I drove up to meet them here at 3:30 PM but no one was around.
I walked over to their office, hoping for a note but there was none. What to do? I had come all this way so made a decision to walk onto the grounds and photograph what I could and if someone arrived, I would just explain that this may be my only time here and did not want to waste the opportunity. So I walked in via the railroad tracks.
AuGlaize Village was founded in 1966 by the Defiance County Historical Society. The society received 40 acres and the big red barn in 1966 from the Mansfield Family. An additional 80 acres was later added. In 1975, the Society decided it best to turn over the museum complex to the people of Defiance in hopes that the County Commissioners would be able to get grants and assistance that a small 501(c)(3) would not be able to get on their own. The Defiance County Historical Society operates the Auglaize Village through a Maintenance & Use Agreement for the Defiance County Commissioners.
55 plus years later, AuGlaize Village is still going strong drawing people from the tri-state area for its activities and festivals. But our world has changed. People are busier than ever and volunteers are hard to recruit. The locally owned factories are a thing of the past in Defiance and so AuGlaize Village must change with the times.
I first came upon somes track equipment.
Home-built AuGlaize Village passenger car.
National Lime & Stone HLC3 24 ton switcher 0605 built by Plymouth in 1927.
Chesapeake and Ohio wooden caboose 90957 built by Hocking Valley Railway in 1929.
This speeder looked as though they were going to give me a ride. My bad luck I guess. But at least I saw it.
Wheeling Steel 0-4-0 ST 29 built by Vulcan Iron Works in 1929. In 1966, it was donated to the Defiance County Historical Society.
Milepost JAC 72 and whistlepost.
Crossing shanty.
The Wabash station from Jewell, Ohio which used to be at the corner of CR-185 and Jewell Road. It was built in 1856 by the Toledo Wabash & Western Railroad and included a ticket master's office and had a freight room added in 1904. The depot housed tools and a telegraph office a baggage room and sold tickets to passengers. In 1967, the station was moved to the Village.
Station scene.
Track car shed from Mark Center.
Another whistlepost.
Wabash box car 7895 built by American Car and Foundry, used for storage.
Another track car shed.
Vaughan's Lock Keepers House. This 1838 structure was originally located in the heart of Defiance on the Miami-Erie Canal, but was later moved to Jackson Street, just south of the Chief Supermarket, at that canal lock. The lock keeper and his family lived in the home and operated the adjoining lock. The Miami-Erie came through Defiance in 1843 and travelled south to Junction, Ohio, where it met up with the Wabash and Erie Canal. Railroads came through the area in the late 1800's and offered strong competition to the canals. The 1913 Flood decimated the canal system and permanently ended the dwindling canal commerce. The structure was donated by Virginia Lenhart in memory of her father, Gale Vaughn. It was moved in 1970 but not renovated until recent years.
The Kinner two-story cabin comes from west of Ayersville at the intersection of Pleasent Bend. It was donated by Ralph Kinner, whose father Jacob Kinner grew up in the home. In fact, the family lived in the home with a kitchen addition in the back until its donation to the Village in 1973. It was reconstructed on its current site in July 1979. The first floor was refinished in 1980. A new stairway was built and upstairs, a bedroom was featured. A photo of Jacob Kinner's family hangs in the house. The parents are Guy and Ella (Andrews) Kinner and their seven children: Freda, E. Jacob, Tressa, R. Ford, D. Esther, Grace & Mabel. Guy and Ella were married in 1897 and farmed for a living.
Village scene.
The smokehouse. Before refrigeration, smokehouses were built and used to preserve meat. The meat was marinated in a salt brine for several days, then smoked for preservation. When available, specialties featured were beef jerky and smoked bacon.
Harper Sawmill.
Hale Logging shanty dates from the late 1800's when timber was still a booming industry in Northwest Ohio. The Hale family would pull this shanty out into the woods in the winter months and spend their day felling trees and sleeping in the shanty at night. Winter was the best time to fell trees as the Great Black Swamp was frozen in those months making transportation possible. Timbers were either burned to produce the potash or moved to the canal and transported to Toledo, then Canada, then on to Eastern markets or even England.
William Hale was born near Ayersville in 1876 and had four sons Orville, Luther, Lawrence and LeRoy. They also did custom threshing and all lines of mechanical work. LeRoy grew up to become a machinist and worked at the Lectrolite Company, later SK Wayne. He also invented the Hale light that was so popular in the 1960's and 1970's with coon hunters.
Farm equipment.
The Charles Slocum Natural Science Building is one of two buildings moved from the campus of Defiance College in 1971. It was originally built as a barracks for the Civilian Conservation Corps and later for German World War II prisoners of war.
Slocum was a local physician and a lawyer. He was very well traveled and built an extensive collection of natural history and archeological specimens around the turn of the 20th century. Slocum wrote extensively concerning Ohio's prehistoric Ice Age history, the glaciers, Ohio's native people and animals and the State's development. The Indian captive, Francis Slocum, was a distant cousin to Slocum. He was a very generous benefactor to Defiance and other areas of Ohio.
Village scene.
The Kieffer Home was donated by the Kieffer family of McClure, Ohio in 1972. Each part was numbered, disassembled and rebuilt by the Explorer Post 212, the AuGlaize Militia and members of the Society. The structure is representative of an 1860's log home and is furnished with early pioneer furniture including a rope bed and an ornate chest. It has a candle wheel used in candlemaking.
Horse stables.
Village scene.
Another of the unique buildings here at AuGlaize Village.
The Highland Presbyterian church bell is all that remains of that burnt structure once located at the corner of State Route 15 and Bowman Road in Defiance County. The bell was installed in the cemetery by Fred Fauth in 1970 and has two striking devices: the clapper, which strikes a double stroke calling people to worship, and the tolling hammer, which strikes a single stroke to toll the age of a member of the congregation who passed away and was being mourned.
A pioneer cemetery was dedicated when remains were found and excavated at the First Presbyterian Church on the AuGlaize River in Defiance and reburied here.
Chapel of the Cross.
Sherry School School No. 7 was originally located about a mile south of the present Village on Krouse Road. It was moved and restored at the Village in 1971 by a grant from the McIntyre Family of Monroe, Michigan. Mrs. Idalou Blue donated the teacher's desk and a number of the school-room pieces, maps and books. The desks came from both Hamler, Ohio and Noble Township Schools. The clock hanging on the was was donated by John Harper of New Haven, Indiana. The central stove came from an old Township house in Florida, Ohio. In 2011, the building received a major overhaul by the Society volunteers.
Post Office Mark Center, Ohio was built in 1875 and served as a fourth class post office run by Mrs. Marietta Kyle as its postmistress. The building was moved to the Village in November 1974. A meeting with the Defiance County Commissioners in January 1980 resulted in a major restoration effort. County funds paid for some materials. Volunteer workers came from Green Thumb or CETA as well as the local area. Maurice Smith, a retiree from the U.S. Postal Service, was scheduled as postmaster and helped make Commemorative Envelopes and First Day Covers available. Any letter could be mailed and received an AuGlaize postmark on that commemorative Sunday in 1980. U.S. Post Office retiree Herb Delventhal currently volunteers his time to keep the post office tidy. Ordis and Phyllis Hahn operated a toy shop in the back half of the building for several years.
Dr. R.B. Cameron, M.D. Office dates prior to 1884. Dr. Robert Cameron began his practice there in 1915. The inside consists of a waiting room and an inner room where the doctor saw patients. There are many medical insturments used at that time on display in the office. The structure was moved to the Village in 1967. Outside the office is an herb garden. Doctors of the time used many native herbs to treat their patients. Johnny Appleseed was also known to plant herb gardens near his orchards.
Minsel Barbershop. E.A. Minsel of Jewell, Ohio donated the barber shop in 1966. It had been owned and operated by Ezra Wilson Warren from Leipsic between 1908 and 1940. Barber shops served as a central gathering place in the community where men could read the paper and catch up on local news as they awaited their turn in the barber chair. Our barber chair was donated by longtime Defiance barber and Village volunteer, Delbert Hammon. The traditional red and white pole outside the barber shop is a reminder the barber did more than just cut hair. He was also a qualified surgeon of the day! Barbers performed a procedure known as "blood letting" since doctors of the day believed illnesses were caused by "bad blood" which must be removed. The barber would make a small incision in the arm and drain some of the offending blood. The red and white barber pole was a sign for the available service.
Village scene.
The Jacob Myers General Store was built on site and opened in the spring 1969. Jacob Myers was a pioneer storekeeper from the Defiance area. The general store was usually the first business established in a community and, like the barber shop, was a central gathering point for the town. Often post offices were began in the general store. AuGlaize Vilage operates a souvenier shop in the store today.
Village Blacksmith Shop. A footer and foundation were poured for the Blacksmith Shop in May 1974. It contains tools and equipment from several different area shops. A rotary hammer is from Hicksville, a hand drill press from Napoleon, a bellow-aired forge from Jewell and a wooden wheel tire bender. A balcksmith was very important in a settlement as they made, repaired and provided implements that tamed the Black Swamp.
Sorghum Mill. In 1966, Paul Myers donated a sorghum mill for the Village. He installed and operated the mill to demonstrate this important pioneer industry. Sugar cane (which resembles corn stalks) is squeezed between two large rollers. Bittersweet juice is poured into a stainless steel maze-like pan setting over an oven. The juice is stirred while cooking and changes color from a light greet to brown as it thickens and becomes sorghum molasses. A second cooking would produce what we know as blackstrap molasses.
Ayersville Telephone Company. The Ayersville Telephone Exchange is made of native timbers. The structure houses a turn of the century switchboard and displays other telephone and communication devices.
A windmill.
Cider Mill.
The fire station was a many year vision of the Village Volunteers and Tuesday Crew. Finished in 2017, it was built to house the Village's Fire Pumper. In the same year, volunteer Jim Rath of Hicksville, Ohio donated his 1942 fire truck. The annual Motorama event was started to fund this ongoing project and paid for the materials.
Mansfield Barn. AuGlaize Village's ground and turn of the century livestock barn were donated to the Defiance County Historical Society by Mrs. Charles Mansfield in memory of her late husband. A Street of Shops was developed in the barn.In December 1971, bricks from the county courthouse were donated by the County Commissioners to use as a floor for the Street of Shops.
The Dentist's Office is a re-creation of Dr. Emery Glosser of Williams County, thhe Cobbler Shop for shoe and other leather repair, A Broom Shop, an Ice Cream Parlor and Village Printing Shop was donated by Bill VanScoder, Roger Culbertson and Derrow Motors. The smaller press came from Hubbard Printing via Louis Simonis. Other items were donated by the Hubbard Company and Keith Tustison. One section of the barn houses a kitchen and the Village Concession Stand, along with dining space.
The barn has the Mansfield Street of Shops.
It also has the concession stand.
The Corliss Steam Engine Company. The Corliss Steam Engine and Linde-Wolfe Compressor are from the old Diehl Brewery Plant in downtown Defiance. The family of Irel E. Ashbaugh, a Diehl, Incoroporated Engineer, donated the builiding in his memory in 1972 to house the machinery. This mechanical powerhouse revolutionized the manufacturing process throughout America and allowed industry to move away from the rivers they once depended on to power their factories. Our corliss was manufactured by the Bass Foundry and Machine Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The compressor was made by the Fred Wolfe Company of Chicago. The engine and compressor share a common shaft on which a flywheel is mounted measuring ten feet in diameter. Live steam was piped to the engine from a boiler. The compresssor was added to the corliss in the late 1800's during an expansion of the brewery. It operated twenty-four hours a day, providing refrigeration for the brewery and then the condensary built in 1923. New technology replaced this workhorse in 1968.
Our first Farm Museum was constructed on the site in 1967 and was our first permanent building outside of the Mansfield Barn. It houses many of the items Justin Coressel donated from his collection. Featured are a series of exhibits including tools found in a typical farm-house workshop. Donors and founders Paul Myers, Lowell Kennedy and Wesley Leach also donated a large collection of their farm tools. Displays include an 1800's tobacco press, a Delco system used to generate power in rural farmhouses, an exhibit of early field tiles used to drain the Black Swamp and Turnbull wagon.
Farm Museum 2 donated by Justin F. Coressel, houses large farm machinery pieces including tillage tools, wagons, a clover hauler and a grain separator.
View out to the front gate.
The Lincoln Bay & Gateway Railroad & Museum was formerly located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This extensive HO scale model train collection was acquired by the Defiance County Historical Society in March 1984. The collection was a longtime project of Les Green. At the time of his death, Les's collection contained 270 HO scale engines and locomotives, 1,500 HO scale cars and a large radio-controlled layout and reference library. It contains all the bicentennial special-edition trains produced, a 56-car military troop train and a 30-car circus train.
Beside this building were three track speeders.
Views of the speeders.
All three of the speeders in this view.
The Farm Museum.
My last building to photograph.
They have a very nice picnic area. I really enjoyed my visit to AuGlaize Village but now I had to leave for Byran so drove back to US Highway 24 then north on Ohio Highway 15.
I saw this barn with Mail Pouch painted on it on my way to Bryan. I drove into the town, stopped at KFC and soon parked at the Amtrak station.
The speed record sign commemorating the event by New York Central jet-powered RDC 497 occurred along this stretch of New York Central Railroad tracks.
The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern station built in 1867.
The Amtrak station in Bryan built in 1980 and serves the Lake Shore Limited.
The New York Central freight house.
Norfolk Southern 9198 West at Bryan. From here I drove over to the Colonial Manor Motel for the night.
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