10/02/1969 - Robert Stephens of Bruin will probably have the biggest Jack o’ Lantern in the area this Halloween. Stephens, a native of Wattersonville, grew the pumpkin, which weighs over 100 pounds, in his organic garden. He says the pumpkin grew on a single vine which covered approximately one-fourth of his acre garden.
10/02/1969 - Armstrong County Community Action Agency is seeking candidates for the positions of teachers and aides for the Head Start Program. The program, the Rev. Lawrence R. Camberg, acting director, said, will begin on or around Nov. 3 at three locations.
10/02/1969 – An elementary school on Route 422, three miles west of Kittanning, is expected to cost $2,250,268 according to estimates approved by the state Department of Education in Harrisburg today. The school will contain 28 classrooms, music practice and instruction area, library, multipurpose room for assembly and use as a cafeteria, office, conference section, health suite, faculty area, seminar room, and large group instruction section. The capacity of the school is listed at 1,050 students. This school is in addition to the proposed West Hills High School to be located just one mile away at a cost of $10,605,557.
10/02/1969 – By December, 300 customers of the Joint Suburban Water Authority in East Franklin and North Buffalo Townships hope to have water piped from Kittanning. Construction crews are presently installing more than two miles of pipe that will take water from the banks of the Allegheny River through West Kittanning to two storage tanks – one in each township.
10/02/1969 – Boy Scouts sponsored by Evangelical Lutheran Church of Worthington received their Pro Deo et Patria emblem. They included: Edward Bernard, Robert Morgan Jr., and Ralph Jones.
10/02/1969 – NATIONAL – The Nixon administration is preparing more flexible laws dealing with marijuana users – perhaps aimed at treating them as a more medical problem than criminal. Federal law for possession provides for 2-10 years imprisonment for first offense, 5-20 years for second offense, as well as fines up to $20,000. State laws follow the same tough pattern. Experts say the use among high school and college youth is increasing.
10/02/1964 - The apparent low bid total for 90 units of federal housing to be built in Kittanning is $1,336,148. Bids for the housing construction of which is anticipated to begin this month, were opened in Armstrong County Courthouse here yesterday by the County Housing Authority.
10/02/1964 - Industrial statistics released today by the Pennsylvania Department of Internal Affairs showed Armstrong County to have had 79 manufacturing establishments which employed an average of 5,704 persons in 1963. Twenty-six per cent of these were in the flat glass industry , and total wages and salaries were $33,383,500.
10/02/1959 - Nearly nine out of every ten employes at Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company at Ford City have signed up for regular payroll deductions in order to purchase United States Government Series E Bonds, it was announced.
10/02/1959 - Ralph A. Blaugher of Vandergrift, a former Kittanning resident, has been nominated to receive the 33rd degree in Free Masonry. He will be promoted to the highest degree in Masonry at Boston, in 1960.
10/02/1959 - Paint-fed flames gushed through Ferguson’s Body Shop here, gutting concrete block building and destroying two cars and all but one piece of equipment. Owner Bob Ferguson estimated the loss at more than $40,000.
10/02/1954 - A Kittanning Presbytery Women’s Organization will hold two Fall District conference sessions - Oct. 5 in Cowansville Presbyterian Church and Oct. 6 in Yatesboro Presbyterian Church.
10/02/1954 - The first weekly pay day for hourly workers of Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company at Ford City occurred yesterday when payroll checks covering gross earnings of $283,444 were disbursed. As far as could be determined from old company records, employes had never been paid weekly except for a period during World War I when only laborers were paid every week.
10/02/1954 - “Accent,” a lion cub, and “Miss Accent” will visit Ford City to publicize Ford City Lions Club projects.
10/02/1944 - Tidal: William Hooks, Pennsylvania Railroad brakeman employed on a freight run between Conway and Altoona, had his right foot mangled so badly that it was necessary to amputate it in Memorial Hospital, Johnstown. The accident occurred in the railroad yards at Johnstown.
10/02/1944 - Mrs. Bolick Smulik has received word from the War Department that her husband is missing in action since Aug. 1. He was stationed in France. Sgt. Smulik is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Smulik of Nu Mine.
10/02/1939 - Charles Cessna of Elderton, one of six men injured when a 12-inch gas line exploded on the William Young farm in Crooked Creek Valley, remains a patient in Armstrong County Memorial Hospital here.
10/02/1939 - Kittanning High Wildcats power-driving their way through ankle-deep mud, toppled Punxsutawney from the ranks of the undefeated on Gilpin athletic field, 19-6.
10/02/1934 - C. A. Doverspike, staunch Republican and a resident of Ford City for more than a quarter-century, will serve as burgess of the community for the unexpired term of M. C. Davis. Davis resigned officially to Borough Council, effective immediately.
10/02/1934 - Seized by a heart attack at a counter of the American Store on Ford Street, Ford City, Mrs. George Baker of Kittanning Township fell dead.
10/02/1929 - Walter McLean, 60, was burned to death when fire gutted a one-story building in the basement of which he was sleeping.
10/02/1929 - The Rev. Walter Kennedy has been re-appointed by President Hoover as postmaster of Templeton for a four-year term.
10/02/1929 - Dr. James G. Allison, widely known physician of Ford City, died at his Fourth Avenue home.
BIBLE MEDITATION – And ye shall be witness unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, part of the earth. Acts 1:8 Jesus still calls upon us to be His witnesses both in our local community and throughout the whole world.