From the intersection of Main and High Streets, the business district of our town looks like this. We are looking east on Ohio State Routes 2, 18, and 49 here.
Mrs. Carma Rowe donated the $50,000 Johnson Memorial Library to our town in honor of her parents; it was dedicated in December 1953.
Robert Longsworth, who gives us this story of his town of Hicksville, O., is a 39-year-old native of the village and is serving in his third consecutive term as mayor. He operates a farm and canning factory at the north edge of the village.
It’s 3:30 p.m. and school’s out for the students in our elementary and high schools. There are about 880 pupils in the two schools.
People in our town are looking forward to the completion of our $45,000 swimming pool next spring. Studying plans here are Blaine Thornburg, contractor, right, and William Handy, construction worker.
The Hicksville Community Hospital, with 16 beds, opened a year ago and serves a district of three townships besides our village.
The Hicksville Bank, established in 1946, is undergoing some remodeling and construction work right now.
We have a new grain elevator in our town; it is the highest structure in Defiance County and was built last year with a capacity of over 100,000 bushels.
Mrs. Elsie Williams is buying some stamps from Postmaster Wayne H. Smith.
Mrs. Verda Drummond is welding a poultry basket at the Ideal Manufacturing Co.
Chief of Police for 13 years, F. K. McCurdy fills in lax moments by using the grader on some of our streets. He is the street commissioner, too.
Formerly the land agent’s office for the Hicks Land Co. when this area was under development, the Building, Loan, and Savings Co. structure stands as a landmark in our village today. That’s Hollis Grover, manager of the elevator, talking to me.
Reproduced from an old-fashioned tin-type, this picture shows the original plant of the handle firm in Hicksville, O. At the far left is David Miller, one of the three founders of the firm. He is the grandfather of LaVon Miller, one of the present owners.
Carl Miller, who has been employed by the Miller handle firm for three years, rolls the white ash logs into the pit on their way to the “drag saw.”
Coming out of the pit, the log is cut into the required lengths by this drag saw. John Manon, a veteran of 15 years with the company, calls it a mechanized cross-cut saw.
Employed by the Ohio plant for 26 years, Fay Walters operates the dowling machine. Walters feeds the square dowel into the tubular lathe, and it comes out round on the other side.
A three-man operation cuts the log sections (bolts) into planks on a planking saw. Leonard Evans (right), with the firm 33 years, feeds the bolt to the saw while Earl Goller (center), a 32-year veteran, operates the saw, and Casey Jones (left), a six-year man, removes the bark and slab pieces.
A. W. Dotts, who is sanding a rake handle here, has done “just about everything” in his 47 years with the company. Besides sanding and grading, he has run a binding machine and a rip saw.
Turning short handles on a center type lathe in the special wood turning department is Jim Rhodes, who has been with the firm 33 years. Notice the round section and the turned handles on the lathe.
From these white ash logs come such products as this rake, held by LaVon Miller, who forms the executive branch of the Ohio firm along with his son, Lee, and Forest McCalla, a 32-year veteran employee.
Another veteran, Chris Koch, has been employed by the plant for 37 years. Here he is bending split “D” handles for shovels, spading forks, and scoops.