Feb 9, 2003 8 min read

Last month, I passed along 13 questions sent in by readers seeking the help of the Reader Roundtable, and soon after they were published, I began receiving information via e-mail, telephone and letter from readers eager to help these folks. Let us begin with the first of two questions that were asked by Jeanette Silbaugh, who operates the Museum of the Early American Farm in Chalk Hill. Jeanette was curious about the origins of two Brownsville-related items in the museum’s collection. The first is a saddle that she estimates dates back to the 1870s and is stamped “Bruce Madera of Brownsville.”

Information on this matter came from several sources. Jean Gregg Gelder, a 101-year-old native of Brownsville, who now resides at the Masonic Home at Elizabethtown, sent me a handwritten letter.

“I started school in 1908,” Jean wrote, “to the new school at the foot of Front Street. After school, I would walk down to Market Street by going down steps that were right next to the stone wall of the castle grounds, between the castle and the Ross Funeral Home. I would walk down Market Street to the Brownsville Supply Store that was managed by my father, Charles Gregg.

“In my travels from school, on the left-hand side of Market Street there was a shop run by Bruce Madera. Every day he would put out a wooden horse dressed with a bridle, rein and saddle. They lived at the top of Front Street across the pike in a two-story house.”

Jean’s nearly century-old childhood recollection is supported by Brownsville native Russ Moorhouse, now of Stevensville, Md. Russ examined an 1883 panoramic drawing of Brownsville and found “B. Madera, Harness and Saddlery, Market Street” listed in the drawing’s key.

By 1923, with demand for saddles diminished, Madera (or a descendant by the same name) was apparently operating his leather business out of the old Pike (Broadway) building that Jean Gelder mentioned as the Madera family residence. How do we know that? Russ Moorhouse owns a program from a 1923 Brownsville firemen’s minstrel show, and in that program is an advertisement for “Bruce Madera, Manufacturer and Dealer in Saddles, Harness, Blankets, Whips, etc., Broadway, Brownsville, Pa.”

The final piece of the Madera puzzle was supplied by local historian Harold Richardson of Brownsville.

“The brick building on Broadway where Madera was located is the one that was later owned by Sam Roman,” Harold told me. “I recall that when Madera went out of business, there was a sheriff’s sale – possibly in the 1950s – and that is when Sam Roman purchased the building.”

It looks safe to assume that Jeanette Silbaugh’s Madera saddle was sold at Bruce Madera’s shop on Market Street, which was doing business at that location at least as early as 1883.

Jeanette also asked about a second Brownsville-related item.

“I have a very heavy thresher that may also date back to the 1870s,” she said, “and it was made by Crawford and Son in Brownsville. Has anyone heard of that Brownsville business?”

Melinda Bowman of Brier Hill e-mailed, “I have an 1883 map of Brownsville, Bridgeport and West Brownsville that lists an ‘H. M. Crawford & Son, Groceries, Grain, Flour and Feed’ on Neck Street [later Market Street in the downtown area], although there is no indication on the map of exactly where Crawford & Son was located.”

Chuck Fuller of White Oak, who has family ties to the Crawford family, wrote, “The Crawford family was involved with at least two agricultural implement manufacturing businesses in Brownsville in the mid-1800s. The Brownsville Agricultural Works was located in Luzerne village near Bridgeport and run by James Carver, Samuel A. Wood & James R. Crawford.”

Chuck discovered an advertisement in Thurston’s “1859 Directory of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Valleys” that stated that the firm manufactured several types of threshers. He also found references to another business, the Bridgeport Agricultural Implement Manufactory on Cherry Alley between Water and Second Streets (Bridgeport), which was being operated in 1859 by several members of the Crawford family.

“Neither of these bore the name ‘Crawford and Son’ in 1859,” Chuck pointed out, “but one or both are undoubtedly related to the thresher that Ms. Silbaugh has in her collection. Being a descendant of the Crawfords, I would like to see that thresher.”

The next question we passed along in our January Reader Roundtable column was from Doris Coldren, who sought to learn more about the Hoover Distillery, which she thought may have been located in the Brownsville area. I had never heard of it, but it was not long before I heard from someone who had.

“It was called ‘Hoover and Moore Distillers,'” explained Harold Richardson. “I have two photographs of the distillery buildings, which were all wooden. James H. Hoover was one of the principals involved in the business, and it was located along Route 166 between Brownsville and Republic.”

Discussion in that January column about various area WPA projects prompted additional reader comment about the WPA.

Harold Laughery of West Brownsville called to point out, “WPA built Brownsville High School’s football stadium in Hiller, and that field had the best drainage system in the world under its surface. It could rain cats and dogs and the field would still be playable for a football game.”

Charles Hosler of Willoughby, Ohio, would be pleased to hear Harold’s kind words about the stadium’s drainage system, because Charles’s father was one of the men who installed it 63 years ago.

“My father, Martin Hosler, worked for the Monongahela Railroad,” Chuck told me, “and when he was laid off from the railroad in the 1930s, he worked with the WPA on construction of Brownsville High School stadium. I remember him talking about digging catch basins and drains for the stadium, and also making the track and planting the grass.

“He mentioned how hard the wind blew on top of that hill, and how he liked working in the ditch where it was warmer. No one wanted to be on top of the ground. No backhoes were used on that project, it was all pick and shovel work, and I believe they were paid $5 a week.”

Harold Laughery also credited the WPA with construction work on the infamous Narrows, an infamous riverside road leading southward from Brownsville.

“I drove truck on that job,” Harold told me, “when the WPA worked on the Narrows from 18th Street in South Brownsville toward LaBelle. It was all cut stone, laid on end, and then in later years it was paved.”

Have you ever wondered where the stone originated that was used to build some of the massive WPA-built roadside walls and projects in the area? A reader from Grindstone has identified one source. She called to say, “My parents bought a big farm in 1935 near Royal, where the A & J Nursery is now. The stone for many of those WPA projects came from that farm. They started removing stone from the farm in 1936, and I remember that the WPA workers built a log shelter at the quarry where they could go to get warm.

“Much of that stone was used on WPA projects in this area. There is a wall in Republic by Ike’s garage, for example, that was built with stone from our farm, and the stone for the wall on Pittsburgh Road leading up to Blainesburg came from there too. That stone quarry helped pay off the farm.”

As a matter of interest, she mailed me a packet containing receipts dated 1937 to 1941, certifying numerous payments to her parents by the Pennsylvania Department of Highways.

Finally, in our January article Don Laughery of Catonsville, Md., expressed the hope that someone could provide him with a photograph of the Alicia coke ovens, as Don had lost the pictures he had taken many years ago.

Mario Antonucci of Hiller called to say that a large framed photograph of the Alicia ovens was displayed for many years in the Skirpan Funeral Home in Brownsville. “I took it on a day when the wind was blowing toward the river,” Mario told me, “so it was a good view of the ovens, including the workers.”

Thom Stapleton of Casa Grande, Ariz., also responded to Don’s request. Thom sent me a picture postcard of the Alicia coke ovens via e-mail, and I forwarded the photograph to Don Laughery in Maryland. Don wrote back, “Thanks to you, Glenn, and thanks to Thom Stapleton. This is a really good picture, giving a good feel for what the place looked like. My lost pictures were taken at night, so there was no detail other than the many fires, a very strange sight.”

Our thanks to the readers who responded to these reader inquiries.

Next week, we will bring you more Roundtable replies to reader questions about Louie’s restaurant in West Brownsville, the Novak log cabin in Luzerne Township, Christian Endeavor in Brownsville, the Quaker cemetery on Cadwallader Street, a different interpretation of the name “Wolf’s Harbor,” and we will pass along some newly arrived reader requests for local history information.

Glenn Tunney may be contacted at 724-785-3201, glenatun@hhs.net or 6068 National Pike East, Grindstone, Pa., 15442. Comments about these weekly articles may be sent to Mark O’Keefe (Managing Editor-Day), 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/