A sweet home run

This year the Bentleyville Area Historical Society’s calendar is dedicated to the year the community won a nationwide caramel-selling contest and used the winnings to build a baseball park. After winning the Kraft contest several baseball players were invited to Forbes Field in Pittsburgh to see a replica of the park. Pictured, from the left, are Todd Wiggins, James Bane, Ed Hudock, Neal Kubula, Karl Skrypak, James Marsteller, Chris Preisendorfer, Ray Adams and Ron Frankoff, all members of the Clover Farm team, Joseph Getto, president of the Bentleyville Boosters Club and Lee Esch, Kraft district sales manager. The calendars are being sold for $10 each and can be purchased at Andrachick’s Barber Shop at 204 Oliver Avenue, Bentleyville. For more information, contact Randi Marodi at: rossmarodi@bentcom.net

Cutie pie

This photo was taken by the Foster Studio around 1900.

Waiting to identify the victims

The 1908 Marianna Mine disaster.

Tennis, anyone?

This is difficult to make out. I found it in a box of old negatives in the Observer-Reporter archives. It was printed on a metal plate, and from the clothing my guess it was made in the 1870sof 1880s.

He was a character

Fireman Cooley. That was his honest-to-goodness name and he loved to put on a show in Scottdale, Pa.

Local merchant

Isaac Sharp is shown at the rear of his store on South Main Street in Washington, Pa., in 1895.

Don't make her angry

Rose would always clinch her fists when she was upset and that was the case when she posed for this portrait with a cold blister on her lower lip.

The kids off center

Gramps must have been hitting the moonshine again before he snapped this photo about 1922 in Greene County, Pa.

A different time

Watch repair was big business for H.W. and Thomas M. Seaman. shown here at Seaman's Jewelry Store in Washington, Pa., in 1897.

Westland, circa 1905

This photo, submitted by Pam Nixon of Westland, shows the Federal Supply company store and the Westland, Pa., Post Office around 1905.

Monongahela music man

Harold Weaver, seated, second from left, taught more than 18,000 kids how to play guitar in Monongahela, Pa. (Courtesy of Monongahela Area Historical Society)

Blue Monday

Emma Charleton poses while doing laundry at the rear of 207 South Main St., Washington, Pa., in the 1890s in this photo from the McCarrell collection.

Women traditionally considered laundry to be the most dreaded of household chores. “Blue Monday,” the popular term for laundry day before the turn of the century, hinted at more than the bluing agent used in rinse water; it also described the drudgery involved in the washing process.

A wrinkled dress

The Weller Studio, Washington, Pa.

Election fever

Another photo from the McCarrell collection... this one showing Washington & Jefferson College student A.W. Pollock, dressed as Uncle Sam, leading a parade up Main Street in Washington,Pa., as part of a mock political convention during the presidential campaign of 1896.

Considered on of the most dramatic and complicated elections in United States history, William McKinley, an Ohio Republican, went on to defeat William Jennings Bryan, the populist Democrat from Nebraska.

Greene County giant

Here's another photo from the McCarrell collection. It shows Pat Bane, known as the "Greene County Giant," at the rear of Sharp's Store on South Main Street in Washington, Pa., in 1896.

Pioneer town

Looking south of Main Street in Washington, Pa., from Chestnut Street in the late 1800s. Photo courtesy of the Washington County Law Library.

Circus comes to town

This photo is from the McCarrell collection in the Observer-Reporter archives. An elephant rounds the corner from Maiden Street onto South Main Street in Washington, Pa., on April 25, 1896. The event was the Smith & Scribner's Circus parade. Note the National Road mile marker on the corner.

What the...?

A giant, a midget, a Seeing Eye dog, a basket of flowers. You tell me what's going on.

Parade rest

A U.S. Army photo of J. Mack Phillips, who was held prisoner during World War II, is among the collection of military items on display for Veterans Day at Monongahela Senior Center, 102 W. Main St., Monongahela, Pa.

One big fire

Lilyan Blough of Houston, Pa., sent in this postcard and wondered what this fire was all about.
At about 1:30 a.m. on June 23, 1908, an electrical storm moved through the area, and lighting struck one of two 35,000-gallon tanks of oil at the Southwest Penn Pipe Lines Co. in Meadow Lands, according to a report in that day's Washington Reporter. The ensuing explosion scattered shrapnel over several acres, and the fire burned well into the next day. No one was injured.

Segregated classes

This century-old image was taken in an unidentified glass factory in Charleroi, Pa., a borough that grew up around that industry and the many Belgium immigrants who came there for work a century ago.

The shot illustrates how the well-dressed managers there separated themselves from the dirty laborers by sitting in front of a short wall of wood. But, the picture is especially interesting because it’s among just a few old local photos I’ve come across that included black people in the image.

The photo survives thanks to the Charleroi Area Historical Society .

The man with a grin

There is a belief these folks once lived in Greene County, Pa.

First train west

Passengers embark on the first train west from West Middletown, Pa.'s Cool Spring station about 100 years ago.

The old store

This store in West Middletown, Pa., had many purposes. In the early 1900s, when this photo was taken, it was a shoe repair shop. B. Farrer is the man on the left. It was also used as a photo studio. The store on Main Street (Route 844) still exists, although it is vacant.

North Charleroi from the air

This is an aerial view of North Charleroi, Pa., prior to the 1930s when Locks and Dam No. 4 was constructed on the Monongahela River to the left of the Charleroi-Monessen Bridge.

Cowboys and Indians

San Diego, Calif., June 1932.