Category: History, News || By Jason Togyer

A few newsworthy items of local interest:

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Meeting Tonight in Clairton: It may be too late by the time you read this, but Neil Bhaerman of Clean Water Action notes that a public meeting will be held tonight at 7 at the Clairton Municipal Building to discuss planned environmental upgrades to U.S. Steel's Clairton Works.

My apologies for not getting this item posted sooner. (Sometimes the hamster falls out of the little wheel in my brain.)

Bhaerman says that CWA has helped to create a new group called Residents for a Clean and Healthy (REACH) Mon Valley.

"REACH Mon Valley is a grassroots community group that works to improve air quality and hold local industry accountable to environmental standards," he says. "As you covered on May 5, pollution from the Clairton coke works is a serious issue. They have had a poor history of environmental compliance recently but will soon be embarking on a $1 billion series of upgrades to the plant."

If you miss this event (again, my apologies), REACH Mon Valley is holding its next meeting at 7 p.m. June 18 at the Elrama Volunteer Fire Department on Route 837.

And Bhaerman points out that there will be a public hearing on U.S. Steel's request for a permit to conduct its demolition and construction work in Clairton; that's set for 6:30 p.m. June 5 at the Clairton Municipal Building.

If you're interested in speaking at the hearing, Bhaerman suggests that you call him at (412) 765-3053, extension 202.

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Young Marine Honored: Alert Reader Mike Mauer sends along this photo taken at last night's West Mifflin Borough Council meeting. It shows Charles Krebs (right), commander of the borough's Veterans of Foreign Wars Intrepid Post 914, presenting a certificate of recognition to Marine Lance Cpl. Adam J. Elliott.

Elliott, Mike says, is a 2006 graduate of West Mifflin Area Senior High School, and the son of Scott and Donna Elliott. He recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.

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Name That Park: Pop-culture historian and Mon Valley native Brian Butko needs your help, so put on your thinking cap.

Butko --- who you probably know from his books about the Isaly Dairy chain and the Lincoln Highway --- is trying to find the location of a Hungarian picnic grove known as "Kossuth Park."

It was named for Louis Kossuth, a hero of the doomed 19th century movement to create an independent Hungarian state, free of influence from the Austrians and Russians.

The Hapsburgs and Czar Nicholas were able to crush the Hungarian independence movement, and Kossuth was exiled from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He never returned, spending the remainder of his life in England, Italy and Turkey.

Kossuth's exile only increased his fame, and he was revered by many Hungarians, particularly Protestants and immigrants to the Americas. In the 1850s, he became only the second foreign statesman (after the Marquis de Lafayette) to receive an official invitation to visit the United States, and he traveled the country, where he was hailed as "the Hungarian George Washington."

His fiery speeches against slavery enraged Southerners, while his support of mixed marriages earned him the condemnation of the Roman Catholic Church.

Anyway, that's the background. Butko, who also edits the magazine of the Sen. John Heinz History Center, Western Pennsylvania History, just published a story about Kossuth, who visited Pittsburgh in 1852.

That prompted one of his co-workers to mention that he remembers a park or a grove in McKeesport called Kossuth Park.

"He thought it was near Route 48, and it sounded like it could have been near White Oak Park," Butko says. "Any of this sound the least bit familiar?"

Well, the Free Hungarian Reformed Church used to maintain a picnic grove along Long Run Road behind the present-day site of the Stratwood Banquet Hall (the former Lemon Tree Restaurant), but I asked around, and no one seems to remember it being called "Kossuth Park."

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By The Way: According to the New York Times of Jan. 23, 1852, Kossuth didn't make it to McKeesport, but he did travel to Pittsburgh through the present-day east suburbs ... by sleigh!

"Kossuth was quite ill last evening and this morning, but nevertheless decided to come on," the newspaper reported. "The General Committee of Citizens, several members of the Pittsburg press, and many others, were waiting at Wilkinsburg --- seven miles out --- to escort the guest to the city."

A delegation from the state legislature was also traveling with Kossuth.

The Times a few days later called Kossuth's speech at the Masonic Hall in Pittsburgh "the greatest fete which has ever taken place in this city" and was "frequently interrupted" by "hearty outbursts of applause."