February 28, 2026 NV# 186
"Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups."-Anon
Just Trains
DESKTALK: This week has been a dizzying one for me. I’ll not get into particulars right now – because I’m way behind schedule. And example is this train video.
I made out on the fly yesterday. And today I’m in the middle of trying to install a new wireless modem device at home – and it ain’t working out (yet).
So I’m cutting this short (I’m working at the museum) and going home to finish the install. (I hope.)
I’ll finish “Views” at home later this pm. (Again – I hope.)
This is A VERY SPECIAL NOTE
NEW: I’ve added a “special section” to the “Past 20 Years” part of the page. You will find there nearly (but not all) every video and audio production I’ve published over the last few years. They’re not arranged as nicely as I want them to be. But SOME are there – and I’ll add to them as time passes.
A VERY RICH COMMENTARY
UNDER THE BUCKEYE TREE - "HANK" #7
Part of the "Black Cat" Series
TOMORROW / WILL BE LATE /(AGAIN) (114) & I should be done / by / midnight. / however; / my watch / is 2 hours / and half-a-day / behind / the atomic clock. / & / U & I / don’t care / tht / tomorrow / will be late/ (again) – January 30, 2025
VERMILION HISTORY THEATRE: Due to all the distractions surrounding me lately I neglected to keep the link to the History Audio/ Video Theatre. So – click on the name above and visit.
FRANK'S PAINTING
An American Song and Drum Tale
Back in the early years of the 20th century the print media in our nation always referred to July 4th as “The Glorious Fourth”. The term disappeared some time ago in a flurry of sales promos for furniture, automobiles, and fireworks. Our National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner” as some may know was formally adopted to be our national anthem on March 4, 1931. The lyrics were written by a 35-year-old lawyer named Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland by the British during the War of 1812. The tune was from a popular British song called “To Anacreon in Heaven” written by an English composer named John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society a male social club in London England. The Greek poet Anacreon was renowned for his drinking songs and odes to love. While the poem / song has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung. To be candid, I doubt that more than a handful of people (anywhere) can recite all four stanzas with any accuracy let alone sing them.
Before it was officially adopted as our national song several others were considered: “Hail Columbia”, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”, and “America the Beautiful” were contenders for the anthem. Of them I believe the last – a poem by Katherine Lee Bates (with lyrics amended in 1911) and music by church organist / choir master Samuel E. Ward was (and remains) the best. But, again, that’s just my opinion. The words do seem however to accurately celebrate my view of our country as well, perhaps, as my ancestors both saw and lived it. “America! America! / God shed His grace on thee / And crown thy good with brotherhood / From sea to shining sea!”
In the autumn of 1635, my ancestors arrived in Boston Harbor from England on a ship named “Increase” captained by one Robert Lea. One hundred years earlier, as Huguenots, they had fled France for England. They eventually left England because their beliefs and practices had been in growing opposition to the faith and rituals used by the Church of England. After arriving in Boston, they went on to be among the first 50 settlers of Cambridge Massachusetts as well as one of the founding families of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Moving on they helped found Hartford Connecticut, then Norwalk and New Canaan where they lived for over 125 years, then on to Poultney Vermont and to Elizabethtown in Essex County in New York. “O beautiful for pilgrim feet, / Whose stern, impassioned stress / A thoroughfare for freedom beat / Across the wilderness.
My g-g-grandfather, Levi Roscoe was born in Essex County, New York in 1810. In 1832 he married a girl named Eliza Stockwell in a small town called Lewis N.Y. Two years later they came west to Ohio on canal boat to Buffalo and then by boat to Huron, moving on to Townsend Center where my g-grandfather, Caselton, was born in 1835. Soon after his birth the family purchased a 125-acre farm in North Milan. Eventually the couple had nine children. One, a little girl they named, Emma, died when just a bit over one year of age. “O beautiful for patriot dream / That sees beyond the years / Thine alabaster cities gleam / Undimmed by human tears!”
In 1861 when the War between the states began four sons left to fight for their country. Their father, Levi, who followed the trade of carpenter and millwright, also did some cooper work. During the war he made drums for the boys. One had a head three feet across. He called it the “Union”. He sold three of the smaller drums to a nephew for nineteen dollars. Two drums, a base drum, and a snare drum remained with the family. “O beautiful for heroes proved / In liberating strife, / Who more than self their country loved / And mercy more than life!”
A decade ago, while cleaning a closet at the Vermilion History Museum I came across a dusty old garbage bag. Inside was a gift from my g-g-grandfather – the snare drum he made during the Civil War. All four of his sons had survived the war. And somehow the drum had also survived. “America! America! / May God thy gold refine, / Till all success be nobleness, / And every gain divine!”
© RNT – February 22, 2026
the history of erie county in ohio (Continued)
562ec…BRUCKNER, DAVID, Sandusky, one of the leading carriage and wagon manufacturers of Sandusky, was born in Perkins township in 1855, and was a son of Peter Bruckner, who was born in Germany about 1813, and settled in Erie county about 1847. His wife died in 1867, leaving eleven children, ten of whom are still living. David learned the blacksmith trade, and in 1881 purchased his lot and erected buildings for his blacksmith shop and wagon factory. Mr. Bruckner was married October 17, 1878, to Mary Burkin, who was born in Germany. They have had a family of five children: Katie, Mary, Charles, Emma and David.
BUDERUS, ANTON, Sandusky, a merchant tailor and clothing merchant of Sandusky, was born in Nassau, Germany, in 1834, and was a son of Philip H. Buderus. The father died in 1843 and the mother in 1841. They had a family of six children, four of whom came to America: Anton, Magdalene, Mary and Sophia. Anton emigrated in 1854 and settled in Sandusky, where he was engaged as a journeyman tailor until 1863, when he formed a partnership with his present partner, Cornelius Schnaitter, and embarked in a general clothing and merchant tailoring business on Columbus avenue. In 1873 they erected a block of two fine three-story stores, and are now occupying one of them, the other being rented. Success has attended this firm in all its undertakings. Mr. Buderus was married in 1859 to Catharine Joseph, of Baden, Germany. She died in 1864, leaving one daughter, Julia. Mr. Buderus then‘ married his second wife, Amantha Hinch, of Hamburg, in 1865. They have had four children: Ida, Laura, Arthur and Willie.
BUYER, JACOB, Sandusky, proprietor of the Sandusky File and Saw Manu factory and Repair Factory, was born in Sandusky in 1849, and was married in 1873 to Ellen Kane, who was born in Sandusky in 1851. They have had a. family of eight children—Ellen, Jacob, Robert, Thomas, Albert, Edwin, Eugene and Arthur. Mr. Buyer in early life became engaged in the tin, copper and manufacturing business, giving employment to seven men, and to-day, with his greatly improved machinery, employs nine men. Jacob was a son ofNicholas and Angeline (Hoeffel) Buyer. Nicholas was born in 1812, in Bavaria, and emigrated to America and settled in Tiffin. Angeline was born in Lichtenburg, France, in 1816. They were married in Tiffin in 1840, and settled in Sandusky in 1846. They have nine children living: Louis, Cornelia, Celia, Jacob, Edward, William, George, Henry and Angeline. The mother, Angeline, died on the 4th of March, 1872, and Nicholas died December 1, 1887.
CARPENTER, CHARLES, Kelley’s Island, one of the prominent pioneers of Kelley’s Island, was born in Norwich, New London county, Conn., in 1810, and was a son of Gardner and Mary (Huntington) Carpenter, who had a family of five sons and one daughter, but two of the children are now living, Gardner, jr., born in 1802, and Charles. One son, George, and the daughter, Mrs. Lester…
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY OHIO – With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers – Edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich – Syracuse N.Y. – D. Mason & Co., Publishers – 1889
