April 2020 newsletter

1
VOLUME 21, ISSUE 2 APRIL–JUNE 2020

Officers
President: Angie Hoschouer
Vice–Pres: Doug Allen
Recording Sec’y: Kay Dawson
Corres. Sec’y: Wilma Schroeder
Treasurer: Jack West

Directors
Barb Eller (2020)
Bill Gothard (2020)
Monty Mercer (2020)
Ron Papp (2020)
Cleva Collar (2019–2021)
Glynn Marsh (2020–2021)
Robin Perkins (2020–2021)
Doris West (2020–2021)

THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER by Angie Hoschouer
2020 was supposed to be the year of vision, to reset and
embrace the third decade of the 21st century. Now we find our-
selves in the middle of a global pandemic and learning new
phrases such as “social distancing” and “self-quarantining.” Of
course, our mothers always told us to wash our hands, and even
that has taken on a new meaning. So, in an abundance of caution,
have canceled the April meeting and program and will further
assess the situation as we learn more about the spread of this dead-
ly virus. I was very much looking forward to hearing about Union
resident Jack Egan and his defense of many of the gangsters and
ruffians that passed through town. I will do my best to reschedule
this program before the end of the year.
The officers and directors of the historical society wish
you all good health. Please practice good hand washing, wink
and smile when you meet someone (no handshakes!), and keep
your distance from others. We do suggest that you check in on
your elderly neighbors and make sure all are well and have what
they need. We will all get through this crisis safe and sound.
Take care, everyone, and be well.

2019 Corporate Members
Carra Builders Comm. Const.
Inc.
City of Clayton
City of Englewood
City of Union
Kindred Funeral Home
Landes Fresh Meats, Inc.
Mill Ridge Village Retirement
Community
Thank you!
We list our valued sponsors
on our website.
UPCOMING MEETINGS & EVENTS
All functions are at the History Center unless otherwise noted.
Meetings on 2nd Wednesdays
April 8, CANCELED DUE TO COVID/19
May 13, 7 p.m./business meeting/miniprogram: Mark Risley, “The
Legend of Roswell”
June 10, 7 p.m./business meeting/miniprogram: Dianne Herman,
“Let Women Vote: The Long Quest for Suffrage”
Special Events
Garage/Used Book Sale: May 28 & 29, 8 a.m.–4 p.m., and May
30, 8 a.m.–2 p.m.

Please visit our Facebook page for updates on meetings,
visitors’ hours, programs, and events.

Office Phone: 937-832-8538
Email: rths@frontier.com
www. rths.org

2
QUARTERLY SUMMARY
January 2020: The No-Bake bake sale brought in $350.00, and the book/ornament sale brought in $459.00.
The Society ended the year with 178 memberships. Even though the History Center had no public hours, we
had 12 visitors. The daughter and son-in-law of Hal Sherman, who painted the National Road Scene that
hangs in the Center’s foyer, are the owners of the farm previously owned by Sue and Glynn. They suggested
the RTHS help with a showing of Sherman’s paintings of historical buildings, combined with an ice-cream
social for the community. The daughter also said she would like to offer her father’s collection of history
books for sale with the proceeds going to the RTHS. Any more discussion was postponed until after the next
board meeting. The firefighting knick-knacks donated to the RTHS for use or sale are on display in the foyer
with prices on them. The new bathroom heaters have been installed. Realtor Ray Gibson had owned the sign
from Albert Drug Store, and his son said the sign could go to the RTHS when located. Glynn suggested also
trying to get a Ray Gibson Realty sign. Elmer “Buddy” Bergman, who just retired as Englewood Fire Chief,
spoke on the history of firefighting in the area and his experiences.
February 2020: The History Center had six visitors, thanks largely to Doug Allen, who opened the Center
while he was doing some work there. A representative of the Northmont Class of 1965 had contacted Doris
about scheduling a tour during their reunion this fall. It has been recommended that the bathrooms be kept
closed during the winter with the heaters on low and open during the summer Angie questioned whether the
fire code had any requirement. Speakers have been lined up through June. (See p. 7.) A discussion of updating
the Web site and replacing printers was deferred to the board of directors, meeting on Feb. 16. Members
viewed a documentary from PBS made for Ohio’s bicentennial.
March 2020: The existence of the History Center seems to be more widely known, as there were three visi-
tors during the month, despite the lack of public hours. The Web site is being updated, and the RTSH pur-
chased a printer/copier/scanner and a new laptop, taking advantage of Office Depot’s Going Out of Business
sale at the Salem Avenue outlet. The laptop has been loaded with a new Microsoft Office package. The Past-
Perfect software has also been updated. Angie purchased a much-appreciated heater for the kitchen area of the
basement. May 28 through May 30 has been set for the garage sale, and a notice inviting donations has been
put on Facebook. The contact with the antique cars is agreeable to doing a car show in September. Angie will
ask the people at Palette of Threads across Main Street from the Center about sponsoring a display of wed-
ding dresses and loaning some dress forms to display them. Robin Perkins and Susan Wharton are discussing
an ice-cream social at Wharton’s house on Sweet Potato Ridge and are consulting with Union officials about
any permits. Mary Geiger had obtained a portion of the 1850 census covering Randolph Township from the
Riverside Historical Society, and she presented it to the RTHS. Tim Hrastar presented a miniprogram on
Huey Long, the Louisiana politician during the 1930s. He outlined both the social benefits Long brought
to Louisiana and the dictatorial methods he used.

AREA NEWS AND NOTES

In Memoriam
Don Bowman and Beth Hess both died recently. Bowman had been a member since 2016 and Hess
a member since 2013. All of our members are valuable, and these two will be sorely missed. Their families
have the condolences of all the members of the RTHS.

“The genomic data show that this bacterial strain [of the Black Death], or variant, is the ancestor of all
modern plagues we have today worldwide. Every outbreak across the globe today stems from a
descendant of the medieval plague.”
Hendrik Poinar McMaster University, Canada.
(Part of a team who mapped the genome of the 14th-century Black Death, he was quoted in Science News, October 12, 2011.)

3
THE FAMILY TREE
by Kay Dawson
Illness and Fear
In the late 1960s, Leighton Mann was doing
some carpentry work at our house. When he men-
tioned taking his wife to dinner, my mother remind-
ed him she had said the repair could wait on his con-
venience. Leighton, usually mild mannered, said
fiercely, “Your repairs never wait. We haven’t for-
gotten who brought us groceries when our boy had
polio and everyone else was afraid to come near us.”
The current fears about coronavirus remind us
that once such scares were even greater and were
more frequent.
Clifford Humphrey remembered he was forbid-
den to swim at a friend’s pond one summer when
there were three cases of polio on that road (one of
which was the Mann boy). In Brookville, the city
sprayed the streets with DDT, thinking polio might
be transmitted by insects.
Visiting my parents shortly after my brother
Bruce was born, Miriam (“Bid”) Vermilya stood
well back until she was sure my parents knew she
had recently had tuberculosis and weren’t afraid to
have her around the baby. (My mother pointed out
Bid at least had a negative TB test, while my mother
had never been tested.) In Saranac Lake, New York,
site of a major TB hospital, some people rolled up
the car windows when driving through the town.
People avoided crowds, and swimming pools,
movie theaters, and parks were often closed when
polio had been diagnosed. My parents found my
brother Bill looking at the paper at age five and
asked what was in the news. He “read,” “No more
polio! Billy can go to the store.” My parents had
been taking turns shopping so they could keep Bill
and Tom at home. (Bruce and I weren’t born yet.)
They heard on the evening news that the FDA
approved the Salk polio vaccine for the public, and
the next morning my mother repeatedly dialed the
doctor’s office until it opened to get us high on the
list for the vaccine.
My mother was especially afraid of childhood
diseases after my older brother Tom nearly died of
post-measles encephalitis. When he got measles the
second time (he got all those diseases twice) my
mother called the doctor’s office. The receptionist
told her the doctor would make a house call after he
finished his hospital rounds. Instead, he showed up
in a half hour, telling her, “I thought I wouldn’t
make you wait. After his last experience, I figured
you’d be terrified.”
Needless to say, we four kids got every vacci-
nation available.
Even when there wasn’t panic, patients were
often isolated. Bid Vermilya was in Stillwater Sani-
torium for six months and could only wave to her
children through the window. The foundations of
Dayton’s smallpox hospital are still visible on the
bluff above Carillon Park.
Virginia Wolf told the RTHS in an oral history
how she and the two children caught scarlet fever
when her husband was away. The house was quaran-
tined, and the only person allowed in was a neighbor
who had already had the disease. A diagnosis of
scarlet fever, possibly erroneous, kept Dorothy
Lurz’s family quarantined for 30 days, while her
father camped in the yard so he could go to work.
Perhaps the most dramatic account of an attempt
to control a pandemic is the story of Eyam, England.
When the plague broke out there in 1666 the villag-
ers agreed among themselves to quarantine the entire
village for 14 months. The death toll in Eyam was
high, but surrounding villages escaped the plague.
Modern medicine has eliminated much of the
risk, but not the fear.

Membership Report by Wilma Schroeder
Many thanks to all of the members who have so
promptly renewed your 2020 memberships. We have
155 memberships for the current year. If the address
label does not say either LIFE or 12/2020, you need
to renew soon.
Memberships Processed
December 11, 2019–March 11, 2020
Corporate: City of Union (r)
Family: Ivan & Beverly Clark (r), Jack & Betty
Horstman (r), Dane & Priscilla Mutter (r), Luis &
Pat Riancho (r), Charles & Phyllis Sheets (r), Jim,
Carolyn, & Carla Van Dyne (r).
Individual: Allen County Public Library (r),
Barbara Benson (r), Cleva Collar (r), Kathleen
Dawson (r), Susan Evans (n), Larry Drusen (r),
Thomas Eastridge (r), Marian Ekberg (r), Shirley
Frick (r), Barbara Eller (r), Bill Gothard (r), Sarah
Grentz (r), Judy Hodges (r), Carol Hoke (r), Dennis
Mann (r), Pat Mulso (r), Gloria Mumma (r), Ron
Papp (r),John Ruell III (r), Patricia Sayler, (r), Jerry
Sherman (r), Susanne Wertz (r), Jennifer Woods (r).
Lifetime: Doug Allen (rup).
Sustaining: Catherine Springer (r).

Thank you for your continued support!

4
ACQUISTIONS

From Larry Crowell: Old tools from Methard Sawmill in Englewood.
From Englewood Glass: A display case with three glass sides, glass shelves, and lighting.
From Catherine Springer: Pictures of the Medley family, who lived at 241 Talmadge Rd., Clayton,
in 1945. (Mary Medley, the mother, transferred ownership of the property to her daughters in 2000. Her
daughter Dorothy sold the house to Samuel Haupt in 2011. Haupt sold it to Bradley Schaurer in 2016, and
Catherine Springer bought it in the fall of 2017.)

Thank You
The display case mentioned above and pictured here is just the latest in the generosity shown to the
Randolph Township Historical Society by businesses, cities, and
individuals.
Before we purchased the History Center, Clayton allowed us
to store records and artifacts in two rooms at the Janice Ward Center,
and all three communities have been very generous with financial
contributions and service.
It took the RTHS a year or two to discover who was plowing
our parking lot when it snowed. Randy Hartman of Vital Signs had
been doing it, and when discovered, refused to take money for it. (The
RTHS provides him with a letter of thanks each year acknowledging
his in-kind donation if he wants to use it for tax purposes.)
Over the years, we have received many items for the History
Center. The Northmont Board of Education donated large photos of
each graduating class of Randolph High School. The RTHS accepted
them although we had no idea how to store or display them. A few
weeks later, a member was helping clean out a former architect’s of-
fice, saw the drawers used to hold blueprints, and was told he could
have them if he would remove them himself. The pictures fit into
them perfectly.
The display cabinet donated by Englewood Glass is just the
latest in furnishings for the History Center. It will be put to good use,
use displaying items and freeing up much needed space in the lower
level of the Center.
It’s heartwarming to know we have so many people in the
community who appreciate its history and are willing to help preserve
it.
New Office Equipment
In our attempt to purchase and furnish the History Center and
keep the RTHS solvent, we have not only depended on the generosity
of members but on bargains and grants. Sue Cummings was especially
good at finding these. It was through her efforts that we got computers and printers/copiers for the office.
They got us started and were much appreciated at the time. They eventually became obsolete or, not
having been new when the RTHS got them, reached the point of no return. Thanks to Ivan Clark’s expertise
Angie Hoschouer’s willingness to shop, and a Going Out of Business sale at Office Depot’s Salem Avenue
location, the office now boasts a new Canon copier/scanner/printer which will enable us to print in color, copy
or scan documents and pictures for display or for researchers, and scan photos the public is willing to share
with us but not ready to part with. We also have a new laptop, running Windows 10, and the PastPerfect soft-
ware had been updated to allow us to insert photos of artifacts.

The cabinet is empty, with glass on all
sides, and the items appearing to be inside
it are simply reflected in the glass front.

5

Tim Hrastar, who offers courses at the UD's
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, talks about
Governor Huey Long of Louisiana.
RECENT HAPPENINGS AT THE RTHS HISTORY CENTER
Miniprograms
The January meeting featured a very interesting talk by Elmer “Buddy” Bergman, who recently re-
tired as fire chief of Englewood. An Englewood native, he came from a fam-
ily of firefighters and married into a family of firefighters. At one time, he
estimated more than 50 of his relatives were connected with the fire service.
Starting as a junior fireman in 1967, he became a volunteer and was one of the
first full-time firemen hired in 1977.
He told the audience about early firefighting and that the first property
tax for fire protection in Randolph Township was in 1939. He remembered in
the late 1960s as a junior fireman he accompanied firemen as they went door-
to-door asking for donations to buy an ambulance. Until then, funeral direc-
tors Jim Churchill and Dale Sarver used their hearses as ambulances.
“In the early years,” he said, “we’d have a fatal fire at least once a
year,” but in his 22 years in the city of Englewood, there was only one fatal
fire.
Many in the audience did not realize that the local fire departments
didn’t conduct regular fire inspections until after the 1977 Beverly Hills Sup-
per Club Fire, in Southgate, Kentucky, when a couple of hundred people died
because the exits were blocked.
After the merger between Clayton and the township in 1997, Engle-
wood, Union, and Clayton wanted their own fire departments, and at that
point, he said, the departments started having manned stations. As a result,
“Our response time since ‘97 has been under five minutes for fire and ambu-
lance calls, where it used to be twice that.”

There was no speaker at the February meeting. Instead, members viewed a documentary about the
history of Ohio, produced for the Ohio Bicentennial in 2003.

At the March meeting, Tim Hrastar of the Osher Lifelong Learning Center at the University of Day-
ton talked about Huey Long of Louisiana in the
1930s.
Long was an old-style machine politician.
No one held any appointive office if he didn’t ap-
prove of their, or their relative’s, political views,
and all appointees were expected to donate to his
campaign fund. He used strong-arm tactics to get
his programs through, even acquiring a new capital
building by drilling a hole in the roof of the old one.
While Senator, he continued to dictate to his guber-
natorial successor.
But, Hrastar pointed out, he also supplied
schoolchildren with free schoolbooks, built a bridge
across the Mississippi River, started a medical
school, provided literacy programs that taught 100,000 adults to read, and built paved roads in a state that was
last in the number of passable roads. And he spread his programs to include African Americans, avoiding the
racial conflict other politicians of the era used to gain white support.
Hrastar described how Long found Franklin Roosevelt too conservative and developed a “Share the
Wealth” platform. He was mentioned as a presidential candidate in 1936. Long, he said, has been considered
instrumental in causing FDR to formulate the programs of the “Second New Deal,” which included Social
Security and other social programs, rather than the economic programs of the early part of his term.
Roosevelt considered Huey Long and Douglas MacArthur the two most dangerous men in America.

Fire Chief "Buddy" Bergman
celebrates his retirement by
summarizing the changes he
saw during his career on local
fire departments.

6
INVITATIONS
The Current Crisis
Most of us go about our daily lives and only realize we saw history when it shows up in our kids’
history books. Even when we realize it—during World War II, for instance—we are often too busy coping
to give it much thought.
Even Samuel Pepys, whose diary of 17th-century London described the Plague, the Great Fire, and
the restoration of Charles II, was only recording daily events (and was just as interested in recording his
amorous adventures).
But with so much canceled or closed, with authorities urging us to stay home as much as possible,
this would be a good time to record our reactions to and experiences during the Covid-19 crisis. There have
been pandemics before and, I hope, pandemics that were worse. But few people have had as much informa-
tion about the crisis as we have. Many in rural areas were not even aware that the terrible illness decimating
their families and small towns also existed in other areas.
In fact, the 1918 influenza was called the Spanish flu because of this lack of public information. It
apparently broke out at an Army base in Kansas and traveled overseas with the soldiers. But the countries
fighting World War I didn’t want to harm morale at home by frightening newspaper readers and didn’t want
to tip off their enemies that large numbers of soldiers were incapacitated, so newspaper censorship kept it
from being covered. Spain, being neutral, had no such censorship, so the first indication of the flu’s severity
came from Spain.
Why don’t some of you write down your actions or keep a diary? It doesn’t have to be a great literary
work like Pepys’; the variable spellings and casual grammar of Civil War diaries don’t make their accounts of
seeing Lincoln after Antietam any less engrossing. If you don’t have access to a computer, send us a tape or
write it by hand or have a relative help you. Or use an old object like the one recently added to our school ex-
hibit—a typewriter! [See below.] You can send it to the History Center or bring it in on that much brighter
day when we can again hold meetings and get within six feet of each other.
Come in and See Us Sometime
By Kay Dawson
Various members have been busy over the winter refreshing our exhibits. Some things have been ex-
changed for other items, and some things have been added.
One item added to our school exhibit is something that often puzzles youngsters and leaves many of
us muttering, “Is THAT in a museum?”
Many of us will remember learning to type at Northmont on the old Smith-Corona typewriters with
the blank keys. (This one is portable; my class learned on big gray monsters.) It was possibly the most useful
think some of us learned; with apologies to Mrs. Miller, I’ve made much more use of my typing skills than I
ever did from any algebra she tried to so hard to teach me!
Still, it’s a shock to find part of your past is now a museum artifact.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History lets visitors try putting a harness on a
model of a mule, lift the heavy “sad” irons that women used to
use, and see blocks of sod that homesteaders used to build sod
shanties on the prairie.
As I stood looking at a pedal-operated sewing
machine, the docent encouraged me.
“Try it. This room isn’t just for children.”
When I told her, “I don’t need to. I learned to sew on
one just like it,” she laughed and replied, “About half of our
visitors are eager to try things in here. The other half stare and
say, ‘Oh, my God,’ don’t tell me that is old enough to be in a
museum! I remember that!”
Currently the possibility of public hours in April are in
doubt. But after the corona virus is conquered, come by the
History Center to revisit your youth.

7
COMMUNITY REWARDS
PROGRAM
We keep putting information
about the Kroger Community
Rewards program in our news-
letter because it is an easy way
to support the Society. If you
link your KrogerPlus card to the
Randolph Township Historical
Society, you can earn money for
the RTHS when you shop at Kroger’s in any state.
Each receipt will show the donation, and only your
name and the amount will be reported to RTHS.
The Society’s organization number was recently
changed, and we are uncertain whether or not we
need to re-register our KrogerPlus cards. We will let
you know as soon as we can find out. (Kroger has
slightly more urgent problems to deal with.) If you
do, or if you are new, you can enroll by calling
Kroger Customer Service at 1-800-576-4377 when
they are less busy. Give them your Kroger Plus card’s
12-digit barcode number your phone number, and our
organization number: DC576. You can also go online
at www.krogercommunityrewards.com. Last year the
Society earned about $250.00 through this program.

******************
UPCOMING MINIPROGRAMS
(Programs scheduled for the upcoming quarter may be changed due to the corona virus. Please check the
Facebook page or call the History Center and leave a message. We will return you call as soon as
possible.)
The RTHS hopes to reschedule the talk by David Greer that had to be canceled in April. Greer was to
talk about the career of Jack Egan, a Dayton attorney who lived in Union and practiced law from 1899 to
1936, at the April meeting. Greer will also sign his book, God is Merciful: The Colorful Career of John Egan,
if the talk can be rescheduled.
In May, we hope, Mark W. Risley will speak about “The Legend of Roswell.” There have been sto-
ries for years that an alien spacecraft craft landed near Roswell, N. M. in 1947 and the aliens’ bodies are pre-
served at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Many are just as vehement that it was only a weather balloon or
a U.S. military project. Risley will cast some light on the issue. He is a retired airline flight operations coordi-
nator and past president of the Oakwood Historical Society. He also served on the steering committee for the
centennial commemoration of the Great Flood of 1913.
In June, Dianne Herman will provide an overview of the history of the 19th Amendment to the Con-
stitution, which 100 years ago gave women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a struggle that took
more than 70 years, although a few states granted women the vote earlier. Herman is the coordinator of the
Speakers Bureau for the League of Women Voters in the Greater Dayton Area and a retired instructor at Sin-
clair Community College. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and history and a master’s degree
in political science.
All these programs are free, open to the public, and followed by refreshment. The talks follow the
business meeting which starts at 7 p.m.
The RTHS tries to have a miniprogram after each meeting, held on the second Wednesday of every
month. Check the Facebook page for details.
Membership Information
Yes! I want to become a Member of the Randolph
Township Historical Society.
Date _________________________________________
Name(s) ________________________________________
Address_________________________________________
City/State/Zip ____________________________________
Phone__________________________________________
Email___________________________________________
New ________ Renewal ___________Gift______________
Membership Level (Check One)
_____Individual @$15.00/year
_____Family @ $25.00/year
_____Sustaining @ $35.00/year
_____Sponsoring @$75.00/year
_____Individual Lifetime @ $250.00 (one-time)
_____Corporate @ $150/year
Extra Cash Donation: $________________
Enclosed is my check for ___________________
Total______________
Please send completed form with check to:
Randolph Township Historical Society
RTHS History Center
114 Valleyview Drive
Englewood, OH 45322-1324
Donations are tax-deductible.

8

SOME DATES TO REMEMBER REMAINING IN 2020
All events are held at the RTHS History Center, 114 Valleyview Dr., Englewood, Ohio, unless otherwise noted.

Monthly Meetings:
2nd Wednesdays
April 8, CANCELLED DUE
TO COVID/19 VIRUS
May 13, 7:00 p.m.
(note time change)
June 10, 7:00 p.m.
July 8, 7:00 p.m.
Aug.12, 7:00 p.m.
Sept. 9, 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 14, 7:00 p.m.
Nov. 11, 1:00 p.m.
(note time change)
Dec. 9, 1:00 p.m.

Work Sessions:
Wed. and Sat. afternoons
1–4 p.m.

Visitors’ Hours at the
History Center
2–4 p.m.
Apr 5 & 19 (May be cancelled
due to health risk)
May 3 & 17
June 7 & 14
July 12 & 19
Aug. 2 & 16
Sept. 13 & 27
Oct. 4 & 18

Open other times by
appointment
Call (937) 832-8538 and leave
message

Special Events:
Apr. 8: Canceled due to
corona virus

May 13, 7 p.m.: talk by Mark
Risley, “The Legend of
Roswell”

May 28 & 29, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
and May 30, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.:
RTS Garage/Used Book Sale

June 10, 7 p.m.: Dianne
Herman, “Let Women Vote:
The Long Quest for Suffrage”