|
The Rise and Fall of Havana, Ohio
Beginning History: In 1847 the Sandusky to Newark Railroad
was being built and this was the beginning of the end for the extremely
busy New Haven Settlement. The railroad installed a terminal at
Paris, Ohio [now Plymouth, Ohio] to handle farm products
transportation. For some reason, the teamsters and the farming
settlers preferred the little settlement of Havana and private interest
quickly built a large grain elevator. The railroad built a siding to
accommodate the elevator as can be seen in the 1873 map of the village of
Havana. Then livestock holding pens were added for livestock
shipments. Already there was a brick and tile plant in operation and
a large sawmill. A wagon building and repair shop appeared, and
there were three grocery and supply stores, two saloons, two blacksmith
shops to handle horse shoeing, and complete wrought iron service.
One of the blacksmith shops is listed in the 1873 map.
Havana had grown and become important enough to have one of the early
post offices with two horse drawn rural delivery routes. On the
photo page, you can see the route No. 2 mail wagon with rural delivery
man, Nelson Eldred.
Havana also had the distinction of having the first, or at least one
of the first, photographers in this part of the country, H. Stevens.
He was probably drawn to this part of the country by the railroad and was
undoubtedly a pioneer photographer in 1859. The first photographic
image on paper was produced in Paris, France in 1857 with the development
of the "Carte De Visite" (Calling Card). It spread rapidly
to the United States where there was a few Daguerreotype photographers such
as Matthew Brady and Edward Anthony, and several others, but they were
limited to the eastern cities such as New York, Washington, D.C. and
Philadelphia. Thus, H. Stevens was a pioneer in the photography type
as we know it today. Stevens operated a portrait studio and due to
poor lights, he would have had to have a large skylight. Because of
the nine or ten minutes while the photo was being exposed, one or more
photographic chairs would be need since a subject would not be able to
move. These were arm chairs with adjustable V-shaped rests
that a blacksmith crafted to fit the neck and to be raised or lowered to
about the hair line. A blink of the eyes would not damage the
picture due to the slow speed.
Photographer H. Stevens, being a resident photographer of Havana, most
certainly must have taken many of the pictures relating to the history of
Havana, such as the photo of the Van Horn Store at the turn of the century
-- which is the same listing and location as the store of Brown and Youngs
shown on the 1873 map of Havana. For several years after this photo
was taken it was known as the Elmlinger-Van Horn Store. The
Elmlinger family operated the store until a few years ago and the building
still stands.
Havana Highpoint: Although Havana was an old established village
when the Sandusky and Newark Railroad was build in 1847, this important
endeavor surely gave an impetus to the growth of Havana. In 1872 the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad leased the Sandusky-Newark line and in 1873
they bought it while they were building the Chicago line that intersected
it and became Chicago Junction [modern Willard] in 1874.
The photograph of the Camelback steam locomotive #542 gives us more
insight to historic Havana. It was photographed on the railroad's
main track at Havana and shows an additional three yard tracks where
before it had only one spur track to the elevator. This indicates
that Havana had become a busy terminal in the mid 1870s.
The Demise of Havana: The Sandusky-Newark line was the
first successful railroad this far west. The Mad River line had
tried and failed but part of the Sandusky to Newark tracks are still
operational. Unfortunately, the rails between Sandusky and Willard
have been torn up and now poor old industrial Havana has no active
businesses or stores left. The railroad is just a memory and the
village is a much quieter place to live. But history has left its
mark for the memories to be kept alive by words and pictures of better
days.
|
