Did you know?
One item I’ve found didn’t have a direct tie to Uniontown, except that it appeared on the front page of the Uniontown Morning Herald 93 years ago today.
“‘Why worry’ author ends his own life,” read the July 21, 1921 headline.
Apparently a noted lecturer and orator from Northern Indiana had committed suicide by drinking poison.
It had been concluded that Dr. W. Armstrong’s money problems were the reason for his self-afflicted demise.
The 54 year-old had traveled the country using his signature lecture titled “Why Worry,” but he’d obviously not taken his own advice.
“16,000 rides given at picnic of motor club,” read the headline on the front page of the July 25, 1929 edition of the Morning Herald.
“More than Five Thousand Persons Attend; Prizes Awarded Winners of Athletic Events,” said the sub-headline.
That event had taken place the previous day at Shady Grove Park, and it was considered to be quite a day thanks the Uniontown Motor Club.
There was a high diving act by ponies, and lots of running and swimming races.
Of note was a “Fat men’s race,” with each contestant weighing in at over 200 pounds.
But the one race that really caught my eye was the 100-yard freestyle swimming handicap for boys.
The winner of that race was Paul Wyatt of Uniontown.
Wyatt had seen stiffer competition in 1924, when he won a silver medal in the 100 meter backstroke at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
And a year before he became the swimming champion of that picnic at Shady Grove Park, he’d won a bronze medal in the 100-meter backstroke at the 1928 Summer Olympic Games in Amsterdam.
Fifteen years earlier, on July 21, 1914, there was a front-page report about two “champions” who were paying a visit to Uniontown.
“Champion hikers,” read the headline for an item about F.H. Laberer and C.P. Lester, who were appearing that week at the Vic Theatre.
The two men were promising to walk a total of 12,000 miles in about 14 months.
They’d started in New York City on June 22, and they were “on a walking trip to Mexico via San Francisco and are giving their shows in the motion picture houses on their way.”
The report said that after they’d walked their way to Mexico, “They will return home through Florida.”
They boasted that they were able to walk 35 miles per day.
“Escapes from a grave after he had been buried beneath 6 feet of earth,” read a headline on the front page of the July 20, 1907 edition of the Morning Herald.
There’d been a large crowd at Shady Grove Park the previous evening to witness a “Great Trick” performed by a magician named Ray Phillips.
Phillips had been secured by handcuffs inside of a box. “This box was placed in a larger one and the whole thing was dropped in a hole six feet deep and the dirt was thrown in,” read the article.
To prove that he was, indeed, trapped in the box, Phillips was said to have given out a shout after dirt had been dropped into the hole.
“After 10 or 12 minutes had rolled by and no sign of Phillips, many of those in the audience thought he had suffocated,” it was reported.
After 19 minutes, there was still no sign that Phillips had survived.
But then, said the report, “Phillips walked down through the audience and to the place where he had been buried a few moments before. He was completely disguised, and until he removed his makeup few in the crowd recognized him.”
And with his return, the writer of the article concluded that, “Of course, there is a trick to the act, but that is what makes it interesting, as the American loves to be fooled and to know that he is getting fooled.”
How true.
“Ovation for Michigan Tourists,” read a headline on the front page of the Morning Herald on Aug. 16, 1921.
It was reported that 550 farmers and “notables” in 128 cars had traveled to Uniontown from Michigan in a caravan – for “Michigan Day.”
They’d come to the area on something of a sight-seeing tour, and fact-finding mission.
The caravan had been greeted enthusiastically by hundreds of people, before it moved to the Uniontown Speedway for the night.
It was reported that 3,500 people were on hand for the festivities that involved an air show and auto races, and speeches that were given by the participants from Uniontown and Michigan.
One of the officials from Michigan, J.H. Brown, remarked that, “We shall ever remember Uniontown. Uniontown folks gave us the greatest welcome we have received along the line of travel. The speedway is one of the best we’ve ever looked at and the thrills afforded us yesterday were new, entertaining and very much worthwhile.”
Files