Mosgrove’s Bridge View Hotel

Don Shilling — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 15:30:37 +0000

One of the most outstanding buildings of northern Armstrong County was the Bridge View Hotel built overlooking the Allegheny River in Mosgrove, Rayburn Township, Armstrong County.

The Bridge View Hotel, with its 45 rooms and a bar, attracted hundreds of tourists from Pittsburgh, who made the trip on the Pennsylvania Railroad and on the sternwheeler “Nellie Hudson” when water conditions were favorable, to experience a quiet vacation overlooking the beautiful Allegheny River. John Henry Rebold built the Bridge View Hotel in 1901. In 1902, John Rebold moved to Oklahoma where he amassed a fortune in drilling for oil and natural gas. His brother-in-law, William A. Heinrich operated the hotel for John for four years. At some point, H. B. McKinney became the proprietor, as the ad at the left shows. It was published in the Butler Citizen in 1906. Later John Rebold’s son Grant became the proprietor of the hotel.

Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company had a coal mine near Mosgrove that supplied fuel for power generating at their Ford City plate glass works. In 1913, West Penn Power began supplying the glass works with electricity. The result was the closing of the coal mine. The bar at the hotel must have depended greatly on the local coal miners, as when the mine closed, business slackened greatly as the miners moved from the area.

The hotel owned a thirty-passenger boat which was used to transport fishermen and picnickers to an island near the location currently occupied by Lock and Dam No. 8. Fishing in the Allegheny River at that time was great and many anglers caught bass, walleye, northern pike and muskellunge by the bucket full.

The Bridge View Hotel was so named as the ornate balconies faced the Allegheny River over which the BR&P railroad trestle spanned as seen in the photo bottom left. The trestle could be easily seen from the balconies and hotel patrons marveled at the trains as they crossed the trestle. This, as you can see, was prior to the locks and dams being built on the Allegheny River in the 1940’s. As of this writing, the railroad that crosses the trestle remains active.

Notable among the returning visitors, was the famous orator and presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, who stayed at the Bridge View several times. Bryan claimed he got more rest here than anywhere else in the country. He always wanted the corner room facing Pine Creek. There was a hemlock tree near the window, and he liked the scent of hemlock and the breeze from the creek.

The photo on the left shows the Bridge View Hotel from the BR&P trestle that crossed the Allegheny River at Mosgrove.

On November 4, 1914, the beautiful Bridge View Hotel caught fire and burned to the ground in less than an hour and a half. The suspected cause was a defective flue on one of the heating stoves. The intense flames damaged many nearby homes and burned the forest a fourth of a mile up Pine Creek. Estimated damage to the building was $25,000.

Sometime after the devastating fire, a new structure was constructed on the stone foundation of the old Bridge View Hotel. That building, still exists today and can be seen in Mosgrove at the mouth of Pine Creek. It appears to be a private residence.

The post Mosgrove’s Bridge View Hotel appeared first on Redbank Valley Historical Society.

Margaret Aaron

Don Shilling — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 14:52:21 +0000

Margaret Aaron

Margaret (Ruffner) Aaron

Margaret (Ruffner) Aaron, was born December 4, 1799 near Greensburg, Westmoreland County, a daughter of John Christian and Margaret (Kuhn) Ruffner. Her father was a farmer and she grew up on the farm learning the value of family loyalty and sharing in the labors of operating the farm.

On July 12, 1822, at the age of seventeen, she married George Aaron, also of near Greensburg. George was born September 9, 1801, a son of Thomas Soloman and Elizabeth (Reinsel) Aaron.

Four years after they were married, Margaret, George and four of their children moved from Westmoreland County to what is now known as Limestone Township in Clarion County, not far from Crates. Upon arrival, they had no shelter. They camped out several days while George constructed a small log cabin. That cabin was their only domicile for over twenty years in which they raised their family of twelve children, namely; Margaret (1824-1900), John Patrick (1828-1899), Gorge Washington (1830-1879) and Mary Jane (1831-1870), all of whom moved from Westmoreland to Clarion County with the parents. Sylvester (1834-1899), Lucinda Jane (1836-1870, twins Daniel (1837-1841) and David (1837-1886), Francis Frank (1840-1869), John Charles (1842-1903), Sarah Ann (1845-1915) and Sybilla Tybitha (1847-1919) all of whom were born in the small log cabin in Limestone Township.

Mrs. Margaret Aaron was an unusually strong young woman who rendered valuable assistance to her husband erecting the crude log cabin while also taking care of her children and seeing the meals were prepared. She could be found each day felling the trees and dragging the logs to the site of the cabin.

On a cold winter night, shortly after the cabin was constructed, George went to the woods to get some firewood for the fireplace. During his absence, a black bear somehow found its way into the cabin which had two small rooms. Margaret was seated in the rear room caring for the children. Upon hearing a peculiar sound coming from the door in other room, she peered over the small partition which was about five feet high and saw the bear coming in the door. Her first motherly instinct was the safety of her children. She placed them on the bed and reached for the gun propped in the corner of the room. The gun was always loaded. He creeped over to the partition, leveled the gun and pulled the trigger. The charge went off and her aim was accurate and the bear reeled and fell dead to the floor.

Another interesting incident was an encounter with two men who were burglars. George and Margaret saved up several hundred dollars through the years through economical living. One night while sleeping, they were awakened by a noise in the front room. They arose from their bed and discovered two masked men entering their room. In an instant, George was up and caught one of the men by the throat and threw him on the floor. In so doing, George also fell on the floor and quickly the other man grabbed him by the arms and was about to strike him on the head, Margaret threw her weight against the burglar sending him sprawling to the floor. The first burglar was about to get up and Margaret knocked him down again. The two, seeing they bit off more than they could chew quickly got up and ran out the door never to return to the Aaron house again.

George died in 1882 and Margaret continued living as best she could in the cabin until she could no longer take care of herself before moving in with her youngest daughter, Sybilla Tybitha Burgoon, who lived in Allegheny County. For 88 years, Margaret enjoyed smoking her pipe. Two years before her death she became blind and deaf. She was able to sit in a chair and continued to have a regular appetite. At the age of 100, Margaret died on April 19, 1899 and is buried in the Crates Cemetery beside George. They were members of the Crates Catholic Church.

The arrow points to George and Margaret’s home in Limestone Township near Crates.

The post Margaret Aaron appeared first on Redbank Valley Historical Society.

Don Shilling – Redbank Valley Historical Society

Mosgrove’s Bridge View Hotel

Margaret Aaron

Margaret Aaron