IT WAS A LIVERY STABLE
By: Stan Jordan
A fellow asked me one time, what used to be where the fire house is now. I will tell you about what I know of that corner and area.
From as far back as I can remember, back about 1928 or so, it was a big red wooden building and in pretty good shape. I know it was a livery stable in the early 1920’s.
The late Ruth Biderwell lived out on 192 or the East River Road, she wanted to come to Antwerp to school, there wasn’t any school buses yet, so she rode to school in a buggy with a neighbor boy named Wentworth. He would drop her off at the school and would go to the livery stable and put his horse up. I think she came to school in that manner for two years and then they got school buses.
Ruth graduated in 1934 and then married Ernest Neely and still lived on the River Road and had three boys. I think she lived to be about 96.
Along about the late 1930’s there was a man named Jones who had a body and fender shop in that livery building.
There was a few times in season in the 1930’s and later that the building became a tomato factory. There was a time that is was used by the highway department to house some of their trucks and equipment.
Along about that time, there was a house just west of the building. The name was Bill Barnhart and after the house burned down, the Antwerp Volunteer Fire Department bought that lot.
Across the street to the south, where the car parts store is, was Frank & Ken Baland Blackson shop to the east was The Chair Factory and it burned down in 1950 and the VFW built on that ½ block in the late 1960’s.
The fire station was built there in 1963. Over the years there has been a lot of joyous times in and around the fire house and I hope a lot more to come also.
See ya!
MY UNCLE GEORGE
By: Stan Jordan
I was sitting in my quiet living room staring at a quiet t.v. screen and my mind was all over the Tri-state area. The other day a couple ladies gave me an application to join a group called The Paulding County Friends of the Park and they told about fixing up the park at the Five Span Bridge area and maybe put in a dock.
Well this is right down my alley, anything to make the river more useable. Well, I sat there and watched that empty t.v. screen and my mind dribbled back to the 1945 when my Uncle George and I fished for crappies in the Five Span Bridge area.
Uncle George was a common every day working man, but he was an Antwerp Booster. In the book 100 Years of Progress by Mr. Ehrhart, Uncle George was in two photographs. He was a fireman, a night watchman, a school bus driver and a deputy marshall.
I remember one time, he lived at the east end of Daggett Street and the ball diamond was right there. On one Sunday afternoon when the bell of St. Mary’s Church rang at six o’clock, as a lawman he went out on the ball field and took the ball from the pitcher, the local law had no more ball after 6:00 p.m. on Sundays.
Right after I came back from WWII he and I would go to the Auglaize fishing. He had an old 1936 Buick, we would put in at Five Span and go upstream about ¼ of a mile to where there was some tree tops in the water and we would fish around these tree tops.
Uncle George had sugar diabetes, bad, but he had a sack of doughnuts, some bananas and a Pepsi Cola. I don’t know which he enjoyed more, the food or the fishing.
He and Aunt Blanche (one of my favorite aunts) had a lot of sorrow and woe. They had a boy, Earl, who drowned in the Maumee: Earl 1907 – 1925, and a daughter Bernice, who died of natural causes. She was 21.
I wish I would have gone fishing more with him, because he didn’t live too much longer. He passed away in 1948, he was 62.
On one of those trips we were fishing and I heard him grunting a little bit and I asked him what was wrong. He answered, “I’m sitting here in a swirl.”
Aunt Blanche was one of my favorites and passed away in 1960, she was 72 and suffered from Alzheimer’s. They also had two other girls.
See ya!
THE WABASH WATER TOWER
By: Stan Jordan
Every once in a while, someone will ask about the tower, where was it and what do I know about it.
Well, I have ran this picture before, but I will do it again.
Generally the Wabash ran 2 – 42 or 4-6-4 locomotive and of course they used a lot of water to make the steam. We had two passenger trains each day and a number of freight trains and they were the ones who used that tower the most.
If you look closely to the left you can see the roof and chimney of the pump house that pumped the water from the river up into the tank. It looks like they might have had an electric pump by this time.
You can see the water tank was to the left of huge stones that are still there. This picture was taken sometime between 1910 and 1931 because US 24 was paved in 1931.
That area is all grown up with bramble bushes and saplings. I wish the railroad would clean that area. It is all part of Antwerp’s history.
In the picture, just behind you was a house and the man who lived there operated the pump that put the water in the tank. His name was Lloyd Harris and his grandson was Wayne Harris Fleck. All of these folks I knew and they all had a place in our history.
O.D. Fleck was a clerk in charge of the Railway Mail Service here on the Wabash. His son, Wayne Fleck, graduated out of Miami of Ohio and was a top flight, left handed, fast ball pitcher. In WWII he flew an F-4-F off a carrier. After the war he married Lois Anderson and he became a teacher here at AHS.
See ya!
I HATE WINTER
By: Stan Jordan
This is March 21st. The first day of spring and there is two inches of snow on the ground. I hate winter.
For months I have looked forward to spring, now look, snow! I hate winter!
All we have to look forward to is the end of next week. It’s Major League Baseball Season. With my luck they will probably have to scoop snow off the infield. I hate winter! On Wednesday, March 28 the Root Beer Stand opened for the season. Well, that’s a ray of sunshine!
The new Paulding County Hospital Antwerp Facility opened on March 22. And the Prebyterian Church had their fish fry on March 30. It was full blown meal with dessert and all, with plenty of carry outs.
That takes us into April, then the first thing you know, it will be May and Dan and Traci Bowers will be having their big annual Horsepower Holiday at the Paulding County Fairgrounds.
See ya!
