New Winchester
 

Crawford County, Ohio

 

Historical Articles

New Winchester

Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum


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The tiny, unincorporated village of New Winchester was the first village founded in Whetstone Township.  The township, which is the largest geographically in Crawford County, was originally surveyed in 1817.  German Reformers began to enter the area, holding church services at one another’s cabin until a church was built just west of the village for $900 in 1847.  Prior to that, Archibald Clark is believed to have started the first graveyard in the county nearby.  It’s first occupant was Clark’s wife, Rachel, who was buried there in September 1826.

Zalmon Rowse of Bucyrus ventured to the village in 1822 and set up a dry goods store, similar to the other ones he had in Bucyrus and Sulphur Springs.  He died there shortly after, but his grave has never been found.  The first industry in the town was a grist mill.  The name New Winchester reportedly came from a group of German Reformers who left their homes in Winchester PA for greener pastures.

New Winchester had lots to do in the ‘50s

You’re a young guy, looking for a good night on the town.  You could take that special lady to dinner, maybe a drink at the local tavern, gas up your car at Clyde Davis’ Sohio and buy a pack of cigarettes at his grocery store.  Then it was off on a road trip to where the action was square dancing at the nearby post community of Sugar Grove.  That was the ‘50s.  Today the gas station and store are a residence for Clyde and his wife of 52 years, Winona.  Sugar Grove no longer has dance night.  “That was the place to go - Put-on-the-good-shoes night,” said Clyde Davis, a retired Crawford County Sheriff’s Office deputy and also a former village businessman.

The boys’ night out was usually at Gardner’s, a combination gas station, garage and grocery store across from Davis’ station.  “He had a big stove in the garage and we’d sit around arguing who had the best tractor.  You know, how farmers talk,” Davis said.  He moved to the area because his wife’s mother lived there and she wanted to be near her family, and ran the grocery there for several years.  A lone Sohio pump stood outside and the store offered the basic staples.  Davis laughs when asked if his sons, Rick and Jim, who both chose careers in law enforcement, were much help around the store.  “They helped out -- when they weren’t messing around in the candy,” Davis laughed.

Today the tiny village is nothing more than a crossroads located just west of Ohio 100, at the intersection of New Winchester Road and New Winchester Center Road in Whetstone Township, about halfway between Galion and Bucyrus.  “It’s the oldest village in the biggest township in Crawford County,” said retired Whetstone Township fire chief Lavern Eichhorn, who owns a large farm on Ohio 100, just east of the village.  Eichhorn, 81, moved to the area in 1939 from nearby Jefferson Township.

“We called Route 100 the mud road,” Eichhorn said, pulling a photo of his farm from the ‘30s out of his thick, ancient “History of Crawford County” book that he can also quote verbatim.  He remembers Lewis’ Grocery and an old blacksmith shop on the edge of what is now the main fire station of the three located in the township.  He also remembers a tavern which later burned.  A restaurant and rooming house were located where the grocery store stood. 

Eichhorn has studied why the village came to be where it is and has come up with two reasons.  He believes Ohio 100 was a heavily traveled road in the 1800s, angling from Sandusky to Mount Vernon.  “By its crooked angle it had to be based on an Indian trail,” he said.  The road and the arrival of a north-south rail line brought people to the area.  The town was established in 1835 and the lots -- 58 of them -- were registered with the county in 1840.  “It was the first village in the largest township in the county,” Eichhorn said.

He was appointed as the township’s first constable in 1940 and served until 1950, when township constables were discontinued and full law authority was given to the sheriff in the townships.  “At the time the county had one sheriff and one deputy so constables handled the minor things or held down the fort until the sheriff and his deputy could get somewhere,” Eichhorn said.  He remembers a fight at a horse show at sugar Grove.  “It looked like a riot.  I pulled these two guys off each other and they took a look at the badge and took off running.  They might still be running today, they were so scared,” Eichhorn said.

He laughs when he recalls he was armed with the available weapons of the day, a badge and a night stick.  “I had the badge and the shillelagh.  That’s all you needed back then,” Eichhorn said.  At the time, the constable reported crimes, or brought perpetrators to the justice of peace.  He “mostly served papers and calmed neighbors down.”

Besides his work as constable, Eichhorn, with Davis, helped organize the first township fire department, of which both are still members.  Eichhorn was chief until about a dozen years ago, and sitting among the new shiny equipment with Davis, recalled the department’s humble beginnings.  During that time, sometime in the 1950’s, New Winchester’s “firebug” was caught after setting fire to several structures.  When caught he told deputies he did it for “kicks,” Eichhorn reported.  “Yes, we bought our first truck, a gas tanker and put a pump on the back and took off.  It was a mess to drive and we almost tipped it over on several runs,” Davis said.  “I think now we must have looked ridiculous rolling down the highway,” he added.

A depot with a large cattle pen was busy in the mid ‘40s and ‘50s, shipping local livestock around the state.  The TNCO railroad died, and the village began to decline.  Eichhorn and Davis estimate about 50 people now live in the village. There’s no industry or business.  The closest business is the New Winchester Golf Course and Burkhart FarmCenter.  The little four corners village once had two gas stations, two restaurants and a post office. 

People live here because they want too.  We’re near enough to Bucyrus and Galion to get what’s needed, but we’re out here where it’s peaceful and everybody talks to everybody else,” David said.  While the area is a mix of young, middle aged and elderly, the majority of residents seem to have long ties with the area, Eichhorn said.  “But we’re tiny.  We have a lot more junked cars than people,” Davis said.



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Monday, August 31, 2015