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Speaker1: John Francis Laboon, your age, 86.
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Speaker2: Right. And your place of birth, your country, your religion.
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Speaker1: When your religion Catholic.
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Speaker2: Your ethnic origin and identity.
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Speaker1: Uh, my, uh. Uh, my father. The French descent. My great
grandfather was in Napoleon's army when it passed through Lithuania on its
way to attack Moscow. But when they were driven when Napoleon was driven
back in the winter, in November of 1912 or 1812, in November 1812, they
froze up in Lithuania and thousands and thousands. Some writers say that
50,000 Napoleon's soldiers deserted in Lithuania, but Napoleon proceeded on
to France to raise another army. And I have every reason to believe that
that my father, therefore, from name, background and other information that
we have came from this. Napoleon Army, French background.
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Speaker2: I can also have your politics that you're involved with.
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Speaker1: Your I am. I originally was a Republican and so was my father
when Democrats were very scarce in Pittsburgh and when the Republicans used
to finance the Democratic Party so they would stay have somebody to compete
with, although they were the Democrats were outnumbered completely in
Pittsburgh. Later on, however, during the depression of 1929 and the early
30s, I changed my politics to the Democratic Party and joined the
Democratic Party because I felt at that time that the Democrats had the
answers to this, to the solution of the Depression. And and, of course, I
followed Franklin Roosevelt's policies and his ideals. And I think that he
was one of our great presidents who really brought us out of that terrible
depression those days.
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Speaker2: Right. And also, what kind of fraternal organizations have you
belonged to?
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Speaker1: Uh. I belong to the Knights of Columbus. I'm a fourth degree
member of the Knights of Columbus, and I'm probably one of the oldest
members in the Pittsburgh district. I joined the Knights of Columbus when I
was 18 years old. So I've been a member of almost, almost 60 years. I don't
belong to any other to any ethnic group as such. I have been a member of a
number of clubs, for instance, the Pittsburgh Athletic Athletic Association
and several golf clubs like the South Hills Country Club, Pittsburgh Field
Club, Charters Heights Country Club and Ligonier Country Club.
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Speaker2: Quite a list of clubs you belong to.
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Speaker1: Yes. I'm trying to think. Then I belong to the. To a service
club that I can't remember now in Pittsburgh. It's. I think still in
existence now is one of the charter members. Also belonged to the Keystone
Athletic Club, which was located on Wood Street. And I was one of the early
members, not a charter member, but one of the first members of that club
until it went under. Huh.
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Speaker2: All right. Could you also give me some information on the
birthplace of your parents, the country, the region and the village?
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Speaker1: Uh, my father was born. Uh. Close in Lithuania, close to the
Prussian border. Uh, my mother was born south of the. Of that area. But
they. They met in Pittsburgh when my father landed here.
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Speaker2: Could I have the port of entry.
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Speaker1: In New York in 18? In 1890. We looked. You know, in 1877, uh, he
was picked up by labor recruiters in New York and transported to Manitowoc,
Michigan to work in Wisconsin. Yeah, Wisconsin. Yeah. Manitowoc. Is it
Michigan or Wisconsin?
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Speaker2: He said Minnesota.
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Speaker1: No, it's not Minnesota. Well, anyhow, he worked as a farmer
there, but he learned his trade. He learned his trade as a tailor. And he
came to Pittsburgh. For what reason? I don't know. And he met my mother
here. Now, my mother. Came here as a young girl with her birthplace. Where
was she born? In Lithuania. South of the region where my father was born.
She came here early with her brother to get away from a stepfather who had
married. Her mother. And my father was 30 when he married my mother, who
was only 18, 18, right here in Pittsburgh. Huh?
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Speaker2: Have you got the dates that might be applied? As for when they
came to Pittsburgh? What year was that they met or that they were married?
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Speaker1: Yes, I have some idea of that.
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Speaker2: Come over in 1877.
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Speaker1: See my father. Married in 1887. 1887, 1887. My mother was 18
then. Wow. And, uh, I had a brother older, uh, and. He died, however, in
infancy in those days. The infant mortality was very high, so I became the
oldest of the family. My mother had 13 children. Nine of us survived. Uh,
infancy. And there are. Or there are seven of us alive. Still alive.
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Speaker2: And how old is the youngest of your family in today's.
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Speaker1: If your youngest is about is about. 60. 65.
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Speaker2: 65.
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Speaker1: My brother Eddie is 19 years younger than I am 19. He was a he
was a great, great athlete. He was a great pitcher.
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Speaker2: When your parents came to Pittsburgh, what part of the city did
they move to?
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Speaker1: They were they lived downtown, as a matter of fact, for a while.
And the I remember they lived in the Magee building, which was which was an
old building there on Fifth Avenue. And they they had apartments there, but
they moved out of there because they were disturbed by, uh, people who
would who were looking for. Uh, houses of prostitution, as a matter of
fact.
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Speaker2: So this prostitution very high back in those days?
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Speaker1: Oh, yes. It's always been high. And we finally. We finally
landed. I was born on our place, they call it in those days. They call it
our alley at the number was. 127 our alley in 1890. Uh, then we lived, uh,
we lived in various parts of the city. We lived in Soho, we lived on Mount
Washington. We lived on the South Side. Uh, we never owned our own home. We
were always.
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Speaker2: Rented. What neighborhood did you live in when you went to, uh,
like, say, through high school?
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Speaker1: Uh, I lived on Miltenberger Street, uh, which is, uh, is where
the Fifth Avenue High School is located. I went to Fifth Avenue High
School. Yeah, I graduated from Forbes School on. I entered Forbes school.
Uh, in room five and went through room 23, which is the eighth grade. And I
graduated there in 19 four. Uh, Forbes school was just torn down recently
and has been replaced by a parking garage owned by the Mercy Hospital. So
and that the Forbes school was built in 1885. I first my first schooling
started in on the south side at the 10th Street Public School, which is
located on 10th Street, South Side, near Carson Street.
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Speaker2: Down in there in South Side.
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Speaker1: And we lived, uh, near sixth Street, uh, in a. Uh, what they
used to call the flats. I think we lived on the third floor, and there
were. There are other families that lived on the other floors. But my
father. Nor neither my father. Nor my mother. Had much association with the
ethnic group. With our own ethnic group? No. We had visitors, but they
always sort of helped. My father was held himself aloof and because it
probably was background. And I remember one time stopping at a gas station
in Dormont and when Mr. John Gray, who was an organist. At Saint Casimir's
Church and was married to an Irish girl named Mcgriffin. Uh, came over to
my car to say hello. And he said to the man who was serving me, Just take
care of this man. Now he comes from nobility. So I took that to mean Mr.
Gray was born in Lithuania. He was Lithuanian, and I took that to mean that
he knew the family back in Lithuania and its reputation. And but they all,
anybody who visited us always held a seemed to hold us in high esteem. And
my father himself was quite an aloof man. What kind.
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Speaker2: Of occupation did your father.
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Speaker1: Have? He was a.
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Speaker2: Tailor. He was a.
Speaker1: Tailor, Yes. And he'd only make coats. He had never he thought
that anybody had made pants and vests with just a not a tailor. He was just
a sword.
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Speaker2: Yeah. Did your mother work outside of the family? Outside of the
house?
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Speaker1: Never worked. My father was well known to the best tailor
establishments in Pittsburgh, some of which are still in existence. For
instance, Allers and Bergmann. My father was a bookmaker for Ahlers and
Bergmann, and he is also a bookmaker for Gusky and Company. He used to be a
big department store in Market Street, but he worked largely for Thomas
Callahan, who was the. The. The Taylor, largely for the wealthy Irish of
Pittsburgh, and he had his shop on Fifth Avenue a few doors east of Sixth
Avenue.
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Speaker2: Could you say that the neighborhood that your that your family
grew up in was primarily in a Catholic region or a Catholic Irish Catholic
region?
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Speaker1: Yes. I would say that we were associated largely with with with
the Irish families. And we we weren't a part of any ethnic group, uh,
Lithuanian group or any other group as such. We moved around and lived in
all parts of in in many parts of the city and did not seek any ethnic or
group association. Right.
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Speaker2: You said that you had 13 brothers and sisters. Could you break
that down or you came from a family of 13 children. Could you break that
down into your number of brothers and sisters?
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Speaker1: Yes, we had, uh, uh, nine. Nine boys and four girls in the
family. Uh. Wait a minute. Let me get that straight now. Yes, I think
that's right. 9494. Three of the three of my sisters are still alive and
four of the four of us boys are still alive.
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Speaker2: Okay. And you also said that you had a great number of children
yourself. How many boys and girls did you have in your family?
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Speaker1: Uh, we had, uh, nine children, six girls and three boys.
Incidentally, I might introduce here just. Novel Waite's Spot. My father
came here to avoid being drafted into the Russian army. My grandfather
hated the Russians so much. And, uh, we'd have nothing to do with the
polls. But my father used to go to Prussia on horseback to buy schnapps
instead of drinking vodka that the Russians had. He had no use for the
Russians.
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Speaker2: All right. Could you also give me some some information on your
education and your work history, something that dealing with your field of
study during your life?
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Speaker1: Well, I am. Uh, I, uh. I didn't finish high school. But, uh, I
felt I had to go to work to help the family. However, when Carnegie Tech
opened up, I. I found an opportunity to go to night school. So I entered
the Carnegie Tech Prep. They had a prep school at that time and graduated
from there and then was accepted into. By the college and I finished the
one year prep course. Five years of straight college for graduation and
then took two years of post-graduate work in sanitary engineering. And I
was the only engineer to graduate as sanitary engineer. As a sanitary
engineer from Carnegie Tech in 1914. And I received a Bachelor of Science
degree in in civil engineering in 1914 and also a civil a professional
degree of civil engineer in 1919.
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Speaker2: So actually, when could you say you had your first professional
job dealing with, you know, after you graduated with your master's degree?
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Speaker1: First professional job was with in 1912, was as a reinforced
concrete designer for Chester and Fleming, who were consulting sanitary
engineers. I was recommended by Carnegie Tech to as a, uh, reinforced
concrete designer, although I didn't know that I was capable of even
designing reinforced concrete. But we had, uh, we had about ten graduates
from Cornell and India and. Uh. Harvard, Illinois. University of Illinois.
Mr. Chester was an Illinois graduate. Mr. Fleming was a Cornell graduate.
So they split the appointments in there. But not one of these graduates
could design reinforced concrete. So they went to Carnegie Tech to find a
reinforced concrete design. Here I just graduated and I got this job in
1912. So I then established a laboratory, a chemical laboratory and
bacteriological laboratory in Chester and Fleming and ran that. I designed
the filtration and sewage plants. I served also as an inspector on
construction work and finally in left them in 1915. To become chief
engineer of the Pittsburgh Pillar Manufacturing Company, who at that time
were very busy designing and building a filtration and sewage plants for
the cantonments of World War Two for the United States government. And
we've moved they bought a big, large plant and even manufactured gun
barrels in Oil City. And we I moved. In the meantime, I was married. We
were married. And.
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Speaker2: Were you married when you got your first job? Reinforced
concrete design?
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Speaker1: No, no. I married after I left Chester and Fleming in 1915. I
worked there three years, and I became chief engineer of Pittsburgh film
manufacturing Company, as I said.
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Speaker2: And were you able to, like, have your own house at that time?
Were you able to support yourself without having to live at home or
anything?
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Speaker1: Yes. Uh, uh, we married on January the 29th, 1917, while I was
working for Pittsburgh Film Manufacturing Company. And we were still our
offices were still located downtown in the Farmers Bank building before we
moved to Oil City. My first child, Mary Jane. Now, Mary Jane Allen was born
in Oil City. Oil City Hospital in Oil City. And on November the 17th, then
November 17th, 1917. However, about a year later, I received a letter from
Chester and Fleming asking me to come down to see them. But I didn't answer
the letter. And they finally I finally got a telephone call from Mr.
Fleming, and he asked me if I wouldn't come down because they wanted they
wanted to offer me a partnership in the firm as a junior partner. Of
course, this was quite a. Uh, quite an honor. And, uh. So I came down to
Pittsburgh and I accepted the partnership and we moved from Oil City to
Pittsburgh in 1918. We when we were first married, we our first. Uh. Her
first home was on Mississippi Avenue in a double house in Dormont.
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Speaker2: Dormont I know where that's at. It was.
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Speaker1: Seventh Avenue, and then we lived there until we moved to Oil
City, and we had a house in Oil City on Main Street, a very nice house. We
had a backlot extended to the river, practically. Allegheny River. And when
we came back, we, we located in, in Brookline. And the Resurrection Parish.
And then from there we moved to a new home that I built in Mount Lebanon on
Barr Hill Road, where we stayed from 19 where we lived from 1920. I wasn't
seven until 1942.
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Speaker2: So actually, that's the main place where you actually raised
your family as in 1942.
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Speaker1: It wasn't for 1942. We I rented the house on Barnhill Road in
1935 and bought a home on, uh. Three Wallingford street in shady Side in
order that I could get close to Central Catholic High School where my boys
could attend high school.
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Speaker2: And wouldn't you rather fortunate being able to do that? Because
I think living in those times it was people didn't have access of being
able to have a house, be able to rent it at the same time, move out and buy
a house elsewhere in the city so that you could afford transport or
education for your boys.
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Speaker1: The the party that rented my house was a superintendent of the
of the of the mill for the Crucible Steel Company and he had a very
important position. His name was Jackson and. The house was was a very
attractive house. I had no problem whatsoever renting it. In fact, I. I.
Move back to it. And there was a family in 1942 and then sold it in 1951
after the family had all departed.
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Speaker2: Mm hm. All right. Could you give me some. Some idea of the
hardest problems faced in life in the Pittsburgh area while growing up?
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Speaker1: Well. They they were problems. Of course there were. There were
problems of immorality. And, uh. But uh, we didn't, uh, experiences as
such. There was a red light district in those days. We called it a red
light district. The houses of prostitution were located on second and third
Avenues. Now the Second avenue is the Boulevard of the Allies. But, uh,
those are the those are well known institutions. But we didn't have street
streetwalkers as such. Of course. Um. Uh, morality or immorality? Wasn't as
rapid as I believe it is today. There wasn't that. When what we call now
the permissiveness of of of morals that exists today. We we didn't have any
of that premarital. Ideas never ended the minds of any of us, and any
situation like that was a rarity to find. Huh? Uh, people. My greatest.
Experience as a young man and the greatest influence on me in my teen
years. Teenage years was my mother first. And second was joining the
Pittsburgh Lyceum, which was a group of Irish Catholic boys. Connected with
the Epiphany Church on Washington Street. The Epiphany Church is still
there. My mother and father were buried from there. And as a matter of
fact, we lived on Bluff Street. When I left to get married. And, uh, so I.
I played. I went out for athletics, even at Carnegie Tech. I went out for
the football team. I played on the freshman team, second string center
until I got hurt. And then I found that I just. Just couldn't go out for
practice and work at the same time, which I had to do. But I went out for
the track team and with.
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Speaker2: Sports very, very highly regarded back in those days.
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Speaker1: Well, yes, it was. As a matter of fact, Carnegie Tech played the
University of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh when the University of
Pennsylvania had at least four. All Americans on this team selected by
Walter Camp, who at that time selected all the all-American teams from the
Ivy League. And I was on the sidelines in that game with a bum ankle. But
then I never got into it, of course. But I played on the class team. I
was.
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Speaker2: Our dinner. Mr. Lemon, could you describe other employment that
you had? Well, back in those days.
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Speaker1: Uh, I left, uh, Chester engineers who succeeded Chester and
Fleming by name in 19 early in 1935, on a leave of absence to accept an
appointment by Governor Earl of Pennsylvania, the state of Pennsylvania, as
chief of Work Relief in Allegheny County. Program in Allegheny County. My.
Are you ready? My job was to put to work the unemployed on a combined
federal state program. Uh, this was very interesting work, uh, because the
reputation had been about that. Most of the people were employed at Reef
Lake or Leaf raking rather than jobs production. So I, uh, uh, reformed the
program and continued until July 1st when the WPA program came in and went
into effect under federal control. Uh, and I was then appointed director of
WPA and the Allegheny County area. I had a budget of $50 million to put men
to work at $0.50 an hour with supervisory personnel, of course, at a
nominal salary of $150 per month.
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Speaker2: Well, one question for clarification. What does WPA stand for?
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Speaker1: Works Progress Administration, which is a $5 billion project.
