Vermilion Views

Nadine Neely, Ray Full Jim Luby, Percy Holl, Mary Cajka, Eleanor Juryniec (sp?), Fran Griebel, and “Sis” Mason.

I do hope that I've got the names placed with the appropriate faces.

I should have remembered Percy Holl. His face was certainly a familiar one about Vermilion (during my "yoot"). And I probably should have known Mrs. Mason too. I went to school with one of her boys (Jim). And another son "Skip" still walks the streets in town.

This is a great pic. And I'm greatful that Jim Luby saw it and was kind enough to identify all the people for us.

_{"Mr. Fischer and his team of horses were a familiar sight around our village for many years."}

PATTY, FRED, BUSTER, AND ALOYSIUS: In the late autumn of 2005 local resident James Aloysius “Jim” Fischer addressed an audience attending a Vermilion Area Archival Society (VAAS) meeting re: a book he co-wrote with two gentlemen, G.P. Johnson and H.A. Gear, titled “Custer's Horses”. He also speechified on the use of horses, in general, in the development of our area. T'was, to say the least, very interesting.

To be candid, until I read Fischer’s book I was myopic as to the critical role horses [Equus caballus] played in the development of our nation and, of course, our community. For whatever reason I never viewed a horse - any horse - as much more than a recreational vehicle that was, for obvious reasons, usually found at the end of parades.

Somehow the role of the horse in transportation, agriculture, and war - not to mention as a source of food, fuel, and clothing throughout the history of manunkind had totally escaped me. My lack of knowledge on the subject provided new definition for the word “duh”.

In and around Vermilion, Ohio during the 19th and early 20th centuries the horse was used mainly for agricultural and transportational purposes. Frederick G. Fischer was Jim’s paternal grandfather. Pictured here with his horses Patty and Buster, Mr. Fischer was a Vermilion, Ohio teamster. The name “teamster” is obviously derived from the fact that he was a person who drove a “team” of horses that pulled a wagon. Today we call persons who do similar work “truckdrivers”.

Mr. Fischer and his team of horses were a familiar sight around our village for many years. He hauled stone from the Linwood Park area to a block-building enterprise run by the Becker family on the site of the present day Vermilion Boat Club. He also hauled lime from the kiln near the mouth of the river to the ironworks near the corner of Darrow and Vermilion-Savannah (Rt. 60)) Roads, and then hauled slag back from the ironworks. Some of that slag was, incidentally, used to form the base of Vermilion's streets.

Many persons about our pretty city are/were familiar with the elder Fischer’s immediate and extended family members. There were, I’ve been told, 11 children in all. The Fischer boys were popular figures about town. One son, Fred G., served on council and later as mayor of Vermilion. The sole surviving son, Henry “Hank”, can still be found most mornings drinking coffee with his friends at a local eatery. His knowledge of the community, as one might expect, is substantial.

It may interest folks to note that when Jim Fischer - who is Hank’s eldest son - loaned me this photo to scan we were in the Ritter Room of Vermilion’s Ritter Public Library. That location, give or take just a few feet, is the site where the photograph of his teamster grandfather was taken a mere 100 years before. The houses in the background are still standing.

It surely is amazing how much has changed during that span of time. It is unlikely that much of it would have been accomplished at all without the hard work of work horses like Patty, and Buster, and teamsters like the German immigrant Frederick G. Fischer. And persons like myself would be totally unaware of that which they accomplished in that yesteryear were it not for the efforts of Mr. Fischer’s author-cowboy grandson Aloysius.

_{Published in the Vermilion Photojournal 6/14/07; Written 6/10/07 @ 11:33 AM.}

"This lodge was organized in 1858..."

THE ELY LODGE F.&A.M. STORY: Our story dates back to the Civil War. In the years immediately following. At that time Vermilion was a village of about 1200 inhabitants. A Masonic lodge known as Gibson Lodge No. 301was located in the village of Birmingham, a farming community having a population of approximately 200, located about 7 miles south of Vermilion. This lodge was organized in 1858 and had a membership of about 50 in 1868. Being the nearest Masonic Lodge to Vermilion, it was the one to which those citizens of our village, who desired to become affiliated with the order, were compelled to petition. At that time, several of her citizens have taken this step and were already members of the Gibson Lodge.

Due to the difficulty in those days of attending lodge at such a distance, the decision of Vermilion members of Gibson Lodge to petition the Grand Lodge for a Lodge at Vermilion it is not surprising. In 1868 the step was taken. Then as is the case today, it was necessary for one of the petitioners to be a Past Master Br. E. H. Andress, a past master of Gibson Lodge, who had served that Lodge's master at its founding in 1858 and again in 1859 and 1865, consented to be one of the petitioners who was appointed as the first Master. The other petitioners all residents of Vermilion and members of Gibson Lodge No. 301 were:

Alfred Smith, raised 1858; Stephen Van Winkle, raised 1860; Thomas W. Green, raised 1863; F. C. McConnelly, raised 1864; Resolvent Case, raised 1865; James Nicholas, raised 1867.

On November 7, 1868, a dispensation was granted by M. W. Bro. Howard Matthews, Grandmaster, to these Brothers to form a lodge in Vermilion, to be known as Ely Lodge, in honor of Herman Ely, Junior., of Elyria who was one of the most noted and outstanding masons of northern Ohio, during the Civil War and the years immediately following.

According to grand Lodge records, the following officers were appointed under the dispensation:

W. Bro. E. H. Andress, Master; Bro. F. C. McConnelly, S. W.; Bro. Thomas W. Green, J. W.; Bro. Steven Van Winkle, Treas.; Bro. Nelson D. Porter, Sec.; Bro. O. F. Hatch, SD.; Bro. Homer Durand, JD.; Bro. R. Case, Tyler.

The following is a list of the charter members of Ely Ely Lodge so far as can be gathered from Grand Lodge records and Lodge returns, some of which are incomplete and some entirely missing.

Petitioners from Gibson Lodge; Erasmus H. Andrews, Resolvent Case, Homer Durand, Thomas W. Green, F. C. McConnelly, James Nicholas, Alfred Smith, Stephen Van Winkle.

Admitted on dimit: Joshua Bailey, Joseph Daville, M. C. Driver, F. Hatch, Charles Martin, F. J. Pelton.

A major disaster visited the newly formed lodge in the fall of 1870 when early on the morning of September 7, a fire entirely destroyed the building in which the large room was located, and all Lodge property, including Charter, jewels, furniture and records was destroyed.

The W. Master, Bro. McConnelly secured a dispensation by wire from the Grand Master to hold the regular meeting that evening, and it was held in a room over brother. L. Body's hardware store. This room was used as a regular place of meeting until the following March, when new quarters were secured in the new Gaylord and Merrill block erected on the site of the former building. It is now Hart's Corner Drugstore. In March 1876, the Lodge was moved to rooms in Bro. N. Wagner's building located on the corner of Ohio and Division Streets.

In April 1880, as a matter of economy and having become dissatisfied with that location, they again leased a room which they had formerly occupied at the corner of Liberty and Main Streets from B. S. Horton at an annual rental of $50, a savings of $30.

In the spring of 1892, Capt. Edison planned to build a block on the west side of Division Street, and the Lodge offered to rent the second floor for a Lodge room for 10 years, at an annual rent of $100 with the privilege of twenty years. The second floor was to be built according to plans submitted by brother. F. H. Rae. This offer was accepted by Captain Edison and the lease was drawn up accordingly.

The new rooms were occupied on January 1, 1893. The members had spent nearly $500 for new carpets, curtains and furniture.

In 1926 in opportunity presented itself to buy the block in which the Lodge room proper was located, from the estate of Mrs. Amanda Myers, also an undivided half interest in the adjoining block to the north from Mrs. W. G. Hauff. Before this, two portions of the property on Liberty Street were sold at a substantial profit; more stock was then sold and both of the above mention properties on Division Street were purchased. The entire second floor was fitted and equipped for the use as Lodge, banquet and club rooms.

_{Ref Historical Vermilion - 1837-1962 - supplement of the Vermilion News for 1962; oral transcription made on December 11, 2009 @ Oakwood Dr. in Vermilion Ohio.}

_{"It was known to be the cause of death of Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln."}

THE DANGERS OF PIONEER LIFE IN AMERICA : This is a very interesting piece of local- and American - history - or at least it is to me. We now live in an environment where some of the tragedies visited on the early settlers could (and probably would) have been averted. Read on...

TRAGEDY IN THE WILDERNESS

"Almon Keeler and wife, Mahetabel, were from Newtown, Ct., and settled next east of Rufus Judson, about 1816-'17. He was a good citizen, and left a wife and four small children. He was killed by the fall of a tree; about 1821 or '22, by going to hold a torch beyond where a raccoon tree was expected to reach while Mr. Judson felled it. The tree broke down a dry hickory, which fell on and crushed him to death instantly. His widow married ___ Shephard, Esq., of Brownhelm, Lorain Co.,where she and three of the children died with the sick stomach, which so devastated that township in early times."

The “sick stomach” referred to could have possible been what some called “Milk Sickness”. This disease appears to have had great influence on the history of a wide area of the country in which it occurred. The sickness was really poisoning by the white snakeroot (Eupatorium uricaefolium). It occurs when man or animal eats the leaves or stems of either weed or dinks milk or east butter from an animal that has done so. Less conclusive evidence indicates that milk sickness may also occur in persons or animals that have eaten heavily of flesh or viscera of an animal that has died of severe white snakefoot poisoning. It was known to be the cause of death of Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln.

_{Ref: Louanna Furbee and W.D. Snively, Jr; Milk Sickness, 1811-1966: A Bibliography, page 276 - Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 1968, XXIII, Oxford University.}

God Bless them all.

IT REALLY WAS IN THE NEWS...

* An Alaskan assemblyman authored legislation to punish "public flatulence, crepitation, gaseous emission, and miasmic effluence," with a $100 penalty.

* Firefighters in Thurston, Washington slept through a fire in their own station. A passing police officer noticed the blaze and called in the alarm.

* In 1986, firefighters used wire cutters and pliers to free a San Jose, California woman from a tight pair of designer jeans.

* In the 1988 Massachusetts Democratic primary, Herbert Connolly dashed from a late campaign appearance to the polling place to cast his ballot. He got there fifteen minutes late, and lost his seat on the Governor's council. The final tally: 14,716 to 14,715.

* The Internal Revenue Service fined George Wittmeier $159.78 for not paying all of his taxes. He was a penny short on his return.

_{"...the White Inn restaurant (pictured) was one of the places that made my stomach turn somersaults..."}

THE WHITE INN: A million years ago - when I was a little boy in the Village of Vermilion, O. - I was unable to eat restaurant food. It wasn’t because I wasn’t allowed. It was because the odors of sundry foods being prepared at the same time made me queasy. I couldn’t even eat a carryout sandwich. I was cured of this when at about 5 or 6 years of age my family stopped for lunch at a Greyhound Bus Stop in Delaware, Ohio. We were on our way to spend the day at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus. For some reason I was hungry and ordered a hamburger with tomato and mustard. It was the best restaurant sandwich I ever had. And from thereon restaurant food bothered me no longer. (Go figure.)

I mention this because the White Inn restaurant (pictured) was one of the places that made my stomach turn somersaults every time I got near the place. I didn’t even have to go into the eatery. In those days (i.e. the late 1940’s and early 1950’s) many blue collar diners both prepared (i.e. cooked) and served their meals in a single room. This was also the case at the White Inn. A big exhaust fan over the grill and french-fryer spewed a heterogeneous bouquet of eggs, fish, steak, pork chops, fried onions, potatoes, and hot oil out into he alley, where it wafted out to the street either enticing or nauseating passers-by; depending on the state of their respective appetites or lack thereof.

To be both fair and reasonable the meals at the White Inn food were actually very good. If this wasn’t the case there would have been no heavy aromas for me to dodge when, as a boy, I wandered down the sidewalk past the old Adam Trinter house (seen on the left in the photo) to drop off a Vermilion News paper at George Rathbun’s store which sat just past the alley on the other side of the luncheonette. Business was, to be honest, quite brisk - despite the fact that there were at least six other restaurants within a short walking distance.

A gentleman by the name of Don Englebry owned and operated the diner and also owned the house next door. During the mid 1950’s I became familiar with the place because my church Sunday School class was occasionally treated to a pancake breakfast there courtesy of Tom Williams Sr. Mr Williams - local attorney and Vermilion’s Postmaster - was our Sunday School teacher at the old Congregational Church on Main Street when they still called it Division Street. His spiritual lessons for the boys in the church might have been somewhat unconventional - but they were most certainly filling.

Sometime during the latter part of the 1950’s the house was razed, and the space used as a parking lot for both the White Inn and the restaurant next door called the Dari-Bar (later the Kountry Kitchen and now the Old Prague). By that time a Greek couple operated the place. But times were changing. Fast food joints and pizza shops were beginning to spring up like dandelions all across the landscape of America. And in the blink of an eye both the restaurant and the building housing it were gone. Today the space once occupied by the house and diner is a paved parking lot. T’were a minor casualty on a highway called progress.

Reflecting upon this scene from a yesteryear I can’t help but recall the words of American Physician, Poet, Writer, Humorist and Professor at Harvard - Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) who once opined that “The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.” Methinks we have moved, and continue to move, in the right direction.

_{Ref: Roscoe-Tarrant Photo Collection courtesy of the Vermilion Area Archival Society; and Albert Tarrant; Published in the Vermilion Photojournal 8/14/08; Written 8/10/08 @ 4:41 PM.}

_{Podcasts - "forever under construction..."}

PODCAST #158: This week the Vermilion Views Podcast #158 continues our journey on the Lake Shore Electric from Cleveland to Toledo.

Persons interested in the history of the Lake Shore Electric Railway - "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 Christmas present.
Next week I'll be back with a continuation of the ride on the LSE.
Also, please note that all the video (MP4) podcasts (when used) are done in the "Quicktime MP4" format. If you don't have "Quicktime" it's easy to find and free to download.

NOTE NOTE:Past podcasts are not 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 me and I will place it on a disc and send it to ye for a minimal fee.

Vermilion Ohio, A Good Place to Live