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Farmer’s Bank. I think there was something between, but I don’t know what.
Candy store, on the other side of the ally.
Karpeles Millinary Store. Mama used to take our hats in here or to Irene Ilger to be retrimmed every year.
Cahn’s Clothing Store.
Pille’s Store. Stoves, plumbing, etc.
McNulty House. This is where Bob lived before we were married.
Schneider’s bakery.
Backhouse’s Saloon. Johnny, the son, was in Florence’s class, but he spelled his name “Baccus”.
Moore’s Grocery
Gray’s Livery Stable. Then there was a blacksmith at the foot of the hill on Claremont, south of Main.
North Side.
Briggs and Shelly Shoe Store
Black’s Bakery
Alley that runs straight through as an extension to Center Street
Kunkle and Goods Dry Goods Store. Dr. Hisey’s dental office on 2nd floor.
Heltman’s Grocery
Bockley’s Drug Store
? Dry Goods Store. 3rd fllor was the Masonic Lodge, with entrance on Orange Street.
National Bank
Several small stores. Dr. Kressinger’s dental office was over on of these. When Aunt Margaret came down from Cleveland one time, she had to have some dental work done and went to Dr. Krssinger. He always said afterwards that she came down from Cleveland to have him do it.
Miller House, later owned and run by Aunt Anna and Uncle George Hemmingway.
Neeley’s Grocery
Keck’s Jewelry Store – where I bough my gold watch.
Louck’s Drug Store. All drug stores and both hotels sold whiskey.
Orange Street: Walleck & Frazee had their furniture and undertaking establishment on the east side of the street between Main and Third. Second Street was just an alley. On the other side of the street was the Post Office, back of the National Bank. There was a greenhouse between Third and Fourth, and from Fourth on to the railroad was the Myers factory.
Church Street: From Main Street to Second was a row of lowdown saloons on the west side. This block was called “Pious Row” on account of the saloons. Alsdolph’s was one of the worst, yet all the Alsdolph children have turned out well. There was a wide board walk along that side and the drunkards sat on tipped chairs against the 1 ½ story buildings. Alsdolphs lived upstairs.
Second to Third Street was the old stone jail, and to the left of it in the same yard was the Court House. Mr. Gates (Howard’s grandfather) was the jailer. Horne and Gribbons were two murderers who were in there, and we children used to stop on our way home from school to look at them. The scaffold was built just outside the jail, the day they were hanged we had no school and children were not allowed around the jail.
Third to Fourth Street, west side, were the Presbyterian Church of old stone and the old schoolhouse where Berta went to school. It looked like a two-room building, one story, but that is all I remember about it.
Right across from the school on the north-west corner was Dr. Clark’s office. He was the Hughes’ doctor. I remember once when Clair was a baby, he was having a hard time cutting his teeth and Berta called Dr. Clark. He looked at Clair and said he would have to score his gums. Then he started whetting his dirty pen knife on his boot, and I picked up Clair and ran off with him. They couldn’t find us, so Dr. Clark had to leave. The teeth came through by themselves.
On the south-east corner was the old Methodist Church where we used to go to church. A wide board walk led across the street. We went up steps to the auditorium. At the front of the room on the right was the “Amen Corner”. Some of the older people stat there and would yell “Amen” during the sermon. The seats went sideways to the rest of the congregation and almost up to the pulpit. Our pew was the second or third from the front. Just in front of us Mr. and Mrs. Corston sat. The whole tope of his head was bald so he left a little at the side grow long and brushed it over the top and fastened it with a hair pin. We were always watching to see if a fly would get on his bare spots.
As long as I can remember, Mrs. Sprengle was the infant teacher. My teacher was Mrs. Wardwell. At the time I was commencing to go with the boys, the girls of the crowd when to church regularly to evening services so the boys would take us home. This church later burned down.
Ashland was an incorporated town with a mayor and other officials. There was a volunteer fire department with two horse-drawn engines. Two horses were kept at the station, and they were the ones that were hitched to the pumper. When the fire-bell rang, the horses rant out of their stalls, under the harness which fell down on their backs, someone fastened the straps, and the horses went out of the station at a dead run pulling the pumper, with one man driving, and the other firing up the boiler to the pumper.
The hook-and-ladder was drawn by the first team of horses that reached the fire station after the bell rang. I think they used horses from drays, but my daughter remembers around 1914 hearing the fire-bell ring, and then seeing a moving van that had just loaded and pulled out of the yard pull up, while the drive jumped out, unharnessed the horses, jumped on one of them, and galloped to the fire station. She says teams were coming from all directions with their riders lashing them to win the race. The first driver got $2 and the honor of pulling the hook-and-ladder.
The city used to have a band wagon, with the last seat in the back up higher for the drum. It was pulled by two horses, and was used in all the parades. They had parades on all occasions and especially in the presidential years, when they always carried torches and wore capes made of oilcloth. I remember one time when Papa took part in the parade that Blain was running for president. They kept chanting “Blaine, Blaine, Blaine of Maine” while they marched – but Blaine got left anyway. I don’t know just what route the parades used, but they did go past our house.
I also remember that after electric arc lights replaced the gas ones, Charles Kettering came from his farm near Loudonville and serviced the street lights. Each day he’d have to go the rounds, lower the light, clean the two vertical carbons, and clean out the globe. Later he married Olive Williams who lived on Walnut Street. He invented the self-starter and the Delco lighting system, and later was with General Electric. When his son was married, he gave him a million dollars, and when he died he left an estate of 200 million dollars.
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