BACK TO: TIMELINES
TIMELINE 1900-1929 | Education 1900-1929 | Health 1900-1929 | Immigration 1900-1929 | Influenza 1918 | Prohibition 1900-1929 | War 1900-1929 | Work 1900-1929 | The Depression 1929
TIMELINE 1900-1929
1901
American Car and Ship Hardware organized by George Johnson (became Johnson Bronze).
Shenango China incorporated.
Universal Sanitary Manufacturer Company founded (became Universal Rundle).
U. S. Steel formed by J. P. Morgan.
1902
Standard Engineering opens in Ellwood City.
1906
Furnace men strike at local mills. Labor leader Eugene Debs speaks at Cascade Park.
1907
Game Warden Sealey Houk found dead in the Mahoning River.
Warner Brothers open first theatre in New Castle.
1908
St. Francis Hospital opens in former T. W. Phillips mansion.
1909
Bitter tin mill strike erupts in violence.
Conditions had drastically changed for organized labor by 1909. Mr. Greer had retired. U.S. Steel declared that it would no longer recognize Amalgamated. The strike that followed was long and bitter. Strikebreakers were called in and violence erupted. Many of the strikers never worked in the mills again.
1909
Black Hand Trials begin in New Castle, Rocco Racco sentenced to death for the murder of Sealey Houk.
1910
Ellwood City Hospital opens & Ellwood City Forge opens.
Billy Sunday revival held in downtown New Castle.
1911
New Castle elects Socialist Mayor, Walter Tyler.
New Castle Senior High School opens.
Overlook Sanitarium in New Wilmington opens.
1912
Read ORAL HISTORY to find out what it was like to be an eight year old Italian boy coming to America for the first time.
1913
Great flood devastates county.
New Castle News coverage 100 years later published in 2013: March 25, March 26, March. 27.
News photos from John Hitch collection.
1915
Koppel Bridge opened linking Ellwood City to Route 18.
1917
The 18th Amendment to the Constitution passed. (Prohibition)
1918
United States enters World War I. 3,200 Lawrence County men and women served • 98 did not return.
1918
Influenza Epidemic ravaged Wampum
1919
Bond issue of $1,000,000 for roads passed by County.
New Castle Hospital opens in current facility.
1922
Ben Franklin Junior High School and Arthur McGill School open in New Castle.
1923
Quality Tools in New Wilmington organized.
Lincoln High School in Ellwood City built.
1926
Scottish Rite Cathedral completed in New Castle.
1929
Jameson Memorial Hospital opens.
Stock market crashes. Worldwide depression begins.
EDUCATION 1900-1929
The following account is by Ruth Henry Myers. Mrs. Myers graduated from Slippery Rock Township High School and Slippery Rock University. She taught in Slippery Rock Township, Ellwood City, and New Castle schools.
I started to school when I was only five. I walked about a mile to school every day. My sister, who was three years older, walked with me. I had an older brother in the eighth grade, but he wouldn’t walk with the girls. We had quite a bit of fun walking to and from school, but I remember one windy day when we were crossing the bridge over Brush Run, the wind blew me right into the water. I arrived at school soaking wet and had to dry around the pot-bellied stove.
All of the schools were essentially the same. There was one big room – a teacher’s desk, blackboard, desks for the students. There was a flag on the wall and a piano in the corner. There was a cement porch and a pump for water and a large bell to call the students to school. There wasn’t any electricity or plumbing.
There were usually about 25 students in the school and you knew everyone. We all came from the same background — most were farmers. The day started with Bible reading, Lord’s prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. There wasn’t any library, but we were given certain books to read. One that impressed me particularly was “The Perfect Tribute” about Lincoln composing the Gettysburg address.
The teacher had to be a strict disciplinarian. I remember the teacher tried to make me stand in the corner one time, but my big brother came to my defense and said I hadn’t done anything wrong. So she said, “All right, you go stand in the corner.” Things always had to be under control. I also remember one little boy in the first grade who was terribly shy. The first week of school the teacher scolded him, and he never spoke another word that whole year.
In high school Miss Stevenson threatened to hang the boys who misbehaved out the second story window by their thumbs, but she never did. I remember her taking off after a couple of boys, and she followed them all the way home to tell their parents how they had behaved.
– Ruth Henry Myers
Mrs. Myers graduated from Slippery Rock Township High School and Slippery Rock University. She taught in Slippery Rock Twp., Ellwood City, and New Castle schools.
HEALTH 1900-1929
As the new century began, several advances had been made in the health field. The government passed the Pure Food and Drug laws that protect us still. Unwrapped candy bars and public drinking cups disappeared from the scene.
Doctors were receiving better training and there was hospital care available. But, health was not improving. Crowded living conditions in the housing around the new mills gave rise to tuberculosis, and other highly contagious diseases such as measles, scarlet fever, and smallpox.
The long hours at work in the hot mills combined with the walk home in the cold created respiratory problems. Many died of pneumonia. In the summer, there was the threat of typhoid fever and polio.
There was very little indoor plumbing even in the city, and houses were heated with coal or oil. Cooking stoves were also fueled by coal. The open flames, the constant heating of water on the stove led to fires and scalding of young children. Most children were still born at home with the aid of a mid-wife or doctor.
After World War I, new medicines and vaccines were to irradicate epidemics. Then came 1918 and Influenza spread worldwide – killing 675,000.
Immigration
Immigrants flocked to New Castle from European countries. The Welsh moved into what had been the Irish settlement of Mahoningtown. The Italians and other ethnic groups followed. The south side of New Castle was growing at three times the rate of the rest of the city, as people needed to live close to their jobs in the mills. New schools, markets, clothing stores, and a hospital were built to serve the growing population.
In the early 1900’s, New Castle was a one-industry town. Individuals and families made decisions based on predictions of how the tin mill was running. Even local entertainment evolved around the mill. Children played at the company playground and attended movies at the Company Theater.
ORAL HISTORY – Joseph DeVivo
(Mr. DeVivo came to the United States in 1912 at the age of 8 • Oral history transcribed by Curt Meine]
And we went through the hills and the fields and the lilla villages of the country side until finally we reached Naples. Boy, what a big city! All the people! They brought us to the train station where we checked all the baggage, and that’s where the port was too. And we walked over to where we had to get on the steamship. I looked out over the Bay of Naples. Boy, all that water out there! I figured, well, the other side of this pond over there, that’s America.
But, here, that wasn’t America, that was Pompei.
Pompeii was on the other side of the bay with the volcano spitting smoke up in the air. America was a lot further on.
Sometimes the boat would get rough and we’d heave front and backward, the spray from the waves would reach way up on the upper decks, and lots of times they’d order us all to go below. Maybe it would rain. That was bad. [pullquote align=”left”]Third class it was, no seats, everybody was on the floors. We didn’t have nothing over our heads, just open deck.[/pullquote]
Well, we went along, day after day. Every day it was something new. Finally on the fourteenth day, broad daylight, somebody seen a sail boat. “A barca vela! he called out. “A boat with veils” that meant. But I thought I heard “a whale”, so I thought there was a whale. We got closer and I saw that it was a boat.
All the people came running to the railings, lookin’ for land. Oh, ever’body was all excited, wondering how it was gonna be, what it was gonna look like. Finally we seen….the Statue of Liberty, standing out of the water, all by itself. Couldn’t see the skyline of New York, nothing else. But I seen the Statue from far away.
” America! America! Ama ‘rivae!” “We’re in America! We’re in America”
– Joseph DeVivo, an oral history
Wampum Influenza Epidemic – 1918
As the Influenza epidemic spread, the care of the cases in the Wampum area was taken over by the Crescent Portland Cement Company. The Company opened an infirmary in the plant to take care of its employees, but soon it was handling all the citizens.
The epidemic reached its height about October 12, 1918 and remained stationary for two weeks when a gradual abatement took place. The hospital was closed temporarily and all patients taken care in their homes. The company sent nurses from house to house and rendered aid wherever necessary twenty-four hours a day until December 3, 1918 when the doctors reported we were entirely free from the disease.
During the epidemic all public places were closed: schools churches, moving picture houses, saloons, etc.
As near as can be accounted for, there were:
885 cases of influenza resulting in 37 deaths in the Wampum area
The total number of doctor’s calls was 3,155
Crescent Portland Cement Company Infirmary – Total Employees
Doctors – 5
Trained Nurses – 8
Red Cross Nurse – 1
Practical Nurses – 14
Cooks – 2
Orderlies – 3
Other help – 8
Two nurses and five practical nurses contracted the disease. They all recovered!
Prohibition
The United States was a hard drinking country. In the mill towns, there were bars and saloons on every corner. Earlier many farmers had made their fortunes distilling their grain into liquor and shipping to Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
The leaders of the Prohibition movement were alarmed at the drinking behavior of American and they were concerned that the culture of drink among some sectors was spreading. Prohibition in the United States was a measure to reduce drinking by eliminating the businesses that manufactured, distributed and sold alcohol beverages. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution took away the license to do business from these operations.
Pictured above is downtown New Castle shortly before the enactment of 18th Amendment. Note the “Prohibition Amendment Headquarters” at the right of the photo.
The best evidence available to historians shows that consumption of beverage alcohol declined dramatically under prohibition. In the early 1920’s consumption was about 30 per cent of the pre-prohibition level. Consumption grew somewhat in the last years of prohibition, as illegal supplies of liquor increased and as a new generation of American disregarded the law and the self-sacrifice that was part of the prohibition movement. Nevertheless it was a long time after repeal before consumption rates rose to their pre-prohibition levels. In that sense, prohibition “worked.”
Source: Temperance & Prohibition, Department of History, The Ohio State University
WAR
WWI Diary – J. Howard Forbes, U.S. Army Infantry
August 1, 1918
Went by trucks to Chateau Therry – stayed in woods that night. Saw shell holes and several graves and equipment scattered around. Had been fighting there a few days ago.
September 13, 1918
Pass up through where the lines were the day before. See 2 dead Germans. Saw a bunch of German prisnors the day before. Looked to be in good condition.
September 29, 1918
Get up and march a few miles until the outskirs of a ruined village. Wait there until afternoon then go on to a woods near the front, relieving the 32nd Division. On the way several shells burst a hundred yards or two away. D. Fought is wounded. After we get to the woods, dig a dugout.
October 4, 1918
Leave dugout about 4 a.m. As soon as we can get room we are fanned out in 4 files 100 yards and 10 paces between each man in the files. Pass along left side of large woods to top of hill – laid down and rested. Putting down a barrage among us at the same time. Was foggy and smokey so could not see very far. Went on and crossed a valley and climbed the next hill and rested. Then were ordered to dig in. Made and ate dinner. Was ordered back to top of hill. After a little while we were ordered forward to where we were before. Our squad failed to get the order. Stayed where we were that night.
Reproduced exactly as Forbes wrote it. Note: Chateau Therry is actually Chateau Thierry, France.
WORK
The turn of the century saw a rise in immigration to Lawrence County. While many Irish, German, and Welsh had flocked to the area in the latter part of the 19th century, now the county began to see more southern Europeans, Slovaks, Russians, and Hebrews. Many of them went to work in the mills, limestone quarries, and railroads. And most had to live near their work. The southside of New Castle, and the mill area of Ellwood City teemed with a multitude of cultures and languages. Wampum and Hillsville also had a new group of immigrants.
Many came here with a skill, such as stone masons, tin workers, ironmongers, and others were merchants or peddlers, but the majority were common laborers.
They were sent to quarry the grey gold (limestone) needed by the iron and steel industry, or to work as furnace men. These newcomers lived near others who spoke the same language and held the same traditions. They also formed social clubs where they could gather to spend their leisure time, what little they had.
Men worked 12 hour shifts, six or seven days a week. The heat in the factories was almost unbearable, and the work was hard hand labor. Young boys went into the factory by the age of ten or twelve. To survive every member of the family had to work. The women often took in boarders and sometimes laundry. Young girls early learned to help prepare meals and take care of household chores. Many were hired out to help more affluent neighbors.
By the beginning of World War I, the families in the cities had weathered several violent labor strikes, and massive unemployment. In the country, life was not much better. While there was fresh air and good food, low payments for their crops, had caused many farmers to look for outside employment.
The 20’s started with a bang. Such promise. Construction was at its highest level since the building boom after the Civil War. There was work in the the service industries, as everyone rushed to the movies, or a vaudeville show. Restaurants were plentiful and the stores were full of merchandise.
Business districts thrived. Then came 1929 … The Great Depression!
THE DEPRESSION
The Depression of the 1930’s ravaged the city. Men were out of work. Many families lost their homes. The threat that had always hung over the city finally became real. U.S. Steel left town for good. In the rapid evolution of tin plate technology, the local plant had become obsolete.
Engineers decided it would be cheaper to build a new plant than to modernize the one in New Castle. Over half of the city’s population was forced to subsist directly or indirectly on relief funds.
"You couldn't get a job. On every street corner, you would see men, grown men with nothing to do. It was sad. It (the C.C.C. program) was a big help at home. When I went, they sent $22 home and you keep $8. We had good food, but it was cold. We chopped trees to try to keep warm. No one had to tell you to keep busy."
– Anthony Elisco (Oral History on the CCC camps)
Current Informational Resources on the CCC (as of October 2015)
The Pennsylvania DNCR has an excellent website on the history of the CCC in PA. In addition to historical and factual information, they offer short video interviews and a searchable data base.
Also, there is a group on the photo site FLICKR that was established with the purpose to make photographs of the CCC in Pennsylvania available to all. They offer this “photograph location for the Pennsylvania Civilian Conservation Corps Online Archive. Photographs posted here are copyright free for all to use. If you post a photo here, it is copyright free.”