Historic Hancock County

HISTORIC 

HANCOCK 

COUNTY 

An Illustrated History 

By Paulette Weiser 

A publication of the 

Findlay • Hancock County Chamber of Commerce

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HISTORIC 

HANCOCK 

COUNTY 


By Paulette Weiser 

Commissioned by the Findlay • Hancock County Chamber of Commerce 

Historical Publishing Network 

A division of Lammert Incorporated 

San Antonio, Texas

CONTENTS 

3 CHAPTER ONE laying the groundwork 

5 CHAPTER TWO early peoples to 1812 

7 CHAPTER THREE the War of 1812 & its aftermath, 1812 to 1828 

13 CHAPTER FOUR an influx of settlers & the development of 

agriculture, 1828 to 1860 

23 CHAPTER FIVE the Civil War era & aftermath, 1861 to 1880 

29 CHAPTER SIX the boom era, 1881 to 1903 

39 CHAPTER SEVEN life after the boom to the big crash, 1904 to 1929 

47 CHAPTER EIGHT the Great Depression & war years, 1930 to 1945 

51 CHAPTER NINE postwar progress & growth, 1946 to 1962 

55 CHAPTER TEN new prosperity & current times, 1963 to 2006 

59 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

60 SHARING THE HERITAGE 

113 INDEX 

118 SPONSORS 

119 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

First Edition 

Copyright © 2007 Historical Publishing Network 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing 

from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Historical Publishing Network, 11555 Galm Road, Suite 100, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (800) 749-9790. 

ISBN: 9781893619777 

Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2007938270 

Historic Hancock County: A Bicentennial History 

author: Paulette Weiser 

contributing writer for “Sharing the Heritage”: Scott Williams 

Historical Publishing Network 

president: Ron Lammert 

project managers: Joe Neely, Robin Neely 

administration: Donna M. Mata, Diane Perez, Evelyn Hart, Melissa Quinn 

book sales: Dee Steidle 

production: Colin Hart, Craig Mitchell, Charles A. Newton III 

PRINTED IN KOREA 

2 ✦ HISTORIC HANCOCK COUNTY

CHAPTER ONE 

L AYING THE G ROUNDWORK 

PRE- HISTORY 

The history of Hancock County, Ohio, rests firmly on its soil and what lies beneath that soil. The 

foundation of what was to come throughout the county’s history has been largely dependent on the 

earth and rock and the minerals beneath. 

What became Hancock County experienced ice ages and tropical marine environments. It was the 

latter that formed the limestone which makes up the county’s bedrock. Limestone is calcium 

carbonate, the skeletons of organisms, and vegetation, formed while the area was covered with warm 

and shallow seas. Beneath the rock lay natural gas and oil, which were to play such an important role. 

Most of the northern county’s soil is fairly rich, black loam, much of it having been the bed of a 

glacial lake, along with some heavy clay and sand ridges or “beaches.” The Great Black Swamp of 

northwest Ohio, the residue of the old glacial Lake Maumee, extended south from the current shores 

of Lake Erie into the northern half of Hancock County. The southern part of the county is Till Plains. 

“Till” is the debris left after the retreat of the last glacier, comprised of clay, sand and gravel. 

The Blanchard River and a number of smaller rivers and creeks flow through Hancock County. 

One of the smaller water courses of note is Eagle Creek, which flows north from the south central 

county area. Ottawa (“Tawa”) Creek drains the southwestern county before emptying into the 

Blanchard in Blanchard Township. 

❖ 

Blanchard River scene, Hancock 

County, Ohio, postcard, c. 1910. 

COURTESY OF THE HANCOCK 

HISTORICAL MUSEUM. 

Chapter One ✦ 3

❖ 

Above: Locations of sand ridge 

beaches left from the various glacial 

lakes preceding present Lake Erie. 

COURTESY OF THE DIVISION OF 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, OHIO DEPARTMENT OF 

NATURAL RESOURCES. 

Below: Glacial Lake Maumee, which 

was later the location of the Great 

Black Swamp. 

COURTESY OF THE DIVISION OF 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, OHIO DEPARTMENT OF 

NATURAL RESOURCES. 

Most of the county’s rivers and creeks drain 

into the Blanchard. In the north central and 

northeast portions of the county, however, the 

creeks are all tributaries of the Portage River. 

The Portage runs north and empties into Lake 

Erie at Port Clinton. 

One of the few large natural springs in the 

county was “The Big Spring,” located in the 

northeast portion of Amanda Township. Sulphur 

springs could be found in the center of Biglick 

Township, known in the early days as the “Big 

Lick,” as it attracted large numbers of deer. 

The landscape of Hancock County was 

nearly covered with an almost impenetrable 

forest of varieties of oak, ash, walnut, poplar, 

beech, elm, sugar maple, buckeye, hackberry, 

linden, cottonwood, and sycamore 

trees. The varieties of trees growing in 

certain areas depended on soil and 

moisture conditions. 

In east central Hancock County was a 

wet prairie area, one of the few open areas 

in the county. It encompassed about two 

thousand acres, containing a nearly 

impassable bog of rich, black soil. 

The topography is quite flat in the 

northern part of the county, with some 

sand ridges. McComb, Van Buren and 

Fostoria are all located on ridges. 

“Limestone Ridge” is an elevated length 

of sand and clay on a limestone base 

lying just south of the prairie in Biglick 

Township, running towards Carey. The land of 

the southern part of the county gently rolls. 

Fish, reptiles, and a variety of animals, both 

winged and four-footed, were once plentiful 

from pre-historic time through the early 

settlement period. Animals included deer, 

bison, elk, bear, beaver, raccoons, rabbit, fox, an 

occasional moose, wolves, opossum, otter, and 

mink. Birds included ducks, geese, turkeys, 

partridges, quails, prairie chickens, woodcocks, 

pheasants, and pigeons. Fish included sturgeon 

and walleye. 

It was this wild land of plenty which 

attracted transient native peoples, and later, 

settlers. The native people made light use of its 

natural resources. Settlers changed it forever. 


CHAPTER TWO 

E ARLY P EOPLES TO 1812 

What is now Hancock County was never heavily populated during the time the Ohio country was home 

to native peoples. The Black Swamp in the north part of the county hindered any settlement there. The 

heavily forested areas of the south county were not particularly hospitable either. However, the Blanchard 

River and higher ridges did serve as travel routes, campsites and some village sites for the earliest area 

Indians. The relatively stable lifestyle of northwest Ohio Indians prior to 1640 changed to a state of fluidity 

and frequent turmoil until their ultimate removal by the mid-nineteenth century. 

❖ 

An artist’s rendering of a Woodlands 

Indian village of Northwest Ohio with 

longhouses and a cornfield. 



TRANSPORTATION 

A prominent east-west trail used by natives through Ohio called the Black Swamp Trail passed 

through Hancock County in the 1700s. The trail followed the Blanchard River to the Auglaize River 

to the Maumee River. The narrow Indian trails followed paths first made by wildlife, which used the 

easiest routes along ridges and waterways and led to springs and salt licks. 

In addition to trails, waterways were also main thoroughfares for their dugout or birch bark 

canoes. Snowshoes and toboggans provided means of winter transportation for native populations. 

CULTURE 

& LIFESTYLE 

The natives of the Ohio country were mostly Algonquian speaking tribes. Algonquian is a 

linguistic family, and includes the languages of the Ottawa, Miami, Shawnee, and other tribes of the 

western Great Lakes. The Wyandot’s language (called Huron in Canada) was of the Iroquoian 

linguistic group, similar to the Iroquois tribes in Pennsylvania and New York. 

The Indians of northwest Ohio were Woodlands Indians, living in deciduous forests. The natives 

were agricultural, with corn the main crop. They also grew beans and squash. While area native 

populations also hunted, fished and collected wild plants, the cultivating of vegetables provided a 

good source of high energy. Deer provided an important source of protein. Plants provided nuts, fruit, 

herbs and roots used in their diet and for medicinal purposes. 

The natives lived in villages with maximum population for the work of summer planting and fall 

harvest. The villages were usually near plentiful water along a stream or a spring with cornfields nearby. 

Chapter Two ✦ 5

❖ 

Above: Native American artifacts of 

Hancock County on display at the 

Hancock Historical Museum. 



Right: A map of Ohio Indian Trails, 

including the Black Swamp Trail 

through Hancock County. 



Below: The site on the bank of the 

Blanchard River north of Mt. 

Blanchard thought to be the vicinity of 

the log cabin of Jean Jacques 

Blanchard and his family. 



During the winter, about a four-month period, 

they lived in smaller groups in hunting camps 

and in the spring maple grove sugaring camps. 

Horses became common about 1770, as did 

cattle and hogs. Dogs were numerous. 

The area tribes’ locations and movements were 

very fluid in the mid-1600s to the early 1800s, 

due to intertribal warfare and alliances, white 

pressure from the east and south, epidemics 

brought by whites, French-English rivalries and 

wars, international treaties, Indian-white 

hostilities, land cessions by Indians, reservations, 

land allotments, and, finally, removal. 

THE INDIANS & 

HANCOCK COUNTY 

Few areas of present Hancock County were 

settled in the pre-historic period, generally only 

places along the river on higher ground. One such 

site was called “Indian Green” or “Plum Orchard” 

by early white settlers. It is located about eight 

miles west of Findlay on the high north bank of the 

Blanchard River. Early county histories describe 

earthworks and a burial ground. Early digging in 

the area resulted in the discovery of a number of 

native artifacts. They included both functional 

items, such as a bowl, ladle and pipe-tomahawk, 

and decorative items, including bracelets, beads, 

gorget (or breastplate) and earrings. 

According to a 1914 archaeological atlas, 

several native sites are along the Blanchard 

River, including the Mt. Blanchard and Findlay 

areas, as well as Indian Green and west. Also 

shown are sites around Van Buren, McComb, 

and Jenera and at the confluence of Ottawa and 

Tiderishi Creeks in the northeast corner of 

Union Township. 

JEAN JACQUES BLANCHARD 

An early white resident of Hancock County 

and the area is a rather mysterious Frenchman 

named Jean Jacques Blanchard. Blanchard was 

said to speak a Parisian dialect of French, as well 

as Greek and Latin, indicating he was well 

educated and cultured. 

Blanchard’s likely birth date was 1720 in 

France. Indications are he came to the Louisiana 

area in 1760, and was a pirate for a few years, then 

a fur trader in southern Ohio. He came to the 

Hancock County area about 1770 to avoid the 

Indian and white conflicts in southern Ohio. He 

built a cabin along the river later named for him. 

He spent the rest of his life there with his Shawnee 

wife and seven children, living among the peaceful 

Wyandot, and dying in the spring of 1802. 

According to early whites in the area, the 

river was called “Sha-po-qua-te sepi” or “Tailor’s 

river” by the Shawnee for their French 

compatriot. Early surveyors took the Shawnee 

name into consideration and called the river 

Blanchard’s fork of the Auglaize. 

SETTING THE STAGE FOR WAR 

It was not until 1805, with the signing of 

treaties with the Indians, that the land in Ohio 

including Hancock County was even claimed by 

the United States. About 1810, two Ottawa 

villages stood west of Hancock County (at 

present-day Ottawa) on the Blanchard River 

with more north on the Maumee. The Seneca, 

Wyandot, and Delaware had villages from 

Lower Sandusky (Fremont) down the Sandusky 

River to Upper Sandusky. Shawnee, Seneca, and 

Wyandot villages could also be found in Hardin 

and Allen Counties. By treaty, most of the 

Indians in Ohio lived in northwest Ohio, except 

for reservations elsewhere. 


CHAPTER THREE 

T HE W AR OF 1812 & ITS A FTERMATH, 

1812 TO 1828 

While the area which became Hancock County had earlier seen a few white travelers and residents 

in its forests and swamps, it was the War of 1812 that really opened the area for settlement. 

The War of 1812, sometimes called the “Second War of Independence,” was fought on the ground 

throughout the United States and on the high seas and Great Lakes. Some of the action took place in 

the young state of Ohio. 

Even after the Revolutionary War ended, Britain continued to pressure the fledgling republic. Britain 

refused to surrender western forts as agreed upon in the 1783 Treaty of Paris and supported natives 

fighting Americans on the western frontier. England was stopping American ships on the high seas and 

forcing American citizens into the British navy. Led by Henry Clay, a number of “war hawks” were 

elected to Congress. All these factors finally led to the declaration of war against Britain again. 

❖ 

Replica of first school in Findlay built 

for Fort Findlay Centennial, 1912. 



THE WAR IN OHIO 

In the spring of 1812, even before the declaration of war, regular army and militia troops began 

assembling at Dayton. The threat to Detroit led to the formation of this army at the behest of Governor 

Meigs under the command of General William Hull. The army was to travel north to the rapids on the 

Maumee, creating a series of forts along the way to protect the army and the state’s citizens. 

The army left June 16 and moved north, meeting with Colonel Duncan McArthur and his advance 

regiment at newly established Fort McArthur (Hardin County) three days later. On the 21st, they 

continued their march. The force got mired down in the mud of spring rains just over what is now the 

Chapter Three ✦ 7

❖ 

Hull’s Trail marker located on the 

boundary between Hancock and 

Hardin Counties near the site of Fort 

Necessity, c. 1980. 



Hancock County line. A temporary fort named 

“Fort Necessity” was thrown together to give the 

army a place to rest and re-organize until 

traveling conditions improved. While county 

pioneers never saw more than mud there, official 

records do indicate a blockhouse was built. 

When the army was able to continue its 

march, another advance regiment, the First 

Regiment under the command of Colonel James 

Findlay, was sent ahead to open a road for the 

army. Another stop was made on the south 

banks of Blanchard’s Fork, where a fort was 

begun, named for their commander. The rest of 

the army camped at Fort Findlay, while the 

colonel and his regiment proceeded ahead and 

opened the road to the Maumee. At Frenchtown 

on July 1, Hull learned that the United States 

had declared war on June 24. 

COLONEL JAMES FINDLAY 

James Findlay (1770-1835) was a resident of 

Cincinnati, having migrated west from his 

birthplace in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, in 

1795. For a number of years Findlay was the 

receiver of public money in the land office. He 

served two terms as mayor of Cincinnati before 

he was commissioned as colonel of General 

Hull’s advance guard regiment. Findlay served 

Hamilton County in Congress (1825-33) and 

ran for governor of Ohio in 1834 as a Whig and 

Anti-Mason candidate. He was defeated and 

died the following year. The Findlay Market in 

Cincinnati still bears the family name. Colonel 

Findlay is believed to have never visited 

Hancock County after the war. 

FORT 

FINDLAY 

A small garrison was left at the fort under the 

command of Captain Arthur Thomas. Although 

never attacked, the fort was built to be ready to 

repel an attack. A ten-foot stockade surrounded a 

roughly fifty yards square enclosure. Each corner 

had a sturdy blockhouse. Each blockhouse had 

one piece of artillery. A ditch was dug around the 

fort with the dirt thrown up against the stockade 

for added strength. The trees used to build the 

fort were cleared from the east, south and west 

sides to open those areas and remove natural 

cover to any approaching enemy. The river was 

on the north side and the gate faced east. Small 

log cabins along the inside walls provided 

quarters for the soldiers. The open space in the 

center was the parade ground. (The fort stood on 

what is now the northwest corner of South Main 

and Front Streets in Findlay.) 

GENERAL WILLIAM HULL & 

THE WAR 

Hull and his army finally reached Detroit on 

July 12. As Indian opposition solidified and 

skirmishes increased, Fort Wayne was soon the 

only American-held post west of Detroit. Hull 

felt increasingly more isolated and more anxious 

about the viability of his position. Hull ordered 

his soldiers to retreat on August 12 after their 

supplies were threatened. It appeared opposing 

forces were superior in number by two to one, 

medical supplies were lost, medical staff was 

depleted by 50 percent, and more than 400 of 

his troops were ill. Facing mutiny, he 

surrendered Detroit and the River Raisin and 

Maumee Rapids posts on August 16, 1812, to 

British General Isaac Brock. They straggled back 

down the trail they had used to move north past 

Fort Findlay. 

The British occupied Detroit and Indians 

loyal to them moved into the lower Maumee 

valley in the fall of 1812. The Ottawa villages 

along the Blanchard River west of Hancock 


County were destroyed on September 16 by 

Indians loyal to the British. By early 1813, only 

the Indians around Fort Ferree (Upper 

Sandusky) were still pro-American. 

The American forces at Fort Meigs managed 

to survive two sieges in May and July 1813. 

Americans also beat back a British and Indian 

attack on Fort Stephenson at present Fremont in 

August. It was Commodore Perry’s victory, 

however, on Lake Erie on September 10 that 

finally gave control of the area to the Americans. 

A second Treaty of Greenville between the 

United States and Wyandot, Delaware, Seneca, 

Shawnee, and Miami Indians was signed on July 

22, 1814. 

FORT FINDLAY AT THE 

WAR’ S END 

The fort was garrisoned until the spring of 

1815. Stories were told that a sutler named 

Thorp kept a small store immediately east of the 

fort during its occupation. The fort was 

abandoned in 1815, but Thorp may have stayed 

longer. Wyandot Indians and the earliest settlers 

took advantage of the shelter and the already 

lumbered wood the fort afforded for their own 

buildings. The fort structures did not survive 

for long. 

Soldiers with Hull’s army got their first look 

at Northwest Ohio, and some later returned to 

settle there. Settlers began trickling into what 

would become Hancock County. 

BENJAMIN COX FAMILY 

Benjamin Cox and his family were the first 

white family to settle in what is now Hancock 

County in 1815. They lived for ten years in the 

❖ 

Above: Colonel James Findlay. 



Below: Fort Findlay, looking south 

1812-15. 



Chapter Three ✦ 9

shaman, of the bad spirit affecting the son of a 

Wyandot chief. The guests gathered at a 

log cabin, where the lights were extinguished. 

After much drumming and noise, the lights 

were relit and refreshments served. The 

young man did not improve, so the shaman 

tried more drastic measures to counteract 

the witch. However, the young man died. 

Elizabeth supposed it was really from 

consumption (tuberculosis). 

RESERVATION LIFE FOR 

NATIVE AMERICANS 

❖ 

Above: Elizabeth Cox Eberly. 

FROM THE HISTORY OF WOOD COUNTY, 

OHIO, 1897. 

Below: Squire Carlin, early Findlay 

resident and entrepreneur, c. 1885. 

FROM THE HISTORY OF WOOD COUNTY, 

OHIO, 1897. 

vicinity of Fort Findlay before moving north to 

Wood County. Daniel B. Beardsley, author of the 

county’s first history in 1881, interviewed a Cox 

daughter, Elizabeth Cox Eberly, about her 

experiences as a young girl of nine in the 

wildness that was Hancock County. 

She told of her birth in Greene County 

in 1806 and the move to the Fort Findlay 

area. Her sister Lydia was the first white child 

born in the county in 1817. The family lived 

in a hewed log house on the east side of what 

is now Main Street (Thorp’s cabin). Her 

father cleared a small tract and farmed it, 

and kept an inn. Before the Cox family left, 

they were joined by the Moreland, Hamilton, 

Slight, Chamberlin, Frakes, McKinnis, Simpson, 

Vance and Reighly families. Ottawa and 

Wyandot Indians visited, and Elizabeth learned 

their language. 

With her mother and sister, Elizabeth 

gathered the stalks of nettles that grew along 

the river. They processed them as they 

would flax, and used the fibers in the stalks 

to weave a linen-like cloth to make the 

family’s clothing. 

She told of one of her experiences with 

the Native Americans still in the area. Elizabeth 

and her mother accepted an invitation to the 

exorcism by the “Big Medicine,” apparently a 

Through treaties signed by tribes of 

northwest Ohio in September 1817, they were 

restricted to areas assigned to them as 

reservations. The Indian gathering for that treaty 

numbered seven thousand. The reservations 

were usually areas the Indians had traditionally 

occupied in villages. The Ottawa were given a 

reservation west of Hancock County on the 

Blanchard River around what is now the city 

of Ottawa. 

The Wyandot Grand Reserve was located in 

the area of Upper Sandusky. The Wyandot were 

also given a smaller area that spanned parts of 

Hancock and Seneca Counties. What eventually 

became Biglick Township Sections 13, 24, 25, 

and 36 in present Hancock County were part of 

the Big Spring Reservation, with a larger portion 

in Seneca County. 


present site of Maumee, Ohio, in 1809. They 

lived and farmed there peacefully, until General 

Hull’s surrender to the British in August 1812, 

when Carlin, his mother and siblings fled south 

over Hull’s Trail to Urbana, Ohio, for safety. The 

family saw Fort Findlay still being built on the 

Blanchard River. 

In 1814, Carlin and his father returned 

to the Maumee with the remainder of the 

family joining them the following year. Carlin 

visited Findlay often, and bought a lot from 

Joseph Vance and Elnathan Cory in November 

1826 on what is now the southwest corner 

of Main and Carlin built a log home there, 

and it was to that home he brought his wife 

Sarah Wolcott, whom he married in 1821, and 

their family. 

FINDLAY 

ENTERPRISES 

Many of the northwest Ohio Indians 

harvested crops, raised cattle and other stock, 

and had orchards just like their white 

counterparts. The Grand Reserve Wyandot had 

the first grist and sawmills in northwest Ohio. 

OTHER EARLY 

WHITE FAMILIES 

Most of the earliest residents of what would 

become shortly Hancock County settled in the 

eastern and southern areas of the county 

with a few just north and west of Findlay. Most 

of the county’s pioneers came from southern 

and eastern Ohio, or from Pennsylvania or 

New York State. 

One War of 1812 soldier who returned was 

George Brehm. He had been born in Lancaster, 

Pennsylvania, in 1773 and moved to Perry 

County, Ohio, in 1809. In October 1834, he 

entered eighty acres in Section 28 in Union 

Township, southeast of Findlay and was granted 

a land warrant in September 1840. 

Squire Carlin also first saw Findlay during 

the War of 1812. Born on Christmas Day in 

1801 near Auburn, New York, Carlin moved 

west with his father James and the rest of his 

family at age five. They finally settled at the 

In addition to laying out the town of 

Findlay in 1821, Wilson Vance also built the 

first mill. The mill, erected in 1824, was 

located on the north side of the Blanchard, 

east of Main Street, and was both a grist 

and a sawmill. Vance lived in the Thorp 

cabin after the Cox family, which was also 

the first post office for the weekly mail delivery, 

1823-1829. 

Squire Carlin’s log house also served as 

Findlay’s first store. Carlin traded extensively 

with the local natives. His brother Parlee later 

joined him in the business. Squire spent much 

of his time traveling the area, buying and 

trading furs with Indians, white hunters and 

small traders, while Parlee minded the store. 

One winter he purchased 4,600 deer skins and 

7,000 coon skins. Later the Carlin brothers 

operated Vance’s grist and sawmill on the north 

side of the river. 

EARLY 

RELIGION 

The first documented church service in the 

county was led by the Rev. James Gilruth, a 

Methodist minister, in Findlay in 1822. Soon 

after his arrival in April, word spread that a man 

of God was in town. Rev. Gilruth was prevailed 

upon to preach, and it was said that almost 

every man and woman in the county attended 

the service. 

❖ 

A map of Findlay’s Main Street, 

c. the 1830s. 

FROM ACROSS THE YEARS IN FINDLAY AND 

HANCOCK COUNTY,1965. 

Chapter Three ✦ 11

THE FIRST SCHOOL 

❖ 

Job Chamberlin, one of Findlay area’s 

earliest residents, c. 1886. 

FROM THE HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY, 

OHIO, 1886. 

The first school in what was soon to become 

Hancock County was taught by Joseph White in 

Findlay in 1826. Probably held in someone’s log 

home, and educating only perhaps a dozen or 

less students, it was a temporary arrangement. 

Only one school building pre-dated the 

organization of the county. An official school in 

Findlay was built in 1827, taught by John C. 

Wickham. It was located at what is now the 

northwest corner of East and East Crawford 

Streets (former armory site), and was used for 

eight years. 

As were all the earliest schools, it was log 

with oiled paper windows. It had a large 

fireplace on one end, and a door on the other 

end. Small windows lined the other two walls, 

with long boards supported by wooden pegs 

underneath the windows as writing desks. 

Seats were wood slabs with primitive wooden 

legs, having no backs and far enough off the 

rustic board floor to keep the youngest students’ 

feet dangling. 

School consisted of eight-hour days, three 

months in the winter for older students and 

three months in the summer for younger 

students. Schoolbooks were at a premium, 

readers and spellers, math, grammar and 

geography were the books available. Teaching 

deportment and good manners were also a 

teacher’s responsibility. 

THE ORGANIZATION OF 

NORTHWEST OHIO & 

THE FIRST ELECTION 

Until about 1816, northwest Ohio was 

considered a part of Logan County, with the 

county seat at Bellefontaine. As more people 

moved into the area, the population grew large 

enough to organize local government. 

The northwest corner of Ohio was first 

organized on February 12, 1820. While its 

boundaries were spelled out in the legislation, 

Hancock County, as well as Henry, Putnam, 

Paulding and Williams counties, were all still 

attached to Wood County until their population 

could support separate entities. Hancock 

County is thought to have been named for 

Revolutionary War patriot John Hancock. 

Findlay Township was organized separately 

within the boundaries of Hancock County, 

while still part of Wood County, on May 28, 

1823. The first recorded election was held in the 

township on April 5, 1824, at which eighteen 

votes were cast. Elected were Job Chamberlin, 

Wilson Vance and Jacob Poe as trustees; Mathew 

Reighly, clerk; Wilson Vance, assessor; Philip 

McKinnis, constable; John Hunter and John 

Gardner, fence viewers; Robert McKinnis and 

William Moreland, overseers of the poor; and 

Job Chamberlin, Sr., treasurer. 

As more people arrived in Hancock County, 

the population soon warranted a separate 

county government. On January 21, 1828, the 

Ohio legislature passed an act “to organize the 

county of Hancock.” An election was set for 

April in Findlay to elect county officials. A total 

of seventy-four votes were cast and the 

following were elected: Don Alonzo Hamlin, 

sheriff; Thomas Slight, coroner; Matthew 

Reighly, auditor; Joshua Hedges, treasurer; 

William Hackney, assessor; and Godfrey 

Wolford, John Long and John P. Hamilton, 

commissioners. 

Hancock County originally contained 

368,640 acres of land. When Wyandot County 

was organized in 1845, land in the southeast 

corner of Hancock County was given to its new 

neighbor, leaving a total of 339,840 acres. 


CHAPTER FOUR 

A N I NFLUX OF S ETTLERS & T HE D EVELOPMENT OF 

A GRICULTURE, 1828 TO 1860 

The middle years of the nineteenth century witnessed a trickle, then a steady flow of people 

migrating into Hancock County. As the population increased, the clearing of land and growth of 

agriculture grew proportionately. Schools and churches were established to serve the expanding 

number of residents, as were small industries and businesses. 

POPULATION 

GROWTH 

The 1830 census, the first taken in the county, showed a total of 813 persons, 52 of those in 

Findlay. The 1840 census illustrates the high rate of growth in the earliest years. The census takers 

recorded 9,986 persons in the county (1,100 percent increase) of whom 560 (977 percent more) 

lived in Findlay. 

The next decade saw another substantial jump in numbers, with 16,751 persons in the county in 

1850 (67 percent increase) and 1,256 (124.3 percent more) in Findlay. The growth rate slowed in 

the next ten years with the 1860 numbers recording 22,886 in the county (36.6 percent more) and 

2,467 in Findlay (96.4 percent increase). 

❖ 

The first county courthouse, after it 

was moved across the street and 

became a commercial building, is on 

the left, c. 1912. The brick building 

beyond is the Ohio Oil Company’s 

office building, which was constructed 

on the former site of the First 

Presbyterian Church about 1901. 



REMOVAL OF NORTHWEST OHIO’ S NATIVE AMERICANS 

Those rapidly rising numbers of whites moving into northwest Ohio in the 1830s did not bode well 

for native populations. Ohio had become a state in 1803. By 1830, the state’s population was 938,000. 

Chapter Four ✦ 13

❖ 

Right: A map of Hancock County with 

the forty-first parallel, townships, and 

ranges shown. 

FROM ACROSS THE YEARS IN FINDLAY AND 

HANCOCK COUNTY, 1965. 

Below: A map of northwest Ohio 

reservations, showing Big Spring 

Reservation (#171), 

1817-1832. 



In 1830, the Wyandot, Shawnee and Seneca 

reservations in Hancock and nearby counties 

had a total population of sixteen hundred. 

In addition to frequent warfare having 

killed Indians in the Great Lakes region, white 

diseases also took their toll. Smallpox and 

measles were the deadliest diseases with many 

others also fatal to many Native Americans. 

The hunger of whites for land to settle 

resulted in new treaties with Indians to move 

them farther west. Although some Shawnee and 

Seneca had already moved to Kansas, more 

intense pressure for removal was precipitated by 

the Indian Removal Act of 1830. 

The remaining Seneca and Shawnee agreed to 

move to Kansas in late July 1831. The Big 

Spring Reservation Wyandot gave up their 

reservation in 1832. They moved to the Grand 

Reserve at Upper Sandusky, which the tribe had 

great hopes of retaining indefinitely. The Ottawa 

resisted for a time, with the last formal removals 

in 1837 and 1839. 

The last tribe persuaded to leave Ohio was 

the Wyandot. After the first trip west to look at 

land in Kansas in 1838, they refused to move. 

They made another trip in 1842 and finally 

agreed to leave. They got the best deal of any 

tribe, including nearly the going rate for their 

Ohio reservation land, improvements, and a 

$17,500 annuity. 

CREATION OF TOWNSHIPS 

The Ohio Survey was completed in 1819- 

1820 after the first principal meridian was 

established. It began at the mouth of the 

Great Miami River and ran north on the 

boundary between Ohio and Indiana to the 

Michigan line. Running east and west is a 

baseline on the forty-first latitudinal parallel, 

dividing the county in half. 

Ranges are numbered to the east and 

west six miles apart beginning at the Indiana 

line, with Hancock County in Ranges 9-12 

East. Townships are numbered north and 

south, also six miles apart, from the forty-first 

parallel. Hancock County’s Townships are 1-2 

North and 1-2 South. These divisions 

made surveying and land descriptions easier. It 

also set the basis for the general size of 

townships organized within the county, usually 

six sections square. 

Soon after the separate organization of 

Hancock County in 1828, it was divided into 

three townships, Findlay, Amanda, and Welfare 

Townships. The latter two was where most of 


the settlers were located. In 1829, a petition 

from residents changed the name of Welfare 

Township to Delaware Township and Jackson 

Township was organized. 

Over the next twenty-one years, nineteen 

more townships would be organized (see maps) 

by the county commissioners, the last in 1850, 

although two were lost. Hancock County then 

consisted of a total of eighteen townships. It 

would remain so until 1888. In that year 

Findlay Township was dissolved, as the city 

had grown so large. What land lay outside 

Findlay was divided between Liberty and 

Marion Townships. 

MORE EARLY 

TOWNSHIP SETTLERS 

Other people continued to make their way 

into now newly organized Hancock County. The 

first physician and lawyer to inhabit Hancock 

County were Dr. Bass Rawson and Edson Goit. 

Dr. Rawson arrived in 1829 and covered a wide 

territory in his care of the county’s ill. William 

H. Baldwin was the second physician, arriving 

in 1832. 

Goit came to Findlay to practice law in 

1832, after teaching in Fremont and Tiffin. He 

traveled by foot to Findlay from Tiffin along 

Indian trails. 

Two groups of early settlers are of particular 

interest during this time. The “Shipwreck” 

Germans of Van Buren Township and the 

African-American settlement in Delaware 

Township both provide rather unique stories. 

A group of Germans from the Odenwald left 

the port of Bremen together on the British ship 

“James Beacham,” which they came to call the 

“Famous Dove,” in the summer of 1831. After a 

rather eventful trip coping with a drunken 

captain, they ran aground in a terrible storm off 

the coast of Virginia. Rescued by local residents, 

they gave thanks and swore to hold a 

Thanksgiving service every September 17, their 

rescue date, to celebrate their survival for a span 

of eleven generations. After three or four years 

in Pennsylvania earning money, many of them 

made their way to Van Buren Township in 

southwest Hancock County, the first arriving in 

1834. Many descendants still live in the area, 

and they, as well as many who return for the 

occasion, still have Thanksgiving services on the 

Sunday nearest September 17 (2006 was the 

175th such service). 

James, Charles, and Lloyd Ramsey, three 

African-American brothers from Brook County, 

Virginia (now West Virginia) and Jefferson 

County, Ohio, purchased land in Delaware 

Township in 1842. James was living on that 

land by the 1850 census and his brothers by the 

1860 census. All bought more land and 

extended their holdings. Married Ramsey 

children, as well as other black families, also 

❖ 

Above: Set of maps showing evolution 

of the creation of townships in 

Hancock County, 1828-1850. 



Below: Dr. Bass Rawson, first 

physician in Hancock County, 

c. 1885. 

FROM THE HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY, 1886. 

Chapter Four ✦ 15

EDUCATION 

❖ 

Above: A model of a ship similar to 

the Famous Dove, the ship that 

transported the “Shipwreck 

Germans,” in front of St. Paul’s 

Lutheran Church, near Jenera. 



Below: Tombstones of members of the 

extended Ramsey family, Earlywine 

Cemetery, Delaware Township. 



had farms in the area. A line of black-owned 

farms extended along both sides of what is now 

C.R.183 in Delaware Township in the late 

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

Charles’ death notice in a Findlay newspaper in 

August 1895 called him “one of the wealthiest 

colored men in Northern Ohio.” 

African Americans numbers were large 

enough around the turn of the century to have 

their own church and school. However, 

declining numbers led to the last family of 

children being students with white children at 

Earlywine School. The last of the Ramsey 

descendants lost their remaining property 

during the early years of the Depression in 1930 

and 1931 in sheriff’s sales. 

Many of the first public buildings erected in 

Hancock County were schools. Often the very 

earliest rural schools were conducted in people’s 

homes, followed by a community effort to build 

schools as the population increased. 

The early school buildings were rough-hewn 

log structures. As the population grew, so 

did the number of schools. More buildings 

also provided schools close enough to each 

student’s home to prevent a long daily round 

trip. As log schools were outgrown or 

deteriorated, and sawmills were established in 

the county, the next generation of structures was 

generally frame. 

Township trustees oversaw education in 

each township and dispersed the funds 

collected for educational purposes. The 

Northwest Ordinance, under which Ohio was 

organized, provided a section in each township 

to furnish funds for education. 

Each separate school district had its own 

three elected trustees to hire and fire teachers, 

maintain the building, and provide necessary 

supplies. Teachers, if they were not local 

residents, would board with families in the 

neighborhood. Often, teachers were not much 

older than some of their students. Originally, 

educational requirements to teach were 

minimal. Early teachers were often only 

graduates of a rural school themselves. 

One-room schools usually had a wide range 

of ages of students. The teacher worked with 

each level of student on a schedule throughout 

the day. While working with one level, other 

level students would either be doing their own 

schoolwork, or tutoring younger students. 

Schools were also a focus of community 

social life. School events and programs, at 

Christmas or the last day of school, for example, 

played a large role in the social life of the 

families it served. 

In Findlay, the “Yellow” School, named for its 

color, was built in 1840 at the corner of 

Crawford and East Streets, where the first log 

school had stood. In 1850, District No. 9, one of 

several small independent school districts in the 

community, built a school on West Hardin 

Street. Taylor School was built north of the 

Blanchard on North Main Street in 1860, at 


Brethrens. Others were Baptist, Lutheran, 

German Reformed, Evangelical, Disciples, and 

Christian Union. 

EARLY 

VILLAGES 

what is now Walnut Street, to accommodate 

children in that section of town. 

RELIGION & EARLY CHURCHES 

Churches were also among the first 

community buildings erected to provide for the 

spiritual life of local residents. Congregations 

often began in private homes or schools before a 

separate building was erected. The first 

churches in each township were most often 

built in the 1830s and 1840s, and were usually 

log structures. 

The first church in Findlay was a Methodist 

church on lot #145 of the original plat (219 E. 

Main Cross Street) in 1833. It was replaced by a 

frame church in 1837. 

The building of the first church outside 

Findlay was in 1836-37. Known as the 

“Dukes” church, for the family on whose 

land it was built, it was erected west of 

Findlay (at the southeast corner of C.R. 123 

and U.S. 224). 

Several denominations were predominant 

in the early years of the county, including 

Methodists, Presbyterians and United 

Several towns in the county were organized 

between 1828 and 1860. Some still exist and 

others have faded quietly into history, while 

some were only on paper. Other locales had 

post offices, but no town existed. 

Mt. Blanchard in Delaware Township has the 

distinction of being the oldest town in Hancock 

County outside Findlay. Platted in October 

1830, it obtained a post office in 1834 and was 

incorporated in 1865. 

John Gorsuch laid out the town of Risdon 

with a public square in early September 1832 

on the boundary line of Seneca and Hancock 

Counties. The 1840 population was thirty-nine. 

By 1848, the population was two hundred. After 

years of intense rivalry, Risdon combined with 

neighboring Rome to create Fostoria in 1854. 

Van Buren was laid out with a public square 

in the center in December 1833. Van Buren 

received a post office about 1836 and 

incorporated in June 1866. 

❖ 

Above: Title page of an arithmetic 

book published in 1860. 



Left: Title page of a reader published 

in 1865. 



Chapter Four ✦ 17

of Fremont, who was president of the Lake 

Erie and Western Railroad, languished until 

the rail line was finally built nearly twenty 

years later. 

The post office at West Independence was 

established in 1856, although the town was 

probably in existence before that. 

GOVERNMENT 

& POLITICS 

❖ 

Above: Dukes Church, the first church 

building outside Findlay, c. 1836. 



Below: First Presbyterian Church, 

northeast corner of South Main and 

Hardin Streets (1857-1901). 



Williamstown in southern Madison 

Township was platted in 1834 by John W. 

Williams. The post office in 1835 was called 

Eagle originally and changed to Williamstown 

in 1866. 

Benton, which later had Ridge added to the 

name to avoid confusion with another town, 

was platted in November 1835 in Blanchard 

Township. It obtained a post office in 1840 and 

was incorporated in 1875. 

Cannonsburg was platted in Union 

Township. It obtained a post office in 1841. 

In May 1847, Vanlue was platted with 44 lots 

by William Vanlue in Amanda Township. Fifty 

additional lots were platted in November. It 

acquired a post office in 1849 and incorporated 

in 1866. 

McComb was also organized in 1847 in 

Pleasant Township by Benjamin Todd, who 

originally named it Pleasantville. It also 

received a post office in 1847. In 1858, the 

town was incorporated and the name changed 

to McComb. 

In April 1853, North Liberty was created by 

J.F. Houck in Jackson Township. The post office 

was established in 1855-56, and the name 

changed to Houcktown for its founder. 

In November 1854, the village of Arlington was 

created by Robert Hurd in Madison Township. A 

post office had existed there since 1846. 

In July 1855, Arcadia was brought into being 

by David and Ambrose Peters in Washington 

Township. The Lake Erie and Western Railroad 

passed through the town in 1859 and boosted 

the local economy. The town incorporated and 

also established a post office the same year. 

Rawson was also founded in 1855 in Union 

Township. Rawson, named for L. Q. Rawson 

In the early years, the majority of voters in 

Hancock County generally voted for Democratic 

candidates for president and governor. For 

example, Democratic presidential candidates 

Andrew Jackson (1832), Martin Van Buren 

(1836), and Stephen A. Douglas (1860) all 

had more votes in the county than their 

respective opponents, Whig Henry Clay, Ohio’s 

own Whig William Henry Harrison, and 

Republican Abraham Lincoln. The Republican 

gubernatorial candidate won the first election 

within the county in 1828, but the next fifteen 

biennial elections for Ohio’s governor through 

1859 were won by Democrats in the county. 

Even the man who gave the county seat its 

name, James Findlay, was beaten badly (371- 

102) in 1834. 

In 1828 the newly elected officials 

had important decisions to make about the 

organization and facilities of local government. 

By July 1830 they decided to build a log jail on 


the Public Square, at the intersection of Main 

and Main Cross Streets. 

Court was held in the local school, but the 

increase in county business required a separate 

facility. In December 1831, the county 

commissioners advertised specifications to build a 

two-story frame courthouse 24’ feet by 36’. The 

building was constructed a block south of the 

current courthouse site, and completed in 1833. It 

was also rented as a school and for church during 

its official capacity, until being replaced in 1842. 

The second courthouse was a much more 

imposing brick edifice located on the site of the 

present courthouse. A contract was let in June 

1838 to John McCurdy, but it was not completed 

until late1842 at a final cost of about $11,000. 

A new brick and stone jail was built in 1852 

on West Main Cross between Broadway and 

Cory Streets. Built by Thomas McCrary, the 

contract was for $4,743. 

Creating roads and bridges was also part of 

the duty of the county commissioners. The 

earliest roads could barely be called that, more 

like blazed trails. However, “corduroy” roads 

were built, especially in wetter areas, with logs 

running across the width of the road. 

The bridges were rudimentary across smaller 

streams, if they existed at all. The first real 

bridge was built across the Blanchard in Findlay 

in 1843, a wooden trestle bridge. It was 

replaced in 1850 with a more substantial, 

covered, wooden bridge with stone abutments 

and piers, costing $1,500. 

In 1839 a small wooden bridge was erected 

over Eagle Creek, on what is now East Sandusky 

Street, at the cost of $10. In 1845 a total of 

$845 was expended to build bridges around 

the county. 

A cemetery along the banks of Eagle Creek 

had been used in Findlay since its early 

existence. In 1854 a private group created 

❖ 

Above: First jail, built in 1830 of logs, 

color postcard. 



Below: Second Hancock County 

Courthouse just before being razed 

to make way for the new 

courthouse, 1886. 



Chapter Four ✦ 19

❖ 

Above: A postcard of the second 

brick county jail built on West Main 

Cross Street. 



Below: South Main Street, Findlay, 

with the second courthouse tower 

visible at upper center and covered 

bridge at upper right. The photo was 

taken from the steeple of the First 

Presbyterian Church, c. 1868-70. 



Maple Grove Cemetery on West Main Cross 

Street and turned it over to the city in 1860. 

Eagle Creek Cemetery was abandoned and 

families were asked to move the graves of loved 

ones to the new graveyard. 

An old cemetery had been used in Fostoria 

since 1832 on a high spot where a branch of the 

Portage River curved to the west. However, in 

1856, the city created Fountain Cemetery on Van 

Buren Street. The remains from the old cemetery 

were moved to the new one. The hospital was 

later built on the old cemetery site. 

NATIONAL WAR & 

MILITARY SERVICE 

A handful of Hancock County residents served 

in the Mexican War in 1846. By the time Ohio’s 

call to arms reached sparsely settled Hancock 

County, the state’s quota for military volunteers 

was filled. A company of men recruited from 

Hancock and Putnam Counties was not needed 

for the war effort. However, perhaps a dozen men 

enlisted in other companies. 

Those local residents who served in the 

Mexcican War included Dr. William D. Carlin, 

Loami Farmer, Alvan Rose, Allen Royce, George 

Van Eman, and Jeremiah Yates. Dr. Carlin, son 

of Squire Carlin, was appointed assistant 

surgeon for the Fifteenth United States Regular 

Infantry in 1846, the youngest surgeon in the 

army (age twenty-four). 

AGRICULTURE 

Agriculture was, by far, the most predominant 

means of making a living in the county. The hard 

work of clearing land by hand, using the timber to 

build houses and farm buildings, was necessary 

before it was possible to cultivate the soil. 


Draining the marshy land of the Great 

Black Swamp in the north and other marshy 

areas of the Till Plains in the south was 

also a requisite to farming those areas. In 

the 1850s, ditching became an important task of 

the county’s government. 

Wheat and corn became the primary 

grain crops of the early settlers. Farm families 

also had vegetable gardens and orchards for 

fruit, apple trees being the most popular and 

surest producers. 

Apple trees were being grown in the 

county from the earliest years, due in part 

to the propagation of that fruit tree by 

John “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman. Now 

a man of legend, he was a real person 

who came west to spread the Christianity of 

his Swedenborgian religion and fruit trees. 

Chapman actually owned acreage in what is now 

Mt. Blanchard from 1834 to 1839 on which he 

grew apple trees. 

SOCIAL LIFE & RECREATION 

Much of the social and recreational life 

of citizens revolved around the work of 

agriculture, the schools and the church. With 

nearly everything done by hand, little 

leisure time was had, and work was turned 

into fun. Husking bees, threshing, quilting 

bees and the like were all part of rural life. 

Done together with families and neighbors, 

it was more quickly accomplished and a 

social occasion. House-raising and barn-raising 

were other group activities. The most skilled 

were assigned the corner notching, when 

building a log structure. 

The first Agricultural Society was formed 

in late 1851. The group held the first county 

fair in October of 1852 on the north side 

of the Blanchard River, west of Main Street 

on rented land. Fair Street is named for 

site. In 1859 the fairgrounds moved to just 

northeast of where Blanchard Street and 

Blanchard Avenue divide. The eight acres 

were purchased for $800 in 1859 and sold for 

$1,750 in 1867. 

In communities of any size, fraternal 

lodges began to organize in the 1840s and 

1850s for men of the town. In Findlay, 

Hancock Lodge No. 73 of the Independent 

Order of Odd Fellows was chartered in 

August 1846. The first meeting of Findlay 

Lodge No. 227 of the Free and Ancient 

Masons was in mid-January 1852. Early 1854 

was the beginning of the Findlay chapter of the 

Royal Arch Masons. Mt. Blanchard’s Odd 

Fellows Lodge began in 1858. 

EARLY BUSINESS & INDUSTRY 

William Taylor was one of the earliest 

businessmen to arrive in Findlay. Coming from 

Richland County in 1828, he opened the 

community’s second store on South Main and 

Main Cross Streets and also had a hotel. Taylor’s 

daughter Minerva later married another early 

merchant, Joseph S. Patterson, who founded his 

department store in 1849. Pattersons was to 

remain in business for more than 130 years at 

Sandusky and Main. 

By the mid-1830s, Findlay’s Main Street 

stretched four blocks from Front Street 

paralleling the river south to Back Street (now 

Sandusky Street), boundaries of the original 

plat. The businesses included the county’s 

first newspaper. The Democratic Courier 

was begun by Jacob Rosenberg in 1836, 

its successor newspaper still publishing. The 

second newspaper was established by 

John T. Ford in 1845. He called it the 

Western Herald and it reflected his devotion 

to the Whig party. By the late 1850s, it 

❖ 

A map of Eagle Creek and Maple 

Grove Cemetery locations. 



Chapter Four ✦ 21

mill outside Findlay was built by 

Godfrey Wolford on the Blanchard 

River near the center of Delaware 

Township in 1830. 

Some other early industry in 

Findlay included furniture maker 

Moses Bullock, 1855; Augustus 

Sheffield’s foundry and machine 

works, 1857; the Findlay Woolen 

Mill, 1858; Daniel Buck’s wagon 

and blacksmith shop in 1859; and 

Karr & Sprau’s wagon making and 

blacksmithing business in 1860. 


❖ 

Above: A map of fairground locations 

from the fiftieth anniversary booklet 

of the fair at its current site, 1988. 



Below: Pattersons Store with 

employees posed in front, c. 1880. 



had evolved through about six owners to 

become the Hancock Jeffersonian. 

In addition to the mills developed in Findlay, 

several were built around the county to serve 

the rural and small town populations grinding 

grain into flour and cutting timber into useable 

lumber. Using waterpower, they were located 

along the river and larger streams. The first flour 

The earliest means of transportation 

in the newly formed county were by 

water, by foot and by four-footed 

animal. As roads became more than 

trails, wagon travel was made easier. 

A more public means of transportation 

came with the railroads. In 

March 1845, a general vote was taken 

on whether to subscribe to the capital 

stock of the Mad River and Lake Erie 

Railroad between Findlay and Carey. The 

majority voted yes, and the commissioners 

pledged a total of $75,000 later that year. It was 

not until 1849 it finally operated. 

In the mid-1850s, the Fremont and Indiana 

Railroad was chartered to pass through Findlay 

and Lima. The road was not completed to Findlay 

until 1861. After many difficulties, it evolved into 

the profitable Lake Erie and Western. 

Another “railroad” was in operation in the 

county in the 1850s—a railroad that had no cars 

or rails—the “Underground Railroad.” What it 

did have was “passengers,” “conductors,” 

“agents” and “stations.” The Underground 

Railroad was the means by which slaves from 

the South, escaped to freedom in Canada. One 

route went right through the middle of Hancock 

County. A few were actively involved in caring 

for and transporting slaves from station to 

station, others gave money for food and 

supplies. From Williamstown to north of 

Findlay, at least three stations at the residences 

of John A. Woods, Francis Bartley, and John 

King could be relied upon to provide safe haven 

until the next station in Wood County. 


CHAPTER FIVE 

T HE C IVIL W AR E RA & AFTERMATH, 1861 TO 1880 

The first half of the 1860s was a tumultuous and tragic time in the nation. Divisions between the 

North and the South, relating to states’ rights and slavery, had been festering for years. The final 

divide came with the attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861 and the secession of the Southern states. 

While some Ohio residents, including some in Hancock County, sympathized with the South, the 

state and the county were a bulwark of the Union cause. Ohio provided more military men (and a 

few disguised women) per capita than any other state in the Union. Hancock County furnished about 

three thousand to the military. 

A large public rally took place on April 18, 1861, at the courthouse with another, even 

larger, gathering on April 23. Numerous speakers rallied the crowd in support of the Union. A 

band played many patriotic numbers with choruses sung by the crowd. Three companies had already 

been raised. 

The companies were A, F, and G in the Twenty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, commanded by 

Colonel Jesse Norton and Lieutenant Colonel James M. Neibling, the latter having served in the 

Mexican War and was county sheriff (1856-60). Flags were presented to each company by ladies of 

Findlay. Originally formed for ninety days, when the duration of the war was expected to be short, 

they marched to “Camp Neibling” at the fairgrounds. After their ninety-day service, when it became 

apparent the war was going to drag on, the Twenty-first re-organized for three years’ service. “Camp 

Vance” was developed as a place for local units to organize and drill before leaving for service. It was 

located on the south side of the Blanchard River, across from present Riverside Park. 

Other units with large contingents of Hancock County residents included the 49th, 57th, 65th, 

82nd, 99th, 118th, 133rd, 134th, 161st, and 192nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry regiments, the Second 

Independent Company of the Ohio Volunteer Sharpshooters (which became part of the 66th Illinois 

❖ 

The railroad depot in Vanlue, Ohio, c. 

1895. Standing at the side of the track 

is Jerry Snook and at the end of the 

depot is Ol Fickle. The barn at back 

was part of Hendricks Hay & Wool. 

Arriving is Locomotive #228, built in 

1888, of the Cleveland, Columbus, 

Cincinnati and St. Louis (Big Four) 

Railroad, acquired in 1905 by the 

New York Central. 



Chapter Five ✦ 23

Volunteer Infantry), and the First Regiment, 

Ohio Volunteer Heavy Artillery. A smattering of 

residents also served in a number of other units. 

Roughly 450 from the county are listed as 

killed, about 175 from the Twenty-first alone, by 

wounds or disease, a 15 percent mortality rate. 

Disease actually killed more soldiers than battle. 

Many came home maimed by the loss of limbs 

and other wounds. 

Four members of the Twenty-first volunteered 

for a special assignment, which has become 

known as the Andrews’ Raid. They were William 

Bensinger, John Reed Porter, John Scott, and 

Wilson W. Brown. It was an attempt by a group 

of twenty-two to steal the Southern locomotive 

“The General” in Georgia and take it north 

through Tennessee. The plan was to stop and 

burn railroad bridges, take up track and destroy 

telegraph lines, disrupting transportation 

and communication. However, due to the 

indefatigable engineer of The General and other 

Southerners in chase, the Union group was 

captured. Eight escaped, six were exchanged, and 

eight, including John Scott, were hung in Atlanta. 

Citizens on the home front supported the 

war effort in a number of ways. Women joined 

the local Ladies’ Aid Society or Women’s Relief 

Corps to provide bandages, socks, blankets and 

other useful items for their military men. 

When an invasion of Ohio and an attack on 

Cincinnati seemed imminent, a number of 

Hancock County residents answered the call of 

Governor Tod to defend their state. The 

“squirrel hunters,” so called because many came 

armed with their squirrel rifles, swarmed to 

Cincinnati. They returned home without a fight 

when the invasion never materialized. 

After a bloody four years, the war finally 

ground to a halt, with great rejoicing throughout 

the North, including Hancock County. The joy 

quickly turned to grief with the assassination of 

the nation’s president. 

Most veterans of the war organized and 

joined local posts of the Grand Army of the 

Republic. Reunions of specific units and 

encampments of the G.A.R. were an annual 

occasion until too few old soldiers remained to 

hold them. Several reunions of local regiments 

and a state encampment or two were held in 

Findlay and Hancock County. John Hart was the 

last of Hancock County’s soldiers to die. He 

lived until the age of 102, dying in 1945 (80 

years after the war’s end). 

POPULATION 

Growth was slow in the county in the 1860s 

and 1870s. The 1870 census showed a total 

county population of 23,847, only about 1,000 

more (4% higher) than 1860. However, Findlay’s 

1870 count of 3,315 was about a third more than 

in 1860. In 1880 the county had 27,784 (17% 

increase) and Findlay 4,633 (40% increase). 


The period between 1860 and 

1880 was a time when the 

percentage of immigrants living in 

Hancock County was at its highest in 

many areas of the county. The 

immigrant population was never a 

very high one, except in specific 

areas. Van Buren Township, with its 

“shipwreck” German population had 

just over 22 percent of its population 

immigrants in 1850, which had 

dropped to 11.8 percent in 1880. 

The only other areas to go into 

double digits were Findlay, with 

16.2 percent in 1860, down to 7.1 percent in 

1880. The town of Van Buren had a high of 11.5 

percent in 1880, dropping to a mere 2.7 percent 

by 1900. The next highest percentages were in 

the eight percent ranges in Madison and 

Washington Townships. 

By far, the largest group among immigrants 

were German and German-speaking Swiss, with 

about two-thirds of the total. The Irish and 

English were next. Even smaller numbers of 

French, Canadians and Italians were also 

represented. The percentages in the county did 

reflect changes in the national immigrant 

population. Early immigrants were most 

often from northern and western Europe, while 

later newcomers were from southern and 

eastern Europe. 

EDUCATION 

More rural schools were built during this 

period to accommodate a larger rural 

population. Most of the schools were probably 

frame, with brick construction just beginning a 

wide popularity within the county, although 

schools in the south central county remained 

mostly frame. 

In Findlay, Union School was built in 1868 

on East Sandusky Street. The school had 

students of all grade levels, including the first 

high school students to graduate in 1873. The 

Yellow School was moved to the west end of 

Crawford Street at Liberty Street in 1868. 

In Fostoria, Reverend Turner of the First 

Presbyterian Church established a select high 

school for male students in 1859. When the 

Civil War broke out, Reverend Turner left to 

serve in the war, nearly all his students 

following his lead. At war’s end, he did not 

return to the school. 

The Northwestern Normal School was 

opened in Fostoria in the early 1870s. Plagued 

by financial problems, it soon closed its doors. 

Fostoria citizens then turned to the United 

Brethren Church for help in founding an 

institution of higher learning in the community. 

They petitioned the church in 1876 and were 

given approval, provided they raised the funds 

for the land and building. Charles Foster 

donated four acres and the residents raised 

$22,000 for a building. Fostoria Academy 

opened at the west end of College Street in 

1879. The church was to furnish a $100,000 

endowment fund. Only $15,000 was raised, not 

boding well for the school’s future. 

❖ 

Opposite, top: A drawing of Godfrey 

Wolford’s mill, Delaware Township, 

c. 1874. 

FROM H.H. HARDESTY’S ATLAS OF HANCOCK 

COUNTY, OHIO. 

Opposite, bottom: Underground 

Railroad conductors Joel Merkel, 

Robert B. Hurd, and David Adams, 

the latter a free black man, who had 

come to Findlay in 1848. Adams was 

a long-time barber and well-respected 

citizen of Findlay, with descendants 

still in the community. 



Above: Reunion of Andrews’ Raiders, 

from left, John Porter, William 

Bensinger, Wilson Brown, and 

William Knight at McComb home of 

Capt. Isaac Cusac of the Twenty-first 

O.V.I., 1911. 



Below: Colonel William Mungen was 

commissioned the first colonel of the 

Fifty-seventh O.V.I. after recruiting 

many of its members. He had been 

publisher and editor of the Hancock 

Courier (1845-51), county auditor 

(1846-50), and an attorney since 

1852. After the war, he was elected to 

two terms as a Democrat to the U.S. 

Congress (1867-71). 



Chapter Five ✦ 25

❖ 

Above: David Ross Locke, editor of the 

Hancock Jeffersonian, reportedly 

became upset at a local resident’s 

support of a call for all African- 

Americans to be removed from Ohio. 

He began a series of satirical letters in 

his newspaper he attributed to an 

illiterate Southern sympathizer named 

“Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby.” The 

letters came to the attention of 

President Abraham Lincoln, who 

enjoyed their sly humor and sometimes 

brought them out to show visitors. 



Top, right: Independent District #9 

School, later Gray School as part of 

Findlay Public Schools, c. 1900. 



Left: The Hancock County Jail and 

Sheriff’s Residence was built in 1879 at 

the northeast corner of West Main 

Cross and South Cory Streets. For 

years, the sheriff and his family lived 

in the building and the prisoners’ meals 

were cooked by the sheriff’s wife. It was 

one of the oldest jails still used as a 

jail, when it was replaced in the mid- 

1980 with a modern building a block 

south and razed. Seen are street signs 

nailed to the tree to the right. Park 

Place was later renamed Broadway. 



GOVERNMENT 

& POLITICS 

Politically, the county remained tipped 

toward the Democratic Party. In the 

presidential elections, even with strong 

support for the Union effort during the 

Civil War, local voters chose George 

McClellan over Abraham Lincoln in 1864. 

Ohio native U. S. Grant was defeated 

locally by Democrats Horatio Seymour in 

1868 and Horace Greeley in 1872. The 

same held true for Ohio Republicans 

Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, and James A. 

Garfield in 1880. 

In gubernatorial races, the Democrats 

won over Republican candidates in every 

biennial race between 1861 and 1879, except in 

1863. That year Democrat Clement L. 

Vallandigham lost to Republican John Brough 

by nineteen votes. Born in Lisbon, Ohio, 

Vallandigham was a Cincinnati lawyer, 

newspaperman, and Ohio legislator. He 

was in the U.S. House, 1856-61, on a 

platform expressing anti-war sentiments 

and sympathy for the states’ rights of 

the secessionist states. He was court-martialed 

in 1863, convicted for his incendiary rhetoric 

as leader of the “Copperheads” in Ohio, and 

exiled to Tennessee. He made his way to 

Canada and ran for Ohio governor in 1863 

from a hotel in Windsor, Ontario. He lost 

by a landslide vote. His close vote in 

Hancock County shows either strong loyalty to 

the Democratic Party locally, anti-war 

sentiment, or a combination of both. 


AGRICULTURE, 

BUSINESS & INDUSTRY 

Agriculture remained as the main 

economic force in the county. Corn and 

wheat continued to be the top grains raised. In 

1860, Hancock County had large numbers 

of hogs, sheep, beef cattle, and dairy cows. The 

livestock totaled about four times the human 

population. In 1880 most of those livestock 

numbers were even higher, nearly six times the 

human population. 

Tiling, installing cylindrical clay piping 

underground, was begun in the 1870s. It proved 

very successful in draining water off low lying 

land into the ditches that were already part of 

local attempts to drain the Great Black Swamp. 

The county fair moved to another site during 

this time. From the location at the corner of 

Blanchard Street and Blanchard Avenue, it 

moved in 1868 to a twenty-nine-acre plot on the 

west side of South Main Street, straddling what 

is now West McPherson. Additional acreage was 

purchased making the total thirty-five. 

Some of the businesses established in Findlay 

during the 1860s and 1870s included the First 

National Bank (1863), Findlay Planing Mill 

(1864), Findlay Linseed Oil Mill (1865), 

Findlay Flax Mill (1870), Eagle Foundry and 

Machine Shop (1871), Findlay Gas Light 

Company (1871), Findlay Stave and Handle 

Factory (1872), Findlay Rake factory (1875), 

Ruhl’s Saddlery (1876), and Findlay Carriage 

Bent Works (1879). 

RURAL TOWNS & VILLAGES 

Many of the smaller towns in Hancock County 

also saw growth in population, in business and in 

some light industry. In 1880, a number were 

prosperous, vigorous communities. 

The Odd Fellows founded a lodge in 

Arcadia in July 1874. By 1880 the village 

included seven merchants, two hotels, three 

blacksmiths, two each wagon, shoe, and cabinet 

shops, cooper shop, bakery, restaurant, tin 

shop, flouring mill, handle factory, and sawmill, 

as well as three churches, and a school, four 

physicians and a lawyer. 

By 1880, Arlington had a wagon and 

carriage shop, blacksmith shop, steam saw 

and planing mill, shoe shop, pump factory, 

two dry goods and grocery stores, a drug 

store kept by the town doctor, tile factory, and 

two saloons. 

Benton’s population in 1880 was 189. Those 

citizens were served by a school, two churches, 

five stores, saloon, wagon, blacksmith and 

cabinet shops, plow factory, hotel, flour mill, 

sawmill, and two doctors. 

Cannonsburg’s remaining ninety citizens 

were bypassed by the railroad by 1880. They 

were served by a general store, sawmill, wagon 

and blacksmith shops, and undertaker. 

Cory was established in November 1872 in 

Union Township on the Lake Erie and Western 

Railroad. Its post office was founded in 1873 

and the town renamed Mt. Cory. By 1880 it had 

260 residents, a school, two churches, five 

stores, pump factory, wagon and carriage shop, 

blacksmith shop, flour mill, sawmill, handle 

factory, undertaker, furniture maker, and 

one physician. 

Houcktown contained a grocery store, 

wagon, blacksmith, and shoe shops, and a saw 

and shingle shop, church, school and one 

physician in 1880. 

In 1880 the thriving village of McComb had 

a population second only to Findlay. Businesses 

included thirteen stores, two harness shops, 

four blacksmith shops, gunsmith, two wagon 

and carriage shops, two saw mills, steam 

flouring mill, two shoe shops, an undertaker, 

livery stable, pump factory, two hotels, five 

❖ 

Men are shown working on Main 

Street near the corner with Crawford. 

They are citizens working off the road 

tax they had been assessed by the 

county, c. 1866. 



Chapter Five ✦ 27

❖ 

Above: Main Street, McComb, Ohio, 

1910. Two early autos can be seen, as 

well as two horses at the center back. 

To the left are hardware, drug and 

wallpaper stores, as well as a livery 

and feed store. To the right, a hotel 

and undertakers. 



Below: A. E. Brunner, an early 

Findlay telephone operator, c. 1884. 



physicians, an attorney, and a newspaper, the 

McComb Herald, in addition to three churches 

and a school. 

Mt. Blanchard had a church, a school, seven 

stores, saloon, hotel, three blacksmiths, two 

wagon shops, and a butcher shop for an 1880 

population of 286. 

Rawson’s post office was established in 1863 

and an Odd Fellows lodge in 1875. Two 

church buildings, plus a third congregation 

using an existing church, grain warehouse, five 

stores, flouring mill, lumber and planing mill, 

saw and shingle mill and handle factory, two 

blacksmiths, and a shoemaker were operating 

by 1880 for a population of 227 

Van Buren, in 1880, had two stores, a saloon, 

steam sawmill, three blacksmith shops, wagon 

shop, three churches, and a physician serving 

130 residents. 

In 1880 the population of Vanlue was 364. It 

was home to five stores, three saloons, hotel, 

harness shop, tin shop, three boot and shoe 

shops, two barbers, three dressmaker and 

milliner shops, two blacksmith shops, a steam 

grist mill, two steam sawmills, two handle 

factories, two planing mills, three churches, a 

school, and a railroad. 

West Independence included, in 1880, two 

churches, school house, hotel, grocery store, 

sawmill, two shoe shops, blacksmith and wagon 

shop, and a physician for a population of 134. 

RECREATION & SOCIAL LIFE 

Baseball became a popular sport during this 

time. The rules of nineteenth century baseball 

were considerably different than present rules. 

The Davis Opera House was built at 212-14 

South Main Street in Findlay about 1876. It 

provided a respectable venue for quality 

entertainment by traveling troupes and for 

local productions. 

COMMUNICATIONS 


& 

Roads were improving in the county in the 

1870s. Farmers, who had been reluctant to pay 

the taxes to improve roads, now supported 

building them as they sought more effective 

means of moving their agricultural products. 

The telegraph came to the county with the 

first Western Union line in 1863 from Fremont. 

It was not extended beyond Findlay until a line 

was built to Lima in 1878. 

The first telephones followed in 1880 

with the Findlay Telephone Exchange 

Company in Findlay. Owner Samuel D. Houpt 

installed eighty-two telephones before selling 

out to Midland Telephone of Chicago two years 

later. Midland abandoned Findlay in early 

1884, never dreaming about the boom soon to 

hit the area. 


CHAPTER SIX 

T HE B OOM E RA, 1881 TO 1903 

The first years of the decade of the 1880s passed relatively quietly. However life in Findlay and 

Hancock County was soon to change radically and reach a crescendo of activity that has not been 

rivaled since. The natural gas and oil boom was poised on the horizon. 

It was late 1884 when Dr. Charles Oesterlen finally convinced a small group of local men to invest 

in a test well. Gas had been known for some time. Often a water well resulted in bad tasting water 

and fumes. A few had even harnessed the gas for use in their household for light and heat, including 

dentist Jacob Carr. In spite of such evidence, the state geologist Dr. Orton had been saying for some 

time no large stores of natural gas existed. 

Dr. Oesterlen was certain they did exist. The test well, dug on his farm (now the county 

fairgrounds), hit gas and oil at several levels in December 1884. The first strike, ironically, came on 

the day Dr. Orton was to address a public meeting in Findlay reiterating his theories about the lack 

of natural gas in the area. 

Soon many local residents jumped on the bandwagon and began drilling their own wells. The 

“lucky” thirteenth well drilled came to be known as “The Great Karg” well after the family on whose 

property along the river it came in on January 20, 1886. Varying figures are given for its production, 

from 5 million to 20 million cubic feet per day, and it was claimed to be the largest natural gas well 

in the world at that time. It took four months to get it under control, burning the whole time. The 

state geologist later estimated that 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas were wasted at the Karg Well alone. It 

was to be eclipsed by the Tippecanoe well (an incredible thirty million cubic feet), but the Karg set 

the tone and the boom was truly on. 

❖ 

The early lighting of South Main 

Street in Findlay with flames from 

standing pipes as published by 

Harpers Weekly in 1885. The steeple 

of the second courthouse can be seen 

at left center. The drawing was made 

by Charles Graham based on 

photographs by long-time local 

photographers Frederick Zay and 

Albert Crozier & Albert Linaweaver. 



Chapter Six ✦ 29

“ BOOMING” FINDLAY 

❖ 

Above: Dr. Charles Oesterlen (1807- 

1889), German immigrant physician, 

who was the catalyst for the first test 

well for natural gas in late 1884. 



Below: The river never froze next to 

the Karg Well, and the grass remained 

green in the winter. It was often lit for 

sightseers; the waste was colossal. The 

Karg’s light was seen for nine to 

sixteen miles, and its roar heard for 

five miles. A reporter for The Toledo 

News Bee wrote, “The scene is one of 

indescribable grandeur.” 



The city organized a chamber of commerce 

and hired a promoter, C. C. Howell. 

Manufacturing companies were offered free land 

and gas to move to Findlay. It was Howell’s idea 

to hold a “First Anniversary of the Industrial 

Application of Natural Gas” in June 1887, to 

commemorate the first use of gas by the Briggs 

Tool Company on June 8, 1886. The three-day 

celebration attracted people on excursion trains 

from all over Ohio and the Midwest. 

Houses along South Main Street were 

decorated with gas lights, bunting, flags, 

evergreen and flowers. A temporary convention 

center called the Wigwam was built on the 

south side of the Blanchard. Parades, concerts, 

drill competitions, baseball, tours of new 

factories and cornerstone laying at plants to be 

built—all were part of the event. 

To read the newspapers from that time is to get 

a glimpse into a truly amazing period in local 

history. People poured into Findlay taxing all 

hotels and boarding houses beyond their capacity, 

with people in cots in the hallways and sharing 

beds in shifts. The population nearly quadrupled 

from 4,600 to 18,000 in less than two years. The 

city grew from four square miles to 24 square 

miles. Investors and speculators flooded the 

county, looking for property on which to drill 

wells or build speculative residences. Even Sen. 

John Sherman of Ohio invested in residential 

property, a neighborhood still known today as 

“Sherman Park.” Other investors were from 

Chicago, California, New York City, Boston, 

Baltimore, and many places in between. 

RESULTS OF THE “ BOOM” 

Houses, businesses and factories were built at 

a dizzying pace. Citizens complained that the 

streets were impassable, due to stacked 

construction supplies. That was in addition to 

gas pipelines lining streets, built in too big a 

hurry to bury. 

A new courthouse was begun in 1886 and 

dedicated in 1888. The new wealth funded many, 

beautiful large homes still located on South Main 

Street in Findlay in a myriad of architectural 

styles of the era. Many of the large commercial 

buildings on Main Street were erected. Nine new 

schools were built in two years, and four enlarged 

the third year to accommodate all the children. 

A new city water system was installed in 

place of individual wells. A new building 

numbering system was established in 1888 to 

assist the first local home delivery of mail after 

the post office ran out of boxes. Streetcars were 


installed for the first time in 1887, originally 

horse-drawn and converted to electricity in 

1891, after electricity came to the city in 1890. 

Main thoroughfares began being paved with 

brick in 1890. A new iron trestle bridge was 

built over the Blanchard on Main Street in 1889 

with tracks to accommodate streetcars. Trunk 

rail lines were built to most of the factories to 

facilitate transporting their goods. Other 

railroads built lines through the county. In 

1888, a larger police force of sixteen men, a 

chief and assistant chief was established. A paid 

fire department was also formed, replacing the 

volunteer department. 

The other side of the coin was a higher crime 

rate. Bar fights, street fights, and public 

drunkenness became more common. Burglars 

and pickpockets proliferated. Prostitution 

increased. Abuse within families was more 

pervasive. The only lynching in Findlay came in 

late March 1891 after a man was arrested for 

hacking his wife and two daughters to death. He 

was removed from the jail by a mob and taken 

to the Main Street bridge and hung. 

But all that seemed a small price to pay for 

the incredible economic boom that pervaded 

the entire area, including surrounding counties. 

The goods manufactured ranged from typewriters 

to tables to tools, bricks to beer to 

barrels, nails to novelties, and, best remembered 

now, glass—glass tableware, lantern chimneys, 

windows, bottles and novelty items. 

The first factory to produce glass was the 

Findlay Window Glass Company, which operated 

from September 1888 to May 1908. In its 

existence, it experienced three fires and five 

owners. The glass tableware, made by Bellaire 

Goblet (1888-92), Columbia Glass (1886-92), 

Dalzell, Gilmore & Leighton (1888-1901), Findlay 

Flint (1889-91), and Model Flint (1888-93) 

Companies and collectively called “Findlay Glass,” 

is now highly collectible. At its height (August 

1889-June 1891), the glass industry in Findlay 

included 16 factories and employed 2,435 men, 

women and boys. For a short time, Findlay was 

second only to Pittsburgh in glass production. 

Stories about Findlay’s economic boom and the 

opportunities to be found were printed in national 

publications, such as the New York Herald, Harpers 

Weekly, and the American Magazine. Stories were 

accompanied by engravings of Main Street during 

the 1887 celebration. 

❖ 

Left: A daytime view of some of the 

fifty-eight arches, with five gas lights 

and a promotional banner each, 

which stood grandly along South 

Main Street in Findlay from the 

bridge south to Lincoln Street for the 

first anniversary of gas celebration, 

June 1887. One banner said “Women 

Split No Wood in Findlay.” A partially 

constructed new courthouse can be at 

center with a wall around the 

construction site. The photo would 

have been taken from the steeple of 

the First Presbyterian Church. 

Frederick Zay was the photographer. 



Below: The Wigwam along the river 

was fronted by the statue of three 

women signifying “Law, Justice and 

Mercy” to be installed on the new 

courthouse. During the 1887 

celebration the Wigwam was the site 

of a celebration dinner for one 

thousand influential people with florid 

speeches, followed by a ball that went 

on until dawn. 

Chapter Six ✦ 31

Census figures reflect the tremendous growth 

of the boom and the stagnation after. The 1880 

figures of 4,633 in Findlay and 27,784 in 

Hancock County offer an amazing contrast to the 

1890 numbers of 18,553 for Findlay and 42,563 

for Hancock County. Some smaller towns also 

showed significant increases, such as Van Buren, 

Benton Ridge, McComb, Mt. Cory and Rawson. 

In 1900 a slight decrease is shown with 17,613 

people counted in Findlay and 41,993 in 

Hancock County. Those numbers did not 

significantly change until the post-WWII years. 

THE OIL INDUSTRY 

THE END OF THE BOOM 

In the euphoria created by the boom, many 

thought the gas would never run out. Gas lights 

and gas wells were burning day and night. If rooms 

became too hot, windows were opened to cool 

them down. However, the extravagant waste led to 

the depletion of the natural gas relatively quickly. 

Factories that had been attracted by free or 

inexpensive gas had to refit for another fuel or 

left the city for the next boom area. By the turn 

of the century, few of the factories remained. 

The last glass factory left in 1908. 

What remained was the petroleum industry. 

Along with natural gas, oil had been found. 

Several of the wells drilled in the 1880s 

produced oil, rather than gas. The first well 

considered an oil well was the Mathias well. 

When the natural gas was depleted, the 

petroleum industry helped sustain the economy 

through the economic downturn. 

The Ohio Oil Company made Findlay its 

headquarters. The company (now Marathon 

Petroleum Company) was housed in a downtown 

commercial building for many years. The company 

bought the property on the northeast corner of 

South Main and Hardin Streets and built their own 

office building in 1906. It was replaced in the late 

1920s with a much more imposing building, added 

onto several times in ensuing years. It continues to 

be the company’s headquarters. 

The company was led by James C. Donnell 

(1854-1927), succeeded by his son Otto (1883- 

1961), then his grandson John C Donnell II 

(1910-84). The Donnell family made many 

contributions to the community over the years, 

including the land for Donnell Middle School 

and Donnell Stadium. 

Other companies tied to the oil industry also 

continued beyond the gas boom. Many 

nitroglycerin manufacturers, torpedo makers, 

drilling and pumping equipment companies, and 

lumber dealers, for example, stayed in business. 

FOSTORIA & THE BOOM ERA 

Fostoria had its own boom, as did many area 

communities, although none to the degree 

Findlay did. Fostoria’s total population grew 


from about 4,000 to 8,000. The city also 

attracted a number of new industries, several of 

them glass factories, three of which were located 

in the Hancock County portion of town 

(roughly the west one-third). 

The Fostoria Glass Company arrived in 1888 

and built a factory near the rail lines in 

southwest Fostoria. The plant soon had 150 

employees. Ironically, the company only stayed 

until 1891, but kept the Fostoria name. 

It was immediately replaced by the 

Seneca Glass Company in the same factory. 

Seneca Glass produced blown lead glass for 

table and bar use. It was in operation from 1891 

to 1896, when dwindling fuel resulted in the 

company’s departure. 

The Fostoria Lamp and Shade Company 

occupied a location nearby. It was managed 

by Nicholas Kopp, Jr., who designed patterns 

and used overlay methods in a variety of colors. 

The company operated in Fostoria from 1890 

to 1895. 

As in Findlay, most of the skilled glass workers 

in all the factories were from Belgium, France 

and Austria. Young boys from 10 to 

16 were employed doing the less 

skilled labor. In both Fostoria and 

Findlay, orphaned boys from the 

East were brought in to work in the 

glass factories. 

Isaac Harter’s flour mill was also 

located in the same general area in 

Fostoria, along with Fostoria Stave 

and Barrel, Cunningham & 

Company’s Fostoria Spoke and Bent 

Works, Bevington Signal Company 

and Newhouse, Sprout & Company 

sawmill. Within a year or two, L. G. & E. T Smith 

Handle Factory and R. A. Hale & Co. Steam 

Laundry were added to the neighborhood. Within 

another five years, the city built waterworks in the 

area. Brought to the area by the city reservoir was 

the Kibble & Riley Ice House. The Bevington 

Signal Company soon became the Western 

Torpedo Works, producing railroad signals. 

AGRICULTURE 

The crops and livestock produced by the 

county’s farmers also helped maintain a viable 

economic base for Hancock County both during 

and after the boom. In 1900, Hancock County 

had 3,263 farms. Corn, wheat and oats were still 

the top grains grown. Total livestock production 

was at its peak in 1900. Hogs numbered nearly 

68,000, with almost 62,000 sheep, over 29,300 

beef cattle, and 10,400 dairy cows. Livestock 

production outweighed grain production by 

about three to one. 

A fourth location for the county fair was 

purchased in 1891 after an offer of $26,600 for 

❖ 

Opposite, top: The newly completed 

third Hancock County Courthouse, 

still in use, as it appeared in 1888. 

John Hancock stands on the clock 

tower at center and the three muses 

“Law, Justice and Mercy” are below 

him. The “Boy with the Leaky Boot” 

drinking fountain is barely visible 

behind a man and a lamp post at 

lower center. “Venus Rising,” a 

decorative fountain, had not yet been 

installed to the right. 



Opposite, bottom: One of many 

beautiful homes built during the gas 

boom period is the Charles Bigelow 

home on North Main Street on 

Bigelow Hill. It has a mirror twin on 

Hurd Street. The homes include a 

wide variety of styles, colors and 

materials. 



Above: Possibly patrol driver Franklin 

P. Milhuff with a Findlay Police 

Department patrol wagon and team. 

Photo was taken by Albert M. 

Ketchum, c. 1892. 



Below: Findlay interurban streetcar 

#23 at the Main Street Bridge. A 

stenciled sign to the right front 

indicates the streetcar carried mail, as 

well as passengers, c. 1890. 



Chapter Six ✦ 33

the previous site was too good to be refused. 

The new site was one mile directly south and 

encompassed an area from South Main Street 

west to Western Avenue on either side of what is 

now Blue Bonnet Drive. The 70 acres, 

purchased for $10,500 from Jasper Hull, was 

soon improved with trees and buildings. 

BUSINESS 

❖ 

Above: James C. Donnell (1854- 

1927), early president of Ohio (now 

Marathon) Oil Company, c. 1920. 



Below: The Mathias oil well, the first 

official oil well drilled during the 

natural gas boom era, was located 

where West Main Cross Street now 

passes over Interstate 75. It was shot 

with 100 quarts of nitroglycerin and 

flowed at 300 barrels a day. Oilmen 

flocked from Pennsylvania shortly 

thereafter and an oil boom joined with 

the gas boom. c. 1885. 



Local businesses thrived during the boom era. 

Many new businesses, as well as manufacturing 

enterprises, were begun during the late 1880s, a 

few of which still exist today (2006). Rieck’s is a 

fourth generation business downtown, which 

began as a paint and wallpaper store. The 

Hancock Brick and Tile Company, which made 

pressed brick and tile for drainage, is now 

known as Hancor and makes plastic drainage 

pipe. The Ohio Bank, now Sky Bank, and 

Kennedy Printing also date to the boom era. 

The American Mask Company, started by 

German immigrants from Cincinnati during 

the boom, created its festive products on West 

Main Cross Street until the late 1950s. For a 

time, it was the only factory of its kind in 

the country. 

Located a block east, the Adams Brothers 

evolved from producing boilers, engines, 

pumps and tools for the oil fields in 1891 to a 

truck manufacturing business in the 1910s. 

They also briefly built a few cars in 1912-13. 

Neither trucks nor cars sold very well, so they 

settled on fabricating axles for other companies 

producing cars, trucks and tractors until the 

mid-1920s. 


A telephone franchise was granted to 

Charles Williams and associates by the city 


council in 1885. Ulysses K. Stringfellow 

became manager and owner until selling 

to the Central Union Telephone Company in 

1888. Long distance service to Lima began in 

1889, followed by other cities. An independent 

company began around 1900, known as 

Ohio State Telephone and later Home 

Telephone. The two systems operated separately 

until the 1920s, when Central took over the 

smaller company. 

EDUCATION 

The public school population grew from 

about 1,000 to 3,000 in Findlay during the ten 

years from 1887 to 1897. Adams, Bigelow, 

Blanchard, Detweiler, Firmin, Howard, McKee, 

Paxon, and Strother Schools were all built in 

1887 and 1888 and four of them enlarged in 

1889 to accommodate the increase. Old District 

No. 9, which had remained independent after 

Findlay Public Schools were established in 1858, 

was forced by lawsuit to join the public schools. 

The #9 school on Lincoln Street was renamed 

Gray School and served the community to 1916. 

High school students had been educated on 

the third floor of the old Union School on East 

Sandusky Street for nearly thirty years, when 

Findlay finally built a separate high school. 

Located on the northwest corner of West Main 

Cross and Cory Streets, it opened in the fall 1901. 

That was also the year Findlay High School had 

such an outstanding football team, it actually not 

only played its own scheduled games, but took 

over the schedule of Findlay College. Their 6-6 tie 

with Oberlin College was the only game any team 

scored against them in their unbeaten season. 

Within the entire county, school enumeration 

figures for the county in the boom years also 

reflect the growth. In 1885, the number of youths 

between 6 and 16 was 6,931. In 1891, at its 

highest, it was 9,865, an increase of 42 percent in 

six years. The number dropped and stayed 

around nine thousand into the early 1900s. 

In addition to elementary schools, a 

college was established in Findlay. Incorporated in 

1882, the school was organized by the Church of 

God with assistance from Findlay residents. 

Samuel Howard donated ten acres of land between 

Frazer and College Streets on the west side of Main 

Street. Findlay citizens offered $20,000 to attract 

the college. It took two years to gather the finances 

to lay the cornerstone for “Old Main,” and another 

two years to have the funds to finish the building. 

It opened its doors in September 1886 as Findlay 

College with 95 students. The college suffered 

through financial struggles for much of its early 

life, but managed to survive. 

The Fostoria Academy ran into financial 

difficulties and was purchased by Prof. Ashcroft 

and associates from Indiana. The school 

was renamed the Ohio Normal Training 

School. Two dormitories were built, one for 

males and one for females. The school 

prospered until it burned to the ground in 

1904. It was never rebuilt. 

In the early 1890s a public elementary school 

was built on West Center Street in Fostoria, 

❖ 

Above: Dairy cattle and barns at the 

C. W. Ford Dairy farm on the 

southeast side of Findlay, 1906. 



Below: The Hancock Brick and Tile 

Company site and its employees. The 

company was one of the many gas 

and oil boom era industries attracted 

to Hancock County, c. 1908. 



Chapter Six ✦ 35

SOCIAL LIFE & RECREATION 

❖ 

Above: The first Findlay High School, 

located at the northwest corner of 

West Main Cross and Cory Streets, 

which opened in 1901 and was used 

for almost forty years, c. 1935. 



Below: Strother School, one of nine 

built during 1888 and 1889 to 

educate the hundreds of new students 

in Findlay, this one located in the 

northeast part of town, c. 1910. 



called the Second Ward School and later West 

Center Street School. St. Wendelin’s Catholic 

Church built a high school on County Line 

Road in 1890. 

RELIGION 

Just prior to the boom, Findlay had ten 

churches—Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, 

United Brethren, Church of Christ, Reformed, 

Evangelical, Church of God, Episcopal and 

Catholic. With the sudden surge of the population, 

many of these denominations built another church 

or two to accommodate the increase in 

congregants. Other denominations established a 

first congregation, including the African Methodist 

Episcopal Church and the Salvation Army. 

With the increase in wealth and leisure time 

and visits to the Chicago World’s Fair, a number 

of people in the community became interested 

in organizing groups to enhance their 

knowledge of the world and of arts and 

literature. Many literary societies came 

into being in the 1890s. The Thursday 

Conversational, Coterie, Symposium, Arts and 

Letters, Shakespeare and other clubs met at 

least twice monthly from fall through spring. 

Members were expected to give papers on a 

variety of topics with discussions and 

critiques following. Some of those organizations 

still exist. 

Their research was assisted by the 

creation of a formal public library. An 

informal library had been in existence since 

the late 1870s in the upper level of George 

Connell’s bookstore on South Main Street. After 

the Ohio General Assembly authorized public 

libraries in 1888, a Findlay library board was 

appointed. The county commissioners allowed 

space in the courthouse basement to be used as 

the library. Nellie Baker was the first librarian, 

followed by Mary Morrison. A small fee was 

charged initially, until 1905, when it became 

publicly funded. 

More fraternal organizations were chartered. 

Among them were the Elks (1888), Pythian 

Sisters (1893), Knights of the Maccabees 

(1894), Stoker Relief Corps 72 (1885), Tribe of 

Ben Hur (1895), Modern Woodmen of America 

(1897), and the Grand Army of the Republic 

was re-organized (1881). 

The construction of the Marvin Opera House 

in 1892-93 at 306 North Main Street added 

another venue to the existing Davis Opera 

House. Many big names in the entertainment 

field performed in Findlay, including Maude 

Adams, Lillian Russell, Sarah Bernhardt, Will 

Rogers, and Ruth St. Dennis. Local residents 

also performed plays, skits, and musical 

numbers for benefits and special events. 

Another of those who performed, in a benefit 

for the Trinity Episcopal Church, was Leila 

Koerber, better known as Marie Dressler. Her 

family had moved to Findlay during the boom, 

where her father had seen opportunity as a music 

teacher. She had already been on the road with a 


touring company since age fourteen, when she 

came to Findlay for visits with her family. 

A native talent was Tell Taylor. Born in the 

southeast part of the county in 1876, he came to 

Findlay during the boom era and worked at 

several jobs in the 1890s before his musical 

talents and ambition took him into show 

business. While he composed and published a 

large number songs, he is best remembered for 

“Down by the Old Millstream.” He returned to 

Findlay in the 1920s. He died in 1937 in 

Chicago on his way to Hollywood to discuss a 

movie based on his hit song. 

Baseball was a highly popular sport of the 

boom era. A number of local teams were 

sponsored by businesses and played each other, 

as well as teams from nearby communities. A 

semi-professional team owned by Dr. William 

H. Drake played a championship season in 

1894, ending their season with games with 

professional teams, the Cincinnati Red 

Stockings and the Brooklyn Giants. The latter 

was a team of top African-American athletes. 

The local team was significant, not only for the 

quality of their play, but for the fact they were 

integrated. Two black players were on the team, 

including Findlay native Grant “Homerun” 

Johnson (1872-1963). Another exceptional 

county native baseball player was William E. 

“Dummy” Hoy from Houcktown. He played for 

minor and major league teams, including the St. 

Louis Browns and Cincinnati Reds, where he 

excelled in all aspects of the game. 

GOVERNMENT 

& POLITICS 

The huge increase in the number of 

inhabitants of the county during the late 19th 

century changed the local political landscape. 

❖ 

Above: Typical rural, one-room 

school, this one near Benton Ridge 

and probably District #8. Teacher 

J. W. Burket is at back right, c. 1895. 



Below: The Coterie Club, one of 

several literary clubs begun in the 

1890s, is still going strong. The home 

of hostess Mrs. Albert Marshall, 

seated at left, was located at 230 West 

Sandusky Street. 



Chapter Six ✦ 37

❖ 

Above: William E. “Dummy” Hoy 

baseball talent was recognized by a 

team in Kenton. He is credited by some 

for the development of the umpires’ 

hand signals for balls and strikes, since 

he could not hear the calls. Taken in 

New Orleans, ca 1890s. 

HHM. 

Below: The Findlay championship 

team of 1894 included Grant 

“Homerun” Johnson (middle row, left) 

a Findlay native, an outstanding 

shortstop, occasional pitcher and 

exceptional hitter. Johnson went on to 

a long and distinguished career as a 

player and manager of black teams. 

HHM. 

The majority of the population, which became 

more business and industry oriented, now 

usually supported the party which protected 

American products with tariffs—the Republican 

Party. Ballots cast during this period tell 

the story. 

In 1884, just before the first well was drilled, 

the Democrat presidential candidate Grover 

Cleveland outpolled Republican James Blaine in 

Hancock County. In 1888, Republican Benjamin 

Harrison beat Cleveland by just less than 100 

votes. In 1892, Democrat Cleveland came back 

to defeat Harrison in the county. In 1896 and 

1900, Ohio Republican William McKinley 

defeated William Jennings Bryan. 

In the Ohio governors’ races of the same era, 

Democrats obtained the majority of votes in 

1881, 1883, 1887, and 1889 in Hancock 

County. Republicans, however, took the 

majority in 1885 and swept the seven elections 

between 1891 and 1903. 

Local governmental offices expanded during 

this period, necessitating new quarters. A 

handsome, three-story courthouse of gray stone 

with beautiful stained glass windows, topped by 

a large statue of John Hancock, was erected. The 

city made do with a brick, two-story converted 

livery stable on West Crawford Street, which 

also housed the fire department, until building a 

large, new City Hall in 1902 at the same 

location, still housing both the central fire 

station and city offices. 

A 

HOSPITAL 

A private hospital was developed during 

the gas boom era. Begun through the 

efforts of women in Findlay, the facility 

was originally called the Findlay Home for 

Friendless Women and Children. It was 

meant to care for families without the means to 

care for themselves among the people flocking 

to the area. Before the women even purchased 

a site for the Home, it was decided to add 

a hospital. 

It was first located in 1891 at the residence 

of Dr. A. L. Davis at 1217 North Main Street. 

The facility moved to a larger site in West 

Park in 1893 at the southwest corner of Bliss 

Avenue and Morrical Boulevard, which also 

soon proved inadequate. It then moved to 

the D.D. French house at 1810 South Main 

Street in 1895. 

The building in West Park became the 

Children’s Home. It remained there as 

a private charitable organization until 1911. The 

county took the home over and established a 

board to oversee it. The home was still 

in the West Park location, when it was 

condemned in 1920. Bids to build a new 

one were rejected twice before a contract 

was let in mid-1924. However, by then 

many of the children were housed in 

foster homes. A smaller home was built for 

$50,000 at 2515 North Main Street and opened 

in 1925. 

WAR & THE MILITARY 

Company A, Second Regiment, Ohio 

National Guard was recruited in Hancock 

County during the Spanish-American War in 

1898. The unit of 109 plus six in the 

field staff was shipped out in late April to 

Columbus, then Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 

preparation for going into war. Late in 

August, the company moved to Knoxville 

and in mid-November to Macon, Georgia. The 

war ended before the unit saw action, and 

they were mustered out on February 10, 1899. 

Thirteen other county natives served in the 

infantry and four in the cavalry, including 

a few who saw action in the Philippines in the 

regular army. 


CHAPTER SEVEN 

L IFE A FTER THE B OOM TO THE B IG C RASH, 

1904 TO 1929 

It must have seemed a little like a dream at the end of the gas boom. Now residents settled down 

to a life that was a bit less exciting and without the boom era’s tremendous growth. Yet they strived 

to move forward. 

POPULATION 

The population of Findlay and Hancock County was to remain much the same until the middle 

of the century. In 1910, the census showed the population of the county decreased by around 4,000 

people to 37,860, an almost 10% decline. By 1920, it had risen only 534 to 38,394. 

Findlay’s population also declined to 14,858 in 1910, falling 15.6%. Findlay, however, did have a 

more significant increase than the county in 1920 to 17,021. The increase was 14.6%, and brought 

the city nearly back to the 1900 number. Only modest increases would occur until the 1950s. 

NATURAL 

DISASTERS 

❖ 

Effects of the great flood of 1913 are 

seen on South Main Street. The flat 

boat is tied to a pole in front of the 

courthouse and the large building to 

the right is the Phoenix Hotel. The 

water was two to three feet deep here 

and spread as far south as Lima 

Street. The truck is an Adams truck, 

manufactured just three blocks west. 

Photographer Albert M. Ketchum, 

March 1913. 



Findlay and other areas along the Blanchard experienced high waters on any number of occasions. 

The first decade and a half of the twentieth century witnessed two of the most serious. The flood of 

1904 was one of the more significant, but none would top that of 1913, which affected the entire state. 

Chapter Seven ✦ 39

BUSINESS 

& INDUSTRY 

❖ 

Above: Grant Motor Car Company 

factory and cars on Selby Street. The 

chassis were built in a plant on 

Western Avenue and driven north to 

Selby for installation of the bodies. 

Photograph by Albert M. Ketchum, 

c. 1915. 



Below: Steam-powered Buckeye 

Traction Ditching Company machine 

digging a trench in which clay tile 

would be laid, c. 1906. 



It was Easter weekend in late March. 

Wednesday and Thursday were warm and 

pleasant. High winds early Friday morning tore 

roofs off homes and businesses. However, it was 

the rain that fell on Easter Sunday and Monday, 

March 23-24, that caused even more damage, 

bringing the river to record heights. An 

estimated nine inches of rain fell. 

On Tuesday, flood waters swept over the 

bridge on Main Street. Flood waters reached 

south to Lima Avenue and north to Ash Avenue. 

It was 2 to 3 feet deep at the courthouse. 

Findlay was fortunate to have only one fatality. 

Night Police Captain Bert McGown drowned 

when the boat with which he was rescuing a 

family on East Main Cross Street capsized. It 

took sixty hours for the waters to recede and 

McGown’s body to be recovered. Findlay was 

cut off from the world for two days. 

The Findlay Area Chamber of Commerce reorganized 

in 1920. By 1937, it had 18 standing 

committees and three special divisions and won 

national awards in 1957 and 1961. 

In spite of the loss of numerous factories and 

businesses, which closed or moved on when the 

natural gas played out, new factories did come to 

Hancock County in the ensuing two and a half 

decades. Some were short lived, but others stayed. 

The Houck brothers established a work glove 

manufacturing business in Findlay in Harmonia 

Hall in April 1903. By August the same year, it 

was absorbed by the Boss Glove Company. The 

company was in business in Findlay at the same 

location for decades, employing a largely female 

workforce, finally closing about 1961. 

The Grant Motor Company was organized in 

Detroit, but came to Findlay in December 1913 

to manufacture automobiles. They produced the 

chassis in a plant on Western Avenue and drove 

them north to a plant on Selby, where the bodies 

were installed. They produced several fairly 

popular models for four years before moving 

to Cleveland. The company went bankrupt in 

the 1920s. 

The Cooper Tire and Rubber Company began 

in 1914 in Akron, where brothers-in-law made 

tire repair kits. Growing rapidly, the company 

purchased the Giant Tire Company and moved 

to Findlay in 1917. Not long after, I. J. Cooper 

of Cincinnati became involved, and the Cooper 

Tire and Rubber Company was the final result of 

several moves and mergers. It is still 

headquartered in Findlay and now has plants in 

several states and countries. 

Arriving in Findlay in 1901 at the tail end of 

the boom, James B. Hill had moved several times 

in an effort to find a home and the financial 

means to manufacture the ditching machine he 

had designed. The company finally evolved into 

the Buckeye Traction Ditcher Company in 1906. 

Located on Crystal Avenue for decades, it would 

manufacture ditching machines used all around 

the world. It was purchased by Gar-Wood 

Industries in 1946 and continued to 

manufacture in Findlay until about 1971. 

In Fostoria, the Seneca Wire Co. had taken over 

the site of Fostoria and Seneca Glass Companies, 

building a factory there in 1906. The Toledo and 


Fostoria Railway electric line had also erected a car 

barn and power house in the area. Between 1908 

and 1914, Fostoria Grain Company and Flechtner 

Brothers Slaughter House were located nearby, as 

well as the Atlas Cooperage Company. Between 

1914 and 1924, Isaac Harter Mill became Mennel 

Milling. Ohio Farmers Grain & Supply was in the 

same neighborhood in the mid to late 1920s, while 

Baugh & Son Company produced fertilizer about 

the same time. Seneca Lumber and Millwork 

Company came earlier in the decade. Fostoria 

Stave & Barrel, Cunningham Manufacturing, 

Western Railway Signal Company, the 

slaughterhouse, Atlas Cooperage and the ice house 

had all disappeared. 

AGRICULTURE 

The number of farms in the county peaked 

about 1910 at just over thirty-three hundred. 

The number then went into a slow decline, 

which accelerated in the 1920s and has 

continued to the present. By the end of the 

1920s, the number was 2,919. 

In the early 1900s, wheat acreage declined 

from its peak in the 1880s and 1890s. However, 

corn rose, and oats and barley increased 

significantly in production. Sugar beets were 

also grown locally, precipitating the 

establishment of a beet processing plant in 

Findlay about 1911. Hispanic migrant workers 

from Texas and Mexico began making annual 

sojourns to the area to labor in the farm 

fields. Numbers of diary and beef cattle 

remained fairly steady, but populations of sheep 

dropped precipitously, hogs declined slightly, 

and chickens rose dramatically. 

The county fair continued to be held at the 

South Main Street and Blue Bonnet location 

until financial troubles ended the fair in 1916. 

Later in that decade a Findlay Driving Park was 

established privately in east Findlay between 

Tiffin Avenue and the Blanchard River. A new 

organization, The Hancock County Fair 

Company, took it over and operated there from 

1919 through 1923. It spanned the area 

between McManness Avenue and Woodworth 

Drive. Because of a debt of $40,000 and a 

disagreement over whether or not horse racing 

should be part of the event, the fair did not 

operate between 1924 and 1938. 

EDUCATION 

Howard School in Findlay was replaced due 

to the fire which consumed the original 

building. It was immediately rebuilt a block and 

a half south of its first location in 1910. 

In 1916, Washington and Lincoln 

Elementary Schools were opened to replace old 

schools. Lincoln was built on the site of Gray 

School on West Lincoln Street, where Gray 

School’s bell is preserved in the schoolyard. 

Glenwood and Donnell Junior High 

Schools were built in 1925, as well as an 

addition on the west end of the high school on 

West Main Cross. Donnell Stadium was erected 

in 1928. Nearby Barnd Quarry was partially 

filled in to create Donnell Pond. 

With a statewide movement toward 

consolidating rural schools, many of the one-room 

school rural districts joined together to build larger 

❖ 

Above: Harness races at the Hancock 

County Fair, when it was located at a 

site on South Main and Blue Bonnet. 

The postcard was sent six days before 

the fair started by “Clara” to her 

parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Doty of 

Carey, saying she hoped to see them 

at the fair on Saturday. The postcard 

cost one cent to mail in 1912. 



Below: Both the new and the old 

Arlington school buildings can be seen 

in this picture, when the new brick 

edifice for the larger, consolidated 

district had been erected behind the 

old frame one, c. the early 1920s. 




❖ 

Right: The pavilion at Reeves Park 

was constructed by the Toledo, 

Fostoria and Findlay Railway 

streetcar line to encourage ridership 

to this scenic site just east of Arcadia. 

Many dances and sports competitions 

took place here. It was later known as 

Midway Park. This photo was taken 

around 1910. 



Below: The Five Columbians was the 

stage name for Caro “Guy” Miller, his 

wife and three stepdaughters, 

including youngest Marilynn, far left. 

Miller, a Findlay native, and his 

family performed with traveling 

troupes throughout the season, and 

came home to Findlay during the 

summer. After the development of 

Riverside Park, he managed the 

auditorium there, where they also 

performed. Marilynn went on to a 

great career with Flo Zeigfeld’s 

“Follies” and Broadway musical 

comedy from 1916 to her death 

in 1936. This photo was taken 

around 1906. 



buildings in the county’s smaller communities. Mt. 

Cory was the first to do so by opening Union 

School in 1911, followed by Arcadia, Arlington, 

Liberty Township, McComb, Mount Blanchard, 

Rawson, Van Buren, and Vanlue later in the 1910s 

and early 1920s. The one-room schools located 

closest to these consolidated schools and to 

Findlay closed. 


The owners of the Toledo, Fostoria and 

Findlay Railway electric line, completed 

between those three cities in 1900, developed 

Reeves Park just east of Arcadia in a grove with 

a pavilion. 

The city of Findlay owned property on the 

north side of the Blanchard River on the east 

end of town, where the original waterworks 

were located. It was the site of the Chautauqua 

in 1904 and 1905. While citizens used the area 

informally to picnic, it became officially 

designated and operated as Riverside Park in 

1906. By 1908, it had an auditorium, a pavilion, 

a “House of Mirth” (movie theatre), 

photography studio, concession stands, 

swimming beach and bathhouse, miniature 

train, and, in 1910, a “Shoot the Chutes.” 

In addition to boats, a bus was also available to 

Riverside. People could drive their own buggies or 

autos or take the streetcar out Tiffin Avenue and 

walk the short distance south to the park. 

In the 1920s, many of the original buildings 

were razed. A carousel and other rides were 

added. In its heyday, Riverside Park attracted 

persons from all over the area as Hancock 

County’s answer to Cedar Point. 

About the same time Riverside Park was fully 

established, just to the east the Findlay Country 

Club was formed. Founded in 1908 along the 

Blanchard River, nine holes of golf were first laid 

out. The growing popularity of the game and 

increasing membership resulted in another nine 

holes being added. 

The latter 1920s witnessed the first public 

golf course founded on the farm of Tell Taylor’s 

family by the composer himself. The farm and 

the short-lived golf course were at the current 

site of the county fairgrounds. 

More theaters were built in Findlay to 

accommodate the new moving pictures 

becoming so popular. In operation during this 

period were the short-lived Grand Theatre at 133 

North Main (1906-1907), the successively 

named Theatorium/Findlay/Orpheum/Royal at 

237 South Main (1906-1918), the 

Majestic/Harris (1906-1973) at 606-08 South 

Main, the Mystic/New Royal/Royal at 510 South 

Main (1907-1970), the Marvin/Gillette/Marvin at 


306 North Main (1907-1930), Lyceum (1911-c. 

1954) at 413 South Main, Victory at 230 South 

Main (1908-1928), Bijou at 407 South Main 

(1909-11), and State Theater at 621 South Main 

(c. 1937-1976). In the late 1920s, silent films 

became “talkies.” Some of the theaters named 

also hosted live performers in their earlier years. 

The great experiment of national prohibition 

of alcohol took effect in 1919, expanding the 

prohibition already existing in Findlay. The 

Krantz Brewery switched to near beer, root beer 

and other non-alcoholic beverages and sold ice 

to stay in business. Local members of the 

Women’s Christian Temperance Union were 

greatly gratified to have their anti-alcohol 

philosophy now the law of the land. 

Changing social morays in the 1920s 

included women’s clothing, hairstyles and 

public behavior. Bobbed hair doubled the 

number of beauty shops in the 1920s. 

More fraternal organizations were organized, 

including women’s auxiliaries to established 

men’s groups. Civic organizations such as Rotary 

and Kiwanis appeared on the scene, both in 

1920. Women’s service organizations were 

formed, such as the Business and Professional 

Women’s Club in 1925 and Altrusa in 1928. 

“ THE WAR TO END ALL WARS” 

The United States sat on the sidelines of the 

war in Europe for three years. Starting in the 

Balkans with the assassination of Archduke Franz 

❖ 

Top, left: A flotilla of boats, known as 

the “Mosquito Fleet,” wended its way 

up and down the river from the Main 

Street bridge to the boat landing at 

Riverside Park. The largest and best 

known was a paddle wheeler named 

the “Pastime,” 1908. 



Top, right: Riverside Park was created 

along the Blanchard River in 1906 and 

really developed with all the facilities 

pictured by 1908. It was a favorite 

summer destination for families all 

around the surrounding county. This 

postcard was written by “H.A.J.” of 

Findlay to Miss Dorothy Vilbrandt of 

Fostoria asking when she was coming 

to Findlay, July 1909. 



Left: A band and period-costumed 

soldiers on parade during the 

Centennial of Fort Findlay in front of 

the courthouse on South Main Street, 

Aug 20, 1912. A week-long 

celebration included parades, battle 

skirmishes, fireworks, monoplane 

flights, horse racing, competitive drills, 

motor racing, concerts and a circus. 




❖ 

Above: A very dapper Tell Taylor 

during his days as an entertainer in 

a photograph taken in Milwaukee, 

c. 1900. 



Below: Company A, Second Regiment, 

Ohio National Guard, Findlay’s unit, 

on duty on the border with Mexico 

while helping chase Pancho Villa and 

his followers, 1916-17. 



Ferdinand in June 1914, the war came to a 

stalemate in the trenches of France and Belgium. 

In 1917, the United State entered the war and 

in the summer of 1918 began pouring troops into 

France. By September 1918, 4,330 men had 

registered for the draft in Hancock County. The 

county provided roughly 1,400 men to the 

nation’s regular army, navy and marines, 

including 15 doctors. 

The local National Guard unit had just 

returned from duty on the border with Mexico, 

dealing with the revolutionary Pancho Villa. They 

were kept active and soon the sixty-five veteran 

men in the unit, as well as more recruited to join 

them, were dispatched to Europe. Rather than 

being kept together, they were used to fill gaps in 

a number of other units. The county’s only 

prisoner of war was Dr. William H. Gordon. Held 

for nine months, he immediately returned to 

duty after his release. At least eleven women 

served as nurses doing war duty. 

Sixty county men are listed as having died 

during service in World War I on the veterans’ 

memorial in Maple Grove Cemetery. Some died 

of disease, including the great influenza 

epidemic that swept through the nation and the 

world in 1918-19. The work of physicians left at 

home kept the flu deaths in Hancock County 

the lowest of any county in Ohio. 

Many of the local populace also got involved 

in the war effort. A number of Liberty Loan War 

Bond drives were successfully held. Many Red 

Cross groups across the county were organized. 

The new, imposing Elks building at South Main 

and East Hardin Streets was turned over to the 

Red Cross for the duration of the war. 

The Red Cross aided the wives and families of 

254 soldiers. Twenty-two children of soldiers 

were cared for at the County Children’s Home. 

Relief was sent to war-torn countries of Europe, 

such as Belgium and France, including clothing 

and linens for refugees. Comfort bags were 

provided to soldiers as they left the county. 

Surgical dressings, bandages, and hospital linens 

were made for use at the front. Junior Red Cross 

members knit afghans, socks, and sweaters. As 

soldiers returned, aid was given to wounded and 

disabled veterans, as well as assistance in 

readjusting to civilian life. 

A canteen was organized to serve over three 

hundred soldiers driving trucks through Findlay 

to the Atlantic Coast. It provided sweaters, socks, 

wristlets, helmets, and mufflers to keep them 

warm plus food. 

Seven local factories are listed as having 

produced war goods, including the Clay Pot 

Works, Chamberlain Target Works, Electric 

Porcelain Products, Hancock Brick and Tile 

Company, Adams Axle Company, Buckeye 

Traction Ditcher Company, which sent trench 

digging machines to France, and the Grant Motor 

Company Munitions Works, which briefly made 

shells at the end of the war. 


After the war, the American Legion 

was founded in Paris in March 1919. Local 

army officer Lieutenant Colonel Ralph D. Cole, 

Sr., was instrumental in the founding of the 

group for military veterans. In Findlay, John 

Hancock Post 3 was chartered in May. 

GOVERNMENT 

& POLITICS 

County voters were split between the 

political parties in the 1904 through 1928 

presidential elections. Republicans won four 

races and Democrats three. 

Theodore Roosevelt defeated his Democratic 

opponent in 1904. However, Democrat William 

Jennings Bryan, who campaigned in Findlay, 

had more votes than native Ohioan William H. 

Taft in 1908. 

Taft and Teddy Roosevelt split the 

Republican vote in 1912, when TR ran on the 

Progressive Party ticket. Democrat Woodrow 

Wilson beat them rather handily. Taft made a 

brief campaign stop in Findlay in May. Wilson 

won again in 1916. 

Republicans took the next three elections by 

decisive margins. In 1920, Marion, Ohio’s 

Warren G. Harding beat fellow Ohioan James M. 

Cox. The 1924 election saw Calvin Coolidge 

win, and Herbert Hoover thrashed Alfred Smith 

in 1928. 

The Republicans took eight of the twelve 

gubernatorial elections between 1905 and 1928 

in Hancock County. The Democrats took the 

earliest elections during that period in 1905, 

1908 (elections were changed), and 1910. 

Democrat Judson Harmon won in 1910, 

defeating Ohioan Warren G. Harding. In 1912, 

a Progressive governor’s candidate split the vote 

and helped the Democrat win. 

James Cox (D) and Frank B. Willis (R) 

opposed each other in the next three elections, 

with Willis winning each. The only Democrat to 

win in the county in the 1920s was A. Victor 

Donahey in 1924. 

For mayor in Findlay, voters elected 

nine Republicans and four Democrats in 

the thirteen elections between 1905 and 

1929. Most of the Democrats were elected 

early in that period, James B. Walker in 

1905 and again in 1907. William J. Frey won 

in 1913 against five other candidates, including 

a Socialist. In 1919, T. M. Mitchell was victor 

❖ 

Above: After many moves to different 

locations in downtown commercial 

buildings, a post office was finally 

constructed on Broadway and West 

Front Streets in 1906. Standing in 

front are the employees, including 

postmaster George Dunathan at 

center front (suit and dark hat) and 

probably mail carrier Emory Adams 

at far left, c. 1912. To the left is the 

Deisel-Wemmer Cigar Company. 



Below: The first motorized vehicles of 

the Findlay Fire Department, a Grant 

car and an Adams truck, along with 

two horse-drawn vehicles in front of 

the relatively new Central Fire Station 

on Crawford Street, c. 1916. 




❖ 

Above: The first airplane to ever 

land in Findlay came down in the 

Bellinger Addition near Country 

Club Drive, 1911. 



Below: Ralph D. Cole, Sr. Cole was an 

army officer during World War I, 

historian of the 37th Division and cofounder 

of the American Legion. After 

Cole’s death in an auto accident in 

1932, the Findlay post changed its 

name to the Ralph D. Cole Post 3 to 

honor him. 



Bottom, right: The first filling station 

in Findlay, located on the east side of 

Broadway. Pictured are Fred Doyle, 

S. T. Heck, and C. A. Doyle, 1913. 



over Republican W. E. Crates, an Independent 

and a Socialist. 

The Republicans elected mayor were E. Lincoln 

Groves (after four years as county sheriff), 1909 

and 1911; Theodore Totten in 1915; P.S. Shoupe 

in 1917; Harry R. Radebaugh, 1921; and E. 

Lincoln Groves again in the four elections between 

1923 and 1929. 

The city added the first mechanized vehicle 

to the fire department’s equipment in 1912 with 

a chemical truck built by the Adams Brothers in 

Findlay. A car for the fire chief was acquired 

from the Grant Motor Company about the same 

time. In 1922, all the horse-drawn equipment 

was replaced with four motor trucks. 

& 



Automobiles made their first appearance on 

local streets during the very early 1900s. Charlie 

Bish and Harry Bennett were two of the earliest 

car owners. 

The first garage was established on 

Broadway, operated by Frank Collingwood 

in conjunction with the C. F. Jackson 

Company, the department store known 

as the “Glass Block,” which occupied the 

old Joy House Hotel. The business evolved 

in 1907 into the first Ford dealership in 

Ohio and the thirteenth in the nation. By 

1908, a dozen autos could be seen in 

Findlay. By 1909, Collingwood was selling 

and repairing autos and selling gasoline by 

rolling out a hundred-gallon portable tank on 

rubber wheels to the curb. Soon other 

stations were established, which also began 

selling accessories. 

The first Findlay Automobile Club was 

formed in 1908. Its membership dwindled and 

it was re-organized in 1916. The club was the 

county’s state outlet for license plates beginning 

in 1918. In 1922 it opened the first tourist camp 

near Riverside Park. 

It was the glory years of the steam and diesel 

railroads. The “Nickel Plate” (New York, Central 

and Pacific Railroad) stopped at Mortimer, just 

north of Findlay, and provided both passenger 

and freight service to the county. 


CHAPTER EIGHT 

T HE G REAT D EPRESSION & W AR Y EARS, 1930 TO 1945 

The flourishing economic times of the 1920s gave way to a worldwide economic depression after 

the big crash of the U.S. stock market in October 1929. The financial hardships of the Great 

Depression were to gradually improve through out the 1930s with the help of many federal assistance 

programs. It was another world war, however, that most stimulated the economy in the early 1940s. 

Residents evolved from dealing with one set of hardships to another, watching family members leave 

for combat and rationing goods and products at home for the war effort. 

❖ 

The new Main Street bridge, a result 

of Depression-era WPA work, around 

its July 7, 1935, dedication. 



THE GREAT DEPRESSION & FEDERAL PROGRAMS 

While Findlay did not feel the effects of the crash and depression immediately, by 1932 the local 

economy had taken a definite downturn. The alphabet soup mixture of federal agencies came into 

play in the mid-1930s. The Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Public Works Administration 

(PWA), and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) all played a role locally. 

The CCC provided jobs for young men between the ages of 17 and 29 under the supervision of 

the army. The men lived in camps, were fed and clothed, worked on conservation projects, and were 

provided vocational training. A camp was set up across the Blanchard from present Rawson Park in 

July 1935. Company Number 3523 had 218 men by August. The men, from Ohio, Indiana and West 

Virginia, worked on drainage, ditches, brush clearing, and other projects in Hancock and all 

adjoining counties. The camp operated until late in the decade. 

The Blanchard River was straightened in two locations by the WPA, west between present Swale 

and Rawson Parks and just east of the Main Street bridge. The course change east of the bridge took 

out the old Athletic Field, used by the community for decades. In addition, the Main Street bridge 

was completely rebuilt and dedicated on July 7, 1935, as a memorial to war dead. Many smaller rural 

bridges around the county were also rebuilt during this era. 

In Fostoria, a city park was established around the waterworks. A municipal swimming pool was 

built in the park. 

Chapter Eight ✦ 47

❖ 

Above: The Fostoria Hospital was 

constructed at the site of the 

community’s first cemetery on a high 

spot overlooking a branch of the 

Portage River, c. the 1930s. 



Below: The Ohio Oil Company’s office 

building with its tower and 

Pheidippides, the Greek marathon 

runner logo on top, dominated the 

downtown business district, as it 

continues to do now doing business as 

Marathon Petroleum Co., 

c. 1936. 



ANOTHER WORLD WAR 

Just as the country was climbing out of the 

economic doldrums of the Depression, war 

loomed threateningly in Europe and was a topic 

of conversation. However, local citizens were 

still shocked when Japan struck Pearl Harbor. 

As all over the nation, Hancock County 

residents quickly turned their attention and 

their efforts to winning the war by enlisting in 

the military, working in factories producing warrelated 

goods, buying War Bonds, planting 

Victory gardens, collecting scrap metal, and 

rationing sugar, coffee, meat, shoes, gasoline, 

rubber, and other commodities. Ration coupons 

were issued to all households. 

The local National Guard unit had already 

been activated in October 1940 and went into 

training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. When the 

war began, the unit was sent to the Pacific 

Theater, where it served with distinction. 

Also in 1940, Congress instituted the draft. 

One board was organized for Findlay and 

another for the remainder of the county. The 

first registration in mid-October for men 

between 21 and 35 resulted in a total of 4,729 

signed up. Subsequent registrations for other 

age groups were held through mid-June 1942. 

The total registered during the duration of the 

war in the county was 14,059. Quotas were 

light until the nation actually entered the war 

after Pearl Harbor. The total drafted by the two 

boards was 4,513. Many other men enlisted, as 

did women. 

A local publication picturing veterans of the 

war and a bit of biographical and service 

information for each is not a definitive listing of 

local military men and women. It does, however, 

provide some interesting statistics that may 

reflect the total picture. Of the 1,451 persons 

listed, 1,410 were men and 41 were women. Of 

the men, more than half (749) served in the U.S. 

Army with 45 perishing (6.0 percent mortality 

rate). Navy veterans numbered 374 with seven 

deaths (1.6 percent). Army Air Corps veterans 

totaled 214 with 16 deaths (7.5 percent). Two 

Air Corps veterans were prisoners of war and 

one was missing in action. The Marines had 45 

veterans with eight deaths (17.8 percent), the 

Coast Guard 18 with one death (5.6 percent) 

and the Merchant Marines ten with no deaths. 

The cemetery veterans’ memorial lists 146 

county residents’ deaths in military service, 

almost twice as many as the book contains. 

The 45 women in service in the book included 

21 in the Women’s Army Corps, 17 in the Navy, 

one in the CNC, one in the Red Cross, and one in 

SPARS. The highest ranked and longest serving 

woman was Lieutenant Commander Pearl T. Hall, 

a navy nurse who served from 1917 to 1945. 

Local citizens were once again active in War 

Bond drives and in raising funds for the Red 

Cross, United Service Organization (USO), and 

other war-related causes. A local home guard 

was organized and trained. 

At war’s end, funds were raised to create a 

memorial section in Maple Grove Cemetery for 

the dead of both world wars. A cross was 

placed for each local resident who had made the 


supreme sacrifice in service. The Civil War 

soldier’s statue was moved there from in front of 

the courthouse. 

BUSINESS 

& INDUSTRY 

Local business again contributed to the war 

effort. Local factories producing war goods 

included Gar-Wood making tank parts, Cooper 

Tire making rubber pontoons for army 

engineers, Remington Arms making clay 

pigeons for training aerial gunners, and 

Marathon’s usual gasoline and oil produced 

more for military use than civilian. 

AGRICULTURE 

The peripatetic county fair finally found a 

permanent home. After a fifteen-year lapse, it was 

resurrected in 1938 by county extension 

agent Forest G. Hall on East Sandusky 

Street on the farm originally acquired by Leonard 

Tritch and later owned by Tell Taylor. The fair has 

traditionally been held the week ending with 

Labor Day weekend. 

The number of farms continued to decrease 

over the Depression and war years, from 

3,214 to 2,875. However, the amount of the 

county’s land in agriculture remained fairly 

steady at just over ninety percent and the size of 

farms increased. The percentage of the 

population living on farms began dropping to 

69.6 percent in 1940. Migrant workers began 

staying year around, and finding permanent 

jobs in local factories. 

Livestock numbers varied in these years. 

Sheep numbers rose somewhat in 1940, before 

declining again. The dairy cattle population rose 

quite significantly and peaked in 1940 at just 

over 15,100, then began dropping again. Beef 

cattle numbers also rose, but more slowly in 

1940. Hog numbers dropped dramatically. 

Corn, wheat and oats all remained fairly steady 

in production with some decline through the 

1940s. However, the introduction of soybeans in 

the 1940s was soon to have major impact. 

Electric cooperatives were developed 

nationally during the 1930s, leading to the 

formation of Hancock-Wood Electric. It provided 

electricity to rural areas of Hancock County, 

which had never had such service before. 

POPULATION 

The population in the county rose slowly 

during the 1930s and 1940s. The county’s 1930 

population was 40,404, up 2,010 from 1920 

(5.2%). In 1940, the count only increased 389 

(0.9%). Findlay’s population in 1930 was 

19,363, an increase of 2,342 (13.8%). The 1940 

census showed an increase of 865 (4.4%). 


Because of financial circumstances, most 

families’ recreation during the Depression 

was low key and necessarily inexpensive. 

However, one large public celebration came 

during the Depression. 

❖ 

Above: Apples, as well as other fruit, 

were a cash crop in Hancock County 

for many years. A local apple 

producer is pictured in a photo by 

Howard Hoadley, c. the late 1930s. 



Below: Findlay’s Golden Anniversary 

of Oil and Gas in 1937 included a 

large parade, seen here on South 

Main Street. The celebration was a 

huge success, as attested to by the 

many people watching the parade 

including those on the rooftops. 



Chapter Eight ✦ 49

finances during the Depression and finding 

enough teachers during the war years. 

GOVERNMENT 

& POLITICS 

❖ 

Above: Findlay’s Nickel Plate Railroad 

passenger depot was located between 

West Main Cross and West Front (see 

foreground) Streets. The spire to St. 

Michael’s Catholic Church can be 

seen to the right of the pole at right, 

c. 1930. 



Below: Mike Murphy was an 

accomplished stunt pilot, winning the 

world’s top aerobatics trophies. He 

was instrumental in getting the allied 

command to use gliders on D-Day 

and flew the lead glider himself. He 

went on to run the aviation 

department for Ohio (Marathon) 

Oil Company and judge aerobatics, 

c. 1938. 



Findlay’s Golden Celebration of Oil and Gas 

was held for a week in June 1937 after more 

than a year of planning. The whole community 

was involved in a variety of activities, parades, 

reunions, concerts, dedications of monuments, 

a pageant, Old Timers’ Banquet, baseball games, 

an Air Circus with the Linco Flying Aces 

sponsored by Ohio Oil Company at the airport, 

dedication of the new swimming pool at 

Riverside with water sports, and a Grand Ball at 

the Green Mill at Riverside. The celebration was 

a rousing success and drew great crowds. 

EDUCATION 

The Depression was a difficult time for 

schools in the county. Findlay’s residents 

defeated a 1932 tax levy. Teachers took a 40% 

pay cut in 1933 and school was cut short. 

Another levy defeat in 1934 resulted in more 

cutbacks. Finally in March 1935 a one-year levy 

was passed, easing the crisis. 

The old Central High School building on West 

Main Cross was razed and a new wing built in 

1939-40 housing classrooms and an auditorium 

seating 1400. It attached to the addition built on 

the old high school in the mid-1920s. 

The last of the one-room rural schools closed 

in 1936. All students now attended public 

schools in Findlay, Fostoria, or Bluffton, or the 

rural consolidated school districts, including 

Arcadia, Arlington, Benton Ridge, Liberty 

Township, McComb, Mt. Blanchard, Rawson, 

Union (Mt. Cory), Van Buren, and Vanlue. 

Parochial schools, such as St. Michael’s in 

Findlay, St. Wendelin’s in Fostoria, and Trinity 

in Jenera, were also available to the county’s 

students. All county schools struggled with 

In spite of the strong showing Republicans 

had made in recent presidential elections, local 

dissatisfaction with the state of the country in 

the early Depression year of 1932 caused a 

different outcome. A few more Hancock County 

voters (114) cast their ballot for Democrat 

Franklin Roosevelt than for Herbert Hoover. 

Almost the same margin divided Roosevelt from 

Alfred Landon in 1936. However, the 

Republicans returned to their overwhelming 

majority by the next election. Wendell Wilkie 

outvoted FDR by nearly two to one in 1940 

and Thomas Dewey by more than two to one 

in 1944. 

The votes for governor reflected a similar 

outlook. The Republican candidate, Myers Y. 

Cooper, had a small lead over Democrat George 

White in 1930. White, however, defeated David 

S. Ingalls in 1932. Democrat Martin L. Davey 

squeaked by in 1934. In 1936 the Republicans 

reasserted their dominance of local politics and 

defeated Democratic gubernatorial candidates in 

that and the next four elections by wide margins. 

In Findlay mayoral races, Democrat Homer 

O. Dorsey beat E. L. Groves in the four races 

between 1931 and 1937. Republican Cloyce H. 

Duttweiler defeated Dorsey by 316 votes in 

1939, as well as the Democratic contenders in 

1941 and 1943. However, Democrat Clarence 

H. Gassman beat Duttweiler in 1945. 


Railroad passenger service was still in its 

“Golden Age” in this time, prior to the 

development of airline service. However, during 

the Depression, railroads were unwillingly 

providing transportation for hundreds of povertystricken 

men sneaking on boxcars to ride around 

the country looking for a means of survival. 

What was left of the electric streetcar system 

closed down in March 1932. Gone was the 

efficient mass transit system with reasonable 

fares, which allowed riders to travel all over 

Ohio. It was done in by the popularity of the 

automobile and the Depression. 


CHAPTER NINE 

P OSTWAR P ROGRESS & G ROWTH, 1946 TO 1962 

The postwar years, particularly the 1950s, finally saw the first real growth in population and new 

business and industry in Hancock County since the gas boom ended. The upturn was almost as 

significant as the gas boom era of the 1880s and 1890s. 

POPULATION 

Hancock County’s population in 1950 was 44,280, which was an increase of 8.5 percent over 

1940. The 1960 census showed a jump to 53,686, a rise of 21.2 percent. 

Findlay’s 1950 population was 23,845. That increase over 1940 was larger than the county’s and 17.9 

percent higher. The city’s growth again outstripped the county’s percentage rise in 1960, with a total 

population of 30,344 (a 27.3 percent rise). The increase in population reflected the postwar baby boom. 

❖ 

Mainstays on the airwaves on 

Saturday mornings at WFIN in the 

1950s were the quintet pictured, from 

left, co-hosts Tennyson Guyer and Peg 

Dennis, co-host/announcer John 

Hutson, keyboardist Allen Dudley and 

singer Bob Swisher. Photographer was 

Karl Weick, Jr. 

HHM. 

EDUCATION 

The postwar period saw many changes in educational facilities throughout the county. Findlay 

Schools built and added on to several schools as the student population grew, and some of the gas 

boom schools needed replacement. 

New elementary schools included Jefferson, McKinley, Northview, and Whittier in 1950 and Jacobs in 

1956. Additions were placed on Adams, Lincoln, Northview, Washington, and Whittier in 1956 and 1957, 

and also to Glenwood and Donnell Junior Highs. Firmin School, which had been closed in 1950, was 

Chapter Nine ✦ 51

with Benton Ridge School to form the Liberty 

Benton School District in 1954. Mt. Blanchard 

joined with Wharton in Wyandot County and 

Forest in Hardin County to form the Riverdale 

School District in 1959. Many of the rural districts 

were also building new schools and adding on. 

In addition, Findlay College expanded its 

educational facilities and built the first 

dormitories for men and women. Its enrollment 

doubled from about 500 to about 1,000 in the 

early 1960s. Winebrenner Theological Seminary 

became independent of Findlay College in 1960 

for the training of clergy for the Churches of 

God, building facilities on East Melrose Avenue. 

RELIGION 

❖ 

Above: South Main Street decorated 

for the Fort Findlay Sesquicentennial 

Event in the July 1962. Marathon 

headquarters are to the right on the 

corner of Hardin Street. 



Below: Another of the many events on 

the schedule of the Sesquicentennial 

was billed as the “largest outdoor 

square dance in Ohio.” July 1962. 



reactivated in 1957. Huber School closed in 1950, 

but was renovated in 1957 for use as 

administrative offices. McKee and Bigelow Schools 

were also closed in 1950. Additions were built on 

Jacobs and Jefferson in 1960. Construction was 

begun on a new high school on Broad Street in 

1962. Some of the growth was overseen by the first 

female superintendent of schools, Zola Jacobs, 

who had spent nearly her entire professional career 

in the Findlay system. St. Michael’s Catholic 

School also built an addition. 

The county schools also experienced some 

change. Union (Mt. Cory) and Rawson Schools 

merged their systems in 1951, becoming the 

county’s largest district. Liberty Township merged 

This period witnessed a rash of church fires, 

resulting in new edifices for First Evangelical 

United Brethren (St. Mark’s) Church and First 

Presbyterian Church in Findlay. Other new 

buildings included First Lutheran, First College 

Church of God, Findlay United Brethren, First 

Church of the Nazarene, and First Church of 

Christ Scientist. Adding to their facilities were 

the First Methodist, Howard Methodist and St. 

Michael’s Catholic Churches. 


Movie theaters continued to be popular 

destinations. Several Main Street theaters 

continued operating. Drive-in theaters also 

began with two established on Findlay’s 

outskirts, the Findlay Drive-In Theater (1949- 

77) on West Sandusky Street and the Millstream 

(1968-93) on T.R. 99 north of Findlay, as well as 

Amanda Drive-in Theater (c. 1950-67) in 

Amanda Township. However, more and more 

households were acquiring television. 

Enrollment in the Y.M.C.A., Boy Scouts, 

Camp Fire Girls, Girl Scouts, and Little League 

increased. The Pony League for youth 12 to 15 

years old was established, as were Midget 

Football Leagues. The “Anchor” was developed 

as a center for high school students. 

However, the most memorable event of this 

period was the huge, eight-day Fort Findlay 

Sesquicentennial celebration in 1962. The 

celebration took the planning efforts of dozens 

of local citizens under the direction of a central 


committee and involved hundreds of 

volunteers. Promotional visits to surrounding 

counties were made in the weeks prior. The 

celebration included parades, a huge historical 

pageant, fashion show, crowning of a queen and 

a ball, concerts, church service, farmers’ 

barbeque, square dance, athletic events, teen 

hop, homemakers’ show, luncheons for special 

groups, memorial service for war dead, 

kangaroo court, beard contest, and exhibits. 

In Fostoria, four lakes were developed and 

named for the first local casualties from each 

major branch of the armed services during 

World War II, Lakes Daugherty, Lamberjack, 

Mosier, and Mottram. 

GOVERNMENT 

& POLITICS 

Parking in downtown Findlay was changed 

from angled parking to parallel, allowing two 

lanes of traffic both ways on Main Street. 

Metered public parking lots were developed 

about 1950. The parking garage on East 

Crawford Street came in the early 1960s. 

After three failed hospital bond issues, one 

was finally passed in 1954. A new facility to the 

west of the original hospital was built. The old 

building was razed, with newer wings of the old 

hospital retained. 

Voters also approved other community 

bond issues. Another reservoir for better 

water availability was developed, the sewage 

disposal plant was expanded, and the sewer 

system enlarged. 

Automatic voting machines were first used in 

Hancock County in 1951. Only about a dozen 

other counties were using them. 

Republicans were garnering the overwhelming 

majority of votes in the presidential elections of 

the late 1940s through 1960 with Thomas 

Dewey, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon 

winning locally by substantial margins. 

In the races for Ohio governor, Republicans 

won in Hancock County with regularity, 

although Democrats usually made a better 

showing on the state level. Gubernatorial 

elections changed after 1958 to four-year terms, 

instead of two. 

In the Findlay mayoral races, Republicans were 

also winning each election from 1947 through 

1961. Attorney Clifford Glathart and monument 

dealer and city councilman Chester P. Smith both 

served two two-year terms and attorney William J. 

Carlin four terms during this time. 

Local elected officials and civic organizations 

had the job of managing the growth spurt 

occurring in the 1950s. Issues of expanded 

hospital facilities, and improved water, traffic 

flow, parking, fire protection, plus employment 

opportunities, were the subject of community 

committees looking toward life after the war. 

The expanding number of families after the war 

led to a construction boom with many houses built 

in all directions of Findlay. In the decade between 

1950 and 1960, Findlay’s number of housing units 

grew from 8,125 to 9,773. Within the county, the 

number grew from 14,493 to 16,583. 

BUSINESS 

& INDUSTRY 

Industrial companies attracted during this 

postwar time included Automotive Fibers, Inc. 

(1947), which was sold to Dow Chemical in 

1958, Radio Corporation of America (1952), and 

Eastman Kodak (1954) processing laboratory, as 

well as smaller plants for Hubbard Press, Burdett 

Oxygen Company, R.L. Kuss and Company, 

Werk-Brau Company, the House of Guest 

(pickles), the Ohio Engineering Company, and 

Findlay Engraving Company. The three larger 

companies employed a number of women. 

Employment between 1943 and 1963 

nearly doubled. In 1943, 7,437 employees were 

covered by unemployment compensation. In 

1950 that number was 9,164, and in 1963 it 

was 13,079. The total payroll for those 

employees was $13,996,422 in 1943 and 

$76,203,045 in 1963. 

Industrial labor unions became more 

common and contributed locally in fundraising 

and in volunteer labor for civic improvements, 

such as the “Anchor.” 

❖ 

Radio Corporation of America plant 

in northeast Findlay, c. 1970. 



Chapter Nine ✦ 53

emained relatively steady. Soybean acreage 

dropped in 1952, then rose steadily thereafter. 


❖ 

Above: San-a-pure Dairy continued to 

deliver milk by wagon as a sales 

gimmick long after other companies 

went to motorized vehicles. Many 

neighborhood children loved to follow 

the horse down the street and even 

ride in the wagon. Pictured is 

deliveryman Hugh Ricketts and his 

rig, c. the 1950s. 



Below: The Findlay Airport has been 

the home of Findlay corporate jets, 

the site of flying lessons, and the 

sometime terminal for commercial 

flights. The airport is pictured here 

with the sugar beet plant in the 

background, photographer Howard 

Hoadley, c. 1939. 



AGRICULTURE 

The ratio of the farm population dropped off 

considerably after World War II. By 1950, it was 

53.3 percent, down 13.3 percent from 1940. The 

number of farmers working jobs off the farm 

increased from 7.3 percent in 1940 to 22.9 

percent in 1955. According to the 1960 census, 

74.1 percent of the 2,035 farms in Hancock 

County were operated by their owners. 

Electricity was in use at 70.5 percent of farms in 

1940 and 94.3 percent in 1950. 

The number of beef cattle raised in the county 

peaked in 1955 at about 30,600. Dairy cows 

peaked in 1940 at about 15,100 and declined to 

less than 10,000 in 1955. Sheep numbers rose to 

about 32,400 in 1955. Hogs, which rebounded to 

more than 65,500 in 1950, dropped again in 

1955 to about 58,400. Numbers of chickens more 

than doubled between 1940 and 1950 to more 

than 1.2 million in 1950 and decreased to just 

over 1 million in 1955. 

Corn acreage rose in the early 1950s and 

stayed steady, while wheat rose through 1953, 

then dropped nearly in half. Oats acreage 

Truck traffic became even heavier as the 

economy boomed and local industries produced 

more. Heavy north-south truck traffic through 

the city was alleviated by the construction of a 

four-lane by-pass of Dixie Highway (U.S. 25). 

The airport in Findlay had continued to 

operate under the auspices of the Ohio Oil 

Company. In 1960, Lake Central Airlines added 

Findlay to its routes, providing the first public 

air transportation in the county. 

ANOTHER WAR & LOCAL 

MILITARY INVOLVEMENT 

World War II, it seemed, was hardly over 

before another conflict in Asia involved the 

American military. This conflict was rooted in 

the new postwar tensions between democratic 

and communist governments. 

A number of local World War II veterans were 

reactivated and called back to serve in the Korean 

War (1950-53). Others enlisted and served 

stateside or in Korea during the war or postwar. 

Bitter fighting occurred the first year, followed by 

a long, drawn-out stalemate, while peace 

negotiations continued. A cease-fire was finally 

reached, ending the conflict. However, a treaty has 

never been signed, and the Demilitarized Zone 

dividing North and South Korea remains one of 

the most heavily guarded borders in the world. 

The number of wartime fatalities on the county 

veterans’ memorial for the Korean War is 16. 

BEGINNING ANOTHER 

ASIAN CONFLICT 

The United States began assisting France in 

fighting insurgency in Vietnam in 1950. In 1954, 

the French negotiated a peace and left Vietnam. 

An internationally planned temporary division of 

the country took place, with the communists 

under Ho Chi Minh taking over the North. The 

American presence grew through the use of more 

advisors to train South Vietnamese forces and 

millions of dollars in arms. By the early 1960s, 

civil war was ongoing in South Vietnam. 


CHAPTER TEN 

N EW P ROSPERITY & C URRENT T IMES, 1963 TO 2006 

Findlay and Hancock County’s population continued to grow in the 1960s and leveled off in the 

latter years of the twentieth century. However, the growth of business and industry continued 

throughout this period assuring a stable economy for the county. 

POPULATION 

Findlay grew from 30,344 in 1960 to 35,800 in 1970, a jump of 18 percent. Findlay’s population 

actually decreased slightly, dropping to 35,594 in 1980, before rising again to 35,703 in 1990. The 2000 

census showed a total of 38,967 (9.1 percent). 

The county grew from 53,686 in 1960 to 61,217 ten years later (14 percent increase). The county 

continued its growth with a total of 64,581 in 1980 (5.5 percent increase), 65,536 (1.5 percent 

growth) in 1990, and 71,295 in 2000 (8.8 percent). 

The most growth within the county in the 1970s and 1980s could be seen in Arlington, McComb, 

Bluffton spreading into the county, Allen Township, Cass Township, Eagle Township, Liberty 

Township, Madison Township, and Union Township. 

Some towns and townships grew slightly, including Benton Ridge, Jenera, Mt. Blanchard, 

Rawson, and VanBuren, as well as Amanda, Biglick, Blanchard, Delaware, Jackson, Orange, and Portage 

Townships. Others had a net loss of population, including the part of Fostoria in Hancock County, 

Arcadia, Mt. Cory, and Vanlue, and Marion, Pleasant, Van Buren, and Washington Townships. 

BUSINESS 

& INDUSTRY 

The last forty-plus years have witnessed the end of several long-time manufacturing businesses in 

Findlay. Krantz Brewing Company was merged with several other brewing companies into the 

❖ 

Dale Dorney was a modest, 

unassuming and very frugal man, 

who never married. He worked in the 

East for many years, then returned 

and cared for his aging mother and 

aunt, while working for Hancock 

Brick and Tile. Upon his death in 

1976, he left $5 million to the 

Cleveland Foundation, 45 percent of 

which was to be used for projects and 

programs in Hancock County. His 

trust fund, which had grown to $10 

million, was the core of the 

Community Foundation of Findlay- 

Hancock County, when it was created 

in 1999. The assets had grown to $30 

million when a bequest from 

Madeleine Thomas Schneider nearly 

doubled it by adding another $25 

million in 2005. Their legacies will 

benefit the residents of the county for 

decades to come. 



Chapter Ten ✦ 55

❖ 

Above: Tall Timbers, seen here in 

2006, was organized in the late 1980s 

on Findlay’s northeast side as an 

international trade zone and contains 

a number of Japanese-owned 

companies. Many of the industrial 

park’s tenants make parts used in 

automobile manufacturing. 



Below: Through the efforts of U.S. 

Congressmen Jackson Betts and 

Tennyson Guyer, Findlay was 

officially named “Flag City USA” in 

May 1974. 



International Brewing Company, thren closed in 

1966. Buckeye Traction Ditcher Company was 

purchased by Gar-Wood Industries and ended 

operations about 1971. The Differential Car 

Company was purchased by Trinity Industries 

about 1997 and closed in 2002. 

However, the last four decades have also seen 

the establishment of several industrial parks on 

the outskirts of Findlay, including Tall Timbers 

in northeast Findlay. Several distribution centers 

for retail chains have also been built around 

Findlay, including Lowe’s and Best Buy. 

The Fort Findlay Village Shopping Center came 

to Tiffin Avenue on the east side of Findlay in 1963. 

Originally open, it was remodeled to become a 

covered mall and remains a favorite shopping 

destination for people from Hancock and 

surrounding counties. In spite of the popularity of 

the mall and other shopping strips along Tiffin 

Avenue and now West Trenton Avenue, Findlay still 

maintains an attractive and viable downtown with 

retail stores and restaurants. Several of the historic 

commercial buildings have been remodeled in 

recent years with apartments on the upper floors. 

Republican James Rhodes beat Frazier Reams 

of Toledo handily for governor in 1964. However, 

Democrat John Sausser won the races for Findlay 

mayor in 1963 and 1965. The Republicans 

regained the office in 1967 with Calvin Thatcher’s 

win over Keith Romick. Republicans continue to 

dominate politics in the county. 

Interstate 75 became a reality in the 1960s, as 

the federal government established an interstate 

highway system all across the country. I-75 soon 

became a major artery from Michigan to Florida, 

attracting local travel related businesses to 

its interchanges. 

Both Findlay city and county officials have 

had to contend with a housing boom in the 

1990s and early twenty-first century, expanding 

the infrastructure with streets, sewer and water, 

and fire and police protection. 

The Findlay Hospital has undergone name 

changes and numerous expansions and 

additions. A brand new, multimillion-dollar 

addition to the now Blanchard Valley Hospital 

opened in early 2007. 

WAR & THE MILITARY 

The war in Vietnam, which heated up in the 

1960s and involved increasing numbers of 

American troops, became a very divisive war. 

Brought into the family’s living room through 

television, local residents could readily see war 

GOVERNMENT, POLITICS 

CIVIC IMPROVEMENTS 

& 

The plurality of Republican voters has 

continued through the late twentieth and very 

early twenty-first centuries. The closest 

presidential vote came in 1964, at the time Barry 

Goldwater was beaten by Lyndon Johnson in a 

national landslide. Goldwater eked out a slim win 

in Hancock County with sixty-three more votes 

than LBJ. Richard Nixon fared much better in 

1968, in spite of conservative Independent 

George Wallace. 

Jackson Betts, Tennyson Guyer, and 

Michael Oxley held the Eighth (now the Fourth) 

District seat in the House of Representatives 

from 1951 to 2007. They were all Findlay 

residents and former Ohio legislators. 


much more closely and immediately than ever 

before. The antiwar movement, which spread 

across the nation, however, did not manifest 

itself in any significant way in Hancock County. 

Many local residents served in the military, 

twenty-two making the ultimate sacrifice. 

“Desert Storm” (the Gulf War of 1991) and 

conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 

years of the twenty-first century have all directly 

involved residents of Hancock County in the 

military. Programs to support American troops 

have been organized by local citizens. 

EDUCATION 

Findlay’s new high school opened in the fall 

of 1963. The old high school became Central 

Middle School and the location of the school 

district’s administrative offices. Three elementary 

schools were built in 1969, Benjamin Franklin, 

Bigelow Hill, and Chamberlin Hill. Adams 

School became a vocational and training center 

in 1981, and has more recently been privately 

renovated for apartments. Benjamin Franklin 

became Millstream South Vocational in 1992. 

Firmin was closed again in 1969, then used for 

special education, 1971-76, before its final 

closure and being torn down. Howard was also 

closed in 1969, used as a school for hearing 

impaired, 1971-77, and as a vocational school, 

1978-83, before being razed. Huber School is 

also in private hands. McKinley is now 

Millstream Career Cooperative. A freshman wing 

on the high school was built in 1999. 

Several of the consolidated school districts 

around the county have added on to their 

facilities. Van Buren opened a new elementary 

school in 2002. Riverdale School opened a 

brand new school in January 2004 for 

kindergarten through high school. 

The University of Findlay has seen significant 

growth in the last forty years, in programs 

offered and in student enrollment. Niche 

programs in hazardous materials and equestrian 

studies, along with pre-veterinary medicine, 

have been developed. National championships 

in football and equestrian riding have brought 

recognition to the school, which changed from 

Findlay College to The University of Findlay in 

1989. The University is also the site of the 

Mazza Gallery. 

RELIGION 

In recent years, Findlay and Hancock County 

have encountered the same changes seen around 

the country. A number of small, rural churches 

have closed or merged as congregations age and 

younger people look for a less traditional 

religious experience. Many of the larger, 

mainline churches in Findlay have seen 

decreasing attendance and changes to more 

contemporary services to attract younger people. 


The electronics age has caused drastic changes 

in people’s recreation and social life. While movie 

theaters still exist in Findlay, multiplex theaters at 

the mall and new theaters on the west side of 

town (2005), many people buy or rent movies on 

video tapes or DVDs or obtain them via cable or 

satellite television or computer. 

While music can still be purchased in album 

form on CDs, an evolution from records to 8- 

track tapes to cassette tapes, it can also be 

downloaded on the computer then put onto 

small listening devices like personal CD players 

or iPods. Local retail stores reflect the vast 

changes in technology. 

Sports are still highly popular among youth 

and adults on public and parochial school, 

college, community-based, and professional 

levels. Baseball, basketball, football, golf, 

softball, soccer, volleyball, wrestling, track and 

field, and cross country are sports found in 

competition among area schools. A variety of 

summer sports leagues for youth are available. 

Title IX in the mid-1970s created more 

opportunity for girls by federally mandating 

parity between boys’ and girls’ sports in schools. 

❖ 

The Mazza Gallery is a collection of 

art from children’s literature, 

dedicated to literacy, found in the 

Gardner Fine Arts Center at the 

University of Findlay. It celebrates its 

twenty-fifth anniversary in 2007, the 

same year the University celebrates 

125 years. 

Chapter Ten ✦ 57

has continued to operate for local corporate 

aviation and has also sometimes had public 

flights available. 

AGRICULTURE 

❖ 

The Findlay Village Mall, located on 

Tiffin Avenue, was an open mall at its 

inaugural in 1963. It was later 

covered and, with a few facelifts over 

the years, is still going strong. 

Numerous golf courses can be found in the 

county. Private gyms provide youth and adults a 

place for physical activity in a more fitness 

conscious society. With the improvement in 

health care and longevity, aging baby boomers 

strive to live healthier lives by staying fit. 

The Hancock Historical Museum, the 

Historic Preservation Guild of Findlay and 

Hancock County, Eagle Creek Historical 

Organization, Blanchard River Archaeology 

Club, Findlay Antique Bottle Club, and the 

Findlay Glass Club are among the many special 

interest organizations established in the last 

decades of the twentieth century to study and 

preserve the history and culture of the area. 



& 

The fields of communication and 

transportation have also seen an astoundingly 

rapid evolution. Telephones have gone from the 

basic black desk top rotary phone to the 

ubiquitous cell phone now carried by every 

generation. Home and office computers and the 

internet have revolutionized communications 

and information distribution. 

As mass transit has become less available 

locally, with even interstate bus service in a 

decline, the automobile has become even more 

of a necessity. The public has struggled on 

occasions of high gasoline prices with giving up 

large, gas-guzzling vehicles in favor of smaller, 

more efficient vehicles. That factor and the 

competition between American car 

manufacturers and foreign car companies have 

had a local impact, as many companies within 

the county make parts for vehicles. 

Airplane transportation has become 

commonplace for many, for both business 

and personal travel. The Findlay Airport 

Even in the twenty-first century, agriculture 

continues to be the foundation of the county’s 

economy. However, farming has changed 

radically, too. 

Livestock in any quantity has nearly 

disappeared from the majority of local farms. 

Grain production, which is less time consuming 

than raising livestock, has become the mainstay 

of area agriculture. Corn and winter wheat are 

still raised in quantity. However, soybeans have 

become a leading grain, since they are now used 

in ink, plastics, oil, and bio-diesel fuel, among 

other uses. Genetically enhanced or modified 

grains, Roundup-ready soybeans, for example, 

have eliminated steps in farming. They have also 

raised controversy. Organic farming has gained a 

toehold in the agricultural economy. 

According to recent figures, 95% of county 

farmers and/or their spouses have a job off the 

farm. While costs of land and equipment have 

soared, farm commodity prices remain low. The 

farmers’ share of every dollar spent on food has 

been halved in the last 50 years, reflecting, in 

part, the higher degree of food processing. 

Farms have decreased in number, down to 979 

in Hancock County in 2000, and increased in 

size. Yet agriculture remains an important part 

of the local economy. 

The Hancock County Fair remains at its East 

Sandusky Street location, in spite of some effort 

to move to a new location on C.R. 140 west of 

Findlay. The fair is still a popular September 

event with both rural and town residents. 

THE 

FUTURE 

The residents of Hancock County have 

enjoyed good times and weathered bad for two 

hundred years. The soil, rock, and minerals 

beneath have played and still play an important 

role in the county’s life. Today remnants of the 

past remind us of where we have been and how 

far we have come. In the dawn of the twentyfirst 

century, the county is economically healthy 

and the future looks bright. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Beardsley, D.B. History of Hancock County, Ohio. Springfield, Ohio: Republic Printing Co., 1881 (Reprint, 1989). 

Brown, R.C. History of Hancock County, Ohio. Chicago, Illinois: Warner and Beers and Co., 1886 (Reprint, 1972). 

Geffs, Irvin. Hancock County in the World War, Findlay, Ohio, c. 1920. 

Hardesty, H.H. Hancock County, Ohio: Illustrated Atlas, 1875 

Heminger, R.L. Across the Years in Findlay and Hancock County. Findlay, Ohio: Republican Courier, 1965. 

Humphrey, William D. Findlay: The Story of a Community. Findlay, Ohio: Findlay Printing and Supply Company, 1961. 

Kern, Richard. Findlay College: The First Hundred Years. Nappanee, Indiana: Evangel Press, 1984. 

Kimmel, J.A. Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio. Chicago, Illinois: Richmond Arnold Publishing 

Company, 1910. 

Limmer, Darlene, Native Americans of Northwest Ohio, A Resource Guide. Maumee, Ohio: The Lucas County-Maumee Valley Historical 

Society, 2003. 

__________________, Maple Grove Cemetery Restoration, Names of Veterans from Crosses, Hancock County Veterans Services 

Office, Findlay, Ohio, 2005. 

______________, The Men and Women in World War II from Hancock County. Findlay, Ohio, c. 1948. 

Smith, Don E. Findlay Business and Industrial Historical Outline, Vols. 1-4, 1991. 

Snook, Debbi. “Ohio’s Trail of Tears.” Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Plain Dealer, 2003. 

Spaythe, Jacob A. A History of Hancock County, Ohio. Toledo, Ohio: The B.F. Wade Printing Company, 1903. 

Tanner, Helen Hornbeck, editor. Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History. Norman, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma Press for The 

Newberry Library, 1987. 

Weiser, Paulette J. Ethnic Roots: Immigrant and Racial Populations, 1830-1920, Hancock County, Ohio. Findlay, Ohio: Hancock Historical 

Museum, 1999. 

Weiser, Paulette, Herstory, Voices from the Past, Women in the History of Hancock County, Ohio, Findlay, Ohio: Hancock Historical 

Museum, 1996. 

Wilson, Gary, Wilson family farm records and records of the Ohio State University Extension Office for Hancock County, Findlay, 

Ohio, 2006. 

Bibliography ✦ 59


SHARING THE HERITAGE 

historic profiles of businesses, 

organizations, and families that have 

contributed to the development 

and economic base of Hancock County 

Marathon Petroleum Company, LLC ...................................................62 

OHM Corporation ...........................................................................66 

C&S Radiator Service, Inc. ..............................................................69 

National Lime & Stone Company.......................................................70 

Clyde-Findlay Area Credit Union ......................................................73 

TownePlace Suites by Marriott Findlay...............................................74 

Nissin Brake Ohio, Inc. ...................................................................76 

Blanchard Valley Hospital ................................................................78 

Whirlpool Corporation - Findlay Division...........................................80 

Findlay College/The University of Findlay ..........................................82 

Hancor, Inc....................................................................................84 

Fresh Encounter, Inc........................................................................86 

Judson Palmer Home .......................................................................88 

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company ........................................................90 

O.K. Industries, Inc. .......................................................................92 

Findlay Animal Hospital/Findlay Animal Care Center...........................94 

St. Micheal The Archangel Parish ......................................................96 

Hercules Tire & Rubber Company......................................................98 

Findlay City Schools......................................................................100 

Millstream Career & Technology Center............................................101 

Findlay•Hancock County Chamber of Commerce ................................102 

GreaterFindlayInc.........................................................................103 

Time Services ...............................................................................104 

CentraComm Communications, Inc...................................................105 

Freudenberg-NOK .........................................................................106 

Owens Community College..............................................................107 

Dietsch Brothers, Inc. ....................................................................108 

Fifth Third Bank (Northwestern Ohio) ..............................................109 

Findlay-Hancock County Public Library............................................110 

Hancock Historical Museum............................................................111 

Marbee Printing and Graphic Art ....................................................112 

SPECIAL 

THANKS TO 

Blanchard Valley 

Farmers Cooperative, Inc. 

Time Warner 

Sharing the Heritage ✦ 61

MARATHON OIL 

CORPORATION 

❖ 

Top: A Scots-Irish immigrant who 

began his career as a wildcatter, 

James C. Donnell became company 

president in 1901. He moved 

corporate headquarters from Lima, 

Ohio to Findlay in 1905 and 

managed far-flung production 

operations that stretched from 

westward Texas, Oklahoma and 

Wyoming. His son and grandson 

served successively. 

Bottom: As part of its worldwide 

outreach, Marathon entered Libya in 

the 1950s. Together with its operating 

partners, Marathon produced more 

than a billion barrels of oil and helped 

to introduce new seismic exploration 

techniques. The company’s recent 

return to Libya offers tremendous new 

potential for production success. 

Marathon Oil Corporation, ranked among 

the top twenty-five on the 2006 Fortune 500 list 

of the America’s largest companies, traces its 

roots to a time when Ohio ranked as the 

country’s top crude oil production center. 

Founded under the leadership of President 

Henry M. Ernst in northwestern Ohio, The 

Ohio Oil Company, as Marathon was known 

back then, became the largest oil producer in 

the state. 

Today, Marathon is the nation’s fourthlargest, 

fully integrated oil and gas company and 

the fifth-largest U.S. refiner and marketer. The 

Company is engaged in exploration and 

production; integrated gas; and refining, 

marketing and transportation operations. Its 

diverse industry expertise extends to liquefied 

natural gas (LNG) and gas-to-liquids 

technology. The Company’s 2005 worldwide 

daily production averaged 191,000 barrels of oil 

and 932 million cubic feet of gas per day. 

Marathon’s vision is to be recognized as a 

pacesetter in creating sustainable value growth 

through innovative energy solutions and unique 

partnerships. To realize this vision, the 

Company is applying a differentiated business 

model that takes it beyond a conventional 

integrated oil and gas business. 

Operations were not quite that sophisticated 

when the Company was founded way back in 

the late nineteenth century. Back then, the focus 

was on finding crude oil and pumping it out of 

the ground as quickly as possible. Through the 

years, Marathon has gone through numerous 

name changes, expanded and contracted 

business operations, moved its headquarters and 

expanded its reach into countries like Angola, 

Canada, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ireland, 

Libya, Norway and the United Kingdom. 

The first major development in The Ohio Oil 

Company occurred in 1889 when John D. 

Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust purchased the 

Company. As the oil industry matured, the 

Company moved its headquarters from Lima, 

Ohio, to Findlay, Ohio, which now serves as 

home to Marathon’s wholly owned subsidiary, 

Marathon Petroleum Company, LLC. 

Although Marathon has not always been as 

large as it is now, its history is replete with 

success and rapid growth. By 1908, The Ohio 

had established itself as a major pipeline 

company and controlled half the field 

production in three states. The Ohio extricated 

itself from the Standard Oil Trust three years 

later, resuming its independent status, following 

the dissolution of the Standard Oil monopoly, 

the result of U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt’s 

trust-busting campaign. 

James C. Donnell became president of the 

Company in 1911. Under his leadership, the 

Company assigned 1,800 miles of pipeline, as 

well as gathering and storage facilities, to the 

newly acquired Illinois Pipe Line Company. In 

1924, The Ohio purchased the Lincoln Oil 

Refining Company to better integrate and 


develop crude oil outlets. Two years later, the 

Company discovered the Yates Field in West 

Texas and formed the Ohio-Mexico Oil 

Company to manage seven concessions in 

northern Mexico. 

The Company continued to grow in 1930 

with the purchase of the Transcontinental 

Oil Company, acquiring the Marathon 

product name, the Pheidippides Greek runner 

trademark and the “Best in the long run” slogan. 

The Company went public for the first time that 

year, with its stock trading on the New York 

Stock Exchange. A year later, drilling 

discoveries in Mexico resulted in The Ohio’s 

first international natural gas production. 

By 1943, The Ohio had dissolved the Illinois 

Pipe Line Company and created its own internal 

pipeline department. The Company began 

prospecting in Canada and Guatemala, and five 

years later teamed up with Amerada and 

Conoco to form the Conorado Petroleum 

Corporation to identify geologically promising 

production sites worldwide. 

Drilling discoveries in 1949 in Alberta, 

Canada, resulted in The Ohio’s first 

international oil production. A decade later, the 

Company purchased the Aurora Gasoline 

Company, taking the Company’s gasoline sales 

beyond the national industry average, and 

opened a London office to handle interests in 

the Eastern Hemisphere. The Ohio’s pipeline 

department formed Marathon Pipe Line 

Company in that same year, and a natural gas 

field was discovered in Kenai, Alaska. 

Two years later, The Ohio began supplying 

natural gas to Anchorage, the largest city in 

Alaska. A year later, in 1962, The Ohio changed 

its name to Marathon Oil Company in 

celebration of its seventy-fifth anniversary and 

in honor of its brand-name motor fuel. The 

Company launched a new logo design and 

acquired Plymouth Oil Company, launching the 

Company into the wholesale gasoline business. 

Marathon, Amerada Hess and Conoco formed 

❖ 

Top: Built in 1976, the sprawling 

245,000 barrel-per-day plant in 

Garyville, Louisiana is still the 

country’s newest refinery. Marathon is 

a leader in refining and distributing 

clean, low-sulfur gasoline and diesel. 

It is also the country’s largest 

producer of asphalt. 

Bottom: Marathon's worldwideintegrated 

gas assets include this 

methanol plant in Equatorial Guinea. 

Marathon also is on a record setting 

pace in the construction of a liquefied 

natural gas plant in that central 

African country. 


❖ 

Top: The world headquarters of 

Marathon Oil Corporation are located 

in the Marathon Tower, Houston, 

Texas. 

The Oasis Group and achieved world-class 

commercial oil discoveries in Libya’s Sirte Basin. 

By 1965, having established itself in Alaska 

oil and gas exploration, Marathon discovered 

the McArthur River oilfield in the Cook Inlet 

region. Two years later, and decades before LNG 

became a household name, Marathon led the 

development of the world’s first ocean going 

tankers specially designed to transport LNG; a 

product the Company began exporting to Japan 

two years later. 

Marathon discovered the Kinsale Head 

natural gas field off the coast of Ireland in 1971. 

Production from two platforms began in the late 

1970s, providing Ireland with its first 

indigenous source of natural gas. By 1976, 

Marathon had purchased an international 

exploration and production company, Pan 

Ocean Oil Corporation, which allowed it to gain 

assets in the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Norway 

and Indonesia. 

A year later, Marathon Oil Company bought 

a just-built refinery in Garyville, Louisiana. This 

remains the newest grassroots refinery in the 

nation. Five years later, Marathon became a 

wholly owned subsidiary of United States Steel 

Corporation, and later USX Corporation, a 

relationship that lasted until 2002. 

In 1983, Marathon’s Brae “A” platform in the 

South Brae Field came on stream in the North 

Sea, beginning production in the United 

Kingdom. Marathon continued to acquire assets 

and grow the Company. In 1984, it acquired the 

exploration and production properties of Husky 

Oil, a premier producer in the State of Wyoming. 

In 1990, Marathon established its 

headquarters in Houston–the nation’s oil 

capital. In 1998, Marathon and Ashland Inc. 

formed Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, a 

joint venture combining the companies’ 

refining, marketing and transportation 

businesses. At the end of the start-up year, 

Marathon Ashland Petroleum emerged as one of 

the foremost firms in the downstream sector of 

the American petroleum industry. 

Marathon acquired Pennaco Energy in 2001, 

adding a leading coal bed methane asset and 

expanding its natural gas resources in North 

America. The USX Corporation’s Board of 

Directors later voted to separate the Marathon 

Group and United States Steel LLC and 

reestablish them as independent companies. 

Marathon Oil Corporation established itself 

as a stand-alone company in 2002, trading on 

the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol 

MRO. Marathon acquired CMS Energy’s assets 

in Equatorial Guinea that same year. During 

2005, Marathon became one hundred percent 

owner of Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, 

which changed its name to Marathon Petroleum 

Company LLC. Marathon Petroleum Company 

operates the company’s crude oil refining, 

marketing and transportation operations 

(known as “downstream” activities). It is a 

consistent leader in the downstream industry in 


several performance measures, including 

refinery yields, operating efficiencies and 

adjusted operating income per barrel of crude 

oil throughput. 

Marathon’s downstream operations are 

concentrated in the Midwest, upper Great Plains 

and Southeast regions of the United States. Its 

facilities are strategically located to serve major 

markets and include a seven-unit refining 

network with 974,000 barrels per day crude 

capacity, a comprehensive transportation and 

pipeline system, and extensive petroleum 

product marketing operations. 

Marathon is a company that strives to bring 

value and values together, creating value for its 

shareholders and providing quality products 

and services for its customers. In doing so, 

Marathon acts responsibly toward those who 

work for the Company, the communities in 

which it operates and its business partners. 

Marathon’s approach to business is guided by 

a commitment to the highest standards of health 

and safety, environmental stewardship, honesty 

and integrity, corporate citizenship, as well as a 

commitment to diversity, philanthropy and 

social responsibility. Social responsibility is 

another term for doing the right thing and 

considering the impact the Company’s actions 

will have on employees, customers, the 

community and other stakeholders. Marathon 

embraces corporate social responsibility and is 

committed to serving in a positive role as a 

responsible corporate citizen in the countries 

and communities in which it operates around 

the world. 

❖ 

Top: The Pheidippides Greek runner 

and slogan “Best in the longrun” was 

acquired in 1930. 

Bottom: The "downstream" business of 

refining, marketing and 

transportation is managed from 

Marathon's offices in Findlay, Ohio. 


OHM 

CORPORATION 

In 1972, the Kirk family 

founded OHM Corporation, 

which grew to become one of 

the largest hazardous waste 

remediation firms in the United 

States. Headquartered in Findlay, 

the company pioneered the 

environmental services business by 

performing cleanup of diesel fuel 

and chemical products resulting 

from transportation accidents. 

Utilizing modified earthmoving 

equipment, municipal vacuum 

trucks and a great deal of ingenuity; the 

company quickly established a niche market 

and built a national reputation for handling 

emergencies involving hazardous waste spills. 

By leveraging their prior experience in 

municipal wastewater treatment system design 

and construction, the company’s first call to 

cleanup a spill of diesel fuel from a tanker truck 

in Bucyrus, Ohio quickly evolved into a $1 

billion business providing toxic waste 

remediation services around the world. 

Numerous innovations allowed OHM to 

expand its emergency response capabilities to the 

railroad industry and beyond. OHM developed 

techniques to patch compressed propane and 

hydrogen rail cars involved in a derailment, and 

transfer the contents under dangerous conditions. 

Since many spills resulted in contamination of the 

surrounding soil and groundwater, the company 

soon began developing techniques and 

equipment for treating soil, sludge and 

groundwater tainted with toxic chemicals. In 

1980 the company responded to a fire at an 

abandon chemical manufacturing facility in 

Elizabeth, New Jersey containing over 60,000 

drums of unidentified chemical waste. OHM was 

contracted to extinguish the fire and perform the 

site remediation, which included bulk mixing of 

compatible wastes, drum shredding and disposal, 

building decontamination, and remediation of 

contaminated soil and groundwater. OHM 

completed the task in one year, half the time the 

New Jersey DEP projected. 

With new legislation introduced by the EPA, 

OHM recognized the opportunity to move into 

the on-site remediation business and focus its 

efforts on the cleanup of large Superfund sites 

and toxic waste dumps. The company redoubled 

its effort to develop new treatment technologies 

that could be deployed on-site to treat the more 

than 2,000 chemicals tagged by government 

health officials as hazardous. OHM engineers 

and scientists at the Findlay headquarters began 

to design and build equipment and patent 


environmental treatment processes, such as soil 

vaporization and thermal treatment techniques 

that are now widely used in the remediation 

industry. Engineers, hydrogeologists, chemists, 

biologists, environmental scientists, and 

numerous skilled trades were recruited to 

Findlay to support the development and 

implementation of new technologies. The 

company expanded its in-house fabrication, 

carpentry, electrical and electronics facilities 

where much of the specialty remediation 

equipment was fabricated. Additional resources 

and facilities to support OHM’s field operations 

were added including a full-service analytical 

laboratory, a treatability-testing laboratory and 

an operations training center. 

The Kirk family took OHM public in 1986, 

trading under the New York Stock Exchange. By 

1996, OHM had grown to over 3,500 employees 

and 33 offices around the country, with over 

$700 million in annual revenues. The company 

ranked number thirty-six in the Engineering 

News Record’s “Top 400 Contractors” list. The 

company’s $150-million fleet of 

more than 2,700 pieces of mobile treatment 

and related field equipment included thermal 

destruction units, groundwater treatment and 

recovery systems, biological reactor vessels, 

dredging and dewatering systems, soil vapor 

extraction skids, soil stabilization units, 

customized material handling systems, 

mobile analytical laboratories, and heavy 

construction equipment. 

With a vast array of technology and a history 

of over 30,000 successfully completed projects, 

including many of the nations most infamous 

Superfund sites, OHM targeted the U.S. 

Department of Defense and Department of 

Energy for cleanup of military bases and former 

weapons facilities scheduled for closure or 

conversion to civilian use. The company 

performed projects at over three hundred 

military bases for the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers, the U.S. Departments of the Navy 

and Air Force as well as projects for the U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency and the 

Department of Energy. 

Logistical support, teamwork and a can-do 

attitude were the hallmarks of OHM’s success, 

from the cleanup of Midway Island in the South 

Pacific to the destruction of PCBs in the arctic 

wilderness of Goose Bay, Labrador. Under 

contract from the U.S. Navy, OHM mobilized 

seven barges of equipment to Midway Island to 

remediate over 500,000 tons of contaminated 

soil and 1 million gallons of diesel fuel and 

contaminated groundwater utilizing its 

proprietary Dual Soil Vapor Extraction 

technology. OHM personnel installed over 500 

extraction and re-injection wells and 60,000 

feet of underground process piping over a sixty 

acre site while accommodating the nesting 

schedule of the Gooney bird, an endangered 

species that uses the island for nesting from 

November through May. The restored island was 

turned over to the Department of Fish and 

Wildlife to serve as a bird sanctuary. 

In 1990, OHM deployed its patented 

mobile infrared incinerator to Goose Bay, 


Labrador to destroy PCBs and dioxins for 

the Canadian Department of Defence. This 

project, conducted under arctic conditions 

with ambient temperatures of negative forty 

degrees Fahrenheit, entailed the excavation, 

transportation, and thermal destruction of 

PCB-contaminated soil, debris, transformers, 

capacitors, drums, and miscellaneous electrical 

components at a three-acre facility constructed 

and operated by OHM. The project convinced 

the regulatory community and the public 

that highly sophisticated mobile treatment 

technology could be safely deployed, almost 

anywhere, to destroy even the most 

dangerous chemicals. 

Closer to home, OHM and its successors 

were responsible for the cleanup of the Fernald 

Department of Energy site in Hamilton, Ohio, 

where a custom-designed indirect-fired dryer 

was deployed to treat over 1 million tons of 

radioactive soil, sludge and sediment from the 

former nuclear weapons facility. 

OHM focus from the inception has been the 

development and application of effective and 

efficient on-site treatment technologies to 

minimize the need for off-site waste disposal, 

thereby reducing negative environmental 

impact and associated liabilities to its 

customers. This history of innovation resulted 

in the commercialization of many new 

techniques and processes including: handling of 

shock-sensitive materials and explosives; 

development of the first mobile laboratory for 

on-site GC/MS analysis; design of the first 

remote drum opening device for safe 

sampling/handling of hazardous and explosive 

materials; development of the first analytical 

waste compatibility test scheme; first building 

decontamination for PCBs; first national PCB 

incineration permit; development of personal 

protection standards for explosives removal; 

largest bioreactor (four million gallons), and 

the first use of horizontal drilling system for 

soil remediation. 

In 1998 the IT Corporation (now the Shaw 

Group) acquired OHM. The Shaw Group 

continues to provide environmental restoration 

services to the public and private sectors from 

many of the former OHM facilities including the 

Findlay, Ohio headquarters. 

The Kirk family continues to operate 

numerous area businesses including Kirk 

Brothers Construction, Findlay Machine & Tool, 

ACI Construction, and H&O Services. Kirk 

Brothers Construction, founded in 1969 by the 

Kirk family, specializes in the construction of 

water and wastewater treatment facilities and 

underground utilities. Findlay Machine & Tool 

is a supplier of custom-engineered products and 

specializes in the design and manufacture of 

precision parts cleaning systems. ACI 

Construction offers a wide variety of 

construction services to both the public and 

private sectors including commercial office 

building construction and public school works. 

H&O Services is a full-service facility 

maintenance company and provides waste 

management and recycling services. These 

companies employ more than 350 people in 

northwest Ohio. 


C&S RADIATOR 

SERVICE, INC. 

C & S Radiator Service, Inc. opened its doors 

in April 1972. The company, founded by 

brothers-in-law Dick Callaghan and Ed Soisson, 

began with a mission to provide fast, reliable 

and affordable service for automotive and truck 

cooling systems. In affect, same-day service in 

most cases when, at the time, more than a day 

or two was the norm in the community. 

One month after opening the radiator 

and air-conditioning business, they followed 

through with introducing the Ziebart Automotive 

Rustproofing service to Findlay. With the main 

roots of their business in place, these two 

entrepreneurs did everything they could to get the 

phone to ring or the front door to open with a 

customer they could help with their services. No 

opportunity was overlooked to do everything 

possible to please their steadily increasing number 

of customers. Within a few months it was time to 

begin adding staff. The company now employs 

eleven dedicated professional men and women. 

As the business grew, so did the demand 

for space. In 1975, Ed and Dick moved their 

business from the founding location at 207 

East Crawford Avenue to a much larger 

and more customer friendly location at 334 

East Sandusky Street. The new location 

was welcomed by everyone as each area 

of the business continued to grow and 

expand. The radiator and air-conditioning 

business continued to expand into agricultural 

and semi-truck equipment, as well as 

industrial equipment. 

Once again in 1978, square footage 

was a major issue that had to be solved. 

The solution was to seperate the two 

companies. Dick took over the Ziebart and 

relocated to 2410 County Road 95. Ed would 

continue to operate the radiator and airconditioning 

part of the business at 334 East 

Sandusky Street. 

The plight and future business opportunities 

for C & S Radiator Service have 

never been better than they are 

today. The current level of business 

has grown in all areas to once 

again force the issue of additional 

square footage and more staff. 

A new location with expanded 

services and new state-of-the-art 

equipment is just over the horizon. Ed 

would like to thank all of the 

wonderful customers and employees 

that over the years have provided 

growth that has made the original 

business plan possible. 


NATIONAL 

LIME & STONE 

COMPANY 

❖ 

Today, stone is transported from the 

quarry to the processing plant by offhighway 

haul trucks and/or conveying 

systems. 

Above: In 1937, National purchased 

its first ready-mix truck. 

Below: In the early days of quarring 

stone, horses were used to bring the 

stone up from the bottom of the 

quarry. In later years, railcars 

replaced the horses. 

National Lime & Stone Company started in 

1903 with three lime kilns and a small stone 

operation. Today, the company has grown and 

expanded to become one of the nation’s largest 

independent producers of crushed stone, 

providing a wide variety of products for the 

nation’s infrastructure and basic industries. 

For four generations, people with 

imagination, innovation and determination have 

built the company into one of the strongest, 

most dependable sources of crushed stone, sand 

and gravel, and industrial mineral products in 

the world. 

National’s founders located their company 

over one of the largest, purest and most easily 

accessible deposits of dolomite limestone 

known in the world. This deposit is a coral rock 

formation laid down 350 million years ago 

when an ancient sea covered Ohio, and the 

founders planned to mine dolomite and calcite 

lime from the site. 

A handwritten charter dated March 17, 1903, 

stated that the Van Fleet Lime & Stone 

Company (the company’s original name) had 

been formed to quarry stone, manufacture lime 

and related products, handle coal and ice in 

connection with the business, deal builders’ 

supplies and purchase, sell and lease real estate 

as needed to conduct business. 

One of the founders was W.W. Edwards, a 

distant ancestor of Carleton P. Palmer, III, 

present board chairman and CEO. Palmer’s 

grandfather, Carleton P. Palmer, Sr., joined the 

company’s board in 1906 and Palmer’s father, 

C. Paul Palmer, Jr., was elected a director in 

1940, becoming president in 1950. 

The third generation of Palmers, Carleton P. 

Palmer, III, joined the company in 1970 after 

graduating from college and graduate school and 

working for a company in New York City for 

several years. In 1980 he became president and 

CEO and his father became Chairman of the 

Board. In 2005, C. Paul Palmer, IV, after practicing 

law in New York city for six years, joined the 

company and is currently vice president of 

Development and Corporate Counsel. 

Several other directors are descendants of the 

original founding families, including Thomas W. 

Palmer, Jeffrey K. Day, George F. Medill, III, and 

Kent W. Wommack. Directors D. Fort Flowers, 

Jr., and Richard W. Flowers represent another 

family interest that joined the company 

ownership in the 1930s. Ronald W. Kruse, 

president, and W. Michael Linn serve in the 

remaining director positions. 

One of the most important developments 

in the company’s history took place in its 

first few years when the owners traded a 

percentage of the company to the inventor 

of a hydrate lime process in exchange for control 

of his process. In 1906 the company expanded 

its Carey facilities by building Carey Plant No. 1, 

which grew to be the heart of the young 

company’s business. 

Throughout the next twenty years, the 

company expanded operations by acquiring 

other companies, opening new facilities and 

expanding existing ones to serve an increasing 

number of customers covering an everexpanding 

market. 

In 1926, National became one of the first 

companies in the industry to establish a 


laboratory to aid in quality control and product 

development. Today, the lab includes testing 

equipment for aggregates and state-of-the-art 

equipment for testing industrial minerals. The 

company moved its headquarters to Findlay in 

1927 to manage its growth and establish a more 

central location. 

During the Great Depression, National made 

several strategic plant improvements to enable it 

to survive. It bought, sold, opened and closed 

properties in response to the depression’s 

economic turns. The company entered the 

concrete business in 1937 in Lima by 

purchasing two ready-mix trucks. 

National made a major commitment to 

environmental excellence in 1948 by reclaiming 

the old quarry at Arlington, turning it 

into a showcase and one of the first and 

finest employee recreational parks in the 

nation. The quarry was pumped dry, graded 

and then seeded to provide food for stocked 

fish and wildlife. 

The Limestone Lake area now consists of a 

seventeen-acre lake and some fifty acres of 

parklands, including beach and picnic areas, 

two shelter houses, a bathhouse, barbeque grills 

and a meeting facility called Annesser Lodge. 

In 1986 the company started a trend that 

spread throughout the company when it 

invested $5 million to install a computercontrolled 

stone processing plant in Lima. 

National developed a state-of-the-art automated 

system to regulate the entire plant, supplying 

operational control for all plant processes and 

providing data retrieval and information. 

National vacated its old Findlay site in the 

early 1990s because of its location amid 

residences, Blanchard Valley Hospital and 

Findlay Airport. The company developed the 

site into an award-winning environmental 

showcase called Lake Cascades, a mixed 

development of residential and office sites. It 

became one of the first office tenants when it 

moved into its new corporate headquarters 

there in 1992. 

National has continued to expand its business 

by acquiring new plants, pioneering a new 

process to pelletize limestone fines and 

introducing the Ecophrst line of agricultural 

products. The company has moved aggressively to 

expand markets in eastern Ohio and the central 

part of the state and in 2000 undertook an $18 

million capital project to develop its business in 

central Ohio at its Columbus Region Quarry 

located in Delaware County. In 2006, a 

❖ 

Above: Today’s modern plants are 

equipped with various stages of 

crushing, screening and conveying 

equipment. 

Below: State-of-the-art blending 

system that is part of Columbus 

Region’s fractionated processing plant. 


❖ 

Above: National purchased one of its 

first steam shovels from the Panama 

Canal. 

Below: Screen tower used to separate 

different sized stone into piles. 

modernization of the Carey aggregate facility was 

started with an initial investment of $11.3 million. 

The company is determined to be the 

lowest-cost, most-efficient supplier of highquality 

products for each of its markets. That 

is both a desire and a necessity because 

price, service and quality often drive sales of 

basic materials. 

National provides a wide variety of products 

for the nation’s infrastructure and a number of 

basic industries. Crushed stone, in one form or 

another, is found in almost all construction 

projects from highways and railroads to homes 

and shopping centers. National also is a leading 

supplier of specialty dolomite-based minerals 

for the glass and steel industries. 

Other major uses of National’s mineral 

products include agricultural and lawn care 

applications. These products are also key 

ingredients in industrial fillers and sound 

deadening products used by the automotive and 

roofing industries. 

In 2006, National entered the market for 

natural cut stone used for architectural and 

landscape uses. It did this by forming a 

subsidiary company, Cascades Cut Stone 

Company, to produce and market the natural 

stone products used for stone veneer on 

buildings and homes and for stackable 

landscape walls. Other natural stone products, 

such as slabs for steps and water features, 

flagstone for patios and walls, and boulders for 

ornamental and decorative landscapes are 

harvested and made available to customers 

and distributors. 

Automated production processes at each of 

the company’s facilities are the result of 

significant capital investment in state-of-the-art 

technology. National has expanded its market 

by establishing a network of company-owned 

satellite sales distribution yards providing fast, 

cost-effective customer service in areas lacking 

quality stone deposits. 

National is a vertically integrated producer 

of stone and ready-mix concrete and uses 

its own fleet of trucks to deliver ready-mix 

concrete to construction projects. The company 

understands the need for sound environmental 

practices in its operations and the operations of 

customers that use its products to meet their 

own environmental requirements. 

National’s products help customers clean the 

air, water and industrial processes by supplying 

important products that reduce pollution and 

contribute to an improved environment. 

Throughout its 100 plus year history, 

National has relied on three recurring themes: 

• Adding meaningful and sustained value to 

customer operations; 

• Seeking continued improvement in 

operational efficiency and effectiveness, and; 

• Pursuing controlled profitable growth. 

National Lime & Stone Company owes its 

success to the hundreds of men and women 

who have built it into the success story that it is 

today. Their example has paved the way for 

today’s success and laid the foundation for 

future accomplishments that will produce 

outstanding opportunities for customers, 

employees, shareholders and the communities 

served by this progressive organization. 


Like the credit union industry itself, the 

Clyde-Findlay Area Credit Union came into 

existence to assist working people who had 

difficulty securing a loan. It now has a long 

history of meeting all the financial needs of its 

members. In addition, with no investors or 

stockholders, its financial assets stay within the 

credit union and the communities it serves, 

which include Hancock, Sandusky, and Seneca 

Counties in Ohio. 

Putting members first has always been the 

credit union’s philosophy. Through the years, 

membership, deposits, and loans have grown 

exponentially and services have expanded to 

keep up with members’ financial needs. 

Eleven employees of the Davidson Enamel 

Company in Clyde originally chartered the 

Clyde-Findlay Area Credit Union in 1937. In 

1945 the company became known as Clyde 

Porcelain Steel Corporation, which in 1952 was 

purchased by Whirlpool Corporation. 

In 1960 the credit union’s Clyde office moved 

from inside the Whirlpool plant to its own 

building at the entrance to Whirlpool’s property. 

In 1968 employees of Findlay’s Whirlpool 

formed their own credit union inside the 

plant. In 1971 the Findlay Whirlpool 

employees’ credit union decided to join 

forces with the Clyde Whirlpool employees’ 

credit union. 

Two years later, the Findlay credit union 

office moved out of the plant into a new facility 

directly across the road from the Findlay 

Whirlpool manufacturing operation. That office 

has since been updated and remodeled and 

remains in service to this day. 

CLYDE-FINDLAY AREA CREDIT UNION 

In 1983 a new building was built in Clyde 

to serve the expanding membership growth 

in that area and to provide additional financial 

services.That building has been remodeled and 

continues to serve members today. More than ten 

years later the credit union became a communitybased 

financial organization, serving any individual 

working, living, or attending school or church in 

Hancock, Seneca, or Sandusky Counties. 

In 1995 a third office was opened in a small 

shopping center in Findlay, but membership 

growth quickly overwhelmed that location. 

Therefore, in 2001 a new, full-service office was 

built at the corner of State Route 12 and County 

Road 236. 

While membership, products, and services 

have changed and grown through the 

years, some things will never 

change. Clyde-Findlay Area 

Credit Union will remain 

a not-for-profit financial 

cooperative, owned and 

operated by its members. 

Clyde-Findlay Area Credit 

Union has truly become a 

great place for members, 

and future members, to do 

their banking! 

For more information 

about Clyde-Findlay Area 

Credit Union, visit its 

website at www.cfacu.org. 

❖ 

Above: The East office of Clyde- 

Findlay Area Credit Union is located 

at 14901 State Road 12 in Findlay. 

Below: The North office of Clyde- 

Findlay Area Credit Union is located 

at 11814 Allen Township Road 100 in 

Findlay. 


TOWNEPLACE 

SUITES BY 

MARRIOTT 

FINDLAY 

TownePlace Suites by Marriott Findlay is one 

of more than 2,800 operating units in the United 

States and sixty-seven other countries and 

territories owned by Marriott International, Inc. 

Marriott is a leading worldwide hospitality 

company that traces its roots to a root beer stand 

opened by J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott in 

Washington, D.C., in 1927. 

Marriott International reported fiscal year 

2006 sales of $12.2 billion. It operates Marriott 

Executive Apartments and conference centers 

and provides furnished corporate housing 

through its Marriott ExecuStay division. It also 

operates and franchises hotels under the 

Marriott, JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, 

Renaissance, Residence Inn, Courtyard, Fairfield 

Inn, SpringHill Suites and Bulgari brand names. 

It also develops and operates vacation ownership 

resorts under the Marriott Vacation Club, 

Horizons by Marriott Vacation Club, The Ritz- 

Carlton Club, Grand Residences by Marriott and 

TownePlace Suites brands. 

TownePlace Suites provides spacious rooms 

with an array of amenities to make long-term 

stays the next best thing to staying at home. The 

townhome community feel at TownePlace is 

ideal for business or leisure travelers on an 

extended stay. Rooms are twenty-five percent 

larger than in standard hotels give you the space 

you need to unwind after a busy day. 

TownePlace is close to major corporations 

and the University of Findlay. Nearby 

restaurants, grocery stores and retail stores 

provide the convenience you need, so you can 

concentrate on business and enjoy your stay. 

Golf courses, horseback riding, jet-skiing, sailing 

and a jogging/walking trail provide you with all 

the recreational activities you will need. The onsite, 

twenty-four-hour fitness center with free 

weights and cardiovascular equipment adds to 

your recreational enjoyment. 

Amenities include laundry and housekeeping 

services, free local calls, personalized voice mail 

and high-speed Internet access. Suites come with 

work space, separate living and sleeping areas 

and a kitchen equipped with conventional and 

microwave ovens, dishwasher, stovetop, coffee 

maker and a full-size refrigerator. 

Other amenities include a hairdryer, iron and 

ironing board, climate control, a VCR and 


premium television channels, including Japan 

television. A pull-out sofa bed in the living room 

and complimentary daily newspaper in the 

lobby add to the amenities. Coffee/tea service is 

available in all suites. Or come down to the 

lobby at the three-story, eighty-six-room hotel 

and enjoy a free cup of coffee. A free continental 

breakfast is served every morning. 

Guests have an on-site laundry at their 

disposal and luxury bedding with crisp linens, 

thicker-than-normal mattresses, custom 

comforters and fluffy foam and down pillows. 

Cribs, rollaway beds, vending machines and a 

barbecue/picnic area are also a part of the 

TownePlace Suites package. 

Towneplace Suites’ parent company, Marriott 

International, is headquartered in Washington, 

D.C. It employs more than 150,000 people 

worldwide and is ranked as the lodging 

industry’s most admired company and one of the 

best places to work by Fortune. The company is 

also a 2006 U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR Partner. 

Marriott is committed to engaging small, 

minority and women-owned businesses to 

supply key products and services. It reached 

historic benchmarks in company-wide diversity 

initiatives in 2006. They include $400 million 

spent with women and minority owned 

businesses; 400 hotels opened, or in the 

pipeline, owned or managed by minorities or 

women and an all-time high in diverse 

appointments to management positions. More 

than thirty percent of new college hires in 2006 

were minority graduates recruited from fortythree 

universities, including nine Historically 

Black Colleges and Universities. 

The core values established by the Marriott 

family more than seventy-five years ago continue 

to serve the company well and will continue to 

guide our growth into the future. Foremost of 

these core values is the belief that our associates 

are our greatest assets. The “Marriott Way” is 

about serving associates, customers, and the 

communities in which it operates. 

So the next time you are in the Findlay 

area, make your stay as comfortable and 

productive as possible with an extended stay 

at TownePlace Suites Findlay, a Marriott 

International, Inc., member. 


❖ 

NISSIN BRAKE 

OHIO, INC. 

Above: Nissin Brake Ohio, Inc. 

located in Findlay, Ohio. 

Below: Nissin Brake Ohio specializes 

in aluminum casting technology and 

brake systems development and 

manufacturing for automotive and 

non-automotive applications. 

Nissin Brake Ohio, Inc., is 

one of fourteen production 

sites in nine countries owned 

and operated by Nissin Kogyo 

Co., Ltd., which develops 

and manufactures a wide 

range of brake products for 

automobiles, motorcycles, and 

ATVs. Nissin Brake Ohio has 

annual sales of approximately 

$365M as of March 2006. 

The Findlay production 

site was established in 1988 

as Findlex Corporation. The 

company changed its name to 

Nissin Brake Ohio, Inc., in April 2004 to help 

promote the world-recognized “Nissin” brand 

name in North America. 

Nissin’s goal is to produce the most advanced 

braking systems possible. The company is 

therefore engaged in research and development 

encompassing a wide range of technologies and 

products. The company’s series of anti-lock brake 

systems–a fusion of advanced brake and 

computerized control system technologies–have 

sold more than 10 million units. 

Nissin also is using aluminum casting and 

processing technologies, a second strength 

rivaling its expertise in brake technology, to 

develop and manufacture lighter products. By 

leveraging technological prowess in these core 

business areas to deliver compact, lightweight, 

and high-performance components, Nissin is 

doing its part to reduce environmental impact 

and enhance safety. 

As the automotive industry has evolved, so 

has Nissin, developing and manufacturing a 

wide range of brake products. The company was 

quick to respond to the internationalization of 

the automotive industry, initiating local 

production in Thailand in 1973 to meet the 

needs of its global customers. Expansion into 

other parts of Asia, the Americas and Europe 

soon followed. 

Nissin Brake Ohio is a Tier 1 supplier of 

brake systems, including anti-lock brakes, for 

automotive and non-automotive applications 

for Honda, Harley-Davidson, General Motors 

and others. Nissin Brake Ohio has multiple 

locations employing approximately 800 

associates in its Findlay manufacturing facility. 

It works in partnership with Nissin Brake 

Georgia, Inc., established in Rock Spring, 

Georgia, in 2000, to support its customers. 

Nissin Brake Ohio has extensive 

manufacturing capabilities and expertise 

gained in approximately two decades of 

supplying parts to Honda and other customers. 

Its capabilities include aluminum gravity 

casting, aluminum and steel machining, 

anodizing, zinc plating, plastic mold injection, 

heat treatment, assembly and X-ray and dye 

penetration testing. 

Nissin Brake Ohio has made significant 

advancement in the areas of Lean Manufacturing, 

5S, Total Productive Management and Associate 

Involvement Programs. The company believes in 

empowering associates to use the tools of lean 

methodology and Kaizen philosophy to eliminate 


sources of waste, to continue to strive toward 

world-class quality and to work more efficiently 

toward Nissin’s continued success. 

Nissin Brake Ohio is committed to 

maintaining a safe and healthy working 

environment through Associate Empowerment 

to continue development, implementation 

and improvement of a comprehensive 

environmental, health, and safety program. The 

Ohio company operates with regard to the 

protection of the environment and the 

conservation of natural resources. 

The company’s associates recognize the 

importance of an environmental management 

system, and they are empowered to implement 

and maintain it throughout the organization. 

Nissin Brake is determined to evaluate the 

potential of environmental impacts and actively 

pursue continual improvement and pollution 

prevention through disposal, recycling, reuse and 

waste exchange. 

The company also is committed to maintaining 

compliance with all applicable federal, state and 

local environmental regulations. It is committed to 

maintaining compliance with all of Nissin Brake 

Ohio’s internal policies and to maintaining 

effective communications and continued 

cooperation with any interested parties. Nissin 

Brake Ohio develops and implements targets and 

objectives to reduce emissions and waste 

generation rates. 

Nissin Brake Ohio is dedicated to 

integrity and self-reliance in supplying 

an international market. The company 

continually exceeds customer expectations and 

manufactures the highest quality products 

at competitive costs. Through state-ofthe-art 

technology and a responsibility 

to environmental conservation, the company 

strives to be a benefit to its associates, an 

asset to the community and a positive 

experience for all who have contact with 

the company. 

❖ 

Above: Nissin Brake Georgia, Inc. 

located in Rock Spring, Georgia. 

Below: Nissin brake systems are world 

famous among racers. 


BLANCHARD 

VALLEY 

HOSPITAL 

With more than a century of 

service to Findlay, Hancock County, 

and surrounding areas, Blanchard 

Valley Hospital (BVH) has grown 

from a single hospital to a 

comprehensive health organization. 

Originally located in a house on 

North Main Street, the hospital was 

incorporated on June 23, 1891 as 

“The Findlay Home for Friendless 

Women and Children.” Four years 

later, the hospital moved to the 

French Estate, on the land where it 

is located today. In 1895 the name 

was changed to the “Home and 

Hospital of the City of Findlay.” 

To keep up with the demands of 

a growing population, the Home 

and Hospital built additions in 1910 

and 1924. In 1938 and again in 

1950, the hospital changed its name to the 

“Findlay Hospital” and “Blanchard Valley 

Hospital” respectively. The Women’s Auxiliary 

was incorporated in 1949 for the purpose 

of rendering service and raising funds 

for Blanchard Valley Hospital, and to assist 

in promoting the health and welfare of 

the community. 

A new, 170 bed hospital with three wings 

opened its doors in 1958. A local bond issue 

and private contributions raised the funds to 

support this effort. A $2 million expansion in 

1967 increased the capacity of Blanchard Valley 

Hospital to 230 beds. This included an enlarged 

pediatrics area, installation of a data processing 

department, and an expansion of nearly every 

department in the hospital. 

The 1970s were a busy time for BVH. One of 

the most memorable events occurred in 1974 

when Blanchard Valley Hospital made national 

headlines for being the first hospital in the 

nation to guarantee its services. Articles 

appeared in the Wall Street Journal and Ladies 

Home Journal. In 1975, Blanchard Valley 

Medical Center opened, housing offices for 

individual and group physician practices. The 

hospital announced its Same-day Surgery 

Program in 1977. 

As the community of Findlay experienced 

growth and prosperity, so did its health system 

with major expansions occurring throughout 

the 1980s and 1990s. Home Health Services 

began serving homebound patients after 

healthcare professionals learned that 

many patients recuperate faster at home. 

Blanchard Valley Health Association was 

formed as the parent corporation of 

Blanchard Valley Hospital and Blanchard Valley 

Health Services. 

To serve terminally ill patients, BVHA added 

Hospice of Hancock County to its growing list 

of services. In 1989, the Center for Diagnostic 

Studies opened and was entirely devoted to 

outpatient services, a growing trend in 


healthcare. Other services that opened in the 

nineties include the Lake Cascades Complex, 

Physicians Plus Urgent Care and the Blanchard 

Valley Center for Sleep Disorders. 

The new millennium brought more 

expansions and grand openings! The Ruse 

Center opened in 2002, featuring new areas for 

emergency services, imaging, same day surgery, 

HeartCare Center and helipad. Findlay’s premier 

retirement community, Birchaven Village, 

opened its doors in 2003 focusing on long-term 

care and independent living. 

Ground was broken for a state-of-the-art 

inpatient facility, The Thomas B. and Kathleen 

M. Donnell Patient Pavilion, in late 2004. 

Tom and Kate turned the first shovel at the 

ceremony and construction began almost 

immediately. The Donnell Pavilion is known 

for its healing environment, with abundant 

natural light, large dayrooms, plants, and a 

“respite” garden. 

After years of planning, Blanchard Valley 

Hospital announced an Open Heart Program in 

2005. The services offered by the HeartCare 

Center make it possible for more than 200 

patients each year to receive lifesaving treatment 

in their own community. 

Blanchard Valley Health System, parent 

organization of Blanchard Valley Hospital, is one 

of the largest employers in the area with more 

than 1,700 associates. A dedicated group of 

more than 1,200 volunteers supports the Health 

System through their contributions of both time 

and money. 


WHIRLPOOL 

CORPORATION - 

FINDLAY 

DIVISION 

In 1967 the Findlay Division began its 

operations with a small workforce of 200 people 

building food waste disposers. Over the years, the 

division has grown into the world’s largest 

dishwasher manufacturing facility with over 2,200 

employees. The continued success of the division 

is a reflection of a workforce committed to 

building the best quality appliances available on 

the market. 

Over the years, many products have been built 

at the Findlay Division, including clothes dryers, 

built-in ranges and freestanding ranges. 

Dishwasher production began in 1968, and today 

the division is dedicated to manufacturing undercounter 

and portable dishwashers. 

The Findlay Division, which produces both 

stainless steel and plastic models, manufactures 

two dishwasher platforms: Tall Tub and Standard 

Tub. Several dishwasher brands are built in 

Findlay, including Whirlpool, KitchenAid, 

Roper, Admiral, Inglis (Canada) and Estate. The 

Findlay Division also produces Kenmore brand 

dishwashers, marketed by Sears Roebuck and 

Sears Canada. 

Additionally, the Findlay Division manufactures 

the world’s only in-sink dishwasher. The Briva ® insink 

dishwasher offers consumers the flexibility of 

washing small loads, using up to fifty percent less 

water than full-sized dishwashers. It quietly 

completes small loads in about half the time of a 

standard dishwasher and can also be used as a sink 

or food preparation area. 

Products built at the Findlay Division are 

marketed throughout North America. The division 

sits on seventy-five acres and has more than one 

million square feet of manufacturing space and 

550,000 square feet of warehouse space. Over fifty 

million units have been produced at the facility. 

The Findlay Division has received numerous 

awards for its work. Sears Roebuck has recognized 

the division through several Partners in Progress 


awards. The company also named the division its 

Source of the Year twice. Sears Canada, through 

the presentation of Partners in Progress awards, 

has also recognized the Findlay Division. 

A leading consumer magazine consistently rates 

Findlay-built dishwashers among the best in the 

industry. The Findlay Division has been 

recognized for its utilization of maximized 

manufacturing, which focuses on eliminating 

defects and increasing equipment uptime. 

Whirlpool Corporation is the world’s leading 

manufacturer and marketer of major home 

appliances, with annual sales of more than $19 

billion, 80,000 employees, and 60 manufacturing 

and technology centers in 12 countries globally. 

Whirlpool Corporation markets Whirlpool, 

Maytag, KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Amana, Brastemp, 

Bauknecht, Gladiator and other major brand 

names to consumers in nearly every country 

around the world. The publicly owned company 

trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the 

ticker symbol WHR. 

Throughout the past decade, Whirlpool 

Corporation has transformed itself from a regional 

manufacturing and trade-focused business into a 

global, consumer-driven enterprise. The success of 

Whirlpool’s global business is driven by its ability 

to truly understand and fulfill customer needs, 

develop highly innovative branded solutions, 

effectively serve trade partners and continuously 

improve productivity and quality. 

Creating unmatched customer loyalty for their 

brands is the cornerstone of the company’s 

business strategy. This simple idea is based on an 

in-depth understanding of customers’ needs, 

wants and expectations, so they can consistently 

deliver unique, innovative solutions to meet or 

exceed these expectations. 

“Every Home…Everywhere, with Pride, 

Passion, and Performance.” These are the 

hallmarks of Whirlpool. Whirlpool demonstrates 

its commitment to community and society 

through its partnership with Habitat for Humanity 

International (HFHI). Whirlpool is the largest 

global partner of Habitat for Humanity. The 

partnership is about inspiring employees, trade 

partners, and consumers to build lives through the 

unforgettable, life-enriching experience that is 

Habitat for Humanity. 

Beginning in 1999, Whirlpool Corporation 

partnered with HFHI by donating a refrigerator 

and a range to every Habitat home built in North 

America during that year. To date, Whirlpool has 

donated over 80,000 ENERGY STAR ® qualified 

refrigerators and ranges to Habitat homes in 

North America. 

Locally, the Findlay Division donates a 

dishwasher to every Habitat home built in 

Hancock County. Employees have actively 

donated their time and talent in several Habitat 

home builds. In addition, the Findlay Division 

has sponsored a blitz build and women build in 

the community. 


FINDLAY 

COLLEGE/ 

THE UNIVERSITY 

❖ 

OF FINDLAY 

Top: Modern laboratories and 

instruction in human anatomy benefit 

students in the many health 

professions programs. 

Bottom: Built between 1884-1886, 

Old Main remains the centerpiece of 

the more than seventy-acre main 

campus that serves more than 4,500 

students. 

The University of 

Findlay has come a long 

way since its founding in 

1882. In recent years, 

enrollment has grown 

to more than 4,500 

students. A physical plant 

encompassing 248 acres 

provides facilities to serve 

more than sixty majors, 

eight graduate degrees and a 

doctor of pharmacy. 

The Churches of 

God, General Conference, 

established in 1830 in 

Pennsylvania, was looking 

in 1881 for a location to found an institution 

of higher education. At the same time, 

the thriving town of Findlay, population 

4,633, was eager to attract a college that 

would add to the prestige and prosperity of 

the town. 

An agreement was reached in which the 

citizens of the town donated ten acres of land 

valued at $10,000 and $20,000 toward the 

construction of the building, which was estimated 

as costing $50,000. The Churches of God was to 

make up the balance, or roughly half the cost. 

The certificate of incorporation was signed 

by the Ohio Secretary of State on February 2, 

1882, and the first board of trustees meeting 

was held February 8. 

Work began in the fall of 1883, with rock for 

the foundation hauled by horse and wagon 

to the site. Limestone, cut stone, brick and 

lumber from the local area were used in the 

construction of Old Main. The cornerstone 

was laid in May 1884 with the first seventy 

students matriculating at Findlay College on 

September 1, 1886. 

According to Dr. G. Richard Kern, professor 

emeritus of history, it was intended in the 

beginning for Findlay College to be a liberal arts 

institution. In 1893, Findlay College acquired 

the Findlay Business School and a Conservatory 

of Music, and later added a “normal school” to 

educate teachers. All were programs that met 

community needs. 

The College weathered many adversities, 

including the Depression when faculty salaries 

were slashed forty percent, a devastating fire in 

Old Main in 1938 that burned part of the first 

floor and World War II that left only 

132–mostly female–students in 1943-44. 

From 1955-70, the College embarked on a 

building boom, with the construction of six 

residence halls and a student union, and 

facilities for fine arts, sciences, physical 

education and a library. 

Beginning in the 1970s, Findlay began 

developing a number of market-driven 

programs, including the Intensive English 

Language Institute for international students, 

equestrian studies and weekend college for 

working adults in the area. 


Building on those successes, Findlay has 

created a number of specialty programs such as 

majors in pre-veterinary medicine, hospitality 

management, and environmental, safety and 

occupational health management, and 

established graduate degrees in the health 

professions, education, business and liberal 

studies. These programs attract students from 

across the nation, as well as serve students in 

northwest Ohio. 

On July 1, 1989, the institution changed its 

name to The University of Findlay in 

recognition of the growth in enrollment and the 

addition of graduate programming. 

In the decade that followed, a second 

construction boom provided modern facilities 

for the sciences, visual arts, health professions, 

weight training, athletics and English riding. 

Further additions since 2000 have included 

student living spaces and offices in the UF 

Village, townhouse apartments, an outdoor 

sports complex and the purchase of the former 

Findlay campus of Owens Community College. 

Boasting a long tradition of excellence in 

athletics, The University of Findlay currently 

fields twenty-three intercollegiate teams and has 

won numerous regional tournaments over the 

years. UF also has achieved national 

championships in football, wrestling, and 

English and western riding. 

Findlay has evolved into a comprehensive 

university with a strong emphasis on equipping 

students for the job market. Despite the 

focus on career preparation, the liberal arts 

remain embedded in the curriculum, Dr. Kern 

pointed out. “We meet the needs of students. 

That is the legacy.” 

Information prior to 1982 was taken 

from Findlay College: The First Hundred Years 

by Dr. G. Richard Kern. 

❖ 

Bottom: UF's nationally recognized 

equestrian degree programs in 

western and English riding combine 

academic studies with instruction in 

riding and training horses. 


HANCOR, INC. 

Hancor Inc., founded as the Hancock Brick 

and Tile Company in 1887, is an industry leader 

in providing innovative drainage and water 

conservation solutions for a broad range of 

industries and applications worldwide. 

The company became a wholly owned 

subsidiary of Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. 

(ADS) in July of 2005 when it purchased Hancor 

in a move to strengthen its position as a supplier of 

storm water management systems. The acquisition 

brought two strong companies together to provide 

comprehensive product and service solutions for 

design engineers, public works officials and 

underground utility contractors. 

Hancor and ADS are committed to 

promoting the approval and acceptance of highdensity 

polyethylene (HDPE) pipe in building 

and repairing the country’s storm water sewer 

infrastructure. Their merger places the company 

in a stronger position to compete with 

manufacturers of concrete, steel and PVC pipe. 

The new organization has forty-two domestic 

and international manufacturing facilities 

producing pipe and fittings in two-inch through 

sixty-inch diameters, along with other engineered 

surface and subsurface drainage structures. 

It may seem odd that a company that 

began by making bricks is now a world leader in 

storm water management systems. But as 

anyone who has studied business knows, 

companies that survive are those that adapt and 

evolve with the marketplace. 

Hancor’s story goes back to a man named 

Daniel E. Child, who started out as a teacher 

before opening a sewing machine business. He 

later formed a reed organ manufacturing 

company that failed and it was on a train trip 

back to the family farm that he discovered 

Findlay, Ohio. 

The train broke down in Findlay, which was in 

the midst of a natural gas boom, and Child 

recognized the city’s potential as a place to start a 

successful business. He decided to open a 

brickyard despite the fact that the city was home to 

several others. He brought in a couple of partners 

and began business in 1887 manufacturing brick 

and later, drain tile made of clay. 

Child’s sons and grandsons eventually took 

over the company’s operations. Jim L. Child 

served as president and is credited with moving 

the company into the modern era by keeping a 

close eye on a revolutionary development in 

plastic drainage tile that emerged from Europe. 

In 1968 the Hancor Division incorporated as 

the plastic tubing manufacturing division of the 

Hancock Brick & Tile Company. That led to the 

construction of new plants across the country 

designed to produce HDPE (high-density 

polyethylene) drainage tubing. 

A merger agreement on January 1, 1975, 

signaled the end of the Hancock Brick & Tile 

Company and the birth of Hancor, Inc. The 


company experienced a series of ups and downs 

through the next several years, with major 

challenges to the company occurring when two 

business ventures did not pan out as expected. 

Fred Kremer, Jr., was hired as a consultant in 

1982 to help the company steer its way through 

the rocky shoals that for a time threatened to 

sink the company. Within a year, it had made a 

remarkable turnaround and Kremer was asked 

to take over as president and CEO. 

The company continued to look for new 

uses for its products. It also diversified into 

new product lines whose basic technology 

is akin to Hancor’s. The company expanded 

into the construction products market with 

items such as storm sewer systems, culverts 

and cross drains, edge and slope drainage 

and retention/detention systems for land 

maximization solutions. 

By the mid 1980s, it became obvious that the 

company’s ownership was due for a change. The 

major shareholders–all members of the Child 

family–had either reached retirement age or 

were approaching it. They wanted to convert 

their investment in the company to tangible 

assets and the upcoming generations had no 

desire to run the company. 

Kremer saw this as an opportunity to 

own his own company and on April 22, 

1986, in conjunction with Citicorp Venture 

Capital, Ltd. of New York, he and 

his management team became Hancor’s 

new owners. 

Today, Hancor is dedicated to continuing to 

build and acquire the necessary technologies to 

provide the best products and services to its 

customers worldwide. 

For additional information on Hancor, Inc., 

visit www.hancor.com. Hancor, Inc.’s Findlay, 

Ohio office is located at 401 Olive Street. 


FRESH 

ENCOUNTER, 

INC. 

Fresh Encounter, an 

Ohio corporation, came 

into existence in 1995 when 

Michael Needler purchased 

CWC Companies, Inc., a 

supermarket management 

company founded in 1964 

by Carroll W. Cheek. 

CWC operated the Great 

Scot!, Sack ’N Save and 

Community Market Stores. 

These stores, with the 

longstanding image of 

providing service, value and 

convenience to the communities they served, 

provided a strong foundation upon which Fresh 

Encounter grew. The company nearly doubled 

in 1998 through the purchase of Fulmer 

Supermarkets, Inc., a retailer founded in 1909. 

Fulmer operated stores under the Fulmer, 

Bob & Carl’s and Ev’s banners in contiguous 

markets to the south of Fresh Encounters 

existing operations. 

The company continued to grow in 2000 

with the purchase of two Gerber Brothers 

Supermarkets in eastern Indiana and the 

opening of a new Community Markets store in 

Delta, Ohio. The company’s growth-throughacquisition 

strategy has transformed the 

company into the largest independent 

supermarket operator in western Ohio based on 

number of stores and the second-largest 

operator in sales. 

Fresh Encounter operates two 

distinctive divisions beneath its corporate 

banner, Progressive Refrigeration and 

Continental Distributing. 

Progressive Refrigeration is geographically 

divided into two divisions serving the stores and 

attracting outside clients. They are always ready 

to respond to the needs of the retail community 

they serve. 

Continental Distributing was established to 

assist the stores with product and supply 

distribution. Continental Distributing serves 

the company by moving product and supplies 

from the corporate warehouse to the stores, 

from one to another, distributing weekly 

advertising inserts and any other needed 

transportation services. 

Fresh Encounter is a leading charitable 

giver in its industry, proudly supporting 

community charities and events. The 

company is honored to be a supporter, 

both corporately and individually, of its 

local communities through United Way, and 

each summer hosts the Fresh Encounter 

Annual Golf Classic to raise money for 

worthwhile charities in Ohio and Indiana. 

Fresh Encounter also awards two $1,000 

scholarships each year to deserving high school 

seniors who plan to pursue a career in the 

supermarket industry. 

The company has several programs to help 

raise money in the community including: 

• Community Cash: The company donates one 

percent cash back on qualifying 

purchases made at its stores. Participants 

sign up, shop and turn in their cash 

register receipts. 


• Gift Certificates: Organizations purchase gift 

certificates at a discount and resell them at 

face value, keeping the profit. 

• Shopping Sprees: Organizations receive 

500 “Shopping Spree” tickets, which 

organizations sell for any denomination. 

They then choose a drawing date to award 

one lucky winner a ninety-second shopping 

spree. The organization pays for the groceries 

and keeps the rest of the ticket proceeds. 

• Labels for Learning: Register and save labels 

off “Our Family” products. Schools earn $25 

for every 500 UPCs turned in. 

Fresh Encounter’s “go-to-market” strategy 

is to capture the economies of scale of a 

regional chain while operating within a niche 

that provides communities a convenient 

neighborhood location, an easy-to-shop layout 

and competitive values, all packaged within a 

hometown community service image. 

Convenience is a key factor with stores 

often strategically placed in residential areas 

on the opposite side of town from the 

larger format chain competitors such as 

Kroger and Meijer. This strategy creates 

a substantial competitive niche by ensuring a 

loyal neighborhood clientele while providing 

a buffer against the marketing strategies of 

larger companies. 

Today, Fresh Encounter operates 31 

supermarkets in western Ohio (29) and eastern 

Indiana (2). The stores operate under the 

banners of Great Scot! (9), Sack ’N Save (1), 

Community Markets (17), Fulmer (3), and 

Save-A-Lot (1). Fresh Encounter stores vary in 

size (9,200 square feet to 44,000 square feet) 

and location. They do, however, have one thing 

in common: an emphasis on service and the 

local community. 


JUDSON 

PALMER 

HOME 

Philanthropy is not always easy. Giving away 

money to fund a future need does not always 

stand the test of time. Technology, new 

government programs, and lifestyle changes 

have condemned many well-funded trust funds 

to irrelevance. 

So it is significant that the intentions outlined 

in the trust fund established by Judson and 

Katherine Palmer, which established the 

philanthropic base for the Judson Palmer Home, 

serve the Hancock County community, today, 

just as they were intended nearly a century ago 

when they were first written. 

The Judson Palmer Home is truly unique. 

Prior to Judson Palmer’s death, which occurred 

circa 1919, the Palmers established a fund for 

the home in their will. They had no children. It 

was their wish that a building be erected to 

provide a home for women with limited 

financial means and fifty-five years of age or 

older. Prospective residents needed to be in 

reasonably good health and be residents of 

Hancock County. 

Judson was involved in the grocery business 

and a flourmill and was also president of the 

Farmers’ Bank in Findlay. Katherine Palmer died 

in 1939 and plans for the Judson Palmer Home 

were unveiled. 

World War II, however, delayed the project. 

Katherine wished that the home would be 

situated in her home on South Main Street. 

Unfortunately, that wish could not be carried 

out. The board of directors purchased larger 

property at 2911 North Main Street in 1949. 

The building was completed and dedicated on 

August 18, 1950. 

Due to the prudent investments made by the 

late Harley Watkins, a Toledo lawyer whose firm 

still handles the home’s trust fund, the Judson 


Palmer Home has managed to maintain its high 

quality of financial care for its residents. It has 

met every expectation of the board and of those 

ladies who have since called it “home.” 

Still supervised by a local board of directors, 

funds from the trust not only provide a home for 

up to seventeen ladies, but also enable the 

trustees to maintain the building. Today, the 

tradition continues at the warm and beautifully 

appointed facility. 

The Judson Palmer Home is not a nursing 

home. Once admitted to the home, however, 

residents receive care for the rest of their lives. If 

they need hospital or nursing home care, funds 

from the trust are used to meet these needs, as 

are funeral expenses. 

The two-story brick, colonial-style building 

sits on an expansive green lawn in north 

Findlay. The Judson Palmer Home seeks no 

funding from the community...it only provides 

service to the community. 

A staff of 25 people provides 24-hour care. 

Residents enjoy comfortable, individual rooms 

and tastefully decorated common areas. Three 

nutritious, delicious meals and a snack are 

available daily. 

Residents are free to come and go as their 

health permits, but planned social activities, 

both in and out of the home, are provided. 

Personal care services, such as a beautician, are 

available. Other services include laundry, 

housekeeping, and nursing aide attendants. 

Cable television is available in each resident 

room and in common areas. Numerous games 

and a piano are available for resident use. In the 

summer, residents can stroll in a rose garden 

carefully maintained on the lovely grounds. 


COOPER TIRE & 

RUBBER COMPANY 

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company 

is a global competitor in the 

replacement tire industry, with 

manufacturing facilities on three 

continents, sales and distribution 

networks around the world and 

products that meet and exceed the 

demands of the world’s most 

dynamic markets. 

Cooper has maintained a 

competitive position among tire 

manufacturers in this country. It 

stands now as one of only two U.S.- 

owned tire manufacturers. Cooper 

Tire & Rubber Company is the 

fourth largest tire manufacturer in 

North America and the eighth 

largest in the world, shipping 

tires to more than 110 countries 

and employing nearly 14,000 

people worldwide. 

Today’s Cooper is a smart, innovative 

company capable of connecting in consumer 

and specialty markets around the world. Cooper 

provides a full line of tires to meet the needs of 

virtually all consumers from everyday motorists 

to the most demanding high-performance, offroad 

and motorsport enthusiasts. 

The Findlay, Ohio-based company 

concentrates on the replacement tire market. 

The company produces tires for automobiles, 

trucks and motorcycles, as well as tread rubber 

and retreading equipment. Proprietary brands 

include Cooper, Mastercraft, Avon, Dean, 

Starfire, Mickey Thompson, Dick Cepek, 

Chengshan, and Austone. 

The company’s history dates back to 1914, 

when brothers-in-law John F. Schaefer and 

Claude E. Hart purchased M and M 

Manufacturing Company in Akron, producing 

tire patches, tire cement and tire repair kits. A 

year later, Schaefer and Hart purchased The 

Giant Tire & Rubber Company of Akron, a tire 

rebuilding business, and two years later moved 

the business to Findlay, Ohio. 

The company grew in subsequent years 

through mergers, acquisitions and expanding 

sales. During World War II, the company 

demonstrated its flexibility and patriotism by 

converting its “hard goods” department to 

wartime production. 

The firm changed its name to Cooper Tire & 

Rubber Company in 1946 and by July 11, 1960, 

the company became a publicly held 

corporation and was listed on the New York 

Stock Exchange. Throughout the next five 

decades, the company expanded its products, 

manufacturing plants, distribution system and 

marketplace. The company joined the ranks of 

Fortune 500 companies in 1983 as one of the 

largest industrial companies in the United 

States. Net sales reached $1 billion in 1991. 

By 1999, Cooper had fifty manufacturing 

facilities in nine countries. Much of the 

company’s growth came through the acquisition 

of The Standard Products Company, a move that 

added 10,000 employees to its payroll. 

With the purchase of the highly regarded 

Avon Tyres Limited, based in Melksham, 

England in 1997 and the acquisition of Mickey 

Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels in 

2003, Cooper positioned itself as a pre-eminent 

producer of high-performance and ultra-highperformance 

tires. 

Cooper took a significant step forward in its 

strategy of expanding into the Asian market 

with the October 2003 announcement of a 

relationship with Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber 

Company in China to supply Cooper with radial 

medium truck tires. In a separate December 

2003 agreement, Cooper entered a joint venture 

with Kenda Rubber Industrial Company Ltd. for 


construction of a plant outside Shanghai, China, 

to produce radial passenger and light truck tires. 

Then, returning the company to its core 

business of tire manufacturing, Cooper in 

December 2004 completed the sale of its 

automotive business, Cooper-Standard 

Automotive, for approximately $1.165 billion. 

The sale included the forty-seven manufacturing 

facilities and operations of Cooper-Standard 

Automotive, which is a global manufacturer of 

fluid handling systems, body-sealing systems, 

and active and passive vibration control 

systems, primarily for automotive original 

equipment manufacturers. 

The sale in turn provided new opportunities 

for growth. In January 2005, Cooper 

announced an agreement to buy an eleven 

percent interest in Kumho Tire. That month, 

the company also announced it was forming 

a new commercial division encompassing 

both Oliver Rubber Company and commercial 

tires. In October 2005 the company 

announced an agreement to obtain fiftyone 

percent ownership in China’s third 

largest tire manufacturer, Cooper Chengshan 

(Shandong) Passenger Tire Company Ltd. and 

Cooper Chengshan (Shandong) Truck Tire 

Company Ltd. 

Today Cooper Tire & Rubber Company is 

a truly global company, boasting fifty-nine 

manufacturing, sales, distribution, technical and 

design facilities within its family of companies 

located around the world. 

But the company is hardly resting on past 

success. Cooper continues to improve plant 

efficiencies while capitalizing on its strong 

customer service and dealer relationships in 

North America; expanding its distribution 

network in Europe; and marketing Cooper Tires 

as a top brand in China. New products are 

driving increased sales and creating additional 

opportunity and growth potential. 

This is an exciting time for Cooper as it 

continues to study opportunities in rapidly 

developing regions of the world. 

Continued change is inevitable for Cooper. 

One thing that won’t change, however, is the 

company’s focus on delighting customers and 

increasing shareholder value. 


O.K. 

INDUSTRIES, 

INC. 

❖ 

Above: O.K. Industries, Inc., 

Fostoria, Ohio. 

Below: O.K. Industries, Inc., 

Findlay, Ohio. 

O.K. Industries is an industrial plastic 

recycling company that helps businesses deal 

with leftover scrap in an economical and 

environmentally friendly way. 

James Kenyon, whose Ohio roots go back 

several generations, started the company in 

September 1991. More than a year later, in 

December 1992, Kenyon took on a business 

partner, Fred Jacobs and incorporated the 

company as O.K. Industries, Inc., named for 

Kenyon’s daughter, Olivia Kay Kenyon. 

The company’s mission is to “build and 

maintain a company which serves our customers’ 

demands for quality, service, and integrity and is 

a source of pride for our employees.” 

In the beginning, the company, which 

originally operated under the name O.K. 

Granulating, consisted of Kenyon and one 

employee. Today, it has three sites, a 

manufacturing facility in Findlay, Ohio, a 

warehouse in Fostoria, Ohio, and a sales office in 

Naperville, Illinois, just twenty-five miles west of 

Chicago. They employ about fifty people. The 

company, which began with one grinding line, 

now has six and the capacity to recycle over six 

million pounds of plastic per month. 

It specializes in post-industrial (preconsumer) 

plastics recycling. Its main factory 

is located forty miles south of Toledo on 

I-75, minutes south of the Ohio Turnpike, in 

Findlay. This 60,000-square-foot manufacturing 

facility features a rail citing and a 200,000- 

pound capacity silo. 

The company purchases an array of plastic 

materials, including plastic scrap, rejected 

materials, off-spec resins, wide-spec resins, 

contaminated regrinds, dust, powder and 

virgin surplus. This also comes in the form of 


parts, purge, trim waste, bottles, bales, 

shipping crates, totes and other postconsumer 

items. 

O.K. Industries specializes in customizing 

programs to help reduce costs 

associated with scrap plastic by grinding 

and cleaning scrap for reuse or resale. The 

company also provides customers and 

potential customers with professional advice 

on how best to handle their scrap, including 

scrap metal and cardboard, and to keep 

waste streams separated. Equipment is 

customized to handle any and all sizes of 

scrap, including parts or chunks weighing 

as much as a ton. 

The company offers shredding, 

grinding, elutriation and float-sink 

systems. Its shredders are specially 

designed to handle almost any size of 

scrap. Grinders further reduce the plastic to 

meet the customers’ specification of flake grind. 

The elutriation systems removes fine, loose 

paper and light particles from regrind or pellets, 

and the float-sink systems remove heavier 

contaminates and can separate some co-mingled 

resins. A fully equipped lab enables the 

company to determine exact melt index and 

density of the plastic material. 

Warehousing is available at the company’s 

Fostoria facility or at its secondary warehouse 

on a limited basis. O.K. Industries can arrange 

for hauling for multiple trucks per day. 

Customers also can deliver scrap to the 

company’s facilities or O.K. Industries can spot 

trailers at customer locations. 

The industry in which O.K. Industries 

operates is growing at a rapid pace, and the 

company is ready to capitalize on that growth 

and meet the needs of existing and future 

customers. Helping industry deal with its scrap 

materials in a way that benefits both the 

business community and the environment is a 

win-win situation for everyone. 

Before forming their present partnership, 

Kenyon and Jacobs worked at the same 

company in the rubber flooring industry for 

many years. They credit some of the success of 

their partnership to their differing but 

complimentary management skills. Jacobs has a 

strong background in sales, marketing and 

finance, and Kenyon possesses a strong 

background in production management and 

inventory control. Both men believe in the same 

principles of running a business and supporting 

their community. 

Kenyon and Jacobs both regard the support 

of their families as another large part of their 

success. Jacobs and his wife, Janet, have one son 

Alex; they live in Naperville, Illinois. Kenyon 

and his wife, Janet, have three children–Olivia 

from Jim’s first marriage, and Becky and Jeff 

from Jan’s first marriage. They live in Findlay. 

❖ 

Above: Janet, Olivia, and Jim Kenyon. 

Below: Fred and Janet Jacobs. 


❖ 

FINDLAY 

ANIMAL 

HOSPITAL/ 

FINDLAY 

ANIMAL CARE 

CENTER 

Findlay Animal Hospital has the 

latest in modern equipment and offers 

emergency service. 

Findlay Animal Hospital has been a place of 

healing and caring for area pets for more than 

forty years. Since it was founded in 1964 as 

Findlay Animal Clinic, the focus has been on 

quality medical services. 

Established by C. Richard Beckett, D.V.M., 

the practice originally entailed veterinary 

services for both livestock and domestic pets. 

Since 1996, the practice has focused solely 

on pets. 

Originally located at 825 Tiffin Avenue, 

the Findlay Animal Clinic moved to a site 

along the city’s east side outer belt in 1972. 

In 1998 a new facility was constructed 

next door at 2141 Bright Road, providing 

the latest in modern equipment and 

amenities. The name was changed in 1999 to 

Findlay Animal Hospital to better reflect the 

services offered. 

No longer a one-man practice, five 

outstanding veterinarians are now on 

staff, including business partners Dr. 

Jeff L. Rhoad, who has been with the 

practice since 1977, and Dr. David L. 

Calland, who joined in 1982. The Findlay 

Animal Hospital is open weekdays from 7 

a.m. until 7 p.m. Emergency service is 

available twenty-four hours a day, seven 

days a week. A doctor is always on-call 

and an attendant is present to care for 

ailing pets whose illness or injury needs 

immediate attention. 

The Findlay Animal Hospital boasts the same 

modern diagnostic tools that might be found in 

any medical facility, such as ultrasound, x-rays, 

radiology, EKG’s and more. 

At the Findlay Animal Hospital, family pets 

are treated with competency and compassion in 

a facility that enhances the ability to provide 

first-rate medical care. 

Dr. Beckett realized that the community 

needed more than medical services for 

their pets. In 1987, he opened the 

Findlay Animal Care Center at 1614 West 

Main Cross Street. Conveniently located on 

the west side of Findlay at the crossroads 

of I-75 and State Route 12, the Findlay Animal 

Care Center provides veterinary services, 

boarding facilities, a grooming parlor, dog 

obedience training and a small retail space with 

pet supplies. 

“People need a good place to leave their pets 

with peace of mind and without feeling guilty,” Dr. 

Beckett commented. The Findlay Animal Care 

Center has been described as the “Ritz Carlton of 

the veterinary world,” he said. More than 1,000 

people have visited the care center to investigate 

the concept, with several hundred similar facilities 

built around the country as a result. 

Dogs and cats are housed in separate 

environments. Dogs have a heated/air 

conditioned space to sleep in, plus an enclosed 

four-foot by twelve-foot outdoor run. 

Attendants also exercise dogs on outdoor trails 


adjacent to the facility. A large indoor, sky-lit 

atrium provides space for indoor exercise on 

inclement days. Cats have cozy carpeted cages 

with cubbies to hide or sleep in. Cats can be 

housed separately or with their housemates 

from home. 

The boarding facilities accommodate as many 

as ninety-five dogs and twenty-four cats for 

overnight visits. The center boards pets seven days 

a week, 365 days a year, although it is closed for 

pick-ups on all major holidays. The average yearround 

occupancy rate is about seventy percent. 

Diagnostic and outpatient services 

by a veterinarian complete the services 

offered, such as examinations, vaccinations 

and nail clipping. Also, veterinarians 

examine pets to certify they are well 

before boarding and check that vaccinations 

are current. 

Overall, the Findlay Animal Care Center 

allows owners to leave their family pets with 

peace of mind, knowing their dog or cat is 

provided a comfortable and safe haven while 

they are away. 

❖ 

Above: Pets are examined at the 

presurgical and treatment area of the 

Findlay Animal Hospital. 

Below: Findlay Animal Care Center 

offers veterinary services, boarding, 

grooming, training and retail items. 


ST. MICHAEL 

THE 

ARCHANGEL 

PARISH 

St. Michael the Archangel Parish, known 

affectionately by both parishioners and the 

community as “St. Mike’s,” has served as a 

beacon of hope, faith and service to both God 

and community since its inception in the 1800s. 

This church community of more than 9,000 

parishioners is called to act upon the 

commission of Jesus Christ to pray and 

minister. Generation after generation has done 

this while contributing and adding to the life 

of a solid and lasting parish that includes 

the original downtown church and the new 

eastside church. 

St. Michael has grown, changed, moved 

and remodeled many times through the 

seventeen decades since the arrival in 1834 

of Michael Price and John S. Julien, the 

first two Catholics in the area. Six years 

later, Bishop John B. Purcell of Cincinnati 

celebrated the first Mass here while on a 

missionary journey. 

The first church, built in 1856, stood at the 

corner of Cory and West Hardin Streets on a lot 

purchased for seventy-five dollars. The twentyfoot 

by forty-foot building was dedicated to St. 

Michael the Archangel, and three years later St. 

Michael School opened its doors. 

A fire destroyed the church on February 14, 

1866. The church’s 1,800-pound bell, which 

now hangs in the belfry at the downtown 

church, was the only thing spared. On August 

19, 1866, the parish community laid the 

cornerstone of a new church at the intersection 

of West Main Cross Street and Western Avenue. 

Between 1881 and 1889, following the 

discovery of natural gas in Hancock County, the 

parish doubled in size. The first church 

renovation in 1889 consisted of a forty-five-foot 

addition to the back of the building. 

In 1894 the first building of the previous 

downtown middle school was constructed with 

four Sisters of Charity from Cincinnati serving 

as faculty. Twenty years later, extensive 

remodeling added, among other things, sanitary 

facilities and living quarters for the Sisters and a 

new pipe organ for the church. 

By 1923 stained glass windows, an artificial 

stone façade, gothic entrances, Carrara marble 

altars and marble and bronze statues adorned 

the sanctuary. The first assistant parish priest 

began ministering at St. Michael in 1926, and 

from that point on the parish has been served by 

at least two priests. 

A campaign to build a convent swung into 

action in the 1940s and was completed in 1953. 

At the same time, two expansion projects were 

designed for the school with the first consisting 

of four classrooms and an auditorium and the 

second for a cafeteria. 

St. Michael School continued to expand 

to accommodate growth. The third section– 

the junior high–was built in 1957. An 


annex on Findlay’s eastside was built 

beginning in 1965 on Sutton Place, and in 

1968 the first wing of the primary school 

was completed. 

The church formed a parish council in the 

1970s to represent the then 6,636 parishioners 

and in 1976 the parish festival began. The oldest 

section of the downtown school was converted 

to parish offices, religious education and 

parish meeting space, and in 1981 the Chapel of 

Ease was remodeled and renamed St. Michael 

East Church. 

In 1980, parish leaders created districts to 

facilitate community building. As the number of 

parishioners has flourished, it has been the 

ministries and activities that have helped people 

find a faith home in a very large parish. Major 

renovations continued on the eastside in 1984 

with the addition of an activity center, kitchen, 

library, classrooms and air-conditioning. 

In the early 1990s, the parish implemented 

changes proposed in the Second Diocesan 

Synod as outlined in a five-year strategic plan. 

The needs of the parish continued to be met 

with growth in ministries and programs. 

RENEW 2000 took hold of the parish as 

many parishioners prepared for the turn of 

the millennium with faith sharing and small 

group study. 

The New Church Construction Committee, 

formed in 2000, oversaw construction of a new, 

large church. Several neighborhood meetings 

allowed parishioners to share their needs and 

make recommendations. Then, in November of 

2000, the parish decided to build a new church 

on the current eastside property. 

Groundbreaking for construction on the 

eastside took place on September 29, 2001, and 

a year later the cornerstone was laid. The new 

church–St. Michael the Archangel Main 

Church–was dedicated on February 9, 2003. 

After the new church was completed and 

dedicated, the next major project was to build a 

facility to house all St. Michael School students 

and provide space for all religious education, 

parish ministry and the parish offices. 

Groundblessing for this project occurred on 

September 25, 2004. After forty years of being 

on two campuses, all religious education 

programs, all ministries, and all school 

operations are located in one facility as of April 

17, 2006. The parish office move on August 26, 

2006, was the final piece to achieving 

consolidation of all parish activities, ministries 

and services. The blessing of the East Campus 

occurred on September 16, 2006 with Bishop 

Leonard Blair presiding. 

Through the years, God has abundantly 

blessed the St. Michael the Archangel Parish 

community. The St. Michael family has grown 

from 300 members in 1867 to 9,429 current 

parishioners (3,261 registered families) in 2006. 

Generation upon generation will continue to 

contribute and add to the life of a solid and 

lasting parish and profess the mission: “We the 

People of St. Michael the Archangel Parish are 

called to be a Spirit-filled pilgrim people who 

build and proclaim God’s kingdom.” 


❖ 

THE HERCULES TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY 

Above: The Hercules Tire & Rubber 

Company Corporate Office at 16380 

East U.S. Route 224. 

Below: The Hercules Distribution 

Center at 14801 C.R. 212. 

The Hercules Tire & Rubber Company, 

headquartered in Findlay since 1966, has 

evolved during the past six decades from a 

group of retreaders to a company concentrating 

100 percent on tires. 

Hercules distributes an extensive selection 

of passenger, light-truck, medium-truck, 

trailer, off-the-road, industrial and specialty 

tires, with 2006 sales of $444 million in the 

United States, Canada and ninety-two other 

countries. The company offers more than 

10,000 SKUs through 1.6 million square feet 

of warehouse/distribution space in fourteen 

locations throughout the United States, Canada 

and China. Matching widely known private 

brands to competitive distributor programs in 

exclusive dealer territories makes Hercules one 

of the most respected private brand tire 

marketers in the industry. Hercules is also the 

largest independent wholesaler of tires in North 

America, with a multinational, multilingual staff 

to support its growing international business. 

The company traces its beginning to 1950 

when a group of twenty-one retreaders began 

purchasing rubber from a small company, Atlas 

Rubber, in Stamford, Connecticut. Two years 

later, the retreaders contributed $3,000 each to 

buy Atlas, and hired the founder’s son-in-law, 

Jack Hedlund, to run the plant. During the mid 

1950s, the company transformed itself from a 

retreader into a buying group, becoming the 

first private-brand buying group in the nation. 

In 1960, Cooper Tire began producing tires 

for the group, which changed its name from 

Atlas to Hercules. Hercules was the first private 

brand tire line in the United States. The 

company’s relationship with Cooper continues 

to this day. Hercules is also known for its 

powerful Asian supply platform. 

Hercules moved its headquarters to Morrical 

Boulevard in Findlay in 1966 to be closer to 

Cooper and more centrally located to its 

growing dealer base. At the time, sales of tires 

and retread products totaled $15 million a year. 

In 1973, Hercules became one of Toyo Tire’s 

first U.S. accounts, marking the beginning of 

branded tire programs for Hercules. By 1976, 


the company’s twenty-fifth anniversary, sales 

totaled more than $33 million. With the success 

of this and other ventures, in 1981, the 

company expanded its Findlay facility by 

68,000 square feet to warehouse tires. 

Craig Anderson became chief operations 

officer upon Hedlund’s death early in 1981. Not 

even a Thanksgiving Day fire in 1981 that 

destroyed the Findlay plant could derail the 

company’s growth or commitment to Findlay. 

Hercules began taking orders the following 

Monday, and within six months had a new plant 

producing rubber. Three years later, annual 

sales topped the $100 million mark. 

Hercules began sourcing tires from Asia 

in 1985, launched the company’s TDW 

distribution program in 1987, and topped 

the $200 million mark in sales in 1994. In 

1997, Hercules acquired the Electra Group, 

now known as Hercules Tire Canada, and 

Hercules Tire International. In 1998, Hercules 

began construction of more than 400,000 square 

feet of tire mixing warehouse space for its current 

distribution center located on County Road 212. 

In 2002, Hercules celebrated its fiftieth 

anniversary, a mere two years after topping 

$300 million in annual sales. Two years later, 

the company opened its first off-shore 

distribution center in China, and reached sales 

of $342 million. 

Following the sale of its rubber mixing plant 

to Biltrite Industries of Canada in May 2005, the 

company partnered with FdG Associates, a 

New York middle-market private equity firm, to 

provide Hercules with the capital needed for 

continued growth and acquisitions. Anderson 

continued with the company to assist with a 

smooth transition before retiring, and Larry 

Seawell became the president concurrent with 

the ownership change. 

Since May of 2005, Hercules has added 

a new warehouse in Moncton, New Brunswick, 

to service Eastern Canada, and entered the 

Florida market in 2006 with the acquisition 

of Tire Distributor, Inc., USA (TDI), a tire 

wholesaler based near Miami. The Florida 

acquisition gave Hercules two distribution 

locations, as well as a beachhead for its new 

Latin America sales office. 

In April 2006, Hercules moved the corporate 

offices to its current location at 16380 East 

U.S. Route 224, Suite 200 in Findlay. The 

company continues to support the community 

through numerous charitable activities, with 

a long-standing emphasis on the United 

Way campaign. 

Hercules employs more than 500 people 

worldwide through their operations in Ohio, 

California, Texas, Illinois, Florida, Ontario and 

New Brunswick, Canada, and in Hefei and 

Guangzhou, China. 

The future of Hercules remains as strong as 

the history that brought it to Findlay in 1966, 

and the history that has strengthened and 

expanded it into the twenty-first century. 

❖ 

Above: Craig Anderson, past president 

of Hercules; Joe Russo past chairman, 

and former Findlay Mayor Keith 

Romick at 1982 open house of the 

new Hercules Plant following the 

1981 fire. 

Below: The Thanksgiving Day 

fire, 1981. 


FINDLAY CITY 

SCHOOLS 

❖ 

Top: The current high school was 

constructed in 1963 on Broad Avenue. 

A classroom addition was completed 

in 2000. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ROONEY, CLINGER, 

MURRAY ARCHITECTS. 

Bottom: The former high school 

building (known as Central High 

School) was located at the corner of 

Cory Street and West Main Cross 

Street. Today, the building serves as a 

middle school. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE HANCOCK 


The first school in Hancock 

County opened under the guidance 

of a man named Joseph White, who 

organized the school and taught 

lessons during the winter months 

of 1826-1827. The Findlay 

community then built a one-story 

log school that also served as a 

courthouse and a church. 

Logs gave way to frame and then 

brick buildings in the latter part of 

the nineteenth century. As the area 

grew, a Union School District 

formed in the 1850s to serve children from 

three geographic areas. 

By the mid 1880s, twenty-three teachers and 

two superintendents served 1,500 students in 

Findlay schools. The oil and gas boom, and the 

600 new students that came with it, led the 

district to add nine four-room schools in 1887- 

1888, and by the mid 1890s the system served 

about 3,000 students. Enrollment had increased 

to 5,760 by 1956, making the high school 

building on West Main Cross inadequate for the 

student population. The current high school 

building was constructed in 1963 on Broad 

Avenue, allowing the district to utilize the 

former high school building as a third junior 

high school. 

Today, Findlay City Schools consists of fifteen 

school buildings serving more than 6,500 

students in grades kindergarten through twelfth. 

The district’s students consistently perform at or 

above their expected levels on standardized 

tests, and proficiency scores are improving 

rapidly as district personnel focus on the 

specific needs of each child. 

An extensive special education program 

serves Findlay City School students and those 

from surrounding districts. The high school 

curriculum features courses from advanced 

placement to basic. All the schools offer 

extensive opportunities in extra-curricular and 

co-curricular programs, including twenty-one 

varsity sports. Both the schools and 

the community emphasize the arts, resulting 

in award-winning vocal, orchestral and 

instrumental groups. 

More information on Findlay City Schools 

may be obtained by visiting the Internet at 

www.findlaycityschools.org. 


Millstream Career & Technology 

Center currently offers 19 student-training 

programs to more than 700 students from 

14 area school districts. Career technical 

students take a variety of courses at 

Findlay High School, Millstream East and 

Millstream South. 

Millstream’s roots can be traced as 

far back as 1925 when the vocational 

education program was referred to as 

the “downtown” high school. Efforts to 

organize a joint vocational school began in 

the 1970s, but it was not until 1985 that a 

formal countywide vocational training 

program began. 

The career center opened as Blanchard 

Valley Cooperative Vocational Career 

Program, later changing its name to 

Millstream Career Cooperative and then 

Millstream Career & Technology Center. It 

served largely as an umbrella agency for the 

vocational programs in local schools, 

providing students with access to 

trade and industrial programs housed at 

Findlay High School. 

Through the years, programs have been added 

to keep up with evolving demands and to provide 

area employers with employees who have the 

skills needed to be successful in the workplace. 

Enrollment has grown with Millstream’s 

reputation and program offerings. In the early 

1990s, total enrollment averaged around 350 

students a year compared with 500 by 1998 and 

more than 700 by the mid 2000s. Adult 

education also expanded in the 2000s and now 

has more than 1,000 annual enrollments, both 

in “leisure” courses as well as customized 

business training. More than 200 community 

members serve as advisory team members for 

both secondary and adult programs. 

In 1996, a new program called “Tech Prep” 

began with the goal of enhancing students’ 

technical training. “Engineering and CAD 

Technology” was Millstream’s first Tech Prep 

program supported by two $10,000 grants from 

the Kuss Corporation. A medical technologies 

program followed the next year and then a 

computer networking program. In 2000, Tech 

Prep became “College Tech Prep” designed to 

provide students with college-level instruction, 

college credit for their technical classes, and a 

smooth transition into a two- or fouryear 

college. 

Today, Millstream offers seven College Tech 

Prep and twelve career technical programs as 

they continue to change to meet the needs of 

today’s workforce and employers. Millstream 

serves more than 700 students of which 200 are 

in College Tech Prep programs. From 1997 to 

2006, Millstream educated 5,618 students, 

many of whom live, work and raise families in 

Hancock County. 

❖ 

MILLSTREAM 

CAREER & 

TECHNOLOGY 

CENTER 

Above: Each year, students in the 

College Tech Prep Programs select 

projects for the Tech Prep Showcase. 

Shown here, students are installing a 

network system at a local 

chiropractor’s office. 

Below: Millstream students gain 

hands-on experience by participating 

in community construction projects. 


FINDLAY • 

HANCOCK 

COUNTY 

CHAMBER OF 

COMMERCE 

❖ 

Right: A ribbon cutting ceremony held 

for the grand opening of the Cooper 

Tire & Rubber Company retail store, 

1986. 

Below: Senior citizens enjoy 

purchasing specialty items in the 

Findlay Swan House gift shop during 

a 2002 visit hosted by the Convention 

& Visitors Bureau. 

Bottom, Right: The North Central 

Campus for Emerging Technologies 

(NCC-ET) announces the purchase of 

a local 250,000 square foot 

manufacturing plant located at the 

Findlay Center for Business & 

Technology at a celebration ceremony 

hosted by The Chamber and CDF, 

2006. 

Established in 1887, the Findlay Chamber 

of Commerce was formed by business leaders as 

a volunteer organization designed to serve as a 

business association and marketing organization 

for the Findlay and Hancock County area. The 

Chamber’s mission was dedicated to developing 

and promoting the economic and educational 

climate, prosperity, and quality of life in the 

Hancock County region. 

In 1988, the Findlay Chamber of Commerce 

became known as the Findlay•Hancock County 

Chamber of Commerce, reflecting their role as a 

business advocate not only for the city of 

Findlay but for all of Hancock County. 

The late nineties brought expansion 

with new Chamber programs, specialized 

services, greater membership involvement, and 

developing partnerships. In 1998, the Chamber 

merged with the Findlay•Hancock County 

Community Development Foundation (CDF), 

an organization aimed at marketing the Findlay- 

Hancock County area. The newly formed team 

was able to capitalize on efficiencies, strengthen 

the community’s presence, and create a unified 

voice for businesses. 

Through the years, Chamber programs 

along with the Hancock County Convention 

& Visitors Bureau (CVB), The Chamber 

Foundation, and Hancock Leadership programs 

have brought great success and prosperity to 

the area. 

With membership reaching nearly 1,000 in 

2006, The Chamber proudly reflects on 

providing nearly 120 years of quality service to 

the Greater Findlay region. 


With great success following the 

Findlay•Hancock County Chamber of 

Commerce and its partners, efforts to streamline 

and increase efficiency among The Chamber and 

its associates began in 2005 by Chamber and 

CDF management teams, the Board of Directors, 

and local, government, and civic officials. 

The final result came in January 2007 with 

the launch of GreaterFindlayInc. (GFI), a 

public-private partnership whose primary 

purpose is to help develop wealth and 

prosperity through the growth of existing and 

new businesses in the Greater Findlay region. 

GreaterFindlayInc. is a collection of 

organizations that include the former Chamber 

and CDF, the CVB, Hancock Leadership, the 

organization’s specialty retail development 

effort, emerging technology infrastructure, 

special events, the Small Business Development 

Center, and The Chamber Foundation. The 

North Central Campus for Emerging 

Technologies (NCC-ET) is also a product of this 

effort and is closely aligned with GFI. 

With an overall mission to help the Greater 

Findlay region to grow and prosper, GFI aims to 

strengthen the community’s tax base, act as the 

community’s chief marketing arm, serve as the 

area’s economic development leader, provide 

support and service to its members, and position 

the Greater Findlay area among the best 

Micropolitan communities in the United States. 

In an effort to increase economic 

development in the Greater Findlay region, 

GFI markets towards new business investors 

and tourists as well as growing families, 

businesses, and opportunities. Though development 

efforts are strong, GreaterFindlayInc. 

continues to stand behind the needs of the 

community and small businesses, which 

make up nearly ninety percent of its 

membership, by providing educational 

opportunities, healthcare, and other services 

essential to the growth of the already established 

Greater Findlay region. 

GreaterFindlayInc. is dedicated to honoring 

the past while continuing to ensure a solid 

future, making the Greater Findlay region a 

great place to live and work. 

GREATERFINDLAYINC. 

❖ 

Above: The 2007 GreaterFindlayInc., 

Board of Directors. Front row (from 

left to right): John Haywood 

(Whirlpool Corporation Findlay 

Division); Pamela K. M. Beall 

(Marathon Petroleum Company, LLC); 

Chairman Stephen O. Schroeder 

(Cooper Tire & Rubber Company); 

Douglas S. Peters (GFI); and Robert 

Beigh (retired, Marathon Oil Co.). 

Back row (from left to right): Ed Ingold 

(Hancock County Commissioner); 

Randal S. Flesch (Marathon Petroleum 

Co. LLC); Frank Guglielmi (ACAP 

Ltd.); Michael C. Spragg (Sky Bank); P. 

J. Milligan (ACI Construction 

Company, Inc.); Scott Malaney 

(Blanchard Valley Health System); 

Anthony P. Iriti (Mayor, City of 

Findlay); Wilson J. Schroeder (Nissin 

Brake Ohio, Inc.); Robert E. Beach 

(KeyBank); M. A. Peters (Councilman, 

City of Findlay); and Lynn R. Child 

(Aardvark Inc./CentraComm 

Communications LLC). Not pictured: 

W. Paul Worstell (PRO-TEC Coating 

Co.) and Craig Anderson (Retired, 

Hercules Tire & Rubber Co.). 

Left: The Honorable John A. Boehner, 

U.S. House Republican Leader, 

addresses Greater Findlay business 

professionals during a 2007 GFI 

legislative luncheon. 


TIME SERVICES, 

INC. 

❖ 

Top: Jeffrey Doepker, president of 

Time Staffing. 

Bottom: The Findlay branch of Time 

Staffing. 

Time Staffing was 

established in 1992 as a 

franchise of Time Services, 

Inc., by President Jeffrey 

Doepker, co-founder and 

financier of Selective Staffing 

(now operating as Aon). The 

Findlay branch of Time 

Services was opened that 

same year. In 1994, Doepker 

sold his interests in Selective 

Staffing to devote his energies 

to Time Staffing. 

Time Staffing’s primary 

business activity includes 

providing customized staffing solutions in 

business and industry. Time’s three divisionsindustrial, 

professional administrative, and 

technical divisions–provide staffing and 

recruiting services in the manufacturing, 

clerical, financial, information technology, and 

engineering fields, to name a few. Time provides 

opportunities for companies to explore a variety 

of staffing solutions from filling shorter 

vacancies or probationary to direct positions to 

placing direct hires. In some instances, Time 

operates on-site at a company. 

In 2005 the Findlay branch of Time Staffing 

cut paychecks for more than 14,000 people. 

Time’s overall success is exemplified by the 

growth they have experienced, expanding from 

the initial location in Findlay to operating 

additional branch locations in Fremont, Tiffin, 

Upper Sandusky, Bucyrus, Shelby, Norwalk, and 

Ashland, and to operating several vendor-onpremise 

accounts. 

Time Staffing relies on specific methods. Time 

pledges fresh talent resulting from active 

recruitment and daily research. Emphasizing 

timeliness, client companies can expect a quick 

turnaround, with Time recruiters promptly 

supplying applicable candidate information. 

Time pledges relevance, thoroughly prescreening 

candidates and determining the likelihood of a 

candidate’s success with a company before 

submission. Furthermore, this proactive 

prescreening process anticipates issues that may 

typically arise after an offer is made and works to 

address them prior to that offer. Throughout, 

Time provides feedback and follow-up help to 

ensure a successful placement. 

The Findlay branch of Time Staffing strives to 

be a good corporate citizen. To this end, Time is 

active in the Findlay Area Human Resource 

Association, the Hancock County Safety 

Council, and the Findlay-Hancock County 

Chamber of Commerce, and is a major sponsor 

of the University of Findlay basketball team. 

Through an ongoing annual scholarship 

program, Time has awarded more than $7,000 

to area recipients. In addition, Time Staffing is a 

member of the American Staffing Association, 

which promotes legal, ethical, and professional 

practices for the staffing industry. Time works 

toward its purpose statement of “Helping People 

Make a Difference, Time and Time Again.” 

Time Services is located at 1100 Croy Drive, 

Unit A in Findlay, Ohio and on the Internet at 

www.timeservices.com. 


CentraComm Communications, LLC was 

born as a result of a significant community 

need to be better connected to the Internet 

and the dream of a small group 

of local entrepreneurs. In 1999, fifteen 

telecommunications companies were invited 

by the Telecommunications Infrastructure 

Committee (TIC) of The Findlay Hancock 

County Chamber of Commerce to provide 

proposals to fill this need. Twelve responded, 

but none was prepared to step up to meet 

the challenge. 

The TIC was adamant that Internet 

broadband rather than dial-up and Internet 

security services were needed in the region 

to support economic development and the 

quality of life of local citizens. The major 

question the TIC asked the telecoms was, “What 

are you prepared to do to bring Internet 

broadband and security services to this smallyet-bustling 

community of 39,000 people?” The 

answer was: Not Much. The large telecoms did 

not believe that the Findlay/Hancock County 

market would create the return on investment 

needed in order to bring Internet broadband 

and security services to this market. The small 

telecoms did not have the vision or the 

resources to do so. The outcome of this process 

was unsatisfactory to the TIC, and they 

looked beyond the normal suppliers to solve 

the problem. 

Findlay, Ohio, may be small, but it has a bigcity 

spirit. Findlay attracts and produces people 

like Lynn and James Child, who provided the 

initial capital to start a company called 

CentraComm Communications along with 

angel investors Riad Yammine, Kevin Henning, 

Bob Sprague, and Doug Huffman. These dollars 

supported the technical vision supplied by 

Patrick Foxhoven with support by Greg Miller. 

So, thanks to the work of the TIC and the 

visionary folks in Findlay/Hancock County, 

CentraComm was created to help meet Findlay 

and Hancock County’s broadband and Internet 

security needs. 

CentraComm Communications, LLC opened 

its doors with its first client on September 1, 

2001, just ten days before the September 

11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the 

subsequent dotcom bust. The company 

persisted despite the obstacles presented in 

the market and raised another round of 

angel capital. Because of this persistence, 

CentraComm continues to grow, and in 2006, 

CentraComm was ranked by CRN as the 

twenty-third fastest-growing technology 

integrator and solution provider in the nation in 

its 100-Fast Growth yearly listing, with an 

annual growth rate of 253 percent between 

2003-2005. 

The company now focuses its business in 

four areas: Internet managed security, hosting, 

broadband connectivity, and consulting. 

CentraComm has two data centers, one located 

in Findlay and one in Bluffton, Ohio. These 

datacenters support its clients and its own 

operations. CentraComm’s market reach is 

worldwide, and it now supports clients with 

locations in China, Germany, and Mexico. 

CentraComm Communications forecasts 

more growth as the managed Internet security 

services market expands. Thanks to a fantastic 

team, an entrepreneurial community, the TIC, 

the group of angel investors who believed 

in its vision, and a well-focused business 

plan, CentraComm Communications is 

poised for continued success as it works 

diligently to meet the needs of its clients for 

managed Internet security, hosting, broadband 

connectivity, and consulting in today’s 

worldwide market. For more information, 

please see http://www.centracomm.net. 

CENTRACOMM 

COMMUNICATIONS, 

LLC 

❖ 

CentraComm’s state-of-the-art, fully 

redundant Findlay and Bluffton 

datacenters. 


FREUDENBERG- 

NOK 

Freudenberg-NOK is the 

Americas joint venture partnership 

between Freudenberg & Company 

of Germany and NOK Corporation 

in Japan. Together, the companies 

make up the world’s largest producer 

of elastometric seals and custommolded 

products. 

Extending its technology expertise 

beyond the automotive market, 

Freudenberg-NOK also provides an 

extensive portfolio of precisionmolded 

products tothe aerospace, 

fluid power, marine, medical, offhighway 

equipment, recreational and 

semiconductor markets. 

Freudenberg & Company, whose 

origins date back to 1849, and 

NOK Corporation of Japan, its 

partner of almost forty-five years, 

decided in 1989 to combine their 

strengths, cultures and capabilities 

in sealing and vibration control in 

the Americas, rather than continue 

to compete with each other in this 

very important region. 

Innovative sealing and vibration 

control products can be found in many 

industries, including automotive, aerospace, 

agriculture, construction, appliance, chemical 

processing, diesel, medical, recreation, and 

semiconductor industries. 

Freudenberg-NOK integrates Japanese, 

German and American technology to serve 

customers with globally interchangeable products. 

The company designs and manufactures globally 

integrated products including: 

• Sealing packages for engines, transmissions, 

brakes, axles and steering; 

• Complete noise, vibration and harshness 

reduction components and packages; 

• Brake, steering, fuel and transmission hose 

assemblies; and 

• Rubber, plastic, and PTFE components for 

suspension, electrical and fuel systems. 

Since its inception, Freudenberg-NOK 

has enjoyed remarkable growth with 

annual revenues of more than $1 billion. 

The company employs over 6,000 associates 

at 37 facilities in the United States, 

Canada, Mexico, and Brazil and serves 

various segments of the market through several 

business units. 

Those units include Automotive Sealing 

Solutions, Vibracoustic North America, Corteco, 

Simrit and Dichtomatik North America. 

Freudenberg-NOK’s headquarters is located 

in Plymouth, Michigan. The company expanded 

in 1999 to include a state-of-the-art, $30- 

million Technical Center, which is the most 

extensive supplier-operated facility for 

developing and testing sealing products in the 

Americas. The Findlay, Ohio facility produces 

plastic compression and injection molded seals 

and parts for the automotive industry. 

Production started in 1978 and continues to 

expand into new markets. 

The company’s success has come as a result 

of its close working relationship with its parent 

companies and ability to tap the technology and 

expertise of its partners in Europe and Asia. The 

company plans to continue to improve its 

products and services to best serve its 

customers. For additional information on 

Freudenberg-NOK, visit www.freudenburgnok.com 

on the Internet. 


OWENS 

COMMUNITY 

COLLEGE 

At Owens Community College, “your success 

is our mission.” That belief underlies the 

College’s commitment to students and the 

community and has served as the primary driver 

behind its success. As one of the fastest-growing 

higher educational institutions in Ohio, the 

Findlay and Toledo campuses offer more than 

150 program areas and educate more than 

45,000 credit and noncredit students annually. 

After opening the original Findlay-area Campus 

in 1983, Owens relocated the campus to Findlay’s 

northeast side in August 2005 due to enrollment, 

program growth and community support. 

The new Findlay-area Campus serves the 

greater Hancock County area for its educational 

needs and provides educational benefits for 

students studying arts and sciences, business, 

health sciences, public safety and emergency 

preparedness, skilled trades and engineering 

and transportation technologies. Additional 

campus features include the Welcome Center, 

Bookstore, Commons, Library, Jaguar Grill and 

Conference Center. 

Also on campus, the Early Learning Center is 

a stand-alone childcare facility for use by 

community members, students and staff with 

children ages two through five. The center 

includes two classrooms specifically intended to 

encourage learning and nurturing and also 

serves as an educational resource for students 

studying Early Childhood Education. 

In 2007, the College completed the second 

building phase at the new campus and opened 

the Community Education and Wellness Center. 

The College’s Office of Community and 

Corporate Education offers flexible and diverse 

curricula to provide scheduled and contract 

programs tailored for individuals and 

companies. The Community Education and 

Wellness Center features a multipurpose room 

that seats 375 for banquets and 500 theaterstyle 

as well as a fitness center, volleyball court 

and basketball court. In addition, the center 

includes a tiered, 150-seat wireless classroom, 

two computer labs and two open bay shop areas 

with attached classrooms. 

Students at the new campus at 3200 

Bright Road take advantage of an Owens 

education characterized by affordability, 

flexible course starting times, online courses, 

and expert instruction. Partnerships with 

Northwest Ohio businesses and organizations 

afford Owens students the opportunity to learn 

what employers want through innovative 

information, resources and technology. 

For nearly twenty-five years, Owens 

Community College has been an important 

contributor to Northwest Ohio’s quality of life. 

The College’s faculty and staff are committed 

to strengthening the community by providing 

a superior educational experience through 

excellence, innovation, and collaboration. 

❖ 

The Findlay-area Campus consists of 

five buildings on sixty acres of land 

located at 3200 Bright Road on 

Findlay’s northeast side. The campus 

serves the needs of the greater 

Hancock County area. 


DIETSCH 

BROTHERS, INC. 

❖ 

Top: Original owners in 1962. 

Below: Current owners in 2007. 

When someone mentions 

what Findlay is known for, 

there are only a few 

landmark businesses that 

come to mind–one of those is 

Dietsch Brothers. Dietsch 

Brothers began back in the 

late 1920s when Ed Dietsch, 

with the help of his younger 

brothers, opened an ice 

cream and candy story in 

Findlay. Unfortunately, in 

1934, Ed died suddenly and 

the store closed. 

In 1937, three of Ed’s 

younger brothers, Chris, 

Don and Roy, purchased 

the local Roggie Bakery and 

Ice Cream Shop. Wanting to 

direct their focus on ice 

cream and candy, the brothers eliminated 

the bakery and began producing candy 

instead. It wasn’t until December 7, 1937, that 

Dietsch Brothers, as it is known today, opened 

its doors. They worked many nights until 

midnight manufacturing products of the highest 

quality and making sure their goods were ready 

for retail. 

The company had to rely on many family 

members during the early years. The brothers’ 

wives came in during the holidays to pack 

candy and their children began helping out at a 

young age. During World War II, the sisters and 

brothers of Chris, Don and Roy filled in at the 

store while their brothers were away fighting for 

the United States. 

After the brothers returned, they realized 

they needed a larger building to house 

their growing business. In 1955, they 

built a new store across the street from 

the site where they had been located since 

1937. Several building additions later, they 

are still at the same location, 400 West Main 

Cross Street. 

In 1971, with the passing of the oldest 

brother Chris, Don and Roy continued 

with Roy’s three sons. In 1974 a second 

Findlay store opened at 1217 Tiffin Avenue 

and, in 2003, the store was expanded. Don 

and Roy retired in 1981 and 1985, respectively, 

although they continued to help out 

when needed. Today, Dietsch Brothers is 

owned by Roy’s three sons, Rick, Jeff 

and Tom. Jeff’s daughter, Erika, a third 

generation family member, also works in 

the business. 

As the company has grown, two things 

have remained the same: the high level of 

customer service and the production of 

quality ice cream and candy. Quality over 

quantity has been the secret to the company’s 

success and will continue to be its motto for 

many years to come. 


FIFTH THIRD 

BANK 

(NORTHWESTERN 

OHIO) 

Fifth Third Bank (Northwestern Ohio) is 

the area’s leading financial institution and 

one of nineteen affiliates of Fifth Third 

Bancorp, a diversified financial services 

company headquartered in Cincinnati. The 

publicly owned company is traded through the 

NASDAQ National Market System under the 

symbol “FITB.” 

The bank that would eventually become the 

Fifth Third Bank (Northwestern Ohio) affiliate, 

First National Bank, incorporated on June 22, 

1863, under the guidance of E. Pelton Jones and 

C.E. Niles. The two men garnered the thirtysixth 

charter granted in the nation under the 

newly enacted National Bank Act, and opened 

the bank’s doors on September 1, 1863. 

In 1923, First National Bank merged with 

The American National Bank to become 

American-First National Bank. The name later 

changed to First National Bank and Trust 

Company and then to First National Bank 

of Findlay. 

The bank opened its first branch at 

1735 Tiffin Road in 1963 and added three 

more during the next two decades. A flood 

in 1981 caused extensive damage to the 

Downtown Banking Center, which resulted in 

extensive remodeling. 

As the bank entered its second century of 

banking in 1963, the Comptroller of the 

Currency notified the bank that only twelve 

banks that had been issued charters before the 

Findlay bank were still in operation. That meant 

First National Bank of Findlay was now the 

thirteenth oldest bank in the nation and the 

third oldest in Ohio. 

In the late 1980s, Fifth Third Bank, created 

in a 1908 merger between Fifth National Bank 

and Third National Bank, acquired both First 

National Bank of Findlay and First National 

Bank of Toledo. Through several internal 

restructurings, these banks become the affiliate 

that Fifth Third Bank (Northwestern Ohio) is 

today. The bank’s headquarters moved to 

Toledo. Robert W. LaClair now serves as 

president and CEO of Fifth Third Bank 

(Northwestern Ohio) and Jeffery C. Shrader 

serves as the affiliate’s city executive in Findlay. 

Today, Fifth Third Bank (Northwestern Ohio) 

has $4.3 billion in assets and operates fifty-one 

full-service banking centers in Northwestern 

Ohio and Southeastern Michigan, including nine 

Bank Mart locations inside select Kroger stores. 

It strives every day to fulfill the corporate 

mission of Fifth Third Bancorp and all its 

affiliates to exceed the expectations of 

customers, co-workers and shareholders, to be 

its customers’ first choice and to be a great place 

to work. 

Fifth Third and Fifth Third Bank are 

registered service marks of Fifth Third Bancorp. 

Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. 

❖ 

Fifth Third Bank’s Downtown 

Findlay Banking Center sits at the 

corner of South Main and Crawford 

Streets. Fifth Third and its predecessor 

banks have occupied this location 

since 1930. 


FINDLAY- 

HANCOCK 

COUNTY PUBLIC 

LIBRARY 

❖ 

Findlay-Hancock County Public 

Library is located at 206 Broadway 

in Findlay. 

The Findlay-Hancock County Public Library 

enjoys a history much like any other library 

in a town this size. Chronological dates 

and names of citizens who, during their 

eras, strived to enlarge the facilities, collections 

and offerings, are recorded. What was 

revolutionary in its day is obsolete and seems 

humorous to us today, but one common thread 

runs through the years–always the need to 

expand and grow. 

In the late 1870s, a library association 

was formed above the D.C. Connell Bookstore on 

South Main, providing circulation of books until 

1889. After January 1888, when the Ohio General 

Assembly passed an act establishing libraries, two 

rooms were appropriated (226 square feet) in the 

southeast corner of the courthouse basement with 

shelves and 900 books from the library 

association. The courthouse was the location of 

the public library from January 27, 1890 to 

December 28, 1935, when the old post office 

building at 206 Broadway was remodeled as the 

new home with grant monies from the Public 

Works Administration. 

On February 15, 1979, a new addition was 

dedicated that was built on the site of the former 

four-story DWG Cigar factory at 214 Broadway. 

The current facility achieved its appearance in 

1991, after three phases of construction 

removed the old post office and left a newly 

erected, modern building on the same location 

with virtually no interruption of business. 

Needs and directions have changed over 

the last 100 years. In 1904, a broom was 

purchased for 35 cents, a mop for 15 cents, 

a feather duster for 15 cents, and $4 worth 

of stamps for the entire year’s mailings. 

Expenditures have greatly increased as the 

library’s use has evolved into a community 

center in a technological world. More programs, 

books and media are offered than ever before. 

The library’s growing pains persist. A new 

building is already in the long-range plan. 

This year, to deal with budget cuts, the 

FHCPL joined SEO to increase the availability of 

the resources of sixty-eight other Ohio libraries 

to its patrons. History continues to be written 

each day as the library meets the challenges that 

the present day provides, while exceeding the 

excellent service patrons expect. 

Additional information may be found by 

visiting www.findlaylibrary.com. 


The Hancock Historical Museum is a private, 

nonprofit, local history museum with the mission 

of collecting, preserving, and making accessible 

to the public the history of Findlay and Hancock 

County, Ohio. The museum produces exhibits, 

programs, events and publications related to local 

history. The museum association was founded in 

1970 and the museum opened in 1971. 

The museum complex on West Sandusky Street 

includes the Victorian-era Hull-Flater House, the 

Exhibit Center addition at the rear of the house, a 

barn and the Crawford Log House. The east 

complex on County Road 236 includes the Little 

Red Schoolhouse and the Riverside train. 

The first floor of Hull-Flater House is furnished 

as it might have been at the turn of the last 

century and includes formal and informal parlors, 

a foyer with a spiral staircase to the second floor, 

study, dining room and kitchen. The second floor 

has a furnished master bedroom and child’s 

bedroom, as well as three rooms devoted to dolls, 

toys and games, furniture, and textiles. 

The two-story addition includes the Exhibit 

Center with a timeline series of displays of local 

history, a special exhibit/meeting room and gift 

shop downstairs and Congressional Study, 

conference room, archives and collections 

storage upstairs. The large archives are available 

to the public for research purposes whenever 

the museum is open. 

The barn includes a display of Hartman light 

cut glass and Transportation and Agricultural 

Galleries. The Transportation Gallery has two 

locally manufactured Grant Cars (1914 and 

1916), an Adams truck (1913), a Buckeye 

Traction Ditcher (1902), a half-scale, hand-built 

Corsair fighter plane, and railroad displays. The 

Agricultural Gallery includes woodworking 

tools for clearing timbered land and 

constructing log buildings, as well as small 

agricultural tools and equipment. 

The Crawford Log House was probably built 

in the 1840s in Biglick Township, about eight 

miles east of Findlay. It was moved to the 

museum’s property in the early 1970s. The story 

and a half house is furnished and used for tours 

and for children’s education programs. 

The Little Red Schoolhouse is a brick, oneroom 

rural school on its original location, built 

in 1882. It is also used primarily for tours and 

children’s education programs. The Riverside 

train originally ran at Walbridge Park in Toledo 

and operated at Riverside Park in Findlay from 

1951 to 1977. It was restored and has been 

running next to the Little Red Schoolhouse 

since 1998, operating from Memorial Day 

through Labor Day and for the Halloween and 

Christmas holidays. Children and adults of 

average size may ride the train. 

The Hancock Historical Museum reaches out 

to the community by developing innovative 

programming. The museum staff has as its credo 

that history should be fun. They create 

entertaining, yet educational, programs for 

children and adults. 

You may visit the museum at 422 West 

Sandusky Street in Findlay or the website at 

www.hancockhistoricalmuseum.org. Call 419- 

423-4433 for more information. 

HANCOCK HISTORICAL MUSEUM 

❖ 

Above: Hancock Historical Museum 

and Exhibit Center, Findlay, Ohio. 

Below: Findlay’s Main Street during 

the 1887 First Anniversary of Gas 

and Oil Celebration. 


MARBEE 

PRINTING AND 

GRAPHIC ART 

❖ 

Above: Martin and Betty Kuch. 

Marbee Printing and Graphic Art is a family 

owned and family operated full-service print 

shop that has served the Findlay area since the 

mid 1940s. The founders of the business were 

Martin and Betty Kuch. Martin worked at 

Garwood Industries in the in-plant print shop 

for many years. When the print shop was closed 

Martin and his wife, Betty, decided to continue 

their printing craftsmanship by starting their 

own business. They created the company name, 

Marbee, by combining the first few letters of 

their first names. Martin purchased press and 

bindery equipment and began printing at his 

residence at 227 Rector Avenue. In the early 

days, the Kuch’s home was located in a rural 

area surrounded by cornfields. Today that same 

home sits in the middle of a residential 

neighborhood, and the home-based operation 

has expanded to occupy the entire building and 

several additional rooms that have been added 

to the structure. The business was incorporated 

in 1974 as Marbee, Inc., and now provides 

income for several employees. The new owners 

eventually plan to move Marbee Printing to a 

new, larger, more visible location to better serve 

their customers. 

The Kuchs owned and operated the business 

along with their two sons until 1992, when 

Randy and Teresa Raymond became the new 

owners. The Raymonds and the Kuchs attended 

the same church and Randy and Teresa were 

introduced to the printing business when they 

went to the shop one day to buy paper. 

Following a one-year apprenticeship, the 

Raymonds purchased the business. Randy had 

been trained in a steel stamping plant and his 

wife Teresa was a high school math and Spanish 

teacher. These previous job experiences proved 

helpful in their new occupations, as the Kuchs 

taught the Raymonds what they knew about the 

printing craft, paper, and business management. 

One of the first improvements at Marbee 

Printing was to move into the computer age 

with computerized graphics and typesetting. 

Marbee Printing was one of the first locations in 

Findlay to offer short-run, full-color digital 

printing. Marbee Printing has a well-established 

reputation for quality products and excellent 

customer service. Over the years, many Findlay 

businesses and individuals have benefited from 

the printing craftsmanship of Marbee Printing, 

including churches, schools, banks, factories, 

government agencies and countless locally 

owned businesses. 

Martin, now deceased, and his wife, Betty, 

created a legacy for themselves when they 

started Marbee Printing more than six decades 

ago. Randy and Teresa Raymond are proud to 

continue that legacy and look forward to serving 

the Findlay community and Hancock County 

for years to come. 


INDEX 

A 

Adams Axle Company, 44 

Adams Brothers, 34, 46 

Adams, David, 24 

Adams, Emory, 45 

Adams, Maude, 36 

Adams School, 35, 51, 57 

Adams truck, 39, 45 

Afghanistan, 57 

African-American (black), 15-16, 26, 37 

African Methodist Episcopal Church, 36 

Agriculture, 5, 11, 13, 20-21, 27, 33, 41, 49, 

54, 58 

Akron, 40 

Algonquian, 5 

Allen County, 6 

Allen Township, 6, 15, 55 

Altrusa, 43 

Amanda Drive-in Theater, 52 

Amanda Township, 4, 14-15, 18, 52 

American Legion, 45-46 

American Magazine, 31 

American Mask Company, 34 

Anchor, 52-53 

Andrews’ Raid, 24-25 

Anti-Mason, 8 

Appleseed, Johnny, 21 

Arcadia, 18, 27, 42, 50, 55 

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, 43-44 

Arlington, 18, 27, 42, 50, 55 

Arlington School, 41 

Army, 48 

Army Air Corps, 48 

Arts and Letters Club, 36 

Ash Avenue, 40 

Ashcroft, Prof., 35 

Asia, 54 

Atlanta, 24 

Atlas Cooperage Co., 41 

Auglaize River, 5-6 

Austria, 33 

Automobiles (cars), 34, 50, 56, 58 

Automotive Fibers, Inc., 53 

B 

Back Street, 21 

Baker, Nellie, 36 

Baldwin, Dr. William, 11, 15 

Baldwin, Joshua, 11 

Balkans, 43 

Baltimore, 30 

Baptist, 17 

Barnd, Christian, 11 

Barnd Quarry, 41 

Bartley, Francis, 22 

Baseball, 28, 30, 37, 57 

Baugh & Son, 41 

Beardsley, Daniel B., 10 

Belgium, 33, 44 

Bellaire Goblet, 31 

Bellefontaine, 12 

Bellinger Addition, 46 

Benjamin Franklin School, 57 

Bennett, Harry, 46 

Bensinger, William, 24-25 

Benton, 18, 27 

Benton Ridge, 18, 32, 37, 50, 52, 55 

Bernhardt, Sarah, 36 

Best Buy, 56 

Betts, U.S. Congressman Jackson, 56 

Bevington Signal Co., 33 

Bigelow, Charles, 33 

Bigelow Hill, 33 

Bigelow Hill School, 57 

Bigelow School, 35, 52 

Biglick Township, 4, 10, 15, 55 

Big Medicine, 10 

Big Spring, 4 

Big Spring Reservation, 10, 14 

Bijou Theater, 43 

Bish, Charlie, 46 

Black Swamp, Great, 3-4, 21 

Black Swamp Trail, 5-6 

Blaine, James, 38 

Blanchard, Jean Jacques, 6 

Blanchard River, 3-6, 8 10-11,16, 19, 

21-23, 30-31, 39, 41-43, 47 

Blanchard School, 35 

Blanchard Street, 27 

Blanchard Township, 3, 15, 18, 55 

Blanchard Valley Archaeology Club, 58 

Blanchard Valley Health Center/Blanchard 

Valley Hospital, 56, 78 

Bliss Avenue, 38 

Blue Bonnet Drive, 34, 41 

Bluffton, 50, 55 

Boss Glove Co., 40 

Boston, 30 

Boy Scouts, 52 

“Boy with a Leaky Boot”, 33 

Brehm, George, 11 

Bridge(s), 19-20, 24, 31, 33, 47 

Briggs Tool Co., 30 

Britain/British, 7-9, 11, 15 

Broad Avenue, 52 

Broadway Street, 19, 26, 45-46 

Brock, Gen. Isaac, 8 

Brooklyn Giants, 37 

Brough, John, 26 

Brown, Wilson W., 24-25 

Brunner, A. E., 28 

Bryan, William Jennings, 38, 45 

Buck, Daniel, 22 

Buckeye Traction Ditching Co.-40,44,56 

Bullock, Moses, 22 

Burdet Oxygen Co., 53 

Burket, J. W., 37 

Business and Industry, 13, 21, 27, 30-34, 40- 

41, 49, 53-56 

Business and Professional Women’s Club, 43 

C 

C&S Radiator Service, Inc., 69 

California, 30 

Campfire Girls, 52 

Camp Neibling, 23 

Camp Shelby MS, 48 

Camp Vance, 23 

Canada/Canadian(s), 22, 25-26 

Cannonsburg, 18, 27 

Carey, 4, 22 

Carlin, Dr. William D., 20 

Carlin, Parlee, 11 

Carlin, Squire, 10-11, 20 

Carlin, William J., 53 

Carr, Jacob, 29 

Cass Township, 15, 55 

Catholic, 36 

Cedar Point, 42 

Cemetery, 19-20, 47-48 

Census, 13, 24, 32, 39, 49, 51, 55 

Center Street (Fostoria), 35 

CentraComm Communications, Inc., 105 

Central Middle School, 57 

Central High School, 50 

Central Union Telephone Co., 35 

Chamberlain Target Works, 44 

Chamberlin Hill School, 57 

Chamberlin, Job, 12 

Chamber of Commerce, 30, 40 

Chapman, John, 21 

Chattanooga, Tennessee, 38 

Chautauqua, 42 

Chicago, 28, 30, 37 

Chicago World’s Fair, 36 

Children’s Home, 38, 44 

Christian Union, 17 

Church of Christ, 36 

Church of God, 35-36, 52 

Cincinnati, 8, 24, 26, 34, 40 

Cincinnati Red Stockings, 37 

City Hall, 38 

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 47 

Civil War, 23, 25-26, 48 

Clay, Henry, 18 

Clay Pot Works, 44 

Cleveland, 40 

Cleveland Foundation, 55 

Cleveland, Grover, 38 

Clyde-Findlay Area Credit Union, 73 

Coast Guard, 48 

Cole, Lieutenant Colonel Ralph D., 45-46 

College Street, 25, 35 

Collingwood, Frank, 46 

Columbia Glass, 31 

Columbus, 38 

Community Foundation, Findlay-Hancock 

County, 55 

Congress, 8, 48 

Connell, George, 36 

Consumption (tuberculosis), 10 

Coolidge, Calvin, 45 

Cooper, I. J., 40 

Cooper, Myers T., 50 

Cooper Tire and Rubber Company, 40, 49, 90 

Copperheads, 26 

Index ✦ 113

Cory, 27 

Cory, Elnathan, 11 

Cory-Rawson, 52 

Cory Street, 19, 26, 35-36 

Coterie Club, 36-37 

Country Club Drive, 46 

County commissioners, 19, 22 

County Line Road, 36 

Court, 19 

Courthouse, 11-12, 19, 23, 29-31, 33 

Cox, Benjamin, 9-11 

Cox, James M., 45 

Cox, Lydia, 10 

Crates, W. E., 46 

Crawford Street, 12, 16, 25, 27, 38, 45, 53 

Crozier, Albert, 29 

Crystal Avenue, 40 

Cunningham & Co., 33 

Cunningham Manufacturing, 41 

Cusac, Captain Isaac, 25 

D 

D-Day, 50 

Dalzell, Gilmore & Leighton, 31 

Daughenbaugh, A., 11 

Daugherty, Lake, 53 

Davey, Martin L., 50 

Davis, Dr. A. L., 38 

Davis Opera House, 28, 36 

Dayton, 7 

Deisel-Wemmer Cigar Co., 45 

Delaware, 6, 9 

Delaware Township, 15-17, 22, 25, 55 

Democratic/Democrat(s), 18, 26, 38, 45, 50, 

53, 56 

Democratic Courier, The, 21 

Dennis, Peg, 51 

Depression, 16, 47-50 

Desert Storm, 57 

Detroit, 7-8, 40 

Detweiler School, 35 

Dewey, Thomas, 46, 53 

Dietsch Brothers, Inc.,108 

Differential Car Co., 56 

Disciples, 17 

District No. 9, 26, 35 

Dixie Highway, 54 

Donahey, A. Victor, 45 

Donnell, James C., 32, 34 

Donnell II, John C., 32 

Donnell Junior High/Middle School, 32, 41, 51 

Donnell, Otto, 32 

Donnell Pond, 41 

Donnell Stadium, 32, 41 

Dorney, Dale, 55 

Dorsey, Homer O., 50 

Douglas, Stephen A., 18 

Dow Chemical, 53 

“Down by the Old Millstream”, 37 

Doyle, C. A., 46 

Doyle, Fred, 46 

Drake, Dr. William H., 37 

Dressler, Marie, 36 

Dudley, Allen, 51 

Dukes Church, 17-18 

Dunathan, George, 45 

Duttweiler, Cloyce H, 50 

114 ✦ HISTORIC HANCOCK COUNTY 

E 

Eagle, 18 

Eagle Creek, 3, 19, 21 

Eagle Creek Historical Organization, 58 

Eagle Foundry and Machine Shop, 27 

Eagle Township, 15, 55 

Earlywine Cemetery, 16 

Earlywine School, 16 

Easter, 40 

Eastman Kodak, 53 

East Street, 12, 16 

Eberly, Elizabeth Cox, 10 

Eisenhower, Dwight, 53 

Electric Porcelain Works, 44 

Elks, 36, 44 

England/English, 7, 25 

Episcopal, 36 

Europe, 25, 43, 48 

Evangelical, 17, 36 

Ewing, Judge John, 11 

F 

Fair(grounds), 21-23, 27, 33, 41, 49, 58 

“Famous Dove”, 15-16 

Farmer, Loami, 20 

Fifth Third Bank (Northwestern Ohio), 109 

Fifty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 25 

Findlay, 6, 8, 11-13, 16-17, 19, 21-23, 25, 

27-33, 35-42, 44-46, 48, 50-51, 53-58 

Findlay Airport, 54, 58 

Findlay Animal Hospital/Findlay Animal Care 

Center, 94 

Findlay Antique Bottle Club, 58 

Findlay Automobile Club, 46 

Findlay Carriage Bent Works, 29 

Findlay City Schools, 100 

Findlay College/The University of Findlay, 

35, 52, 57, 82 

Findlay, Col. James, 8-9, 18 

Findlay Country Club, 42 

Findlay Drive-in Theater, 52 

Findlay Driving Park, 41 

Findlay Engraving Company, 53 

Findlay Fire Department, 45 

Findlay Flax Mill, 27 

Findlay Flint, 31 

Findlay Gas Light Company, 27 

Findlay Glass, 31 

Findlay Glass Club, 58 

Findlay•Hancock County Chamber of 

Commerce, 102 

Findlay-Hancock County Public Library, 110 

Findlay High School, 35-36, 41, 52, 57 

Findlay Linseed Oil Mill, 27 

Findlay Planing Mill, 27 

Findlay Rake factory, 27 

Findlay Stave & Handle Factory, 27 

Findlay Telephone Exchange Co., 28 

Findlay Township, 12, 14 

Findlay United Brethren, 52 

Findlay Window Glass Co., 31 

Findlay Woolen Mill, 22 

Fire department, 31, 46 

Firmin School, 35, 51, 57 

First Anniversary of the Industrial 

Application of Natural Gas, 30-31 

First Church of Christ Scientist, 52 

First Church of the Nazarene, 52 

First College Church of God, 52 

First Evangelical United Brethren 

(St. Mark’s) Church, 52 

First Lutheran Church, 52 

First Methodist Church, 52 

First National Bank, 27 

First Presbyterian Church, 13, 20, 25, 31, 52 

First Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Heavy 

Artillery, 24 

Five Columbians, 42 

“Flag City USA”, 56 

Flechtner Brothers Slaughter Co., 41 

Florida, 56 

Ford, 46 

Ford Dairy, C. W., 35 

Ford, John T., 21 

Ford, Joseph, 11 

Forest, 52 

Fort Ferree, 9 

Fort Findlay, 8-11, 43 

Fort Findlay Sesquicentennial, 52 

Fort Findlay Village Shopping Center, 56-57 

Fort McArthur, 7 

Fort Meigs, 9 

Fort Necessity, 8 

Fort Stephenson, 9 

Fort Sumter, 23 

Fort Wayne, 8 

Foster, Charles, 25 

Fostoria, 4, 17, 20, 25, 32-33, 40, 47, 50, 

53, 55 

Fostoria Academy, 25, 35 

Fostoria Glass Co., 33, 40 

Fostoria Grain Co., 41 

Fostoria Hospital, 47 

Fostoria Lamp & Shade Co., 33 

Fostoria Spoke & Bent Works, 33 

Fostoria Stave & Barrel Co., 33, 41 

France, 33, 44, 54 

Franklin County, Pennsylvania, 8 

Fraternal organizations, 21, 27-28, 36, 43 

Fremont, 9, 15, 18, 28 

Fremont & Indiana Railroad, 22 

French, 6, 25 

French, D. D., 38 

Frenchtown, 8 

Fresh Encounter, Inc., 86 

Freudenberg-NOK, 106 

Frey, William J., 45 

Front Street, 8, 11, 21, 45, 50 

G 

Gardner, John, 12 

Garfield, James A., 26 

Gar-Wood Industries, 40, 49, 56 

Gassmann, Clarence H., 50 

“General, The”, 24 

Georgia, 24 

German(s), 15, 25, 30, 34 

German Reformed, 17 

Giant Tire Co., 40 

Gillette Theater, 42 

Gilruth, Rev. James, 11 

Girl Scouts, 52 

Glass Block, 46 

Glathart, Clifford, 53

Glenwood Junior High/Middle School, 41, 51 

Goit, Edson, 15 

Golden Anniversary of Oil & Gas, 49-50 

Goldwater, Barry, 56 

Gordon, Dr. William H., 44 

Gorsuch, John, 17 

Graham, Charles, 29 

Grand Army of the Republic, 24, 36 

Grand Theatre, 42 

Grant Motor Car Co., 40, 44, 45, 46 

Grant, U. S., 26 

Gray School, 26, 35, 41 

Great Miami River, 14 

GreaterFindlayInc.,103 

Greeley, Horace, 26 

Greene County, 10 

Green Mill, 50 

Groves, E. Lincoln, 46, 50 

Guyer, Tennyson, 51, 56 

H 

Hackney, William, 12 

Hall, Forest G., 49 

Hall, Lieutenant Commander Pearl T., 48 

Hamilton County, 8 

Hamilton, Don Alonzo, 12 

Hamilton, John P., 12 

Hancock Brick & Tile Co., 34-35, 44, 55 

Hancock County, 3-15, 17-18, 20, 22,-27, 29, 

32-33, 35, 38-40, 42, 44-45, 48-51, 53-58 

Hancock Courier, 25 

Hancock Historical Museum, 58, 111 

Hancock Jeffersonian, 22, 26 

Hancock, John, 12, 32, 38 

Hancock-Wood Electric Co-op., 49 

Hancor, 34 

Hancor, Inc., 84 

Hardin County, 6-7, 52 

Hardin Street, 16, 32, 44 

Harding, Warren G., 45 

Harmonia Hall, 40 

Harmon, Judson, 45 

Harpers Weekly, 29, 31 

Harrison, Benjamin, 38 

Harrison, William Henry, 12 

Harris Theater, 42 

Harter, Isaac, 33 

Hart, John, 24 

Hayes, Rutherford B., 26 

Heck, S. T., 46 

Heller, 11 

Henry County, 12 

Hercules Tire & Rubber Company, 98 

Hill, James B., 40 

Hispanic, 41 

Historic Preservation Guild of Findlay- 

Hancock County, 58 

Hoadley, Howard, 48, 54 

Ho Chi Minh, 54 

Home Telephone, 35 

Hoover, Herbert, 45, 50 

Hospital, 20, 38, 53, 56 

Houck brothers, 40 

Houck, J. F., 18 

Houcktown, 18, 27 

Houpt, Samuel D., 28 

House of Guest, 53 

House of Mirth, 42 

Howard Methodist Church, 52 

Howard, Samuel, 35 

Howard Schoo, l35, 41, 57 

Howell, C. C., 30 

Hoy, William E. “Dummy”, 37-38 

Hubbard Press, 53 

Huber School, 52, 57 

Hull, General William, 7-9, 11 

Hull, Jasper, 34 

Hunter, John, 12 

Hurd, Robert (R. B.), 18, 24 

Hurd Street, 33 

Huron, 5 

Hutson, John, 51 

Hyatt, A. H., 11 

I 

Indian(s), 5-6, 8-10, 13 

Indiana, 14, 35, 47 

Indian Green, 6 

Indian Removal Act, 14 

Influenza, 44 

Ingalls, David S., 50 

International Brewing Co., 56 

Interstate 75, 34, 56 

Iraq, 57 

Irish, 25 

Iroquoian, 5 

Isaac Harter Mill, 41 

Italians, 25 

J 

Jackson, Andrew, 18 

Jackson Company, C. F., 46 

Jackson Township, 15, 18, 55 

Jacobs School, 51-52 

Jacobs, Zola, 52 

Jail, 19-20 

“James Beacham”, 15 

Japan/Japanese, 48, 56 

Jefferson Sounty, 15 

Jefferson School, 51-52 

Jenera, 6, 16, 50, 55 

Johnson, Grant “Homerun”, 37-38 

Johnson, Lyndon, 56 

Joy House Hotel, 46 

Judson Palmer Home, 88 

K 

Kansas, 14 

Karg Well, 29-30 

Karr, 22 

Kennedy Printing, 34 

Kenton, 38 

Ketchum, Albert, 33, 39-40 

Kibble & Riley Ice House, 33 

King, John, 22 

Kiwanis, 43 

Knights of the Maccabees, 36 

Knight, William, 25 

Knoxville, 38 

Koerber, Leila, 36 

Kopp, Jr., Nicholas, 33 

Korean War, 54 

Krantz Brewing Co., 43, 55 

Kuss & Co., R. L., 53 

L 

Labor unions, 53 

Ladies’ Aid Society, 24 

Lake Central Airlines, 54 

Lake Erie, 3-4, 9 

Lake Erie & Western Railroad, 18, 22, 27 

Lake Maumee, 3, 4 

Lamberjack Lake, 53 

Landon, Alfred, 50 

“Law, Justice & Mercy”, 31, 33 

L. G. & E. T. Smith Hancle Factory, 33 

Liberty Benton Schools, 52 

Liberty Loan War Bonds, 44 

Liberty Street, 25 

Liberty Township, 15, 42, 50, 52, 55 

Library, 36 

Lima, 22, 28, 35 

Lima Avenue, 40 

Lima Street, 39 

Limestone, 3-4 

Linaweaver, Albert, 29 

Linco Flying Aces, 50 

Lincoln, Abraham, 18, 26 

Lincoln School, 41, 51 

Lincoln Street, 31, 35, 41 

Lisbon, Ohio, 26 

Little League, 52 

Locke, David Ross, 26 

Logan County, 12 

Long, John, 12 

Lower Sandusky (Fremont), 6 

Lowes, 56 

Lutheran, 17, 36 

Lyceum Theatre, 43 

Lynching, 31 

M 

Macon, Georgia, 38 

Madison Township, 15, 18, 25, 55 

Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad, 22 

Main Cross Street, 17-21, 34-36, 40, 50, 53 

Main Street, 8, 10-11, 16, 18, 20-21, 26-36, 

38, 40-44, 49 

Majestic Theater, 42 

Maple Grove Cemetery, 20-21, 44, 47-48 

Marathon Oil Company/Marathon Petroleum 

Company, LLC, 32, 34, 47, 49-50, 62 

Marbee Printing and Graphic Art, 112 

Marines, 48 

Marion Township, 15, 55 

Marshall, Mrs. Albert, 37 

Marvin Opera House, 36 

Marvin Theater, 42 

Mathias Well, 32, 34 

Maumee, 11 

Maumee Rapids, 8 

Maumee River, 5-8 

Mazza Gallery, 57 

McArthur, Col. Duncan, 7 

McClelland, George, 26 

McComb, 4, 6, 18, 25, 27-28, 32, 42, 50 

McCrary, Thomas, 19 

McCurdy, John, 19 

McGown, Bert, 40 

McKee School, 35, 52 

McKinley School, 51, 57 

McKinley, William, 38 

Index ✦ 115

McKinnis, 10 

McKinnis, Philip, 12 

McKinnis, Robert, 12 

McManness Avenue, 41 

McPherson Street, 27 

Meigs, Gov., 7 

Melrose Avenue, 52 

Mennel Milling, 41 

Merchant Marines, 48 

Merkle, Joel, 24 

Methodist, 11, 17, 36 

Mexican War, 23 

Mexico, 41, 44 

Miami, 5, 9 

Michigan, 14, 56 

Midget Football League, 52 

Midland Telephone, 28 

Midway Park, 42 

Midwest, 30 

Milhuff, Franklin P., 33 

Miller, Caro “Guy”, 42 

Miller, Marilynn, 42 

Millstream Career & Technology Center, 101 

Millstream Career Co-operative, 57 

Millstream Drive-in, 52 

Millstream South Vocational, 57 

Mitchell, T. M., 45 

Model Flint, 31 

Modern Woodmen of America, 36 

Moreland, 10 

Moreland, William, 12 

Morrical Boulevard, 38 

Morrison, John H., 11 

Morrison, Mary, 36 

Mortimer, 46 

Mosier Lake, 53 

Mosquito Fleet, 43 

Motram Lake, 53 

Mt. Blanchard, 17, 21, 28, 42, 50, 52, 55 

Mt. Cory, 27, 32, 42, 50, 52, 55 

Mungen, Colonel William, 25 

Murphy, Mike, 50 

Mystic Theater, 42 

N 

Nasby, Petroleum V., 26 

National Lime & Stone Company, 70 

Natural gas, 3, 29,-32 

Navy, 48 

Neibling, Lieutenant Colonel James M., 23 

Newhouse, Sprout & Co., 33 

New Orleans, 38 

New Royal Theater, 42 

New York, Central & Pacific Railroad, 46 

New York City, 30 

New York Herald, 31 

New York State, 11 

Nickel Plate, 46, 50 

Nigh, W. H., 11 

Nissin Brake Ohio, Inc., 76 

Nixon, Richard, 53, 56 

North Liberty, 18 

Northview School, 51 

Northwestern Normal School, 25 

Northwest Ordinance, 16 

Norton, Colonel Jesse, 23 

116 ✦ HISTORIC HANCOCK COUNTY 

O 

O.K. Industries, Inc., 92 

Oberlin College, 35 

Oesterlen, Dr. Charles, 29-30 

Ohio, 3, 5-8, 11-12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 23, 26, 

30, 38, 46-47, 50, 53 

Ohio Bank, 34 

Ohio Engineering Co., 53 

Ohio Farmers Grain & Supply, 41 

Ohio General Assembly, 36 

Ohio National Guard, 38, 44, 48 

Ohio Normal Training School, 35 

Ohio Oil Co., 13 ,32, 34, 47, 50, 54 

Ohio State Telephone Co., 35 

OHM Corporation, 66 

Oil, 32, 34 

Old Main, 35 

O’Neal, 11 

Orange Township, 15, 55 

Orpheum, 42 

Orton, Dr., 29 

Ottawa, 5-6, 10, 14 

Ottawa Creek, 3, 6, 8 

Owens Community College, 107 

Oxley, Michael, 56 

P 

Pacific Theater, 48 

Pancho Villa, 43 

Paris, 45, 47 

Parker, Jonathan, 11 

Pastime, 43 

Patterson, John, 11 

Patterson, Joseph S., 21 

Patterson, Minerva Taylor, 21 

Paulding County, 12 

Paxon School, 35 

Pearl Harbor, 48 

Pennsylvania, 11, 15, 34 

Perry, Commodore, 9 

Perry County, 11 

Peters, Ambrose, 18 

Peters, David, 18 

Pheidippides, 47 

Philippines, 38 

Phoenix Hotel, 39 

Pittsburgh, 31 

Pleasant Township, 15, 18, 55 

Pleasantville, 18 

Plum Orchard, 6 

Poe, Jacob, 12 

Police, 31, 33 

Pony League, 52 

Portage River, 4, 47 

Portage Township, 15, 55 

Porterfield, William, 11 

Porter, John Reed, 24-25 

Post Office, 30, 45 

Presbyterian, 17-18, 36 

Public Square, 19 

Public Works Administration (PWA), 47 

Putnam County, 12, 20 

Pythian Sisters, 36 

R 

R.A. Hale & Co. Steam Laundry, 33 

Radebaugh, Harry R., 46 

Radio Corporation of America, 53 

Railroad(s), 22, 24, 31, 32, 50 

Ramsey, 16 

Ramsey, Charles, 15-16 

Ramsey, James, 15 

Ramsey, Lloyd, 15 

Rawson, 18, 28, 32, 42, 50, 52, 55 

Rawson, Dr. Bass, 11, 15 

Rawson, L. Q., 18 

Rawson Park, 47 

Reams, Frazier, 56 

Red Cross, 44, 48 

Reeves Park, 42 

Reighley, 10, 12 

Religion (churches), 13, 16, 17, 27-28, 36, 

52, 57 

Reformed, 36 

Remington Arms, 48 

Republican, 18, 26, 38, 45-46, 50, 53, 56 

Reservations, 6, 10, 14 

Revolutionary War, 7, 12 

Rhodes, James, 56 

Richland County, 21 

Richland Township, 15 

Ricketts, Hugh, 54 

Ridge Township, 15 

Rieck’s, 34 

Risdon, 17 

Riverdale School District, 52, 57 

River Raisin, 8 

Riverside Park, 23, 42, 46, 50 

Roads, 19, 22, 28 

Rogers, Will, 36 

Rome, 17 

Romick, Keith, 56 

Roosevelt, Franklin, 50 

Roosevelt, Theodore, 45 

Rose, Alvan, 20 

Rosenburg, Jacob, 21 

Rotary, 43 

Royce, Allen, 20 

Royal Theater, 42 

Russell, Lillian, 36 

S 

St. Dennis, Ruth, 36 

St. Louis Browns, 37 

St. Marks United Methodist, 52 

St. Michael’s Catholic Church, 50, 52 

St. Michael’s School, 50, 52 

St. Wendelin’s Catholic Church, 36 

St. Wendelin’s School, 50 

Salvation Army, 36 

San-a-pure Dairy Co., 54 

Sandusky River, 6 

Sandusky Street, 19, 21, 25, 35, 37, 49, 52 

Sausser, John, 56 

Schneider, Madeleine Thomas, 55 

School(s), 12-13, 19, 25-28, 30, 35, 41, 

51-52, 57 

Scott, John, 24 

Second Independent Company, Ohio 

Volunteer Sharpshooters, 23 

Second Ward School, 36 

Selby Street, 40 

Seneca, 6, 9, 14 

Seneca County, 10, 17

Seneca Glass Co., 33, 40 

Seneca Lumber & Millwork Co., 41 

Seneca Wire Co., 40 

Seymour, Horatio, 26 

Shakespeare Club, 36 

Shannon, 11 

Shawnee, 5-6, 9, 14 

Sherman Park, 30 

Sherman, Senator John, 30 

“Shipwreck” Germans, 15-16, 25 

Shoot the Chutes, 42 

Shoupe, P. S., 46 

Simpson, 10 

Sky Bank, 34 

Slight, Thomas, 10, 12 

Smith, Alfred, 45 

Smith, Chester P., 53 

Socialist, 45-46 

South Vietnam, 54 

Spanish-American War, 38 

Sprau, 22 

“Squirrel Hunters”, 24 

St. Micheal The Archangel Parish, 96 

State Theater, 43 

Stoker Relief Corps, 36 

Streetcars, 30, 33, 42, 50 

Stringfellow, Ulysses K., 35 

Strother School, 35-36 

Sugar beet plant, 54 

Sulphur springs, 4 

Swale Park, 47 

Swedenborgian, 21 

Swisher, Bob, 51 

Swiss, 25 

Symposium Club, 36 

T 

Taft, William H., 45 

Tall Timbers, 56 

“Tawa” Creek, 3 

Taylor School, 16 

Taylor, Tell, 37, 42, 44, 49 

Taylor, William, 11, 21 

Telephones, 28, 34, 58 

Tennessee, 26 

Texas, 41 

Thatcher, Calvin, 56 

Theatorium, 42 

Thomas, Captain Arthur, 8 

Thorp, 9-11 

Thursday Conversational Club, 36 

Tiderishi Creek, 6 

Tiffin, 15, 58 

Tiffin Avenue, 41-42, 56 

Till Plains, 3, 21 

Time Warner, 61 

Time Services, 104 

Tippecanoe Well, 29 

Todd, Benjamin, 18 

Tod, Governor, 24 

Toledo & Fostoria Railway, 40-41 

Toledo, Fostoria & Findlay Railway, 42 

Toledo News Bee, 30 

Totten, Theodore, 46 

TownePlace Suites by Marriott Findlay, 74 

Treaty of Greenville, 9 

Treaty of Paris, 7 

Trenton Avenue, 56 

Tribe of Ben Hur, 36 

Trinity Episcopal Church, 36 

Trinity Industries, 56 

Trinity School, 50 

Tritch, Leonard, 48 

Truck(s), 34 

Turner, Reverend, 25 

Twenty-first Ohio Vol. Infantry, 23-25 

U 

Underground Railroad, 22 

Union, 26 

Union School, 25, 35, 42, 50, 52 

Union Township, 6, 11, 15, 18, 27, 55 

United Brethren, 17, 25, 36 

United Service Organization, 48 

United States, 43 

University of Findlay, 57 

Upper Sandusky, 6, 9-10, 14 

V 

Vallandigham, Clement L., 26 

Van Buren, 4, 6, 17, 25, 28, 42, 50, 55, 57 

Van Buren, Martin, 18 

Van Buren Township, 15, 25, 55 

Vance, 10 

Vance, Joseph, 11 

Vance, Wilson, 11-12 

Van Eman, George, 20 

Vanlue, 18, 28, 42, 50, 55 

Vanlue, William, 18 

“Venus Rising”, 33 

Victory Theater, 43 

Vietnam War, 54, 56 

Vilbrandt, Dorothy, 43 

Virginia, 15 

W 

Wallace, George, 56 

Walker, James B., 45 

Walnut Street, 16 

War of 1812, 7, 11 

War with Mexico, 20 

Washington School, 41, 51 

Washington Township, 15, 18, 25, 55 

Weick, Jr., Karl, 51 

Welfare Township, 14-15 

Werk-Brau Co., 53 

West Center Street School, 36 

Western Avenue, 34, 40 

Western Herald, 21 

Western Railway Signal Co., 41 

Western Torpedo Works, 33 

Western Union, 28 

West Independence, 18, 28 

West Park, 38 

West Virginia, 47 

WFIN, 51 

Wharton, 52 

Whig, 8, 18, 21 

Whirlpool Corporation - Findlay Division, 80 

White, George, 50 

White, Joseph, 12 

Whittier School, 51 

Wickham, John C., 12 

Wigwam, 30-31 

Wilkie, Wendell, 50 

Williams, Charles, 34 

Williams County, 12 

Williams, John W., 18 

Williamstown, 18, 22 

Willis, Frank B., 45 

Wilson, James H., 11 

Wilson, Woodrow, 45 

Winebrenner Theological Seminary, 52 

Wolcott, Sarah, 11 

Wolford, Godfrey, 12, 22 

Women’s Army Corp, 48 

Women’s Christian Temperance Union, 43 

Women’s Relief Corps, 24 

Wood County, 10, 12, 22 

Woodland Indians, 5 

Woods, John A., 22 

Woodworth Drive, 41 

Works Program Administration, 47 

World War I, 46 

World War II, 47-50, 54 

Wyandot, 5-6, 9-12, 14 

Wyandot County, 52 

Wyandot Grand Reserve, 10-11, 14 

Y 

Yates, Jeremiah, 20 

“Yellow” School, 16, 25 

Young Men’s Christian Association, 52 

Z 

Zay, Frederick, 29, 31 

Zeigfeld, Flo, 42 

Index ✦ 117

SPONSORS 

Blanchard Valley Hospital.............................................................................................................................................................78 

C&S Radiator Service, Inc. ...........................................................................................................................................................69 

CentraComm Communications, Inc............................................................................................................................................105 

Clyde-Findlay Area Credit Union .................................................................................................................................................73 

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company..................................................................................................................................................90 

Dietsch Brothers, Inc. .................................................................................................................................................................108 

Fifth Third Bank (Northwestern Ohio) .......................................................................................................................................109 

Findlay Animal Hospital/Findlay Animal Care Center...................................................................................................................94 

Findlay City Schools...................................................................................................................................................................100 

Findlay College/The University of Findlay ....................................................................................................................................82 

Findlay•Hancock County Chamber of Commerce ......................................................................................................................102 

Findlay-Hancock County Public Library.....................................................................................................................................110 

Fresh Encounter, Inc. ...................................................................................................................................................................86 

Freudenberg-NOK......................................................................................................................................................................106 

GreaterFindlayInc.......................................................................................................................................................................103 

Hancock Historical Museum.......................................................................................................................................................111 

Hancor, Inc. .................................................................................................................................................................................84 

Hercules Tire & Rubber Company................................................................................................................................................98 

Judson Palmer Home....................................................................................................................................................................88 

Marathon Petroleum Company, LLC .............................................................................................................................................62 

Marbee Printing and Graphic Art................................................................................................................................................112 

Millstream Career & Technology Center .....................................................................................................................................101 

National Lime & Stone Company .................................................................................................................................................70 

Nissin Brake Ohio, Inc. ................................................................................................................................................................76 

O.K. Industries, Inc......................................................................................................................................................................92 

OHM Corporation ........................................................................................................................................................................66 

Owens Community College........................................................................................................................................................107 

St. Micheal The Archangel Parish .................................................................................................................................................96 

Time Services .............................................................................................................................................................................104 

TownePlace Suites by Marriott Findlay .........................................................................................................................................74 

Whirlpool Corporation - Findlay Division ....................................................................................................................................80 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

P AULETTE 

W EISER 

A native of North Dakota, Paulette Weiser has lived, worked and raised a family in Ohio for the past twenty-five years. Trained as 

an archivist, Weiser has worked in the archival field for nearly thirty years in Wyoming and Ohio. She organized an archives for The 

Toledo (Ohio) Hospital and for the Hancock Historical Museum, Findlay, Ohio, after completing a master’s degree in history at 

Bowling Green (Ohio) State University in 1983. The archivist at Findlay’s museum since 1989, she added museum curator to her title 

and duties in 1999. 

Weiser has been active in several historical and professional organizations over the years. She currently serves as a representative 

from the Northwest Ohio region to the board of the Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums. She has also served on the 

National Advisory Board to the Mazza Gallery, a collection of artworks from children’s literature at the University of Findlay, since the 

board’s inception. 

Weiser has written several books during her time in Ohio, including A Legacy of Caring, a history of The Toledo Hospital School of 

Nursing. Since working at the Hancock Historical Museum, she has penned works on local history topics, including Herstory, Voices 

from the Past, Women in the History of Hancock County (1996); Ethnic Roots, Immigrant and Racial Populations, 1830-1920 (1999); and 

Image Makers: A Century of Findlay Photographers (2002), as well as writing captions and co-editing A Pictorial History of Findlay and 

Hancock County (1999) and compiling and co-editing Heroes by Necessity: Stories of Hancock County Veterans of World War II (2004). A 

second volume of World War II veterans’ stories is in the works, as well as planned volumes on veterans of Korea and Vietnam to 

follow. A long dreamed of book on Hancock County rural schools will probably have to wait for retirement! 

About the Author ✦ 119

For more information about the following publications or about publishing your own book, please call 

Historical Publishing Network at 800-749-9790 or visit www.lammertinc.com. 

Black Gold: The Story of Texas Oil & Gas 

Historic Abilene: An Illustrated History 

Historic Albuquerque: An Illustrated History 

Historic Amarillo: An Illustrated History 

Historic Anchorage: An Illustrated History 

Historic Austin: An Illustrated History 

Historic Baton Rouge: An Illustrated History 

Historic Beaufort County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Beaumont: An Illustrated History 

Historic Bexar County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Brazoria County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Charlotte: 

An Illustrated History of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County 

Historic Cheyenne: A History of the Magic City 

Historic Comal County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Corpus Christi: An Illustrated History 

Historic Denton County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Edmond: An Illustrated History 

Historic El Paso: An Illustrated History 

Historic Erie County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Fairbanks: An Illustrated History 

Historic Gainesville & Hall County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Gregg County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Hampton Roads: Where America Began 

Historic Henry County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Houston: An Illustrated History 

Historic Illinois: An Illustrated History 

Historic Kern County: 

An Illustrated History of Bakersfield and Kern County 

Historic Lafayette: 

An Illustrated History of Lafayette & Lafayette Parish 

Historic Laredo: 

An Illustrated History of Laredo & Webb County 

Historic Louisiana: An Illustrated History 

Historic Midland: An Illustrated History 

Historic Montgomery County: 

An Illustrated History of Montgomery County, Texas 

Historic Oklahoma: An Illustrated History 

Historic Oklahoma County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Omaha: 

An Illustrated History of Omaha and Douglas County 

Historic Ouachita Parish: An Illustrated History 

Historic Paris and Lamar County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Pasadena: An Illustrated History 

Historic Passaic County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Philadelphia: An Illustrated History 

Historic Prescott: 

An Illustrated History of Prescott & Yavapai County 

Historic Richardson: An Illustrated History 

Historic Rio Grande Valley: An Illustrated History 

Historic Scottsdale: A Life from the Land 

Historic Shreveport-Bossier: 

An Illustrated History of Shreveport & Bossier City 

Historic South Carolina: An Illustrated History 

Historic Smith County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Texas: An Illustrated History 

Historic Victoria: An Illustrated History 

Historic Tulsa: An Illustrated History 

Historic Williamson County: An Illustrated History 

Historic Wilmington & The Lower Cape Fear: 


Iron, Wood & Water: An Illustrated History of Lake Oswego 

Miami’s Historic Neighborhoods: A History of Community 

Old Orange County Courthouse: A Centennial History 

Plano: An Illustrated Chronicle 

The New Frontier: 

A Contemporary History of Fort Worth & Tarrant County 

The San Gabriel Valley: A 21st Century Portrait 

The Spirit of Collin County 


LEADERSHIP SPONSORS 

ISBN 9781893619777

Historic Hancock County

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