Famous foursome made 1918 camping trip to area

Camping has been a part of the recreational history of southwestern Pennsylvania for a long time, after it had been a necessity. Few camping trips attracted the attention that one venture into the area did in August 1918.

That summer, the distinguished group of campers included automaker Henry Ford, tire magnate Harvey Firestone, electrical inventor Thomas Edison, and noted naturalist John Burroughs.

The four friends (wonder if Ford and Firestone would still be friends today) were in two big cars followed by a truckload of equipment. They came into the region on the Lincoln Highway (U.S. Route 30), and camped just outside Greensburg at a woods at the site of Westmoreland Mall today.

The night grew rather cold, and the then 81-year-old Burroughs got up at 4 a.m., unable to sleep, and sat by the fire.

Although Edison was the youngest, Ford was the most active, chopping wood and performing other athletic feats and chores, including vehicle repair.

From Greensburg, the expedition turned southward, but the fan on one car broke and punctured the radiator. The campers limped into Connellsville, but the garage there had no parts. Rolling up his sleeves, Ford soldered the radiator and repaired the fan in two hours.

The expedition continued south to Uniontown, then east on the National Pike (U.S. Route 40) to the Summit Hotel, where they decided to rest in leisure and comfort after a harrowing day.

The next day, the group headed south to Parsons, W.Va., where they camped on Horseshoe Run.

The four famous men made a number of camping trips together.

RAILROAD SHENANIGANS

Much is made in the news about hidden provisions of legislation to sneak politically unpopular or controversial items through.

One such effort was an act ''for the relief of the overseers of the poor in Erie County'' in 1837.

What actually was in that act was planned by a group of influential Pittsburghers, who through it added to a charter for a railroad from Pittsburgh to Connellsville. Headed by William Larimer, it came at a time when the Baltimore & Ohio was being constructed westward to Cumberland, Md.

The hidden provision, which other railroad interests failed to detect, granted the yet to be built Pittsburgh & Connellsville Railroad the right to extend its lines south of Connellsville.

This obvious action would have granted rights to connect with the B&O, then being built around the corner of southwestern Pennsylvania. Why it was being built that way is another example of the contest and politics involved in early railroading rights.

The B&O was the first railroad officially chartered in the nation.

However, the Pittsburgh & Connellsville, built in the 1850s, became part of the B&O and in 1871 the line was completed from Connellsville to Cumberland. With a different and probably more satisfactory result, the original successful maneuver was long since forgotten.

Incidentally, the second chartered railroad was the Washington (Pa.) and Pittsburgh, in 1831. But it didn't materialize until nearly 40 ears later when the Chartiers Valley Railroad came into being, using its route.

PIONEER AVIATRIX

Among southwestern Pennsylvania historical distinctions was a McKeesport woman who became the first female commercial airline pilot and the first woman authorized to fly U.S. air mail.

Helen Richey, however, received little recognition in her tragically shortened life.

Born in 1909, she graduated from high school at McKeesport in 1927 and briefly attended Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon). She completed flight training at the old Bettis airport, then became a stunt pilot at Johnsonburg in northern Pennsylvania.

She set altitude and speed records for light planes, won scores of high-speed races and stunting contests, and flew throughout the United States urging city officials to paint town names on large rooftops to guide lost pilots.

Among the first women to earn a flight instructor's license, she was hired to train flying cadets for the then Army Air Corps.

In December 1934, she was hired as a co-pilot by Central Airlines and assigned to the Washington-Detroit route. The all-male pilots' union let loose with a vigorous protest and a threatened strike.

Intimidated by the male pilots, the airline used her on a few trips and she resigned after months of relative inactivity. This triggered a protest by women's organizations led by noted aviatrix Amelia Earhart.

Early in World War II, Richey ferried fighters and bombers around the British Isles. She became a WASP (Women's Air Force Service Pilot), ferrying planes and towing anti-aircraft targets for the Air Corps. Her pioneering activity resulted in two national columns by war correspondent Ernie Pyle.

After her discharge, she found all jobs earmarked for returning male pilots. This depressed her to the extent that she took an overdose of sleeping pills, Jan. 7, 1947.

PIONEER ARCHITECTS

The first architect to practice in southwestern Pennsylvania was probably Adam Wilson, an Englishman hired about 1801 by Fayette County ironmaster Isaac Meason to build a country mansion at Mt. Braddock, northwest of Uniontown.

The first at Pittsburgh was probably Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who arrived there to supervise steamboat construction for Robert Fulton in 1813.

Eased out of that position, he became involved in other area projects. Latrobe was the father of Benjamin Jr., the railroad civil engineer for whom Latrobe was named.

WALNUTS NOT MAPLES

An early-day preacher and teacher at Amity in Washington County was the Rev. William Phipps, brother of Pittsburgh millionaire Henry Phipps, for whom the famous conservatory was named.

William achieved a note in history, rather ironically, for his having once tapped a number of black walnut trees in the mistaken belief that they were sugar maples.

GREENE COUNTY LANDOWNER

Each year when Independence Day comes around, one of the names brought back from the past is Declaration of Independence signer and a 1780s federal government official Robert Morris.

At one time, Morris owned 41,000 acres of land in Greene County, which helped lead him into bankruptcy.

Morris used borrowed money to finance his widespread acquisition of land, and ran into trouble by being overextended.

THIS DATE IN HISTORY

While July 22 has had little history in preceding years, fires have made most of it.

Two blazes in the 1870s set the pace. One was the Pennsylvania Railroad station at Pittsburgh in the quite rowdy 1877 railroad strike in which 21 persons lost their lives from its combined events.

The other was two years later, when the First United Brethren Church at Greensburg burned to the ground.

Still another was a major brush-meadow fire near Jeannette reservoir in 1930.

Otherwise, the Indians began a long siege of Fort Pitt in 1763 that ended when the Bouquet expedition reached there after Bushy Run.

SEVERE RAINSTORM

One of the most severe rainstorms in regional history occurred July 26, 1874, when an evening thunderstorm with great electrical disturbances ranged over an area about 16 miles long and 5 miles wide centered over Pittsburgh's North Side.

Much water damage included houses and bridges swept from foundations, and sewers and other services 'drowned' by the torrential rains of about an hour's duration.

That relatively short period caused 124 persons to be drowned.

NEW GENEVA, NOT SALEM

In a June 24 Vignettes item on the Albert Gallatin estate, Friendship Hill, the location of that historic attraction was inadvertently placed at New Salem in Fayette County. The correct location is New Geneva in Fayette County, as several readers graciously pointed out.

SPORTS HISTORY

Many of the high school football stars of 25 years ago are still familiar names today. Using the Associated Press all-state selections of that year, the names include:

First team offensive ends Make Christ of Penn Hills and Benjy Prior of Valley and center Dave Blotzer of Plum; first team defensive end Steve Tate of Mt. Lebanon, linebackers Larry Braun of Penn Hills and Mike Zunic of North Allegheny, and back Mitchell Thomas of Hopewell.

Second team Curt Grieve of Mt. Lebanon, Lindsay Delaney of Upper St. Clair, Mickey Urquhart of Brentwood, Greg Meisner of Valley, Mike Gazda of South Allegheny, Tim Nebel of Butler and Tom Trapuzzano of Montour.

Third team Tom Marzarella of Canevin, Jeff DePalma of Jeannette, Jim Cooper of Norwin, Chuck Gambill of Penn Hills, Ralph Eyerman of North Allegheny, and Angelo Fasano of Kiski Area.

On the United Press International All-State selections that year:

First team: Pryor, Christ, Dom Violi of Indiana, Dave Herchko of Connellsville, Sam Clancy of Pittsburgh Brashear, Sam Shaffer of Indiana, Vince Skillings of Derry, Fasano, Gambill and McDonald.

Second team: Jim McAllister of Penn Hills, Sal Sunseri of Pittsburgh Central Catholic, Dave Andstadt of Mt. Lebanon, Bill Purifoy of Steel Valley, Scott Weist of Butler and Owen Costello of North Hills.

Robert B. Van Atta is history of the Tribune-Review.