Template:Jew Hill

No history of Nemacolin would be complete unless it included some information on "Jew Hill," the area outside the community which some refer to as the "suburbs." It should be noted that "Jew Hill" existed several years before construction of any of the houses within the community and it provided various services in the way of food and gasoline for the many farm residents in the surrounding area. Also located on the hill was Huston's School, a one room building heated by a coal-fired pot bellied stove, where the local farm residents received their education. This school was operated by the school board of Cumberland Township.

The earliest pictures available of "Jew Hill", pictures which are dated 1922 (most likely the summer), present various businesses as they might have been prior to 1917. This statement may not be generally true, however, Hustons School, located in the vicinity of the present Rapchak Brothers Store (1939), seems to have been the last building on top of the hill. Proceeding west towards Carmichaels on a road with no pavement whatsoever, one would see on his right Dominick's Store, Joe Bellini's Pool Room, a building owned by Mary Lazzuri which no doubt operated as a speakeasy, and the home owned by Sam Krovecheck. One would also pass beyond Krovecheck's home a two-story building which was formerly operated by Dominic Antonini as a store. On the left one would observe at the top of the hill a two-story frame store building owned by Harry Ruttenberg; next to it a two-story store operated by Mr. Toth; the Komat's building; and the residence of Mrs. Pumper. We might imagine "Jew Hill" in this fashion prior to 1922. In 1924 the building owned by Harry Ruttenberg caught fire, and eventually burned down taking with it the Toth Building. The Toth Building was immediately rebuilt by Mr. Toth and exists today as it was reconstructed after the fire of 1924. The property on which was located the store of Harry Ruttenberg was sold by Harry to his brother Charles. On this property was built Ruttenberg's Store, a two-story frame structure, which burned down in 1931. Brother Harry eventually opened a business across the street and the fierce competition between the two brothers began.

The building which is now the Citizens' Club was built after 1922 and was identified in 1934 as the Holloway Building when Carmelo and Rose Colaianni moved into it in February of the same year. The building was a two-apartment building with a store at the bottom. In October, 1934, Mr. and Mrs. Colaianni moved to their present residence which they purchased from Barbara and John Hotko, Waynesburg Beer Distributors, on May 9, 1939. The present Hill Top Restaurant (Colaianni Building) was originally built by John "Bowleg" Mancini with the mortgage being financed by the Hotkos. The building was used by Mancini as a repair garage for trucks. With the death of Mancini in a hunting accident (he supposedly shot himself while climbing over a fence), the Colaianni's moved in and opened up the business now operated by Rose Colaianni. Located on the same side of the street of the present Nemacolin hotel was a small one room building with a basement which housed a shoe repair shop first operated by Sam Barrie and then by Joe Guierra. The latter later operated a shoe repair shop in Carmichaels. Auggy Angelini opened a small appliance repair shop in this building after moving out of the Komatz Building.

Some of the older residents of the community also recall Jack Pezzoni's Confectionary Store (in Mrs. Pumper's building - only foundation is still standing), John Pumper's Soda Grill and Pool Room (owned now by John Stanish), Joe Popovich's Store (prior to the opening of the Nemacolin Hotel), and on the same side of the street proceeding west was Krivosky's and Krol 's taverns, two separate businesses. The Krivosky Tavern was operated as early as 1927 by Mike "Blackie" Medved when in April of that year the Waynesburg Republican (April 21, 1927) reports that he was charged with the sale of liquor to boys and was held for court under $500 bail. The Alexander Building, which housed a skating rink for a number of years and the VFW, is still standing in need of repair. John Kurilla also operated a shoe repair shop in the basement of what is now the Tony Bocchini residence.

"Jew Hill" seems to have functioned well in two specific areas. First, it provided competition with the Buckeye Coal Company Store and a number of residents purchased their needs from the Ruttenbergs and their groceries from Dominick's,· Rapchak's, and Popovich's Stores. Also available were Ackerman's, Marmelstein's, and Pearlman's which did business at various times during the early development of the community. A grocery store was also operated by Enrico Bertugli for a period of time. Second, "Jew Hill" provided a form of "entertainment" for especially the men of the community whereby they could go to the "hill" and have a drink. Since there were no drinking establishments within the community (there has never been any), the miners could go to "Jew Hill" for whatever form of alcohol they desired. Of course, during the early years of the development of the community, Prohibition (1920-1933) was in effect and the purchase of alcoholic beverages and the making or selling of them was illegal. Although one could not insist that "Jew Hill" had a monopoly on "bootlegging," there were a number of business establishments which sold hard liquor in addition to their regular products. Of course, if one were to check carefully the personnel records of the employees of Buckeye Coal, he would find that many men were involved in the making of "booze" in their homes, in transporting it in their autos throughout the community, and in regularly suffering the effects of it. These employees, when caught by the company police, were customarily taken before Justice of the Peace Porter and fined for their offenses. One reads also of cars being confiscated because they were being used to transport "booze." Such offenses were regular occurrences during Prohibition. It should be noted that the officials of the coal company did not permit their bosses to frequent the business houses on the hill. To do so could lead to dismissal. The miners customarily insist that the bosses did not need to anyway, because they were oversupplied with booze confiscated by the company police from the community bootleggers.

Fires on "Jew Hill" seem to have been both regular and, in some cases, planned occurrences. Already mentioned was the destruction by fire in 1924 of the Harry Ruttenberg store and the Toth Building. Also destroyed in November of the same year was the store and residence of Mary and Wassil Lazzuri with evidence provided that oil was used to start the fire. Accused of starting the fire was Ignatz Karputs; but he was released because of insufficient evidence. The loss of the two-story frame building was estimated at $10,000. Destroyed the next year (April 15, 1925) was a one story frame building owned by Wm. Bellent (?), a building which adjoined the building owned by Dominic Antonini. This building housed a small confectionary in front and a dance hall in the rear. The same building was saved from fire the previous week. The Carmichaels Fire Department responded to the fire.

The fire on "Jew Hill" about which there is much discussion to this day was the burning of the Charles Ruttenburg Department Store on November 13, 1931. Killed in the fire was the nephew of Ruttenberg, Herman Zimmerman (17) who worked for his uncle with Victoria Slenkish (Mrs. Mike Swetz), John Rapchak, and Mary Orlosky (Mrs. Mary Ringer). Ruttenberg was charged with arson and eventually held on $10,000 bond. After the fire Ruttenberg opened a clothing store in Wheeling, avoiding extradition to Pennsylvania. However, on April, 1932, Charles (50) was arrested in Pittsburgh and indicted in the Greene County Court for arson and murder for the previous fire. He was held for the June session of court with bond being provided by his brothers, Harry and Lewis, and by John Hotko, Waynesburg. By June 15, 1932, the case was being tried. Prosecution witnesses reported smelling carbon oil before and after the fire. Prosecuting the case was DA J. W. Hawkins; defense attorneys were C. W. Waychoff and W. Robert Thompson. The case, heard by Judge Sayers, rested on the testimony of Victoria Slenkish who testified that she was ordered by Ruttenberg to pour carbon oil over the floor and "especially around the furnace." She also testified that he promised to pay her $400 to keep silent. After being out for 20 hours, the jury reached a verdict of second degree murder on Sunday, June 23. This case was without precedent in the state of Pennsylvania. Ruttenberg was the first person tried in the state on a murder case as the result of arson since the Pennsylvania legislature made burning one's property arson in 1929. Because of various technicalities within this law, the case was appealed. In spite of the fact that many people insisted that Charlie died in jail, or that he committed suicide, the guilty verdict was set aside because of a legal technicality on June 22, 1933, with a forfeiture of the bond, however. Charlie continued to operate his clothing store in Wheeling thereafter. (It is interesting to note that this clothing store caught fire at least once.) These facts should set to a peaceful rest the case of Charles Ruttenberg. (His store was located in the vicinity of the present shirt factory which was originally the VFW.) A final comment must be made on the formation of the Greene County Citizens' Club, located now in what was formerly the Holloway Building. This club was formed originally in John "Bowleg" Mancini's Building for the specific purpose of teaching the "foreigners" what they needed to know to obtain their American citizenship papers. As aliens, they were in a sense second class "citizens" and were subject to deportation when they were forced to request "relief" during the Depression. The basic source of information for study was a pamphlet entitled "Our Nation." The club met regularly on Sunday evenings with each member contributing money for food and drink. By early July, 1936, the Citizen's Club was located in the Louis Antonini Building on "Jew Hill, which was damaged by fire on July 25, a fire which was discovered by Albert Ciosmak and Dave McClarren on their way fishing. In 1936 three teachers under the supervision of Mr. Keister conducted regular classes for interested aliens. From these classes more than 168 residents of the community received their citizenship papers. It must be noted that "Boley" Potrebih was instrumental in the formation of the Citizens' Club and was one of the teachers in the program at the Elementary School.

As a final word, many of the older residents of the community still are able to recall the dentist's office located in the Nemacolin Hotel Building, Frank Vavrek, Sr. as the night patrolman on the hill and also his operating a beer distributorship after the repeal of Prohibition. The old timers still recall Pete Bulgarian's gambling house in what is now the Citizens' Club. And only a few recall such names and the exploits of Fred Michaels and Marsh Collins. This must be ended with a comment on the rivalry between the Ruttenberg Brothers, Harry and Charlie. After Charlie built his department store on property previously owned by his brother, Harry opened up his own place of business across the street and the intense business rivalry began. One amusing incident reported by Pete Rapchak, as only Pete can tell in his unique, humorous style, involved "Struntz" Mudry who lived in a white frame house just below the Ruttenberg Department Store. It is reported that Charles regularly gave "Struntz" peanuts in the shell, telling him to go to his brother's store and there break the shells and throw the shells over the store. Thus the rivalry and the intense competition commenced. (Similar stories about "Jew Hill" comprise a history in themselves.)