chickens and biscuits

1
CHICKENS AND BISCUITS The story of a family in a western
Pennsylvania coal and coke town.
Patricia H. Bishop
June, 1988
Clearfield, Pa.
Second Edition with additional details, photos and annotations by
William L. Hoover, PhD
July, 2015
West Lafayette, In.
Keisterville, Pennsylvania, 1915
2
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
This is a story of a family who cared for each other and for those around them.
They seem to have cared beyond all bounds we observe in today’s society. If you have
felt that there was something special or a little different in your family, maybe the
following story will help to explain.
For those who read this in the years to come, be proud. You have a heritage that
far exceeds all the earthly possessions one can possess.
This chronicle of a time gone by was started by Braden Leichliter, Jr. (Brad) We
owe him thanks for the minute details of the early coke industry; an industry that no
longer exists in the manner it once did. After Braden’s death, his widow, Mary Ellen,
asked Patricia to complete the work. All the information recorded was taken from stories
told over and over by family members. Some specific questions for clarification were
asked of living family members. The details are meant to enlighten and entertain as to
what life was like in this family of eight children living at the time they did in a small
company town.
“Too often the past is lost because we do not hear when we are
young, and when we are old and recognize the importance of our elders’
words to proper governance of our lives, those who are familiar with the
past have departed for that land with which there is no communication.”
Wm. E. Wilson, Every Man Is My Father, 1973. Saturday Review Press,
NY.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
All the details in the First Edition are retained, but edited for clarity and
ease of reading. The additional detail came from web searches and literature not
available in 1988. Word processing and on-line publication made it possible to
add many additional photographs.
Footnotes provide ancillary information and sources. These should
increase the understanding of readers born after the end of the Leichliters’ life in
Keisterville. An effort was made to expand the story to the greater Keisterville
Community, but not to the extent desired. Interviews of living decedents of
residents when the company was operating would be needed for this. We believe
we were able, however, to show that the Leichliters were an integral part of the
community. Coal patches1 in the Connellsville Coal Region were physically
1
Locals in the past and currently refer to former company towns as “coal patches” or simply “patches.”
3
similar, but could differ in civic spirit and culture.2 We would like to believe that
the leadership provided by Superintendent Braden Boyd Leichliter and his wife
Nana Handlin Leichliter, especially after coal and coke operations ceased, helped
establish a resilient community that lives on today. Many coal patches became
ghost towns when operations closed.
If you are interested in the daily life of coal-patch families in the
Uniontown area in the first several decades of the last century we recommend
Playing St. Barbara: A Novel by Marian Szczepanski, High Hill Press. 2013. The
patch she portrays has a major mine disaster and significant activities by the Ku
Klux Klan. Our research hasn’t uncovered these occurring in Keister. We also
don’t believe that the troubles associated with the establishment of the United
Mine Workers of America in Keister were as serious as those she portrays, but
Keisterville certainly wasn’t exempt.
Appendix A describes where the families were as of 1988. Appendix B
provides some favorite old-time Leichliter recipes. Appendix C is a collection of
newspaper articles describing incidents in-and-around Keister. Some are tragic
and some are funny. We hope they don’t cast a bad light on anyone’s ancestors.
Use of Names: “Braden” refers to Braden Boyd Leichliter, Sr. “Brad” refers to
Braden Boyd Leichliter, Jr. “Super” is vernacular for Superintendent. “Nana”
refers to Braden’s wife, Nana Handlin Leichliter. “Nana May” refers to their
daughter, Nana May Leichliter Bush. Pete was Franklin’s nickname and Sally was
Caroline’s.
2
Sheppard discusses the effect of the mix of home countries of residents of coal patches. He says that
something other than this makeup determined civic culture. In reference to the mix of students in the
Uniontown High School he notes that “The students of certain patches, irrespective of nationality, tend to
be more cooperative, easier to discipline and assimilate into the student body than some from others,
reflecting the tenor of living in their community. Muriel Early Sheppard. 1991. Cloud by Day: The Story of
?Coal and Coke and People, Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, p. 181.
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Table of Contents
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION........................................................................................ 2
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION .................................................................................. 2
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 6
Our Grandparents – Braden and Nana ................................................................................ 8
Nana ................................................................................................................................ 9
Braden ........................................................................................................................... 10
THE HOUSE AND THE FAMILY .................................................................................. 13
Kitchen and Cooking .................................................................................................... 19
The Library and Games ................................................................................................ 20
Gardening and Chickens ............................................................................................... 21
Berry Picking ................................................................................................................ 23
Grape Juice, Blood Thinner and Root Beer .................................................................. 24
Making Sauerkraut ........................................................................................................ 26
Milk ............................................................................................................................... 28
Water Supply ................................................................................................................ 29
Christmas Traditions ..................................................................................................... 30
Up Summit Mountain ................................................................................................... 31
Automobiles .................................................................................................................. 32
When the Whistle Blew at Night .................................................................................. 33
Fun and Relaxation at the Reservoir ............................................................................. 33
Retirement ..................................................................................................................... 34
THE COMMUNITY ......................................................................................................... 35
Company Store.............................................................................................................. 36
Paydays ......................................................................................................................... 38
Water Supply ................................................................................................................ 38
Housing ......................................................................................................................... 39
Religion ......................................................................................................................... 41
Community Hall............................................................................................................ 42
Company Doctor ........................................................................................................... 42
1918 Flu Epidemic, Community Hall and Whiskey ..................................................... 43
Community Swimming Pool......................................................................................... 44
Slate and Red Dog ........................................................................................................ 45
Education ...................................................................................................................... 46
Games ........................................................................................................................... 49
Labor Union and Strikes ............................................................................................... 50
COAL MINING AND COKE PRODUCTION ............................................................... 52
Coke Production................................................................................................................ 52
Early History of Coke ................................................................................................... 52
Coke Ovens ................................................................................................................... 54
Layout of Coke Yards ................................................................................................... 54
Hard Filthy Work .......................................................................................................... 56
Sources of Power .......................................................................................................... 56
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COAL MINING ................................................................................................................ 57
Mine Safety ................................................................................................................... 58
Mine Horses .................................................................................................................. 58
Control of Air Quality in the Mine ............................................................................... 60
Refuse ........................................................................................................................... 60
Activities Within the Mine............................................................................................ 60
Railroads ....................................................................................................................... 63
Coke Drawers................................................................................................................ 63
Maintenance of Ovens .................................................................................................. 65
LINCOLN COAL AND COKE COMPANY................................................................... 65
Keister Family............................................................................................................... 65
Board of Directors......................................................................................................... 69
Business Cycles ............................................................................................................ 69
Mine Casualties ............................................................................................................. 70
Management Team........................................................................................................ 71
NICKNAMES AND TRIVIA........................................................................................... 72
APPENDIX A - THE FAMILIES .................................................................................... 81
APPENDIX B - SOME FAVORITE OLD-TIME LEICHLITER RECIPES .................. 88
Grandma Leichliter’s Soft Ginger Cookies .................................................................. 88
Braden Leichliter’s Salad Dressing .............................................................................. 88
Braden’s Chili Sauce..................................................................................................... 88
Leichliter Brown Turkey Gravy.................................................................................... 89
Roast Leg of Lamb Leichliter Style .............................................................................. 89
Nana’s Peach Roll ......................................................................................................... 89
White Bread (Nana’s) ................................................................................................... 89
Mother Leichliter’s Chess Tarts.................................................................................... 90
Leichliter Apple Butter ................................................................................................. 90
APPENDIX C – INCIDENTS IN-AND-AROUND KEISTER ....................................... 91
1902 - Don’t Shoot Your Hostess ................................................................................. 91
1905 – A Not So Great Train Robbery ......................................................................... 91
1909 - Don’t Follow Your Calf Into A Hole ................................................................ 91
1910 - Buggies Can Be Dangerous ............................................................................... 91
1914 - Train Wrecked For Fun?.................................................................................... 92
1918 - Getting Around Hooverization of Wheat .......................................................... 92
1925 - A Dog Worth Dying For .................................................................................... 92
1930 - Stealing Them Is No Way To Get A Girl .......................................................... 93
1930 - Keister Youth Promise “No More Girl Stealing” .............................................. 93
1935 - The Porch-Drop Method of Paternity Identification ......................................... 94
1939 - They Needed More Than Chickens ................................................................... 94
6
INTRODUCTION
The company-owned coal patches of southwestern
Pennsylvania were one of the last remnants of feudalism in
America. (Coode and Bauman, 1981, p. 27)3
Company towns are usually cast as a way that industrialists exploited recent
immigrants to America, African-Americans, and others with few employment
opportunities. The purpose of this book is not to review the economic and sociological
literature supporting this exploitation thesis. It’s about one particular coal patch and the
family that oversaw the town and the associated coal and coke company. The intended
audience is the decedents of the family of Braden B. Leichliter, the Superintendent. The
First Edition was, however of interest to many others. We hope that this Second Edition
will be informative and entertaining to readers both inside and outside the Leichliter
family.
We believe that this coal patch, Keisterville, was at least a little better than the
typical ones described in the literature. We hope that the story told here provides
adequate evidence to justify this conclusion.
We start by introducing the main characters, Braden B. Leichliter and his wife,
Nana Handlin Leichliter. Both came from families established in southwestern
Pennsylvania long before the start of the coal and coke industry in this region. Both
families, however, became dependent on the industry for their livelihoods, supplemented
by small farms.
The descriptions of the Leichliter’s house and the family it held focus on the
everyday life of a Super’s family, and their interactions with the community and the
company. In Playing St. Barbara the author has the lead character contrast the
supervisor’s property with those of the workers with “Not a single tomato stake or
beanpole spoiled the property’s perfect uselessness.”4 This was not the case in Keister.
The chapter on the community demonstrates the integration of the company and the town,
thus the use of the term “company town.” The Coal and Coke chapter describes the coal
mining and coking operations in some detail. Much more detail is available from many
sources in print and on-line. The environmental impact of these operations, especially
open-air coke ovens, is hard to comprehend by today’s standards.
3
Coode, Thomas H and John F. Bauman. 1981. People, Poverty, and Politics: Pennsylvanians during the
Great Depression. Bucknell Univ. Press, Lewisburg, Pa.
4
P. 75
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The chapter on the company, Lincoln Coal and Coke Company is new to this
edition. We believe that the past and current contributions of the Keister family makes
their story worth telling.
The descriptions at the end of the book of the families of Braden’s and Nana’s
children in the First Edition are retained with very limited updating. The family recipes
were also retained.
The coke produced in Keisterville and similar operations were vital to the
growing national economy. Pittsburgh’s Iron and Steel industry was made possible in
part by the Connellsville Region coal and coke industries. Wealth, Waste, and Alienation
– Growth and Decline in the Connellsville Coke Industry by Kenneth Warren5 provides
the most detailed history of this industry over its 75-year duration. Connellsville coke
region in 1913 mined 47 percent of America’s metallurgical coal, and 18 percent of
global output. It lead the nation in supplying coke to the iron and steel industry. Warren’s
focus was to “set the industry within its wider context of time, space, technological
change, and connections with iron manufacture.” (p. xvii)
Lincoln Coal and Coke Co. was a small element of the coal and coke industry in
Fayette County. In 1919 and 1920 the company produced 268,281 and 215,200 tons of
coal respectively.6 Production declined precipitously during the depression. In 1931
there were 59 operators with 95 mine operations.7 That year the company mined 93,166
tons of coal, 0.55 percent of the county total. Of this total only 16,355 tons was processed
into coke. The remainder was sold into the coal market - 68,423 tons, used as boiler fuel 6,824 tons, or used by employees at their homes, or sold locally – 1,564 tons.
5
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001
The Coal Trade Bulletin, Vol. XLIV, No. 1 (May 2, 1921), The Coal Trade Publishing Co., Pittsburgh,
PA., p. 367.
7
Report of the Department of Mines of Pennsylvania, Part II—Bituminous, 1913. Wm. Stanley Ray, State
Printer, 1914. Harrisburg, PA.
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Our Grandparents – Braden and Nana
Nana and Braden on the Way to Church
Understanding what went on in our grandparents’ family and the town integral to
their very being requires a close look at their background. Braden’s work prior to
becoming Superintendent of the Lincoln Coal and Coke Co. plant in Keister prepared him
for this position. He grew up in the coal mining and coke business. His father, Levi Riley
Leichliter, was foreman of the coke yard at J. W. Rainey mine and coke operation in
Moyer, Pennsylvania. What’s more, the people skills he developed were absolutely
essential in his role as “overseer” of the company town. He was responsible for the health
and welfare of his employees, their families, and the town in which they lived.
J. W. Rainey Mine and Coke, Moyer, Penn. 1890 or 1893. J.W. Rainey is in white shirt, bottom front. Levi
Leichliter is to his right. Braden and his brother Otto Gay are on top of the lorrie at the top of this photo.
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Many academic works have been written describing life in such communities.
Their general theme is that the integration of work and almost all aspects of the workers
lives, and those of their families, was exploitative. Nana and Braden descendant’s believe
that within the basic structure of a company town our grandparents did all they could to
provide a quality life style. Our primary evidence, laid out herein, is the total integration
of their family in the community. The family didn’t live in Uniontown with Braden
commuting to work every day.
Nana
Nana Handlin grew up in a small village, Shady Grove, in Fayette County,
Pennsylvania. Some people called it Rosy Hill. She was born in 1882. Her father, Captain
William Handlin8, was a stonemason and brick layer. He constructed many of the original
coke ovens in the area around Mt. Braddock. He was a veteran of the Civil War, which he
entered as a drummer boy. The homestead was located in the foothills of the Laurel
Ridge of the Allegheny Mountains. Today one turns off the main highway and winds
over a narrow road to approach the village. The house is gone, but a grandnephew of
Nana’s built his home on the site. Nana’s mother was Susan Casteel Handlin. Nana had
four sisters, Nell, Bess, Lou, Jenny and one brother, Henry.
Nana taught school somewhere in the mountains near the area now known as
Jumonville.9 The children she taught came from an orphanage, and quite a few of them
were Native Americans.10
Nana Handlin Leichliter
Referring to Civil War veterans as Captain was a sign of respect and as in this case didn’t reflect the
veteran’s actual rank at the end of the war. William enlisted as a private on February 28, 1864 in Company
A, 14th Pennsylvania Calvary. He was promoted to corporal May 26, 1865 and mustered out with the
company on November 2, 1865. (Military Record, National Archives. History of the Organization and
Service, During the war of the Rebellion of CO. A, 14 th Pennsylvania Cavalry. G.H Mowrer. Officers of the
Survivors’ Association, Co. A, 14th Penna. Cavalry) William’s father Daniel and brother Jacob were also
soldiers in the Civil War. Jacob was captured and died in the infamous Andersonville Prison.
9
Site of a battle prior to the Ft. Necessity campaign. Ref. http://www.nps.gov/fone/jumglen.htm
10
Most likely the Uniontown Soldiers Orphans School at Jumonville. It was one in a systems of resident
schools for children of Civil War veterans.
8
10
Nana was an unassuming woman devoted to her family, church and community.
The above photo shows about as much of a smile as she was likely to show. Her life was
challenging, but no one heard her ever complain.
Nana lived for eighteen years as a widow. She maintained the house, a large
garden, and kept chickens for home consumption. That is until one winter when she fell
on ice going to feed them. Her children halted the chicken raising and the gardening
decreased. But as long as Nana lived at her home, she had a small garden, even if a child,
son-in-law or grandchild had to put it in and care for it. During the last three years of her
life, Nana had a series of small strokes and required live-in help. When she became
bedfast, she moved to a nursing home where she passed away in 1969 at the age of 87.
Nana never stopped talking with Braden; she would often tell one of the children that she
told Braden about whatever new event happened to any one of her children or
grandchildren. One grandchild mentioned to her that she wished Braden could know that
she graduated from college. Nana said, “Oh, I told him.”
Braden
Braden Boyd Leichliter also grew up in Fayette County on a small farm about
three miles east of Connellsville near Gilmore’s Mills. Braden was born April 18, 1883 in
Malvern, Ohio. His father was Levi Riley Leichliter. He was coke yard foreman for the
W. J. Rainey Company at Moyer. Molly Bitner Leichliter was Braden’s mother. Her
obituary called her Molly and a Bible which she gave to Braden was signed Molly, but
everyone called her Polly. Braden had four brothers, Otto Gay, Frank B., Levi R. Jr.,
Harry and two sisters, Bertha and Hazel. Education was important to the family, and
Braden and Otto worked to put Frank11 through Pennsylvania State College.12 Braden
first worked as a schoolmaster at The Critchfield School13 in 1890.
Braden’s family, his father Levi on the left and Braden on the right.
11
Frank died in a railroad accident.
Earlier name for Pennsylvania State University
13
Located west-southwest of Connellsville on Kooser Road, County Highway 1001. It runs between
County Roads 653 and 381. Nearest town is Normalville. Google Earth locates it in Mill Run, PA 15464,
the post office address.
12
11
Braden’s parents, Levi Riley Leichliter and Molly Bitner Leichliter
As the story goes, one day Nana and her sister Nell were standing outside their
house, and a man on horseback came by. Bess said to Nana, “Here comes a man sitting
on a horse and walking.” Braden was six feet four inches tall, with long legs, and he was
good looking. No one ever went into detail beyond the first sight Nana and Braden had of
each other.
Braden and Nana were married on May 18, 1904, a Wednesday, in Mount
Braddock, Pa. The ceremony was conducted by Rev. Mr. J. B. Reed of Laurel Hill. After
the ceremony, they went on the Pittsburg and Lake Erie train from Cleveland to visit
Buffalo and Toronto, Canada. On their return, they went to housekeeping in Mt.
Braddock, Pennsylvania where Braden was employed by the W. J. Rainey Coke
Company as bookkeeper. Their first child, Otto Ney, was born August 20, 1904. Van
Handlin was born on September 9, 1906. They moved to Connellsville in 1907 where
Braden began work for the Lincoln Coal and Coke Company, owned by B. F. and F. O.
Keister. From Connellsville, the family moved to Ohiopyle where Edith Susan was born
on January 15, 1909. As of 1987, this home can still be seen high on a corner overlooking
the park and falls at Ohiopyle. There was another move back to Connellsville where
Caroline Adele was born on April 12, 1911. Shortly after this time, Braden was made
superintendent of the Lincoln Coal and Coke Company operations in Keisterville. After
they moved there Braden Boyd, Jr. was born September 26, 1914. Franklin Bitner arrived
on August 11, 1917, followed by Nana May on December 16, 1919, and Retta Gene on
August 11, 1922.
One of Braden’s early jobs with the Keisters was scouting and survey work for
coal lands throughout southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky and
Tennessee. He would go from one large town to another by rail, and when he wanted to
survey a particular area, would engage a coach and team of horses. His cover was that of
cattle buyer.14 He would go from farm to farm inquiring about cattle farmers had to sell,
and casually he would get into a conversation about coal leases – if they had been bought
14
This business is famously described by Harry M. Caudill in Night Comes to the Cumberland: A
Biography of a Depressed Area. 1963. Atlantic Monthly Press Book. “The Eastern and Northern capitalists
12
Braden holding Ney and Nana holding Van.
up, what had been paid and who bought them. The Keisters were in the market to buy
coal land, and Braden was acting as their field man. It was during this period of field
work that the family lived in Ohiopyle. The Keister mining operation in this area was
known as the Westmoreland Coal Company. The mine was located along Cucumber
Creek which feeds into the Youghiogheny River below Ohiopyle Falls. There is a small
waterfall near there known as Cucumber Falls. In recent years, a block of land in this area
was donated by members of the Keister family to Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
On the opposite side of the town and valley is another stream known as Bear Run, which
also flows into the Youghiogheny above the falls. It is along this stream that the Edger
Kaufmann home designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright called “Fallingwater” can be
found. This area is also part of the Conservancy.
After working in Keister for a while, Braden’s title became General
Superintendent responsible for the mining and coking operation at Keister,15 the mining
operation at Ohiopyle, and a third operation in West Virginia. The plant in West Virginia
was called the Woodland Coal Company and was located below Moundsville. Braden
bought stock in the Woodland operation but was not a stockholder in the others.
When the coal was worked out at Keisterville the plant was dismantled. Braden
bought his Keisterville house and remained there during retirement. Many of the families
of the workers did likewise. For many years, office records had to be maintained because
of social security, black lung, pensions and other legal matters of such a business. Braden
had the huge company roll top desk moved to his home. It had a well-stocked coin tray.
Visiting grandchildren sat on his lap and selected a coin for keeps. When Braden was ill
and after he passed away, the records were turned over to Pete Vail. When the plant was
closed, Braden bought the brick office building, and it became the home for Retta Gene
and her husband Bob Vail, and their three girls.
selected for this mission men of great guile and charm. They were courteous, pleasant and wonderful story
tellers.” p. 72. This description fits Braden, but Prof. Caudill then describes the purpose of their work:
“Their goal was to buy the minerals on a grand scale as cheaply as possible and on terms favorable to the
purchasers as to grant them every desirable exploitative privilege . . .” p. 72.
15
Keister was one of the last operations of its type to be established in Fayette County. This may be a factor
in Keisterville lasting to this day as a viable community.
13
Braden had a serious bout with gall bladder and an operation with a long
recuperation while he was still working. Then, in 1944, he had a series of severe heart
attacks. Thereafter he lived a quiet but busy life until he passed away in 1951.
THE HOUSE AND THE FAMILY
The house in which the Leichliters lived was originally three rooms down and
three rooms up. Two additional rooms were added, one down and one up. There was a
paved basement under half of the house. The unpaved basement room was used as a fruit
cellar with bins for potatoes. The washing machine and eventually a furnace were in the
basement. Each room in the house except the new ones had a coal fireplace, but the only
one ever used was in the living room.
Leichliter house on corner
The heat for the house was steam from the coke plant’s boiler. There were
radiators in each room, and the house was generally hot and dry. The house was painted
dark gray as were all the other houses in the community.
There was an indoor bathroom, not ordinary in those days. Electrical power was
supplied from the plant’s generator. It was 250 volt D.C. which was good for lighting but
not for appliances. A transformer for converting to 110 volt AC was needed. The roof on
the house was slate. There was a large porch at the back with a lattice-work on three
sides. Nana always planted morning glories and green beans16 to climb the lattice and
make the porch shady and cool. A refrigerator was kept on the back porch for ice from
the company store. A front porch wrapped around the front of the house and along one
side. There were usually three porch swings. Often there were Leichliter and other
children on the swings trying to swing high enough for their feet to touch the ceiling of
the porch. The main road into Keister and the company store were visible from the porch,
allowing swingers to watch all the comings-and-goings. Outside the kitchen window,
Several of Nana’s grandchildren continue to grow these no-string pole beans from the seeds passed down
from each year’s crop. Either of the authors can provide these.
16
14
there was a large silver maple tree. One of Nana’s grandsons installed a rope swing with
a wooden seat.
Braden by back porch holding Patsy Hoover and
Nana at the start of the grape arbor.
On the front porch swing: Caroline (Sally) holding Becky Hoover, Pete Stiller
standing, David Stiller seated, and Nana holding Roger Stiller.
Two characteristics of the Leichliter house caused one child to think there was a
song written about it. The house had a slanted cellar door and a rain barrel. The song was
“Playmate.”17
Playmate come out and play with me
My dolly’s got the flu
Boo hoo, boo hoo, boo hoo.
Play in my rain barrel,
Slide down my cellar door
And we’ll be jolly friends forever more.
17
See http://www.grandparents.com/grandkids/activities-games-and-crafts/playmate-come-out-and-playwith-me
15
In the front yard, there was a round cement pond called the “minny pond.” A pipe
in the center supplied fresh water. This allowed Braden to keep minnows for bait used
when he went fishing in the company reservoir. The minny pond was the scene of many
“skinny dipping” events by small grandchildren.
The first floor rooms were a kitchen, dining room, living room and parlor. The
stairs were in the middle just inside the front door with a hall running back to the kitchen.
In the hall on the wall near the steps were hooks for hanging outer garments. All the
meals were eaten in the kitchen except Sunday dinner and holiday meals, or when
company came. There was a swinging door from the kitchen to the dining room. In the
dining room, there was a built in china closet with a glass doors. It contained many
interesting pieces of china, most of which were twentieth anniversary gifts to Braden and
Nana. There was a huge oak buffet and serving table where the silver chest was kept. The
middle of the room was filled with a gigantic oak table with legs the size of tree trunks. It
could expand to easily seat twenty people. There were also two glass doored barrister
bookcases. The dining room opened into the living room which contained an overstuffed
couch and chairs as well as a Morris chair. There was a humidor18 and always a card table
in this room.
As Nana loved plants, Braden had a three shelf, stepladder type affair built and
attached to the back dining room window. It was always full of house plants and starts of
seedlings for the garden. There was always a pink oxalis in bloom, as well as geraniums.
Every few years, the big spring project was to have made new slip covers for the
living room furniture. The materials varied from monks cloth with fringe trim, to huge
flowers, to colorful stripes. Every year at about the same time, the major house cleaning
took place with rugs taken outside to beat with a rug beater and lace curtains laundered,
stretched stiff as a board and then nailed to curtain stretchers.
The prized possession in the parlor was the Victrola. The Leichliters had a good
selection of records. Braden’s favorite were by Italian opera singer Caruso. He loved
opera and owned the Victor Book of the Opera. His favorite female singer was Amelita
Galli-Curci. They had only classical recordings until Van came home from college. He
brought “Mississippi Mud, “Bye-Bye Blackbird” and “The Birth of the Blues.” These
were played repeatedly for anyone who came to the house.
There was a piano in the parlor located in the front of the house. Mildred
Kaufmann came one day a week and stayed overnight. She gave piano lessons to Ney,
Van, Edith and Caroline. Edith did not learn very well. As the oldest daughter she was
responsible for doing dishes and taking care of babies, leaving little time for piano
practice. Mildred gave lessons to other children in Keister, then returned to her family’s
farm in McClellantown.
Van took violin lessons and played fairly well. Braden played the mandolin.
Before he was married, he belonged to the Mt. Braddock Coronet Band consisting of
18
Braden smoked cigarettes but Nana didn’t.
16
nineteen boys. Some evenings after Mildred’s lessons she would play the piano and
Braden played the mandolin. Any child who talked or laughed had to leave the room.
Mt. Braddock Coronet Band. Braden is in back row 6 th from the left.
About twenty yards from the back porch of the house in Keister, up the walk
under the grape arbor and to the left was the “Den.” This structure had originally been the
garage. As the family grew and there were more friends and summer overnight visitors,
more sleeping space was needed. So, a loft was built with a ladder up the wall of the Den
for access. There were beds up and beds down. When the den was new, Braden
sometimes used it as a place to entertain men from the company and even had meals
served there. As the years went by the family scattered, the den was used as a place for
grandchildren to play, a storage annex, a shop and eventually a good place for junk. In
1925, a new three-stall garage was built at the back of the property; there was even a
pump for gas.
One Sunday Mildred’s family invited all the Leichliters for dinner. A delicious
chicken dinner was served which included mashed potatoes. A new device for ricing
potatoes had just come out. The Kaufmanns used it and did not further beat the potatoes
but served them with a large dollop of butter on top. This impressed the Leichliter
children. Caroline was on her third helping of everything and announced that this was a
delicious dinner and that they never had food like this at home. Needless to say, she heard
from her parents later.
Caroline was the most like an actress in the family. She often made careful plans
for grand entrances. One Sunday, when getting ready for Sunday School, she thought her
hair looked extremely good after having been put up in rags by her mother the night
before. She decided she wanted her hair brushed out and hanging long down her back.
Caroline then sent Edith ahead to Sunday School and told her that when she arrived,
17
Edith was to say loudly so that everyone would hear, “Oh, doesn’t she look just like
Martha Washington.”
Braden liked to sing, and organized a quartet. Its members were Braden, Dave
Bennett, Fred Longdon, and Norm Leichliter. Norm weighed about 300 pounds and sang
bass. Caroline played the piano for them, and they practiced at the Leichliters. They were
invited to sing at many places. The town community building was the scene of many
special entertainments, and on one occasion the hired performers did not show up, so
Braden made Van and Ney play the piano. Afterward, some of the townspeople were
heard to comment, why should they have to pay for entertainment anymore because the
“Super’s”19 kids could perform for free.
The upstairs contained four bedrooms and a bath. Three of the bedrooms were
relatively large. Nana and Braden’s room had one double bed with a picture of a
voluptuous nude lady over it. On another wall was a painting of a large sailing ship. The
other bedrooms contained two double beds and two dressers. Under the hall window was
a wicker planter which always contained ferns or geraniums. Some bedrooms had
window seats, one with a lid for storing blankets.
Trips to the home farm where Braden grew up were always a big event on
Sundays and the Fourth of July. After the death of Levi, Braden’s father, Braden’s sisters
Hazel and Bertha, remained at home. The children continued to go there for summer
vacations. Pete and his friend, Fed Krepps, always went to Aunt Hazels during the week
of fall teacher institute. They didn’t have guns but used box traps to catch rabbits. Aunt
Bertha was blind and very much catered to by the whole family. She dearly loved fried
rabbit, but only the saddle.20 Every day while the boys were there, Hazel fried rabbit, but
the boys never got to eat the saddle. On one particular visit to the farm, the boys made the
Connellsville newspaper. A creek ran through Tanyard Hollow near the farm. They
fished from a bridge over the creek. One day their hook caught on something large. They
investigated and discovered it was a bucket. The bucket had something in it for which the
authorities needed to be called, the remains a baby. This made quite a commotion for the
whole family for a while.
Pete and Fred often caused commotions. For example, they kept animal traps in
the winter not far from Keister. They checked their trap-line early every morning,
including Sunday well before Sunday School. They were quite careful about their
appearance in keeping with their parents’ standards. One Sunday they had gone to Fred’s
house to clean up, but not in all regards. After they arrived at church the building got
warmer and warmer, as did Pete and Fred. An extreme bout of sniffing by members of
the congregation led to the conclusion that Pete and Fred could miss Sunday School this
week. They were excused, taking the all-to-obvious marker of an encounter with a skunk
with them.
19
20
This was how Braden as Superintendent of the Company was generally referred to.
The cut of meat that runs from the end of the rib cage to the hind legs, essentially the loin.
18
Because all the children went to Braden’s childhood home, it took most of the
summer to get everyone’s visits in. Brad’s turn was around the Fourth of July when the
corn needed to be hoed. He always had to so this before he could enjoy the festivities. He
loved to be there when the apples in the orchard were ripe. They were collected in
“gunny” sacks21 and loaded on to a wagon driven by Billy Miner, the hired hand. Aunt
Hazel packed a picnic lunch, and the apples were taken up Tanyard Hollow to the cider
press. The pressed apple juice was put into wooden barrels. This was the supply of
vinegar for the winter. Whomever was around at the right time got to help Billy collect
dandelions for wine, and elderberry blossoms for another variety of wine. The family
shared the wine.
On a trip coming home from a Sunday at the farm, Braden was driving his Nash
Touring car with a jump seat. They were hit by a drunken driver, F. E. Ducker of
Connelsville.22 Nana was holding Nana May, the baby of the family at this time. The
impact threw Nana May up a bank from where she rolled into a ditch. She was tightly
wrapped in a blanket which saved her from harm. When everything came to a stop and
people surveyed the damage, they found Edith hanging upside down with her feet hooked
over the door. After this car was wrecked, Braden chose not to drive it again. This was
great for Ney and Van because they loved to drive it and use it for their dates. Braden
then drove a Buick Coupe for travel. Braden successfully sued Mr. Ducker to recover the
cost of repairing the Nash.
When the Leichliters first moved to Keister, Nana had a buggy and a horse named
Wyn. She used the buggy to go into Uniontown for shopping; otherwise she would have
to go on the train and stay all day and come home in the evening.23 Nana had to be alert
when she drove Wyn. He was a very handsome horse, and the story was that he was
retired from the racetrack. Wyn remained a racehorse and anytime another horse, or on
occasion, a vehicle, tried to pass him, he became competitive and would run himself to
death to beat whatever tried to pass him. Once in a while this resulted in some mishaps
but most often just a good scare.
Nana was an independent lady and was seldom stopped by illness. In April of
1920, she was at the company’s reservoir picking dandelions for greens, and somehow
got poison in a cut finger. This developed into blood poison. By the time the doctor
discovered what was wrong, the poison had settled in her arm where poison lumps had
developed. She was totally incapacitated until September. Edith was put in charge, and
baby Nana May was moved into the bedroom Sally and Edith shared. This was a tough
summer, but life went on as usual.
During the holiday season, the family often received turkeys from the timber
companies that sold posts to the mine. Sometimes they arrived alive. One such turkey
was housed under the front porch. There were about seven steps from the ground to the
21
Burlap bags used as containers for many bulk items, such as animal feed.
Daily News Standard, April 17, 1923, p. 1 Braden sued Mr. Ducker to recover $395 cost of repairs.
23
Nana’s shopping trips into Uniontown were frequently noted in the Uniontown newspaper, apparently
reflecting the social standing of her family in the area.
22
19
porch floor. This whole area was covered with lattice work, and wisteria vines grew from
the ground to the porch ceiling. One of the gift turkeys tried to escape. Van had been put
in charge, and when escape was imminent, he decided to use the B-B gun. The turkey
was duly killed at the appointed time, dressed, and the preacher and his family invited for
dinner. Rev. Steele asked if this was a wild turkey. Braden said, “No.” The Rev. asked
again, and the answer was always no. Finally the Rev. said, “Well, why am I getting
these buck shots when I take a bite?”
Front porch steps. Edith’s on the left holding Patsy. Sally and Gene are
in back, and Nana May and Nana are in front. Pete’s standing in front.
When Caroline was in college in California, Pennsylvania, she desperately wanted
to come home for a turkey dinner. She needed permission from the Dean of Women, so
she told her that they were having a special wild turkey. The Dean hinted that she had
never had wild turkey and would love to try it. Caroline brought her home, and she
thoroughly enjoyed the wild turkey, which wasn’t.
Kitchen and Cooking
The kitchen was large, the biggest room in the house. It was the center of the
family’s life. It was inefficient by modern standards, but had a large wooden workbench.
The top was two very large planks making a width of twenty-four inches and length of
ten feet. Today the top could be compared to a very large butcher block counter.
Underneath were two shelves for large kitchen utensils. It was a good place for extra
people to sit while waiting for fresh baked rolls, bread, pies, cookies and other delights.
The back door opened into the kitchen with the sink on the left and the door to the dining
room on the right. On the far wall were the doors to the basement and hallway to the
living room, parlor and steps to the second floor. Floor-to-ceiling cupboards for dishes
and food were at either end of the work bench. Most of wall opposite the back door was
taken up by the coal cook stove. On another wall was a large slate blackboard like you
would find in a school. This was where Braden explained tough math problems to his
children and others in the neighborhood who needed help. At holiday time, the
20
blackboard was always decorated by a large chalk drawing, usually a turkey. This was
done by a boy whose last name was Mollick. Eventually the cook stove was replaced
with a small coal stove for heat and an electric cook stove installed in front of the
blackboard.
Nana became known as a good cook, but it wasn’t always so. When Ney was
young, Nana hadn’t mastered the making of light, fluffy biscuits. One of Ney’s friends
asked him to get some of his mother’s biscuits because he wanted to kill a goat. Her
younger children never knew about the things she didn’t make so well. They remembered
her special fried spring chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, biscuits, lima beans and pie
meals. Braden tried his hand at biscuits once in a while. One time at dinner Sally
commented to her father that his biscuits were a little heavy. “No wonder,” he said, you
just ate six.” The family had a wealth of biscuit stories. Once when Nana was making
biscuits she couldn’t find her cutter, so she dumped the baking powder out of the can into
a bowl and used the can for the cutter. Braden was the family’s gravy chef. In his
preparation of gravy this day he thought the white stuff in the bowl was flour and put a
goodly amount in the pan. The pan drippings tripled and quadrupled and ran all over the
stove. Everyone was running from the stove to the sink with gravy. The next day the
Siftons, who lived across the road, inquired as to why everyone was running back and
forth across the kitchen.
The Library and Games
Braden kept a large bookcase at the office filled with novels and reference books.
The young people in town used them. It was difficult for the Keister students to stay in
town to use the school library. The number of young people from Keister who obtained a
college education and followed professional careers was astounding for the size of the
community. The majority of the residents were recent immigrants from Italy and Eastern
Europe who worked very hard to educate their children. Six of the eight Leichliter
children went to college.
After Braden’s death Nana distributed his books to any of the families who
wished to take them. Because there were bookcases in every room except the kitchen and
bath, one did not realize how extensive his library was. The collection was wide ranging
and eclectic in nature. In retrospect, it is too bad they are gone and that all the people who
would now appreciate them did not get to peruse them. There were more nonfiction than
fiction.
Braden and Nana exposed their children to the fine arts as much as possible.
Reading aloud was a treat the family enjoyed. The Saturday Evening Post was eagerly
awaited, and when it arrived, Braden read the stories aloud to the children. When the
Leichliters owned a radio, listening to opera was popular.24 The whole house came to a
standstill when “Amos N’ Andy” and “Charlie McCarthy and Edger Bergen” were on the
24
Radio broadcasts of the New York Metropolitan Opera started in 1910. Network broadcasts started in
1931.
21
air. None need ever to have felt that living in a small mining town was a handicap, at
least not this family.
Braden was extremely fond of playing cards. Pinochle was the favorite, and on
weekend evenings anyone who came near, friends and boyfriends of the girls had better
be prepared to stay awhile. Cal Lehman was the most regular card player. Nana always
set the table for breakfast the night before. On some particularly busy days the bread
might not be out of the oven until evening. If someone was playing cards, she might
appear with very fresh bread, butter and onions for sandwiches.
Cal Lehman was a regular visitor at the Leichliters, specializing
in card playing and vigorous consumption of family meals.
Gardening and Chickens
In Playing St. Barbara the author has the main characters identifying the
superintendent’s house by what wasn’t in the yard: “Not a single tomato stake or
beanpole spoiled the property’s perfect uselessness.” 25 This didn’t apply to the
Leichliter’s. Gardening was a major family activity. Braden of course supervised! Nana
was an expert weed-puller, and anyone she taught never forgot. The family had a large
garden at the back of the property, and a smaller kitchen garden near the house for early
spring crops and sweet peas. There was another garden at the company farm. The earliest
crops were leaf lettuce, onions, English peas and white icicle radishes. Next came snap
beans, yellow wax beans, bush limas and no-string pole beans. Even today some
Leichliters are saving the seed from no-string beans because they appear to be otherwise
unavailable. They also raised cucumbers, beets, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots and parsnips.
Potatoes did not grow in the soil. Braden had a hot bed made for starting tomatoes,
peppers and cabbage from seed. Each spring this bed was renewed with manure. Near the
hot bed was an asparagus bed. Blueberries, raspberries and strawberries were later
planted at the back of the property.
Braden believed in planting an adequate quantity of everything. Possibly, this was
insurance so that if the crops were not too good, there would still be enough for the
family. However, it always seemed that there was a bountiful crop, and it irked the kids
25
Marian Szczepanski p. 75.
22
to have to help plant the garden, hoe it, weed it, pick the produce and then at their father’s
insistence deliver some to the neighbors. The neighbors the children resented were those
who “didn’t have time” to plant their own garden. Instead, while the “Super’s Kids” were
out in the hot sun hoeing, sweating and bemoaning the fact that they couldn’t be playing,
these neighbors were sitting aside watching. And, how could they not watch when
Leichliter’s house and garden were in the most conspicuous location in town.
The garden located on the company farm was primarily for the sweet corn crop
and a large cucumber patch. Once the corn crop had been planted and was up about three
or four inches, the no-string beans were planted alongside. This allowed the beans to
grow up the corn stalk. Once the cucumber patch started to produce, it was necessary to
harvest the crop every-other day. During the season, cucumbers soaked in vinegar were
eaten at almost every meal. Most of the cucumbers were made into pickles. Some years
there were well over one hundred quarts. Nana made a special whole, split sweet pickle
which she shared with folks. One family who visited always took home a jar, which they
opened before they got to the top of the hill.
Tomatoes were a favorite, also on the table every meal during the season. Nana
canned whole tomatoes as well as the family’s favorite -- tomato juice. What the
Leichliters called tomato juice is what today most people associate with “V8 Juice.” The
seasonings used were celery, onion, and parsley cooked in a cloth bag alone with the
tomatoes. The juice mixture was put through a ricer or sieve, and sugar, salt and pepper
added. It was then jarred for current consumption, or bottled and processed.26
Corn on the cob was the all-time family favorite. The goal was to pick, clean and
cook the corn before an hour had elapsed. Any member of the family might consume as
many as five or six ears in one meal. Nana usually ate the most. When they had corn, the
meal consisted primarily of vegetables. Huge pots of corn were boiled, and there was
always some left. After the meal, the kernels were cut from the cob and placed in a
shallow pan for drying. The coal range was very hot, but during the summer, the fire was
allowed to go out after the evening meal. The large oven retained heat for quite a few
hours, providing the perfect place for drying. When fully dried the corn was put in a cloth
bag and stored for the winter. This dried corn seemed better than any commercial canned
corn. Vegetable soup was a favorite winter meal, and while the soup was simmering,
adding a handful of dried corn was considered necessary to make the soup acceptable for
consumption.
Some of the family did not like cooked beets, but they loved pickled eggs and
beets. These were made by the crock-full with at least two dozen eggs. They were eaten
at picnics, parties and for Sunday evening cold suppers.
One of Braden favorite foods was corn and tomatoes cooked together. Nana
canned this for him as most of the family was not too fond of this dish. It had been
something his mother fixed. The corn and tomatoes were cooked with seasoning, butter
and thickened with flour.
26
Heated in a pressure cooker or oven to seal the glass jars.
23
The tomatoes received a special fertilizer. At the back of the property, there were
chicken coops. Raising chickens was Nana’s specialty. The chicken’s droppings were
placed in a barrel, and the barrel was filled with water. After this seeped for several days,
the solution was poured about six to eight inches away from the plants. It was strong and
could burn tender seedlings.
At the first indication of spring the boys went to the stable for rotted horse
manure. It was placed on the ground above the rhubarb roots and a barrel placed over this
to give it some additional heat. It would not be very many days before the rhubarb started
to spring through the ground. The children were not too fond of rhubarb pie. Their
favorite was rhubarb sauce. Often there was enough not only for their own use, but for all
the neighbors as well. The asparagus was plentiful and was consumed as fast as the
sprouts appeared.
With all this gardening going on, one year Brad and Pete were inspired to plant
their own garden. Their father gave them a plot near the garage. They planted it with
mostly beans. When they were up to a good size the boys for unknown reasons got into a
fight. Pete, who could be hot headed, said he wouldn’t garden with Brad. So he pulled up
every other bean plant in their shared garden and replanted them in his own garden. They
all grew.
There were peach trees in the chicken yard. In most years they produced an
abundance of fruit. Many jars of peaches were put up for the winter. Outside the chicken
yard were four persimmon trees. They produced a small fruit, not like large southern
persimmon. They absolutely could not be eaten before a good frost because of their
strong alkali flavor. Frost made them sweet and delicious. If eaten before a frost one had
the worst puckered up mouth possible. Even though all knew better, every fall it had to be
tried again. It was fun to offer an early one to an unsuspecting city visitor or cousin.
Berry Picking
Berry picking was a big activity for most of the boys. The first crop was
dewberries. These are similar to black berries, except the vines are low and run on the
ground. They seemed thrive on the poorest type of bare land, and once started, just took
over. The John Croft place was sort of rundown, so what had originally been pastures and
meadows became briar patches. When the berries started to ripen, Mr. Croft would advise
the young people that picking berries was permitted, but half of the berries had to be
given to him. He told Braden that if his the kids wished to pick berries the rule did not
hold, but the Leichliters had to identify themselves each time they went to pick. Most
often Mr. Croft would be out in the berry patch, and invariably he was barefooted. It was
most unbelievable how a barefoot man could walk through those fields infested with
briars and dewberry vines.
About the time the dewberries would finish up, blackberries would start ripening.
They grew in many more places around the community. The cycle was repeated, out
24
early in the morning to pick berries to bring home for jellies and pies. During the
blackberry season, it seemed that more of the older people were out picking berries.
Often one could see old miners and coke drawers27 coming in from the berry fields
carrying heaping full ten to twelve quart buckets in each hand. After several days of
seeing these same men carrying the berries, one would wonder how it was possible to
make so many pies or that much jam or jelly. So, upon inquiry of these old gentlemen,
they would reply, “Oh, I maka jelly in a barrel.” Jelly in the barrel was of course wine.
Some of the blackberry wine they made was delightfully tasty and potent.
The Leichliters canned blackberries because nothing could beat a wintertime
blackberry pie. Anywhere from fifty to one hundred quarts went into the basement fruit
cellar. The children preferred blackberry jam over the jelly. This now seems hard to
understand because jam differs from the jelly in that seeds are not removed. The jam
spread about half an inch think on a big chunk of homemade bread could not be beat.
One other berry which found its way into jars in the cellar was blueberries. These
wild blueberries were pure ambrosia in pies and tarts, especially in the winter. The men
from West Virginia who brought mine timbers to the plant often came with them large
buckets of wild blueberries which they called huckleberries. Braden was always delighted
to purchase them. In later years Edith, Aaron, the Hoover children, and anyone who could
endure starting before sun-up, the long trip, heat, cow pies, a possible encounter with a
rattlesnake, and bending over to pick, went along. The destination was the Rodeheaver
farm in Preston County, northern West Virginia. Aaron was fond of finding alternative
routes to the farm, even if fording streams was required. The crew first had to check-in at
the farm house with Ethel the matron of the family. This was a true mountain farm and
she was the epitome of a mountain woman.28
Grape Juice, Blood Thinner and Root Beer
From the back porch to the garage was a grape arbor about 150 feet long. The
vines were planted rather close on both sides of the walk. The walk was originally a
wooden board walk, but in later years it was replaced with large flat stones, often uneven.
The grapevines grew from both sides to form a shady canopy. Most of the vines were
blue concord with some white sweet grapes at the far end. For many years, one of the
immigrant men from Italy kept the vines properly trimmed. The annual harvest could be
as much as a ton of grapes. The neighbors and city friends shared the harvest. Much of
the harvest became grape juice along with grape sunshine (jelly). The finished juice
product Nana made was very thick and had to be watered down when used.
27
When the coke was ready to withdraw from the ovens the brick doors were taken down and long-handled
hoes used to drag the coke out.
28
Indications included high button shoes, long cotton dresses, free-range chickens with her kitchen part of
the range, buckwheat batter kept year round on the wood stove, and no screen door.
25
Grape arbor
One year Braden put a lot of wild grapes in a crock. The plan was that later Nana
would make wild-grape jelly. For whatever reason she did not get around to it, and the
grapes turned to wine. And, by accident, very good wine, which was strained and bottled.
Another job for early spring, as soon as the ground started to thaw, was digging
sassafras roots. As a pioneer species29 and the abundance of disturbed land nearby, it was
easy to find. The boys dug down to the roots, cut out sections and take them home to dry.
After they dried for about a week, the peelings of the roots were pared off and these dried
further. Then when a cup of sassafras tea was needed to “thin the blood” after the cold
winter, one just poured boiling water on a small portion of the parings.30
In addition to an occasional glass of wine and sassafras tea, homemade root beer
was consumed. Before the other “Coke” was available, the Leichliters made root beer, as
did may other families throughout the country. Glass bottles with wire caps that snapped
on to seal or a bottle capper was used. The recipe was water, yeast, commercial root beer
extract and sugar. Growth of the yeast provided carbonization. This of course took
several weeks, eliminating immediate gratification. Bottles could explode, but rarely.
Nana made her own bread, six to eight loaves at a time. Sometimes she reserved
some of the dough and made doughnuts. Parker House rolls were her specialty. She made
apple butter in the fall but only with boiled down cider from Ben Rodeheaver in West
Virginia. The cider came in crocks and was kept in the fruit cellar. Special were olives
also kept there, large green ones with seeds. The Leichliters like olives, but they were not
common in stores. Braden bought a whole keg of olives. Instead of canning them they
kept just fine in the barrel. Anytime one of the children was sent to the basement for
canned food or potatoes, they snitched a few olives.
29
Tree species that are the first to invade barren land. They usually have light seeds that disperse with the
wind.
30
Sassafras was commonly used for tea by Native Americans. Your cardiologist is unlikely to prescribe it
but herbalists frequently recommend it for several other medicinal purposes.
26
Making Sauerkraut
Braden was quite fond of cooking some things. But he did not clean up. He was
especially fond of making chili sauce. His recipe included ripe tomatoes, celery, parsley,
spices and peppers of several varieties. It was canned in glass jars for use in the winter.
Another of Braden’s food preparation chores was making sauerkraut. He owned a kraut
cutter - a large wooden box with a couple of knives in it, and a smaller box which slide
inside the trough.
Kraut cutter
Kraut stomper
The cutter was placed on top of a barrel. A head of cabbage was placed in the smaller box
and slid back-and-forth across the knifes. When a large quantity of loose cabbage was
attained, coarse salt was sprinkled over it. Then, the cabbage was crushed with a
homemade stomper - a large wooden slug with a pipe handle. This cycle was repeated
until the barrel was almost filled, or until Braden thought there would be adequate kraut.
The barrel was then covered with a wooden lid that fit on top of the cabbage and a weight
placed on it. In due time an odiferous fermentation process took over, resulting in kraut.
The kraut barrel was not kept in the house during the fermentation process. It was kept at
the base of the stairwell for the outside exit to the basement. Once the kraut was ripe, it
was put in quart jars and canned; however, kraut making was usually done in the fall. If
the weather turned cold, it could be kept outdoors without spoiling.
One year kraut making created a major “seek and find” challenge. Shortly after
the kraut had worked and canned Braden missed his Masonic ring. Everyone in the
family came to the conclusion that it must be in a kraut jar. Many quarts had been given
away, so friends were questioned. Towards spring when the last jar left on the shelf was
opened -- there was the cleanest ring anyone ever saw!
Many immigrant miners, coke drawers, and other residents also made sauerkraut,
a staple source of vitamin C. Instead of using a wooden stomper, they used their feet.
When the kraut was stomped by foot power, the feet were washed thoroughly, and clean
cotton socks were put on. This really was not so unsanitary and probably more practical
than a stomper. Nana never used any of the kraut that these people shared with the
family.
The fall season was not complete to Braden unless he could make a few special
items he particularly enjoyed, such as souse. Souse is made by boiling pig’s feet. After
27
the meat has cooked off the bones, the bones and excess fat are removed. The result is a
gelatinous matter with bits of pork in it. It looks like clear Jello. Salt, pepper and vinegar
are added, and it is kept in a cool place. The other delicacy Braden made was something
resembling Pennsylvania Dutch scrapple. It helps achieve the “everything but the squeal”
approach to hog processing. It is made from some of the less desirable components of the
hog with corn meal added. It turns out as a loaf and can be sliced like meat loaf. Edith
was about the only one who would eat the souse and scrapple. Braden was pleased when
Edith’s husband Aaron, turned out to be a man who enjoyed these items and even knew
how to make them.
In the fall the children tramped the woods for whatever might be available to eat.
Wild grapes were often found and gathered. Nana made wonderful wild-grape jelly. The
blackhaw31 fruit was normally used for jelly, but could be eaten after a good frost.
Redhaw32 berries were not so tasty, but these children were willing to try anything. There
was always a preponderance of wild crabapples. Nana would always send someone out to
gather these when the elderberries were ripe, because the elderberries needed something
to help them jell. A favorite treat was Nana’s molasses cookies with elderberry jelly.
With the gardening and fruit gathering few commodities had to be purchased at
the store. Store eggs were called “case eggs” and usually not fresh. Nana preferred to
have her own fresh eggs, so she raised chickens. Thus, they had fresh eggs most of the
year. Pete and Brad were charged with periodically cleaning out the chicken coops and
gathering eggs. There were always some roosters along with the hens so that new peeps
could be hatched in the spring. As mentioned, one of the favorite meals was homegrown
“springers”33 for Sunday dinner. By the way, Nana also killed and cleaned her own
chickens by wringing their necks and chopping the head off with a huge knife. A large
stump of a tree was always in place in the chicken yard for this purpose.
In the wintertime Pete and Brad were sent to the company stable for oats. They
would spread a thin layer of oats in a flat wooden box, soak it with water, and put it in the
basement where it was nice and warm because of the steam heat in the house. These oats
would sprout, and after they reached a height of three or four inches, the box would be set
in the coops so the chickens would have some green material during the cold winter
months. This was supposed to help them lay.
One time Nana found one of her chickens out of the chicken yard lying dead near
Pete’s garden. Nana asked him what happened to that chicken. He said, “I only nipped it
in the feathers with a stone.” Many years later Pete’s confessed another version of the
story. Mrs. Longdon was at the house helping Nana do some baking, and they needed
another egg. They sent Pete to the chicken house where a hen refused to get off the nest
and was quite vocal about this situation. Pete had to scare it with a stone.
31
Viburnum prunifolium, a large shrub with black raisin-like berries in late fall.
Crataegus monogyna, a large shrub with red berries used as a heart tonic.
33
Young chickens
32
28
Milk
For many years fresh milk was not handled at the company store.34 Most people
bought canned milk, the large size can. All the alleys seemed to have plenty of the Pet or
Carnation brand milk cans. The town children used to stomp their heels into these cans,
and one would attach itself to the heel of the shoe. When they had done this to each heel,
they would run and stomp like horses. The noise was a wonderful clatter on hard
pavement, but very hard on shoes.
Fresh milk was brought into town by one of the farmers who lived nearby. For
quite a few years, a Mrs. Garber appeared at the back door every morning about breakfast
time and ask how many quarts of milk were needed. She carried a large five gallon can
and had a quart measure. She would measure out the requested volume. At this particular
time, the youngest member of the family was Retta Gene. She would be in her high chair
at the table with the rest of the family, and Mrs. Garber would just reach in and pour
some milk to fill Gene’s glass. When Gene was about three years old, the testing of all
cows for tuberculosis was conducted, and almost all of Mrs. Garber’s cows gave a
positive test. The herd had to be disposed of. When that occurred, one or more of the milk
companies located in the Uniontown started door-to-door delivery. Also, the butcher shop
started to keep fresh milk. The butcher shop now had refrigeration, and milk and meat
could be safely kept.
Most everyone who worked in the mine or the coke yard carried their noonday
lunch from home. Cold cuts were a treat, but when the butcher got a slicing machine,
sales of cold cuts increased. The whole town started eating chipped beef. Shortly after the
coming of the slicing machine, an electric grinder was put into operation. Prior to that
time, ground meat was not sold in the butcher shop. If a person wanted to make meatloaf
or some other dish requiring ground meat they used a hand-powered meat grinder. With
the new meat grinder, the whole town went wild for hamburger. There were lines in the
butcher shop waiting to buy anywhere from one to five pounds. Hamburgers for most
children were obtained only when they were in Uniontown, and then most people did not
feel they could afford them.
Another red letter day was when the ice cream company started to package it in
half-pint, pint, and quart paper containers. The pint cost about fifteen cents. The first
summer the company store sold packages of ice cream, there was a run on it. Hordes of
people would be standing outside the store on the porch, leaning on the railing eating
their ice cream.
34
The company store was essential, but controversial, for a company town. Purchases were made on credit
drawn against workers’ wages. Often credit exceeded wages. The alternative was to go into Uniontown
since most of the closer towns also had company stores. But, most families had limited transportation.
29
Water Supply
None of the homes in Keister had running water except those on “Millionaire
Row”35 and a few foreman’s homes. The community water supply was provided by
various wells throughout town. The well nearest Leichliters was pumped by compressed
air. By opening a value, the water was blown up. This was the drinking water, and it was
carried by bucket to the houses. Imagine having to do so for daily baths for coal-black
men, and stacks of coal-black work cloths. The Leichliters kept a large blue and gray
crock with a spigot on the workbench for drinking water. The other water source was the
Paint Hollow Reservoir, but it was not potable. There were hydrants spotted at intervals
throughout town for washing water. On Mondays, water was carried to homes to be
heated on the range for doing wash. On wash day, everyone hoped the wind blew the
plant dirt away from town.
The Paint Hollow Reservoir about four miles from Keister was the primary source
of water for the plant. The largest volume was used to quench the coke,36 discussed later.
It had a surface area of fifteen to twenty acres, and was quite deep, particularly at the
breast end. Access to the reservoir was by heading toward Upper Middletown and cutting
across the John Craft farm, which was just opposite the old Krepps farm. The road,
actually a lane, crossed the Craft farm, and wound down into the valley where the
reservoir was located. There was one residence between the Craft farm and the gate into
the reservoir. This was a two story house which appeared to be a shack. It was occupied
by Bennie Barkas. He was quite old when the Leichliters went there, and he supposedly
had lived there for many years. His trade was carpentry, but no one ever knew where he
applied it. The hollow in which the reservoir was located was supposedly named for an
old black man named Payne. He lived in the old house long before Barkus. The
pronunciation of Payne somehow was distorted, and most people referred to the hollow
as “Paint Hollow.” This name was really was not inappropriate, because even though the
smoke from the coke ovens of the towns in the area denuded the hillsides, killing all the
vegetation in their proximity, this valley was spared that disgrace and supported all types
of trees and plants.
To provide adequate pressure, wooden tanks were located throughout the coke
yard. There was one near yard No. 4 and one at the end of yard No. 3. Water came from
the town reservoir. These wooden vats were about twenty-five feet tall and about twentyfive feet in diameter. They sat on huge stone piers, and a quarter-inch iron hoops were
placed around the wood staves at intervals of about every thirty inches. That amount of
water is quite heavy, so good reinforcement was needed.
The first row of houses when the town is entered from the west anchored by the Super’s house on the
corner.
36
Soak with water to stop the burning process in the oven and as the coke is withdrawn.
35
30
Nana, and Patsy and Becky Hoover fishing from
breast work of dam forming the reservoir.
The water body with small cabin.
Christmas Traditions
Christmas was always a special time for the family. There was a program at the
church and Sunday School treats of an orange and a box of candy. The company provided
treats of candy and fruit for the children.
The Leichliter’s always had a Christmas tree. The decorations were pink and
white popcorn, and many strings of cranberries. Stockings were hung on the bed railings.
Santa filled them with tangerines and candy. No one was allowed downstairs until
everyone was up and the beds made. The children were generally up around four AM.
They dumped their stocking in the middle of one bed to make sure everyone got the same
amount. Braden went downstairs first with the smallest child and everyone else followed
behind. They opened their packages before breakfast. Christmas breakfast was buckwheat
cakes and sausage. The buckwheat batter was sour dough aged on the back of the stove in
preparation for the big day.
31
Christmas dinner was late in the afternoon and consisted of turkey and trimmings,
homemade cranberry sauce, dried corn and plum pudding. For gifts, the girls got dolls.
Everyone got books, wind-up toys and always a spinning top. There were sleds and
skates for whomever needed them. The children did not receive clothing until they were
older. After dinner, neighbors were visited or everyone went sledding if there was snow.
Nana gave gifts to the bosses at the plant. They were things like pillow slips, tablecloths,
towels or other practical items.
Up Summit Mountain
One might assume that with the size of the family and the difficulty of travel, it
would be just as easy to stay home. The Leichliters did not. In the summer, there were
picnic trips up the Summit Mountain south of Uniontown. Often these picnics were with
other families. A family expression that lasted for years to come came from these
excursions. It was “Pass him on the right, Pap!’ The Bennetts often went picnicking with
the Leichliters, and on the very long, slow trip up the Summit, the Bennett boys would
yell for their dad to pass Braden and his family.
Part of the fascination with the Summit Mountain may have come from the fact
that Braden did so much business up there and knew many mountain people. In the
mountains beyond Uniontown, the Keisters owned quite a few thousand acres of valuable
timber. Some of this was virgin timber. At one time the Keisters let a contract for some of
the people living in the mountains to cut timber props which were hauled to the plant at
Keister in one of the first motor trucks. Timbers were used in the mine to hold up the
roof. The truck was a Mack with a chain drive from the engine back to the rear wheels.
It was driven by a fellow named Ken Myers. His family had a farm in the
mountains, and the family had known Braden for years. Another family Barden’s visited
in the mountains were the Bakers.
Uniontown was about seven miles from Keister and from Uniontown to
Hopwood, at the foot of the mountain was about two miles. The big haul then was to get
over the Summit. The old Mack truck barely crawled up this steep grade even when
empty. The road was part of U.S. Route 40, known as the National Pike. Coming back
down with a load of timbers was a slow and tedious process. In addition to the steep
grade, there were two very sharp curves to negotiate. At one of these curves there was a
32
fabulous spring and a large watering trough used by teamsters for their horses. It was a
good place for them to hydrate and rest. In later years it was also a good stop off for
descending vehicles traveling too fast and in danger of overturning. For ascending
vehicles it was a necessary stop to replenish overheated and boiling radiators.
Source: http://www.minerd.com/nationalroad.htm
As if summers were not busy enough, the Leichliter kids brought people home.
The boys went off to college and offered their friends summer jobs at Keister; also board
and room. While at Penn State Van brought Ken Glass for several summers. Lee
Woodward, who was the son of the manager of the plant in West Virginia spent many
summers with the family. The end to all this came when Sally brought home a friend
from Indiana Normal School to stay while her mother went to Europe. As Nana often
said, “I soon sent her packing.”
Automobiles
Braden’s first automobile was an EMF. The E stood for ERVAY, and no one
remembers what the other two letters indicated.37 The EMF had a special meaning as far
as Cal Lehman, the master mechanic, and several of his helpers were concerned. EMF
meant “Every Monday Fix” and that was just about the case if the automobile had been
used on Sunday.
Later Braden had a 7-passanger Nash. In addition to the front and back seats,
there were two pulldown or jump seats between them. When the whole family went on a
Sunday excursion there could be ten people in it. It got quite crowded. Most times there
were a few children in the car who were not members of the family. The kids took friends
along. On one particular occasion, they were driving through a small mining town, and
some of children stopped and looked at vehicles then because they were rather rare. One
comment heard from a child was, “My God, look at the kids.” Although it looked like
there were thirty or forty in the car, there were only ten or eleven.
37
See http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z14252/EMF-Model-30.aspx
33
When the Whistle Blew at Night
One evening the folks were awakened by the shrill blast of the steam whistle on
the boiler plant, signaling a fire. It was in the area of the barn. It turned out to be the
wagon shed and the garage where the cars were stored. The buildings were a total loss.
The Nash which now belonged to the boys was there, and it was a total loss.
In later years, the town was awakened by shrill blasts on the whistle, and this time
the brick barn was on fire. The barn had electric lights, and it was customary in the
morning, when the horses were to start work, to go in and turn on the lights. The horses
knew it was time to leave the barn. When the fire was discovered, someone was
thoughtful enough to turn on the lights, and then just run down the middle of the barn and
unchain the chains at each manger, open the gates, and the horses just walked out of the
barn as though it was time to go to work. No horses were lost. There was extensive
damage to the roof, but this was replaced in short order. The loss was minimal
considering that no valuable animals were lost.
Fun and Relaxation at the Reservoir
It was natural for the reservoir to serve as the primary recreation site for Braden
and his family, and their friends. Braden eventually had the reservoir stocked with fish. A
small cottage was built, and summer family gatherings were often held there. Fourth of
July was now at the reservoir. Company visitors were entertained as well as friends of
everyone in the family. Braden and Nana liked to fish at night, and when all the children
were older, they often went there at dusk. There were several rowboats, Braden fished,
and Nana rowed. Braden didn’t clean the fish he caught. The children and Nana were
pretty good at scaling bass and crappies.
Braden and Nana with their catch at Payne Hollow reservoir.
In the summer, Brad and his friends enjoyed going to the reservoir where they
would sit on the edge of the breastwork of the dam and shoot heads off copperhead
snakes. Just over the breast of the dam were bushes and rocks where water snakes
sunned. With a little success, these snakes could be grabbed alive. The guys became
proficient at grabbing them, then giving them a quick snap of the tail, and watching the
34
heads fly off. One time Brad thought the science lab at the high school needed a snake, so
he rolled one of these harmless water snakes up and put it up his sleeve. He took it with
him on the bus. He made a mistake and told one of the young girls on the bus what he
had. She promptly fainted and had to be taken home from school. The principal called
Brad into the office about this, and his father heard about it, too.
Retirement
The talk among the town kids was that the Leichliters were so rich they had
money buried in the basement. It seems hard to believe, but at the time the plant closed
and Braden retired, his salary was barely three thousand dollars. Some members of the
family would say that Nana was the money manager. Braden tended to be extravagant,
and on several occasions he invested money, which he lost. The Woodland Plant in West
Virginia and Jersey Cereal were two of his bad investments.
There was no retirement plan then and luckily, there was Social Security which
started during Braden’s years of employment. He had government bonds and a small
insurance policy with Mutual of Omaha which along with social security provided Nana
enough for living at home and three years in the nursing home. The house was sold for
$2,763 which helped with the nursing home her last year. Van also provided financial
support.
In the years after the children were gone, Nana began to quilt with women from
the church. She had quilted years before. As the women were all up in years, they came
to Nana’s house where the quilting frames were set up in the dining room. The women
came in the morning and stayed for lunch.
At this time some granddaughters who lived nearby saw this quilting in operation,
and for one it became a profitable and artistic venture. Those nice tiny stitches Nana
taught and insisted upon were worth learning. Edith and Retta Gene found quilting a
wonderful pastime during their retirement.
One did not have to be wealthy to have a lot in those years. People who were by
nature kind and generous were truly wealthy. There was a sick girl in the community who
needed milk and oranges everyday. The doctor had prescribed this diet as the only thing
to keep her alive. Nana and Edith, who was teaching at the time provided this everyday.
The child survived. For some reason, there was a family whose children never had lunch.
Every morning for several months, they knocked on the door, and Nana handed them a
packed lunch.
Beyond elementary school, the only fee paid for further schooling was for bus
transportation. Braden paid this fee for a family whose children were bright and would
not have otherwise gone on to school past the eighth grade.
This was a family who cared.
35
THE COMMUNITY
Keisterville is located in Fayette County, Menallen Township, about halfway
between Uniontown and Brownsville. It is just off the old National Pike, known as Route
40, at Searight’s Crossroads.38 Until the mine and coking operations were permanently
shut down these operations and the community were one and the same, a company town.
Newspaper articles used the term “Keister works” to refer to events at either the
operations or the residential area. The term “company town” is most appropriate.
The mine was opened, the coke ovens constructed, and housing built for workers’
families shortly after 1900 by Lincoln Coal and Coke Company.39 The company was
chartered in 1904, preceded by the purchase of land and coal rights. The coal block
consisted of about 1000 acres. This was bituminous coal, commonly known as soft coal,
and was high grade.40 It was particularly desirable for the manufacture of metallurgical
coke.41 This area fell just within the renowned Connellsville Coke Region. Throughout
the area, there were many mining operations as well as coking operations. To an extent,
they were all very similar; however; Keister, had unique features. This was the home of
the Leichliters, a family raised with the mining operations. They were an integral part of
the broad community, not above it. It was the place of childhood and young adult
memories for a large family. `
The community of Keister is located on what was originally the Sammy
Woodward Farm. The farmhouse itself became the residence of the mine foreman. The
big barn that was used by Sammy was used for storage of various parts and equipment by
the company.
When the Keister people bought the initial tract of coal, there were several acres
that lay to the west side of the valley in which the main outcrop occurred. The coal seam
was missing in the valley itself. There was no access to those few acres from the major
block of coal. A separate entryway was built into this small acreage, and while the main
mine was being opened and the tipple built, the small mine was started. By the time the
main mine was operating the No. 1 block had been built, so the coal from the little mine
was available to start the coking process.
38
Searights Tavern was halfway between Uniontown and Brownsville. It was a large stone building on the
northeast corner of the road, at the crossing of the great drovers’ road from Grave Creek, Virginia to
Bedford, Pennsylvania. Searights was more than a wagoners and drovers way station. It was also where
locals went for a night’s dancing and festivities. (Thomas B. Searight. 1894. The Old Pike: A History of the
National Road, Uniontown, PA, reprinted by Heritage Classics, ISBN 1-55613-407-X, p. 244-249.) The
foundation remained through the 1970’s. (Current status unknown)
39
The name comes from the company’s founder, Abraham Lincoln Keister
40
See http://www.coalcampusa.com/westpa/klondike/klondike.htm
41
Iron ore, limestone and coke are placed in a blast furnace to produce iron. The coke provides the heat.
36
There was no coal crusher, so this coal was put into the oven as it came from the
mine. Coal coming directly from the mine is commonly referred to as “run-of-the-mine
coal.” It may have powder and lumps of a variety of sizes. The coal that the inhabitants
of Keister used in their various stoves was run-of-the-mine coal; however, once the big
tipple was built and the crusher put into operation, all the coal used in the coking process
was crushed to pea size or smaller.
42
A railroad track was built from the mine opening, which was on the east side of
the valley, almost at the southern extremity of this north-south trending valley. The
railroad tracks came down alongside the company store, actually between the store and
the superintendent’s residence. It then continued in a northerly direction, by the company
office and followed the contour in the northerly direction down the valley to the No. 1
coke yard.
Keister did not have a post office until the coal was almost worked out. The mail
came through the Waltersburg Post Office. There were boxes at the company store, and
Ed Franks, the stable boss, had a contract to go to Waltersburg each day to pick up the
Keister mail and deliver it to J. W. Davis, the company store manager for distribution.
Before Brad was of school age, he would accompany Mr. Franks to Waltersburg, only of
course, on the days when the weather was favorable. It was about a three mile ride, and
Mr. Franks drove Wyn, either with a buggy or a spring wagon. The post office in
Waltersburg was located on this side of the wooden bridge that crossed Redstone Creek.
Brad looked forward each day for Mr. Franks to pull the buggy or wagon up alongside
the fence, and as soon as he would do so, Brad would dash to the fence to be lifted over
and into the buggy. Nana always had to approve these trips. When the town finally got a
post office, it became Keisterville.
Company Store
The company store was known as the “F. O. Keister Supply.” It was a cradle-tograve operation and the primary store for most of the company employees. It was a
United Quality Store, a purchasing cooperative allowing goods to be sold at a lower
price43. It was the only company store listed in the newspaper ads for these items. This
implies that it sold goods at competitive prices.
Apparently employees could take payment in company script or cash. The script
was used for purchases at the store. It was issued in amounts from $1 to $10 by a
company employee called a “check girl.” She had a telephone connection with the
This means that the children of Keisterville’s families did not suffer the indignity of working in a
“breaker.” In the hard coal region of Pennsylvania the mines used children in the breakers to pick out the
slate from the coal as in came out of the mine, and in some cases also use hammers to break-up the large
pieces of coal. W.G. Williams in The Coal King’s Slaves: A Coal Miner’s Story describes this work and has
a photo of what the dust and dirt did to the children.
43
Uniontown Morning Herald, May 15, 1933, p. 5.
42
37
company office in Scottsdale, and before a check was issued, she was obligated to receive
approval from the bookkeeper.44
The store was a large wooden structure with a full basement, a first floor and a
second floor. The butcher shop was separate from the grocery shop. There was a handpowered elevator used to take commodities received through a double door at the
basement to the first or second floor. There was also a steam-powered ice plant. Steam
was provided from the company boiler plant. Steam radiators heated the store.
A spur of the Pennsylvania Railroad was built from Waltersburg into Keister. At
the very end of the coke yard, a small station house was built, and a passenger train
served the town as well as the freight trains. The shifting engine came in each day to pick
up the loaded coke cars, and sometimes there would be loaded coal cars. The engineer
would bring in the empties which were to be filled the following day and under the
direction of a car shifter would place the cars for loading. Often when the engines were
brought in, supplies would arrive on the same train. Posts or timbers for the mine were
sometimes brought by the carload. Hay, oats and corn might also be delivered. The
company store had two adjacent storage sheds with a railroad siding. In the early days of
the mining operation, most commodities came by boxcar. Flour would be delivered in
100-pound sacks. Dry beans, rice, and other dry items arrived in large quantities.
Such things as bulk flour, beans, rice and sugar were stored in the warehouse.
During the slower parts of the day, the employees stocked the shelves and repackaged
many items. In other words, beans were weighed out and packaged in one pound, two
pound or five pound sacks. This was true of many products. Otherwise, when one
shopped, the clerk just scooped the amount wanted out of the big bins, tubs or barrels.
The store’s head clerk for many, many years was Grover Whetsel, a resident of
Upper Middletown, Pennsylvania. Grover was very conscientious and appeared to want
everyone to know that he was extremely honest. A story goes that when Grover weighed
out soup beans or dried beans, he was certain to be most precise. In fact, it was claimed
that he would bite a soup bean in half to get a precise weight. So, he was often referred to
as “Bean Biter.” Another incident concerning Bean Biter supposedly had to do with
cookies. If the scale did not weigh what the customer asked for, he just bit a cookie in
two and one portion he ate, the other went in the bag.
The refrigeration plant was used primarily for the meat coolers because meat was
received as sides and had to be cut. The quantities of store bought items purchased were,
in many cases, too large to carry, so the store provided delivery. The company stable
furnished a horse and wagon, and the store hired a driver for deliveries. In later years, a
truck was used. In about 1946, the store burned to the ground in a blazing inferno. This
made all the papers in western Pennsylvania. The fire was so hot and fierce that the paint
on the Leichliter’s house was blistered, and it was feared it would go.
44
Company script as payment instead of cash was a handicap for many employees since they had no cash
to shop anywhere else. The harm was minimal if the prices at the company store were competitive.
38
Paydays
Payday, of course, was a big day. They were the 10th and 25th of each month.
Payment was always in hard cash. The records of actual work and the computations were
computed by the bookkeeper in the office. This information was transferred to the head
office in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and the First National Bank of Scottdale prepared the
payroll. The bank was owned by some of the Keisters. Each employee had a number that
appeared on an envelope with explanations of earnings and deductions. At the bottom
was the total amount paid.
Payday cash was picked up on payday by a group consisting of the Super Braden; the town watchman - Obediah Gwynn; and several other supervisory employees.
The caravan usually consisted of two cars; however, on some days three were used. The
route from Keister to Scottdale was varied so any potential robbers would not know
ahead of time the exact route. Also, each car carried a leather bag, but only one of these
bags had the cash. When the bags were picked up at the bank, the people in the cars did
not know which contained the cash – only the Super knew. Before the automobile came
into use, the payroll was shipped by rail and again adequate guarding was necessary. In
the many years of its operation there was never an attempted robbery. All guards or
personnel in the caravan were armed – rifles, shot guns and pistols. There were many
years of strikes, and after these, submachine guns were available but never used. Once in
a while, Edith went in one of the cars, and as she often said, “Rode shotgun.”
Water Supply
At the height of the coking operation at Keister, there were about 400 ovens. The
quenching of the coke ovens before the coke could be drawn required a large volume of
water, so an adequate water supply was required. The reservoir located about four miles
from Keister was built and a pump station installed. The pumper who operated the pumps
was provided with a house at the location. His station had a company telephone, which
was connected to the company office and to the boiler plant in the mine. The boiler that
provided steam for the pumps used coal, and this coal was hauled from the mine to the
pumping station under a contract. Mr. Osborne had this contract for years and used a
wagon and two horses. During the winter months, with the ice and snow, it was not
practical to haul a lot of coal, so during good weather it was stockpiled.
The other source of water was a large bowl-type reservoir built in 1903 on the
highest point of the town.45 It was supplied from the Payne Hollow Reservoir. The town
reservoir cost $30,000 and held 39,000,000 gallons of water. This water was used for the
coke ovens and houses. One and one-third miles of eight-inch pipe were laid to distribute
water to hydrants. Each one supplied four blocks of houses.
The reservoir in town was off limits; no swimming allowed. It was mounded with
dirt on the outside. The lining was a layer of cemented bricks, making the reservoir leak
45
Connellsville Courier, August 7, 1903, p. 2
39
proof. The water was pumped from the big reservoir into this smaller one, and then into
the wooden tanks along the coke ovens. This water was relatively pure, however, it was
not potable. The horse stable used this water, and it was also pumped into the mine for
the horses to drink while working. It was not uncommon for algae to build up in the brick
lined reservoir, so about every two or three years, it was drained and cleaned. This was a
big occasion in the town for the younger children, because the unannounced word was
that once the men had scrubbed and cleaned the reservoir and fresh water was pumped in,
it was open for swimming. This was the one time it was permitted. Most of the children
were not able to swim, but every kid in town showed up for the occasion. It was really a
hilarious affair. Few, if any, of the children had bathing suites, so either their
underclothes were worn or some makeshift homemade type bathing suit put together by
mothers. It seemed that as soon as the water was about a foot deep and everyone was
splashing everyone else, few garments remained on any of the children. It was a fun time.
When the water got to waist level, all the kids were run off so that there would be no
danger of someone drowning.
Two years are its completion two boys drowned in the town reservoir while ice
skating.46 No one else was present at the time of the tragedy. They were Robert DePriest,
seven-year old son of Superintendent Robert DePriest, and William King, seven-year old
son of Edward King, a blacksmith. Future accidents were reduced by construction of a
high wooden paling fence surrounding the reservoir. Above the palings were two strands
of barbed wire about two feet high. The only entrance was a large padlocked gate.
Despite this measure at least one other child drowned. Somehow access was obtained.
The edge of the reservoir was slippery because of algae. The explanation was that this
caused the child to slip in and drown.
Despite the “NO Swimming” rule, Brad and his good friend Milton Bush liked to
swim in the forbidden reservoir. Christmas was their favorite time to succumb to this sin.
They were “Polar Bears” before polar bear clubs existed. The family did not know this
until someone “Spilled the beans.” They always went on nice sunshiny days, removed
their long-handled underwear, which they hung on a big oak tree. They loved the thrill of
diving through the thin ice, having a quick swim under the water and then to jump out,
shake off and hurriedly get dressed.
Housing
A variety of houses were built and rented to employees. The superintendent’s was
just opposite the company store, and it, with two other similar dwellings and the company
farm house, were more or less in a row. Outsiders referred to these houses as
“millionaire’s row.” The head bookkeeper usually occupied the house next to the
superintendent’s. Sometimes the yard foreman resided in this house. The house adjacent
to the yard foreman was occupied by the company doctor, E. H. Rebok, MD. His office
and a waiting room were in a separate building built on the same lot as his house.
46
Connellsville Courier, March 10, 1905, p. 1
40
Excluding millionaire’s row, there were four types of dwellings. For the
immigrant bachelors, there were shacks or shanties. These were wooden structures with
just one room. The stove was coal-burning and furnished the heat and means for cooking.
These workers had a cot or some small sofa for sleeping.
A majority of the houses were duplexes. There were two rooms on the first floor
and two rooms upstairs in each unit. In these houses, as in most others, the back porch
was often boarded up or enclosed and could be used for washing and other household
activities. Most houses had a cellar or basement used primarily for storage.
There were also bungalows. This was a four-room wooden structure on a separate
lot. It was a single family dwelling. They also had a basement, at least under half of the
house. There were more duplexes in the community than bungalows. All the houses had
front and back porches, and up the garden path at the back of the lot was the outhouse.
None of the homes except on millionaire row and a few foremen’s homes had
running water. Neither did they have electricity. Light was from coal oil lamps, which
burned kerosene or coal oil. Heating was with coal and the range in the kitchen provided
adequate heat for that portion of the house. A vent out into the room above the kitchen
allowed some heat from the stove to heat the upstairs room. An open fireplace or a coaltype heater was often used. During the summer, some people did not use a coal stove for
cooking but instead used a small kerosene stove.
Each home had a fenced yard, and most people had a garden. In addition, a few
people had ducks and/or geese, and many had chickens. Some even had their own brick
ovens and baked their bread each week in these.47 At several places on the edge of town,
the company had built cow stables for rent. This allowed quite a few families to have
their own cow and thus a source of milk, buttermilk, and other dairy products.
During the strike, the men who weren’t paying rent were moved out of company
houses. They were put in shacks at the end of town which became known as the “back
patch.”
In the early days, there was a boarding house which could accommodate four
people. This was used primarily for people who were required to do inspections at the
mines. The boiler inspector as well as the state mine inspector sometimes required several
days to complete their tasks. Occasionally, some mechanical specialist was needed and
had to remain in town overnight. This small boarding house maintained by Mrs. Hager
was most adequate. There was one other facility, the so-called “Red Onion”48 where
some of the school teachers stayed, at least through the week. Most of the teachers at the
public school did not live close enough to commute. The name Red Onion, seems to have
come from the fact that most of the women who resided there were old maids.
47
48
This was a common practice in many of the resident’s country of origin.
An apparent sexual euphemism from the old country.
41
Religion
Keisterville had two churches – St. Casimir49 Roman Catholic Church and
Protestant Union Church. The building used for Protestant services was built in 1905 by
the company. “…it was given over to the use of the employees for the holding of Sunday
school and church, the building being so arranged that those of all religious beliefs can
use the same.”50 The minister from the Pleasant View Presbyterian Church in Smock51
usually delivered the sermon. Sunday School classes were held in the forenoon, and the
church service was held Sunday evening at 7:30 because the Presbyterian minister had
his main service in the morning at the home church. Nana and Braden were members at
the church in Mt. Braddock where they first attended when married. They kept their letter
with this church until about the time the Keister mine was closing and then transferred to
the Pleasantville Church, even though they attended the Union Church at Keister.
The community supported both churches, and when fund raising festivals were
held and solicitations made, Protestants asked the Catholics and vice-versa. Strawberry
festivals, cake walks, chicken suppers, picnics and bazaars were common and supported
by the entire community.
The priest who took care of the Catholic Church lived in Brier Hill where he had a
home and a housekeeper. He served several other towns in the area. There were times
when the priests had to confer with the Super. One particular priest frequently had too
much to drink and chose the wrong time to call on Braden at home. After a brief visit,
Nana escorted him to the front door where he promptly fell down the front steps and into
his car which was parked in front of the steps. For some unknown reason, the passenger
door was open, and he fell in one door and out the other. Now, since the company store
was on the other side of the road and many parishioners were on the store porch, there
were numerous witnesses to his most unorthodox exit.
This incident probably caused the next event. The members of the church were
greeted at the door each Sunday by ushers who wouldn’t let them attend services if they
didn’t put enough money in the collection plate as they entered. Representatives of the
congregation, en masse, got up the nerve to go to Braden’s house and request that this
priest be removed from Keister. Braden went to the diocese leader, and the priest was
removed, but a replacement was not sent. So, once again the congregation called on
Braden and asked him if he’d just fill in as the priest until one arrived. You can be sure
that Braden saw that a new priest came to Keister.
The Protestant minister the family most remembered was Rev. Shields. The only
other one to come to Keister was Rev. Steele, and then Rev. Shields came back again.
49
Patron Saint of Poland and Lithuania
Connellsville Courier, January 19, 1906, page 3.
51
From the intersection of Smock Road and Rt. 51, go west 1.5 miles on Smock Road and turn left on
Main Street. Go 0.2 miles and bear right on Smock Hill Road. Go 1.3 miles to cemetery on the right.
GPS Location: 39.98334 N 79.80178 W
50
42
The Sunday School superintendent for many years was Dave Bennett. Braden taught the
adult class. When he died, Nana took it over. There was a time when many people in the
family and community as a whole were sick. Van took over as Sunday School
Superintendent, played the piano, made the announcement, taught the class and finally
called on his mother to lead the prayer. The most popular hymn was “Bringing in the
Sheaves.”
In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, the KKK was active in the region. For
unknown reasons they came to Keister to burn crosses. A special church service was
planned because Rev. Steele was back to preach. Some of the Leichliter children were
sent to spread the word to ensure a good attendance. They embellished the invitation by
telling them that the KKK might show up; there was a very large turnout at the service.
Community Hall
Just south of the company store was the community hall, bandstand and flagpole.
The hall was a large wooden structure and the site of many interesting events. When
some of the young people were married and their parents were able to throw an expensive
wedding, the dance was usually held in the community hall. There was a company band,
and in the summer, concerts were given at the bandstand. Many picnics and parties took
place at this building. Club meetings were held in the hall. It contained a piano used by
the young folks. On very noisy occasions, the Super had to quiet the kids. There was a
kitchen and suppers were served, the most popular being the oyster suppers in the months
with “R” when oysters were available. At the oyster suppers, the items on the menu were
fried oysters, oyster stew and cole slaw.
The community hall was the logical place for political meetings. When the
weather was good, speeches were delivered from the bandstand. During the WW I war
bond drives famous people of the time made speeches there. When the war was over, the
returning doughboys were honored with parties at the hall.
Company Doctor
The company employed a full-time medical doctor resident in the community.
Doctor Rebok was from Millerstown, Pennsylvania, graduated from Mercersburg
Academy and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. He and his family lived
two doors from the Leichliters in “Millioner’s Row,” also the location of his office. They
were lifetime friends. When Nana was a widow and Doc a widower, he spent a
considerable amount of time rocking on her back porch with ideas of making it a
permanent arrangement.
Doctor Rebok depended on Braden’s and Nana’s help. The doctor thought that
grape juice was a great cure-all. He would tell his patients to drink plenty, and if they did
not have any, to go by Leichliter’s, and they would give you some. The doctor himself
did not drink grape juice – he drank coffee – at every home he visited. Most people kept a
coffee pot on the back of the stove. If it wasn’t too hot, he drank right out of the pot. If
43
the housewife said that she would warm it up, he’d say, “Don’t warm it, I’ll just drink it
like it is, tut, tut, tut.”
Dr. E. H. Rebok, MD
Dr. Rebok had to deal with diseases now essentially eliminated, including
smallpox. These were over a dozen cases in 1905, including four in the Turner family,
two in the Hart, three in the Buird families, among others.52 They all apparently survived.
During prohibition, 1919 to 1933, the use of liquor was allowed only for
medicinal purposes. Dr. Rebok thought it best if someone else dispensed it on his word.
Nana was selected because there was no danger that she would abuse the privilege. Thus,
there were frequent supplicants to Nana’s back door seeking the cure. Prohibition lead to
tragedies in many communities, including Keister. On February 4, 1923, Pete Mellick,
age 50 and John Urick, age 45, residents of Keister, died from drinking “poison
intoxicants.”53 The bottle was not found, nor the source of the poison identified.
1918 Flu Epidemic, Community Hall and Whiskey
When the flu epidemic of 1918 hit Keister was not exempt.54 Whole families
contracted the influenza, and the nearest hospitals were overflowing with sick people.
The company brought in a nurse, and as the community hall had a kitchen and other
facilities, it was became a hospital. Doctor Rebok worked night and day visiting homes
and taking care of those moved into the temporary hospital. There were local volunteers
to help -- those lucky enough to escape the flu. They worked countless hours. The Super
and doctor went many days without changing clothes or getting sleep. There were some
52
Connellsville Courier, January 20, 1905.
Uniontown Morning Herald, January 5, 1923, p. 1.
54
Part of a national pandemic of Spanish influenza detailed by Alfred W. Cosby. 1989. America’s
Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918. Cambridge University Press, New York.
53
44
deaths; however, it was felt that these were kept to a minimum by the efforts of the doctor
and his staff. Deaths included Mrs. Cora May Brown, 29 years-old, wife of Earl Brown.55
Whiskey was used as a tonic during the epidemic, but since it was Prohibition, it
could only be used for medicinal purposes. As noted earlier, the whiskey was kept at the
Super’s house and doled out by Nana.56 When it was needed, the orderly was sent to the
house, but another person came along so that he wouldn’t drink it on the way back. One
time this orderly knocked at the door. He was alone and explained that he didn’t want to
get the flu, and he wanted two bottles of whiskey in which to take a bath. The whiskey
provided for medicinal purposes was “Old Overholt,” It is rye whisky distilled by the A.
Overholt and Company Distillery, Broadford, Pennsylvania, a town just downriver from
Connellsville.57 Mr. Overholt served on the Board of Directors of Lincoln Coal and Coke.
Today it is produced in Kentucky by the same company that make Jim Beam. The
Overholt family was related to the Keisters and had stock in the mining company.
Mrs. Dogash, a town character, was like many residents a recent immigrant. She
spoke little or no English. She wandered around town going through the garbage to
retrieve junk. She looked as if she never had a bath. The story was that she got the flu and
had to go to the hospital where she was placed in a tub and scrubbed with a scrub brush,
the kind used for floors. Her comment was, “Ouch! The water stinks.” She survived the
flu.
Joe Marucca had a barber shop in the community building. He later built a small
one in the so-called “Back Patch,” and put in a confectioner’s store, as well as a couple of
pool tables. Just off company property at the upper end of town, there was eventually two
other stores, one to the west, commonly known as the “Jew Store,” owned by Frank
Pariser of Uniontown. The other was located on the eastern boundary and was small with
a second story apartment.
Community Swimming Pool
The community hall caught fire and burned to the ground shortly after World War
I was over. The foundation remained for many years, but eventually came into use. There
was no place for Keister children swim other than some of the dangerous reservoirs in the
area. So Sally and Brad decided that the foundation would afford a good start for a new
swimming pool. The size of the foundation was approximately fifty feet long and thirty
feet wide. They talked to their father about the possibility of some help from the
company. The two promised they would solicit funds form the employees throughout
town. In matters such as this, Braden never had to go to the people in Scottdale; they
usually accepted the Super’s word. He told Sally and Brad that if they could solicit
enough money to buy the materials, he would furnish the stonemason, Mr. Durigon, and
his staff to do the concrete work.
55
Connellsville Daily Standard, December 11, 1918, p. 2.
She was a believer, taking one tablespoon before bed every night.
57
See http://www.karensbranches.com/BroadFordDismantled/Dismantled.html
56
45
The solicitation started, and $0.25 from an individual was considered a good
donation. Some gave one dollar or even more. In situations like this, the foreman at the
plant and Dr. Rebok were most generous. As soon as the solicitations were started, a crew
of kids started with picks and shovels to dig out the foundation in preparation for the
cement work. There was no printed word of this endeavor, but once they had the approval
of the Super, word was all over town in a matter of hours. There were so many kids, and
even their mothers wanting to help dig, that they could not all stand in the foundation.
The project was completed, and the company furnished the water for the pool.
The opening was quite an affair. A classified ad in the July 11, 1930 Uniontown Morning
Herald announced a celebration of the pool: “FESTIVAL TONIGHT for benefit of
Kesiter swimming pool at Keister. Free swimming.” A diving board had been built by the
company carpenters and installed at the deep end. It was a good pool with a deep end and
a shallow end. Over a period of several years, it seemed that most every child in town
learned to swim. This had been a very worthwhile project. Sally and Brad were the life
guards and maintained the pool.
Most of the children didn’t have swimming suits, and as when they went in the
reservoir cleaning in homemade suits, they did so for the new pool. The company
provided lights for the pool so that the young people who worked in the day could come
to the pool in the evening. These were usually young men, and they liked best to swim in
the “skinny-dipping-dress.” As with the old parties at the hall, when it got too noisy at the
pool, Braden had to go to settle things down.
Slate and Red Dog
Every mining community had at least one slate dump. During the mining
operation refuse had to be removed from the mine. The refuse included slate that fell
from the roof and from the floor. Adequate disposal space was not available in the mine,
or of they are, it was more costly to haul it within the mine and dump it than it is to bring
it outside. This refuse, which always contained a certain amount of coal, was brought to
the surface and dumped in a huge pile. Most of these slate dumps, after a period of years,
start to burn, not on purpose but do to spontaneous combustion. When this occurs, the
dump is a smoldering stinking mass for many, many years. While the dump is being
added to, it is usually leased to someone to glean mixed in with the slate. At Keister, Ed
Franks usually had this lease. On weekends and in the summer small boys would pick the
small pieces of coal from the slate in the dump. These would be put in a pile at the base
of the dump, and local farmers or other people could buy this coal from Mr. Franks.
There was a large platform scale near the barn which was used to weigh hay and other
feeds when they were brought in from the farms. This made a convenient arrangement for
weighing the coal to be sold.
The coal bought by farmers was often used in their lime kilns. This part of
Pennsylvania contained limestone; in fact outcrops could be found in many places. So,
46
instead of buying commercial lime, when the soil required sweetening,58 the winter chore
for many farmers would be to build a lime kiln. This was done by using wooden logs’
limestone and coal. The bed was constructed, then layers of logs, coal and limestone
would be built up, and these would often be as large as thirty feet in length and twenty
feet in width. Once they were ignited, the wood and coal would break down the
limestone, and this burning process required several weeks. The result was nice heap of
burnt lime which he would spread on his fields.
The roads in Keister were never paved, except that eventually the main road
entering Keister and on to Waltersburg was concreted. All the other roads were covered
with ashes from the coke yard. Anyone who is living today who grew up in towns like
this probably has a few dark scars on knees to remind them of falls on cinders. There
were no sidewalks or streetlights. It was never really dark at night because of the glow
from the plant. Red dog was also used for roads. Because of the high mineral content of
slate it never completely burned. A residue of hard material with a red tint remained.
Education
The public school was a four-room, two story brick structure at the upper end of
town. It served the children of Keister and Uppermiddletown59, and surrounding areas. A
two-room wooden structure was added later. Eventually, a third building, a so-called
“temporary structure” was installed. A boiler in the basement of the brick building was
the heat source. It was fired with coal. Heating stoves were used in the other buildings.
On occasions when the weather was extremely cold, the ink in the ink bottles would
freeze solid. The insulation of the buildings was not what one would consider top quality,
and the children were allowed to wear their coats and sweaters. Sometimes exercises
were conducted until the buildings warmed up.
Menallen Township provided schooling through eighth grade. Students passing a
qualifying examination graduated and went on to high school. It was provided by the city
of Uniontown under a contract with Menallen Township. Mandatory school attendance
through the age of sixteen was required, and if a student finished the first eight grades
and was not sixteen years old, he remained in the eighth grade until he reached the age of
sixteen. During most of the Leichliter children’s school days, J. T. King was the township
school superintendent. J.T. was about six feet six inches tall with a very thin frame,
which gave him the appearance of being seven feet tall. He was a jovial type and
routinely visited each classroom to give some sort of short lecture and to oversee the
particular teacher’s method of teaching. His special skill was to draw with colored chalk
a large turkey on the blackboard before Thanksgiving. Drawing turkeys seemed to be a
big thing in Keister.
58
59
Lower the pH of the soil to release soil nutrients.
Uniontown Morning Herald, February 28, 1936, p. 7
47
Teaching staff at Keisterville elementary School when Retta Gene Leichliter
was a student. About 1930. Left to Right: Ed O’Neal, Edith Leichliter, Ruth
Rebok (Dr. Rebok’s daughter), Theresa Mullen, Earl Adams (principal), and
Netto Durigon.
There was a teacher named Mr. Titus who was the school principal and teacher.
He lost his wife in the flu epidemic. It was customary for the school principal to teach in
addition to other responsibilities, and his grades were usually the seventh and eighth.
Following Mr. Titus who went to Carmichaels to teach, Miss Kinsley took over as
principal, and she lived at the Red Onion Boarding House. She returned to her home for
the weekend, except in extremely bad weather when transportation was next to
impossible. Miss Kinsley was the very stern type and supposedly had a practice of
punishment which consisted of rapping the student across the hands with a wooden ruler.
Later Mr. Earl Adams took over as principal, and because of his ability and reputation, he
was highly respected, and got along with the students and their parents.
For many, many years, Mary Strong taught the first grade. Her reputation as a
primary teacher was unequaled throughout the area. Another teacher in the primary
system was Tricia Mullen, whose father had worked at the mine some years earlier. She
remained a friend of the family for many years. Another primary teacher was Miss Tarr,
whose home was at Helen (another mining community nearby), and her father was the
mine superintendent there. One of J.T. King’s daughters also taught at Keister for several
years. Netto Durigon was a favorite teacher. When Edith Leichliter graduated from
college, she became a teacher in Keister; in fact, when she started teaching, Pete, Nana,
and Retta Gene were in school. If they didn’t like what Edith said or did at school, they
would threaten to tell their mother when they got home. Everyone went home for lunch.
Edith recalls that it seemed that all the time she taught in Keister, they had potato soup
for lunch because it was Gene’s favorite.
The school buildings were at the upper edge of town, and the Jew Store was just
over the hill about a hundred yards. In between was located the Catholic Church. There
were no indoor restroom facilities, so a large wooden structure with a concrete vault was
48
provided – one for the boys and one for the girls. These were eight-holers, and at breaks
for recess, morning and afternoon, there was a grand rush in two directions. One either
rushed to the outdoor john or to the water pump to get a drink. The water pump was
hand-operated with an eight feet long metal handle. Someone would pump while another
person drank form the nozzle. The girls usually carried cups or collapsible glasses to
drink from, but since this was considered sissified for the boys, they drank from the
spout.
The school facilities were the scene of many community activities.
The Battlefield. Just beyond the outbuildings, there was a barbed-wire fence
enclosing a pasture. The coal had been removed form this area behind the school house,
creating a series of potholes where the earth had caved in when the coal was removed.
Some of these dish-type holes would hold water and after a rain might contain a foot or
more. Nana always worried about children getting into these holes in the field and falling
down into the old mining operation. If they had fallen in they would have been
asphyxiated by the noxious gases. The best option was to make the area off-limits.
Sometimes there would be cattle grazing in this field. The school officials would
allow the students to go across the fence, but when they did, they were not accountable
for anything that might happen. This area was widely known as the battlefield. If one
student had a difference with another student, the treat was, “I’ll take it up with ye in the
battlefield.” When the two adversaries would go the battlefield, there would be a large
crowd to observe the fight. If somebody happened to get a black eye, or a tooth knocked
out, this was not accountable to school personnel.
In the wintertime everyone seemed to have a sled, and many took them to school
so that during recess breaks they could slide down the slope on the battlefield to the
corner of the schoolhouse. This was a pretty steep slope, and a sled could gain quite a
velocity by the time it got to the schoolhouse. The normal procedure to get under the
fence was to prop the bottom wire up or wind the two bottom strands together with a
stick. Obviously, one could not sit on the sled and get under the fence. When a child was
at the top of the hill, he took a run, threw the sled on the ground and fell on it, called
“belly-gutters.”
Brad was not supposed to take his sled to school; however, one day he sneaked it
out and at the morning recess went to the battlefield with the sled. He was wearing a
“Jackie Coogan” knit cap, and when he got to the barbed wire fence, the lower strand was
either kicked by someone or for some other reason was not where it was supposed to be.
One of the barbs caught Brad above his right eye and tore a gash several inches long.
This bled profusely, and when sis Caroline (Sally) heard of the accident, she immediately
came to his rescue. She took him by the hand and headed for Dr. Rebok’s office. This
was a rather long trip. They went the back way, down the alley. Later, some neighbors
told Nana that the two made a rapid trip, all the while discussing what they would tell
their mother. When they got to the doctor’s office, there were other people waiting to see
the doctor, but Sally knew it was an emergency and pushed right in. All the while Doc
49
examined Brad, he kept saying, Tut, tut, tut.” He held Brad’s head up, looked in his eye
saying some more, “Tut, tut, tut’s.” He then got word to Braden to come to the office
because there was a sewing job to be done. Whenever the doctor had any sort of major
emergency, particularly big sew-up jobs, or minor operations he performed in his office,
Braden acted as his assistant. It was understood by the family that Braden really had
wanted to become a doctor, but he did not have the financial means to study medicine. He
was always interested in medicine and displayed many qualities that would have made
him an exceptional doctor. The pain was not bad for Brad; he was more scared than hurt.
The doctor and Brad’s father got the cut sewed up. Brad did not take his sled to school
again – at least not that year.
Games
There were many games that the boys enjoyed at school during recess and part of
lunch time. Even though most everyone went home, they still had about fifteen to thirty
minutes left for play. In the wintertime, sledding was the big sport, but if one did not have
a sled, you skated in your shoes on an iced slope. In the summertime or spring, baseball
was a favorite sport, and the only area large enough to play baseball was the battlefield.
Even though it was on a slope, no one seemed to worry about that fact.
A game played in the fall was a form of soccer. Some people called it “BreakShins.” There was no ball involved, instead a tin milk can was used. It was moved by the
foot. Everybody wore heavy leather shoes, and like soccer, the goal was at each end of
the field -- an imaginary line. Winning by scoring a goal was not the object of this game.
The concept was to see how many people you could kick in the shins and then to see who
would not have enough guts to keep on playing. It was not legal to just walk up and kick
someone; you supposedly had to be kicking at the can. But, of course there were many
kids kicked who were quite distant from the can. Often when someone got a good kick in
the shins, he hauled off and slugged the kicker. There were plenty of fights. Sometimes
there were slugging matched, sometimes a combination of wrestling and slugging, but no
clubs or rocks were allowed. The ring of kids around the fighters made sure everything
was done legally.
Marbles was a big favorite in the spring. Most of the games were for keeps, as the
kids called it. A circle drawn on the ground, those entering the game put in their “nubs,”
which might be five or ten marbles, or even more. The object was to try and knock the
marbles out of the ring. The shooter kept the ones he knocked out. Another particular rule
was that if your shooter stayed in the ring when you knocked marbles out of the ring, you
were out of that pot, and you lost your shooter to whomever won the pot. Brad was
proficient at shooting marbles, but Pete was the expert. He came home from school with
marbles bulging in his pockets from his wins at recess.
Another marble game was called “Holey.” On the four corners of a square about
ten feet on a side, there was a depression, and in the very center of the square, there was a
small depression. After s small ritual to see who started first, that person started at one
hole on the square and made the loop. If the marble went into the first hole, the player
50
proceeded but as soon as he missed, the next contestant had his turn. After one lap, the
played was so-called “in.” Then each time someone shot and tried to get in one of the
four holes on the periphery of the square, the player who was in was allowed to shoot his
marble away from the hole, provided he held one foot in the center hole. The person who
was in could reach out and shoot the player’s marble away so he would have a greater
distance to make his lap.
The girls played the typical games of the day: jacks, hopscotch, jump rope and
sled riding with the boys. There was a culvert near the school with a concrete lid, a
perfect place to play jacks. The school steps were also used.
There were fads. Every once in a while, someone would bring a pair of
homemade stilts to school. The within a few days, more and more stilts would appear.
The game was to find someone on stilts, get on your own, and see if you could knock the
other down. Some good fights resulted.
When Nana and Braden moved to Keister, Ney and Van were school age and had
been attending another school where the attire was quite different from what the children
wore in Keister. When the boys appeared at school the first day with shiny shoes and
neckties, they got the razz. One boy came up to Ney and very seriously said: ”Hey, kid,
do you have to wear that thing when you go to bed at night?” Enough said, on the second
day there were no neckties. Nana often told about the boys coming home from school that
first day, tearing off the neckties and giving the ultimatum, “We have to have cloths like
the rest of those kids!”
The Super’s children usually got some ridicule and teasing, but this was not
unusual. It seemed that everybody teased everybody else about something. As the
Leichliter children grew and left home for school and jobs, the lessons learned in their
community and from the various individuals they knew stood them in good stead in their
varied professions and jobs. Their experiences in Keister made them experts in
interpersonal relationship, and how to handle themselves in all kinds of situations.
Labor Union and Strikes
Unionization of the coal and coke industry in southwestern Pennsylvania, as in
the country as a whole, was fraught with violence. Marian Szczepanski in Playing St.
Barbara includes this as a major theme. Mine operators fought back against the United
Miner Workers by firing workers sympathetic to the union, employing members of the
Pennsylvania Coal and Iron Police (PCIP) was a program authorized by the Pennsylvania
Legislature. The National Industrial Recovery Act required operators to give employees a
voice in “industrial relations.” Many companies formed organizations called The
Brotherhood. Operators held this out as a union, but controlled by them. The Ku Klux
Klan (KKK) also worked to prevent unionization. Members associated unionization with
Communism.
51
There are few newspaper articles dealing specifically with organizing activities at
the Keister works. But, undoubtedly Keister was not exempt. During the years of strikes
when unions were starting, the company prepared for any incidents by purchasing guns.
The guns were stored in the bedrooms of the Leichliter’s. Nana made covers for the cases
which when turned on their sides looked like window seats. Things were peaceful; the
guns were not needed and were just forgotten. After Braden’s funeral, someone
remembered the guns which had never been disposed of when the plant closed. They
were promptly delivered to the State Police a few years late.
Activities of the KKK are well documented in the Uniontown and Connellsville
newspapers. Our search started in the 1920’s. We can only conclude from the articles that
the KKK was an integral part of the culture in Fayette County. Organizing meeting were
held in Uniontown City Hall and the State Theater,60 and in many main-line churches.
Patriotism was the theme of these events. In its third year of existence, the Pennsylvania
State Klonklave (sic) Women of Ku Klux Klan was held in Dawson.61 These organizing
events were advertised in the newspapers and covered by reporters. Only white
Protestants were invited.
The most noticeable KKK activity was the burning of crosses within sight of
residents of mining communities. Before setting fire to the crosses dynamite was set off
to make certain the intended audience didn’t miss the occasion. The burning closest to
Keister may have been the one described in the newspaper as at Searight about one-half
mile from the National Highway. Nine men were taken into custody because of the rapid
response of the State Police. Action against these men was not reported in the newspaper.
Crosses were also burned on hills outside the towns of Filbert, Smock, Rowe’s Run, A
burning took place in the public square of Colonial No. 3. The KKK conducted a March
in Scottdale.62
We found several obituaries that reported funeral services conducted by members
of the KKK. This made it hard for some Klansmen to take their membership to the grave
with them. If not invited to participate in the funeral, Klansmen in full costume might
show up unexpectedly at a graveside service.
KKK activities throughout the country were newsworthy to the editors of the
Uniontown newspapers. In addition to activities in Pennsylvania they covered those in
the states of Oklahoma, Ohio, New Jersey, the many in Indiana, and Washington, D.C.
The possible association of U. S. Supreme Justice Hugo Black with KKK before joining
the bench was heavily covered. Many editorials by national and local journalists were
published. These focused on attempts to explain the existence of the KKK; and their
negative impact on the economy, social cohesion, and community stability.
60
Uniontown Morning Herald, August 29, 1936, p. 1, 13
Uniontown Morning Herald, August 8, 1926, p. 1.
62
Daily News Standard August 28, 1923, p. 1
61
52
COAL MINING AND COKE PRODUCTION
Coke production in southwestern Pennsylvania was what is today known as a
mine-mouth operation, i.e. after some processing coal went directly from the mine to the
coke ovens. Modern coke operations use coal transported by rail car or river barge from
mines located many miles away. Mine-mouth operations eliminated the need for this
transportation.
The valley in which the Keister coke ovens were located trended north-south. The
opening to the mine was on the west side of the valley. Below the mine and towards the
north down this valley was coke yard No. 2. No 1 and No. 3 yards were on the opposite
side of the valley. A stone wall halfway down the yard divided the Number 1 block from
Number 3. To the south of the mine opening, there was a small ravine entering the valley
and a bank of ovens that followed the contour, known as yard No. 4.
Coke Production
Coke is the solid residue remaining when certain types of bituminous coals are
heated to a high temperature in the absence of oxygen. Baking continues until practically
all of the volatile matter is driven off.63 This process of heating bituminous coal in this
manner is referred to as carbonization or coking because what’s left is almost pure
carbon.64
The primary purpose of coking is to produce a coke having the requisite
properties for metallurgical use, primarily in blast furnaces. Coke is a hard, cellular mass
of carbonaceous material ranging in color from silvery gray to dull black. It is of irregular
shape and size. Coke is a partially graphitized and cellular form of carbon. The high
graphitization and porosity of coke gives its value in the smelting of iron.
Early History of Coke
The manufacture of coke as a replacement for charcoal made from wood was
developed in Great Britain towards the end of the 16th century. The timber supply had
been ravaged for use in the charcoal industry.65 The first method of making coke was
similar to the way charcoal was made, a wasteful process. Logs were staked in a tee-pee,
covered with soil, and set on fire. Later, the burning pile was around a brick chimney. By
about 1850, the beehive process was dominate and produced excellent coke. The shape
and size of coke ovens was refined from the late 1800’s into the 1930’s. The most
The volatile material vented into the atmosphere. Today it’s hard to conceive of the resulting level of air
pollution, both volatiles and particulate matter.
64
A website with illustrations and simple explanations of the process is at
http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com/coke2.html
65
The role of wood in the development of civilization is detailed by John Perlin. 1989. A Forest Journey.
W.W. Norton & Company, New York.
63
53
desirable coal for making coke has a low sulfur and ash content. The coal found in
southwestern Pennsylvania, primarily in the Pittsburgh Seam,66 meets these requirements.
The Connellsville Courier newspaper is cited by many as the best source of
information on the coke industry in the Connellsville Region. Henry Galley in the March
28, 1890 edition of the paper presented what may be the definitive history of the early
industry. The first attempt at producing coke prior to 1828 was in New Haven. Coal was
“roasted” for use in a small foundry. The roasting process was a failure. Many individuals
living at the time Mr. Galley was writing his history remembered the iron foundry of T.
H. Oliphant at Little Falls on the Youghiogheny River. Oliphant developed a so-called
“let-out” furnace to refine pig metal. Oliphant had an employee from England named
Coats. He recommended the use of coke and helped Oliphant construct two small ovens.
They were similar to beehive ovens. Oliphant purchased from Thomas Gregg several
drift coal mines up river boated the coal to Little Falls. These coke ovens were in
operation from 1828 to 1832.
Galley concluded that commercial coke production started in the Connellsville
Region in 1841 when John Taylor erected two coke opposite where Oliphant got his coal.
Taylor was a stone mason and owned coal deposits. Providing coke to the iron industry
required testing of coke made from Connellsville Region coal. Galley reported that James
Campbell of Springfield Township saw two coke ovens near the Pipetown rolling mill at
Pittsburgh. Campbell, Judge McCormick and William Turner formed a partnership under
the name Campbell McCormick & Co. Their first output of coke was shipped to
Cincinnati, Ohio in the spring of 1842,
Monongahela coke had earlier been shipped to Cincinnati and was judged
favorably. The Yough coke was not received well. Efforts to develop markets in
Cincinnati did not go well. Campbell McCormick & Co. backed out of the business and
turned it over to Taylor. About this time the Cochrans began to oversee the coke trade.
Samuel Cochran made a trip to Cincinnati and returned enthusiastic about the business.
He urged Taylor to go into the business. Subsequently “Little Jim,” Sample and Mordeca
Cochran entered into a partnership, leased the Taylor ovens, built two barges, loaded
them with coke, and in the spring of 1843 delivered it to Cincinnati. Their timing was
fortuitous because the earlier shipment of Connellsville coke had been tested and found
acceptable. Their coke sold for seven cents per bushel, cash.
Hence forth the reputation of Connellsville coke grew in favor and for nearly
twenty years the major industry along the Yough was making and shipping coke to down
river iron works. Soon after Cochrans success was established others entered the industry,
including Stewart Stricklar, Richard Brookins, John Moreland, Col. A. M. Hill, Solomon
Keister, Asa Huntley, John Barnhart and many more. At the time the article was written
there were fifteen thousand coke ovens in operation in the Connellsville Region. Access
to railroads opened markets from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
66
See http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/p1625c/CHAPTER_C/CHAPTER_C.pdf for detailed explanations on all
aspects of the Pittsburgh Coal Seam.
54
Coke ovens changed during World War II when America could no longer import
chemical products from Germany. Modern chemical-recovery coke ovens make it
possible to recover all the by-products. These include hundreds of important chemicals,
e.g. ammonia, benzene and toluene (used for explosives), tars for dyes, light crude oil and
gas, and pharmaceutical and industrial compounds. The value of the by-products is equal
to or more than the remaining commodity, coke.
The founders of Lincoln Coal and Coke Company were sons of Solomon Keister.
Coke Ovens
Several different types of ovens were used to make coke in the early days. Some
were hand-drawn by manual labor while others were mechanized with a machine used to
remove the coke from the oven. Some were rectangular shape with a door on either end,
and once the coke had been cured, a large ram was pushed from one door, and the coke
came out the door on the other end.
A more common type in the late19th and early 20th Centuries was the beehive
oven. The coke was, in most instances, removed by manual labor; however, there was
an impractical machine that would do this.68 At Keister hand-drawn beehive ovens were
used. Beehive is a very descriptive term. The oven was twelve to fourteen feet in
diameter, and about five feet high. Actually, one could say it was half of a sphere with
this sphere being set on a fire-clay brick base. The oven bricks were fire-clay, refractory,
bricks that could withstand very high temperatures and be cooled suddenly. There was a
one foot diameter hole at apex of the oven. A doorway was cut into the brick, which was
about thirty inches wide and approximately three feet high. The most economical plan for
installing a series of coke ovens, or building what was known as a coke yard, required
three levels – upper level to load the ovens from the top, the ovens, and a lower level for
the rail cars.
67
Layout of Coke Yards
The standard layout had a railroad track at the foot of a slope, and the coke ovens
built into the bank of the hillside. The ovens were banked in rows, one adjacent to the
other, following the contour of the hill. Another railroad track was laid at the top of the
highest bank of ovens so that a vehicle could refill the oven with coal once it was
emptied. A stone wall served as a front for this series of ovens and then clay or some
similar insulating material was filled in around the beehives. The area from the facing of
the door at the oven up to the wall where the railroad car was stationed was about twentyfive feet. The stone wall at the front of the ovens was about twelve feet high; the bottom
67
Google.com has a collection of detailed drawings, including for ovens in Fayette County, Pa.
https://www.google.com/search?q=detailed+drawing+of+beehive+coke+ovens&biw=1211&bih=939&tbm
=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=38I3VfrcJ8aWNozygZgB&ved=0CCAQsAQ
68
See https://monongahela.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/beehive-coke-ovens-shoaf-pa/ for a video of coke
production in beehive ovens.
55
of the oven was about three feet from the yard level, and there was a very slight tilt to the
floor of the oven to allow water to drain from the oven during the quenching process.
The doorway to the oven had a heavy cast-iron frame, but It was not practical to have a
swinging door. Instead the opening was filled-in with fire bricks set in the metal frame.
These bricks were then plastered with a mixture of clay, loam and water. The gooey
substance would seal the cracks between the bricks. The bricks were not laid to the top of
the arch of the door, only to within about a half inch. This opening allowed enough
oxygen for the coal to cook but not burn into ash.
A heavy bar ran across the front of the oven to allow the scraper to run back and
forth while the oven was being emptied. This bar was also used when the oven was
charged because when the coal was dumped into the oven through the one foot hole at the
top; it would tend to stand in a peak, and for even burning, it was necessary to level it.
The man who did this was called the “leveler.” He did not work on an hourly basis; but
on a piece rate, so much for each oven leveled. Once an oven was filled the oven leveler
built up the bricks in the doorway about halfway up. After putting a rod across the iron
front, he used a large metal scraper which was extremely heavy and about twenty feet
long. With this device he was able to push the coal around creating a more or less level a
top.
Lincoln Coal and Coke Company, Keisterville. Coke
being withdrawn from ovens and loaded into train cars
An underground water line with taps at every other oven ran along the face of the
ovens. Water was supplied from wells and the reservoir at the top of the hill above the
residences.
56
The valley in which the coke ovens were located trended north-south. The
opening to the mine was on the west side of the valley. Below the mine and towards the
north down this valley was located coke yard No. 2. On the opposite side of the valley,
No 1 and No. 3 yards were located. There was just a stone wall break halfway down the
yard to divide Number 1 and Number 3 block. To the south of the mine opening, there
was a small ravine entering the valley and a bank of ovens that followed the contour of
this ravine. This string of ovens was referred to as yard No. 4.
When the ovens were initially fired or brought back into production after downtime, it was necessary to use combustible material, such as wood, to heat them. On
succeeding charges, the heat retained by the ovens was sufficient to ignite the coal. The
six-days-per-week operating schedule had alternate ovens pulled on any particular day.
The coal was cooked for forty-eight hours, quenched, the coke drawn out and the oven
recharged.
Hard Filthy Work
Working in a coking operation was a very harsh way to earn a living. The ovens
put out a tremendous amount of heat. In summer the workers roasted, and in winter their
front was too hot and their back was freezing. The coke had to be drawn regardless of the
weather, so workers were on duty in snow, rain, cold and heat. There was no protection
for the head, such as hardhats. The smoke sometimes blew away from the work area,
other times it came right into their face. A constant plume of smoke came from the vents
at the top of the ovens. After ovens were loaded and the coal ignited, billows of black
smoke poured from the top vent. This black acrid smoke rolled out for quite a few hours.
After about twenty-four hours, only the red flame was visible. The smoke and glow from
the ovens gave the night skies a glowing rose color throughout Fayette County coke-oven
towns.
Sources of Power
Manpower was the primary source of energy for operating the mining and coking
operations. There were other sources, however. Horses provided the energy to move coal
within the mine. Three huge boilers provided the energy for the steam driven motors
throughout the operation. These included a steam hoisting engine with a huge drum that
contained a spool of heavy steel cable. This cable was used to pull a string or “trip” of
coal cars from the mine. Once the cars were empty the cable was reattached to return the
empties. During a working day, this was a continuous process of pulling the coal cars out,
emptying them and returning them to the mine to be refilled by manpower.
Once the coal was out of the mine, it was crushed allowing uniformity in the
cooking process and consistency of the coke. Once it was crushed, it was elevated to a
large bin so that the lorries could be filled for transport of the coal from the bin to the
coke ovens.
57
The steam was also used to operate two large air compressors. The high pressure
compressed air was piped into tanks at various points in the mine to power huge motors.
Electricity was in its infancy, and electric motors were not considered very efficient by
the owners. They were also dangerous and a source of possible explosion of accumulated
combustible gas. The owners did agree to use a few electric lights in the main haulage
way. These lights were produced by a small electric generator that put out 250 volts
direct current. These motors operated by the compressed air and piped in from the outside
compressors had some drawbacks as well, but were powerful and safe. These motors
operated something like a steam engine; however, in place of steam, air was used. They
carried two large high pressure tanks which from time to time had to be filled at the air
station at the mine.
The steam was used for heat. All the buildings in the plant had steam heat; the
repair shops, the office, the company store, the superintendent’s residence and the garage,
and the numerous support buildings. Even the stable had a small office and harness shop
that was steam heated for the stable boss and his helpers. The watering trough for the
horses was heated by steam in the wintertime because sub-zero temperatures were
experienced almost every year.
COAL MINING
Most coal mines are deep mines. These require a hoist in a vertical shaft to take
men and equipment down to the seam of coal, and to lift the coal out. Brier Hill,
northwest of Keister, was a shaft mine. The mine at Keister was a “slope mine,” making
operations simpler and safer. The coal outcropped on a hillside allowing the mine mouth
to be at ground level. The mining operation followed the coal seam gradually
underground, increasing in depth and distance. The mine extended horizontally for two to
three miles and laterally for about the same distance. As the coal was mined, the area was
honeycombed and detailed plans had to be made before the operation started to assure an
efficient and safe operation. The safety of the men who worked in the mine was the major
concern for the design and operation of the mine.69
Lincoln Coal and Coke Company, Keisterville operation, came before the major
innovations made possible by electricity within mines to loosen, load, and move coal out
of mines. Since horses were the major source of power at the time, they were used in
mines.
69
The 1931 state inspection of the mine reported 1 accident with disability of 60 days or more, 8 with
disability of less than 60 days, and no fatalities. Fatalities for all mines in Fayette County in 1931 totaled
22.
58
Types of Underground and Surface Mines (Source:
http://spilpunt.blogspot.com/2014/11/mining-methods-and-terminology.html Accessed
5/2/15)
Mine Safety.
The safety of the miners was governed by Pennsylvania mining laws, and routine
inspections were made of the mine and its operations. Of course, no smoking or other
open flame was permitted in the mine. Many of the miners chewed tobacco or rubbed
snuff for their nicotine. If anyone was ever caught with matches or cigarettes in the mine,
this was grounds for discharge. Although the miners would be widely separated
throughout the mine, they didn’t try to take advantage of this distance but kept close tabs
on each other. Everyone’s safety depended on following the rules.
Mine Horses
The horses were used to collect individual or a string of cars loaded with coal
from a remote area of the mine. These cars were accumulated on a siding for a section,
and then the air powered motors would bring a group of cars to the main haulage ways
where they could be made into a string of twenty-five to be pulled to the outside.
At the height of the operation about one-hundred horses were required. The
operators did not prefer or care to use mules or donkeys. They used very high quality
horses that were given the utmost care. No abuse tolerated. If a driver of one of the
horses, regardless of where it was used in the mine, on the coke yard, around the
community, or delivering groceries, used a whip, that man was terminated. The stable
boss, Ed Franks was a powerful individual who felt for those horses like he did his own
family. To see them, especially at work, demonstrated their excellent.
59
Horse, miner and miner’s helper. They have kerosene, called “sunshine oil,”
lamps on their hats. These lamps had an open flame. Unknown mine.70
At many of the mining operations the horse stables were underground,
right with the mining operations. The horses and mules were taken in and never saw
daylight again. After they had been in the mine for a period of time, they went blind. The
operators of the mine in Keister did not think this was humane, so the horses were taken
into the mine and brought out each day. When the horses came out of the mine, the driver
turned them loose with a little pat, and off they would run to the stable, jumping and
frolicking like a bunch of children let out of school. This was another indication that
these horses received good care.
The horse stable was a large brick building with sliding doors on each end. Down
the center there was a railroad track of light rails such as were used in the mine. On either
side of this track, there were about fifty individual stalls with hay mangers and feed
boxes. There was a large box stall for sick animals that might need special veterinarian
care. The track extended about forty feet beyond the front end of the barn were two corn
cribs were located, one on each side of the railroad track. Beyond these there was a large
barn with a sliding door. The tracks extended into it. Within this barn, there was a huge
bin where oats, salt and ground malt were stored. The remainder of the buildings was
used for storage of baled hay and bedding straw. Three carts were used for the feeding
operation. One held the oats and two hauled hay. There was a gradual slope from the barn
and the corn cribs on-down through the stable. Thus, at feeding time the stablemen could
load the carts with oats, hay and corn and easily push them through the barn to load the
feed troughs before the horses came out of the mine. Feed awaited them when they came
from the mine.
Horses were also used on the coke yard. Residual ash from ovens was loaded into
carts hand-drawn that were loaded into larger dump carts pulled by horses. They were
also used to haul coal to miners’ residences. Coal was their primary source for heat and
70
Source: Gates, John K. 1990. The Beehive Coke Years: A pictorial history of those times, p.1.
60
cooking. Since there were no automobiles, or very few, horsepower was also
transportation to town. Bus service eventually connected Keister and Uniontown.
The horses used in the mining operation were not the size of quarter horses. They
were large draft horses weighing as much as eighteen-hundred pounds. To see these
horses at work was a sight to behold. They were well trained and seemed to enjoy
working. The large number of horses required a full time farrier. The plant usually
employed at least two. Taking care of the horses’ shoes was just part of the job for the
farriers. They also sharpened the miner’s picks, which needed repointing almost daily.
Most of the horses were gentle and could stand still to be shod without trouble; however,
every now and then there would be one that would try to avoid being shod. On these rare
occasions, they would have to be put in stocks and lifted from the ground with a hoist for
the blacksmith’s safety.
Control of Air Quality in the Mine
The vast underground network had to be ventilated. On the surface, there were
two large fans approximately twenty feet in diameter driven by a steam engine. They
pumped fresh air into the mine. One fan was in operation at all times. The second unit
was a backup used when repairs and preventive maintenance were required on the other
unit. The temperature in the mine averaged seventy degrees, cooler than the outside air in
the summer and warmer in the winter. This was not uncomfortable for the strenuous labor
in which the men were engaged.
Refuse
In addition to coal coming out of the mine, refuse had to be removed. Coal seams
geologically occur between layers of slate. The seam of coal was about seven feet thick,
usually with a thin layer of slate in the middle. The layer of roof slate was about one foot
thick. The bottom layer was several inches thick. Slate would fall from the roof or for
some special reason might have to be taken up from the floor. If there was no place in the
mine to dispose of it, it had to be hauled out in the coal cars. There was a special bin
where the refuse was dumped and eventually hauled away to a disposal dump. Labor for
loading slate was paid by the hour. These slate dumps were described earlier.
Waste also came from coking. As the coke was drawn from the oven, a certain
percentage of granular coke was generated. After the ovens were drawn, a carter would
go along the ovens and pick up refuse. In later years, a truck was used. When the cart was
filled, it was hauled to the end of the coke yard and dumped. Over a period of years,
many tons of “ash” accumulated. These dumps were usually started in a draw so that
there was a steep grade. Oftentimes children would use a regular snow sled and sled
down these dumps. During World War II when there was a high demand for coke and the
price was high, people would lease the dump and go through it with a fine sifter to
recover the very small pieces of coke.
Activities Within the Mine
61
The operation and maintenance coal mines was very complicated. In the days
before there was much mechanization, the average person would think there would be
just coal miners, coal diggers, coal loaders and not much else. However, a whole series of
support help and facilities were required.
Miner. Men who worked at the mine faces actually produced coal. They had an
assistant who loaded the cars. The coal miners themselves did piece work, i.e. they were
paid a prearranged sum for producing one car of coal. Once the union came in, instead of
paying for a car load the coal was weighed, and they were paid by the ton. This was more
accurate and efficient. There were large scales for this purpose.
Miner at coal face using pick to break lose coal. Shovel to
his right was used to load the cart. Unknown mine.71
Shooters. Shooters drilled a set pattern of holes into the coal face. The holes were
packed with dynamite. After everyone in that area of the mine had moved away the blast
would be setoff. The resulting loose coal was relatively easy to dig out and load into the
cars.
Track layers. The coal cars within the mine ran on iron rail tracks creating a minirailroad system. Personnel were assigned to laying tracks and taking them up when the
coal was removed from an area.
Timbermen. Coal seams are encased by shale and slate. This requires supports for
the roof to reduce the collapse of all or parts of it. At this time wood posts were use,
placed by timbermen. These posts were logs about five or six inches in diameter and ten
71
Gates, John K. 1990. The Beehive Coke Years: A pictorial history of those times, p. 2
62
feet long. These posts with a brace across two of them on opposite sides of the
haulageway helped support the roof. Falling slate or complete collapses of ceilings was a
major cause of injuries and deaths. Thus, the skill of timbermen was critical. The use of
timber supports had an advantage. If a release started and was not too sudden, the miners
could hear the posts creak. If a miner ever heard this sound, he would drop everything
and run as fast as possible away from the face of the mining operation.
Air Controllers. These men controlled air flow within the mine. There were doors
at various places where the air velocity was routinely measured. A system of doors
opened or closed to keep the air moving to active areas of the mine. The air was driven
into the mine from the fan on the outside at one point, and this air then came out as
exhaust at another exit.
Drivers. There were drivers who used the horses to pick up an individual or string
of coal cars and haul them to the collection point where the motor operator would haul
the string to the main haulageway. So-called trip men were stationed by the various
sidings. They put together a string of cars, about twenty-five, to be pulled out at one time.
Movement of the cars within the tight spaces of the haulageways was another major
source of injuries and deaths.
Mine Foreman. The mine foreman had overall responsibility for all aspects of
operations. His was a varied job. Most of the work was delegated to one or more of his
assistants. Thus, his focus was making decisions, inspections, and most importantly
checking that all safety measures were followed.
Fire Boss. The fire bosses played important safety roles. When the miners were
out of the mine, they would go through the whole mine and inspect it for safety. They
checked to see if the timbering was done properly. They used their safety lamps to check
for gases such as methane and adequate levels of oxygen. Methane is deadly and cannot
be detected by smell. In the early days of mining, birds were taken into the mine to detect
gases. The fire bosses made detailed written reports to the mine foreman at the close of
their work, which was just prior to the time the miners would enter the mine to start the
day’s work.
Pumper. As might be expected, there was water to contend with in the mine. The
pumper was responsible for keeping water at designated levels. This water was collected
at low points and then pumped out of the mine. Water was not pumped back to the
entrance of the mine. It was pumped out through vertical shafts. Once the sump, or the
water collection point, was established the pumper would tell the driller on the surface
where to drill a shaft. This was possible because the mine maps were quite accurate He
would case this spot, and it would come right to the sump. Then the pumps powered by
compressed air would pump the waste water to the surface.
Mechanics. The mechanical maintenance and repair people took care of water
pumps, motors used for the haulage, and any other mechanical operations. The mechanics
who maintained the equipment were also responsible for piping compressed air into the
63
mine, and controlling water wells. The water was for the horses, not for the miners to
drink. It was not chlorinated, thus not recommended for human consumption. This water
was pumped into water troughs at various points throughout the mine, where the horses
were taken to drink.
Laborers. There were a certain number of hourly employees in the mine who did a
variety of laboring jobs. There were still more support people needed outside the mine. A
crew of four men took the cable attached to the strings of twenty-five coal cars, remove
it, dump the cars, and returned the empties to the mine. The cars passed-by a tally man
who recorded the number of cars attributed to each miner. Each miner had numbered
tokens that he attached to the cars he filled. After unionization a weigh-man weighed
each car. At least two men were required to maintain and repair the coal cars.
Material Suppliers. Men were needed to take care of the supplies required in the
mine. These were loaded on empty cars returning to the mine. Posts for timbering in the
mine were probably the largest quantity item used. Ties for holding the railroad tracks,
other supplies, and replacement parts for machinery were also hauled.
Railroads
An extensive railroad system was required so that the large metal railroad cars
could be positioned at the base of each line of ovens. These received coke as it was
drawn. At the level above the railroad yard level was the area where the coke drawers
worked along with their support personnel. On the level above that, where the top
opening for the ovens was located, another railroad system was required for
transportation of coal to the ovens. Large wheeled containers called “lorries” were used.
These were moved by “dinkies” small steam railroad engine. The lorries were filled from
a large bin that received the coal from the mine after it had been through a mechanical
crusher. It produced coal of more or less uniform size. The crushing process was not an
absolute requirement, but produced better coke. An engineer operated the dinky and
another man who opened the chutes to fill the lorries. This same person would see that
the cars were dropped off at each oven opened the lorry chutes to allow the coal to flow
into the ovens. This process was repeated for all the empty ovens.
Coke Drawers
The coke drawer was paid a set fee per oven for removing the coke and loading it
into the railroad cars. The drawer’s first step was to break down the door. He then
attached a heavy hose to the water outlet. On the end of this hose was a long metal pipe.
This pipe was extended into the oven to quench the surface of the coke. This was very
dangerous because the coke was extremely hot, generating steam. If the drawer was not
careful, he could be burned seriously.72
72
A textbook covering activities at the surface of coal mines, and coke operation is at
https://books.google.com/books?id=tRpWAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA51&lpg=RA3PA51&dq=coke+scraper+hoe&source=bl&ots=uPJw1_pF8k&sig=FGu0lIpAucdrXWseUFGSdD-
64
After the coke was quenched a stand of metallic gray coke resulted. Coke is quite
porous and is not as heavy as an equal volume of coal. The whole mass was of adhered
coke, requiring the drawer to break-up the coke into sticks. Once it was broken loose, it
was removed with a large fork. This fork has about twenty tines, compared to a pitchfork
with only three or four. It could pick up a large amount of coke. They are still made to
move bark and mulch
Coke fork
Once the coke drawer removed the coke in the immediate area of the door, he
used a heavy scraper similar to the one used by the leveler. He would install the metal bar
across the iron frame to support this heavy hoe.
Then he could push the hoe in and break the coke loose. This running in and
dropping it and pulling out was repeated many times in the process of removing the coke.
The work was strenuous. When the drawer took the coke form the oven, he forked it onto
a wheelbarrow which had a metal base and removable slatted sideboards. When the
barrow was filled, he wheeled it across the yard and up a ramp to make it level with the
hopper car. The coke was wheeled out on the plank, one of the sideboards removed, and
the wheelbarrow tilted so that the coke could slide into the car.
It was easy to lose balance while on this shaky platform and drop the
wheelbarrow into the railroad car. If this happened, and it always seemed to happen when
the car was empty, one man was not capable of removing the wheelbarrow because of the
depth of the car and weight of the barrow.
The amount of coal needed for a twenty-four hour charge did not yield as much
coke as the seventy-two hour charge. The pay for large charge was higher than for the
small. Heavier charges required more work to remove the larger amount of coke.
Jx08&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAGoVChMIrcnulc6pxwIVS8yACh34_AB9#v=onepage&q=coke
%20scraper%20hoe&f=false
65
The coke drawers normally began their work shortly after midnight, so that by
early forenoon, each man had completed drawing two possibility three ovens. In the
summertime, this was desirable because a blazing sun and heat from standing in front of
the hot ovens could easily cause heat prostration. Coke removed from the ovens early in
the forenoon fit in with the cycle of the operation because many other things had to be
coordinated with this task.
Braden’s father had been in the coke business. He was the yard foreman for the
Moyer plant. He walked back and forth to work. When Braden and his younger brother,
Otto Gay, were in school, they both worked on the coke yard as coke drawers. The two of
them working together were able to draw an oven of coke, although the tools were very
heavy and the coke itself was burdensome. It required their joint effort. The wheelbarrow
used to transport the coke from the oven into the railroads car was pulled by one while
the other pushed. When the scraper for breaking up coke as used, the two of them
handled it. When they worked on the coke yard, this meant that shortly after midnight,
they had to leave home and walk to the yard, draw their coke, and get back home to wash
and get to school.
Maintenance of Ovens
A crew of stonemasons and brick masons was required. They initially built the
400 ovens at Keister and put up the stone wall. Thereafter they repaired the ovens. An
oven would last a few years before the fire brick had to be replaced. As a rule, the failure
of brick was spotty, so if problems did arise, an oven could be removed from service and
after it cooled, patched by the stonemason or the brick mason. An oven that had been
removed from service was about the only shelter men working on the yard might have. In
the winter they were cozy, although one could not stand up except in the very center.
They did afford some protection form the rain, if one was available. The goal was to keep
every oven operating efficiently.
LINCOLN COAL AND COKE COMPANY
Lincoln Coal and Coke Company was formed in 1904 by Benjamin Franklin
Keister and his brother Abraham Lincoln Keister. They were sons of Solomon and Sarah
Stauffer Keister. Solomon was the patriarch of one of the leading families in the region.
He was born November 14, 1816 in a log cabin built by his father in 1800 in what is now
Mt. Pleasant. His parents were Conrad and Susanna Cherry Keister. Conrad came to
Western Pennsylvania in 1797. He was a tailor, a trade Solomon followed only briefly.
Keister Family
Solomon came to the Fountain Mills area about 1835 to work for John W.
Stauffer, son of the first Mennonite minister of the Jacobs Creek settlements. Solomon
learned many trades working for John Stauffer who owned the Fountain Mills distillery, a
grist mill, a carding mill and several farms. As a result Solomon during his early 20’s was
66
a farm worker, cattle drover, and hauled whiskey to Baltimore. He returned with supplies
and merchandise to sell in the Scottdale area.
Solomon Keister73
Solomon became owner of an existing store by partnering with John W. Stauffer.
Together they built a grist mill known as the Keister Mill. His partnership with John
Stauffer also lead to his lifelong partnership by marriage with John’s daughter, Sarah.
This created a tie with the Loucks family. Sara was the daughter of John W. and
Catherine Loucks Stauffer. Solomon added postmaster to his resume. He held this
position by appointment to the Jacobs Creek Post Office.
Keister Mill 184274
Solomon entered the coal and coke industry by partnering with James Cochran.
Their first effort was the shipment of the first barge load of coke down river.
73
74
Source: Scottdale 100 Years, Scottdale Centennial Association, Scottdale, Pa., May 1974, p. 78.
Scottdale 100 Years, p. 17.
67
Unfortunately the coke was loaded too hot. The coke and barge burned. Their coking
operations in 1846 included 40 ovens on Hickman Run. This may have been the largest
operation at the time. It was later increased to 100 ovens. They also operated Summit
with 90 ovens, Franklin with 80, and Clinton Works with 44.
In 1883 Solomon bought out Cochran’s interests in their coal and coke
partnership. This allowed Solomon to bring his sons into the business. At the same time
he sold to Cochran his interests in their jointly owned land in Dunbar and Franklin
Townships, Fayette County.
Solomon and Sarah had six sons and one daughter. The oldest, George, and
Lawrence, the youngest became United Brethren ministers. Donald Keister, who played a
major role in the operation of Lincoln Coal and Coke, Inc., was the son of Lawrence
Keister and Cora Cormany. Solomon’s son Albert ran the Keister Mill, and upon
Solomon’s death managed the family’s local farms and their extensive holdings in the
Dakotas. Solomon’s sons Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln never married.
Fenton O. Keister married Eliza Clark Campbell. These three sons were engaged with
their father in many enterprises.
Benjamin Franklin Keister was an 1872 Otterbein College75 graduate. After
teaching school for several years he assumed control of the family’s coal and coke
companies. He was an organizer of the First National Bank of Scottdale, The Scottdale
Savings & Trust Company, and the Title & Trust Company of Western Pennsylvania in
Connellsville.
Benjamin Franklin Keister
75
Four-year liberal arts college in Westerville, OH, founded in 1847 by the Church of the United Brethren
in Christ. It’s now affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
68
Biographical details of Abraham Lincoln Keister are readily available because he
was a U. S. Congressman. The following is from the Congressional website
(http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=K000052 ):
Abraham Lincoln Keister was born in Upper Tyrone Township, Fayette
County, Pennsylvania, September 10, 1852. He was the son of Solomon
and Sarah Stauffer Keister. He was graduated from Otterbein College in
1874. He taught school for two years, and then began the study of the law,
being admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Ohio in February,
1878. He followed his profession at Columbus, Ohio, for three years and
in 1882 returned to Pennsylvania, settling at Scottdale, and engaged in the
manufacture of coke. He was one of the promoters and a leading
stockholder of the Old Meadow rolling mill, which became one of the
subsidiary plants of the United Steel Corporation. He was president of the
First National Bank of Scottdale from its organization, president of the
Lincoln Coal & Coke Co., director of the Scottdale Savings and Trust Co.,
and was interested in many other financial institutions. In 1910 he
founded the Free Public Library of Scottdale, and had since contributed a
substantial sum annually for its upkeep. He received the honorary degree
of LL.D. from Otterbein College in 1915. He was elected to Congress from
the twenty-second Pennsylvania district in 1912, and was reflected in
1914. Mr. Keister was unmarried. He died at his home in Scottdale May
26, 1917, after a short illness.
Abraham Lincoln Keister
Although Lincoln Coal and Coke Co. was formally organized in 1904, the coke
ovens were operating by at least 1902 since the compressor and boiler burned on
Saturday morning, September 27, 1902.76 In 1905 these improvements were made: 81
new coke ovens were built making the total 400; started the erection of an immense steel
76
Connellsville Courier October 3, 1902, p. 2
69
tipple with coal bins and other equipment; a large brick shop for making and repairing pit
wagons and other equipment, and many small improvements.77 We assume that that the
Keister houses and associated buildings were under construction simultaneously with the
opening of the mine.
Board of Directors
Membership of the Board of Directors was stable for many years. The board
members and officers in 1906 were A. L. Keister, A. C. Overholt, B. F. Keister, and C. H.
Loucks. Officers were A. L. Keister president, A. C. Overholt vice-president, E. L. Stoner
secretary and B. F. Keister treasurer. A. C. Overholt was one of the few non-family
members. He was founder of a coke company, A. C. Overholt & Co. He was also the
manager of the United States Cast Iron Pipe & Foundry Co., also located in Scottdale.
Charles H Loucks was cashier and director of First National Bank, Scottdale, and
member of the boards of directors of several companies in the area.
The 1918 officers were B. F. Keister president, A. C. Overholt vice-president, E.
L. Stoner secretary, F. O. Keister treasurer, and M. L. Hasness manager.78 The 1919
directors were B. F. Keister, A. C. Overholt, F. G. Keister, Albert Keister and C. H.
Loucks. Officers were B. F. Keister, president, A. C. Overholt, vice-president, F. O.
Keister, treasurer, M. L. Hasness, assistant treasurer, and E. L. Stoner secretary. 79
The 1921 directors were A. C. Overholt, B. F. Keister, C. H. Loucks, Albert
Keister, and D. C. Keister. Officers were B. F. Keister, president, vice-president SA. C.
Overholt, E. L. Stoner secretary, D. C. Keister assistant treasurer, and assistant treasurer
M. L. Hasness.80 The 1922 directors were B. F. Keister, A. C. Overholt, Albert Keister,
D. C. Keister and C. H. Loucks. Officers were B. F. Keister president, A. C. Overholt
vice-president, D. C. Keister treasurer, E. L. Stoner secretary, and M. L. Hasness assistant
treasurer.81 The 1923 directors were B. F. Keister, A. C. Overholt, Albert Keister, D. C.
Keister, and C. H. Ducks. Officers were B. F. Keister president, A. C. Overholt vicepresident, D. C. Keister treasurer, and M. L. Hasness assistant treasurer.
By 1940 the founding directors were deceased, but control stayed in the family.
The directors were Donald C. Keister, Fenton O. Keister, H. Vinton Overholt, Edwin C.
Keister and H. C. Deffenbaugh. Officers were Donald C. Keister president, Fenton O.
Keister vice-president, H. C. Deffenbaugh secretary-treasurer.
Business Cycles
Levels of production followed business cycles, Figure 1. Production peaked
during WWI then declined steadily, bottoming out in the early 1930’s.
77
Connellsville Courier January 19, 1906, p. 3
Connellsville Daily Courier January 9, 1918, p. 3
79
Connellsville Weekly Courier January 23, 1919, p. 2
80
UMH January 13, 1921, p. 1
81
Connellsville Daily Courier January 11, 1922, p. 2
78
70
Figure 1. Coke production for the entire Connellsville Region.82 Keister is in the Lower
Connellsville District.
Keister operations shut down completely for about a year during the depression.
Operations of both coal and coke restarted mid-November 1935.83 Employees were called
back from being on relief and many from WPA jobs. About 160 miners and day men
were put on a four-day work week.
Production ceased in the Fall of 1939, but increased in the region by July of 1940.
By-in-large the industry had by then switched to recovery coke ovens near the steel mills.
But, increased demand during the war effort could not be met with recovery ovens alone.
The Keisterville operations of Lincoln Coal and Coke put 225 ovens back into
production, well less than the 400 at the peak.
Mine Casualties
No record of a major disaster in the Keister mine was found. There were however
several individual casualties. Those found in newspapers occurred in the early years of
operations. Jasper Craig, a machinist was killed in the mine on October 25, 1901. He was
crushed between a trip of coal cars and the crib. He left a wife and four children.84
82
Source: Miller, E. Willard. 1953. Connellsville beehive coke region a declining mineral economy.
Economic Geography, Vol. 29(2), p.147.
83
Uniontown Morning Herald, November 16, 1935, p. 1.
84
Connellsville Courier November 1, 1901, p. 7
71
Priesick (spl. ?) Martin died after being caught in a trip.85 Samuel Hillen, 40, a native of
Breakneck, was killed by a slate fall on August 2, 1910.86
Management Team
Keisterville Office Staff (left to right): Freddie Longdon, Pete Sifton, J.R. Arison, Hugh R. Farr, Ed Franks,
Braden Leichliter, Keyes Graham, David Bennett, William Miekrantz, Litten, John Pegg, Harvey Johns
Interior of Plant Office (left to right): Keyes Graham, Harvey Jones, Miekrantz, David Bennett
85
86
Connellsville Daily Courier September 15, 1907, p. 8
Connellsville Daily Courier August 8, 1940, p. 4
72
Mine Crew at Mine Mouth (left to right): Dave Bennett,
John Pegg, unkn, Stanley Sofish, unkn, unkn, unkn, Hugh Farr
NICKNAMES AND TRIVIA
Everyone in Keister seemed to have a nickname. Even in the family there were
names that stuck. Caroline became Sally because she had the whooping cough as a child.
She would run to the coal bucket to spit when she coughed, and someone started calling
her “Sally Coalbucket.” Sally she remained.
Franklin became Pete because he wanted to be called Gus. He admired a Gus.
Nana did not think being Gus was such a good idea, so she suggested Pete, which
Franklin liked. He has been Pete to most of the family to this day.
Braden called Edith “Dee.” He was the only one who did. The family seemed to
know it was his special name for her. Brad probably had the most nicknames. At various
times he was Brad, B.B. and Beeb. Van, Nay and Nana had such short names that they
were always just the same.
Gene was called “Super Suds” for quite a while. She should have been called
“Topsy” because that is how she grew up. She was spoiled by everyone, especially Van.
She had the run of the community and fought like an Indian when necessary. She knew
everything that went on in every house and was always the first to visit when anyone had
a baby. She would not wear shoes, except high top shoes laced up with a strap to hold a
73
penknife at the side. On one occasion there was a special party at the house, and Gene
appeared in a fancy blue velvet dress with a lace collar and high top shoes.
Several family members were sure the story about Gene and the chickens would
not appear in this book – not so. It seems Gene was looking out the kitchen window and
saw some chickens mating. She proceeded to tell all who would listen that she knew what
they were doing. “They’re flucking,” she proudly announcement. Braden was away at the
time but when he came home Nana announced, “We’re sending her to private school.”
When Nana asked Gene where she learned such things, she said “Oh, Annie Majastrovich
told me.”
The community was full of interesting people with interesting lives. The names of
the citizens are part of the tapestry of Leichliter memories and part of the uniqueness of
the family conversations for years.
Some branches of the Leichliter’s still say, “Eat, Blanche, Eat.” Carrie and Elmer
Lambert had a daughter named Blanche. Carrie went to all funerals because it was the
only time she got to ride in a car. She went along to the cemetery as well and to the meal
afterward. Dave Bennett seemed to get stuck driving Carrie, and she pretty much took up
the back seat. When anyone seemed especially hungry or enjoyed a good meal, someone
would comment on this story.
During the depression, the Lincoln Coal and Coke Co. bought beans, flour, corn
meal and fat back which was distributed weekly to residents. These commodities were
doled out from Braden’s den. The company also provided yard goods, and Nana and
other bosses wives made clothing. The citizens had to prove they needed these items.
There was one woman who wore all her cloths, so that if anyone checked, they would
find her drawers at home were empty.
A good family friend was Mrs. Fred Longdon. She was an English lady and
always had a tea kettle on the stove for brewing tea. She had lovely china tea cups. Mrs.
Langdon made delicious plum pudding in a wash boiler. The Leichliters bought their
Christmas pudding from her. Her house was interesting to children because it was filled
with kick-knacks and antimacassars,87 one on top of another. Fred Landgon was the uncle
of Johnny Longdon, a Hall of Fame jockey. They had a son Jimmy and a daughter Ada.
Fred always wore a shirt and tie and garters on his sleeves. He worked at the lamp shanty,
the shop where the mine lamps were recharged. This was after carbide lamps were no
longer used. Carbide lamps hung on men’s belts or on their helmets and produced a very
bad smell.
The Ushbushs became important to the Leichliters. One of the Ushbush sons
married Nana May. The Bushs, as their name became, originally it was Yusbasic. They
were Serbians from Yugoslavia and lived near the Leichliters. Mr. Bush kept a cow and
could be seen early every day leading it to pasture and bringing it home at the end of the
87
A piece of cloth put over the back of a chair to protect it from grease and dirt, or for decoration.
74
day. The Bush children were Milton, Pete (Fish), Gus, Nicholas, George, Paul, Mildred
and Anna. Paul still lives in Keister with his wife the former Alice Hoyock.
Joe Woodward was called “Ham.” Charlie Krepps was known as “Squire.” As
mentioned earlier, Grover Whetzel was known as “Bean Biter.” There was Joe “Peacock”
Moleck and his brother “Winky.” “Red” DeLore, “Jiggs” Hoyock and “Bucky” Frokin,
also known as “Sandblaster” were other memorable names. Hugh “Sheep” Farr was a
mine foreman. If Leichliter was hard to spell, how about Majastrovich and Mortichesici?
The Mortichesici’s had sons “Knack”, “Yuck” and “Silver.” Obediah Gwynn was the
town watchman, and Charlie Hartford was the butcher. The Yuricks had five boys and
one girl. It seemed that over the years every conversation with family ended up with
some of these names and stories about them.
Gus and Maggie Baughman had two daughters. Leona was called “Rooster” and
the other daughter, “Chicken.” The Baughmans loved oysters. One Saturday Gus came
home from Uniontown with a gallon of oysters. He was afraid his family would get up on
Sunday morning and eat them before he got up, so he cooked and ate them all before he
went to bed.
Everyone liked Elzie Rodehaver and his son “Jiggs.” They were cousins of the
Hazelton, West Virginia Rodehavers where the family went for blueberries and where the
company bought mine timbers. These Rodehavers had a relative, Homer Rodehaver, who
wrote hyms which can still be found in church hymnals. Homer traveled with Billy
Sunday, the evangelist.
O.P. Krepps had a wife named Icie. He always took his lunch to work. One day he
asked to go home from work for lunch long enough to borrow his wife’s teeth because he
had broken his, and he wanted to eat his lunch.
There was a man in Keister named Ewing “Pud” Darby, who went to town every
now and then and took his son along. “Pud always stopped at a restaurant and ordered a
bowl of soup and two spoons.
The Marinellis were special to the family because Retta Gene was practically
raised by them. Viola was a clerk at the company store. Joe was the father, and Flo was
another daughter. It is at this home where some of the family acquired the taste for
spaghetti and other real Italian foods. Nana only made spaghetti as a baked casserole with
tomatoes, ground meat and cheese on top.
Dave “Tookie” Bennett has remained a friend of the family and shared some
stories for this book. Dave’s father Dave, was the mine foreman. His other sons were
Duncan, Billy and Emery. The town barber, Joe Murucca had two daughters, Josephine
and Mary and a son Sam. Grover and Mattie Fosbrink and daughter Laura lived in
Keister. Grover was a distant cousin of Braden’s. Another family relative lived in town.
Nana’s niece Nell and her husband Earl Shrum lived up the road for years, and when the
mine closed, they bought the house next door to Leichlier’s.
75
“Jack” John and Hettie Pegg were a colorful couple. Jack was allegedly killed for
stealing chickens. The farmer who allegedly killed him shot him in the butt. The funeral
was the largest ever held in town because everyone came to see what the minister would
say about the deceased.
Guess what “Car Shifter Pete” did? His last name was Berkich.
The Durigons were a success story. Mr. Joe Durigon was the stonemason for the
company. He and his family lived frugally. When they were able to build a house, they
found a site away from town. They even built a tennis court which some of the Leichliter
children also enjoyed. One daughter, Persianna, was the company secretary, and one of
her duties was to count the railroad cars every day when they came in and again when
they went out. When Joe went back to Italy for a visit, he went in style to prove what
could happen in America. He left all his children, Persianna, Netto, Sara, Natcie, Zena,
Josephine, Eddie, Virginia and Italia in charge of Braden. Even though their mother was
home, they had to ask Braden for permission to do anything the whole time their father
was gone.
The town post office was just down the hill from the Durigon’s. After the
company store burned, a family by the name of Sofish opened a small general store
where the post office was housed, and they lived upstairs.
The Sherlocks lived near the Leichliters. Their house could be plainly seen from
the side yard and back porch. All during the Second World War, son “Billy” sat on a big
wide swing on their porch and pretended he was a “Tommy Gun.” The sound effects
were realistic and could be heard from early morning until late at night. Rebecca, a
Leichliter grandchild, was pretty good at imitating Billy’s imitation.
Cal Lehman was everyone’s favorite of all the people they came in touch with in
Keister. When Braden had the garage built, Cal kept his car in one of the stalls. Every
Saturday night Nana May, Pete or Gene or all three opened the garage door for Cal when
he went home to Shady Grove. In return, he gave them his punched checks from the
store, and there were always a few cents left. They could then redeem them for candy.
Cal often told about the town ham bone. When someone was lucky enough to get a ham,
the bone was then passed from family to family for bean soup. This worked fine, until –
“some dum s-o-b, cooked cabbage and ruined the bone.”
Like the Bushs, the Vails became part of the family. Pete Vail was the company
bookkeeper. His family had lived in the country in a big stone house on the family farm.
Pete and Jane, his wife, had two sons, Robert and Donald. Bob married Retta Gene. Pete
and Jane lived near Leichliters, and many of the grandchildren referred to Jane as
Grandma Jane, just as Gene’s girls did. If someone had recorded all the stories Braden
brought home from work, this would be a very large book. Everyone knew everyone
else’s business, most especially Braden. One of the workmen had a fight with his wife,
and he did not speak to her for over a year. You can imagine Braden’s surprise when this
76
man presented him with a cigar in honor of a new baby in the family. Braden looked
surprised and said, “I thought you weren’t speaking to your wife?” The worker replied, I
only mad at face.”
As happens when someone tries to record for posterity, people and events that are
only memories heard in the past or stories told over and over, much is missed. Life is
busy when it is being lived, and no one thinks there will ever be a reason to record
everyday events. But it is this everyday living that becomes the history of the future. It is
never earthshattering – just the way it was each day.
Patricia, David and Pete being next to the eldest grandchildren have years of
memories of Keister that the younger ones did not experience. They spent many weeks
with grandparents as small children. Ney’s children were older, but they lived in Keister
and most likely did not think there was anything special there. Patsy, David and Pete
experienced this community as outsiders somewhat in awe because it was so different
from where they all lived. These memories remain. There is that special little snatch of a
memory that gently haunts when something nudges the mind. Maybe it is that hidden
desire to go back in memory to a place where one felt safe and loved. For a Leichliter
descendant, it may be the remembrance of awakening to dappled sunshine through a wide
open window covered with stiffly starched lace curtains. The soft stirring sounds of the
beginning of a new day and the odor of freshly ground coffee brewing making it
impossible to stay in bed and take the chance of missing any event in the day. Some
grandchildren probably never eat watermelon without seeing a picture of big tall
grandfather picking out his penknife to put a plug in one before buying. That snatch of
memory each of us has at one time or another is the touch of the past which keeps one
sane in the present.
Becky Hoover, Patsy Hoover, Bill Hoover, Roger Stiller, Pete Stiller, David
Stiller in Leichliter backyard at Keister. Note outhouses in background.
Nana called Patsy a “clumsy cow” because she fell in the bread can. This was a
large can kept beside the workbench for fresh bread. It was great for standing on to look
out the window at big uncles and their friends being silly in the yard. Braden had the
most comforting words and wonderful lap for children when their feelings were hurt.
77
Nana could be short and snappy with her comments. In fact, she could be downright
nasty and bigoted. It would not be fair to think that Nana and Braden were perfect human
beings.
David remembers how Nana did not always participate in conversations but
absorbed everything said and then came up with thoughtful, intelligent statements. He
remembers a time when Braden was going on at great lengths because surely there would
now be a Republican in the White House. It was when Truman and Dewey were running.
Nana calmly said, “Truman will win.” Sure enough, he did.
Some of the grandchildren grew up in liberal homes and understood the family
intricacies at an earlier age. Each one will have his own special grandparent memory or
story to pass on to their own children and grandchildren. To some, Keister was a place
they only went to visit once a year, and it was often a long trip to get there.
Franklin (Pete) Leichliter’s daughter Ann Lynn tells of her memories of Keister in
an essay she wrote for Brad:
It was always exciting to see the old suitcases come down form the
attic and be laid out on each of our beds, as Mom would begin going from
room to room packing our clothes. We were going to Pennsylvania. We
were going to see Grandma in Keister. It was always met with the same
anticipation and excitement as our friends who may be going to the beach.
Mom would buy each of us new socks, underwear and tennis shoes. The
shoes, for some reason were special to me.
Then the morning would come, and Daddy would wake us all up,
and it would still be dark. Dad had the car all packed, every year he
would tell Mon that he could never get all “that” in the car, but he always
did.
It was a long drive then, none of the new highways, seven hours up
Route 40. We’d write down the name of every mountain and its heights,
see the spot where a bear named Smokey lived and finally arrive at
Shipway Hotel where we’d stop for lunch. Off we’d go again. After many
more miles we would arrive. Coming around the hill Mom would say,
“We’re almost there,” and she’d rattle off all the instructions about being
good. She’d make us straighten our clothes and comb our hair.
It was wonderful to see the house sitting there with the big white
fence all around. Dad would get out and open the gate and into the
driveway we’d go. We were at Grandma’s.
The kitchen was huge, and I guess I loved it most. It always
smelled of something freshly baked – but the aroma of the bread is my best
memory. Nothing has ever compared with the taste of that bread with the
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homemade raspberry jam from the bush at the end of the walk through the
yard. I remember the Fiesta dishes on the big table. Daddy said he
remembers being with his father when they bought those dishes. I loved
the bright colors.
I remember dear Aunt Nell leaning against the sink every morning
talking to all of us while we ate breakfast. She lived next door, and she
showed us much love by being herself.
The upstairs of the house held a great mystery to me. I guess in a
way I was frightened of it. The rooms were so big with so many old things
in them. Mom said never to touch, so I would just stand and look. My
biggest fear was the room at the top of the stairs – because a mounted
deer head hung in it, and when the lights went off, I was afraid of it.
The room at the right end of the hall was my favorite. It was
adjoining to the one Mom and Dad stayed in. Under the bed was a box
that I discovered one year. Inside the box was a beautiful doll. I was told it
belonged to Kitty, and Mom said not to touch it. Every year I would look
under that bed to see that doll.
Aunt Gene, Uncle Bob and the girls lived down the road. Aunt
Gene always called me Annie Lynn – and I loved it because it made me
feel special. My best memory there was the meals where we would all
gather around the kitchen table and eat fresh corn from the big pots on the
stove, fresh string beans and red, red tomatoes. We all laughed and had
such fun.
Kitty was always special to me, though I loved them all. Peggy and
Pete were great pals, too. I remember Donnie as being quite and so pretty.
The girls would walk us up to the store – up through the yard and up the
road – past Grandma Jane’s. We would buy “pop” – an expression I had
never heard for soda, and chocolate popsicles which we never had in
Baltimore.
Sunday was fun because we would get dressed up in our best and
go to Sunday School with Kitty while the grown-ups disappeared behind a
big wooden door, where I understand grandma taught the adult lesson.
Back to Grandma Jane, she was a lovely lady, and she would let us
get jugs of water from her house because it tasted like our water. The
water at Grandma’s tasted like “Rotten Eggs.” Mom would try to fool us
my mixing Kool-Aid with it, but we always knew!
On Sunday after church we would go to Aunt Edith’s and Uncle
Herb’s in California, Pa. I remember the big house with the lovely front
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porch. Becky was dear to me. She would walk me though the college
grounds and buy me coke. She told me that Liberace was her boyfriend
and I believed her! My favorite spot in that house was the dining room
window because in front of it were all of Aunt Edith’s beautiful African
Violets. I loved to stand there and look at them. Now I have my own
special window with violets.
When we were at Grandma’s, I loved it when she would let us go
with her into the chicken house. She let us throw the feed and collect the
eggs. It was like finding a treasure to pick the eggs from the boxes. I
remember one time in particular when Grandma killed a chicken for
Sunday dinner. I can still see her up in the yard. She put the head of that
chicken in a pan and chased us around the yard with it. We were
squealing and laughing so hard! When she finally realized that she
couldn’t catch us, she swung back her arm and threw it at us. She missed.
I have little recollection of Grandad. My only memory is one of
sitting on his lap at the edge of the garden in an old rocking chair. He
sung a little song – something about, “Taddy had a bone, I went to
Taddy’s house, but Taddy wasn’t home.”
Keister was the only place where I ever saw water pumps along the
road. We would walk to the post office, and there was always a cat lying
in the candy case, Mom would dare us to eat any candy from there.
The memories of Keister are grand ones for me. A happy loving
family, and I thank God for all those loved ones and the memories that we
share.
For some Keister was a place where you went when things were not going so
well in your own family, or a place to be sent when Mom and Dad went on an important
trip. Some grandchildren lived in Keister for the early part of their lives and knew Braden
and Nana as they aged. Some became the caretakers for the grandparents and parents who
had spent a lifetime taking care of others. Braden died before becoming an old man. Nana
became an old lady who needed care.
The coke yard was not a place for little girls, except maybe on a Sunday when a
special uncle reluctantly dragged one along. For the boys it was forever fascinating, and
they knew the yard inside and out. Otherwise there was no distinction between what boys
and girls learned at the grandparent’s. Cooking, pulling weeds, gardening, caring and
most of all loving family. Some are better for having experienced the threat of the
mythical rubber hose or the authentic lilac switch.
If you go to Keister today, you will think someone was crazy to be sentimental
and write a book about such a place. It was the people. Time changes places, not people
and their memories.
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The current residents of Keister are proud of their community, “the patch,” and
most know of only the Leichliters living there. Tall trees grow where the company store
stood. The plant site is overgrown hillocks and scrub trees. The road that was always
cinder and red-dog is now paved as it winds through town, and most likely no one refers
to the upper part of town as the back patch. This obscure little town was as wonderful as
any grand city and provided innumerable citizens with a life in America and a future for
many as outstanding educators, professionals and citizens today.
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APPENDIX A - THE FAMILIES
(Not Updated from First Edition)
Otto Nay was the eldest son. Nana told many funny stories about her firstborn.
One story took place when they lived in Mt. Braddock in a company house. Between
their house and the neighbors was a board fence. Ney found a crack in the board which
was convenient for him to make his water. The neighbors had some chickens in their
yard, including a big rooster. One day, when Ney was using the crack in the fence, the
rooster mistook the protuberance for a worm and tried to eat it. This was most painful for
Ney, and he went screaming to his mother.
Ney graduated from Uniontown High school and stayed in Keister where he
worked in the engine room at the plant. He and his brother Van had good bachelor days
together. In 1924, Ney married Hannah Mills, and they went to housekeeping. A son,
Charles, was born in 1929, and a daughter Polly Joanna was born in 1931. Joann was
born with crippled legs and spent her life in a wheelchair.
Around 1942, Ney and family moved to Carmichaels, Pa. which was Hannah’s
hometown. They made several other moves but always returned to the Carmichaels area
where Ney died in 1966. Charles passed away at the age of 47, not long after his father.
He is survived by children, Diane, Valerie, Charles, and David and grandchildren. Joanna
lives by herself in Carmichaels.
Van Handlin was born in Mt. Braddock on September 9, 1906. He graduated from
Uniontown High School and earned a degree in metallurgy from Pennsylvania State
University in 1930. His first job was with American Steele and Wire where he worked in
the metallurgical laboratory at South Works, Worcester, Massachusetts. After four years,
he moved to the vice-president’s office in Cleveland as metallurgist. In 1950, he was
named assistant vice president of operations and vice president in January, 1953. He
became president in 1956. United States Steel acquired American Steel and Wire, and he
became a U.S.S. Vice president in 1964.
Van married Helen Rogers of Johnstown in 1936. In 1944, their son, Van was
born. For some reason, he was known by the family as Jim.
Van, Sr. was involved in community activities, especially Boy Scouts. In 1956,
Van was honored by Penn State when he was awarded the David Ford McFarland Award
for Outstanding Achievement in metallurgy by the University’s College of Mineral
Industries. After Van’s retirement, he became involved in the Coronary Club as secretary.
Van had artery by-pass surgery in 1972. He suffered with heart disease as did his father
and uncles before him. He died in December 1982, and his wife died several weeks later.
Van, Jr. went to school in Shaker Heights, Ohio and prep school at Philips
Andover. He graduated from Yale in 1966 and went on to law school at the University of
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Michigan. He and his first wife Barbara became the parents of Scott, Sandra and James.
Van later married Irene, and his family increased with step-daughters Heather and Tara.
The newest Leichliter, Ashley Elizabeth arrived in September, 1987. Van and his family
reside in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and he is an attorney for DuPont in Delaware.
Edith Susan was born January 15, 1909 in Ohiopyle, Pa. Edith began school in
Keister and graduated from high school in Uniontown. She then went to Indiana Normal
School located about 100 miles form Keister. The trip to school was by train with many
stops along the way. Edith graduated in 1928 with a teaching certificate and began
teaching in Keister where she taught fifth and sixth grade for six years.
When her younger sister, Sally, was going to school in California and dating Paul
Stiller, Edith was introduced to Aaron J. Hoover. Only Aaron was called Herb, and this
was the name Edith knew him as until the first time she visited his family in Carlisle, Pa.
Herb was the friend of Paul’s who had “wheels” as he had worked several years before
going to college. There is an often told story about the time Paul and Herb were going to
Keister to have a date with the Leichliter girls, and Herb’s car got stuck in the railroad
tracks in West Brownsville, Pa. Needless to say, they were very late arriving and in pretty
disheveled condition because they had to let the air out of the tires, lift the car out of the
tracks and then pump the tires up again.
Edith and Aaron were married on June 28, 1934 at her home. They went to
housekeeping in Hanover, Pennsylvania where Aaron was teaching Industrial Arts. A
daughter, Patricia was born on July 28, 1935. In 1936 they moved to California,
Pennsylvania where Aaron became a member of the faculty at California State Teacher’s
College. They lived there until 1966. Rebecca was born March 12, 1940 and son William
Leichliter was born July 29, 1944.
Edith resumed her teaching career in Washington County in 1952. When Aaron
retired and they moved to Clearfield, Pennsylvania, she continued to teach sixth grade
until her retirement in 1972. Edith has enjoyed gardening, quilting, bridge playing,
friends and keeping track of the whole family. Edith continued the Leichliter traditional
activities, especially cooking and entertaining family. An official Leichliter family
reunion was held in Clearfield in 1978.
Patsy graduated from Maryville College in 1957 and married William Bishop
from Clearfield that same year. They are the parents of Tamilyn born in 1960, and Philip
who was born in 1963. Tamilyn is married to Scott Henry, and they are the parents of
Aaron Scott who was born April 1, 1986. Philip married Michelle Beauseigneur, and they
are the parents of Michael and Trevor.
Becky attended Clarion State College and graduated from California State
College in 1957. She went to live in Lititz, Pennsylvania where she was a teacher. She
married Paul Kenneth Sipe, and they have one daughter, Beth Ann. Becky works for
Lambert Hudnut in Lititz.
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Bill graduated from Penn State University in 1966 with a degree in forestry.
While in college, he was in Army ROTC and was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in Army
Engineers. After Ft. Lewis, Washington for a year, he served in Viet Nam. After a
harrowing year for family as well as Bill, he returned in January 1969, and just wanted to
forget that time. Bill and his father chopped down trees and burned brush until Bill
returned to Penn State for a Master’s Degree. He then went on to Iowa State University at
Ames, Iowa where he earned a Doctorate in Forest Economics. He became a professor at
Purdue University where he met and married Peggy Spangler. They are parent of
Jennifer, Monica and Samuel.
Caroline Adele was born on April 12, 1911 in Connellsville, Pa. She also,
graduated from high school in Uniontown and began college at Indiana. Her studies were
interrupted with a severe mastoid infection for which surgery was required. After a
lengthy recuperation, she resumed studies at California. While at California, she met and
married Paul Stiller. Sally and Paul made many moves during their marriage from
Pennsylvania to Texas to Ohio, and each one was a challenge to Sally’s creativity and
devotion to her husband and children.
Sally returned to teaching when she was around 45 and taught until she retired.
She had many interests all related to the fine arts, especially music. Family traditions
involving cooking, bread baking and other Leichliter specialties were part of the Stiller
family.
David is married to Clarrise and they have sons; John, Braden, and Eric, and they
all reside in the state of California. David works for Allstate in the fraudulent claims
division. Pete lives in Minnesota with his wife, Pat, and he is the owner of his own
businesses which specialize in security systems and a computer system for travelers to
locate motel rooms when traveling. They have three children: Susan, Beth and Paul. Both
daughters are married. Pete’s children have followed musical careers. Roger is married to
Donna, and they reside in Columbiana, Ohio where Roger is a school superintendent.
They have two children, Michael and Ann, who are both in college as of 1988. Michael
graduated from Ohio University in spring of 1988.
Braden Boyd, Jr. (Brad) was born on September 26, 1914. He went to school in
Keister and Uniontown as did the rest of the family. He attended Penn State but because
of medical problems did not finish. He worked at Keister as the assistant to his father.
When the plant was near closing, he went to Texas and lived with Uncle Gay until he got
a job with Beers and Heroy. This company tested and located oil and gas and later
became Geotech and then a Teledyne Division. Of all the jobs or positions Bard held at
Geotech, he enjoyed immensely that as Manager of Seismological Observatories. The
work was classified TOP SECRET for many years, but eventually it was declassified and
was actually described in some Government publications. The Government owned the
land, building, and equipment used in the observatories and Geotech had a contract to
operate them. They were spread, geographically, across the United States – Oregon,
Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. The purpose of the work was to see
if recordings made during atomic bomb tests could be distinguished from recordings of
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earthquakes or other seismic activity. Brad visited each observatory periodically. Not
surprisingly, he was very popular with the personnel and always remained so. He gave
several papers or talks at meetings of seismologists all over the country. Naturally he met
most of the best seismologists, one of whom was Dr. Charles Richter, famous for his
“Richter Scale,” which is used to measure the intensity of earthquakes. Brad was one of
the very best analysts of seismic records. He never regretted not having studied theory, a
necessity for those who were foremost seismologists. He was happy with his role and
never complained about the time necessary to do such an excellent job of running the
observatories as he did.
On September 23, 1969 Brad married Mary Ellen, a native of DeQueen,
Arkansas. She and her daughter, Marilyn through their family added more family to this
very family oriented man. Mary Ellen brought to the Leichliters her love of Texas,
Arkansas and Missouri and opened new vistas to nieces and nephews as well as brothers
and sisters. Her interests widened the scope of Brad’s interests in nature.
Of great joy to Brad were the farms and cattle in Arkansas. He enjoyed very much
all the people he met and would loved to have lived there. At that time, the larger farm, or
ranch, was owned by his sister-in-law, Carolyn, but always felt as if it were at least partly
his. He liked nothing better than to be there when they were “working” the cattle –
branding, vaccinating, dehorning, ear tagging, and such. At other times he would roam,
alone, from one end to the other, and always had some new discovery or experience to
tell. He cleared brush, chopped down thistles, even mended fences and pulled cattle from
muddy places. Always as he walked, he kicked open dry cow pies to spread them out and
thus fertilizing wider areas.
Each morning he went with Joe Barnhill, the ranch manager, to have coffee at a
special restaurant that was the meeting place for many earlier risers. At a huge round
table would be a lawyer or doctor, ranch hand or clerk, small cattleman or the richest man
in town. All of them enjoyed each other, and Brad loved it. He also liked and roamed the
other, smaller place he and Mary E. bought from her parents. It had much more timber,
very little cleared fields, but a great variety of trees and wildflowers; sloughs, some
beaver dams; the river running along one side, with massive cypress trees along both
banks and back inland. He and John Minor, who rented the place to run a few cattle and
bale a little hay, walked the land or rode on John’s tractor. After a low-water bridge
washed away, John would ford the river on his tractor. He built a small platform on the
rear that could be raised to keep the rider dry when crossing the river, then lowered on the
other side.
Visits to DeQueen were about once a month and very relaxing and enjoyable for
Brad.
Franklin Bitner, the fourth son was born in Keister on August 11, 1917. He
attended Penn State University after graduating from high school in Uniontown. After
college, he moved to Baltimore where he worked at Rustless Stainless Steel Plant, which
was later called Armco Steel. He retired from Armco in 1975.
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During the Second World War, he was a fighter pilot. He went overseas in 1942
and flew combat missions in the South Pacific until 1944. There was great rejoicing when
he returned home.
In 1942 he married Rita Mary Obinger of Baltimore in Dathan, Alabama on
October ninth. They have four children and five grandchildren. Franklin Bitner “Pete”
Leichliter, Jr. was born September 17, 1945 in Sarasota, Florida. He attended the
University of Maryland, Towson State University and Loyola College. He married in
1972 and divorced in 1975. He lives in Boca Raton, Florida and is Branch Market
Support Manager in Information Systems Group for IBM in Coral Gables, Florida.
Ann Lynn was born February 29, 1948 in Baltimore. She graduated as a
registered nurse from Union Memorial Hospital. She married Greg Moss in 1971. They
have two children, Gregory Moss, Jr. and Kelly. Greg and Ann separated in 1987. Ann is
working as a head nurse at a nursing home.
Rita Ann “Susie” was born June 7, 1952. She graduated from Union Memorial
Johnston School of Nursing as an LPN. Susie married Phillip Kline, Chief Petty Officer,
U.S.N. in 1972. They have three children; Christi, Jennifer, and Robert. Susie and Phillip
separated in 1987, and she is working as a charge nurse in a nursing home in Tennessee
where she and her family live.
Braden Boyd Leichliter, III was born June 19, 1955. He attended Towson State
University and now works as manager of Automotive After-Market in Baltimore. He
married Tina on May 23, 1988.
Pete has been spending his retirement doing the things he enjoys the most;
gardening, fishing, and helping out at a hospital as a volunteer. Just the things a Leichliter
would be expected to do. Rita spent many years helping to care for her invalid mother.
Since she passed away, Rita is now able to spend time with Pete on some of the fishing
trips to Florida and visited old haunts from the days they were first married.
Pete makes an annual visit to Pennsylvania to check on sister Edith, and Ohio to
look-in on Retta Gene.
Nana May attended grade school in Keister and graduated from high school in
Uniontown. She went to college in California, Pa. and lived with Edith and Herb. After
graduation in 1941, she went with her lifelong friend Rita Donovan to teach in Maryland.
After several years of teaching, she married a Keister boy, Nicholas Bush.
After their daughter Barbara Ann was born, Nana taught near Keister, and Nick
went to Waynesburg College from which he graduated with a degree in education. In
1952, they moved to Washington, D.C. where they both taught for 26 years. Two more
children were born there, Milton in 1955 and Robert in 1957.
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All the children are musical and played instruments. Music became a career for
youngest son Bob. Barbara graduated from Maryville College in 1969 with a degree in
education. She returned to the D.C. area and taught there until she married John Bakelar
in 1970. They now have two daughters, Anna and Joan and live in Atlanta, Georgia
where they are both educators. John is principal of a middle school, and Barbara is a
teacher in a middle school.
Milton graduated from Maryville College in 1976. He began work in the D.
C. area where he has remained and now works for American Council of Independent
Laboratories as Director of Government Affairs and Member Services. He is married to
Adrienne Gross, and they live in Arlington, Virginia.
Bob graduated from Northwestern University in 1979 with a degree in music. His
instrument is the flute, and he received honors and awards for his playing. He played with
the Rochester Philharmonic for six years. He is now with the Symphony in Albuquerque,
New Mexico and teaches in the summers at Sewanee Summer Music Center in
Tennessee.
After Nick and Nana retired, they moved to Mountain City, Tennessee to be near
Barbara. They then moved to Rochester, New York so that they could hear and enjoy
their son playing in the orchestra. Now they live in Maryville, Tennessee. They enjoy
friends, family, walking, traveling and just being together. Nana cooks like all the
Leichliter girls, and her meals are memorable for all her family.
Retta Gene could tell a story like a good novel, but she won’t. After high school,
she worked in a defense plant during World War II. Then she joined the Navy as a
WAVE. While in the Navy, she met and married Phil Sample, who was an officer. She
resigned and had one daughter, Nana Gene. She was divorced and lived at home. When
she married Robert E. Vail, Jr. she moved into the old company office which Braden
bought and fixed up. Bob and Gene had two daughters, Peggy and Donnette.
Bob and Gene moved to Ohio in the Steubenville area where Bob worked for a
steel company. Robert died in 1980, and Gene remained there in the lovely home they
had built together.
Nana Gene (Kitty) married Thomas Lang, and they had two sons, Peter and Max.
Peter is a music major at Webster Grove College in St. Louis, Missouri. Max was killed
by a car in 1979. Kitty and Tom were divorced, and Kitty married Tim Daly, and they
have a son Michael. Kitty and her husband are very artistic and have careers in this field.
Kitty quilts making the legacy from her grandmother, Nana, a profitable career.
Peggy lives at home and works in word processing and computers for the Kelly
Girls. She has made their home a “House and Garden” picture with her incredibly
beautiful fern and flower gardens on their wooded property.
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Donnette married Edward Swindale of Columbus, Ohio where they now live.
They have three children; Havilah, Matthew and Lauren. Donnette and family enjoy trips
to Gene’s which are reminiscent of the trips others made to Nana and Braden’s.
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APPENDIX B - SOME FAVORITE OLD-TIME LEICHLITER RECIPES
Grandma Leichliter’s Soft Ginger Cookies
2 cups molasses –dark
1 cup melted lard (oleo)
1 cup boiling water
4 teaspoons soda
2 teaspoons ginger
Pour boiling water in soda. Add other ingredients in order. Add flour to stiffen.
Bake in quick oven.
Comments from Pat – I added ½ cup sugar because I don’t think molasses today is like
that first used in this recipe. I take a quick oven to mean about 350° – 375°. The flour
amounts to about 4 cups. Drop by big spoonsful on greased cookie sheet. This is a fun
recipe to make while children watch because the ingredients bubble up to the rim of a
very large bowl.
Braden Leichliter’s Salad Dressing
½ cup vinegar
½ cup water
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ cup sugar
Combine and stir the above well. Add ½ cup oil – B. B. always used olive oil. Others
work. Stir well, pour on tossed salad.
Braden’s Chili Sauce
7 quarts cleaned tomatoes
3 quarts onions
3 large bunches of celery
1 gal. sweet peppers
6 hot peppers or cayenne to taste
3 Tablespoons sale
3 cups sugar
2 quarts vinegar
Chop tomatoes, run celery, peppers, onions through a food chopper. (Today one could
use a food processor). Cook then add other ingredients. Will make about 7 quarts when
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cooked. No instructions for cooking but probably a long time to taste and desired
thickness.
Leichliter Brown Turkey Gravy
When turkey is roasted remove to platter. Put roaster or pan in oven and brown juices in
pan until quite brown (not burned). Add water and broth from cooked giblets. Cook until
all brown is loose from pan. Mix flour with cold water; add to browned juices in pan.
Cook stirring to thicken. This can be cooked in oven. Add water as needed.
Roast Leg of Lamb Leichliter Style
Place a leg of lamb in an open roasting pan or roaster. Sprinkle with salt and pepper over
leg, a goodly amount of both. Spread with butter or oleo. Sprinkle with flour. Add water
to pan to about ½ inch. Roast at 350° basting often with juices in pan. Add more water if
necessary. Turn leg, flour and brown other side. When done remove lamb. Brown pan –
add water to loosen browned bits. Thicken with flour for gravy.
Comment – people who don’t like leg of lamb love this.
Nana’s Peach Roll
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon lard or butter or oleo
¾ cup sweet milk
pinch salt
mix as for biscuits
Boil 1 cup sugar and 1 pint of water five minutes. Roll dough about ½ inch thick and
spread with sliced peaches. Roll up and slice about 1 inch thick, lay in pan, cut side up.
Cover with syrup and bake until done.
White Bread (Nana’s)
2 cups milk
2 cups water
4 Tablespoons sugar
1 & 1/3 Tablespoon shortening
1& 1/3 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/3 oz. yeast (or large cake)
Heat liquid to lukewarm. Add sugar and crumbled yeast. Let stand while preparing flour.
Sift 5 cups flour into large pan. Make depression in middle. Put in salt, shortening and
yeast mixture. Combine by beating motion with hands. As needed, add more flour. As it
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gets stiffer knead. Cover, put in warm place and let rise 30 minutes. Knead down, cover
and let rise 1 hour. Make into loaves, put in greased pans, let rise 1 ½ hours. Bake in 350°
oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Cool on racks covered with tea towel.
Mother Leichliter’s Chess Tarts
2 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups uncooked raisins
whip eggs and add other ingredients. Line muffin pans with pie dough. Fill with raisin
filling. Place a small lump of butter or oleo on top. Bake at 350° until done, lightly
brown. Makes 6 tarts.
Leichliter Apple Butter
14 cups applesauce
4 cups white sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon ginger, nutmeg and cloves each
½ cup vinegar
Put all ingredients in heavy roaster pan and bake at 350° oven for approximately 4 hours.
Mother used boiled down cider instead of vinegar, but this is hard to get now. Beware –
your oven will be a mess, but it is worth it.
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APPENDIX C – INCIDENTS IN-AND-AROUND KEISTER
1902 - Don’t Shoot Your Hostess
James Cunningham and George Dicksor (name blurred) of Keister were lodged in the jail
at Uniontown. They were charged with riot and felonious shooting. During a celebration
at the Cunningham residence a fight occurred during which Mrs. Cunningham was shot
and slightly wounded. The person firing the shot was not identified. (Connellsville
Courier, November 14, 1902, p. 1.)
1905 – A Not So Great Train Robbery
“James Lanahan, who resides at Keister works, was a Sunday visitor at this place. In
order to reach this place from Keister, Mr. Lanahan went to Waltersburg and took the
train. Between Keister and Waltersburg he was held up by a gang of colored men and
relieved of $70 in cash. He carried a gold watch, but when they unscrewed the case and
found his name engraved here, the same was returned to him. Mr. Lanahan stated that he
did not know who the men were.”
1909 - Don’t Follow Your Calf Into A Hole
Uniontown, June 26.—William Holt, a well known farmer in Menallen township met his
death in a peculiar manner at Keister works yesterday afternoon. One of his calves had
fallen into a hole made by a cave in from a fall in the mines and he endeavored to rescue
it, and while doing so was asphyxiated.
Having located the calf in the hole the elder Holt, slid down it about 15 feet, but
the calf, which was alive, was still about ten feet further back, but still within sight of the
surface. It was impossible to drag the animal out and Holt sent his son for a ladder and a
rope. When the boy returned with the ladder and rope, his father was lying on his face
and failed to answer when called.
Thoroughly frightened, the lad ran to the Keister ovens and told his story to F. S.
Roadman, the yard boss, who started for the place with a number of workmen. Then
Superintendent D. R. DePriest, who was notified, also went to the scene. Lanterns
lowered in the fall refused to burn, showing there was an entire lack of oxygen and the
presence of gas.
Looping a rope the men dropped it over Holt’s arm and with a coke drawer’s
hook over the other drew the body from the hole.
Restoratives were applied at once and Dr. E. H. Rebok was summoned, but Holt
was far beyond all aid. His body was carried to his house. Holt was in the fall from 8:30
o’clock until 11 when the body was pulled out. The calf was shot. (Connellsville Weekly
Courier, July 1, 1909, p. 5.)
1910 - Buggies Can Be Dangerous
On September 9, 1910 Harry Lynn, 28, drowned when his buggy was overturned
by the current in a small stream near Keister. A passenger, Clark Miller, managed to hold
onto the buggy and was dragged to safety by the horse. (Connellsville Daily Courier,
September 4, 1040, p. 4, Out of the Past, Thirty Years Ago.)
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1914 - Train Wrecked For Fun?
“Brownsville, April 28,--Arraigned before Justice C. C. Garletts on the cause of causing a
P. V. and C. wreck at Keister, Saturday night, causing damage amounting to about
$10,000, James McDonough, aged 27, who was employed as a green fireman for that
company, was held for court without bail this afternoon. He was committed to the county
jail to await a court hearing.
It is alleged in the information which was made before Justice Garlettes, that the
man released the brakes on four merchandise cars at Keister and then moved three others
by a pinch bar, caused the complete wreck of the eight cars, destroying quite a lot of
merchandise. Railroad detectives say that the loss to the company will be somewhere
near the $10,000 mark. When arrested the defendant had a switch key in his possession.
It is claimed that Allice Bryce and Sallie Sheppard said the man had told them he
had caused the wreck which cost the company $1,000 and that the next week he would
cause $10,000 damage. The man boarded at Helen where, it is claimed, he talked to the
two women concerning the wreck.
McDonough was brought to Brownsville when a strike of the trainmen was
called. He worked two days as a fireman and then quit. Since that time he has been
loitering in the vicinity of Brownsville and Hellen. The women who declare that the man
talked to them regarding the wreck, state that he did not assign any reason.
Immediately after the wreck Chief of Detective Davis, of Pittsburgh, Detective
Ralph Rose of Renova, and Detective George Marker of Brownsville Junction were
assigned on the case. By most efficient work, the detectives managed to arrest
McDonough, whom they believe is the guilty party.
(Uniontown Morning Herald, April 29, 1914, p. 6.)
1918 - Getting Around Hooverization of Wheat
During WWI President Wilson appointed Herbert Hoover as United States Food
Administrator. The goal was to reduce US food consumption and increase exports to
Europe for the military and civilians in war ravaged countries. Rationing was not
imposed. Instead a massive publicity program was implemented. Food items emphasized
in the program were said to have been “Hooverized.” Wheat was such an item. State and
local governments also implemented programs, including Fayette County.
“Uniontown, Feb. 17.—County Food Administrator Charles L. Davidson today reported
to State officials of 3,000 pounds of hoarded flour in 12 residences at Keister, a mining
town near here. In one house the raiders found 900 pounds in sacks between the outside
wall and a false wall. In another house 800 pounds were confiscated, and in another 600.
The flour in sacks had been sewed in a mattress in one place while in another, sacks were
placed between the mattress and bed springs on unused beds.” (Warren Morning
Chronical, February 18, 1918, p. 7.)
1925 - A Dog Worth Dying For
“Hugh Moore, 51, is dead and Samuel Parker 62, is in jail in Uniontown following a
murder at Keister Sunday night. According to Parker Moore came to his home, a shanty,
and an argument ensued over a dog. Moore is alleged to have said he would get the dog
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and Parker too. Parker said he heard Moore come toward the bed on which he was lying
and he fired two shots, both of which took effect. Then, he said, he rolled over and went
to sleep. He discovered the body beside his bed this morning at 6 o’clock. Both had been
drinking, it is said.” (Connellsville Weekly Courier, October 1, 1925, p. 1)
1930 - Stealing Them Is No Way To Get A Girl
A gun battle in which a number of shots were exchanged between state police,
constables and a gang of rowdies, Wednesday night, near Keister, grew out of the alleged
attack upon a 17-year old Republic girl by the gang after driving her escort away at the
point of a revolver.
The girl was Josephine Shiner, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Shiner, while her
escort was Frank Krospic (name blurred), 22, Footedale.
According to the Shiner girl’s story she and Frank went for an automobile ride
with Frances Barchanowicz, 18, of Tower Hill No. 1, John Shuberg, 21, of Searights and
Tony Papa, 18, of Footedale. They drove a short distance past Keister where they stopped
and she and Frank started to walk a short distance from the road where a friend lived who
was making her a new dress. It was between the automobile and the friend’s home that
they were stopped by the rowdies who ordered Frank to leave immediately or be shot.
The young man went to the automobile and then to a telephone and called the
New Salem detachment of state police. Privates Powell, Colterick and Sanuie together
with Constable George Zemo responded. Upon their arrival the gang started to retreat, at
the same time exchanging shots with their pursuers. All of them managed to escape with
the exception of three who were arrested.
The three youths gave their names as: John Cudzillo, 18, Uppermiddletown, Joe
Ferial, 21, and Joe Gasper, 22, both of Keister.
According to Cudzillo he was the only one of the gang who possessed a pistol and
that one was unloaded. He denies the story of the girl and officers, relative to the
exchange of shots, insisting that at no time did he have cartridges to fit the pistol which
he said was an old one and “no good.”
An intensive search and investigation is being conducted by the state police under
the direction of Corporal George Pierce and it is his belief the balance of the gang
numbering about 15, will be rounded up within the next several days.” (Uniontown
Morning Herald, September 26, 1930, p. 1.)
1930 - Keister Youth Promise “No More Girl Stealing”
Keister youths will not attempt to do any more “girl stealing,” they promised
Alderman Matt Allen Friday morning when ten of them appeared to answer to disorderly
conduct chargers made by State Trooper M. J. Powell.
The youths attempted to wrest Josephine, aged 22, of Footedale, and Frances
Barchanowitz, 19 of Tower Hill, from Tony Papa and Frank Kropsic along the Searights
road Thursday night.
When the evidence was sifted it was found thst John Codillo, who was wielding
an empty revolver, and Charles Harford were ringleaders and they were fined $10 and $5,
respectively. Eight other youth including Elias Sicklee, Dena Muccbi, Charles
Rodahaver, Mike Ushbush, Joseph Gasper, Joe Serpal, Ted Brosky and John Shebar were
released upon payment of costs. (Uniontown Morning Herald, September 27, 1930, p. 4.)
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1935 - The Porch-Drop Method of Paternity Identification
To abandon a baby on an alleged father’s doorstep in order to compel him to get
married is one novel method of persuasion which apparently didn’t work, County
Detective Jack A. Hann declared following a complaint from Keister that a baby had
been abandoned on the porch of the Carpel home at Helen works.
The mother, Helen Golden, of Keister, admitted to the county official, he said,
that she had temporarily left the baby on the porch but she said she did so as notice that
the infant was the son of a well-known man who, she says refuses to wed her and thereby
give the baby his name.
The county detective advised the mother to take other legal means of vindicating
the little one’s name through prosecution in the courts. The mother came back and
repossessed the baby after it had taken possession of the porch for a brief time.
(Connellsville Daily Courier, August 17, 1935, p. 1)
1939 - They Needed More Than Chickens
Clyde Henry Rhodeheaver of Keisterville was found guilty on a charge of assault
with intent to rob in a verdict returned before Judge H. S. Dumbauld.
He had been arrested by State Motor Police for the assault on June 22, on Miss
Dorn Silbaugh, retired school teacher, at her home in Upper Middletown, Menallen
Township, taking $3.
The defendant, with three others, had won an acquittal earlier in the week on
charged growing out of larceny of 15 chickens from one of Miss Silbaugh’s coops.
(Connellsville Daily Courier, December 21, 1939, p. 10.)