Kipton's Civil War Monument

Kipton's Civil War Statue

Since I've spent the whole week featuring news stories about the big G.A.R. encampment held in Lorain back in 1911, it seems fitting to close out the week with another item related to local Civil War veterans.

I've been doing research for months now about the old Civil War statue that used to be in the park across from Lorain City Hall. (I've featured it on this blog before many times, but I've been working on a detailed history of it.)

During my research, I found a great book, Zinc Sculpture in America: 1850-1950 by Carol A. Grissom, and it provides a great history of the use of zinc in statues – including Civil War statues. It turns out that Lorain's long-gone statue was made of zinc, as well as the statue on State Route 511 in Kipton.

Zinc was popular for these kind of statues, according to the book, because it was inexpensive, and it was easy to work with. The various parts of a statue were cast separately and then soldered together. Thus, zinc statues are hollow.

I drove out to Kipton a couple of Sundays ago to see how Kipton's statue was doing. I'm sorry that I don't have any historical information as to how long the monument has been there, but nevertheless it appears to be in great shape (although the statue is leaning back quite a bit).

I was actually pretty impressed that Kipton's monument looked so good, and that the park was so well maintained.

Kipton's monument is mentioned on a great website created by the Cincinnati Historical Society Library that features information on Ohio Civil War monuments. In the section entitled 'Monument Builders' it says:

Two firms built many of the soldier monuments in Ohio. The Monumental Bronze Co. of Bridgeport, CT. specialized in a zinc or white bronze monument. Because the material could be stamped, bases could contain elaborate decorations and inscriptions. The monument at Kipton in Lorain County is a good example. The front of the monument includes the Grand Army of the Republic emblem, a profile of Abraham Lincoln, a list of soldiers, "Lincoln" in large letters and a verse from the poem, "Coat of Blue." The other three sides are similarly embellished. The same zinc soldier can be found in Cardington, Defiance, Grafton, New California, Wauseon, and Windsor.


Here are a few shots of the base of the monument. Click on each so you can see the craftsmanship that went into its construction.

Kipton Article – August 29, 1963

Kipton just keeps popping up as a topic on this blog over the years. Not bad for a place with a population (as of the last census) of 243 residents.

Here’s a nice, full-page of the Lorain Journal devoted to the history of the village that ran in that paper on August 29, 1963 – 55 years ago today. The two articles were both written by Frances Perkins.

The first article points out that the village had only been incorporated in February 1958. The second article notes the the village was originally named Binghamton (which any TV-watching Baby Boomer remember as the name of the Captain played by Joe Flynn on McHale’s Navy). It doesn’t really say why the railroad renamed it Kipton.

Anyway, the top article includes a photo of Kipton’s Civil War Soldier Monument, which at least to my eye was already beginning to lean.

The Kipton Community Church looks pretty much the same today as it does in the photo. (At least it did in 2012, when the photo below was taken.)

Kipton Civil War Soldier Monument Stands Tall

About a month ago, I received an email from Bill Stark of Cleveland. He was wondering if I had heard that the Civil War Soldier Monument out in Kipton had been fixed so that it no longer was leaning backwards.

(I had done a post about the leaning monument way back here in 2011.)

I thanked Bill for the heads-up, and did a little online research. As it turns out, it had been fixed back in 2017 in time for the Kipton, Camden, Henrietta Memorial Day and Program. 

Nevertheless, this provided me a good excuse to take a little drive out to Kipton for some new photos of the monument to post today on Memorial Day.

I’ve said it before: I sure wish Lorain still had its Civil War Soldier statue, which looked similar to this one.

Have a safe and solemn Memorial Day.

Beautiful Downtown Kipton – Then & Now

I saw this vintage postcard dated 1910 of “North Main St. East Side, Kipton, Ohio” recently on Ebay and decided it would be a good candidate for the “Then & Now” treatment.

It had been a while since I drove through the small blink-and-you-might-miss-it village of a few hundred people anyway. (I wrote about its Civil War monument here.)

I got my shot (below) this past weekend.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon when I left Lorain, but of course when I arrived, the sun disappeared for almost a half hour. So I loitered until it came out again, trying not to attract too much attention with my camera so as to avoid being thrown in the calaboose.

As you can see, the railroad right-of-way is now a popular bike path. 

Nearby is the site of the tragic train wreck that took place on April 18, 1891. Here’s a link to an article on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum website about the disaster.

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Incidentally, the back of the vintage postcard – dated August 8, 1910 – was interesting. ‘Mattie’ was writing to her Uncle Frank in Honolulu, Hawaii and told him she was having a week’s vacation and that she was in Kipton. I wonder what she did all week?

I think she should have visited good old Uncle Frank instead.

"Wild Man" on the Loose in Kipton – August 1932

During the early 1930s, the Great Depression was underway – and many unfortunate citizens found themselves homeless in those terrible economic times.

That may or may not have been the contributing factor behind the above story of a "wild man" living in the woods near Kipton that appeared on the front page of the Lorain Journal on August 6, 1932.

It's kind of a sad story. The poor guy wasn't really bothering anybody. Plus, he was more of a hermit than a true “wild man” (the kind that you might see in a circus sideshow in the old days) or the medieval version (seen at right).

But the Sheriff and his deputies were after him just the same, and it livened up the front page of the Journal – 85 years ago this month.

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UPDATE (August 11, 2017)
So what happened with the Sheriff and his posse? Did they throw a dragnet around the "wild man"? Rick Kurish has the answer.

As Rick noted, "Perhaps you already have this info, but since your blog today left a “wild man” loose in Lorain County, I decided to find the “rest of the story.”

"The story ended two days later, and was detailed in the C-T of August 8, 1932."

Here is the article (below). Note how there ended up being another wild man as well!

"Seems like a poor guy just down on his luck — like many others during the depression," wrote Rick. "I hope his story had a happy ending."

Fishy Memories

The sign in front of the closed store

I've driven past the former Garwell's store on Route 6 several times in the last few weeks, and it reminded me of how Dad tried to make fishermen out of my brothers and me. The sad truth is that I never developed a fondness for the piscatorial racket.

This is despite the fact that fishing ran in our family. The family photo album is filled with vintage shots of Grandpa Bumke from various fishing trips in Michigan, either grinning with a fish he had caught, or with his buddies in a cabin or boat. Dad liked fishing too, and I guess he wanted to share his enjoyment of the sport with us.

During those fishing years of the 1960s, it seems like almost every Saturday we headed somewhere different: Hot Waters; behind the Water Treatment Plant in Lorain; Mill Hollow; the Oberlin Reservoir; the Kipton Reservoir (now known as the Kipton Reservation); and the grounds of Fathers of St. Joseph out on Case Road in Avon.

The side of the Garwell's store, circa 2009

And each fishing trip started with a stop at Garwell's for bait. I can still hear the bubbling hum of the store's minnow tank.

But unfortunately we weren't very good little fishermen. We were constantly snagging our lines on rocks. Then Dad would have to unsnag them for us, or cut the line and set us up again with hooks. Inevitably, we would snag them again, and he would smile while trying to hide his disgust.

Sometimes we shattered our bobbers on the rocks. We even managed to get our lines caught in trees while casting!

It's a miracle that Dad ever got any fishing done himself, since he was constantly interrupted by our comical hijinks. But, he was a patient man and almost always caught at least a few fish.

After Dad gave up fishing with us, he fished with a few of his work buddies in the 1970s and 80s. One of them had a boat, and they would go out on Lake Erie, usually by the David-Besse Nuclear Power Station near Port Clinton.

During those years, we ate a lot of fish. The family freezer was always jammed with perch and walleye.

When I came back to Lorain after college, I tried once again to take up fishing. (I was unemployed and had plenty of time.) So I would head down to Hot Waters with one of Dad's old rods. Dad even brought me along fishing out on the lake a few times with his pals. I just remember being nervous and nauseous in the boat. So that was the end of my fishing career once and for all.

Despite Dad's best efforts to make me a fisherman, I just never got hooked.

But I cherish the memories of those days in the 60s when Dad spent all that time with my brothers and me on those Saturday afternoons.

Norfolk & Western Derailment – April 1, 1971

Fifty years ago this month, the small item above appeared in the Lorain Journal on April 1, 1971. The derailment of seven Norfolk and Western railroad cars wasn’t particularly big news (compared to the April 1891 Great Kipton Train Wreck, or the even more tragic 1916 New York Central Railroad Wreck near Amherst) but it was a dramatic scene nevertheless. 

The photograph was by none other than our good friend Gene Patrick.

A 1952 View showing the Wye 

Although the photo caption said that the derailment occurred east of the Harris Road crossing, I still wasn’t quite sure where it happened. So I consulted historian and archivist (and all around good guy) Dennis Lamont. His special area of interest is the Lake Shore Electric Electric, but he knows a lot about just about everything as it pertains to area history.

So where did this derailment occur? Dennis noted, “It is over by what is now the huge Ford yard. 

“Before all that happened, there was nothing there except a wye junction leading down to the French Creek Yards.

"That was a normal "way" freight that somehow derailed, and caused the slow speed pileup. Most embarrassing, which is why the railroad didn't want to talk about it!”

During the many years I lived on the east side of Lorain and then Sheffield Lake, I frequently ran into problems trying to get from my house to the I-90 interchange in Avon. It seems that no matter what road I took to get to Colorado Avenue – Root Road, Lake Breeze, Harris Road, Miller Road, etc. – I could count on a stopped train blocking it sooner or later. I almost always was able to trace the stopped train all the way to the Ford yard in Avon Lake. These incidents were frequently written up in the Avon Lake Press.

Thus it was quite the godsend when the massive overpass at Abbe Road was constructed (although I missed how peaceful and ‘countrified’ that area was before it was built).

C-T Coverage of the 1923 Swift Mansion Fire

While out in Brownhelm Township this past weekend, I made my annual trek down Gore Orphanage Road to the ruins of the Joseph Swift mansion.

Why? It just seems like the thing to do around Halloween. Plus, the story of the Swift mansion's fiery demise – and how it eventually led to the creation of the Gore Orphanage Legend – is still interesting to me. (Click here to read my 2009 series of posts about it.)

Anyway, in that blog series I reproduced some of The Lorain Times-Herald's coverage of the Swift Mansion fire. Since then, I've located the story as covered by The Chronicle-Telegram as well. 

Surprisingly, the C-T's coverage only warranted a small article at the bottom of the front page (unlike the Times-Herald's screaming headline and extensive front page coverage). Even more curious is the fact that the C-T story is sensationalized and full of misinformation.

Here's the Chronicle's story (below) as it ran on December 8, 1923.

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Flames Destroy Haunted House Near Vermilion

Vermilion, O., Dec 8 – Only two spectral stone chimneys now stand on the site of the old haunted house which has been a mystery at Mill Hollow for many years. The colonial mansion burned to the ground in a midnight blaze.

Neighbors, who heard mysterious noises around the place on stormy nights, swear that spirits were screaming in the trees during the height of the blaze.

How the fire started is a mystery.

The only facts available are that the house was built in 1840 by Joseph Swift, who came to Ohio from Massachusetts. All of the logs used in the structure were brought from Maine. Other materials came from New York.

After his wife and family died, Swift lived at the house alone. One afternoon he rode away from the place on horseback. The saddle was found later near a creek not far from the house. Neither he nor his horse was ever seen again.

Several persons tried to live in the house but hurriedly left, saying it was haunted.

The haunted house was the mecca for thousands of tourists. Names of visitors from all quarters of the globe adorned the dilapidated walls of the house.

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The article is so wrong that I wonder if it was written in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.

Swift's wife and family did not die, leaving him all alone in the house, and Swift did not mysteriously disappear along with his horse. The Swifts merely sold the house, when they experienced financial difficulties, and moved away. The house was located in Swift's Hollow, not Mill Hollow. And it's ridiculous to think that it would be necessary to drag logs all the way from Maine, when the property was covered with trees and it took Swift years to clear it before he could build.

Anyway, when it's closer to the 90th anniversary of the 1923 fire in December, I will post the terrific rebuttal to the above article that was written by a Kipton historian and appeared in the Chronicle a few months later.

Weekend Photo Fun

Fall is my favorite time of year, so the last few weekends I’ve been making it a priority to head out with my camera for a few hours, usually on Sunday afternoon.

First stop has been to see how the demolition of St. Joseph Hospital is going. Here are my shots from October 10 and 18th.

The Harbor House is all decked out for autumn, although the trees haven’t been cooperating this season. The colors have been very slow in coming along the lake.

Down Broadway, the former Lorain National Bank recently received a larger Northwest sign (below) to replace the puny one erected during the initial changeover (back here).

I stopped out in Wakeman last Sunday to visit an old friend, and shot this old stone arch railroad bridge in town there. I asked historian and archivist Dennis Lamont via email for a positive I.D. on the bridge, and he said it was used by "Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway (LS&MS), Southern Division – Elyria, Oberlin, Kipton, Wakeman and points west." Dennis also pointed out that "the bridge is privately owned and well-preserved.” See, you gotta know who to ask about these things!

Coming back from Wakeman on U.S. Route 20, I couldn’t believe the shapes of some of the clouds (below). It reminded me of the kind of mushroom cloud you might see in an explosion in an old Heckle and Jeckle cartoon.

Since I really wanted to see some fall foliage, at one point on Sunday I headed out to one of my favorite areas – Gore Orphanage Road and the various roads leading to it. Finally – some color.

This is the closed section of Gore Orphanage Road that heads north towards the Swift ruins

Otherwise, most of what I saw driving around in the countryside last Sunday looked like this (below).

A Visit to Swift's Hollow – June 1948

Here's an interesting article that ran in the Lorain Journal on Tuesday, June 8, 1948. It's about a visit that the Silver Buckle Riding Club paid to the Swift House ruins, and provides a nice, capsule history of the place.

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Riders Pay Swift's Hollow Visit
By MABEL FULLGRADE

Swifts Hollow by state route 113 on the Vermilion river near Birmingham began after the war of 1812 when it was given to Joseph Swift, a war veteran as a bonus for his services to this country.

On the grant which comprised 150 acres of rich bottom land beside the river, he cut large oak, cherry, and whitewood trees to clear a field for planting.

He produced excellent crops of corn and wheat which were readily marketed in the lake ports nearby. He bought more land, cleared more fields and raised more crops and his wealth grew.

Dogged By Trouble
In 1841 he moved from his pioneer homestead into a house he built of Pillared Greek revival style, one of the finest in pioneer architecture ever erected in Ohio.

Altho only a few of the foundation stones can be found now in a tangle of weeds people still talk about the Swift house and how it became haunted after the Swifts left it.

Misfortune beset the Swifts after they moved in their new home. Swift lost money in an early railroad venture through here. He over-extended himself in land and lost money signing notes for friends. His four children died of black diphtheria and were buried along the river's edge.

Headstones Gone
Headstones were erected but all traces of them are gone and patches of myrtle have covered the burial ground. The property went to ruins and ghost stories began to spring up about the place which kept anyone from living there. The home stood vacant for years and in the 1920's fire broke out and destroyed it.

Northwest of Swift's Hollow is the home of Mr. and Mrs. Pelham Blossom, which was built from lumber torn down from an old Mennonite orphanage which once housed 68 children. The orphanage failed because of lack of funds and the children were sent to a home in Indiana. Later Mr. and Mrs. Blossom bought the property.

The early days of the region were recalled at a recent outdoor get-together of the Silver Buckle Riding club in the hollow. Joe Bickel of Birmingham told the story of the ill-fatted Swift.

Meet At Home
The members who are from Birmingham, Henrietta, Florence, Wakeman, Kipton, Brighton, Elyria and Rochester met at the home of Howard Greene east of Birmingham on route 113 and rode down the Gore Orphanage-rd, named after the orphanage, to the hollow.

Members of the club are Mr. and Mrs. Guy Radecliffe, Mrs. Stella Sharp and son Eldon, Mike Polansky and son, Mr. and Mrs. Green and family, Roy Radecliffe, Mr. and Mrs. William Jackson and family, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Bickel, Earl Smith and son, Jerry Howe.

Fourteen horses began the ride. Kenneth Bell brought his tractor and trailer.