#edgar thomson

[vinylamerica]

Joe Magarac in front of The Edgar Thomson Steel Works, North Braddock, PA

“Just as the loggers and lumberjacks had a hero in big Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox, Babe, so did the steelworkers of the Monongahela valley of Pittsburgh have a hero in ‘Joe Magarac.’ “ - Pennsylvania Jack

Magarac first appeared in print in a 1931 Scribner's Magazine article by Owen Francis, who said he heard the story from immigrant steelworkers in Pittsburgh area steel mills. However, field research in the early 1950s failed to uncover any traces of an oral tradition about the character, meaning that Joe Magarac, like Big Steve, Febold Feboldson, and Paul Bunyan, probably belongs in the category of "fakelore," or stories told folk-tale style that did not actually spring from authentic folklore. - Wikipedia 

[odditiesoflife]

Peculiar "Where the 'Odds' are with You"

The city of Peculiar in Missouri received its name when the first postmaster, Edgar Thomson, had his first choice, Excelsior, rejected because it already existed in Atchison County, Missouri. The story goes that the annoyed Thomson wrote to the Postmaster General himself to complain saying, "We don't care what name you give us so long as it is sort of 'peculiar'." Thomson submitted the name "Peculiar" and the name was approved. The post office was established on June 22, 1868. The town motto is "Where the 'odds' are with you."