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Stryker Area Heritage Council
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 Less than 30 copies of the New Stryker School replica are left for sale!
Copies of the latest Stryker Area Heritage Council replica have just arrived, and they are going fast! The replica is of the 1904 Stryker school building that was used until it was razed in 1979.
The heritage council decided to have just 100 copies made of the replica and not to reprint any more should they all sell out. At the Aug. 12 meeting of the SAHC Trustees, SAHC Treasurer Sue Buehrer reported that 73 of the replicas have already been spoken for, leaving just 27 available for sale!
The replicas are being offered on a first, come first served basis.
Cost of the replicas are $15 for SAHC members and $17 for non-members, and are available through SAHC by contacting Sue Buehrer. There are also a limited number at the Huntington Bank in Stryker and at the Green Awning Gallery in Stryker. Orders can also be placed through the website at info@strykerahc.org. There is a $3 charge for a mailed replica.
The replica is the second one issued by the council. The first one featured the 1922 Stryker High School Building.
Like the first one, there is a historical background of the building listed on the reverse side of the replica.
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Evansport book and DVDs available soon
A book about the history of Evansport is in the works by Kevin Maynard. There is no word yet on when it will be available or how much it may cost. If you are interested in a copy you can e-mail us and let us know. You aren’t committed to buying one once the book comes out, just that you wish to be notified.
DVDs of the Evansport historical tour and the elder historic program are also in the works. Again, if you would like to be notified when they are ready, just e-mail us.
Be assured we will put a notice on the website once each of these items are ready for purchase.
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Evansport celebrates 175th birthday in grand style!
The town of Evansport was filled on June 26 as the village celebrated a big birthday and let everyone know that there’s plenty of life left with their theme, “Still Alive at 175!”
The day’s events started with a proclamation by Congressman Bob Latta along with an arts and crafts display in the fire hall and a large historical center that overflowed with photos and displays in the Evansport United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall. A few hours later, a historical marker was dedicated in front of the Tiffin Township Fire Department and the newest members of the community to those who lived in the town for many years pulled back the cover to show the words of history forever captured there.
Food stands throughout the town fed the crowds and at 1:00 p.m. a giant parade stretching for more than a mile passed down the main street.
Live music played for entertainment while children enjoyed games and adults tried their hand at the cornhole tournament.
A gathering of elders at the Methodist Church was held at 4:00 p.m. delighting the crowd with tales of memories of events that happened through the years in the town.
Congratulations to the Evansport Terquasquicentennial Committee and all who worked and planned for the celebration!
For more photos and information about the day, click here to go to the Evansport 175th webpage.
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 Floor restored at Stryker Depot
Thanks to the financial help of a local family and the Village of Stryker along with some pieces of wood with local significance, the Stryker Area Heritage Council has been able to restoe the floors of the Stryker train depot making them ready for new generations to enjoy.
You can see more on this story by going to our “Latest News” page. Just click here.
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Evansport Historical Tour garners big crowd
Over 125 people turned out to learn more about the history of Evansport in the first event of the Evansport Terquasquicenntial Celebration. A historical tour of the town was held on Sunday, May 2 by the celebration committee and the Stryker Area Heritage Council with stops throughout the town and an interpreter to explain the historical significance of each place.
Kevin Maynard welcomed the group to the beginning of the tour at the Evansport United Methodist Church and Tanya Brunner presented a program about the history of the church and other churches in the community through the years.
Richard Cooley spoke about the mills in Evansport through the years, while Tanya Brunner welcomed guests to the Snider mansion at the next stop of the tour.
Mr. Maynard gave a look back at past businesses in Evansport through the years as he spoke to the crowd from in front of the former Evansport Oil Company store.
The crowd then gathered at the new Tiffin Township Fire Station to hear Kevin talk about the former schools in the town and Add Brunner reviewed the history of the fire department.
Tanya Brunner and the Stryker area Heritage Council members had displays at the fire station. Thanks to Tanya, Kevin, Richard, as well as Rose Burkholder, Cathy Cooley, Sue and Ben Buehrer who all spoke to people at the displays and helped answer their questions after the programs.
Also a big thank you to the Fireflies, the fire department auxiliary, who provided refreshments for the group!
Bill Priest recorded the presentations and intends to put them together in a video that will be made available by the Stryker Area Heritage Council (Special thanks to Patty Fruth who helped Bill by carrying one of the cameras around to the sites so the presentations could be recorded!).
And thanks to everyone who came. Some people were able to give additional information at each stop, which made it fun, and others asked questions that ended up with some pretty interesting answers! Thanks to everyone who helped make it a great day!
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Evansport tour brochures are available here
Kevin Maynard designed a brochure that was handed out during the Evansport Historic Tour with information on each stop, as well as other interesting sites in the village. The brochures were designed that they can be used in the future for anyone who would like to do their own self-guided tour of the village. All of the brochures were handed out that day, but brochures can be downloaded on the Evansport page of the SAHC website. Click here to go to that page.
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Depot work day focusses on floor
Wooden floors that used to be seen in the Stryker railroad depot are once again making their appearance as a part of the work being done by members of the Stryker Area Heritage Council.
The members had a work day on April 17 to work on the floors, part of which had been covered with carpet for years.
Earlier in the week, Phil Short, Erik Short and Kent Juillard helped to pull up the old carpet that covered the large middle room, the west baggage room and the ticket office. The carpet didn’t give much of a struggle coming up according to Kent. The three also pulled up the subfloor underneath the carpet. That also seemed to come up fairly easily, according to Mr. Juillard.
It then turned to the workers to pull up staples sticking up from the floor that had been used to hold the subflooring in place.  Earlier Phil and Erik had pulled up all of the staples in the ticket office, so the workers focussed their attention on the middle room.
Glen Burkholder is shown in the photo above prying up some staples in a section of the floor on the south side of the middle room.
In the other photo, Kent Juillard (on the right) and Kevin Maynard ply their tools to get the pesky staples out the floor. Bill Priest also provided a hand and Rose Burkholder provided her encouragement, which included some Krispy Kreme donuts she purchased from the Rotary Club (Thanks, Rose!), and by doing some sweeping of the staples that had been pulled from the floor.
By the end of the work day, almost all of the staples were gone from the floor in the middle room. The pile looked like it held several thousand of the little metal hoops.
It won’t take more than a few more minutes to finish up the middle room and then workers can tackle the staples in the floor of the baggage room.
Thanks to everyone who helped (if I missed anyone, please let me know), and look forward to announcements for the next work day!
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Historic Photo of the Month — The school after the fire
This Stryker school was erected in 1903-04 on Defiance Street just east of the site of the building destroyed by an arsonist on December 9, 1902. The facility was designed by W. H. Powers and constructed by Monroe Snyder of Fort Wayne, Ind., at a cost of about $28,000. Built of pressed brick trimmed with Cleveland sandstone, and topped by a slate roof and tower containing an 800-pound bell, it was said to be the finest school building in Williams County when it was completed.
To learn more about the 1904 Stryker school, click here to go to our historical photo webpage.
You can also learn more about this story and other Stryker schools by visiting our Stryker school webpage. Just click here.
Note: The Stryker Area Heritage Council is always looking for old photographs of the area. If you have one you would like to share, please send it to us at info@strykerahc.org. If it isn’t in a digital format, bring it to one of the scanning days held periodically, and it will be scanned for free.
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 Most of the singers in the photo have been identified - of course there are others to name yet
We have had a sharp-eyed person come forward to identify the first two rows of people in this photo given to us by Carrie Allgire. He believes it was at the Stryker Methodist Church (when it was located over by the school) in the early 1960’s, probably around Christmastime.
Would you like to see who is identified, and see if your guess might be right? Just click here.
Plus we are seeking to find and scan the composite photos of the Stryker classes from 1920, 1921, and 1922. A special thanks to those who contributed the 1923 and 1924 composites!! If you have any composite photos prior to 1919 and would be willing to have them scanned, please call Rose Clark Burkholder, Class of 1958 at 419.445.3242 or e-mail us here at the SAHC.
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 Want to be a fan?
The Stryker Area Heritage Council is now on Facebook!! You can join us as a fan and keep up with all the latest while you join other like-minded (and most intelligent) people such as yourself! Just ask to be one! Just click on the Facebook logo to go to our site and get signed up!
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 SAHC Donates 2009 “Panthian”
The Stryker Area Heritage Council continued its efforts to complete a set of Stryker High School “Panthian” yearbooks at the Williams County Public Library’s Stryker branch with donation of a 2009 annual. Looking over the 2009 “Panthian” are Stryker Branch Library Manager Sally Davis (left) and SAHC President Rose Burkholder.
There are still some editions needed to complete the collection. They include the editions from 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1956, 1983, 1989, 2001, 2003 and 2006.
If you have a copy you would like to donate, please contact Rose Burkholder or send us a note here on the website.
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 Trustees elect new officers for 2010
New officers were elected by the SAHC Trustees at the December meeting. Pictured from left to right are the officers to lead the heritage group for the first year of the new decade: Kent Julliard, Vice President; Sue Buehrer, Treasurer; Rose Burkholder, President; and Phil Short, Secretary. Thanks to each one who is willing to provide SAHC with the rewards of their talents!
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 Ghost towns featured at annual membership meeting
Keynote speakers Richard L. Cooley and Kevin Maynard provided a fascinating presentation on area ghost towns in Williams County at the SAHC general membership meeting.
Speaking to the crowd gathered at the Stryker United Methodist Church on Nov. 10, Mr. Cooley defined a ghost town as a site formally surveyed as a village and recorded as such in the county records. Visiting the sites today, it may not be apparent that a town once existed at the location.
Many factors influenced the towns’ creation and demise, including rivers, canals, roads, location of the county seat, railroads and highways.
Speculation that the Tiffin River might become part of Ohio’s canal system spurred the surveys of a number of ghost towns along Bean Creek, including Williamsport, Lockport and Southport. The “port” suffix in the towns’ names reflects the hope of these villages becoming thriving canal ports.
To learn more about their presentation and details from the annual meeting, click here.
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 New signs of the time in Evansport
The Evansport Terquasquicentennial Committee, in cooperation with the Tiffin Township Trustees, have erected new Evansport town limits signs—one of many planned activities to commemorate the village’s 175th anniversary in 2010. Committee members (left to right) Kevin Maynard, Kit Salisbury, Casey Salisbury and John Schaufele are shown with one of the new signs, along with Jane Trocha (right) of Defiance, who suggested the sign’s tagline, “Celebrating Farms, Family and Friends Since 1835.”
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Ohio Historical Society representatives meet with SAHC trustees about turning depot into a museum
The subject of how best to turn the Stryker depot into a museum was discussed at length by two representatives from the Ohio Historical Society and SAHC trustees at a 5-hour session on Saturday, May 9.
The two representatives said they were very impressed with the depot after touring the building. They then listened to the plans of the trustees and offered their expertise in several areas of developing a museum.
Click here to read all about the meeting.
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Public continues demand for new county history picture book
The pictorial history, “Images of America: Williams County,” received an enthusiastic response to its official unveiling at the Stryker Area Heritage Council’s Fourth Annual General Membership Meeting November 25. Author Kevin Maynard was the meeting’s featured speaker and presented images from the publication and the stories behind the historic photographs.
Pictured is SAHC member Catherine Emmons of Fayette getting her autographed copy of the 128-page softcover book that features more than 200 vintage black and white images, many of which have never appeared in local history books. A companion piece, “Postcards of America: Williams County,” is also available. It consists of 15 photographs selected from the book, accompanied by historic information.
For details on how to order copies of the book or postcards or for more on the SAHC general meeting, click here.
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The Stryker Area Heritage Council
The Stryker Area Heritage Council was formed to record and preserve the rich history of the Stryker area. Located in the very northwestern corner of Ohio, Stryker, Evansport and Lockport have all had  interesting histories surrounding their development. Some of the early growth was due to their location along the Tiffin River.
Stryker has had a significant part in the development and operation of several railroad lines. From 1905 to 1939, Stryker was the home to the car storage, maintenance facility, and electric generating station for the Toledo & Indiana (T & I) interurban electric train line.
For more than 50 years, long pans of water were placed in the track for some of the steam locomotives going through the town. It saved trains a stop if they could pickup water to replenish their boilers along the way. During the winter, men were hired to break up the ice in the pans so the trains could continue to scoop up the precious liquid as they made their way along the route.
Several people of significance have come from the area. William J. Knight was among the first group of men honored with the Congressional Medal of Honor for his part in the great train robbery during the Civil War. Harry Wickey was a famous illustrator, sculptor and author. Ralph Goll was a writer on the famous Lone Ranger radio series and had several of his episodes turned into TV shows. Sam Hornish, the winner of the 2006 Indianapolis 500, lived in Stryker when he was a young boy.
We hope you find this website of interest and if you have questions or would like to join the group in collecting and preserving this rich history of the Stryker area, please contact us at the Stryker Area Heritage Council.
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Ever see the original plat map of Evansport??
 Have you ever seen the original plat map of the village of Evansport? If not, we now have posted a copy on the Evansport 175th page for you to see.
If you have trouble reading the text, no worry. It’s translated for you just below the map. It makes for some pretty interesting reading. Especially since some of the people named were early settlers of the area. Click here to go to the Evansport 175th page.
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Heritage Council signs lease for Stryker depot
An historic step was taken August 14 when representatives of the Stryker
Area Heritage Council and the Village of Stryker executed a lease agreement.
The action will allow the SAHC to develop and operate a museum in Stryker's
historic railroad passenger depot. The council has some work to do to prepare for the request of items for the museum. Click here for more on the story. |
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Agricultural brochure tells history of farming in area
A brochure featuring the heritage of farming has been produced. SAHC Trustee Kevin Maynard has written a brochure about the agricultural practices used through the early years of the area. To see it, click here. |
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JOIN the Stryker Area Heritage Council
As a member of SAHC, you’ll receive the Bean Creek Chronicle historic newsletter packed with great stories and the latest news of the council. Members also get the SAHC Enews through the Internet. You’ll know about the latest events so you can be ready to enjoy the activities! And you’ll be helping to preserve the rich history of the area!!
Remember, a membership to the Stryker Area Heritage Council makes a GREAT gift!!!!
Click here for information on how you can join!
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©2010 Stryker Area Heritage Council All rights reserved
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