Late Spring Research Trip to Central & Northeastern PA

Memorial Day weekend and the days following will usually find me doing research around northeastern Pennsylvania. I combine it with spending Memorial Day at the long-running pilgrimage at St. Tikhon's Monastery in South Canaan. This year was no different.

My trip started in central Pa., with visits to the Broad Top Area Coal Miners Museum in Robertsdale, Huntingdon County, and Madera, Clearfield County and Philipsburg, Centre County. The Robertsdale museum had a few items of interest related to the mining industry and immigrant communities in Woodvale (now called Wood) and Robertsdale, where many Carpatho-Rusyns settled in the early 20th century.

Replica "coal mine" in the museum basement

The best thing from that day was being introduced by distant cousin Jan Brennish in Philipsburg to a previously unknown-to-me work: The Spirit's Winding Path: A Short History of Orthodox Christianity in North America, written by Paul A. Blaum in 1996. It includes very detailed writeups of the history of Rusyn Orthodox parishes in the Moshannon Valley towns of Osceola Mills and Philipsburg. I was very pleasantly surprised to see the author cited my unpublished centennial-year history of St. Mary's Annunciation Greek Catholic Church of Ramey several times. The best part was 44 pages of oral history interview materials of members of the Osceola Mills and nearby Orthodox parishes, and another 106 pages of oral history about the various priests who served the parishes. I plan to draw upon these extensively to give my historical narrative an additional perspective from those who lived it.

From The Spirit's Winding Path: A Short History of Orthodox Christianity in North America by Paul A. Blaum.

The rest of the weekend, in northeastern PA, took me to places like Jermyn, Simpson, Minersville, Edwardsville, and Alden Station.

Memorial Day I skipped research in favor of prayer and promotion: attending the 114th annual pilgrimage at St. Tikhon's Orthodox Monastery in South Canaan, Pa., where I was blessed by the head of the monastery to set up a table with information about my research, blog, and upcoming book. My dear mother was with me and helped me set up and staff the table. In fact, she spent more time at the table than I did, and probably gave some unsuspecting passers-by the "hard sell" about all of this. What would I do without her? I also met some Facebook friends in real life ("IRL") and made a few new ones. Some of the new ones turned out to be very helpful over the next few days.

My display on "The Carpatho-Rusyns of Pennsylvania" at St. Tikhon's

I also took the opportunity to pray at the new grave of Father John Nehrebecki, who just two years ago blessed me with a detailed oral history interview of his upbringing in the Lemko Rusyn Orthodox community in Donora, Washington County. Father John reposed in the Lord on April 7. Vičnaja jemu pamjat'!

Tuesday and Wednesday were devoted to research. I visited St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Minersville to resume (or nearly complete) research I'd begun there probably 20 or more years ago – hard to believe! The pastor was welcoming of my research but unfortunately the parish archives don't seem to include any old photos (still waiting for confirmation of that). But I did obtain additional data on the earliest Carpatho-Rusyn settlers of the Minersville area from the church records that begin in 1896.

In Jermyn, with the help of parish vice president Vladimir Kitchura I got some fresh photos of the beautiful St. Michael's Orthodox Church.

St. Michael the Archangel Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of Jermyn.

But again, historic old photos (despite my recollection of some being on display) were almost nowhere to be found. A single vintage photo of school kids from the 1910s or 1920s hangs in a frame on the wall of the church basement/hall, which at least I got to capture in a photograph.

School children of St. Michael Orthodox Church, Jermyn, 1910s-1920s.

Despite attempts to contact several people in Simpson who might have old photos (or could lead me to them), including the pastor of St. Basil's Russian Orthodox Church, I wasn't able to actually get in touch with anyone. I did finally leave a note at St. Basil's after stopping by two days in a row and finding nobody home. (This isn't something I like to cold call about because it takes a while to explain, even to someone who welcomed you for research almost 20 years ago, which is also the case in Simpson.)

Domes of St. Basil the Great Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of Simpson.

My almost ritual post-pilgrimage visit to St. Tikhon's Orthodox Seminary Library was rather short this year, as I believe I've scanned or photographed almost everything available there of interest to me. But I did take a few hours to photograph articles from the bound copy of the 1907 issues of the RBO newspaper Pravda. That particular year was fascinating because one could see the reaction of this Russophile Carpatho-Rusyn secular organization to the arrival in the United States of Greek Catholic Bishop Soter Ortyns'kyj that year, who was being warmly embraced on the pro-Ukrainian side and widely denounced by the largest Carpatho-Rusyn fraternal organization, the Greek Catholic Union. Surprisingly, the RBO and its membership seemed to be overall welcoming and supportive of Bishop Soter, at least when he began his ministry in the United States.

Issue of the Russian Brotherhood Organization's Pravda newspaper where the appointment of Soter Ortyns'kyj as Greek Catholic bishop for the United States was announced.

From an issue of the RBO's Pravda newspaper where the plans for welcoming "First American Rusyn Bishop" the Most Reverend Master Soter Ortyns'kyj were announced.

From an issue of the RBO's Pravda newspaper where a concert to welcome the newly-arrived first American Greek Catholic Bishop Soter Ortyns'kyj at Arlington Hall in New York City was announced.

St. Michael the Archangel Byzantine Catholic Church, Pittston, Lackawanna County, which overlooks the Susquehanna River.

In Forty Fort, just north of Kingston, I photographed the Molcsanyi family plot in historic Forty Fort Cemetery. Father Vladimir Molchany / Molcsanyi was pastor of St. Mary's Greek Catholic Church in Kingston from 1891-1902.

So why were he, and his daughter, not buried in St. Mary's parish cemetery (the original one, in Courtdale)? I found an article from a local newspaper in 1898 on newspapers.com which sheds some light on the issue.

One of the best visits was to St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church in Edwardsville, founded in 1910 by Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants, most of whom had previously converted to Orthodoxy at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church (later Cathedral) in Wilkes-Barre. The parish published an excellent history book for its centennial year back in 2010 and many of the loaned items – photos, documents, ephemera – were still in a box at the church. I can't thank Liz Dutko enough for her invitation to review the materials and her openness and patience sitting with me while I did all the scanning & photographing of the photos and documents of interest.

Banquet of the Mothers & Daughters Club of St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church of Edwardsville, held at the Russian Orthodox Citizens Club, May 1957.

Pastor and trustees of St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church, Edwardsville, year unknown.

To close out the trip, I headed a bit farther south, to Alden Station, for a heartwarming and engaging oral history interview with probably the oldest resident of "Polander Hill" (which 100 years ago was mostly populated by Carpatho-Rusyns/Lemkos), whom I will call "Aunt Olga." Aunt Olga is a youthful 94 years old, the daughter of a Lemko immigrant father and an American-born, Lemko mother, and a lifelong member of the historic St. Vladimir Greek Catholic Church of Alden. She told me the story of her family – whose household was a focal point of the Lemko/Rusyn community in the town – and of her church and the difficult lives of Lemkos/Rusyns in Alden.

The church was torn down around 12 years ago because it was becoming the victim of vandalism, and had very few remaining parishioners. It lives on in the hearts and memories of many of Alden's American-born Lemko Rusyns, and thanks to Aunt Olga I will be better able to tell its and their story.

Aunt Olga at the burial shroud – plaščanica – on Holy Saturday in the former St. Vladimir Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Alden Station.

Original material is © by the author, Richard D. Custer; all rights reserved.