USA > Ohio > Allen County > A standard history of Allen county, Ohio : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development > Part 35
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The commission form of government comes into effect January 1, 1922, at the end of the term of Mayor Burkhardt. Henceforth initiative, referendum and recall enter into the conduct of public service. It requires genius to operate municipal affairs and nothing can be done in the U. S. Congress at Washington that so directly affects a com- munity as the actions of its own lawmaking bodies; while the stone pile was once a bugbear to evildoers, the outcome of commission government is awaited with interest. The 1912 revision of the Ohio Constitution provides for it. When many laws on the statutes of Allen County were enacted it was purely an agricultural county, but Lima is now an indus- trial center with manufacturing and commercial interests. Residents of the community have felt the need of different conditions. A movement to replace the aldermanic form of government with the commission- manager charter plan was begun early in 1919, and a commission was named and instructed to draft a charter. It secures home rule for Lima
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except that the charter shall in no way interfere with the tax limit laws of the state governing municipalities; city officials are not granted any greater debt-incurring power than they now possess. Public hearings are required upon appropriations of public money. Copies of the char- ter may be obtained by those who desire to study it.
Here is a sentiment from the Athenian oath: "We will never bring disgrace to this, our city, by any act of dishonesty or cowardice." There was a time when the Lima police force consisted of one solitary officer called a marshal. He was chosen because of his physical rather than his mental qualifications. There was an unwritten law that no gentle- man would be arrested without a fight, and anyone arrested without a fight was no gentleman. The entire population would turn out when it was known that certain characters were abroad for a time. The marshal at once went out for them and he usually landed them. Usually the town marshal was a terror for evildoers. One had a relative who proceeded to jollify on the strength of their relationship and he found himself in durance vile as a result of his indiscretion. For years Lima has had a well equipped, efficient police department.
One of the aims of Greater Lima is the proper zoning idea-safety zones for slow driving in the vicinity of schools; quiet zones adjacent to hospitals, and the protection of residence districts from business encroachments. Under a modern zoning ordinance there can be no business houses in a strictly residence community. Zoning divides the city into districts, protecting each district from objectionable intruders, and provides that no parcel of land may be used in such way as to prevent all adjacent land from being improved with buildings of similar nature. There is also an effort to rid the streets of the poles used in the lighting system. The time has arrived when definite steps should be taken by the city to get this forest of poles from the main streets. Underground systems for wires and necessary poles in the alleys will solve the problem.
THE PARK SYSTEM-In this climate people live out of doors six months of the year, and the modern housing plans seek to bring door- yards and living rooms together. The healthgiving ozone is the nec- essary thing. As late as 1910 someone exclaimed: "There is no place to rest. The helplessness of the situation inspires the crowds, and mid- night finds the people walking the streets-always good natured-a mass of good natured humanity-men, women, boys and girls out on a hot summer evening and an occasional band concert," and again appeared this paragraph : "Lima is proud of its 317 acres of beautiful parks, its well-paved streets, the high standard of its public schools, its attractive residences, its excellent shopping district, its pure water and the demo- cratic hospitality of its people. All these things point out for Lima a progressive and prosperous future."
However, Public Service Director Elmer McClain explains that only two of the parks credited to Lima are municipal, and, therefore, of permanent character. Faurot or City Park is attractive from the hand of nature, while man has accelerated its charms. The driveways are winding and the hillsides are flanked with shrubbery. Hover Park is an inside private property, and it is the ambition of the public service director to finally control it, and by acquiring a small tract connect it with Faurot, and thus establish a chain since Faurot adjoins beautiful Woodlawn Cemetery, and beyond lies McBeth woods and the Shawnee Country Club, part of which is permanent and part of which is leased, but destined to be a pleasure resort for many years. The rugged scenery along the Ottawa is included in this stretch of unbroken woodland, and
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nature has been kind to the community. This connected chain of parks affords a natural stage-a fine setting for pageantry, a stadium for out- of-door operas, airdomes, etc. In Faurot Park is a collection of animals -elks with immense antlers, buffaloes, bears, monkeys, coyotes, foxes, Angora goats, ponies and a collection of birds, all of which require the presence of a custodian in winter as well as in the season when there are park visitors.
Mccullough Park and Lake on the other side of Lima affords indoor amusements as well as fishing which is limited to club members, and, with the river frontage and shaded boulevards, there is no dearth of out-of-door attractions. The public schools afford playgrounds and there are baseball diamonds and football grounds. The steam and elec- tric cars transport citizens to nearby pleasure resorts, and with some natural forest still intact, and the smaller towns having their breathing spots, Allen County does not suffer for out-of-door amusements. The Delphos Public Library nestles away in a pretty little park that was pro- vided in the beginning as a resort, and the love of the beautiful so per- meates the community that many private homes are like pleasure resorts- front lawns and rear door yards alike attractive.
The City of Lima covers an area of almost eight square miles, which means 5,000 acres, and in 1919 there were 9,915 registered voters-the Eighteenth Amendment not yet a reality. The total in 1920 was 17,670, indicating that about 7,000 women registered in Lima. With 175 streets aggregating 110 miles of improvement, and forty-six miles of pavement, there are advantages offered to citizens. With a police force of thirty- five efficient men, and adequate fire protection, with attention given san- itation, with a model business community, "Lima is the hub of a mighty industrial wheel with spokes of steel radiating in every direction." Since Lima is a manufacturing center in a rich agricultural territory, it is but natural that "Lima leads." It would require a full-sized directory to enumerate the business and social enterprises of the community. The promoters all had the opportunity in the biography section of the Allen County History.
CHAPTER XXIII
A RESUME-TOWN AND COUNTRY
In 1790 the first United States census, taken under the supervision of President George Washington-the year following the beginning of his first administration-disclosed a total population of 4,000,000, and since about one-fifth of the inhabitants were Negro slaves, there was a problem confronting the new republic. The whirligig of time has changed many things.
The 1920 census reveals an increase of 106,000,000 people in the United States, with human slavery out of existence, the liquor business in the throes of dissolution, and the women of America emphasizing the fact of their emancipation. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Consti- tution applies to Negroes, while the Eighteenth Amendment liberates the women of the United States. Schools of citizenship were a feature of the 1920 presidential campaign in Allen County and the womanhood of the country has asserted itself in the community. It was not until the sixth official census of the United States that Allen County was listed, although in 1830 there were 578 persons reported from the area then tributary to Mercer County.
On June 6, 1831, Allen was detached from Mercer and established its own legal existence. Since then the official returns have shown the Allen County population as follows: 1840, 9,079; 1850, 12,100; 1860, 19,185; 1870, 23,623; 1880, 31,314; 1890, 40,644; 1900, 47,976; 1910, 56,580 ; 1920, 68,203, and while the ax man "Death" deals right and left, it is apparent that the stork has made more visits than the undertaker in the homes of Allen County. Although the air-man may supplant mundane travel in twentieth century transportation, nothing will ever interfere with the plan of the stork in bringing youthful passengers into the community. While P. T. Barnum was right in his day, it is no reflection on the children of Allen County to say that the birthrate of fools has been doubled with the increase in the world's population.
It is estimated that, as a whole, the 1920 census shows an increase of 175 per cent in fifty years. The result in Allen County is a fraction more than 180 per cent in the last half century. In actual figures the gain in population is 44,580, being an average increase of almost 1,000 annually. The county enters its second century in local history unabashed and unashamed of its past. It is a front line county in its agriculture and livestock interests, and its voice has been heard in the councils of state and nation. It is prominent in law, medicine and statesmanship and with its millions of wealth in its undeveloped resources, Allen County is a fit type for the councils of the commonwealth. It is no longer fit- ting to discuss Allen as a new county since it has passed its centenary It is the most populous of the six counties in the Fourth Congressional district, of the seven counties in the State Senatorial district, and of the sixteen counties in the Appellate Judicial district of Ohio, and because of its population the board of elections in Allen County always receives election reports from all those centers. Lima is in the limelight-a political storm center.
There was a time when "everybody knew everybody" in Allen County, but that was in the "good old days" that will never come again. When the returned traveler meets one old friend who has forgotten him and another who did not know of his absence, he calls the community
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selfish and wonders why he had not impressed himself upon it more definitely. He forgets that there is a vacant chair in every household and that the waters of oblivion soon close over the absentees like the waters of the ocean over a fish that has leaped out of them and then dropped back again. The certain way to be remembered is to leave the community owing everybody, and then old acquaintances are not always the best friends ; some have unfailing memories for one's age and family secrets. The pioneer had the right idea who said it is upon the better things of life one must fix his gaze who would be remembered in any community.
Births, marriages and deaths make up the sum of living in any com- munity; the citizenry of today did not look into the faces of those sturdy pioneers who inhabited Allen County prior to 1850-the days of personal struggle and heroism in conquering the wilderness. It is a source of gratification to think of that generation as exalted before God and man. Someone says: "We understand them better today when we see things unfolding before us, of which they had definite vision in their generation ; they were building for the future." What shall be the state of society when this generation shall leave it to the next-this new civilization in Allen County, coming out of the World war and entering upon the task of reconstruction? A generation is an average lifetime in a community-about one-third of a century-and about three gener- ations occupy the stage of action in a century. The next generation always takes up the white man's burden where the men and women of the past choose to leave it, and it seems a far cry from the log cabin home in the wilderness of Allen County to the stucco mansion of today.
The architect builder of today would be unable to draw plans for the Allen County settler, who went to the woods with an ax when he was ready to construct his primitive American abode. He cut and trimmed the logs and rived the clapboards, and the architect of today would be mystified with weight poles and eavebearers, nor could he con- struct the stick and clay chimney of the long ago. Who was it said:
"A weight-pole roof and puncheon floor, A mud-stick-chimney and a clapboard door,"
and even the heating system is changed today. There was a fireplace from four to six feet wide, and about four feet in height with a layer of mud on the inside walls to prevent them from burning, and the cracks were scutched and daubed instead of the modern lath and plas- ter. There were wooden hinges and a wooden latch on the door, and the latchstring out was a welcome to frontier visitors. Instead of sky- lights and bay windows, the settlers used greased paper to admit the light, and how to rid themselves of the forest trees was the problem rather than where they would obtain the next armfull of stove wood. Not all the timber was of the quality for the rail-splitter when fencing was the difficulty and much of it went up in smoke to rid the ground of its encumbrance, nor was it exactly wilfull waste that has brought about this woeful want in the country. A recent jokesmith has said:
"Don't live too fast, my friends, or mind you- We'll soon be walking slow behind you,"
although it was not the spectacle of pride going before the fall with the Allen County settler.
In reminiscent mood Dr. Samuel A. Baxter wrote: "A pioneer who has not an Indian, panther or wolf story which for blood-curdling
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details surpasses all other stories of the like, is not a pioneer worthy of the name," and the time has come in Allen County history when none are left to tell those stories firsthand-all hearsay stories today. The people of the long ago would say "What became of Old-Man-So-and- So?" and they would preface their remarks . with "Don't you recollect ?" Aye, that part of Allen County's population long since went the way of the world. While some of the stories will always remain, it is impos- sible to reproduce the animated faces and hear the hearty laughter of "other days." The settlers had no newspapers and they "must needs" drive dull care away with word-of-mouth stories, but there is a changed civilization today. The span of fifty years-it depends upon whether it is in prospect or retrospect, when it seems like an eternity.
In the annals of the Welsh community appeared the following: "Gradually the wilderness gave way to the pioneer. His sturdy arm and untiring frame never knew rest until the forest was made to blossom with fruit and grain. Along the stream he built his mill and in the protected valley he laid out his village, and there is another glimpse of the picture-old log barns have disappeared and there are frame barns painted red, an attractive color scheme against the landscape. The cab- ins of the settlers long since disappeared and there are frame and brick dwellings-every man's home his castle. His 'children are with him in bed,' and they are free from molestation." Evidently the sacred writer had some . conception of Americanism, but now the modern city has transformed all those primitive conditions.
The wilderness dweller in Allen County history met the howling wolf with defiance and dined upon the wild meats of the forest. He inhab- ited the land with the panther, wolf, bear, deer, wild hog, raccoon, opossum, porcupine, wildcat, groundhog, squirrel, rabbit, mink and weasel, but, as the virgin forest yielded to his ax, cattle, sheep, hogs and horses flourished in the meadows. Among the feathered tribes were wild turkey, pheasant, quail, wild goose, owl, partridge, duck, wild pigeons-there were many birds of fine plumage when the white man came-the red, blue and black birds, robin, humming bird, jay, wood- pecker, yellow hammer, lark, swallow, whippoorwill, dove and mocking birds-and there were reptiles, some of them poisonous, but the chil- dren of today only have the printed stories as proof of their existence. The wild life of the forest disappeared with the woodlands, and there is now no friendly shelter. At the end of 100 years reforestration is the problem.
When the woodman first went forth with his ax he encountered walnut, oak, hickory, these monarchs of the forest offering the settler some suggestion as to the quality of the land. It required good soil to grow big trees, and when Allen County land was on the market many families from the older Ohio counties took advantage of the opportunity. Weary of hillside farming in the unproductive, stony country, they simply changed ends of the state, and they were wise enough to seek the lands along the streams, both for quality of land and the advantage of water. In Knapp's "History of the Maumee Valley," dealing with conditions in the '70s, is the statement that within a radius of five miles of Delphos there were thirty-five sawmills, and if the ratio was the same all over Allen County that fact alone explains the disappearance of the forest. There are portable saw mills today and sometimes teams are seen drawing logs, and trucks rapidly deliver them at the mills. It is hard to understand that there was a time when there was no market for timber in Allen County. While the work of clearing the farms was a laborious undertaking, the ax was applied to the giants of the forest
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and in due time the "cabin in the clearing" was the harbinger of the present-day civilization.
While it requires a Paul to plant and Apolis to water, when the set- tler did his part God gave the increase, and the lowing herds and the fields of waving grain are in evidence at the end of the first century in Allen County history. The log heap and the brush pile were links in the chain, the white ash, wild cherry, red beach, walnut-all went up in smoke in the advance of civilization. It is said that all shade trees in Allen County towns today are second growth timber and it seems a matter of regret that the settler did not have the vision and leave some of the giants of the forest. The settler must perforce cut off sufficient space for his cabin, and when the logs were cut in lengths four to six of the neighbors would come in and with handspikes they would con- sign them to the pile. There was a community spirit and they invited everybody. The women and children came along, and sumptuous dinners cooked before the fire were placed on the tables. There were viands at hand and hospitality asserted itself. It is changed environment today, but the community spirit still rules in the hearts of men.
While the snow-white loaf has supplanted the johnny cake of the settler, the menus are changing again. The wholesome diet of the pio- neer entered into the health conditions. While the pioneer was his own manufacturer and could shoe a horse or iron a wagon with equal dex- terity-no comparisons necessary with the finished workmanship of today-the wholesome advice to all knockers was to build houses where they could knock to some purpose, and the pioneer was never the pris- oner of fate who learned only one part of the trade, as does the peni- tentiary convict of today. Aye, for many years the fathers, mothers, sons and daughters were all clad in garments made by their own hands, when everybody worked from daylight until late at night, and nothing was said about shortening the hours of labor. The father made the shoes and the mother knit the socks by the light from the embers, and when a new broom was a necessity it was brought from the forest; they swept their door yards oftener when they had the wooden brooms. As the markets came nearer the rude cabin the settler became less versatile in his resources, and today everything is produced in the American factory.
Time was when the children studied the three R's by the light from the hearth, and who would refuse a helping from the chicken potpie, the apple or berry dumplings or vegetables cooked before the fire when once they found their way to the table? When the mothers used ears of corn for rolling pins, and hung their dinner pots on the cranes and pot trammels they were never uncertain about results. The potatoes roasted in the ashes had no uncertain flavor, and the bread and the pones baked in the skillets always passed muster. Before there were Lucifer matches the woman with the pipe always managed to keep a bed of coals alive on the hearth. It was an improvident neighbor who was reduced to the necessity of borrowing fire, and what would the settler have known about the bath room and the steam heated homes that have followed in the wake of his wilderness activities? In 1835, when Allen County began filling up rapidly with men and women determined to conquer the wilderness, they thought nothing of the long distances to mill and to market, in Sandusky and Piqua-those hardy frontiersmen.
When the settlers came some of them were so fortunate as to bring provision-cornmeal, meat, a horse, a cow, a gun for the wild meats and some of them had dogs, and building material was never the prob- lem; the people of England recognized the situation and bought timber
Vol. I-18
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in America for a song. Yes, Allen County shipped timber to the British Isles in an effort to rid the ground of its encumbrance. While every corner of the county has its legends, and every community has its heroes in whose honor there are picnics and celebrations, it remained for the Elida Pioneer Association, organized in 1895, to draw aside the curtain of the years and see it all again. This annual reunion and home-coming attracts many visitors, and as they listen to the voice of the past and "hear the sound thereof as the sound of many waters," they are glad to wait awhile in the grove-God's First Temple. M. J. Sanford is credited with the suggestion, and the Elida Pioneer Association meets always on the second Thursday in August.
In Allen County are many who are "the stuff that dreams are made of" and they like to think of the pioneers as having lived for the future. They sank their personal hopes and ambitions for the advancement and development ; they looked for their reward in the advantages they might secure for posterity, in the welfare of the community. While a com- munity may fall prey to its own inherent weakness, they had no false standards or ambitions. They were not included in the category of an old-fashioned philosopher, meditating on what ails the world, who said there are "too many diamonds and not enough alarm clocks; too many silk shirts and not enough flannel ones ; too many pointed-toed shoes and not enough square-toed ones; too many serge suits and not enough over- alls ; too much of decollette and not enough aprons ; too much of the spirit 'get while the getting is good' and not enough old-fashioned Christianity ; too much discontent that vents itself in mere complaining, and too little real effort to remedy conditions; too much class consciousness and too little common democracy and love of humanity."
While the pioneers always discuss the "good old times," under World war economic conditions Allen County citizens have been united in their quest for the profiteer, and their discussion of "high old times," inci- dentally taking many flings at the high cost of living, literally submerg- ing Hi Cost with vindictive charges, while all the dealers attempt to convince them that the higher the cost the less the margin of profit. Business has necessarily been on a sliding scale, seeking to adjust itself at every stage, and it is the shrewd dealer who avoids the sandbars in steering his craft through the troubled waters. There are two opinions of profiteers-what they think of themselves and what others think about them-and while profiteering may be curbed it is said the wages of sin remain unchanged-the wages of sin is death. The word growing out of war time conditions has been used recklessly, all recognizing the need of legitimate profit. While some argue about the prices of com- modities, others pay what is asked and do not question it. While eco- nomic conditions have been unsatisfactory, all are agreed that Allen County skies are just as blue, and that on the other hand the clouds are sometimes just as threatening as anywhere else in the world.
CHAPTER XXIV
MARKING THE TRAIL-THE MILESTONES
It is said that the first real Americans belong to the Old Northwest- the Northwest Territory. On December 23, 1837, when addressing the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus, Judge Timothy Walker of Cin- cinnati said: "There was a time in the history of Massachusetts when they sought to overcome a popular craze for moving to Ohio." The Ordinance of 1787 secured so many advantages and Ohio was the near- est area to the emigrants. It is said that in Massachusetts resort was had to counteracting fiction in an attempt to check the emigration to Ohio. The region was represented as cold, sterile, sickly and full of all sorts of monsters. There were caricatures of those who had ven- tured into the Old Northwest who were glad to get back again. While the settlers all lived on "hog and hominy," many did not wish to return to New England.
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