Click Here to Return to Index

Click Here to Return to Milestones

The Story of Conway

Milestones Vol 26. No. 4

Shortly after the end of the Revolutionary War, General McKee, who fought with George Washington, was granted eight-hundred acres of land in the area which is now known as Crow's Run and Conway. General "Mad" Anthony" Wayne had subdued the hostile Indians of the upper Ohio Valley and General McKee followed him in 1897 to become the first permanent white settler in Crow's Run.

The combination of fertile land for the growing of crops, the wealth of minerals underneath the surface, and the proximity of water transportation to market their products, brought many a revolutionary soldier to the area which became important in the rapid development of Beaver County. In 1805, a plot of ground was set aside by General McKee on a high bluff overlooking Crow's Run, as a burial ground. In this cemetery are buried, besides General McKee, a number of revolutionary soldiers. In 1942, the tombstone of General McKee was moved to Oak Grove in Freedom.

In 1825, General McKee sold a part of this land to Michael Conway and the town growing out of the wilderness assumed the family name of the original purchaser. The funds derived from this tract of land were later used to finance part of the construction of the railroad from Pittsburgh to the Beaver Valley.

In the year 1830, the Dean family settled in Crow's Run and immediately became active in the industrial, religious, and educational welfare of their community. John Dean, the head of the newly-arrived family, set up a general store and later a saw mill. In 1833, his wife organized and taught the first school. It was during these formative years of the town that the Parks family came to Crow's Run to contribute to its development. The construction of the railroad to Conway brought the first industrial boom to Crow's Run.

The attack upon Fort Sumter signaled the start of the Civil War. It also brought into formation a company of volunteers, commanded by Captain Conway, 54 of them, which fought until its successful conclusion. Unique in the annals of warfare was the fact that the four Holsinger brothers fought under the same commander of the 139th regiment for the duration of the conflict.

The 139th regiment was organized at Camp Howe near Pittsburgh, under the command of Colonel Frederick H. Collier. Company H, CaptainJohn A. Donald, was recruited in Beaver County, in part. The regiment was immediately upon its organization, ordered to the front and arrived at Washington on the third day of September, 1862. The regiment, after the second battle of Bull Run, was assigned the mournful duty of interring the dead. They buried over 1700 bodies and joined the army at the Battle of Antietam, but it was too late for them to become engaged. At Chancellorville the regiment lost 123, counting the killed, wounded and missing. In the Battle of Gettysburg, they fought on the extreme left of the Union Line, and with its brigade on the 2nd, held the enemy to its front in check for the rest of the day.

At the Brilliant affair at Rappanhannock Station, and in the preliminary movements at Mine Run, the 139th Regiment was present and took a vigorous part. Later in the Wilderness Campaign, they bore the brunt of some of the heaviest assaults of the enemy, and lost 196 men, including nearly every commissioned officer. At Spottsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor, they fought bravely and lost heavily. In Sheridan's triumph of the Shenandoah Valley, many men of the 139th took part. They also fought battles at Winchester Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek. The regiment took part in the final and successful assault of Petersburg, and was subsequently moved to North Carolina. There, the regiment and other troops were to support Sherman, but this was not needed since Johnston had surrendered, so they were ordered to return to Washington, where on the 21st day ofJune, 1865, they were mustered out of the service.

In 1898, the Ohio River Sheet and Tin Plate Company was formed and began operations on the banks of the river. The company continued until 1910 when the entire plant was moved to New Castle.

It was not until 1949, a period of thirty-nine years, that Conway could again boast of having within its limits an industrial manufacturing firm. In April of this year, Taylor-Craft Incorporated began the manufacture of light aircraft. Two other plants, the M&N Machine Shop - - started in 1941 and owned by Joseph Mahli and Martin Niernberger, but since then moved - and the Commercial Machining Company, are engaged in the manufacture of fine precision machine parts and in the machining of brass, copper, and tool steels.

At the June Session of the Court (1905), a petition signed by forty citizens of the Village of Conway, in the Township of Economy, was presented, asking for a Borough incorporation. On June 3, 1902, the court said that the Village of Conway should be incorporated with a Borough and should be called the "Borough of Conway." Conway is noted for two reasons, both of them big ones: 1. Conway Yards of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the largest of its kind in the world. Conway Yards is located 22 miles northwest of Pittsburgh in Beaver County. The Yard stretches for nearly four miles along the northern bank of the Ohio River and expands from four tracks at either end to more than a quarter of a mile wide in the middle. 2. On the many tracks, the cars are humped by switch, one by one, and are guided by dispatchers and switchmen to the correct rail track. In many cases, the destination of these cars is thousands of miles from Conway. To maintain a 24-hour day, flood lights have been installed.

In the late 1920's a Mr. Stirn built a store on Fifteenth Street and First Avenue. It was torn down to make way for Route 65, and Mr. Stirn moved his store to the building where Kronstein's Heating & Plumbing Company is today. In 1961 Monaci and Sons Stone Company moved to the site where Stein's used to be.

Conway had an A & P in 1931. It was in the building that now occupies the Drug Store owned by Harry Wood.

Croatian Fraternal Union of America was organized in Conway in the year 1909. In 1924, the organization built its lodge on Second Avenue, and in 1925, it was dedicated. To be a member of this organization, the person or his parents, or just one of them, must be of a Slavic descent.

It was around 1920 when a World War I pilot by the name of Harley Neal started the Conway Airport. The airport was owned before 1945 by Clarence Bearl, Raymond Kirchler, and Martin Nirenberger. In 1945 the property was sold to Ben Morrow, who built Taylor-Craft, Incorporated, but moved to Ohio. In 1961, under Joseph Rabassi, the airport was abandoned to make way for a housing project. Mr. Rabassi was transferred to Beaver County Airport, where he was the manager.

The first meeting of the veterans of World War I and II was held March 29, 1946, in the Croatian Hall. The post was organized with 35 charter members, and officers were elected. December, 1946, the Women's Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars was organized and affiliated with the Conway Post. In June, 1947, the Marr property, located on Twelfth Street and First Avenue, was purchased and remodeled to serve as Post Home. The old building was torn down, and a new one built in 1961.

The Northern Lights Shoppers' City was completed in 1956. The site of the shopping center was once a wooded hollow where two creeks joined together, but these were filled in. Sears, Roebuck and Company built a large store and automobile center in 1963.

ECONOMIC GROWTH OF CONWAY

The construction of the railroad to Conway brought on the first industrial boom which centered in Crow's Run.

Beginning at what is now Sixteenth Street, following the contours of the hills for five miles up Crow's Run Valley, lies a valuable vein of stone. West of the creek were enormous deposits of clay suitable for brick and tile. The railroad, completed to the eastern part of the United State, now offered a means of utilizing this natural wealth. In the beginning only the stone was quarried and shipped by rail to the building trades. In 1875, the first clay was brought to the surface of the ground, and two brickyards operated continuously for forty-five years until the clay deposits were exhausted.

So rapid was the industrial development of the district, that construction of the "North Shore Railroad" was started as a feeder line to the existing east-west line. The road was to start from the established track with its northern terminus at Wallace City. The topography of the right-of-way offered many difficulties; three miles up the valley, two tunnels had to be drilled through a quarter mile of solid rock. Even in the day when it was considered an engineering masterpiece, the tunnels were successfully drilled. The tunnels and the profile of the old road still remain, weed grown and scarcely recognizable, as a monument to prodigious labor and ambition.