USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Braddock > The unwritten history of Braddock's Field (Pennsylvania) > Part 24
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The present officers are: Mary O'Connell, Grand Regent; Helen Brennan, Vice Regent; Marie Escher, Prophetess ; Helen Glynn, Historian ; Gertrude Duffy, Financial Secretary ; Clara Spitzer, Treasurer; Mary Wag- ner, Monitor; Mary Rutter, Sentinel; Jennie Ryan, Margaret Zorn, Ella Lally, Julia Gordon, Mary Larkin and Lela Ackley, Trustees; Mae Kramer, Organist; Rev. Robert McDonald, Chaplain.
Independent Order Moses Ben Amron Lodge of Braddock.
This order was affiliated with the Independent Order of Free Sons of Juda of New York City until Feb. 4, 1917, when it was re-organized with 426 Charter Members. The officers are: Bernard Swartz, President; Ben- nie Zeff, Vice President; Julius Zelmanovitz, Recording Secretary; J. M. Steinetz, Financial Secretary; Andrew Shermer, Treasurer.
The "Daughters of the American Revolution" the largest and most influential patriotic society of the world, will in the near future be rep- resented in Braddock by a chapter to be known as the "Tonnaleuka" Chap- ter of D. A. R. The work of organizing is under the direction of Miss Florence E. Mench, "Chapter Regent." A charter membership of twenty- five is assured.
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FIRES AND FIRE-FIGHTERS.
BY HARRY H. KELLY.
The fast-swinging fire bell in the schoolhouse tower clangs brazen- ly, and sleepy Main Street wakes to life.
Out from the little frame shops and offices hurry shirt-sleeved men carrying buckets. Up the street they run, a curious crowd tailing out be- hind, boys shouting and dogs barking. Past an orchard stretching away up the slope from the street the bucket-brigade speeds and draws up pant- ing before a frame cottage, the roof smoking and little tongues of flame licking over the shingles. From out the babble of shouts a strong man's voice rises :
"Get in line, men. Clear the way, there".
The shirt-sleeved men form a long line, one end at a well back of the house, the other at a ladder on which perches the tall figure of the man who directs them. The chain of buckets moves swiftly from hand to hand and up to the man on the ladder, who with rhythmic movement slashes the water on the burning shingles and throws the empty bucket over his shoulder, to be caught below as it falls. Five minutes and the fire is out, the wet roof still smoking. The line breaks up into little groups which move slowly back down the shady street towards the single string of stores and offices in the business section. Here and there they linger in amicable gossip while the owner of the house views the damaged roof.
Once again Main street settles down to its interrupted after- noon nap.
The year is 1880. The shirt-sleeved men are bucket-brigaders, the first fire-fighting organization in Braddock.
The brigaders never really organized themselves into an official body, but judged by the standards of the time, their work was efficient. Once, during the fire which swept the planing mill of H. B. Grannis in Penn street, they saved from destruction a tiny frame house standing in an alley 18 feet from the blazing mill, by keeping its roof deluged with water from their buckets. That was the night of September 22, 1880, when the efforts of the brigaders reached their climax. They had fought many fires, most of them small ones, but a few of which caused heavy damage. In their early history, in 1874, they had fought the flames in the planing mill of Joseph B. McCune, but failed to save it. In those days, if the fire secured much headway, nothing could stop its progress until it
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burnt itself out. But this fact never prevented the brigaders from work- ing for hours, carrying buckets of water and dashing them in the face of the flames.
The bucket brigade could not last. With the growth of industry and business following the opening of the Edgar Thomson Steel Works and other mills, the way was paved for a more efficient and powerful or- ganization. The burning of the block between John and Library streets on Braddock avenue in 1884 brought the need of an organized fire depart- ment forcibly to the attention of borough citizens. The successful com- pletion of the water works was also a contributing factor in the forming of an organized band for fighting fires.
Thus was the Braddock Volunteer Fire Department organized. It was at the instigation of Isaac Mills, burgess of Braddock, that a public meeting was called on July 1, 1885, for the purpose of forming a volun- teer fire department. The preliminary plans were gone into at this meet- ing, but it was not until July 10, when 40 men met in the borough council chambers, in a two-story brick structure at 728 Braddock avenue, across the street from the present municipal building, that definite action was taken. Seventy-nine members were enrolled, and the following officers were elected : President, Thomas J. Dowler; Vice President, Peter Seewald; Secretary, Daniel J. McCarthy; Treasurer, L. F. Holtzman ; Trustees, George L. House, Frank L. Bridges and S. D. Hamilton. At a third meeting, held July 22, James Morrow was unanimously elected the first chief of the department, with A. H. White and Charles Upton as assistants, Zack Oskin, foreman of Hose Company No. 1, Thomas Britt, foreman of Hose Company No. 2, and Henry Fix, foreman of the hook and ladder truck company. The original members of the department were as follows: Zack Oskin, John Lawlor, Charles Arensberg, Frank Wentzel, Patrick Norton, James Black, John M. McKelvey, John Yinger, Patrick Farrell, Patrick Collins, Robert Morrow, Charles Yinger, Daniel Mc- Carthy, Henry Miller, Harry Lewis, John Quinn, Elmer Leech, Al James, James Gorham, John Kinney, William Young, J. C. Riston, T. J. Dowler, T. W. Sharp, Charles Upton, J. K. Fisher, Henry Fix, Samuel Frederick, W. A. McDevitt, James Morrow, H. T. Bruggeman, C. H. Sheets, George L. House, Peter Seewald, L. F. Holtzman, M. J. Dowling, Thomas Britt, L. C. Fritzius, Frank Lewis, W. H. Sharah, Frank L. Bridges, James Collins, Al H. White, C. C. Fawcett, Jacob Katz, James Martin, George R. Fauset. Oscar Dart, George F. House, Washington Lewis, H. C. Teeter, V. C. Knorr, James McCarthy, Mart Flannigan, George Oskin, Jr., Walter
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Brown, William Monroe, S. D. Hamilton, Frank Shilling, Fred Opperman, John Mangion, P. McCaulley, James H. Bennett, J. G. Seibert, John Dono- van, Patrick Hughes, William H. Miller, Conrad Schilling, George Hoff- man, James Dowling, Alfred Carr, J. M. Yarlett, Edward Oskin, Jr., R. E. Spear, A. Dorritz, Samuel Shearer, D. G. Fisher, H. H. Bair and James Phillips. In addition to these, sixty-seven others, whose names are as follows, were added to fill vacancies and to increase the department mem- bership: William Yarlett, David Masters, D. Z. Musselman, William Lapsley, Charles Gourley, W. T. Oskin, Frank Harrop, W. L. Sechler, Al- bert Oskin, Robert Redman, Frank Redman, Mark L. Kulp, Albert Speidel, Joshua McCune, W. A. McCune, Denny Dowling, Mell F. Riley, George N. Riley, H. C. Teeter, George Dowler, John Little, Dr. E. O. Anderson, C.
BRADDOCK FIRE DEPARTMENT AND MUNICIPAL BUILDING, 1914.
Left to Right-John W. Morris, Chas. D. Barthold, Geo. C. Spangler, and Chief T. K. Martin.
H. Clifford, George W. Day, Dr. E. W. Dean, William Howat, Sr., H. C. Shallenberger, D. L. Miller, A. P. Maggini, A. M. Carlins, John Dinges, E. J. Smail, J. M. Hurley, Adam Appel, George B. Gibson, Fritz Tegethoff, Neal McGinley, John Griffin, Christ Thier, James Purcell, Harry Farr, John Sechler, William Connors, Joseph Riston, William Wymard, Philip Roderus, Jacob Walters, Harry Fleck, Thomas G. Aten, Samuel G. Owens, William C. McAdams, Wilson Packer, E. M. Brackemeyer, Andrew Mer- cer, George W. Kutscher, D. M. Kier, Thomas Ward, W. W. McCleary, William Lang, Wash Wentzel, A. B. Price, E. J. Hamm, E. S. Bracken, John Dick, Rob A. Hart, John Howard and P. A. Gillen.
A chemical tank, which in action proved something of a failure, was the first piece of equipment to take the place of the buckets of the early fire-fighters. One of the first acts of the new volunteer department
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was to purchase a two-wheeled hose reel, a four-wheeled hose reel and a four-wheeled hook-and-ladder wagon. This apparatus, all drawn by hand, was housed in a frame addition to the old municipal building. The re- moval of the department in 1892 to a frame building across the street, situated on property purchased by the borough shortly before and which is now the site of the present municipal building, marked the summit of achievement for the volunteer firemen, but it was also the beginning of the end for them.
The department had now been organized seven years, and had reached a high level of efficiency. The whistle on the water-works at the river bank called out a force of trained fire-fighters whose flying feet car- ried them in record time to the scene of fire. The department had become one of the centers of the town's activities. An annual ball in winter and a picnic at Kenney's grove in the summer attracted more than local atten- tion. The department numbered many of the most prominent business and professional men. It was the hey-day of the volunteer force.
There are no fires now like the old ones, the surviving members of the Braddock volunteers lament. They tell of the Joseph Wolf fire on July 31, 1890, which started at Twelfth street and Washington avenue and destroyed forty houses, entailing a loss estimated in those days of low values at $75,000. On January 8 of the same year the Grannis planning mill had again been swept by fire, with $15,000 damage. Old members tell of their return one rainy evening from a picnic at Idlewild in West- moreland county, to be met by the sound of the fire whistle and to turn in and work all night in efforts to save the Protestant Episcopal church in Sixth street and neighboring buildings. Disastrous fires at the Eli Dowler planing mill and the Dawes Manufacturing Company's plant, and scores of smaller blazes, were fought during the ten years of the company's existence.
But the period of popularity and power was fleeting. Soon after the removal of the firemen's headquarters across Braddock avenue, two horses were purchased-innocent cause of the ultimate dismemberment of the company. A four-wheeled hose-reel, the pride of the department, was donated by H. C. Frick of Pittsburgh, prominent steel and iron manufacturer. This necessitated a driver and caretaker who would spend all his time in the service of the department. Upon his selection the fire- men divided. There were too many candidates for the job, and with the election of Oliver MeMichaels as the first paid driver, the dissension among the members grew to alarming proportions. After that, it was
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only a matter of time until the department would be made a part of the borough government, with paid employes.
This was the action taken by the Braddock borough council on June 3, 1895, when the first paid fire department in Braddock was created with a membership of six. The department now employs twelve men. Its equipment now consists of two motor-trucks, which supplanted the last horse-drawn apparatus, the hose-reel donated by H. C. Frick and an aerial-ladder truck. The volunteer department's activities automatically ceased with the formation of the paid department. It was never officially disbanded, and remains in existence as an organization today, although the members have not met for more than a score of years.
Almost simultaneously with the termination of the Braddock volunteer department, an organization modelled along the same lines was formed in Rankin. One hundred and fifty bor- ough citizens met in the schoolhouse September 26, 1895, and organized the Rankin Volunteer Fire Department, which is still active and which remains RANKIN VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT. Left to Right-Lewis Alshouse, assistant chief ; David Frederick, driver; Jas. Hughes, Elmer Walters, R. S. Guttridge, Theodore Tierney, Daniel Eshman, Benjamin Remlinger, and Thomas Ludwig. the only fire-fighting force in the bor- ough. The names of 100 men presented for membership were accepted; most of these have continued in the or- ganization ever since, and the total membership at present is 90. The first officers were Jess Illingsworth, President; E. F. McBride, first vice president; Axel Allison, second vice president ; C. B. Guttridge, secretary ; Thomas Watkins, treasurer; William Sullivan, chief; A. M. Parker, fore- man hose cart No. 1, and James Nash, foreman hose cart No. 2. The department owns an auto truck, two fire horses having been sold in 1916, and employs a paid driver.
NORTH BRADDOCK FIREMEN'S CHAMPION RACING TEAM. Left to Right. Bottom Row- Abel, Christy, Stew- art. Sanders. Carrier.
Middle Row - Evertts. Graham.
Top Row-Jones. Mckinney, B. Kurt. L. Kurt. kramer. H. Kurtz, Dorin, Smith, Lungen, Boon, Haffey, McDonald.
The North Braddock Volun- teer Fire Department was formed in 1899 by the following men, who acted as the first officers: President, W. J. Vance; vice president, W. R. W. Steiner; secretary, John F.
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Lowers; treasurer, Joseph L. Campbell, Sr .; chief, Clement S. Newton; member of by-law committee, J. O. Jones. The other members of the department at that time were Lee L. Hayden and James Maxwell. Following the division of the borough into three wards, the department was separated into three companies, each housed in its own building. The one auto truck owned by the department, stationed in the central station in the municipal building, Second ward, answers all calls in the borough and covers a district almost as large as any other three boroughs combined in Western Pennsylvania. As in Rankin, the truckdrivers are the only paid members of the de- partment. North Braddock firemen have won numerous trophies and championship cups with racing teams and other crack organizations at the annual firemen's conventions.
One of the first men to take an interest in the Braddock Volunteer Fire Department was William H. Sharah, who was one of the original mem- bers. He was the first president of the Western Pennsylvania Fireman's Association, organized in 1894, and has been its secretary for 21 years. He was president of the State Firemen's Association in 1894, and is a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. He was born in Port Perry March 24, 1863, and resides at present at 218 Sixth street, Braddock.
None of the local fire depart- ments have ever lost a man while fight- ing fires.
The fire departments in the bor- oughs have grown far beyond their original limits. Braddock avenue is no longer a dirt road, covered thick in sum- mer with slack brought from the coal mines back in the hills. The firemen have 1913-PUNXSUTAWNEY CONVENTION. lost in a large measure their social and Left to Right-Frank Graham. Joe Litzki. Louis Kurtz, John Gindas, John Burke. P. J. O'Con- nell. J. J. MeDonough, J. C. Jones, and Daniel J. MeCue. political power. Only memories remain of the picnics and balls, the merry-makers ferrying across the Mononga- hela river or making impressive entries on horseback and in buggies into town on cold winter nights. In Braddock at least, the romance has gone forever from the stern business of fighting fires.
WOMAN'S ACHIEVEMENTS. BY MRS. SAMUEL HAMILTON.
"Everything in the world depends on woman." "The history of woman is the history of the world."
All over the world a change is taking place in the social position of woman. It is not merely the question of political standing-which like prohibition is almost decided-for every sensible person today in our country is quite willing to grant that woman is certainly entitled to vote; but it is rather as an essential agency in all social and civic betterment that this change is most noticeable. Woman's vote is here in a score of states and coming tomorrow in all the rest. Woman has ever been a sub- ject of great and absorbing interest-a problem, a mystery-to man. She has been a great factor in events of the past both good and bad, great and small; and she will be a greater factor in the future. She has been dis- cussed more than any other subject in the world.
How then would it be possible to give a complete history of Brad- dock for the past one hundred seventy-five years without a chapter de- voted to the influence and work of woman! She certainly was man's help- mate in the beginning for that first settler, John Frazier, would never have remained on his tract of land at the mouth of Turtle Creek in 1742 had it not been for Nelly, his bright and happy wife. It was she who en- couraged him to remain among the red people instead of returning to Le- high Valley whence he came. It was she who shared his toil and helped to make the wilderness blossom like the rose.
After his cabin was built, her task was to keep the hearth-fire bright, the honie comfortable and to encourage John when his body was tired and his spirits low with the hard toil of the day. Her task was to mould the hearts and lives and shape the character of her little children. Such a task you will agree is the greatest task in the world on account of its far-reaching importance. Transcendently it is above everything in the universe.
Since our topic is woman, we will speak only of the daughters of this pioneer family. Nancy and Marie under the guidance of such a worthy mother were instructed in the arts of sewing, spinning, knitting, dairy-matters and kitchen concerns. Each was possessed of much per-
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sonal beauty and both were singularly intellectual for those times, having been taught by the wise and learned Tonnaleuka.
So beautiful and attractive was Marie that Dame Rumor says that Washington, stopping to rest at the Frazier cottage on his way to Fort Le Bouf, became so enamored of the fair maiden, that some months later he returned, capitulated, and laid his-heart at her feet. Talk about achievements! was there ever a greater than this?
HOME.
After six decades the Frazier family has disappeared. In 1804 Isaac Mills with his family settled in this region, soon followed by others. In 1852-54 the settlement had more rapid growth and for years woman's influence was felt chiefly in the home. Emerson says, "Men are what their mothers make them", and the mothers of these older inhabitants were anxious, earnest, hard-working, self-sacrificing women who were desirous of having their children succeed in life. Wait until we reach the eternal mountains then read the mothers' names in God's hall of fame and see how many have come from the old town of Braddock.
"The bravest battle that ever was fought, Shall I tell you where and when ? On the maps of the world you'll find it not 'Twas fought by the mothers of men.
Nay not with cannon or battle shot, With sword or noble pen, Nay not with eloquent word or thought From mouths of wonderful men.
But deep in a walled up woman's heart Of woman that would not yield. But bravely, silently bore her part- Lo, there is the battle field.
No marshalling troops, no bivouac song, No banner to gleam and wave; But oh! these battles, they last so long, From babyhood to the grave."
CHURCH.
In 1857 the churches began to rise slowly, very slowly, one after another, until today Braddock is known as the "City of Churches," hav- ing no less than forty-four. These church edifices, built mostly of brick and stone with heavenward-pointing spires are monuments, silent yet eloquent monuments, to the perseverance and energy of the earnest women workers of the congregations.
Each brick and stone and spire, had it a tongue, would cry out in trumpet-like tones and triumphantly testify to the desperation, and per-
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spiration with which that anxious, zealous, and over-worked body of women known in church circles as "The Ladies' Aid" had toiled in their behalf. Oh! companions in industry. Think of the sewings, quiltings, concerts, oratorios, musicals, bazaars, suppers, dinners, festivals, lawn- fetes, rummage sales, etc., etc .! Think of the ducks and geese plucked, the turkeys and chickens beheaded. Think of the bread, pies, cakes, puddings, waffles, cranberries, slaw, fried oysters and what not consumed !
Has the Medical Association ever awakened to the real cause of Braddock's need for a hospital? Oh, "Ladies' Aid"! A paragraph or a page would never do justice to your long and zealous labors. It would take the pen of an Elliot or a DeStael and a volume the size of a Webster's Unabridged Dictionary to hold a dissertation sufficiently long to extol in proper manner your works.
"We've put a grand addition on the good old church at home, It's just the latest kilter, with a gallery and dome, It seats a thousand people, the finest in all the town. And when 'twas dedicated, why we planked ten thousand down; That is, we paid five thousand, every deacon did his best, And the Ladies' Aid Society, it promised all the rest.
They'll give a hundred sociables, cantatas, too, and teas, They'll bake a thousand angel cakes and tons of cream they'll freeze;
They'll beg and scrape and toil and sweat, for seven years or more, And they'll start all over again for a carpet on the floor.
No it isn't just like digging out the money from your vest,
When the Ladies' Aid gets busy and says, 'We'll pay the rest.'
Of course we're proud of our big church from pulpit up to spire, It is the darling of our eyes, the crown of our desire;
But when I see the sisters work to raise the cash that lacks, I somehow feel that the church is built on women's tired backs, And sometimes I can't help thinking, when we reach the region blest, That men will get the toil and sweat and the Ladies' Aid the rest."
Aside from helping to erect churches and keep them in repair, the women of Braddock have always been interested in other lines of Christian work, as both the Home and Foreign Missionary Societies will testify. Neither time nor space permits of a description of the work done by these societies.
It is sufficient to say that the work in Braddock is far-reaching and varied. Christ said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gos- pel", and the women of Braddock churches are endeavoring through these organizations to do their part in spreading the Gospel of Christ.
There can be no greater achievement on earth than to do the will of the blessed Master and surely the members of these organizations will hear the words "Well done" for their glad and faithful services in His vineyard.
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SCHOOLS.
In 1867 the first school building was located in what is now the First Ward, Braddock, and since that time women have been employed chiefly as teachers. Starting with a faculty of but two teachers-Miss Margaret B. Bell and Miss Eliza J. Mills-Braddock, North Braddock and Rankin have at the present time a corps of one hundred and ninety- three teachers, all but thirteen of whom are women.
It is only about one hundred years since the girls in Massachusetts were sitting on the school house steps listening to their more favored brothers drone their lessons. Later they were allowed to take the boys' places in the school while the latter were needed in gathering in the har- vest. But what a marvelous change has taken place in the education of woman in that time!
Who now sneers at the intellect of woman? Who laughs at a blue stocking? Who denies the insight, the superior tact, the genius of woman ? What schools are better kept than those taught by woman? Today as a teacher she holds the very first place in all the agencies that make for the betterment of Braddock.
"It is her duty to impart useful knowledge, to train mind and soul and body, to impart pure ideas and high ideals of manhood and womanhood, to transform a mass of untrained children, many of whom are the offspring of a long line of untrained parents, into a nation of men and women able physically, mentally and morally, not only to recognize the deep responsibility of citizenship, but also to contribute their share toward furthering the development of home, of country, and of civilization."
That the teachers of Braddock and North Braddock are performing this work nobly and successfully in the midst of such a heterogeneous people is an assured fact. Their task is a hard one, but they receive the gratitude of a grateful people. Their reward is mainly in a full realiza- tion of a great work well done. To be the superintendent of a great in- dustry, or the president of a large bank or corporation is a great achieve- ment, but to be a live, capable teacher is to be a real benefactor of man- kind!
W. C. T. U.
To walk the streets of Braddock and count the saloons and whole- sale liquor houses at the present day one would not think that this fair city until 1878 had been free from the influence of liquor.
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