Recommended Reading
Before it was called Coraopolis, or Middletown or Vancefort, before Montour, before even Oughsaragoh…
See what Coraopolis looks like on native-land.ca, a land acknowledgment website.
I am highlighting sources that give any insight into this land for the thousands of years before the stories of Andrew Montour, Robert Vance and Jacob Ferree began.
- The Red Man, June 1916
- The essay “Sattelihu, or Andrew Montour” is interesting both because of the perspective from which it’s written and the time period when it was written. The New York Times ran an obituary of the author, the Rev. Dr. George P. Donehoo.
- The Wilderness Trail
Learning about the history of Coraopolis
A list of suggested resources for anyone interested in researching the history of Coraopolis.
There is a wealth of information that is not indexed by search engines like Google. Information about archival local newspapers (one of the best resources) is included here.
- Coraopolis TimeTrek
- I’ve linked an archival version since the original version is no longer available.
- Reading about the history of the various churches and religious institutions in Coraopolis can be helpful:
- Presbyterian Church of Coraopolis
- The Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives have a section on the Jewish population of Coraopolis.
- Submitting an open records request can be a great way to get information relevant to your interest. For Coraopolis, the Right to Know form is available as a Word document. Raymond McCutcheon is the open records officer.
- Census Info
🗺️ Maps featuring Coraopolis
- Lee’s map of the industries of western Pa., no. 1 — an 1884 map that clearly marks Coraopolis as “Middletown”
🔥 Sanborn Maps
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps are a fantastic resource made available online by the Library of Congress starting in 2017. Maps depicting Coraopolis at various times from the fall of 1898 to the beginning of 1924 are available and linked below. These maps show
the size, shape and construction materials of dwellings, commercial buildings, factories and other structures. They indicate both the names and width of streets, and show property boundaries and how individual buildings were used. House and block numbers are identified. They also show the location of water mains, fire alarm boxes and fire hydrants.
See Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from Coraopolis, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania from:
These maps were obtained by the Library of Congress via copyright deposit and are in the public domain.
Other Maps featuring Coraopolis
- https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/pnp/habshaer/pa/pa2600/pa2616/data/pa2616data.pdf
- https://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/rg/di/r17-522warranteetwpmaps/r017-Map2493-Allegheny-MoonCrescentWeb.pdf
Sewickley, Pittsburgh and Surrounding Neighborhoods
Depending on what you are researching, historical organizations from Pittsburgh and surrounding neighborhoods might have items of interest. A few in particular to start with:
- Father Pitt
- Historic Pittsburgh
- Moon Township Historical Society
- Sewickley Valley Historical Society
- 🌟 Sewickley Herald Digital Archive
- The Sewickley Herald archives provide searchable versions of issues from ~1903 through to today. Downloadable PDFs are available for free.
- This is an incredible resource that I am thankful for.
📰 Newspaper Archives
These free resources are fantastic for historical research:
- Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive
- You can read about the origins of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Project.
- https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/historynews
- Some of these links are only available to folks at PSU.
Beyond the items above, I find having a paid newspapers.com subscription to be very helpful.
- KDI — I have not used this yet.
Other Resources
- Pennsylvania Photos and Documents through the POWER library
- Research Guides from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
The Coraopolis Historical Society (including the room in the library) were founded in the 80s by Joseph V. DiVito, Sr when he was the mayor. 0, 1 The CCDC is home to the Coraopolis Historical Society today.
Consider these notes on research questions and guidance as you approach your project.