Once Upon Fostoria
March 29, 1998

PIX #1 This is a group of Toledo, Fostoria and Findlay Railway men at the inter-urban car barn on Findlay St. in 1927.

PIX #2 This photograph was taken on Main St. sometime in the 1920s. The man leaning out of the window is Rollen Ford, father of Bob Ford. The man standing on the ground is Dallas Clark. The men with shovels standing on the dirt loaded on the flat car behind the trolley are possibly a work crew. They may have been going out to work on the road bed. Three inter-urban lines served Fostoria from about 1890 until the early 1930s.

It has been more than 65 years since the last inter-urban trolley train left the 116 S. Main St. station just north of the present location of Bill's Men's and Boys' Wear. Yet, there are still many folks who remember that very amiable means of transportation.

One of those folks is Fostorian Bob Ford. Bob's father Rollen worked on the TF & F, the Toledo, Fostoria and Findlay Railway. Rollen was a motorman at first. The motorman actually ran the trolley. Each inter-urban train had a crew of two, a motorman and a conductor.

All in all, Rollen worked for the TF&F for 22 years. Eventually, he became the master mechanic at the car barn which was located on Findlay Rd. He did much of the repair work and rewound the armatures.

The car barn serviced the trolleys of all three of Fostoria's inter-urban lines - the TF&F, The Fostoria and Tiffin Ry and the Fostoria and Fremont Ry. Rollen was still employed at the barn when the last one, the Fostoria and Fremont, folded in 1932.

In the 20s, the labor organization representing motormen and conductors annually published "Motormen and Conductors' Magazine of Toledo and Vicinity." Bob still has several issues from 1923, '25 and '27. Many Northwest Ohio businesses, including Fostoria enterprises, advertised in the magazine. See how many from the 1927 edition ring a bell. Buy your jewelry from "Square Deal" Harding. Harding's Jewelers took care of all the watches and clocks for the inter-urbans. Had to be sure the trolleys ran on time.

In addition, Harding's was located in the First National Bank (Ohio Bank) building. When Chief Culp was short in the Dillinger hold up in 1934, Officer Louie Stagger dragged him into Harding's until he could be taken to the hospital.

"There are two good places to eat, at home and at Bert's Restaurant, 203 N. Main St." Bert's lasted into the 1950s.

The staff at the Fostoria Focus might not know it, but our location, 202 S. Main, is the former site of Swint-Parks Hardware, "High Quality - Not Price, The Store for Everybody, Hardware, Sporting Goods, Paints, Roofing and Stoves."

Mose Lamfrom Clothing, Willis J. Hakes Ford, Fruth Hardware, Fostoria Lumber and Supply and The Commercial Bank and Savings Co. Are among the many advertisers who once did business here. The only advertiser still in operation today is the Harrold Funeral Home, 134 E. Tiffin, which is the Harrold-Floriana Funeral Home today, of course.

I received a very nice letter from Pete Heiserman who has lived in Fostoria since 1932. Pete recalled that circa 1935 there were four gas stations on Main St. - Gulf, Standard, Stahl's Hi-Speed and Mobil Gas. The Mobil station was owned or leased by Cecil Burkhart who owned the Black Cat.

Pete worked for 22 years at Standard Railway Fusee. He recalled that he once found himself watching a railroad detective chasing a pair of thieves. He caught one and handcuffed him to the ladder of a boxcar. Then he caught the other. When he returned for the first crook, the train started rolling and the guy got a ride to Blair Yard.

In the 30s, before the emergence of television and mass culture, the circus came to towns all across America, including Fostoria. The parade would roll down Main St. There was a caged wagon with tigers and other animals. On top of the wagon, a circus band played.

One year a tight rope walker strung his high wire between two buildings and traversed Main St. high in the air.

In the 1920s, much rural postal delivery was done the way Postman Ira Bowers did it - on a yellow, horse drawn wagon.

In the 30s, long before recycling was the thing to do, there were two fellows who used to scour the town for scrap metal and take it to a local junkyard in a push cart to get paid. But if they had slim pickings, one guy would get in the bottom of the cart and the other would cover him up with scrap.

Then when they weighed in, they'd be 150 pounds to the good. When they went to dump the scrap, the hidden partner would hop out. Pete wrote that it was a good bet the junkyard owner knew what those two were up to, but let the wool get pulled over his eyes just to send a little extra cash their way, it being the Depression.

Of course, we always learn something talking to our old friend Harold Pelton. In a previous article we mentioned that Pelton's Family Supermarket and Hardware Store was once St. Wendelin Grade School.

In 1946, Harold traded a piece of land he owned in what was known as the Highland Park area (near the present high school) for the lot his store occupies. The store formerly stood on Wood St. and once was the grade school.

Harold had the building disassembled, moved section by section and bolted back together on Town St. After 52 years, Harold can tell, by walking the floor, where the sections meet.

Pelton's opened for business on April Fool's Day 1947.

Today the subject of railroad grade separations is in the air, just as it was back in 1950. In 1951, the digging began on the Lytle St. underpass. When you're doing that much excavating, the question becomes, "What do we do with all this dirt?"

"All that dirt came to my place to fill in the area the old brick factory dug out," said Harold.

There was a brick factory in the vicinity of the old Bersted plant on State St. (now Intermetro).

The brick factory, which ceased operation around the turn of the century, had dug out much of the area using the dirt to make bricks.

Load after load of dirt was delivered from Lytle St. to fill in the land where Pelton's Trailer Park sits.

Pelton's Market, of course, nestles up right cozy to the train tracks that cross Town St. When he opened his store, steam engines were still in use. Lots of cinders and coals poured out of the smokestacks as the trains came lumbering past.

"Every year, we had to go up on the roof and shovel the coals off," said Harold. "It'd get built up and there'd be a lot of weight on the roof."

In a previous article, we mentioned that on Saturday nights in the summer, Harold used to hope into the back of one of the cars on Willis J. Hakes car lot and curl up for the night. Then in the morning he'd walk around Fostoria before ending up at the Home Restaurant near Main and Perry.

"I'd walk the streets of Fostoria when everyone was in church," he said. "I thought how great that was."