Hysong v. Gallitzin Borough School District: Industrialization, Immigration, and Nativism Converge in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania

abstract:This article examines the convergence of industry, immigrants, and nativists in a public school in the Western Pennsylvania town of Gallitzin in the mid-1890s. In the court system, the Junior Order of the United American Mechanics, a nativist group, challenged the Gallitzin School District's employment of the Sisters of St. Joseph as teachers in the public schools. This article explores the events leading up to the initial county trial; public school life in Gallitzin at the time as portrayed in the witnesses' testimony at the trial; and its aftermath.