The Twentieth Century of Ashtabula 1909 Part 5 By Darrell E. Hamilton for Sunday, May 18, 2014 In Conneaut William Torrence agee 28 in September of 1909, a well known and popular side walk contractor was instantly killed at the Harbor Street Lake Shore crossing. Mr. Torrence was laying cement walks on Harbor Street when he went to cross the tracks. He saw the train coming fast and tried to get over ahead of it but slipped and fell on the rails right in front of the big locomotive which could not stop in time to prevent him from being ground up to bits under the wheels. Mr. Torrence is survived by his wife and one child who reside in East Conneaut. This is the third fatality that has occurred on the Lake Shore tracks within a week close to the same spot. Over one hundred thousand dollars was spent in Ashtabula on the west side in the summer of 1909. In today’s terms, that would be translated into many millions of dollars. The “hot houses”, now commonly called green houses were added mostly for the production of tomatoes. Roger W. Griswold built the most with twelve new hot houses measuring 359 feet by 25 feet. Dunbar and Hopkins built eight new greenhouses measuring 400 feet by 25 feet. Ashtabula was one of the largest hot house centers in the United States and one day would be known as “The Green House Capital of the World”. Ah yes! Ashtabula was a Great City at one time! There was money to be made here. If you don’t believe me, go past and into the old Griswold Mansion which is located where the Humphrey Insurance Agency is located now! In 1909 the first primary was held in Ohio under the new Primary Act in September. In 1909 the majority of the registered voters in Ashtabula County were Republican as it had been since the Civil War. The Democrats had no primary as they didn’t have enough candidates to run against each other. The real contest was between the Republicans. The first Democrat ever elected in the city of Ashtabula that I could find was Clarence Darrow, probably the most famous attorney that ever lived in the United States in the 1880’s. Mr. Darrow was very well liked and an excellent speaker. He was elected City Solicitor. However he left Ashtabula and went to Chicago on not so good terms. It was not something he did though. However I guess that is another story. I guess the Democrates owe Clarence Darrow a great deal of thanks. He was also my wife’s great-great uncle. The primary was held on Tuesday, September 1909. Mayor Hiram D. Cook received one thousand votes over his opponent, County Auditor P. C. Remick who had 891 votes. Vice-Mayor Samuel F. McDonald ran unopposed. If you remember right, Samuel McDonald is the same man that made that awesome speech on the dedicated of the new Federal Building in Ashtabula in 1910. School started for the North end schools of Ashtabula on Tuesday September 8. When I went to school, school never started until the day after Labor Day. Of course we didn’t get time off for Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day and all the other made up holidays like teacher’s conference day or what ever they call it. I also thought we received a better education. Most of he teachers then were unmarried women and all the principals of the schools except for Harbor High school were unmarried women. W. E. Wenner was the Superintendent of Schools. The average monthly wage of a teacher for high school in 1909 was ninety-six dollars a month for male teachers and seventy-four dollars for female teachers. Maybe that is why they hired more female teachers! Below Harbor High School 1891
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 03:35:21 +0000
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