Caputo' s Market was the focal point of Freedom for over 40 years. The store was established by Frank Caputo, who had come from Calabria in Italy in 1902.
Frank took instructions in citizenship from Miss Ada Jackson, who was later to become the Freedom School superintendent.
He worked for a short time at the National Glass Co. and later at Pennsylvania Railroad, becoming a track foreman in 1906.
"The railroad had a marching band, recalled Eugene, one of Frank's five children. "My uncle Dom was the leader, and my father played the baritone horn. My uncles Joe, Eugene and Ernie were all in the band."
Eugene, who is an electrician and retired electric shop teacher from the Beaver County Vocational-Technical School, said the railroad also supported various sports teams in the factory leagues in the county.
In 1925, Frank quit the railroad and started a fruit and vegetable store at Third Avenue and Third Street in Freedom. The building was small, and after a few years, Frank constructed a new building a short distance up the street where he operated the grocery and confectionary store.
"At one time or another, all five of the 11 children and my mother helped in the store Eugene said. "It was a seven-day-a-week operation and remained open until late at night. We gave credit, and my father would never turn anyone away who wanted food."
"Customers would make purchases and give us the latest news of people and the community. We were very close to our customers, and every now and then I come across an old customer who speaks only of affection for my mother and father."
The store remained in business until Frank retired in 1969 as construction started on the Freedom bypass highway.
Besides Gene, the other children are Mrs. Ed (Raphael) Karowski and Mrs. Mary Matika, both of Freedom, and Dominic of Ambridge. A brother, Joe, is deceased.
Frank died in 1971 at the age of 83. His wife, Marianna, died at the age of 80 in 1976.
Eugene graduated in 1942 from Freedom High School, where he played a baritone horn in the school band. He had 22 years as an electrician with the Koppers Co. He later worked at Westinghouse, the Conway Yard of the Pennsylvania Railroad and A.M. Byers. He taught in the electric shop at Aliquippa High School and for I I years was with the county vo-tech school before retiring this year.
He married Eleanor Shonti of Koppel in April of 1948, and they have a son, Gregory, who is a graduate of Notre Dame, with graduate work at the Medill Journalism School of Northwestern Univerity.
Greg was a news director for various television and radio operations, including the Columbia Broadcasting Co. He is the news director of the Fox Broadcasting System. He has three children.
Eleanor, a Beaver Falls graduate of the class of 1944, met Eugene at a dance at McDanel Hall in New Brighton. She is currently a secretary to the Freedom Middle School principal, Anthony Mullen, and has been with the school system as a secretary for 23 years.
After graduating from high school. she worked for J. Ellis Jackson and the H. B. McCray real estate agency in Beaver Falls and for seven years was in the office of Babcock &- Wilcox Co. in Beaver Falls.
"People have been very kind to us," Eugene said. "Meeting and serving people in the store was a great experience." There are so many people who have never forgotten Caputo's Market in Freedom.
It wasn't rare to see August Mengel of Freedom trudge to Dutchman's Run near Freedom and, with a large saw, cut blocks of ice from the frozen water. You see, August, better known as Gusty, operated a meat market on Third Avenue and Sixth Street in Freedom.
"My husband often told me about making these trips and how important it was as the ice provided the only refrigeration for the meat," Eleanor Mengel said of her husband, Lawrence Mengel, Gusty's brother. Lawrence had his own nickname, Fritz.
"He was one of 11 children in the family." she said, adding that Fritz didn't work in the meat market.
Fritz Mengel worked at Otto Cement Co. on Marion Hill and later was a caretaker at the Oak Grove Cemetery. He retired from Freedom Casket Co. and died in 1987.
Eleanor Mengel has lived in New Sewickley since 1953, when she got married, and remembered there were so many stories about the various grocers of Freedom that they all became legends. Those running the stores were always spoken of with affection for their kindness and generosity to people who ran into difficult times.
"The Mengel meat market was a prominent part of the community," she said. "The market was part of Freedom, and although it went out of business before World War 1, it is still remembered by the community. The children kept the name alive, and there are relatives throughout the district."
Gusty's wife, Mary Cottam Mengel, helped out in the market, she said.
The meat market building was torn down for the Freedom bypass. Tosh & Brown, an insurance firm that also did various community work, was the last occupant.
Eleanor Mengel was born on College Hill and later lived on Geneva Hill in the Beaver Falls area. In her senior year of high school, she had to quit because her mother died and she was needed at home to raise five younger children.
She was determined to get a high school diploma and returned to school, graduating in the January class of Beaver Falls High School.
I Shortly after graduating, she married Paul Wilson of Geneva Hill. He died at the age of 27. She remarried five years later to Glenn Ruby, who was employed at the Aliquippa Works of the former Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. Shortly after the marriage, Ruby was told he would have to quit work due to illness. He died in 1951.
During her husband's illness, she went to work in the meat departments in Kroger stores in Beaver Falls and New Brighton. After Wilson's, death she married Mengel.
She is the mother of two children, Kathy Wisener of New Brighton and Paul of Brighton Township. She has five grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.
"I was very happy working at Kroger's and Westinghouse," she said. "Roy Ruby. my brother-in-law, who was a manager for Kroger's, helped get me the job.
"Later I was an assembler at Westinghouse. They were so kind to me, and I felt like I belonged. At Kroger's. you always met people and they became friends. At Westinghouse, those I worked with were so nice. and they also became my friends."
Currently living in a New Sewickley home that's at least 100 years old. She and thier daughter are regular members of the Bible Baptist Church in the township.
At one time. the Mengels owned 38 acres in New Sewickley, but it became too much to handle and they sold off most of it, retaining the five acres that surround the home.