Did you know?
In September 1928, 50,000 people were expected to “invade Uniontown” for the Junior Order of United American Mechanics parade. The Sept. 12, 1928, edition of the Uniontown Daily News Standard reported that there would be as many as 10,000 marchers who would take part in the event, which would wrap-up the 69th annual convention. The following day, the Uniontown Morning Herald reported on its front page that “30,000 Line Sidewalks For Parade of Juniors.”
It’s important to note here that the Junior Order of United American Mechanics had nothing to do with people who worked on automobiles. The organization had been founded in 1845 by a group of men who wanted to head off immigration in general and Catholic immigration specifically. There was also the strong belief that any sectarian influence should be kept out of the public schools. While it had as many as 200,000 members in the early 1900s, its membership has dwindled to fewer than 10,000 members today.
Seventy years ago this week, there was another well-attended parade that wound through the streets of Uniontown.
“Thousands Of Marchers In Colorful Labor Day Parade; Speakers Urge Patience For Code; Decry Mine Strife,” said the headline on the front page of the Morning Herald on Sept. 5, 1933. Despite the hour-long rain delay, “Thunderous cheers and applause greeted Governor Pinchot, Mayor Hatfield and their official party as they proceeded along the line of march as the head of Fayette County’s Labor Day parade which opened festivities here yesterday in one of the most outstanding affairs held here in many years,” it was reported.
“Police estimated there was approximately 10,000 men, women and children in line,” said the report.
There were between 60,000 and 75,000 people who watched the procession that consisted largely of trade unionists.
Here’s a little item I found in the Sept. 11, 1935, edition of the Daily News Standard.
“Car Every Three Seconds Passes Corner Main and Morgantown Sts.,” said the headline.
It seems that an enterprising reporter (“Cornerman Chaney”) had counted every single car that passed him at the intersection of Main and Morgantown streets during the busiest part of the day — between 4:45 p.m. and 5:20 p.m. He found that “607 automobiles passed the signal lights at that point.” In fact, from 4:45 p.m. to 5 p.m., 393 cars passed. “This makes an average of slightly more than 20 cars a minute,” it was calculated.
It was also noted that tourists arrived at the corner and asked many questions of the police officer stationed there during that period. “Few cities the size of Uniontown handles the cosmopolitan traffic that Uniontown does,” the item concluded.
Here’s a rather unusual local tidbit I discovered in a newspaper dated Oct. 23, 1875. The Shenango Valley (Pa.) Argus reported that a Masontown man, Crawford Springer, had “lived 72 years in that place, in the house he was born, and slept in the same corner in which he was born all the time.”
The German edition of the U.S. military publication “Stars and Stripes” carried the following local story in its April 2, 1949, edition: “Twister Hits Farms, Bares Bather.” It seems that when a “baby tornado” swept through the Uniontown area, it injured three people and caused as much as $200,000 worth of damages. But not only that, it left one rather embarrassed bather in its wake. The 18-year-old from Ronco was busily taking a bath when the storm was at its peak.
“I heard a roar,” she was quoted as saying, “and the next thing I knew three sides of the room had disappeared.”
On June 12, 1907, it was reported on the front page of the Morning Herald that James K. Polk Wilson had a decision to make. After he’d gotten into a little trouble (involving alcoholic spirits) in Uniontown, the Waynesburg man had to appear before Uniontown Burgess Warman, who offered Polk a choice. He could either return to Greene County for 30 days, or he could spend 10 days in the Fayette County jail.
“When the wheels of justice had been properly started Wilson, with tears in his eyes, begged the Burgess to send him to jail for ten days, as he declared old Greene was entirely too dry for him and to jail James K. Polk Wilson went,” it was reported.