Trolley Tracks and Yellow Bricks Survived Well Past the End of an Era

This is a view of the lower park entrance to Rock Springs Park in 1970. The last trolley ran in 1934, but as you can see from this photograph the yellow brick entrance with embedded tracks was still around 36 years later. I was told that a trolley fan used a switch key at the time this picture was taken to manually switch the track and it still operated. The bridge in the background crosses over Marks Run. Much earlier postcard views of this area show the Old Mill Ride beyond the entrance gate. (Courtesy of Richard Bowker)

Daily Receipts Log from the Hand Years

This Daily Receipts Log shows half of the rides in Rock Springs Park in later years were for children. Photo evidence from this time reveals many parents and young children frequented the park. Note the old-style or French spelling of “Carrousel” and the typo “Afernoon” at the top. (From the Collection of Richard Bowker)

Mail Pouch Barns in Rock Springs Park?

Annually dozens of big name companies held picnics at Rock Springs Park. One such company, known more for their product than their name, The Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company, “opened the picnic season on July 13, 1927,” according to The Beaver Daily Times.

The company began when two brothers, Aaron and Samuel Bloch, entered the tobacco business as “stogie” manufacturers in Wheeling, West Virginia, fourteen years after the end of the Civil War. At that time, tobacco companies often used cigar wrapper clippings as a form of chewing tobacco. The Bloch Brothers took this one step further and conceived an idea that would revolutionize the chewing tobacco industry. Why not flavor these clippings and package them in paper bags?

Starting on a very small scale the brothers would flavor and package the new-type tobacco in paper bags that bore the names of the stores who sold direct to customers. Immediate success in this venture led Aaron and Samuel to market their own brand. Taking a mail pouch as their characteristic symbol, they made their first sale of West Virginia Mail Pouch on October 15, 1879.

The change to this new type of “scrap” chewing tobacco caught on in the Wheeling area immediately. The fame of West Virginia Mail Pouch began to spread to neighboring areas and the brothers began to advertise. Their biggest form of advertising was large painted signs on the sides of barns. These barns can be still be found in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and California. The barns, usually hand-painted in black or red with yellow or white capital lettering, read: "Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco Treat Yourself to the Best."

Initially, barn owners were paid between $1 and $2 a year for the advertisement, equivalent in 1913 dollars to about $20-$40 today. But more importantly, they received a much desired fresh coat of paint to preserve the integrity of the wood. Mail Pouch painted their message on one or two sides of the barn and painted the other sides of the barn any color the owner wished. Many of the barns were repainted every few years to maintain the sharp colors of the lettering. Some of the barns are now listed as National Historic Landmarks by the Secretary of the Interior.

Other groups to hold picnics at Rock Springs Park in the Summer of 1927 were The Tri-State American Legion, New Brighton Community, Duquesne Light and Power, Tri-State Oil Men, United Presbyterian Sunday Schools of Beaver Valley, Tri-State Odd Fellows, United Tri-State Colored picnic, Tri-State Moose Lodges, Burgettstown Chamber of Commerce, Crafton, PA Sunday Schools, Pennsylvania Railroad Employees, and many others. The Beaver Daily Times went on to state that “The present park owners have secured a lease for twenty-five years and have spent in new improvements and facilities approximately $200.000."

Park Owners and Potters Were Traction Magnates

According to the publication, Glass & Pottery World, Volumes 11-12, Rock Springs Park owner C.A. Smith and his brother W.L. Smith of the Taylor Smith and Taylor and McNicol potteries were also “developing rapidly into traction magnates.” In August 1903, the Smith Brothers were granted a franchise by the court at New Cumberland to add a second electric railway line to the one which connected Rock Springs Park to East Liverpool via the Chester Bridge. “The Smith syndicate has announced that it will begin operations forthwith, and states that they expect to have cars running before the year closes."

To the west, potters Joseph G. Lee and W.E. Wells of Newell, West Virginia, along with a grant from the U.S. government, were planning to construct a bridge across the Ohio River (The Newell Bridge) and running their own electric railway line from East Liverpool to their, then secret, industry site in Newell. “The Plans of the Lee syndicate have not been made public, but there is little doubt they have something interesting up their sleeves, as the Newell site has no equal now along the Ohio valley, and would be simply perfect for the location of an immense steel plant, and it is freely rumored that something good in the industrial line is practically assured to Newell.” The “immense plant” would not be for steel but rather the world’s largest pottery plant ever constructed, The Homer Laughlin China Company. Looking to expand and finding no available land in East Liverpool W.E. Wells and Homer Laughlin chose to build Plant 2 across the Ohio River in what is now Newell, West Virginia. The company’s history claims, “The proposed site was farm land, about three miles in length, lying about 50 to 100 feet above the Ohio River.” The location would have access to the railroad, abundant fuel, and improving river navigation. In order to develop the land into a usable industrial site, the Laughlin company created the North American Manufacturing Company to undertake such tasks as building a water system, laying out streets, and selling lots. In 1901 the only way to cross from East Liverpool to Newell was by ferry, but in June 1904 work began on a new metal suspension bridge. On July 4, 1905, the first traffic used the bridge, and to this day the company’s toll bridge serves the people on both sides of the river. The population of Newell grew rapidly.

Connected with Plant 2 was a 100-acre recreational park. It was situated in the valley just south of the plant and included a spring-fed brook, a lake, a zoo, a formal garden, and an outdoor theater where vaudeville players appeared and silent movies were shown. This park was the conception of George Washington Clarke, perhaps the greatest salesman in the history of dinnerware. His work in the Middle West was largely responsible for the expansion of the company, and he devoted much of his income to beautifying the company’s park. Tragically, he did not live long after the park was built, succumbing to an apparent heart attack in 1911. Laurel Hollow Park has been recently reclaimed. Check out their website at http://www.laurelhollowpark.net/.

Completed in 1905, the Newell Bridge is historically important as one of the first all-steel suspension bridges.

Lake Drained in 1952 to Add Picnic Grounds in Lower Park

This grassy area was once part of the lake at Rock Springs Park. (1970)










According to Billboard, June 7, 1952, manager Robert L. Hand ordered a full-scale operation to fill in the lake at Rock Springs Park “in order to provide additional picnic space.” The work was done prior to the 1952 summer season. Two new rides were also added at that time – the Bisch-Rocco Kiddie Airplane (pictured) and the B.A. Schiff Kiddie Boat Ride (pictured). The 3.5-acre lake was created fifty-two years earlier by then-owner C.A. Smith at a cost of $50,000. In 1906 a report by The United States Bureau of Fisheries under the subject “the propagation and distribution of food fishes ,” reported that the lake at Rock Springs was stocked with 150 “fingerlings, yearlings, and adult” large-mouth black bass. Of course, those who remember the lake in later years saw it substantially reduced in size with only small fish and no boating (see picture). What remained of the lake was drained in 1974-75 when the park was razed to make way for the redirection of Route 30 and the approach to the new Jennings Randolph Bridge.






Kiddie Airplanes and Kiddie Boats in Rock Springs Park (1968)

Catholic Church in Chester Owes Part of Its Existence to RSP

If you grew up in Chester, WV, or visited the firemen’s carnival on 4th Street, then you are sure to remember Sacred Heart Church on the hill. Perhaps you went there.

Research shows that Rock Springs Park played a part in the construction of this beautiful Catholic Church in town.

According to the publication The Catholic Church in the United States of America, Volume 3, in response to the appeal of seventeen Catholic families from Chester in 1902, a Bishop Donahue sent Father O.H. Moye and Father Galway, of the cathedral, to Chester to investigate the possibility of sending a permanent priest to the new town at the top of the northern panhandle

“Although their report was favorable,” cites the volume, “the Bishop hesitated in sending a priest to so small a parish.” He eventually did send pastor, Rev. Wm J. Sauer, on December 16, 1902.

Prior to that time Mass had never been celebrated in Chester, consequently the new pastor borrowed chalice, missal, and altar stone from the Cathedral and bought vestments, “on credit,” from the Tabernacle Society of Wheeling.

The first Mass was celebrated in the home of Patrick Burns on December 21, 1902. At that time there were only two boys at the proper age to serve at the altar. A fair was held for the benefit of the church at Rock Springs Park Pavilion in January 1903 and “over $1800 was cleared." During the following summer Mass was celebrated in the Hotel Chester, where Father Sauer was staying. By August 1903 a new rectory was built and a little over two years later, in October 1905, the first floor of the new rectory was completed.

When I was younger I visited the street fair along 4th street and rode the Ferris wheel many times that was set up in front of Sacred Heart. While rocking at the top of the ride above the church rooftop but not nearly as high as the steeple, it never occurred to me that Rock Springs Park helped build this wonderful structure.

The East Liverpool Historical Society’s Website Shows Rock Springs Park in 1954

(from East Liverpool Historical Society Website, courtesy of Frank Dawson Collection)

The East Liverpool Historical Society’s website has some great photographs taken in Rock Springs Park in 1954, courtesy of the Frank Dawson collection. Check out the Jitterbug contest winners at Golden Star Dairy Picnic. They look like they walked off the set of Grease! See more at http://www.eastliverpoolhistoricalsociety.org/rospr54.htm.