Henry Pletscher and Lake Erie's Buckeye Island

Henry Pletscher

Buckeye Island is a small outcropping of glacial rock lying on the northeast tip of South Bass Island. For Henry Pletscher is was much more than rock and reef; it was his retreat –a place of peace and quiet where he spent long summer days tending his garden and fishing with friends and family.

Born in Cleveland in 1842, Henry served with the 13th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in some of the Civil War’s fiercest battles. After 3 years’ service, he returned home to marry his childhood sweetheart. Following the death of their two-year-old son from diphtheria, Henry headed West in search of his brother. Gone for nearly two years, Henry discovered upon his arrival back in Ohio that his wife, believing him dead, had married again. Heartbroken, Henry set out for the West once more. He re-enlisted, serving in the U. S. Cavalry in the Dakotas and the Arizona Territory with famed Indian fighter General George Crook.

It was Henry’s stories of high adventure fighting the Apaches that held his nieces spellbound. In a 1991 article in the Put-in-Bay Gazette, niece Elsa Watters shared her childhood memories of summer afternoons with Uncle Henry, listening to his tales as they picked raspberries, caught crayfish, and searched for seagulls’ nests.

Henry Pletscher at his cabin on Buckeye Island

According to his niece, Henry purchased the island in 1909. There he built a cabin, tool shed, and dock for his fishing boat and those of the many relatives he invited to Buckeye. Sharing his special place was Henry’s way of repaying family members with whom he stayed each winter.

But Henry’s days on that idyllic island came to an end on his 76th birthday. After stopping for a drink, Henry mistakenly signed papers agreeing to sell Buckeye. The following day, after realizing what he had done, Henry was nearly overcome by the loss. But he knew his little retreat was gone forever. Elsa recalled that “after that day, he seemed to shrink in stature.” It wasn’t long after that he left his beloved island for the Sandusky Soldier’s and Sailor’s Home.

On their visits to Put-in-Bay, his nieces would often stop at Sandusky to see Uncle Henry. They thought he seemed content enough, but life was never the same for Hnery. As Elsa put it, “his sparkle was gone with his island.” Henry Pletscher died there in the spring of 1922.

Without Henry, the winds and waves of Lake Erie began to take their toll on the little island. The garden, cabin, and dock soon were gone. But for Elsa Watters and her sister, their childhood memories of summer days on Buckeye Island with Uncle Henry would remain forever.

That Magical Place: The Blue Hole

Blue Hole by Ernst Niebergall

If you grew up in northern Ohio during the 40s and 50s, chances are you made a trip to the Blue Hole near Castalia. I know I did. In fact, I recall passing through the impressive tufa rock entrance many times as we made our way to that fascinating natural phenomenon.

In my mind’s eye, I can still see myself as a child, bending over the rail of the rustic foot bridge. Mesmerized by the encrusted stumps and vegetation, I would peer deeply into the quiet blue-green waters of that “spring without a bottom.” With the vivid imagination of a child, I often wondered if it went all the way to China. What would happen if I fell in? Would I disappear forever like the farmer with his wagon and team of horses? Even though I later learned that the story was the stuff of legend, I am still certain that one time I saw a wagon wheel far below the Blue Hole’s quiet surface!

Blue Hole by Ernst Niebergall

I wasn’t the only one who found the Blue Hole a magical place. Long before Ohio was Ohio, the Wyandots believed the clear, cold waters held curative powers. And in 1761, when Major Robert Rogers first recorded the discovery of springs surrounding the Blue Hole, he called it a “remarkable fine spring.”

Years passed before I discovered that my mysterious Blue Hole was in fact a funnel-shaped sink hole created when pioneer Dorastus Snow built a grist mill and dam on Cold Creek in 1810. Water pooled, causing the collapse of strata in the area of the Blue Hole, allowing water to “spring” through to the opening.

The spring puts forth an estimated 450,000 gallons of water every hour! The water’s constant temperature of 48 degrees prevents the Blue Hole from ever freezing. Its color comes from its mineral content - potassium, magnesium, lime, soda and iron. Without oxygen, nothing grows in the enchanting pool of water that today measures 75 feet in diameter.

Owned by the Castalia Trout Club, the Blue Hole opened as a tourist attraction in 1925. Improved with fences, footbridges, walkways, and benches, “Ohio’s Greatest Natural Wonder” attracted an estimated 150,000 visitors annually during its heyday. On sunny days, visitors could see to a depth of 50 to 60 feet below the surface. The sun illuminated the openings through which water surged from the underground streams. After more than six decades, interest in the Blue Hole began to wane. In 1990, the Castalia Trout Club closed it to the public.

Whenever I grow nostalgic for those long-ago visits to the Blue Hole, I look at the photographs Ernst Niebergall took around 1910. They are now preserved in the Charles E. Frohman Collection at the Hayes Presidential Center. I see the Blue Hole in its natural setting, but it is one that I never knew. Now thanks to Glenn Kuebeler, I can enjoy Niebergall’s photos and many others that do depict the Blue Hole just as I remember it. Pick up Glenn’s book, “Castalia, Cold Creek, and the Blue Hole.” You will enjoy a memorable journey back to that magical Blue Hole of our past!

[This post was first published in "History Notebook" in Lifestyles2000]

Allison Gollehon: Free Lecture on Quilting, June 29th at the Hayes Presidential Center

The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, in conjunction with its exclusive exhibit Patterns from the Past: Quilts of Northern Ohio, presents a series of lectures by talented Ohio quilt artists and quilt experts.

Join Allison Gollehon of the Black Swamp Quilt Shoppe in Millbury at 2 P.M. Sunday, June 29th in the Hayes Presidential Center auditorium for the first in a series of 4 free lectures on quilting, A gifted quilt artisan, Allison discusses her favorite quilt medium in her talk titled Using Wool in Quilts. Her shop specializes in quilting-wool and she shares project ideas past and present with those in attendance.

Patterns from the Past: Quilts of Northern Ohio

Patterns from the Past: Quilts of Northern Ohio

Opening June 17th at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Patterns from the Past: Quilts of Northern Ohio explores the deep influences of community, geographic region, ethnicity, family tradition, and personal aesthetics women expressed by variations in style, patterns, and designs in their quilts. The more than 30 quilts in this exhibit were selected not for their beauty, but rather for the subtle reminders of the cultures and deeply held values of the diverse groups who made northern Ohio their home. Rich in color and detail, the quilts featured in Patterns from the Past are a reflection of the women and the communities that would shape the future of Northern Ohio.

Sponsored by the

Kate Doust Family

with additional funding provided by the

Jeanne Reed Foundation

Contributors

Mr. J. Patrick Doust

Firelands Historical Society Museum

Follett House Museum

Ms. Gretchen Schultz

Sandusky Public Library

Historic Lyme Village

Mr. Larry Michaels

Dorothy Metzger Family

Mountain Mist

Ms. Ricky Clark

East Toledo Historical Society

Mr. Dennis Park

Mr. Henry R. Timman

Economy Plumbing Supply

Ohio Historical Society

Sauder Village

Wood County Historical Society

Hayes Ohio Star Quilters Guild

Ohio's One Room Schoolhouses

Section 8 Ballville Twp. Sandusky County Ohio

(date unknown)

We still see them. They dot the rural landscape of Northwest Ohio. But today most exist in a state of disrepair, silently crumbling beside a country road, buried in the underbrush. Some have been converted into homes, garages, township storage buildings, and grange halls. Yet their very presence evokes nostalgia for many who view them as symbols of a simpler time. “One-room schoolhouses,” according to educator Fred Schroeder, “are cherished symbols of an all but vanished lifestyle: independent, family-centered, and consciously tied to the soil.”

Uniform in design with bell towers and tall, narrow windows and often constructed of brick, these American icons are in fact third-generation structures built in the 1870s and 1880s and later. Their predecessors were generally made of logs with window openings covered with greased paper, and floors of dirt or puncheon. Others were wood-framed with clapboard siding and cedar shingles.

If the architectural styles of the early one-room schoolhouses varied over time, their geographic location on Ohio’s rural landscape did not. This was spelled out in the Land Ordinance of 1784 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1785. Profits from the sale or leasing of the lands of section 16 in each township of the Northwest Territory were set aside to finance public schools. But sales were slow due to the abundance of land available

Laws establishing township school districts, inspectors, school committees, and a land valuation tax system soon remedied the situation, setting off a building boom of one-room schoolhouses across the state. So that no student would be forced to walk more than a mile, district boundaries were required to be no more than 4 square miles with the schoolhouse located near the geographic center.

Township trustees and their school committees oversaw the maintenance of the buildings, use of supplies, and expenses incurred. They kept track of the names, ages, and number of students in their districts. They hired, fired, and paid teachers as well as arranged for their room and board. All the while, they monitored the teaching abilities, character, and personal conduct of their educators.

The schoolhouse continued to play a central role in the lives of students long after their education ended. It was here that neighborhood dances, elections, prayer services, quilting bees, weddings, political rallies, and militia meetings were held. For decades, they remained at the heart of American rural life. Now long gone from our lives, it is little wonder that the legacy of the rural one-room schoolhouse lives on, forever interwoven into the fabric of our national heritage.
.

The Dillon House: A Legacy of Gracious Hospitality

72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Reunion at the Dillon House
(date unknown)

(Captain Jonathan Harrington Collection)

Among the fine Victorian homes that grace the streets of Fremont, Ohio is the Dillon House on Buckland Avenue. The Towered Second Empire design was the creation of local architect John C. Johnson. While Johnson was best known throughout the Midwest for his public buildings, he also received commissions to design private homes. It was Charles and Ann Buckland Dillon who asked Johnson to provide them with plans for a structure that at once expressed both warmth and elegance - one in which their growing family would enjoy the comforts of home and yet where friends could experience their gracious hospitality.

Ann Buckland, the daughter of prominent attorney and Civil War General Ralph P. Buckland married Charles Dillon in 1868. Dillon, part owner of a hardware business, was a druggist who founded what is today Grund Drug in Fremont.

The site chosen by the Dillons was one of several lots owned by Ann's father. It lay across from the Hayes Home situated on the grounds of Spiegel Grove. In the fall of 1873, then former Governor Rutherford B. Hayes wrote his sons that "Mr. Dillon was putting down the foundaton of his fine large brick house opposite to Spiegel Grove."

While the Dillons hoped to complete their house early the following year, construction took longer than expected. It wasn't until the fall of 1875 that the Dillons finally moved to their new home. Even then, the house wasn't finished. Despite delays, the Dillons achieved their goal. The elaborate pediments adorning the windows and detnal molding and cornices accentuating the roofline embellished the structure's understated elegance. Black walnut double doors brought from Michigan by Mr. Dillon created an impressive entranceway. Butternut woodwork filled the home's foyer, cozy alcoves, and stately rooms with a warmth that nearly glowed.

Perhaps no event reflected the Dillons' refined entertainment more than the wedding of their eldest daughter Mary to Irvin Fangboner. More than a hundred guests celebrated the couple's marriage at a "white and green" event held during the holiday season of 1898. The home was a profusion of white roses, carnations, and chrysanthemums. A bower of greens graced the downstairs parlor along with palms, ferns, and holly. At the top of the stairway, Mr. Dillon installed a beautiful leaded glass window for the occasion. Carrying white roses, Mary descended the stairs to the front hall and entered the parlor where the couple said their vows beneath the bower.

Charles and Ann Dillon on the front steps of the Dillon House with their children Ralph and Charlotte
(date unknown)

After the death of General Buckland, Ann and her younger brother George hosted reunions for their father's Civil War comrades of the 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The Dillon home nearly overflowed with veterans and their families. Food, drink, and song were the order of the day. Women chatted and children played games on the lawn while the old soldiers gathered on the porches to remember long ago days of hard fighting.

Members of the Dillon family called 1329 Buckland Avenue "home" until 1960, when Charlotte Dillon Ickes, the youngest of Charles and Ann's daughters passed away. Purchased by the Hayes Presidential Center two years later, the Dillon House remains a gracious setting for spedcial occasions, echoing the warmth and hospitality of its former owners.

The ambience that the Dillons once enjoyed can stll be experienced at a Dillon House Tea or through rental for private events or business functions.

Walleye - Ohio's Most Prized Game Fish

Lake Erie Walleye

(Courtesy Ohio Fish and Wildlife)

On May 22nd, Port Clinton, Ohio will once again lay claim to its rightful title as the official WALLEYE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD during its annual Walleye Festival at Water Works Park. Other cities as far away as Garrison, North Dakota vie for rights to the title. But it is Port Clinton, lying on the western basin of Lake Erie, that has been home to the walleye since prehistoric times.

Sometimes called pike-perch, walleyed pike, or jack salmon, the walleye have few distinguishing marks other than their sharp teeth and whitish eyes. In Ohio’s early history, walleye often reached 20 years of age and weights of more than 20 pounds. Millions spawned from mid-April to early May in the clear waters of the Maumee, Sandusky, St. Mary’s, Scioto, Auglaize, and Muskingum rivers.

By the 1840s commercial fishing on Lake Erie began to grow at a rapid pace in an effort to meet the ever-growing demand of the fish market. During the 1880s, the heydey of Great Lakes commercial fishing, walleye could be found in abundance in Lake Erie. But by the turn of the century fishermen began to realize that the supply was not limitless.

Unloading a catch for fertilizer during the heydey of
Lake Erie's commercial fishing
(Charles E. Frohman Collection)

Pollution and heavy harvesting sent walleye into a dramatic downward spiral. Catches at Lake Erie ports that once ranged from one to fifteen million pounds annually were reduced to a mere 163.000 pounds by 1966. Four years later, commercial fishing for walleye was banned in Ohio waters. Despite restocking and establishing catch limits, the walleye, the most prized fish of Lake Erie, remains in a precarious state. Their movements, spawning, and diet remain under close and constant scrutiny by conservationists and biologists.

Historically, the Sandusky River has always made a significant contribution to Lake Erie’s walleye harvest. Famous for its spring run, the river produces some of the largest of its species. Yet the walleye population has been declining for the past 30 years. For this reason, the river has become the focus of a 3-year study to learn more about walleye spawning behavior.

Biologists believe that the Ballville Dam, built on the Sandusky River in 1911, may limit spawning, confining walleye in an area downstream that contains one-tenth the suitable spawning habitat. Tracking walleye equipped with radio transmitters will provide a better understanding of spawning habits on the Sandusky River and out into the Sandusky Bay - and ultimately improve the population of Ohio's most prized game fish.

To learn more about Port Clinton's Walleye Festival go to http://www.walleyefestival.com/