The Ashtabula County Historical Society
P.O. Box 36 Jefferson, Ohio 44047
Phone 440-466-7337

 

A Message From the President -

Greetings to everyone! We hope you have all had a fulfilling year!
Ashtabula County Historical Society has had a wonderful and successful year and we want to thank you for sharing it with us ! We worked hard this past year to make our traditional events better and our new adventures great! Some of you know that we added a Christmas wreath sale to our list of fund raisers thanks to Jean Regner who was able to acquire help from Girards Nursery. The sale has already been extremely successful. Thanks ]ean! We really look forward to next year and more enterprising ideas to add to our coffers. Log Cabin Days once again was a huge success thanks to Barrie and the cabin committee crew and other board members as well. We couldn’t have 511 those guests there if the yard was not made beautiful and the gardens maintained as well as all the maintenance on all of the structures! Thanks to you as well. All of you who helped with the quilt show and wine tasting events, you are the backbone of the society. Those of you who show up and throw in a hand with maintenance on the spur of the moment, to you we are eternally grateful. Every member of our board has played a huge part in the success of 2010. You all deserve a huge hand of applause! In addition to all of this, every once in a while, some extraordinary person, does something wonderful for others, but wishes to remain anonymous. That was just the case this year in late summer/early fall when I drove past the Giddings Museum only to discover that the exteriore had been completely cared for and painted ! We have no idea who did this incredibly selfless deed, but we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Whoever you are, we hope you are reading, and know that we fully appreciate your great effort and sacrifice of time.

lt is easy to come up with happy things to share about the society, but there are always a few downers that it is our duty to share as well. This year we had to allow our ever faithful and excruciatingly accurate historian, Norma Waters, to step down from her position so that she could concentrate on other activities. Norma, it has been our honor as well as the great fortune of the entire county, to have you serve as our historian. You are truly one of the greats. We can never thank you enough for all you have done to keep the pieces of Ashtabula County together. We know that future generations will thank you just the same. On an up note, we are pleased that we were able to fill the position with the incredible wealth of knowledge that has forever been the backbone of our society, our very own jean Metcalf. ]ean is a walking encyclopedia of Ashtabula history. Our history lies in very competent hands. Thanks ]ean for stepping up to bat !

Another piece of news that we regret having to share, is the great loss this past month of ]im Stevenson. ]im passed away the first week of December. He will always be remembered for his great love of the Blakeslee Log Cabin and all of the endless hours he volunteered for the betterment of the entire museum property. He will be sadly missed. 

In conclusion, l want to mention that there are now two openings on the board. lf you think you might like to be considered for a trustee position, please contact me so the board can do so. As we go forward into our new year, there are so many things to plan and lay ground work for. We are anxious to get started and anticipate nothing less than success. l want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and prosperous new year. We will see you at the next event!

Sincerely,
Cher Shepard

Thought for the day—

"History is priceless, as it helps us prepare for the future."

Museum Reports
Jennie Munger — It is our 50th anniversary! The actual transfer date was in
]anuary but we didn’t want to plan an event in winter. The anniversary banquet is planned for May 7. Come help us celebrate. Then the yard/craft sale will be May 28. We can set up indoors or outdoors according to the weather. Last year we did both and it worked out well. There is a wedding planned for the Munger as well. The date is scheduled for ]uly 2, so we will need help with heavy duty cleaning and outdoor landscaping. It has been pretty neglected the last couple of years. Have great Holidays!

]ean Metcalf

Blakeslee Cabin - It has been a quiet fall. The 200th birthday year is rapidly
coming to a close No other birthday activities are planned. As mentioned, we have lost one of the most important people in the saving and restoration of the cabin with the loss of ]im Stevenson. He was brain power behind the entire restoration. Without him and the many hours he put in at the cabin, I truly believe it would not be here today. Though he was not the only one, he was a driving force. I, myself, learned so much from him. He was also our first bean soup maker. There will be a short ceremony during next years Cabin Days to honor him.

The VOED boys probably won’t be back till spring. They are working on the shortest covered bridge. Two jobs remain. They need to finish the handicap ramp and the stone veneer on the west end of the barn. The work they have completed so far is extremely well done. The final inspection will come when they finish in the spring. The cabin is pretty well winterized with just a few things left to do. The last big job was decorating for Christmas. It was great to have the barn to work in and we willuse it that way for several jobs this winter. We have purchased a heater for the barn, so we will be able to do things we were not able to before. We have replaced the wood stove in the cabin with an electric one in hopes of making it safer. We acquired some carpet to put upstairs in the loft to cover up the cracks between boards up there.

As always, if anyone wants to use up extra hours they feel they need to get rid of, we can always put them to work in the spring !

Barrie Bottorf

The following is a planned schedule of events for 2011. Some of the activities may not have exact dates or times. For those events, we will update you in future newsletters or flyers.

Schedule of Events
]anuary 15, 2011 1:00 -3:00 P.M. Henderson Library. Annual membership
meeting.
February 12 - George Washington’s Horse’s Bean Soup and Cherry Pie Day at the log cabin. .
March - Bakeless Bake Sale.
April - Clean museums month @ Munger.
May 28 - Yard/Craft Sale at the Munger.
]une - open
]uly 2 - First wedding at the Munger. ·
]uly 16  Barn warming & membership picnic at the log cabin.
August 20 – 3rd Annual Wine Tasting & Pet Day at the Munger.
Sept. 10/11 - Blakeslee Log Cabin Days.
October - Ghost Walk at the Union Cemetery in Jefferson.
November - Wreath Sale and Christmas Parade.

Friday February 26,1965 will long be remembered as a dreadful winter day
to all those who remember the great fire on Main Avenue. According to an
article by historian Catherine Ellsworth, the temps leveled out at about 15 to 20 degrees with winds that blew 25 to 30 MPH. Fire had been spotted at the
Satellite Bar at the north side of the Ashtabula Hotel. It was said to be in the
basement, but the firefighters had difficulty locating the actual fire due to the
heavy smoke that was reported to be so thick that three minutes was all they
could stand before they were forced outside again. lt was 9 firefighters from the uptown station that first arrived, with 93 more fighters from neighboring
communities showing up on the scene before it was over. Even though the fire was hard to locate, it was a span of a mere 2 minutes from the time the call was made to the time that water hit the basement area of the bar. Smoke had begun to seep into the Ashtabula Motel where an Ashtabula Rotery Club meeting was taking place. Program chairman of the group claimed that he had a "hot program, but it got smoked out!” , and the meeting was adjourned with postponement of the program to the next meeting. Ladies in the lobby were unhappy for the interferance and requested to set up tables elsewhere and go on with their bridge game. Obviously not realizing their danger. The fire destroyed the businesses of the Nettleton and Morrison buildings, with smoke and water damage ruining and closing the Penny Furniture store as well. It would be 65 days before the Ashtabula Hotel could open for business again. During the rescue efforts, Painesville firefighter Howard Tuttle would succumb to a heart attack and several others would endure minor injuries for their efforts. The cause of fire was undetermined, with suspicion of a faulty furnace. The great fire was said to have had 10,000 viewers and would change the face of Main Street history forever.

1983 was the coldest Christmas on modern record for central and eastern US. More than 125 cities reported record low temps with 34 reporting all time lows for the month. Huntsville, AL hit 1 deg. and Galveston, TX plunged to14 deg. Snow covered ground from Great Plains to the Northern Appalachains.


A short word from the Treasurer:

Just a short word to let you know how are funds are doing. Our general fund that supports the Munger Museum, which is our main base of operation, and the home of the bulk of our collection and research materials, is not fairing very well in this economic setback. It takes a great deal of our funding to keep the Munger operational. We are making every effort to cut costs, such as turning down the heat to 50 degrees in the Winter, putting up plastic storm windows, not making long distance phone calls, no compensation for mileage or time spent helping people research in our archives or for docent at the museum. The costs to keep the museum running are over $6,000 annually. We used to receive a donation from the County to support the historic preservation of Ashtabula County but with the County’s financial woes that has not been available for the last 5 years.

Our membership dues raise only about $l000 per year. That leaves a shortfall of $5000. It is really important for our membership to support our fund raising endeavors. Your donations of time and money are very important to the continued existence of the Historical Society.

Our general fund balance is about $1300 for the balance of the winter. Our costs are $30 for sewer/water, $200 for gas heat, $65 for telephone and $55 for electricity — all monthly costs. So as you can see we are hanging on by a thread. The property/collection insurance is coming due and that will run about $800 for the general fund.

Thankfully, the Log Cabin monies are in very good shape and the Giddings
Operational Fund will hold out for another year or so before we can no longer afford the electricity for that building.

In closing, if you have any cost savings solutions or fund raising ideas, please share them with the Board. Remember, your support of the Historical Society is vital.
Please support our programs.

Respectfully,
Julie Miller, Treasurer

ACHS
P. O. BOX 36
]EFFERSON, OHIO
44047


ACHS Board Members - Pres.— Cher Shepard, Vice Pres. — Doris Cook,
Sec. — Nancy Arnold, Treas. — ]ulie Miller, Historian — ]ean Metcalf.
Trustees - Barrie Bottorf, Paul Kohta, Victor Palo, ]ean Regner, Marv Knasel,
Liz Knasel.