Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast

Contact Jay Paisley for your copy of The Joe Fabri Story

[email protected]

Episode 17 of the Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast was recorded April 12, 2022 at Greersburg Academy in Darlington, Pa. Host: Kevin Farkas. Guest: Jay Paisley. Producer: Kevin Farkas. Associate producer: Beverly Young. Audiography: Kevin Farkas. Music (available on SoundCloud.com): “Country del Mío Cid,” “Moments-Of-Beauty.” Available on YouTube: Béla Bartók (“Two hungarian folk tunes-HQ”, The Music Dandy (“Rare Radio Broadcast From the Hungarian Revolution 1956”), ormbk (“The 1956 Hungarian Revolution as Depicted in Newsreels-HQ”). ©℗ Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast/The Social Voice Project. All rights reserved.

The Darlington Polo Club History, as told by Glenn Watterson III

The Club began playing in the summer of 1937 when Cliff Braden and other interested fans retrieved a ball from under a car at a game in Zelienople. They began playing the sport in Darlington in a very primitive fashion. Their mounts were plow horses. They used gasoline cans for goal posts and lit the field with a series of floodlights hung from the surrounding trees.The founders of the club would be surprised at the advancements the club has made since it humble beginnings. In recent years, the club has purchased a lighting system that was used to light the local high school football stadium. Most players ride athletic Thoroughbreds with a few preferring the Quarter Horse and Appaloosa Breeds. Quickness and agility are the most sought after traits in a polo horse. The Darlington Polo Clubs home season begins in mid May and runs to the end of August. We play our home games at 8:00 P.M. on Friday nights earning the team the name ” Night Riders”. We play competitive teams from Canada, Ohio, Michigan, New York, and Virginia. Many of today’s high goal professional players have graced the Darlington field early in their careers.The atmosphere at a Friday night game is a mix of hometown sports and backyard festival with a healthy dose of horse and family thrown in for good measure. The local Lion’s Club serves up French fries, funnel cakes and other ballpark treats from their concession stand. Most of the players’ families are pressed into service as ticket takers, referees, and grooms. Friends and families turn out with lawn chairs and picnic baskets to cheer for the home team.The Darlington Polo Club would like to invite you and your family to come and join us each Friday for polo “under the lights.”

For more information, check out the club on Facebook at Darlington Polo Club or visit their website. 

Episode 16 of the Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast was recorded April 12, 2022 at Greersburg Academy in Darlington, Pa. Host: Kevin Farkas. Guest: Justin Powers. Producer: Kevin Farkas. Associate producer: Beverly Young. Audiography: Kevin Farkas. Music (available on SoundCloud.com): The Fisherman (“Cactus In My Pants), Kevin MacLeod (“Thinking Music”). Facebook: “Digging For Gold, feat.-Kenny-Meeks.” ©℗ Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast/The Social Voice Project. All rights reserved.

On episode 15 of the Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast, we talk with Brian McCarl about the history, charitable mission, and community activities of the Little Beaver Lions Club, now celebrating 75 years as a local service organization. 

We are a group of about 65 men and women dedicated to helping the less fortunate of our community. Each year we provide help totaling about $20,000. We are one of the most active clubs in Pennsylvania, well recognized for our service to the blind and other impaired individuals. In 2006 our club became one of five Lions clubs in Pennsylvania designated as a "Model Club" in Lions Clubs International's Campaign SightFirst II $200 million worldwide goal to fight blindness. 

This episode was recorded April 12, 2022 at Greersburg Academy in Darlington, Pennsylvania. Host: Kevin Farkas. Guest: Brian McCarl. Associate producer: Beverly Young. Audiography: Kevin Farkas. Music available on Facebook Music: “Regarding Gravity”; “We Are the People.” Lions Club International YouTube: Theme music to “Learn, Lead, Grow.” ©℗ Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast/The Social Voice Project. All rights reserved.

On episode 14 of the Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast recorded and broadcast live at the 2019 Darlington Days Community Celebration, guest host and noted paranormal investigator Tony Lavorgne talks with Darlington native Michael Kishbucher about his latest book Legends & Lore of Little Beaver Creek, an entertaining and factual investigation exploring the origins and history of a variety of local tales including the legends of Esther Hale, White Lady of Sprucevale, Gretchen's Lock, Indian Rock, and the Pig Lady of Cannelton.

Michael Kishbucher is a Virginia-based author who grew up in Darlington Township and Negley, Ohio.  He has a life-long fascination with local folklore, legends, and ghost tales. Of particular interest to Michael are the writings of Ira Mansfield, noted 19th century local historian, folklorist, photographer, politician, and industrialist from northern Beaver County. Michael is a veteran of the US Air Force (retired), with decades of experience as a Department of Defense intelligence analyst.  He lives near the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia with his wife and two daughters.

This episode was recorded June 1, 2019 in Darlington, Pa.  Host: Tony Lavorgne. Guest: Michael Kishbucher.  Audiography: Kevin Farkas. Music (available on SoundCloud.com): Michael  Musco (“Plucky Sky”). Other sounds: Riot (“Level Plane”), Dan Phillipson (“Lights In The Sky”). Other sounds (available at Bensound.com): “Memories.” ©Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast/The Social Voice Project.  All rights reserved.

Sally Mahon – Darlington Days Coordinator – For many years Sally Mahon has organized Darlington Days, a growing event that strives each year to bring together friends and family of this small, close-knit, and historic town for a three day celebration of community. Sally actively supports many other community-oriented organizations and events, volunteering as a way to “pay it forward,” as she likes to say.  She lives in Northern Beaver County with her husband Jim and two sons.

Jim Shanor – 2019 Darlington Days Parade Grand Marshall – For Jim Shanor, history is his thing. Has been for awhile now. At 75, Jim Shanor has spent more than half his life collecting and preserving local history. Fittingly, he has been president of the Little Beaver Historical Society for the past 2 years and a board member for 9 years. He also conducts history tours at the sugar shack at the Annual Maple Syrup Festival in Brady Run County Park, where he also volunteered for the past 30 years. He also gives tours at the Darlington Museums.  

This episode was recorded June 1, 2019 in Darlington, Pa.  Host: Kevin Farkas.  Guests: Sally Mahon, Jim Shanor.  Audiography: Kevin Farkas. Music (available on SoundCloud.com): Paulsymcox (“Pretty”).  Other sounds (available at Bensound.com): “Jazz Comedy.” ©Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast/The Social Voice Project.  All rights reserved.

On episode 12 of the Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast, we talk with Brian Hager and Dennis Garrett of the Wampum Chapter of the North Country Trail Association, which maintains and manages the section of the NCT that passes through northern Beaver County and Darlington, Pa–one of the best known and friendliest “trail towns” anywhere along the NCT.

Wampum PA Chapter of the North Country Trail Association

Dennis Garret is the current president of the Wampum Chapter.  Brian Hager is the vice president.  The Wampum Chapter of the North Country Trail Association is based in Beaver and Lawrence counties of western Pennsylvania and is responsible for building, maintaining, and promoting the North Country Trail from Alpha Pass at McConnell’s Mill State Park to the PA/OH state line.  The chapter currently has twenty-nine miles of off-road hiking trail and eleven miles of temporary connector road walk.

Darlington is a small, historically-minded town of 300 residents, located in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, forty miles northwest of Pittsburgh, and 120 miles southeast of Cleveland, OH.

Learn more about the Trail Town of Darlington

This episode was recorded April 13, 2019 in Darlington, Pa.  Host: Kevin Farkas.  Guest: Brian Hager, Dennis Bennett.  Audiography: Kevin Farkas. Music (available on SoundCloud.com): Michael Musco (“Plucky Sky”), Soundmarche (“Slide Ride”), Travis Nobles (“Morning Forest Bloom”).  Other sounds (available at Bensound.com): “Memories.” Other sounds (available on Facebook): Wampum PA Chapter North Country Trail Association (“Hike for Parkinson's”). Other sounds (available on Youtube): wikipedia tts (“North Country National Scenic Trail Wikipedia audio article”), North Country Trail (“An Introduction to the North Country National Scenic Trail”), Lakeland PBS (“Reroute Project Continues On Section Of North Country Trail”).©Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast/The Social Voice Project.  All rights reserved.

On episode 11 of the Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast, we talk with Beaver County historian Charles Townsend about his family’s early abolitionist activism and the Underground Railroad in Beaver County.

Charles Townsend III is a native of Beaver County, and one of its most ardent historians.  In 1999, he was one of the first to create a local website dedicated to Beaver County history.  Charles is also the founder and editor of Milestones: The Journal of Beaver County History, first published in 1975 by the Beaver County History and Landmarks Foundation.  
 
Charles is a descendant of the prominent Townsend family, who arrived in Beaver County in the early 1800s, establishing some of the county’s first and largest industries and businesses.  The Townsends were Quakers, and Charles’ great-great grandfather Milo Townsend and other family members were fierce abolitionists as early as the 1830s.  Along with others in the area who vowed to end slavery, acted as “conductors” of the region’s Underground Railroad, helping countless fugitive slaves find safe passage and freedom in Canada.   
 
Charles is a board member of the Beaver County History and Landmarks Foundation and the Little Beaver Historical Society.  

On episode 10 of the Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast, we talk with Ryan O’Shea about the rich history of New Brighton, Pennsylvania and the movers and shakers who ended up in the venerable Grove Cemetery, final resting place to some of Beaver County’s most esteemed historical figures.

This episode was recorded March 23, 2019 in New Brighton, Pa. Guest: Ryan O’Shea. Audiography: Kevin Farkas. Music (available on SoundCloud.com): Scott Miller (“Godrest”). Other Sounds (available on Youtube): Vlogbrothers (“We’re All Gonna Die – A Song”), JANXEN (“Halloween Song Cemetery Dance”). Music (available on Bensound.com: “Memories.” ©Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast/The Social Voice Project. All rights reserved.

On episode 9 of the Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast, we talk with Beaver County history author Jay Paisley about his current book project documenting Legionville—the nation’s first military training base established by Major General “Mad” Anthony Wayne in 1792.

For more about Legionville, listen to Episode 4: Andy Janicki

Jay Paisley is a retired teacher and one of the historical researchers of the Little Beaver Historical Society. His book, The Huffman Letters, is in its second printing and represents a firsthand account of the Civil War by young soldier from Darlington Township, Pennsylvania.

This episode was recorded August 19, 2017 in Darlington, Pennsylvania.  Guest: Jay Paisley.  Audiography: Kevin Farkas. Music (available on SoundCloud.com): Thusanthan (“Kannan Marching”). Music available on Internet Archive: Sturbridge Colonial Militia (“Sodgers Return,” “Thunder and Lightning”).  Music (available on Bensound.com: “Memories.”  ©Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast/The Social Voice Project.  All rights reserved.

On episode 8 of the Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast, we talk with Dave Welch, historian and living descendant of the Civil War 100th Pa Volunteer Infantry Regiment, about keeping their story alive and sharing it with the public.

This episode was recorded September 23 in Darlington, Pennsylvania.  Guest: Dave Welch.  Audiography: Kevin Farkas. Music (available on SoundCloud.com): Jr 10 (“Effingha”).  Music (available on Bensound.com): “Memories.”  ©Little Beaver Historical Society Podcast/The Social Voice Project, Inc.  All rights reserved.