6 Project

HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [Y01] | 01/12/16
12:28 | STAHLLERSA
Then&Now
Celebrating 150 years of Greater Hazletons newspaper
Standard~Speaker
Amid change, a constant
JAMIE PESOTINE/Staff Photographer
The Standard-Speaker is celebrating 150 years of service.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
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A lot changes in 150 years. One constant

in Hazleton, however, has been the daily
newspaper.
Sure, what we know today as the Standard-Speaker has undergone changes of its
own. The last major change came on May 1,
2007, when Hazletons newspaper became
part of Times-Shamrock Communications.
The Northeastern Pennsylvania media
company added the Standard-Speaker to its
properties in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pottsville and beyond.
The change in ownership from one family
to another opened the latest, and current,
chapter in the newspapers 150-year history.
In that century and a half, so far as anyone knows, the Standard-Speaker or its predecessors has never missed an edition. Not
2012 FORD FOCUS SE

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WAS
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See Constant,Y2
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even a massive power failure in 1920 could

stop the paper. Staffers managed to publish
one page a handbill that reported on
the failure and four other stories of the day.
The newspaper also hit the streets despite a
huge computer crash in 1981, the Blizzard of
1993, and countless other storms and obstacles.
It seems as though the newspaper has
always been there, but it hasnt.
It wasnt until 30 years after the Hazleton
Coal Co. laid out the town and 10 years after
Hazleton became a borough that the first
newspaper appeared. The Hazleton Sentinel, a modest weekly founded by a Civil War
veteran, made its debut on Jan. 18, 1866.
$ 14 8
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edit. Offers Ends 1/30/16.
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Mon.-Thurs. 8:30am-6pm; Fri. 8:30am-6pm; Sat. 8:30am-3pm. Su

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A 18202
570-455-7701 or 877-OK-FAIRWAY
Y
Y10 Standard-Speaker
11:40 | GRECOTONY
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Setting the standard
Then&Now
Longtime employees
enjoy jobs, people
By TOM RAGAN
StaffWriter
Three Standard-Speaker
employees who have a combined 125 years with the
newspaper say they enjoy
their jobs and the people
they work with.
Typewriters may have
morphed into computers,
but the task producing a
daily newspaper has
remained the same.
Joe Skuba remembers the
day 44 years ago that he
started as an apprentice
printer July 18, 1971. He
was working at the Coney
Island restaurant on the
same block of North Wyoming Street as the newspaper building. He always
wanted to work at the Standard-Speaker, so he submitted an application.
If I didnt get called and
offered the job I was going to
join the service, he recalled.
Skuba learned all about
hot metal in the printing
trade for four years, until
July 1975. He now works on a
computer, as a graphic artist
designing advertisements,
and still loves working for
the newspaper.
Its the people. I liked
working with all of the people and still enjoy it, he
said.
Skuba worked night shift
for 25 years, helping put the
pages together, including the
classified ads. He said it was
an exciting time watching all
the departments working
together.
I had good working conditions and working atmosphere, Skuba said.
He served as president of
Hazleton Typographical
Union Local 401 for six years
and as board president of the
Hazleton Newspaper
Employees Federal Credit
Union for five years.
But he noted times have
changed in the business and
that computerization eliminated a lot of jobs.
ELLEN F. OCONNELL/Staff Photographer
Joseph Skuba, from left, Sandy Hoilko and Millie

Rubinate pose for a photograph in the museum at the
Standard-Speaker.
Technology has simplified some things and with a
touch of a button computers
do a lot of the work, he said.
Skuba, 63, said he has no
regrets after raising a family
of three children with his
wife, Michelle.
His second family, he said,
is the nice bunch of people
he works with each day.
He has many fond memories with his co-workers
memories he wants to keep
making, because he said he
has no intention of quitting.
Mildred Millie Rubinate
started at the StandardSpeaker in July 1975 as an
editorial assistant and hasnt
looked back. William D. Morgan was managing editor at
the time and she also worked
under Jerry Gallagher, Dominic Antonelli and Carl
Christopher, and recalled
Don Barnes and Ray Saul,

who were in sports. Saul later became managing editor.
She also recalled co-workers like Joe Falatko, who covered Freeland and Paul Curran, who covered McAdoo.
Rubinate recalled starting
with a typewriter. Everything was typed, she said.
Things like weddings,
birthdays, anniversaries and
every event one can think of
were and still are a part
of the newspaper and the
lives of area residents. Thats
why they call it the paper of
record, because many items
were in fact a part of the
public record, good or bad,
and Rubinate had to type a
lot of them.
She now works on community news. I do happy stuff,
she said.
She even had the opportu-
nity to interview Tiny Tim

when most of the Western
world knew him as having
tiptoed through the tulips.
Rubinate said she remembered the Standard-Speakers afternoon edition and
that stories could be updated
for its later publication.
Prior to working at the
Standard-Speaker, she taught
fifth and sixth grades at the
former St. Stanislaus School.
Once she was hired at the
Standard-Speaker, though,
she was hooked. She likes
the people, the work and her
employers, she said, and has
no intention of leaving.
Sandy Hoilko joined the
advertising staff of the Standard-Speaker 40 years ago
and is still going strong and
couldnt be happier. She is
proud to be a member of the
staff.
Harry Sandrock was the
advertising director who
hired her as an assistant to
an ad representative. She,
too, used a typewriter, and
ran advertising proofs to
accounts for approval and
copy changes.
Ive held many positions
and have enjoyed working
with different accounts to
provide good customer service, Hoilko said.
She noted that the production process has changed for
the better since her early
days at the newspaper.
Now it is all computerized and color technology
has improved from what it
was years ago, she said.
Hoilko still gets a lot of
satisfaction seeing words
and pictures put together as
part of an advertisement.
I believe in advertising
and my 40 years here has
been a learning experience,
she said. Technology has
advanced but working with
good people and seeing the
finished product makes me
proud to be part of the advertising department and the
paper.
Grandmas obituary survives fiery fate

By JILL WHALEN
StaffWriter
Louis Fedullo made cop-
ies of his grandmothers

obituary after he almost lost
the original from a 1948 edition of The Plain Speaker.
McAloose
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ReadeRs RemembeR
The decades-old article,
he said, was spared from a
2012 fire that spread to his
former home on East Diamond Avenue.
With all the fire and
water damage, this newspaper barely survived the
fire, the Hazleton man
said.
The headline reads, Mrs.
Ursula Fedullo Dead, and
features a photo of Fedullos
grandmother, then a wellknown restaurateur.
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Louis was 9 when she

died but didnt see the obituary until 1980.
A co-worker of mine
gave me (the obituary) that
was in the pages of a book
she got at a book sale, he
recalled.
He put the newspaper in
a drawer for safekeeping,
and didnt think about it
until he was surveying
damage from the fire.
Since then, he has photocopied it three times.
Louis said he remembers
seeing his grandmother
working in the former
Fedullos Restaurant. An
immigrant from Italy, Ursula took over the eatery after
the 1923 passing of her husband, also named Louis.
It was famous for its Italian food, Louis said of the
East Diamond Avenue restaurant.
The Plain Speaker obituary notes that Fedullo had
been highly successful in
the development of the
business into Hazletons
most widely known restaurant specializing in Italian
food.
Louis said he can still
recall the day of his grandmothers funeral.
My parents didnt take
me to the church, he said.
I was standing by my home
on First and Seybert streets
and heard the band. It was
leading the large funeral
procession coming down
Seybert Street from Most
Precious Blood Church.
jwhalen@standardspeaker.com
ED SOCHA/Staff Photo
Mary Ann (Kuntz) Kapes, seated, poses with her

sister, Diane Gabriel, recently. Kapes shared a newspaper memory that involved a 40-foot fall when she was
a toddler.
Woman recalls
coverage of
fall as a toddler
By JILL WHALEN
StaffWriter
Mary Ann (Kuntz) Kapes

doesnt remember falling
from a third-floor apartment building in 1953.
The accident made headlines in The Plain Speaker,
which reported, Tot Tumbles 40 Feet From Third
Floor Porch to Concrete
Landing.
News of the fall, along
with articles on the 2-yearolds recovery, touched a
nerve in the community.
I remember my mother
(the late Elfriede Kuntz) telling me that when I was at
what was the General Hospital that people and businesses in town had sent so
many stuffed animals that
when she looked into my
crib, she couldnt even see
me, said Kapes, of West
Hazleton.
According to the newspapers account, which Kapes
still has, she was seriously
injured in the fall at 430 W.
Green St. in West Hazleton.
After breaking through a
temporary barrier at the
top of the steps, the newspaper reported that she tumbled down about four steps,
rolled under the outside
stair railing and dropped
straight down into a cellar
ReadeRs
RemembeR
door well about 5 feet below
the surface of the ground.
Kapes was told that she
was a rambunctious child,
and on the day of the fall,
she had just received a totsized broom.
I liked a neighbor on the
second floor, and I was so
excited that I had a new
broom and could sweep
with the ladies, she said. I
couldnt wait to show it to
her. In her excitement, she
crashed through the gate
and fell.
A report published in the
next days edition advised
that she was doing a little
better but still quite sick.
In all, Kapes spent three
weeks in the hospital.
The only thing that
came out of it was later on
in seventh grade I was diagnosed with sensory nerve
damage so I am deaf in one
ear, she said. But it could
have been a lot worse. You
know what they say. Babies
are resilient.
This photo from August 1953 shows the path

where then-Mary Ann Kuntz fell approximately 40 feet
from the third floor of an apartment house at 430 W.
Green St., West Hazleton, into a concrete cellar well.
11:43 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Y11
Then&Now
Names, faces
and places
Local news isnt always about crime or corruption. Its often
about good things.
Heres a look at some of the countless faces and their names
whove helped bring those stories, photos and advertisements
to readers over the years.
Frank Walser Sr. was president and publisher until his death in March 1977.
The Standard-Speaker building is shown in the 1960s in this photo taken from the site of
the soon-to-be constructed Peoples First National Bank building.
Dan Chyko provided photos during the 1970s and 80s.
The Plain Speaker had an office on West Broad Street in the

1920s.
Frank Walser Sr. presents a retirement gift to printer John Hudock during a ceremony in the
1970s. Other retirees included pressman John Moon, advertising director Harold Sandrock, both
seated, and photographer Joe Maggio, standing right. Also part of the ceremony were Frank H.
Walser Jr. and Paul N. Walser.
The Standard-Speaker honored longtime employees at a banquet celebrating the newspapers 125th anniversary in 1991. Seated from left are Donald Johnson,
John Davis, Mrs. Jane N. Walser, president and publisher; Paul N. Walser Sr., publisher; Dominic DeCusatis and Carl Sell. Standing, Albert Longenberger, Harvey W.
Steinman, George Fetchko, Joseph Clatch, Richard Hacker, David Steiner, Lois Ann Hall, Ronald Honis, Edgar Methot, James Cheslock, John Evans, Stanley Wagner
and Bruce Leonard.
Correspondent recalls 42 years of church news, meetings andbirthday book

Joan Doria was working
as a national advertising representative for the StandardSpeaker in 1962 when she
was asked whether shed like
to take over the Beaver
Meadows news column.
She figured she would try
it for a little while.
I ended up doing it for 42

years, Doria said.
She left the advertising
position in 1963 but juggled
the news column with jobs
she held at area restaurants
and shops.
As a correspondent, she
collected and compiled news
ReadeRs RemembeR
items into a column that ran
three times a week. People
would drop news items off at
her house, or call her when
they wanted something published in the paper.
At that time we had a lot

of news from the churches,
she said. Id also put in
news from the Girl Scouts
and other groups, and put in
birthdays and meetings.
To compile the columns,

she was paid $30 per month.
Doria never drove, and if
she couldnt make it to the
office because of a transportation issue, she would ask
someone to drop off the column for her.
And because she never
wanted to miss publishing a

residents birthday, she put
together what she called a
birthday book.
I passed that on to the
current correspondent,
Annette (Rusnock), Doria
said.
Jill Whalen
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11:45 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Y13
Milestones
Headlines chronicle 150 years of history
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Then&Now
Milestones
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11:45 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Y15
Milestones
Then&Now
Congratulations and Best Wishes

to the
Standard-Speaker on
150Years!
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12:38 | BAIRDATHLE
Milestones
Then&Now
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For all the lateest breaking news, sports, coommunity events,

information, entertainment and weather!!
Proud to serve you the Greaterr Hazleton Area for 1550 Years!!
C E L E B R AT I N G
150 YEARS
11:46 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Y17
Milestones
Then&Now

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11:46 | GRECOTONY
Milestones
Then&Now
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11:46 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Y19
Milestones
Then&Now
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Y2 Standard-Speaker
11:42 | GRECOTONY
Then&Now
The first edition of the Hazleton Sentinel, published Jan. 18, 1866.
Constant
(Continued from Y1)
Others appeared later, including
The Plain Speaker in 1882 and the
Daily Standard in 1885. Eventually,
all their paths would merge and
todays Standard-Speaker would be
born in the wake of thousands of
news stories, some big and some
trivial.
Arguably, the really important
stories were the small occurrences
and trends that, taken together, led
to the development of Hazleton: the
discovery of coal, the construction
of the Beaver Meadows Railroad,
the arrival of Ario Pardee and the
commencement of mining.
But the big stories were the ones
that grabbed your attention and
held it sometimes for a century.
Almost as long as there have been
big stories in the coal region, the
Hazleton newspapers have been
there to cover them.
When a mine swallowed two
houses in Stockton in 1869, killing
10 people and attracting attention
from the New York papers, the
weekly Hazleton Sentinel was
approaching its fourth anniversary.
Just as Times-Shamrock
assumed ownership of the
Standard-Speaker, Hazletons Illegal Immigration Relief Act put the
city in the national spotlight once
again.
Big stories make news and,
invariably, some news is bad. In
1883, the worst fire in the history of
the anthracite region destroyed
about a quarter of the borough of

Shenandoah. There were plenty of
disastrous fires closer to home, too,
like the one that destroyed the
Grand Opera House and several
other buildings in 1892 and the
blaze that leveled the 5-year-old Palace Theatre in 1917. Memorable
fires in recent years include one
that wiped out much of White Havens business district and others
that destroyed the Hotel Gary, St.
Josephs Roman Catholic Church,
Faith Assembly of God church and
the former Capitol Theatre.
While fires are roaring and unrelenting, train wrecks are quick and
strangely silent. One of the worst
in the nations history killed 66
near White Haven in 1888.
There were plenty of mine disasters, too. One of the worst took
place Feb. 4, 1891, when water
broke into a mine in Jeanesville,
killing 13. Seventy-two years later,
the plight of two men, miraculously found alive in a mine near
Sheppton, attracted the attention
of the whole world while a drill
bored a rescue hole toward them.
Great stories stir the emotions
and often lead to change. The Lattimer Massacre, in which 20 striking
miners were gunned down in 1897,
helped solidify the emerging labor
movement in the coalfields. Thirtyseven years later, snipers killed two
and wounded 20 in the Kelayres
Massacre, an event that had longlasting political repercussions.
More recently, the pages of the

Standard-Speaker report stories of
crime, including shootings, robberies and the illegal drug trade
responsible for much of it. A century and a half worth of big stories
also details accidents, freaky weather and other events that are painful
to read about and remember.
Human nature focuses us on the
negative, but there have been just
as many feel-good stories over our
150 years of reporting the news in
the Hazleton area.
Many stir emotion, some embolden the human spirit, others spark a
call to community action. Some are
as simple as the announcement of
the birth of a new child simple to
the average reader, but an important written record of a familys
life-changing event.
To many, that event didnt feel
official until the newspaper reported it for neighbors to know.
Proof of the newspapers importance lies in homes across the
Hazleton area, where news clippings adorn walls or fill binders,
and stacks of memorable papers
mostly Standard-Speakers but also
some Plain Speakers and Standard
Sentinels are still stashed away.
Some things are worth keeping
for a long time. For 150 years, the
Standard-Speaker and its predecessors kept a pledge to serve the citizens of Greater Hazleton.
Thanks for reading, today and
every day.
A message from our publisher

The truest litmus test for
any newspaper and the reason so many
papers survive
for so long and
continue to publish today is
whether it has
improved the
community it
exists to serve.
Lynett
The StandardSpeaker, through its advocacy,
its excellent reporting and its
ability to shine a light into the
dark corners of public officialdom, has absolutely improved
Hazleton and the surrounded

areas.
The Standard-Speaker had a
great reputation under the
Walser family for generations
and that led to (Times-Shamrocks) purchase of the paper in
2007. The Standard-Speaker
remains a great hometown
newspaper and has been a great
asset to Times-Shamrock. I look
forward to the next 150 years.
George V. Lynett Jr.,
Standard-Speaker publisher
and Times-Shamrock Communications executive
... and our operations manager

As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the newspaper, we
would like to thank all those
employees, past and present, who
have worked so hard to make the
Standard-Speaker an indispensable part of the community.
For generations the Hazleton
area has relied on our paper for
the news of the day, as well as giving the residents an opportunity
to voice their opinions.
We have been there through
the good times and the bad times;
through wars and celebrations of
peace, fires and mine disasters;
amid business growth in industrial parks; from the highs of league,
district and state championships,

to the lows of coming up short.
The Standard-Speaker has
provided its readers with a complete, accurate
and timely
account of the
news of the day,
every day, and it
will continue to do
so.
Thanks for
Patton
being an integral
part of our first 150 years, and
heres to 150 more!
John Patton, operations
manager at the Standard-Speaker
11:43 | GRECOTONY
Then&Now
Milestones
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12:24 | SOCHAED
Standard-Speaker
Then&Now
Milestones
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Then&Now
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11:43 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Then&Now
Y23
Milestones
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11:46 | GRECOTONY
Milestones
Then&Now
Standard~Speaker
An edition of THE CITIZENS VOICE
STANDARDSPEAKER.COM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2014
NEWSSTAND: $1.00 / 7DAY HOME DELIVERY: $4.00
TEAM USA MEDAL COUNT
11
GREATER HAZLETONS LARGEST AND

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Total: 23 Place: 1
WEATHER
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Drawing by
Gracie Gallagher
Drums Elementary
Turning cloudy, rain

High of 42
Details, A16
OPERATION RISING STAR
AFTER THE
SWARM
A female suspect rests her head on the bars of a holding cell at Hazleton City Hall while waiting to be transported to Magisterial District Judge Joseph Zolas ofce during
Tuesdays drug bust.
AGs massive drug sweep concludes with 150 arrests

By AMANDA CHRISTMAN
MORE INSIDE
StaffWriter
he clink of metal
handcuffs closing sounded time and again Tuesday night and Wednesday morning as state, federal,
county and local law enforcement
engineered the largest and longest
roundup of drug-trade suspects
the Hazleton area has ever seen.
Police arrested about 30 people
on various drug
charges in the twoday sting but had
previously arrested more than 100.
Details emerged
Wednesday afternoon as state
Attorney General
Kane
Kathleen Kane
held a press conference at Hazleton City Hall.
The investigative work and
resulting arrests, tabbed Operation Rising Star, come after six
months of work by the attorney
generals new street crimes unit
Region 10 IMPACT, Intensive
Mobile Proactive Anti-Crime
Team alongside Hazleton and
other local police departments.
The team debuted in the commonwealth when it was deployed in
Hazleton this fall.
Additional photos. A7
Kane meets with area crime
watch. A13
MORE ONLINE
See video of the press conference at standardspeaker.com
Kane said the months-long effort

resulted in 150 arrests in total and
netted 35,000 packets of heroin
with a value of more than $100,000.
In the last three days alone, Kane
said, 30 arrests were made and
9,060 packets of heroin were seized.
Agents also seized other drugs likes
cocaine, along with cash, guns and
televisions. A 92-inch television
seized during one of the raids will
be donated to the Hazleton One
Community Center.
We have identified drug networks and their key players, and
we have crippled their operations, she said.
Kane said heroin dealers and
users have told police there is a
decrease in the local heroin supply and purity. That means its
See SWEEP, A13
A police ofcer escorts a suspect to a makeshift waiting area located in the basement of
Hazletons City Hall during Wednesdays sting.
Big sting ends months of work

By AMANDA CHRISTMAN
StaffWriter
They made contacts and developed information for months before swarming homes and
shutting down roads, working long hours away
from their loved ones to restore order and hope
to a region that needed them.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who developed and deployed her new Region 10 IMPACT
(Intensive Mobile Proactive Anti-Crime Team)
unit in Hazleton six months ago was finally
able to break the silence publicly about the

work her agents and local police have been
doing Wednesday during a press conference.
Her teams inaugural assignment was in Hazleton and officials are calling it a success.
But, a day prior, law enforcement began
tracking down the last of the people they had
been watching as they investigated drug sales
in Greater Hazleton. They continued that work
into Wednesday as the press conference
See BANG, A13
Ukraine protesters, president call truce

By MARIA DANILOVA and JIM HEINTZ
and protesters led President Viktor

Yanukovych to declare that the military would take part in a national
KIEV, Ukraine Ukraines protest
anti-terrorist operation. The parameleaders and the president they aim to
ters werent specified, but the militarys
oust called a truce Wednesday, just hours involvement and Yanukovychs
after the military raised fears of a wide- appointment of a new military chief of
spread crackdown with a vow to defeat
staff fueled new worries.
terrorists responsible for seizing weapAs protective fires blazed around the
ons and burning down buildings.
tent camp in Kiev for a second night
The two sides agreed to negotiate in
and protesters defending it showed no
an effort to end the violence that left at signs of yielding, Yanukovych met
EFREM LUKATSKY/Associated Press least 26 people dead and more than 400
with top opposition leaders. A stateAnti-government protesters throw stones during injured on Tuesday. Protesters say the
ment on his website said they had
clashes with riot police in Independence Square, Kiev, casualty toll is substantially higher.
agreed on a truce and negotiations.
Ukraine, on Wednesday.
The intense clashes between police
Vitali Klitschko, a leader of the proAssociated Press
All content Copyright 2014 Standard-Speaker
INDEX
Business.....................................A14
Classied.............................. B8-B15
Comics/Puzzle...........................A10
Editorial......................................A12
Greater Hazleton......................... B1
Health........................................A16
Lottery ......................................... A2
Sports..................................... B4-B7
Stocks.........................................A15
OBITUARIES A2
Lorraine A. Allen
Sophie Lehan Cassarella
Louis J. Cerullo
Barry Gatts
tests that have sought to keep Ukraine

open to Europe and out of a close alliance with Russia, said Yanukovych
assured them that police would not
storm the protesters encampment on
Kievs Independence Square, according
to the Interfax news agency.
The brief statement on the presidents website did not give details of
what terms a truce would entail or how
it would be implemented. Nor did it
specify how the negotiations would be
conducted or give an indication of how
they would be different from previous
meetings of the president and the opposition leaders.
Arlene Gavana
Elizabeth Goulstone
Mary Ethel Haslego
Mary J. Hupczey
John Mendofik
Suzanna E. Rittle
Member of
the Greater
Hazleton
News and
Information
Partnership
www.ssptv.com
The Fraternal Order of Police,

Power City Lodge #18
would like to congratulate the
Standard-Speaker for keeping the
public informed for 150 years!
The Fraternal Order of Police, Power City Lodge #18 Proudly

serves the residents of the Hazleton community.
11:40 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Where weve been

Seminal moments in our areas history forged the Hazleton of today
ChiCAgO hiSTOriCAl SOCiETy
The Wyoming Massacre of July 1778, in modern-day upper Luzerne County, convinced Gen. George Washington of the need for a sustained campaign
against Native Americans incited by the British. Skirmishes continued for years, including in September 1780 with the Sugarloaf Massacre.
Sugarloaf Massacre
Accounts differ,
but impact certain
KENT JACKSON/Staff Photo
A monument marking the site of the Sugarloaf Massacre in

1780 might list victims from the Colonial militia who survived the
attack, including the name of a Capt. Daniel Klader who never existed, according to a 2015 article in the Journal of the American
Revolution.
One of the earliest and

most infamous events in
the history of the Hazleton
area took place Sept. 11, 1780,
about a mile east of what is
now the borough of Conyngham.
Perhaps 10 American Revolutionary soldiers were
slain and others captured
when their company of 41
was ambushed by a band of
Native Americans accompanied by a few Tories.
Historical accounts of the
Sugarloaf Massacre differ as
to the exact number of soldiers slain.
A monument at the site
lists 15 names, but historian
Thomas Verenna in research
published in 2015 in the
online Journal of the American Revolution, said the
best evidence indicates that
10 members of a militia from
Northampton County died in
the massacre. A detachment
reported burying 10 people,
Verenna learned through his
research.
He found that at least
three soldiers listed as dead
had survived. Peter Crum
and Geroge Shellhammer,
listed as deceased on the
monument, collected pensions after the war. Paul
Neely, although named as
deceased on the monument,
was listed on records in 1782

and again in 1792 when he
was repaid for material contribution to the war effort.
Another soldier named as
killed on the monument,
Baltzer Snyder, shows up on
later rolls, but Verenna is
trying to verify his fate.
While the monument
names Capt. Daniel Klader
the leader of the detachment
and a gravestone for Klader
is nearby, Verenna doubts
that Klader existed. Daniel
Klader isnt mentioned in
the service, pension or death
records of the survivors who
served in the Northampton
militia commanded by Capt.
Johannes Van Etten.
No mention of Daniel
Klader exists until the mid1860s when John C. Stokes
wrote about him in an article in the Hazleton Sentinel
newspaper, Verenna didnt
find the original article, but
obtained a reprint from 1880.
Verenna said Stokes and
others trying to piece together what happened decades
after the massacre conflated
Daniel Klader with Pvt.
Abraham Klader, who was
at the massacre, and a Capt.
Jacob Klader, who led
detachments elsewhere and
survived the war.
Second Lt. John Myers
who was captured at the

massacre but escaped, or 1st
Lt. John Fish might have led
the group, which was heading toward the Susquehanna
River and present-day Berwick and Catawissa.
Their orders were to seek
out a number of Tories who
were creating problems while
siding with England in its
effort to end the bold bid for
independence by its former
colony, the newly formed
United States of America.
The toughest part of the
companys journey reportedly was through what was
known as Haselschwamp
in English, Hazle Swamp
where Hazleton and West
Hazleton are now located.
As the men descended the
Conyngham Mountain, they
came upon a clearing in the
forest near a running stream
now known as the Little
Nescopeck Creek which
was abounding in wild
grapes. They decided to rest
and eat.
The soldiers stacked their
muskets and rifles, then simply relaxed when they were
ambushed.
Verenna said the attackers probably numbered 25
men, including members of
See ACCOUNTS,y26
Citys story begins in valley to north

The last thing the rag-tag Revolutionary army needed at the height of their
war with England in 1780 was a bunch
of British sympathizers undermining
the war effort.
But that is exactly what was happening along the frontier in the wilds of
north-central and Northeastern Pennsylvania. For more than two years,
bands of Indians and Tories incited
by the British were subjecting colonists to a reign of terror. The violence
reached its bloodiest point in 1788
when 226 people were butchered in the
Wyoming Massacre at what is present-
day Wilkes-Barre.
In the summer of 1780 Indians and
Tories from New Yorks Mohawk Valley
were raiding patriot settlements along
the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. In response to reports of Tories
along the river between Berwick and
Catawissa, a company of 41 Northampton County militiamen set out on a mission to keep track of the rascals.
As local history buffs know, the company never made it to its destination.
Instead at least 10 soldiers met their
maker on Sept. 11 when they were
ambushed by Seneca Indians and
Tories as they rested at a clearing along

Little Nescopeck Creek in what is now
the borough of Conyngham.
The debacle came to be known as the
Sugarloaf Massacre and, ironically, the
death and destruction actually played a
role in the settlement of the Hazleton
area.
Some historians say the first white
people to come into the area were the
troops sent to bury victims of the massacre. Some of them settled in St.
Johns.
The militia companys historic
march had taken soldiers through
dense forests and mountainous terrain.

Traveling along a warriors path that
Indians in eastern Pennsylvania used
to conduct trade with tribes extending
as far south as the Chesapeake Bay, the
troops followed roughly the same route
that Broad Street takes through downtown Hazleton today.
What is now center-city Hazleton
was in those days a depression surrounded by the hills of present-day
Hazleton Heights, Laurel Hill Terrace
and the northern reaches of the city.
See SETTLERS,y26
Y25
Where weve been
Then&Now
Conyngham
lone borough
of our valley
Accounts
(Continued from Y25)
various tribes and some
Tories.
Six days after the massacre, a burying party of
American soldiers led by Lt.
Col. Stephen Balliet arrived
on the scene.
We found Ten of our Soldiers Dead, Scalped, Stripped
Naked, & in a most cruel &
Barborous (sic) manner Tomehawked (sic,) Balliet wrote in
his account of the burial party.
A few years after the massacre, two metal pieces of a
flintlock rifle or pistol were
plowed up, supposedly on or
near the monument. The
pieces were a barrel and the
flintlock mechanisms.
They turned out to be the
only documented relics of
the Sugarloaf Massacre, and
the discovery was mentioned
in Henry C. Bradsbys History of Luzerne County,
published in 1893.
In 1933, a monument and
flagpole were erected on Walnut Avenue in Conyngham
by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the Wyoming Geological and Historical Society,
and the Sugarloaf Massacre
Commemorative Committee.
A blue and yellow state historical marker on Route 93 in
Conyngham also recounts the
massacre but incorrectly
notes the county from which
the militia hailed.
Staff writer Kent Jackson
and former staff writer Ed
Conrad contributed to this
story.
11:44 | GRECOTONY
Conyngham, the lone borough in the valley to Hazletons north, is named in honor of Capt. Gustavus Conyngham, who commanded a
privateer during the American Revolution.
A cousin, Redmond
Conyngham, served as a
state senator from Luzerne
County in the 1820s, according to the boroughs website.
Before being named
Conyngham, the small village was referred to as Venison Market.
The first settler within the
village was George Drum.
William Drum was the first
postmaster with his appointment in 1826.
Todays Conyngham is
known for its tree-lined Main
FILE PHOTO Street and its quaintness
A view from modern-day Route 309 shows a developing valley near what would become Kis-Lyn school for literally. Its just over a
boys and today the Keystone Job Corps Center.
square mile in size.
Sugarloaf settlement responsible for regions rise

Sugarloaf Township can be
referred to as the mother country
from which many towns and
municipalities of this area were
born.
Until 1799, Connecticut had
claimed that its boundaries extended
as far south as Milnesville but a
court decision finally established the
land as Pennsylvania territory.
Once the area was declared as
Pennsylvania land, it became part of
Northampton County. Not long after,
Luzerne County was formed and the

land changed titles again.
In 1809, Sugarloaf Township was
organized from Nescopeck. The Sugarloaf Mountain, which seems to
stand guard over the valley, inspired
the name for the new township.
When Hazle Township began 40
years later, the land came from Sugarloaf.
Sugarloaf also gave up land to create Butler Township in 1839, Black
Creek Township in 1848 and Conyn-
gham borough in 1901.

It is believed that nearby St. Johns
saw the first settlers. These people,
according to historical records, were
some of the troops sent here to bury
the victims of the Sugarloaf Massacre in 1780.
Apparently, these people liked the
valley and decided to stay.
As past records have it, the first
settler in Sugarloaf Township was
George Easterday. Following him
came Christian Miller, Anthony
Weaver, Jacob Mace, Jacob Rittenhouse, Jacob Drumheller Sr., Jacob

Spade and Christian Wenner. All
were of German origin who traveled
to the valley from Northampton
County.
At Sybertsville, northwest of
Conyngham, Henry Seybert opened
a general store in 1833 and was the
chief factor for growth in the village.
A schoolhouse was built in the small
town of which Seybert was postmaster.
Settlers
The shallow valley had an abundance of hazel bush.
Some credit Moravian missionary Hackwelder Mack with first
calling the area Hazle Swamp, a
term the missionaries borrowed
from the Indians.
The Moravians had been following the Warrior Path used by the
Delawares and Senecas since 1742,
when Count Nicholas Lewis von
Zinzendorf, the missionary who
founded Bethlehem, used the trail.
The path widened as missionaries
traveled through what is now
Hazleton on their way to Berwick
and the Wyoming Valley along the
Susquehanna River.
The first step toward developing
a town came in 1804 when a private
company built the Berwick Turnpike along the old Indian trail in an
effort to open a way to the lumber
lands along the upper reaches of
the Susquehanna.
The exact date of the founding
of the city is problematical, local
historian Wilbur H. Fleck wrote in
a souvenir booklet published for
the Old Home Week celebration in
1906. At first it was a mere landmark, designated by one of the
many toll gates which were located
along the turnpike.
According to Fleck, The country up to this time was one
immense pine forest, known as the
Great Swamp. The immediate
locality of the city was known as
the Moravian Pine Swamp.
Not long after the turnpike was
built, a state road was cut from Wilkes-Barre to McKeansburg, intersecting with the turnpike at what
is now the corner of Broad and
Vine streets. In 1809, those crossroads known as The Forks
became the site of the villages first
hotel, The State House.
Built by Jacob Drumheller, The
State House stood on the spot
where Lehigh Tire (formerly the
Schultz Garage) now stands and it
provided shelter for missionaries
and soldiers who passed through
the wilderness.
And wilderness it was. The first
industry was logging, and that had
its start around 1810 when a sawmill was built along the creek that
skirted Laurel Hill Terrace.
The mill was built by a man
named Bowman, who occupied one
of the villages first houses. When
coal prospectors began showing up,
Bowman enlarged the cabin into a
boarding house.
The first house in Hazleton,
which stood near the corner of
what is now Broad and Hazle
streets, was built and occupied by
Charles Edson, according to some
accounts. The building would later
house the pioneering Doc Bird and
Lewis Davenport families. In later
years the structure was taken over
by the Lehigh Valley Railroad.

The second house was built
around 1817 at the corner of Vine
and Green streets, just north of
The State House. The small building was later taken over by Bell
Telephone for use as a warehouse.
The local logging industry was
small-scale. Lumber was carried by
horse or ox down the Turnpike to
the Lehigh and Schuylkill rivers,
where it floated south to market.
No one knows for sure exactly
when or how coal was discovered in
Hazleton. A favorite tale has a deer
pawing open an outcrop in 1818, but
more credible are stories that hunters stumbled across anthracite a
few years later. According to one
popular story, a man named John
Charles found coal inside the current city limits while digging for a
groundhog in 1826.
The account that probably has
the most adherents has a hunter
named Bocker finding an outcropping at Hazle Mines, behind the
spot where the Hazleton Shopping
Center now stands. According to
Henry Brown, who was born in
Hazleton in 1843, Bocker gave the
coal to Conyngham blacksmith
John Fitzgerald, who tested it. The
result was formation of the Hazleton Coal Co. in 1836.
The first documented coal miner
in Hazleton was Nathan Beach, a
Revolutionary War soldier who
around the turn of the century
joined Tench Coxe in assuming
control of land in Beaver Meadows,
Coleraine and Tresckow, as well as
the Hazleton No. 3. mine, located
where the former Barrett
Haentjens Co. (more recently Weir
Hazleton) now stands.
Beach and Coxe dissolved their
partnership and Beach sold his
property in 1928 to a Philadelphia
judge named Barnes for $20,000.
Barnes formed the Beaver Meadows Railroad Co. and then sold the
land for $96,000.
If coal was the fuel that powered
the development of Hazleton, then
Ario Pardee was the fireman. It
was Pardee who built the railroads
that helped move his coal to market. And it was Pardee who laid out
the patch town that would become
the city of Hazleton.
When the Hazleton Coal Co. was
incorporated in 1836, its plot consisted of only a few squares, bounded by Poplar, Church, Green and
Chestnut streets. Much of the land
was bought from Samuel Moore,
who owned most of the land in
Hazleton.
Up until 1832, there had been
only a handful of buildings in the
tiny village: The State House, the
sawmill and a couple of houses. In
1832, Lewis Davenport built the
Hazleton House hotel, which still
stands at the corner of Broad and
Wyoming streets. Two years later,
FILE PHOTO
An early highway, roughly following modern-day Route 93,

descends to the Sugarloaf valley, but settlement in our area developed the other way up the mountain to the south and into what
is now Hazleton.
two more houses were constructed.
Pardees coal company spurred
development when it offered
installment payment plans for
employees who wanted to buy land.
Pardee, who wanted to give his
workers a chance to build their
own homes, was selling lots on
Broad Street in those days for $150.
The areas premier coal baron
had come a long way from his first
days in the anthracite region. Born
in New York state, he had been a
23-year-old civil engineer for the
Delaware and Raritan Canal Co.
when he arrived in Beaver Meadows in 1833 to plan a railroad
extending from Beaver Meadows to
the Lehigh Canal at Mauch Chunk.
The first trains rolled down the
tracks in 1836 and the local coal
industry began to take off.
When Pardee heard that coal
was discovered a few miles down
the road, he discovered Hazleton
and went into business for himself
while keeping his job with the Beaver Meadows Railroad Co.
Pardees next move was to build
a track between Hazleton and Beaver Meadows, allowing coal mined
in the new town to be carried to the
Lehigh Canal at Penn Haven. That
was the catalyst that brought the
huge Philadelphia market within
reach of Hazleton.
The Beaver Meadows Railroad
and Coal Co. was chartered April 7,
1839, merging 25 years later with
the Lehigh Valley Railroad Co.
When Pardee first hit town,
there were only about 10 houses in
the village, clustered along and
near the Berwick Pike. In 1837, the
Hazleton Coal Co. built the towns
first schoolhouse at the intersection of Church and Green streets
and Fanny Blackman became the
first teacher.
Despite the wilderness setting,
Hazletons first settlers did manage
to have some fun. One of the 10
Heckroths on the south side of
Mine Street, between Wyoming and
Pine had a dance hall at the rear.
Among the most prominent ear-
ly residents was Lewis Davenport,

whose family lived in the villages
original house at Broad and Hazle.
While not a coal operator himself,
Davenport was said to have loaned
money to some of the early coal
miners.
The town soon had a north-south
road that began at the company
store and took the path of presentday Wyoming Street. Known as
Tamaqua Street, it became part of
the Schuylkill Pike, which led to
the town of Tamaqua.
In the 1830s and early 40s, most
of Hazletons growth took place in
suburban patches that sprang up at
mine sites within todays city limits and in outlying areas.
A small town that came to be
known as Upper Mines was built
near the spot where the first coal
was discovered, beyond the western end of todays Mine Street.
Today, all traces of the town are
gone, but if you stand on the ridge
behind the Hazleton Shopping Center you can survey the old Hazle
Mines culm banks that cover the
site of the Lehigh Valley Coal Co.s
No. 1 colliery.
In those days the patches often
were referred to by number, and
some of those tags remain today.
Many old-timers still call South
Church Street No. 6 Hill, after the
name of a village and breaker that
stood there. No. 3, near HarmanGeist Stadium, had a breaker and
village, as did No. 7, located at the
crest of the ridge that extends from
Route 93 to Cranberry.
Other coal works were located
on Donegal Hill on Hazletons
South Side and at Bunton Bock, in
the area of the East End Playground. The biggest patches in
Hazleton proper were Laurel Hill,
at the western edge of todays fashionable Laurel Hill Terrace, and
Upper Mines, on the west end near
the No. 1 colliery.
Hazleton was incorporated as a
borough by two acts of the state
Legislature, the first winning
approval April 31, 1851, and a sup-
plemental act being authorized

April 22, 1856.
A short time later, mining and
banking pioneer George B. Markle
became president of the first borough council.
A persistent story lays the spelling of the towns name to an error
by a clerk in Harrisburg, who
should have spelled it Hazelton.
The le spelling, however, dates
back at least as far as Pardees
Hazleton Coal Co. in the 1830s. And
in 1991, Walter J. Throne said in a
letter to the editor of the StandardSpeaker that a tombstone at the
grave of Alexander Turnbull in an
old cemetery near Conyngham Elementary School states that Turnbull died at Hazleton in 1826.
The boroughs fire department
was not organized until 1866, after
the towns 800-man contingent of
soldiers returned home from the
Civil War. The boroughs population
grew steadily until the 1880s when
waves of eastern European immigrants poured in to take jobs created
by the booming coal industry.
In 1860, the boroughs population
was an estimated 4,000. In 1880 it
reached 6,935 and by 1890 it soared
to 11,872.
The borough limits expanded in
the 1880s when the town annexed
land north of Diamond Avenue that
had been developed by the Diamond
Coal Co. Working in 1874, company
draftsman Thomas McNair laid out
a grid extending north to Seventh
Street, west to Peace Street and east
to Hayes Street. The first lot, at the
corner of Diamond Avenue and
Vine Street, was sold to D.S. Stein of
Lattimer for $225.
By 1890, the boroughs population
had more than doubled in less than
10 years, leading a writer in The
Plain Speaker to exclaim, I dont
believe that there is another town
in the state that grew as rapidly.
The next year, on Dec. 4, 1891,
Hazleton was chartered as a city.
The city stretched farther northward on Dec. 8, 1908 when the
northwest section, previously part
of Hazle Township, was annexed.
In the early part of this century,
Hazleton was a boom town, its population increasing from 14,230 in
1900 to 25,452 in 1910.
The population would peak at
38,009 in the 1940 Census and then
begin a steady decline. But in 2010,
for the first time in 70 years, the
census showed a population
increase for Hazleton, In the first
decade of the new millennium, the
number of city residents grew by
more than 2,000 to 25,340.
This story appeared in Pages
From the Past, the Standard-Speakers 125th anniversary edition, in
1991. Retired managing editor Carl
Christopher compiled the information and wrote the article.
11:40 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Y27
Where weve been
Then&Now
Borough has
Revolutionary
War connection
Although the settlement
of the anthracite region did
not begin until nearly a halfcentury after the American
Revolution, at least three veterans of that conflict were
buried in a Beaver Meadows
cemetery.
The veterans remains rest
in a marshy and overgrown
lot at the eastern end of Beaver Street, about two blocks
north of Route 93.
One of them was Ephraim
Ladd, a Beaver County resident who responded to the
call to arms after the battles
of Lexington and Concord in
1775.
Also buried there are Daniel Washburn, a descendant
of pilgrims who came to the
New World on the Mayflower, and James McGarvan, a
private in the Pennsylvania
militia who was born in 1734
and lived 96 years.
Ladd served as a private in
Lt. Ezekiel Olcutts company
in the Connecticut Militia
and marched from Bolton,
Connecticut, to aid in the
relief of Boston. He settled
in Beaver Meadows in 1829
after spending time in the
wilderness of Monroe and
Bradford counties.
The son of Ezekiel and
Hannah (Bigelow) Ladd, he
was born in Tolland, Connecticut, on May 11, 1749. He
was a descendant of Nathaniel Ladd, whose son, Daniel,
came from Wiltshire, England, in 1634 on the ship
Mary and John.
His wife, Lois Chapman
Ladd, is described by one
historian as a large lady,
humorous, with a fondness

for company, devout in religious matters, possessed of
superior womanly qualities
and a very rapid knitter.
Her descendents are scattered from New England to
the Southern states.
In February 1800, Ephraim
Ladd closed down his Connecticut shoemakers trade
and headed west with his
family. They made the trip
on sleighs, with several horses and a team of oxen.
Reaching Monroe County, he
spent a year with his brother-in-law, Gorden Fowler
(their wives were sisters).
In the meantime he had
selected lands on the present
site of New Albany (Bradford
County), made some improvements and erected a log house
with a cob roof and puncheon
floor. Early the next spring, he
moved in with his family,
being the first settler in Albany Township.
His trip from Monroe
County required two days of
travel. Alone in the wilderness, Ladd and his family
lived with a panther and a
bear nearby. Wolves
swarmed around the familys cabin and broke the midnight stillness with music
that was anything but pleasant to the familys ears.
The country was wild and
dreary, making the familys
job of clearing heavily timbered lands to fit them for
cultivation one of struggle
and hardship. But Ladd was
equal to the task.
In 1829, Mr. and Mrs. Ladd,
with their son, Ephraim Jr.,
Markers for Revolutionary War soldiers, from left, Ephraim Ladd, James McGarvan and Daniel Washburn are on
a plot of land near the end of Beaver Street on the east side of Beaver Meadows.
moved to Beaver Meadows,
which then was part of
Northampton County. It was
on March 13, 1843, that Carbon County was formed
from parts of Northampton
and Monroe counties.
Mrs. Ladd died May 2,
1836, and her husband died
two days later. He was buried
in Beaver Meadows and his
headstone bore the words,
Ephraim Ladd, Wolcotts
Ct. Mil., Rev. War.
It is probable that Mrs.
Ladd is interred in this same
burial ground, but her grave
is not marked.
Daniel Washburn was
born in Unionville in 1763
and therefore was just a
youth when the Revolutionary War was being fought.
He was, however, one of the
last survivors of the Wyoming Massacre in 1778, an
event he wrote about in 1846.
Washburn recalled how
he and the rest of Col. Zebulon Butlers troops were
surrounded by a band of
Tories and Indians. Washburn said he, Butler and
another soldier were run-
Beaver Meadows once

hub of areas activity
Beaver Meadows once
known as a great Little
Coal Town has had its
heyday as a prosperous mining community and the center of industry and influence in this region, and has
now become a quiet community in upper Carbon County, and a good place to live
Though a borough only
since 1897, it lays claim to
having had a rich history
dating back to 1787 when it
was nothing more than a
trail used by trappers and
Indians who lived in this
area.
Then Beaver Meadows
was part of what was then
Northampton County, a land
area as large as the state of
New Jersey.
In those very early days
the Indians used what is
now the boroughs main
street (Route 93) to take
their white captives along
the Old North Swamp
Trail from the Nesquehoning Creek to the Susquehanna Valley in the area of
what is now Berwick.
And it might come as a
surprise to many Hazletonians, but Beaver Meadows,
which became a borough
119 years ago, was once the
principal community in this
region, primarily because
of anthracite coal being discovered by a man named
Nathan Beach in 1812.
That started what was to
become a bustling community for generations to
come.
One part of its recent history certainly worth
remembering is the Silver
Beavers Drum and Bugle
Corps. Formed in 1951, the
boys and girls marched
proudly in their smart uniforms, performed locally as
well as in neighboring communities and states. The
band was dissolved in the
1960s, bringing an end to
volunteer organization that
did much to mold the
futures of many children.
The borough also had its
own elementary school, first

established in 1835 in a former blacksmith shop. In
1898 a new school was built
bordering Church Street
and it remained open until
1979 when children were
bused to Hazleton because
of a jointure formed years
before with the Hazleton
ve
Area School District.

Beaver Meadows boasts a
modern police and fire
department, a post office, a
recreation group that provides activities for the
young as well as the old, and
local businesses.
ning from the attackers:

Mr. Butler and myself
kept our rifles, the other man
lost his rifle, hat and shoes.
We veered our course toward
the fort. . . When we got there
we perceived three Indians
pursuing us with rapid speed.
They were about 50 yards
behind us. I told Mr. Butler
we must give those lads a fire
as we were almost out of
breath. Mr. Butler and I then
turned about and shot. I saw
the largest one of the three
fall to the ground. The other
two ran into the woods.
The 15-year-old Washburn
escaped death and eventually
made his way to what is now
Weissport. Its not clear when
he made his way to Beaver
Meadows, but attorney William T. Stauffer wrote in 1941
that Washburn was buried in
an unmarked grave in what
then was left of the Maple
Grove Cemetery.
The cemetery is, for the
most part, overgrown with
bushes and maple trees and
is, during the greater part of
the year wet and swampy,
wrote Stauffer, a former
Hazleton resident who was

living in Newport News, Virginia, in 1941.
Stauffer said a number of
gravestones still stood at
Maple Grove during World
War I, but by 1941 only one was
still standing. That, apparently,
was at the grave of Ladd and
was erected by grateful state
of Connecticut.
Stauffer lamented the fact
that Washburns grave and
that of another Pennsylvania soldier, whose name he
could not recall, were not
marked.
According to Stauffer,
writing in the Golden Jubilee edition of the StandardSentinel and Plain Speaker
in 1941, Washburns mother
and father both came to
America on the Mayflower
in 1620. His mother, Silence
Washburn, was a fifth-generation descendant of Mayflower pilgrims Frances
Cooke and Thomas Rogers.
Her family lineage went
back to William the Conqueror and Alfred the Great,
Stauffer said.
In 1932, Beaver Meadows
recognized another Revolutionary War connection when

a bronze marker was dedicated in the Citizens Cemetery to
commemorate the service of
Lt. William Wilson.
Wilson, a Montgomery
County native, apparently
never lived in the borough,
but he died in Salem Township and some of his children were pioneering Beaver
Meadows residents.
Among them was a son,
William Hart Wilson, who
became one of Beaver Meadows earliest residents when
he moved in on April 10, 1826
and built a tavern, according
to a history of the borough
published in 1937.
Wilsons oldest daughter,
Rachel Boileau Wilson, married landowner and coal producer Nathan Beach after the
death of her first husband.
This story appeared in Pages From the Past, the Standard-Speakers 125th anniversary edition, in 1991. Retired
managing editor Carl Christopher compiled the information and wrote the article.
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Hazletons first newspaper was launched. Today,
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11:44 | GRECOTONY
Where weve been
Then&Now
An undated drawing shows an early, crude coal mining operation in a patchtown presumed to be in the Hazleton area evidenced by what appears to be the Sugarloaf Mountain in the background.
Coal discovered
Finding fueled a region and a revolution

Its impossible to separate Hazletons early
history from the drive to mine anthracite. It
was coal, after all, that led to the settlement
and development of the region.
But how and when did it all begin?
There have been a variety of stories about
the discovery of anthracite. An early
account, appearing in Harpers Weekly in
September 1857, said the beginning came
along the Lehigh River in 1791.
The magazine said a hunter named Philip
Ginter was running through the woods to
beat an advancing storm when he came
across a large black stone that had been
kicked up by a recently fallen tree. Having
heard others talk about the presence of
stone coal, Ginter gave the specimen to
Col. Jacob Weiss, who lived near the present
site of Jim Thorpe.
Weiss sent it off to Philadelphia where a
printer named Charles Cist determined that
it was anthracite coal and told Weiss to start
buying up land.
As the entire region of the country from
the Blue Mountain to the Susquehanna River was an unbroken, savage wilderness, the
land had but little value, Harpers said.
Weiss joined Cist and Robert Morris, John
Nicholson, J. Anthony Morris and others in
buying thousands of acres. In 1792, the
group formed the Lehigh Coal-mine Co. The
firm could find no market for its product in
the upstate woodlands, which had an abundance of timber. Down in Philadelphia, their
attempts to sell the coal met with scorn from
businessmen who thought the mineral to be
mine Co. and lead to the development of the

anthracite region:
The proprietor of the Fairmount nailworks, with some of his men, had been
engaged during the whole morning in the
vain endeavor to fire up a furnace with the
coal. They tried every possible expedient
which skill and experience in other fuels
could suggest. They raked it and they stirred
it up, and poked it and blew tremendously
upon it with blowers. They persevered in the
task they manipulated it with courage,
with desperation but it appears that all
would not do. At length the signal for dinner
was given, and utterly sick and tired of the
stones, and with no complimentary epithets,
the men shut fast the furnace door, pulled on
their coats and proceeded to their meal.
Returning at the usual time, their consternation may be imagined as they beheld
the furnace door red hot, and the fire within
A worker leads horses pulling a rail car at an early mining operation.
seething and roaring like a tempest! They
ville in 1810 and blacksmiths began to enjoy stood before it like men paralyzed and when,
nothing more nor less than common
some success with the brilliant mineral that after a time they could summon courage
stones, Harpers said.
The company, on the verge of dissolution, drew raves from one Philadelphia chemist
enough to pry open the door, the white glare
who was astonished by its heating power.
tried to make a go of it after the state comof the flames was beautiful to behold. Never
Meanwhile, a joint stock company was
pleted navigation improvements on the
before had such a fire been seen.
Lehigh in 1802. In 1803, six arks carrying 100 chartered in 1814 to improve navigation on the
And from that moment the secret of treatSchuylkill. In 1817 Col. George Shoemaker,
tons of coal each made the harrowing trip
ing anthracite coal became known it only
from Mauch Chunk to Philadelphia where it who owned land around Pottsville, sent eight
required to be let alone.
or 10 wagons of coal to Philadelphia and guarfinally was sold to the city to run a steamanteed that the stones would burn. The nail
operated water pump.
This story is an updated version of one that
But officials were unable to burn the coal, works at Fairmount obtained several tons but appeared in Pages From the Past, the Stanjust couldnt get the stuff to burn.
the remaining stock was scattered around
dard-Speakers 125th anniversary edition, in
Harpers describes a pivotal event that
the footpaths and the company was dormant
1991. Retired managing editor Carl Christofor 17 years. Coal was discovered near Potts- would spur the revival of the Lehigh Coalpher compiled most of the information.
Pardee king of coal barons, father of Hazleton

The coal barons who
shaped the towns of the
Hazleton from the Northeastern Pennsylvania wilderness left their mark on the
region in more ways than
one.
The most obvious legacy
is the scarred terrain, pockmarked by deep and dangerous stripping pits and dotted
with dirty mountains of
Ariovistus Pardee is culm. But there is much
credited with founding more than that.
Hazleton.
Families like the Pardees,
Coxes and Markles exerted

an influence on early Hazletons social, economic and
cultural institutions that is
still evident today. It was the
coal barons who helped build
the industries, banks, churches, schools and libraries that
today help shape the lives of
Hazleton area residents.
Theyre long gone now
and, while their names still
appear on street signs and
plaques in art galleries and
libraries, many Hazletonians
are unaware of who these

people were.
The king of the coal barons was Ario Pardee, the
man who is credited with
founding Hazleton.
Born in Chatham, New
York, on Nov. 19, 1810, Ariovistus Pardee grew up on a
farm near Lebanon Springs,
New York. By the time of his
death in 1892, he stood
among Pennsylvanias millionaire elite, one of the
founders and major contrib-
utors to Eastons Lafayette

College.
Like other pioneers of
American industrialization,
Pardee, the silent man, as
many called him, possessed
both vision and organizational genius, Donald L.
Miller and Richard
Sharpless wrote in The
Kingdom of Coal, published
in 1985. He was a strong
supporter of technical innovations, especially those
which enhanced hard coals
value as a fuel.
Pardees work on the railroad at Beaver Meadows was
typical of his contribution to
the coal industry. The railroad, which carried anthracite from the new mines in
the Hazleton area to Mauch
Chunk for shipment to the
huge Philadelphia market by
way of the Lehigh Canal,
served as an example for other short-haul feeder railroads.
See PARDEE,Y29
Everyman Coxe changed areas landscape

It isnt the run-of-the-mill businessman who gets to have a town
named after him. Eckley B. Coxe,
hardly run-of-the-mill, had two
Hazleton area towns named after
him: Eckley and Coxeville.
Coxe, born to an aristocratic Philadelphia family, was a brilliant engineer and a legendary coal baron. In
addition, he was a philanthropist
whose contributions to the anthracite industry and the Hazleton area
were generous and enduring.
He developed his familys extensive holdings into thriving coal
lands, developed major improve-
ments in mining, won election to the

Pennsylvania Senate and left a longlasting cultural legacy to the Hazleton area.
Coxe was a true aristocrat. His
father, Charles S., was a judge in
Philadelphia, and his grandfather,
Tench, was a well-known statesman,
author and economist who served as
George Washingtons commissioner
of internal revenue.
The blueblood Coxes traced their
American heritage back to Dr. Daniel Coxe, physician to Englands
Queen Anne and governor of West
Jersey. In addition to being the gov-
ernor of colonial New Jersey and

proprietor of the Carolinas, Dr. Coxe
also had extensive holdings in Pennsylvania and New York.
He gave all his American possessions to his oldest son, Daniel,who
arrived in the colonies in 1702 and
married Sarah Eckley, the only child
of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court
judge.
Daniels son, William Coxe, married Mary Francis, daughter of
Tench Francis, the attorney general
of the province of Pennsylvania.
Their son, Tench, was born in Philadelphia on May 22, 1755.
Tench Coxe, an aquaintance of the

great English economist, Adam
Smith, quickly made a name for
himself among intellectuals in the
newly independent nation. He was
an avid promoter of free trade
among the states. Alexander Hamilton, praising Coxe for his promotion
of increased cotton production, said,
I find no one appearing at the head
and front of these measures equal to
Tench Coxe.
Learning about the discovery of
Eckley B. Coxe cocoal near present-day Summit Hill in founded Coxe Brothers
and Co. and served as a

See COXE,Y29 state senator.
11:44 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Y29
Where weve been
Then&Now
Pardee
It was after he engineered construction of the railroad that Pardee
moved to the tiny village of Hazleton, established the Hazleton Coal
Co., helped lay out the town and
built the First Presbyterian Church.
The church connection is important, for Pardees religious upbringing helped shape his life. He was the
embodiment of the Protestant ethic:
a hard worker and a true believer.
My education was limited to
what I learned at my fathers fireside, and the ordinary district
school, he once wrote to a friend.
Fortunately, I had for a time the
advantage of an excellent teacher
in the Rev. Moses Hunter, a Presbyterian minister, who, to eke out a
scanty living, taught in the district
school two winters.
I was then 15 years old, and his
teaching about finished my school
education, although I was an industrious worker in my books at home.
When Pardee was 19, he accepted a family friends offer of a job in
the engineering corps of the Delaware and Raritan Canal in New
Jersey. He immediately reported to
work in Trenton and, two years later, was transferred to Pennsylvania
to survey a railroad to carry coal
from the new mines at Beaver
Meadows to the Lehigh Canal at
Mauch Chunk.
Displaying fidelity to duty and
untiring and resolute energy,
according to former Lafayette College president W.C. Cattell, Pardee
was placed in charge of the entire
railroad project before he was 25.
Heres how Pardee described in a
letter what happened next:
In the fall of 1836, the road was
finished and then shipment of coal
was commenced. I then resigned
my position, and after visiting my
parents, who had moved to Michigan, I took up my quarters in the
month of February 1837, at Hazleton, having previously located a
railroad from the Hazleton coal
mines to the Beaver Meadows Railroad at Weatherly.
We finished that road and commenced shipping coal in the spring
of 1838, and I continued in the
employ of the Hazleton Railroad
and Coal Company as their superintendent, until 1840, when I commenced business as a coal operator.
Pardee had always considered an
incident in Beaver Meadows as a
turning point that led to his move
to Hazleton.
The incident, recalled by Pardees associate, A.R. Longshore, was

recounted by H.C. Bradsby in his
1893 History of Luzerne County:
After he had been at Beaver
Meadow a few months, the place
was so wild, so scarce of any society that the young man grew homesick and concluded to resign and
return home to Philadelphia. On
the way back, Pardee met an old
friend at Mauch Chunk who persuaded to him to go back to continue his work. And so strenuously
did he present his views that the
young engineer did return and
from this fact alone his permanent
home was cast in Hazleton.
The company Pardee founded in
1840, a partnership with Robert Miner and William Hunt, was known as
Pardee, Miner & Co. They mined
coal at Hazleton and transported it
to Penn Haven for shipment to the
Philadelphia market. Three years
later, Hunt left the firm and J. Gilingham Fell became a partner.
For the next few years, Pardee,
Miner & Co. coexisted with the Hazleton Coal Co. under various marketing arrangements. The Hazleton
company subsequently merged with
the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
Pardee soon became the largest
shipper of anthracite in Pennsylvania, with mining operations at Hazleton, Cranberry, Sugarloaf, Crystal
Ridge, Jeddo, Highland, Lattimer,
Hollywood and Mount Pleasant.
As Pardees fortunes grew, so did
Hazletons. The town had been just
a patch when Pardee moved
there in February 1837.
There were only a few houses
and the old Stage House or State
House, the landmark inn that
stood at the intersection of Broad
and Vine streets. Just a year earlier,
Lewis Davenport had built a hotel
at Broad and Wyoming streets.
In the 1850s, Pardees company
store on the southwest corner of
Broad and Wyoming streets was
the place for Hazletonians to shop.
The establishment, built by the Ingham brothers, had been the towns
first store.
Pardee and his wife, the former
Elizabeth Jacobs, had four children
and a fifth was on the way. When
the baby arrived there were complications, and both mother and
child died. Pardee was left a widower with four young children.
As in his personal life, Pardee
suffered setbacks in business.
He lost several fortunes and at
The Pardee mansion on Pardee Square the north-side block of Broad Street bounded by Church
and Laurel streets was a stately landmark in downtown Hazleton for decades.
times the fate of his entire empire
was uncertain, Miller and
Sharpless wrote.
Like many of the entrepreneurs
of his era Pardee was a complex
man who held his own counsel, took
no one into his confidence and practiced a strong self-reliance, according to the authors of The Kingdom
of Coal. Various accounts
describe him as cool, strong, brooding and introspective. He was a
dreamer who realized his dreams.
In 1848 he married Anna Maria
Robison, a Bloomsburg native. A
child was born, but he died before
reaching his first birthday.
The couple had four more children by 1859, the year they began to
build their mansion on what came
to be known as Pardee Square.
The new home was located just
across from the First Presbyterian
Church, which Pardee helped build
in 1853, not long after fire destroyed
the towns combination schoolhouse-church, located on the site of
present-day City Hall.
Two years earlier, Pardee had
promised to pay $2,500 for a church,
providing the rest of the congregation would donate $500. The
churchs members came up with
$800. The new church, located on
the spot where todays First Presbyterian Church stands, was a square
brick structure with a small saltbox steeple and a white interior.
Just across the street, in the
Broad Street block bounded by
Church and Laurel streets, the
three-story Pardee mansion began
to take shape in 1859. In two years,
the house was complete, situated

well back from the street among a
grove of large trees.
At the rear of the house, near
Green Street, were a carriage
house and stables. The entire block
was surrounded by an ornate cast
iron fence.
Located at the center of the town
Pardee had helped build, it was an
impressive estate, appropriate for
someone who by 1863 was one of
the richest men in America. During
the Civil War a conflict in which
two of Pardees sons fought his
personal income was estimated at
more than $1 million a year.
The Pardees finally moved into
their stone mansion in 1861, at
about the time the Civil War was
beginning. Two of Pardees sons,
Calvin and Ario Jr., fought in the
conflict and telegrams reporting
the wars progress were posted routinely in the company store.
The Pardee family and their
home between Church and Laurel
streets ... stood for honor, hard
work and determination to achieve
a dream, local historian Jeannette
Levan wrote in the StandardSpeaker 100 years later. It was not
only a big house to be admired, but
a base for people at that time to set
their own goals and dreams on.
For more than 60 years, the
square was the towns centerpiece.
In 1922, voters rejected a proposal to turn it into a public park and
the property was sold in lots for
business development.
At Ario Pardees funeral in
March, 1892, thousands gathered in
Hazleton to see the funeral procession. In the Presbyterian church,

1,500 people squeezed into pews
and chairs, while many more
crowded into aisles and doorways,
according to newspaper accounts.
Mourners came by trainload, the
newspaper reported. It was no surprise, since the millionaire Hazletonian at the time of his death had
coal, iron and lumber holdings in
eight states and Canada.
Millionaires jostled elbows with
slate pickers, Hungarian women
stood by exponents of fashion, the
newspaper reported.
It was a wonderful sight.
Pardee was back home, in the
church he built, surrounded by the
friends and family who had been so
important to him.
Years later, his granddaughter,
wrote about Pardees values in a
book based on the family letters.
The family was the most important unit in their society, Gertrude
Keller Johnston wrote. The larger
the family, the greater the contribution to their country.
They followed God as they understood Him, a strict Presbyterian God
who planned their future and sent
them sorrows as well as blessings.
They learned to accept all, to submit,
and to believe. They received their
strength from His hand.
This story is an updated version of
one that appeared in Pages From the
Past, the Standard-Speakers 125th
anniversary edition, in 1991. Retired
managing editor Carl Christopher
compiled most of the information.
Coxe
the 1790s, Tench Coxe purchased nearly 80,000 acres in
the region. The transaction
paved the way for establishment of Coxe Brothers & Co.s
coal operations years later.
Tenchs son, Charles S.,
was born in Philadelphia in
1791 and became a prominent Philadelphia judge.
Charles leased some of his
inherited land for ill-fated
mining ventures but steadfastly declined to sell any of
the property.
He later moved to Drifton
in the 1870s and died in 1879.
Some members of the Coxe
family had lived in the
anthracite region as early as
1826, when they settled in Beaver Meadow, Philadelphia resident Dan Coxe recalled in
1962. After the Civil War, some
of them moved to Drifton.
Development of the Coxe
lands would be left to Charles
son, Eckley, who was born in
Philadelphia on June 4, 1839.
After graduating from the
University of Pennsylvania
in 1858, he spent six months
surveying land in the anthracite region. He then studied
mining in Paris and England,
before returning to the United
States in 1865.
It was then that he and his
brothers founded Coxe
Brothers & Co., headquarted
in Drifton, and began mining coal on the land his
grandfather had purchased.
Largely as a result of Coxes
engineering skills, the company became one of Pennsylvanias largest anthracite
producers, putting out 1.5
million tons a year by 1890.
Eckley B. Coxe and his
bride, Sophia, had moved to
Drifton in 1869. In rapid succession, the company opened
mines at Eckley, Beaver Meadows, Drifton, Oneida, Tomhicken, Derringer and Gowen.
By 1886, the firm controlled about 35,000 acres of
The Sophia Coxe Foundation has kept the coal familys legacy alive at the Coxe Estate in Drifton.
coal property.
Dependent upon the railroads to get their anthracite
to market, the coal companies
found themselves strapped by
rising transportation costs.
According to Luzerne County
historian H.C. Bradsby, Coxe
fought the railroads in court
and eventually built his own
60-mile track to connect his
mines and bypass the railroad
companies.
Coxe Brothers held out for
a long time. According to University of Pennsylvania sociologist E. Digby Baltzell, the
firm was one of the last large
coal operators to sell out to
the railroads, which had been
buying coal lands for years.
In 1872, for example, the
Pennsylvania Railroad, a
diversified national carrier,
bought 28,000 acres of
anthracite land for $5 million. According to Baltzell,

railroad companies were
mining 78.4 percent of the
total anthracite output by
1907.
We did not want to build
our railroad, but the railroads
drove us to it, Eckley Coxe
told Bradsby. The new company, the Delaware, Susquehanna & Schuylkill Railroad,
began operations in 1890.
A brilliant engineer, Eckley Coxe held 70 technical patents for improvements used
by the mining industry, as
well as hundreds of other patents. At Drifton, where he
built the first iron and steel
coal breaker, Coxe operated
his famous shops where he
and his engineers continuously improved their machinery. The workshops even
attracted the attention of

Thomas Edison, who made it
a point to visit in 1891.
Shortly before Edisons
visit, historian Bradsby took
a tour of the complex. Bradsby was impressed by the
breadth of Coxes achievements and knowledge, ranging from the machinery in
his shops to his mastery of
Latin, German and French.
Bradsby gushed over
Coxes scientific library,
located in a fireproof onestory building presided over
by John R. Wagner.
Here is gathered the finest
technical library on these
subjects that are a specialty to
Mr. Coxe in the world today,
Bradsby wrote. This is saying a good deal but it is simple
truth. Over 12,000 volumes
and nearly 5,000 rare manuscripts and pamphlets, mostly
in English, French and German, but some rare old books
that would set ablaze the eyes
of a true bibliomaniac.
Such is the admirable
arrangement of the whole
that Mr. Wagner can hand to
Mr. Coxe any paper, magazine
article, pamphlet or book and
page that he may chance to
want in a moment.
Coxe, a Democrat, was
elected to the state Senate in
1880 to represent the 26th
District, consisting of lower
Luzerne and part of Lackawanna County.
At his inauguration he
demonstrated just how strictly principled he was when he
refused to take the oath of
office. The oath required senators to swear that they he
had not made any contributions or promises not allowed
by law. Coxe had itemized his
contributions to the election
committee and asserted that
he paid nothing to win his
nomination.
The performance prompted the editor of the Philadelphia Times to comment on
Coxes scrupulous integrity and to quip that, had all

legislators interpreted the
law so strictly, it would have
left both branches of the legislature without a quorum.
A vacancy in the legislature, however, allowed Coxe to
be renominated and he was
re-elected without spending a
cent. At the 1882 Pennsylvania Democratic convention,
Coxes name was presented
on a few of the ballots for governor, but the coal magnate
supported Henry Pattison,
who eventually was elected.
Two years later, Coxe was
chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation to the national Democratic convention in
Chicago that nominated Grover Cleveland for president.
The Coxe legacy likely will
live for years, thanks to the
familys contributions to their
community. Eckley Coxe, a
trustee of Lehigh University
in Bethlehem, was a strong
believer in education. He
founded the Mining and
Mechanical Institute in Freeland in 1879 to help educate
the children of miners and he
gave an annual scholarship to
the most able student.
MMI began as a night
school at Drifton in 1879 with
the name, Industrial School
for Miners and Mechanics.
The school moved to Freeland in 1893 and opened at its
present site in 1902.
After Eckleys death on
May 13, 1895, Mrs. Coxe continued to help the school. A
major project of hers was
construction of a gymnasium and hall that was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day
in 1925, Sophias 85th birthday. Mrs. Coxe died less than
four months later, but she
had established a $200,000
trust fund to keep the school
operating after her death.
The Coxes established
their own hospital for miners at Drifton in the 1880s.
After the State Hospital for

Injured Miners of the Middle Coal Fields of Pennsylvania opened at Hazleton in
1891, they gave $50,000 to the
state for a new addition.
Mrs. Coxe, who reportedly
gave as much as 90 percent of
her income to charity, also
paid for the Coxe addition to
the White Haven Sanitorium,
contributed to a new building
for Philadelphias Childrens
Hospital, set up an endowment fund of over $100,000 for
the Chapin Memorial Home
for Aged Blind in Philadelphia and paid for countless
cases of corrective surgery
for children.
In 1904, nine years after
Eckleys death, the extensive
Coxe Brothers holdings were
sold to the Lehigh Valley
Railroad Co.
Butler Enterprises bought
much of the old Coxe holdings in 1961.
Less than a year later, a
mansion on Route 940 that
was built in 1872 for Eckleys
father Judge Charles S.
Coxe was part of an eightacre tract that was sold to a
developer. The house subsequently was demolished.
Meanwhile, the home
where Sophia Coxe lived, on
Route 940 across from that
tract, once housed elderly
women who came for visits
on the recommendation of
social agencies and organizations.
The building is now home
to the Sophia Coxe Memorial
Foundation and Education
Center, which offers tours
and classes to preserve her
legacy.
This story is an updated
version of one that appeared
in Pages From the Past, the
Standard-Speakers 125th
anniversary edition, in 1991.
Retired managing editor Carl
Christopher compiled most of
the information.
11:39 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Then&Now
Times-Shamrock
continues family
tradition of progress
Fireworks
shower over
the Scranton
Times-Tribune
building in
Scranton.
Company has 15 publications, 10 radio stations

Behind the success of
todays Times-Shamrock
Communications is over a
century of family tradition
a tradition of progress
born of a man who combined his love of journalism
with his exceptional foresight to build the solid foundation of todays media company.
In 1895, E.J. Lynett, who
had blackened his hands as
a breaker boy in the coal
mines of Northeastern
Pennsylvania, put aside early ambitions of law and politics to purchase a 3,200-circulation, two-cent afternoon
publication.
Challenging a history of
six unsuccessful owners
since the papers birth in
1870, and battling several
other established publications, he earned the respect
of journalism professionals
across the state. Through his
efforts, the newspaper
became the third-largest daily in Pennsylvania, and he
would be one of the first
inductees in the Pennsylvania Newspaper Hall of
Fame.
To ensure that his standards of excellence would
not be lost in future generations, E.J. Lynett personally
schooled his children in the
business and profession.
When he died in 1943, William R., Edward J. and Elizabeth R. Lynett took the helm
of what would become the
Times-Shamrock flagship.
Under Edward J. Lynetts
guidance as publisher, The
Scranton Times earned
national recognition with a
1945 Pulitzer Prize.
Edward J. Lynett guaranteed continued progress by
creating the blueprint for a
Sunday newspaper worthy
of The Times name. He died
shortly before the first edition of The Sunday Times
rolled off the presses in 1966.
His children were determined that The Sunday
Times would thrive.
In fact, Edward J., George
V. and William R. Lynett and
their sister, Cecelia L. Haggerty, have made todays
Sunday Times the best-read
newspaper in Northeastern
Pennsylvania.
The success of The Sunday Times heralded a new
era of growth and progress
at The Times. The afternoon
paper that once had a circulation of less than 4,000
became the cornerstone of
Times-Shamrock Communications.
From 1891 to 1990, The
Times strongest daily com-
The Voice was founded in

October 1978 by newspaper
employees in Wilkes-Barre
who sought working conditions better than those
offered at the Wilkes-Barre
Publishing Co. The newspaper was sold by its employee
shareholder-owners to The
Scranton Times on May 1,
2000.
The Pottsville newspaper,
founded
in 1884, serves
petition had been the morning
Schuylkill County and surScranton Tribune. When it
rounding areas. In 1979, the
and its Sunday paper The
paper was awarded the PulitScrantonian ceased publicazer Price for an investigative
tion, The Times purchased
series. It was purchased by
their nameplates and continTimes-Shamrock in 2003 and
ued the morning paper, servmade the move from an aftering readers who were accusnoon
newspaper to a morntomed to a two-newspaper city.
ing edition a year later.
The publishers devotion
The companys present
to progress and the needs of
CEOs,
representing the
the community became evifourth generation of the
dent on June 27, 2005, when
after more than 250 years of Lynett-Haggerty family, are
combined service recording Robert J. Lynett, George V.
Lynett Jr. and Matthew E.
the life and times of the
region, Scrantons two news- Haggerty.
Today, the broad-based
papers became one The
media company has 15 print
Times-Tribune. The transipublications in Northeasttion to a single morning
ern Pennsylvania, more
newspaper came after an
than 10 radio stations in four
investment of more than $6
markets, numerous websites
million in newsroom and
and a billboard company.
printing plant technology
Times-Shamrocks four
and equipment.
In addition to The Times- daily newspapers have a
combined total weekly audiTribune and the StandardSpeaker, which Times-Sham- ence of 493,785, and its publirock purchased May 1, 2007, cations and radio stations
the company owns The Citi- reach more than 1 million
zens Voice of Wilkes-Barre Northeastern Pennsylvania
and the Republican and Her- readers/listeners each
month.
ald of Pottsville.
Goulds Supermarket
- Since 19711,
we arre on
nly 105 yea s
beh
hi d ya!!
W shing you
u an
nott err
1500!
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Child The
Best
Congratulations
Standard-Speaker on 150
0
Best Wishes!
Phone: 570-788-1176
ear !
Pre K through 8th grades - Christ Centered with Academic Excellence Accelerated Programs for grades 6-7-8 - Smartboards in every classroom Edline an interactive Parent/Teacher Communications
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CONGRATULATIONS
STANDARD-SPEAKER
Hats off to 150 years of chronicling
life in the Hazleton region.
669 State Route 93,

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Y3
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12:15 | SOCHAED
Where weve been
Then&Now
Civil War effort
Stories of local
soldiers endure
The Civil War took a
heavy toll on volunteers
from Hazleton,which, like
small towns throughout the
country, had no shortage of
local heroes.
While the number of casualties from the Hazleton area
is not known, some stories
of bravery by coal region soldiers survive.
There werent many volunteers who escaped the war
unscathed.
Disease claimed more
lives than battlefield wounds.
Amputation was the usual
treatment for serious arm
and leg injuries, while soldiers with less severe injuries often were patched up
and returned to duty.
Hazletonian J.M. Knox fell
into the latter category. After
suffering a severe arm
wound at the Battle of Gettysburg, Knox was discharged and returned home
to work as a clerk for the
Pardee Coal Co. He went on
to operate a produce and grocery business in Hazleton.
Also among the 23,000
Union casualties at Gettysburg was John Shugard, a
Hazleton shoemaker, who,
like Knox, was wounded in
the arm. Less than a year
earlier, Shugard had received
an ugly bayonet thrust to the
left leg while serving with
Ario Pardee Jr.s company at
Antietam Creek, Maryland,
on Sept. 17, 1862, the bloodiest day of the war.
Several Hazleton area residents were taken prisoner
during the war between the
states. One was Charles H.
Knelly, proprietor of the
Conyngham Steam Planing
Mill, who fought at Chancellorsville, was wounded at
Gettysburg and accompanied Gen. William Sherman
on his famous march to the
sea.
Knelly was captured by
the Confederates at Little
Black River, North Carolina,
and was exchanged 11 days
later at Libby Prison.
Not so lucky was William
Schutter, who along with his
brother, John, played with
the Hazleton Liberty Band
during the war.
Johns grandson, the late
Charles Schutter of Hazleton, said in an interview that

his grandfather returned
home after his enlistment
ended.
Brother William, however,
re-enlisted and was taken
prisoner by the Confederates. He succumbed to starvation at the infamous
Andersonville prison in
Georgia, where some 12,000
Union soldiers died.
George Seiwell, who grew
up in the Tomhicken Valley
and later served as a foreman for the Lehigh Valley
Railroad, fought at Bull Run
and Antietam before being
taken prisoner at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in December
1862. He apparently
remained a prisoner for the
remainder of the war.
Dr. W. R. Longshore, a
prominent Hazleton surgeon
whose parents both were
descendents of Revolutionary families, tended to the
wounded at some of the
wars bloodiest campaigns.
The Beaver Meadows native
enlisted as a first lieutenant
and assistant surgeon in
Pardees 147th Regiment at
the outbreak of fighting.
He was promoted to major
and surgeon in 1863 and he
served at the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Longshore was
acting brigade surgeon during Shermans march to
Atlanta.
When he reached Gouldsborough, N.C., while accompanying Sherman through
the Carolinas near the end
of the war, Longshore
obtained a leave in order to
go home and get married. He
reached Philadelphia on
April 14, just a few hours
before John Wilkes Booth
shot President Abraham
Lincoln in Washington.
Longshore continued on to
Hazleton and on April 25
married M.A. Carter, daughter of Beaver Meadows coal
operator William Carter.
Twelve days later he was
back in the Army.
Some of Pardees troops
were lucky enough to escape
serious injury. One of them,
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Pardee Field on Culps Hill in Gettysburg National Military Park is named for Ario Pardee Jr., the son of Hazletons
founding father Ario Pardee and a captain of the Civil War regiment from Hazleton.
Founder rallied Hazleton to cause
Although it was just a

small town of about 4,000
people in 1860, Hazleton did
its share for the Union cause
during the nations bloodiest
conflict.
Hazletonians fought at
some of the worst battles of
the Civil War at Antietam
and Chancellorsville, at Gettysburg and Lookout Mountain. Anthracite miners from
Schuylkill County tunneled
under rebel troops and blew
a huge hole in the Confederate line in an ill-fated battle
at Petersburg, Virginia. And
John Gliems Band, now the
Hazleton Liberty Band,
played patriotic music at
Lees formal surrender at
Appomattox in 1865.
The 800 or so troops from
Hazleton included some of
the towns poorest and
wealthiest residents.
It was, in fact, Ario Pardee
himself who in 1861 recruited 100 men and established
Company A of the 28th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers.
Pardee, considered by
many to be the founder of
See SOLDIERS,Y31 Hazleton, believed in the
cause. Early in 1861 he saw
Abraham Lincoln on one of
his frequent trips to Philadelphia and commented on the
presidents appearance.
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sons enlisted.
Calvin became a sergeant
with Company D, First Regiment of Pennsylvania, while
Ario Jr. became a captain
and headed the Pardee
Rifles, the company his
father had outfitted.
With demand across the
country so high that the government found it difficult to
keep supplies up, Ario Sr.
paid for everything Company D needed. He recruited
local women to make the
uniforms in the old Odd Fellows Hall. He also supplied
rifles, cooking utensils and
everything else the troops
required.
When it came time for the
company to head for Mauch
Chunk by train, the townspeople turned out to say
goodbye.
Thousands of people
came from all over the
region to see the soldiers
off, the Hazleton Sentinel
recalled in an article published June 18, 1913. Every
man was picked by Ario
Pardee Jr.
The train was destined for
Easton, but during a stopover at Mauch Chunk the
men heard that Col. John W.
Geary of Philadelphia was
looking for a company to
round out his new regiment.
The new soldiers camped
out on the Lehighton Fairgrounds until they were
summoned to Philadelphia.
They took up quarters in
Oxford Park until called to
the front soon afterward in
the hurry summons for
more troops to repel the
advances of the Confederates of Virginia, the Sentinel article said.
During the next three
years, the company contended with the unrelenting
bloodshed and the frustration of disease, desertion,
short rations and other problems.
Their first battle was at
Antietam in Sept. 1862. It

was a terrible day. A bloody
battle but won, Ario
Pardee wrote his father.
The Maryland battle
claimed the lives of four
members of Company A.
Thirteen others were wounded. Another Hazleton area
unit, Company N, lost five
men and 11 wounded, Pardee
reported. This is a sad list,
the younger Pardee wrote.
But it shows that Hazleton
corps stood up to their
words.
The 28th Regiment was
split up later that fall and
Pardee took command of the
147th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. Pardee and
other Hazleton area residents who were in the regiment fought in the battles of
Aquia Creek, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. A year
later, the 147th became part
of the Army of the Cumberland and fought in the Battle
of Lookout Mountain in Tennessee.
Pardee was promoted to
brigadier general for heroics
in the battle of Peach Tree
Creek in Georgia on July 1,
1864. As commander of the
First Brigade, Second Division, 20th Army Corps, he
accompanied Gen. William
Sherman on his famous
march from Atlanta to the
sea.
Pardee wasnt the only
Hazletonian to achieve high
rank in the service. James
Fitzpatrick reached the rank
of colonel, while another
Hazletonian was promoted
to major, six became captains and 11 lieutenants.
The involvement of the
Pardees and by extension,
other Hazleton area residents in the Civil War is
detailed in a limited edition
book published in 1971 by
Gertrude Keller Johnston, a
granddaughter of Ario Sr.
The book, And So it
Goes, is filled with the war-
N
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PRACT
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Hazleton
time letters of the Pardee

boys. Johnston writes that
Calvin was mustered out of
the Army after the end of his
90-day enlistment and then
re-enlisted as an officer in
the second company his
father supplied. He later left
the service after a bout with
typhoid fever.
Johnstons book also
includes letters written by
Isaiah and Boyd Robison,
younger brothers of Ario
Sr.s second wife, Anna.
Isaiah, who served as a
sergeant and then a lieutenant in Pardees company, was
killed at Peach Tree Creek,
the site of the battle that won
his nephew a promotion to
general. After leaving the
Army, Boyd worked as a
civilian clerk in the Quartermaster Department and was
captured by rebels late in the
war and taken to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia.
Anna Robison Pardees
family residents of
Bloomsburg made other
contributions to the union
cause, too. Two of her sisters, Jane and Bell, worked
as nurses and treated wounded soldiers in hospitals in the
Washington area. Bell later
volunteered as a nurse in the
field at Fredericksburg, Virginia, during the Wilderness
Campaign.
The 28th and 147th Regiments werent the only units
that counted Hazleton area
men among their members.
Some 56 Hazletonians joined
the Eighth Cavalry, while
members of the Hazleton
Liberty Band served with
the Army of the Potomac for
the wars duration and
played the Red, White and
Blue at Lees surrender.
It was during the surrender that the last shot of the
war was fired and it was shot
by the father of a former
Hazleton woman, according
to an account in the Golden
Jubilee Edition of The Plain
Speaker-Standard-Sentinel
in 1941.
As the Army of the
Potomacs cavalry was lined
up awaiting orders, a Confederate officer rode out from
the lines to challenge the
whole army, according to the
story. Capt. Andrew Lee,
father of Mrs. Charles B. Bittenbender of Hazleton, rode
out into the open and finished the stubborn rebel
with a pistol shot while Lee
was surrendering his sword
to Grant.
Soldiers from the coal
fields also were responsible
for one of the wars strangest
attacks the Battle of the
Crater at Petersburg, Virginia.
Members of the 48th Regi-
See RALLIED,Y31
12:38 | BAIRDATHLE
Standard-Speaker
Y31
Where weve been
Then&Now
Tragic cave-in among papers first big stories

Stockton Mine Disaster of 1869 killed at least 10, made headlines in new Hazleton Sentinel
By ED SOCHA
legs. Conahan had ropes

placed on the timbers and
had men on the surface haul
The Suez Canal was barethem up, freeing the teenly a month old.
ager. She was pulled to the
In the nations capital, sessurface with ropes just
sions were canceled by a
before the fire reached the
drenching rain.
area where she was trapped.
And in the South, debate
The flames threatened the
raged over Reconstruction
Stockton mines and the
and politicians attempts to
Stockton Hotel, which was
fill a hole ripped in the
near the subsidence. Other
Union by a war that ended
houses near the chasm
four years earlier.
escaped both the cave-in and
But another hole was the
the flames.
top news of the day
Church bells rang a warnamong the first big local stoing, and men from Hazleton,
ries for the three-year-old
then a borough for 13 years,
Hazleton Sentinel.
came to the scene to help
Early on the morning of
fight the fire and aid in the
Dec. 18, 1869, the 1,200 resiSPECIAL TO THE STANDARD-SPEAKER rescue efforts.
dents of Stockton were
Two streams of water
A marker notes the site of the Stockton Mine Disaster on Dec. 18, 1869, when a
asleep. It was 4:30 a.m., and
were poured on the burning
mine-cave-in swallowed two homes and killed at least 10 people.
the constant barking of a
mass and the fire was not
dog woke Daniel Conahan.
Wetterau rushed back
members of the George
ently Georges older brothdeclared out until around 8
Conahan, a boarder in the into his home to wake his
Swank family, and four
er.
p.m.
home of Isaac and Margaret family, but was almost too
members of the Isaac Rough
Only one person survived.
There was a serious scare
Rough, dressed to go outside late.
family, were inside the first
Elizabeth Wetterau, Philabout 1:30 p.m. when another
and investigate.
The ground was moving
home that dropped into the
lips 16-year-old daughter, ran piece of ground east of the
Nursing a broken leg,
as he went into his house,
hole.
back into her home to
cave-in site gave way.
Conahan hobbled into the
but all got out. The Merish
The bodies of only four of retrieve a hat. Before she
Eventually, thousands
morning cold.
family, which lived in the
the victims were recovered,
could escape, the home
gathered at the scene, and
The ground beneath him other half of the double, also all members of the George
dropped part-way into the
metropolitan newspapers
was crumbling, and he
escaped unharmed.
Swank family. They included hole.
sent special writers.
watched two double houses
The crashing and rumMrs. Julian Swank, 42; her
Her screams were heard,
One of those papers,
tottering as the earth
bling ground woke neighdaughters, Rosanna, 16, and and men tried to rescue her
Frank Leslies Illustrated
dipped.
bors who ran from their
Ida, 2, and a son, George, 7.
using ropes and timbers. But Magazine, sent a reporter
A neighbor, Phillip Wetter- shaking homes. They ran to
The body of George
they found the girls legs
and artist for a story in its
au, heard the dog barking,
the spot and watched the
Swank, 50, was never recov- pinned beneath heavy timJan. 8, 1870 edition. The magtoo. He came outside and
Wetterau-Merish home folered. Others who perished
bers as fires burned near her. azine was a pioneer in the
with Conahan and a watchlow the Swank-Rough house were Isaac Rough, 30; Eliza- Rescuers talked about cutuse of woodcuts to publish
man from the Linderman
into the chasm.
beth Rough, 73; her 8-month ting her legs off instead of
pictures, and was among the
and Skeer Coal Co. watched
In all, at least 10 people
old granddaughter, Elizaletting her die in the fire.
worlds first in the technolothe bottom drop out of the
died in the cave-in.
beth; Margaret Rough, 31;
But one rescuer, Hugh B.
gy. It had a large readership
No. 1 Slope.
All of the victims, six
and William Swank, appar- Conahan, saved the girls
built on its coverage of the
StaffWriter
Rallied
Civil War.
Also, the cave-in was frontpage news for three or four
days in The New York Times.
The Times printed dispatches from Hazleton and Mauch
Chunk detailing the rescue
efforts.
All the publicity brought
criticism for the mine owners. The mine was not
mapped and villagers didnt
know how close it was to
their homes. Many believed
the cave-in came from mining too close to the surface.
Today, a tombstone marks
the spot of the cave-in.
In 1987, the Greater Hazleton Historical Society asked
the state to erect a historical
marker at the site but the
request was denied.
In 1992, an existing marker
at the site was refurbished as
part of the Eagle Scout project of Robert Boock, Hazleton.
More prominent to motorists along nearby Stockton
Mountain Road is a road
sign alerting them to the site.
The sign was found broken
and battered in June 2013,
but it was eventually
restored as a lasting reminder of the tragic event that
occurred there almost 150
years ago.
Soldiers

ment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, who hailed from
Schuylkill County, were dug
in with Ulysses S. Grants
Army of the Potomac opposite Robert E. Lees army
near Petersburg in the
spring of 1864.
Both sides had cut trenches into the Virginia field and
the Union forces were stymied in their effort to move
through Petersburg toward
the Confederate capital at
Richmond.
Lt. Col Henry Pleasants, a
mining engineer who was a
lieutenant colonel with the
48th, heard two of his men
talking about a possible
solution. We could blow
that damned fort out of
existence if we could run a
mine shaft under it, they
said.
Pleasants brought the plan
to the attention of his superiors and it eventually reached
Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside and Grant himself. With
Grants approval, the miners
began a top-secret project to
tunnel 512 feet to the Confederate position.
To cover the sounds of digging, the 48ths pickets fired
their rifles constantly. Even
most of the Union soldiers
were kept in the dark. One
time, a picket was surprised
when a ventilating pipe rose
up through the ground near
his post. He later told comrades around the campfire
that there was a lot of fellows under him doing something; he knew there was
cause he could hear em
talking.
When the three-week-long
project was finished July 23,
the miners began placing
8,000 pounds of powder that
was packed in 320 kegs. Early on the morning of July 30,
Pleasants lit the fuse. After
an hour passed with no
explosion, Lt. Jacob Douty
and Sgt. Henry Rees went
into the tunnel to find the

problem.
Finding that the flame had
gone out at a splice in the
fuse, they re-lit it and ran for
cover. The charge went off at
4:45 a.m.
There was a slight tremor of the earth for a second, said a Confederate
gunner who was at his post
near the fort. Then the
rocking as of an earthquake, and with a tremendous blast that rent the
sleeping hills beyond, a vast
column of earth and smoke
shoots upward to a great
height, its dark sides flashing out sparks of fire, hangs
poised for a moment in midair, and then hurtling downward with a roaring sound
showers of stones, broken
timbers and blackened
limbs, subsides the
gloomy pall of darkening
smoke flushing to angry
crimson as it floats away to
meet the morning sun.
The blast leveled the fort
and left a crater 30 feet deep
and 170 by 50 feet across. It
killed more than 270 soldiers.
Rather than finish off the
rebels with regiments of
black soldiers as planned,
Gen. George Meade delayed
for an hour before finally
sending in some white
troops under the leadership
of Gen. James Hewitt Ledlie,
considered by some the
worst general in the Union.
The soldiers surged forward, creating a logjam in
the center of the crater. That
enabled the Confederates to
pour in cannon shells and
create 4,000 Union casualties.
Christopher compiled most of
the information.
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John A. Lyman later to
become a popular conductor
on the Lehigh Valley Railroad served in some of
the wars bloodiest skirmishes and escaped with
just a slight wound at Atlanta.
First Lt. Andrew Lee, who
was born in Canada and
worked after the war for the
Pardee and J.C. Haydon coal
companies, was in the Army
for four years. He fought in
135 engagements, including,
according to one historian,
the last clash between North
and South.
The luckiest local hero
may well have been Capt.
Libor Winter, a native of
Germany who was living in
Mauch Chunk when the war
broke out. Winter moved to
Stockton in 1868, lived in
Hazleton for a while and
began operating a hotel and
restaurant in Freeland in
1882.
Winter drew plenty of fire
in the battles of Antietam,
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg
and Petersburg.
His first close call, however, came at Chancellorsville
in May 1863 when he was
knocked down by a load of
grape shot that hit his knapsack.
During the Wilderness
campaign in Virginia in the
spring of 1864, he found himself in the middle of a hail
of bullets. After the battle,
he counted 13 holes in his
uniform, made by at least
five bullets. One had penetrated his hat and the others
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passed through his doubledup coat and folds in his

pants.
At Chickahominy, Confederates shot off his haversack.
At Cold Harbor, a musket
ball went through his canteen.
Winter secured his status
as a hero at the bloody
Spotsylvania encounter
during the Wilderness campaign. He volunteered to
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Drums, Pa 18222
Soldiers, many of them Civil War veterans, perform drills as part of National Guard
duty in 1867, two years after the end of the war, in front of the Pardee, Markle & Grier
Bank at the southwest corner of Broad and Wyoming streets, where the Markle building stands today.
Get insurance with an

international
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Jeanette Wright
Principal Agent
Office 570-497-4099
Fax 570-521-5942
100 W. Broad Street,
Hazleton, PA 18201
(Suite 118)
serve as the officer on a

dangerous mission to bring
in two Confederate ammunition caissons under
heavy fire.
Twenty-five years later,
during a ceremony at Gettysburg, a speaker recalled the
deed. He did it well, the
speaker said.

Christopher compiled most
of the information.

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11:44 | GRECOTONY
Where weve been
Then&Now
Weatherly grew along

coals rail route to river
The borough of Weatherly,
which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2013, may owe its beginning
to two men said to have discovered
coal at two different locations 21
years apart.
In 1791, Philip Ginther supposedly stumbled onto a vein of anthracite on Sharp Mountain near Summit Hill generating coal-mining
interest in the northwest section of
what is now Carbon County. And
in 1812 Nathan Beach discovered
veins of coal protruding from the
surface near Beaver Meadows.
It was because of Beach that, in
1813, the mining of anthracite
began in earnest in the Beaver
Meadows area because blacksmiths along the Susquehanna and
Lehigh rivers impressed with
the amount of steady heat generated by coals burning embers
began accepting regular shipments
that were delivered by wagon
teams.
Meanwhile, the market was escalating in the Philadelphia area
where coal was bringing $8 a ton.
At this juncture in time, small
settlements began getting larger in
that locality and, in 1822, the first
school in the Weatherly area was
erected. It was built in Packer
Township near the home of Jacob
Hartz along what was known as
the Lehigh & Susquehanna Turnpike.
The turnpike actually a dirt
road hardly wide enough for two
wagons to pass had been com-
pleted in 1808. It provided a transportation link between the Lausanne Junction of the Nesquehoning Creek-Lehigh River and the
prosperous, booming town of
Catawissa on the Susquehanna
River.
The actual site of present-day
Weatherly originally was owned by
Benjamin Romig Sr. and Samuel S.
Barber, who possessed warranty
deeds to vast acreage.
They had purchased the land for
its valuable timber and, after the
majority of trees had been leveled,
they used the land for farming.
The first settlement was on the
Rogg tract of 400 acres located on
the west side of Black Creek (the
creek that also is known as Hazle
Creek).
Romig had constructed a saw
mill and house on the west side of
the creek (now the site of Dollar
General) and the settlement was
called Black Creek because of the
dark color of the water in the
stream.
The color came from the tannic
acids being emitted by hemlock
trees growing in abundance in
swamps above the town. (The
stream originally had been called
Hazle Creek because of the abundance of hazle nut trees that had
been growing along its banks.)
In 1826, Romig moved his family
to the settlement of Black Creek
where his son, John, was the first
person born. Meanwhile, his saw
mill prepared the wood for the con-
struction of a schoolhouse that

was built at Hartz (now Hudsondale).
Another family the Schecklers moved into the area around
this time and began living in a
house on the east side of the creek
on the knoll (the monument
grounds). All of the men in the
family, which included numerous
boys, were engaged in lumbering.
In 1830, Romig built a larger
house on the lower side of his
home which he opened as a tavern.
Around this time, a charter was
granted for the construction of the
Beaver Meadow Railroad it was
known as Beaver Meadow back
then. Soon, surveyors and engineers were busy planning the best
route for a railroad which would
lead from the mines in Beaver
Meadow, through Weatherly, to a
point on the Lehigh River.
In 1831, a group of residents purchased an acre of land in the
Quakake Valley for $2 from John
Faust to build a church and a
school. A log structure was completed in 1834 and named St. Johns
Church. It was used until the late
1860s when a new wood-frame
structure was built on the same site
and called St. Matthews Church.
In 1835, Asa Packer purchased a
tract of land owned by Samuel Barber on the east side of Black Creek.
Meanwhile, Romig sold his 400
acres on the west side of Black
Creek to Beaver Meadow Railroad
Co. for $1 an acre and moved west
STANDARD-SPEAKER FILE PHOTO
The old Weatherly train station was saved and converted into
the borough hall.
to take up residence in Hartz.
The following year, John Smith
was sent to Black Creek by Packer
and took charge of clearing the
land, using a saw mill which had
been built about two miles below
the village. Smith also opened a
store on the site of what later was
Community News at 29 Wilbur St.
Still in 1836, the settlement of
Black Creek consisted of only a
few small houses until the Beaver
Meadow Railroad was completed to
this juncture.
However, a problem occurred
because engines had difficulty
negotiating the heavy grade. It consequently was decided to construct
a pair of inclined planes, each
about a half-mile in length, making
Black Creek the stopping point for
the engines that were transporting
coal to wharves at the Lehigh
Canal at Mauch Chunk and Parryville.
The railroad continued from the
head of the planes to Beaver Meadow where the company had its coal
mines, foundry and machine
shops.
In 1837, William Tubbs opened a
tavern but in 1843 it was sold to

Charles Gilbert, who renamed it
the Gilbert House. The tavern
existed until 1885 when J. H.
Stofflet, then its owner, tore it down
and constructed a much larger
structure. In 1923, then-owner
Frank Romano renamed it the New
American Hotel.
In 1838, Ario Pardee, who had
surveyed and constructed the Beaver Meadow Railroad, began construction of the Hazleton Railroad
and reached Black Creek, where it
connected with the Beaver Meadow RR. The Hazleton RR had trackage rights over Beaver Meadow RR
to the companys wharves in Penn
Haven.
This was a very important development because it gave the settlement of Black Creek a permanent
status, as clearly attested by Weatherlys longevity as a borough.
1991. Retired staff writer Ed Conrad
compiled the information and wrote
the article.
Hub
The beginning of the community as a centerpiece of
regional history really began
in 1813, a year after Beach
found the coal deposits,
opened a mine called a
quarry in those days and
shipped his black diamonds to buyers over the
old Lehigh and Susquehanna Turnpike, as well as by
way of the Lehigh River.
As time marched on, the
Beaver Meadows Railroad
was chartered on April 7,
1830, with work beginning
three years later. It then
became known as the Beaver
Meadow Railroad and Coal
Co.
The land for the right-ofway, which ran from Beaver
Meadows to Penn Haven
Junction, was surveyed by
Canvas White, who built the
Erie Railroad, and future
Hazleton pioneer coal operator Ario Pardee.
Pardee served as the first
superintendent of the railroad after it was completed
in 1836, staying with the
company until 1838 when he
left to form the firm of Pardee, Miner and Hunt, which
subsequently evolved into A.
Pardee & Co., in Hazleton.
An interesting part of the
railroad jargon of that era
was the coining of the word
Dinkey, a locomotive used
by the Beaver Meadow Railroad.
and friends.
Today a memorial to all its
military veterans stands in a
small park on Church Street,
just off Broad Street near the
fire station.
Town facts
Buses from the early 1900s show the link between the two important towns during our areas years of growth.
The buses are presumed to be owned by Horns Hazleton and Beaver Meadows Bus, which operated at the southwest corner of Broad and Pine streets in Hazleton.
Ruben Dinkey was the locomotive shop superintendent
at the time the engines were
built. The locomotives were
dubbed the Dinkey Model
in his honor a name used
well into the 20th century.
Dinkey was also the father
of Eurana Dinkey, who later
married millionaire steel
magnate Charles M. Schwab.
Mrs. Schwab, who called
Weatherly home, became a
benefactor to that community and her portrait, which
adorned the entranceway of
the old Weatherly High
School, now hangs in the current high school as a remem-
brance of her generosity.

It wasnt until 1896, however, that a move was made to
incorporate the mining community into a borough. That
movement which was
unsuccessful was headed
by J.M. Stauffer.
But the following year the
courts approved the petition
to incorporate and Stauffer
was elected to serve as the
first burgess (mayor).
The approval to become a
borough happened 110 years
after the land, known as St.
Anthonys Wilderness, was
deeded to Patrick and Mary
Keen in 1787. It later became
Congr
gratulations on 150
rvviice
Years of Serv
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the property of Beach.

Before that the area was
the home of a few trappers,
Indians and the animals they
hunted for food and clothing.
The Lehigh and Susquehanna Turnpike was opened
on what is now Broad Street,
with the trappers building
and living in log cabins, or
huts. A toll gate was built at
the bottom of the Spring
Mountain and tended by a
man known as Green, as well
as the first log house, which
went up in 1804.
The first known permanent resident of Beaver
Meadows was William Hart
Wilson, the son of Revolutionary War hero William H.
Wilson. In 1826, the younger
Wilson moved to the community from Sybertsville, building a log cabin on the site
where the present borough
building stands.
Wilson, it was said, could
see long lines of Indians
approaching the town from
where Tamaqua is now to
buy food.
James Lamison, who operated a tavern known as
McCloskeys, became the
towns second resident in 1831.
In 1833 Nathan R. Penrose
moved to the borough and
built a large home at the
eastern end of Beaver Meadows which became known as
the Cornishmens Home. It
was razed in 1910 and the
timbers used to build several
new homes.
In 1848 Penrose built a
foundry which was later sold.
Also in 1833, a large hotel
was built next to Wilsons
cabin. He managed the hotel
for many years.
The coal company built
another hotel, in 1840, with
27 rooms, across from the
former Bernies Variety

Mart. Many of the wealthy
people from Philadelphia,
among them the Coxe and
Pardee families, were summer residents of the hotel.
Other early businesses
included Carbon Countys
first brewery, operated by
Henry Brenckman, a German brewmaster who also
ran a tavern; a shoe factory
which was destroyed by fire
in 1880; a powder and saw
mill, and a firearms and
hardware store.
The borough post office
was opened in 1830, with Sarah McClean, daughter of
Wilson, serving as postmistress. The first school opened
in 1835, with Lydia Bidlack
and Thomas McCurley serving as teachers.
At the end of each school
year, the entire student body
and their teachers walked
from the school to McGees
Field on the road to Junedale
where they held their annual
end-of-term picnic.
Beaver Meadows also produced some fine athletes,
among them football players
Joe Andrejco, George
Cheverko, Joe Growley
Yackanicz and Joe
Zeleznock. Another fine area
athlete on the gridiron was
Mike Vukson, a college quarterback who listed his hometown as Beaver Meadows.
Baseball cards for one of
the areas few Major League
Baseball players, Norm
Larker, listed Beaver Meadows as his home.
As in all conflicts, Beaver
Meadows shed its share of
tears during World War II,
the Korean and Vietnam
wars, as many of its young
men marched off to war and
never came home to family
Some interesting facts

about Beaver Meadows, as
listed in its bicentennial
record:
During the coal strike of
1902 the National Guard was
called on to maintain order
in the borough, with troops
being quartered in the old
Cornish Block on Broad
Street.
The first one-room
schoolhouse was built on
Penrose Street, which was to
become the old Temperance
Hall.
Berwick Street got its
name because it went directly through to Berwick, with
nothing in between except
woodlands.
Tamaqua Street was
named for the same reason
it led directly to Tamaqua,
where townspeople went to
shop.
The south side of Berwick Street was called The
Brown Row, and was owned
by the A.S. Van Wickle Coal
Co. People living there worked
in the company mines in
Junedale or Coleraine, and
had to buy their food from the
company store, which now
houses the local post office.
There was once an iron
foundry servicing the needs
of the railroads.
Quakake Road was built
in 1907 to replace another
road which was considered
to be of poor construction.
There was a dairy in
town which was subsequently converted to apartments,
and a millinery shop for
women which was operated
by Grace Trevaskis. When
that closed, a barbershop
was opened and run by Cornelius Mahon.
Where Beaver Meadows
Auto Service Center now
stands there was a tall civic
center building where plays
and dances were held. It was
later turned into a silk mill
owned by Charles McGowan,
and still later a grocery store
operated by Nicholas Yackanicz Sr.
The late Bill Berry compiled
the information and wrote the
article.
12:19 | SOCHAED
Standard-Speaker
Y33
Where weve been
Then&Now
Lattimer massacre
Gunned-down
miners sparked
labor movement
Trouble began on a late
summer day in 1897 at the
Honeybrook Colliery, near
McAdoo.
Twenty driver boys
refused to obey an order
from Gomer Jones, division
superintendent of the
Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre
Coal Company, to stable their
mules. The boys refused to
work without extra pay.
Jones fired the driver
boys. In a short period of
time a strike was born that
would leave a permanent
mark on the face of labor
relations in Pennsylvanias
coal fields.
Though strikes were nothing new in Northeastern
Pennsylvania collieries, this
one was worse than most.
Miners from throughout the
area realized they were
being mistreated in return
for the strenuous labor they
performed.
News of the action soon
reached county Sheriff
James Martin, but he decided to take a vacation in
Atlantic City.
Not long after, Martin was
notified there was trouble
back home. He deputized 87
men, many of whom were
prominent people in the
community. They were told
to use whatever means necessary to quell the strikes
that had spread through the
area into the Cranberry
fields.
At the same time, strikers
were marching from company to company. Workers in
Harwood were told to leave
their jobs and join the effort.
The next target was Lattimer.
Martin, a former mine
foreman himself who was an

imposing 6 feet, 3 inches tall
and weighed more than 200
pounds, organized not only
deputies but also sheriffs
from Carbon and Schuylkill
counties. Jointly they issued
a proclamation banning mob
parades and demonstrations.
The sides had been drawn;
it soon became clear that
trouble imminent.
On Sept. 10, the commotion began. As many as 400
miners began marching
from Harwood, picking up
recruits in Crystal Ridge and
Cranberry. What became
known as the Lattimer Massacre was only a few hours
away.
would become known as District 7. The group soon presented its demands to the
office of Calvin Pardee, who
ran the Lattimer and Harwood mines.
These demands were:
raise wages 10 cents and
reduce powder from $2.75 to
$1.50 per keg, as well as the
elimination of the butcher
store and doctor. These
demands were rebuked.
John Fahy was called in
On Sept. 9, a Thursday
during the strike to help
night, the Harwood miners
organize the miners. Fahy
had a strong reputation as a met and discussed how to
union leader, and he encour- bring the Lattimer workers
over to their side. A decision
aged the men to join a new
union called the United Mine was reached to send a committee of 10 men to Lattimer
Workers of America.
to discuss the situation with
Though there were deep
workers there.
language differences
The next morning, the sun
between the mostly Polish,
blazed above as young boys
Slovak and Lithuanian
contemplated going swimimmigrants from AustriaHungary, Fahy was skilled at ming and their fathers
thought about marching. As
communication and perthe committee was about to
suaded them to join the
leave, someone suggested
UMWA at a cost of 25 cents
that the men of the town
each.
accompany the group.
The Harwood branch
You dare not go ahead.
This is against the law, Sheriff Martin said, warning the
marchers not to proceed into
West Hazleton.
Me no care, me go to Lattimer. Steve Yusko, a Polish miner who would pay
dearly for his stand against
the coal barons.
BURG COLLECTION, PENNSYLVANIA STATE ARCHIVES
Strikers on their way to Lattimer Mines on Sept. 10, 1897, the day of the massacre.
The march began.
The sheriff said if his life
or our own would seem in
danger, we were to use our
own judgment in the matter
of firing. A deputy testified at the trial of Sheriff
Martin and the others who
opened fire on the strikers.
After passing through
Crystal Ridge and Cranberry, the marchers, numbering
400, proceeded out of the
patch towns toward the West
Hazleton limits. Martin and
several deputies, waiting for
the marchers in a railroad
car behind a culm bank,
popped out and warned the
miners not to proceed.
At that time, Yusko made
his remark that the marchers were going to Lattimer.
Despite Martins warning,
Yusko kept walking. A deputy chased and grabbed Yusko. Another deputy came up
from behind and crashed the
butt of his rifle across Yus-
kos left arm, breaking it.

As miners grew angry
over the incident, Martin
displayed a proclamation
banning demonstrations.
The only thing that kept
the march going was West
Hazleton Chief of Police
Edward Jones, who criticized the deputies for their
behavior and said the strikers had a right to proceed
peacefully to Lattimer.
Before the confrontation
was finished, another striker
was arrested and deputy
Ario Pardee Platt tore a flag
from a marchers hands and
ripped it apart.
Jones showed the strikers
the way through West Hazleton, but told them to skirt
Hazleton.
The marchers proceeded
to Harleigh, another patch
town near Lattimer. The
sheriffs posse watched from
a hill in front of Farleys
Motel as the marchers decided to approach the No. 1
breaker.
As the strikers made a

right turn to the Lattimer
road, the posse stopped in
front of the first house in
Lattimer. The group formed
a horseshoe around the
house and called more deputies stationed at the No. 1 and
No. 3 breakers.
Shortly after 3 p.m., the
strikers and the posse met.
After the sheriff argued with
a few marchers, a shot went
off.
Cornelius Connie Burke,
who was 11 at the time, witnessed the massacre and
spoke of it in 1972: I ran to
see the excitement. When I
was on my way up the Main
Street, the shooting took
place. I was too far back to see
what actually happened, but
I could hear the sound of
gunfire.
When I got up there ... Oh
my God, the poor fellows were
lying across the trolley tracks
See LATTIMER,Y35
13 lost, 4 saved after 19 days below Jeanesville

Despite the dangers inherent in coal mining or, perhaps, because of them
miners have been known as
much for their humor as for
their courage and willingness to help others.
Through the many years
that anthracite fired the
economy of the Hazleton
area, those who risked their
lives daily to dig the black
diamonds also were known
to possess more than a bit of
showmanship.
Even the Jeanesville Mine
Disaster, which claimed 13
lives and still ranks as one of
the most spectacular rescues
in American mining history,
inspired an unexpected display of pathos, heroism,
humor and theatrics.
The accident set records
for the number of men
killed, the number brought
out alive, and the length of
their entombment.
The date was Feb. 4, 1891,
and the scene was the No. 1
slope operated by J.C. Haydon & Co., which had established Spring Mountain Coal
Co. in Jeanesville in 1864.
The slope was situated
between Sebastopol and
The Summit, two sections
of the small mining community.
On the eventful date, two
miners, Charles Boyle and
Patrick Coll, were removing
coal from a breast off the No.
10 gangway, a subterranean
slope that had been opened
up by a tunnel from the No. 1
slope.
What neither Boyle nor
Coll knew was that the massive pillar shown on mining
maps was, in reality, a thin
wall, and that behind the
barrier lie the much higher
No. 8 gangway, which had
been allowed to fill with
water after being abandoned
on June 1, 1886.
According to news
accounts at the time, the two
and John Nelms had beat

the rush of water and had
escaped earlier.
By the time Mitchell,
Boyle, Coll and Coyle
reached the surface, the
entire community was in
turmoil.
Relatives of missing men
crowded around the tipple,
rescue crews were being
organized and every available pump was pressed into
service to try to clear the
water from the mine.
The company, meanwhile,
had called in a deep sea diver
from New York, but he was
unsuccessful in attempts to
find the 17 trapped miners.
The suspense continued
for two agonizing weeks
until the water receded sufficiently to permit rescue
crews to enter the mine.
There the rescuers
trudged through deep water
FILE PHOTO and mud, threatened by carThe marker near the site of the Jeanesville Mine Disaster bon monoxide (black damp)
every step of the way.
miners dutifully planted
tion, remained behind to fire
By Feb. 23 the rescuers
their dynamite and, when
a dynamite charge. His deci- had recovered 13 bodies.
Boyle set off the blast at mid- sion cost him his life when,
Nine of the men had
morning, the barrier broke.
minutes later, he was caught drowned; the other four had
Suddenly a reservoir of
in the rampaging water.
been asphyxiated.
water gushed through the
With a single lamp, Coll
News accounts listed the
opening.
and Coyle made their way
dead with various name
Boyle, Coll and six other
back to Boyle. The trio
spellings, but the mine
miners reached safety the
climbed through a gap
inspectors report issued folsame day, but 17 men became described as barely large
lowing the incident identitrapped. Four of the trapped enough to admit their bodfied the drowning victims as:
men were found alive and
ies and headed toward a
Edward Gallagher, miner;
were rescued almost 20 days gangway on a higher level of Patrick Kelly, laborer; James
later.
the slope. Again their lamp
Ward, miner; Samuel Porter,
Boyle and Coll, left in
blew out and they were
laborer; Michael Polish,
darkness when a rush of air unable to reignite it with
laborer; Bernard McCloskey,
extinguished their lamps,
their wet matches.
miner; James Griffiths, botreportedly disregarded their
Their shouts, however,
tom man; Joseph Orsock,
own safety and set out to
attracted the attention of
laborer, and Thomas Geke,
warn their fellow miners.
John Mitchell, whose lamp
laborer. The suffocation vicWhile Boyle remained
beckoned from a higher loca- tims were identified as: Harbehind to keep watch, Coll
tion. Mitchell, thoroughly
ry Ball, miner; Lawrence
made his way in darkness to familiar with the mine work- Reed, miner; James Balock,
a nearby breast where
ings, led Boyle, Coll and
laborer, and Michael Smith,
Edward Gallagher and WilCoyle from the mine.
laborer.
liam Coyle were at work.
Four others who had been
Little hope existed for findCoyle dropped his tools,
in the mine at the time of the ing anyone alive, but the resbut Gallagher, not realizing
blast John E. Watkins,
cuers were determined to
the seriousness of the situa- Harry Gibbons, John Martin continue their search until
occurred. There they shared

every man was accounted
for.
their meager amount of
food, rationing a slice of
Then came what was
bread at a time and boiling
described in newspaper
water over a fire made from
reports as one of the most
a powder keg.
dramatic moments in the
None of the four had a
history of anthracite minwatch and for 19 days and
ing.
A party consisting of fore- eight hours they had lost all
man Joseph Kelshaw, inside track of time.
Fresh water was available
foreman William Hale, engineer James Stirling, a miner in an adjacent working, but
after the last food was gone
named Alex Morton and
the trapped men grew weakanother individual named
er until finally only MatusJames Neilson found what
cowitz had the strength to
looked like fresh footprints
crawl for the water.
in the mud.
Finally Matuscowitz also
Joined by inside superintendent Joseph MacFarlane could carry on no longer, and
the men were left without
Sr., who was directing the
rescue work, and by his aide, water for two days before
they were rescued.
Caleb Williams, general
Following the miracle
superintendent of the No. 1
slope, the encouraged rescu- rescue, theatrical agents
were quick to sign up the resers pushed on through the
cued miners.
gas-filled chambers.
But Matuscowitz, who
Suddenly Kelshaw heard a
groan that he later described lived in Hazleton and was
known as Big Joe,
as like a sound from a sepdeclined the offers of vaudeulchre.
ville bookings, saying he
Kelshaw shouted, Hello!
preferred to remain at home
Whos there?
with his family. God saved
From deep in a passageme for a different purpose,
way came a response. Me.
he said.
Joe Matuscowitz.
Big Joe lived for many
Rushing forward, the resyears after the mine disaster.
cuers found Matuscowitz
He took up carpentry and for
and three other survivors:
John Tomasuzsci, John Bar- a time operated a saloon
where, night after night, he
no and Wasil Frinko. All
were emaciated, too weak to recounted for his awed customers the days of horror
stand or talk, almost dead
that he and his fellow miners
from exhaustion and expohad endured.
sure.
Like Matuscowitz, Boyle
A doctor was summoned
also lived for many more
into the mine to administer
stimulants and nourishment years. News reports said his
buddies jokingly gave him
before the four survivors
the nickname of Charley,
were taken to the surface
Tap the Water.
and to a makeshift hospital
in the Sons of Temperance
Hall in Jeanesville.
Later reports indicated
that Matuscowitzs leaderStandard-Speakers 125th
ship had kept his compananniversary edition, in 1991.
ions alive.
According to accounts, the The late Bob Salitza, a staff
four miners had hurried to a writer, compiled most of the
information.
high spot when the flood
12:16 | SOCHAED
Where weve been
Then&Now
Kelayres Massacre
Election-eve slayings turned state, national races

By JIM DINO
StaffWriter
It started as an innocent
election-eve victory parade
in the tiny mining village of
Kelayres.
But before the night would
end, however, three people
were dead, two others were
mortally wounded, more
than 20 others were injured,
and 13 people were held on
murder charges or as material witnesses.
What happened on the evening of Nov. 5, 1934, one of
the more infamous dates in
Hazleton area history,
became known as the
Kelayres Massacre. The
event would propel underdog
political candidates into
state and national office in
the next days elections.
Kelayres, like the rest of
the nation, was in the midst
of the Great Depression in
1934. Republicans held political power on the state and
local level but the local Democratic Party was undaunted.
The night before the Nov. 6
general election, Kline Townships Democratic Party held
an outdoor rally at the western end of Centre Street. Several hundred people gathered
from all over the township to
sing political songs and cheer
for the states Democratic
gubernatorial candidate,
George H. Earle, and Joseph
F. Guffey, who was running
for the U.S. Senate.
Even though the Republicans were expected to sweep
state elections, the Democrats were not discouraged.
To show their confidence,
the rally-goers gathered as
many cars and people as
they could to hold a pre-election victory parade.
Carl Vacante, a local barber, and Joseph Cara led the

procession carrying an
American flag. They were
followed by school children,
cars, a band that had been
hastily put together, and the
marchers.
The Republicans tried to
have a parade the week
before, but could only muster
a few cars and marchers.
On a bus ride from Hazleton, Nellie Gigliotti, a
Kelayres resident and her
friends were told the Democrats should not hold a
parade because some people would get hurt.
Ignoring the warning, the
parade filed down Centre
Street to its intersection with
Fourth Street.
There, across the street
from the Immaculate Conception Church, was the
home of Kelayres highranking political leader, justice of the peace and County
Detective Joseph Bruno.
At 9:10 p.m., approximately
800 Democrats gathered outside the Bruno home, and
began chanting and singing.
Inside the darkened, two-story brick home, some Republican party members were having a meeting of their own.
Someone appeared on the
porch and said Oh, you crazy
people, and went back inside.
Suddenly, shots rang out
from both sides of Fourth
Street. Three men fell from
the gunfire and several others ran to their aid.
More revelers fell wounded while others scurried for
cover.
Cara, still carrying the
American flag, stepped directly in front of the Bruno home
and waved the flag higher.
When the shooting ended, the
Authors Joe Farrell, left, and Joe Farley, a Hazleton native, stand in 2014 near the
grave of Joseph Bruno, a former Schuylkill County detective convicted of an armed assault on a group of unarmed paraders on Election Eve, Nov. 5, 1934, in an incident that
became known as the Kelayres Massacre.
flag was ripped by bullets, but
Cara was not injured.
The gunfire left the streets
red with blood and riddled
with bullets. Stunned, the
paraders began to realize
what had happened. The
shots apparently came from
Brunos home and from a
home on the other side of
the street owned by Joseph
Brunos nephew, Paul Bruno.
When the smoke cleared,
Frank Fiorella, 65, of
Kelayres, lay dead. Ironically,
Fiorella was not taking part
in the parade; he was watching from the front porch of
his daughters home.
Also dead were Joseph
Galosky, 30, of McAdoo, who
had run to Fiorellas aid, and
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William Forke, 37, of Silverbrook, who was gunned

down as he fled.
Two other victims would
not recover. Both Andrew
Kostishion, 36 of Lofty, and
Dominick Perna, 37, of
Kelayres, were taken to
Hazleton State Hospital.
Kostishion would die on
Election Day, the following
day, and Perna a day later.
At least 14 others were
injured badly enough to
require medical attention,
and were taken from the
massacre site in ambulances
or by friends.
By the time police arrived
from Hazleton, Tamaqua and
Reading, the Democrats had
turned from a festive crowd
to an angry mob.
State troopers had to control them as they threatened
to dymanite the Bruno home
and tar and feather its occupants, and shouted for police
to turn over Bruno so we
can do him justice, and
save the county the expense
of a trial.
State police set up temporary headquarters in the
Bruno home and in the
church across the street.
They interviewed the 14 people inside the Bruno home at
the time of the massacre.
The 14, who had retreated
to the second floor of the
home when paraders started
to stone the first-fllor windows, were: Bruno; his wife
Cecilia; daughter Elveda;
sons James and Alfred; Philip Bruno, Josephs brother,
who was a coal and iron
policeman; Philips son,
Arthur; Josephs nephew
Paul, and his wife Lucy who
owned the home across the
street from which some of
the gunfire came; school
teachers Eva Socker, Cecilia
Straka and Julia Stratchko;
Alexander Socker, Evas
father, and Peter Russo, a bus
driver.
They all denied knowing
where the shots came from.
They said they had been
fired upon from outside. Yet,
when police searched the
residence, they discovered
an arsenal of weapons
including: a pump gun, a
shotgun, three double-barreled shotguns, three highpowered repeating rifles,
three automatic pistols,
three revolvers, a bureau
and dresser drawers filled
with boxes of ammunition.
Alexander Socker was
released after police decided
he was not involved in the
incident. As the remaining 13
were escorted to waiting cars,
the crowd cried, Kill him!
Dont make him a king!
They were all taken to the
Schuylkill County jail in
Pottsville, either on suspicion or murder or as material witnesses.
On Nov. 8, Joseph, Philip,
Arthur, Alfred and James
Bruno were arraigned before
Alderman Robert Kalbach in
Pottsville.
Detectives and sheriffs

filled the small office, while
the streets outside brimmed
with Kline Township residents waiting to hear news
of the case.
Witnesses, including some
of those inside the Bruno
home the night of the massacre, testified to the events of
the slayings.
Lawyers sought not only
to prove the five men died as
a result of bullets fired on
Nov. 5, but to connect the
deaths with the defendants.
Back in Kelayres that
morning, seven state troopers were stationed to await
any violent outbreaks or
demonstrations. But the
town was quiet.
The five were eventually
convicted on 110 charges, and
the others were released.
Joseph Bruno would get three
life sentences, while the others got sentences ranging
from 20 years to life in prison.
One report from the massacre said Anthony Orlando,
Brunos son-in-law, as firing
on the crowd from outside
the Bruno home.
The report says he
received a sentence for the
charges also.
The front page of The
New York Times spread the
story to people across the
country. Horrified by the
news, Americans poured
messages into Kelayres from
several states, expressing
outrage over the killings.
As the residents of the village slowly recounted what
had happened the night
before, no one was in a hurry
to go to the polls. Kelayres
voters straggled to the polls a
half-hour late as the nation
watched.
A grief-stricken daughter
and niece of Frank Fiorella,
the first to be slain, had to be
carried to the polls because
of injuries from the massacre, but insisted on voting.
Republican-controlled
Kelayres voted overwhelmingly Democratic only 24
of the 707 ballots cast were
GOP.
Earle went to the governors mansion, the first Democrat in 30 years. Guffey
defeated incumbent GOP U.S.
Senator David Reed, marking
the first time since the Civil
War the state had a Democratic senator in Washington.
On Nov. 9, the cloudy, gray
sky reflected the somber
mood of the local people as
they went to the funerals. A
mass service was held for the
slain marchers. Stores, collieries, a post office and
schools were closed as people
gathered to mourn the five.
Individual prayers and
funeral services were held at
three different churches
Immaculate Conception,
which was right in front of
the massacre scene, and St.
Marys and St. Michaels
Greek Catholic churches in
McAdoo.
Some 20,000 people lined
the parade route crying,

praying and cursing the election eve massacre. The five
processions merged at the
intersection of Tamaqua
Street (now Kennedy Drive)
and Blaine Street in McAdoo. The funeral corteges
proceeded south on Tamaqua Street, and then separated again to go to different
cemeteries.
At 1 p.m., hundreds gathered at the center of McAdoo
to hear Gov.-elect Earle, State
Democratic Chairman David
Lawrence, who would
become governor some 20
years later, and Sen.-Elect
Guffey to speak about the
massacre. The three, who
attended the funerals, were
honorary pallbearers.
Camera crews from the
Gus Lalli photography studio
in Hazleton captured most of
the funerals on 16-millimeter
film. Neil Umbriac, who
worked for Lalli at the time,
said the footage was taken on
Friday and Saturday mornings and was shown at the
Palace Theater on Tamaqua
Street in McAdoo.
The theater suspended its
regular feature, and thousands of people waited to see
the film. The theater asked
Lalli to show the film again
and again on Sunday afternoon and evening to accommodate the long lines.
Movies that were scheduled to be shown The
Defense Rests starring Jack
Holt, and Sentenced to Die,
starring Buck Jones, were of
less interest than what the
theater had on its marquee,
On the streets yesterday
on our screen today. Only at
the Palace.
Joseph Bruno was jailed
on murderers row at the
Schuylkill County jail in
Pottsville. He was quite popular with guards and other
prisoners.
On Dec. 16, 1936 a little
more than two years after
being jailed Bruno complained of a sore tooth. Prison guard Guy Irving drove
Bruno to a dentist in Pottsville, but could not find a
parking place near the dentists office. He told Bruno to
hop out, and agreed to meet
him at the office once he
found a parking space.
After riding out for an hour,
Irving finally found a parking
place, but did not find Bruno
at the dentists office.
Irving called the jail, to see
if Bruno went back. He did
not, and trusting Bruno the
way they did, gave him six
hours before reporting him
missing to police.
One report said Bruno
had somehow received
$32,500 from an unknown
source just before leaving jail
for the dentist.
A nine-month manhunt
then ensued, with Bruno
confusing investigators by
sending and receiving mail
through untraceable, thirdparty sources.
Finally, on Aug. 22, 1937,
one man recognized a picture of the slightly heavier
man. His hair had grayed,
and he had changed from
shell-rimmed to rimless
glasses, but police had finally
caught up with him.
Bruno had been living for
several months in a 5-a-week
room on E. 75th St. near
Third Avenue in New York
City. Neighbors knew him as
Frank Miller, a retired businessman who liked to read.
At first, he denied his
identity, but then finally confessed, saying I wasnt content being a hunted man.
He was taken back to prison, where he spent 10 years
before being paroled. When
he was finally released, he
spent his last few years at
home before dying of natural causes.
12:40 | KATCHURMAR
Standard-Speaker
Y35
Where weve been
Then&Now
Hazle Township is patchwork of patchtowns

By KENT JACKSON
tors, bankers and a Civil War officer. Shortly after the massacre in
Lattimer in 1897, a national magaHazle Township consists of vilzine sent to Pardeesville a reporter,
lages that grew around coal mines, who found un-sewered homes hamwhich began soon after the foundmered together of scraps. Some
ing of the township in 1839 in
were small as kennels.
Luzerne County.
In the century after that, the peoThe countys name comes from
ple of Pardeesville built larger
the Chevalier de la Luzerne, a French homes, installed sewers and operatambassador who guaranteed a loan
ed a water company, which the
to supply American troops during
Hazleton City Authority took over.
the Revolutionary War.
Catholics built St. Nazarius Roman
Hazle Township took its name
Catholic Church, which moved to its
from the Hazle Swamp or Hazle
current location along Pardeesville
Creek that flows across the land.
Road in 1947 and closed in 2009. The
History suggests that a clerk in
church next became a fitness club.
Harrisburg transposed the L and
A building that once housed a
E in Hazle and Hazleton, the city dance hall called the Green Lantern
that the township encircles. Both
still stands, and the Pardeesville
have different spellings than the
Recreation Association maintains
hazel tree and the hazelnuts that
the villages playground and has
grew along the creek. But Hazleton hosted a Halloween haunted trail
wasnt incorporated by the state
there every October for 18 years.
Legislature until 1851, whereas the
Stockton Commodore Robareas first coal company was
ert Stockton, a U.S. naval officer,
spelled Hazleton in 1830.
gives his name to the village and to
Villages within Hazle Township a city in California, where he led
grew around patches where coal
American forces during the Mexiwas mined so they sometimes are
can-American War that ended in
called patch towns.
1848. A voluntary military unit
Some took the names of the first from Jim Thorpe called the Stockmine owners. Today a few of the
ton Artillerists organized years
village names evoke memories of
before the Mexican-American War,
tragedies that occurred there,
which it fought in as part of the 2nd
while other names vanished from
Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment.
disuse or disappeared with the
Stockton village formed in 1850.
towns into the strip mines.
Other patch towns in Hazle TownThey include:
ship also were called Stockton, but
Pardeesville Once called
distinguished by the numeral of
Lattimer No. 2, Pardeesville takes
the coal workings or breaker that
the surname of Ario Pardee, who
the homes grew around such as
came to Hazleton to survey a railStockton No. 7.
way into Beaver Meadows and
In Stockton No. 8, a 14-year-old
opened his own coal company. His
boy, Tim Visgaitis, died when hit by
descendants include mine operaa car while riding his skateboard
StaffWriter
on the evening of May 7, 1997. The

driver of the car that struck him
has never been identified.
Hazleton City Authority last year
received a state grant to extend its
water system to Stockton No. 6 and
No. 8, after the state Department of
Environmental Protection.
Drifton Ground subsiding
beneath homes here didnt kill anyone, but a collapse damaged two
homes in Drifton Estates in 2008. A
home insured against mine subsidence was demolished, but the other
home wasnt insured and the owners repaired it. The subsidence also
damaged part of Route 940.
Founded in 1865, Drifton was the
site of the Hazleton areas first hospital, built in 1882 to treat injured
and ailing coal miners by the Coxe
brothers, who operated the mines.
One of the brothers, Eckley B.
Coxe, ran machines shops where
workers made and repaired mining
equipment. Thomas Alva Edison
visited Drifton to see the shops.
The home of Eckley Coxe and
his wife, Sophia, still stands, as
does St. Pauls Episcopal Church,
which they built in 1860. They
established MMI Preparatory
School for miners and mechanics
in Freeland in 1879.
In 1880, Drifton had about 1,000
residents, one hotel, three churches
and an opera house built by the
Coxe Brothers for their employees.
The town also had a railroad depot
and a Grand Army of the Republic
Post named for Civil War Maj.
Charles S. Coxe.
Eckley Coxe also gives his name
to New Coxeville, a Hazle Township
village on the edge of Carbon County, and the village of Coxeville in
Banks Township, Carbon County.

A separate village known as
Drifton No. 2 was cleared out in the
late 1920s and early 1930s when the
Jeddo-Highland Co. feared the
ground might swallow homes as
strip mining operations neared.
Some of the families moved to a
new village with the fresh name of
Youngstown.
Japan Jeddo Coal baron
George B. Markle named two patch
towns after being inspired by the 1853
and 1854 voyages of Commodore
Matthew Perry into Yedo Bay that
opened Japan to trade with the United States through a treaty in 1856.
The G.B. Markle Co. started producing coal in 1858 and might have
altered the spelling from Yedo to
Jeddo because of an employee who
was named Jed.
Markles firm became the JeddoHighland Coal Co. It built and operated towering coal breakers or
processing plants that Markle
invented. By 1880, Japan had 400
residents, a store and a school.
In 1890, Markles son, John, an
engineer, and one-time Hazleton
Burgess Thomas McNair started
building the Jeddo Tunnel to drain
water from mines throughout the
Hazleton area. The tunnel was considered a marvel of engineering
when finished in 1895, but now pollutes Nescopeck Creek. It is among
the largest source of acid mine
drainage in the nation, according
information presented last year for a
conference at Penn State Hazleton.
In 1964, Jeddo-Highland Coal Co.
sold to Pagnotti Enterprises, which
continues to strip mine coal in the
township.
The Jeddo Stars Athletic Associa-
tion once fielded a baseball team but

still maintains a field and clubhouse.
Meanwhile, a separate Jeddo
borough was founded in 1871 from
parts of Hazle and Foster townships. It is about two miles east of
the Stars clubhouse. By 1880, Jeddo borough had a population of
350, which supported two playgrounds and a boarding house. A
dance hall called the Jeddo Casino
opened in 1915. Now Jeddo borough
is the smallest municipality in
Luzerne County with 98 residents,
according to the 2010 Census.
Harleigh The name comes
from Harlech Castle in Wales. The
Hazle Township village had 600 people as of 1880, plus two stores, a
Sons of Mercy School and two taverns. James McKee was superintendent of the mines operated by
McNair and Co., which then
employed 70 men underground and
76 above ground. The Black Creek
flooded the mines in 1886, providing
incentive for Markle and McNair to
start planning the Jeddo Tunnel.
Later in Harleigh, the JeddoHighland Coal Co. built the towering No. 7 breaker. Also known as
the Harleigh breaker, the coal processing plant survived a fire and
remained in operation until 1996.
In 1966, the company bought a
huge dragline shovel to dig coal.
The shovel was 200 feet tall, held 85
cubic yards in its bucket and took
35 men nine months to assemble.
Harleigh has had a post office
since 1872. The current post office
is in a building where the Jeddo
Supply Co. once ran a store in front
of a baseball field.
kjackson@standardspeaker.com
Lattimer
the men were more comon the hillside. Some had died posed about their wounds,
and some were dying. Some
while others groaned loudly.
were crying for water.
Back in Lattimer, the
scene was chaos. One of the
The strikers dispersed in
great debates over the Latpanic. Some tried to make it timer Massacre was over
to a nearby school house, but whether Martin ever told the
one of them went down in
deputies to fire. The sheriff
the gunfire. Others in front
himself told two different
dropped as the bullets
stories.
pierced their backs.
He initially stated that he
Steve Urich, a Slovak
had no choice but to give the
immigrant carrying the
order to shoot, but later
American flag, was reported- recanted that he did not do
ly the first striker who died.
so.
My God, he said in SloIn the towns, citizens
vonian, according to an
seethed with hatred over the
account appearing in
way Martin and his deputies
Edward Pinkowskis booklet handled the situation;
Lattimer Massacre, That groups of men gathered on
is enough.
corners to decide what to do.
The ammunition in the
guns carried by Martin and
Then-Hazleton Mayor Jushis deputies was high-powtus Altmiller: All I can say is
ered and deadly. Some of the I call this shooting a butchery.
miners had bullets pass right I can see no excuse for the
through their bodies.
sheriffs people having shot
The reporters who
those men. There is no doubt
accompanied the expedition in my mind that the sheriff
gazed on the miniature batand the deputies lost their
tle from the rear. Such a
heads. Had they been cool,
scene of carnage they never calm and collected, had they
before beheld, read a report looked upon the situation
in the following days Plain
with care, this slaughter
Speaker. Men were mowed
would never have occurred
down like grass. They lay on and the name of our good city
the ground crying and help- would never have been
less.
besmirched as it is today.
The attack was brief, but
its toll was huge. By the time
News of the slaughter
it ended, 19 people had died
soon spread outside the
and at least twice as many
Hazleton area as Gov. Daniel
were seriously wounded. Six H. Hastings told Brig. Gen.
more men would die of gun- John P. Gobin, the head of
shot wounds.
the Pennsylvania National
Frantic calls went out for
Guard, to take five regiments
help. An ambulance came to to the town.
the scene. Hospitals eventuBut many of the strikers
ally were jammed with the
wanted to destroy the town.
dying miners.
Others were terrified,
though, and many men and
Burke: I know I picked up boys spent the night sleeping
a little can and carried some
in the mines.
water to one of the dying minStrikers looked for guns
ers. It was a terrible sight and and ransacked Gomer Jones
so much confusion existed.
home.
Everyone was running in all
Across the country, news
directions. They searched
spread of the attack and outsome of the men who were
rage grew. Reporters
shot and found they carried
streamed to this area to
no weapons. ... They simply
interview Martin and other
had joined the march feeling
participants and witnesses
that a large representation
of the massacre.
would be effective.
Speaking to a reporter for
the Philadelphia North
But the large representaAmerican, Martin said he
tion was no match for the
hated to give the command
bullets from the deputies.
to shoot and was awful sorry
Hazleton State Hospital soon that I was compelled to do so,
became a vivid example of
but I was there to do my
how savage the strikers had duty. Soon after, he recanted
been attacked.
the statement. He said he
Its 51 beds, 37 of which
never gave the order to
were filled already, werent
shoot.
enough to help the strikers
The day after the shooting,
who had been shot. Some of
warrants were sought
against Martin and 102 deputies.

Cries for justice permeated the region as much as the
bullets from Martin and his
deputies had the day before.
The Lattimer martyrs, as
they would become known,
would be avenged, the strikers swore.
collieries and eventually the

others had to return to work
on the same terms as before.
But there were still hopes
that justice would be carried
out against Sheriff Martin
and the deputies.
there were about 140 of them

told tales of how the miners were mistreated and how
the sheriff and his deputies
mauled the group of
unarmed strikers.
But it was in the closing
arguments from the opposing attorneys that cemented
the verdict. Palmer used his
to issue a scathing indictment against the Slavic people, drawing on the prejudices of the jurors.
author of The Guns of Lattimer.
In the years since the massacre, those who died have

been remembered annually
at Masses that have been
attended by labor leaders
The essential question is
from across the country. A
whether the degree of force
monument now sits at the
employed was, or was not,
site where the men gave
My boy is dead. My boy,
lawful. Secretary of State
their lives for what they
who was my only support. He John Sherman.
believed in.
Three books and countless
earned sometimes 75 cents a
news stories have been writday. He was a good boy. He
Sheriff Martin and 78
ten about the massacre.
took care of his poor widowed deputies were brought to
I expected all along to be
At a memorial service, Robmother. Now he is dead. The
the Luzerne County Court- acquitted. Sheriff Martin.
ert T. McIntyre, executive vice
dog of a sheriff and the dogs house in Wilkes-Barre on
president/COPE director of
of men killed him. They
Sept. 21, 11 days after warOn March 2, the verdict
the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO,
killed your people. Now the
rants were issued for their
was read not guilty.
said, Union people rememsoldiers are here to kill us, too. arrests, for a preliminary
The verdict ignited pasber the dead who fought like
We must not let them. We
hearing.
sions from both sides. Gov.
hell for the living.
must fight. We must avenge
The group pleaded not
Holt reviewed the trial,
Explaining the long-rangthe death of our people.
guilty and was released on
determining that the case
ing effects the event had on
The mother of John Futa, a
$6,000 bail, pending a hearwas handled properly.
labor, he said, People pulled
slain miner, speaking at his
ing before a grand jury. EvenRobert D. Coxe, an attorfuneral.
tually, the case would be sent ney representing the Austro- together and extended a
hand to each other ... the
to trial, which began Feb. 1,
Hungarian government,
wives, the children and
The next time the miners
1898 before Judge Stanley
however disagreed, saying:
friends of these people joined
would march would be in a
Woodward.
the trial resulted in a mistogether, began the organized
death procession.
For most of the miners
carriage of justice. Coxe
Thousands of people
who would be called to testi- argued that the jury was not labor movement and carried
on what their loved ones gave
would follow three caskets
fy, it would be their first look representative of the comtheir lives for.
buried in St. Josephs Ceme- at the American justice sysmunity, and that the Hazletery on the following Suntem, and it proved to be a
ton area was not in a state of
Seeking collective barday; another somber ceremo- grueling, heated, dramatic
public disorder, as the
gaining and civil liberty,
ny followed on Monday as 12 ordeal. Prejudice against Pol- defense claimed.
immigrant miners on strike
more victims would be burish and Slovak immigrants
In view of Coxes report,
were marching in protest
ied.
ran high, and was evidenced the Austro-Hungarian govfrom Harwood to Lattimer.
In the days that followed,
by those picked to serve on
ernment wanted indemnity
men with names like Brozthe jury.
for the families of the killed Here, on Sept. 10, 1897, they
were met by armed deputy
towski, Chrzeszeski, Czaja,
The prosecution chose the miners, but the U.S. governsheriffs. The ensuing affray
Skrep, Tomashontas and
case of Mike Cheslock as the ment flatly refused.
resulted in the death of more
Ziemba would be buried.
first it would prosecute
Some of their remains are
because he was well-known.
They suffered so we can be than twenty marchers.
Monument at the site of the
buried today in unmarked
Many of the witnesses had where we are today. What
Lattimer Massacre.
graves, while others were
to speak through interprethappened at Lattimer as the
put at St. Stanislaus cemeers as they were questioned
early immigrants tried to
tery, where their headstones by prominent defense lawmove their life in America
can still be viewed.
yers such as John T. Lenahcloser to their ideals was the
After the dead were buran, former state Sen. Clarbeginning of a wave that
ied, the labor strife continence W. Kline, and Henry W. achieved great things in
ued. The 1,500 employees
Palmer, the states former
labor. Michael Novak,
who worked at the Lattimer
attorney general under Gov.
Colliery quit in protest to the Henry Holt.
way the Harwood workers
John McGahren led the
were treated.
prosecution and said in his
More men left their jobs as opening address that the
Calvin Pardee was presented jurors were not to consider
with further demands from
race or creed, but rather the
the miners, all of which
duties and powers of a sherwere refused. Strike-breakiff.
ers went to work in several
Witness after witness
Froom
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11:41 | GRECOTONY
Where weve been
Then&Now
Miners tired of company homes formed McAdoo

By SAM GALSKI
the land for the new settlers

after discovering coal deposits beneath the company
They wanted a place of
homes.
their own to call home.
Present-day McAdoo
With help from a coal com- began as the small village
pany, they found it well over of Pleasant Hill and evolved
a century ago when Polish
over the years into a comimmigrants who worked in
munity named after former
the mines grew tired of livU.S. Sen. and Postmaster
ing in company houses at
General William G. McAHoney Brook and Audendoo.
ried.
Its earliest inhabitants
McAdoo borough was
arrived in 1880 from southborn when Lehigh and Wilern Poland. They settled on
kes-Barre Coal Co. set aside a land known as Skippers
tract of land in northern
Island in the eastern part of
Schuylkill County for
the community.
employees to build their own
Other locals emigrated to
homes.
McAdoo from a settlement
The coal company was
known as Slabtown, which
more than willing to develop was a mile north of McAdoo
StaffWriter
and east of Audenried.

Early settlers also developed lots along Tamaqua
Street, known today as Kennedy Drive.
McAdoo was incorporated
as a borough on July 10, 1896,
after residents banded
together to bring law and
order to a town that lacked
decorum.
A year prior to incorporation, the Hazleton Sentinel
published an eye-opening
account from an unidentified gentleman. In the
news article, the man
described chaotic times
while explaining why he felt
incorporation and the installation of local government
was imperative.
Congratulations!
Hayden Electric team...
The
congratulates the Standard-Speaker on its contributions

to Greater Hazleton over the past 150 years.
We need a borough government and we need it badly, the man told the Sentinel
on Oct. 31, 1895. Why, it
would be the forerunner to
the inauguration of a new
era. It would convert the
place from a degenerating
village into an active, progressive town. Here we are
with a population of nearly
3,000 people. Every man
takes a hand in the management of affairs.
The man told the newspaper that the town lacked
order and decorum.
Occasionally, the native
goes on the rampage, the
man continued. He is not
only endangering himself
but the people who happen
to come in contact with
him. Had we an appointed
officer, or burgess, this kind
of thing would find its limit.
At present there is no limit,
and at times riot runs rampant.
Then again, we have no
laws, no sanitation, no
streets, no paves, no sewers,
no lights. Why, the place is in
deplorable condition, viewing it from a sanitary standpoint.
A borough council would
solve many of the communitys problems and would lead
to the creation of a board of
health, he said.
Our people are progressive and enterprising, they
have been so long without
any system in town affairs,
however, that it may take a
little spurring to arouse
them from the lethargy into
which they have fallen.
Moving forward
570.455.6109
235 East Maple Street, Hazleton, PA 18201
www.haydenelectric.com
H I C # PA 0117 9 9
Congratulations
on
Early attempts to incorporate McAdoo as a borough

stalled, but a group of residents committed to the concept pursued it until it
became reality.
Organizers who supported

the movement to have the
town of Pleasant Hill, or
MacAdoo, incorporated
into a borough included T.A.
Kelley, John H. Bernard, Stephen A. Pare, Patrick McNelis, James J. Stapleton, Joseph
Gerendt, Stanley Anilosky,
Michael McGee and Charles
McGee.
They secured more than
700 signatures on a petition
but that effort lost steam,
according to the 1895 news
account.
It is to be regretted that
the movement was not kept
up. MacAdoo is a thriving
town. It is populated with a
progressive people and is
growing larger every day. To
the casual visitor the number of new housing going up
over there is astounding.
MacAdoo should become
a borough government by all
means. It is to be hoped that
the men who took the initiative and carried the matter
thus far, will again take it up
and carry it to a successful
issue.
On May 4, 1896, a petition
was presented to the Pottsville court, with a request to
incorporate the village of
McAdoo into a borough.
Prior to presenting the
petition, Thomas A. Kelly
appeared before notary public Frank Bruno, of Kline
Township. Kelly said he circulated the petition and collected 160 signatures. Those
signatures represented
three-quarters of the townspeople.
John W. Honsberger, who
was solicitor for the petitioners, presented the document
to the courts.
The application for incorporation was published in
the McAdoo Tidings, a semiweekly newspaper that was
printed in McAdoo by Ed J.
Brennan, its editor.

On July 10, 1896, Judge
Cyrus L. Pershing issued a
decree that granted a charter for McAdoo borough.
The courts also named McAdoo a separate election district and separate school district.
An election board was
appointed and a special election for officers was held
July 28 at the Grant Street
schoolhouse in McAdoo.
The success of the movement is very gratifying to the
people, The Plain Speaker
reported. Some opposition
was made by the politicians
and saloonists, yet it was
unsuccessful.
Progress continued over
the next few weeks, as residents held a hotly contested
election on July 28, 1896, that
resulted in near fights and
one arrest, according to a
news report.
Citizens elected their first
set of officers for the newly
incorporated borough.
Competing political factions, known as the Peoples
Party and the Citizens ticket, ran candidates.
At least 260 votes were cast
and fighting nearly broke out
during elections.
Numerous fistic encounters were threatened
throughout the day but were
prevented by the interference of friends, The Plain
Speaker reported.
James McDonald was
elected burgess.
The Plain Speaker also
reported that Thomas
ODonnell, Peoples candidate for chief burgess, would
be arrested on a charge of
assault and battery.
This article first appeared
in the Standard-Speaker on
Nov. 21, 2013, as part of the
Our Towns series.
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11:41 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Economy evolves
After the demise of King Coal, area leaders looked to manufacturing to provide jobs,
and met with great success. Now its the distribution industry that is quickly becoming
Greater Hazletons largest employer. Downtown, a revitalization effort aims to populate
historic office towers and rejuvenate the arts with the hope that retail will follow.
Y37
11:44 | GRECOTONY
Economy evolves
Then&Now
Finding jobs
CAN DO says market changes shifted focus to distribution industry
By JIM DINO
StaffWriter
When CAN DO Inc. began

to revive the areas economy
in the 1950s, the organization
attracted manufacturers to
Greater Hazleton.
Those manufacturers created jobs that paid familysustaining wages and benefits.
In the last two decades,
changes in the U.S. consumer market have shifted the
focus to distribution center
jobs.
Those who oppose bringing in those jobs argue they
pay less, and there are fewer
of them.
But according to CAN DO
officials, the market changes
necessitated that they attract
those jobs, which are now
more technical, pay more,
and there are more of them.
The rise of e-commerce
and the way the modern
manufacturer handles its
raw materials and finished
goods have made distribution centers important to
any locales job creation.
While all of this was going
on, many manufacturers
found they could save a lot of
money by taking their production outside the United
States.
Now, many of those manufacturers are finding that
paying 10 unskilled people $2
an hour offshore is less efficient that paying one skilled
person $20 per hour in the
U.S. So some companies are
bringing those jobs back.
Hundreds of local residents work at Amazon.coms fulfillment center in Humboldt Industrial Park.
centers, ODonnell said.

Warehousing is usually the
raw materials. The distribution is to retail stores. The
fulfillment part is right to
the customer. Some are a
combination of distribution
and fulfillment.
Another issue that fueled
the growth of distribution
was when local manufacturers began to maximize production space in plants by
outsourcing raw materials
and finished goods storage.
When CAN DO started,
we built the industrial parks
to try to bring jobs into the
area, ODonnell said. The
only kind of jobs we were
looking for at the time was
manufacturing, and we were
successful at it.
Each of these manufacturing companies had space
in their buildings either to
store raw materials or finished product in their buildings. When storage became
more than the building could
Different jobs
handle, there were different
CAN DO President Kevin logistics companies from the
ODonnell said that for many Wilkes-Barre area that came
years, many CAN DO board down here and offered to
members did not want the
store the material they manorganization pursue distriufactured or the raw materibution center jobs.
al in Wilkes-Barre. This went
But todays distribution
on for a number of years.
center jobs are not your
The transportation was
fathers warehousing jobs,
expensive.
ODonnell explained.
Empty manufacturing
There is warehousing,
facilities in Hazleton area
distribution and fulfillment
industrial parks suddenly
moved into automation,

which has been instrumental
in shrinking the amount of
labor it uses, Zukas said.
Logistics operations,
because of the amount of
technology they use, requires
a large amount of labor. WalMart employs 1,000 people.
Youre hard-pressed to find a
manufacturer who employs
that many.
ODonnell said the wages
of manufacturing and distribution are now similar.
It used to be that manufacturers had more skills
involved than distribution
back when distribution was
picking boxes and putting
them on pallets, ODonnell
said. The wages would stay
American Eagle Outfitters in Humboldt offers its employees a clean environment level with that starting wage,
with a college-like cafeteria and fitness room, according to a CAN DO official.
whereas the manufacturing
became warehousing. Those lar place for all three types
mid-1990s. We wanted to see jobs would increase with
Wilkes-Barre companies
of storage facilities because whether or not it was worth- skills. That isnt the case
were replaced by local comof the presence of interwhile to go after distribution anymore.
panies, like Karchner Logis- states 80 and 81.
Zukas gave an example.
companies, ODonnell said.
tics, which was created as an
Wal-Marts wages are
What we realized after
The study came back very
extension of a family-owned awhile was with interstates
positive. It showed we should competitive in the markettrucking firm. Karchner
place, he said. The elec80 and 81 to be located so
never give up the search for
acquired many of the empty close to the Hazleton area
manufacturing, but it touted tronic billboards advertise
industrial buildings in the
$16.70 per hour, which is a
was really an asset to this
the advantages of having
area and converted them to
nice, family-sustaining wage
community and should be
distribution companies.
distribution buildings.
for a starting wage.
taken advantage of, he said.
Wages now similar
For the longest time CAN Even with that, there were
Companies like American
Technology is one reason
DO was averse to warehous- people on our board who
Eagle and Amazon, which
for the falloff in manufactur- have two of the largest building companies coming into
really were not for bringing
ings in the Hazleton area, are
the Hazleton area. It was not in distribution companies in ing jobs, said Frank Zukas,
president of the Schuylkill
more high-tech than some
what we were looking for. We here.
Economic Development
local industries are.
were looking for manufacTo look further into the
turing jobs, ODonnell said. phenomenon, CAN DO did a Corp. (SEDCO).
Manufacturing has
See distribution,Y40
Hazleton became a popudistribution study in the
Hazleton Industrial Development Corp. officials celebrate the success of a fund drive that helped bring Electric Auto-Lite Corp. to Hazleton.
New approach taken after fund drive lands first industry

By JIM DINO
The mines had employed

over 13,500 men in 1927, but
provided only 6,000 jobs by
When soldiers returned to 1950. By 1956, the figure was
Hazleton from World War II, down to 2,300. Many of those
they found they had to fight
jobs were wiped out when
another war getting a job. hurricanes, mainly HurriBy then, the anthracite coal cane Diane in 1956, flooded
industry, which had long been the remaining mines.
the staple of the areas econoIt was in 1956 that CAN DO
my, had begun its decline. It
was formed and began a
was at that point the area
long, arduous effort to bring
pulled itself up by its bootnew industry and jobs to the
straps and began an effort to
Hazleton area. The organizaattract manufacturing indus- tions efforts were aided by
try to the community.
some smaller efforts that
Over the next 30 years, the began before 1956.
economy of the Hazleton
The Greater Hazleton
area would be transformed
Chamber of Commerce actufrom coal-based to industryally had begun an effort to
based, thanks to the efforts
get one new, large industry
of the Community Area New into town when World War II
Development Organization,
ended and the mines began
better known by the acroto close down.
nym, CAN DO Inc.
In 1947, the chamber decidStaffWriter
ed some risk capital was

needed if any new jobs, particularly for men, could be
attracted to the area.
In order to conduct a fund
drive, the Hazleton Industrial
Development Corp., the forerunner of CAN DO, was
formed.
The new groups target was
Electric Auto-Lite Corp.,
which had indicated a plant
would be built here if the
community could come up
with $500,000 in cash. So HIDC
announced a fund drive.
HIDC was able to raise
$659,000, which was an amazing sum for those days. The
$500,000 became an outright
grant to the firm. A plant
costing $1.6 million was built
to Auto-Lites specifications
on South Poplar Street in the
citys Heights section.
When the firm finally

began operations in 1949,
there was some initial disappointment, because only 300
jobs, instead of an expected
1,000, were created.
But the investment turned
out to be worthwhile
because, within nine years,
the firm pumped more than
$7 million into the local economy in payroll and local
expenditures. The firm was
later known as Prestolite
before closing in 1978.
After that project, industrial development lagged for
several years, with one
exception the Sleeprite
plant, which was built in 1954
across the street from AutoLite.
Local officials decided a
new approach was needed. A
group known as HELP and
the chamber were simultaneously working on a new plan.

In 1956, the chamber presented its idea to finance
industry on a lease-purchase
basis, with people and business firms putting up the initial capital, which would be
used over and over.
But community leaders
learned industrial prospects
couldnt be enticed to the
area without showing them
real estate where plants
could be built.
So CAN DO began a threepronged campaign to raise
funds. The Dime-A-Week
campaign raised money by
getting workers who still had
jobs to commit a contribution of $5.20 a year, or 10
cents a week.
The Mile of Dimes campaign raised funds by taping
dimes together along Broad

Street in a show of support
for the effort.
Another fundraising campaign involved the placement
of lunch pails in various
business places where area
residents could drop their
loose change.
Together, the three efforts
raised $23,000 to buy a 500acre tract of land that was
named the Valmont Industrial Park, the first of four
industrial parks CAN DO
eventually would operate.
At that time, the land was
purchased for $10 an acre.
After CAN DO put infrastructure into the park
roads, water and sewer lines
the land was sold for
about $25,000 an acre.
See approach,Y39
11:41 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Y39
Economy evolves
Then&Now
Approach
Because of Hazletons proximity
to East Coast cities via the interstate highway system, the $10,000plus pricetag is a bargain, compared to other areas that are not as
convenient for transportation and
where land is more expensive.
CAN DO then began a drive to
raise funds to build industrial buildings. Led by volunteers and committees representing all segments of
the community, CAN DO went out
and sold bonds to those who were
working to create the capital needed
for building new industrial plants.
Workers purchased $100 bonds
through payroll deduction, and
businesses contributed sums of
cash.
The effort was recognized by a
publication of the U.S. government, which read: By this demonstration of civic conscience, men
and women fortunate enough to be
employed helped create jobs for the
less fortunate in Hazleton.
The 1956 fund-raising drive set
the tone for future CAN DO drives.
The late Dr. Edgar L. Dessen,
CAN DOs first and long-time president, set a $500,000 goal that many
thought would be unreachable.
Within four weeks, volunteers
solicited 24 hours a day. The effort
raised $740,000, including $540,000
in bonds and $200,000 in outright
contributions. Service organizations that sold a minimum number
of bonds were given representation

on the CAN DO board of directors.
With the land and money to construct buildings, CAN DO began
erecting speculative industrial
shell buildings.
The roads in the Valmont park
were built with funds from the
Appalachian Regional Commission.
The original street, Dessen
Drive, brought traffic into the park
from Route 93, then known as
Route 29. In honor of the park, that
section of Route 93 has since been
renamed the Valmont Parkway.
That first road accessed the two
original sites in the park.
About a year after CAN DO
formed, it brought in General
Foam Corp. as the parks first
industry. Nearby, Lewis Steel
became the second industry to
locate in Valmont, in 1958.
The same year, Highway Trailer
Corp. built a plant across the street.
The firm remained in the building
from 1958 until 1963, when it consolidated operations with a plant in
Wisconsin.
The building was empty for a
few years, until the Pollock Paper
Co. bought it in 1966. That plant
remains in operation today as the
Bemis Co.
As the years passed, more roads
were built and more plants came to
the park. Today, the park is almost
900 acres and is about 90 percent
full.
In 1970 recognizing the fact

that Valmont was beginning to fill
up CAN DO purchased another
large tract of land that would
become its second industrial park.
The Humboldt Industrial Park,
located along Route 924 a few miles
south of Hazleton, was over 1,100
acres.
Like the Valmont park, Humboldt is near the interstate highway system. Valmont is less than a
mile off the West Hazleton exit of
Interstate 81, while Humboldt is
just a few miles away from the
Hazleton exit of I-81. With Interstate 80 intersecting I-81 just six
miles north of Hazleton in Butler
Township, the two industrial parks
are near both interstate highways.
CAN DO continued to expand
STANDARD-SPEAKER FILE PHOTO the Humboldt park, which now
This is the original sign CAN DO Inc. erected at the main en- extends to the opposite side of
trance to its Valmont Industrial Park where Dessen Drive intersects Route 924.
with Route 93 in Hazle Township.
In 1987, while CAN DO was
Railroad project in 1894s headlines

The building of the
Lehigh Traction Co. lines
was a big story in 1894 and it
occupied considerable space
in the newspaper that year.
Heres what the issue of
March 5, 1894 had to say
about progress on the railroad between Harleigh and
Freeland:
A gang of men will be put
to work this morning to
grade the road for the traction company between Harleigh and Freeland. Superintendent Hague and Chief
Engineer Gilbert, of the
Wakefield Electrical Engineering Company, will be on
the ground and will get
things going.
The road will begin at a
point about midway between

the old store and the Harleigh Hotel. It will run
behind the schoolhouse and
through the street of Harleigh and will cross the
Lehigh Valley tracks at the
lower end of the town, a
short distance east of the
turnpike crossing.
A little farther on it will
cross the turnpike and run
parallel with it until it reaches a point between Ebervale
and Oakdale, where it will
cross to the south side of the
pike and continue for a short
distance, when it will again
cross the north side.
From Harleigh to Jeddo
the road will be distant from
the turnpike, from 10 to 100
feet, at different points. At

Ebervale the line will run in
the rear of the old Lake View
Hotel. At Oakdale it will also
run to the north of the village.
At Drifton a bridge of 1,400
feet in length will be constructed to carry the road
over the Jersey Central tracks
to a culm bank between the
store and No. 2 breaker and
from there on to the turnpike
near the D.S.&S. depot. It will
then follow the turnpike to
Freeland borough.
Between Jeddo and Harleigh will be very little grade
either way, and very few
curves also, so that rapid
time will be made between
these points.
Congratulations and Best Wishes

to the Standard-Speaker
on 150 Years
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305 S. Church St., Suite 135

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Local and state officials gather at the dedication of the Crossroads of the East, the intersection of
interstates 80 and 81 in Butler Township, in 1971. Knowing that the location of the two routes near Hazleton would help CAN DO recruit industrial prospects, a group of Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce officials known as the road gang lobbied for years to secure the highways. The dedication of the
crossroads, marking the opening of north-south I-81, came six years after the Hazleton area segment
of east-west I-80 was dedicated. The highways put the Hazleton area right along two routes stretching
from San Francisco to New York and from Canada to Tennessee.
showing the Valmont and Humboldt industrial parks to two clients
who didnt like either one, the organizations officials decided to show
them a 200-acre tract of land it
owned near McAdoo.
HIDC purchased the 200-plus
acres in 1964. The site is located
along Tresckow Road near its intersection with Blaine Street in McAdoo where the McAdoo, Banks
Township and Kline Township borders meet.
A portion of the land on the
western side of Tresckow Road
was used to attract the Lone Star
Boat Co. to build a plant there. In
the 1960s, the Consolidated Cigar
Corp. bought the plant, which Lone
Star had abandoned.
But the other 200 acres across
the street sat idle.
CAN DO took title to the property, but never developed it. When the
two prospects showed interest in it,
CAN DO obtained a $1.5 million

state grant to put roads, water and
sewer lines into the park.
Recognizing the fact that there
was a shortage of white-collar jobs
in the area, CAN DO began an
effort, around the same time, to
establish a business-type park.
A 1,000-acre tract of land in the
Edgewood section of Butler Township, near Interstate 80, was purchased. The CAN DO Corporate
Center was designed to attract
high-tech, light manufacturing,
warehousing and business back
office operations to the area. It
was an effort to create white-collar
employment so that jobs are available to local young people after
they graduate from college.
1991.
Y4 Standard-Speaker
11:42 | GRECOTONY
Then&Now
Putting it together
Hot type, cold type, digital ... thenewspaper gamehas changed

Reporters and compositors who have entered the
profession of journalism
or, as the oldtimers often
referred to it, the newspaper
game in recent years have
no idea how difficult it was
to publish a daily newspaper
in the days of hot type.
Before 1970, the hot type
that was used in virtually
every newspaper in the
world was molten lead and it
was produced on a Linotype
machine, a mind-boggling
invention that served the
industry well for many years
but one that became obsolete
when offset printing, or
cold type, became a viable
alternative.
Prior to the invention and
widespread use of the Linotype machine a monstrous
piece of noisy, Rube Goldberg-like equipment type
was laboriously set by hand,
letter by letter. That process
had been used not only since
the Hazleton Sentinel was
founded in 1866, but actually
all the way back to Johannes
Gutenberg, the inventor of
movable type who made the
first book ever printed in
Europe in 1455.
The Linotype machine
made possible the production of larger newspapers on
a daily basis as well as the fat
Sunday newspapers, but the
machine eventually became
too slow and too expensive in
the then-modern world of
newspaper production.
The late Ray Saul, longtime sports editor of the
Standard-Speaker, arrived on
the scene in 1950 at what was
then The Plain Speaker in
the afternoon and the Standard-Sentinel in the morning, six days a week.
The process at the time
went something like this: A
reporter used a manual typewriter to type his story on
copy paper and turned it into
the city desk. The editor added, deleted or, if necessary,
corrected the story all
part of the editing process
and placed it on a hook.
The copy boy picked up
the hook with a batch of stories on it from time to time
and took it to the composing
room, where printers would
take the stories off the hook,
one at a time, and set them in
type using the Linotype
machine.
Each story included a
lead line that would enable
the printer placing it into a
wooden page form to match
the story with a headline.
Stories were placed on each
page according to a layout
drawn by an editor.
As each galley of type was
taken from one of eight or
nine Linotype machines, an
inked proof of the type was
taken and delivered to the
proofreaders. Proofreaders
would make corrections and
the corrected proofs would
go to the same Linotype
operator who set the story in
type. After he made the corrections, usually by resetting
one or two lines of type, the
corrected type would be
inserted into the story.
Because of the heat
thrown off by the Linotype
machines and a huge pot of
molten lead in the stereotyping department at the rear of
the second floor of the newspaper building, it was necessary to keep open a set of
windows between the news-
The first edition of The Plain Speaker was prepared with hot type on Feb. 6, 1882.
room and what was known
as the back shop.
The end result was a hot
(in the summer months) and
noisy (year-round) newsroom.
In addition to the noise of
the Linotype machines and
stereotype department, two
or three Associated Press
wire machines were constantly running, reporters
and editors were banging on
manual typewriters, and up
to five or six telephones were
constantly ringing at the
same time.
When the Standard-Speaker switched in the 1970s to
cold type production, a
photographic and computer
operation, it became necessary to air condition the
newsroom and the shop. In

fact, the entire building was
air conditioned.
It was a new way of life for
the oldtimers, who, despite
the air conditioning, better
chairs and lighting and far
less noise, resisted the arrival of cold type.
Newspaper type was produced by Linotype machines
for decades and the veterans
were not only suspicious of

the change, but reluctant to
accept it. Some of the writers, editors and printers
decided to call it a career and
retired when cold type
changed the business dramatically.
The people who stayed on,
however, soon learned that
the new way was, in fact,
much better than the old.
A larger building
The Standard-Speaker
began the changeover from
hot to cold type in 1973 when
it ordered a new press and
began conversion to photocomposition.
The next year, ground was
broken for a $2 million addition to the newspapers headquarters on North Wyoming
Street containing a new
pressroom, plate-making
department and a mailroom.
Complete renovation of the
existing plant was started.
The project was to change
both the face of the Standard-Speaker building and
the way the newspaper was
produced.
The pressroom was at the
See TogeTher,Y5
150
-
JOHNS CHURCH HILL

Fa
amily Restaurant
Locatted in th
he Ch
hurch Hilll Mall
1065 N. Church St., Hazleto
on
570-4 5-8133
Printers prepare the afternoon edition of the Standard-Speaker in the 1960s.
Standard-Speaker File photo
11:44 | GRECOTONY
Economy evolves
Then&Now
A network
of health care
Changes are continuing
for local hospital, doctors
By KENT JACKSON
StaffWriter
A Hazleton man injured in the

coal mines in 1886 could hope to
heal at St. Lukes Hospital in Bethlehem, if the 70-mile train trip
didnt kill him.
Today, the trip takes 17 minutes
and patients go by helicopter,
though they usually fly to the
Lehigh Valley Health Networks
main hospital near Allentown
instead of St. Lukes.
Now as then, ties to larger,
regional hospitals factor into the
quality of health care provided in
Hazleton.
After a mine inspector in 1886
drew attention to the plight of
injured miners, Pennsylvania built
a hospital in Hazleton five years
later.
In 2014, Lehigh Valley took over
the hospital that the state built and
renamed it Lehigh Valley HospitalHazleton. Just as the state did 125
years ago, Lehigh Valley said it
would build a new hospital in the
Hazleton area in five years.
As in Hazleton, hospitals are
merging throughout the United
States to improve care, reduce costs
and deflect risk associated with the
federal Affordable Care Act. As
hospital networks gain market
share, however, they might also
raise prices and exert more control
over how doctors treat patients.
While about half of the hospitals
in Pennsylvania were independent
in 2006, now more than half belong
to a larger health care network.
Even the independent hospitals
develop partnerships, said Paula
Bussard, executive director of the
Hospital and Healthsystem Associ-
ation of Pennsylvania, or HAP.

Bussard said mergers were
occurring before the Affordable
Care Act passed in 2010, but the act
focused on reducing cost per
patient, improving care and giving
the patient satisfaction.
Medicare, the federal health
insurance program for senior citizens, is bundling some hospital
procedures such as heart surgery
and orthopedic surgery with the
therapy and other services that
patients need after they leave the
hospital. Bussard expects Medicare
to broaden those pilot programs, so
hospitals are reacting.
Now when youre looking at
inpatient care, youre looking at
planning for discharge from time
they are admitted. Medicare
doesnt want to pay for unnecessary re-admissions, Bussard said.
ELLEN F. OCONNELL/Staff Writer
Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton may not be located on East Broad Street much longer, as Lehigh
Valley Health Network has promised to build a new facility by the end of the decade.
center on the Airport Beltway.

Geisinger also operates hospitals
in Bloomsburg, Danville, Scranton,
Wilkes-Barre, Lewistown and
Shamokin.
St. Lukes University Health Network, based in Bethlehem, took
over Miners Memorial Medical
Center in Coaldale, 16 miles from
Hazleton. St. Lukes also has offices
and a laboratory in a Tamaqua
shopping plaza. It owns five other
hospitals in Pennsylvania and New
Jersey.
Health networks
Coordinated Health, which owns
Lehigh Valley is bundling servic- specialty surgical hospitals in
es that go along with hospital care. Allentown and Bethlehem, opened
In Hazleton, Lehigh Valley also has an office at the Church Hill Mall in
an outpatient facility known as the Hazleton with eight doctors and
Health & Wellness Center at Hazle- five therapists.
Maybe youll see some of the
ton, a cancer center and a walk-in
experts from Allentown coming to
clinic in the Hazleton Shopping
Hazleton one or two days a week.
Center. Plus, the network plans to
Patients dont have to drive to see
open a health center in Mountain
those specialists, Bussard said.
Top this winter.
Other hospital networks, howevHospitalists
er, seek patients in the Hazleton
Lehigh Valley also employs more
area. They include Geisinger
Health System, Coordinated Health than 50 doctors, physicians assistants and nurse practitioners withand St. Lukes University Medical
in 15 miles of Hazleton. The most
Center.
recent doctor to join the Lehigh
Geisinger, based in Danville,
Valley Physician Group, Dr.
Montour County, has a walk-in
Eugene Stish, ran his own practice
clinic in the Staples Plaza in West
Hazleton, a cancer center at 1740 E. for 30 years.
Bussard said hospitals hire docBroad St. in Hazleton, and a family
tors to ensure that they can offer a
practice and community health
The hospital operates an outpatient center, the Health & Wellness Center, on the Airport Beltway.
variety of specialties to patients.

For doctors who sign on, the hospital provides electronic medical
records and access to clinicians
with whom they can consult, and
handles billing and insurance.
It enables them to focus on what
you want to do to take care of
patients as opposed to taking care
of the business side, Bussard said.
Dr. Victor Greco, a retired surgeon from Butler Township, said
doctors still in practice tell him
that they have trouble keeping up
their own practices.
I basically see most doctors will
end up being employees. Theyll be
working for a salary and a certain
number of hours a week, Greco
said.
Hospitalists who are doctors
employed by hospitals will see
patients who are admitted, reducing the need for private doctors to
visit their patients. If proposals to
allow nurse practitioners and physicians assistants to practice without the direct supervision of a doctor pass the Legislature, they will
replace family doctors, Greco said.
Dr. Robert Childs, a Hazleton
pediatrician, joined the Hazleton
hospital network before the merger
but resigned to return to his own
practice after four months.
The offer from networks looks
good to doctors at first, he said,
because doctors earn nearly the
same salary, plus the hospital pays
for malpractice and other insurance and takes care of billing and
business chores. Doctors, too, can
work fewer hours and dont have to
see emergency patients late at
night.
In Childs case, he thought the
office needed another nurse, and a
months-long problem with telephones dissatisfied him.
Lehigh Valley and other large
networks can afford to pay doctors
competitive salaries for regular
hours because they also hire physicians assistants and nurse practitioners, who have less training and
receive lower pay to see patients.
The public sees somebody in a
white coat and presumes that person has the training. Thats not
always the case, Childs said.

Insurers pay about the same
whether a doctor or a nurse practitioner sees the patient, Childs said,
so hospital networks wont shift
away from using nurse practitioners until laws and policies change.
Now that Greco is retired, former patients tell him their doctors
type on portable computers during
office visits.
Sometimes, eye contact is not
even made, he said.
Greco said employers might
start rewarding or punishing doctors based on whether they order
sufficient tests and studies, which
make money for their group or hospital.
Whats happening first of all is
medicine has become a big business. Its no longer the art of healing and the care of patients. It has
become corporate business, he
said.
Feeder hospitals
As hospital networks become

bigger, Greco said smaller hospitals become feeders for the larger
hospitals in the group.
Bussard, however, thinks of the
different-sized hospitals as partners.
Often the smaller hospitals are
a little lower cost, she said, so the
objects becomes keeping the kind
of volume there that are manageable so it isnt just feeding, its
about bringing expertise.
Telemedicine, through which
specialists from Allentown can see
and talk to patients in Hazleton,
helps doctors decide which patients
are better served staying put and
which should travel to Allentown.
Lehigh Valleys burn specialists,
for example, use telemedicine to
consult with doctors in 100 locations throughout Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, New York and Delaware.
Transferring patients who need
procedures like brain and heart
surgery or are trauma victims
makes good health policy and good
economic policy.
See hospital,Y41
Distribution
I think they (American
Eagle) have maybe two forklifts in the whole place,
ODonnell said. Everything
is automated. Its a whole different world with distribution. All of this automation
takes a tremendous amount
of talent to build and maintain in these facilities.
We found that distribution is a good type of business to locate in the area. We
find now that the wages in
these facilities are very good
for this area. We found out
you have to have a mix
because what were seeing is
the manufacturers are able
to take that space they were
previously using for storage
and with the aid of a logistics company, they are able to
repurpose that storage space
to do additional manufacturing, and allow the logistics
company to store the product
for them off-site. When a customer needs it, it comes from
that facility to them.
Joe Lettiere, CAN DOs
vice president and marketing chief, said todays distribution center jobs matches
todays manufacturing jobs
well.
I would stack American
Eagle up against any of the
industries out there, Let-
tiere said. When you walk

into American Eagle, you see
a clean environment with
almost a college campus-like
cafeteria setting, a fitness
room, and the desire to treat
their employees well.
We talk about upward
mobility, and the ability to
increase salary when you
come in. We have testimonials of people working there
who have been there six
months, not even a year, who
have been promoted to
supervisory levels and moving through the ranks.
Opportunity is there for people.
Manufacturing and distribution are about even in the
number of jobs they provide,
and the space they occupy.
Youll see in the numbers,
were still fairly even, Lettiere said. We had been
skewed toward manufacturing for the longest time. We
had been 60-40 manufacturing-distribution, and just
started skewing back toward
distribution/logistics.
Amazon has put a tremendous number of jobs
into the market, and that has
impacted the numbers a bit,
because it is such a significant number of jobs. Amazon and American Eagle,
which is 1 million square
feet, made a big difference in

square footage. It is now
heavily skewed to distribution.
The number of jobs each
provides is also competitive.
In Hazleton area industrial
parks, there are a half-dozen
logistics operations owned
by companies. Their jobs
numbers start at 100 and go
up to 400. Thats not even
considering the private logistics companies like Karchner that work for the manufacturers.
There are about two dozen
manufacturing companies
with over 100 employees, 680
being the largest at Cargill.
Schuylkill County has several company-operated logistics/fulfillment centers,
which are its largest employers.
Wegmans employs 500,
Lowes 600, and Big Lots
350, Zukas said. SAPA
Extrusions, the former Cressona Aluminum and Alcoa,
employs 1,000. Hexcel, Air
Products and Guilford Manufacturing each employ
about 300, but they are the
next largest.
Distribution companies
also create ancillary jobs,
ODonnell said.
What is the prime ingredient in these distribution
companies? Theyve got to be

able to transport the material, so theyve got to have
trucks, and the trucks need
to be repaired, ODonnell
said. They have to be maintained. In order to do that,
you have to be a trained diesel mechanic. These guys
make big bucks.
Zukas agreed.
Logistics operations are
typically 24/7 operations,
Zukas said. Wal-Mart has a
trucking fleet. They have
about 100 drivers they dispatch out of their center.
Those truck drivers earn
about $70,000 a year. These
logistics centers employ a lot
of support services. They use
a lot of maintenance, especially snow plowing. They
keep a lot of our smaller
excavating businesses going
in the winter plowing snow.
High-tech
Zukas said distribution is

the wrong word to use when
talking about such facilities
in Schuylkill County.
It is logistics, especially
the type of operations we
have which are heavily
focused on technology, he
said. When you go into WalMart or Wegmans or Lowes,
the amount of technology is
startling. Its not just picking
and packing. Theres a lot of

technology associated with
it.
Zukas said local industrial
developers have made the
area ready for large distribution centers.
Our geographical location with interstates 78, 80
and 81 make us a prime location for logistics operations,
Zukas said. The boards of
CAN DO and SEDCO had the
foresight to prepare for this.
With our topography, it is a
challenge to find a 100-acre
site for a large building.
Distribution is becoming
more high-tech because of
consumer demand, Lettiere
said.
I think what were seeing
is the result of the shift in
consumer behavior to
change from the traditional
sources of shopping and
buying goods from the brickand-mortar retail stores to
e-commerce, Lettiere said.
There are e-commerce
retailers who have a presence with the brick-and-mortar stores and those (with)
almost all of their sales done
on the Internet. What we are
seeing is the sophistication
of their ability to bring
goods to customers. Its all
about customer demand.
As consumer growth in
e-commerce continues to
increase, the window to
deliver goods is shrinking
because of the demand to get
a product to a doorstep, Lettiere said.
As these e-commerce
retailers are finding if they
want to get customers their
goods same-day or next-day
delivery, their sophistication
level of their distribution
and logistics has forced a lot
of the movement in this sector, Lettiere said. Thats
where the growth has been,
and I think as a community
we would have been left
behind if we didnt embrace
that. With the benefits of
interstates 80 and 81 and all
of the access we have to the
population centers of New
York, Philadelphia, Washington and Boston, we are at the
epicenter of being in that
logistics circle that is so
important to these companies to be able to get goods
and services to the end user.
Instead of ignoring distribution and trying to get
more manufacturing, which
was going abroad, CAN DO
went with the times but
also tried to attract manufacturers that still thrived in the
United States.
See distribution,Y41
11:44 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Y41
Economy evolves
Then&Now
Hospital
A larger hospital that
assembles and equips a team
of trauma surgeons gets
more use from them than
does a small hospital. Surgeons who do more procedures refine their skills so
each of their patients has a
better chance.
Hazleton began drawing
on the expertise of Lehigh
Valley, which U.S. News and
World Report consistently
ranks among the nations
best hospitals, in 2006.
That year, Hazleton General Hospital enlarged its
emergency department and
entered a contract with
Lehigh Valley to provide
board-certified doctors who
treated patients there.
Hazleton General Hospital
also emulated best practices
used at Baylor University
Medical Center of Texas and
Lehigh Valley to develop procedures for stroke and heart
patients. Doctors in Hazleton
diagnosed and prepped
patients for flights to Lehigh
Valley-Cedar Crest, where
they received life-saving treatment in the same time frame
as if they had walked into a
major trauma center, according to national averages.
Those advances laid the
groundwork for the Hazleton
hospital to merge with Lehigh
Valley eight years later.
Lehigh Valley HospitalHazleton in 2015 was certified as a Level IV trauma
center.
At Level IV centers doctors
quickly evaluate patients and
decide whether they should
be transferred by helicopter
or ambulance to the trauma
centers like Lehigh ValleyCedar Crest that offer higher
levels of care.
Greco, who was part of a
Philadelphia team that did
the first successful openheart surgery in 1953, later
spent long shifts in the emergency room at the former
Hazleton State General Hospital. He provided care then
that patients now might
receive after being flown to
Lehigh Valley-Cedar Crest.
When people came in, we
took care of everything. I
was up night and day with
accidents. Now they stabilize
the patient and send them to
Allentown. What service is
that for the people of Hazleton? Greco said.
Childs said helicopter
flights cost a minimum of
$10,000 and patients are flying
to Allentown more commonly
than before the merger.
He thinks patients with
minor burns, fractures and
pneumonia are among those

who dont have to leave
Hazleton.
Things that could be
done locally, should be done
locally. Weve gotten away
from that, he said.
In hindsight, Childs
thinks hiring Lehigh Valley
to staff the emergency
department was tantamount
to a hospital takeover.
We gave away a hospital
making $10 million a year,
he said. Wheres that $10
million going every year? Is
it being spent in Allentown?
Annual revenues exceeded
expenses at the Hazleton hospital by $10 million for two
years before the merger, but
in eight of 10 years before
2008, the hospital lost money.
Local board members
thought joining Lehigh Valley
helped ensure that a hospital
could survive financially in
Hazleton, where net patient
revenues reached $108 million
before the merger.
Lehigh Valley, in contrast,
had net patient revenues of
$1.3 billion at its hospitals in
Allentown and Bethlehem
when it took over Hazletons
hospital.
While Lehigh Valley
brought its economic stability and medical expertise to
Hazleton, the health network
also draws on the skills of
other hospital systems.
At the Lehigh Valley Cancer Center that opened in
October, also on the Airport
Beltway, patients can participate in clinical trials run
through Memorial Sloan
Kettering in New York.
Lehigh Valley joined Sloan
Ketterings cancer alliance
last summer. Doctors and
patients will benefit from
sharing the research findings about cancer.
Through another alliance
called AllSpire, Lehigh Valley and six other health networks that own 25 hospitals
in Pennsylvania and New
Jersey agreed to share best
practices, improve experiences for patients and lower
costs.
Last month, a gift from Air
Products let Lehigh Valley
establish a center in downtown Allentown to test technologies and pilot programs.
Lower costs dont necessarily result as hospitals consolidate.
Researchers at the Wharton School of the University
of Pennsylvania said hospital
mergers increased since the
federal government enacted
the Affordable Care Act.
Publicly, the hospitals said

mergers shield them from
risk and lead to better services.
The predominant private
rationale is that providers
consolidate to gobble up
more of the market, so they
can reduce competition and
thereby raise prices, Lawton Burns, a management
professor, said in Hospital
Consolidation: Can It Work
This Time? an article from
May 11 in the online publication Knowledge@Wharton.
Federal and state regulaSt. Joseph Hospital, which closed in 2007, still stands out on the citys skyline.
tors, however, approved
Lehigh Valleys takeover of
Beltway next to the Health & from their beds to their bath- ing to CAN DO, the regional
Hazletons hospital.
Wellness Center.
rooms.
economic development agenBussard of HAP said
Indiana Universitys 319cy.
Hospital history
when designing hospitals
bed hospital is next to a 200In Hazleton, several vinThe merger shares siminow architects can allocate
room ambulatory care centage buildings remain on the
larities with construction of space for machines and
ter, an arrangement that
grounds near the main hosthe state hospital in Hazleton equipment and create sysLehigh Valley would have if
pital, which was constructed
125 years ago.
tems so electronic medical
it builds the new hospital
in 1975, the year that the
Back then, a mine inspec- records move with patients
near the Health & Wellness
original Gothic-style state
tor, James E. Roderick,
throughout the hospital.
Center.
hospital was demolished.
pressed the state to build the
Whereas hospitals 150
Outpatient facilities like
The main hospital has been
hospital by documenting an years ago had wards segrethe center, which also offers
improved several times. In
average of 146 serious accigating men and women into MRI and other diagnostic
2007, space for the emergendents yearly in the mines in large, communal rooms, new tests, therapy and a fitness
cy department doubled and a
and around Hazleton.
hospitals might have more
center, have grown as insur- new laboratory and offices
Victims were treated at
single rooms, she said. That
ers pushed for shorter hospi- were added.
home or in a small hospital
Within the city, land along
prevents infections and
tal stays and as patients
that the Coxes, a family of
allows space for machinery
recover faster from new sur- Arthur Gardner Parkway and
coal mine owners, opened in and for the relatives of
between Club 40 and Stockton
gical techniques.
Drifton by 1881. The Drifton patients, who often provide
The Pennsylvania Health Mountain roads also has been
hospital had a drugstore,
suggested as possible sites for
help in following discharge
Care Cost Containment
operating room and six bed- instructions that help the
Council documents the trend a new hospital.
rooms in a two-story buildWhen deciding on a size for
patient continue to heal.
within the state, where the
ing that later became a famia new hospital, Greco thinks
Dr. Frank Polidora, a
number of ambulatory surly home.
retired orthopedic surgeon
gery centers increased to 262 Lehigh Valley will look at
The nearest hospital offer- and Butler Township super- from 72 between 2000 and
patient load in Hazleton .
ing proper care, St. Lukes of visor, expects that a new hos- 2009.
Local hospitals of HazleBethlehem, was 70 miles
tons size, he said, are despital would be smaller than
While the rate of growth
away, a journey that can
tined to become feeders for
Hazletons current hospital,
slowed recently a net of
only be attended with physi- which has 150 beds.
larger hospitals like Cedar
only three surgery centers
cal torture, if not loss of
Crest and for specialty hospiTransfers to Lehigh Valopened in Pennsylvania in
life, Roderick said in his
tals such as burn centers or
ley-Cedar Crest will reduce
2014 doctors performed
report in 1886.
cancer centers.
overnight stays in Hazleton, more than 28 percent of
Only too many victims of where Polidora thinks the
Hazleton once had a spesame-day surgeries in cenmine disasters die from want new hospital will have ample ters. Surgeons still did more cialty hospital.
of proper attendance and
Drs. James and Lawrence
space and nurses for outpathan 71 percent of outpatient
careful nursing, while many tients and same-day surgery. procedures in hospitals.
Corrigan, who were brothmore await slow recovery in
They wont need a lot of
Lehigh Valley can provide ers, opened the Corrigan
their homes, because the
beds and nursing staff at
outpatient surgery at Hazle- Maternity Hospital with othgrievous nature of their
er local doctors in 1928 on
night, Polidora said.
tons hospital and through
injuries forbid a long jourNorth Church between
Meanwhile, Childs doesnt the Health & Wellness Cenney to a distant hospital,
Ninth and 10th streets.
expect Lehigh Valley to offer ter, which opened in 2007 as
Roderick wrote.
The Bernardine Francisnew services at the new hos- part of the former Greater
The state allocated $60,000 pital in Hazleton.
can Sisters purchased the
Hazleton Health Alliance,
to build the Hazleton hospiCorrigan hospital in 1944
My suspicion is (at) a
which ran the hospital
tal, which opened in 1891 and new hospital, the complexity before the takeover.
and built St. Joseph Hospital
had 52 beds but only treated
of the services offered will
The Wellness Center is in on the block in 1949.
miners.
St. Joseph opened satellite
certainly be less, Childs
Hazle Township, and land
Sophia Coxe, widow of
centers in Shenandoah and
said.
that Lehigh Valley owns
one of the coal barons who
Freeland before entering an
HOK, a global design firm, near the center is in Hazle
built the Drifton hospital,
alliance in 1996 with Hazleshows examples of new hos- and Butler townships.
made donations to expand
ton General Hospital, which
pitals on its website.
Hazleton governmental
the hospital so women could
moved from control of the
Some of the common feaofficials want to retain the
receive care in 1908 and chil- tures include flexible space
wage taxes of hospital work- state to a local board of
dren in 1911.
directors in 1986.
to accommodate changing
ers within the city limits
The alliance converted St.
needs and more single rooms instead of losing them to the
A new hospital
Joseph to an outpatient centhan semi-private rooms, as
townships.
No one from Lehigh Valley at Papworth Hospital in the
ter in 2005, and closed it
Before the merger with
has said where the hospital
when the Health & Wellness
United Kingdom.
Lehigh Valley, the hospital
will be built in the Hazleton
At the Indiana University alliance was the third-largest Center opened in 2007.
area, but the health network School of Medicine, continu- employer in Greater Hazleowns land on the Airport
ous handrails guide patients ton with 996 workers, accord- kjackson@standardspeaker.com
Those companies are

shipping into California, or
going through the Panama
Canal thats why its being
widened or to the eastern
ports, he said. The material has to be transported there
and stored somewhere until
its ready to be taken to the
end user. We have the I-81
and I-78 corridors nearby.
CAN DO is trying to get
manufacturing that went off
shore, but its not as easy as
one may think.
Off-shoring had a lot to
do with what we see in our
area right now, the last two
decades, ODonnell said.
We are re-shoring, but there
is a problem with that. A
generation has gone by since
the off-shoring started. All of
the skills that were commonplace for working in manufacturing have all but disappeared. As companies come
in, they are finding they have
to train people all over for
manufacturing.
With todays technology,
training workers has become
easier than it ever has been.
There are many programs that have been set up
to assist in this through the
CareerLink, NEPIRC and
other places, ODonnell
said. There are programs
that are trying to help manufacturers find the talent they
need.
Now, the problem is not
training workers, but getting
people who have the work
ethic and motivation to work

efficiently and the ambition to get the training they
need.
What we hear from all of
our industries, they just
want workers who show up
on time, are consistent, that
are interested in working in
a team environment, Lettiere said. They can train
almost anyone in that mindset to do what they need to
do.
For two generations,
American parents have been
pushing their children to get
a four-year college degree
and get a job where they
dont get dirty. That attitude
has left a skills gap for the
trades industrial maintenance mechanics, welders,
or anyone with a commercial drivers license.
Those positions have not
been filled at the same rate
as others, because there is
not the same pool of candidates, Lettiere said. So
there are opportunities for
anyone with any kind of
work ethic to be able to move
up the ladder if they are willing to learn some additional
skills.
The skills gap leaves jobs
unfilled, ODonnell said.
There are a lot of good
jobs here, he said. Unfortunately, there are a lot of jobs
that remain unfilled. Its
become frustrating to some
employers that they have not
been able to fill those jobs.
Expertise
Distribution
What youve seen is CAN
DO and Hazleton embracing
the change in our economy,
and the fact that manufacturing projects arent as prevalent as they had been in the
past, Lettiere said. We had
a movement where there had
been a lot of off-shoring happening, and manufacturing
was at a standstill in the
country. We tried to identify
those manufacturers and
industries that would be
more apt to need to stay in
the United States.
Plastics is very difficult
to ship, and very expensive.
Its natural to have it close to
market. Thats why we have
a predominance of plastics,
he said. Food is ever-changing, as far as consumer
tastes. We feel that is another
extremely important industry we focus on, and something that also taps into the
natural benefit of having
interstates 80 and 81 in our
community. I think what we
are seeing is us as a community embracing what the
market is.
Off-shoring back?
A lot of the distribution

activity involves companies
taking their product out to
make more room for production in the plant, but a lot of
it has to do with off-shoring
that has been going on the
last 15 to 20 years, ODonnell
said.
Another problem in
sophisticated in their
The skills are not there. In 18
attracting manufacturing is approach in knowing what
months, someone can learn
a trade, and start at $55,000 to that companies have become their cost is of doing business
more sophisticated in choos- and it all relates to customers
$60,000 a year.
ing a location, Lettiere said.
wanting cheaper pricing and
Not giving up
Its not like in the old days,
quickness to market.
While CAN DO has cashed when a company could be
Fortunately, CAN DO and
in on distribution, it is still
wooed to an area with varithe Hazleton area have a
looking for manufacturing.
ous methods ranging from
good reputation in the indusBut the competition is stiff.
financing to schmoozing.
try of attracting industry,
Weve had significant
Its amazing the lack of
Lettiere said.
wins in manufacturing with control in our ability to
We have a strong work
ADM and Gonnella, Letrecruit industry, Lettiere
ethic, and many plants say
tiere said, referring to the
said. As the sophistication
their Hazleton plant is a
former Archer Daniels Mid- level of these companies
strong facility in their netland (now Cargill) chocolate grows, they are already
work, Lettiere said. Humplant and the frozen dough
doing the logistics analysis,
boldt is highly respected
plant, respectively, in Humthey already know exactly
throughout the real estate
boldt North.
where they have to be in a
community, very well
The importance of skills certain radius, to make it as known. We can compete
available in the community
economical as possible to
with just about any area, as
when we are competing for
ship goods. Then they will
far as the quality and numprojects, especially in manu- search for a location within
ber of businesses in that
facturing, is important, Let- that circumference, and
park. Our community
tiere said. Companies want thats where they go.
should be proud of that.
a funnel of talent. They dont
Manufacturing is doing
jdino@standardspeaker.com
want to know one position
the same thing. They are
can be filled, they want to
know if there is attrition or
turnover, that they have
three or four applicants for
every position. They want to
be able to look and see what
kind of students are coming
CENTRAL TOOL SUPPLY, INC.
through our educational sys572 GARIBALDI COURT, HAZLETON, PA 18201
tem, the skill level. All of
PHONE: (570) 459-6767
that is a factor in competing.
CUTTING TOOLS MACHINE TOOLS ABRASIVES
And we are not just comPRECISION TOOLS MACHINE SHOP SUPPLIES
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that dont matter what the
Precision Instruments Machine Shop Supplies
location is, they are highly
Grinding Wheels Hand Tools Power Tools
competitive. One company
REPRESENTING OVER 130 MANUFACTURERS
got $1.3 billion in incentives
Monday-Friday 8 to 5; Saturday 8 to 12 noon
from the state of Nevada.
Congratulation
On 150 Years Of Service!
12:39 | BAIRDATHLE
Economy evolves
Then&Now
One more try
Alliance for Progress now working to rejuvenate downtown

By SAM GALSKI
tion of a public-private partnership spearheading the

latest revitalization efforts.
In the 1890s, a variety of
In Hazletons final year as
retail and service establisha borough, 1890, its businessments in Hazleton could sell es produced stoves, pianos,
the new citys 14,000 resicaskets and beer. Others sold
dents almost anything.
liquor, meats, flour and feed,
For the shoppers convewatches and general mernience, all were centrally
chandise. It had a dentist, a
located in the citys downfew jewelers, insurance
town, which would be its
agents and a photographer.
hub of activity for years to
Early development in the
come.
downtown traces to the
The make-up of the down- Hazleton Board of Trade,
town changed markedly over which was organized in 1892
the years, as did efforts to
to promote the general welkeep it competitive with the fare of our city, to aid and
shopping plazas, malls and
develop its commercial,
department stores in neighindustrial and business, its
boring municipalities.
charter reads.
Those efforts have yielded
Today, that organization is
mixed results over the years known as Greater Hazleton
and have recently gained
Chamber of Commerce.
momentum with the formaA year before the Hazleton
StaffWriter
Sympathy
Flowers
When
Needed
Blossoms & Buds

Specializing in Special Services
Downtown McAdoo
570.929.2313
Board of Trade was established, S.G. Seager opened

the Fair Store in the William
Glover building, which
adjoined what was once the
residence of Calvin Pardee.
Seager built a new store 10
years later on the former site
of the George B. Markle
home, at the southwest corner of Broad and Church
streets.
Upon retiring from business, he leased the store to
Jere Woodring & Co., which
operated a hardware store
there for many years.
A horse-and-wagon food
business founded in 1901 by
D. Genetti eventually developed into a chain of 18 food
markets, a bakery, restaurant
and two farms in Hazleton
and surrounding towns.
The business, carried on
by Genettis sons August,
Leon, Albert and Stanley
opened a Broad Street market in 1923. The restaurant
and bakery were added the
next year, and in 1938 a new
supermarket, restaurant and
bakery were completed on
Laurel Street, a block off
Broad.
That project was made
possible by Hazleton voters,
who in 1922 shaped the
course of the downtown for
years to come.
The downtown continues
evolving today, with Downtown Hazleton Alliance for
Progress spearheading a
public-private revitalization
initiative aimed at attracting
new businesses, developing
infrastructure to support
business growth, improving
aesthetics of transportation
Lewith & Freeman

Dedicated to results
North Wyoming Street is one of the areas that the Downtown Hazleton Alliance for
Progress hopes to improve.
project was intended to
replace 16 blocks of blight
south of Broad Street with
modern buildings and facilities, surrounded by greenery
and boulevard-like streets.
Much of what the Hazleton Redevelopment AuthoriUrban renewal
ty promised happened quickAs businesses migrated to ly. Decaying buildings were
demolished, and in their
the suburbs, they took with
place rose a low-income
them money and the peohousing project, two highple. Downtowns were strugrise apartment buildings, a
gling.
new home for the Hazleton
City leaders took the
YMCA and YWCA, a bus terapproach of offering downtown patrons the same ame- minal and parking garage.
Three mini-parks also
nities parking, one-stop
shopping, joint sales and pro- were developed and streets
motions theyd find at sub- were widened to handle larger volumes of traffic.
urban malls.
Critics, however, said the
City officials thought they
redevelopment took vital tax
had an answer in the early
revenue out of the city. They
1960s a massive project
pointed to plans that they
called the Downtown South
Urban Renewal Project. The failed, valuable ground that
sits empty, the dreams that
Congratulations S andard-Speaker on Historic Milestone of 150 Years!
vanished.
"Highest Quality Auto Repairs" Est. 1972
The Downtown South
BARRY J. POSTUPACK LLC
project took in 42.2 acres, a
General Repairs
16-block area bounded by
State Inspection
Broad, Walnut, Pine, and
Emission Inspections
Tires
Vine streets. According to
Snow Plowing
initial plans, 184 families and
Bag Coal
221 individual residents
would lose their homes,
"The Flavor or Fish Favor"
while 117 businesses either
Fishing Licenses & Tackle Trout & Salmon Flies
would be shut down or
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forced to relocate.
139 East Green St., Hazlet n
A number of commercial
properties offices, banks
and retail businesses were
built. Only one, however, was
completed under the original
Downtown South blueprint;
Gerald E. Williams, D.M.D., M.S., P.C. most of the others came
after the redevelopment
Office Hours By Appointment
authority was dissolved. (It
since has been revived.)
A motel complex planned
for South Church Street and
602 West Diamond Avenue
bound by Vine, Chestnut and
Hazleton, PA 18201
Walnut streets never materialized, and future proposals
Telephone: (570)459-9950
for the land one as a recreational complex fared no
better. Despite some of the
shortcomings, Howard Sugarman, the former executive
director of the redevelopment authority, said Hazleton is far better off for what
was accomplished.
TOP QUALITY MEAT & MEAT PRODUCTS
Old Fashion Smoked
Project costs were higher
KIELBASSI & KRAKOWSKA
than expected and were met
SMOKED HAMS & BACON
with opposition by merHot & Sweet Italian Sausage Made Daily
chants and politicians.
8332 Winters Avenue,West Hazleton, PA 18202
John Quigley, who served
Phone 570-454-8388
as the citys mayor in the late
1980s to mid-1990s, cited a
lack of planning by both the
authority and city government.
What they should have
done was have a realistic
urban renewal plan and
BEER SODA SPRING WATER
stick to it, he said in 1988.
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They had a plan, but failed
DRIVE - THRU OR WALK IN SERVICE
to stick to it.
Quigley called the Downtown South initiative a
disaster.
A number of historic landmarks were lost the
Lehigh Valley train station,
Winfield Hotel and Liberty
Band Hall, among others,
For Over 63 Years,
were demolished.
The Colangelo Family & Quality Beverage
Quigley said the effort
Have Been Proud To Serve
didnt only diminish the
The Hazleton Area
citys tax revenues, (it) stole
WEILE SUPPLIES LAST
a
lot of the citys character.
WHEN YOU THINK OF BEER COME HERE !!
corridors, securing grants

for facade improvement and
increasing green space,
according to Krista Schneider, the alliances executive
director.
The alliance formed in
late 2013 and hired Schneider
soon after.
Its mission, she said, is to
provide sustainable leadership, direction, and support
for the successful, efficient
revitalization and long-term
success of downtown Hazleton.
The alliance formed in the
midst of a nearly $30 million
corridor project launched by
the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation that
brought paving, traffic signal, streetlight and sidewalk
improvements on Broad
Street in Hazleton and West
Hazleton.
Earlier attempts at breathing new life into the downtown were detailed in a special edition of the StandardSpeaker published in 1991 in
recognition of the newspapers 125th anniversary.
BARRY'S LIVE BAIT
570-454-0841

On Your 150th Anniversary
Chelsea Sidari
Realtor
348 Laurel Mall

Hazle Township, PA 18202
Office: (570) 501-7575
Cell: (570) 956-1203
Chelseasc@lewith-freeman.com
Congratulations
Standard-Speaker on 150th!
Exceptional Service
With A Personal Touch...
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Donna M. Barna,VP
570-454-5000
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Would like to congratulate the

Standard Speaker on 150 Years!
695 S. POPLAR ST. HAZLETON - 454-8789
See downtown,Y43
12:39 | BAIRDATHLE
Standard-Speaker
Y43
Economy evolves
Then&Now
Downtown
Opposition from downtown retailers and their
political allies doomed
Downtown Souths most
ambitious project a
$22 million, 24-store shopping plaza.
Developer Michael A. Greco proposed building the
X-shaped, colonial-style
mini-mall on a two-block
area surrounded by Pine,
Laurel, Chestnut and Juniper streets.
The complex was to be
completed in three phases.
The first was to include 40
retail stores and businesses.
On top of that, the second
phase was to provide space
for a large department store
and theater. The third phase
was proposed as a business
complex.
Completion was targeted
for late 1974 or early 1975.
Greco was hoping to some
way connect his shopping
plaza to Broad Street so that
downtown Hazleton would
remain the areas primary
shopping district at a time
when suburban shopping
centers were becoming popular.
Initially, his plans conflicted with those of the Hazleton
Parking Authority to build a
parking garage in that area.
Downtown merchants saw
increased parking as key to
their survival.
The redevelopment
authority thought it had
both parties satisfied in early
1972, when it gave Greco permission to acquire the land
he wanted and agreed to sell
four other blocks bound
by Vine, Pine, Mine and
Chestnut streets to the
parking authority.
At the time, businessman
Stanley Genetti unveiled
plans to build a three-story
motel on a two-block area
bound by Broad, Chestnut,
Church and Vine streets.
The parking garage was
built; the mall and motel

werent.
In 1977, Greco proposed
building a 12-story, 200-unit
apartment complex on the
block bound by Pine, Wyoming, Chestnut and Juniper
streets. It also was to include
some small commercial
units.
An apartment building
occupies the site, but Greco
was not the developer.
Though his plans at
improving the downtown did
not materialize, Greco didnt
give up. He operated a drugstore on West Broad Street
for a number of years and
later would have an impact
on shaping the downtown for
the future.
Pre-Downtown South
Broad Street was thriving

prior to the launch of Downtown South, with merchants
yet to experience competition from suburban shopping malls.
Bus service brought shoppers into center city from
surrounding towns. Few
storefronts were vacant
and those that were didnt
remain empty for long.
Broad Street office towers
were filled with doctors, lawyers and other professionals,
with locally owned banks on
their ground floors.
The retail businesses were
supplemented by taverns
and restaurants, theaters,
utility offices and other facilities that ensured Broad
Streets role as a one-stop
shopping district. A merchants council coordinated
various promotions that
united its members.
Development of Broad
Street probably was destined
to happen once the Lehigh
and Susquehanna Turnpike,
linking rivers of those
names, was cut in the early
1800s through what originally was known as Hazel
Swamp.
The lumber business was

the first to succeed in the
area. A saw mill was located
at Broad and Mill streets;
lumber was hauled by animals to the rivers.
Jacob Drumhellers stage
stand, which opened in
1809, is regarded as the citys
first hotel. The tavern
catered to stagecoach travelers.
In 1837, Lewis Davenport,
a brother-in-law of Ario
Pardee, built the three-story
Hazleton House at Broad and
Wyoming streets. It served as
the polling place for Hazle
Township until the borough
of Hazleton was formed in
1856.
It ceased operation as a
hotel/rooming house in 1974.
Henry Brown, recalling in
a letter how Hazleton looked
in 1843, said its businesses
included a blacksmith, the
saddlery shop of George B.
Markle, store of William Kisner and a jewelry shop.
The first major store on
Broad Street, called Ingham
Brothers, was built at Broad
and Wyoming streets by the
merchants. In 1861 at a
time when buildings had no
numbers on them the first
bookstore was opened by
H.E. Sutherland.
In 1868, the towns first
drugstore was opened by
Longshore and Silliman at
the northwest corner of
Broad and Wyoming streets.
Now known as Hazle Drugs
Inc. and located on the northeast corner, it is Hazletons
oldest business.
In 1956, the store was honored by the pharmaceutical
industry for selling its
1.5 millionth prescription.
Hazle Drugs remained at
its original location until the
early 1960s, when the Hazle
Hall building was demolished to make room for the
new home of Peoples First
National Bank. It moved to
Wyoming and Spruce streets
Nicholas J. Barna, M.D., F.A.C.S.,

and Associates
Congratulations Standard
Speaker for 150 years of
service to our community
Nicholas J. Barna,
M.D., F.A.C.S.
John T. Anzelmi,
O.D.
for a few years, returning to

Broad and Wyoming in the
Hazleton House building
in 1969.
The stores owner, Isadore
Edelstein, bought the historic building six years later.
Hazle Drugs now operates in
a modern building on the
same site.
The Plain Speaker and
Standard-Sentinel Jubilee
Edition of Aug. 24, 1941,
described the first drugstore
as a cheerful place at night
with its great red globe in
one window and its great
green globe in the other, casting splurges of colored light
into the street. It kept open
after the other stores closed
to catch the soda water trade.
At the entrance (six steps
to climb) there was the marble Mathews fountain with
bottles of the favorite syrups
before it. A modest amount
of the flavor asked would be
placed in a glass and charged
with the carbonated gas
from the fountain at a cost of
5 cents. Under the counter
were three freezers of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry
ice cream, and if a dab of
these was added to the concoction the price would be
raised to 10 cents.
Three to nine steps was
commonplace in front of
most early stores, as the
main business section of
Broad Street was graded a
few feet lower than it is today.
Many sidewalks were constructed of planks, a few of
brick, others of slabs of
slate. Later, they were
replaced with a composition
of tar and gravel, and eventually by cement.
By 1941, when the city was
50 years old and near its population peak, a large group
of retail and service businesses were available to its
The facade of the Salvation Army Hazleton Family

Store was redone with help from the Downtown Hazleton Alliance for Progress.
39,000 residents.
Businesses that advertised
in this newspaper at the time
included 14 clothing stores,
eight furniture stores, seven
hardware stores, five jewelers, four appliance stores
and a number of food markets. All were located in the
downtown, along with auto
dealers, insurance salesmen,
beverage distributors and a
photographer.
Anchors
Five department stores

anchored the downtown in
1941 Deisroths, the Leader, Charles, Bon-Ton and
Kresges 5 to $1. As they
closed their doors in years to
come, shoppers were forced
to take their money elsewhere to spend.
At Broad and Laurel, the
Leader was a city landmark
for many years. It was founded in 1911 by the late Louis
Roman. After his death in
1935, the store was operated
by his three sons and daugh-
ter, and later by two grandsons, Jules and Donald

Mason.
In 1973, the Leader was
sold to Retail Specialty Co. of
Shreveport, Louisiana. A
year later, the company
declared bankruptcy and the
store was bought by Bob Festervand of Drums, who had
been its general manager.
Three years later, he
closed the door for the final
time. At a public sale of
inventory, furniture and
equipment the Mason family
who retained ownership
of the building submitted
the sole bid of $50,000.
In May 1976, the family
sold the Leader building and
its warehouse at 38 W. Green
St. to Greco. He reopened
Aug. 31 under the name,
Michael A. Greco, but
remained in operation for
only a short time. An arson
fire in 1977 heavily damaged
the building and its contents.
See downtown,Y47
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11:44 | GRECOTONY
Economy evolves
Then&Now
Changing signs
Numerous banks serve area but not one calls Hazleton home
By JIM DINO
StaffWriter
While the new millennium signified the beginning

of a new century, it also signaled the end of locally
owned banks.
When the Lehigh Valleybased Keystone Nazareth
Bank and Trust (KNBT) purchased First Federal Bank in
2005, the last local banking
institution went out of existence.
An effort by the industry
nationally to streamline
itself by eliminating duplication of services came to
Hazleton.
Tony Cusatis, a vice president of National Penn Bank,
which later absorbed KNBT,
said the number of banks
were reduced significantly
during this time period.
There were 15,000 banks
in the country. Now there are
7,500, he said.
There were four large,
local banks which had
branches in surrounding
communities Peoples
First National Bank and
Trust Co., First Federal Savings and Loan, Security Savings, and Hazleton National
Bank.
There were other regional
banks that had a presence in
Hazleton and surrounding
communities, like Northeastern Bank, First Valley
Bank and First Eastern
Bank.
The first of the consolidations was when First Federal
bought Security Savings.
Then out-of-town banks
started to buy out the locally
owned banks. Before KNBT
bought First Federal, Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank purchased First Eastern (which
earlier had taken over Peoples Bank) and First Valley
Bank combined with Hazleton National Bank, which
several transactions later
displayed the name Bank of
America.
In some cases, one bank
would consume two banks
The banks that serve the area

today have one thing in common:
Not one is based in Hazleton.
that had local branches,

which meant some of the
branches were closed.
Some of those closed
branches attracted Pennsylvania-based, out-of-town
banks, which started to dot
the Hazleton area landscape
in the 1990s. Some examples
are First National Community Bank, Landmark Bank,
Luzerne Bank, Susquehanna
Bank and Community Banks.
Later in the decade, they
also started to consolidate,
such as Pennsylvania
National Bank, which
became Keystone, then M&T,
and First Union, which
became Wachovia and then

Wells Fargo.
Others, like Liberty Bank,
Bank of America, Corestates, Heritage, Citizens
National Bank, Legacy, Fleet,
and Sovereign, also had a
presence in the area.
In the 2000s, credit unions
started to open branches in
the Hazleton area. The criteria for membership was that
someone had to live, work or
worship within the county
where the credit union did
business.
Two examples are the Wilkes-Barre-based Cross Valley
Credit Union, which opened
in the Franklin Corporate

Center along the Airport
Beltway and then moved into
the Laurel Mall, and the Wilkes-Barre-based Choice FCU,
which opened inside the Groceries Plus shopping center
on West 22nd Street before
constructing its own building on the other end of the
Groceries Plus property.
National Penn bought
KNBT in 2012, and last year,
BB&T acquired both National Penn and Susquehanna
banks.
Banks also started showing up inside supermarkets.
Woodforest Bank is inside
Wal-Mart and National

Penn, which will become
BB&T, is inside Goulds in
Conyngham.
Today, most banks offer
both telephone-based and
online banking, which can
be done 24 hours a day.
While the economic climate of the 1990s significantly reduced the number of
banks, new federal law governing the financial industry
essentially hindered new
banks from opening their
doors.
The DoddFrank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer
Protection Act, approved by
Congress in 2010, was a

response to the Great Recession, and brought the most
significant changes to financial regulation in the United
States since the Great Depression. It made changes that
affect all federal financial regulatory agencies and almost
every part of the nations
financial services industry.
Dodd-Frank imposed
many new rules to start and
operate a bank, Cusatis
said. Not many new banks
are starting up because of
the regulations.
jdino@standardspeaker.com
Pardee, Markle, Grier brought banking to Hazleton in 1867

By TONY GRECO
City Editor
Three banks established

in 1863 in Wilkes-Barre and
Scranton would play a major
role in shaping Hazletons
banking history more than
100 years later.
The First National Bank
of Wilkes-Barre was chartered June 1, and the Second
National Bank of WilkesBarre on Sept. 19. The First
National Bank of Scranton
also was established that
year.
The need for a bank in
Hazleton was recognized in
1867, when two of its prominent citizens Ario Pardee
and George Bushar Markle
joined forces with William
Alexander M. Grier of Danville to establish the 11-yearold boroughs first financial
institution.
Prior to its opening on
May 6 of that year, banking
was done in Mauch Chunk
a short 18 miles away at
present-day standards, but a
full days trip back then.
According to a newspaper
account, the partnership was
formed for the purpose of
carrying on a general
exchange, banking and collecting business, which business shall include all that is
usually done and transacted
by private or unincorporated
banking houses.
An advertisement in the
Aug. 26, 1941, Golden Jubilee
Edition of The Plain Speaker-Standard-Sentinel recalled
their venture as courageous
and confident in their belief
that Hazleton would continue to grow and prosper.
The bank simply was

called Pardee, Markle & Grier and was located on the
second floor of the old A.
Pardee & Co. building, the
company store, on the
southwest corner of Broad
and Wyoming streets.
Its early years were dotted
with financial troubles the
most notable being the Gold
Crisis of 1869 and Black
Friday, Sept. 23 of that year.
And a competitor the
Hazleton Savings Bank
was chartered May 23, 1871. It
also was located on the south
side of Broad Street between
Laurel and Wyoming.
The White Haven Savings
Bank also was established
that year, on the North Side.
Pardee, Markle & Grier
not only survived the competition, but business expanded so much that the men
had outgrown their quarters.
A second building, known as
the Old Iron Front Building, was completed in 1875
and would house the institution for the next 35 years.
Grier retired April 1, 1881.
The bank continued under
the name Pardee & Markle
until May 1, 1882, when Pardee retired.
At that time, Markle
turned the operation over to
three sons George B. Jr.,
John and Alvan who conducted business under the
name Markle Brothers and
Co. Other partners were taken in over the next 10 years,
but its name did not change.
On Jan. 10, 1883, the
Anthracite Building & Loan
Association was organized
in Weatherly. During the
next 58 years it would
chartered bank. Twelve

years later, the bank would
arrange the mortgage bonds
that were necessary to start
the Duplan Silk Mill.
Two other banks opened
for business in 1890 the
Hazleton National Bank,
chartered Jan. 10, and the
Citizens Bank of Freeland,
organized Jan. 20.
Hazleton Nationals first
president, Augustus S. Van
Wickle, was an anthracite
coal producer with mines in
Milnesville. His wife, the former Bessie Pardee, was
daughter of the late Mr. and
Mrs. Ario Pardee.
The banks first vice president, Elliott P. Kisner, was a
philanthropist who aided
efforts to establish an industrial school for boys in
Drums, hence the name
Kis-Lyn.
The original site of the
bank was in the building
next to P. Deisroth Sons old
Markle Banks rooftop sign was as much a landmark store and was formerly occupied by the Hazleton Savings
as the building itself.
Bank. This location, a familfinance more than 80 percent were granted for sums
iar landmark to the people of
of the homes in Weatherly
between $450 and $1,000. To
Hazleton, was remodeled
and outlying areas.
borrow, a person had to pur- twice in 21 years to meet the
In late 1889, the Middle
chase a certain number of
rapidly increasing business.
Coal Field Building and
shares of stock which were
HNBs deposits were
Loan Association was estab- used, in addition to the
$223,000 in July 1890. That
lished. A preliminary meethouse, as collateral.
figure rose to $590,000 six
ing was held June 17, 1889 in
For many years, Middle
months later and to
the office of attorney Kline,
Coal Field had no office;
$1,070,204 by Jan. 1, 1894.
a state senator. It was attend- money was deposited and
Citizens was organized
ed mostly by bankers,
payments were made only
with capital of $50,000 and
because banks at that time
when the board met. By the
1,000 shares of stock worth
were not interested in home end of its fifth year, assets
$50 per share. Joseph Birkmortgages. Capital stock was were approximately $169,000. beck was elected its first
set at 2,500 shares at $200
On May 19, 1888, 13 share- president April 9, 1890, and
each, or $500,000. A charter
holders literally investing
the banks first home was in
was granted Dec. 5, 1889.
in the future opened the
the Geritz Building on Front
Profits at the end of the
First National Bank of
Street. On Sept. 26, 1895, the
first year were $6,918. Loans Hazleton, the citys first
bank awarded a contract for
construction of a new building at 716-18 Centre St.

Two years later, Hazletons
first bank underwent big
changes.
The partnerships that had
formed Markle Brothers and
Co. were terminated and the
institution purchased Hazleton Savings Bank, increasing
its capital stock to $100,000.
Its name was changed to
Markle Bank & Trust Co.
one that would be around for
the next 60 years.
In 1895, the West Hazleton
Building and Loan Association was established. It eventually became part of the
Greater Pennsylvania Savings Association, which later
operated as American Savings Bank.
The 1900s brought continued growth to the Greater
Hazleton area and to its
banking industry.
On June 19, 1905, the Peoples Savings and Trust Co.
opened for business in the
Hazle Hall building on West
Broad Street, next door to
the Julius Hyman store.
Peoples began work on a
new home four years later.
Also that year, First National
transformed the former
Luzerne residence on Broad
Street into its new offices.
Hazletons first bank,
meanwhile, gave the city
another first one year later.
The 12-story Markle Bank
Building, completed in 1910,
was the citys first skyscraper. A six-story addition was
completed in 1923, and the
banking room was enlarged
and renovated in 1928.
See banks,Y45
Then&Now
11:45 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Y45
Economy evolves
Banks
A private restaurant, the
Hazleton Club, was located
on the top floor. Bank
employees ate their lunch
there; at night, it was open to
the public.
Citizens Bank also built a
new home in 1911, at 620 N.
Centre St., Freeland.
In May 1922, Hazleton
National purchased the
southeast corner of Broad
and Laurel streets the section of the city known as
Pardee Square. In August
1924, the bank moved into a
modern bank and office
building.
Luring customers
With competition now

fierce among the banks,
improvements to better serve
customers became almost
mandatory. Promotional gimmicks also were used in an
attempt to lure customers.
First National called itself
the Bank of Friendly Service from its early days. At
its annual meeting in 1912,
bylaws were adopted that
said tellers must perform an
honest and faithful discharge of ... duties ... by virtue of their office.
Peoples, by its 10th anniversary in 1915, boasted that
it was ranked first in deposits among the 50 banks, both
national and state, established during that time. Its
services had expanded to
include Christmas and vacation clubs; savings accounts
could be opened with $1.
In 1930, Peoples celebrated
its 25th anniversary with the
theme, A spirit of optimism. The anniversary program stated, To accommodate our customers, we completely remodeled our
building in 1925. Keeping
pace with modern business
methods, new systems and
devices have been installed.
On July 19, 1924, the First
National Bank of Nuremberg
was organized, introducing
banking services to the
Schuylkill County village.
The Markle Bank held a
gala stockholders dinner at
the Altamont on May 23,
1927, to celebrate its 60th
anniversary. Also that year,
the bank temporarily relocated to a storeroom at Broad
and Wyoming streets vacated
by the Boston Store Co. while
its banking room was
enlarged.
When completed in January 1928, Alvan Markle Jr.,
vice president, called it one
of the finest banking rooms
possible, with every facility
for the best possible service.
Two more thrift institutions were established in the
1920s Freeland Building &
Loan Association on Aug. 11,
1923, and Union Savings &
Loan Association in June
1926. Union eventually
became Mountain City Savings and Loan, which later
became part of Security Savings.
While the Depression of
the late 1920s and early 30s
claimed many financial
institutions, Hazleton actually gained two. And one of its
existing banks explored other ways of serving its customers.
A Markle Bank ad in the
Jan. 23, 1932 edition of The
Plain Speaker and StandardSentinel stated: Travel
today is speedier and more
luxurious than ever before,
and furthermore there are
real travel bargains today
in cruises to Bermuda,
Havana, West Indies, Florida
and to all other famous
southern resorts and ports.
To those who are planning a
trip by steamship or rail we
offer our services in securing accommodations, tickets
and other details. We also
furnish letters of credit and
travelers checks. See our
Travel Department.
In 1934, the Traders Bank
was established.
A year later, the Hazleton
Federal Savings and Loan
Association known later
as First Federal Savings
was founded with total
resources of $5,072. That was
barely over the required
$5,000. Its federal charter was
granted June 3, 1935, and the

S&L opened for business
June 27 on the eighth floor of
the Markle building. Andrew
J. Leib was Hazleton Federals original president.
Because of immediate
growth, and for customers
convenience, its offices
moved to 13 N. Wyoming St.
on July 1, 1937. For the same
reasons, Hazleton Federal
moved again on Aug. 1, 1941,
to the landmark Schwarz
building at 12 E. Broad St.
Hazleton National Bank
expanded into Carbon County during the 1940s.
In March 1942, it acquired
the First National Bank of
Weatherly. Four months later, HNB acquired the First
National Bank of Lehighton
and the Citizens National
Bank of Lehighton. And in
May 1945 it acquired the
Weissport National Bank.
Area banks continued to
expand during the 1950s,
opening branches in other
parts of Hazleton to better
serve their customers.
The trendsetter, of course,
was the Markle Bank, which
reported deposits of $12.5
million and resources of $15
million as of May 6, 1952, its
85th anniversary.
On Nov. 23, 1953, the bank
opened a branch office in the
new Genetti supermarket on
West 15th Street in Hazleton.
A newspaper account stated, Officers of the Markle
Company feel an operation
of this type will become a
part of future food enterprises throughout the nation,
and that there will be an
increased demand for this
convenience in banking.
How right they were.
In 1957, the Hazleton
National Bank opened a
branch its fifth office at
the Hazleton Shopping Center. And in 1959 the First
National Bank opened an
office at North Church and
Seventh streets.
But the new offices didnt
mean the banks were
neglecting their old facilities.
First National completely
remodeled and modernized
its main office on West
Broad Street in 1951.
Hazleton Federal, meanwhile, moved to temporary
quarters in the Hotel
Loughran building, at 21 E.
Broad St. on June 1, 1954. Its
building was demolished to
make way for a new home,
which opened April 11, 1955.
Assets at that time had
grown to $8 million. On Nov.
1, 1959, Hazleton Federal
changed its name to First
Federal Savings and Loan
Association of Hazleton.
In 1961, as a result of continued growth, the renamed
Middle Coal Field Savings
and Loan Association moved
to the northeast corner of
Broad and Wyoming streets
now the location of Hazle
Drugs and the former home
of The Hub mens clothing
store. Assets at that time
were more than $5 million.
largest outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

On Jan. 6, 1964, Northeastern acquired the Traders
Bank. Announcement of the
merger on Nov. 22, 1963, took a
back seat to more important
news of that day President
John F. Kennedys assassination in Dallas, Texas.
Founded in 1934, Traders
had expanded rapidly during
its 30 years of operation. Its
office continued in operation
until Northeasterns facilities in the former Markle
building were renovated.
Three days before the
Traders deal took effect, the
First Second National Bank
& Trust Co. of Wilkes-Barre
established by a merger of
the First and Second on Sept.
12, 1957 made its first presence in the area.
First Second acquired the
White Haven Savings Bank,
which had deposits of $2.5
million, as its sixth branch.
On April 1, 1966, First Second acquired the Conyngham National Bank, with
deposits of $3 million. The
bank had its main office in
Conyngham and a branch in
Drums.
A big change in the banking industry occurred Aug. 1
of that year, when the First
National Bank of Hazleton
and the Peoples Savings and
Trust Co. merged to form
Peoples First National Bank
and Trust Co. The new bank
moved into ultra-modern
headquarters an addition
to the existing Peoples building at the corner of Broad
and Wyoming streets.
Peoples First immediately
began to grow, opening
branch offices in Conyngham in 1966, at the Church
Hill Mall in 1967, in Lehighton in 1969 and at the Laurel
Mall in 1973.
A much smaller merger,
which took effect March 17,
1969, combined the First
National Bank of Nuremberg into the Hazleton
National Bank. It put HNBs
presence in a third county.
The Schuylkill County
Combining
office was HNBs sixth. Its
A number of bank merggrowth didnt stop there, as
ers in the 1950s and 60s were the bank added a Conynthe first of radical changes
gham office at the Brookhill
the areas banking industry
Center on March 26, 1973 and
would see in the next halfa branch at North Church
century.
and 29th streets Oct. 23, 1976.
On Aug. 1, 1958, a merger
Its ninth office, which
of the Markle Banking and
opened at South Wyoming
Trust Co., the Wilkes-Barre
and Juniper streets Nov. 21,
Deposit and Savings Bank
1983, provided HNB customand the First National Bank ers with downtown drive-in
and Trust Co. of Scranton
service.
formed an area bank
Also merging, on March
named the Northeastern
18, 1968, was the First NationPennsylvania National Bank al Bank of McAdoo into the
and Trust Co. Ceremonies in Reading-based American
all three cities that day
Bank and Trust Co. of Pennmarked the grand opening
sylvania. American later
of the so-called tri-city bank. became part of the ReadingMarkle officials said the
based Meridian Bancorp
merger was in full agreeInc., and all its offices took on
ment with our historic polithe Meridian name.
cy. For over 90 years we have
The citys savings and
served the Hazleton area in
loan associations didnt let
the best interests of our cus- the banks grow without
tomers. ... By this merger we them.
not only continue our policy
First Federal Savings and
of service to the area but
Loan built new offices in
enlarge and expand it to fit
Bloomsburg in 1964 and in
todays mode of living and
Pottsville in 1965. In 1968, it
working.
established an office in
The merged bank had
Shenandoah after merging
total resources of $150 milwith the Shenandoah Mutulion, making it the 11th larg- al Building and Loan Associest in Pennsylvania and the
ation. In 1971, the association
Peoples Savings & Trust in downtown Hazleton.

entered a fourth county by
merging with the Lehightonbased First Federal Savings
of Carbon County.
In 1969, the Middle Coal
Field Savings and Loan
Association moved from its 1
E. Broad St. location into the
former First National Bank
offices at 31 W. Broad. As
part of its transformation, it
was decided that a name
change was in order.
The association ran a contest, and the name Security
Savings Association was
suggested by 104 entrants
a 10-to-1 edge over other suggestions. That name adorned
the front entrance of its new,
modern headquarters when
it opened April 14, 1969.
Security at that time had
assets of $9 million.
Citizens Bank of Freeland, meanwhile, opened two
Hazleton branches in the
1960s. On June 28, 1965, it
opened an office at 383 S.
Poplar St. And on July 3,
1968, it located downtown in
the former Traders Bank
building at Broad and Wyoming streets.
In April 1972, Citizens
merged with First Valley
Bank of Bethlehem. First
Valley, which was operating
in Carbon, Lehigh and
Northampton counties, also
merged with the Kingstonbased State Bank of Eastern
Pennsylvania at the same
time.
The newly acquired banks
changed their name to First
Valley, giving the bank 20
offices from the Wyoming
Valley to the Lehigh Valley
and assets of more than $300
million.
Also in the early 1970s, the
Miners Bank and Trust Co.
of West Hazleton merged
with United Penn Bank of
Wilkes-Barre, bringing the
United Penn name to the
area. In addition to its main
office at McKennas Corners,
Miners had a branch in the
Valmont Shopping Plaza.
That office was closed a few
years later by United Penn as
the shopping center deteriorated.
In December 1976, First
Federal Savings held a party
to celebrate the growth of its
assets to more than $100 million only the 48th S&L of
444 in the state to pass the
milestone. First Federals
assets totaled $165 million in
1981, when it remodeled its
downtown office, adding the
third and fourth floors and
an elevator.
In 1986, the Anthracite
Building and Loan Association of Weatherly merged
with Security Savings. The
new association had assets
of more than $70 million.
Most area banks entered
the computer age in the
1980s, with automatic teller
machines appearing everywhere. The ATMs, the banks
boasted, could provide
24-hour banking, seven days
a week even on holidays.
Northeastern Bank
became the first financial
institution in Northeastern
Pennsylvania to reach $1 billion in total assets at the
close of business Dec. 21,
1982. It was the states 16thlargest bank.
By that time, Northeast-
ern had changed both its

locations in Greater Hazleton. Its downtown office was
housed in a new building at
Broad and Church streets,
while its branch had been
moved from West 15th Street
to the Valmont Parkway in
Hazle Township.
Later in the 1980s, Northeastern was acquired by the
PNC Financial Corp., the
15th-largest bank in the United States.
Two huge mergers in the
1980s combined Hazletons
only locally owned banks
with larger companies, part
of the nationwide formation
of bank-holding companies.
On Sept. 30, 1984, the
Hazleton National and First
Valley banks combined.
HNB became a wholly
owned affiliate of the First
Valley Corp. and retained its
identity. At the time of the
merger, combined assets
were estimated at $912 million.
In 1987, Hazleton National
opened its 10th full-service
office, and seventh ATM, at
the rejuvenated Valmont
Shopping Plaza in West
Hazleton.
On Jan. 29, 1988, the First
Valley Corp. was acquired by
United Jersey Banks in a
transaction valued at $265
million. The resulting company was a $10 billion financial services organization,
with 245 offices in 22 counties of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
On Nov. 13, 1989, the First
Valley name left Greater
Hazleton forever. Five offices
two in Hazleton and one
each in Freeland, Nesquehoning and Lansford
reopened under the Hazleton
National Bank name. That
gave HNB 15 offices and 10
auto tellers.
Peoples First National,
meanwhile, held a Second
Century Celebration in
1988, featuring a number of
community-wide events and
a transaction that would
change its own history.
In August of that year,
Peoples was acquired by the
First Eastern Corp. of Wilkes-Barre in a $63 million
stock transaction. Peoples
kept its name and charter in
the transaction.
First Eastern was not new
to Greater Hazleton. Among
its 50 offices in eight counties
were branches in Conyngham,
Drums and White Haven.
On Feb. 16, 1990, First Federal Savings Association

announced its intent to
become a federally chartered
stock savings bank. In September of that year, the
Office of Thrift Supervision
approved the creation of
First Federal Bank.
Meanwhile, the poor condition of banking stocks
delayed the opening of the
Community Bank of Greater
Hazleton. It had expected to
open in the fall of 1990 in the
Northeastern (Markle) building at Broad and Wyoming
streets. Emerson W. Knyrim,
who was hired as president,
said the bank hoped to hire a
staff of 10 to 12 people.
Articles of incorporation
were approved in January
1990 by the state Department
of Banking. Conditional
membership approval was
granted in May 1990 by the
Federal Reserve Bank of
Philadelphia. The bank never opened.
The effort was a response
to the various merger activities of the 1980s that left
Hazleton without a locally
owned bank.
By the mid-2000s, the
banking names that local
residents had been familiar
with for decades vanished
forever.
On June 20, 1994, First
Eastern (and Peoples)
merged with PNC Bank.
First Federal, which
became a bank in March
1998, was acquired by Keystone Nazareth Bank and
Trust on May 21, 2005. Prior
to that, First Federal had
acquired Security Savings.
KNBT later would be
acquired by National Penn
Bank, which soon plans to
merge into BB&T Corp.
Hazleton National Bank,
meanwhile, lost its name for
good in 1996 when it was
acquired by Summit Bancorp.
In 2001, Fleet Boston Financial acquired Summit. Those
banking offices later were
acquired by Bank of America, which in November 2005
closed its downtown banking
office in the HNB building.
Bank of America sold its
local branches in December
2013 to Syracuse, New Yorkbased Community Bank.
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11:41 | GRECOTONY
Economy evolves
Then&Now
Duplan Silk Mill was areas second big employer

By DAVE SEAMON
worlds largest silk mills during its heyday.

But if it werent for enactWhile anthracite coal put ment of the Dingley Tariff,
Hazleton on the national
the Paris-based company
map, the citys once-bustling probably never would have
textile industry thanks in batted an eye toward Hazlelarge part to one company ton.
captured worldwide attenThe legislation made
tion through the first half of importation of French silks
this century.
into the United States so difThe Duplan Silk Corp.
ficult that J.L. Duplan and
once reached an annual pay- his associates in 1898 decided
roll of $5 million, employed
to establish a domestic tex2,000-plus area residents,
tile industry.
annually produced about 25
After an unsuccessful start
million yards of cloth and
at a rented mill in South
processed more than 8 milBethlehem, Duplan officials
lion pounds of yarn a year concentrated on finding a
easily making it one of the
site suitable for the location
Sports Editor
and erection of a large mill,

designed specifically to produce piece dyed broad silks.
That search took them to
many cities and towns in
New England and Pennsylvania, where Hazleton was
among the last cities visited.
Duplans first impressions
of the city nearly caused him
and the industrys founders
not to locate here, according
to a company pamphlet put
out for the firms 20th anniversary in 1918.
Even before their visit, a
city official from a neighboring community warned
Duplan that Hazleton was
comprised of the most
undesirable elements, citing

as proof the Lattimer Massacre, where striking miners
engaged in a bloody showdown with Luzerne County
sheriffs shortly before
Duplan visited the area.
Additionally, a preliminary inspection of proposed
Hazleton sites seemed most
unsatisfactory to Duplan and
his associates, who unanimously wanted their silk
mill to be located in a misty
valley to ensure proper
humidity of the atmosphere;
Hazleton, though, was on top
of a mountain.
Furthermore, they figured, a large mill ought to be
located within close proximity of an extensive population

so it may always have an
ample supply of help. At that
time, the Hazleton Board of
Trade (now known as the
Greater Hazleton Chamber
of Commerce) said the city
had a population of 25,000,
even though the most recent
census reported 10,000 city
residents.
While population figures
discouraged Duplan officials,
Hazletons best tract of
land dismayed them even
further. Some company
founders called the plot a no
mans land because it was
dotted with mine caves and
traversed by an open sewer.
With their decision to give
up on Hazleton apparently
The tower of the landfinal, Duplan and his busimark Duplan industrial
ness partners planned to
building on East Diamond

See DUPLAN,Y48 Avenue rises into the fog.
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11:45 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Economy evolves
Then&Now
Downtown
Greco later opened a pharmacy and card shop in the
building. It closed again in
2005 and was demolished in
2011. A new park one piece
of the downtown revitalization plan now occupies
the site.
Sharing the busy intersection with the Leader was
Deisroths, a fixture in downtown Hazleton since 1871.
Brothers Peter and William Deisroth came to the
area from Germany in the
mid-1800s. In later years,
both went their separate
ways. William started the
Deisroth Co. Clothier and the
Deisroth Grocery Store at
and Peter opened Lauderburn and Smith what
would become the department store in 1871 at
Broad and Laurel.
In 1935, Deisroths moved
the department store into the
building at Broad and Laurel
that remained its location
until 1989. Additionally, the
family operated Deisroths
Home Center in the same
block for a number of years.
Next door to the Leader
was the Charles Store and
Grants five and dime. W.T.
Grant and Co., a national
chain, expanded in 1959 and
took over the entire building.
The chain went bankrupt in
1976, however, and its Hazleton store closed less than two
weeks after the Leader shuttered.
After Dollar General
Stores operated there for a
short time, Greco bought the
then-vacant building in June
1976 for $166,782. At the time,
he said the Leader and Grant
properties could be combined into a single, large
retail complex.
The Bon-Ton Department
Store, on West Broad
between Laurel and Church
streets, closed in January
1962 after 57 years in business. The firm was established in 1905 in the Seager
building at Broad and
Church, then moved to its
last location in 1920.
Kresges, which was next
to the Deisroth building, survived the longest. It stayed
open until 1987, when
McCrorys bought the store
chain from the Kmart Corp.
It continued operating
through the early 1990s.
ruptcy and the plazas

other occupants followed.
A year later, a fire damaged the restaurant portion
of the plaza, which prompted
Mark Development Inc. of
Kingston which had purchased the shopping center a
few months later to rejuvenate it. The plazas first
tenant, Hills Department
Store, opened its anchor
store in September 1986.
Its opening sparked the
interest of other tenants and
the center was filled by the
early 1990s.
Today, the plaza is under
different ownership and its
anchors include Michaels,
Big Lots and Tractor Supply.
Another mile north on
Route 93 an enclosed shopping mall opened its doors in
October 1973.
Dubbed The Center of
the Eighties, the
400,000-square-foot Laurel
Mall was developed by the
Fowler, Dick and Walker Co.
on a 90-acre piece of land in
Hazle and Sugarloaf townships. Its two anchors were
Fowler, Dick and Walker/
The Boston Store and the
Zayre department store
with 40 shops in between.
Near the mall entrance on
Route 93, a separate building
housed an A&P supermarket
and other stores.
The mall triggered retail
development of surrounding
property on Route 93 that
included construction of restaurants, a mini-mart and a
strip mall.
In 1980, the Reading-based
Boscov department store
chain bought Fowler, Dick
and Walker stores at the mall
and in downtown WilkesBarre, and reopened them as
Boscovs. The mall store
opened in October 1980.
The mall was expanded in
the mid-1990s to add a third
anchor store, occupied by
JCPenney. Dunhams Sports
now fills that space, while
Kmart is the malls other
anchor.
The Laurel Mall wasnt
the Hazleton areas first
enclosed shopping mall.
On Nov. 1, 1967, the
Church Hill Mall opened at
23rd and North Church
streets in Hazle Township.
Its anchors were Gaylords, a
discount department store
which occupied 70,000
square feet at the malls western end near Route 309, and
One-stop shopping
Genettis supermarket,
In the late 1950s, Greater
which occupied the same
Hazleton residents were
amount of space at the other
introduced to a new concept end near Route 940.
in shopping where stores
By the early 1990s, malls
are centralized in one locawere thriving while busition with plenty of free park- nesses in the downtown
ing.
struggled to survive. City
The Hazleton Shopping
leaders moved ahead with
Center, on West Broad Street, revitalization efforts.
developed by the Eyerman
ARCH, streetscape
Construction Co. of WilkesBarre, opened April 3, 1957.
In the early 1980s, private
Some of its original tenants funding helped launch the
included Rea & Derick drug- Alliance to Revitalize Centerstore, Acme/Super Saver
city Hazleton (ARCH). Quigfood market, Hazleton
ley, prior to becoming mayor,
National Bank and J.S. Raub served as its first director.
Shoes. In later years, Weis
In later years, the nonprofMarkets and the Town &
it corporation secured
Country department store
grants from the state Departwere built on the western
ment of Community Affairs
end of the property. Kmart
and undertook a number of
later replaced Town & Coun- projects to improve the
try. Ollies Bargain Outlet
appearance of the downtown
also occupied the store for a
with the hope of attracting
time. It now sits vacant.
new retailers.
About two miles north on
It launched a streetscape
Route 93, the Valmont Plaza
project that rebuilt two
in West Hazleton was built in blocks of Broad Street
1961 by Tower Marts Inc. of
between Church and WyoNew York. The L-shaped
ming streets. Brick-lined
facility was anchored by
sidewalks, old-style
Towers, an Ohio-based disstreetlamps, benches and a
count department store
clock were installed. Other
chain that later changed its
businesses were urged to use
name to Clarks, then to
the same plans when replacCooks.
ing their sidewalks.
Cooks pulled out in 1984
Funds dried up and the
a year before the chain
project didnt extend beyond
filed for Chapter 11 bankthose two blocks.
Congratulations
Hazleton Standard Speaker Newspaper
On Your 150th Anniversary!
Thank you for all youve done and continue
to do for the Hazleton Area!
ROUTE 309, HAZLETON
(570) 454-2414
Mon.-Thurs. 9-8; Fri. 9-6; Sat. 9-4
Y47
The Lehigh Valley Railroad Station was located on South Church Street in downtown Hazleton where the Church Street Station intermodal center now stands.
A name from the past
resurfaced in 1987 when Greco announced plans to develop a multi-million-dollar
shopping complex at Broad
and Laurel. The Grant building was demolished and the
property converted into a
parking lot; the street level
of the Leader was renovated
and housed Greco Centrum,
a drugstore and card and gift
shop.
In the late 1980s and early
90s, a number of other projects were launched with the
hope of improving the
appearance of the downtown. They include construction of Grand Plaza, a twolevel mini-mall at Broad and
Vine streets; renovation of
the former Skateland into
the J.J. Ferrara Performing
Arts Center (now occupied
by Pennsylvania Theatre of
Performing Arts), and construction of the CAN DO
Renaissance Center at Broad
and Church streets.
In the early 1990s, empty
storefronts and vacant lots
dotted the landscape in
downtown Hazleton but
news reports said the number of new businesses had
been increasing for the city
of 24,500 residents.
The landscape in downtown Hazleton continued
evolving through the early
2000s, with the former Powell
and Reinhart furniture
stores at the southeast corner of East Broad and Pine
as well as the Eltons
building meeting the
wrecking ball.
Once eyed as a connector
building and Broad Street
entrance to an intermodal
that opened in 2009 at South
Church and Mine streets, the
Eltons property has been
turned into a parking lot.
The lot where the furniture stores once stood
remains vacant.
In the early 2000s, the
administration of then-mayor Lou Barletta launched a
project for demolishing row
homes, factories and a warehouse in the North Pine
Street neighborhood to clear
the way for about two dozen
energy-efficient homes that
were built with environmentally friendly materials.
Efforts to save the tallest

building in the downtown
came to fruition in 2001,
when businessman George F.
Hayden formed Hazleton
Development Co. and purchase the Markle building,
which turned 100 years old in
2010. Today, it houses a number of commercial, retail and
professional offices.
In 2010, the city experienced its first population
increase in 70 years, with
25,340 people calling Hazleton home.
Latest efforts
A public-private partnership, the alliance for progress, formed three years later
with the goal of revitalizing
and ensuring long-term success for the downtown, its
director Schneider said.
A major component
involves Downtown Hazleton
Development, which owns
the majority of commercial
office space in the downtown
and has invested millions
into rehabilitating historic
bank buildings, she said.
While some of the goals
remain unchanged over the
years attracting and supporting merchants
Schneider said the group faces a very different set of
challenges from 25 years ago.
Because of the high percentage of Hispanic residents
and business owners, we
have to find ways to engage
and work with the Latino
community, Schneider said.
This is very difficult due to
language barriers and cultural differences. But, we need to
keep trying. The economy of
the downtown is segregated,
and it is going to take time for
these barriers to be breached.
We are trying to work with
leaders within the Hispanic
business community to figure out how to do that.
The alliance is also battling a perception that the
downtown is unsafe, which
Schneider said is untrue.
The citys crime rate has
increased but the downtowns has not, she said.
Despite this, the perception
is that the downtown is not
safe and so we are battling
this perception and the poor
image of the city in general.
Cant Lose Your Money!

Turning 65 or Retiring?
A number of new businesses have opened since the

downtown alliance formed
in 2013.
They include a field office
for AFLAC Insurance; Bumblebee Daycare; Flying Dove
Clothing Store;
Reuther+Bowen PC, Engineering Design & Construction Services; Haggerty,
Goldberg, Schleifer & Kupersmith legal firm; the chiropractic office of Dr. Andrew
Indriso; Milcisevents, Event
Planning & Flower Arrangements; the Kalegria.com
Internet radio station; Exclusively Anas Clothing; Community Justice Project;
Lagom Paradise, Wedding
Gowns, Formal Dresses and
Party Linens; Grand SixPacks to Go; the SpanishChristian radio station
WEVB 99.1 FM; CR General
Services, UP Insurance and
Tax Services, J-Cellphone
and Max Cleaners.
The downtown alliance
has also been working to
developing infrastructure to
support growth, she said.
A public-private partnership involving DHD Realty
has helped the firm complete
the first phase of core and
shell renovations at the former Traders Bank building.
When completed in the summer or fall, the building will
serve as world headquarters
for DBi Services and bring
approximately 140 jobs to the
downtown, Schneider said.
Pedestrian bridges link
the Traders and Markle
buildings to a parking
garage on South Wyoming
Street, which was renovated
this year with about $1.6 million in state gaming funds.
Progress at the Traders
building was questioned in
late 2015, with then-mayor
Joseph Yannuzzi and developer Neal A. DeAngelo at
odds over reasons for delays.
DeAngelo, however, insists
his firm is committed to the
building and the downtown.
Meanwhile, DHDs plans for
renovating the Hazleton
National Bank building are
in the design phase, according to Schneider.
The downtown alliance
has teamed with Greater
sgalski@standardspeaker.com
Hazleton Chamber of Com-
ur est ishes on tandard-Speakers 150th Anniversary!
AAm
merippriseFinancialServices,Inc.
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4001 Holllywood Blvd.
Hazle Tow
wnship, PA 18202-3265
Tel: 570.4
454.4048 Fax: 570.454.2327
Toll Free
e: 800.820.2827
timothy..j.stasko@ampf.com
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Con
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tio
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& Bes
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she
hes
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to the Standard Speaker on your
150
th
Continuing
Outstanding
News Coverage in the Community.
Laurel Mall
Hazl
on
merce and CAN DO for hosting programs aimed at supporting and cultivating businesses, while CAN DO
purchased the Remember
When building and plans to
convert it into a downtown
business incubator.
The incubator would be
geared toward developing
restaurants and give budding
businesses the opportunity
to prepare and serve food.
Next to the new park at
Broad and Laurel streets, the
downtown alliance wants to
convert the former Security
Savings property into a City
Arts Center. Two plans have
been designed for the facility,
which would feature galleries, classrooms, a gift shop,
kitchen and other amenities
and serve as the new home
of the Hazleton Art League.
Costs were developed
based on two options for construction, a $2 million proposal that would renovate
the Security Savings property and an alternative plan
that would include upgrades
and an addition that would
be built at the back of a
vacant lot that houses a
pocket park. The addition
would add about $700,000 to
the price tag.
The new arts center is
envisioned to be the new
home of the Hazleton Art
League and a center for art
education programs, workshops and special community and cultural events,
Schneider explained.
As of late November, the
alliance secured a $475,000
gaming grant that will be
used for getting the building
up to code. Hazleton City
Council also authorized the
group to apply for a $525,000
Keystone Communities Public Improvement Grant for
additional renovations.
Other initiatives undertaken by the group include a
facade improvement project
and a grant submission for
$1 million for funding a
streetscape rehabilitation
project on North Wyoming
Street. The facade minigrant program secured
$85,000 through mid-November that funded work at 13 E.
Broad St. and 118 W. Broad
St. The alliance also was
involved in a masonry restoration project at the Salvation Army Thrift Store.
Increasing green space,
reducing blight and improving cleanliness of the downtown are other goals for helping the group achieve its
vision, which Schneider said
is turning downtown Hazleton into a strong, competitive and prosperous center
for multicultural business
growth, education and entrepreneurship ... that is
enriched by a mix of new
and existing retail shops and
specialty services, casual and
upscale dining and entertainment, and cultural institutions, events and programs.
Timothy J. Stasko, CFP
Financial Advisor
Certified Financial Planner
practitioner
Congratulations!
For over 60 years,
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has been advertising with
The Hazleton Standard Speaker.
Their continuous excellent service
is a testament to their
150 years of success!
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Economy evolves
Then&Now
Duplan
leave the city to look at other
prospective locations for
their mill, when they dramatically changed their minds.
The visitors suddenly
happened upon a public
school at the time children
were being dismissed, reads
the companys 20th anniversary brochure. In a few
moments they were surrounded by a crowd of rosycheeked, happy-faced youngsters and out of the building
there seemed to issue an endless stream of the same kind.
The pretty sight itself
and especially the various
types of nationalities represented, immediately fascinated Mr. Duplan. This is, he
considered, a better proof of

the population than all the
official records of the census.
When Duplan was told
there were 15 such schools in
the city and surrounding
townships, he immediately
hailed the areas educational
setup as sufficient reason to
outweigh any previous disadvantages of locating a silk
mill here and put Hazleton back on the list of towns
eligible for the facility.
The Board of Trade
agreed to raise $10,000 by
public subscription for the
purchase of the land, while
city banks took $40,000 worth
of bonds in order to secure
the new mill.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad kicked in the first $5,000
of the public subscription

drive, setting the stage for
citizen donations ranging
from $200 to 25 cents.
Speeches extolling the
company were delivered to
clubs, schools and churches
in an effort to bring the community a healthy industry
one that would employ
young women and men with
no other opportunity to
work, except in the mines.
Ultimately, Hazletons
diverse population base and
a successful public subscription campaign sold Duplan
officials on the city. They
decided to locate here in the
spring of 1898, much to the
delight of area residents.
In 1899, the original mill
came into existence with
much fanfare, though every-
one involved in the expansive industry needed some

time to become acclimated to
its intricate operations.
From 1900 to 1909, the mill
developed gradually into a
viable entity despite a constant wave of inexperienced
workers who needed training, a staff organization
which had to be built up and
ever-changing technical business conditions which had to
be monitored continuously.
As the years went on, the
Duplan mill embarked upon
still further improvements
and additions. By 1918, the
plant comprised 558,550
square feet of occupied floor
space, built on 23.8 acres of
land. The building stood 700
feet long and 105 feet wide,
four stories high on the
northern end (Diamond Avenue) and five stories high on

the southern (Fulton Court).
While the Duplan facility
manufactured nationally
and world-renowned silk
weaves, perhaps its greatest
contribution came during
one of historys most tragic
events World War I.
Like similar mills in other
parts of the United States,
the local plant suddenly and
successfully turned its fruitful silk looms to the production of gunpowder bags and
other silk cloths needed for
the military ordnance.
Slowly but surely, the
Duplans honeymoon with
Hazleton began to erode. The
once-thriving plant started
to sputter soon after the
Great Depression. And as it
slipped from its perch as one

of the worlds elite textile
mills in the late 1930s, company heads joined forces
with city officials to keep a
Hazleton institution intact.
In 1953, however, the
Duplan Silk Corp. and Hazleton parted company. The
firm closed the doors of
what had been the oldest and
largest manufacturing facility in the Duplan family.
The building now is
owned by Sargent Art Inc., a
longtime tenant, and
remains one of the only
reminders of a bygone era
when textile too, was king.
This story appeared in
Pages From the Past, the
Keystone Job Corps Center
The NEPA Manufacturers

& Employers Association
JOB CORPS
Congratulate
THREE MILLION
would like to
150
11:42 | GRECOTONY
STRONG
The Standard Speaker
th
on its
Anniversary!
Your Business Resource Partner
This anniversary is a
remarkable milestone and is
a true testament to your dedication
and commitment to
serving Hazleton
throughout these many years.
Congratulations on your
th
150
Since 1956, Hazletons newspapers have been reporting the headlines of Greater
Hazletons economic development accomplishments. In honor of the important role it
has played as a media partner in our quest to improve the lives of the residents of the
communities we serve, CAN DO salutes the Standard-Speaker on its 150th anniversary.
www.hazletoncando.com
11:42 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Y5
Then&Now
Technology
(Continued from Y4)
heart of the conversion.
The new room would house
a Goss Cosmo press, measuring 85 feet long, 8 feet
wide and 15 feet high. The
press was capable of producing 50,000 papers with as
many as 64 pages every
hour and for the first time,
would allow the StandardSpeaker to print full-color
photographs.
Before the new press
went online, the editorial
department changed the
way it prepared the news
for the second time. Beginning in 1975, reporters stories, written on IBM Selectric typewriters, were fed
into an optical character
reader that scanned the
typed characters and
punched a tape much
like the ticker tape of
stock market fame that
was fed into a computerized
typesetter. The typesetter
shot a high intensity light
through the holes in the
tape and produced copy on
glossy photo paper, ready to
be pasted onto a page.
The reporters and editors
were still using typewriters,
but instead of the type
being set by composing
room employees, it was now
being set by a computerized
typesetter. It was a monumental change in producing
a newspaper.
On March 1, 1975, the
Standard-Speaker published its first complete edition using the offset press.
The result was a cleanerlooking newspaper with
sharper photographs and
type that was easier to read.
The transition to cold type
was complete. Gone were
the Linotypes, the molten
lead pots, the steel turtles
on which metal-type pages
were made and the Ludlow
Typographs that were used
to cast headlines.
The switch to cold type
set the stage for another
change, only six years later:
the move to computer production. In May 1981, the
Standard-Speaker installed
24 video display terminals
(VDTs), which resembled
television screens, in its
newsroom and classified
advertising department.
The monochromatic input
devices were linked to a
mainframe computer in the
composing room.
Reporters now typed
their stories on the VDTs
not typewriters and filed

them into the computer,
allowing editors to easily
make even extensive revisions. Editors also were able
to select a variety of type
sizes and styles , to vary column widths and to actually
write headlines on their terminals.
Edited stories could be set
in type with a few keystrokes, eliminating the
need for composing room
personnel to handle news
copy until it was time to
actually paste it onto the
page.
At the same time, the
newspaper changed the way
it receives stories from
around the world. The Associated Press installed a satellite dish antenna on the
roof of the Standard-Speaker building, allowing the
reception of APs
Datastream service, which
brought news stories into
the computer at the rate of
1,200 words per minute.
These developments
made the newsroom and
back shop much quieter
places.
Stories written by Standard-Speaker reporters and
by the Associated Press now
could be typeset at unprecedented speed, the newspaper informed its advertisers
in a brochure:
It can compose up to 800
lines per minute of news,
which is the equivalent of
four newspaper columns of
type, an achievement that
would have been considered
impossible 25 years ago. The
phototypesetter is now setting more type than was set
by the entire crew of Linotype operators in a fraction
of the time.
Many of the advertisements that appear in the
Standard-Speaker also were
produced by compositors
working with video display
terminals. The newspapers
business office also was
computerized.
A little more than a
decade later, in the mid1990s, another phase of the
newspapers production
was computerized.
A process called pagination enabled the editor to
design an entire page on a
computer screen. Stories
could be edited on the
screen and the entire package, including photographs,
could be sent to the pressroom as a negative that was
Pressmen set ink on the Standard-Speakers Goss letterpress in the early 1960s.
then exposed via ultraviolet
light onto a specially treated
sheet of metal that created
a plate for the press and
eliminated the process of
cold type and the paste-up
phase.
Also gone are the printed
photographs that once were
reproduced on a larger camera and converted back into
a negative for inclusion on a
page. In 2001, StandardSpeaker photographer Ellen
F. OConnell took the first
locally produced digital
photos in Atlantic City, New
Jersey, during coverage of
the Miss America pageant
where Hazleton resident
Rosalyn Menon competed
as Miss Pennsylvania.
Editors continue to paginate the newspapers pages
today. And once those pages
are complete, the push of a
button produces not a negative, but a press plate that
comes out of a machine
not in the basement of the
Standard-Speaker building
but more than 50 miles
away at Times-Shamrock
Communications state-ofthe-art printing facility in
Waverly, Lackawanna County.
The satellite dish on the
roof is gone, too, replaced
by the Internet as the
source of national and
international news that

Standard-Speaker editors
put on its pages.
Reporters now write their
stories on laptops. Smartphones and the Internet
have given them, and photographers, the ability to
send their stories and photos to the newspaper office
from anywhere. And editors
are now posting those stories online, at standardspeaker.com and on Facebook and Twitter, among
other places, moments after
news happens, getting the
news out to our readers faster than the next days newspaper can be produced.
The oldtimers of todays
newspaper game can only
imagine what the next technological upgrade will bring.
But they know one thing
that will never change is
that it still takes hard work
and perseverance to get a
good story.
Retired managing editor
Carl Christopher and the
late Ray Saul, former managing editor and longtime
sports editor, compiled most
of the information.
Stanley DeCusatis, left, and John Jay Faust work

at a Mergenthaler phototypesetting machine in the
Standard-Speakers composing room. The machine used
light to read perforated tape and prepare columns of
news stories like the ones on this page.
The Standard-Speaker newsroom as it appeared in 1971. Some readers may recSTANDARD-SPEAKER FILE PHOTO
ognize Harrison M. Henritzy at the city desk, with Assistant Editor Vincent Citro facing
Linotype operators set columns of type for news stories in the hot lead days.
camera. Others visible include William Crooks, who retired as sports editor and William Above, John Evans, foreground, and Richard Hacker head up a line of machinery and
Bill Berry.
operators working on the next edition.
Pressman Robert
Boothe checks a
copy of the Standard-Speaker fresh
off the Goss Cosmo
offset press.
HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [Y06-07] | 01/11/16
11:42 | GRECOTONY
Y6 Standard-Speaker
Then&Now
1866
Red
letter
days
1866: The Hazleton

Sentinel launched as a
weekly newspaper on
Jan. 18 by John C.
Stokes and Fred A.
Lauderburn.
1875: The Sentinel
absorbed the Daily
News, which was
founded in 1870 and
began daily publication as the afternoon
Daily Sentinel.
1882: The Plain
Speaker was founded
as an afternoon paper
by John H. Dershuck
and J. Warren Lewis,
succeeding the Independent Democrat, a
weekly founded by
Dershuck in 1880. The
paper was later
changed to the morning field.
1885: The Daily
Standard was founded
as a semi-weekly. This
paper became a morning daily in 1892.
1894: William C.
Dershuck assumed
control of The Plain
Speaker and changed
it back to an afternoon
paper.
1912: The Hazleton
Sentinel was purchased by Henry Walser and George T. Kirkendall.
1917: Walser and
Kirkendall acquired
the Daily Standard and
began publicationn of
the morning StandardSentinel. Seven years
later Henry Walser
purchased Kirkendalls
interest and became
sole owner.
1920: The StandardSentinel moved to its
present newspaper
building at 21 N. Wyoming St., which it purchased from the Friedlander brothers, who
built it 10 years before.
1926: The operations of the StandardSpeaker and The Plain
Speaker were merged
into a morning-afternoon combination by
Henry Walser and
John R. Dershuck.
1961: The morningevening combination
was merged into an allday Hazleton StandardSpeaker by Frank
Walser.
1975: Full photocomposition was
achieved when a new
Goss Cosmo press
printed the March 1
edition.
1981: The computer
age came to the Standard-Speaker when
terminals were
installed in the editorial, composition and
advertising departments.
1995: The StandardSpeaker became a seven-day-a-week newspaper on Sept. 3 when
Standard-Speaker Sunday debuted.
2007: Times Shamrock Communications
purchases the Standard-Speaker from the
Walser family.
1950
1900
1850
1882
1875
1894
1885
1920
1912 1917
2000
1975
1926
Our story
2007
1981
1961
1995
Civil Wars end spawned 150 years of newspaper service to area

Hazletons newspapers can trace their roots back to
the Civil War, for it was during that bloody conflict that
the growing towns citizens first truly realized what they
were missing.
Although Hazletons population was only about 4,000
in 1860, the town contributed 800 volunteers to the Union
cause. While the troops were out fighting in the South,
friends and relatives back home had no newspaper to
report on the wars progress.
News was available, though, through the company
store of the Hazleton Coal Co. on the southwest corner
of Broad and Tamaqua (Wyoming) streets. Ario Pardee,
the company president who opened Hazletons first
mines, had telegraph communication with all of his collieries and with New York and Philadelphia.
Pardees telegraph office received war bulletins and
posted them at the company store so that Hazletonians
could keep track of the conflict and the local troops.
Among the local soldiers wearing Union blue was a
man named John C. Stokes. Just after the close of the
war, but before his discharge from the army, Stokes won
an appointment as a teacher in the Hazle Township
School. A mix-up in muster rolls delayed Stokes return
home until after the school term opened. On Sept. 18,
1865, Stokes began teaching some 40 students in the oneroom schoolhouse at Pardees colliery on Laurel Hill, the
area which today is home to Lehigh Valley HospitalHazleton.
Stokes was teaching less than a month when he began
to approach friends and businessmen about the possibility of establishing a newspaper. Fred A. Lauderburn, a
prominent Hazleton merchant, agreed to join Stokes in
the venture.
The two partners moved quickly, agreeing on Nov. 24
to purchase printing equipment from J. Lawrence Getz.
The equipment included a Washington hand press
which was considered very complete for a country newspaper and printing job office, Stokes son, Alfred,
recalled nearly 70 years later.
The new paper would be called The Hazleton Sentinel,
Stokes decided, and its first edition would roll off the
press just after New Years Day, 1866. The launch date
was delayed, however, because the press was delivered
late.
Nevertheless, Stokes was able to finish an advertising
job in time for Christmas 1865. The first job turned out
on the press was handbills for a shoe merchant, Franklin Booth, which were delivered and paid for on Christmas Day, Alfred Stokes said.
The Sentinel was a decidedly small operation. Stokes
and Lauderburn set up shop in two rooms on the second
floor of a dwelling attached to the Farmers Hotel, later
to be known as the Valley Hotel, on the south side of
Broad Street between Church and Vine streets. Alfred
Stokes, though a young boy at the time, said he learned
to stick type. He also recalled that the first foreman at
nel to Jerry A. Sanders of Berwick and Edwin Moore,

owner of a music store in Hazleton.
The new owners moved the newspaper office to a
room in the rear of Moores music store in the Hazle
Hall building, which stood at the northwest corner of
Broad and Wyoming streets, the spot later occupied by
the main office of Peoples First National Bank and
Trust Co., which now houses offices of state Rep. Tarah
Toohil.
Competitors
While the Sentinel continued to turn out a fresh edition each week, it soon found itself facing some stiff
competition.
On Sept. 15, 1870, Philadelphia newspaperman J.C.
Fincher launched the Daily News from rooms above the
first Lauderbach Clothing store in the old Walnut Hall
on West Broad Street. Hazleton had its first daily newspaper.
Fincher had gone to work in Philadelphia for a trade
journal of the Machinists Union after an earlier stint
with the Tamaqua-based Anthracite Monitor, published
by the Miners Benevolent and Protective Association.
The Daily News, geared to a readership by miners,
lost money as a result of a six-month-long coal strike,
according to a history of Hazletons press by George
Maue.
Fincher, borrowing money from friends, bought a cylinder press to replace the papers old Washington hand
press. Although the paper had the daily field to itself,
Fincher was forced to relinquish the paper in 1875. For a
few months, Sylvester Engle published the paper and
Ben F. Lynn of Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe) edited
it.
That same year, the News and a sister weekly known
This handbill, printed on a foot-powered press, as the Anthracite Record were taken over by the Sentikept alive a tradition of not missing a scheduled nel. With their new acquisition, Sanders and Moore
publication day one that continues today.
turned the Sentinel into an afternoon daily and moved it
to the Daily News former quarters on West Broad
Street.
the Sentinel was a Mrs. Greening from Pittston.
The Sentinel expanded further in 1883 when it took
The weekly Sentinel became prosperous from the
start and the job printing patronage increased so rapidly over The Daily Bulletin, a six-year-old paper owned by
Maue, who had been connected with the local printing
that the original quarters became too small, Alfred
business since early 1867. The Bulletin, an outgrowth of
Stokes wrote in 1932. The office soon was moved to a
Maues weekly Middle Coal Field Advertiser, was printlarge room over the store of Lauderburn and Smith at
ed from an office on the southeast corner of Broad and
the corner of Broad and Laurel streets.
Wyoming streets.
That was the first of many moves the fledgling newsAbout the time the Sentinel became a daily, the newspaper would make. In the early days, sites of publicapaper began using a new hand-operated cylinder press,
tion were changed almost as frequently as owners,
according to Alfred Stokes, who was an apprentice printStandard-Sentinel editor William E. Bachman wrote in
er in the 1870s.
1961.
Among those present at the Sentinels infancy was a
Stokes ownership of the paper came to an end in 1868
young man who would manage to change the scope and
when the Sentinel was taken over by W.A.M. Grier of
tenor of journalism in Hazleton before his death at the
the banking firm of Pardee Markle and Grier. A short
time later, a man named Henry Wilson bought the paper. age of 32.
Back in 1869 John Dershuck, just a boy of 13, had
Wilson retired a year and a half later and sold the Senti-
Hundreds of Hazletonians rejoice on VJ Day, Aug. 14, 1945 while a shower of waste paper from the third-floor job printing department of The Plain SpeakerStandard-Sentinel causes a white out on the street below.
become apprenticed to editor and publisher Henry Wilson. Eager to learn, (he) became in time one of the best
in his trade, Dershucks obituary would recall years later.
On April 2, 1873, Dershucks father, Peter, joined R.F.
Stutzbak in buying the Volksblatt, a year-old German
language weekly. John Dershuck left the Sentinel and
went to work for his father.
John worked his way up, eventually becoming editor
of the Volksblatt. A newspaper writer expounded on the
experience in Dershucks obituary in 1889:
It was at this time that young Mr. Dershuck developed is indomitable energy and what is commonly
known as grit. He had not the advantage of an extended
education and was far from a German scholar. Yet so
great was his will that he took hold of the editorial work
with a vim and made the paper one of the spiciest in the
region. He worked in the mechanical and business
departments during the day and at night, aided by an
old German English dictionary, he translated matters
from English papers and wrote his editorials, which
were always noted for their crisp pointed style.
On April 23, 1880, Dershuck launched a new weekly
for English-speaking readers. The Independent Democrat quickly attracted a readership and in 1881, Dershuck found a partner in J. Warren Lewis, who later
would edit the Shenandoah Inquirer.

Dershuck had bigger ambitions and, after surveying
the town, he and Lewis launched The Plain Speaker, an
afternoon daily, on Feb. 6, 1882. Lewis bailed out five
months later and Dershuck operated the spunky new
paper on his own.
It at once took the stand of a straight-out Democratic
newspaper and a fearless friend of the working man,
the writer of Dershucks obituary declared.
After just six years, Dershucks health began to fail,
beginning with a hemorrhage in October 1888. Earlier
that year, Dershucks brother, William C., had left the
firm after only a year or so and Dershuck took on former staff member Dominick F. Sweeney as a partner.
On March 9, 1889, after being confined to his bed at
Hazletons Liberty Hotel since January, Dershuck sold
his interest in the paper to James L. Morris, a WilkesBarre attorney.
After taking to his bed Dershucks health failed rapidly. A colleague said he could hardly recognize in him
the pushing, plucky editor of The Plain Speaker. On
April 25, 1880, John Dershuck, just 32 years old, died at 7
a.m.
The paper was out of the Dershuck familys hands for
the next five years. After Sweeneys death in 1894, however, Morris sold it back to William C. Dershuck.
He at once set out to enlarge and expand the daily

which his brother had launched, the Standard-Sentinel
reported years later. A man of keen civic pride, the
right of everything aiming at a better Hazleton found a
forceful and sincere champion in the editor who granted
the liberal use of columns for community advancement.
For a time, Dershuck experimented with morning
publication but in 1900 he returned The Plain Speaker to
its original afternoon spot. The move would turn out to
be a smart one that eventually would give the Speaker a
longtime circulation edge over its morning competitors.
And the competition was not limited to the Sentinel.
Back in 1885, L.G. Lubrecht and Henry A. Buchenau
had established a semi-weekly called the Daily Standard. On March 23, 1892, the Standard became a morning daily, getting the jump on the Sentinel and The Plain
Speaker, both afternoon papers.
While the two new papers were getting footholds,
changes were taking place at the venerable Sentinel.
Sanders, who had taken over the paper in 1872, found
himself in financial trouble after he consolidated with
the Daily News in 1875 and began to manage the paper.
According to Maues history of the local press, Sanders
See SERVICE,Y8
Franz Heinrich Walser and his wife, Sophia Krell Walser, flank their 10 children in this family portrait. The
sons and daughters, front row, from left: George, later a cashier at First National Bank; William, who became
supervisor of circulation at The Plain Speaker and Standard-Sentinel; Anna, who married Lewis Maue; FredThe newsroom of the Standard-Speaker as it appeared in the late 1960s. Shown are, from foreground:
erick, who served as Hazleton City treasurer and Emma, who later married Lewis Kesselring. Back row: Henry,
then president of the newspapers and First National Bank; John, a partner in Hymans mens store; Joseph,
STANDARD-SPEAKER FILE PHOTO Charles Catherman, assistant editor; William D. Morgan, managing editor; Dominic Antonelli, day editor;
The Standard-Speaker building as it appeared in the early 1970s, before an expansion and renovation Phil Sarno, sports editor, standing at left; Joseph Maggio, and Margaret Lloyd. Back row, from left, are Chuck
owner of Hazleton Sheet Metal Co.; Augustus, a superintendent for Pennsylvania Power and Light Co. at
Gloman, Elizabeth Harlor and Paul N. Walser Sr.
project began in 1974.
Hawley and Charles, sexton at Vine Street Cemetery.
Y7
Y8 Standard-Speaker
11:43 | GRECOTONY
Then&Now
Service
(Continued from Y7)
was forced to purchase the
Engle interest to rid himself
of Mr. Lynn who proved to
be an octopus to the concern. The deal turned out to
be so financially draining
that Sanders was forced to
sell the daily Sentinel in 1879
to Charles B. Snyder, who
was backed by W.A.M. Grier,
the banker who had owned
the paper for a time in 1868.
In 1884 coal operator and
banker George Markle
bought the Sentinel and
moved it to 32 N. Wyoming
St., an address later occupied
by the Feeley Theatre. E.F.
Dowling, a Hazle Township
teacher, became the new editor but he died less than six
months later. Four years later Maue, R. Norman Wallace
and Terrence McCloskey
leased the paper. Wallace
died a year later and Maue
took over the business.
The same year the Standard went to daily publication, the Sentinel took on
new management. The Sentinel Printing Co. was
formed in 1892 with John
McCarthy of Weatherly serving as editor, C.F. Paul as
business manager and Maue
as superintendent. The
paper moved its office to the
Danzer and Powell Building,
just west of the Grand Opera
House on West Broad Street.
The Sentinel changed hands
again in 1905 when Fred
Cuyle and Maue bought the
plant and ran the newspaper
for seven years.
The Walser family
Cuyles death in 1912 led to

one of the most important
developments in Hazleton
newspaper history. Henry
Walser, a 37-year-old Hazleton native who served just
after the turn of the century
as city treasurer and later as
Luzerne Countys prothonotary, joined with George T.
Kirkendall of Dallas in purchasing the Sentinel.
From that day on, into the
next century, the Walser family would be an integral part
of daily journalism in Hazleton. Walsers entry into the
newspaper business would
start Hazletons three daily
papers onto a path that
would lead to their eventual
combination under one company.
Henry Walser had been an
executive in the publishing
business for only two years
when he bought the Hazleton
paper. His association with
printing, however, had
begun in 1888 when he
became a 13-year-old apprentice in the Sentinels composing room. It took him only
five years to rise to the rank
of foreman, a position he
held until 1898. During the
early 1890s, Walser helped
organize the local typographical union and he became its
first secretary. After becoming a publisher two decades
later, he was given an honorary membership in Hazleton
Typographical Union No.
401.
Following his stint in city
and county politics, Walser
teamed up with Kirkendall
in operating the R. Bauer &
Son commercial printing
plant in Wilkes-Barre. That
venture started in 1910, just
two years before the two
bought the Sentinel. Twentyfour years after going to
work for Hazletons original
daily paper, Henry Walser
became its owner.
His experience as a printer and manager paid dividends. Henry Walser, during 45 years activity as a
publisher, masterminded a
series of consolidations,
Standard-Sentinel editor
Bachman wrote in 1961.

With years of hard work
and the introduction of revolutionary methods, (he) created two daily newspapers in
1926 that have continued in
the Greater Hazleton area.
Walser and Kirkendall,
printing the venerable Sentinel from their West Broad
Street plant, competed each
morning for five years with
the upstart Daily Standard,
published from a cross-town
plant on East Broad Street by
William and George
Lubrecht. In 1917 the
Lubrecht brothers ended
their 32-year-old venture,
selling their paper to Walser
and Kirkendall. The transaction gave birth to the Standard-Sentinel.
The new merged paper
became Hazletons only
morning daily and the partners printed the product at
the Standard plant. Three
years later, Hazletons morning papers, which had
changed hands so many
times and moved from building to building, finally found
a permanent home. In 1920
Walser purchased the
10-year-old Friedlander
building at 21-23 N. Wyoming
St., the current home of the
Standard-Speaker. Walser
moved the Standard-Sentinel
into the new building and,
four years later, became sole
owner when Kirkendall sold
his interest.
The year 1926 saw the final
chapter in the story of newspaper consolidation in Hazleton. The Standard-Sentinel
and The Plain Speaker were
merged when Henry Walser
and John R. Dershuck
became joint owners and
publishers. The Plain Speaker plant on West Broad
Street closed down and both
the morning and afternoon
papers were printed at the
Wyoming Street plant. The
partnership widened in 1935
when Mrs. John R. Dershuck
and Henry Walsers son,
Frank, became members.
After Dershucks death in
1941, his widow remained a
partner in the business.
Henry Walser had begun
to put his stamp on the two
newspapers in the years
after the 1926 merger.
According to Standard-Sentinel editor Bachman, Walser
became publisher well
versed in the mechanics of
the business, due to being a
printer by trade, which he
learned in the shop of the
Hazleton Sentinel.
Bachman continued in a
1961 newspaper article:
Intervening years of activity in commercial, government and banking pursuits
found him well grounded to
assume the business management. From the time he
became publisher in 1912,
until he died in 1957, he
devoted all his time to his
publishing business.
Veteran Standard-Speaker
employees recall that Walser
immersed himself in his
business. He showed an
interest in all the departments and many nights he
could be found patrolling the
composing room watching
linotype operators setting
type for the morning edition.
Henry Walsers policy as
a publisher was to have the
news written and printed
without bias and with the
news columns free of editorial expression, Bachman
wrote. It was a policy that
would continue through the
years as his son, daughter-inlaw and grandsons took over
the reins of the newspaper.
After Henry Walsers
death on April 30, 1957, the
Standard-Sentinel and The
Plain Speaker passed into
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Standard-Sentinel staffer Phil Sarno sits at his desk in 1948. The teletype machines shown brought news from
The Associated Press and made the newsroom a noisy place.
the hands of his son, Frank.
Four years later, Walser
acquired Mrs. Dershucks
interest in the morning-evening combination and the
paper was merged into the
all-day Hazleton StandardSpeaker.
Up until that year, morning readers had been receiving the Standard-Sentinel
and afternoon readers The
Plain Speaker. While most of
the news coverage was the
same, the two papers used
different typefaces. Headlines and layouts were different, too. After the changeover, both morning and
afternoon subscribers got
the same newspaper, with
only certain pages updated
for the final edition.
Following the lead of his
father who had introduced linotype composition
and the Associated Press
news service to the Sentinel
Frank Walser kept the
newspaper technologically
up to date. Avoiding a flight
to the suburbs, he decided
to keep the Standard-Speaker in downtown Hazleton.
In 1975 he renovated the
existing building, added a
two-story wing and converted the newspaper to computerized cold type composition and offset printing.
The modernization was
completed just two years
before Walsers death. The
$2 million project was one
of the most important business achievements in the
area in many years, the
Standard-Speaker reported
in its publishers obituary
on March 24, 1977.
After his death, Frank
Walser was remembered by
his employees as a man of
principle and decency. The
feeling of employees toward
Frank Walser went beyond
respect, admiration and
esteem and could be only
aptly described as a deep
love, the newspaper editorialized two days after his
death.
After Walsers death, his
widow, Jane N. Walser,
became president and publisher of the StandardSpeaker and their sons,
Frank H. and Paul N.,
became vice presidents and
publishers. The two brothers, who had learned the
newspaper business by
working in a variety of the
plants departments, helped
their mother continue the
standards set by their
father.
Tragedy struck on June 4,
1984, when Frank H., who
had quickly established a
reputation as a firm and
efficient yet very accessible manager, was killed
in a traffic accident in Sugarloaf Township. The death
of the 49-year-old publisher
left the community shocked
and saddened and stunned
the newspapers staff.
Mrs. Walser responded to
the tragedy by taking an
even greater interest in the
operation of the StandardSpeaker. As president of the
company, she began reporting to work every day, helping her son, Paul N., to
guide the newspaper.
Weathering economic
downturns and declining
The Standard-Speakers Goss Cosmo press prints

the next mornings edition in this photo from 1996.
readerships that had threatened other newspapers, the
Standard-Speaker maintained its circulation and
continued to keep up with
the times, in both technological advancement and
the quality of its product.
In March 1995, Publisher
Paul N. Walser announced
that the Standard-Speaker
would begin publishing its
first Sunday newspaper. It
debuted six months later, on
Sept. 3, and consisted of
seven sections.
Prior to the Sunday editions debut, the StandardSpeaker that summer discontinued its final (afternoon) edition, with the
early (morning) edition
being delivered to all subscribers.
Walser also announced
plans to publish the Standard-Speaker 365 days a
year, including the six holidays on which the newspaper had not appeared in the
past: New Years Day,
Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day,
Thanksgiving and Christmas.
After Mrs. Walsers death
in 2000, her son Paul continued to lead the company as
president and publisher, as
well as chief executive officer.
In 2002, the newspaper
moved into its fourth generation of Walser family ownership when Paul N. Walser
Jr. and Stephen H. Walser
were named publishers and
executive vice presidents.
Times-Shamrock
On April 30, 2007, employees were told at an early

afternoon meeting that the
tradition of a family news-
paper would continue in

Hazleton, but that the family would change.
Times-Shamrock Communications, owned by the
Lynett and Haggerty families
of Scranton, announced it
had reached an agreement to
purchase the StandardSpeaker. The company
already owned The Citizens
Voice in Wilkes-Barre, The
Times-Tribune in Scranton
and The Republican & Herald in Pottsville, and at the
time also owned daily newspapers in Towanda, Shamokin and Petersburg, Va.;
alternate weeklies in Baltimore, Detroit, San Antonio
and Orlando; 20 other weekly
news or shopper publications, and 12 radio stations.
Paul N. Walser Jr. and W.
Scott Lynett, a fourth-generation Times-Shamrock owner
and publisher of The Citizens Voice, announced the
news to employees.
Lynett, who added Standard-Speaker publisher to
his list of duties, told employees Times-Shamrock views
Northeastern Pennsylvania
as a single region, one in
which Hazleton occupies a
unique position.
We are all in this together,
from Scranton all the way
down to Pottsville, he said.
If you look at our daily
(newspaper) holdings, we
have Scranton, Wilkes-Barre,
Pottsville and right in the
middle is Hazleton. You guys
are the perfect fit for our
long-term strategic plans.
All of the StandardSpeakers 130 full-time
employees kept their jobs
and there were no immediate changes to the newspapers content, appearance or
delivery.
Lynett said Times-Shamrock was committed to the

Standard-Speaker and to
publishing the newspaper
in Hazleton. We are
thrilled to be here and we
are going to be here for a
long, long time, he said.
Walser read a statement
on behalf of his father, who
was unable to attend
because of illness, that said
selling the newspaper was
the most difficult decision
the family had ever made.
A great deal of thought
and soul-searching took
place before we decided to
take this step, he said.
Several employees had
tears in their eyes as Walser
spoke. Many later stopped
to embrace him and his
brother and fellow publisher, Stephen Walser, before
going back to work.
On Jan. 1, 2009, Lynett
stepped down as publisher
of the Standard-Speaker and
The Citizens Voice, joining
three other fourth-generation members of the LynettHaggerty family as chief
executive officers of TimesShamrock Communications.
The company named Daniel
P. Haggerty and Gregory E.
Lynett as publishers of both
newspapers.
Later that month, on Jan.
25, the last newspaper rolled
off the Standard-Speakers
press on North Wyoming
Street. Times-Shamrock
closed the newspapers production facility and shifted
printing to its plant in Waverly, Lackawanna County.
The challenging conditions in the newspaper
industry coupled with the
recent economic downturn
prompted the need to find
more efficient, cost-effective
methods to produce the
Standard-Speaker, Haggerty said. We looked at
upgrading our existing
press (in Hazleton), but the
cost is simply too great. The
Standard-Speakers commitment to local news coverage
remains our primary
focus.
Haggerty became sole
publisher of the StandardSpeaker and Citizens Voice
on Jan. 1, 2012, when Gregory Lynett left to pursue other interests in the Washington, D.C., area.
On July 1, 2011, Haggerty
resigned to pursue private
business interests, TimesShamrock named its CEOs
Scott Lynett, Matthew
Haggerty, Bobby Lynett and
George Lynett Jr. as publishers of the Hazleton and
Wilkes-Barre newspapers.
All except Scott Lynett
remain in that role today.
He left the company in early
2014 to fulfill a long-time
dream of owning and operating his own company
after buying a 30-year-old
commercial printing business located three miles
from his home in Shavertown, Luzerne County.
Retired managing editor
Carl Christopher compiled
most of the information.
12:38 | BAIRDATHLE
Standard-Speaker
Then&Now
Paper unravels
murder mystery
Subscriber:
Newspaper
shaped lives
ReadeRs RemembeR
Sentinel pages held clues

to deaths of Sugarloaf brothers
By JILL WHALEN
StaffWriter
years later that they had a

break in the case. Three
men were charged in 1891.
The next year, Shiner
became seriously ill and
believed he would die. At
that point, he gave what the
newspaper called a deathbed confession.
I stood outside while
they went in, Shiner was
quoted as saying. He admitted that the men split the
$2,000 they stole from the
brothers.
Walton said the confession article was printed in
newspapers around the
United States.
From her genealogy
studies, Walton has uncovered many surprising facts
about her ancestors. Much
of it, she said, she finds in
newspapers.
Her interest in family
history was sparked when
she found a detailed family
tree in her grandmothers
Philadelphia-area home.
She was in high school at
the time.
This started a long road
of research which is still
ongoing, she said.
She visits libraries, genealogical and historical societies, courthouses and
churches. She uses the
Internet, too, but still finds
that newspaper archives
are always a great help.
I present a class on
newspaper research to
genealogy and other lineage societies. I stress the
importance of newspaper
research to gather more
information about your
ancestors that are not found
in government or church
records, Walton said.
Newspaper articles, she
said, can help put meat on
the bones of your ancestor
by identifying the character of the person and not
just his birth, marriage and
death dates.
Walton said the Standard-Speaker and its forerunners have provided her
with a wealth of information.
That is quite a span of
years for those of us having
ancestors living in the
Hazleton area, she said,
referencing the 150th anniversary.
Pam (Shiner) Walton was

in the midst of uncovering
her familys Sugarloaf
Township roots when
another researcher contacted her.
He asked if she was related to a man who shared her
maiden name.
He had been told by a
relative that a Samuel Shiner was involved in a murder in the 19th century, she
said. I needed proof.
Walton, of Kingwood,
Texas, turned to old copies
of the Hazleton Sentinel, a
predecessor to the Standard-Speaker.
And sure enough, she
found the truth.
John and William Kester were murdered in Sugarloaf Township and my
ancestor was the lookout
person, she said, referencing the 1885 murders.
The newspaper published reports of the murder over three days, something that wasnt very common in the 1800s. And the
coverage was very graphic.
The descriptions of the
conditions of the bodies
would not be found in any
paper today, Walton said.
According to the newspaper reports, the Kester
brothers were farmhands
and lived in a small cabin
near Sybertsville.
The old men were very
economical and saved
every penny they earned
until they had accumulated
several thousand dollars,
which was supposed to
have been secreted in their
house, as they were very
peculiar and were afraid to
trust their money in the
care of anyone else, the
Hazleton Sentinel reported.
The newspaper followed
with a story on the mens
funerals, which brought
more than 1,200 people to
Schellhammer church.
Reporters also kept readers
abreast of the investigation
that followed.
This was quite a story
rattling the small community of Sugarloaf, Walton
said.
Although investigators
suspected four tramps of
the crime, it wasnt until
Newspaper delivered
a familys livelihood
By JILL WHALEN
grandsons schedule
returned to normal.
But as it turned out, the
Marilyn Stanton remem- teenager didnt want to
bered how Standard-Speak- deliver anymore, so Yost
er subscribers would call
continued with the route,
her home to ask why their
dropping off papers to
newspapers were being
more than 50 customers in
delivered late.
the area of Chestnut and
Her son, Richard Kott,
Mine streets.
was their paperboy and
She and her dog,
he was dropping off the
Brownie, kept the route
news later than usual.
going for many more years,
What caused the delay,
and she retired in her late
Stanton said, was a fire at
70s, Stanton said. The two
the former H.F. Grebey
were featured in a StanJunior High School in 1976. dard-Speaker article and
The building became
photograph prior to her
unusable for a while and
retirement.
the children had to share
Stanton also noted that
Harman Junior High with her late husband, Lester
their students, said StanStanton, was employed by
ton, Hazle Township. Har- the newspaper and its forman kids went to school in mer owners, the Walser
the morning and Grebey
family, for 47 years.
kids in the afternoon.
He started as an apprenKott was a student at
tice and retired in 1996 after
Grebey, which meant that
serving as the foreman of
his school day didnt end
the composing department
until 5 p.m. Most customers for 28 years.
were used to having their
The Walsers treated
newspapers before then.
their employees and their
Needless to say, his cus- families very well, she
tomers were very unhapsaid. So my family is realpy, Stanton said, rememly indebted to the Standardbering the telephone calls.
Speaker, as the newspaper
Stantons mother, the late was a part of our lives for a
Mae Yost, was in her 60s at long time.
the time and volunteered to
take the route until her
StaffWriter
Y9
STANDARD SPEAKER FILE PHOTO
District managers Joseph Rough, left, and Frank Skokoski pose with paperboys in
the Standard-Speakers circulation department in this photo from the 1970s. Young
boys and girls could get a paper route before they were old enough to drive.
Former carrier recalls

memories of first job
By JILL WHALEN
week. He was allowed to keep what he

earned.
I used to collect and build model cars, he
Steven Steve Bard didnt receive an
said, noting that his cash was spent on them.
allowance when he was growing up in Hazle- A fan of music, he also used his earnings to
ton.
get a record or two, he said.
His parents advised him that if he wanted
Even though he was earning money, the
to earn money and he did he would
1974 graduate of the former Hazleton High
need to get a job.
School learned he couldnt count on keeping
But at 12 years old, Bard was too young for it all as a profit. He had to pay for the newsmost jobs.
papers he delivered with money he collected
There were no other real jobs at that age. from his customers.
You had to be older to work in a restaurant
I would collect the money on Saturday
or wherever, said Bard, now of New Jersey. mornings and take the money down to the
He applied for a newspaper delivery job
office and pay, he said. If someone
with the Standard-Speaker and scored a
wouldnt pay me, I would still have to pay my
route near his then-home, on the citys South bill. As a result, I learned that you couldnt
Side. He delivered newspapers from 1968 to
pull your profits out all the time, you had to
1969.
leave some of your money in case people
He had approximately 55 customers on
didnt pay.
South Church, South Laurel and South Vine
Looking back, he said, one thing that
streets and he worked six days a week.
always stuck with him was seeing people at
I did it after school, he said.
a bar on Saturday mornings.
At the time, the Standard-Speaker printed
I used to deliver to Lucias Bar and Grill
morning and evening editions Monday
on Vine Street at the time and on Saturday
through Friday and a weekend edition
mornings I would go in and deliver papers to
that came out Saturday morning. Delivery
the bar, he said. That always struck me as
took him about a half-hour.
odd. But then I realized they were just hardSometimes he walked the route and other working guys, finishing third shift at the
times he biked.
mines. That was their time to unwind.
He doesnt recall getting rich from the job,
and guessed that he made about $10 per
StaffWriter
Paper part of mans life

Ron Drum said the Standard-Speaker
even better when the paper would send a
has been a part of his life since the day he
photographer to our event. THEN wed
was born in 1957.
search the next few issues for a PHOTO of
My mom wrapped a lot of stuff in it
ourselves!! he said.
(Im always opening boxes and finding
It was especially fun when you DIDNT
things wrapped in the Hazleton Standardsend the story in (like when I participated
Speaker) so, who knows,
in the Soap Box Derby or
maybe she wrapped ME in
was part of a school or Penn
it, too! he wrote in an
Hazleton event) and
Living in the Hazleton State
email.
saw your name and/or phoDrums mother, Eleanor,
area just wouldnt be to in the Hazleton Standardenjoyed scrapbooking and
Speaker, he said.
the same without the
created quite a few volDrum said old habits die
umes of them, many of
hard.
Hazleton Standardwhich include clippings
When he received a
Speaker.
from the newspaper.
national award from a proI would have to check
fessional association last
Ron Drum, subscriber
but there is probably a clipyear, he submitted an artiping in one of her books
cle and photo to the newspaannouncing my birth, he said.
per for publication.
Drum grew up in Drums, where he was a
Living in the Hazleton area just
member of a few local youth groups,
wouldnt be the same without the Hazleton
including the 4-H Club and church organiStandard-Speaker. In fact, I am presently
zations.
living outside the area but I still get
Each time wed have an event, mom
the Hazleton Standard-Speaker. After all,
would send a report off to Ms. Minnig (the you never know when your name, or that
late Margaret Minnig, longtime Standardof someone you know, might appear in it,
Speaker social editor) and we would anxmaybe even with a photo! he said.
iously read through the papers of the next
few days to see our names in print! It was
Jill Whalen
(Heating, Cooling, & Plumbing Services)
Proudly Serving Luzerne County,

Pennsylvania
Ruthann A. Bartkus of
Hazleton credited the
Standard-Speaker and its
predecessor newspapers
for shaping her life and
the lives of her seven siblings.
My dad had your paper
delivered to our house and
after we all learned how to
read, we came home and
read your paper, she said.
We read about our city
and our country with all
its ups and downs. We
read about war and peace
and in between. We
laughed at your comics
and read the editorials to
find out what our neighbors were thinking.
We all learned more
from that paper than we
did in school.
Ruthann was the youngest child and recalled how
her brothers and sisters
would slice the paper into
pieces after school. Pages
were then passed around
so everyone would have a
chance to read, she
recalled.
All this reading made
us smarter and more
knowing, she said.
Bartkus said she has
subscribed to the paper
forever and spends
about three hours each
day perusing its pages.
First I read the obits,
then I read the front page
and do the scrambled
words, she said. I love
every part of that paper.
Jill Whalen
Paper helped
build business,
subscriber says
When Danny DeMelfi
started his music school in
1991, he turned to the Standard-Speaker.
In a small advertisement, DeMelfi explained
that hed be accepting new
students.
To get the word out, I
put an ad in the paper, he
said, recalling the start of
DeMelfi School of Music.
A music instructor since
1975, DeMelfi already had
some students signed up
for classes at the new
school. The ad brought students he hadnt previously
taught.
Furthermore, it was a
way to reach those who
didnt find their way to the
school the way most do
through referrals from other students or family members.
That was the intent of
the ad, DeMelfi said, to
bring in new customers.
DeMelfi stayed on as an
advertiser through the
years, and relied heavily
on the Standard-Speaker
when he moved the business to the Sandton Business Center, 711 S. Church
St., Hazleton, in 2008.
I took out a few fullpage ads at that time, he
said.
And again, the ads
brought folks in for lessons
or recording studio time.
Jill Whalen
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HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [Z01] | 01/12/16
11:29 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Sports leave a mark
Whether it was 10,000 jamming downtown Hazletons main intersection to celebrate a state high school basketball championship in 1938, a couple attending their grandsons first T-ball game, fans cheering on local athletes and schools or rooting for their
favorite college and professional teams in person, by radio or television, friends gathering at the playground for a game
of hoops or a father and son fishing or hunting together, sports have long been foremost in the minds of area residents.
orking in the mines

made Hazleton athletes hard as coal.
In 1871 local Welsh and Irish
immigrants brimming with
pride in their homelands each
entered a champion in a boxing match.
They fought 98 rounds.
By the 1880s baseball players
who learned the game on the
sandlots of Hazleton, Eckley,
Jeddo and Freeland were
breaking into professional ball.
On the high school football
fields, boys battled on frozen
turf at Cranberry Ballpark
and Harman-Geist Memorial
Field while crowds of thousands just as hardy cheered
them on in the snow. The men
played semi-pro football for
teams like the Hazleton Mustangs.
In basketball, a Hazleton
High School coach became the
first to lead teams to back-toback state championships and
later won a third state title.
Digger Phelps coached St.
Gabriels High School to a title
on his way to Notre Dame.
Teams from McAdoo, Marian Catholic, MMI, Tamaqua
and Mahanoy City also won
state championships. Teams
from Freeland and Weatherly
came close.
Hazleton-born Hubie Brown
coached in the NBA while
Major League Baseball manager Tommy Lasorda refereed
basketball games of the Eastern Pro Basketball League in
Hazleton.
Hazleton folks hunt, fish and
ski.
They race each other in anything from track shoes to
snowshoes and midget racecars to BMX bicycles.
Trap shooters have won
state high school championships, as did wrestler Nate
Eachus before playing pro football with the Kansas City
Chiefs, and track and field athletes Donald Pollitt (twice in
the 110-meter high hurdles)
and Julia Franzosa (javelin).
The Boston Celtics and the
Harlem Globetrotters put on
shows in St. Josephs gym.
See mark, Z12
Congratulations!!
The Standard Speaker Is 150 Years Old!

Locally Owned &Operated
FAMILY MARKETS
Church Hill Mall, Hazleton
570-454-4540
Z1
Z10 Standard-Speaker
11:22 | GRECOTONY
Sports
Then&Now
Outdoor activities aplenty for area folks

By KENT JACKSON
StaffWriter
The first hunters walked

through Hazleton before anyone lived there.
They were native Americans, who hunted, fished and
trapped to survive.
Next, the people who settled Hazleton 200 years ago
widened paths that the
natives cut.
They built turnpikes to
haul lumber and railroads to
carry coal.
For them, hunting, fishing
and trapping evolved from a
means to stay alive to a pastime as Penns Woods
changed into Penns Fields.
Through timbering, much
of the state was deforested
by the turn of the previous
century.
Indiscriminate hunting
and trapping thinned the
mammals and birds.
Fish and insects died
when mine tunnels and
mine runoff polluted creeks
around Hazleton.
Streets, factories and
homes covered land that had
been forest and farms,
although people still escaped
to natural areas.
Social clubs and churches
held summer picnics at
groves outside of Hazleton.
Miners picked berries and
mushrooms to help with
expenses during slowdowns
such as the coal strike of
1902, but since then families
have kept filling baskets as a
way to enjoy the outdoors.
Despite the dangers, children swam in strip mine
pits, tobogganed down culm
banks on car hoods and built
forts on coal land.
Hunters and anglers traveled to where they could find
game and fish and even
joined clubs with others who
shared those pastimes.
Traditional activities such
as hunting, hiking, fishing
and camping retain a following in the Hazleton area, but
activities such as mountain
bicycling, cross-country skiing, birding, kayaking and
geocaching are growing in
popularity.
When people go outdoors,
they spend money on gear,
food, gasoline and lodging,
all of which helps the economy.
Population growth and
construction had been signs
of a booming economy, from
Hazletons settlement in 1807
through the 1950s when hurricanes flooded deep mines.
In the half-century since
then, Hazleton residents displayed their appreciation for
STANDARD-SPEAKER FILE
Hunting evolved from a means to stay alive to a popular pastime.

natural land, clean water
and fresh air.
Mining rules adopted in
the 1970s required companies to restore land after
extracting coal.
Federal funds paid for the
reclaiming of dangerous
highwalls and pits left from
historic mining.
In the 1980s, Hazleton area
residents protested against
plans of Stablex, which
wanted to stabilize nuclear
wastes, and an incinerator
that would have burned
petroleum from contaminated soil.
Bald eagles, wild turkeys
and other wildlife have
returned to the region in
greater numbers
The discovery of rare
orchids and cranberries in a
bog led to a nature preserve
within an industrial park in
Valmont and marks a trend
in preserving land for posterity.
Hunting
On the Monday after

Thanksgiving, Hazleton and
much of Pennsylvania
observe another holiday: the
start of deer season.
Schools close and hunters
take vacation from work in a
tradition that goes back for
generations.
Eugene Moisey, 63, of
Kline Township said when
he was in school, boys began
preparing in September.
Everybody started talking about deer hunting and
the big deer they saw and
were going to get, Moisey
said.
When the season started,
hunters who bagged a buck
tied it to their cars and drove
around town to show off.
Other hunters hung their
Local bicyclists prepare to ride in this 1890 photo.
deer on front porches.

Bigger families displayed
more deer for anyone driving from Hazleton through
Jeanesville to see.
Tresckow looked like a
meat locker, Moisey said.
Robert Skulsky of Hazleton still displays a deer that
his father, Theodore, shot in
1939. The deer antlers had 12
or 13 points a few are
small so he isnt sure if an
official scorer would count
them and won a prize as
the biggest deer at a taxidermists shop that season. As a
reward, the taxidermist
made a mount of the deers
head for free and gave Skulskys father a Woolrich hunting suit.
Skulsky, himself, has been
hunting in the same place
since high school. Hes 71
now and said the scrub oak
and heath barrens at his
hunting spot havent
changed much over the
years.
Within a mile or two of his
spot, coal companies have
reclaimed land and made
homes for more wildlife.
His grandfather, Andrew
Skulsky, began hunting seasons by hiking 17 miles or
catching a ride from his
home in Jeanesville to the
Broad Mountain in Packer
Township, Carbon County.
For a week during deer
season, his grandfather
camped on the state game
lands and hunted atop the
mountain.
If his grandfather or other
hunters got a deer, a milk
truck driver transported the
carcass to Hazleton, but the
hunters still had to hike
home.
Other hunters made camp
in cabins owned by families
or hunting clubs. Some hunters spent the season at the

Hotel Mittendorf in Wyalusing.
Hunters and target shooters practiced their aim at the
Hazleton Archery Club for
more than half a century.
The club started in 1954 and
moved a decade later to 26
acres on the Woodside Road
in Foster and Butler Townships where members built a
clubhouse. They also maintain an outdoor range with
three-dimensional targets
that archers can shoot while
walking through the forested
trail.
On the Honeyhole Road in
Drums, Rudolph Hoda
remembers hitching a horse
to a wagon to give hunters a
ride into camps west of his
familys farm while he was
growing up.
The Tamarack Hunting
Club and the West Riley
Mountaineers are two of the
camps that he remembers.
One camp used trolley car
as a clubhouse and another a
Quonset hut. There were
cabins and summer homes,
too, until the state seized the
farm to create the Nescopeck
State Park.
It was a shame they took
it, said Hoda, who wishes
his family still owned the
property.
Trapping
Paul Stubbs, 85, of Upper

Leigh grew up in White Haven where he started trapping
as a 7-year-old.
Each morning before
school, he checked his traps.
Its a good sport for youngsters. It keeps you more or
less in fairly good shape,
Stubbs said.
When he was 8, Stubbs
said he lucked out by trapping two minks.
Sears and Roebuck paid
$37 for one pelt and $42 for
the other mink.
His father then earned $40
a week for working in a factory so Stubbs sensed a
career opportunity.
By trapping, he supplemented his familys income.
Selling furs and working in
the summer at the White
Haven Sanitarium enabled
him to buy a car: a Model A
Ford that he purchased used
for $35. He was one of two
students in his high school
who owned a car, which he
needed to check his evergrowing trap lines.
As a young man, after
serving his country in
Korea, Stubbs spent seven
seasons as a trapper in
Maine. Each September, he

hiked 28 miles from town to
his camp. He walked back to
civilization a few times each
winter if he needed supplies.
The trip took a day, and he
had to wear snowshoes.
Later he also sold trapping
lures as a business.
As a boy, Stubbs remembers receiving $4 for a skunk
pelt.
The pelts went to France
and became artists brushes
in those days.
Demand was lighter for
raccoon. Foxes fetched a
state bounty plus about $1.25
on the market.
Later, he saw the market
invert. By the 1980s or 1990s,
he was selling fox furs for $75
and raccoons for $40.
Stubbs thinks the higher
prices, not just peoples attitudes toward trapping,
helped drive fur coats and
hats out of fashion.
Like prices, the populations of wildlife have fluctuated during his lifetime.
Muskrats, worth $2.50 to
$3.50, were plentiful when he
as a boy.
At one time, every creek I
can remember, the tiniest
trickle, would have a muskrat, Stubbs said.
Now he rarely sees muskrats.
Weasels are scarce, too.
Likewise, the ruffed
grouse, the Pennsylvania
state bird, is hard to find in
the Commonwealth.
While he was in high
school, Stubbs said grouse
flew up so often that he could
fire a box of shells in a day
of hunting.
On the other hand, bald
eagles, which he used to see
while tending the Francis E.
Walter Dam, his last job
before retiring, have
returned to the Hazleton
area. Theyve been spotted in
Drums and Sugarloaf and
along the Susquehanna River. The birds nest in 50 of 67
counties, and the game commission took them off the
states list of threatened species in 2014.
A forest mammal called
fisher, which is in the weasel
family, died out in Pennsylvania, but the game commission re-introduced the species. Their numbers and the
numbers of bobcats are high
enough that the game commission permits limited
trapping of those two species
now.
In 2016, the commission
also will let trappers take river otters for the first time in
63 years. Trapping only will
occur where otters are most
numerous, in the states
northeast corner. But the
boundaries of the new trapping zones include the
Nescopeck State Park.
For nearly a century, the
Game Commission has used
revenues from hunting
licenses to buy land, which is
set aside for hunting but also
open to non-hunters for hiking and watching wildlife.
Wild turkey are more common now than a generation
ago in Pennsylvania, and the
Game Commission said
Pennsylvania has more
bears now than when European colonists arrived.
Fishing
Opportunities for casting

along small streams for wild
brook trout, the kind of fishing that Ray Youngblood
enjoys, are increasing even

though anglers arent necessarily taking them.
Thats old hat. People
used to ply those waters with
those real wary fish, said
Youngblood, 75, who lives in
Hazleton and helped start
the Western Pocono Chapter
of Trout Unlimited 42 years
ago. Today, its all big
water.
When trout season opens
each year, anglers gravitate
to lakes and streams stocked
with trout from hatcheries.
Its standing room only
along the shores of Lake Irena, an artificial lake that has
remained popular at Hazle
Township Community Park
since it opened for fishing in
1962.
The Little Schuylkill River
north of Tamaqua and the
Lehigh River between White
Haven and Jim Thorpe draw
people fishing for trout in
spring and fall. Thats when
the water remains 68 degrees
or colder, the temperatures
that trout require.
To keep trout alive longer
and maintain the Lehigh
Rivers levels into the summer, the Army Corps of
Engineers releases water
from the Francis E. Walter
Dam. The Corps sets the
schedule for releasing water
to balance the interests of
the anglers against those of
kayakers and rafters who
enjoy running rapids when
the river flows fast and deep.
For years, anglers and the
Corps have considered building a new tower with different discharge points at the
Francis E. Walter Dam. That
would allow the operators to
release colder water from the
bottom of the dam later in
the summer to preserve
trout longer.
Fish living in big waters
like the Lehigh have more
access to food and more hiding places so they feel secure
compared with wild trout
that survive in smaller
streams.
Small-stream fish are
predators all the time. They
have their eyes open,
Youngblood said.
Small streams contain
small fish. An 8-inch wild
trout feels like a trophy to
Youngblood, but their wariness adds a challenge to
anglers who pursue them.
The Pennsylvania Fish
and Boat Commission
became more aware of
streams containing wild
trout after obtaining grants
to hire biologists and colleges to take surveys for the
wily fish.
In 2015, the commission
designated 211 more stretches of water as wild trout
streams, including five sections of the Little Schuylkill
River in Schuylkill County
and Luzerne Countys Coal
Creek in Plymouth.
Drecks Creek below the
reservoir near Hazleton and
Still Creek above the reservoir of the same name north
of McAdoo also support wild
trout, Youngblood said, citing a mailing he recently
received from Trout Unlimited.
When Youngblood, who
grew up in Wilkes-Barre
Township, moved to Hazleton he thought mines would
have killed all the streams.
He didnt expect to find
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11:23 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Z11
Sports
Then&Now
Outdoor
(Continued from Z10)
many who shared his interest in fishing.
He said he was wrong on
both counts.
Faded issues of the Pennsylvania Angler attest to the
success of earlier anglers
from Hazleton.
Charles Mozer of Hazleton
landed a brown trout that
was 26 inches long and
weighed six pounds while
fishing in the Lehigh River,
the magazine reported in
July 1932.
The same issue said a husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs.
J. Washko of North Laurel
Street in Hazleton caught two
brown trout that weighed a
combined 7 pounds, 2 ounces
in Bear Creek.
Historically, Hazleton residents fished for trout along
Quakake Creek in Hudsondale, Hayes Creek near Freeland and the Nescopeck
Creek.
Those creeks continue to
yield trout, despite the perils
that mining poses.
On the Quakake Creek, a
mine outfall deadened a section of water, but trout still
thrive from the source to
Route 93.
The public, however,
hasnt been able to fish there
since about the 1970s, said
Youngblood, who joined the
Ochre Mill fishing club 30
years ago to gain access to
the stream. Ochre Mills
founder, Niles Grover was an
air squadron commander in
World War II who later flew
cargo planes. He tended a
grass runway on his property, which he also maintained
for hunting and fishing.
Hayes Creek starts north
of Freeland amid an interchange of the Pennsylvania
Turnpike and fast food restaurants, yet still supports
wild trout.
Youngblood owns a report
from 1904 by the Department
of Fisheries, the forerunner
of the Fish and Boat Commission, that praises a state
fish warden, Hugh Malloy of
Freeland, who fished Hayes
Creek, as completely fearless.
The report recounts an incident in which Malloy told a
friend to open his creel basket
or else he would come in the
stream after him. Finding four
undersized fish in the basket,
Malloy fined his friend $40.
A notice from the Standard-Speakers 110 years ago
column published on May 27,
2014 also mentioned Malloy.
He caught a 22-inch trout
in Hayes Creek and gave it to
Gov. Samuel Pennypacker.
Incredibly, there are still
fish like that in the creek. Ive
seen them, Youngblood said.
The Nescopeck Creek in
Drums remains a popular
fishing spot. The commission
stocks trout in the Nescopeck
and in Lake Frances at the
nearby Nescopeck State Park.
Mine water from the Jeddo
Tunnel, however, kills all life
in the Nescopeck at the confluence with the Little Nescopeck Creek.
The Jeddo Tunnel in 1894
was completed. I always wondered what the farmers
throughout Sugarloaf and
Conyngham felt the morning
they woke up and found they
couldnt use the water any
more to water their livestock, Youngblood said.
The Jeddo Tunnel drains
mines from throughout the
Hazleton Area.
More than 120 years after
its construction, the tunnel

still discharges about 37,000
gallons of water per minute,
the largest source of mine
water in Pennsylvania.
The water is more acidic
than tomato juice and contains iron and manganese.
Peter Haentjens, who studied what to do with the tunnel
as executive director of Eastern Middle Anthracite
Region Recovery Inc., said the
amount of water involved
makes a treatment plant prohibitively expensive.
Diverting water before it
reaches the tunnel isnt feasible either because 75 percent
of the flow enters as groundwater.
Probably the most practical plan is to raise the alkalinity. Drop the metals out.
The stream will come back to
the life, said Haentjens, who
has proposed the tunnel as a
source of hydroelectric and
geothermal power.
Waiting for nature to purify the tunnel water might
take 100 years, he said.
An easier problem to solve
exists along the Catawissa
Creek.
A flood damaged a limestone treatment system on
the Catawissa at Audenried,
but it wont be hard to get
that up and running,
Haentjens said.
The Catawissa Creek Restoration Association already
treated water in Eagle Rock
Resort so Lake Choctaw supports fish.
Water quality improved
elsewhere.
While the Lehigh River
has become a destination for
trout fishing, a professor who
studied the water a century
ago wrote: At Slatington,
there appears to be as little
fish in the river and other
forms of life also are scarce,
Youngblood said while quoting from one of the reports
in his collection.
The Lackawanna River,
once considered a sewer, has
become such a good fishery
that Trout Unlimited held its
national convention along its
banks in Scranton in 2015.
The states premier bass
fishery, the Susquehanna
River, has problems.
While growing up, Youngblood fished for smallmouth
bass in the Susquehanna near
Vosburg, Wyoming County.
His family saved money from
picking blueberries to rent a
cabin at a camp where the
owner kept 1,000-pound boats
for customers.
The northern stretches of
the Susquehanna remain
good enough for bass fishing
that fishing guides still operate there.
In the western and southern reaches of the river, however, young bass have been
dying off at high rates for a
decade. Male bass show
female traits, and the executive director of the fish commission was in a boat when
his friend caught a cancerous
bass. The commission and
environmental agencies from
Pennsylvania and other
states in the Susquehannas
watershed are devising remedies for the problem. Scientists are evaluating how the
Susquehanna is affected by
runoff from manure and fertilizer on farms, by medicines flushed into sewers and
by invasions of algae that
reduce oxygen levels. The
water also is becoming
warmer and more acidic,
researchers have found.

Hazletonians also fish for
bass in regional lakes.
You name it. Ive probably
fished it, Robert Skulsky
said while listing some bass
fisheries: Lake Lackawanna,
Lily Lake, Bradys Lake,
Tobyhanna Lake and Beltzville Lake.
Beltzville is a man-made
lake large enough to operate
motor boats in a state park of
the same name.
For decades, regional business and government leaders
advocated a plan to create
lakes of the same scale by
damming the Nescopeck
Creek at the Nescopeck State
Park.
A plan to preserve the natural areas rather than to
flood them prevailed. Now
the Nescopeck State Park is
noted for its environmental
education program, fields
where woodcocks put on an
aerial show during their mating rituals in the spring and
trails that circle a smaller
lake, pond and forests.
Winter sports
In decades past, a bonfire

and mug of hot cocoa fought
off the chill and let skaters
return to the ice at Hazle Park,
where Hazleton residents skated even after the amusement
rides closed there.
Skaters also met at Lake
Irena, which remains popular for ice fishing.
The Hazleton Fire Department converted the street
hockey rink at the Beech
Street Playground and the
soccer field at the Pine Street
Playground for ice skating
during a few winters around
2000.
Nearby, Sugarloaf, Freeland, Conyngham and other
towns also put down temporary rinks, usually on ballfields in the 2000s.
Racers have competed on
snowshoes in events at the
Nescopeck State Park, where
the trails also suit crosscountry skiers.
Whitetail Preserve in
Black Creek Township hosted winter biathlons, pairing
snowshoe racing with target
shooting.
Alpine skiers glide downhill
at resorts for which the Poconos are famous, but also find ski
trails as close to Hazleton as
Eagle Rock Resort.
Cove Village in Zion Grove
formerly operated a ski area.
Norb Kotzer of West Hazleton started skiing on a rope
tow at Split Rock Lodge when
he was 14.
He is 79 now, has skied
from Camelback to Colorado
and won national championships for his age group in the
NASTAR Ski Racing Series.
His first pair of skis were
wooden boards with a leather
strap wrapped over his boots.
You fell, and the ski went
with you, Kotzer recalled.
Now his parabolic skis
turn more effortlessly, his
boots click into bindings and
his clothing is warmer and
lighter.
Ski areas also improved at
making snow and getting skiers up the mountain.
Big Boulder and Elk
Mountain opened before he
started skiing and moved skiers upslope with chairlifts
and T-bars by his first visits.
I dont think anybody has
T-bars anymore, Kotzer said.
Children, of course, didnt
need skis or lifts to go fast
over the snow.
Locals line the shore at Lake Irena in Hazle Township Community Park for the first
Some Freelanders remember when Yale Street closed
to motorists and opened to
sledders.
Generations of youngsters
have barreled down hills at
the Valley Country Club, the
old Cranberry Ballfield and
the Heights-Terrace Elementary Middle School on sleds,
toboggans and inner tubes.
Thomas Ogorzalek recalls
sliding down coal banks on
car hoods. He and his friends
piled on for a ride that they
couldnt steer or stop.
When I think about it
today, we were crazy to do it,
he said.
Bicycling
Ogorzalek became
intrigued by the woods and
coal lands around Hazleton
as boy when his father
brought home a collection of
topographic maps. He started
walking to places on the
maps, but in the 1970s he
bought a bicycle and extended his range.
While riding backroads
and dirt trails to Sheppton,
Weatherly, Humboldt, Tomhicken and elsewhere, he seldom saw another bicyclist.
Ogorzalek was, perhaps, 80
years late.
In the 1890s, the Associated
Wheelmen of Hazleton built
bicycle paths for their own
enjoyment.
Riders paid a subscription
fee to use the paths, and the
association negotiated rightsof-way with coal companies,
University of Vermont Professor Robert McCullough,
writes in his 2015 book, Old
Wheelways: Traces of Bicycle History on the Land.
Some riders pedaled highwheelers with large front
wheels and smaller rear
wheels. Others rode safety
bicycles, which look more like
todays cycles, with the same
sized wheels in front and back.
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A mining engineer, Louis

O. Emmerich, and crew foreman Anthony Payne, supervised construction of trail
between Hazleton and Eckley. Laborers cut forests and
blasted rock to carve a trail 6
feet wide that they covered
with clay and gravel and
compressed with a 3-ton roller, McCullough wrote.
An undated newspaper
article in the collection of the
Greater Hazleton Historical
Society said A.E. Dick, following Emmerichs direction, built the first trail from
Hazleton, up the No. 6 Hill
and through woods to Beaver
Brook and Audenried.
McCullough said the first
trail, about 1.5 miles connected Audenried and Jeanesville and the second stretched
3 miles between Audenried
and Hazleton.
The trail between Eckley
and Hazleton, built in 1898,
ran for seven miles. Cyclists
enjoyed the scenery of the
elevated path, which ascended a mountain ridge above
Ebervale before looping
down to Eckley. On summer
nights, the bicyclists rode by
lamplight, McCullough said.
On Broad Street in Hazleton, authorities posted a
speed limit of 8 mph to curb
reckless bicycling in 1896,
although bicycles remained
novel enough that the historical societys article listed the
owners by name.
Stephen D. Engle, a jeweler
most famous for inventing a
clock that also showed movements of planets and historical scenes, also built a bicycle
of wood in the 1870s. It
weighed about 100 pounds.
Percy Haydon, son of mine
and ironworks operator in
Jeanesville, owned the first
high-wheeler in the area.
Charles Wilde won a 1-mile
race in Bloomsburg in 1885
and then rode and pushed his
high-wheeler home to Hazleton.

Bicyclists in Hazleton once
raced on a half-mile track on
land of the Diamond Coal
Land Co. in the citys northwest.
More than a century later,
racers are circuiting a BMX
or bicycle motocross course
at Louis Schiavo Park on the
Hazleton South Beltway. The
Tri-Area Recreation Authority opened the BMX course in
2008. Riders as young as 5
don full-face helmets and
zoom down a starting gate
onto the dirt track that rolls
up and down bumps and
whips through hairpin turns
Mountain bicyclists ride the
D&L Trail through the Lehigh
Gorge between Jim Thorpe
and a new section in Mountain Top. They attack more
challenging trails on public
lands in Mocanaqua, Moon
Lake State Park, gamelands
like the Broad Mountain near
Jim Thorpe, and the Moosic
Mountain Preserve where the
Hubbard Bike Club built trails
with The Nature Conservancy in 2008.
In his book, McCullough
writes that the path between
Hazleton and Eckley might
be one of the nations most
enduring bicycle corridors.
A survey, he said, would be
needed to determine what
sections that remain today
were part of the trail built by
the Associated Wheelmen, or
of trails developed by groups
in Freeland and Jeddo or of
roads established by coal
companies.
Ogorzalek, who volunteers
to help develop the Hazleton
rail trail where he still bicycles and skis, said he would
like to follow the historic
route when extending the
trail to Eckley. The actual
route, he said, will depend on
where the Civic Partnership
can obtain rights-of-way.
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11:22 | GRECOTONY
Sports
Then&Now
Breed
PatrickwentontoplayattheUniversityofPittsburgh,beforetransferringtoBloomsburg,wherehecontinuedtobeaprolificreceiver.
(Continued from Z4)
only player in Pennsylvania class

AAAA history to do from 1997-99,
when he put up ridiculously gaudy numbers as the focal point of
the Cougarsrun-and-shoot
offense and opposing defenses.
Facing double and even tripleteam coverage throughout most of
his career in scarlet and silver, the
6-foot-5, 195-pounder easily ranks
as the Cougarstop receiver in every
statistical category. Among his
records: career receptions (207, Joe
Holderman is second with 122)

and receiving yards (3,528, Holderman is runnerup with 1,608).
Patrick also occupies the top

three spots for receptions in a
season with 78 in 1997, 75 in
1998, and 54 in 1999. Hes also
first, second and third in touchdown catches in a season with
13, nine and eight in 19989,
1997 and 1999, respectively, the
latter since tied by Mike Nicholas in 2005. Patrick also has had
three of the Cougars best four
marks for receiving in a season
Donald Pollitt
Pollitt
with 1,378 in 1998, 1,357 in
1997 and 807 in 1999.
Patrick totaled 209 catches
for more than 3,700 yards and
33 touchdowns in his 32-game
high school career. He led the
entire state in receiving during
his sophomore and junior years.
He twice finished among the
areas top 10 point-producers in
a season with 78 in 1998 and 73
in 1999. And he still ranks fourth
on Hazleton Areas all-time scoring list with 204 points and
fourth in TDs scored with 34.
Its not often that an athlete can

turn in his or her best performance
on the biggest stage, and then
bring home the biggest prize.
Hazleton Area graduate Donald Pollitt did just that twice
during his high school track
and field career.
In the spring of 2009, Pollitt
went head to head with defending PIAA Class 3A 110-meter
high hurdles champion Michael
Brown at the state championships in Shippensburg.
After running side-by-side and
finishing 1-2 in Fridays preliminaries and again in Saturday
mornings semifinals, there
seemed little doubt that the topseeded Pollitt, a junior, and the
defending champion Brown, a
senior from Lower Dauphin were
destined to hook up in a classic
final come Saturday afternoon.

Trailing Brown throughout the
final, Pollitt summoned one last
burst of speed after clearing the
final hurdle, and out-leaned
Brown at the tape with his best
time of the weekend (14.25) to
capture the high hurdles championship and give Hazleton Area
High School its first-ever state
gold medal in track and field.
Instead of resting on his laurels,
Pollitt worked tirelessly to improve.
He returned to the state finals
again as a senior, and capped a
brilliant track career in style by
successfully defending his 110
high hurdles title. He cleared all
10 hurdles in 13.83 seconds,
breaking his own HAHS record
of 13.99 and narrowly missing
the state record of 13.79. In
addition to his gold medal in
the 110s, Pollitt earned a fourthplace medal in the 300-meter
intermediate hurdles later in the
day and left Seth Grove Stadium
with two more state medals and
plenty of great memories.
Pollitt went on to Syracuse University, and continued to improve

his craft. He eventually became a
threetime All-America hurdler
with plans to work toward a possible Olympics berth.
0-0-0
Other Hazleton Area athletes
who have excelled include:
RACHEL RITZ Sprint
sensation in HAHS early days.
Competed at La Salle University.
TERRY KRINGE Four-year
starter in boys basketball. First
Cougars boys player to earn AllState first-team honors. Key part of
HAHSstate final team in 1993 and
eastern finalist in 1995. Starred at
Northeastern University.
SANDY RITZ Most decorated girls track and field athlete in HAHS history. State medalist in sprints. Top-notch performer at Lock Haven University.
MELISSA DYMEK Star
basketball player for four years
at HAHS and currently the associate head womens basketball
coach at the Division I Akron.
JOY GALLAGHER Fouryear conference all-star in both

basketball and softball. Two-sport
standout at Wagner University.
MATTMcGOWANCougars
all-timeleadingscorerandrusherin
football.Helpedkeyprograms resurgenceunderRoccoPetrone.ShowcasedtalentsatLehigh.
JOSH HECK Formed a
potent 1-2 backfield do with
McGowan. Shined at Bloomsburg.
RUSS CANZLER
Became schools all-time leading boys scorer in basketball
and its first baseball player to
get drafted. Cougar teammates
Kyle Landis and Justin Gutsie
followed soon thereafter.
AMY MANTUSH
Jumping sensation at HAHS and
Bucknell University.
JULIA FRANZOSA State
javelin champ in 2012.
SAL BIASI Surpassed
Canzler as career scoring leader
in boys basketball in 2014. Outstanding baseball player as well.
Now pitching at Penn State.
Pinnacle
(Continued from Z6)
DAN McGEEHAN, Jeddo Saw

action in three games with the 1911 St.
Louis Browns, getting two singles in
nine at-bats and driving in a run.
RON NORTHEY, Mahanoy City
Spent 12 seasons with five organizations: Philadelphia (1942-1947, 1957),
St. Louis (1947-1949), Cincinnati (1950),
Chicago Cubs (1950, 1952, 1955-1956)
and Chicago White Sox (1957).
Hit .276 in his lengthy major league
stay with 108 home runs and 513 RBI in
1,084 games and 3,172 at-bats.
ABNER POWELL, Shenandoah
Played center field and pitched for
three teams in two seasons, with Washington of the Union Association in
1884 and with both Baltimore and Cincinnati of the American Association in
1886.
Had a career .257 batting average in
304 at-bats covering 78 games.
As a pitcher, appeared in 18 games
with Washington in 1884 and in a combined 11 games with Baltimore and
Cincinnati in 1886, compiling a career
8-18 record and a 4.00 ERA in 209
innings. Twenty-five of his 29 appearances came as a starter.
Managed the New Orleans franchise
of the American Association after his
playing days at the turn of the century,
when he was credited with several
firsts in baseball history.
Was the first to use a tarpaulin to
cover an infield; was responsible for the
first rain checks issued by a sports
team; and organized the first Ladies
Day. Back then baseball was considered off limits for women, but because
of Ladies Day when women were
admitted free of charge that all
changed.
In the early 1950s, longtime Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie
Mack praised Powell for doing more for
the game than any other man.
JACK QUINN, Jeanesville The
areas most prolific pitcher ever, he
posted 247 career victories with New
York (1909-1912, 1919-1921), Boston
(1913, 1922-1925), Baltimore (19141915), Chicago (1918), Philadelphia
(1925-1930), Brooklyn (1931-1932) and
Cincinnati (1933).
Quinn posted only one 20-win season. That came in 1914, when he went
26-14 with Boston.
Finished his illustrious career with a
3.27 ERA in 755 games covering 3,934
innings. Had 1,329 strikeouts.
Appeared in three World Series, one
with New York (1921) and two with
Philadelphia (1929, 1930), going 0-1
with an 8.44 ERA.
BOB RINKER, Audenried Got
in three games with the Philadelphia
Athletics in 1950, getting a pinch-hit
single in three at-bats to finish with a
career .333 batting average.
JIM SCOTT, Shenandoah
Appeared in eight games for Pittsburgh in 1914, batting .250 with six
hits, including one double, and one RBI
in 24 at-bats.
1948.
NATE EACHUS, Drums
Though the ex-Hazleton Area High
School star was passed up in the 2012
NFL Draft following his senior year at
Colgate University, Eachus was signed
as a free agent by the Kansas City
Chiefs.
Following a strong preseason
including 206 rushing yards and big
performances against Seattle and
Green Bay he made the Chiefs
53-man roster.
Ive dreamed about this my whole
life. Ive dreamed about this since I
played youth football when I was five
years old, Eachus said on the eve of his
NFL debut against Atlanta at Arrowhead Stadium in September 2012. I
always believed I could make it this far.
Playing on special teams, and also
lining up in the backfield as a blocking
back for Peyton Hillis and Jammal
Charles, Eachus was on the field quite a
CARL RED MEINHOLD, Hazle- bit as a rookie. He even made a start
against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittston A 6-foot-2 guard-forward
burgh on Monday Night Football.
went from Long Island University to
Although he weighed just 212
playing two seasons (1947-1949) in
the Basketball Association of America pounds, Eachus became Charles prias a member of the Baltimore Bullets, mary blocking back, and helped
Charles to a Pro Bowl season that year.
Chicago Stags and Providence
Eachus was not active during the closSteamrollers.
Averaged 5.3 points per game in his ing weeks of the season due to injury.
Although Eachusfirst pro season was
career and won a league championship
largely successful, the Chiefs struggled
with Baltimore in 1948. In 1953-54, he
as a team, winning just two games, and
played for the Washington Generals,
at seasons end Romeo Crennel was
the opponents of the Harlem Globefired as head coach. The Chiefs brought
trotters.
in former Philadelphia Eagles coach
Attended Hazleton High School,
where in 1944 he led the Mountaineers Andy Reid, who opted to release Eachus
before the 2013 preseason even began.
to a runner-up finish in the state tourEachus has had several tryouts with
nament, scoring 25 points in a semifiother NFL teams since, but has yet to
nal rout of Lower Merion before leaving with an injury. The injury prevented land a spot back in the NFL.
GEORGE KRACUM, Tresckow
him from playing in the PIAA title
The former Hazleton High standout
game.
fullback and 1940 All-American at Pitt,
scored three touchdowns with Brooklyn in 1941.
MARTIN BIBLA, Mountain Top
SEAN LOVE, Coaldale Played
A 1997 Crestwood High School
offensive guard for three seasons in the
graduate, the mammoth offensive
mid 1990s with the NFLs Tampa Bay
guard (6-3, 306) went on to star at the
University of Miami, earning first team Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers. Also
practiced with the Dallas Cowboys,
All-Big East honors in 2001.
Bibla was drafted by the Atlanta Fal- New York Giants, Buffalo Bills, New York
Jets and Philadelphia Eagles.
cons in the fourth round of the 2002
RON MATTES, Shenandoah
NFL Draft, playing in 31 games for the
Falcons from 2002-04 and starting two Offensive tackle who played for seven
at guard. He was released in 2005, and seasons in the National Football League.
signed by the Denver Broncos one sea- He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks
in the seventh round of the 1985 NFL
son later before also being released.
Draft and he also played for the Chicago
He caught on with the Philadelphia
Bears.
Soul of the Arena Football League in
The former North Schuylkill High
2007, earning a spot on the AFLs AllSchool standout attended the UniversiRookie Team in 2007 and on the AllArena First Team in 2008. The AFL can- ty of Virginia, where he also served as
an offensive line coach.
celled its season in 2009, but Bibla
GERALD PLANUTIS, West Hazlesigned with the Las Vegas Locomotives
ton Played for Michigan State from
of the United Football League and
helped the team win the league cham- 1953-55 and was an All-American for
the unbeaten, Rose Bowl-winning
pionship in 2009.
Spartans in 1955. Suited up for the
GEORGE CHEVERKO, Beaver
Meadows Caught a combined three NFLs Washington Redskins in 1956.
DAN SEKANOVICH, West HazleTD passes and made nine interceptions
ton Served as the defensive line
for the NFLs New York Giants and
coach for four NFL teams: the New York
Washington Redskins in 1947 and
JOHN SHOVLIN, Drifton Saw
limited time in parts of three seasons
with Pittsburgh (1911) and St. Louis
(1919-1920), hitting .209 with nine hits in
43 at-bats. Had three RBI in his career.
HARRY STINE, Shenandoah
Started and finished his only major league
appearance with Philadelphia of the
American Association in 1890. He suffered
a loss after allowing 17 hits and nine runs
in eight innings.
MIKE TRESH, Hazleton Spent
11 of his 12 major league seasons with
the Chicago White Sox (1938-1948)
before finishing his career with the
Cleveland Indians in 1949.
Had a .249 lifetime batting average
with two home runs and 297 RBI in
1,027 games, 3,169 at-bats.
His best season came with the White
Sox in 1940 when he hit .281 in 480
bats. He had a home run and 64 RBI.
BASKETBALL
FOOTBALL
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Open Tues.-Sat.
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Sunday
7am to 1pm and
3pm to 8pm
789 N. Locust St., Hazleton 570-455-6171

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ea
Jets, Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills and

Atlanta Falcons, Was the architect of
the Jets famed New York Sack
Exchange of the early 1980s. Coached
with the Bills in the Super Bowl in 1993.
BOB TUCKER, Hazleton One
of the most prolific tight ends of his era
in the National Football League, Tucker
never caught a pass at Hazleton High
School.
He played center for the Mountaineers, where he also played basketball.
Tucker evolved into a receiver at
Bloomsburg University. He caught a
record 77 passes in college, but said
the blocking techniques that he
learned in high school helped him at
tight end.
Despite graduating with nine school
records, Tucker didnt get drafted by
the NFL.
So he played semi-pro football.
In 1968, he led the Atlantic Coast
Football League in receiving, and
played for the leagues Pottstown Firebirds in 1969 while also spending time
on the practice squad of the Philadelphia Eagles.
The next year, the New York Giants
signed Tucker as a 25-year-old rookie,
and he caught 40 passes.
In 1971, he teamed with quarterback
FranTarkenton, and caught 59 passes,
most in the National Football Conference.
During his seven years in New York,
the Giants went 38-71-1 and never
made the playoffs.
But when Tucker was traded to the
Minnesota Vikings midway through
the 1977 season, he rejoined Tarkenton and reached the playoffs three of
the next four years before retiring
with 422 career catches and 27
touchdowns. In his NFL career, he
never fumbled.
After football, Tucker has maintained
a Hazleton residence while doing business in the New York metro area.
One of his three children, Matt,
played basketball with distinction at
Hazleton Area High School and Penn
State Hazleton.
JOHN YACCINO, Hazleton The
former Hazleton High School and University of Pittsburgh standout played
for one season (1962) as a defensive
back with the American Football
Leagues Buffalo Bills.
ERIC SUGARMAN, Hazleton
The 1987 Hazleton High School graduate is in his 19th season as an NFL trainer in 2015 and his 10th as the Minnesota Vikings head athletic trainer.
He got his start by helping popular
HHS athletic trainer Mike Magic Macejko while he was still in high school. It
didnt matter if Sugarman was carrying
water bottles, helping to tape an athletes ankle, running for something that
Macejko needed, Sugarman was
always available. In turn, he found his
life calling.
In 2015, Sugarman was part of his
seventh division championship team
since 2000 and eighth playoff-bound
team. In 2009, the Vikings were a three-
point overtime loss in New Orleans

away from the Super Bowl.
During his tenure with the Vikings,
Sugarman and his staff have been
instrumental in helping several players
return from severe injury by creating or
enhancing rehabilitation protocols
notably helping running back Adrian
Peterson come back from knee surgery
to repair two torn ligaments sooner
than expected in 2012.
With the Vikings, Sugarman supervises the evaluation and care of all injuries sustained. He and his staff implement and maintain proactive treatment and rehabilitation programs.
The Vikings athletic training staff
have broad-based experience in athletic training and have trained under
some of the most respected professionals in their field. The staff prides
itself on being proactive while using
the most current concepts, modalities
and principles.
Sugarman and the entire Vikings
athletic training staff are Performance
Enhancement Specialists through the
National Academy of Sports Medicine.
During the 2010 offseason, they were
trained in Graston technique, a patented form of instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization that works to effectively break down scar tissue and fascial restrictions.
Sugarman has worked closely the
past several years with the Nike SST
(Sensory Sport Training) team and has
brought many of their vision concepts
into the Vikings athletic training room.
He has also established a strong working relationship with Starkey Hearing
of Eden Prairie, allowing him to bring
state-of-the-art hearing enhancement
and ear protection to the team and
staff.
Sugarman spent the 1997-99 seasons with the Chicago Bears and the
2000-05 campaigns with Philadelphia,
going to the Super Bowl with the
Eagles in 2004.
Mark
(Continued from Z1)
Muhammad Ali boxed an exhibition in Hazleton and sparred at Deer
Lake while another former champ,
Tim Witherspoon, started a youth
boxing program in Hazleton.
Jim Thorpe is buried 16 miles
from Hazleton in the town renamed
for him.
Babe Ruth swatted a long home
run at Cranberry while warming up
before a barnstorming game.
Hazletons Bob Tucker led the
National Football Conference in
receiving with the New York Giants,
and Beaver Meadows Norm Larker
nearly led the National League in batting with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Joe Maddon of Hazleton has been
manager of the year in the American
and National leagues.
All hard workers, indeed.
HAZLETONS ONLY NEW YORK STYLE COOKING ESTABLISHMENT

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Culture
in our
community
With entertainment centers hours away in New York and

Philadelphia, a mecca developed in Greater Hazleton for the
arts. The region has evolved over the decades, seeing a rebirth
in some cultural endeavors while others are now just treasured
memories. Some schools have changed and others remain
constant ... same for our places of worship. The spirit of the
region, though, remains as strong as ever.
11:22 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Z13
11:23 | GRECOTONY
Culture
Then&Now
Houses of
worship hold
deep meaning
By KELLY MONITZ
StaffWriter
Numerous steeples and

spires rise above Hazletons
skyline, symbolizing the
deeply rooted religious
beliefs of the areas first
inhabitants and the waves of
immigrants who followed
and settled here.
Their churches remain,
but new churches and congregations have emerged as
well in recent years many
of them worshiping in nontraditional places such as
downtown stores, parks and
former factories.
This has always been a
town that very clearly
embraced its religious heritage. The people who came
here brought their faith with
them and recognized it was a
very essential part of their
lives, said the Rev. Gregory
Finn, pastor of Holy Annunciation Parish at St. Gabriels
Church in Hazleton.
St. Gabriels traces its history to 1855, when Irish
immigrants flocked to the
anthracite fields seeking
work and a new life. The
church welcomed other
immigrants from Europe in
the 1880s as the mother
church of the region, and
continues to welcome new
immigrants to this day.
The traditional Irish
church began offering Masses in Spanish more than 20
years ago to minister to an
influx of Mexican immigrants, many of them
migrant workers in the Butler Valley, Finn said.
Here they were welcome
to have Mass as the group
came together about once a
month, he said. The community began to grow and so
eventually after a few years,
it became a weekly Mass.
Then, the Hispanic population in the area shifted, as an
anti-immigration sentiment
grew in the community and
Hazleton passed anti-immigration legislation, Finn said.
The Mexican community,
largely being undocumented
people, were fearful and
began to move away, he said.
Instead, who took their
place were Dominican people
and the Dominicans are an
entirely different group, ethically, linguistically and culturally, than the Mexican
people.
Most Dominican people
are documented many
maintaining dual citizenship
as their ties to their home
country, the Dominican
Republic, remain very strong
and they identify themselves
as Dominican, just as early
Irish, German, Slovak and

Polish immigrants identified
with their home countries,
he said.
Theyre much more
demonstrative. Theyre
much more extroverted.
Theyre much more active
and energetic. You have
much more clamor. You have
excitement. You have activity, Finn said. The Mexican
people tend to be low-key,
hard-working ... trying to
keep quiet and out of sight.
Dominicans are just the
opposite.
The church now offers two
Spanish Masses on Sundays,
accommodating close to 1,000
people, and hosts two youth
groups one in English and
one in Spanish, as there are
still children in the parish
who speak more Spanish
than English, but that is
shifting, too, he said.
Hazletons early immigrants spoke very little English, but their children spoke
both English and their native
tongues, Finn said. The next
generation was the one that
became more fully integrated
in the American language
and culture, he said.
The grandchildren grew
up only knowing English,
only knowing America, only
wanting to be American, and
things change, Finn said.
We see the same kind of
thing coming here.
Lately, Finn and the other
pastors noticed more people
coming to the English Masses, not just because they recognize that theyre welcome,
but they can follow them, he
said.
Because they have more
English and the kids especially prefer it, because they
can understand it, Finn
said.
Those who speak more
Spanish tend to be more culturally integrated and have a
greater comfort zone with
their own people, just as the
early immigrants did, he
said.
Its a kind of gradual
coming together. Its really
because the grandchildren
are more ethnically, culturally American than Latino that
actually becomes the drawing together of it all, Finn
explained. Our goal is to
preserve their cultural heritage, but help them to live it
in an American context so
that they can bring in the
richness that other ethnic
European groups have
brought to the American culture.
Holy Annunciation Parish
today is a blend of different
ethnic churches, which
StaNdard-SPEakEr FiLE
The former St. Bartholomews Church in Tresckow

is shown in 2004. It had its cross removed from the steeple, the stained glass removed from its windows and the
remains of its pastor, the Rev. Ernesto Amati, exhumed
and relocated.
The prayer room at Hill City Church in Hazleton is shown.
An office and recording studio at Hill City Church is part of the unique religious
surroundings.
been really exciting to see

that total attitude change.
The church also has a
5,000-square-foot youth sporting area, where young people
gather for baseball, kickball
and softball on Friday nights.
There is also a batting cage, a
weight training area, arcade
and youth area. They often
hear parents remark about
how strange it is that their
kids want to go to church on
Friday nights, Brooke Gerhart said.
We love that, he said.
They also do open mic and
acoustic nights in the cafe,
which is also open before
Sunday service so people can
get a cup of coffee and socialize.
Part of the reason we do
stuff like this is we want to
break down the barriers of
what church and what being
involved in the community
is, Brooke Gerhart said.
We want people to recognize
that Christianity and your
faith is supposed to be influencing your community and
working together. Were all in
this together.
If we want God to transform peoples lives, we have
to transform the community
as well, he said.
Church leaders avoid religious words, such as sanctuary, which might turn off
some people who have negative feelings about traditional
churches, he said.
The millennial generation, the 20-somethings now
... They are very turned off
by tradition, by things being
forced on them and by rules
and yet, they are a spiritual
group and they want to pursue spirituality and God,
Clark Gerhart said. We try
to remove some of the barriers that keep people from
experiencing God.
He explained that Hill
Citys message is the same as
other churches salvation
through Christ but its
delivered in a way that people receive more easily.
Were trying to recapture
those people for whatever
reason they left that traditional-style church. So, were
going to be a non-traditional,
very vibrant, very dynamic,
very spiritual experience for
people, Clark Gerhart said.
Were not trying to change
other people who are happy
with their religious expression in their churches. Thats
not what were about at all.
We want to be the alternative to those who are falling
out of the denominations
and losing contact with
God, he said. We want people who would never go to
church to come here.
merged in a diocesan-wide
consolidation that saw half
of the areas Roman Catholic
churches close, bringing
together the Irish people of
St. Gabriels, the Tyrolean
people of Our Lady of Mount
Carmel and the German of
Holy Trinity German
Church, which is now Maranatha Seventh Day Adventist
Romanian and Multinational
Church.
Finn noted that the church
makes an effort to honor
their heritages, such as keeping the feast day of Our Lady
of Mount Carmel or hosting
an annual polenta dinner, he
said.
We try to keep all of those
Main Street at Kids Town is shown. The play area is
roots as much as possible, as part of the Hill City Church complex in Hazleton.
well as the Irish ones, he
their lives together, not just
younger Gerhart.
said.
come and go quickly and do
I think everyone can contheir
religious
ritual
and
nect
to music, no matter
Other denominations leave, he said.
where youre at or what age,
Not all of the areas recent
The non-denominational
he said, noting that a live
immigrants have turned to
Christian church worshiped band performs on stage in
the Catholic church, as
in living rooms, then the
the auditorium each week
numerous small churches
Ramada Inn and a movie the- during Sunday service.
mostly Pentecostal have
ater before settling into its
The auditorium easily
opened throughout town takSouth Poplar Street home, he seats 200 to 250 people and a
ing advantage of now-vacant
said. The movie theater
large projection screen sits in
churches and storefronts.
worked, because as an affilithe middle of the stage,
The Pentecostal churches
ate of Lives Changed By
where the band is set up, to
are fulfilling a need of people
Christ, or LCBC, they share
show video, Clark Gerhart
who clearly need to find
videos and other resources,
said. They can also project
God, Finn said. But theyre
but they only had the space
video and other messages
doing it in a way that is much
for a few hours a week, Geronto the walls in the front of
more appealing on a cultural
hart said.
the auditorium.
level to the Dominicans, who
With this space, people can
Children enjoy their own
love drama and exciting
gather more than once a
area Kidstown, which is
music and emotional expresweek.
set up as town with a general
sions. As Catholics, we tend
We have a lot of life
store and theater that serve
to be much more moderate.
groups and events that go on as classrooms where they do
The Pentecostal churches
during the week, just to help crafts and play games geared
of all types are all about the
people connect and grow,
around Bible stories, princiemotional expression of
said worship leader and
ples and morals, as part of
their faith. So that has a huge
assistant pastor Brooke Ger- the Sunday school program.
appeal, which is why were
hart, the pastors son, who
Thats part of the
seeing them spring up, he
left a music career in Nashresources that we got from
said.
ville, Tennessee, to return to LCBC, Brooke Gerhart said.
One church, Bethesda
the church. He continues to
Since we implemented it,
Christian Church, met in a
write music; the recording
weve had kids say, We dont
former gym on Lafayette
studio is his office.
want to leave. When can we
Court until First PresbyteriMusic is integral to their
come back? You never hear
an Church in Hazleton
kmonitz@standardspeaker.com
work, according to the
kids say that at church. Its
offered to provide space for
the growing churchs bilingual services a few years ago.
Another church, Church
of God, or Iglesia de Dios,
was meeting down the street
from First Presbyterian in a
shop in West Broad Street
before moving to a former
bridal shop on South Church
Street a few years ago.
Yet another church, Hill
City Church, meets in a former factory and warehouse
in Hazleton, where they
transformed the space to
resemble a small town with a
kids area, a coffee shop, atrium, prayer room, a youth
area, sports area, a recording
studio and the auditorium,
where worship services are
held, said Clark Gerhart, pastor.
StaNdard-SPEakEr FiLE
We want people to spend
St. James Episcopal Church in Drifton is shown in this 2009 photo.
Standard-Speaker
Z15
Culture
Then&Now
Music, arts
form bedrock
of Hazleton
Halls of entertainment
By AMANDA CHRISTMAN
ming Street between West

Green Street and Spruce
Alley, eventually were torn
Threaded in Greater Hazle- down. The Feeley sat across
tons history are deep ties to
from the Standard-Speaker
the arts community.
on North Wyoming Street
Starting with the ornately until it was demolished in
dressed theaters that hosted
1980 to make room for a parkvaudeville acts and other
ing lot.
shows in the early 1900s and
Early musicians
moving into the future with
The Hazleton Liberty Band
local musicians, writers, theis perhaps the oldest still
atrics and visual artists disactive arts organization in
playing their work, that conGreater Hazleton, tracing its
nection continues.
Some of the local arts orga- roots to its formation Oct. 18,
1859, when it went by the
nizations associated with
Hazletons past still exist, and name Gleims Band, according to current band director,
stakeholders in Hazletons
John Zehner.
downtown revitalization
Zehner said much of the
efforts are hoping the arts
bands history was recorded
community can play a big
role in breathing new life into in a book written by former
member and director, Harold
the business district.
Koch. Most founding band
Before there was television, Hazletonians and others members were German
immigrants and due to that
throughout the country had
its original bylaws were writthe theater. Hazletons theten in both English and Geraters hosted national travelman, according to a 1987
ing vaudeville acts, music,
Standard-Speaker article
and later movies. Vaudeville
became popular in the United written by former staff
reporter Ed Conrad.
States in the late 1800s and
When the Civil War began,
was made up of a series of
the band was attached to the
separate, unrelated acts
198th Pennsylvania Regigrouped together in a single
ment, serving during battles
show.
The late Charles K. Stumpf in Virginia at Bull Run,
chronicled the lives of Hazle- Cedar Mountain, Fort Stedman, Petersburg, Richmond
tons theaters in a book he
penned years ago starting and Appomattox Courthouse.
with The Grand Opera House The latter site is where the
at 234 W. Broad St., which was Confederates surrendered to
the citys first theater built in Union forces. The chief
responsibility of the band,
the late 1800s, and finishing
according to the article, was
with the last theater built in
carrying the wounded from
the area, the Alton on Alter
the front lines and providing
Street in 1938.
Though some of Hazletons music to support good morale
theaters were later converted whenever possible during
their tour of duty.
into other uses, others, like
The bands work in the Civthe Feeley on North Wyo-
11:22 | GRECOTONY
StaffWriter
This illustration shows the Feeley Theatre, which

came on the Hazleton entertainment scene in 1916.
il War also included twice
playing for President Abraham Lincoln, one of those
times during his funeral.
They also participated in a
Civil War victory parade in
Washington, D.C., before
President Andrew Johnson.
After the Civil War, the
band came home and continued to play in public. In 1866
it won first place while parading with Readings Liberty
Fire Co. at a festival in Philadelphia, Conrad wrote. When
they came home they
changed their name to the
Hazleton Liberty Band and
commemorated the one-year
anniversary of the end of the
Civil War with a parade
through downtown Hazleton
and a party at the band hall.
The band continued to play

for community events in and
outside of Hazleton through
the years, including for servicemen and women. The
band still performs today at
community functions,
though they dont travel very
far now or march due to the
age of many of its members,
Zehner said.
Current band members
range from high school age to
senior citizen, he said, adding
the band is always looking for
new members. Though the
band does have younger
members now, Zehner said
they dont always return after
attending college because of
a lack of higher-paying job
See bedrock, Z16
The following is a list of

theaters in the area, according to the late Charles K.
Stumpf, a local historian who
died in 2009:
The Grand Opera
House, 234 W. Broad St., was
the first theater in Hazleton,
built in 1889 by a corporation
formed by William DePue
and a group of investors. It
was destroyed May 14, 1892,
by a fire that also destroyed
Lehigh Valley Freight Depot,
two frame dwellings, two stables, four horses, three
freight cars and a portion of
the Valley Hotel. The Waite
Comedy Company performed at the venue the
night before the blaze and
lost its costumes and instruments but they were offered
the use of Hazle Hall to host a
benefit performance so they
could recoup their losses. A
new Grand Opera House was
opened Sept. 7, 1892.
Feeley Theatre, was
built by Andrew J. Feeley
after he bought the former
Hazleton Electric Light and
Power Co. plant site at Wyoming and Green streets in
the fall of 1915. It opened
Nov. 22, 1916 with the annual fall concert by the Hazleton Symphony Orchestra.
The following night was the
first presentation of motion
pictures and four acts of
vaudeville booked through
Keith. It hosted a circus, minstrel shows, community
meetings and animal acts
like performing dogs.
The Hazleton Philharmonic
Society leased the space in
1964.
In January 1970 it hosted
the Pennsylvania premiere of
the multi-million-dollar Paramount film, The Molly
Maguires, which was shot
partially in Eckley.
The Feeley was renovated
in the fall of 1975, Stumpf
wrote, and reopened on

Christmas that year but
closed for good in 1976. The
theater was demolished in
July 1980 for a parking lot.
The Capitol, 121 W.
Broad St., opened Sept. 6,
1926 and operated until
1963. It was the citys largest
combination vaudeville and
movie theater, holding 2,389
seats. Though a 1935 fire
destroyed the Betsy Ross
Confectionery and Helenes
Hat Shoppe, both housed in
the theater, the theater itself
suffered little damage and
after being closed for two
days, it reopened. The building, which was converted
into retail space, was
destroyed by fire July 24,
1982.
Hazle Hall, on the
northwest corner of Broad
and Wyoming streets, dated
back to 1866 when an association of the same name
made up of local men
bought shares in the corporation. Eventually it was
renamed the Family Theatre
and also hosted vaudeville
and later motion pictures.
The Family Theatre was
owned by Harry Hersker and
Harry DEsta. It opened in
September 1905 and closed
in 1955. The building was
torn down in 1962 and the
lot it was on was used to
build Peoples Bank.
Palace Theatre, 35 N.
Wyoming St., opened March
8, 1909 and was destroyed by
fire April 26, 1917, along with
the adjoining Sassos Furniture Store. During an evening
performance Oct. 1, 1912,
one of the actors, Howard
Truesdale, found the body of
a young man, Philip Getman,
who hanged himself backstage. In order not to disrupt
the performance and alarm
other members of the cast,
See HALLS, Z16
It may be
Cold Outside
but,
Inside the
Laurel Mall
Standard-Speaker file
A poster promotes a program on Norman Rockwell that the Hazleton Art League
hosted Sept. 12, 2004, as part of Funfest. The presenters, Donald and Phyllis Stoltz,
were thrilled when league members presented the poster to them as a memento.
Art league fosters

many fond memories
By AMANDA CHRISTMAN
series, members pay $100 per

person for a year to watch six
professional shows, presentCarl Frankel stares at the
ed at the Hazleton Area High
walls of his home often. More School auditorium.
precisely, he stares at the art
The Greater Hazleton Conon his walls, most of which
cert Series is the oldest nonwas crafted by local painters. profit cultural organization
Though not an artist himin the Hazleton area, having
self, he appreciates the pleabegun in 1935, according to its
sure the craft brings to a per- website.
sons life. His favorite a colorful abstract by local, Sophia A downtown fixture
Byorek.
The art league has called
Ive looked at it for hundowntown Hazleton its home
dreds of hours in the past 10 since 1947.
years, he said, and every time
In 1945, some members of
it looks different to him.
the Hazleton Womens Club
Frankel, assistant profeswanted to see art classes
sor of biology at Penn State
taught in town, according to
Hazleton, moved to the area
the book, Meeting the Chalin 1974 and a few years later
lenge The Hazleton Art
joined the Hazleton Art
League Story by the late E.
League. Since that time he
Ruth Howe, the last founding
has seen the work of the
member of the league to
mostly all-volunteer organiserve on its board.
zation continue to sustain
One of those students,
and elevate the club and local Jean Yeager Mantz, who posart through tireless efforts.
sessed a passion for art, and
He also serves as first vice her husband, who served on
president at The Greater
the Hazleton Chamber of
Hazleton Concert Series Inc., Commerce and who had a
which he said is used as a
passion for improving the
model in other communities community, helped create the
and has ties to the art league. Hazleton Art League, the
Through the concert
book states.
StaffWriter
Mantz is considered founder of the art league, Howe

wrote. Class space was rented
at the Altamont Hotel, West
and later at the Masonic Temple, North Church and Green
streets, until the art league
found a permanent home at
225 E. Broad St., its present
location.
The building was owned
by George B. Markle III when
the league moved in.
The league began showing
exhibits, offering a variety of
classes such as cooking,
music and stained glass and
hosting plays and poetry
readings. It partnered with
other cultural groups such as
the camera club, garden club
and Community Concert
Association, predecessor to
the Concert Series, to recruit
new members and create
interest.
Much of the tradition in
the art league continues
today but it has been expanded and adapted to fit peoples
current needs, said Frankel,
who serves as co-president of
the art league alongside
Marie Hayes.
See LeAgue, Z16
it is always
WARM!!
and the Deals are Always HOT!!!

VISIT THE NEW LAUREL MALL
YOUR PLACE FOR SHOPPING AND LEISURE
Over 55 Stores / Play Zone / Free Wi-Fi And
Soft Seating Throughout The Mall
Hours- Monday thru Saturday 10am to 9pm
Sunday 12pm to 5pm
Congratulations
to The Standard-Speaker
Celebrating 150th
Anniversary!
HAZLE TOWNSHIP PENNSYLVANIA
11:23 | GRECOTONY
Culture
Then&Now
Halls
League
The art league, like similar organizations, always is looking to bring
in another crowd. One way it is
doing that, Frankel said, is with the
annual Art Youth Expo, which was
hosted last April for the sixth time
by the art league.
The league also has bonded with
the Hazleton Integration Project,
whose goal is to unite the Anglo and
Hispanic communities, and participates in community events such as
a chalk art contest held in August.
The art league has plans to move
into a new civic arts center that the
Downtown Hazleton Alliance for
Progress is working to establish in
the former Security Savings building. Frankel hopes the new center
will not only assist local artists and
musicians, but allow them to
branch out.
While the art league would occupy the new center, Frankel said
board members are talking about
keeping their current building on
East Broad Street near Poplar Street
as an annex facility.
Through art, and the art center,
Frankel said, local business leaders
and other stakeholders hope to revitalize downtown Hazleton in a fashion similar to other communities,
while concentrating on the citys
unique features. Communities like
Phoenixville have used the same
catalyst with success.
Frankel said the art league is
identifying what makes Hazleton
art unique so that it can be capitalized on and he believes that answer
could be found in a unified Anglo
and Hispanic community.
Arts in school
downtown Hazleton during the day

at the request of the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce. Salvaterra said it was an opportunity to
bring culture back to the downtown
while showing the students creativity and allowing them to take pride
in their work.
Before Salvaterra was employed
with the district, she saw Hazletons
downtown blossom with art. She
recalled The Leader Store hosting
music and puppet shows and participated in the Greater Hazleton Philharmonic, which performed at the
Feeley Theater downtown, and also
with a singing group called the Choralairs in her youth.
She also remembered teen dances
at the Hazleton YMCA and YWCA
and music shows in its parking lot,
and said she hopes a new generation of Hazleton youth can enjoy
events like that.
It was really very vibrant, she
said of the arts in Hazleton, and
there were constant positive activities to participate in.
Jane Butkovsky, who teaches art
classes from Studio 303, at 303 E.
Broad St., West Hazleton, said she
sees signs of revitalization infusing
the arts community. She is excited
for the future and grateful for community leaders who support the
arts.
Artists, she said, dont necessarily reap a lot in financial rewards for
their work, so emotional support
through community efforts can
help them foster their talent and let
them know they are appreciated
and an important part of the community.
An artist herself, Butkovsky said
the arts are rewarding for many
people. Art inspires people and provides positivity to life, she said.
Its something thats given to
society, but for the creator its a fascinating, fulfilling experience, she
said.
Butkovsky has owned her business for 2 years. She opened not
only to give herself studio space but
to provide classes to the public and
promote art in the area.
Partnerships also have been

formed with the Hazleton Area
School District to promote culture
and the arts in Greater Hazleton,
said Susan Salvaterra, 11th-grade
principal of Hazleton Area High
School.
Salvaterra oversees the Hazleton
Area Academy of the Arts and
Humanities, the districts new magnet school within the high school in
Hazle Township. Ninth-grade stuNot a thing to do
dents are enrolled this year.
If Judiann McGrogan, director
Recently, students in the visual
of MPB Community Players, hates
arts class painted winter and holiday scenes on storefront windows in one phrase its the one that refers
Hazleton Art League members, from left, Ruth Deis, Marion Forliano and Ruth Howe, prepare for the Wallen Memorial Scholarship
Art Sale, which was held at 38 E. Broad St., Hazleton, Nov. 29 to Dec.
1, 1961. Howe was one of the leagues founders.
to having nothing to do in Hazleton. With community arts groups
including the MPB players, Nuremberg Community Players, Pennsylvania Theatre of Performing Arts,
and music and dance groups, there
should be enough activities for
everyone, she said.
MPB Community Players is one
of the newer cultural groups to
form in Hazleton. It was 1991,
McGrogan said, when they formed
a community theater group that
performs shows for all ages
throughout the area. The groups
participants are from all ages and
backgrounds. Recently, she said,
the group formed a bond at the
Hazleton Integration Project.
McGrogan said the Greater
Hazleton arts community has
always been strong and believes the
revitalization effort downtown is
shinning a new light on them.
She hopes the arts community in
Greater Hazleton will grow because
of it. The arts center, she said, will
be a central location for residents to
find out what arts-related activities
are available to them.
PTPA, meanwhile, for the past
decade has provided a venue for
talented actors, musicians and
dancers to entertain local audiences, according to its website, with
dozens of productions from musicals and plays to childrens shows.
Alba Gigi Perez opened her
own business in July which sup-
ports her love for art. Gigis Sip,

Paint, & Gogh, 137 N. Warren St.,
West Hazleton, is a place where
people get together to paint and
express their creativity and if
theyd like, bring a bottle of wine
with them. (She cautioned, though,
that her business is not a bar
room.)
Perez lived in Greater Hazleton
for 16 years and wanted her business to be a place where people felt
comfortable and provided them
entertainment close to home.
Her classes, or parties, are stress
relievers, she said, but also fun for
adults and children. She said while
not everyone is an artist, guests
can still participate in her gatherings and leave satisfied and fulfilled
that they made something beautiful with their own hands.
Even busy adults can enjoy a
painting class, she said, if they
have about two hours to spare for
creativity and the chance of meeting new friends.
Perez has aligned herself with
Hazleton POWER! and participates
in community events to benefit
Greater Hazleton, she said. She is
also reaching out to the community
through her business by hosting
fundraisers and an art camp for
teenagers, which began last summer and will resume in summer
2016.
achristman@standardspeaker.com
Bedrock
opportunities in the area.
That is the same for other musical groups, Zehner said, noting a lot
of the Liberty Band members also
play with the Greater Hazleton Philharmonic and St. Anns Band in
Freeland.
St. Anns Band plays a variety of
music, from swing and classical to
Dixieland and pop, and has amassed
a sizable collection of songs over its
100-plus years of performing at
parades, church festivals, conventions and community venues.
According to longtime members
Frank Balon and Joe Chuckra, the
band had been together for some
time before it received a charter
from the National Federation of
Musicians in 1899.
At the band hall on Ridge Street,
theres a photograph of the group
taken in 1876 when it was the parish
band for the former St. Anns
Roman Catholic Church on Centre
Street.
By the time Chuckra joined in
1948, the band was no longer affiliated with the church.
He was a junior at Freeland High
School when he joined. At that time,
it was the official band of the United Mine Workers of America, an
honor it likely earned for its support of miners during the Great
Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902. As
the UMWAs band, members traveled by train to conventions held
around the country.
The bands membership has
remained steady over the past several years. The addition of a wagon,
used for parades, has helped retain
some members who otherwise

might have retired.
It has saved the band, Balon,
who joined in 1979, recently told
Standard-Speaker reporter Jill
Whalen. As the core got older, you
couldnt expect guys in their 60s and
70s to march long parade routes.
About a half-dozen of the 22
members now call Freeland home;
others are from throughout the
region. The band, under the direction of Ron Zuby, Shenandoah, practices throughout the year.
ton to perform, including to the former Hazleton High School, which

now operates as Hazleton Elementary/Middle School and is home of
the Wiltsie Center at the Historic
Castle. The orchestra also performed at the Feeley Theater and
Capitol Theater, 121 W. Broad St.
When the Capitol closed in the
1960s, Lagana said, its stage equipment was given to the Philharmonic to use at the Feeley. Lagana
recalled walking from the Capitol
on Broad Street, down Spruce Alley
to Wyoming, where the Feeley was,
Areas orchestra
carrying huge light bars weighMusicians in the Philharmonic
ing hundreds of pounds and as they
were groomed by a local Catholic
passed in front of the Standardpriest who brought new entertainSpeaker, photographers snapped
ment to the area.
their pictures.
The late Rev. Joseph Ferrara,
When the Feeley was demolished,
more commonly known as Father
the Philharmonic used the Bishop
Joe, began what would become the
Hafey building, now Maple Manor
Philharmonic around 1954. Bob
Elementary/Middle School, until
Lagana, the orchestras current conFerrara opened J.J. Ferrara Perductor and CEO, said he was about
forming Arts Center, 212 W. Broad
5 years old at the time. Its first conSt., in 1989. The venue hosted not
cert that year was at Hazle Townonly the Philharmonic but other
ship High School.
local and out-of-town acts, Lagana
Lagana said the Philharmonic
said.
played during a time when people
The Philharmonic sold the buildcouldnt afford to travel to New York
ing
in 2010 to the Pennsylvania Theto see a Broadway show. Instead,
atre of Performing Arts for finanFerrara brought it to them by addcial reasons, Lagana said. The Philing a chorus to his orchestras performances and then experimenting harmonic, which spent a good
portion of its life in downtown
with theatrical stage equipment to
Hazleton, was given rental space at
make viewers feel like the scenes
the Queen of Heaven Parish Center,
were real, such as ultraviolet light
762 N. Vine St., Hazleton.
and moving props.
The orchestra continues to play
It was a sight, Lagana said.
though it struggles to keep afloat
Without a permanent perforfinancially and to attract new memmance venue, the Philharmonic
traveled throughout Greater Hazle- bers, Lagana said. Its theatrical
shows which once entertained local

audiences have been put on hold,
making its sole focus the orchestra,
which Lagana has conducted for the
past 16 years.
Members still teach Saturday
classes for a small fee to people of
all ages from 9 to 11 a.m. at Queen of
Heaven and the Philharmonic
expanded its lessons to students at
Faberge Follies.
Lagana said its a good thing
when two groups of artists can
work together. He is excited about
plans for a community arts center
in the downtown as the orchestra
wants the opportunity to perform
downtown again in the heart of
the city. He said relying on the arts
to help foster revitalization is one of
the best ways to make the downtown prosper.
Local music teacher Danny
DeMelfi recalled music being present in the community during his
childhood in the 1960s when accordion teachers were in high demand.
It was huge, he said, adding
that there were even competitions.
DeMelfi said Hazleton has always
been influenced by society, pop culture and the media when it comes to
interest in art and music. Shows
like American Idol made vocal lessons popular, but DeMelfi credited
one man with bringing music lessons to the area Ferrara. The
priest exposed so many people to
music, he said.
I think that he paved the way for
what I do today and what a lot of
others do today, he said.
achristman@standardspeaker.com

Truesdale covered the body with a
sheet until the performance ended.
The Savoy, 21-23 E. Diamond
Ave., opened Dec. 6, 1915 and went
through various name changes,
such as the Pleasure Parlor in 1918,
The Liberty and The Temple in 1925
and 1926, and the Roxy, which was
its last incarnation, closing in the
early 1940s. During the late 20s
while being operated as The Liberty,
it featured foreign films with Italian
subtitles and advertisements were
sometimes printed in Italian.
Campbell Theatre, 25-27 W.
Broad St., opened Dec. 21, 1914, and
its entire opening night proceeds
were donated to United Charities. In
November 1917, it held a special
viewing for a motion picture shot in
Hazleton, featuring local churches,
schools and other public buildings,
along with moving pictures of local
citizens.
Alton Theatre, 618 Alter St.,
was the last theater to be built in
Hazleton, in 1938. It hosted double
features, including Gene Autry westerns and The Bowery Boys every Saturday. In 1959, it was converted into
bowling lanes and later was used as
a factory until fire destroyed it June
29, 1967.
Hersker Theatre, 31 W. Broad
St., West Hazleton, opened in 1915.
The 500-seat theater could not compete with the much-larger Feeley, so
vaudeville was dropped after the
first month. It changed hands and
names several times the Key and
the Majestic among them and
remains open today as the Cinema
& Drafthouse.
Other theaters in the area
included the Elite Theatre, 35 E.
Broad St., which opened in the
spring of 1909; The Lyric at 14 E.
Broad St.; Hazle Park Theatre,
which opened May 31, 1909; The
Poli Theatre, 26 E. Broad St., West
Hazleton and Diamond Theatre,
576-578 Alter St.
In Freeland, there was the Refowich, opened on Centre Street in
1914, and in 1929 it hosted a showing of the first talking pictures.
North Side residents also had the
Freeland Grand Opera House, the
Timony-Rialto on South Street and
The Auditorium, operated in the
auditorium of St. Marys Greek Catholic School on Fern Street.
Between Freeland and White Haven was the Popular Drive-In on
Route 940, which showed its first
movie in 1949 and closed in 1978.
The Lion theater on South Kennedy Drive in McAdoo was in operation in 1912, and presented both
vaudeville and motion pictures
before fire destroyed it in 1919. The
Palace Theatre was built on the site
with a grand opening the same year.
The Blaine Theatre opened in 1915
at 110 W. Blaine St., while the Roxy
Theatre on East Blaine Street
opened in 1931. Stumpf believed
the Blaine was later called The
Strand. Just outside of McAdoo,
Audenried had a movie house in
1914.
The late 1940s brought the
Hazleton Drive-In to the area, on
the site in Drums where Rittenhouse
Plaza is now located. Two years later,
the Laurel Drive-In opened at its
present location on Route 309 south
of Hazleton. Both were innovations
in entertainment at the time.
Modern technology eventually
pushed entertainment into a new
era when the Church Hill Cinema
opened at 23rd and North Church
streets April 5, 1969. Not as lavish as
its predecessors in Hazleton, the
theater featured a wall-to-wall
screen with a stereophonic sound
system and 26 speakers. It closed for
remodeling in 1977 and reopened
as Twin Theatres.
Regal Cinemas, a multi-screen
chain movie theater at the Laurel
Mall, originally opened as Hoyts
Theatre.
Rosenstock Funeral Home

229 West Broad Street Hazleton, Pa. 18201 570-454-4861
Funeral Director, Jay L. Rosenstock
Providing quality services to the

Hazleton Area since 1865.
Family Owned & Operated for 5 Generations
Cremation
Services
11:23 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Z17
Culture
Then&Now
Your favorite
1-stop shop
Mom-and-pop stores continue
to be a staple of the community
By Maria Jacketti
customers who remember it.

Beltramis son, Mike, said
his father, who was a butcher
Long before convenience
by trade, was renowned for
stores with their bling of
his fresh meats. He baked
lights, designer drinks and
all the hams for Fierros
electronic cha-ching
Funeral Home, he said.
answered our calls for the litA tradition of the funeral
tle missing things in life on
home had been to send a
any given day or night,
ham to the homes of one
mom-and-pop stores formed departed whom the funeral
the bread and butter of the
home was assisting.
Hazleton area.
He baked all the hams at
home, in a regular oven,
They provided not only
candy for the masses, or that Beltrami said. He added that
this got very hectic around
quart of milk and loaf of
Christmas with orders when
bread to save the day but
the oven was going basically
also the unforgettable and
day and night.
treasured bonds of local
Kim Hiza Ator of Hazlebusiness.
Some businesses endured ton recalls Beltramis as havfor a blink in time, while oth- ing absolutely the best cold
ers lasted for more than half cuts.
Other stores in that area
a century. A rare few are still
catered to those with a sweet
going strong.
tooth.
And when snowstorms
Geri Brioc lived on Hayes
hit, they stayed open providing bread, milk and eggs, the Street as a child and frequented Foderaros on Garlocal survival list of mustfield Street between Second
haves for those times.
We tend to think of mom- and Third streets. Most of all
she remembers Joe and
and-pop stores as strictly
grocery stores, but technical- Fannie ... they spoke broken
English, she said.
ly that is limiting, and just
One time, my mother
not correct.
Geraldine Brio wanted pepA mom-and-pop business
was and still is a small, per. Joe said she wanted
paper. (They never) figured
family-run enterprise that
it out.
generally exists in one locaCertain stores also had
tion. You cant franchise a
one distinct smell; at Foderatrue mom-and-pop store!
They are noted for occupy- ros, Brioc remembers a pink
ing small, if not economical- sugar aroma. The penny
gum, I can still smell it, she
ly tiny, spaces and having
said.
few, if any, employees outside of the family circle.
On wheels
And it was common for
Florence DAmico Lutz of
mom-and-pop stores to exist
Hazleton recalls her parents
on the ground floor of an
apartment building or house store at Fourth and Carson
streets, across the street
occupied by the family.
from Saullos. Her parents,
Thats why it was easy for
Peter and Pauline DAmico,
many of them to keep their
turned a historic trolley car
doors open during snowthat was no longer in use
storms.
into a small grocery store
east side
that sold essential foodstuffs,
along with candy, cakes and
Nick Beltramis store,
Nicks Superette, was located ice cream, during the 1940s
on East Third Street between for approximately seven
years.
Monges and Harrison
Her father purchased the
streets. It was a sunny and
popular store, and delivered trolley for about $500 and it
peerless quality, according to was shipped to the DAmicos
StaffWriter
Paul Junas stands behind the counter of his grocery store on Peace Street in Hazleton.
from Allentown.
Pauline DAmico also
made her own Italian sausage and sold it there.
Florence DAmico remembers everyone loving the novelty of buying their groceries in an actual repurposed
trolley car.
They lived in a house just
behind the store, and Florence attended Most Precious
Blood School.
My favorite memory is
when I would come right
into the store and stand over
the heating register, she
said, explaining that her
father had dug out a basement for the trolley and put
in a stoker.
It was warm and sometimes the heat blew my skirt
up into the air just like what
would happen to Marilyn
Monroe!, she said.
By 1950, Florence said, her
father shut down the trolley
store. He was offered a better
job drilling in the strippings, and decided to move
on to that instead.
However, the idea of small
business on wheels continued to roll along, quite literally.
Many boomers remember
Krizanskys truck, which
was actually a 1940s bus that
was turned into a store on
wheels. This truck was a lifeline for necessities and odds
and ends visiting local patchtowns.
Mike Opilla also had a
store and a bus that

served Freeland and the
patch towns in the vicinity.
Opilla took the mom-and-pop
store on the road adding pizza and produce to his mix of
products.
He also had a propanepowered cooler on the bus,
from which he sold meats
and cold cuts. Opillas storeon-wheels was seen most
prominently in the 1960s.
Colangelos store in Hazleton also took to the road,
bringing sundries to the
patches.
In fact, these vehicles were
little on-the-go general stores
for many in isolated area
micro-towns helping those
who had no regular transportation and few real small
grocery stores to meet their
basic needs for groceries
and some luxuries.
candy to health food
Bob Junas, 74, today maintains Hazletons only real

health food store, at 928
Peace St. Junas father, Paul,
ran a grocery store that Bob
later took over. However, Bob
gave it a new and sustaining
niche.
Freezers from the 1940s
remain in the store and are
in great condition, refrigerating items like probiotics,
according to Junas.
Today he sells a wide variety of products ranging from
the expected vitamins and
herbs to hard-to-find food
and beauty care products.
Junas pointed to the ceiling tiles in the stores extension, which houses many
refrigerated items such as
ice cream.
I was born above that
ceiling, he said. As with
many local mom-and-pop
stores, the family lived snugly above the store.
He plans to keep on going,
but said his business is down
about 30 percent over the last
decade.
Junas cites Internet shopping as part of the problem,
and pointed to a space outside his door, which could be
any door in the city, where
he said no doubt people
would be receiving home
standard-speaker file
deliveries from their online
This 1939 photo of Andys Food Market captures a simpler time, featuring signs shopping.
advertising bread for 5 and 8 cents. In the foreground are the large headlights of a
typical vehicle from that time period.
see staple, Z19
Our neighbOrhOOd stOres

Hazleton was home to
many mom-and-pop stores.
General locations and items
sold are listed, according to
available information:
Andys Food Market,
10th and Locust streets, operated by the Benyo family.
Today its a Latino mom-andpop grocery store.
Belletieres, Seybert
Street between Second and
Third streets, in the basement
of a very high house.
Boston Hardware, North
Wyoming Street, larger-thanlife train sets at Christmas.
Boves (A1 Market), South
Poplar Street, Hazleton
Heights. Good fresh meats,
worth the trip to the Heights
from the other side of town.
Crokamos, Diamond
Avenue near Wyoming.
DeMelfis, Jimmy
DeMelfis, Seybert Street
between Second and Third
streets, in the basement. Never-ending pizza and penny
candy, fruit punch soda,
Twinsicles in fluorescent
pink lemonade and neon
blue, and vanilla; 1960s.
Dianas, Seybert Street
between Second and Third
streets, 1930s and 40s.
Diamond Sweet Shop,
the Mariano sisters, Minnie
and Mary Mariano, a beloved
institution on Diamond Avenue for decades, very popular
with kids, especially those on
open-lunch break from D.A.
Harman.
Foderaros, Garfield
Street, between Second and
Third streets, 1930s to 80s, a
never-ending candy case to
rival Willy Wonka.
Frondutos, Fifth and Seybert streets, in area that is
now part of a parking lot next
to the old Most Precious
Blood School.
Genettis supermarket,
North Laurel Street, grocery
shopping and deliveries, fresh
baked goods and rotisserie
chicken.
Jackettis Ice Cream Parlor, Fourth and Seybert
streets, mid-1950s. Pearl and
Packy Jacketti sold neapolitan and butter pecan ice
cream and sundaes. They also
had a grill.
Grecos, Broad Street,
candle shop, bath sachets,
records, water-bed, basement
window into the mines under
city.
Sweet Annies, Seybert
Street between Fourth and
Fifth streets. Ice cream.
Junas Health Foods,
Peace Street. Still open. At
first a grocery store, this
evolved into Hazletons place
to shop for hard-to-find items.
Morans: Soda in various
flavors.
Mary Moses store, Alter
Street between Ninth and
10th streets, penny candy,
soda and magazines.
Pecoras Dairy: Silver
milk boxes on porches, and
dairy products kept cool
inside them even sour
cream.
Pences, Alter Street, still
in existence under different
ownership. Used to sell candy.
Hookah supplies prominent
today.
Prices Dairy: Last horsedrawn dairy wagon remained
into the mid-1960s. The horse
was striking auburn-orange
and clopped Hello.
Saullos, Fourth and Carson streets. Famous for Italian
Ice squeezies in lemon and
raspberry. Store dates back to
early 20th century.
Scarcellas, Fifth and Carson streets, the quintessential
corner store in a neighborhood of cooks and bakers.
Scattons Jewelry Store,
Alter Street, a place for diamonds and such when Alter
Street really sparkled.
Tarones supermarket,
16th and Alter streets. Still
open, and still going strong, a
living legend.
The Sugar Cone, Poplar
Street, open through the mid1980s. A rainbow of flavors
and syrup-crowned sundaes.
Beaver Meadows
Bernies Variety, Broad

and Dean streets. Bargains
and necessities, a friendly little
bit of everything. Also known
for a time as Georges CutRate.
see stores, Z19
Dryfoos-Markle wedding a defining union for city
The social highlight of the summer of 1887 in the booming mining

town of Hazleton was the marriage
of Mary Dryfoos and Alvan Markle,
members of two of the citys most
prominent families. The wedding
took place in the First Presbyterian
Church at Broad and Church streets,
and here are some details, drawn
from the contemporary press that
reported it.
and on each window and the large

chandeliers were beautiful flower
decorations.
Guests began arriving at 7
oclock in closed carriages and
entered the church under a canopy
which extended from the sidewalk
to the church door.
All the ladies were escorted to
the seats reserved for them by ushers Messers Hunter Eckert of
Boonton, New Jersey; A.F. Derr,
Miss Dryfoos was the accomWilkes-Barre; Morris Dryfoos,
plished daughter of Henry Dryfoos, Meeker, California; D.C. Herr, Harand Mr. Markle was of the banking risburg; P.C. Kauffman and W.H.
firm of Markle Brothers & Co.
Smith Jr. of Hazleton.
Performing the wedding ceremoPromptly at half-past 7 oclock
ny was the Rev. W.C. Stitt in the
the bridal party arrived and as they
presence of a very large and brilentered the church, Lohengrins
liant assemblage in the church
beautiful Wedding March pealed
elaborately decorated for the occaforth from the organ played by Miss
sion.
Minnie Pew. The bridal party
The front of the altar was a mass passed through two floral gates in
of growing plants and cut flowers,
the center aisle upon one of which
was the letter M and on the other

the letter D.
First came the ushers, then the
six bridesmaids Miss Bess
Archibald, Scranton; Miss Bessie
Dalzell, Pittsburgh; Misses Estelle
and Alice Pardee, Germantown,
Philadelphia; and Misses Mollie Silliman and Gertrude Pardee of
Hazleton all attired in white tulle
with large silken dots and carrying
baskets of flowers.
Then came the bride and her sister, Miss Rose Dryfoos, the maid of
honor.
At the altar the bride was met by
the groom, who entered from the
rear of the altar with his best man,
Dr. Charles D. Marvin of the firm
of A.M. Kidder & Co. of New York.
The Episcopal service was used
in tying the nuptial knot and was
very impressive.
The bride wore a heavy corded
white silk dress with a long court

train trimmed with Valencienne
lace and tulle veil. Her only ornament was in exquisite diamond
necklace, a gift of the groom.
After the ceremony, the bridal
party and guests left the church and
were driven to the Dryfoos mansion
at the corner of Broad and Vine
streets, where a brilliant reception
was held.
The bride and groom received
congratulations under a large floral
umbrella. The collation that was
served was elegant, the tables being
beautifully laden with every delicacy and beautifully adorned with
flowers.
Messers S. and J. Davis of Newark, New Jersey, were the caterers
in charge of 15 waiters to attend to
the wants of the guests. The spacious rooms and verandas of the
house and the lawn were all bril-
liantly illuminated and the scene

presented was a very inspiring one.
Dancing to the exquisite strains of
Rubes orchestra of Allentown followed the collation.
The bride and groom left on a
special car attached to the 10:30
train for Buffalo, New York, and
from there went to San Francisco,
California, and Portland, Oregon,
to remain several months. When
they return they will make their
residence in Mr. Markles handsome new house on West Broad
Street, which is now nearing completion.
They were the recipients of a
great many costly presents and
they have the best wishes of a large
circle of friends for their future
happiness.
The 153 guests who attended
were listed at the close of the wedding announcement.
HZ_STANDSPEAK/ADVERTISING/AD_PAGES [Z18] | 01/12/16
11:22 | GRECOTONY
The Standard-Speaker building as it appeared in the early 1960s.
As we celebrate the 150th anniversary

of the newspaper, we would like to thank all
those employees, past and present, who have
worked so hard to make the Standard-Speaker
an indispensable part of the community.
Thank you to our readers, our advertisers,
business partners, community groups
and the entire Hazleton area. We could
not have done it without each and every
one of you!!
Kindest thanks from our entire staff at the
Standard-Speaker!!
11:22 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Z19
Culture
Then&Now
Stores
Freeland
Bob Junas
stands with
his father,
Paul. Bob still
runs the store
that his father
operated on
Peace Street,
but it now
specializes in
health foods.
Staple
Farnell, provided meat and
cheese to many restaurants
and other food providers such
as Knotty Pines, Top of the
80s, Jimmys Quick Lunch,
Coney Island, Senapes and
Edgewood in the Pines.
When Rose was still in her
teens, she helped her grandparents by running errands
and keeping their books.
They sold all kinds of
meats that came on hooks and
pulleys, she said.
The meat was butchered in
house, where they made
homemade sausage. She
describes the inside of the
store as having huge blocks
of Cooper sharp cheese, with
Meat and cheese
equally huge boxes of stuffed
Rose Maria Farnell Kosto
chicken breast, chicken
graduated from Bishop Hafey breasts and speciality prodHigh School in 1978 and now
ucts imported from Italy.
lives with her family in westEventually, they opened an
ern Pennsylvania.
addition where products
But she still remembers her could be purchased by indigrandparents store, S&R Pro- viduals at retail prices.
visions, that was situated on
Her father, who was a
South Laurel Street adjacent
Hazleton city detective, used
to St. Peters Episcopal
to refer some individuals who
Church and few blocks from
were on parole to the store for
Deisroths department store.
work so they could get their
Kosto explained that the
lives back on track. Farnell
store, run by Samuel and Rose said he would even help their
It never stops, he said.
The trucks just keep on rolling by.
Additionally, crime or the
perception of it has taken a
bite out of his business.
People tell me that they
dont want to come into Hazleton at all to shop, he said.
But others tell me that they
still come into Hazleton just to
shop at my store.
As for the future of the family business, Junas said has
offered the business to his
nephews. Unfortunately, they
are just not interested, he
said.
families by buying food and

diapers.
I know of three parolees
who turned their lives around
because of this, she said.
Unforgettable aroma
You just cant bottle the

smell of the bygone mom-andpop stores.
Each had its own unique
smell. No two were alike, said
Frank Skokoski, an attorney
who grew up in Green Ridge
and still lives there.
He recalled that some stores
smelled like a variety of sweet
things, while others were redolent with the aroma of succulent meats. In some cases
sweet and savory perfumes
blended, he remembered. And
they changed according to the
season and what was cooking.
Skokoski also recalled the
marvelous aroma of comic
books at select stores in his
vicinity during those days. I
miss the smell of the comic
books, he said.
He still wonders about the
special inks that gave the comic books their bygone allure.
mjacketti@standardspeaker.com
Bellezzas Shoe Store,

Centre Street.
Capeces, Centre Street,
decades of candy.
Genettis, Centre Street,
along with the A&P provided groceries for borough
residents.
Nocchis, Centre Street,
legendary for magazines
and candy.
Pitmans Furniture,
Centre Street. Familyowned.
Sophies Restaurant,
Centre Street. Started by
Sophie Karpowich in the
1940s, it closed in 1988.
Savory home cooking.
The Corner Store, Ridge
Street. A small grocery store.
The Sugar Bowl, Centre
Street. The name says it all.
Woodys Restaurant,
Centre Street. Like Sophies,
the restaurant remained
alive for decades.
Hollywood
Lees Stores (Lee Grosch): Delicious ice cold

NuGrape soda, penny pinball machines, jukebox,
slow dancing in 1959 to A
Million to One.
McAdoo
Posties, on Manning
Street, running until the late
1980s. Soda had color-coded caps: purple for sasparilla, red for cherry, green for
lemon-lime, orange for
orange, and blue for cream.
Weatherly
General Store. The signature mom-and-pop store

for Weatherly during the
early to mid-20th century.
General stores, by definition, sold a little bit of
everything but usually
lacked the coolers found in
grocery stores or superettes.

Charlies Market, Hudsondale Street, Charles and
Valeria Funk. Penny candy
in glass-walled case,
canned goods in the window, 1950s into mid-1960s.
Sometimes two pieces of
candy for a penny.
Cunninghams, West
Main Street. General store,
house-like store, 1950s and
60s.
Eblingers Market, Second Street, meat and groceries. Had two large showcase windows.
Erdmans Dairy, Carbon Street, delivered milk
to tin boxes on doorsteps,
1940s through 60s.
Flups. Ice cream sodas,
1950s through early 60s.
Hoeggs, Hudsondale
Street, very small grocery
store, canned goods and
candy.
Lamonts Drug Store
and Soda Fountain, Carbon
Street with the chemist
sign on the outside. Pharmacist sat up high and did
old-fashioned compounding.
Millers, Carbon Street,
general store, bigger than
most grocery stores but
smaller than Weatherlys
A&P.
R.D. Cawley, West Main
Street. It was the size of
two nice-sized living
rooms, sold standard fare
plus produce.
Sterdivants, Carbon
Street, pharmacy, no prescriptions. Root beer floats
ruled.
Tags, previous site of
Charlies Market, meat and
general store. Walk-in
refrigerator where meats
hung was impressive.
Wertmans Hardware,
Carbon Street. A vast store
that had everything.
Williams, Second and

Carbon streets. A general
store with a pickle barrel
that looked like an apartment building, long and
big, painted baby blue.
Yeides, Carbon Street,
bakery and homemade ice
cream. Delivered bread and
rolls. A great place to eat a
whole pie la mode!
Youngs Store, East
Main Street. General store.
Sold to Lazos, who continued store.
West Hazleton
Talushskis, Green
Street, groceries and a bustling clientele.
Planutis, Green Street,
a popular stop for necessities and treats.
Bators, on the corner
of Fifth and Green streets.
Caspers, Winters Avenue, corner grocery.
Tresckow
Rickeys (Frank Rickeys), in an alley. Gumball

machines, big round gumballs with air in them,1960s.
Around the Valley
Resienweavers, Drums.
Groceries, a meat counter,
greeting cards and
upstairs, work clothes.
Woodrings Candy
Store, near Drums Elementary School.
Sterlings, St. Johns,
1980s, gas and kerosene.
Betterlys, St. Johns, the
place to go for good cuts of
meat, especially bacon.
Goldsworthys, newspapers, candy, groceries
and the first to get lottery
tickets in the valley.
Dinkelackers, best
known for candy, also had a
gas station and a garage.
Kemmerers, newspapers, candy, milk, soda and
ice cream.
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Z2 Standard-Speaker
11:23 | GRECOTONY
Sports
Then&Now
Coaches, athletes were difference-makers

The Hazleton area has
been blessed with an abundance of difference-makers
in the athletic community.
They werent necessarily
the coaches who recorded
the most wins or the players
who scored the most points.
To include a list with all
those would be nearly impossible without omitting
names.
This then is a relatively
short list of coaches and
players who brought acclaim
to the area, with the complete knowledge that others
should be included.
COACHES
Hugh McGeehan
Hugh McGeehan became the

first Pennsylvania basketball
coach to win consecutive state
titles when leading Hazleton
High School to championships
in 1928 and 1929. His team won
another state championship in
1938, after which a reported
12,000 well-wishers greeted the
coach and his players when they
returned to Hazleton.
McGeehan taught players to
think for themselves during
games, according to a tribute
written about him in the 1928
Hazleton High yearbook.
He believes and so do we all
that a man should do his own
thinking in time of crisis, and
not rely on someone to do it for
him.
In the 23 years that McGeehan coached, Hazleton never
had a losing season.
His career record was 346-89.
His teams won the East Penn
League title nine times and
when District 11 started crowning champions in the mid1930s, his teams won five of
those titles.
McGeehan also played and
coached football at Villanova
University and at Hazleton High
School and was a professional
baseball scout.
When he died, while attending a school committee meeting
in 1948, he was 54 and mourned by people in Hazleton and
the communities against whose
schools he coached.
If every boy in our country
could have the benefit of the
companionship and advice of a
friend like Coach McGeehan,
the 1928 yearbook said, there
would be true sportsmanship
on all sides of life.
Legendary Hazleton High School basketball coach Hugh McGeehan, second

from right, poses with three of the greatest stars in Mountaineers history while the
three were playing with the Hazleton franchise in the Eastern Pro Basketball League
in the late 1940s. They are, from left: George Cheverko, Frank Serany and Carl Red
Meinhold.
come and be an assistant and

start the wrestling program
there, he said.
In the jointure that formed
the North Schuylkill School District, Cesari soon became the
mainstay of the program. He
would amass an amazing winning percentage of 92 and led
his teams to a record eight District 11 championships. Also, he
coached his three sons, Steve,
Mark and Joe Jr., to six individual PIAA wrestling championships.
The success resulted in the
team and Cesari being featured
in the January 1989 edition of
Sports Illustrated. He remembers a photographer shooting
one of their meets.
He set up all these strobe
lights on the ceiling. When he
took a picture, it was like lightning, Cesari said.
While the records and accolades are nice, the former coach
said the biggest thrill he gets is
talking to former students and
learning how his lessons stayed
with them.
A former wrestler owns the
gym in Frackville, and he told
me the first thing he did with
the gym is installed a bullrope
from the ceiling for people to
climb, just like they did in practice, Cesari said. I had a great
group of kids wrestling for me
and they remember how they
had to fight through five or six
other kids that wanted to be
starters as well.
In his wrestling room, the former coach talked about the
many motivational signs he had
around the room, but one
always stuck out to him.
Working with youth began in
It said, Once youve wrestled,
earnest for Joe Cesari in 1962
the rest of life is easy, Cesari
when, fresh out of the University
recalled.
of Buffalo, he was hired as a
physical education teacher at
Cuba Central High School in
When Marian Catholic High
New York.
School
placed its faith in a
If you were a phys-ed teach24-year-old rookie head coach
er in the school, you were a
to lead its football program back
coach, he said. I was a former
in 1977, there may have been
football player, so I became the
doubters.
head football coach, and also
After the Colts were walloped
coached track and wrestling.
by
Mount Carmel 50-12 in Stan
But Cesari said Cuba Central
was his first foray into wrestling; Dicks debut as Marians coach,
the list of doubters probably
he had never watched an amagrew.
teur match before, let alone parBut 39 seasons and hundreds
ticipated in one.
of
wins
later, Stan is still the man
The students and I learned
about the sport together, Cesari at Marian. And there isnt a
doubter in sight.
said.
In fact, you can count the
Two years later, Cesari
number
of local coaches who
learned about an opening in his
have coached any sport for as
home area a head football
coach position at then-Ashland many years as Dakosty on one
Area High School. With a recom- finger.
Its been a great journey, and
mendation from Mount Carmel
its
not anywhere close to being
head football coach Jazz Diminick, Cesari interviewed for the over, Dakosty said in an October
job. The next day, he learned his 2014 interview, shortly before
reaching the 300-win milestone.
fate.
There have been plenty of
They hired someone else for
changes since he took over for
football, but wanted me to
Chuck Rocconi following the
Joe Cesari
Stan Dakosty
1976 season. Back then, there

was no state playoff system.
And the Colts played their home
games on Saturday afternoon.
Even the names have
changed. Stan reclaimed his
family name in the late 1990s
and now goes by Stan Dakosty.
The players have changed,
and the high school game has
changed too over the past four
decades.
The one constant at Marian
has been Stan and success.
The Colts have won 68 percent of their games under his
direction,winning 300-plus
games while securing three
Eastern Conference championships, seven District 11 titles,
four trips to the state semifinals,
and the 1990 PIAA Class A state
championship.
I sit here today very proud of
the program that Im working
with, the student/athletes and
the coaches that Im working
with, Dakosty said.
Catholic 46-44 in the District 1

final after an ACC player scored
with seven seconds left. The Vikettes went on to cruise to the
state championship without
much opposition.
The (HHS girls) program has
come a long way under Miss
Dunns direction, a StandardSpeaker article at the time she
announced her resignation in
March 1978 reads. The schedule has been increased, the girls
are receiving more publicity
than they have ever had in the
past and the quality of play has
improved tremendously.
Dunn one of the three
original inductees into the TriCounty League Hall of Fame and
recent Hazleton Area Sports Hall
of Fame inductee wasnt just
a basketball coach.
She initiated the co-ed intramural, varsity and junior varsity
bowling programs at HHS in
1963, serving as the Mounts
varsity and junior varsity coach
through the 1970-71 season.
Dunn also coached cheerleading from 1960-1964 and she
coached synchronized swimming at HHS from 1960-1967.
Meanwhile, Dunn was highly
respected educator at Hazleton
High for 31 years, from 1960
through the end of the 1991-92
school term.
In field hockey, its Gemski

and Wyoming Seminarys Karen
Klassner, and there are two really good reasons to rank them
ahead of even the legendary
coaches in the preceding paragraph.
For one, they more or less
built the sport in the area from
the ground up. Berwick won
more than 300 high school football games before Curry ever
stepped foot on the Crispin
Field sideline, for example.
When Gemski came to Crestwood, few high schools played
field hockey, and when they did,
it was something like 10 games
in a five- or six-week schedule.
For another, there are more
local players at NCAA Division I
colleges in field hockey than in
any other sport. During Gemskis tenure, Crestwood has sent
more than 130 players to college programs and at least 40
of them became team captains.
Dozens of Crestwood players
have represented our country in
international competition and
two Diane Madl and Sara Silvetti were Olympians.
Gemski would be uncomfortable talking about most of these
accomplishments, of course,
especially if the topic was
brought up by a reporter.
To her players, though, its a
completely different story. They
know Gemski as a caring coach
who would do absolutely anything in her power to help them
succeed on the field and in life.
Mickey Holland
Mickey Holland was a fixture

at Mahanoy Area and in the
Schuylkill League boys basketball coaching ranks since 1981.
After 33 seasons and more
than 600 career victories, Holland coached his last game for
the Golden Bears in March 2014,
when they lost 56-52 to Church
Farm in the second round of the
PIAA Class A playoffs at Central
Dauphin East High School in
Jane Dunn was a pioneer in
Harrisburg.
the advancement of opportuniMahanoy Area finished the
ties for female athletes and the
year 25-3, its best record since a
organization of girls sports
26-2 mark in 2006-07.
locally.
The 600-plus wins dont say
She initiated the varsity and
enough about him, Bob Killian,
junior varsity girls basketball
Hollands longtime assistant
programs at Hazleton High
coach, said that night.
School in 1960, coaching the
Holland left with a career
Lady Mountaineers from then
record of 614-243, reaching the
through the 1977-78 season.
When Crestwood field hock600-win mark on Jan. 10, 2014
Her varsity teams compiled a ey coach Elvetta Gemski
with a 68-29 win over Lourdes.
175-44 record with 16 winning
resigned her position in August Under Hollands leadership, the
seasons and five undefeated
2014, she left a rich legacy.
Golden Bears have won 15
campaigns in her 17 seasons at
Shortly after graduating from Schuylkill League division titles,
the helm. Her record includes
Temple in 1972, she founded
five Schuylkill League titles
four championships during the the Crestwood program as a
(1991, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2014)
seven years that the Lady Moun- club sport.
and four District 11 championtaineers competed in the TriBy 1976, the Comets were
ships (1999 in Class AA and
County League and two titles
playing in the Wyoming Valley
1991, 2013 and 2014 in Class A).
during the four seasons that the Conference. By 1979, there were
The 2013-2014 season was
Lady Mounts played in the
Crestwood graduates playing
the 20th, 20-win season for the
Anthracite League.
college field hockey. By 1981,
Golden Bears under Holland,
HHS played an independent
the Comets were winning disincluding seven consecutive
schedule during the other six
trict titles. By 1988, they were
from 2000-01 to 2006-07. Mahaseasons.
claiming the first of five state
noy Areas best record came in
Three of Dunns teams finchampionships.
1990-91, when the Golden Bears
ished unbeaten in league play.
In 2005, The CitizensVoice
went 29-3 and reached the PIAA
The 1973-74 Lady Mounts went put together a list of the 100
semifinals.
12-0 in the league and 15-1
greatest athletes to ever come
What is perhaps even more
overall and her 1974-75 club
from the Wyoming Valley. In
impressive is that Holland had
was 10-0 in the league and also 2012, when the newspaper was just three losing seasons in his
finished 15-1 overall. Her last
planning a follow-up, it consid33-year tenure. The most recent
HHS team went 12-0 in the
ered compiling a list of either
was in 2008-09 (7-15). The other
league and wound up 16-3
the top teams or top coaches.
two came in back-to-back seaoverall during the 1977-78 seaThe newspaper chose teams, sons in 1983-84 (9-14) and 1984son.
but if it had chosen coaches,
85 (4-17).
Overall, the Lady Mounts
Gemski would have undoubtedMahanoy Area was 47-9 in his
were 75-10 in the league and
ly been in the top 10. She might last two seasons, twice reaching
even have been No. 1.
81-13 during their years in the
the Schuylkill League champiTri-County League under Dunn
Those lists were compiled
onship game and winning its
and 34-8 in the league and
after plenty of research, but a
first league title since 2006 with
48-20 overall in the Anthracite
quick scrawled-on-the-back-of- a 45-44 victory over Pottsville in
League. HHS posted an overall
an-envelope compendium of
2014. The Golden Bears also
46-11 record as an independent top coach candidates would
won back-to-back District 11
under Dunn.
look something like this. In foot- Class A titles beating Pius X
Her 1972-73 Lady Mounts
ball, the names that jump out
both times and reached the
were possibly only a basket
are George Curry and Mickey
second round of PIAA playoffs.
away from advancing to the first Gorham. In basketball, its Syl
In fact, Mahanoy Area played
PIAA Class A title game for girls. Bozinski and Ed Gayeski. In
in four consecutive district Class
They lost to Allentown Central
wrestling, John Reese.
A title games and made the
Jane Dunn
Elvetta Gemski
Schuylkill League final the last

three years in Hollands tenure.
Henry Kopczynskie
In the summer of 1971, Henry

Kopczynskie spent a majority of
his spare time going door-todoor throughout the Freeland
community.
As Kopczynskie and other
knocked on each door, the former Hazle Township High
School football player and 1944
graduate had one goal: help
raise enough money to jump
start a Freeland midget football
team.
Needing 39 players and
$2,500 for the leagues initiation
fees and uniforms, Kopczynskie
said he would ask for no more
than $5 at every home he visited.
Forty years after getting the
money necessary to start the
youth football league and having 85 players at its first tryout,
Kopczynskie remained on the
Freeland sidelines.
He finally stepped aside in
2011, but not before making
such an impact on young people in his community and the
area in general that the Hazleton Area Sports Hall of Fame
named him a member of the
Halls 2012 class.
As the Freeland president
and a head coach, Kopczynskie
said he could not picture himself doing anything else in the
fall than working with young
football players.
I love it. I love the kids, he
said. I like to go walking on the
street and when I see a kid, a
young 7-year-old, pull his mothers skirt and say, Mom, thats
my coach. Thats my coach. It
makes me feel good.
Kopczynskie also coached
youth basketball teams for
many years.
His greatest thrill, however,
might have been cheering on
his former players as they
moved on to the high school
level, especially his own children
and grandchildren.
Tom Kostic
Under head coach Tom Kostic, Bishop Hafey High Schools

cross country program began
an unprecedented run (pun
intended) of success with the
first of 12 straight Wyoming Valley Conference Division III boys
championships in 1995. In fact,
the Vikings didnt lose a single
conference meet from 1995
through Bishop Hafeys final
year in 2006.
Along the way, several talented runners including James
Gidosh and Justin Pugliese
became individual standouts on
Hafeys boys team and Beth
Sharkey proved her prowess
among the girls. The Vikings
showcasing their running abilities in front of the pack at dual
meets, invitationals and seasonending all-league, district and
even state meets.
Chuck Dinofrio, Steve Sanko,
Kevin Walsh, Josh Evans, Mario
Howey, Chris Pugliese, Billy Yenkevich, Damien Dolan and Chris
Sallemi arrived at Bishop Hafey
soon thereafter. Through their
hard work, dedication and strict
adherence to the programs
mantra, The road less traveled,
they became the building
blocks for the state championship team.
After finishing seventh at the
PIAA meet in 1998, the Vikings
boys team charted the course to
Bethlehem and a state title that
whole offseason. By the time
the 1999 season started, they
were unstoppable.
With Dinofrio, Sanko and
Walsh leading the way, Bishop
See COACHES, Z3
Congratulations to the Standard Speaker

on 150 years of service to the Greater Hazleton area!
Your Friend, Lou Barletta
www.LouBarletta.com
Lou Barletta for Congress

P.O. Box 128, Hazleton, PA 18201 (570) 501-VOTE (8683)
Lou@Loubarletta.com
Paid for by Lou Barletta for Congress
11:24 | GRECOTONY
Culture
Then&Now
School dayS
Here is a list of schools, compiled from
memories of Hazletonians and former residents around the country and world
from the Facebook page, You Might Be
from Hazleton if....
Public schools
Students walk through the snow to get to Hazleton High School in the 1950s. The school is currently Hazleton Elementary/
Middle School and is affectionately known as The Castle.
Schools were unique in structure, vibe

By Maria Jacketti
StaffWriter
Back in the day that is,

throughout most of the 20th century Hazleton was a city of
neighborhood schools. Compared
to todays mega-schools, they
were small and sometimes contained as many as two grades in a
room.
While not one-room schoolhouses, most of them were still
cozy by todays standards.
Decidedly without todays technology, they had intercoms and
perhaps a treasured television
set. Teachers relied on their ingenuity to make lessons interesting
and alive.
Those were the days when paddles and rulers were mainstays
in classrooms, and children who
got into trouble in school would
face another round of punishment when they got home.
Jean Mope, a Hazleton councilwoman, recalls her days at Walnut Street School, which later
became T.L. Hinkle, on South
Church Street. After elementary
school, she moved on to Green
Street School, which seemed to
her much larger, and then H.F.
Grebey, whose awesome architecture astounded her.
Her last stop was Hazleton
High School.
Mope explained that each
High schools
Bishop Hafey High School closed early in the 21st century during consolidation of the Diocese
of Scrantons education system.
school had a unique personality,
something that all who went to
20th-century schools echo. There
were no generic or cookie-cutter
schools in golden-age Hazleton.
The old T.L. Hinkle School lat-
H.F. Grebey School is shown in this photo from the 1970s.
er served as the Hazleton Area

School Districts administration
building and is now the site of
Hazleton Imaging.
Mope recalled Walnut Street
School as a new and friendly
place when she arrived there
with warm, supportive teachers
who made her feel at home when
she entered kindergarten. There
was no getting swallowed up by
the crowd.
When she went to Grebey, she
gained a reputation for handing
out pastries to her friends, since
her mother worked in a local bakery.
Those were the days when sugar saw no laws nor limits in
Hazleton or anywhere else in the
U.S. Children could still bring
cupcakes and candy to school,
too, to share with classmates to
celebrate their birthday.
D.a. Harman
D.A. Harman School was an

elementary/middle school during its heyday, and was the only
one of its kind in Hazleton. It was
located at North Church and
First streets, where senior citizen
housing named Gennaro Gardens is now rising.
Former students who frequent
the You Might Be From Hazleton If page on Facebook share
many common experiences
about their days at Harman.
Music lessons were lavish and
expansive there, and even included the drums when Ringo Starr
was king.
Kids who wanted to spread the
news were offered a taste of journalism with the school newspaper, The Harman Herald.
See schools, Z21
One-room schools were base of early education

More than 200 small schoolhouses most with only one
teacher dotted the Hazleton
area landscape in the late 1800s, a
time when population was soaring, primarily from the rapid
development of anthracite mining.
Coal-bearing towns showed the
fastest growth, even though
development of the areas vast
coal interests were only in its initial stages in the 1880s.
When Hazleton became a thirdclass city in December 1891,
according to data obtained by the
Standard-Speaker from the
Greater Hazleton Historical Society, it had 35 tiny schools within
its boundaries.
Each school had only one
teacher. Together, they taught a
total of 1,893 students.
Hazle Township had 41 schools,
whose 2,150 students were taught
by 44 teachers.
Foster Township had 23
schools, each with only one teach-
A.D. Thomas, Third and Grant streets,

is now an apartment building, the St.
Thomas Apartments.
E.A. Encke, Monroe Avenue, West
Hazleton. Open lunch, with many students going home for a hot-cooked meal.
Lavatories without doors on stalls. Building was demolished and replaced by a
senior citizen apartment complex.
D.A. Harman, North Church and First
streets. Gennaro Gardens now located on
site.
H.F. Grebey, North Vine and Holly
streets. Regal architecture.
Green Street School, North Laurel
and Green streets. Had its own library and
librarian for district teachers.
Locust Street School, 11th and
Locust streets. Immanuel Christian School
now located in the building.
Hazle Junior High School, former
Hazle Township High School, formerly
occupied by Greater Hazleton Health Alliance, now houses Meals on Wheels program.
Peace Street School, grades one to
eight, 23rd and Peace St. One of the
schools that seems to have vanished into
the midst of Hazletons history, it closed in
1966.
Poplar Street School, once an elegantly landscaped jewel of school and
the precursor to Heights-Terrace Elementary/ Middle School, had regular square
dancing in the back hall.
T.L. Hinkle (Walnut Street) School,
South Church and Walnut streets. Later
served as Hazleton Area School District
administration building.
er. Together, they taught a student body of 1,575.

Black Creek Township, with 10
schools and 11 teachers, taught
511 students.
Butler Township had 11 oneteacher schools that accommodated a total of 430 students.
Sugarloaf Township had nine
schools, nine teachers and 400
students.
Conyngham five schools,
five teachers, 223 students.
Dennison five schools, five
teachers, 151 students.
Dorrance five schools, five
Fairview five schools, five
Freeland four schools, four
Hollenback five schools, five
Jeddo one school, one teacher, 76 students.
West Hazleton two schools,
two teachers, 171 students.
White Haven six schools, six

In 1879, MMI Preparatory
School in Freeland, which has
gained a reputation as a superior
private school not only in Pennsylvania but throughout the
nation, was opened by Eckley B.
and Sophia G. Coxe.
The Coxes recognized the need
for an educated workforce and
knew that coal miners sons
couldnt get much schooling
when they had to pick coal all day
to support their families.
Thanks to MMI, which then
was known as the Mining and
Mechanical Institute, miners
sons could attend classes at night.
The school originally was
designed simply to give technical
training to sons of poor coal miners.
But its emphasis soon changed
to providing an advanced college
preparatory education to its students, all of whom go on to college.
Looking back to the decade
from 1880 to 1890, the number of

residents in Hazleton borough
which would become a city in
1891 nearly doubled, soaring
from 6,935 to 11,872.
West Hazletons population
skyrocketed at an even more
amazing rate, from 191 to 931.
Freelands population swiftly
climbed from 624 residents to
1,730.
A steady climb also took place
in other municipalities:
Black Creek Township, from
1,057 to 2,178.
Hazle Township, including
Ebervale, Hollywood, Lattimer
and Milnesville villages, 10,548 to
12,494.
Foster Township, including
Eckley, Highland and Sandy Run
villages, 5,116 to 7,590.
Butler Township, 1,917 to
1,984.
Dorrance Township, 639 to
742.
Jeddo borough, 350 to 358.
See base, Z21
Hazleton High School, Ninth and

Wyoming streets. The seat and heart of
Hazletons secondary education.
Hazle Township High School, North
Church and 13th streets, Hazleton. Alma
mater of such legends as Academy Award
winner Jack Palance, who was a football
star there
Freeland High School. During open
lunches, students headed home to help
their parents with their mom-and-pop
businesses, then dashed back to class.
Foster Township High School. Abandoned now, one sees its relics on the way
into Freeland from Jeddo.
Weatherly High School. Built by
Charles Schwab, it housed the famous
Weatherly clock. The school was
renowned for its small graduating classes.
West Hazleton High School. Played
an annual football game against Hazleton
High School every Thanksgiving through
the late 1970s.
catholic schools
Bishop Hafey High School, 22nd and

Rose streets, Hazle Township. Opened in
September 1971; closed by Diocese of
Scranton in 2007; purchased by Hazleton
Area School District, remodeled and
enlarged into Maple Manor Elementary/
Middle School.
Most Precious Blood, East Fourth
Street between Seybert and Hayes
streets. First school was located at Fourth
and Seybert. Clemie Yamona, a former
Hazleton City Council member, recalled
children being sent to sit in the coal bin in
the old MPB School when they misbehaved.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, South
Church and Walnut streets. Tuition was
free for parish members, eight grades in
four rooms. Now headquarters of Catholic
Social Services.
Our Lady of Grace. Two buildings
one on North Vine Street between 12th
and 13th streets, the other at 13th and
Vine. Latter building housed ninth grade
in Bishop Hafey High Schools first year
and later Hazleton Catholic Preparatory
School.
Monsignor Molino School, a merger
of MPB and Our Lady of Grace, housed in
both parishes school buildings.
St. Josephs School, Fifth and Laurel
streets. Now home of Holy Family Academy, the only remaining Catholic school in
Hazleton.
St. Johns Byzantine School, North
Wyoming Street. Another small Catholic
school that relied on dedicated teachers
and parents to work little miracles every
day.
Holy Trinity School, North Church
and Green streets. Science experiments
on a shoestring thrived, such as hatching
chicks in an incubator donated by a parent who was a farmer.
St. Stanislaus, Eighth and Carson
streets. Classes were so small that grades
were often combined. Students learned
to waltz. Building now houses Head Start.
Transfiguration, West Green Street,
West Hazleton. Known as a place that
forged enduring friendships, The Trans
Gang.
11:24 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Z21
Culture
Then&Now
Base
MMI Prepatory Schools Old Main is shown after a 1964 fire.
Schools
Open lunch was a big deal and
literally a chance to cut loose and
experience a free-wheeling recess,
since the streets around the school
offered plenty of opportunities for
exploration.
Christinos Italian Store, across
Church Street, was a favorite place
for Harman students to go during
their lunches. Christinos also
attracted the Harman crowd with
its huge on-the-floor Coca-Cola
cooler. Kids dug into its frosty
depths to pull out their favorite
soda pop.
Harman students also ventured
to other destinations.
They could visit B&R Pizza at
West Diamond Avenue and Wyoming Street or Berlitzs Bakery at
Second and Alter streets. Berlitzs
sold pizza boats, which were very
popular grab-and-go lunches.
Those who were more into candy and baseball cards, sen-sen and
violet-scented candies as well as
Teaberry and Beechnut gum went
to Pences on Alter Street between
Fourth and Fifth streets.
Bishop Hafey
Catholic parish schools also

thrived, particularly during the
1960s and 1970s, in Hazleton; ultimately many roads led to Bishop
Hafey High School.
Sandra Nonnemacher, who
graduated in 1978 and still lives in
Hazleton, recalls participating in
Hafeys Folk Group as a pinnacle
experience. Nonnemacher said

her fondest memory was Christmas caroling for people at the old
St. Josephs Hospital and at St.
Luke Manor.
The patients and residents
would just light up and were so
appreciative to receive a bit of
Christmas cheer during a time
when many of them were experiencing loneliness and depression,
she said.
Sister Ann Marie Durso was
moderator of the club and the
electricity behind it, she said.
They sang and played guitars for
masses at the school, First Communions and other functions at
local churches.
Three of Nonnemachers four
children attended Bishop Hafey,
and she said that she experienced
great sadness when the school
closed.
Ultimately, however, she said
she was comforted by the Hafey
spirit living on.
The Castle
Hazleton High School located at

Ninth and Wyoming streets, was
the citys original Castle. Today
it is known as Hazleton Elementary/Middle School, and houses the
Wiltsie Center at the Historic Castle.
Built in 1926, it was the first million-dollar school constructed in
Pennsylvania.
The high school was vast and
known to offer courses and activi-
The Schwab School stands majestically in Weatherly.
way ahead of their time.

Hudock said Richard Beninsky,
who taught science, helped him
discover the possibilities of
astronomy and space exploration.
He also mentioned Sharon
Spalone, an English teacher who
took students on field trips to
expand their worldviews beyond
Weatherly
the horizons of Weatherly.
Bill Hudock, who now lives in
Hudock described these trips as
Bloomsburg, recalls living in
eye-openers, and mentioned a
Weatherly and attending the hisparticular trip to the Globe Thetorical high school on another
ater in Connecticut where stulocal hill. Despite the history and
dents experienced Shakespeare.
architecture of the school, Hudock
Energized by the examples that
remembers most of all his teachhis teachers gave him, Hudock
ers.
went on to pursue a career in eduI experienced a great awakencation.
ing at Weatherly High School,
Hudock said. Our teachers were
mjacketti@standardspeaker.com
ties that smaller high schools

could not support. For example,
Hazleton was the only high school
in the area to offer courses in Italian language, which proved to be a
great draw because of the citys
vibrant Italian-American population.

Sugarloaf Township, 1,390 to
1,854.
White Haven, 1,408 to 1,634.
Luzerne Countys sweeping rise
in population during the 19th century from little more than 4,000 to
more than 200,000 shows a
growth of rural population
unequaled in any county in the
United States, according to The
History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, edited by H.C. Bradsby in
1893.
At the time, the county boasted 67
school districts.
The preface of the volume, provided to the Standard-Speaker by
the Greater Hazleton Historical
Society, describes Luzerne County
as pre-eminently the historical
spot of Pennsylvania, and here have
come the poets and historians to
mingle their meed of praise with
the patriotic tribute of the civilized
world to the devoted band whose
scattered bones bleached on Abrahams Plains.
Bradsby lists among the books
able chroniclers C.F. Hill, Esq., of
Hazleton, for much valuable materials of the Indians and early history.
According to the history: Hazle
Township built its first public
school in 1850 on the northeast corner of Cedar and Spruce streets.
Black Creek Townships first
school was in the old Rittenhouse
first log cabin, converted into such
after he had built a better residence.
It was burned, and then a school
near where the brown church now
stands was built.
Other regional histories note that
Beaver Meadows first school was
kept by Lydia Bidlack and was
opened about 1835.
Weatherlys Schwab Memorial
School and Eurana Park were a gift
to that community by Mrs. Charles
M. Schwab, the former Eurana Dinkey, wife of the steel magnate.
This story is an updated version of
one that appeared in Pages From the
Past, the Standard-Speakers 125th
anniversary edition, in 1991. Chuck
Gloman, retired assistant editor,
wrote the article.
Fun for everyone

at Hazle Park
In an era of trolley cars and family picnics, when mining was
Hazletons prime industry, Hazle
Park became a popular recreational center for countless thousands
of people.
The parks picturesque, wooded
40 acres with natural springs first
were set aside for family gatherings in 1861, the year Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as Americas
16th president.
Owner Alvan Markle Sr. officially established Hazle Park in 1892,
erecting a large arch over the
entrance at 202 W. Broad St., West
Hazleton.
A year later, Markles electric
railway system known as the
Lehigh Traction Co. began public
transportation to and from the
park.
Special excursions from nearby
towns, and from as far away as
Allentown, brought huge crowds to
the park. The admission charge: 15
cents.
Thousands of families, church
groups and ethnic groups came by
trolley, horse and buggy, or by hiking to the spacious grove to attend
such festivities as Welsh Day, Irish
Day, German Day, Italian Day and
Methodist Day.
There were no class distinction
at Hazle Park. Hard-working miners and their families of all
nationalities relaxed side by side
with coal company officials and
their families.
As one elderly resident recently
put it, In those days, Hazle Park
was where the action was. Free
band concerts were presented in
the summer, as well as outdoor
weiner roasts. Ice skating and
sleigh riding were popular in the
winter.
But the thing I remember most
about Hazle Park was the beauty,
the infinite beauty, of the landscape. There were lush flower beds
and dazzling decorative shrubbery.
And the park always was kept
meticulously clean.
This is how local historian
Charles K. Stumpf, author of a history of Hazle Park, described the
scene:
The happy clang-clang of the
trolley echoed throughout the park.
Mothers packed their large
laundry baskets with lots of homemade goodies including hardboiled eggs, baked beans, thick
ham sandwiches, chocolate cake
and tightly corked bottles of homemade root beer.
Fathers toted along a hammock
to string up between trees to
accommodate the little ones. His
pockets were often stuffed full of
horseshoes, ready for a game of
quoits.
The men and older boys participated in baseball games and other
outdoor sports. The women
enjoyed their free time away from
Visitors are welcomed by the Hazle Park sign on the archway.
Some of Hazle Parks rides can be seen from the far edge of the parks lake.
the household by gathering in
shady nooks, exchanging recipes,
engaging in a bit of friendly gossip,
but mostly minding the babies.
The children enjoyed the
swings, sliding boards, sandboxes
and teeter-totters.
Eventually, a large grandstand
was built, and games between
teams from neighboring towns
drew capacity crowds.
In 1909, the park got its own
vaudeville-movie theater, which
presented two performances a day,
except Sunday. The theater soon
developed its own stock company
of professional actors.
John Phillip Sousa, known
around the world for his stirring
marches, made a special personal
appearance with his band at the
park in the summer of 1912, presenting afternoon and evening concerts to overflow crowds.
Also popular at Hazle Park was
its large dancing pavilion, the
scene of weekly dances that
attracted crowds throughout the
1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s, featuring
outstanding local orchestras and
nationally known touring bands.
The parks attractions increased
year by year, from bowling and
handball alleys, lawn tennis courts,
baseball, bicycling, and boating
and swimming on the spring-fed
lake.
Also increasing were the amusement rides, which included a mammoth roller coaster known as The
Greyhound, in addition to the
Tumble Bug, the Scrambler, Airplane Swings, The Old Mill and
The park was known for its sculpted shrubbery and vivid flower
beds.
Fun House, Arcade and Amusement Center.
The stock market crash in 1929
and the resulting Depression triggered the beginning of the end for
Hazle Park.
Although unemployment was
widespread, the park survived
dwindling attendance. Another
major blow came in 1932 when the
Lehigh Traction Co. ceased trolley
operations. The WB&H Railway
ceased operations a year later.
During World War II, the park
continued its role as an entertainment center, offering roller skating,
dancing, rides and concession
stands.
As the 1940s ended, a final blow
television cut further into the

parks popularity. Home entertainment was taking over, and families
that once went to the park now
stayed at home to enjoy smallscreen TV images of Ed Sullivan,
Milton Berle, Ted Mack and Arthur
Godfrey.
The summer of 1956 rang down
the curtain on Hazle Park, still
fondly remembered as yesteryears
haven of entertainment.
This story is an updated version
of one that appeared in Pages From
the Past, the Standard-Speakers
125th anniversary edition, in 1991.
Chuck Gloman, retired assistant
editor, wrote the article.
11:22 | GRECOTONY
Culture
Then&Now
There was no better

way to pass a day
than at Angela Park
By ED SOCHA
ilies made memories.

In 1957, Angelas dream
opened as Angela Park.
My mother used to say
For Fred Barletta, the
that shed love to see a little
grove along Nescopeck
park here for the kids, BarCreek in Butler Township
was a place where hed spend letta, now deceased, recalled
in a 2007 interview. And that
countless Sundays with his
apparently stuck in the mind
family.
of my oldest brother, Frank.
We used to swim in the
After her death in 1952,
creek, and wed use the
grove, he said. My mother Angelas sons decided to follow through on their mothwould cook, and the wives
ers wish.
would cook, and wed all
As partners in A. Barletta
have a good time.
and Sons Inc., a massive conBarletta said there were
struction company, Fred and
picnic tables, a hammock, a
his brothers had the equipvolleyball court and a bocce
ment to build things.
court something that his
They used their know-how
father, Anthony Barletta,
to clear the spot where 18
loved.
rides would eventually
But it was his mother,
stand.
Angela, who came up with
the idea that eventually
When we opened the
made the little grove the Bar- park, it had the tank ride, the
lettas shared as a family into boat ride, the helicopter ride,
a place where countless fam- the merry-go-round, the
StaffWriter
arcade and the concession

stand, Barletta recalled.
Each year, we added something.
Open just a few years, the
Barlettas used their skills
again, this time to construct
an Olympic-sized swimming
pool.
But, the youngest of the
Barletta brothers was quick
to point out that though the
men of the family built the
park, the women of the family made it work.
If it werent for the wives
of all of my brothers and my
wife, he said, thered be no
Angela Park.
He said the men had jobs
in the family construction
business.
The wives would go down
there every day, he said.
They scrubbed the floors,
they cooked the hot dogs,
they made the pizza.
Passengers enjoy a ride around the Angela Park complex on its train.
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People take in the view from the sky ride as children below drive miniature antique
cars at Angela Park.
It was the wives who
were the backbone of Angela
Park, he said. And they
also raised a family at the
same time.
Freds wife, Monica, was
the youngest of the Barletta
women.
I went through every
pregnancy but one at the
park, the mother of four
said. One of the kids was
Standard-Speaker file photo
born in September and I

remember working to the
end of August.
Everybody was expected
to work, she said.
And she added that
remarkably, in all the years
they were together, there
were rarely any major disagreements among the women.
With my seven sisters-inlaw, there was never an argument, she said. We never
walked away angry. We made
it work.
Monica said that as her
children grew, shed take
them along to the park when
school let out. There, theyd
join cousins and spend their
time playing baseball, swimming and just hanging out.
A third-generation Barletta recalled his younger days
at the park.
We never went away on
summer vacation, said Louis Barletta, who grew up to
become a successful businessman and mayor of
Hazleton. Hes now serving
in Congress.
It was my mothers job all

summer, he said. It was
always work.
He said the park was what
kept the Barletta clan together.
Were a very tight family, he said, and the park
was the catalyst.
He said his cousins
became his best friends since
they spent so much time
together.
I didnt know anything
different, he said. From
the time we were young, we
were at the park.
His uncle Fred agreed.
We did everything down
at the park, he said. When
it was our kids birthday,
wed bring a cake and all of
us would get together.
We did anything and
everything down there and
we did it as a family. It was
just unbelievable.
Another thing that was
unbelievable at the park was
the food.
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11:24 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Z23
Culture
Then&Now
The park should

never have closed
By ED SOCHA
The park couldnt open

when it was wet, and that put
more of a downward spin on
The last years of the areas his cash flow.
He said he lost more mononly amusement park
werent much fun, its former ey when area companies
started dumping their speowner said.
Joseph Filoromo, who pur- cial promotion days and picnics.
chased Angela Park in 1985
We were really in a
from the Barletta family, said
a combination of rain, insur- pinch, Filoromo said. I was
behind on the mortgage payance rates and some bad
banking advice combined to ments, and the bank told me
to use the escrow.
end the roller-coaster ride
Filoromo said he needed
that was his tenure at the
about $50,000 of the money to
facility that opened in 1957.
get his payments up to date.
The park, should have
I was going to pay enough
never closed, Filoromo said
in a recent interview. It had to make it to the next season, he said. But then, the
everything going for it.
bank changed its mind.
Filoromo who at 33
At that point, he said, the
years old took over park
bank said the rainy-day
operations said its location, near the intersection of escrow funds was to be used
interstates 80 and 81, was one only for collateral.
I had almost half a milof its biggest assets. And the
condition of the facility was lion dollars to use, and now I
couldnt. Filoromo said.
great, he said.
Not being able to do that,
Mirthmaster, the corporahe said, forced Mirthmaster
tion Filoromo formed with
into bankruptcy and closed
his mother, purchased the
park for $1.2 million. He said the gates on the park.
Debt on the park was
it was appraised at almost
approaching $1.4 million and
$2 million.
We brought the park and growing at a rate of more
than $400 a day.
had the mortgage and more
Had he been able to wait
than $400,000 in escrow, he
another year, Filoromo said
said. The escrow fund, he
chances were good that he
said, was money that would
couldve have turned things
keep the park going in the
around.
event of a bad year.
The next season, the
In 1985, there was an
weather was great, he said.
insurance crisis, he said.
The former owner said
And the next year it got
that when he owned the
worse.
park, he had an option to purFiloromo said rising prechase about 100 acres in the
miums put a dent in his
area of what was the basefinancial condition. In 1987,
he said, insurance costs sky- ball field that would have
rocketed to $45,000 from just made the park nearly four
times larger that its original
$7,000 three years earlier.
33-acre site.
Then the rains came.
He said he envisioned
It rained almost every
installing water rides in that
weekend in 1986, he said.
StaffWriter
Standard-Speaker file photoS
Rides are full at Angela Park in this photo taken April 28, 1974 the helicopter ride, foreground, carousel in background, the Power Slide (tall vertical building at
right) and, of course, the sky ride.
Angela Park
the food, Fred Barletta said.
My brothers insisted that
we buy the best of everything.
We bought the best hot
dogs we could get, he continued. A lot of times we
couldve gone out to get
cheaper popcorn ... the same
with the ice cream mix. We
wouldnt do that.
We wanted quality for
the people, Barletta said. It
brought them back.
Monica said quality was
what made the parks pizza
special.
On special days, wed
make 500 pans, she said. If
it was sunny and we had
people at the pool, it was
worse.
It was the ingredients,
she said, that made it good.
Fred said the family never
made pizza on such a large
scale.
He said a state police officer who had a concession
stand out of the area would
often stop while the Barletta
brothers were building the
park.
He said, Im going to
teach you guys how to make
pizza, and he came down
when we were done and took
all the wives and showed
them how to make the
sauce, Barletta recalled.
The man showed the women what to use, Barletta said.
How much of this ... how
much of that, he said. It
was actually his recipe that
we used.
Monica explained that the
family women rotated on
assignments at the park and
everyone was involved at one
time or another in making
pizza.
I used to like the way
Louies mom made pizza,
Fred said, explaining she
used a bit less cheese that
allowed at least for his palate the flavor of the sauce
to come through.
But more than the food
made Angela Park a success.
Stars, promotions and
bombs bursting in air were
common occurrences at the
park.
Big names brought people
out.
Childrens television stars
visited frequently.
Pinky Lee, a former burlesque performer, hosted a
childrens show that preceded Howdy Doody and was
hugely popular from 1954 to
1956.
With his trademark plaid
suit and too-small-for-hishead hat, Lee packed more
than 10,000 people into the
park, Fred Barletta said.
He was signing autograph after autograph, Barletta said. And my son,
Freddie, was sick at home.
Pinky said, Lets go see
him, so we went to my
house. My son was stunned.
Barletta said.
Other visitors included
Chief Halftown, who hosted
a childrens show on Philadelphias ABC affiliate,
WFIL Channel 6.
Another visitor from that
station was Sally Starr, a
Children enjoy a boat ride during a day of family fun

at Angela Park.
cowgirl-type character who
hosted a daily cartoon show.
She got sick and couldnt
appear, Barletta said. The
big question was which one
of us would go on stage and
tell the crowd she wasnt
coming.
Polka bands, rock bands
and pageants shared the
stage over the years, bringing people to the park again
and again.
And one of the more popular attractions was the free
ride hours the Barletta family offered on weeknights.
For an hour, wed let kids
ride for free, Barletta said.
People would sit in their
cars and wait.
Family members would be
in the concession stand, and
when the free ride announcement came, the park filled.
Youd see kids coming
out of the cars like crazy, he
said.
Kids also enjoyed keeping
the park clean, Barletta said.
Porky the Paper Eater
and Leo, the Paper-Eating
Lion stood sentinel at strategic areas in the park.
The machines played
taped messages encouraging
kids to feed them paper
napkins, cups and plates
from the concessions.
Often, theyd wait with
paper in hand for the chance
to have the power vacuum
suck in a treat.
It got so bad that we had
to pull the napkins from the
counters, Barletta recalled.
The kids were pulling good
napkins and putting them in
the waste cans.
Monica remembered one
of the largest crowds at the
park turned out in the summer of 1976 when a covered
wagon train traveling
toward Washington, D.C.
stopped in.
It was part of the bicentennial, she said.
She said the wagon train
stopped overnight, so people
could get showers and the
horses could rest.
She explained she and other family members were
standing on the platform of

the sky ride, watching the
wagons heading south on
Route 309.
When they came over the
crest, it was awesome, she
said. Everything was dead
silence.
You saw the wagons, and
all you could hear was the
clip-clop of the horses feet.
After the bicentennial and
into the 1980s, the family
found it was outgrowing the
park.
It seemed the kids wanted the construction business
more, Fred said. My son
would come with me down
to the quarry and Louie
would go with his dad.
Barletta said the sons and
nephews wanted to be with
their fathers as they got older, possibly because they
were with their mothers a
lot as they grew up.
And with a 20-year span
from the oldest to the youngest of the original Barletta
clan, age began taking its
toll.
Fred said the brothers
and as many of their children as possible met at
their construction business
offices on Cedar Street in
Hazleton.
We had all the kids there,
and we asked them if they
were interested in taking the
park over, Fred said.
Some said yes, and some
said no, he explained.
So when Joe Filoromo
came and offered us the deal,
we took it, he said.
Barletta said it wouldve
been a good thing for the
younger family members to
take over the park.
We were getting older,
and the hours were getting
longer and it was getting
harder on the wives, he
said.
And all I get now from
their kids is Pop-Pop, why
did you sell the park?
This story originally
appeared in the May/June
2007 edition of Senior Scene.
area.
Filoromo, who lived on the
property when he owned the
park, said he did as much as
he could to keep it open.
I was married to that
park, he said. Id be outside
at four in the morning, fixing
things, I ran off a lot of girlfriends.
Filoromo said safety was
one of his biggest concerns.
I wouldnt compromise
public safety, he said. I had
rides closed down because I
knew they needed some
things done.
He said it was that concern for safety that steered
him into his latest career as
supervisor in the state
Department of Agricultures
Amusement Ride Inspection
Division.
On the day of the auction
the director of the rides in
the (Gov. Robert) Casey
administration kept following me around, asking me to
take a job, he said. So I
decided to give it a try.
Looking back, Filoromo
said starting a park like
Angela these days is almost
impossible.
That was one of the last
family-run amusement
parks, he said. To go into
that business today, youd
have to be a big corporation.
Nevertheless, he said that
in his time as the owner, he
did everything in his power
to keep the site open.
He said he often thinks
about what couldve been.
Its just horrible, he said.
Theres so much we were
trying to do, and they were
running me out.
This story originally
appeared in the May/June
2007 edition of Senior Scene.
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6/10/2015
11:48 | BAIRDATHLE
Culture
Then&Now
YWCA serves community

from its roots in sewing club
In January 1906, in a room
over the garage at the Frank
Pardee home at Diamond
Avenue and Vine Street,
Hazleton, the current site of
the Aldor Arms Apartments,
a group of 12-year-old girls
met for a sewing class organized by Katharine and Dorothy Pardee.
That class was the beginning of the Young Womens
Christian Association in
Hazleton.
As the girls grew older and
began working in local factories, a club called Escosar,
the Evening Club of Sewing
and Recreation, was formed.
The organizer of the 1906
sewing club, Katharine Pardee, who later became the wife
of James Lindsay Kirkpatrick, knew about the work of
the YWCA in other communities and was anxious that
girls and women in Hazleton
might have the privileges and
opportunities that the association could provide for them.
In November 1913, two representatives of the national
YWCA board came to the city

to study the situation. As they
talked with people in the
community, they were convinced that the people of
Hazleton were ready to organize a unit of the national
organization.
On Jan. 29, 1914, Mrs. Israel
Platt Pardee opened her
home at the southeast corner
of Diamond Avenue and
North Laurel Street (where it
still stands) for a meeting of
100 women interested in having an association. At that
meeting, committees on a
constitution, finance and
membership were appointed.
Two weeks later, on Feb. 8,
1914, a mass meeting took
place in the Palace Theatre
with Maude Giles serving as
president pro tem and Anna
Wetterau as secretary pro
tem. Before the meeting concluded, 370 girls and women
had signed membership
application forms.
The Escosar Club
announced that all of its members would join the YWCA.
On Feb. 23, the constitution

was adopted and the decision
made to rent rooms on the
third floor in the Lauderburn
building on West Broad
Street. At that time, the following officers were elected:
Mrs. W.C. Gayley, president;
Katharine Frances Pardee,
first vice president; Mrs. Walter Lathrop, second vice president; Emma Shaeffer, secretary, and Mrs. W.A. Turnbach, treasurer.
The first general secretary
was Catherine Halsey. She
was followed by Emily Hill,
who later became Mrs. H.A.
Wettstine.
Mrs. Gayley was succeeded
by Katharine Pardee as president. For some time, Miss
Pardee served as both general
secretary and president. Later Mrs. Walter Lathrop and
Mrs. John Wettstine served
as president.
Prior to the organization
of the YWCA, girls and women in Hazleton, during their
leisure time, formed sewing
and card clubs which met in
individual homes or joined

church societies some
going back to when the
churches were founded in the
community patriotic organizations and lodges.
In order to provide more
adequate facilities for the
YWCA, the group purchased
the Valley Hotel on West
Broad Street. Funds were
raised for a new building and
the remodeling of the old
hotel. The new structure on
Broad Street in the block
between Church and Vine
streets opened in 1929.
This building, with a gymnasium, auditorium, large
lobby, meeting rooms, a cafeteria and residential rooms on
the upper floors, remained the
headquarters of the YWCA
until the 1950s when the
YWCA and the YMCA undertook a joint building fund
campaign. With the monies
raised, the modern YMCA
and YWCA structure was
erected at 75 S. Church St.
The South Church Street
building later was expanded
The Hazleton YWCA occupied the upper floors of

the building at left on West Broad Street in downtown
Hazleton.
to add two regulation racquetball courts and a physical fitness center. The pool
and locker rooms were made
accessible to the handicapped
and energy conservation
measures and other renovations were undertaken.
Mrs. Kirkpatrick, who
spearheaded the formation
of the YWCA, died in July
1988 at her residence in Rochester, Vermont. Through the
years, the association had
been sustained and funded
generously by Mrs. Kirkpatrick, and as a result of her
personal contribution, the
present building has a swimming pool.
Several years ago, a por-
trait of her was unveiled at a

tea and the general meeting
room was named the Kirkpatrick Room in her honor. On
that occasion, seven of the
nine members in her original
sewing club were present.
They were Mary Gombeda
Gregor, Anna Demshock Popso, Mary Janosov Curilla,
Betty Dohanyos Crouse,
Mary Potash Tomasick, Catherine Dembrosky Troutman
and Edna Oster Reider.
This story appeared in Pages From the Past, the Standard-Speakers 125th anniversary edition, in 1991. Retired
social editor Margaret Lloyd
wrote the article.
Affiliate
Sunday Services now at 9:00AM and 11:00AM
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At Hill City Church, our goal is to impact the Greater Hazleton Area with the
message of God's love and forgiveness. We believe God is active and
relevant, pursuing us for relationship...not for rules or religion. Come
rediscover church as we pursue our spiritual lives together.
570-884-4436
600 S Poplar St
www.TheHillCityChurch.com Hazleton, PA 18201
11:21 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Z3
Sports
Then&Now
Coaches
(Continued from Z2)
Hafey captured its fifth consecutive WVC Division III crown with
a 5-0 mark, won the team title at
the Endless Mountains Invitational and took top team honors
among any class at the WVC
Coaches all-conference meet,
where Dinofrio, Sanko and
Walsh swept the top three
spots, Evans finished seventh,
Pugliese was 13th and Howey
14th. The Vikings then repeated
as District 2 Class AA champions
the following week with an
impressive parade of gold and
blue to the finish line.
That set the stage for their triumphant first Saturday morning
in November at Lehighs Goodman Athletic Complex.
Armed with his ever-present
stopwatch, an anxious Kostic
looked on as Dinofrio crossed
the finish line in 16 minutes, 31
seconds, which was good
enough for 19th place overall. A
short time later, Sanko checked
in with a 37th place finish and
Walsh wasnt too far behind in
43rd. The closer the numbers,
the better as the teams top five
place numbers are totaled to
give that team its score.
As the runners came through
the final chute, Kostic watched
for his runners. He saw Evans
take an 80th-place finish and,
finally, Howey, Chris Pugliese
and Yenkevich come in 116th,
130th and 180th place, respectively. Dolan and Sallemi were
alternates that day.
I knew it was going be close,
Kostic said, pointing to the gap
between Evans and Howey as
the difference between being
state champs or runnersup. We
certainly didnt come down here
just to place. We were thinking
we could win.
Under Kostic, the Vikings
almost always did.
Maddon as QB at HHS
Integration Project.
But its baseball that has
always been in his blood, particularly teaching young players.
Unlike many managers in
todays game, the 61-year-old
Maddon has a unique ability to
balance sound baseball strategy
with the ability to understand
his players and relate to them.
His out of the box thinking
characterized his run in Tampa
Bay, where he took an average
roster with few stars to a World
Series appearance in 2008 and
four playoff appearances in
eight seasons. Hes using that
same approach in Chicago, only
he has more stars and a bigger
budget at his disposal.
Maddon was known in Tampa for giving his players opportunities to exhibit their personalities, in much the same way
that he exhibits his own. Just
one example of such thing in
Tampa Bay was the annual tradition he established of having
rookies dress up. Rays rookies
once dressed up as Mario Bros
characters.
But Maddon is not known
only for these idiosyncratic procedures but for posting philosophical type quotes on bulletin
boards in the clubhouse. The
type of quote he would post is
Not many high school bassimilar to one he uttered in his
ketball coaches in Pennsylvania introductory press conference
area can claim to have won 600 in Chicago in November.
games in their career, former
Dont ever permit the presHazleton and Hazleton Area
sure to exceed the pleasure.
coach Bruce Leib is one of them.
In that introductory press
Leib won an unprecedented
conference, Maddon told
75 straight Wyoming Valley Con- reporters he was going to live
ference games from Jan. 5, 1988 downtown and that he wanted
to Jan. 11, 1992.
to feel the energy. He raved
He coached 12 WVC Division I about the challenge of managchampion teams and 13 PIAA
ing a team which hadnt won
District 2 champions and was
the World Series since 1908.
named the Associated Press Big
And in that same press conSchool coach of the year in 1989 ference, which was held in a bar
and WVC coach of the year 11
near Wrigley Field in Chicago,
times.
Maddon promised to buy
His 1992-93 team played in
reporters a shot and a beer
the PIAA Class AAAA champion- the Hazleton way.
ship game where they fell to
Maddon is a baseball lifer
Erie Cathedral Prep. That team
from his days playing for the
finished 29-2, setting a record
late Ray Saul in the Hazleton Litfor wins in a season and were
tle League through playing for
the first team to play for a state
Ed Bud Morgan at Hazleton
title since 1944.
High School and beyond. He
Leib went on to win his 600th signed with the California
career game as the head coach
Angels in 1975 as a catcher after
of Central Dauphin East.
playing baseball and football at
Coach prepared us not only
Lafayette College. He never
for the basketball court, but also advanced past Single-A though.
in the classroom and in the real He simply was not talented
game life, Rich Hudock,
enough.
Hazletons star point guard for
But way back when, it was
three powerhouse Leib teams in apparent that Maddon would
the late 1980s. I just wish we
be a coach. After three seasons
could have won a state title for
trying to make it as a player,
him.
Maddon began as a scout for
the Angels, before eventually
filling roles as coach, minor
Considered one of baseballs league roving hitting instructor
most popular managers presand manager in the Angels farm
ently, Joe Maddon is gearing up system before taking his rightful
for his second season at the Chi- spot as bench coach for the
cago Cubs helm after a wildly
major league squad.
successful eight-year run leadBefore Mike Scioscia, the
ing the previously moribund
Angels rarely enjoyed success,
Tampa Bay Rays.
but it was Maddon who was the
Players love the Hazleton
constant. Every new manager to
native. The media loves him.
come to town kept Maddon on
Fans cannot get enough of him. the staff, knowing he was a cruIn turn, Maddon keeps Hazle- cial piece to any possible sucton front and center in his deal- cess the team could have.
ings with the national press and
Maddon grew up the son of
by returning here every holiday an Italian father and Polish
season to promote his Hazleton mother, both of whom were
Bruce Leib
Joe Maddon
blue collar workershis father

owned a plumbing shop, his
mother was and still is a waitress. That background instilled
in Joe a superior work ethic to
go along with his rambunctious
personality.
As is the case with so many
children of immigrants, Maddon
had a desire to fulfill his familys
intended destiny when coming
to the new world.
The advantage Maddon had
over his ancestors was a free
mind which desired to learn and
take in as much knowledge as
he could attain. Its made him
one of the sharpest minds in
baseball in the 21st century.
Hes a firm believer is sabermetrics, that statistical data is
crucial, but so too, are relationships and team building.
Players still need a manager
they can trust, a manager they
know has their back, a manager
they know will put them in the
best position to succeed.
Someone like Joe Maddon.
Elsie Tolan
Elsie Tolan knew all about

winning as the head coach of
the Marian girls basketball program for two decades.
Her 755 career wins speak
volumes, but her ambition was
more than just about winning a
state championship.
Without question, Tolans
crowning moment came at the
end of the 1983-84 season in
Hershey, where her team
defeated Kennedy Christian
64-49 to polish off a 35-2 season
with the PIAA Class A crown.
It was never about state
championships. I just always
wanted the girls to have an
equal chance at playing the
game, Tolan said.
Her Marian teams almost
always had a better than even
chance to win, especially with
superstars like Denise Burdick,
Ann Marie Kosciolek, sisters Sue
and Lenore Shimkus in the fold.
In 1984, Diane Decker, Maura
Hydro, Gracia Perilli, Mary Rose
Delpero, Diane McCullion, Patti
Oakes, Karen Scaran, Janet Calabrese carried the torch and the
team as the season kept building until the crescendo a
berth and win in the state title
game.
I really dont remember that
much about the Kennedy win,
Tolan said. But I knew our team
were ready to play. We felt that
we had played very well as the
season went on. By the time we
got to the (state) playoffs, our
kids were really focused and
determined to win. When you
have that type of determination
and the preparation that we put
our players through, winning
usually takes care of itself.
Tolan always pushed her
teams to become better at
every single practice.
I never screamed or hollered
during a game, she an said. All
my screaming was done in practice. Our players were taught
the little things and how to execute.
Tolan always prepared her
team for the worst, but stressed
fundamentals.
No matter what the situation, we went over and over it.
We wanted to make sure the
players were well prepared. We
covered the small things as
much as the big things.
All of the Fillies work paid off
as the 1983-84 season rolled
along.
Their reward was a long overdue state championship for one
of Pennsylvania girls basketballs
true pioneers and the culmination of hard work put in by their
predecessors in blue and gold.
had great players and assistants

who were very dedicated to be
successful.
Count Wallace as a firm
believer in the above statement.
In 1982, after serving for
three years as an assistant boys
basketball coach under John
Yosh Grobelny at West Hazleton High School, Wallace was
named the head girls basketball
coach at WHHS.
His first team, playing in the
powerful Schuylkill League for
the first time, went on to win
the schools only Schuylkill
League championship. The Lady
Wildcats defeated a superb Marian Catholic team in the finals.
They then followed with consecutive District 11 Class AAA
titles in 1984 and 1985, the only
two district crowns in team history.
Wallaces most remembered
team at West Hazleton came in
the 1990-91 season, when the
Lady Wildcats roared to the
Class AAA Eastern finals. There,
they lost to arch-rival Allentown
Central Catholic at sold-out
Martz Hall in Pottsville. The community support and excitement
that Wallaces team generated
will never be forgotten.
Wallace was named the head
girls basketball coach at the
new Hazleton Area High School
in 1992. His Lady Cougar teams
won back-to-back Wyoming Valley Conference championships
in 1994 and 1995 and three consecutive District 2 Class 4A titles
from 1993-95. His 1994 and
1995 teams advanced to the
PIAA quarterfinals.
Wallace retired from coaching
after the 1995 season. His teams
compiled a 264-88 record during his 13 years of coaching.
They won three conference
titles and five district championships, reached one Eastern final
and three Eastern semifinals and
qualified for the PIAA playoffs
eight times. He was named
coach of the year five times in
his career.
PLAYERS
Joe Andrejco
George Cheverko
Former Hazleton High

School stars Joe Andrejco and
George Cheverko were among
the greatest athletes ever to
play in the region.
Tabbed The Touchdown
Twins because of their excellence on the football field,
they led the Mountaineers to
back-to-back undefeated seasons in 1938 and 1939. Both
also were basketball standouts
on the last HHS to win a state
championship in 1938.
Andrejco and Cheverko
made an immediate impact in
football when they arrived at
Hazleton High School from
Beaver Meadows in during the
depths of the Great Depression. Playing first for coach
George Shotwell in 1937 and
then for Stan Oleniczak, they
Robbie Wallace
When a coach is inducted

into a Hall of Fame it means he
Andrejco
combined for 11 touchdowns

on a 6-2-1 team as sophomores in 1937.
The two greatest seasons in
HHS football history followed.
Cheverko exploded for 104
points and Andrejco scored 63
as the 1938 team that finished
11-0. Although the Mountaineers defeated Pottsville 30-0 at
Pottsville before a Coal
Region-record crowd of
18,000, they did not win the
Big 15 Conference title,
because they played only five
conference games instead of
the required six.
The problem was eliminated
in 1939 when the Mountaineers finished 10-0, including
the required six conference
games, and ran their winning
streak to 23. Cheverko scored
88 points as a senior and
Andrejco added 79 to his
career total.
Cheverko finished his high
school basketball career with
693 points, a school record
that stood for many years.
Andrejco scored 166 career
points. Both were named to
the Associated Press All-State
football first team. Cheverko
was also All-State first team in
basketball twice.
The duo started on HHS
basketball teams that went
60-6 during three seasons. All
three included East Penn
League titles and one oended
with a state championship
campaign in 1937-38, when
Andrejco and Cheverko were
sophomores.
Cheverko became an immediate offensive threat, scoring
184 points and averaging 8.4
points per game as a sophomore on the 22-1 state-title
team. He was second in scoring to Bill Bechtloff, who
earned All-State first-team
honors with 11.1 points per
game.
Back then, basketball games
were much lower scoring than
they are today. Andrejco, a
defensive specialist, contributed 99 points as a sophomore.
Cheverko scored 232 points,
an 11.0 ppg average as a junior
on a 19-2 team and 277 and a
12.6 ppg average as a senior
on a 19-3 team. He set a then
school record for most points
by a sophomore and for the
most career points (693), a
mark which lasted until Al
DeGatis wrapped up his career
in 1944 with 702 points.
Andrejco scored 255 points
in 52 games and was regularly
assigned to guard the opponents top scorer. His high
school eligibility expired after
the first 10 games of his senior
year.
Both athletes made headlines on a regular basis, as the
Mountaineers recorded a combined 87-8-1 in the duos football and basketball careers at
HHS.
In the 1930s and 1940s,
Fordham University was playing a major football schedule.
The Rams, coached by Sleepy
Jim Crowley, one of the Four
Horsemen of Notre Dame,
owed much of the Rams success to players from Pennsylvanias Coal Region.
Crowley came to Hazleton
on an unprecedented recruiting trip in 1940, when he convinced Andrejco, Cheverko,
tackle Joe Yackanich and quarterback Mike Vuksanovich (later shortened to Vuckson) to
attend Fordham on football
scholarships.
All four eventually played in
the Sugar Bowl, where the
Rams defeated Missouri 2-0 on
Jan. 1, 1942. A year earlier,
they lost to Texas A&M (13-12)
in the Cotton Bowl.
The four Hazleton products
contributed to key Fordham
football triumphs, including

two lopsided wins over NYU
before huge crowds at Yankee
Stadium in 1940 and 1941.
Both Andrejco and
Cheverko are members of the
Fordham Sports Hall of Fame.
Both had their college
careers interrupted by World
War II. Cheverko served in the
Army, and Andrejco became
an officer in the Marine Corps,
where he continued to play
football.
Andrejco and Cheverko
were drafted by the Cleveland
Rams, but military service
delayed Cheverkos professional debut.
Cheverko played in nine
games on offense, defense and
special teams for the New York
Giants in 1947. He then played
in eight games with the Giants
and two with the Washington
Redskins the following year.
His career NFL totals include
19 games, 73 yards rushing, 18
receptions for 341 yards and
three touchdowns. Defensively, Cheverko intercepted nine
passes and returned them an
average of 24.7 yards per interception.
He returned 10 kickoffs with
a 21.5 yard average and he
brought back six punts with a
15.5 yard average.
Joe DeBias
Gabe Durishin
Running backs Joe DeBias

and Gabe
Durishin combined to produce the
most potent
one-two scoring attack in
the history of
DeBias
West Hazleton High
School.
They grew
up inTresckow
and played
sports through
their childhood
years, including starting on
Durishin
theValley Babe
Ruth Baseball 15-year-old all-star
team that played for the national
championship in Stockton, Calif.
Both lettered in football and
baseball at West Hazleton and
had back-to-back season in
which they scored a combined
192 points in 1959 and a total
of 199 in 1960.
DeBias tallied 99 points as a
sophomore, 102 as a junior
and 127 as a senior, leading
area teams in scoring all three
seasons. He finished his career
with the Wildcats with 328
points, averaging 109.3 points
a season.
Combined with Durishins
164 points, the duo totaled
492 points in their career, outscoring Hazleton Highs famed
tandem of George Cheverko
and Joe Andrejco, which
scored a combined 402 from
1938 to 1940.
DeBias rushed for 3,200
yards and scored 54 touchdowns and four extra points.
His scoring and TD records
were on the books for 43 years
until Hazleton Areas Matt
McGowan (Class of 2004)
scored 382 points on 63 career
rushing touchdowns and
rushed for 4,271 yards. Josh
Heck of Hazleton Area rushed
for 3,446 yards.
Durishin scored 90 points in
his junior year and 72 in his
senior campaign. The Wildcats
finished 6-4, 8-3 and 6-4-1
during the three years that
DeBias and Durishin played.
See players, Z4
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Z4 Standard-Speaker
11:23 | GRECOTONY
Sports
Then&Now
New breed adding to areas rich legacy

Nate Eachus
For three weeks in the fall of

2007, Nate Eachus had the
attention of the entire Lehigh
Valley, if not the entire state.
The Hazleton Area running
back/linebacker took the Cougars on his back, and literally
carried them into the state playoffs and through some of the
finest big school football teams
in Eastern Pennsylvania.
After leading the Cougars to
a Wyoming Valley Conference
Division I championship, Eachus
and his teammates embarked
on a magical three-week ride
through the District 2-4-11 subregional, where they would
have to run through a gauntlet
of the top 4A powers in the
Lehigh Valley - Easton, Bethlehem Liberty and Parkland if
they were to get to the states
Elite Eight. The Cougar pro-
Eachus
gram had never been past the
opening round of the subregional, but this was no ordinary
Cougar team. And Eachus was
no ordinary player.
During the regular season, he
had already rushed for more
than 1,300 yards and turned
heads with his ability to break
tackles, turn busted plays into
long touchdown runs, and stop

opposing runners cold with his
jarring tackles on defense.
But Eachus was just getting
started.
In the opening playoff round
against Easton, he rushed for
263 yards on 45 punishing carries, and scored four touchdowns, including the gamewinner in a 36-29 double-overtime thriller against the Red
Rovers.
One week later at Liberty, he
took his game to an even higher
level, punishing the stateranked Hurricanes with a performance for the ages.
The 5-10, 195-pound hunk of
granite ran over and around the
Hurricanes for an eye-popping
387 yards, including the gamewinning 82-yard run with 1:23
to play in a 21-20 upset that
head everyone in the Lehigh
Valley talking. He even made

the game-deciding stop on
defense, tackling Ahkeem Smith
on a two-point conversion try
late as Hazleton Area knocked
off the team that had been to
the state finals in two of the past
three seasons.
Eachus and the Cougars nearly pulled off another upset in
the subregional final the following week at Parkland, where the
state-ranked Trojans needed a
last-second field goal block to
preserve a 16-14 win on their
way to the state championship
game. Eachus finished that
game with 11 tackles on
defense and 192 yards rushing,
giving him 2,196 yards for the
season (8.3 yards per carry) and
28 touchdowns. He also racked
up 115 tackles (74 solo) and five
sacks on defense, and was
rewarded by being named first
Patrick
team All-State at running back
and earning a spot at linebacker
on the prestigious Big 33 Team,
reserved for the states best-ofthe-best.
He concluded his Cougar
football career with 3,437 rushing yards - third all-time behind
only Matt McGowan and Josh
Heck. His 42 rushing touch-
downs and 270 points scored

rank second behind McGowan.
On the wrestling mat, Eachus
was a standout as well, capturing the PIAA Class 3A title at 189
pounds during the 2006-07
wrestling season.
He capped his high school
career by being named the
Scotty Roman Award winner a
second time as the areas top
scholastic athlete. But while his
high school career was ending,
Eachus story was far from over.
He went on to star in football
at Colgate University and played
for one season with the NFLs
Kansas City Chiefs.
Donald Patrick
Donald Patrick earned AllState first-team honors in three

successive years, the first and
See BREED, Z12
Athletes
and Pennsylvania state record at
the time.
She set the Hazleton Area
assists record in one game with
Paul Hoffmans decision to
attend St. Gabriels High School 19,. She averaged 20.3 points,
11.0 assists and 5.3 steals per
in Hazleton led him to becomgame as a senior.
ing the star player on two
Koren also held the record for
straight state championship
points (48) in a PIAA playoff
teams.
game, a mark she reached in
He scored a regional record
2,209 points, was named to the achieved in 1994.
Her honors include All-USA
Associated
honorable mention by USA
Press All-State
Today, Kodak All-American honfirst team and
orable mention, All-State first
went on to
team in 1995, Reading Eagle
play for St.
Player of the Year in her junior
Bonaventures
and senior years (1994, 1995),
when the BonWyoming Valley Conference
nies advanced
Most Valuable Player in 1994
to the NCAA
and 1995, and Times Leader
Hoffman
Final Four in
Player of the Year in those two
1970.
seasons.
Hoffman arrived at St. GabriShe played in a Pennsylvania
els in September 1964 and
versus Tennessee all-star game
immediately made an impact
for the G-Mens basketball team. on national television as a
senior, and was a three-time
He averaged a team-best 15.9
AAU National Tournament parpoints per game as a freshman
in 1964-65 as St. Gabes finished ticipant.
Koren also was named to the
17-8.
Wyoming Valley Conference AllRichard Digger Phelps
Star Track and Field Team in 1993
became the teams new head
and 1994, and was a district
coach in 1965 and guided the
champion in track and field. She
G-Men to the PCIAA Class C
competed in the state track and
state title in his only season at
field championships each year.
the helm. Phelps left St. Gabes
She earned four medals at
and wound up as the head
coach at the University of Notre the at PIAA District 2 track
meets in the 100, 200 and
Dame a few years later.
With Hoffman averaging 21.2 400-meter dashes and long
jump, equaling a feat achieved
points per game, the G-Men
by only one other area athlete:
defeated St. Josephs, St. VinTheresa Lorenzi.
cents, St.. Pauls, St. Pius X and
Koren continued her athletic
Masontown Kolb Memorial in
success at Seton Hall University
the PCIAA playoffs en route to
and the University of Delaware
their first state crown.
where she started every basketAfter Jack Cryan succeeded
Phelps, the G-Men finished 23-3 ball game for both schools.
Seton Hall won the Big East
and captured their second
championship in 1996, the year
straight state championship in
1967. Hoffman fired in 23.1 ppg. that she was chosen for a Big
He upped his scoring average East All-Star team that toured
Europe.
to 27.1 ppg as a senior, but an
She set the Seton Hall freshinjury hampered him in the
man and junior class assist
PCIAA playoffs and the G-Men
records, and ranked third allwere upset in their bid for a
time in assists at Seton Hall after
third straight state crown.
only three years. She was
Hoffman received a full athletic scholarship to St. Bonaven- named to the Seton Hall alltournament team in 1995.
ture, where he became a key
She was a Big East Academic
player for the Bonnies.
He lettered three seasons and All-Star in 1996, 1997 and 1998,
and an America East Academic
ranks among the top 40 on the
All-Star in 2000. Motta was chouniversitys all-time scoring list
sen for the European Big East
with 1,103 points. He averaged
All-Star team.
13.9 points per game in his
After transferring to Delaware
career with a best of 15.8 as a
for her senior year, she became
senior.
the first Blue Hens woman to
surpass 500 assists in a career.
She served as Delawares
Christine Koren graduated
from Hazleton Area High School assistant basketball coach in
2000-2001, when the team won
in 1996 as the top scoring girls
its conference and qualified for
basketball player in Hazleton
the NCAA tournament.
Area School District history,
amassing 1,834 career points.
She also ranked third nationBob Krizansky, a big player,
ally all-time among boys and
girls with 1,050 assists, a school put up big numbers on the bas-
and Lorenzi one point and two

more wins shy of a possible
state title.
At Bloomsburg University,
Lorenzi led the nation in scoring
in Division II as a sophomore.
Her career average of 21.7
points per game ranked sixth
all-time in Division II when she
graduated in 1989. She was
inducted into the Bloomsburg
Sports Hall of Fame.
Lorenzi also racked up 571
points in track and field during
her high school career. A sprinter, hurdler and jumper, she won
district and state medals.
Her track coach, Fred Barletta, now the athletic director at Hazleton Area High
School, rates her as one of
the best female athletes in
the history of Northeastern
Pennsylvania.
If Theresa was a boy, her
high school basketball coach
Robbie Wallace once said, they
would have put shrines up in
her honor in this town.
(Continued from Z3)
Paul Hoffman
Christine Koren
Bob Krizansky
CIVIC
Ray Saul
Ray Saul, the former sports

editor, day editor and managing
editor of the Standard-Speaker.
was born in Hazleton, graduated from Hazleton High School,
Penn State University with a
degree in journalism, and several Navy
schools.
Saul was
employed at
the StandardSpeaker for 59
years.
From 1950
until his retirement in 1997,
Saul
he was
employed fulltime, but continued to write his
column -- which he touted as
being one of the most widelyread features in the newspaper
because he always included the
names of many local residents -until his death in 2009.
He was sports editor of the
newspaper for 27 years, day ediWest Hazleton High School
may have saved its best for last. tor for six months, managing
Its best boys basketball play- editor for 14 years, and a parttime columnist for 12 years.
STANDARD-SPEAKER FILE er, that is.
Saul coveredWorld Series,
Theresa Lorenzi, right, was a prolific scorer for the
Versatile forward Joe Marshall
Super Bowls, Penn State bowl
West Hazleton girls basketball and track and field teams graduated from West Hazleton
games and several major heavyduring the mid-1980s.
in 1992. WHHS merged with
weight boxing championship
Hazleton and Freeland high
ketball court for Hazleton High
sons and scored more than he
schools into Hazleton Area later bouts, and was a strong booster of
scholastic sports during his career.
School.
had in high school.
that year.
He was a PIAA official for 50
The 6-foot-5 Krizansky is the
His 1,841 points now ranks
But that wasnt until he
years as a baseball and softball
Mountaineers all-time scoring
fourth all time at Lehigh, where poured in more than 2,000
leader.
he played with Mountaineer
points and averaged better than umpire, as a softball umpire in
Krizansky played the first of
teammate Rich Hudock and
20 points per game in his career, the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of Pennsylvania, and
his three varsity seasons in
against former Mountaineer Jeff easily the most in team history.
a Babe Ruth baseball umpire. He
1985-86 as Bruce Leib started
Antolick, who played basketball He earned multiple all-state
was charter president of the
coaching Hazleton High.
at arch-rival Lafayette College
honors for coach John Yosh
Hazleton PIAA baseball and
During the next three seabefore embarking on a pro
Grobelnys Wildcats.
softball chapters, and past presisons, their teams won 71 games baseball in the farm system of
Joey did a lot of things as a
dent of those chapters as well as
and lost 15.
the New York Yankees.
freshman that I havent seen any
the local basketball chapter. He
In Krizanskys senior year, he
In 2015, Krizansky was named other player do,Grobelny, an
was the most valuable player in to the 25th anniversary team of excellent player himself at WHHS worked PIAA District 2 and 11
championship games, and ASA
the Wyoming Valley Conference, the Patriot League.
in the mid 1960s, said in a 1990
softball tournaments on all levbut his toughest foe played outinterview, just before Marshalls
els, including the national level.
side the conference.
sophomore campaign.
On the professional sports
Billy Owens, on his way to a
When the game was on the
Hes tough inside, Grobelny
level, Saul was a referee, secre10-year career in the NBA, led a
line, Theresa Lorenzi wanted the added. Hes got some great
tary, comissioner of officials and
Carlisle team that handed Hazle- basketball.
individual moves that I wish I
ton two of its three losses,
Lorenzi averaged more than
could take credit for, but I cant. public relations director for the
former Eastern Pro Basketball
including the season-ender in
20 points a game during her
He came in with so much natuAssociation for almost two
the eastern quarterfinals of the
ral ability... For his size he can
career at West Hazleon High
decades. He worked playoff and
state playoffs.
School, leading the Wildcats to
handle and pass the ball.
Hazleton finished the 1987District 11 championships in
Consistent scoring, however, all-star games.
Saul lettered twice on the
88 season at 25-3, and Krizansky 1984 and 1985, and her aim
was Marshalls forte in his four
Penn State Hazleton basketball
graduated after scoring 1,297
remained unwavering during
years as a Wildcats starter. His
team, and was a fast-pitch softcareer points.
crucial seconds.
average went from 13.5 points
His record outlasted the
In her final game, the PIAA
per game as a freshman, 21.1 as ball first baseman and pitcher
school, which merged into
Class AAA Eastern emifinal
a sophomore, 24.6 as a junior to for two decades in the Navy, the
Poconos and the Hazleton area.
Hazleton Area High School. In
against Bishop McDevitt, Loren- finally 27.2 as a sport.
Saul is a member of the
2013, Sal Biasi, wearing the scar- zi drove the length of the Farm
Very few players have ever
Northeastern Pennsylvania,
let and silver of the Hazleton
Show Arena in Harrisburg and
produced those kinds of numArea Cougars rather than the
hit jump shot from the side, giv- bers. Even at a school known for Hazleton YMCA, ASA of Pennsylblue and white of the Hazleton
ing West Hazleton a 38-37 lead
outstanding players like Charlie vania and Anthracite Basketball
Mountaineers, surpassed Krizan- with four seconds remaining.
Podlesny, Larry Ksanznak, Frank League halls of fame. He
received numerous journalism,
sky and others while racking up
Puschauver, Grobelny, Bob
A still-disputed call on the
Kiwanis and community awards,
1,783 career points.
ensuring inbound play gave
Powell, Tommy and Jimmy
In college at Lehigh Universi- McDevitt two foul shots and a
Smith, Jackie Callen, Shane Pla- and was involved in a variety of
community activities.
ty, Krizansky played four seavictory, leaving West Hazleton
nutis among others.
Joe Marshall
Theresa Lorenzi
13 N. Broad Street, West Hazleton
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Z5
Sports
Then&Now
Several moments remain frozen in time
No Coal Region sporting

event ever attracted as much
attention as the high school
football game between Hazleton and Pottsville on Nov. 11,
1938 at Pottsville.
An estimated 18,000 people
still a Coal Region record
attended as the powerful
Mountaineers blanked the
Crimson Tide 30-0 for their
sixth shutout win in nine
games that season.
That was certainly one of
the top moments in local
sports over the past 150
years. Others included a couple of long winning streaks
being snapped, a Thanksgiving Day tradition, a signature win for Hazleton Areas
first-year boys basketball
program and, of course, the
myriad championships won
by area teams.
Here then is a look at some
of those highlights:
A crowd like no other
The pre-game hoopla was so

intense that HHS sold 1,500 student tickets in advance, exactly 198
more than Pottsville sold. On game
night, fans squeezed into the
bleachers as close to one another
as humanly possible. Those who
didnt arrive by 6:30 p.m. for the 8
p.m. klckoff had to stand. Those
standing ringed the field as many
as eight-to-10 people deep.
Counting the players, coaches,
cheerleaders and band members
from the two schools and others
who did not pay admission, the
crowd was estimated at 18,000,
which still stands as a record for a
high school event in the Coal Region.
The crowd was so large that the
100-member HHS band was
unable to perform on the field.
It was estimated that two-fifths
of the overflow crowd were from
Hazleton, two-fifths were from
Pottsville and the other fifth was
from other towns in the footballmad Coal Region.
The collapse of a portion of the
stands before the game added to
the excitement and the tension, a
Plain Speaker article from the following day read. Four fans were
slightly injured, but all four reportedly refused to leave the game.
Turkey day memories
For the better part of the 20th

century, the annual Hazleton-West
Hazleton high school football game
was as much a part of Thanksgiving
Day as turkey, cranberry sauce and
pumpkin pie.
Still, some battles between the
Mountaineers and Wildcats stood
out more than others.
In 1947, the Mountaineers were
9-2, their best season in eight
years. West Hazleton was even
better at 9-0-1. The Wildcats held
seven of their opponents scoreless and outscored them by a
combined 163-21.
More than 6,000 tickets were
sold in advance and a crowd of
11,000 at Harman-Geist Memorial
Field was expected. Temporary
bleachers were set up behind the
west end zone.
HHS had a 10-game win streak
against the Blue and Gold going
into the contest, but the Cats
were favored to win.
After a scoreless first quarter,
the Wildcats Pete Leonard arched
a 45-yard pass to speedy Eddie
Koloskie, who ran the last 15 in for
the games first score, giving West
Hazleton a 6-0 halftime lead.
However, the tide turned in the
second half after HHSs Dan Paisley scored on a 70-yard TD jaunt in
the third quarter. Paisley later added a 6-yard TD sprint in the final
quarter. Big Nick Yackanicz kicked
extra points after both touchdowns to make the final score
Mountaineers 14, Wildcats 6
It was the biggest Turkey Day
crowd at Harman-Geist ever until
the following year (1948), when the
Wildcats finally snapped the Blue
and Whites 11-game win streak
over their rivals in a 7-6 nail-biter.

The Mountaineers defeated
the Wildcats 14-6 in the snow the
following year. It was the final Turkey Day game ever played at
Cranberry Ballpark.
Eleven years earlier in 1938,
when the powerful Mounts were
on their way to one of the best
seasons in team history, they
faced the Wildcats in a Thanksgiving Day blizzard at Cranberry.
The Mountaineers bus was
parked on the far side of the field
in a direct line with the 50 yard
line. Yard markers were not visible
on that day; neither was the HHS
bus visible. So, officials marked
the middle of the bus with a fluorescent stripe indicating midfield.
The Hazleton team went inside
their bus for hot chocolate at halftime and also after the game. The
Mounts won 8-0 on a cold, blustery day.
In 1954, HHS was losing to the
Wildcats 12-6, but was driving
inside the West Hazleton 20 yard
line. On second and 8, Mounts
quarterback Richie Monks fired a
pass into the end zone toward
teammate Gerry Brazzo. But the
Wildcats Art Leonard intercepted
the pass two yards in front of the
end line and he returned it 108
yards down the north sideline for
a touchdown, bringing the crowd
of 11,000 to its feet. Leonards
return clinched a 19-6 victory and
gave the Wildcats their 10th win
that season, the most in school
history.
Fast forward to 1968, when
Hazleton defeated West Hazleton
55-33 in the highest scoring
Thanksgiving Day game ever. The
MountsTony Manfredi threw seven touchdown passes that afternoon; Joey Ferdinand caught five
of them. Both were school records.
In 1982, the Wildcats used a
dramatic goal line stand to hold
off the Mountaineers 20-19. Bob
Fisher, HHS talented running
back, was stuffed inside the 1 as
time expired.
MMIs deep freeze
When MMIs boys basketball

team ended West Hazleton Highs
62-game win streak in the Anthracite League on Feb. 11, 1964, it
made national news.
Not because the Preppers won.
Or that the victory came on the
Wildcats home floor.
It was the final score: MMI 7,
West Hazleton 5.
It was one of the lowest recorded
scores in Pennsyvlania high school
basketball annals a score that
lives in infamy for those who played
or coached in the game, for those
who watched with sheer delight or
raw anger as MMI held the ball
depending on their allegiances and
for those who remember it like it
was yesterday.
We never had the impression
that this was ever going to be anywhere close to how it ended up,
said Jack Hollis, whose driving layup
with 17 seconds left MMIs only
field goal of the game was the
eventual game-winner.We were
going to try to be very deliberate
and slow the game down and take
good shots when they came.
The Wildcats eventually avenged
the loss in a rematch later that season. That game, however, never
attracted the same attention as the
teamsprevious encounter.
Another streak ends
Denting the North Schuylkill

High School wrestling teams
armor was a challenge throughout the 1970s.
As a new decade dawned in
1980, the Spartans were ruling the
Schuylkill League, they were physically dominating, they were wellschooled under legendary coach
Joe Cesari and they knew how to
win in big matches, any matches
for that matter, as they were on a
127-match win streak.
But that all came to an end the
night of Feb. 6, 1980, when a new
king was crowned in Hazletons
Castle, when the Hazleton High
Mountaineers upended the Spartans 34-20 to end the streak.
I dont remember much about

that match other than it was crazy.
The place was packed and our
fans were making it so much fun,
then HHS coach Don Rohn said in
a 2013 interview.
This is where we always wanted to be competing against the
best. When the fans come out to
watch you (wrestle) and the place
is packed, thats when it is so
much fun, no matter what sport.
And to do it against North
Schuylkill even made it that much
better because of how great a
program they had.
The Spartans were so good on
the wrestling mat that they didnt
lose a single dual match from January 1969 to that night in 1980, an
amazing accomplishment that certainly has stood the test of time.
Sports Illustrated even profiled Cesari
and his team later in the decade.
But on one cold night in 1980,
Hazleton garnered all the attention.
Cougars let out roar
The most memorable game in

modern Hazleton-area boys basketball history came when the
new Hazleton Area took on perennial District 1 power Chester in the
Class 4A Eastern final at Hersheypark Arena on March 31, 1993.
The Clippers held a slight
advantage for most of the first
three quarters and looked to build
on their lead with Cougars center
Hassan Abdullah in foul trouble.
But thousands of local fans roaring in full throat, Hazleton Area
hung tough and ultimately
claimed the lead late in the fourth
quarter and built it up to six.
Chester rebounded with its
own run, pulling within one at
48-47 in the final 30 seconds on its
only three-pointer of the night.
A Hazleton Area turnover then
amped the tension even more
and gave the ball back to the Clippers, who decided to play for one
shot, but they actually got two
before the scoreboard clock
reached 0:00. The first, a short
jumper, was off the mark, but one
of the Clippers tallest players
grabbed the rebound and seemingly only had to lay the ball in the
basket. Instead, he hurriedly threw
the ball back up and it hit nothing
but the back of the rim and
fell harmlessly to the floor as the
buzzer sounded.
The Cougars lost to Erie Cathedral Prep (41-30) in the state title
game three nights later, but the
memories of the 1992-93 season
when the Hazleton Mountaineers, West Hazleton Wildcats and
Freeland Whippets joined to
become the Hazleton Area Cougars will live on forever.
That team took the entire
Hazleton area on a great ride all
the way to Hershey and into the
annals of local basketball history,
Bruce Leib, then the Cougars head
coach, said. It was obviously a
very special season.
Champions live here
Among the 14 crowns won, the

Hazleton High Mountaineers won
three in 1928, 1929 and 1938. St.
Gabriels won consecutive Pennsylvania Catholic Interscholastic Athletic Association titles in 1966 and
1967 and another one in 1970.
Other boys state champions
were Mahanoy City in 1922, McAdoo (Class B) in 1945, Marian
(PCIAA Class B) in 1971 and MMI
(Class C) in 1973.
Five girls basketball teams have
won state crowns with Mahanoy
Area copping back-to-back Class A
titles in 1988 and 1989 and another
in 1998. Tamaqua won the 1978
Class AA title, Marian took the Class
A crown in 1984 and again in 2008
and was state runnerup in 1997,
2003 and 2005; North Schuylkill
won it all in Class AAA in 1992.
Marians girls volleyball team
won Class A crowns in both 2003
and 2013. Crestwoods field hockey program remains the areas
crown jewel with five state titles,
the most recent one coming in
2012. Marians football team won
the PIAA Class A crown in 1990.
Five regional boys basketball
teams and one girls team made it

to the final before losing: Hazleton
reached the 1944 final where they
fell to Duquesne, 35-11; Weatherly
advanced to the 1947 Class A title
game, losing to Irwin, 45-38; Freeland dropped the 1955 Class C
final to Fredonia 50-44; Jim Thorpe lost the 1963 Class C title game
to Rothrock, 43-41; and Tamaqua
lost to Sto-Rox, 71-64, in the 1983
Class AA final.
Here is a short capsule on the 11
state titles won by high school basketball teams in the immediate
Hazleton area:
1928
Hazleton boys (19-1)

The Mountaineers won the
Eastern League crown with 13-1
record and won playoff games
over Mahanoy City (48-25), Landowne, (33-24), Lansford (49-20),
Scranton Central (25-21) and Jersey Shore (22-19) to reach the title
game against Lewistown.
A 35-31 win gave the Mounts
the first of their three titles.
Ray Stecker was the leading
scorer, averaging 15.2 points per
game. Joey Watkins was the only
other Mountaineer scoring in double figures, hitting 14.3 per game.
Frank Serany averaged 5.6,
Metro Weston 4.8 and John Hildebrand 3.0 for the Mountaineers,
who averaged 44.5 a game and
allowed only 25.0.
1929

The Mountaineers tacked on
their second straight title with a
perfect 21-0 season, including a
14-0 mark in the Eastern League.
After coasting through the
league season, the Mounts
downed Summit Hill (56-22), Tamaqua (42-20), Lansdowne (69-33),
East Stroudsburg, (29-19), and
Reading (34-16) to reach the
championship game against Sharon. A 34-22 win gave the Mountaineers their second title.
Frank Serany averaged 18.6
points per game for the Mounts,
nearly as much as the opponents
did as a team 21.9. Metro Weston
hit for 10.4 points a game, Vern Fegley 8.5, John Hildebrand 6.4 and
Vince Santipouli 2.6.
1938

The Mountaineers won their
third crown in 11 years, edging
Altoona, 29-27, in the championship game.
The Mountaineers won the
Eastern League first-half title with
a 6-0 record, finished second to
Allentown in the second half and
defeated Allentown, 41-35, for the
league title.
In the state playoffs, the
Mounts defeated Summit Hill (4635), Frackville (40-23), Northampton, (23-20), Steelton (30-20), Pottstown (35-33) and Coal Township
(47-25) to earn a berth opposite
Altoona in the state final.
Bill Bechtloff averaged 11.1 to
lead the Mounts title run George
Cheverko hit for 8.4, Charlie Prokopic 5.8, Frank Famalette 4.7 and
Joe Andrejco 4.4.
The Mounts averaged 55.7
points per game during the season and allowed 25.7.
1945
McAdoo boys
The Maroons won their state title
the first year the PIAA instituted
Class B, whipping Conneautville,
52-28, at Allentowns Rockne Hall.
Mickey Felock was the one
doing most of the damage for the
Maroons, setting a PIAA record
with 38 points in a second-round
rout of Fell Township (72-37) and
includin 26 in the title-game rout.
The Maroons opened postseason
play with a 53-28 victory over Dallas
behind 25 from Felock, 12 from Al
Reba and nine from Jackie Patton.
Felock then had his record-setting 38-point effort in a 72-37 rout
of Fell Township, Reba had 13 and
Patton 12.
Felock had 20 and Patton 17 as
the Maroons moved along with a
50-42 win over West Wyoming. Fifteen points from Felock and eight
from Patton paced a 34-20 McAdoo win over Dalton, vaulting the
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Maroons into the Eastern Final

against Springfield.
Against Springfield, Felock had
29 points, Patton nine and Reba
seven to lead a 46-26 win and a
spot opposite Conneautville in
the state final.
Felock had 26 in the 52-28 rout,
Patton 12 and Reba eight.
1966
St. Gabriels boys (21-6)

The G-Men, under future Notre
Dame coach Dick Digger Phelps,
didnt win their won league title the Anthracite League, but after a
scare in their first-round PCIAA
Class C game, a 57-55 win over St.
Josephs, put together an impressive run to the state title.
After the narrow win over St.
Josephs, the G-Men routed St. Vincents, 76-57; St. Pauls, 8563; St. Pius
X, 96-43, and finally Masontown
Kolb Memorial, 91-59, in the final.
Paul Hoffman, who remains as
the areas all-time scoring leader
with 2,209 career points, averaged
21.2 points per game during his
sophomore season, Pete ODonnell
scored at 17.5 per game and Ed
ODonnell 13.8 per game.
1967
St. Gabriels (23-3)

The G-Men took a shorter route
to their second straight state
crown in 1966-67, needing only
two wins in the state playoffs to
take this title.
Again, the G-Men didnt even
win the Anthracite League title,
but went on to win the state.
Weatherly defeated the G-Men
50-45, in the Anthracite League
final, but the G-Men bounced
back to down Scranton Holy Rosary, 81-58, and earn a spot opposite
North East St. Gregory in the final.
The G-Men won the title, 68-60
to cap their 23-3 season.
Junior Paul Hoffman led the
G-Men with a 23.1 scoring average, Tom Sock averaged 12.9, Tony
Joe Barletta 12.1 and Dennis Olexa
11.4. Bill Ferry (7.9) and Mike Heffernan (6.9) were also key members of the team.
1970
St. Gabriels (19-7)

After the heartache of losing
beloved coach Jack Cryan at a still
tender age, the G-Men made one
final state title run under Jerry
Anderson in 1970.
St Gabriels lost seven games, but
caught fire in the postseason,
sweeping five PCIAA playoff games
en route to the state crown.
The G-Men knocked off Williamsport Bishop Neumann (6950), West Scranton Central Catholic (71-66), Wilkes Barre St Nicholas
(57-56), old nemesis St Francis
Prep of Spring Grove (74-67) and
Uniontown St Joseph (79-70) in
the title game.
Junior Larry Walko led the
G-Men in scoring. Jerry Fallabel
and Emil Polchin also averaged in
double figures.
1971
Marian (25-5)
After losing to West Hazleton
(83-46) in a playoff for the Anthracite League title, coach Bob Fultons Colts opened the PCIAA
Class B tournament with an 81-42
rout of Roseto Pius X.
Reading Holy Name was up
next and Marian raced to 35-24
halftime lead on the way to a
66-46 victory. Balance was again
the name of the game as the Colts
captured the Allentown Diocesan
crown, which was equivalent to
winning the district title.
The Colts twice trailed Holy
Ghost Prep before coming back to
win their next game at Bethlehem
Catholic High School.
Marian came so close to blowing the contest against Hannan,
leading by 10 points before holding on for a 70-65 victory.
The win punched Marians ticket to the title game at St. Vincents
College in Latrobe.
St. Basils of Pittsburgh was a
big-time opponent that came in
with a 23-1 record.
The title game, however,
belonged to Marian. The Colts
charged out of the gates after
halftime on an 11-2 run en route
to a comfortable 67-48 state

championship win.
John Teprovich led the way
with 23 points, Frank Yasella
dropped in 13 and Mike Prekopa
and Joe Balasciak added 11 each.
1973
MMI boys (24-6)

Led by a pair of 1,000-point
scorers Jim Lundy and Joe Feno
and junior John Timko, the
Preppers rebounded from an 0-2
start to win the Anthracite League
title, the District 11 Class C championship, the first state crown for
any private school.
After edging Marian 64-63, for
the Anthracite League crown, the
Preppers struggled to down Saint
Clair, 70-68, in the first round of
the District 11 tournament and
stopped Northwestern Lehigh,
69-50, in the district title game.
In the state tournament, the
Preppers downed Upper Dauphin
(79-73 in overtime), Elk Lake (6858), Yeadon (62-53), Holy Ghost
Prep (60-58) and finally AllehenyClarion Valley, 77-71, in the final.
Lundy , who had 1,644 points for
his career, was the leading scorer,
averaging 21.1 points per game.
Feno averaged 13.7 a game and finished his career with 1,015 points,
and Timko had an average of 18.2.
John Sisock was also in double figures for Wally Greshkos Preppers,
hitting 10.0 per game.
1984
Marian girls (36-2)

With junior Diane Decker leading the way, the Fillies put together an incredible season under Elsie
Tolan, still the winningest girls
coach in Pennsylvania.
The Fillies won the Schuylkill
League and District 11 Class A
titles prior to going all the way.
After downing Saint Clair,
64-37, for the Schuylkill League
crown, the Fillies posted wins over
Weatherly (61-37) and Schuylkill
Haven (57-39) before meeting up
with Saint Clair again, this time
with the District 11 Class A title at
stake. The Fillies won 49-37 and
then rolled to wins over Biglerville
(92-45), Bishop OHara (66-41),
Schuylkill Haven (65-42), Shenandoah Valley (71-37) before handling Kennedy Christian, 64-49, in
the state final.
As a junior, Decker averaged
21.2 to lead Marian, senior Maura
Hydro hit for 17.9, senior Mary
Rose Delpero 11.7 and senior Gracia Perilli 10.0.
2008
Marian girls (32-1)

The Schuylkill League champion-Fillies pulled away from nemesis Nativity in the District 11 Class
A final, before embarking on their
run to state glory.
A 31-26 overtime victory over
defending state champion Bishop
Guilfoyle was the closest of all
their state playoff games. Neither
side backed down in a defensive
battle for the ages, with both giving up points grudgingly and neither able to build a comfortable
lead, but Marian advanced.
Janine Patton delivered a
clutch three-pointer to force overtime and Libby Shober scored off
a Rachel Connely feed in the extra
session to put the Fillies to stay.
The Lady Marauders didnt
score over the final 5:46 of regulation and overtime
We kept battling away,Brutto
said.It wasnt always pretty, but our
kids did just enough to pull it out.
The Fillies then scored the first
12 points of the Eastern final en
route to a 44-32 win over rival
Nativity to earn their first trip to
the state final since the PIAA
moved all of its basketball championships to Penn States spacious
Bryce Jordan Center.
Marian was in control throughout the state title game against
Mount Alvernia, especially after
Connely blocked six Lions shots in
the first quarter alone on her way
to a triple-double: 19 points, 16
rebounds and 12 blocked shots.
Shober added 10 points and 11
rebounds as the Fillies won 40-34
for their first state crown since
1984.
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11:21 | GRECOTONY
Sports
Then&Now
More than 30 athletes reached the pinnacle

Becoming a professional
athlete is one of the toughest
jobs to come by. Always has,
always will be. There just
arent that many jobs out
there.
Still, Hazleton and the surrounding townships, boroughs, villages and patch
towns have produced their
share of big leaguers
through the years.
Mind you, there are no
Hall of Famers among the
lot, but there are plenty of
area players dating all the
way back to 1884 who have
performed at their sports
highest level. Among those
are a three-time baseball
Manager of the Year, baseball players, a handful that
went on to the NFL and one
who played pro basketball.
Here is a short biography
on each of the 30-plus men
who have donned the uniform of a big league sports
team at one time or another
over the past 130 years or so,
plus another biography on
one of the most acclaimed
athletic trainers in professional sports.
Tucker
the final day of the regular season. Although he didnt play

much, he was part of the teams
JOE BOLEY, Mahanoy City wild celebration that night at
Played with the Philadelphia Tropicana Field.
Local fans caught up with
Athletics (1927-1932) and CleveCanzler for a few days that Sepland Indians (1932) for a comtember in Baltimore. Among
bined six seasons. He reached
the World Series three times, all those were Jeff Antolick, his
high school baseball coach.
with the Athletics.
This is the epitome here of
Finished with a career batting
hard work paying off for you,
average of .269 with seven
home runs and 227 RBI in 1,780 Antolick said. For any young kid
that loves baseball and shows
at-bats. His first season was his
that he has the talent, and most
best when he batted .311 with
one home run and 52 RBI in 116 importantly works very, very
hard, this is what comes of it.
games and 370 at-bats.
Individually, Canzlers first
He had six hits in 39 at-bats in
base hit in the majors a
the World Series.
sharp single to center field
MATT BRODERICK, Lattimer Broderick had a cup of came as a pinch hitter for vetercoffee in the majors, appearing an Johnny Damon against the
in just two games for the Brook- Yankees Aaron Laffey at Yankee
Stadium. He also drove a sacrilyn Dodgers in 1903. He went
fice fly to deep center in the
hitless in his two major league
same game, just missing a
plate appearances.
grand slam.
JOHN BURKE, Hazleton
Someday, Im probably gon Another player with a short
na have to ask somebody to
stint at the major league level,
pinch me to see if this is all real,
Burke appeared in just six
games with the New York Giants Canzler said. To get your first hit
at Yankee Stadium, where youre
in 1902.
playing on the biggest stage not
Offensively, he finished with
only in baseball, but probably
two hits, both singles, in 13 atthe most storied venue in all of
bats for a .154 batting average.
He appeared in two games as sports, its obviously a big deal
a pitcher, starting one. He post- and... something Ill remember
for the rest of my life.
ed an 0-1 record and 5.79
The Rays traded Canzler to
earned run average.
the Cleveland Indians during
RUSS CANZLER, Conynthe next offseason. He struggled
gham Was chosen as a third
early in the 2012 season after
baseman out of Hazleton Area
not making the Tribes openingHigh School by the Chicago
day roster, before righting himCubs in the 30th round of the
self and earning his second
First-Year Player Draft in June
straight Triple-A All-Star Game
2004. They signed him to a
appearance.
$230,000 contract less than a
He went 129-for-482 (.265
month later, and his professionbatting average), hit 36 doubles,
al career was under way.
three triples, 22 home runs and
After minor league stops in
Mesa, Ariz., Boise, Idaho, Peoria, had 79 RBI for the Triple
A-Columbus Clippers that year,
Ill, Daytona Beach, Fla., the
Smoky Mountains of Tennessee before the Indians promoted
him to the parent club.
and Durham, N.C, where he
Playing several positions, he
was the International League
Most Valuable Player for the Tri- batted a respectable .270 in
Cleveland with three home runs
ple-A Bulls in 2011, Canzler got
his first big league callup in Sep- and 12 RBI. He had singles in his
tember of that year by the Tam- first two at-bats and two of his
pa Bay Rays. Hazleton native Joe home runs came against current
southpaw standouts Francisco
Maddon was his manager.
Liriano and Chris Sale, adding to
This has been my dream
since I (was) a child, to be doing Canzlers reputation as a masher
of left-handed pitchers.
this, he said that summer. Ive
Canzler was a popular free
been very blessed and been
agent acquisition between the
very fortunate with the opporend of the 2012 season and the
tunity that Ive been given.
midway point of the 2013 camCanzler was on the big
paign. No less than five organileague roster when the Rays
zations (Indians, Blue Jays, Yanmade a dramatic late-season
kees, Orioles and Pirates)
surge to an American League
brought him aboard, some
playoff berth, punching their
more than once. He never
postseason ticket by rallying
established the rhythm he had
past the New York Yankees on
BASEBALL
in previous years, even though

he belted 11 home runs in a half
season with the Orioles top Triple-A club in Norfolk.
The Yankees re-signed Canzler before the 2014 season, giving him the chance to play with
star shortstop Derek Jeter, who
was on an extended rehab
assignment with the Triple
A-Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
But things didnt quite work
out for Canzler and the RailRiders, who played him only occasionally after he struggled at the
plate before releasing him in
June 2014.
He signed with the Lehigh
Valley Iron Pigs six days later not
knowing what to expect. However, his fortunes changed
when he got to Allentown. He
was a regular in the cleanup
spot for the Philadelphia Phillies
top Triple-A club and, in 61
games, slugged 11 home runs,
drove in 34 runs and finished
with a .286 batting average.
The Phillies were so pleased
with Canzler that they invited
him to their major league camp
in November 2014.
Alas, he was one of the teams
final cuts at the very end of
spring training in 2015. He never got a callup to the big club,
even though the Phillies languished in last placed for most
of the season.
Canzler still has hopes to
make it to "the show.''
I used to (think about it)
when I was younger but thats
totally in their hands and I cant
worry about that stuff anymore,
he said in a 2015 interview. If it
happens, it happens. If not, you
just keep plugging. Ive been
fortunate enough to be in the
big leagues. That was my dream
and I got there.''
PASQUALE PETE CERA
Never wore a uniform but he
washed them while helping
players through their hurts and
heartbreaks during 60 years in
professional baseball, mostly
with the Philadelphia Phillies
and their affiliates. Officially the
assistant trainer, Cera was traveling secretary, clubhouse man,
laundry man, medic and confidante.
He spent 36 years in minor
league clubhouses, starting
with the Hazleton Red Sox,
before becoming a regular with
the Phillies Major League squad.
In his induction speech in
Cooperstown, Mike Schmidt
mentioned Cera.
Dick Allen was forever grateful after Cera faced down a
police officer who was trying to
hassle Allen and other black
players when their minor league
Little Rock Travelers stopped in
racially-charged Birmingham,
Alabama in 1963. Allen was a
pallbearer at Cera's funeral in
2004.
Richie Ashburn and Cera
shared an apartment during
baseball seasons.
When Cera retired in 1998,
the Phillies presented him with
an award, named after Ashburn,
for the employee who shows
the most loyalty, dedication and
passion.
Former Phillies Manager
Frank Lucchesi once said the
three men he admires most are
Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio and
Pete Cera.
GENE CONNELL, Hazleton
Connell saw action in six
games for the 1931 Philadelphia
Athletics, getting three singles
in 12 plate appearances. His
brother, Joe, batted once without a hit for the New York Giants
in 1926.
JOE DUGAN, Ellengowan
Nicknamed Jumping Joe, he
played in the majors as a shortstop and third baseman from
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Athletics (1940-1943), St. Louis

Browns (1943-1944), Boston
Braves (1946-1947) and Cincinnati Reds (1948-1951).
Compiled a career .281 batting average in 1,057 games
covering 3,494 at-bats. Hit 107
career home runs and drove in
451 runs.
His best full season was in
1941 when he hit .305 for Philadelphia with 18 HR and 66 RBI in
151 games (590 at-bats).
Appeared in two World Series
with St. Louis (1943-1944), getting eight hits in 35 at-bats with
a home run and three RBI.
JOE MADDON, Hazleton
Began his big league coaching career with the California
Angels in 1993 and served
under managers Buck Rodgers,
Marcel Lachemann, John McNamara, Terry Collins, and Mike
Scioscia. Served two stints as
interim manager during this
time.
Managed the Tampa Bay Rays
from 2006 through 2014, winning the 2008 American League
pennant and taking the Rays to
the playoffs four times. Earned
American League Manager of
the Year honors in 2008 and
2010.
After opting out of his contract following the 2014 season,
he joined the Chicago Cubs, led
them to the 2015 National
League Championship Series
and was named the 2015
National League Manager of the
Year.
TOM MATCHICK, Middletown Played six major league
seasons with the Detroit Tigers
(1967-1969), Kansas City Royals
(1970), Boston Red Sox (1970),
Milwaukee Brewers (1971) and
Baltimore Orioles (1972).
Compiled a .215 career batting average with four home
runs and 64 RBI in 826 at-bats
covering 292 games.
His most productive year was
with the Tigers in 1969 when he
hit .242 with no homers and 32
RBI in 94 games, 298 at-bats.
Appeared in the 1968 World
Series with the championTigers. Went hitless in three atbats.
BILL MATTHEWS, Mahanoy City Got into five games,
four as a reliever, with the Boston Braves in 1909 without getting a decision. Finished with a
3.24 ERA in 16-plus innings.
CONNIE McGEEHAN, Drifton Appeared in three games
for Philadelphia in 1903, all as a
reliever, earning a victory in his
only major league decision. Had
a 4.50 ERA.
RON MROZINSKI, White
Haven Pitched in 37 games
over two seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics (1954-1955),
32 as a reliever, and had a 1-3
record and 5.36 ERA in 82-plus
innings.
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Powell.
BEN HOUSER, Shenandoah Played in parts of three
seasons, one with Connie
Macks Philadelphia Athletics
(1910) and two with the Boston
Braves (1911-1912).
His best season was his last
when he hit .286 with eight
homers and 52 RBI. In his three
seasons, he finished with a .267
career average with nine HR and
68 RBI in 472 at-bats.
NELLIE KING, Shenandoah Spent four seasons primarily as a reliever for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1954-1957), posting a career 7-5 mark and a 3.58
ERA. He made four starts in
1955.
His most productive season
was 1956 when he went 4-1
with a 3.15 ERA in 38 games.
Never permitted a home run
in 95 career appearances.
BRAD KOCHER, White
Haven Broke in with the
Detroit Tigers in 1912, seeing
action in 24 games. He hit just
.204 without a home run and
nine RBI.
Spent his only other two seasons in the majors with the New
York Giants (1915-1916), hitting
.455 in 11 at-bats in 1915 but
just .108 in 65 at-bats the following season.
Finished with a career batting
average of .180 in 139 plate
appearances.
JOHN KULL, Shenandoah
Appeared as a relief pitcher
for Philadelphia in one game in
1909. He picked up the win with
three innings of work, allowing
just one run despite giving up
three hits and five walks.
NORM LARKER, Beaver
Meadows Spent six seasons
with four teams: Los Angeles
Dodgers (1958-1961), Houston
Colt 45s (1962), Milwaukee
Braves (1963) and San Francisco
Giants (1963), compiling a
career .275 batting average with
32 home runs and 271 RBI in
667 games and 1,953 at-bats.
The first baseman-outfielders
best season was the 1960 campaign when he hit .323 in 440
at-bats with five homers and 78
RBI. His average was just two
points shy of National League
batting champion Dick Groats
.325. Groat had two hits in the
season finale to edge both Larker and Willie Mays for the batting title.
Larker played on the 1959
Dodgers team which surprisingly won the World Series in its
second season in Los Angeles
after moving from Brooklyn. He
had three singles in 16 Series atbats.
DANNY LITWHILER, Ringtown Played for four organizations in 11 years: Philadelphia
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1917-1931. Played for the Philadelphia Athletics (1917-1922),
Boston Red Sox (1922), New
York Yankees (1922-1928), Boston Braves (1929) and Detroit
Tigers (1931). Was considered
one of the best defensive third
baseman of his era.
Went directly from the College of the Holy Cross to the big
leagues. Made his major league
debut with Connie Macks Athletics on July 5, 1917.
Struggled as a hitter his first
two years, batting a combined
.195. But he batted .271 in 1919
and hit .322 the next year. By
1920, he was cited as the majors
best third baseman. Was moved
permanently to third base in
1921 and would be a steady
.280-.300 hitter as well as a fine
defensive third baseman for the
rest of his career.
Had his most productive season in 1923, when he hit .283,
scored 111 runs and led the
leagues third basemen in fielding percentage to help the Yankees with their first world championship.
Acquired his nickname early
in his career after he often took
unauthorized leaves from the
team.
CARL DUSER, Weatherly
Got into two games as a
pitcher with the Kansas City
Athletics, two as a starter in
1956 and one as a reliever. Had
a career 1-1 record with a 7.88
ERA. Both decisions came as a
starter.
CHRIS FULMER, Tamaqua
Played catcher for five seasons, one with Washington
(1884) of the old Union Association and four with Baltimore of
the American Association (18861889).
Hit .276 in 181 at-bats with
Washington before spending
the next four seasons with Baltimore. Hit just one career home
run, drove in 23 runs and finished with a .247 batting average in 876 major league at-bats.
Stole 47 bases in his short
career, including 35 with Baltimore in 1887.
Also got to pitch one game
for Baltimore in 1886, throwing
two innings of relief and allowing one run.
BOB GAMBLE, Hazleton
Started and lost his only
appearance as a pitcher with
Philadelphia of the American
Association in 1888. Pitched a
complete game despite allowing eight runs.
JIM HONOCHICK, Oneida
Played amateur ball in the
East Penn League in the 1930s,
but made the big leagues as an
umpire. In a 25-year career, Honochick umpired in six All-Star
games and six World Series. He
was behind the plate calling
pitches for no-hitters thrown by
Virgil Trucks in 1952, Jack Kralick
in 1962 and Sonny Siebert in
1966. When he retired Miller Lite
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11:21 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Z7
Sports
Then&Now
Numerous places where dreams came true

EDITORS NOTE: This
column first appeared on Nov.
9, 2014.
o paraphrase Mr.
Shakespeare, athletic
settings are clearly the
stuff of dreams, almost as
much as the contests themselves. Correale Stadium.
Cranberry Ball Park. Rex
Antinozzi Field. And so on.
Former Hazleton basketball player and coach Tommy Bags Donahue agrees.
I recall playing in that beautiful gym at Our Lady of
Grace Junior High and then
the Mecca of hoops, St. Joes
gym. Playing and then
coaching basketball in St.
Joes gym was basketball
heaven. The place was
packed with rabid, knowledgeable fans, and the seats
were right on top of you. It
was always hot and the competition fierce.
Old Harman-Geist Stadiums been a part of our
sports dreams for generations. And have I been eating
up the great articles the
Standard-Speaker has published to commemorate the
75th anniversary of the dedication of Harman-Geist
Memorial Field.
My former teacher and
coach Dale Stewart made me
laugh in his article about the
1960 season when Hazleton
played against Old Forge at
Harman-Geist. Stewart
allowed, It had to be one of
the coldest games I ever
played. Hes right. It was so
cold, ice glazed all the pavements, and the players slipped
and fell like the Keystone
Cops trying to approach the
frozen playing field during
pregame limbering-up.
After we went back into
the locker room, our coach
(Tony) Scarcella, who was an
innovator, had all these old
Converse sneakers. I couldnt
believe he had dozens of
pairs. We put them on and
they worked. We won the
game.
Perhaps it was Stewarts
memory of that ice that
prompted Coach Adam Sieminski to order team sets of
ripple-sole athletic shoes for
the equally treacherous
games played in November
during the late 1960s and early 70s. The rubber soles
gripped the frozen turf like
Michael
Apichella
resilient fingers, but when a
kid slammed into the dirt
after a block or a tackle, it
felt like playing on cinder
blocks.
I recall joining with Lou
Ferdinand, Nick Allegretto,
Don Nork, Frank Repanshek, Sandy Santangelo and
other players at Ted Bugdas
house after the bone-chilling
1970 Thanksgiving contest
when the Hazleton Mountaineers crushed the blueand-gold tide of West Hazleton High School, 51-6. Thats
a deceptive score, because an
aggressive West Hazleton
Wildcats squad pounded us
for all they were worth for
each quarter.
It was a game I recall like
we played last night. Taylor
Wallace was named Most
Valuable Player of the game
by the Hazleton Quarterback
Club, and big Charlie Liott
became the regions scoring
champion with 65 points to
his credit that season. The
Hazleton Quarterback Club
subsequently named Liott
MVP of the year. Outstanding athletes, both boys
deserved the accolades.
But we were talking about
frozen mud. You never saw a
sorer bunch of kids hobbling
around Bugdas house like a
group of geriatrics. Bruised,
scabbed and aching, we were
suffering as much from
those pugnacious Wildcats
who made HHS pay for every
point scored as from bouncing off the frozen turf for
over two hours.
Jim Bognet also chronicled some fond memories.
Sept. 4, 1992, marks the first
game played in HarmanGeist by the newly formed
Hazleton Area High School
against West Scranton.
That night the team consisted of former rivals Hazleton, West Hazleton and Freeland, now merged into one
side.
With time ticking out
quickly, the score was stalled
seven all. On a long thirddown play barely inside West
Scranton territory, our head
coach, Richie Matz, pulled
me out of the game and
brought me over to the sideline. He asked, Jim, if we

dont make this, can you hit
a field goal from here?
Anyone whos ever been
asked a question like that
knows what pressure is.
With countless fans packingout Harman-Geist Stadium,
what could Jim say?
When the Cougars failed
to gain the first down, Matz
assembled the field-goal
squad for an impossibly long
try. As I followed through
with my right leg swinging
high up and across my body,
I lost sight of the ball against
the backdrop of the bright
lights and scoreboard. Colliding with an aggressive
defender, Jim hit the turf. As
I came to my feet, I saw the
ball sailing through the
uprights and the officials
raising both their arms
above their heads I made
it! The crowd erupted in a
deafening roar.
The 1963 Turkey Day game
was important to me because
that year I managed to get a
piece of the wooden goal
posts, which back then were
ritualistically torn down at
the end of the contest by
mobs of winning or weeping
fans.
I still think of that Harman-Geist souvenir wedge
of pine, looking for all the
world like a tasty slice of
breast meat from a Thanksgiving turkey. Yep. Dreams.
But never will I forget
sophomore Paul Liebs
smart interception and
40-yard gallop during the
1968 Thanksgiving Day game
in swirling snow thick as
popcorn.
It took the full strength of
four tacklers to knock Lieb
off his feet. Many seasons
teams not only played their
games at Harman-Geist, but
they practiced there.
Some 46 years later, I still
remember the lurid expression on Jeff Jones face after
I had just gone head-to-head
with bruiser lineman Tom
Duke Lucadamo during a
tackling practice in the dusty
Pit at the east end of Harman-Geist Stadium.
Jeffs eyes were like dinner plates. Your helmet,
was all he said, pointing. I
blinked in incredulity. Lucadamo had split it open. I
was blessed. I only had a
Top photo shows St. Josephs gym in Hazleton, which was the home court of
Hazleton High School boys basketball team from 1953-1992, St. Gabriels High from
1952-1970 and two Hazleton professional teams in the old Eastern Basketball Association. The gym also was the site for PIAA playoff games, CYO basketball, pro wrestling,
boxing, karate, concerts and many other events. At bottom is a photo of Buhler Field
(now Harman-Geist Memorial Field) taken in the early 1930s. Its been the home field
for local football teams ever since.
mild migraine after that.

Duke just laughed.
One last memory. I ached
as Wildcat Richard Abernethy stomped me continually each time I tried to block
him during kickoffs on Turkey Day 1969.
We laughed about it years
later while we both worked at
the United Charities Childrens Home, proving old Harman-Geist Stadium, a part of
our area sports culture for
generations, really is the place
where dreams are made.
Former Hazleton resident
Michael Apichella is a writer
living in Europe. Visit his
website at www.michaelapi
(chella.com, contact him at
apichellaspeaker@yahoo (.
com, or follow him on Twitter,
@MApichellaPhD.
RON MARCHETTI COLLECTION
Above is an artists rendition of the former McAdoo High School gym. Basketball games were suspended there at times, when open windows would allow the
cold air outside to mix with the steam heat inside and
water would form on the floor, making it unplayable.
Cranberry Ball Park holds many cherished memories

Thespaciousoutfieldof yoreisnow andfootballstadiumsusingTopps
baseballcards(doubles,of course)and
apavedfour-lanehighway.Theslick
infieldand
Testorsairplanecement.Ill
alwaysregretnotmakinga
grandRon
standarea
modelof thatoldballparkin
Marchetti
arelong
Cranberry,especiallysincethere
gone,now
areabsolutelyzerophotosof the
Trivia Treats
aparking
ballparkinitsheyday thatexist.
lotfor
Imtalkingaboutatrueshot
industrialbuildings.
fromthegrandstandthatwouldshow
Butinthatverysameareaof Hazle the10-feethighbillboardwallthatsurTownshipjustoursidetheWestHazle- roundedtheoutfield,themanually
tonboroughlimitsoncesatavenue
operatedscoreboardbehindtheright
thatmeantasmuchtotheHazleton
centerfieldbarrierandtheCranberry
areaasYankeeStadiummeanttoNew collieryinthedistancebeyondthe
YorkandEbbetsFieldmeanttoBrook- rightfieldwall.
lyn.
Icanvividlyrememberthedaythat
Idontrecallasign,butitwas
mydadtookmetoCranberrytosee
knownasCranberryBallparkuntil
theHazletonDodgers,theClassDaffilitheprominentlandmarkwascomateof theBrooklynDodgers,play.
pletelyrazedintheearly1970stomake NormLarker,of BeaverMeadows,was
wayfortheCANDOFreeway(Route
playingfirstbasefortheDodgers.
924). Themiddleof theexpressway
Onlytwothingsfromthatday
goesdirectlyoverwheresecondbase
remaininmyminduntilnow.Wesat
usedtobe.
inthelastrowinthemiddleof the
WhenIwasayoungteenager,Iused grandstandandGeorgePheister,the
tobuildreplicamodelsof majorleague oldestplayeronthefield,hitthegames
onlyhomerunovertheleftfieldAtlanticgasolinefencead.
Ialsorememberbeingwithmydad
atCranberry,notlongafter,onThanksgivingDay,1949fortheHazleton-West
Hazletonfootballgame,whichwas
playedinthesnow. TheMountaineers
defeatedtheWildcats14-6. Itwasthe
finalTurkeyDaygameeverplayedat
Cranberry.
WhenJoeAndrejco,alegendary
HazletonHighandFordhamUniversity
athlete,retiredfromhispositionatBethlehemSteel,heandhiswifePegsettledin
BeaverMeadows.BesidesbeingJoes
plumber,webecameprettygoodfriends
andspenthourstalkinginhisandmy
home.Iwasafascinatedlistener.
Oneof manystorieshetoldmewas
aboutthe1938ThanksgivingDaygame
duringablizzardatCranberry. The
Mountaineersbuswasparkedonthe
farsideof thefielddirectlyinthemiddleof the50yardline.Yardmarkers
werenotvisibleonthatdayandthe
HHSbusbarelywas.Officialsmarked
themiddleof thebuswithafluores-
centstripeindicatingmidfield.Hazletonwon8-0onacold,blusteryday.
Iremembershaggingflyballsat
Cranberrywithmyfriendsinthelate
1950s.BuzzyKostwastheonlyone
of uswhocouldthrowtheballupin
frontof himself withhislefthandand
thenhititoutof theparkwhilestandingathomeplate.Kostywasonlya
yearolderthanme,buthestillwasone
of myheroes.
Cranberrywascompletedin1923.
Thatsameyearsomewell-to-dolocal
VIPsbroughtBabeRuthtoHazletonto
playinanexhibitiongameatCranberry.WhentheSultanof Swatfinally
arrivedintown,itwasclosetomidnight. Hewaswinedanddinedroyally
atHazletonsHotelLoughran.
Thenextdaybefore4,000noisyfans
inabattingexhibitionpriortothe
game,NickMondero,atop-notch
pitcherfromBeaverMeadowsthrew
fivestraightstrikespasttheBabe.
Thenonthesixthpitch,theBambino
slammedtheballhighandfarto
straightawaycenterfield.Theball
landedonNewStreetinCranberryvillagethelongesthomeruneverwitnessedatCranberryBallpark.However,Ruth wenthitlessinthegame.
Monderofannedhimtwice.
Inthe1940sand50sWestHazletons
WildcatsandHazleTownshipsShippersplayedtheirhomefootballgames
there.Throughtheyears(1923-1963),
thefieldwasusedformajorleague
exhibitiongames,pro,semi-proand
amateurgamesaswellasLittleLeague
andBabeRuthgamesplusproand
semi-profootballgamesalongwithcircuses,carnivalsandboxingandwrestlingmatches.
LikeAngelaPark,thegrandstandat
Harman-GeistMemorialField,the
lightedMarkleBankandTrustCo.
signontopof thetallestbuildingin
Hazleton(nowHaydenTower),theFeeleyTheatre,BostonHardware,HeritageFoodMarket,StJosephsHospital
andMerfsNewstand, youdontcare
thatmuchwhentheyregoinguntil
theyarecompletelygoneforgood.
Thatswhenyoumissthem.
* OIL CHANGE * BATTERIES

* GENERAL MECHANIC
* HEADLIGHTS: Cleaning & Brightness
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OIL CHANGES
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1117 West 15th Street - Hazleton (Across from the Dollar General)
Z8 Standard-Speaker
11:23 | GRECOTONY
Sports
Then&Now
Region was key in auto racings growth

By DINO OBERTO
nating to think that Hazleton

played a part in a growing
sport. What is unfortunate is
the little if any information
about this by-gone race track.
For the Standard-Speaker
The state of Pennsylvania

has a documented 596 race
tracks that are or once were
in operation and of them,
the city of Hazleton was
among that listing center
city to be exact.
In the summer of 1935
Buhler Field, now known as
Harmen-Giest Memorial Field,
played host to packed grandstands as people came out to
watch Midget car racing.
During that era Midget
cars were the most popular
form of motorsports. Stock
cars werent much of a
thought at all in those days.
The Midgets were at the
peak of their popularity and
by comparison it was what
NASCAR racing is today.
Buhler Field was relatively new at that time. Under
direction of the Anthracite
Amusement Association and
spearheaded by Ed Hoch,
Midget cars were booked for
a period of time between
July 1 and Aug. 28. The track,
which was a dirt surface,
was said to be about 1/5-mile
in distance.
According to the archives of
the Hazleton Plain Speaker it
was clear to see that the races
received big headlines as huge
crowds that numbered in the
thousands filled the bleachers
during those events.
Throughout July the races
where held on Monday
nights and the first show
attracted a fair amount of
interest. Some of the bigname stars back then were
Charlie Miller, Bozo Balus,
George McIntosh, Johnny
Duncan and Freddy Winnai.
The drivers not only hailed
from throughout the Eastern
seaboard but hauled in from
as far west as Indianapolis as
was the case with Winnai,
who was of Indy 500 fame.
In order to keep the dust
down the track surface was
treated with calcium chloride, a chemical treatment
that is still used on todays
dirt tracks. The track was
noted to be somewhat
banked and was built with
safety barriers all around.
Also, heavy mesh cyclone
fence was erected in front of
the main grandstand for added spectator protection.
Most times the races started between 7:30 and 8 p.m.
with time trials followed by
heat races and then the feature, which was usually
about 20-laps. First-place
prize money was shown as
$500, which in those days
was big bucks.
Barnstorming racers
would compete as much as
eight times per week and
Evergreen sprouts roots
DINO OBERTO COLLECTION
This rare photo from around 1920 shows a one-half mile dirt race track that was
located near the current Laurel Drive-In just south of the Hazleton city limits. Very little
information about the track is available.
treatment was soaked into the

track to ensure continuance
of dustless conditions. Unfortunately the races never went
off due to rain the day before
that made the track to muddy.
Going into the July 15
Buhler race there was sad
news as 23-year-old Wayne
Shollenberger had lost his
life from injuries sustained
from the Pottsville meet.
In town for that night was
the well-noted racing promoter Sam Nunis. An invite was
also sent out to Pennsylvanias Lt. Governor Thomas
Kennedy. The guest of honor
that evening was Fred Duesenberg, Jr., of the renowned
car manufacturers.
An interesting highlight
used as a selling pitch was a
lunar eclipse taking place
that night. All of the flood
lights were turned off at a
scheduled time so fans could
witness the sight.
Some 2,500 fans came out
for the third installment of
daredevil action at Buhler
Stadium. Long before Mario
Andretti was known as the
famous Italian racing star,
Bozo Balus held that distinction as the Great Neck, N.Y.,
hot shoe was a fan favorite
and a Hazleton winner.
Heading into August the
races switched from Monday
nights to Fridays. Promoter
Hoch was striving to make
Hazleton get national recognition. More drivers were
starting to attend as the first
Friday race had 35 cars in
the pits. Hoch felt that Hazleton was far ahead of some of
the bigger U.S. cities in presenting Midget car races,
which was continuing to
gain nationwide popularity.
Friday, Aug. 9 was the largest crowd thus far as 3,500 fans
packed the house. Duncan
came through with his second
win as he beat Pete Canfield.
During time trials both drivers clicked off 18-second laps.
Perhaps the 2,000 gallons of
additional oil that was used on
the surface helped in attaining
those fast laps.
For some reason attendance slipped for the final
two events even though
25-plus cars were registered,
DINO OBERTO COLLECTION which included top talents
This restored Midget car built by Ben Cook of like Red Morrissy, Walt FursConyngham in 1935 is believed to have raced at Buhler co and Charlie Breslin.
In order to bolster more
Field in Hazleton that same year. The car is on display at
local interest, the AAA added
the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing in York Springs.
with that kind of cash
offered it was plain to see
why these doodlebuggers
as they were called back
then, did this for a living.
Duncan, of Lawrence,
Long Island, N.Y. won the initial feature race at Buhler. It
was a very good night from
the start as he timed quickest at 18.2 seconds, won a
heat and then the main.
The race was flagged by
then Hazleton Mayor R.
Alvin Beisel.
Later that evening Bill
Schindler won a match race
between Duncan and Winnai. Believed to be his career
first win, Schindler went on
to become one of the greatest
Midget car drivers of all
time and will forever be
known as one of the founding fathers of the American
Racing Drivers Club, which
was founded in 1939 and is
still going strong to this day.
After Hazleton the racers
headed for Pottsville on July
4 at Cressona Park, another
by-gone track that is now the
sight of the Cressona Aluminum Plant. The win there
went to Eastern Midget
champion Bob Sall, who beat
Duncan and featured the
popular Shollenberger brothers Ray, Harry and Wayne of
nearby Palmerton.
Sall would return to the
Hazleton area some 20-plus
years later to promote a NASCAR sanctioned event at Evergreen Raceway in St. Johns.
The first Hazleton race was
so successful that for the next
event ushers where brought
in for the large crowds plus a
better amplification system
was built. Also, a special oil
a side-show novelty. They

hired Charley Goggi, a 38-inch
dwarf and also brought in
Minnie Mays of California,
who was one of only a few
women racers at the time.
They held match races
against the best time-trialers.
The final race at the Wyoming and Cedar streets track
was on Aug. 23. Twin features were held and Bill Scarine claimed both wins.
After Buhler Stadium

organized, motorsports did
not make a return to the
Hazleton area until the early
1950s when Evergreen Raceway was built.
The 1/3-mile paved oval in
St. Johns was quite popular
back in the day and even carried partial sanctioning from
NASCAR. During its peak of
the late 1950s, crowds numbered in the thousands
would fill the trademark hillside grandstands.
Modified and Late Model
stock cars were and continue
to be the main divisions.
While many a long line of
local stars blazed a trail
there, the most famous to use
the track as a stepping stone
to bigger and better things
within racing was Berwicks
Jimmy Spencer, who would
go on to become a two-time
national NASCAR Modified
champion after his tenure at
Evergreen and then gained
national acclaim with the
highest level of NASCAR,
the Sprint Cup Series.
Likewise Northamptons
Tony Hirschman, who was a
past track champion, earned
five national NASCAR Modified championships after cutting his eye-teeth at Ever-
out the Hazleton area.

Twenty minutes north of
Hazleton heading towards
Wilkes-Barre is Giants
Despair hillclimb, which is
one of the oldest racing venues in the state, dating back
to the turn of the century.
Drag racing not a drag
Drag racers make up a large

part of the motorsport enthusiasts in the Hazleton area.
Just a short drive from
town heading south on Route
309 they would converge at
short-lived Kal-Rica Dragway, which was near Ginthers Corner.
Just a short jaunt from
where Walts Drive-in Diner
currently sits, this was a
popular stomping ground for
the straight-liners during the
1960s.
Drag racers also ventured
to Pocono Drag Lodge, which
was on Route 315. The track
was shuttered by the early
1970s. However, of late there
has been an annual reunion
held each August which has
become quite popular with
area hot rodders.
Big leagues come
In 1971 professional auto

racing came to the area in the
form of Pocono International
Raceway in Long Pond.
The brainchild of the late
Dr. Joe Mattioli, the worlds
most famous drivers were
just a mere 30-minute drive
from Hazleton.
DINO OBERTO COLLECTION
The front row for the first race at the new Pocono International Raceway in 1971
was, from left: Al Unser Sr., Bobby Unser and Mark Donahue. Donahue went on to give
car owner Roger Penske his initial win in a 500-mile race.
Prior to the races a fairsized crowd paid tribute to
Canfield, who lost his life in
an accident at Bridgeport.
He had just won four races
the week prior. Two buglers
played taps followed by a
moment of silence.
Although never documented as to why the races ceased
after that Aug. 23 show, it is,
however, a proud feeling of
knowing that auto racing
history has a unique place
right here in Hazleton.
green. His son, Anthony

Hirschman, who spotted for
his dad at tracks such as
Evergreen, was the spotter
for 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup
champion Kyle Busch.
Weatherly welcomes
the world
In 1961 and every year

since, the Weatherly Hillclimb has been testing the
skills of road racers who
flock twice a year to the onemile stretch of blacktop on
Way back when
Hill Street.
Considered one of the
Buhler Field does not have
most technical hillclimbs in
the distinction of being
the country, not only does
Hazletons first host of auto
Weatherly draw a great conracing.
As much as 15 years earli- tingent of local and regional
er, auto races where held at a competitors, but likewise
from across the nation and
dirt track that was situated
most recently from Europe
just south of the city limits.
when a team from Spain
The track, which unfortunately has very little records, entered and won with a spesat on the right side of Route cially built car.
The Weatherly Hillclimb
309 where the Laurel DriveAssociation does a magnifiIn now sits.
cent job of promoting this
It was a half-mile oval that
ran Big Cars, which in todays twice-a-year event and keeping this unique form of
racing are Sprint cars.
Auto racing was still fledg- motorsports as one of the
leading attractions throughling at that time so it is fasci-
IndyCar, NASCAR and the

best road racers have and
still compete at this world
class facility. Racing actually
began at Pocono in 1968 on
the defunct 3/4-mile oval that
was first erected prior to the
2.5-mile tri-oval.
Pocono Raceway gave
local fans the opportunity to
get up close with driving icons
such as A.J. Foyt, Mario
Andretti, Bobby and Al Unser,
Richard Petty, David Pearson
and the list goes on with
todays current stars.
Pocono is a multi-purpose
facility. Aside from IndyCar
and NASCAR that race on
the tri-oval, there are multiple road courses. Road racers
from around the globe have
competed there.
Drag races also were held
on the front stretch for a
period of time during the
early 1970s and the defunct
inner 3/4-mile oval was the
home to the Modified Race
of Champions.
In the early days of
Pocono many drivers would
stay the weekend at Gennettis Motor Lodge in Hazle
Township.
At this Monumental
Time Wishing
The Standard-Speaker
Congratulations on
150 Years Serving the
Local Community
11:23 | GRECOTONY
Standard-Speaker
Sports
Then&Now
Bare-knuckles fight
attracted thousands
to Sugarloaf in 1871
Bryan Campbell may have been the victor, but his face looked like a slab of
uncooked beef. David Lewis showed superior boxing style, but a promise to his priest
prohibited him from ever showing it again.
Those were the fates of the two men who
participated in probably the bloodiest boxing match ever in local history, lasting 98
rounds over the span of an hour and a half.
On Dec. 19, 1871, Campbell and Lewis
took up the calls of their respective Irish
and Welsh brothers and fought bare-fisted
to show which nationality produced the
better brawler.
The fight occurred in a field in Sugarloaf, and estimates had 5,000 men watching the battle, and $50,000 worth of bets
placed.
But this challenge did not originate with
the fighters themselves. Instead, it started
as a dispute between Irish and Welsh spectators at an earlier match. Both sides
declared that they could produce a better
fighter, after Bill Evans, a Welsh, took Mike
Riley, an Irishman, in a more than
100-round match fought in Beaver Brook.
The Welsh, so overjoyed with the outcome, said there wasnt an Irishman alive
that could take a Welsh. Naturally, the Irish
became enraged, and said they could produce a fighter that would reduce any
Welshman to rubble.
Eventually, the two sides decided that the
contest would be fought for $1,000 a side,
and each nationality picked its fighter. The
Irish won a coin toss, and were allowed to
choose the site.
Buckey Brady, Tom Dolan, and John
McHugh took charge of the fight, and initially settled on Woodside as the locale.
After finances fell through there, the group
picked White Haven, which would have
been the site except Sheriff Whittaker was
rumored to be after the heads of the fights
organizers.
In White Haven, the fighters weighed in,
Campbell at 133 pounds and Lewis at 142,
but the organizers decided to move the
fight to the valley.
Spectators rolled in by the hundreds, as
Conyngham residents, unaware that the
fight was about to take place, worried over
the massive influx of people. At 9 oclock

on Monday morning, a site was cleared
and bets were made.
Heavy betting took place, and those who
ran out of money wagered things like coal,
cows, goats, horses, pigs, watches _ even
the shirts off their backs.
Though it was late in the year, the weather was springlike.
Campbell, then Lewis, entered the ring,
as men cheered on both sides. After getting
instructions from the referee, the two men
began their ferocious battle.
Lewis took the scientific approach, but
Campbell proved the harder hitter. On Sugarloaf Peak, coal and iron policeman
watched helplessly, afraid to break the fight
up for fear of the fate they would meet.
Then, after 98 rounds of brawling,
Campbell claimed a foul. Pandemonium
broke out as the referee had to make a decision.
After the referee ruled that Lewis, in
fact, had struck a foul blow, the fighters
needed medical attention. According to one
account, Campbell, who was taken to Patrick Fallons saloon on South Wyoming
Street in Hazleton where he was treated by
Dr. Arnold, was black and blue and his
race resembles rare beef.
Lewis, meanwhile, went back to his
training headquarters at the Phoenix
Hotel, Conyngham, and also had to be
treated, especially for hand injuries.
The next day, the excitement of the fight
had not died down. The fighters went to
Mahanoy City, where they called on Bill
Phillps, who ran the Pottsville House there
and was the stakesholder.
But both sides said they should get the
money, and there was nearly another fight
after the Welsh wanted the stakes split, but
the Irish demanded all the money.
Lewis, in fact, offered to fight Campbell
right there to see who should get the purse,
but Campbell declined and finally received
the money.
A few days later, Lewis again asked for a
rematch, saying he would put up $5,000
against $3,000 for another fight. Campbell,
though, said he had promised Father Marron he would never fight again.
Z9
Boxing bravado
STANDARD-SPEEAKER FILE
In top photo, heavyweight boxing champion

Muhammad Ali, third
from right, visits actor Jack
Palance, second from right,
at Palances farm in Drums
in 1974. Ali later appeared
in an exhibition bout in Hazleton. At right, Rocky Marciano, second from right,
appears at the Hazleton
Municipal Airport.
STANDARD-SPEEAKER FILE
At left, two-time former heavyweight boxing champion Tim Witherspoon

talks with Christley Mena, 16, during a training session in 2015. Witherspoon taught
children and young adults how to box at a ring in the Hazleton One Community Center on East Fourth Street. At right, Freelands Patsy Gall, The Fighting Iceman, poses
for a photo. Gall remains one of the areas most accomplished fighters ever. The welterweight won a total of 90 bouts between 1938 and 1949, 30 by knockout.
Area bowlers have been rolling since the 19th century

A28-poundballwhichcreatedsomuchnoisepeopleliving
intheneighborhoodof abowlingalleythoughtathunderstormwasstarting;alleysmade
of flatpineboards,ballsthesize
of thosenowusedintheItalian
gameof bocceandalleysbuilt
totheownersindividualspecificationmarkedthebeginning
of asportwhichtodayranks
withthemostpopularof all
Hazletonpastimes.
Inthe140-plusyearswhich
haveelapsedsincethegame
wasfirstintroducedhereprogresshasbeengreatindeedand
theprimitiveestablishmentsof
theolddaysareafarcryfrom
themodernlanestoday.
Hazletonbowlerssuchas
NeilBrown,GregStahoraand
CarlScotthavecompetedon
protours.
HazletonAreaHighSchool
startedbowlingteamsforboys
andgirlsin2003,andstudents
havewonmedalsindistrictand
statetournaments.
S.H.SharplessandSon.Co.
of Hazletonhasreconditioned
lanesacrossthecountry,includinginsidetheWhiteHouse.
Oneof thecitysfirstbowlers,
JohnF.Gebhardt,of 836W. DiamondAve.,fatherof J.Albert
Gebhardt,localbowlingsupplies
dealer,recallsthefirstalleybuilt
intheBuntonBockHallin1863,
ingthere.
Anotheroutstandingkegler
of thetimewasFatherOust,pastorof St.StanislausR.C.Church.
CharlesMaue,Sr.,tellsof an
alleyinstalledinthebuildingat
VineandLocuststreetsby
JosephShigo. Thiswasalsoof
shortdimensionsandthepins
andballsfollowedtheowners
ownideas. Herea28-pound
ball,whichmadeanoiseneighborsthoughtwasthunder,was
usedandKlinerecallsthat
STANDARD-SPEEAKER FILE whenithitthepins,itmade
This photo from 1885 shows Hazletons first orga- thebowlerthinkitwasgoing
nized bowling team. No team name was available.
rightthroughthewall.
In1895HazlePark,thena
newlyestablishedrecreation
bytheproprietor,NicholasWie- beingoneof theleaders.
center,installedtwoshort
gand. Thealleywasof flat
Inthesameyeartwoalleys
pineboards,ninepinswereused wereinstalledinahallatCedar alleys. Herethefirstorganized
teamof thecityperformed
andtheballswereof wood,simi- andTamarackstreetsbythe
undertheleadershipof Leo
lartothoseusedintheItalian
proprietor,AlSchweitzer.
Rosenbaum,nowanemployee
gameof bocce.
Gebhardt recalls bowling
Gebhardtislikewiseauthori- match games and sweepstakes of J.HymanandCompany.
tyfortheinformationthatWie- here as the sport began to grow Membersof theteamincluded
gandlaterboughttheLiberty
in popularity. This was the first CharleyKelly,Watkins,Barney
HotelonSouthLaurelStreet
two-alley establishment in the Carney,JohnMaddon,Dummy
Fitzgerald,GeorgeSeagerand
(nowtheBachmanAnnex)in
city.
Rosenbaum.
1879andthereinstalledthe
In 1885 Red Kepping, who
In1899Klinecametothis
citysfirstmanufacturedalley.
owned the Maennechor Hall,
Pinsweremadeof anykind at Pine and Holly streets (now cityfromNewYorkandsoon
afterwardheorganizedthe
of hardwoodsuitableandthe
the Roseland), installed two
citysfirstrepresentativeteam,
balls,comparableinsizeto
short alleys.
asquadwhichbowledmatch
thosenowinuse,hadnoholes,
JohnKlineof WestBirch
gamesinallnearbycities.
beingrolledfromthepalmof
street,oneof themostnoted
Memberswere: Kline,Albert
thehand. Thisalleywasshort bowlersinthehistoryof the
butthereweremanyskillful
sporthereandorganizerof one Brown,NJPyle,William
keglersof thatday,Gebhardt
of thefirstteams,recallsbowl- Klinger,EugeneLynch,Harry
Kress,CharlesGoldmanand
ArthurDeisroth.
Shortlyaftertheturnof the
centurytheAmericanBowling
Congresswasorganizedand
regulationsestablishedfor
bowlingalleys,ballsandpins.
Thefirstregulationalleys
wereinstalledinthebasement
of thebuildingwhichisnow
occupiedbytheBonTon
departmentstore. Dewey
Welshwasthefirstproprietor
andhelatersoldouttothe
McDermottbrothers.
Later Pat McDermitt, one of
the brothers, opened an emporium on North Wyoming
street where the Hazleton Auto
Bus Company offices and
Giant Market are now located.
This was a four alley establishment and was the latest thing.
His partners in the venture
were Joe McGinty and Eugene
Lynch.
Oldbowlerstellof McGinty
goingtotheMcDermottplace
onWestBoardstreettomeet
MikeMcMahoninamatch
gameandwhilepracticinghe
rolled25consecutivestrikes.
Thefirstalleysinstalledby
anorganizationof anykinds
werethoseof theYMCA,constructedin107. E.S.Franker,a
bowlingsecretaryof theY
saysthelateDr.H.M.Keller,
thenpresidentof theassocia-
Serving the Area Since 1949

The BEST Hoagies in Town
B
A
S
RD
LUNCHEONETTE
Rear 704 Carson St., Hazleton
(570) 455-0631
tion,wasanoutstandingbowlerandagreatteamknowasthe
Presbyteriansrolledhere.
Memberswere: BenF.Morse,
Dr.J.R. Dyson,BertE.Kunkle,
CharlesPollock,WalterDugan,
GeorgeWilliams,Jack
EdmondsandAndyWagner.
Hazletonsfirstorganized
leaguescameintobeingin1916
whenJ.AlbertGebhardt
installedtwoalleys.
Thefirstindustrialalleys
werethoseinstalledinthe
Duplansilkmillbuildingin
1917throughtheeffortsof WalterMuggli,todayHazletonsNo.
1bowlingfan.
Hazletonsmostpretentious
bowlingestablishment,an
eight-lanelayout,wasopened
onEastGreenStreetin1927by
FreddySagerbutclosedtwo
yearslater.
Downthroughtheyearsbowlinghasmadegreatprogressand
while200averagesarecommon
todayonmostalleys,theold
lanesweredifficulttomaster.
Thefirst200averageon
recordwasmadebyCharles
Barnesinahouseleagueatthe
oldGebhardtalleys,hismark
being208forthesecondhalf of
theseason.
Responsibleforagreat
advanceinbowlingistheBates
typeballwhichwasfirstintroducedattheCentralalleys.
Hours:
Mon., Tues., Thurs.
& Fri. 7am-5:30pm;
Wed. 7am-4pm;
Sat. 7am-12noon;
Closed Sunday
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HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [Y01] | 01/12/16

Amid change, a constant

JAMIE PESOTINE/Staff Photographer

The Standard-Speaker is celebrating 150 years of service.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

LOCAL CHEVROLET DEALER

A lot changes in 150 years. One constant

2012 FORD FOCUS SE

*Plus Tax & Tags

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even a massive power failure in 1920 could

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HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [Y10] | 01/11/16

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Setting the standard

ELLEN F. OCONNELL/Staff Photographer

Joseph Skuba, from left, Sandy Hoilko and Millie

Don Barnes and Ray Saul,

nity to interview Tiny Tim

Grandmas obituary survives fiery fate

Louis Fedullo made cop-

ies of his grandmothers

Congratulations Standard Speaker

We carry all sizes from ATVs to heavy duty

The Pros You Trust...The Parts You Need!

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Louis was 9 when she

Mary Ann (Kuntz) Kapes, seated, poses with her

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This photo from August 1953 shows the path

HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [Y11] | 01/11/16

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Setting the standard

Dan Chyko provided photos during the 1970s and 80s.

The Plain Speaker had an office on West Broad Street in the

Correspondent recalls 42 years of church news, meetings andbirthday book

I ended up doing it for 42

At that time we had a lot

To compile the columns,

wanted to miss publishing a

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