Magnet fishing couple pulls piece of Harrison history from Allegheny River in Lawrenceville

You never know what you might pluck from the Allegheny River.

Magnet fishing enthusiasts George and Suzanne Murphy Haught have pulled up boat parts, locks and even a gun.

“I pulled out a washer from a barge that was the size of a dinner plate,” said George, who began the hobby less than a year ago.

Earlier this summer, a tiny find turned out to be the pair’s most special.

The O’Hara couple was tossing their rope from the shoreline near the 62nd Street Bridge in Lawrenceville and snagged a piece of history.

It was the first badge issued for the Allegheny Steel Co. Special Police, which patrolled the Natrona plant from 1901 into the 1930s.

Allegheny Steel merged with Ludlum Steel in August 1938 to create Allegheny Ludlum, now ATI, making the badge about a century old, if not older.

“It’s hard to tell where it got in the water, but it could’ve been in there for decades,” George said.

“It says Harrison Township No. 1 right on it,” Suzanne said. “I thought maybe it signified that it was the chief’s badge.

“We knew right away we had to do the right thing.”

The Haughts contacted Harrison police Chief Brian Turack, who said he was blown away by the unusual discovery.

“It’s quite a neat piece of history,” Turack said.

He plans to create a display at the police office to showcase pieces of the township’s roots.

O’Hara historian Tom Powers was struck by the similarity between the Harrison badge and one from the Allegheny County Workhouse, a prison that operated at the Blawnox-O’Hara line near Alpha Drive and Freeport Road.

“I think the fact that the badges have the same basic design is evidence that they were produced for the same entity, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Powers said.

The Coal and Iron Police force was founded in 1865 as a special unit to patrol the mills. The force developed because industry heads requested extra protection for their properties to supplement enforcement by the county sheriff’s office.

In many cases, the auxiliary police were regarded as unsavory characters, hired for the sole purpose of busting unions. A Pittsburgh correspondent for the St. Louis Star newspaper wrote in 1928 that the Coal and Iron Police are “black uniformed, black booted and black belted.”

ATI spokeswoman Natalie Gillespie said it’s exciting when family members or others “share artifacts that demonstrate how important we are in the communities in which we operate.”

“Over the years, we’ve contributed items to the Tarentum library and Heinz History Center to help preserve this industry’s identity in our region,” Gillespie said. “Wow. That badge has lasted a long time.”

Powers, Turack and the Haughts all said they would love to know the story of how the badge landed in the murky water 20 miles from its original home.

“Was it part of a theft? Did someone toss it on purpose?” George asked. “We didn’t really know where Harrison was, but we knew we had to get it where it belonged.”