Miscellaneous News of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

Allegheny County
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Miscellaneous News Stories

The Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA
November 10, 1819

Fire - On Wednesday morning, about 10 o'clock, the citizens of this place were alarmed with the cry of fire. It proved to be the steam mill of Mr. John Herron. By the prompt and vigorous exertions of the citizens, the fire was happily got under before the lower part of the building and the steam machinery were materially injured. The roof was entirely consumed and part of the upper story partially injured. The sawmill was saved. Mr. Herron's loss is estimated from $500 to $1000. We sincerely sympathise with him in his loss these times of pressure and difficulty. Pittsburg Mercury.
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

The Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA
February 9, 1820

Dreadful accident - On Tuesday night, the 23rd ult., a poor man with his wife, who lived in a small temporary hut in Allegheny township, went out to visit a neighbor a few rods distant. On their return home about 9 o'clock at night, this wretched father discovered his humble dwelling in which he had left his four children, in flames; he immediately ran to the house but arrived too late; three of his children were burnt to death, and the fourth so much injured as to die the next day. Pittsburg Gaz.
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
February 12 1823 Page 3

From the Pittsburgh Mercury

Singular and Distressing Accident

An occurrence of a singular and painful nature, took place on New Year's day last, at the house of Mr. James Robinson, of Olino township, in this county. A number of persons were amusing themselves in shooting at a mark, when, in loading one of the pieces, they were unable to force the ball more than half way down the barrel. They then unscrewed the breach and took out the powder, for the purpose of driving the ball back through the muzzle. Not succeeding in this, an awl was fixed to the end of the ramrod for the purpose of cutting the ball in pieces, so as to a (l?t) of its easy dislodgment. In making this attempt, the awl stuck fast in the lead, and was left there on withdrawing the ramrod. It was then determined to heat the barrel so as to melt the lead. A strong heat was accordingly applied to that part of the barrel where the ball had lodged, until it became nearly red, when the the astonishment of all present, an explosion took place, and the contents entered the fleshy part of the left thigh of a young man named Clark.

A physician of this city was called upon for his professional services. In examining the wound, the probe followed its direction from the inside of the thigh through the thickest part forwards several inches. An incision was then made through the integuments on the outside of the limb, and the muscles cut into for about two inches, when the awl was discovered and extracted. The singularity of this case is, the explosion taking place without the presence of gun-powder and the total disappearance of the ball. The supposition is, that the temperature of the barrel was so raised, as to cause the greater portion of the lead on the instant of its being fused, to assume such a state as to cause it to discharge itself with noise and to expel the awl with a force sufficient to occasion the accident. Should any person of scientifick research be dissatisfied with his solution, he would confer a favour by correcting it.
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
December 3, 1823 - Page 2

A very destructive fire took place at Pittsburg on Monday night the 17th ult. The large frame building on the east corner of Market and Liberty streets, was entirely destroyed, and much property lost, beside the lives of Miss Konecke, the sister of Mr. Konecke who owned a store in a parted of the premises consumed, his son William, 6 years old, and a little girl named Hetty Latshaw. Mr. David Greer was the owner, and with Mr. Konecke, Messrs. Crosthwaite & Borbridege, merchants, and Isaiah Green, barber, occupied the building.

The Pittsburg Gazette, from which the foregoing particulars are collected, also informs us of the destruction of the stone steam mill, at Cincinnati, 9 stories high, on the 3d, inst. This property belonged to Oliver Ormsby, of Pittsburg, and the loss is estimated at $100,000. - Har. Chron.
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
December 8,1824

Pittsburgh, Nov. 24
Fire

On Monday evening just about 10 o'clock the Foundry and Workshops of Messrs. Arthurs and Warden were entirely consumed. The buildings being entirely of wood, and very large and spacious, the flames raged with irresistible fury. By the great exertions of the different fire companies and of the citizens, the flames were prevented from extending, their ravages beyond where they originally broke out, although the surrounding buildings, from the heat of the fire and the multiplicity of the sparks, exposed them in imminent danger. This city has scarcely ever witnessed a fire of more threatening aspect.
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

The Adams Sentinel (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)

December 31, 1828
Pittsburgh, Dec 19

Explosion – On Tuesday night last, about nine o’clock, one of the steam boilers of the Union Rolling Mill, (iron works,) at the eastern extremity of this city, on the Monongahela River, burst, with a tremendous explosion, shot off through the air at an angle of about 45 degrees with the horizon, and describing a beautiful arch, fell into the river nearly two hundred years from the works.
The steam being on fire, and issuing from the boiler in a stream of flame, it was beheld with astonishment and admiration by the passengers on board the new steam boat “Uncle Sam,” which had but a few moments before it passed the spot where it descended.

The furnace in which the four boilers were situated, being without the wall of the main building, under a slight shed, and the exploding boiler taking a direction outward from the works, no other injury was sustained than the present loss of the boiler itself, and the displacing of its three companions, which it threw entirely out of their bed and beyond the floor on which it was erected.
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

The Indiana Democrat (Indiana, Pennsylvania)

May 25, 1871

Pittsburgh apothecaries are in a quandary. The license board there has decided that they must be licensed to sell liquors even under the prescription of a physician. In some cases licenses have been refuse, and the apothecaries now want to know whether they will be amenable to law if they fill a prescription which calls for the smallest quantity of liquor.
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

The Indiana Democrat (Indiana, Pennsylvania)

February 29, 1872

The Pittsburgh Leader is authority for a story that out Partons Parton's recent escapade. It appears that in 1864 James Swingle, a wealthy farmer aged 60, married a woman aged 22, and in 1865 disappeared. In 1866 a skeleton supposed to be his was found, causing a suspicion of murder. In the division of the property the homestead fell to the widow, and the youngest stepson, James, stayed on the farm. In 1869 he maried his father's widow and to them three children were born. Last month a letter came from the old man who was sick, penniless and among strangers. He rallied, but would not explain his disappearance. He had gont to Austrailia and made $115,000 but lost it all in California. He refused to tell more until he recovered. He was brought home, but died a few days after his arrival. The son and stepmother were remarried after the funeral. The skeleton was that of a murdered drover.
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

New Oxford Item (New Oxford, Pennsylvania)
November 12, 1897

Pittsburg, Nov. 8 Two football players received probably fatal injuries in games Saturday. Robert Grange, of Bellefield Athletic team, suffered concussion of the brain, and is now lying in a precarious condition. Bert Ritchie was hurt internally, and may die.
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

July 21, 1924

Died. Benjamin G. Lamme, 60, famed electrical engineer; at East Liberty, Pa. Monday, Jul. 21, 1924
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

Union Paper Box Co. Fire Oct. 30, 1915

Twelve girls and one man, trapped on the third and fourth floors of a factory building were burned or suffocated to death in the Union Paper Box Company factory. The fire, one of the worst the city has seen in many years, started on the first floor in the rear of a feed store.

Besides those killed, nine persons, some seriously hurt, were taken to the hospital. Violation of the factory laws, responsibility for permitting which by officials charged with their enforcement is being shifted from one to another, contributed much to the loss of lives. Rotten hose and delay in being able to send an alarm prevented the firemen from getting a stream of water on the blaze for 20 minutes.

When the firemen did arrive and turned on the water, at least 20 sections of hose burst within a few minutes, causing more delay. Meanwhile the girls in the factory were at the windows screaming for help. The fire escape in the rear of the building was useless. Vigorous and concerted efforts to fix the blame for the North Side box factory horror were started by city, county and state officials.

Five different investigations are underway.

Three officials of the Union Paper Box Company and Hugh H. WOODS, executor of the estate which owned the building, were arrested on coroner's warrants issued in connection with investigation into the causes and responsibility for the fire. All are free on heavy bail.
[Submitted by Sara Hemp]

Missing Girl Sought, 14-Year Old Coraopolis Lass Disapperard on Way Home

Eleanor Oles

Police throughout Pennsylvania are attempting to solve the strange disappearance of Eleanor Oles, 14-year-old daughter of a wealthy oil producer of Coraoplis, Pa., on her way home from this city on a Pittsburgh express January 4.

According to information given Detective Joseph Shay, at City Hall, by the girl's aunt, Mrs. Alice Greaves, of 475 Hermitage street, Roxborough, she was put on the 7:40 P. M. train at Broad Street Station by former Councilman Dorwart. When Mary failed to hear from her chum a week later she wrote to learn if she arrived safely.

That was the first information Edward Oles had that his daughter had disappeared.
[Philadelphia Inquirer, January 26, 1921 - Transcribed by C. Anthony]

Time Magazine
Monday, March 8, 1926

Heinz

On the 57th day of the current year (Feb. 26) the H. J. Heinz Co. of Pittsburgh, famed makers of 57 varieties of pickles, celebrated the 57th anniversary of the founding of the business. Years ago, when national advertising was toddling and
stumbling over itself and when Henry John Heinz (founder) was still alive, the company had decided on a quiet, pervasive, yet persuasive, type of propaganda. Heinz' 57 Varieties became its slogan and was so skillfully broadcast that the mere numerals 57
on a billboard told a story, sold the goods. This policy of effectiveness without flamboyancy grew from the very character of Henry John Heinz, continues in that of his son Howard, now company president. In 1840 an energetic young German, Henry Heinz, emigrated to the U. S. His ancestors, Bavarian winegrowers, had acquired high esteem from as early as 1709. In Pennsylvania he met and married in 1843 Anna Margaretta Schmitt, also an immigrant. Her father had been a burgomeister, an elder in the church. A year later their baby, Henry John, was born. In 1850 they moved to Sharpsburg, Pa., where the young father established a brick yard. Frugal Anna wanted her own kitchen garden, had one laid out much larger than her own family needs, sold produce to neighbors. Here among the cabbage tops, the bean vines and the other garden truck Henry John used to play. In the house basement he used to watch his mother pickling and canning. The grating of horseradish was an eye-smarting task. But Mrs. Heinz' preparation of this root was so appetizing that it found a ready sale. Henry John was its eager boy salesman.

When he was 15, his father, realizing his nascent business ability, let him come into the brickyard as bookkeeper. The boy reorganized the yard, developed year-round work instead of seasonal.

In 1869, 57 years ago, he went partners with one L. C. Noble, into the firm of Heinz & Noble, to bottle vegetables for the market. This firm grew, changed names, moved to Pittsburgh, expanded. In 1888, at 44 Henry John retired for a season. He had done some traveling, wanted to do more, eventually had seen the continents. From Rome he brought and erected in his Pittsburgh administration building a fountain. Ivory collecting was a pleasant avocation. His gathering contained 1,300 carved pieces, one of the few of its kind in the U. S. In 1919 he died, 25 years after the death of the Irish girl, Sallie Sloan Young, whom he married the year he set up in business for himself, 1869.

Henry John was religious. For more than 20 years he was superintendent of a Methodist Sunday School, although he had been brought up a strict Lutheran. His parents wanted him to become a minister and this religious attitude he kept throughout his life. How sore his heart when word was brought to him that smart-Alex Pittsburgh saloonkeepers had wanged out a ribald ditty at his expense. Nigger-prancers,* bummers, street sheiks, tenderloin riff-raff were chanting all over Pittsburgh, all over the U. S.:

Heinz! HEINZ! WHAT'S the matter with Heinz?

Heinz come wobbling down the street!

What's the matter with Heinz' FEET?

Heinz! Heinz!

What's the matter with HEINZ?

He's been in 57 stews,

And HEINZ IS PICKLED AGAIN!!

Jailbirds kept lockstep time to the scurrilous words. Watery-nosed hoboes would strike a pose, chant the libel, and cadge thereby a drink of beer, mayhap, if the grinning barkeep reckoned up a large group at the rail, a finger of low-proof whisky.

The purpose of this dastardly chanty was, of course, to counteract Henry John Heinz's moral influence in Pittsburgh. Eventually he got the song suppressed.

Howard Heinz, one of his four sons (they have one sister), assumed the presidency of the H. J. Heinz Co. in 1919. Strong, able, upright, like all his family, he graduated from Yale in 1900, at 23, went into the family business. There no nepotism existed. He had to progress by his own ability. In five years he was Advertising Manager; in 1907 Sales Manager; in 1915 Chairman of the Board. He also goes in for non-commercial activities; is a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad, of the Union National Bank, of
the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. During the War he was a member of the National Council of Defense of Pennsylvania; was Food Commissioner for Pennsylvania, Chairman of the Food Supply Committee of the National Council of Defense; Zone Chairman of the U. S. Food Administration for Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, member of the War Industries Board of Philadelphia; and member of the Executive Committee of the American
Relief Administration (European Children's relief). After the War he became Director General of the American Relief Administration for Southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. He is President of Heinz House, Pittsburgh; on the Board of Trustees of the University of Pittsburgh, of Carnegie Institute, of Shady Side Academy '(where he prepared for Yale), West Pennsylvania Hospital, of the West Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind; a trustee for the Commission for Relief in Belgium of the Educational Foundation, Manhattan. He is a Republican and a Presbyterian. His ancestors had been Methodists, and further back Lutherans.

His concern, the H. J. Heinz Co., veritably makes 57 Varieties.** It has grown from a basement factory getting supplies from neighborhood truck gardens to a corporation with 20 factories in 4 countries, with 306 salting houses and receiving stations and 71 sales branches and warehouses in the U, S., England and Canada. It employs more than 1,400 traveling salesmen.

One employe has worked for it for 52 years. The continuous service record of a veteran group totals 6,044 years. Three generations of one family have worked in the plants. All directors rose from the ranks. Of them ten tote up their service years to 349.

*Cloggers who were wont to throw themselves into the
grotesque, exaggerated contortions of tom-tom exalted
African blackamoors.

His father, Henry John, likewise varied his extra-commercial activities; attended Methodist annual conferences; was a world influence in Methodism; helped the. Y. M. C. A. He was a founder of the Western Pennsylvania Exposition Society; a member of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce.

**Oven-Baked Beans with Pork and Tomato Sauce,
Oven-Baked Beans without Tomato Sauce, with Pork
(Boston Style), OvenBaked Beans in Tomato Sause
without Meat (Vegetarian), Oven-Baked Red Kidney
Beans, Cream of Tomato Soup, Cream of Green Pea Soup,
Cream of Celery Soup, Mince Meat, Plum Pudding, Fig
Pudding, Peanut Butter, Cooked Spaghetti, Cherry
Preserves, Red Raspberry Preserves, Peach Preserves,
Damson Plum Preserves, Strawberry Preserves, Pineapple
Preserves, Black Raspberry Preserves, Blackberry
Preserves, Crab Apple Jelly, Currant Jelly, Grape
Jelly, Quince Jelly, Apple Butter, Preserved Sweet
Gherkins, Preserved Sweet Midget Gherkins, Preserved
Sweet Mixd Pickles, Sour Spiced Gherkins, Sour Midget
Gherkins, Sour Mixed Pickles, Chow Chow Pickle, Sweet
Mustard Pickle, Dill Pickles, Sour Pickled Onions,
Preserved Sweet Onions, Sandwich Relish, Spanish Queen
Olives, Spanish Manzanilla Olives, Stuffed Spanish
Olives, Ripe Olives, Pure Spanish Olive Oil, Tomato
Ketchup, Chili Sauce, Beeksteak Sauce, Red Pepper
Sauce, Green Pepper Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce,
Prepared Mustard, Prepared Mustard Sauce, India
Relish, Evaporated Horseradish, Mayonnaise Salad
Dressing, Pure Malt Vinegar, Pure Cider Vinegar,
Distilled White Vinegar, Tarragon Vinegar.

[Submitted by Dena Whitesell]