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the cabin, stuffed to

rafters with artifacts. From left Brice Rush with brothers Bill and Robert Miller getting a tour.

Back home on the farm

Being an editor, I don’t get as many chances to write stories, but occasionally, I get to take my notebook and pen on the road, sit down for an interview and pop back to the office and let the prose flow on the page. Writing, for me, is like finding that fuzzy sweater in the back of your closet that you don’t get to wear as often as you used to. When you shrug it on, it seems to fit the curve of your elbow just like you remember and hits the perfect spot on your hand, slightly over the wrist, but not too long to get in your way. All this to say, I am pleased to offer a preview of one of our events, Farm to Fork, in this edition.

Farm to Fork holds a special place in my heart, but not for the reasons one might assume. I’ve been with the Observer-Reporter since 2017, though I’ve only been assisting with our events for the past few years. 2022 was set to be my first time attending Farm to Fork, and I was so excited. I’d heard how beautiful the event always turned out, how relaxing it was to sit outside and enjoy the stunning scenery with a glass of wine, listening to live music. The fall of 2022 was one of the most challenging periods in my life. My mother went through numerous medical issues that led to surgery, hospitalizations, a pancreatic cancer diagnosis, chemotherapy and eventual placement in a skilled nursing facility when she could no longer care for herself or live alone. Farm to Fork was in the middle of all this, and I was so looking forward to a short break. But when the date rolled around, my mother was declining, and instead of spending time at Thistlethwaite Winery, I was back home in Ohio, alone with my ailing mother, who really needed me. I was heartbroken, not only for not being able to attend but for everything I was losing. Roles were reversing. In real time, I watched my caretaker and my cheerleader slip away. It was all too much.

So, I made my own Farm to Fork. I brought some camp chairs, a couple of bottles of wine and a Bluetooth speaker, and I set up in the backyard of my childhood home. Sure, I had to check in on my mom every so often to ensure she didn’t need anything, but it’s one of my cherished memories. There were a lot of those types of moments after we discovered mom’s cancer. We lost her a year after her diagnosis, but in that time, we were able to squeeze out a lot of joy and togetherness.

Last year, I got to attend Farm to Fork, and this time, it was only a couple of months since my mom had passed. I watched the sun set, surrounded by my coworkers, remembering that evening on top of the hill where I made my personal version of Farm to Fork. Now, each year, I’ll remember that time in my life when, even though I felt so lost, I found myself in a quiet moment with a beautiful view.

I hope you, too, can make your own incredible memories, no matter what’s going on in your life. Take care, stay safe and see you in the next edition.

‘We’ve got

stuff!’

Brice Rush’s mining collection in Carmichaels

is a sight to behold

“We’ve got stuff!” Linda Rush will cheerfully tell anyone who asks about the mountains of coal mining memorabilia she and her husband Brice have rounded up and taken home over the last 40-plus years.

How much stuff?

See Stuff, Page 6

By C.R. Nelson

partners

Bruce and Linda Rush to help save artifacts and records of our industrial past.

STORY AND PHOTOS

Pete Judlicka of the American Industrial Mining Museum Co.

with

Continued from Page 5

Hard to tell — because it just keeps growing. Linda and I are standing in the Carmichaels and Cumberland Township Volunteer Fire Company building, peering across tables covered with albums of black and white photographs. Heads are bent over them; fingers flick the pages. It’s Thursday evening at the Pennsylvania Bituminous King Coal Show — August 17-24 — and the big air-conditioned hall is the place to be to browse exhibits featuring all things coal.

Folks whose relatives have been digging it since the early days of the 20th century are here with their kids, grandkids, grandparents and out-of-town visitors, ready to relax, grab something to eat and take it all in.

Brice is over there by the albums, talking to a man from Hopwood, “who came to the show last night saying he read about our collection in the paper. Then he found a relative in one of the albums,” Linda points him out. “He came back tonight with his nephew. Brice was his nephew’s boss when they worked at Dilworth Mine.”

Chuck Seighman is beaming as he shakes my hand. “When I saw the article in the Herald-Standard, I told my wife, ‘We’re going to

Greene County!’ I didn’t tell my nephew Bob where we were going tonight. I wanted to surprise him.” In his other hand is a photograph that he brought to donate. “This is my dad, Chuck Sr. He started in the mine in the 1920s when he was 13, tending horses. He worked for U.S. Steel for 45 years.” A nod to an album, open to a photo labeled “1961” of a woman holding a baby. “That’s my aunt Nellie Byers and her son Randy. US Steel had picnics at Idlewild Park (in Ligioneer). My dad, her dad and their brother all bossed for US Steel.”

The newspaper article in question, a pre-write for the festival featuring the Rush collection of mining artifacts written by Zach Petroff, is just the latest reason why more visitors have been making the pilgrimage to Greene County to see the real-life stuff that mining history is made of.

“First day of the show, a couple from McMurray came and gave us this,” Linda points to a large, handsomely framed photo of a blue mining machine from the pre-long wall days, perfectly positioned in a well-lit mine.

“It’s a promotional photo from a mining machine company — I found it at a repair shop in Johnstown about 25 years ago,” Ken Barish tells me when I call later. “I got it framed and had it hanging in my garage.” Coal-cutting machinery from this era would make top or bottom cuts deep into the unmined coal seam “like a chain saw” from

eight to fourteen feet across. Holes would then be drilled in the face, loaded with dynamite and “shot. I went in the mine when I was 17 and I’m 81 now. My kids aren’t interested in these things so when I read about it in the paper, we loaded everything up in the car and came to the coal show.”

Brice and Linda have had hundreds of encounters like these — of artifacts rescued from dumpsters, basements, attics and garages, either found by Brice or donated because “people know we save this stuff.”

The Rush collection — open for private tours, just call — has long since outgrown the family home in Carmichaels. It now extends into every nook, cranny and rafter of the historic log cabin Brice dismantled and rebuilt in the sideyard. Two years ago, they added an addition to their house to display more overflow. The extra space now holds everything from maps and signage to replicas of riverboats and glass cases, filled with the everyday stuff of life as it used to be in the bituminous coalfields of Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

Linda, a coal miner’s daughter and granddaughter, laughingly takes credit for her husband’s interest in mining.

It was her father Robert Varesko who got Brice his first mining job at U.S. Steel Corp.’s Robena Mine.

Linda Rush takes a donation from John Glendenning, who found these photos while dismantling a house in Nemacolin.

Continued from Page 6

After a 23-year career working at Frosty Run and Garards Fort shafts, running foreman at U.S. Steel’s Dilworth Mine and a stint at Maple Creek Mine, Brice retired as the industry shifted gears. Now the hunt was on for artifacts headed for the scrapyard or the burn pile as first one old mine, then another, was worked out, shut down and dismantled. Brice became involved with the King Coal Association in 1983 while helping organize the first decal swap as a fundraiser for the Coal Show. Collecting and swapping decals, the reflective stickers used to personalize hardhats and make them more visible in the darkness, is what miners do. For Brice, who loved collecting things, even as a kid, those decals were only the beginning.

Now, forty-some years later, his impressive displays of decals, belt buckles, hats, lunch pails, canary cages and everything else — including the steam whistle from Mather Mine that blew on May 18, 1928, when an explosion took the lives of 195 men — could easily pass for an extension of the Smithsonian Museum.

The idea for this story — Where does all this stuff comes from? — came while visiting one of Brice’s favorite donors. Toby Korcheck, a feisty 86-year-old, has lived her life in Nemacolin and has vivid memories of how things used to be when it was a company town. Toby’s late husband, California University professor Robert Korcheck, wrote the book “Nemacolin The Mine – The Community 1917 – 1950” in 1978 to document that way of life. Using engineering reports and company records, Korcheck was able to tell a meticulously detailed, dryly humorous story of a “model coal mining town.” Built by Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. in 1917 to house its workers, the era ended after the boom years of World War II when company homes were sold to private owners.

While working as an assistant to Dr. Gray, the town physician, Toby jokingly remembers giving Brice shots for poison ivy when he was a teenager. And Brice remembers mowing her lawn and visiting with her husband. “Bob lent me his negatives from the book so I could copy them for my collection. I gave them back years ago, but now, Toby has given some of them back to me. The pictures I’ve just made from those negatives are beautiful. I’ll be taking them to the Coal Show.”

Before we left that day, Toby handed over a box of her late husband’s limited edition books with a cheerful “I can’t be bothered selling them anymore. You do it!” “See?” Linda said. “More stuff!”

It’s Saturday, and I’m back for closing night,

unable to resist a last helping of fun that fills the hall and spills outside with carnival rides, live music and funnel cakes — the best I’ve ever had.

When I arrive, Linda is poring over snapshots of the Nemacolin School fire with newest donor, John Glendenning, who remembers, “I think it burned in 1994. I found these in a crate when I was doing demo work on the house on 17 Wood St. in 2021. When I read about you being here, I thought I’d bring them over.”

Brice is “somewhere over there, talking to somebody,” and Linda is sitting beside the Chamber of Commerce table, filled with pressed coal figurines. “We used to buy our figurines for the coal show from Amend Jewelry in Uniontown. Now that Barbara Amend stopped making them, she gave us all her unfinished pieces to sell to support the coal show.”

The man most likely to take the Rush Collection to the next level of preservation when the time comes is 47-year-old Pete Jedlicka, co-manager

of the American Industrial Mining Co. Museum, with locations in Buckeye Lake, Ohio and 222 Spring Road in Brownsville. His family got into industrial preservation in 1998 because “no one was saving anything,” he tells me. The museum website and Facebook page show examples of machinery rescued, restored and put back to work or displayed by dedicated machine-savvy volunteers. Collaboration with the Rush collection has already begun. The Sullivan bottom coal cutter Brice rescued and restored is now permanently displayed at the Brownsville location.

A few days after the show, Linda Rush has even more stuff to report. “This morning, there was a red box with 42 mine bits in it sitting in the driveway. Brice tells me Dennis Osborn found them in a house he was cleaning out and told him at the show he’d drop them off. Brice didn’t have those bits, so he’s happy.”

Ready to stop by for a tour? Block off a couple, maybe four hours, if you love this kind of stuff, Linda warns with a laugh. “We’re in the phone book. Leave a message. We don’t answer unless you talk.”

Toby Korcheck with her husband’s book “Nemacolin.”

Coal figurines donated by Amend Jewelry were sold as a fundraiser for the coal show.

Farm to Fork returns to Thistlethwaite Winery with elevated VIP experience

Vendors, live music, food trucks and more will return to Thistlethwaite Winery for Farm to Fork this year.

The event, which is in its sixth year, runs from 3 to 8 p.m. on September 20 at the picturesque location, which also features an extensive vineyard. Attendees can tour the property via hayride and taste fresh wine grapes off the vine. Event-goers can sample eats from local and regional restaurants and enjoy a glass of wine fireside.

“We have grown to really love this event, and it is a special day at a special venue. We enjoy bringing some of the best of Greene County out to Thistlethwaite for a fantastic and fun fall experience,” said Chuck Trump, president and CEO of First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Greene County. First Federal has been the presenting sponsor of the event since its inception.

Photos and story by Trista Thurston

The intent of Farm to Fork is to celebrate the farmto-table movement. Each year, local vendors set up their wares, with a preference for businesses in and around Greene County. Highlights this year include the Greene County Career and Technical Center’s new food truck, the Greene County Farmer’s Market, Mickey’s Men’s and Women’s Wear in Waynesburg, the Jefferson Lions Club, What's Smoking BBQ, Sweet Baby’s at Rising Creek Bakery and the United Way of Greene County.

The bands that provide the soundtrack to the evening this year are Dan Baker, who plays from 3 to 5 p.m., and The Grinders, from 5 to 8 p.m.

Back this year is a VIP experience, which will include extra offerings. A ticket to the VIP experience will provide charcuterie from Kiln to Table in Waynesburg, coffee from Hilltop Packs Coffee Company, a bottle of Thistlethwaite Vineyards wine, a wine bag from First Federal, a small-group tour of the winery and a chance to meet the winemaker. Tickets are $50 each or $90 for a couple.

“We love Greene County and are committed to highlighting this rich area each year with Farm to Fork. We put on this event because we

love the region and everything it offers. Year after year, we get to meet new people and businesses. Watching the sunset at Thistlethwaite is one of my favorite parts of the event,” said Carole DeAngelo, director of advertising and events for the Observer-Reporter, Herald-Standard and the Greene County Messenger

Thistlethwaite Vineyards has been the home of Farm to Fork for all but one

year of the festival, a fall celebration that grows yearly. The performers’ stage is an old hay wagon, complete with a tractor. The location hosts a plethora of events besides Farm to Fork, like the weekly Wednesday Wine Down, which runs from 5 to 8 p.m., outdoor movie nights, comedy events, live music and weddings.

Thistlethwaite Vineyards grows nine varieties of wine grapes, meaning the winery can produce a vast array of wines, all of which will be showcased at Farm to Fork.

For more about Farm to Fork, including to purchase VIP tickets, visit farmtoforkevent.com.

First Federal of Greene County proudly announces its 2024 scholarship winners

Carmichaels or Mt. Morris branches to start saving today. For more information, including account rules and scholarship eligibility, visit www.ffgc.bank

Kaylee Ayers Waynesburg University

Ava Crofcheck Indiana University of Pennsylvania Nathan Pegg Western Pennsylvania Operating Engineers Reese Springsteen PennWest California Kasey Stanton PennWest Edinboro

A pair of musical acts will perform at this year’s Farm to Fork.

September 16 & 17, 2023

September 21 & 22, 2024

1Oam - 5pm Both Days

1Oam - 5pm Both Days Garards Fort in Greene County, PA

Garards Fort in Greene County, PA

Good Food Homemade by Local Churches and Fire Departments

Crafts & Vendors fabric crafts, wooden crafts, floral arrangements, pottery, jewelry bird feeders, honey, canned goods and much more

Demonstrations & Displays Antique tools, Civil War & Native American Living History Camps, Lippencott Alpacas

Children's Activities candle dipping & other activities

Wagon Rides horse-drawn wagon rides by Rocky Ridge Acres

Civil War Reenactment 3:00 both days Facebook - White Covered Bridge Association

Wagon Rides horse-drawn wagon rides by Rocky Ridge Acres F.M.I. 724-627-8687 • Pets Prohibited

What’s the buzz around Mapletown High School

COURTESY

OF THE PENN STATE MASTER GARDENERS OF GREENE COUNTY

The end of the school year brings many changes; this year, Mapletown High School saw the installation of a native plant garden on its property. Penn State Extension Greene County Master Gardener trainee Tammy Jamieson, a graduate of Mapletown High School and Penn State University, designed and coordinated the installation as her Master Gardener graduation project with the assistance of her certified Master Gardener mentor, Terri Laird. The installation was sponsored by Lewis Development Resources, R.G. Johnson and the Southern Laurel Highlands Plant and Pest Management Group. The high school’s maintenance faculty constructed the raised bed, and the 2022-2023 Envirothon team and their advisor, Amber Burkett, carried out the heavy lifting of spreading seven tons of soil, laying out cardboard for weed control, spreading mulch and planting the plants.

The plants that were chosen for the garden are all native to Pennsylvania. This means these plant species originally occurred naturally in this region without human introduction and have formed a symbiotic relationship with native wildlife, such as bees and butterflies. Specifically, plants such as golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea), scarlet beebalm (Mondarda didyma), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), showy goldenrod (Solidago speciosa) and New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) were all chosen for their high value to local pollinators.

See Buzz, Page 18

Courtesy of the Penn State Master Gardeners of Greene County

Tammy Jamieson and Terri Laird sit on one of the raised beds at Mapletown High School.

Continued from Page 15

The garden was designed to provide nectar sources for bees, butterflies and other pollinators throughout the entire growing season. The earliest flowers begin blooming in April, and the last blooms will last until frost. Clumps of three specimens each of twenty different perennial species were planted for a total of 60 plants in a 24-by-12-foot raised bed.

Most of the species in the garden, including three species of milkweed (Asclepias spp.), serve as host plants to butterfly or moth larvae, meaning butterflies and moths can use these plants to reproduce. Endangered monarch butterflies can only lay eggs on plants in the milkweed family because they are the only plants on which the caterpillars can feed.

According to a study by Chip Taylor, director of Monarch Watch, published in “Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution” (vol. 8, August 2020), one of the most significant drivers in the dramatic decrease in the population of monarchs was the disappearance of milkweed plants across the country due to herbicide use and urbanization.

Wild bee populations have also been declining over the years. A report by Kelsey Kopec and Lori Burd, published by the “Center for Biological Diversity,” studied population trends of 1,400 wild bee species in North America and Hawaii. According to this report, 52% of these 1,400 species have populations that declined by 40% or more, and almost 1 in 4 of the species studied was threatened with extinction. One of the leading causes of this decline was habitat loss.

Many ornamental plants commonly included in household landscaping are mainly from Asia, Europe or even tropical areas. These plants have evolved separately from local insects, so they often are poisonous or inedible to our local insect fauna. Grass lawns, which, according to a 2005 NASA-sponsored study, cover 40 million acres of land in the United States, are devoid of biodiversity and require immense maintenance. Most of them are mowed before plants bloom or go to seed, thereby offering little to no food or shelter to bees or butterflies. This makes our yards like deserts to our pollinators. Harmful chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides are often used to perfect the aesthetics of lawns, and these chemicals can be very destructive to all insects, including bees and butterflies. Reducing the size of lawns by planting native plants is a great way to invite bees, butterflies and even birds into a yard because these plants

provide food, shelter and nesting materials. Native plants also do not require chemicals and are easier to grow in our native soils since they have evolved in these conditions over time. In order to support nature and help bridge the ever-widening gap of habitat loss and degradation, every household landscape should contain more native plants than non-native plants.

The idea for this garden was born from the hope that people in the community would learn of the plight of our disappearing pollinators and would want to incorporate some native plant species into their landscapes. Or better yet, plant a native garden of their own. Each garden that is created, no matter the size, increases nesting habitat and foraging areas for bees and butterflies. This project hopefully provides a creative way for students and community members to learn how to be part of a solution to help save and protect our native pollinators. So, the next time you are in the neighborhood, stop by and visit the garden and admire the beauty of the plants and the insects that thrive there.

For more information about the Mapletown High School pollinator habitat and for more photos, visit the student-created website at sites.google.com/segsd.org/mapletown-pollinator-habitat/home.

Courtesy of the Penn State Master Gardeners of Greene County

‘Leafing’ a legacy

BY SARAH CALVERT

Greene County Chamber of CommerCe exeCutive assistant

Every fall, as the leaves change from green to red, orange and yellow, the Greene County Chamber of Commerce recognizes the legacies of some of our county’s best and brightest individuals and businesses. Since the first Distinguished Service Award was presented to Jack McCracken in 1988, the chamber has continued to recognize a worthy candidate each fall during the Greene County Chamber of Commerce Membership Banquet. This event is a time for the community to gather and celebrate these individuals and businesses who help our area prosper. The award is granted based on lasting contributions to community welfare and betterment, participation in community activities, leadership ability, success in vocation, as well as progress and cooperation in both personal and business with organizations and individuals.

Not all winners have been well known to everyone, yet unknowingly, they each have made a lasting impact. From those names we all recognize to the hidden gems quietly seeking a better tomorrow for all of us, each has been honored and awarded for their unique and measurable impact throughout our community. When looking at their involvement, a wide array of organizations, clubs, businesses, backgrounds and hobbies appear. Participation in organizations and clubs continues to appear on these resumes and include the Salvation Army of Greene County, Corner Cupboard Food Bank, Rotary Club of Waynesburg, Greene County Historical Society, Greene County United Way, Lions Club and Community Foundation of Greene County to name a few.

From doctors to lawyers, sheriffs, judges, schoolteachers, business owners, pastors and foster parents, the one trait that each of them shares is the love for this area and setting out to serve it. In recent years, a posthumous Distinguished Service Award has been given each year as well and over the years, several husband-and-wife teams have been recognized together.

The humble beginning of this award, with the legendary Jack McCracken, not only turned into an annual event celebrating those individuals who made a difference but also provided the opportunity to extend that honor and recognition through the birth of the McCracken Legacy Award.

Jack McCracken’s son, a local businessman and 2012 Distinguished Award winner, Jeff McCracken, established the McCracken Legacy Award in 2016 and was awarded the first recipient that same year. Any business or organization that has an operating presence in Greene County is considered. Key factors include ambition, customer satisfaction, growth, people management, profitability and sound business planning. Civic community leadership, exemplary community involvement, commitment to social responsibility and a positive social and economic impact on the community are also some criteria used to name winners from a large demographic of county businesses.

Since 2016, seven local businesses/organizations have been named as a McCracken Legacy Award recipient, and since 1988, thirty-eight individuals have become Distinguished Service Award recipients. Four of the seven MLA recipients are businesses that have been established for at least 100 years. Over half the DSA recipients have passed away over the years. This means that the same stores we walk into today used to be shopped at by the same individuals who helped shape the longevity and prosperity of our community. Though we can no longer see or speak to all our award winners, their impact unknowingly resonates throughout our daily lives and will continue for years to come.

Anyone in the community can make the Distinguished Service Award nominations at any time of the year, and it’s not a requirement for the nominees to be involved with the chamber. All that’s needed is a small biography and a list of activities and involvement. To complete the nomination, send it to the Greene County Chamber of Commerce for the nomination committee to review at their annual meeting.

Though the leaves may fall from the change of autumn to winter, the legacy that these powerfully influential people leave will never fall in the ranks of our communities’ hearts. We honor the memory of those who have come before us and show appreciation to those still here. In a rural area like ours, we take pride in those who have and continue to “leaf” a legacy that continues through generations. The call and continuation to serve makes Greene County the unique place we call home.

TOGETHER STRONGER

As Washington Health System Greene becomes UPMC Greene, we’ll continue our proud history of caring for the community and putting patients first while delivering even greater access to advanced health care for generations to come.

For more information, visit WHS.org.