Canton Borough Schools Band, Canton, PA photo

At Pennsylvania Old Photos

Canton Borough Schools Band, Canton, PA

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The names of the band members are unknown.

You may recognize some of them.

Photo taken probably 1920s-1940s.

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Villages now Just a Dot on the Map

Forgotten Villages of Mayburg, Helen's Furnace, Petroleum Center, and Pine City

Locally, many villages are one-time oil boomtowns that were named, settled and depopulated in a decade or less. Petroleum Center claimed 15,000 residents at its peak in 1870 and saw no need for governance beyond the dictates of Cornplanter Township, according to an 1890 history of Venango County.

"(Village names) were just a way to find your way around and have somebody know what you're talking about," said Sylvia Coast, a researcher at the Venango County Historical Society and Franklin Public Library. "The villages just fade away over time."

Before 1902, rural residents had to collect their mail from a local post office - often no more than a desk inside a general store or home. That meant every crossroads or hitching post with mail facilities needed a name; letters would arrive with simple addresses like "John Smith, Fern City, Pa."

With the advent of rural free delivery - that is, a postman dropping letters in curbside mailboxes - the urge to christen towns abated. Nearly every village with a PennDOT marker today can trace its appellation to the 19th century.

Despite changes to the postal code, village arrangements remained a mainstay of the Pennsylvania social fabric for another half-century, with small-scale stores, churches and clubs forming the nucleus of farm communities and other secluded settlements.

Read the full article from The Derrick

Washington High School, Washington, PA Basketball Team 1937 photo

At familyoldphotos.com

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Players: George Caputo, Joseph Cowden, Thomas Babington, Archie Thomas, Glenn Anderson, Oscar Humphreys, Donald Meighen, Paul Shearn, Clyde Davis, Leroy Hogg, Fred Bolden, Robert Goodridge, Frank Watson

The names of the coach and the managers are unknown. You may recognize them.

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Allegheny High School, Allegheny, PA Baseball Team 1922 photo

Players: Millard Baker, Gerald Burger, Regis Berger (or Burger), Austin Cochrane, Robert Ebitz, Paul Higgins, Arthur Hoffman, Howard McCaw, James Rooney, Alf Schmidt, John Stoltz, William Titzel, Charles Van Horn, Edward Wittmer

Coach Harrison R. Briggs.

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New Pennsylvania Biographies

At historicpa.net/bios

New Pennsylvania Biographies on line

Achre, David
Alexander, B. S.
Alexander, James S.
Alexander, M. W.
Arbuckle, W. N.
Barnes, J. S.
Bastress, D. S.
Black, W. C.
Boston, Adam
Brandon, George W.
Buckham, Edward
Christley, A. U.
Coulter, W. A.
Courtney, Thomas
Cribbs, James
Crill, John T.
Davis, J. P. - Rev.
Davis, Washington
Drake, Samuel
Eberle, Jacob
Elliott, T. S.
Giles, Henry
Gilfillan, James G.
Gilson, David
Glendening, William
Glenn, James T.
Gordon, Benjamin F.
Graham, Arthur W.
Graham, James M.
Graham, William J.
Harrison, W. H.
Highbarger, Andrew
Hosack, James
Hosack, John J.
Houston, Thomas
Houston, William
Ifft, Jacob
Johnston, Arthur J.
Junkin, Joseph & His Family
Kennedy, Alexander
Knauff, Adam
Loutzenhiser Family
Loutzenhiser, David
Loutzenhiser, Jacob
Loutzenhiser, James S.
Loutzenhiser, John A.
Loutzenhiser, John
Loutzenhiser, Joseph
Love, Ezekiel W.
Masson, Philip
McConnell, Nathaniel
Michaels, James
Montgomery, J. A.
Moore, James L.
Moul, Nicholas
Munnell, Thomas P.
Nelson, J. W.
Nelson, John A.
Orr, Hiram
Palmer, G. W.
Reed, Thomas
Williams, G. W.