Vermilion Ohio, A Good Place to Live
SHOPTALK: The Olympic Outing Club is featured on the desktops this week.
On my work desk is the front and back of the program the OOC founders used when they celebrated their 25th Anniversary at the Sachsenheim Hall in Cleveland back in 1927. You will note that singing was very much a part of their fellowship back then – and now.
The pic on my home desktop shows how the club members and their families lived right around the same year they celebrated their anniversary. Initially it was a Men’s Club, and women and children were only allowed to camp at certain times during the season. That, of course, changed over the years and it easily became a family-oriented club – and the men only thing is a thing of the past.
One might think that it originated as some type of sporting club (e.g. it’s name). But in truth the name was adapted from a saloon where many of the guys use to gather on the west-side of Cleveland. While they most certainly enjoyed – and continue to enjoy - all types of sporting activities the basic impetus behind the creation of the club was to find a nice place outside the city to camp, fish and play cards during the warmer months of each year.
Descendants of many of those pictured on the cover of the 1902 programs still belong to the club. Only family members of those belonging to the club are eligible for membership. That it has lasted all these years makes it a very unique organization – anywhere.
DON’T MISS IT: I intended to mention this a week ago: Don’t miss “Country Music – A Film by Keven Burns” on PBS. You don’t have to be an aficionado to enjoy this series, which is a history of country music. It actually surprising when you discover [and you will] just how much of the music and the artists you know – fan or not.
BY THE WAYSeveral months ago the gas company installed natural gas lines at the Olympic Club, and just this week we got our gas meter installed. Prior to this we’ve been using electricity for hot water and cooking. Although we have baseboard electric heaters, we seldom used them because we were using propane for the majority of our heat during the winter. So this is a milestone for Geo and me. Our home is small so we use a ventless wall heater in the main part of our cottage and one in the basement so the pipes don’t freeze. The big difference here is that we won’t have to worry about running low on propane during the cold months. And the trucks hauling propane in and out of the club won’t have to worry about negotiating the steep hell in and out of the place. That was always problematic.
Historically,
IN DAYS GONE BYE: Biographical Sketches of Men and Women of Vermilion, Ohio American biography has been a genre of literature I have enjoyed since I was a grade school student at South Street School in Vermilion, Ohio where I grew up. Long before I entered the secondary grades I had become familiar with the likes of Walter Reuther, J.C. Penny, Henry Ford, and a man who would someday become the 37th President of the United States of America, Richard Milhous Nixon. In later years I devoured the artistic/journalistic writings of men such as Jack Kerouac and John Dos Passos; the autobiographies of great Americans like Ben Franklin and Mark Twain - and the stories of many more human beings who helped forge the destiny of our nation. But it was not enough to know just the facts. I believed, and continue to believe, that it is important to understand how these human beings felt, and how they viewed the world during their lives. What / who motivated them? What / who touched them?
And so it is from this passion that I have begun to put together short biographical sketches of the men and women who lived, loved, and worked in my hometown of Vermilion, Ohio. While very few acquired national and / or international notoriety they, each and every one, played a vital role in the creation, construction and maintenance of this pretty little town on the southern-most shore of Lake Erie.
It is not necessary for you to have known them or known of them to read of their lives. For, in essence, they are the very same people who once lived (and still live) in your town wherever you are in America.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I did knowing and writing about them.
Rich Tarrant - January 14, 2014
I suppose it is fitting that I begin this series focusing on my own family. [Beside that – this is my project and I can do it the way I want.] So – I begin with my grandfather Pearl (No Middle Name or Initial) Roscoe.
Roscoe was born on a November 7th in 1869 in Milan, Erie County, Ohio. He was an only child of Caselton and Helen Forster Roscoe. His father was a carpenter / millwright / farmer in North Milan. His mother, a former schoolteacher, was the daughter of and man named A.B. Forster, a pioneer surveyor of Erie County.
Very little is known of Roscoe’s early years on the farm. But it is clear that he was, at least for the times, reasonably well-educated. He attended Milan’s school growing up and afterward went to work for the Laning Printing Company in Norwalk, Ohio. The Laning company was one of the largest printing houses in the State of Ohio in the 19th century.
Leaving the Laning Company Roscoe went to Oberlin, Ohio where he worked for either the Oberlin Weekly News or the Oberlin News (or both). He then took a job as printing foreman for the Evening Herald (aka. Lorain Daily and later the Lorain-Times-Herald) until 1901 when he and his wife, Elizabeth “Bessie” Bottomley were married and purchased The Vermilion News weekly in Vermilion, Ohio.
(To be continued…)
JUST A COINCIDENCE: I suppose it was just a coincidence. I was searching through some old newspaper archives for train wrecks that occurred in and around good ol’ Vermilion, O. in a yesteryear when my wife, Georgi, told me that Patty Kishman, from the local library, had sent her an e-mail inquiry about a train wreck near town that took place on August 13, 1905. I’m assuming that a small part of what captured Patty’s interest was the fact that it took place on the Nickel Plate railroad at what many of the newspaper reports referred to as “Kishman”, Ohio.
Whether or not the place referred to as “Kishman and/or Kishman’s” was ever a formally incorporated municipality in Ohio is anyone’s guess. But the place known by railroaders as “Kishman’s siding” denotes a place - a siding - along the Nickel Plate rails several miles east of the Village of Vermilion where rail cars could be stored aside the mainline (rails) until needed. The siding was also used as a place where one train could enter to allow another train to pass on the mainline. And that is what was supposed to happen in the early morning hours of August 13, 1905 - but it didn’t. What did happen was, perhaps, one of the worst disasters in the history of the Nickel Plate line.
The mid-August weekend had been a busy one for all the resorts along the southern coast of Lake Erie. The Sandusky Star-Register estimated that 14,000 people had been transported to their city on 14 trains from all the big cities in Ohio plus a few from Indiana. The electric lines had all they could handle. Cedar Point and Johnson’s Island were teeming with folks on midsummer holiday. The weather was perfect. Who could ask for more?
And so it was that toward the end this flawless weekend that a west bound freight train (No. 37) left Cleveland and steamed through Lorain toward Vermilion. It was sometime after midnight when the crew on the freight neared Kishman’s siding. Their orders were to move their train into the siding to let an eastbound passenger train pass.
When they arrived at the siding, they found several fully loaded freight cars stationed on the tracks. Apparently, they thought it would be impossible for them to fully clear the mainline by going forward into the siding, so they decided to back into it - forcing the loaded cars back down the steeply graded siding. This would also have made it easier for them to resume their journey once the passenger train had passed.
At precisely 1 AM a Lake Shore Electric car, piloted by motorman B.D. Marsac, was headed toward Vermilion and was passing the Baumhart farm (VPJ 7-22-10) near Lake Road when he heard a terrible crash. Westbound freight No. 37 did not make it into the siding and was sitting dead on the rails when the eastbound passenger train going 50 MPH collided with it head-on. The LSE motorman didn’t even stop. He continued at full speed into Vermilion, and returned as quickly as possible with all the medical help he could find.
The impact of the collision drove the passenger locomotive half way through the freight locomotive. The smoker on the passenger - filled with Italian laborers - was smashed into kindling. Twelve people, including the passenger Engineer, C.W. Poole of Conneaut, were killed, and over 30 were injured. The Italians had been working for a large construction firm Kronebery & Co. of Buffalo. Having finished their seasonal work in Chicago they were headed to their homes in the East. The workers were identified by the numbered “K & Co.” brass tags in their possession.
Initially, (as the newspaper headline accompanying this essay illustrates) the crew on the freight was blamed for the accident. But early the following September Lorain County Coroner French concluded that both Nickel Plate crews were negligent. While the freight crew most certainly demonstrated poor judgement in their backing - rather than moving forward - into the siding, the engineer on passenger train No. 4, French concluded, was not wholly without blame. This was because the collision occurred on straight track and the freight displayed a head light which was apparently ignored by Engineer Poole. This official ruling was in spite of the fact that Poole, one of the oldest in service on the Nickel Plate, stayed aboard his locomotive long enough to put on the air brakes and reverse his engine. For whatever reason the heroics which cost him his life were either completely dismissed or ignored.
To be sure it may have been a coincidence that Vermilionite Patty Kishman should ask about this place, and this accident, as I was beginning research on the subject. Perhaps...
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...
The many friends of Chas. W. Andrews were shocked when they learned of his sudden death Friday morning. Mr. Andrews had not been as well as usual and upon retiring the evening before complained of a pain near the heart. About midnight a physician was called and feeling some relieved he again retired. He was found in the morning as he retired but life was extinct.
Mr. Andrews was born in Vermilion Feb. 19, 1839 and had always made this place his home, being 72 years, 7 mos and 3 days old at the time of his death. He had the distinction of being the oldest person born in the corporation.
He enlisted at the Cleveland Ohio, December 14, 1863 for service in the Civil War, and was discharged at Camp Chase, Ohio, July 13, 1865 having served the full-time as member of Company F. 128 Reg. O. V. I. stationed at Johnson’s Island. He was a member of the local G. A. R. Post and in this relation was very happy with his comrades, being at the time of his death their Chaplain, his patriotism was marked and all special holidays of the patriotic nature found his home decorated with large flags in which he took special pride. He was a good neighbor always hospitable and kind to the needy.
He leaves a daughter, Mrs. Mary D. Childs, one grandson, Mr. W. E. Childs, two sisters, Mrs. E. E. Skinner and Mrs. Helen M. Rose both of Sandusky, and one brother Mr. Geo. E. Andrews of this place.
The funeral was held from the late home on Grand Street, Sunday p.m., In charge of Dr. Swisher, assisted by the G. A. R. And W. R. C. who attended in a body, the former conducted the burial service in Maple Grove Cemetery. A large company of friends and acquaintances paid their last tribute of respect.
During the severe storm Wednesday morning E. R. Whitt’s barn was struck by lightning and two horses one of them a colt, killed and a third severely shocked and paralyzed, and its recovery is doubtful.
Mr. Whitt was in the barn at the time and was stunned by the bolt.
Fortunately the lightning did not set fire to the barn but considerable damage was done to the building.
Another unfortunate feature is that while the barn was insured the stock was not so the horses will be a total loss to Mr. Whitt.
John Crusotion, Hungarian, and the employee of the Lake Shore Ry, was run down by a train on that road Sunday morning just as he stepped from a work train on which he lived. He was thrown a concert considerable distance. His chest was crushed and his left arm and leg smashed.
He was taken to Sandusky to the hospital but died just as the train arrived at that place.
The injunction suit of Daniel E. Thompson of Vermilion, against the Lake Shore and Michigan South Southern railway company, to prevent the erection of telegraph poles on the formers land will be heard next week.
The block contemplated by Geo. Fisher on the corner of Liberty and Division streets will not be built at present but a building will be erected just north of Sherod & Son, and a Billiard Parlor opened by John and George Becker. Work has already started. It is to be regretted that the plans for the block has been given up as it would have been a great addition to the town.
P. J. Kothe for some time past has operated a confectionery and lunch room has closed out his business and purchased Joe Stone’s interest in the Vermilion Bottling Works. This industry has a good prospect before it and has already earned a reputation for purity and good quality the only drawback so far being the limited capacity. The plant will be enlarged.
The Monte Carlo girls, burlesque troupe, was the attraction at the Amherst opera house Monday night.
BORN – to Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Berger, a daughter, Thursday, stepped. 21, 1911.
Arrangements are being made to erect a handsome three-story brick block cost between $18,000 and $25,000 on the corner of church in Elyria streets early next spring.
H. H. Clough met with a painful accident Friday morning. When he got out of his wagon his feet became entangled in the lines and he was thrown down, breaking the 3rd finger on his left hand in his left shoulder was sprained.
Wm. Zerall met with a painful accident Monday while at work operating a bottling machine at John Bodman’s place of business. A bottle broke and the glass cut two large arteries and the ligaments to the bone on his wrist. He was immediately taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital and his wounds dressed.
Mrs. Ruben Miller the young bride who was taken suddenly ill while on her honeymoon, with an attack of appendicitis and underwent an operation at Buffalo Hospital suffered a relapse due to pleuritic trouble. Her husband is a constant attendant at her bedside, her father who has been spending several days with her returned to his home Monday from Buffalo.
Mrs. Beeckel was able to be up and around after being very ill.
Charged with commission of an unnatural act, John Clark, 42 married, bridge worker, was taken to the county jail Saturday afternoon by Marshal Frey, of Huron. The affidavit was sworn to by W. E. Sheppard of Huron.
Clark was arraigned before Justice George Jeffrey, of Huron Township, and bound over to the grand jury. That body, which is now in session, will probably investigate the case.
[NOTE: The crime I found was sodomy. But with whom or what is unknown.]
Dr. and Mrs. Heinig and son returned Sunday from Millersburg, where they have been visiting relatives and friends. The doctors many friends will be glad to learn that he has again resumed his practice.
The fishing has fallen off considerably at this port and the boats may all pull out their nets unless more favorable catches are had.
Mrs. Lewis Englebry returned from Lakeside Hospital Sunday and is recovering as rapidly as can be expected.
Born – to Mr. and Mrs. Ried Eddie, a daughter, Wednesday, Sept. 20 1911.
The room on the ground floor of the Telephone Building has been handsomely fitted up in Messrs Carr and Steers will today open a first-class restaurant therein.
Besides the restaurant the room will be used as an ice cream parlor and cream will be served at any time to those desiring.
As managers of the Lakeside Inn the new firm will preserve this reputation process serving meals.
12 children were born of their unison, 3 of whom died in infancy and 3 after maturity.
6 survive her, 2 boys and 4 girls their names being, Henry Smith, Chas. Smith, Mrs. G. H. Fieback, Mrs. Henry Lapp, Mrs. Louisa Cook and Mrs. George Liber.
Mrs. Smith was confirmed in the German Reformed Church when she was 14 years of age and was an active member all her life with the exceptions of the latter years of her life, when she was unable to attend services.
Mrs. Smith was a good citizen and neighbor, a kind mother, who loved her home and was interested intensely in her loved ones.
The funeral was held from the home on Thursday morning, Sept. 21st, where a large number of friends and relatives and neighbors had assembled to pay their last token of esteem to the departed. Rev. A. G. Rupert of Berlin Heights conducted the services.
The funeral of Mr. Horace F. Smith was held Saturday afternoon from his late home. The services were conducted by Rev. A. G. Rupert. Mr. Smith had reached his 89th birthday and had he lived until January 12th, he would’ve been 90 years old. He was born on the farm in which he died. He was a lifelong resident of one home and community. He had been engaged and very successful in the raising of blooded sheep and cattle. He was a good citizen and neighbor. He will be missed in the community in which he had lived so many years.
Burial in Baptist the Baptist Cemetery in Berlin Heights.
Mrs. Miller Wilbur of Vermilion was in town last Saturday attending the funeral of Mr. Horace Smith. Rev. A.R. Burnett minister of the Cong’l church of this village for the past four years tendered his resignation at the close of the service on Sunday morning. He will assist in the Socialistic survey that is being made by the Presbyterian Church. He will move to Orange, New Jersey, with a headquarters in New York City.
Mrs. Matthew Reiser won first prize at the Elyria fair on a lovely painting of her own.
Mrs. Wm Webster is able to be up and around but has lost the sight of one eye entirely.
The first dance of the season is to be held at the Gibson Hall will be on Saturday Oct. 7th. A cordial invitation is extended to all.
…“The Bible," says Gail Hamilton, “is full of excellent-precepts, and the world is full of bad examples. If a man smite us on the right cheek, we — knock him down. If a man sues us at law, we stand suit, and if he would borrow of us, we promptly turn away, unless he can give ample security."
Science and enterprise have spanned the continent with electric wires, cabled the Atlantic Ocean, given us the measurements of revolving planets, spread forth the canvas to the gale, and made the trackless ocean a highway through the world. By the use of scientific and cunningly devised instruments bleak skies and rude winds are foreseen, and the navigator places him in safety. The electric light has displaced gas as effectually as the latter did the “tallow dip," and is established upon a secure commercial basis. School houses, churches, newspapers, and books open up to the poorest the lights and opportunities of knowledge.
The wealth of nations increases and we see all the arts of life approaching nearer and nearer perfection. In science, art and literature each succeeding generation is wiser than its predecessor. The mistakes of past experience serve as beacon-lights to warn us off the rocks of error and lead us to the port of truth.
The great and wide advancement in the different branches of medical science within the last generation is as much a marvel as the progress made in any other of the arts and sciences. The poorest laborer can now obtain advice and medicine far superior to that which royalty could command one or two centuries ago.
“The advance in medical knowledge within one's memory," says Sir James Paget, “ is amazing, whether reckoned in the wonders of science not yet applied, or in practical results, in the general lengthening of life, or, which is still better, in the prevention and decrease of pain and misery, and in the increase of working power.
“The dawning of medical science, which now sheds its light through the world, began with Hippocrates nearly twenty-three hundred years ago, and he first treated of medicine with anything like sound or rational principles. He wrote extensively, much of which has been translated, and serves as a foundation for the succeeding literature of the profession. He relied chiefly upon the healing powers of nature, his remedies being exceedingly simple. He taught that ‘the people' ought not to load themselves with excrements, or keep them in too long; and for this reason he prescribed ‘meats proper for loosening the belly,' and if these failed, he directed the use of the clysters.
“Three hundred years before Christ, Erasistratus invented and used the catheter, introduced the tourniquet, and produced an instrument for lithotriptic operations. Celsus flourished A. D. 50 to 120 as the greatest of Roman surgeons.
“Through the centuries from the beginning of the Christian era down to…
ONLY JACK: I knew Jack Switzer when he was a little guy and when he was a big guy. He was a tad younger than myself, but he was a good deal of fun. I think his sense of humor is reflected in his business card. If I ever had a gang Jack was a member. We had more than a few good laughs.
After Vietnam, and after a whole lot of other things, Jack moved to Florida and I never saw him again. But every now and then I’d hear something about him - right up until his death in January of 2018.
Methinks my friend Frank Homitz gave me this card around the time of Jack’s death.
Bill is putting his young daughter to bed one night and as he walks out the bedroom door he hears her saying her prayers. She says, "God bless mommy, daddy, and grandma, rest in peace grandpa."
Bill rushes back into her bedroom and asks her, "Why did you say the last part?" His daughter replies, "Because I needed to." The next day, grandpa dies of a heart attack. Bill is worried about his daughter but thinks, "It must just be a sad coincidence."
That night he tucks his daughter into bed again and once again he hears her saying her prayers. She says, "God bless mommy and daddy, rest in peace grandma." Bill is now really worried and thinking to himself, "Can my daughter really see into the future?" The next day, grandma dies and now Bill is convinced his daughter can predict the future.
For the rest of the week nothing happens, but on the Sunday night as Bill leaves his daughter's bedroom he waits outside and listens for any more prayers. Sure enough, he hears her say, "God bless you mommy, rest in peace daddy." Now Bill is really panicking and thinking, '"Oh God, I'm going to die tomorrow!"
The following day Bill is in a complete mess all day in work; a real nervous wreck. He constantly checks the clock, looks around the room and is on edge all the time expecting to die at any moment. He is so nervous that he doesn't leave the office until it's past midnight. Once it turns midnight he says to himself with relief, "How is this possible? I should be dead!" He goes home and walks into the house to find his wife sitting on the sofa with a scared look on her face. She asks him, "Where have you been? What took you so long?" Bill replies, "Listen honey, today I haven't had the best of days" and he is just about to tell her what has happened when she starts crying and bursts out, "I saw the mailman die yesterday!"
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 “Tripping: A Writer’s Journeys.” Signed copies of her new book can be purchased for $15.00 at the Southside Sentinel office or by mail by writing Rappahannock Press, Box 546, Urbanna, VA and adding $6.00 to cover mailing costs and tax. Contact:glongest@ssentinel.com.
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
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Vol. 17. Issue 30 - September 28, 2019
Archive Issue #863
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© 2017 Rich Tarrant