John Merle Bales

John Merle Bales was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, April 21, 1920. He was the seventh child to James Jamar (“Jim”) Bales and Lydia Jane (Travis) Bales, both of whom had been born and grew up in the southwestern Pennsylvania. They met and living in Uniontown and were married on May 29, 1903.

Merle’s father Jim was employed as a foundry man in a radiator manufacturing company (National Radiator Company) and eventually served as a traveling supervisor. At that time the manufacturing of steam radiators, used for the heating of homes and businesses, was a booming industry. His position as a troubleshooter saw them move every so often as he would be tasked to help straighten out the various foundries operated by the company.

Prior to Merle being born his family had lived in Uniontown, Hunker, and West Newton in Pennsylvania, Canton in Ohio, New Castle, Utica in New York, and finally back to New Castle. Merle had four siblings, two teenaged sisters named Pansy and Lydia and two brothers named Roy and Ray. Two other brothers, James Jr. and Clarence, had died young before Merle was born.

The family lived in New Castle off of East Maitland Road out in the East Brook area. (NOTE: The house is gone but it was right near where Hanna Lane is now located.) When Merle was age two his mother Lydia gave birth to another son named James Jr. (“Jimmy”). Eldest sister Pansy, at age eighteen, was married to Clarence W. Reiber in July 1923 and moved out of the house. Roy soon began attending the Briar Hill School in East Brook and surely enjoyed fishing in the nearby Neshannock Creek.

By the late 1920’s, the Bales family was off to Baltimore, Maryland, where several of Merle’s uncles (Mike and John Bales) were living. They lived in a home at #429 Buena Vista Avenue in northern Baltimore, just of modern-day Route 81 and near Druid Hill Park. His brother Roy, who would have graduated from high school in about 1929, began working with his dad as a machinist at the nearby radiator factory. Merle’s sister Lydia married Donald Diebert in October 1929, moved in with him and his parents, and eventually settled in the suburb of Towson, Maryland.

Between late 1930 and early 1932 the Bales family was back in the New Castle area, living way out on Route 108/Harlansburg Road west of Harlansburg and near Eliotts Mills. (NOTE: The house is long gone and the area is now a large gravel/stone plant.) The family attended the Croton Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church in New Castle and took an active role in church activities. Before too long brothers Roy and Ray, who both worked with their father at National Radiator near Cascade Park, were married and had their own homes in New Castle.

Merle would have graduated from high school (probably in Harlansburg) in 1938. He soon took up residence with his brother Ray at #213 N. Mulberry Street in New Castle and began working at National Radiator. Merle and his family had suffered an unfortunate tragedy in June 1939 as Pansy’s mother Lydia, at the age of fifty-five, passed away after a week-long bout with appendicitis. She was buried in West Newton Cemetery in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, where her two infant boys were buried many years prior.

Merle started dating Dorothy M. (“Dot”) Kneram, a local girl from the Harlansburg area who worked at the Shenango China factory in New Castle. They were married in Volant on Tuesday, September 2, 1941, by the Reverend Homer Miller. I believe they took up residence in New Castle.

A few months later American neutrality was ended on December 7, 1941, when Japanese forces attacked the American naval and air fortress at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Merle and his younger brother Jimmy would soon be all be called upon to serve their country. Merle, with an address of #463 East Washington Street, was drafted into the U.S. Army in March 1942. Like many of the state’s draftees he was officially inducted at the New Cumberland Army Reception Center near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. After a brief period of screening he was transferred to Camp Wallace near Houston, Texas. While he underwent training in Texas, Dot moved out to Harlansburg to stay with her family.

Merle joined a division of the U.S. Army’s Signal Corps known as the Pigeon Service, which breed and trained homing pigeons to carry vital messages in and out of combat zones. The Pigeon Service had its headquarters at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, but Merle possibly underwent specialized training at another pigeon facility at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.

In early October 1942, Merle was transferred to Fort Dix, New Jersey, in preparation of taking part in the Operation TORCH, the Allied invasion of North Africa that commenced on November 8, 1942. He spent time in North Africa, Italy, and southern France while working for the Pigeon Service. He survived the war and returned home sometime in early 1945.

Merle and Dot took up residence in Harlansburg and became very involved in the community. Merle opened a general store at the junction of Route 108 and Old Route 19/Church Road and on the opposite corner where the historic Village Inn still sits. They lived in an apartment on the upper floor of the general store. Their first child, Milan Ray, was born in March 1946 and another son, John Richard (“Ricky”), was born in September 1951.

Merle served as the fire chief of the Scott Township Volunteer Fire Department, overseeing almost two hundred volunteer firemen, until he retired in 1954. As the fire chief he helped the department purchase its first new truck in 1951 and then build its own fire station in Harlansburg. Merle, along with his rugged brothers, was an active hunter and fisherman. He also raised and raced his own homing pigeons and had co-founded the Castle Homing Club in 1948 with friend Stan Lechwar.

Merle built a new home in the Plaingrove area near Harlansburg in about 1952-1953 with the help of his brothers. The home was on Sylvania Road just north of where the general store was. Merle later sold the store and started a fuel oil business (J. M. Bales Oil Company), which was initially located in Harlansburg and later moved to #2318 West State Road (Route 224) in Union Township.

The years of strenuous foundry work took its toll on Merle’s father Jim. His health slowly declined and he finally passed away in April 1954 at the age of seventy-three. He was buried next to his wife in West Newton Cemetery.

Merle and Dot had two more children, fraternal twins Donna and Dianna, born in August 1955. Merle suffered a stroke in about 1957 and was left partially paralyzed for the rest of his life. Over the years Merle continued to be active in the community as his children grew into adulthood. Merle and Dot were divorced in 1973 and Merle was remarried to Alberta Yvonne Rupert of #503 Bell Avenue on January 12, 1974. They were divorced a few years later in late February 1977.

Merle continued to live on Sylvania Road for the rest of his life. He passed away at the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Butler at 5:43pm on Monday, June 7, 1982. A viewing was held at the Robert A. Myers Funeral Home in New Castle on Tuesday from 7:00-9:00pm and on Wednesday from 9:00-11:00am. Immediately after the Wednesday viewing a service was held at the funeral home and presided over by the Reverend Doug Barnett, the pastor of the Highland Heights United Brethren Church. He was subsequently buried next to his parents and two infant brothers at West Newton Cemetery.