Meeting minutes: October 9, 2017 Posted on October 9, 2017 0 Mohawk Women’s Literary Club SYCAMORE — The Mohawk Women’s Literary Club October meeting was held at the Mohawk Community Library. President Beth Lininger welcomed 14 members with a reading from Patricia Limbach’s “Harvest of Bittersweet,” a collection of essays from the author of a weekly Farm Wife column in an Ohio newspaper. The club creed was recited, and Virginia Shellhouse led singing of the club song. Members answered roll call by sharing a personal memory involving the use of a radio. Nancy Bentz will continue to collect books for this year’s service project. A variety of books for ages 1-12 is needed. Susan Runion offered to purchase member’s choices through the library. A sign-up for food donations for the Nov. 9 Bloodmobile at the Sycamore Community Center was circulated. Roxanne Hufford is the contact person. Members read the club constitution and by-laws aloud round-robin style. Charleen Wolfe gave a brief bio of author Anthony Doerr, who was born in Cleveland and has won many literary awards, including the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Wolfe led the discussion for “All the Light We Cannot See,” Doerr’s novel about two young people whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Hostesses Elaine Kern and Barb Phillips served refreshments. The next meeting is 7 p.m. Nov. 6 at MCL. The group will discuss “Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng. Wyandot Tracers President Jean Moon opened the September meeting of the Wyandot Tracers. Several members shared their interesting finds since the previous meeting. The speaker was Charlotte Leeth, who told of the history of Marseilles. The village was incorporated in 1823. Originally there were three developers who laid out sections of the village. Merriman and Burlington later became part of Marseilles. At one time, Marseilles was the largest town between Cincinnati and Detroit. Indians used the trail followed by General Harrison and his troops later known as Bellefontain Trail. Simon Kenton was captured in southern Ohio by the Indians for stealing and was taken on this trail to be executed. He was forced to run the gauntlet nine times on the journey. In Elkert’s book “The Frontiersman,” he tells of Kenton’s last run at the gauntlet at the edge of Marseilles. At one time, there were five mills operating in the village. There was a carding mill, a saw mill, a stave mill, a hoop mill and a flour mill. Remnants of one of the mills can be found in Harrison Smith Park. The D.A.R. monument was constructed with wheels from Marseilles. There also were three doctors in the village. One also was a dentist, one also was a veterinarian, and one also was an undertaker. There were many types of shops, as well. At one time, the village had the bragging rights of being bigger than Chicago. That was because Marseilles was incorporated in 1823 and Chicago in 1830. Like many towns and villages, the advent of the railroad changed things. Although three different railroads wanted to go through the village, there were enough influential people who felt the railroad would harm local merchants so permission was refused. Even into the early ’50s, village locals spoke with pride about Marseilles being the biggest little town in the world. ——— The August meeting of the Wyandot Tracers was held at the Upper Sandusky Community Library. President Jean Moon welcomed 13 members and guests. She then presented the speaker for the evening. Gladys Hines said she is not a collector but an accumulator of old sewing machines. She brought with her an impressive display of machines, including the traditional treadle swing machine. She said that although it is commonly thought that Singer invented the sewing machine, it was actually Walter Hunt who obtained the first patent in 1834. His machine did not work well and was not well accepted. Singer was not an inventor but an excellent machinist. He along with several others worked together to develop the familiar Singer sewing machine. It is difficult to find out just how much the first machine cost because many goods were bartered. In Laura Ingalls’ book, she mentions that pa traded one cow to get ma a Singer machine. Moon thanked the speaker for her presentation. She also reminded everyone to stop by the Tracers table in the log cabin at the Wyandot County Fair.
