Cowanshannock Township is the largest township in Armstrong County. Formed Dec. 22, 1848, from parts of Kittanning, Plumcreek and Wayne townships, its name was derived from the Native American term for the creek that flows along its valley floor. Boundaries were drawn in the valley, marking property or "purchase lines" by way of a large tree or other outstanding markings. Many years have passed since that time, and its real history is in the telling of its people:
DOWN AT THE DANCE HALL
Joe Chobody, who has operated the Shannock Beer Distributor, Inc. for 25 years in Yatesboro on part of the lot where the Buffalo & Susquehanna Coal and Coke Company Store once stood, provided some of the historical notes on Cowanshannock Township from Beer's Biographical Record on Armstrong County.
On a stretch of highway on Route 85 between Kittanning and Plumville near the village of NuMine is the Walker Shannock Park Tavern. Its bright green, neon light, a familiar fixture in the main window entrance, welcomes those who drive by. In the early 1950s, its name was Shannock Valley, and in earlier years it was known as Club Shannock.
At one time live bands and Saturday night dancing lit up the club. It all started according to its present owner Clyde Walker as a gas station at the busy intersection. Walker has owned the Walker Shannock Park Tavern since 1999. His father Laird Walker, who recently died, owned and operated the bar and dance hall for 25 years. Prior to the Walkers, who have maintained a lively business throughout the years, there were previous proprietors. Laird Walker bought it from Leo Mottillo and before that it was owned by the Miller family and before this the Monahan family.
Walker discovered with his own eyes that indeed it was once named Club Shannock.
"I was up in the attic one day, and a patch blew off the wall," he recalls. And there it was -- a two foot by 14-inch worn, heavy gray cardboard poster prominently displaying dances and holiday parties at Club Shannock. Reminiscent of the swing era from the 1930's and 1940's, this poster had an identical one stuck to it. "It seems that together, the posters might have been used to patch a hole between the drafty boards," he continued. Walker eventually wants to frame the vintage advertisements to display at his establishment.
The bar area inside the tavern has a large horseshoe curved bar trimmed in dark oak. It is accented with faded, pearl colored Formica showing worn patches were many elbows have rested over the years while enjoying a cold bottle of beer or shot of whiskey. Red bar stools encircle the horseshoe bar and small, tarnished tin ashtrays are scattered about with a swirl of smoke appearing now and then in the dimly lighted pub.
The dated cash register clinks out change as Clyde Walker goes back and forth to his patrons who are seated at a smaller bar in a separate area that was once used for dancing. The horseshoe bar seems to be reserved for meetings or special occasions since it is where Walker takes up conversation with a visitor or two. All the while country music plays on the jukebox with songs like "I've got the Honky Tonk Blues" while patrons relax with their thoughts.
"There's 30 more feet back of the dance area wall to open-up," Walker said. Believe me, that's what I'm going to do and have dancing once more." In the old days he remarked, "There was a separate charge to go dancing." Walker also said that he was "fixing up the kitchen for food for folks to come in and eat." His father once had food to accompany the beverage; however, he closed the kitchen a few years before he left the business.
The two entrances that lead to the large white building have two heavy, black painted doors given to Walker by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Plant in Ford City. On the one door "Works 4 Number 268" is inscribed. A small screened-in alcove in the former dance area holds a collection of Native American art and paintings of mountain animals. There are wildlife figurines among the paintings and tiny soft blue lights strung above showcase the setting.
"Dad had a little buckboard wagon in here. I took it out and added my own things," he said.
Walker admires Native American art and notes that across the creek behind his establishment on his grandfather's farm where he lives was once a fine area for seeking out arrowheads.
"People still walk along the creek bed to look for arrowheads," he said.
Across the highway from Walker Shannock Park Tavern in a small field an old barbecue stand with open windows is a reminder of when his father used to sell his well-known barbecue chicken, a favorite among the locals. The senior Walker always had an array of summer flowers planted in the field behind his stand where passers by could enjoy their beauty. A giant oak tree also still standing once shaded him as he bid hello from his stand on hot summer days.
Among the colorful flowers stood a tiny church that was built by the elder Walker. This little church admired by many resembled the beautiful United Presbyterian church that sits up on the bank on Main Street in NuMine.
"I always thought it was strange that Dad wanted to build a church since he really wasn't a religious person," he said. "The church had been there a long time in the field, and the wood was rotting from the weather, so I just gave it away one day."
He continued, "The valley is changing...it was once full. People are gone and there is no work." Walker is optimistic though as he embarks on a possible new direction - dinner and dancing - for the historic Walker Shannock Park Tavern.
THE COMPANY STORE
The Buffalo & Susquehanna Coal and Coke Company Store holds memories for others, including Yatesboro postmistress Beth Ann Crytzer who recalls that the company store also known as the Valley Supply and later on as Mahoning Supply was also on the site where the Post Office is currently located.
Crytzer's Mother, Eva Andryka, age 79, worked in the Company Store for nine years behind the candy counter and in the hardware department. The date the big store burned is quickly recalled by Crytzer since it was destroyed by fire July 9, 1953 on her parents' fifth wedding anniversary. Her father William, a former staff sergeant was drafted at age 18 into the U.S. Army in World War II, and is retired from the coal mines. Williams and Eva Andryka also have a son name William.
DURING THE WAR
The former Kittanning train station on North Grant Avenue was a busy stop for passengers boarding and leaving the station yard as well as for the many soldiers like Staff Sgt William Andryka of Rural Valley who served in World War II?
Many of the young men traveled by train from the Kittanning station into Pittsburgh for their induction into the in Armed Forces. Those who traveled a long distance arriving in Kittanning the day before their scheduled departure stayed at the old Alexander Hotel in downtown Kittanning then owned by the Sgro family.
One such young man who took the train out in 1952 to enlist in the U.S. Army during the Korean War of 1950 -1953 was Alfred "Al" Ewanick. Corporeal Ewanick spent 16 months in Korea preparing for the front line during the latter part of the war. The Korean War ended in 1953 and Ewanick returned home in 1954 to Rural Valley where he and his wife Linda live. The great train station closed that same year and for several years has been on the real estate market for sale.
After the war Ewanick worked for awhile at his sister Anna's and brother-in-law John Laboskey's Appliance Store.
"Lots of people here in the valley knew me through the business, and I ran a lot of ads in the Leader Times," he said. He went on to operate a sheet metal shop in Yatesboro for several years and then worked at the Allegheny Ludlum steel mill in Leechburg where he retired in 1995. Ewanick spends his afternoons visiting with folks in the valley and often stops at the Rose Valley Family Restaurant for coffee and dessert where his childhood school chum William Kovach often joins him.
HISTORIC FRAME HOUSE
Down the road from the Village of Rose Valley on Route 85 just outside of Yatesboro stands and old plank frame house with cedar siding, which is on the roster of the National Historical Preservation Societyâ¢
A little one-room log cabin is beside this seven-room farmhouse that is being refurbished by owners Larry Nelson and his son Eric. Larry Nelson owns and operates the L & D Auto Supply in Yatesboro and owns the Dayton Oil Co. Nelson said the log cabin has a little upstairs with about 20-inch wide steps going up along one side to a miniature room.
"We are going to restore the original green, slate roofing on the cabin and stain the logs and fill in the open spaces between the logs. It's going to look great!"
He added, "Field stone will be cemented to the blocks beneath the cabin. You'll be surprised someday how that little log cabin will look."
"After I get the main house fixed-up including lamp posts on each side of the porch," my son Eric will live here," said Nelson who owns the 180-acre farm.
According to Eva Andryka this farm is part of the old Elgin farm dating from 1845. The Elgins were early settlers of the valley and were instrumental in the forming of Cowanshannock Township.
And so Cowanshannock Creek, a branch of the Allegheny River, is thought to be derived from the Native American language - "Gawansch-hanne signifying green-brier stream or Gawunschige-briery meaning brier creek."
Over the decades others have come to say it means "banks of flowers." According to an Armstrong history publication, a poem describes it as such:
"From sloping hills and valleys deep, the bed of roses takes its rise, winding its way through glade and steep, from eastern tow'rd western skies."
However it is noted that the Native Americans may have "found this now lovely valley more thorny than rosy" as indicated by their words. By either interpretation, Cowanshannock Township, home of the Cowanshannock Creek bears deep-rooted history in the valley of which residents should be proud.
