German Fest Amherst Sandstone Village Saturday August 10, 2013 ...

The Grindstone July/August 2013

German Fest Amherst Sandstone Village Saturday August 10, 2013 2:00 P.M. - 10:00 P.M.

Sandstone Village Upcoming Events 2012 Volunteer Recognition Picnic September 7, 2013 12:00 - 2:00 Sandstone Village Grounds By My Lantern’s Light Halloween in the Village October 19, 2013 October 20, 2013 5:00– 8:00 P.M.

Ed Klimczak Hank Haller Ensemble

Christmas in the Village December 8, 2013 Grange Hall/Schoolhouse 2:00 - 4:00 P.M. Caroling in the Chapel 4:00 - 5:00 P.M. Village Christmas Dinner December 14, 2013 Grange Hall/Schoolhouse 6:00 P.M.

Musical Entertainment

Entertainment for the Children

Ed Klimczak 2:15 - 4:15

Lake Erie Nature & Science Center Animal Show 3:00 - 3:30 & 4:00 - 4:30

German-American Dancers 5:00 - 6:00 Hank Haller Ensemble 6:00 - 10:00 German Fest Food

German Fest Beer Hofbrau Octoberfest Hofbrau Draft Dunkeklgld Great Lakes Octoberfest Labatt Lt Draft German Fest Wine Schmittshone Riesling

Donauschwaben’s German-American Cultural Center Dancers

J&J Catering Kierowski’s Bakery Turley Concessions Admission Fee $5.00 Children 12 years and younger are admitted free

Noah Sholl– Imagine Ballooning 4:00 - 6:00 Wandering Magician 3:00 - 4:30 Face Painting 1:00 - 6:00 Crafts Caricaturists by Mike Leuszler 3:00 - 6:00 Miniature Pony Rides 2:00 - 5:00

The President’s letter By Bob Pallante I hope that all members visit the Village grounds to see the improvements and additions that are taking place. We have a new sandstone water canal in place of the old stream through the efforts of Eagle Scout Cody Congelio and Del Kulp with the help of Terry Traster. The new pavilion next to the Fire Museum has been started and should be completed sometime in August. The materials are being donated by Ralph Zilch with volunteers supplying the labor.

Bob Pallante

The Amherst Garden Club has been planting and caring for the Victorian Garden and the planted areas around the buildings with Charlie Wearsch and Terry Traster trying to keep up with the task of mowing the grounds. Bill Provident will be opening a ceramic/pottery business in the west end of the long barn in mid-July and will be offering some classes as well as sales of ceramics and pottery. Our annual German Fest is August 10, 2013 and I hope you are planning to attend. The committee is busy arranging for additional entertainment and more activities for the children. This year among the numerous raffle items will be a regulation Ohio State Buckeye helmet donated by Marilyn Jenne. Unique to the helmet is that it is personally signed by Coach Jim Tressel, 2002 Line Backer, Matt Wilhelm and 2002 Kicker, Mike Nugent.

Volunteer Recognition Picnic September 7, 3013 12 Noon We are planning something a little different to recognize and thank those members and non members who volunteered in 2012. On September 7, 2013, we have planned a recognition picnic at the village instead of the sit down recognition dinner previously held in the Grange Hall. Traditional picnic food will be served...and if by chance it rains….we’ll just picnic inside the Grange hall! If you have volunteered anytime during 2012, please call Donna at the office at 988-7255 to make a reservation to attend the event.

Hello all. It seems like the temperature has reached the point that we must be ready to start the field season. FARC will be back in the field for a final project at our current site near Milan, starting on Sunday, June 16. This is a great opportunity to interested volunteers to get involved in what is sure to be a summer of discovery. If you are interested in joining us in the field, please contact us at: [email protected]. We will be investigating a portion of the prehistoric Native American site that has yielded evidence of built structures including a house and a large village-encompassing stockade fence. Natives used the site, and this summer’s portion specifically, from Early Woodland times (ca. 600 B.C.) through Late Prehistoric times (ca. A.D. 1450). Once completed in the field we will be working in the lab, at the Sandstone Village, to clean and analyze the artifacts, and once again volunteers are encouraged to join us. Don’t miss this opportunity to be a part of teamwork and discovery. Email us and visit www.firelandsarchaeology.org. We look forward to hearing from you. 2

DO YOU REMEMBER?......

The Way We Shopped?

By Vivienna Bickley When the grocer was the owner of his own store and waited on customers from behind the counter? When his store was simply a huge room surrounded by counters and shelves behind him almost to Vivienna Bickley the ceiling. Some had tall ladders they could wheel to each section that held the merchandise. When you dressed up and wore a hat and gloves to go shopping in “downtown” Lorain or Elyria? What a difference in a mall shoppers appearance now! Remember the gadget that carried your sales slip and cash in a capsule by vacuum tube to the office upstairs where they returned it with your change? Do you know what the name of this clever system was? Tell me if you do. Do you recall your first visit to the “supermarket”? Mine was not the thrill I had expected. The Big Bear store in Columbus was converted from a warehouse and was plain, badly lighted and had no interesting displays. The selfservice won us over and, of course, the stores improved with competition. The Piggly Wiggly in Alabama was an improvement over Big Bear. But where did they get those names? The street cars? During the depression, if my mother could scrape up the fare, which I believe was only a dime, we would ride into Lorain downtown on a street car which was a trolley car. She really couldn’t afford to shop, so we did window shopping. She may have bought a ten-cent item from one of the “Five and Dime” stores, such as bobby or safety pins, cold cream, perfume (it was awful) rouge or bar soap, etc. There was a Woolworth’s, Kresge’s, and Neisners, which was actually a “dollar store”. We used to stop in at the seed store where a voice would call out “Hello Girls” when we walked in. The voice belonged to their huge colorful parrot who talked and danced in rhythm to “Yankee Doodle”. But the trolley ride was the best part of all! Remember the lady who played the latest songs on the piano and sang without a mike in a dime store? She was selling the latest sheet music. I stood and listened to her (and learned all the lyrics) while my mother shopped. Remember when Sears Roebucks' and Montgomery Ward sent free catalogs to everyone? Mail order shopping was quite popular then in the 30’s and 40’s. My uncle, only two years older then me, used to call the catalogs our “wishing books”. We played a game, seeing who could be first to slap our hands over an item and say “MINE!” How was it that he at about eight years and me at six could be happy just pretending ownership of items? Children of the Great Depression were easily made happy and used their imaginations more in self entertainment. I do believe such a childhood without material possessions was good for you. Later came the Malls with the May Co. Mall on Rte. 254 leading the way. We thought it was great until the bigger Midway Mall in Elyria was built. Then on and on came new ones like Great Northern for us to explore. Many people shop now on the internet from the comfort of their homes, but a person who really loves shopping heads for the Malls….how shopping did change! May 2013 Girl Scout Bridging Ceremony in the Village Girl Scout Bridging, a traditional ceremony, is when the young scout moves from one level to the next. Pictured is Daisy troop #626 crossing over the village bridge marking their move from Daisies to Brownies. Troop leaders, Kathy Dean-Dielman and Dana Murphy proudly oversee the ceremony. 3

Memories Pages Prelude by Marilyn Jenne I had always known that my grandfather, Clayton Engle, was killed when he was pushed into a quarry hole while working at the quarries in 1895. My mother was 8 months old at the time. A few years later my grandmother remarried and I was not close to my grandfather’s family. I knew little about them until I recently came across a family history written in 1934 by Charlotte Mae Lewis, my grandmother’s sister. I learned much about his family and about our strong connection to the quarries. I had never seen this history before and was thrilled with it...folded and almost eligible as it is. Perhaps others will find it as interesting as I did.

Memories Pages by Charlotte Mae Lewis,

(continued)

Marilyn Jenne

When my mother was a small child, Grandpa acquired the fever for the West, he thought it might better his fortune. It was considerable undertaking to move ones family from Ohio to Illinois by covered wagon and horses. The family had previously lived at Jolliet Illinois, my mother and Aunt Louisa were born there. So once again they hit the long trail. There were no real roads to carry them to their new home. Grandpa’s brother Lyman went with the family. Such hardships, but they were use to hardships these sturdy pioneers. I remember my mother telling about getting lost on this last trip across country. Her parents had sent her some distance to bring a bucket of water and when she did not return her parents became alarmed. Leaving Grandma with the younger child, Louisa, as there were many wild animals about, especially wolves, Grandpa and his brother went to search for Sarah. After some hours, they found her lying asleep in the woods. The child had become very ill from headache and stopped to rest and fallen asleep. There was great rejoicing when the men returned with the child. And still another time, Sarah was sent to bring water from a farm house near by, where the family were camping for the nite, and to their surprise and delight, she had found old Ohio friends. How their hearts sank within them when they reached the new western home. The first thing was to build a heavy picket fence many feet high, another of brush, as a defense against wild animals. I have heard my mother tell how she and Aunt Louisa would be left alone all day while their parents would go to trade at the nearest town, and how perhaps it would be dark when their father and mother returned. How they could hear the wolves howling in the distance and how frightened they would be. The tilling of the poor land, everything so wild, and the drudgery was unbearable. They lived in this country for sometime and once again the family moved by wagon back to Ohio where the other children were born. They located at Henrietta Hill, later moved to Amherst where they lived the remainder of their days. At the time of the Civil War, Grandpa enlisted in Erie Co., Aug.25,1864 - Co. A.128 O.U.I.. Seven months of the year of enlistment were spent in a hospital at Johnsons Island. Discharged there April 25, 1865. Grandma went to visit him a number of times. Greater preparations could not have been made for the trip had she been going to the ends of the earth. She drove to North Amherst three miles, then went by train to Sandusky and them by ferry across the Bay to the Island. One day word came that Grandpa had been discharged and Grandma was to bring him home. Grandma was away three days. Eugene, the oldest boy was quite ill at this time, and lived only a short time after Grandpa returned. These were busy and trying days for all. Owing to Grandpa’s poor health the burden of the family fell upon Grandma. She always did the knitting. Everyone's stockings had to be knitted by hand, so a ball of wool was carried in her apron pocket, or where it was handy to pick up when she had a moment to spare. A great deal of this work was done by candlelight, and making candles was part of the work too. The only home of my Grandparents which I remember, stood where the new school building is now located at Amherst. But what a change. The house has been moved away, the beautiful maple tress are gone, the old picket fence with its swing gate, the long path which led up to the house with sweet williams, bleeding hearts, thousand leaf roses and various other old fashioned flowers are gone along with the dear face at the window, which I have previously spoken of. Note: Due to the length of Charlotte Mae Lewis’s reminiscence, her memoirs will be continued in the next issue. 4

A 1944 Steam Locomotive Experience By Col. Matthew Nahorn If you drove by a railroad crossing on May 11 or 12, you may have been surprised to have been met with groups of people standing near the tracks, with cameras and cell-phones in hand, trying to get a glimpse of an old steam engine making its way through the countryside.

1944 steam locomotive. Matt Nahorn, Mark Hall, Russ Marty with Crosby Marty and Charlie Marty viewing the passing steam locomotive.

The Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society operates a beautifully restored and fully operational 1944 steam locomotive. They acquired this massive relic from a city park, and restored it in 1979. This 404-ton machine is known as Engine 765 (The Berkshire) and was built by the Lima Locomotive Works, according to the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society’s website (http://fortwaynerailroad.org/track-765/ locomotive-765/). When it was built, it was an advanced piece of machinery, having a larger firebox which provided more horsepower and heating surface. Lima Locomotive Works engineer William E. Woodard conceived the design for the “Berkshire.” It is now used for railroad education and provides periodic tours for interested passengers.

No. 765’s trip through this area in May coincided with the anniversary of the 1869 event in Promontory Point, Utah. Here the “golden spike” was driven into a railroad tie, commemorating the completion of Transcontinental Railroad in America. Today we might not appreciate railroads or give them enough credit for their crucial role in the advancement of our country. But the use of steam locomotives spanned some 150 years, and today, the railways are still used each and every day to efficiently transport cargo across the county, and many pass right through Amherst daily. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to watch this train two times on Saturday, May 11, alongside a few local historians. We met at the tracks near the Meadowlarks property off of Crosse Road, where there was ample parking and plenty of space to see the oncoming locomotive. We were surprised that it arrived on the inside track, and as a result, I was able to capture a great video of its approach from Rockport Yard in Cleveland. The train reversed direction at FairlaneYard near the former Ford Plant, and we were able to see this piece of history begin its return trip. Mr. Tim Branscum, a local photographer, was able to document the event with some stunning photos, one of which appears above. A Treasured Artifact By Col. Matthew Nahorn While working with Joan Rosenbusch in the upper level of the Quigley Museum, we came across a very important daguerreotype of one of our earliest Amherst settlers, Josiah Harris, taken c. 1840-1850. Josiah Harris was a justice of the peace, tavern owner, brick yard owner, and the first sheriff in Lorain County, among other things. He originally settled near the Old Spring in 1818. A letter and deed of gift to the Historical Society, accompanying this artifact, notes that it was donated by a Harris family member, Frederick Mann, Jr. It is inside of a beautiful, ornate case, and both the daguerreotype and case are very well-preserved. Inside the daguerreotype was an old handwritten note stating this was "Grandfather Harris (Josiah Harris) b. Beckett, Mass. Nov. 30, 1783; d. Amherst, Ohio March 28, 1868." 5

Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain

Fascinating Facts about the Declaration of Independence Did You Know…... The original Declaration of Independence is exhibited in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in Washington, DC. It has faded badly, largely because of poor preservation techniques during the 19th century. The document measures 29 3/4 inches by 24 1/2 inches. There is something written on the back of the Declaration of Independence, but it isn’t a secret map or code. Instead, there are a few handwritten words that say, “Original Declaration of Independence / dated 4th July 1716. Regarding the message on the back, according to the National Archives, “While no one knows for certain who wrote it, it is known that early in its life, the large parchment document was rolled up for storage. So, it is likely that the notation was added simply as a label.” One of the most widely held misconceptions about the Declaration of Independence is that it was signed on July 4, 1716. In fact, independence was formally declared on July 2, 1716, a date that John Adams believed would be “ the most memorable epocha in the history of America.” On July 4, 1776, Congress approved the final text of the Declaration. It wasn’t signed until August 2, 1776.

Once the Declaration of Independence had been written and signed, printer John Dunlap was asked to make about 200 copies to be distributed throughout the colonies. Today, the “Dunlap Broadsides” are extremely rare and valuable. In 1889, someone discovered a previously unknown Dunlap Broadside. It was sold for $8 million in 2000. There are only 26 known surviving Dunlap Broadsides today.

Although Thomas Jefferson is often called the “Author” of the Declaration of Independence, he wasn’t the only person who contributed important ideas. A fiveperson committee appointed by the Continental Congress included Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman. No one who signed the Declaration of Independence was born in the United States of America. The United States didn't exist until after the declaration was signed! However, all but eight of the signers were born in colonies that would become the United States.. 6

The Genealogy Corner: # 48 Orville Manes by Joan Rosenbusch, Guest Writer, for Orville Manes

Who Remembers The Moose Heads? (A bit of Amherst School History)

Orville Manes

Two moose-heads hung from the walls on either side of the stage in the gymnasium of Central School for many years; but it seems the story as to why, when or how was known to only a few. With the help of Doreen Standen-Lane and Olive Bemis-Gerber I was able to piece together the story behind the mystery. It seems that Doreen's grandfather, Doctor Erin Herman Standen, had a hunting camp in the early 1900's, in Webbwood, Ontario Canada about 300 miles north of Toronto. Many of his Amherst friends would venture into the wilderness there to hunt with him... men like Bob Gerber, the Tisdales and Rev. F. E. Eastman who was the pastor of the Amherst Congregational Church for years. During these trips two of the moose that were harvested by Doctor Standen and Reverend Eastman ended up hanging in the school. PICTURED RIGHT: In the canoe on the right is E.H. Standen in the front and in the back is Syd Scott, the Indian he employed at his hunting lodge year round. Two moose can be seen in the canoes also. The other three men are unidentified. (Photo courtesy of Doreen Standen-Lane)

Why Central School? Well, it seems that Doc Standen had a special interest in Central School. As a young man he worked for the renowned architect Henry Oswald Wurmser. Mr. Wurmser was responsible for designing our own Amherst Central School along with other churches, business and residences throughout the state. Therefore after the moose were mounted what better place to hang these enormous heads than there? (especially since their wives probably wouldn't allow them to be hung in their houses.)

ABOVE:: The mount hanging on the right of the stage was the Standen trophy whereas the one on the left of the stage was the Eastman trophy. The picture was found in the “1951 Record” (the yearbook from Central School.) 7

Now we have a new mystery to solve. I wonder whatever happened to those mounts after they were removed from Central School….. to be continued .

Non-Profit Org U.S. Postage Paid Amherst, OH Permit No. 4

T H E A M H E R ST H I ST O R IC AL S O C I E T Y 1 1 3 SO U T H L A K E ST R E ET AMHERST , OH 44001 P H O N E : 4 4 0 -9 8 8 -7 2 5 5 F A X : 4 4 0 - 9 8 8 -2 9 5 1 EMAIL: A M H E R S T H I ST O R Y@ C EN T U R Y T EL . N ET WEB: W W W . A M H E R S T H IS T O R I C AL SO C I ET Y . O R G T H E A M H E R ST H I ST O R IC AL S O C I E T Y BOARD O F D I R EC T O R S

Jami Anderson

Kathy Litkovitz, Treasurer

Paul Bires

Bob Pallante, President

John Diedrich

Kelly Post

Kathy Dean-Dielman

Judy Ryan, Secretary

John Dunn, Vice-President

Steve Sayers

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

ADDRESS LABEL

Frank Janik, Esq. The Amherst Historical Society wishes to acknowledge a charitable remainder trust created by Mr. Evan Nord and administrated by The Community Foundation of Lorain County. Grindstone edited by Bob & Martha Pallante and Donna Rumpler, Printed by SQP Print Center

Tidbits compiled in 1975 by Amherst Historian, Bertine Foster, from the 1892 North Amherst Argus. J.H. Frederick, the hardware man, is again unable to attend the store— rheumatism. Clara Honecker is slowly recovering from typhoid fever. Dr. and Mrs. Grace Percell inform us that there is a change of administration at their home. It was a boy born Monday. Whether they will name him after Mayor Davidson or not we are unable to say. Superintendent Schibley sprained his ankle and uses a cane. John Roat was arrested at complaint of Frank Keller. Clayton Engle has accepted the position of baggageman at the depot. Conrad Bauer is the proud father of twin boys.

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