Jerome is a census-designated place (CDP) in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The population was 779 as of 2010. It is part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area. Jerome is part of the municipality of Conemaugh Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, as are the nearby towns of Davidsville, Thomas Mills, Tire Hill, Seanor, Hiyasota and part of Holsopple.
Geography Jerome is located at (40.210047, -78.985652).
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , all land.
The elevation of Jerome is 1796 feet (547 meters) above sea level.Rand McNally Commercial Atlas & Marketing Guide 2007. 138th edition. Vol. 2: Index, p. 241.
Demographics
At the 2010 census, there were 779 people, 317 households, and 215 families residing in the CDP. The population density was . There were 348 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the CDP was 763 (97.9%) white, White. 2 (0.3%) Asian (Asian, 5 (0.6%) Latino Latino and 4 (0.5%) of other miscellaneous races.
There were 317 households, of which 75 (23.7%) had children under the age of 18 living with them, 156 (49.2%) were married couples living together, 38 (12.0%) had a female householder with no husband present, 21 (6.6%) had a male householder with no wife present, and 102 (32.2%) were non-families. 90 (28.4%) of all households were made up of individuals living alone, and 48 (15.1%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.32 and the average family size was 2.85.
The age distribution was 18.4% (143) under the age of 18, 3.9% (30) from 18 to 24, 21.4% (167) from 25 to 44, 28.5% (222) from 45 to 64, and 25.3% (197) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 48.2 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.7 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 87.6 males.
2010 income data has not yet been made available for income figures, so these income figures are still based on the 2000 census: The median household income was $26,667, and the median family income was $33,872. Males had a median income of $36,528 versus $16,553 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $13,033. About 5.3% of families and 6.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.1% of those under age 18 and 7.5% of those aged 65 or over.
History
Jerome was built in 1904 as a company town for what became the Hillman Coal and Coke Company Company of Pittsburgh,Hillman Coal and Coke, Annual Report, 1919. The town and mine were founded by United Coal Corporation. United Coal changed its name to Hillman Coal and Coke in May 1919, according to the company's Annual Report for that year, in Yale University Library. The 1919 Hillman Annual Report also indicated that the coal mine in the neighboring town of Boswell, operating under the subsidiary Merchants Coal, was also a Hillman concern, and named for Jerome Coulson, the son of a coal company official.Cassady, John C. 1932. The Somerset County Outline. Scottsdale, Pa.: Mennonite Publishing House. p. 213. However, note that, based on a town marker erected by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, the town was named for Jerome Hillman, a scion of the Hillman family. This marker stood at the eastern approach to Jerome at Route 601 (Penn Avenue) for several decades in the mid-20th century. The marker was removed by the State as part of road realignment and construction for US Route 219 in the late 1960s. The town filled mostly with immigrants from Croatia, Poland, Hungary, Russia and Italy—particularly Italians from the Alpine province of Trentino and the town of San Lorenzo in Banale (part of the Dolomiti di Brenta area)—in addition to local Scots-Irish, Welsh and German stock. Jerome was the largest single coal mine in the Cambria-Somerset district.Blankenhorn, Heber. 1924. The Strike for Union: A Study of the Non-Union Question in Coal and the Problems of the Democratic Movement. New York: H.W. Wilson Co. p. 89.
Jerome's wood frame houses were primarily of two designs—two-story semi-detached houses and smaller single-family cottages.For a thorough discussion of the form, structure, development, and ultimate economic disposition of coal company towns such as Jerome, see M.M. Mulrooney. 1991. "A legacy of coal: the coal company towns in southwestern Pennsylvania." Perspectives on Vernacular Architecture. 4, 130-137. Most of these initial dwellings still stand today. These houses, especially in the period before 1970, typically were surrounded by large vegetable gardens, fruit trees, and grape arbors. Homemade wine was a local specialty.
At its economic peak, Jerome boasted a 300-seat movie theatre, a bank, a hotel, an auto dealership, several dry goods and grocery stores, several taverns, an electrical appliance store, a YMCA, and a bowling alley. A local tavern maintained a popular bocce court. The mine employed over 1000 men.Jerome: A Stroll in the Past. Commemorative book. Year 2000 Jerome Homecoming. p. 5. Residents from that period claim Jerome's population stood at about 3,000 at its peak, although this information is yet to be documented. However, Jerome's population certainly was sufficient to justify the capital investment to tie the town into the interurban transit system. Electric streetcar service from Jerome to the nearby city of Johnstown was proposed as early as 1908.Anon. Electric World. Jan. 2, 1909, p. 81. In 1921, the project was financed through a public bond offering, construction was completed and service began.Hilton, George W., John Fitzgerald Due and John Due. 1960. The Electric Interurban Railways in America.Stanford, Ca.: Stanford Univ. Press. The streetcar tram left from the Jerome terminus every two hours for the 60-minute trip that ended on downtown Johnstown's Main Street.Jerome: A Stroll in the Past. Commemorative book. Year 2000 Jerome Homecoming. p. 12.
Property right-of-way was obtained to extend this tram service to the south to Boswell, Jenners, Somerset, and Rockwood, although track construction never commenced. Service to Johnstown ended in 1933."Pennsylvania Interurbans and Streetcar Railroads. Johnstown & Somerset Railway. Accessed Jan. 8, 2012. http://www.american-rails.com/pennsylvania-interurbans.html Separately, a branch line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) served Jerome and its coal mine, connecting to the B&O trunk line in present-day Benson.
An underground explosion killed two miners instantly and two later from burns received at the Jerome mine on July 29, 1932,"Two Killed, Two Others Burned in Mine Explosion." Chicago Daily Tribune. July 30, 1932, p. 8. The single largest accident in the mine's history uncovered in research to date. The coal mine closed in the 1954.Jerome: A Stroll in the Past. Commemorative book. Year 2000 Jerome Homecoming. p. 15. Also see M.M. Mulrooney. 1991. "A legacy of coal: the coal company towns of southwestern Pennsylvania." Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture. 4, 130-137. "Faced with increasing competition from cheaper fuels, the American coal industry went into sharp decline after World War II." at 136. Jerome rapidly became a bedroom community. The town retained much of its close-knit ethnic character and its spirit well into the 1990s, however. As an example, the Jerome Volunteer Fire Department was founded in 1952 with Steve Gironda as its first president. The Volunteer Fire Department remains today as an anchor of community activity. In 1955, the Dorfman and Hoffman Company established a garment factory in the former Hillman company store building, bringing 200 needed jobs to Jerome. The factory continued operation until 1964.Jerome: A Stroll in the Past. Commemorative book. Year 2000 Jerome Homecoming. p. 16. A lumber mill operated out of former mining operations buildings in the 1970s. A wind-whipped fire destroyed the lumber mill in 1975, and the remaining mining buildings were demolished subsequently.
National Football League quarterback Jeff Hostetler (career 1985-1997)pro-football-reference.com Accessed July 16, 2007 grew up on a farm just outside Jerome. Hostetler led the New York Giants to their 20-19 win over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV (see 1990 New York Giants season). Jerome native Brian Ferrari qualified for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Ferrari also holds two NCAA Division II championships in 10,000 meters and one national cross-country championship.California University of Pennsylvania's Athletic Hall of Fame: Brian Ferrari. Accessed July 16, 2007. In 1998, Jerome natives Dick Trachok and Tommy Kalmanir each were inducted into the University of Nevada, Reno's football Team of Century. Kalminer played in Nevada's backfield, 1946–48, and later played for the Los Angeles Rams and Baltimore Colts. Trachock was a top running back at Nevada and later served as Nevada's head football coach (1959–1968) and athletic director (1970–1986).McConnell, Pat. 2007. "What I've Learned -- Dick Trackok '49 54M.A." Nevada Silver and Blue. Summer, pp. 18-19. Jerome's Tony Venzon (1915–1971) was a baseball umpire for the National League 1957-1971, including 1959, 1962 and 1969 All-Star Games and 1963 and 1965 World Series. Jazz clarinetist, band leader and composer Ted Lach (1914–1968) was a native of Jerome.Palazzolo, Laurie A.G.. 2003. Horn Man: The Polish-American Musician in the Twentieth-Century. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. pp. 241-244.
The miners' strike of 1922-1923 Jerome was the scene of several unionization efforts by the United Mine Workers Union. An important and the longest of these efforts was the strike that began on Good Friday morning, April 14, 1922, led by local miner George Gregory, with the assistance of outside union supporters.Blankenhorn 1924, p. 60. An earlier effort in 1906 failed here and elsewhere in Somerset County and no further organizing effort was directed at Somerset County until 1922, according to Beik,"The miners of Windber", which see below.
Rumors of strikes at non-union mines, such as Jerome at that time, had been circulating for several weeks. Indeed, the General Policy Committee of the United Mine Workers Union issued a call on March 24 for the nation's 200,000 non-union miners to join a planned nationwide strike on April 1,"Calls on 200,000 Non-Union Miners To Join in Strike" The New York Times. March 25, 1922. Mines in northern Somerset County generally were non-union at this point, while most mines in Cambria County were organized. See Blankenhorn 1924, map inserts, for details. to coincide with the expiration of the current union contract.Beik, Mildred Allen. 1996. The miners of Windber: the struggles of new immigrants for unionization 1980s-1930s. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 268-272. Organizers slid past armed company police to circulate pamphlets and leaflets, as seen here and here , to encourage the miners' walk out.Blankenhorn 1924, pp. 15-17.
Hillman Coal's viewpoint