Monthly Archives: January 2012

    The house was built in 1872 by Levi Ward as you can see from the picture below of the stone on the eve of the house inscribed L.Ward 1872. Levi, who was married to Jane Bennett Ward, spent his whole life in Wayne Township except a short period in Palestine, Ohio learning the trade of a tanner and a short period in the “Great West” (Illinois) after his apprenticeship. He returned to Wurtemburg where he built and operated a tannery with great success. He later added the manufacturing of boots which was very successful due to what was regarded as “the excellent quality of workmanship”.

Levi was an ardent politician and regularly attended church, Sunday school and prayer meetings at Slippery Rock Presbyterian Church. In 1856, he sold his tannery and turned his attention to farming and raising sheep and hogs. He purchased the 121 acres upon which this house sits, and the farm would become known as “Limestone Stock Farm”.

Levi came from one of the oldest families in Wayne Township as his father William Ward settled in the area in 1796. Levi’s son, Robert Bennett Ward, had a residence in Perry Township with his wife Agnes Mehard Ward, but purchased and moved back to his father’s house after Levi passed away in April of 1900.

Later owners included Ward Wehman, who married John Wehman and they owned and lived in the house until Dr. James Gardner purchased the farm about 1956.  Residents of the home after that include Vetenarian Dr. Swartz, Ralph Burnette and then it was sold to Don and Janet Hinkle.  Mr. and Mrs. Hinkle then sold the home to Robert and Pat Cairns who have restored the house back to its original beauty.

I would like to thank Mr. Everett Bleakney, David Bauder, and Patricia Gillespie Adams for providing the complete history behind this beautiful home. David and Patricia are Great Great Grandchildren of Levi Ward and Mr. Bleakney has been associated with this home since 1940 and we appreciate the sharing the information and many fond memories about the home, and the families living there. If you would like to share your memories of this house or families that have lived there, please leave a comment below or you can email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

Originally Published April 22, 2009

I have come across a dozen various pictures, postcards, and advertisements showing the outside of the Hotel Oliver (later named the Hotel Lawrence) on Crescent Avenue. The only interior picture I had come across was taken inside the elaborate dining room. Then I had someone share this picture of the interior of the lobby of the Hotel Lawrence and I was very excited to share it with you. This picture gives us a good idea of how elaborate the hotel was in a town that still had unpaved muddy streets.

     The wood work and dental molding around the front desk and fireplace is very elaborate and detailed. The trim around the ceiling of the room and the wainscot below the chair railing around the room are also very intricate. In addition to the hard wood floors and pocket doors, you might notice the decorative details on the ceiling and the florals on the lamps hanging also hanging from the ceiling.

     The picture from inside the hotel’s dining room shows us that the fine details continued throughout the modern building. The finely uniformed staff is posing around the elaborately decorated banquet table. The table appears to be set for forty guests with fine linens, decorative serving pieces, cutlery, glassware and other ornate table settings. The settings are made complete with high back solid wood chairs and numerous fresh flowers. Other details from around the room include windows that seem to stretch from the hardwood floors to the ten to twelve foot ceiling. Eight foot tall doorways, decorative wood trim including crown molding and electric lights. The Hotel was the first building in town that had electric power provided from the dam on the Connoquenessing Creek.

If you notice something we missed in the pictures or feel that the two large dark colored bowls on the floor by the front desk were something other than spittoons, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

Originally Published October 11, 2010

Standard Engineering began operations in Ellwood City in 1902 at the corner of Second Street and Park Avenue. A Subsidiary of the Standard Steel Car Company from Butler, PA the Ellwood works had previously been the Baker Forge-Hardware Company.
     Built 1894, the Baker Forge-Hardware Company was located east of Second Street and stretched from Franklin Avenue to the railroad tracks. The company that had been originally a partnership between J.H. Baker and H.W. Hartman manufactured wagon hardware until being replaced with the manufacturing of railroad steel car forgings. When Standard Steel Car Company took over, the name was changed to the Steel Car Forge Company until 1929 when the name was changed again to the Standard Steel Car Company, Steel Car Forge Division.

      It was reported in a 1916 Pittsburgh Gazette that the Steel Car Forge Company was the largest plant of its kind on the North American continent. They manufactured rolling and tube mill machinery, pipe threading machines, sand rolls and high grade gray iron castings. The black and white picture was taken from the Peerless Lead Glass Company at the eastern end of Park Avenue while the color picture appears to have been taken from the former ground of the Ellwood Brick Company.

In the first fourteen years of business, the Steel Car Forge reportedly knew no bad times and continually employed six hundred men. This time even included a strike at the Butler facility of the Standard Steel Car Company where one man was fatally shot when police opened fire into the hostile protestors. On July 19, 1909, an estimated 500 Employees of Standard Wheel Company joined the Standard Steel Car Companies 2,500 Strikers in Butler and things got violent. As mentioned, police fired into the crowd killing one, wounding two and ten others were hurt. Even during all this, the Ellwood works continued to produce.

     Standard Engineering considered Ellwood City an ideal place for great manufacturing with an unlimited supply of working people and free from labor trouble. The town’s water and electricity were considered very cheap and it also had what they regarded as a first class fire protection. Ellwood also had the freight service of four great railroad systems with Pittsburgh rates and the additional advantages of no extra charges for transfer.

When times were difficult for other industries, it seemed to have no effect upon the Steel Car Forge Co. Its product, if nothing else had already made Ellwood City famous, would have attracted the eyes of the world to our community because of its being at the very top of the world’s industries. The Steel Car Forge was often referred to as a “mechanical blacksmith shop” operating on a tremendously larger scale. It performed blacksmith work but entirely by machinery. In the early part of the century, the Steel Car Forge Works produced forgings for freight cars and also a general line of forgings for all railroad and for special purposes. Standard typified, as perhaps no other industry could, the progress that had been made by the beginning of the twentieth century.
    In May 1934 the Pullman Company ceased operations in Ellwood City and moved all the machinery worth keeping to the Butler facility of the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company and the property sat empty until 1939 when the property was purchased by a company you might have heard of, the National Tube Company.

This picture taken in 1968 is of the commonly known intersection of Fifth Street and Lawrence Avenue, which at the time was a one way street. As you can see from the picture, some of the business at the time included Oswald’s  that was on the first floor of the “Stiefel Building” and on the first floor of the “Simon Building” there was a sign for what I believe is Albert Your Druggist.

     Other businesses in the picture you may recall include the two on Fifth Street; Porter Funeral Home in the current Historical Society Building to the right and across the street is a large sign for General Finance Loans. If this is how you remember Lawrence Avenue, then you should also recognize Peoples National Bank on the northeast corner and on the northwest corner I believe is Young’s Drug Store.

A common statement I hear from people is how they remember Lawrence Avenue like these old pictures and how nice it was to grow up at a time like this. The busy street scene with lots of cars and people walking up and down the street going in and out of multiple stores. There was a time when the wide sidewalks along Lawrence weren’t wide enough.

I am hoping I got the two drug stores names correct, if not I have a good feeling that someone will let us know exactly what we are looking at so any feedback you might have would be appreciated. You can leave your comments below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    The first picture of the tube mill was believed to have been taken late summer/ early fall of 1916 from the area that was formerly Tunnel Field. For the younger generations, it is easy to forget how big the National Tube Company (a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation) was.

    The second picture with a close-up of “the smoke stacks” was only a portion of the tube mill that ran from the railroad tracks by the Second Street overpass to the Ewing Park Bridge. The Ellwood City Works of the National Tube Company later expanded to 127 total acres with 23 acres under a roof. Employment reached its highest point during World War II when 4,000 people were employed.

1. George Buck, 2. Logan Benninghoff, 3. Billy Williams, 4. Bion E. Leech, 5. Luthar P. Shaffer, 6. Bob Gillespie, 7 Ray Leech, 8 Alex Orr, 9 Fred Foxall, 10 Mike Curran, 11 Edward Hildebrand, 12 Frank “Indian” Craig, 13 Harry Y. McCool, 14 Dave Carson, 15 Rex Piersol, 16 Herman Buck, 17 LeRoy Beatty, 18 Edwin “Shaggy” Logan, 19 Charles Keefer, 20 Charles Carson.

I have posted a number of pictures from older football teams from Ellwood City  and heard many stories of the great Shelby baseball teams and Shelby basketball teams but no one mentioned the 1906 Shelby Tube Mill Football Team (oops Foot Ball Team, in 1906 that was two words.)

    I have to thank Ms. Miriam Filer for taking the time to send me all of these pictures along with the story of the 1906 Shelby team that was another great team that before now, seems to have been forgotten and to be honest, great is not a strong enough superlative. The 1906 team beat teams such as Youngstown, Sharon and Butler by scores of 10-0, 27-0, 23-0, 21-0, 44-0. Franklin was the only team all season to score a point against our boys in a 5-5 tie; touchdowns then were only worth five points.

    The more recent photographs are from 1949 when ten members of the 1906 Shelby Team held a reunion dinner at The Fireplace but got together at Robert W. Gillespie Sr.’s home to share stories and catch up. Those attending the reunion included 1. Bion E. Leech, 2. Harry Y. McCool, 3. Logan Benninghoff, 4. Mr. Gillespie, 5. Luthar P. Shaffer, 6. Edwin Logan, 7. W.R. Williams, 8. Fred Foxall (manager), and 9. M. J. Curran. George G. Buck was also at the reunion but was not pictured. He must be the one taking the picture (?). Only four other members of the 1906 undefeated team were still living in 1949 but were unable to attend the reunion including Frank Craig, Herman Buck, Charles Carson, and Edward Hildebrand.

    I would like to thank Ms. Filer again and apologize at the same time. She had sent me these pictures in April of 2011 and I am just now (January 2012) putting these onto the site. I was very excited when I received these pictures especially since I had never heard of them and do not know how they were skipped.

Jo Ann Oxsen from Kingman, Arizona came across a stack of old yearbooks and shared this picture of the 1922 Ellwood City High School Football Team with us. This team included many future Ellwood City High School Hall of Fame players, numerous Division I football players, a future Lawrence County Sports Hall of Fame player, and a future NFL player.

Team members (not as pictured): Howard Law, Bob Thompson, “Red” Jones, “Whitey” Asper, Cliff Ewing, Bob Morrow, Wayne Miller, Kenny Baker, Carl Ketterer, Harold McKim, Ken Ketterer, Hiert Scheidemantle, Frank McKim, “Chief” Parillo, Anthony Lordo, “Pony” Johnson, James Barile, “Mac” MacMurdo, Thad Young, Bill McCarthy, Raymond Marshall, Robert MacMurdo, Ben Chambers, Frank Piscitelli, Fred Johnson, Andy Biordi, Joe Paglia, Fred Lordo, Warren Wilson, Berline Smith, Carmen Perriello, Ray Maines, John Streeter, Ross Parker, Bill Herge .

The picture is from page 70 of the 1922 Ellwoodian – Photo by Bill McGlincy (1922)

I recently posted an article about the old bowling alley on Lawrence Avenue and the response was outstanding. As of half way through January, there have been twenty three “comments” or memories shared about the bowling alley or any of the bowling alleys in town. Mr. Dave Patterson went a step further and shared this picture from the mid-1950’s of his mother’s bowling team. Dave’s mother, Hazel Garwig Huffman is pictured in the back row, in the middle.

    Thank you Dave for sharing.

In 1908 fifteen year old Carmine Troino left San Georgio, Italy with his older brother to try to make themselves a better life in America. The same customs broker that would not allow his brother into the country also changed Carmine’s name to Charles Turner. Mr. Turner, who could not speak English, followed other Italian immigrants to Greensburg, Pennsylvania. It was there that he came across a newspaper ad for a barber wanted at the National Tube Company in Ellwood City. Not only did he cut hair at the tube mill all day but he also would cut hair at his house on Hillside Avenue and eventually opened his own barbershop on Lawrence Avenue.

Everyday management personnel from National Tube stopped for their “shave and hair cut” (25¢ cash). These daily stops helped him get through the Great Depression and in turn he was able to help his neighbors in Little Italy. The Turners lived on the corner of Bell Avenue and Fourth Street and built several $3,000 houses on Hillside Avenue. Charles was able to send his second son Kenneth to college to pursue his desire to be a funeral director after his oldest son Gene joined Navy where he served as a radio man and as a barber. After the Navy, Gene the red headed Italian became second chair in his fathers shop.

At a time when it was common for men to get a haircut once a week, turners Barber Shop boasted six chairs and no waiting. Turners was reportedly the first barber shop in Ellwood to have a television for its customers. In 1960, Gene installed the television so his customers could watch the Pirates who were going to the World Series that year.

After developing Hodgkin’s disease in the mid-40’s, Charlie (along with some of the family) moved to California for his health. Gene stayed in Ellwood to manage the shop and his brother Kenneth also remained in the Ellwood to operate his funeral home. Not one to sit still, Turner looked around his new home in the Los Angeles area and decided the area needed a motel.

From time to time Charlie would visit Ellwood City and go into the shop, move now first chair Gene’s tools to the second chair and begin cutting hair – it was his shop. Gene would eventually own the barbershop at 405 Lawrence Avenue that he managed for his dad and where his family lived on the second floor. In 1963, Gene sold the barber shop and the former second chair moved to California to become a barber to the stars.

Gene became a barber/stylist at Cosmo Sardo’s Art Gallery, Hairstyling, and Barber Salon around the corner from the famous Schwab’s Drug Store in Hollywood. The salon/art studio was everything you can imagine complete with martinis and hors d’oeuvres for customers. Gene not only cut the movie stars hair, but he himself was in a number of Gillette commercials.

Gene’s daughter Linda Turner Tidemanson of Winnetka, California once shared that she had no choice but to be “good” during her time in Ellwood. In our small town, everyone knew her dad and everyone knew she was Gene Turners daughter so she had to behave. In 1963 Gene sold his shop to Joe DeLisio who had started working the sixth chair at the shop in 1953 while in the 10th grade at Lincoln High School.

One of the things I like to do when I get old scenic pictures is to track down the location of the original picture and see how different it looks today. Sometimes it is difficult to do in the case of comparing the business district of Hazel Dell from the layout with the old Veterans Bridge to today. However, in the case of these pictures of the men paving Line Avenue with bricks (by hand), it is very easy to compare.

       On the left of the older picture you can still see the bell tower of Bell Memorial Presbyterian Church. On the right side you can still see the bell tower of the old Hazel Dell School that sat on the corner of Line Avenue and College Street. There are a couple more houses in the new picture but the new picture is missing the line of maple (?) trees that lined the south side of the street.

I recently posted an article on the first Little League Baseball League champions, the 1950 Moose Lodge sponsored team. As world famous as that team is, I quickly got this autographed photograph of “Ellwood City’s FIRST Little League Baseball Team” compliments of Chuck Hall.

     Members of that team included, front from the left, Dick Gaskell, “Flip” Hill, Charlie Hall, John Agostinelli, Art Loccisano, and Bob Kimpel. Second row from left, “Grumpy” Franz, Jim Staggers, Elliot Hall, Dick James, and “Ziggy” Liebendorfer. The back row was coach Jack Barnett, “Chuck” Timblin (Mgr.), and Lloyd Hamil. Thank you Mr. Hall for sharing this picture and other pictures with us all.

   The City of Champions, Wampum Pennsylvania. In 1963, a banquet was held to honor a handful of the champions that have come out of Wampum including athletes and coaches. Seated in front from the left were Buzz Ridl, Basketball coach at Westminster College, and the famous basketball coach L. Butler Hennon who led Wampum to unimaginable success including numerous State Championships.

Standing from left to right were Major League Baseball player Harold Allen, basketball player/coach Ronald Galbreath, and one of Major League Baseball’s greats Dick Allen. All three athletes played for Coach Hennon at Wampum High School and Galbreath played for Ridl at Westminster College for perhaps one of the school’s greatest teams, the 1961-62 season.