Posts Tagged ledger

     The Hazel Club Beverage Company on Wampum Avenue was not the only bottling company in Ellwood City. The Hires Bottling Company was a prominent site on Lawrence Avenue during the 1950′s and 1960′s. This picture was taken by the Ellwood City Ledger in 1968. Today, this is where McElwain Legend used car lot is located.
    The Hires Bottling Company bottled the popular orange pop Crush and one of the oldest root beers in the country, Hires Rootbeer. If you remember the large building on Lawrence Avenue and would like to share any memories, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

     This picture is part of a collection once owned by Harry W. Horton, Assistant Borough Engineer under Alex Main from 1920-1925. Most of the pictures show Ellwood City in an important stage of its development as it was getting more of the town out of the mud in the years following World War I.
    This picture is the North end of original Fifth Street Bridge looking West down Wampum Avenue. The house on the right as you are looking at the picture with the clothes hanging out back was once the home of Ellwood City Ledger’s Louise Carroll. Her mother rented the house in the 1940′s when it was owned by Madison Maine.
We have not had a lot of luck uncovering the business that was inside the building on the left at the very end of the bridge. Further down Wampum Avenue across from the house on the right, Morini’s built their neighborhood store. Some of the homes still remained from this picture into the 1940′s as Mrs. Carroll remembers that one of the small houses was still standing and a lonely older lady lived in one. She still has memories of her mother baking homemade bread and occasionally would take her a loaf.
    If you look closely at the picture, there a couple of odd things that kind of stand out, at least to us. The sidewalk on the bridge is paved and looks very fancy, especially since the main roads leading to and from the bridge are all still dirt roads. Another thing that stands out is the rooftop next to the business at the end of the bridge. The building looks to large to be an outhouse but we don’t know what else it could be. The dirt road just seems to drop off into the building also. Like we said, odd.
    If you see something else we missed, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

History Links

Ellwood City Area Historical Society www.EllwoodHistory.com

Ellwood City’s Amusement Park www.RockPointPark.com

Fombell Historical Society www.FombellHistory.org

News Links

Ellwood City Ledger www.ellwoodcityledger.com

Government Links

Borough of Ellwood City www.ecboro.com

Ellwood City Chamber  www.ellwoodchamber.org

Ellwood City Revitalization www.ellwoodcityrevitalization.org

Recreactional Links

Ellwood City Library www.ellwoodcitylibrary.com

Ellwood City Baseball Association www.ecabf.com

Ellwood City Memories is not a complete history as much as it is meant to be a collection of memories of Ellwood City. If you would like to read more about the HISTORY of Ellwood City, we recommend the following books…

A History of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania / compiled by A. E. Whittaker, edited by the Ellwood City Historical Association. Imprint Butler, PA. : Printed by Record-Ziegler Printing Co., 1932-1942.

Ellwood City Houses and the People Who Lived in Them / Charles R. Moser ; produced by Steve Shinsky ; photos by Buquo Studios ; c1994.

Ellwood City’s Diamond Jubilee Souvenir Booklet and Program : Ellwood City — 75 years of progress.
Imprint Ellwood City, PA : Ellwood City Ledger, 1967.

100 Years of Memories: Centennial 1892-1992 Ellwood City’s Pennsylvania
Imprint Ellwood City, PA : Ellwood City Ledger, 1967.

Steeltown / Charles R. Walker / Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York / 1950. A book-length study of Ellwood City and its National Tube Co. mill by social science researchers from Yale University in 1946-1948, a time when the mill was threatened with closing.

Infantryman Petitt – By William Gavin

Hack – Bob Boone (story of Hack Wilson, click HERE for an exerpt)

Ellwoodian – Lincoln High School yearbooks, Ellwood City

Pathfinder – Riverside High School yearbooks, Ellwood City

History of the 100th Pennsylvania Roundheads – By William Gavin

History of the 10th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Its Forebearers and Successors in the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean Emergency.
Imprint Allentown, PA : Lithographic Service, Inc.

175th Anniversary Book of Wampum PA –

    The house at 319 Fourth Street was built in 1925 for Charles and Emma French. Mr. French purchased the lot from Ellwood City’s founder Henry W. Hartman’s sons Holliday Hartman of Zelienople and “Waters” Hartman of Denver, Colorado. Mr. French would later become Pennsylvania’s first Fish Commissioner and later was appointed the Executive Director of Fish Commissioner. During the time Charles worked for The Pennsylvania General Service Administration as a land agent, he was responsible for purchasing most of the land for Moraine State Park.
    On August 27, 1963, Carl “Rizzo” Mantz purchased the home on Fourth Street for his sister Helen (Helen’s Dress Shop) and himself. Rizzo was a star athlete for Ellwood City and would later serve as golf coach and head football coach for Lincoln High School. Mr. Mantz became one of Ellwood City’s finest golfers and was named to Ellwood City Ledger’s Golf Hall of Fame.
    If you have any memories about this house or the families that have lived here, please leave a comment below or email us your memories at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    The house at 414 Division Avenue doesn’t look to peculiar from the street except that it has two front doors from being transformed into a duplex. However, once you see a glimpse from the side, you notice that the building stretches back forty yards to the alley. Some might recall seeing two large delivery trucks with big bold letters stating “Mrs. Smith’s Noodles” parking inside the garage doors at the rear of the building.
    Considered one of the strongest businesses in Ellwood City, the Mrs. C.H. Smith Noodle Factory at 414 Division Avenue was considered among  National Tube Co. and Mathews Conveyor as the business leaders of Ellwood City. Employing all women (except the truck drivers) Mrs. Smith mass produced one of the tastiest noodles of its time. Unfortunately, her secret ingredient – wheat from Russia, is what also forced the Noodle factory to close during World War II.
    The Noodle Factory was the first company to put their noodles in “kerosene bags” (clear plastic polyethylene bags) and sold their product to the many corner grocery stores in town and beyond to neighboring states. Mrs. C.H. Smith started the business in 1921 after developing the recipe herself. The business thrived for many years and was one of the few businesses that actually grew during the Great Depression. Mrs. Smith Noodles continued to grow and plans were made to enlarge the business and go national with their special noodle, until June of 1941. That summer, Hitler invaded Russia and Mrs. Smith was unable to get her special wheat. The business came to a standstill until finally closing sometime after 1942.
    If you recall these noodles or have any memories of Mrs. Smith or the house at 414 Division Avenue, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com. We would like to thank Louise Carroll for all of this information that we got from the terrific article she wrote for the Ellwood City Ledger.

    Louise Carroll wrote an article in the Ellwood City Ledger in June of 2009 about an area sports team that was crowned State Champions and exactly the kind of story this sight was started for.
    In 1959, the Medusa Eagles finished third in the world at the World Slow Pitch Championship Tournament held in Cleveland, Ohio after the team won the Pennsylvania State Championship. When the team won the State Championship, they were known as the Chewton Slow Pitch team but became the Medusa Eagles from Wampum when Medusa Cement sponsored the team for the world championship games.
    The team consisted of Dick Allen, Ron Allen, Al Baker, Jim ‘Cat’ Cipro, Chuck Dombeck, Clarence Freer, Wendell Goatley, Gary Guy, Henry Hajec, Willie ‘Sonny’ King, Bob Kosior, Dave Kosior, Lou Kosior, Dom Suppa, and Kenny Tillia. Bob ‘Lefty’ Kosior, who had a heart problem and couldn’t play himself, served as the manager of the team.  Another Dick Allen was also a player and would help manage the team when needed.
    The team originally played their home games in a pasture field on Snake Run Road before moving to the field in the center of Chewton. The team members were responsible for maintaining the field themselves including keeping the grass cut and the up-keep on the back stop. As you may remember, the field is a large square and there was a time they had to turn the whole field around because foul balls kept hitting a nearby house. The team did not practice a lot as they played three or more games a week.
    Mrs. Carroll interviewed a couple of the players, in particular ‘Sonny’ King. “We were competitors. We went to win,” King told Carroll “We played three games a day to qualify and it was Memorial Day weekend and it was hot. A team from Gastonia, N.C., beat us, I’ll never forget that.” Chuck Dombeck recalled “Everyone had way better uniforms than we did, there were teams there sponsored by Proctor & Gamble, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Hamilton Glass and big corporations like that.” Teams may have looked better than the boys from Chewton, but very, very few played better.
    1959 was the second time the Chewton Slow Pitch Team competed at the World Championships. In 1958, the team, including Ralph ‘Red’ Mohr, John Schotch and Jim Ferrante, finished fourth in the world at the tournament. When Louise Carroll asked, “the men said they believe sports were so popular in Wampum because there wasn’t anything else to do but play baseball and basketball”. “They also agreed that they played because they loved to compete and loved the game.”
    Our gratitude goes out to Louise Carroll for writing an excellent article and giving this great team the attention it deserves. If you would like to leave a personal memory about this team or any of its players, please leave a comment below or email us by CLICKING HERE.

    The house at 425 Wayne Avenue was built in 1908 by Albert Dahl and it stayed in the Dahl family for three generations. Albert also built the First Presbyterian Church, the original First National Bank (now home to the Ellwood City Ledger), and the First Baptist Church on Fountain Ave. You may have been able to guess, but his specialty was stone buildings.
    If you look closely at the second story, the street sign for Fifth Street and Wayne Avenue are built into the structure. The house at 425 Wayne Avenue also has the distinction of having electricity connected the longest in the borough.
    If you have a story or memory you would like to share about the massive brick house or of the families that have lived here, please leave a comment below, on the forum page, or email us your memories by CLICKING HERE.

   We can not talk about the history and memories of Ellwood City without mentioning baseball. The two seem to go hand in hand. The first “official” baseball game in Ellwood City took place in 1892, the same year the town was founded. At the time, the town’s baseball field was located on Spring Avenue separating Fourth and Fifth Street. Shortly after the town’s founding, it got another field for the growing population and its love of the game. The new baseball field was named Fullner Field but was known more as Tunnel Field because it was located on the Ellwood City side of the B&O Railroad tunnel. Other fields in the surrounding area at that time included a field in Hazel Dell (the North Side) and the baseball field at the amusement park, Rock Point Park, complete with an elaborate grandstands.
    When the Shelby Tube Company started its own baseball team to represent Ellwood City along with the previously established Steel Car Forge Team, Ellwood got its newest baseball field. The Shelby Steel Tube Company purchased a large lot of land in what is now known as Ewing Park to build houses for its employees. The “Shelby Land Company’s Plan” had a little patch of land between Joffre Street and Petain Street that was turned into a baseball field and called Shelby Field. The Shelby Tube team competed with other teams located on the Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler & New Castle Trolley line (also known as the Harmony Line). In only its second season the Shelby team won The Trolley League Championship beating teams like Mars, Evans City, and Butler.
   An article in the Ellwood City Ledger stated that both Terry “Cotton Head” Turner and Bill Marshall were local players that once starred on this team and made it to the Major Leagues. We have been unable to find any other reference to either player ever playing or living in Ellwood City, so if you know for sure please let us know. 
    ‘Cotton Head’ played 19 seasons with the Cleveland Indians after starting his professional career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. When he retired, his 1,619 games played was a team record and he also held six offensive team records including 264 sacrifices ranking him 26th all-time. Sportswriter Gordon Cobbledick once wrote that Turner was “a little rabbit of a man with the guts of a commando.” ‘Cotton Head’ was also the pioneer of the head first slide because of ankle injuries earlier in his career. Bill Marshall played only two seasons, one with the Boston Red Sox and the other with the Cincinnati Reds.
    Two other players that played on the Shelby Tube team but did not live in Ellwood City also made it to the Major Leagues. First baseman Jack Lewis played pro ball in Brooklyn and Howard Shanks of Monaca played on a couple of Ellwood teams before making it big with the Washington Senators.
    By the time Ellwood City celebrated Community Day in 1921, the town had a new field in Ewing Park complete with a fence and grandstands. The town celebrated the remodeling of the new field by hosting the Homestead Grays with the largest crowd in the history of Ellwood. Largest crowd that is until Ellwood City hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1930.
    Baseball attracted crowds in Ellwood City, but one kid in particular seemed to always attract a crowd long before Ellwood City had a Youth league. “… People frequently walked far out of their way just to pass Shelby Field to watch Lew (“Hack” Wilson) bat out long home runs and slide on his belly around the outfield. Careful coaching from (Connie) Wardman combined with Lew’s natural talent produced a ten-year-old who played as well as boys many years older. Most of the adults who came to watch this talented youngster also noted that he did little to conceal his pleasure at playing before an audience.” excerpt from “Hack” written by Bob Boone and available at the Ellwood City Library.
    When Ellwood City started the Little League and Knee Hi programs, the games were played at the field by Lincoln High School until moving to a field on the football practice field in Ewing Park. While the games were played there, the teams practiced on the old Shelby Field that was now used primarily for Men’s softball leagues. Dave Weingartner shared with us his memories of the ball field at the current Veterans Municipal Swimming Pool parking lot. He recalled in 1954 his team, the Eagles, using this field as practice and was able to explain to us how the field was laid out. Home plate was just across the street from the entrance to the pool and right field was in the direction of the tennis courts. We have talked to many people from the area that used to play baseball…

     “Most of the boys wore the ball caps from their little league team all the time and became identified by the team we played for. When I received my first little league uniform at our coach’s home in Ewing Park, I can still remember how happy and proud of that uniform I was. The coach’s name was Carl Meise, the uniform was yellow and grey and the number was 4.” -  “The parking lot of Nick’s Snack Bar and later Dairy Queen next door would be full of kids on their bicycles and each one had his teams hat on to let everyone else know who they were.” – “All the clubs in Ellwood had a team like the Eagles, Elks, Moose… and you wore their jersey and hat like a badge of honor.”  – “Kids today can’t even imagine the number of bicycles that used to line the field. Parents didn’t drive you there, you rode your bike and after the game you rode over to Nick’s to get your free hot dog if you hit a homerun.”

    In 1965, the Little League Field was built at the opposite end of the high school field along Woodside Avenue in Ewing Park. All the games in the complex were all played during the day as the both fields did not have lights. Then in 1970, the Pittsburgh Pirates played their last game at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and Ellwood City league commissioner Denny Schill stepped in. Through Mr. Schill’s negotiations, the Ellwood City Borough managed to buy the old lights from Forbes Field so the kids in Ellwood City could have night games.
    Thanks to the many, many volunteers that have coached and shaped the youth of the area through the years, many great players have played in Ellwood City. Some went on to fame, some are remembered for that one great play they made, and others are simply remembered by those they played with. Not many reached the level of success as Major League Hall of Famer Hack Wilson, but he is by far not the only Ellwood native to achieve success at the next levels. Butch Babcock pitched for the Texas Rangers for three seasons and Don Schaly of Ellwood City was the head coach at Marietta College for forty years. When he retired in 2003, Schaly was the winningest coach in NCAA Division III history with a 1442 career wins and only 329 loses. His winning percentage of .814 is still the highest percentage in any NCAA Division ever.

    If you have a memory you would like to share about baseball in Ellwood City, please leave a comment below or email us by CLICKING HERE. We know we just touched on the history of baseball in Ellwood City and there is much, much more. If you would like more information, a great site you may want to visit is Ellwood City Amateur Baseball Federation.

Ellwood City Memories would like to thank Dave Weingartner & Charles Hall for providing information for this post.

Ellwood City Memories is not a complete history as much as it is meant to be a collection of memories of Ellwood City. If you would like to read more about the HISTORY of Ellwood City, we recommend the following books…

A History of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania / compiled by A. E. Whittaker, edited by the Ellwood City Historical Association. Imprint Butler, PA. : Printed by Record-Ziegler Printing Co., 1932-1942.

Ellwood City Houses and the People Who Lived in Them / Charles R. Moser ; produced by Steve Shinsky ; photos by Buquo Studios ; c1994.

Ellwood City’s Diamond Jubilee Souvenir Booklet and Program : Ellwood City — 75 years of progress.
Imprint Ellwood City, PA : Ellwood City Ledger, 1967.

100 Years of Memories: Centennial 1892-1992 Ellwood City’s Pennsylvania
Imprint Ellwood City, PA : Ellwood City Ledger, 1967.

Steeltown / Charles R. Walker / Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York / 1950.  A book-length study of Ellwood City and its National Tube Co. mill by social science researchers from Yale University in 1946-1948, a time when the mill was threatened with closing.

Infantryman Petitt – By William Gavin

Hack – Bob Boone (story of Hack Wilson, click HERE for an exerpt)

Ellwoodian – Lincoln High School yearbooks, Ellwood City

Pathfinder - Riverside High School yearbooks, Ellwood City

History of the 100th Pennsylvania Roundheads – By William Gavin

History of the 10th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Its Forebearers and Successors in the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean Emergency.
Imprint Allentown, PA : Lithographic Service, Inc.

175th Anniversary Book of Wampum PA –