The last month of 1922 was a rough one for Fayette County’s taverns. Though the National Prohibition Act (or “Volstead law”) was put in place nearly three years earlier, local speakeasies still offered a setting for “many Saturday night frolics and joyous pleasure parties,” as an article in the Daily News Standard called them. That came to an…
Halloween has come and gone — my favorite holiday by far! Yesterday I sat at the PA Room’s desk, dressed in full pirate regalia and eager to scare any kids who wandered too far from the confines of the Children’s Library. (Actually, I had candy for them. But they still seemed to be afraid of me.) It…
It’s a little remarkable to me that, being a connoisseur of all things dark and spooky, I’d never read about Frank Monaghan until I began working here. Yes, I’d heard the man’s name mentioned in passing — typically in connection with courthouse tours. But my real introduction to his case only came after I began exploring our Rare…
This segment features a news item from Fayette County’s past. This week we examine a story from the March 23, 1914 edition of the Daily News Standard. This weekend marked one hundred years since the burning of McClelland House, a hotel that once stood on West Main Street in Uniontown. If you’re local, you may have noticed coverage…
This segment features a news item from Fayette County’s past. This week we examine the March 6, 1879 edition of the American Standard. One interesting feature of our early newspapers are the sections devoted to minor happenings around the county. In the American Standard these blurbs take up an entire page, but their organization — or lack thereof…
This segment features a news item from Fayette County’s past. This week we examine the February 27, 1862 edition of the Genius of Liberty. On a February evening in Cumberland, MD, Captain James Morris of the 7th Virginia Regiment sat down to pen a difficult letter. “It becomes my painful duty to inform you, that your…
This segment features a news item from Fayette County’s past. This week we examine a story from the February 14, 1908 edition of the Daily News Standard. “The observance of St. Valentine’s day in and about Uniontown this year is very general and young and old are joining heartily in the exchange of tender missives of affection,…
This segment features a news item from Fayette County’s past. This week we examine a story from the February 9, 1924 edition of the Morning Herald. The headline isn’t all that eye-catching: “Annual Meeting of Motor Club Monday Evening.” This was a reference to the Uniontown Motor Club, a relatively new group reorganized from the Automobile Club…
This segment features a news item from Fayette County’s past. This week we examine a story from the January 28, 1915 edition of the Morning Herald. In January of 1915, the U.S. was just emerging from a two-year recession. It was in this economic climate that the The Morning Herald made a joyful announcement: The H.C. Frick Company had called…
This segment features a news item from Fayette County’s past. This week we examine a story from the January 14, 1886 edition of the Republican Standard called “Snow Bound.” With this January’s subzero temperatures still fresh in our minds, it seemed fitting to bring up another wretched moment in Fayette County’s weather history: The Storm of 1886, which…