Mayor Larry Prugh likes going through the collection of old pictures, postcards, newspaper articles and personal letters from his small town of Elderton found around the borough building.
It reminds him of the 150 years of history of a community filled with life, growth, change, heritage, people and businesses.
Prugh's interest is particularly so this year because it is the 150th anniversary of Elderton.
"Looking back you can see how things look different. But if you think about it, things haven't really changed all that much," Prugh said.
"Elderton was a meeting place, a gathering point between Indiana and Kittanning," Prugh said looking at a more than 100-year-old photograph of teamsters with their draft horses hauling pipe for a gas line taken at the dirt-covered intersection of Main Street and Salt Work Street. "Elderton was a noon day stop for the stage coach on the turnpike," he said.
"The town then was doing well, businesses were growing, houses were being built and the hotel was full of people," Prugh said. "Today the population is about the same, there are 22 businesses doing well with a new bank building and renovated hardware store. This town is still booming."
With all of that to celebrate, the town begins the year-long party by being honored by the state. The Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs will present town officials with a plaque marking the 150 years at borough council's public meeting on Monday.
As for the rest of the celebration, borough secretary Linda Zaun read the public meeting minutes from 1959 to see what was done for the 100th anniversary.
"Same as 1959," Zaun said of this year's plan so far. "Absolutely nothing. There was no fanfare, no mention, back then."
Town leaders are planning to celebrate more this time and will incorporate the anniversary into the annual community fall festival. A parade will be part of the festival, they said.
Burying a time capsule is a consideration as well. "We have to preserve some of the history," Prugh said.
"So many descendants of the first families in Elderton are still here," Prugh said. "You hear about so many communities where the people are all leaving. It seems like a lot stay and live in Elderton all their lives. You have to like the community and have a job to do that. Coal and the power plant have made that possible."
Zaun's house was built in 1858, a year before Elderton became a borough. Her family is only the third to own it during the 150 years.
"I love that old house," Zaun said. "It will probably stand for another 150 years."
"It's like looking at history," she said.
Town barber Don Rupert's shop is a block up the street from the borough building. He can often be heard talking to his customers about the local history. A 200-year-old state map hangs on the wall of his barber shop.
"History fascinates me," Rupert said. "Isn't this amazing,' he said coming across an original post-Civil War-era photo of the Elderton Academy built in 1865, and then reading from a handwritten note from the early 1900s by local resident Clara Williams telling of what she saw was happening in Elderton at that time.
Prugh read from Williams' letter, "The village's point of contact with the outside world was the weekly arrival of the stagecoach. It drew up with a flourish at the brick hotel at the crossroads to leave the mail and passengers and to exchange its tired team for four new horses and again to continue on its course."
Williams' letter illustrated the changes going on at the time, saying "Suddenly a change came over the village. Wagons in long processions passed along the old pike with drilling outfits, coils of cable and long lengths of heavy pipe. Instead of the monotonous life of a farming community, Elderton was to have a real part in the industrial development of Armstrong County."
"We still have that long line of wagons," Prugh said. "Times change and the vehicles change. The long procession of vehicles now is coal trucks."
BRIEF HISTORY OF ELDERTON
From historical accounts, Elderton is on a tract of land called Wheatfield, originally owned by Sarah Elder who received it in 1786.
In Elder's will, she passed the property on to Joshua Elder who conveyed it to Robert Elder who laid out some town lots and two streets, naming it Middletown in 1822.
The village was along the historic Kittanning Path. The old pike was one of the earliest transportation routes during pioneer times in the region.
Citizens petitioned in late 1858 for the village to be incorporated as a borough and the court granted the incorporation as Elderton the following year.
