Harriet Wibur's Passing and the Swift Mansion

Anyone who's lived in Lorain County for a while has heard all the legends and stories about Gore Orphanage. It's the legend that never dies.

And it all started with the mansion (above) built by Joseph Swift in the early 1840s along the Vermilion River.

As explained in an article by Staff Writer Jeff Hamill that appeared in the Journal on August 8, 1968, "The common belief that the area is haunted by the spirits of dead children stems from a separate story, that of the Swift Hollow House. Joseph Swift, a former Connecticut soldier during the War of 1812, came to ’New Connecticut,’ a parcel of land set aside in Ohio for war veterans. He was given 150 acres by the federal government on the Vermilion River and added to it. 

"His farm prospered and by 1840 he was wealthy enough to build a house. He engaged Oziah Long, an Elyria judge, to build a “Greek Revival” style house. The home when completed had columns, French windows, fourteen rooms and six fireplaces. 

"In 1865, Rosedale, as it was called, was sold. The Nicklaus Wilbur family bought the house and lived there a number of years. Being spiritualists, these people often claimed to have been able to raise the spirits of some children who had been buried along the river. This led to the belief that the home was haunted. 

"Eventually, the home was vacated and finally in 1923, it burned to the ground. Because the Swift House was located at the bottom of the hill that the orphanage that the orphanage was later to be built on, the stories of the two places mixed, resulting in the rumors of ghosts and children screaming."

Why am I writing about this now? Because it was 95 years ago this month that the funeral for Harriet Wilbur was held on on November 19, 1930. The notices below appeared in the Lorain Journal on the 19th and the 20th, respectively.

Harriet Wilbur had married into the Wilbur family (spelled 'Wilber' in her obituary) and lived in the former Swift mansion during her early married years. The sad occasion of her passing resulted in the old stories told again about the Wilburs (who were Spiritualists) and Harriet's four children who died during a diptheria epidemic. (I wrote about the Wilburs in Part 4 of my series about Gore Orphanage.)

On Nov. 25, 1930 the article below appeared in the Lorain Journal about Harriet Wilbur's will. The loss of her four children no doubt affected her deeply and led her to generously provide for the poor and crippled children of Vermilion and the surrounding area.

The Gore Orphanage legend has been a popular topic of this blog, with twelve posts dedicated to it.

Reddy for Thanksgiving

Here's wishing all of my readers and great contributors a Happy Thanksgiving! I'm genuinely thankful that so many of you make this blog a part of your day and leave great comments as well.

Thanksgiving is a good time to visit with friends, and that includes our old pal Reddy Kilowatt. As you can see above, he's checking on his Thanksgiving turkey to see if it's, uh, ready. I'm assuming he's not cooking with gas.

Although Reddy is using a conventional oven, for many years he encouraged Ohio Public Service customers to consider purchasing an electric roaster. Here's Reddy in his younger days promoting Westinghouse Electric Roasters with a free turkey with purchase in an ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on November 1, 1939.

I like that Reddy remembered to say Grace. If it was a long one, at least the heat radiating from his light bulb schnozzola kept his food warm.

A year later, Reddy was still plugging electric roasters in a November 5, 1940 Journal ad. Westinghouse was apparently in the Dog House, because this time the brand was Proctor.

Reddy's serving up a drumstick worthy of King Henry VIII in the ad.

A few weeks later, Reddy grabbed his megaphone to make sure Journal readers got the message to include "smart, modern electrical gifts" on their Christmas shopping list in this ad from November 22, 1940.

And by 1945, Reddy was riding the range and looking much like he does now in this ad.

Thanksgiving in Lorain – 1975

Looks like the hunter became the hunted
in this illustration from a Lawson's ad

For my last installment looking back at Thanksgivings of yesteryear, let's drop in on 1975. 

The big story on the front page of the Thanksgiving edition of the Journal on Nov 27, 1975 was the $2.3 billion bailout proposal by President Gerald Ford to rescue financially ailing New York City. 

Elsewhere on the front page was the traditional kickoff of the Clothe-A-Child campaign, which replaced the Mary Lee Tucker Christmas Benefit Show in 1969. (I've written almost two dozen posts about the Mary Lee Tucker program, including a 5-part series about its history starting here.)

The Page of Opinion included another well-written and inspiring editorial about Thanksgiving.

For eating out on the big day, there were more choices than in previous years, including the Elyria Holiday Inn, the Oberlin Inn, the Showboat in Huron and – a favorite of the Brady Bunch – the Brown Derby on Kolbe Road. For several years around that time it was our special place to celebrate a big event.

However, if you were thinking of a nice Thanksgiving Roast Beef Sandwich, you were out of luck, pardner.

If you wanted some entertainment beyond Thanksgiving TV specials, you could head out to The Joker at Midway Mall and see the Michael Stanley Band in concert.

For those that prepared their own Thanksgiving meal, the grocery and convenience stores ran the usual ads about a week before. Looking at the A&P ad, I had forgotten about the goofy Price and Price campaign.

Good to see Lawson's was offering its iconic Dutch Loaf for those that planned a more eclectic Thanksgiving menu.

And for those who wished to enjoy a cocktail, the late great Cotton Club offered a coupon towards any of its products, including Less Sweet Ginger Ale (with Big Ginger on the label) and 50/50 – two favorites in our house.

Lastly, the days of the Thanksgiving-themed ads seemed to have ended in the mid-70s. I had a hard time finding any at all around the holiday, until I found an old reliable: First Federal Savings of Lorain.

Thanksgiving in Lorain – 1965

At Thanksgiving time in 1965, the Vietnam War was worsening with 240 Americans killed in one week, as noted in the lead story on the front page of the holiday edition of the Journal on November 25, 1965 (shown below).

As in the past, preparations for the Mary Lee Tucker Christmas Benefit Show were announced. The emcee for the benefit was revealed to be Don Webster, host of the Big Five Show on WEWS Channel 5 in Cleveland. Acts scheduled to perform included Dave C. and the Sharptones, teen-age singing idol Bruce Scott, and Coral Recording vocalist Bobbi Martin.

The Journal Page of Opinion was rich in Thanksgiving sentiment. The editorial provided a history of the holiday and encouraged Americans to display the flag as part of the observance. A column by Ralph McGill retold the story of the arrival of the Pilgrims and their first, terrible year.

The "Other Years" feature noted that ten years earlier on November 25, 1955, the longtime bottleneck in Vermilion (caused by US 6 zigzagging its way through town) was finally eliminated (which I wrote about here).

The traditional full-page holiday ad with a list of sponsors was on page 17, providing us with a roll call of local businesses. (As usual, only public utilities and successor banks are still around from the list today.)

Not a lot of choices to eat out in 1965. I saw only two ads: Amber Oaks and 333 Bar.

As for the preparation of a Thanksgiving feast at home, local shoppers had a wide variety of stores at which to select their turkey (or ham). 

And where did Mom get her birds? I've mentioned before that she used to fix a duck and a capon rather than a turkey. I'm guessing they were from A&P at the Lorain Plaza, as I distinctly remember her shopping there when I was a wee lad in the 1960s. Why do I remember? One of the A&P cashiers used to pinch my cheeks!

Speaking of A&P, it's amusing that the two-page spread contained not just the names of the A&P Bonus Bingo winners, but also their photos – and addresses! Unheard of today, that's for sure.

Thanksgiving in Lorain – 1955

Thanksgiving 1955 was celebrated against the backdrop of President Dwight D. Eisenhower making a comeback from a heart attack suffered on September 24th. Here's the front page of the Thanksgiving edition of the Lorain Journal of Nov. 24, 1955.

In Lorain, preparations were being made for the annual Mary Lee Tucker Christmas benefit show on Dec. 7th. Thanksgiving was observed in the Lorain City Schools with a re-enactment of the Pilgrim Thanksgiving by students at Fairhome School.

The November 21st edition of the Lorain Journal was stuffed with grocery ads. Below are the ads for Food Center Super Markets, Food Fair, Homewood Shopping Center, Meyer Goldberg and A&P so you can compare prices. Most of the ads have great Thanksgiving illustrations.

For those who wished to dine out that day, there were a few restaurant ads, including Gartner's Supper Club in Elyria and the Charcoal Pit in South Lorain.

There weren't too many ads in the paper with a Thanksgiving theme. Then – as now – the transition to Christmas was already taking place even as the turkey was being stuffed, so ads were more likely to feature Santa Claus. But I found a few Thanksgiving ads (in this case, one national, and one local).

The Editorial Page was graced with a insightful column reflecting on whether past Thanksgivings could really be described as taking place in the "good old days."

And lastly, only a few comic strips acknowledged the holiday – Dennis The Menace, and the always hilarious The Ryatts (which had only been launched the year before, according to this great article).