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 55
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It is suggested that farmers are the only group of people who could institute a strike and continue it, but those who refused to sell their prod- ucts on the decline of the reconstruction market finally received less money, some borrowing money at the banks with which to pay their taxes rather than sell their products on the declining market; in that instance the strike did not prove satisfactory; it behooves the business man, and that includes the farmer and the skilled laborer, to be governed by market conditions. Lima and other Allen County merchants who studied fluctu- ating market conditions, were not found with heavy stocks of goods bought under wartime market quotations. The slump was inevitable and they were prepared for it; all the other industries depend finally upon agriculture.
When the farmer was drifting along alone, he did not dream that he would ever gain a knowledge of his business from books ; the book farmer has untily recently been regarded as hopelessly impractical; at the same time, many a farmer was raising corn year after year from the same field, and wheat the same way, rotation of crops being held in contempt until the soil was wasted, and through united effort farmers found out their difficulty-and yet there has never been the element of interference with the operations of others in these farmer organizations. In time there were farm papers, and those who read them learned the value arising .from the suggestions of others; then came conferences, public meetings,
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the Grange, the Farmers' Institute and the Farm Bureau-but "open shop" has always prevailed in the farm labor market ; however, there is no place where skilled labor means more than in agriculture.
Along with this agitation of the subject of increased farm production came the public experiment stations where tests of all sorts were made, and the results were published for the benefit of all; meanwhile had come a department of the national government to co-operate with all other forces ; legislatures in the various states had come to realize that public welfare might be greatly promoted by multiplying every possible means of disseminating information and advice, based upon this information; then came exhibition cars and the lecturers who traveled with and explained them ; the latest move is the county agent provided for under the Farm Bureau. Why call the representative of organized labor a "walking delegate," since the farm agent performs a similar service to the community? It is his duty to confer with farmers, and offer them suggestions in the problems confronting them. Since education is the result of agitation, it will not be through any fault of organized labor in Allen County that the working man does not have a square meal and rea- sonble compensation for his service.
CHAPTER XLIII THEATERS-MOVING PICTURES
While there are many Allen County citizens who never visit theaters, Lima is in the center of a 100,000 theater population. Whenever really meritorious plays are staged at the Faurot, or there is an unusual bill at the Orpheum, other Allen County towns and people from adjoining counties help to swell the Lima theater population. Travel facilities enable outside residents to reach the local theaters easily, and there is aways excellent patronage. In 1910, it was said of the local theater situa- tion : "In its development as a city from the original town site to its present metropolitan proportions, one of the threads in the weaving has been the theater, and its accompanying amusements; today the beautiful interior of the Faurot Operahouse, the elegant proportions of the Orpheum vaudeville, and the different picture show exteriors compare favorably with cities of like size in the United States." and what was true ten years ago in Lima still describes local conditions.
From the dawn of human history people have been interested in the forum, the stage, the athletic field-some form of amusement or recrea- tion has been regarded as a necessity. In the dim history of the past, man always had a desire to amuse himself ; he demands even more relaxa- tion than the day affords and his pleasures extend far into the night, and the theater has always been a welcome diversion. "Jack" has always objected to "all work and no play," and the playhouse affords respite and causes one to forget the cares that infest the day. Lima is known among player folk as a good show town, although the legitimate drama is not so frequently staged in the community as in the old days before all the player folk were shown on the screen, and people now know them better than when they came in person to the community. The Faurot still occasion- ally stages the living players. High class attractions always bring the playgoers from other communities to town. Lima is sufficiently distant from cities of its size to eliminate competition in high class theater per- formances.
While Lima and contiguous territory is regarded as high class theater patronage, there had to be a beginning and in antebellum Allen County when the population was scant, and the means of travel was inadequate people were thrown upon their own resources for amusement, and simple home talent entertainments and schoolhouse exhibitions always attracted them; there were wandering thespians at frequent intervals and they always attracted attention ; such opportunities were the sum total of com- munity amusements ; however, as the forest and native conditions were overcome by the settlers, there was demand for better entertainment, and halls, stages and scenic accessories were the natural sequence. In the '50s Lima had Sanford's Hall as its amusement center, and the courtroom was always a community playground; a few years later Lima had Ash- ton's Hall, and the community was growing ambitious in the nature of its demands for entertainment. Just when these halls were outgrown as com- munity centers, B. C. Faurot, who was a successful, enterprising business man, planned a substantial gift to the community.
The Lima Thespian Club included some of the prominent early fami- lies : Cunningham, Crouse, Meily, Townsend, Harper, Baxter, Richard- son, and home talent soon began presenting some good plays before the Lima amusement lovers; such plays as Rip Van Winkle, Pizarro, the
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Bandit Chief and Blackeyed Susan were in their repertoire. In 1857, when Blackeyed Susan was staged with Dr. S. A. Baxter in the title role, people at once recognized the ability of home talent, and plays given by the Thespians received excellent patronage. When Tom Thumb was staged in Ashton Hall the Thespians achieved their greatest success. In 1910, a review of the theater situation was a local newspaper feature, the articles written by L. H. Cunningham, W. G. Williams and Ezekiel Owen, and quoting from Mr. Williams, who was a local manager: "It is inter- esting to listen to the tales of some of the old performers, as they relate their own experiences in the long ago; in the '60s and '70s they played what was known as the 'Variety Houses' throughout the West, and in the
OSCAR COME - ARCHE
FAUROT OPERA HOUSE
'70s prices were reduced until popular was the term used in describing them."
Mr. Cunningham writes: "The Faurot Operahouse was opened Sep- tember 4, 1882, and it was regarded as one of the finest in the United States," and while Mr. Cunningham is now the manager. the first manager of the Faurot was Mr. Williams. It was dedicated by the Emma Abbott Opera Company with the play: "King for a Day." The dimensions of the theater, width of the stage and seating capacity-every feature was a surprise to actors visiting Lima ; the Faurot Theater rivaled the theaters in New York and Chicago. Complimentary to the vision of Mr. Faurot and the architect of the theater, when David Belasco built the Stuyvesant Theater in New York it was a duplicate of the Faurot in Lima. When this theater was opened the best players were attracted to Lima, and hardly an actor played there who was not lost in admiration of its beauty. They were attracted by the design, the decorations, the admirable arrange-
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ment of the stage and the perfection of its acoustics, and they all "wished they had it on Broadway."
In 1905, when Maier Brothers acquired the Faurot they remodeled and redecorated it, adding new furniture and draperies, but the theater itself was so well planned and built that many later theaters will be abandoned before the last curtain comes down in the Faurot. This criticism appeared ten years ago: "Notwithstanding the crudities of the early theaters, the taste of Lima amusement seekers was once more cul- tured than it is today." Similar criticism was made at the time about the local inclination toward musical programs. Some of the best known players in the United States trod the boards in the Lima halls, before there were theaters with ample stage accommodations and dressing room facilties. Shakespeare once exclaimed : "All the world is a stage," and the players who traveled appreciated the Faurot because of its advantages.
The first time reserved seats were sold in Lima was for the appear- ance of Edwin Forrest ; some of the famous stage characters were annual visitors after the completion of the Faurot Operahouse. Uncle Tom's Cabin has visited Lima a dozen times in one season, and it always had a packed house ; there is no other adequate description of a theater audi- ence-packed house. Be it said to the credit of the community, that some of the old-time stage favorites played to good audiences; many straight-laced male citizens remember well the annual visits of the female ministrels and burlesque shows when the front seats were always reserved for the "bald heads." However, there was a "bald headed row" in every theater, and that little travesty need not be taken to heart by any one in the Lima theater community.
The lexicographer says that a theater is a building appropriated to the presentation of dramatic spectacles-that it is a room, hall or other place provided with a platform, and beside those early-day social centers in Lima, courtroom, Sanford and Ashton halls, and the City Hall which was owned by the municipality and members of the council were always favored with "comps." Besides theater stages today there are stages in Memorial Hall, the high schools, and in some of the lodge buildings ; while Lima was once "up against it" for auditorium and stage advantages, such needs are well met today. All deferred to L. H. Cunningham for theater information, and when asked to enumerate local theaters, he counted on his fingers: Faurot, both legitimate and moving pictures; Orpheum, one screen of motion pictures and vaudeville performances ; Sigma, the newest theater in Lima; Royal, Regent, Rialto, Dreamland, Majestic and Lyric. There are picture shows in Delphos, Bluffton and Spencerville.
In these days when everybody goes to the moving picture shows, it is difficult to think of the traveling troupes of other days, and the difficulties encountered by them; many of them never played on Broadway at all; there were one night attractions and there were week stands. There were "barn-stormers," and there were actors and actresses who were sometimes stranded "far from home and kindred," and there were com- binations that always pleased Lima theatergoers. Some of the early attractions were: Sol Smith Russell, Alf Burnett and Swiss Family Bell Ringers. Judge Charles M. Hughes, O. E. Griffith and David Fisher were once active censors in booking Lima theater attractions; they approved of the Thespian Club and its productions. While the name of B. C. Faurot will go down in history with many other Lima enterprises, the theater so far commemorates him-and Faurot Park will always stand as a monument to his memory. It was W. L. Russell who built the Orpheum, and when it was thrown open to the public May 28, 1906, for
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the first local vaudeville performance it was dedicated by Sun & Murray and "packed house" again described the situation; the S. R. O. sign was displayed early. Some of the best variety actors have been seen at the Orpheum.
People used to carry lanterns when attending the performances in Sanford and Ashton halls, but that was before the present moonlight schedule of electricity when downtown Lima was "light as day." While the American Indian used to be featured on the legitimate stage in all his native simplicity, the type is still sometimes seen in front of local picture houses when the screen is portraying the characteristics. When the hunting grounds no longer sheltered him, the Indian humbled himself to be reflected from the screen and Buffalo Bill with his canvas theater always attracted the community. Many who once enjoyed the drama now enjoy the moving pictures; they were popular in France in 1898, and early in the twentieth century they were seen in the United States. When the industry was in its infancy there were predictions of ultimate success, while insanity charges were also laid at the door of picture actors.
There was a time in Lima-the penny arcade epoch, when people turned a crank and watched the moving life-would witness an entire series, but like everything else it only filled an interim while the processes were being perfected and now the best actors in the country are seen in the picture films; the roller skating craze soon changed to moving picture shows, and today people sit complacently in front of the most wonderful productions-the rich who have traveled may see the Alps again, and the stay-at-homes see the world in pictures. The film has become an educa- tional agency, even the circulation of the blood has been shown before the physiology section in the Lima High School, and whole families attend the picture shows; they take their friends and all enjoy an hour free from worry. While there are still flesh and blood actors before the footlights in Lima, the films' reproduce the celebrities from all over the world, and there is no cheaper method of travel; from a comfortable theater seat one may see the best there is in art and literature. The habits and customs of all nations are shown from the screen; one who sees them feels like he had traveled in foreign countries, and while pictures of travel are always worth while other pictures afford amuse- ment.
CHAPTER XLIV ALLEN COUNTY IN THE WARS
"In time of peace prepare for war."
Are not the wars of the past sufficient blot on American civilization ? War is the oldest sin of the nations; it has been styled scientific inter- national suicide; many people accept the trite definition given by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman: "War is hell."
While it is true that war makes heroes, it is not necessarily true that peace makes has-beens, although it has been intimated that war-time i-deals have suffered the loss of their i's, and have become only the worst sort of deals, and that profiteers recognized their golden oppor- tunity; now that the war is over they are still having their golden harvest. Just as it is said that a man asked his wife whether she were talking yet or again, in these days the dogs of war are never certain whether they are in the early laps of a new war, or a relapse of an old one; the "freedom of the seas" and the freedom of the world, while the United States flag has never trailed in defeat, it has been carried into battle of defense of the whole world.
Since Allen is one of the "military group of Ohio counties," all coming into existence on the same day, and bearing the names of Revo- lutionary patriots-since its baptismal ceremony was in honor of Gen. Ethan Allen; since it is in territory lost to the British and their Indian allies through the overthrow and defeat of Gen. Arthur St. Clair; since it is in territory retrieved from the Indians by Gen. Anthony Wayne, and since its boundary was established by Col. James W. Riley who was in "Mad Anthony's army," and since historic Fort Amanda is inseparable from the history of Allen County, why should not the spirit of patriotism assert itself in the community? Who would blush because of the relation of Allen County to the rest of the world? When Alex- ander the Great marched forth to conquer, there was no Allen County.
It is said that war does not determine the merit of any question; instead of solving problems it opens up hitherto undreamed of economic questions ; the soil has been redeemed by the veterans of the Revolu- tionary war, by the soldiers in the War of 1812, by the boys in blue in the War of the States, and again civilization was in the death grapple when Allen County boys with others went overseas in the War of the Nations, and after all the wars has come the reconstruction period, when the best brains of the world and an unlimited amount of money was necessary; when cost and selling prices are adjusting themselves after such upheavals, it requires soldiers of fortune to stand the test of courage and conviction ; when the war is over come the intricate ques- tions of the aftermath; then come the times that try men's souls; it is one thing to inflict a wound, and quite another to recover from it.
"In time of peace prepare for war," has long been the slogan, although its teaching is at cross purposes with the policy of arbitration ; the Prophet Isaiah said: "And they shall beat their swords into plow- shares, and their, spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more," and not- withstanding the prophesy Allen County has had its part in a number of mortal conflicts; the soldiers of the different wars talk about "after our war," when discussing the problems of reconstruction, and after every war there is an increased popular interest in ancestors and family
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trees ; it is said that America is already a forest of family trees, even the soldiers returned from overseas in the World war having become interested in Mother Country and Fatherland connecting links in the chains of their own personal relations-Who's Who in America ?
As Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan had attempted to federate all the nations of the earth in a peace pact universal, and many of them had signified their acceptance of the conditions; war vessels were to be converted into merchant marine, arbitration was to solve the problems of the nations, and belligerent powers would soon become an obsolete expression among the nations of the world; the Peace Tribunal at The Hague had been the solution of the whole thing. It seemed that the saber had rusted in its sheath, and that the cannon's lips had grown cold, and that plowshares and pruning hooks had played their part in advance civilization, and the "bloody shirt" was no longer waved in local politics at all. It was said that with present-day ammunitions of war, a pitched battle could not last longer than a June frost. It would
CAPTURE OF MAJOR ANDRE
be wholesale destruction, and none would be left to bury the dead; it was thought civilization had advanced too far for warfare ever again to sway the country. When one contemplates the horrors of war -- nation arrayed against nation, he wonders that so many centuries cycled by before the world awakened to arbitration; the public mind had changed, and in future the battles of the world would be fought with ballots rather than with bullets; the average citizen had no conception of a world war.
"Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity."-Ecclesiastes I, 2. Until the World war there had always been eat in meat and wheat, and Allen County with the rest of America rested in less or more comfort and security. The wars of the past had seem- ingly vouchsafed such conditions.
Because it bears the name of a Revolutionary soldier, Ethan Allen, and because a number of Revolutionary soldiers lie buried within its boundaries, Allen County has direct point of contact with the war that established the United States a nation, and through all its vicissitudes the spirit of 1776 has been kept alive, and there is divine purpose in it all. (In this connection is offered the picture: "The capture of Major Vol. I-28
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Andre," which is a copy of the painting by A. B. Durand, showing three young Revolutionary soldiers : David Williams, John Paulding and Isaac Van Wert, dealing with a spy sent out by Benedict Arnold; three of the counties in this "military group of counties," bear the names of these three young soldiers who were compatriots of Ethan Allen.) It would seem that the spirit of the colonists has been transmitted, and that E Pluribus Unum is the result.
When one stops to enumerate the wars through which his ancestry and his contemporaries have passed, he realizes that time is passing and wonders when he last listened to the reading of the Declaration of Independence on a festal day; when read in the spirit in which it is written it is a masterpiece in literature; while it is the document of the ages, humdrum reading ruins it. When the Declaration of American Independence used to be read as a part of every Fourth of July cele- bration, there were always orations dripping with patriotism following it, and everybody seemed to enjoy it. Some of those who study the signs of the times are united in saying that a correct history of the American Revolution has not as yet been written, and that when it is the Old Northwest-the Northwest Territory will be credited with many things ; the great Indian uprisings were in the Northwest; the Indians in Ohio were regarded as a menace when Governor Arthur St. Clair was unable to deal with them, and Gen. Anthony Wayne was sent out to quell them. In the east the Revolution was fought with civilized soldiery while in the west Washington's army had to deal with infuriated savages ; the Indian would not yield his hunting ground nor would he vacate his wigwam, and the American army naturally regarded the British as the emissaries inciting the Indians to ambush and treachery.
(In the prospectus of this ALLEN COUNTY HISTORY was a state- ment : "A complete list of the soldiers in the great World war, and of those who were killed or wounded or died from other causes," was promised and because it was so recent some deemed it a human possi- bility, and it is a matter of regret that names of heroes are not available in all of the wars bearing on local history.) The Lima Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution had knowledge of the graves of three Revolutionary heroes whose last sleep is in the bosom of Mother Earth in Allen County, and definite knowledge has been gained of the fourth, and it is known that the fifth was buried in the county, although what disposition was finally made of the dust is unknown; it is like the Burial of Moses-the Angels of God upturned the sod, and laid the dead man there, as far as "kith or kin" is concerned in this final summary of the Revolutionary shrines in Allen County.
While Sergeant William Chenowith who lies buried at Tony's Nose Cemetery was never a resident of Allen Counuty, his name appears on the tax duplicates ; he was born in Virginia but enlisted in Washington's army in Pennsylvania; in 1831 he entered land in Allen County ; one record says William Chenowith was in Bath Township in 1827-8, and that he erected a cabin on the bank of Lost Creek; a son, John Cheno- with, lived on the land now owned and utilized by the City of Lima as part of its waterworks system; this land was acquired from members of the Mumaugh family who are lineally descended from Sergeant Cheno- with. Tony's Nose Cemetery is so inaccessible that many people have never seen the marker at the grave, procured from the United States Government by Lima Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution. The inscription: "Sergeant William Chenowith; War 1776," is the designation ; it was placed there by Isaac H. Mumaugh and sons, and Dr. Shelby Mumaugh. Sergeant Chenowith died in 1838, and not until
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1913 was this marker placed at his grave; it is said that when he was eighty years old he could split 100 rails a day ; he had come on horseback from Pennsylvania, and was a guest in the home of his son, John Cheno- with; he was buried at Tony's Nose, which is now almost wholly aban- doned as a place of burial; this grave is one of the patriotic shrines in Allen County. While there was no unveiling ceremony, this is the only government marker at the grave of a Revolutionary soldier within the bounds of Allen County; it seems like "hallowed ground" at Tony's Nose.
In Ash Grove Cemetery is the grave of Rev. Simon Cockrun; nothing is known of his early life. A letter from a relative to Mrs. Grace Bryan Hollister says: "He has a monument in Ash Grove Cemetery which was considered a good one at the time," and later Mrs. Hollister copied the following inscription: "Rev. Simon Cockrun, Revolutionary soldier, died June 9, 1845, aged 89 years, 11 months and 6 days." The marble cutter may not have followed copy in chiseling the data into the enduring stone, but this man was born in 1754, and was almost a nonogenarian; the Cockruns about Spencerville are descended from this patriot.
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