Sunday June 30, 1929. Vermilion residents Dennis Collins and Charles A. Trinter fly to Chicago to attend the funeral services of Mrs. W.P. Carey. Mrs. Carey is the daughter of the late Captain and Mrs. William Young of Decatur Street. Collins and Trinter return to Vermilion the next day. The item recording their journey appears on the front page of The Vermilion News on Thursday of the same week. It is worthy of note because passenger air travel was, then, in its infancy. It would not become a common mode of transportation until another decade had passed.

I did not find the placement of the aforementioned article (on the front page of the News) to be unusual. In addition to this I did not find the mention of C.A. Trinter as a party in this venture to be unusual either. For in my meandering through the days which comprise the early part of 20th century Vermilion I have often come across mention of this gentleman.

Charles Adam Trinter was, to the best of my knowledge, born in Vermilion in 1874. He was the second child of Adam and Wilhemena (Sp?) Trinter. He had an older sister, Sophia M, and two younger brothers; Frederick L. and Joseph A. Both parents were born in Hesse Cassle a country annexed by Germany after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. After coming to America and settling in Vermilion Charles' father identified himself as a "Saloon Keeper" in the U.S. Census of 1880.

This first generation son of immigrant parents wasted no time establishing himself as an entrepreneur and civic minded citizen of Vermilion. By the time he was in his early 20's he had become a well-known and trusted insurance and real estate agent in the community. His office was on the north side Liberty Avenue between Grand and Washington Streets. In 1900, at the age of 26, the Vermilion Village Board of Education selected him to serve as clerk of that board. He diligently served the community in that capacity for the next 44 years.

While serving as clerk on the education board he helped it steer through a storm of controversy in 1915 which raged around the School Superintendent and several of the teachers and culminating in the resignation of all parties involved. Nine years later he guided the board through the process of buying the old Pelton Farm just south of South Street, and building a new school on the property (which became South Street School).

In 1914 he and fellow businessman Lewis Englebry had their photograph taken on the beach at Linwood Park where Lakewood, Ohio aviator, Terry Janus, had landed his Curtiss areoplane one summer afternoon.

In addition to all those things Mr. Trinter also served 23 years as Postmaster of the Vermilion, Ohio office. He spent four and one-half years, 1908-12, as a rural carrier. And under the Woodrow Wilson (Presidential) Administration served as Postmaster for nine years. And again from 1933 until 1943, when he retired, he held the same position. During that era those positions were all held by political appointees.

Charlie was married to Maude/Edna nee Parsons (another well known Vermilion name) and they lived in a large (then stucco) house with a red tile roof on Perry Street (now the Green home). They had two children. Their son Robert who worked on the Great Lakes, and their daughter, Martha, who married Dr. John Dickason (PJ 10-16-03).

Some of the most telling information I have about Charlie Trinter was given me by his grandson, John Dickason, who now lives in Maine. His "Gramps" always made a point of walking over to their house (where Dr. Adams now lives) to take him to the Liberty Theater every Friday night. The owner (Bob Nuhn) usually let him in free because he "was always wanting to buy Gramp's car. He always had a new Chrysler. And according to either Hank or Bud Fischer he once had a Chrysler AirFlow; "an automobile so far ahead of its time, stylewise, that only a few hundred were made."

And then on a warm summer night, June 11, 1947, Charles Adam Trinter moved on to another adventure in another place. Behind him lay a forest of gladiolus he always cared for in his backyard on Perry Street; his flower and vegetable garden on a property he had purchased near the Dickason home along the lake; the springtime "beach-cleaning parties" with grandson John and John's buddy Doug Francis; the thousands of properties bought and sold through his real estate dealings; and, of course, his obvious joie de vivre .

His youngest granddaughter Kathy Kvach who now lives in Maryland told me, "One of my first sentences was to tell Gramp T. that I loved him." This was shortly before he died. I'll bet he liked that. I'll bet he liked it a lot.

(Ref: The Vermilion News: 1-37, 3-11-43, 6-20-44, 7-7-44, 1-48; The Elyria Chronicle : 2-26-15; Ancestry.com; U.S.Census 1880; Special Thanks To: John Dickason, Kathy (Dickason) Kvach, and Al Tarrant)

Appeared in the Vermilion Photojournal 2-12-04

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