the almanac M AY 31, 2026
SOUTH HILLS COMMUNITY NEWS
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Memorial Day commemorates W.Va. BORN AMID CHAOS OF CIVIL WAR fallen soldiers around region By Eleanor Bailey ebailey@thealmanac.net
Until May 25, Susan Rushing had never been to the Bethel Park Veterans Memorial on West Library Road between the municipal building and library. She had just recently moved to the area from Ohio. Yet, she shed genuine tears on this Memorial Day as well as during the community’s annual ceremony recognizing its fallen heroes. “I had to come,” Rushing said. “Just to honor all the people who served.” Rushing’s own brother served in the military. Because Richard Ritzier had a low draft number, he enlisted in the Army right out of high school. He was killed in Vietnam in 1969. “He just turned 19 in January and died in February,” said Rushing, who was 17 herself and in high school at the time. “So (Memorial Day) is very meaningful,” she continued, “because my brother lost his life.” Combat veteran Russ Beeson of Bethel Park and Marine Col. Michelle Prokopchak understand Rushing’s anguish. Beeson attended the remembrances on May 25 with Jeff Pritchard as representatives of the Bethel Park Volunteer Fire Department. Before becoming fire chief, he served in the organization for 13 years, as did his father, Jim.
COURTESY OF ERIC AYRES
This display at West Virginia Independence Hall in Wheeling depicts historic action taken in the third floor courtroom of the building back in 1861. The Wheeling Conventions led to West Virginia separating from Virginia during the Civil War and becoming the 35th state in the nation.
ELEANOR BAILEY
Susan Rushing looks at the names of the fallen heroes from American wars during the Bethel Park Memorial Day ceremony. When Rushing was 16, her brother, Richard Ritzler, 19, was killed during the Vietnam War.
Prior to that, Beeson served in the Air Force. He transported the first troops into Afghanistan during that Middle East conflict. His name appears on one of the columns at the Veterans Memorial. “I’ve had friends that didn’t come home with me,” Beeson said. “A lot of people don’t understand the real meaning behind this day.” Prokopchak agreed that Memorial Day is more than a day of parades and going swimming. She participated in the Vietnam and Gulf wars.
ELEANOR BAILEY
ABOVE:Veterans from each branch of the Armed Forces carry their flags as they march during the Bethel Park Memorial Day parade.
“I remember a lot of people that didn’t come back,” she said. “A lot of people that I share time with didn’t come home. I’ve been over at the cemetery and have put the flags (on graves) of people there,” she added. Bethel Cemetery, located next door to the historic Bethel Presbyterian Church, contains the remains of many soldiers, including those dating back to the Revolutionary War. It was here that the municipality’s solemn remembrance of Memorial Day concluded with Pennsylvania state Sen. Devlin Robinson delivering remarks and a rendition of “Taps.” Many attended the Memorial Day ceremony held at the Veterans Memorial, however, because it preceded the municipality’s annual parade, filled with marching units, antique cars, community organization representation and plenty of handouts as American flags and candy treats. “Unfortunately, Memorial Day is just an unofficial first day of summer,” said Mayor Jack Allen. “People should get out and enjoy themselves but they should also remember
why we’re doing this. For the people that didn’t come back from any war just to let us have a day like this.” Allen also noted that Memorial Day is a time that Bethel Park comes together as a community and honors its veterans. In its 27th year at the Veterans Memorial, the day’s activities commenced with breakfast in council chambers and proceeded to the outdoor ceremony. After opening remarks by Allen, the Bethel Park High School Top 21 Chorus sang “The Stars Spangled Banner” and later performed a medley of patriotic anthems, including “America The Beautiful.” The Rev. Jack Puskar from Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and Sons of the American Legion delivered a prayer reading while council President Joe Janosik provided a “Message To America” and state Rep. Natalie Mihalek spoke. Retired Lt. Colonel Shannon Crowley served as the guest of honor. After graduating with a finance degree from West Virginia University, Crowley was SEE MEMORIAL PAGE B4
BELOW: Aubrey and Weston Schoedel wave American flags distributed to them by participants in the Bethel Park Memorial Day parade.
ELEANOR BAILEY
Mayor Jack Allen and retired Lt. Colonel Shannon Crowley place a wreath at the Bethel Park Veterans’ Memorial during the annual Memorial Day ceremony.
LOCATION Peters Twp. school officers earn national honor PAGE A6 What’s happening, B4
SPORTS Blue Devils win WPIAL LAX crown PAGE B1 Classifieds, B5
Editor’s note: In the spring of 1861, the United States stood at its breaking point. For years, tensions between North and South had deepened. Nowhere was that more felt than in Virginia. While leaders in Richmond voted to join the Confederacy, many residents in the mountainous western counties remained loyal to the Union. This led to one of the most remarkable chapters in American history. Meeting in what was then Wheeling, Va., delegates from these western counties declared that Virginia’s secession was illegal and established a restored government loyal to the Union. Out of the uncertainty of the Civil War, a new state was born, as on June 20, 1863, West Virginia became the 35th state in the Union.
By Eric Ayres
The Intelligencer
The story of America tells of only one state carved out of another during the Civil War – West Virginia – and in the mid-1800s, the flourishing riverside city of Wheeling found itself at the epicenter of that pivotal moment in U.S. history. A thriving economic base had been taking root in the pre-Civil War period of Wheeling, Virginia. The city benefited from major transportation connections with theOhioRiver,theNationalRoad, accesstotheWestbyrivercrossing at the new Suspension Bridge and the B&O Railroad routes. Wheeling in the early 1860s was the second-largestcityinVirginia,trailing only Richmond. Historians note that at that time,thegrowingcityofWheeling and its neighboring communities were not only separated from the eastern and southern parts of Virginia by the Appalachian Mountains, but also by a mindset that they were being forgotten in Richmond. “Wheeling was kind of emerging as a distinctly different type of city and place in Virginia,” said Hal Gorby, historian and professor in the Department of History at West Virginia University. “In western Virginia for the last decade before the start of the Civil War, there had been a lot of tensions around issues of taxation, economic development, lack of funding for infrastructure and for public education — a lot of these sort of under-developments that had been brewing since Virginia emerged as a state. This had been
building up for a while.” A manufacturing base had developed and was thriving in Wheeling around iron, nails, glass and other industries. “There was slavery in the Wheeling area, but it was not the same economic driver as it was in eastern Virginia and in some parts of what is now West Virginia as well,” Gorby said. “This was the area that was becoming more industrialized, even in the decadeand-a-half before the Civil War. It was much more connected to OhioandPennsylvaniathanitwas to eastern Virginia.” With tensions boiling over different views on the moral and economic impacts of slavery, Civil WareruptedinApril1861.Shortly after war began, Virginia seceded from the Union – action that did not sit well with many in the western and northern portions of the state at that time. “The Intelligencer (the oldest daily newspaper in West Virginia) played an historic role in this, as well,”Gorbynoted.“WhenTheIntelligencerfellundertheeditorship of Archibald Campbell, it became amuchmorepro-union,anti-slavery, pro-abolitionist newspaper thatwasreallytalkingabouttheissues that western Virginians were feeling politically, economically and even somewhat culturally.” At that time, daily newspaper coverage in what is now western Virginia was not common. Most newspapers only published weeklynews.TheIntelligencer,established in 1852, took advantage of advanced printing technology under Campbell’s leadership. The newspaper changed its name to the Daily Intelligencer from 1859 to 1865 to boast its ability to provide fresh news daily. “When he took over editorial control around 1855 or so, he also helped the paper develop an identity,” Gorby explained. “In its first few years, it didn’t have any sort of strong position in terms of national news it was reporting or the editorial (voice). But ArchibaldCampbellmadeitmorein linewiththeRepublicanpartythat SEE W.Va. PAGE A2
SIGHTS & SOUNDS Sarris Candies to open for guided tours PAGE B4 Real estate transactions, A2
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