Train station privy - Frank J Russ Pittsburgh PA

[halfdime]

I volunteer with the restoration of the Coraopolis Train Station, near Pittsburgh. My specialty is locating and identifying some of the artifacts on the site. It was built in 1895-6 and there is a sunken area close to the building that my eyes recognized as probably privy. Or maybe even three to four in a line. Got down to about five feet yesterday and finally found glass; it was aqua, but broken. Whether with my probe or shovel, or maybe already broken, I don't know yet. Haven't found a top to it; I suspect more pieces await discovery. Do have five or six, which we've assembled, and it appears to be soda or mineral water, maybe beer? FRANK J RUSS PITTSBURGH PA are the only markings, and I can find nothing so far on that Brewer/bottler. Anyone seen one of these before, or know anything of that company? Hope to get back down there a few more times this week.

 

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[sandchip]

Good luck in your digging. I didn't see that one on hutchbook or soda & beers.

 

[epackage]

Beer bottle, he was a wholesale liquor dealer and was probably selling beer for a local or national brewery, very common for liquor dealers at the turn of the century to be the "sole agent" for a particular brewer and only carry their beer...

Frank Joseph Russ was born on October 10, 1859, in Schönfeld, Lower Austria, Austria, the son of Francisco and Franz. He married Elizabeth Loeffler in 1887, they had two children during their marriage. He died on September 25, 1908, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the age of 48, and was buried there. Frank and his wife divorced sometime before 1900, she died on December 9, 1937, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the age of 80, and was buried there.


1900 United States Federal Census


Name: Frank Joseph Russ
Age: 40
Birth Date: Oct 1859
Birthplace: Austria
Street: 6325 Station Street
Race: White
Immigration Year: 1879
Spouse's name: Elizabeth Russ
Marriage Year: 1887
Father's Birthplace: Austria
Mother's Birthplace: Austria
Naturalization: Naturalized
Occupation: Wholesale Liquor
Can Read: Yes
Can Write: Yes
Can Speak English: Yes
House Owned or Rented: Own
Home Free or Mortgaged: Mortgaged


Household Members:
Name.........................Age
Frank J. Russ................40
Alma Russ....................12
Frank Russ.....................7
Elizabeth Russ..............9/12
Gustave Kuhler..............32
Lizzie Boltralick.............19
Joseph Loeffler..............73

I question some of the data from Ancestry because I can't imagine his father in law living with him after they divorced, that just makes no sense...