Red dog
Over the years readers of this column have earned an informal nickname. I call my collective readership the “Reader Roundtable.” In recent weeks I have received several e-mails and letters posing local history-related questions. Since the Roundtable has frequently amazed me by coming up with answers to some tough questions, let’s see how our local history experts handle this latest volley of brainteasers.An e-mail from Judy Florian of Girard, Ohio, asks about a traditional road-surfacing material that many of us do not think twice about – “red dog.” Judy writes, “When I grew up, I was fascinated by the variety of those red-colored rocks used in our Washington, Pa., neighborhood.
“I used to hate the bumpy rides going over that stuff, and I did not know until recently just how red dog was ‘made.’ I learned that it is slate that has burned, but exactly how did that process work?
“When did it start being used as a road surface, and is it still used today? Did any of your readers work for places that sold red dog to the road department?”
And to Judy’s list of questions about red dog, I will add one of my own. Why was it called “red dog?”
Brownsville yearbook’s name
Loyal reader and history researcher Hannah Millward Fisher of Corona, Ariz., has been sorting through scrapbooks and other Brownsville-related memorabilia and documents that were handed down to her by her mother. Included in the collection are several Brownsville yearbooks from the late 1930s.
Hannah has posed a question to me that I cannot answer, but perhaps one of our readers can.
Hannah writes, “I know that after South Brownsville and Brownsville boroughs merged into Brownsville borough in 1934, the yearbook of the newly-consolidated Brownsville High School was called ‘On The Mon.’ Prior to the consolidation the South Brownsville High School yearbook was called ‘The Peptimist.’
“Do you have any idea what the North Side or Brownsville High School yearbook was called before 1934?”
Redstone Academy
A Uniontown reader writes, “I am trying to find out if anyone has ever heard of the Redstone Academy.
“I do not know where it was located, but a female ancestor of mine attended there, probably in the 1890s.”
Readers, I have examined several local history books, but I have come up empty in my search for a reference to Redstone Academy. I am familiar with the “Academy” on Front Street in Brownsville and the “Academy” in Merrittstown, but neither appears to be the place for which our reader is searching. Has any reader ever heard of Redstone Academy?
1954 WPIAL champs?
A few years ago I wrote in a column that the 1940 and 1943 Brownsville High School football teams were the only two Brownie squads to ever win a WPIAL championship. Reader Steve Garban dropped me a line at that time and explained that even though he could not find any documentation, he was under the impression that the 1954 Brownie team, which had a 9-1 record, may also have been declared WPIAL champs under the Saylor rating system.
Steve played on that 1954 Brownsville High School football team, and he recently revived the subject by sending me another note, this one accompanied by a yellowed newspaper clipping.
“Recent rains hit my basement,” Steve wrote, “and got to some scrap book material. One article that surfaced during the cleanup is enclosed regarding the Saylor ratings for 1954.”
The article, which appears to have been written by a wire service, states, “Once-beaten Brownsville High School is rated the top double A team of 1954 by Roger B. Saylor, football statistician, in his newly-released western Pennsylvania schoolboy standings.
“Saylor, a Penn State professor who devised his rating system during the war and has been perfecting it since, rates Clairton ((9-0-1) and Ambridge (8-0-1) all even in second place, with Duquesne (9-1) fourth.
“Coach Warner Fritsch’s Brownies suffered their only defeat at the hands of fourth-place Duquesne, while tenth-place Harbrack tied Ambridge and Clairton was stalemated by Class A Dormont.
“Brownsville, under the Saylor system, profits from the sturdiness of its week-in, week-out competition. The Brownies were victorious over California, Redstone, Charleroi, Monessen, Monongahela, Donora, German Township, Uniontown and Connellsville, while dropping a 19-7 game to Duquesne.”
The only other local team rated in the WPIAL’s Top Ten by Saylor was fifth-rated Uniontown (8-2), which suffered one of its losses at the hands of Brownsville High School. So with at least one noted expert awarding the top spot in the WPIAL to the 1954 Brownsville Brownies, it appears there may be a third WPIAL football title in the record books for Brownsville High School.
Junior Brownie newspaper
Reader Doris Goldstein Robinson of Pittsburgh sent me the Oct. 27, 1937 edition of the “Junior Brownie,” the student newspaper of Brownsville Junior High School. The four-page paper, which carries many advertisements for local businesses, is well written and impressively formatted. The masthead lists Alberta Springer as Editor; Marilyn Meckling, Society Editor; Jean Teasdale and Lillian Tessler, “Exchange;” Leonard Ackerman, Sports; and Gertrude Mack, Suzanne Reed, Frances Meckling, Andrew Negra and Nancy Asa as Reporters. Mr. Knapp and Mr. Jameson are listed as the faculty advisers.
From my perspective as a teacher, I found one article particularly interesting, and I wonder how teachers, parents and students of a middle or junior high school would regard it in 2004. The item reads, “Continuing the policy inaugurated in former years of promoting a closer relationship between the home and school, teachers of Brownsville Junior High School will deliver report cards this week to parents of students in their respective home rooms.
“The first six-weeks’ period of the 1937-38 term closed last week. The teachers will spend the next 10 days making home contacts.
“Principal R. Donald Conn today said the plan of having the faculty members personally meet the students’ parents has met with such success in former years that it was decided to continue this procedure of home visitation in the distribution of the first report card.”
Of course, we must keep in mind that 1937-38 Brownsville Junior High School students lived within a much smaller geographic area than is encompassed by modern consolidated school districts. Nevertheless, it was a sign of a very different school-community relationship that such a plan was even considered feasible, let alone successfully executed, in 1937.
Here is another short item from the same junior high school newspaper, once again contrasting the attitudes of Americans in 1937 and 2004. The item reads, “An impressive flag ceremony is held each morning at 8:30 in front of the Junior High School building. Three boys from 9A1 take charge of the raising of the flag. The boys are Edwin Hatfield, Jack Sobol and Henry Morrow.
“Everybody on the walk and in the street stands at attention when the bugle starts and when the flag is raised.”
I wonder if this scene, carried out daily in peacetime in 1937, is replayed anywhere today when the United States flag is raised, even during our present state of war.
Outstanding response
Reader and amateur genealogist Russ Moorhouse is amazed at the overwhelming response to his offer of a CD containing the complete, searchable text of six local history reference books – over 4,300 pages of information – plus numerous historic “birds eye view” images of local towns, showing what the towns looked like over a century ago. Russ’s mission is to encourage an interest in local history by making these indispensable local history documents available at a nominal cost to anyone who desires to have them. Russ, a Brownsville native, charged only $5 to cover all costs of producing, packaging, and mailing the CD. He did not anticipate how wildly popular his offer would be with our readers.
“How many CDs have you sent out to date?” I asked Russ last week.
“Three-hundred, thirty-seven and counting,” he responded. “Many folks ordered several of them and indicated that they were ordering them to give as gifts for friends or family members who are interested in local history or genealogy.
“I do want to emphasize,” Russ added, “that this CD is for computer-use only. It cannot be used in a CD player or a DVD player. It can only be used in a computer.”
Russ’s offer is still available. It is explained in greater detail in my Sept. 25 column (available on-line at the web address listed below).
If interested, you may order the CD by sending a check for $5 to Russ Moorhouse, 325 Columbia Lane, Stevensville, MD 21666.
Glenn Tunney may be contacted at 724-785-3201 or 6068 National Pike East, Grindstone, PA 15442. Comments about these weekly articles may be sent to editor Mark O’Keefe, 8-18 E. Church St., Uniontown, PA or e-mailed to mo’keefe@heraldstandard.com. All past articles are on the Web at http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~glenntunneycolumn/