The man on the right is Uncle Johnny. John grew up in Tin Town, Pennsylvania in the 1920's joined the Marines in 1933 in the Coastal Artillery and was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone before being stationed in the Philippines in 1939. In the above photo he trained boxers to fight in the Marines inter-divisional boxing championship matches.
After World War II the fate of what happened to John J. Grdgon became the mission of the Gurgon, Grdgon, Gergon family to find out. It was not until about 2010 that information became available to help piece together what happened to one of the Family heroes. The information below has a story of it's own being written by an author who was in a Japanese Prison camp through out most of World War II risking his life recording it. John's name was published in Life Magazine in the July 5, 1943 edition listed as killed in action. The family of Uncle Johnny have been able to get his service recognized long after WWII was over. This is an example of supreme sacrifice on many counts which can only be honored by gratitude for which the sacrifice made our lives better. Thank You Sargent John J. Grdgon and Lt. Stockton D. Burns for your supreme service and may we always remember the cost you paid for our freedom today.
"IDAHO"
BATTERY "I", 59TH COAST ARTILLERY
by
Lt. Stockton D. Bruns
This history
is written in a prisoner or war camp and is entirely from memory as all
records have either been destroyed or lost and this report may contain
certain omissions and be in error due
to these conditions.
In accordance
with orders from Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays, Corregidor,
Philippines Islands, Battery "I" 59th C.A. was created at Ft.
Mills, P.I. on or about June 1, 1941.
The organization of the Battery was as follows; Battery Commander,
1st. Lt. Stockton D. Bruns, Executive Officer 2nd Lt. Robert G. Cooper, 1st.
Sgt. George Wilkins. Cadre from
Battery "A" 59th C.A. and enlisted men that had come to the Philippines
on the boats Republic and Washington arriving on or about April 22nd, l94l
and May 5, l94l respectively made up the rest of the battery. Very few of these men off of these boats
were previous service men and a very high percentage had not received their
recruit training. The strength of the
battery as organized was two officers and ninety four enlisted men.
For training
purposes "A" pit of Battery Geary (4-12" Mortars) was assigned
to Battery "I" and M Day assignment was Battery Craighill
(4-12" Mortars) at Ft. Hughes, P.I.
As quarters
weren't available for Battery "I" at the time of organization, the
top floor of the section of Topside Barracks normally assigned to Battery
"A" 59th C.A. was turned over to Battery "I" and men were
rationed with Battery "C" and "F" 59th C.A.
On or about
October 20, l94l orders were received changing tactical assignment of Battery
"I" to the A.A. Defenses for tactical employment. The Battery was equipped with four three
inch, mobile, M-3, Anti-Aircraft guns; one T8-E3 Director; one T-2 Height
Finder and one power Plant. The new
location of Battery "I" was to be on the eastern end of Ft. Hughes
and in accordance with this change, one officer and approximately thirty
three enlisted men were moved to Ft. Hughes to load gun equipment and prepare
gun, height finder and director positions.
On or about November 30, l94l the rest of the battery and battery
equipment were moved to Ft. Hughes.
Guns, director, and height finder positions in the meantime had been
surveyed and equipment moved in to these positions, set up, and checked. Now training and preparation of positions
was continued at a far more rapid rate.
All the battery was present except for two men left behind at Ft.
Mills who were attending 60th C.A. (A.A.) Height Finder School. Repairs on barracks at Ft. Hughes hadn't
been completed and so men were rationed and quartered with Battery
"G" 59th C.A.
Ft Hughes,
Corregidor and Bataan (under cloud).
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Training and
preparation of battery positions had reached a good stage on declaration of
war by Japan on the United States on December 8, l94l. On this afternoon about 1:18 p.m. Battery
“I” fired on three enemy planes that were coming in towards Ft. Mills from
the direction of Manila at an altitude of approximately eight thousand
feet. These planes were turned back
with thirty four or thirty five rounds of ammunitions expended. The firing by Battery "I" 59th
C.A. and Battery “D" 60th C.A. (A.A.) was the first firing of the Harbor
Defenses on the enemy. This firing did
much to relieve the tension and to make everyone realize the necessity of a
still higher state of efficiency and training. Though only one officer and one enlisted man had ever served
with an A.A. Regiment, and only six weeks training had been realized, the
batteries efficiency and morale was at a high point.
Much valuable
time was spent at the beginning of the war on training, maintenance, and
police of other armament as Battery "I" was also assigned by the
Fort Commander to man Battery Craighill (4-l2" Mortars), Battery
Leach (2-6" Disappearing Guns), Battery Fuger (2-3" Rapid Firing
Guns), and the beach defense of the eastern end of the Island of Ft. Hughes
in case of necessity.
Much valuable
time was also spent on Fort duties such as unloading boats, moving powder and
projectiles, tearing down buildings for wood and tin, and many other
necessary duties.
The number of
men on Ft. Hughes was limited and time or need of any or all armament
unknown. This situation was eventually
relieved by the Marine, Navy, and Army personnel that arrived at Ft.
Hughes. On January 1, 1942 a
detachment or U.S. Marines were sent to Ft. Hughes. One platoon of one
officer and twenty-six enlisted men were attached to Battery
"I". This Marine platoon and
their equipment (4-Navy, 5O Calibre water cooled, A.A. Machine gums) were
used to replace men of Battery "I”, and their equipment (4-30 Calibre
water cooled machine guns) of the local defense of Ft. Hughes and Battery
"I" against low flying planes. The rest of the Marine personnel not
attached to Battery "I” were put in charge of the beach defenses of Ft.
Hughes. This relieved Battery “I” of
the responsibilities for the beach defenses of the eastern end of Ft.
Hughes. During February, Navy
personnel arrived at Ft. Hughes and assisted in the beach defense. During January or February Battery "I”
was relieved of all responsibility to seacoast armament assigned to it. On or about April 13, 1942 one officer and
about five enlisted men from the 5l5th C.A. and ten men from the 200th C.A.
were attached to Battery "I". This helped out considerable in the
operation and efficiency of Battery "I".
At the beginning
of the war it wasn't uncommon at all for one half of Battery "I" to
be on duty away from the Battery position.
When an air-raid was sounded, such men dropped their work and ran from
two hundred to four hundred yards to their battery position. After the alert they resumed their
incidental occupations.
Though the added
Fort duties and work at the beginning of the war detracted from the rapid
strengthening of the gun, director, height-finder, and power plant positions,
and the rations were out to one-half on January 6, 1942 and to three-eights
on March 1, 1942, barricades around the guns, director, height finder, and
power plant were constructed, trenches connecting all positions dug, wells
for bathing and washing water dug, latrines constructed, gun cables buried,
added communication lines laid, ammunition pits prepared over the battery
area, a mess set up and operated, shelters for the coming rainy season built,
dummy positions constructed, and the battery area camouflaged. This was done at a very rapid rate and soon
everything was functioning efficiently.
Ft Hughes
from the south west
The first
shelling of the battery position by the enemy was from the Cavite side on
February 6, 1942, and then intermittently from this same side until the end
of the war without any casualties or serious materiel damages. The battery position was first bombed by
the enemy on April 10, 1942 without any casualties or serious materiel damages.
The first shelling of the battery positions from the Bataan side by the enemy
was on April 12, 1942. This shelling
also brought about the first war casualties within Battery
"I". Sgt. Harry Fineman and Alfonso
lgnacio (Civilian Filipino Barber) were obtaining drinking water from a
lister bag and the first shell fired killed them both. These were the only men of Battery
"I" killed by enemy shell fire though the battery area was
subjected to frequent artillery fire during the war.
Only three other men were
killed by enemy action, and these by bombs; Pfc. Aubrey L. Collins on April
18, l942, Staff Sergeant John J. Grdgon and Orville Pruschner (200th C.A.
attached) on May 6th, l942. These men
were buried on the West side of the parade ground at Ft. Hughes.
After December
8, 1942 the general picture of enemy aerial activities against Ft. Mills and
Ft. Hughes was as follows: December 9-28, very little aerial activity and no
attacks; December 29th, heavy attacks on Ft. Mills. December 30- January 1, 1942, aerial
activity but no attacks; January 2-6, aerial activity and attacks on Ft.
Mills; January 7-13, aerial activity but no attacks; January 14 bombing of
Ft. Mills; January 15-March 23 very little aerial activity and no attacks;
March 24-April 2, general air reinforcement, aerial activity and attacks
increase against Ft. Mills; April 3-9 aerial activity but few attacks against
Ft. Mills; April 10-May 6, daily aerial attacks on Ft. Mills and frequent
attacks on Ft. Hughes.
On December 29th
enemy planes attacked Ft. Mills at an altitude under several thousands
yards. After this date all attacks by
enemy bombers were conducted at a much higher altitude; usually from seven
thousand eight hundred to eight thousand three hundred yards. The highest altitude that the enemy bombed
from was nine thousand three hundred yards. There were three hundred air-raid
alarms sounded at Ft. Mills from December 8, 1941 to May 5, 1942 when the
air-raid alarm was shot out. On May 6,
1942 there were twenty-six bombings conducted by the enemy.
With equipment
on hand the enemy planes were not always the target. The powder train fuze could not reach the
desired altitudes and the performance limitations of the old type T8-E3
director hampered quick response to targets, and its maximum altitude setting
of eight thousand yards frequently rendered it useless.
After the
"3" fixed A.A. Battery at Ft. Drum could no longer use their
equipment in mid April 1942 due to heavy enemy aerial and artillery activity
their power plant and M-l Height Finder was sent to Battery "I".
This did a great deal to increase the efficiency as the T-2 Height Finder was
highly unsatisfactory and the one power plant on hand was the only source of
alternating current on Ft. Hughes.
On the morning
of May 6, 1942 enemy troops were landing on Ft. Mills and word was received
from Col. Valentine P. Foster, the Fort Commander, to concentrate fire in the
vicinity of North Point and the Air Field of Ft. Mills. Two "3" A.A. guns were put in
horizontal fire position and Battery “I” opened fire about 5:20 A.M. This
firing continued until about 6:15 A.M. with approximately two hundred and ten
rounds of ammunition (70 rounds of High explosive and 140 rounds of Shrapnel)
expended. It was reported by the
Japanese after landing at Ft. Hughes that they suffered heavy damages and
casualties.
Battery “I” was
bombed and shelled intermittently the remainder of the day and part of the
night. At about 11:30 p.m. the night
of May 6, 1942 Ft. Hughes was subjected to heavy artillery fire and about
twelve o'clock midnight the Japanese troops landed and Ft. Hughes was
surrendered.
Captain Stockton D. Bruns, the
Battery Commander, was wounded by bomb fragments at approximately three p.m.
on the afternoon of May 6, 1942 and was admitted to the Fort Hospital at
Craighill.
Pfc. George R.
Nilhardt,___,___,___,___,___,___, were also wounded by enemy aerial bombs and
admitted to Fort Hospital.
Material damages
were high the last day of the war; one "3" A.A. gun destroyed, one
M-l Height Finder destroyed, telephone communication with Ft. Mills severed
early in the morning, Battery communication lines destroyed, gun cables
destroyed, and other losses of a minor nature.
Battery “I” was
in action against all enemy
targets except for three periods when the director was under repair and other times when targets
were well above the limits of the
director and powder train fuze.
Firing was
conducted by carefully prepared precision fire. There was no barrage firing
by this battery. Fire was restricted
to six rounds per gun at any one target and any one course as the supply of
ammunition was limited.
During the war
between two thousand five hundred and three thousand rounds of ammunition
were expended with a number of enemy flights broken up and two or more planes
downed.
Considering the
limited facilities available, the hard tasks, discomforts, and hardships
endured and overcome, this battery performed its tasks and missions in a
willing and highly efficient manner.
Battery “I” 59th
C.A. was surrendered to the Japanese Imperial Army on May 7, 1942 with the
garrison of Ft. Hughes.
The following is
a roster and the status of each officer and enlisted man of Btry “I” 59th
Coast Artillery from December 8, 1941 to May 7, l942.
 
American Legion Memorial Service Poem 4 November 1944 for the fallen of both World Wars.
Crossing the Bar
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call
for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to
sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound
and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear
me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
By: Alfred Lord Tennyson
Source:Links
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Thursday, October 30, 2014
Uncle Johnny's Story
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Tin Town, Pennsylvania
Colombia Plate Glass Factory, Tin Town, Pennsylvania.
Diverse Tintown relived
by former residents
Daily Photo Galleries
Friday, June 24, 2005
BLAIRSVILLE--Some argue the flood of immigrants
arriving in America in the late 1800s and early 1900s resulted in a melting pot,
others that the meeting of European ethnic groups was more like a mixing bowl.
However one believes the process took place, one
of the best examples of different cultures coalescing was in the now-vanished
community of Tintown. At its height, the small company village consisted of
about 70 families living in double houses in a low-lying area between the
current end of Blairsville's South Liberty Street and the Conemaugh River.
Though originally named for an older, smaller
tin mill, for much of its existence, between 1901 and 1935, the community
housed workers for the adjacent Columbia Plate Glass plant.
Blairsville's John Vukman, born in 1923, lived
in House No. 53 at Tintown until he was in his early teens.
"Most all of the people came from
Europe," he said. "It was a mixture of Italians, Slovaks, Croatians
and some others. They came here and were hired right into the factory."
Vukman's father, Stephen, who hailed from
Croatia, worked as a heat treater at the Columbia plant, overseeing a step in
the process when sheets of hot glass would be rolled out and gradually reduced
in temperature.
"If you wanted a job, you went to the glass
factory: everybody worked there," according to George Carmo, a neighbor
then in Tintown and now on South Brady Street.
Carmo was born in Parma, Italy, in 1918, and
arrived in Tintown with his family when he was three years old.
His father, Louis, though a shoe repairman by
trade, found employment on the Blairsville plant's glass-cutting tables.
Carmo recalled that harmony prevailed among
Tintown's blue-collar households.
"The people were of all nationalities, but
everybody got along," he said.
Crime was not a problem in Tintown, he added,
even though, "Everyone had a skeleton key that could open the door of
every house in town."
But, he noted, some families might be startled
from their sleep when "the ones that were drunk got the wrong house."
Eventually, African-American families lived
alongside those of European extraction in the main section of the community,
which consisted of five rows of brick company houses. But, Vukman noted, most
of the former were housed in smaller wooden dwellings located closer to the
river.
In addition, 10 families resided in the separate
"Ten Commandments," a row of 10 single wood frame homes. "They were
bought from Sears and Roebuck," Vukman said.
The American Foursquare, a Sears, Roebuck & Co. kit home, was a staple of small American towns between 1908 and 1940. More than 100,000 of them were built in America. Homes built prior to 1980 make up 80% of the housing stock in the United States. Sears offered 15 styles of Foursquare kits, which were available through the mail-order Modern Homes program. These homes arrived via boxcar, making them particularly common in neighborhoods near rail lines. The design is simple to understand and elegant in its efficient enclosure of space. Most of these designs are nearly perfect squares, with a footprint ranging from 28 ft. to 34 ft. and are two stories in height. They are typically crowned with a pyramid-shaped roof detailed with dormers.
Vukman pointed out Tintown's brick homes all
were identical save those in the row nearest to "Hilltop"--the name
for the adjacent neighborhood which extended north along Liberty Street, from
the intersection of Fourth Avenue.
Exterior staircases provided separate access to
the second floor on both sides of each house.
"They were made for four families to live
in one house," Vukman concluded. But, "By the time I was growing up,
there were just two families in each house."
Not that the homes were necessarily any less
crowded.
Vukman observed, "There were a lot of big families in
Tintown"--including the Grdgons, who had a dozen siblings under one roof.
The Petrikovic family numbered nine, the Paouncics eight, including the
parents.
On top of that, "Almost every house had
boarders"--usually fellow countrymen, often relatives, of those who were
renting the home from the glass company.
Counting the boarders, Vukman estimates there
were as many as 500 people living in Tintown at a given time.
When Vukman's father first arrived in Tintown,
he was put up by another Croatian family, the Paouncics.
In turn, once the Vukman family residence was
established, two of the three upstairs bedrooms were set aside for boarders.
"They slept in shifts," John Vukman
recalled. "When one guy got up to go to work, the other one would go to
sleep in the same bed."
Rent for the company home, which included a
kitchen, dining room and parlor downstairs, was reasonable.
Vukman said, "I remember going up the
street and paying $5 per month for rent," collected by notary public Jimmy
Turner at his East Market Street office.
With only two siblings, Vukman's family was one
of the smallest in Tintown.
But, he noted, he still was part of a post-World
War I baby boom. As a result, "There were 210 kids in my freshman class in
high school."
That same uptick in births appears to have
contributed to the need for an addition to the South Burrell grade school, a
now-defunct institution which educated the children of Tintown and Hilltop
through grade 8.
According to information he received from an
older Tintown native, the late Herman Colench, Vukman related,
"Originally, the school was laid out in an 'L' shape. Then they built onto
it and made it into a 'U' shape."
During expansion of the brick structure, in 1922
and 1923, "The kids had to go to school at the Sokol Club"--in its
original location near the end of Liberty Street--just uphill from the school
yard, not at the club's current South Spring Street site.
The school was divided into four classrooms,
each housing up to two grade levels, with one spare room. "There were
certain grades they had to break up," Vukman recalled.
When he was young, Vukmans said, "My father
taught me my ABC's in Croatian," which features two additional letters
than the English counterpart.
"Then, in school, they taught me the
regular alphabet, and my Dad said, 'That's it.' He didn't want me to get
confused, so after that, I only learned English."
But many other Tintown residents were unable to
avoid the routine twisting of foreign tongues by English-speaking officials at
both the local school and the glass plant.
As a result, many families found themselves
saddled with multiple name spellings.
"They wrote the name down the way it sounded
to them," Vukman said. So, a late cousin, whose real surname was
Radakovich, was alternately known by the name "Rodish."
In a similar situation, Carmo revealed the
surname he now uses is not the one he was born with: "Caimi."
He explained, "When my dad went to get a
job at the plant, the timekeeper changed the name to Carmo, and we grew up with
that name."
That led to a complication when Carmo enlisted
in the Marine Corps, two years prior to the U.S. entry into World War II.
He said, "When I joined the service, I had
to have naturalization papers. I was listed on my father's papers, so I had to
use the name Caimi."
Serving as a gunnery sergeant, he participated
in several Pacific Theater landings, including on Midway Island and Okinawa.
After he returned to civilian pursuits as a
carpenter and photographer, he added, "I got married as Caimi. But then I
had to legally change my name back to Carmo because they thought my brothers
and sisters were half-brothers and -sisters."
Vukman noted most of the young men and boys in
Tintown also gained an alternate to their given name.
"Everybody had a nickname," Vukman
said. "There was
Peaches and Chippy...."
Carmo was referred to as "Renzo" as he
grew up.
He and his family lived in House No. 91, in the
row closest to the river.
"I lived almost in the last house,"
Carmo said. "It was over a mile and a half to walk to the high
school."
Vukman had even farther to walk, beginning in
the fifth grade, when he switched from the South Burrell School to the SS.
Simon & Jude Catholic School, which now is closed.
Once he had reached that age, he said his
parents "thought it was safe enough for me to walk up the street,"
navigating through downtown traffic.
"About half the kids in Tintown went to the
Catholic School," he noted.
In 1926-27, just a few years after Vukman made
his Tintown debut, the Columbia glass plant underwent a $1.5 million
modernization. The move paid off, as annual production soared to a high of
seven million square feet of glass along with peak employment of 492 laborers
and 18 supervisors and office workers.
Advances at the plant were paralleled by
improvements in the community.
Originally, the glass factory had its own
coal-fired power plant to provide electricity for its manufacturing process.
Eventually, the Tintown residents also got
turned on to electricity, after years of illuminating their homes with
gaslight.
Said Vukman, "When I was a little kid, they
put a wire up through the gas line so you had one electric bulb in every
room."
As for exterior streetlights, "There were
only two or three in the whole town," Carmo noted.
Coal-burning pot-belly stoves handled both
heating and cooking chores for the Tintown households.
To help keep them burning, youngsters positioned
themselves on either side of a tipple, where rail cars would unload coal for
the glass plant.
"Anything that fell off the cars on your
side, you would get to pick up," Vukman said, pointing out, "Coal was
expensive, and there was no money back then.
"Sometimes, the guy in the tipple would be
nice, and if no one was looking, he'd throw out a lump of coal or two."
Vukman noted the cement foundation of the tipple
is one of the few remnants of Tintown and the glass plant which still can be
seen on what today is federal Army Corps property.
When he was growing up, Vukman added, South
Liberty Street was the only thoroughfare in Blairsville which was paved with
cement.
"It was built by the (glass) factory from
Main Street down to Tintown," he said. "Every other road in
Blairsville was paved with brick."
While the work was in progress, "We had to
come down Spring Street"--one block to the east.
According to Vukman, the Chenet family of
Hilltop was one of the first in South Blairsville to own an automobile. Most
residents, who couldn't afford such a luxury, simply hiked downtown to catch a
train or streetcar from East Market Street.
He noted, long-distance travel to destinations
like Johnstown usually were reserved for visits to relatives.
Eventually, "I bought the first car in our
family, in 1949."
Two of Tintown's three roads were "big dirt
streets," Vukman noted. "You could park four cards side by side in
them."
With vehicular traffic usually scarce, the
youths of the town would congregate in one of the streets to play an impromptu
game of ball or hockey.
"We played a lot of marbles, and we made up
our own games," Vukman said.
Sometimes, more organized ball games would take
place on a field between the South Burrell School and the glass factory,
pitting youngsters from one street against those who lived on another.
"There was no money then, so we were lucky
to have baseballs," Vukman said. When none could be had, the boys played
softball instead.
Vukman noted a fence lined the entire length of
the field, meant to prevent children from going down the hill and getting into
trouble among the piles of sand stockpiled for making glass.
Every young boy in Tintown eventually wanted to
join the older ball players on the community's own adult team. Initially known
as the Panthers, they were redubbed the Orioles in the 1930s.
They played neighboring rivals (the still-extant
Colts) from the eastern "Brownstown" section of Blairsville, where
Vukman now lives, or from across the river at "Coketown," now known
as Derry Township's Cokeville Heights.
"At the end of the season, they had a
round-robin tournament." But, "Every year, there was no champion. The
Colts would beat the Orioles, the Orioles beat Coketown and Coketown beat the
Colts."
The Orioles' established players were heroes to
Vukman and other younger fans.
One of the best local players was Joe
"Deffy" Petrikovic.
Said Vukman, "He played everything: he
pitched, caught and played first base. He went to Detroit for try-outs."
"Louie Radakovich was the home-run hitter,
and Steve Paouncic was the shortstop," Vukman added.
"Frank Torri used to play second base all
the time. They called him the 'Old Man' because he was playing into his
40s."
According to Vukman, "Once you were 16
years old, you were eligible to play" with the Orioles. But actually
getting to wear a uniform and take a turn at bat was another matter, he
indicated.
"In 1942, when all the older guys had gone
into the service, I got a chance to play," said Vukman, who was then an
18-year-old outfielder. "I was proud, just having that uniform on
me."
The Orioles' games were played not far from the
current Blairsville Little League field, which Vukman helped to develop in the
early 1960s. He recalled that the games were a weekly highlight for local
sports fans:
"Every Sunday, at two in the afternoon,
everybody left Tintown and came up to the game. There was nothing else to do on
Sundays."
To make the female fans more comfortable, he
said, "They built bleachers behind the backstop." Also, "A lot
of people brought their chairs or sat on the hill to watch the game."
Another way to spend a summer day in South
Blairsville was to swim in one of several popular areas along the Conemaugh.
"Each part of South Blairsville had its own
swimming hole," Vukman noted.
As a youngster, he considered the Tintown spot
too deep, at up to nine feet, and preferred going downstream to "the
Ripples," where the water was no more than four feet deep.
He explained, "They had a gas line that
went across the river there, and there was a ripple where the water flowed over
it."
At one of the vacant lots in town, traveling
attractions often set up shop in warmer weather, including a medicine man and a
carnival.
"The carnival was there two years in a
row," Vukman said. In between rides on the ferris wheel, merry-go-round or
giant swings, "They had a boxing match and some hootchy-kootchy
dancers."
Local music-making also provided a diversion for
the Tintown residents, taking their minds off the troubles of the Depression.
Several young men from the town gained a
following as the "Moonlight Serenaders String Band." Members included
Carmo's older brother Walter, on guitar, along with John Petrikovic, Joe Novak
and Conner Muir--with additional instrumentation on bass, violin and mandolin.
Said George Carmo, "They played on all the
local radio stations," with an eclectic repertoire including renditions of
popular big band tunes.
Vukman recalled the versatile players could
alter their style to suit a variety of audiences--including families of various
ethnicities for whom they would play.
"At Easter and Christmas, they came to our
home and all the neighbors would come over to dance," Vukman recalled.
"The Serenaders liked our house because we
always had wine and beer," he said. "They played American songs and
Croatian songs, too."
He recalled that there were times when the band
also would make the rounds of Tintown, stopping outside each home's window to
offer a selection--hence, the group's name.
The town additionally fielded its own
tamburitzan group, playing on mandolins, Vukman said. "They were
good."
Each of Tintown's houses had a large shade tree
planted next to it--trees which played a prominent role in annual Halloween
hi-jinks.
Recalled Vukman, "The older kids would take
swings and chairs off people's porches and put them up in the trees."
"Halloween was a big thing," he said,
noting, "Even the old folks used to dress up," taking on spooky
alter-egos for the occasion.
"I used to be scared; I'd hide under the
table."
When winter arrived, "We'd go sled riding
down the road from Hilltop to Tintown," Vukman said.
"The Quilico family used to make bobsleds,
and everybody wanted to see who could go the farthest on them."
During the Depression, when cash was scarce, the
families of Tintown did what they could to supplement their income, by growing
and raising some of their own food.
Vukman recalled that neighboring farmer Ed
Johnson permitted a section of his field to be set aside as a community garden
for the residents: "He gave a patch of that ground for all the people, so
they could plant whatever they wanted."
According to Vukman, his father grew tomatoes,
peppers and potatoes in his family's share of the "Tintown Gardens."
"Potatoes were a big crop," he noted.
"If you had them, you could eat soup all winter."
Sandwiched between the double houses, along with
privies and coal sheds, many families erected outbuildings for livestock.
"I raised rabbits, but most people had
chicken coops," Carmo noted.
Vukman's family purchased hogs raised by
neighbors and turned them into ham in their backyard smoke shanty.
"We made our own blood pudding," he
added, describing a process similar to casing sausage. "You would buy a
pig's head and cut it all up. That was like an assembly line every
winter."
For other commodities, local residents turned to
one of several food purveyors in the community.
"Ed Nakles had the big store," in the
Hilltop section of South Blairsville, Vukman said. "On one side of the
building, he had food, and the other side was furniture."
"Next door, the Fornis had a store,"
on Liberty Street between First and Second avenues. Then, "In the 1940s,
the Shurinas opened a one-room grocery store."
"Mostly, we bought canned goods" from
the local grocers, Vukman recalled.
The family also bought meat for Stephen Vukman's
lunch, when he was employed at the glass plant. "Minced ham was the
cheapest meat you could buy," his son noted.
In later years, the younger Vukman often
ventured downtown, to the A&P store, to pick up supplies for his family's
tavern.
He explained the Vukmans were among several
local families who looked for a new source of income in 1935. That year, the
end of Prohibition cleared the way for the legitimate sale of alcohol while the
glass plant, having passed through a series of owners, was closed that August
under the cloud of bankruptcy.
Taverns "were popping up all over
town," John Vukman noted.
His family's was called the "Columbia
Restaurant," because it also served food, and was operated by his mother,
Theresa, in a former store near the edge of Hilltop.
Later, when the old glass plant office building
went up for sale, the family relocated there, about a block downhill on the
opposite side of Liberty Street.
Renaming the establishment "The White
Tavern," he said, "We lived upstairs and had the business downstairs.
"There were two big walk-in safes. One of
them made a good dark room. I used to go in there and develop film."
At their business, the Vukmans had one of the
first telephones in that end of Blairsville--a pay phone.
"Everybody used it," Vukman said.
"I used to run to all the houses, saying , 'You're wanted on the phone.'
"
As Tintown mothers tended to have full houses
and little time to travel to the store themselves, Vukman noted, a number of
town merchants specialized in door-to-door service.
"Mike Asper would go from house to house
with suitcases of clothes to sell," he recalled. "And if he didn't
have what you wanted, he'd order it and bring it next time."
Likewise,
he recalled, a member of the Grdgon family made house calls to cut hair.
"When we lived at the beer garden, Dad
would give him a couple of beers to cut hair for everyone in the household, and
he was satisfied."
The St. Patrick's Day Flood of 1936 was another
pivotal episode in the history of Tintown.
At that point, Vukman, then 12, his father, and
younger brother, Joseph, still were living in House No. 53. His mother, who
would give birth that year to a third child, Mary, had moved into a room above
the Columbia Restaurant.
"We heard screaming outside, when all at
once, water started coming in the cellar window," John Vukman recalled.
"My father was yelling, 'Voda!' "--Croatian for "water."
"He got us dressed and walked us up the
hill. The current wasn't rapid, but the water came up fast," he said,
indicating the level was just above his waist when they evacuated the home and
took shelter with his mother.
Returning to the flooded house, "My father
took all the furniture he could upstairs. The water stopped two steps away from
reaching the second floor."
Once the water had receded, John Vukman also
went back down the hill and was awed by the powerful forces of nature.
"When I saw what it did to the railroad
tracks, I couldn't believe it," he said of the rising water's effect.
"It had just twisted them up."
"The fire company came down with big hoses
and washed all the mud out" of residents' homes.
Then he and his father got to work, shoveling
mud out of their residence.
"It's a miracle no one died in the
flood," said Carmo, who was one of six children in his family.
Like Stephen Vukman, Carmo recalled, "We
all carried a lot of furniture upstairs, figuring it wouldn't' go that high.
But it almost did.
"The water stopped one foot from the top of
the ceiling in the kitchen."
It helped, he noted, that the first floor of the
houses was several feet above ground level.
A senior in high school at the time, Carmo
temporarily suspended his studies to join workers repairing flood damage to
area rail lines.
"They were hiring everybody," Carmo
noted. To bring in extra money for their families, "We worked all the time
when we were kids.
"A lot of track got washed out down towards
Saltsburg," he said.
"We got on a train at Blairsville and went
down to Saltsburg. "We put in new fill and helped to lay the track and
ties."
After completing the hard labor, Carmo faced the
equally demanding task of catching up with his classes.
"It was tough," he said. "But the
teachers helped you though, and everything worked out."
Since the glass plant had shut down, and the
company had stopped charging rent, it did not help Tintown residents restore
their flood-damaged homes.
But, to prevent outbreak of disease,
outbuildings were burned and the Red Cross distributed lime to the residents.
The glass plant and its machinery also were
cleaned up, but production never resumed.
The plant was scrapped in 1938, and the area was
further bulldozed in 1952, clearing the way for construction of the Conemaugh
Dam and creation of a flood control zone upstream.
"After the flood, that's when a lot of
people started filtering out and looking for other jobs," Vukman said.
"My dad went looking in other places, but he couldn't find anything. So we
decided to make the best of it here."
Vukman was among a group of 40 young Tintown men
who entered the Army in June 1943.
Of that number, he was the only one selected for
a signal corps position, he noted, crediting his decision to take a commercial
typing class in high school.
Working on various machines, including a
teletype, Vukman and his fellow soldiers were stationed in India to pick up and
transmit coded signals of Japanese forces operating in the Burma theater.
After he was discharged, in January 1946, Vukman
completed automobile training at Blairsville's Vale Tech and initially landed a
job at a garage in Mt. Union.
He also helped maintain three trucks his family
purchased for a new venture in hauling coal, in partnership with Frank Brozick
of Bairdstown.
Eventually, Vukman was hired at the Westinghouse
plant, retiring after more than 30 years of service.
In 1989, Vukman renewed ties with many of his
old Tintown neighbors when he helped fellow area natives--Norma Piccolin
Trifilo and Helen Buco Palek--organize the first of about a dozen annual
reunions for those who had lived in South Blairsville prior to 1952.
Held at the current Sokol Club, the gatherings
attracted as many as 260.
"We had at least 10 states represented,
from Florida to California," he said.
In conjunction with the event, Vukman compiled a
mailing list of more than 300 ex-Tintown names, beginning with a survey of
gravestones at Blairsville's SS. Simon and Jude cemetery.
"It took me a year, but I made a book
listing when everybody who lived there from 1910 to 1940 was born, and if they
died."
Unfortunately, as the roster of Tintown alumni
dwindles through time, "Every so often, I have to go in and make
changes."
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Diverse Tintown relived by former residents | TribLIVE
triblive.com/x/.../s_347034.htmlPittsburgh Tribune‑ReviewJun 24, 2005 - Carmo was born in Parma, Italy, in 1918, and arrived in Tintown with ... to go to school at the Sokol Club"--in its original location near the end of ...
Sunday, August 5, 2012
ST. PATRICK'S DAY FLOOD 1936
THE FLOOD!
SAINT PATRICK'S DAY
MARCH 17, 1936
Zug was born on 22 February, 1936 approximately a month before the St. Patrick's day flood and he didn't learn to swim as yet, ha ha, so Scott had to carry him quite some distance to safety and to make matters worse there were a alot of holes from the outhouses and he had to be careful not to step into one.After Zug was carried to safety, Pap was the only one left and he didn't want to leave, until Scott set a newspaper on fire (it was already dark). He called Pap to the back door, opened the door, threw the lit paper out and it quickly floated away. When Pap observed this , he immediately shouted at Scott and said "it's time to go, lets get out of here, the water is rising fast, let's go before we drown". Scott led him to safety and they went up to my Grandfather and Grandmothers's home on top of the hill.
They all remained there until the flood waters receded sufficiently for them to return home to a gigantic cleanup job. I came home for a week after the flood, I was on leave from the C.C.C. Camp, (Civilian Conservation Corps.) Peaches [Michael?] and I were stationed in New Market, Virginia at this time and later we went to a new camp in Salinas, California.
Johnny was already in the CCC's. He went in 3 years prior to the time Peaches and I were taken in. He came out of the CCC's and enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to the Panama Canal Zone. The Flood was very devastating all along the Conemaugh River especially in Johnstown, Pa. and in Pittsburgh. Millions of dollars in damage and much suffering. In Tintown the people were shoveling out silt, mud, and debris for two weeks, it was a back breaking job but it had to be done. New outhouses were built and the people had to erect their own sheds. After about six months everything returned to normal. There were no lives lost and no injuries, only natural destruction which was eventually replaced.
In the meantime, Pap was still out of employment and receiving welfare. This he had to accept because there were no jobs to be found. President Roosevelt commenced a public works program called the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and he removed all of the able-bodied men off the welfare rolls and put them to work so they could earn their living for them-selves and their families, and also do something constructive for the country. They worked on Public Buildings, restoring and building bridges, highways, dams, ect. . Case in point, the american legion building in Blairsville. this was built by WPA workers. Aunt Irma's Dad was one of the stone masons who provided his skill in the erection of this building.
Pap took some odd jobs that came up once in a while. He worked for Rainbow Villa on Route 22 East. He also was employed for some time by a paint factory on Morewood Ave. in Blairsville. He had to quit because of lead poisoning. Then came World War II and he was employed by Porters at his old job as a Boiler operator. He worked their up until the war was over, then he recieved employment at the Blairsville Machine Products Company and worked there until his retirement.
I can't recall to much that happened around Blairsville once the war began because I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1939 and was caught up in the war when I was stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the Japanese bombed it on December 7, 1941. From then on I made the military my professional career retiring in August 1963.
signed. The Patriarch (Opie)
[In October, 1945, Blairsville Machine Products
(BMP) was founded with the acquisition of a small machine shop in
Blairsville, Pennsylvania. A 1947 military contract to produce connecting pins
led BMP to eventually become the country's largest supplier of link connecting
pins and bushings for military tracked vehicles. In
1991, Specialty Bar Products Company acquired the Blairsville facility and
has since expanded to a second facility in Greenville, South Carolina.]
SOURCE:
200 Martha Street
Blairsville, PA 15717
724-459-7500 Commercial Transport at Specialty Bar Products Company
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