THE WESTERVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARYLocal History Resource Center NewsletterFall 2015

A WALK THROUGH WESTERVILLE HISTORY

1

John Haywood

Arriving in a village filled with “mud, marshes, and anti-slavery senti-ment” in March of 1851, John Haywood was filled with excitement at the prospect of educating students at Otterbein University. Haywood was born in 1825 in Stockton, New York, the son of a blacksmith. He followed in his father’s footsteps until a stranger came to spend a night at the Haywood home and left a brochure for Oberlin College in Ohio. John picked up the pamphlet describing the institution of higher learning and decided to leave his home with a carpetbag suitcase and venture westward in search of a college education.

At Oberlin, the young student studied science, math and languages and discovered that the more he learned the more he had to learn. This search for information was one that was to last a lifetime. After completing his education at Oberlin, John came to Westerville to teach math and natural sciences. The small college, Otterbein, was only four years old and John was one of only two professors teaching students there. It was not long before John made his mark not only on the school but also the village. He was elected mayor of the newly incor-

porated village in 1858 with a nearly unanimous vote failing to get only three votes out of the 119 cast.

The innovation John Haywood is noted for is in the realm of science: he collected weather data on a daily basis and recorded it. Also noteworthy was his use of a new kind of communication. He set up a telegraph between his home and that of his fellow professor Thomas McFadden so that the teenage daughters in the two house-holds could talk. For businesses, Haywood persuaded the merchants in Westerville to use the metric system of measurement for a time.

Finally, John Haywood set up a telescope to study the sky – planets and stars. He published a pamphlet concerning the path of the earth through space. December 1882, the student newspaper shared that a few hundred students and town residents with the assistance of John Haywood were able to view the Venus transit. This rare event did not occur again until 2004 and 2012. He was always a champion for sci-ence, astronomy, and math.

Inventors and Innovators

2

Agnes Meyer Driscoll

One of the most important code breakers in the history of our country had roots in Westerville. From 1924 through World War II, Agnes Meyer Driscoll, spy name “Madame X,” solved every Japanese naval code sys-tem enabling the U.S. the opportunity to redesign battleships to gain a speed advantage. Mrs. Driscoll is in the National Security Agency Hall of Fame and has recently been designated a “Great Ohioan.”

Agnes moved to Westerville around 1895, when Professor Gustav Meyer moved his family here. For a time the family lived in the home at 110 S. State Street which became the headquarters for the Anti-Saloon League and now houses the Westerville Public Library’s Local History Center.

Proficient in four languages including Japanese and German, Agnes Meyer Driscoll was also tapped to work on breaking the German enig-ma code system in the early years of World War II. She was an unsung hero during her lifetime.

D. H. Budd

One of the most inventive local businessmen of his era, David H. Budd ran his buggy and wagon repair shop out of the building that is Schneider’s Bakery today. D. H., as he liked to be called, was born in Dela-ware County in 1848. He came to Westerville in the 1880s to sell real estate and to start what he fondly re-ferred to as his “buggy hospital.” He would drive around the countryside in Central Ohio looking for broken down wagons and buggies in farmer’s fields. He would bargain with the owners to purchase the unusable vehicles, bring them to his “buggy hospital”, and then do the needed repairs to make the vehicle opera-tional again. After doing this for a while and selling two repaired vehicles a week, D. H. Budd came up with a great marketing idea. He took photographs of the vehicles after he had repaired and cleaned them up. He displayed the photos in post offices throughout Central Ohio. Because everyone had to go to the post office to retrieve their mail in those days, they saw his advertisements with the photographs of the repaired wagons and buggies. His business increased from selling two a week to selling six a day.

Another way that D. H. Budd promoted his business was his band. Yes, he had his own band that marched in local parades. They wore uniforms that he purchased and were accompanied by a big drum that had the name “D. H. Budd” printed on its side. Because there were no school bands in the 1880s, the D. H. Budd band was important to the community. It was part of every big celebration in the community.

D. H. Budd died in 1910 and the community mourned his passing. The local newspaper described him thus, “ready to serve and help others”, “would give rather than take”, was honest in his dealings with his fellowmen.” All of which meant that he was a much-beloved citizen who cared about the Westerville commu-nity and its residents.

3

robert price: From immigrant to author

One of nine children, Dr. Robert Price was born in Radnorshire, Wales, in 1900. His parents immigrated to the United States when he was a young boy. They lived on a farm in Licking County, Ohio. He developed

a love of reading, writing and history as he grew up.

Dr. Price taught in a rural school and was a newspaper reporter before earning a college de-gree from Dennison University. He also received a M.A. and a Ph.D. from Ohio State Univer-sity. From 1945 to 1970 he was a professor of English at Otter-bein. For almost a quarter of a

century he studied the life of John Chapman, known to generations of school children as Johnny Apple-seed, and wrote a book titled Johnny Appleseed: Man and Myth which was published in 1954. This is the most popular book that Robert Price wrote.

To learn about this famous apple seed sower, Robert Price travelled in the footsteps of John Chapman from Leominster, Massachuetts to Fort Wayne, Indiana. He looked at every scrap of paper he could find on this elusive outdoorsman, read every poem written about him, looked at newspaper and first-hand accounts of en-counters with the frontier hero. Book reviewers described Price’s writing as “graceful and harmonic.” Time Magazine called his book “the most definitive book” on the subject.

Dr. Price also saved local history. When he arrived at Otterbein there were no archives. He describes going into an attic on campus “I discovered a big carton of old historic photographs that went clear back to the 1860s, which the mice had built nests in and chewed holes through. And old paintings from the early years of the college, which had been stored in this attic where the rain had been leading down on them. All of this valuable material was about to hit the trash heap.” All of these materials were gathered together in a room which be-came the archives in the Otterbein Library. When Dr. Price retired he turned his attention to organizing this material and working to preserve Westerville history as well. He became president of the Westerville Historical Society and established a committee to begin to find Westerville historical items and preserve them.

Thanks to Dr. Price many pieces of Otterbein and Wester-ville history have been saved. These items are in the archives of the Otterbein Library and in the Westerville Public Library Local History Center.

4

Sanders Frye: Inventor and building

Do you to bowl? Sanders Frye, long time Wester-ville resident, changed the experience of bowling with his invention of an automatic pin setting machine. In the early days of bowling, when pins were knocked down a person had to set up the wooden targets before the next bowler could step up and send a bowling ball down the lane. This was a very time-consuming process and required a “pin boy” to assist at every lane or couple of lanes. Frye, a graduate of the Ohio State University with a degree in engineering, invented a machine which could pick up the pins and place them down again correctly for the next bowler, eliminating the need for a “pin boy.”

Sanders Frye was born in 1899 in the era when railroad trains crossed the nation and were an important form of transportation. After he grad-uated from OSU he took a job with the railroads, and for the rest of his life collected train lanterns. He further exhibited his love of railroads by con-structing a building on his property to house his miniature railroad collection. His toy trains ran on tracks through elaborate mini villages.

Sanders came to Westerville in 1947 to become the first business manager of Otterbein Univer-sity. He was soon very active in the community, serving on city council and the board of the pub-lic library. Much to the delight of the entire com-munity but especially the young people, Sanders

loved to build replicas of buildings and vehicles. For the Westerville Centennial Celebration in 1958, he built a replica trolley that actually drove down the street. Free trolley rides were given to Westerville young people as part of the festivities. It was taken to Columbus to advertise the Westerville cele-brations and children rode it around the Ohio State Capitol building. During the commemora-tion of the 200th birthday of the United States, Sanders built a replica of Philadelphia’s Inde-pendence Hall to be part of the 4th of July pa-rade in Westerville. Sanders Frye worked hard to make Westerville parades and celebrations special with his talent for building and sharing with the young people of the community.

Activities

mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun

Just like John Haywood, you can observe weather data and record it. For one week, write down things you notice about the weather. Is it hot or cold? Is it rainy or sunny? Are there dark clouds or no clouds? How can observations about the weather help you and your family prepare for the day? (Hint: which item would you need to take if you notice dark clouds in the morning?)

Can you break the code and

Solve the Riddles?

What travels around the world, but stays in one spot?

key

1 19 20 1 13 16

What has one eye, but cannot see?

1 14 5 5 4 12 5

Critical ThinkingTry to remember the stories, photographs

and information that you have learned about the past in school. What do you think

would happen if no one saved photographs or wrote

stories down?

Think of something you have made that you’d like to sell. Just like D. H. Budd, write an

advertisement for the item. Include the price, what is special about it and a drawing or

photograph of the item.

5

local History ProgramsWesterville History

The Local History Center is scheduling programs for fall. Let us bring history to your classroom. We will share stories about the early pio-neers of Westerville, show old photos of the town, and talk about the growth of and change in the community with special emphasis on a transportation timeline. Classroom programs can be scheduled by con-tacting Beth Weinhardt at 259-5028.

Ohio and Westerville played an active role in the Underground Railroad. Many people were involved in helping runaway slaves escape to freedom. In our community, the Hanby family, George Stoner, the Alexander family and the Sharp family aided in this effort. Throughout the state of Ohio, others were working to make freedom possible for runaways. The Local History Center has collected resources on this movement and would like to share the stories and the words of runaways with your class. We will share photos of the build-ings used as part of the Underground Railroad in our community. To schedule a 30-minute program in your classroom, contact Beth Weinhardt at 259-5028.

Underground Railroad

The Local History Center offers free guided walking tours of historic Up-town Westerville for elementary school classes during the Spring (end of April through May.) The walk takes approximately 90 minutes, making a loop through old Westerville. Students will be treated to stories of the founders of the community, residents who participated in the Under-ground Railroad, and information about homes and businesses. The Anti-Saloon Museum and local history displays at the Westerville Public Library are part of the tour. To schedule reserve a date for a tour, con-tact Beth Weinhardt at 259-5028 or at bweinhar@westervillelibrary.org

Spring Walking Tours

6