KENMORE AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY -
Part 1 (Excerpts from the memoirs of Leon Goodman
as told to Lee McCutchan - Written in 1983)Leon Goodman is the eldest of four children born to Samuel
and Mattie Stuver Goodman. The Goodmans lived more than
"half-way" up the Hill on Witner Lane" prior to, and for a time
after, the turn of the century. The "Hill" is now known as
Clearview Hill. Witner Lane, named for John Witner the largest
landowner on the Hill, "curled" up from Manchester Rd. to serve
the houses, farms and orchards above.Leon, 93 years young, is currently a perky resident of a
Doylestown nursing home. A sister, Mrs. Lida Schmidt, lives in
Marshallville. A brother, Robert, (recently deceased) was a
long-time member of Akron's Police Dept.Samuel Goodman served as Mayor of Kenmore for two non-
consecutive terms and served as a Director on the Coventry
Twp. School Board for a number of years.In 1889, when Leon was born, our area was known as Wingerter's
Crossing. The Crossing being where Manchester Rd. crossed
the three sets of railroad tracks that ran parallel through the area:
The Cleveland, Akron & Columbus, The Erie and the Baltimore
& Ohio.Leon was about ten or eleven when a post-office was established
and the area became officially named HALO. Just prior to this
time, Henry Shook had built a brick building and opened up a
store at the crossing on the edge of the big cow-pasture that
bordered the tracks. (The cow-pasture is now the office area of
Diamond Crystal Salt.)Mr. Shook was named first postmaster of Halo, Ohio and the post-
office opened in his store. There was no free delivery; every family
had a post-office box and came to the post-office for their mail.It was the job of a Mr. Beichler to get the mail to and from the
post-office to the railroad and to hoist the mail sacks on and off
the "mail-arms". The outgoing mail was placed in a leather
pouch, tied and hoisted up to an arm extending from a tall pole
out along the railroad tracks. The trains slowed down for the
crossing and the fireman snared the pouch; at the same time
tossing the incoming mail destined for Halo onto a similar arm.Several years later, Halo became the City of Kenmore. The first
City offices and the Mayor's Office was located upstairs over
Smith's Grocery on Manchester Rd. They were still there when
Sam Goodman served as Mayor.LIFE AT HOME
The Goodman family and home were typical of the time and of
this area.Most all of their food was grown in the family garden. Fruit
orchards abounded in the area. Food was stored, canned,
pickled and preserved to last through the winter. The A & P in
Akron, down on Howard St. was the supplier of tea and coffee
and all sorts of spices. "Mother preferred Arbuckle Brand coffee,
which sold for nine cents a pound, and always saved the
signatures off the labels to send away for special presents."
(Even then there were coupons and coupon savers.)"Mother did all of the baking and we bought "Patent A" flour in
49 lb. sacks. Neighbors always exchanged "yeast starts" for
bread dough."About that time Jake Zimmerly and his brother built a packing
house on the edge of the big swamp on Manchester Rd. Here
they butchered and salt-cured meat. I remember well, Mother
giving me a dime once or twice a week and sending me to Jake's
for a soup-bone, impressing on me to be sure to tell him to 'leave
some meat on it'."Leon's mother cooked and baked on a big coal-fired range. Just
south of Wingerter's Crossing, H. C. Ohl had opened a coal
company, bringing in coal from mines in the Doylestown area. "In
the fall everyone laid in a winter's supply of coal. You had to. You
couldn't depend on the roads being passable any time.""Mother made most all of our clothes, buying yard goods in Akron
at either O'Neils or Yeagers Dry Goods. There was a Kresge's
Dime Store downtown, too, that we got a lot of things from."Between South St. and Witner Lane on Manchester Rd. the
Steiner family ran a big dairy farm. This was the souce of milk
and butter. "Mother, and most everyone else, kept chickens for
meat and eggs."When the devasting diptheria epidemic hit the area in the early
1900's, the Goodman children all fell victims. Sam called in the
family doctor, Dr. Norris from Akron. Dr. Norris told about a
brand new toxin-anti-toxin that was available and asked Sam if
he wanted to pay the price.Dr. Norris telephoned the prescription to a drug store in Cleveland,
personally met the trolley that brought the medicine from Cleveland,
brought it to the house and administered the new "miracle cure". All
of the Goodman children survived. A great many were not so lucky.When Sam Goodman ran for Mayor of Kenmore for the third time,
Leon had left the area and was living in Dayton. However, on this
particular election day, Leon was visiting back home.When the polls closed and the votes counted, Sam had been
defeated. He had lost by seven votes. Sam took it very hard.A family by the name of Baughman controlled seven votes. For
some reason Sam blamed this family for his defeat, paid a visit
that very night and vented his feelings.Sam felt repudiated. Returning home he immediately began
making plans to leave the area. Shortly thereafter he moved his
family to Marshallville. However, he did not cut all ties to Kenmore.
He retained his home and property on Witner Lane and it was
there he died.Leon got his elementary education attending School No. 12, Mud
Lake District, Coventry Twp. School No. 12 was a brick school,
larger than most, located near Summit Lake, close to the railroad
switch house.Leon returned to No. 12 as the teacher at age 18.
Visit our site again and read more memories from
Lee McCutchan's interview with Leon Goodman