The Lobo Tank Busters, Horse-power Holiday; Tractor-Pull at Hicksville Fairgrounds, Hotels & Boarding Houses in Old Antwerp
The Lobo Tank Busters
By: Stan Jordan
We took off this morning on dawn patrol and we headed over towards Germany, Ruhr Valley. That is the Pittsburgh of Germany. Many factories, foundries, and defense plants.
We were up about a thousand feet altitude, so we could see all around. And we did. We spotted a flight of six German ME-109s. They were a little below us and if they don’t spot us we will catch up with them pretty soon.
We broke into a shallow dive and someone shouted, “Pick out a target and you’re on your own.”
Lt. Barnes took the first one and I thought he had that fellow dead to rights. But he must’ve been the leader and their best pilot, because he made an odd maneuver and let Lt. Barnes go on by.
Well, I didn’t see anymore of that fight because I was busy with the number two ME-109. I could see my tracers going into his engine area and then smoke started to pour out, but no flames. So I stayed on his tail and I headed for earth with a lot of smoke but no flames. He sat the plane down in a wheat field and a wheat stubble field and the plane started to burn and so did the wheat field.
I didn’t see if he crawled out or not. I went back upstairs. All the action was about five thousand feet now.
I could see two more ME-109s trailing smoke and fire and crashing into the ground.
Well, that took care of three of the planes and I asked on the radio, “Where are the rest of the fighters?”
Someone said, “Lt. Barnes has had his hands full with his opponent. But the other two German planes headed for home. Probably young recruits to live and fight another day.”
Lt. Barnes and his opponent went at it tooth and nail. The German was a very good pilot and he knew a lot of tricks. But so did Barnes. Barnes said, “He always made a little turn to the right, so I figured he would again and I was ready for him when he made his little turn to the right. He was already flying into a hail of 50 cal. stuff. He was probably dead in the cockpit.”
We had enough also, so we formed up and started back to our air base. We also had some damage to our planes, but we will be ready for dawn patrol in the morning.
See ya!
Horse-power Holiday; Tractor-Pull at Hicksville Fairgrounds
By: Stan Jordan
Dan and Traci Bowers, owners of the Advance Chassis and fabrication shop here in Antwerp, are sponsoring a tractor-pull at the Defiance Fairgrounds at Hicksville. That will be Friday and Saturday, September 11 and 12. If they need a rain-date, it will be Sunday the 13th.
Dan tells me it will be a big affair covering all classes of tractors and trucks. Some of the chassis have been made right here in Dan’s shop.
There will be a couple of tractor-pulling groups that vie in contest at Bowling Green, Wauseon, Fort Recovery and Arcola. There will be all sizes and all types. The engines will be from seven hundred to a thousand horse-power.
There will be entertainment and food concessions and other wares. There will be something going on for hours, in front of the new grandstand.
There are tractor-pulls, truck-pulls, mud-drag racing, strong man, cornhole contests, live bands and plenty of camping spots.
See ya!
Hotels & Boarding Houses in Old Antwerp
By: Stan Jordan
According to Mr. Ehrhart’s book, One Hundred Years of Progress for Antwerp 1841-1941, over the years, there has been a number of hotels and boarding houses right here in Antwerp.
The canal was pretty busy in the late 1840’s and Main Street was down where it is now Canal Street. There were factories all the way east from Madison Street to what is now Kroos Drive and even farther. In my time, that street was called the “Cinder Road”.
There were a number of boarding houses along the canal to furnish housing for the factory workers. This was a very busy area until the 1870’s when all the timber was being depleted.
The railroad came to Antwerp in 1855, but the canal was very busy at that time. But the businesses moved north close to the railroad because the canal froze over in the winter and business and businesses slowed down but the winter didn’t bother the railroad.
The American Building was a big hotel on the corner of Cleveland and W. River Street. It was torn down in 1901 to make room for the new Presbyterian church. The Champion Hotel was a very busy place for many years. That was the building that is now McDougall’s Fire Arm Shop. It had a marque that reached clean out to the curb of Main Street.
Frank Lamb built a big hotel on W. River Street about the turn of the century. It sat between what is now Rister’s law office and the laundromat. At that time, it was owned by Brady Brothers and I think the last owner was Gabor Bereny. It was torn down about 1970.
There was a boarding house for the Antwerp furnace until 1880 when the furnace went out of business. That building was remodeled and became the residence of Dave McCreery, grandfather and great grandfather of the Ed McCreerys.
The first Ed McCreery started the Tasty Freeze which is now Dr. Bragg’s office. That house just to the west of Dr. Bragg’s office is now the home of Joe Crabill and family.
See ya!
Help was On the Way!
By: Stan Jordan
This picture was taken at the Antwerp High School reunion of 2015.
Due to a number of reasons, I can’t manipulate steps very well, nothing over four inches.
The ACDC wanted me to be able to attend the reunion so Conn Shuherk said, “We will load him on our chair with wheels on it and take him up and down the back stairs at the MAC gym.”
Shown in the picture is Jake Shook, Conn Shuherk, Kyle Recker and my granddaughter Jessi Getrost.
This system worked out very well and I thank you for all your help and I had a very nice night.
See ya!
