Author Description

Frontiersmen. Aviators. Ballplayers. Showpeople. Flops and failures. Dreamers and heroes. These are just some of the characters in OUR PEOPLE. In OUR PEOPLE George Washington fights for his western Pennsylvania lands; and Pittsburghers cheer Abraham Lincoln on the way to his inauguration. Here is Uniontown's fabulous coal land baron J.V. Thompson; Scottdale's intrepid pioneer pilot J.D. Hill; and Tin Pan Alley's Hughie Cannon, whose burial in Connellsville put an end to the music. In the pages of OUR PEOPLE strides Richard King Mellon, responsible for the rebirth of both Pittsburgh and Ligonier; and four Somerset County boys struggling to overcome the ravages of the Great Depression. Here is Jack Garner, actor and star pitcher, and Gilbert Simpson of early Perryopolis, Washington's overseer of lands and chief nemesis.