Making history since 2008
Finding information about Monongahela area history can be challenging so it is exciting to find a new website and read stories about local history. So here is a website that I enjoy and that I should have brought to your attention earlier: FortPittCoal.com, The Forgotten Coal Mines of Monongahela, PA. What I appreciate about the... Continue Reading →
WQED recently filmed a documentary about Monongahela's 1952 Little League World Series finalist team and the 1954 Pony League World Series winning team. The premier broadcast is tonight at 8:00pm on WQED. I believe it will be rebroadcast on Monday and it will be available online at some point. Here is some background information that... Continue Reading →
My last post was about the railroad tracks being built across East Main Street back in 1899. While doing research for that post I kept coming across all kinds of interesting stories related to the area between First Street and the tracks at Pigeon Creek. In this post I'll discuss why this area was such... Continue Reading →
Many of us remember the feeling - you are traveling south on Main Street in Monongahela trying to get to Charleroi for an appointment. You are a few minutes late but if all the green lights through town are in sync you might just arrive on time. You approach 4th Street and YESSS, you just... Continue Reading →
I'm still working on the Conestoga series that I promised in the last post so look forward to more on that soon. I appreciate comments that readers make on my posts so it was great to hear from Bill Perry a few weeks ago regarding an old post about the Harris Workingman's store from 11... Continue Reading →
Several folks asked how can view the story WPXI produced about the Ravioli sale sponsored by the Monongahela Main Street Program and Bethel AME church. Proceeds will pay for a historical marker to honor African American soldiers from Monongahela who fought for the United States in the civil war. What makes story unique is that... Continue Reading →
Chess Park greeting cards are now available! Each card is 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" with a winter scene of Chess Park in Monongahela Pennsylvania on the front. The reverse includes a short history of Chess Park and the two churches in the background. The interior of the card is blank so it can serve... Continue Reading →
In an earlier post I was baffled as to what this thing was: Here is a closeup: Thanks to Beverly Lytle for identifying it as the cupola of the original St. Anthony church building. The photograph was taken along Park Avenue. What helped us reach that conclusion is the road going up river hill and the... Continue Reading →
A follower posted this picture on the Lost Monongahela Facebook page however she didn't know the names of anybody in the picture. I found the following article published in the October 5, 1912 edition of the Monongahela Republican that gives the last names of eleven of them: The twelve names listed in the article are... Continue Reading →
HEADS UP! - Come out to the February meeting of the Monongahela Area Historical Society on Thursday. Scott Frederick, retired teacher from the Ringgold School District will be speaking. His topic will be Monongahela area inventors with particular emphasis on Professor Schick's flying machine and the Nerf football of Fred Cox. When: February 26, 2015... Continue Reading →
Yesterday's post, Transfiguration Church Through The Years, with 282 views in 24 hours was a pretty popular one. Nothing in that post would have been possible without coming across a physical copy of the Diamond Jubilee publication. It got me thinking, how would I have been able to write such a detailed post about the... Continue Reading →
Anybody living in the Monongahela area is familiar with the beautiful Transfiguration church (now named St. Damien of Molokai) located on West Main Street. I knew that an earlier church building once stood on this site but I never had seen any pictures of it so I was thrilled to discover this photo of the... Continue Reading →
Several photographic mysteries will be solved 7:00 PM Thursday in the parlor of the First Presbyterian Church, Monongahela, Pa. Here are few examples: (click image to enlarge) Mystery #1 The photo above was taken very early in the 1900's (my guess would be sometime between 1900 and 1912) when women almost always wore their hair... Continue Reading →
We found this picture down at the Monongahela Historical Society Museum. It's a photo taken November 1954 of Bill Polaski (with the pole) turning on the power for one of the Christmas decorations on Main Street in Monongahela. We would like your help identifying the other people in the photograph. I heard that one of... Continue Reading →
The following article is from the April 24, 1913 edition of The Daily Republican. The lead story was about the huge explosion at the Cincinnati Mine in Courtney PA, just 2 miles from Monongahela. I didn't have time to transcribe this article but the image should be pretty easy to read:
One hundred years ago today a terrible explosion occurred at the Cincinnati Mine in Courtney about one mile down river from Monongahela PA. Ninety-seven men died and many were injured. Below is an account of the accident which appeared in the April 23, 2013, edition of Monongahela's newspaper, the Daily Republican. EXPLOSION AT THE CINCINNATI... Continue Reading →
There is a little historical plaque on rt 88 commemorating the Cincinnati Mine disaster of 1913: It marks what was known as the Mule entrance to the mine, not far from Finleyville on rt 88: This used to be an attractive spot along route 88. As I remember there were four mature weeping willow trees... Continue Reading →
"PITTSBURGH, Pa., April 23.---There are 120 known dead and 100 are believed to be entombed* tonight in the Cincinnati mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Company at Courtney, three miles from Monongahela, where an explosion of gas occurred shortly after 1 o'clock this afternoon. Faint tappings against pipes and debris in the mine are plainly heard... Continue Reading →
I was doing a little research about the Cincinnatti Mine (Courtney PA) disaster that killed 97 miners 100 years ago and came across hand tinted picture of a coal miner on his way home from work.
From the Historical Magazine of Monongahela's Old Home Coming Week: Sept. 6-13, 1908 Ginger Hill, a small village on the Washington and Williamsport pike in Southwestern Nottingham, on the Carrol Line, has enjoyed a local habitation and name ever since the Whiskey Insurrection. On the night of Nov. 14th, 1794, Robert Johnson, excise collector for... Continue Reading →
Lost Monongahela 