Tag: Reminisce

Thornton T. Mitchell was one of those people Lima’s newspapers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were fond of referring to as a “pioneer.” In Mitchell’s case the description was apt.

At the beginning of the 20th century about 500 Lima women were involved in clubs which met regularly in members’ parlors for luncheons and lively discussions of the arts.

“Tomatoes are piling up … Are our fighting men going to be the best fed fighters in the world or aren’t they going to have enough to eat?” Local newspapers and radio stations urged Auglaize Countians to peel tomatoes at Diegel Canning Company in 1944. The tomato canning plant, which operated in Wapakoneta for over 40 years, even asked local church women to assist in recruiting more workers during World War II.

Nineteen twenty-four had been a good year and, on November 27, Lima gave thanks.

LIMA — It’s a tradition seemingly as old as deer hunting itself.

In the first few decades of the 20th century, those who were young when Allen County was young were passing into history.

Lima businesses in the early 20th century seemed to be heeding the advice of 19th century New York newspaper editor Horace Greeley to “go west,” the Lima News wrote in May 1913.

It was a raw day with temperatures in the 40s and occasional rain showers raking the streets — and then it got worse. As darkness descended, temperatures fell, and a biting wind rose.

Cora May Davies worked at Lima City Hospital when both it and she were young. She was still there after more than three decades, the longest serving staff member, as the antiquated facility was succeeded by a shiny, new hospital on Memorial Day in 1933.

In the winter of 1906, it seemed possible Bluffton’s days as a college town might end a mere six years after they began, at least that was the editorial estimation of a newspaper in a rival town looking to lure that college away.