Fire company historian uncovers bear facts
Queen, the fire bear What are the chances that one of our readers would come up with the answer to an inquiry about a certain black bear that was alleged to have been the mascot of the Brownsville North Side fire company nearly a century ago?
Knowing the past feats of our Reader Roundtable in uncovering answers to the most obscure local history questions, I felt when I published the item that there was a remote possibility that someone might be able to help. That is why my August Roundtable column included a request from Tom Pittard of Phoenix, Ariz., for information about this unusual fire company mascot.
“My mother, Ida Breckenridge Pittard, was from Brownsville,” Tom wrote me. “Her father, Francis ‘Clark’ Breckenridge, was a fireman (in Brownsville) for many years.”
Tom sent a photograph of his grandfather feeding a collared black bear that was standing upright on its hind legs. The photograph was taken in front of the door of an unidentified Brownsville building, which Tom suspected was the North Side fire company headquarters on old North Bend (Market Street), a structure that opened around 1910.
“It seems my grandfather or the fire department had a bear as a mascot,” Tom continued. “My mother said this was before she was born in 1921, and that the bear stayed at the firehouse and sometimes rode on the fire truck. It was also mentioned that the bear enjoyed an occasional beer. I am hoping your Roundtable has knowledge of or could investigate further the details of the Brownsville Fire Department’s bear mascot.”
Perhaps I should not be surprised that a reader has come up with the information Tom Pittard is seeking. The data comes to us from the historian of the Brownsville Fire Company No. 1 (North Side), Thomas L. Wardman. On the same day the article requesting the “bear facts” appeared in the newspaper, Tom stopped by my house. Under his arm was a three-ring binder containing the fire company’s historical records. He and I sat on my couch with the open binder between us, and he proceeded to fill me in on the details about this mysterious bear.
“Look at this,” he said, pointing to an entry in the fire company history. He was indicating a handwritten notation that read “1914 thru 1915.” To its right was a comment that confirmed the bear’s existence and revealed its name.
“‘Queen’ bear mascot,” the notation read. “Donated by Mr. Morehead from Uniontown. Bear taken to parades, liked to wrestle, box, and drink beer.”
Though tame enough to be hand-fed by Tom Pittard’s grandfather, as he is shown doing in the photograph, a hefty chain, also clearly visible in the picture, is attached to the bear’s collar.
“Did the bear live at the fire house?” I asked.
“It was kept in the basement of the old fire house on North Bend,” Wardman confirmed, “from 1914 to 1915. And yes, Queen did like to drink beer and ride the fire truck.”
Our thanks to fire company historian Thomas Wardman for promptly producing an answer to a question I had feared was too obscure for even our talented Reader Roundtable to answer. I shall not underestimate the Roundtable again.
High Street building
In that same August Roundtable column, we asked readers for more information about the recently demolished building that formerly stood at the corner of Catherine Avenue and High Street on Brownsville’s South Side. Several readers who lived in that neighborhood years ago have enlightened us about the building’s past occupants.
Jean Huston Bright, who lived on the South Side for many years, e-mailed to inform me that a Fashion Cleaners business once operated in that building. Mrs. Edna Hatfield of Seaford, Del., who formerly lived on Catherine Avenue with her late husband Ralph and their two children, Chris and Anne, also recalls that building. It was just a few doors from her home.
“I remember Sophie,” Edna informed me, “an immigrant lady, being in that building when I first came to Brownsville in 1946. I also recall that Nathan (Nate) Solomon had a grocery store in that spot, and after my son Chris jogged my memory, I remembered that a storefront church was once in there too.”
Richard Wells, raised at 320 Gray’s Lane, about a block away from the site, corroborated Edna’s recollection. Richard explained, “The building in question was occupied by Sophie and her son, who ran a soda/candy store there in the 1940s. When my brother Bob was small and would receive a nickel, if asked what happened to it he would reply, ‘Sophie’s got it!’ That meant he had spent it on candy.
“During my high school years in the 1940s, students used to hang out there. Sophie and her son were Jewish, and I believe they had escaped from Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Both were quiet people with soft voices who couldn’t speak much English, but they tried.”
I searched the archives of my past columns and discovered Sophie’s surname, provided to me several years ago by South Side native Hannah Millward Fisher.
“The lady who operated the store,” Hannah informed me at that time, “was named Sophie Loewy.”
Sophie’s son’s name, according to Mal Crawford of Raleigh, N.C., was Hans. “He was the stereotypical big, heavy, German butcher,” Mal recalled. “Sophie’s English was broken and she was pretty hard to understand.”
Unfortunately, according to an obituary provided by Hannah Fisher, Sophie was killed in 1967 when she was struck by a car while walking on High Street near the Dari-Delight. She was 83 years old and living at 430 High St. at the time.
Now the location where Sophie Loewy, Hans Loewy and numerous others earned a living many decades ago has been reduced to a vacant lot.
People search
– Occasionally folks ask me if I can help them locate people with whom they have lost contact. While I shy away from including searches for genealogical information in this column because the volume of such requests is simply overwhelming, here are two non-genealogical information requests with which some reader may be able lend a hand.
Hiller native George Gerba, who lives in Spring Grove, Pa., writes, “I enjoy the column every week. I live in York County and have no contact with folks from Brownsville in my area. Would you have an address for John Canter, a great athlete and body builder who lived in Hiller in the 1950’s? I believe he moved to either Arizona or Texas.”
– Pitt Gas native Ken Tremba, now of Lakeland, Fla., writes, “In 1945, Redstone High School had a football player by the name of Joe Pavilkowski who used to live in the Pitt Gas area. Would you happen to know his address? If not, I’m hoping one of your readers would.”
If any reader can help either of these gentlemen, please contact me at the address or telephone number listed at the end of this column.
Telegraph articles
“Where can I find an article that was published years ago in the old Brownsville Telegraph newspaper?”
I have been asked that question many times by individuals seeking obituaries, photographs, news items, or sports articles that have a special significance to them. Let me take a moment to provide some guidance to those wishing to do local history or family history research by looking through issues of old newspapers.
Past issues of the Brownsville Telegraph are available to the public on microfilm in at least two locations in the immediate Brownsville area. According to Ed Goyda, librarian at the Brownsville Free Public Library, the library now has available to patrons all issues of the Brownsville Telegraph (on microfilm) from June 20, 1927 through December 1965. In addition, the entire archives of the Telegraph from 1927 until it stopped publication in 1988 are available (on microfilm) at the California University of Pennsylvania Louis L. Manderino library (on the second floor). Unfortunately, issues of the Telegraph from 1914 (when it began publication) through the summer of 1927 were destroyed in a 1927 fire at the Telegraph, and to my knowledge they are not available anywhere.
Both libraries have easy-to-use microfilm readers that are capable of printing a copy of any image that appears on the screen. If you find the information for which you are searching, you can print a copy for a per-page fee. For more information about library hours, you may call the Brownsville Free Public Library at 724-785-7272 or the Louis L. Manderino library at 724-938-4091.
For those interested in researching other local newspapers, the Manderino library has a large collection on microfilm. Among them are the Brownsville Clipper (1889-1907), Uniontown Genius of Liberty (1805-1859, 1869-1900), Uniontown Morning Herald (1907-1917, 1920-1923, 1924-1980), California Sentinel (1904-1945), California Times (1963-2000), Connellsville Courier (under several names)(1879-1888, 1888-1906, 1906-1959, 1974-1986), and the Tower Times (California, Pa.)(1933-1943, 1949-1956, 1959-1963). There are many other newspapers available in addition to those I have listed here. Take a pocketful of dimes to the Manderino library to make copies of any articles, obituaries, or other items of interest that may turn up as you browse through the old newspapers on microfilm.
Last word on the Neck
So many readers responded by phone, e-mail and regular mail to our summer series about the future of Brownsville’s downtown business district (the “Neck”) that we were unable to include many readers’ comments in the articles for lack of space. To allow some of those folks to voice their opinions in a succinct manner, next week’s column will be a sampling of the sentiments those readers expressed about the Neck and its future. I will include as many comments as possible in the space available.
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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/