The Water Tower

Letter LYONS, OHIO HISTORY & PHOTOS

The Water Tower
"Stories & Memories"

     Please join in the fun of sharing your memories of the construction of The Water Tower and the activities that took place on and around it. I will setup categories for the stories that are sent to me. So far I have the categories of Before The Water Tower & Movies Under The Tower. Enjoy them & send in your remembrances. The best story will be featured on the front page of The Lyons web site

Charlie Keller, [email protected]
March 11, 2006

Ask Gerald Derby how many times he climbed to the top and
STOOD ON HIS HEAD
I was there, Gerald

[email protected]

March 10, 2006

Charlie:
      I am Steve Gillespie. I do know when the water tower froze. It was Jan. of 1983. My son Zach was a year old. I worked with Dad (Doyle) thawing the tower with heat at the bottom and canvas around it. I bought a set of bunk beds for the kids with the money I made on that job. As far as when it was put up, I think some where around 1946 or 1947. That was about the time My grand parents put the fuel tanks up on eagle street. I don't remember it . A Little young for that, but that is what I recall being told.

doyle welding
[email protected]

March 1, 2006

     My father inlaw painted the water tower for years and years. His name was John Red Pickering. Does anyone remember him? have a nice day.

Ruby Pickering, [email protected]

February 29, 2004

I am Richard Hoefer (now living in Atlanta], grandson of George Hoefer, the blacksmith of Lyons. I'll always have fond memories of my summer visits to Lyons. I do remember of one time in 1954 that a friend of mine from Detroit came with me to Lyons to visit. He was a bit wild then, and got drunk, everyone egged him on to climb the water tower, he did, then was too drunk to come down. We called the vol. fire dept. to get him down, which took about one hour, I'll never forget that nite.

[email protected]

Before The Water Tower

Subj: Re: The Water Tower Date: 1/1/02 11:23:56 AM
From: Lelamae       To: Corpmiz
Hi Kid,
     You are racking my brain asking about the water tower. I should know when it was erected and when we first got city water. It was a real boom to me as the old cistern in back of our house often didn't hold out and we bought water by the truck load. I also carried all of my drinking water from the corner town pump by the post office.

Lela (WOOD) MARLATT

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Date: 1/2/02 7:34:56 PM
From: [email protected] (Helen Peebles)

Hi Charlie.
Lela mae had sent me info about what she had from you about the water tower. I wrote back to her and told her I knew Morley Osterhout was the instagator of getting water in Lyons. I worked as secretary at The Lyins Grain & Coal Co and Morley worked there too. Every day when he got off work he would go out with his petition to get signers. The next morning he would fill us in on how many people he got to sign. I wish I could tell you what the year was when Lyons got water but someone can.
Take Care
Helen.

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Subj: Water Tower
Date: 1/2/02 9:22:31 PM
From: [email protected] (Helen Peebles)

I thougt of something else. Don't know what year it was but the water tower froze one year and it made the news on national T V.. Guess it is real unusual for them to feeze I don't know what they did to thaw it out but we were in Florida and saw it on the news.

I told my sister Jeanette the other day I had a one track mind. She wrote back and said "How many are we supposed to have? Ha!
Helen

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Movies under the Water Tower

Subj: Re: The Lyons Water Tower
Date: 1/1/02 5:19:41 PM
From: [email protected] (B K)      To: [email protected]

I think your writing contest is a great idea. I am looking forward to reading them. but alas I am not a writer.

But on the subject of the water tower I have this vague recollection of going to the parking lot that was there under the water tower and watching movies sitting on a blanket. I don't know how old I was but I think it was before 1954. If anyone one has details of what I am remembering I would love to know.

Beverly KHAN

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Subj: Re: The Lyons Water Tower
Date: 1/1/02 5:36:13 PM
From: [email protected] (Sheila Chonko)      To:[email protected]
Yo Chas.

The water tower in Lyons was like *the* place to do the ultimate town prank. It's been climbed, "decorated" with paint, etc. The usual small town kinds of things.

Guess what sticks most in my mind is when a screen was put on the bottom of the tower & someone showed movies! Have faint memories of kids sitting in wagons, on blankets, etc. in the parking lot next to the Variety Store (or whatever it was then). Would be a balmy summer night and Lyons had their own version of an outdoor theater.... nothing like the big time, eh? :)

Wish I could remember more or even greater detail. Hopefully someone will be able to fill in the blanks.

TTFN
Sheila (MARLATT) CHONKO

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Subject: Re: Fwd: The Lyons Water Tower
Date: 1/3/02 2:46:19 PM
[email protected] (Ric MARLATT)

Can not remember the when the water system was put in, but I do remember hanging a big screen on it and going to the Wed. night movies during the summer. I think Guy Johnson got that started.

If my memory is correct the current water tower is not the original. I think the original rusted through and was not repairable.

I remember the well by the post office where we used to get our drinking water.

At one time there was a pay telephone by the pump. I know the telephone was there in the late 1950s as I used it a lot.

Take care and God Bless. Ric

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Subj: Re: The Lyons Water Tower
Date: 1/4/02 5:56:07 PM EST
From: [email protected] (lois steele)

Hi Charlie, What a wonderful idea! It should be some real fun for the "older" residents of Lyons to come up with the answer as to when it was erected. All that I remember about the water tower from when I was a kid is that they used to show movies on a screen hanging from it on Saturday nights. I'm certain that there had to be a time period, like in the summer, or weather permitting, for the movies to be shown. As Long as I can remember, it was there, so it had to be "UP" by 1950, because I cannot remember any thing much before I was 3 yrs. old! HA!

We had 2 cisterns and a well, so when the town water went out, we just used the well water. In fact, Mom used the well water to do the laundry, wash dishes, etc, but we drank that good old salty Lyons water from the tap. What a surprise it was for visitors to have their first sip of our "Water Tower" water. It used to be fun to see the look on their faces. Once in a while, you had to move fast because they would spit it out thinking that there was something wrong with the water. Funny!!!

There are probably some really good stories out there about some of the pranks that were pulled, things written, who climbed it, etc., but at this time, I cannot remember who, what or when they were. Good luck with the responses. Can't wait to read them!

Happy New Year, Lois Peebles Steele

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Subj: Water Tower
Date: 2/17/02 11:51:40 PM
From: [email protected] (Charles W. Hinkle)

Charlie
I think the water system was constructed about 1948. I was a freshman at Chesterfield and think the county Junior High basketball tournament was held at Lyons in early 1948 and the water system was being constructed at that time. I know the movies were still shown in 1953 when I was in the army.

I remember seeing movies in the empty lot on the west side of street from the water tower in the late 30's or early 40's. The screen was on the north side of the IOOF hall.

Thanks for posting the article about Stephen and Hattie Hinkle who were my Greatgrand parents. Hattie died in 1953 at the age of 100 years. My Grandfather, Herbert(Bert) H. Hinkle is sitting in the front row second from left in the 1894 photograph of the Hinkle family reunion.

One other thing that comes to mind. Clarence Copeland had a radio repair shop on the south side of E. Morenci Street after WW 2. He built a TV from a kit and installed the TV antenna on the water tower to receive TV from Detroit. This was before Toledo had a TV station. I think this was the first TV set I ever saw. I don't think he ever got it to work though.

Although I moved from the Lyons area after high school I visited my parents several times a year. I do not recall that the water tower was ever replaced.

Family and friends around Lyons know me mainly as "Charlie Bill" to distinguish me from my father Charlie Hinkle. I presently live in Pioneer.

Thanks
Charlie W. Hinkle

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Subj: About Free shows
Date: 5/20/02 7:11:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: [email protected] (Rosie Irwin)

My Dad used to take us to the free shows on Wednesday nights and we each got a penny to spend at the Egnew -Belding store. The movie then was across from their store. My sister Frances and I used to sing during intermissions from the projection trailer . I can't remember what we sang but we sang quite often. We also sang some Sundays at the Universalist Church. Grandpa (Bert Hinkle) loved Ivory Palaces and we sang that for him quite often.

Rosie Irwin ( Ethel Rose Hinkle)

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Lyons Ohio History
This page created January 2, 2002
Web page by Charles Paul Keller


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