#233 MAR 2020

“Just Jillian”: the Struggles and Successes of 2020’s Groundhog Queen

By Emmet Jamieson for Hometown magazine

On the cover: Jillian Petroff was recently crowned Groundhog Queen by her friends and classmates at Punxsutawney Area High School. PAHS Cherleading photo by K&K Photography. Cover inset: Man of the Year Jeff Kuntz and Woman of the Year Shirley Sharp have dedicated their lives to helping the Punxsutawney community. Photo by Jennifer Roberts.

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O

n Groundhog Day, the world was watching PAHS senior Jillian Petroff.

A record-setting 40,000 people crowded into Gobbler’s Knob this year for Phil’s prediction, but before the groundhog emerged from his burrow, Jillian took center stage as her class’s Groundhog Queen. Keeping the cold and the noise out with a Phil beanie and her red cheerleading earmuffs, Jillian stood with the Groundhog Club and smiled to the crowd.

The senior class had chosen Jillian for Groundhog Queen the previous month.

Senior homerooms nominated two students, a boy and a girl, for Groundhog Court, and then students narrowed the list down to Jillian and Jachob Haines, the Groundhog King.

When Sarah Petroff, Jillian’s mother, heard that her daughter had won queen, she felt “overwhelmed.”

“I was blown away,” she said. “Just the idea that the school has embraced a child with special needs, it’s huge. When I was in high school, it was unheard of to have a child with special needs even be nominated.”

Jillian has Trisomy 21, a form of a genetic condition most commonly called Down syndrome. This condition manifests when a baby is born with three copies of chromosome 21 instead of two. Down syndrome is associated with delayed physical and mental development, moderate learning disability and a range of health problems.

Petroff said raising Jillian often presents challenges. She said that although she has two younger children, 13-year-old Dacoda and 15-year-old Piper, the family “revolves around” Jillian. In addition to ensuring Jillian can participate equally in all family activities, Petroff said she has to focus much of her attention on monitoring Jillian’s health and development.

“There’s a lot that goes into raising a kid with Down syndrome,” she said. “There’s doctor appointments and there’s all kinds of people that come into your home to make sure that she’s developing correctly and becoming ‘a functioning member of society.’”

At school, Jillian splits her time between classroom learning in the Life Skills room and out-of-school job training at local businesses like Goodwill and Fox’s Pizza.

Petroff said Jillian does this training to prepare for life after high school, as Jillian plans to enter the workforce upon graduating. This might also present a challenge, Petroff said, as Jillian cannot do some things independently yet.

Despite these challenges, Petroff said Jillian’s life is far from just struggles.

She said Jillian “has a really good time” while learning independent skills during

2 – Punxsutawney Hometown – March 2020 - Issue #233

her summers at Camp Friendship, a local day camp for children with disabilities.

Jillian has participated in activities there ranging from talent shows to fishing.

Camp Friendship, Petroff said, is the one place Jillian “thrives” without her mother.

“I’m really proud of her for that,” Petroff said. “It’s kind of a big deal when I can send her off on her own and not worry.”

Jillian has also found success on the cheerleading squad. She joined cheer in seventh grade and has cheered ever since.

Her seventh-grade teacher, Jill Kerr, encouraged her to try it out. Kerr told Petroff that Jillian might excel because she loved attention and being around people, and although Petroff said she “was a little bit leery at first,” Kerr eventually convinced her to get Jillian into tryouts.

She tried out for the squad, Petroff said, and “it’s been history since.”

Head cheerleading coach Dana Hartman said Jillian has been enthusiastic about cheerleading from her first day. Hartman said Jillian has grown “tremendously” as a cheerleader since seventh grade. She knows all the cheers and she often chooses the squad’s cheers for basketball games.

Jillian, Hartman said, is “the center point” - Continued on page 4

Jillian is all smiles as she poses for a picture.

She was chosen as Groundhog Queen by the PAHS senior class. Photo by K&K Photography.

Women’s “Firsts” in Mid-20th Century Punxsutawney History

By S. Thomas Curry of Hometown magazine n previous issues of Hometown magazine, the writer’s journey to discover “firsts” in Punxsutawney area history has revealed a variety of topics. Among them are the first year of electricity in Punxsutawney, the first automobile in

I

ciety as men were sent overseas to fight and support battles on foreign soil. More women were needed outside the home to replace men who were once in jobs in a male-dominated society. It occurred in World War I and again in World War II. As battles began in World War II, allwoman divisions were organized in the

Early in World War II, in 1942, the U.S. Navy organized a women’s division to provide secretarial and clerical work while young men fought battles overseas. Through posters and letters to colleges, women were recruited for service in the W.A.V.E.S. Punxsutawney native and PAHS Latin teacher Miriam Cokely (right) was among the first class to be trained and serve through the war, until 1945. Miss Cokely’s is pictured above right in the 1955 PAHS yearbook.

town, the first time that “talking pictures” were heard and the first indoor golf course.

Also shared were several significant “firsts” that involved the lives of women at a time in history when a woman’s role was considered to be a “stay-at-home” domestic role or supportive and “auxiliary” to the man’s work. These could have been in waitressing, cooking, nursing, teaching, secretarial work, etc., or as part of any woman’s auxiliary group to a man’s organization.

It was revealed to the reader that Miss Elizabeth Frooks was Punxsutawney’s first playground supervisor and Mrs. T.R. (Elizabeth) Williams was the first nurse hired for the new Adrian Hospital when it opened in Delancey in 1889. The first music teacher in the Punxsutawney public schools was 22-year-old Miss Nellie Monks, of Punxsutawney and Miss Edith Beck was Punxsutawney’s first public librarian.

A breakthrough moment for women occurred in 1913 in Punxsutawney history when Mrs. J.P. (Margaret) Wilson was the first woman in Punxsutawney history to win an elected office as a school board member. Her campaign victory was from men’s votes, before women won the right to vote in 1920 through the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

With the month of March designated as National Women’s History Month, (officially by the U.S. Congress in March 1987) it is another opportunity to recognize women whose contributions and accomplishments were “firsts” in Punxsutawney area history.

The First Girl from Punxsutawney in WAVES One of the consequences of world wars in American 20th-century history was the thrust of women into the workforce of so-

U.S. Armed Services, due to circumstances presented by the war. The Air Force had its WASPs (the Women Airforce Service Pilots); the Army its WAAC (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps); and the Navy developed its WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).

The first class of WAVE women began service in the Navy in August 1942. Among that class of 644 women to be trained for secretarial and clerical work was a Punxsutawney native, a young woman who began her teaching career in 1937 at the Moon Township High School, near Pittsburgh.

In its headline story of August 28, 1942, The Punxsutawney Spirit reported to local residents: “First WAVE from Punx’y In Service.” Miss Miriam Cokely had returned to Punxsutawney from Philadelphia where she had been inducted into the WAVES. Also, she was one of 12 accepted as an officer candidate. Ahead of her in her future was a four-month training course to earn a commission as an ensign in the Navy.

Since women were not sent into combat, her first assignment was with the Naval Officer Procurement Office in Washington D.C., with many tours across the country as a Navy recruiter.

After the war, Lt. (j.g.) Cokely continued with her government career in the National Archives in D.C. However, with her mother and father older and requiring care, she returned to Punxsutawney and began a 33year teaching career at the Punxsutawney Area High School as a Latin teacher.

Miss Cokely’s father had been a former manager of the company store at the Adrian mines. Because of her father’s work, her memories as a child were of moving from town to town. A sister of her father was Miss Cokely’s Aunt Margaret, who had come to Punxsutawney in 1896 from Brad-

ford County, hired to be a teacher in the elementary grades of the Punxsutawney school system.

Margaret taught for 39 years in the local schools. Her obituary in 1944 included a note, “survived by a niece Lt. (j.g.) Miriam Coakley, the first girl in Punxsutawney to join the WAVES, stationed in Washington, D.C.” [Note the difference in spelling of the family name.] Margaret’s obituary also said of her, “A teacher of outstanding ability, she was held in high regard.”

For readers of Hometown who remember the Latin teacher, a founding member of the Boles Foundation, a chaperone of the first Punxsutawney High School Variety Show in 1951 (and many others after it to benefit the Boles scholarship fund), it could also be said of Miss Miriam Cokely that she was a teacher of outstanding ability and was held in high regard.

Miss Cokely was named the 1994 Punxsutawney Woman of the Year, in recognition of her many activities and involvement in her hometown, the Punxsutawney community.

In this history of the WAVES in World War II and the Punxsutawney connection, it is necessary to recognize another teacher in the Punxsutawney Area High School who answered the call to duty in the WAVES. Not the “first” but perhaps the second young woman in service, was Dorothy S.

Pringle. Miss Pringle interrupted her teaching at PHS in February 1943 to report to Philadelphia and begin training.

A Punxsutawney native, Miss Pringle taught history in the Punxsutawney schools for 39 years. With similar backgrounds, Miss Cokely and Miss Pringle became good friends throughout their teaching careers. Dorothy Pringle was recognized as the 1969 Punxsutawney Woman of the Year.

The First Woman Doctor in Punx’y

In 1949, 26-year-old Dr. Jeanne Cooper came to Punxsutawney from the West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh to practice family medicine.

While in Punxsutawney, the town’s first woman doctor developed friendships that included her future husband. (photo of 26-year old Dr. Cooper copy courtesy S. Thomas Curry)

Early records of Punxsutawney history list Dr. John W. Jenks as the first doctor to - Continued on page 6

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“Just Jillian”

Holly said Jillian is unique because she is “truly nothing but kind and freeContinued from page 2 spirited.” She doesn’t care what people think, Holly said, and will dance or sing of the entire squad. whenever and wherever she wants. Holly Holly Hartman, Coach Hartman’s added that Jillian encourages her to be daughter and cheer co-captain, said the herself, to help those who need it and to squad doesn’t help Jillian succeed; in fact, treat people with dignity and respect. it’s the other way around. Holly said Overall, she said, Jillian inspires her “to Jillian bolsters the squad’s cohesion and be a better person.” spirit with her positive attitude and ability Petroff said Jillian “is just like any other to “make anyone smile.” kid.” She wants to fit in, enjoy herself and “We wouldn’t be us without Jillian,” she make the most of her high school said. experience. She likes to pretend — Petroff Coach Hartman called Jillian “dynamic.” said she put her hand up “like a queen” Although she can be sassy and likes acting and waved when she learned she had won the title.

B e s i d e s cheerleading, Jillian likes watching movies, listening to music, dancing, eating and playing baseball in the Punxsutawney Challenger League.

At school, Petroff said Jillian hangs out with her friends and participates well in class, though she has her Jillian cheers for the Chucks with the other members of her squad. She has been a cheerleader since seventh grade. Photo by K&K Photography. “off days.” And at home, Jillian is very close to her sister Piper but loves to silly, Coach Hartman said Jillian is always spend time with both her siblings. ready to cheer and loves showing her Petroff said Jillian takes some time to sentimentality with hugs. She said Jillian warm up to strangers but is friendly to reminds her that every moment is special those she knows well. Everyone Jillian because “they are to her.” likes, she said, “is in 100%.” However, Holly said she enjoys not only cheering Petroff said she didn’t know how to with Jillian, but also being her friend. accurately define Jillian’s personality in “She’s honestly my best friend,” Holly said. “She calls me ‘best friend Holly,’ just a few words — to her, she’s “just Jillian.” which is the cutest thing in the world.

Raising Jillian, Petroff said, has been She’s always there for me every time. If I both difficult and rewarding. Keeping up have even the smallest hint of a sad face, with Jillian’s health, development and she’ll be like, ‘What’s wrong? What’s specific needs, she said, has given her a wrong?’ She’s such a great friend.”

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vocabulary.”

Jillian is on the verge of graduating high school as a cheerleader wearing the Groundhog Queen tiara. Petroff said that as recently as when she attended high school, a student with special needs achieving so much would have been almost impossible. Petroff added she was grateful for the support of her community, as she believes it has helped her daughter succeed.

“I just want to say thank you to the student body and to the Punxsutawney School District for embracing Jillian as much as they have,” Petroff said. “I think without her classmates and the school district, Jillian wouldn’t be the person that she is today.”

Jillian herself said she was excited to win queen. She added, of course, that she did her wave.

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deeper understanding of what it means to have a disability. She said some people regard those with disabilities with disdain or pity, but she simply now “understands.”

She understands other parents, she said, and she understands the struggles and successes of their children.

Petroff said parents of children with special needs must support their children in everything they do. A child with a disability, she said, can do everything an abled child can. The only difference between “can” and “can’t” is belief.

“Don’t let people tell you that they can’t do something,” Petroff said. “You’re that child’s cheerleader, you’re their advocate, you’re their number one, and if you start to believe that they can’t do it, then they will start to believe they can’t do it.

They’re just like everybody else and they can. Don’t put that word in their

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Jillian and fellow senior Jachob Haines were crowned the Groundhog King and Queen at the annual Groundhog Day assembly at Punxsutawney Area High School. Members of the Inner Circle, as well as Phil himself, were on hand to congratulate the winners. Submitted photo.

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Born and raised in Henderson Township, Shirley Sharp spent most of her early years on her family’s farm. Submitted photos.

Shirley graduated from the Sykesville-Henderson High School with the Class of 1956, where she was awarded the Basch-Lomb award for achieving the highest grades in mathematics and science.

Shirley Sharp served in the United States Air Force from June 1956 through June 1959.

Her service entitled her to attend college on the GI Bill. She received her undergraduate degree in Sociology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and her Master’s from Pepperdine University.

Punxsutawney Woman of the Year Shirley Sharp: Planting Seeds for Tomorrow

By Jennifer Skarbek was a step back in time. Shirley and her of Hometown magazine siblings attended elementary school in Henderson Township. She remembers hen you visit the Punxsutawney the one-room schoolhouse building as Area Historical and Genealogibeing functional, however it was without cal Society to view the exindoor plumbing. In the early 1950s hibits, to attend a gathering or workshop major school consolidation was taking or to delve into ancestral research, place in the area, Sharp chances are you will meet attended Big Run a special lady there who School for two years, has dedicated her life to before being bussed to helping others. PunxSykesville-Henderson sutawney native Shirley High School in 9 th Sharp has spent her adult Grade. Sharp excelled in years using her time and math and science while talents, through both her in school, even winning career and her volunteerawards for her achieveing, to assist others. For ments. In fact, Sharp’s these efforts, Sharp was scholastic accomplishnamed Punxsutawney’s ments earned her a Woman of the Year for 2020 at the annual Shirley Sharp spoke at the banquet scholarship to Lock after receiving her award. Photo by Haven University. Sharp Groundhog Banquet.

Jennifer Roberts. said that unfortunately, Born in Henderson due to inevitable circumstances, she Township, the eldest of the four children could not pursue a degree at that time. It of Ted and Fern Rake, she spent her early was then that Sharp’s aunt Helen Rimer years on her family’s farm before the recommended she join the United States family relocated to New York state Air Force. She completed basic training where her father worked in a defense inat Lackland Air Force Base in San Antodustry during the second world war.

After the war, they returned to the farm - Continued on page 7 in Pennsylvania because, as her mother said: “At least on a farm I can feed my kids.”

Their return to western Pennsylvania

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In the election of November 1969, when Florinda Cressley was elected, she became Punxsutawney’s first woman on Punxsutawney Borough Council. Her 28-year span of public service included the beginning, in 1973, of Punxsutawney’s “redevelopment” era. The Mahoning East Civic Center, dedicated in 1974, was the first phase of clearing and redevelopment of four blocks of downtown. (Color photo of Florinda Cressley, courtesy of Karla Cressley; Black and white photo of Civic Center, file photo)

Women’s “Firsts” Continued from page 3 begin practice in the place in southern Jefferson County that became Punxsutawney, when he and his father-in-law, Rev. David Barclay, came to the wilderness area of western Pennsylvania from Bucks County, north of Philadelphia. After Dr. Jenks had graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1816, the two pioneers came in 1818, with a small group of others.

Dr. Charles Wood was the second doctor in the Punxsutawney area, in 1845. Dr. John Gilpin, of Armstrong County, became a practicing physician in Punxsutawney in the 1850s, shortly after Dr. Jenks had died.

(Gilpin Street is named after Dr. Gilpin.)

Beginning with Dr. Jenks on a list, the 1949 publication of Punxsutawney history for the Punxsutawney Centennial - “100 Years of Progress” provides brief biographies of the numerous doctors in Punxsutawney area history to that date. Ending its 12-page history was a short list of women doctors of Jefferson County. Included in that list was Dr. Jeanne Cooper.

A February 7, 1949 front-page story in The Punxsutawney Spirit told more about the “City’s First Woman Doctor.” Introduced to readers was Dr. Jeanne A. Cooper, “one of the youngest practicing physicians in Pennsylvania,” according to the news release. A graduate of Hahneman Medical College in Philadelphia in 1947, she served an 18-month internship at a Detroit hospital and time as “house physician” at the West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Coming from that position in Pittsburgh, the 26-year-old Dr. Cooper began practice in Punxsutawney on February 14, 1949, with her office on the fourth floor of the Spirit building on North Findley Street. At the same time, Dr. Cooper was accepted as a member of the Medical Society of Jeffer-

son County at a meeting in Punxsutawney.

The news report about the meeting stated: “Dr. Jeanne A. Cooper, Punxsutawney’s new practicing physician, was accepted as a member of the Society. Dr. Cooper is the only woman member of the organization.”

As construction of the new Mary A. Wilson School was nearing completion in East End Punxsutawney, the school board appointed Dr. Cooper as assistant school physician in the Punxsutawney public school system. Also, during her short time in Punxsutawney, Dr. Cooper was chairman of the medical advisory committee of the local Red Cross blood program.

Jeanne Cooper, and her older brother William, were raised by their mother when their father died while they were young.

William Cooper became a physician after his graduation from the Hahneman Medical School in Philadelphia in 1943. Dr. William Cooper is recognized in Pittsburgh as a distinguished hematologist and a trailblazer in advanced, cutting-edge cancer care.

Born in 1921, growing up for Dr. Jeanne Cooper was at a time when women were designated to jobs such as secretaries, teachers and nurses. In order to chase after her dream in medicine, she worked in an ammunition plant during World War II. According to a tribute to her upon her death in 2015, it was stated, “She moved to Punxsutawney in 1949 and went into private practice in family medicine, delivering more than 300 babies, until 1952. There she met the love of her life, James T. Ault.”

Thus, it begins another local story about Dr. Jeanne Cooper in Punxsutawney.

In a conversation with Jean Roberts of Punxsutawney, it was learned that Jim Ault was a salesman employed by the U.S. Gypsum Company in Pittsburgh. In his business travels, he made stops at Frank Roberts & Sons, Inc., in Robertsville, where Jean’s husband Bill Roberts, Sr. was employed.

- Continued on page 8

Woman of the Year Continued from page 5 nio, Texas, before being chosen for weather school. Sharp was pleased with the assignment, however, before she could attend the school, she was found to be partially color blind, which made her ineligible to become a weather observer.

She was placed in casual status until a spot opened in technical school for administrative training. Even though this placement was not what Sharp had hoped for, she did her best with the clerical work it entailed.

“No matter what a job is, you can find satisfaction in it,” Sharp commented about her optimistic outlook.

After technical training, Sharp was stationed for three years at RichardsGebauer Air Force Base near Grandview, Missouri. While serving in the Midwest, Sharp met and married her husband, a fellow airman. The Sharps had two children: a daughter and a son. Sharp’s husband was then transferred to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska.

The family lived there for four years.

During the summers the days were long and the nights very short; in the winter it was the opposite. It was not unusual for the kids to be playing outside in the dark at three o’clock in the afternoon. While in Alaska Sharp worked for the 1931 st Communications Squadron under the Alaskan Air Command.

Upon returning from Alaska, the family moved to Fairfield, California. Her husband’s new duty station was at Travis Air Force Base. There, Sharp took on a position at the base commissary. Sharp used many of her previous skills from her military career and she also learned the basics of accounting.

Of the constant moving around the country Sharp stated, “To have different experiences makes you more flexible and adaptable.”

While the family was at Fairfield, Sharp decided to follow her dream of securing a college education. She enrolled in evening classes at the Solano Community College with the intent of working on a degree in education. When her husband was transferred to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, she found employment at the Andrews Air Force Base Hospital as the ward secretary on the Psychiatric Unit, where she worked with troops returning from the Vietnam War. This was a challenging yet rewarding opportunity for Sharp. While there, she continued her education at Prince Georges Community College.

When Sharp’s husband was assigned to an unaccompanied tour in Thailand, she saw it a chance to reconnect with her past by moving back to the Punxsutawney area with her children. This allowed Sharp’s children to attend the Big Run Elementary School while she continued her education at Clarion University.

Upon her husband’s return from Thailand, the family moved to Sheppard AFB at Wichita Falls, Texas, for a year. Sharp continued her education at Midwestern University. Their next duty station was at Offutt AFB, Omaha, Nebraska, where Sharp finished her degree in sociology, with a minor in Spanish. She was thank-

ful that she had chosen to study the language because it came in handy at Sharp’s next location.

In Homestead, Florida, as her husband worked at the Air Force Base, Sharp obtained her teaching certificate and was a substitute teacher in the public school before becoming the Spanish social worker and later counselor at the local Employment Service Office. She also attended a Masters Program in Human Resources Management with a focus on managing community organizations offered on the base by Pepperdine University.

In 1974, with her husband’s military career coming to an end, the family moved back to the Punxsutawney Area where her children attended the Punxsutawney

Area High School. Sharp became the Area Agency on Aging director for Jefferson County, which enabled her to begin a new career. She then worked in the Community Education Department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania where she coordinated programs for older adults. From there she moved to Harrisburg to become the training director and later the planner for the Pennsylvania Department of Aging.

She oversaw the development of a training curriculum for use by Area Agencies on Aging across the state. Sharp worked on the project with such entities as Pittsburgh University, Pennsylvania State University and Drexel. Sharp stated that the efforts were so successful that the curriculum became a model for the en-

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From the Department of Aging, her next move was to become the first state staff director for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) where she worked with AARP volunteers and chapters across the state. Sharp was sent to Washington D.C. where she was part of the team which opened similar offices and programs in every state. Sharp retired from her position in 2000 and made her final move back home to Punxsutawney.

Although Sharp had her family’s farm to come home to, she decided to buy a piece of Punxsutawney’s history to call her own. Perhaps it was perfect timing or a mere twist of fate, but Sharp said that it - Continued on page 12

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8 – Punxsutawney Hometown – March 2020 - Issue #233

Bill Roberts was one of three sons of the company’s founder Frank Roberts who started the business in 1925. Frank Roberts & Sons became a major distributor of building and hardware supplies to various locations in western Pennsylvania.

Jean Roberts shared that her husband made business calls together with Mr. Ault.

She related that Bill often invited him to join the Roberts family in Robertsville for Sunday dinners, and “Bill’s mother loved to cook for Jim.” Bill had introduced Jim Ault to Dr. Cooper, to begin the romance that ended in Dr. Cooper’s marriage in May 1953.

At the time of her marriage she was serving residency in pathology at the VA Hospital and Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh. In 1958, when her husband Jim was offered a position to teach building techniques in Tehran, Iran, she accepted a teaching position at the Tehran University School of Medicine, teaching in English and learning the Farsi language.

The couple returned to the United States in 1961. She took a position as a staff pathologist at Mercy Hospital and remained at Mercy Hospital until her retirement in 1992 at age 72. Dr. Jeanne (Cooper) Ault died in November 2015 at age 94, survived by a daughter living in the Pittsburgh area and a nephew Bill Cooper, of Punxsutawney, one of many nephews and nieces.

Dr. Jeanne Cooper Ault, Punxsutawney’s first woman doctor in 1949, had a life that followed with amazing experiences in medicine, friendships and travel. She visited Punxsutawney often to see family and friends, and especially during the summer for the Groundhog Festival. According to Jean Roberts, among her many friends, “She loved Punxsutawney.”

Woman Is on Council in Punx’y It was the headline in The Punxsutawney Spirit after the general election of November 4, 1969, that began a new era of women in public service in Punxsutawney.

The opening sentence to report the election results gave it more emphasis for those citizens who were not aware of the trendsetting result of the voting. “Four new faces, including a woman, will be seen on the Punxsutawney Borough Council when it is called into session January 5, 1970.”

Elected to represent the fourth ward on the 12-member borough council was Mrs. Florinda Cressley, a resident on South Penn Street in the fourth ward of downtown Punxsutawney. Mrs. Cressley, wife of local dentist Dr. Thomas C. Cressley, succeeded Jim Brennan. From that history-making moment, Florinda Cressley served Punxsutawney Borough as a councilwoman for 28 years.

Mrs. Cressley was an active council member at a time when Punxsutawney made remarkable progress through a federal Redevelopment program that transformed the appearance of Punxsutawney at the gateway to the town’s downtown on East Mahoning St. with the East End bridge.

That “facelift” began with the demolition of many commercial buildings and houses on the block east of Barclay Square, and

groundbreaking in August 1973 for a new “civic center” on the plot. The Mahoning East Civic Center, of a contemporary, unique design, was dedicated in October 1974, as a complex of buildings to provide municipal offices, council chamber, police department, library and fire company.

The result was the beginning of a “new look,” a contrast to aging buildings erected in the early 20th century. Councilwoman Florinda Cressley was a member of the Architectural Committee appointed to select the architect who would design a building to meet the borough’s needs for the future. Construction of the building was done as Phase I of a four-phase “Urban Redevelopment” in Punxsutawney.

The four-block urban renewal projects for Punxsutawney were completed in 1983 with the opening of the Groundhog Plaza.

Along the way, Florinda Cressley was reelected to continue her public service in positions that included Borough Council president, chair of the Legal and Finance Committee, member of the Jefferson County Redevelopment Authority and a short time as mayor of Punxsutawney.

It was in the summer of 1977 that Punxsutawney Borough was hit by a lawsuit that challenged the 12-member council elections that had been held since 1974. The lawsuit claimed that the borough had failed to reapportion its twelve voting wards under the “One-Man, One Vote” act of 1974. As a result, in an unprecedented action in the history of Punxsutawney, the twelve members of council resigned en masse in July 1977.

A drawing produced a seven-member council of four Republicans (including Mrs. Cressley) and three Democrats, with part of that group to serve 2-year terms, the others for four-year terms. Florinda won reelection in each subsequent election, once running and winning as an Independent candidate in November 1977.

At the time of her death in December 1997, she was chairperson of council’s Legal and Finance Committee. As remembered by her daughter Karla, “She lived for council night.” As recalled, on many nights at their house, at South Penn Street and East Liberty Street, council members sat with her at the family’s dining room table discussing council issues.

Florinda (Anderson) Cressley was born in Anita, to parents of Swedish heritage, her father born in Sweden. Anita was settled in the early 1900s by many new arrivals born in Sweden. She was born in September 1926, two months after her father had died in July 1926 while attending an electrician’s training school in Chicago.

In 1950, when employed by the Pennsylvania Electric Company, she married Thomas C. Cressley, a Glen Campbell native and a senior student at the University of Pittsburgh Dental School. During the years of her public service in Punxsutawney, she served her husband as office manager for his dental practice.

This article again recognizes the woman’s role in Punxsutawney area history, in the family home, in social activities, in work, in professional careers and in public service. A woman’s status has changed over time and we have all benefitted by the change.

•••

Punxsutawney Man of the Year Jeff Kuntz: Blooming Where He was Planted

Jeff Kuntz, mother Mary Ann Kuntz, brother Kevin Kuntz at the award banquet. Submitted photos.

By Jennifer Skarbek of Hometown magazine tarting with a small part he had in a Punxsutawney Theatre Arts Guild (PTAG) production back in his high school years, Punxsutawney Man of the Year for 2020 Jeff Kuntz has spent his teen and adult years giving back to the community where his roots were planted generations ago. Kuntz, who is a teacher at the Punxsutawney Area Elementary School, was recognized at the annual Groundhog Banquet on February 1, an event he thought he was attending this year in support of a fellow educator.

“I thought I was there to help honor a longtime friend and neighbor of mine,” Kuntz said. However, as he glanced around the room, Kuntz began picking out the familiar faces of his family and several friends. For this math teacher, it didn’t take him long to put two and two together and gather that perhaps it was he who was being called into the spotlight on Groundhog Eve. “I was surprised, honored and humbled,” Kuntz confessed about the moment he was named Man of the Year and was called to the front of the room to receive his award and make an acceptance speech. Kuntz went on to explain that he was nominated by his good friends Emily Carlson and Kate Doverspike, adding humorously about the two: “They cooked up a plan to get me there. I never thought I could be ‘tricked’ into being Man of the Year.”

Kuntz was chosen for the honor because of the vast amount of time, energy and passion he puts into helping support a plethora of Punxsutawney programs and organizations.

Whatever the cause, if it benefits some aspect of his community, Kuntz is ready to volunteer his efforts. According to Kuntz, his love of this town was planted within him from a young age and has flourished over the years. He is proud to have grown up in a small place where he spent his summers riding bikes and playing outside from dawn to dusk and his winters frolicking in snow drifts taller than he was on the streets of his quiet neighborhood. Kuntz is also pleased with the education he received locally at West End Elementary School and Punxsutawney Junior High and then Senior High School. After graduation, Kuntz began his college career at

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the Punxsutawney Branch Campus of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, just a stone’s throw from the grammar school of his youth, before heading to the main campus in Indiana where he completed his undergraduate degree in Elementary Education and earned a Masters of Education in Elementary Mathematics. Like many beginning teachers, Kuntz got his start in the classroom through day-to-day and long-term substitute teaching opportunities. Then, he landed a full-time teaching position with Punxsutawney Area School District which brought Kuntz full circle, back to the educational foundations of his youth. Of this, Kuntz is thankful, saying, “I feel very fortunate that I was able to stay in Punxsutawney and find a job in a career that I love.”

During his employment with the district thus far, Kuntz has taught at Longview Elementary School and West End Elementary School, where he served as Head Teacher,

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Punxsutawney Hometown – March 2020 - Issue #233 – 11

Shirley Sharp, (left), was a volunteer coach with the Streaker Girls Softball team at Homestead Air Force Base, Florida. Her daughter Peri Lynn is in the far right of the front row.

Woman of the Year Continued from page 7 just so happened that one of the mansions on Mahoning Street was for sale when she was in the market for a house.

She said that it was the original home of Dr. Sutton S. Hamilton, a physician in the town in the early 1900s, as well as the railroad’s surgeon. Sharp fell in love with the yellow brick masterpiece, still boasting the original stained-glass windows and beautiful wood wainscoting throughout, and she spent a couple years restoring it. Sharp revealed that the house holds even more significance due to the fact that her great-grandfather had lived next door years ago. When she was not working on house projects, Sharp first dedicated her volunteer efforts to the Chamber of Commerce’s revitalization effort, which evolved into Punxsutawney Revitalization, Investing, Developing, Enhancing (PRIDE) where she volunteered on the economic development committee.

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“Later I served on the board. PRIDE started a number of improvement efforts in town like the façade improvement program,” said Sharp. The program awards grants to businesses in order to improve the facades of their buildings, signage, all in an effort to improve commerce. “We were excited because people were beginning to notice that the town was looking better,” she added.

In the midst of these activities that focused on the town in its present-day form, Sharp had the thought that perhaps the citizens should be making a conscious effort to preserve a huge part of the Punxsutawney area’s past.

“Everyone has a connection to coal,” Sharp professed. “We needed to do something to preserve our coal history.”

PRIDE tested the idea and developed a working committee. When it appeared that the project was viable, PRIDE transferred the project to the organization that specializes in preserving the past, the Punxsutawney Historical and Genealogical Society (PHAGS). A Coal Committee was established, and Sharp has

generously been a key member of the group throughout its existence. Many Hometown readers will recognize her name and its association with the coal articles that regularly run in the magazine.

Another focus of Sharp’s is the Punxsutawney Area Community Foundation (PACF), a group created in 2013 by PRIDE in order to further stimulate the community. Again, PRIDE found a way to enable the establishment of (PACF) through affiliation with Bridge Builders Community Foundations (BBCF) which provides the administrative support and according to its website, helps “generate growth and progress in our communities by actively engaging individuals and organizations through transformative philanthropy.”

“What I love about the community fund is the concept that people can leave a legacy to our community by simply making a donation,” Sharp stated. “The donation may be part of an individual’s estate planning and/or will, or it can be an annual donation. The important thing is that the legacy keeps on giving long after we are gone.”

PACF is governed by a local fifteenmember board, aims to educate the public and non-profit organizations about eligibility for possible grants that could aid in their goals. Sharp believes that this is a truly beneficial program that can do so much good for the town. With that purpose in mind, Sharp wants to get the word out about the Week of Giving that takes place in March of every year. She explained that it is an event when people can donate money for local causes and BBCF will enhance the amount through donations from philanthropists.

Sharp is also proud of the fact that the Punxsutawney Community Foundation, with her assistance, has established an endowment fund for the Coal Memorial, accessible online.

“I am excited about it because PRIDE

developed it, and I was a part of it,” Sharp said.

The persistence that Sharp and her comrades have had in establishing these community groups and projects has certainly not been in vain but has brought about considerable and worthwhile results.

“Don’t ever take ‘no’ for an answer,” Sharp advises others interested in promoting a cause. “There’s a right time and right place for it to happen.”

In the past two decades since her return to Punxsutawney, Sharp has busied herself with being a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and has volunteered her energy to a multitude of additional activities that have benefitted the community that she treasures. She has volunteered her time with Van Dyke & Co. during side street shows and stage performances. Sharp also spends many hours every week at the historical society where she serves as the Volunteer Coordinator, as well as the coordinator of genealogy activity. In addition, she has served on the board of the society as an officer. Sharp was also active in helping this past year with the 150th anniversary of the Jefferson County Courthouse.

And, two years ago, Sharp compiled a book of history for the 150th anniversary celebration of Big Run. Sharp mentioned that she is currently on the board of BBCF and is working on improving the foundation’s webpage.

Although she retired from her career twenty years ago, Sharp has not slowed down, nor does she plan on doing so. She said that she wakes each morning and asks herself, “What seeds for good can I plant today?” Sharp’s motivation behind her devotion to her community stems from her genuine desire to help people and to make her town a better place, actions that she hopes will inspire others to do the same.

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George Washington

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John Adams

Second President 1797-1801 State Represented: Massachussets Party Affiliation: Federalist Fact(s): His son, John Quincy, became president. He was the first Vice President.

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James Madison

Third President 1801-1809 Fourth President 1809-1817 State Represented: Virginia State Represented: Virginia Party Affiliation: Democratic-Republican Party Affiliation: Democratic-Republican Fact(s): At age 33, he drafted the Declaration Fact(s): Louisiana and Indiana became states of Independence. He constructed his during his term. He helped form mountain top home, Monticello. the Bill of Rights.

James Monroe Fifth President 1817-1825 State Represented: Virginia Party Affiliation: Democratic-Republican Fact(s): He was the first president to ride a steamboat. He made the Monroe Doctrine.

John Q. Adams Sixth President 1825-1829 State Represented: Massachussets Party Affiliation: Democratic-Republican Fact(s): His father was president.

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Andrew Jackson Seventh President 1829-1837 State Represented: Tennessee Party Affiliation: Democratic-Republican Fact(s): He was in the war of 1812.

He studied law.

James K. Polk Eleventh President 1845-1849 State Represented: Tennessee Party Affiliation: Democrat Fact(s): He died from exhaustion and hard work soon after he left office.

Martin Van Buren

Eighth President 1837-1841 State Represented: New York Party Affiliation: Democratic-Republican Fact(s): He gave us the word "OK" or "Okay" which was an abbreviation for the name of his New York home "Old Kinderhook."

Zachery Taylor Twelfth President 1849-1850 State Represented: Louisiana Party Affiliation: Whig Fact(s): He served in the Mexican War. He died while President.

William Henry Harrison Ninth President 1841 State Represented: Ohio Party Affiliation: Whig Fact(s): He was the first president to die in office.

Millard Fillmore

Thirteenth President 1850-1853 State Represented: New York Party Affiliation: Whig Fact(s): He had eight brothers and sisters. His wife started the White House library collection.

John Tyler Tenth President 1841-1845 State Represented: Virginia Party Affiliation: Whig Fact(s): Loved to play the violin.

His first wife died while he was president.

Franklin Pierce Fourteenth President 1853-1857 State Represented: New Hampshire Party Affiliation: Democrat Fact(s): Served in Mexican War.

Punxsutawney Hometown – March 2020 - Issue #233 – 13

James Buchanan Fifteenth President 1857-1861 State Represented: Pennsylvania Party Affiliation: Democrat Fact(s): He was elected five times to the House of Representatives.

Abraham Lincoln

Andrew Johnson

Sixteenth President 1861-1865 State Represented: Illinois Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): He had to struggle for a living.

Lincoln's mom died when he was 9.

Seventeenth President 1865-1869 State Represented: Tennessee Party Affiliation: Democrat Fact(s): His wife taught him to read.

Ulysses S. Grant Eighteenth President 1869-1877 State Represented: Illinois Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): He was a Civil War General.

Fought in the Mexican War.

Rutherford B. Hayes Nineteenth President 1877-1881 State Represented: Ohio Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): Was wounded in Civil War, became a General.

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James A. Garfield Twentieth President 1881 State Represented: Ohio Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): Died in office.

Chester A. Arthur Twenty-First President 1881-1885 State Represented: New York Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): Was a General in the Civil War.

14 – Punxsutawney Hometown – March 2020 - Issue #233

Grover Cleveland Twenty-Second & Twenty-Fourth President 1885-1889 & 1893-1897 State Represented: New York Party Affiliation: Democrat Fact(s): Angered the railroads by ordering an investigation.

Benjamin Harrison Twenty-Third President 1889-1893 State Represented: Indiana Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): He was the same height as James Madison. His grandfather was president.

William McKinley Twenty-Fifth President 1897-1901 State Represented: Ohio Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): He became the leading Republican tariff expert in Congress. He died in office.

William H. Taft

Theodore Roosevelt

Twenty-Seventh President 1909-1913 State Represented: Ohio Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): He was the son of a distinguished judge. He preferred law to politics.

Twenty-Sixth President 1901-1909 State Represented: New York Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): Born and died in New York. First president to ride in a car while president.

Herbert Hoover

Thirty-First President 1929-1933 State Represented: California Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): He was a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration.

Woodrow Wilson

Warren G. Harding

Twenty-Eighth President 1913-1921 State Represented: New Jersey Party Affiliation: Democrat Fact(s): He was a good student in college.

His first wife died while he was president.

Twenty-Ninth President 1921-1923 State Represented: Ohio Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): He had gray hair. He died of a heart attack while president.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Harry S. Truman

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Thirty-Second President 1933-1945 State Represented: New York Party Affiliation: Democrat Fact(s): First president to ride in an airplane while president.

Thirty-Third President 1945-1953 State Represented: Missouri Party Affiliation: Democrat Fact(s): He was a captain in World War I. He was Vice President for Franklin Roosevelt.

Thirty-Fourth President 1953-1961 State Represented: New York Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): He was the first president to ride in a helicopter while president.

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Calvin Coolidge Thirtieth President 1923-1929 State Represented: Massachusetts Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): His nickname was "Silent Cal."

John F. Kennedy Thirty-Fifth President 1961-1963 State Represented: Massachusetts Party Affiliation: Democrat Fact(s): He liked to swim. He represented Massachusetts in the House and the Senate.

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Lyndon D. Johnson Thirty-Sixth President 1963-1969 State Represented: Texas Party Affiliation: Democrat Fact(s): He signed a civil rights bill, established Great Society programs.

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George Bush Forty-First President 1989-1993 State Represented: Texas Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): When he was 18, he joined the armed forces. He represented Texas in Congress.

Richard M. Nixon Thirty-Seventh President 1969-1974 State Represented: New York Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): He was president at the end of the Vietnam War.

Gerald R. Ford

Jimmy Carter

Ronald Reagan

Thirty-Eighth President 1974-1977 State Represented: Michigan Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): He starred on the University of Michigan football team.

Thirty-Ninth President 1977-1981 State Represented: Georgia Party Affiliation: Democrat Fact(s): He has four children. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Fortieth President 1981-1989 State Represented: California Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): He was shot by a would-be assassin and quickly recovered and returned to office.

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Forty-Second President 1993-2001 State Represented: Arkansas Party Affiliation: Democrat Fact(s): He played the saxophone. While in high school, he once met President John Kennedy in the White House.

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George W. Bush Forty-Third President 2001- 2009 State Represented: Texas Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): Likes baseball. First President to begin serving in the 21st Century.

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Forty-Fifth President 2017 - Present State Represented: No prior governmental service Party Affiliation: Republican Fact(s): At age 70, Trump is the oldest and wealthiest person to become president.

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Electricity Enables New Technology in Local Mines rope haulage systems replaced mules at the mine tipple. Electric motor cars replaced many of the mules in the mines. Electricity powered the ventilation system. It also powered pumps that provided pressurized air for the operation of pneumatic machines used to undercut the coal prior to blasting. The new equipment reduced the number of miners needed and made mining more profitable. Area mining companies were quick to try these new machines.

On April 22, 1891, the Punxsutawney News reprinted an article from the Reynoldsville Volunteer reporting the trial of cutting machines in the Big Soldier Run mine operated by the Bell, Lewis & Yates Coal Mining Company. The machines being tested were the improved This group of miners worked with a pneumatic cutting ma- Lechner coal mining machine chine at an Anita Mine. The machine, dubbed “the iron man,” reduced the number of miners required to produce coal. Photo introduced by E.S. McKinley, of Ohio, which could cut coal 3 ½ courtesy of PAHGS. feet wide and 1 ½ feet deep in five minutes, and the Harrison mining mamules could provide. As the industry moved chine. Both machines ran on compressed air. toward the 20th Century, this began to change.

On the same date, The Punxsutawney Spirit The power behind the change was electricity. noted, “At the new Helvetia mines the comIn the last decades of the 19th Century, new pany are using the Jeffrey coal mining maitems of electric-powered mining equipment chine and are well pleased with it.” were developed at lightning speed. Electric

By the Coal Memorial Committee for Hometown magazine echnology in the early years of bituminous mining in Jefferson County was much as it had been for centuries. The miner’s tools included the basic lantern, pick and shovel. Power was whatever the man and

T

An Eleanora News column in the Punxsutawney News on April 12, 1899, carried this account of a mining machine at work: “A party of four, Ed. C. Shields, R.T. Daugherty, Wood Shirley and Ed. States started out one evening last week to investigate the mysteries of a coal mine and see a mining machine digging coal. Shirley acted as guide, being perfectly familiar with the mine. After traveling for what seemed five or six miles, down slopes, through a confusion of avenues, headings and rooms our guide informed us that we were nearing the place where the machine was working, and that we had traveled only two miles. Before we were near the room we could hear the machine and see a faint glimmer of light. Harry Welsh was running the machine and he handled it as if he had ‘been there before,’ John Cunningham was acting as scraper—shoveling back the coal as the machine cuts it. The machine is built in the shape of a small cannon, having two wheels about sixteen inches in diameter, set about twenty inches apart. The muzzle-like tube about twenty inches long contains a drill about one and a half inches in diameter and sharpened to two points, when the machine is working, this drill moves back and forth with great rapidity, the point striking in the coal and loosening it. The other end of the machine contains two handles by which the runner directs the action of the machine. A table or board is placed, one at the base of the coal, and the other end raised about eighteen inches from the floor. The machine is placed upon a board and directs the movement. Compressed air is the power used and it is conducted through large pipes form a compressor outside

Call Brad 814-541-4983 or Trevor 814-952-4675

of the mine. The air is conducted to the different rooms through smaller pipes and is connected to the machine by a gum hose. By means of a small thumb screw the runner can start or stop the machine at will. To cut a room is to undermine the coal for about two feet back and eighteen inches high, after which the loaders enter the room and drill holes above and shoot the coal down with powder. Then it is loaded on the small cars and hauled by mules to the main headings, and from there it is hauled to the tipple, by means of a wire rope and haulage engine. In the part of the mines we were visiting the coal is about seven feet high, and of the best quality. These mines are taking out over an acre of coal a day, which is over four thousand tons. Eleanora coal is in great demand and were it not for the fiftyseven mining machines working it would be necessary to have two or three thousand pick miners at work in order to mine the required amount each day.”

Another eye-witness account of an introduction of a new mining machine was reported in The Punxsutawney Spirit on November 19, 1907: “The editor of The Spirit had the pleasure of entering a coal mine near Frostburg, Walston No. 8, presided over by Superintendent John Driscoll, last Friday and witnessing the trial of a new mining machine. Mr. Driscoll placed a miner’s cap and lamp on the editorial head, and accompanied by Tom McMillen and a dozen other gentlemen, we boarded an electric motor and started under the hill. After riding a mile or so, more or less, into the dark, dank bowels of the earth, we - Continued on page 22

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Big Run Peeper Banquet Set for March 22

By Melissa Salsgiver of Hometown magazine ig Run is ready for spring. Each year, the town celebrates the eventual arrival of peepers, which are small frogs that hibernate all winter.

The 27th annual banquet to celebrate the peepers is set for March 22.

An old weather proverb states: “Frogs croaking in the lagoon, Means rain will come real soon.”

B

WEATHER FROG IN THE GLASS Published in The Garden Arbor in 1887, was an etching of an oil painting by Hans Pöck. The subject of the painting appears amused by the weather forecasting frog climbing the ladder in its jar, or maybe he’s smiling because he knows this means the weather will be warm and sunny soon.

The German publication, The Garden Arbor, was founded by Ernst Keil in 1853.

The text below the etching translates to “Good weather! oil painting by H. Pöck.”

R. Brend'amour in the bottom left of the painting is a German printer who produced the etching.

We know Punxsutawney Phil can predict an early spring, but it seems that Big Run's peepers may also be able to.

Like the weather-forecasting groundhog, the weather-forecasting frog may also have German origins. The German word Wetterfrösche, translates to weather frogs.

Frogs were used in the 1800s as a tool to predict changing weather. A frog was kept in a glass jar that contained some water and a branch for it to use as a ladder. If the weather would be sunny, the frog would climb the ladder, but if it was

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18 – Punxsutawney Hometown – March 2020 - Issue #233

about to rain, the frog would go down into the water and croak loudly. The frog in the jar was said to be not only an indicator of rain, but also temperature and barometric pressure.

Rain also means it’s spawning season.

Since laying and fertilizing the eggs needs to be done in standing or puddling water, the male frogs call out to the females.

These are the sounds heard during this time which marks the beginning of spring.

It is said that frogs can also predict

drought if you pay attention to where they lay their eggs. If they lay them in the middle of a pond, that means a drought, but if they spawn near the edges there will be plenty of rainfall.

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427-2363 New Hours: Tues., Wed., Thurs., 9 to 5; 6036 Rt. 119, Punxsy Fri. 8 to 7; Sat. 8 to 4 Closed Sun., & Mon. North of Big Run John Biggie, Jr. Punxsutawney Hometown – March 2020 - Issue #233 – 19

Brian Smith Seeks Ss. Cosmas and Damian School Republican Nomination Educating Students of our for 66th District Christian Community S B rian Smith has announced that he will seek the Republican nomination for the 66th District of the House of Representatives. Smith will file on the Republican ballot for the April 28 primary.

District 66 is comprised of all of Jefferson County and the townships of North Mahoning, West Mahoning, East Mahoning, South Mahoning, Canoe, Banks, Grant, Montgomery, Green and Rayne in Indiana County. It also includes the Boroughs of Smicksburg, Ernest, Plumville, Cherry Tree and Marion Center in Indiana County.

Smith, who is 51 years old, graduated from Marion Center High School and attended the Pennsylvania State University for business and accounting. He then began working in construction, heavy equipment operating and the transportation industry.

Brian and his wife Linda moved to Punxsutawney in 1998 with their three young children, Jake, Jadie and Josh.

In 2001, he opened Fastrak, a familyowned transportation company and later he added Orion Logistics, Inc., a freight brokerage company. He is also co-owner of Abacus Housing LLC, which provides student rentals for IUP Culinary Academy students.

Smith has been a Punxsutawney Rotarian since 2006 and is a past president and current treasurer of the organization. He has been very instrumental in helping to organize and co-chair many Rotarian events over the years, the Rotary Radio Auction, the Multiphasic blood screening and the Circle of Trees project. His family has hosted Rotary Foreign Exchange students and he has also participated in the interviewing process for outbound exchange students from the district. He was named Rotarian of the Year by his peers in 2016.

Smith is a past board member of nine years and past vice president of the Punxsutawney Chamber of Commerce. He has

been involved with many of the chamber’s events and still is hands-on with the Christmas street light program.

Smith, wanting to stay engaged and be a leader within his community, ran and was elected to the Punxsutawney Borough Council in January 2014 and became council president in 2016.

Smith has been a longtime supporter of the local fire companies and their fundraising efforts by sponsoring their gun raffles. He is also a lifetime member of the NRA. His father is David A. Smith, CPA and wife Debbie of Punxsutawney and his mother is Karen DeBerry and husband Gary of Marion Center.

“My experience and involvement as a community leader and business owner over the last twenty years has prepared me for the positon of State Representative. It has taught me the work ethic that it takes to get things done.

I am committed to going to Harrisburg and spending the time needed to address the topics that concern our District. Some of the items that I will stand behind are fiscal responsibility - state budget/taxes, repealing burdensome out-of-date laws, enacting common sense laws that help people and businesses to flourish, helping to retain and recruit firemen and first responders with tax credits, tourism – outdoor activities/ATV/UTV, and combating the opioid and addiction epidemic with laws that put the dealers away and provide help for the users to make better life choices. I appreciate everybody’s support and ask for your vote on April 28th. If anyone has questions or would like to help with my campaign, you can email me at briansmithcampaign@gmail.com” •••

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s. Cosmas and Damian School has been educating students of our Christian Community since 1892. We build on the experiences of the past, the standards and the opportunities of the present and the hope, that comes from faith, for the future. We are a private faith-centered elementary school accredited through the Middle States Association of Elementary Schools. SSCD provides affordable private school academic excellence. Generous scholarship opportunities can make our school possible for your child for as little as $25 a week! We have an extensive waiting list for our preschool each year, which is one of the few preschools in our area certified by the PA Department of Education.

Our school is growing; we have added more staff and new programs.

Parents choose our faith-centered school for their children because of high academic standards, values-added education and a safe school environment. Catholic School students score significantly above the national average on standardized testing. In addition to a strong program in the “basics,” as well as challenging programs for exceptional students, our school adds the significant “plus” of religious, moral and spiritual development. In an independent evaluation of threats, hazards and safety, our school received the highest rating possible.

Imagine our world if all students were guided to develop a moral compass and a set of values to direct their future lives! In our school, each student’s physical, moral and intellectual development is cultivated with care and diligence. God’s presence in

our school is what makes us unique. Religious Education focuses on instilling knowledge and understanding of Christian values in a spirit of age-appropriate critical thinking. What you very often find is that SSCD pupils respond very positively to opportunities for spiritual reflection, growth and application in all circumstances.

You are invited to stop by to visit our school at any time! Come meet our caring professionals committed to bringing out the best in their students as they grow in knowledge, skill and values. Our faculty and staff are role models who share their faith, their talents and their time because each child is unique, valuable and a blessing. There is a mutual respect among students, faculty and administration which generates an atmosphere of care and concern. We encourage each student to accept the challenges of being a better person in tomorrow’s world.

At SSCD, we create a special bond among students, home, school and church, so that all share the strong sense of belonging. It’s like a family here — which is what any parent would want for their child: to be educated in a place where they feel valued and they feel a strong sense of belonging.

As long as these children are happy, safe, learning and becoming the best version of themselves, we remain successful! Come experience the joy found at Ss. Cosmas and Damian Elementary School and Preschool.

Call the school to arrange a personal tour.

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Continued from page 17 dismounted, humped our backs and walked a few thousand feet. Finally we came to a wide place with a wall of coal in front which made it impractical to go any further in that direction. So we did the sensible thing and stopped right there for this was to be the scene of action.

The object of the trip was to watch the test of the Newcome and Hirst Direct-Connected Rotary Electric Mining Machine. The ma-

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Undercutting coal was a hard job for the pick and shovel miner. He had to cut under the coal seam to allow space for the expansion of the coal when blasted. This work was performed by using a pick while the worker was lying on his side. It required a large number of miners to produce coal in this manner. Photo courtesy of PAHGS.

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22 – Punxsutawney Hometown – March 2020 - Issue #233

chine in question, which we took with us was placed in position, and the electrical attachments made. On account of the difficulties with the power and other bad conditions in that room, it was decided to move the machine to another room where things were different and give it a chance to demonstrate what it could do.

The machine used was the first one of this type ever built, and some improvements which will greatly increase its efficiency, have already been patented. We shall not attempt to describe it further than to say that it is extremely simple in construction, weighs only four hundred pounds, and is operated by a two-horse power electric motor. Twenty-six pick points revolve on the end of a shaft at the rate of 1,950 revolutions per minute.

After the machine was in readiness and we had the personal guaranteed of the electrician that the power was all right, George T. Miller, an athletic young man who knows how to handle it, took hold of the handles and stuck its nose into the coal close to the floor of the mine. It soon tore a hole four feet deep into the coal and as the machine was moved along the hole rapidly became wider and wider. A strong electric light on the font of the machine enabled the rest of us to see. We all occupied comfortable positions on our ‘hunkers,’ and aside from the fact that it makes a fellow’s legs and back ache until he imagines he has rheumatism, appendicitis, lumbago and general paralysis combined, we enjoyed it very much. But an anesthetic in the shape of a particular rank toby, together with the excitement of seeing the wheels go ‘round and the dust fly, helped us to enjoy it, in spite of the fact we expected the roof to fall down most any minute and flatten us out on the bottom.

The machine whizzed and sang away there for an hour and twenty minutes reminding one of a big mosquito in action, when it had cut across a room 17 feet wide, making 72 square feet of coal. This was regarded as remarkably good work by the practical men who witnessed the test, as it would mean 572 square feet of coal cutting in eight hours. The best record, for a punching machine, in this regard, is 522 feet in eight hours.

The good point of the Newcome and Hirst

machine, which made a far better showing in the softer coal of the Somerset region than it did here, is that it is so much lighter and easier to learn to operate. The cutting point is easily raised or lowered to conform to the bottom, so that projections of rock or bone may be avoided.

Another great advantage it possess is in economy of power. To generate electricity for five of these machines a fifteen horse-power engine would be ample while for the same number of air machines a ninety horse-power engine would be required. Air power losses its potency much more rapidly by transmission than electricity, and is not as cheaply installed or as easily maintained.

The power used in this test was accurately measured by a competent electrician, with the best instruments obtainable, and was found to use an average of two and one-half horse power. An air cutter would have used an average of eighteen horsepower.

The test was pronounced highly successful by the gentlemen present who knew a mining machine from a rapid-fire machine, and all agreed that it was a comer. The machine is being manufactured by Herpel Brothers of Reynoldsville and has been patented, and patents on improvements applied for in this and foreign counties.

The inventor of the machine is Thomas J. Newcome, formerly of Reynoldsville, now of Butler, after a design made by John C. Hirst, of Reynoldsville. These two gentlemen, together with George T. Miller, of Butler, are the present owners. It is undoubtedly a practical coal mining machine, run on the principle of the maximum of speed with the minimum of power and will no doubt soon be in general use.”

Electrical power and machines redefined

The Herpel Brothers Foundry building is located near the bridge in Reynoldsville, Pennsylvania. The Herpel Brothers manufactured the Newcome and Hirst Direct-Connected, Rotary Electric Mining Machine. Today this building serves as the Reynoldsville Senior Center.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

coal mining during the 20th Century. The miner with a pick and shovel became a historic artifact as the new machine savvy miner emerged.

This article has been prepared by the Coal Memorial Committee of the Punxsutawney Area Historical & Genealogical Society. Resources used in preparing this article are from Newspapers.com, the Mengle Memorial Library Punxsutawney Spirit at the digitalcollections.powerlibrary.org, and the Library of Congress at http://chronicling america.loc.gov.

Comments on this article may be directed to PAHGS, P.O. Box 286, Punxsutawney, PA 15767. Individuals desiring to honor a coal or coal related industry worker in 2020 are encouraged to purchase their tile by June 30, 2020. A Coal Memorial tile may honor persons who worked in any aspect of the coal industry including railroads and ancillary services. Additional information and forms may be found online at www.punxsyhistory.org or may be picked up at the Lattimer House, 400 West Mahoning Street, Punxsutawney. Forms may also be requested by e-mailing: punxsyhistory@outlook.com, or calling 814-938-2555.

•••

Hometown Community Happenings

By the staff of Hometown magazine rom the staff of Hometown magazine and the Community Calendar at Punxsutawney.com, here is a list of events coming up in our area: n March 3: First Tuesday Community Meal, 5 p.m., at Punxsutawney Presbyterian Church. Free & open to the public. n March 5: Cancer Support Group Meeting, 6:30 p.m., at One Life Church. n March 6: Blood Drive, 10:30 to 3:00 p.m., at Punxsutawney Area Hospital. Benefits the American Red Cross. n March 6 & 7: Grange’s Helping Hands, free clothing at Grange Church of God, Friday, 12-4 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. n Every Friday during Lent: Catholic Daughters Fish Fry at SSCD Auditorium from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Take-outs available.

Call 938-6540 ext. 218. n March 7: Boy Scout Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge program, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Weather Discovery Center. Register by Feb. 28 at 814-938-1000 or email info@weatherdiscovery.org. n March 7: PMEA District 3 Jazz Festival Concert, 2 p.m., at PAHS Auditorium.

Tickets available at the door. n March 8: Daylight Savings Time begins.

Turn clocks ahead one hour. n March 10: Trout Stocking, 10:30 a.m., at Cloe Lake, by PA Fish & Boat Commission. n March 13: Community Meal, 5 p.m., at First United Methodist Church. Free & open to the public. n March 14: BRANCHH Spring Craft & Vendor Show, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Big Run Event Center. Benefits the food pantry in Big Run. n March 14: Spring Fever Art & Craft Market, 9 a.m., at Mapleview Schoolhouse Market & Event Center. Contact the center for vendor registration. n March 14: Designer Bag Bingo, 6 p.m., at Flashover Firemen’s Club. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Hosted by SSCD Elementary

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School & Preschool. n March 15: Jefferson County Bridal Show, noon to 3 p.m., at Punxsutawney Area Community Center. Hosted by PA Bridal Association. Tickets may be necessary. n March 16: Coping with Loss Support Group, 7 p.m., at First Church of God. n March 16-20: Week of Giving, by Bridge Builders Community Foundations. Visit bbcfgives.org for more information. Benefits some Punxsutawney organizations. n March 17: St. Patrick’s Day! Wear some green! n March 17: Bingo at Punxsutawney Moose. Doors open at 6 p.m.; games start at 7 p.m. n March 18: Recruitment Fair, 4:40 to 6:30 p.m., for interested high school students & adult students, at Jeff Tech. n March 19: First Day of Spring! n March 20, 21 & 22: “Winnie The Pooh” & “The House at Pooh Corner,” presented by the Punxsutawney Theatre Arts Guild, at the PAHS auditorium. Tickets available at the door. n March 21: Annual Radio Auction by Punxsutawney Rotary Club. n March 21: Boy Scout Weather Merit Badge, 9 a.m. to noon, at Weather Discovery Center. Register by March 16 at 814-9381000 or email info@weatherdiscovery.org. n March 21: Hunter-Trapper Education Class, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Heritage House in Brookville. Presented by the PA Game Commission. Go to www.pgc.pa.gov for info. n March 21: Spring Craft & Vendor Show, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Jefferson County Fairgrounds. n March 28: Weird But True Weather, 10 a.m. to noon, at Weather Discovery Center.

Pre-registration helpful but not necessary.

Walk-ins welcome. n March 28: Dodgeball 4 Diabetes, 10 a.m., at Punxsutawney Area Community Center. Registration information available at the community center. n March 28: 5th Annual Snacks to Grow On Lady Luncheon & Basket Raffle, 11

PUNXSUTAWNEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HOSTS CANDIDATE FORUM AT THE PUNXSUTAWNEY COUNTRY CLUB Brian Smith (left) and Jack Matson, candidates seeking to represent the 66th District legislative seat in Pennsylvania, recently appeared at Punxsutawney Country Club for a “Candidates Forum.” The forum – which was orchestrated by several area chambers of commerce – provided an opportunity for local voters to meet the candidates and to field questions to them. The seat is currently held by State Repre-

a.m. to 2 p.m., at Punxsutawney Country Club. Tickets required. n March 28: Sally’s Bazaar Spring Vendor & Craft Show, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at The Salvation Army, Indiana. n March 28: 4th Annual Rounds for Hounds, 6 p.m., at Flashover Firemen’s Club. Hosted by the Pinecreek K-9 Search Unit. n March 31: The Punxsutawney Citizens Band will start practices from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on March 31, at the First English Lutheran Church social hall.

Go to www.punxsypa.com/band for information. n Donna Lellock was the winner of Hometown’s 2020 Super Bowl Contest. The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in the 2020 Super Bowl. The final score was Chiefs, 31, and 49ers, 20, for 51 total points. Donna will redeem her gift card at Shop ‘N Save. n Community Action offers free income tax preparation. For eligibility guidelines, call 814-938-3302, ext. 236 or 800-648-3381, ext. 236. n The Punxsutawney Festival in the Park will be June 27-July 4, at Barclay Square, presented by the Punxsutawney Chamber of Commerce. Go to www.punxsutawney.com

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for information. n The 54th Annual Groundhog Festival is set for June 28-July 4, at the National Guard Armory Field in Punxsutawney. Go to www.punxsutawneygroundhogfestival .squarespace.com for information. n If you’d like to volunteer at the Jackson Theater, call the Punxsutawney Area Community Center at 814-938-1008. n The First Church of God offers a Celebrate Recovery program. Contact the church or visit its Facebook page for more information. n Jeff Tech offers several Adult Education classes. Visit www.jefftech.info for information on what courses are available and starting dates. n The First United Methodist Church holds a prayer service at 7 p.m. on Thursdays. n The Punxsutawney Memorial Library offers several programs, including computer classes, Teen Club, ‘Tween Group, Book Club for adults, adult coloring and activities for children.

The Punxsutawney Area Community Center offers several programs. Check the website or call 814-938-1008 for program availability.

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ome of the most beloved characters in children’s literature will come to life on the stage of the Punxsutawney Area High School auditorium as the Punxsutawney Theatre Arts Guild (PTAG) launches its 45th year of producing live entertainment for local audiences. Winnie-thePooh, “the bear of little brain,” and his friends from the One Hundred Acre Wood will be sharing their light-hearted adventures at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, March 20 and 21, and again at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 22.

Under the capable direction of Kathy S. Dinsmore and assistant director, Debra Dinsmore, A. A. Milne’s tales of the happy-goluck bear and his best friend, Christopher Robin, and their cohorts, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga, Roo, Piglet, Rabbit and the irrepressible Tigger provide the merriment in two productions: “Winnie the Pooh” and “The House at Pooh Corner.” The first segment of the show was adapted by Kristin Sergel; Bettye Knapp created the second segment from the work by A. A. Milne.

Punxsutawney Man

The Guild welcomes several young performers who will be making their debuts, including Drew Fox as Christopher Robin and Holly Deppen as Piglet. Michelle Casey and Gabriella Kendra are Kango and Roo; Hailey Selinga and Jasmine Maze are Early and Late, the smaller rabbits.

Emily Wisnesky returns for her third PTAG show as Rabbit. Veteran actors include Jef Dinsmore as Winnie the Pooh; Doug Fye as the woebegone donkey Eeyore; Timothy Cooper as Owl; and Jessica Schidlmeier as the hyperactive Tigger.

Stage manager and chief technician Matthew Dinsmore is in charge of lights and sound. Charlotte S. Fye will coordinate lobby activities, assisted by Jeff Kuntz at the ticket table.

Admission at the door is $9.00 for adults; $8.00 for seniors; and $5.00 for students.

The play is presented by special arrangement with Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois.

Anyone desiring more information should phone the Dinsmores at 814-938-0378.

•••

has blossomed over the years from his initial appearance on stage to participating in sevContinued from page 9 eral shows, directing a show, running the box office, being an officer of the group and helpnounced Kuntz as a finalist for its award. ing with projects such as the annual Partron’s About this experience, Kuntz said, “AlCampaign and fundraising. though I did not win, it was a great honor to Whether he is teaching or volunteering, even be nominated.”

Kuntz’s energy is devoted to students and his Such a nomination is proof that Kuntz is a community. He aims to make a positive imquality educator who has made a positive impression on the youth of the town by being pact on his students and an example of kindness, coworkers. As for the generosity and compassion. source of his passion for his He believes that it’s through job, Kuntz attributes it to simple, everyday actions the fact that teaching runs and gestures like “holding a in his family. door for someone else, giv“My parents and maternal ing a heartfelt compliment, grandparents were teachbuying a box of Girl Scout ers; my paternal grandfacookies outside Walmart or ther was a one-time school donating to a local sports board member,” he relayed. team,” as well as through Since beginning his teachvolunteering on a grander ing career, Kuntz has bescale, that we can make the come involved with the biggest difference. activities of the Punx“I want my kids to see that sutawney Area Education everything counts,” Kuntz Association, The Punxprofessed. sutawney Memorial LiKuntz, receiving Punxsutawney As Kuntz nears the end of brary, Home for the Jeff Man of the Year award. his teaching career, he said Holidays, Camp Friendship that he will continue to look for ways to help and numerous other community groups. the town that has been very good to him over Kuntz’s job has also allowed him to work his lifetime, to give back, to grow where his with many colleagues in the support of sevroots lie. This is a principle that he learned eral community organizations through from a dear comrade years ago. fundraising, donating time or collecting He summed it up by saying, “My good items for local food banks, Make A Wish, anfriend, the late Audrey Wehrle, always told imal shelters, The Salvation Army and the me you will “bloom where you are planted.’” local library.

Kuntz feels that he has been planted with “My involvement is almost never just me, people who have helped him in his mission but a dedicated group of folks who want to to help others through situations or connecdo something for our community,” Kuntz tions to organizations, who have helped him stated. “I have had the honor of working with to “be his best.” Likewise, Kuntz urges othso many people who are so invested in variers to do the same, to make the most of the ous aspects of our community, like Terry and place where you live, to be kind to the peoCharlotte Fye, Tom Curry, Joyce Cooper, ple who surround you, to seize the opportuJean Roberts and Frank Hetrick, to name just nities you are given, to nurture the seed that a few. There are so many people who love has been planted, to grow, to blossom and, our town and want to see it thrive and be its most importantly, to bloom. best.”

••• In addition, Kuntz’s association with PTAG

Artha Krider (1912-1964). Youngest of the four Krider sisters, Artha graduated from the Punxsutawney High School with the class of 1930. The text accompanying her senior picture describes her serious and hard-working nature as well as her long, never-cut curls. Her stated goal for the future was to “continue her work at Indiana.”

A second picture depicts Artha with the class of 1934 at Indiana State Teacher’s College. Here, her locks are shorn and she is described as having belonged to an impressive number of academic and recreational clubs. Mirror (Punxsutawney annual) 1930, PAHGS yearbook collection. Oak (ISTC annual) 1934, Indiana University of Pennsylvania archives.

A

uthor, broadcast journalist and western Pennsylvania native Eric Burns wrote, in 2015, that 1920, at the beginning of the “Roaring Twenties” decade, has meaning for today. His book, “1920: The Year That Made the Decade Roar,” identified world-shaping trends and events.

Now that 2020 has arrived, Burns’ book is worth another look.

One notable event was the long-awaited right for women to vote in the United States. The woman’s suffrage movement had been building for decades, beginning Dorothea Krider (19061980).

Oldest of the Krider sisters, Dorothea “Dot” is shown in her senior picture with the Indiana State Normal School class of 1927 and is described as having graduated from McDonald High School. Instano (ISNS annual) 1927, Indiana University of Pennsylvania archives.

Thelma Krider (19091987). “Ted,” as she is described in her senior picture with the Indiana State Teachers College class of 1931, participated in many campus organizations as did her sisters—Teachers Club and Junior-Senior High School Club, YWCA, Literary and Mathematics Clubs. Oak (ISTC annual) 1931, Indiana University of Pennsylvania archives.

Mildred Krider (19081990). Like her sisters, having completed her work at Indiana to become a teacher, Miss Mildred Krider can be found with other faculty members in the Punxsutawney High School yearbook for 1949. Mirror (PHS annual) 1949,

well before the Civil War. Many in the movement were disappointed when, following the war, the nineteenth amendment was enacted acknowledging the right of African American men to vote without extending that right to American women of any race. Punxsutawney area newspapers of 1920 covered the news of women voting for the first time in detail. Recently, the Jefferson County Historical Society’s newsletter featured the first county woman, Elizabeth Marlin McCreight—the oldest woman in the county—to cast a vote in the November 1920 election. Nationally, the names of Susan B. Anthony and other leaders in the woman’s suffrage movement have reemerged in the media in hopes that their efforts will never be forgotten.

A second event, related, yet, not related,

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was what historians have labeled the de facto presidency of President Woodrow Wilson’s wife, Edith. Wilson, who had guided the country through the traumatic experience of what came to be known as World War I, was in the final years of his second term as U.S. President when he had a severe stroke. Sustained in October of 1919, the stroke caused left side paralysis, limited vision in his right eye and what would later be described as disorders such as mood swings, impaired impulse control and defective judgement. All of these details were hidden from the public at the time. His wife and those around him believed that stability required that the full effects should not be disclosed. Edith, therefore, controlled what documents the President should see and which visitors would be allowed to communicate with him, enabling him to complete his second term.

During and after the woman’s suffrage movement, women across the nation formed clubs and associations which impacted their local communities. These were beyond the women’s auxiliaries of men’s lodge and veteran organizations.

They were beyond the faith-based organizations in which women had always played a part. If one looks at the “Punxsutawney Centennial: 100 Years of Progress,” published in 1949, one sees listed many women’s groups including the following: Business and Professional Women, established locally in 1929 (first president-Miss Elizabeth Crissman) and The Women’s Club, established locally in 1924 (first president-Mrs. Verna Strock). They were associations of women who were active in the community and who began to establish “firsts” in their respective endeavors.

Business women, teachers, nurses and others with post-high school training joined and advanced these organizations in large part. Articles over the last number of months have shown the frequency of men and women who were siblings to follow like pursuits—service members and nurses during WWI, medical missionaries to the Far East and teachers in and around the large rural region of Punxsutawney. In 2012, a Hometown article by S. Thomas Curry (#143) on the glass manufacturing industry of Punxsutawney noted the nationwide stir caused by the graduation from high school in 1922 of the three triplet sisters of Punxsutawney—Laura, Louise and Lillian, daughters of French-born Joseph and Nathalie Buisett/Buisset. Joseph brought his family to Punxsutawney to pursue work as a glass blower, like many men who had learned the skill in France and Belgium. The girls all took up careers in teaching after graduating from Clarion Normal School. Laura taught at Pine - Continued on next page

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(“From Our Past,” researched by S. Thomas Curry, features items of interest from past editions of Punxsutawney and area newspapers.)

February 22, 1899 — Algernon “Algie” McBride, of this place, who is a member of the Cincinnati National League baseball club, expects to leave here on Monday, March 6, to join the club, which starts South on the 8th to train for the coming season. He is in good physical condition, his habits having been as regular and correct during the winter as those of the average farmer, and he expects to be able to hold up his end with the best of them.

He was disappointed in the contract sent him, as it called for only $1,700 for the season, when he was expecting $3,000. (Punxsutawney Spirit) February 24, 1886 — Well-behaved church going people are often annoyed during services by someone near them keeping up a silly conversation with another who is just as foolish to listen. Often seen are boys and girls who talk and giggle and titter and take letters out of their pockets and rattle them just as though the interest of the services depended upon their making a noise. People who go to church only to be seen and make a noise should stay away until they learn church etiquette or respect for the church of God. (Valley News) March 3, 1870 — The ministerial gentleman who, some months ago, made himself notorious by bidding his flock an affectionate farewell, and shortly afterwards running away with “mi wife,” created quite a sensation among our good people to-day by making his

appearance in town; but after a conference with some of his friends, all the while screening himself as much as possible from the public eye, he departed for the country in the evening. A sense of shame and disgrace should keep him away from Punxsutawney forever. (Punxsutawney Plaindealer) March 4, 1903 — Lee Bowers has purchased ground from Henry Ernst, facing on South Elk street, and is having a large planing mill erected on the same. (Punxsutawney Spirit) [NOTE: “Lee Bowers” is Lever Bowers, for whom Lever Street is named in Punxsutawney’s East End.] March 16, 1898 — A short term of school will be conducted in the public school building beginning Monday, May 2, 1898. Prof.

J.L. Allison will have full charge of the school and will do all the teaching. The object of the school will be to fit teachers for the examination and to help others who are anxious to fit themselves for teaching. This will be an opportunity for any who have not the means to go away to school. (Punxsutawney News) March 26, 1907 — The William Irvin Company in Big Run have about completed their railroad and will start their mill May 15th.

This is an up-to-date plant and operated by men of large business experience. It will employ from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five men when in full operation and the company has enough lumber to last for ten years. Considering the price of lumber and the amount of men it takes to manufacture it, the plant will not only be a good thing for the owner and his employees, but for the entire town as well. (Punxsutawney Spirit)

Punxsutawney Hometown – March 2020 - Issue #233 – 25

Sister Acts Continued from previous page

Grove school in Ringgold Township, later Smith School in Oliver Township and Valier School in Perry Township before relocating to the Clarion area. Louise taught at Hazel Dell School in Union Township, later Startzel School in Oliver Township and Jenks Hill School and Weber Memorial Junior High School in Punxsutawney. Lillian taught at Sprankle Mills in Oliver Township before relocating to the Clarion area. There were also Fernande and Julia, two older sisters, not teachers, who worked in retail. All the sisters married except for Fernande, who fell ill and died as a young woman. (A display in the Bennis House of PAHGS draws attention to Punxsutawney’s glass manufacturing industry, the French and Belgian heritage of many glass workers and includes three triplet dolls intended to remind visitors of Laura, Louise and Lillian.)

A few years later, four more sisters arrived in Punxsutawney. Their father, Artha Krider, was also a glass blower who moved here for that purpose. An interesting first name, Artha was the name given to the youngest of the girls. She was able to graduate from Punxsutawney High School; the others had graduated elsewhere. Dorothea, Mrs. Krider’s name, was given to the oldest; the other girls were Mildred and Thelma. All four of these sisters went on to become teachers after having graduated from Indiana State Teachers College.

Three of the sisters went on to obtain master’s degrees: Dorothea from Pennsylvania State University and Mildred and Artha from the University of Pittsburgh. Baby boomers will remember one or another of these women who taught in various local schools before consolidation in the 1950s.

Dorothea taught in McCalmont Township and Penns Manor Jointure for a total of 36 years. Mildred taught for 40 years at Bell Township and the Punxsutawney Area Junior High School, where she taught geography and mathematics. Thelma retired after 36 years of teaching at Bell Township while Artha had a 36-year career teaching at Mahaffey, Parker’s Landing, Rossiter and Punxsutawney Area School District. The sisters all lived in the family home on Graffius Avenue Extension, unmarried, except for Artha, who had been briefly married, as census records consistently show her at the family home with her parents and sisters.

The obituaries of all four women show how similar their lives and interests were. As might be expected, all belonged to the same series of education-related associations and church-related organizations. Three are shown to have belonged to the Friends of the Library and the Punxsutawney Area Historical & Genealogical Society.

(PAHGS is grateful for the donation of the Kriders’ player piano which often entertains visitors in the Leisure Room of the Bennis House, a place that displays a number of artifacts from German and Swiss families.)

Additionally, Mildred and Artha are noted as members of the American Association of University Women. AAUW was formed nationally in 1881 and locally in 1973. The local group disbanded a number of years ago due to declining membership. The Punxsutawney Nurses’ Club, the Women’s Club and the Punxsutawney Young

Women’s Club have also disbanded. One organization, Business & Professional Women, founded nationally in 1919, continues in the form of Punxsutawney Career Women’s Club, which inclusively welcomes all working women, however their work is defined. Members address a variety of ways to advance the health and welfare of the community, recognize outstanding seniors as Punxsutawney Girls of the Month - the Punxsutawney Rotary Club recognizes Boys of the Month - and frequently hosts, as speakers, women from across the community who can share the rewards and challenges of their respective careers.

Women, like men, participate in community life by taking action through one or more of the many civic, fraternal or churchrelated organizations available to them.

•••

Hometown Bridal

and Celebration Guide

The Anthony Connection Alpheus Anthony (18601933). Descendant of Revolutionary War veteran Jacob Anthony, who relocated in western Pennsylvania following the war, Alpheus worked in the household of a German ethnic family in Henderson Township as a young man before relocating with his second wife and growing family to Perry Township.

His family was large and, like many others, several daughters followed teaching and nursing careers (another sister act). (Photo from the collection of Marty Armstrong) An even more interesting connection can be made to one of the subjects of this issue’s article. There are plenty of Americans with the surname of Anthony, including woman’s suffrage advocate Susan B. Anthony. If one is interested in determining a possible relationship, the path is not difficult. The genealogy of colonial Anthony families is well-documented, beginning with the 1444 birth of William in Germany. Before long, grandson William had migrated to England where he was Chief Graver in the royal mint during the times of King Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I. His son, Francis, a doctor and chemist, got into serious trouble for practicing medicine without a license. His activities included the selling of “potable (drinkable) gold” for health purposes during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. After a number of generations in England, some family members then sailed to the New England in North America.

If one traces the line of Alpheus back to his third great-grandfather, one arrives at an earlier Jacob, one of the younger sons of Abraham Anthony. Tracing the line of Susan B. back to her third great-grandfather, one finds William, one of the older sons of the same Abraham Anthony. The connection seems clear, Alpheus and Susan B. are fifth cousins. This will mean nothing to many but a great deal to others. Just how strong is such a relationship? Families diverge over time, moving to new locations, taking up new interests, adopting new spellings for their names. Still, in a region such as that which includes Punxsutawney, people who know one another as distant cousins (third, fourth and fifth, etc.) rub elbows every day. It is one of the things which makes history interesting.

Readers should note that the Punxsutawney Area Historical & Genealogical Society will once again be presenting evening programs at no cost to the public during the Week of Giving, which takes place March 16-20, sponsored by the Punxsutawney Area Community Foundation. They are scheduled for 7 p.m. each evening, Monday through Friday, at 400 W. Mahoning Street. The programs will include a look at the region’s rail history, work being done with the negative collection, “Eternal Baseball,” local history as captured in diaries and making extended family connections. The variety in programming is intended to introduce to the public the many ways in which history can be studied and enjoyed.

•••

26 – Punxsutawney Hometown – March 2020 - Issue #233

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Punxsutawney Hometown – March 2020 - Issue #233 – 27

28 – Punxsutawney Hometown – March 2020 - Issue #233