Home Sweet Home

 

I believe this beautiful Home Sweet Home
was hand stitched by one of my husbands
maternal ancestors

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to give a try for the second year. 

     The prompt for week # 13 is Home Sweet Home.

     Goodness gracious!  What to blog about here?  I have "over" blogged about my wonderful childhood home in Perrysville, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania and my decade plus living there from 1950 to 1961.  When I think of home sweet home, my memories wander there.  

     I do have two other places that I have alluded to on Flipside, Morgantown, Monongalia County, West Virginia and Hartlepool, Durham County, England.  

     Morgantown represents my paternal grandmother's families, and my ancestors who lived there for over a century.  I have spent much time walking cemeteries, researching at West Virginia University and visiting homes and historical sights.  Almost heaven, West Virginia. 😊

     Hartlepool, or the section that was called West Hartlepool, was where my paternal grandfather was born and lived until age eight when the family immigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1906.  My brothers and I had the opportunity to visit in 2003 and meet numerous family still residing in town.  

    I can't decide so.....I'll do both. 😁

Morgantown, West Virginia

     I have been looking back at my picture files and the nearest I can come to the number of visits to Morgantown is ten.  Twice was a full weeks stay at a time share and others were a couple of days in hotels/motels.  The trips from 1993 to 2010 was during a time when I was heavily researching my Morgantown ancestors.  It's been a while since I have wandered there.

     My pioneer ancestors settled in the area as early as 1786 and my paternal great grandmother and family relocated to Pennsylvania in 1911.  I have pushed past that time with some Morgantown family members; however, my primary focus is during those one hundred twenty five years.

 List of the Morgantown surnames

1. John and Bathsheba FERGUSON--Bathsheba Ferguson 
2. William FRUM and Anna Smith
3. Sampson Smith FRUM and Elizabeth  Ann VanGilder
4. Philip William HARNER and Sarah Fearer (Fear)
5. Robert HILL and Rebecca Caldwell
6. Joseph Davidson Hill and Sarah Houston
7. Purnell HOUSTON and Mary Carey
8. William LANHAM and Catherine Ferguson
9. Thomas McELROY and Elizabeth 
10. Asby POOL and Vilender Lanham
11. William Lanham Pool and Ann Frum
12. Sampson Frum Pool and Sarah Louise Harner
13. Jacob VANGILDER and Anna Margaret Gibler
14. Jacob VanGilder, Jr. and Sarah McElroy
15. John Oliphant VanGilder and Mary Louise Hill
16. George Ethelbert VanGilder and Jessica Pool

     This was a good exercise.  I see I'm missing a few ancestors in Morgantown that need a blog.  For some the link is on my old website.

1994 VanGilder Reunion
Face Forward Pictured
Richard Rootes & George VanGilder Hughes 
Garrett Bevin Hiser

     My first trips to Morgantown involved attending VanGilder reunions in the Winfield District, Marion County, Fairmont, West Virginia.  I believe I was the only attendee from Jacob VanGilder, Jr's descent.  On several reunions my Dad, Aunt Faith, brothers and son, Garrett, came along.  

1995 Morgantown, West Virginia

     During these trips we also located cemeteries and the area where the old VanGilder farm once was located.  There is a street corner there--VanGilder and George Streets.  Appropriately I captured my Dad, George VanGilder Hughes, named for his maternal grandfather, pictured there.  

     We always enjoyed shopping on High Street.  I google mapped the street and it appears that many of our hunts are no longer there.  Often I would imagine my paternal grandmother, as a young girl, wandering up and down High Street with her sisters.  

     I dragged any family members in attendance from one cemetery to another, wandering up and down the rows looking for family names and then taking the photographs.  They were all good sports!  

The Old Harner Homestead
my photograph

     The most memorable trip was in 2007.  My brother Ken and I took a couple of these trips to Morgantown together.  We decided to stay at the Hotel Morgan in town.  We did our usual meals in town and driving around looking for ancestral places.  This time I had an address for the Harner House in the community of Sabraton.  Imagine our surprise when we saw a For Sale sign outside.  That led to us actually getting inside.  The home was built in 1850 by my maternal great great great grandfather Philip William Harner.  I had shivers thinking about my family actually living in the house and walking up the stairs to the bedroom area where they all climbed daily.  It's no surprise that I have a blog on The Old Harner Homestead.   

 

When we came down the hill and I first caught a glimpse
of The Old Frum Cemetery
I felt like Dorothy seeing Oz for the first time.

     Another fantastic find was The Old Frum Cemetery.  The cousin and very engaged family researcher I was then in contact with was Dr. Robert Poole Wilkins.  He was not aware of the location.  In 1995, through the Internet and very early genealogical websites, somehow I hooked up with a Morgantown researcher and she connected me with a distant cousin who knew where the cemetery was located.  I was in a car with my kids and my Mom and on the way to Morgantown.  After the VanGilder Reunion in August, 1995, we made a return trip to fix tombstones.  

      Morgantown is rich in my family history and on the sixth floor of the Wise library The West Virginia and Regional History Center is located on the West Virginia University campus.      

And now for a trip across the pond.😉

The Hughes Kids on The Headland
Hartlepool, England
2003

     Around 2000 a woman from the UK emailed me.  She had seen I had family from Hartlepool, England and offered to help me with research there.   She is also a genealogist and lives a short drive from Hartlepool. 

     It was a very generous offer.  We have now shared a friendship for over twenty-five years.  I was able to visit her in person twice, in 2003 and in 2005.  During the 2003 visit we spent time together in Hartlepool.  In 2006 it was in Scotland.  

     Through her I was able to connect with Hughes relations in Hartlepool and we spent many happy hours sharing stories, photographs, tea and biscuits.

List of the Hartlepool surnames

1. George Henry Hughes and Mary Ann Storey
2. John George Hughes and Elizabeth Ferdinande Olesen
3. Samuel Hughes and Ann Hill
4. William Hughes and Mary Bourne
5. Frederick Heinrich Adolph Weiss and Ferdinande Lehman
6. Christian Invart Olesen and Ferdinanda Weiss
7. John Storey and Ann Robinson
8. Robinson, Pounder and Roundtree

     I do want to mention that there are numerous links on Flipside to some of these ancestors.  To see if there are additional pieces on an individual person, an alphabetical listing is available on my blog.     

     Over the years I have been able to trace my Olesen line back through a generous researcher in Denmark.  My UK friend also was able to trace the Robinson line back some additional generations.  The Danish Olesen blogs are in the alphabetical list.  The Robinson, Pounder and Roundtree surnames are MIA on Flipside.  Note to self:  Get busy on that, Linda. 😇

     The first hurtle when arriving in the UK was my brother, Ken, adjusting to driving on the "wrong side" of the road. 😅  And, he did a masterful job of it.  

At the Sandwell Gate Town Wall
Hartlepool, England

     Of our week in the UK, we spent three days in Hartlepool and it was filled with Hughes Family time and special time with my new friend.

      It was an exhilarating feeling just being in Hartlepool where my grandfather, George Henry Hughes, was born and lived until the family immigrated when he was eight years old.  Certainly much of the town had changed over the century.  West Hartlepool, where the Hughes and Olesen families lived was amalgamated into Hartlepool in 1967.  The section of West Hartlepool where my paternal great great grandparents lived, Longhill, has been totally destroyed.   

Myself with my Hughes Cousins
Hartlepool, England
2003

My brothers with our Hughes cousins
Hartlepool, England
2003

Cousins John and Mary Marsh
Their daughter and grandson

     We were treated like royalty during our stay by both our cousins and my UK friend.  Dinner out, a trip to a caravan with fish and chips, numerous teas and being chauffeured around.

Sumptuous Teas

Sunday service at St. Aidan's Church

Myself at the Hartlepool Monkey

On the Moors

     Just a sampling of our wonderful three days.  One of the perks was trading old photographs and stories with our UK cousins.  And, Mary Marsh sharing several of her old Hughes recipes for the cakes she made for our tea at the Marsh home.  

     The scope of this trip for, anyone working on their family genealogy, is that they would look back on it with a heart full of love and appreciation to all those folks that came together to organize the three days.  

THANK YOU. 💗  

 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2025, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Overlooked--Pop Pop's Work on Two Major Projects

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to give a try for the second year. 

     The prompt for week # 3 is Overlooked.

     I have certainly failed to blog about this subject.  I have done the research in bits and pieces and actually wrote the piece years ago--just never added it to Flipside.  My issue was dissecting the real from the apocryphal.  

     Aunt Faith, Faith Carol Hughes Roolf, my primary informant for the paternal side of the family talked of how her father and my paternal grandfather, George Henry Hughes, worked on the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge and the Pittsburgh Civic Arena during his employment with the American Bridge Company.  My father, George VanGilder Hughes, also spoke of his Dad's work on the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge.  

     Like so many of you, I have found apocryphal stories about family members.  Going down the rabbit hole to find the truth is the challenge.  

George Henry Hughes
Draftsman, American Bridge Company
Ambridge, Pennsylvania

George Henry Hughes--My Pop Pop

     My paternal grandfather was employed as a draftsman at American Bridge his entire working life.  He had a talent for drawing.  His education was typical for his age, eighth grade.  No college, no structural engineering education degree.  He was born in England in 1898.  His family immigrated in 1908 and came to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Pop Pop's father, John George Hughes, was employed in the steel mills, first with Jones Laughlin on Pittsburgh's South Side and then relocating the family to the new company town, Woodlawn, Beaver County, Pennsylvania.  

American Bridge Company 1915

Woodlawn Ambridge bridge

     In 1913, fifteen year old Pop Pop began as a draftsman with American Bridge across the Ohio River from Woodlawn.  He retired in 1961 after forty-eight years of service.  How many folks today can say that they stayed with a job that many years.  

     I blogged about Pop Pop's employment with American Bridge back in 2009--the infancy of my blog.  I did list the Golden Gate Bridge as one of the projects he may have worked on.  Humm  

     Time to, hopefully, set this overlooked story straight.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Civic Arena

  

     The easiest one to research.  Aunt Faith's story about her father's part in this American Bridge construction was in the mid to late 1950's (my guess on the era).  She described watching her father sitting at the dining room table at night and working with various sized blocks? deciding on whether or not there could be a retractable roof.  

Scanned from the American Bridge Connections
Summer, 2012
page 18

     American Bridge did construct the Civic Arena, although they were not the architect, general contractor or the structural engineer on the project.  Ground was broken in 1958 and completed in 1961.  

   I am buying into this story of Aunt Faith's.  American Bridge probably had the contract in hand to build the Civic Arena before she married or just afterward.  She would have seen her father playing around with some sort of blocks to see if the circular structure would hold a roof and probably had some sort of thin blocks to try to put a roof on it.  Although a draftsman, Pop Pop had seniority and American Bridge would have had their department making model superstructures of the building.  

     I should add here that on the 1950 Federal Census, Pop Pop is listed as a structural engineer.  Also adding that I grew up in Pittsburgh and did go to the Civic Arena in the early 1960's.  I did not know that my grandfather's company built it and that he played around building models of it in the late 1950's. 

San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge

     Both my Dad and my Aunt told family members that their Father worked on the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge.  I have found no mention of it on the various American Bridge Company's websites.  

     In 2004, I jumped back on the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge research and found this on the Internet.  This information on Frederick Ashley Pneuman, employed at American Bridge Company is listed as responsible for the cable engineering on the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge on his college website.  No one can argue that the cables are VERY important ingredient to the design of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge.  😉  

  

The Ithaca Journal
December 10, 1942
page 3

     His obituary also mentions that his inventions were used on the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge.  

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge

     The obituary also mentions that he worked on the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge.  This was one of the important structures done by the American Bridge Company in 1932.  

     I think my Dad and Aunt had their memory about their Dad's involvement with these two bridges a little confused.  Pop Pop probably worked on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge at his draftsman table in Ambridge, Pennsylvania along with other engineers.  Pop Pop would have been thirty-four years old and with American Bridge for nineteen years.  In 1932 my Dad would have been eleven and Aunt Faith, a newborn.  Neither would have had an actual memory of this event.  

     Frederick A. Pneuman, employed with American Bridge, probably worked on the cable design for The San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge on his own.  

 

 I am calling the story of George Henry Hughes and The San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge apocryphal.

  And the bridge work done on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge with the assistance of George Henry Hughes, draftsman at American Bridge Company, as TRUE.  It is very easy to understand the confusion.  Both bridges were constructed during the same decade, in the same area and with similar names.  The Golden Gate Bridge is the more famous and that is the bridge Dad and Aunt Faith attributed to their Father.  

     Years back, I remember when we attended a birthday celebration for Aunt Faith, she was handing out several pieces of Hughes memorabilia.  I believe one was a small framed picture she attributed as coming from her mother's estate and was a picture of a bridge.  It was given to my cousin Dave.  I thought I took a photograph of it and that the picture was of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.                      

Credit and further information about American Bridge and Ambridge:  Paul Hertneky, American Bridge Builds a Town....and a Nation, March 18, 2011.

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2025, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Taking Care of Business: My Dad

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to join.  I am hoping it may help me to pinpoint someone or something that I have researched and not blogged about on Flipside.  AND push me to blog about family each week in 2024.  Sometimes I get lazy. 😁  Let's see how well I keep up.

     Week # 20 (May 13-19) is Taking Care of Business. My Dad, George VanGilder Hughes is my focus in this week's blog. 

George VanGilder Hughes

     Dad had some pressure from the beginning to excel.  A son and first born to a father who had immigrated from England with his parents, there was an expectation that Dad would succeed.  He began to take care of business from an early age.    

       The Hughes family lived in the Brough of Avalon outside the city of Pittsburgh and Dad attended church and school there from an early age.  I do not  have much elementary school information; however, from his high school yearbooks, imagine he was a scholar even at an early age.  He also excelled at sports, in particular, football.

     Back in the late 1930's the classes at Avalon High School were small.  Dad, and my Mom's, graduating class was eighty-nine.  Dad was the quarterback on the high school football team and won the Jack Brice Memorial medal for excellence in football, he was the president of the class and the salutatory speaker for commencement among his many activities.

     He enrolled at Washington and Jefferson College on a full scholarship with a major in pre med.  Dad continued with his love of football playing at W&J as the center.  He was a member of a fraternity, president of his freshman class, several honorary societies and graduated in three years taking courses in summers.

     On November 23, 1943, my Mom and Dad married.  They had known each other and attended the same school since first grade, dated at the end of their senior year and throughout college. 

     Dad was already enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.  He was a member of ROTC, the Army paid for his education and he graduated with his medical degree in June 1945.

     Dad served at Deshon General Hospital, Butler, Pennsylvania for the Army when I was born in 1947.  His Internship was at a hospital in McKeesport, Pennsylvania and Residency at the Veteran's Hospital in Aspinwall, Pennsylvania.  

     

      Following his residency we moved to a new house near Perrysville, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania and Dad was beginning to set up his medical practice in Internal Medicine.  

     To make some additional income in 1949 he enlisted with the Pennsylvania National Guard.  Just as his practice was beginning to take off he was sent to active duty at Camp Carson, Colorado and then to the front lines in Korea serving as a Captain at an aid station with the 2nd Infantry Division, 2nd Medical Battalion. 

816 Perry Highway
Dad's office was in the middle apartment building

     Dad returned from Korea in the summer of 1953 and was able to begin his private practice in Internal Medicine.  I can remember stopping by to visit the office at 816 Perry Highway across from our church, Hiland Presbyterian, on my way home from elementary school.

 

558 Perry Highway, West View

     Around 1961 Dad bought this house and relocated his practice to West View.  

     Dad was on the staff at three local hospitals during his medical days:  Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Suburban General Hospital in Bellevue and Chief of Staff at North Hills Passavant Hospital.

     He never forgot his roots growing up during the Great Depression.  When I was married, patients stepped forward to  donate the wedding cake, flowers, etc. to give back to Dad for his kindness.  When he retired, over 200 patients organized a heartfelt retirement party.

     Dad was the doctor we would like to have today.  He made house calls, even getting out of bed to drive to attend to a patient.  During his thank you remarks at the retirement party he said, "If a patient has taken the time to come to the office for a visit because he is not feeling well, it is the responsibility of the doctor to actively listen.  The best clue to a diagnosis is what the patient has to say."

  

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2024, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Love and Marriage--My Grams and Pop Pop

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to join.  I am hoping it may help me to pinpoint someone or something that I have researched and not blogged about on Flipside.  AND push me to blog about family each week in 2024.  Sometimes I get lazy. 😁  Let's see how well I keep up.

     Week # 18 (April 29-May 5) is Love and Marriage.  

     Sweethearts from day one, my paternal grandparents, George Henry Hughes and Sarah Margaret VanGilder.

     The story passed down was that my Grams and her family were living in Woodlawn, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, when the Hughes family moved into town.  Who ever saw and met Pop Pop first, is not known; however, when Grams first saw him, her question to her sisters was, "Who is that handsome new fellow."  😍   Both Grams and Pop Pop would have been in the fifteen-sixteen year age group.  

Woodlawn, Pennsylvania
Main Street
1914

     Woodlawn was the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company town.   The VanGilder's moved from Morgantown, West Virginia and Mom, Jessie VanGilder, was probably running a boarding house there for steel workers.  The Hughes Family had moved from the Southside of Pittsburgh where another Jones and Laughlin plant was located.   

Dated 1915
Sketched by George Henry Hughes
of
Sarah Margaret VanGilder

     Grams was one of four VanGilder sisters.  Pop Pop had dated one of the VanGilder girls before he asked Grams out.  Their dating relationship lasted while Pop Pop served in World War I with the Canadian Expeditionary Force stationed in Siberia. When he was discharged in May, 1919 the VanGilder women had moved from Woodlawn to the city of Pittsburgh.  Grams and Pop Pop resumed seeing each other traveling by the P & L.E. train from Pittsburgh to Woodlawn.  

     On June 5, 1920, while Pop Pop's Mom and Dad were visiting family in England, Sarah and George were married in Fairmont, Marion County, West Virginia by Rev Herman Goethe Stoetzer, pastor of the Presbyterian Church.  Sarah's oldest sister, Mary Louise VanGilder was a witness.    

      Grams and Pop lived in the Pittsburgh area, raised three children and retired to Florida in 1962.  Before they left, the family met for a reunion at my parents house. Pictured above is the photograph from that day with all of the Hughes family to that date.  Three more grandchildren were added.

     The family celebrated Gram's and Pop Pop's fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1970.  

     In 1985, we visited Grams in Florida.  Pop Pop had passed twelve years earlier.  When my brother showed Grams the photograph of the 1960 family reunion, she exclaimed, "How I loved that man," pointing to Pop Pop.

 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2024, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser