Fundraising walk, 'heritage family' stories to be featured at Twin Lakes Park

Harry Louis Rugh, known by all as Lou, springs from roots that were planted locally in 1772.

That’s the year his great-great-great-grandfather — John Jacob Rugh, then 11 — moved with his family from eastern Pennsylvania to a farm near the pioneering village of Hanna’s Town, soon to become the first seat of Westmoreland County.

They settled on their land a year before the formation of the county and one of its municipalities — Hempfield Township, which Lou Rugh, 90, and his wife, Connie, still call home.

That more than qualifies the Rugh clan as one of the “heritage families” that are being recognized by county officials during Saturday’s annual March for Parks fundraising event at Twin Lakes Park, east of Greensburg.

“My grandfather’s farm was just over the hill from where the (Westmoreland) historical society is,” adjacent to the log buildings of the re-created Hanna’s Town, Lou Rugh said. “My grandfather (the long-lived William E. Rugh, 1858-1957) was always a farmer. Back in those years, all the farms had hog pens. They raised hogs for their own meat. They had chickens and cattle and grew crops.”

As part of its 250th anniversary celebration, the county will be “honoring our neighbors from families who lived and shaped our county’s history for 100 years or more,” according to Lauren Jones, communications coordinator for Westmoreland County Parks & Recreation. “We plan to hand out buttons and pins to heritage family members and invite them to attend the event to meet others with deep roots, search old maps for familiar names and share their family’s story around a campfire or in a 250th anniversary journal.”

The event isn’t limited to heritage families. Those participating in the March for Parks fundraising walk will gather at Twin Lakes Park Nature Center beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday. The walk begins at 11 a.m.

Funds raised will help support improvements at various county parks, as well as an effort to close a gap in the Westmoreland Heritage Trail, between Export and Delmont.

Rughs witnessed county’s start

Hanna’s Town was a recruiting center for Revolutionary War soldiers. John Jacob Rugh was among those who served in the conflict that gave birth to the United States.

The Rughs, who originated in the Alsace region that now is part of France, survived the destruction of Hanna’s Town, in 1782, during a raid by Native Americans and their British allies. Lou Rugh’s mother, the former Rachel Paul, was descended from Capt. Matthew Jack, among scouts who are credited with saving lives during the raid.

“They rescued a bunch of people and spread the word the Indians were coming to attack,” said Amy Cribbs of Murrysville, one of Lou and Connie Rugh’s three children.

A few generations later, Lou Rugh’s older brother, Samuel Paul Rugh, served with the Army Air Corps in World War II and continued as a pilot in the Korean War. A sister, Ginny, received a master’s degree at Cornell University and became the music supervisor for the schools in Hempfield, counting kid brother Lou among her students.

Lou Rugh and his father, Harry Franklin Rugh, remained on the home front during World War II, supporting the local agricultural community.

Lou Rugh’s father was a pioneering local motorcyclist who began his career repairing motorbikes and other vehicles. Though his father lost part of a leg in a 1916 motorcycle crash, Lou Rugh inherited a love for the two-wheelers, converting a bicycle into a motorcycle when he was in junior high and later riding a Harley-Davidson.

He also carried on the family business of selling Allis-Chalmers tractors and related equipment to area farmers. He refocused on selling lawn tractors before retiring in 2012.

Allis-Chalmers manufactured its first combine harvester in the mid-1930s, and the Rughs helped introduce the innovation on local farms.

“Probably the first (local) harvesting of grain with a combine was done on my grandfather’s farm,” Lou Rugh said. “It was a new thing.”

Welding was among the important skills Rugh learned from one of his father’s workers during World War II.

“During the war, you had to fix everything,” he said. With rationing of materials, “You could hardly buy anything.”

Rugh lives on the same property where he grew up and still has some of the tools that remind him of his childhood — including a “stomper” used to prepare sauerkraut in a large kettle and a wooden board he used for stretching animal hides.

“I trapped muskrat in the creeks around here when I was in grade school and made some spending money,” he recalled. “If I had a pretty large one that was skinned out properly, I could get as much as $4. That was an awful lot of money then.“

March for Parks activities set

The March for Parks event also will feature a dog contest; games and Olympics activities for kids; historical reenactors; “pioneer” games such as horseshoes and checkers; a drone question-and-answer session; a pancake breakfast; and raffle baskets.

March participants who turn in a donation of $30 or more will get a commemorative Westmoreland 250 long-sleeved T-shirt.

Visit co.westmoreland.pa.us/728/Parks-Recreation to register or for more information.