Marjorie That turning area for the engines was?just a short walk?from your g grandparents home. Leah -----Original Message----- From: Marjorie <pearldesert@comcast.net> To: paclearf@rootsweb.com Sent: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 12:37 pm Subject: Re: [PACLEARF] PACLEARF] Morrisdale / West Decatur, PA Hello Aunt Leah, I found that very interesting. Marjorie ----- Original Message ----- From: <ljwaring@aol.com> To: <paclearf@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 9:38 AM Subject: [PACLEARF] PACLEARF] Morrisdale / West Decatur, PA >I as well as well as my mother attended the West Decatur elememtry school.? >This is the six room school?that burned last winter.? The original school >was across the road. it was a four room, two story school, built of >wood,?that was bought by George Grant Wood.? He put a basement under it and >turned it into a home for his family.? It may have been expanded to have >more rooms in later years. > > This is getting off of the subject of Morrisdale but for those of you > that?would like?to know a little of the area.? There was a brick making > plant in the small town of West Decatur that was owned by the General > Refractories Company.? They had their own clay mines in the countryside > near the town. There?were several small trains, that brought the clay from > the different mines to the brick?yard.? The engines were called dinkys. > There was an area a few miles away, near the small town of Ohio where > there was room for the engines to turn and to be stored for the night.?I > can't say for sure but I believe the area may have been known as > Roundtown. Eventually all but one engine was sold and it was stored at the > brick plant at night.? I often wonder what happened to it.? I was back > there several years ago and there is nothing left of either the turnstiles > not the brick yard.? It has all been torn down. > > For a number of years George Wood was an engineer on?one of these > engines.? His son Jonas Wood was a? fireman on one of the?engines.?I > remember as a kid waving to the engineers as they passed by. I also > remember some of the?fires that were started by cinders that were thrown > from the smoke stack of the engine. ?Bob?Dougan?was the last engineer to > run the train. He and his wife lived in a house near the centre of town. > > Leah > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jeann8lte@aol.com > To: paclearf@rootsweb.com > Sent: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 10:11 pm > Subject: Re: [PACLEARF] Morrisdale, PA > > > > When we were very young in the 1950s, mother would occasionally drive us > the > 15 miles or so to Whispering pines to picnic and play on the swings and > the > slides. One slide was not too high and another was rather high or so we > thought > > then. This was in the days before there were such things on the rural > playgrounds. Irvin Park in Curwensville had swings and slides. Once > Chestnut > Ridge > one room school was closed, and we moved into the old high school at > Patton > Building, but there was still not much playground equipment. > > My mother had eight children in 12 years and a dairy to run. Dad worked > at > NARCO making fire brick for the steel mills and did the field work in his > spare > time. So we mostly stayed on the farm and worked. > > I still have three sibs in the home area and the rest of us moved > elsewhere. > Way things look now, two of my one brother's children may come back to the > area after college, depending on the job market. > > Jean > > > > ************************************** Get a sneak peak of the all-new AOL > at > http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > PACLEARF-request@rootsweb.com > with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body > of > the message > > > ________________________________________________________________________ > AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free > from AOL at AOL.com. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > PACLEARF-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PACLEARF-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.