Newspaper Tidbits...

Newspapers are among some of my favorite resources to use for family history research. They can
illuminate our ancestor's lives in very personal ways. Learn how to use newspapers in research HERE.


But newspapers can also give you insight into the community and the times that your ancestors lived in.

And they can be entertaining.

For years, the Medina County District Library has maintained an online obituary index to death notices that have occurred in the Medina Gazette and the Medina Sentinel. The index was started in 1982 and was first entered onto 3" X 5" index cards.

Index card from the original obituary index.
The red line across the top indicated that the listing had been
added to the online database.

Over the years it has expanded and migrated and now lives on the Library's web site HERE.

The listings have been collected and entered by Library staff and volunteers. The work consists of reading through the newspaper microfilm, filling out the form with all the information and then entering the data into a computer. The work can be very monotonous. Boring.

And the articles can be depressing.

The awful tragedy appeared in the
September 5, 1933 Medina Gazette

This obituary for Lydie Welday in the November 13,
1908 Medina Gazette  displays the embellished
 language that was more normal in the past.

But, occasionally, the volunteers came across a particularly interesting article...

Luckily, they have shared many of these with me.

And now, I will share them with you!

ANIMALS

As you would expect from a rural county, many of the newspaper articles covered animals. But these are not the prize-winning-sow-at-the-county-fair kind of articles.

What I find particularly fascinating is that during these same time periods, a person's death might not get any mention, or a very brief line. But animals??

Lets start with CHICKENS!

Who would have thought that the death of three chickens was newsworthy?
Slow news day?
Medina Gazette 4 Sep. 1902, page 6.

This incident is a little bizarre, so somewhat newsworthy.
Medina Gazette 20 Nov. 1908, page 5

Along the same lines as the chicken story above.
Medina Gazette 24 Mar. 1881, page 1.

Is there some significance to the ear of corn in her mouth?
Did she overeat, or choke to death?
What happened?
Medina Gazette 2 Aug. 1907, page 6.

Horse stories abound. And apparently people were fond of their neighbor's horses...

Seems like everyone knew "Old Jim"
Medina Gazette 2 Aug. 1907, page 2.

"Old Ned" delivered the mail on a Rural Free Delivery Route.
Medina Gazette 14 Feb. 1908, page 6.

"Old Tobey" must have been VERY popular.
I have seen shorter death notices for women!
Medina Gazette 5 March, 1909, page 5.

Many women of the time did not get as much coverage at their death as Old Tobey did!












Now for a few words for our favorite animals - family pets!

Strangely, only one article in my files deals with a cat.
Medina Gazette 31 July 1942, page 12.

Man's best friend...

Seems the writer of this article was as attached to "Scott" as his owner was!
Medina Gazette 10 Dec 1909, page 7

WOW! We learn how long the dog had been ill
 and that he had been in the care of the vet for months!
Medina Gazette 7 June 1935, page 1.

And the final article on animals defies labeling...

Some friend, eh?
Medina Gazette 25 March, 1910, page 5.

And next we will take a look at some notices of the not quite dead... But not ZOMBIES!


NOT A ZOMBIE!

Just more lessons on not believing everything you read.

The movie Somersby had nothing on this story...

This soldier took Southern hospitality too seriously, abandoning
his wife, and committing bigamy with the farmer's daughter!
Medina Sentinel 4 Dec 1903, page 1.

Apparently, during World War I, the United States was not really good at keeping track of their soldiers...

He's alive and he's a new Dad!
Medina Gazette 8 Nov. 1918, page 11.

You would think the hospital could keep track of their patients.

Imagine the celebration his family had!
Medina Gazette 22 Nov 1918, page 2.

Howard lived to see  the U.S. return to fight Germany again.
He died in April 1942
Medina Gazette,  27 Dec 1918 p. 6

Really? No resting after a heart attack?

Medina Gazette 2 July 1935, page 1.

Undoubtedly, Anna has since passed away. But repeated searching failed to turn up a death record or tombstone listing.













BIZARRE HAPPENING

This event was probably terrifying for the victims. But I can't help but wonder if they all thought they were being collected by the devil en masse...

Medina Sentinel  29 April 1904 p. 1

MISSING!

All sorts of things go missing...

Medina Gazette 14 Aug 1908 p. 5

How embarrassing! I am guessing that person didn't smile after that!


And from the article below, it seems the "chompers" had been missing for quite a while!

Medina Gazette  9 Oct 1908 p. 5

And of course, money frequently goes missing as this following article details:

Missing Money - Gazette 4 Sep 1902 p. 6

 Medina Gazette 11 Sep 1902 p. 7 

But what is lost, can be "found" again...








But then again, now all of Medina County knows where he keeps his money!



And of course, people go missing for all sorts of reasons.

Medina Gazette 15 Feb 1965 p. 12

But why would she want to visit him?














And back in the days before "political correctness" became a buzz phrase, the newspapers told it like it was...

Medina Gazette  3 Aug 1906 p. 6

Medina Gazette 12 April 1907

Perhaps there was a follow-up article about a divorce??









The fellow in the article seems like such a sentimental guy - NOT!





The following two articles are even more chauvinistic!

Medina Sentinel  4 Jan 1900

Medina Sentinel 11 Dec 1902

Apparently, the Doctor thought he was above chopping his own wood...

Medina Gazette 23 Dec 1910 p. 5

This next article is just bizarre!

Medina Gazette 26 Aug 1897 p. 6

The next two articles were funny, because the volunteer working on gathering data wanted to know if she should include them in the obituary index...

Medina Sentinel 15 Nov 1918 p. 1
P.S. This was the editor's cute way of announcing the
passage of the Prohibition Act.

 Medina Sentinel 15 Nov 1918
"Kaiser Bill" was Kaiser Wilhelm - the leader of Germany
during World War I.

And this one struck me funny because of the name...

Medina Gazette  4 Dec 1934 p. 3

In all fairness to Donald's parents, Disney's cartoon character was created the very year this article appeared...


But I wonder if it contributed to what followed....

 Medina Gazette 14 April 1941

And this is what click bait looked like before the Internet and Facebook...

And if you have reached all the way to the end, let me know and I will give you a Hershey's Kiss!

The Cannon on the Square

Generations of Medina's children have clambered over the cannon in the Public Square. Fess up! Either you or your kids are guilty of this desecration!


Have you ever wondered where the gun came from and how it ended up in the park?


If you have, the different plaques on the gun probably just confused you even more.


This plaque is underneath the back of the gun. The green patina of the aged metal is beautiful. However, everything on this plaque is wrong for the gun that sits above it.

This is the manufacturer's plaque. It tells us that the gun is a 57 mm carriage gun that was produced by International Harvester in Chicago in 1945. Now painted over, originally this label would have been black and silver.

This plaque is under the barrel of the gun. Accurate in all that it does say. It is what it doesn't say that I find puzzling.

When was it placed in the square? Where was it before it came to Medina? Why did it come to Medina? Who was involved?


And where do you go when you have these kinds of questions?  You go to the library!

Which is just what a library member did earlier this week. He came to me, asking these very questions. And I started pulling out resource after resource with no success. He had already been to the Medina County Historical Society, but no luck there. His next stop was going to be Post 202 of the American Legion.

But as often happens, I was left wondering, so I continued to dig. After all, another library member could come by any day with the same questions.

And look what I found!

Medina Gazette September 23, 1947, page 8.

This article explains that Charles Lawrence & Ralph Waite of American Legion Post 202 lobbied to get a "memento" of World War II to replace the gun from World War I that used to sit on the cement base. Being frugal Medinians, there was no need to pay for a new base when there was already a perfectly good base going unused. And the article tells that the gun had been at the Erie proving grounds before coming to Medina. The date of the article, 1947 tells us when the gun was moved.

In later articles found online, Ralph Waite says that originally there were three guns that came to Medina. http://medinagazette.northcoastnow.com/2010/06/12/big-gun-goes-away/ 

1. The one on Public Square.
2. One in front of the VFW Hall on North Broadway
3. One in front of the VFW on Pearl Road, north of Medina.

So the next time someone asks me about the cannon on the square...

Joseph Reno

As a rule, it can be difficult to trace the lives of African Americans in the 19th Century. But there are exceptions. Here is one from Medina's History:

Joseph Reno

1812-1872

Joseph Reno was born in Champaign County, Ohio circa 1812 to Francis & Rachel (Magee) Reno. He married Anna King in Springfield, Clark County, Ohio on 11 Aug. 1830 and moved to Medina by 1840.

In the 1840 census for Medina, Ohio, Joseph Reno's household includes 2 Black people: a male, 24-35 years old, most likely Joseph and one female, aged 10-24 years old, probably Anna.

In the 1850 Census, Joseph is entered as a Mulatto; age 36, born in Ohio; Occupation, barber; personal property valued at $1600; Rhoda, aged 34; born in Ohio; race not indicated, and Abram Reno, aged 27, listed as mulatto; barber; $800 in personal property.

In the May 22, 1855 Medina County Gazette: "J.H. Maxell and Alex McClure have purchased the space next to the Exchange Buildings formerly occupied by Jo. Reno, and intend to erect a splendid store, three stories high, immediately."

For the 1860 census in Medina County, Joseph is listed as 45 years old (no race indicated). He is a barber, with property valued at $1500. "Roda" is age 43.

Joseph's mother, Rachel (Magee) Reno, died in Medina on 22 May 1864 at his home.

In the History of Medina County and Ohio (1881) on page 248:

      "At another time a larceny had been committed in Medina, and Joseph Reno, a colored man, had ferreted out the thief and arrested him, and fearing that he might not be allowed to testify on account of his color, so induced the criminal to confess in the presence of a white witness as to effect his conviction. Reno was offered as a witness and the State offered to show he was more than half white, but Judge Dean would not hear any such proof and decided that, by "inspection" Reno was a "negro" and refused to allow him to testify. At that time, by the laws of Ohio "negroes and mulattoes" were not competent witnesses where a white man was a party."

In a March 1870 Gazette -- "Joe" Reno an old colored man at the American House, known to all the world and the rest of mankind as just the best fellow in the world to have around a hotel, and whose jovial countenance is never invisible, though under a cloud, celebrated the adoption of the 15th Amendment by taking a trip to Cleveland, stopping with his old friend Terrell of the Forest City House. We trust he had a pleasant visit."   Terrell was a previous manager of the American House.

And just a month later, also in the Gazette:

"FIRST VOTE UNDER THE 15TH AMENDMENT"

"At the election in this village last Monday, Mr. Joseph Reno - everybody knows "Joe" - cast his first vote. Sixty years old, and a taxpayer for may years, he now comes into the exercise of a right which all men are bound to respect. It is needless to say that Joseph voted a straight Republican ticket."  During this time period, the Republican party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, was considered favorably by the African American Community.

For the 1870 Medina County Census, Joseph was listed as a Mulatto, but now his occupation was listed as "Domestic Servant". In the house with him, is Hannah, aged 40 with Personal Property worth $4380. Also listed is May, aged 15, Mulatto, Mandy age 9, Mulatto and Elena, age 1, Mulatto. 

The relationship between Joseph and the people he lived with is never defined. His wife, Anna, never shows up by name in the census records with him. Joseph Reno is not listed in the index for marriage or divorce records for this time period.

The next time we see Joseph's name in the newspaper is 28 June 1872:

Erastus Hitchcock and another youth were firing a pistol across from the American House. Joseph confronted the young men about their reckless behavior as they were disturbing the peace and upsetting a sick child. They refused. Joseph then struck Hitchcock with a broom handle that he used as a cane. Erastus fired at Joe, but missed. But the second shot didn't miss.

Joseph was able to dictate his statement, before he died:

In a time period when minorities and women were largely ignored in the local press, The Medina Gazette dedicated 4 paragraphs to Joe's obituary on July 5th:

We are still searching for where Joseph Reno was buried.

Postscript:

1875 Medina Gazette: "Erastus Hitchcock, who was sentenced to the Penitentiary for six years for shooting Joe Reno, was pardoned last week."

11 March 2019 - a Medina Gazette article reads - next to the Canfield house was occupied by "Black Joe", the barber in 1843-44. Most likely, this would have been where Joe Reno had his barbershop. 

Dr. Burnham had this to say about the man he only knew as
"Black Joe the barber" which probably refers to Joe Reno

Medina Gazette 22 December 1939,page 8.
Map of the village of Medina, circa 1843-44, from the recollection of
Dr. H. Burnham in 1898.
#26  is the location for "Black Joe the barber".