Fremont, Ohio Opera House

Fremont Ohio Opera House

Rutherford B. Hayes Library and Museums

 

In 1891 the Fremont Opera House opened to much fanfare.  The structure, located at West State and Arch Streets, replaced many smaller and cruder entertainment venues. Buffalo Bill of Wild West fame and magician Harry Houdini were among the national celebrities to perform at Fremont. 

With the coming of movie theaters, radio, and television, the old Opera House gradually declined. In its final days, it served as an Army Navy store before being razed in 1958 to make room for the Liberty National Bank. This photograph was taken in 1898. 

Elmore Manufacturing Company

 

Introduction

The Elmore Manufacturing Company began manufacturing bicycles   in Elmore, Ohio in  1892. The company relocated to Clyde, Ohio where it operated from 1893 to 1912. Automobile manufacturing began in 1898. The cars featured 2-cycle valveless engines. The Pathfinder won an endurance race from New York to St. Louis, and was exhibited at the World's Fair. Elmores were also used as taxi cabs.   At the height of its operation, the company made nearly 1,200 cars a year. In 1909, the owners sold the company to General Motors, which later moved it to Detroit, and eventually stopped production of the Elmore cars.

Pathfinder, St. Louis Exposition 1904

First Elmore Car  

Elmore Car 1905

                                                   

            Elmore Car 1906

Elmore Taxis

From Bicycles to Automobiles

The founder, Harmon Becker, moved to Elmore, Ohio in 1869 with his wife and four children. He established a sawmill and stave factory on the banks of the Portage River.  Becker and his sons, James and Burton, began manufacturing bicycles in Elmore 1892.

Looking for more spacious quarters to produce the Elmore bicycles, the Beckers in 1893 purchased an empty organ factory in Clyde, Ohio. The Elmore Manufacturing Company was located at 51 Amanda Street in Clyde from 1893 to 1912. From an operation that employed 50 workers and produced 500 bicycles in 1892, the new Clyde plant was able to manufacture 1,500 bicycles in 1898 with 80 employees.

Elmore Manufacturing Company, Clyde, Ohio

Not willing to sell their business to the American Bicycle Company, a trust, the Beckers quit making bicycles in 1897, and began to concentrate their energies on automobiles. The following year the Beckers began the construction of a two-cycle motor, and had a car on the road by early 1900.  By February 1 of that year, the very first Elmore car had been assembled with the  second following three months later. In 1902 the Beckers introduced a horizontal-type motor, changing the design in 1903 to a two-cylinder engine.

As production increased at the Clyde plant, more than 200 workers were employed, producing an average four cars per day.  On October 28, 1908, the Becker brothers incorporated the Elmore Manufacturing Company under the laws of the state of Ohio.  Nearly a year  later, James and Burton Becker, who had earlier bought out their father's interest in the car business, sold the company to General Motors on November 25, 1909 for a reported one million dollars. Burton A, Becker was to continue as the firm's general manager.

From Clyde,  Ohio to Detroit, Michigan

The year following the sale, GM spent $600,000 on an addition to the Elmore plant. At the height of its operation, the Elmore plant had nearly 500 employees who produced 1,100 to 1,200 cars each year.  The sudden resignation of Burton Becker in 1911 prompted General Motors to relocate the Elmore headquarters in Detroit. Later that year General Motors without notice closed the Elmore car works in Clyde, shipping all the factory's machinery to Detroit. The 1912 production was to include the following car line: Torpedo Roadster, Light Torpedo, and a five-passenger touring car.

In 1912 the "Fremont Daily News" reported that the former Elmore plant was to be sold to the Clyde Motor Company.  Although Krebs Commercial Cars and later Clydesdale Trucks  operated out of the old Elmore plant, both were only assembly jobs.  The depression of 1929 ended forever automobile production in Clyde, except for steering wheel parts made by the J.M. Machine Shop. With the dismantling of the Elmore car factory, no further Elmore cars were ever produced.

A version of this post first appeared on the Sandusky-County-Scrapbook that is no longer featured on the Internet.

Ohio's Revolutionary War Soldiers' Gravesites

 In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States of America 250-Ohio, in partnership with the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office, Terracon Consultants, Inc., Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution, are documenting the grave sites of Revolutionary War veterans buried in Ohio. 

More than 200,000 soldiers served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Lacking funds to pay its veterans, millions of acres in Ohio were set aside for veterans who received bounty land warrants to settle on. It is because of these lands, known as the United States Military Bounty and the Virginia Military Bounty, that as many as 7,000 veterans are buried in over 1,700 Ohio cemeteries. 

In early 2025, a campaign began to record  the gravestones of American Revolutionary War veterans and patriots buried in Ohio. This effort, the first of its kind in the state, calls on Ohioans to participate in field data collection. With more than 7,000 veterans' graves to document, public researchers are asked to help in this great task. 

These organizations believe it is our duty to document the past so that "generations yet unborn may know the sacrifice and achievement of their forbearers". For more information on how you can participate, go to the  Grave Marker & Cemetery Collection portal. Your help is needed in this monumental effort. 

As noted in an earlier post, on May 17th at 1 P.M. Ottawa County Ohio will honor five known Revolutionary War soldiers at the Wolcott Family Cemetery in Danbury Twp.