20 years of ‘Life in Peters Township’ celebrated at library
Jon Andreassi/ Observer-Reporter
It was a packed house at Peters Township Public Library June 10 for a 20th anniversary celebration for the “Life in Peters Township” oral history project.
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
Peters Township Library’s local history librarian Margaret Deitzer speaks about Reed Day, a longtime solicitor for the Peters Township School District who participated in the oral history project.
It has been 20 years since Peters Township residents sat down to help preserve the area’s history as a rural community.
The Peters Township Public Library partnered with the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Service Department in 2003 for the “Life in Peters Township” oral history project.
Twenty-one longtime residents sat down at the time to share the story of Peters Township from the end of World War II to the turn of the century, a period that had not been well-documented.
Since then, 17 of the project’s participants have died, but their words and voices are now available at ptlib.org/ptplphotos, as the library has made public for the first time the full recordings and transcripts of the interviews.
All of those who sat for interviews 20 years ago were recognized for their contributions at the library June 10. Local history librarian Margaret Deitzer and Carrie Weaver, the library’s public relations coordinator, took a packed room through a summary of all 21 interviews.
One of those interviewed for the project was Dave Cushey, who talked about getting a job at a local mine at the age of 14. Cushey died in 2008.
“If you’re not familiar with how huge the mining industry was in this area, you’ll want to read this transcript or listen to the recording,” Weaver said.
Cushey worked in mines his whole career until his retirement in 1981. He also played for the Finleyville Moose baseball team and tried out for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1940. Though the big leagues did not work out for Cushey, he described plenty of tough competition locally.
“We had a Mon Valley league. There was Finleyville, Monessen, Charleroi, Monongahela, New Eagle, Fair Hope. That was a pretty good league. We never had too many errors or anything. Played good ball for working in the mine all day,” Cushey said at the time.
Those interested in knowing about growing up and going to school in Peters Township may look toward the interview with Erma Grego.
“Her father dreamed of owning a farm, and so he bought up 90 acres on Justabout Road,” Weaver said.
Grego, who died in 2018, shared her experience attending a one-room school on Bower Hill Road in the late 1920s, including walking down the hill back home for lunch and back up the hill for more school.
“And in the summertime, we would come home, but we would jump the fences of all the cornfields coming all the way down. But we went back up the roadway, cause it was easier than climbing the fences again,” Grego said in her interview.
Weaver hopes people will take the time to look through the transcripts or listen to the interviews online.
“Seventeen of the original interviewees are now deceased, and I think listening to their voices once again discussing their lives in Peters Township is very powerful,” Weaver said.