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Articles from the News Tribune

BEAVER FALLS TRIBUNE, March 16, 1914

CINDER PATH FOR TRAINING HORSES

The speed committee was authorized to go ahead with the work of constructing a cinder path, one-third of a mile in circumference in the paddock of the halfmile track at Junction Park, at a meeting of the board of directors of the Beaver County Agricultural Association and this work will be commenced as soon as the weather will permit. The purpose of the cinder track is to furnish a training track which may be used during wet weather and horsemen will not be forced to take their horses onto a muddy track.

The board of directors, in session at the court house at Beaver, voted to add $150 to the purses which will be given away during the county fair this year and the purses for the three events on the card for the first day will each be raised $50.00 insuring a larger and better entry. Bids for the construction of the cinder path were opened and the contract will be awarded by the speed committee.


FROM THE FILES OF THE NEWS TRIBUNE
MARCH 30,1928

Heirs of the late James Patterson of Patterson Heights, through their attorney, Daniel Stone filed additional statement of claims in their suit against Beaver County to recover grounds used in the approaches to the new highway bridge connecting Beaver Falls and New Brighton.

The abstract of plaintiff's reply to county's answer to the suit follows:

The heirs of James Patterson sued the County of Beaver in ejectmentf or the old railroad bridge between New Brighton and Beaver Falls. The county some time ago filed an answer, denying liability, and the plaintiffs have just replied.

Plaintiffs set up that their grandfather, James Patterson, owned the mills, water power and manufacturing sites at Beaver Falls, and was anxious to improve the transportation facilities for freight originating in his mills, and in effect gave this right-of-way to the first railroad built in Beaver County in 1850.

Plaintiffs say that under a law passed by the Legislature in 1903, if a railroad omits to operate part of its right-of-way for six months, the same is to be considered abandoned.

Relying on this plaintiffs charge that the railroad abandoned its right-of-way bridge in 1926 and afterward made a deed for it, as though they owned a fee simple, to the Overgrade Bridge Company, which in turn sold it to Beaver County.

The defendant claims that the bed of the Big Beaver Creek was owned by the state, and this the plaintiffs rebute by saying that their title was taken up in 1786 and 1792, before act declaring the Beaver Creek a navigable stream was passed by the Legislature in 1798.

Plaintiffs assert that the action had by the Public Service Commission in 1925 was in no sense a condemnation of their property, but merely authorized as far as that Commission could do so, the several corporations involved to execute their contracts referred to, regarding the change of some of the tracks of the railroad, etc., and the plaintiffs charge that the action of the Public Service Commission, having been without notice to them, cannot deprive them of their property, as not being due process of law.


TRIBUNE FEB. 1883 CLUB CASINO

Club Casino has been taken over by new management and announces their gala opening to take place Feb. 11, 1883. Interior decorators have been busy for the past three weeks redecorating and making preparations to present to the people of this territory one of the finest night clubs in Pennsylvania. A nationally known dance band and New York floor show have been engaged to play for the new Club. CLUB CASINO: formerly Old Morado Park.


CHRISTMAS SHOPPING HALTS GRIND OF THE
WHEELS OF JUSTICE

THE NEWS TRIBUNE - DECEMBER 22,1921

Wheels of justice did not grind in Judge George A. Baldwin's court for twenty minutes following the noon recess Wednesday afternoon because of a woman's anxiety to complete her Christmas shopping.

Juror #8 in the case on trial, Alva A. Thayer of Baden, arrived minutes late.

"You are late", remarked Judge Baldwin to him. Yes, your honor, replied the juror. "My wife was anxious to complete her Christmas shopping and I had to cash a check and give the money to her. I missed connections.

His explanation was accepted as entirely satisfactory and the trial started.


FORGED CHECKS TO BUY CHILD XMAS PRESENT
Mother Confesses to Charge Which is Later Quashed
by Agreement
THE NEWS TRIBUNE - DECEMBER 23,1921

A woman welI known in the Beaver Valley, recently succeeded in passing two forged checks on Beaver Falls clothiers, but after an investigation by the police the father of the woman made good the loss and the case has been dropped.

Back of the act is said to lie a pathetic story in which mother's love for her children prompted the deed in order to secure money for which to give her children Christmas presents.

According to the information available, the woman had no money and growing desperate over not being able to buy a present, came to the store, bought merchandise and presented checks, signing her father's name. In both cases, suspicions of the businessmen were aroused and calling the banks on which the checks were drawn, found the checks were forgeries.

A warrant for the arrest of the woman was secured and the officers with the businessmen concerned, located the home of the woman. An investigation brought tears and confessions from the woman who admitted giving the checks.


WILL CLOSE SALOONS
THE NEWS TRIBUNE - DECEMBER 21, 1903

Last week a committee composed of members of the Bartenders' union called upon the hotel proprietors of the county and presented a petition for a half holiday on Christmas afternoon. With one or two exceptions the petition was signed by the hotel proprietors and in consequence the bars at all of the hotels in the county will likely be closed at 1 o'clock on Christmas day. The proprietors appreciated the fact that the bartenders desire to eat their Christmas dinner at home and spend a portion of the day with their families and friends. That the traveling public can be accommodated satisfactorily during the forenoon and that the closing of the saloons during the afternoon will not injure the respectability of the community.


NEWS TRIBUNE - DECEMBER 24,1921

BERTON BRALEYS DAILY POEM
CHRISTMAS

CHRISTMAS again! And our spirits grow merrier,
Down drops each selfish, conventional barrier,
Hearts beat more lightly and footsteps grow airier,
This is the glorious period, when
All 'round the planet, whatever the latitude,
Mortals are glowing with love and with gratitude,
Christmas again!

THIS is the happy and this is the jolly day,
This is the dearest and tenderest folly-day,
This is the magical, mistletoe-holly-day,
Which we have with us but once in a year,
Come on, we're good little pals all together now,
Time to cut loose from your dignity's tether now,
Old folks or young folks, we're birds of af eather now
Christmas is here!

ISN'T it good to be friends with humanity,
Practicing something like true Christianity?
Must we go back to the greed and the vanity
Which have made sorrow and woe among men?
Christmas time spirit - how splendid a thrill it is!
Let us preserve it, with all our abilities;
Hold to it, practice it, live it, until it is
Christmas again!


CHRISTMAS BASKETS ARE SENT TO 160 FAMILIES
THE NEWS TRIBUNE - DECEMBER 24,1921

One hundred and sixty baskets of food have been prepared by the Salvation Army for distribution among the poor families in the county and will be sent out by Captain Jones and his aides, today. Each basket contains potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, corn, breakfast food, tea, coffee and sugar, as well as meat or chicken, also a five-pound sack of flour.

The cost of each basket is estimated at about $4.

On Tuesday evening at 7 o'clock the Christmas treat for poor children will be held at the army citadel in Beaver Falls and each child will be given candy, toys and a warm garment.

A Christmas entertainment, the "Old Woman in Her Shoe," wiIl be given by Salvation Army workers at the citadel on Monday and Tuesday evenings.


TIMES HAVE CHANGED
News Tribune - Aug. 28, 1931

Since then the street cars have passed on and the horse and buggy have been supplanted by the auto, the bus and the truck. It reminds us of the little girl who ran from the kitchen to her mother and asked her to come quick the soup was getting bigger than the pot.


PITTSBURGH ONCE JEALOUS OF GAINS
MADE BY COUNTY
August 1950 - News Tribune

In the early days, before the great advances in transportation were made, shipping costs by Conestoga wagons through this area ran from three to five cents a pound. It required from eight to ten days to get a reply from the Beaver post office to Philadelphia.

Nearness to Pittsburgh in those days conferred advantages; but there were disadvantages, too, contributed by this proximity to that metropolis - hindrances to general progress.

Pittsburghers sought feverishly to discourage prospective manufacturers from coming to Beaver county where they might take advantage of the water power. Water power was then the chief inducement.

Pittsburgh interests advertised far and wide that fuel and engines were plentiful there and that costs were exceedingly low. Money could be saved by locating plants in Pittsburgh they harped. Unexcelled banking facilities too, were also emphasized as an argument in favor of locating there.

Pittsburgh's hospitality to settlement outside of that city can well be perceived in an extract from a letter of Alexander Allison of March 2, 1796, four years before this county was officially established. The letter was written at Washington, Pa., to Secretary George M. Dallas, relating to the sale of lots at Beaver:

"The last sale was in this town, that was not altogether right, as the land is not in this county. (The emphasis is that of Allison). Yet, reasons, perhaps true, and if true, sufficient, were given for not selling at Pittsburgh. The people of Pittsburgh, it was said disliked the establishment, and would have thwarted the progress of the sale and settlement of the town. They have engrossed almost all of the lots in the reserve tract opposite to Pittsburgh, and made use of that as an argument to remove the seat of more justice from that place into Pittsburgh, and so prevented any town there. They might have been disposed to do the same thing at McIntosh (Beaver)."


FROM THE FILES OF THE NEWS TRIBUNE

15 YEARS AGO
September 26, 1916

To avert a collision with another machine, R.B. McDanel, Jr., New Brighton, drove his heavy touring car into the large plate glass window of the Hanauer store, Seventh avenue. McDanel was but slightly injured.

The Duquesne Light company is planning vast improvements at a cost of $4,000,000 which will provide the highest commercial and domestic efficiency to the consumers.


ANSWERS TO QUERIES
NEWS TRIBUNE
August 28, 1931

Some one has asked us why the Tenth street bridge is called that when it doesn't connect any streets with the designation "Tenth". The reason is that when the bridge was built some forty-three years ago Tenth street, New Brighton, entered into it. Since then the street numbers and names have been changed. Twelfth avenue and Thirteenth avenue merge at the New Brighton end of the bridge now. The bridge was built for horse and buggy and street car traffic. In 1899, thirty-two years ago, the county bought the bridge.