Popularity of automobile led to traffic congestion along Routes 22, 30

Robert B. Van Atta
Sunday, July 6, 2003 12:00 a.m. | Sunday, July 6, 2003 12:00 a.m.

The traffic jams that at times plague Routes 22 and 30 east from Pittsburgh to Greensburg, New Alexandria and Ligonier have occurred under a multiplicity of causes and effects since the early years of the past century.

An early combination of circumstances was the paving and upgrading of the Lincoln Highway (Route 30) in 1919 as the automobile developed into a family car.

Ligonier was known as a summer resort area in the late 1800s, but the travel there was by train. The dramatic change was indicated by a newspaper account the last Sunday in 1919. It said:

"Sunday was a big day for automobile owners on the Lincoln Highway from Pittsburgh to Bedford. On account of the road being closed for repairs in the vicinity of Adamsburg, auto drivers were directed to turn south (from Pittsburgh) and take the West Newton road to Greensburg.

"On an average, 400 autos an hour passed over the highway in the Greensburg vicinity in the afternoon and evening. Touring cars loaded to the edge of their seats passed through the town bearing the tags of a number of states."

In those days, when all roads were two-lane (if that), an added hazard was pedestrians who walked along the highways with virtual impunity and kept an eye out for an occasional automobile that passed. But a Sunday in summer was different!

In August of 1922, the Ligonier newspaper reported that on one Sunday in that month, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., 3,103 vehicles passed over Longbridge.

The traffic jams became quite monstrous on Sunday evenings in later years, sometimes backed up from Greensburg to Latrobe before the Greensburg bypass was completed in 1958. In recent years, backups have greatly increased on Route 22, east from the New Alexandria traffic light.

Development of state parks and boating areas along or in the vicinity of the William Penn Highway came later, and long summer delays that still are being alleviated with highway expansion and improvements.

There were other causes aplenty, but the road's off-peak traffic and smaller populations along it figured in decisions. Shopping complicated both highways, particularly Route 30.

MINI VIGNETTES

A variety of short vignettes showing how wide the range of southwestern Pennsylvania history is:

Pitt is 95 years old. On July 11, 1908, Western University of Pennsylvania was rechartered as the University of Pittsburgh.

Lumber was so inexpensive in 1850 that it stimulated building a plank road from Cumberland, Md., to West Newton. Costing as little as $1 for 100 feet, planks 8 and 9 feet long were placed crosswise on a prepared roadbed. This "wonderful mud-free road" stimulated traffic and commerce along it.

During Prohibition in the 1920s and early '30s, the seller of roasted peanuts at Main and Ligonier streets in Latrobe often had bottles of "illegal spirits" in the bag.

The Greensburg Green Sox minor league baseball team in 1937 was instrumental in getting funds for lights at Offutt Field in the city, setting the stage for night high school football, which debuted that fall.

In 1908, a West Penn Railways official in Connellsville announced in the newspaper that there would be no more lovemaking or datemaking permitted in the new waiting room of the trolley terminal building there.

Rodgers Field in Fox Chapel, Allegheny County, was completed on a 141-acre site as the first municipal airfield in the Pittsburgh area. Bettis Field followed the next year.

Christmas in Blairsville was an illuminating experience in 1890. Just about a week before, that community became the first in Indiana County to get the new marvel of electricity.

Dr. Hubert Work, a U.S. Cabinet member from Indiana County, about a century ago was addressing a crowd at a western United States train stop. "I've spent many delightful hours in your city," he related. "It is a very genuine pleasure to find myself back in ..." pausing to ask an aide in a whisper, "where the hell are we?" That whispered question was amplified over the microphone!

Jeremiah Murry, founder of Murrysville, at one time owned enough land that he could travel five miles crossing it. Much of his land was acquired in exchange for merchandise at his store.

In 1901, Liberty Manufacturing Co. was founded in Pittsburgh's East End by William Swan Elliott. It started as a marketing organization, subcontracting production. By 1910, the name was Elliott Co., and it manufactured boiler equipment. In 1913, Elliott purchased the plant of Clifford-Capell Manufacturing Co. in Jeannette and moved its 35-man work force there. The company grew rapidly.

Navigation on the Monongahela River took a giant step forward in 1844, when several dams and 11 locks were formally opened for river commerce between Pittsburgh and Brownsville. In the 1850s, additional locks extended the navigable length of the river to New Geneva. Subsequent changes and auditions further extended it to Fairmont, W.Va.

The original purpose of the Diamond or central square in Ligonier was to provide space for stagecoaches and horses to stand while drivers and passengers obtained supplies, food and refreshments.

Remember the Austinâ¢ A small automobile manufactured in Butler from 1930 until 1934, about 20,000 were turned out before the company was shut down. Reorganized in 1938, the new company began production of another small car, the Bantam. However, war jeep production took over in 1941.

The U.S. Board of Geographic Names in December 1891 ordered the removal of the final "H" in burgh, specifically citing Pittsburgh as an example. After lengthy effort, however, Pittsburgh managed to get the "H" restored in 1911.

Laurel Caverns, southwest of Uniontown, is the longest and deepest surveyed cave in the state. It was first mentioned in a newspaper account in 1797. First known as Dulany's cave, for some early property owners, it was given the name of Laurel Caverns in 1964.

Perhaps the first bridge of record in this region was one built across Redstone Creek in Fayette County in 1795. Other early bridges, also in that county, were across the Youghiogheny River in Connellsville in 1800 and Jacobs Creek in 1801.

When a severe drought hit southwestern Pennsylvania 99 years ago in 1904, an ice manufacturer in Greensburg advertised his ice blocks, which could be carried home and melted for drinking water because of the purity of his manufacturing process.

When Pittsburgh lawyer Hugh H. Brackenridge was elected to the state Legislature in 1786, a major part of his platform was to make the then-frontier town the seat of a new county. Then a part of Westmoreland County, Pittsburgh lost out to Greensburg as county seat. Allegheny was formed in 1788, with Brackenridge a key force.

In 1843 in New Salem, Fayette County, a vigorous temperance wave drove all but one tavern there out of business. James Downard continued to operate until he received a letter threatening him with immersion in the horse pond if he failed to close his bar within a week. He got the message, and for many years, strong drink was not available in the town.

The name of Thiel College, the Lutheran school in Greenville, came from A.L. Thiel, a Pittsburgh Lutheran who gave money to both the church and college. The college nearly moved to Greensburg a century ago, but the deed for the gift of land in Greenville bound it to the town.

In the heyday of the coal and coke industry a century ago, the name of the Connellsville Coke Region had worldwide significance. It came from the superior coke produced from a rich vein of coal that extended from Latrobe on the north southward through Mt. Pleasant, Connellsville, Uniontown and Fairchance.

John Shields had a youthful friendship with Samuel Clemens when both worked on the Mississippi River. Shields, who became editor and publisher of the Mt. Pleasant Journal, played host to Clemens on a number of visits to Mt. Pleasant. Clemens was better known by his pen name, Mark Twain.

Samuel Craig and family settled in eastern Westmoreland County in 1772. The hazards of frontier living in those days appeared in the fall of 1777. Samuel left home to get some salt and was never heard from again, believed to be captured by Indians.

In 1800, John Shaw Sr. bought a 600-acre property seven miles north of Pittsburgh in what became Shaler Township, building a sawmill to provide lumber for his home. Shaw's glen was a part of that property, furnishing the name for the town of Glenshaw.

THIS DATE IN HISTORY

A major event through the years, the Jacktown Fair, was first organized in Wind Ridge, Greene County, on July 6, 1866.

In 1892, the Pittsburgh central YWCA branch was incorporated.

The power plant in West Newton in 1907 was sold to a railway (trolley) line.

The post office in Daisytown, Washington County, was established in 1911.

The major event on this date has been fires. One swept a block of Pittsburgh in 1916. The block was surrounded by Second and Third avenues and Market and Ferry streets.

A major blaze hit Derry Township High School in Westmoreland County in 1952, and in 1970 a spectacular produce warehouse fire made news in Uniontown.

MENOHER AVIATION PIONEER

The Menoher, for whom the highway from Ligonier to Johnstown was named, was an Army division commander in World War I with a famous individual as his chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Maj. Gen. Charles T. Menoher's parents lived in Fairfield Township but moved to Johnstown, where he was born. However, the future West Point graduate and general returned to the Ligonier Valley as a youth to live with an aunt and uncle.

He attended Fort Palmer school. Menoher rose in the ranks to command of the 42nd Rainbow Division, and after the war became chief of the fledgling Army Air Service. There, he was somewhat overshadowed by the publicity given to a controversial assistant, Brig. Gen. William (Billy) Mitchell.

Menoher retired from the Army in 1926 and died in 1930, but his name remains in the forefront of his childhood home area.

SPORTS HISTORY

With high school football practice to start soon, eyes will turn to such teams as these with their capsule histories:

Franklin Regional has record of a loss to Arnold in 1921, but the real start of football there apparently was with a loss to Derry Township High in 1925. Early records are spotty, but teams through the '20s and '30s played short schedules and usually didn't have winning seasons. The same lack of winning plagued the school and its formal 1962 restart, which at one time protested the WPIAL placement in Class AAAA by playing as an independent. The earlier teams played as Franklin Township.

Ellwood City, actually Lincoln High, had a continuous beginning as early as 1907 with known losses to Beaver Falls, Geneva Prep and New Brighton. The team began competing in the WPIAL in 1921, and in 1925 had an unbeaten, untied, unscored upon season with nine wins. The opening of Riverside High in Beaver County reduced Ellwood City's enrollment. Some confusion came from Midland High, also named Lincoln. Long rivalries with Beaver Falls and New Castle were rather unsuccessful, particularly the 4-22-4 record with New Castle terminated with the 1974 game.

Wilkinsburg celebrates its 100th football anniversary this year. Its known record in 1903 was 3-0-1 with wins over Braddock twice and Homestead, and a tie with McKeesport. The school was an immediate power, which continued for a number of years. Wilkinsburg won the first three WPIAL championships in 1914-16. In 1904, the school was unbeaten with victories over Braddock, East Liberty Academy, McKeesport, and Pittsburgh South High. A feature of its 1967 record of 7-2 was a 51-50 triumph over Greensburg Salem. Through the years, however, its enrollment has declined.

Albert Gallatin covers a large area of Fayette, and has taken over several schools. Earliest with football was German Township in 1916, although the war halted the sport. Smithfield High had teams in 1921-25. Point Marion came on the scene in 1922. Fairchance High played some years beginning in 1921, and Georges Township in 1925. But the most impressive was Masontown, which began in 1928. Various mergers, such as Fairchance-Georges in 1958, followed. The initial merger to form Albert Gallatin came in 1960 as others started to join.

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