Ligonier Valley Rail Road Newspaper Articles
We have compiled over 1,400 newspaper articles that mention the Ligonier Valley Railroad, or related subjects. The articles were originally published starting in 1873 and our collection runs through 1995. Enjoy!
Ligonier Echo
Wednesday, August 14, 1912
Lutheran Reunion Twenty Years Ago
Over 20,000 People at Famous Idlewild
August 11, 1892 - - - Interesting Program
Addresses, Grand Choruses, Music By Two Bands
Events that occurred twenty years ago or longer are often more interesting than the events of today. With that idea in mind we are publishing in this issue of the Echo the
following article from the Greensburg Evening Press of Friday evening, August 12, 1892, descriptive of the big Lutheran picnic held at Idlewild, Thursday, Aug. 11, 1892. As this is the week of the twentieth (sic) anniversary of the Lutheran picnic, said to be the largest picnic every held at Idlewild, we are republishing the story of the event believing it will be of interest to many of our readers. The article as it appeared in the Press follows:
What the weather seemed to lack in favorableness at the 10th annual Lutheran reunion
at Idlewild yesterday (Thursday) was more than counterbalanced by the immense
outpouring of people from more than a half dozen counties of Western Pennsylvania. Superintendent Senft, of the Ligonier Valley, says, "this beats the record of Idlewild picnics." The crowds seemed to pour in from every direction until by noon the crowds present were estimated at from 20,000 to 22,000 people. Everything had been arranged on a large scale, yet the railroad facilities were overtaxed and the sale of tickets from Braddock and Jeannette had to be stopped, although there were four special trains from the west, besides the regular trains. At Indiana over 200 people had to be left behind, as the special train from that point was overcrowded. The eastern trains were also very much crowded and but two trains stopped at Derry, and the people here had some difficulty in getting to Idlewild. The Southwest special was overcrowded, and a citizen from the southern part of the county said: "We should have had two special trains by all means, as hundreds were compelled to stand the entire way." The reunion yesterday at Idlewild was limited in numbers only as the transportation seemed inadequate. The Pennsylvania Company deserve great credit for the careful handling of these immense train loads of people, and put forth Herculean efforts to accommodate all, yet they were
overtaxed. To give some idea of the great crowd and the difficult task of handling so many people, let it be known that it took one hundred and sixty coaches and quite a number of baggage cars to transport the picnickers to Idlewild and this required fourteen special trains, besides the regular accommodations which were extensively used by people from Greensburg, Latrobe, Derry and Ligonier. The following is a copy of the official report of trains at the Idlewild station yesterday:
Engine 154, Johnstown special, 11 coaches; engine 2838, Greensburg special, 15 coaches; engine 821, Johnstown special, 12 coaches; engine 1092, Pittsburgh special, 11 coaches; engine 867, Pittsburgh special, 11 coaches; engine 413, Altoona special, 13 coaches; engine 1396, Altoona special, 11 coaches; engine 1096, Uniontown special, 13 coaches; engine 373, Pittsburgh special, 16 coaches; engine 651, Indiana special, 14
coaches; engine 84, Leechburg special, 11 coaches, engine 1094, Tarentum special, 11 coaches; engine 6, Latrobe special, 6 coaches; engine 7, Latrobe special, 6 coaches.
Besides, there were called into use quite a number of baggage cars for the transportation of provisions, etc.
Band Music
An excellent program . . .