Reminiscences of Frank Tanner
Part 3
June 11, 1979
Interview conducted by Harold J. Vogus
TANNER: Well, let's see what date would that be, about 1916 or 17, 'round the year of 'round about 1916 or 17. While working at the Alliance Machine Company, we had in Alliance an Industrial Basketball League made out of the shops in the town. They played two nights a week at the old Roller Skating rink on Tuesdays and Thursday nights. It was very popular with the people in town. They had large crowds out all the time to the games. And the teams, the people used to back up their different teams. And around about 1916 the Alliance Machine Company had a wonderful team, Morgan Engineering Company had a wonderful team. The year before that Morgan Engineering Company had won the championship for the league.
VOGUS: Did Voglie and Reese play in those leagues?
TANNER: Yeah, but in this one year Morgans had won the championship and the next year the Alliance Machine come through with a real good team and at the last game of the season when the Alliance Machine and Morgan Engineering they were both tied for the championship. The enthusiasum was so great that on this night that they played that the whole night shift of the Alliance Machine Company walked out of the plant and went down to the rink and stood at the lower end of the rink as a body there to watch the game, between the Alliance Machine Company and the Morgan Engineering. And the Alliance Machine Company, beat, defeated the Morgan Engineering team that night and won the championship. When the men from the Alliance Machine went back to work the night force, Jim Williams the man who got noted for the Out Our Way cartoon, was running a planer in the shop on the night shift. And they had an anvil block where he, all he had to do was set up on his pair of steps and watch the tool go back and forth. And while he was there sitting that night, he drawed a cartoon, which, when I went into the shop in the morning the boys told me I should come out and see the cartoon hanging on the column divided where Jim Williams had been that night and he had drawed about the game. This cartoon showed a picture of the inside of a machine shop and two cranes on the runway. One crane was marked Alliance Machine and the other one Morgan Engineering. And the Alliance Machine hooklock of the crane had just swung away from the Morgan hooklock and the loving cup that the championship basketball team got was hanging on the hooklock of Alliance Machine. Very clever cartoon. When I come in and they called me and told me about this I went out in the shop and seen it, I told Mr. Purcell, the owner of Alliance Machine in the morning when he called me into the.office and told me he was going to send the whole basketball team on a nice trip later on in the year to Pittsburgh to see, to go through a few of the steel plants and see a baseball game in Pittsburgh as an honor of winning. And I told him about the cartoon that was out there, and he told me to get the cartoon and bring it in and show it to him. He thought that cartoon was outstanding, so he said, he thought that cartoon should be in the newspaper that night showing. So I was assigned to take the cartoon down to the newspaper. I went into the Alliance, oh what was the name...
VOGUS: Was it the Review?
TANNER: No, the other one.
VOGUS: Leader.
TANNER: The Alliance Leader first and the sports writer there, they wouldn't have anything to do with the cartoon. 'Cause they were rooting for the Morgan Engineering team and they didn't want to put something like that into the paper. So then I went up to the Alliance Review and I got the same treatment there. I took the cartoon back to the Alliance Machine and Mr. Purcell he said, well we'll get it into the paper tonight. So he told me to go back, or he told his secretary to get Frank Hoiles who owned the Alliance Review he would be out to the brick yard most likely, he owned the Alliance Brick Company too, get him on the phone. He owned the Alliance Review, so he talked to Frank Hoiles and he told Frank about it. He'd like to have that cartoon in the paper that night. Frank he made a statement, that he says he didn't interfere with the editor and the like and their policy at the paper. But Mr. Purcell told him, he said I know different, he says, and what you do and he says I done a quite a nice financial, helped you out financially here a while back and I think you deserve to help me out some. so I got sent back down to the paper and got the cartoon. That was the first cartoon that Jim Williams ever made of all his outstanding history.
VOGUS: That's what you call twisting his arm a little.
TANNER: But I was responsible first, having the first cartoon of Jim Williams made published.
VOGUS: Well later on then, you told about was in, what the Iron Age and Steel, a magazine.
TANNER: Oh yeah, the Iron Age and Steel magazine had his cartoons in. In fact a number of years afterwards they had a whole magazine made up showing different cartoons of Jim Williams that they had had off and on. I got it right out yonder, there.
VOGUS: Yeah.
TANNER: They were considered for years the greatest cartoons that the average person would want to see in the paper. They called it the Out Our Way Cartoon and always on, he had different things that he had cartoons made up through, but always in a Friday paper they had a machine shop cartoon in.
VOGUS: They called that the Bull of the Woods.
TANNER: The Bull of the Woods. And that was the old superintendent of the Alliance Machine Company, Jim Williams, or, not Jim. What was his name, his name was Williams too.
VOGUS: Did he do the cartoon that they called Born Thirty Years Too Soon? Was that one of his?
TANNER: Oh yeah.
VOGUS: Oh, I enjoyed that. I always thought that was really a true to life thing.
TANNER: He had every, he had a cartoon six days a week in the paper, and every, every certain day, like on Monday a certain cartoon was in, of a certain character. Fridays was the Bull of the Woods cartoon. And that took a machine shop.
VOGUS: Well didn't he have some characters out west, showing some of the... On the north side of Main Street the first building was the Stark Electric Station and next to it was the Alliance Leader which was later purchased by the Alliance Review. In this area was located on the corner of the first alley west of Stark Electric Station. Buck Loftis was quite prominent in professional athletics and displayed pictures of famous athletes and teams in his front windows. Do you remember that?
TANNER: Of definitely. He always had, he'd keep them in there about a week or two weeks and then he'd have another one. Oh yeah, he was very, oh any kind of athletics, kids games and the like. He was interested.
VOGUS: He was interested. Was he an athlete himself?
TANNER: I don't know. I couldn't tell you, when he was fairly old is when I knew him and he was, oh, around my dad's age.
VOGUS: But he had this great interest in athletics.
TANNER: Oh definitely. He never missed when we had the old rink going we had our games up there and stuff like that, and high school games and the like. He attended all of them.
VOGUS: Always there.
TANNER: I think he attended most of Mount Unions too. Ones that had our, like the high school had our boys in town there, others in the league games we had shop leagues. He was interested in that, very definitely he was.
VOGUS: The Household Supply Company was in this block and continues in the same location, but is known as Rickard's
Furniture Store and is operated by a son and grandson of George Rickard the former owner. I know them. They're talking about Stewart Rickard there cause I knew him and the boys. This block which is the six hundred block on Main Street houses Haidet's Shoe Shop, Mower and Antram Druggist, James Rickard's Grocery, and Nesbitt's Photographic Gallery. This I was particularly interested in. On this old picture of East Main Street he has his name up on the side of the building there.
TANNER: Oh yeah.
VOGUS: Yeah, I seen a lot... He was quite an artist.
TANNER: Who was the drugstore they said...
VOGUS: Mower and Antram.
TANNER: Mower and Antram, the only one I can picture on the square was...
VOGUS: The photo gallery was on the second floor. And Gordon's Beehive (a variety store) was on the northeast corner of Main and Seneca Street. In 1900 Sharer's Furniture Store was considered an old establishment. It remains in the same location and is undoubtedly Alliance's oldest store. I'll put this on the tape but this was written in 1947. A lot of these places have long since past now.
TANNER: Yeah, Sharer's...
VOGUS: Adjacent to Sharer's, west was another saloon and Forest Warner owned a Variety Store hereabouts and Tom Kearney made his livelihood by operating a tailoring shop, and then when the motion picture theater came into prominence, Kearneys started the Edisonia Theater. Do you remember attending that one? That's on the pictures too. that one? He operated the projection and pleased his audience by explaining the pictures to them.
TANNER: Before you read that, that come to my mind. A lot of people went there because he stood back and see, when he got these reels of pictures...
VOGUS: That was the silent film days wasn't it?
TANNER: Yeah, silent film, but they come with the pictures you know, the reels that he got was a big explanation of the pictures and the like.
VOGUS: Right. In the old days they had titles too sometimes.
TANNER: Yeah, and he would read that stuff over, and then when the pictures was going on he'd stand back thePe and
explain it. A lot of people went there just to have it explained.
VOGUS: Just to hear him.
TANNER: Oh yeah. Definitely. It was noted all around about him.
VOGUS: Kays Shoe Store owned by William Kay was a neighbor to the theater. He was upstairs. And then was J. A. Zang
and Sons Jewelry, was one of Alliance finest jewelry stores. The First National Bank was next to Zangs and then built their own building on the square. When the First National Bank merged with the Alliance Bank Company, the Industrial Savings and Loan purchased the National Bank Building. Continuing west on West Main Street in succession was Ralph Levys Clothing Store, William E. Davis Dry Good Store was in the Stone block. Kochs Clothing was next door with Turnipseed and Steffy another Men's Store, was a neighbor. And I can't make this out, some drug store was next. Heer, Heer, Heer later sold his store to Barney Vale who came to Alliance from East Liverpool. The Alliance Bank Company and DeBolts Five and Ten Cents Store occupied the present side of the Alliance First National Bank Building. I have a postcard with the DeBolts sign on it.
TANNER: Yeah, this drug store what was his name?
VOGUS: Heer.
TANNER: No the other one.
VOGUS: Oh, Vale, Barney Vale.
TANNER: Barney Vale.
VOGUS: Yes, he was there a long time.
TANNER: Yeah, oh yeah. In New York when I was down there at this fellow, he knew Barney Vale, and T. A. Blue, two of the fellows that he knew real well. Met them down in my grand-dad's place. there. This fellow in New York. But Barney Vale and then, the other fellow that's got the sporting goods down farther on Main Street; what was his name? He was another one that he knew.
VOGUS: Now backtracking to the southwest corner of Main and Seneca that would be across the street from the post office is Bill Ellett's Cigar Store. Isaac Wise had his meat market next to Elletts.
TANNER: Yeah, this fellow knew Bill Elletts Cigar Store, he knew Barney Vale, and what was the other guy that had the sporting goods store? He knew them three fellows.
VOGUS: George R. Divers Drugstore with B. J. Rickards Grocery Store, Klingers Barbershop, and Waltz and Kinseys Shoe Store completed the half block. Across the alley the Geiger Brothers, the clothiers who later formed the company of Geiger, Biery and Roderick moved across the street to the room where W. E. Davis vacated. After the Geigers moved, Peter Kinder started the Crystal Palace a luxurious candy store. William Stallcups dry goods store was next to Geigers then came Sam Katzenstiens carpet store with the Allott and Kryder Hardware company completing the block. It is interesting here to mention that an employee of Sam Katzenstiens, T. W. Cope who formed the partnership with Bill Katzenstien taking over Sam Katzenstiens store. Later Cope took his two sons into business with him forming the business of T. W. Cope and Sons. This partnership has grown into the Cope Furniture Company who now operates a store on West State Street. Around the cobblestone square with the iron pipe fittings providing hitching accommodations there was a City Hall which houses the Fire Department with one wagon and a chiefs car. Now this had to be before 1905 because later on they built the Fire Station. The City Hall had a large porch on it's north side and directly off of the porch was the city's jail, which still stands on the same spot, really. On the southwest corner, the present site of the City Savings Building was Martin's Confectionary. Martin's roasted their own peanuts and it was a daily occurrence to see that Martin on the street side turning the cylinical roaster which was about two feet in diameter and about three feet long and heated by a gasoline flame. Does that scratch a memory?
TANNER: Oh brother, yeah.
VOGUS: In the 400 block which lies between Linden and Freedom you will find most interesting changes. Going west from Martitis Confectionary the City Savings Bank occupied not too large a room next door. Kays Hardware was next door and an L shaped store which also faced the square on Freedom Street.
TANNER: That's so right, that's so right.
VOGUS: That's what you had told me. And next door to the Freedom Street side was Smallzell, a very well patronized saloon. I have a picture of that and I can never make out that sign and now I know what the name was.
TANNER: On the square at the...
VOGUS: Yeah, that was going south towards the City Hall yeah. That was just down from City Hall.
TANNER: Where Kays Hardware come out on in between there and the alley up there was this saloon.
VOGUS: Yeah, Smallzell, right.
TANNER: But there was a lady running it.
VOGUS: Oh really.
TANNER: Her husband started it and he died and then she run it for years. What's her name?
VOGUS: Smallzell.
TANNER: Smallzell, that's it. Smallzell. And she used to get my mother mad. She just loved to talk to Homer and I, us twins when we was kids. And Mother she was against liquor, my mother was. She used to get mad because every time we was down there au the store and the like she'd see us, she'd walk, try and come out and she'd come over and talk to Homer and I. Mrs. Smallzell, my golly, I forgot all about her.
VOGUS: Going back on Main Street, Love and Cassleman had a plumbing shop ne«t to Kays Hardware and Colonel Kings Tailoring Shop was next door. That was w. W. King. He's the man who sold Cantine that house on Union and Main. King built that originally. See King and Geiger, George Geiger were regimental officers in the eights OVI.
TANNER: That's right, you're right.
VOGUS: And we're lucky we still, we have a picture of this Colonel King and the tailoring shop.
TANNER: I'd like to see that.
VOGUS: Later this room was made over into the Ideal Theater. Across the alley going west was McElroys and Bucks Becks Store. And then a barbershop which belonged to Trautman.
TANNER: There was a bookstore on the corner there.
VOGUS: Oh, bookstore, yeah. Bucks Bookstore. Then later was owned by Clarence Haines and his brother. Now comes the place which holds fond memories to young and old. Barnurns Candy Store. This was a place one could purchase taffey, peanut brittle, and chocolate drops and in the summertime soda and flim flams. Barnum during the winter months closed the fountain then hot chocolate with a couple of crackers was served. No customers of Barnums will ever forget them.
TANNER: Homer and I were good customers. Horne and I we just, well we had nice paper routes, we made money. We spent our time in the evenings, downtown you know, the stores were open at night. We'd go down and walk home with Dad. And we were a couple of the kids who had some money in our pockets. And we took in the stttff downtown, we always got something when we were down in the evening, or downtown in the evening.
VOGUS: It says where Haffners is now located was Ensigns Transfer Office and then the Galbreath Heacock Insurance Agency was housed in the same room and next door west was McDonalds Walk Over Store which is now Shrigly and Mehl. Have you ever heard of the Keplinger Hotel? Why sure. It was an old frame building which later had its face lifted. A brick front was erected with a couple of walls around it and is now the Lexington Hotel. Well we have pictures of both, the old Keplinger House and the one after they remodeled it. If you will notice that the next time you go up Linden Avenue you can see the old wooden structure. It housed a bar as well as a dining room. Now I never noticed that myself. Going back to Freedom on the North side of Main Street another prominent saloon was located. This was Fanny Morris's place and this was not a woman but a long bewhiskered man.
TANNER: Saloon on the corner. The name don't seem familiar.
VOGUS: Then there was Hinshilwood and Moss the Mens Clothing Store, then another drugstore which was Cassadays, started by S. B. Cassaday and then owned by his sons Frank and Clyde. On the corner of the alley Les McDonald had Walk Over Shoe Store and as stated before moved across the street to the new Lexington Building. Sears Roebuck are at the site of what was Koch Brothers who built the building and moved to Innswood after it was completed. This was between 1900 and 1910. Strong and Wheat shoe merchants was across the alley and John Sharers Jewelry store was next door. Schooleys novelty store was a neighbor and then Oysters Jewelry store.
TANNER: Schooley's the guy with the novelty store. that used to hang out at my grand-dad's that the guy in New York knew. Harry Schooley. That's the guy I was trying to think of.
VOGUS: Yeah, he had a kind of a sporting goods...
TANNER: Sporting goods.
VOGUS: Then he got, I understood that he was quite a mechanic and that he did a lot of work repairing guns and bicycles
and they said that if you couldn't find it anyplace else you go to Schooleys and you had a chance of finding it there.
TANNER: He sold all of that stuff. And anything that you needed repaired or anything, come in and leave it there for a week and he'll have them all fixed for you. Oh yeah. I couldn't think of the, that guys name, that's the name of the fellow in New York, Schooley. Met him down at my granddad's place. Harry Schooley.
VOGUS: B. J. Morris drugstore was next to the Oysters. Matheys grocery store, the writing gets pretty bad here, Waffeys store. It says where the Ohio Bell Building now stands there was an old frame building which Sam Lane operated a millinery store. And incidentally when Isador Cold built this Ohio Bell Building the Ohio State Telephone Company and the Bell Telephone Company merged and took the upper force. This I remember. The Ohio State Telephone Company was formerly the Stark Telephone Company which is on the second floor of the present Review Building. When the Ohio Bell Building was erected the first floor was the Ohio Theater. A modern theater at that time. I remember going to the Ohio Theater. Crossing Linden Avenue going west on the north side of Main Street was the Culps leading Women's store. Then D. B. Cassaday had a furniture store in an old wooden structure. Jake Fruitkin was the Manhattan tailor and next door to this was the White Front saloon, then Klein and Rodericks had the dry goods stores and then Coulton and Davis, Spring and Holzworth had been in the same location but prior to that, this company was where the Midland Building now stands. That was at the corner of Arch and Main, I have a good picture of that. The hardware company moved into their present location in about 1907, that's Alliance Hardware they're talking about there. Cunningham Furniture is now in the same building which D. B. Cassaday built and moved into about 1906, moving a few doors east. On the northeast corner of Arch and Main was Winner and Thomas, which was a clothing store and the firm also made overalls which had a brand name, the Winner. They later moved the overall machinery down to north Linden to the third floor of the storage building. That burnt down too I believe that factory. The Jones millinery store was on the southwest corner of Main and Linden. And next door you would take a few steps upward and you could get into William Lindesmiths harness shop. Another millinery store, then there was Elletts and next to Lindesmiths and then came Shems Wallpaper Store. Shem had previously been across the street at the Spring and Holzworth location. In the next building which had formerly been the Methodist Church, all it says that Scranton bought, was Alliance Building and Savings and then the Peoples bank occupied the room that was down by...
VOGUS: ... and Walls Grocery and meat market, Letts Candy Store, the Liberal Credit Clothing store and Homer Newman in this block. That Newman must of been in there for quite a number of years because some of the older pictures going back before that in the horse and buggys was still there I could see that Newman's Store was there.
TANNER: It was an older store when I was young.
VOGUS: And that corner of Main and Arch was Walkers Grocery Store, later Stein & Damon Jewelery Store who had been across the street next to the Cassaday Furniture Company and shared their room with Ed Shaffer a piano merchant. To the rear of Walker Shoe Store was Wicks Carriage shop. Old man Wick owning the building. Wick sold his carriage shop to William Martin a carriage builder from Hanoverton who also handled paints. I have a tintype picture of William Martin and at one time he had a building on down Market Street, then he bought this section here for his carriage making up there. And they said that that Wicks Carriage shop, at that time, had been on that corner for fifty years.
TANNER: Yeah, they were there I remember.
VOGUS: Then he rented a portion of this room to A. I. Cope and John Moser who did electrical contracting and from which the Cope Electric Company who had been at the same location for forty years. It was said years ago that Arch Street was the west boundary for Alliance's business district. However in reviewing the last thirty to forty years it is easy to see the fallacy of such thoughts. For west of Arch Street were residences, were torn down to make way for the erection of new buildings. To the old timers that are living now in Alliance they will remember of Williams :Drugstore at the southwest corner of Arch and Main across the street was 1 Spring and Holzworths Dry Goods was organized. After this company moved to the Crist Block the U. S. Syndicate occupied this location and had a lunch room serving a cup of coffee for 3¢ and sandwiches for the same price. From what I've read in some places there that syndicate company was kind of like a flea market thing. They bought things in huge quantities and sold them real cheap. After Spring and Holzworth moved to the Crist Block that's when they had their big fire in 1931. That's where they were when the fire happened, it was in the Crist Block. I just copied a picture of that fire. The block Arch to Mechanic housed several, stores. Among them which were Parthe Shoe Store, that was on the north side and Baughmans Grocery, the Temple of Economy, that shows up in quite a few pictures of West Main Street. And then Ellis and McDonald Plumbing which was later moved west on Main Street to their own building which they called the El-Mac. Now that's where they held, they had a big dance hall and they made that a special upstairs, for that. Were you ever there? When it was El-Mac?
TANNER: Oh yeah.
VOGUS: I finally found a picture of the El-Mac.
TANNER: You did huh? Oh yeah, I've been there.
VOGUS: Some of the stories that are told about that, I don't know why, they especially must of liked dance halls or something because they built this special and he said that it had one of the best floors in this section.
TANNER: They were noted for that.
VOGUS: They must of liked dancing or something like this in order to build such an elaborate place.
TANNER: They had that for years and it was just for dancing. And they come in from all around, to dance there.
VOGUS: Yeah, that's what they said. They had a big upper balcony that went up around that you could see the things...
TANNER: Yeah. I, when I was a kid we used to go in there and watch them dance. Go to the balcony and sit up there.
VOGUS: Oh yeah, it must of been known for a long time. Also in this block was the resident of Dr. Tressel. Now the site the present Stand Theater. And it was at the corner of Main and Mechanic uhe New York Central Railroad had their freight office and warehouse. Wheelers Grocery on the southwest corner of Main and Mechanic was a landmark. It was started about 1880 and ceased operation about 40 years later. Now we have a picture of this Wheelers store down there and it was an elaborate looking thing. I haven't even yet to copy this but I'm certainly going to.
TANNER: It was, oh it was quite a noted grocery store.
VOGUS: The remainder of the south side of Main Street in the one hundred block early in the twentieth century was all residences. Well this is a picture I was telling you about of Lilly Reynolds. She must of lived right in that section up there. A beautiful old white house, old fashioned one.
TANNER: It set up high and there was a bank going up you know.
VOGUS: Yeah. There were a lot of trees and rose bushes and there she is in her rocker reading something. The Callahans, Freers, Stroup, Houston and the Foggs all resided on this side of the street. Shortly after the 1900's the half side of the north 100 block was wiped out by a disastrous fire which destroyed an opera house, a grocery store and Petersons Restaurant. In this block still remains the First Christian Church, the parsonage and the Wbrecht residence. The Odd Fellows Lodge replaced the residence with a three story brick building.
TANNER: I can remember when they were building that.
VOGUS: Coming into the first block on Main Street practically everything was home sites. There was the Williams homestead, now the Williams Block, that's where England's Drugstore is.
TANNER: Yeah.
VOGUS: And the Loves, Sourbecks and Grants. At the end of these residents you would have found Gottlieb Stolls Bakery. The start of Main Street but the finish of this area.
TANNER: They had a nice picket fence with a gate that would swing open, you could go in to them. Oh there was two of them different homes that had them around there. Now the one home, gosh I can't think of the people that lived there. Let's see now there was one of the Weybrechts that lived in there.
VOGUS: Yeah, that's where the Christian, the parsonage.
TANNER: Down by the Christian Church is right where the parsonage is is where the Weybrecht home was. Yeah that's the Weybrecht home, it had, oh where was he at. One of the boys was in college at that time. I can remember when I was a kid. VOGUS: Oh that was B. F.'s home wasn't it?
TANNER: What was the boys name that was in college there?
VOGUS: That was John, John was one of them.
TANNER: At Ohio State, Ohio State College in CoJumbus.
VOGUS: I think that was the John Weybrecht that died real young. He was, later he was President of the Weybrecht Lumber Company. Edgar.
TANNER: Edgar. Edgar was che one that went into the Weybrecht business.
VOGUS: Right, right. And Milicent, his daughter was Mrs. Malones' mother. She married a Shreve. That was Frank Shreve. He was also president of Weybrechts.
TANNER: Milicent she was just a little older than I was but she run around in some of the same parties I was at. Milicent was there.
VOGUS: Well I was talking to Betty Malone.
TANNER: John he went bb Ohio State University. John went...
VOGUS: Right. He died young. Very young.
TANNER: But I'll never forget, we used to have, oh some of us ornery ones. Strangers around town we used to have a lot of fun with them. One of the things we used to do, we used to take them out on what they called the, at night a hunt, oh what do they call these here little things that run around, skunks oh, isn't that funny.
VOGUS: Coons, you talking about animals now.
TANNER: Yeah, animals.
VOGUS: Skunks and coons are the night animals.
TANNER: Do skunks run around at night?
VOGUS: Yeah, sure, coons are the ones that are the night prowlers, in the animals.
TANNER: Well anyways, we used to get strangers in here and fellows in here and we'd take them out on these hunts at night see. We'd go out in the northwest part of town and out in there where it wasn't built up see.
VOGUS: You're not talking about snipe hunting now.
TANNER: That's it, doggone it snipe hunting. And we'd get these fellows and we'd station them at a certain place with a bag to get them and told them what to do and the like and we'd go out and start to run around and drive them in so we told them where to get them see. And what we'd do when we'd slip out we'd go back to the bowling alley or the pool room and the like and spend the time and let them guys out there for two or three hours.
VOGUS: That was what you call holding the bag.
TANNER: We went snipe hunting.
VOGUS: Snipe hunting.
TANNER: Oh that was, we had the reputatiori of this part of the coutnry for doing that. And I'll never forget John Weybrecht when he was at Ohio State he brought up the captain of the football team over a week-end. Who the devil was it, he was outstanding too. But he come up there and we took him on a snipe hunt. But anyway he got wise to it and after a while we all got down in the pool room there at the alley corner there between Arch and what's the name _______________. Oh I forget what it was right there in that building, Baughmans Grocery was right next to it, next to the pool room there. Anyway it was the only one in town that didn't have a gambling bin and slot machines in the like pool room. Kids, we was allowed to go down there. Anyway we'd take this guy out and started, when he got next to it and just the time when we were all getting back in there, we got dirty you know going, we.
went through a lot of bushes to get him located and the like, we was just all congregating back in the pool room to have a good time, laugh about it and the son of a gun come walking in.
VOGUS: I can imagine.
TANNER: Oh I'll never forget that.
VOGUS: I can say this about snipe hunting.
TANNER: I can't think of his name he was outstandingr, he was the captain of the Ohio State Football team. But anyway he backed us up that's the last time we pulled that. But we'd done that for oh, a number of years.
VOGUS: Well I can remember when I was a kid, this was back 'cause I was only small-but-I can remember this about snipe hunting; if you have been caught catching a snipe like this the only way you could redeem yourself was to get another guy in the same position.
TANNER: That was right. But that was how we got, these fellows come home from school or different ones come in there new people come in and that's how we broke them in too, poor guy take them snipe hunting. Then we'd take them out, oh we'd take them out there to Rockhill Park in around the race track and get them a certain place. Some guy come up, on you know we saw some snipes out here the other day and all this and that, we'd give them the story right here, and here would be a good place. We'd locate them some doggone place like that you know and leave them out there a couple of hours and then go and get them. But this one guy he backed us up. He got back down to the pool room.
VOGUS: I was going to ask you a question, it's been on my mind. At one time didn't they have a streetcar going out to Rockhill Park? Was there a streetcar going out that way?
TANNER: Oh yeah, it went out Vine Street. Past the cemetery and to Rockhill Park and stopped right there.
VOGUS: That stopped in there.
TANNER: That was the end of the street car line.
VOGUS: Uh huh. Well then, at some time along the line then, they added this line, originally the streetcar came up and turned on Arch Street and went up. They later on did they, then later on did they build this addition on out to Rockhill Park?
TANNER: Yeah.
VOGUS: I never could get that quite straight. I knowed there was lines going out there because the inter urbans to Kent was there.
TANNER: Well the one to Mount Union was considered the second one in the country and it was only a few years after they had that 'till they made the one out to Main Street, down Union Avenue and along there ran a road where they got a street there now. That used to be the streetcar line. That wasn't a street then, the little street that runs there from North Union to Vine Street. That was just a streetcar run then. Then when they made the inter-urbans around here and run one to Minerva and the like they took right on the railroad there and clear out and up that way. But that's through Limaville and Atwater you know and into Ravenna and then they swung over into, well they went over to Warren, Niles and Warren didn't they finally?
VOGUS: Yeah. You could go a long way on the inter-urbans. I remember riding on the inter-urbans out there.
TANNER: Oh yeah, that was, I remember...
VOGUS: Well Rockhill Park was quite a thing at one time. Do you, was the old fairgrounds, they say there was an old fairgrounds probably down on North Union across the tracks and in that section there on the west was the old fairgrounds. Do you remember that, was that gone when you were a child? They called -it the old fairgrounds.
TANNER: The old fairgrounds was on North Union right at where Wayne Street.
VOGUS: Yes, yes, right there.
TANNER: Wayne Street wasn't in there yet.
VOGUS: Oh, I see that was up a little farther then.
TANNER: The Fairgrounds was right, Wayne Street goes right through now about the middle of where the old Fairgrounds used to be years ago.
VOGUS: Oh, then it's a little farther south than where I was thinking of.
TANNER: Just below Ely a ways it was. Run way back in there. Oh we had carnivals in there and fairgrounds. Alliance was noted as the best circus town in the United States. We had at least three circuses here every year, and this dog and pony show was here every year, and then Barnum and Baily and Smith Brothers was I guess, and then what was the other big one? Robinson, John Robinson Circus. And they were all here but we were, Alliance was the best circus town in the United States. Other towns, well even Canton only had one circus a year over there, Akron only had one. We had about three of them a year here.
VOGUS: Well I understand that at one time they had circuses down there about where you lived where the Tolerton Company was, before the Tolerton Company was built there.
TANNER: Oh yeah, along the railroad there.
VOGUS: They used to have circuses there.
TANNER: But they had carnivals in there, they called that the carnival ground. Once in a while they'd get a circus in there but it was kind of crowded for a circus area. They had carnivals down there maybe a couple of times a year, in there. When I lived on North Liberty we generally, it was generally twice a year there was a carnival. They run a week.
VOGUS: Oh I see.
TANNER: Then they called that the carnival ground down there at that time. Oh yeah, that was, well when we lived there they had the carnivals down there, when we lived there on North Liberty or on North Freedom I mean.
VOGUS: That's, I doubt if very many people ever knew about the old fairground. It shows them on the older maps, there
it was like this.
TANNER: This big, oh the show that had the Indians in, and what was the big circus that...
VOGUS: Wild Bill Hickcock a few of those used to have them.
TANNER: I can't think of the name of that one. Well that was here every year. You know for about five straight years my twin brother and I got passes, they come, we lived there on North Freedom and they come to Patterson Street at the C & P Railroad there is where they pushed them down, to where the McCasky Register, pushed these trains down, that's where they unloaded them there on the circus...
VOGUS: You got to see all the animals and everything.
TANNER: We there, for pretty near five years. When this one that had the injuns in, oh what was the name of that? Anyway when, we'd get up early in the morning, they'd get there about day light and start to unload the trains but the Indians they had, they were all ready to go out. The first cars that they would unload were the ones with their stuff in and the like. But we got passes by taking the Indians and walking up to the circus grounds with them. And after we done it for the first year the Indians asked for us the next year and they'd wait 'till we come. For about five straight years Homer and I got passes just by walking and leading them out there. And you know what surprised us we thought, you know from hearing about the Indians they were dummies and everything like that, you know you hear kids in school. But they were intelligent. They'd ask us all kind of questions about different things. And we just, well we got passes to the circus just by doing that I think it was five different years we got them just
by walking up, we'd walk up Patterson Street and down Freedom and or clear out to Park and over to the circus grounds. But
they were interested in different things and they'd talk going up to town and this and the like as you went in stores as we went along. And your Tolerton Lumber Yard they'd talk about all this stuff there. They would ask you all kind of questions.
VOGUS: Well that is something, that's remarkable.
TANNER: That's one thing we got, living right down there, we got into... And let me tell you this, this dog and pony show that come. Oh what was the name of that, I can't think of it. Anyway I drove one of the wagons in the parade and I got a pass for it. But you know what I had, all I had to do was to stop them so that they didn't get too close together when the parade would stop or anything. That's all I had to do was set up there. I had a big hat on and a rope over me and the like. I didn't have to guide them or anything, the ponies pulling these, they were trained to follow the one before, oh I didn't have to guide them. They would stop and the like, they done their stopping and going around... But what I had to do was just put the brakes on when we were on a slope or something like that so they wouldn't run on up into the ponies see. Hold the lines in my hand, I didn't have to do anything to
them. The ponies were trained to stay so far back of the one ahead of the, turned the corners with them and the like. You didn't have to guide them, just hold the reins and work the brakes. Of course to stop them I had to pull my hand brake on to stop them.
VOGUS: At Rockhill Park at one time they used to, the businessmen men of the town used to have fairs where they had kind of a holiday for two or three days at a time and they gave prizes and things and they went to Rockhill Park and I think they brought them back to Main Street for a few years. This was in some of the old literature that we have. Do you remember those fairs?
TANNER: It was fairs, called fairs. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
VOGUS: That was kind of a promotion I guess too for the businessmen, I think they made special prices up like the things about a sidewalk sale now. But I guess it was quite a thing when ever they, from what I gathered here that was a great day for the farmers. They brought in all the stuff, their produce and a lot of things they wanted to see and maybe they made handcraft things, they brought and the like and set it up just like you would a big flea market now.
TANNER: They had booths set up and they had these displays in them.
VOGUS: Probably call that the early flea market. It's about the same principle I suppose. Well we're getting pretty close to the end of the tape.
TANNER: Well when I was younger too and Rockhill Park you know had their races _________________ every year. Two different times every year that they had that, a week. think at each time they just had a week of races there. They had them twice a year.
VOGUS: I remember very distinctly as we lived on Harrison Street in 1917 and while I was over there at Rockhill Park they were having a race. So they had a special race between a race horse and his little cart a trottingly and an old model T coupe. And of course the coupe naturally could outrun the horse. So they let the horse have quite a lead over there and then he'd beat the horse out by ene nose. That I distinctly remember. It was a promotion scheme but I distinctly remember that. The Rockhill Park, we lived on Harrison, when we first came to Alliance we were there in 1917.
TANNER: When I was in high school you know, we had baseball in high school. Just through this area of the state is the only high school teams that had baseball. We used to go out to Rockhill Park and practice. And my third year in high school, when we started third year, why this Jessie Beck you've heard of him, outstanding athlete at Mount Union and Alliance High, he moved to town. That was his senior year, he just went here to high school one year. But we got a letter from the principal of the high school out there in Indiana where he came from said that he was the best track athlete in the state of Indiana. And we should use him here. We never had a track team before. But we had a baseball team. So we decided that we would have a track team that year and we went out too, and they got everybody that come out for track you know and then even some of us played on the baseball team. But we practiced out there, our baseball team practiced out there at Rockhill Park and that's where we started our track team there see. So we had, we scheduled Salem and East, and Lisbon for the two and East Liverpool were the three towns in this area that had track teams for a number of years. And down there they played each other and the like, so we did schedule them on that year. And from then on we started track.
VOGUS: It seems like I read that...
TANNER: And we went out to Rockhill Park in the race track area you know where the grandstand was they had a ball field there.
VOGUS: Right, I remember that.
TANNER: That 1 s where we played baseball through high school. So we had to start our track there at the same time.
VOGUS: Well I remember reading in the Unionian and some of the Mount Union early baseball teams that they did play an Alliance team. Twice on their schedule they had an Alliance team that they played but I don 1 t know who it was. They didn't say what the name of the team was. But twice that they played some local team. Sometimes they got beat too.
TANNER: Mount Union?
VOGUS: Yeah.
TANNER: Well I was on that team that they played.
VOGUS: Oh. You can verify the fact then huh? That Mount Union had to play an Alliance team one time?
TANNER: It was an Alliance Machine team.
VOGUS: An Alliance Machine team. Well that's something that a lot of people...
TANNER: Two years we played Mount Union.
VOGUS: Did you beat them?
TANNER: Yes, we beat them.
VOGUS: You beat them. Well it's recorded in those Unionians.
TANNER: It is?
VOGUS: Yes, it is. Very few people would know it if this had not, a bunch of these Unionians.
TANNER: I got some pictures here some damn place, taken out there at Mount Union of our ball team all standing there and got the pictures. I got some around here someplace. One's a big long picture, about like this. It shows us all. And what's that picture fellow in town that took that? But that's taken up here at Mount Union.
VOGUS: Probably Reichart, he did a lot of that work out there.
TANNER: No, he was up on, he was up on Columbia just off of...
VOGUS: Miller.
TANNER: Miller.
VOGUS: Lorine Miller.
TANNER: That's the guy. Now I've got around here some darn place a picture of that team that we played there at Mount and we were all together but that was one of the times we played Mount Union College.
VOGUS: You played against McCasky Register used to have quite a team?
TANNER: They had, they never beat us. But they had the finest players. Alliance had an O and P league or there was an O and P league, Lisbon and...
VOGUS: Isn't that called the Trolley league, at one time?
TANNER: Yeah, yeah. And most of them damn players worked down at McCaskeys. They was using them in our city league. They beat everybody but they never beat us once. And oh, we used to get so damn cocky about that.
VOGUS: I forgot to bring this.
TANNER: Them two main guys down at McCaskeys...
VOGUS: Well I've got a book that has a record of this and the man who wrote this book lives at Toledo and he was a pitcher and played on the team. And I've got to bring this book over to you because I know you're going to recognize some of the names of the players that was on there, on both teams that they played.
TANNER: Well McCaskeys should of beat anybody around because they had most of them damn players and that old...