Mystery solved: Upper Burrell woman finds missing piece to history of Massy Harbison cabin

Betty Beestrice isn’t quite sure why she has a photograph of the Massy Harbison cabin when it was located in Upper Burrell, how she got it or where it may have come from.

But the Upper Burrell woman has the evidence that the cabin was located in Upper Burrell sometime between 1959 to 1976 — and to New Kensington-area historians, that’s what’s most important.

“This is incredible proof that the cabin was moved from Butler to Upper Burrell,” said Millie Pipman, a member of the Massy Harbison-Fort Hand Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. “We know the history of its movement to the current Massy Harbison Park.”

The information is key to the local DAR chapter, the Tri-City Historical Society and New Kensington officials as they work to restore the cabin at Massy Harbison Park, at Oates Boulevard and Route 56 near Valley High School.

Massy Harbison was a pioneer woman who, in the 1790s, was taken brutally hostage by Native Americans from her home in what is now Allegheny Township.

In 1959, the Fort Crawford Association learned that a pioneer cabin, near Butler, was going to be demolished since the Route 422 Bypass was being constructed.

Historians say the cabin was believed to be occupied by Harbison toward the end of her life.

The Fort Crawford Association planned to build a replica of Fort Crawford and the 1777 frontier fort on a 92-acre parcel in Upper Burrell, near Whitten Hollow and Turkey Ridge roads.

That’s where Pipman, and other area historians, had questions. There didn’t seem to be proof if the cabin was ever constructed in Upper Burrell, between 1959 and 1976, before it was moved to its present-day site in New Kensington.

Tri-City Historical Society President James Sabulsky asked Beestrice, a longtime historian and collector of all things Upper Burrell, if she had any information.

“When I looked through my papers and books I have, I found a picture,” said Beestrice, 87. “We have a lot of history in this house. When James asked me if I had anything, I looked through my pages and found that picture.”

The picture’s caption reads, in part: “A Goal Achieved — Community leaders gathered in Upper Burrell Township yesterday to look at the Massa Harbison Memorial Log Cabin, located in Elizabeth Y. McCrady Memorial Park.”

Included in the picture is New Kensington Mayor Edward Zaleski, who was mayor from 1962 to 1966.

Having the missing piece of information tells a complete story of the cabin, which makes it more attractive in funding applications as officials try to restore the cabin in hopes to make it a more visible, educational site, Pipman said.

She estimates repair and restoration could be at least, $100,000; New Kensington’s Council has already authorized seeking some grant funding for the project.

Beestrice said she was surprised to have found the picture and that other people haven’t been able to find one of it.

“I’ll keep looking,” Beestrice said. “I might find more.”

Pipman said Beestrice “is a treasure trove of information.”

“It’s because of people like her that we know about our past,” Pipman said. “And this picture, it’s just amazing.”