Three Springs/Saltillo area Historical Society

Very nice display

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking to the PA Tourism and Recreational Development Committee, Representative Rich Irvin and County Commissioner Scott Walls... about the Huntingdon County History & Heritage Roundtable. They started their morning at the Swigart Museum where I and about 4 others spoke to them about the great historical attractions we have here in Huntingdon County. Also 2 from Blair County spoke as well. I hope they enjoyed their visit to beautiful historic Huntingdon County and had a good time at the Swigart Museum, Rockhill Trolley Museum, East Broad Top Railroad and all their other stops. PC: Tami Hetrick

1918 Pandemic in Pennsylvania and Its Effect on Huntingdon County: A Series in Five Parts by Joanne Long Part II: The Spanish Flu Arrives in Huntingdon County T...he railroad opened up opportunities for businesses and industries that had never been available before, or even imaginable. It also provided a means to expand our personal world with the possibility of convenient travel. This was it's good side. But, as always, there was a dark side to what any new invention could offer us. Unfortunately, the railroad also provided an opportunity for deadly viruses to move around as quickly and easily as the passengers and freight that rode in it's cars. It was the railroad that first brought the Spanish flu to Southern Huntingdon County. It arrived by way of the East Broad Top Railroad, a thirty mile spur controlled by the larger Rockhill Iron and Coal Company, which carted coal from their mines in the isolated company-owned towns of Robertsdale and Woodvale, on the slopes of Broad Top Mountain, to the junction with the Pennsylvania Railroad in Mount Union. From there the trains carried the coal to the city of Philadelphia, which was one of Rockhill Coal Company's major markets, and it's biggest customer. As soon as the load of coal was dropped in Philadelphia, the trains returned to Broad Top Mountain for more. In 1918, coal mining in America was at it's peak. The industry's largest period of growth occurred between 1912 and 1925. The Rockhill Coal Company, like most coal companies, most dramatically increased production during WWI. The industry began its growth in 1880, and kept expanding until this expansion began levelling off between 1920 and 1930, when demand plummeted post WWI. The mining business had died out in both Robertsdale and Woodvale by 1956, when the mines closed, and the Company holdings were divested. It was at this point that these coal mining operations moved to West Virginia. Coal companies like Rockhill customarily maintained total control over the small towns such as Robertsdale and Woodvale, which were built to house the miners and their families. These two isolated villages were located on the steep, previously inaccessible slope of Broad Top Mountain. Rockhill Coal both built and owned all the houses in these towns, and even the buildings meant for public use. They also controlled the company store, which was often the only place available for the workers and their wives to shop. Without any competition, the company could set their store's prices as high as they liked, so they did. Legislation in the Pennsylvania General Assembly gave coal companies permission to build and operate entire towns without the influence of any outside jurisdiction. Even the mining families' access to the outside world was controlled by the company. There were no roads connecting these towns to neighboring communities. Rockhill Coal's East Broad Top line was the only way in or out. The small double homes and public buildings were constructed close together in rows in the least expensive way. Large families were crammed together in tight quarters, ranging up to thirteen people per unit. Some families took in one or two boarders in order to be able to pay their rent, which, typically, is where most of their wages went. Some households took in as many as eight boarders at a time. Eighty percent of the men residing in these towns worked in the mines. Women were generally housewives, or sometimes they worked as domestic servants for company office workers or managers. The majority of children aged ten to fifteen, both boys and girls, workedboys in the mines, and girls as servants. There was no indoor plumbing or electricity available in these houses. They were lit with kerosene lamps, and water was carried from centralized pumps. The only heat in the uninsulated dwellings came from coal-fired or wood-burning stoves. Shared privies lined up behind the houses, and animals such as cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens could be found behind the houses, as well. It was the perfect environment in which viruses could grow and spread rapidly. And the environment deep in the coal mines where the men worked was even worse. These mines were basically just Petri dishes that were waiting to grow the deadly disease. From the start, the population of the two towns was composed of an even mix of American born and foreign born miners and their families. By 1910, 39 percent of the foreign born head-of-household population of these towns had immigrated from Italy, 34 percent from Austria and Hungary, 10 percent from France, and 8 percent from Belgium. The rest came from various countries in Eastern Europe. The constant demand for employees was filled by ongoing waves of immigrants: first, miners from the British Isles, particularly Wales; then, later, unskilled laborers from southern and eastern Europe. Rockhill and other coal companies often brought in unwitting new immigrants as strike-breakers, which sometimes caused ill-feelings to arise among the other workers of different nationalities. As a means of control, the company segregated these different nationalities by neighborhoods. None of the new workers seemed to want to cause trouble, but they were forced to submit to the company's terms in order to survive. The Sicilians, I read, were especially averse to the idea of strike-breaking, but at times it was either that or starve. That's not a good or fair choice for anyone to have to make. The non-English speaking employees newest to the company largely lived in the smaller, more cheaply built houses, and held the lowest paying jobs. The Italian miners and their families mostly lived in a section of Robertsdale called Little Italy, on Spring Street and Wood Street, although there were a few living in Woodvale. The Italians from their home country's mainland, just as in Italy, itself, did not get along with those from the rural island of Sicily. In fact, they tended to look down on them. The main-landers even tried to segregate themselves from the Sicilians in Little Italy. It was here, in the first week of Octoberin a neighborhood already unsettled by poverty, stress, and unrestwhere the Spanish flu struck Huntingdon County first and hardest. Robertsdale and Woodvale weren't the first mining towns in Pennsylvania to be devastated by the Spanish flu. In an article from the Clearfield Progress, dated October 2, 1918, I found the following information. The Spanish flu ravaged mining towns all over Pennsylvania. In Wishaw, a mining town in Jefferson County, near Du Bois, practically every resident in town was sick with the disease, and more than half of these cases were complicated by pneumonia. Out of thirty-five young men from Wishaw who had enlisted in the Army, only three lived. The other thirty-two died as a result of the pandemic. It would be appropriate to comment here that all through my research, I found evidence that more soldiers died of the epidemic during WWI than in battle. However, this vital information was generally kept from both the newspapers and the soldiers' families. In France, hospital records found after the war revealed the actual number of influenza cases among allied soldiers. In 1918, many deaths caused by influenza had instead been recorded as deaths on the battlefield. The officials at the time thought that if the soldiers knew the real statistics, their morale would plummet, and they might desert. They were also concerned that fewer citizens would be likely to enlist in the war if this news got out. So, they kept the situation secret, and many more soldiers than necessary died as a result. And the ones who lived took the Spanish flu home with them. As an example of this, in addition to the soldiers from the Pennsylvania mining town of Wishaw who died, fifty other residents of this small town also perished from the flu. In a study by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), I found more about the situation with the coal mines. According to CIDRAP, coal was already in short supply before the epidemic hit the country in 1918, despite an increased need for it in manufacturing due to WWI. The war also took many of the men who worked for the mines and sent them off to fight overseasreducing the workforce in the mines, and overwhelming and weakening the men who were left to carry on the difficult labor. The flu epidemic completely closed mines in seven places, while many more had their output reduced by 50 percent. Every mine in the field was affected to some degree. The operation of coal mines was vital to America, as coal was the country's main heating source for homes and businesses. It generated electricity, as well, and was the fuel that kept the railroads running. Our country's food supply was totally dependent on the railroads, which moved the food from farms to stores in towns and cities. Coal also fueled industries, such as the production of steel, without which the manufacture of armaments for the war would be impossible. In 1918, the entire country could not function without coal. An article in the newspaper, The Daily Item, from Sunbury, stated on April 28, 2020 that an estimated one million tons of coal production was lost to the Spanish flu in October of 1918, as the pandemic spread through many mining communities, courtesy of the rail lines. The coal industry would later recover to a degree, but the influenza pandemic of 1918-1920 had a severe impact on this industry that lasted many years. After WWI, when the production of armaments halted, the demand for coal went down precipitously. This drop in demand led to the beginning of the industry's eventual permanent decline. An article from HuntingdonDailyNews.com, written by Ron Morgan on March 23, 2020, tells us more about the impact the Spanish flu had on the specific mining communities of Robertsdale and Woodvale. It was particularly hard on the Sicilian-Italian community in Little Italy. Many of these victims, Morgan said, are buried in the recently restored Sicilian-Italian Cemetery in Robertsdale, located behind the firehall, which had been established by the Rockhill Coal Company on October 16, 1916. It's maintained today by the Broad Top Area Coal Miners Historical Society. I found a photo of this cemetery in the archives of the Library of Congress, which I've posted with this article. Morgan went on to say that the pandemic left its mark on many of the industrial communities such as Robertsdale, where ethnic groups struggled to survive under harsh economic conditions, a lack of available medical services, and a lack of places in which the dead could be prepared for burial. This general lack of resources made the pandemic of 1918 even more of a problem here, than it was in many neighboring communities. I went to FindAGrave.com to find what I could on the flu victims who were buried in this cemetery in Robertsdale. FindAGrave.com, owned by Ancestry.com, said that 50 percent of the memorials here had been photographed. There were only fourteen available to see. Of these fourteen, seven of the graves belonged to victims of the pandemic. But, remember, not all victims of the Spanish flu were buried in marked graves. While I was looking through the material on the pandemic victims buried in the Sicilian-Italian Cemetery that I had found on FindAGrave.com, I located death certificates for all seven that were listed. I arranged them below by datefrom the day the first person became ill, to the last date recorded. There are two dates for each victimthe first date is the day they either fell ill or were initially diagnosed. The second date is the day they died. 1. The first of this group to be stricken with the flu, was three-year-old Giuseppe Pelonero, son of Mike and Cologera (Alessandra) Pelonero, who fell ill on October 8, 1918 and died on October 16. The attending doctor was W. A. Taylor, of Broad Top. 2. Taylor was the attending physician again when Giuseppe's four-year-old cousin Vincenzo Pelonero fell ill on October 15 and died on October 20. He was the son of S. Pelonero, who was the brother of Giuseppe's father, Mike. His mother, Francesca (Alessandra) Pelonero, was the sister of Giuseppe's mother, Cologera. The two families lived in the same house. 3. Guy Dionisi, aged 19 or 20, a miner, fell ill on October 16 and died on October 26. F. A. Detrick, the company doctor in Robertsdale, was the attending physician. 4. Charles Fanello, aged 34, also a miner, got sick on October 20 and died on October 26. William J. Donnelly of the nearby town, Dudley, attended here. 5. Ursula (Alessandra) Fasciana, age, approximately 23 years, housewife to a miner, and possibly a relative of Giuseppe and Vincezo's mothers, fell sick on October 24 and died on October 26. F.A. Detrick signed the death certificate. 6. Lena Altobelli, aged two months, daughter of Frank Altobelli and Maria Cialone, came down with the flu on October 29. She didn't survive long. By October 30, she was dead. 7. Caroline Barrile, six months old, daughter of Michael Barrile and Mary (Calabrese) Barrile, fell ill on October 29 and died on November 1. By the time of the infant Caroline's death, the Spanish flu had reached Three Springs, possibly through a resident in this town who worked in the mines, or for the Rockhill Coal Company. On the bottom left of each certificate, on the line where the registrar's signature is found, the name Silas W. Gutshall is written in an elegant hand. I knew Silas in the years I lived in Three Springs. He lived near our church on the western half of Hudson Street, up on the hill on the way to Saltillo. As I remember Silas, he was as unwelcoming as his brother Simon "Pappy" Gutshall was welcoming. Pappy, who lived on Church Street, not too far from our house, was forever inviting us to visit with him on his porch, or inside his unmodernized house, which always reminded me of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books, only bigger, and with a pump organ in the parlor. Silas always scowled, while Pappy always smiled. Silas rarely talked to us. Pappy, a great storyteller, rarely stopped talking. As a small child, I could never figure out why these two brothers were so different in nature. After I discovered what Silas witnessed, every day for months on end in the fall of 1918, recording one heartbreaking death after anotherwatching helplessly as young parents and innocent children sufferedI can finally begin to understand. It would be hard to forget what Silas saw. Four small children under the age of four, two miners, both in their prime, and a young miner's wife, only twenty-three years old, all perished in this tragic event. And this is only a fraction of those who died. I have no idea where they buried the rest. I'm not sure if anyone else knows, either. Are they in mass graves, buried in the woods, or in their backyards? Anything is possible. We may never know just how many were lost, or just how many people who, like Silas, were forever changed. On the website ConiglioFamily.com, I discovered a possible explanation for at least some of the other seven people who were buried in the Sicilian-Italian Cemetery in Robertsdale. The sign that hangs at the gate mentions this possibility: "Casualties resulting from acts of violence during the 1920s." The message on this sign could be a reference to the coal miner strike of 1922. Or, it could refer to the battles between the mainland Italians and their culturally different fellow countrymen, the Sicilian-Italians, or even perhaps from the unrest, which may have gotten out of control between the Italians and various other ethnic groups, all which occurred in the same time period. The hundreds of Sicilians who once lived in Robertsdale left few descendants there. Those few who remained modified their names, so as to better fit within their community. It is unknown whether most died in the 1918 pandemic, were killed in the acts of violence mentioned on the sign in the cemetery, or left en masse in the 1920s, searching for a better home and better wages. The Coniglio family also posted a history of their own family in Robertsdale. Brothers Giuseppe and Gaetano Coniglio were miners in Robertsdale beginning around 1913 or 1914. Giuseppe married Angela Alessi, and Gaetano married Angela's sister, Rosa Alessi. I have posted a photo of Giuseppe and Angela that I found on the Coniglio family's site, which was taken in Altoona in 1913. Angela fell ill during the 1918 pandemic, and barely survived. In 1920, still not recovered, she and her husband Giuseppe returned to their home and family in Serradifalco, Sicily, where she soon died. The Coniglio family attributes her death to the Spanish flu. I wonder how many others died of the residual effects of the flu, years later? There are many stories passed down in families, of people who remained ill for years, and of many who never fully recovered and died prematurely. But no one ever seems to count them among the victims of the 1918 pandemic. After the turbulence of the early 1920s, most of the rest of the Sicilians from Robertsdale boarded an East Broad Top Railroad car to Mount Union, where they caught a train on the Pennsylvania Railroad that was headed to Buffalo and all points north. Giuseppe Coniglio's brother Gaetano, and his wife, Angela's sister Rosa, were among this group. They settled in Buffalo, where they raised their three children and lived for the remainder of their lives. There were many other people in Southern Huntingdon County, besides these Sicilian-Italians or the mining towns' other full time residents, who worked at the mines in Robertsdale and Woodvale in 1918. Even years later, in the mid 1960s, men from Three Springs, including my old neighbor Bing Bolinger, who once worked at Mine #9 in Woodvale, talked about working in the coal mines when they were younger. Later in my research, I would find several miners listed among the families who were hit by the Spanish flu in the area of Three Springs. It occurred to me that they may have unwittingly brought it home with them, as did some of the local men who worked on or near the railroad. Later in this series, we'll investigate this idea a bit closer. But, coming up next, we'll look at the effect of the pandemic of 1918 on the area's schools. * * * Image Credits for Part II: The Spanish Flu Arrives in Huntingdon County 01. Sicilian-Italian Cemetery, Robertsdale, PA. https://tile.loc.gov//habshaer/pa/pa1900/pa1983/photos/134 02. Robertsdale, PA. Rock Hill Iron and Coal Company town. Italian Band and Italian miners. conigliofamily.com 03. Angela and Giuseppe Coniglio, 1913, Robertsdale miner and his wife. conigliofamily.com 04. Silas Wilbert Gutshall of Three Springs, registrar on the death certificates of the miners and their families, who died of the 1918 pandemic in Robertsdale and Woodvale. findagrave.com. Photo added by Mike Fleck. 05. Broad Top Area Coal Miner's Museum, Robertsdale, PA. Ron Morgan, president. 06. View of Robertsdale (undated) coll. Ron Morgan. From "The Company Towns of the Rockhill Iron and Coal Company, Robertsdale and Woodvale," National Park Service. http://npshistory.com/publicatio//robertsdale-woodvale.pdf 07. Rockhill Mine #9, near Woodvale, PA. Collection of Ron Morgan. "The Company Towns of the Rockhill Iron and Coal Company, Robertsdale and Woodvale." National Park Service. Link provided in image credit #6. 08. East Broad Top Railroad at Robertsdale (undated). Collection of Ron Morgan. " The Company Towns of the Rockhill Iron and Coal Company, Robertsdale and Woodvale." National Park Service. Link provided in image credit #6. 09. Simon Wesley "Pappy" Gutshall, Three Springs, brother of Registrar Silas Gutshall. findagrave.com, Three Springs cemeteries. Photo added by Mike Fleck. 10. This is the Pappy Gutshall I remember. Simon "Pappy" Gutshall and his wife, Sybil Flasher Gutshall. October 29, 1964, 61st wedding anniversary. findagrave.com. Clipping added by Mike Fleck. 11. Death certificate of Giuseppe Pelonera, aged 3. findagrave.com 12. Death certificate of Vincenzo Pelonera, aged 4. findagrave.com 13. Death certificate of Lena Altobelli, aged 2 months. findagrave.com 14. Death certificate of Caroline Barrile, aged 6 months. findagrave.com 15. Death certificate of Ursula Fasciana, aged 23, coal miner's wife. findagrave.com. 16. Death certificate of Guy Dionisi, aged 20, miner. findagrave.com 17. Death certificate of Charles Fanello, aged 34, miner. findagrave.com

Wow! We past 2,600 followers yesterday. Thanks everyone for your support and interest in our Facebook Page. Welcome to all the new folks.

8 more likes and we will be at 2,600 !!!

The calendars are now available at Three Springs Mini Mart and Emigh's Service Station in Saltillo the Spring Creek Diner and Community State Bank, both in Three Springs. Thank you all for your support of Three Springs Area Historical Society. And please thank the vendors where you purchase your calendar(s) for their kindness in doing this for us---they do not receive any money for their good deed! Checks should be made out to Three Springs Area Historical Society, and mailed to P.O. Box 50, Three Springs, PA 17264. $10.00 donation for each calendar, + $2.50 shipping for one or two calendars. More than that number will be slightly higher shipping cost. Thanks to everyone who supports us each year!

Thank you for all your support through out the year. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The Three Springs Area Historical Society is now closed for the season, except by appointment. Visitation has dropped off greatly in the past 4 or 5 weeks, and Covid 19 has crept into our local communities, so we feel that it is in everyone's best interest to limit access to the museum to appointments only. To schedule an appointment, message this page, or call Roy at 814-448-3764. Thanks to everyone for another great year. A LOT of new items came into the museum this year! We are gratified, and humbled, by the wonderful support we get year after year from our communities. Thank you all.

Can anyone help?

ATTENTION: Hot off the press!!! The 2021 calendar’s are in. They go fast so place your orders now. $10.00 each and $2.50 to mail.

Here’s a short video from the EBT but it speaks volumes to our history. https://m.youtube.com/watch

If you haven’t noticed the outside of the museum you must check it out.

This morning two locomotives got to go for rides. No. 14 was moved from the roundhouse to the locomotive shop, and No. 16 took her place in stall 8, our new, mo...dern repair bay. As far as we know, this is the first time a locomotive has been in the locomotive shop for work since the 1980s, when 14 got a rebuild there. She‘ll have her drivers dropped for inspection using the drop pit. See more

If you haven’t seen what’s happening with the EBT here’s a glimpse.

We’re getting all cleaned up for the 60th Anniversary event, which starts tomorrow. Keep in mind that tickets are all sold out for EBT trains, although you’re w...elcome at the community festival on the Rockhill Homecoming grounds. Also, we will ask you to wear a mask in the gift shop, while boarding trains or trolleys, and anyplace else where you can’t practice social distancing. And be warned that we cannot permit people to wander the property at length. The festival begins at 6 p.m. tonight with a parade! See more

Well you did it! We reached over 2,500 before Friday even arrived! 2,509 Followers !!! We couldn’t do it without your support. Thank you all!!!

Thanks for all of your support. As of this evening we are at 2,499 followers. Just one more and we hit 2,500! Lets see if we can do it by end of day Friday!

Check out the progress.

In case you have not been following the EBT RR lately here's a video they posted from today,