USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 51
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The Jackson Center News, independent, was first established in July, 1896, by C. N. Shook, now of Lima, Ohio. The publication was hampered by antiquated equipment, but exhibited vitality and ability, and had a steady growth of circulation from the outset, be- coming quite popular. In 1905, A. J. Ulsh came to Jackson Center from Kansas, bought out the office, improved the equipment, and then in 1911, sold out the subscription list and goodwill to the Car-
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ter brothers from Greenup, Illinois, transferring the improved plant to Oakfield, New York. The Carters printed the News for ten months, then sold their plant to the Socialists of St. Marys, Ohio, leaving Jackson Center bereft of its paper. At this juncture J. G. Saylor, then mayor of the village, came to the rescue and purchased the plant of the Quincy Inland Press, and re-established the News. September, 1917, Mr. Saylor sold to the Yale Newspaper syndicate, of Waynesfield, and E. Benjamin Yale is now editor of this and other papers, while Mr. Saylor is its local editor.
Botkins also has a paper, The Herald, independent, started in 1899 by Adam Blakeley, who is remembered for newspaper work previously done in Sidney. After Mr. Blakely's death in 1911, his son, Lowell E. Blakeley, succeeded to the editorship, and the paper enjoys a good local circulation. The office is equipped with modern cylinder press and up-to-date apparatus.
The original Amos building on South Ohio avenue was put to various uses for about ten years after the removal of the Amos printing business to the Court street property, but in 1903 E. V. Moore opened a small printing establishment in part of it, which two years later was bought in by Charles Werst, who has enlarged it until it has become second in importance to no institution of its kind in a large radius. It not only practically occupies the original three-story building, which is leased from the Amos estate, but fills an addition on the east from which leads a traffic entrance to the alley on the south, to facilitate its increasing business. Poster and folder work is done in immense quantities for manufacturers all over the state.
The Postoffice was established at Sidney soon after the adoption of the site as the county seat of justice, but no mention is to be found of the local mail service*previous to the transference of James Wells, the postmaster at Hardin, to Sidney, where, it is clear, the postoffice was accommodated in the little temporary courthouse.
It was a condition of his accommodation there, that the post- master "not disturb the court in passing in and out."
When the new courthouse was built, the postoffice was moved, temporarily, to West avenue, in the old building, which later be- came a blacksmith shop and plow works, occupied by several well remembered pioneers. The next home for the postoffice was found in a building which stood on Main avenue, east of the public square, at the site of the B. B. Amann jewelry store of the present. Sub- sequently it was moved to the location of the Springer grocery, in the block north of its second home. It probably remained here for a considerable period, for its next location, as far as may be read- ily ascertained, was in the old Carey bank building on North Ohio avenue, from which it was transferred to a building across the street in the rear of the Thompson building. (Carey's Hall.) After the completion of the Monumental building, the postoffice was quartered therein for a long term of years, moving from there to
* Dingmansburg was a station on the post road, and it is likely that Sidney received its mail from that point until the establishment of the postoffice in the courthouse.
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the Hotel Metropole building on West Poplar street, after which was again transferred to the newer building one door west (now the headquarters of the Knitting Mills company), where it tarried until the completion of the Federal Postoffice building at the corner of North and Ohio streets, into which, after a century of wandering, it settled in 1918.
The new Federal building is up-to-date, fireproof, very simple in construction, but commodious and well lighted, and for the great- er part, well arranged for efficient handling of the mails of the pres- ent day, and probably for some years to come. There are possi- bilities of enlargement, also, which will be necessary, if Sidney fulfills its present promise of growth. Much more attention, how- ever, might and should, in justice to the city, have been given to architectural beauty and significance of the exterior, which con- veys to a stranger no hint of its purpose, nor any idea of its actual substantiality of construction. In style it resembles the common- place city jail, and its outer walls, while undoubtedly strong, have so little salience as to appear almost flimsy, the flat simulated stone pillars against the front contributing to the same undesirable effect.
The conduct of the postoffice, which is all that can be desired, is in the hands of Mr. Val Lee, postmaster, with Mr. Charles Neale, assistant, and Miss Emma Haslup, clerk.
The Orphans' Home. Nothing in the county speaks so notably of its citizenship-as well as of the board of directors-and of the superintendent-as does the Shelby county Orphans' Home. Situ- ated on the finest hill in the rim of the river basin at this point, the windows of the Home command a complete view of the entire bowl of the valley in which Sidney lies, including the extensions of the city on the west and north. There is no view to equal this in all Shelby county.
The building itself is ideal in its "homeyness," its airy ex- posures to light and breeze, wide porches, covered ways leading to the central Home, from the dormitory houses on either side, where the boys and girls are segregated for their special lines of training. These passages are wide, and glass sided, giving shelter in storm or cold weather, yet flooded with light and yielding on lovely outdoor prospects. In the main building are the dining rooms and kitchen departments, the storage rooms in the basement, and the cool room where the dairy products so essential to the health of the children are cared for. The boys and girls have their meals in the same dining room, also the little tots, who are seated at their own table, surrounded by attractive high chairs, and fur- nished with model tableware.
Reading room and library are on the first floor, also the visitors' reception room, and parlor, office, etc., the dining rooms and the chapel-which was formerly set up in the room directly above it, the first floor room being originally a school room. The Barkdull Memorial school, given by Mrs. L. C. Barkdull, and built in 1903, relieved this downstairs apartment for chapel purposes, and the room above is now utilized as a much needed sewing department.
The schoolhouse stands back and to the north of the home, on
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a slight knoll, and one teacher is retained for the entire class, which is not large, but of many grades, as children are here prepared for high school, if any remain so long in the institution. There is a well conducted manual training department in the building, in which the boys learn the art of handling wood-working tools, and the prin- ciples of cabinet making. A large number of attractive and well made articles are turned out by the youngsters every year, a great number being "spoken for" by visitors, and still more being sold at the annual exhibit at the fair grounds, where the display from the Orphans' home is always a chief attraction.
Laundry, root cellar and heating plant are all separated from the house, and each is a piece of exceptionally good equipment. The power is supplied by electric current from the city, and Sidney water is also provided. There is a farm of good size and rich soil, which is efficiently gardened, the boys being taught agriculture as far as their age and strength will permit. A fine hillside orchard is another feature of the outdoor aspect, which abounds in trees and shrubbery, green stretches of playground and lawn, where only the unusual number of youngsters at play compels the visitor to remem- ber the domestic tragedies by which this home is peopled.
The oldest boy at the home is not past fifteen, and the average is from twelve years down to babyhood. Seldom is a child left in the institution past the age of first helpfulness, and babies are the quickest to be taken for adoption. Superintendent Meighem says. that the great and terrible need for little ones is parent love, an ele- ment that no amount of institutional kindness can make up for. Yet there is happiness among the children. There is not a child on the place that does not appreciate and covet the ready smile, the merry word, the approving pat of the superintendent or teachers, who must treat all with equality, and try to give a modicum of the needed love to the sixty homeless children sheltered there. Often would they gather them all in their arms and satisfy the heart hunger they feel but only express in wistful eyes, but among so many that would be merely subversive of the absolutely necessary discipline, and cannot be indulged in. There are many attractive little ones now at the institution, some of them, happily, hoping to return to homes of their own, but now and then a little face leaves an ache in the visitor's heart. There is little "Harry Irish"-nobody knows how old he is-born in a gipsy wagon and deserted somewhere along the course of his (possibly) six years. Every child in the institution has somebody to write to, somebody to inquire after him-but Harry has nobody. He only "loves Miss Brown" and waits for her to come back to the home.
As soon as a boy or girl leaves the institution, either for a home or to work, upon any of the plans by which they are permitted to leave before coming of age, a part of their wages, agreed upon, is remitted to the institution, which credits the amount to the boy or girl, and deposits it in the Shelby County Building and Loan associ- ation, where it accrues to their benefit, and is paid over to them at the age of twenty-one. "Indenture" money, inheritances or gifts are taken care of by the same method; and to date, since this system was adopted, about $1,200.00 is already deposited in the names of
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different ex-inmates of the home. One boy, just now of age, had his money, $360, invested in the Third Liberty Loan.
A dairy of from fifteen to eighteen cows is maintained, with a well-equipped cement-floored stable and yard, the milk from an average of ten cows providing all the dairy product needed for the children, except, perhaps, in times like the influenza epidemic of 1918, when milk was so necessary that additional supplies had to be obtained from outside sources. The thorough sanitation which obtains everywhere throughout the premises is nowhere more to be appreciated than in the cooling plant and storage rooms in the base- ment, where all the products of the dairy, garden and orchard are cared for. It is a place of dainty cleanliness, appealing pleasantly to eye and nostril. The kitchen is well appointed, and here the children receive some instruction in domestic helpfulness, taking turns at assisting with the work. Many of the girls become quite expert cooks, and all enter into their appointed tasks with enthusiasm.
Under the supervision of kind and capable teachers, even the urchins are taught to darn stockings and sew buttons on their blouses and trousers, while the girls are given instruction in every sort of needle-work and knitting.
Epidemics cannot be prevented from attacking the home, al- though every precaution is taken. Only three deaths have occurred at the institution since 1912. A service flag with six stars hangs in the chapel, one of the stars to be changed to gold, in honor of the sixteen-year-old orphan boy who lost his life in France. He was but a short time out of the home, and enlisted in February, 1918, dying after reaching France, in April.
The farm at the home includes about 60 acres of tilled land, the rest of 137 acres being in orchard, grounds, pasturage and the gravel pit lying southwest, which is a possession of great value.
It is now more than twenty-one years since the building and opening of the home in October, 1897, when the first children, up to then accommodated at the Logan county home, were transferred to Shelby. The first superintendent was Dr. W. H. Shaw of Shelby county, who resigned in April, 1898, being succeeded by J. H. Mc- Clung, who was in charge until April, 1906. J. H. Kemp became superintendent in 1906, remaining until March, 1912, when he was succeeded by Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Meighem, who are still in charge. The efficiency of the whole institution reflects great credit upon the county, especially upon the board of trustees, whose liberal provi- sion, and discretion in the choice of superintendents cannot be too highly commended. The present membership of the board is : James E. Way (fifteen years) ; George Hagelberger, of Anna; Fred Lud- wig, of Anna; Peter O. Stockstill, of Sidney. The board is strictly non-partisan.
Auglaize county orphans are boarded at the home, as Auglaize has no home of its own, to date.
The original purchasing committee appointed by the court for the purpose of establishing a suitable home at a desirable location, was composed of S. J. Hatfield, A. J. Hess and S. L. Wicoff, and the first board of trustees were S. L. Wicoff, R. D. Mede, William A.
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Graham, and Jeremiah Miller, who after several years of service have been followed from time to time by J. N. Dill, S. D. Voress, R. H. Trego, B. T. Bulle, J. W. A. Fridley, and the present board.
The County Farm was established in 1866, by the purchase of the James Rollins farm of 158 acres, about three miles southwest of Sidney, at a cost of $8,500.00. The first board of infirmary direc- tors was composed of Christian Kingseed, M. J. Winget and H. Guthrie, and the first superintendent of the farm was Jacob Leh- man, who was very soon succeeded by Jesse B. Howe. The con- tracts for the building were let in February, 1869, and completed at a cost of about $54,000.
The Infirmary is still an ample building for the county needs, and the farm, well-cultivated, is an excellent one, with attractive grounds and beautiful shade trees, making a pleasant situation for the unfortunates of the county. There are now 24 inmates, includ- ing men and women. Many of them are able to help, and all of these are glad to be of use. Eleven are "hospital cases," the hospital wards being taken care of by Mr. and Mrs. Herring from Maplewood. Im- becility is the chief difficulty contended with.
Electric power is provided by a Delco plant, which, however, is scarcely adequate. Water is pumped into the building by a gaso- line engine. A good dairy provides plenty of milk, and butter, also buttermilk, for the institution,-and sometimes more than is needed, the surplus being sold.
In the beginning the eqiupment of the establishment was con- sidered far in advance of the times, and it undoubtedly was; but the times have changed, and there are needed improvements now, which will without question receive the attention of the commis- sioners. Fifty years will wreak havoc on the best of buildings and equipment, as will be admitted, even when given the best of care, and the infirmary board have always retained the most efficient and reliable of superintendents and matrons. Superintendent Howe served until February, 1875, William Widener, Harvey Guthrie and son William, until 1899, Emanuel Needles until 1903, and Mr. and Mrs. Lawson Showers until January, 1919, when Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Miller succeeded them.
Cemeteries. The burial plots provided by Charles Starrett, in the original seventy-acre tract, were in use until 1867, the Catholic congregation having established separate burial grounds in East Sidney, making room in the smaller plots in the town plat for all the village dead up to the date mentioned. Following the Civil war, however, a general sentiment demanded a larger and more removed burial spot than the crowded little cemeteries of the village, and a tract of land lying south of Sidney was purchased by the town from the estate of Hardesty Walker, possessor from pioneer times.
In 1867 the new cemetery was opened to the public, and lots sold, according to the usual plan of procedure, the business being in the hands of a cemetery board, which is now, since Sidney has become an incorporated city, identical with the City Civil Service commission. The village council, in 1867, passed an ordinance forbidding further burials to take place within the village limits.
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This was a necessity, since the little plots were already crowded, and even at that date the necessity of extending streets to the southward was foreseen. The Starrett burying grounds were, how- ever, not disturbed for many years following the establishment of the new cemetery, which was christened "Graceland," and is as beautiful a situation as could have been chosen anywhere within reach of the town, occupying the extremity of the spur of hill lands which undulates southward toward the bend of the Miami river, west of the valley in which Sidney lies.
Entering the cemetery from the Main avenue extension, south of the bridge, a handsome receiving vault stands at the right of the drive, and farther on, at the left, is situated the Goode family mau- soleum. The natural grounds have been developed with judgment, and the native trees are supplemented with shrubbery and flowers; and many beautiful monuments are to be seen, as well as many sur- vivals of pioneer stone work. Additional land was secured a few years ago from the Hardesty Walker estate, on the south of the original tract, providing room for the separate grounds desired by the Catholic congregation of Holy Angels church, and for all the needs of many years to come. From the new section, the triple arch of the new Baltimore & Ohio railroad bridge forms a distant item of the very lovely view, and looking southward the hills are traversed by the Dixie highway (Sulphur Springs Hill road), wind- ing out of sight between the heights.
The extensive street grading and paving which began in 1900 has so altered the appearance of the south end of the town that it may easily be forgotten that the old Starrett cemetery of that lo- cality occupied a knoll of solid gravel which was left high above Main street on either side, when the grading was accomplished. The inevitable disturbance of many graves made the removal of all desir- able, and the cemetery in which further burials had been forbidden in 1898, rapidly become a thing of the past. Those who had friends and relatives buried there, removed them to Graceland ; while those whose relatives had departed this life or at least Sidney, were re- moved by contract, the crowded condition of the grounds being evi- denced by the fact that the Edgar brothers alone transferred five hundred and seventy-five graves to Graceland. (The transfer of graves from the Catholic cemeteries in East Sidney to Graceland is taking place more slowly, during the present year.) After the soil was vacated, the gravel deposit was found of great value to the city in the paving campaign which was already under way, and for twelve years these south end deposits furnished all the paving gravel used, excavation going so far as to make a great pit along the Miami river near the Orphans' home bridge, that filled with the overflow during high water. Systematic disposition of the city's ashes and general dumpage has, however, reclaimed the parts of the burial ground gravel banks thus robbed, and they have gradually been converted into pretty little plazas occupying the angles formed where the diagonal streets converge, in the vicinity of the bridge, and are a part of the park scheme which will include the river bank south of the city.
The little Starrett cemetery used so long by the Presbyterians,
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was transferred much later to Graceland, not being disturbed until the land was needed as a site for the new high school.
The first superintendent of Graceland was Samuel Mathers, and the second W. P. Stowell, who after several years was suc- ceeded by G. C. Anderson, who served for over forty years, only quitting when death called him to occupy his own long home in the cemetery he had guarded so many seasons. He was succeeded in the winter of 1918-19 by J. L. Dickensheets, The present Ceme- tery or Public Service board is R. H. Trego, president; E. W. Stowell, secretary ; Oscar Stockstill.
The Monumental Building is an aggressive feature of the archi- tecture surrounding the public square in Sidney. The corner stone of this structure was laid forty-four years ago, in June, 1875, with Masonic ceremonies, the Hon. J. Frank Mckinney, of Piqua, de- livering a Masonic address of dedication. Not to Masonic uses, however, was the building dedicated, but, as was generally under- stood, to the memory of Shelby county heroes of the Civil war, other purposes being recognized as hovering in the background.
The building was the outgrowth of a fund started in Sidney immediately after the close of the war, by the surviving soldiers and their friends, among whom were some of the best of Sidney's good men. The community at that time was not the well-to-do population of today, and funds came in very slowly. The parties interested conceived a lottery scheme whereby the sum of $11,- 473.97 was amassed toward the purpose of buying a lot and erecting thereon a suitable and permanent monument to the county's fallen heroes. The lottery was conducted under the direction of three reliable citizens of the day, Messrs. Vandegrift, Carey and Frazier ; and the fund realized was held by a board of trustees consisting of Levi Barkdull, Nathan R. Wyman, Hugh Thompson, H. S. Gillespie, Joseph C. Haines and R. R. Lytle. In May, 1873, the old Ackerly tavern corner was purchased by the trustees as a site for the pro- posed monument, the consideration being $4,500, which was drawn from the fund. About this times Messrs. Lytle and Gillespie re- moved from the county, and their places on the board of trustees were filled by A. J. Robertson and Col. Harrison Wilson. The old corner tavern was rented for one year to John Mather, for the sum of fifty dollars, pending consideration of the next move.
During the following year, the then new idea was evolved, from some source, of erecting, not a monument, but a monumental building, a memorial which should, at the same time, be an honor to the dead and benefit to the living. It was a worthy idea. Public and legislative approval of it was immediate and cordial. Citizens of town and township submitted quite cheerfully to special tax levies for the necessary funds, and forty-one thousand dollars were added to the money held in trust by the board. In the meantime, the idea was discovered to have grown by added ideas, superim- posed upon it by the multiple necessities of old Sidney, and com- bined with the most genuine good intent. A public library was a need that could not be gainsaid. A place of public entertainment was even more demanded. The library would need support, there- fore part of the building must be arranged to pay the maintenance
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of the rest. The town needed a fire department, a city hall, court- room and offices.
But the grafting of many strange scions on one good parent stock, while it has been accomplished many times, is usually un- symmetrical if not freakish in result. Something of this nature must be felt by the close observer, new to Sidney, in the aspect of the Monumental Building as it was built and as it still stands after forty-five years of varying wear and tear.
The architect was Samuel Lane, of Cleveland. The building was erected honestly, without even the suspicion of graft. It is so substantial that, barring fire and earthquake, it may easily stand on its corner for a hundred years more. But it must be admitted, with regret, that it does not now represent the Great Idea with which the enthusiasm of the town and township was aroused so long ago. It is, in fact, now known frankly for what it was in reality from the first-a public utilities building, not devoid of glaring faults even in that capacity.
Viewed from the east, the stranger in Sidney may perhaps wonder what the building means. It suggests vaguely-or might in any other locality-a mammoth mausoleum, or possibly a ca- thedral whereon the apostolic figure has been replaced by a soldier of the Civil War, who rusts in his lonely niche far above the pave- ment. The stone masonry is of good craftsmanship, but clumsy in design and totally unconvincing. The court street elevation is heterogeneous in manner, but altogether commercial, a violent change from the front. The city hall and fire department are tacked on like afterthoughts. Unbeautiful as it is, we may not wholly blame the architect for all this, nor may we withhold forgiveness from the citizens of the older day, who stood by and held the hats of Art and Architecture while the two disfigured one another. All were under the influence of a malign spirit of Utilitarianism that stalked the whole country for a few decades and held older, wiser and wealthier towns than little Sidney in its fell clutches. The economy of cutting its whole wardrobe from one short web of cloth, had led Sidney to require of the architect to plan under one roof all the utilities mentioned, and at the same time to honor its soldier dead as best he might. Hence the cumbrously imposing but funereal front, and the pathetic little rusting sentinel. Incident- ally, the marble tablet set in the north wall of the public library, on the second floor of the building, is all that is left to mark the fact that the old soldiers, as represented by the Neal Post, G. A. R., were ever vouchsafed a headquarters within the memorial building, which they vacated, more than twenty years ago, to give the long awaited public library a habitation. And the "opera house" in the third floor was leased at the same time for the exclusive use of the I. O. O. F. The dark and cavernous business room on the ground floor front is occupied by a grocery, and the corner is leased to the Western Ohio Electric railway as a local depot. The basement, reached by a stairway let into the court street sidewalk after the abandoned practice of a bygone day, houses a shoe-repairing es- tablishment, while the room once occupied by the postoffice now accommodates one of the express companies.
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