RODMAN PUBLIC LIBRARY
PRESENTS…
Reminiscences of Karl Fiegenschuh
April 25, 1975
Interviewed by N. Yost Osborne
OSBORNE: Mr. Fiegenschuh Sr. who has been an Alliance resident for a great great many years and on Main Street Alliance a great many years. I'll let him indicate just how long that is. I want to talk with him about the business he's been in and about how he has viewed the community of Alliance during that time. When did you come here Mr.
Fiegenschuh?
FIEGENSCHUH: 1907
OSBORNE: 1907. And you were living where at that time? When you came here you came from...
FIEGENSCHUH: Massillon, Ohio.
OSBORNE: Massillon. You were born and raised in Massillon, is that right?
FIEGENSCHUH: 1887. April the 30th.
OSBORNE: Now what made you decide to leave Massillon and come to Alliance?
FIEGENSCHUH: Well, the man I worked for in Massillon was Albert J. Miller, the best jeweler in the city. And I was to work the different stores to see how they conducted their business and I was supposed to go back and be with him. Employed with Mr. Miller. The way I got into it, he was a neighbor of mine and tried to get me to come in with vacation times and periods when I wasn't going to school and wanted me to learn the trade. So I worked there for several years, and then I went to Bradley Polytechnie Watch Making School, in Peoria, Illinois. That was about 1905, along there. From there I went to Philadelphia engraving school in Philadelphia. Philadelphia College of Horology, which is watch repairing and making and engraving school. And then I was to go back to Massillon to work for him but he decided to have me try working in different jewelry stores to give him an idea how they conducted their business. And the result was I liked it here very well and that electric street car lines ran over to Massillon. Saturday night I would go over there and he would say, "well Karl how are you getting along?" And I would say, "Oh I'm just getting along fine." And finally he said, "Well we're going to see if we can't get a job for you somewhere." And the traveling man came to Massillon and said the next stop was Alliance. And Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Bates Jewelers, the corner of Linden and Main Streets at that time, Hotel Lexington location. I came over to see them, the traveling man told me to come over to see them, go out for the position they had open. Which I did. I liked it real well, and as time went along I decided I would stay here instead of going back to Massillon. Alliance, practically is part of my hometown also, more so than Massillon now, although I know a lot about Massillon and all the people in it.
OSBORNE: You had your background there?
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes. And I worked for these people, lived with these Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Bates at a home just south of the old library on Arch Street from 1907 to 1919. And I opened my first store where the Alliance Chamber of Commerce is now in 1919. Then in 22 years they tore the building down, and I moved across the street at Sebrell's Meat Market or Hamlin's Grocery Store where the Alliance City Parking location is now, the buildings are torn down. I was there 20 years. Finally we had an opening on Main Street where we are at the present time which was Miller Shoe Store. They moved out to the Plaza, and we got a hold of this place. We remodeled it and eight years ago we got caught in a fire at midnight November the 30th.
OSBORNE: I remember that.
FIEGENSCHUH: We got caught in this fire. We had quite a loss, we finally moved back to our old location.
OSBORNE: Temporarily?
FIEGENSCHUH: The store was vacant. John Cheeks' Haberdashery moved out. Al Nall had charge of the room, he was in Florida. Myron Fleisher found out where the key was and had our safes piled up on the street, five safes on Main Street and it was blocked off a whole week and we finally moved back in the old location. Friends helped clean up a lot of the merchandise we had left, silver and so on and we started in business. In one weeks time we were open for Christmas business. And our business was very good. After that we bought the location we were formerly, 248 East Main, and we remodeled. We put up a new building next door to the Brown's Store and we worked together and we both rebuilt. And of course the building next to us on the West had burned down, a three story building and we got caught in the middle.
OSBORNE: Now also you had been in this location here pretty much then since you struck out on your own after you left Bates.
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh yes, since 1919, yes.
OSBORNE: Now I noticed when I come in to your store this morning it is a modern store front, but as I recall an old picture of Main Street didn't Bates used to have a picture of a clock, or I mean a clock out?
FIEGENSCHUH: No. That was on this side of the street. Bates was on the other side with the hotel. Zang's Jewelry Store had a clock also, the location where the shoe store is. Where the Friendly Furniture is now there was a jewelry store, John Sharer, that was before I came, they had a clock out front also.
OSBORNE: Well now, when you started out when you came to Alliance here and were in the jewelry business, how much
did you do in actual selling merchandise, how much did you do in repairing?
FIEGENSCHUH: My occupation was to be a repairman and engraving, but I waited on the trade also. And I was practically one of the family, lived with them for eight years, before I got married, got married in 1915.
OSBORNE: Now, what amount of your time did you spend in repair? Was this what you did principally at that time?
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes, general work, general repair.
OSBORNE: Now, how has that changed over the years? Do you still do repair work?
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh yes. We do watch repairing.
OSBORNE: Now many jewelry stores you go in these days, people tell me they have to send things away.
FIEGENSCHUH: That's right, we do. We have so much work that some of it we have to send away, that's right.
OSBORNE: But isn't it true that in some jewelry stores there are not competent or trained workmen who can do this repair work?
FIEGENSCHUH: Well, yes, a lot of them went to the shops where they paid big wages. And that's what happened. Watch repairmen were scarce. You can't hardly get a watch repairman today. The same way with engraving. I did hand engraving. Perhaps you saw my picture, plate I engraved up there in front.
OSBORNE: Yes.
FIEGENSCHUH: Well, I lost all my tools in the fire so I'm not going to purchase any more tools. But we do by engraving machines now, by machine. It does very good work. So the hand engraving, there are very few hand engravers anymore.
OSBORNE: I suppose unless there's someone, an old timer like you that can do it.
FIEGENSCHUH: That's right.
OSBORNE: Well, when you came to Alliance. The question I wanted to ask you was your impression of Alliance. As you look back when you came here in 1907, was it a town, was it a small city? How would you describe Alliance in those days?
FIEGENSCHUH: Alliance, Ohio, was a railroad center. The Pennsylvania Line ran from Chicago to New York and Washington D. C. Then the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Lines ran north and south, down to East Liverpool and north to Cleveland. But the main line of Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago it used to be called ran through here. But the railroads centered here. We had a roundhouse here and quite a railroad center. The old railroad station was a hotel at one time. Sourbeck ran that.
OSBORNE: Years ago, yes Sourbeck.
FIEGENSCHUH: That was years ago. They served very good meals there. The elite of the city went down there for Sunday meals after church years ago. And across the track. there on the same side of the street was the Chase House, a very old hotel, the Pleutchels ran that, the Pleutchels. But this also was a hotel, the old station was a hotel. And all the main line trains, the blue ribbon trains all stopped here when they had the steam engines to take water. And all those trains stopped here and this was the destination from Chicago -Chicago, Fort Wayne, Crestline to Alliance. The crew of the dining cars got off here. The cooks got off, the stewards got off with their coats over their arms, their white coats and jackets and grips and they stayed upstairs in this hotel. Then in the morning when the trains went West at 6:00 in the morning or 5:30 or 6:00, they took the train back to Chicago again.
OSBORNE: So this was the stopping place for all of that.
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh yes. And very interesting. I was always interested in railroads, because I lived in Massillon on the main line to Pennsylvania, and I knew what the road was. Of course now it's the Penn Central. But a lot of interesting things happened. I used to go down quite often to see these trains.
OSBORNE: Well, now this, you had an interest. This wasn't you, many other people, this was an attraction wasn't it, to go down to see that?
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes. The Broadway Limited. A lot of the young people today don't even know what these trains are. Never rode on one. The Broadway Limited stopped here, a blue ribbon train, all pullman, dining cars, they had a valet, they had a barber shop on it, a library, dining car, and they carried little mail, first class mail, just a little. And I used to know a lot of the men of that road. I got to know them. I would mail my letters down there sometimes, late, and they would pick them up. I just got to know them real well.
OSBORNE: Of course this made very fine train service facilities for you to get in and out of Alliance at that time too.
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh you had wonderful service. Which today you don't have. Except the Amtrak, you have to go over to Canton and I guess that station is boarded up now. And you have to have almost a policeman there to see that you get on alright without having some trouble.
OSBORNE: Right. But in those days that you talk about you could go to Cleveland or Pittsburgh and back in the same
day.
FIEGENSCHUH: Get on the train here at night, the Manhattan Limited I think at night went to New York, get there in
the morning, eight something in the morning or in the morning at 6:30 go up to Cleveland and spend the day and come back at 6:40 in the evening. And very, very accommodating, I'll tell you.
OSBORNE: Well, you know Charlie Sperow claims that we're going to come back to this type of transportation.
FIEGENSCHUH: I hope so. They're trying to, but, of course, nationally the railroads are in very bad shape. But the government may have to come across and do something if economy ever opens up again. That's the worst part today. They're all in trouble. Except the Chesapeake and Ohio and they are in pretty good shape.
OSBORNE: Well now, you speak about this being a railroad town and the excitement at the station. What would it be like on an evening, you were open nights, you didn't close at 5:00 then, did you?
FIEGENSCHUH: We weren't open nights, no except Saturday, yes. Well this was quite a Saturday town. The banks were
open you know.
OSBORNE: Oh. They were open, too.
FIEGENSCHUH: And the people would drive down in their car and sit along the curb and watch the people go up and down
the street, which they don't do today, anymore, I saw that, too. And of course Spring and Halzwarth Store and Alliance
Hardware they were in business then you know, and they got the people down. They didn't do much out of town shopping at
that time except going to Cleveland once in a while or Pittsburgh.
OSBORNE: So it almost seemed like a fair on Saturday night.
FIEGENSCHUH: That's right. Very true.
OSBORNE: I can remember when I came to college here and that's getting back forty years ago, I'd come down, and the Salvation Army would be playing and you could just stand and watch.
FIEGENSCHUH: Down town, the square, the City Saving Bank, the old building used to be on the corner and Martins Confectionary was there at that time and of course it was Schwinns Bar and the old City Hall. I remember that very well. But it was quite a city. Then we weren't afraid to come down town at night.
OSBORNE: Well, that was a big difference.
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh, we'd come down to the station. I wouldn't think of walking down to that station at night at the present time. Vandalism, they've broken windows in the new station.
OSBORNE: But that was just a regular Saturday evening outing wasn't it?
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh yes.
OSBORNE: You talked about coming down in automobiles, but when you first come over there weren't many automobiles.
FIEGENSCHUH: When I came in 1907 I don't believe there were seven or eight automobiles in town. I remember that.
OSBORNE: Now Main Street was paved, but it was brick.
FIEGENSCHUH: Paved, brick was right. But I can remember at one time there was a big touring car came over from Canton and that was quite a thing, the people all gathered around to look at that car it was right in front of my jewelry store, Bate's, Mr. and Mrs. Bates Jewelry Store. And the ladies had veils around their hats so they wouldn't blow off, they didn't have any tops. And they had a back entrance to the touring car and the high wheel and big bright lights on the front. But it was quite an occasion for people to stop and look at this car and examine it. They thought that was wonderful. And Mr. Izzy Tolerton, Tolerton's Lumber Yard, he had a buckboard, a solid like a buggy wheel with a buck board automobile. He hauled lumber on. I can see that man yet riding down the street wearing a cap.
OSBORNE: And they wouldn't go very fast would they?
FIEGENSCHUH: No. It was a hard wheel tire. Like a rubber buggy tire. I can remember that.
OSBORNE: Well of course the street car gave transportation for people here.
FIEGENSCHUH: Transportation. A regular network. You could get on a streetcar here and go to Sebring, Beloit, Salem, East Liverpool, Columbiana, Youngstown. Go west, you would go to Maxamio, Louisville, Canton, East Greenville, Dalton, west. South you would go to Canal Dover, Canal Dover it used to be called, Dover, New Philadelphia, Urichville, and Dennison. North you'd go to Greentown, north to Akron, to Cleveland.
OSBORNE: That was quite a network they hooked up.
FIEGENSCHUH: It was a network and the streetcar, they had what they called a tripper from between Alliance and Sebring. A lot of the women worked at the pottery and they ran a tripper - standing room sometimes going to work between Alliance and Sebring.
OSBORNE: Well, I can remember when I came to college here, many times if you were down here at the closing hour, the rush hour, you had to stand on the streetcar even then, just the local here.
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh yes. Standing room. Between Salem and Alliance standing room a lot of times.
OSBORNE: Then of course on some part of Alliance you could get back and forth pretty easily with the streetcar.
FIEGENSCHUH: No trouble whatever because it went up Arch Street and is switched up there, Grant Street it switched,
and I remember it very well.
OSBORNE: What do you remember; any unusual business concerns on Main Street or would you like to comment on any unusual
characters - men, women who at that time? There used to be up here where the Owl Grill is, there was a House of Fashion, wasn't there?
FIEGENSCHUH: Yeah. That was before I came. It wasn't called a House of Fashion; Economy Store.
OSBORNE: Economy Store, that's right.
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh that was way back. I remember that. Senn's Meat Market used to be up there.
OSBORNE: Then he later moved up to Mount Union.
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh now, where that new restaurant is now that used to be Cunninghams Furniture Store there.
OSBORNE: Yes.
FIEGENSCHUH: There's a restaurant in there now. And that was the Ell-Mac Hall. And it had society dances there in that building. Called the Ell-Mac Hall. Ellis and McDonald owned it. That's where it got it's name.
OSBORNE: They were the plumbers.
FIEGENSCHUH: Yeah. That's right. That's where it got it's name. But they had a lot of nice dances there, a lot of nice dances. K of C dances and sort of the elite of the city.
OSBORNE: Not rock and roll dances?
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh no, no rock and roll, nothing like that.
OSBORNE: These were all waltzs and ball room dancing, right?
FIEGENSCHUH: Right. That was very nice and good music too.
OSBORNE: Well, now where did you go? You didn't go to a dance, you didn't go down to the railroad station, did you go to the motion picture or a stage show?
FIEGENSCHUH: Years ago when the silent movie came, the first one was down there, well, just on the north side of Main Street, east of the bank, down a little ways.
OSBORNE: Where the Alliance Bank was?
FIEGENSCHUH: And they had silent movies, and Frank Hartzell would be at a regular blackboard pointing to tell what was going to happen next on this silent movie.
OSBORNE: Is that right.
FIEGENSCHUH: And May Richardson who finally married Joe Stamp, Virgil Stamp's brother. And years later they moved to California and Joe died not too long ago, and I don't know if his wife is still living or not. But that was Frank Hartzell. Then Frank Hartzell moved up to where Jeanettes is now, called the Lyric and if you look very carefully on the east wall of Jeanettes you'll find a sign up the Lyric painted up there yet. Very faint but I can tell you what it was. Frank Hartzell did a lot. Then across from that movie down there on Main Street was the Crystal Palace. Peter Tender had that. And that was quite a place for Sunday afternoons for a soda and various types of young people hang out there. Also my former location, where the parking lot is across the street here, there was an Alliance Chocolate Shop there. And they served sodas and so on. In fact George Prince worked there.
OSBORNE: Is that right.
FIEGENSCHUH: A soda jerker.
OSBORNE: A soda jerker, yeah. That's interesting. What about the Columbia? That had stage shows did it?
FIEGENSCHUH: The Columbia was run by Lemotto Smith. Who by the way is still living at Miami, Florida. Once in a great while I hear from him. He's still living. Raymond Wallace was in with him.
OSBORNE: Oh yes.
FIEGENSCHUH: The Columbia had stage shows and later on the Morrison Theatre, no, the Columbia Theatre, that was up on Columbia Street, that was quite a place. They had quite good shows up there at one time. But those were the changes that took place with the stage shows and then the movies come.
OSBORNE: Now you're speaking about the confectionaries and soda shops, now there are others. You mentioned up behind Martin's there was a saloon or cafe; now how many of these were on Main Street?
FIEGENSCHUH: Jacob Schwinn.
OSBORNE: Yeah.
FIEGENSCHUH: Well, down at the end of the street, Waltz, I can't remember, Welch. Oh, Zerbe's restaurant was down there. That was where a lot of the young people hung out about 11:00 after they saw their girlfriends, they would come down there to have something to eat. That's where they would land at midnight. And there was a bar down there, but they didn't go in the bar much down there. And across the street was the Stark Electric office there, waiting room, a couple of bars along there.
OSBORNE: Were there more down towards the station?
FIEGENSCHUH: Mostly, yes. Yes. Then Freedom and Main where Mrs •••• the card shop, what's her name? There was a restaurant there at one time.
OSBORNE: She just died recently.
FIEGENSCHUH: No, this was a card shop it's down there yet.
OSBORNE: Roller, Mrs. Roller?
FIEGENSCHUH: No, on the other side. What else would you like? Other stores?
OSBORNE: Yes, I was wondering was there some individual, was there a Samuel Katzenstein?
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh, that was on the South side of the street. Allott and Kryder Store was right at the corner of Freedom.
OSBORNE: Right at the square.
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes, just east, Allott and Kryder. Then Sam
Katzenstein had a carpet store. And they were very respected people. There was Sam and his brother Phillip and they
lived up at the corner of Arch and Oxford in a brick house up there at the corner on the east. They had a very nice store there. But they passed on now, their families are all gone. But I remember them well.
OSBORNE: Well, I just wondered if there were any others on Main Street that would be, now George Judd was on farther
down there.
FIEGENSCHUH: George Judd was on the corner of Main and Liberty and they had a high grade clothing tailors.
OSBORNE: The thing that always interested me although he ran a tailor establishment he never sewed, never made a
suit.
FIEGENSCHUH: Mr. Hunt did all the tailoring. And he was a very fine tailor.
OSBORNE: But I just wondered if you remembered if there was any local character, you know like a local weather prophet
or a philosopher or an eccentric, someone of this nature during the time here on Main Street. I just can't think of the names, I've read some.
FIEGENSCHUH: I just can't recall the names now of the characters on the street. There was one fellow that sold astrology cards on the street, I forget his name. You know him, I know you do. I can't think of his name right now.
OSBORNE: Was that Marchand?
FIEGENSCHUH: That's who it was, yes, Marchand. He was quite a character. They were nice people, very nice people.
OSBORNE: Now he was through here just a few years ago. He's an old gentleman then.
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes, that was Guy. He died out in California. In fact he married Blair Thompson's sister.
OSBORNE: Well, now he was in the business of forecasting he told me. This is what he did. He made horoscopes and did this type of thing.
FIEGENSCHUH: I think his name was Ed Marchand.
OSBORNE: Yes.
FIEGENSCHUH: But the father was quite a religious man and he used to be on Main Street a lot.
OSBORNE: Yes. Well now, speaking of that type of approach, there was a Spiritualist church wasn't there, out here, was that still in operation when you came?
FIEGENSCHUH: Was that up on Broadway?
OSBORNE: Yes.
FIEGENSCHUH: That church is still there.
OSBORNE: Yes, it's still there.
FIEGENSCHUH: It's empty, but it's still there.
OSBORNE: It's still there. But was that in operation when you - or do you recall?
FIEGENSCHUH: Slightly at that time. I think it changed. Now this Marchand, Guy Marchand was quite a fellow. Very intellectual, and he wrote a book How To Make A Million. Perhaps you heard about it, did you?
OSBORNE: No.
FIEGENSCHUH: He would rent an auditorium up in Cleveland and his wife would come out with this long gown, spangles on her dress, and he had them packed in up there. Guy Marchand. Very brilliant fellow he· was. After the Frist World War, during the Frist World War he was appointed to some position up in Government job for our Government. In Canada, Ottawa perhaps, I suppose. And of course the boys all knew him here but he got this position and they all kind of laughed. He had a tile hat and so on. But he was brilliant, he was a very fine fellow, very fine man. Of course the boys all knew him, you know, he got that kind of a job and they were so surprised.
OSBORNE: Well now, when you came, what about the ethnic groups; Italians, Hungarians, Romanians, the Blacks; they were just starting to come in at that time were they?
FEIGENSCHUH: The Blacks, they had very good Black people here. They were nice families. And of course later they came up from the South, different groups, but I have always had respect for the colored people. They were decent people just like a white person.
OSBORNE: How many roughly, would you have any notion when you came over in 1907? Were there very many?
FIEGENSCHUH: No. Not too many families. No. The same way in Massillon. They were respected in Massillon also. Colored people are respected, they are nice people. But you know trying to find a job, maybe that's how some of them went off a little bit. But there were very fine colored people at that time.
OSBORNE: Well, what about Italians and Romanians, were they starting to come in?
FIEGENSCHUH: That's right. Italians were here to help build a railroad. Irish, Italians, and Germans too, German settlement, that was the different nationalities they had here. They helped to build this railroad years ago before I was born.
OSBORNE: But I thought for Morgan Engineering and Alliance Machine a lot of these men came in to work at these plants.
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes, a lot of Romanians, Hungarians came with the, molding plants, like one American Steel today, I don't know if it was called that at that time. But there was Morgan's; Alliance Machine started later than Morgans.
OSBORNE: Yes. That's after the turn of the century.
FIEGENSCHUH: That's right.
OSBORNE: I thought I remembered reading where they didn't call it the Mafia but they called it the Black Hand, Italians groups were through.
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes, I was here at that time. They had some shootings going on, but not too many. But there was some here. The Italian people were nice people but there was always some like other nationalities. Always some that cause trouble.
FIEGENSCHUH: But they were respected. The Irish, Romanians they were all respected people. They were hard working people.
OSBORNE: Well as you look back on your long career here on Main Street what stands out; is there any experience; there was a fire at Spring and Halzwarth, you went through a fire. There was a big snow you were through.
FIEGENSCHUH: Well that was in 52 around here, the big snow here.
OSBORNE: Well there was one earlier, maybe that was before you got here.
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes, the biggest snow that I ever saw was in 1901 at Massillon. It snowed for three days, and that happened to be April 30th.
OSBORNE: Oh boy, is that right.
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes it snowed for three days and the farmers couldn't feed their stock; well it was about a yard, three foot deep. And the Pennsylvania railroad, passenger trains, pullman trains were stuck between Massillon and Canton; and they couldn't get food out to them. They had no way to get food out to the people on these trains. I don't know how long they were stuck there. But they had no bulldozers and along the railroad there were deep ravines along the tracks; you couldn't get out to them you know. That was the biggest snow and the largest I ever saw. And they had no bulldozers in the city of Massillon to clean the streets, or anything. You just had to wait until you kind of shoveled it away and it melted away.
OSBORNE: Yeah, that would really tie it up.
FIEGENSCHUH: I remember the canal boats in Massillon too. Oh, fond memories.
OSBORNE: Yes. You remember the Spring and Halzwarth fire. Is there anything else on Main Street startling like that that might of happened that you can recall?
FIEGENSCHUH: I knew Mr. Spring and Mr. Halzwarth, they were very fine people, they had a nice store and a nice bunch of clerks there. And the Lindesmith store, too.
OSBORNE: Of course that was noted for the harness making at Lindesmith's wasn't it?
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes. They made harnesses. About like the Hoover Company pretty much. And the old harness shop in North Canton, I remember that very well when I was a kid. A little frame building, painted blue, a little wooden building with a peg out in front with a little horse collar hanging on it - Hoover's Harness Shop.
OSBORNE: Harness making is like the old time engraver, that's gone.
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh yes, things have changed a lot. Oh maybe for the better and maybe for the worse, I don't know.
OSBORNE: What do you notice is the biggest change on Main Street, say from 1907 - 10 to today if you were trying to make a comparison? Is it a friendliness or an openness or ....
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh, at that time I think you knew more of the people, friendliness; of course you have it in the retail stores here now, but everything is in a hurry today; speed, you know, so we can get them in and out, you know that kind of a thing. Although in our store we don't chase them out like that. Nobody does on Main Street. But there was more friendliness at that time I think. The clerks knew the people real well. Of course they could take a streetcar over to Canton, you know; look around Stern and Manns' and a lot of those old stores. But it was friendliness alright.
OSBORNE: Sunday everything closed down I take it then; at the time.
FIEGENSCHUH: Sunday you closed down.· From Alliance they would go over to Myers Lake or down at Lake Park on Sundays.
OSBORNE: What about Rockhill?
FIEGENSCHUH: Well, Rockhill also; you went up there years ago. I remember that real well. That's where they got their ice or Alliance, Rockhill Ice. They cut the ice in the winter time and put it away under sawdust, you know. Then the ice wagon would come along downtown with the great big scales on the back end and big tongs would hang there. And saloons all got their ice that way. They didn't have those refrigerators or icemaking machines. And they would weigh the ice, you know. That was quite a thing for kids, when the ice wagon came around to homes.
OSBORNE: That would be. And of course the other thing you think of in connection with that is the sprinkler that they had to have.
FIEGENSCHUH: The street sprinklers also.
OSBORNE: Did they have them on Main Street?
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes sir, they did. Yes sir. And they kept the streets clean too.
OSBORNE: Is that right?
FIEGENSCHUH: They really did. A lot of the old fellows would do a lot of hand work on the streets with brooms, long brooms, and the sprinklers; that's right. See a lot of the streets weren't paved, too.
OSBORNE: Well yes, once you got off Main Street or Arch Street you ....
FIEGENSCHUH: They sprinkled Main Street too even though they were paved.
OSBORNE: I see. What about lighting, electric; of course you had electricity at that time.
FIEGENSCHUH: We had the round carbon lights: electric carbon lights on the street and of course there is quite an improvement now.
OSBORNE: Yes.
FIEGENSCHUH: The lighting system is wonderful now compared to the old carbon lights.
OSBORNE: But they were an improvement over what they had, the old -oil lamps.
FIEGENSCHUH: The old oil lamps. That's right. I don't remember the oil lamps here, I do remember them in Massillon over there and electricity come along then.
OSBORNE: Now, when you came here was there a feeling that Mount Union was still a sort of a separate .... although it was a part of Alliance.
FIEGENSCHUH: It was a part of Alliance at that time. It had little stores up there -the names, you know them.
OSBORNE: Yes. Well I don't know if Kale Johnson was still in operation at that time or not. Kale Johnson ran sort of a variety store; maybe he was gone by that time.
FIEGENSCHUH: Couple of sisters, what was their name?
OSBORNE: Oh, Shipman.
FIEGENSCHUH: Shipman, that was it. I remember them.
OSBORNE: Then there was a Maple Grocery.
FIEGENSCHUH: Walter Maple? He died just recently.
OSBORNE: Yes. Well now, did they think of Mount Union of still being a Quaker area by the time you got here or had that gone, past.
FIEGENSCHUH: Well they always admired Mount Union College you know, they always thought it was a fine adjustment to Alliance, Ohio.
OSBORNE: Well, when you came the old high school building was the former Alliance College building: that was still up there.
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes, and they built a new one. I remember that old one.
OSBORNE: Yes, the old building was condemned when they built that new one.
FIEGENSCHUH: Then they condemned the other one. Now it is vacant and they are leveling it off now.
OSBORNE: Now was the reservoir where ....
FEIGENSCHUH: Where Rodman Library was a reservoir but that wasn't there when I came. They skated on there. Skating parties up there, but that was before I came to Alliance.
OSBORNE: I see. That had been filled in or taken care of by that time.
FIEGENSCHUH: There was another railroad that went through Alliance, the LEA&W: The Lake Erie, Wheeling and Alliance. That was part of the New York Central Line, goes up Mechanic Street there. And they all used to, they had passenger service on it. It went to Phalanx and south to Greenville and down through there. And they would call it LEA&W which means leave early and walk.
OSBORNE: Yes, I've heard that. When did you get your first car? You had a horse and buggy when you first came?
FIEGENSCHUH: When I first came to town, I didn't have a car but bought one when Karl, my oldest son was old enough to drive a car. In about 21 or 22, no I mean the age of 21 or 22 of Karl.
OSBORNE: But did you use a horse and buggy when you first came?
FIEGENSCHUH: No, no just walked. Used the streetcar and walked. About the car; I bought a car, a Plymouth from Norman Keitsman and it was on an afternoon and they were going to teach me to drive. So Karl was in the front seat, my wife and Karl's daughter, Paula, were in the back seat. North of Alliance on a straight drive. And I was at the wheel and I had a cigar in one hand and the wheel in the other hand and Karl was teaching me to drive. Finally he yelled, "Dad, what are you trying to do?" And I was going 80mph, I looked at the speedometer, I didn't know that I was going that fast. I turned to Karl and said "boy take it, I don't want the car." I never drove a car.
OSBORNE: Is that right?
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes sir, never drove a car.
OSBORNE: Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing.
FIEGENSCHUH: And my wife she was going to learn. She had a little infraction. The result was she didn't drive either. I never had a car.
OSBORNE: You're money ahead.
FIEGENSCHUH: Well, yes I guess so. The boys had a car so we got around alright.
OSBORNE: As we mentioned, you could use a streetcar and this just got you around.
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh yes, we had modes of travel. Yes. We went to Canton, well you could go to Cleveland if you wanted to.
OSBORNE: Yes, now was there still a livery stable, was that still important when you came?
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh yes, that's right. Akins Livery Stable on Liberty. Akins and Keener, I knew them well. Yeah, that's what we used to do, get a rig on Sunday afternoon and drive up to Marlboro. And they had their girlfriends, even in Alliance we'd drive up there, used to live up there. That's what they used to do on Sunday afternoons.
OSBORNE: Now you speak about having a cigar and you have a couple in your pocket there. Were there cigar makers in Alliance at that time?
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes there were, and by the way I don't even smoke. Do you smoke?
OSBORNE: No, I used to but not any more.
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes, there was a cigar factory here at that time, I forget what the name was, was it Allam?
OSBORNE: No, I don't remember.
FIEGENSCHUH: I think it was. They made hand made cigars. I remember that I forget what his name was though. But that didn't last too long.
OSBORNE: You didn't have a cigar store Indian out in front of the...
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh yes. The corner of Seneca and Main, Bill Ellis, William Ellis Cigar Store. They had an Indian in front.
OSBORNE: Is that right. Well, as you've been thinking about this was there any other unusual stores like this, candy making places or ....
FIEGENSCHUH: Well the Greek, like Crystal Palace Chocolate Shop they made their own candy. They made their own candy.
OSBORNE: Now was Martin's at the square there that was ....
FIEGENSCHUH: They didn't make their candy.
OSBORNE: But that was like ....
FIEGENSCHUH: Fruit stand, fruit and nuts and soda fountain, but they didn't make their candy.
OSBORNE: Now if you wanted to go to a restaurant if you had company or a Sunday dinner where did you go? What was the restaurant in those days?
FIEGENSCHUH: Well, Zerbe's down at the end of Main Street. Boyd, Boyd's restaurant was very good. Hud Boyd had it.
OSBORNE: The Chase House and the Station were probably not in operation by the time you came.
FIEGENSCHUH: Well the Chase House, we didn't go there. That was high class like a hotel restaurant. That was better years ago.
OSBORNE: Now did the Lexington have a dining room?
FIEGENSCHUH: Oh yes, by the way yes, they had a dining room. That's where they went on Sundays.
OSBORNE: I see.
FIEGENSCHUH: Since you asked me. I knew those people real well.
OSBORNE: Would you remember who ran that restaurant there?
FIEGENSCHUH: Yes. Well of course the hotel building was owned by Keplingers, Lyman Keplinger had a millinery store right across the street from the hotel, corner of Linden and Main; the Elizabeth Shop is there right now, and they had a restaurant there too. hat did you ask me there?
OSBORNE: Well, I .. asked you who ran the dining room?
FIEGENSCHUH: Well this Keplinger, Lyman Keplinger had a millinery store and they owned the hotel, the Keplinger family. There is only one left and that is Blanche at Copeland Oaks. And that's his daughter. And I guess one of the boys is living somewhere. Veneer ran that hotel and the bar and at one time I think he was down at that old railroad station, hotel too; and he came up and ran that and then Mrs. Fry took the restaurant over years ago or the hotel. She had a son named Ike Beeson, she was married twice. Ike Beeson -Ed Beeson and he ran the dining room with Mrs. Beeson. So they ran this restaurant and a very good restaurant. And Ike Beeson had the dray years ago and he would haul the trunks of the traveling men, trunks.
Karl F. Fiegenschuh
Oral History Index
977.162 Alliance Room