I am nearing the end of posting some of the many interesting items from the 5 May 1904 edition of the Willshire Herald, a newspaper that my great grandfather Louis J. Schumm saved. I have been posting items for several weeks now and have not yet covered all the information about the area people and the businesses in and around Willshire.

How ironic, this past week, while going through and sorting some digital photos my dad saved, I saw that he also scanned this very same newspaper. Evidently my dad also found the local news from 1904 interesting and scanned several items before he and my mom stored the newspaper away. It must be a family thing!   

More from that 1904 edition of the Willshire Herald:

The following group of items was under the heading Little Bopeep Items. This seems to be a strange heading but has some information about some local people. Maybe you will see one of your ancestors mentioned:

Bo-Peep Items, 1904 Willshire Herald.

Little Bopeep Items
The roads are better at present.
Wm. Tinkham was collecting money for the quarterage last week.
Frank Sipe has put up a picket fence within the last month.
Mrs. Jacob Vogt is on the sick list.
Matie Fogle visited Mrs. Martha Grim and family last week.
Eleanora and Catharine Reitz, of New Corydon, visited Mrs. C. Kuntz last week.
Mrs. Silas Oliver and daughter visited Mrs. Jennie Hecker last week.
June McDaniel has the scarlet-rash.
The two youngest sons of Allen Waggoner have the whooping cough.
Mrs. Mary Marbaugh visited her mother last week, who has been sick for a short time.
Mrs. Martha Grim was the guest of Mrs. Rebecca Bevington last Saturday afternoon.
Harry Stopher was the guest of Jennie Tinkham last Sunday.
Mrs. and Mrs. F.M. Tinkham made a flying trip to Decatur last Friday.

I am not exactly sure where Willshire Center was. Perhaps a reader knows.

Willshire Center Items
F.G. Roehm and J.C. Schumm were Willshire business visitors Wednesday.
Mrs. Wm. Buechner visited her sister, Mrs. F.G. Roehm, Wednesday.
W.A. Carter, of Pleasant Mills, was seen in our neighborhood last Wednesday.
C. Ault is teaching the spring term of school at Willshire Center.
J.S. Schumm is putting down a new dry well on his place and will erect a new windmill and put in a pump.
Mrs. John Roehm, Mrs. Fred Schinnerer, and Mrs. John Buechner spent Sunday afternoon very pleasantly with Mr. and Mrs. F.G. Roehm.

Some news from neighboring Adams County, Indiana:

Adams County Items
Will this winter ever end and summer come?
Old Mr. Lizar, of near Steele, is lying at death’s door with consumption. Henry Durrs visited John P. Hillyard’s last Sunday.
John Hoblet and family were calling on friends in this community last Sabbath.
R.O. Elston was at Berne Sunday.

Marriage:
Mr. and Mrs. James Gause were at Van Wert last Wednesday, for the purpose of procuring a marriage license for Mr. Loop and Parmelia King. They also brought home with them some of the very dainty refreshments served at the wedding dinner.

A Birthday Dinner
A grand birthday dinner was served at the home of Grandpa and Grandma Dull, two and one-half miles north of Willshire, last Sunday, May 1^st, in honor of the 87^th birthday of Mr. Dull. Those present and partaking of the splendid dinner and having an enjoyable time were their children, grand-children and great-grand-children, as follows: U.S. Dull, wife and child; A.W. Dull, wife and two children; S.R. Dull, D.L. Spahr, Miss Maude Spahr, C.M. Spahr, Will Myers and wife, Mrs. O. Swoveland and child; Dorcie Morehead and wife; Charles Dull, Bessie Bell, Samuel Slater, Marion and Flossie Baxter and Albert Case.

And finally, a Resolution:

Resolutions
Whereas: God in his wise providence has seen fit to remove from our Sunday school little Ruth Krick, we deeply mourn our loss yet our loss is Heaven’s gain. Be it resolved, that we extend our deepest sympathy to the bereaved family and that these resolutions be spread upon the minutes of the Sunday school and a copy presented to the family and one to the Willshire Herald for publication. Committee.

Today, more about Willshire, Ohio, in 1904, from information taken from the 5 May edition of the 1904 Willshire Herald.

From this newspaper I learned that Willshire once had a canning factory, which was mentioned several times in the paper. They were trying to convince local farmers to grow tomatoes or sweet corn for the factory:

The Willshire Canning factory now has over 150 acres of sweet corn and tomatoes contracted. Better get into the band wagon while there is yet a chance to toot a lead horn.

 And:

Farmers, Attention!
All persons desiring to avail themselves of the opportunity to raise sweet corn or tomatoes for the Canning Factory for the coming season, can contract with the processor, Chas. Nachbauer, on or after March 10, at the Hardware Store of Hurless & Brown, Willshire, O.

Professor Catchpole is going to put in his summer vacation superintending and caring for fifteen acres of corn and tomatoes, for the Canning Factory. How much better such a course is than to sit around like a bump on a log and croak against the Canning Factory and its success, as a number of our citizens are doing.

A couple testimonials:

Another Testimonial
This is to certify that I had out eight acres of tomatoes and raised 420 bushels to the acre, which made a profit of $52.00 an acre. This crop I raised in Lewis township, Clay County, Ind., in 1903, for the Clay City Packing company. I intend to raise another crop this year for the same company, as I consider it the most profitable kind of farming. If there is anyone who desires to inquire into this statement, I refer them to the Clay City Packing Co., Clay City, Ind. Yours truly, L. Phegley.

Willshire Herald, 1904

 And:

DOES IT PAY?
Read this statement from men who have raised material for canning factories and then ask yourselves this question: DOES IT PAY NOT to RAISE VEGETABLES for the CANNING FACTORY WHEN YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY? Following is the statement of one of them:

Clay City, Ind., April 19, 1904.
“We made a little over One Hundred dollars an acre off our tomatoes. So, you see, it paid us well for raising them. There are a number of others here who did as well. I will give you a few names of farmers around here who say that it paid them to raise tomatoes for the factory.

Wm. Liechty
George Williamson
Robert McKee
Mr. Phegley

And there are many others who would willingly add their testimony, but I think that it is not necessary to mention the names of others.

Yours truly, J.P. Scherb, Clay City, Ind.”
The above letter was written to Chas. Nachbauer, processor for the Willshire Canning factory.

Willshire Herald, 1904

One final item about the canning factory:

C.E. Detter is now at Oklahoma City, working up a $15,000 canning factory proposition. He says that city is a hustling, bustling place.

I wonder where the canning factory was located? Perhaps someone knows.

Willshire had a bank in back in 1904:

Willshire Bank
Willshire, Ohio
Henry Altheon, President
Alex Beall, Cashier
Do a General Banking Business
Collections Promptly Attended to
Banking Hours, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Willshire Bank, 1904

The following ad gives you an idea of home prices in 1904. William G. Hoffer was the man to see if you needed a home loan:

Who Has Money to Loan?
We can place at once $2,500 on First Mortgage.
$400 on a good residence property, located on a good street, worth $700.
$150 on a good residence property and one and a half acre of ground, worth, when house is completed, $900.
$600 on a good building lot, and house when completed, worth $900.
$500 on a good building lot, worth when house is completed, $900.
We have for sale, one residence property for $550.
Another for $1,000.
Another for $600.
Still another for $900.
And yet another for $1,350.
Wm. G. Hoffer,
Willshire, Ohio.

Wm. G. Hoffer, 1904 Willshire Herald

And William G. Hoffer could also set you up with property insurance:

Why Insure Your Property?
Because it is a business proposition.
Because the rate on residence property and household goods—three years for one per cent—is cheaper than you can carry it yourself.

Let Us Place Your Insurance
Because the commission don’t go out of town—you get a chance to get part of it back. You never do if you insure with an outside agency.

We represent the Anchor, Glens Falls, Connecticut, American Central, National, Commonwealth—all as good as the best and licensed to write fire insurance in Ohio—and James Watkins & Co., general insurance agents, Chicago, Illinois.

Place your next order for insurance with us.

Your truly,
Wm. G. Hoffer

Hoffer was a very busy man. He was also the publisher of the Willshire Herald.

Finally, the Willshire Markets in 1904:

The prices are much different than today’s prices, with some different items mentioned.

What was going on in Willshire, Ohio, in 1904? You can get a good idea from their town newspaper, the Willshire Herald, William G. Hoffer, publisher.

I am still going through the 5 May 1904 edition of the Willshire Herald that my great-grandfather Louis J. Schumm saved. I have so enjoyed going through this paper and I hope others also find it as interesting as I do. Today, more items from that 1904 newspaper.

The Willshire Herald, 1904.

Some items for sale:

For Sale—Covered ice wagon, one-ton capacity. Address Art Swoveland, Wren, Ohio, or inquire at the Herald office for particulars and price.

Saw Mill for Sale—A complete saw mill outfit for sale, located 1½ miles north of Schumm station. The equipment consists in part of 30 HP engine and boiler, planer, re-saw machine, 42-inch gristmill burr, edger, grind-stone, 3 feet in diameter; emery gumming machine, cut-off saw, etc. Everything in good shape. Inquire of J.G. Grund, RFD No. 2, Willshire, or at this office, for price and terms.

For Sale—Oil lease, 1½ mile east of Willshire, L.G. Schumm farm, 160 acres. Also 60 feet 2 in. x 8 ¼ inch pipe and 386 feet of 53/8 inch casing. Call on or address S.G. Parks, no. 219 E. Market St., Lima, Ohio, or Wm. G. Hoffer, Willshire, Ohio.

I wonder if that could be my great-grandfather, but his name was Louis J. [Johann] Schumm.

Oil lease for sale, LG Schumm farm, east of Willshire, 1904.

Some of the terms used in this newspaper are archaic and rarely used today. I have added some definitions and explanations in the footnotes.  

There were some visitors to Willshire in the spring of 1904:

Billy Dorfer, of Dayton, representing the Cincinnati Delicatessen Supply company, of Cincinnati, was a Willshire visitor last Thursday and Friday, both in a business capacity and as the guest of Sam Stein. Mr. Dorfer is an old-time knight of the grip, and takes pleasure in mixing up with the boys of the towns he visits. He had a number of friends in this town who are always pleased to see him. [1]

L.L. Rigdon, jeweler, optician and newspaper owner and solicitor, was a Willshire visitor last Friday, between trains. He is rather pleased with the showing he is making as a promoter of a newspaper property, and it would not surprise us much if he was to drop all other lines and take up active newspaper work.

I wonder if the following story actually occurred:

Earl Stetler and Charley Tague sighted a strange looking water fowl on the river last Wednesday, right back of the old stone crusher, and immediately set about winging it. The bird was fired at half dozen times but kept on down the river, with Stetler and Tague in pursuit. They finally succeeded in planting a load of shot in it, when near the Pleasant Mills Bridge, and captured it. They brought the bird back to town, unable to name it. The trophy was exhibited to Ot Botkin, town Birdologist, who unhesitatingly pronounced it a Loon, remarking at the same time, that the town was full of loons, but that was the only one that had wings, and it is dead. Loon, you know is one of the dictionary names for rascal. [2]

A warning about hoboes:  

Pan-handlers and hoboes are becoming numerous—more so than for years—and all are heading for St. Louis and the fair. They are not the common run of tramps, but seem to be high-class artists in the fakir line. Our townspeople should give these wayfaring fakirs to understand that their room is preferable to their company, and the marshal should see that they pull out of town almost before they light. [3]  

News from the Pythians:

Hon. C.V. Hoke, the Happy Holligan of Van Wert County Pythians, has a large sized boom for election as Grand Outer Guard at the Grand Lodge meeting in Cleveland next month. Hoke is not only one of the most enthusiastic of Pythians, but he is also one of the most deserving. The Grand Lodge will bring honor on itself by elevating Mr. Hoke to the position for which the Fifth district Knights in convention assembled nominated him by unanimous consent. [4]

Construction going on in Willshire:

Stakes have been set for two new dwelling houses. When completed they will be for rent. These houses will be wooden structures and will occupy a portion of the site of that much-talked-of-but-never-to-be-realized-brick-block. Somebody ought to be ashamed of themselves for the fizzling out of that proposed venture. If ever a town stood in need of cement block, brick or stone business buildings, that town is Willshire, Ohio.

There is so much house building in sight that people are now beginning to quarrel over the laying out of streets.

Evidently there was some brawling in Willshire:

The Herald has been accused of “keeping quiet” on fights that have occurred in town the past month, but the fact is we knew nothing of them until long after they had been pulled off, and to tell of them now would not be news.

News about kids playing ball:

We saw five boys and a girl playing scrub ball Friday and you can bet the boys were doing the batting and the lone girl was acting as back-stop and fielder, while the boys all screamed at once: “Hurry up, can’t you!”

[1] Knights of the Grip: traveling salesman for at least a year and under 50 years of age.

[2] Ot Botkin: storyteller; not a real person; this name originates from the UK and was used years ago to attribute a story to someone, in this case a fictional character.

[3] Fakir: a religious ascetic who lives solely on alms; needy man; a Muslim or Hindu.  

[4] Knights of Pythias: a secret fraternal organization founded in 1864.