Three journalists from Saltillo, Mexico came to do research about the Holmes County Saltillo. They are working on a documentary about all of the Saltillos in the United States. When I asked them what Saltillo meant, they said that there was no definitive meaning, but illo is placed at the end of a word to mean small. They said that Saltillo would mean small jump or spring. The picture in this post shows a little spring running through the land next to the soldiers and monks. You can learn more about Saltillo, Ohio on pages 193-195 of Holmes County Historical Sketches by Brooks Harris.
Doughty Valley Happenings by Eli A. Yoder describes the founding of Becks Mills and surrounding area. Along with the factual accounts of the area, there are several personal stories to give the reader a sense of this quaint, small town. One story recounts the time the store was robbed. Anna Schlabach recalled that it was robbed two times in 1989 and again in January 1990. That wasn’t the first robbery. The store was also robbed in 1896. These and other stories about the people who live and who have lived in this area of Holmes County can be found in this book. Come into the Local History and Genealogy Room to read more about it.
I am going through library records from the 1930’s-1960’s. It is interesting to see what was going on at the library back then. Many of the board reports were written on tablet paper or sometimes scraps of paper. There is a folder that contains information for an award the library won. There is also a very large folder with State Library correspondence. This letter came from that folder. It is addressed to the head librarian at that time, Vilma Pikkoja. The library services project supervisor at the State Library is telling Vilma that she will not be able to attend a workshop because it for general staff and not administration. Look at the unique way she tells her. These records and reports are available for viewing in the local history and genealogy room at the Central Library.
The County Home on SR 83 started life as an infirmary. It was built in 1866 at the cost of $44,000 for the farm and buildings. It served as the infirmary for 29 years, until a fire destroyed the building on March 17, 1895. All of the inhabitants were safely removed, but the building was badly damaged.
Funds were soon secured to rebuild the infirmary, and community members went to work to begin rebuilding. There is a booklet in the Local History and Genealogy Room that describes in detail the efforts of rebuilding.
This is a picture of the Holmes County Home today.
Click here to see a picture of it when it was newer.
This little town did not start out with such a charming name. In the beginning, it was called Stevenson, Stevensville or Putschtown. The Stevenson name was said to have come from a neighboring farmer by the name of Stephen Yoder. Another story recalls that the son of Stephen Yoder had a wagon and blacksmith shop at the center of town. People often said, “down by Stephen’s son.” This caught on, hence the name. The nickname of Putschtown came from a visitor to the area. When he saw the tiny village, he replied, “Es is usht ein glehne putscha.” It is only a small clump or bunch.
How it finally got the name of Charm was a more practical one. When the town applied to get a post office, the state said that there was already a Stevenson, and they would have to think of another name. (This also happened to Walnut Creek.) There are several stories about how they chose Charm. There is a boring story that there was a list of names, and Charm was chosen from the list. It was mentioned that Joni J. Yoder was present. He was a jeweler. At that time, it was fashionable to attach a charm on a watch chain. Because of that he chose Charm for the name. Another story, my favorite, is that the men went to Columbus to choose the name. They hadn’t decided. The local
official asked them to describe the town. After they did, the official replied, “This must be a charming place, so I’d call it Charm.”
The pictures here show the General Store, the Watchman’s Cottage B&B on the main street, and Keim Lumber.
The original general store was destroyed by a fire in 1978. The General Store that is there today was built in February 1979. It still looks exactly like it did then.
The Watchman’s Cottage B&B is the former watch repair shop. It was remodeled in the early 1990’s
and turned into a bed and breakfast. It still remains a B&B today.
Keim Lumber is worth a trip to Charm to visit. It is not only a lumber and hardware business; it has all kinds of items for your home and lawn. It even has a cafe. In 1908, Mose J. Keim purchased 1 3/4 acres from Henry Hochstetler. This land was the original survey for Keim Lumber. There is more historical information at the store as well as some of the original items.
There are many more businesses and things to see. Come and experience this Charming place!
Information was taken from: Historical Album of Charm, Ohio by Vernon Miller.
The back of this photo says, “Limpytown, 1987 Located somewhere between Charm and Farmerstown.”
Limpytown wasn’t actually a town; in fact, according to an article written by Clarence Troyer in the August 15, 1977 edition of The Marketeer, “there never was a town, a village or even a hamlet. There was no industry nor business place, just a number of people living in the community with their various occupations, and a crossroad where a school house was located.”
Read the article below to find out more about Limpytown.
I spent a pleasant day volunteering at the Killbuck Valley Museum on Saturday. The museum has many artifacts from the Killbuck Valley as well as items of local interest. There is also a display of animals that are indigenous to the area. If you are visiting Killbuck or would like to learn about some of the history of the Killbuck Valley, you can visit the museum
May 1st through October 31st
1:00-4:30pm
Saturday or Sunday
This is a view of our library in the current building. The picture below is the golf course across the street. We actually do have patrons and visitors. The parking lot is empty, because I took these pictures on a Saturday after the library closed.
We have a beautiful library in a beautiful setting, but it wasn’t always that way. The library actually opened December 7, 1928 in the basement of the county court house, but I’ve gotten ahead of myself. Discussion about the library began in 1905 when a group of concerned citizens wanted to use Carnegie money to build a new library. When someone in the group suggested that once they build the building they were responsible financially for the operations, the idea was abandoned. In 1916, the library was actually started in the basement of the courthouse with a part-time librarian, Miss Nellie Lohaas, but it was soon closed because of lack of funds. Eleven years later a local minister and extension agent worked together to once again create a county library. They formed a library committee and worked to open in 1928.
Miss Beryl Cox was employed as the full-time librarian and began working with a Board of Trustees in 1935. The board was appointed by the MillersburgHardy Board of Education. Since it was now a School District Library, a librarian with a degree was needed. So poor Miss Cox was ousted after two years of service and in came Miss Helen Hastings from Kent, Ohio. I wonder what happened to Miss Cox; that might be another blog posting. Miss Hastings didn’t lose any time getting involved in the community. She created a Bible exhibit for Bible Sunday, became involved in other community events, and started summer reading programs and story hours. There was also a bookmobile of sorts; a private automobile was used to carry books from school to school.
Circulation and library use increased greatly, which made it difficult to provide sufficient service to the area residents. Luckily, in 1956 money became available to purchase a Bookmobile, which was used to provide service to the county residents in 1958. The first bookmobile driver was Don Guthrie, and his wife was the clerk. Don is retired but still visits us at the library.
The years 1958 and 1959 were expansion years for the library. Not only did the bookmobile extend library service, the library invested in the development of five branches. The branch in Killbuck was started first, with an emphasis on books for “tired eyes” — large print books. This was the focus of the local Lions Club and supported by the Head Librarian atMillersburg, Mrs. Vilma Pikkoja. Mrs. Herbert Allison was the branch staff member at Killbuck. TheHolmesville branch came next, with an emphasis on 4-H and youth materials. Mrs. Milton Koenig was their first staff member. Next, came the Nashville branch as the Rural Life Library branch. Mrs. Richard Galbraith was branch associate. Mrs. Ida Yoder lead the Berlin Branch, which was known as the Children’s Library. The Chestnut Ridge Branch, the Amish studies branch, opened in the old Amish school house in 1959. Mrs. Frank Kendle lead that branch.
Mrs. Pikkoja was responsible for acquiring a building near the Courthouse in downtown Millersburg, which was bequeathed by Mrs. Daisy Patrick. The library remained there until 10 years ago when it moved to our current location on Glen Dr. Mrs. Patrick stated that the old building must return to the West Holmes School Board building if the library should leave. Adhering to her wishes, the West Holmes Board currently resides in that building.
There have been many changes at the library since the first book was placed on the shelf in the basement of the courthouse, but the mission has remained the same–to provide quality materials and service to the residents of Holmes County.
Information for this post has been taken from A Brief History of the Holmes County Public Library by Fred W. Almendinger.