COINCIDENCE: Sometimes I catch a view of something (out the corner of me eye) and it strikes me that I should capture the scene with my Nikon D70. The photo seen above is the consequence of such an occasion.
Actually the raw photo didn't catch the mood I thought I saw; although what you see is what I saw - or rather (again) what "I thought I saw". But thanks to Adobe's Photoshop CS2 the landscape was retrieved and is depicted quite accurately.
A few days later I came across the caption used below the pic in a novel written by John Sandford. Sandford is actually a pseudonym of a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist named John Camp. Sandford - or Camp - was a street journalist in Minneapolis-St. Paul (the "Twin Cities") in Minnesota before he began writing murder-mystery books.
The caption actually has nothing to do with much of anything with the story in which it appears. It simply appears as a group of magnitized words arranged on a poetry board in a cluttered office of a 3M executive.
They simply seemed so out-of-place - so odd - that they stayed with me.
When I'd finished working with the photograph it just seemed like the words fit the photo: "The ugly gristle of morning smears a dry bone landscape down the flawless tapestry of night."
Normally one looks for the right words to match a photo. But in this instance the photo just seemed right for the words.
It was just a coincidence.
Unknown Man
A WORKING MAN (?): I really like this photo. It was among a collection of negatives from the archives of The Vermilion News that my sister, Ginny Wilkes, gave me a few weeks ago. She said that I'd given them to her some time before. I swear, I don't recall having done that. [I suppose that's what comes from having burned the proverbial candle at both ends in younger days.] However; I'm glad that I did.
I certainly wish I knew the name of the fellow in this portrait - but I've not a clue as to his identity nor that of the photographer responsible for it. Because the photo appears with a collection of others taken during the early 1940's in and around Vermilion, O. I naturally assume that he was a Vermilionite of some note. And because my grandfather, Pearl Roscoe, was still taking photographs at this time I also assume that he may have been the photographer. But none of that can really be substantiated at this time.
And again, although I'm not certain, I'm thinking that this photo was taken outside State Street or South Street Schools - or perhaps Wakefield Brass. He might have been a custodian. Whomever he was he was, obviously, a working man. And one must wonder why he would have stopped to have his picture taken. He was posing. But why?
In all the pix taken by Roscoe I've seen very few portraits like this. So this photo is rather unusual. Most of Roscoe's photographs are of landscapes or groups of people. A portrait like this is really rare.
Ah - the mysteries of these old pictures are quite challenging.
The "Don't Want" Ads
A little Christmas Humor is good for your soul.
Mixing bowl set designed to please a cook with round bottom
for efficient beating.
Semi-Annual after-Christmas Sale.
And now, the Superstore–unequaled in size, unmatched in
variety, unrivaled inconvenience.
We will oil your sewing machine and adjust tension in your
home for $1.00.
Girl wanted to assist magician in cutting-off-head illusion.
Blue Cross and salary.
For Sale. Three canaries of undermined sex.
Get rid of aunts: Zap does the job in 24 hours.
Christmas sale. Handmade gifts for the hard-to-find person.
Phoebe and Holden Judson - 1899
A PIONEERS STORY - PART 2:
(continued from PJ 7-7-05 and 12-06-08 "VV")...Goodell. She and her twin sister Mary were the daughters of the Reverend Mr. Jotham Weeks and Anna G. Bachelor Goodell. (Reverend Goodell, as previously mentioned, was the pastor who presided over dedication services of the first church in Vermilion Village on 12-20-1843.) In 1849 Phoebe and Mr. Holden Judson were united in marriage in the pulchritudinous church beside the one room school both had attended as youngsters. At the time those were the only church and school in the village proper.
Holden’s family had been among the first to settle in the region. In July of 1809 Holden’s grandfather, Rufus Judson, his family, and several other families had traversed a new road (Lake Road), which ran along the lake shore from Rocky River to Huron, to settle in a place called Jessup (Florence Township; PJ 5-12-05). They were from Danbury Connecticut. About 1811-1812 Rufus, who was a blacksmith/farmer, moved his family to Vermilion. Mrs. Judson would later lose her life on Lake Erie while returning from a trip to Buffalo.
Holden was born in Vermilion in 1826. His father, Charles P. Judson (b.1775), was Vermilion’s first storekeeper. For a number of years he was also Vermilion’s Township Clerk. Holden’s only sister, Lucretia. also attended the little brick school house in the village square. She later graduated from Oberlin College.
By the year 1850 the population center of the efflorescing nation had shifted from Baltimore, Maryland to Parkersburg on the Ohio River. In 1851 a gentleman by the name of Horace Greely published a piece in the New York Tribune that advised, “Go West Young Man. Go West!” And at the beginning of the decade roughly 44 thousand people had followed Greely’s advice. Holden and Phoebe would also heed that counsel.
In 1853 Holden, a pregnant 20 year old Phoebe, and their 3 year old daughter, Anna, embarked on an overland journey across the North American continent into the wilderness of the West. Their destination? The Puget Sound country of the Oregon Territory where the government of the United States promised to each head of family who settled there a grant of land.
The journey along the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon often drawn by a team of oxen was not easy for anyone. The main killers were disease (i.e. typhoid, smallpox, malaria) and accident. Of perhaps 10 thousand deaths that occurred along the trail only 4% were due to Indian raids.
Phoebe’s account of this journey, and ensuing years, as she and her family helped shape the state of Washington and build the town of Lynden out of the wilderness can be found in her book, A Pioneer’s Search For An Idea Home, published in 1925 when she was 95 years old.
Remarkably (or perhaps not) Phoebe often recalled her life in Vermilion, Ohio as she and Holden searched for their “ideal home” in the west:
‘One night in my dreams I was with a dear companion of my younger days. She wandered with me on Lake Erie’s beach; a soft south wind was blowing; the little ripples came creeping over the shells and pebbles; my hungry heart was feeding on those joys of bygone days; a passion of love filled my being; stooping, I extended my hands over the clear waters as though I would caress them, and exclaimed, “Beautiful, beautiful, Lake Erie.”...’
Today history books refer to her as “The Mother of Lynden” Washington. She gave name to the town in reference to the poem Hohenlinden by T. Campbell, choosing to spell it with a “y” simply because it looked prettier. Today in Lynden folks fondly refer to her as “Aunt Phoebe”. But call her what you will; aunt, wife, mother, sister, daughter, abolitionist, suffragist, prohibitionist, transcendentalist; Phoebe Goodell Judson was a Pioneer in the finest sense of the word. She was a Pioneer whose roots, forged in a tiny hamlet in Ohio during the early 19th century, helped give both form and substance to a great nation.
Ref: A Pioneer’s Search For An Ideal Home; Phoebe Goodell Judson; University of Nebraska Press; 1984 reprinted from the orignal 1925 edition; Blockhouses and Military Posts of the Firelands; Cherry; 1934; History of Huron and Erie Counties, Ohio; W.W. Williams; 1875; Special Thanks to Mary Michaelson; Assistant Curator; Lynden, WA. Pioneer Museum: Published in the Vermilion Photojournal on 7-14-05.
7/10/05
9:54 AM
Fish-fry
MAYBE VERMIION, MAYBE NOT: This week I seem to have more questions about the pictures (appearing here) than I do answers. This pic was among a small collection of photographs electronically submitted to me by "Viewer" Dwight McMullen. They were among his wife's (Carolyn Schroeder McMullen) possessions - and were not annotated. Off-hand I am unable to tell if they were amateur or professional photographs. But several (like this one) are of good quality.
I have hopes that these are photographs of the fire which destroyed some of the fish houses along the Vermilion River c. 1950. If so - they are the first really good pictures that I've ever seen of that conflagration. All those I've ever seen before were old newspaper prints that don't reproduce particularly well in digital environments. [How's that for techno-babble?]
I'm not (at the moment) familiar with Mrs. McMullen's background so I can't determine the reason she would have had these photos in her possession. And whilst I've tried some to compare this particular pic with others taken along the river in other years I've not really found a definite match for the fish houses.
I do know that over the years the configurations of the fish houses changed as the businesses grew or declined in size. So it's no easy task trying to discover the locale of this pic. It could, in fact, have been in Huron or Fairport Harbor.
So here I must rely on the knowledge of someone who might have been familiar with these buildings fifty years back. Ergo I must reiterate the fact that:
"the mysteries of these old pictures are quite challenging".
Going Home
LSE #38 HEADING HOME (AGAIN): Inter-urban historian Dennis Lamont sent me this pic last Saturday of Lake Shore Electric Car #38 being transported from the grounds at Vermilion's Fish & Game - where it has been located for the last 70 years - to its new home at the Beach Park Station in Avon Lake, Ohio.
Dennis was instrumental in seeing to it that this car will be preserved for future generations.
LSE Car #38 was built in the Sandusky Shops of the Lake Shore Electric under the supervision of Mr. Al Brownworth, the master mechanic, in 1920. It was one of the last series built in Sandusky for the expanding freight business. According Lamont's Conductors record book it hauled a lot of freight through Vermilion on its nightly runs between Cleveland & Detroit in the 20s.
It's very fulfilling to witness a piece of physical history being preserved. We need thank persons like Dennis Lamont and Albert Doane for their many contributions toward this effort.
"Views" Christmas Calendar now available
DON'T JUST SIT THERE WITH A MOUSE IN YOUR HAND! HELP THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY!: Take a cyber visit through my on-line store.
Christmas is coming and I'll be designing some new items. So stay close; and take a virtual tour of the shop. I keep it nice and clean.
And for those who might wonder - this is my shop - and I do make a few bucks selling the items therein...
VERMILION VIEWS GIFT SHOP
Podcasts - "forever under construction..."
William Sydney Porter - c.1909
(September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910)
PODCAST #106: This week the Vermilion Views Podcast #106 is an audio reading of American author O. Henry's short-story"A Chaparral Christmas Gift".
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.
HAVE YE QUESTIONS ETC. (?):
Well - ENOUGH!!! Some European spammers finally got the best of me by using the email form which used to be available (here) in "VV". They hi-jacked the form for purposes I am unable to fathom (I don't gamble and I'm not in the market for Viagra). Ergo; I dropped the form and ye can simply drop a line to me by tapping on my name below:
RICH TARRANT
LOCAL ANNOUNCEMENTS: After giving it much thought this link has been "put-down". During the last year most of the folks who used to use this page as a bulletin board have acquired their own and, consequently, no longer need this forum from "Views". I have, however, kept links (in the links section) to Larry Hohler's "Hope Homes" in Kenya - and to Bette Lou Higgins' Eden Valley Enterprises sites. They are historically and socially relevant projects.
If, however, something important crops up it - it will appear here.
The Beat Goes On: The page is generated by the dreaded Macintosh Computer and is written and designed by (me) Rich Tarrant. It will change weekly ~ usually on Saturday. Bookmark the URL (Universal Resource Locater) and come back at your own leisure. Send the page to your friends (and enemies if you wish). If you have something to share with those who visit this page, pass it on. And if you see something that
is in need of correction do the same. My sister, Nancy, is a great help in that respect. It only takes me a week to get things right. And follow the links. You might find something you like. If you experience a problem with them let me know. Also, if you want to see past editions of this eZine check the new archives links below.
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.
How the old links menu looked
For Persons who would like to donate to the cause (to keep these "Views" on-line you can send whatever you would like to me at the following address. And THANKS to everybody who has already donated to the cause. I doth certainly appreciate it):
Rich Tarrant
1041 Oakwood Drive
Vermilion, Ohio
44089
Telephone: 440-967-0988 - Cell: 440-522-4459
"The moral fabric of our nation isn't torn. Someone stole it and sold it."
-Professor Roselyn Picher
Vol.6, Issue 39, December 13, 2008
Archive Issue #300
© 2008 Rich Tarrant