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Miscellaneous News
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The
Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA
November 10,
1819
From the Pittsburgh Mercury
Singular and Distressing Accident
An occurrence of a singular and painful nature, took place on New Year's day last, at the house of Mr. James Robinson, of Olino township, in this county. A number of persons were amusing themselves in shooting at a mark, when, in loading one of the pieces, they were unable to force the ball more than half way down the barrel. They then unscrewed the breach and took out the powder, for the purpose of driving the ball back through the muzzle. Not succeeding in this, an awl was fixed to the end of the ramrod for the purpose of cutting the ball in pieces, so as to a (l?t) of its easy dislodgment. In making this attempt, the awl stuck fast in the lead, and was left there on withdrawing the ramrod. It was then determined to heat the barrel so as to melt the lead. A strong heat was accordingly applied to that part of the barrel where the ball had lodged, until it became nearly red, when the the astonishment of all present, an explosion took place, and the contents entered the fleshy part of the left thigh of a young man named Clark.
A physician of this city was called upon for his
professional services. In examining the wound, the probe followed its direction
from the inside of the thigh through the thickest part forwards several inches.
An incision was then made through the integuments on the outside of the limb,
and the muscles cut into for about two inches, when the awl was discovered and
extracted. The singularity of this case is, the explosion taking place without
the presence of gun-powder and the total disappearance of the ball. The
supposition is, that the temperature of the barrel was so raised, as to cause
the greater portion of the lead on the instant of its being fused, to assume
such a state as to cause it to discharge itself with noise and to expel the awl
with a force sufficient to occasion the accident. Should any person of
scientifick research be dissatisfied with his solution, he would confer a favour
by correcting it.
[Submitted by Nancy
Piper]
Republican Compiler (Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania)
December 3, 1823 - Page
2
The Pittsburg Gazette, from which the foregoing particulars
are collected, also informs us of the destruction of the stone steam mill, at
Cincinnati, 9 stories high, on the 3d, inst. This property belonged to Oliver
Ormsby, of Pittsburg, and the loss is estimated at $100,000. - Har.
Chron.
[Submitted by Nancy
Piper]
August 27, 1825
Painful Occurrence
On the
26th ult., Mr. Isaac Ritchie of Ohio township in descending from the top of a
stack came with his whole weight upon the handle of a pitch-fork standing
against the stack, which entered his body to the depth of fifteen or sixteen
inches, but in such a direction as not to injure his bowels. It was drawn out as
soon as possible by the strength of two men. Surgical aid was sought and
obtained. Copious blood-letting and other means were used for the relief of the
sufferer and hopes are now entertained of his recover.-Recorder.
[Submitted by Nancy
Piper]
Elopement from the Penitentiary
On Thursday night
last, Hiram W. Lindsey, a convict from Erie county, took his departure from the
Allegheny Penitentiary, bidding defiance to the "powerful and ingenious
fastening," by which the doors of his cell had been secured. We learn that he
had effected his escape by means of a pewter spoon, which had been converted
into a key, in a very mechanical manner. This being the fact, the keepers are
completely above suspicion of neglect on their part, and we are warrented in
censuring the parsimonious of the gentleman, who preferred cheap locks for the
Penitentiary without having reference to workmanship or quality. As a specimen
of a cool and calculating Yankee, Lindsey left behind him, no doubt for public
inspection, the pewter key and a note to the following effect: "Hiram W.
Lindsey's compliments to the first and second keepers of the Penitentiary,
informs from that he has proceeded to Washington city, in order to obtain a
Patent for an old Yankee trick." - Journal
[Submitted by Nancy
Piper]
Philadelphia, May 14
Robbery
On Saturday last, a wagoner from Pittsburg, of the name of Bear, started from this city, with his team on his return home, after having sold his flour. About nine miles on the West Chester Road he was stopped by two men, who demanded his money. He resisted so vigorously and successfully that he mastered the two men and had them both on the ground, when two other villains came to their assistance, knocked the wagoner down, stabbed him with a knife, through the coat twenty-two times, five of them entering the body. They then robed him of about 40 dollars. He was found bleeding and exhausted, on the ground, and carried to a neighboring house, where he now lies dangerously ill. These are the same gang which lately broke into a house near the Rising Sun, on the Germantown road. –Demo. Press.
[Submitted by Nancy Piper]December 31, 1828
Pittsburgh, Dec 19
Explosion – On Tuesday night last, about nine o’clock, one of the steam boilers of the Union Rolling Mill, (iron works,) at the eastern extremity of this city, on the Monongahela River, burst, with a tremendous explosion, shot off through the air at an angle of about 45 degrees with the horizon, and describing a beautiful arch, fell into the river nearly two hundred yards from the works. The steam being on fire, and issuing from the boiler in a stream of flame, it was beheld with astonishment and admiration by the passengers on board the new steam boat “Uncle Sam,” which had but a few moments before it passed the spot where it descended.
The
furnace in which the four boilers were situated, being without the wall of the
main building, under a slight shed, and the exploding boiler taking a direction
outward from the works, no other injury was sustained than the present loss of
the boiler itself, and the displacing of its three companions, which it threw
entirely out of their bed and beyond the floor on which it was
erected.
[Submitted by Nancy
Piper]
May 25,
1871
Pittsburgh apothecaries are in a quandary. The license
board there has decided that they must be licensed to sell liquors even
under the prescription of a physician. In some cases licenses have been refuse,
and the apothecaries now want to know whether they will be amenable to law if
they fill a prescription which calls for the smallest quantity of
liquor.
[Submitted by Nancy
Piper]
Besides those killed, nine persons, some seriously hurt, were taken to the hospital. Violation of the factory laws, responsibility for permitting which by officials charged with their enforcement is being shifted from one to another, contributed much to the loss of lives. Rotten hose and delay in being able to send an alarm prevented the firemen from getting a stream of water on the blaze for 20 minutes.
When the firemen did arrive and turned on the water, at least 20 sections of hose burst within a few minutes, causing more delay. Meanwhile the girls in the factory were at the windows screaming for help. The fire escape in the rear of the building was useless. Vigorous and concerted efforts to fix the blame for the North Side box factory horror were started by city, county and state officials.
Five different investigations are underway.
Three officials of
the Union Paper Box Company and Hugh H. WOODS, executor of the estate which
owned the building, were arrested on coroner's warrants issued in connection
with investigation into the causes and responsibility for the fire. All are free
on heavy bail. Eleanor
Oles Police throughout Pennsylvania are attempting to solve
the strange disappearance of Eleanor Oles, 14-year-old daughter of a wealthy oil
producer of Coraoplis, Pa., on her way home from this city on a Pittsburgh
express January 4. According to information given Detective Joseph Shay, at
City Hall, by the girl's aunt, Mrs. Alice Greaves, of 475 Hermitage street,
Roxborough, she was put on the 7:40 P. M. train at Broad Street Station by
former Councilman Dorwart. When Mary failed to hear from her chum a week later
she wrote to learn if she arrived safely. That was the first information Edward Oles had that his
daughter had disappeared.
[Submitted by Sara
Hemp]
Missing Girl Sought,
14-Year Old Coraopolis Lass Disapperard on Way Home
[Philadelphia Inquirer, January 26,
1921 - Transcribed by C. Anthony]
Time Magazine
Monday, March 8,
1926
Heinz
On
the 57th day of the current year (Feb. 26) the H. J. Heinz Co. of Pittsburgh,
famed makers of 57 varieties of pickles, celebrated the 57th anniversary of the
founding of the business. Years ago, when national advertising was
toddling and stumbling over itself and when Henry John Heinz (founder) was still
alive, the company had decided on a quiet, pervasive, yet persuasive, type of
propaganda. Heinz' 57 Varieties became its slogan and was so skillfully
broadcast that the mere numerals 57 on a billboard told a story,
sold the goods. This policy of effectiveness without flamboyancy grew from the
very character of Henry John Heinz, continues in that of his son Howard, now
company president. In 1840 an energetic young German, Henry Heinz,
emigrated to the U. S. His ancestors, Bavarian winegrowers, had acquired high
esteem from as early as 1709. In Pennsylvania he met and married in 1843 Anna
Margaretta Schmitt, also an immigrant. Her father had been a burgomeister, an
elder in the church. A year later their baby, Henry John, was born. In 1850 they
moved to Sharpsburg, Pa., where the young father established a brick yard.
Frugal Anna wanted her own kitchen garden, had one laid out much larger than her
own family needs, sold produce to neighbors. Here among the cabbage tops, the
bean vines and the other garden truck Henry John used to play. In the house
basement he used to watch his mother pickling and canning. The grating of
horseradish was an eye-smarting task. But Mrs. Heinz' preparation of this root
was so appetizing that it found a ready sale. Henry John was its eager boy
salesman.
When he was 15, his father, realizing his nascent business
ability, let him come into the brickyard as bookkeeper. The boy reorganized the
yard, developed year-round work instead of seasonal.
In 1869, 57 years
ago, he went partners with one L. C. Noble, into the firm of Heinz & Noble,
to bottle vegetables for the market. This firm grew, changed names, moved to
Pittsburgh, expanded. In 1888, at 44 Henry John retired for a season. He had
done some traveling, wanted to do more, eventually had seen the continents. From
Rome he brought and erected in his Pittsburgh administration building a
fountain. Ivory collecting was a pleasant avocation. His gathering contained
1,300 carved pieces, one of the few of its kind in the U. S. In 1919 he died, 25
years after the death of the Irish girl, Sallie Sloan Young, whom he married the
year he set up in business for himself, 1869.
Henry John was religious.
For more than 20 years he was superintendent of a Methodist Sunday School,
although he had been brought up a strict Lutheran. His parents wanted him to
become a minister and this religious attitude he kept throughout his life. How
sore his heart when word was brought to him that smart-Alex Pittsburgh
saloonkeepers had wanged out a ribald ditty at his expense. Nigger-prancers,*
bummers, street sheiks, tenderloin riff-raff were chanting all over Pittsburgh,
all over the U. S.:
Heinz! HEINZ! WHAT'S the matter with
Heinz?
Heinz come wobbling down the street!
What's the matter with
Heinz' FEET?
Heinz! Heinz!
What's the matter with
HEINZ?
He's been in 57 stews,
And HEINZ IS PICKLED
AGAIN!!
Jailbirds kept lockstep time to the scurrilous words.
Watery-nosed hoboes would strike a pose, chant the libel, and cadge thereby a
drink of beer, mayhap, if the grinning barkeep reckoned up a large group at the
rail, a finger of low-proof whisky.
The purpose of this dastardly chanty
was, of course, to counteract Henry John Heinz's moral influence in Pittsburgh.
Eventually he got the song suppressed.
Howard Heinz, one of his four sons (they have one sister),
assumed the presidency of the H. J. Heinz Co. in 1919. Strong, able, upright,
like all his family, he graduated from Yale in 1900, at 23, went into the family
business. There no nepotism existed. He had to progress by his own ability. In
five years he was Advertising Manager; in 1907 Sales Manager; in 1915 Chairman
of the Board. He also goes in for non-commercial activities; is a director of
the Pennsylvania Railroad, of the Union National Bank, of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. During the War he was a member
of the National Council of Defense of Pennsylvania; was Food Commissioner for
Pennsylvania, Chairman of the Food Supply Committee of the National Council of
Defense; Zone Chairman of the U. S. Food Administration for Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, member of the
War Industries Board of Philadelphia; and member of the Executive Committee of
the American
Relief Administration (European Children's relief). After
the War he became Director General of the American Relief Administration for
Southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. He is President of Heinz House, Pittsburgh;
on the Board of Trustees of the University of Pittsburgh, of Carnegie Institute,
of Shady Side Academy '(where he prepared for Yale), West Pennsylvania Hospital,
of the West Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind; a trustee for the Commission
for Relief in Belgium of the Educational Foundation, Manhattan. He is a
Republican and a Presbyterian. His ancestors had been Methodists, and further
back Lutherans.
His concern, the H. J. Heinz Co., veritably makes 57
Varieties.** It has grown from a basement factory getting supplies from
neighborhood truck gardens to a corporation with 20 factories in 4 countries,
with 306 salting houses and receiving stations and 71 sales branches and
warehouses in the U, S., England and Canada. It employs more than 1,400
traveling salesmen.
One employe has worked for it for 52 years. The
continuous service record of a veteran group totals 6,044 years. Three
generations of one family have worked in the plants. All directors rose from
the ranks. Of them ten tote up their service years to 349.
*Cloggers
who were wont to throw themselves into the
grotesque, exaggerated contortions
of tom-tom exalted
African blackamoors.
His father, Henry John,
likewise varied his extra-commercial activities; attended Methodist annual
conferences; was a world influence in Methodism; helped the. Y. M. C. A. He was
a founder of the Western Pennsylvania Exposition Society; a member of the
Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce.
**Oven-Baked Beans with Pork and Tomato Sauce, Oven-Baked
Beans without Tomato Sauce, with Pork (Boston Style), OvenBaked Beans in Tomato
Sause without Meat (Vegetarian), Oven-Baked Red Kidney Beans, Cream of Tomato
Soup, Cream of Green Pea Soup, Cream of Celery Soup, Mince Meat, Plum Pudding,
Fig Pudding, Peanut Butter, Cooked Spaghetti, Cherry Preserves, Red Raspberry
Preserves, Peach Preserves, Damson Plum Preserves, Strawberry Preserves,
Pineapple Preserves, Black Raspberry Preserves, Blackberry Preserves, Crab Apple
Jelly, Currant Jelly, Grape Jelly, Quince Jelly, Apple Butter, Preserved Sweet
Gherkins, Preserved Sweet Midget Gherkins, Preserved Sweet Mixd Pickles, Sour
Spiced Gherkins, Sour Midget Gherkins, Sour Mixed Pickles, Chow Chow Pickle,
Sweet Mustard Pickle, Dill Pickles, Sour Pickled Onions, Preserved Sweet Onions,
Sandwich Relish, Spanish Queen Olives, Spanish Manzanilla Olives, Stuffed
Spanish Olives, Ripe Olives, Pure Spanish Olive Oil, Tomato Ketchup, Chili
Sauce, Beeksteak Sauce, Red Pepper Sauce, Green Pepper Sauce, Worcestershire
Sauce, Prepared Mustard, Prepared Mustard Sauce, India Relish, Evaporated
Horseradish, Mayonnaise Salad Dressing, Pure Malt Vinegar, Pure Cider Vinegar,
Distilled White Vinegar, Tarragon
Vinegar.
[Submitted by Dena
Whitesell]
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