Periodically I find brief items in past newspapers that I like to share because of being unusual or of interest in some way to today’s reader
During the past week or so State Route 529 through Cardington has been repaved -meaning North and South Marion Streets are being repaved by the Ohio Department of Transportation. Doing some research I learned the very first brick pavement was laid in Cardington in 1903.
The village business owners had complained about the amount of dust from the square which in some way affected the functioning of their businesses so the village laid brick for pavement in the square. Remember, there was no stop light there then.
• In 1925 the village council held a special meeting and approved the paving of Second and Morgan Streets by paving and constructing the necessary drains, etc and resurfacing the streets with macadam. However, payment for this improvement was to be made by the landowners along those streets.
Morgan Street landowners were to pay 96 per cent of the cost of the improvements with the exception of the intersection which was paid for by the village. Second Street property owners were assessed the same. The levy for Morgan Street was $1.30 per foot front and for Second Street, $1.35 per foot front.
• During the spring of 1939, a local man, Howard Betts. was the subject of a front page story describing how he was falling asleep almost every time he sat down with no control over it. He finally visited the doctor and immediately fell asleep. Mrs. Betts could rouse him some times but other times, he could not be awakened. It was determined he had an unusual form of sleeping sickness. He recovered and went on to live a full and productive life.
• A front page story in 1911 was one about a horse frightened to death during an incident near the Goose Heaven School which sat on the corner of today’s County Road 169 and State Route 529. The horse, owned by G. W. Bibler was being driven to town hitched to a wagon loaded with 20 bushels of wheat.
Just east of the Goose Heaven Road, a car met and passed the Bibler team.The one horse, a 13-year-old, became scared and tried to run away. The horse spied a road scraper in the school house yard and apparently — frightened worse of it than the automobile — jumped to the opposite side of the road and fell over dead!
More trivia later. Looking back:
1929: Voters in the Cardington Corporation turned down a proposed bond issue for a water distribution system 293-143.
1939: Frances DeMuth and Genevieve Smiley were elected as the Cardington High school cheerleaders among 15 other applicants.
1949: Hollywood actress June Haver, whose grandparents lived outside Cardongton for years, was currently starring in the movie musical “Look for the Silver Lining” playing at the Capitol Theater in Mount Gilead. Her grandfather was Ray Stovenour.
Harold Main opened a greenhouse at his property, located at the intersection of U.S. 42 and Morrow County Road 125.
1969: Laura Lowther, 1955 Cardington High School graduate, was appointed a public health coordinating nurse with the Los Angeles County Health Department in California.
