USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 52
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395
THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
The really efficient and up-to-date fire department does honor to its position at the west end of the structure, but the city hall has never been very popular as a public meeting place, and only the municipal offices are in active service on the second floor of the city division. Altogether, the building does not inspire the rever- ence and admiration its original purpose once called forth, and ex- terior neglect is permitting an appearance of deterioration.
The Public Library. Sidney's first public library was not a municipal affair, nor maintained by public funds. It was organized in 1869, by a group of leading citizens whose names as far as may be learned were : W. P. Metcalf, N. R. Wyman, Harrison Wilson, W. P. Stowell, James Allen Wells, and others whose names are not obtainable.
A fund of $1500 was created for the purpose of books, and the library was opened for public patronage in 1870, in a little office . building belonging to W. P. Stowell, which stood then in a space between the Mathers' residence and that of Dr. H. S. Conklin, on North Ohio avenue, and was dignified by the title of Lyceum. (The building may still be seen, having been moved to a lot in the rear of the original, which is now a part of the Federal property on which the new postoffice stands.)
In the diminutive Lyceum the library was maintained until 1879, when, growth being impossible, and the investment inevit- ably a losing one, to a private corporation, the property, books and franchise, were turned over to the board of trustees of the Monumental building, under a contract whereby the latter agreed to place the books in safety in the Monumental building, and, "as soon as the debt of the building should be paid, to maintain the same as a public library out of the rents derived from the building, devoting what was known as Memorial Hall to the purposes of a public library and reading room forever."
The books were, accordingly, stored until 1886, but, while safe, were not accessible to the public. In 1886 the village council made a small levy for library purposes, and with the consent of the Monu- mental board of trustees, maintained a librarian who distributed the books, to Sidney citizens only, from the smaller room at the left front of the present library floor, until 1897.
The bonded indebtedness of the Monumental building having been removed by 1897, and a surplus derived from rents accumulated to the amount of $2500, the trustees of the building (who are ap- pointed for life), organized as a library association, and, beginning with the twelve hundred volumes still possible to catalogue, assumed the administration and responsibilities of the public library, and the establishment of modern methods and standards of efficiency. The immediate control of the library management is in the hands of a committee of three (or four), selected : one from the board of trustees of the Monumental building; one from the Sidney board of school trustees; and one (or more, at discretion of the board), from the city at large. In 1899 Miss Emma Graham was chosen as librarian, succeeding Miss Belle Haines, village librarian since 1886; and the room thus far occupied by the members of Neal Post,
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G. A. R., as a Memorial Hall, was converted to library purposes according to pre-arranged intention.
Under Miss Graham's capable direction all the new systems were set in running order and the efficacy of the library as an edu- cational factor in the community has advanced steadily, year by year. A few figures, taken from the annual reports, show that from an average monthly issue of 343 books in 1897, the record for 1898 had risen to 1094; for 1899, to 1729; and for 1900, to 2635 volumes monthly. Also, in 1897 the books taken out were 85% fiction; in 1898, 81% fiction ; in 1899, only 72% fiction; and this improvement may be seen from year to year, a late report showing practically 3000 volumes issued per month, to about 4000 card holders. The number of volumes in the library at this date (1919) is 13,550, ex- clusive of public documents and pamphlets. Between 85 and 100 periodicals (including subscriptions which are donated), are to be found on the reading tables and files. There are thousands of public documents in the stack room, of great value for reference and con- sultation, former congressman Ben. LeFevre having been instru- mental in making the Sidney library a government depository for this congressional district.
Citizens of all parts of Shelby county are evincing a desire to benefit by the use of the library, and it is hoped to extend the field to include every township before long.
The board of trustees, under which the public library of today was established, was composed of: Judge Harrison Wilson, W. A. Graham, H. S. Ailes, J. K. Cummins, O. S. Marshall, J. C. Haines and John Heiser; and the first library committee appointed was: S. L. Wicoff, W. A. Graham and E. L. Hoskins. The library com- mittee in 1919 is: S. L. Wicoff, W. A. Graham, J. F. Richeson, and W. D. Snyder. Miss Emma Graham is still chief librarian, with Miss Miriam Ginn and Miss Zelma Wirick, assistants.
It must be admitted that, while the accommodation of a public library was a part of the original scheme of the Monumental build- ing, the quarters devoted to the purpose on the second floor are not ideally planned for a library. However, the most and best has been made of it, and in it has been developed an institution which has become the intellectual center of a collegeless town. Here young and old, students and teachers, business men and persons of literary habit find pleasure and benefit. The future undoubtedly holds a more ideal housing for the public library than the Monu- mental building affords, but that history is yet to make.
Hospitals in Sidney are almost a negligible quantity, but never quite so, as long as the little emergency hospital on East Court street holds the fort. The story of the useful institution is short but very pleasant. Six years ago in the spring of 1913, a project took shape in the minds of two young people of Sidney, members of the Blue Bird social club. Like many another happy thought, less useful, this one was carried to the club by its originators, Dr. and Mrs. Hugh Beebe, with the proposition that the club give a charity ball, the proceeds of which should be devoted to the estab- lishment of an emergency hospital, where the victims of accidents, or the suddenly ill at hotels, or other cases of emergency nature
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THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
might be taken, and lives saved that would be sacrificed by the de- lay of removal to Lima or other cities.
The Blue Birds took up the proposition with much ardor, and the ball was given with great success, a fund approaching $305 be- ing raised, of which Mrs. Harry Rice was the enthusiastic custodian. Mrs. Rice alone sold 101 tickets, and Mr. W. R. Carothers disposed of 98. With this fund in hand the committee approached the City Council and asked for co-operation, which was granted to the ex- tent of giving for the purpose the free use of the vacant room in the front part of the city heating plant, with free light and heat. This space, already floored with cement, was arranged and equipped in approved sanitary manner, two rooms with hospitals beds, an operating room, and bath room, being set off from the corridor. The operation of the hospital, which has many times in the last six years demonstrated the need of its presence in Sidney, is now supported by voluntary benevolence, the visiting nurse association bearing a part of the burden, and in return the visiting nurse-at present Miss Gertrude Williams-having her office in the building, where she may receive messages or calls for service, and where the mothers of the city bring their babies to be weighed, and ask for practical advice.
There is at last a prospect of a regulation hospital for Sidney, unless it fails to seize the offer made in the will of the late Mrs. Harriet Stephenson, of Logan county. Mrs. Stephenson, who, as Harriet Scoby, was born and reared in Sidney, bequeathed to her native city, in December, 1918, the sum of ten thousand dollars toward the building of a hospital, provided that the city of Sidney raise an equal amount within the period of two years after the date mentioned. With so splendid a beginning Sidney cannot, it seems, fail to meet the terms of the bequest, which are quite reasonable, while the hospital itself cannot fail to meet a long felt want of both physicians and public.
The Shelby County Agricultural Association. On the twenty- first day of August, 1839, immediately following the legislative act governing the formation of agricultural associations, for the holding of county fairs, the first attempt at organization of such an association in Shelby county, was made at the courthouse in Sidney, in response to a call sent out by William Murphy, then county auditor. Officers were elected and a constitution drafted and adopted. During the ensuing year financial matters were ad- justed, and after the second annual election, a fair was arranged and held October 17, 1840. A second fair was held in September, 1841, but this seems to have been the last for ten years, when, after one or more attempts at re-organization, fairs were held success- fully in the October of five consecutive years, the place of exhibi- tion varying each year, as no permanent grounds had been pur- chased. The fair of 1853 was held on the Jordan land (then owned by Dr. H. S. Conklin), and lying west of the village of Sidney; in 1854, on the Maxwell grounds east of the Miami river, and in 1855, on the property of I. T. Fulton.
From October, 1860, the association and the annual fair became fixed institutions, and with the exception of one year, when condi-
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tions were unusual, the fair has been an annual event of great im- portance in the county. The fairground now in use was purchased in 1860 from the William Thirkield estate, through W. P. Reed and J. L. Thirkield, and in twenty acres in extent, and finely situated, both in regard to topography and accessibility, the highways being excellent, and the electric railroad passing the entrance.
The officers of the original agricultural society were, for the first year, Hugh Thompson, Luke Fish, William Fielding, M. D., W. A. Carey, John Shaw, with G. D. Lecky, William Fielding and J. S. Updegraff forming the constitutional committee. These were replaced the second year by Stephen Wilkin, James McLean, Samuel Mathers, Dr. H. S. Conklin, and Hugh Thompson. Under the reorganization of 1851, the officers were Irwin Nutt, H. Walker, J. P. Haggott and Thomas Stephenson; Dr. Conklin, J. W. Carey, Hugh McElroy, William Thirkield, W. P. Stowell and others be- coming prominent in ensuing years.
In 1860, the society was organized anew, with the name of the "Shelby County Agricultural Institute," and its first officers were : James A. Wells, Edmund Lytle, S. Alexander Lecky, and John Duncan. The trustees, to whom the deeds were made for the new fair ground property, were John H. Mathers, S. Alexander Lecky, James A. Wells, I. F. Fulton and J. C. Coe. The grounds to which six acres were added in 1880, are the property of the institute stock- holders, and not of the county, and the losses as well as the re- ceipts accrue to them-there being 222 original stockholders. Profits were turned to the improvement of grounds and buildings, which were kept in thorough repair and attractive condition, premiums and trophies being kept abreast of the times. The efficiency of the management, which has included from year to year the best ability of Sidney and the county, prevents deficit, while it makes no at- tempt at aggrandizement except in the expenditure for permanent improvement which benefits the public and the exhibitors. In 1881 and again in 1895 additional land was purchased to extend the ground, there being now about forty-three acres, all told. The 1895 purchase accommodates a fine racetrack, and a grandstand. The so- ciety incorporated in 1895, under the title of the Shelby county agricultural society.
The fairground of today presents the appearance of a summer assembly park, with its old forest trees carefully preserved, and maples planted wherever more shade is desirable, excellent build- ings, and city water supply from Sidney. The annual fairs, the fifty-ninth of which will be held in 1919, are crowded with exhibitors as well as visitors, and competition and public interest are keen. The Shelby county fair is one of the most successful held in the state. The present officers of the society are: George Hagelberger, president ; L. E. Steenrod, vice-president; S. J. Booher, treasurer ; J. E. Russell, secretary.
Banks and Banking in Shelby County
Banking by that or any other name, began at a very indeter- minate time in Shelby county, doubtless developing from the person- al money-lending, with or without security, of early times, to a more
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THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
organized system, so gradually that the "bank" existed in the per- son of some prosperous pioneer citizen long before he or any out- side financier formally announced himself a place of safe deposit or of secured loans. Mr. W. A. Graham, of the Citizens' National bank, admits that the local traditionists are misty on the subject of the first bank or banker, and with the exception of his own re- search, there is no written or printed word which throws light on the matter. Early in the '50s of the nineteenth century a gentle- man from Urbana, Ohio, came to Sidney, and is believed to have opened a bank. Deposits are necessary to the existence of banks, usually, and perhaps the reason of Mr. Clark's bank having no history, was that the institution did not attract the Sidney dollars.
Yet with the activity of building during the '50s money must have been in plentiful circulation, and banks or places of safe de- posit would appear to have been a necessity. John W. Carey, a noted builder and business man of the times, is the first man posi- tively known to have conducted a bank in the town. The date of his beginning as a banker is not remembered nor recorded, except that he was established and well-known before 1854, at which time he built the Thompson building (then Carey's Hall), and about which time he erected his home (at present used as a tenement or boarding house), on North Ohio avenue, and on a lot south of it had the bank building, built after the same style of architecture, but smaller. The bank building was very substantially made, but with- out cellar, the front pillars being of stone, with bases and capping of the same. Unchanged except by paint-and the insertion of a wide window in the second story front, where the city engineer, Eugene Blake, has his office-the Carey bank building housed financial institutions until a comparatively recent date. The origi- nal "safe deposit" vault may be seen for the asking, the Swift cream depot being maintained there now. But in Mr. Carey's day bank- ing was new, and little understood by the mass, an amusing incident having been preserved exhibiting the lay point of view at that date. A gentleman in need of a little money and not being able to collect moneys which were due him, applied to the bank for a $50 loan. He gave an acceptable note for the amount from which the interest was subtracted, and went his way. Not long after, having received the money that was owed him, the note-maker presented himself at the bank and expressed a wish to pay his note. The banker re- plied :
"It is not due."
"That makes no difference; I want to pay it."
"But I can't return you any of the interest."
"I want my note, and I want to pay it !" was the very emphatic response. And "pay it" he did.
Some years later, it is believed, Hugh McElroy engaged in banking, his location being on the west side of the public square, in a room which has before and since housed many important in- stitutions, but has now descended to use as a tea store. In this store, where O. J. Taylor was engaged in the hardware trade in the front, Mr. McElroy set up his banking outfit, the evidence of which is still to be seen, although it is not, like that of the Carey
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MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
bank, still in use. In fact the "safe," though built after the Carey vault, was much more primitive, and was practically a stout closet, with doors closed by a lock which was manipulated by means of an enormous iron key, the keyhole of the doors being concealed from view under a still more enormous iron latch that, being lifted, dis- closed the lock. Whether this was Mr. McElroy's first or second bank location, or whether some previous bank was responsible for the "safe" cannot now be said.
Mr. McElroy's bank was succeeded in this location by the First National bank of Sidney, Ohio, chartered February 20, 1864, with J. F. Frazier, Judge Hugh Thompson, L. C. Barkdull, William P. Reed and William Lee among the incorporators. These men con- stituted the first board of directors, and with one exception, Mr. Lee, remained in office during the entire existence of the bank. Mr. Lee left Sidney, but remained a stockholder. Mr. John H. Mathers, father of Judge Hugh T. Mathers, was chosen to succeed him. These men were well fitted to serve as directors, being old residents and enjoying the confidence of the community. Mr. Frazer was a suc- cessful business man, and a financier of unquestioned integrity, and had been "a walking bank" for years after the establishment of banks, accepting money on notes and safe-guarding the funds thus intrusted to him, both to his own profit and that of his depositors. Mr. Barkdull was a jeweler, upright in character and sound in judgment, sternly devoted to business. Judge Thompson was a lawyer, a man of keen foresight and business sagacity, tactful and diplomatic and of great personal popularity. Mr. Reed had been widely known for years as a shrewd note buyer, or "shaver," and had an intimate knowledge of the property and financial condi- tion of a very large number of people. Mr. Lee was a railroad con- tractor and man of wealth. The first cashier of the bank was Wil- liam Gibbs, succeeded after a year by William Murphey, ex-audi- tor of the county, who brought to his task many fine qualifications ; but was handicapped in the performance of his work by the paralysis of his left arm. After three years was succeeded, in 1868, by Charles C. Weaver, of Butler county, Ohio. About 1869, John H. Wagner entered the bank as bookkeeper and general assistant. Mr. Wagner was an expert in the detection of counterfeit money, with which the country was annoyed at that time, and was much appreciated by the patrons of the bank. On June 9, 1872, William A. Graham, who after his second term of school teaching had engaged in shearing sheep in the country, was surprised with the offer of a position in the bank as collector and clerk. Nevertheless the "country boy without money or influence" accepted the offer, and received in the original national bank of Sidney the training for what has been a life work. Early in 1875 Mr. Weaver and Mr. Wagner resigned from the bank force, and Mr. W. R. Moore became cashier, re- maining with the institution until 1877, when it went into liquida- tion.
Messrs. Weaver and Wagner organized the German-American bank and opened for business May 1, 1875. Associated with them in the new organization were B. W. Maxwell, Peter Wagner, Christian Kingseed, Judge Thompson, E. E. Nutt, D. W. Pampel,
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THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
H. W. Thompson, John E. Bush and others not now recalled. The bank enjoyed prosperity and popularity from the start, having the public confidence warranted by the character of the men who com- posed the board of directors. Its successive presidents were: B. W. Maxwell, Judge Thompson, and John H. Wagner; while the cashiers, in order, were John H. Wagner, D. R. Orbison and F. D. Reed. William A. Graham left the First National bank in December, 1875, and accepted a position in the German-American bank, where he remained until January, 1881, J. C. Cummins and D. R. Orbison entering the First National at this time (1875). The first board of directors of the German-American bank retired or died as time passed, and their places seem not to have been filled. The bank, enjoying apparent prosperity, suddenly failed in a tangle of circumstances impossible for anyone but a government expert to elucidate-and still a painful subject in Sidney-in 1904.
The Citizens' bank had been organized in 1870, beginning busi- ness in July of that year. James A. Lamb and Louis E. Mathers were at the head of the enterprise, and their associates were John H. Mathers, Edmund Smith, William Johnston, Jacob Piper, sr., Samuel Rice, John Barkalow, C. T. Pomeroy, James Murray, George Hemm, William Alfele, Kendall and Conroy, and Nathan Moore. Mr. Lamb was the first president, and continued in the position until his death in 1898, after twenty-eight years of ser- vice. Louis Mathers was the first cashier but died in 1872, and was succeeded by his brother, O. O. Mathers. At his election to the county auditorship in 1875, Mr. Mathers was succeeded by W. E. Kilborn, who served until 1881, when he retired to undertake the management of the American Steel Scraper company, in which he had become a partner, and was succeeded by W. A. Graham, who has now filled the responsible position for thirty-eight years. J. C. Cummins entered the Citizens' bank as assistant cashier in 1881, and continued there until 1906, when he resigned to become cashier of the First National Exchange bank of Sidney. The Citizens' bank was converted to a national bank in September, 1905.
The newest bank in Sidney is the First National Exchange bank, organized in 1899, and opened for business in September of that year. This bank was the outgrowth of the law requiring savings and loan associations to deposit in banks; and as there was not at that time a National bank in Sidney, Mr. Studevant, head of the People's Savings and Loan association, organized the First Na- tional Exchange bank to fill an imperative need. It was for sev- eral years accommodated in the quarters of the association in the Robertson building, but as the business of each organization in- creased, the bank was moved to the north side of the square, oc- cupying the location vacated by the defunct German-American bank. W. H. Wagner was the first president of the bank, and Mr. Stude- vant its first cashier, the latter resigning about 1906, on account of his increasing responsibilities as secretary of the loan associa- tion. Mr. Studevant then became vice-president, and J. C. Cummins cashier.
In 1915 the Exchange bank underwent rebuilding, following the fire which destroyed wholly or partly, a number of buildings.
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Its new home, on the old site, is a model of chaste beauty, of white marble both as to front and interior development, and thoroughly fire-proof. The edifice is small, but commands respect and admira- tion for its fitness, and quality.
The Citizens' National bank also has a home of admirable qualities. The building was erected in the eighties, and is an ex- ceptionally good example of the best taste of that period of build- ing. It occupies the site of what is believed to have been Sidney's first brick business building, at the northwest corner of Main and Poplar. The bank building was slightly injured in the conflagra- tion of 1915, which destroyed several buildings west of it, but of which it shows no trace now, either outside or within. The bank's quarters on the first floor have been completely reconstructed, and are most agreeable and inviting, light, airy and commodious, and admirably simple.
The Shelby county building and loan association was incor- porated December, 1895, with an authorized capital stock of $2,- 000,000. The first board of directors, in which some incidental changes have occurred, chiefly from deaths, consisted of John H. Taft, W. A. Perry, Louis Kah, William Piper, John Loughlin, M. L. Heffelman and Louis Pfaadt. William Piper was first presi- dent, J. H. Taft, vice-president, D. R. Orbison, secretary, W. P. Metcalf, treasurer and David Oldham, attorney. The first home of the Shelby county association was in the Timeus block on the south side of the public square, but its growth demanded better quarters and in 1902 the present location was purchased of the Ferdinand Amann heirs and fitted up for banking purposes. In 1913, the place was entirely rebuilt, in substantial style, the bank- ing headquarters being tiled and furnished in quartered oak, with new cement vault in which the safe is set. The institution has ex- perienced constant and increasing prosperity, only second, if at all, to its predecessor, The People's Savings and Loan association, which was organized in 1886 by L. M. Studevant, on the then new "perpetual" plan. Previous associations had come and gone in Sidney, before this date, having served their purpose and "paid out."
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