Did you know?
On this day one hundred years ago, it was reported that 155 of Uniontown’s 173 eighth graders were about to graduate and move into their first year at the high school.
Each spring, there had always been reports of graduations around the county.
What is of note, is the name of the person who would be presenting the graduates with “neatly engraved certificates” – Miss Ella Peach.
Ella Peach wasn’t just the name of the longtime Central School Building, it belonged to Uniontown’s first female school administrator.
In May of 1913, she was in charge of the same Central building that would later bear her name; she taught Latin classes at Uniontown High School.
Several local news stories caught my interest that were published a year later, in May of 1914.
First, there was an “aged white man,” who found himself facing a 30-day jail sentence.
The front page of the May 8, 1914 edition of the Uniontown Morning Herald carried the rather odd story about a man who’d been caught sleeping across a small headstone in the cemetery on Penn Street.
“Don’t you know the spirits might jump down your throat,” scolded Uniontown Burgess Bob Warman. “It’s a good thing you were sleeping over a child’s grave. I’ll just send you to jail for 30 days for sleeping in the graveyard with your mouth open.”
One has to wonder if the man would have gotten a lighter sentence if he’d been sleeping with his mouth shut.
On that same front page, I found a far more serious matter.
“Negro Arrested In ‘Coke’ Case,” was the headline for a story that (characteristically, for the times) pointed out the man’s race, and identified him as the man who sold cocaine to a woman, who, in turn, got caught trying to pass it to a Fayette County Jail inmate.
Regardless of the races (black and white) of the respective culprits in the case, it was certainly a convoluted one.
It seems that the intended recipient of the contraband, Charles Cupp, had been taken to jail on a charge of (once again, characteristically for the time) adultery.
The woman who was caught, Grace Ridenour, was the sister of the woman who had been arrested with Charles Cupp and who was also charged with adultery.
The man who was alleged to have sold the cocaine, James Green, was arrested. And charges were being made against the two alleged adulterers, and the woman who tried to pass cocaine to them in the county jail.
After Grace Ridenour was placed in county jail, it was reported that, “Hundreds of persons were attracted to the wailing cries of Miss Ridenour yesterday afternoon. Her cries could be heard plainly on Main Street.”
On that same day, there was a happy ending to a story in Connellsville.
“Trick dog disappears but is returned to carnival,” read a headline on the front page of the May 18, 1914 edition of an area newspaper.
“Teddy, the high diving dog, who climbed to the top of a 50-foot ladder each night and plunged through space into a net, was gone,” it was reported.
The carnival known as the “Rutherford Shows” had performed in Connellsville during the previous week, and when it left town, Teddy was missing.
A small reward was offered for the return of the missing pooch. Two men found the dog and returned him. They refused to take the reward money.
Temperatures often fluctuate in May as we’ve seen lately but freezing temperatures this late in spring don’t seem to be all of that unusual.
“Frost causes heavy damage in county,” was the headline for a story on the front page of the May 28, 1915 edition of the Morning Herald.
“A heavy frost, particularly in the mountainous district of the county Wednesday night, did damage to fruit, growing grain and garden truck, which means a considerable loss to county farmers,” it was reported.
In May of 1930, there was another frost that reportedly ruined local crops.
“Tomato plants are practicaly wiped out by frost,” read the headline in the May 31, 1930 edition of an area newspaper.
“Heavy damage was suffered by Heinz tomato growers in the Connellsville area by the frosts of the week,” it said.
It was reported that one tomato grower lost 80,000 plants.
But there was more than just frost.
“Snow was reported Thursday at Poplar Grove,” the report said.