This is a picture from the Detre Library Archives from the Heinz History Center. It is listed under the title Martin Bomber. The date is unknown.
I don’t know who Martin Bomber is but the picture was taken on Church Road in Old Wexford. Obviously, they still used horses and the road is unpaved but something that caught my eye was the building.
Falls Tires. F Laklia.
I immediately thought of Frank Laklia,
World War I veteran.
This picture was copied from the Pine Township bicentennial book.
Frank Laklia was from Pisanica, Yugoslavia and came to the United States on May 30, 1907. He worked in a steel mill in Rankin, PA for $1.65 a day (10 hour day) for a short time. He was homeless and wandered the countryside for several months before finding work with a coal company in Brownsville. He earned $1.75 a day (which apparently was a very high salary for the time).
Laklia stated that his ears were no good and didn’t like working in places that were loud. He worked for a William Link, a harness maker in Wexford in 1913. Seeing a promising career, Laklia purchased the business from Link after just three weeks of work.
The harness shop was also a barber shop.
Laklia wore many hats: tire salesman, harness maker, political candidate, fire fighter, fire chief, hunter, fisher, amateur gun seller, real estate developer, barber, gas station owner, etc.
He was probably best known for being the local harness maker. Hand crafting harnesses made him a fairly well known figure in the area, especially after vehicles began dominating transportation. As the years past, the clientele changed and his goods were used for recreational use rather than practical. But he nonetheless, stuck to how he knew how to make them. He retired from that in 1961.
In his early years in Wexford he owned the little shop in the picture, Falls Tires. His named was used by the company to advertise the products and he was listed as an authorized dealer although, in the few articles I was able to find on Mr. Laklia he never discussed this career. I have no idea if this little building was where the harness shop was as well.
He opened the first gas station in Wexford in 1922 on Plank Road (now Old Perry Highway). It is possible that he owned several store fronts. It was an Esso gas station. Two gas pumps still remained outside of his shop and home in 1963.
As America entered World War I, Mr. Laklia decided to enlist in the Army to serve his new country. Enlisting in the 319th Supply Company, Laklia at least attempted to sell everything he owned.
He came to America alone and probably wasn’t sure of his return.
He was a saddler in the army. He repaired all types of horse equipment throughout the war and was also the company barber.
In the October 2, 1963 News Record article about Laklia he showed them his handmade leather carrier for his barber tools. In the carrier was a mirror he made from a trench periscope while in Germany in 1918. How cool would that be if that still survived somewhere?
World War I was a diplomatic crisis that threw all of Europe into chaos. It was unclear who was fighting whom and who was honoring their previous alliances. In the end, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, comprising most of Central and Eastern Europe, was the enemy.
His two brothers fought on the side of the Austrians. One was killed in the war, the other, Joseph survived.
The Pittsburgh Press published a story on Laklia’s reunion with his family in 1930/1931. In the article he wrote about the poverty and hardship everyone was suffering. “Boys who went to school with me look like old men from hardships they suffered in the war.” Critical of the government he wrote about the inflation of money and the ridiculous cost of basic necessities. In one paragraph he criticized American newspaper coverage of the recovery efforts in Europe, stating that nothing is improving and the future seemed bleak. (Pittsburgh Press, May 1, 1932, pg. 50). He would visit his family again in 1935 and 1960.
He seemed glad to be returning to his adopted home country.
After World War I, Laklia became a harness maker and was a man about town. He was friends with many of Wexford’s well known families, namely the Brooker’s and the Cole’s.
According to Laklia, he was the one who had the idea to start a fire department in Wexford. After two devastating fires on William Randall’s properties he asked a traveling salesman if he could get a fire truck. The salesman said yes. Laklia apparently approached his friends and neighbors and the Wexford Volunteer Fire Department was formed. It was 1922.
A large picnic was held at Brooker’s Grove (Wexford Park) that same year when the truck arrived.
Laklia was named fire chief at some point in his tenure with the fire department.
Laklia seemed very politically involved, with a least one short opinion piece published in the newspaper as well as running for a PA Senator in 1934. That same year a professor associated with the Socialist Party of Allegheny County spoke at Brookers Grove (Wexford Park) along with a number of candidates. Laklia was one of them.
Laklia came in fourth in the election with 683 votes, much behind the 23,505 votes the winner had.
He purchased farm land on Wallace Road and in 1961 laid out Pine Acres Plan of Homes. In 1963, only two of the 54 lots remained unsold.
An avid hunter and fisher, he traveled to Alaska to enjoy this pastime. His trip was written about in the Pittsburgh Press (February 8, 1959).
My favorite story about Frank Laklia was about his pet fox. “Buddy” as he was named was a wild fox that Laklia found injured in November 1930. Bringing him home for vet care, it seems Laklia grew fond of the little fox and kept him. He had a little kennel and was often kept on a long chain in Laklia’s yard. On May 3, 1931, the Pittsburgh Press wrote a story about Buddy’s disappearance. Laklia recruited many friends and local school boys to find the fox.
On May 6, 1931, another story was written in the Pittsburgh Press about the urgent need to find Buddy. Laklia feared he would hang himself on his leash.
Nothing was found on whether that poor little fox survived or not.
Frank Laklia led an interesting and full life. He never married but he filled his days in Wexford with friends and the ever expanding list of hobbies. For a man that so much was known, and as popular a figure as he seemed to be in Wexford, I couldn’t find anything about his death.
The final newspaper article that could be found about Laklia was a legal notice of his estate in 1969. I assume that is the year of his death, but no date was given. No obituary was found.
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