Why my past is my present...

Please click on the newspaper article to read it. This came from the Lima Citizen.

So why does Delphos occupy so much of my time? Half my family came from Van Wert and half from Lima. I was raised in between in Delphos. I lived there at the end of an era and so I am just taking my place in history. I am descendent from the early pioneers in that area just a township or so to the west of Delphos and south of Van Wert. They claimed land, farmed it, lived on it, and were buried in it. They arrived in America in the 1600s and were in Van Wert County in the very early 1800s. If you read the article you'll see where my great grandmother was born in a log cabin just north of Mercer. My grandmother was too. I have a picture of my great grandmother and her husband sitting in front of the log cabin my grandmother was born in. If you note it says she moved close to Greenbrier Church in Willshire Township with my great grandfather Richard Medaugh (Norman Richard Medaugh). Understandable, Richards grandfather (Ephraim Medaugh), father (John Medaugh), and uncle (Andrew Medaugh) owned most of the land around there and even donated some for the church to be built on. The United Church of the Brethern. It's still standing and last I saw still being used. A lot of my relatives are buried in the church cemetery beside the church (Greenbrier Cemetery). My great great great grandfather is buried there along with my great great grandfather. My great grandfather is buried in Ohio City along with my great grandmother that I am seen here with. From here on out for the sake of simplicity g=great, gg=great great, ggg=great great great.

I had wondered about the United Church of the Brethern for a long time but hadn't really found out that much on them. I became interested again when I saw the newspaper article from the Delphos Herald in the Spring of 2006. It talked about the The Church of the United Brethern in Christ getting it's start in Marbletown. I wondered what the difference was between the 2 churches. Turns out that The Church of the United Brethern in Christ merged with the Methodists. The United Church of the Brethern has remained. Anyway, I like reading Mary M. Grothause's articles in the Herald.

Before my grandmother passed she had told me an interesting story about the United Church of the Brethren in Willshire Township. Back then it was called the Greenbrier Church. My she told me that all the family went to that church. Makes sense. My gg grandfather's house is still standing right down the road maybe a quarter of a mile away. His father and brother lived close by also along with their families. So you'd think it was one big happy family. Not so my grandmother says. Some how some kind of a disagreement started and finally split the church. If you go out there you will see directly across the street from the United Church of the Brethren there is a second church or what is left of it. It is no longer being used except by a farmer. But sure as be, just like she said. The church split in half and built a second church. Must have been a lot of bad blood to cause that. Now to go a step further. Seems my gg grandfather ( John Medaugh) and my gg uncle (Andrew Medaugh) were at the center of things. This must have been after my ggg grandfather (Ephraim Medaugh) had passed because I don't think he would have put up with it. So the war was on. John's side stayed on at The Greenbrier Church and Andrews side left and went across the street. I have only one indication how long it went on for. Seems the Good Lord called John first which left Andrew as chief decision maker. That's the way things were done in those days. So, Andrew decided that he wasn't letting John get away without a fight. He'd have the last say. So, he ordered up John's headstone. It was huge. Back then to have such a headstone of such size and eccentricity was an abomination in front of God and still is I was taught. But Andrew was the head of the family now and there was really no one to challenge him so up went the tombstone. It must be 15' or so and very ornate. One of the biggest I have ever seen. The family was furious and John was probably rolling over in his grave. But while I was at the graveyard I noticed something rather odd. I noticed a second headstone that looked exactly like John's. Right down to the last detail. Seems that Andrew didn't have the last say. Looks like the family did. There on the headstone was Andrews name. They couldn't very well get rid of John's headstone but they could equal the playing field. Now it was put to rest. The other church is being used by a farmer for storage or something. I had pulled off the side of the road near it to walk across the street to the cemetery. He came out with some kind of an attitude and wanted my car moved which was his right. So maybe everything is forgiven and forgotten or maybe it still exists in the old church. Who knows. I can only guess. Those that could tell us never will.

The John Medaugh Family

This is John Medaugh (my gg grandfather) and his wife Emily Carter (my gg grandmother). Directly behind John standing is Norman Richard Medaugh (my g grandfather).

The writer I'm not...

You know, I have had a really rough time getting started with this. I can't seem to write what I want to say, say what I want to write and it sounds boring.
The truth is. Delphos was a magical world where crime was almost nonexistent, no one locked their homes or their cars, everyone knew everyone else and life was as innocent as I have ever known. We had very few toys or none at all yet we couldn't wait to get up in the morning and go out to play. A sandbox was far better than a playstation. We only got 3 channels on TV and only 1 of those came in good half the time. And that channel went off from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM. If TV was never there to begin with with I never would have cared. By the way. I no longer own a TV. They say the average person spends 8 years of their life in front of a TV. Junk food? We got to go to the A & W for root beer and an order of frys maybe twice a year. Dairy Queen was rarer yet. That was it. There was no other junk food. Most of us kids did have a bike and we were all experts at patching flats. I can remember seeing flats with 12 or more patches on them. Tree houses, rope swings, lemonade stands, ant hills, bird nests, marbles/jacks, clay, card houses, kites, balsa wood gliders, homemade slingshots, pea shooters, homemade paper airplanes. We just really didn't have time for toys. Why is it that in this age of industrialization and technology that my life is suppose to be so much easier and so much improved that I am so unhappy? Why do I keep wishing for the simpler days when I am being told that everything now-a-days is simpler, faster, and easier to use? It's not the loss of childhood. As a young adult things were much easier than they are now and I think I finally found the reason which will come to no surprise to anyone. Money. The more educated folks have figured out that they can get more of your money by hiding how much they charge you for something in the wording they use and the math calculations they use. This is nothing new. But it has risen to a level of interpretation that most of us common folks are baffled by let alone be able to have the time to sit down to even begin to figure it out. My water bill takes a mathematician to read. Back in the day, you used this much then you paid for this much. End of bill. Now look at it. They make it so difficult that customers rarely if ever challenge their bills so they keep tacking on a little more here and a little more there. A year or so after I moved out to Bremerton, Washington (1996) the Kitsap County Sheriff retired with a pension at over $88,000.00 a year. I'll wage it was much higher due to cost of living allowances, medical, and other added bennies. Not bad for a public servant. Hell, we don't even know if any of us will even see any social security.
Yup, I miss those days and the older I get the more I miss them. I was very very lucky to have lived during that period of time. Very lucky indeed. I have got to do things and go places that most folks just dream about. I have watched Killer Whales swim off the coast of Montague Island, Alaska. Dug Loggerhead Turtle eggs on a beach on Prichard Island, South Carolina. Hauled in sails in a severe thunder/storm in the middle of the night on the USCGC Eagle somewhere off the eastern seaboard. The ship was pitching and waves washing across the deck, it was then I realized I wasn't on a pleasure cruise.

Deck of USCGC Eagle

Surfaced through the ice somewhere near the North Pole on a submarine. Climbed to the top of Mt Fuji, Japan. The list goes on and on. I've got to do it all. But by far, living in Marbletown tops the list. Nothing was as good as that. I'm not sure exactly why and I'm not sure I really care.

USS Whale (position classified)

I even got to go to one of the last one room school houses in Ohio if not the last. Garfield Elementary.

1st and 2nd grades. My teacher's name was Mrs Allen. She taught both grades. I don't know how she did it but she did and she was good at it to. I was not very good when it came to most subjects except for science. When she would get into that subject I'd perk up. She did as good a job as she could with me. I had her for both 1st and 2nd grade and then they closed the school the next school year at the start of my 3rd grade year. Everyone then went to Franklin Elementary which was located about the middle of town. They finally tore the little school down. Last I saw they had erected a small park in it's place.

Photo Credit:

"Garfield Elementary School" Courtesy of The Delphos Historical Society Web site: http://www.delphos-ohio.com/history/Holdgreve/Schools..htm Window to the past, A Brief History of Delphos Public Schools by Bob Holdgreve

Dad's Shoe Store...

A drawing I made probably in 4th or 5th grade

I had mentioned that my dad had managed a shoe store. Well for those who can remember here is a picture of it. It was located downtown beside the Equity. I think the theater was across the street. Out back of the shoe store was the Erie Canal. It was cool to go down and play in his store. It was a really big deal when he had to trim the windows. Trimming the windows was like decorating a movie set. Everything had to be just right. We would be there for hours while he and mom layed down material, positioned shoes, went outside to look at them in the window then back inside to adjust them. Later on the company would decide to just have one person go around and trim all the stores windows for them. The one thing I did like about the store and I miss to this day was the fact that they carried Ked's Tennis Shoes. 100% US of A cotton canvas in red, white or blue. Best tennis shoe I ever owned. Can't hardly find them now and when I do they are so high priced I pass them up. Dad had the the biggest shoe store and smack in the middle of downtown. He liked retail. I remember he belonged to the Delphos Jaycees. He eventually became the president. I was pretty proud of him. He wanted to be involved, he wanted to be a part of Delphos. He got to know a lot of people. I remember during the summer all the businesses would crank out their awnings so as to provide shade. Big things those awnings were. Maybe while the customer was cooling off in the shade provided by the awning they would do a little window shopping also. During the dog days of summer when business was slow the managers would drift out to the sidewalk and chew the fat with each other under the awnings. Dad also chaired the Franklin School carnival one year. That was the same year they bought a merry-go-round for the school playground with the money they made from the carnival that year. I was riding it one day while some kids were pushing it and somehow I got my leg jammed up underneath it so while the merry-go-round was rotating and it wedged my leg in there just right and snap. Broke both fibia and tibia just above the ankle of my left leg. How I kept from passing out to this day I have no idea. My ankle swelled up like a balloon. Off to Dr Belt's office. Back then he had an X-ray machine and so he had a diagnosis in no time at all. Home for 3 days with an ice pack to get the swelling down then a cast for 6 weeks. Good as new. That wasn't the last bad injury I was to have on that playground.

Epilogue;
Dad left Schiff Shoes and we moved from Delphos to Lima during Christmas vacation while I was in the 5th grade. Schiff Shoes changed their name to Gallenkamp somewhere in the late 60s early 70s. I worked for them after I moved to Lima. Got hired in my senior year in high school. My dad's old boss, Sam Smilan, hired me. Cantankerous as hell. I was with them until the early summer after graduation and then I moved on. Gallenkamp hung on for another few years and then finally closed their doors for good.



Published: New York Times February 12, 1994

Saul Ben Schiff, once a leading executive in the shoe industry, died last Saturday at White Plains Hospital. He was 96.

The cause was heart failure, said his daughter, Barbara Passloff of Scarsdale, N.Y.

Mr. Schiff was the past president of the A. S. Beck Shoe Corporation and a founder of Schiff Shoes, which eventually became SCOA Industries.

He was also an ardent supporter of Israel. In 1968, to create jobs there, he formed the American Israel Shoe Corporation, a footwear manufacturer with a factory in Bat Yam, Israel.

A co-founder of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Mr. Schiff was also a director of the Bank Leumi Trust Company and a former chairman of the Greater New York Fund's shoe retail division.

In addition to Mrs. Passloff, Mr. Schiff is survived by his wife of 66 years, Mollie S. Schiff, and two other daughters, Carole Straus and Simone Englander, all of Scarsdale; 10 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

The Neighborhood - The Wiggings

Bremerton, Washington is the only other place that has ever reminded me of Marbletown. I have seen some strange things in Bremerton and some strange people. Now, let me make this clear. Bremerton is as good a city as I have ever lived in and there is nothing wrong with being strange. I'm strange. I am the strangest person I have ever met. So, this is home, but nonetheless Bremerton is unique of all the places I've lived. Not a day goes by that I don't see something weird happen. I can't describe it; I guess you'd just have to live here to find out. My lady Becky came here to Bremerton a little over 2 years ago and I told her then and she couldn't figure out what I was talking about. But ask her now and she will tell you the same thing. Just tonight on the way home from a late supper (10:15 PM) we saw a woman mowing her lawn in the dark. I had to pull the truck over so as not to wreck due to the ensuing laughter. Marbletown was strange. Many different people from many different walks of life. I was just another one thrown into the fray. Let's start with the folks who lived across the street. There were 3 principle families. At least in my immediate world there was 3. The Wigging's, the Smersaw's, and the Cross's. The Wiggings lived directly across the street from us on a corner lot. They lived in a single level 3 bedroom rambler. It had a large garage attached to the house with a breezeway. The Smersaw's lived next to them but further over to the left if you stood on our porch facing the street, and the Cross's lived next to the Smersaw's. Actually there was about a lot and a half between each of them. Between the Smersaw’s and the Cross’s there was an old dirt road that cut up into a field behind the homes. Harold Wigging was a short stature man with black curly hair as I remember and a solid build who looked like he could hold his own in any bar room brawl. He taught school in Fort Jennings, Ohio. He would one day become the mayor of Delphos but by then I would have been long gone. I saw that he ended up in court in Van Wert, Ohio about some improprieties while he was the mayor of Delphos. Don’t know the outcome and don’t really care. When I knew him he was a hard working man and a good provider and that is the way I’ll remember him. His wife’s name was Peg. Peg from Texas. Harold met her while he was stationed there in the army I believe. Peg was tall, leggy, long dark hair, and a Texas drawl that went on forever. She kept house and to herself mostly. Nice woman, never saw her mad at all. They had 2 children Kathy and Mike. Kathy was about my age and Mike was maybe a year or so younger. They were good kids. Strict Catholics they were. Nice family all around. Harold liked big old cars and he had a couple of them that he liked to polish up on the weekends. I remember the red convertible. Man, Harold loved to cruise in that one. When he was coming down the street he was just so laid back enjoying the ride. I’d swear he’d learned the Detroit Lean from somewhere.

* End note. I have no idea of the correct spelling of the families names so I have spelled them out best I can remember them sounding. The names are real as are the families...

The move to 729 South Erie Street, Delphos, Ohio (Marbletown)

Somewhere between kindergarten and 1st grade we moved from South Main Street to South Erie Street. The move was still inside the city limits of Delphos but Erie Street was on the other side of the canal from where we had been living. We would now be living in Van Wert County instead of Allen County but still in Delphos.
Erie Street was on the edge of town. All around us were fields of corn, soybeans, and alfalfa. In fact what dad had bought was a corner of a large triangular shaped field. There were houses in front of ours but to the side and rear were wide open fields. There was a small paved road which bisected the field and also made up one side of the triangle. Beyond that the land dropped off gradually then into a tree line. Erie Street made up the second side of the triangle and then another street made up the third side. Nobody lived on the triangle but us.
The house we moved into dad had built with his VA benefits I'm sure. A light brick rambler with a white roof. It had 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, kitchen, dining room, and front room. And then we had a really large family room which is also where the washer, dryer, and freezer were. The windows in the bedrooms were located very high and were long. My brother and I shared one room; my sister had one room, and then my folk’s room. It had a sliding glass door off the kitchen going out the back to a cement slab patio which had a cement sidewalk that went from the patio over to the side of the house where the driveway was. The driveway came up from the street to the side of the house. There was a side door that went into the family room. The driveway was asphalt. We had a front door which also had a cement sidewalk which ran over to the driveway.
I don't remember much about the move other than my brother David and I wound up with a new pair of bunk beds that we didn't have before. I do remember the yard was huge. I mean huge. I know I mowed it most of the time. No one else had one as big as us unless it was a field. We also had a TV antenna mounted on a tower. The tower was very high. How high I have no idea. I would guess maybe 35 to 45 feet. I used to climb it all the time. Good view.
So now I was an official resident of Marbletown. Marbletown was pretty hard to define. There were no signs, nothing on the map, hardly a word about it anywhere. But, nonetheless, it existed. Just like the air we breathe. We can't see it but we know it's there. Everyone in Delphos knew where Marbletown was. When I'd tell people where I lived they'd say "Oh, you live out in Marbletown". I have no idea where it starts or where it ends and I don't think anyone else does either. It is an area of Delphos defined by its location and as far as I know unless you are from Delphos you won't know it exists at all. The only Marbletown listed that I know of is in New York State. Marbletown...what a place to grow up. I wouldn't trade all days I lived in Marbletown for one single tomorrow.

Newspaper article from The Delphos Herald March 13, 2006

March 13, 2006

The Men Behind the Neighborhood

by MARY M. GROTHAUSE

DELPHOS — Much attention has been given the preparations for the first ever Marbletown Festival.
Marbletown was named for an early Delphos financier and founder of the First National Bank, Colonel J.C. Marble.
John Miner Carey Marble was born July 27, 1833 in Pennsylvania, to Eleazar and Hannah Marble. His father died the year after he was born and he and his mother lived with her grandfather, John Carey Sr. until his death in 1844. He and his widowed mother moved to Ohio in 1846, joining her mother, who had re-married Jacob Rimer.
At the age of 21, he became a member of the mercantile firm Bope & Lye, which dissolved and later became Lye & Marble, located in what was then called Section 10 in what was carved out of the Black Swamp.
Later he founded the First National Bank, eventually rising to the position of bank president. He also laid out lots and built a number of residences in the south part of town, known as Marble’s Addition.
He attained the rank of colonel while serving during the Civil War with the Allen County regiment, part of the 151st regiment, which was stationed at Washington, D.C. during the summer of 1864.
Marble was married in 1861 to Mary L. Coleman, daughter of Guilford Coleman and Myrille Skinner. Mary died in 1865, leaving one son, Guilford L. Marble. He then married Elizabeth Emerson, daughter of Charles Emerson and Margaret Bayman in May 1870, and they had two sons, John Emerson, William Carey and one daughter, Elizabeth Dana.
Marble later moved to Los Angeles, California for health reasons where he resumed his banking empire. He died on April 29, 1912, in New York when he was stricken ill with pneumonia while returning home from a trip to the Holy Land.
While no one is sure of the actual boundaries of Marbletown, most agree the east boundary was the Miami-Erie Canal.
The main street of Marbletown, Clime Street, was named for James H. Clime, who built homes and buildings, including the first Methodist Church erected in Delphos.
Clime was born March 20, 1840, in Mahoning County, and was 11 years old when his parents moved to Van Wert County.
He also served during the Civil War and was assigned to the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry when he was one of the guards to stand watch over the body of President Abe Lincoln.
Clime returned to Ohio in May 1865, farmed for a year, then began carpentry, contracting and building in Allen and Van Wert counties.
He served as Van Wert County Auditor, a councilman and a director of Delphos Savings and Loan.
He married Anna E. Merriman from Dayton on March 20, 1873, and they had two children, a child that died at the age of 5, and a daughter, Mate DeFrees, who later married Charles E. Ward.
Clime died on Oct. 9, 1899, in a Toledo hospital. His wife, Anna, died Sep. 27, 1929, at her daughter’s residence in Los Angeles. A group of former Delphos residents who resided in that area and called themselves the Delphos Colony, had celebrated her 84th birthday on Sept. 5.
A sister of James Clime, Betty Krutsch, was mentioned as still living on West Fifth Street in Delphos.
In the founding days of Delphos, different sections were known by different names, East Bredeick was east of the canal, and West Bredeick was on the west side. Section Ten was also known as Hollister Pettit and Bliss Addition. The town of Howard was platted by Samuel Forrer, the engineer in charge of the canal survey.
Delphos actually received that name in 1850 following a meeting held at the Methodist Church. Father Bredeick suggested the name Delphos from the Greek word “Adelphos,” meaning brother.
In later years, residents of Marbletown were having a problem with drunks who would congregate in “south Delphos.” On Nov. 11, 1898 a town meeting was held to deal with lawlessness in that part of town. Residents gathered at MacKenzie's Grocery to select a man to act as a special policeman, electing a James Harter. Residents presented a petition to Mayor Cochran with Harter’s name to be sworn in as a special officer.
The Marbletown Festival is set for Aug. 5. A committee meets monthly to organize the event, which will include a parade.
A search is underway for relatives of the founders of Marbletown so they can be invited to participate in the festival.
Anyone with information on Marbletown descendants can contact Bob Ulm, 419, 236-1371 or at 415 Wayne St., Delphos.

Jeffery Cocansparger of South Main...

I had mentioned Waterworks Park earlier. I don’t know what was so special about it. Maybe all the tall trees or all the playground equipment. It was just a cool place. There were always people there. Lots of kids. Fine place for picnics also. The park was old you could tell by the age of some of the equipment. It was opened in 1923 and as far as I know has remained open since.

I don’t remember a lot about living on South Main Street but I do remember a kid name Jeffery Cocansparger. Jeffery was a neat kid. He was funny and I liked being around him because he was always laughing. His ears stuck out from the side of his head and he had a long with an oval shaped face he was just cool looking. Add the laugh and there you have him. Jeffery. We played together a lot whenever he could get away from his house. I don’t remember where I me him. I do remember his mom was like the wicked witch of the west. She always wore a frown. Jeff lived in the very last house on South Main Street on the corner lot when you took a right to go over the canal bridge. I believe his dad may have worked at the post office. One day Jeffery and I were playing in the backyard of an old abandoned house. It was located about halfway between my house and his. You could tell someone still owned it as it was being taken care of but I don’t remember anyone ever living there. It was always empty. Out of the blue Jeff picked up a stone and threw it at a glass window of the house. It broke out rather nicely I’d say. Well I think that someone living very close by saw what happened because it wasn’t even a few minutes later here come Jeffery’s mom like a tornado. She marched up to Jeffery and grabbed him and then looked at me and said “You are the trouble of all this” and then proceeded to haul Jeffery off. I was dumbfounded. What the hell did she mean by that remark? I didn’t talk him into throwing the stone. He was on his own. I hadn’t even picked up a stone. Oh well, maybe she was mad because he got into trouble and I didn’t. I didn’t see Jeffery for a long time but I can assure you it wouldn’t be the last time you’d hear of us getting into trouble together.

Photo Credit:

"Bandstand at Waterworks Park" Courtesy of Delphos Historical Society Published on Web site:http://www.delphos-ohio.com/history/Holdgreve/Waterworks_Park.htm Window to the past - Waterworks Park History by Bob Holdgreve

South Main Street Delphos, Ohio

The Erie Canal

Delphos was a small sleepy, quiet little town. Big shady streets, sidewalks made of hugh slabs of qurried stone, and many of the streets were still bricked. For a quarter you could get into the movies on Saturday and another dime would get you some popcorn. I must have been around 3 to 4 years old when I lived on South Main Street in Delphos, Ohio. My dad was the manager of a shoe store. Schiff Shoe Store was the name of it. Years later I would work for them also. Across the street from us behind the neighbors houses was the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal was one of the coolest places. I spent many, many days on the banks of that canal. It ran straight through the middle of town, in fact it was the county line between Van Wert County and Allen County. My grandmother was born in Van Wert County and my grandfather was born in Allen County. This was my mother's parents.

The house we lived in on main street was nice I remember. It had 2 bedrooms and a bathroom in between on one side of the house and on the other side it had a frontroom, diningroom, and kitchen. It also had a basement and a attached one car garage. The property extended for a short ways. The city block was disected by an alley which cut it in half and then another alley which cut it into quarters. We lived with an alley to our side and an alley to our back. I remember a garden being outback and clothes hanging off the colthes line. Right beside us across the alley lived a family and he was the principle of the only high school in town. They had one of the best climb up and eat cherry trees in town in their backyard. Once those cherrys were ripe I was in it constantly. It was between me and the birds. I used to be able to go out my back door to the alley, take a left and follow it all the way to the end where it stopped at the street.

Right to my right was a little neighborhood store. Similar to the one pictured above. Back then for a penny you could get 3 pieces of candy. If I remember right they would give you 2 maybe 3 cents on every soda or beer bottle you brought in so they could recycle it. Just before you got the to the store, on your left in the alley was some of the biggest and best ruhbarb I have ever eaten. It grew along the backside of a garage and it grew the whole length of it. If you were to take a right out of the alley on to the street and keep going you'd run into a place called Water Works Park. It was always full of people and kids.
I started kindergarden while at this house. But moved by first grade. While we lived here we had a very rainy spring and the canal crested. the water came across the street and poured in through our basement windows. My parents were franically trying to get our belongings out of the basment. My folks were trying to carry the washing machine up the stairs and when my mom went to step on the bottom step it was gone. It had never been nailed down to begin with and when the water level rose it just floated away. Power was gone, the place was a mess for awhile. They took us kids over to the grandmothers in Lima for a week or so because they had a lot of cleaning up to do. While at my grandmothers house I was standing on a stool and it tipped over on me and I landed on a bent stool foot with my throat. It made a nice little laceration, deep too. I still carry the scar. My grandmother flipped out. She took one look at it and I thought I was a goner the way she was carrying on. All the way to the hospital and in the ER. I can't remember when she finally calmed down. Must have been a few catgut a 6 to 8 stiches and I was on my way home. I was only to have milkshakes and Lipton Chicken Noodle Soup. Break my heart Just so happened my grandmother made both very well. I remember being exposed to my first cap gun while I lived here. I didn't care for it. I just wanted to play with the gun but my parents said the only way I could play with it way to learn to shoot the caps. I eventually did.
While I lived here I learned to toss rocks up in front of bats while they were flying around street lights and get them to dive after them. I saw my first spring time robin. I watched a spinder lay her eggs and stand over them until they hatched.

Life in Delphos was good...

Photo credits:

"Erie Canal" Courtesy of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water. Web site: http://www.dnr.ohio.gov/water/canals/MEcanalbooklet.pdf (see page 17)

"Thos German" Courtesy of The Delphos Historical Society Web site:http://www.delphos-ohio.com/history/town.htm Window to the past - Old buildings - Main Street by Bob Holdgreve