November 2006 - Edward Waite Kidney's House
EDWARD KIDNEY [Peter, Peter] home was built in 1866.
The bathroom was off the kitchen. It had a built-in bathtub (the first in the village) made of wood, covered with copper-coated zinc. The washbowl was made of china, set in a wooden frame with a drain and cistern water from an iron pump which they put in a reservoir in the kitchen stove for their hot water supply. Mr. KIDNEY made a sewer system outside for his toilet. He dug down in the ground until he came to a spring, then drained the spring through a filter bed. It was used until city water and a new bathroom was put in the house.
The well-water system was operated by a windmill that pumped water from a well into a big wooden tank outside the house. So, they had running water to a faucet over the kitchen sink which was also a china bowl with a drain. There was a dumb-waiter in the kitchen that was sealed so you could let it down under the house, which was a very satisfactory way for keeping all foods.
The water system operated two fountains. One in the yard of their home and one in a fifty foot square pond (with a canal running through the pasture lot south of the factory) which was well stocked with silver catfish.
Mrs ANGELINE (Broady) KIDNEY, wife of ED KIDNEY, was a wonderful person. She took in a thirteen year olf orphan boy who had pneumonia and nursed him back to health. He lived with them until he was twenty-one. Mrs. KIDNEY raised Guy Fitch, her sister's boy, who was an orphan also, with six of her own children. She was a very good cook and homemaker.
The first telephone in Olmsted Falls was installed in what is now 7562 river road about 1895 in the KIDNEY home. It was a pay telephone and Mrs. KIDNEY sent written messages by her granddaughters to people in the village for which they were paid by the Telephone Company when Mrs. KIDNEY settled up with the company once a month.
The present owners of this home are Mrs. and Mrs. Frank Kola.