1/25/00 - MWS to webmaster

"To follow on with some more past history about Latrobe in which may be interested.  The Vanadium Alloys Steel Co. was founded by a branch of the McKenna family in Pittsburgh who were entrepreneurs who had founded and owned several companies in the metals producing and processing companies previously.  Roy C. McKenna was the chairman for many years until he retired probably in the late 1950's.  He made his home in Unity Twp. near the Mountain View Inn.  The plant was sited in Derry Twp. north of Latrobe, on land that was part of the original Christian Saxman land grant.  The home of Mathias Saxman was very close by and was occupied by Vasco as their main office until the 1940's when it was demolished and a new building was built next to the plant.  This was the house that my father escaped to in 1910 when he was threatened by kidnapers during the coal strike.   The company was sold to Teledyne in 1952 and is now known as Teledyne Vasco. The McFeely brick Co. was also on this same site although I am not sure whether or not it is still in business today. 

Kennametal was founded in 1936 or 1937 by Philip McKenna a nephew of Roy. It was based upon patents for tungsten carbide, a super hard cutting material.  During WW2, when further alloyed with titanium and tantalum carbide this material was used in much greater quantities for armor piercing projectiles and figured heavily in the tank battles of Africa and Europe.  Philip McKenna was a Technical genius sort of a person and exhibited many of typical eccentricities, however he did bring with him other men to fulfill corporate needs.  J. Cleveland McKenna I believe took over the financing and secretarial functions and Alex McKenna took over the marketing and operational functions.  Several other people were recruited but it was clearly Phillips enthusiasm and energy that sparked the early growth of the company.  After the war Kennametal wisely decided to engineer and market their material into finished products in order to take advantage of the greatly increased capacity of their company."

2/4/00:  MWS to webmaster

"It is obvious that you are clearly interested in the family history to have come all the way to Latrobe and, taken the time an effort to visit the old grave sights. I have sometimes wondered myself where the older relatives were buried, but never ventured beyond Unity Cemetery where my grandfather Marcus and, his father Mathias are buried. I am glad to hear that you have located some of the older grave sights in the cemetery at the St. James Lutheran church in Youngstown. I have wondered myself how they traveled there, because it must have taken them a full day to make the round trip. It does tie in with an earlier bulletin from a local source which said that Christian Saxman settled in Youngstown, which is clearly erroneous. The original land grant was in Derry Township, which is on the other side of Latrobe, and as I have mentioned before is now occupied partially by Teledyne Vasco as well as private homes.
     
You mentioned having visited the Saxman vault in Unity Cemetery, which is now occupied by Mathias Saxman and two of his three wives, and a James Saxman. We never could figure out who he was, but your genealogical chart indicates that he was the son of Mathias Saxman by his first wife. He would also be a half brother of my grandfather. My own parents are also in that vault. If you ever come to Latrobe again and wish to do more research in Unity Cemetery my sister Virginia Wandrasco I'm sure would be glad to assist you. If you haven't already seen the Unity Chapel you should take time to do that. There are several family histories including the Mellon's written on the wall plaques and, windows of the chapel."

2/19/00 - Webmaster to MWS

"When Allison and I went to visit the Saxman vault at Unity Cemetery a few years ago, we peered through the iron gate and wrote down the following information:

1. Mathias Saxman, Jr. 1836 - 1913 (I understand this to be the grandson of Mathias, Sr., from whom I also am descended. We believe Mathias, Jr.'s father was Peter, b. 1803, who was the older brother of Joseph, b. 1820, from whom I descend. Mathias Saxman, Jr. is your great-grandfather - correct???)

2. George Saxman 1863-1938 (Is this Mathias, Jr.'s son?)

3. Marcus W. Saxman, Jr. 1895-1968 (This is your father, correct?)

4. Eleanor Saxman 1897 - 1986 (Your mother, we presume?)

5. Catherine Wilson d. 1894 (We presume this is one of Mathias, Jr.'s wives?)

6. A. E. Kittinger d. 1912 (Mathias, Jr.'s other wife - mentioned in your email? - and what does the A. E. stand for?)

7. James A. Saxman d. 1886 (We know this to be James Albert Saxman, with whose descendants, Kathy Borne and Jim Butler, we are in contact with.)

If there are additional relatives buried in the vault, we could not see them from our vantage point the day we visited. If two of Mathias, Jr.'s wives are in this vault, where is the 3rd buried? Where is your grandfather buried? Do you and your father and grandfather go by Marcus I, II and III? For discussion purposes, I will refer to you this way for simplicity, unless you advise otherwise. Am I excluding any other people that you know of who are buried in this vault that I may not have seen from the gate?"

Response from MWS 2/24/00

"To answer your questions in order: 

1) this is correct in all respects to the best of my knowledge except that I have no information here on Jos. but probably you are correct.
2) This is also correct as a child I remember Uncle George as one of my Grandfather's older brothers.
3) This is also correct. My father was christened Marcus Suydam Saxman after his Mother's maiden name.  He later changed his name to Marcus W. Saxman Jr. and then named me Marcus W. Saxman III.
4) This is also correct including the dates my mother was born Eleanor Elizabeth Bernheim.  She was born and raised in Allentown, Pa. and graduated from Cedar Crest College in that town.  They were married in 1920.
5) Catherine Wilson was the second wife of Mathias Jr. and the mother of most of his children including my Grandfather.  All of whom are listed in the fourth generation in the report that you sent me some time ago. 
6) At the moment I am not sure of the relationship with A. E. Kittenger who died in 1912 the same year he died.  I believe that there was a name of Wilson which was his third wife but that she did not have any children. Perhaps some further information will shed light on this.
7) Okay

I believe that you have identified all of the occupants of the vault.  I do not know where the third wife is buried.  It appears to me that the second and third wives are in the vault but the first one is not accounted for.  My grandparents are buried in the Unity cemetery at a nearby location but frankly it has been a while since I've been there and don't recall the
exact location.  The may have one or two other children nearby that may have died in infancy or childhood. 

You are correct in assuming that my father and my grandfather and myself are known as Marcus I, II, and III."

3/10/00 - MWS to webmaster

"I'm still working on a means of transmitting more voluminous material including some pictures and have not yet develped a good solution.  In the mean time I have acquired quite a lot more material some of which you already have but is augmented by narrative accounts of the early settlers.  This new batch includes almost 60 pages and I will forward it to you when I have determined the best way.   Among the items which I think would be of interest to you would be a full page of the history of Joseph Saxman and his wife Julia Ann on page 42. 

Among the pictures which may be of particular interest to Scott is one I am attaching to this letter.  The older couples are Marcus Saxman Sr. and his wife Anna (my grandparents) and Alfred H. Barnette Sr. and his wife.  The two younger girls are Nancy McFeeley (Rogers) and Helen Barnette.  This picture was taken in Valley Forge PA in 1917.  The occasion was a visit
there to Marcus Saxman Jr. and Alfred Barnette Jr. by their parents prior to the boys departure to France.  The PA National Guard Volunteer Ambulance was assembled and trained there.  Upon reaching France their job was to rescue wounded soldiers from the battle field and transport them to the field hospitals.  I thought you would be interested in this picture because of the inclusion of Nancy McFeeley. [Note:  Scott Saxman's (webmaster) mother, Nancy, was named after Nancy McFeeley.]

Well, as soon as I figure the best way to transmit all of the material I
will let you know.  I hope this continues to be of interest to you."

4/1/00 - MWS to webmaster:

"We are still working on the possibility of being able to scan this material onto a disc which we will mail to you because it is too voluminous to send by e mail. The older lady is Mrs. Barnett.  I had the name wrong it is Joseph E. Barnett.  The younger lady at the extreme right is their daughter Helen Jane.  Her brother who was also their son was named Alfred E. Barnett.  the families were all friends and neighbors in Latrobe and I imagine Nancy
McFeely was there as a friend of one of the two younger men.  Yes, Alfred Barnett did return safely from the war, however, he did die at a fairly young age in 1934 leaving a widow and two sons who were approximately my age and who were my friends growing up in Latrobe.  You did mention that your mother was named after Nancy McFeely and she had been a babysitter for Fred Rogers.  If you can send the picture to your mother perhaps she can recognize Nancy McFeely even though her face doesn't show well in the picture.  I can recognize her very faintly although it was 15 or 20 years later that I first became aware of her as a person.  She was a very gracious lady and well liked and respected in the community and was very generous to many charities and individuals."

6/24/00 - MWS to webmaster [after he sent us the "MWS Docs" located on this site]:

I'm very glad that you found the package of material I sent you to be of such great value to your research efforts.  Actually I only received it a few months ago from my sister, Virginia Wandrisco. I would have sent it to your earlier but, I couldn't figure out how to do it electronically and I finally resorted to the old fashioned way.  Virginia received it not too
much before that from one of the other relatives still in Latrobe.  I was glad to get it also because it did fill in a gap in my information too.  I have forgotten just whose pictures we sent that were duplicates but, I think one was Peter and the other with the whiskers was the first Mathias who was a son of Christian and the father of Peter.  We do not seem to have a lot of information on most of the other children of Christian and the first Mathias or of Peter.  I know because you told me that Scott is descended from Joseph, but beyond that I  don't know too much. At some time I hope we will eventually find the notebook of pictures which I think I may have a copy of here, but unfortunately I am not able to conduct an
effective search through all of the material which we have stashed away in forty two years of our married life.  If and when we find it I will see to it that you receive copies."