March 2014

Allegany Area
Historical Association
March 2014
w w w . allegany.o r g
Issue XXXIII Vol. 1
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
This past winter was hard for us as we lost some more members. Cheryl Stetz died in November. Cheryl
was a strong supporter of AAHA and in recent years had taken over the Country Cupboard booth at Heritage Days from Margaret Parker. Her son, Kyle, is a Civil War buff and whenever we had a Civil War display,
both she and Kyle were a big help for us. Caroline Clark also passed away in November. She and her husband, Duane (Beans) were both a font of information on Allegany history. Many years ago, they donated
a tree to AAHA in memory of Kathryn Grandusky. These ladies will be missed by all our members.
Another member that we lost was Bob Bergreen. The Bergreens are an old Allegany family. An interview
with Bob’s brother, Don, appears later in this newsletter. Bob and his wife, Nickie (Ila Jean) were some of
the founding members of AAHA. They worked tirelessly to help us get off the ground, and Nickie served
as President of AAHA for many years. They had lived in North Carolina for a number of years but their
hearts were still in Allegany. Our sympathies to the Bergreen family.
Several members included notes with their dues payments, saying how much they enjoy the newsletter
and the work we do to preserve Allegany’s history. Thanks to James Simmons, Bill Ryan, Clyde Johnson,
Gary Forness, Shirley Toohey, Margaret Nutt Sutherland, Karen Streif, Mary Nicklas Petro, Mardie Warren
Butler, Jerry Perry, Susie Bubbs and Mary McClure. For many of our far-flung members, our newsletter
gives them the only news they will receive about what is happening in their old hometown.
Our Christmas Cookie Sale was once again a huge success, with a profit of $1,089.00. Thanks to all who
baked, donated money or worked on the sale. Our Community Christmas Service, however, only had 12
people in attendance. The weather was good so that wasn’t the problem. Rev. John Woodring conducted
a nice service and we collected a lot of needed things for Genesis House, for which they warmly thanked
us. I hope that next year more can come to help us start the Christmas season.
We have received a sizeable bequest from the estate of Mary Beth Smith of Hornell, a member of our association. She taught grade school in the Olean school system for 39 years, retiring in 1990. She then
moved to her late parents’ home in Hornell. The officers and trustees are gathering suggestions as to
what we need to have done, and will meet in the spring to prioritize things. One thing that is being done
immediately is to have a fire and burglary alarm system installed by Austin Security.
Our thanks to Pete Forness who shoveled our walk all winter. All the exercise he got saved him the cost
of a membership at the YMCA! Thanks, Pete.
FRANCIE POTTER, PRESIDENT
Page MAKING SAUERKRAUT by Gertrude Schnell
Every year on my Grandmother Schnell’s farm on the Birch Run Road there was a large garden. Some
of the vegetables were taken to Bradford to be sold on the streets, and much of the produce was to
be canned for use on the farm. Cabbage was a big part of the garden. In the fall the heads were cut
and many were put in the cellar for winter use. However, at least one bushel was saved to make sauerkraut.
When the time came to make this tasty staple, a five gallon crock was brought from the cellar and thoroughly washed. Then the sauerkraut cutter and stomper came from the attic, again to be thoroughly
washed. The stomper might have been made from a broom handle and a block of wood about 6 inches
in diameter.
Next the heads of cabbage had to be trimmed and made ready for the cutter. The sauerkraut cutter was
a low wooden box with a blade at the center. A wooden box with no bottom in it was located in the cutter box. Cabbage was put in this box, which slid back and forth over the blade. Thus fingers were not
supposed to be cut. The cutter was next placed on top of the crock.
Now the hard work began. Each head of cabbage was pushed across the blade time after time. We
usually took turns because it required power. About 1 and ¼ cups of salt and ½ cup of sugar had been
made ready. As about a 3” of 4” layer of cabbage accumulated in the crock it was stomped and sprinkled
with salt and a little sugar.
When the bushel of cabbage was all cut, a clean cloth was put on it in the crock to cover it and a large
flat stone was put on, sometimes being held down with a jug of water since a brine would form and cause
the contents of the crock to rise.
The crock was then placed near the wood stove in the dining room. Total fermentation usually took place
in about 10 days. However, every few days fingers dipped into the crock to eat some of the cabbage to
see if it was sour enough. If mold formed on the top, the cloth was removed and washed and the top
layer of cabbage was also removed.
When it became sour enough to suit
my grandmother, we started canning
it. Into sterile fruit jars it went and
was then cold packed in about an
hour. Sometimes this process took
several days and what was left in
the crock became more sour each
day. With the jars in the cellar, winter could come anytime because my
grandmother was ready.
Thanks for another great, interesting
story, Gertrude.
Page An interview with Don Bergreen by Wes and Judy Martin, June, 2013
Don was born at home in Allegany in a house at 143 North Second Street that his parents rented from Clarence
Smith. When Don was about a year old, his parents purchased the house at 170 North Second Street, where he
grew up.
Don’s grandfather, Carl Bergreen, came from Sweden and died before Don was born so he only knew about him
from family stories, but he did know his grandmother, Elvira. Carl Bergreen came from Sweden to Galeton, Pennsylvania and had a job there but at some point he and his wife moved to Olean. On his mother’s side, his grandfather
MacMurray owned a brickyard on East State Street in Olean. Many of the bricks on the Olean streets came from this
brickyard. Again, this grandfather died before Don was born, and he barely knew his grandmother.
Don’s father, Roy Bergreen, had to leave school in his sophomore year and go to work to help support the family
when his father, Carl, died. Don’s parents, Roy and Doris MacMurray Bergreen, were married in 1922. Don’s mother
had one year of working as a bookkeeper, but then became a stay-at-home mom, raising a family of three sons
and a daughter. Don is the oldest. His brother, Bob, two years younger, who lived in Charlotte, N.C. passed away
in December of 2013. His brother, David, who was twelve years younger, died in November of 2012, and his sister,
Ann, died at age 55 from problems related to dementia.
Don remembers that during the Depression many people in Allegany had their own vegetable gardens or shared
gardens with others. The Bergreens shared a garden with the Washburn family – the mothers canned the produce.
His step-grandfather raised chickens so they always had food on the table but it was mostly home-grown.
Don’s father was employed by Scovil & Brown from Wellsville as a grocery wholesale representative in the Olean
and Bradford area. Merle Schultz lived across the street from Don and Merle’s father, Howard, was involved with a
grocery store in Allegany. Merle and Don are the same age and graduated from Allegany Central School together.
There were twenty-six students in the class.
Don and Merle and other kids in town went swimming and fishing in the Five Mile Creek. Movies on the second
floor of the Town Hall building were only on Saturday. Movies in Olean were at the Haven theater and the State
theater, across from each other on West State Street. A popular movie was “Steamboat Round the Bend”.
Don had to earn his own “pocket change” so he went door to door selling magazines such as Saturday Evening
Post, Liberty and Life. He bought the Saturday Evening Post for 5 cents and sold it for 10 cents. He also delivered
papers – the Times Herald – and made less than $1 a day. He had 60 customers, and some lived up the Five Mile
Road. When the snow got too bad in the winter he had to drop the five customers farthest out. The next summer
the Times Herald ran a special contest for the paper boys – get five new customers and the Times Herald would take
them on a trip to Celeron Park for a picnic, so Don signed up the five customers he had dropped in the winter.
After Don graduated from high school in June of 1942, he was offered a job with the Town of Allegany driving
a dump truck, helping to repair roads for Duncan McRae. It was a 1936 Ford which had almost no brakes “which
made things very interesting.” He earned fifty cents an hour.
He went to Alfred Tech from September 1942 to June 1943, where the normal two-year program was condensed
to one year because of the war. He studied radio and electronics, expanding on his hobby of building radios. He
had a deferment from the draft while he was in school. He built his first radio when he was fifteen. It was a one
tube, battery operated radio and could pick up WHDL AM. When they went off the air at 11 p.m. he then picked up
KDKA in Pittsburgh or WHAM in Rochester. He had to wear headphones to hear the broadcasts.
Alfred at that time was a 7th Day Adventist town, and that was a revelation to Don. There were no dorms – the
students stayed with town residents. Don and two others stayed in a professor’s home near campus. Don joined a
fraternity where he had dining privileges where he got his meals.
He heard about Pearl Harbor while up Smith Hollow picking ground pine for Christmas wreaths. He got back in
his car and turned the radio on, and he knew then that he would be in the service. His radio experience and training
saved his life when he entered the Army. His first job was in the Infantry, but Engineers needed someone in communications at Headquarters and Service Company. He still had close calls being in the Engineers but nothing like
he would have had in the Infantry.
He reported for active duty in October of 1943. His father drove him to the Salamanca draft board where he and
several others got on a train which came back through Allegany where his mother was at the First Street crossing
waving a handkerchief. He went to Camp Upton, Long Island processing center where he was issued everything he
needed. From there he was sent to Florida for sixteen weeks of infantry training. He had one week of leave and
then went to Boston where he boarded the U.S.S. Packer for a 14 day convoy to England. He landed at Bristol in
March of 1944 and then waited for D-Day in a camp in southern England. England that March had very cold nights.
There were eight cots in each tent with a pot belly stove in the middle for heat. The training was constant.
There were hundreds of barrage balloons in the area to prevent German aircraft from coming in at low altitude.
Page He could hear the wail of sirens at night, warning of approaching bombers. Search lights came on, anti-air craft fire
and tracer bullets were going up as the Germans were trying to bomb Bristol’s industrial areas.
June 5th, just before sundown, the barrage balloons were suddenly pulled down to the ground and aircraft by
the hundreds started flying overhead at low altitude with their running lights on
to avoid colliding with each other. They were heading for the coast of France “and
we knew D-Day was on.”
It was another six days before Don’s unit left Southampton for France. His unit
landed on Omaha Beach, Easy Red sector from a Higgins landing craft and waded
ashore.
By June 12th, Allied troops were 3 to 4 miles inland and things were quiet for
“a nineteen year old landing on Omaha Beach.” Among the equipment that the
GI’s carried were bulky gas masks. As Don walked up the road to the heights over
Omaha Beach, the road was littered with thousands of discarded gas masks. Don’s
unit, 1st Engineers Combat Battalion walking between the hedgerows on a quiet
moon-lit night could hear GI’s hollering “New mown hay, new mown hay”, which
was the code for phosgene gas, and everyone immediately thought of their discarded gas masks, but it turned out to be a false alarm. Don’s unit lived among the
hedgerows from June 12th until mid-July when the break-out began. They experienced heavy, heavy artillery action from German 88’s trying to knock out American
artillery behind them as the unit was between the two lines. If you heard the shells
whistle overhead you knew you were safe. It was
the ones that you did not hear that landed close to Nazi banner taken down
and saved by Don.
you that caused problems.
After Cherbourg was captured, that opened up a
seaport for landing men and supplies and Omaha Beach became quiet.
The 1st Engineers Combat Battalion had three companies, A, B and C, and each
had their own specialty. One company was trained to lay minefields or uncover German minefields and remove them. One company used bulldozers for building roads,
among other things. C Company specialized in building bridges. Don worked in communications, operating field telephones, stringing wire and anything else necessary to
maintain 2-way radio contact.
Because of all the bombing prior to D-Day, Don saw a lot of dead cattle, and at
times the stench was almost unbearable. The bulldozer operators were kept busy
digging deep trenches and burying the cattle.
Don saw a lot of France but not Paris. His unit did an end run around the city, and
Don in uniform.
continued up to Belgium, headed for Aachen, Germany.
The first breakthrough into Germany was through the Siegfried Line into Aachen. His unit didn’t stay too long,
and pulled back into Belgium. About a month later, they broke through again, this
time about 15-20 miles from the first battle, using engineering equipment, explosives, etc. to get through. They then pulled back to take part in the Huertgen Forest Battle and the Battle of the Bulge.
From the 16th of November, 1944 to the 6th of December the Germans staged
a counter-offensive in the Huertgen Forest, where there was just one road through
the forest. Richie Boser and Carl Jones [of Allegany] survived this battle, a prelude
to the Battle of the Bulge. It was considered to be as difficult and as bloody as DDay, with wretched weather. German shells exploded on impact with the tree tops
and the whole forest was decimated. Shrapnel was spraying all over.
The Battle of the Bulge happened almost immediately afterward. The 99th and
104th Divisions were side by side in the battle and were totally inexperienced, forming the weak link in the chain. The Germans knew this and those divisions took
the brunt of the attacks. Don’s unit held the north flank of the Bulge. The weather
was severe, with freezing rain almost constant and frozen mud everywhere. The
GI’s wore white bed sheets over their uniforms as camouflage. Christmas Day the
skies cleared so the Air Force could finally lend some much needed support. The
battle finally ended in mid-January.
Notebook from WWII
To keep as clean as possible, Don used a steel helmet he found along the way,
Page filled it with water and used a gas-powered blowtorch to heat the water and take a “horse bath.” He shaved the
same way. “At 20, you didn’t have to shave too much.”
Supplies became very short. He found a pack of wet cigarettes and
dried them out, but after one puff he found they were too powerful
to smoke and threw them away. The C-rations had a hard chocolate
bar, crackers, spaghetti and meatballs. The 10-in-one rations had more
crackers, sausages, cheese and beans and franks.
All the local citizens along the way were so very happy to see American troops.
After the Battle of the Bulge, the next objective was Cologne, Germany. They arrived at the bivouac site late in the evening, and that night
American bombers hit the industrial parts of the city. Don learned after
the war that the American pilots and navigators knew where the Cologne
Cathedral was, and it survived the war untouched.
Close Up of notebook.
From Cologne, his unit proceeded to the Rhine River and Remagen.
The bridge at Remagen was in serious disrepair and unfit for heavy travel, so another engineer company had built a pontoon bridge downstream, and that is where his unit crossed. They
were now in the heart of Germany and found that the people had evacuated whole towns before the American
troops came.
World War II ended on May 8, 1945. Don’s unit was in Czechoslovakia. They commandeered a private house
– no more sleeping on the ground. Don was able to take a hot bath for the “first time in a long, long, long time.”
After Czechoslovakia, Don’s battalion was assigned to Nuremberg to start preparations for the Nuremberg trials. Don had enough points built up so he could start heading home. As a result, he didn’t get involved with the
Nuremberg proceedings.
He rode World War II trucks, 40 & 8’s, to Camp Lucky Strike and Camp
Chesterfield in Normandy, and waited weeks and weeks for a ride home.
He finally boarded an Italian ship, a “rust bucket”, but got home in five
days from Le Havre to New York City. He was seasick all the way.
The morning they arrived in New York, the fog was just lifting and
they all saw the Statue of Liberty – “what an experience that was!” He
was taken to Fort Dix, New Jersey where he was discharged, and then
stayed with relatives in Brooklyn before taking the Erie Railroad home in time for Christmas, 1945.
Don re-connected with his
Michelin road map, same type as
friends who were returning
used
by Patton to plan movements
from the war, but he didn’t
of his forces. Patton stated
discuss his experiences too
anything more than major route
much.
junctions and cities was too
He spent two years at St.
detailed for someone instructing
Bonaventure College, and then
did his junior and senior years
corps commanders where to
at Grove City College in Pennmaneuver their forces.
sylvania, graduating in May of
1949 with a B.S. in Chemistry and Biology. He wanted to go into the medical field but with thousands and thousands of returning veterans, competition was fierce for entry in medical schools. Don was an average student,
so he missed out. He came back to Olean and met up again with his wifeto-be, Peg Hunter. Her dad wanted to retire and offered Don a chance to
learn the independent insurance agency business. Don went to work for
his father-in-law, and eventually purchased the Hunter Agency from him.
He worked there for 39 years, and then sold the business to his son-in-law,
Hand made calendar. Soldiers
Doug Price, who had married Don’s daughter, Betsy.
were not allowed dairies in
He met Peg Hunter during his senior year of high school. She was Don’s
event they were captured. Don
date
for the senior prom. Don could “dance in a straight line but didn’t know
developed this as an alternative.
Page how to turn a corner”, and she put up with him anyway. After the war, they started to date in 1949, and were married on October, 1950 at the First Presbyterian Church in Olean. They have two
children, Betsy who is married to Doug Price, and they have two children, Randy
and Christie. Their daughter, Polly, is married to Duncan Pyle, and they have two
children, Thomas and Margaret. Don and Peg also have five great-grandchildren.
Don misses some of the things gone from the Allegany-Olean area over the
years, including the Castle Restaurant, the Olean Tile Plant, the change of St. Bonaventure College from an all-boys school to the co-ed St. Bonaventure University,
and Clark Bros., now Dresser-Rand and still the backbone of the community.
“I’m so grateful to Wes Martin for the opportunity to reflect on my war experiences, a project I’ve thought about for many years, and now I finally have the
chance to get it all down.” One memory that has stayed with him over the years
happened in Belgium, in a barn made of 12 inch thick fieldstone. The unit planned
to spend a few quiet days there, but didn’t know there was a German tank in the
nearby woods. The unit had just had mail call and Don had received a box of
chocolates. He went into the barn to be by himself. He was standing behind two
With Corn Planter
cows when an 88 blew a hole at least 10-15 feet in diameter in the wall. Don was
(not the Indian!!!)
so startled he dropped the box and the chocolates, and they landed on the floor in
a fresh pile of cow plop!
Painting of French countryside a friend of Don’s did
while they were in Europe
together.
Menu for Thanksgiving on ship
returning Don to States.
Hole made by the German 88.
Don was inside the barn with his
package at the time. Can see a
man standing in the hole.
DONATIONS
We have received a marvelous donation from Cynthia Smith Havers. It is a homemade tobacco jar, and
has a description of it on the bottom of the jar. The inscription reads:
“This tobacco jar is made from material from the old high school building at Allegany, N.Y. In the lower
part, the black walnut pieces were taken from the organ. The maple pieces were taken from the floor. The
yellow pine from a casing. The ash from a piece of wainscoting. In the top, the cherry knob and white
maple were taken from a desk. The pink colored wood (birch) was taken from a chair. The lower part of
the top is made from a piece of flooring. [Embedded under the lid], the red disc is a piece of brick. The
gray disc is a piece of stone foundation. The dark disc is a piece of slate from the roof. The metal disc is
a piece of hinge from a door. The glass in the bottom of the top is from a window.
Presented to a former principal, E. W. Curtis [whose picture is under the top] by one of his former students.
Allegany, N.Y. 6-3-39.”
The high school all these materials came from was the Allegany Union and Free School, built at the corner
of Fourth and Chestnut Streets in 1884, and demolished in 1925.
Page Memorials
For: Clarice Sue
From: Ray and Joyce Jonak
Francie Potter
Jim and Diane Boser
Carolyn Wing
Marie G. Finch
Barb Sue
David Sue
Julie Sue Wolf
Mr. and Mrs. James
Mostacato
William and Nina Valler
St. Bonaventure Friary
Sam and Sherry
Quattrone
Leo and Eileen Turner
For: Cheryl Stetz
From: Margaret and Orin
Parker
Hans and Charlene
Sendlakowski
Alice Alterburg
Village of Allegany
Planning Board
Francie Potter
Sam and Sherry
Quattrone
Cal and Joanna Adams
Russ and Martha
LaRocca
Leon and Elizabeth
Woods
John and Joan Stetz
Mark and Lori Lombardo
Cecelia A. Pleakis
Monica Moody
Mark Dunkelman
Bill and Della Wood
Wendy L. Johnston
Kathleen Lahti
Dick and Shirley Russell
Cattaraugus County
Family Court
For: Robert Frisina
From: John and Jilliam Walsh
Lola and Gary Forness
David and Melissa
O’Dell
Albert Frisina
For: Dennis Amore
From: Duane Karl
For: Caroline Clark
From: Francie Potter
Michael and Martha
Nenno
Rhea and Paul Carls
Rosemary Ryan
Donald and Margaret
Bergreen
For: Bob Bergreen
From: Francie Potter
Donald and Margaret
Bergreen
For: Beverly Farr Charles
From: Rhea Carls
For: Alfred Eaton
From: Donald and Margaret
Bergreen
For: Max Keller
From: Rhea and Paul Carls
For: Patti Herron
From: Francie Potter
For: Louis “Sonny” Williams
From: Marie Finch
Bucky and Ellen Peck
Joyce and Ray Jonak
Gregg and Cinda Warner
Robert and Patricia Pike
Rhea and Paul Carls
Richard and Mary Stayer
Jandrew
Bill and Trina Giardini
Norma, Stephen and
Jennifer Coleman
Michael and Janet
Mortimer
For: Eugene and Shelia Dixon
Quinlan
From: John and Jillian Walsh
Allegany Area Historical Association
P.O. BOX 162
Allegany, NY 14706
NON-PROFIT
ORGANIZATION
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
PERMIT NO. 32
OLEAN, NY 14760
Return Service REquested
Inside SPECIAL Issue:
Presidents Report
Making Saurekraut
Dropped box of chocolates
NEXT MEETING
Our next meeting will be on Sunday, April 13 at 2 p.m. at the Heritage Center, 25 N. 2nd St.
Allegany. Our speaker will be Timothy Bigham, Area Field Supervisor of the New York State Farm
Bureau. Farm Bureau is a non-governmental, volunteer organization started for the purpose
of solving economic and public policy issues challenging the agricultural industry. Mr. Bigham,
a graduate of SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry College at Syracuse in 1989, lives in
Farmersville with his wife and 3 sons. He is advisor to five county Farm Bureaus in Western New
York. As we all know, there are not a lot of family farms left in our area. I hope you will join us as
Mr. Bigham explains some of the difficult problems facing the farmer today, and what Farm Bureau
does to help solve some of them.
SUNDAY, APRIL 13, 2 P.M.
HERITAGE CENTER
25 N. 2nd Street, Allegany
This meeting is later than usual for us to accommodate our speaker’s schedule
www.allegany.org