Newspaper article:Page 27 of Main Street Press,published in Rittman, Ohio on Monday, October 6th, 1980 (1) - Rittman Press October 6 1980
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- Article title
- History 'It's Just Like Putting a Puzzle Together'
- Newspaper title
- Rittman Press
- Date of publication
- 1980/10/06
- Author
- Lizz Jakobsky-King
- Page number
- 27
- Organization
- Industry
- Recreation > Museums / Historical Sites / and Similar Institutions
- Information > Libraries and Archives
- Finance and Insurance > Banks and Credit Unions
"History 'It's Just Like Putting a Puzzle Together'.
CRESTON-- There's more to Creston history than meets the eye. In fact, over 15 photo albums of newspaper clippings and photographs cover the village's 81 year past.
Kate Slater, a life-long Creston resident, collected the items that fill two shelves in her spare room. Copies of those albums have been donated to the Creston library.
"My daughter got me into it," she said.
Three years ago daughter Julie, now a student at the College of Wooster, was trying to photocopy some old glass slides.
"She was able to reproduce them," Slater said.
Those pictures tickled the elder Slater's interest. She decided to discover who the glass images belonged to.
"It's just like putting a puzzle together," she explained.
Once word got out that Slater was looking for Creston information, people started sharing what they knew.
"I had little bits and pieces," she said. "Then all of the sudden it came together."
The greatest village history resource has been the old newspaper, The Creston Journal. The paper was published from 1904-1922.
Those papers were stored away in University of Akron library. Slater asked to have the papers once they had been microfilmed.
Now many of the editions have been laminated. Other remain in their brown paper wrappings. Both are store din the spare bedroom.
Six Christmas editions were preserved. Each holiday of the paper had a four-color illustration relating to Christmas.
Other papers with historical significance were also laminated by the Creston Lions Club.
Slater obtained one of her most valuable resources as a gift. Mrs. Agnes Woodward, another life-long Crestonite, who kept clippings of local happenings.
"I was so excited about Mrs. Woodward's scrapbooks," Slater explained.
But the excitement didn't stop with the books. It erupts each time she discovers something new.
She added, "I feel like I've discovered something fantastic."
"The finding of several old sale bills encouraged Slater's project. Creston has had three names over the years.
The village was incorporated under the name Seville Station because it was the next stop on the main toll road through town.
When the railroad came to town, Seville Station became Pike Station, again due to the toll road.
Later Creston was chosen as the permanent name.
Her first photo album was just general information about the village. But once she got going, Slater hasn't stopped putting together books.
"I've got the fire department back to the start," she said. The red photo album contains pictures, stories and rosters from the department's 1902 start. At that there were only nine firemen.
Slater has assembled three books of persons from the Creston area that served in the military.
"That went from the Civil War to the present," she said. Over 300 local residents have given some time to the armed services.
The woman is also working on an album of village fathers, which contains lists of councilmembers and mayors.
Slater discovered that one of the glass slides was Creston's first mayor Warden "Captain" Wheeler.
None of the newspaper clippings told why Wheller was called captain. The mystery was solved when the woman found a copy of the mayor's obituary. He had earned the title in the Civil War.
Although many Crestonites are long gone, Slater feels like she knows many of them.
"It's king of a nice feeling, because you know people you don't really know," she explained.
Many of the town's current resident have ancestors that also lived in Creston.
Old residents, like old buildings have been forgotten. But Slater hopes to remind today's townspeople of buildings long gone.
That book, on "things how they once were," is still being researched.
Remember the five-story granary? Few recall the building constructed in 1883. The business went bankrupt in 1901.
It was later sold and transformed into a cereal plant. Eventually that also went bankrupt and granary was torn down.
Sixteen of Creston's original buildings won't be forgotten for awhile. The structures, all built before 1890, still stand. That includes the current post office, Dale Wirth's reality office and Stebbins National Bank.
Once Slater knows her history Creston inside and out, she will donate the original copies of the photo albums to the Creston library. First there must be a place to lock the historical volumes up so they aren't permanently borrowed.
The project will never really be finished as Creston continues to age.
"This has been one big puzzle," Slater summarized. "You're just going to have some gaps you're never going to find."