SUPPORT FOR HISTORY!

March 14th is Pi Day

Hello fellow history buffs. It is Pi day, the 14th of March or 3-14. We celebrate that familiar little constant, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which is 22 to 7. Theis divides out to 3.14…. to an infinite number of decimals, but 3.14 is adequate for most of us. We all learned this in school and sometimes actually use this little gem for some circular project. But why celebrate? Well it certainly is ancient, known to very early civilizations but mostly because Pi reminds us of pie, that delicious dessert that we all love and we can always use an excuse to celebrate that.

Historically, Waterville, by 1900 was surrounded by orchards, mostly apples but also cherries, pears and peaches. Our earliest Waterville Festival was the Apple Blossom Festival, held in the spring when apple trees were in bloom.  Many other fruits were also grown locally. All of these could be turned into delicious pies, so there were many celebrated pie bakers in our area. No threshing gang would have been complete without a hearty meal followed by a choice of delicious pie for dessert. While threshing gangs are no more, our love of pie remains. The choices of types of pie are huge. Besides all kinds of fruit we can choose cream pies, custard pies, crumb pies, etc. and if sweets are not your choice, choose savory pies like chicken pot pie or pizza pie, etc. So many choices! So let’s celebrate Pi day with some pie. Just make sure it is round and make the first cut on the diameter. Happy Pi/pie day all.

Note: Pi day was founded in the U.S. in 1988 and officially recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009. UNESCO General Conference designated Pi Day as the International Day of Mathematics in November of 2019.

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All of us want to see our history preserved, especially our local history. There are a number of ways we can make this happen, most of which involve the donation of time, money or both. Here are some easy and painless ways to support local history.

1.      Donate part (or all) of your Ohio Income Tax refund to the Ohio History Fund. WHS has received three grants from this fund since 2021. Tax time is your time to support Ohio History! Did you know you can donate part of your Ohio income tax refund to the Ohio History Fund? It’s as simple as entering the donation amount on line 26 of Ohio Form IT1040. Line 26 asks “Amount of line 24 (refund) to be donated”. Choose “Ohio History Fund” from the six options presented and enter the amount there. In 2021 the Wakeman Building received $3867 for a new HVAC system from this fund. The Sargent House sill and beam project (2023-2024) was granted $18,000 toward this repair. The Wakeman Archives recently received $1150 to purchase scanning equipment for the glass and medium format negative digitization project. You can see these pictures on Ohio Memory at www.ohiomemory.org .

2.      Buy an Ohio History “Mastodon” license plate and $20 goes to the Ohio History Fund

3.      Become a member of the Waterville Historical Society. Your dues and donations support all of our preservation activities. You could also become a member and a volunteer. With four buildings to care for and maintain, lawn and garden work, and thousands of artifacts to care for, there is much work to do.

For more information about the Ohio History Fund, visit https://www.ohiohistory.org/preserving-ohio/ohio-history-fund-grant/.

A Grant Brings New Life to Old Negatives

Recently, thanks to a grant from the Ohio Local History Alliance, we have been able to buy a scanner to be able to scan glass negatives and other photograph negatives that then can produce images to be placed on the Ohio Memory site at https://www.ohiomemory.org/ under the collection of Waterville Historical Society. At present there are 13 of the negatives on the site from the Lester Lyon Glass Negatives that we own. Lester Lyon was one our early amateur photographers when light sensitive glass plates were the only “film” available. These images are of the Waterville area in the early 1900s. We will soon be adding more of these images. You can view these by going to Ohio Memory and under the donating society search for the Waterville Historical Society. Or you can just search for the word “Lyon, Lester” to see them. By using the WHS name in the search you will also see items photographed when the Ohio History Connection came out to the Robbins House several years ago and took pictures of the World War I Veterans and the Albert Graf Collection of World War I clothing, letters to the family from the war, etc. There are also the Welcome Pray’s (early Waterville doctor) son’s letters home from the Civil War. For those you have to search for “Pray” as these items were scanned by the Toledo Library and are listed under their organization but in the location as to where the original items are located they state Waterville Historical Society. There are 34 items. These originals are carefully preserved at the Wakeman Archives.

We also have items on the PastPerfectOnline Collection. At present we have over 320 items on there. You can find these by going to our website at www.watervillehistory.org and to the tab called “Online Collection” and click on this. In the statement about the program there is a link that takes you to our collection. At this time you can do a random search or search by Archives, Photograph or Object to see the items. We are constantly adding to each of our multimedia platforms.

Also on the website we have video collection under “WHS Video” which tells about the Robbins House and Sargent House museums, walking tours, Waterville School, Wakeman Archives, Interurban Bridge, etc. We are open every Wednesday for 10-2 weather permitting and the last Saturday of May, June, July, August and September from 10-2 for those that would like to  view original material, research their family, learn more about the area, military information, maps and atlases or just come up to see what we have.  Our staff is there to welcome and assist visitors.

NEW DONATION TO THE WAKEMAN ARCHIVES!

One of the recent donations to the Waterville Historical Archives is this Patriotic 1942 Calendar from Gustavus A. Dedrich Insurance….. Gustavus Adolphus Dedrich (1875-1956) was born in Germany to William and Henrietta Dedrich. They came to the America when Gus was five, settling in New Bremen, Ohio. Gus married Ethel Belle Brown (1881-1954) in Weston, Ohio in 1900. They moved to Waterville in 1901 where Gus went to work as a general store clerk. He served as cashier in the Waterville State Savings Bank for 31 years, retiring in 1944 to focus on his private insurance business. Gus was very involved in the community, serving on the Lucas County Board of Education, Waterville Village Council, and the Village Planning Commission. Gus also served as a member of the Waterville Rotary Club, Wakeman Lodge, F&AM of Scottish Rite Valley of Toledo. He served as director to both the Otis Avery Browning Masonic Memorial Trust Fund and Waterville State Savings Bank. At the time of Gus’s death they lived at 911 Michigan Ave in Waterville and had one daughter named Gertrude Yetta Dedrich Sweeney.  Mr. and Mrs. Dedrich are buried in Wakeman Cemetery in Waterville.

Authored by Kelly Putnam

LION COFFEE TRADING CARDS

Today we find coffee roasters and specialty coffee shops everywhere. It was not always so. Originally coffee beans were sold raw or green and the “lady of the house” would have to roast her own in frying pans. In 1864 the LION Coffee Co. was in Toledo where they were in the business of roasting and blending the beans for different flavors. After the beans were roasted they were placed in 1# bags with a LION Trademark, creating their own trademark and sold to grocery stores. The packaged roasted beans were either ground by the store or with an “at home” coffee grinder. Later in 1882 LION Coffee was owned by Woolson Spice Company located on North Summit Street in Toledo. Mr. Alvin Woolson started putting trade cards with each coffee purchase. The advent of improved color printing techniques in the late 1800s allowed the merchant to print an advertising card with an attractive color picture on one side and an ad for the product on the back. The pretty picture was an incentive to buy the product. Mr. Woolson also devise the idea of having the purchaser of Lion Coffee cut out and save the lion’s head logo from the coffee bags and mail a given number of these to the company for a premium. With collectable trade cards and premiums, along with quality coffee, Woolson Spice was roasting a million pounds a week and was by 1895 perhaps the second largest coffee company in the world. The lions head premium idea brought such an overwhelming response, with daily sacks of mail arriving, it nearly bankrupted the company.

The Waterville Historical Society was pleased to have Jimmy Blouch of Littleton, Co. donate his collection of trade cards. They were collected by Fannie Catherine Merifield (1844-1934) of Waterville, Jimmy Blouch’s great-grandmother. We have now put some of the Lion Trade Cards on our PastPerfectOnline site at https://watervillehistory.pastperfectonline.com/Search?search_criteria=Lion&onlyimages=false or come up to the Wakeman Archives to view all of the Lion Trade Cards we have in the collection.

To learn more about the “Amazing Story of Lion coffee” check out the website: https://www.lioncoffee.com/amazing-true-history-lion-coffee/

Waterville Haunted Heritage

Don’t forget to buy your tickets for Haunted Waterville by going to the banner. When you click on this it will take you to the place to buy your tickets. Enjoy the ride and there are several new places on the tour this year!

Memorial Day 2024

May 30, 1966 Howard E. Krause took this picture of the Waterville American Legion Auxiliary Juniors getting ready to march up the hill with the Memorial Day parade. The America Legion participated in the festivals every year. The girls identified are Karen Linn, Kathy Hess, Yvonne Blauvelt and Dorothy Hess, a member of the Waterville American Legion Auxiliary. Can anyone help to identify the others?

The night or so before there would be a great gathering of members at the American Legion hall where freshly cut branches of evergreens would be laid on the table and along with the paper poppies to be made into corsages to be placed later at the cemetery. The next day there would be a procession of cars and marchers from the American Legion Hall on Mechanic Street with the American Legion men in front carrying the flag. They would stop at the bridge where they would place a wreath in the river to honor those unknown or known service members “lost at sea.” Then on along the River Road to Farnsworth Road and up to Wakeman Cemetery followed by the AW band.  Many people followed along walking to the cemetery to hear the devotions and the military salute. At earlier times they stopped at the Civil War Monument to have the service at that location and place a wreath on the monument

Today we continue on to the new American Legion monument that was placed there after the closing of the Waterville American Legion where many will gather to hear a talk by a local person or distinctive person. The Boy Scout Troop 101 will be included in the ceremony. What an impressive site to see the AW band march in from the street as they do every year. The traditional ceremony to honor the dead will be held. Flags have been placed at all of the veterans markers. Our sexton likes to see the flags there year round to keep their memory alive.  People will visit each other after the services and walk the cemetery to see where their loved ones are buried. Today the Whitehouse American Legion puts on the Memorial Day program of remembrance at both the Whitehouse and Wakeman Cemetery beginning at 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. respectively on Monday May 27th.

WHERE, Oh WHERE DID THE MAUMEE INDIAN MISSION MARKER MOVE?

Many have asked us what happened to the sign for the Maumee Indian Mission. It used to be located about 2 -2 ½ miles from Miltonville on a curve with a stone in front. Did it get hit by a careless motorist, or become too dangerous to leave it there? It was directly across from the Missionary Island on the site of the mission building.

There used to be a stone that stated “on this ground was established in the year 1822 The First Presbyterian Mission in the Maumee Valley. Rev. Joseph Badger Missionary 1802-1812, Rev. Isaac Van Tassel the First Superintendent 1822-1834.” The Missionary Island was purchased by the American Missionary Association in the early 1800 to provide religious teaching to Native Americans. They also purchased 372 acres of land in Wood County southeast of the river and established a mission to educate and Christianize the Indians. A large building was built on the banks of the river next to the island which was called the Indian Missionary Station which led to the various names given to the island.

The Mission house was at the mouth of Tontogany Creek in Wood County. It was two stories with a large cellar under the main building. It was said it caused echoing and sepulchral sounds (per Olde Waterville by June Huffman) which caused many strange tales to be told of the place. The building is no longer standing.

In 1834 the Mission was closed, and the Indians moved west. Later all that remained was the Indian Mission sign on the original site reminding everyone that a Presbyterian idea was started here.

The marker was originally put up in 1930 by the Ohio Revolution Memorial Commission (Marker # C608) We have found that the sign has been re-located 3 miles upriver to the Otsego Park on West River Road (Rt. 65), 0.2 miles north of the Otsego Pike (Route 235), which is no place near the old mission site but perhaps a much safer place to pull in and view the sign. The problem is that there is no notice that the sign has been moved from the original location. The next time you visit Otsego Park check out this marker and remember this important part of our local history.

Long School ----- No Longer Standing

The Long School was on the corner of Neowash at Heller Road. Local one room schools were about 2 miles apart so no student had to walk much more than a mile to school. This one took care of the students in the area of the Neowash, Schadel and Heller Roads, etc. In 1918 the school joined the Whitehouse Centralized School system.

In 1995 the Anthony Wayne Music director received a music composition that was written by Scott Sorenson from a visual inspiration by a watercolor of this old school painted by his friend and colleague Russell Danburg. Russell was the husband of Grace Boyer and a former local area resident. Mrs. Danburg was a former 2nd grade teacher in Whitehouse. Mr. Danburg had painted the watercolor in 1949. These friends both served as music professors at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. It was the composers wish that the composition would first be played locally, where the school which inspired his work and his friends’ painting was located. Both were titled “The Old Knowledge Box”

The Anthony Wayne Band was able to meet and work with the man that composed the music. They played their concert at the Zion Lutheran Church in 1995. The Waterville Historical Society was pleased to have received the piece and per Dr. Sorenson request was played for the local audience. Maybe some of our readers remember being in the band, meeting the composer and playing in the band at the concert. A tape recording of this music resides in the Wakeman Archives.

The Waterville Story

This article is about the booklet, the “Waterville Story” which was written in 1956 by the Waterville Elementary School seventh grade social studies teacher, Mrs. Estelle Wreede. As a class project for extra credit, the students were to visit neighbors and business owners who could tell them stories and information about the historic small town of Waterville, Ohio. They would then turn in their reports and photos to Mrs. Wreede, which she then in turn wrote the stories for the booklet. Mrs. Wreede and several of the parents drove the students to the homes and various historic sites. Some of the places visited were: Miltonville, the abandoned settlement directly across the river; the Fallen Timbers Monument; Turkey Foot Rock; Rupp Canal Store on Third Street; Roche de Boeuf Rock, and the Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad Bridge (The Interurban Bridge). One very interesting visit was to an old Spanish Villa overlooking Roche de Boeuf. It was built in 1923 by George Stevens, the first director of the Toledo Museum of Art. The students reported that they had never seen anything like it and it was so beautiful and it looked like a castle. Later it became a nursing home.

The location  of the clock tower at the corner of Farnsworth and the A.W. Trail was once a home, an ice cream shop and a couple of restaurants. At the end of Farnsworth at River Road is the location of the famous Columbian House. It was built by the founder of Waterville, John Pray, in 1828. It was first a hotel where Henry Ford and his wife once stayed. Also, it once housed a tavern, a jail, post office and school. In later years, it was the home of a famous restaurant, a doctor’s office, an insurance office and antique store. It is now owned by the Parker family.

Across from the Columbian House is now Parker Square which at one time was the location of the Waterville School since 1885. There were many re-builds, additions and in 1953, when Waterville, Whitehouse, Monclova and Neapolis schools consolidated into Anthony Wayne High School, located in Whitehouse, Ohio, this school became grades K thru 8th grades. The building was demolished in 2017 and the school was moved to the new Waterville Primary School on Sycamore. Several longtime residents that the students visited in their homes to hear stories of old time Waterville were Florence Starkweather, Ernest Hook, Clarence Shoemaker and Herman Rupp.

In 1973, a re-print of the ”Waterville Story” was produced by members of the Waterville Mother’s Club. Included in that booklet are articles and photos of that time and a photo of the class of 1956 (including author of this article). These booklets are no longer in print, but if you would like to read them, you can visit the Wakeman Archives Center on the second floor of the old Masonic building at 401 Farnsworth Road. It is open 10 to 2 every Wednesday and the last Saturday of the month May through October.

Editor’s note: Estelle Wreede, in 1964 was both a founding member and vocal supporter of the Waterville Historical Society.

CELEBRATING US ----- AGAIN!

This is the year of the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the Waterville Historical Society. The actual organizational meeting, including the first election of officers, was held March 15, 1964 with 34 people present. There were 58 charter members by the end of the year. We have come a long way since then. Our founding and our continued success was, and is due to the support of the citizens of Waterville and surrounding area and their continued interest in our unique history.

Those fifty-eight original founding members started with nothing except optimism, enthusiasm and a lot of friends. They put out a call for historic artifacts and the citizens responded, finding items that may have belonged to grandparents or great-grandparents or things just found in attics, basements, old cedar chests, etc. Soon the fledgling society needed a place to both store and display these artifacts. Members, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Swope stepped up to donate the use of an upstairs apartment on Third Street and a museum was born. When the society celebrated their founding with the first Founders Day in 1965 and in subsequent years the entire village was invited to celebrate our local history with displays of historic artifacts, open houses in historic homes, lectures, dinners and dances, and people turned out in great numbers. So, from the very beginning the interaction between the citizens and the society has been vital in our existence.

W.H.S. has seen a steady growth over these years, but always with the same goal – to collect and preserve artifacts relevant to the history of Waterville and surrounding area and make this history available to the public. In 1980 we were able to purchase the 1838 Robbins House and renovate that building into our very own museum. About 10 years later the house next door was available and we bought that property thinking the little house could be demolished for a parking lot for Robbins. Upon finding the Sargent House was also a historic property, it was saved and became an additional display area and museum. When it was found that a little shed located on the alley behind a Second Street property had been the local Cobbler Shop, that building was donated and moved to our River Road properties along with a millstone that had been in the Pekin Mill. Then in 1997 the 1881 Wakeman Masonic Lodge building, vacated when the Masons moved out to Browning, was nearly purchased for demolition by a drug store chain. We were able to purchase that property thanks to a legacy fund from the estate of Marion Swope and a loan from the Village. We were then able to renovate the building into a much needed archives in the upstairs to properly house and maintain our large and growing collection of photographs and paper records. The lower level became a meeting room, complete with kitchen. By 2014, our 50th anniversary year, we owned three properties with four buildings to maintain, had computerized our records of our still expanding collections of historic artifacts, photographs and documents and have properly stored items not on display in archival containers.

We have not slowed down in the past decade from 2014 until now. We were gifted the historic (ca1827) R.G. Stitt (Gas Company) building on River Road by the Black family as they moved their Waterville Gas Company to a new building. That property included the little house next door so the property was split, the house sold and the Stitt Building is currently providing some rental income for the society. The Archives has added shelf space to house our ever expanding collection of photographs, documents and reference works, and finally achieved a long term goal of sharing parts of our collection on-line. The Sargent House Museum is finally being restored by replacing the rotting sills, repairing the stacked stone foundation and replacing some bad siding,. The Cobbler Shop has been renovated and we are working on making our museums more handicapped accessible. (And that is only some of the major things happening recently.).

Through our six decades of growth we have remained true to the original goals of our founders. We still are dependent on the good will and generosity of the community to support our endeavors. We depend on memberships and donations plus our own fund raising efforts to finance all of our wants and needs and we remain an all-volunteer organization.

THE FLOOD OF 1904

What a different a century makes from one December to the next. Up until this week the Maumee River was low, no ice in the river and the temperatures are unseasonably warm. In 1903-1904 it was unusually cold and the lake and bay, plus much of the Maumee River were incased in a thick layer of ice. There was no indication of the disaster that was soon to happen. It started with a sudden January thaw. About the 25th of January the upriver ice began to break up and move down river. The result was a number of ice gorges (piles of huge blocks of ice) to the riverbed blocking the water flow. Water levels would fluctuate for the next three to four weeks, backing up floodwaters then releasing it. The residents were worried about the river flooding.  People were actually talking about moving their furniture to the 2nd story or moving out until the weather or ice broke. It was one of the coldest winters from news reports. Lake Erie was frozen over and there was no place for the river to empty into, so the water and the ice backed up. There were several ice gorges between Waterville and Maumee which kept the water from escaping. Even across the river the Vollmar Club house was surrounded. The Village of Providence was under water but was improving according to the February Toledo and Perrysburg newspapers. At Napoleon the water went down six feet and the river was free of ice.

The Toledo, Waterville and Southern Electric Railroad (Interurban) track ran along the river near Waterville. The tracks near Turkey Foot Rock (Jerome Road) at one point were under water and 25 poles down. Men were out clearing the tracks from ice. The highest gorge was opposite this site. Here the news accounts stated the river was packed to the bottom. This put the electric railroad out of service for several months.

There was an ice gorge a short distance from the old Wagon Bridge. The pressure of the ice battered the 1888 iron Wagon Bridge and its supporting piers but it held. When one of the last upriver ice gorges broke on March 4th, slabs of ice took out two spans of the battered old Wagon Bridge, severing the connections between Waterville and Wood county. This relieved further damage of the flooding. Two spans from the center were gone while the south side was badly damaged. The iron trusses were deposited a half-mile downstream where an enterprising William Witte salvaged the iron to support a second story on his Waterville Hardware store. His store was on 3rd Street but later burned and now the current Waterville Hardware is located in this spot. The cost to repair the bridge was $16,600.

Most of our readers know that ice jams and high water are almost routine for Waterville and the downriver communities but after 120 years the flood of 1904 was by far the worst and most memorable.

Author’s note: The 1904 flood was local along the Maumee caused by ice. The later flood of 1913 was much worse, and was caused by a huge rain event that affected the entire State of Ohio.

Sargent House Museum Foundation and Sill Beam Restoration

Restoration work on the 1838 Sargent House Museum revealed how deteriorated the original 8x8-inch sill beams were.  It also revealed the floor joists - logs with the bark still on!   WHS' contractor W.R. Meyers is halfway done removing the old sills and installing new ones.  This project is funded in part by the Ohio History Fund, a grant program of the Ohio History Connection.  Your donations to the Ohio History Fund make this program possible (www.ohiohistory.org/historyfund).  If you would like to support WHS restoration efforts, please visit our website and click on "Join and Give."   Thanks to everyone who donated to the WHS Capital Campaign.  The work you made possible should set the Sargent House up for the next 180 years!  

WHY ARE WE CELEBRATING A ROCK?

If you have been following our series on Waterville festivals, you know we are about to celebrate the 50th Roche de Boeuf festival, which to all Waterville folks means the “Rock of Beef” or Buffalo Rock”. The “rock” is an outcrop of erosion resistant limestone that has been in the river since the last glacier melted but is now unique to Waterville and forever a part of our history. If you have seen a photograph of the “rock” before the interurban bridge was built (1907-1908) this big hulking island of limestone can be imagined to look like a buffalo standing in the river. Note: Photos and paintings of the rock can be viewed on our website: www.watervillehistory.org and then click the tab online photos and there will be a link to click on.

Since the European name for this landmark came from the French explorers, we are stuck with a French name which we try to interpret. I have included a previous website article called “The Big Rock” to explain the various interpretations of the name, much of which was borrowed from Midge Campbell’s book “Watervillore”.

“Waterville’s Roche de Boeuf, has many spellings and pronunciations. Some say “Roche de Bout,” many say “Roche de Boeuf” and many of the old timers in the area call it “Rush de Boo.”  The rock was named by French fur traders and the English pronunciation and interpretation is the source of all the confusion. The rock is the limestone rock in the Maumee River near the old Interurban Bridge. When they built the bridge in 1908 they destroyed at least 1/3 of the Rock.  American Indians used it as a place to meet and hold council and met there before the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.  Anthony Wayne camped two nights before the battle near here at Fort Deposit which was on the high bank opposite the rock. At one time an early French village and a cemetery were located at Roche de Boeuf where the stone quarry is today. The earliest recorded birth in what is now Waterville, that of James Knaggs, took place in that little village about 1780. Later Jane (Dilts) Richardson was deeded land on River Tract #39 known as the Roch de Boote farm. She was the widow of Isaac Richardson whose tavern was located on her father’s land. The Roche de Boote/Roche de Bout/Roche de Boeuf Farm was later owned by Elijah Dodd and long referred to as the Dodd Farm. Watervillians seem to prefer Roche de Boeuf and interpret that as Rock of Beef or Buffalo Rock thinking those early French thought it looked like a big buffalo in the river. Historians seem to prefer Roche de Bout, interpreted as Rocky Point.” Check out the historical marker at the trailhead of Farnsworth Park overlooking the “big rock” which was commissioned by W.H.S. and placed there by the Ohio Historical Society.

So it is that we celebrate with many references to the buffalo, as can be seen on the publicity posters. For years buffalo burgers have been sold during the festival. Prior to the 1984 annual Roche de Boeuf Festival Ferd Seipel, a Waterville businessman, found and purchased a 200 lb. plastic replica of a buffalo which was used in many festival parades besides our own to publicize the Roche de Boeuf Festival in 1984 and forward. Today the buffalo resides outside Seipel’s Peddler’s Alley development. We even have our local craft brewery called the Buffalo Rock Brewery. So come to the festival and celebrate the buffalo. Pet the plastic buffalo as you go by, have a buffalo burger and enjoy yourselves at Waterville’s unique Roche de Boeuf Festival.

THE FIRST ROCHE DE BOEUF FESTIVAL 1974

The festival was named for the large out cropping of rock in the Maumee River. The rock was called Buffalo Rock by the Indians and translated by the French as “Rock of Beef.” The festival salutes the Roche de Boeuf or Rock of the Buffalo.  So people would remember how to spell Boeuf they were taught the rhyme “Buffalo Over Eat Until Full.”

The festival all started at the kitchen table with Gary and Diana Waugh. They along with Kenny and Annabelle Blair decided to add a new event to the Village of Waterville community events.

The First Roche de Boeuf Festival was to be held on the first Saturday after Labor Day, September 7, 1974. It was started by the Jaycees which included Gary Waugh, Don Blewett, Rick Young and Ken Blair as the chairmen and coordinators. Some of the others that helped were Bill Lommatzsch, Alan Porath, Bill Price, Walt Seymour, Dave Myerholtz, Ed Plante, Bill LaRue and Mike Dehner. The festival was supposed to be a day of celebration and merriment in downtown Waterville with singing, dancing, craft booths and a barbeque, etc. with Waterville history tied to the river, canal and railroad, village government and service organizations.  The official costume was to be 1880 to the 1910s. The purpose was to establish a day for Waterville people to get to know each other and their town, and bridge the past with the future. They wanted to establish an annual event different from a carnival type that was happening here and in other towns. Of course it was also a way for the Jaycees to increase membership and have the business community participate. Also much of the money that left town with the carnival would now stay in the community.

The first festival had a bike decorating contest and parade with 30 children participating. They had special rides to Grand Rapids and back on the Bluebird Special, picking up people in a hay wagon and tram ride. They had tours of historical sites in downtown Waterville. At 12 noon a special meeting of the Village Council was held with reading a proclamation honoring Roche de Boeuf Day as an annual event and dedication of a plaque for the Roche de Boeuf Bridge Society. They also announced that the old power plant would be turned over to the Waterville Historical Society for a museum.

Don Lahote of Perrysburg piloted the homemade plane “Breezy” over Waterville and Bernie Steinbaugh parachuted from the plane and landed on his target at Route 24 and 64 at the point where Mechanic Street and AW Trail meet. He was still jumping from the plane in 1990 at the festival. The AW band was unable to play at the first festival so the Perrysburg Band was invited and played.

About 60 people dressed in 1890s attire. They had the sky diver at 1:00 p.m. that landed on his target. The Waterville Playshop put on an old fashion melodrama and the Rhythm Rambler’s, a western square dance group, demonstrated. That was followed by street dancing. There were craft booths on Second and Third Street. It was a big day and lasted all day and into the night. They even had a rock band.

The Roche de Boeuf Mission Statement said it was to be a family affair, promote local business and bring people to Waterville, then to encourage visitors to come back to visit and shop. It looks like they did a good job as we are now celebrating the 50th festival this year and it is bigger and better than anyone could imagine. Only the 47th Annual Festival was canceled due to Covid-19 concerns, adhering to the health department restrictions during the Covid pandemic and the best interest of the community.

The Early Founder's Days

In 1964 a meeting was called by Mayor Richard Farnsworth and the manager of the Waterville Bank, Alvin Sieczkowski for the possible founding of a historical society. They had heard people were interested in preserving Waterville history. Al was elected President of the newly formed Waterville Historical Society and James Baldwin Vice President, Sec’y, Mrs. R.M. Memmer and Mrs. Carl Conrad, Treasurer. Mrs. Howard Krause was elected scrapbook custodian. The directors were John Amstutz, Mrs. Robert Lowrie, Mrs. Charles Swope, Mrs. Harry Witte and Charles Weaver.

One year later they held their first Founder’s Day to honor John Pray who laid out the village with the first 50 lots in 1831. Movies and exhibits of early Waterville were shown in the Waterville school gymnasium. Walking tours around town were conducted at 2, 3 and 4 p.m. and there were historic home tours. They also had a tea at the Columbian House. Then after the home tours they had a buffet supper at Zion Lutheran Church with Dr. Randolf Downs, professor of history at T.U as speaker. The first year of the Founder’s Day was just a one day affair but the 2nd year they held it for two days on May 14 and 15.

The aim of the society was the preservation of the history of Waterville. Founder’s Day was a way of calling the past to the attention of our citizens in hopes that everyone will give to or aid the society in preserving as much as possible the treasures for the future. It was hoped it would be a yearly trek back into the history of Waterville. In 1965 fifteen hundred people attended. In 1966 Founder’s Day was two days, both Saturday and Sunday, ending with a costume ball held at the Waterville School and the banquet held at the Zion Lutheran Church. WHS produced a Founder’s Day booklet and a Junior Historical Society was organized in Waterville.

The public responded and soon the historical society started looking for a place to put their collection of historic artifacts of interest to the area. In 1967 Mr. and Mrs. Charles Swope gave permission to use the upstairs apartment they owned at 19 ½ Third Street. In August of that year they opened that space to the public as a way to preserve and display these items of historical interest.

In 1968 they made Apple Butter and sold it to raise funds and in 1969 they had more house tours, showing six homes and WHS planned to make this an annual event. The organization was also having families research the history of their homes and WHS gave the first historic home plaque to Mrs. and Mrs. Earl Potter for the Oliver Pray House at 144 N. River Road, built in 1837. The purpose of this was to identify and encourage restoration and preservation of homes that were built prior to 1900.

In 1980 they acquired the Robbins House at 114 South River Road and began remodeling it into a museum. This enabled them to participate in the Roche de Boeuf festival with bake sales, antique and collectible sales, demonstrations of pioneer arts and crafts, as well as tours of the museum where all their exhibits had been moved. Founder’s Day dinners continued to be held in the spring at the Columbian House, the Toledo Club and other locations.

With the acquisition of the Sargent House Museum at 118 South River Road, which opened to the public on Founder’s Day, 1992 and Wakeman Hall in 1999, much time and effort was required toward fund-raising and restoration of these properties. Founder’s Day was neglected until renewed with a celebration of Waterville heritage, a day when small town values and civic pride are emphasized. In 2001 the village of Waterville had been in existence for 170 years and at that time the Waterville Historical Society, possibly along with the Chamber of Commerce, organized the Founder’s Day Festival. It was stated that it was the Third Annual Founder’s Day. In 2004 they had the sixth annual festival as an outdoor activity in Conrad Park.

On May 18, 2003 an Ohio Bicentennial Marker obtained by the Waterville Historical Society, honoring “John Pray Founder of Waterville” was dedicated at Pray Park. It was attended by 35 of his descendants from throughout the United States.

Stone Age People in the Great Black Swamp

We had a capacity crowd Wednesday evening July 26th, at the Waterville Historical building for our event; "Stone age people in the Great Black Swamp"! Many of the attendees were behind the cameraman getting food, or upstairs in the archives, but were able to capture many of them seated.

Our speaker, Mason Brown, brought a small sampling of the rare artifacts that he's found while "Surface Hunting" local fields in our area. Mason also spoke for about 45 minutes on the history surrounding his finds and the documentation he's done. All of his work has been personally hand illustrated, and is kept in a thick binder, with an associated map identifying the locations of his finds.

Thank you, Mason, for sharing the decades of your work with us, and thank you to everyone who attended!

Waterville Blossom Festival

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History of the Apple Blossom Festival and Waterville Festival

The Apple Blossom Festival was suggested at the Waterville Chamber of Commerce as noted in the Whitehouse Standard on April 29, 1933. This was just coming out of the Depression and the Chamber of Commerce was probably trying to find a way to increase business for the people of Waterville plus it was way to throw dull cares away and celebrating.  Of course people were beginning to travel more and this was a short drive to Waterville to see the apple blossoms and other trees in bloom. This would help get the people back then to buy the apples and other produce. The May 6, 1933 date was selected. Everyone interested in seeing the trees in bloom met at the Waterville school and the Whitehouse Band played. They traveled in the parade from the school house at 1 p.m., in a caravan of trucks and cars lead by the band and the Boy Scouts where they traveled up the river to the Byrum and the Utz Fruit Farm on River Road, then to the Boyer Fruit Farm on Waterville-Neapolis and Schadel Road and finally to the Farnsworth Orchards on Farnsworth Road. At the Farnsworth Orchards they had a program and crowning of the first Blossom Queen, Theresa Walbolt. Her attendants were Merita Witte and Marilyn Baldwin. It was raining at the 1st Festival so the program and dancing was held at the Graf Garage where now Peddler’s Alley is located. They removed the three Model T Ford fire trucks, four yellow school buses and parked them outside so the floor could be cleaned for square and round dancing.

The 2nd year (1934) they had blossom covered floats. The people took a tour of the 500 acre Farnsworth Orchards where most of the proceedings after parade were held. The queen and her attendants were seen dancing under the apple blossoms in 1934.  In 1937 the Waterville Blossom Festival was held on May 8th with parade, floats, bands and the Queens Ball with single admission tickets to the ball at 35 cents and 15 cents for children. Waterville was advertised in a brochure at that time as a city suburb and an agricultural town. It stated that the village owns and operate its own water and electric plants, has three churches, good school system, has a bank, garages, restaurants, barber shop and stores sufficient to care for its needs. The population of Waterville in 1934 was 976. A map was provided so you could travel to see the apple blossoms. The night before the festival three million bees Mr. Farnsworth rented from a man in Shelby County were released to fertilize the apple orchards of the village. The flight of the bees was an annual event at the Farnsworth Farms, usually the night before the Festival. He keeps the bees all summer and the owner come later to take them home.

The last Blossom Festival was 1940 by our records when the festival was discontinued during the war years of WW II.

The first Post War Waterville Festival was held June 1947 and it replaced the old Waterville Blossom Festival and now it was sponsored by the American Legion Post and the Waterville Volunteer Fire Department, dropping the word “Blossom.” They said they wanted to continue to sponsor the festival annually with enough money is raised for building of a community house or building.  It was a four day event ending with an hour long parade on Saturday and later in the evening with square dancing. They had carnival rides all taking place in Waterworks Park, now Conrad Park. It was a fun filled time! It was a money maker for the sponsors. In 1955 there were 12 bands, 6 marching groups, 9 queen candidates and by 1963 there were 30 marching units in the parade. Prizes were given to the bands and floats.

In 1981 they mentioned what they had purchased with festival funds which were a rescue truck and equipment, material for the Village Park Shelter House, Christmas lights, steel grills in the park, flags and poles for street display and flags for the park and local schools, sponsorship of teams and Scout troop.

Author’s Note: We are looking for more information on the Waterville Festival to add to our records. Do you have pictures or information you would like to share?