THE HISTORY OF SMITHTON, PENNSYLVANIA FROM 1800 TO 1950
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The millage was fixed at ten mills. The third meeting was a joint meeting of the Borough and Township Boards, at which the Township turned over all the property to the Borough. N. E. Rhoades was the first President of the Borough Council, Alex Watkins was the Clerk of Council, and Hamilton Young was the first Burgess. About 1907 two innovations made their appearance in Smith ton. The Rigley family opened a nickelodeon in the building now used as a dwelling by Mrs. Anna Jennewine the same building, in fact, in which school was once held for the upper grades, which was moved from Peer Street to First Street. This was the town’t first moving picture theatre. The admission price to a jerky one reeler was five cents. Hence the name Nickelodeon. This writer’s sister, Mrs. Garnet Rhodes Smith, remarks that they also had “talkies” with Mr. Rigley, owner and operator, doing the talking.. The other novelty of 1907 was the town’t first automobile. It was a one cylinder Cadillac owned by William Saunders, the proprietor of the New Hough House, now Ferrando’s Hotel. How everyone ran to see when the Saunders horseles carriage chugged through town enveloped in a cloud of dust! The Brewery was built in 1908 by the Eureka Brewing Company. Stoves, ironing boards, and curtain stretchers were manufactured in Smithton in a large building across from the school. These products were well and favorably known throughout the mill district along the Monongahela. J. F. Pringle and later A. A. Hough manufactured ice cream and pop. The pop shop stood on the alley between First and Second Streets. For many years Herman Raithel ran a bakery, and made ice cream with a staem engine. When Mr. Raithel became Postmaster, he sold the business to John Ottino, who continued it until the spring of 1940, when he sold to S. Cheran of Yukon. Later the bakery was run by a Mr. McCartney, and since his departure from the community there has not been a local bakery. From about 1895 to 1904 Alex Watkins ran a small newspaper, The Smithton Register. One copy, chosen at random from among several others, calls to mind the crack baseball team which Smithton once boasted. A baseball diamond, with bleachers for the spectators, and enclosed by a high board fence, was located between the B.&O. tracks and the row of former company houses below the borough limits. The houses were not there at that time. The line-up included Jake Sager, Charley Vincent, Joe Mellender, Duncan Douglas, Jake Schneider, and “Paddy” Hepler. Douglas and Hepler were the battery. Another item mentions the Symphia band of Smith ton which played at a reunion of Mt. Pleasant School in Rostraer Township. The band leader was J. K. MacDonald.
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