by Randy Wells, Gazette Staff Writer
Frank Shom*o, the Indiana County man who made it into the record books as the lastsurvivor of the Johnstown [Cambria County] Flood of 1889, died Thursday [March 20, 1997]at Blattenbergers Personal Care Home in Black Lick.
He was 108 years old. In recent years Shom*o had also been recognized as the oldestregistered Republican in Indiana County, the oldest member of Zion Lutheran (now FaithLutheran) Church in Robinson, and one of the oldest Master Masons in Pennsylvania.
Asked several years ago for the secret of his longevity, he replied, Put good cement inthe foundation, tend to your own business, and treat others right.
Shom*o was three months old on May 31, 1889 - the night the South Fork Dam on the LittleConemaugh River broke, sending a wall of water crashing into neighborhoods downstream,killing more than 2,200 people.
The Shom*o family home along the former Main Line Canal in Lockport, WestmorelandCounty, was on ground high enough to escape the flood, and Shomps father oftenrecounted for his son the terror of that night, and how their home became a haven forflood survivors.
Shom*o once said his father kidded him and his brother about dipping their feet in thewater, so they could say they survived the flood.
The family later moved to Pack Saddle, between Blairsville and Robinson, and at age 14Shom*o went to work at the James Gardner Brick Retort Works in Blairsville, making retortsthat converted coal into gas. He also worked 45 years for the Pennsylvania Railroad, 38years as a foreman. I had the best gang of men on the railroad,: he once said.
He helped repair rail lines following Johnstowns second great flood in 1936. Thatstorm washed the earth away from underneath the tracks, leaving them suspended in air likea big clothes line, he said.
At age 70 he took up a new hobby -- leather-working. In his workshop on the enclosedporch of his home he fashioned leather purses and wallets.
God has been good to me, he said in an interview a few years ago. Twice Ive beenbitten by a snake, and once I was in a coal mine where the whole roof caved in.
Shom*o never owned a car, and at age 100 was still keeping in shape by riding anexcercise bike in his home each day.
Ive ridden 700 miles and never left this room, he said.
Last year he was recognized as the oldest registered Republican voter in IndianaCounty, but said Democrat Woodrow Wilson was his favorite president. Woodrow Wilson did alot for the working man, Shom*o said.
On his 104th birthday, he was asked if he felt that old, and Shom*o jokingly replied,No.. 200.
His explanation then for his long life: I eat solid grub. That means lots of pot piesand cabbage and potatoes.
Shom*o lived longer than his two wives and a daughter. He died Thursday without learningmore details about his only son, Curtis, who mysteriously disappeared after World War II.
He used to keep me posted by sending me a card from different cities. Shom*o saidin 1993. But I havent heard from him in quite some time. Ive tried everything(to find him.)
From his obituary:
Parents: Joseph H. and Harriette Addie Milliken Shom*o. Born in Lockport, PaWives: (1) Adda Belle Cunningham d. 1944
(2) Edna McDermott
Children: Isabel Hoskinson d. 1984 and Curtis Shom*o.
Sister: Maude McCollum
Brothers: William and George Shom*o
Burial: Blairsville Cemetery, Indiana County, Pa
