This Memorial is dedicated to the Veterans of the old communities of Shaner and Guffy in Sewickley Township Westmoreland County Pennsylvania.
From The coal mining History website of Western Pennsylvania.
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visit link) "In 1870 Shaner had a population of 300 people. To go to the Court House in Greensburg, the people would take the B & O Railroad Passenger train to the Braddock Station and then board a Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger train to Greensburg.
In the early 1870's Shaner had two saloons. One was operated by James Skillan and the other by David Keener. Each saloon had its own faction and there was no love lost between them. Their abscence of love caused many hard fought battles between them. With the mines went the saloons.
When William C. Gallagher, the distiller, left Guffey, he came to Shaner and ran an undertaking establishment until 1884 in Shaner.
The Village of Shaner has been plagued with floods, they had one on July 26, 1879 which swept away the school house into the river, this school house was rebuild near the same site. Then twenty years later, in the summer of 1899, another cloudburst came down the valley and took the school house away again. This time the remants of the school were used to build a hotel, the Hotel Shaner, it was operated by Ralph Braddigan. The flood of 1879 also swept away the school house that was located down river, or north, at Buena Vista. Shaner was also hit hard by the Big Flood on St. Patrick's Day in 1936 and then again by a flood in 1954.
In the 1890's there were about 36 houses in the Village of Shaner, in ca.1962 there are only about half as many as that. Shaner was one of the towns along the Youghiogheny River that became a "Ghost Town" with the fall of the coal mining industry. It was the prosperity of towns like Shaner that caused the building of dams and locks on the Youghiogheny River between West Newton and McKeesport. Now the dams and locks are gone. All that can be seen of them, an only at low water, are there former locations in the river.
During the 1890's and later there was a ferry across the Youghioheny River to Stringtown, in Allegheny County. It was a basket affair that was operated on a cable stretched across the river. You had to pull yourself across using the cable. The doctor from across the river had to use it to make his calls in Sewickley township.
The people of Shaner and vicinity went to the Dravo Church, which was located across the river from Guffey. They went in a large flat bottom boat.
There was also a large ferry across the river that could hold a team of horses and a wagon. Four men with oars propelled the boat-ferry across the river.
During the turn of the century Dave Pierce had a railroad siding put in at Shaner. Cattle were brought in by the train car load and unloaded to the farmers which bought them.
Down the tracks, towards Sutersville, was the Buena Vista railroad tower. On the hill above the tower was Summer Hill School. A grist mill was located on this vicinity and was operated by water power from a creek that no longer exists.
One of the Italian families in Shaner had trouble with the "Black Hand," just as those in Guffey were having. The store keeper's wife delivered the "Dummy package" of money, armed with a butcher knife. But no one appeared. They either knew the package was a fake or that the police were watching.
From the "Report of the Department of Mines for 1914" the following information about the Shaner Mine was obtained:
Shaner - Built 28 stoppings, 6 overcasts, 2 pump houses, and 4 dams 12 feet by 7 feet by 13 inches and one dam 24 feet by 7 feet by 13 inches, all of brick. Extended the motor road 3,800 feet, and laid 3,000 feet of 4 inch pipe.
Outside: Erected frame repair shop 14 feet by 24 feet, and frame stable 14 feet by 15 feet, also a frame building 9 feet by 17 feet and installed therein as electric blower for the blacksmith shop."
Some time before 1919 the Shaner Mine and the Ocean No. 1 Mine (PCC) of the Pittsburgh Coal Company were joined underground.
In 1920 the Shaner Mine along with the Ocean No. 1 Mine (PCC) of the Pittsburgh Coal Company produced 102,370 tons of coal, the mines employed 151 miners, and worked 160 days, with 2 non-fatal accidents, the miners used 12,527 pounds of black powder explosives in the mines.
The McKeesport Daily News, August 28, 1962, ran a story and a page of pictures about Guffey and Shaner. About Shaner the story said: "Shaner, another former mining community, has not fully accepted the retirement imposed upon it with the closing of the mines. Although it contains only 15 houses, it boasts an active Women's Club whose efforts are responsible for the Honor Roll that lists 96 citizens of Guffey and Shaner who served their country during World War I and II and the Korean conflict. The tiny community continues to exist in the backwassh of today's age of easy transportation, almost untouched by the progress of recent years."