From the Charleroi Mail newspaper, Charleroi PA 
April 1, 1938, page 1 and page 6
Typed by Volunteer, Amy Denecke

Note: *Monongahela Valley District

In the steep sided valley of the Youghiogheny River near Buena Vista rests a little village of five houses, one practically fallen down, that most of the world has forgotten.

You can't get to it by automobile. It lies hidden from view over a hill from a recently improved, but unnamed, WPA road that leads from the Buena Vista-Lovedale Hollow Road, near Buena Vista, to the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad tracks that run up the Youghiogheny River.

The only entrance to Stringtown is the last side road off the improved WPA road, about one half mile above an old cemetery near the river. You have to stop your car at this road and walk a narrow, rutted country lane into the village.

As you walk down the lane and swing around the last curve, a weather worn railroad sign, in big letters, reads "Stringtown." As you come out onto the railroad tracks the (turn to Page 6-Column 4, Please)

GHOST TOWNS [page 6]
(continued from Page One)

remnants of a once prosperous community of "upright moral people," of the Danks and the Muses, who fought in the Civil War, comes into view.

Only One Street
Once this little village was strung out about one-half a mile toward Buena Vista. It got its name Stringtown because the houses were extended in a line and there was only one street. It bordered the tracks of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie railroad.
That was during the time when coal was the undisputed King in the valley, and riverboats and barges navigated the Youghiogheny. It was before, as the old timers say, "the dams went out." The dams that formerly made the river navigable were allowed to fall into disrepair, and finally, they were closed and allowed to decay until today there is no sign of them.

Today, among the residents who still stay in Stringtown, is Dominic Boves, 72, and his wife, Catherine, 74. They were among the hundreds who came into the district when coal mining boomed.

Was "Rich" Then
Mr. Boves knew what it meant to earn $7 a day, working 10 and 12 hours a day in the deep, cold pits of the district. He didn't mind then. He was "rich." He had plenty to eat and plenty of work to keep him busy.

"Those days are done," he said simply. "Today I got five chickens, three rabbits and a little garden. I try to keep going. Sometimes it is hard. Everything is dead now, even the houses. It is hard to keep them together."

But times weren't always that way at Stringtown, he added. Once things boomed and his wife, Catherine even kept boarders and Mr. Boves ran a ferry across the river to Shaner where the two nearest saloons were located.

Stringtown was established before 1850 when a number of farms were started in the district. In the time of the Civil War, coal mining was begun. But it wasn't until the dams were put in the Youghiogheny and the railroads sent spur lines up the river, that mining began in earnest.

Awaited High Water
"The coal would be loaded into the barges and if it was in the summer, it would have to remain there until the river rose before being shipped," Mr. Boves recalled.
Life at Stringtown was geared to the long hours of work in the district mines. The miners started to work at 4:30 and 5 a. m. and in the winter rarely saw daylight.
"I didn't mind the long hours of work," Mr. Boves said. "Digging in the deep pits was back breaking, but I didn't care as long as I know I could always get a job."

His stooped shoulders are mute testimony of the long hours he spent in the mines.
Stringtown was different from the average mining town of its day. There were no company houses. The homes of the miners had formerly belonged to residents, who had homesteaded in the district before the mining boom.

Built at Shaner
The mining companies built their domino-like houses across the river at Shaner or up the Youghiogheny on Stringtown's side at Buena Vista. Industry and near the mines. There wasn't even a beer parlor in Stringtown in those days although during prohibition there was a speakeasy, Mr. Boves said.

The miners at Stringtown could take care of themselves in any fight, Mr. Boves added, and they joined in many at the saloons and street corners in nearby towns.
"It was just something that happened," he continued. "There wasn't much reason for not fighting in Stringtown, because the miners got pretty hot under the collars when they began to argue, whether they were in Stringtown, Shaner or Buena Vista."
There used to be a church near Stringtown, down near the cemetery, according to Mr. Boves. But that, too has gone with time.

Burned Down
"The old brick Presbyterian church burned down about 16 or 17 years ago," he recalled. "I don't think they had enough money to rebuild it because they didn't even talk about it. Any way it was just left a pile of ruins.

The Catholics always went to the church at Buena Vista or Industry, he added.
Other old residents of Stringtown are Frank and Mary Adams. They have lived in the village for the past 21 years.

Mrs. Adams recalled the boom times when her husband worked double shifts in the mines.

"Frank would come home and scarcely have time to get something to eat and have his lunch pail packed again," she recalled. "Things were good then.

"Life here is quiet now," she continued. "Once it was a struggle to keep up with the work at the mines. Now it is a struggle to keep existing."

The high bluffs of the Youghiogheny River valley tower over this forgotten "ghost" town of the district. Not far from the town, the steel towers of cross-country high tension power lines pass; they mark the world of power and speed that has left Stringtown behind, forgotten.

The worn railroad sign is the last vestige of the town's existence. When it falls, only the four unpainted blackened houses will remain. They too, in time, will decay like the remains of the fifth house in town, and the trees, grass and shrubs of the valley will leave no trace of the village that once prospered.

-end-

Our John Lane Sr. (ca.1780-1844) was mistakenly (we think) included in a DAR Application, 
linking him to the wrong Revolutionary Soldier (although his father was supposedly in the Revolutionary War).  Read the files disproving this DAR Application and see the actual documents.  (DAR Application of Emma McKinley Nease for Record of John Lane, Bedford Co., PA) I welcome comments and any researcher's proof either way concerning this issue.

LINKS TO DAR APPLICATION - BEDFORD CO., PA JOHN LANE SR & JR (different from our Sr & Jr)
GO TO SECTION ONE -  (web page 1)  
GO TO SECTION TWO -  (web page 1)  
GO TO SECTION THREE (web page 2)
GO TO SECTION FOUR (web page 3)
GO TO SECTION FIVE (web page 4)
GO TO SECTION SIX (web page 5)
GO TO SECTION SEVEN (web page 6)

Correcting Inaccurate Documents (web page 7)
Documents supporting my research - coming by 2006

Top of Page

SIGN "Life in Washington Co PA" Guestbook VIEW GUESTBOOK

Site History and Updates: Dec '05; Jan '05; Mar '06

Email Washington.Co.PA.Webmaster

(c) Judith Ann Florian
159 E. Main St.
Girard, Ohio 44420

Copyright Notice - Data / info. for individuals and surnames may be reproduced for personal family histories only, but not for any commercial use or sale. Please give credit to Judith Florian and Catherine L. Caldwell for locating newspaper items and original documents. You may use J. Florian's research conclusions if credit is given. No other data or images may be reproduced without permission. © 2005-present, Judith Florian, Copyright All rights reserved.

This page was last updated on Friday, January 16, 2009 00:15