The Sherwood Story

Sherwood, 1881

 

Quoted from The Chronicle, Sherwood, Ohio, newspaper, 15 April, 1948 

"(In the winter of 1906, a special edition of The Chronicle was printed by publisher-editor, C. E. Dickey.  This edition, containing much historical background of the town and community, was in magazine form on slick paper and only a few of the copies remain.  One, the property of Mrs. J. V. Knisely, has been loaned to the present editors, and from it, has been taken the material for this and subsequent articles.)

The Sherwood Story

TOWNSPEOPLE BATTLED B. AND O. IN EARLY DAYS FOR SHERWOOD'S SURVIVAL

First It Was Snooksville

In 1873 , the site of Sherwood was a 'neighborhood' made up of several clearings in the big forest.  There was a school house out at the Pike ( now the junction of Route 18 and Route 127), known as the Collins School, with a larger enrollment than most of the schools of this county, owing to the district being rather thickly settled.

The Collins schoolhouse was famous in its way for its spelling bees, debates and exhibitions.  It also served as a place to hold revival meetings, funerals and so on, as the schools of those old days did.

The present Sherwood cemetery had also been started and there was a sawmill and approximately 20 residences and stores.  Previous to the plotting of the town, there had been a post office kept by Gilbert Coffin in his residence.  The post office went under the name of Snooksville, and afterward, Johnson Miller got the post office and kept it in an old log house on the Pike, and it was then called Snook's Run Post Office.

THEN IT WAS SHERWOOD

In 1874 the Baltimore and Ohio was built, and stations placed at Delaware and Mark Center. Elias Miller, William Rock and William Taylor platted out a town, but owing to some difficulties concerning the right-of-way, the B. and O. officials refused to put in a station.

Johnson Miller then got up a monster petition for a post office for the new town site.  Then a name had to be chosen. Each citizen seemed to have a good name for the new village, but it was suggested by Johnson Miller that, as the petition was being placed in the hands of Gen. Isaac N. Sherwood, then representing this district in Congress, that the town be named for him, which was done. *(At the date of the special edition in 1906, General Sherwood was still living in Toledo, where he was looked upon as a leading citizen, turfman, and politician.  It was said at the time that he had a lively interest in the town named after him.)

PEOPLE BUILT STATION

After the town was plotted, the railroad officials had to be reckoned with - and that took a lot of doing.

Mr. Dickey, in his mid-winter edition, insists that B. and O. officials 'had it in for Sherwood,' and refused to take notice of the settlement, which had a post office, but not a railroad station.  At the same time, Mark Center and Delaware Bend had stations, but not post offices.  It was very confusing.

In the meantime, E. Z. Miller, Stewart Miller and James Lacer had built a room and put in a grocery on the east side of the town's street near the railroad, and a little later, George Rock and a Mr. Harley put one on the present site of the Cooper Building.  Then came a saloon established by Peter Crookton and a grist mill, located where the Church of Christ now stands.

Meanwhile, heroic efforts were being made to get a railroad station, but the officials remained obdurate.  By a whole lot of persuasion, according to the Dickey article, The B. and O. agreed to unload the grist mill at Sherwood, the people building up a platform of railroad ties, etc. to unload upon.  After awhile, the company reluctantly decided to make the town a flag stop, if the citizens would build a depot and a freight house acceptable to the officials.  The people did so, and the resulting structures (still standing in 1905) did not cost the B. and O. a cent.  Also it should be recalled that Johnson Miller acted as agent free of charge.

                                                           Depot after 1906
PEOPLE PAID OPERATOR

Business picked up, a few more business places were started, and a telegraph office seemed desirable.  But the railroad again 'bucked' and would do nothing unless the people paid the operator themselves. The people 'dug up the coin' and for several years paid the operator's salary. Then the Miller Brothers, afterwards Miller, Rock and Co., began to buy grain, and the freight house was used for a grain house until an elevator was constructed, and the town became noted as a grain market.

During all this time, Mr. Dickey insists, the 'B. and O. kept the people crawling' until the C and N railroad was built in 1887.  Things changed then, for in the face of this new competition, the B. and O. was compelled to pay its own operator and provide better service for the town.

TYPHOID HIT TOWN

One of the sad occurrences of the early history of the town was the loss of seven members (about one-fourth the entire population) of the Taylor family because of typhoid fever.

The first hardware was established by Frank Bernard, the first undertaking business was founded by Jerry Bloom, and the first drug store was owned and operated by Dr. Comfort, a practicing physician.  About the same time, Dr. C. W. Kyle came to the town and set up a practice, and remained here until his death.

INCORPORATED IN 1891

In 1886, before the town was incorporated, the township voted 'dry' and the three saloons in Sherwood were put out of business.

In that same year, or shortly thereafter, the township built a three room schoolhouse, with W. W. Huff, the principal.  He tried hard, according to Mr. Dickey, 'to get the school graded and up to date, and the school developed a good reputation for the work done in it.'

The town was incorporated in 1891, with this move having the strong support of the 'wets' who wanted to allow the saloons to get started again, and also of many other citizens.

The first church built in Sherwood was the United Brethren, opposite the present U.B. structure. The initial structure burned in 1896, or thereabouts.  The Methodist Church was built in 1880, then the German Reformed Church in 1881, and the Disciple Church built in 1900.

TOWN HALL BUILT IN '97

The first mayor of the town was Z. H. Miller, and the first clerk, E. J. Potter.  W. F. Bloom was Marshall; Harry Rock, Treasurer; and C. I. Hartshorn, Emanuel Miller, J. K. Allender, John Openlander and W. E. Doud completed the Council.

In 1897, a proposition was presented to the voters of the town to issue bonds to build a town hall, and this carried by a substantial majority.

The business directory in 1906 read like this:

-General Store, The Bee Hive, Z. H. Miller and Hollis Miller

-Burger's Store (J. H. Burger, prop.) and The Blue Front, owned by C. H. Weaver

-There were two hardwares - The Sherwood Hardware Company, John Miller and C. H. Dunakin, and the Switzer Hardware, owned by C. Switzer

- C. W. Miller and B. A. Trubey operated shoe stores, while Will C. Newman

was in the drug business

-The two livery barns were operated by Heber, Miller and Lesh and E. Haver.

-The barber shops were run by W. D. Rock and B. N. Worthington.

-M. M. Haver was proprietor of the Haver Hotel, while H. I. Scott managed the Sherwood House, and both had plenty of patronage.

-The town had two lumberyards , the Neiderwur Wagon Company, building materials and planing mill, and Miller and Good, rough lumber and saw mill."

A Letter About School Days in Western Defiance County

After an article about schools in 1889 appeared in the Sherwood Chronicle, Mrs. J. E. Etchie wrote a letter to the paper telling of some of her educational experiences in the area.  The writer was most likely Josephine Ellen Etchie, former owner and publisher of this same paper, who often contributed items even after she was no longer in the business.  This letter, which was reprinted in the paper in April 1948, found the writer reminiscing about her attendance at several different schools in the county.  

"SCHOOL DAYS

Editor, The Chronicle:

In remembrance over my early school days, I can recall when I read in the primer.

My first teacher that I can remember was an elderly man by the name of Crowell.  Because of the small salary paid teachers in those days, he boarded among the scholars.  When in our house, I recall when supper was ready and he was yet in the school house, mother would send me to tell him that we were ready to eat.

The little white school house stood at what are now Sherwood Corners, where the Jones filling station is located.  It was called the Collins School, as that was the name of the party father bought the farm from.  Our house was just west.

The school house was the scene of many activities.  As I grew older and read in the sixth reader, there were spelling bees, and singing was taught there, too  Religious services, and now and then, a show would come along for a night's entertainment.  Some rough stuff was also occasionally pulled off.  Can recall one time in a singing school a man opened the door and rode in on horseback.

I also went to the Shoestring School, north of the corners.  The teacher, who had been a Confederate soldier and lost a leg to the service, taught us to sing a little song, the first verse of which I still remember:

'Forty little urchins coming through the door,

Pushing, crowding, making a tremendous roar,

Can't you be more quiet, can't you mind the rule?

Bless me! This is pleasant, teaching public school!'

I also went to school in my 'teen days in Mark Township, when the late Mrs. Elta Kyle, mother of Homer Kyle and grandmother of Mrs. Ethel Croyle, was the teacher.  The little school house, located north of Mark Center, was nearly surrounded by woods.  That was in the time immediately after the building of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad.  A little boy was asked by Mrs. Kyle to repeat a word he had just read, and he said, 'The train makes so d___ much noise (It was nearly a mile away) that I can't tell what it is!'

Before Sherwood was on the map, the nearest trading post was over ten miles away, and the nearest grist mill was in Brunersburg, where farmers took wheat to have it ground into flour.  Many changes have occurred since then.  Many new faces have taken the places of the early pioneers who came here to a new country of woods, stumps and muddy roads.  Folks didn't have much money, but I believe they lived happier and were more content than they are today in this 'cockeyed,' messed up old world, where wind, storms, floods, tornadoes are taking such a heavy toll of life and destruction of property, leaving so many homeless and without food.  To say nothing of the high 

cost of living, and another war in the making.  Seemingly, the end is not yet.  What think ye?

Mrs. J. E. Etchie

*The original letter was written before World War II which was then on the horizon.

Mrs. Etchie lived on North Harrison Street In Sherwood for many years and at the time of her death at the age of 87, her obituary appeared on October 5, 1950, in The Chronicle:

"Mrs. Josephine Ellen Etchie, who died at her home here Friday, is shown at work in The Chronicle office in this photograph taken some years ago.  Mrs. Etchie owned and edited The Chronicle for 36 years.

          MRS. JOSEPHINE ETCHIE, FORMER EDITOR DIES

Mrs. Josephine Ellen Etchie, former owner and editor of The Chronicle, died at her Sherwood home Friday evening.  She was 87.

Mrs. Etchie was buried Monday in Sherwood Cemetery, a scant half dozen steps from the grave of the late Charles Dickey, who founded  the Chronicle in 1902 and sold the paper to Mrs. Etchie eight years later.

Mrs. Etchie was born in Crawford County on February 8, 1863.  She was the daughter of Henry Rock and Elizabeth (Shawstoll) Rock.  She became a resident of Sherwood as a small girl - one of nine brothers and sisters - and was later married to Frank Etchie, who died in 1903.

In 1906 Mrs Etchie became the manager of the old Bell Telephone office here.  She held that post until 1910, when she purchased The Chronicle from Mr. Dickey.

Although several other attempts at publishing a newspaper here had failed, The Chronicle flourished under the guiding hand of Mrs. Etchie.  She remained at the paper's helm until her printer, the late Seth Noffsinger, died.  Unable to secure anyone in his place, Mrs. Etchie was finally forced to cease publication.  Her familiar pose, perching on the high stool, and her even more familiar, 'And that's that!' disappeared for a time until she sold the paper to Judson W. Arnett in 1944.  Mrs. Etchie never again entered the newspaper's office, although she was a frequent contributor of news items.

In addition to her editorial duties, Mrs. Etchie found time to be active in the Women's Relief Corps The Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the Methodist Church.

Last week, Mrs. Etchie caught cold.  It developed into pneumonia and resulted in her death at 6:15 p.m. Friday.  Funeral services were held Monday at the Moats Funeral home with the Rev. Anthony Drake officiating.  Mrs. Etchie is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Ora Lehman, Sherwood, and Mrs. Ray Porath, Alvordton; a son, Floyd, Defiance; eleven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. One other daughter, Blanche, preceded her in death, as did all of her brothers and sisters."