Historians and genealogists often run into problems with 19th-century maps of southwestern Pennsylvania because of town name changes, earlier ones often having been forgotten.
East Liberty was one particular name. First among the better-known towns of that name was one laid out in 1792 in Fayette County's Dunbar Township, which about a century later became Vanderbilt.
In 1797, the new town of East Liberty was laid out by Robert Laughlin ''west of Laurel Hill on the new state road from Bedford to Pittsburgh ... within one mile of Westmoreland Forge and Furnace.'' Not surprisingly, it was renamed Laughlintown.
In 1843, a town that was annexed into Pittsburgh in 1867 but retains the name for the neighborhood was a ''handsome town five miles east of Pittsburgh on the Greensburg and Philadelphia Turnpike.''
Laid out more than 20 years earlier by Jacob Negley, ''it is surrounded by a delightful country, over which many beautiful country estates belonging to wealthy citizens are scattered,'' according to the 1843 account.
Many of the name changes were caused by post office duplication, but there were a variety of other reasons. One affected a suburb of Wall, Walurba, in Allegheny County. It became Pitcairn when the Pennsylvania Railroad yard center came in 1894, named for a railroad executive.
Temperanceville was another name used in several places. Two were in Pittsburgh, one of which became Lawrenceville before its merger into Pittsburgh. Later, in 1872, another Temperanceville was merged into Pittsburgh. It was on the West End, also known as West Elliott.
Some of the many other southwestern Pennsylvania town names that have generally receded into anonymity after being renamed:
Thus, an essential part of regional research is checking for genealogy as well as former county, township and town names as well.
THIS DATE IN HISTORY
Sept. 1, 3, 4 and 5 have been quite busy days in the historical past, but Sept. 2 was just the opposite.
The borough of Nanty-Glo in extreme western Cambria County was chartered in 1918.
The plush new Manos Theater in Greensburg was opened on this date in 1926, now enjoying a rebirth under Westmoreland Trust ownership.
In 1958, Pennsylvania State College opened a new campus near New Kensington.
COLLEGES OF THE PAST
With schools back in session, some of the historic elements of educational history are resurrected.
For example, in the late 1800s, Penn State football team members took a six-mile hike every morning before breakfast, then came in and devoured a leg of mutton, six hard-boiled eggs, 14 slices of bread and five pounds of oatmeal apiece.
At least, that was what the student publication asserted.
The daily regimen for St. Vincent College students called for rising at 5 a.m., and Mass at 6. Breakfast at 6:30 was followed by recreation, study hall at 7:10, classes at 8 and lunch at 11:30.
Prayer and recreation followed lunch, then classes at 1:45 p.m., supper at 5:30, study hall at 7, and night prayers and bed at 8:30.
One Saturday in the late 1800s, 11 male Waynesburg College students went to Masontown and indulged in ''drinking beer and other liquors.'' Brought before the faculty, they acknowledged their misdeeds and were allowed to remain as students if they signed a pledge of total abstinence.
Female Waynesburg students were not allowed to board where males also boarded. After some males were later admitted at one boarding place, a female student was called before the faculty and told to change her boarding place.
When West Virginia University and the University of Pittsburgh decided to admit female students in the 1890s, the Pitt (then still Western University of Pennsylvania) student publication called the first such admissions ''rare butterflies captured by (the chancellor) to be preserved under glass for the institution.''
When WVU admitted its first girls, one legislator warned that it would not do ''to send girls to Morgantown and turn them loose.''
SPORTS HISTORY
When Pittsburgh joined the National Baseball League in 1887, Horace Phillips was the president and William Nimick the manager. Another early manager was Connie Mack in the 1800s for three seasons.
When Honus Wagner was the Pirates shortstop and one of the league's very best, his salary rose from $350 a month to $10,000 annually. He was financially poor after his retirement.
Legendary Pitt basketball coach Dr. H. Clifford Carlson initially won his fame as a football end. From Fayette City, he replaced Andy Kerr as basketball coach in 1922 and served as head mentor for 31 years. His early All-Americans included Charley Hyatt of Uniontown and Claire Cribbs of Jeannette.
The late Art Rooney paid $2,500 for the NFL franchise in Pittsburgh in 1933.
The first Steelers winning season was 1942, when Walt Kiesling's charges had a 7-4 record.
When hometown golfer Sam Parks Jr. won the National Open at Oakmont in 1935, his winning score was 299, considerably higher than those of today's champions.
The first indoor hockey rink was in 1894 at the entrance to Schenley Park, known as the Casino. It was followed by the Duquesne Gardens on Craig Street.
Robert B. Van Atta is history editor of the Tribune-Review.
