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============================================================== The Glenshaw Story By VIOLET F. ROWE (Reproduced with permission) Let us look back to the year of 1800, when John Shaw, Sr. purchased six hun- dred acres of land. He built a log sawmill on Pine Creek to prepare the lumber for his house, built on Glenshaw Avenue. Then he built a log grist mill which stood until 1845, when his son, John, Jr., replaced it with a much larger brick grist mill. This mill stood on the property across from the present Glenshaw School. In 1826 Thomas Wilson Shaw built the brick house which still stands along Butler Plank Road and is presently oc- cupied by his great-granddaughters, Mrs. Dan Tatom and Dr. Katharine L Shaw. In this year of 1835, Thomas Shaw built a sickle factory on Pine Creek, not far above his home. Long bladed reaping sickles were made from steel imported from Russia. This steel had lobe ordered two years in advance. The factory was run by water power, and about a dozen men were employed. When the factory ceased to operate, the building was con- verted into a dwelling, and later became our first Sunday School and Church. The first school was a stone building on the James Shaw farm on the other side of Mt. Royal Blvd., directly across from the North Hills Library. The first teacher was David Hiland, who boarded with John Shaw. The next school was built in the woods on Kieber Rd. There were no bridges over Pine Creek, and the children who lived on the other side of the creek had to be taken over on rafts by the men working in the sickle factory. About 1840, John Shaw, Jr. opened a coal mine on the Spencer property, the present site of Mr. & Mrs. Frank Hutchison's house. The mine supplied Spang's Mill in Etna, then called Stewartstown. The coal was hauled by six-horse teams up Glenshaw Ave, to the Butler Pike-now Mt. Royal Blvd. In 1845 a tramway was built from the mine along Pine Creek to Spang's Mill, a dis- tance of three and one-half miles. These cars held fifty bushels of coal, and people often rode to Etna on top of one of these cars of coal. For Sundays a car was clean- ed out and two boards laid across to provide transportation for anyone wishing to attend church in Etna or Sharpsburg. When the West Penn Railroad was completed, Spang got their coal from up the river, and the Shaw coal mine was practically abandoned. Mr. Shaw kept a few miners to supply coal to the people in the neighborhood, and when the farmers came in the autumn to haul their winter's supply of coal it was a common sight to see thirty or forty wagons at the mine at one time. Thomas Wilson Shaw also opened a coal mine above the tunnel in 1840. When the mine was at its best, about 16 hundred bushels of coal would be taken out daily. Aithough there were only three houses near the mine, it became known as Coal Dale, due to the fact that it was a coaling station for the engines on the railroad. The houses were torn down when the cut was made at Mt. Royal, and the course of the creek was changed. Of course, no village In the early days was complete without a blacksmith shop. The first shop in Glenshaw was opened in Huckleberry Flat, now Spencer Lane, in 1850 by Mr. Joseph Hunter, Besides shoeing horses, he made the horseshoes and also the horseshoe nails. He charged 18 cents for a new shoe and 9 cents for removing and replacing one shoe. Dur- ing the Civil War he made chains for harnesses to be used in the Army. The same year the DeHaven School was built, and the Braun School was built a few years later. The Butler Plank Road was laid out between Pittsburgh and Butler in 1852 and was considered one of the finest pieces of engineering in Western Penn- sylvania. Although chartered under the name of Butler Plank Road, the planks were not laid until the early seventies. The first road was flagstone, taken from the quarry on the hill between Wittmer and Undercliff. When the Plank Road was graded, the stage coach, which had formerly run on the Butler Pike, transferred its route to the Plank Road. This stage carried passengers and mail between Pittsburgh and Butler, taking 14 hours for a trip one way. The people thought nothing of waiting many hours for a stage coach. Shortly after the Plank Road was built, the first post office in Glenshaw was opened in small store building in the John Shaw yard. Mr. William Shaw was postmaster. The post office was discon- tinued when the West Penn Railroad was built in Butler in 1864. The mail was then carried by train, and the Glenshaw peo- ple had to go to Etna for their mail. In 1870 Mr. Shaw built the first ice house beside the old mill race, near where the B. & 0. Station now stands. Several ice houses were built, making a very profitable business. Ice ponds were delightful places to skate, and people came for miles to enjoy this winter sport. In 1875 fire bricks used on steam boats were made on a small scale In a yard in Huckleberry Flat. When the Pittsburgh and Western narrow gauge railroad was built through Glenshaw in 1877, a Post Office was again opened in a small room at the rear of the grist mill wtih Miss Nancy Shaw as Postmistress. Later she put up a new building near the mill and opened a store in connection wtth the Post Office. The Glenshaw or Shawtown children attended the Braun School until 1865 when a brick school house was built on the Fall Run property, but this building soon proved too small, and plans were made for a new school. While four rooms of the present Glenshaw School were be- ing built, it was necessary to equip a room in the old grist mill for the primary children. The American Natural Gas Company was formed in 1887. Its first gas was found in Hampton Township. Not hav- ing meters at first, families were charged according to the number of fires and lights used. In 1888 the Pittburgh Coal Company leased the Fall Run property. A company Store and two rows of red houses, known as Red Row, were built. Coal at this time was 7-1/2 cents per bushel, and about one hundred men were employed. All the trees large enough for pit posts were cut down, and the ferns and wild flowers- which had always made Fall Run one of the beauty spots of Western Penn- sylvania were trampled out. In 1892 the Post office burned and was replaced with a brick structure in 1893 by Mr. McMlllan. It was June 21, 1893, when Mr. & Mrs. Walter Shaw were among the first to ride on the Ferris Wheel at the World's Fair in Chicago. Mr. Shaw was the lnspecting engineer and was associated with the builder, Mr. George Washington Gales Ferris. The Reverend J.F.R. Currie, pastor of the Valley Church, started the first library in 1896. He selected the books, catalogued them and acted as librarian. When he left Glenshaw, the library was neglected and the books not in circula- tion. Four men, each putttng up six hun- dred dollars, built the Glenshaw Glass Factory. On January 7, 1895, the first bottle was made by Pete McClafferty. There were ten employees. Mr. Jacob Meyer joined the company in August of that year and relieved a financial em- barrassment. The first barber shop In Glenshaw was opened in 1898 by Mr. Philip Hartz. It was this year that four rooms were added the Glenshaw School, making It a two- story building. In 1900 Glenshaw Glass Company bought their present location, across the road from the first factory, and a two-year high school course was added at the Glenshaw School. In 1902 Mrs. H. C. Shaw, along with some other women of the community, became interested in the library and had the books removed from the church to the building which stood below the church on Pine Creek. A group of men had erected this building to be used as a Store and lodge room, but it proved to be a failure and became a white elephant. Mrs. Haines was the librarian at this time. At the turn of the century, America was progressing rapidly-Congress pass- ed the Gold Standard Act, Major Reed discovered that the mosquito was the cause of yellow fever, and the popular means of transportation were the horse and buggy and the bicycle. The days of the bicycle races in the '90's were big events in the lives of people of Glenshaw. Many can still remember the numbers of the racers' backs and lemons in their mouths as they rode from Etna to Bakerstown. Bert Goebel was champion racer in those days. The popularity of the bicycle was reflected by the most popular song of the '90's-"Daisybell." In 1903 the Bell Telephone Company had its beginning in Glenshaw with a small switchboard in the back of James McKee's store. This was also the year Ford Motor Company was founded, and the first transcontinental auto trip was completed from San Francisco to New York--it took ten weeks. At the turn of the century there was but one auto for every 9,500 persons, and not ten miles of concrete road. George Wittmer, Jr. owned the first automobile in Glenshaw, and Dr. Ray, the second. Yes, the automobile was becoming very fashionable, and those who were lucky enough to own one wore dusters or loose coats to ward off the dust. Chiffon veils were tied over hats, and dark glasses were worn to complete the motoring outfit. In the year 1903, the Wright brothers made their first successful flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 1904, the Congress of Mothers worked for laws to restrict child labor, preventing children under 16 from working nights and il- literates under 16 from working at all. The Panama Canal was begun this year, the Olympic games were held for the first time in the United States, and everyone was talking about the stage play, "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch." This same year on May 19 a fire of un- known origin completely razed the Glenshaw Glass Company, along with the ice houses belonging to the Wittmer Ice Company across the road. The fac- tory was rebuilt, and in exactlv 21 days they were again making bottles. March 3, 1904, was the date of the big flood in Glenshaw. The flood washed away all bridges on Pine Creek and caused much property damage. The water came through the tunnel, making it level between the hills. These two disasters coming so close together almost ruined the Glenshaw Glass Company. Coal mining was also ended in Glenshaw. When the miners left, only six rooms were needed in the school, so the par- titions were removed between the rooms on the second floor, making an auditorium for public meeting. Time passes until the year 1907. The Ball Chemical Company, originally from Millvale, built at Wittmer Station on the property once occupied by the Wittmer Ice Company, the ice business becoming a thing of the past. Elmer J. Nicklas es- tablished the Coat and Builders Supply Yard, and Glenshaw Glass installed a new machine to make jars, thus eliminating making them by hand. In 1910, the Plank Road was replaced with brick and warrenite. The road was completed in 1912 and is now State Highway Route 8, the main highway between Pittsburgh and Erie. In 1916 a recommendation was made to have an effective censorship of moving pictures, and efforts were made to teach English to every foreign-born mother as soon as she arrived in this country. Our country was in the midst of World War I. The Reverend Baker left to enlist in the service. Out of thirty-five Glenshaw boys, Robert Leight Titzel was the only one to lose his life in the war. In the school yard a tree has been planted to his memory. In 1917 the Thomas Spacing Machine Company was built at Wittmer Station. This was an asset to the community, for 75 men were employed, manufacturing spacing machines, punches, shears and specialties. The Glenshaw Glass Company suf- fered greatly from another fire, and Prohibition made thousands of dollars of beer bottles stock worthless. Mr. Samuel Meyer was elected General Manager when the factory was rebuilt. This mark- ed a new era in the history of Glenshaw Glass, for now the main products were pop bottles and food containers. In 1924 to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population along the Butler Pike, the high school was moved to the Braun School. This year the library was again moved back to the "white elephant" with 300 books to meet the needs of both voung and old. This was the period that the crossword puzzle took the nation by storm, and Paul Whiteman performed Gershwin's famous "Rhapsody in Blue" for the first time in New York. On September 14, 1927, "William Crooks," the first B. & O. train, under its own power and with several Indians on board from Glacier National Park, pass- ed through Glenshaw on its way to the Centenary Exhibition of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Baltimore, Maryland. When the bottom fell out of the stock market in 1929, it put the country in a great depression. In November, 1930 the first Presbyterian Home for the Aged was opened in Glenshaw by Mrs. Martha Kelly, sister-in-law to Wilson A. Shaw. In 1931 Moortgat Studios, designers of ar- tificial flowers and foliage, moved to their present location of Vilsack Rd. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President of the United States in 1932. The Works Progress Ad- ministraton (WPA) was set up to increase employment. Men in this group built the stone wall, steps and fence around the Glenshaw School, and young men in the C.C.C. Camps helped build many state parks and dams that we enjoy today. In 1936 flood which caused much damage to Pittsburgh by-passed Glenshaw, the worst damage being only one-and-a-half inches of water in the cellars of the houses next to the creek. On December 7, 1941, the North Hills Library held ground breaking ceremonies for their new building on Mt. Royal Blvd. It was this fateful Sunday afternoon when we heard that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. Our country was plunged into World War II. The North Hills Library held open- house in September, 1942. The reading group of the North Hills Women's Club was the forerunner of this library. The Presbyterian Home for Aged moved to the house on the corner of Glenshaw Avenue and the Butler Plank Road this same year. It was in the 40's that Glen Miller was the idol of the Bobby Soxers, and Kate Smith introduced the song she made so famous, "God Bless America." In 1944 the Lower Glenshaw Library Association purchased the "white elephant" when the owners threatened to tear it down. The first floor room was made into a memorial to Miss Mary Sim- mons, the first librarian. In the front win- dows of the library, two lamps burn night- ly. They were givn by Mr. & Mrs. G. P. Thomas as a memorial to their sons Robert and Edgar. The ceiling lights at the library were presented by Mrs. Louis Statler in memory of her son, Louis. On May 8, 1945, we celebrated V-E Day. On July first of that year the Post Of- fice moved into its present building. Mr. Edgar retired from his duties as Post- master in May, 1949, and Mr. George V. Baitler. our present Postmaster, was ap- pointed. With the growth of the township, the 600-student high school located on Mt. Royal Blvd. was overcrowded. In 1950 plans were drawn up to erect a new high school building and to convert the old building into a junior high school. Ground was broken in 1951, and the building was in partial use by the winter of 1953. The Kiwanis Club of Glenshaw purchased 22 acres of land in May, 1951, to be used as a community park. This area is still being developed and im- proved each year for the benefit of the residents in the community. The Mount Royal Shopping Center became a part of the township scene in March, 1952, proving popular with the ever-increasing number of suburban residents. In 1959-the lower Glenshaw Library was completely remodeled, the new junior high school on Scott Avenue was opened in September, Route 8 has become a four-lane highway, and Burchfield Road is the fastest growing section in Glenshaw. Such has been "The Glenshaw Story"-a community rich in history, tradition and service to God. The End ----------- Did you know: Miss Mary Simmons was the first Librarian of Glenshaw. For 25 years she was the Librarian of the Glenshaw Free Library. Dr. Sturges(Sturgis?) (photo below) was the first doctor in Glenshaw. He was located near the Old Glenshaw Post Office. Joseph Selnak was the first policeman of Shaler. Mr. Selnak had the jail built in his home- two cells, with steel bars and doors. ==========================================================================