Jailbird took on different meaning in county
Did You Know? Did you know
that the Fayette County jail nearly redefined the term “jailbird?”
The readers of the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune opened their Sunday morning newspapers to discover that in Fayette County chickens confiscated in a cockfighting raid were scheduled for death-by-skillet, and (I suppose) dinner plates were their final resting places.
According to the article, 48 people had been arrested and the chickens had been logged in as evidence.
When those 48 people (most of them who listed their names as “Smith”) failed to show up for their hearings, their bonds were forfeited, and their fighting fowl became the “main course” on the menu at the Fayette County jail. Did you know
that in October 1924 there was an unusual problem in Fayette County that required increased vigilance by “Highway Motor Patrol” officers?
People began intentionally driving their cars into crowds of people.
The Oct. 5, 1924, edition of Pittsburgh Press carried a front-page story about how dangerous it had become to walk along the highways and rural roads of Fayette County.
So much so, the story said, that it was far more dangerous to walk in some areas than to ride in automobiles.
“Several accidents have been due to drivers running directly into crowds of persons along streets and then ‘stepping on the gas,'” it said.
The director of the highways department insisted there would be prison terms and “wholesale arrests” for reckless drivers. Did you know
that 450 Fayette County protesters burned a man in effigy in 1957?
The Sept. 21 edition of the Pittsburgh Press contained a front-page story about a group of residents near Connellsville who believed that if a $250 million water project would allow for the Westmoreland County Water Authority to condemn properties in several counties, it would mean “the end of local government in Pennsylvania.”
The subject of the anger was water magnate John H. Ware, whose plan was to construct a half-mile-long dam across Indian Creek that would back up into “one of the world’s largest reservoirs.”
Despite the protests, and the man burned in effigy, the Indian Creek supply filtration plant was constructed near Connellsville in 1973.
Jail terms for tax evasion are somewhat common today. But did you know
that local tax collectors could put you in jail for non-payment of taxes in the 1890s?
According to the May 24, 1893, edition of the Galveston (Texas) Daily News, a Uniontown tax collector jailed six men because they hadn’t paid their taxes. He promised to hold them in jail until the taxes “against” them were paid.
The same Galveston newspaper chronicled a rather unusual news event that took place in Uniontown 12 years later.
“For the sake of illustrating a point to a coroner’s jury here (Uniontown), 2,000 kegs of (blasting) powder, representing a value of about $10,000, were exploded by a powder company,” the Nov. 9, 1905, article said.
The coroner’s jury was called to hear testimony about the cause of an explosion that led to the death of 19 people in Fairchance the previous month.
The defendant, Rand Powder Works, contended that it had not caused that explosion. Its representatives argued that the deadly explosion was caused by either fulminate of mercury or nitro glycerin, but not the kind of powder it manufactured.
And besides, they argued, exploding powder would not have caused the ground to become cratered.
They were permitted to set off their explosion in Fairchance as proof Rand Powder Works played no role in the 19 deaths.
The demonstration could be heard as far away as Connellsville, but it didn’t cause a hole in the ground.
The Washington Post reported that the coroner’s jury ruled the September explosion resulted from an unknown cause.
Rand Powder Works claimed it had been set by incendiaries and offered a cash reward for the arrests and convictions of the perpetrators.
Ironically, just four days later, one man died and eight men were hospitalized with seriously injuries because of an explosion in Searights.
According to the Nov. 14, 1905, edition of the Connellsville Courier, the explosion was caused by exploding gas on a slope over a coal mine.
The article explained that the explosion was in the same place where there had been another explosion that led to the deaths of five men.
Edward Owens can be reached by e-mail at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.