Shopping Saturday - The Telesca Bowling Alley

My husband's grandfather, John Telesca along with his two older brothers Joseph and Connie Telesca, owned and operated a bowling alley at 535 East Drinker Street, Dunmore, Pennsylvania.

It was called “The Telesca Bowling Alleys.”  The bowling alley had four lanes, a card room, billiard tables, upstairs apartments, two stores in the front, and possibly a dance section.  A son of Joseph Telesca worked there as a child. I spoke with him over the phone and he told me about the bowling alleys and his memories there. He set pens, took reservations for billiards and was sent home around 6 p.m.  Brunetta (Joseph’s wife) ran the shoe store up front and Donato would help her look after it, but he was not allowed to ring up any purchases. Jack (he called John Telesca by his nickname) and his wife Elsie lived in the apartment closest to the street so when a customer wanted to buy something Donato would run outside and holler for Aunt Elsie to come down to ring up the customer. 

The 1927 Scranton City Directory lists John and Connie (Camnio) Telesca living at 535 Drinker Street.

1927 Scranton City Directory, Pennsylvania

We visited Dunmore in 2000 and visited the building on 535 Drinker Street. It was a plumbing store. We went into the store to look around. We told the owners that my husband's family had owned the building and it had been a bowling alley. I showed them the 1927 Scranton Directory and they were surprised, they knew nothing of the history of the building. The front of the building where the store(s) were, was their showroom and was crammed with plumbing supplies. They let us go upstairs where the apartments had been and look around. It was now one unfinished room where they stored extra supplies.

535 Drinker Street, Dunmore, Pennsylvania

The “Telesca Brothers” contracting business was also run out of the same building. According to Joseph's son their motto was: “from foundations to decorations.” 

It was exciting to see and be in the building of my husband's ancestors. To know that they lived and worked there helped us feel connected to them.

How did I miss that?

Last night I was organizing my digital records (a slow process - but I'm trying) and I got distracted (like I usually do) and started looking at my husband's Great-Great Grandfather's 1910 census record.

1910 US Census, Barr Township, Cambria Co., Pennsylvania

What I realized after looking at this, was that this was showing his second marriage. I did not realized he had been married twice. I wanted to bang my head against a wall because this is a classic example of me not analyzing information that I have. At some point and time I saved this but did not really look at it. Which really does me no good. I love finding new information, but I know I have documents that still need analyzing and I'm sure I have new information sitting in my files just waiting for me to look at them again. Oh, if I could only get organized!

So after realizing James Mikel Flanigan was married twice I headed over to USGenWeb and went to Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Lynne Canterbury and Diann Olsen have done a great job of keeping the site updated with valuable information. I was able to find a marriage record for James M. Flanegan and Catharine Hefele. They were married in 1895. His first wife Sarah Catherine Killins Flanigan died in 1892. James Flanegan is buried at St. Nickolas Cemetery in Barr Township, Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Neither of his wives are buried with him. His first wife is buried in a remote cemetery and I do not know where his second wife is buried.

I contacted my husband's cousin and he had not realized either that James had been married twice and he too had seen the 1910 census. (Okay, that made me feel better.) He said he will get the marriage record next time he goes into town.

The day I almost got locked in jail.

Back in early 2000 our family took a vacation to a small town in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. We stayed in a small family cabin, and when I say cabin I'm not talking about a modern cabin, I'm talking about an all wood cabin with an outhouse. But, it is a beloved cabin situated on acres of wooded land and a stream that flows through it. It has been passed down through the generations and many happy memories for generations have been made at the cabin.

The Cabin in Pennsylvania

During this vacation, I of course drove to the cemeteries, churches, and courthouses to do research on my husbands side of the family. The family went with me to the cemeteries and churches but stayed at the cabin when I went to the courthouse.

So one morning I drove the 30 miles into town to do research at the courthouse. It was a very productive day and I found many land, marriage, and court records. Later in the day I asked about tax records and was told those records were stored in the old jail house. It was late in the day and so I quickly drove to the jailhouse to get some research done before they closed.

The old jail house is in the middle of town. It has been called a "Welsh Castle." It is a large stone building built in 1872. Inside the stone building is a three story "bird cage", the black metal cage that housed the inmates. It has now been turned into a museum. I was in awe of the building; for a jail it was beautiful.

I only had about 45 minutes till closing time so I had to hurry. (I came back another day with the family and we got a tour of the "dungeon" that was below the prison.) The lady in charged showed me some records in file cabinets but I did not find any thing of interest. She then showed me where the tax records I wanted were located. They were stored inside the birdcage. The records I wanted were on the third level of the birdcage towards the back of the jail. It was really neat to walk up the birdcage stairs and think about all the people who had walked there before me and how many hands must have touched all these bars. Each cell  had shelves with large books on them. She took me to my cell and I pulled down the large books I needed and started transcribing them. I found a lot of tax records for my husband's family so I was quite busy for a while. I lost track of time and when I looked at my watch I noticed it was five past closing time. I put the book back and gathered up my stuff and started walking down the catwalk to the stairs.

As I rounded the corner everything went black. Completely black, I could not see a thing. I was too surprised to do anything so I just stood there in the dark. Then I see a light, it's the door opening and the light was coming from outside and the lady who worked there was leaving! I yelled "Wait!" and startled her. She looked up in surprise and said, "OH, I had forgotten you were here. I almost locked you in." I said, "Oh please don't do that." I quickly but carefully walked down the dark stairs and she let me out the door.

The cabin does not have a phone and we did not have a cell phone then. Had I been locked in I would have had to use the phone on the desk to call 911, and how do you tell a 911 operator that you are locked in the jail and need to be let out?

I had wanted to post a photo of the jail but apparently I did not take any while I was there. To see old photos of the jail click on Cambria Co., Pennsylvania.