Did you know?
It was 50 years ago this month that it was reported that 4,000 Boy Scouts had descended on the Fayette County Fairgrounds as part of a mammoth camporee.
On the front page of the June 6, 1964 edition of the Uniontown Morning Herald that a “Scout City” housed a three day-long event that was comprised of Boy Scouts from both Westmoreland and Fayette counties.
Those young men in uniforms were certainly different from the gathering that took place 99 years earlier, on June 9, 1924.
It was reported that 8,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan had gathered at Gray’s Hill, near Hopwood, “and participated in a gigantic picnic and naturalization ceremony.”
During the early half of the 20th Century, there was no doubt who the most famous American was – Charles A. Lindbergh.
He’d gained worldwide fame for being the first aviator to fly an airplane, nonstop, across the 3,610 miles from New York to Paris between May 20, and May 21, 1927.
In those days, any news about “Lucky Lindy,” would gain prominence on the front pages of the nation’s newspapers.
And that was especially the case, just one month after he made that historic flight.
“LINDY’ MEETS OFFICIALS AT WASHINGTON,” read the headline on the front page of the June 24, 1927 edition of the Morning Herald.
That obviously had local interest, but more so, because Uniontown was in his flight path between Dayton, Ohio and Washington, D.C.
“Passing over a point near Uniontown at 10:14 yesterday morning, Colonel C.A. Lindbergh, accompanied by three army pursuit planes of the P-1 type made fast time enroute to Washington from the McCook Flying Field in Dayton, Ohio” read the report.
Lindbergh’s plane only flew as low as 5,000 over the observatory station at Uniontown’s Burgess Field, but that was enough to have caused quite a stir.
After all, Lindbergh’s high flight over the city, with his growing renown of the day, would have been as exciting, for some people, as a walk down Main Street by John Glenn in the 1960s, or a visit to the Uniontown Mall by Neil Armstrong in the 70s or 80s.
And Uniontown wasn’t alone in charting Lindbergh’s every move. On the day it was reported he’d flown over Uniontown, there were dispatches from Dayton, Moundsville, W.Va., and Barnesville, Ohio, complete with his flight times.
Even one local church seemed enamored with the Lindbergh mystique.
The front page of the June 30, 1927 edition of the Morning Herald carried the following headline: “LINDBERGH PICNIC TO BE HELD.”
“This Presbyterian Sunday school of Uniontown is going to lead all other Sunday schools of the world with a Lindbergh picnic,” the lead paragraph said in part.
On July 14 at Shady Grove Park, there would be a “Black Bottom” (dance) competition, as well as an “over-ocean horseshoe pitching contest,” a “transcontinental race from New York to Paris and back,” and all kinds of “airplane races,” for the children of the First Presbyterian Sunday school.
By the way, that original June 24, 1927 report concluded with the sentence, “Plans for his return trip have not yet been announced.”
Well, he didn’t return to Dayton with a flight over Uniontown, but if you’ve been reading these articles over the past few years, you probably already knew he did set foot in Fayette County in September of 1934.
He and his wife Anne made a refueling stop at Floyd Bennett Field on Connellsville Road, on their way to New York to testify at the famous Lindbergh baby trial the following day.
Though not as high-flying as an airplane, it was reported on the front page of the June 21, 1953 edition of the Uniontown Evening Standard, that lots of Uniontown’s young playground attendees would be taking flight too – but on ponies.
“Young Hopalongs of the city will be digging out their chaps, spurs and six-guns next week and riding the local range,” said the lead paragraph.
It was reported that Uniontown’s legendary City Recreation Director, J.S. “Bus” Albright, had fielded offers from the owners of ponies to provide pony rides on all of Uniontown’s seven playgrounds.
“The Uniontown Protected Home Circle generously offered to sponsor a pony, if one could be found.”
One was obviously found, and it was reported that, “The pony rides will being Monday; they will be free, and open to all children up to the age of 11. The treat will continue for nine weeks,” said the report.
If there’d been a few playground pony rides a hundred years ago this week in Uniontown, perhaps there would have been fewer cases of “loafing” that led to jail time.
The June 22nd, 1914 edition of the Morning Herald carried the headline, “BOYS SAY WERE CALLING AFTER CHURCH; POLICE CHARGE LOAFING.”
A Uniontown patrol officer spotted three “young men” sitting on a Connellsville Street porch at 11 o’clock on a Sunday night, and he hauled them to jail.
According to the report, the boys said they’d just been to church and they were simply “talking baseball.”
That didn’t matter to the police officer.
They were taken downtown, charged with “loafing on the street,” and they were held until their $6 forfeits could be paid the following morning.