I plan to have more on the Cardington history later but I am reading the story of Cardington written by a resident and teacher, now deceased, in which she describes the early days of the village.
It was 1822, two hundred years ago when the first settlement, not the first village, was made that spring. The settlers were Isaac Bunker and his wife with their eleven children who came from Peru Township and with a force of eight to ten men, Bunker blazed a road and erected a log cabin house.
This writer, Eilene Ulrey, explained that the 1818 treaty with the Indians had opened all of the land north of the Greenville Treaty Line to settlement and this line passed through Cardington. Bunker’s house was located north of the line along the Whetstone River near what is today the East Main Street bridge.
Although it is usually said the town was not a village until 1836, which is true, there was a settlement here before that, just 200 years ago.
From the January, 1944 School newspaper, the Searchlight
Recognize any of these names: “The Journalism Club sold “hot dogs” at the Edison basketball game. Those sales people were Margaret Levering, Dorothy Berry, Annabelle Oler, Bethanne Smith, Dorene Nulk, Mary Jane Redman, Patty Grady and Marshall Maxwell.”
Finally, another “joke” from the 1922-23 Cardington School newspaper, “The Tatler.” Miss Frye, a teacher, asks student Marold Pickett: “I am good looking. What tense is that?” Marold: “Past!”
Humor was different back then, but had its “funny” points.
Snippets from past Independents
1952: Lester Baker opened the Red and White Self serve food market on the square in Cardington in the building that formerly housed the Kroger store. Retail milk prices took a one-cent jump in Cardington on January 1 with a quart of milk now costing 23 cents, the highest price on record.
Mayor Don Healea appointed Ralph Sanderson as Cardington fire chief. Wtih the exception of three years, Sanderson had been fire chief since 1908; E. M. Willits was elected president of the Citizens Bank of Cardington; Richard Struble of Cardington, turned in his “torch” sweater to Sheriff George Mosier. These sweaters were so called because they ignited and burned with almost explosive force.
1962: Consolidation of the Cardington-Lincoln School District was finalized. The oblong shaped district consisted of approximately 80 square miles and extended neaerly to Interstate 71; Titus Dean of Cardington, enlisted in the U.S. Army; Mrs . Jack Olson of rural Cardington, gave birth to a seven-pound boy on January 1 at Morrow County Hospital.
The Leaf Restaurant at the I-71 Interchange on State Route 95, described as “the most modern restaurant facility in central Ohio” opened this month; Cardington village council purchased a new pumper for the Cardington Fire Department at a total cost of $14,600. Long’s Garage on East Main Street, furnished the chassis with the winning bid of $3,754.
