By: Stan Jordan
Rex Hurni gave me these pictures of some of the gnawing done like a beaver here on the Maumee River
He received them from his granddaughter Laura Miller, who lives down by Delaware Bend. She has seen this animal twice.
I have received a number of these reports on damage to the saplings, but these are the first good pictures I have received.
In last weeks’ West Bend News I told of a visit that I had with Jim Pendergrast on the subject of some sort of a beaver in the area.
Jim said they are not the type of beaver that they have in Minnesota or Wisconsin of the big 30-40 pounds with the big wide tail. They are more of the size of a big Muskrat, he said I think they are called Banks Beaver.
Well I told this to the game warden and he said Jim is just blowing smoke. Well now, maybe so, but tell me, what is killing these saplings? You admitted you had a call from the Cecil area 
about tree damage. What animal is doing this damage?
Over the last few weeks, I have received a number of these reports of damage to some saplings along the Maumee.
So if this is not beavers work, then what is doing the damage? The damage is real!
See ya!
The Eagles Are Building Somewhere
By: Stan Jordan
This is Friday morning April 21st, Bill Fish came into the office of the West Bend News with some good news. He said he was cleaning up the park area and he saw one of the eagles a little west of the old eagle nest area and this eagle had a good sized limb in his claws. Then he said he saw the other eagle up in the air with a limb in its claws. Now he didn’t see where the eagles are building because of the leaves, but they were circling around on the north side of the river a little west of the old nest area but he wasn’t sure where they were building.
Now this is April 26th and we still don’t know where they are building their nest. Maybe we can have some Kayakers or some people in a canoe to make a diligent search of the north side of the Maumee River bank.
See ya!
The Antwerp EMS Squad
By: Stan Jordan
Recently at their meeting, the EMS elected some new officers for the coming year.
Coni Gaisford- President; Mike Knapp – Vice President; Ashley McDougall – Secretary. The other EMS volunteers are: Dan Baker, Brandon Dix, Dave Fisher, Paul Fruit, April Fruit, Matt McDougall, Kyle Recker, Randy Shaffer, Jacob Shook and Alison Wiechart.
Their meetings are at the EMS hall every second and fourth Wednesday night. Our EMS squad is a very conscientious group and we are very proud of them. All you to do is call them.
See ya!
Ode to the Ehrharts
By: Stan Jordan
I’m going to do a column on Mr. Ehrhart, his life, his work for the town history and his history.
I know from the start that it will be too long for one story and I might repeat myself sometimes, but there is no end to my appreciation and respect for those people.
Back in 1941, Antwerp was going to be one hundred years old and Otto Ehrhart and his son Dale and Dale’s wife, Vivien, worked hundreds of hours to write and gather all the data on early Antwerp history and get it printed by the Bee Argus in a souvenir booklet called “A Century of Progress 1841 – 1941”
There are a couple other books that cover some of Antwerp’s history but none are as complete, concise and informing as Otto’s book.
A few years ago I asked his great grandson Cord Ehrhart if I could write some stories out of Otto’s book, and thank goodness Cord said to go ahead. Well over and over the years I have read that book over and over and have used it over and over.
I have made use of it many times. What few words I will have here re little compensation for all the hours those three people put in compiling all the old history of the town.
This booklet is about all the early history that is available so if you read it in my column, you too, owe a debt of thanks to those three people.
As I understand Dale and Vivien went down to the town hall and went through all the council meeting books for all the years and made note of some of the important dates. Now that took a lot of time and effort.
That was a 61 page booklet, green in color and a lot of Antwerp folks have one somewhere. I suggest you give it to your kids to keep. I even suggest you sit down and read it from front to back, you lay it down, it is that interesting.
I would like to use a quote here from the great Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England, during WWII. Germany had been bombing England night and day for a couple of years, without any let up. Then Hitler got the idea of fighting Russia and they left England alone for a while and the British were enjoying a little bit of rest as the RAF pilots had shot down a lot of the German bombers, and Winston said, “Never before has so much been owed by so many to so few.”
I feel the same about our ability to read all of Antwerp’s old history because of the extra work of those three Ehrharts.
See ya!
Sam Rivers, Indian Agent Chapter 30: Summer Gardening
By: Stan Jordan
I haven’t written in a while, but about all we have done this summer is work in the garden. The boys worked in the mornings and we sat in the shade in the afternoons. We have plenty of ripe tomatoes, sweet corn and all the vegetables. It is the end of August 1853.
Slim has been cutting wood all summer and we have plenty for the winter now.
Rooster had ridden his horse, Rocket, back to the fort and he is gone now. Farmer is getting ready to lift the potatoes. He says we have a good supply. The Timothy is up in the barn also. He takes the teams out to the pasture every morning. The will let them to get to the creek.
Callie has some discomfort now, she has gained a little weight waiting for the baby. She sits in the rocking chair now.
Rooster arrived from the fort this morning. He said the ladies at the fort are getting all their baby clothes that they don’t need and give them to Callie. One has a baby crib also.
Well, we are in the potato business now. Farmer put up some more boards in the barn to store crop. We have our garden cleaned up now and we are planning on going over to the Loup River tribe. They have planted an acre of potatoes and Farmer will plow the potatoes out for them.
We will leave here at day light tomorrow. I think Callie will go along. It is up to her and how she feels.
We got here at White Elk’s village. He passed away last summer and his son, Limping Buffalo is the tribal chief now.
So far all is peaceful in the village. There were 164 people here last year, but they have had some births since then.
Farmer and Half Moon, their village gardener, are planning on lifting the potatoes tomorrow. All people who can lean over potatoes are urged to come and help. Farmer brought along the wheel barrow and that is a big help. The ladies are planning on a big dinner about the middle of the afternoon or later. About 4:00 Farmer was done and he brought in his plow and gardening tools. The people who had their own lots harvested, then helped with the hay for horses in the winter. The wheat had already been harvested.
Little Beaver, who is Limping Buffalo’s son, is now the Shaman. He is getting along fine. The tribe shows him a lot of respect. He can speak English pretty well now.
The squaws who are about Callie’s age, are all excited about Callie’s condition. This tribal midwife has volunteered to come to the agency to help when the baby comes. The midwife at the fort has also volunteered.
The native ladies had a lavish supper for all the worked. Then all talked way into the night about the day’s work.
Farmer had brought his fiddle, Slim played his guitar and the natives had a young fellow who had a lot of ribbon and tom toms, and the boys made the night very enjoyable.
They all grunted when I said we have to leave early in the morning to get over to the Calamus River village.
See ya!
