War Activities in Shelby County

            In the scant and casual records of Sidney's past, one finds few details of the life and doings of its citizens out of official circles, and, (page 436) except for the records of the Civil war veterans, little mention of the participation of the men of Shelby county in previous wars.

            But enough evidence remains, in the form of military titles, to connect a just proportion of the fighting forces of the community with every call of patriotism uttered through the century. Not behind any other period of its history has the response of both city and country district been in the recent world war, now happily concluded-though the poignancy of sacrifices made has not yet faded from broken homes, where hearts are still bleeding and tears are yet undried.

            The report of the Shelby county draft board is to be given here complete, but it must be remembered, in reading the totals, that the draft did not include many who went from this county, from other places where they were temporarily located, into the United States forces ; or who, in their eagerness to do their part, did not wait for the United States to enter, but enlisted from Canada. "Company L," of the O. N. G., who had served throughout the Mexican border campaign, is not included in the totals, nor many others who sent no word, of their departure, from other points, until letters came from overseas to tell the story. The exact number of volunteers, who went before the selective draft had been decided upon, has not been ascertained. Letting the figures of the draft board speak for the rest, we find that in the registration of June 5, 1917, there were listed 2,078 men, divided as follows: Class I, 468; class II, 240; class III, 121; class IV, 1,042; class V, 207. Of the whole, 424 were inducted into the service, and, of those not drawn, 68 enlisted. The June and August, 1918, registrations totalled 233 names, divided into : Class I, 117; class II, 57; class III, 12; class IV, 29; class V, 18. The registration of September, 1918, covering the ages from nineteen to thirty-six, exhibited 1,217 names, divided into : Class I, 480; class 11,4; class III, 18; class IV, 661; class V, 54. Covering the eighteen year registrants, were 234 names : Class I, 230; class II, 0; class III, 4. Of the men aged from thirty-seven to forty-five, unclassified, there were 1,389; the total September registration being 2,840, and of all registrations, 5,151.

            Thirty-eight of the September registrants were inducted into the S. A. T. C., bringing the total number of inductions by the draft board to 491, with 70 enlistments recorded, making a record, for the county board, of 561 names, to which the reader must add the many suggested whom the draft board did not reach, but who nevertheless are to be counted among Shelby county's young patriots. The draft board, whose work was most faithfully carried out, consisted of B. F. Martin, chairman; W. T. Amos, secretary; Dr. M. F. Hussey, medical examiner, and Miss Anna Hennessey, chief clerk. From September, 1918, to January, 1919, a soldier clerk was employed as extra-being James Stuber, a "limited service" recruit from the fish and game department at Columbus. The work of Dr. Hussey in the first draft calls for special mention, great personal sacrifice and labor being expended in the examination of 640 men, with only occasional help in cases of haste, from Drs. J. W. Costolo, 0. 0. LeMaster and C. E. Johnston. The character of the personnel of the board was such as to gratify the entire community, exercising (page 437) justice, discrimination and due human sympathy in the discharge of their duties.

            Only one contingent of Shelby county soldiers was sent away with any public demonstration of farewell, that of May 28, 1918, when the largest group, 115 men, departed on the day of the great war chest parade, in which they were a leading feature, escorted to the station, where they entrained, by an immense crowd. For the rest, they had gone in little companies, as they were summoned, with only intimate friends to wish them Godspeed from quivering lips and aching hearts. Sidney sent of its finest younger surgeons to

            the service of the nation, and the brightest of her young men went first and most eagerly. Many have won honors and come home to love and hope, or have found their work the gateway to material advancement in other fields. Four Sidney boys attained high rank as aviators, Lieuts. R. D. Kenny, William Orbison, Firederick Stiles and Voress Loudenback. Lieut. Orbison electrified his home county by thrilling fights on war chest day. Lieut. Kenny was retained for months as commander of primary solo fight at Barronfeld, Texas.

            But the inevitable sadness of war fell heavily on the county, thirty-three of its brave lads being sacrificed. Ten of these were Sidney boys, the remaining twenty-three being from homes all over the county. Twenty-one sleep in France ; eleven died in different plague-stricken camps during the terrible influenza epidemic ; and one "suffered a sea change." Their names, collected and printed with brief biographies, in a memorial pamphlet by the Shelby county memorial association, are here recorded, followed by those of the association. Upon the occasion of the memorial mass meeting, an eloquent address was delivered by Hon. Charles M. Wyman, which forms part of the material of the pamphlet. It is not reproduced here, but it was a beautiful tribute to the patriotism of the dead, and full of inspiration to the living. In the freshness of grief, words are often but futile messengers of comfort to the bereaved; but the sympathy they carry lives long after their echoes die. The brightest laurels we can lay upon the graves of our boy heroes in France, or upon those of the victims of camp scourges in the United States, are, however, only pale symbols of the glory with which their story crowns the county.

"Lest we forget!"

            Firederick Napier Annandale, Sidney, Ohio, Company L, O. N. G., died in France, of wounds received in action. Age, thirty years.

            Floyd Briggs, of Sidney, Ohio, Company L, O. N. G., killed in action in France. Age, nineteen years.

            Homer R. Colby, of Loramie township, 6th regiment, U. S. Marines, died in France. Age, twenty-two years.

            Grover Cox, of McLean township, 9th Training battalion, died at Camp Sherman, Ohio. Age, twenty-six years.

            Louis Henry Daniel, of McLean township, U. S. navy, U. S. S. Trippe, washed overboard and lost at sea. Age, twenty-two years.

            Benjamin Logan Englerth, of Anna, Ohio, Medical Officers' Reserve corps, Coast artillery, died in France. Age, twenty-six years.

            (page 438) Leo John Francis, of Loramie township, 159th Depot brigade, died at Camp Taylor, Kentucky. Age, twenty-three years.

            Robert Comer Fogt, of Dinsmore township, U. S. Marines, U. S. S. Cincinnati, died at Key West, Florida. Age, twenty-one years.

            Stephen L. Francis, of Loramie township, Company D, 329^th regiment infantry, U.S. army, died in France of wounds received in action. Age, twenty-five years.

            Noah Wilson Haner, of Sidney, Ohio, Company L, killed in action, in France. Age, twenty years.

            Edward William Heiland, of Dinsmore township, Company L, died in France, of wounds received in action. Age, twenty-three years.

            John Henry Helminger, of Jackson township, Company H, 330th infantry, died in France, of wounds received in action. Age, twenty-nine.

            Ralph Emerson Hineman, of Dinsmore township, Company K, 103rd regiment, 26th division, died in France. Age, twenty-three years.

            Don Henly John, of Sidney, Ohio, 158th Depot brigade, died at Camp Sherman, Ohio. Age, twenty-one years.

            Leopold Alonzo Kah, of Dinsmore township, Company D, 153rd regiment infantry, died in France, of wounds received in action. Age, twenty-five years.

            James McKinley Latimer, of Turtle Creek township, Troop B, 15th cavalry, U. S. army, died in France. Age, under seventeen years.

            John J. Layman, of Washington township, 158th Depot brigade, died at Camp Sherman, Ohio. Age, twenty-two years.

            Clarence Nathan Maxon, of Sidney, Ohio, Company L, killed in action, in France. Age, twenty years.

            Lloyd Leslie Mottoe, of Salem township, Depot brigade, died at Camp Sherman, Ohio. Age, twenty-two years.

            Earl Munch, of Jackson township, Company B, 146th regiment, killed in action, in France. Age, twenty-two years.

            Raymond G. Nettleship, of Salem township, Company G, 148th regiment infantry, died in France, of wounds received in action. Age, twenty-six years.

            Walter Raymond Pence, of Sidney, Ohio, Marine corps, died in France. Age, twenty-one years.

            Henry Elmer Regula, of Jackson township, 158th Depot brigade, died at Camp Sherman, Ohio. Age, twenty-two years.

            Abram Robinette, of Washington township, Company K, 4th regiment, U. S. army, died at Camp Perry, Illinois. Age, twenty-two years.

            Orla Sylvester Scherer, of Jackson township, Company L, died in France. Age, twenty years.

            Anthony Michael Sherman, of Sidney, Ohio, 6th regiment, U. S. Marines, died in France. Age, twenty-three years.

            Robert Lee Smith, of Green township, Company B, 104th U. S. Engineers, died at Camp McClellan, Annison, Alabama. Age, twenty-three years.

            (page 439) Simon Peter Snapp, of Perry township, volunteer in 13th Canadian battalion, died in France, of wounds received in action. Age, thirty-eight years.

            Herman Henry Soelman, of Van Buren township, 159th Depot brigade, died at Camp Taylor, .Kentucky. Age, twenty-three years. John E. Stanridge, of Sidney, Ohio, Company M, 329th infantry, U. S. army, died in France, of wounds received in action. Age, twenty-four years.

            Carl Firederick Troester of Sidney, Ohio, 32nd division, U. S. army, killed in action, in France. Age, twenty-three years.

            Oden Wilkinson, of Perry township, Training detachment, Mechanical institute,- U. S. army, died at Cincinnati. Age, twenty-seven years.

            Gordon Wright, of Sidney, Ohio, Company A, 23rd infantry, 6th division, U. S. army, killed in action, in France. Age, twenty-two years.

            The Shelby county men composing the Memorial association are :

            From Sidney, P. R. Taylor,* J. D. Barnes, Rev. W. B. Love, I. M. Apple, J. Wilson Roy,* W. P. Collier, William Young, C. C. Kelly, P. L. Frazier, M. A. Doorley, H. E. Bennett, James E. Way, Brice Smith, P. O. Stockstill, Louis W. Kah, Orin Staley, and James Sharp.

            From Botkins, Thomas Kennedy and Benjamin Artkamp. From Anna, J. W. A. Fridley, R. D. Mede, Wilson Dill, T. S. Price, J. F. Ailes, 'and John Deiters.

            From Houston, G. W. Carpenter, Dr. J. S. Strosnider and J. F. Flinn.

            From Jackson Center, F. M. Wildermuth and Elmer Meranda. From Swanders, Robert Evans and George Knasel. From Piqua Road, Frank Rhodes and John Booher; and W. J. Sherman, Fort Loramie ; Bernard Brandywine, Minster; Isaac Green, Pemberton ; B. C. Epler, Port Jefferson ; John Wones, Maplewood ; Henry Eisenhut, Kettlerville ; and Dr. S. S. Gabriel, Lockington.

            Not only to the dead is honor due, but to those who lived, sharing the risks and dangers, enduring the drudgery and dreary waiting, missing the great adventure, or coming out of it with maimed bodies and blinded eyes or, fortunate to seek once more the opportunities they sacrificed at the call of liberty-uncrowned         by the immortality vouchsafed in a patriot's death. The work of the memorial association may not be laid down until these, all, have been recognized by some fitting token of permanent dignity. Of all the great drives for funds during the war, that of the Y. M. C. A. was the first to be organized and put across, if the initial drive for Red Cross membership in 1917 be excepted. Sidney having no local Y. M. C. A., Hon. J. E. Russell, appointed to have charge of the campaign in Shelby county, was under the necessity of building from the foundation, in order successfully to raise the quota of $15,000 assigned to the county. Mr. Russell, (page 440) assisted by Mr. W. E. Kilborn, organized the county outside of Sidney, succeeding by personal and intimate work, in securing a chairman for each school district, in nearly all of which the detail organizations were promptly effected, though a few were somewhat

            slow. In Sidney, of course, it was possible to make the most headway, and as soon as the chairmen had accepted, a dinner was held at the Methodist church banquet hall, to which the group were invited, as well as many prominent citizens, a guest of honor being Dr. Bunton, of Dayton, who presented the subject and inspired the working forces for the effort they were about to make. Early in January, 1918, the drive took place, the county going "over the top" figure, and rounding up $16,500. The success of this first drive set the pace for the county, in other drives, all of which were greatly assisted by the foundation laid for future organization by the thorough work done under Mr. Russell.

            The second drive for funds conducted was that of the Knights of Columbus, which was launched by a banquet at the K. of C. hall on the evening of January 25, 1918, at which the Protestant and Catholic clergy of the city were present and addressed the company, in addition to speeches from Chaplain Grusemeyer of Camp Sherman, P. R. Taylor of the local Red Cross, A. J. Hess, W. A. Graham and Charles M. Wyman. The Catholic clergymen who spoke were Fathers Fortman, of Holy Angels' ; Kreuzkamp, of the parish at Russia (Shelby county) ; and Blottman, assistant at Holy Angels ; and the protestant churches were represented by Revs. W. B. Love, R. Wobus, William Piefer, and R. W. Ustick. The speeches were all short, pithy and enthusiastic, all seeming to seize eagerly this opportunity to show that in the real crisis of living, there is no division caused by creeds. Incidentally, the K. of C. slogan adopted was "Everybody welcome. Everything free." The weather being the most severe of the whole winter during the dates set for the campaign, with deep snows, piled in heavy drifts, making many country roads impassable, not only were the majority of the country chairmen prevented from coming to the banquet, but also from doing their expected part in the canvass. But in spite of this, the quota assigned, $5,000, was over-subscribed by nearly fifty per cent, the sum of $7,113.34 being amassed, a big "thermometer" on the north side of the Court House registering hourly the progress of the drive. There was fine co-operation among the people of the county, and with better weather, the quota would have been doubled. The chairman, Mr. Ed. F. Salm, was assisted by Mr. Ed. C. Wolf, secretary, Mr. Ben. B. Amann, treasurer, and Mr. Charles M. Wyman, publicity man.

            The War Savings Stamp campaign, growing out of the Thrift Stamp successes, was begun about mid-January, 1918. Mr. Percy R. Taylor had been first appointed chairman of the W. S. S. sales in Shelby county, but resigned not long after, on account of change of residence to Toledo. Mr. Val Lee, postmaster at Sidney, was then appointed by the state director to fill the chairmanship, and organize the campaign, which had scarcely begun at this date. Mr. Lee utilized the twelve postmasters of the county as sub-chairmen, with full instructions, and quotas of stamps were placed at each (page 441) post-office. Weekly reports on sales were required of them, and the relative percentage of sales was kept ever before them. The entire county force of mail carriers was impressed as salesmen for the stamps. Good headway was made, until April, by no other means but this, the postmasters without exception taking care of the business with unexpected ability. Mr. Lee, meanwhile, was mapping out his plan for the great drive, which he chose not to stage until the others should be past, and the early harvests had replenished the county purses. Up to June only about $150,000 had been sold, and Shelby county appeared to be a laggard. Appearances, as they often are, were deceitful. Chairman Lee's plan was now ripe. As organized for the drive, the personnel of the committee was : Chairman, Mr. Val Lee; executive secretary, Urban H. Doorley; rural chairman, Fired Wildermuth; board of instructors, D. Finley Mills, B. F. Martin, J. W. Simmons, H. E. Bennett, Judge J. D. Barnes, Wilbur E. Kilborn, W. J. Emmons, H. H. Needles, J. Edward Russell, M. F. Hussey, and W. T. Amos. Executive committee, W. A. Graham, J. W. Simmons, H. E. Bennett, Clem Crusey, J. C. Cummins and D. F. Mills.

            The drafted men of the deferred classification to the number of fifteen hundred were taken as the basis for working teams, and summoned to a mass meeting held at the high school auditorium where they were addressed by George Mannix, of Darke county (since, by appointment, common pleas judge of Darke county), in an impassioned oration, unmatched in eloquence throughout the entire period of the war, which made a patriot of every lad in the crowded hall, ready to die for his country, if needed, and also to do, before dying, everything in his power as a salesman of War Savings Stamps. A captain was appointed in every precinct in the city, and in every township in the county. So thoroughly had the scheme of organization been worked out, that, in its final ramifications, each canvasser had only five or six families to visit. The city captains were Hugh Bingham, Ted Flinn, Harry Piper, Carl Berger, G. U. Rhees, Herbert Quelhorst, F. N. Raterman, Walter Corey, Harvey Hanselman, Lee Francis, Orlie Rodgers, Roy Wones, Elmer Ludwig, Harry Hoewisher, Wm. Meckstroth, Clarence Polhamus, Roy DeWeese, Kerr Fulton, Milton McNeill, Clay Caven, F_ X. Lauterbur, and Thomas Studevant. The rural chairmen were : Salem, J. C. Wones ; Jackson, John Duckworth ; Perry, Rev. Furrow ; Green, Clifford Hetzler; Botkins, Thomas Kennedy; Anna, J. W. Fridley; Franklin, Samuel Hunt; Swanders, S. E. Sherer; Clinton, W. H. McCloskey; Orange, H. M. Martin; Van Buren, Henry Becker; Turtle Creek, F. M. Hussey; McLean, Joseph Kloecker; Cynthiana, John Marshall; Loramie, Felix Francis, and Washington, Mark Weymer.

            In the schools, directed by H. R. McVay, more stress was laid upon the education of pupils, by means of which the economic value of the stamps was impressed upon their parents, also,-than upon mere sales, although the sales were very good. The drive, set for the first of August, lasted ten days, the total sales in Shelby county amounting to $570,000, which was sent in at once. Mr. Lee's resignation went in at the same time, but was not accepted. (page 442) Chairman Lee attributes great credit to his county assistant, Mr. Wildermuth, whose knowledge of the county, as well as whose patriotic service, was of the greatest value; also to the rural postmasters, to whom the handling of the large sums of money was unprecedented, yet who performed this responsible task with safety and exactness.

            A permanent post-drive league was formed at once with the same captains, and basis, officered as follows : Urban H. Doorley, president ; F. X. Lauterbur, vice-president; treasurer, Thomas Studevant; secretary, Theodore Flinn. A final "Bring 'Em Back" campaign is scheduled for the season now current. (1919).

            Realizing the undue expenditures of time and labor in the individual drives for funds, and the increasing calls for money to be used in the different departments of war work, Shelby county followed the example set in many cities of conducting a drive for a war chest, from which each organized avenue of war beneficence could draw for the prosecution of its work, and none be even temporarily embarrassed for funds, nor under the necessity of taking civilian war workers from their tasks, to solicit separate funds.

            A mass meeting was called at the high school auditorium, at which judge Barnes presided, and the scheme of the war chest was elucidated to the public. A temporary committee was appointed to select a committee and officers for the conduct of the drive, their nomination of judge J. D. Barnes as general chairman being accepted, and he was vested, thereby, with full authority to select his associate committeemen. In accordance with this, Harry K. Forsyth was named secretary, and J. C. Cummins treasurer, the other members being Hon. J. E. Russell, Percy R. Taylor, W. E. Kilborn, Charles Wyman, Prof. H. R. McVay, Clem Crusey, and Ed. F. Salm. It was concluded upon, after study of the situation, to make a county wide drive for $100,000, to meet the county quota for all war benevolences. The slogan "1 in 31" was adopted, in accordance with the thought that as the soldier was giving thirty-one days each month, the civilian should give no less than the proceeds of one day's work each month for the soldier's benefit. The financial basis taken was, that all men working on salaries should give one day's pay per month, and all others should contribute 4 per cent of the gross income, divided into monthly payments. An educational campaign was conducted. Meetings being held in every township in the county, usually addressed by some local speaker, and also by some returned soldier. As no American soldiers had returned by that time, the soldiers who spoke were usually Canadians, sometimes Belgian and Scottish, disabled from wounds received in battle ; and their experiences, related in simple, native eloquence, were effective and convincing.

            The educational campaign terminated on May twenty-eighth, the closing feature being the grand rally day in Sidney, when the largest crowd ever assembled in Sidney gave the war chest drive a magnificent send of. The parade-the finest in Sidney's history started at ten o'clock in the morning, headed by a group of one hundred and fifteen selective draft men who were to leave that day for training camp. They bore a banner inscribed : "We go to give our all. (page 443) What are you going to give?" Next, came their mothers, sisters and sweethearts, carrying banners which said : "We are giving our boys. Are you willing to give one day's pay?" Following came the members of Neal Post, G. A. R., all carrying American fags. Next, marched the Red Cross chapter, in force, and after them the employes of Sidney's many manufacturing concerns, every unit carrying appropriate banners conveying inspirational information as to their purpose and its relation to the rally. A line of beautiful floats, emblematic of every phase of patriotic effort, and lastly, the entire Sidney public and parochial school enrollment completed the parade, with the exception of the interesting item that Governor Cox, who arrived in an automobile, marched on foot with the selective draft boys.

            After the parade, Governor Cox delivered a thrilling and patriotic address from the north entrance of the courthouse. About noon the selectives were escorted to the B. & O. station by the G. A. R. post, headed by the Sidney band and followed by a concourse of citizens.

            A feature planned for the day had been the "bombing" of the smaller towns, throughout the county, with handbills dropped from an airplane, driven by Lieut. William Orbison, a Sidney boy, from Fairfield aviation field. Lieut. Orbison started over the county about six o'clock in the morning, but after covering the northern half of the county, was obliged to make a landing, on account of a leaking gas tank. After hasty repairs he again started on his travels, was forced to land again, and was once more ready, but wet ground prevented a good "rise," and the plane smashed into a farm fence damaging its "nose" but not injuring the aviator, though the flight had to be abandoned. Lieut. Orbison had not previously met with an accident during his entire service, and it was a source of keen regret to him, as he had planned some thrilling stunts for the entertainment of his home city.

            A little after twelve o'clock, a squadron of twelve planes appeared from the south, coming from Fairfield, and few over the city for some time, exhibiting fine squadron work, and giving the multitude a thrilling and novel experience, in witnessing so many planes in formation overhead. After landing, south of the city, the aviators, the Governor, and other honored guests were entertained at the country club.

            The county had been so thoroughly organized that the enthusiasm engendered produced most gratifying results. With a population of only 25,000, over 8,000 persons subscribed to the chest, and a final tabulation showed the county not merely "over the top," but from starting to reach one hundred thousand dollars, the drive had achieved approximately a quarter of a million. All subscribers were assured that they would not again be solicited for any form of war benevolence for the period of one year from date ; also, that when the monthly payments had raised a fund sufficient to meet all county quotas for the recognized benevolences, further payments would be suspended. In accordance with this promise, the payments were suspended after five monthly installments had been paid. To date, (page 444) there is no quota standing against Shelby county. All have been paid in full.

            The Five War Loans. The Liberty loan committee for Shelby county, in the Toledo area, was appointed in May, 1917, and continued throughout the period of the war without change. Mr. Will A. Graham, of the Citizens' National bank, as chairman, handled the business of the loans with consummate ability and exactness, and the committee could not have been bettered, even in Sidney. Mr. Urban H. Doorley was detailed 'as executive secretary, in this as in several other important departments of civilian war work, and the following nine well-known business men and financiers composed the committee : Ben. B. Amann, J. C. Cummins, L. M. Studevant, W. E. Kilborn, Val Lee, J. W. Simmons, H. D. Bennett, B. T. Bulle and C. C. Kelly.

            The conduct of the drives was uniformly quiet and the reverse of spectacular, with only the silent appeals of posters by way of display, and addresses of educational intent by men of prominence.

            Many women assisted in the First Liberty loan, under the leadership of Mrs. L. M. Studevant, although the work of women was not made a feature of this or subsequent drives, the Sidney women being almost universally occupied to the utmost by National League or Red Cross war work. In the Fifth, or Victory loan, the women were directed to organize with Mrs. J. D. Barnes as chairman, and accomplished, in their canvass, an amount entitling them to credit for one-third of the whole subscription.

            The First loan, in May, 1917, was conducted from the popular basis, the subscriptions amounting to $312,250, divided among 1384 buyers. The Second, in late October, 1917, was guaranteed by the banks, and disposed of to 841 buyers, and totaling $560,400. The

            Third, in April, 1918, was again carried directly to the public by personal appeal, and 1874 buyers subscribed a total of $655,500.

            In the Fourth, in Autumn, 1918, 4164 buyers subscribed for $718,250. The Victory loan, heralded by a shower of paper leaflets from an aeroplane, and a convincing speech by Senator Pomerene, rounded up 1583 subscribers and the figures $670,800. The total of Shelby county's record for the five loans is $2,917,200. All loans far exceeded the apportionment for the county, and the number of subscribers seems an index, if rightly read, of the interest taken, the growing confidence of the people, their increased ability to subscribe-shown particularly in the Fourth loan figures, and the realization of the great value of the loans, as mere investment, evinced in the Victory loan. It may be added that more than fifty per cent of the subscriptions are attributable to Sidney. The Council of Defense was not fully organized in Shelby county, owing to the multiplicity of war duties devolving upon the same group of men. Judge J. D. Barnes received the appointment to chairmanship, and Urban H. Doorley was assigned to the secretary's duties, but while the fuel committee was put in operation, and similar measures were adopted and carried by consent, the organization of the council was still awaiting when the armistice was signed, and the necessity existed no longer.

            Shelby county and Sidney neglected, in fact, nothing of local (page 445) possibility in the way of service to the war department, even if organization was here and there incomplete, a general spirit of patriotic co-operation replacing mere formalities with marvelous efficiency. In the last analysis, it is results which speak.

            Woman's Work. According to the well-known custom of the past, Sidney women, like the women of other communities, were not given "speaking parts" in the war drama of the Sixties. However, women are now everywhere acknowledged to have been the moral force behind the boys in arms, whether in blue or khaki, and if the women of Sidney displayed signal initiative, in war work, during the two strenuous years just past, it was but a natural inheritance from mothers and grandmothers, who unobtrusively picked lint, rolled bandages, and sewed, and made jellies, and sent letters and comforts of various sorts to the soldiers of a long half century ago. A well worn and yellowed blank book, which served the secretary of the "Ladies' Christian Commission Aid Society," the local auxiliary of the "United States Christian Commission," contains many pages of neat handwriting, which tell the story of the remarkable work done by the women of Sidney, during the year of March, 1864, to April,             1865, under this organization. The journal was kept by Mrs. J. C. Frankeburger, secretary, with great faithfulness and detail. The society was organized March 7, 1864, at the home of Mrs. Thomas Stevenson, with forty ladies present, all of whom signed the books as members, and paid the annual due of twenty-five cents. The number of members subsequently increased to seventy-seven, and besides Mrs. Frankeburger the officers elected were Mrs. Judge Cummins, president; Mrs. Mary Bates, vice-president ; Mrs. E. R. Manor, treasurer; and Mrs. Black, Mrs. L. C. Barkdull, Mrs. Augusta Mathers, and Mrs. Reed, directors. Forty-two meetings were held for work, besides the suppers given every month, and the occasional "concerts by the band," by which means was raised nearly all of the money needed for the prosecution of the labor of love to which they were pledged, "for the brave boys who are periling their lives for their country."

            Twelve boxes and five barrels of hospital supplies, surgical dressings, garments and delicacies, were sent during the year from this group of loyal women. Altogether it represented a value of almost eleven hundred and fifty dollars, while the made articles numbered 2172. There had been a few donations of work, money and material, but in the main, the women earned the money for their materials, and did the work; yet were ready at the end of the year to "renew our sacrifices, and, so long as there is need, never relax our efforts." Nearer than they thought was the end of "need," for the meetings ended abruptly in April, 1865, and the conscientiously kept journal of the society, closes without a period. The joy of victory was punctuation enough.

            It was this spirit that flamed up in the hearts of the daughters and grand-daughters of those same women in an April just fifty-two years later, when the sudden flash along the wires of the nation proclaimed "War with Germany !" and drew the youth of America up standing in response.

            No official call had come from Washington to organize for war (page 446) work, or for emergency. Shelby county was quietly plodding its round of duty, its factory wheels humming, and its chimneys belching smoke as usual,-nor did they stop. It was the women into whose hearts the trump of war sent the vital spark. Removed from the great centers of activity, into what avenue of work they were to enter was a question scarcely asked before it was answered. The first that opened.

            The National League of Women's Service had speedily, in the year preceding, extended its organization to Cincinnati, and from there it had spread rapidly up the chain of Miami towns. Piqua had a flourishing branch, of which Mrs. Charles Stuart was president, and through this a small number of Sidney women had become aware of the work that was being done to prepare for war emergency. Miss Ruth Kilborn, also had been an enthusiastic observer of the National League in eastern cities during the winter. A meeting of loyal Sidney women was called for the afternoon of April ninth, 1917, at the home of Mrs. E. T. Mathers on North Ohio avenue, at which Mrs. Stuart addressed a large number of the active spirits of the city, and amid great enthusiasm the Sidney branch of the National League for Women's Service was formed. Miss Ruth Kilborn was elected president, and Miss Ida Wilson and Mrs. E. W. Laughlin vice-presidents, with Mrs. Robert Marshall, secretary, and Mrs. Laura Beebe Horr, treasurer.

            Within ten days, the young president had organized all her committees, and the Armory had been secured as a working centre, through Mr. Ben Higgins, the lessee; sewing machines had been donated by Miss Hannah Collins, Mrs. J. C. Cummins, and Mrs. Harry Given, and delivered by Mr. Sexauer. On the nineteenth of April the members met at the home of the president and listened to further elucidation of work and its purposes and methods, by Miss Grace Latimer Jones, of Columbus. The committees, which comprised the best talent and most faithful hearts of Sidney, had been arranged with unerring discrimination, and the right woman in the right place insured the wonderful results of the next two years. Mrs. W. O. Amann, with Mrs. Hugh T. Mathers and Mrs. W. E. Kilborn, formed the ways and means committee ; purchasing was placed in the hands of Mrs. W. T. Amos, Mrs. P. O. Rhodes and Miss Edith Silver. Soliciting of funds and material and membership was given to Mrs. B. P. Wagner; sewing fell to Mrs. Jesse Laughlin, Mrs. Mary Kennedy and Mrs. O. S. Kenny; surgical dressings were divided into classes, and in due order were detailed to groups of three, as follows : Slings, Misses Julia Kali and Elizabeth Smith and Mrs. C. B. DeWeese; binders, Mrs. J. W. Costolo and Misses Julia Collins and Louise Amann ; compresses, Mesdames F. S. Foster, B. S. Martin, and Harvey Roth ; pillows, Mesdames Carl Custenborder, Morton Piper, and Firederick McLean ; gauze packing, Mesdames H. H. Needles, Roy Redinbo, and James Hewitt ; tampons, Mesdames C. F. Hickok, C. M. Dorsey and W. H. Clayton ; comfort kits, Mesdames J. D. Barnes, John Perry and C. H. Ferrall ; knitting, Mrs. C. B. Orbison, and Mrs. W. H. Davies ; packing, Mrs. Frank Goode, Miss Bertha McLean. and Mrs. Hugh Bingham. Work began at once, but eager fingers were soon wanting more (page 447) material than the collections taken at each meeting could supply. However, the ways and means committee under Mrs. W. 0. Amann performed prodigies in the matter of obtaining funds. A chain of parties was devised and carried out, which netted nearly six hundred dollars ; a great Red Cross fag was made by the committee and carried in the patriotic parade of May day, 1917, by which $180 in coin was collected, young women and girls in Red Cross nurse uniforms assisting; occasional donations, voluntary and solicited, swelled the total to $900 during the year. This sum, wisely expended and the material conservatively managed, produced a total of five thousand surgical dressings sent to the National League S. D. committee; 91 sweaters, 116 pairs of socks, and 134 miscellaneous knitted articles of wool sent to the Navy league by the knitting department; and furnished the soldier boys of Shelby county with comfort kits to the last one called to the colors. The value of the work done, and especially of the minute organization of that work, cannot be given too much credit, in the total war work done by Sidney women. It brought to the Red Cross work room a body of trained and disciplined workers, ready skilled in all the needlecraft called for by the exacting requirements; and it had, in the meantime, lost not a moment of the precious time which had passed before the organization of the Red Cross chapter in Shelby county. The season of apprenticeship was over. By the end of the first year, the Service League had delivered to the Red Cross 56,095 pieces of surgical dressings. In addition, the women of the city had become fully instructed in the importance of conservation as well as of home production, and the whole scheme of women's war work was on foot and moving.

            When, in June 1917, in response to an urgent call from Washington to organize, the Shelby county chapter of the American Red Cross was formed and chartered, it inevitably took in all of the women who composed the local branch of the National Service League, and consequently, practically all of the working forces of the Sidney women. In fact, the initial drive for a Red Cross membership, resulting in the enrollment of 1612 names (many of them for life memberships), was mainly the work of women. The men of Sidney came forward as officers of the Chapter, the chairman being Mr. W. T. Amos ; vice-chairman, Mr. W. E. Kilborn ; treasurer, Mr. W. A. Graham ; secretary, Mr. Percy R. Taylor. Mr. Taylor resigned August 30th and Miss Elsie Piper was elected to the vacancy.

            Mrs. H. ML. Robinson was appointed chairman of the committee on instructions to women, and, at the order to organize the workshop for Red Cross activity, a change in the Sidney work became imminent. It was obvious that the same women could not serve two masters, yet had inadvertently become pledged to both Service league and Red Cross. Herein was the fineness of Sidney womanhood demonstrated : The Service league met, August 8th, and took steps by which they transposed themselves, as a body already organized, into an auxiliary of the Red Cross Chapter. Twenty of the young women entered the surgical dressings training class conducted by Mrs. Charles Ginn, of Dayton, fifteen completing the course and (page 448) thereafter carrying on the surgical dressings work in the same carefully detailed manner as before, yet conforming to the Red Cross requirements. From time to time they attended classes in Dayton to learn the latest new "fashions" set by the surgeons at the front. The practice of specializing the classes for surgical dressings work continued in the League Auxiliary workroom (which had been moved in October to the domestic science room at the high school, for better heating), where the advantage of the system was made apparent early, in the report of "perfect" which came from division headquarters upon receipt of shipments from Sidney. Before the end of 1917 larger quarters became necessary for the Red Cross work, and the assembly room was chosen, of the three places freely offered,-in the Oldham building, the high school, and the courthouse. Mrs. Howard Grant, Mrs. Harry Rice and Mrs. J. D. Barnes were a committee who transformed the assembly room into a bright attractive Red Cross workroom, fitted up with tables, sewing machines (with electric motor attachment), lockers, desks, telephones and all necessary paraphernalia for work. After January 1, 1918, all Red Cross work was done at or sent out to auxiliaries from this headquarters. The transition of the local N. L. W. S. into an auxiliary force of the Red Cross Chapter had taken place in October, and with the opening of the assembly workshop all effort was merged toward the common end, a self-forgetful harmony prevailing. In one respect only did the National Service league maintain its original identity-as a special committee to provide, out of its own treasury, the comfort kits and knitted comforts for Shelby county men. This work, which was not at first provided for in the Red Cross, had been a part of the Service league plan from the first, and they continued to carry it out until every Shelby county soldier had been furnished with kit and knitted articles, the well-known "Smileage Books" being a feature of the kits.

            The Red Cross knitting was at last organized, and put in the charge of Mrs. Orbison and her committee, who had conducted the Service league knitting. Sidney women were not behind the line of march in any department of Red Cross work, but organized with promptness and technical correctness every line of work suggested by the Council of Defense, carrying out the same to the extent of the local field. And not until the last call for effort had ceased was the closing of the Red Cross workshop effected.

            At the close of the first year of the Service league (now the Red Cross Auxiliary) Miss Ruth Kilborn, in retiring from the presidency, to engage in other work, took the opportunity to pay deserved tribute to "the wonderful team work of the women of the rank and file, who, when all the work was new, without models to follow, and, unused to bend to others' standards, forgot self in the nobility of the work," and brought about the splendid results recorded to Sidney's credit.

            The Auxiliary then elected new officers for the ensuing year : Mrs. Harry M. Robinson, president ; Miss Julia Collins, vice-president; Miss Ruth Kilborn, second vice-president; Mrs. Robert Marshall, secretary; Mrs. W. Cool Horr, treasurer ; Mrs. E. T. Custenborder, financial secretary; special committees : Ways and means, (page 449) backyard poultry, conservation, comfort kits, knitting, cutting, inspection, wrapping, packing, supply department, and publicity, were presided over respectively by Mesdames William Amos, Anna Robinson, W. H. C. Goode, J. D. Barnes, C. B. Orbison, Miss Olive Honnell, Mrs. Shine, Mrs. Howard Grant, Mrs. J. D. Barnes, Miss Julia Kah, Mrs. C. F. Hickok, Miss Oldham and Mrs. Howard Amos.

            The surgical dressings department was subdivided into special classes for the Auxiliary work, as in the original Service league plan (only with more classes, owing to the increased needs specified by the surgeons to the Red Cross), a method most successful in securing speed as well as accuracy.

            The efficiency displayed from first to last in the women's work and its administration has been most signal, and the final figures, stated elsewhere, are a lasting evidence of what Sidney women can do. Due credit must also be given to the auxiliaries, eleven of which were organized at different points in the county, and from which faithful service came until the end. At Jackson Center, the Red Cross sewing was carried on under the chairmanship of Mrs. Edward Kenneaster ; at Botkins, under Mrs. Herbert Sheets ; at Anna, under Miss Lena Dale; at Fort Loramie, under Mrs. Frank N. Raterman ; at Swanders, under Mrs. Frank Pfaadt ; at Houston, under Mrs. James Flinn; at Oran, under Mrs. Joseph Lehman ; at Maplewood, under Mrs. J. C. Wones; at Port Jefferson, under Mrs. A. L. Nettleship; at Plattesville, under Mrs. H. G. Princehouse; and at Pemberton, under Miss Bonnie Hain. The Mount Vernon (church) ladies formed a separate auxiliary in Sidney, and sewed for the garment department with unflagging ardor, under Mrs. Montgomery.

            The total of articles of all kinds sent to Lake Division from Sidney Chapter follows : Quilts, comforts and afghans, 37; refugees' garments, 1429; layettes, of fifty pieces each, 30; hospital garments, 181, miscellaneous articles, 35; men's socks, 1333; children's stockings, 55; wristlets, 431; sweaters, 884; helmets, 141; mufflers, 64; scarfs, 60; shawls, two. Surgical dressings, 92,593. Comfort bags, 701. Christmas boxes, for every Shelby county soldier boy, were packed and shipped by the women.

            Although Sidney was not in the line for canteen work, the motor corps was organized and under Mrs. Laura Beebe Horr, commandant, rendered fine service during the influenza epidemic, the Belgian relief drives, and similar emergencies. The community nurse became a part of the Red Cross work during the epidemic. Following the first year of Service league work, Miss Ruth Kilborn, its first leader, whose youthful enthusiasm had given it such a wonderful impetus, relinquished local work to enter training for service in the neuro-psychiatric social service. The preparation covered a period of eight months, two of which were spent at Smith College (her alma mater) and the remaining six months in the practice course in psychiatry at Boston, completing which Miss Ki1born was appointed a reconstruction aide, and was assigned (by her own choosing) to the psychiatric division of the I.T. S. army General Hospital No. 25, at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. Miss Kilborn took up her duties early in 1919, and finds, in this (page 450) wonderful work of restoration, a gracious field for the exercise of her talents.

            At the first annual meeting of the Red Cross Chapter, October 1917, the only changes made in the official board were the elections of Mr. Percy R. Taylor, chairman, and Mrs. Robert E. Marshall, secretary. No executive nor chapter meetings were called during the year by the chairman, and the Christmas membership drive was omitted on account of bad roads in the country districts. The only attempt to augment the membership, beyond the reception of voluntary subscription to the charter and payment of dues, was made by Father Kreuzkamp, of Russia, who conducted a local drive at his own initiative, enrolling his entire parish. The war chest provided funds for the Red Cross work subsequently, and Shelby county may be said never to have had a real membership drive such as was held in most cities, even the Christmas Roll-Call of 1918 being omitted, though voluntary dues were accepted. At the election of October, 1918, Mr. Ben. B. Amann was elected to the chairmanship, to succeed Mr. Taylor who resides now in Toledo, Ohio. Upon the call from Washington to organize the civilian relief department of the chapter, Dr. Arthur Silver was appointed its chairman by Mr. Taylor, holding the position from February 1918, until September 1918, when he was recalled to military service in the medical department. Miss Edith Silver had been detailed by the chairman as assistant, and to attend to such calls for home service duty as were received during that time. No appointment was made to fill Dr. Silver's place until after the annual election in October. Miss Virginia Wing, in visiting Sidney after the signing of the armistice, urged the immediate necessity of organizing the home service section, and as soon as the influenza epidemic abated, Judge Barnes accepted the chairmanship of civilian relief, and nominated Miss Edith Silver as home service secretary. Miss Silver attended the institute course of six weeks at Cleveland, preparatory to entering upon her duties, judge Barnes meanwhile performing such duties of the office as presented themselves. The home service office was formally opened by Miss Silver, April 14, 1919, just in time to receive the first rush of returning soldiers and give them the assistance for which the home service section stands responsible, through the American Red Cross, to the government. The secretary's time is divided between the duties of visitor, which occupies forenoons, and those of secretary, in which from April 14 to July 1, 1919, she had come into official contact with full three hundred soldiers, and with the families of the same, and of others who have not yet returned, upon points including the varied problems of allotments and allowments, compensations, insurances, securing of bonuses, employment, emergency loans, tracking up lost papers, letters, discharges or policies, and relatives ; interviews with employers, filling out of employment blanks and returning the same to U. S. employment service, etc., etc. Countless difficulties come up for adjustment or investigation; legal advice must often be secured; but the soldier is helped to help himself, first of all. If it is thoroughly understood that civilian relief is the permanent work of the American Red Cross, and that home service is the war phase (page 451) (or perhaps the post war phase), the home service section will receive its due meed of appreciation. The home service board consists of the officials of the Red Cross chapter, and the following members chosen at large from the ranks according to their fitness for the duties : B. B. Amann, chairman ; G. U. Rhees, vice-chairman ; Mrs. R. E. Marshall, secretary; W. A. Graham, treasurer; executive committee : Messrs. W. E. Kilborn, J. C. Cummins, and F. D. Christian, and Mesdames W. O. Amann, W. H. Wagner, H. W. Robinson, L. M. Studevant.

            Frances L. Goode, another Sidney young woman to do major service during the war, enrolled for "Overseas Service" September 1918, and was sent to France soon after, remaining until August, 1919. Her first work was as a canteener for the Y. M. C. A., in the "leave area" at La Bourboule, in the central plateau of France. After La Bourboule was closed, Miss Goode was transferred to similar service in the French Alps at Annecy, near Geneva. The last two months were spent at Camp Pontanezin, Brest. How to get the questionnaires filled out for return to the draft board became a problem very early in the war days. The Shelby county bar is not large, numerically, and the ranks of the legal fraternity, upon whom the duty fell by precedent, were depleted by the draft itself, until help became imperative. In this emergency, Miss Silver, as president of the City Federation of Women's Clubs, offered the willing service of Federation women as clerks at the call of judge Barnes, who accepted the offer, and from then on a large contingent of club women performed double duty, serving at stated days and hours on questionnaire work, without dropping any of their Red Cross workshop activities. With the exception of occasional legal advice needed, the entire questionnaire routine work was done by Federation women.

            The City Federation of Women's Clubs was organized March 12, 1912, by the union of all the literary and philanthropic clubs in Sidney, ten of the same being represented at the meeting, and all concurring, within a brief period. The clubs now number sixteen, and are signed to the constitution as follows:

            The Women's Club, Mrs. Poppen.

            The Unity Club, Mrs. W. A. Graham. The Twig Club, Elizabeth Foster.

            The Newman Club, Mrs. J. B. Trimpe. The Tourist Club, Mrs. S. L. Wicof. Literary Soiree, Carolyn Brandt. Junior Shakespeare, Mrs. L. M. Studevant. Cosmos Club, Miss Olive Ailes.

            Medley Club.

            Euterpe Club.

            New Century Club.

            Senior Shakespeare Club. Business Girls' Association.

            W. C. T. U.

            Teachers' Association.

            Cultural Reading Club.

            (page 452) The Executive Board of the Federation is formed by the presidents of all the clubs, when in office, and the officers of the Federation. The first president elected by the Federation was Mrs. Henry E. Beebe, 1912; succeeded by Mrs. J. F. Black, elected May, 1913; third, Mrs. E. W. Laughlin, elected March, 1915; fourth, Miss Edith Silver, elected September, 1917; fifth, Mrs. W. O. Amann, president elect, for coming two-years' term (1919-20).

            Committees for department work were created by the Federation, as follows : Co-operative, ways and means, clean-up, and ward, Arbor Day observance, parks and playgrounds, school gardens, canal banks, V. N. A. supply, program, and editorial (or publicity). The Federation first took up the sale of Red Cross Christmas seals in 1915, and won thereby a temporary visiting nurse (Miss Davidson), sent from Columbus, to demonstrate the usefulness of such an individual in the community. A visiting nurse committee was appointed at once, and steps taken to raise funds for her support. Three hundred dollars was pledged by the Federation and the separate clubs made donations according to their ability, the rest being solicited from the general public; while the Red Cross seal sale was adopted as a regular campaign of each holiday season, $1800 is raised annually, the Federation being officially responsible for $300. In 1918-19 the war chest gave $1500, owing to the request that the Red Cross seal sale be omitted. A car was provided for the hard-worked nurse this year (1919), by popular subscription among the business heads of Sidney, and sufficient gasoline for a year's use was guaranteed by the garages. Miss Gertrude Williams,. a Red Cross nurse, has now filled the position of visiting nurse since October, 1916, with remarkable efficiency and success. The visiting nurse association is organized as a permanent wing of the Federation.

            Sidney has one organization so unique and beneficent as to call for a special paragraph. It originated in the heart to heart talk of two young girls of Sidney, following a series of meetings in which the religious people of the city had experienced a decided awakening. What to do for the girls, was the question. Sidney was not large enough to support a Y. W. C. A., nor would it grow sufficiently in many years. The problem was carried to other and older heads. A committee of women was formed, Mrs. W. H. C. Goode, chairman ; and at a luncheon on Friday, October 27, 1911, the "Business Girls' association" was formed, "out of a longing to help girls," in the hearts of other girls. The first officers were Miss Olive Ailes, president ; Miss Hazel Watson, vice-president ; Miss Irene Story, secretary; Miss Leal Robertson, treasurer; Miss Grace Sutton, auditor. Rooms in the Ackerly building, opposite the courthouse, on Ohio avenue, were rented, and made pretty with new paper, paint, rugs, tables, chairs and other furniture and pictures, a kitchen equipped for domestic science classes and rooms for gymnasium class and chorus singing. A New Year reception opened the B. G. A. home to the public of girldom, and the association, three hundred strong, made a warm place for itself in the Sidney heart, which has never cooled. The Friday evening luncheon was made a permanent institution. Mrs. Burdett, the first matron, remained with the (page 453) association until September, 1914. Mrs. Ida Epler was engaged as her successor, and is still in charge. The Ackerly building being bought by a fruit firm in 1918, it became necessary to move; and the old Ewing house (built by Jason McVay, and originally situated at the southwest corner of the East Court street and Main avenue intersection, but subsequently moved to Main avenue on the rear of the same lot), was leased, renovated and restored to something of its old simple beauty within, and became the present home of the B. G. A., accommodating a dozen or more young girls with safe and inexpensive rooms, under the gentle chaperonage of "Mother Epler" and the patronage of the association. Miss Kate Amos is now the president of the organization.

Mills and Warehouses

            It was not long, in Sidney at least, before the primitive sawpit was superseded by the early sawmills. Sidney was not, like many pioneer villages, a collection of log houses. But earlier than sawmills, the first harvests of the settlers had necessitated mills of some character at every convenient point, and wherever this primitive machinery was set up, it was an exception to the rule if its motive power did not serve the double purpose of sawing timber and grinding wheat. Sometimes the mill served a third purpose also, furnishing shelter for a small distillery, or ginmill.

            As indicated by the names of certain localities and points on the first roads cut through Shelby county, a few mills had become known long before the separation of this county from Miami. It is by no means the intent of this history to attempt a perfect list of all these, as such attempt could only end in failure, besides adding little or nothing to the interest of the sketch. Those mills which were in operation from ninety years ago to later dates may, for the greater part, be located with some degree of accuracy, sufficient for intelligent apprehension of the advance of the milling industry and its centralization at certain advantageous points.

            The senior Maxwell, called by his familiars in the days of old, "Grandfather" Maxwell, was the most widely known and one of the earliest mill builders of the county. The Maxwells at an early date obtained the exclusive water rights of Mosquito creek, the Maxwell farm being located at an upper point along the beautiful stream. The first of the mills was built on the farm, where was maintained also a small distillery-or old-fashioned copper still which produced a moderate amount of whiskey. Tradition has it that stills were an accompaniment of all the Maxwell mills, but this is an exaggeration, and somewhat unjust, for the small private distillery was to be found on so many pioneer estates, that few there were who safely might point accusing fingers at their neighbor, in the days when every man was convinced that immunity from chills and ague, milk-sickness, and similar plagues, was only secured by the aid of a stout dram. Shelby county actually did produce enough whiskey and gin to cause much and grievous havoc, but not all of it came from Maxwell stills. The second mill built by the Maxwells was located about two miles east of Sidney, where a dam was erected, which is still maintained. Here, distilling was done on a (page 454) more extensive scale than on the farm, the mill itself, erected primarily for the purpose of flouring, being larger. At the death of Grandfather Maxwell, this mill descended to the possession of his two sons B. W. and Abe Maxwell, who continued the same lines of production for several years, when B. W. Maxwell left it in the hands of his brother and partner, and himself purchased, from Seneca Hale, a mill nearer Sidney, which had been originally built by John W. Carey, and which was operated by waterpower drawn directly from the well-known weir along which lies the famous shaded walk called "Lovers' Lane." In this third mill, only four milling was ever done, and no more distilleries are definitely mentioned. Another old mill on the east bank of the Miami river, in Dingmansburg, just south of the Big Four tracks, was built by Cummins & Mathers, and for a part of its existence was devoted to woolen milling (it was commonly called "the carding mill"),* but introduced grain milling, and later was converted entirely to the latter purpose. It was purchased from Cummins & Mathers by W. P. Stowell, who after a term of years sold it to B. W. Maxwell. The water for this mill also was derived from the Tawawa weir, and a pond constructed near it was afterward utilized as "Timeus' ice-pond." Of all these mills there is scarcely a trace left, as each perished in successive fires-a common fate of wooden mills in isolated situations-the last described burning within easy memory of two-thirds of Sidney's citizens. The dam and spillway two miles up the creek, and the picturesque race, are surviving features, however, and at the point where the railroad embankment forms an incidental dam, the back water of the race has created a lakelet popularly called "Tawawa," beside which a little summer club house is maintained. South of Sidney, on the bank of the Miami opposite the newly acquired portion of Graceland Cemetery, are the crumbling foundations of two old mills, the oldest of which was a gristmill erected by Hardesty Walker, original owner of the land in the vicinity, part of which is now included in the cemetery. The current of the river is swift at this point, and the now ruined dam below the bridge was constructed by Walker to turn this power into the race which led past the foot of the mill bank. The second (saw) mill was built just north of the flour mill, by William Edgar, as early as 1840, and was intended only for sawing timber. It was abandoned in 1849, when Mr. Edgar left Shelby county for California. The Walker mill changed ownership more than once, and was last owned and operated by a man named Gerdes. When the first city sewer of Sidney was voided into the river above the old dam, Gerdes, who was already involved in debt, brought suit against the city for contamination of the water supply for the mill. The case was settled out of court, the city purchasing the entire river bank south of the bridge to a point below the old mill and water course, and it is to become "Wildwood park" at some future day.

            Inside the old village of Sidney were built mills both for saw and grist milling; and as Sidney became the market for the county, grain warehouses began to rise with the approach of the first (page 455) railroad. Starrett's Run, which used to cross the basin from west to east, its channel following the "dip" about half a block south of Water street, toward the Miami, furnished power and water for some of these, among them a sawmill erected by William Fielding. When the canal cut of the career of the lively little stream, it made changes not only in the topography of Sidney, but in its industrial chart. Starrett's Run, thwarted, ran wild about the west side for some time, but was gradually hedged in by embankments and stone walls, and now flows, very inoffensively, though quite unrecognizably, in its straight jacket, along Water street, turning at the corner, and hiding its ignominy in the canal which ruined it. Not even a Tennyson or a Kingsley could find a poetic thought about the little brook today.

            The oldest milling business extant in Sidney is that once known as the "old stone bridge warehouse," and now bearing the title The Farmers' Grain and Milling company. The site, on the west bank of the feeder canal, on the north side of Poplar street, was first selected for a warehouse by Frazier & Frankeburger, in the '30s. The Nutt Brothers came into possession about 1847 or 1849, the arrival of the railroad, by which they -communicated with a side track, giving them double transportation facility and assurance of prosperity. It remained a possession of the Nutt family for forty years, and was then sold to E. J. and Warren Griffs, who operated it as partners until about 1895, when Warren Griffs died. E. J. Grifs, after the death of his brother, formed a partnership with his father, and the old warehouse having been almost wholly destroyed by fire, built the present plant, to which they added, in 1898, a milling establishment where the "Triumph" brand of wheat f lour is produced. The firm, known as E. J. Griffs & Co., was dissolved in 1904 by the death of Griffs pere, and the warehouse was sold to Capt. E. E. Nutt. ' Capt. Nutt's death in the winter of 1911-12 occasioned the sale of the establishment by the administrators of his estate to The Farmers' Grain and Milling company, February, 1912, the personnel of the new company being J. M. Blake, Fired J. Russell and Mrs. Daisy Sayre. The latter retired from the company in September, 1917, but the caption remains unchanged. The plant has never been idle since its earliest days, except when undergoing repairs or rebuilding after partial or total destruction by fire. There is in the present buildings no traces of the original structures. The capacity of the elevator is ample, 50,000 bushels or thereabout, while the average annual shipments amount to upwards of 150,000 bushels. Coal, lime, salt, cement, seeds and feeds are handled by the warehouse, and the Sidney Milling Company, characterized as a "side plant," can turn out thirty barrels of flour daily, but does not always work up to capacity. As a warehouse building, that which stands on the northwest angle of the intersection of Court street and West avenue, rightfully claims the honor of being the oldest, its original gable (since augmented), having been erected in 1851 by William H. H. Gerard for Lamb & Zinn, for a grain warehouse and elevator. It has never been touched by fire or other disaster. A few years after it was built, it was converted into a steam flouring mill for Mathers & (page 456) McGrew, who operated it until 1862, after which it was again devoted to warehouse purposes under the management of J. B. Wilkinson, who removed the milling machinery. In 1868 the building became the property of John Hart, passing from him to H. M. Reed, and in 1875 from Reed to W. R. Moore. Mr. Moore renamed it "The Sidney Steam Elevator" and added an extension two stories in height and twenty-four by fifty-five feet in dimensions, to the main building. T. J. Orbison became a partner for a brief period in 1876, but the sole ownership soon returned to Moore until 1879, when O. S. Marshall became a partner. Other changes have taken place since then, but the warehouse has never been idle. J. E. Wells & Co. had been the owners for some time when, in 1907, the business was purchased by The Miami Valley Grain company, an incorporated firm with E. T. Custenborder, president; and W. H. Persinger, J. W. Allinger and George Allinger composing the company. Since the death of J. W. Allinger, the company is reorganized as follows : George Allinger, W. L. Alton, Isaac Lochard, Mrs. J. W. Allinger (Allinger estate), and George Kayser. The Allingers are a family well known in the annals of the county as prominent in the grain and milling line, at Port Jefferson, as well as at Quincy, Ohio, where Ben Allinger of the Quincy mill is a brother. The warehouse ships about one hundred thousand bushels of grain annually, the export being chiefly corn and oats, though wheat has increased since 1917. Mill products of all kinds are handled at the plant, but the only milling done here since 1862 consists of feeds.

            Three men from Troy, Ohio, located in Sidney in 1859. They came on a venture, like the three wise men of Gotham, and like that famous trio, their story is short, but not because the bowl lacked strength. Their names were Dye, Abbott and Cromer, and they came to build a distillery. The building was set on a high point, on the north side of the Bellefontaine & Indiana (Big Four) tracks, east of East avenue, though that was "no thoroughfare" then. How far the inundation of the city and county proceeded before the distillers were engulfed in failure is a subject upon which local tradition is silent. It was closed out with few regrets.

            In 1866, John Carey, as contractor, employed W. H. Gerard to remodel the building for grain milling, and the property passed into the keeping of B. W. Maxwell, who also secured the property lying west as far as Miami avenue, and bounded on the north by the feeder canal. On this low spot, using East avenue as a dike, the "Maxwell mill-pond" was created, which held the ground for many years and served many interests beside the Maxwell mill, which became widely known and an important part of Sidney's industrial life.

            When the distillery was established, the little old chapel which had served the Presbyterians for twenty-five years as church and school building, was sold and removed to the vicinity of the stills, and there used as a cooper shop where casks were made for whiskey. Perhaps the barrels for Maxwell's four were made there, too, and the vicissitudes by which the career of the little church was finally to a chapter. tradition has it that the third of the great steel scraper firms, (page 457) and it was at one time a dry storage house for the Anderson Frazier

            Wheel company-but that was later. It perished in the conflagration of the buildings west of Miami avenue, where the Sidney Power Press company now occupy. The Maxwell mill ceased to operate as a mill in the early 90s. (Subsequent history of the building, and the various industries which have clustered around in it, will be taken up in another section.)

            The Sidney Grain company is a modern firm. The builder and first proprietor of the warehouse, however, was a veteran in Sidney warehouse history, Mr. E. C. Nutt, who erected the plant in the winter of 1895-6. Mr. Nutt sold out, after a few years, to Messrs. Jones & Sheets, this firm being again changed within two or three years by the retirement of Mr. Sheets, who was replaced by John Wagoner and Mr. Jackson. The new firm incorporated as The Jones Grain company, and continued under that title until the death of Mr. Jones, after which Mr. Sheets re-entered the business, and the name became The Sidney Grain company. There is no milling done at this plant, which handles, stated in the order of their volume, oats, corn, wheat and rye, to the extent of from 150,000 to 200,000 bushels annually, with a storage capacity of about forty thousand bushels. Side lines are seeds, feeds, and salt, for agricultural purposes.

          The three warehouses described represent the total grain handling business, so disposed, in Sidney in 1919. The J. E. Wells Grain company, operating from a different standpoint, occupies offices in the Citizens' National bank building at the corner of Main and Poplar street.

            A very old warehouse is remembered by some, as standing on the rear of the residence lots of Dr. Hunt, on the west side of the canal and south of the Court street bridge. It was owned at one time by J. A. Lamb.

            In Dingmansburg, at the first corner across the Court street bridge, H. Enders long maintained an establishment where he wove coverlets from the native wool, many of these of decided beauty of color and design. Mr. Enders was an expert in dyeing, and his workmanship is still to be seen in many Sidney homes, sometimes carefully packed away from moth, in cedar chests, and sometimes boldly defying moth and time while doing duty as portieres. South of the weaving house, some little distance, stood a pioneer pottery, where crocks, jars, jugs, etc., were made for the folk of Shelby county. A cement block works is now located not far from the spot. About 1881, O. O. Mathers started a flax mill in an old frame building two stories in height and of goodly dimensions. The original purpose of the building, which stood on South Ohio avenue, adjacent to the old Davies pasture, is not remembered, but it may have been a hay barn, which Mr. Mathers reconstructed for his purpose. At all events, the mill operated for a few years quite profitably, but was not long-lived. Only green tow was manufactured, and shipped to other mills. Many of "the old boys" remember the farmers' wagons loaded with the fresh straw driving into town, and also recall that the place was afterward used as a storage house for corn husks, which were cured for mattress manufacture. (page 458) A row of small dwellings now occupies the ground, and at the north end of the lot is the home of Louis Weingartner. Mr. Mathers instituted a number of mills of various purpose in the county,. none of which were of long duration, but served the time. Other mills and warehouses now operating in Shelby county are described in the sketches devoted to the smaller towns where they are located.

            A large poultry and produce and egg shipping depot, built about 1912, by E. J. Griffs & Co., stands along the Big Four track opposite the Sidney Manufacturing company's buildings, and at the north of the high school athletic field, from which the major part of these products in Shelby county is shipped to metropolitan markets. A very heavy trade passes this depot annually.

            Other industries are developing rapidly. Welding establishments are numerous, and at present a large plant to be devoted to heavy welding is being pushed to completion at a location overhanging the old feeder canal bed south of the West avenue bridge. Agricultural warehouses and setting up plants are maintained by all the well-known companies.

            The Sexauer bread-baking firm have a growing business as manufacturing bakers, and ship large quantities of their excellent bread to other towns.

            Nearly every line of retail trade is well represented in Sidney, some of them in remarkable degree. The Thedieck Brothers department store is one of the most beautiful stores in a large district; and that of Piper & Son, of pioneer establishment, presents equal attractions to buyers. Hardware has always held a foremost position in local trade, with a tendency to specialize of late, along different lines. The Lauterbur Machine company not only carries complete lines of automobile accessories, but special tools and parts of varied uses, and often proves a valuable auxiliary of the manufacturing plants of Sidney, in emergency.

The Tanning Industry

            The first industry established in the old pioneer days, when necessity demanded shelter first of all, was carpentry. Simple and rough it often was, but the builder's art was nevertheless in evidence in every log cabin or more pretentious habitation. Carpentry involved the introduction of a second industry without which it could not be carried far. Saws, hammers and axes came in the oxcarts from the older settlements, but nails, hinges, bolts and latches required a blacksmith's forge.

            Waiting only upon these to make its necessity felt, was a third industry, tanning. With wild animal pelts accumulating in the wake of the pioneer rifle; with rough living demanding stouter material than cloth for a part of every pioneer's clothing, to withstand the mud and briars of his daily travels ; and with shoes or boots only to be procured at great difficulty and expense, it devolved upon the pioneer to apply every art learned in the east and south to the exigencies of his situation. Springs of pure water abounded everywhere. Oak trees studded the forest which progress in farming (page 459) compelled to be cut down. Space in the settlement was begging to be occupied. Hence, scarcely later than the sawpit and the forge, the tanner's vat was established in Old Sidney.

            It has been an interesting, if somewhat arduous, search to unearth, from the forgotten past of Sidney, the earliest tanneries established. There is, in fact, still some doubt as to which was the very first to be built. It seems, however, that the builders of the town objected to tanneries being located within the village plat, and that the earliest of the three which are known to have flourished here stood outside the village pale in what was once called "Lacyburg," though it has of late years become a highly favored residence section. The land whereon it was built belonged originally to James Starrett, by whom it was sold to Matthew Gillespie ; Gillespie disposing of it, soon afterward, to James Clark, who is known to have been a tanner, and who, after quitting the business in Sidney, opened another tannery on his farm near Jackson Center, where his son continued the same industry for many years following. The tannery in question stood at the corner of South Ohio. avenue and Dallas street, the vats and workshop occupying the angle, while the large tan-bark shed stood on Dallas street next to the alley. No one now living has any memory of this tannery in its working days, but it is probably the same tannery which Edmund Lytle leased, when he came to Sidney in 1834, and which was abandoned when he left the village for his farm in Clinton township, near the infirmary. All that is now recalled by a few of the elder men of Sidney is that, as lads, they played about the old tan-bark shed, which at that time was used for weighing hay; and the incidental recollection that the boys were wont to burrow tunnels in the hay, and play hide and seek in these passages. During this period it is remembered, also, that an old shoemaker named Dodson had a little two-room house built over the spot once occupied by the tanning vats, where he cobbled the village footgear in the front shop, and cooked and ate his lonely meals in the rear. Later, when the county infirmary was building, the old shed was used as a temporary infirmary one summer, a man named Miller living there. But all that was effaced, many years ago, by the building of the Weingartner home, in which Harry Taylor, sr., resides at present.

            The Sidney fathers must have relented in regard to compelling tanneries to keep company with the dogs of old Jerusalem, for it is certain that, neither long before nor after 1830, a second tannery     stood at the southwest angle of North Main avenue and North lane, where, after many years, Hamlin Blake built a home which is now occupied by Dr. Hobby. This tannery was built by John Whitmire, but perhaps not for his own use. Whether it ever had more than one owner is indefinite, but during at least a part of its existence it was the property of James Skillen, father of John W. Skillen, It is fairly clear that it ceased to operate about the date of the building of the third tannery, at the' corner of Ohio street and the canal. Small tanneries on the farms were comparatively numerous in pioneer days, as settlers who had practiced the art in former homes found it better to avail themselves of the bark and spring water, at home than to await the slow process of carrying hides to the town (page 460) through miles of forest and muddy roads, and of going after the leather when it was ready. For it must be remembered that the shoes were oftener than not made by the itinerant shoemaker, who made yearly rounds of the backwoods districts and shod the settlers with their own leather. The little tanning establishment on the Lytle farm was in operation during the building of the county infirmary, a part of the bricks being made at the farm; and when weather conditions forbade brickmaking, the workmen were, at option, employed in the tannery.

            The present tannery plant is the last development of that industry, begun in 1836 by Mr. Neiswanger, and acknowledged to be longest established of any existing industry in Sidney. It stands on its original site, and its only move has been in the way of expansion, it now covering every foot of available space, and practically closing North lane to public use, at the corner where the lane skirts the feeder canal. Mr. Neiswanger sold the business at a date and to a customer not definitely known. The different owners and operators appear to have been legion, but only a few names have been recorded, while creditable tradition mentions numerous honorable names in Sidney history, among the many changes. Certain it is that the plant has never been idle. Gen. Taylor, the father of the late 0. J. Taylor, was either an owner or lessee at one time. His son, 0. J. Taylor, was employed there as a young lad, and the discussion of wage scales, in later days, was wont to remind him that his wages, for a day's grinding at the old tanbark mill, had been considered generous at six and one-fourth cents. The same incidental memory fixes the date of Gen. Taylor's ownership at a very early day in the tannery's history, for, about sixty-five years ago or more, the handmill had been replaced by a low tower, in an upper floor of which an old horse, led up the wooden incline each morning, was hitched to a beam lever, and set a-plodding patiently round and round the treadmill course, while the tanbark, fed into a hopper from above, fell down the chute to the level of the vats. This may have been the beginning of the development of the plant to its present elaborate and efficient mechanical equipment. S. Alexander Lecky, son of George D. Lecky, became interested in the tannery, also Charles Myers ; and Turney & Evans were in full control at one time. Robert Given entered the tannery as an apprentice when a boy in his early 'teens, rising to a partnership, first with Mr. Myers, then with Mr. Lecky, Given & Lecky first purchasing the plant from Turney & Evans ; after which Mr. Given became sole owner in 1869. Later, he took one of his sons into partnership, and in 1902 the R. Given & Son company was incorporated, and large extensions ,made in the establishment, which then took a foremost position in the business world of Sidney. Mr. Given, sr., died, but the company continued without change of title, until the sudden death of John Given in 1917 precipitated a crisis in the business which made the sale of the whole advisable.

            The Sidney Tanning company, an aggregation of entirely new personnel, were the purchasers, the officers of the corporation being: Leo Henle, Cleveland, president; E. H. Morrison, Sidney, vice-president; Roy E. Fry, Sidney, secretary and treasurer. (page 461) The present aspect and condition of the industry is so revolutionized since the days of old that if one of the pioneer tanners could step into it today, he would recognize little but the odor-and, thanks to modern treatment, there is not nearly so much of that as in our grandsires' day. Vats must, of course, maintain certain characteristics, but are more safely covered than in former times, when it used to be common for the village mothers to warn their venturesome little ones that death from drowning was frequently the fate of children who strayed to the tannery. Vats were then scarcely covered at all, or only for convenience in stepping over them, and often stood open to the sky. Yet so far as can be learned there was never an actual casualty, such as drowning, at any tannery in Sidney.

            In the early days of the local tannery, oak timber-and hence, tanbark-was plentiful throughout the county, as well as water of the necessary degree of purity. Practically all of the bark now available here is shipped in train-loads from Ontonagon county, Michigan. Then the waste tan-bark served to keep the villagers from sinking in the black ooze of Sidney's thoroughfares. Today, this by-product, dried, goes to help feed the furnaces and operate the machinery.

            The hides (now cattle hides exclusively) are first washed in mammoth tubs or pools to remove all dirt and foreign particles, then passed through machines which remove all fragments of flesh which still adhere. They are then immersed for a period in a depilatory lime solution, to loosen the hair, following which they are passed through a machine which removes the hair. All the fleshy waste is sent to glue factories for reduction, while the hair is used by manufacturers of saddle and harness pads.

            The lime solution is next removed from the hides by a bath, after which they are draped over sticks or poles and, thus suspended, submerged in the tanning liquid in the vats. During the tanning process, which takes several days, the hides gradually thicken, though without contracting, until, when thoroughly tanned, they are over twice the original thickness and, except for sole and harness leather, must be split. The machinery used in this process, which is purely mechanical, is capable of the most delicate adjustment as to thickness, suitable to the ultimate uses of the leather. Leather which is not split-such as harness leather- is shaved by the machine on the inner side, and then stuffed with grease until pliable enough for use. Rough-tanned leather is too hard for any purpose. The leathers which are to be split, such as strap, bag and case leathers, are put into drums containing water and sulphenated oils for the softening process, the presence of water being necessary for the uniform absorption of the fats by the leather. After the softening process comes the dyeing of the hides to be used for cases, straps or bags, and all leather, after softening, is set, both by machine and hand. The latter (hand) process is one which can never be eliminated by machinery, and consists of making the hide perfectly smooth by placing it on a table, and working it to the required state with stone and steel blades.

            The machinery by which all is accomplished is the last word in (page 462) its line of achievement and worth a visit to the plant, to see in operation, by every school boy in Sidney-or by any citizen who has never yet taken the pains to inform himself of the interesting scientific developments and details of the tanner's useful and dignified, if not dainty, art, which in any phase is worthy of study, and in which invention and discovery are always possible. The products of the company, which go as far west as the Pacific coast and as far east as Maine, are : harness, belt, strap, case (smooth), bag (embossed), and sole leathers. Goodyear welting, for shoes, is the only leather manufacturing undertaken by the Sidney Tanning company.

            Woodworking Industries. Wood working as a craft, apart from the mere production of lumber for builders' use, has had its representation in Sidney from very early days, flourishing according to demand in some lines, and in others branching into the manufacture for outside trade. There are only approximate dates now to be secured for the establishment of any of these older craftsmen, and comparatively few names have been preserved, with the exception of a few firms, still existing, which date their origin from fifty to seventy years ago.

            Two early wood turners whose names are still recalled were Mr. Murray, of North Miami avenue, whose "power" lathe was driven by a plodding steed; and Mr. Caleb Nutt, whose shop stood in West Poplar street, about where the furniture house of Fired. Salm is now located, on the north side of the street. Mr. Nutt was a genuine craftsman of the old school, and specimens of his work, not done for trade but for sheer love of the turner's art, are still preserved as they deserve to be, for their delicacy and merit. Mr. George Lippincott, of South Miami avenue, owns a compote turned by Mr. Nutt many years ago, which displays the high degree of his craftsmanship. The article is of native pine, the stem and base daintily patterned and perfectly executed, and the basin a marvel of turning, scarcely thicker than an .eggshell. The whole is lacquered in color and gold leaf, by the possessor, a veteran carriage finisher of the Crozier works.

            Near the Caleb Nutt shop, another old frame shack sheltered the pioneer gunsmithy of John Sharp, who was famous the country round for his fine workmanship, as well as his character. The Rupert wagon shop stood on ground which formed a part of the site of the Sidney Steel Scraper works, but was cut off in the early fifties by the Bellefontaine & Indiana railroad, a date which fixes this as one of the earliest of all the vehicle industries of Sidney. The Sharrit Pump works on North lane made pumps for all Shelby county, and farther, during a period of forty to fifty years ; the Rench Wagon works, also on North lane, was about co-existent with the pump works, and both passed out of existence during the boyhood of men now middle-aged.

            The Piper Wagon works, established on Court street (west) in 1847, was devoted for several years to the manufacture of farm wagons ; but in 1854, the buildings passed into the hands of the Miller Carriage company, who changed the business to light vehicle manufacture. A blacksmith shop was added at the east end of the (page 463) factory and the whole is still operated by Miller & Smith, though the manufacture of buggies ceased there many years ago, and only a painting and repairing business is now carried on.

            In 1854, Lorenzo Bimel erected a three-story building at 218 South Ohio avenue, and embarked, with a large spread of canvas, in the manufacture of carriages. Failure ensued after a few years, and Mr. Bimel removed to St. Marys, Ohio, leaving the buildings vacant.

            To Sidney from Piqua, in 1858, came James S. Crozier (of French Huguenot ancestry, filtered through Ireland), a young man of thorough training and practical experience in carriage manufacture. He purchased the empty Bimel building in 1860 and entered upon a long, honorable and successful career which ended only with his life, in the early summer of 1919, at which time Mr. Crozier was the only man still in active business who was so engaged when he began work in Sidney sixty-one years before.

            Carriages and light vehicles have been the exclusive output of the Crozier works, in the operation of which was never anything spectacular-only a record of unfailing high quality and integrity of workmanship which became synonymous with the name of Crozier as far as their vehicles were known. From eight to ten men were employed in the factory and blacksmith shop. William Crozier, only son of James S., and a prominent citizen (ten years mayor of Sidney), became a partner in the business in the '80s, since which the firm has been known as Crozier & Son.

            The carriage industry is, of course, less flourishing than in preautomobile days, but there is still demand for well-made light vehicles, and of all the industries of this nature which have come and gone in the local field, the Crozier works alone survive. Maintaining all his faculties, mental and physical, to the very close of life, James S. Crozier's career as man and citizen stands out as a model of simple, honest, Christian gentlemanliness. He was above reproach. The relationship, both business and personal, between the Croziers, father and son, has been one of the idylls of Sidney's quieter life.