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Ottawa County Time Traveler Eastern Ottawa County Past & Present MARCH 2026 |
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by Linda Higgins World War II created high demand for new manufacturing industries, as well as expansion of established industries. Safer industries were located in and around cities and the more dangerous, such as ordnance manufacturing and testing, were located in areas like Port Clinton, considered rural.
By October 1940, Erie Ordnance Depot was reported to be expanding to include more military members and civilians. Anti-aircraft guns and new types of anti-aircraft shells were to be shipped to Port Clinton for testing at the Depot and Camp Perry. Housing would be needed for workers building and working at warehouses and munition dumps.
In September 1941, a “Declaration of Taking” stated that the Federal Works Agency would use eminent domain to take 23 acres northwest of Port Clinton city limits for “necessary public purposes.” $8,730.05 was set aside for the purchase, located partially in Port Clinton with most in Bay and Portage townships. The National Homes Corporation of Lafayette, Indiana, would build 100 houses for $280,960, and the Federal Works Act Defense Housing Division would supervise the construction. The agreement between the federal government and local authorities covered “any improvements thereon” and a 6-inch gas line that ran through the property. Sewage logistics were understandably complicated, but federal and local governments cooperated to satisfactorily solve problems.
By December 26, 1941, the newly named Erie Gardens had 100 homes slated for occupancy in January 15, 1942, after a federal inspection. The main street was named Portage Drive and the others A through F Streets. More housing was still needed, so the district director for the Federal Housing Administration asked Port Clinton property owners to help by adding on to their homes to house war workers. FHA Conversion Loans of up to $5,000 per owner were made available.
Another “Declaration of Taking” was approved in June of 1943 for 200 more units. Some of the lands that were condemned and acquired by eminent domain had crops growing on them. This was no small sacrifice, clearly, but the transfer was recorded in November of 1943. Although they would have one to three bedrooms, the buildings would necessarily be of lesser quality and the utilities (refrigeration, cooking, heating) less modern.
When the war emergency ended in July of 1947, the Erie Gardens manager reported that Federal Public Housing law required the project be disposed of within two years. Because the homes were all occupied, the American Legion offered to purchase the entire project. No decision regarding disposal had been made by 1948, and Port Clinton City Council voted against having multiple ownership of homes. A number of Erie Gardens renters, civilians and veterans, didn’t have the money to fix up or buy the homes, many of which didn’t meet city housing standards.
The city would annex the part of the Gardens outside city limits and the federal government would pay for street improvements and repair all units for prospective buyers, spending several thousand dollars. The Public Housing Authority notified the city in October of 1955 that, prior to annexation, 15 buildings or 32 families would have to be moved in order for three streets to be widened and a 30-foot alley to be paved.
Occupants were given first chance to buy their houses, preference given veterans. Next, veterans living outside the division had priority, and non-tenants who were not veterans were given last priority. The down payment was 10%, the balance to be paid over 15 years; no interest rate noted. Under federal regulations, any unoccupied buildings are declared “surplus” when a municipality acquires such a project, and the school district bought those at $1 apiece. The federal government would spend $79,500 on improvements and the city would do the rest. The Public Housing Authority offered 19 homes for investment rental purchase. City Council voted for annexation in April of 1957.
Ottawa County Museum’s curator, Peggy Debien, was the source of information for this article. Her family moved to Bataan Lane in Erie Gardens in 1957, their two units costing $7,475. After Peggy left, her parents stayed on until 1976.
Peggy’s research sources included the Gardens administrator’s office, Ida Rupp Public Library, the Ottawa County Museum, the Ottawa County Recorder’s Office, the Toledo Public Library, and online government documents. However, even better resources are our current neighbors throughout the Port Clinton/Catawba area who happily share their memories of the early Erie Gardens experience. Use this link to see or share the article online: Linda |
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by Lorrie Halblaub In this series we are taking an historical look at an area that covers approximately a mile of Main Street in downtown Marblehead. Heading east from the Village limits, we will discover the facts and the stories of how Marblehead became what it is today. [This is the 12th article in the series.] In our last article we left off near the public parking lot on Main Street in front of the old hospital building. Walking east, the next area you come to is all about the quarry. On the north side of the road is the entrance to the quarry dock that stretches out into Lake Erie so the Great Lakes Freighters can be loaded with stone from the Holcim Quarry. On the south side of the road is an entrance to that quarry and you can see huge piles of stone ready to be loaded on the stone boats. How the stone gets from one side of Main Street to the other side and eventually out to the boats is accomplished by a structure that goes right over Main Street that carries the stone on conveyor belts. The sound of the belts moving, clickety clack for hours and then the toot of the stone boat’s horn when it departs for its destination, are familiar to everyone who walks Main Street or lives in the Jamestown area and are unique to this village. Marblehead stone has been quarried since 1834 when Alexander Clemens started his business. Many other people started quarries too and each had to have a dock to transport the stone. An 1863 map showed eleven docks sticking out into the water from many places on the peninsula. When the quarries consolidated into Kelleys Island Lime and Transport, which was later bought by Chemstone, then Standard Slag, then LaFarge, then Holcim and now Amrize, the other docks gradually disappeared and this one remains. LaFarge North America changed its name to Amrize in mid-2025. It stands for “ambition and rising”. It replaces the brands of LaFarge and Holcim in North America. The stone across the street from the dock is in several large piles based on the size of the stone. Stone is quarried, then crushed in a big crusher, washed to keep down the dust and stocked by size. Underneath the stone piles are doors that open when that size stone needs to be loaded and the conveyor belts run out of the underground up on to the overhead conveyor, across the Main Street and down into the holds of the waiting stone boats. Marblehead Quarry was once the largest in the United States, with over 2,000 acres. Over the years they have been selling off land that is no longer quarried. Here is a recent map of when LaFarge owned the quarry before they mitigated the land east of Alexander Pike to the State of Ohio cutting down the size of the quarry by nearly 25%. You can use this link to read or share this article: Lorrie |
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The Great Black Swamp: Toxic Algae, Toxic Relationships, and the Most Interesting Place in America That Nobody's Ever Heard of
by Patrick Wensink
In the summer of 2014, a strange thing happened to one of the largest freshwater bodies on the planet: Lake Erie's western shore turned bright green with toxic algae that could have killed 400,000 Ohioans. Stranger still, it was kind of Patrick Wensink's fault. Okay, partially his fault, but also to blame was industrial corn farming, greenhouse gasses, the Worst Road In America, his attraction to toxic relationships, Richard Nixon, Charles Dickens, cyanobacteria, high school bullies, and, most importantly, the untold history of the Great Black Swamp: a large swatch of what is now Ohio and Indiana that was once a dangerous, malaria-ridden wetland.Toxic green algae has become a global problem. While the scientific community scrambles to find a solution, Wensink discovers that the answer might be hiding in his former home, a million acres of table-flat farmland so desolate that even other Ohioans look down upon it.Great Black Swamp mixes ecological reporting, Midwestern history, and memoir. As Wensink travels through Northwest Ohio, he tells us about his childhood there, his failing marriage, American history, Lake Erie, and the hopeful ecological interventions scientists are performing in the former Great Black Swamp.
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This story continues for several more columns. The entire article can be accessed online in the library only. It's under Online Resources, Digitized Microfilm, and then searching "quarry." What caught me attention is that it starts with how little the then current population [in 1877] knew about the level of work in the quarries. Now, 150 years after the fact, how can people who have moved here have any idea of how huge the quarry operations were over a century ago? |
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The Ottawa County Ohio Genealogical Society was organized on November 11, 1969, and has been active for over 50 years. It is a member of the Ohio Genealogical Society. The goal of the society is to promote the history of Ottawa County and its people. This is accomplished by assisting members and others interested in genealogy in tracing their ancestors with emphasis to Ottawa County. OCOGS publishes a quarterly newsletter, Marshland to Heartland, which is a combination of chapter news, genealogical helps, member contributions, and lists of surnames and stories from Ottawa County’s past. The Ida Rupp Public Library has current and past issues of this publication, shelved at the end of the local history section. OCOGS meetings are held the third Tuesday of the months of March, April, May, June, September, October, and November. In July or August, a “field trip” is often planned. In 2026, all OCOGS meetings will be held at the TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, 135 Adams St., in Port Clinton. Regular meetings will start at 7:30 pm. All meetings are open to the public. Check out the website ocogs.com for the 2026 program schedule and other information. |
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March is known for lots of things - the first day of Spring, St. Patrick's Day, the Ides of March, and March 14th, otherwise known as Pi day. It's way too long to include here, but if you're interested, the best narrative I've found of this is in a math book published in 2024. Math for English Majors, by Ben Orlin should be THE required textbook for middle school math, in my opinion. It starts on p. 51, in the section on irrational numbers. "....Every March 14, the mathematical world observes its favorite holiday by canceling lessons, gorging on pie, and reciting the decimal expansion of math's most revered constant... Most of us celebrate. A few grinches prefer to grumble about it." Pi is irrational, As in, not a ratio. No fraction can express it. No decimal either. Why does this drive mathematicians batty? "....With apologies to Dr. Seuss, I find it easiest to express their lack of holiday cheer through rhyme." And drawings, such great drawings!! The entire pi saga is from pg 52-58. Enjoy with your favorite pie. |
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