LEGION VILLE BOILS INTO WAR OF WORDS
LEGION VILLE BOILS INTO WAR OF WORDS
By Rachael Zallon-Conway (Reprinted from the Sept. 28, 1995, Beaver County Times)
HARMONY TWP : B. P. Mouradian calls people who want to preserve a Revolutionary War training ground located on his property in Harmony Township "stupid jerks" and "bleeding hearts," and he doesn’t care if they throw fits over his recent decision to bulldoze a small portion of that land and give the dirt away as fill.
"It has come to a poor state of affairs when someone owns property and they can’t do what they want with it," Mouradian said. The preservationists, however, call Mouradian a heartless money monger who is disregarding the nation’s history in the name of commercial development and commercial gain.
On Thursday, more than a week after the bulldozing began, the Legion Ville Historical Society asked the Harmony Commissioners to put the Legion Ville issue on November’s ballot to seek public input. The society’s newly proposed ballot question is: "Shall the township of Harmony inquire and attempt to preserve the Legion Ville property or properties as described on the National Register of Historic Places on 3-27-68 by means of grant funding?" Commission Chairman Mike Kuga referred the written proposal to township solicitor Richard Start for review.
The commission failed to act on a similar request last June. Mouradian and the preservationists have been having a war of words over Legion Ville since he bought the property in 1993. He wants to develop the land that some say also contains American Indian artifacts, and they want to turn into a national park. "Those stupid asses," Mouradian says of the preservationists. "All they can think of is their jerky general." The general is Maj. Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne, who once used part of Mouradian’s 16-acre Legion Ville site to train more than 2,700 soldiers.
Historians believe Legion Ville is the country’s first U.S. Army training camp. Mouradian, however, points out that Wayne moved his troops to Legion Ville to keep them away from drinking and cavorting about with unsavory women near their original encampment in Pittsburgh. "I don’t know where they get the concept of the first training ground," Mouradian said. "When I was in school, first meant first, not second." Even so, the Pennsylvania Register of Historic Sites has called Legion Ville the second most important site in the state, next only to Independence Hall. Mouradian’s decision to bulldoze the acre-and-a-half section of that land has the preservationists wishing just about everything short of the plague upon him. "I think (the bulldozing) is a disgrace and the public should be outraged," said Commissioner Sandra Fidura-Phillips. "He should be ostracized from everything in Beaver County." Mouradian sees things a different way. "It’s my property, and I do have the right to do what I want with it," he said. "There shouldn’t be anyone who can tell me I can’t (move) truck loads of dirt off that property. "I am just doing what I think is right. I am not going to let some jerk like Fidura-Phillips tell me what I can or cannot do."
Fidura-Phillips said as an elected official, she’s open to public scrutiny and won’t let the likes of Mouradian get the best of her. "What goes around comes around and I hope he gets what’s coming to him," she said. Rod Snyder, of the state Historical and Museum Commission, said Mouradian’s right when he says no one can tell him what to do with his property. But Snyder can’t understand how someone could bulldoze a portion of the Legion Ville Site. "It’s extremely disappointing and regrettably that someone would knowingly destroy a site that is an important part of our history and heritage," Snyder said. "We just need to show a little more respect for our history. I mean, 200 years down the road, would we want to be treated with that kind of disrespect?"
Historians believe that there are 17 unmarked graves located somewhere on Mouradian’s land. And archaeological digs have uncovered some fire pits and musket balls along with other artifacts.Mouradian says the digs, which he paid about $75,000 for, uncovered nothing of any true historical value. "Did those balls have ‘1773’ written on them?" he asked. "There’s no telling where they came from." Bill Dignan, vice president of the Legion Ville Historical Society, said his group is seeking grants to buy Mouradian’s land. He won’t say where the group has applied for money or what the status of the applications are. "You never tell the enemy what you are doing," he said. In this case, the enemy thinks grants are a good idea. "If they think so damned highly that what they have done is such a powerful historical site, why don’t they go out and contact one of the hundreds of philanthropic foundations out there? I am sure one of them will donate," he said. "I’ll be happy to sell (the site) to them." His asking price? A mere $850,000.
