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Chris Buckley is a Valley Independent staff writer and can be reached at 724-684-2642 or via e-mail.
When U.S. Rep. Frank Mascara was defeated in Tuesday's primary election, it effectively ended a streak that has lasted since World War II.
When Mascara completes his term at the end of the year, it will mark the first time in 60 years that a Mid-Mon Valley resident has not served in Congress.
Mascara has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since January 1995. Born in Belle Vernon, he lives in Charleroi.
Mascara served in Washington County government for two decades before voters sent him to Washington, D.C.
Elected county controller in 1974, Mascara served until 1980, when he was elected as a county commissioner. Mascara served the county commission, mostly as chairman, until being elected to congress in 1994
That race came two years after he narrowly lost to then-U.S. Rep. Austin J. Murphy.
Murphy was born in North Charleroi and graduated from Charleroi High School, but lived in Monongahela during his nine terms in Congress, which began in January 1977.
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran and attorney, Murphy served as assistant district attorney in Washington County in 1956-1957 before serving for 18 years in the state Legislature. Murphy served in the state House from 1958 to 1970, and in the state Senate from 1970 to 1976.
Murphy succeeded the area's longest-serving House member. Dr. Thomas Ellsworth Morgan was born in Ellsworth, but lived in Fredericktown, where the surgeon practiced medicine for 10 years before being elected to Congress in 1944. He served for 16 terms in the U.S. House before opting to not seek re-election in 1976. He died in 1995.
The first in the succession of Mid-Mon Valley congressmen was Robert Grant Furlong.
Furlong served just one term in the House, having been elected in 1942 and taking office in 1943. He lost his bid for re-election to Morgan in 1944.
Like Morgan, Furlong was a physician.
Furlong was born in Roscoe, where a main street in the small community is named for him.
He lived in Donora during the bulk of his public service.
Burgess of Donora from 1922 to 1926 and in 1941-42, he served as postmaster of Donora from 1933 to 1938.
After his term in Congress, he served Washington County as sheriff.
He was first elected in 1945, and re-elected in 1949, 1953, 1957, and 1961.
A first lieutenant with the 280th Ambulance Co., 20th Division, Furlong practiced medicine in Donora from 1910 and 1968.
He died in 1973.
