Ellwood City Area Historical Society officers installed for 2022

Nicholas Vercilla, Ellwood City Ledger
·1 min read
The Ellwood City Area Historical Society held its first meeting of the year on Monday.
The Ellwood City Area Historical Society held its first meeting of the year on Monday.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

ELLWOOD CITY — The Ellwood City Area Historical Society installed its officers for 2022 during the first meeting of the year on Monday.

Everett Bleakney was installed as president, Andy Kindle first vice president, Bob Morabito second vice president, Lois Liebendorfer secretary and Charles Brown treasurer.

Dana Baker and Alexis Estabrook were elected as board members for a three-year period. Other board members remaining are Charles Means and Blanche Novak for two years, and Mary May and Dom Viccari for one more year.

A book was presented to the society, "The Liberator," written by Alex Kershaw, and is the story of Felix Sparks, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 157th Regiment, and the regiment's 500-day journey from the beaches of Sicily to the gates of the Dachau Concentration Camp in World War II.

Local veteran Guy Prestia was a part of that march and was among the first Allied soldiers to liberate Dachau, and was mentioned three times in the book.

More: North Sewickley Twp. vet fought in Sicily, helped liberate Dachau Concentration Camp

The Ellwood City Area Historical Society received a book donation, which was the Liberator written by Alex Kershaw.
The Ellwood City Area Historical Society received a book donation, which was the Liberator written by Alex Kershaw.

Prestia later signed the book and even wrote his military serial number in it.

The book was later turned into a Netflix miniseries released in 2020.

Local veteran Guy Prestia signed the copy of the book, as he was mentioned in it, and even wrote his military serial number into it as well.
Local veteran Guy Prestia signed the copy of the book, as he was mentioned in it, and even wrote his military serial number into it as well.

Guest speaker Andrew Henley spoke about the politics of the area in the early 1800s, and how Lawrence County was formed from Beaver and Mercer counties on March 20, 1849.

Henley was later presented with a society membership and an 1896 pencil-drawn map of Ellwood City.

More: Background on Henley

The next society meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 14 at 310 Fifth St., and the guest speaker will be David Gavis, a high school teacher at Lincoln Junior-Senior High School who is very involved in history.

Nicholas Vercilla is a staff reporter for the Beaver County Times and Ellwood City Ledger. He can be reached at nvercilla@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Ellwood City Ledger: 2022 Historical Society officers installed