The ‘State’ of Allegheny

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on The ‘State’ of Allegheny One of the first centers of the organization of the Re­publican party and scene of its first national conven­tion in February, 1856, Allegheny County was strongly for Lincoln in the presidential election of 1860. As the vote count proceeded, one of the leaders kept sending telegrams to Lincoln’s home in Illinois, keeping him up on the news that “Allegheny gives a majority of …...
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Setting the Standard for Others

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Setting the Standard for Others With a rich heritage rooted in colonial military formations – such as the forces furnished in 1740 for a disastrous English expe­dition against Cartagena, Spain’s principal seaport in South America, and Benjamin Franklin’s ten thousand mem­ber military Association, estab­lished in 1747 – the 28th Infantry (Keystone) Division, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, is the...
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“The Public Is Entitled to Know”: Fighting for the Public Memory of Henry Clay Frick

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on “The Public Is Entitled to Know”: Fighting for the Public Memory of Henry Clay Frick On Saturday, July 23, 1892, Russian immi­grant and New York anarchist Alexander Berkman burst into the office of Henry Clay Frick in down­town Pittsburgh, stabbed him three times, and shot him in the ear and neck. Frick fought back and, with his secretary’s assistance, eventually subdued his assailant. Although he had sustained several serious wounds to his legs and chest, Frick insisted...
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Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor Homestead Revisited Thank you for the contribution by Brent D. Glass in the winter 1992 issue, “‘The Public is Enti­tled to Know’: Fighting for the Public Memory of Henry Clay Frick.” Many Pittsburgh resi­dents with three generations of local family knew that his reputation was built on the backs of coal miners and steel workers whose wretched lives he ignored. An...
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Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost Following World War II, the United States Steel Corporation’s massive Homestead Works in Allegheny County employed nearly fifteen thousand work­ers. The sprawling works, site of the infamous Homestead Steel Strike of 1892, closed in July 1986 and demolition began soon after. But all is not lost. While much of the plant is gone, there are plans to pre­serve the Pinkerton Landing, site...
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King Pearl L. Bergoff Invades McKees Rocks!

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on King Pearl L. Bergoff Invades McKees Rocks! On Monday, July 12, 1909, one of the bloodiest labor disputes of the early twentieth century broke out at the sprawling works of the Pressed Steel Car Company in McKees Rocks, Allegheny County. Located on the Ohio River several miles northwest of center-city Pittsburgh, the company employed hundreds of skilled workers, all of American-born descent, and thousands of unskilled first-and...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 24, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Pennsylvania Wilds: Images from the Allegheny National Forest Photographs by Ed Bernik; story by Lisa Gensheimer Forest Press, 2006; 138 pages, cloth, $39.95 For those who treasure the beauty of the Key­stone State’s unspoiled wilderness, Pennsylvania Wilds: Images from the Allegheny National Forest offers an armchair visit to the vast and glorious terrain of eight hundred square miles in...
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