USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > District No. 15 of Allegheny County Pennsylvania in the Great War : a history of activities at home and abroad from the declaration of war in 1917 to the home-comings in 1919 > Part 1
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DISTRICT No. 15, ALLEGHENY CO., PA. IN THE GREAT WAR
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DISTRICT No. 15 OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA IN THE GREAT WAR
A History of Activities at Home and Abroad from the Declaration of War in 1917 to the Home-comings in 1919
PUBLISHED BY THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DISTRICT No. 15 OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA TARENTUM 1923
TO THE
MOTHERS OF DEMOCRACY OF THE FIFTEENTH DISTRICT OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA
PREFACE
AFTER the Armistice was declared and the work of the Draft Board was about to be closed, there was seen to be a large amount of information concerning the war activities of District No. 15 of increasing interest to the communities of the District with the passing of time, but likely, in the ordinary course of events, to be forever lost unless put into permanent form while the data were available.
It was suggested that an Historical Society be organized and a meeting was called for the purpose at which steps were taken to enlist general cooperation in compiling a history of local participation to the date of the Armistice, with the thought that perhaps later on a second volume might be written to preserve the biographies of the service men. Before the work was fairly started, the men began to come home, and after some delay it was decided to include their biogra- phies in the volume. Then the addition of photographs was proposed and the editorial committee found itself suddenly hurled into the midst of a huge task, that of securing these, together with first-hand information concerning some six- teen hundred service men, many of whom had no permanent home in the District.
In a single moment the project expanded beyond any original contemplation. Assembling of biographical data and pictures necessitated a tremendous amount of correspondence and at last the employment of solicitors who spent months in visitation of the homes of service men and others in an effort to make the compila- tion complete and accurate. The work encountered a great handicap in the re- action which came so quickly and because of which people wanted to forget for a while the war and everything connected with it. Patience and perseverance finally resulted in accumulation of a fairly comprehensive set of biographies together with many photographs. That the list of either is incomplete or inaccurate, is through no want of insistence on the part of the editorial committee, but because either the subject of the sketch could not be located, or having been found, he or his family failed to respond to repeated request and urging to supply the missing matter.
If the work as it finally appears shall be of value to the communities repre- sented, it will be due to the loyalty with which a little coterie of citizens lent their moral and financial support to a project in the ultimate worth of which they had confidence.
Tarentum, Pa. April, 1923.
E. W. A.
vii
FOREWORD
District No. 15 of Allegheny County as defined for basis of the Selective Service during the Great War consists of that portion of the county lying east of O'Hara, Indiana and West Deer Townships and between Butler County on the north and the Allegheny River on the south and east. Its westerly line approaches within twelve miles of the County Court House. Included in it are the boroughs of Brackenridge, Tarentum, Springdale, and Cheswick, and the townships of Harrison, Fawn, East Deer, Frazer, Springdale, and Harmar. Harrison Township includes the unincorporated towns of Natrona and Birdville.
In view of the great variety of races and occupations represented among the enlisted men and selectives from this dictrict, and to shed some light upon the wartime problems to be solved, both military and economic, it may be interesting to trace briefly some of the geographical and historical features of the locality.
It is composed, generally speaking, of two separate and extensive tracts of river bottom back of which lies a country of hills, some of them rising nearly six hundred feet above the river and thirteen hundred feet above sea level. The back country is high plateau land deeply dissected by Bull Creek, Deer Creek, Wilsons, Hites, Riddles, and Shoops runs and their tributaries.
The Allegheny River forms a natural highway along the southern boundary. It is closely paralleled through the District by the Conemaugh Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the improved state road from Pittsburgh to Freeport. The river is crossed by two public bridges in this District; one at Boquet about midway of the southern boundary line leads across to New Kensington, the other at Hulton Ferry near the western line leads to Oakmont. A complete system of township roads and improved county highways makes every part of the District easily accessible to city and rail. The trolley lines of the West Penn Power Company traverse the southern border from Natrona to the western boundary with connection at Boquet Bridge to the boroughs on the south side in Westmoreland County. The railroad runs from Pittsburgh on the west to Blairsville on the east, with connections for Butler, upper Allegheny Valley, and Buffalo. The Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad crosses the river by a high bridge and viaduct in the western part of the District and proceeds northwardly through Harmar Township with station at River Valley, the north end of the viaduct. This latter, comprised of thousands of car loads of slag and cinder, was one of the big works of the early days of the war. It replaces a steel viaduct. Armed guards and search-lights placed at the bridge during its rebuilding were among the first military measures that brought home to the people of the communities the fact of war.
Topographically the District is a part of the Allegheny Plateau and its foundations for con- siderable depth as well as its rock walls exposed are all of sedimentary origin. The exposed strata extend from what is known as the Allegheny Formation at about one hundred feet below the Upper Freeport Coal Seam, through the so-called Conemaugh Formation some six hundred feet thick, to a horizon a little above the Pittsburgh Coal bed which caps three or four hills-from river level at 725 above tide to knobs reaching 1250 to 1300 feet above the sea. While there have been more or less oil and gas produced by the District since the early days of Pennsylvania petroleum, the most important mineral resource is the Upper Freeport coal measure which through a large part
x
FOREWORD
of the District is double bedded and here reaches its extreme development of from eight to nine feet in thickness. One of the earliest industries of the District was that of coal mining, in this seam, carried on commercially at the mouth of Hites Run as early as 1860.
Deposits of river gravel and sand, here and there on the hills, mark the location of an ancient river bed perhaps three hundred feet higher than the present level. These deposits have recently been found to contain a sand quite valuable for foundry purposes and several operations have been opened.
The history of the District is intimately connected with that of the country about the "Three Rivers" or "Forks of the Ohio," as the location of the city of Pittsburgh was originally known to the early explorers. English, French, and Indians alike recognized the strategical advantage of its possession. The abundance of arrow heads and other flints found scattered over the river flats and even back on the hills throughout the neighboring country would indicate that the whole section was fought over many times.
The French early built a stockade at a point about the foot of Garfield Street, Natrona, near what was afterward known as Brackenridge's eddy. One of the first colonial forts erected after the territory was lost to France was located at the mouth of Bull Creek at what is now Tarentum; another was located at Springdale, a few miles below.
The recorded history of the District begins when after the close of the Revolutionary War, the State of Pennsylvania prepared to take care of its soldiers by laying out the great tract between the Allegheny and Beaver Rivers into districts composed of two to five hundred acres, which it sold to officers and privates, taking as payment at certain graduated rates of discount, depending upon the age of the debt, the depreciated continental scrip in which the soldier received his pay. From the character of the transaction and the medium of exchange, these tracts were known as the "Depreciation Lands," and the several districts bore the names of the respective surveyors who laid them off. The territory of Local District No. 15 of Allegheny County was composed of the easterly part of District No. 4 and the westerly part of District No. 5 of the Depreciation Lands. District No. 4 was surveyed by Colonel James Cunningham and lay approximately between north and south lines, the westerly of which ran from a point near the mouth of Pine Creek below Sharps- burg, the easterly from the mouth of Bull Creek at Tarentum. This district extended into Butler County some miles north of Butler. District No. 5 was surveyed by Colonel J. Elder, a member of the family whose name is associated with much of the early history of Armstrong County. It extended from the easterly boundary of District No. 4 along the north shore of the river to a point about the mouth of Mahoning Creek. It may be interesting to note that several of these original tracts, notably those belonging to the Denny and Brackenridge purchases, remained for more than a century in the ownership of the original grantees and their families, and until quite recently passed by descent or will to the successive holders of title without any recorded conveyance since the original warrant from the Commonwealth.
One of the first highways in this end of the state was laid out from Sharpsburg along the north bank of Allegheny River to Freeport as part of the highway system radiating from Pittsburgh. The proceedings appear in the records of Court of Quarter Sessions of Allegheny County in the year of 1805. It might be difficult to trace this first highway from the courses and distances given in the papers on file in the original proceedings, for so many of the ancient landmarks are destroyed and all traces of them lost. It entered the District about the present location of the Freeport Road below Hulton Bridge, crossing Deer and Bull Creeks at about the site of the present bridges
xi
FOREWORD
and excepting for an occasional deviation toward the hills to escape run crossings or marshy land in the lower river bottom, followed practically the present location of the Freeport Road through the District. There is a legend that General Washington passed over part of this highway and that he stopped over night in the old stone tavern, now burned, at Cross Keys Inn on the Kittan- ning Road, in Indiana Township about three miles out of Sharpsburg.
Subsequently the Pennsylvania Canal was laid out and in the year 1830 was completed along the north bank of the Allegheny River through the territory which then came into prominence on the map, being situated on the main line of travel between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, between the east and west. Travel upon the canal became so important that in its later days in order to provide for the exigencies of increasing business a rapid transit feature was adopted whereby night packets with sumptuous sleeping accommodations left Freeport in the evening and the busy merchant of Tarentum could board the boat about bed time, enjoy his night's rest, and after a twenty-two-mile journey wake up in Pittsburgh in time for business the next morning.
With the coming of railroad transportation the canal was abandoned and the rights of Com- monwealth in the canal property were transferred to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company which laid its tracks mainly along the line of the former waterway. At the present time an occasional trace of the old works may be seen beside the railroad and a few scattered fragments of the lock wall at Harmarville are still in existence. "Lock Street," Tarentum, is a remnant in its name, of the entrance to the third and highest canal level in the District.
Almost since the land of the District was cleared it has been an important farm and garden country. For many years the Pennsylvania Railroad Company ran a market train from Butler two and three days a week or oftener on occasion during the gardening season and from the territory covered by District No. 15 of Allegheny County as many as a dozen freight cars of garden truck and produce were sent to the city on a single trip. The gardeners of those days were largely descendants of early Scotch-Irish families, although the country districts showed a liberal sprinkling of French, Swiss, and, among later arrivals, German names.
The District has ever been to the front in patriotism. While its population until within the last twenty-five years was scattered, and except at Tarentum and Natrona, there were no settle- ments of any size, it sent its quota to the defense of the Union in the days of the Civil War and its sons acquitted themselves with honor.
After the Civil War came the spectacular days of oil and lumber development when the Allegheny Valley was one of the busiest sections of the state, and indeed of the country. The first discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania came about 1845 in connection with a salt well drilled with jointed poles on a farm then owned by one Thomas Kier, and near the crossing that now leads to the Penn Iron & Steel Co.'s plant just below Tarentum (where flame from escaping natural gas was long a wonder and where it is said oil from the surface of the water was collected by spreading a blanket over the top and wringing the oil from the blanket). The oil was afterward skimmed from the vats into which the salt water had been pumped. This oil was largely advertised and eagerly bought for internal and external use as a remedy for a large number of ailments. It is recorded the owner of the salt well was grievously disappointed when his salt business was ruined through the seepage of "rock oil." He lived to overcome the disappointment.
As a matter of fact, it was a Tarentum man, "Uncle Billy" Smith, who drilled the first oil well in the United States on Oil Creek with tools made in Tarentum, and John Ross, of Tarentum, in
xii
FOREWORD
1860, by a fortunate accident with a lighted match discovered the inflammability of natural gas. He was badly burned in the process.
In rafting days, acres and acres of lumber sawed from the finest timber ever grown, Pennsyl- vania white pine, now scarcely more than a memory, came down the river on the spring freshets, and much of it was worked up into commercial form by early sawmills in the District.
The water power of the District, while not available excepting on Bull Creek and Deer Creek, was sufficient to supply several grist mills, two of which are well known. The old Denny Mill about a mile back of the river on Deer Creek and the Porter Mill at Millerstown about six miles across the hills on Bull Creek made use of this water power until comparatively recent years. Of the ruins of the Denny Mill little save a few stones and traces of the old race may be seen to-day. The Porter Mill is still running, although water no longer furnishes the power.
Up to thirty years ago the chief industries in the District were the manufacture of chemicals. by the Penn Salt Company, coal mining, and lumbering. About 1880, some ten years after gas had been struck at Peterson, Captain J. B. Ford originated the idea of using it in connection with the manufacture of glass, and located the first glass factory there. In the last twenty-five to thirty years, the District has had a wonderful industrial growth, which began with the opening of its coal and the utilization of its natural gas, and resulted in enormous development in the glass, paper, chemical and steel industries. This industrial development practically revolutionized the business and character of the District and brought a large and diversified foreign element into the population.
The original Scotch-Irish population has been supplemented by additions from almost all races of the civilized world, so that the present population of the District is about as cosmopolitan in character as that to be found in any part of this great "melting pot," the United States of America.
From the very beginning of the history of this District, its inhabitants have been composed of those who had the initiative, the push, the daring to leave the more placid walks of life in the olden countries and settlements and to go out into the world as pioneers - whether it was into the wilderness of forests, wild animals and savages that were, or the wilderness of new and great in- dustries that are.
The immigrants who settled within our bounds, whether they came from sunny Italy or damp cold Russia, from Belgium in the West or from China in the East, from maritime England or from agricultural Austria, from the plains of France or from the mountains of Montenegro, have been the men and women who dared to leave their ancestral homes and countries in search of better things.
It is from this complex sort of a population composed of so many peoples and nationalities, of such widely separated racial elements, with such different traditions, history, and interests, engaged in such diverse industries and pursuits, that the soldiers of District No. 15 of Allegheny County have come. To know them and to appreciate their conduct and service, to understand the problems they had to face and solve and the sacrifices they had to make both before and after their induction into service and to comprehend the high character of their patriotism, one should have at least a superficial knowledge of their origins and surroundings. To afford some idea of these has been the aim in submitting this brief sketch of the history and character of the District.
CONTENTS
Book One
PAGE
CHAPTER
I. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM
II. LOCAL BOARD
7
III. AUXILIARY BOARDS
28
Medical Examining Board Legal Advisory Board .
· 37
Board of Instruction
IV. RED CROSS
Natrona-Brackenridge Branch
Tarentum Branch .
Springdale Branch
· 52
Cheswick Branch .
.
V. MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITIES
Liberty Loan Campaign
United War Work Campaign
Mothers of Democracy .
63
Federation of Adult Bible Classes
64
Knights of Columbus
65
Newspapers .
VI. INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES
Allegheny Steel Company
West Penn Steel Company
Allegheny Foundry & Machine Company
. 72
Yost Brothers Foundry & Machine Shop .
. 73
Shoop Bronze Company
74
Allegheny Plate Glass Company
74
Atlantic Bottle Company
74
Heidenkamp Plate Glass Company.
75
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company
76
American Glue Company
77
Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company
77
Coal Industry
8x
Penna. Railroad Company
VII. HOMECOMING CELEBRATIONS
Harrison Township .
82
Brackenridge .
83
Tarentum
.
Springdale .
. 85
VIII. ADDENDA
Conservation
Tarentum High School's Work in the War
91
War Work in Brackenridge Schools . . 91
Harrison Township School's War Activities St. Joseph's Junior Red Cross Organization First Oil Well
. 92
. 92
. 92
.
.
.
Flaccus Glass Company .
.
.
75
.
Tarentum Paper Mills .
.
·
T
.
34
39
40
44
· 50
61
62
Tarentum Book Club
68
69
71
73
54
55
64
78
. 83
86
xiv
CONTENTS Book Two
PAGE
To the Reader
Divisions of the Army as Organized for the Great War .
97
Both Division
98
28th Division
99
37th Division
100
W. Lester Walker .
100
Biographies .
IO2
103
Appendix
Distribution of Registrants by Classes, Table I
Status of Citizenship of Registrants, Table 2
· 165
Entrainments, Table 3 .
165
Number of Selectives Sent to Various Camps, Table 4
I66
· 167 Polish Falcons
I68
Spanish War Veterans
169
Historical Society District No. 15 Allegheny County Membership (Active).
170
Historical Society District No. 15 Allegheny County Membership (Associate)
. 170
.
1
BOOK ONE
CHAPTER I
THE SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM
One of the first problems that presented itself for solution in connection with the entrance of our country into the World War was that of raising an army. Since the military force is really the focal point of a nation's power, the war activities not only of the nation, but of the respective districts in the nation must center about the participation of each district in military activities, that is, in its contribution in men to the army. But without arms, ammunition, food, and trans- portation, an army is an absurdity; so that the marshalling of effective military power means far more than herding of men, and it was this larger problem that the Selective Service System must solve, and nowhere are greater difficulties presented than in an industrial community. Doubtless in a general way the procedure by which the forces were raised is familiar; it seems not out of place in connection with a history of this sort to refer briefly to procedure followed in the selection of men. The history of this is set out more fully and at large in the several reports of the Provost Marshal General to the Secretary of War.
During the first months of 1917 events moved at a rapid pace. It became more and more apparent to the thinking people as the days passed that a crisis was fast approaching in relations of our Nation to Germany and its Allies, but when the declaration of war came, probably few peo- ple, except those connected with the Military Establishment, had given serious consideration to the matter of raising an army; it would be safe to say that the majority of the people assumed that the military force of the nation would be gathered as had happened in the case of the Spanish War and the then recent Mexican Border difficulties, by means of the National Guards and voluntary enlistments. The inadequacy of this method was perfectly apparent to those in charge of military affairs and after the declaration of war and during the four or five weeks throughout which the discussion of legislation was in progress in Congress, the whole mechanism through which the Selective Service Law was to operate had to be constructed.
As soon as the trend of affairs was indicated by Congressional discussion and indeed nearly a month before the Selective Service Law was approved by the President, the general outlines of the Selective Service Plan had been worked out. Following what might be called the American System, it was originally intended that registration of men within the ages from which selection was to be made for service should be held much after the manner of voters' registration and by the municipal officers whose duty it was to make the latter, thus adopting and adapting the machinery which the several states had erected for selection of state and Local officials. So completely had the plan been worked out in its general features that after the approval of the Selective Service Law on May 18, 1917, it was arranged that the first registration should take place in this manner on June 5, 1917.
There had been much discussion and criticism of any system of conscription or draft on the ground that it seemed to be against the spirit of Democracy in so far as it put into the hands of the military authorities the right to enforce service from the ranks of the citizenry. Profiting by mistakes now apparent made in connection with the draft at the time of the Civil War, the general scheme contemplated by the Selective Service Law was to have the several states through
1
xiv
CONTENTS Book Two
PAGE
To the Reader
Divisions of the Army as Organized for the Great War
97
8oth Division
28th Division
99
37th Division
100
W. Lester Walker .
100
Biographies .
103
Appendix
Distribution of Registrants by Classes, Table I
· 165
Status of Citizenship of Registrants, Table 2
. 165
Entrainments, Table 3 .
Number of Selectives Sent to Various Camps, Table 4
· 167 Polish Falcons
I68
Spanish War Veterans .
I69
Historical Society District No. 15 Allegheny County Membership (Active).
170
Historical Society District No. 15 Allegheny County Membership (Associate)
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