120 years ago, 1901

Taken directly from The Vindicator:

“Lost Boy. Made music for the central police station. Found on the Diamond, he is cared for until his mother called and claimed him.

“The police station employees were treated to some novel music on Thursday afternoon. A young boy of foreign parentage, and about 3 years of age, was found on the Diamond by Officer Smith. He had strayed from his mother and was crying that he wanted to go home. The policeman brought the little wanderer to the station and he was fed pears by Officer Petrie. For a long time, the boy made the place ring with music. He cried only as a small boy can, and when the uniformed official came near him, he was even worse.

“For an hour, he made the mayor and others in the room the most nervous individuals in the city. Finally, Petrie got him to sink his ivories into a luscious pear, and the music stopped as if by magic. The little fellow kept calling out, ‘want to go home, want to go home,’ until he had the sympathy of all in his predicament. The mayor declared that the mother would not likely miss her kid until she counted her flock at bedtime, but the mother did put in an appearance shortly after noon and took her boy home.”

85 years ago, 1936

Leon Stombaugh received the coveted Carnegie Medal for bravery after rescuing a drowning man. Stombaugh, a locomotive repairman for the Sharon Steel Hoop Company, noticed that Vasile Lazar, another mill worker, had fallen into the Mahoning River. Stombaugh, himself not a strong swimmer, immediately recognized that Lazar was struggling and dove into the waters to help. Stombaugh swam about 100 feet to Lazar who was floundering and starting to go limp from the ordeal. The rushing waters were more than 10 feet deep and both men struggled against the current. Stombaugh caught Lazar and swam back to the shore where several men on the river’s bank extended a long branch for assistance. Stombaugh took hold of the branch and dragged Lazar to safety.

Stombaugh had been a mill worker since he was 13 years old, starting his career at the Cambria Mill in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He moved to Lowellville in 1925. Stombaugh was one of 33 people in the United States and Canada to be awarded the medal from the Carnegie Hero Fund in 1936. One of the others was William D. Chambers of Long Bottom, Ohio. Chambers, a 75-year-old carpenter at the time, crawled through a burning store to rescue a man after a kerosene stove overturned.

• Compiled from the archives of The Vindicator by Traci Manning, MVHS curator of education.