Before becoming a state hospital for children with special needs, Morganza was once a home for juvenile delinquents, who worked on the farm there – raising and harvesting animals and vegetables. Morganza was named after Colonel George Morgan. According to the historical marker – "Here was the home, 1796-1810, of the noted Indian trader and agent. Site is marked by a monument. It was here that Morgan was visited by Aaron Burr. His conspiracy was first made known to Thomas Jefferson by Colonel Morgan." Morganza was also one of the settings for the filming of "Silence Of The Lambs." Even then the buildings had been abandoned, and there is talk now of tearing down the buildings and putting up another one of those goddam maze-like shopping malls with a zillion intersections (see Robinson Town Centre – a catastrophe ‘planned’ by an idiot).
THE BOGEYMAN, OLD MAN BUTCH & MORGANZA
by Joe Katrencik
October 24, 1995
Reprinted from the Winter 1996/97 issue of "Pittsburgh History" magazine published by the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania (previous title: The Bogeyman, Old Man Butch and Me)
When this writer was a pre-schooler parental threats and warnings included "Watch out for the bogeyman!" or "Behave, or we’ll give you to the bogeyman!" He was a monstrous imaginary figure too scary to be described. Omnipresent, he lurked in dark cellar corners, in the attic, and behind shadowy oak trees. Though I was always on guard, especially as darkness approached, it seemed inevitable that one day he would get me – perhaps steal me as I slept.
As I got older parental threats became more real. Upset at some particular behavior, they would say, "We’re going to give you to the rag man." In the early 1950’s a procession of door to door vendors made life easier in western Pennsylvania coal patch villages, including Hendersonville. There was the junkman, the broom man and Fuller brush man, the Jewel Tea truck, huckster JImmy Grist, Chester Wiencek with his farm eggs, cheese and butter, the Otto milk man and Nickles’ Bakery truck (with Cisco Kid spice cakes!), plus a big blue bus that seemed to have any other need or desire. But there was also the ragman. He seemed to arrive at twilight, and slowly steered a squeak-rattle truck up and down dusty red dog streets while rasping a monotonous statement of fact, "Raaaags. Raaaags." Accurate descriptions of him are difficult to come by, since I, like most village children, disappeared at the ragman’s first bone-chilling call.
Evidently my parents were carrying on a tradition. In Europe my Slovak grandparents as children had been warned of Tartars and Turks. As adults in America with no Turk or Tartar armies in sight, they had threatened to give their own misbehaving children to Old Man Butch. The Man’s real name was George, and he was an itinerent tinkerer whose known rounds in western Pennsylvania included Hazel Kirk, Van Voorhis, New Eagle and Hendersonville. According to both my grandfather John Katrencik, and his brother-in-law Joe Misanik, Old Man Butch claimed to have been bayonetted in World War I, and he had once worked as a mule driver in the Hazel Kirk mine in the early 1920’s. One day someone came into the mine and told Butch that he saw his wife walking down the tracks with another man. Butch allegedly whipped them both.
After my grandparents moved from Hazel Kirk to Hendersonville in 1928, it was years before they saw Old Man Butch again. Then one day Butch knocked on John Katrencik’s door and greeted him with his hearty laugh.
"Where the hell you been?" said my grandfather. "Last time I saw you was in Hazel Kirk and you were in a fistfight. You got hit over the head with a beer bottle. We thought maybe you died after that."
From the late 1920’s until he died in the early 1950’s, Old Man Butch walked from coal patch to coal patch in western Pennsylvania, repairing pots and pans, sharpening knives, and by his presence, keeping the children in line. Rudolph Katrencik remembers being involved in a heated dispute while playing marbles with childhood friends. Someone noticed Old Man Butch approaching, so the arguments were shelved until Butch disappeared.
Butch carried a long pole and very heavy satchel of tools, and was always accompanied by his dog Mike as he walked from village to village. In Hendersonville he sometimes slept on my grandfather’s porch and kept spare clothes in the tool shed. Sometimes he stayed with the Valek family, where he kept a stone pedal wheel for sharpening knives. Possibly as a result of his profession he could speak a few languages, and spoke to his dog in German. MIke was a very intelligent dog who could "talk." He would whine a recognizable "I want my mama" speech on cue from Butch.
Given a choice, I think now that I would prefer the company of Old Man Butch over the ragman or the bogeyman. As a matter of fact, I might choose both Butch and the ragman over one of the most serious threats in my childhood – Morganza! The state juvenile correctional facility and farm was just over the hill from Hendersonville – in an area that is now partly the Southpointe development and the Pittsburgh Penguin hockey training facility. On trips to the A&P in Canonsburg, my parents would slow down by Morganza, point out the inmates laboring in the fields under guard and say, "See, that’s what happens when you don’t listen to your parents." I saw the result with my own eyes, and knew it could happen.
As for the bogeyman, at times I am still wary.
Information for this article was compiled from interviews with Rudolph Katrencik and Helen Urban Katrencik, and from the chapter "Hobos" in Charles Gersna’s book From the Furrows to the Pits: Van Voorhis, Pa., printed by McClain Printing Co., Parsons, WV, 1986.
