City of Springdale History On-Line

All in all, the years between 1918 and 1945 were uneventful for Springdale. The community grew slightly, reaching a population of 405 in 1945. Buses replaced the streetcars, and while the number of automobiles increased, people on horseback continued to be a familiar sight on Springfield Pike. The residents of Springdale retained the village tradition of strong community and family ties. Although the names changed as old families moved away or died out and new ones moved in, the composition of the neighborhood did not. Newcomers were quickly integrated into the community.

While Springdale itself remained relatively unchanged, this was not true of the communities surrounding it. In the 1930s the United States government with its ambitious plans for a greenbelt community moved into Greenhills. Other institutional neighbors included Maple Knoll, a home for unmarried mothers and a maternity hospital formerly known as "the Home for the Friendless," that moved from downtown Cincinnati to the quieter environment between Glendale and Springdale. Other neighbors included the Hamilton County Glenview School for troubled boys and the Glenmary Home Missionaries. The later organization established its headquarters in Springdale in 1939. As is always the case, neighbors quarreled periodically. Glendale apparently used the open fields of the Comer farm as a city dump. When the residents of Springdale complained, the county Board of Health advised them to desist. New names, new neighbors and new traditions appeared.

Springdale was such a sleepy little village any diversion was worthy of note. Every Springdale resident of a certain age remembers the Comer and Jordan Sale Barn. The barns and the singular stone house of this establishment abutted Rt. 4. Walter Comer and his partner operated a combination livestock auction house, flea market and antique store. The rapid patter of the auctioneer, the clutter of junk in which the lucky one might find undiscovered treasure, the exotic-looking buffalo and Brahma bulls Comer imported from the West combined to form an indelible impression. Farmers came from miles around to sell and purchase livestock. They brought with them their coon hounds, their guns and their knives to swap in Comer's parking lot along with their tall-tales.

Jessie Rice, Comer's blacksmith who lived above one of the barns, sounded the alarm in 1938 when a terrible fire broke out. Many of the men in Springdale, awakened by the sirens, helped evacuate the horses. Comer and Jordan survived that disaster. But another fire in 1964 totally destroyed it. The people of Springdale rarely complained of the barnyard smells, the cars or the crowds of people drawn to the Sale Barn.

For a time in the early twenties the Springdale Amusement Park operated a dog-track. The company received some notoriety in 1928 when the widow of the patent-holder for the rabbit used in dog-racing sued the park for patent infringement. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision by lower courts in favor of Springdale Amusement, but the free publicity came too late since the Park had already abandoned dog-racing.

The Springdale Inn Arena held boxing matches, of sorts. In 1925 it heralded as its feature on the "best boxing card of the season," Bobby Annmann vs. Kid Broad. Young Bobby had recently lost the Cincinnati flyweight championship, and the Springdale fight was the first step on a very long comeback trail for Bobby.

The great world events of the thirties and forties also impinged on Springdale's serenity. In 1929 a devastating stock market crash ushered in a world-wide economic depression. No one emerged unscathed from the thirties but rural areas such as Springdale had ways of coping denied to those living in more urban environments.

Still, life became hard for many. The valley industries cut back, laid off and shut down. Edward Schumacher, a former Springdale resident, recalls the exact day his pink slip arrived from Tool, Steel, Gear and Pinion Company. It was his first wedding anniversary. Six years later the company called him back to work!

In the meantime the Schumachers moved in with his parents, as millions of other young American married couples were doing. In exchange for room and board Schumacher agreed to help out on the family farm. He supplemented the family economy through a succession of odd jobs. He hauled manure for Mt. Healthy Hatcheries. He worked in Clyde Miller's Springdale grocery pumping gas out front, stocking shelves and doing any other chores that came along. Showing considerable initiative, he devised a portable feed grinder for the back of his Packard and earned some income by grinding feed for local farmers on their own premises.

Many others adapted in a similar manner. Those in the painting business took jobs farther away from home. One Springdale painter who had no automobile climbed aboard the bus loaded down by his paint buckets and folding ladder, brushes, drop-clothes and other tools of the trade attached to every part of his anatomy. As a rule, work did not cease completely. Instead it became lower-paid, part-time and intermittent.

Fortunately for construction workers, Springdale experienced some house building in the 1930s. An Englishman named Colonel Bolling purchased lots and constructed houses in Cloverdale Gardens. Colonel Bolling would build one house and sell it and use the collateral from that house to build another. Bolling's houses had full basements on one acre lots. His crew used horses and mules to lay out roads. Colonel Bolling completed two streets in the development and then eventually sold the other lots. Most of them remained vacant for another ten years or so.

Other workers found employment building the mains that brought water to Springdale and Sharonville. The Hamilton County Commissioners agreed to extend the lines after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that counties could finance them through bonds which were paid by assessments against the property owners. The county let the bids in 1931 despite the objections of some Springdale farmers who faced assessments of five thousand dollars or more. They hired an attorney to represent them but to no avail. Ninety-five percent of the property owners in Sharonville petitioned for city water. The prospect of jobs to build the mains served as a major selling point. Some construction firms promised to employ 75 percent hand labor and only 25 percent machine labor as a way of increasing employment.

For the unemployed, life consisted of daily trips to the Employment Office in Wyoming. Later on, they had to trek to the Race Street office of the State Employment Service. Searching for a job through these channels lasted only until the bus money ran out. Luckily most men and women lived frugally in Springdale. Many people owned their own homes but, if they did not, the rent in Springdale was reasonable. Electricity came to Springdale in 1923 but few people owned electrical appliances. Families conserved by turning off the electric lights and using old kerosene lamps.

Winter heating bills were minimal since many of the old houses had never had furnaces installed. In the 19th century, families depended on heat from their fireplaces but by the 1930s many of these fireplaces had been boarded and replaced with gigantic coal stoves. On cold days the family stayed as close to the coal stove or to the cook stove in the kitchen as possible. Neither one warmed the entire house. At night people warmed themselves by sleeping under layers of homemade quilts. In the morning they dressed themselves in rooms in which ice sometimes coated the windows.

The widespread practice of planting garden plots helped stretch the food dollar. Springdale women canned produce for the winter, made pickles and relishes and other foodstuffs. Many of them made their own bread. Grace Songer Huddleston recalls her mother's baking powder biscuits and whole wheat buns baked in the family's wood-fired range.

Self-sufficiency extended even to the making of soap, which was a mixture of lye and rendered fat. Placed in a pan and allowed to harden, the "soap" was then cut into squares "like peanut butter fudge," and was used for everything from doing the laundry to scrubbing the floors. On laundry day the family washed down the privy with the used wash water! "Waste not, want not" took on new urgency during the Depression.

The pig often sacrificed its fat for soap making on Thanksgiving day, which seemed a very logical way to celebrate the holiday. The family rose before daybreak to place big kettles of water on the fire. When the guests arrived, they helped slaughter the pig, which was hung upright on improvised scaffolding and cleansed with scalding water. The children scraped the pig's skin clean. The women then began the laborious process of salting or canning the meat and rendering the lard. Very little was wasted. After a hard day's work family and friends sat down to a Thanksgiving dinner of fresh pork.

Despite frugality and the advantages of living in a rural area, some people, of course, reached the point of desperation during the Depression. The Ladies Aid Society of the Presbyterian church tried to be aware of and sensitive to the needs of those in the village who were losing their struggle against poverty and helped them through donations of food or clothing.

A major concern was the treat of severe illness which often required frequent, and costly, visits by the doctor or hospitalization. For minor ailments most continued with home remedies such as those that had been practiced by Fanny Sharp. For something more serious residents called Dr. Mathews, who made a circuit of the area from his Wyoming office. The good doctor occasionally "lost" the billing records of patients who had lingering illnesses and ran up substantial charges. Yet so many of his patients were poor and he could hardly forgive all their debts.

Patients requiring hospital care went either to Hamilton or Cincinnati with the exception of maternity patients. Maple Knoll Hospital served the community as a private maternity hospital and many Springdale residents began their life in the old brick building shaded by the grand old Maple trees. Still, any stay in the hospital for whatever reason could mean the difference between poverty and total destitution.

Those who needed to applied for public assistance only as a last resort. Still local and state funds ran out quickly and President Franklin D. Roosevelt hoped his public works programs would offer relief. In 1935 work began on a $868,646 WPA project in Springfield Township which included reforestation, flood control and the widening of almost thirty-eight miles of township roads. Sixteen hundred men found immediate employment.

One Springdale woman remembers a more mundane task performed by the WPA. The men built new privies for homeowners. A few still exist around Springdale, though they have long been unused and filled with cinders and ashes.

Evidence of the WPA work still exists in bridges, roads and public buildings. These tangible effects were secondary to the primary purpose of these programs, which put men to work and money into the economy. In the end, surviving the Great Depression involved both the efforts of the state and the belt-tightening strategies of individuals and families.

Institutions had also to survive unprecedented economic crisis. Surprisingly, the Presbyterian church announced in 1932 that it had enjoyed one of its best years financially and that the budget had been balanced. In all likelihood, the church benefited from the publicity given it as it celebrated its 140th anniversary.

James Lovett, a Springdale resident and church elder, seemed very aware of the country's precarious condition as he surveyed the history of the church and the community on that occasion. At the time, 15,000 veterans and their families marched on the nation's capital, just as Congress was considering a bill authorizing immediate payment of bonuses to World War I soldiers, not due until 1945. His church had endured many disruptions, wars with the Indians, the New Light and abolitionist schisms, and a divisive Civil War. On the eve of its 140th year, the church showed every indication of surviving the Great Depression as well.

The Springdale School fared less fortunately. In 1927 the school had moved into new, modern quarters and found itself in the midst of the Depression and in debt. At the end of December 1934 the outstanding debt amounted to $45,250.00. The school board exercised the most stringent economies to keep afloat. During the 1936-37 school year the board resolved to pay its teachers for ten months or for "as long as funds are available."

During the Great Depression teachers generally accepted the salary, however low, the school boards offered. In 1936-37 the Board fixed its three full-time teachers' salaries at only $125 per month for the ten-month year. Still the salary structure had improved since 1897 when the Springdale School Director boasted that he had "over fifty applications from teachers who are willing to take the job for grub and lodging...."

Tight economic circumstances led to problems with the neighboring Glendale School Board, which was owed tuition money. Since Springdale sent its grade school graduates on to Glendale or to Mt. Healthy High School, tuition was paid by the Springdale School Board. In October 1936 the superintendent of Glendale School submitted a bill for back tuition which was tabled because it was considered excessive. This stall technique worked. Seventeen months later they agreed to a renegotiated sum of fifty dollars per student which Springdale would pay "as funds are made available." A year later, however, the board decided to send Springdale students to Mt. Healthy High School. To transport the students, the school board rented an old bus from the Cincinnati Street Railway Company in 1937 and hired a bus driver.

The frugality of the Springdale boards can best be illustrated by their responses to the Great Flood of 1937, which forced the Springdale School to close until the city could again provide Springdale with electricity and pure water. Arthur Schaefer, the board president, managed to reopen the school more quickly by arranging for a temporary supply of water from Glendale, which had its own village waterworks. Soon a question arose over the payment of the teachers for the days when the school had been closed. The board saw no reason it should pay for days not taught and approached the Hamilton County Superintendent of Education about the possibility of deducting those days from its teachers' pay. "Pay the teachers anyway," responded the superintendent, "the flood is an act of God!"

Another major new federal project was the building of planned community called Greenhills. When the U.S. government purchased farms in the area for the proposed greenbelt community, the board feared the district would lose school taxes dollars. On December 22, 1936, a resolution was sent to the Resettlement Administration which controlled Greenhills as part of the Department of Agriculture, requesting that the federal government pay tuition for students living on government property. Fears diminished somewhat when the government paid all delinquent taxes on property it purchased. Then in January 1937 the board signed a contract in which the government agreed to pay the school taxes on its real estate in Rural District 4, the Springdale district. In 1939 the Department of Agriculture informed the board that it would pay the district $654.00 for the year 1939 in lieu of taxes assessed for Greenhills. That money paid a half-year's salary for one of Springdale's three teachers.

Educational philosophy began and ended with "spare the rod and spoil the child." Most Springdale school boards looked for disciplinarian teachers who would not spare the rod. "If there's any sense in a kid," claimed a school board president, "that's the way to sprout the germ." Still, the children seemed to flourish. Mae Malone's gentle presence eased their adjustment to first grade and then through grades two and three. Miss Malone is still remembered fondly by her former students. Sometimes the older boys dreamed up a little mischief. The worst case involved vandalism in 1936 when the school was broken into, sporting equipment stolen and "ink spilled into the desk." The Cincinnati Enquirer reported the details of this delinquency.

When the nineteenth-century school building was torn down in the 1930s, the new school provided the only building large enough for village meetings. The Springdale Men's Civil Club met there, the WPA held entertainment at the school and the fire department used it to stage its fund-raising performances. The school building even took the place of a local cinema when the volunteer fire department began to show "moving pictures" on Wednesday nights. Not only did the school provide education, a meeting place and recreation for Springdale's children, it also created several part-time jobs. Clyde Songer hauled for the school, andA.F. Murphy did plaster work and landscaping. The district also employed a janitor, the school bus driver and, of course, the teachers and the principal.

The bus driver received a salary increase because this was in addition to his Mt. Healthy run. Other new responsibilities taken on by the school board included operating a cafeteria which opened in October 1944 under the direction of Mrs. Roy. After November 6, 1941 the bus driver had new responsibilities. By the 1940s, parents demanded bus transportation for elementary school children. The board put the facts in a petition which it sent to state and county officials.

New problems faced the school board in the 1940s. The federal government played an increasingly important role in education which proved to be both a blessing and a curse. The Lanhain Act provided for the district to furnish a room as a nursery school and paid half of the personnel salary. Discussions on setting up such a nursery school began in 1943 were abandoned after a short time. Then in March 1947 Elsie Roberts and Mary Hinkle established a more permanent program which provided a regular kindergarten class in the 1949-50 school year. Hinkle became its first teacher.

Other innovations fostered by government included special arrangements for mentally and physically handicapped students. Fortunately Springdale rarely had more than one or two students in this category. The board paid transportation and tuition expenses for them to attend schools offering specialized programs. The state government also offered to subsidize school lunches at the rate of nine cents per meal. Springdale children would pay twenty-five cents for their noon meal. At first, the board hesitated since the program required the immediate purchase of a refrigerator. The board would gradually be reimbursed but until then faced a real financial burden. During the war years the Springdale School suffered from a rapid turnover in personnel. But when Edna Underwood was hired in August 1943 to teach second and part of third grade, the board acquired a permanent fixture. Mrs. Underwood remained with the school until her retirement in 1960. At that time, she began a new career in politics as a member of Springdale's first village government.

Others hired during the period did not match Underwood's record. The schools principals, invariably men, found it difficult to commit themselves with the ever-present draft making their future unclear. Kermit Pack replaced A.G. Butz as principal in 1943-44, followed by Edwin Potee. The board's clerk filed an affidavit for an occupational deferment after he was reclassified 1-A. After the war Edmund Hammond served for two years from 1949-50 until 1952-53 when principal Keith Perkins assumed control.

The students apparently felt the disruptions keenly as witnessed by a rash of disciplinary problems in 1943-44. Adjusting to three new principals in as many years exacerbated problems. The board first heard complaints about unruliness on the school bus, driven by garage-owner and fire chief, Chris Utrecht. Parents received word from the School Bus Committee that their children would walk to school until the unaccustomed exercise modified their behavior. Problems included vandalism and carrying b.b. guns and slingshots on the school playground. The situation in the classroom deteriorated. Three teachers threatened to resign unless the principal restored order.

World War II also eroded parental controls. Many fathers were gone serving their country overseas. Others worked long overtime hours in the valley's crucial war industries. Women also did their part in the factories. Long hours were spent by both sexes in supporting the war effort. The Men's Civic club conducted numerous scrap paper and clothing drives. The Springdale "bondaliers," organized war bond drives. Teachers sold war stamps in the public school. In the meantime, frightened or simply bored children discovered undesirable ways of gaining attention. The Men's Civic Club met to discuss the problems. One solution, the members concluded, was to offer more organized and supervised recreational programs for the children.

The fears of German raids led the community to build a bomb shelter in front of the school. Fortunately in this war public paranoia was usually kept within bounds. Hostility towards Germany did not affect German-Americans as extensively as it had in World War I.

Ration book cooking became an art. Women devised recipes for sugarless cakes and chicory coffee. Liquor rationing began on June 1, 1943.

Local newspapers reported the movement of local soldiers at war, including Lt. Harold Sorter, who was "somewhere in the South Pacific." The people of Springdale suffered through four years of the uncertainty and the anxiety, rent controls and rations. At the end all the men returned safely except for Leroy Warwick and Arthur Bockelman, Springdale's two fatalities in World War II.

As allied forces pushed back enemy forces at the Battle of the Bulge and headed for the Rhine River in early 1945, Springdale began to plan its V-E Day celebration. The plan was a little premature, and Germany did not surrender until May 8, 1945. The end of the war had to await victory over Japan. After the devastating atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese officially surrendered on September 2, 1945. The Springdale men gradually returned but not to the place they had left behind. The war brought changes to Springdale, to the nation, and the adjustment would be difficult.

The two and a half decades between the end of World War I and the surrender of Japan had been a time of testing for the Springdale community spirit. Not only had the community coped with illness and the Depression, but its people had weathered problems in its school and the dislocations caused by war. The thirties also saw the organization of Springdale's most beloved institution, its volunteer fire department.