Sometimes My Email Brings Treasures
Sometimes my
email brings treasures, like back in October
2012. That is when I received a jpg of a 1943
photograph showing the names of 45 employees of
Broad Ford's A. Overholt and Company
distillery complex. Truth be told, there is no
telling, from one treasure to the next, how long
it will take me to bring an idea into the light
of day in a new web page. Sometimes the treasures
are held back for a long time, figuratively
gathering dust, waiting to be fit into an article
for publication. And time passes. This web page
found its time, and sprang into being, because of
an unintended nudge from my Internet friend,
Curt, whose photographs of Broad Ford are
featured at Karen's Branches. In early
June 2020, Curt sent me an email to ask a
question about antique OLD OVERHOLT bottles he
had acquired. He also let me know about his
recent activity at the Find A Grave
website to create a virtual cemetery for former
Overholt distillery employees.
A
VIRTUAL CEMETERY CREATED BY CURT B
Former Overholt Distillery Employees
(https://www.findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery/968265?page=1#sr-197645718)
I found his
ongoing work and copied all the details for the
29 individuals listed. The names on the list
reminded me of the 1943 photograph that was filed
away. When writing back, I mentioned it as a
source of additional A. Overholt and Company
employees, sending along a small jpg and the list
of names. At first glance, it seemed to me there
were no matches between Curt's list and the 1943
list, and even wrote, "none of them match
the folks from the 1943 photograph." But I
was wrong. Not only do the surnames of seven 1943
individuals match surnames on Curt's list, but
three of those names appear to be accurate
identifications. Matching surnames are important
in genealogy, even if you cannot ID the
individual you are looking for.
The Find A
Grave website contains a vast amount of
information uploaded by volunteers, and more
often than not, valuable family details are
included that help you track familial
connections. Along with a picture of a person's
headstone, the names of parents, siblings, and
maiden names of spouses may be listed. When
available, news articles may be included, along
with photographs that further identify the
deceased.
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Karen's
Note: If you visit Find A
Grave, and look up any Overholts or
other "O" family relatives I
have highlighted, you may find pictures
that were created for Karen's
Branches. I do not mind if my jpgs
show up on Find A Grave, because
they are historically helpful, but I do
mind the failure to identify my copyright
information or mention where the pictures
came from, namely The Overholt Family
Tree ~~ Karen's Branches. |
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On the
subject of the 1943 photo, matching surnames
suggested to me that several members of families,
even husbands and wives, could find employment at
the Broad Ford site at the same time. Also, from
Curt's list, the name Herrington is represented
as a maiden name, which removed my fear that the
Herrington on the 1943 photo might be a
Harrington -- the second letter of the name is
obliterated in the original photo. And the
surname Lane reminded me that it shows up in our
family tree in the West Overton-Scottdale area,
so W. Lane might be another long-lost cousin. In
fact, any number of these employees may be
long-lost cousins. Trust that I will be extending
my cursory two-day search at Find A Grave
to uncover more information. But for the moment,
this web page has my full attention.
Because of
Curt's virtual cemetery nudge (Thank you,
Curt!), my project for the 1943 photograph
was revived. And looking back, it became plain
that my behavior this time around mirrored my
past behavior. Years ago, when I first discovered
Curt's images of the abandoned Broad Ford
distillery complex, they spurred me to contact
him and get his permission to feature his amazing
photographs in new web pages for Karen's
Branches -- see Broad Ford Dismantled,
Broad Ford Distressed, Broad Ford
Distressed 2, and Broad Ford Distressed
Summer, part of the Broad Ford Past
& Present series. Also, his photography
made the Broad Ford Forsaken series
happen, with Inside Looking Out and Outside
Looking In.
Forty-two
People Appear in the 1943 Photograph
Forty-two
people are shown in the 1943 photo, and three
others were absent on the day it was made. It
came to me via a resident of Scottdale, PA, David
R. (Thank you, David!). He wrote in
part, "My mother worked in that distillery
sometime around 1937 to 1940. She told me that
her job was to put the tax stamp labels on the
whiskey bottles as they came down the line to be
packaged for shipping. The labels had to be
straight!!!" However, David's mother was not
the source of the photograph. His cousin gave it
to him. "She bought it at a yard sale,"
he wrote. "She thought that she may have
bought it because she wanted the frame. She gave
the photo to me, because she knew that I enjoyed
collecting old photos from our area."
And then, in
October 2012, David wrote to Karen's Branches,
sent a jpg of the photo, and then offered to send
the actual photograph. It was a real treasure.
Here was an Overholt artifact that showed both
men and women -- some young and some older -- who
were managers, office workers and laborers. Some
wore suits, others wore uniforms, and one
old-timer appeared to be a cooper, who might have
been building and charring oak barrels for a full
day, before meeting up for the photograph. It was
a true democratic blend of Americans -- a wonder
to behold.
From the day I
first visited the ruined buildings at Broad Ford
(see my article Broad Ford Safari), it
was my wish to find a cache of documents and
pictures that would show me something about the
people who worked there. Some items offered for
sale on eBay have been helpful, with
pictures of antique Overholt whiskey bottles and
other artifacts. Clipping and collecting photos,
however, reaped very little actual data.
Past-century accounts of the business activities
of Abraham Overholt and other members of the
"O" family have been very helpful, and
my articles have used as much of that information
as possible, but a picture with names and faces
added a whole new layer to genealogical and
historical research.
So, there I
was, deep into my 1943 project, memorizing faces
as I worked on them, often wondering how many
similar photographs might be floating around
Pennsylvania, when in July 2020, I saw the
"postcard repo" below posted on eBay.
Serendipity. After contacting the seller and
getting permission to use a copy in one of my
articles (Thank you, oldtownview!), my
work to straighten out the picture created the
second photo. Wish I knew the story behind the
photograph, but my guess is it was made to
commemorate the acquisition of new fire safety
equipment. Note the fire hoses and three
cylinders that look like fire extinguishers. I
wondered if the original photograph named all the
individuals, like the 1943 group photo did.
c1920's
Overholt & Co. Whiskey Broad Ford PA. Factory
Rare Image Postcard Repo
Offered on eBay by the seller, oldtownview
A. Overholt
& Company at Broad Ford, PA, circa 1920
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
Working
Pixel-By-Pixel
Back in 2012,
the first thing I wanted to do with the 1943
photo was post it to my newly minted Broad
Ford Blog. There it could highlight how
generations of people had earned paychecks
working for A. Overholt and Company, an
organization that would commemorate dependability
and loyalty with tokens of appreciation -- in
this case, ten-year pins and a group photograph.
But all my hopes for the folks I called the Broad
Ford Group never materialized beyond the earliest
modest expectations. Dreams of seeing a reclaimed
and renovated distillery site pretty much died on
the vine, because the landowner was not
interested. My blog never drew many visitors, but
it remains for memory's sake of a road not taken.
Work on the
1943 photograph might have been a road not taken.
But after eight long years of bumping into the
vagaries of life, and reaching my 71st birthday,
this photograph is going to reach the light of
day. A whole lot of photographic editing needed
to be done, because it was important to me that
the employees looked fresh as the day they were
photographed. Luckily, back when I was 69 years
old, I managed to buy a new desktop computer, and
later purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements 2019,
so I had better tools for editing photographs.
After months of
editing on a pixel-by-pixel level -- the kind of
work I normally do when preparing jpgs for Karen's
Branches -- the jpg at the top of this page
was created. It is a reduced version (only 1000
pixels wide) of the full-sized picture (2788
pixels wide), The project took longer than usual,
because of the size of the photo and the
intricate details of each person shown. Even the
brick background and the Overholt sign needed
refreshing. A good bit of time was lost in
experimentation, looking for the best way to
remove spots and other blemishes caused by the
photo's age. Finally, I learned some methods that
created my best representation of what a brand
new photograph might have looked like.
Below is a
collection of tight shots of the men and women of
August 16, 1943, clipped from the full-sized jpg.
The people in the first row (those sitting on the
ground) were closer to the camera's eye than
people in the fourth row (those closest to the
building), which is a shame, but I wanted to
maintain the original perspective. Without going
into a detailed explanation, every person's face
and clothing was edited to look fresh.
At the bottom
of this page, you can go to the full-sized edited
photograph, as well as the full-sized original,
and see where the editing occurred. I am not sure
if the Internet will display the 300 pxi pictures
as 300 pxi, because my web page builder is from a
bygone era. Hopefully, the descendants of this
group of employees will recognize their ancestors
and save the photos for future reference -- just
please remember to display the copyright details
and mention Karen's Branches as the
source.
Forty-five
Names ~~ Forty-two Faces
(Left to Right) 1st Row: G. Ondich, R.
Mistlebauer, J. Bender
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 1st Row: A. Cupcheck, H. Gerke,
F. Slabosky
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 2nd Row: N. Dragoo, J. Stillwagon
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 2nd Row: E. Burke, K. Chapman, C.
Crossan
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 2nd Row: J. Mistlebauer, M.
Quinn, F. E. Gerber
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 2nd Row: M. Fiano, F. Cossel, R.
Burke
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 2nd Row: E. King, M. Wiggins, R.
Soisson
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 3rd Row: J. Stoll, J. Burket, F.
Gabelt
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 3rd Row: C. Baldwin, W. Stoll, J.
Herrington
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 3rd Row: A. Evans, N. Stillwagon,
J. Cossel
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 3rd Row: M. McDonald
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 4th Row: J. Fiano, I. Fullem, D.
Russel
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 4th Row: F. Bartley, M. J. Burke,
J. Slater
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 4th Row: W. Lane, M. F. Burke, H.
Quinn
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
(Left to Right) 4th Row: H. Crossan, J. Crossan,
P. Gabelt
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2020
Absent
That Day: P. Dragoo, A. Haberer, F.
McGivern
~~
To see the full-sized edited photograph
(2788pxWide), click here.~~
~~
To see the full-sized original submitted
photograph (2877pxWide), click here. ~~
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End of Page ~~ Go to the first page of Karen's Branches.
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