Slide 1 On September 11th, 1938, 30-year old Lieutenant Harold Dietz was instantly killed when his plane crashed in an air field at the Easton Airport, in Easton, PA. Present at the crash was Dietz’s friend Lieutenant Herbert Frye. Because of the esteem in which Frye held Dietz, he made a promise to Dietz’s family which he kept for 50 years. Tonight we will look at Lieutenant Dietz’s life and death, and the tenacious will of Herbert Frye. ...
Slide 1 Welcome to Bangor at War: The Movie. In this presentation I am going to discuss how I first learned of the movie, my preliminary search for the film, what I learned of the producer, what footage was shot, and what I think happened to the movie, which remains lost to this day. Slide 2 I first stumbled across the information about the movie, Bangor at War, while doing research about another project, which was the history of the Jewish Community Center, in Bangor, Pennsylvania, where my wife, Anna Maria and I, Brian Carroll, live. Since the Jewish Community Center was founded on May 30th, 1945, I began reading the Bangor Daily News archives in microfilm at the Bangor Library from that day forward in an attempt to learn as much as possible about the Center. ...
Slide 1 This presentation describes four unusual topics, each centered around events which occurred in the Slate Belt of Pennsylvania. The original stories were found in the Bangor Daily News archives as I was researching the former Jewish Community Center. I have since been able to expand upon them using other resources. Slide 2 Mysterious lights and objects in the sky have been seen by people throughout history. For this presentation, we can divide these sightings into two periods: historical and modern. The historical period extends to antiquity. For example, the bible mentions wheels of fire in the sky. What are these but unidentified flying objects? More examples follow. ...
Slide 1 Welcome to Slate Tombstones of the Slate Belt Slide 2 The earliest reference I could find to slate tombstones was from Donald Repsher, in a paper called, “FOUR ARTICLES PERTAINING TO TAMANEND”. I will quote from his story. “Tradition has it that Tammany, or Tamenend, who was head chief of the three tribes of the Lenapes, was being carried by some of his followers to a conference in Philadelphia, when they halted at a spring at the foot of Prospect Hill. There, tired of their burden, the young Indians built a hut for the old man, presumably over 90 years of age, and leaving him in charge of a young Indian girl, suddenly after night had come on, abandoned him and went on to the treaty. ...
Slide 1 On July 1st, 1953, a pilot project to store fuel oil in an abandoned slate quarry in Wind Gap, PA., was announced by two representatives of Standard Oil of New Jersey, which was also known as Esso Oil. The two proclamations were simultaneously made in Allentown, PA. and New York City, NY. A brochure was prepared by Esso the following year. This presentation relies on that brochure which was first shown to me by Donald Jones of Bangor. ...
Slide 1 This talk presents a brief history of the building which housed the Shiloh Welsh Methodist Episcopal Church and, later, the Jewish Community Center, in Bangor, PA. This building is now the home of Brian Carroll and Anna Maria Caldara. It has been a centerpiece of the town and was used by various groups in the following incarnations: The Shiloh Welsh Methodist Episcopal Church The Jewish Community Center The Bangor Cultural Center Proposed Funeral Home New Life Baptist Church Private Residence ...
Slide 1 In this presentation, we are going to explore the unsolved mystery of the death of Edith Ford, in Bangor, Pennsylvania. In 1935 she was strangled to death and dumped into a cistern where she floated undiscovered for 5 months. Authorities were convinced that someone from the area murdered her, and that the killer or killers probably lived out their lives somewhere in the Slate Belt. All of the facts in this story came from either newspaper articles or magazines and are attributed in advance to them. ...
Slide 1 This talk concerns the disaster that occurred on September 8, 1934 when the SS Morro Castle caught fire under mysterious circumstances and burned in an inferno, killing 134 people. Two residents of Bangor, Pennsylvania, Herman and Pearl Panimo, were on the ship and survived the disaster. We are going to explore both the story of the Morro Castle and the Panimo’s escape from death. Slide 2 In 1928, the US government approved the Merchant Marine Act, which provided $250 million dollars in low interest construction loans to help American shipbuilders replace the aging US fleet. ...