not only is he amazingly gifted as a pianist, he was playing in a darkened room, and keeping in sync with the performers who wanted to talk before they sang, or forgot some of the lyrics, and he had to keep the music going smoothly while waiting for the singer to continue, often by improvising from time to time. He did an outstanding job while the lights were off and the waiters were delivering the meals. What power of concentration!

Other committee members told me that Levi made the whole thing work. That is quite a compliment.

One question in my mind was how many who performed at the 50th Gala had also performed in 1995 at the 25th Celebration. I knew that Dave Petrone had been in the original Oklahoma! in 1971, and he returned to sing in both 1995 and 2020. He’s a classic! Todd Reagan returned, sweeping us back to South Pacific for the second time as he sang “This Nearly was Mine.” Jamie Kostik Tressler returned for the second time charming us with a number from Annie Get Your Gun. Justin Gillott also returned and lifted our spirits with “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof. They were all a joy to hear. To experience how that greatly promising youthful talent has developed into today’s mature, experienced voices must be so rewarding. You, years ago, saw that special gift and gave those students an opportunity to strive for continued excellence.

Night of the Gala - New Haven Hose Facility 8

For 50 years, Merle, Henry and Michelle have been stressing excellence and challenging their students to achieve heights never formerly expected of senior high school students. For 50 years that expectation has been achieved and even been excelled. These students, involved in all aspects of producing these musicals, have taken that excellence out into the community and into their sections of the country and the world where they are now living and contributing to society. We know that news of this Gala even reached one of the former participants, Rabbi Leon Morris, who resides in Jerusalem. How can you measure such an effect in the lives of so many people? As some of the performers said, when their parents took them to the musicals as youngsters, they couldn’t wait to be in high school and perform in the musicals. We thought of the youngsters in the audience this year dreaming the same dream for themselves. What an excellent tradition! Thank you for everyone involved over the last 50 years, and thanks to the entire Gala Committee which also included Rick Fike, Sarah Iaquinta, Chelsea Ritenour and Rachael Szabo, for you vision to plan ahead and present such a dazzling time for those of us who were lucky enough to attend. What an effort!

Thanks to Armstrong and Somerset Trust for their sponsorship of this historic Gala. To the director-teachers of these musicals, could you ever have imagined how your influence would impact society? To other teachers, your influence might not be so evident as what we have seen this night, but most students appreciated their dedicated teachers.

Who knows what the next 50 years will produce? I can’t wait until next year’s musical is announced, and the magic will return, once again, to the stage of Connellsville Senior High School to delight the audience and inspire the next generation of students waiting to be part of this Connellsville Tradition of Excellence.

Past costumes used in the musical under the direction of Carol Kirk.

Can you imagine the pride and joy when Merle and Sandy Stutzman saw and heard their son, Commander Aaron Stutzman, singing the National Anthem, acapella, via a videotape from the submarine where he is stationed? What a surprise for them and all the audience at the Gala.

Hearing from former Connellsville School District Administrators was also important because this Connellsville musical tradition requires the cooperation of the School Board as well as school administrators and staff who must continue to teach in the classroom while students are busy preparing for the musical. Bob McLuckey was supportive of the efforts of the staff, appreciating the outstanding cultural enrichment produced for our community. Being a proud grandfather, he said that the opportunity afforded his grandson has made the family proud. The former superintendent, Gerry Browell, presented his thoughtful summary of the influence these Broadway musicals have had on the Connellsville community, and he delighted the audience with his rendition of “Thanks for the Memories.” How appropriate!

Dave Petrone, the original Curley from the 1971 performance of Oklahoma.

Photos in this story were taken by S. Joy Lewis 9

Jamie Kostic Tressler, Annie from Annie Get Your Gun.

History Center Affiliate Program Workshop – Deep Dive into the Untold On February 25th the Fayette County Cultural Trust partnered with the Heinz History Center’s Affiliates Program to have “Unlock your History” come to Connellsville and help transcribe letters that were written in German, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic and even older English. Experts in translations Stefan Israel and his sister Pamela Israel are dedicated to preserving history and helping people find their roots. I had found a 3-page letter written in 1830 in German cursive which they kindly translated. This letter was written in New Haven, Pennsylvania (now Connellsville) to a friend in Pittsburgh.

Below is the transcription of the 1830 letter sent from New Haven, an unincorporated settlement outside of Connellsville. This piece was hand-written in Kurrent, an older German cursive. Most German speakers stopped using Kurrent in the first few decades of the 1900s.

Dear Dahlmann

Neuheven[New Haven] the 25th of March 1830

I received your letter on the 22nd and I want to be quick to reply to you. I have been thinking for the longest time, how I should take care of my affairs, but I feel like there still just isn’t any certainty there. I’d like to share with you my views. Bringing [them (no further information)] here is no different than letting them rot in Pittsburg [sic].

Perhaps Mr. Reider [Rider?] would [illegible word]them in his storage place, there’s space enough out in front of it, or maybe it’ll find its way somewhere else, even if I have to pay something, if not, then put them in your cellar, put stone[s] on the floor and always keep them up just as high as you can and as close to the cellar door as possible, then it will be right by the Dreckkasten [a box for holding household feces for sanitation workers to cart off], and not up against the wall either. If they should have to leave the house, the big box is the first thing to take care of, a piece should be nailed to the broken board and I would think, repacked from scratch. Make sure you get pearl rice. Reider has lots of that in his cellar, get them really soaked and hit them with a hammer in the cellar where you folks will want to bend [sic] them and nail 4 of them on the lid. It’s not really feasible to go to Pittsburgh for the time being, with costs and delays, it would cost me 8 thalers [dollars]. Well, I’d like to write to you folks again how things are here. The beginning of March, Pitterford came back from Pittsburgh and paid the workers for the month of January.

He paid me a half [dollar] for the day; I had decided not to say [anything] but to just take whatever he gives me, so I wouldn’t get into any unpleasant contact these winter months. After a little bit, the work leader [foreman?] reihtriedel [possibly Wright Riedel?] came over to me and asked about my money, I explained to him that I did not want to work for a half [dollar], whereupon he said if I didn’t want to do it, there are others who will, since the factory would be stopping in a little while, I replied I wanted to wait out the month of March. When the Fa.H. [abbreviation, probably for Fabrikherr, ‘factory owner’] Pitterford came back, he said there wasn’t any wool, the eastern states had bought up everything, and for the past 8 days, there hadn’t been any spinning or weaving; there was wool just once 4 weeks ago. I would like to write to you all again about the circumstances at the fa[ctory]. The first company has started up, even though 36 looms have been running day and night. This current spring, only 8 looms are running, all week there’s not so much product being finished as would fit in a crate. I’d like to give you folks a little overview now to judge by. The factory space is probably as big as the C[atholic] church yard is where you are; there are offices, wool building, dye building and drying building on the four corners [of the space], in the middle the factory, everything in top condition. They have some horses with wagons and drivers as well; the upkeep may run 59 [dollars] a month. The foreman 50 [dollars] a month, then, 13 men are employed, most of them get a [dollar] a day, plus three boys, without the weaving girls. And then they have a warehouse in Pitts[burgh] and a ’Stohrhaus’ [a store building-presumably for sales, not storage] with personnel, and now they have rented a big house [here: building] to set up a store here as well with personnel, then the capital that the factory has, without all the stuff that goes along with that, repairs, [illegible], soaps, dyes etc.

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They probably want to pay the workers with store goods, which for a bachelor is not acceptable. 2 new partners have joined the business, maybe without money, so they are a five man company. These [past many] days, someone tried to steal from the offices, and that even, as I was going into the factory to hit the clock*, they broke open a simple cabinet and made off with the key to the iron money box; the lock has been changed. How easily I can land in an investigation. Somebody also made off with my small bit of cash recently. You should [know] that things here are really uncertain. If it happens that I quit, or have to quit, and I have no prospects to find work in Pitt[sburgh], then I won’t be coming to Pitt[sburgh] in the next while, so as not to burn through my limited funds unnecessarily, I’ll turn to Philadelphia instead, to possibly find work that way. Callorain Elbefeld* has [illegible]ed. I wish I’d also gotten a letter, you all will be happy that the brother [his brother?] is coming. The few [illegible]s with Hayer failed. I wish Bäcker luck with his plan, and that things will become certain. If you folks were to come because of me in order to check out employment, I would like that. In conclusion: may God the Lord wish us the best, steer all our wishes and desires, and see through omission, through all these dark clouds, and to sooth the poor heart, as we transit the ordained ways with trust [in the Lord]. I hope that my letter will find you in good health; I for my part now have to haul fragile heads. My greetings to you all each one, with [illegible] Conrad Bohs

This is the second year that the Heinz History Center has brought this program to the Connellsville Canteen. We would like to thank Robert O. Stakeley, History Center Affiliates Program (HCAP) Coordinator at the Senator John Heinz History Center and Pamela Israel and Stefan Israel from Unlock Your History. If you have something to “Unlock” in your history please visit their web site at UnlockYourHistory.com.

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October 1918 was the worst month in Connellsville’s history.

Fear gripped the city.

by David L. Geary, Ph.D., and William R. Morris

Soldiers from the Connellsville area were under attack in France in the Great War, with deaths and injuries reported every day on the pages of The Daily Courier.

The month’s bond drives raised ever higher funds for the war effort. Connellsville sacrificed greatly and gave generously.

People here also did without meat, wheat, fats and sugar to help those fighting in Europe where battlefields replaced farms and farmworkers fought the Germans.

But in March 1918, a Kansas physician reported a violent strain of influenza which killed young healthy people near what today is the Army’s Fort Riley. The virus could have been contained, but 56,000 soldiers living and training in cramped conditions were on the move.

When the Army did enforce small, strict quarantines, the virus didn’t spread. But further enforcement was ignored; there was a world war to win.

By May 1, 24 of the Army’s 36 camps reported influenza outbreaks. Soon soldiers and those who visited them began to die. More than 30,000 soldiers died in training camps from the flu while others survived.

Rev. W. J. Everhart, pastor of Connellsville’s First Presbyterian Church, was one soldier who died of the virus.

He was training in Kentucky to be an Army chaplain.

Because of the virus, only one person was allowed in the church at a time for his lying-in-state.

One soldier who survived a virus attack at Fort Lee, Virginia, was Connellsville’s Max Floto, who would suc-

ceed many years later in getting Armistice Day, November 11, now Veterans Day, declared a national holiday.

Our allies were fighting for survival. Nearly two million American soldiers went to Europe to help, many unknowingly carrying the virus. They infected thousands and thousands along their way.

The new virus, from wherever it came in the world and several theories exist, became known as the Spanish flu.

The virus would eventually encircle the planet, infect a third of the world’s population, and kill 50 million — probably many more — including at least 675,000 Americans in two years. The bubonic plague of the 1300s killed 200 million, but it took seven years.

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Dr. Thomas Francis

Dr. Francis’s Home and Office 223 East Apple Street

On September 18, the president of Connellsville’s Board of Health, Dr. Thomas Francis, who lived and had his office at 223 East Apple Street, warned residents to be on the lookout for the new, deadly virus.

In Connellsville, people hunkered down and began keeping their kids from school and staying away from others.

The virus hit Connellsville on October 1, in Miss Alice Donnelly, 21, a high school domestic science teacher. She eventually recovered.

With deaths rapidly increasing across Pennsylvania and the nation, the state ordered bars, theaters, clubs, pool rooms, and bowling alleys closed. Dances, social events, and entertainments were cancelled. Schools and churches were to ban those with colds, but Dr. Francis soon closed these, along with public funerals.

Physicians said to avoid crowds, don’t sneeze or cough in midair, stay home if sick, and, “Your future is in your hands — wash them often.”

Dr. Francis added to eat lots of onions: “If it doesn’t

stop colds, at least it will stop people from kissing.”

The city’s first virus death was Timothy Sullivan, 19, of 606 Edna Street. Son of a claims adjuster, he was a machinist’s apprentice at Connellsville Manufacturing and Mining Supply. Because of the ban on church services, the Catholic funeral was conducted at his home.

In the greater Pittsburgh area, someone caught the flu every 70 seconds and someone died from it every 10 minutes. Some were buried in Timothy Sullivan Home mass graves.

606 Edna Street

Sick-with-flu soldiers in 1918 at what is now Fort Riley, Kansas, near where the Spanish flu began in the U.S. This army camp trained more than 50,000 soldiers at a time in cramped conditions for service in the Great War. More than 30,000 soldiers died of the flu in camps across the U.S., including Rev. W. J. Everhart and others from Connellsville.

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impacting other businesses. In some remote mining areas in the county, more than 600 had the flu with only three nurses to look after them.

The city tried to find out how many of its citizens were infected. At first, Boy Scouts visited every doctor’s office and reported daily on the number of cases. Later, volunteers organized by the city’s clergy knocked on every door in one day to see how many were ill. The total was 1,389 — 10 percent of the city’s population — many seriously.

Ineffective flu protections were advertised for sale: Vicks Vaporub (which sold out locally), quinine, a mix of herbs, and even an ozone generator. Late in October, an anti-serum given by a series of shots was deemed somewhat effective, and was distributed free of charge to everyone by the H. C. Frick Coke Company.

As the end of October approached, the pace of deaths decreased. The large Masonic Temple on South Pittsburgh Street was to serve as backup emergency hospital, but was not needed.

More than 120 had died in Connellsville in one month — and even more in surrounding rural areas. In one day, 15 died in the city.

One Connellsville doctor, surgeon Frank Weidemann, 40, lost his life to the flu, tending to the sick.

Undertakers were overworked, found caskets in short supply, and faced not enough gravediggers. Some families in rural areas buried their own dead.

In the first week of November, schools, churches and businesses reopened. The virus was killing itself — it did not survive in the dead and those who survived developed immunity.

On November 11, the horrific Great War ended which caused an unplanned city celebration, but Mayor John Duggan rushed into the streets to lessen the noise because so many remained ill. Some readers will remember his family’s bakery, Duggan’s, next to the family home on the West Side.

With the war’s end and also a slow decrease in flu deaths, the focus was on a brighter future. The deadliest time in the city’s history was so horrible few wanted to remember it.

The Emergency Hospital closed in December 1918.

The virus, however, did not end entirely until 1920 with milder waves hitting the nation.

The last wave caught Connellsville’s Joseph Soisson, 19, then an engineering student at Notre Dame University. He had a passion for motorcycles and automobiles, and at 14, built his own car.

With illnesses and deaths rising ever higher and faster, Connellsville’s hospital was too small and sure to be overwhelmed. A popular dance hall owned by the Maccabees, a fraternal organization, on South Pittsburgh Street, was chosen for an emergency hospital where free treatment was provided by the B&O Railroad.

The Red Cross issued urgent calls for nurses and nurses’ aides for the new hospital and to visit home-bound patients. The city ran out quickly and recruited homemakers who could volunteer. Many women found the courage.

One African-American volunteer wrote of her service in Connellsville’s Emergency Hospital: “The daily papers, full of deaths, frightened me and I’d sit watching and listening for the symptoms of the disease to appear and wonder how soon I’d become a victim. Then, when so many people I knew were dying, and others were so ill, I determined to do something to stamp out the dread plague ... I knew nothing about nursing but felt I could do anything that would relieve the trained people.”

“Two doctors and a nurse were at the bedside of a fine-featured young man, a mere boy, in a critical condition, who was breathing heavily. His father and aunt repeatedly called his name, but he gave no answer. I reverently turned away as they knelt at his bedside to pray.

Later his aunt tearfully told me that he was a member of Company G and was anxiously waiting until he was old enough to enlist for service overseas. Toward morning his heavy breathing ceased, and he fell asleep.”

“Little Felix, aged 12, was fretful and kept asking for things he could not have. He wanted liniment for the ache he could touch and pills for the ache he couldn’t touch. I despaired of getting him quiet and to sleep.

Finally, with promises of funny parts of all the Sunday papers, I coaxed him to sleep. In the morning, I felt rewarded when he asked for me in this way: ‘I want the nurse with the black hair and the face that matches her hair!’”

Spanish flu killed its victims quickly, sometimes within hours. Fever, shortness of breath, nose and ear bleeds and vomiting were symptoms. Lungs would fill with fluid, causing the face to turn blue.

Whole families suffered throughout the region. Double and triple family funerals weren’t uncommon. Near Point Marion, an entire young family of seven died in three days. They were all stricken on the same day, too ill to call for help or to take care of each other. Neighbors discovered them.

The coal and coke industry and railroads began to sag with so many workers ill — one-fifth of the workforce — 14

He is the only student in Connellsville High School history to have three U.S. patents before he graduated — one for a headlight dimmer switch.

Soisson died at his home at 208 West Washington Avenue.

In 2008, scientists found the Spanish flu mutated three genes in the bronchial tubes which allowed the virus to plunge into the lungs.

Walk through any old cemetery today and look for gravestones with death dates between 1918 and 1920. More Americans died from this flu — the deadliest pandemic in recorded history — than in all the wars fought in the 20th century.

Joseph Soisson Home 208 West Washington Avenue

Death certificate for Connellsville’s first Spanish flu victim, Timothy Sullivan, 19, of 606 Edna Street. His physician was H.J. Coll, whose son Raymond, a former local newspaperman, became famous in December 1941 when he was the first to broadcast live to the nation of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The younger Coll was then the editor of Hawaii’s largest newspapers. (Credit Pennsylvania Department of Health) 15

Canteen Volunteer Ida Mae Alsop turns 106 years old!

by Rev. Dr. Elder Twila Lee Wynn Ida Mae Alsop was one of many volunteers at the Connellsville Canteen during World War II, while her husband, James A. Alsop served in the Army during the war. This year Ida will be celebrating her 106th birthday!

A Connellsville native, Mrs. Alsop was born on July 4, 1914, one of 16 children of the late Lily Mae Henderson Meadows and William Meadows. She was a graduate of Connellsville High School, Class of 1932. Ida married her first and only love, James A. Alsop, on February 7, 1933. They had one child, Marlene who passed away at five days old. Her husband James A. Alsop was the first black police officer who served the City of Connellsville until he passed away on March 30, 1966. During the depresion, he also built one of East Park’s entry pillars.

Ida was one of 800 female volunteers who helped serve meals to the troops stopping in Connellsville during WWII. The Canteen ran from 1944 to 1946 and fed over 600,000 soldiers.

James Alsop entered the service during WWII in December 1943. He served Ida Mae Alsop in New Guinea, the Philippine Islands and Camp Plauche, Louisiana. James often wrote poems, sending them back to the Daily Courier for print. On July 6, 1944, from his training camp at Camp Plauche, Louisiana, he adds his praise to the women who were creating new fame for Connellsville through the canteen service at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Station. This poem was submitted to the Daily Courier on July 4th, Ida’s birthday. Under the title of “Swell, Carry On,” he goes into verse to compliment his home town on its initiative in providing cheer and comfort for the soldiers who pass through over the railroad line. The poem follows:

Swell, Carry On Who ever thought of the wonderful scheme That our city should have such a swell canteen To feed the boys who are passing through By showing appreciation for what they do.

The Daily Courier 9 April 1958

They meet the trains as they come in, Crowded and loaded with tired weary men With just enough funds to see them through And very little else they are able to do.

Coffee, doughnuts, sandwiches and such Any man in uniform will welcome very much And to think all of this is absolutely free Regardless of who the soldier may be So carry on ladies you’ve done a swell job.

It’s a kick in the pants to Herr Hitler’s mob And remember the soldiers that are passing through Will never forget Connellsville, and you.

James Alsop 16

The Daily Courier 25 April 1958

After WWII, James returned to his wife in Connellsville. In 1950, he was appointed the first black officer, in history, to serve with the Connellsville Police Department. At that time the Police Department had to raise their own funds for uniforms and create their own reserve for pensions.

Back then jackets were $45; overcoats $85; trousers $22.50; shoes $10; police shirt $22; and revolver $65. The take-home pay of a patrolman who has a wife and one child was only $105.83 for the pay period of two weeks, but the new Federal taxes reduced that amount to below $100. He worked as a patrolman for 16 years.

On April 12, 1958, they opened the Alsop Dinette serving “Southern Style Foods.” Their specialty was Fried Chicken, Ham, Steak, Home Baked Rolls, Pastries and Sweet Potato Pie! They advertised a Fried Chicken Dinner for just $1.25.

The Dinette was located on the Connellsville – Broadford Road. The restaurant did not last very long and soon closed in late 1958.

On March 30, 1966, James Alsop passed away at Oakland Veterans Hospital in Pittsburgh. He was born on April 8, 1914.

For many years, Ida worked for the Connellsville Area School District as a cafeteria worker.

She retired from the school district in 1974.

The most important thing in Ida’s life was the love of God. She was baptized at the age of 15, at Highland Baptist Church, which was founded in Moyer, Pennsylvania, in 1895, then relocated to Connellsville in 1900, and they still hold services today.

Ida gave up teaching Sunday school in October of 2019. She still attends Highland Baptist Church, the church of her youth where she was groomed to be a mentor and has touched so many lives. She has held many offices over the course of her service to the church such as Treasurer, Superintendent, Sunday School Teacher, Clerk, and Mother of the Church. She lives to serve, and the community and her family value her dearly.

I came to know Mrs. Ida Alsop, as Aunt Ida Mae. On June 3rd, 1974, she became my foster mother. I was 16 years old at the time and one of seven foster children whom she had the privilege to influence for a period of time.

After spending 47 years together, she has become more than just a foster mother. I have become the woman I am today because of her love. Aunt Ida also helped raise four other children, two nieces and two nephews of her youngest sister, who passed away at an early age.

Aunt Ida’s love for God and Jesus has helped her to live a humble life. She doesn’t like a lot of fuss, so I asked her permission to share her information Ida Mae Alsop and with the Crossroads Magazine. She smiled and said yes. It is my privilege to Rev. Dr. Elder Twila Lee Wynn know that this wonderful person has a legacy to be shared with others.

The Daily Courier 19 May 1950

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Henry Clay Frick: You Dun Him Wrong!

by Cassandra Vivian and headed to the nearby towns: “On Saturday or ‘pay day’ evenings the stores, amusement places, saloons and even the principal streets of the urban centers are filled with a heterogeneous collection of races and tongues.

Each of the important centers in the coal and coke producing territories is indeed a diminutive Pittsburgh, and the Saturday and pay night scenes on its principal streets are a replica on a small scale of what may be observed on Fifth avenue and other downtown sections of Pittsburgh proper.”3 As an illustration from an 1884 newspaper shows, a miner from Eagle mine had his pay stolen from his home. It was all cash! How is that possible if miners never received cash?4

Evidence! In order to accuse someone, you must do the research and provide the evidence. Next, your evidence must be from sources that can be trusted. Finally, your source must be or must rely on original sources. As related to Henry Clay Frick, most of what we believe about him is false because these rules are not followed. Frick ruled the coal and coke industry from the 1870s until his death in 1919. After that he cannot be blamed. BUT HE IS. When you read something like this you are reading the current belief: Many “patch towns” sprang up around these mines.

“Patch towns” were a group of houses, built by the large coal companies, to house their workers. The H.C. Frick Coal Company, did not pay their workers in cash, but “script” that could only be used to pay rent for the “company house” and to buy groceries, clothing, and just about anything needed to buy for the household, at the “company store,” owned by Frick. Not only did Henry Clay Frick rob his workers, by paying low wages, he also robbed them by forcing them to buy their food, clothes, and everything else needed for their families, at inflated prices at his “Company Store.”1 Most people assume these statements are correct. That is the image of Frick. Well, they are not correct. Frick had compassion and he was honest. The article is wrong on scrip, wrong on cash, wrong on company stores, and wrong on wages.

Patches Coal mines were in rural areas. Housing did not exist.

So, the companies had to build housing for their workers. Frick has been accused of forcing his workers to live in shanties. Some operators did. Not Frick. The 1880 Keystone Courier wrote: “Messrs. Frick & Company are building a number of new tenement houses. They have nine in course of erection at Broadford, four of which are under roof, ten at Morgan, seven of which are under roof, and three at Sherrick, under roof. There are also ten double tenements in course of erection at Summit mines.”5 Many of these Frick houses are still standing 120+ years later.

Company Stores The bigger issue about Company Stores was that miners were cheated by the companies. Some yes. Frick no! The accusations continue to this day with very little evidence to support the accusations. “Comprehensive studies by the Immigration Commission in 1908 and the Coal Commission in 1922 show that prices at most company stores were similar to prices at nearby independent stores. Prices apparently were higher at isolated mines, in part due to higher transport costs, but scattered evidence suggests that higher prices were partially offset by higher wages.”6 When times were bad, the Rural Free Press of 1893 maintained: “The store managers of the H. C. Frick company were ordered to see that none should suffer.

At Leisenring [Frick owned] they allowed the men to go into the mines and dig their own coal. They gave them mules to haul it to the shaft and had their engineer to hoist it to the surface. They also gave them teams to haul it home. Moreover, the men at most places have been notified that no house rent will be charged during the time the works are standing idle.”7

Scrip Frick did not invent scrip. It came from the Middle Ages. But Frick, a young man living in rural America, in a stroke of genius, used it to save a sinking industry.

He opened two mines in 1871. By 1873 the world was in a major depression and the fledgling industry in the Morgan Valley was in threat of failing. Frick did three things: used company scrip to keep his mines open and free his cash to keep his business open, saved the newly constructed Mount Pleasant and Broadford Railroad from disaster, and bought properties as coal operators went bankrupt. These acts kept the industry alive. In fact, what happened was that the Frick scrip became the legal tender for the district. Hard US currency was hard to find, and Frick’s solution fit the bill. His miners could shop at almost any place in the region and pay with his false money.2 Cash In discussing the coal patch isolation, The Survey of 1911 reported that miners left their patches on payday 18

father was taking miner’s ballots to Connellsville, was Wages ambushed, and killed. When asked when this happened The operators of the various mines joined together it was deduced around 1930. As noted, Frick died in 1919 to try to fix the scale to pay the workers. They linked and had been dead for over ten years.9 This is true for that scale with the fluctuations of the market. Frick many incidents attributed to Frick. honored the scale. Not all the operators did: “Today the Most of what Frick, and other industrialists, did was Frick Coke Company, the Hostetter Connellsville Coke not invented by them. Similar patterns existed as far back Company, which belongs to the estate of William Thaw, as the Middle Ages and probably beyond. This is a signifdeceased, are the only firms in the whole region paying icant and important point. When they found they needed the prices and living up to that agreement. Before the to create housing and other services they looked to what agreement had run two years, some of the operators cut the market prices of coke then cut the wages of their men had been done before and followed it trying to find their way. An example of how it worked for hundreds of years to make themselves whole. That was the start. Down, is the Mezzadria serf system in Italy. It operated much down went the wages, one by one reduced, twice and like others throughout Europe. Peasants lived on land even three times, regardless of the agreement, until now owned by a landed gentry, the padrone. He determined the Frick Coke Company are paying 40 per cent more their lives. He encouraged breeding so he had more wages for the same work than the Stewart Iron Compaworkers. ny is paying at an adjoining works; 33 ½ per cent more They were forced to plant on a certain day, harvest on than is being paid for the same work by James Cochran, a certain day, to raise and slaughter animals following a Sons & Company; 22 per cent more than is being paid for the same work by W. J. Rainey; 15 per cent more than specific system. All their movements were conis being paid for the same work by the Oliver Coke and trolled by the padrone for Furnace Company; 12 ½ per cent more than is being centuries. The difference paid for the same work by the McClure Coke company, 12 ½ per cent more than is being paid for the same work in America was that the immigrants were free. They

by Jones and Laughlin, 12 ½ per cent more than is being fought back. That created paid for the same work by the Cambria Iron Company, the Middle Class. or an average of 25 percent more than the ruling rates of Many more examples the region.”8 of each of these claims can Nor are the rumors against Frick limited to the writbe found in my new book: ten word. Family lore has plenty to say about Frick. In Henry Clay Frick and the an interview with the former Mayor of Everson such a Golden Age of Coal and belief was voiced. The Mayor reported that Frick killed Coke: 1770-1920. his grandfather. When asked how, he said his grand____________________________________________________________________ 1 Ken O’Neal, “Fayette County and Surrounding Country Coal Mines,” Fayette County Genealogy Project, www.pagenweb.org/~fayette/coal/coal_mines.html 2 Ole S. Johnson, The Industrial Store: Its History, Operations and Economic Significance, School of Business Administration, University of Georgia, 1952, p. 33.

3 Jeff Lauck, “The Bituminous Coal Miner and Coke Worker of Western Pennsylvania,” The Survey,Vol. XXVI, April 1911-Sept 1911, New York: The Charity Organization Society, April 1, 1911, pp 34-51, p. 38.

4 “Fayette Facts,” Weekly Courier, February 1, 1884, p. 4.

5 “Around About,” Keystone Courier, July 23, 1880, p. 3.

6 Price V. Fishback, Did Coal Miners “Owe Their Souls to the Company Store”? Theory and Evidence from the Early 1900’s, The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, Vol. 46, No. 4, December 1986, pp.1011-1029, 1028-9. See also: Report of the U. S. Coal Commission, Washington D.C., 1925, part 3 7 “Helping Needy Cokers.” Rural Free Press, July 17, 1893, November 17, 1893, May 27, 1893 to February 2, 1894, Helen Clay Frick Foundation Archives, (AIS 2002 06), Henry Clay Frick Business Records, 1862-1987, Box 503, Volume 16, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh, p. 112.

8 “A Justifiable Strike,” The Pittsburgh Times, December 11, 1893, p. 1.

9 Interview, Joe Eckman, March 17, 2016, Mount Pleasant Glass Museum. “Mining Practices of the H. C. Frick Coke Co.,” Mines and Minerals, August, 1904, p. 43. Douglas A. Fisher, Steel Serves the Nation, 1901 to 1951, U.S. Steel Corp, 1951, p. 79.

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Wade Edgar Swink WWII

by Sebastian Bryner Poland). This camp was opened in May 1944. In July of that year a military report was released which described such problems as inadequate shower facilities, unfit distribution of Red Cross parcels, and that prisoners complained about the food situation often. Two letters and four postcards were permitted per month. These letters were harshly censored, with prisoners forced to tell families that they were being treated well and that there were no problems whatsoever.

On 6 February, 1945, some 8,000 men of the camp set out on a trek that would be called the “Black March” and last approximately 86 days. The prisoners were given the remaining Red Cross parcels. They were allowed to carry as much as they could. They were forced to march under guard about 15 – 20 miles per day. The treatment was very bad. The sick were mistreated when dysentery and diarrhea set in. The Germans could not be reasoned with. Some prisoners were bayoneted; others were kicked and hit. Shelter might be a barn or under the stars, in the rain, snow, or whatever was available. As for the food, a bushel or two of steamed potatoes for a barn full of men was the best ever received at the end of a day. Often, the food was placed in the barn in the dark of night for the men to get what they could. The German government provided no clothing. They carried two blankets and an overcoat for bedding. The march from Gross Tychow arrived at Stalag 357, near Fallingbostel around April 3, 1945. The POWs were only in this camp for about a week, when lagers A and B from Stalag Luft IV were taken out on their final march, this time east. This last march lasted approximately three weeks, but was just as harsh as the previous march except for the treatment by the Germans, which was somewhat better. There was still little or no food available, and the pace was much slower, advancing 4–5 miles a day. On the morning of May 2, 1945, the POWs were all sitting in a ditch next to the River Elbe near Lauenburg, Germany, when the British arrived and liberated the camp. Soldiers were given virtually nothing and told to march west. Thus, Stalag Luft IV ended.

Wade spent 21 months as a prisoner. He returned to the states with a stay at Army Air Forces Convalescent Hospital in Pawling, New York. While at this hospital he participated in physical training and vocational activities.

Wade achieved the rank of TSgt, completed nine combat missions in the European Theater of Operations and earned the Air Medal, Purple Heart and European Theater of Operations ribbon with five battle stars.

As the Great War came to an end on November 11, 1918, Wade Edgar Swink, a local hero and lifelong resident of Bullskin Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania was born. On September 13, 1941, Wade married Miss Betty Jane Booher in Wellsburg, West Virginia. He was drafted into the service on March 21, 1942, aged 23. WWII was the most devastatingly deadly war to date. On average, 6,600 American servicemen died per month during WWII, about 220 a day. By the end of the war, over 40,000 airmen were killed in combat theatres and another 18,000 wounded. Some 12,000 missing men were declared dead, including a number “liberated” by the Soviets but never returned. More than 41,000 were captured, half of the 5,400 held by the Japanese died in captivity, compared with one-tenth in German hands.

Total combat casualties were pegged at 121,867. This war suffered an estimated 70-85 million civilian and military casualties on both the allied and axis sides combined.

Wade was a Radio Operator Specialist/ Gunner on the B-17 Flying Fortress Bomber MaMa Chung’s Bastard (B-17 tail number 42-29499) with the 422nd squadron/305th Heavy Bombardment Group ‘Can Do.’ On June 25th, 1943 while flying over Zuiderveen, Oude Pekela, Netherlands, MaMa Chung’s Bastard got into an aerial assault with the German Luftwaffe (Air Force).

Service members on this aircraft were: Joseph Brooks – Second Lieutenant/Navigator; Alexander Dewoina – SSgt/Wast Gunner; Charles Grigsby – TSgt/Photographer (KIA); Nelson Mikett – Flight Officer/Co Pilot; Charles Overheim – SSgt/Ball Turret Gunner; Joseph Roche – MSgt/Tail Gunner; Stanley Schreffler – 2nd LT/ Bombardier; Wade Swink – TSgt/Radio Operator Gunner; Truman Talledge – TSgt/Top Turret Gunner; Robert Welch – Sgt/Waist Gunner After sustaining heavy damage, the B-17 was no longer able to fly. The crew of ten was forced to abort their bomber via parachute. Nine servicemen were taken as prisoners of war (P.O.W.s); they suffered one casualty.

Wade got hung up in a tree parachuting and sustained a broken back and pelvis along with a dislocated shoulder.

He was initially rescued and taken care of by members of the underground following his traumatic landing. After some time, he was turned over to the Germans because of the severity of his condition. Wade recovered in a German hospital and was transferred to a P.O.W. Camp at Stalag Luft 4 Gross-Tychow, Pomerania (now Tychow, 20

Dr. Margaret Chung

by Daniel Cocks

opened a medical office in Chinatown. In 1931, Dr. Chung became friends with a young aviator from Berkeley. Soon she was entertaining a group of his Navy Air Reserve friends for dinners. This grew into an American aviators’ club called the “Fair-Haired Bastards,” which became famous in World War II. She was known to the flyers as Mom, and “adopted” them, numbering her “sons” and giving each a silver ring with a jade Buddha.

When Japan invaded China in 1937, Margaret Chung began making speeches to organizations and at local colleges in support of China. After the Japanese attack in December 1941, she helped send emergency medical supplies to Pearl Harbor, for which she received a citation from President Truman. During the war, Dr. “Mom” Chung added a section for non-flyers, called Kiwis (for a flightless bird), and the Golden Dolphins, a submarine auxiliary. High ranking officers attended her Sunday dinners where from 75 to 100 military personnel came to her house each week. By her rules the men did the dishes and mopped the floors, including Admiral Chester Nimitz, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Concerned above all with promoting U.S. support to China in its struggle with the Japanese invaders, Chung recruited the first 200 American aviators for the renowned Flying Tigers.

By the end of the war the Bastards, Kiwis, and Dolphins included 1,500 “sons,” some of whom were U.S. senators and congressmen. Using these connections, Dr. “Mom” Chung virtually invented the WAVES, the women’s auxiliary of the U.S. Navy, holding lobbying meetings in Washington with her “sons” and committing them to backing the idea. Margaret Chung was never given public credit for this achievement, or even permitted to join the WAVES, which she ardently wanted to do. The government secretly blacklisted Chung because they suspected that she was gay. Her sexual orientation has never been established, but she had friends who were lesbians and she had a long and very close friendship with the Jewish singer Sophie Tucker. The two exchanged very affectionate notes and letters, but even Chung’s biographer is uncertain of the character of their relationship.

When Margaret Chung died in 1959 her pallbearers included Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Mayor George Christopher, and famed conductor Andre Kostelanetz.

Her life is chronicled in the book Doctor Mom Chung of the Fair-Haired Bastards: The Life of a Wartime Celebrity

by Judy Tzu-Chun Wu (University of California Press, 2005, ISBN 9780520245280).

The B-17 Bomber that Wade E. Swink was assigned to was named Ma Ma Chung’s Bastard. The aircraft was one of three named after Dr. Margaret Jessie Chung because of her passion for befriending and serving dinners to service men during WWII. Dr. Chung was the first American-born Chinese woman physician. She “adopted” 1,500 American flyers and submariners during World War II. Dr. Chung was born in Santa Barbara, California, in 1889, the eldest of eleven children. Her parents emigrated separately from China in the 1870s. Her father worked as a merchant, then went bankrupt and became a fruit peddler, dairyman, and ranch foreman. Her mother was rescued from a brothel. Both became invalids when Margaret was very young, and Margaret took over supporting the family by the time she was ten, as well as caring for her younger siblings and nursing her mother who was slowly dying of tuberculosis. She drove a horse-drawn freight wagon alone when age ten and later worked 12hour days in a Chinese restaurant when she was in the seventh grade. The family moved first to Ventura, then to the East Adams section of Los Angeles near San Pedro Street.

Margaret managed to put herself through college and medical school by winning scholarships, selling medical supplies, and lecturing on China. In 1916 she graduated from the University of Southern California’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, becoming the first American-born Chinese woman physician in the United States.

After a brief stint at Kankakee State Hospital in Illinois, she returned to California and worked as a surgeon at the Santa Fe Railroad Hospital. She also developed a clientele in the Hollywood crowd, and removed Mary Pickford’s tonsils. Chung moved to San Francisco in 1922, where she worked as staff physician at the Wiltshire Hotel and 21

THE FLIGHT OF 43-38856M of the 381st BOMB GROUP - US 8th Air Force STATIONED AT RIDGEWELL, ENGLAND AND THE LOSS OF OUR GREAT-UNCLE, ANDREW PITER, JR. by Don Madar and Jeff Antol The tragic events of the 23rd of April 1945 will forever live on in our family and as part of the history of one of the most notorious bomb groups of World War II, the 381st. The crash of the B-17G Flying Fortress, serial number L43-38856M, was one of drama, personal tragedy and is recorded as the worst aviation crash in the history of the Isle of Man, an island between England and Ireland in the Irish Sea. Our uncle, Andrew Piter Jr., would lose his life that day on the mountain of North Barrule after two years of hard work in maintenance serving in the 381st as part of the 1775th Ordinance and Maintenance Group. Andy was drafted into the Army Air Forces in the summer of 1942 and left his home in the small town of Banning, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. He was the only son of Andrej and Dorothy Piter (married in Connellsville in June, 1915) and was one of six children, all born in Star Junction, our grandmothers, Ann Piter Odelli and Dorothy Piter Antol being among his five sisters. His other sisters were Mary Piter Risner, Ruth Piter Pavlus and Mildred Piter Crilley - all of whom would move to live in the Cleveland, Ohio area. His commemorating group is made up of seven of Andy’s nieces and nephews - offspring of his sisters.

Andy did his basic training at Ft. F. E. Warren in Cheyenne, Wyoming. After graduating from Ordinance School in Pomona, California, he joined the 381st in February, 1943 in Pueblo, Colorado, where the entire group prepared for deployment to Ridgewell, England. The Eighth Air Force would be key in liberating Western Europe in World War II. After a last visit home in April,1943, Andy and the group arrived at Ridgewell in June 1943 and he would serve his country there until the fateful day of his death in April, 1945.

His B-17G, 43-38856, that was delivered to the USAAF on September 30, 1944, flew from Lincoln, Nebraska in fall 1944 and arrived at Ridgewell in October. Upon its arrival, it was assigned to the Eighth Air Force, 381st Heavy Bombardment Group, 534 Squadron, based at Army Air Force Station 167, Ridgewell Essex.

The station was then under the command of Colonel Conway S. Hall. There the plane would receive its Triangle “L” for Ridgewell and its radio call letter “M.” The energy in the air at Ridgewell in April 1945 was becoming a bit more relaxed. On Monday, April 23, 1945, no operations over Germany were planned for the group. Excitement was felt around the station, and a flight was organized by Colonel Hall to take a group of servicemen, primarily men who had serviced the airbase throughout the nearly two years at Ridgewell. This select group would travel from Ridgewell to Belfast, Ireland, where they would spend some time resting and relaxing as a thanks to their effort and hard work at the base. Photo right shows Andy, on the left, working on the famous plane Stage Door Canteen.

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The B17G 43-38856 M was flown by Captain Charles E. Ackerman, a veteran combat officer with over 455 hours experience on B17s. He had completed a first tour of 25 combat missions and had only two more missions left to complete his second tour. Captain Ackerman was a very experienced pilot, even at 22 years of age. The aircraft was to be co-piloted

by Flight Officer Edwin A. Hutcheson. Edwin was 20 years old and had 61 hours experience on the B17G. There were 29 other men, including Andy, who would take off from Ridgewell that spring morning. At 9:04 a.m., the aircraft lifted off from Ridgewell. Captain Ackerman positioned the aircraft heading north by northwest, for what he thought should be a routine flight. His estimated time of arrival at Nutt’s Corner, Belfast, Ireland, was approximately 11 a.m. At 10:15 a.m. the aircraft was approaching the northeast coast of the Isle of Man. Harold Ennet was working that morning where he was employed as a tractor driver. At 10:20 a.m. he noticed a four-engine aircraft flying in from the east coast. He estimated its height at no more than 500 feet from his position, and could clearly see a star on its wing as it passed over. He stared at it in disbelief, as he realized it was flying straight towards the mist-covered slopes of North Barrule. He lost sight of it after a few seconds and then heard a great explosion as the B17G crashed into the mountain, approximately 300 feet below the peak.

Royal Air Force personnel arrived, and the grim task of recovering the bodies began. The bodies were brought down on stretchers by the RAF and were then conveyed to Andreas. It was there that the task of identification began.

The following day, Colonel Hall and Colonel George Shackley, with a team of personnel including a dentist and flight surgeon, helped in the identification procedure. A personal account from one of the members of the recovery team was that Andy’s body was easily recognizable.

Hall and Shackley also went to the crash site to see what could be learned of the cause of this accident.

Colonel Hall was advised by Senior RAF officers that he would have to proceed through diplomatic channels with the Manxian government before being allowed to take the bodies of his men back to Ridgewell. He was told this could take a couple of days. Going against diplomatic channels, Colonel Hall had the bodies loaded onto his plane, Little Rockette by RAF personnel on April 24th! He really made a courageous call in getting the men back to English soil. Andrew Piter Jr. and the other 30 men who died that day on North Barrule were buried on April 27, 1945, at Cambridge American Military Cemetery. It was the largest funeral ever seen there as seventeen truckloads of men from Ridgewell attended. This truly was a tragedy, 15 days before the end of the War in Europe.

Andrew’s body was returned to the States in the summer of 1948 and is laid to rest next to his parents in Olive Branch Cemetery outside of Smithton, Pennsylvania.

The site of the crash is now a peaceful hillside with little left to tell the events of 75 years ago. A memorial to the men who lost their lives that day was erected at the crash site in 1995. This was, and still is, the worst aircraft accident in the history of the Isle of Man, and a tragic one in American history.

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