1983 photo of the Everson Bridge

Fond memories of the Everson Bridge

A 1983 photo of the Everson Bridge, which was constructed right after the dinosaurs left, sparked an interesting exchange on Facebook.

Adam Michna -- who provides a wealth of old photos of Monongah and its people and is a son of Adam Michna, whose sisters were Sisters with Auxiliaries of the Apostolate, Sister Rose and Sister Dolores of the Sts. Peter and Paul School nuns -- got the ball rolling with the bridge photo and by seeking memories from others.

Frank Pulice, Jr., Class of 1945m chimed in immediately with memories of the Post Office next to Mazza’s grocery:

“The Everson Baptist Church was up the road on the right. My Mom and I used to walk one way, ride the streetcar one way, to shop at Mazza’s Grocery Store. The Post Office was in a small building, then the store, then Mr. Mazza’s family house.

Adam replied:

“I know the general area. I think Patsy Mascara, son of Frank, and Diane Huffman Prunty, daughter of Richard, live in that neck of the woods now.”

Tony added:

“I was born in 1927, so this had to be in the late 30s and 40s. The Post Office closed before the Mazza store did. Mr. Mazza and his family built the yellow brick house an motel on Fairmont Avenue near Burger King. They sold this property after Theresa Mazza passed.”

For additional details, I went my Everson expert, Frank Franze, Class of 1950, who was living there when he went to Monongah High and who would take his dad’s vehicles and pick up the faceitiously named Gang That Terrorized Marion County along the way, ending at our Church Street home. By then, there was barely room for me to squeeze onto the truck for our daily and nightly roaming adventures.

From Frank Franze:

“Anthony Pulice, Jr. knows more about the post office than I do.  He is right; I remember people talking about it.  I don't know where it was located.

“I have a picture of Everson taken in the early forties that shows all buildings along the road with the Mazza store.  The only structures I recall are warehousing and icehouse.

“A murder occurred on the bridge.  I think in the twenties, a man was shot on the East end of the bridge.  Word is that the cement began deteriorating after the murder.  No repairs would stick in that spot; finally the hole wore through. 

”In 1936 the ice jam on the river had ice piled so high you could stand on the bridge and touch it.  My mother and I crossed it the day that they were supposed to open the road to Chiefton, which  had about six feet of ice on it .  We viewed the process from the Amalett home that is located on the hill above the streetcar stop.  I have pictures of the ice on the Chiefton road and the bridge.  I also have one of Everson.”

Everson supplied Monongah with a lot of students.

 

Besides Frank and Tony, there were Robert Bissett, Class of 1971; Joe Bombard and wife Marva Holt Bombard, both Class of 1966; Nelle Amalett, Class of 1946, a Kilarm native who lived in Everson when she attended MHS; and Eva Marie Huey Cox Jarvis, Class of 1975, who lives in Grant Town with husband Dewayne Jarvis.

Rose Raschella, Class of 1937, didn’t grow up in Everson but did her student teaching there. Rose was Frank Franze’s first grade teacher.