ShelliePO Top Contributor & Patron
Joined: 18 Feb 2009
Replies: 1000
Location: Atlanta, GABack to top |
Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 3:09 pm
Post subject: Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, USA
My paternal grandfather’s parents were Gorals from the village Odrowaz Podhalanski (Surnames Kulawiak and Kadlub). Our village is in an area of Poland known locally as Podhale. My great-grandfather’s first trip to America in 1889 took him to Mt Pleasant, Pennsylvania. I don’t know what drew him there, or what he did there, but I assume he worked in the mines or the coke ovens.
He went back to Poland in 1902 and returned to Pennsylvania in 1910. But then he lived in Export, PA, near his wife’s brother.
Over the years, I have looked at many ship manifests for other emigrants from Podhale and so many of them are headed to Mount Pleasant. I am interested in hearing from others whose ancestors came to Mt Pleasant.
I am also interested in learning more about how Mt. Pleasant came to be such an important destination. I suspect the draw was from active recruitment by the large Frick Coke Works, owned by Henry Clay Frick.
In 1913, the Mt Pleasant Journal described the town:
Mount Pleasant is located in the southeastern part of Westmoreland county on branches of both the Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads and on the main line of the West Penn Railways Company, and in the heart of the famous Connellsville Coke Region, being surrounded by over 2,000 coke ovens. It has a population of over 5,800, having increased 22 per cent. in the past ten years. Immediately surrounding the borough limits live fully as many more people; while the distribution of the local post office is over 18,000.
In addition to the largest coke plant in the world, Mount Pleasant has two big glass factories, tool factory, foundry and machine shops, planing mill and lumber yards, coach and wagon factories, two national and one foreign exchange bank, trust company, three automobile garages, two flouring mills, brewery, distillery, ice plant and two pop factories.
Pop….. as in soda? Did you grow up in western PA and called soda “pop” like I did?
Attached is a nice old map of Mt Pleasant in 1900. This gave me a nice idea of what my great-grandfather saw when he arrived. If you would like a much larger, high resolution version of this map, you can find it at the US Library of Congress website. Just query Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania : http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query
Find Mt. Pleasant on a map at 40°8′59″N 79°32′33″W (40.149847, -79.542609)
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Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2025 6:01 pm
Post subject: Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, USA
I've discovered some relatives from Chocholow and Dzianisz in immigration records stating they were headed to Mt. Pleasant. Most of these folks later moved to Chicago. Trying to assemble a friends associates neighbors (FAN) network to tie them together. Names are Bafia and Tylka.
Wondering if there was some sort of "marketing" in Galicia for mining jobs in Mt. Pleasant.
I know there were marketing programs in the 1910s in Chicago and Pennsylvania mining communities encouring them to move to northern Wisconsin for cheap land. Some of my ancestors fell for that scheme.
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