A B&O Engineer Retires – September 1951

During the 1950s, the days of steam-powered locomotives were numbered. The diesel trains that would replace them were easier to maintain, more efficient, more reliable and required smaller crews to run them. 

But what about the old-time railroaders who had spent their entire careers on steam locomotives?

Here’s a charming story about one of them – Frank C. Fairhead of Lorain – who would not have to deal with the coming changes, due to his retirement from the B&O after 45 years of service.

The article below ran in the Lorain Journal on September 13, 1951. 

The article notes, “Frank C. Fairhead, 65, 2338 Livingston-av, stepped from the cab of B. and O. engine 1057 yesterday afternoon, officially ending 45 years of service on that line.

“Fellow railroaders clustered around to congratulate Fairhead on his retirement, and Douglas Wallace, general yardmaster, was on hand to “order him from the cab of the engine” if need be. It was all in the spirit of fun, but the railroaders showed in their gruff way that the popular engineer would be missed at the local B. and O. yards.

“And Fairhead, by the way he looked back over his shoulder at old No. 1057, showed that he too was retiring with regret.

““That baby’s got the same type boiler our engines had when I started work here back in 1906,” Fairhead said. He explained that all the engines have been modernized, overhauled and safety devices added, but the “boilers remain of the same type as in the early 1900’s."

"Fairhead has been an engineer since 1913 and has spent the past 10 years in the yard. The previous 35 years were all spent on the road as fireman and engineer.

“The retiring railroader has long been associated with the Central Lorain’s Businessmen’s association and has taken an active interest in civic affairs.

“Fairhead won the plaudits of his co-workers and other B. and O. officials upon his retirement.

“Ralph Gohlke, terminal agent, said the veteran engineer was a “regular and faithful worker with an excellent safety record.”

“Now that his days of herding the iron horses are a thing of the past, Fairhead intends to turn his attention to his favorite hobby, flower raising. He will also undoubtedly spend a lot of time working on the model village in his backyard.”

2338 Livingston Avenue.

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A funny thing happened while I was preparing this post. 

In an effort to find out more about Mr. Fairhead, I Googled his name and found a few mentions of him in Baltimore and Ohio Magazine. I decided to include this short article (below) from the October 1938 issue about a picnic of the B. & O. Athletic Association of Lorain held at Chippewa Lake. 

As it notes, “a special train of nine coaches left Lorain at 9:30 a. m. with 619 of our employees and their families. They arrived at the Lake at 11:00 a. m. and, after a day of great festivities, the return trip was made, leaving the lake at 6:00 p. m., and arriving back in Lorain at 7:15 p. m.

The article gives special credit to the crew who handled the train at no charge to and from the lake. The crew listing includes Engineer F. C. Fairhead; the fireman; the conductor; and E. J. Brady (my grandfather), one of the three brakemen that day.

Woodsy Owl (Who?) Debuts – Sept. 15, 1971

Everybody knows who Smokey Bear is. The beloved forest fire prevention bear with the ranger hat, jeans and shovel has been around since the mid-1940s.

But have you ever heard of Woodsy Owl? 

If you’re a Baby Boomer, you probably have. Like Smokey, Woodsy is an advertising mascot for the United States Forest Service. But instead of fighting fire, Woodsy combatted pollution. His message was “Give a Hoot – don’t pollute!"

Unlike Smokey, Woodsy wasn’t seen on posters all over our National Parks. The chubby little owl with the archer’s cap was more likely to be spotted on public service announcements that ran during children’s TV programs. A well-designed costumed version of him was created to allow him to interact with kids in the commercials and at public events, making him ‘real.’

And Woodsy was first introduced to the public fifty years ago this month. Here’s the photo and explanatory caption that ran in the Journal on September 16, 1971.

Woodsy was well-represented in his own advertising campaign, which included autographed photos, posters, stickers, small trash bags that hung from cigarette lighters (what are those?) in cars, and even comic books.

Alas, today Woodsy has been redesigned – and everything that was cute and clever about him has been updated to make him more relevant (and less fun and appealing).

He’s no longer chubby and proportioned like a real owl. Today, his body is trim and athletic. 

Woodsy’s lost his hooter (whistle) that hung around his neck too, probably because the powers that be were afraid that kids might imitate him and accidentally swallow the whistle.

Worst of all, Woodsy’s lost his slogan. Gone is “Give a hoot, don’t pollute.” The new, less pun-y slogan is “Lend a Hand, Care for the Land.”

It’s enough to make you cough up an owl pellet.

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Woodland Catalog sells both licensed Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl merchandise (with a portion of its sales returned to the USDA Forest Service for the nationwide wildfire prevention campaign). Click here to visit the company website where you can shop or request a free printed catalog.

Best of all, the company sells original, chubby Woodsy Owl stuff (like below) along with the newer items.

Yikes, Woodsy has that whistle in his mouth.

Hills Bros. Coffee Ad – September 20, 1951

I stop in at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Leavitt Road every few days, and I see a lot of Cappuccino Blasts® being sold, as well as any number of frozen drinks topped with whipped cream. Yesterday, the person in front of me ordered twelve bucks worth of drinks that looked like chocolate sodas. 

Indeed, the top three best selling drinks at Dunkin' Donuts nationally are the hot caramel macchiato, the caramel iced coffee and hazelnut iced coffee. (Gee, I thought coffee was something you had with dessert. It’s not supposed to be the dessert!)

Anyway, I’m beginning to wonder: doesn’t anybody drink plain old coffee anymore?

Which leads me to the topic of today’s post, namely a classic plain old coffee – Hills Brothers Coffee to be exact. I’ve written about it before (here), as it was my parents’ favorite coffee for many years.

The ad below for the classic brew ran in the Lorain Journal on September 20, 1951.

It’s an interesting ad, stressing the social aspect of drinking coffee. The pitch is that you can ‘make friends’ serving Hill Bros. Coffee because of its ‘friendlier flavor.’

Uh-huh.

That sales angle would never fly now. Tastes change, and people drink what they like. The old-time coffees such as Maxwell House, Chase & Sanborn, etc. probably enjoy minuscule market shares compared to Starbucks or Dunkin’ (even if I don’t see anyone buying just plain coffee there).

And many of the social opportunities where you might drink coffee – such as the after-tennis get together depicted in the ad – have probably gone away in the last seventy years as well, resulting in coffee drinking becoming a largely singular experience: something you drink to wake up.

More on Ashbolt Orchards

June 27, 1941 Amherst News-Times ad

So where were Ashbolt Orchards located?

That’s a good question that I’ve been asked several times, via email as well as comments left on the blog.

Vintage ads for Ashbolt Orchards only list the address as Foster Park Road, or State Route 254. A 1945 article in the Van Wert Times Bulletin refers to Ashbolt’s "Detroit Road farms.” And several ads from the Amherst News-Times lists ‘Foster Park Road’ as the address, with the explanation: First road south of Penfield Junction, between Lorain and Elyria.

That area where the orchards were located was well outside Lorain city limits, so it’s not too surprising that directions were included in the ad.

But I agree with longtime blog contributor Rick Kurish that Ashbolt Orchards were most likely located on today’s Cooper Foster Park Road between South Broadway and Oberlin Avenue. Driving that stretch of highway today reveals many streets on both sides of the highway named for orchards or the varieties of fruits grown on orchards. Borman's Farm still operates a roadside stand offering their seasonal fruits and vegetables.

As Rick noted, Ashbolt Drive can be found on older maps, right at the end of Cherrywood Drive. I suspect that the street wouldn’t have that name unless it occupied at least part of the former Ashbolt Orchards – particularly where cherries were grown.

Portion of a 1960s Champion Map

It’s still on the Lorain County Auditor website. 

But Ashbolt Drive is pretty much just a paper street today. I had hoped to take a photo of the street sign, but there’s no street that I can see. Cherrywood just dead-ends.

Looking at some vintage aerials, there were several impressive orchards where Cherrywood Drive is today, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the location of Ashbolt Orchards. 

The area today

Same area in 1952, showing orchards

A composite of the above two images

As Rick noted, there were and still are many orchards in that area of Cooper Foster Park, so unfortunately I don’t know for sure at this time if I have it right about the Ashbolt Orchards location. Even now, Dennis Thompson – another longtime contributor to this blog – is helping by reviewing old plat maps at the Lorain County Auditor's office, as well as vintage aerials.

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Here's another mention of Ashbolt Orchards in the Amherst News-Times. This is from the July 7, 1939 edition. 

Meet William E. Ashbolt

While preparing yesterday’s post about the Ashbolt children meeting the stars of the “Our Gang” comedies, I wondered: just who was William E. Ashbolt, their father?

It turns out that Mr. Ashbolt was truly a man for all seasons: family man, newspaperman, politician and orchardist.

Read all about this unique man and his accomplishments in this article that ran in the Lorain Journal at the time of his death on March 30, 1943.

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WM. ASHBOLT DIES OF HEART ATTACK AT 51

Former Ohio Legislator Stricken Early Today in Hospital

SERVED 4 YEARS

Veteran Newspaperman Won Wide Acclaim as Orchardist

Death early today claimed the life of one of Lorain’s most colorful and widely-known figures when Councilman William E. Ashbolt, who served Lorain-co eight years in the state legislature, died suddenly in St. Joseph’s hospital.

Fifty-one years old, Ashbolt was taken ill Saturday, but was believed recovering when the sudden attack occurred. He died at 12:50 a. m.

25 Years a Newsman

Ashbold went into politics in 1933, when he was elected to the state legislature, after more than 25 years as a newspaperman in Lorain, Cleveland and Columbus during the latter years of which he acquired and developed the Ashbolt Orchards on Foster Park-rd, south of Lorain.

He served as Lorain-co state representative from 1934 to 1942, but dropped out of the legislature at the conclusion of his 1940-42 term to run for county auditor, a race he lost to Auditor Frank Ayres.

On Jan. 4 he was appointed to city council to fill the vacancy created when Councilman-at-Large Leslie M. Burge took up his seat in the state house of representatives.

Started Work at 16

Ashbolt, born in Lorain, the son of a pioneer Lorain family, started making news when he was 14 years old, by walking to Columbus and return. While in Columbus he paid a call to a newspaper and by the time he was 16 had landed a job as copy boy on the Ohio State Journal, a Columbus morning newspaper. 

Possessing an uncanny ability to ferret out news stories, he soon became a reporter and eventually returned to Lorain, where he worked a total of some 20 years on the Lorain Times-Herald.

He also worked several years on the Cleveland Times, in the course of which he ‘covered’ both Washington news and Columbus state offices. It was during the time that he was employed on the Cleveland Times that he was a member of the press section which accompanied a Coolidge campaign train on a cross county tour in 1924.

Started Orchards

After the Times ceased publication, he returned to Lorain, working as a newspaperman for the Times-Herald and started his orchards, which now include 4,000 peach and cherry trees. Just coming into maturity is a 1,000-tree orchard of sweet cherries, which Ashbolt characterized as one of the largest sweet cherry orchards east of the Rocky Mountains.

One of the ex-state legislators favorite pastimes was reminiscing of his days in newspaper work and of the fast and furious “news breaks” of the “roaring 20’s” and the reportorial fights during the days when the Times-Herald and Lorain Journal were in competition in Lorain.

Since consolidation of the two Lorain papers, Ashbolt had worked for brief intervals for The Journal doing special assignments and filling in at times of emergency “to keep his hand in as a newspaperman.”

Fought Redistricting

In the legislature, he is best remembered for his battles against congressional redistricting bills that would have been contrary to Lorain county’s best interests, his successful fight to have sale of all intoxicating drinks, including 3.2 beer, restricted to persons 21 years old or over, and his co-sponsorship of the Whittemore-Ashbolt which enabled installment payment of taxes by hard-pressed property owners.

Ashbolt, who had enjoyed exceptionally good health all his life, suffered a heart attack in 1938, which was followed by an attack of sciatic rheumatism which kept him confined for many months afterward. He was not [illegible] recovered when he ran for his legislative post in 1940, but in the past year believed that he had regained his strength and health.

He was a member of the Lorain Congregational church, was a 32nd degree Mason, and was affiliated with the Lorain Elks, Eagles, Moose and Pythian Sister lodges and American Legion post 30.

Body Taken Home

The legislator lived at 1025 4th-st. Survivors include his wife, Mrs. Gertrude Ashbolt, former head of relief administration in Lorain, and two sons and two daughters.

The sons are Pfc. William A. Ashbolt, now in the U.S. Marine corps, stationed at Kearney Mesa, San Diego, Calif., Allen, at home, and Mrs. Cornelius Yingling and Mrs. Russell Warman, both of Lorain.

Also surviving are four sisters, Mrs. William Cable, Lorain, Mrs. Roy Gordon, Croton, Conn., Mrs. Dvid Weins, and Mrs. Fred Newton, both of Lakewood. Five grandchildren also survive.

The body was to be taken late this afternoon to the Ashbolt residence. Funeral arrangements are incomplete pending word from his son in the Marines.

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An article in the Van Wert Times Bulletin on August 14, 1945 examined how the late William E. Ashbolt, thought his efforts at his orchard, had hoped to take “two of the biggest headaches out of the annual canning chore of Northern Ohio housewives.”

As the article noted, Ashbolt “was born on a farm in Lorain County and the cleaning and skinning of peaches, and the gremlin task of pitting cherries when canning season rolled around were things he never forgot.”

One of Ashbolt’s solutions was to install "a large tent with open sides at his Detroit Road farm and in this tent he built a conveyor system that washed the cherries three times in ice water while girls sorted them to pick out any that were imperfect.”

"Crowning achievement of the newspaperman turned orchardist was a giant pitting machine housed in the middle of the vast tent top."

As for the peaches, "All peaches sold at the Ashbolt Orchard were brushed by machinery to remove as much of the objectionable fuzz as possible. The fruit was then vacuum cleaned. The de-fuzzing and vacuum cleaning not only made the peaches cleaner but revealed any blemishes or imperfections and assured the housewife she was getting perfect fruit for her money.”

"The big top tent is open again this year, and many thousands from the cities and towns of Northern Ohio are flocking there for pitted washed cherries and de-fuzzed vacuum cleaned peaches. Mrs. Ashbolt believes just like Bill did that when a housewife buys food, she wants perfect, clean, fresh farm products and Mrs. Ashbolt sees that Mrs. Housewife gets them.”

Advertisement from the Amherst News-Times of July 9, 1935

Advertisement from the Amherst News-Times of Sept. 24, 1937

Advertisement from the Amherst News-Times of August 20, 1942

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William A. Ashbolt – the same Billy Ashbolt who was so thrilled to meet the “Our Gang” kids in 1928  – followed in his father’s footsteps, right into the newspaper business.

At the time of his passing in early December 1999, his obituary in the Journal noted, “He served in the Marines during World War II and the Korean War.

“He studied photography at Columbia University and worked for the Plain Dealer, Cleveland, for 36 years.”

Click here for the link to visit the William A. Ashbolt Photography collection on ClevelandMemory.org.

The Ashbolt Kids Meets the Little Rascals

Remember my post about the children who had the chance to meet the Three Stooges backstage at Lorain's Palace Theater, after their performance there in late July 1960? Kevin Conley was one of the lucky youngsters. His father, Bill Conley, was the photographer for the Lorain Journal at that time.

Well, it was a very similar situation back on Sept. 5, 1928 when the article below appeared in the Lorain Times-Herald. This time the comedy team consisted of the group of children starring in the "Our Gang” short screen comedies for producer Hal Roach, and the lucky kids were the Ashbolt children – Billy, Ruth and Phyllis. Their father worked as a newspaperman for – who else? – the Lorain Times-Herald.

Local Baby Boomers remember the pint-sized comedy troupe as the "Little Rascals" from the endless replay of the shorts on Cleveland television in the 1960s and early 70s, especially the episodes with Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat and Darla.

But in 1928, “Our Gang" included earlier members of the team: Allen “Farina” Hoskins, chubby Joe Cobb, Harry Spear, blonde Jean Darling, Mary Ann Jackson and cute, little Bobby “Wheezer” Hutchins. 

Here are a few photos of the group, all of whom were there that day when the Ashbolt children paid a visit backstage. Wheezer, Farina and Mary Ann would stay with the “Gang” a few more years, appearing in some classic shorts with Jackie Cooper. Note good old Pete the Pup!

It’s interesting that in the Times-Herald article, Allen “Farina” Hoskins asked Ruth Ashbolt to spread the word that he wasn’t a girl, even though for some reason he was dressed up like one in the movie shorts! He notes, “I’se a boy, and you tell every kid in Lorain that you see that I’se a boy, will you?” Poor guy. (Click here to read about a phony, grown-up “Farina” who visited Lorain in 1955.)

Hilariously, the same front page of the Times-Herald with the “Our Gang” story featured this article about how the youngsters were violating child labor laws with their vaudeville performances in Cleveland!

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My siblings and I first saw the Little Rascals (as the older shorts were known) when it was one of the segments of the Captain Penny show, along with miscellaneous cartoons and Three Stooges shorts. 

It never occurred to us as we were watching the early 1930s films that the kids were roughly the age of our parents when they were growing up. Thus the Our Gang comedies provided a glimpse of what their Depression-era childhoods were like.

Tomorrow: Meet William E. Ashbolt

New Teachers in Vermilion – Sept. 1971

It seems quaint now, but back in the 50s, 60s and even the 1970s, the Journal used to run articles at the beginning of the school year that introduced the recently hired teachers for the various school districts to its readers. It was a nice touch that created a small town atmosphere in which parents could get familiar with the backgrounds of the people teaching their kids.

With all of the various elementary, junior high and high schools, Lorain’s new hires were sometimes quite numerous, resulting in lengthy Journal articles. Since Vermilion is much smaller, the number of new hires were fewer in number, as you can see from the photo above which ran in the paper on September 3, 1971.

The caption reads, “Teachers new this year to the Vermilion School System were welcomed at a luncheon yesterday. Chatting following the luncheon were, left, civic leader Dorothy Litman, Janet Vincent who will teach at Lake School, Richard Harris of Vermilion, who will teach at Vermilion High, Marcia West, assigned to South Street School and Jack Armstrong, a veteran Vermilion teacher.”

The photo was taken down near the McGarvey’s parking lot. You can see the Crow Lumber building in the background. Here’s what it looked like last evening.

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Back here, I posted the Journal article profiling the new teachers at Admiral King High School for the 1963 school year.