The year 1919 is remembered for many things. It was the year that the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, authorizing Prohibition, went into effect; and the 19th Amendment - guaranteeing suffrage / the right to vote for American women - was approved by the U.S. Congress. It was also the year that Edsel Ford succeeded his father as head of the Ford Motor Company; and the year that the First NFL team for the State of Wisconsin (The Green Bay Packers) was founded by Curly Lambeau. Amidst all these historical benchmarks and the hubbub surrounding them it is unlikely that many folks noticed that in a little known place called Berea, Ohio a boy child was born to Florian and Susan Shafts.
Lawrence J. (most folks just called him Larry) was the youngest of the 4 Shafts children. Florence was the oldest; Harry was next, and then and sister Marie who was 21 months his senior - but whatever young Larry lacked in age he was destined to make up for by his keen sense of adventure and sheer tenacity / strength of purpose.
When Larry was 14 the family moved to a rural home
along Joppa Road in Florence
Township just south of the Village of Vermilion, Ohio. For some youngsters a move such as this - from an urban to a rural environment - might have proven difficult. But for the adventurous young boy new vistas 
were opened; new places to explore; new tasks to learn; and new faces to befriend. And all that became a part of him.
During his teen years the young Shafts found a part-time job working for a fellow name W. J. “Bill” O’Neill. The year before the Shafts Family had moved to the area O’Neill had purchased a farm along the lake
just west of Vermilion whereupon he had placed giant wine casks (weighing 5800 lbs.) on concrete pads, and fashioned them into cottages for amused tourists. Young Larry worked around what he politely referred to as O’Neill’s very aromatic
cottages during spring and summer breaks from school. And that, too, became a part of him.
After his graduation from Birmingham High School in 1937 Larry worked, for a time, as a Gandy Dancer for the B & O Railroad, and then for Vermilion’s legendary fisherman / entrepreneur / inventor Captain Big Ed
Lampe on Lampe’s equally legendary fishing tug the Grandon
. His stint as a fisherman on the Grandon
- which he always recalled was so large, that when Ed would turn it around in the river you could jump on the bow on the Vermilion side and jump off on the Lagoon side
- abruptly ended after a fierce Lake Erie storm caused him to seriously ponder the fragile and fleeting nature of flesh and bone. And those things also became a part of him.
In 1941 Mr. Shafts enlisted in the United States Navy. Following the travesty at Pearl Harbor in early December he was immediately called to active duty. Two years later he found himself aboard a brand spanking new battleship, the USS Wisconsin
, where he was assigned to work as a Crew Chief
on a "Quad 40" (4 40 calibre guns).
He was responsible for the guns and the 4 men it took to fire them.
As a side note it may interest some to understand that as a person who was a member of the ship’s crew when it was placed into commission (7 December 1943) he was among a very few number people who own the distinction of being known as a Plank Owner
of the Iowa-class battleship the sailors affectionately called Wisky
or WisKy
.
In any case, During her World War II career, the Wisky
served in the Pacific Theatre where she shelled Japanese fortifications
during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and screened United States aircraft carriers as they conducted air raids against enemy positions. Ergo, Mr. Shafts experienced his fair share of action aboard the great battleship.
An anecdote about Larry’s Navy boxing career: Whilst in the Navy Larry - for a short time - took up boxing. His ulterior motive was one of acquiring, if not additional, better food while ship bound. Boxers evidently received royal treatment for their troubles.
It is said that all went well for a few bouts until the Captain set up a mismatch against a semipro boxer who, in just a few short rounds convinced
Shaft’s that he was not meant to be another Joe Louis
.
And all of that, most certainly, became a part of him.
Mustering out of the service after the war Mr. Shafts sailed the Great Lakes on the ore carrier R.E. Moody
for several years.
But as the health of his father deteriorated (back home) he returned to Vermilion and took a job with the F.W. Wakefield Brass / Lighting Company eventually earning the prestigious position as installation consultant
in the Architect’s Service Depatment. In the meantime he applied the handyman skills he had learned and honed as a youngster to the restoration of dilapidated homes he purchased through the years as investment properties. And, thus, did all of this become a part of him.
On November 24, 1955 Father Cletus Gates officiated over the Nuptial Mass at Vermilion’s St. Mary’s Catholic Church forever joining the lives Miss Margaret Tansey with Mr. Shafts. And whilst Mr. Shafts was a well known personage about town (i.e. a long time member of the aforementioned church; the local Lions Club; Knights of Columbus; the local VFW and American Legion organizations; and the Vermilion Grange) the new Mrs. Shafts was also a very familiar person about what was then Vermilion Village. Most notably, she was the very visible bookkeeper at Vermilion’s Sharpnack (Chevrolet-Oldsmobile) Motor Sales (Dealership).
Years later she would distinguish herself as a very prominent member of the Vermilion (Ohio) City Council.
And all of this became a part of him.
During the 1950’s he also owned and operated the Vermilion Bottling Works - a soda pop manufacturing company. Although it t’were but a short-lived venture. The operation was (without major investments of both time and money) incapable of competing with the larger bottling companies. And it was a very solemn day, both in fact and deed, for youngsters in Vermilion, Ohio when a consortium of fire companies from the region assembled for a training exercise which included the burning to the ground of the old pop factory.
And all, this too, became a part of him.
Over the years Mr. Shafts apparently felt that he should make an effort to share his good fortunes with his community (outside his other civic activities). And so did he become a Sea Scout Advisor.
Much like the aforementioned experience which convinced him that he did not want to follow a career in commercial fishing he soon discovered that matching wits
with the likes of some local youngsters such as Danny Stack and Donny Parsons as well as a few other very independent and sometimes incorrigible boys
on the sailboat they had prophetically named the Bounty
was not - to put it politely - his cup of tea, and he decided that his time would be much better spent working with adults.
And that never left off being a part of him.
After 29 years he retired from his work with the Wakefield Company to spend time working around the property he shared with his wife
along Brownhelm Station Road in Brownhelm Township. One summer during the 7th decade of his life he decided that it would be a terrific idea to plant 1000 sycamore trees on the property. And so, like most everything he ever did in his life, he succeeded in accomplishing this task and sat back to watch them grow into a grove of mighty majestic sycamores
.
Unfortunately, the local deer population saw his work as an opportunity to enjoy a good meal or two (or thousand) and his dream, along with his summer’s labor, disappeared quicker than desserts at a church potluck dinner.
And that became a part of him.
In 1997 his wonderful wife, Margaret, passed into the hands of God. And 3 years later, on Tuesday October 29th, Larry thought it time to follow. 80 years had passed - much too quickly it seemed. And all that had passed had become a part of him;
... part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go forth every day.
from: There was a Child went Forth; Walt Whitman (1819–1892).Leaves of Grass 1900.
Special Thanks: to Larry’s nephews Larry and Dale Hohler.
Written: 1/13/08
11:47 AM
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