Vermilion Ohio, A Good Place to Live
SHOPTALK: On my desktops this week are 2 of Vermilion’s former lawmen. Chief Benson is on the shop desk and Chief Todi on my home desk. While I remember both men I didn’t know either very well. But here are their stories:
PEACE OFFICER FRANK TODI (ET.AL. & ETC.): He was the Chief law enforcement officer in the Village of Vermilion, Ohio in 1957-58 when the police department was located in what was then the former comfort station in Exchange Park. His office, as well as the one his predecessor occupied, was on the west side of the little building. His name was Frank Todi. [Vermilion Trivial Note: The chief’s office was located on the west side of the building. It had been the Men’s Room. And the other (east) side – originally the Ladies’ Room – was where the jail cells were located.]
He was born in Ithaca, New York on the 15th day of August in 1907. Before coming to Vermilion in 1940 he’d lived in Lorain since about 1925. Mr. Todi, his wife Elizabeth and son, John, lived on the north side of Ohio Street just a few doors west of Decatur. Prior to his joining Vermilion’s police force as a patrolman he’d been a constable for Brownhelm Township.
Officially appointed to the position of Police Chief in mid July of 1957 he replaced Joseph T. Ryan Sr. who had died unexpectedly in February. Ryan’s tenure as chief had been brief. Vermilion Council had officially appointed the Connecticut native as the department’s top cop in January. He had, however, been acting chief since the resignation of longtime Vermilion lawman Ed Benson in June of 1956.
When Todi took over the force it consisted of the chief and three officers: Harry Lechner, Pete Huttonlocker, and Ron Fleming. Officer Kenny McDaniel was, at the time, a part-time officer. [Another Trivial Note: In later years both Lechner and Fleming would both head the department. It may also interest some persons to know that in accordance with a village ordinance that went into effect February 1, 1956 the chief’s salary was set at $360 a month, “payable semi-monthly”.]
Unfortunately, Todi’s tenure as Vermilion’s chief law enforcement officer was nearly as brief as Chief Ryan’s. On April 3, 1958 a 17-year-old Vermilionite named Tom Hoffman stopped by the station around 9 a.m. to visit the chief and found him slumped over at his desk. Earlier in the year the chief had been hospitalized with cardio problems. He had apparently suffered a fatal heart attack. The community was in shock.
Oddly enough, the former Chief Ed Benson, who had resigned the position for health reasons, outlived both of the men who had replaced him. He died in 1960 at the age of 76. We tend to celebrate the year we’re born – our entry into the world; and the year we die - our exit. But in truth, the years that are most important are the years in between – those where we prove our worth. They, and they alone, are the only ones really worth celebrating.
Neither Chief Todi nor Chief Ryan may have held their jobs for long. But one thing is sure; they did their jobs – they kept the peace. And as yesteryears go they were good ones.
THE CHIEF: Once upon a time the Vermilion police force consisted of one full-time lawman. His name was Edgar David “Ed” Benson.
Mr. Benson was born in Monroeville in 1884. He married Ella Waldron of Wakeman, Ohio in 1907. The 1910 U.S. Census has him employed as a freight agent in that town. But by 1920 the couple had moved to a home on Ohio Street in the Village of Vermilion and Mr. Benson was working at the mill at the south end of Exchange Street. Ella died unexpectedly in 1924 at age 35 leaving him with their 4 children. He later married a lady named Lillian Showalter whose husband, George, had also passed unexpectedly. She had three children.
For years Mr. Benson worked three jobs to help support his big family: He was a miller, school bus driver, and the Vermilion Village Marshal. In 1930 he was appointed, and became as a consequence, Vermilion’s first Police Chief. Though he eventually left the mill he retained his bus-driving job years after he became Chief.
The snapshot of him (above) was probably taken just a few years before he retired in 1955. He passed away in 1960. Times were changing. Some part-time patrolmen had been added to the force as well as a legion of auxiliary policemen who were used during special events in the community.
Sometime before my parents bought their home at 510 Perry Street Mr. Benson had lived there. Later he owned a little home at the bend on the west side of Jefferson Street where Ohio Street and Jefferson meet. There’s a slight hill near the home that, when I was a youngster, our gang called “Benson’s Hill”. We used to sled there during the winter.
Back in the 50’s we had a rambunctious fox terrier named Mr. Chips who used to make daily rounds about town visiting various homes and restaurants for treats. He’d often end the day in Exchange Park in the middle of town near the spot Chief Benson parked his cruiser. If the window of the car were open he’d hop inside. When the Benson returned he’d taxi Chips to our house, where the pooch would hop out, and the Chief would go his way. I don’t believe Chips ever tipped him.
I don’t really remember Chief Benson today. I suppose I was too young to really get to know him. But I do recall when he died. Someone found him in his Jefferson Street home several days after he passed. And I don’t think the scene was pretty. He died of natural causes. But because it took so long for anyone to find him it (again) was an uncomfortable situation. (It’s funny what kids will remember.)
Anyway, but the time Mr. Benson had retired Vermilion’s Police force was expanding. I think there was a Chief and maybe 2 full-time patrolmen. And even if I can’t remember his face I do remember the days when Vermilion had only one full-time lawman.
THE BRIEFS SECTION: Some readers may note that for the last few editions that section has been a bit spare. Well, there are two reasons for it.
The first is that it appears that nearing the holidays many folks were preoccupied with readying for their celebrations. I don’t know is that will continue through the Christmas season. But we will undoubtedly see.
Another part of the reason is related to the method I use to produce this part of the page. For several years I’ve been able to use a thing called “Dragon Dictate” to audibly transfer the information from the microfilm reader to the computer.
When I upgraded my operating system several weeks ago I discovered that the dictation software wouldn’t work as it did prior to my upgrading. Moreover, Nuance, the software provider simply quit producing and assisting anyone who uses the app on a Mac computer. They have suggested that everyone purchase a different operating system and they will provide them software for those systems.
Their suggestion’s a bit off.
In any case, I played around for a number of hours and found another way to use the software – albeit a tad more complicated. When I become accustomed to this workaround it should get easier, and the briefs section of the page should also get longer.
As Roseanne Rosannadanna from the old SNL show on NBC used to say, “It just goes to show, it’s always something.
Historically,
8th GRADE CHOIR BOYS: I do like these old pix from South Street School (in this case back in the 50s). I used the designation choir boys facetiously because I knew most of these guys. All were those I seriously looked up to way back then. I was 9 or 10 and they were the big kids. They seemed to have so much fun. And you can see it on their faces. But, somehow it’s hard for me to picture fellas like Nick Mayer, John Herchler, John Halley and especially Darryl Ollis in any choir.
But, surprise (!), there they are.
HELFRICH’S FISH & CHIPS: For a reason or reasons that totally escapes me it took an inordinate amount of time for me to fully understand the relationship between the two persons in the accompanying snapshot. The fella on the left is a man named Jesse Quinby Hamman, and the lady next to him is his mother-in-law (Lucy) Gertrude Worden-Helfrich. Gertrude was married to a gentleman named Charles Herbert Helfrich. During the mid-1920s into the 1930s Mr. and Mrs. Helfrich owned and operated a popular café by the Vermilion River (pictured) that became widely known as [what else?] Helfrich’s Fish and Chips.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Helfrich were born in Galion Ohio, he on 27 January 1879 and she on 22 January 1882. After their marriage in 1899 the young couple moved to Sistersville W. Virginia where he worked as a boilermaker in the oil fields. During early 1890s a wealth of oil had been discovered in the area that occasioned a population boom – or better said “explosion” – in that town. In a relatively brief period of ten years the population went from 600 to 7000 souls. The Sistersville prosperity was in fact so great that it was for a time considered to be one of the wealthiest towns per-capita in the U.S.
Around 1925 the Helfrich’s relocated in Vermilion and purchased the Showalter Boat Livery on the east bank of the river just below the old auto/wagon bridge. After the bridge was replaced in 1929 they built the place seen in the accompanying photograph north of the new bridge. As time passed they became less of a boat livery and more of a restaurant, famous for their fifty-cent fish and chips dinners. [Note: While we are apt to smile about fifty-cent meals of a yesteryear, in today’s economy that would have actually been between eight and nine dollars.] It was, in any economy however, a lucrative business.
The couple had two children: a boy they christened Charles Harvey born in 1903 but died in 1904; and in 1900 a girl they named Lola, who married the gent in the photo, Jesse Hamman. When Mr. Helfrich died unexpectedly in 1934 Lola’s husband Jesse came to the rescue assuming the duties of restaurant manager.
Prior to coming to Vermilion to help his mother-in-law with the restaurant Jesse was well known in Lorain County sports circles. In those years he was employed by the Lorain Hardware Company and in his spare time served as president of the Lorain County Baseball Federation, president of the Tri-County Baseball League and was a member of the Lorain boxing commission. Music was also a hobby. When he was a youngster and a student at Lorain High School he wrote their Alma Mater song. He was, in short, an extremely prominent Lorainite. Although restauranting was not a part of his background he easily stepped into his in-law’s shoes.
When his mother-in-law’s health began to fail, Hamman entered into a co-lease for the restaurant with a man named Andy Dambach from Milan, Ohio to assist him. Mr. Dambach was an experienced restaurateur who owned and operated a popular eatery called “Andy's Place” in Milan. The co-lease operation began in 1936, but did not last long.
By 1938 a Sandusky man named Charles “Charlie” McGarvey purchased the restaurant. McGarvey had been in the food service business in Sandusky for many years. However it was not until 1939 or 1940 that he officially changed the name of the restaurant from Helfrich’s to McGarvey’s. Soon after the boat livery part of the operation was abandoned entirely and the eatery was quickly building a regional reputation for both its food and ambience - as a pleasant riverside cafe.
Following the sale of the restaurant Mr. Hamman went to work at the National Tube Company in Lorain. The family remained in Vermilion. By that time Jesse and Lola were the parents of five children – two girls and three boys. Then in late October of 1947, while attending a picnic gathering of friends on a steep embankment overlooking the Vermilion River, Jesse accidentally fell over the bank. Falling some 200 feet into the treetops below he was rescued and rushed to St. Joseph’s hospital in Lorain. But owing to the seriousness of his injuries he died before reaching the hospital. He was only 49. His mother-in-law (Mrs. Helfrich) died just a year later at the age of 60.
This was the end of an era in Vermilion’s restaurant history. But it was also the beginning of another. Two fellas, one named Charlie McGarvey and the other named Eddie Solomon would see to that.
YESTERYEAR'S NEWS: The following clips are dictated transcriptions from past issues of The Vermilion News. I think you will find them both interesting and fun...
Hmmmmmm....
…John Moos, mustered out with company.
Jacob G. Miller, absent, sick when company was mustered out.
Conrad Missig, promoted to corporal March 1, 1864; wounded May 2, 1863, in breast and shoulders.
August Mathew, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps May 20, 1863.
Joseph Mueller, mustered out with company.
Frank Newberger, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps May 20, 1863.
Gustav Philips, promoted to corporal November 24, 1862; wounded in action May 2, 1863; transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps August 22, 1864.
Peter Reader, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps March 5, 1864, for reason of wounds.
Peter Reis, died from wounds July 10, 1863.
August Raber, died of wounds August 2, 1863.
Nicholas Rimel, died in Libby Prison.
Henry Ross, mustered out with company.
John Surren, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps February 1, 1864.
William Sneider, promoted to principal musician.
Adam Schaul, wounded in action March 1, 1863; mustered out with company.
Valentine Scheidler, not on muster-out roll.
John Schomer, mustered out with company.
John Smith, not on muster-out roll.
Christian Thomas, mustered out with company.
Wendel Viethauer, not on muster-out roll.
Jacob Walter, wounded in action May 2, 1863; mustered out with company.
Garret Walter, missing at Gettysburg July 1, 1863.
Anthony Wintersteller, not on muster-out roll.
Jacob Zuber, not on muster-out roll.
This was among the. latter regiments raised in Ohio for the three years’ service. It was mustered into service by companies during the months of September and October, 1862. Erie county was represented by company G and a small portion of K, the larger part of the latter being recruited at Tiffin and vicinity. The regiment rendezvoused and was organized at Camp “Monroeville, in Huron county, and immediately after the muster-in of the last company it was ordered to Zanesville; thence into Virginia, where its time seems to have been occupied in scouting and marching from place to place, and eventually brought up at Webster, not twenty-five miles from its starting place. Soon afterwards the regiment went to New Creek and remained there in camp until the 12th of December. In January it marched to Morehead to…
PAUL, AMALIA (Metrakis) AND STEVE (Demou): I have this pic tacked up on one of our scrap boards at the museum along with sundry other Vermilion things. I thought some might provide some folks with a walk down memory lane.
From what I could tell their pic was snapped in the Metrakis home on the northwest corner of Ohio and Perry streets. All three were natives of Greece.
Steve was born March 13, 1936 in the small village of Alea Argos, Greece and came to America in 1952 settling in Lorain. He had attended grade school in Greece, and in Lorain he also attended Whittier school for a brief time.
Steve began his food service career selling hot dogs at the Lakeview Park concession house. In 1956, he served in the United States Army where obtaining the rank of SP 5. He was a Korean War veteran. In 1958, he returned to Lorain and began his first business Steve's Variety at the Loop (corner of West Erie Avenue and Broadway Avenue). In 1964, he built the Nest Drive-In Restaurant in Vermilion. In 1973 he purchased the Stoffer Coffee Cup in downtown Vermilion [NOTE: I’ve no idea where that might have been located]. After quitting the restaurant business, he began a small painting company and remodeled many rental properties. He was very active in the local Chamber of Commerce, Lions and Masons. He died in 2009 at the tender age of 73. [He was a great guy.]
Paul and Amalia (I called her Emily) owned and operated Paul’s Snack Shop next to the newsstand in beautiful downtown Vermilion. I know that Paul had invested in the enterprises of many of his Grecian friends over the years. I suspect that Steve may have been among them.
When Paul and Amalia retired they returned to their homeland. Paul passed into the Great Beyond in 1984 and Amalia died in 2000.
One morning a California highway department crew reaches their job-site and realizes they have forgotten all their shovels.
The crew's foreman radios the office and tells his supervisor the situation.
The supervisor radios back and says, "Don't worry, we'll send some shovels. just lean on each other until the shovels arrive."
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. I suggest that you visit these sites on a regular basis to see "what's shakin'".
Persons interested in the history of the Lake Shore Electric Railway (which was the subject of a recent past podcast series) - "the greatest electaric railway system on the planet" may want to go to Amazon.com and purchase a book called "Images of Rail - Lake Shore Electric Railway". It was put together by Thomas J. Patton with the help of my friends DENNIS LAMONT and ALBERT DOANE. It'd make a nice gift.
Another great book with Vermilion Roots is, "Grandma's Favorites: A Compilation of Recipes from MARGARET SANDERS BUELL by Amy O'Neal, ELIZABETH THOMPSON and MEG WALTER (May 2, 2012). This book very literally will provide one with the flavor of old Vermilion. And ye can also find it at Amazon.com. Take a look.
MARY WAKEFIELD BUXTON'S LATEST BOOK "The Private War of William Styron" is available in paper back for $15.00 with tax and can be purchased locally at Buxton and Buxton Law Office in Urbanna, ordered from any book store, Amazon.com or Brandylane Publishing Company. A signed, hard back edition may be purchased from Mrs. Buxton directly for $30.00 by writing her at Box 488, Urbanna, VA 23175 and including $6.00 for tax, postage and packaging.
THE BEAT GOES ON: This page is generated by a 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
P.O. Box 437
Vermilion, Ohio
44089
Telephone: 440-967-0988 - Cell: 440-522-8397
or you can use PayPal: (NOTE: IT WORKS NOW)
Vol. 16. Issue 39 - December 1, 2018
Archive Issue #820
| advanced |
© 2017 Rich Tarrant