How a Photograph Taken Round Labor Day 1913 Influenced a Pittsburgh Household Throughout Generations – Pittsburgh Submit-Gazette Interactive

legacy of work

TThese days, Hank is busy tending to his 3 acres in Pine. He is lean and wiry, his skin brown from working in the sun. He enjoys using the skills he has learned over his long life to solve problems. Not so long ago he needed a log splitter. Instead of buying one, he built his own using a salvaged engine and I-beam.

Josephine passed away in 2013 and Hank still misses her. He’s proud of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, but doesn’t spend much time reflecting on his family’s legacy. Pressing on this issue, he says, “We’re a pretty hard-working group. Pretty much on that level, you know.”

His sister, Anna Faust Beck, now resides in Westlake, a suburb of Cleveland. The Fausts’ long and often tragic history has taught them to value their family members. For years, she and her brothers and sisters vacationed together with their spouses at the beach. They played cards, laughed, told family stories and cooked.

“We’re pretty decent cooks, so the highlight was everyone making their specialties,” she said.

It’s a family tradition. She recalls when Bernard and Anna’s surviving children gathered for similar visits years ago.

“There was laughter everywhere,” she said. “They just enjoyed being together. Maybe they valued themselves more because they had lost so much.”

Sources

The Pittsburgh Post, The Pittsburgh Press and The Gazette Times, accessible via news.com; census reports, death certificates, and military records accessible through ancestry.com; Coroner’s Report by William Faust, available through the University of Pittsburgh Archives Service Center; “The Great War in America” ​​by Garrett Peck, Pegasus Books (2018); “Pennsylvanians at Meuse-Argonne: The 28th, 79th and 80th Divisions in the Last Major Offensive of the Great War” by Tyler Gum, Pennsylvania Heritage (Spring 2018); History of the Cave of Winds, niagarafallsinfo.com.

Top Photo: A photographer employed by the City of Pittsburgh took this picture of William Faust’s covered body on Wednesday, September 3, 1913, at the Aspinwall Pump Station. (Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System)

Story and Research: Steve Mellon, Smellon@post-gazette.com.
Design and Development: Tyler Pecyna/Post-Gazette, tpecyna@post-gazette.com