Volume One Issue 3 March 1997 Page 1
If you should have any memories of your family please write me about them. I'll be glad to write them in the JOURNAL. The following comes from George Hartman in Sun City, AZ about what he recalls about the early Hartmans...
John Hartman, my Grandfather did live in Pittsburgh. He died when my dad was 16. My dad's oldest brother, Charles, was the breadwinner and caretaker of the children until they all left home. They were poor and lived on Brownsville Road along or near the railroad tracks. My Dad often mentioned how he and Charley snagged coals from the trains that went by their home. The only heat in the house was from a coal burning kitchen stove. As a boy, I visited Grandma often with Dad. She was a tall, strong, hard looking woman. Typically German, as I remember and a devout Lutheran who insisted that her children attend church. Uncle Charley was a plumber with Ruud water heater company and when my Dad was younger than 16 he accompanied Charley to work. Dad got interested in coremaking as he watched the coremakers "play in the sand" at visits to Ruud. He begged Charley to ask his boss to allow him (Dad) to become a coremaker. Dad said that he would work cheap to get started. Finally, it happened and Dad became a skilled tradesman and eventually a superintendent at the Homestead Valve Company Core Shop
Dad was a 2nd baseman for the Edgar Thompson steel works league and he took me as a five year old boy to the Rankin streetcar barn, where there was a huge rocky field and taught me to catch, throw and field a baseball. He was also a radio fan, he had one of the first crystal sets. He loved music and also had one of the first wind-up Victrolas. He also taught me to count by putting pennies into an Eagle milk can and then have me count them each Sunday after church and subtract them too. He also taught me the alphabet on Sundays on the stick my mother would paddle me with when I was bad. During this period we lived in Rankin in a one bedroom apartment. Al and Bill were born there also. I visited my grandmother and grandfather on my mother's side who lived nearby, as grandma and my Mom were very close. Dad always helped Mom's family. Aunt Margaret lived on the railraod tracks nearby and I remember, at Christmas the tree caught on fire, set fire to the drapes and the apartment went up in flames. Aunt Margaret and Uncle Joe had at least 5 kids at the time. Dad and Mom made a place for all of them with us. Dad fed and clothed them for at least a week. Mom and Dad were both generous in other ways to Mom's family. Shortly after my brother Bill was born (1923) we all moved to West Homestead. Dad had secured a better position with the Homestead Valve Works and wanted to get nearer his work, rather than traveling by streetcar from Rankin