Well, it was a request from Ellen at The Village Bookstore and you know how popular she is. It seems that she’s had people asking if there was a book about Garrettsville, its history and local culture (Might be a stretch to call what we’ve got “culture”, but we’re plenty local.) No such thing exists!
Pam Montgomery of the James A. Garfield Historical Society has done a book on the Buckeye Block Fire and continues recording local lights who have written books or been issued U.S. patents; she also periodically showcases items from Garrettsville publications like the Garrettsville Journal. But there is no comprehensive history of the place. The Portage County sesquicentennial volume, Portage Heritage, 1807-1957, covers the village as well as all of the townships and municipalities in the county, but there is no specific history of Garrettsville, particularly since 1957.
We here at The Weekly Villager are up for the challenge and are giving thought to producing a tome to fill this gaping hole. Let us know if there is interest. Contact us if you have recollections of events—the Last Great Train Robbery, the Blizzard of 77-78, the year downtown was flooded and the fire station was wading territory, the change-over down at the Mill, the closing of Polson Rubber…heck, the operation of Polson Rubber, the old days of the canoe races, etc.—that give a broad picture of what this little burg is all about. There is a website of sorts named “I grew up in Garrettsville”, some of that might be relevant. Search your minds, search your photo albums. Let’s see what kind of a tale we can come up with. Write things down. Record things. Interview your grandma or the neighbors. We’ll have a depot here for collecting and sorting all of this information, maybe a big box to put stuff in.
We will probably include the neighbors—Freedom, Hiram, Nelson, Windham—for the big picture. Let’s do this.
Let us hear from you — you can email to history@weeklyvillager.com or stop in and drop off your submissions at the Villager or The Village Bookstore.
