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 2

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Allen County 200

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 33

Allen County 200

| Sept. 2020
9

Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society

Recruits gather in the Public Square in 1861. 15
CONTENTS
From the partners 21
About this publication......................................................................4
Beginning the celebration..............................................................6

Features
Who are we? A story of immigration...........................................9 Trivia and more
Making of Allen County: Mystery artifacts answers....................... 62
Rough country, even rougher times........................................ 15
Population graphic................................... 19
Boomtown: Lima’s industrial past and present.................... 21
From the headlines: Looking back at news stories............. 28
Leisure pursuits show the culture of the area....................... 35
On the cover
Famous sons and daughters....................................................... 39
This photo of the McCullough wagon is
25 people who made Allen County a better place............. 43 by Adrienne McGee Sterrett. The wagon is
on exhibit at the Allen County Museum. The
Allen County sports heroes ........................................................ 48 McCullough family used it to travel from
Education: Striving to better ourselves................................... 55 Pennsylvania to Allen County in the 1830s.
 4
Allen County 200
Sept. 2020 |
About this publication
This year marks the 200th
anniversary of the founding of
Allen County.
Working in partnership
with the Allen County
Museum and Historical
Society, The Lima News is
providing the community
this special publication to
share insights on how the
county and its communities
developed. It is a story of the
human spirit and the desire
and courage to cut out a new
life from the dense forests and
swamps that once occupied
Northwest Ohio.
As you can imagine, boiling
down 200 years of history
for this publication was a
daunting task, but it also
proved to be a fun one as well
as an educational experience.
What follows are vignettes
about people who made a
difference during the years
they called Allen County
home. We explore the early
days of the county, tell you
how industries sprouted from
Summer
1830
First circus came to town,
pitching tents at the site
of the Argonne Hotel.
the farmland and point out
historic events — some that
inspire awe and some that
demonstrate the shameful
inequalities of the past.
This publication only
touches on highlights. The
choices we made on what to
include were difficult, simply
put. We encourage our readers
to be inspired by what follows
on these pages to investigate
for themselves. There is a
wealth of history available
to those who embrace the
challenge to learn, to go
deeper.
Most of the information
that follows was culled from
the archives of both the Allen
County Historical Society
and Museum and The Lima
News. A special thanks goes
to Adrienne McGee Sterrett,
the lifestyle/special sections
editor of The Lima News,
who headed up this project
for the newspaper, and to
Anna Selfridge of the Allen
County Historical Society and
Aug. 30,
1831
First county tax levy of 8
mills per dollar for county
purposes, followed by a log
courthouse built for $175.
Museum, who is in herself a
book of knowledge about our
special corner of Ohio.
McGee Sterrett compiled
the stories using archived Let’s
Reminisce articles, a Lifestyle
feature that dates to 1994
and has been written by Kim
Kincaid and Greg Hoersten.
News stories from all eras were
also of great help. Jim Naveau,
longtime sports writer for
The Lima News, compiled
the story on sports. Event
booklets and programs filed
in the newspaper’s archives
also offered details. Key
sources include “Historical
Atlas of Allen County,
Ohio,” published in 1875;
“History of Allen County,
Ohio,” published in 1885;
“History of Allen County,
Ohio, and Representative
Citizens,” published in 1906;
“A Standard History of Allen
County, Ohio,” published in
1921; and “A 1976 History
of Allen County, Ohio,”
published in 1976.
1832
First tavern in Lima,
opened by John
Porter Mitchell.
Courtesy of
Allen County
Historical
Society
A view of the
Public Square
in 1867.
Thanks also goes to
museum Director Amy
Craft, museum Director of
Curatorial Affairs Brittany
Venturella, The Lima News
Publisher Kirk Dougal, Editor
Jim Krumel and Managing
Editor David Trinko for their
efforts in making this possible.
And we would be remiss
not to mention those
businesses who are advertising
in this publication. Their
support has provided the
funding to make this project
possible.
Historians tell us that
knowing the past opens the
door to the future. Plan a visit
to the museum, and spend
some time at limaohio.com/
reminisce.
If you enjoy reviewing these
pages as much as we enjoyed
bringing them to you, our
mission of sharing this area’s
heritage was accomplished.
Happy 200th birthday,
Allen County.
Feb. 1,
1832
The Lima Post Office
was established,
with Lewis Sroufe
postmaster.
 5

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Allen County 200
Beginning the
celebration
Sept. 2020 |
By Amy Craft the tone for the next 100 years. That
early history defined the county’s
Director and Executive Secretary,
Allen County Historical Society character and is reflected today in its
and Museum business, industrial and social base.
In January of this year, the Allen
The Allen County Museum is proud County Museum embarked on the
to be the repository for the history of the development of a small exhibit that
county. The generosity of the community celebrated the 200th anniversary of the
and its interest and enthusiasm in county’s establishment in 1820. This
supporting, collecting and preserving anniversary date was brought to staff’s
the county’s history is evident in the attention by a longtime museum friend
museum’s collection, which now exceeds and patron, Helen Jean Spyker, who
over 280,000 archival and material items. informed us of the pending anniversary.
Established in 1908, the museum has With little time to prepare, the museum’s
been the steward of this history for an curators worked diligently to create an
astonishing 112 years. The museum tells exhibit and timeline that identified the
the story of the region from prehistory significant highlights of that early period.
through the industrial expansion that Through the Organic Act of 1820,
began in the mid-19th century and set the initial boundaries of Allen County
were set. For judicial purposes, however,
the county was at that time attached to
Shelby County. Complete independence
was recognized 11 years later in 1831,
when Allen County’s present boundaries
were established, and the county was
fully able to act on its own behalf in
matters of government. The date of 1831
is today recognized on the county’s flag.
As is often the case, research on the
early history unveiled unjust treaties and
ceded lands of the first peoples. In truth,
this portion of the county’s early history
is not easy to digest and came at a high
price for Native Americans, who were
eventually removed from this area by the
early 1830s, having ceded their land to
Mystery Artifact No. 1 — the United States under the Greenville
see page 62 for the answer. Treaty of 1795.
The museum’s goal with the 200th
1832-33 1833 1836
Gen. John Ware was the A jail was built The first newspaper, The Herald,
first schoolmaster, teaching for $179. arrived. It was followed by The Owl
a subscription school of 39 in 1842 and The Porcupine in 1843.
students in the log courthouse. The Argus also started that year.
1820 anniversary date was to highlight
significant accomplishments of those
early years along with the confusion
over township map changes. The exhibit
briefly mentions the unjust and sorted
relationship with the county’s Native
American population. The exhibition
continues through 2021.
In 2031, Allen County will celebrate
its bicentennial on the date which
recognizes the county as an independent
governmental entity. In an effort to
create an equitable and inclusive county
narrative that takes into account the
contributions of all of the county’s
ethnic diversity, the museum will lead
others on a committee that will research,
re-examine and shed new light on the
county’s fascinating and diverse history,
giving voice to the groups who have been
historically underrepresented.
The Allen County Museum is
delighted to partner with The Lima News
to bring residents a publication that aids
in documenting the remarkable history
and progress of our county over the past
200 years. With great anticipation, we
also look forward to the opportunity
of celebrating more fully the narrative
and accomplishments of all voices of the
county in 2031.
1838 1840
First bridge was constructed The population of
by the commissioners over the county jumped
little Hog Creek in Shawnee from 578 in 1830 to
Township for $50. 9,079 in 1840.
 7

Allen County 200

| Sept. 2020
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 This photo, from about 1878 or ‘79, shows the Hover family with
the former councilhouse built under the direction of PHT. It was 9
built in 1831, had two stories, featured a fireplace and was overall

Allen County 200

said to be of fine workmanship. It was used for public occasions
by the Shawnee. After they were removed from this area, the
structure was a temporary dwelling from the Griffith, Breese and
Ezekiel Hover families. In the photo are Ezekiel Hover, Joe Hover,
Howard and Anna Hover and David E. Hover along with two
unidentified people.

| Sept. 2020
This illustration shows Fort Amanda in use as a supply post.

Photos courtesy of Allen County Historical Society

Who are we?

A story of immigration
From The Lima News Archives
Native American tribes made this area
their home until they were outnumbered
by soldiers and settlers. Twelve tribes
signed the Treaty of Greenville in 1795,
which gave the northwestern Ohio lands
to the United States. In less than a year,
the nation allowed those lands to be sold
to settlers. An 1817 treaty forced Native
Americans onto reservations.
Settlers began moving into the area
in early 1817. Fort Amanda, which had
been abandoned by the military after
the War of 1812, served as an incubator
for early settlement. Beginning in 1814,
Francis Duchouquet, a French trader
who married into the Shawnee and often
served as an interpreter, lived at the fort
before moving on.
Andrew Russell from Dayton moved
his family into the abandoned fort early
in 1817, and it was there on July 13,
1817, that his daughter, Susanna, was
born. Susanna Russell is generally accept-
ed as being the first white child born in
Allen County, although the county did
not officially exist when she was born.
On Sept. 20, 1817, nine days before
the Fort Meigs treaty was signed, a son
named Francis was born to Peter Diltz,
another squatter at the fort who came
north with Russell.
Russell was the first to move out of the
fort and begin farming. The exact loca-
tion of the farm is unknown.
A historical marker just west of Fort
Amanda and Sunderland roads in today’s
Allen County recognizes the Dye Sun-
derland homestead as the first permanent
farm in the county. Sunderland, who was
Andrew Russell’s brother-in-law, had also
come from Dayton and settled in Allen
County in 1821.
Early settlers sometimes were not even
aware of each other.
An early history of the county explains
the Wood family had arrived in 1824
and the McCluer family in 1825.
Nathaniel McCluer remembers three
men coming to his father’s Bath Town-
ship cabin in 1826. Morgan Lippincott,
Joseph Wood and Benjamin Dolph were
hunting when they were spooked by a
panther that was stalking them, lost their
trail and were astonished to hear some-
one chopping wood.
“They were most agreeably surprised
to find Samuel McCluer and his cabin
ready to receive them. Next day, McClu-
er accompanied his three visitors to their
settlement, five miles distant, and then
for the first time learned that the Woods,
Lippincotts, Purdys and Samuel Jacobs
were actually within visiting distance
without his knowledge of their exis-
tence.”
THE SHAWNEE
One Shawnee reservation was near
today’s Shawnee and Fort Amanda roads.
A much larger reservation was at

Dec. 1842-1848 1845 June 24,

1842 1845

The second Construction of Breesewood, First Presbyterian Church The Miami-Erie Canal,
courthouse the brick home of Griffith was built at Spring and begun in 1825, was
was completed Breese on Fort Amanda Road. Elizabeth streets. finally completed.
for $13,325.
 10
Allen County 200
Sept. 2020 |
This map, drawn by F.M. Hackman, shows the Native American
settlements in the area from 1820-1831.
Wapakoneta.
The last Shawnee
chief of Ohio — Pe-
aitch-tha or “Fallen
Timbers” or Pht —
died of illness in 1832,
and the Shawnee trav-
eled west that same
year. The Hover family
moved into the aban-
doned Shawnee Coun-
cil House shortly after.
Pht was well
regarded. The 1885
county history shares a
memory from Matthew
Allison about the man.
Pht came to Allison’s
cabin in Bath Town-
ship to complain about
neighbor William Lip-
pincott. Lippincott had
borrowed a horse col-
lar from the chief and
didn’t return it. When
Pht asked for it back,
Lippincott took him
to be threatening and
secured a warrant for
the chief ’s arrest. Pht
followed the summons,
sending for an inter-
preter in Wapakoneta.
After the details were
July 4,
1845
“The Marshall” was the first
canal boat through Delphos
with a load of furs for Toledo.
learned and the case Dolph. He was a for-
dismissed, Pht turned mer Indian scout and
to Lippincott and said, was entrusted to several
“Ah, Billy Lippincott, important governmen- Photos courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
you be all one big lie.” tal tasks in Allen Coun- An 1805 map of the state shows the “Indian Boundary Line.”
DRAINING THE ty. He opened his home
for church services and
SWAMP
operated a store out of
Settlers worked on
it as well.
clearing the dense
A pioneer named
forests and improving
William Rumbaugh,
drainage, as the area
who came to Allen
was at the edge of the
County in 1832,
Great Black Swamp.
remembered early
Acres were sold in a
Lima as having only
land rush in the 1820s
“a few log huts (that)
and ’30s for buyers to
fringed the edges of
clear and farm.
what is today the Pub- The marker at the Fort Amanda monument honors early
The most active area
lic Square,” according pioneers and those who died in the War of 1812.
of settlement in Allen
to the 2006 article in
County in the 1820s
The Lima News, which
was along the banks of at the Allen County build a house, defend
added that “he also
Sugar Creek, north of Museum. The family’s their families from
remembered snakes
the future site of Lima roots are described as wolves and other wild
crawling everywhere
in what would become Scotch-Irish. He and animals, and clear the
…”
Bath Township. The his wife, Margaret, land before they could
Another family was
first to arrive here was had six children, one plant crops. If the crops
the McCulloughs.
Christopher Wood. of whom lived as a didn’t fail, they were
In 1835, James
Wood was born in newlywed in the cabin faced with the task of
McCullough came via
Kentucky and found now on display on the getting them to a mill
Conestoga wagon from
his way here in 1824 museum grounds. in order to make flour.
western Pennsylvania to
with his sons, Joseph Simply put, early Baking a loaf of bread
farm near today’s Allen
and Albert G., and his pioneer life was dif- with which to feed your
County Fairgrounds.
son-in-law, Benjamin ficult. They had to family was no easy task.
The wagon is on exhibit
Dec. 19, 1846-48 1848 1852
1846
Lima’s first mayor, Three soldiers were killed in the Reorganization Tanner Street
Henry DeVilliers Mexican War: T.A. Hollaway, of the county. house erected.
Williams, died Charles Long and Jonathan Fisher.
of rabies.
 11

Allen County 200

| Sept. 2020
Adrienne McGee Sterrett | The Lima News
TOP LEFT: This grist mill, on display at the Allen County Mu-
seum, was used near Elida by David Brenneman. It was brought
to this area from Fairfield County in 1832 by Christian Stukey.

Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society

TOP RIGHT: The former Temple Beth Israel.
RIGHT: St. Paul’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, Lima,
appears as it was photographed in about 1918.

“When the pioneers of the niences of going to mill.”

county took up their residence
here, they were compelled to
visit Sydney, Piqua, Chero-
kee, St. Marys, West Liberty,
Urbana or the Quakers’ Mill
at Wapakoneta, in their search
for milling facilities,” an 1885
county history book reported.
“This was a most expensive
and disagreeable procedure,
as in the greater number of
instances, men were delayed
and by other means disap-
pointed. To remedy this evil,
hand mills, hominy blocks
and corn-crackers were
brought into use, which for a
few years enabled the pioneers
to overcome the inconve-
By the mid-1820s, the
Miami-Erie Canal had begun,
and immigration centered
around that was in full
force. Cincinnati was a boat-
building hub, and immigrants
from the east steamed up the
Ohio River to it. Once the
canal reached Dayton, that
city’s population exploded,
too. Then Spencerville and
Delphos saw the bump in
commerce and people. The
first canal boat came through
Allen County in 1845. It was
first for shipping of goods,
but passenger excursions came
later.
Immigration records show
the majority of incoming peo-
ple from 1833 to 1861 were
German, 60%. The second-
largest group were those from
the United Kingdom, mainly
Ireland and Wales. Switzer-
land comes in third, and
France just behind it. It was
common for settlers to estab-
lish themselves in a place and
then send for other members
of their families.
There were several German
newspapers. Der Lima Cou-
rier was founded in 1877 by
George Feltz and combined
by Adolph Weixelbaum with
The Delphos Kleeblatt. Klee-
blatt means clover leaf. The
Volksblatt was established by
A. Zwanzig in 1879, but there
were only three editions. It
means people’s journal.
BUILDING CHURCHES
Churches were established
by immigrants as quickly as
possible, which speaks to their
ideals.
“In the matter of Christian
progress, to which religious
organization and church
building must be considered

About 1853 1854 Nov.

1852 1854

Free schools were established. The first saloon in Lima, owned The Western Gazette newspaper The first train
There were three in Lima, by Wolf and Myers, opened in started, and People’s Press reached Lima over
including “Lima Academy.” the northwest corner of Market followed in 1855. A cholera the I. & O. Railroad.
Street and the Public Square. epidemic struck the area.
 12
Allen County 200
Sept. 2020 |
Mystery Artifact No. 2 —
see page 62 for the answer.
Photos courtesy of Allen
County Historical Society
TOP: A Black newspaper,
The Lima Post, was
published weekly in the
1950s. It is on display at the
Allen County Museum.
RIGHT: St. John Catholic
Church, Lima, was built to
help with the religious needs
of an influx of immigrants.
1855-56
First Baptist Church was
built on Central Avenue.
This was Lima’s first
brick church.
an index, Lima City has marked above
all other divisions of the county,” the
1885 history stated.
By the 1830s, a few denominations
had become established. Mennonites
mainly came from Switzerland, settling
in Elida and Bluffton. Lutherans were
from out east and Germany, and early
resident Abraham Doner organized three
congregations — Trinity Lutheran in
Elida, Zion Lutheran in Lafayette and
St. Matthew in Cridersville.
Methodism was spread into this area
by traveling preachers, and Trinity Unit-
ed Methodist Church in Lima dates to
1835. Presbyterians were also among the
early arrivals, with Market Street Pres-
byterian Church first meeting in a log
cabin on the square in 1833. In 1834, a
Baptist church was established.
Catholicism was not far behind.
Priests made a mission out of this area
and visited the Catholics in the 1830s.
St. John the Evangelist in Delphos is the
oldest parish in the county, founded in
1844 by the Rev. John Otto Bredeick.
His brother, Frederick, bought 92 acres
in the Ten Mile Woods after hearing the
canal was coming through, and Father
required his parishioners to work to clear
the land and build the church as well
as donate funds. The 1840s also saw St.
Patrick parish in Spencerville grouped
with the Delphos and Landeck parishes
but then going on its own.
In Lima, St. Rose parish started as
a mission congregation with the first
church built in 1858. In 1901, St. John’s
1855-1893 1858
Allen County Democrat First brick school built in Lima on
newspaper in publication. north side of High, west of Pierce
— Union School. St. Rose Catholic
Church built by Father Krensch.
helped relieve St. Rose from an influx
of new immigrants. In 1916, St. Gerard
parish began. In 1946, St. Charles parish
was organized.
In Bluffton, St. Mary Church was
built in 1865. Landeck’s St. John the
Baptist parish is from that era as well,
but records were lost in a church fire.
BLACK SETTLERS
Immigration came not just from
Europeans. The first Black settlers in
the county were James and wife Martha
Robinson, who arrived in 1837. Several
families joined them. These early settlers
were freemen. There were Black settle-
ments in Mercer, Shelby, Van Wert and
Paulding counties, with many of the
early Allen County settlers tracing back
their histories to those places. The post-
war era saw another wave of immigra-
tion of Blacks coming north to escape
the Jim Crow South and find jobs in
factories.
St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal
Church was organized in 1858 and met
in homes until buying a site in 1880.
Second Baptist Church was organized
in 1873, buying a site in 1876. Fourth
Street Missionary Baptist Church was
organized in 1917.
A Black newspaper, The Lima Post,
was published weekly in the 1950s. It
offered everything from the latest on the
Jim Crow laws to who was performing
at Oliver’s Night Club on Lima’s Central
Avenue.
JEWISH COMMUNITY
The Jewish community reaches back
to the late 1800s, with the Beth Israel
congregation taking form in 1903. The
group of 12 families practicing Liberal
Judaism gathered to worship at various
churches in town until a lot was pur-
chased at 828 W. Market St., and a tem-
ple built in 1913. The Orthodox group,
Shaare Zedek, formed in 1914 and first
bought a house to remodel for worship
in 1920 and in 1936 dedicated a new
synagogue. In 1966, the groups decided
to band their smaller numbers together
and create a new Reform congregation,
Temple Beth Israel-Shaare Zedek.
Mar. 25, 1859
1858
Line completed on D & M The Allen County
between Lima and Dayton. Infirmary/Home
The following year, the D & M was built.
railroad shops began operation.
 13

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Allen County 200

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15

Allen County 200

| Sept. 2020
Making of Allen County:
Photos courtesy of Allen County Historical Society

Rough country, even rougher times

From The Lima News Archives
After the Native American
tribes who lived in this area
were forced west, thanks to a
series of treaties that reduced
their rights and lands measure
by measure, the whole of
Northwest Ohio was opened
for purchase by settlers at the
Piqua Land Office in 1834.
It took some work to get to
that point.
In 1819, U.S. government
surveyor Sylvanus Bourne
marked an east-west line along
the 41st degree of latitude.
Other surveyors took up the
job from there, and townships
were laid out.
On Feb. 12, 1820, the
Organic Act of 1820 created
Allen County — and 13 other
Northwest Ohio counties.
Government business was first
handled in Shelby County
and, later, Mercer County.
Mercer was closer, and it was
a little easier for pioneers for
traveling for official business.
As early as 1821, surveyors
began to plot roads. Fifteen
state roads were created in the
period of 1821 to 1838, many
of which still exist in part.
“In 1834, William Brady
and William Scott opened a
road from the Auglaize River
through the 10 Mile Woods,
afterward known as Section
Ten, now Delphos, to Van
Wert. Not even one cabin was
to be seen in all that distance
when those pioneers cut the
road through,” the 1885
history stated.
Christopher Wood was
a former Indian scout who
made the Bath Township area the Allen County Common
his home. He was entrusted Pleas Court, held March 29,
to several important tasks 1831, several appointments
in Allen County — justice were made, including the first
of the peace in Amanda county commissioners, James
Township in 1826, first clerk Daniels, John G. Wood and
of Bath Township in 1829, Samuel Stewart. Judges also
foreman of the grand jury appointed Auditor William
in St. Marys (which served G. Wood, Treasurer Adam
Mercer and Allen counties) White, Recorder Nathan
in 1829, justice of the peace Daniels, Assessor Samuel
in Bath Township in 1830, McCluer and Clerk pro tem
Allen County commissioner John Ward.
in 1830, road commission Christopher Wood, the
in 1831, associate judge for first and only town director,
Allen County Common Pleas chose Lima’s location and
Court in 1831 and treasurer oversaw the survey of plats.
of Bath Township in 1832. Lima became the county seat
In 1830, Allen County and was officially organized
authorized funds to extend in June 1831. That same year,
the Miami-Erie Canal Justin Hamilton submitted his
through the county. original survey of the town to
During the first meeting of the commissioners.

April-May 1861-1865 April 19,

10, 1860
The first county fair was held in
Blackburn’s Grove. This area was later
known as Faurot’s farm, south of
Spring and west of McDonel streets.
1861
The first company of Lima volunteers organized,
Civil War. with another company coming together 10 days
later. Both contributed to Company A, Regiment
20th O.V.I. The 20th Ohio Infantry Regiment was
organized at Columbus in response to President
Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers and mustered
Command. It participated in action at Richter
June 23 and the pursuit of Garnett July 15-16. The
regiment then performed duty along Baltimore &
into service on May 23, 1861, under the command Ohio Railroad until August and mustered out on
of Colonel Charles Whittlesey. The regiment was Aug. 23, 1861. Up to Sept. 25, 1861, Allen County
ordered to western Virginia and attached to Kelly’s supplied between 900 and 1,000 troops.
 16
Allen County 200
Sept. 2020 |

Mystery Artifact No. 3 —

see page 62 for the answer.
This was the first courthouse in Allen County, as Christopher Wood chose Lima’s location and
it was photographed in the 1880s. oversaw the survey of plats.

Fifteen state roads were surveyed and laid out between 1821 and 1838. The new village was just but also the very dogs of doctors, one hat store, one
160 acres. the settlement suffered pottery, two smith shops.
Many of the roads exist in part today.

Gov. Duncan McArthur intensely from fever. No newspaper office, no

signed the deed for Allen
County’s Seat of Justice
in December 1832, but
it was written incorrectly,
and that was discovered
in 1844. The county still
owed the state for Lima’s
land. The commissioners
paid the state $200 with
interest to make Lima
officially the county seat.
Settlers paid an average
of $25 per lot in Lima
proper. It was rough
country. The whole region
Photos courtesy of was swampy and mosquito-
Allen County Historical Society ridden. Pioneers remember
snakes infesting the muck
and forests.
“It has been stated with
some show of authority
that Delphos could not
have been settled without
the aid of quinine,”
according to the 1885
county history. “The air
This was Lima’s central fire station, as
photographed in 1907. Later, when horses
was so poisoned with
were no longer used to pull the pumpers, malarial effluvia from
some of them found new work pulling swamps and marshes that
delivery trucks. People reported the horses not only the pioneers
would still want to respond to the fire bell.
Quinine was the sine qua
non of life even up to the
period when the location
lost its name of Section
Ten.”
Early settler Robert
Bowers remembered early
Lima this way in an 1885
history account:
“My father brought me
to Lima in the fall of 1834.
I was then a boy of 12
years of age. … Lima was
a town of very few souls.
I cannot say how many,
but I knew every man,
woman and child in the
settlement and could count
them all without much
figuring. We had here at
that time the land office,
two hotels, two shoe shops,
two tailors, five stores,
where you could buy
whisky and such things as a
country store usually keeps,
two furniture stores, two
tanneries, one wheelwright,
one reed factory, one
millinery store, three
outlet or inlet either by rail
or earth. In the spring we
traveled below, in summer
we traveled on top. Our
roads were trails and
section lines.”
Lima was incorporated
in 1842. Lima, the capital
of Peru and the seat’s
namesake, manufactured
quinine used to treat
malaria, common in Allen
County at the time. Some
accounts credit Patrick G.
Goode from Montgomery
County with suggesting the
name Lima.
Henry DeVilliers
Williams assumed the role
of Lima’s first mayor. The
story goes that Williams
was a character by anyone’s
standards. History claims
he wore buckskin breeches,
a loose shirt and fur cap
wherever he went. A pack
of dogs was his constant
companion as he tramped
through the countryside.
Unfortunately for

April 6, 1865 April 1872

1862 1871

Capt. Mart Armstrong was A volunteer fire The first and only hanging in the Trinity Methodist
the first Allen County soldier brigade was county was Andrew Brentlinger Church building
killed in the Civil War. organized. for murder of his wife. was constructed.

This drawing shows Lima in 1831 and the roads in the area.
Williams, his life was cut
short after he was bitten by
a dog and died of rabies in
1844.
By that time, signs had
begun to materialize that
Lima would prosper and
grow. Some of the first
Limaites were Absalom
Brown, John Marks, Henry
Napier and J.P. Mitchell.
The first log cabin in the
new village was built by
John Marks, a shoemaker
who erected the structure
on the south side of West
Market Street. With only
the framework of the
home in place, Marks left
Lima to get his family
from Champaign County.
While he was gone, the
Mitchell family came
to the area, and in true
pioneer fashion, moved
into the vacated house for
the winter.
Upon the return of the
Marks family, the Mitchells
along with their friends,
the Joseph Edwards family,
built a double cabin on
the north side of Elm
Mar. 15,
1874
The Temperance
Crusade turned Lima
into a dry town.
Street, between Main and
Union streets. Always the
businessman, Mitchell
eventually built and
operated Lima’s first hotel,
located on the southeast
corner of Main and Market
streets. There, many new
residents to the area spent
their first few days in the
village.
In 1848, Auglaize
County was created from
territory taken out of Allen
County. Allen County’s
shape became what we
are familiar with today,
although there was much
reorganizing of townships
over the years.
So much growth brought
so much to keep the peace
over. The Lima Police
Department was officially
organized in May 1887.
There were seven people on
the force. It grew to 18 by
1909. Officers were issued
a gun, badge, flashlight,
whistle and set of keys and
often rode the street car to
calls, a 1976 history states.
The detective bureau began
1878
The fire brigade acquires The Lima Machine Works began,
horses. The Lima Street the company that became the
Railway was completed. Lima Locomotive Works.
17
Allen County 200
| Sept. 2020
The first log cabin in the new village was built by John Marks, a shoemaker
who erected the structure on the south side of West Market Street.
in the 1930s.
The fire department
began with an
amalgamation of citizens
responding with buckets,
and a volunteer force
formed in 1865. Horses
were used to pull the
pumpers. History says
Lima’s department
often competed with
Spencerville’s to see who This is the Lima Police Department, as
it was photographed in 1912.
could respond faster. A
formal department was
organized in 1893.
By 1900, Lima began to
consider itself a city. And
that year, Dr. Sam Baxter,
writing for The Times-
Democrat, presented a
glimpse of that which
made the city of Lima
special. He noted a healthy
public school system
and a large variety of
manufacturers that brought
prosperity as well as
healthy “fraternal, religious
and social organizations.”
Of the people here,
Baxter described them as Adrienne McGee Sterrett | The Lima News
“an orderly, house-owning,
A general store exhibit at the Allen County
hospitable people, inspired Museum shows what a typical late 1800s
country store might have been like.
1879 Sept. 19, Dec. 24,
1879 1879
President R.B. Hayes President
stopped in Lima for lunch Ulysses S. Grant
at the French House. visited Lima.
 Courtesy of Allen County
18 with an incomparable public spirit, which balks at no Historical Society
enterprise and welcomes every honest man, rich or poor, This is Allen County’s third
Allen County 200

who comes to add his efforts to the energetic life of our and current courthouse.
thriving city.”
During the late 1870s until about the 1920s — which
encompasses great surges in growth via the canal and
railroads and their related industries — the governing of
the county and Lima itself was done by well intentioned
but untrained men, according to the 1976 county history.
Sept. 2020 |

Growth to the city itself was done somewhat haphazardly,

and the city was in dire need of organization. The
Ottawa River was filthy, and drainage was poor because
of it, which worsened the 1913 and 1915 floods. Public
infrastructure — roads, water systems, most everything —
was deteriorated or nonexistent.
“What has been said of the physical condition of Lima
could well be matched by the mental attitude of the
citizens. Attitudes of indifference or criticism seemed to
be the order of the times. In the meantime, Lima slipped a
little farther backward each year,” the 1976 history states.
Mayor Frank Burkhart formed a committee to study the
problems, and out of this came the city manager era. The
city commission — five elected men which replaced city
council — would nominate one of their own as mayor.
The commission also hired a city manager. The manager,
who reported to the mayor, appointed the city clerk,
purchasing agent, auditor, law director and all department
heads.
Clarence Bingham of Binghampton, New York, was
the first city manager. He started a program of public
expenditures that was followed by the next manager,
Irving C. Brower, of paving roads, straightening and
cleaning the Ottawa River and improving the city’s water
supply with reservoirs.
This was all terribly expensive. There was no federal
or state help to speak of. The grumbling had begun and
intensified greatly when the stock market crashed in 1929.
People liked the idea of plentiful running water, but the
bill for it was steep when times were tough.
Brower resigned in 1930. Judge Fred C. Becker,
a former mayor, had just retired from Allen County
Common Pleas Court. He maintained city manager duties
while steadying the course back into a mayor-led era. A
new mayor, Allen T. Metheany, was elected in 1933.
Becker’s farewell address included these thoughts:
“If we are to have a better, happier, more peaceful
city, we will have to build it. God’s greatest gifts are not
material things but everyday opportunities for service. We
have a date with destiny. As community-minded men and
women, we shall continue to serve mankind by lending Adrienne McGee Sterrett | The Lima News
the influence of our efforts to the building of a better city An exhibit at the Allen County Museum shows what an early 1900s
and a stronger brotherhood of people among people.” barbershop might have looked like. The backboard is from Don’s
Barbershop, Lafayette.

1882 Sept. 4, 1883 1884-92

1882

The third courthouse was Faurot Opera The first electric light manufacturing Orphaned children removed from the
built. The first Shay geared House opened. plant was constructed by B.C. Faurot infirmary to a separate home on the
locomotive was built by adjacent to the Opera House. The C & infirmary farm. A new home on Fort
Lima Machine Works. A railroad began service. Amanda Road was built circa 1891.
 19

Allen County population

Allen County 200

| Sept. 2020

David Trinko | Source: U.S. Census Bureau

1884-1920 1884 May 19, 1886

1885

Daily Democratic Times Deisel cigar Oil was discovered at Lima’s first
newspaper begins publication. factory begins. Faurot’s Paper Mill. waterworks
The title varied before was established.
becoming The Lima News.
 MeMbership
20
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Allen County 200

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Boomtown:
Lima’s industrial
past and present
From The Lima News Archives
The early industries were related to the business
of living — think gristmills to grind flour and
blacksmiths to shoe horses.
But we quickly showed our blue-collar strengths
and proved Northwest Ohio is pretty darn good at
making things for the nation.
WOOD
The forests, being cleared by the settlers, could
be fashioned into any number of money-making
products. And the area was opened up to commerce
by the Miami-Erie Canal and railroads. The canal as
a shipping mechanism, finished in 1845, was short-
lived. The railroad had come into this area by the
1850s.
“With the first trains that went through to the
Indiana state line, reports of the wonderful oak and
elm forests of Northwestern Ohio and Northeastern
Indiana were related in the Eastern cities, and these
stories, from a cooperage standpoint, when repeated
in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston,
must have resembled those which the Spanish
cavaliers carried back to the court of Ferdinand and
Isabella. … This fact amounted to the discovery
of a new world for operations to the cooperage
industry,” the December 1905 edition of the Barrell
and Box newsletter reported.
“The number of pike roads, together with this
network of railroads, renders travel in this county
agreeable and economical,” the 1885 history
stated as it explained the county was serviced by
July 31, Dec. Jan. 4,
1886 1886 1887
B.C. Faurot purchased the The Solar The Lima Water
street railway company Refinery was Works went into
and incorporated the Lima established. service.
Street Motor & Power Co.
Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society 21
Lima, photographed in 1895, had oil
Allen County 200
derricks dotting the landscape.
| Sept. 2020
the Pennsylvania Railroad system, the Chicago &
Atlantic, the Lake Erie & Western, the Dayton &
Michigan and the Toledo Delphos & Indianapolis
railroads.
Soon, there were sawmills to make lumber, shops
to make wagons, factories that made wheels and
gun stocks and plants that produced barrels and
excelsior. (Excelsior was curled wood shavings used
for packing material.) After the Civil War, lumber
was needed for railroad ties and bridges.
In about 1863, the first stave mill was opened
in Van Wert by Pennypacker & Sibley. A stave,
to remind us in the modern era, is a thin slat of
wood that was held together with a hoop to form
a barrel. There were many mills in this area, each
taking advantage of the forests. George H. Marsh,
of Van Wert, was another developer of stave mills.
Marsh — whose estate was the basis of the Marsh
Foundation, which continues today — originated
the theme of eagles and called the business Eagle
Stave Co. This company eventually became a
leading brand and was in Lima by 1901.
STEEL
The Lima Agricultural Works began in 1863
and incorporated into the Lima Machine Works
by 1869. It added the manufacture of sawmill
equipment. The company filled an order request
from a customer whose neighbor, Ephraim Shay,
had developed a unique geared locomotive that
could haul logs on steep grades at a lesser cost.
By 1882, the company began the manufacture of
lightweight standard locomotives and Shay Patent
Locomotives. It moved its shop to south Lima in the
Summer July 4,
1887 1887
The first city mail The Lima Street Railway began
carriers in Lima electrified operation. A 182-foot
started delivery. electric light tower was erected in the
Square. It lasted until about 1905.
 22
Allen County 200
Sept. 2020 |

Photos courtesy of Allen County Historical Society

LEFT: A worker bends glass in a neon shop.
TOP RIGHT: Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co. started making
small motors in refrigeration and air-conditioning units in Lima in 1937.
BOTTOM RIGHT: A Liberty truck can be seen in Washington, D.C. the oil was struck. “If the well turns out,
as it looks now that it will, look out for
early 1900s and at one point employed The manufacture of construction the biggest boom Lima ever had.”
4,000 people. The final locomotive left equipment continued until 1981. Before long, derricks sprouted around
the plant in 1956, with only repair work OIL the area as everyone wanted a piece of
done after that point. the action.
By 1885, Lima was a bustling The oil was heavy with sulfur, making
While the steam and diesel engine community of some 8,000 people with
market faded, the businesses it had a it difficult to refine. Businessmen set
a new courthouse and, thanks to leading to building a refinery here instead of
direct tie to grew: Ohio Power Shovel businessman Benjamin C. Faurot, an shipping the oil out of town for refining.
Co., Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corp. and opera house. It claimed a soon-to-be-
John D. Rockefeller’s Buckeye Pipe Line
Clark Equipment Co. electrified city street car system, railroad Co. and Standard Oil arrived, led by
The Ohio Steam Shovel Co., a concern connections in all directions and a John Van Dyke. Some 400 men started
of the Ohio Steel Foundry’s John E. handful of newspapers. construction on the Solar Refinery in
Galvin, became a subsidiary of the Loco Faurot brought in drillers from 1886.
Works in 1928 only a few years into its Pennsylvania to bore a natural gas well For some time, the refinery served as a
existence. The foundry produced metal at his paper mill on the Ottawa River laboratory where Van Dyke and chemist
castings for the Loco and would focus on east of downtown. The plant made Herman Frasch worked to perfect
steam shovels in the offseason, essentially. strawboard and egg cases, and he was Frasch’s method for taking the sulfur out
The machine the Ohio Power Shovel likely spurred to look for the cheap of Lima’s oil to make it more marketable.
Co. produced, the News wrote March energy after gas was found in Findlay not In 1931, the refinery became Sohio.
30, 1930, was the “famous” Lima 101. long before that. In 1954, two caverns were dug 460 feet
“The trade name, Lima ‘101,’” the “Throughout the county evidences of deep for the storage of propane. Miners
newspaper wrote, “explains one of the gas wells are manifest. Their development blasted under the refinery through the
leading features of the machine. It means is a subject for the enterprise of the rock to dig those caverns, each of which
that the hoist has a speed of 100 feet a future,” the 1885 history stated. could hold 30,000 barrels of liquefied
minute, a speed surpassed by no other Faurot’s drill found oil. petroleum gas. More than 45,000 tons of
machine of its kind.” The shovels were “The oil find has caused much rock were removed, with much of it used
capable of moving 1¼ yards of earth or excitement and those who are working as a base for roads inside the refinery. In
other material in one scoop and were at the well have been compelled to build 1970, three additional caverns were dug.
convertible to cranes, clamshells, drag a high fence around it to keep curiosity In 1954, a $17-million petrochemical
lines or drag shovels “to suit all kinds of seekers from bothering them,” Lima’s plant was built adjacent to the refinery.
digging and material handling.” Daily Republican reported the day after In 1986, the refinery and chemical

April 6, 1888 1892 About

1888 1893

The Election Day Riot Lima’s professional baseball Lima Machine Works The YMCA was built.
marked the beginning team won the Tri-State became Lima Locomotive
of racial conflict in Allen League championships. & Machine Co.
County.

plant became part of British Petroleum
when Standard Oil and BP merged.
British Petroleum announced in 1996
that it wanted to sell the refinery, but
by the end of the year said it had no
suitable buyers and were instead going to
close it. After a community-wide effort,
the refinery was sold in 1998 to Clark
Refining and Marketing, which later
became Premcor. Husky purchased it in
2007.
TRUCKS
The oil wells in the area had begun
to run dry by 1910. Another industry
boom was quick to follow, however.
Benjamin A. Gramm brought his car
manufacturing company from Bowling
Green to Lima in 1910. The Gramm-
Bernstein truck’s innovation was parts
were standardized to make them more
easily repairable. The government bought
a few and subsequently awarded the
company the contract the build the
prototype for the Army’s heavy-duty
truck, called the Liberty Truck. Another
Lima company, Garford, was also tapped
to churn them out for the military.
Superior Coach announced plans in
1923 to start a plant to supply coach
bodies for the Garford truck. The first
product was a wood-constructed deluxe
passenger bus body, and the company
1894-1912 1898
The Lima Times Democrat The first car owned in Lima
semi-weekly newspaper was purchased by W.E. Rudy,
was in publication. a Locomobile. The Lima Daily
News started.
23
Allen County 200
| Sept. 2020
Photos courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
RIGHT: St. Rita’s Hospital, photographed in 1947. BOTTOM LEFT: Lima
Hospital is illustrated
TOP LEFT: The exterior of the Gramm-Bernstein
on a postcard.
Co., with workers posing for a photo.
grew to make coaches for funeral to Dec. 7, 1948, there were 102,607
cars and ambulances. In the 1930s, it vehicles valued at $2.5 billion processed,
introduced an all-steel safety school equipped, modified or remanufactured at
coach and was an early adopter of safety the plant.
glass. During World War II, focus shifted Workers have been involved in the
to military vehicles, and then back again continued manufacture of military
to the automotive industry. It merged vehicles. Since 2004, the plant has been
with Sheller Globe Corp. in 1968. By known as Joint Systems Manufacturing
1981, Sheller Globe closed the school Center and is operated by General
bus manufacturing plant, which was Dynamics Land Systems.
spun off into Mid Bus, and Accubuilt CONSUMER GOODS
focuses now on funeral coaches. There were several cigar companies
TANKS in Lima, and they mainly employed
The Ohio Steel Foundry began women. Deisel-Wemmer was founded
building a plant in south Lima to by Henry Deisel in the 1880s. It became
manufacture gun tubes as World War II Deisel-Wemmer-Gilbert in the 1920s
was ramping up. The Army had been in and grew until it owned or rented 17
town to talk with major industry players plants and employed 4,000 workers.
about defense contracts. The Loco Works DWG merged local operations in a Bath
made more than 1,500 tanks during Township plant in the early 1960s. In
World War II. 1967, workers at the Bath Township
United Motor Service, a subsidiary plant formed RG Dun and bought 55
of General Motors, took over the Lima percent of the local production. RG Dun
Tank Depot in 1942. During World moved back to the downtown Lima plant
War II, the depot handled every type of in 1968. It closed in 1990.
vehicle in the Army’s motorized fleet, Neon Products Inc. began in a small
including amphibious landing craft; storeroom in 1930. Sam Kamin and
craft cargo carriers; light, medium and James Howenstine steered it through
heavy tanks; self-propelled guns and the Depression, even cobbling together
tank rescue vehicles. From Dec. 1, 1942, enough World War II-era work to keep
Sept. 28, April 1,
1898 1899
Lima’s only Spanish-American War City Hospital
casualty died of malaria at Camp Poland opened.
in Knoxville, Tennessee. A cyclone
demolished Lima’s East School.
 24
Allen County 200
Sept. 2020 |
Mystery Artifact No. 4 —
see page 62 for the answer.
The refinery, photographed in 1948,
continues to function today.
Procter & Gamble, photographed in
1970, continues to grow.
April 1,
1900
R.G. Stockton began the
first rural free delivery
route out of Lima.
afloat, and business boomed after they
developed a Plexiglas sign. Kamin
bought Lima’s Arkraft Sign Co. in 1956
— the place where he had his start in
the business in the 1920s. In 1964,
a newspaper item stated it employed
about 400 people. The industry was
done by the late 1970s.
Procter & Gamble opened a Lima
plant in 1968, with a focus on a variety
of brands of liquid detergent and fabric
softeners. The distribution center was
finished in 2006. In 2018, the plant
began making perfume products.
Last year, employee use facilities
were improved — updated entrance,
meeting area, medical facility, cafeteria
and fitness room. At that time, the
plant reported 700 employees and
another 800 contractors work there.
The Lima Ford Engine Plant opened
in 1957. The first engine at the local
plant, an eight-cylinder built for the
Edsel, Mercury and Lincoln models,
was produced in May of that year. The
sale of cars spiked, and Ford was able
to double its payroll by 1960. The
automobile giant credited Lima’s strong
workforce for making it successful.
In 1979, the Lima plant was credited
as being the backbone of Ford’s small
engine production. The plant now
makes F-150 engines.
Westinghouse Electric and
Manufacturing Co. started making
small motors in refrigeration and air-
conditioning units in Lima in 1937.
The first product made here was
washing machine motors. World War II
pushed the demand for war goods, and
it boosted its workforce from 1,500
to 5,000 as it made gun stabilizers
for tanks and generators and small
motors for bombers, fighter planes and
cargo planes. Westinghouse Electrical
Corp. sold to Sundstrand in 1992, and
Sundstrand was closed by 1996.
HOSPITALS
Lima City Hospital was Lima’s first.
In 1899, a residence once owned by
Mar. 10,
1902
The Western Ohio Railway
opens for service.
a judge was purchased and converted
into a hospital. The first school of
nursing graduating class was in 1904,
and it closed in 1971. The site of the
former Driving Park was purchased
in 1930 for a new building. Lima
Memorial Hospital opened in 1933,
named in honor of those who serve in
the military.
Mercy Health-St. Rita’s Medical
Center, operated by the Sisters of
Mercy, began in 1918 as the need for
more hospital space was made clear
by the Spanish flu pandemic. The
six-story building was designed to
accommodate 125 people in a home-
like surrounding. The first patient,
Ben Rokowsky, was admitted Dec. 13,
1918. The last nun in administration
left in 1971, and the last class of St.
Rita’s School of Nursing graduated its
last class. Nursing education shifted to
Lima Technical College. Its Graduate
Medical Education Center is currently
under construction.
By the 1960s, both Mercy Health
and Lima Memorial had expanded
and modernized such that Lima is a
healthcare hub and a major employer
in the industry today.
THE CHAMBER
Lima Board of Trade organized in
1887. Among the first officers were S.S.
Baxter, T.T. Mitchell, C. Parmenter and
B.C. Faurot.
“Most of the officials of the
organization, in those early days, were
connected with the oil business,” the
1976 history stated.
In 1905, the Lima Board of Trade
merged with the Lima Progressive
Association, which changed its name
in 1914 to the Lima Chamber of
Commerce. It was called the Lima
Board of Commerce for a time but
changed back to “chamber” in 1928
with Henry Deisel as president.
It was called the Lima Association of
Commerce in 1935 until it went back
to “chamber” in 1963.
1904
The first auto license tags were
required in Allen County. They
were not required by the state
until 1907/8.
 attention to 25

Allen County 200

the words

| Sept. 2020
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At The Lima News, we’ve been sharing At
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Our editors work with unwavering regard to detail and adherence to journalistic
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 26
Allen County 200

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 From the
28
Allen County 200
headlines:
Sept. 2020 |
Looking back at
news stories
From The Lima News Archives
Allen County’s 200 years
of history provides countless
news stories to look back on.
Here are a few highlights in
random order:
MILNER HOTEL FIRE
In 1945, the Milner Hotel
burned in downtown Lima.
The hotel was originally
known as the Norval Hotel
and was at North and Main
streets. The huge fire killed
two people as it grew to
include Eckerd’s Drug Store,
the Hudson Restaurant
and more. Fire Chief Harry
Taflinger had a heart attack
at the scene and had to be
taken to a hospital, but before
that he saw the severity of
the blaze and asked the city
editor of The Lima News to
call fire departments from
Wapakoneta, Delphos and
Kenton.
A cause was never found.
Because of the loss of life,
City Council examined water
supply problems in detail. In
the end, this fire helped spur
the digging of reservoirs for a
March
1908
The first “picture Allen County Memorial Hall was
show” in Lima. complete, with the subsequent
Ohio G.A.R. convention.
more reliable water supply.
ELIDA MAYOR SHOT
Elida’s mayor and constable
Clarence “Pops” Prince was
shot and killed in front of
Elida school in 1962. His gun
was found to have misfired.
The school had experienced
a rash of break-ins, and he
was apparently watching a
particular suspicious car. Two
men were arrested after a
manhunt.
SNOW CRUISER CRASH
In 1939, Adm. Richard E.
Byrd was preparing for his
third trip to the South Pole.
He was testing out a new
vehicle, a snow cruiser, that
measured 20 feet wide and
55 feet long and weighed 37
tons. The cruiser, a tank-like
structure, clipped the edge
of a bridge over Pike Run
near Gomer while traveling
on Lincoln Highway and
wrecked spectacularly. It
came to a rest at an awkward
angle in the stream and sat
for at least a week, drawing a
throng. The vehicle made its
June
1908
Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
The fire at the Milner Hotel threatened to
spread through several buildings.
The Lima News archives
A crowd gathers at a 1962
crime scene. Elida’s mayor
and constable Clarence
“Pops” Prince was shot and
killed in front of Elida school.
way to the South Pole on Jan. That Shay locomotive was
11, 1940, and was abandoned subsequently donated to the
there when the men were city and is now housed in
needed in World War II. the Allen County Museum.
WEATHER Water was reported 12 feet
The 1913 flood shut deep in Faurot Park, while
down Lima. The Hiner Stone homes along South Main
Quarry building on East Street between Eureka and
North Street was washed into Circular streets were under
the flood when the riverbank 8 to 9 feet of water. South of
collapsed, carrying with it an the river, water crept into the
immense steam shovel. A Shay boiler at the Lima Locomotive
locomotive operated by the Works closing the shop, and
stone company floated into employees couldn’t reach
the newly constructed East Ohio Steel or the Gramm
North Street bridge, which Motor Car Co. One man,
also eventually washed away. Basil Buck, died when he tried
June Dec. 4, July 4,
1908 1908 1887
The Carnegie The Allen County Ohio Steel was
Public Library Historical Society founded.
opened. formed.

The Lima News archives
A tank with a snow blade
rolls through downtown Lima
during the Blizzard of 1978.
Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
The Ku Klux Klan
marched in Lima
in the 1920s.
to cross a bridge and was swept away.
Statewide, 467 people died.
Tornadoes are frequent. Of all the
local twisters to touch down, the one
that wreaked the most havoc was the
“Palm Sunday” tornado that hit at 9
p.m. April 11, 1965. Locally, it hit the
townships of Sugar Creek, Monroe
and Richland. On that night in a span
of five hours, 12 tornadoes touched
down across the state, killing 57 people
and injuring 315. Property damage
was estimated at $40 million from that
storm.
A 1920 tornado killed six people
and destroyed property to the total of
$350,000. Ohio Electric cut street car
service in half to have enough power to
keep factories going.
A 1948 tornado killed two boys in
1910
The Gramm Motor
Car Co. started in
Lima.
Landeck and one man in Columbus
Grove. Property damage was $5
million.
A 1950 tornado ripped straight
through Lima and left 8,000 without
power and no phones for three weeks.
The funnel cloud leveled the Sharon
Drive-In. No one was killed. Damage
was reported at $1.5 million.
The Blizzard of ‘78 began on what
seemed like a normal winter night.
But the barometric pressure read 28.28
inches, the lowest ever in this country
aside from a hurricane rating. The
wind blasted freezing rain and snow
across the area, sending great drifts
of snow up to the roofline of houses
and closing untold roads, including
Interstate 75. Evacuation centers
were set up to house those who didn’t
have power, and people volunteered
on snowmobile to ferry people and
supplies. There were five deaths in the
Lima area, most from exposure and
some from heart attacks. It took four
days to dig out enough that factories
were reopening and calling back their
workers. A local weather observer said
13 inches had fallen in the storm,
adding to the 20 inches that had
already fallen that month.
The January 2005 ice storm
brought down trees and power lines
and saw some 34,000 American
Electric Power customers left without
power. At one point 82% of the
county lacked power. Some were
without power for over a week. Lima
schools was canceled for five days.
SCHOOL DESEGREGATION
Ohio abolished separate schools for
Black and white children in 1887.
Court cases arose around the state in
the late 1970s to address imbalances,
with some saying the state wasn’t doing
enough to work against racial isolation.
Administrators contended the system
wasn’t intentional and was due to shifts
in housing patterns. Regardless, the
federal government required no school
having less than 20% or more than
50% non-white enrollment. There
Nov. 3, Feb. 12,
1910 1911
President Theodore Roosevelt President W.H. Taft’s
stopped in Lima for 15 train stopped in Lima
minutes on the Pennsy RR. and he spoke from the
platform.
were a dozen public forums held to 29
talk with citizens and years of work
Allen County 200
involved.
The district’s magnet programs began
in 1984, a result of a federal court
order demanding desegregation of two
elementary schools. The program drew
white students into a minority setting.
RACIAL UNREST
| Sept. 2020
The Ku Klux Klan marched
through Lima on Aug. 1, 1923. Back
in the 1920s, more than 3,000 people
in the Lima region were interested
in joining the KKK — in this area,
the perceived threat was mainly
from Catholics and Jews, as only 3%
of the population was Black at the
time. The Klan’s plan was to accept
these 3,000 men into the Order at
a “naturalization” ceremony at Lima
Driving Park, located where Lima
Memorial Health System now stands.
There was an outcry of protest,
but some still numbered the parade-
watchers at 100,000. It was a mostly
silent crowd, and policemen tried to
hurry the parade through.
The Klan’s ranks contained the
Black Legion, a branch of the Klan so
notorious it was even condemned by
other Klan members and considered
a terrorist organization. Nationwide,
there were reportedly 6 million
members of the Black Legion, with
6,000 of those members located in
Lima. A Lima man, Virgil Herbert
“Bert” Effinger, was credited with
being the national commander,
according to Lima News reports.
Race relations erupted in the
early 1970s at Lima Senior High
School during “Negro History Week.”
School had to be closed for a few days
while tempers subsided. Eventually,
parents and police joined teachers and
administrators walking the halls to
ensure order at school.
But outside school walls, the
problems were the same. Lima Mayor
Christian P. Morris imposed a state
of civil emergency in August 1970
after racial tensions peaked. Ohio
July 28, Nov. 8,
1911 1911
The first flight of an airplane Socialist Corbin
in Lima happened at the old Shook was
fairgrounds, the site of Lima elected mayor.
Memorial Health System.
 Photos courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
Billy Sunday’s Tabernacle appeared in Lima.
30 National Guard patrolled streets, and
a strict curfew was enforced. The Black
Allen County 200
Panthers had a storefront and a strong
presence. Policemen were shot by
unseen snipers. Sparking much of the
controversy was the fatal shooting by
police of a 42-year-old black woman
who was trying to prevent police from
arresting a juvenile. A grand jury
Sept. 2020 |
found the police were justified.
On Jan. 4, 2008, Lima police
Billy Sunday was a Sgt. Joe Chavalia shot and killed
nationally known
Tarika Wilson during a drug raid
evangelist.
at Wilson’s home. Police were
The Lima News archives
looking for her boyfriend, who later
pleaded guilty to drug trafficking. Also
injured was Wilson’s 1-year-old son,
whom she was holding. Chavalia was
later acquitted of criminal charges
related to the shooting. The shooting
ignited racial tensions in Lima. Civil
rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton
and nationally syndicated radio
host Warren Ballentine called for a
50,000-person march, but it didn’t
materialize. The Rev. Jesse Jackson
The reunion of twins Jim spent a day in Lima, supporting
Lewis and Jim Springer, pastors, registering high school
separated at birth, continues students to vote, meeting with city
to fascinate. officials and preaching at Philippian
Missionary Baptist Church about
Wilson’s death.
John Dillinger,
Public Enemy BILLY SUNDAY
No. 1, was World-known Preacher Billy Sunday
broken out of
first visited Lima in 1911, where a
jail by his crew
in Lima. revival fever swept up the citizens
such that a building — known as
his tabernacle — was built and took
up the entire block from Pierce to
McDonel streets. He returned here in
1931 to speak at Memorial Hall about
the virtues of Prohibition.
THE JIM TWINS
Jim Lewis, of Lima, and Jim
Springer, of Dayton, were identical
twins separated by adoption shortly
after birth. Each adoptive couple was
told that the other twin died at birth,
which wasn’t true. When Lewis was
The Sarber-Dillinger exhibit at the Allen County 16 months old, his mother visited
Museum details what took place when members the Miami County courthouse to
of John Dillinger’s gang broke him out of the jail.
settle the adoption paperwork, and an
1912 May 16, March
1912 1913
The LL&MC Teddy Roosevelt was in a A major flood
becomes Lima Lima parade and spoke at impacted the entire
Locomotive Corp. Memorial Hall. western part of the
state.
official remarked that the other little
boy was named Jim, too. After years of
wondering, Lewis began looking into
it and reunited with his brother when
they were 39 in 1979. Their similarities
in life choices were amazing. They
received national attention by scientists
studying nature versus nurture.
WILLIE NELSON
Country singer Willie Nelson and
his fellow musical “outlaw” Waylon
Jennings serenaded more than
35,000 people at the Allen County
Fairgrounds in 1982 during a free
concert to benefit economically
distressed farmers.
BONITA HAYNES
Lima Correctional Institution case
manager Bonita Haynes was assaulted
and killed by two inmates in 1996.
They received life sentences on top
of their existing sentences. In the
investigation, several security issues
were revealed. The prison housed 2,094
inmates that day living in dormitory-
style housing. They had freedom to
walk around most of the medium-
security prison for men. Changes were
made after Haynes’ death.
SURVIVING RABIES
The nation’s eye was turned on Lima
after a 6-year-old Willshire boy, Matt
Winkler, became the first human being
to ever survive rabies in a documented
case. The youngster was treated at St.
Rita’s Medical Center by Drs. C. John
Stechschulte and Thomas T. Weis.
JOHN DILLINGER
John Dillinger, Public Enemy No.
1., was brought to Lima Sept. 27,
1933, and housed in the Allen County
jail. He had been arrested for robbing
a bank in Bluffton. Just a few weeks
later, Dillinger’s gang arrived to muscle
him to freedom. Harry Pierpont,
Charlie Makley, Russell Clark, Harry
Copeland, Edward Shouse and John
Hamilton arrived at the jail on Oct.
12, 1933. Pierpont shot and killed
Allen County Sheriff Jess Sarber in the
scuffle. Pierpont, Makley and Clark
were later prosecuted for this murder.
1915
Lima State Hospital
opened. It closed in
2004.
Sarber’s son Don took over as Allen
County sheriff.
INFLUENZA PANDEMIC
The influenza pandemic of 1918,
known at the time as the Spanish flu
because news of the illness was allowed
to go public from that country,
arrived in the area in October 1918.
The health board took quick steps
to mandate masks and shut down
commerce. In the last three months
of 1918, there were 92 deaths from
influenza and pneumonia in Lima.
In the United States, the epidemic
claimed 675,000 lives in a nation
of about 103 million. The average
lifespan in the country dropped more
than 10 years between 1918 and
1919. Worldwide it’s estimated the flu
claimed between 20 million and 50
million, more than the total military
and civilian deaths in World War I.
THE FORSYTHE CASE
Eyewitnesses testified that they were
present when Ralph Forsythe shot
Chuck Conner right between the eyes
at his birthday celebration in August
1957. Yet no one could find the body
or the murder weapon. And when a
jury of Lima residents convicted Ralph
Forsythe of manslaughter in 1957, it
marked one of the first times in this
country that such a conviction was
handed out without a murder weapon
or a body. On Dec. 14, 1957, the 10
men and two women who sat on the
jury returned the verdict of guilty of
manslaughter after deliberating for
37 hours.
Eleven years later, the Third
District Court of Appeals ordered
a new trial on the relatively new
grounds of pretrial publicity. The
U.S. Supreme Court overturned
the conviction of Cleveland
neurosurgeon Sam Shepherd, accused
of killing his wife, because of pretrial
publicity. As a result, Forsythe was
released from prison. After his release,
Forsythe returned to Lima where he
led a quiet life as a commercial artist
and owner of Kai Fine Art. It was
1916 Mar. 1,
1916
Lima Locomotive Corp. The fire department
becomes Lima Locomotive acquired a motorized
Works. truck.
a good life for he and his new wife, 31
Anita, and their two daughters. One
Allen County 200
day prior to the 26th anniversary
of the crime, Forsythe died and was
buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
MID-VALLEY PIPELINE
The Mid-Valley Pipeline had crude
oil storage tanks on South Dixie
Highway. There was a fire and explosion
| Sept. 2020
on Christmas Day 1983, which caused
a massive conflagration and evacuations
of entire neighborhoods in that vicinity.
The road itself was damaged, telephone
poles were burned off at the ground
and fences were melted. Fires burned Mystery Artifact No. 5 —
for a week as firefighters from across see page 62 for the answer.
the region — and even a specialized
crew from Texas — fought freezing
temperatures. It was determined a
tank had leaked and the oil ignited
accidentally.
BLUFFTON BUS CRASH
A bus carrying the Bluffton
University baseball team crashed in
Atlanta on March 2, 2007. The team
was traveling to Florida when the
bus fell from an overpass. Players
David Betts, Scott Harmon, Cody
Holp, Tyler Williams and Zachary
Arend died, as well as bus drivers
Jerome “Jerry” Niemeyer and
his wife, Jean. The crash led to
grassroots efforts to mandate lap
and shoulder belts on buses, which
was signed into law in 2012.
Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
Ralph Forsythe was convicted of killing Chuck
Conner, and that was later overturned.
The Lima News archives
A fire and explosion at Mid-Valley Pipeline on
The Allen County Sheriff’s Department can South Dixie Highway on Christmas Day 1983
be seen in 1932, with the Sarbers in front. caused evacuations of entire neighborhoods.
Aug. 30, Oct. 4,
1916 1916
An angry mob attempted President Woodrow Wilson
to lynch Sheriff Sherman E. made a 6-minute whistle-
Eley, who was protecting a stop in Lima on Pennsy.
Black prisoner.
 32
Allen County 200
Sept. 2020 |

Photos courtesy of Allen County Historical Society

TOP: Superior, 1925.
LEFT: A Fort Wayne, Van Wert and Lima Traction Company car moves
through the Public Square in 1905.
BOTTOM LEFT: The factory floor of the Lubetsky cigar operation,
photographed in an unknown year.
The Lima News archives
BOTTOM RIGHT: The Lima Mall, photographed in an unknown year.

April 6, June Oct. 10, Dec. 23,

1917 1917 1917 1917

The United States The Allen County Chapter The “Liberty Truck” Der Lima Courier, a
declared war on of American Red Cross prototype was German language
Germany. formed. completed by newspaper, published
Gramm-Bernstein Co. its last issue.
 33

Allen County 200

| Sept. 2020
TOP LEFT: The Barnum and Bailey Circus held a parade when it came
to Lima in July 1919. There are more than two dozen elephants in this
photo.
TOP RIGHT: Allen County Fair poster, 1912.
MIDDLE: This pioneer log house was built in the Public Square in 1917
to celebrate the Allen County centennial of pioneers arriving in the area.
BOTTOM LEFT: Albert Jones was best known for his work with vocal
groups in Welsh choral competitions called Eisteddfods, but in the
1920s he led a harmonica band. It was a program offered by the Lima
recreation department.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Schoonover Observatory, in Schoonover Park,
opened in 1964.

1918 June 24, July 16, Sept. 30, Nov. 11,

1918 1918 1918 1918

The Spanish Flu pandemic William Paul Gallagher was the Edward J. Veasey was The sinking of USS End of World
hit Lima, and St. Rita’s first Allen County soldier to die the first Lima soldier to Ticonderoga cost 223 soldiers War I.
hospital opened. A blizzard in World War I. die in World War I. and sailors’ lives, including 11
impacted the area. Allen County men.
 34

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Allen County 200

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 35

Allen County 200

| Sept. 2020
Photos courtesy of Allen County Historical Society Memorial Hall, photographed in the 1960s,
The auditorium and boathouse at McCullough Lake. housed many memorable events.

Leisure pursuits show the culture of the area

From The Lima News Archives monkeys, coyotes, foxes, goats, ponies house performers could lodge. The hotel
and birds, was a big draw. By the 1920s, building would outlive the opera house
As hard as citizens worked on making Faurot, Lincoln, McCullough Lake, by decades.
Allen County into a hub of progress and McBeth and Hover parks plus swimming The theater offered a performance
industry, they also keenly pursued leisure ponds and amusement venues added to space for fine art, vaudeville acts and
time activities. Whether desiring to prove the entertainment options in the area. stock and touring theater. Amelia Halter
a place cosmopolitan or just simply enjoy Today’s Lima Parks and Recreation Davis, a well-known local soprano, was
a beautiful afternoon, the cultural impact department maintains 13 parks and 400 part of a group in those early years that
is still being felt. acres. Johnny Appleseed Metropolitan gathered to present important works,
Park District dates to 1972 and and the group would become the Lima
PARKS maintains 14 parks and 1,400 acres. Choral Society.
Those needing respite first sought the In 1902, it was taken over by John
peaceful greenspace of cemeteries and FAUROT OPERA HOUSE
Built by Benjamin C. Faurot in 1882, D. Rockefeller agents when Faurot
picnic groves in the countryside. was struggling financially and was later
“The steam and electric cars transport the opera house at High and Main streets
was described in the newspapers of the owned by the Maire family. It was closed
citizens to nearby pleasure resorts, and by the 1930s and razed in 1953, to be
with some natural forest still intact, and time as grand.
A reporter predicted it “will perpetuate replaced by a new Kresge’s store.
the smaller towns having their breathing
spots, Allen County does not suffer for his name when the body shall sleep in MEMORIAL HALL
out-of-door amusements,” the 1921 the dust of Lima’s beautiful God’s acre.” Memorial Hall was erected in 1908 in
history stated. “The Delphos Public Faurot used his bank, cash flow and preparation for the Grand Army of the
Library nestles away in a pretty little name — good for credit locally and Republic State Encampment. The GAR
park that was provided in the beginning beyond — to start a variety of projects. was an organization founded in 1866,
as a resort, and the love of the beautiful In 1882, he finished the Faurot Block composed of men who served in the
so permeates the community that many at High and Main streets. The five-story Army and Navy during the Civil War. The
private homes are like pleasure resorts building constructed for $225,000 group had chapters around the country.
— front lawns and rear door yards alike housed the Faurot Opera House, a grand Through the years, the building has
attractive.” space that booked national and local acts. housed the Allen County Historical
City Park — later named Faurot Next door was a power plant he built, Society, Council for the Arts of Greater
Park — was the first municipal effort. the first electric power plant in town. Lima and the Lima Symphony Orchestra.
Its zoo, featuring elks, buffaloes, bears, Faurot also built a hotel where opera It has also been the gathering spot for

Thanksgiving
1919 1920-33 1921-33

The first Turkey Day Prohibition. Lima used city manager form of
football game, South vs. government.
Central.
 36
Allen County 200
Sept. 2020 |
The Lima News archives
The grand opening of Veterans
Memorial Civic Center was a
large affair.
Courtesy of Allen County
Historical Society
John Keller, photographed in
1975 at the Lincoln Park Shay
exhibit, helped secure this final
steam loco made in Lima.
Aug. 26,
1920
Adoption of 19th
amendment.
many military-related meetings, including will throw open its doors Friday night with
the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American an opening night show befitting the project
Legion, Vietnam Veterans, Navy Club, itself, which has been one of Lima’s longest
Disabled American Veterans, Daughters running sideshows within memory.”
of the American Revolution, Daughters of Tickets for the 1,800 seats, priced up to
Union Veterans and the Daughters of the $50 each, were sold out one month prior to
War of 1812. the “Gala Event,” as organizers called it.
Several national and regional acts have also The opening night festivities, hosted by
performed in the hall, including the Lima Lima native Hugh Downs, included area
Symphony Orchestra’s first performance natives Phyllis Diller and Helen O’Connell.
there in 1925. Community bands also It also featured a host of folks in several
frequented the stage, which was once the scenes of music and dance. The final scene
main performance space in the city. It was in the four-plus-hour show involved space
deemed unsafe by the commissioners in exploration. As organizers of the event
2014 and has been mothballed since. described it, the final scene was “symbolic
VETERANS MEMORIAL CIVIC CENTER of our unlimited horizons as we enter the
The idea of needing a modern 21st Century.”
performance space took hold in the mid- The Lima News wrote the following day,
1970s. Arts groups needed better acoustics, “the more than four-hour extravaganza
and local government was also looking for covered all facets of talent that was born
ways to rejuvenate downtown. and bred locally, ranging from a soft melody
There was dissension, there were financial by former Limaite Parker MacDonell to
problems and there were some strong the side-splitting antics of comedienne
disagreements about the facility. But all Phyllis Diller. And wedged in between
problems were put on the back burner was a sampling of just about every style of
when the doors to the place finally opened entertainment available.”
on Oct. 19, 1984, to arguably one of the But that wasn’t the end of the opening
grandest shows Lima had ever seen. ceremonies. The following day, there was
As The Lima News wrote just prior to the a parade with veterans groups, a jet flyover
grand opening, “after a decade of planning, and marching bands from the region. An
scrambling for funds, legal entanglements estimated 20,000 people gathered. Air
and political wrangling, the Veterans Supply performed that night, and there was
Memorial Civic Center and Convention also a performance of the Broadway musical
Center of Lima and Allen County (whew!) “Ain’t Misbehavin.”
Oct. 19, Nov. 2, 1923 Oct. 14,
1920 1920 1927
Vice President candidate Mrs. Lila (Graham) Superior Coach began Lou Gehrig
FDR made a speech at Gamble was the first production. It became and Babe Ruth
Memorial Hall. woman to vote in Lima. Sheller-Globe. visited Lima.
 37

Allen County 200

| Sept. 2020
Photos courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
The Lima Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of
Joseph Firszt, performs in 1986. Actors rehearse at Encore Theatre in 1958.

LIMA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The symphony has roots reaching back to the early 1900s,
but as the musicians weren’t paid, groups of musicians would
disband from time to time. The idea of a permanent symphony
led to the organization of the Lima Symphony in 1953.
Conductor and Music Director Joseph Firszt was at the baton
for 29 years, beginning in 1967. He served as director of the
Council for the Arts of Greater Lima and began the Lima Area
Youth Orchestra and several community outreach programs.
He was followed by Conductor Crafton Beck.
Choirs have existed in the area dating as far back as 1873.
The singing traditions of the Welsh and Germans who came to
this area were celebrated at churches and then in the rise of the
Lima Choral Society. Several iterations of chorale groups have
performed since then, and the current Lima Symphony Chorus
joins with the symphony to present a major vocal work every
season.
LIMA AREA CONCERT BAND
This group began as the Million Dollar Band in 1971, led by
Gail F. Woolley Sr. The Lima Area Concert Band is comprised
of volunteer musicians. Many of these players began studying
their instruments in area school band programs and continue
playing for the love of concert band music.
ENCORE THEATRE
Amil Tellers — Lima, spelled backward — was founded by
a dozen friends in 1933. The first play was “The Importance of
Being Earnest” in 1938. They performed on stages at the library purchased in 1950.
and schools before finding a first home in the Stable Gables, a
converted horse barn, from 1939 to 1945. Productions were
staged with all-women casts during World War II.
In 1958, director Richard Reeder offered property for a
permanent theater at North Shore Drive and Collett Street.
He designed the building as well, and actors worked on the
finishing touches. The group purchased 333 seats from a movie organizations demonstrate the important part each plays in
house in Detroit, refurbished them and installed them for the
audience. The stage curtain and some lights from the Faurot
Opera House were put into use.
A 1962 newspaper item noted, “the financial support and
community pride of the people are the greatest assets of Encore
Theatre.”
ALLEN COUNTY MUSEUM
The Allen County Historical and Archaeological Society
formed in 1908, gathering artifacts from the history of this
area to share with residents. The county government gave it
space at Memorial Hall and operational support.
The Allen County Museum opened in the mid-1950s at
620 W. Market St., with expansions in 1976, 2007 and 2010.
It features the Children’s Discovery Center, the Children’s
Garden, the Faze Log House, the MacDonell House and the
Elizabeth M. MacDonell Memorial Library.
The museum continues as a partnership between the county
and private non-profit Allen County Historical Society.
​ALLEN COUNTY FAIR
The first Allen County Fair was held Oct. 21, 1851, just 10
months after the formation of the agricultural society. It wasn’t
supported and fell dormant until returning in 1860. In this
era, the fair was held on private farms.
In 1923, the fair moved to Main Street in Delphos. Some
disagreed with the street carnival-type atmosphere that
disrupted business and lobbied for the fair to have a permanent
home. The board moved it back to Lima in 1949, claiming
it was a more central location, and the current location was
Since its inception, the fair has been designed to provide
an exhibition to educate people about agriculture. As 1949
fair manager Wayne Laibe said, “such an exhibition must be
made a showplace for the accomplishments of the individuals
and organizations of the entire county. By placing on display
the results of their thinking and labors, these individuals and
molding the entire life of a county.”

1928 Jan. 29, Summer Oct. 29.

1929 1929 1929

Lima Kewpee opened. A fire at the Allen County First regularly scheduled The stock market
Bob King won the Courthouse fire killed two air service for the crashed.
Olympic high jump. firemen, John Wolfe and county by Mason-Dixon
John Fisher. Airlines.
 38
Allen County 200
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Famous sons
and daughters
From war heroes to Nobel Prize win-
ners, Allen County has quite a list of
people who have become famous. Here are
some of them:
• U.S. Sen. Calvin Stewart Brice was
born in 1845 and practiced law in
Lima. He helped organize 11 railroads.
A Democrat, Brice was the chairman of
the Democratic National Committee
from 1889 until 1892 and won election
to the Senate in 1890, serving a single
term in office. At the time of his death
in 1898, he was preparing to launch a
Chinese railroad.
• Comedienne Phyllis Diller was born
in 1917 in Lima, where she grew up,
attending Franklin Elementary School.
Her first public appearance came at the
age of 10, when she performed at her
church, Trinity Methodist. Prior to
becoming a comedienne and classical
pianist, she attended Bluffton College.
• Television commentator
Hugh Downs was born in 1921 and
moved to Lima at age 2. He graduated
in 1938 from Shawnee High School
unty
Courtesy of Allen Co
Historical Society
Calvin Brice
1931
Solar Refinery
taken over by
SOHIO.
39
Allen County 200
| Sept. 2020
and attended Bluffton College, where
he was perhaps its most famous drop-
out. He ended up in New York City,
where he became a regular television
presence from the mid-1940s until
the late 1990s. Downs hosted NBC’s
“Today” show and ABC’s news maga-
zine “20/20.”
• Rear Adm. Edward L. Feightner
grew up on a farm in Elida and became
a man in the South Pacific during
World War II. An ace fighter pilot, he
had nine confirmed kills — including
three Japanese Zeros in one day dur-
ing a dogfight over Taiwan — and four
probables. After the war, he became a
member of the Navy’s elite Blue Angels
demonstration team, flying the lead
“solo” position. He served for 32 years,
retiring in 1974. He later worked as an
aerospace consultant.
The Lima News
Mystery Artifact No. 6 —
archives
see page 62 for the answer.
Phyllis Diller
May 25, Oct. 12, 1934
1933 1933
Lima Memorial Gangster John Dillinger The airport on Baty
Hospital opened. was sprung from the Allen Road opened.
County Jail. Sheriff Jess
Sarber was killed.
 40 • Nobel laureate William A. the money to buy his first saxophone
Fowler was born in 1911 and at age 7 by selling newspapers.
Allen County 200

moved to Lima two years later. Henderson lived with his parents and
He was the president of his senior 14 brothers and sisters, attending
class in 1929 at Central High South High School where he learned
School. He graduated from The to read music in the high school
Ohio State University and Cal- band.
Tech. His major contribution to • Actor Dean Jagger was born in
physics was providing an explana- 1905 in Rockport. The late character
Sept. 2020 |

tion of how chemical elements of actor won roles in more than 150
the universe were formed follow- movies and received an Oscar for
ing the “Big Bang.” The overpass best supporting actor for his work in
at Jameson Avenue and Elida “12 O’Clock High.” He also won an
Road now bears his name. Emmy for his 1989 performance in
• Artist and sculptor Erwin F. “This is the Life.”
Frey was born in 1895 in Lima. • Al Jardine was
He moved to Cincinnati and born in Lima on
later to New York City to pursue Sept. 3, 1942. His
his study and interest in art. His father brought the
reliefs, portraits and statues in family to Lima in
bronze and stone appear in several the 1940s when
state office buildings. Many he became a pho-
of his works have been shown The Lima News archives tographer for the
around the world. TOP: Hugh Downs Lima Locomotive
• Caricaturist Alfred Joseph Photos courtesy of Allen Works. The fam-
Frueh was born in Lima in County Historical Society ily moved to New
1880, attending St. Rose RIGHT: Charles Williams York in 1949 when
School. After graduation, his father was
BOTTOM : William Fowler
he attended Lima Business hired by Eastman
College. While there, he Kodak. The fam-
enjoyed doodling and turning ily moved several
some of the shorthand symbols times, ending up in
into teachers’ faces. After trying to California. Jardine
farm and work at his father’s Lima met Brian Wilson
Brewing Co., he left in 1903 to at a root beer stand
go to St. Louis, where he became and struck up a
a famous caricature artist for the conversation about music. The Beach
newspaper there. He later went Boys were founded in 1961 with
to The New Yorker, where he did Jardine, Wilson’s brothers, Carl and
caricatures and political commen- Dennis, and cousin Mike Love joining
tary. in. Within a year, “Surfin’ Safari” was
• Author Joan Doran Hedrick a hit.
was a 1962 graduate of Lima • Robert W. King was born in 1920
Central Catholic High School. She and raised in Lima. A 1924 graduate
won a Pulitzer Prize in Literature of Lima Central High School, he won
for a biography she wrote about a gold medal in the high jump in the
Harriet Beecher Stowe. 1928 ninth Olympiad in Amsterdam,
• Grammy Award-winning jazz the Netherlands. He later became
musician Joe Henderson was a doctor, and he died in 1965 in
born in Lima in 1939. He earned California.

1937 Nov. 19, May 13, May 14, 1937

1937 1939 1939

The Civic Music Association Interurban service Lima Street Railway Lima City Lines began The Lima Pandas
formed. ceases. service ceases. bus service. baseball team won the
Ohio State League.
• Rear Adm. Thomas Lynch was 1920 in Lima and lived until age 8 41
born in 1942 and raised in Lima. on East Circular Street. She became

Allen County 200

He is a 1960 graduate of Lima a star as a “girl singer” with the
Central Catholic High School. Jimmy Dorsey Band during the
Lynch served as the 54th super- big band era. Although her family
intendent of the U.S. Naval later moved to Toledo, O’Connell
Academy at Annapolis, Md. always claimed that Lima was her
• Leonard F. Mason was born in home. She died in 1993.
1920 and lived in Lima and later in • Leslie C. Peltier was born in

| Sept. 2020
Lafayette. Mason was killed on the 1900 on a farm east of Delphos. As
island of Guam in 1944 when two a young boy, he was given a book
enemy machine guns opened fire on the stars for Christmas. He was
on his platoon. Although mortally so interested in the heavens that as
wounded, Mason a youngster he picked 900 quarts
cleared out the hostile of strawberries to earn money to
position in the face of buy his first telescope. He eventu-
almost certain death. ally built a small observatory on his
He was posthumously Scott’s Crossing farm, where, on
awarded the Medal of May 14, 1936, he discovered a new
Honor and the USS comet, which was named in his
Leonard F. Mason honor. In all, he discovered or co-
was named in his discovered 12 comets and two stars
honor. before his death in 1980.
• William E. Metzger • Vice Adm. Edmund B.
Jr. was born in Photos courtesy of Allen Taylor was born in 1904
1922 and gradu- County Historical Society and raised in Lima. He was
ated in 1940 from TOP: Helen O’Connell a 1921 graduate of Lima
Central High School. Central High School. During
LEFT: Maidie Norman
Metzger was killed his Navy career he received
BOTTOM : Leslie Peltier many honors, including the
in 1944 when the
B-17 bomber he was Distinguished Service Medal,
co-piloting crashed the Navy Cross, Silver Star,
in Germany. Metzger Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He
had given his para- died in 1973.
chute to a wounded • Leon L. Van Autreve was born
crewman, for which in 1920. He was a graduate of
he was posthumously awarded the Medal Delphos Jefferson High School and
of Honor. Lima’s Metzger Lake reservoir later Ohio Northern University.
was named in his honor. He enlisted in the Army and served
• Maidie Ruth Norman was born in in Africa, Germany and Vietnam.
1913 and moved to Lima at the age of 3. He retired in 1975 after 32 years
She was a member of the 1930 class of service as the highest ranking non-
Central High School. She was one of the commissioned officer in the Army.
first black professionals in Hollywood in He also served as an adviser to the
1946, with credits including more than Army Chief of Staff.
200 stage roles. She was the founder of • Charles I. Williams was a 1935
the American National Theatre Academy graduate of Lima Central High
and was an inductee into the Black Film School. He served as a Tuskegee
Makers. Airman, retiring as a lieutenant
• Singer Helen O’Connell was born in colonel from the Air Force.

Dec. Nov. Oct. 28, May 8, Sept. 2,

1941 1942 1944 1945 1945

U.S. declares war The American Womens Voluntary Service was FDR stopped on a V.E. Day. V.J. Day.
on Japan and organized. Locally, a canteen was operated by whistle-stop trip to a
Germany. volunteers making refreshments for soldiers as 5,000-person audience.
they moved through the area on trains.
 42
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Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
The Baxter house.
25
S.A. Baxter Jr.
people who made
Allen County a better place
From The Lima News Archives building of Memorial Hall. His father, • Dr. J.C. Bradfield came to Lima in
also called Samuel A. Baxter, was born
Many, many people made an impact in Maryland of English descent and
on the growth of this county. Here is a owned a hat store in Lima. Later, he
quick look at some of them. studied law at Cincinnati and dealt
• Dr. Samuel A. Baxter studied under largely in real estate.
Dr. William H. Harper of Lima and • David Berger, raised in Mansfield,
Dr. J. Dawson of Columbus. He grad- arrived in Lima to lead the Rehab
uated from college in Cincinnati and Project in the 1970s. The nonprofit
served in the Civil War. Following focused on renovating neighborhoods. • Virginia Galvin Crouse was a
the war, Dr. Baxter returned to Lima He is largely credited with leading the daughter of John E. Galvin, born
and practiced medicine five years. movement to save the Lima Refinery
He then became president of First when it faced almost certain closure
National Bank. He lived at Charles in 1998. Later, he would play a key
and West Market streets, which was a role in efforts to lobby Congress to
grand place with sweeping grounds on keep the Joint Systems Manufacturing
which he held various public concerts Center — also known as the tank
and gatherings — a tradition that was plant — viable. Berger has been
begun by previous homeowner George Lima’s mayor since 1989, the longest-
Jameson. He was involved in the serving in the city’s history.
1946 1947 Oct. 11,
1948
Lima Friends of YWCA inherits the President Harry Truman
Music formed. Russell mansion. did a 12-minute whistle-
stop, speaking to 4,000.
43
Allen County 200
| Sept. 2020
Dr. J.C.
Bradfield
1911 and quickly earned a reputa-
tion as a well-respected physician. He
was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio,
attended Starling Medical College
in Columbus and graduated from
Ohio State Medical School in 1911.
He died in 1936. Bradfield Center is
named in his honor.
in 1919 in Lima. She married John
L. “Jack” Crouse in 1943, and after
his death from cancer, she pursued
philanthropy with passion. She was
central to the creation of Veterans
Memorial Civic Center in downtown
Lima, with its main performance hall
named in her honor.
Oct. 12,
1949
Satchel Paige put on an
exhibition at Halloran Park.
 44 • William K. Davenport was Lima’s
first Black police chief. He was born in
Allen County 200
Greencastle, Pennsylvania, and graduated
from Lima’s Central High School. He
joined the police department in 1942 and
rose to the chief position in 1968, leading
through the Civil Rights era. He died in
1999. The police station in downtown Lima
is named the Chief William K. Davenport
Sept. 2020 |
Hall of Justice in his honor.
• Henry H. Deisel was a cigarmaker in
business with Henry G. Wemmer. Both
were German. Deisel was also president
of German American Bank. Deisel served
as choir director for a decade at First
Evangelical and Reform Church, worship-
ping and singing in German, and he and
William Davenport,
photographed in 1968. Wemmer both stood against anti-German
sentiment that rose. They personally
marched in a parade held to fundraise for
World War I efforts. Deisel’s home —
which was in the MacDonell family since
1920 and was purchased by the Nelsons in
2005 — still stands today at South Cole and
West Elm streets.
• Martha Farmer was born in Toledo in
1926. After she married Robert “Bob”
Farmer, she worked at Lima Lumber and
continued working on her doctorate at
Bowling Green State University. She was
a professor of theater at the Ohio State
University at Lima from 1970 to 1985, a
department that she established. She funded
theater scholarships — for students and pro-
Henry Deisel
fessors — at the school. The theater space in
Reed Hall is named the Martha W. Farmer
Theatre for the Performing Arts. Farmer
supported the city’s arts organizations,
including the Lima Symphony Orchestra
and ArtSpace/Lima. She died in 2011 at age
84.
• Benjamin Carl Faurot was born in 1829
in New York state. His father moved the
family to the Kenton area when Faurot was
a child. He moved to Lima and worked for
a railroad and later ran a livery stable. It’s
said he did well financially with that stable,
supplying stock for the Army during the
Civil War. He began Lima Paper Mills,
electrified the streetcar system, worked to
Henry Wemmer
1950-53 July 19, 1952
1950
Korean War. A tornado hit Ex Cello Corp. began. Then Vice President Richard
Lima’s north side. It was later Airfoil Nixon gave an Eisenhower
Textron. campaign speech on whistle-
stop.
bring the repair shops to what became the
Nickel Plate Road, started Lima’s National
Bank, built a block that housed the Faurot
Opera House — and drilled for natural gas
at the paper mill and struck oil in 1885.
Lima would never be the same. Railroad
speculation in his later years was his down-
fall, and he died a pauper in 1904. On July
4, 1907, Lima named the city park Faurot
Park in his honor.
• John E. Galvin was co-founder of the Ohio
Steel Foundry and the driving force behind
other Lima industries in the first half of the
20th century. He gave the city the land for
Robb Park. He gave $250,000 toward buy-
ing land for The Ohio State University at
Lima, and the college named Galvin Hall in
his honor in 1966.
• Monsignor Edward C. Herr was born
in 1911 in Huron. He was assigned to
Delphos St. John’s in 1938, where he
would serve for principal/athletic director
for 14 years. He oversaw the consolidation
of Lima’s three Catholic high schools and
ushered in Lima Central Catholic. A benefit
was held in 1986 at Veterans Memorial
Civic Center, partly to celebrate his 75th
birthday and 50th anniversary of his ordina-
tion, and money was raised for the Father
Herr Scholarship Fund to help disadvan-
taged youth get an education at LCC. He
died in 1986.
• Thomas K. Jacobs was born in 1812 in
Pennsylvania and learned the tailor’s trade.
He came to the Richland County, Ohio,
area and then to Lima to engage in land
speculation and farm. He served 10 years as
county treasurer and was elected to the state
legislature, after which he returned to Lima.
He died in 1884. History says he often
cared for widows and orphans and at times
provided a home for them, helped cover
funeral expenses for others and once even
covered costs for a failed bank.
• George W. Jameson was born in Wayne
County in 1838 and came to Lima in 1867
as a young newlywed to open a law office.
He built a fine house on West Market Street
and Jameson Avenue that would be known
as the Baxter house — for its next resident
Oct. 8,
1952

— in 1876. He started a tradition of open-
ing that property for various civic causes.
The east edge of the property was Charles
Street, named for his only child. He plat-
ted the western sections of Lima and joined
with Benjamin C. Faurot to form the first
streetcar line.
• Vince Koza had a career on TV and radio
for 40 years, covering sports in the region,
and became a beloved local legend who
often served as emcee and helped with fund-
raisers for various organizations. He died in
2020 after a three-month battle with cancer.
• Mike Lackey is a Dayton native and
Earlham College graduate who worked for
The Lima News for 36 years before retiring
in 2008. He was a longtime reporter, edi-
tor and columnist. He won or shared 10
writing awards from the Associated Press.
His “Looking for Limas” series involved
driving with photographer Craig J. Orosz
some 16,000 miles to visit every Lima in the
United States. Lackey lives in Lima.
• Alexander D. “Sandy” MacDonell Jr.
and Martha “Martie” MacDonell were
quite the power couple. Sandy’s father,
A.D. MacDonell Sr., was co-owner of the
Metropolitan Bank, and he became presi-
dent. Sandy was raised to value community
service. His quiet demeanor meant people
listened when he spoke. He pitched in
toward Veterans Memorial Civic Center,
the Salvation Army, St. Rita’s Medical
Center, the Rotary Club, Shawnee Country
Club and the YMCA, among other civic
projects. Martie grew up in Youngstown.
She met Lima native Sandy at Denison
University and made Lima their home. She
was involved in several arts groups in Lima,
the Council for the Arts of Greater Lima,
American House and Common Threads,
and she was known for pushing Lima into
conversations spurred by art.
• Malcolm McCoy was born in Columbus
and pursued an education career. He earned
a bachelor of science in education from
Central State in 1960 and in 1970 a master
of arts degree. He taught in Columbus for
several years and came to Lima in 1974. He
was principal at Garfield school and served
Jan.-Mar.
1953
The Faurot Opera House
was demolished. It was
replaced in 1954 by
Kresge’s.
Photos courtesy of Allen County
Historical Society
on boards of several social services groups as 45
well as the United Way.
Allen County 200
• Dr. Earl A. McGovern was born in
Cleveland in 1928. He was superintendent
of Lima schools from 1965 to 1985 and
again in 2000. He served on many boards,
including the Lima Public Library and Lima
Memorial Health System. He steered the
district through racial tensions and deseg-
| Sept. 2020
regation. He helped bring a generation of
Black teachers into the district. He died in
2009 at age 80. His mantra was “Go forth
and gladly teach.” His dog, Betsy, was part
of an urban legend that determined the fate
of schoolchildren on snowy days — but he
denied it.
• John Porter Mitchell opened Lima’s first Benjamin C. Faurot
tavern on the Public Square in 1832. When
he brought his family here they moved into
the half-finished cabin abandoned by John
Marks, who had gone east to gather his
family, while he built a cabin of his own —
which also housed the tavern. Much of the
land buying business was done there, and he
gained a reputation as a reliable man. Later,
he operated one of the first hotels. His son
was Thornton Taylor Mitchell, who bought
out the Baxter banking interests and formed
City Bank.
• Walter C. Potts was born in West Virginia
and came to Lima in 1931 with his mother
after his father died. He was a South High
School graduate and after that he enrolled John Galvin
in the Tuskegee Institute for electrical
engineering, furthering his education there
while in the Navy. In 1950, he started an
electrical business and took night classes at
Ohio Northern University, earning an elec-
trical engineering degree in 1966. He was a
project engineer at the refinery. He served
the Bradfield Center, Allen Metropolitan
Housing Authority Board and the Lima
Civil Service Board. He died in 2015.
His name now graces the Walter C. Potts
Entrepreneur and Technology Business
Incubator of Northwest Ohio.
• Alberta Shurelds was born in 1932 in
Belzoni, Mississippi. Her stepfather took
a job at Lima’s Ohio Steel and brought George W. Jameson,
the family out of the Jim Crow South. photographed in his
Ada law office.
May 23, 1955 1955-57
1954
The Lima Symphony Robin Rogers School Vietnam War.
Orchestra debuted. started.
 46
Allen County 200
Sept. 2020 |
T.K. Jacobs Sr.
She studied education at Mississippi
Valley State University and taught
in that area before returning to Lima
and teaching. She and her sister Annie
Mae Banks (who led the Mizpah Child
Care Center) were among the early
teachers in the Head Start program
when it was started in 1965 in Lima.
Shurelds was active in the NAACP,
the minority caucus of the Democratic
Party, her church and served on boards
of various groups. Shurelds died in
2011, and Banks died in 2015.
• Harrison “Harry” Shutt has led
Kewpee restaurants, a Lima institu-
tion, since 1979. The hamburger chain
began in 1918 in Flint, Michigan,
and Hoyt F. “Stub” and Julia M.
“June” Wilson built the first Kewpee
in Lima in 1928. It was little more
than a stand. The downtown location
was built in 1939, fondly remembered
for having a turntable in the parking
lot to allow cars to come and go with
carhop service. Kewpee West opened
in 1960, and Kewpee East opened in
1981. Stub Wilson died in 1970, and
Shutt began managing the chain with
an eye to growth while preserving the
simple menu Lima has come to love.
1956 1957-63
BLH closed. Lima Citizen newspaper
was published.
Alberta Shurelds
Photos courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
When a fish sandwich was added to
the menu, it made the news. Son Scott
Shutt is now involved in managing
the business. Harry and Myrna Shutt
have underwritten Ohio Northern
University’s Holiday Spectacular for
more than 20 years.
• Elizabeth “Liesl” Sondheimer fled
Nazi Germany with her husband, Dr.
Martin Sondheimer, and their children
in 1938. They came to Lima soon after
and became American citizens in 1943.
They began decades of service to the
community. When her husband died
in 1982, Liesl felt compelled to tell her
Holocaust story and began speaking to
civic organizations and school groups.
When she died in 2009 at age 101, her
funeral was held at Veterans Memorial
Civic Center.
• Dr. David L. Steiner practiced medi-
cine with his uncles Frank and Oliver.
David Steiner was a family physician,
retiring in 1980. He was involved
in Lima Memorial Hospital and the
Northwest Ohio Medical Society as
well as serving on boards for the First
Federal Savings and Loan Association,
the Lima Visiting Nurses Association
and the Lima Convalescent Home.
May
1957
Ford plant opened.
Easter Straker
He also served on the fair board and
was known for breeding and racing
Standardbred horses. He was the last
physician to have practiced in the old
Lima City Hospital, according to his
1996 obituary.
• Easter Straker was a local broad-
cast personality remembered for her
“Birthday Chair,” a rite of passage for
many area children. She began her
career in 1948 on WIMA radio and
later television. Easter’s Parade was
sponsored by Gregg’s and Pangles. She
often pitched in to help with com-
munity fundraisers for many types
of social services. She was joined by
sidekick Clif “One F” Willis. The Lima
native died in 1992.
• Furl P. Williams was a Paulding
native. He was employed at the Ohio
Steel Foundry and president of Local
975 UAW-CIO for several years.
The city councilman served in mul-
tiple boards around the area, from
social services groups to Allen County
Democrats to Philippian Missionary
Baptist Church. His name is now asso-
ciated with an apartment complex and
a reservoir.
Feb. 14,
1956
The Allen County
Museum opened.
 47
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 48
Allen County
Allen County 200
SPORTS HEROES
Sept. 2020 |
By Jim Naveau
The Lima News
Sports has been a big part of the his-
tory of Allen County. Here are some the
athletes, coaches and personalities who
have helped make sports what it is today
in Allen County:
• Ann (Stechschulte) Alyanak. She
won the 800 meters, the 1,600 meters
and the high jump in the state track
meet for Bluffton, won the Big Ten
10,000 meters at Purdue in 2001 and
has qualified for the Olympic trials in
the marathon three times.
• Bruce Andrews. Andrews was a 6-2
post player who played like he was 6-8.
He led Lima Senior to the boys basket-
ball state tournament in 1982.
• Jim Andrews. Before averaging more
than 20 points a game at Kentucky as
a junior and senior, the 6-11 Andrews
scored 33 points a game at Bath as a
senior in 1969 in his only season there.
He played for the Indiana Pacers and
in Italy and Sweden.
• Steve Arlin. A Shawnee High School
graduate, Arlin was Ohio State’s No.
Sept.
1960
OSU Lima Branch Vice President Richard
started classes at Lima Nixon spoke to 35,000
Senior High School. downtown.
Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
Halloran Park, photographed sometime after 1939.
1 pitcher when it won the NCAA
College World Series in 1966. He
pitched 5½ seasons with the San
Diego Padres and half a season with
the Cleveland Indians.
• Bob Arnzen. Delphos St. John’s leg-
endary boys basketball coach had 676
wins in 43 years. The Blue Jays won
the 1983 state championship and went
to the state tournament four other
times in his career. He also was head
football coach at St. John’s in 1955
and coached baseball and cross coun-
try.
• Tom Barrington. The 1962 Lima
Senior graduate lived out a youth-
ful dream when he played fullback
at Ohio State. He played six seasons
in the NFL with the Washington
Redskins and New Orleans Saints.
• Chrissy Billiter. Billiter was first-team
All-Ohio and scored 1,875 points in
her basketball career at Elida.
• John Boose Jr. No one won more
Lima Men’s City Golf Championships.
Oct. 26, 1961
1960
Satchel Paige put
on an exhibition at
Industry Park.
He won five in a row from 1930-1934,
then came back to win another in
1938.
• Joe Bowers. The Lima Senior base-
ball coaching legend had a career
record of 268-64. The Spartans went
to the state baseball tournament five
years in a row in the early 1960s and
won a state championship in 1964.
• Lisa Bradley. She is the career scor-
ing leader at Bath in girls basketball
with 2,015 points. She was first-team
All-Ohio as a senior in 1983 and
scored 1,192 points at the University
of Illinois.
• William Bratton. Bratton rushed for
1,862 yards on Lima Senior’s 1996
state championship football team. He
gained 1,300 yards in 29 games at the
University of Toledo despite suffering
from sickle thalessima, a form of sickle
cell anemia.
• Bruce Burden. Most people prob-
ably know Burden for his skills on the
golf course, including two Lima city
Aug. 2,
1962
The Allen County
Airport opened.
 championships. But he also
played four years of college
basketball at Kent State and
averaged 10.2 points a game
in three varsity seasons.
• Jamar Butler. The
Shawnee graduate was
Ohio’s Mr. Basketball in
2004. He scored 2,412
points in his career and was
a starter for 3½ years at
Ohio State.
• Dave Cheney. He was
a starter on Ohio State’s
offensive line in 1969 and
1970 and was first-team
All-Big Ten in 1970. From
junior high until he gradu-
ated from Ohio State, his
teams lost only eight games
in nine years.
• Matt Closson and Tony
Closson. The brothers from
Delphos Jefferson both
signed with Ohio State in
the 1980s, but a knee injury
kept Matt from playing for
the Buckeyes.
• Bud Collins. The longtime
network sportscaster was
born in Lima.
• Jim Conrad. He scored
more than 1,000 points
at Perry and nearly 2,000
at Ohio Northern, where
he was a first-team All-
American in NCAA
Division III men’s basket-
ball.
• Larry Cox. The former
major league catcher and
Chicago Cubs coach began
life in Bluffton, went to
Ottawa-Glandorf High
School and later lived in
Lima.
• Tim Crockett. He won
four Lima City Men’s Golf
April 11,
1965
Palm Sunday tornado. Ground was broken for
Galvin Hall at OSU. It was
dedicated September
1966.
Championships and might 49
have won five if the 1982
Allen County 200
tournament hadn’t been
canceled. He was an All-
American at Arkansas when
the Razorbacks finished
sixth in the NCAA tourna-
ment in 1985.
• Connie Day. He pitched
| Sept. 2020
from 1920-1932 in the
Negro Leagues. He was
born in Lima in 1897.
• Elbert Dubenion. Sixty-
five years after he arrived at
Bluffton College in 1955,
Bob Arnzen Steve Arlin,
Dubenion remains the best
photographed in 1966.
athlete in school history. He
gained 4,735 yards rushing
in four years, then went on
to become one of the top
receivers in Buffalo Bills
history. His 35 touchdown
catches still rank fourth on
the Bills career list.
• Dorothy Edwards. She
played a big role in early
days of girls athletics at
Elida High School. She
was the Western Buckeye
League softball Coach of
Joe Bowers,
the Year five times and was photographed in 1967.
WBL volleyball Coach of
the Year twice. The Lima News archives
won the small school team
• T.C. Ester. He was from championship in 1981. Dorothy Edwards
Lima and pitched for the
• Kevin Fell. The Lima
Birmingham Barons of the in 1985. Jefferson’s winning
Senior graduate led a huge
Negro Leagues in 1962 and streak eventually reached
turnaround in Delphos
1963, a decade and a half 49 games. His brother,
Jefferson’s football pro-
after Jackie Robinson had Mike, led turnarounds at
gram as its coach from
played his first major league Columbus Grove, Ada and
1978-1987. The Wildcats
game in 1947. Lima Senior.
had won two Northwest
• Mark Falk. Wrestling for Conference championships • Dick Finn. Lima St. Rose
Bluffton, Falk won state in the 31 years before he won the 1951 Class B state
championships in back- arrived. They won six in his championship with Finn on
to-back years in 1980 and 10 seasons, had a 41-game the mound for 10 of its 14
1981 in the 155-pound regular-season winning wins that season. He played
weight class and the 167- streak and were state run- baseball at Ohio State and
pound weight class. Bluffton ner-up to Newark Catholic was the Buckeyes’ head
July 9, Oct. 22, June 23,
1965 1968 1971
Nixon spoke on the Allen Acres opened.
square to 12,000.
 50 coach from 1975 to 1987.
• Joe Fisher. With the ability to
Allen County 200
score inside or outside, the 6-8
Fisher had 1,756 points in four
seasons in the late 1960s and early
1970s at Lima Central Catholic
High School. He played for the
University of Dayton after LCC
and had two of his best college
Sept. 2020 |
games against UCLA and Notre
Dame.
• Tim Goodwin. He played for his
dad, Bill Goodwin, at Allen East.
But what most people know him
for what happened outside Allen
County. His Marion Local football
teams have won 11 state champion-
ships, including last year.
• John Guagenti. At the 2008 state
track meet, he won the 200-meter
dash and 400-meter dash and ran
on the winning 4x200 and 4x800
relays to lead Bluffton to the boys
Aaron Hutchins state championship.
• Shaun Guice. The Lima Senior
graduate was an All-American high
jumper at Purdue. He was a four-
time Big Ten champion with a best
jump of 7 feet, 5 inches.
• Fred Hattery. Barry Ruben. Tom
Francis. Jim Martz. Steve Meyer.
They are some of the people respon-
sible for bringing the Lima Locos to
Lima. Fans from Allen County and
beyond have enjoyed summer col-
lege baseball since 1987.
• Phyllis Hill. She won 11 Lima
Women’s City Golf Championships
from 1964-1994. Two of those
wins came in the 1960s, four in the
1970s, three in the 1980s and two
in the 1990s.
• Angela Homan. The Spencerville
runner was a state cross country
champion in 1999 and 2001 and
won the 3,200-meter run at the
The Lima News archives
Jim Lynch
state track meet twice. In college
she an All-American three times in
June 28, June 7, 1978
1972 1976
Johnny Appleseed President Gerald Ford The Chrysler Lima
Metropolitan Park gave a 35-minute speech Army Tank Plant was
District formed. at Lazarus to 4,000. established.
cross country and twice in track at
Auburn.
• William Howard. The Lima Senior
running back played two seasons
with the Tampa Bay Bucaneers
after playing college football at
Tennessee from 1984-1987.
• Aaron Hutchins. The LCC guard
was Ohio’s Mr. Basketball in 1994.
He played in the state tournament
as a sophomore, junior and senior
and scored 1,439 points in college
at Marquette.
• Herman Keiser. He was Lost
Creek Country Club’s professional
from 1950-1952 after winning
The Masters by one shot over Ben
Hogan in 1946.
• Robert King. The former Lima
Central High School student
won the gold medal in the 1928
Olympics in Amsterdam with a
jump of 6-feet, 4⅜ inches. He
graduated from Stanford and
Northwestern University’s medical
school and was an obstetrician-
gynecologist in the San Francisco
area for many years.
• Alan Kingsberry and Ralph
Marshall. Lima had two other
Olympians besides King.
Kingsberry competed in cycling in
the 1976 Olympics, and Marshall
was in the pistol shooting competi-
tion in 1936.
• Gene Klaus. After starting for
three seasons at Delphos St. John’s,
Klaus started for three years during
a run of some of the best basket-
ball seasons ever at the University
of Dayton, including UD’s 1967
NCAA runner-up team.
• Brad Komminsk. The Shawnee
High School graduate was the
fourth overall pick in the 1979 ama-
teur baseball draft by the Atlanta
Braves. He played for six teams in a
nine-year major league career.
Oct. 15.
1980
Ronald Reagan gave
a 24-min speech to
10.000 in the square.
• Bill Lange. After playing for Lima St.
Rose and the University of Dayton,
Lange played six years in the NFL as
an offensive lineman.
• Lila Leech. She was the winner of
the first Lima Women’s City Golf
Championship in 1940.
• Grace Luginbuhl. With an above-
average fastball and an unhittable
change-up, Luginbuhl was 26-1 with
353 strikeouts and batted .500 when
Bath won the 2001 Division II softball
state championship. She was first-team
All-Ohio as a junior and senior. She
was the Horizon League Pitcher of
the Year as a junior and as a senior at
Cleveland State.
• Demond Lyles. Lyles might be
remembered forever for his nine
3-pointers in Lima Senior’s state cham-
pionship game against Lakota in 1992.
• Jim Lynch. An LCC grad, Lynch was
an All-American linebacker at Notre
Dame, where he started for three sea-
sons. He started 14 seasons for the
Kansas City Chiefs, including their
victory in the 1970 Super Bowl. His
brother Tom was the starting center
for the Naval Academy when Roger
Staubach was its quarterback.
• Dick Mast. A Bluffton native, Mast
turned pro in 1972 and has played on
the PGA Tour, the Champions Tour,
various mini-tours and overseas tours.
His best PGA finish was second in the
Greater Milwaukee Open in 1992.
• Dakota Mathias. Mathias is Elida’s
career scoring leader with 1,906 points
and was Division II Co-Player of the
Year in basketball as a senior. He
scored 1,140 points in four seasons at
Purdue and is one of Boilermakers’ all-
time leaders in 3-point shots.
• Caity Matter. She scored 2,274
points from 1997-2000 at Bluffton,
was Division III Player of the Year as
a junior and senior, and led the Pirates
to a state runner-up finish in 2000.
1981 Oct. 12,
1984
Lima Clark Equipment President Ronald Reagan
sold. gave a 20-minute speech
on a whistlestop railroad
trip.
She scored 1,523 points at Ohio State.
She was a two-time state champion in
the shot put and discus at Bluffton.
• Reggie McAdams. He was Division
II Co-Player of the Year in basketball
and was first-team all-state in football
at Elida, where he scored 1,721 points.
He played basketball at the University
of Akron and scored 975 points in his
career.
• Jim Mertz. Born in Lima in 1916,
Mertz had a 5-7 record with a 4.63
earned run average for the Washington
Senators in 1943.
• Jeff Miller. After leading Shawnee to
the boys state basketball tournament in
1965, Miller signed with Ohio State.
He averaged 14.7 points a game as a
sophomore for the Buckeyes. But after
a knee injury in practice before his
junior season, he never played again in
college.
• Gary Moeller. The Lima Senior
graduate was a football captain at Ohio
State. He was a long-time assistant
coach at the University of Michigan
and head coach at Illinois and at
Gary Moeller
Oct. 22,
1984
Veterans Memorial
Civic Center opened
with a gala.
Michigan, where his teams had a 51
44-13-3 overall record.
Allen County 200
• Jerome Moenter. Moenter began
competing against older players before
he had a driver’s license and was still
winning Lima city championships
when he was almost 50 years old. He
and Chris England won a state doubles
championship at Shawnee in 1987,
| Sept. 2020
and Moenter went on to play at the
University of Toledo.
• Joe Morrison. The Lima South
graduate played 14 years with the New
York Giants as a versatile athlete who
was used as both a running back and
a receiver. He also became a college
football coach, most notably at South
Carolina.
• Ron Niekamp. Niekamp’s teams won
everywhere he coached — Parkway,
Ottawa-Glandorf, Lima Senior and the
University of Findlay, where the Oilers
won a national championship in 2009.
• Tom Nomina. After graduating from
Delphos St. John’s in 1959 he played
at Miami (Ohio) and was drafted by
the Denver Broncos. He played
Joe Morrison
1985
American House
formed.
 52 six years in the NFL on
the defensive line with
Allen County 200
the Broncos and Miami
Dolphins.
• Justin O’Neal. The
Shawnee High School
graduate won state titles in
singles as a freshman, junior • Jennifer Phillips. She led
and senior to become one of
Sept. 2020 |
only three tennis players to
do that in Ohio, along with
Tony Trabert and Clark
Graaebner. He was an All-
American at the University
of Florida.
• James Patton. The Allen
East graduate played tight
William White, photographed in 1992.
1986
SOHIO refinery taken
over by BP.
end at Miami (Ohio)
from 1989-1992 and has
been an assistant coach
at Miami, Rhode Island,
Northwestern, Oklahoma,
Indiana, Pittsburgh and
Eastern Michigan.
Elida to the 1997 Division
II state title and was named
the state Division II Player
of the Year that season. She
finished with 1,328 points
at Elida. She scored 1,607
points at Xavier.
• Paul Ponzuric. He was the
coach of Elida’s 1945 foot-
Oct. 15,
1986
Vice President George Bush
spoke at the Allen County
Airport and at a rally at Veterans
Memorial Civic Center.
ball team, which won the
school’s first league champi-
onship in football, but more
notably did it by going
undefeated and outscoring
its opponents 377-0.
• Seraph Pope. The legend-
ary Central High School
football coach was a motiva-
tor and an innovator who
had a 55-34-3 record at
Central, including a 10-0
season in 1946.
• Amy Prichard. She was
first-team All-Ohio on the
first two girls basketball all-
state teams selected in Ohio
in 1978 and 1979. In college
at Northwestern University,
she scored 1,533 points. She
was Ohio University’s wom-
en’s basketball head coach
for six years.
• Gretchen Prichard. The
long-time Bath girls basket-
ball coach had 440 career
wins, a state championship
team in 1987 and a state
runner-up team in 1996.
• Rick Rumer. He finished
what he started when Elida
won the 1976 Class AA
baseball state championship,
throwing six consecutive
complete games, including a
no-hitter in the state semi-
finals. Then he got the win
in relief in the Bulldogs’ 4-3
victory over Orrville in the
state championship game.
• Leonard Rush. Lima
Senior won the 1996
Division I state football
championship and qualified
for the playoffs six times in
Rush’s 17 seasons as coach.
• Dan Sadlier. In 1963,
Sadlier was a skinny 5-10
1990
Alberta Lee became
the first female Allen
County Commissioner.
sophomore JV basketball
player at Lima Central
Catholic. Four years later he
was 6-6 and in the starting
lineup against Lew Alcindor,
as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
was known then, when the
University of Dayton played
UCLA in the NCAA cham-
pionship game.
• Tom Sawyer. As the team
owner, he brought the Ohio
Mixers of the Continental
Basketball Association to
Lima for the 1982-83 and
1983-84 seasons.
• Neil Schmidt. He quit
Bluffton High School after
his junior year to join the
Navy during World War
II and returned two years
later to become All-Ohio in
football and basketball. He
went on to play both those
sports at Purdue and led the
Big Ten in receiving with
23 catches in 1950.
• Bob Seggerson.
Seggerson’s Lima Central
Catholic boys basketball
teams won 518 games in 32
seasons. Six seasons ended
at the state tournament,
including a state champion-
ship in 2010 in his final
game as a coach.
• Bill Sharp. The Lima Senior
graduate had a four-year
major league baseball career
from 1973-1976 with the
Chicago White Sox and
Milwaukee Brewers with a
.255 career batting average.
• Greg Simpson. Simpson
was Ohio’s Mr. Basketball
in 1991 and 1992. He
scored 2,346 points in his
career at Lima Senior and
1998
Refinery purchased by
Clark USA, which later
became Premcor.
 played at Ohio State and West Virginia
in college.
• Xavier Simpson. He was Ohio’s 2016
Mr. Basketball. His 65 points that year
against Fremont Ross is a Lima Senior
record. He is No. 2 on Michigan’s
career assist list.
• Larry Smith and Jim Young. The two
Van Wert natives were ultra-successful
coaches at Shawnee High School in the
1960s before becoming college coaches.
Smith was head coach at Tulane,
Arizona, USC and Missouri. Young
was head coach at Arizona, Purdue and
Army.
• Madinah Slaise. She scored 1,047
points at Lima Senior and 1,849 points
at the University of Cincinnati before
being selected in the second round of
the 2000 WNBA draft.
• George Sowards. He won the first
Lima Men’s City Golf Championship
in 1925.
• Clay Tucker. He was the definition of
a late bloomer, going from a 5-9, 140-
pound freshman to a 6-4, 180-pound
senior at Perry High School. He aver-
aged 16 points a game as a junior and
senior at Perry, then emerged as a star
at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,
where he scored 1,788 points in his
career. He played professionally in the
top leagues in Spain and Italy.
• Fran Voll. Delphos St. John’s girls
basketball team had a 74-1 record from
1977-1979 and won two state cham-
pionships. When Voll, the Blue Jays
coach, left to become Bowling Green
State University’s women’s basketball
coach a few years later, he had a 208-
17 career record.
• Jimmy Walsh. Born in Lima in
1886, Walsh, a third baseman, had an
overall batting average of .285 for the
Philadelphia Phillies from 1910-1913.
• Travis Walton. Defense was the thing
that stood out immediately about
Walton at Lima Senior and later at
Oct.
2001
Lima received anthrax- President G.W. Bush spoke
contaminated mail to for 35 minutes at General
decontaminate at Titan Scan. Dynamics to 3,500.
Michigan State, where he was the Big 53
Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 2009
Allen County 200
when MSU went to the Final Four.
• William White. After rushing for
1,444 yards as a senior at Lima Senior
High School, White was a four-year
starter at Ohio State as a defensive
back. He played 11 years in the NFL
with the Detroit Lions, Kansas City
| Sept. 2020
Chiefs and Atlanta Falcons. He retired
after playing in the 1999 Super Bowl
with the Falcons.
• Vic Whiting and Todd Schulte were
the coaches when Delphos St. John’s
won a then-state record 57 football
games in a row from 1996-2000. The
Blue Jays won three state champion-
ships during the streak, which is now
second all-time in Ohio to Ironton’s 58.
• Steve Williams. He was a high school
teacher who is credited with organizing
the first football game for high school
players in Lima on Thanksgiving Day
in 1894.
• Tammy Williams. Williams was the
best player on Lima Senior’s 1989 girls
basketball team which reached the state
tournament semifinals. She was first-
team All-Ohio as a senior and played at
DePaul University.
• Madison Yingst. Her victory in the
300 hurdles at the 2017 state track
meet was the first state championship
by a Temple Christian athlete. She was
a three-time state qualifier.
Many famous athletes, some notorious
ones and at least one legendary sports
entertainer who had no previous connec-
tions to Allen County have also passed
through the county and added to its
sports history.
Some of them are: Babe Ruth, Lou
Gehrig, Dizzy Dean, Satchel Paige, Jesse
Owens, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino,
Jim Thorpe, Buck O’Neil, Josh Gibson,
Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas, Cris The Lima News archives
Carter, Keith Byars, Marvin Barnes, Greg Simpson, photographed
in the early 1990s.
Tom Payne and the San Diego Chicken.
Oct. 27. Aug. 28, Jan. 2005
2003 2004 2005
President G.W. Bush An ice storm bought Premcor merged
stopped for a campaign the area to a standstill. with Valero.
rally at Lima Senior
High School.
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55

Allen County 200

Striving to better ourselves

| Sept. 2020
From The Lima News Archives

The first classes were conducted by
John Cunningham in the log courthouse
in the 1830s. The idea of a subscription
school — where the wealthy would pay
a private teacher — had been deemed
unnecessary when a school system began
to organize.
RURAL SCHOOLS
Although early schoolhouses were con- round wood burning stove supplied and
structed of wood, a second generation
built in the 1880s and the two decades
thereafter often were faced with red
brick on a wooden frame. The typical
size was 25 feet wide by 40 feet deep,
with windows on the long side.
By the early 1900s, there were more
than 100 schools dotting the map.
“In 1935, there were 27 one room
schools in operation in Allen County,
now there are none,” Charles A. Rusler
Jr. wrote in the 1976 history of Allen
County.
Local author and historian Michael G.
Buettner has compiled a history of Allen
County’s rural schoolhouses for the
Allen County Reporter, a publication
of the Allen County Historical Society.
Buettner is chief surveyor for Kohli and
Kaliher Associates of Lima.
Buettner notes that his father and sev-
eral other relatives, including his aunt,
Lois Evelyn (Buettner) Halliwill, began
their educations at the rural Hunsaker
School, which was located at the south-
east corner of Lincoln Highway and
Buettner Road in Marion Township.
“Among her (Halliwill’s) fondest
memories of those early years was when
her father would hitch a team of horses
to a sled so that all the kids ‘could pile
on and ride on the bed’ for the one-mile
trip to school,” Buettner writes. “She
also recalls that during one winter, the
teacher gave her oldest brother, Donald,
‘the responsibility of keeping the big
banked with wood so that an even heat
warmed the room.’” Buettner notes that
the Hunsaker School today “is hidden
within the walls of an expanded com-
mercial site.”
About one-third of the county’s rural
schoolhouses survive in some form,
many expanded and encased in a mod-
ern shell. One of the best-preserved of
Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
the schoolhouses, Buettner notes, is the
Bucher School at the southeast corner
of the intersection of Columbus Grove-
Bluffton and Phillips roads two miles
west of Bluffton in Richland Township.
“Today it is home to several youth min-
istries of Ebenezer Mennonite Church,
which is located across the road at the
northeast corner of that same intersec-
tion.”
In Shawnee Township, the Berryman
School, nestled inside the curve where
Spencerville Road becomes Shawnee
Road, was replaced in the early 20th
century by the McBeth School on the
opposite side of the curve. The McBeth
School was big enough to house eight
grades of students. It eventually was cut
Bucher School is at the southeast
corner of the intersection of
Columbus-Grove-Bluffton
and Phillips roads.

2007 Feb. 24, Nov. 2, About

2008 2012 2018

The refinery was Former President Bill Clinton President Barack Obama Memorial Hall was
purchased by Husky campaigned for his wife spoke to 3,800 at Lima shuttered.
Energy. Hillary at Lima Senior High Senior High School.
School.
 56
Allen County 200
Sept. 2020 |
Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
South High School was Lima’s second public high school. Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
Lima Central High School was built in 1905. A fire at Central in 1966, after Lima
Senior opened, led officials to pivot to building two new junior high schools.
Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
The original Lima Senior, photographed in 1957,
merged the city’s South and Central high schools. up into apartments and was
demolished in 1995. As for the
building it replaced, Buettner
notes, “It is believed that the
structure of the earlier Berryman
School still stands, although now
well disguised as an insurance
agency.”
The Prairie School was the site of
an annual agricultural competition
among township schools. “A
complete program and book of
rules of the Corn Show, stock
judging and baking contest of
The Lima News archives the schools of Monroe Township
Firefighters work to stop has been issued. The event will be
the fire at Central in 1966. held at the Prairie School one and
one-half miles east of West Cairo
(now simply Cairo), Friday, Nov.
26,” the Lima Daily News reported
on Nov. 23, 1915. The winning
school, the story added, would take
home a silver cup.
With improved roads and
transportation, the rural schools
began to disappear in the 1910s
when the process of centralization
began, Buettner writes. The
county’s last rural schoolhouse, the
Tileville School on the west side
of Cole Street just south of Robb
Avenue, reportedly closed in 1940.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
A union school was opened in
the Methodist Episcopal church
basement in 1856 and continued
Mar. 20, March
2019 2020
President Donald Trump Coronavirus pandemic
toured and spoke at General reaches Lima.
Dynamics.
there until Lima’s first school
building — the West building,
so named for its western location
— was built in 1858. The East
building came 13 years later. The
buildings housed pupils from first
grade through graduation.
After that, it was Lincoln School
that was built in 1882, followed by
Irving in 1888. A series of schools
followed, and by 1908, Lima
boasted 16 school buildings it had
erected to educate its youngsters.
In 1917, the district built a
second high school, South, to join
its already existing high school,
Central, which was built in 1905.
As a result, students were given
the option of attending the nearest
high school to their home to
complete their education. It was
in their own neighborhoods that
most Lima children could attend
school — elementary through high
school — and receive their formal
education.
Following that construction
phase, time stood still for the
school buildings. Like the rest of
the country, Lima schools limped
through the Depression. The
Works Progress Administration
helped build Lima Stadium in
1936. It was renamed Spartan
Stadium in 2014.
In 1938, district lines were
Courtesy of Allen County
Historical Society

redrawn after citizens
petitioned for such an action.
Prior to that, there had been
as many as 22 village and
rural school districts in Allen
County, with up to 14 of
them being high schools. The
families of the few students
attending there raised all
operating costs for each
building.
In 1945, Lima officials
requested The Ohio State
University’s Bureau of
Educational Research
study the existing schools
and determine building
needs for the district. That
group proposed the school
system build new schools to
accommodate its increased
enrollment and handle its
dilapidated existing buildings.
Rejected by the voters
at the first request of $3.7
million, the school system
finally got the nod of
approval by district residents
in 1947 to begin a building
project.
At about that same
time, the Lima League
of Cooperation and
Improvement made a stand
about the need for Black
teachers in the school system.
Blacks were vocal that they
would not support a bond
issue if Blacks were not
hired as teachers. The issue
failed, and Joyce Garrett was
hired as the first Black full-
time teacher. By the 1970s,
there were 55 Black teachers
employed, including Garfield
principal Malcolm McCoy.
In the early 1950s, an
aggressive building program
was undertaken. The result
was the construction of six
new elementary schools and
a high school. Lima Senior
High School opened in 1955.
Crosstown rivals South Tigers
and the Central Dragons were
now Lima Senior Spartans.
A fire at Central in 1966
led officials to pivot to
building two new junior high
schools.
By 1967, Dr. Earl
McGovern was at the helm of
the city schools. He was aided
in keeping the new buildings
in shape by Gerald Fell, who
came to the district with a
background as a teacher and
later an administrator.
In 1999, a $103 million
building project was approved
Courtesy of Allen County
Historical Society
St. Gerard school once
housed a high school.
by Lima voters. That saw the
renovation or replacement
of all the district’s buildings,
with the state picking up 90
percent of the tab. The new
schools were named on a
patriotic theme.
PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS
Father Edward J. Murphy
was appointed the first
resident pastor at St. Rose
in 1861. He sold lots from a
land donation to benefit the
finances of the parish — and
start a parochial school. That
was in 1865. St. Rose grew
to include a three-story brick
structure next to the church
on North West Street in
1888, followed shortly by a
three-year high school course.
The first graduating class in
1898 had six people.
During the Great
Depression, St. Rose athletic
teams were combined with
those of Lima’s other two
Catholic high schools, St.
John and St. Gerard, to
compete as Lima Catholic
Central more than 20 years
before the formation of
Lima Central Catholic High
School.
57
Allen County 200
Courtesy of Allen County
Historical Society
Monsignor Edward C. Herr,
| Sept. 2020
LCC’s first principal, was
photographed in 1961.
When the first wave of
Baby Boomers hit Lima’s
three Catholic schools in
1950 (St. Charles parish
was established in 1953)
enrollment at St. Rose swelled
to 674, including 178 in
the high school. On Aug.
10, 1952, the News wrote,
“Construction of a two-story
brick building to meet the
urgent need for additional
classroom space for St. Rose
Catholic School, is expected
to be under way within 30
days …” The old grade school
just to the south would
be remodeled to provide
additional high school space,
the News reported. The new
grade school opened to 620
pupils Feb. 2, 1954.
On Aug. 3, 1956, the
News reported the merger of
St. Rose and St. John high
schools to form Lima Central
Catholic High School, which
would have an enrollment
of about 350 and use the
existing St. Rose High School
building. The “combined
school later may take in St.
Gerard,” the News noted.
In August 1956, the
News wrote that the new
Catholic high school, which
would open that September,
was expected to have an
enrollment of 350 during its
first year “with an additional
200 pupils continuing to
attend St. Gerard’s High
School.” St. Gerard’s parish
had just built a new high
school. It would join the
following year at the
 58 St. Gerard’s High School.” St. Gerard’s
parish had just built a new high school.
Allen County 200
It would join the following year at the
insistence of Bishop George J. Rehring
of the Diocese of Toledo.
Lima Central Catholic High School
opened on South Cable Road in 1961,
the same year the 1888 St. Rose school
building on North West Street was
Sept. 2020 |
demolished.
Monsignor Edward C. Herr, LCC’s
first principal, began at Delphos St.
John’s. He served there as principal/
athletic director for 14 years before over-
seeing the consolidation of Lima’s three
Catholic high schools.
Along the way, he told the News in
a Feb. 28, 1971, the priest-educator
learned a few things. “Until three or four
years ago, I was all for everyone dressing
alike; I sent the kids home to get their
long hair cut. Now I recognize that we
had been meeting the needs of the top
students, of the athletes and the 30 or 40
percent of the good kids who don’t create
problems. But this other group was being
alienated. … We’ve got to recognize the
plurality among our students; and we
have to recognize that in our city, too.”
MARIMOR SCHOOL
The Allen County Council for
Retarded Children organized in 1953,
a group of concerned parents who
wanted the best for their children. The
first class was held that year at St. Mark
United Methodist Church and grew
exponentially.
A fundraising campaign was begun,
and voters approved funding for the
Robin Rogers School, named for
the daughter of Dale Evans
and Roy Rogers. The school
was dedicated in 1955. It
was renamed Marimor
in 1963, honoring the
first teacher, Mary
Iva Moore. Federal
Courtesy of Allen County
Historical Society
Lima College was
short lived.
law in 1963 created county MR/DD
boards. The current location and its
workshop date to the 1970s, as does a
Conant Road daycamp.
COLLEGES
Bluffton University
Founded in 1899 as Central
Mennonite College, the private school
had become known as Bluffton College
by the early 1900s. It was once home to a
seminary. It became Bluffton University
in 2004. The liberal arts college is affili-
ated with the Mennonite Church USA,
but many backgrounds are represented in
the student body today.
Lima College
This college, built and operated by
the Lutheran Church, opened in 1893.
Students could earn bachelor’s degrees
in arts, science, literature and pedagogy.
As more seminaries came to be around
the state, the need for this school dimin-
ished. It was sold in 1908 to the Lima
Board of Education, and it became
Horace Mann School. It was torn down
in 1968 to make room for West Junior
High School.
The Ohio State University at Lima
The Ohio State University’s Lima
campus opened in 1960, a push to make
college more accessible to the
Lima area. Robert F. Galvin
stepped in and pledged
$250,000, which went
toward the purchasing
of the site for the
public school.
The Galvin
Foundation had its background in the
Ohio Steel Foundry.
Rhodes State College
The first classes were held in 1969 for
the public Lima Technical Center, a
division of Penta Technical College of
Perrysburg. Lima Technical College was
considered for merger with OSU to save
on state costs, but their autonomy was
maintained. The school became James
A. Rhodes State College in 2002. Its
Rhodes State Center of Health Science
Education and Innovation project in
downtown Lima is continuing.
University of Northwestern Ohio
Lima Business College began in
1920 in downtown Lima, offer-
ing secretarial training. It was called
Northwestern School of Commerce by
the 1930s. It moved several times, with
Northwestern College finding a home
on Cable Road in the 1970s. Now called
University of Northwestern Ohio, the
private school has grown to span some
200 acres and include facilities such as
the UNOH Event Center and Limaland
Motorsports Park.
 59
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Allen County 200

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 60
Allen County 200
Sept. 2020 |

WE

Beth
CELEBRATE with you!

SEIBERT for
Congratulations Allen County!
Rhodes State College is proud to be a part
of this community where we have been shaping futures
for almost 50 years!

County Commissioner
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 61

Allen County 200

| Sept. 2020
1968-2020

53 Years in Lima
Power of the Past, Force of the Future
Procter & Gamble is proud to be a part of the
200th Year Celebration of Allen County. We
want to thank the community, our suppliers and
contractors for supporting us the last 53 years.
1968

2020
OH-70071368L

OH-70200780
 62

Mystery Artifacts
Allen County 200

2
1 3
Sept. 2020 |

3. CAMERA
2. BIRTHDAY CHAIR This is a camera used by
Lima police
Easter Straker, a local broadcast officer Herbert Simmons
N
1. ACCORDIOily graph members of John
to photo-
of Allen County personality, used this “Birthday Dill
The Brooks fam ion from the mid Chair.” Local children ages 3 to 6 gang — Pierpont, Makle inger’s
rd y and Clark
owned this acco sat in the chair, and Straker and the — on Feb. 24, 1934.
to late 1800s. children recited rhymes and sang
songs together. Grover Blazer, the
show’s director, designed the chair.
WLIO TV 35, Lima donated the chair

4
in 1982.
6
5

4. WAGON 6. GRINDER
This is the Conestoga wa This is a grain grinder.
wagon, the McCullough
gon. In this covered Grist was fed through
County in 1835. One of
family came to Allen the hole in the turning
7 years old at the time.
six children, Aurelia, wa
s 5. HELMET upper stone and made
er
in 1848, and they lived
She married Peter Faze This is a firefighter’s helmet used by Roscoe C. its way to the fixed low
in
now stands between the the log house which Jacobs, a member of the Lima Fire Department stone. The fineness of
the MacDonell House.
Museum and from 1912 to 1945. The heavy leather hel- the meal or flour was
met had a heavy wire in the brim to prevent controlled by the space
warping from heat and moisture. Firefighters between the stones.
attached badges to the brass eagle heads.

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 Allen County 200 | Sept. 2020
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 64

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