Mount Jackson alumni present picture case

The goal is to create a single alumni association, and add class photos.
By LAURA MILOSER
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Pictures once stored in boxes are now a part of history in the Mohawk High School library.
Members of the Mount Jackson High School Alumni Association have brought a piece of local history to the library to enable more people to enjoy a bit of the past.
J.V. Lamb and Ken Shiderly Sr., association president and vice president, respectively, and Gertrude Fullerton-Davis presented a picture case funded by the association to the Mohawk Board of Education last week.
Lamb was proud to announce that Fullerton-Davis is 96 years old, a graduate of the class of 1927 and the oldest independently functioning alumnus.
Each year the association gathers for a reunion at Mohawk High School. Lamb said the group would display photos of the graduating classes and place them back in boxes in a storage room after the reunion was over.
Evolution of project
At the 2004 reunion the idea on how to preserve the pictures came to fruition. The association hired local carpenter/contractor Bruce Harmon to build frames to mount pictures from Mount Jackson High, dating from 1924 through 1958.
Lamb said the mounting and finishing work was done with the help of Lloyd Rainey and Shiderly.
He said the project got some of the school community involved. Wood-shop teacher Andy Shillingburg and his students helped mount the frame case to the wall in the library along with help from high school janitor Joe Werhnyak.
Lamb said the Mount Jackson Alumni Association was formed in 1958 when the last class graduated from Mount Jackson High. The school and the other area high school, Bessemer High, were merged into Mohawk High School that year, and Mohawk graduated its first class in June 1959.Eventually, several other communities also were merged into the Mohawk district, which now includes North Beaver Township, Little Beaver Township, Mahoning Township, Bessemer Borough and New Beaver Borough
While the Mount Jackson association was working on the project, Mohawk High School librarian Lynn Miklos was searching for a copy of the class picture of her father, Paul Tasota, from Bessemer High.
The Bessemer Alumni Association has become active in the past two years. Photos from Bessemer have been located back to 1930. According to Miklos, consecutive years have not been located.
Goal to create one group
Shiderly said it is the goal to join the Mount Jackson Alumni with the Bessemer Alumni to create one Mohawk Alumni Association. He said he would like to see it created by 2008, which is the year Mohawk High School turns 50 years old.
"It is our ultimate goal to create a history room at the high school," Lamb said. A history room helps students relate to the fact that we are part of national history, he added.
Miklos said the students have already taken an interest in looking at the photographs from the past.
"Many students have found pictures of their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles," Miklos said, adding, "It has really been a great experience for them."
She has taken the project one step further. Miklos is in the process of adding the pictures to the Mohawk Web page for alumni to view.
Anyone interested in donating old photos from Hillsville, Mount Jackson, Bessemer and any of the area one-room schools can contact Miklos at the high school library by calling (724) 667-7782, Ext. 125.