4/25/1968 - The newborn United Methodist Church today struggled with unity pains over Vietnam and racial controversies. Both issues are producing sparks during floor debate at the uniting conference of the former Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) churches. Some black Methodists want 1972 as a mandatory date for integration of the church. St. Louis Bishop Eugene M. Frank called for “vigorous efforts” for the conversion. “If white members do not convert to full Christian love, many of us will have to desert the method of voluntarism, for we are all one in Christ,” Frank said.
4/25/1968 - Roman Catholic bishops holding a semiannual meeting in St. Louis asked Pope Paul VI to allow married deacons to be ordained. The 203 bishops, members of the National Council of Catholic Bishops, and its companion organization, the U.S. Catholic Conference, called on the Vatican for “permission to restore in the United the permanent diaconate for married and unmarried men of mature years.” No provision was made for women deacons.
4/25/1968 - William D. Patton, son of Mr. & Mrs. Merle Patton of Templeton RD1, was promoted to the rank of Major in the U.S. Army Infantry. Major Patton is serving as Senior Infantry Advisor to the 13th Regimental Combat Team of the Royal Thai Army, located in northeast Thailand. He is a 1953 graduate of Dayton Joint High School.
4/25/1968 - David C. Hill, Sp/4 with the U.S. Army is visiting his parents, Mr. & Mrs. Harvey Hill Jr of Apollo RD3 before he reports to Oakland, CA April 28 for assignment to Vietnam. He is a 1966 graduate of Elders Ridge High School, Saltsburg.
4/25/1968 - The State Department of Public Welfare said today during the month of February that 66 Armstrong County residents were receiving long-term institutional care at a cost of $14,375, paid for by the state, with the aid of federal funds and county money. Expenses were split, with Armstrong County paying $6,368; the state $72; and the federal government $7,935.
4/25/1963 - Richard Freedland, 36, of Pittsburgh assumed duties as director of child welfare in Armstrong County. The county also has one case worker in the child welfare office - James E. Powers.
4/25/1958 - The 1958-59 school budget, which included a 21.5 mill property tax levy and a $10 per capita tax, was formally adopted by the Ford City Union School District Board at a monthly meeting at the high school building.
4/25/1958 - Kittanning High School students took over administrative and teaching chores today - the annual Student Council-sponsored Student Teacher Day.
4/25/1953 - Glenn A. Stoops, 11-year-old eighth grader in Kittanning Junior High, carried away county spelling honors as 59 youngsters from half as many Armstrong County schools clashed in the Leader-Times Spelling Bee.
4/25/1953 - The progress of the Kittanning Girls Band has made since it was organized in January 1950 again was reflected in an annual Spring concert in Kittanning High School auditorium.
4/25/1938 - The United States Post Office Department will send a plane out of Leechburg Airport May 19 - during national Air Mail Week - on a “feeder” route to City-County Airport, Pittsburgh, in what may be the forerunner of a regular air mail route serving the Kiski Valley and Armstrong County as far north as Ford City and Kittanning.
4/25/1938 - Kittanning continued today in a disturbed state of not knowing whether it was 3 o’clock or the Fourth of July, result of a merry mixup by Burgess Jacob J. Maxeiner’s stout refusal to issue a daylight savings time proclamation and borough council’s recommendation that citizens automatically adopt the “fast” time observance.
4/25/1933 - Eleven-thousand trees will be delivered in Kittanning tomorrow morning for planting on hills opposite the town.
4/25/1933 - Among teachers who have signed contracts to teach in Kittanning schools during the 1933-34 term are six who have never taught before within the borough.
4/25/1928 - Andy Condoleon has sold his confectionery store on Market Street to George Korones of Youngstown.
* 66 Armstrong County residents were receiving long-term institutional care. - I assume that means mental health care. They stopped doing that in the early ’70s, opting for outpatient treatment with drugs. Prior to that mass shootings were a rare thing.
* Eleven-thousand trees - The West Kittanning bluff? I know they mined coal over there and there were steps going up the hill. I wonder what it looked like before the trees were planted.