November 16, 2024 - NV #119
“A man may devote himself to death and destruction to save a nation; but no nation will devote itself to death and destruction to save mankind.”- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
DESKTALK: The video (above) I made – like most things I make – was mostly for me. It does have a touch of historical significance. But really, for me it was more of a challenge that included the use of several different types of digital programs and software.
My grandfather, Pearl Roscoe, died in the early months of 1946 just as color photography was being made more and more available to the public-at-large. Before he passed he did take some color photos. They are color slides by Kodak. But they are very few. And it is obvious that he was just learning how they might be useful – just as I am “just learning” how to use the various types of software available to me almost 100 years later.
Among other things I want to introduce is a new app that I’ve dreamt about and wished for, for nearly twenty-five years. As infatuated as I have always been with my grandfather’s photographs, and hundreds of other photographs of Vermilion’s yesteryears, I have often “wished” they’d were in color.
The ability to make a cogent video production is something relatively new to me because of software that affords digitally illiterate persons like me the ability to do just that is also relatively new. That I am able to write, direct, and produce a video or audio production of any value both mesmerizes and stuns me.
Add to this the aforementioned app and I can only say, ”Happy Birthday” to me.
This new app gives me an ability to colorize old black and white photographs with some accuracy. And though I’m finding the technology to be initially distracting, when I settle down and give it some serious thought (beyond the novel), I believe it will prove to be very, very useful.
And that, in a nutshell, is really what this new video demonstrates. I believe you’ll like it too.
OLD MAN
THIS PAST WEEK: was a tough one (for me). I am attempting to get back in the groove – trying to reestablish my routine – the way I’ve been doing things for a number of years, and getting used to the old routine put me behind schedule. I overlooked parts of it. But have fortunately caught up at the very last moment.
Some of what was putting me off is the fact that I no longer have a vehicle to move about as I have in the past – making me less mobile. Part of the problem is, of course, money. (Ain’t that always a factor.) But that’s only a minor part. The bigger part is age.
I became an Octogenarian on November 8th. And until then age really didn’t mean too much to me. But ‘tis unsettling to be listening to (for instance) the news and hear a report about an elderly person who, for the sake of this discussion, might be 75 years old. I don’t really consider such persons to be elderly.
And here I am a few stones on the other side of that.
Realization of my age kinda set me off-balance. I used to laugh about getting old with my friends. We’d talk in “squeaky” voices and tell stupid stories that began with, “When I was a kid…” (Ha!)
Now that was funny. Monty Python funny.
And you know something? It still is. So I guess I found my way back into the groove.
A VERY RICH COMMENTARY
PARABOLICLY SPEAKING
A long time ago a Vermilion guy who worked on the railroad was walking down the railroad tracks toward a crew of his friends ahead of him.
He was hard of hearing. His friends up ahead were waving and shouting at him as he approached,
He thought they were just “playing the fool” greeting him like that as he came to join them for the work day.
They were not.
Behind him was a fast-moving freight train.
End of story.
THE CAT & THE CONDOS
Part of the "Black Cat" Series
OLD BUT GOOD…
THE GREAT FACE (43) the great face / of another dawn / looms / above the tree line / above the river / where the crows / talk / amid the distant / humming / of i-90 / & / the gravel / crunch ‘neath my feet / on the road / off to / join the daily / migration / again. – March 12, 2024
VERMILION HISTORY THEATRE: Due to all the distractions surrounding me lately I neglected to keep the link to the History Audio/ Video Theatre. So – click on the name above and visit.
“Doc” Shilling’s Paper Dream
Raise your hand if you know that Vermilion almost had a hospital. This was, I thought, something that everyone knew. But I guess I was mistaken. I hadn’t thought about it much until several months ago when former Vermilion Mayor Eileen Bulan phoned and asked me about it. Although I was always aware of the prospect of Vermilion having a hospital I never really knew a whole bunch about it (i.e. the details). It was just one of those things that was – until it wasn’t. Then…
Last week a Vermilion expatriate named Nancy Kneisel-Tate stopped by the museum with a very large architect’s drawing of Vermilion Memorial Hospital, and my interest suddenly piqued. This was likely because what had always been an abstract idea became a more tangible concept.
Oh, I knew some of the story behind the push to build a hospital in our community. Part of the reason I didn’t pay much attention to the hospital movement at that time had a good deal to do with my age. I was 14. (Which is self-explanatory.) Nonetheless, I was very aware of why and how the concept was born as unlikely as it might seem.
In the mid to late 1950s a fella named Miles A. Shilling came to town with his wife and family (3 girls and one boy) and set-up a taxi service. Mr. Shilling was a true-blue character. In short, those who knew him did not forget him. He was caring, friendly, and kind. And he could, to use a tired old phrase, “shoot the bull” with the best of ‘em. (I believe that’s a requisite for all taxi-drivers.)
Well, things were sailing along (a “Vermilionish” phrase) very smoothly. Miles did a good deal of business after dark. As he told Vermilion journalist Dale Rodgers in an article published in the Sandusky Register in 1958, “There is the biggest difference in people in the way they act during the day as contrasted to their nocturnal behavior. He says that people are artificial in the daylight and more natural acting during the night time.”
Shortly after this article was published Miles was driving his taxi one night on a run on Lake Road (Rte.6) near Chappel Creek when a young driver coming toward him crossed the road and hit him head-on. Miles was hurt quite badly and as a result spent a good deal of time in the Sandusky hospital and afterward at home.
During his hospital stay it occurred to him that although he had survived the crash it was very likely that if similar mishaps were to occur to others they might not be as lucky due to the distance between hospitals (both east and west) of Vermilion was significant. This was, of course, before Rte. 2 existed. And it also preceded any local professional ambulance services. (i.e. the funeral director’s vehicle was the only local emergency medical vehicle.) So to the point, Miles Shilling’s idea that Vermilion would benefit by having a hospital was hardly extravagant. And many people around town agreed.
I mention here just a few: George Wakefield, Elmer Trinter, Amos and Grace Feiszli, Delbert Orwig, Roy Kneisel, Ward Neiding, Mrs. Neil Wikel, Evelyn Smith, Paul Smith, William Adams, Samuel Thompson, and Merl Rager. There were more.
Consequently, a non-profit Vermilion Memorial Hospital organization was established. The years passed. Fund raisers were held on an annual basis. An architect was hired (ergo the accompanying drawing), along with a fund-raising consultant. Elmer Trinter donated 7 acres just south of his dairy farm on Rte.60 where the medical facility might be located. And the concept inched closer to reality.
But bear in mind that the cost of putting together such a facility was then, and remains, significant. Also remember that during those years the Ford Motor Company located on the border between Lorain and Vermilion. With it came a tsunami of workers and their families to our area. A partial result of these factors was that in 1962 ground was broken to build the Lorain Community Hospital (now Mercy Health Partners). This facility, along with Lorain’s St. Joseph’s Hospital, immediately increased the availability of emergency health services for the entire region.
And while efforts for the Vermilion facility continued, in 1968 Del Orwig, then President of the Vermilion Hospital corporation, publicly worried that the expansion of Lorain medical facilities “might create an apathy among our citizens and slow up our local project.” And that, in a nutshell, is exactly what happened.
In late January 1970 Miles Shilling fell ill at home and was rushed to the hospital in Lorain where he passed into the hands of God. He was 51 years old. “Doc’s” dream had become only a paper dream – an architect’s drawing – that maybe only a few may recall. But it really and truly was a good one.
©RNT November 11, 2024 
the history of erie county in ohio (Continued)
488EC…The first tree was cut down by Docartus Snow, in 1810, who was given a. hundred acres of land because he had put up a grist-mill. He was the father of the first baby born in the township, Robert Snow.
The first marriage was that of Charles Butler and Clarissa Parker. The first deaths were those murdered by the Indians in 1813. The first house was built by D. Snow, of logs, in 1810, at the head of Cold Creek. The first mail from Sandusky City to Lower Sandusky, was carried on horseback, and established in 1825. It was taken once a week. The first postmaster of Margaretta was Sam. B. Carpenter. In 1810 Cleveland was the nearest post-office. The first store in Margaretta was started by Major Fred. Falley, for trading with the Indians. He afterwards went into the service of the government to furnish army supplies. Saloons have had a thriving business in this township, and the history of their success can be read on the tombstones of their graveyard.
The first change was made by cutting a silver dollar into ten, shilling pieces Skins and furs were made commodities of exchange. Grain would not buy goods at any price, and the problem of clothing a family was the most perplexing one that came to the early settler. None but nabobs had a whole suit of clothes made of cloth. Deer skins were used for men and boys. Ladies then could spin and weave, ‘and were proud of their work. In 1821 Captain Andrus Parker put up twenty barrels of pork and shipped it to Montreal, for which he never received a single cent.
The first market for cash was known only at the opening of the Erie canal, and this brought a little money to the settlement.
The first school-house was built of logs, at the junction of the Venice and Cold Creek roads, in 1818, by Captain A. Parker, and some neighbors. This had the first teacher, Thomas McCullough, who received fifteen dollars a month for his services, and had that first winter twenty-five scholars. After that Rev. Alvin Coe, who had been teaching Indian children in Greenfield, moved his school to Venice, and taught all the children in the vicinity. Some of the best district schools that have ever been taught in the township were taught in those days, and the early teachers deserve a most honorable mention. in history. A few of them were A. W. O’Brien, of Maine; Jonathan Fuller, James F. Wilson and John W. Falley.
The first physician settled in this place was Dr. Hartshorn, in 1817. There are churches in this township, but history fails to record who preached the first sermon. In 1819 a Presbyterian Church was organized in Margaretta and Groton, by Rev. John Seward. Its members moved away and the organization died. In 1823 a Baptist Church was started, having its members in Oxford, Groton and Margaretta. This was the only church that sustained regular services in the township for several years. Deacon R. Falley was the most prominent member, and owing to his efforts it was kept alive through…
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY OHIO – With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers – Edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich – Syracuse N.Y. – D. Mason & Co., Publishers – 1889
