Pretty Boy's crime strea ends on farm

By Dale E. Shaffer

HE EARLY 1930s WERE the final years fo:r T three famous despe:rados - John· Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and . Headliries of the Salem News :read "Pretty Boy Floyd Flees; Fou:r Wounded"(Oct. 22, 1934); "Floyd Trapped, Slain by Police, U.S. Agents" (Oct. 23, 1934); and "Baby Face Nelson, Gunman, Found Dead" (Nov. 28, 1934). One of the earliest memories I have is seeing Pretty Boy Floyd laid out on a cot at the Sturgis Funeral Home in East Liverpool. I was five years old at the time and remember that only his face was uncovered. Our neighbor, a Salem fireman, offered .to take my father and me along to view the bullet­ riddled body. It was Tuesday, Oct. 23, 1934 and hundreds were gathered on the streets outside the funeral. home. ·From this corn crib Floyd began a race for the woods, one Pictures of the crowd and the lifeless body of Floyd which ended in his mortal wounding hJI approaching law­ appeared in all the local newspapers. It was a men. He'd been sitting in Stewart Dykes Model A, waiting circus-like event of national significance. Widow Ellen Conkle poses in the kitchen of her farm home for the farmer to finish husking corn, unaware that the police There he was, the terror of the Oklahoma bad­ with the tray she prepared for Floyd when she fi'xed a meal were speeding toward the Conkle farm. lands, at the end of his 10 years of crime. His black for the gunman when he appeared at her door. patent leather hair slicked down meticulously even m death. The braggart, sought for the Kansas City Union Station massacre in June 1922, plus other kill­ ings and bank robberies, bore the marks of at least three bullets fired into his torso and arm. Dillinger had fallen under a rain of lead in Chica­ go three months earlier. Floyd then became No. 1. Like other desperados of the 1920s and '30s, he boasted that he would never. be taken alive. And that's the way it turned out. He was killed in a hail of gunfire on Monday, Oct. 22, 1934 at an isolated farm seven miles north of East Liverpool. Alone when federal and city officers poured a let­ hal dose of fire at his retreating figure, "Pretty Boy" remained a solitary figure in death. Two bullets tore through him, back to front, taking his life 15 minutes after he was struck. A third bullet lodged under a rib and a fourth pierced his arm. Floyd's name appeared in Ohio headlines on April 16, 1931 when be and Billy the Killer (William Frank Dawson of the . Sturgis Funeral Home (left) stands Miller, alias Willis Miller) of Ironton, Ohio fatally beside the body of Pretty Boy Floyd which was taken to the wounded Ralph Castner, a Bowling Green poJice­ East Liverpool funeral home, with Chester Smith, the East man. Sometime prior to that, Pretty Boy had made a Stewart Dyke and. his wife sit in the yarlor of their farm Liverpool policeman who shot the runaway Floyd with a deer spectacular escape from a train at Kenton, Ohio house. The couple were celebrities of. a kind after their rifle at the Conkle farm in Sprucevale before FBI agents encounter with Floyd whom they said was an extremely arrived on the scene. See PRETTY BOY, page 4 polite man. 'Yesteryears 'Wetfnestfay, Jwtt 5, 1991 Old news is good news By Lois Firestone I was six when. I walked through the huge doors of the Fourth Street School in to Bertha Hoopes' first grade class and the growing up experiences which would shape my life. The building was a magnificent place to my young eyes: the hugeness of it, the sweepingly hign ceilings and the massive curved staircase lead­ ing to the junior high where the ''big kids" studied on the second floor. When I think about the sad and glad years I spent there, though, it's the teachers I remem­ ber. Miss Percival's unique idea of having the class make date candy wben we were studying the desert people of the Tigris and Euphrates in the second grade. The terror we experienced with Miss Boao and her vicious blackboard pointer with which she once carelessly smashed a window to pieces in our basement (my mother put a stop to those tirades when I finally got the nerve to tell her what was going on). The willowy fourth grade teacher Miss Ospeck whom everyone was crazy about, especially the girls. Towns change. The school's gone now, like other buildings which were once landmarks but since torn down. Every one has these memories and stories to remember, and that's what we'll be doing every week in Yesteryears. Dale Shaffer, Dick Wootten and I are excited about the chance to share them with you, our readers. The everyday people who lived through the settling of the territory, the Depression, the wars, chronicled their experiences, but often they are hidden away in old newspaper dip­ Photos courtesy of Kennedy Galleries, New York Ctty pings, writings and photographs. With your help, we'll dig up the not-yet-told, brush off This 'U!atercolor pa~ntfngr "Building .~ith Domed 7op". was paint~d by Charles Burchfield on Nov. 4, 1917. the familiar and put it all down on these The site of the painting was most likely somewnere m Columbiana County. Can you identify the spot? pages. By Dick Vv ootten Because Burchfield painted 4,000 paintings in his lifetime and details about some of their sites is Charles Burchfield (1893-1967) was Salem's most sometimes skimpy, art scholars are anxious to learn renowned artist. His paintings are displayed in art about their locations~ A new approach to art scho­ museums throughout the United States and Europe. larship called "site specifics" is coming into its own. In two years, the Columbus Art Museum will be A :recent book on American painter Edward Hopper celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth with a placed recent photos of sites side-by-side with large retrospective exhibition. Shown will be mo~e Hopper's paintings of those sites. · than 100 paintings and drawings from his ea:rly The Salem Historical Society has a Burchfield days to his last years as an artist. A 250-page cata­ Room which displays photos adjacent to reproduc­ log _is also planned to be published along with the tion of his paintings. teryears exhibit, which would also be on view at two other With the Burchfield Centenary approaching, more museums. The L.A. Museum in Calfomia is one_of information is being sought about the artist's A weekly historicafjournal the other museums interested in the exhibition. background. · Published by the Salem News The Salem Art Institute, a branch of the Butler Yesteryears will attempt to help by showing Founded June 5, 1991 Inst~tute of American Art, is expected to open in the reproductions of his paintings in which the site has 161 N. Lincoln Ave. fall. Butler Director Louis Zona said that Burchfield not been identified. Anyone who has any personal Salem, Ohio 44460 would play an important part in exhibits to be memories of Burchfield- he left Salem in 1921 but Phone (216) 332-4601 planned for the branch, whicn would be just east of later made some trips back here - is urged to share Thomas E. Spargur, Publisher/General Manager the Society Bank on State Street. with us those memories. Harry L. Stewart, Managing Editor Lois A. Firestone, Weekly Editor Marcia M. Hazel, Advertising Executive Staff Contributors Richard Wootten · Cathie McCullough Aleks Dolzenko Contributors Dale E. Shaffer William Kibler Gordon Calvin Frank C. Dawson Paul Niederhiser Dennis Niederhiser Charles Snyder John Litty Salem Historical Society Greenford Historical Society East Liverpool Historical Society Train depot was a busy place

The. Greenford train depot (above a.nd belo.w) in the early 1900s, managed lJy Oliver and Elvira Walter. A bevy of ei:<_ht _young laftdzes pose for tlJ,e photographer while waztmg for the. tram. (below, rjght} Mrs. Walter can be seen in the foreo-round of fhe Bottom le pFzoto; holding a package to be sent on the Ene Railway tram lme. , 0

The railroad station at Greenford was a bustHng place in ages sent by train went out on time. the morning and late afternoons from the early 1900s and on into the 1930s. In an era when few people drove their horse-drawn car­ The Erie Railroad run went north and south twice a day. ria~es to work and before the automobile came along, the The daily starting point was at Canfield moving south, tram was the only means of transportation for them to get to their jobs further south. first to Greenford, then on to Washingtoriville, Leetonia ' and Lisbon. Most of them were worked in the fields and offices of Oliver and Elvira Walter managed the station for years, ~he Templin Nursery in Calla, one of the biggest employers checking schedules, selling tickets and making sure pack- m the area . . 50 years ago in the sports columns of the Salem News 50 YEARS AGO: The Salem High tennis team stretched knocked out-a homer-for the Recreation while Gray did the its total victory string to 6 with a 5-1 rout of the Sebring same for the Furnacers. High racqueteers. Salem victories in the singles included Sebring used four pitchers, Gorbey, McEdie, Bradley and Ritchie over Hetherington, 6-4, 6-3; Baillie vs. Gorby, 6-2, Bninil, as they put down a Goshen uprising in an overtime 6-3;. Stewart against ROd~ers, 6-0, 6-1; and Bollinger over game played at Sebring yesterday. Craig relieved Harold Tobm, 6-1, 7-5. in the last of the eight for Goshen, but to no avail, the Sebr- Bill Scally and a "no star'' supporting cast will be out to ing club knocking out two hits to win 13-11. do what tliey did last year ancf would have done last Fri~ A slice of the American Bowling Congress prize money day night .if it hadn't been so dog-gone cold - keep the has arrived in Salem, it was announcecf by Bill Juergens, bacon fhey brought home for East Palestine in the last Col- secretary of the city kegling association. Juergens received umbiana County meet. a check for $48 for Bill Shepard and Mike Hutter, who shot Pounding out seven hits and capitalizing on six errors, a 1,221 doubles score in the ABC caupturing 185th place in the Recreation last night rode over the Electric Furnace, this event. Shepard and Hutter bowled with the Eagles' 10-3, in a Oass A game at Centennial Park. Whinnery __ _t~~: __ • _. _. _. _. _•...... _. ___ . __ .... ____ . however, got away. Fultz was wounded, as was {Continued from page 1) Grover Potts, a special policeman, and James H. Baum, a Wellsville florist. while being ta~en to the Ob!o Penitentiary by Lucas Back at the station, Fultz looked through a crimi­ CrnJ.nt-y deputies to serve time for a Sylvania ba.;c-.k nal catalog to see if he could find any faces that holdup. would resemble those of the two men. Together The outlaw was allowed to go into the washroom wjth Potts and A. H. Grove, both ~f whom were at of a New York Central train as Hneared Kenton. He the scene of the shotting,,Fultz picked Floyd's pic­ was handcuffed, but managed to kick out the ture from the catalog. That started the manhunt for v~asI:room window and leap to the ground. Floyd. Nothing more was heard of Pretlty Boy in Omo until It was of the Department of Justice, he was seen in Bowling Green that April day in aided by three of his agents and four East Liverpool 1931. policemen, who finally caught Floyd. Purvis, a 30-year-old former law student, had been responsi­ Floyd and Billy the Killer were accompanied by ble for catching Dillinger earlier. two women. When they visited a store to purchase Floyd's life ended with his body crumpled up in Sergeant Herman Roth, one of the East Liverpool policemen dresses for the girls, a clerk became suspicious and a com field, 500 feet from a com crib where he had who partidpated in Floyd's rout stands to the right of the gun­ summoned Police Chief Carl Galliher. Accompanied taken momentary refuge before heading toward a man's corpse at the Sturgis Funeral Home in East Liverpool. by Patrolman Castner, the chief found the Floyd wooded ridge. Only an hou:r before he had Thousands filed through the home, the author among ttzem, to party walking on a downtown street. appeared at the Ellen Conkle farm, tired, disheveled view Floyd's body. - As the officers, with guns unholstered, ordered and dirty. Hunger had driven him out of Beaver the four to put their hands in the air, Floyd and his Creek valley in the sparsely settled Sprucevale sec­ male companion opened fire. Castner was fatallv tion. He rapped on the back doo:r of the house. Mrs. lady," he said, "I got drunk last night ahd I don't wounded. Galliher survived by falling to the 'Conkle, cleaning a smokehouse nearby, called out kno~ where I am exactly. I'll pay you if you'll drive ground. He continued firing, killing Billy th~ Killer me mtb Youngstown." in response to fue stranger. Floyd enjoyed the meal and paid Mrs. Conkle a and wounding one of the girls - Beulah Balrd, 21, Floyd replied politely, "I'm lost and I want some­ of .Kansas City. The other girl - Rose Baird, 23, also thing to eat. I'll pay you." Mrs. Conkle, who lived dollar. Out in the farmyard he met Stewart Dyke, a brother of Mrs. Conkle, who was husking corn. He of .Kansas City - was captured. But Pretty Boy alone, agreed to fiX a meal for him but she didn't escaped by car. like his looks. Afte:r washing up in the kitchen, he asked to be taken to Youngstown, but Dyke refused, saying he would. take him to Clarkson instead. Then, on Oct. 20, 1934, Floyd turned up in a was told to go out on .the porcn until the meal was ready. His asking for newspapers made Mrs. Floyd got into the back seat while Dyke and his woods north of Wellsville. Police Chief John Fultz wife got in the front. As the car backed out two of Wellsville and other officers found Floyd and his Conkle even more suspicious. Floyd explained that be and his brother had been automobiles loaded with officers appeared on the pal, Adam Richetti, on a hillside overlooking Silver scene. Floyd immediately ordered Dyke to drive Switch. The:re were blankets and/illows laid out on hunting in the woods at night and became separ­ ated. Asked what he had been hunting he said behind the com crib. the ground. As Fultz approache one of them said, "Get going!" Floyd shouted with a burst of pro­ ''Don't let him kidslou, he's an officer." At that "squirrels, rabbits or anything." point, Richetti starte shooting. Fultz returned the "You don't hunt squirrels at night, do you?" fanity. At that point, Pretty Boy pulled a gun fire, first at Rkhetti and then at Floyd. After being asked the widow. . jumped out of the car and sought cover under ~ chased to a house, Richetti gave up. Pretty Boy, Floyd then changed tactics. "To tell you the l:ruth, Tum to next page

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Don't miss a single issue ... Have YESTERYEARS delivered directly to you at a special INTRODUCTORY PRICE OF ONLY $13.00 YR. Order now & save .50% off the reg. rate of $26.00 r------1------~----~ Send. a Gift Subscription Of Yestery· ! Subscribe Yesteryean Introductory offer eus To A Friend. ! .Today! I . I a I City City------1 I : State Zip State Zip I I I J Cou~y County · I t P.O. Box 268 0 Yes. I want to save 50% on my. l•year subscription - Oves, I would like to ~a 1-year gift subscription I a · Salem, OH 44460 Enclosed is a check for $13.00 at 50% savings - Enclosed is my check for $13.00 : L------~------L~------L------I esteryears 'Wetfnestfay, June 5, 1991

wild flowers of his native hills to an elaborate Pretty Boy blanket of carnations, were brought to the funeral. (Continued from page 4) None, however, remained on his grave overnight. A clawing, fighting mob snatched tliem from the $350 com crib. Meantime the eight officers with guns gray casket. Guns were flashed in one quarrel over drawn scrambled from their cars. Floyd crawled out floral souvenirs. and ran for Dyke's car but then changed his mind . The minister based his funeral oration on Floyd's and darted towards a nearby wooded ridge. own words: "If I could tell anyone how to live I'd "Halt!" yelled. Purvis, but Floyd kept running. say, follow the life of my mother." Floyd's mother "Fire!" he ordered. Three bullets tore into the Okla­ had been a life-long church workers.. The preacher homa bandit's body.. He went down fatally said. "You can't teU when a lost soul is saved, and wounded. . Floyd did try to change his life." A local quartet Purvis approached him. Handcuffs were slipped sang old hymns including "The Old Rugged Cross/' onto Floyd's wrists. As he lay dying he asl

' 'Yesteryears 2.~~...~". ~~-~'"'i,'~ ~·~~ J ---.,,,,,,/;;IP-~· ciF ,' ~~~~ \ .~ .~ -· 'Wed~ June 5, 1991 ~ ~ --.~ Salem High School's 1929 basketball team

Floyd Stone was the coach of the Salem High School 1929 basketball squad which ended the season with 13 wins and 7 losses after playing teams from Akron, Massillon Steubenville, East Liverpool, Alliance and East Palestine. The team was beaten in tourna­ ment ]!,lay by Akron Ga:fi.!ld, 26,12, after winning over Orrville, 29 to 12. The squad includes (back, left) manager Wade Loop, Fred 'Doc" Guilford, William Smith, Bob Cope, Glenn Whinnery and Clifford Greenisen; and (front, left} captain Eddie Sidinger, Jimmie Scullion, Leonard Yates, F.d Beck, Paul Sartick and coach Floyd Stone. By Dick Wootten

ITHIN A YEAR LOCAL history buffs will trom Salem would have readier access to them." W have available to them for the first time the Hise's contact at the Ohio Historical Society is complete and most intriguing source of 19th cen­ George Parkinson, division chief of the OHS' s arc­ tury Salem history. hives library in Columbus. It's the complete 6 volumes of diaries of abolition­ Said Parkinson, "We are anxious to get them. Our ist and reformer Daniel Howell Hise that cover the goal, of course, is to preserve our collection, but we years 1849 to 1878, the year he died. It includes 1290 do what can be done to make manuscripts available Ii.andwritten pages in ledger books. to people who want access to them. So far, the most we l

11mon------...... 11 -r-- --_- -- -·--·-- -·--- esteryears 1S~~~~~. ~.~.·~ ~~ 'Wetfnestfay, June 5, 1991 ~!:)~)~~~~ ·~ A stran e 'event in Popcorn Jim's life By Dale E. Shaffer

N MANY OF THE old photographs of South I Broadway Avenue in Salem, a little popcorn wagon can be seen near the First National, now Soc­ iety, Bank building. Most everyone knows that the wagon was owned by "Popcorn Jim" Ramsey, Helen Berg Labbe's great-grandfather. · He was weU-known downtown, selling popcorn, peanuts and taffy. His winter stand.was somewhat more sturdy than the one he used m the summer. For 35 years Mr. Ramsey was a Perry Township trustee, and worked as a molder by trade. He died in 1926. There is an interesting story about this bearded gentleman, one not commonly known.· My intent is to share and record it for histerical purposes. It tells · much about the fine character of this big-hearted and well~liked man. The story begins on Friday evening, Jan. 6, 1905, at the comer of State Street and Broadway Avenue. While "Jimmy" was away from his place of busi­ ness for a few minutes, two women approached his popcorn and candy stand, opened the little door ana deposited a small bundle inside. Several people observed these women, but no one paid much attention to them. Upon :returning, Mr. Ramsey was surprised to hear the sound of a crying infant. Inside bis stand he found a 10-month-old baby boy clutching his bottle. Whenjeople on the street saw·their gray­ Photo by Carl Juergens haired frien holding a cute little baby, they gathered round. One man kidded Jim; remarking Popcorn Jim Ramsey stands before his pocorn-peanut-taffy machine, a perennial fixture at the corner of State Street and Broadway that the infant had restored his hair to its original Avenue in the early 1900s. . oolo:r of auburn. There was nothing for Mr. Ramsey to do but to Ellsworth Avenue. The infant would remain there For some time, a young unmarried woman in fake the baby home. He and his wife, Annie, lived for a week, :receiving the best of care, until trustees Salem had been asking trustees to send her infant to on East Second (Green) Street, a few doors east of decided what action to take. See POPCORN JIM, page 11 'Yesteryears 'Wetfnestfay, Jime 5, 1991

The C. H. Swearingen General. Store al.ong the north side of Hanoverton' s Canal. Street was a fixture in the town from 1903 to Oct: 30, 1918 when the building was leveled in the Great Hanover Fire which swept through stores along the street. Standing in front of the store are (from left) Lee Kelly, Curtis Taylor, Joel Taylor, C. H. Swearingen, Foster, Haze[ Milburn, Mayor A. V. Johnson, Anna, Clifford and Edward Sloss. The dog's name is Stump. Popcorn Jim (Continued from page 10) the Children's Home: This, however, could not be The next day the Perry Township trustees met. done because the child was too young. The woman They had found a good home for the child, and the said she could not care for the baby, and had left it Ramseys agreed to take him there on Friday morn­ with a poor family. A few days later, this family ing. Had conditions of his birth been different, Mrs. bestowed it upon Jim Ramsey. The mother then left Ramsey said she would never have consented to town. give him up. r Trustees considered it a pitiful case of. charity. During. the meet:ing of trustees it was brought out They were not sure whether or not desertion of an _that the baby was the illegitimate child of Dolly infant constituted a criminal offense. The baby was Shasteen of Salem. After deserting the child, she poorly clothed, dirty and showed unmistakable had gone to Pennsylvania. Trustees stated that if signs of mistreatment and lack of care, whether she were to return to Ohio, she would be dealt with intentional or not. according to law, which was particularly severe in Further investigation showed that a short time such cases. before the baby was found, two women wheeling a It was apparent that when the child was left at child in a cart visited Patterson's second-hand store the popcorn stand, the mother thought it would be on East State Street, left the cart and took the baby taken to the Children's Home, no questions asked. with them. A short time later they returned without But this did not happen. Instead, the Ramseys gave the baby, took the cart and disappeared. the little tyke a weel< of tender loving care, then did At the Ramsey home, the baby was given a thor­ what they thought was best for him - found him a ough deaning, perhaps the first real bath the little good home. The name and location of that home felfow had ever had. He was also given some new was never made public. clothing, purchased by the Ramseys. Jim Ramsey lived for another 21 years, so quite During the weekend, over a hundred curious E05sibly that spec:ial child, as he grew up, visited people visited the home to see the abandoned the popcorn stand again. U is also possible that he infant. The Ramseys described the ,Place as like "a was never told this story of how a .compassionate circus in the good old summertime.' popc

By Cathie McCullough

ILLIONS OF POSTCARD SENDERS over M the years might not have meant it when they wrote "Wish you were here," but their efforts at sometimes curt, sometimes cute, but always (by space limitations) cursory correspondence have left succeeding generations with a wealth of historical information. The once one-cent "penny for your thoughts" postage fee for postcards is now 19 cents, and the subject matter seems to have become more limited Hepburn Librarr, than in earlier years when holidays and even trage­ Colton, N. Y. dies like the aftermath of a tornado became the pic­ tured subject. Originally intended merely as a means of com­ munication and for-the-moment collecting, those early postcards today offer a photographic history. Postcard studios are fewer in number today. In earlier times, photographers commissioned by numerous - ana often local - publishers captured what has now become so-that's-how-it-fooked memories for those of us in succeeding generations. Not only th~ scenes of cities, resorts and tourist attractions became subject material for postcards. Political figures of the day were printed on cards, and companies saw the postcard as an inexpensive way to advertise througb the mail. Postcard collecting can be an inexpensive hobby with limitless variations. One might collect for the written messages, for the starnp(s) used, or for the object pictured - scenes of trains or boats, for example - or on toJ>icS such as war, holidays, Carnegie Library, humor and politics. Or one who collects other Montevideo, Minn. objects pertaining to a theme can make postcards part of that memorabilia collection. Some collectors· have limited themselves to the truly unique leather­ crafted postcards. The attraction for the "buy anything" postcard collector, according to "Picture Postcards of the Gol­ den Age" by Tonie and Valrnai Holt, is the fact "there is basically nothing more interesting to one human being than other bum.an beings." The authors feel: "The way our Victorian and Edwardian forebears lived, dressed and spent their leisure, whom they admired, where they spent their holidays, what they wrote from the trenches to wives and sweethearts, their politics, what made them laugh, their artistic values - all these facts can be gleaned from an average-sized collection of picture postcards." j[ <>ii@.•. '1iiill l... Delivery room, Boston Public Library Boston Public Library, the courtyard

The postcards oil these two pages are from an extensive Another interesting aspect of the collection is that it collection gathered by the late Freda Ashead Cobourn of shows the varied architectural styles of libraries. Salem. A one-time librarian at Salem Public Library who Boston Public Library in later years started libraries at a few elementary schools Further, one notes by the dates on the postcards the and a research library at the Electric Furnace Company, changes in library architecture and design that have the focus of her collection was solely on the subject of occurred in recent decades. Where today's focus is more on libraries. the functional., earlier libraries had a massive appearance. Many of the postcards in the collection, postmarked in A written messaie on one of the postcards, for example, the early 1900s, are addressed to Miss Alice. Gladden, says the new litJrary pictured on the postcard "is not long-time local librarian who apparently through corres­ attractive outside, but beautiful inside" and notes the pondence sought -:- and got - postcards from libraries library is on the second floor of the building, and "income throughout the United States. is derived from (the) rent of offices below."

Carnegie Public Library, Forl: Wori:h, Tex.

Library, Seattle, Washington Public Library, Junction City, Kan.

Public Library, Indianapolis, Ind. ,------,--

Public Library, Willmar, Minn. John Hay Library, Brown University, Providence, R. I. Public Library, Boston, Mass. Yesteryears 'Wetfnesday, June 5, 1991 mithy John i erhis r as t ran of his r ft

·John Niederhiser works at the anvil in his blacksmith shop along 838 orris Ave. in Salem with dozens of the horseshoes he formed clustered in piles. The veteran blacksmith was one of the last to practice his craft in Salem still forging tools .and repairing farm machinery into the 1940s. '

By Lois Firestone·

. ···JN THE DAYS BEFORE ·.Henry Ford invented make chain links and other forgings - the tirst . :his model T, the irreP.laceable blacksmith's welding operation known· to man, tile process fuses ~sition in a town's hieraChy was unrivaled. His two f.ieces of metal by heating them to a near-liquid . 'jac~-

r

Dennis Niederhiser captures on tape the bulldozing of his grandfather's blacksmith shop by Dennis Lee Campf (left) and Bill Campf (in machine at right). (Continued from page 14) for his wife Ada and three children,· Paul, Virgil and Ethel. . then - and if they weren't kept sharp there would In the 1920s they moved to 838 Morris Ave. in be a strain on the· muscles of their legs." Salem where Niederhiser took a job at the E. W. "One time a farmer brought in a Korse whose Bliss Co. He continued his smithing in a shop at the hooves had split; the vet hacf suggested the animal rear of the house. . be put to sleep. Dad clamped the noof together with The role of the blacksmith was· changing dramati-: a bolt, made a special slioe and in six months the cally as his importance diminished because of the horse had a new hoof." coming of the automobile. At the turn of the cen­ Shipments of untamed horses gathered from tury a dozen blacksmiths and carriage makers were roammg wild herds in the west were sent regularly operating in Salem. By 1940, only two other blacks­ to Ohio to be broken into a saddle or harness ana miths were plying the trade in Salem: Charles Ortel used fo pull carriages and wagons for· farmers and in his shop along 175 N. Ellsworth Ave.; and Char­ cijy folk. "He shocf a lot of those horses and many lie Fineran in his forge along East Pershing Avenue . of them were frightened ·and unaccustomed to across from the Timberlanes. being handled at all." Niederhiser was 63 when he passed away in 1945, TJ:ie Niederhisers had been part of the growth of and the deserted shop became a depository for the town since Christian and Rosa Niederhiser unused lumber, broken-down furniture and dis­ ; moved there with their ten children. Christian was carded newspa~rs. For a time, Doris and· Vintll. 16 when he emigr:ated to New Philadelphia from Niederhiser and their son Dennis lived in the family Wattenwil, SV\>itzerland with his parents· and sister. home with Ada. Eventually they built a house next There _he met and married Rosa ~enny four years door and the forge was moved there. Paul took the later, m 1873; later they settled m North George­ display case his "lather had. built and filled with a town. John was the fourth of their ten children. vanety of his nickel-plated horseshoes. Niederhiser was in his teens when he was Both the house and shop were deteriorating and apprenticed to Ed Reichenbach, a North George­ in April Doris, now a widow, reluctantly: decided to town smithy and wagon maker. After John's mar­ have both torn down by Bob Campf. John's grand­ riage, he set up his own shop at the rear of the red son Dennis was there to record the event on video . brick farmhouse he built along the Damascus Road t~pe. ··~ esteryears · wdnesaaip June 5, 1991 Chair was made in about 1875

~ By James G. Mccollam What can you tell me ab,out my Wallace Nutting print? It is titled "The Mills at the Tum." Copley News Service It depicts three windmills beside a canal and measures 14 inches bv 17 inches. Q. This chair was purchased and used around the tum of the centmy; it was refinished and reupholstered in 1965. This is a hand-colored photographic print taken by the Can you tell me something about when it was made renowned American photographer, Wallace Nutting. and its approximate value? It was taken on a trip to Holland and was produced in A. This would be classified as Renaissance Revival furni­ the early 1900s and woUld probably sell for $325 to $335 in ture made about 1875. It would sell for at least $400 to good condition. $500 in good condition. A friend told me that my old art deco dresser set is a collectible. It consists of hairbrush, hand mirror, covered box, but­ ton hook and manicure tool. It is decorated with geometric red and black plastic inserts. What is your opinion of my treasure? Art deco style items are becoming very popular with collectors.

Your dresser set was made in the 1920s and would prob~ ably sell for about $135 to $150 in good condition. I would like to know something about the value of my blue pressed glass pickle castor. It is a silver-plated footed frame with a ribbed trim and a square handle. A pair of tongs hangs on one side. The frame is marked "Roger Bros. Mfg. Co." Q. This mark is on the bottom of my Hummel Madonna Your pickle castor was made in Hartford, Conn. during . bust; it is about 10 inches tall. the late 1800s and would probably sell for about $265 to \Vhen was this made and what is its value? $285. . ' - Send your questions about antiques with picture a Your Madonna was made by the Goebel Co. in Rodental, The mark on a small pitcher is a hound and a harp detailed des_cription, a stamped, self-addressed envel~pe Germany. Although Goebel made Hummel figurines; this · with "Belleek, Ireland." It is decorated with lilies of the and $1 per item to James G. McCollam, PO Box 1087, is not a Hummel; they are all marked "M. I. Hummel." valley. This would probably sell for ·about $75 to $85. It was Your Irish Belleek cream pitcher was made since 1965. It Notre Dame, IN 46556. All questions will be answered made in the mid-1900s. would probably sell for $90 to $100. but published pictures cannot be returned.