USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Braddock > The unwritten history of Braddock's Field (Pennsylvania) > Part 14
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
Upon the resignation of Mr. Young, President Lincoln named Dr. William J. Lynn, who was commissioned on August 31, 1861. Dr. Lynn it was who moved the post office after the fire mentioned to the building still standing. It is told of the doctor that on some occasions when the mails would arrive he would be out calling on a patient, and patrons of the post office would be forced to await his return. On one occasion, so the story goes, a lady was at a very low point in health, and the mail was not distributed until the following day, the good doctor considering
SHER & CO1
S CAPS.
FURNISHING FOODS.
JEWELER
BRADDOCK POST OFFICE, 1884.
his duty to suffering humanity as far out weighing his duty to the Gov- ernment. Doctor Lynn served the second longest term of any Postmaster in the history of the local office, his term extending to December 18, 1873, and then it was ended only at his own request, owing to his failing health.
On December 19, 1873 President Grant named as Postmaster Wil- liam Fritzuis. Mr. Fritzuis was a brother of Mrs. William H. Speer, living at present with her daughter (Mrs. Ellis Y. Hall) at 431 Second street, Braddock. Mr. Fritzuis died the following spring, and he was succeeded as Postmaster by his wife, Mrs. Mary A. Fritzuis, her commission dating from May 4, 1874. Mrs. Fritzuis was the only woman commissioned Post- master of Braddock, and is now the oldest living one. The lady served until
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
December 13, 1876, with credit to her sex and to the service. After leaving the service Mrs. Fritzuis married David H. Graham, and now lives at Meamimi, Florida.
On December 14, 1876, James K. Mills, one of the original Mills boys, and whose death occurred a few years since at his home on the corner of Fourth street and Mills avenue, was appointed Postmaster. Mr. Mills moved the Post Office to a site on the corner of Braddock avenue and Ninth Street, during his term. Mr. Mills' service was featured by two or
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ORIGINAL LETTER CARRIERS.
Reading from left to right.
ALVA C. NICKEL. PHILLIP C. RODERUS. ROBERT PRICE. HARRY FOGIE.
three very far reaching changes in the post office, the main one being the change of the name of the office to correspond with that of the rail- road stations and of the borough itself. On March 7, 1878 the President ordered the name changed from "Braddock's Field," to Braddock, and the post office made the first start toward metropolitan airs by being advanced from the lowest class (the fourth) to that of the third class. Mr. Mills had for his assistant for a time both Wallace K. Benn and William W. McCleary.
Mr. Mills refused to become a candidate for reappointment and on
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
April 17, 1882, William W. McCleary was named, and the post office moved to a site where the Woolworth five and ten cent store is now located, a building being erected adjoining the old McCleary homestead. During Mr. McCleary's term of office Mr. George A. Todd, now cashier of the Braddock National Bank, served as his assistant.
The years 1882 and 1883 was the time of the depredations of the notorious Gordon gang in and around Braddock. Many business houses were robbed during this period, and the post office was no exception. Mr. McCleary occupied rooms directly back of and above the Post Office. One night he was awakened from his sleep by a noise which he thought was like an explosion in the office below him. Hurrying to a window he found that robbers were in the post office. Picking up the first thing in the room he could lay his hands on, he threw it through the window with the idea of alarming the neighborhood. The noise frightened the robbers and they made their get away, taking with them about $700 in postage stamps and $40 in money. The robbers were later captured, Mr. McCleary helping in the identification, but none of the loot was ever recovered. The Department some time afterwards relieved the Postmaster of the burden of the loss of the stamps, but the money loss was made good by Mr. McCleary.
"Duke," as Mr. McCleary was known, served as Postmaster until April 6, 1886, when the first Democrat was appointed in the person of "Squire" J. M. Hughes. The squire found the duties of the office more exacting than he had either the time or inclination to devote to them, and resigned the first of the following June, and Daniel J. McCarthy, a brother of the present Chief of Police of Braddock, was appointed June 11, 1886, by President Cleveland to fill the unexpired term. "Danny", as Mr. McCarthy was affectionately known by the great majority of the residents of the vicinity at that time, made one of the most popular postmasters in the office's history. At the time of his appointment Mr. McCarthy was con- ducting a weekly newspaper known as The Tribune, which later he con- solidated with the Daily News when he came into possession of the latter paper.
The Republican party coming back into power, there was appointed for the first time on June 10, 1890, a man that nearly every one in Brad- dock and vicinity associates with the post office, Christian H. Sheets. At the time of the coming of Mr. Sheets as Postmaster the office was still located in the McCleary building, on the site of the Woolworth store, and the total receipts of the office for the year 1890 totaled but $8,654.24. On
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
January 1, 1892 the office receipts had expanded to over ten thousand dol- lars, the site of the post office was changed to a location on Library street (or Burton street as then known) and the Department raised the standing of the office from the third to the second class.
On December 1, 1892, the Department authorized the establishment of city delivery in the boroughs of Braddock and North Braddock, and provided for this service the appointment of four carriers. The Post- master named the following men for the positions: Harry H. Fogie, Alva C. Nickel, Philip Roderus and Walter E. Collins. The first three named are still in the service, carrying mail daily at the local office, having served continuously since first appointed. Mr. Collins was a man well up in years and suffered from the effects of a wound received in the Civil War, and finding the work more arduous than he could stand, resigned some ten days after his appointment, Mr. Robert A. Price being given the vacancy thus caused.
Mr. Sheets served as Postmaster until the thirtieth of July, 1894, when the Democratic party again coming into power, President Cleveland appointed Mr. Moses M. Shaw as Postmaster, only after one of the bitter- est contests for a political position in the history of the borough. Among other candidates for the position at that time were ex-postmaster Daniel J. McCarthy, M. M. Kier, and W. A. McDevitt, Henry L. Anderson and William L. Douglass. Mr. Shaw appointed as his assistant Mr. Walter McBeth.
On August 1, 1898, Christian H. Sheets was again appointed Post- master to succeed Mr. Shaw, a position he held continuously through the line of Republican presidents until February 10, 1915, the longest period ever served by any Postmaster in Allegheny county up to that time.
During Mr. Sheets' service as Postmaster the Post Office was moved from the rooms in the Masonic building to quarters in the Braznell building directly across Library street, remaining there for over eleven years, or until the completion of the Federal Building.
On October 31, 1900, the post office at Rankin Station was dis- continued, and free delivery from the Braddock office was installed to serve that borough. Rankin Station had been a post office since August 20, 1886. Mr. Walter S. Colmery was the first postmaster, and was follow- ed in succession by Mr. Owen W. Sheeky, on July 19, 1888, F. G. Bishoff on April 15, 1889, Owen W. Sheeky again on October 17, 1893, and finally by George W. Nash on September 27, 1897.
On December 9, 1907, a bill authorizing the expenditure of $150,-
ยท163
THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
000 for the construction of a Post Office Building at Braddock, was intro- duced in the House of Representatives by Hon. John Dalzell, then the representative from this district. This amount was later reduced to $125,- 000 by the conference committee, and on May 30, 1908, the bill passed Congress. In the fall of that year the Government advertised for sites for the location of the building, and stipulated that sites offered must be ap- proximately 150 feet square, preferably on the corner of two streets, and within eighty rods of the Pennsylvania railroad station. Bids were received for the following sites:
(1) Corner Verona street and Maple way, 120x160 feet, offered by Robert McDonald, for $32,000.
(2) Corner John street and Maple way, 120x160 feet, offered by James A. Russell and Henry S. Leighton, for $34,000.
(3) Corner Sixth street and Maple way, 126x138 feet, offered by Nicholas Glasser, for $40,000.
(4) Corner Halket avenue and Tenth street, 75x185 feet, offered by Mrs. Elizabeth Dowling, for $22,000.
(5) Corner Parker avenue, Moody and Orchard streets, 150x150 feet, offered by Thomas James, for $40,000.
A representative from the Treasury Department visited Braddock, and made an attempt to secure a bid for a site on Braddock avenue, but found the prices prohibitive, $1,100 a foot front being asked for ground at Seventh street and Braddock avenue.
The United States objecting to the amount asked by Mr. James, and having decided that that site best suited the needs of the Department, requested that gentleman to reduce his bid, but met with refusal. The Government then petitioned Court for the appointment of viewers looking to the condemnation of the site, and on August 10, 1910, the viewers al- lowed Mr. James $37,500.
The bid for the construction of the building complete was given to the Plowman Construction Company, of Philadelphia, Pa., for the sum of $83,293.24. Ground was broken on August 1, 1911, and the building was occupied by the Post Office on June 10, 1913.
On April 1, 1906, the Braddock office was raised to the rank of the first class ; on November 4, 1911, it was made a depository for postal sav- ings, and the parcel post was established January 1, 1913.
On February 11, 1915, after an absence of twenty years, Mr. Walter J. McBeth re-entered the postal service, this time as Postmaster, having been commissioned by President Wilson, January 25th. Great changes
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
have been made for the betterment of the postal service during the little over two years of the present postmaster, namely, the establishment of six additional stations for the receipt of mail matter and other services of the postal system; the collection and delivery of mail by automobile, and day and night continuous service at the post office.
On January 18, 1854, when Postmaster William N. Fleming opened the first mail pouch reaching Braddock's Field, one cannot help wondering if he had even a faint dream of the magnitude of the present business. At the Braddock office there are 43 employees, the stamp sales exceed $50,000 annually, nearly a million dollars a year is handled in money orders, besides the thousands of pieces of mail matter handled daily by its em- ployees. No other one item in the history of the local boroughs will bet- ter tend to show the magnitude of the growth of Braddock.
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THE FEDERAL BUILDING.
BRADDOCK NEWSPAPERS AND THEIR MAKERS.
BY FREDERICK W. OAKLEY.
Newspapers are invariably the pioneers that pave the way in a village or small town, for the more pretentious municipality that usually follows the self-sacrificing efforts of such public-spirited organs, and, if planted in a town already built, aid materially in the way of public morals, as well as in the physical growth of the community, and keep it keyed up to its best possible step on the highway of progress.
"Braddock's Field", at the time of its incorporation, in 1867, was a little different in this respect, from many of its municipal companions in this section of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, for it had no newspaper to urge the lagging citizen to see that his own welfare and that of his neighbor could be bettered, immediately before or after the incorporation. It was almost a decade after "Braddock's Field" village had been officially incor- porated as "Braddock Borough", that the first newspaper had its birth, but practically since that year, the town has been benefitted constantly in every way, by newspapers that have kept the record of almost every year intact, and with but an occasional day's lapse.
It is trite to state that Braddock has had as good newspapers as any other town of its size, but it is nevertheless a fact, because the major- ity of towns in this or any State, do not meet with the same physical con- ditions, especially in regard to location, which is a vital factor in the success of a newspaper. Braddock is more peculiarly located, with regard to its newspaper condition, than any other town in a score of states of the Union. In other words, it might be said that a large borough near the confines of a large, first-class city, situated as Braddock and Pittsburgh are, is hard to find, and when found, the municipalities do not each have large, influential and successful newspapers. Those terms apply only to the city, and the large borough is satisfied to have what the adjoining city is pleased to give-which is very little in the way of "home news."
This has never been taken into consideration, as far as Braddock newspapers are concerned by the reading public of the Braddock com- munity, in the opinion of the writer. Braddock, whose corporate limits are not far removed from those of the larger city, has been considered from a newspaper point of view by the city dailies, as an immediate local field in which the latter might work, but without the attention in the news form that the corporate portion of the city always receives.
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
The people of the Braddock community, ignoring the town's location, and the city newspaper attitude, have subscribed for the city newspapers, then expected the borough or "home paper" not to stick to its local field, which alone it aimed to fill and for which it was founded, but expected it rather to measure up to the stature of a large city daily, covering the world field; which, it might be said here, is never the intent, and is al- ways against the desire of, the smaller country daily or weekly.
A slight digression to illustrate the point. In only three pairs of large cities in the United States, which practically join, do each of those cities maintain large and separate newspapers, with anything like a real circulation, and in each case, none of the papers are as influential in the other city, as they are in the one in which they are published. The "Brooklyn Eagle" is not as widely circulated in New York City, as some of the New York newspapers are in Brooklyn. The St. Paul "Pioneer Press" does not have the circulation in Minneapolis as does the Minneapolis "Tribune" in St. Paul, and likewise, if there is any newspaper of conse- quence published in Kansas City, Kas., it does not have anything like the circulation in Kansas City, Mo., that the Kansas City "Journal" of the latter city, has in its neighboring city across the river, in Kansas.
And in each of the cases cited, the cities are all large ones, incorpora- ted as such. Where the occasional borough adjoins a large city, the writer has yet to learn of a single other instance in this country, where the small borough has been able to maintain a daily newspaper with only an occasional daily interruption, for 40 years as Braddock has done. As a reminder, it might be said that even old Allegheny City, incorporated as such for quite a century, has never been able to maintain a daily news- paper for a year, the only venture of the kind that can be recalled, being a daily paper that flourished there for ten months, and the editor of that organ spent several months afterwards, doing Braddock newspaper work. Even a weekly newspaper in Allegheny could not live longer than a few months at a time, and there has been none for years in that section of Pittsburgh now known as the "North Side."
All of which indicates that the pioneers of Braddock newspaper work, were worthy successors of those old pioneers, the pathfinders who worked the trackless wilderness of the old days of the frontier period in this country, and who had the American temerity to brave almost inevit- able disaster in order to carry out what might seem the practically im- possible. And to many fraternal onlookers who saw the game as it was be- ing played in Braddock, it appeared that inevitable business disaster could
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
be the only result from what to them, seemed such a foolhardy risk as the establishment of a daily newspaper in a town situated like no other town of its size in this country. Yet Braddock newspapers have been pub- lished from 1876 down to the present, and for more than 30 years a daily paper has been laid at the doorstep of the homes in Braddock almost each day. To the newspaperman of other cities this has been, and is yet, con- sidered a remarkable performance.
The "Centennial Year" saw the first newspaper published in "Brad- dock's Field" as the borough was still called by the old-time residents. Frederick L. Penney, still living in Somerset county, Pa., and a post- master at one of the smaller towns near Somerset, was the editor and owner of this organ, which was known as the "Braddock News". It continued from the fall of 1876, until a year later, but Mr. Penney remained in newspaper work in Braddock for two or three years longer. Mr. Penney's "News" had various locations on Braddock avenue, or "Main street" as it was frequently called.
Dr. G. A. Hall, medical practitioner, took up the labors in the "journalistic" field where Fred L. Penney ended his newspaper ownership. Dr. Hall started the Braddock "Sun" in the old Fauset building, at the corner of George street and Braddock avenue, in 1878. Dr. Hall continued to get out a weekly edition of the "Sun" for a year or more, when J. A. Wynne, who married a daughter of Justice of the Peace Thomas J. Louis of John street, took over the "Sun" from Dr. Hall, who had sufficient newspaper experience in Braddock, and operated it from a small frame building on John street near the Pennsylvania Railroad, on property owned by 'Squire Louis, at the rear of the Louis residence, which fronted on George street. Mr. Wynne took charge in the fall of 1879, and was the editor and owner of the "Sun" for about a year, when 'Squire Louis be- came the owner in the summer of 1880.
The "Sun" continued its home on John street for three or four years, when it was removed to a one-story frame structure on Braddock avenue, on the east side of Eighth street, afterwards the location of Lay- man's cafe, and later of a furniture store. The structure extended back to Wood alley, the rear being used for the composing and publication rooms, while the front of the building was the office of 'Squire Louis, and also the editorial quarters. The "Sun" was the property of 'Squire Louis until early in 1886, when it was transferred to his eldest son, Frank Ernest Louis, who had previously been associated with his father in the editorial work of the "Sun". After a year spent in the West, F. E. Louis continued
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
the "Sun" at the old location on Braddock avenue, until 1891, when its existence ended.
Col. E. W. Eisenbeis of East Liberty, founded the first daily news- paper in Braddock, in the late summer of 1877. It was the "Braddock Times", and the office was the double story frame building on Braddock avenue, just west of Tenth street. The building is still standing, and for a dozen years after Col. Eisenbeis gave up the publication, the advertising sign of the paper swung to the breeze. The "Times" had an existence of a little less than a year. With Col. Eisenbeis was connected his son, Harry L. Eisenbeis, noted for his stature in those days, for he was some six feet five or six inches tall, and of proportionate girth. The son afterwards for a short time was associated with the late Joseph L. Campbell, Sr., in the publication of the Braddock "Evening Times" on Ninth street.
In late March or early April, 1880, the late Daniel J. McCarthy, a former postmaster of Braddock, and who also served two terms as Dem- ocratic jury commissioner in Allegheny county, founded the "Braddock Tribune" a weekly publication, the building in which it was issued being on the south side of Braddock avenue, several doors west of Thirteenth street. Almost across Braddock avenue from the "Tribune" office was the residence of Charles E. Dinkey's mother, the late Mrs. Mary E. Kin- sey, in the old Robinson homestead, and her son, Charles E. Dinkey, took it into his head, as many distinguished men before him have done, that he would like to learn the "art preservative of all arts", the printing art. The present general manager of the Edgar Thomson steel plant was connected with the "Tribune" in various capacities for several years, from messenger boy, and "printer's devil" up to acting pressman, until his muse told him that there were likely greater financial returns, and surely more fame or glory, in other fields, than are offered on a weekly newspaper, which in Mr. Dinkey's case has been amply proven true.
Mr. McCarthy continued to publish the "Tribune" in east Braddock avenue, until after his term as postmaster expired, during President Cleve- land's first administration, and until it was merged with the Braddock "Daily News", which was established in the summer of 1889, by the late Charles Mills, a son of Isaac Mills, Sr., and grandson of Stephen Mills, Sr., the first settler in 1804, of what is now Braddock, following the ac- tual pioneer, John Frazier, who came to Braddock's Field in 1742, from Bedford county, and became the first white settler west of the Alleghany Mountains.
With Charles Mills in the founding of the "Daily News", was Ells-
ALEXANDER H. SILVEY.
JAMES L. QUINN.
JOSEPH L. CAMPBELL.
JOHN C. LOUGHEAD.
JOEL H. DIETRICH.
FRANK E. LOUIS.
THOMAS LAWRY.
DANIEL JUSTIN MCCARTHY.
SAMUEL T. SHAW.
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
worth Calderwood of Tyrone, Pa., a brother of Mr. Mills' wife. Mr. Calderwood died soon after the "Daily News" was started, and its pub- lication was continued for three years by Mr. Mills, or until his death in 1892. For a year or two the office of the "Daily News" was in the old Wm. C. Schooley Building on the south side of Braddock avenue, between Sixth and Seventh streets, sometimes called the Rauwolf Building, a two- story brick with a double front, afterwards used for hotel pur- poses. Then the office was removed to the big double-story frame structure erected by Mr. Mills on leased ground, at the corner of Library street, then Burton street, and Maple alley, opposite the Carnegie Free Library, afterwards the site of the First Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Mills died in 1892, and the paper was published by his widow, Mrs. Mary Calderwood Mills, for some months, until near the close of that year, when it was taken over by Daniel J. McCarthy, who removed his "Tribune" publishing quarters from east Braddock avenue to the Odeon Hall Building as the Library street publication building was known. Mr. McCarthy still continued to print the "Tribune" for a year or so after his removal to Library street, as a weekly edition of the "Daily News", and the "Tribune" went out of existence near the close of 1893.
After the Braddock "Sun" had got a good start, several other newspapers also got into the running, the first of these contemporaries of 'Squire Louis being Alexander H. Silvey, known throughout the western part of the State among his associates as "Sandy" Silvey. Mr. Silvey founded the Braddock "Herald" on June 2nd, 1880, in the frame building which at that time, and for many years thereafter, stood at the south- east corner of Ninth street and Wood alley. The last publication of the "Herald" took place in April, 1888, when Mr. Silvey established the Wil- kinsburg weekly "Call" in his home town of Wilkinsburg, and continued the "Call" almost until his death on January 5, 1905, when it was taken up by his son, Thomas Morgan Silvey, who is still the publisher.
With Mr. Silvey was associated for several years on the "Herald". the late Charles Edward Locke, Sr., uncle of the famous Rev. Dr. Charles Edward Locke, of Los Angeles, Cal., a noted divine of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The former Mr. Locke's wife is a sister of Mrs. E. N. Preusse of Holland avenue, Braddock, and of Charles W. Wood, formerly of Port Perry, and of Wm. P. Wood. Mr. Locke was, after his association with Mr. Silvey, city editor and managing editor of the Pittsburgh "Press", and retained those positions for some 18 or 19 years. Mr. Silvey founded the Crawford "Democrat" at Meadville, Pa., and for a time worked on the
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