Community News Stories

The Centinel, Gettysburg, PA February 7, 1810
A malignant fever of a very alarming nature has prevailed for the last three weeks, in a settlement on the Ohio river called Sewickly Bottom, about 15 miles from this place.  More than 20 persons have died with it.  In one or two instances three persons have died in one family.  We have not heard for a few days past whether it has in any degree abated, but have understood that the physicians have adopted a mode of treatment that if called upon immediately aftet the patient is first taken with it, there is very little danger to be apprehended. -- Pittsburg paper
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

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Gas Explosion Works Havoc

The explosion on Monday morning of a huge gas tank in the Northside, Pittsburgh, wrought fearful havoc.  The death list is known to be 26, and may reach 30.  Nearly 500 persons were treated for injuries.  The Equitable Gas Co.'s loss is $1,500,000. The Pittsburgh Clay Pot Co.'s plant nearby, was wrecked, and an entire section of the city was laid in ruins.  Thousands of windows in the heart of Pittsburgh were shattered.

Men went to work repairing the tank at 8 a.m.  Forty-three minutes later as the workers handled their blow torches on the steel  framework the shock came.  Eyewitnesses said that the tank, with a capacity of 5,000,000 cubic feet, the largest natural gas  tank in the world shot into the air like a balloon.  A ball of fire traveled higher than the tip of Mt. Washington, across the Ohio river from the scene.  Sections of the steel framework went up hundreds of feet to crash through roofs and into the streets.

Men heroically went to the rescue as the injured men, women, and children, many with blood streaming from cuts and other injuries, ran screaming through the streets as if mad.  Rescuers carried the injured through water waist deep.  Tottering walls menaced them.  Dangling electric wires sputtered on all sides.  Yet those engaged in the rescue work forgot their own danger in their feverish efforts to aid others.  One rescuer lost his life as a wall toppled.  The Red Cross and the Salvation Army established first-aid stations.  Here scores of persons were given first-aid attention.  Many doctors braved the peril of the region, to seek out and help victims.  A former McDonald resident, Mack BEAVER, is one of the dead.
[Submitted by Sara Hemp]

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The Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA
October 27, 1819

Pittsburg, Penn, Oct 5

The last of the Allegheny bridge is laid, and in a short time, wagons and horses will be crossing a river, the worst calculated for ferries of any in our country, on account of its great rapidity.
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

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Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
March 29, 1820

Burning Mountain
The Pittsburg Gazette says one of the large coal pits, in the Coal Hill opposite Pittsburg, has lately been vomiting forth flames with all the sublimity of Vesquious. Attempts to stop the fire by closing the mouth of the pit have failed. Coal Hill has long been said to be on fire, but was not distinctly seen to be so until it communicated to the coal pit; this now displays walls and a roof of solid fire extending horizontally into the bowels of the earth.
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

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Republican Compiler, (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
Wednesday, January 9, 1823 - Page 3

On the 25th ult., being Christmas day, the scholars belonging to the Pittsburg Sabbath School Union, met in the Methodist Church in this city, This Union, we are informed, embraces about 30 schools, 400 teachers, and 2400 scholars, and is increasing. It is said that a young female, about 12 years old, belonging to one of these schools, had within six weeks, memorized the whole of the New Testament, with the exception of a few chapters! - Pittsburg Statesman.
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

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Dravosburg Girl Flags Trollsy, Saving 30 Lives
Viaduct Weakened by Freight Collision, Heroine Runs Over Ties Just in Time

Special to The Inquirer.
PITTSBURG, June 1.--While a long viaduce, just outside McKeesport, trembled on the verge of collapse early this morning, Mabel Kerr, the young postmistress at the Dravosburg postal substation leaped over en embankment, ran the length of the swaying structure on the ties and flagged an approaching trolley in time to save 30 passengers from a serious accident.

A collision of freight cars in the ravin below had knocked out the main supports of the viaduct. The girl could see no one in the vicinity to give the alarm, and when a suburban car appeared at the top of the hill on the other side of the valley, she started to race toward the point of danger.

Breathless and disheveled, the girl tumbled over the embankment into the centre of the trestle, just in time to save the car from taking the swaying structure at full speed. Part of the viaduct crashed down a few minutes later.
[Philadelphia Inquirer, June 2, 1908, Transcribed by Christina Anthony]

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Republican Compiler (Gettysburg,Pennsylvania) January25, 1826 

There was a fire in Pittsburgh on the morning of the 13th, and another in the night of the 17th inst., neither of which was extensive, though some individuals met with considerable losses.  

[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

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Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), August 15, 1827

Accident

 

The Stage from this place in descending a hill east of Wilkinsburgh, in Allegheny County came in contact with a large stone lying in the road. The violence of the jolt threw the driver, William Small from his seat and the stage containing 9 or 10 passengers, passed over his breast.  He was very much hurt, but we have heard an opinion expressed that he would recover.  – Greensburgh Gazette.

[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

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Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), August 22, 1827

Erie, Pa., Aug. 9

 

The notorious horse thief, Hiram W. Linsley, who made his escape from the Pittsburgh Penitentiary last winter by means of a false key, was taken through this place on Friday last by the keeper of the Penitentiary.  After escaping he made his way to Detroit, where he arrived with a good mare, saddle and bridle.  He was there apprehended on the advertisement of the keeper of the Penitentiary, but had the address to procure his release and went into Canada.  After remaining in Canada some time he found it necessary to return to Detroit to settle some of his swindling concerns, when he was again apprehended and kept until the keeper came for him.  When on his passage down he got his irons off, but it was fortunately discovered before he had an opportunity of making his escape.  New irons were procured for him here and we presume he is now lodged in the Penitentiary, where we hope he will be kept until the term for which he was sentenced has expired.  – Gazette.

[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

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Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), September 19 1827

Escapes from the Penitentiary

 

Hiram W. Lindsay, the notorious horse thief has a second time made his escape from our Penitentiary; after the State having been at the expense and trouble of bringing him all the way from Erie.  He has taken four more convicts with him!  A reward of $250 is offered for their apprehension or $50 for either of them. – Pittsburgh Journal.

[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

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Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), September 19 1827

L.S. Johns, Esq., of this place, has become proprietor of the “Allegheny Democrat,” established at Pittsburgh, by Mr. M’Farland, formerly of this place. – Chambersburg Repub.

[Submitted by Nancy Piper]

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