The Twentieth Century of Ashtabula 1909 Part 1

The Twentieth Century of Ashtabula 1909 Part 1

Darrell E. Hamilton

Mayor Hiram D. Cook appointed H. R. Hill City Solicitor and A. D. Davis a member of the city Board of Public Service. The change was brought about through the resignation of City Solicitor Fred R. Hogue to become prosecuting attorney. This was affective January 1, 1909.

Furniture and undertaking firms of Gregory, Zaback & Co. and Gregory, Askew & Co. change complexion after three years effective January 1, 1909.

Arthur L. Gregory and Charles W. Askew, the remaining members of the firm will continue in charge of the respective stores and undertaking establishments on Main and Bridge Streets while Zaback will continue on Main Street.

From the Beacon-Record, January 1, 1909

Nelson Watrous died on January 4, 1909. Nelson Watrous was a pioneer resident of Ashtabula Harbor. He was the oldest and last of fourteen children. He was 86 years old.

Nelson was born on December 13, 1822 at Chester, Saybrook Parish, Connecticut. Just about twenty-two years later, he landed at the Harbor, making the trip from Buffalo on the old time side-wheeler, Indian Queen. He traveled all the way by water. The run through Long Island Sound, the Hudson River and the Erie Canal was an eventful one for him.

Nelson Watrous came to the Harbor when the harbor was but a wilderness. He had only about six dollars with him when he left on his trip to Ashtabula, even less when he arrived. His supply of money was a lot less than his stock of grit and energy. Blacksmithing and shipsmithing was the trades that young Nelson had learned. He started a blacksmith shop soon after he landed in Ashtabula at Kingsville. He got married the following year on December 28, 1845 in the Kingsville Baptist Church. He made a trip back to Connecticut with his new bride before he took up permanent residence at the Ashtabula Harbor. He lived a total of four years in Kingsville.

Establishing a blacksmith shop in the 1840’s in Ashtabula was quite an undertaking. Business was not any too good. Payment usually came in the form of farm produce or garden truck. The produce had to be used or given away as he had a difficult time selling produce. No monetary gain could be had unless what he traded his work happened to be wheat.

The survivors were his widow, Mrs. Kiziah (Luce) Watrous; one child, Mrs. Irene Tallman; five grandchildren, Mrs. Fred Wilcox, William Watrous, Mrs. Amelia Root of Ashtabula and Harry Tallman of Oklahoma. He was also survived by eight great-grandchildren.

The funeral was held at the Lake Street Methodist Church. The funeral was attended by a large number of prominent businessmen and respected citizens. A large number of Odd Fellows were in attendance in which Mr. Watrous was the oldest member. Nelson Watrous was buried in Edgewood Cemetery.

The arrests made in Ashtabula during 1908 were made public on January 9, 1909. Ashtabula had 734 arrests during 1908 compared to 1,475 during 1907. Ashtabula had half as many arrests as Conneaut even though Ashtabula was about twice the size of Conneaut.

There were 3,486 night lodgers housed by the police department in 1908. Now these were not arrests boys and girls. These were usually men who didn’t have a place to get out of the cold so they were housed in the city jail and fed. Some were just passing through while most were local at least part of the time. Remember there was no welfare or Social Security or the Samaritan House in 1908. Of the 3,486 persons housed, 1,933 were housed at the city hall, 1,133 were housed at the Lake Street police station and 429 were housed at the Bridge Street police station.

Some of the more interesting arrests were as follows: intoxication, 282; suspicious persons, 43; keeping a house of prostitution, 5; visiting a house position 6, (somehow those numbers just don’t come out right); exposing yourself on the street, 1; common prostitute, 3 (I suppose this is a street prostitute whom doesn’t have a regular place business!); adultery 1; fornication 2 (Just think if you could get arrested for the two previous crimes today. Clearly probably half the people in Ashtabula would be in jail.) I often wondered. Why doesn’t the police department publish these statistics today?????

With the passage of the Rose law in 1908 which banned liquor throughout Ashtabula County, the county would have a deficit of $7,116 for 1909. The annual taxes on liquor in Ashtabula County came to about $26,000. This meant that a one mill tax would have to be placed on the property holders.

Mrs. Mary Elizabeth (Tyler) Carlisle died on January 7, 1909 at her home at 184 Prospect Street. She had only been ill about a week from pneumonia.

Mary was the wife of prominent businessman Henry Theodore Carlisle, a dry goods merchant who died eight years before. She was born on January 17, 1842 in Ashtabula and was almost 67 years old.

The surviving family included three children, Miss Bessie R. of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Miss Katherine L. Carlisle, at home and Lorenzo T. Carlisle of Ashtabula Harbor.

The funeral was held at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. Burial took place at Chestnut Grove Cemetery.

The Twentieth Century of Ashtabula 1909 Part 2

Darrell E. Hamilton

As of January of 1909 there were twenty-seven doctors in the city of Ashtabula. A new law had been in enforce that all midwives had to be registered with the board of health. However midwives were very slow in registering. The exact number of midwives could not be obtained at the time.

During 1908 there were 266 deaths as compared to 314 births. Years previously had shown that there were more deaths than births. This was due mostly that some doctors and most midwives would not report births in a timely manner or they never reported the births at all.

Ashtabula High School had a terrible time finding a place to play basketball for their home court. Ashtabula High School had no gymnasium in 1909. The school was finally able to obtain the Morrison Hall on Main Street at the end of January.

The city owned power company (called the city light plant in 1909 because mostly what it did was provide just light) had a profit of $35,285.42. Just think how much profit that would be almost a hundred years later!

The oldest grocery store in the city of Ashtabula and quite possibly the county would close by April 1, 1909. Andrew C. Tombes announced he would discontinue business after over 35 years. The store itself was older than that.

The grocery store was established in the 1850’s by the father of Andrew Tombes, H. C. Tombes. Later for some years the firm was known as Tombes & Weatherwax, then a brother, James Tombes bought into the store and the store was conducted under the name of Tombes Brothers. The next change took place about thirty five years ago. The son entered the business which conducted under the name of Tombes & Company. Then in 1877, when the original proprietor died, the son succeeded to the business. L. E. Rockwell became associated with him and the name was changed to Tombes & Rockwell until Mr. Rockwell retired a few years before.

The building was purchased by H. M. Kunkle. Mr. Kunkle would tear the building down and build the Kunkle Block which stands their now.

Northwest corner of Main and Progress Streets in about 1895

Note the boot black stand at the left. The picture shows Tombe's Grocery and Soule's Clothing store at the

far right. The old Commercial Bank & the old Carlisle Building sits there now.

Runkle Avenue over to Main Street was officially annexed into the city in January of 1909 by an ordinance passed by the council 5 to 2.

The “sausage factory” at Ashtabula High School was shut down by the board of education. Apparently a teacher at Ashtabula High School, a Mr. J. M. Harsh had been dissecting dogs in front of his class. He took live dogs, chloroformed them and cut them up to the enjoyed of some of the students. Sometimes the dogs were still alive. Some of the students complained to the board of education which put a halt to the practice. Some of the students wanted to hold a special meeting away from the school so the dog could be dissected. That ideal was quickly put to a halt when the dog that was imprisoned in the school basement in a cage was saved and freed. My opinion is that the officials should have taken the teacher and the students that were in favor of dissecting these dogs and dissected them,,,,,, without chloroform. Of course that is just me!

The Conneaut Creamery was incorporated on January 29, 1909 to carry on a general creamery business, cold storage and refrigerating plant. The incorporators were Frank R. Watson, E. O. Jacobson, M. G. Spaulding, W. S. Payne and George Payne.

1909 will be much shorter than the rest. February 1, to July 31, 1909 are missing from the microfilm at the Ashtabula County Library. They are also missing from the archives at the

Star Beacon.????? Next will be August 1, 1909.

I will try to complete these missing dates through other resources such as other newspapers,

court records and by other means. The missing parts will be included in my book.

The Twentieth Century of Ashtabula 1909 Part 3

Darrell E. Hamilton

The first trolley car to pass under the new Lake Street subway was on August 7, 1909. The Lake Street railroad crossing was considered the most dangerous railroad crossing in Ashtabula at the time.

New gas lamps were installed at the public library in Ashtabula. It is kind of difficult to imagine the present library with gas lamps.

The fist advertisement to rent an automobile in Ashtabula was on August 10, 1909 by C. L/ Scrivens Motor Car Co. A five passenger (carrying four people) car could be rented for $2.00 an hour while a seven passenger (carrying six people) automobile could be rented for 3.00 an hour. Special rates could be had for a day or week. If you do some addition, those rates were very expensive in 1909. As far as the passengers and the amount of people the automobiles carry, I just pass the information on to you as it is printed.

The Ewing Auto Co. located in Geneva in the old Geneva Automobile plant was thinking of moving its plant to either Painesville or Easton, Pennsylvania. The Ewing Automobile Company made Taxicabs. I will keep you posted on the outcome.

Free mail delivery is coming to Geneva. For a city or a village to obtain free mail delivery the local post office must have a minimum of receipts and sidewalks and lighting for the city. Two deliveries a day in the residential sections and four deliveries a day were planned in the business and factory section of town. This was to be accomplished by two carries. Remember in 1910 mail was even delivered on holidays including Christmas. However the mailmen got a break on Christmas. They only had to delivery mail once on Christmas.

The Socialist Party of Ashtabula nominated L. D. Van Tassel for Mayor and W. E. Boynton for Vice Mayor. The Socialist Party did not nominate a person by petition or a primary like the Democratic or Republican Party but hand picked their candidates. Sounds a little like Communism to me.

Fifty two lots went on sale from Bunker Hill south to Murray, Edwards and Hiram Streets by H. D. Cook who also happened to be the Mayor of Ashtabula.

One hundred and seventy-one women were newly registered to vote in Ashtabula. Women did not have the full right to vote but in Ashtabula as in a lot of northern states women could vote for school board members and even run for the school board.

On August 23, 1909 the new Kunkle block on Main Street was being completed as the windows for the third floor were being installed. For those not familiar with the Kunkle block, it is the old Commercial Bank building later part of Carlisle Department Store. The right side of the Kunkle Building wasn’t built for another sixteen years when the addition was added on.

Benjamin E. Cushing for over five years a reporter for the Beacon Record was promoted to City Editor replacing Ed E. Large who resigned effective August 30, 1909.