Historic Bridge - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Historic Bridge

The New Bremen Historical Society recently posted an article about the so called “Morrison Bridge”, a 160 year old span that provides pedestrian access across the Miami-Erie canal in New Breman. In 1864, it was located at Blackhoof Street over the Auglaize River in Wapakoneta.The bridge represents an early example of the work of David H. Morrison, founder of the Columbia Bridge Works of Dayton, Ohio, and one of the most important bridge engineers and manufacturers in 19th century Ohio. The span is considered among the oldest such cast iron bridges in the United States and is commemorated in the Library of Congress.

My cousin Joan sent the article to me as her brother Joe (pictured left) had been instrumental in relocating and restoring the bridge. Joe grew up along the canal in Minster, moving to New Bremen after getting married in 1975. He coincidently attended a New Bremen Village Council meeting in 1984 where a presentation by Auglaize County Bridge Engineer Dan Bennett caught his attention. The historic bridge was no longer fit for vehicular use and Bennett was presenting to all the local governments in the county hoping the historic span could be relocated and restored as a pedestrian bridge. Cousin Joe took interest and didn't want the bridge to be destroyed, so he purchased it for $650, two times the scrap value at the time.

Joe teamed up with other civic-minded New Bremen residents to form the New Breman Bridge Committee, working with the County, village officials and the local Lions Club to identify the preferred site along the canal. They settled on a spot adjacent to historic Lock One, the highest elevation lock along the canal route. The County had already disassembled the old bridge and agreed to transport the components to New Bremen. The Committee then went to work preparing the site including temporarily draining the canal, pouring the concrete abutments, sand blasting the 1000+ parts, while also narrowing the bridge from 17’ to 8’ to accommodate pedestrian and bike traffic.

Several of the vertical cast iron supports had been replaced with steel plates over the years, so the Committee found a local foundry to cast new iron supports using original supports as a pattern. The actual out-of-pocket cost to purchase and restore the bridge was $3,500, which was funded by donations from the New Bremen residences and businesses. Local contractors graciously volunteered their time and equipment to help assemble the bridge.

When it was finished, several ancestors of David Morrison, the original bridge builder, attended the dedication. The following plaque commemorating the historical significance of the bridge is mounted on a stone pedestal at the foot of the bridge.

Fast forward to 2007, cousin Joe surprisingly noticed the color of the bridge was red compared to the original black. He was shocked and immediately appealed to the Village Council, who had it quickly repainted to the original black according to this article entitled “Red Faced over Bridge in Bremen", while also putting in place provisions to keep it that color forever.

Sadly in 2015, Joe Eilerman passed away at age 64. His obituary, which references his work on the historic bridge restoration, can be accessed at this link. Below is his holy card; RIP cousin Joe.

Joe inspired another of our cousins, Duane Gaier, Sidney Parks & Rec Director, to successfully pursue a grant to move and restore another Auglaise County Morrison bridge pictured above for use as a pedestrial bridge across the canal feeder in Tawawa Park. That work will be completed in 2025 and cost the City $44,000 as described in this News Flash on Sidney’s website. Looks like Duane could use ole Joe’s help restoring this baby!

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Job Change - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Job Change

Yesterday was exactly 50 years ago that I joined Ford Motor Company, an eventful day in my career and in our family’s lives. As newly weds, my wife and I were living in Dayton where she worked as a legal assistant at a Dayton law firm and I worked as an engineer at Frigidaire Division of General Motors. About six months after we were married and a year after I graduated from General Motors Institute, our chief engineer called a meeting one Friday afternoon to inform us our engineering department was being transferred to Harrison Division in Lockport, NY near Buffalo. Our jobs would be moved over the next 6-12 months. Needless to say, that was quite a shock. Eventually it became clear that the transfer was in preparation for the subsequent sale of Frigidaire to White Consolidated, now Electrolux Corporation.

Our choices were to make the move to NY, work for White or quit. Even though it meant significant change in our lives, we took it in stride and promised each other we'd make the most of whatever transpired. That same weekend, around 10:00pm Sunday night while reading the newspaper in bed, my wife noticed a want ad for engineering opportunities at Ford. She showed me the ad and I immediately called the number shown. A fellow by the name of Norm Cordon answered, and after explaining our situation, he invited me to breakfast before work the following morning. Norm was a Ford recruiter who was staying in a local Dayton hotel room over the weekend to respond real time to potential employment enquiries from the ad. GM had four divisions in Dayton, so Ford would routinely send recruiter for the weekend. The timing could not have been better for us.

We met for breakfast the next morning, and after hearing my background, as I had no resume to give him, invited us to Dearborn, the location of Ford’s headquarters, for an interview. Dearborn was much more appealing that Lockport, NY, so off we went the following weekend to check out the area and hold the interviews. I met with several Ford managers on a Saturday afternoon, resulting in an attractive on-the-spot offer. Once returning to work that Monday, I notified my boss that I’d be leaving; however, he and his boss talked me into reconsidering telling me more about the Lockport situation and opportunities a move there would provide. So I called Ford and turned down their offer, anticipating a trip to Lockport to check out that area. But within two hours of my call to Ford, a counter offer was presented that was too good to turn down. Meanwhile, my wife had to share the bad news with the law partners who were very disappointed to see her leave. They had been to our wedding and had become good friends as had several of my co-workers at Frigidaire. We lost the deposit at our apartment, but as it turns out, Ford considered that a moving expense they covered.

So off to Dearborn we moved, but not before buying our first Ford vehicle, a beautiful green Mercury Cyclone. Ford would likely frown on the Corvette I drove at the time. We rented a nice apartment, and met some lifelong friends that first memorable summer around the pool and playing for a winning softball team of fellow apartment dwellers. The new job was going great. But like most of our friends, we were spending every dollar we made, living pay check to pay check. We wanted a house, so saving for a down payment was top priority. My wife worked at a local clothing store (she loved the discounts). Plus we developed a budget to manage our expenses and save for a down payment. After two years, we had enough to buy our first place. Ford had a relationship with local Manufacturers Bank (since acquired by Comerica) offering a significant interest rate discount to Ford employees. Inflation was a whopping 13.4% and mortgage interest rates stood at 8.75% but I seem to recall Manufacturer’s fortunately offering Ford employees 5%. Here’s a past blog about our first home, including the budget we used to save the down payment.

Meanwhile, back at Frigidaire, the transfer to Harrison was underway. The person who took my place was another engineer by the name of Bill Hill, who was a fellow General Motors Institute graduate and a younger fraternity brother of mine. I had recruited him to the fraternity so we were close friends, plus he was about to graduate. Bill and his wife Carol enjoyed their stint in Lockport, as he became the resident expert on an emerging environmental issue at the time; the depletion of the ozone layer over the north and south poles caused by Freon, the air conditioning refrigerant invented by Frigidaire in 1930 that revolutionized refrigeration. Bill contributed immensely to developing and implementing alternate refrigerants that do not deplete the ozone layer. Here’s more on that successful effort.

It would have been challenging to be involved in such a program, but who’s looking back? Just me in every blog I write! Stay tuned, Fish Report readers.

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Mail Box Damage - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Mail Box Damage

Our mailbox was knocked off its post recently as shown in the photo above and the incident reminded me about frequent damage to Dad’s mailbox located at the end of our long lane on Friemering Road west of Ft. Loramie shown below.

Dad and his brother Bob who lived on the farm across the road from us were always frustrated to have their mailboxes damaged. The road was an alternate route between Minster and Ft. Loramie that avoided the busier and more patrolled SR 66. So kids cruising between the two towns would tend to use that route.

The typical damage was incurred by flying beer bottles, cherry bombs or someone accidentally hitting the mailbox with their vehicle. Anytime something happened, Dad or Uncle Bob would chase after the hooligans. One time Dad caught up with the car that had blown up our mailbox on the 4th of July and discovered the driver to be the son of our milkman, a close friend of Dad’s, so the kid was let go but not before Dad “confiscated” the fireworks. Our family had quite a 4th of July show later that evening! On another incident, Uncle Bob also tracked down some kids who had damaged his mailbox and discovered one of them in the car was his niece. Needless to say, soft hearted Uncle Bob let them go as well.

A few years later while taking a welding class in college, as my project, I welded up a metal mailbox as a Fathers Day gift for Dad. It was somewhat crude, heavy but very effective, as it would repel any beer bottle and withstand a cherry bomb. My friends and I in the welding class had even tested it to make sure! Dad mounted it on a steel post cemented in place, so that mailbox could survive anything. His best Father's Day gift ever, so he claimed!

As a teenager myself, I can recall doing some damage to mailboxes, mostly throwing empty beer bottles at the target with my friends before heading to Eagle Park in Minster for their infamous Friday night dances as documented in this past blog. One night around 1:00 am after Eagles, I must have fallen asleep at the wheel and hit a mailbox myself. Had it been a bridge abutment instead, you wouldn’t be reading this blog right now!

Regarding my current mailbox damage, a neighbor was walking her dog and noticed the garbage truck had stopped at the end of our driveway even though she knew we had no garbage since we were wintering in Florida. She then noticed the downed mailbox and sent me an email about what she saw. Since the garbage company GFL is contracted by the City, I called our City Manager about the damage and he promised to investigate the matter. A day or so later, an official from GFL called me and indicated they interviewed the two workers on the truck and both corroborated that the mailbox had been damaged prior to their arrival and was laying in the street so it had to be moved aside before they could get by.

Given that testimony, I checked our front camera doorbell as the mailbox can be seen from that view. Unfortunately, the doorbell camera can only record events when motion is sensed near the front door or when the doorbell is pushed, so that was no help. Our neighbors have a security camera facing their front yard and perhaps their camera caught something. Once the neighbors checked, the garbage truck had indeed hit the mailbox as shown in the still photo above.

The caretaker who checks our place weekly while we are gone also was dispatched to the scene to temporarily repair the mailbox. He did a quick and dirty fix as shown above and later came back to make a more palatable fix before I got a blight ticket. While remounting the mailbox, he noticed several witness marks on the door of the mailbox with the same green paint color as the garbage truck. Further confirming the situation, our mailbox has a sensor inside that sends us a signal when the mailbox door is opened so we know when the mail has arrived. At the exact moment the truck hit the mailbox on the security camera video time-log, we received a text alert. So with that evidence in hand, the City Manager was again asked to intervene on our behalf. He reviewed the “evidence” with the Police Department and agreed to escalate the matter to GFL, so we’re waiting for the next shoe to drop. At this stage it’s a matter of principle.

Blame my stubborn determination on such matters to my Dad!

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