Freedom's Heroes: The Military Heritage of Rostraver

By Regis J. Serinko Ph.D.

There is no available information at this time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 13, 2010
• ISBN: 9781462813896

Regis J. Serinko Ph.D.

Dr .Regis J. Serinko is a lifelong resident of the Mon Valley Area. He was born in Perryopolis and educated in the public schools of Perry Township. Following graduation he worked in local industry until drafted into World War II. He spent three years in the China Burma India Theater as a staff sergeant in the Army. Signal Corps. He graduated from St. Vincent College, with honors, in biology, and with an MS in Zoology from West Virginia University. His career in education led to an M Ed in Administration and a Ph. D. in history and philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh. In 1975 he authored California State College; The Peoples College in the Monongahela Valley and a sequel in 1992; California University of Pennsylvania, The Peoples College in the Monongahela Valley. 1983 California University the Alumni Association: A Century of Service - 1883-1983. 2008, St. Anne Church, 50th Anniversary was published for the celebration. Serinko is a resident of the Sweeney Plan in Rostraver Township where he has been an active in local government and in St. Anne Church. He is currently chairman of the Rostraver Veterans Memorial Park Association. This book is an outgrowth of his research for the construction of the memorial which was dedicated in 2007.

Book preview

Freedom’s Heroes

The Military Heritage

of Rostraver Township

Regis J. Serinko, Ph.D.

Professor emeritus, California University

Of Pennsylvania, California, Penna.

Copyright © 2010 by Regis J. Serinko, Ph. D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

76109

Contents

Acknowledgements

An Introduction

Chapter I

The Foundation of Freedom Revolutionary War Era

A. The First Defense of the New Freedom The War of 1812

Chapter II

Securing Freedom at Home: The Civil War Era

Chapter III

Saving Freedom In Europe; World War I Era

Chapter IV

Securing Freedom For The World World War II Era

Chapter V

The Forces of Freedom Challenge Communism The Korean War Era

Chapter VI

Communism prevents Freedom in Indochina The Vietnam War Era

Chapter VII

Freedom’s Vigilance

Chapter VIII

Freedom and Middle East Terrorism Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom Era

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Much of this history is the result from the research for veterans names for the Rostraver Freedom Memorial. The usual searches through newspapers, cemeteries, the internet, and word of mouth. The registration of veterans for placement on the memorial also provided names.

A valuable source of information came from individuals who had done family genealogies the Budd family, Raymond Popp and the Rostraver Historical Society. Jerry Dran a local historian in Webster. Romeo and Bernie Fabrizaini who kept excellent records. George Turner and Robert Vertacnik who researched their communities. John and Helen Komar who went with me door to door in Vanmeter. To all of those individuals and families who freely provided information of their service or members of their families.

I owe a deep thanks of gratitude to my son Dr. Regis J. Serinko Jr, his advise and help made this work a lot easier and he was always available when I needed him To my wife Angie who has the patience of a saint for always waiting until I finished my tasks, that interrupted her schedule.

Because of Xlibris and their excellent arrangements this important part of local history will be preserved through this publication.

To all:

Thank you.

Regis J. Serinko Sr. Ph.D.

Rostraver Veterans Memorial Park

76109-SERI-layout.pdf

Rostraver’s Veterans Freedom Memorial was dedicated in May 2007

To all past and present residents who served in the United States

Military Services from the Revolutionary War to the present.

76109-SERI-layout.pdf

An

Introduction

World War II was a war fought all over the globe; every continent was involved in this conflict. The war was won but the peace was an unsettled agreement. The Russian communism was determined to become the world power, replacing the United States. As a result the crumbling empires of Europe were divided or given independence. The move to Democracy depended on the determination of the people while in those countries given to the Communist bloc had no choice on their destiny. This difference in political philosophy led to the period of the Cold War with Russia. While the two Atomic Powers vied for dominance in world power. The displacement of the Jewish Community, persecuted by the Nazi Germany of Hitler, by placing them in Palestine would bring unrest in the Middle East and the eventual War on Terrorism in the 21st century. India and Pakistan would eventually get their independence from England and develop an atom bomb that created unrest and conflict between these Asian powers.

76109-SERI-layout.pdf

Local soldiers that made the beaches at Normandy on D-Day.T/Sgt, Jerry Brizzi, Cpl Anthony Mattee, Pfc Herbie Huebner and Pfc. James Greenwood. These men were together from North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Omaha Beach and through Belgium and Germany until the war ended.

Daniel Kohley, of Collinsburg was killed in the landing on Omaha Beach

The AP photo is the liberation of Rome, Italy a triumph after the bloody battles through central Italy. My brother T/Sgt Albert Serinko is in the jeep parade with Gen. Clark leaving Vatican City. These veterans of battles would go on to southern France and into Germany until the final victory.

Chapter I

The Foundation of Freedom

Revolutionary War Era

The Pennsylvania colonies at the beginning of 1700 ended on the eastern slopes of the Appalachian Highlands. The occupants of the area between the rivers that would become Rostraver Township were a few Delaware and Shawnee Indians, displaced from other regions, and wandered into the area that would become the Mon-Valley. The first white settler in to the area is thought to be Joseph Hill who came here and occupied land in 1754. Hostilities with the French and Indians, who were at war with the British, discouraged even the heartiest frontiersmen from entering the disputed land. The British issued the Proclamation of 1763 that forbid settling the west with the impending war with the French. Man power was needed in concentration along the eastern colonies. Although the Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War between England and France and the land was ceded to the British. This angered the Indians and set-off the Pontiac Wars. Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawas, was determined to drive the white settlers back to the sea. The Indians were defeated at the Battle of Bushy Run by General Bouquet on August 5, 1763. This was the most important engagement with the Indians in the history of Pennsylvania. With the defeat of the Indians and the purchase of the land in 1768 by the Penns, settlers soon arrived in the area to become Rostraver Township. On arrival they formed companies of rangers and militia to protect the settlers from marauding Indians. The last incursion was the sack and burning of Hannatown in 1782.

By 1758 the eastern slopes of the Allegheny Mountains had received some settlements. The region west of the Allegheny Mountains in southwestern Pennsylvania had received some settlers, not from the east, but from Virginia, whose government claimed the territory. The tide of settlement that moved westward to the Alleghenies was slowed by the steep and heavily wooded mountains. The migration was south through Maryland and the Cumberland Valley. Many entered by way of Braddock’s Road as early as 1753. By 1765 a large immigration had entered the general area that would become the counties of Westmoreland, Fayette, Washington and Allegheny. After the land purchase of 1768 the population of the southwest grew rapidly. The growing population created the need to extend the colonial government westward with the formation of Bedford County in 1771 and Westmoreland County in 1773. This resulted in the formation of Rostraver Township in 1773. Westmoreland would later be divided into: Washington County, 1781; Fayette County 1783; and Allegheny County 1788. These changes resulted in the present day boundaries of Rostraver Township

The original boundary was from the north, the forks of the Monongahela and Youghigheny Rivers near Port View. All of the land between the rivers south to a diagonal line from the mouth of Jacobs Creek to the mouth of Redstone Creek on the Monongahela River near Fort Burd (Brownsville).

The Quaker influence that dominated the colonial government delayed the formation of a military force within the Pennsylvania colony. Their belief in non-violence supported an anti-war stance in the formation and support of a military. However, in 1774 the British crown called for support in the King George’s War with the French and the burden to supply troops was given to Governor Thomas. With the aid and influence of Benjamin Franklin they formed the Pennsylvania Militia, known as the Associators, and recruited ten thousand men. The government then voted to provide supplies, which the governor interpreted to include gun powder. Although no Indian uprising or French invasion occurred, it marked the beginning of the Pennsylvania militia and an organized military defense.

With Washington’s defeat at Fort Necessity and the attack on the French troops at Jamonville began the French and Indian War and the aggression of the French in the Ohio Valley. Claiming all of the territory west of the Allegheny Mountains, and began building forts to support their claim, Fort Duquesne (Pitt) was the result of this act. The Delaware and Shawnee Indians joined the French over their anger at the loss of their lands. Stated in an early history of Pennsylvania the conflict was described:

Trouble with the Indians was perhaps inevitable. Dissatisfaction seems to be inherent in the very condition of the white man’s settlement and civilization. Though he did not realize it, the Indian, confronted by a superior race whose progress he might of impeded, was doomed to perish. Standing in the path of the advance of white civilization, the red man was overwhelmed.

In today’s, 2005, world this statement would be highly criticized for its racist superiority reference to the white man’s systematic taking of the Indian lands and the loss of the native American’s tribal freedom.

To lessen the irregularities in obtaining land in the southwest of Pennsylvania a new system, called the Application System was installed. The old tomahawk right was replaced by warrant and petition, grants of purchase. The land was purchased from the Indians in 1768. By the time that the Revolutionary War came to an end the land in Rostraver Township was purchased or given in grants and settled. The following information from an early land map (1772-1837) issued by the Westmoreland County Assessment of Property Office.

Original Land Ownership in Rostraver Township

The land was obtained by patent (grant) or warrant (purchase). Following the European custom large tracts of land were given names like the plantations in the South.

Note: The properties are listed from the Fayette County line in the south to the Allegheny County line in the north.

As the conflicts with the Indians diminished the colonies began challenging the control over the colonies by the British. Taxation and government control fostered the desires for independence and freedom from the absolute rule of the Crown. In 1775 Westmoreland County joined the revolution when at a meeting at Hannastown, the County seat, they passed the resolution The Westmoreland Declaration. The Declaration expressed their opposition to the oppressive acts of Great Britain. They immediately organized a battalion of Associators under the command of Colonel John Proctor. The Eight Pennsylvania Regiment, under the command of Colonel Aeneas Mackay, was composed of seven companies from Westmoreland County. Its original purpose was to protect the western frontier and guard the western forts. In 1777 the Regiment joined General George Washington on the Delaware River. The immediate area had little population and was under the government of Virginia and had organized the Thirteenth Virginia Regiment under the command of Colonel William Crawford. This regiment was ordered east to join the forces of Gen. Washington.

Although local individual accounts of the Revolutionary War are few, many of the new immigrants into the Township had served in the continental army, state militia or the frontier rangers. Benjamin Fell, the founder of Fellsburg, assisted Washington’s troops at Valley Forge during the winter of 1778. He permitted the soldiers to use his leather tannery to make shoes, for the bare footed and poorly clothes soldiers during that severe winter. Among those soldiers was Joseph Hill the first settler into Rostraver Township. James Sterret was with the continental army and fought with General DeLafayette at the important Battle of Chad Ford on the Brandywine. Benjamin Lightburn wounded at the battle of Princeton stayed in the army as a quartermaster an example of the intense patriotism of these hardy American adventurers.

On the local scene the best know name of the Revolution is Colonel Edward Cook., the commander of the local militia and a close friend of George Washington. Col. Cook played a significant role in the new government in many capacities. In 1794 his role in the Whiskey Rebellion was important to bring peace and acceptance of the new Federal Government. The victory over Cornwallis at Yorktown brought to an end the War for Freedom and self rule. Following the war immigration westward brought many of these veterans into Rostraver Township.

The Revolutionary War developed after a series of events protesting the British rule over the colonies and their large military forces in the colonies. The protest against the Stamp Act of 1765, Boston Tea Party, December 16, 1773 led to the call for a Continental Congress in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774 and the establishment of the Minute Men, the continental militia. On June 16, 1775 The Battle of Bunker Hill in Mass. was the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

Following the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, Nathan Hale was captured and hung by the British as the first American spy. At the hanging his patriotism was expresses in the famous quote, I regret that I have but one life to give to my country.

The motivation and drive to enter military conflicts was founded on June 7, 1776 when they adopted the Declaration of Independence. The American people are dedicated to these ideals: All men are created equal, Life Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, Free and Independent, We pledge our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. Adopted on July 4, 1776, it has remained the Call to Duty."

The victory at Yorktown on October 17, 1781 and the Peace Treaty signed 1783 recognize the independence of the United States and set its western boarder at the Mississippi River, and