BY ALL MEANS: In an attempt to stay on top of things (technologically speaking) I often run into problems. They are invariably those I'm trying to avoid.
Without going into boring detail after detail it may suffice to say that my email was delayed / hijacked for several days. All the time this was happening I was patting myself on the back for having moved so quickly to avert a potential problem.
O-well! Such is the life of a slow-learner.
Due to the very nature of this page I, naturally, receive many requests for hisorical information. I try not to ignore anyone. And I sincerely wish that I had an encylopedia by my desk with all that information in it. But I, of course, do not.
I am inclined, therefore, to set such requests aside (I do not delete them) until I come across the information requested. So I don't answer questions until I have answers. Tis a very uncomplicated procedure.This, of course, is not a very nice way to address requests for information. And this leads me to focus on the true nature of my personality; I am not a nice person.
This is an aspect of my self that I have come to, not only, accept - but to develop. I am, by all means, the meanest SOB in town. (It is, sometimes, advantageous.)
So do stay close (but not too close)...
"Florence Town Hall"
A TOUGH NIGHT IN JESSUP:They called the township Jessup. It took its name from one of three Connecticut men, (Isaac Bronson, Ebenezer Jessup, and Jessup Wakeman) who were principal proprietors of the property. To the east lay the Vermilion River, and to the west the creek they called La Chappelle, both flowing north into the great lake we call Erie. In 1808 the proprietors employed one Jabez Wright to survey the township (originally surveyed by Vermilion pioneer Almon Ruggles) into lots. It was a rich land replete with virgin hardwood forests set atop a wealth of sandstone that would someday be quarried and amply lend itself to the general economy of the area.,
This was the land into which one Ezra Sprague brought his family, a man named Sears, a yoke of oxen, an axe, and an iron kettle in the spring of 1809. Sprague had purchased a section of land in Jessup for the whopping sum of $1.29 an acre the year before and determined to make it his home. As fate would have it such resolve was requisite to survival during those first years.
Arriving too late in the spring to plant crops enough for the coming fall and winter the Sprague family and the few families who joined them later that first summer existed on a meager diet of grated corn and potatoes through the winter months. Add to this a declaration of war, and any sightings of native Americans (i.e. indians), and their prospects for the future seemed rather dismal.
Assessing the situation the settlers thought it best to construct a blockhouse (a small fortress) wherein they could better defend themselves if they were attacked. And although there were those among them (as always) who did not favor this decision the day soon came when such angst would be set aside and quickly forgotten.
It was near evening when one of the settlers intent on moving his family home gave his gun to a younger man with directions for him to go ahead and be on the lookout for any dangers in their path. About a half mile from their destination a shot rang out, and the young man came running back with a bullet hole in his coat, declaring that he had sighted several Indians who had shot at him.
With all due dispatch the settlers gathered together and barricaded themselves inside their blockhouse preparing to do battle. The women and children were sent into the middle of the chamber. The men with guns stood by the doors as a first line of defense. Behind them stood others armed with pitchforks and clubs poised for a deadly encounter.
Through the night the lookouts reported that Indians were approaching them swinging firebrands intent on setting fire to the house and killing the settlers when they ran from the flames. They spoke very little. And no one slept. No one, that is, except the young man who had given the alarm, and who had the bullet hole in his coat.
In the morning light they crept from the blockhouse to discover that there were no human tracks in the plowed ground where they had envisioned Indians carrying torches. There was only evidence of cinders that had been blown about in the wind from some burning log heaps which, married to their excited minds, gave them the impression of a pending Indian attack. There was also strong suspicion that the young man who had given the alarm had made a hole in his coat to support his Indian sighting. It had been a tough night in Jessup.
In 1815 the citizens of Jessup developed a keen disaffection for the proprietors and they formally changed the name of the township to Florence. It was/is considered to be one of the best agricultural townships in the Fire-Lands. In 1854 they built the octagonal Florence Township Hall (pictured). Appropriately enough it is made of sandstone, and still stands along the Edison Highway (State Route 113) at Florence Corners. Until about 1993 it was still being used as a polling place.
(Ref: The Vermilion News; 5-5-38; Yesteryear; An Anthology of Historical Narratives of Vermilion, Ohio And Its People; 2005; Special Thanks to the Stranger who stopped to talk to me in Florence)
5/8/05
2:08 PM
"Friends"
BERNICE & FRIENDS:
This is a wonderful pic from a family photo album that Vermilionite Carolyn Koachway Hill has been kind enough to share with "Viewers".
The young beauties are (as far as I can tell) seated on the rocks on the western bank of the Vermilion River. Behind them are the yet-to-be-developed Vermilion Lagoons.
Unfortunately, the only girl in the snap that I recognize is Carolyn's mother Bernice - then Bernice Fischer. Bernice (some "Viewers" must know) was the daughter of Hattie and - former Vermilion Mayor - Fred Fischer.
I would date the pic to be c.1940.
By todays standards their bathing suits are rather conservative. And I don't believe that many young women still wear bathing caps for recreational swimming in 2008. However; I could be mistaken. It's been a long time since I've been in a public swimming environment.
This is the type of snapshot (with more information than I have here provided - of course) that could and should be preserved for historical purposes. Carolyn and her sister Ellen are both officers in the Vermilion Area Archival Society and well understand the value of these artifacts.
Besides - they're also fun to see!
"The Rainbow"
THE RAINBOW: A majority of professional fishermen in Vermilion called it “The Golden Age of Commercial Fishing”. What they referred to was an idyllic period of time when Lake Erie waters ran so clear one could see a school of blue pike 10 feet beneath the surface; a time when it was so clean one could drink from a tin can dipped in the lake; a time when local trapnetters would set out 40 nets and upon their return every one would boil with a ton or more of perch; and last, but hardly least, a time when there was very, very little government interference in their pursuits - their livelihoods.
Precisely when this era began, or when it ended, is unclear. Most of those who knew those times are now gone. The boats with which they worked the wave-capped fields and upon which they harvested the bounties they found beneath the great lake are also gone. So, by and large, all we can know of those days is confined to a very few history books (some out of print), and a few worn and faded snapshots squirrelled away in a trunk in someone’s attic waiting to be found.
This snapshoot of the Rainbow is one of those items. Seen here near the Kishman docks in the summer of 1917 the steam-powered gill-net tug is very likely in the blush of commercial fishing’s Hyblaean age.
The Kishman Fishery gill-netter was then captained by a gentleman named John P. Naegele. Naegele was a first generation American. Born in Vermilion in 1878 both parents had immigrated from Germany some years earlier. He and his wife, Carrie, lived in a tidy white frame house at, what was then, 201 Huron Street. They had no children. But they had a niece (Mrs. Harold Markman) who lived in San Raphael, California, and two nephews; Allen Hasenpflue and Dr. Paul Naegele. Both men were well known Vermilionites.
In 1935 Naegele abruptly left fishing and moved to Erie Pennsylvania where he worked for the Erie Sand and Gravel Company, and then the Talon Zipper Company. The reason for this sudden change in occupation is a mystery. But the fate of the Rainbow is not.
Sometime later (possibly during the late 1930’s) the old gill-netter was abandoned, and lay on her side near the dock at the Vermilion Yacht Club. According to late Vermilion historian, George Wakefield, Captain Clifford Parsons was then hired to dispose of her - and proceeded to do just that.
He dried her out and towed her with his tug Alma out into a deep part of lake and sunk her. But no sooner had she gone beneath the surface than up she came again like a cork - much to the consternation of both Parsons and the Coast Guard. Bobbing around in the lake it would have become a very real navigational hazard. We may, however, safely assume that Parsons quickly solved that problem. But as George so poetically put it, the authorities were “ pretty rough on him [Capt. Parsons] after the fiasco at the end of the Rainbow.”
In 1958 John and Carrie Naegele retired to their home in Vermilion. In the spring of 1962 Carrie was scratched by a plant while working in her flower garden behind their home on Huron Street, and subsequently died when it became severely infected. In August of the same year John also sailed into eternity.
Nearly 90 years have passed since that August afternoon when someone captured the tug Rainbow sliding into port at the Kishman Company docks with 3 little boys onboard smiling for the camera. The photo lay dormant in someone’s collection of old memorabilia until this year when, like the old steam-tug itself, it bubbled to the surface of our lives bringing with it a rainbow of ruminations of yet another yesteryear.
Ref: Lake Erie Fishermen, Work, Tradition, and Identity; Lloyd and Mullen, University of Illinois Press, 1990; Lure of the Lakes, A Taste of The Great Lakes; George Wakefield, 2001; U.S. Census 1910, 20, 30; Ohio Deaths 1908-2002; Special Thanks to Warren and Anita Mehnert. Published in the Vermilion (Ohio) Photojournal on 11-30-06.
11/26/06
5:03 PM
Lester Allan Pelton
"The Father of Hydroeletric Power"
THE VAAS PELTON CALENDAR: Stay tuned friends. It's coming. The Vermilion Area Archival Society is making plans for their next calendar and it will celebrate the life of the perhaps the most famous person ever born and raised in Vermilion, O: Lester Allan Pelton.
For reasons unknown (at least to me) the City of Vermilion, the Vermilion Education System, and the community at-large ignore Mr. Pelton's life and invention, while the rest of the world recognizes his contribution to quality of life on this planet and actively celebrate it. [They wish they could claim him as a hometown boy.]
Lester Allan Pelton is better known in China than he is in Vermilion. Our collective ignorence is outrageous. Perhaps this calendar will help change that.
"1934 Plymouth Coupe"
HOT RODDING IN VERMILION: This is my brother-in-law's (Terry Diener's) rebuilt 1934 Plymouth. It is the first time it's been shown. This was in a show at Vermilion's South Shore Shopping Center last Saturday.
It, as one can see, is a real beauty.
I don't know how it turned out. People vote for cars to be best in each show. But it really doesn't matter. This car is a real beauty and way you cut it. And it isn't finished.
Rebuilding old cars seems to be very popular hobby today. I'm amazed at the number of antique cars that still exist - and this wasn't really what one would call a big show.
I've been told that The Lorain County Metro-Parks has a very large show every August at their Mill Hollow Reservation. Ergo; the amount of money invested in this hobby must be significant.
Whatever the case, I'm postively impressed with Terry's Plymouth. (Although I must confess that I'm partial to Chrysler products) I only saw one other car in the entire show that I liked as much. Perhaps I'll show ye a few pix of it in a future "Views".
But what a fun hobby.
DON'T JUST SIT THERE WITH A MOUSE IN YOUR HAND - BUY SOMETHING FOR YOUR DOG -ARF, ARF:
Take a cyber visit through my on-line store.
This enterprise is new to me so I don't know what to expect in the way of response - but it is actually very nice. Over the next weeks and months I will be adding (and deleting) different items with different pix that folks might like to use for gifts or just have for themselves.
So take a tour of the shop. Tell me how you like it and what you might like to see on some items. I'm always open for business and for reasonable requests and suggestions. If nothing else just do a little window shopping. It's fun!
VERMILION VIEWS GIFT SHOP
Also note that all the video (MP4) podcasts (where used) are done in the "Quicktime" format.
Stay with me on this project. Things will get better. (I pro-mize.)
NOTE NOTE:Past podcasts are no longer available in the on-line archive. They just take up too much disk space. But if one really, really, really wants to acquire a copy of a past cast it can be had by contacting moi - and I will place it on a disc and send it to ye for a minimal fee.
If, however, something important crops up it - it will appear here.
If you're looking for my old links section (pictured) I've replaced it with a pull-down menu (visible in the small box next to the word "Go"). If you're looking for links to more Vermilion history check that menu.