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J. Horace Rudy stained glass, of Emigsville’s Howard Emig, in Offices of the H. J. Heinz Company

Records of Rudy Brothers Company, MSP#278, Folder 15 (Library and Archives Division, Historical Society of Western PA, Pittsburgh, PA; in Senator John Heinz History Center)
Records of Rudy Brothers Company, MSP#278, Folder 15 (Library and Archives Division, Historical Society of Western PA, Pittsburgh, PA; in Senator John Heinz History Center)

Between two talks I gave in Pittsburgh earlier this week, I visited the Heinz History Center. I had briefly visited their exhibits several years ago, however this time I also spent some time in the Detre Library & Archives on the sixth floor.

J. Horace Rudy drew this “Stained Glass Window for the H. J. Heinz Office Building.” Besides the J. Horace Rudy local connection, turning the copy over, I saw the following notations, revealing another local connection. “Howard Emig Posed. Heinz Office Bldg.”

RudyHowardEmig2

Some time ago one of my readers asked me to look into his connections to John Emig, the founder of the village of Emigsville; just north of York, PA. J. Horace Rudy married Marian Emig, the granddaughter of founder John Emig; and shortly thereafter J. Horace Rudy established a stained glass studio in York while his brothers continued to operate Rudy Brothers Company in Pittsburgh. I remembered that Marian had several younger brothers, and I seemed to recall Howard was one of them.

A check of U. S. Census records confirmed that Howard A. Emig was youngest brother of Marian and hence Howard Emig was the brother-in-law of J. Horace Rudy. Howard Emig appears to be about 20-years-old in the stained glass window drawing and since he was born in 1888, the drawing can be dated to about 1908.

Henry “H. J.” Heinz died later, in 1919, therefore the likeness of Howard Emig, of Emigsville, was displayed in the Heinz offices from the time the founder of the company occupied them. This is the first in a series of posts of some neat York County connections found within the collections of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.

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