Did you know?
During this month one hundred years ago, there were some rather strange, if humorous goings-on in Fayette County.
On Dec. 16, 1913, it was reported on the front page of the Uniontown Morning Herald that the “partially decomposed” body of a man or woman had been found in the back of a wagon on Searight Avenue in Uniontown.
Two young workers from the Keystone Bottling Co. had “dashed into the police station about 9 o’clock last night with the weird tale that they had discovered the body of a man in a wagon,” the report said.
Unfortunately, though, nobody asked exactly where the wagon was located.
So, the Jail Warden, Newcomer, Constable J.R. Wood, Chief of Police Frank McCarty, (police) Lt. Joseph Brown and a newspaper man, searched aimlessly for the wagon with the body in the back.
A telephone call had to be made to the Keystone Bottling Co., and the two young lads were pressed into service to go back to the scene. This time they were accompanied by Fayette County Detective John J. Smith and Constable Wood.
According to the article, “There in a coffin, which was without a lid, lay the skull, ribs and backbone of a human being, which had apparently laid in the sun until the bones had become bleached.”
But the “body” hadn’t suffered from any foul play.
It was really a “discarded plaster of Paris skeleton that had been used by some lodge in initiating members.”
That story may not have merited front page coverage, if it hadn’t been for a couple of macabre stories that had appeared on the front page of the Morning Herald three days earlier – on Dec. 13, 1913.
“Undertaker summoned but man revives,” read the front-page headline that day.
It seems that a 60 year-old Bullskin Township farmer had set out on foot to find work on Thanksgiving Day. He’d apparently been facing the wrath of his wife, who’d been quarreling with him for being out of work for some time.
But he’d not found any work.
Instead his lifeless body “was found concealed under the hay in a barn at Iron Bridge,” about three miles from Scottdale.
An undertaker was called to prepare the man’s body for burial. But as soon as the undertaker arrived, the man revived.
He was still in bad shape, though, so the undertaker decided to take him to Scottdale in his burial wagon.
Doctors were called, and because of the man’s near death experience in frigid temperatures, “Two of his toes dropped off when he was removed from the burial wagon.”
And worse, both of the man’s feet had to be amputated.
Next to that article, there was another one that may have caused a few chills throughout the region.
According to the report, an 87-year-old resident of Masontown was on her death bed, when she requested that her favorite hymn, “In the Land of Pure Delight,” be sung at her funeral.
“Mrs. Sterling is called by death as he hums hymn,” read the headline for the story.
On this date in 1908, the Uniontown Daily News Standard carried the following headline on its front page: “Physical Marvel of World in Uniontown.”
“The most perfectly developed man in the world in a physical way is the distinction of Prof. Carl Victor, who is spending today and Thursday in Uniontown and is stopping at the McClelland house,” said the lead paragraph.
He’d taken first prize over 600 competitors at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.
He’d apparently been a Mr. Universe, before there was such a thing.
But you’d have to wonder just how “perfectly developed” he might have been. According to the article, Prof. Victor only stood 5 feet, 5 陆 inches tall and he only weighed a mere 154 pounds.
By contrast, the leading body builder, worldwide, this year was Phillip Heath, who became Mr. Olympia 2013.
He’s won that title three years in a row.
Heath stands 5 feet, 9 inches tall, and he weighs 250 pounds.
That’s when he’s engaged in competitions.
When he’s not, he weighs 280 pounds.
He could probably fit Prof. Victor in his pocket.
On this date in 1924, it was announced that prima ballerina Anna Pavlova would be giving a performance at the State Theatre in Uniontown at the end of December.
“Looks Like S.R.O. Crowd When Famous Danseuse Appears,” said the sub-headline atop the article about $3 and $2.50 tickets that were running out for the show.
On Dec. 31, the day following Pavlova’s performance, her show was given rave reviews.
“World’s queen of terpsichore in a brillant program here,” read the headline for a story that was full of superlatives.
“All the graciousness and beauty she ever possessed are still hers, and in full measure – and when one has said that what more is there to be said? She is like no dancer who ever danced,” said the glowing report.
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